Computer Engineering Commons^™

Nano-Electromechanical Zero-Dimensional Freestanding Nanogap Actuator, Jun Hyun Han, Norimasa Yoshimizu, T.J. Cheng, Michael Ziwisky, S.A. Bhave, A. Lal, Chung-Hoon Lee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Micromachined free standing nanogap with metal electrodes is presented. The gap size is as small as 17 nm, and can be reduced further with electrostatic or piezoelectric actuation. The nanoscale gap is fabricated by industrial standard optical lithography and anisotropic wet chemical Si etching. Electron transport between the metal electrodes with optical stimulus enhancing photon-electron coupling (plasmon) is presented.

Application Of Stochastic Diffusion For Hiding High Fidelity Encrypted Images, Jonathan Blackledge, Abdulrahman Al-Rawi

Articles

Cryptography coupled with information hiding has received increased attention in recent years and has become a major research theme because of the importance of protecting encrypted information in any Electronic Data Interchange system in a way that is both discrete and covert. One of the essential limitations in any cryptography system is that the encrypted data provides an indication on its importance which arouses suspicion and makes it vulnerable to attack. Information hiding of Steganography provides a potential solution to this issue by making the data imperceptible, the security of the hidden information being a threat only if its existence …

Computer Simulation Of A Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor: Heparan Regulated Growth Factors-Receptors Binding And Dissociation Analysis, Changjiang Zhang

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis demonstrates the use of numerical simulation in predicting the behavior of proteins in a flow environment.

A novel convection-diffusion-reaction computational model is first introduced to simulate fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) binding to its receptor (FGFR) on cell surfaces and regulated by heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) under flow in a bioreactor. The model includes three parts: (1) the flow of medium using incompressible Navier-Stokes equations; (2) the mass transport of FGF-2 using convection-diffusion equations; and (3) the cell surface binding using chemical kinetics. The model consists of a set of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) for flow and …

Single View Modeling And View Synthesis, Miao Liao

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis develops new algorithms to produce 3D content from a single camera. Today, amateurs can use hand-held camcorders to capture and display the 3D world in 2D, using mature technologies. However, there is always a strong desire to record and re-explore the 3D world in 3D. To achieve this goal, current approaches usually make use of a camera array, which suffers from tedious setup and calibration processes, as well as lack of portability, limiting its application to lab experiments.

In this thesis, I try to produce the 3D contents using a single camera, making it as simple as shooting …

Effects Of Su-8 Cross-Linking On Flip-Chip Bond Strength When Assembling And Packaging Mems, Nathan E. Glavitz, Lavern A. Starman, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., Richard L. Johnson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

New methods to assemble, integrate, and package micro devices are always needed in attempts to simplify and expedite fabrication methods to maximize throughput. Our paper focuses on assessing SU-8 as a viable material for packaging and flip chip bonding processes for MEMS and micro devices. In this paper, we vary the level of cross- linking through post exposure bake (PEB) times and assess rectangular ring test structures bonding strength following flip chip bonding through applied tensile loads. In addition, we performed initial assessments on the etching resiliency of varied cross-linking of SU-8. From initial results, the bonding strength is maximized …

Data Compressive Paradigm For Multispectral Sensing Using Tunable Dwell Mid-Infrared Detectors, Woo-Yong Jang, Majeed M. Hayat, Sebastian E. Godoy, Steven C. Bender, Payman Zarkesh-Ha, Sanjay Krishna

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

While quantum dots-in-a-well (DWELL) infrared photodetectors have the feature that their spectral responses can be shifted continuously by varying the applied bias, the width of the spectral response at any applied bias is not sufficiently narrow for use in multispectral sensing without the aid of spectral filters. To achieve higher spectral resolutions without using physical spectral filters, algorithms have been developed for post-processing the DWELL’s bias-dependent photocurrents resulting from probing an object of interest repeatedly over a wide range of applied biases. At the heart of these algorithms is the ability to approximate an arbitrary spectral filter, which we desire …

Application Of Spatial Bandwidth Concepts To Mas Pole Location For Dielectric Cylinders, James Richie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The concept of effective spatial bandwidth (EBW) is extended from the case of an MAS solution for perfectly conducting (PEC) cylinders to dielectric cylinders. It is shown that the ideas and results for the conducting cylinder apply in a straightforward manner to the dielectric case. For the dielectric case, there are two auxiliary surfaces. Because the EBW calculations are independent of the scatterer material, the auxiliary surface for the scattered field will follow the same guidelines for both the PEC and dielectric cases. The guidelines for the second auxiliary surface are described and verified here. Guidelines for both a plane …

6.4 Ghz Acoustic Sensor For In-Situ Monitoring Of Afm Tip Wear, T.J. Cheng, Jun Hyun Han, Michael Ziwisky, Chung-Hoon Lee, S.A. Bhave

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper demonstrates an acoustic sensor that can resolve atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip blunting with a frequency sensitivity of 0.007%. The AFM tip is fabricated on a thin film piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) membrane that is excited as a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR). We demonstrate that cutting 0.98 μm off of the tip apex results in a resonance frequency change of 0.4MHz at 6.387GHz. This work demonstrates the potential for in-situ monitoring of AFM tip wear.

On The Applications Of Deterministic Chaos For Encrypting Data On The Cloud, Jonathan Blackledge, Nikolai Ptitsyn

Conference papers

Cloud computing is expected to grow considerably in the future because it has so many advantages with regard to sale and cost, change management, next generation architectures, choice and agility. However, one of the principal concerns for users of the Cloud is lack of control and above all, data security. This paper considers an approach to encrypting information before it is ‘placed’ on the Cloud where each user has access to their own encryption algorithm, an algorithm that is based on a set of iterated function systems that outputs a chaotic number stream, designed to produce a cryptographically secure cipher. …

Obtaining Speech Assets For Judgement Analysis On Low-Pass Filtered Emotional Speech, John Snel, Charlie Cullen

Conference papers

Investigating the emotional content in speech from acoustic characteristics requires separating the semantic con- tent from the acoustic channel. For natural emotional speech, a widely used method to separate the two channels is the use of cue masking. Our objective is to investigate the use of cue masking in non-acted emotional speech by analyzing the extent to which filtering impacts the perception of emotional content of the modified speech material. However, obtaining a corpus of emotional speech can be quite difficult whereby verifying the emotional content is an issue thoroughly discussed. Currently, speech research is showing a tendency toward constructing …

On Improving Electrooculogram-Based Computer Mouse Systems: The Accelerometer Trigger, Johnalan Keegan, Edward Burke, James Condron, Eugene Coyle

Conference Papers

Eye tracking is a well-established method of computer control for profoundly paralysed people (Anson et al., 2002). Cameras are commonly used to track eye movements (Morimoto et al., 2005) but one alternative is the bioelectrical signal known as the electrooculogram (EOG). There are some EOG mouse control systems that facilitate the use of GUI applications, but certain actions, which are straightforward using a conventional mouse, remain impossible. Unless the eyes are tracking a target, they move in saccades (jumps), making it impossible to voluntarily trace out smooth trajectories with one's gaze, as would be required to draw a smooth curve. …

Memristor Based Lookup Table - Novel Testing And Reconfiguration Techniques, Veeresh Anilkumar Hongal

Masters Theses

"Nanotechnology is soon predicted to replace the CMOS technology, as current CMOS lithographic techniques will become void for complex IC designs with smaller feature size, and are hence incapable of keeping up with Moore's law. The devices in nanotechnology are fabricated using bottom up self-assembly. Memristor is one promising nanotech device which can replace the transistor used as a switch or memory device as it is just half the size and uses only fraction of the energy. This work considers Memristor Look Up Table (MLUT) design, which is a building block for asynchronous FPGAs built with memristors. In spite of …

Simulated Performance Intensity Functions, Andrew Hines, Naomi Harte

Conference papers

Measuring speech intelligibility for different hearing aid fitting methods in a simulated environment would allow rapid prototyping and early design assessment. A simulated performance intensity function (SPIF) test methodology has been developed to allow experimentation using an auditory nerve model to predict listeners’ phoneme recognition. The test discriminates between normal hearing and progressively degrading levels of sensorineural hearing loss. Auditory nerve discharge patterns, presented as neurograms, can be subjectively ranked by visual inspection. Here, subjective inspection is substituted with an automated ranking using a new image quality metric that can quantify neurogram degradation in a consistent manner. This work reproduces …

Comparing Hearing Aid Algorithm Performance Using Simulated Performance Intensity Functions, Andrew Hines, Naomi Harte

Conference papers

Simulated performance intensity functions were used to quantitatively discriminate speech intelligibility through phoneme discrimination assessment. Listener test results for subjects with a wide range of sensorineural hearing losses were simulated using an auditory nerve model and compared to real listeners' unaided and aided performance. Simulations of NAL-RP and DSL 4.0 fitting algorithms were compared. Auditory nerve discharge patterns from the model were presented as neurograms. An automated ranking process was used to quantify neurogram degradation using a new measure, the Neurogram Similarity Index Measure (NSIM). The measure has previously been shown to correlate well in predictions of phoneme discrimination for …

Accessible Rich Internet Applications: The Search Engine Challenge, Angela Kielthy

Conference papers

The perception that Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIAs) are inaccessible to search engines is perhaps one of the main factors that hinder their wider adoption by the web development community. Recent announcements that RIAs and ARIAs are becoming more search engine friendly is provoking web developers to look for further information and evidence that will support or refute these announcements.

This paper outlines research undertaken and tests performed to establish if RIAs and ARIAs developed using Adobe Flex are crawlable and indexable by the Google search engine by default.

The conclusion drawn from testing is …

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks, Syed R. Rizvi, Stephan Olariu, Christina M. Oinotti, Shaharuddin Salleh, Mona E. Rizvi, Zainab Zaidi

Computer Science Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have recently been proposed as one of the promising ad hoc networking techniques that can provide both drivers and passengers with a safe and enjoyable driving experience. VANETs can be used for many applications with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. In the United States, motor vehicle traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for all motorists between two and thirty-four years of age. In 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 33,808 people were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes. The US Department of Transportation (US-DOT) estimates that …

Predictive And Adaptive Game Development A Practical Application Of Development Models To The Independent Video Game Industry, Liam A. Hunt

Theses : Honours

Through the process of researching a number of game and system development models, this study defines two archetypical development models - the predictive and the adaptive. Using each of these models, two video games have been developed in order to measure the practical effect that they can have on the design, development process and player experience of a game. Using the knowledge gained through playtesting and an analysis of the relationship between each game and its development methodology, a number of development guidelines and recommendations have been specifically constructed for use by independent games developers. The practical development and written …

Malay Children Vowel Recognition Using Feed-Forward Back Propagation And Elman Neural Networks., Bashar Mohammed Shaher Yafouz

Student Works (2010-2019)

Although speech recognition plays a vital role in the modern communication systems, only few studies have investigated speech recognition of children. Children’s speech recognition is more challenging than adult’s speech recognition; because of the dynamic and inconsistent nature of children’s speech. This study examined a speaker-independent recognition of 6 Malay vowels of Malay children using two different Neural Network (NN) architectures: Feed-forward Back Propagation (FFBP) and Elman. Speech samples were collected from 360 Malay children between 7 and 12 years old, and Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) was used for extracting the speech features. The data was divided according to 3-fold …

Relativistic Red-Black Trees, Philip William Howard, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Operating system performance and scalability on sharedmemory many-core systems depends critically on efficient access to shared data structures. Scalability has proven difficult to achieve for many data structures. In this paper we present a novel and highly scalable concurrent red-black tree. Red-black trees are widely used in operating systems, but typically exhibit poor scalability. Our red-black tree has linear read scalability, uncontended read performance that is at least 25% faster than other known approaches, and deterministic lookup times for a given tree size, making it suitable for realtime applications.

Formation Of Graphene Sheets Through Laser Exfoliation Of Highly Ordered Pyrolytic Graphite, Min Qian, Yun-Shen Zhou, Yang Gao, Jong Bok Park, Tao Feng, Su Mei Huang, Zhuo Sun, Lan Jiang, Yongfeng Lu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Freestanding two-dimensional (2D) few-layer graphene was formed through laser exfoliation of highly ordered pyrolytic graphite, using a pulsed neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) laser. Graphene sheets of several nanometers in thickness and micrometers in size were obtained. The laser exfoliation process was investigated at different laser fluences and distances between target and substrate. Three different phases, amorphous carbon, few-layer graphene sheets, and thin graphite films, were obtained as the laser fluence increased. This study reveals an existing route of forming freestanding 2D nanostructures through laser exfoliation.