Students who aspire to Graduate with Departmental Distinction (GDD) within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering conduct supervised research through independent study courses and present the results of individual research and study in both written and oral forms to the department's faculty. Those candidates who are judged by the department's faculty to have distinguished themselves through their paper and presentation earn Graduation with Departmental Distinction honors.

To be considered for Graduation with Departmental Distinction a student must have a 3.5 Cumulative GPA and must successfully complete in his or her Senior year a faculty supervised Independent Study project with significant Electrical and Computer Engineering accomplishment. The significance of this project must be demonstrated in a formal written report and defended in an oral presentation before a committee of faculty members.

Candidates must submit three copies of a 10-20 page written report (single spaced, 12-point Times New Roman, single column) including figures and references at the time of their oral presentation. The entire report must also be submitted electronically to the Director of Undergraduate Studies Assistant, Ms. Ellen Currin, at ecurrin@ee.duke.edu before the oral presentation begins. The project report essentially constitutes a Senior thesis.

Example Graduation with Distinction Projects

Academic Year 2008-2009

• The Use of a Discrete Transistor Amplifier to Produce Active Metamaterials Douglas Bycoff, with Dr. Steven Cummer.

• Active Microwave Imaging System for Breast Cancer Screening: RF MEMS Switching Matrix System Design Tawanda Chaunzwa, with Dr. Gary Ybarra.

• An Electrically Engineered Metamaterial Absorber Mark Gu, with Dr. Steven Cummer.

• Enabling Realtime Location Privacy with Predictive Anonymization Joseph Meyerowitz, with Dr. Romit Roy Choudhury.

• Microphone Array Beamforming with Near-Field Correlated Sources Jonathan Odom, with Dr. Jeff Krolik.

• Designs and Simulations in Transformation Optics Daniel Roberts, with Dr. David Smith.

• Current-Injection Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Slab Microcavity Pantana Tor-ngern, with Dr. Tomo Yoshie.

Academic Year 2007-2008

• Proving the Correctness of  Error Detection Mechanisms in Simple Core  Multiprocessors Michael Bauer, with Dr. Daniel Sorin.

• A Performance Simulato of Quantitative Analysis of the Implications of Fault Tolerance in Distributed Quantum Computer Architectures Jeffrey Hussmann, with Dr. Jungsang Kim.

• Surface Relief Optical Gratings Integrated with Waveguide Bio/Chemical Sensors Melissa Levy, with Dr. Nan Jokerst.

• Development of a Compact and Multifunctional Sensor Array Serge Reshetnikov, with Drs. Jeffrey Glass and Scott Wolter.

• Simulating Mobililty Data Precision Requirements for Human Behavior Inferemce David Wagner, with Dr. Romit Roy Choudhury.

Academic Year 2006-2007

• Mingle: A Percolative Routing Framework for Mobile Delay Tolerant Networks Deepak Bastakoty, with Dr. Choudhury.
• Computation on Self-Organized Networks Curtis Harting, with Drs. Dwyer and Lebeck.
• DNA Self-Assembly of Nanoelectronic Devices - The Nanodynamics Simulator Ben Macadangdang, with Dr. Dwyer.
• AC Electrowetting Actuation of Droplets on a Digital Microfluidic Platform Isaac Nagiel, with Dr. Fair

Academic Year 2005-2006

• Ordered Chaos: Imposing Logical Structure in Nanotechnology Substrates Derek Hower, with Drs. Daniel Sorin and Chris Dwyer.
• Design Automation and Test Techniques for Microfluidic Biochips William Hwang, with Drs. Krishnendu Chakrabarty, Richard Fair, and Fei Su.
• Improved Breast Cancer Diagnosis through Decision Fusion Anna Rack-Gomer, with Dr. Loren Nolte.
• Quantification of semiconductor crystal surface features at the submicron level Katie Ness, with Dr. Rebecca Willett.
• Microwave Imaging: Research in Alternative Medical Imaging Modalities Vinh Nguyen, with Drs. Gary Ybarra, Qing Liu, William Joines, and Rhett George.
• Clustering Spikes in Multi-unit Neural Signals into Dominant and Remainder Classes David Rodriguez, with Dr. Patrick Wolf.

Academic Year 2004-2005

• Cocklear Implants: Spectral Cues and Pitch Reversals on Music Perception Patrick Crosby, with Dr. Leslie Collins.
• Cochlear Implants: Effects of Multiple Carrier Frequencies and Noise on Speech Danielle Davidian, with Dr. Leslie Collins.
• Furthering Development of a Digital Microfluidic Platform Andrew Dreher, with Dr. Richard Fair.
• Hierarchical Modeling and Analysis of Process Variations in Deep Sub-Micron Devices Jacob Flomenberg, with Dr. Sule Ozev.
• Data Analysis for Lightning Electromagnetics Thai Wing Darwin Goei, with Dr. Steven Cummer.
• Modeling 3-Gene Regulation Networks Trina Kok, with Dr. Paul Wang.
• Characterization and Testing of CMOS Subcircuits in a Mixed Signal IC Jessica Smith, with Drs. Jeff Derby & James Morizio.
• Matching and Locating of Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Discharges Charles Wang, with Dr. Steven Cummer.
• Application of Magnetic Microspheres to Pyrosequencing on a Digital Microfluidic Platform Nicole Weaver, with Dr. Richard Fair.
• Hierarchical Modeling and Analysis of Process Variations: The First Step towards Robust Deep Sub-Micron Devices Devaka Yasaratne, with Dr. Sule Ozev.