Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

Biogeography-Based Optimization Of Neuro-Fuzzy System Parameters For Diagnosis Of Cardiac Disease, Mirela Ovreiu, Daniel J. Simon

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Cardiomyopathy refers to diseases of the heart muscle that becomes enlarged, thick, or rigid. These changes affect the electrical stability of the myocardial cells, which in turn predisposes the heart to failure or arrhythmias. Cardiomyopathy in its two common forms, dilated and hypertrophic, implies enlargement of the atria; therefore, we investigate its diagnosis through P wave features. In particular, we design a neuro-fuzzy network trained with a new evolutionary algorithm called biogeography-based optimization (BBO). The neuro-fuzzy network recognizes and classifies P wave features for the diagnosis of cardiomyopathy. In addition, we incorporate opposition-based learning in the BBO algorithm for improved …

Biogeography-Based Optimization With Blended Migration For Constrained Optimization Problems, Haiping Ma, Daniel J. Simon

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is a new evolutionary algorithm based on the science of biogeography. We propose two extensions to BBO. First, we propose blended migration. Second, we modify BBO to solve constrained optimization problems. The constrained BBO algorithm is compared with solutions based on a genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Numerical results indicate that BBO generally performs better than GA and PSO in handling constrained single-objective optimization problems.

Experimental Investigation Of A Non-Thermal Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet, Asma Begum

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The main objective of this dissertation is to understand the formation of the plasma jet from the plasma pencil, and the propagation of the plasma jet in the ambient atmosphere where the effect of the external electric field is almost zero. Before investigating the formation and propagation phenomenon of the plasma jet, common physical properties of plasma jets are determined by using the imaging technique and optical emission spectroscopy. The first goal of this dissertation is to establish the laminar helium gas flow channel through a plasma pencil.

The formation position, formation time, and the criterion of the plasma jet …

Analysis Of Engineering Students Learning Styles On Level 7, Level 8 And Level 9 Programmes, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

This contribution reports on research, carried out over three academic years, into the learning styles of engineering students, on a number of Level 7, Level 8 and Level 9 programmes at DIT, using the index of learning styles survey developed by Felder and Soloman (1991). The contribution explores the results obtained in detail, placing them particularly in the national context. The correlation between student performance and individual learning styles is examined. Knowledge of the strongly visual learning style of these cohorts of students may be used to improve the learning environment.

Action Recognition Based On Multi-Level Representation Of 3d Shape, Binu M. Nair

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A novel algorithm is proposed in this thesis for recognizing human actions using a combination of two shape descriptors, one of which is a 3D Euclidean distance transform and the other based on the Radon transform. This combination captures the necessary variations from the space time shape for recognizing actions. The space time shapes are created by the concatenation of human body silhouettes across time. The comparisons are done against some common shape descriptors such as the zernike moments and Radon transform. This is also compared with an algorithm which uses the same concept of a space time shape and …

Simulation Of Temperature Distributions In Tissue Upon Laser Pulse Irradiation Including Water Mass Transfer, Deepthi Nagulapally

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Lasers, due to their unique characteristics, have tremendous applications in the medical field. Generally all laser applications in hie-medicine involve the propagation of laser energy through tissue. Energy is deposited giving rise to many physical, hie-chemical, and mechanical effects. Among these are dynamical changes in the local temperature distributions within the tissue. Analysis of the temperature changes requires the creation of an appropriate optical transmission and heat flow model that incorporates user specified laser parameters. Here, a numerical simulation model was developed to study both steady state and time dependent temperature distributions due to pulsed laser radiation within user specified …

A Comparison Of Induction Motor Starting Methods Being Powered By A Diesel-Generator Set, Adam John Wigington

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

Starting induction motors on isolated or weak systems is a highly dynamic process that can cause motor and load damage as well as electrical network fluctuations. Mechanical damage is associated with the high starting current drawn by a ramping induction motor. In order to compensate the load increase, the voltage of the electrical system decreases. Different starting methods can be applied to the electrical system to reduce these and other starting method issues. The purpose of this thesis is to build accurate and usable simulation models that can aid the designer in making the choice of an appropriate motor starting …

Analysis And Optimization Of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing For Cognitive Radio Networks, Manish Wadhwa

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation is to present the analysis and optimization of dynamic spectrum sharing for cognitive radio networks (CRNs). Spectrum scarcity is a well known problem at present. In order to deal with this problem, dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) was proposed. DSS is a technique where cognitive radio networks dynamically and opportunistically share the channels with primary users. The major contribution of this dissertation is in analyzing the problem of dynamic spectrum sharing under different scenarios and developing optimal solutions for these scenarios. In the first scenario, a contention based dynamic spectrum sharing model is considered and its …

Microwave And Millimeter Wave Imaging System, R. Zoughi, Mohamed Ahmed Aboukhousa, Mohammad Tayeb Ahmad Ghasr, Sergey Kharkovsky, David Pommerenke

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A sensor array having a plurality of modulated slots for microwave and/or millimeter wave imaging. The locations of the slots in the array define a spatial domain away from an object for detecting an electric field from the object. Each of the slots outputs a signal representative of the measured field and the location of the slot. A processor decodes the signals and generates an image of the object.

Flying Mobile On-Board Ellipsometer, Polarimeter, Reflectometer And The Like Systems, Blaine D. Johs, Ping He, Martin M. Liphardt, Christopher A. Goeden, John A. Woollam, James D. Welch

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

A substantially self-contained "on-board" material system investigation system for effecting relative translational and rotational motion between a source and detector of electromagnetic radiation and a sample, which system is functionally mounted on a three-dimensional locational system to enable positioning at desired locations on, and distances from, the surface of a sample, including the capability to easily and conveniently effect rotation and/or to change the angle-of-incidence of a beam of electromagnetic radiation onto a sample surface and/or to provide gas flow confined in a mini-chamber near the surface of a sample, at a location at which a beam having UV, VUV, …

Software Defined Radio: Inexpensive Hardware And Software Tools, Thad B. Welch, Cameron H. G. Wright, Michael G. Morrow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

DSP topics such as software defined radio are more easily taught if appropriate demonstrations and laboratory experiences are provided. This paper describes a new, inexpensive software defined radio educational platform based upon MATLAB and the Texas Instruments C6713 digital signal processing starter kit. We describe the hardware and software issues and briefly describe recommended classroom use.

Algorithms For Spectral And Spatio-Spectral Feature Selection And Classification For Tunable Sensors : Theory And Application, Biliana Paskaleva

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The main thrust of this dissertation is to develop, prototype and test new customized algorithms for infrared spectral imaging and remote sensing of terrestrial features and objects, with particular focus on a general class of sensors with noisy and overlapping spectral bands. While the principal driver of this dissertation is the bias-tunable quantum-dot-in-a-well (DWELL) sensor, developed at the Center for High Technology Materials (CHTM), the scope of the proposed algorithms is broad and extends to traditional sensors with fixed bands. The algorithms formulated in this work also represent a step towards enabling future compressive sensing capabilities based on bias tunable …

Global Optimization Methods For Full-Reference And No-Reference Motion Estimation With Applications To Atherosclerotic Plaque Motion And Strain Imaging, Sergio Murillo Amaya

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Pixel-based motion estimation using optical flow models has been extensively researched during the last two decades. The driving force of this research field is the amount of applications that can be developed with the motion estimates. Image segmentation, compression, activity detection, object tracking, pattern recognition, and more recently non-invasive biomedical applications like strain imaging make the estimation of accurate velocity fields necessary. The majority of the research in this area is focused on improving the theoretical and numerical framework of the optical flow models. This effort has resulted in increased method complexity with an increasing number of motion parameters. The …

Progress In Metamaterials : Magnetic Hybridization Of Electric Dipole Resonance And Inhomogeneous Structures For Thin-Film Lenses, Svyatoslav Smolev

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

We report progress in the field of metamaterials and demonstrate a novel resonant coupling between the structural resonance in the permeability of a fishnet and a material resonance in the dielectric spacer layer. The resonances in the permeability and the negative index response exhibit anti-crossing behavior. We simulate this using a simple analytic model, as well as rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA). A theoretical model and experimental data are in good agreement and clearly demonstrate hybridization of structural and material resonances. First step in development of possible applications for the metamaterials was done by Driscoll in 2006. We take the …

Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm For Robot Path Planning, Michael Brand, Michael Masuda, Nicole Wehner, Xiao-Hua Yu

Electrical Engineering

Path planning is an essential task for the navigation and motion control of autonomous robot manipulators. This NP-complete problem is difficult to solve, especially in a dynamic environment where the optimal path needs to be rerouted in real-time when a new obstacle appears. The ACO (Ant Colony Optimization) algorithm is an optimization technique based on swarm intelligence. This paper investigates the application of ACO to robot path planning in a dynamic environment. Two different pheromone re-initialization schemes are compared and computer simulation results are presented.

Guardian : Automated Patient Monitoring System, Johnny C. Silva

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Telemedicine allows medical professionals to monitor, examine, and consult with patients remotely by transferring medical information via wireless communication technologies. This thesis describes the design and implementation of a new automated patient monitoring system. In many cases, vital signs, location data, and other patient information are currently not tracked in a real-time automated fashion. The remote monitoring system proposed and developed in this thesis has the ability to provide doctors/healthcare professionals with 24-hour access to real-time patient information, as well as historical data of every one of their patients. A prototype automated patient monitoring system was constructed to demonstrate general …

Information Theoretic Approach For Assessing Image Fidelity In Photon-Counting Imagers, Narravula R. Srikanth

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The method of photon-counting integral imaging has been introduced recently for three-dimensional object sensing, visualization, recognition and classification of scenes under photon-starved conditions. In this work we present an information-theoretic model for the photon-counting imaging (PCI) method, thereby providing a rigorous foundation for the merits of PCI in terms of image fidelity. This can facilitate our understanding of the demonstrated success of photon-counting integral imaging in compressive imaging and classification. The mutual information between the source and photon-counted images is derived in a Markov random field setting and normalized by the source-image's entropy, yielding a fidelity metric that is between …

Topology Overlays For Dedicated Protection Ethernet Lan Services In Advanced Sonet/Sdh Networks, Srikanth Kumar Seethamraju

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The explosion of information technology (IT) services coupled with much-increased personal and scientific computing capabilities has resulted in great demand for more scalable and reliable networking services. Along these lines, carriers have spent large sums to transition their legacy' SONET/SDH voice-based networking infrastructures to better support client-side Ethernet data interfaces, i.e., next-generation SONET/SDH (NGS). In particular, a key addition here has been the new virtual concatenation (VCAT) feature which supports inverse multiplexing to 'split' larger connection requests in to a series of independently-routed 'sub-connections'. As these improved infrastructures have been deployed, the design of new Ethernet over SONET/SDH (EoS) services …

Remote-Sensing Of Underground Caverns Using A Full-Maxwell's Equations Fdtd Model, Tanner Ethan

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

A need exists to reliably detect and characterize underground structures from immediately above the Earth's surface within the vicinity of the structures, as well as via aerial surveys. Sandia National Labs and the University of New Mexico have collaborated to study the feasibility of detecting and characterizing underground structures, specifically hollow rectangular-shaped caverns. This thesis covers the computational aspects of this investigation and also focuses on the detection of caverns from immediately above the Earth's surface. Three-dimensional, full-vector Maxwell's equations finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) modeling is employed to obtain the signatures for different caverns of various depths and dimensions. It is …

Modeling And Characterization Of Elastic Wave Propagation In Micro-Scale Photonic Crystals, Yasser Soliman

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Micro-scale phononic crystals are micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) made of one material periodically embedded in another material, leading to periodic changes in elastic properties of the composite structure. Such devices exhibit elastic bandgaps, which are very useful in many commercial applications. Filtering, guiding and mirroring of elastic waves are a few applications in which phononic crystals can be used. In this manuscript, the physical origins of phononic bandgaps were successfully determined using a one-dimensional model to isolate resonances contributing to the creation of phononic bandgaps. Photonic crystals were further modeled using a two-dimensional technique called the Plane Wave Expansion Method. A solution …