Engineering Commons^™

Software Development Project Risk Management: A Literature Review, Kevin Macg. Adams, C. Ariel Pinto

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The rapid and unprecedented growth in software has brought with it some of the most spectacular and costly project failures in modern history. How risk management is presented in the scholarly journals may give insight into the risk management methods and techniques in use on software development projects. This paper provides a glimpse into the risk management methods, methodologies and techniques available to those who are responsible for software development projects by conducting a non-experimental content analysis. The findings reveal that risk management has not received sufficient attention and does not appear to be widely accepted within the software engineering …

Text Degradations And Ocr Training, Elisa H. Barney Smith, Tim Andersen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Printing and scanning of text documents introduces degradations to the characters which can be modeled. Interestingly, certain combinations of the parameters that govern the degradations introduced by the printing and scanning process affect characters in such a way that the degraded characters have a similar appearance, while other degradations leave the characters with an appearance that is very different. It is well known that (generally speaking) a test set that more closely matches a training set will be recognized with higher accuracy than one that matches the training set less well. Likewise, classifiers tend to perform better on data sets …

Indoor Geo-Location And Tracking Of Mobile Autonomous Robot, Mahesh Ramamurthy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The field of robotics has always been one of fascination right from the day of Terminator. Even though we still do not have robots that can actually replicate human action and intelligence, progress is being made in the right direction. Robotic applications range from defense to civilian, in public safety and fire fighting. With the increase in urban-warfare robot tracking inside buildings and in cities form a very important application. The numerous applications range from munitions tracking to replacing soldiers for reconnaissance information. Fire fighters use robots for survey of the affected area. Tracking robots has been limited to the …

Design Implementation Of A Microcontroller Based External Facility Access Control System, Thomas Fulbright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to solve the College of Engineering and Computer Science facility access problem, an automated system that provides exterior doors with a time schedule and allows authorized users to gain access to the facility after hours was developed. A microcontroller based system has been designed to interface with a personal computer. The system designed within this thesis can be used as a starting point for multiple facility access control systems. This thesis will describe the design, integration, test, and final delivery of a facility access system that incorporates the Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller, a magnetic card swipe reader, and …

Creating Geo-Specific Road Databases From Aerial Photos For Driving Simulation, Dahai Guo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geo-specific road database development is important to a driving simulation system and a very labor intensive process. Road databases for driving simulation need high resolution and accuracy. Even though commercial software is available on the market, a lot of manual work still has to be done when the road crosssectional profile is not uniform. This research deals with geo-specific road databases development, especially for roads with non-uniform cross sections. In this research, the United States Geographical Survey (USGS) road information is used with aerial photos to accurately extract road boundaries, using image segmentation and data compression techniques. Image segmentation plays …

Design And Synthesis Of Clockless Pipelines Based On Self-Resetting Stage Logic, Abdelhalim Alsharqawi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For decades, digital design has been primarily dominated by clocked circuits. With larger scales of integration made possible by improved semiconductor manufacturing techniques, relying on a clock signal to orchestrate logic operations across an entire chip became increasingly difficult. Motivated by this problem, designers are currently considering circuits which can operate without a clock. However, the wide acceptance of these circuits by the digital design community requires two ingredients: (i) a unified design methodology supported by widely available CAD tools, and (ii) a granularity of design techniques suitable for synthesizing large designs. Currently, there is no unified established design methodology …

Development Of A System Of Systems Engineering Method, Ji Hyon Mun, Morgan Henrie, Yaneth Correa, Charles Keating, Andres Sousa-Poza

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Systems engineers have been facing challenges with the design and analysis of multiple complex systems. System of Systems Engineering has emerged to assist in this challenge with the systemic analysis, design, and transformation of complex metasystems. This paper outlines a proposed method to overcome these challenges, which is grounded in System of Systems Engineering principles and methodology. An overview of System of Systems Engineering will be provided for understanding of its significance and the attempt to complement Systems Engineering efforts in dealing with the aforementioned challenges. Finally, discussion on the proposed method, with respect to complex system analysis, is provided.

A Generalized Algorithm For The Generation Of Correlated Rayleigh Fading Envelopes, Le Chung Tran, Tadeusz Wysocki, Jennifer Seberry, Alfred Mertins

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications (to 2015)

Although generation of correlated Rayleigh fading envelopes has been intensively considered in the literature, all conventional methods have their own shortcomings, which seriously impede their applicability. In this paper, a very general, straightforward algorithm for generation of an arbitrary number of Rayleigh envelopes with any desired, equal or unequal power, in wireless channels either with or without Doppler frequency shifts, is proposed. The proposed algorithm can be applied in case of spatial correlation, such as with antenna arrays in Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems, or spectral correlation between the random processes like in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. …

Signal Flow Analysis, Partha P. Banerjee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Signal flow graphs are a viable alternative to block diagrammatic representation of a system. What makes signal flow graphs attractive is that certain features from graph theory can be applied to the simplification and the synthesis of complex systems.

Functional Nanoparticles In Thin Films As Sensing Media, Elena A. Guliants, Ryan Schwarb, Hope Bearbower, James R. Gord, Christopher E. Bunker

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The combination of unique properties offered by materials on the nanoscale with the increased role of surface chemistry in nanostructured solids makes core-shell nanoparticles extremely attractive for application to "smart" thin-film coatings. Sensing properties of nanoparticle-based thin films were studied in several systems containing organic-coated semiconductor and metallic particles. In semiconductors, the interaction of organic shell and/or thin-film "matrix" with the environment results in changes in the nanoparticle's surface states, altering the optical properties of the thin film. Measuring the electrical properties of thin films composed of metallic cores with hydrocarbon shells offers another mechanism to monitor the local environment …

Jess – A Java Security Scanner For Eclipse, Russell Spitler

Honors Theses

Secure software is the responsibility of every developer. In order to help a developer with this responsibility there are many automated source code security auditors. These tools perform a variety of functions, from finding calls to insecure functions to poorly generated random numbers. These programs have existed for years and perform the security audit with varying degrees of success.

Largely missing in the world of programming is such a security auditor for the Java programming language. Currently, Fortify Software produces the only Java source code security auditor; this is a commercially available package.

This void is what inspired JeSS, Java …

Wright State University College Of Engineering And Computer Science Bits And Pcs Newsletter, Volume 21, Number 4, January 2005, College Of Engineering And Computer Science, Wright State University

BITs and PCs Newsletter

An eight page newsletter created by the Wright State University College of Engineering and Computer Science that addresses the current affairs of the college.

Physical Intelligent Sensors, Pavan Bandhil, Sanjeevi Chitikeshi, Ajay Mohan Mahajan, Fernando Figueroa

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

This paper proposes the development of intelligent sensors as part of an integrated systems approach, i.e. one treats the sensors as a complete system with its own sensing hardware (the traditional sensor), A/D converters, processing and storage capabilities, software drivers, self-assessment algorithms, communication protocols and evolutionary methodologies that allow them to get better with time. Under a project being undertaken at the NASA s Stennis Space Center, an integrated framework is being developed for the intelligent monitoring of smart elements. These smart elements can be sensors, actuators or other devices. The immediate application is the monitoring of the rocket test …

Information Delivery On Mobile Devices Using Contour Icon Sonification, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

This paper examines the use of musical patterns to convey information, specifically in the context of mobile devices. Existing mechanisms (such as the popularity of the Morse code SMS alert) suggest that the use of musical patterns on mobile devices can be a very efficient and powerful method of data delivery. Unique musical patterns based on templates known as Contour Icons are used to represent specific data variables, with the output rendering of these patterns being referred to as a Sonification of that data. Contour Icon patterns mimic basic shapes and structures, thus providing listeners with a means of categorising …

Information Delivery On Mobile Devices Using Boolean Sonification Patterns, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

Sonification is the means by which non-speech audio can be used to convey information. Existing work has produced methods for delivering information in a wide range of fields, and recent work has considered the huge potential of mobile devices for Sonification. Boolean Sonification is a method of defining two related musical patterns as boolean conditions (true/false, yes/no etc.), such that one is considered contrary to the other by the listener. The final pattern set ideally comprises of two musical events that are closely enough related as to be considered a group, yet distinct enough to be perceived as separate entities. …

Design Of A Wireless System For Patient-Hospital Communication And Result Validation In Point Of Care Testing, John Mcgrory, Owen Lynch, Eugene Coyle

Conference Papers

This paper discuses mobile phone (cell phone) and wireless applications for linking patients who manage their healthcare outside the hospital using Point of Care Testing (POCT) to hospital information systems (HIS). Certain medical conditions require patients to manage their healthcare by performing on themselves POC testing and act faithfully on the result. This raises quality control issue, as these POC samples and testing procedures are not independently overseen by professional hospital staff. In hospitals, samples taken by clinicians are validated by hi-tech computerised validation systems to ensure plausibility, before physicians rely on them. Patients in the home must often use …

Lessons Learned With Arc, An Oai-Pmh Service Provider, Xiaoming Liu, Kurt Maly, Michael L. Nelson

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Web-based digital libraries have historically been built in isolation utilizing different technologies, protocols, and metadata. These differences hindered the development of digital library services that enable users to discover information from multiple libraries through a single unified interface. The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) is a major, international effort to address technical interoperability among distributed repositories. Arc debuted in 2000 as the first end-user OAI-PMH service provider. Since that time, Arc has grown to include nearly 7,000,000 metadata records. Arc has been deployed in a number of environments and has served as the basis for many other …

Final Report For The Development Of The Nasa Technical Report Server (Ntrs), Michael L. Nelson

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The author performed a variety of research, development and consulting tasks for NASA Langley Research Center in the area of digital libraries (DLs) and supporting technologies, such as the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). In particular, the development focused on the NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS) and its transition from a distributed searching model to one that uses the OAI-PMH. The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) is an international consortium focused on furthering the interoperability of DLs through the use of "metadata harvesting". The OAI-PMH version of NTRS went into public production on April 28, 2003. Since that …

Archive Ingest And Handling Test, Michael L. Nelson, Johan Bollen, Giridhar Manepalli, Rabia Haq

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The Archive Ingest and Handling Test (AIHT) was a Library of Congress (LC) sponsored research project administered by Information Systems and Support Inc. (ISS). The project featured five participants: Old Dominion University Computer Science Department; Harvard University Library; Johns Hopkins University Library; Stanford University Library; Library of Congress. All five participants received identical disk drives containing copies of the 911.gmu.edu web site, a collection of 9/11 materials maintained by George Mason University (GMU). The purpose of the AIHT experiment was to perform archival forensics to determine the nature of the archive, ingest it, simulate at least one of the file …

Ultra Wide-Band : State Of The Art; Implementation Of A Performance-Controllable Low-Noise Amplifier, Serigne Dia, Balwant Godora, Frederic Alicalapa, Alain Fabre

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) transmissions exhibit performances vastly superior to existing wireless systems - superlative data-rate capacity, high security, low cost, low power consumption - and are emerging as the hottest topic of research for upcoming wireless generations. This communication protocol is studied in detail, with mention of the history and estimates for the near future; the present and possible applications are mentioned; the advantages and unresolved issues are detailed; a typical UWB transceiver architecture is studied; the modulation and coding schemes are enumerated; and the possibility of long-range communication is touched upon. Finally, a new performance-controllable low-noise amplifier (LNA) destined …

A New Cmos Differential Otra Design For The Low Voltage Power Supplies In The Sub-Micron Technologies, Alper Duruk, Hakan Kuntman

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this study, a new CMOS differential OTRA topology is proposed. This topology can operate with a very low voltage power supply as \pm 0.6V. In this design, CMOS 0.13 \mu m STMicroelectronics technology transistor models are used for the simulations. The designed CMOS OTRA has a transresistance gain (Rm) of 7478 V/I with a 28.1 MHz bandwidth (-3 dB) and a transresistance unity-gain bandwidth of 2 GHz. To demonstrate the performance of the OTRA, designed low pass, high pass and band pass filters employing a single CMOS differential OTRA and passive elements are tested with SPICE simulation program to …

Sigma-Delta Voltage To Frequency Converter With Phase Modulation Possibility, Milan Stork

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Voltage to frequency converter (VFC) is an oscillator whose frequency is linearly proportional to control voltage. There are two common VFC architectures: the current steering multivibrator and the charge-balance VFC. For higher linearity, the charge-balancing method is preferred. The charge balanced VFC may be made in asynchronous or synchronous (clocked) forms. The synchronous charge balanced VFC or "sigma delta" (\Sigma-\Delta) VFC is used when output pulses are synchronized to a clock. The charge balance VFC is more complex, more demanding in its supply voltage and current requirements, and more accurate. It is capable of 16 to18 bit linearity. In this …

An Algorithm For Image Clustering And Compression, Meti̇n Kaya

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper presents a new approach to image compression based on fuzzy clustering. This new approach includes pre-filtering, and fuzzy logic image enhancing to reduce undesirable noise effects on segmentation result; separation of image into 4x4 blocks and two dimensional discrete cosine transform; obtaining of peak values of cosine membership functions by combining of performing the zig-zag method with discrete cosine transform coefficients; obtaining of membership values and cluster centroids; and finally, creation of segmented image and compression. After applying the new method on sample images at different number of clusters, better compression ratio, performing time and good validity measure …

Design, Simulation And Tests Of A Low-Cost Microstrip Patch Antenna Arrays For The Wireless Communication, Gonca Çakir, Levent Sevgi̇

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Typical low-cost, low-weight microstrip base station antenna arrays with beam-scanning capabilities are taken into account. In downtowns of large cities like New York, Chicago, and in historical cities like Istanbul, where high buildings are separated by narrow but densely occupied streets, antenna arrays with approximately 20°-35° beam-widths are required to complete the cellular communication coverage. To meet this requirement, new antenna arrays are designed with 35° beam-widths and 60° electronic scanning capabilities. Their characteristics are investigated both numerically and experimentally. An FDTD-based antenna simulation package (M-PATCH) is prepared, tested on canonical structures and against the literature first, for verification and …

Computation Of Association Probabilities For Single Target Tracking With The Use Of Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System, İlke Türkmen, Keri̇m Güney

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this study, a simple method based on the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is presented for computing the association probabilities. The computed association probabilities are used to track the single manoeuvring target in the cluttered environment. A hybrid learning algorithm, which combines the least square method and the backpropagation algorithm, is used to identify the parameters of ANFIS. The tracks estimated by using the method proposed in this study are in very good agreement with the true tracks. Better accuracy with respect to the well known nearest neighbour Kalman filter and probabilistic data association algorithms is obtained.

Soft Computing Methods In Microwave Active Device Modeling, Yavuz Cengi̇z, Fi̇li̇z Güneş, Mehmet Fati̇h Çağlar

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this work, the signal and noise behaviors of a microwave transistor within its operation domain (CT,V_{DS}, I_{DS}, f) are modeled by the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) without using any information on the microwave circuit theory . A worked example is presented where the same data is employed for both models selected from the manufacturer's data sheets. Performances of the FLS and ANN models are compared and conclusions are drawn.

Impacts Of Distributed Generators On The Oscillatory Stability Of Interconnected Power Systems, İstemi̇han Genç, Ömer Usta

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Integration of distributed generation is continually and gradually affecting the stability of interconnected power systems. In this paper, the impacts of distributed synchronous generators on oscillatory stability are studied. In various parameter sub-spaces of interest, feasibility regions can be calculated to determine the conditions to sustain the stable operation of an interconnected power system. Through computations of the feasibility boundaries corresponding to Hopf bifurcations of electromechanical oscillatory modes, we determine the operating limits for a stable operation of the system under small and continual disturbances such as predictable changes in loading conditions of generators. Thus, with the case studies given …

Fault Tolerant Control With Re-Configuring Sliding-Mode Schemes, Ufuk Demi̇rci̇, Feza Kerestecioğlu

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, a controller design method for linear MIMO systems is presented which a sliding mode controller is reconfigured in case of system faults. Faults are detected with the residual vector generated from a standard linear observer. Once a fault has been detected the fault distribution matrix can be obtained and used to update the corrective or equivalent control parts of the sliding mode controller. As a result, fault tolerant adaptive controllers keep the system performance within acceptable limits or at least avoids the system to wind-up.

Turbo Codes: The Issue Of Average Union Upper Bound Under Imperfect Channel State Information In Rayleigh Fading Channels, Erhan A. İnce, Syed Amjad Ali

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The potential of turbo codes to demonstrate excellent performance in the region of low signal to noise ratio is now a familiar fact. The idea of turbo codes was first introduced by Berrou and was based on the clever utilization of the existing decoding mechanism of BCJR with a change in the encoder by introducing feedback and an interleaver in the overall scheme. Since then, these powerful forward error correcting codes have attained a significant attention and have either replaced or have become a sturdy candidate for many applications in this era of modern communication systems. So far, a lot …

Silhouette Based Human Motion Detection And Analysis For Real-Time Automated Video Surveillance, Murat Eki̇nci̇, Eyüp Gedi̇kli̇

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, a real-time background modeling and maintenance based human motion detection and analysis in an indoor and an outdoor environments for visual surveillance system is described. The system operates on monocular gray scale video imagery from a static CCD camera. In order to detect foreground objects, first, background scene model is statistically learned using the redundancy of the pixel intensities in a training stage, even the background is not completely stationary. This redundancy information of the each pixel is separately stored in an history map shows how the pixel intensity values changes till now. Then the highest ratio …