Aerospace Engineering

Introduction to computational methods in fluid dynamics using commercial CFD codes; aspects of geometry modelling, structured and unstructured grid generation, solution strategy, and post‑processing; conversion of CAD to CFD models; an overview of basic numerical methods for the Navier‑Stokes equations with emphasis on accuracy evaluation and efficiency. Elements of turbulence closure modelling. User‑defined function for customized physical models into commercial CFD codes.

This course covers the following topics: review of the gas turbine cycle and components arrangement; turbo‑propulsion (turboprop, turbofan, turbojet and turboshafts); energy transfer in turbomachines (Euler equation, velocity triangles); dimensional analysis of turbomachines; flow in turbomachines; three‑dimensional flow in turbomachines; mechanisms of losses in turbomachines; axial‑flow turbines and compressors; centrifugal compressors; compressor and turbine performance maps; surge and stall.

Published notes: This course is equivalent to MECH 462. Students who have received credit for MECH 462 may not take this course for credit. Students who have received credit for MECH 468 may not take this course for credit.

Flow conservation equations, incompressible Navier‑Stokes equations, inviscid irrotational and rotational flows: the Euler equations, the potential and stream function equations. Dynamics of an incompressible inviscid flow field: the Kelvin, Stokes, and Helmholtz theorems. Elementary flows and their superposition, panel method for non‑lifting bodies. Airfoil and wing characteristics, aerodynamic forces and moments coefficients. Incompressible flows around thin airfoils, Biot‑Savart law, vortex sheets. Incompressible flow around thick airfoils, the panel method for lifting bodies. Incompressible flow around wings, Prandtl’s lifting line theory, induced angle and down‑wash, unswept wings, swept wings. Compressible subsonic flow: linearized theory, Prandlt‑Glauert equation and other compressibility correction rules, the area rule. Transonic flow: Von Karman’s ransonic small disturbance equation, transonic full potential equation, super‑critical airfoils.

Published notes: This course is equivalent to MECH 464. Students who have received credit for MECH 464 may not take this course for credit.

Review of turbo‑propulsion types and energy transfer in turbomachines. Two‑ and three‑dimensional flow. Lift and drag for airfoils. Cascade tests and correlations. Aerodynamic losses: physics, mechanisms, control of viscous effects. Preliminary and detailed design of turbines and compressors. Structural and thermal design requirements. Failure considerations: creep, fatigue and corrosion. Performance matching. Combustion and gearbox design. Air and oil systems design requirements. Installations and acoustics. Evolution of design. Recent trends in technologies.

Published notes: This course is equivalent to MECH 465. Students who have received credit for MECH 465 may not take this course for credit.

Basic principles of thermodynamics and their application to various systems composed of pure substances and their homogeneous non‑reactive mixtures. Simple power production and utilization cycles.

Brief review of ideal gas processes. Semi‑perfect gases and the gas tables. Mixtures of gases, gases and vapours, air conditioning processes. Combustion and combustion equilibrium. Applications of thermodynamics to power production and utilization systems: study of basic and advanced cycles for gas compression, internal combustion engines, power from steam, gas turbine cycles, and refrigeration. Real gases.

Analytical and numerical methods for steady‑state and transient heat conduction. Empirical and practical relations for forced‑ and free‑convection heat transfer. Radiation heat exchange between black bodies, and between non‑black bodies. Gas radiation. Solar radiation. Effect of radiation on temperature measurement.

This course covers elements of fluid mechanics, building on topics introduced in ENGR 361 . Topics include t he mechanical properties of fluids and the concepts of stress and strain in fluid mechanics. The continuity equation is discussed. The stream function, velocity potential and vorticity are introduced as well as potential irrotational flows. The Navier -Stokes Equations and their elementary solutions are discussed. Students are introduced to laminar and turbulent flows, flows around solid bodies, boundary layers, separation and wakes. Finally, compressible flows are introduced.

Review of one‑dimensional compressible flow. Normal and oblique shock waves; Prandtl‑Meyer flow; combined effects in one‑dimensional flow; non‑ideal gas effects; multi‑dimensional flow; linearized flow; method of characteristics. Selected experiments in supersonic flow, convergent‑divergent nozzles, hydraulic analog and Fanno tube.

Introduction to fixed‑wing aircraft operation. Flying environment and its measurement by aircraft instrumentation. Computation of lift and drag, effects of viscosity and compressibility. Review of piston, turboprop, turbojet and turbofan power plants. Operational performance of aircraft in climb, cruise, descent and on ground. Advanced aircraft systems. Operational considerations in aircraft design. Projects on selected topics.

This course focuses on design principles and sizing of the following aircraft systems: hydraulic system, primary and secondary flight control actuation systems, landing gear systems, and fuel system. Traditional and new technology implementations in aircraft, helicopters and other aerospace vehicles are considered. Associated standards and regulations are described. Principles of architecture development and integration, as well as engineering tools for system sizing and simulation, are covered.

This course focuses on design principles and sizing of the following aircraft systems: electrical power system, auxiliary and emergency power systems, environmental control system, ice and rain protection system, and pneumatic power system. Traditional and new technology implementations in aircraft, helicopters and other aerospace vehicles are considered. Associated standards and regulations are described. Principles of architecture development and integration, as well as engineering tools for system sizing and simulation, are covered. A project is required, including a laboratory component.

Basic flight control and flight dynamics principles. Aircraft dynamic equations and performance data. Implementation of aircraft control: control surfaces and their operations, development of thrust and its control; autopilot systems, their algorithms, dynamics and interaction problems. Flight instruments, principles of operation and dynamics. Cockpit layouts ; basic configuration, ergonomic design, control field forces; advanced concepts in instruments, avionics and displays; HUD; flight management systems, and communication equipment. Introduction to flight simulation: overview of visual, audio and motion simulator systems; advanced concepts in flight simulators.

Published notes: This course is equivalent to ELEC 415 and to MECH 480. Students who have received credit for ELEC 415 or MECH 480 may not take this course for credit.

Classification of space propulsion systems; Tsiolkovskj’s equation; ideal rocket and nozzle design; flight performance; basic orbital mechanics; chemical propellant rocket performance analysis; fundamentals of liquid and solid propellant rocket motors; electric, solar, fusion thruster.

Published notes: This course is equivalent to MECH 485. Students who have received credit for MECH 485 or for this topic under a MECH 498 number may not take this course for credit.

Students must submit a report on a topic related to the students’ discipline and approved by the Department. The report must present a review of a current engineering problem, a proposal for a design project, or a current engineering practice.

Published notes: Students who have received credit for ENGR 410 may not take this course for credit.

Students work on a research project in their area of concentration, selected in consultation with and conducted under the supervision of a faculty member of the Department. The student’s work must culminate in a final report, as well as an oral presentation. Students planning to register for this course should consult with the Department prior to term of planned registration. Intended for students with potential interest in graduate programs.

Published notes: Must be approved by the Department prior to registration

Importance of quality; total quality management; statistical concepts relevant to process control; control charts for variables and attributes; sampling plans. Introduction to reliability models and acceptance testing; issues of standardization.

Elements of anatomy, physiology, and psychology; engineering anthropometry; human capacities and limitations; manual material handling; design of workplaces; human‑machines system design; design of controls and displays; shift work. Applications to a manufacturing environment.

This course covers the following topics: voltage and current dividers, voltage and current sources, Thevenin and Norton equivalent sources; semiconductors and diodes; amplifiers and switches; operational amplifiers; digital logic components and circuits (flip-flops, registers, memories, MUX/DEMUX, etc.); digital systems; digital communication and computer architecture.

Published notes: Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering students may not take this course for credit. Students who have received credit for MECH 470 may not take this course for credit.

Analysis of stresses, strains and deformations in machine elements; non‑symmetric bending of beams; shear centre for thin‑walled beams; curved beams; torsion of non‑circular shafts and tubes; thick wall cylinders; plates and shells; contact elements; stress concentrations; energy methods; failure modes, analysis and prevention; buckling, fracture, fatigue and creep.

This course introduces the fundamental aspects and the main applications of renewable energy systems. The focus is on the thermodynamics, heat transfer and fluid mechanics aspects of renewable energy systems. The course covers the following topics: review of thermodynamics, review of heat transfer, review of fluid mechanics, solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, geothermal energy, biomass energy, ocean energy and hydrogen and fuel cells.

Heat exchangers. Condensation and boiling heat transfer. Principles of forced convection. Analysis of free convection from a vertical wall. Correlations for free convection in enclosed spaces. Mass transfer. Special topics of heat transfer.

This course covers the following topics: heating and cooling load calculation; overview of heating and air conditioning systems; review of v apour compression refrigeration cycles, refrigerant properties, and psychometrics; performance characteristics of components (evaporators, condensers, compressors, and throttling devices, such as expansion valves and capillary tubes); system performance characteristics (calculation of system operating conditions based on the capacities of its components and outdoor and indoor conditions); d efrosting; estimation of energy consumption for heating with heat pumps; fundamentals of refrigerant piping, water piping, and air distribution systems.

This course may be offered in a given year upon the authorization of the Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering Department. The course content may vary from offering to offering and will be chosen to complement the elective courses available in a given option or options.

In this course, students are exposed to a comprehensive overview of VHDL language and the synthesis process for the design of digital systems. First, students learn the hardware implementation of basic VHDL language constructs, then they are exposed to the core of the RT-level design, including combinational circuits, "regular" sequential circuits, finite state machines, and circuits designed using register transfer methodology. Students are introduced as well to concepts related to metastability, self-timed circuits, programmable logic devices, field programmable gate arrays and testing issues.

First, an introduction on a brief history of microprocessors is presented. Then, students get familiar with microprocessor architecture, its instructions, bus organization, data transfer and memory interfacing. Next, the focus of the course is placed on the fundamentals of interfacing. Students learn how to use General Purpose Input Outputs (GPIOs) to connect various peripheral devices to the microprocessor and write programs to control these devices. Examples of peripheral devices are Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), switches, timer/counters, seven-segment LED displays, Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) and sensors. They also learn how to configure serial communication protocols. Moreover, students are exposed to advanced topics including interrupt system and Direct Memory Access (DMA).

Published notes: Students who have received credit for COEN 417 may not take this course for credit.

This course covers the fundamentals of real‑time systems, which include their definitions, requirements, design issues, and applications. It also covers the critical features of real‑time operating systems (RTOS), such as multi-tasking, process management, scheduling of periodic, aperiodic, and sporadic tasks, interprocess communication and synchronization, real‑time memory management, clocks and timers, interrupts and exceptions handling, message queues, and asynchronous input/output. Students learn how to program POSIX real-time, periodic, aperiodic, and sporadic threads by using concurrent programming languages and a real-time development environment. Moreover, this course covers real‑time uniprocessor scheduling policies: static vs. dynamic, pre‑emptive vs. non‑pre‑emptive scheduling algorithms, and some specific techniques ; rate‑monotonic, earliest‑deadline‑first, deadline monotonic, least‑laxity‑time‑first; clock‑driven scheduling. Techniques used to design, model, and specify real-time systems, such as finite state machines, UML state machines, and Petri and Timed Petri Networks, are introduced. This course also introduces reliability and fault‑tolerance in real-time systems and presents some case studies of RTOS ; QNX, VxWorks, and research prototypes.

The evolution, architecture, and use of modern operating systems (OS). Multi‑tasking, concurrency and synchronization, IPC, deadlock, resource allocation, scheduling, multi‑threaded programming, memory and storage managements, file systems, I/O techniques, buffering, protection and security, the client/server paradigm and communications. Introduction to real time operating systems. Students write substantial programs dealing with concurrency and synchronization in a multi‑tasking environment.

Published notes: Students who have received credit for COMP 346 may not take this course for credit.

The main objectives of the course are an introduction to computer networks, architectures, protocols, and their fundamentals. Topics covered in the course include communications protocols basics, flow control, error detection and error control techniques, network topologies including local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs), layered architecture standards (OSI and TCP/IP), standard protocols, and their fundamentals, application and socket programming.

Published notes: Students who have received credit for ELEC 366 , ELEC 463 or COEN 445 may not take this course for credit.

This course is about functional verification techniques and tools for hardware systems. It starts with the review of hardware design languages and the definition of hardware functional verification, then it introduces basic object-oriented programming notions, such as classes, methods, inheritance, threads, inter-process communications, and virtual methods. Students are later introduced to coverage metrics, functional coverage, and functional verification CAD tools. Students learn the use of SystemVerilog language to develop class-based verification environment based on the universal verification methodology (UVM). Students are exposed to practical verification case studies.

Embedded systems, foundations for cyber‑physical systems design. Embedded HW architectures, sensors, actuators, processors. IO and peripherals, memory architectures, interfacing memory and peripheral. Hardware‑software partitioning, software transformations, floating to fixed point conversion, loop transformations, code compaction, low‑power design and embedded system testing.

The course, when offered, will include topics which complement elective courses in computer engineering and computer science

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to engineering electromagnetics using vector calculus. The course starts with electrostatics including electric charge, Coulomb’s Law, electrostatic forces, electric field, Gauss’s Law, electric potential, stored energy and Laplace’s Equation and its solution using the separation of variable technique . The electrical properties of dielectric materials are studied, including electrets, permittivity, and capacitance. Currents in wires and in material media are studied, including conductivity and resistance, conduction in a vacuum, displacement current and Ampere’s Law. The course presents magnetostatics, the Biot-Savart Law, the magnetic field of a current, the magnetic force on a wire, and the energy stored in a magnetic field. Magnetic induction and Faraday’s Law are studied, including inductance and mutual inductance, electromotive force and magnetic circuits. The magnetic properties of materials are presented, including ferromagnetism and hysteresis. The course concludes with an introduction to time-varying electric and magnetic fields, and Maxwell’s Equations in differential form.

The course first presents diodes: students get familiar with terminal characteristics of junction diodes and analysis of diode circuits. The small signal model and its application are presented, as well as operation in the reverse-breakdown region (Zener diodes), rectifiers, limiting and clamping circuits. Students learn principles of signal amplification, including linearity, loading effects and cascaded amplifiers. MOSFETs structure, physical operation and current-voltage characteristics are then discussed. Students also learn MOSFET applications, DC analysis and biasing considerations (small signal analysis, models and parameters). The three basic configurations (common gate, common source and common drain) and amplification are explained. An overview of BJT circuits is also presented and covers the structure and physical operation of BJTs, DC analysis, biasing considerations and basic configurations for amplification. The course involves PSPICE laboratory pre-labs and extensive simulation exercises.

Review of fundamentals of AC circuit analysis. Overview of power systems. Three‑phase circuits: balanced three‑phase circuits with star and delta connected loads, power measurements. Magnetic circuits. Transformers. Power conversion techniques: single phase AC/DC rectifiers, DC/DC choppers and DC/AC converters. DC machines: Operating principle, separately excited DC motor, torque speed characteristics and control methods using rectifiers and choppers. Induction machines: Theory of three‑phase induction machines, equivalent circuit parameters, efficiency, torque speed characteristics and control methods using inverters. Overview of power distribution systems. Safety codes.

This course presents the partial differential equations governing transmission lines and their solution in the time domain and in the frequency domain. The input impedance is found and transmission line circuits are solved. The Smith Chart is derived and used to design impedance matching. Maxwell’s Equations are used to find the wave equation, which is solved to discover uniform plane waves. Boundary conditions are enforced to find Snell’s Laws and the Fresnel reflection coefficients for a dielectric half space. The fields in rectangular waveguide are found as the solution to a boundary value problem, and the behaviour of waveguides is studied. Antenna are studied including directional radiation, antenna arrays, directivity and gain, effective area, and the Friis Transmission Equation.

The following topics are covered: analog communications and frequency multiplexing; pulse‑code‑modulation time multiplexing; additive white Gaussian noise; matched filter and correlator receiver; maximum likelihood receiver and error probability; intersymbol interference, pulse shaping filter; Signal Space Analysis; Union Bound on the probability of error; Pass‑band communication Systems; coherent and non‑coherent communication systems. Introduction to synchronization.

Published notes: Students who have received credit for ELEC 462 may not take this course for credit.

Review of basic electrical concepts. Power electronic systems. Power semiconductor switches. AC controllers. Line frequency AC‑DC converters: diodes and thyristor circuits. DC‑DC converters. DC‑AC converters. Utilityapplications: STATCOM and power electronic interfaces. Industrial and utility applications.

This course focuses on fundamental principles, methods and applications of statistical and adaptive signal processing. It begins with the introduction of random signal processing basics, including random variables and sequences, linear systems with stationary inputs, linear signal models, power spectral density estimation. It then covers optimum linear filtering and prediction, namely, Wiener filter, constrained minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimation, array/space-time processing and beamforming, forward and backward linear prediction. The course also covers adaptive filtering methods including least mean square filters, least-square filter, recursive least square filter, Kalman filter. Finally, the course ends with machine learning principles for signal processing including Bayesian learning, support vector machine, and neural network basics.

Introduction to EMC procedures, control plans, and specifications. Radiated and conducted susceptibility and emission testing. Introduction to EMC antennas, antenna concepts, electric and magnetic dipoles, biconical dipoles, conical log spiral antennas, setting up fields for susceptibility testing, measuring radiation from equipment. Coupled transmission lines, pulse propagation, closely spaced parallel transmission lines, capacitive coupling, inductive coupling, shielding against magnetic fields. Shielding and enclosures, electric and magnetic field screening mechanisms, shielding effectiveness, grounding considerations. EMC test facilities, screened rooms, TEM cells, signals and spectra, intermodulation, cross‑modulation, the spectrum analyzer. Noise and pseudo‑random noise, noise performance of measurement/receiving systems, noise equivalent bandwidth, noise figure, antenna noise temperature and S/N ratio.

Introduction to error control coding: linear block codes, syndrome‑based decoding, coding vs. modulation, convolutional codes, Viterbi decoder. Communications link analysis. Introduction to cellular systems: frequency reuse, trunking and grade of services, sectoring and cell splitting, coverage and capacity. Modulation techniques for mobile communications. Mobile radio channels. Spread‑spectrum techniques. Multiplexing and multiple access techniques. Wireless standards from first generation to fourth generation; OFDM: an architecture for the fourth generation.

Linear least squares. Properties of quadratic functions with applications to steepest descent method, Newton’s method and Quasi‑Newton methods for nonlinear optimization. One‑dimensional optimization. Introduction to constrained optimization, including the elements of Kuhn‑Tucker conditions for optimality. Least pth and mini‑max optimization. Application of optimization techniques to engineering problems.

Published notes: Students who have received credit for ENGR 472 may not take this course for credit.

This course may be offered in a given year upon the authorization of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. The course content may vary from offering to offering and will be chosen to complement elective courses available in a given year.

This course covers the following topics: requirements engineering; eliciting and coping with changing and evolving requirements; deployment of a software system under real‑life functional and non‑functional requirements scenarios; understanding how requirements impact early‑stage and deployed software systems through all phases of engineering, including design, implementation, test and verification, deployment, and evolution. A project is required.

This course covers the following topics: from requirements to design to implementation; planned vs. evolutionary design and refactoring; model‑driven design and Unified Modelling Language (UML); structural and behavioural design descriptions and specifications; general and domain‑specific design principles, patterns and idioms; introduction to software architecture (styles and view models); design quality; architectural debt; design smells; refactoring Anti‑Patterns to Patterns; design rationale.

Fundamentals of electric circuits: Kirchoff’s laws, voltage and current sources, Ohm’s law, series and parallel circuits. Nodal and mesh analysis of DC circuits. Superposition theorem, Thevenin and Norton Equivalents. Use of operational amplifiers. Transient analysis of simple RC, RL and RLC circuits. Steady state analysis: Phasors and impedances, power and power factor. Single and three phase circuits. Magnetic circuits and transformers. Power generation and distribution.