Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

Design, Fabrication And Assembly Of Multiple Biomarker In-Vivo Biosensor, Asanterabi Malima

Electrical Engineering Dissertations

High sensitivity and high specificity detection of disease biomarkers is crucial for early diagnostics and monitoring of diseases. Current cancer diagnostics tools are invasive and uncomfortable. Blood tests that are currently being used also lack sufficient sensitivity and specificity for early detection of diseases. In this thesis, a design for highly sensitive micron scale in-vivo sensor platform device for simultaneous detection of multiple disease biomarkers is presented. The biosensor microchip is 0.25mm in diameter, based on SU-8 polymeric platform fabricated incorporating four active isolated areas as small as 70µm x 70µm. Conventional micro and nanofabrication processes were used for ...

Elastometric Device For Tunable Imaging, Jaeyoun Kim

Iowa State University Patents

An optical micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) structure is provided. The structure includes an elastomer membrane, a plurality of polymer fibers attached to the elastomer membrane, an array of detectors operatively connected to the plurality of polymer fibers at a first end of the plurality of polymer fibers, and a microlens array operatively connected to the plurality of polymer fibers at a second end of the plurality of polymer fibers. A method of manufacturing an optical MEMS structure is provided. The method includes forming a hollow PDMS chamber in which PDMS fibers extend from top to bottom using a lost wax molding ...

Maine’S Three Ring Binder, Fletcher Kittredge

Maine Policy Review

Although Maine is a rural state, it has had success in keeping pace with technological changes since the rise of the Internet 20 years ago. In this section, authors describe some of these successes and the challenges faced by both consumers and libraries in the new digital environment. Fletcher Kittredge presents the history and promise of Maine’s “Three Ring Binder,” a new and important fiber optic network that will bring high-speed broadband connectivity to rural parts of the state. The Three Ring Binder is expected both to improve economic opportunities for businesses and to increase high-speed Internet access for ...

Monitoring Dairy Cow Feed Intake Using Machine Vision, Anthony N. Shelley

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

The health and productive output of dairy cows can be closely correlated to individual cow feed intake. Being able to monitor feed intake on a daily basis is beneficial dairy farm management. Each cow can be addressed individually with minimal time required from those working with the animals. This is essential as time management is closely tied to resource management in a dairy operation. Anything that can save time and resources and increase profitability and herd health is a paramount advantage in dairy farming. This study examined the use of machine vision structured light illumination three-dimensional scanning of cow feed ...

Modeling The Liquid, Nasal, And Vowel Transitions Of North American English Using Linear Predictive Filters And Line Spectral Frequency Interpolations For Use In A Speech Synthesis System, Jacob G. Nieveen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports

A speech synthesis system with an original user interface is being developed. In contrast to most modern synthesizers, this system is not text to speech (TTS). This system allows the user to control vowels, vowel transitions, and consonant sounds through a simple 2-d vowel pad and consonant buttons. In this system, a synthesized glottal waveform is passed through vowel filters to create vowel sounds. Several filters were calculated from recordings of vowels using linear predictive coding (LPC). The rest of the vowels in the North American English vowel space were found using interpolation techniques with line spectral frequencies (LSF). The ...

Extracting Atmospheric Profiles From Hyperspectral Data Using Particle Filters, Dustin Rawlings

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Removing the effects of the atmosphere from remote sensing data requires accurate knowledge of the physical properties of the atmosphere during the time of measurement. There is a nonlinear relationship that maps atmospheric composition to emitted spectra, but it cannot be easily inverted. The time evolution of atmospheric composition is approximately Markovian, and can be estimated using hyperspectral measurements of the atmosphere with particle filters. The difficulties associated with particle filtering high-dimension data can be mitigated by incorporating future measurement data with the proposal density.

Determination Of Ionospheric Current Systems By Measuring The Phase Shift On Amateur Satellite Frequencies, Prajwal M. Kasturi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We investigate the possibility of measuring and using the phase delay of radio frequency transmissions in the amateur satellite band as a method to determine the distribution of currents systems in the ionosphere. The amateur satellite transmissions at 7MHz, 14M Hz, and 144M Hz are low enough for Faraday rotation to cause a significant phase delay on the propagating signals in addition to the phase delay produced by the total electron content (TEC) in the ionosphere. The ionosphere in the E and F regions is modeled as an equivalent thin planar shell of collision free cold plasma 100 km in ...

Evolutionary Optimization Algorithms For Nonlinear Systems, Ashish Raj

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many real world problems in science and engineering can be treated as optimization problems with multiple objectives or criteria. The demand for fast and robust stochastic algorithms to cater to the optimization needs is very high. When the cost function for the problem is nonlinear and non-differentiable, direct search approaches are the methods of choice. Many such approaches use the greedy criterion, which is based on accepting the new parameter vector only if it reduces the value of the cost function. This could result in fast convergence, but also in misconvergence where it could lead the vectors to get trapped ...

Thermo-Piezo-Electro-Mechanical Simulation Of Algan (Aluminum Gallium Nitride) / Gan (Gallium Nitride) High Electron Mobility Transistor, Lorin E. Stevens

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to the current public demand of faster, more powerful, and more reliable electronic devices, research is prolific these days in the area of high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices. This is because of their usefulness in RF (radio frequency) and microwave power amplifier applications including microwave vacuum tubes, cellular and personal communications services, and widespread broadband access. Although electrical transistor research has been ongoing since its inception in 1947, the transistor itself continues to evolve and improve much in part because of the many driven researchers and scientists throughout the world who are pushing the limits of what modern ...

Spacial Optimization: A Study In Theme Park Design, Zachary Balgeman

Celebration of Undergraduate Scholarship

Optimization is carefully considered when a company begins to design a theme park. The company wants to maximize their profits while still meeting the consumers' expectations. One of the things that must be kept in mind throughout the optimization process is space management. With a fixed space budget, only a finite amount of land is available for different park components (including attractions, shops, restaurants, and open areas). We have been studying the allocation of these areas in the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom. From this, we want to develop a model for an amusement park in an urban environment.

Envision - A Novel Computational Platform For Oncology Study, Jiawei Shen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Master's Theses

We have developed a novel computational platform, ENVISION, for oncology pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) research and development efforts. ENVISION is an "evolvable computational environment" that mimics the stochastic behavior of cancer growth and development and generates virtual population over space (3-D) and time (1-D) and. For this purpose, we use a cellular automata grid composed of volumetric pixels (voxels) and model tumor biology across physiological scales (millimeters) on the grid. We use the ectopic xenograft tumor model in immune compromised mice as the test system. Specifically, we create a virtual mouse-like environment in the grid and "grow" tumor based on ...

Fpga-Based Implementation Of Dual-Frequency Pattern Scheme For 3-D Shape Measurement, Brent Bondehagen

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Structured Light Illumination (SLI) is the process where spatially varied patterns are projected onto a 3-D surface and based on the distortion by the surface topology, phase information can be calculated and a 3D model constructed. Phase Measuring Profilometry (PMP) is a particular type of SLI that requires three or more patterns temporarily multiplexed. High speed PMP attempts to scan moving objects whose motion is small so as to have little impact on the 3-D model. Given that practically all machine vision cameras and high speed cameras employ a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) interface directly to the image sensors ...

Synthesis Of Rhenium And Manganese Pyridazoal Complexes, Jesse Evans

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Pyridazines are a heterocyclic aromatic compound containing a characteristic N-N bond that are utilized in many fields, including medicine and electronics. It is this latter field that Dr. Snyder's research group is focused upon. Organometallic compounds are a better conducting material than the current inorganic compounds used in electronics due to better conductance of electricity, lower production cost, and the ability to be formed into thin films. With this in mind, Dr. Snyder's research group has set out to synthesize organometallic compounds for this purpose. Following procedures set forth by Snyder etc, and altered to form an off-metal ...

3design - Holographic Telecollaboration Interface, Thomas W. De Wit, Mark Gill, Scott Freemon, Preston Garland

University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

Robust Design Techniques For Emerging Technologies Of Computing, Masoud Zamani

Computer Engineering Dissertations

Conventional CMOS technology used in implementation of computational circuits faces major challenges in continues downscaling. Therefore, researchers explore alternative emerging implementation technologies and alternative computational approaches to overcome these challenges. However, in nanoscale regimes due to atomic scale of devices and poor control in nanofabrication, reliability is a major challenge. In this thesis, we will study reliability issues in crossbar nano-architectures, as an example of alternative implementation, as well as reversible logic, as an example of alternative computational technology.

We study two approaches, namely logic mapping and architectural techniques, to incorporate variation and defect tolerance in crossbar nano-architectures. In the ...

Supercomputer Design: An Initial Effort To Capture The Environmental, Economic, And Societal Impacts, Marshall T. Mcdonnell

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Publications and Other Works

Abstract Currently, the Green500 is possibly the largest effort to direct the evolution of supercomputing towards sustainable design but does not address life-cycle impacts of a supercomputer. Supercomputer assessment with economical, environmental, and societal impacts considered would provide an optimal future supercomputer design that is sustainable. Some of the benefits of such an assessment would help determines the complete impact for bringing a supercomputer online, determine impact “hot spots” in design, and determine optimal locations for construction. By combining process-LCA and EIO-LCA methods, an initial model for in-depth sustainability analysis of supercomputer design has been developed and the results presented ...

Materials Selection And Processing Techniques For Small Spacecraft Solar Cell Arrays, Naseem M. Torabi

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Body mounted germanium substrate solar cell arrays form the faces of many small satellite designs to provide the primary power source on orbit. High efficiency solar cells are made affordable for university satellite programs as triangular devices trimmed from wafer scale solar cells. The smaller cells allow array designs to pack tightly around antenna mounts and payload instruments, giving the board design flexibility. One objective of this work is to investigate the reliability of solar cells attached to FR-4 printed circuit boards. FR-4 circuit boards have significantly higher thermal expansion coefficients and lower thermal conductivities than germanium. This thermal expansion ...

Fpga To Power System Theorization For A Fault Location And Specification Algorithm, Christina Yeoman

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fault detection and location algorithms have allowed for the power industry to alter the power grid from the traditional model to becoming a smart grid. This thesis implements an already established algorithm for detecting faults, as well as an impedance-based algorithm for detecting where on the line the fault has occurred and develops a smart algorithm for future HDL conversion using Simulink. Using the algorithms, the ways in which this implementation can be used to create a smarter grid are the fundamental basis for this research. Simulink was used to create a two-bus power system, create environment variables, and then ...

Rigid Body Attitude Estimation: An Overview And Comparative Study, Nojan Madinehi

University of Western Ontario - Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The attitude estimation of rigid body systems has attracted the attention of many researchers over the years. The development of efficient estimation algorithms that can accurately estimate the orientation of a rigid body is a crucial step towards a reliable implementation of control schemes for underwater and flying vehicles.

The primary focus of this thesis consists in investigating various attitude estimation techniques and their applications.

Two major classes are discussed. The first class consists of the earliest static attitude determination techniques relying solely on a set of body vector measurements of known vectors in the inertial frame. The second class ...

Vision Based Real-Time Monitoring And Control Of Metal Transfer In Laser Enhanced Gas Metal, Yan Shao

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Laser enhanced gas metal arc welding (GMAW) is a novel welding process where a laser is applied to provide an auxiliary detaching force to help detach the droplet such that welds may be made in gas tungsten arc welding high quality at GMAW high speeds. The current needed to generate the electromagnetic (detaching) force is thus reduced. The reduction in the current helps reduce the impact on the weld pool and over-heat fumes/smokes. However, in the previous studies, a continuous laser is applied. Since the auxiliary is only needed each time the droplet needs to be detached and the ...