Engineering Commons^™

Exploring The Relationship Between Designing And Composing With An Analog Synthesizer, Felix Morrissey

Honors College

For my electrical engineering capstone, I designed and built a handheld analog synthesizer. This analog synthesizer is a musical instrument which uses electrical analog components to generate sounds with properties based on the user’s input. My goal when creating this device was to maximize its utility while remaining within the scope of the capstone project. After the synthesizer was built, I wrote and recorded several pieces of music which each utilized the synthesizer prominently. The aim of this process was to be able to explore the relationship between an instrument’s design and the quality of the music produced utilizing it. …

Single Image Reflection Removal Beyond Linearity, Qiang Wen, Yinjie Tan, Jing Qin, Wenxi Liu, Guoqiang Han, Shengfeng He

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Due to the lack of paired data, the training of image reflection removal relies heavily on synthesizing reflection images. However, existing methods model reflection as a linear combination model, which cannot fully simulate the real-world scenarios. In this paper, we inject non-linearity into reflection removal from two aspects. First, instead of synthesizing reflection with a fixed combination factor or kernel, we propose to synthesize reflection images by predicting a non-linear alpha blending mask. This enables a free combination of different blurry kernels, leading to a controllable and diverse reflection synthesis. Second, we design a cascaded network for reflection removal with …

A Novel Cooperative Distributed Secondary Controller For Vsi And Pq Inverters Of Ac Microgrids, F. Doost Mohammadi, H. Keshtkar, A. Dehghan Banadaki, A. Feliachi

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper proposes a novel cooperative secondary control strategy for microgrids which is fully distributed. There is a two-layered coordination, which exists between inverter based DGs of both types, i.e. Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) and Current Source Inverter (CSI), also called PQ inverter. In first layer of the proposed two-layered cooperative control strategy, VSIs will take care of the primary average voltage regulation by implementing the average consensus algorithm (ACA); then in the second layer of control, the PQ inverters will improve the voltage quality of the microgrid while maintaining the average voltage of buses at the same desired level. …

Open Source Low-Cost Power Monitoring System, Shane W. Oberloier, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

This study presents an entirely open-source, low-cost power monitoring system capable of many types of measurements including both loads and supplies such as solar photovoltaic systems. In addition, the system can be fabricated using only open source software and hardware. The design revolves around the Digital Universal Energy Logger (DUEL) Node, which is responsible for reading and properly scaling the voltage and current of a particular load, and then serializing it via an on-board ATTiny85 chip. The configuration of the DUEL node allows for custom sensitivity ranges, and can handle up to 50 A and 300 V. Up to 127 …

Memory-Aware Scheduling For Fixed Priority Hard Real-Time Computing Systems, Gustavo A. Chaparro-Baquero

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a major component of a computing system, memory has been a key performance and power consumption bottleneck in computer system design. While processor speeds have been kept rising dramatically, the overall computing performance improvement of the entire system is limited by how fast the memory can feed instructions/data to processing units (i.e. so-called memory wall problem). The increasing transistor density and surging access demands from a rapidly growing number of processing cores also significantly elevated the power consumption of the memory system. In addition, the interference of memory access from different applications and processing cores significantly degrade the …

Thickness Dependence Of Electrical Conductivity In A Thin Film Thermoelectric Composite, David Zagaceta, William Rogers, Andres Breucop, Brian Herrera

Math 365 Class Projects

In this work we utilize the Van Der Pauw method for measuring and calculating the electrical conductivity of a composite material in relation to its thickness.

Tapered Optical Microfibre Based Structures For Sensing Applications, Lin Bo

Doctoral

There has been an increasing demand in recent years from a wide variety of industries for sensors which combine high sensitivity, fast response, compact size and low power consumption. Tapered optical microfibres can generate easily accessible evanescent fields with a large intensity and short decay distance which make microfibres very suitable candidates as the basis of sensors to suit a variety of application areas. In this thesis, experimental research is presented concerning the development of sensors using structures based on tapered optical microfibres, with a particular emphasis on biochemical sensing applications. Light propagation along an optical microfibre depends on its …

Unconventional Computing Catechism, Christof Teuscher

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

What makes a new paradigm or technology promising? What should science, research, and industry invest money in? Is there a life after CMOS electronics? And will the vacuum tube be back? While one cannot predict the future, one can still learn from the past. Over the last decade, unconventional computing developed into a major new research area with the goal to look beyond existing paradigms. In this Perspective, we reflect on the current state of the field and propose a set of questions that anyone working in unconventional computing should be able to answer in order to assess the potential …

Using Design Hierarchy In A Linear Circuits Class To Illustrate The Scientific Method As A Human Invention, Douglas Deboer

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

There are various ways to classify academic studies. One might make a “two cultures” division, separating academic studies into the humanities and sciences. Or one might have three divisions: humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Or one might choose to classify academic studies along the lines of traditional academic disciplines such as theology, law, art, music, economics, social studies, languages, political studies, history, psychology, biology, physics, chemistry, math, etc. In our era of global commerce, where does engineering fit in these types of classification? What should engineers study? In a 2008 presidential debate, candidate Barack Obama said that, “Ensuring that …

A Unified Approach To The Assessment Of Student Learning Outcomes In Electrical Engineering Programs, Youakim Kalaani, Rami J. Haddad

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Publications

In this paper, a unified approach to the assessment of student and program learning outcomes to satisfy ABET and SACS accreditations criteria is proposed. This new approach takes into consideration the criteria of both accreditations to streamline the assessment process. As a result, a set of six skills categories were developed for SACS in which the eleven ABET student learning outcomes were embedded to satisfy both accreditation criteria. Furthermore, a standardized set of artifacts and rubrics were also developed to measure each skill category based on a given set of performance indicators. Data collected at the sophomore, junior and senior …

Heating Effects Through Harmonic Distortion On Electric Cables In The Built Environment, Kevin O'Connell

Doctoral

Under ideal circumstances, electric power supply voltage and current waveforms should be sinusoidal. However, this is very seldom the case in the built environment, due to the proliferation of non-linear loads. Examples of non-linear loads are those containing switched mode power supplies, reactors and electronic rectifiers/inverters. Common devices such as personal computers, fluorescent lighting, electric motors, variable speed drives, transformers and reactors and virtually all other electronic equipment are examples of non-linear loads. Non-linear loads are the norm in the built environment rather than the exception. Such loads produce complex current and voltage waves and simple spectral analysis of these …

Elec 2110: Elements Of Electrical Engineering—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Mahmoud Alahmad

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

I have been teaching this class for the last five years. As an introductory course to electrical engineering, there is a lot of material that needs to be covered. All the material is important and relevant, and I try to go in-depth in each topic area. This approach has resulted in overwhelming the students and made them struggle with the course content, application and utilization. As I consider this course for the peer review, I am evaluating the depth of each topic and the opportunity to adjust the approach and method used to introduce new concepts and at the same …

Slides: Sources Of Electrical Energy For Those Who Are Remote And Poor, Frank Barnes

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Dr. Frank Barnes, Distinguished Professor, Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado

24 slides

Comparison Of Examination Performance In Mathematics, Physics And Electricity Of First Year, Level 7 Student Cohorts In Electrical Engineering, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

This contribution reports on the highly statistically significant relationship (p < 0.001) established in student examination performance in the three central scientific subjects in a Level 7, Year 1 engineering programme at Dublin Institute of Technology. A range of data is taken over seven academic years (from 2005-12 inclusive). Recommendations for learning and teaching as a result of this analysis are proposed.

Enhancing Electrical Engineering Technology Capstone Experience, Fernando Rios-Gutierrez, Youakim Kalaani

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Publications

The College of Science and Technology (COST) at our university (XXX) offers degrees in Mechanical (MET), Civil (CET) and Electrical Engineering Technology (EET). All the Engineering Technology programs are ABET accredited and have been successful in achieving the TAC2000 outcomes. In particular, our Senior Design capstone course (TEET4010/ 4020) is a comprehensive three-credit, two-semester engineering design course, that all engineering majors are required to take as their capstone experience. We view this course as a very important component in the preparation of a trained EET professional. The course emphasizes both hard and soft skills and serves as an emulation of …

Enhancing The Learning Experience In A Multidisciplinary Engineering Technology Course, Rocio Alba-Flores, Youakim Kalaani

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Publications

Rapidly changing technology advances demand the revisions of engineering and technology courses so that they continue to serve students and industry in a relevant way. In a typical engineering technology department, students from different majors are usually required to take an introductory electrical engineering course. Due to the multidisciplinary background of students, such a course has traditionally been a challenge to teach so as to make it interesting and useful to all students. Therefore innovative teaching methods have to be employed in order to accommodate different backgrounds and learning styles.

In our department, a basic electrical engineering course is offered …

Systematic Analysis Of Unknown Integrated Circuits, Michael Brutscheck

Doctoral

In recent years the efficient and structured analysis of unknown CMOS integrated circuits (ICs) has attracted a lot of interest. Over the last decade different and non-invasive strategies have been developed to analyse unknown ICS. However, invasive procedures must always lead to the destruction of the system under investigation. Non-invasive approaches published so far have the disadvantage that ICs are analysed using very complex and very time consuming algorithms. The focus of this thesis is to develop a non-invasive and efficient procedure to determine fully unclassified digital CMOS ICs solely by their input-output behaviour. In this research, automata theory was …

Precise Measurement Of The Neutron Magnetic Form Factor Gnm In The Few-Gev² Region, Clas Collaboration, J. Lachniet, H. Bagdasaryan, S. Bültmann, N. Kalantarians, G. E. Dodge, T. A. Forest, G. Gavalian, C. E. Hyde-Wright, A. Klien, S. E. Kuhn, M. R. Niroula, R. A. Niyazov, L. M. Qin, L. B. Weinstein, J. Zhang

Physics Faculty Publications

The neutron elastic magnetic form factor was extracted from quasielastic electron scattering on deuterium over the range Q² = 1.0–4.8  GeV² with the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. High precision was achieved with a ratio technique and a simultaneous in situ calibration of the neutron detection efficiency. Neutrons were detected with electromagnetic calorimeters and time-of-flight scintillators at two beam energies. The dipole parametrization gives a good description of the data

Unified Power Quality Conditioner: Protection And Performance Enhancement, Iurie Axente

Doctoral

The proliferation of power electronics-based equipment has produced a significant impact on the quality of electric power supply. Nowadays, much of the equipment is based on power electronic devices, often leading to problems of power quality. At the same time this equipment is typically equipped with microprocessor-based controllers which are quite sensitive to deviations from the ideal sinusoidal line voltage. Conventional power quality mitigation equipment is proving to be inadequate for an increasing number of applications, and this fact has attracted the attention of power engineers to develop dynamic and adjustable solutions to power quality problems. One modern and very …

Addressing Student Retention In Engineering And Engineering Technology Through The Use Of A Multidisciplinary Freshman Course, Anthony Dean, Bonita Anthony, Linda Vahala

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The Engineering Fundamentals Division of the Batten College of Engineering and Technology (BCET) at Old Dominion University administers a freshman engineering course sequence, along with four engineering departments (Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering) and the Department of Engineering Technology (which offers degrees in Mechanical Engineering Technology, Civil Engineering Technology and Electrical Engineering Technology). The two course sequence, Exploring Engineering and Technology I and II, involve the five departments in teaching at least one five week module in each of the two courses. Each department generally involves the students in a basic design …

Zsbt: A Novel Algorithm For Tracing Dos Attackers In Manets, Xin Jin, Yaoxue Zhang, Yi Pan, Yuezhi Zhou

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Denial of service (DoS) attack is a major class of security threats today. They consume resources of remote hosts or network and make them deny or degrade services for legitimate users. Compared with traditional Internet, the resources, such as bandwidth, memory, and battery power, of each node are more limited in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Therefore, nodes in MANETs are more vulnerable to DoS attacks. Moreover, attackers in MANETs cannot only use IP spoofing to conceal their real identities but also move arbitrarily, which makes it a challenging task to trace a remote attacker in MANETs. In this paper, …

An Investigation Into Appliance Durability In The Presence Of Power System Disturbances, Steven R. Mcgovern

Masters

The increased trend towards miniaturisation and greater efficiency in electronic equipment has also resulted in increased susceptibility to power system disturbances. Such equipment has become less tolerant to supply transients and variations and as a result there has been an increase in consumer product damage complaints. Greater consumer awareness has seen power quality become a major issue for both the domestic user and the utility companies. Arising from these issues an approach from the Electricity Supply Board of Ireland was made to engage into an investigation of the effects of power quality disturbances at the low-voltage domestic level. On commencement …

An Instrument For Assessing Knowledge Gain In A First Course In Circuit Theory, Vishnu K. Lakdawala, Stephen A. Zahorian, Oscar R. González, Amit Kumar H., James Leathrum

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Although there has been considerable research on the development and use of assessment instruments to measure the effectiveness of various pedagogical approaches to teaching introductory physics classes (Hestenes et al. 1, Hestenes et al 2, Hake 3, Saul et al. 4) and other science courses (for example, see Vosniadou 5), there is relatively little similar work that has been done to develop assessment instruments for the first circuit theory course that is taught in electrical and computer engineering. Given the large numbers of students nationwide who take such a course, the challenge this course presents to beginning engineering students, and …

Lattice And Energy Band Engineering In Alingan/Ga Heterostructures, M. Asif Khan, J. W. Yang, Grigory Simin, R. Gaska, M. S. Shur, Hans-Conrad Zur Loye, G. Tamulaitis, A. Zukauskas, David J. Smith, D. Chandrasekhar, R. Bicknell-Tassius

Faculty Publications

We report on structural, optical, and electrical properties of Al_xIn_yGa_1−x−yNGaNheterostructures grown on sapphire and 6H–SiC substrates. Our results demonstrate that incorporation of In reduces the lattice mismatch, Δa, between AlInGaN and GaN, and that an In to Al ratio of close to 1:5 results in nearly strain-free heterostructures. The observed reduction in band gap,ΔE_g, determined from photoluminescence measurements, is more than 1.5 times higher than estimated from the linear dependencies of Δa and ΔE_g on the In molar fraction. The incorporation of In and resulting changes in the built-in strain in …

Piezoelectric Doping In Alingan/Gan Heterostructures, M. Asif Khan, J. W. Yang, Grigory Simin, R. Gaska, M. S. Shur, A. D. Bykovski

Faculty Publications

We report on the piezoelectricdoping and two-dimensional (2D) electron mobility in AlInGaN/GaN heterostructures grown on 6H–SiC substrates. The contribution of piezoelectricdoping to the sheet electron density was determined using an In-controlled built-in strain-modulation technique. Our results demonstrate that in strained AlGaN/GaN heterostructures, the piezoelectric field generates at least 50% of the 2D electrons. The strain modulation changes the potential distribution at the heterointerface, which, in turn, strongly affects the 2D electron mobility, especially at cryogenic temperatures. The obtained results demonstrate the potential of strain engineering and piezoelectricdoping for GaN-based electronics.