Engineering Commons^™

Autonomous Apple Harvester Robot, Jack Ryan Cline, Tyus Green, Devon Woolston

Electrical Engineering

As agricultural demands rise and manual labor costs increase, there has become a dire need to automate apple harvesting. However, the precision and speed necessary for cost-efficient apple harvesting pose a significant challenge for robotic automation. To maintain cost-effective production, a harvester must be able to operate fast enough and long enough to compete with human labor. It must also be able to navigate and traverse apple orchards autonomously and pick apples without damaging the fruit or tree. This project presents an apple harvesting robot that uses a Mask R-CNN vision system with an RGB-D camera to detect the location …

Anomaly Detection In Heterogeneous Iot Systems: Leveraging Symbolic Encoding Of Performance Metrics For Anomaly Classification, Maanav Patel

Master's Theses

Anomaly detection in Internet of Things (IoT) systems has become an increasingly popular field of research as the number of IoT devices proliferate year over year. Recent research often relies on machine learning algorithms to classify sensor readings directly. However, this approach leads to solutions being non-portable and unable to be applied to varying IoT platform infrastructure, as they are trained with sensor data specific to one configuration. Moreover, sensors generate varying amounts of non-standard data which complicates model training and limits generalization. This research focuses on addressing these problems in three ways a) the creation of an IoT Testbed …

A Federation Of Sentries: Secure And Efficient Trusted Hardware Element Communication, Blake A. Ward

Master's Theses

Previous work introduced TrustGuard, a design for a containment architecture that allows only the result of the correct execution of approved software to be outputted. A containment architecture prevents results from malicious hardware or software from being communicated externally. At the core of TrustGuard is a trusted, pluggable device that sits on the path between an untrusted processor and the outside world. This device, called the Sentry, is responsible for validating the correctness of all communication before it leaves the system. This thesis seeks to leverage the correctness guarantees that the Sentry provides to enable efficient secure communication between two …

Sequential Memory Generation For Cognitive Models, Eben Miles Sherwood

Master's Theses

Understanding the process of memory formation in neural systems is of great interest in the field of neuroscience. Valiant’s Neuroidal Model poses a plausible theory for how memories are created within a computational context. Previously, the algorithm JOIN has been used to show how the brain could perform conjunctive and disjunctive coding to store memories. A limitation of JOIN is that it does not consider the coding of temporal information in a meaningful manner. We propose SeqMem, a similar algorithmic primitive that is designed to encode a series of items within a random graph model. We investigate the feasibility of …

A Study On Privacy Over Security And Privacy Enhancing Networks, Everett Lee Conway

Master's Theses

With rapid developments in communication technologies and awareness of security and privacy risks online, Security and Privacy Enhancing Networks (SPENs) have become increasingly popular. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, workplaces encouraged employees to take additional security measures, such as VPNs. In this work, we conduct a comprehensive study on website fingerprinting attacks. A comprehensive system model and threat model based on two types of SPENs (Virtual Private Networks and Tor Networks) are presented. Moreover, we demonstrate a website fingerprinting attack by ethically collecting website fetch data and analyzing the collected data using five different machine learning classification models including k …

Optimal False Data Injection (Fdi) In Simulated Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (Cacc) Systems, Lovro Dukic

Master's Theses

In the rapidly advancing field of autonomous vehicles, ensuring the security and reliability of self-driving systems is crucial. Autonomous vehicle systems, such as cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC), must undergo significant research and testing before their integration into commercial intelligent transportation systems. CACC considers multiple vehicles in close proximity as a single entity, or platoon, with each vehicle equipped with a controller that uses sensor-based measurements and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication to control inter-vehicle spacing. While this system offers numerous potential benefits for traffic safety and efficiency, it is also susceptible to False Data Injection (FDI) attacks, which can cause the …

Smart Robot Design And Implementation To Assist Pedestrian Road Crossing, Hovannes Kulhandjian

Mineta Transportation Institute

This research focuses on designing and developing a smart robot to assist pedestrians with road crossings. Pedestrian safety is a major concern, as highlighted by the high annual rates of fatalities and injuries. In 2020, the United States recorded 6,516 pedestrian fatalities and approximately 55,000 injuries, with children under 16 being especially vulnerable. This project aims to address this need by offering an innovative solution that prioritizes real-time detection and intelligent decision-making at intersections. Unlike existing studies that rely on traffic light infrastructure, our approach accurately identifies both vehicles and pedestrians at intersections, creating a comprehensive safety system. Our strategy …

The Journey To Desensitization: A Mobile App For Oral Immunotherapy Patients, Madeleine Waldie

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Millions of individuals in the United States confront the daily challenges of food allergies, with the threat of potentially life-threatening reactions ever-present. Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) emerges as a beacon of hope in this landscape, gradually desensitizing patients to their allergens. This groundbreaking treatment, contrasting avoidance strategies, promises a life with fewer restrictions. However, it is a journey fraught with complexities, requiring rigorous adherence to protocols, emotional fortitude, and frequent medical supervision for patients. This thesis centers on the creation of an iPhone application tailored to OIT patients, leveraging Apple’s privacy and security features. The app integrates seamlessly with the Apple …

Network Slicing And Noma Enabled Mobile Edge Computing For Next-Generation Networks, Mohammad Arif Hossain

Dissertations

The advent of next-generation wireless networks ushers in a new era of potential, harnessing cutting-edge technologies like mobile edge computing (MEC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and network slicing as pivotal drivers of transformation. Within this landscape, an innovative approach is proposed by introducing a NOMA-enabled network slicing technique within MEC networks. This approach aims to achieve multiple objectives: meeting stringent quality of service requirements, minimizing service latency, and enhancing spectral efficiency. By seamlessly integrating NOMA with network slicing in edge computing environments, significant reductions in overall latency are achieved, alongside ensuring optimal resource allocation for NOMA users. To address these …

Integrating Laser Charging And Drones For Secure Edge Computing, Weiqi Liu

Dissertations

Drone-mounted base stations (DBSs) have emerged as a promising solution to enhance the flexibility and coverage of wireless networks, potentially revolutionizing communication systems. This dissertation explores the integration of DBSs into 5G and beyond networks, focusing on methodologies to optimize their deployment and performance. A laser charging-enabled DBS framework is proposed to extend flight time and enhance network coverage. By leveraging laser charging technology, the DBS can receive continuous energy transmission from a ground-based charging station while providing communication services to users. The framework is formulated as an optimization problem to jointly maximize flight time and communication data rate, while …

The Next Strike: Pioneering Forward-Thinking Attack Techniques With Rowhammer In Dram Technologies, Nakul Kochar

Theses

In the realm of DRAM technologies this study investigates RowHammer vulnerabilities in DDR4 DRAM memory across various manufacturers, employing advanced multi-sided fault injection techniques to impose attack strategies directly on physical memory rows. Our novel approach, diverging from traditional victim-focused methods, involves strategically allocating virtual memory rows to their physical counterparts for more potent attacks. These attacks, exploiting the inherent weaknesses in DRAM design, are capable of inducing bit flips in a controlled manner to undermine system integrity. We employed a strategy that compromised system integrity through a nuanced approach of targeting rows situated at a distance of two rows …

Expanding The Horizon: Blockchain Technology Beyond The Bounds Of Cryptocurrency, Hassan Azhar

SMU Data Science Review

Blockchain technology has extended beyond its initial role as the infrastructure for cryptocurrencies to transform various industries with its decentralized and transparent ledger system. This paper examines the broad spectrum of blockchain applications beyond cryptocurrency. It explores its potential to innovate and drive change across finance, supply chain management, healthcare, real estate, and voting systems. We review recent literature, detail specific use cases, and discuss blockchain's challenges and opportunities, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of its transformative impact. Integrating emerging technologies, scalability, regulatory considerations, and energy consumption are critical challenges to its adoption. Our findings underscore the need for …

Protectnic - Smartnic Ransomware Detection, Arnav Choudhury, Eason Liu, Anson Xu

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Ransomware, a form of malware that restricts access to data until a ransom is paid, accounts for 20% of all cyber crimes. Although companies and organizations often require their personnel to take training for awareness of such bad actors, social engineering is constantly evolving and ransomware slips through the cracks every year. In this paper, we suggest a system that would help detect ransomware using a Smart Network Interface Card (SmartNIC) which runs machine learning algorithms to detect ransomware before it enters the system. This relieves computers in the network of the burden of detecting malware, freeing CPU capacity to …

Design Of Multi-Objective Optimization Algorithms For Vlsi Floor Planning, Srinivasan B

Theses and Dissertations

VLSI floorplanning is a key design step that determines the optimal placement of circuit modules to minimize chip area, wire length, and heat generation. Existing swarm intelligence–based metaheuristics improve area and wire length but often ignore thermal effects.

To address this, the Multi-Objective Firefly Optimization–based Floorplanning (MOFO-FP) technique is introduced, using a Heat-Aware Firefly Optimization (HAFO) algorithm that minimizes heat, space, and wire length under fixed outline constraints. Each firefly represents a floorplan, with brightness indicating solution quality; dimmer fireflies move toward brighter ones to find optimal placements.

A second method, the Hybridized Multicriteria Ant Colony and …

Mobile Robot Path Planning Optimization Problem Using Multi- Objective Genetic Algorithm, Suresh Ks

Theses and Dissertations

Mobile Robot Path Planning problem (MRPPP) is the most prominent research area employed in different real-time environments. The research domain of robotics offers abundant opportunities for researchers in various engineering fields with different dimensions. The automation of physical movements of the robots with intelligence to make dynamic decisions for interacting with the environment opens up a lot of challenges to the research community.

A variety of approaches are employed to solve the Mobile Robot Path Planning Problem (MRPP), which is to derive a feasible collision-free path to reach the destination from the given starting point by avoiding obstacles. The solution …

Development Of Quantum True Random Number Generators And Implementation On Ibm Cloud Lab, Vaishnavi K

Theses and Dissertations

Random numbers are the lifeline of any cryptographic operation in modern computing. Quantum mechanics has the intrinsic ability to generate truly random numbers, making it an ideal alternative for scientific applications that require high-quality randomness. Quantum True Random Number Generators (QTRNGs) can yield real random data to replace random-looking periodic sequences. To construct such a random number generator, this work uses the IBM Q Experience platform called Qiskit.

This research focuses on the development and analysis of quantum-based TRNGs along with their prime characteristics. Qubits and quantum gates are the predominant sources of true randomness on quantum platforms. These inherent …

Design And Test Of Asynchronous Systems Using The Link And Joint Model, Ebelechukwu Esimai

Dissertations and Theses

Asynchronous circuits offer numerous advantages, including low energy consumption and good composability and scalability. However, they remain meagerly adopted in the mainstream semiconductor industry. One reason is the limited number of design tools available to help designers navigate design complexity, particularly the myriad of asynchronous implementation styles.

This dissertation focuses on managing the myriad of asynchronous implementation styles by utilizing a circuit-neutral model, called Links and Joints, and embedding this Link-Joint approach into a design flow. Although years of past work have already laid the groundwork, the work in this dissertation identifies and addresses key missing pieces.

First, the …

A Distributed And Hybrid Ai-Based Security Framework For 5g Real-Time Applications, Ali Ghubaish

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation develops a multifaceted security framework tailored for 5G-enabled real-time Internet of medical things (IoMT) systems to significantly enhance the security infrastructure within healthcare environments. The framework pivots around three core technological advancements: the development of the Light feature Engineering based on the Mean Decrease in Accuracy (LEMDA), the construction of a 5G testbed that serves as a distributed intrusion detection system (IDS), and the implementation of a hybrid deep reinforcement learning (HDRL) method. LEMDA represents a breakthrough in data processing for IoMT systems. By intelligently reducing data complexity, LEMDA enhances the speed and accuracy of threat detection mechanisms, …

A Deep Learning Framework For Blockage Mitigation In Mmwave Wireless, Ahmed Hazaa Almutairi

Dissertations and Theses

Millimeter-Wave (mmWave) communication is a key technology to enable next generation wireless systems. However, mmWave systems are highly susceptible to blockages, which can lead to a substantial decrease in signal strength at the receiver. Identifying blockages and mitigating them is thus a key challenge to achieve next generation wireless technology goals, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication (URLLC). This thesis proposes several deep learning (DL) frameworks for mmWave wireless blockage detection, mitigation, and duration prediction. First, we propose a DL framework to address the problem of identifying whether the mmWave wireless channel between two devices …

Analysis Of Inequality In Household Internet Utilization And Policy Implications, Shanisara Chamwong, Thoedsak Chomtohsuwan, Narissara Charoenphandhu

Journal of Demography

This research investigates the pervasive inequality in household internet access and use that contributes to the digital divide. As the internet becomes an integral part of daily life, variations in access and use carry significant implications for social and economic opportunities. A quantitative approach is applied, analyzing data from The National Statistical Office of Thailand to capture a comprehensive understanding of inequality in household internet access and use, as measured by the Gini coefficient. Five aspects of internet access and use are considered as the determinants of inequality, including internet connectivity, internet affordability, internet quality, device availability, and flexibility and …

Deep Clustering Of Tabular Data By Weighted Gaussian Distribution Learning, Shourav B. Rabbani, Ivan V. Medri, Manar D. Samad

Computer Science Faculty Research

Deep learning methods are primarily proposed for supervised learning of images or text with limited applications to clustering problems. In contrast, tabular data with heterogeneous features pose unique challenges in representation learning, where deep learning has yet to replace traditional machine learning. This paper addresses these challenges in developing one of the first deep clustering methods for tabular data: Gaussian Cluster Embedding in Autoencoder Latent Space (G-CEALS). G-CEALS is an unsupervised deep clustering framework for learning the parameters of multivariate Gaussian cluster distributions by iteratively updating individual cluster weights. The G-CEALS method presents average rank orderings of 2.9(1.7) and 2.8(1.7) …

Unveiling Anomalies: A Survey On Xai-Based Anomaly Detection For Iot, Esin Eren, Feyza Yildirim Okay, Suat Özdemi̇r

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In recent years, the rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has raised concerns about the security and reliability of IoT systems. Anomaly detection is vital for recognizing potential risks and ensuring the optimal functionality of IoT networks. However, traditional anomaly detection methods often lack transparency and interpretability, hindering the understanding of their decisions. As a solution, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) techniques have emerged to provide human-understandable explanations for the decisions made by anomaly detection models. In this study, we present a comprehensive survey of XAI-based anomaly detection methods for IoT. We review and analyze various XAI techniques, including …

Text-To-Sql: A Methodical Review Of Challenges And Models, Ali Buğra Kanburoğlu, Faik Boray Tek

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This survey focuses on Text-to-SQL, automated translation of natural language queries into SQL queries. Initially, we describe the problem and its main challenges. Then, by following the PRISMA systematic review methodology, we survey the existing Text-to-SQL review papers in the literature. We apply the same method to extract proposed Text-to-SQL models and classify them with respect to used evaluation metrics and benchmarks. We highlight the accuracies achieved by various models on Text-to-SQL datasets and discuss execution-guided evaluation strategies. We present insights into model training times and implementations of different models. We also explore the availability of Text-to-SQL datasets in non-English …

Security Fusion Method Of Physical Fitness Training Data Based On The Internet Of Things, Bin Zhou

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Physical fitness training, an important way to improve physical fitness, is the basic guarantee for forming combat effectiveness. At present, the evaluation types of physical fitness training are mostly conducted manually. It has problems such as low efficiency, high consumption of human and material resources, and subjective factors affecting the evaluation results. ”Internet+” has greatly expanded the traditional network from the perspective of technological convergence and network coverage objects. It has expedited and promoted the rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology and its applications. The IoT with many sensor nodes shows the characteristics of acquisition information redundancy, node …

Dpafy-Gcaps: Denoising Patch-And-Amplify Gabor Capsule Network For The Recognition Of Gastrointestinal Diseases, Henrietta Adjei Pokuaa, Adeboya Felix Adekoya, Benjamin Asubam Weyori, Owusu Nyarko-Boateng

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Deep learning (DL) models have performed tremendously well in image classification. This good performance can be attributed to the availability of massive data in most domains. However, some domains are known to have few datasets, especially the health sector. This makes it difficult to develop domain-specific high-performing DL algorithms for these fields. The field of health is critical and requires accurate detection of diseases. In the United States Gastrointestinal diseases are prevalent and affect 60 to 70 million people. Ulcerative colitis, polyps, and esophagitis are some gastrointestinal diseases. Colorectal polyps is the third most diagnosed malignancy in the world. This …

Joint Control Of A Flying Robot And A Ground Vehicle Using Leader-Follower Paradigm, Ayşen Süheyla Bağbaşi, Ali Emre Turgut, Kutluk Bilge Arikan

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this study, a novel control framework for the collaboration of an aerial robot and a ground vehicle that is connected via a taut tether is proposed. The framework is based on a leader-follower paradigm. The leader follows a desired trajectory while the motion of the follower is controlled by an admittance controller using an extended state observer to estimate the tether force. Additionally, a velocity estimator is also incorporated to accurately assess the leader’s velocity. An essential feature of our system is its adaptability, enabling role switching between the robots when needed. Furthermore, the synchronization performance of the robots …

Stereo-Image-Based Ground-Line Prediction And Obstacle Detection, Emre Güngör, Ahmet Özmen

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In recent years, vision systems have become essential in the development of advanced driver assistance systems or autonomous vehicles. Although deep learning methods have been the center of focus in recent years to develop fast and reliable obstacle detection solutions, they face difficulties in complex and unknown environments where objects of varying types and shapes are present. In this study, a novel non-AI approach is presented for finding the ground-line and detecting the obstacles in roads using v-disparity data. The main motivation behind the study is that the ground-line estimation errors cause greater deviations at the output. Hence, a novel …

Deep Learning-Based Breast Cancer Diagnosis With Multiview Of Mammography Screening To Reduce False Positive Recall Rate, Meryem Altın Karagöz, Özkan Ufuk Nalbantoğlu, Derviş Karaboğa, Bahriye Akay, Alper Baştürk, Halil Ulutabanca, Serap Doğan, Damla Coşkun, Osman Demi̇r

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Breast cancer is the most prevalent and crucial cancer type that should be diagnosed early to reduce mortality. Therefore, mammography is essential for early diagnosis owing to high-resolution imaging and appropriate visualization. However, the major problem of mammography screening is the high false positive recall rate for breast cancer diagnosis. High false positive recall rates psychologically affect patients, leading to anxiety, depression, and stress. Moreover, false positive recalls increase costs and create an unnecessary expert workload. Thus, this study proposes a deep learning based breast cancer diagnosis model to reduce false positive and false negative rates. The proposed model has …

Ri2ap: Robust And Interpretable 2d Anomaly Prediction In Assembly Pipelines, Chathurangi Shyalika, Kaushik Roy, Renjith Prasad, Fadi El Kalach, Yuxin Zi, Priya Mittal, Vignesh Narayanan, Ramy Harik, Amit Sheth

Publications

Predicting anomalies in manufacturing assembly lines is crucial for reducing time and labor costs and improving processes. For instance, in rocket assembly, premature part failures can lead to significant financial losses and labor inefficiencies. With the abundance of sensor data in the Industry 4.0 era, machine learning (ML) offers potential for early anomaly detection. However, current ML methods for anomaly prediction have limitations, with F1 measure scores of only 50% and 66% for prediction and detection, respectively. This is due to challenges like the rarity of anomalous events, scarcity of high-fidelity simulation data (actual data are expensive), and the complex …

Signer-Independent Sign Language Recognition With Feature Disentanglement, İnci̇ Meli̇ha Baytaş, İpek Erdoğan

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Learning a robust and invariant representation of various unwanted factors in sign language recognition (SLR) applications is essential. One of the factors that might degrade the sign recognition performance is the lack of signer diversity in the training datasets, causing a dependence on the singer’s identity during representation learning. Consequently, capturing signer-specific features hinders the generalizability of SLR systems. This study proposes a feature disentanglement framework comprising a convolutional neural network (CNN) and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network based on adversarial training to learn a signer-independent sign language representation that might enhance the recognition of signs. We aim to …