Engineering Commons^™

Uncertainties In Retrieval Of Remote Sensing Reflectance From Ocean Color Satellite Observations, Eder I. Herrera Estrella

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ocean Color radiometry uses remote sensing to interpret ocean dynamics by retrieving remote sensing reflectance (𝑅𝑟𝑠) from satellite imagery at different scales and over different time periods. 𝑅𝑟𝑠 spectrum characterizes the ocean color that we observe, and from which we can discern concentrations of chlorophyll, organic and inorganic particles, and carbon fluxes in the ocean and atmosphere. 𝑅𝑟𝑠 is derived from the total radiance at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). However, it only represents up to ten percent of the total signal. Hence, the retrieval of 𝑅𝑟𝑠 from the total radiance at TOA involves the application of atmospheric correction …

Battery Energy Storage Systems Applications And Deployment In Dense Urban Areas, Mohamed K. Kamaludeen

Dissertations and Theses

Energy Storage has emerged as an important focus of the U.S. federal government, which has established the goal of developing global leadership in energy storage and has a near-term focus on strengthening the supply chain, manufacturing, and funding streams available to achieve the overarching objectives. At the state level, similar efforts are underway in which policy objectives have set aggressive targets around energy storage deployment. New York State, through its landmark climate act “CLCPA” and subsequent Energy Storage roadmap 2.0, has set one of the most aggressive goals in the Country targeting 6,000MW of energy storage by 2030. While much …

The Capabilities And Limitations Of Flywheel-Based Energy Storage System Pertaining To Subways In The Event Of A Power Outage, Jaskaran Singh

Dissertations and Theses

In the city that never sleeps, power outages or blackouts can be a shock, especially if you are on a train amid one. For example, during the infamous 2003 blackout, thousands of people were left stuck and stranded in parts of Northeastern United States. In particular, with no trains or buses in service throughout the 5 boroughs of NYC, those stranded essentially had no way to go back home. Hotels, terminals, and airports alike became places of camping as the city seemed to come to a halt. For the sake of public safety and transit efficiency, this study explores a …

Wave Engineering In Time Modulated, Nonlinear, And Anisotropic Metamaterials, Ahmed Mekawy

Dissertations and Theses

Leveraging wave matter interactions is central to a myriad of electromagnetic wave-based applications. During the past decades, research on extreme wave manipulation has been revolutionized by artificially engineered materials (metamaterials) and by adding new aspects to the wave-matter interactions that showed intriguing results inaccessible in conventional linear, time invariant (LTI), passive and isotropic media. In this work, I will explore, numerically and experimentally, the possibility of realizing devices that perform beyond or close to their fundamental LTI limitations by adding periodic modulation, nonlinearity, and gain. I will demonstrate these concepts at radio frequencies (RF) and at optical frequencies. Specifically, at …

Ai-Driven Automated Medical Imaging Analysis, Jingya Liu

Dissertations and Theses

Medical imaging has been applied widely in many clinical diagnoses to detect and differentiate abnormalities by revealing the internal structure of the human body at normal anatomical and physiological levels. Manual analyzing medical images demands attention and is time-consuming, requiring well-trained expertise. The speed, fatigue, and experience may limit the diagnostic performance, leading to delays and even false diagnoses that significantly impact patient treatment. Therefore, accurate systematic systems based on medical image analysis are crucial for timely clinical diagnosis.

This dissertation focuses on advancing automatic computer-aided diagnosis systems to detect cancer, assisting radiologists with early intervention to improve survival rates. …

Use Of Battery Systems For Var Support In Con Edison’S Distribution Network/Substation, Elihu Nyemah

Dissertations and Theses

Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) can facilitate the integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and help create a more reliable grid by providing multiple services including reactive power (VAR) support. This research will investigate the use of smart inverters to provide VAR support, assess the impact it has on the lifetime of a BESS and determine how the adverse effects (if any) can be mitigated/eliminated. To achieved this, a 7.5MW/30MWh grid connected BESS located at Con Edison substations have been modeled in MATLAB/Simulink. Preliminary assessment of the system showed that DC current to/from the battery is oscillating (non-zero) during reactive …

Nonlinear Light - Matter Interactions Of Ultrafast High Intensity Laser Pulses, Henry Meyer

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis focuses on the key nonlinear optical effects that arise from the interactions of intense ultrafast laser pulses with various states of matter. These interactions involve electronic and molecular states and yield new information on the underlying fundamental processes that govern the molecular world. Modern day lasers offer ultrashort pulses, high intensities, and complex polarizations and wavefronts. These extreme conditions have profound effect on the optical properties and behaviors of electronic and molecular states within a material. The changes in these mechanisms effect generation of nonlinear optics, such supercontinuum (SC), stimulated Raman (SRS), self-focusing and filamentation, conical emission (CE), …

Blockchain-Based Architecture For Secured Cyberattack Signatures And Features Distribution, Oluwaseyi J. Ajayi

Dissertations and Theses

One effective way of detecting malicious traffic in computer networks is intrusion detection systems (IDS). Despite the increased accuracy of IDSs, distributed or coordinated attacks can still go undetected because of the single vantage point of the IDSs. Due to this reason, there is a need for attack characteristics' exchange among different IDS nodes. Another reason for IDS coordination is that a zero-day attack (an attack without a known signature) experienced in organizations located in different regions is not the same. Collaborative efforts of the participating IDS nodes can stop more attack threats if IDS nodes exchange these attack characteristics …

Coordinated Control For Dc Energy Hubs Involving Ders, Evs, And Subway Systems, Rohama Ahmad

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Development Of Light Actuated Chemical Delivery Platform On A 2-D Array Of Micropore Structure, Hojjat Rostami Azmand, Hojjat Rostami Azmand

Dissertations and Theses

Localized chemical delivery plays an essential role in the fundamental information transfers within biological systems. Thus, the ability to mimic the natural chemical signal modulation would provide significant contributions to understand the functional signaling pathway of biological cells and develop new prosthetic devices for neurological disorders. In this paper, we demonstrate a light-controlled hydrogel platform that can be used for localized chemical delivery in a high spatial resolution. By utilizing the photothermal behavior of graphene-hydrogel composites confined within micron-sized fluidic channels, patterned light illumination creates the parallel and independent actuation of chemical release in a group of fluidic ports. The …

Molecular To Macroscopic Understanding Of Chloroaluminate Anion Intercalation In Rechargeable Aluminum-Graphite Batteries, Jeffrey Xu

Dissertations and Theses

Today’s global energy challenges pose an urgent need to electrify transportation and better store intermittent renewable energy sources (e.g., solar and wind energy). For such large-scale battery applications, aluminum batteries are a promising “beyond lithium-ion” technology due to the high volumetric capacity, earth abundance, low-cost, and inherent safety of aluminum metal. However, there are very few compatible positive electrode materials that exhibit high energy density and cycling stability, in part due to the challenges of electrochemically intercalating highly charged Al³⁺ cations. Recently, graphite has been demonstrated as a promising positive electrode material in non-aqueous rechargeable aluminum batteries, which store …

Control Hierarchies For Critical Infrastructures In Smart Grid Using Reinforcement Learning And Metaheuristic Optimization, Oindrilla Dutta

Dissertations and Theses

The objective of this work is to develop robust control framework for interdependent smart grid infrastructures comprising two critical infrastructures: 1) power distribution networks that are characterized by high penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs), and 2) DC-rail transportation systems in congested urban areas. The rising integration of DERs into the power grid is causing a paradigm shift in the power distribution network. Consequently, new control challenges for efficient and robust operation of the power grid have surfaced. For instance, the intermittency of renewable energy resources necessitates coordinated control of power flows, voltage regulators, and protection device settings of the …

Voltage Security Optimization For Power Transmission Systems, Tamer Ibrahim

Dissertations and Theses

This project proposes an optimization approach for day-ahead reactive power planning to ensure voltage security in transmission networks. The problem is formulated as a voltage-secure multi-period optimal reactive power dispatch (MP-ORPD) problem. The optimization approach searches for optimal set-points of dynamic and static reactive power (var) resources. Specifically, the output includes set-points for switching shunts, transformer taps, and voltage magnitudes at the regulated buses. The primary goal is to maximize the dynamic reactive power reserve of the system, by minimizing the reactive power supplied by synchronous generators. The secondary goal is to minimize changes in the settings of switching shunts …

Nature-Inspired Electrode Materials For Next Generation Sustainable Energy Storage, Mikhail Miroshnikov

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite revolutionizing the world of portable electronics, the contemporary lithium-ion battery (LIB) suffers from challenges associated with the cost, safety, and environmental impact of transition metal oxide-based intercalation cathodes. To alleviate these issues, naturally occurring organic molecules may serve as sustainable alternatives to traditional inorganic cathode materials. The electrochemical properties of organic compounds are derived from redox-active functional groups containing oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur. Additionally, these functional groups are capable of coordinating metal ions beyond lithium, allowing for compatibility with sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) and other earth abundant metal-based energy storage systems. However, despite competitive performance against commercialized cathode materials, much …

Unique Image Representation As A Tensor, Bharat Rosanlall

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis presents a two dimensional orthonormal transform that represents an image as coefficients in 4 independent channels. The salient feature of these coefficients is that they contain complete position spatial frequency information about the image, in a sense that the original image can be reconstructed from these coefficients with negligible error. These coefficients can be used in various machine learning, AI , and other tasks where data features are used. Popular convolutional layer used in various neural networks reduces information and can not reconstruct original image. In this thesis , we present several examples where these coefficients are used …

Influence Graphs For Modeling Of Cascading Failures In Electric Distribution Networks, Muhammad S. Bhatti

Dissertations and Theses

Power Grids are one of the most intricate systems and greatly affect economic, political, and social aspects of contemporary life. A well-operated power system consists of many control devices and protection methods to prevent the interruption of power to consumers. However, such systems are highly vulnerable to severe events; for instance, natural disasters, cyber-attacks, mal-function of control devices, etc. The occurrence of these odd events may lead to cascading failures, which are prominent contributors to blackouts.

This paper focuses on the development of a cascade model in a distribution network using Newton-Raphson’s power flow method to study the impact of …

Recuperation Of Regenerative Braking Energy In Electric Rail Transit Systems, Mahdiyeh Khodaparastan

Dissertations and Theses

Electric rail transit systems are large consumers of energy. In trains with regenerative braking capability, a fraction of the energy used to power a train is regenerated during braking. This regenerated energy, if not properly captured, is typically dumped in the form of heat to avoid overvoltage. Finding a way to recuperate regenerative braking energy can result in substantial economic as well as technical benefits. Regenerative braking energy can be effectively recuperated using wayside energy storage, reversible substations, or hybrid storage/reversible substation systems. In this research study, we compare these recuperation techniques and investigate their application in New York City …

Innovative Applications Of Laser Remote Sensing Of Gases, Aerosols And Wind, Adrian Diaz Fortich

Dissertations and Theses

Over the years, a major component of the research carried out at the Optical Remote Sensing Laboratory of the City College of New York has been on active sensing technologies and their different applications in atmospheric studies. This thesis builds upon and looks to further advance this field by demonstrating innovative applications of laser remote sensing technologies for studies involving trace gases, aerosol particles and wind; which are key components of the Earth’s atmosphere. First, we present the demonstration of gas concentration measurements using a quantum cascade laser open path system with characteristics that make it promising for mobile and/or …

Ict-Enabled Control And Energy Management Of Community Microgrids For Resilient Smart Grid Operation, Mahmoud Saleh

Dissertations and Theses

Our research has focused on developing novel controllers and algorithms to enhance the resilience of the power grid and increase its readiness level against major disturbances.

The U.S. power grid currently encounters two main challenges: (1) the massive and extended blackouts caused by natural disasters, such as hurricane Sandy. These blackouts have raised a national call to explore innovative approaches for enhanced grid resiliency. Scrutinizing how previous blackouts initiated and propagated throughout the power grid, the major reasons are lack of situational awareness, lack of real-time monitoring and control, underdeveloped controllers at both the transmission and distribution levels, and lack …

Improving Retrievals Of Crop Vegetation Parameters From Remote Sensing Data, Nathaniel Levitan

Dissertations and Theses

Agricultural systems are difficult to model because crop growth is driven by the strongly nonlinear interaction of Genotype x Environment x Management (G x E x M) factors. Due to the nonlinearity in the interaction of these factors, the amount of data necessary to develop and utilize models to accurately predict the performance of agricultural systems at an operational scale is large. Satellite remote sensing provides the potential to vastly increase the amount of data available for modelling agricultural systems as a result of its high revisit time and spatial coverage. Unfortunately, there have been significant difficulties in deploying remote …

Internet Of Things: Architecture And Services For Healthcare, Ankita Suvagia Ms.

Dissertations and Theses

Internet of Things (IoT) is a recent prominent collaboration of various technologies that enables spatially distributed devices (“things”) to sense, communicate and share information, thus generating a variety of applications and services in Healthcare. IoT is implemented in multiple domains like Smart city, energy and smart grid, Smart home, weather forecasting, Agriculture, Market and Transportation, Manufacturing and testing industries, Healthcare and many more. IoT serves the purpose of making tasks more efficient and productive and at the same time ensuring quality and reliability. IoT technologies provide an enabling framework for inter-connecting devices, systems, and services that go beyond Machine-to-Machine scenarios …

Sniffing, Decoding And Decryption Of Gsm Signals Using Low Cost Hardware And Open-Source Software, Muhammad Talha Choudhry

Dissertations and Theses

We have participated in the creation of almost two terabytes of tables aimed at cracking A5/1, the most common ciphering algorithm used in GSM. Given 114-bit of known plaintext, we are able to recover the session key with a hit rate of 19%. The tables are expected to be unique as they provide the best coverage yet known to the authors and research workers and they are the first step in a real-world passive attack against GSM. An initial investigation and analysis into the air interface of GSM were performed, from both a theoretical and practical point of view. These …

Software Defined Radio For Hybrid Beamforming Applications, Jianyet Lee

Dissertations and Theses

Beamforming techniques have been deployed in both licensed networks such as LTE network and unlicensed network such as IEEE802.11ac WiFi. The scope of work for this thesis is to leverage the benefits of beamforming techniques and software defined radio platform in developing a fully functioning LTE testbed. The testbed can be further developed to specific application for drone-to-drone or D2D communication independent of intervention from base stations. Applying beamforming techniques to devices such as drones can solve poor quality signal detection at the receivers due to the interference signals generated by other devices in the attempt to communicate with the …

Collaborative Appearance-Based Place Recognition And Improving Place Recognition Using Detection Of Dynamic Objects, Juan Pablo Munoz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation makes contributions to the problem of Long-Term Appearance-Based Place Recognition. We present a framework for place recognition in a collaborative scheme and a method to reduce the impact of dynamic objects on place representations. We demonstrate our findings using a state-of-the-art place recognition approach.

We begin in Part I by describing the general problem of place recognition and its importance in applications where accurate localization is crucial. We discuss feature detection and description and also explain the functioning of several place recognition frameworks.

In Part II, we present a novel framework for collaboration between agents from a pure …

On The Feasibility Of Utilizing Commercial 4g Lte Systems For Misson-Critical Iot Applications, Alfred Rezk

Dissertations and Theses

Emerging Internet of Things (IoT) applications and services including e-healthcare, intelligent transportation systems, smart grid, and smart homes to smart cities to smart workplace, are poised to become part of every aspect of our daily lives. The IoT will enable billions of sensors, actuators, and smart devices to be interconnected and managed remotely via the Internet. Cellular-based Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications is one of the key IoT enabling technologies with huge market potential for cellular service providers deploying Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. There is an emerging consensus that Fourth Generation (4G) and 5G cellular technologies will enable and support these …

Analysis Of The Benefits Of Regenerative Braking In Urban Railway Traction System, Khan M. Adnan

Dissertations and Theses

Increasing environmental awareness and the requirement for lower project costs is forcing transit system suppliers to think more innovatively and engineer more accurately to strengthen their competitive edge. Of late, clients more often desire a system that is optimized to minimize the energy consumed during operation; a requirement that is often imposed upon transit system suppliers through financially binding energy commitments.

Electric rail transit systems are large consumers of energy. In trains with regenerative braking capability, a fraction of the energy used to power a train is regenerated during braking. This regenerated energy, if recuperated and reused, can result in …

A Quantification Analysis On Potential Use Of Recuperated Regenerative Braking Energy From Nyct Subways Into Charging Electric Buses, Ahmed S. Rahman

Dissertations and Theses

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is one of the biggest consumers of electricity in east coast of the United States. According to a report published by Dayton T. Brown in 2013, MTA consumes approximately 2150 GWh electrical energy per year for traction power, where the New York City Transit (NYCT) alone is a consumer of about 80% of the total annual MTA energy consumption. This continuous high demand for electricity from a single organization opens research opportunities to search for alternative ways to reduce the needs. NYCT Subways has an existing total rolling stock of 6,418 train cars …

Energy Management System Of Hybrid Wayside Storage In Urban Railway Traction, Anil Rajpatei

Dissertations and Theses

In a city that never sleeps, NYC, also called the big apple, there is the largest population in the United States with close to 9 million people. In addition, it is the second wealthiest city in the world according to ranking by gross domestic product (GDP). Being such a densely populated city, people cannot only rely on their vehicles as the only source of commute. The alternative is to use mass transit. New York City Transit (NYCT) is the largest mass transit system that offers commuting services via subway or buses. More than half of the population rely on mass …

A Case Study On Grid Impacts Of Electric Vehicles On New York City Power Grid, Amir Abbas Rizvi

Dissertations and Theses

The U.S. electric power industry is anticipating a huge increase in electricity demand in the future due to reformation of the transportation industry. In this work, we focus on electric cars and their impact on the transportation industry as well as the electric grid. The increase in number of electric cars over the years and their growing number indicates that in the future, transportation means are going to largely depend upon electricity to achieve cost and environmental benefits. In other words, in future, the transportation will be impacting the electric grid and vice versa.

The surge in electric vehicles on …

Fossil Fuel Impact Of Buildings Electrification In New York City, Mattia Sartori

Dissertations and Theses

New York City's commitment to reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions 80% by 2050 (80X50) requires a deep citywide conversion from fuel combustion systems to more efficient technologies, such as air-source heat pumps. Moreover, this challenging goal relies also on a much cleaner grid with the majority of electrical generation being provided by renewable sources, such as solar and wind. In this regard, building electrification is being considered as a possible solution in order to reduce emissions and maximize the efficiency of the energy utilization as well as improve the comfort of the indoor environment.

Under the assumption of a cleaner …