The Electrical Engineering Department has modern facilities for education and research. Our mission statement includes a committment to liberal, extended hours access to our building, labs, and equipment for both undergradate and graduate students.

Engineering Building

The EE Department is housed, with the other departments of the School of Engineering and Computer Science, in the 122,000 square foot Engineering Building. Opened in 1996, this facility has won awards for its innovative architectural design. In addition to classrooms, offices, and laboratories, the building has areas reserved for individual and group study (24 hour access), student organizations, and seminars. The 250 seat Engineering Auditorium is available for conferences and public events. 100% of the classrooms and lecture halls are equipped for digital projection and networking, and can be configured for distance learning and teleconferencing.

Instructional Laboratories

• Microprocessor Laboratory. (ENGR 2.238) In addition to teaching microprocessors, the lab is used for VHDL, digital signal processing, and Introduction to Engineering. It also serves as an open (24 hour access, 14 station) laboratory for EE students, with capability for OrCAD PSpice, Matlab, and Verilog design software. The room also contains a wide-bed plotter/printer, PLD/microcontroller programmers, and fourteen NI-ELVIS prototyping stations. [more]
• Unix Laboratory. (ENGR 2.248) Shared with the other engineering departments and maintained by UTPA Technology Resources, this room has twenty Sun workstations and a high-performance server. It supports full-version Cadence software for VLSI design, layout, and verification, as well as other Unix-based engineering software.[more]
• Digital Systems Laboratory. (ENGR 2.242) This room, with 14 stations, is used to teach introductory (2000 level) classes in digital electronics and electric circuits, as well as service courses for other engineering majors. The room also has equipment for teaching in electric power and rotating machines, including three phase service. This room also contains UTPA's renewable energy and microgrid demonstration, with direct connections to a 4 kW solar panel array located on the roof, charge controller, and an inverter with grid tie capability. [more]
• Rafael & Carmen Guerra Electronics Laboratory. (ENGR 2.270) This room is used to teach intermediate (3000 level) courses in electronic design and measurements. It has 14 stations equipped with all-digital equipment, including digital storage oscilloscopes, and programmable power supplies and function generators. Other equipment includes high-performance analog oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and PLD and microcontroller programmers. [more]
• Systems Laboratory. (ENGR 2.286) This is room used primarily by senior design students; however, it is also used to support senior level elective courses with a laboratory component, such as microwave systems and antennas. In addition to 12 stations equipped with modern electronic instrumentation, the room has specialized equipment including a vector network analyzer and two spectrum analyzers. [more]
• Senior Laboratory. (ENGR 2.280) This is room used primarily by senior design students, and has six stations. It also has specialized equipment for student use including a 500 MHz oscillscope and a fully programmable logic analyzer. [more]
• Engineering Design Laboratory. (ENGR 1.220) This room is maintained by UTPA Technology Resources and is an open resource for all majors. It has 36 general purpose computing stations which have access to engineering software including OrCAD PSpice and Matlab. [more]
• Computer Aided Instruction Classroom (Matlab). (ENGR 2.368) This room is used for computer-based instruction, and is shared with other engineering majors. It has 31 stations with engineering and general purpose software.[more]

Dual Use Laboratories

• Controls and Robotics Laboratory. (ENGR 2.222) This room is used for education and research in the areas of robotics, controls, and rapid control prototyping. This room is the home of UTPA's robotics teams, two time winners of IEEE Region V Robotics Competition. [more]
• Networking Research Laboratory. (ENGR 2.290) This room is used for teaching and research in the areas of computer networks, communication networks, computer security, and fiber optics. [more]

Research Laboratories

Please see our research page for information on current research in the electrical engineering department.

• Ultrawideband Electromagnetics Research Laboratory. Located in Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center. This facility includes a 4m x 4m x 8m anechoic chamber and facilities for time domain measurement to 50 GSa/s and vector frequency domain measurement to 13.5 GHz. [more]
• Microelectronics Research Lab. (ENGR 2.296) This room is used for general faculty research and graduate assistant offices. [more]