Computer Engineering Commons^™

Robotron, Fabian Rodriguez, Oscar Daniel Muneton, Adelaido Jimenez

Computer Engineering

Roborodentia 2012 is a competition where students and alumni could build an autonomous robot to perform a certain task for points. This report is about Robotron, the 3rd place winner of this competition, and how it came to be.

California Polytechnic State University Senior Project Winter-Spring 2012, Roborodentia Xvii, Stack-E, Alejandro Ignacio, Austin Hobbs

Computer Engineering

The main goal for our project is to design and build a functional autonomous robot that is capable of navigating an open arena while avoiding obstacles, as well as identify other objects or cans on the field. It must also be capable of stacking and containing these cans. Deliverables will include the fully assembled robot chassis containing the essential hardware components needed to accomplish the navigation and movement, as well as capabilities like identification of objects and stacking of cans. Alongside the hardware, there will also be software developed to showcase these capabilities of the robot design, including the vision …

Detecting Netflix Service Outages Through Analysis Of Twitter Posts, Cailin Cushing

Master's Theses

Every week there are over a billion new posts to Twitter services and many of those messages contain feedback to companies about their services. One company that has recognized this unused source of information is Netflix. That is why Netflix initiated the development of a system that will let them respond to the millions of Twitter and Netflix users that are acting as sensors and reporting all types of user visible outages. This system will enhance the feedback loop between Netflix and its customers by increasing the amount of customer feedback that is being received by Netflix and reducing the …

Lottery Scheduling In The Linux Kernel: A Closer Look, David Zepp

Master's Theses

This paper presents an implementation of a lottery scheduler, presented from design through debugging to performance testing. Desirable characteristics of a general purpose scheduler include low overhead, good overall system performance for a variety of process types, and fair scheduling behavior. Testing is performed, along with an analysis of the results measuring the lottery scheduler against these characteristics. Lottery scheduling is found to provide better than average control over the relative execution rates of processes. The results show that lottery scheduling functions as a good mechanism for sharing the CPU fairly between users that are competing for the resource. While …

Cuda Web Api Remote Execution Of Cuda Kernels Using Web Services, Massimo J. Becker

Master's Theses

Massively parallel programming is an increasingly growing field with the recent introduction of general purpose GPU computing. Modern graphics processors from NVIDIA and AMD have massively parallel architectures that can be used for such applications as 3D rendering, financial analysis, physics simulations, and biomedical analysis. These massively parallel systems are exposed to programmers through in- terfaces such as NVIDIAs CUDA, OpenCL, and Microsofts C++ AMP. These frame- works expose functionality using primarily either C or C++. In order to use these massively parallel frameworks, programs being implemented must be run on machines equipped with massively parallel hardware. These requirements limit …

Wireless Medical Sensor Networks: Design Requirements And Enabling Technologies, Cecilia H. Vallejos De Schatz, Henry P. Medeiros, Fabio K. Schneider, Paulo J. Abatti

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This article analyzes wireless communication protocols that could be used in healthcare environments (e.g., hospitals and small clinics) to transfer real-time medical information obtained from noninvasive sensors. For this purpose the features of the three currently most widely used protocols—namely, Bluetooth^® (IEEE 802.15.1), ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4), and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11)—are evaluated and compared. The important features under consideration include data bandwidth, frequency band, maximum transmission distance, encryption and authentication methods, power consumption, and current applications. In addition, an overview of network requirements with respect to medical sensor features, patient safety and patient data privacy, quality of service, and interoperability …

Lyfi, Kianoosh Salami, Justin Cotton, Elush Shirazpour

Electrical Engineering

This paper will cover the steps necessary to design, build, and manage networkable smart light switches over WiFi via a mobile application. It contains a microcontroller running a real time operating system, a WiFi module, a Java server with SQLite databasing, and a mobile phone application.

LyFi is designed to turn on/off and dim household lights while only requiring the same installation procedure as a less capable dimmer switch. Once installed and connected to a network, LyFi will self-discover and configure. The server automatically propogates a database of nodes where any mobile device running an application can receive an updated …

Ifalcon: A Neural Architecture For Hierarchical Planning, Budhitama Subagdja, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Hierarchical planning is an approach of planning by composing and executing hierarchically arranged predefined plans on the fly to solve some problems. This approach commonly relies on a domain expert providing all semantic and structural knowledge. One challenge is how the system deals with incomplete ill-defined knowledge while the solution can be achieved on the fly. Most symbolic-based hierarchical planners have been devised to allow the knowledge to be described expressively. However, in some cases, it is still difficult to produce the appropriate knowledge due to the complexity of the problem domain especially if the missing knowledge must be acquired …

Energy-Efficient Continuous Activity Recognition On Mobile Phones: An Activity-Adaptive Approach, Zhixian Yan, Vigneshwaran Subbaraju, Dipanjan Chakraborty, Archan Misra, Karl Aberer

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Power consumption on mobile phones is a painful obstacle towards adoption of continuous sensing driven applications, e.g., continuously inferring individual’s locomotive activities (such as ‘sit’, ‘stand’ or ‘walk’) using the embedded accelerometer sensor. To reduce the energy overhead of such continuous activity sensing, we first investigate how the choice of accelerometer sampling frequency & classification features affects, separately for each activity, the “energy overhead” vs. “classification accuracy” tradeoff. We find that such tradeoff is activity specific. Based on this finding, we introduce an activity-sensitive strategy (dubbed “A3R” – Adaptive Accelerometer-based Activity Recognition) for continuous activity recognition, where the choice of …

Modeling And Parametric Design Of Permanent-Magnet Ac Machines Using Computationally Efficient Finite-Element Analysis, Gennadi Y. Sizov, Dan M. Ionel, Nabeel Demerdash

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Computationally efficient finite-element analysis (FEA) (CE-FEA) fully exploits the symmetries of electric and magnetic circuits of sine-wave current-regulated synchronous machines and yields substantial savings of computational efforts. Motor performance is evaluated through Fourier analysis and a minimum number of magnetostatic solutions. The major steady-state performance indices (average torque, ripple and cogging torque, back-electromotive-force waveforms, and core losses) are satisfactorily estimated as compared with the results of detailed time-stepping (transient) FEA. In this paper, the CE-FEA method is presented and applied to a parametric design study for an interior-permanent-magnet machine. Significant reduction of simulation times is achieved (approximately two orders of …

Fault-Tolerant Operation Of Delta-Connected Scalar- And Vector-Controlled Ac Motor Drives, Ahmed Mohamed Sayed Ahmed, Nabeel Demerdash

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Operation and analysis of delta-connected ac motor-drive systems under fault-tolerant open-phase mode of operation is introduced in this paper for both scalar- and vector-controlled motor-drive systems. This technique enables the operation of the three-phase motor upon a failure in one of its phases without the need of a special fault-detection algorithm. It is mainly used to significantly mitigate torque pulsations, which are caused by an open-delta configuration in the stator windings. The performance of the fault-tolerant system was verified using a detailed time stepping finite element simulation as well experimental tests for a 5-hp 460-V induction motor-drive system and the …

Using Inductance As A Tuning Parameter For Rf Meta-Atoms, Derrick Langley, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., Peter J. Collins

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The resonant frequency of metamaterials structured with split ring resonator (SRR) meta-atoms is determined primarily through the capacitance and inductance of the individual meta-atoms. Two designs that vary inductance incrementally were modeled, simulated, fabricated, and tested to investigate the role inductance plays in metamaterial designs. The designs consisted of strategically adding sections to the SRR to increase the inductance, but in a manner that minimized capacitance variations. Each design showed a shift in resonant frequency that was proportional to the length of the added section. As the length of each section was increased, the resonant frequency shifted from 2.78 GHz …

Digital Evidence Education In Schools Of Law, Aaron Alva, Barbara Endicott-Popovsky

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

An examination of State of Connecticut v. Julie Amero provides insight into how a general lack of understanding of digital evidence can cause an innocent defendant to be wrongfully convicted. By contrast, the 101-page opinion in Lorraine v. Markel American Insurance Co. provides legal precedence and a detailed consideration for the admission of digital evidence. An analysis of both cases leads the authors to recommend additions to Law School curricula designed to raise the awareness of the legal community to ensure such travesties of justice, as in the Amero case, don’t occur in the future. Work underway at the University …

A Case Study Of The Challenges Of Cyber Forensics Analysis Of Digital Evidence In A Child Pornography Trial, Richard Boddington

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Perfunctory case analysis, lack of evidence validation, and an inability or unwillingness to present understandable analysis reports adversely affect the outcome course of legal trials reliant on digital evidence. These issues have serious consequences for defendants facing heavy penalties or imprisonment yet expect their defence counsel to have clear understanding of the evidence. Poorly reasoned, validated and presented digital evidence can result in conviction of the innocent as well as acquittal of the guilty. A possession of child pornography Case Study highlights the issues that appear to plague case analysis and presentation of digital evidence relied on in these odious …

After Five Years Of E-Discovery Missteps: Sanctions Or Safe Harbor?, Milton Luoma, Vicki Luoma

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In 2003 the Zubulake case became the catalyst of change in the world of e-discovery. In that case Judge Shira Scheindlin of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York set guidelines for e-discovery that served as the basis for amending the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) in December 2006. The amendments incorporated a number of concepts that were described by Judge Scheindlin in the Zubulake case. ( Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC, 2003) Since the Zubulake case and the FRCP amendments, numerous cases have interpreted these rules changes, but one of the main points …

Multi-Parameter Sensitivity Analysis Of A Bayesian Network From A Digital Forensic Investigation, Richard E. Overill, Echo P. Zhang, Kam-Pui Chow

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

A multi-parameter sensitivity analysis of a Bayesian network (BN) used in the digital forensic investigation of the Yahoo! email case has been performed using the principle of ‘steepest gradient’ in the parameter space of the conditional probabilities. This procedure delivers a more reliable result for the dependence of the posterior probability of the BN on the values used to populate the conditional probability tables (CPTs) of the BN. As such, this work extends our previous studies using singleparameter sensitivity analyses of BNs, with the overall aim of more deeply understanding the indicative use of BNs within the digital forensic and …

Facilitating Forensics In The Mobile Millennium Through Proactive Enterprise Security, Andrew R. Scholnick

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This work explores the impact of the emerging mobile communication device paradigm on the security-conscious enterprise, with regard to providing insights for proactive Information Assurance and facilitation of eventual Forensic analysis. Attention is given to technology evolution in the areas of best practices, attack vectors, software and hardware performance, access and activity monitoring, and architectural models.

Keywords: Forensics, enterprise security, mobile communication, best practices, attack vectors.

Vector Coprocessor Sharing Techniques For Multicores: Performance And Energy Gains, Spiridon Florin Beldianu

Dissertations

Vector Processors (VPs) created the breakthroughs needed for the emergence of computational science many years ago. All commercial computing architectures on the market today contain some form of vector or SIMD processing.

Many high-performance and embedded applications, often dealing with streams of data, cannot efficiently utilize dedicated vector processors for various reasons: limited percentage of sustained vector code due to substantial flow control; inherent small parallelism or the frequent involvement of operating system tasks; varying vector length across applications or within a single application; data dependencies within short sequences of instructions, a problem further exacerbated without loop unrolling or other …

Energy-Efficient Multi-Criteria Packet Forwarding In Multi-Hop Wireless Networks, Komlan Egoh

Dissertations

Reliable multi-hop packet forwarding is an important requirement for the implementation of realistic large-scale wireless ad-hoc networks. However, packet forwarding methods based on a single criterion, such as the traditional greedy geographic forwarding, are not sufficient in most realistic wireless settings because perfect-reception-within-rangecannot be assumed. Furthermore, methods where the selection of intermediate relaying nodes is performed at the transmitter-side do not adapt well to rapidly changing network environments. Although a few link-aware geographic forwarding schemes have been reported in the literature, the tradeoffs between multiple decision criteria and their impact on network metrics such as throughput, delay and energy …

High-Performance Matrix Multiplication On Intel And Fgpa Platforms, Gang Li

Theses

Matrix multiplication is at the core of high-performance numerical computation. Software methods of accelerating matrix multiplication fall into two categories. One is based on calculation simplification. The other one is based on increasing the memory access efficiency. Also matrix multiplication can be accelerated using vector processors. In this investigation, various matrix multiplication algorithms and the vector-based hardware acceleration method are analyzed and compared in terms of performance and memory requirements. Results are shown for Intel and Xilinx FPGA platforms. They show that when the CPU is fast, Goto's algorithm runs faster than Strassen's algorithm because the data access speed is …