Fundamentals of Biometric System Design: New Course for Electrical, Computer, and Software Engineering Students

Biometrics is a unique area of multidisciplinary engineering practice. We address this specific-application area in our classes on "Fundamentals of Biometric System Design" for the senior undergraduate electrical, computer, and software engineering students. This one-semester course covers various aspects of engineering design of biometric systems such as formulation and analysis of design goals, choosing computing platform, including application-specific DSP processors; modeling and prototyping; mitigating attacks using various design styles; and decision-making support in complex biometric-based systems. Ten basic labs support these topics using signal processing and pattern recognition in MATLAB, software for modeling the face, fingerprint and iris images, specific-application software such as Bayesian belief networks, and hardware such as cameras in visual and infrared bands. The course material consists of the textbook based on the lecture notes, instructor manual with solution to about 200 problems, as well as the collections of quizzes, examinations, and lecture presentations.