Electrical and Electronics Commons^™

Novel Polymer-Derived Ceramic Antennas For Hypersonic Applications, Peter J. Alley

Masters Theses

With recent advances in three dimensional [3D] printing of polymer-derived ceramics [PDCs], and the controllability of electrical continuity thereof, interest has risen in potential applications resultant from these techniques in the realm of radio communication, particularly in cases where extreme high temperatures are ambient. The following investigates the electrical properties of both insulating and conductive variants of these PDCs, the interaction between each, and the performance characteristics observed when combined using microstrip antenna design theory for high temperature applications.

Cal Poly Gen 2 Battlebot Electrical System, Kelvin C. Villago

Electrical Engineering

BattleBots is a popular robot combat sport where engineers from all over the world design and construct a robot with the aim to disable or impair the opposing robot. The Cal Poly Gen 2 BattleBot aims to complete a robot from scratch with hopes to compete in the official competition. This report focuses on the electronic design behind the robot, specifically the printed circuit board (PCB) and component selection. The design process of this project involved choosing specific motors and microcontrollers based on cost, efficiency, and benefits with the end goal of a complete printed circuit board (PCB). Brushed motors …

Co-Designing Situated Displays For Family Co-Regulation With Adhd Children, Lucas M. Silva, Franceli L. Cibrian, Clarisse Bonang, Arpita Bhattacharya, Aehong Min, Elissa M. Monteiro, Jesus A. Beltran, Sabrina E. B. Schuck, Kimberley D. Lakes, Gillian R. Hayes, Daniel A. Epstein

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Family informatics often uses shared data dashboards to promote awareness of each other’s health-related behaviors. However, these interfaces often stop short of providing families with needed guidance around how to improve family functioning and health behaviors. We consider the needs of family co-regulation with ADHD children to understand how in-home displays can support family well-being. We conducted three co-design sessions with each of eight families with ADHD children who had used a smartwatch for self-tracking. Results indicate that situated displays could nudge families to jointly use their data for learning and skill-building. Accommodating individual needs and preferences when family members …

Optimization Of Reactive Power Compensation Settings For Solar Power Plants In Volt/Var Mode, Samuel Eniola Aremu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to advancements in smart inverter technologies, distributed energy resources, such as solar photovoltaic systems, can contribute to network voltage and reactive power regulation in accordance with the IEEE 1547a standard. Depending on the penetration level, the solar photovoltaic system often causes a voltage rise at its connection point and surrounding nodes.

To resolve the voltage rise issue, utilities and developers use strategies like voltage/Var (Volt/Var) and voltage/wattage (Volt/Watt) control, among others. Some electric utilities prefer the Volt/Var control. During Volt/Var operation, PV inverters, based on the Volt/Var settings, can consume reactive power from the network when the voltage at …

Applications Of Supercapacitors In Robotic Systems, Charles Davis, Zachary Giese, Joseph Gober, Samuel Grisham, Avery Mahan

ATU Research Symposium

This project explores the utilization of a bespoke supercapacitor system to energize and propel a robot across various challenging courses. The custom supercapacitor setup serves as the primary power source, providing rapid charging capabilities and high energy density. The research investigates the integration of this innovative power solution into the robot's design, aiming to optimize its performance and endurance in competitive environments.

Application Of The Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming Technique For The Economic Planning Of Transmission Networks In New Manner, Nader Shawky Abdelhakeem, Maged Gamal Lotfy, Mohamed Shibl Albags, Ahmed Saied Elzawawy

Mansoura Engineering Journal

In the recent years, the mathematical planning model of transmission networks based on full AC load flow has been developed. But, due to the model non-convexity and the existing of large number of local solutions, this model can only be used for small size networks as it consumes large unreasonable computation time in addition to its incapability to yield global solution in most cases. To overcome these problems, two new iterative solution procedures have been presented in this paper. In the first one, the objective function is changed to the minimization of the number of new lines required to satisfy …

Exponential Fusion Of Interpolated Frames Network (Efif-Net): Advancing Multi-Frame Image Super-Resolution With Convolutional Neural Networks, Hamed Elwarfalli, Dylan Flaute, Russell C. Hardie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have become instrumental in advancing multi-frame image super-resolution (SR), a technique that merges multiple low-resolution images of the same scene into a high-resolution image. In this paper, a novel deep learning multi-frame SR algorithm is introduced. The proposed CNN model, named Exponential Fusion of Interpolated Frames Network (EFIF-Net), seamlessly integrates fusion and restoration within an end-to-end network. Key features of the new EFIF-Net include a custom exponentially weighted fusion (EWF) layer for image fusion and a modification of the Residual Channel Attention Network for restoration to deblur the fused image. Input frames are registered with subpixel …

Dynamic Modeling And Control Of A Solid State Semiconductor-Based Transformer, Microgrid And Storage Systems, Rubén Darío Viñán-Velasco

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Smart Grids are power grid models designed with the idea of including the growing new technologies, from generation to storage devices, and are a response to the growing demands from consumers and the presence of electronic components being commonplace in the modern devices. The design requires a dynamic alternative in order to build an independent grid that can also work in cooperation with other micro-grids and the power grid in an integrated way. Smart-grids present several advantages over the traditional power grid scheme, but the economic costs of the components required to implement smart-grids is currently a great limitation. This …

Pulsed Dielectric Breakdown And Permittivity Characterization Of Composite Solid Insulators In Pulsed Power Systems, Shawn T. Scoggin

Electrical Engineering Dissertations

In high voltage pulsed power systems, liquids and gases are often used as insulating materials because they offer high breakdown strengths, conform around complex geometries, and are self-healing, but they can introduce significant engineering challenges and restrictions when it comes to implementing them. Solid dielectrics can be desirable for improving the maintenance requirements, shelf life, and power/energy density metrics associated with insulating high voltage pulsed power systems, however they possess design challenges of their own. Solid dielectrics are not self-healing and can be difficult to manufacture, especially around complex geometries. Epoxy dielectrics are of high interest because of their naturally …

Intelligent Millimeter-Wave System For Human Activity Monitoring For Telemedicine, Abdullah K. Alhazmi, Mubarak A. Alanazi, Awwad H. Alshehry, Saleh M. Alshahry, Jennifer Jaszek, Cameron Djukic, Anna Brown, Kurt Jackson, Vamsy P. Chodavarapu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Telemedicine has the potential to improve access and delivery of healthcare to diverse and aging populations. Recent advances in technology allow for remote monitoring of physiological measures such as heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood glucose, and blood pressure. However, the ability to accurately detect falls and monitor physical activity remotely without invading privacy or remembering to wear a costly device remains an ongoing concern. Our proposed system utilizes a millimeter-wave (mmwave) radar sensor (IWR6843ISK-ODS) connected to an NVIDIA Jetson Nano board for continuous monitoring of human activity. We developed a PointNet neural network for real-time human activity monitoring that can …

Improved Methodology For Conducted Emi Assessment Of Power Electronics And Line Impedance Measurement, Mark Anthony Didat

Theses and Dissertations

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI), primarily common mode (CM), is problematic in a wide range of electronic circuits due to its propensity to radiate, particularly in high power applications. It is routine for much effort and resources to be dedicated to its characterization and reduction as EMI compliance is a requirement for most electronic systems and devices, including power electronics. Many well-known factors contribute to a system’s EMI performance including intentional coupling from system components as well as unintentional coupling from parasitics. Sources of intentional coupling may include Y-capacitors intended to mitigate EMI as part of a filter. Unintentional coupling is more …

Static And Dynamic State Estimation Applications In Power Systems Protection And Control Engineering, Ibukunoluwa Olayemi Korede

Doctoral Dissertations

The developed methodologies are proposed to serve as support for control centers and fault analysis engineers. These approaches provide a dependable and effective means of pinpointing and resolving faults, which ultimately enhances power grid reliability. The algorithm uses the Least Absolute Value (LAV) method to estimate the augmented states of the PCB, enabling supervisory monitoring of the system. In addition, the application of statistical analysis based on projection statistics of the system Jacobian as a virtual sensor to detect faults on transmission lines. This approach is particularly valuable for detecting anomalies in transmission line data, such as bad data or …

Low-Power, Event-Driven System On A Chip For Charge Pulse Processing Applications, Joseph A. Schmitz

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation presents an electronic architecture and methodology capable of processing charge pulses generated by a range of sensors, including radiation detectors and tactile synthetic skin. These sensors output a charge signal proportional to the input stimulus, which is processed electronically in both the analog and digital domains. The presented work implements this functionality using an event-driven methodology, which greatly reduces power consumption compared to standard implementations. This enables new application areas that require a long operating time or compact physical dimensions, which would not otherwise be possible. The architecture is designed, fabricated, and tested in the aforementioned applications to …

Electrical Characteristics Of In-House Produced Micro/Nanodielectrics, Dewan Mahmudullah

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

Dielectric characterization is very important across a wide range of applications, including the design and optimization of capacitors, electrical insulation, and electronic devices. It plays a vital role in providing valuable insights for material selection, performance evaluation, and the development of advanced dielectrics. The permittivity of dielectrics is a fundamental property of dielectric materials that quantifies their ability to store and dissipate energy in the presence of an electric field. Studies for developing advanced dielectrics and accurate measurements of the dielectric constant are essential for understanding and optimizing the performance of various electrical and electronic systems. The objective of this …

Furthering Development Of Smart Fabrics To Improve The Accessibility Of Music Therapy, Ellie Nguyen, Daisy Z. Fernandez-Reyes, Franceli L. Cibrian

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we present the design and development of HarmonicThreads, a smart, cost-effective fabric augmented by generative machine learning algorithms to create music in real time according to the user's interaction. In this manner, we hypothesize that individuals with sensory differences could take advantage of the fabric's flexibility, the music will adapt according to users' interaction, and the affordable hardware we propose will make it more accessible. We follow a design thinking methodology using data from a multidisciplinary team in Mexico and the United States. Then we will close this paper by discussing challenges in developing accessible smart fabrics …

Design Of High-Power Ultra-High-Speed Permanent Magnet Machine, Md Khurshedul Islam

Theses and Dissertations

The demand for ultra-high-speed machines (UHSM) is rapidly growing in high-tech industries due to their attractive features. A-mechanically-based-antenna (AMEBA) system is another emerging application of UHSM. It enables portable wireless communication in the radio frequency (RF)-denied environment, which was not possible until recently. The AMEBA system requires a high-power (HP) UHSM for its effective communication performance. However, at the expected rotational speed range of 0.5 to 1 million rpm, the power level of UHSM is limited, and no research effort has succeeded to improve the power level of UHSM.

The design of HP-UHSM is highly iterative, and …

Unsupervised Learning Algorithm For Noise Suppression And Speech Enhancement Applications, Abdullah Zaini Alsheibi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Smart and intelligent devices are being integrated more and more into day-to-day life to perform a multitude of tasks. These tasks include, but are not limited to, job automation, smart utility management, etc., with the aim to improve quality of life and to make normal day-to-day chores as effortless as possible. These smart devices may or may not be connected to the internet to accomplish tasks. Additionally, human-machine interaction with such devices may be touch-screen based or based on voice commands. To understand and act upon received voice commands, these devices require to enhance and distinguish the (clean) speech signal …

Wireless Kick Pedal, Jacob Wise, Ryan Kinyo, Bradley Toth, Ian Zanath

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of the project is to build a wireless kick pedal that allows accessibility to drummers that have leg or foot disabilities and add versatility to multi-instrumentalists looking to add percussion while playing another instrument. The proposed pedal is designed in two main parts, a wearable band that tracks the player’s movement, and a hammer mechanism that receives actuation commands from the wearable band to move the hammer and deliver a drumbeat. The band is designed to be worn on several parts of the body, including the ankle, knee, thigh, or even the arm depending on the user’s situation. …

In Band Full Duplex For Wireless Communication, A Medium Access Control Perspective, Yazeed Alkhrijah

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

In-band full duplex (IBFD) for wireless communication is defined as the ability of a node to send and receive data simultaneously by using the same frequency band. IBFD has the potential to double the spectral efficiency of wireless networks. In addition, IBFD improves security by mystifying any eavesdropper with multiple transmitted signals in a single frequency. Also, IBFD reduces the end-to-end transmission delay and solves the hidden terminal and exposed terminal problems. However, IBFD suffers from self-interference. Canceling self-interference (SI) is the main challenge in enabling IBFD. Another challenge for IBFD is to manage access to the network. IEEE802.11 are …

A Low-Cost, Low-Power, Scada Testbed Solution For Secure Remote Monitoring, Connor Berger

Symposium of Student Scholars

Similar to software application systems adopted by companies and businesses for product logging, payroll, human resources, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems control the distributed processes with multiple components located on different machines that communicate and coordinate actions in order to appear as a single coherent system. SCADA systems severely lack the appropriate security and hack prevention measures. We propose a low cost, low power SCADA testbed solution for secure remote monitoring. The goal of this research is to implement and test the testbed’s security by emulating attack vectors on both hardware components and communication channels to probe the …

Low Power Multi-Channel Interface For Charge Based Tactile Sensors, Samuel Hansen

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Analog front end electronics are designed in 65 nm CMOS technology to process charge pulses arriving from a tactile sensor array. This is accomplished through the use of charge sensitive amplifiers and discrete time filters with tunable clock signals located in each of the analog front ends. Sensors were emulated using Gaussian pulses during simulation. The digital side of the system uses SAR (successive approximation register) ADCs for sampling of the processed sensor signals.

Adviser: Sina Balkır

A Patient-Specific Algorithm For Lung Segmentation In Chest Radiographs, Manawaduge Supun De Silva, Barath Narayanan Narayanan, Russell C. Hardie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Lung segmentation plays an important role in computer-aided detection and diagnosis using chest radiographs (CRs). Currently, the U-Net and DeepLabv3+ convolutional neural network architectures are widely used to perform CR lung segmentation. To boost performance, ensemble methods are often used, whereby probability map outputs from several networks operating on the same input image are averaged. However, not all networks perform adequately for any specific patient image, even if the average network performance is good. To address this, we present a novel multi-network ensemble method that employs a selector network. The selector network evaluates the segmentation outputs from several networks; on …

Glaciernet2: A Hybrid Multi-Model Learning Architecture For Alpine Glacier Mapping, Zhiyuan Xie, Umesh K. Haritashya, Vijayan K. Asari, Michael P. Bishop, Jeffrey S. Kargel, Theus Aspiras

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In recent decades, climate change has significantly affected glacier dynamics, resulting in mass loss and an increased risk of glacier-related hazards including supraglacial and proglacial lake development, as well as catastrophic outburst flooding. Rapidly changing conditions dictate the need for continuous and detailed ob-servations and analysis of climate-glacier dynamics. Thematic and quantitative information regarding glacier geometry is fundamental for understanding climate forcing and the sensitivity of glaciers to climate change, however, accurately mapping debris-cover glaciers (DCGs) is notoriously difficult based upon the use of spectral information and conventional machine-learning techniques. The objective of this research is to improve upon an …

Load Modeling And Evaluation Of Leds For Hardware Test Bed Application, Jillian M. Ruff

Masters Theses

The lighting industry was revolutionized with the emergence of LED lighting. Over the last 15 years, LED lighting device sales and utilization have grown immensely. The growth and popularity of LEDs is due to improved operation of the device when compared to previous lighting technologies. Efficient performance of the device is critical due to the growth of global energy consumption.

As nonrenewable generation fuel is finite, utilities have begun the transition to renewable energy generation. Generation and distribution systems become inherently complex to comprehend and maintain with incorporation of emerging supply and load technologies. With the unprecedented growth of LED …

Towards A Low-Cost Solution For Gait Analysis Using Millimeter Wave Sensor And Machine Learning, Mubarak A. Alanazi, Abdullah K. Alhazmi, Osama Alsattam, Kara Gnau, Meghan Brown, Shannon Thiel, Kurt Jackson, Vamsy P. Chodavarapu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) that includes gait analysis may be useful for various rehabilitation and telemonitoring applications. Current gait analysis methods, such as wearables or cameras, have privacy and operational constraints, especially when used with older adults. Millimeter-Wave (MMW) radar is a promising solution for gait applications because of its low-cost, better privacy, and resilience to ambient light and climate conditions. This paper presents a novel human gait analysis method that combines the micro-Doppler spectrogram and skeletal pose estimation using MMW radar for HAR. In our approach, we used the Texas Instruments IWR6843ISK-ODS MMW radar to obtain the micro-Doppler spectrogram …

Mars Prototype Rover Environmental Measurement System, James A. Renick

Computer Engineering

In my senior project, the problem I am trying to solve is how to efficiently design, create, and install an original library onto a Mars prototype rover operating system and to further use that library to integrate a new weather measurement sensor device into the rover system with the necessary software and hardware implementations. This is an important and highly valued problem as many aerospace and other engineering companies utilize rovers and other autonomous systems for important research, explorations, and reconnaissance missions and goals. In solving this problem, I utilized many resources that were available to me such as advisors, …

Imnets: Deep Learning Using An Incremental Modular Network Synthesis Approach For Medical Imaging Applications, Redha A. Ali, Russell C. Hardie, Barath Narayanan Narayanan, Temesguen Messay

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Deep learning approaches play a crucial role in computer-aided diagnosis systems to support clinical decision-making. However, developing such automated solutions is challenging due to the limited availability of annotated medical data. In this study, we proposed a novel and computationally efficient deep learning approach to leverage small data for learning generalizable and domain invariant representations in different medical imaging applications such as malaria, diabetic retinopathy, and tuberculosis. We refer to our approach as Incremental Modular Network Synthesis (IMNS), and the resulting CNNs as Incremental Modular Networks (IMNets). Our IMNS approach is to use small network modules that we call SubNets …

Hvac Hardware Modeling Using Programmable Automatic Controller, Panthil Ketan Patel, Lumanti Tuladhar

Electrical Engineering

The primary purpose of this project is to use the donated programmable logic controllers (PLC) from Schneider Electric to develop experiments for a future lab class at Cal Poly. Our goal as the first group working on this project is to develop an experiment where the PLC can control the HVAC system based on temperature and humidity sensors and user inputs to maintain a desired consistent temperature. The PLC will be controlled using Unity Pro XLS/Control Expert software for simulations. The overall purpose of the experiments will be to demonstrate the potential of the PLC to minimize manual intervention while …

Smartphone Control Of Rc Cars, Weston R. Fitzgerald

Electrical Engineering

The smartphone-controlled RC (remote-controlled) car is an inexpensive remote-controlled car designed to be fast and portable. Instead of manufacturing, packaging, and shipping a separate controller, the remote control is implemented in a phone application, which saves time and money in both the design process and the manufacturing process. Utilizing the user’s smartphone is more cost-effective since mobile devices are a common recurrence, and packaging fewer devices results in overall better portability of the product.

This smartphone-controlled car is speedy and intuitive to learn for typical smartphone users. The user can change the car’s speed and direction wirelessly using their phone; …

A Nano-Drone Safety Architecture, Connor J. Sexton

Master's Theses

As small-form factor drones grow more intelligent, they increasingly require more sophisticated capabilities to record sensor data and system state, ensuring safe and improved operation. Already regulations for black boxes, electronic data recorders (EDRs), for determining liabilities and improving the safety of large-form factor autonomous vehicles are becoming established. Conventional techniques use hardened memory storage units that conserve all sensor (visual) and system operational state; and N-way redundant models for detecting uncertainty in system operation. For small-form factor drones, which are highly limited by weight, power, and computational resources, these techniques become increasingly prohibitive. In this paper, we propose a …