Computer Engineering Commons^™

Hardware Ip Classification Through Weighted Characteristics, Brendan Mcgeehan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today’s business model for hardware designs frequently incorporates third-party Intellectual Property (IP) due to the many benefits it can bring to a company. For instance, outsourcing certain components of an overall design can reduce time-to-market by allowing each party to specialize and perfect a specific part of the overall design. However, allowing third-party involvement also increases the possibility of malicious attacks, such as hardware Trojan insertion. Trojan insertion is a particularly dangerous security threat because testing the functionality of an IP can often leave the Trojan undetected. Therefore, this thesis work provides an improvement on a Trojan detection method known …

Interoperable E-Infrastructure Services In Arabia, Salem Al-Agtash, Roberto Barbera

Computer Science and Engineering

e-Infrastructures became critical platforms that integrate computational resources, facilities and repositories globally. The coordination and harmonization of advanced e-Infrastructure project developed with partners from Europe, Latin America, Arabia, Africa, China, and India contributed to developing interoperable platforms based on identity federation and science gateway technologies. This paper presents these technologies to support key services in the development of Arabia networking and services platform for research and education. The platform provides scientists, teachers, and students with seamless access to a variety of advanced resources, services, and applications available at regional e-Infrastructures in Europe and elsewhere. Users simply enter the credentials provided …

Heterogeneous Reconfigurable Fabrics For In-Circuit Training And Evaluation Of Neuromorphic Architectures, Ramtin Mohammadizand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A heterogeneous device technology reconfigurable logic fabric is proposed which leverages the cooperating advantages of distinct magnetic random access memory (MRAM)-based look-up tables (LUTs) to realize sequential logic circuits, along with conventional SRAM-based LUTs to realize combinational logic paths. The resulting Hybrid Spin/Charge FPGA (HSC-FPGA) using magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) devices within this topology demonstrates commensurate reductions in area and power consumption over fabrics having LUTs constructed with either individual technology alone. Herein, a hierarchical top-down design approach is used to develop the HSCFPGA starting from the configurable logic block (CLB) and slice structures down to LUT circuits and the …

Leveraging The Intrinsic Switching Behaviors Of Spintronic Devices For Digital And Neuromorphic Circuits, Steven Pyle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With semiconductor technology scaling approaching atomic limits, novel approaches utilizing new memory and computation elements are sought in order to realize increased density, enhanced functionality, and new computational paradigms. Spintronic devices offer intriguing avenues to improve digital circuits by leveraging non-volatility to reduce static power dissipation and vertical integration for increased density. Novel hybrid spintronic-CMOS digital circuits are developed herein that illustrate enhanced functionality at reduced static power consumption and area cost. The developed spin-CMOS D Flip-Flop offers improved power-gating strategies by achieving instant store/restore capabilities while using 10 fewer transistors than typical CMOS-only implementations. The spin-CMOS Muller C-Element developed …

Value-Of-Information Based Data Collection In Underwater Sensor Networks, Fahad Khan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Underwater sensor networks are deployed in marine environments, presenting specific challenges compared to sensor networks deployed in terrestrial settings. Among the major issues that underwater sensor networks face is communication medium limitations that result in low bandwidth and long latency. This creates problems when these networks need to transmit large amounts of data over long distances. A possible solution to address this issue is to use mobile sinks such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to offload these large quantities of data. Such mobile sinks are called data mules. Often it is the case that a sensor network is deployed to …

Modeling Of Complex Parts For Industrial Waterjet Cleaning, Braden James

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Industrial high-pressure waterjet cleaning is common to many industries. The modeling in this paper functions inside a collaborative robotic framework for high mix, low volume processes where human robot collaboration is beneficial. Automation of pressure washing is desirable for economic and ergonomic reasons. An automated cleaning system needs path simulation and analysis to give the operator insight into the predicted cleaning performance of the system. In this paper, ablation, the removal of a substrate coating by waterjet, is modeled for robotic cleaning operations. The model is designed to work with complex parts often found in spray cleaning operations, namely parts …

Granny Pod Virtual Assistant, David Connolly, Bing Chen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Dr. Chen is working on a sustainable small house (SSH) project, sometimes called the “Granny Pod”. Regulations will soon allow homeowners to house their parents on their property, which can be an opportunity live independently in a cheap, sustainable, and convenient alternative to a retirement community. To help achieve this vision, a Virtual Assistant system for the SSH was developed. The system uses a Google Home or Amazon Echo to respond to the voice command “Hey Google (or Alexa), I need help” by contacting the nearby homeowner or caretaker. It alerts the resident who is at the door when the …

Application-Specific Memory Subsystem Benchmarking, Mahesh Lakshminarasimhan

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Application performance often depends on achieved memory bandwidth. Achieved memory bandwidth varies greatly given specific combinations of instruction mix and order, working set size, and access pattern. Achieving good application performance depends on optimizing these characteristics within the constraints of the given application. This task is complicated due to the lack of information about the impact of small changes on the performance. Some information is provided by benchmarks, but most memory benchmarks are confined to simple access patterns that are not representative of patterns found in real applications.

This thesis presents AdaptMemBench, a configurable benchmark framework designed to explore the …

Design Of Remote Datalogger Connection And Live Data Tweeting System, Zachary Wofford

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Low-Impact Development (LID) is an attempt to sustainably respond to the potential hazards posed by urban expansion. Green roofs are an example of LID design meant to reduce the amount of runoff from storm events that are becoming more intense and less predictable while also providing insulation to buildings. LID has not yet been widely adopted as it is often a more expensive alternative to conventional infrastructure (Bowman et. al., 2009). However, its benefits are apparent. The University of Arkansas Honors College awarded a grant to research the large green roof atop Hillside Auditorium. One part of this grant is …

The Affective Perceptual Model: Enhancing Communication Quality For Persons With Pimd, Jadin Tredup

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Methods for prolonged compassionate care for persons with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities (PIMD) require a rotating cast of import people in the subjects life in order to facilitate interaction with the external environment. As subjects continue to age, dependency on these people increases with complexity of communications while the quality of communication decreases. It is theorized that a machine learning (ML) system could replicate the attuning process and replace these people to promote independence. This thesis extends this idea to develop a conceptual and formal model and system prototype.

The main contributions of this thesis are: (1) proposal of …

Classification Of Vegetation In Aerial Imagery Via Neural Network, Gevand Balayan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis focuses on the task of trying to find a Neural Network that is best suited for identifying vegetation from aerial imagery. The goal is to find a way to quickly classify items in an image as highly likely to be vegetation(trees, grass, bushes and shrubs) and then interpolate that data and use it to mark sections of an image as vegetation. This has practical applications as well. The main motivation of this work came from the effort that our town takes in conserving water. By creating an AI that can easily recognize plants, we can better monitor the …

University Of Rhode Island Course Information Assistant, Daniel Gauthier

Senior Honors Projects

Personal voice-interactive systems have become ubiquitous in daily life. There are many of these digital assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. The chances are high you have access to one right now. This technology has reached a point where the context of a conversation can be maintained, which is a vast improvement over earlier technology. Interactions without conversational context can limit interactions greatly and this was the case for previous digital assistants. Every time someone would say something to an assistant, it was like they were constantly changing operators on a customer service line. The assistants can now …

A Survey On The Role Of Individual Differences On Visual Analytics Interactions: Masters Project Report, Jesse Huang, Alvitta Ottley

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

There is ample evidence in the visualization commu- nity that individual differences matter. These prior works high- light various traits and cognitive abilities that can modulate the use of the visualization systems and demonstrate a measurable influence on speed, accuracy, process, and attention. Perhaps the most important implication of this body of work is that we can use individual differences as a mechanism for estimating people’s potential to effectively leverage visual interfaces or to identify those people who may struggle. As visual literacy and data fluency continue to become essential skills for our everyday lives, we must embrace the growing …

A Machine Learning Approach To Network Intrusion Detection System Using K Nearest Neighbor And Random Forest, Ilemona S. Atawodi

Master's Theses

The evolving area of cybersecurity presents a dynamic battlefield for cyber criminals and security experts. Intrusions have now become a major concern in the cyberspace. Different methods are employed in tackling these threats, but there has been a need now more than ever to updating the traditional methods from rudimentary approaches such as manually updated blacklists and whitelists. Another method involves manually creating rules, this is usually one of the most common methods to date.

A lot of similar research that involves incorporating machine learning and artificial intelligence into both host and network-based intrusion systems recently. Doing this originally presented …

Unicorn Framework: A User-Centric Approach Toward Formal Verification Of Privacy Norms, Rezvan Joshaghani

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In the development of complex systems, such as user-centric privacy management systems with multiple components and attributes, it is important to formalize the process and develop mathematical models that can be utilized to automatically make decisions on the information sharing actions of users. While valuable, the current state-of-the-art models are mostly based on enterprise/organizational privacy perspectives and leave the main actor, i.e., the user, uninvolved or with limited ability to control information sharing actions. These approaches cannot be applied to a user-centric environment since user privacy policies are dynamic because they change based on the information sharing context and environment. …

Compliance Of Open Source Ehr Applications With Hipaa And Onc Security And Privacy Requirements, Maryam Farhadi, Hisham Haddad, Hossain Shahriar

Master of Science in Computer Science Theses

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are digital versions of paper-based patient's health information. EHR applications are increasingly being adopted in many countries. They have resulted in improved quality in healthcare, convenient access to histories of patient medication and clinic visits, easier follow up of patient treatment plans, and precise medical decision-making process. EHR applications are guided by measures of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability. However, there have been reported breaches of Protected Health Identifier (PHI) data stored by EHR applications. In many reported breaches, improper use of EHRs has resulted in disclosure …

The Use Of Generic Scripting In Certain Application Development Projects, Vance Allen Etnyre, Jian Denny Lin, Nanfei Sun

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This article discusses generic scripting, a useful scripting technology for developing applications. In its simplest use, generic scripting can be used as a documentation tool to replace flowcharting or pseudocode. in certain situations, generic scripting can lead directly to a working application without the need to write, compile and test a new program. Generic scripting is discussed as a tool which can be used in logical design, detailed design and implementation of a new application. An example is presented to show how generic scripting can be used by non-programmers to simplify the development of applications. This example is used to …

College Choice Criteria Utilizing Conjoint Analysis Enabled On A Saas Platform, Alison Munsch

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

College enrollments and low to moderate household incomes are stagnating while tuition costs are increasing. The New York State Legislature enacted the nation’s first tuition-free degree program, the Excelsior Scholarship, designed to make a college education more affordable to middle class families. This legislation can impact what institution of higher education students will choose upon high school graduation. In order to understand the choice criteria for selecting an institution of higher education, a research study was conducted among a representative sample of high school upper classmen and parents of this respondent segment. The data collection and analysis were accomplished using …

Comparison Of Lqr And Lqr-Mrac For Linear Tractor-Trailer Model, Kevin Richard Gasik

Master's Theses

The United States trucking industry is immense. Employing over three million drivers and traveling to every city in the country. Semi-Trucks travel millions of miles each week and encompass roads that civilians travel on. These vehicles should be safe and allow efficient travel for all. Autonomous vehicles have been discussed in controls for many decades. Now fleets of autonomous vehicles are beginning their integration into society. The ability to create an autonomous system requires domain and system specific knowledge. Approaches to implement a fully autonomous vehicle have been developed using different techniques in control systems such as Kalman Filters, Neural …

Drone Path Scheduling For Data Gathering In Disaster Effected Environments, James Bologna

Theses and Dissertations

Creative networks in a disaster effected area have been a concern for a long time. With the innovation of flying ad hoc networks the problem can be tackled from a more practical standpoint. The use of low altitude drones equipped with wireless transmission and receiving capability can be used under the circumstances to enable ad-hoc communication. Drone coordination and route planning is a critical consideration when determining how to gather data from ground nodes, since the drones are constrained by limited battery capacity. In this research, we set out to explore a wide range of policies for determining the trajectories …