Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering

Overview

The primary focus of the Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering programme offered by Birla Institute of Technology and Science is the development and implementation of electrical and electronic instruments for the purpose of measuring, monitoring, and recording physical phenomena. Among many other types of instruments, instrumentation engineers develop seismic sensors, blood glucose sensors, fire detectors and a host of sensors for many applications. Major users of these instruments include industries that rely on automated processes, such as chemical and manufacturing plants. A very large field of work is also offered in biomedical engineering, and in metrology.

The scope of instrumentation engineering is vast, and is fast growing, in part due to the increased use of automatic control in manufacturing and process plants. Growth is also tied to the development of more accurate and more robust sensors, which allow us to detect phenomena of interest (such as the presence of minute levels of toxins in food) with much higher precision than what we could do a generation ago.

The Electronics and Instrumentation curriculum includes courses on the design of analog and digital electronic devices used for measurement and control of parameters such as flow, pressure, temperature, and level, and the calibration of such instruments. Students learn to program microcontrollers, and to design and implement communication networks composed of sensors, actuators, and programmable logic controllers (PLC). Since instrumentation engineering is closely related to control engineering courses on signals, systems, and control theory are also included.

Research

The faculties of the department are very active in research. Some of the research areas of the faculties include MEMS, Semiconductor devices, Medical Instrumentation, Bio signal processing, Fetal ECG extraction, nonlinear analysis of ECG, Nonlinear analysis of EEG, Prediction of onset of epilepsy and process controls, Control system, Process Control, Neural networks and fuzzy Logics, Biomedical Instrumentation, Fetal ECG monitoring etc.