Prospective students
Join the group
We are always looking for curious, hands-on students. Our students take MEMS and photonic sensors from design and fabrication through packaging and system-level testing. Current projects are funded by NASA, NIH and DARPA.
Why join us
- You build the whole thing. Students design devices, fabricate them in the MRC cleanroom, package them and test them as systems.
- Work that reaches the real world. We work more closely with industry than most academic labs, so the impact of student research is easier to see. Prof. Hall founded Silicon Audio, Inc., which makes precision seismic and acoustic sensors in Austin.
- Strong outcomes. Recent graduates work at Apple (on the Audio, MEMS and inertial measurement teams) and Texas Instruments, and two have built startups.
- Visible results. Two of our papers were selected for journal covers in 2026, in Microsystems & Nanoengineering and The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
Research areas
- Sensors and electronics for extreme temperatures
- Lithium niobate and aluminum nitride piezoelectric transducers
- Photonic integrated circuit (PIC) accelerometers and inertial sensors
- Mechanical frequency combs for inertial sensing
- MEMS microphones, including fly-inspired directional designs
- Underwater acoustic sensors and ultrasound
How to apply
- Submit the Cockrell School of Engineering graduate application. The PhD deadline is usually December 1 for admission the following fall.
- Select Electrical and Computer Engineering (MSE, PhD) as the major and apply to the PhD program.
- Name Prof. Neal A. Hall as a faculty member of interest in your statement of purpose.
- Details are in the UT ECE graduate admissions pages and FAQ. GRE scores are not required.
Questions are welcome at nahall@utexas.edu.
Good preparation
No one arrives knowing all of this. These are the skills our students end up using most, and a head start on any of them helps:
- 3-D CAD (SolidWorks, Inventor or similar) and PCB layout
- IC/MEMS fabrication concepts: oxidation, lithography, etching, deposition, lift-off
- Finite element analysis in COMSOL
- Acoustics fundamentals and lumped-element transducer modeling
- Python or MATLAB for data analysis
Our new member guide lists books and tutorials for each.