Engineering Commons^™

Techniques To Increase Computational Efficiency In Some Deterministic And Random Electromagnetic Propagation Problems, Selman Ozbayat

Open Access Dissertations

Efficient computation in deterministic and uncertain electromagnetic propagation environments, tackled by parabolic equation methods, is the subject of interest of this dissertation. Our work is comprised of two parts. In the first part we determine efficient absorbing boundary conditions for propagation over deterministic terrain and in the second part we study techniques for efficient quantification of random parameters/outputs in volume and surface based electromagnetic problems.

Domain truncation by transparent boundary conditions for open problems where parabolic equation is utilized to govern wave propagation are in general computationally costly. For the deterministic problem, we utilize two approximations to a convolution-in-space type …

Reconfigurable Technologies For Next Generation Internet And Cluster Computing, Deepak C. Unnikrishnan

Open Access Dissertations

Modern web applications are marked by distinct networking and computing characteristics. As applications evolve, they continue to operate over a large monolithic framework of networking and computing equipment built from general-purpose microprocessors and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that offers few architectural choices. This dissertation presents techniques to diversify the next-generation Internet infrastructure by integrating Field-programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), a class of reconfigurable integrated circuits, with general-purpose microprocessor-based techniques. Specifically, our solutions are demonstrated in the context of two applications - network virtualization and distributed cluster computing.

Network virtualization enables the physical network infrastructure to be shared among several …

Hybrid Radio Frequency And Video Framework For Identity-Aware Augmented Perception In Disaster Management And Assistive Technologies, Xunyi Yu

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation, we introduce a hybrid radio frequency and video framework that enables identity aware-augmented perception. Identity-aware augmented perception enhances users' perception of the surrounding by collecting and analyzing information pertaining to each identifiable or tractable target nearby aggregated from various sensors, and presents it visually or audibly augmenting users' own sensory perceptions. We target two application areas of disaster management and assistive technologies. Incident commanders and first responders can use the technology to perceive information specific to a victim, e.g. triage level, critical conditions, visually superimposed on third person or first person video. The blind and visually impaired …

Online Management Of Resilient And Power Efficient Multicore Processors, Rance Rodrigues

Open Access Dissertations

The semiconductor industry has been driven by Moore's law for almost half a century. Miniaturization of device size has allowed more transistors to be packed into a smaller area while the improved transistor performance has resulted in a significant increase in frequency. Increased density of devices and rising frequency led, unfortunately, to a power density problem which became an obstacle to further integration. The processor industry responded to this problem by lowering processor frequency and integrating multiple processor cores on a die, choosing to focus on Thread Level Parallelism (TLP) for performance instead of traditional Instruction Level Parallelism (ILP).

While …

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks: Interplay Of Geometry, Communications, And Traffic, Mohammad Nekoui

Open Access Dissertations

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) have been proposed to enhance the safety and efficiency of transportation systems. Such networks hold unique characteristics and fulfill new goals that necessitate their study from a whole new perspective other than what has been the prevailing paradigm for conventional Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). The mission of this dissertation is to identify such unique characteristics and propose design strategies for VANETs that target the new system goals.

We argue that the road and obstacle geometry are two important factors that should be appropriately addressed when studying the communications throughput of VANETs. To this end …

Nasics: A `Fabric-Centric' Approach Towards Integrated Nanosystems, Pritish Narayanan

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the fundamental problem of how to build computing systems for the nanoscale. With CMOS reaching fundamental limits, emerging nanomaterials such as semiconductor nanowires, carbon nanotubes, graphene etc. have been proposed as promising alternatives. However, nanoelectronics research has largely focused on a `device-first' mindset without adequately addressing system-level capabilities, challenges for integration and scalable assembly.

In this dissertation, we propose to develop an integrated nano-fabric, (broadly defined as nanostructures/devices in conjunction with paradigms for assembly, inter-connection and circuit styles), as opposed to approaches that focus on MOSFET replacement devices as the ultimate goal. In the `fabric-centric' mindset, design …