The Intelligent Electronic Systems program was originally conceived in 2002 by a group of faculty within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University. It represents a convergence of research conducted at our university over the past 10 years in three areas: power electronics, communications, and signal processing.

Over the past 20 years we have seen significant increases in the level of integration of electronics and the demand for mobility. A final hurdle for such systems is power density - the need to deliver high performance electronics in a small form factor. All aspects of such devices are now evaluated in terms of their density (e.g., watts per unit volume and MIPS/MFLOPS per unit volume). Power dense electronics pose new challenges in circuit design since there are significant electromagnetic effects in such small packages with high field strengths.

The system shown to right is one such example of a power dense system. Adapted from a March'2003 issue of IEEE Spectrum, this picture shows a prototype of a 500W audio amplifier that fits in the palm of your hand. It contains wireless communications for both audio signal transmission and control signaling, on-board DSP for audio processing, and integrated power amplification. Such technology was not feasible 20 years ago. Even today, for such a system to deliver high quality audio, many design issues involving power signaling must be solved. For such systems to be mass produced, new design rules for power dense systems must be developed. CAVS is uniquely suited to execute this mission because of its long history of excellence in these technologies. Two of the three thrusts in CAVS focus on various aspects of this problem.

Our current focus in this broad vision is the development of next generation wireless sensor networks. There are three fundamental barriers to achieving acceptable levels of performance in very large-scale wireless sensor networks (WSNs): energy efficiency, scalability, and network management. A summary of our approach is shown to the right and features the integration of intelligent, power-efficient nodes with an overlay network that supports quality of service (QoS) provisioning.

Data reduction and intelligent signal processing are an important part of any sensor network architecture. Large-scale systems collect more information in real-time than can be processed. If all nodes transmit high data rate signals, such as video, simultaneously, the network will be overwhelmed. More importantly, it is highly desirable that nodes work in a collaborative manner to problem-solve in real-time. Advanced transportation systems, such as those being developed at CAVS, will be a prominent application of such technology. For example, future automobiles will support peer to peer communications that will allow local traffic conditions to be relayed down a highway instantaneously and alert drivers to upcoming hazards such as traffic accidents.

In keeping with the mission of the university, one of IES's most important goals is to provide a place where students can perform leading-edge research and grow to become disciplined and self-motivated engineers and scientists. It is these skills that futurists believe will be most important in helping our students succeed in the job market of the future. IES at CAVS is a place where students can enjoy the challenge of developing new techniques in a state-of-the-art facility to solve real world problems. In short, IES is a place where students and faculty can have fun.

If you would like to apply to our university and join the IES team, contact Joe Picone. If you would like to read more about the IES team, click here. If you would like to read about our vision in speech and signal processing, see ISIP's Mission.