Computer Engineering Commons^™

Neighbor Discovery In Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Esau Enrique Ruiz-Gaistardo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Neighbor Discovery (ND) is the process that initializes a reliable communication between one-hop neighbors in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). This process consists of scheduled exchanges of control messages, called â??Hello Messagesâ?? (HMs) between one-hop neighbors. HMs build bidirectional links that are used to announce the topology information. Each node uses ND and the topology information to populate its routing tables and to communicate with every other node in the network. In MANETs, ND process is a permanent process to discover one-hop neighbors. It is based on two parameters: 1) ND message interval (the period of time in between sending …

Re-Examining Resistance: Fan-Produced Queer Readings And Teen Wolf, Joshua J. Espinoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

MTV's popular television series, Teen Wolf (2011), has amassed a large online following of fans that create their own queer narratives through fan-fiction, subverting the show's hegemonic heteronormativity. Through a textual thematic analysis of Teen Wolf, this case study illustrates how online fandoms can subvert hegemony through queer readings of literary characters, resisting the dominant heteronormativity on network television. This article argues that rearticulating the showâ??s narratives into queer readings functions as a form of LGBT resistance, effectively counteracting the heteronormativity and hegemony portrayed on screen. This study examines how Teen Wolf approaches queer content, including homoeroticism and LGBT themes …

Computation Offloading Decisions For Reducing Completion Time, Salvador Melendez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Mobile devices are being widely used in many applications such as image processing, computer vision (e.g. face detection and recognition), wearable computing, language translation, and battlefield operations. However, mobile devices are constrained in terms of their battery life, processor performance, storage capacity, and network bandwidth. To overcome these issues, there is an approach called Computation Offloading, also known as cyber-foraging and surrogate computing. Computation offloading consists of migrating computational jobs from a mobile device to more powerful remote computing resources. Upon completion of the job, the results are sent back to the mobile device. However, a decision must be made; …

Multi-3d System: Advanced Manufacturing Through The Implementation Of Material Handling Robotics, Jose Luis Coronel Jr.

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Since the rise of additive manufacturing (AM), innovation has been at the forefront. Additive Manufacturing systems that incorporate complex processes are steadily being developed. One example is the Multi3D System, which was designed to integrate the ability to print multi-material parts with that of embedding electronics. To achieve this automated process, the Multi3D incorporates a six-axis robotic arm to transfer a build platform containing a printed part, to various manufacturing stations (two fused deposition modeling (Stratasys, FDM400mc) systems and a computer numerical control router (Techno CNC Router). The robot is a Yaskawa Motoman MH50 chosen for its payload capacity of …

E-Quality Design Of Experiments For Structural Electronics, Oscar Murga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a technology utilized for creating complex parts by adding layers of material in order to create a three dimensional functional part. This technology has been pushed to a new level of functionality where mechanical parts are combined with electronic components to create Three-Dimensional Structural Electronics (3DSE) systems. This new technology has been used to replace Printed Circuit Boards (PCB), for 3D SE are light weight and can be created in any desired shape. Computer Aided Design (CAD) software is used to design the part and a Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) machine is used to 3D print …

Low Power Design Techniques For Data Acquisition, Praveen Kumar Palakurthi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Semiconductor technology advancement continues to lead to smaller device geometries. Digital circuits have benefited from the technology scaling whereas analog circuits often suffer in terms of performance and noise immunity. As functionality continues to be integrated onto systems-on-chips, analog circuits consume increasingly more power than digital circuits and the objective of this Dissertation is to explore low power techniques in the context of both digital and analog circuits residing on the same silicon real estate.

As natural signals are in analog form, a necessity exists to convert these into digital form and then back again in order to exploit the …

Frequency Selective Surfaces For Extreme Applications, Jay Houston Barton

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

It is known that for high-power microwaves and other extreme environments, the use of resonant metallic elements in frequency selective surfaces can be problematic. The solution developed within this Dissertation to solve these problems was to use guided-mode resonance phenomenon to create all-dielectric frequency selective surfaces that could survive these extreme environments.

To fully understand how these devices work, three different computational electromagnetic methods are formulated and implemented. The formulation of these methods start with the differential form of Maxwellâ??s equation and are derived all the way down to the final simulation state. This is done sequentially and all the …

Multi-Objective Border Patrolling Optimization Using Game Theory And Evolutionary Algorithms, Franciso Oswaldo Aguirre

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Border security has evolved significantly since the days when no more than 75 Mounted Guards patrolled the U.S. border in the early 1900's. The border region includes thousands of miles of both land and maritime borders that must be controlled, as well as commercial transportation networks. One of the primary components of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency. One of the most typical activities performed by CBP is patrolling the expansive open areas in between official points of entry (POEs) to prohibit illegal entry attempts. Roving patrols are routinely conducted by …

An Intelligent System For High Resolution Radar Systems, Janette C. Briones

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cognitive radio is a recent, novel approach that integrates machine perception software into wireless systems. The term cognitive radio was first used by Joe Mitola. The concept and the term cognitive radio quickly caught the attention and interest of many in the communications field. Cognitive radios are capable of making decisions and selecting or modifying the operating parameters of a radio. Given these capabilities, it is feasible to build a cognitive radar system as introduced by Simon Haykin in 2006. Cognitive radar, as described by Haykin, is an intelligent system that must be aware of its environment, uses prior knowledge, …

Numerical Investigation Of Impact Of Relative Humidity On Droplet Accumulation And Film Cooling, Luz Irene Bugarin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

During the summer, high inlet temperatures affect the power output of gas turbine systems. Evaporative coolers have gained popularity as an inlet cooling method for these systems. Wet compression has been one of the common evaporative cooling methods implemented to increase power output of gas turbine systems due to its simple installation and low cost. This process involves injection of water droplets into the continuous phase of compressor to reduce the temperature of the flow entering the compressor and in turn increase the power output of the whole gas turbine system. This study focused on a single stage rotor-stator compressor …

An Exploration Of Social Media Use Among Multiply Minoritized Lgbtq Youth, Alfie Leanna Lucero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study responds to a need for research in a fast-growing and significant area of study, that of exploring, understanding, and documenting the numerous ways that multiply marginalized LGBTQ youth between the ages of 14 and 17 use social media. The primary research question examined whether social media provide safe spaces for multiply minoritized LGBTQ youth to express and explore issues of sexuality and gender. In addition, the study explores and categorizes multiple ways that the participants interact with social media and makes comparisons to prior work with more general populations. The study provides descriptions of the participants in terms …

Anasic Design And Test Methodology For An Undergraduate Design And Fabrication Project, Arun Joseph Kurian

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

During the 1990's the main focus of chip design methodologies was on the timings and area constraints. Power consumption was considered significant only after a drastic increase of device densities from 130nm on as well as dramatic increases in sub threshold leakage. As technology advanced from 130nm to 90nm and below there was a significant increase in leakage current due to lower threshold voltage and the influence of the deep submicron effects. High power consumption causes different problems such as increasing the cost of the product, reducing the reliability, reducing the battery life among others. Therefore EDA tools were designed …

Efficient, Scalable, Parallel, Matrix-Matrix Multiplication, Enrique Portillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For the past decade, power/energy consumption has become a limiting factor for large-scale and embedded High Performance Computing (HPC) systems. This is especially true for systems that include accelerators, e.g., high-end computing devices, such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), with terascale computing capabilities and high power draws that greatly surpass that of multi-core CPUs. Accordingly, improving the node-level power/energy efficiency of an application can have a direct and positive impact on both classes of HPC systems.

The research reported in this thesis explores the use of software techniques to enhance the execution-time and power-consumption performance of applications executed on a …

Asynchronous Logic Design With Increased Fault Tolerance And Optimized For Subthreshold Operation, Ivan Santos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Synchronization has always been an essential feature in electronic circuits, in which functionality is achieved by an appropriate flow of data with respect to time. An ideal concept of logic design would require every operation to happen instantly; however, the application of this principle to electronics is governed by the laws of physics, which influence the time to execute a process. In fact, the speed at which a microprocessor can perform logic operations is determined by the time that charging and discharging capacitive loads requires, and the time that electric signals spend when traveling through the circuitry. Consequently, the variation …

A Case Study Towards Verification Of The Utility Of Analytical Models In Selecting Checkpoint Intervals, Michael Joseph Harney

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As high performance computing (HPC) systems grow larger, with increasing numbers of components, failures become more common. Codes that utilize large numbers of nodes and run for long periods of time must take such failures into account and adopt fault tolerance mechanisms to avoid loss of computation and, thus, system utilization. One of those mechanisms is checkpoint/restart. Although analytical models exist to guide users in the selection of an appropriate checkpoint interval, these models are based on assumptions that may not always be true. This thesis examines some of these assumptions, in particular, the consistency of parameters like Mean Time …

Minimizing The Retransmission Delay And Energy Expense Of Arq With The Optimal Placement Of Caching Routers In A Video Communication Network, Jesus Enrique Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The use of intermediary caching routers to service retransmission requests was investigated in this thesis. The main goal is to reduce the expected retransmission delay in a video communication network where the capacity for intermediate caching routers is constrained. In order to reduce the retransmission delay, the effect of the placement of routers with caching ability is investigated. Moreover, as a consequence of reducing the retransmission distance, the energy spent on retransmitting video packets is reduced as well. The average retransmission delay and the average energy consumption were modeled with mathematical programs that select the optimal placement of caching routers …

Modeling Power Consumption Of High Performance Computer Clusters, Mario Caire

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation describes a utilization-based power modeling approach that makes use of the /proc file system and is applied to estimating power load and energy consumption of high performance computer clusters. A full cluster power model is specified that meets the following conditions: 1) provides accurate energy estimates; 2) consists of a minimal number of variables; and 3) the selected variables provide a sufficient degree of explanation of the primary OS level contributors to power consumption. The cluster power model is based on analysis at the system or compute-node level, where various models are developed and evaluated. All models described …

Multi-Physics Modeling Of Induction-Based Additive Manufacturing Of Metals, Danny W. Muse

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The shift towards 3D printing of functional products has provided a glimpse of the future in terms of manufacturing technologies and the creation of volumetrically complex structures made possible only through these technologies. 3D printing has emerged from the culmination of several technologies covering multiple industries and a myriad of materials. Unlike subtractive technologies such as mills, lathes and CNC machines, where material is removed from a bulk slab or billet to produce a desired part, 3D printing uses an additive layered approach to deposit material based on cross sections of the desired part. Both approaches produce parts based on …

Investigation Of The Divcon Neuron To Increase The Performance Of A Traditional Feed Forward Multi-Layer Perceptron And Its Hardware Implementation, Jovan Saenz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been developed in an attempt to emulate the information processing capabilities of the biological brain. They offer an alternate computing approach to problems in which mathematical modeling is complicated, such as pattern recognition and pattern classification.

Since ANNs were proposed in the early 1940s, there has been a great amount of research effort dedicated to the development of new models that improve performance. Consequently, different architectures, a variety of activation functions, and distinct learning algorithms have been developed and implemented in different disciplines such as medicine, engineering, and science. In addition, ANNs have been …

The Application Of Fuzzy Granular Computing For The Analysis Of Human Dynamic Behavior In 3d Space, Murad Mohammad Alaqtash

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Human dynamic behavior in space is very complex in that it involves many physical, perceptual and motor aspects. It is tied together at a sensory level by linkages between vestibular, visual and somatosensory information that develop through experience of inertial and gravitational reaction forces. Coordinated movement emerges from the interplay among descending output from the central nervous system, sensory input from the body and environment, muscle dynamics, and the emergent dynamics of the whole neuromusculoskeletal system.

There have been many attempts to directly capture the activities of the neuronal system in human locomotion without the ability to clarify how the …

Video Mosaicing Using Inertial Sensors, Arturo Maya Pereyra

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A method to reduce the process complexity of Video Mosaicing could rely on information concerning the orientation of the camera instead of image feature tracking. Inertial sensors (e.g. accelerometers and gyros) could form part of a low cost motion based technology which can be used in this case and this thesis details an approach for Video Mosaicing based on such technology that requires non-computationally intensive algorithms.

Sensor-Based Robotic Learning System For The Rehabilitation Of Arm, Chethan Ramachandra Keladi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In recent studies, the neurological studies has shown that the neurological disorders like Stroke, Parkinson's disease, Dystonia, Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), Cerebral Palsy (CP), etc., cause the disability of upper limb and one of the major issues with the neurological injuries is motor impairment. This issue is caused by the lack of interaction between the central nervous system (CNS) and muscles [1] and can be cured by the intensive training which includes repetitive and reaching tasks. The intensive training can be performed using conventional therapy and robot-assisted therapy, but the research has shown additional effects on motor recovery and functional …

2d Gaussian Object Motion Detection, Miguel Angel Chaidez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Dr. John Moya, and associated research assistants, have previously created an image-change recognition algorithm (JESSE) to mark changes within an image. The focus of this thesis is to present a physical application and modification of this algorithm in order to detect a surgeon's hand and verify chip placement on a printed circuit board.

There are different techniques in implementing visual recognition and motion detection with smart systems but the high cost and complicated calibration of these systems make them impractical. The goal was to create a system that is simple, inexpensive and applicable to multiple applications that will allow the …

Software And Hardware Techniques To Aid In Automating And Troubleshooting Hybrid Systems That Fabricate Three-Dimensional Electronics, Mohammed Alawneh

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Various issues in automating the fabrication of three dimensional electronics were addressed in this thesis. The three dimensional electronics were fabricated by a stereolithoraphy and direct print hybrid system. Hardware and software limitations were discussed and possible solutions were implemented. Various automation software tools were developed, specifically a computer aided design to printed electronics conversion software compatible with various stages.

Effects Of The Usage Of Parallel Hardware Architectures In The Simulation Of Artificial Neural Networks Training Process, Carlos Beas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Long training times and non-ideal performance have been a big impediment in further continuing the use of Artificial Neural Networks for real world applications. Current research is currently focused on two areas of study that aim to address this problem. The first approach seeks to overcome large training times by devising faster learning algorithms where a set of interconnection weights for which the network produces negligible error takes a less amount of computation to find [Sun98]. The second approach aims to address the impediment by implementing existing training algorithms but on parallel hardware architectures.

While both approaches provide promising advances …

Development Of Load Balancing Algorithm Based On Analysis Of Multi-Core Architecture On Beowulf Cluster, Damian Valles

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this work, analysis, and modeling were employed to improve the Linux Scheduler for HPC use. The performance throughput of a single compute-node of the 23 node Beowulf cluster, Virgo 2.0, was analyzed to find bottlenecks and limitations that affected performance in the processing hardware where each compute-node consisted of two quad-core processors with eight gigabytes of memory. The analysis was performed using the High Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmark.

In addition, the processing hardware of the compute-node was modeled using an Instruction per Cycle (IPC) metric that was estimated using linear regression. Modeling data was obtained by using the Tuning …

Utepcam: A Scalable Wireless Vision Sensor Architecture For Computational, Power And Bandwidth Constrained Scenarios, Ricardo Zepeda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

UTEPcam is a low cost and power vision sensor node system. UTEPcam is composed of an Atmel atmega32 8-bit microcontroller, a CY7C09099V static RAM chip, an OV6620 CMOS image sensor, a XBEE transceiver and a SD Flash memory card, and four logic gates. UTEPcam's simple yet efficiently architecture enables it to capture video at one frame per second. At its absolute highest, it is estimated that UTEPcam consumes only 1.321 Amps. When in standby, UTEPcam consumes 21 microamps. Furthermore, UTEPcam's program takes up only 1Kbyte of memory space.

UTEPcam's CPU, a simple 8-bit MCU, is unlike most vision sensor node …

Collaborative And Distributed Algorithms For Localization In Wireless Sensor Networks Based On The Solution Of Spatially Constrained Local And Sub-Local Problems, Juan De Dios Cota

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this research we present algorithms for the distributed and collaborative localization of nodes for applications in wireless sensor networks. The algorithms are distributed in the sense that each node can estimate its own position using only range information and position estimates from neighboring nodes. The algorithms aim at achieving good accuracy with low computational complexity and low energy consumption. We consider the full localization process consisting of an initialization stage followed by a refinement stage.

For initialization, we propose a \emph{bilateration} algorithm where each node uses a set of anchors and their respective ranges to solve a set of …

Algorithms For Training Large-Scale Linear Programming Support Vector Regression And Classification, Pablo Rivas Perea

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The main contribution of this dissertation is the development of a method to train a Support Vector Regression (SVR) model for the large-scale case where the number of training samples supersedes the computational resources. The proposed scheme consists of posing the SVR problem entirely as a Linear Programming (LP) problem and on the development of a sequential optimization method based on variables decomposition, constraints decomposition, and the use of primal-dual interior point methods. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach has comparable performance with other SV-based classifiers. Particularly, experiments demonstrate that as the problem size increases, the sparser the solution …

A Subthreshold Reconfigurable Architecture For Harsh Environments, Ameet Chavan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Energy harvesting and functional reconfigurability are necessary features in order to simultaneously achieve longer operating lifetimes and versatility in application for many next generation electronic systems. The presented research incorporates capabilities that not only enable applications to self-power from ambience but also permit change in functionality based on real-time application requirements. Currently, many applications are battery powered with custom hardware, which severely confines the application platform. Moreover, maintenance and upgrades are prohibitively expensive, particularly in the case of remote locations with limited accessibility. For harsh environments like Space or the battlefield, apart from features such as low power and reconfigurability, …