Texas ECE offers a PhD degree in 8 different academic tracks, but students can also take advantage of the immense variety of resources for interdisciplinary work at The University of Texas at Austin. PhD students will participate in state-of-the-art research along with faculty researchers. Holding a Masters of Science degree is not required to enter or even complete the PhD program. However, a student entering the PhD program without an MSE from ECE or a related field also may choose to pursue and receive the MSE along the way to the PhD with typically no or little additional effort beyond that already required for the PhD, although over a longer time period than a student within the MSE program. Students within the PhD program are expected to enroll in at least 3 hours of research problems or, later, dissertation courses each semester, which cannot be counted toward the MSE. As such, they will typically require 5-6 long semesters to complete the MS program.
This track involves research in the generation, transmission, distribution, conversion, storage, and management of electric energy. Research activities include but are not limited to advanced power semiconductor devices, high-frequency-power-electronic conversion systems, high-frequency magnetics, medium voltage power electronics for applications in renewable energy, energy storage and smart grid systems, dc power grids, power system analyses, modeling and simulation of power systems, grid data analytics, security and resilience of power grid infrastructures, microgrids, protection systems, energy system economics and optimization, electricity markets, power system harmonics, power quality, and distributed generation.