The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECpE) offers four ways to earn a graduate degree in electrical engineering and computer engineering: a Master of Science with thesis, Master of Science with creative component, traditional Ph.D., and direct entry Ph.D. Our Ph.D. students have earned degrees in as few as four years. Master's degree students have earned degrees within two years. Student also may select the ECpE department as their home department to pursue graduate degrees in one of three interdepartmental programs: bioinformatics and computational biology (Ph.D.), information assurance (MS, Ph.D.), and human-computer interaction (MS, Ph.D., and certificate).<br><br>The VLSI group performs cutting-edge research on the emerging challenges in VLSI design. The research of the group covers both design and test of analog, digital, mixed-signal and RF integrated circuits at the system, circuit and layout levels.