Engineering Commons^™

An Investigation Of Information Structures In Dna, Joel Mohrmann

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

The information-containing nature of the DNA molecule has been long known and observed. One technique for quantifying the relationships existing within the information contained in DNA sequences is an entity from information theory known as the average mutual information (AMI) profile. This investigation sought to use principally the AMI profile along with a few other metrics to explore the structure of the information contained in DNA sequences.

Treating DNA sequences as an information source, several computational methods were employed to model their information structure. Maximum likelihood and maximum a posteriori estimators were used to predict missing bases in DNA sequences. …

On The Use Of Machine Learning And Data-Transformation Methods To Predict Hydration Kinetics And Strength Of Alkali-Activated Mine Tailings-Based Binders, Sahil Surehali, Taihao Han, Jie Huang, Aditya Kumar, Narayanan Neithalath

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The escalating production of mine tailings (MT), a byproduct of the mining industry, constitutes significant environmental and health hazards, thereby requiring a cost-effective and sustainable solution for its disposal or reuse. This study proposes the use of MT as the primary ingredient (≥70%mass) in binders for construction applications, thereby ensuring their efficient upcycling as well as drastic reduction of environmental impacts associated with the use of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The early-age hydration kinetics and compressive strength of MT-based binders are evaluated with an emphasis on elucidating the influence of alkali activation parameters and the amount of slag or cement …

Investigating Customer Churn In Banking: A Machine Learning Approach And Visualization App For Data Science And Management, Pahul Preet Singh, Fahim Islam Anik, Rahul Senapati, Arnav Sinha, Nazmus Sakib, Eklas Hossain

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Customer attrition in the banking industry occurs when consumers quit using the goods and services offered by the bank for some time and, after that, end their connection with the bank. Therefore, customer retention is essential in today’s extremely competitive banking market. Additionally, having a solid customer base helps attract new consumers by fostering confidence and a referral from a current clientele. These factors make reducing client attrition a crucial step that banks must pursue. In our research, we aim to examine bank data and forecast which users will most likely discontinue using the bank’s services and become paying customers. …

A Survey On Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning, Songsong Tian, Lusi Li, Weijun Li, Hang Ran, Xin Ning, Prayag Tiwari

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Large deep learning models are impressive, but they struggle when real-time data is not available. Few-shot class-incremental learning (FSCIL) poses a significant challenge for deep neural networks to learn new tasks from just a few labeled samples without forgetting the previously learned ones. This setup can easily leads to catastrophic forgetting and overfitting problems, severely affecting model performance. Studying FSCIL helps overcome deep learning model limitations on data volume and acquisition time, while improving practicality and adaptability of machine learning models. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on FSCIL. Unlike previous surveys, we aim to synthesize few-shot learning and incremental …

Optical Fiber Sensors Based On Advanced Vernier Effect - A Review, Wassana Naku, Jie Huang, Chen Zhu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Optical Vernier Effect Has Emerged as a Powerful Tool for Enhancing the Sensitivity of Optical Fiber Interferometer-Based Sensors, Ushering in a New Era of Highly Sensitive Fiber Sensing Systems. While Previous Research Has Primarily Focused on the Physical Implementation of Vernier Effect-Based Sensors using Different Combinations of Interferometers, Conventional Vernier Sensors Face Several Challenges. These Include the Stringent Requirements on the Sensor Fabrication Accuracy to Achieve a Large Amplification Factor, the Necessity of using a Source with a Very Large Bandwidth and a Bulky Optical Spectrum Analyzer, and the Associated Complex Signal Demodulation Processes. This Article Delves into Recent …

Using Feature Selection Enhancement To Evaluate Attack Detection In The Internet Of Things Environment, Khawlah Harahsheh, Rami Al-Naimat, Chung-Hao Chen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The rapid evolution of technology has given rise to a connected world where billions of devices interact seamlessly, forming what is known as the Internet of Things (IoT). While the IoT offers incredible convenience and efficiency, it presents a significant challenge to cybersecurity and is characterized by various power, capacity, and computational process limitations. Machine learning techniques, particularly those encompassing supervised classification techniques, offer a systematic approach to training models using labeled datasets. These techniques enable intrusion detection systems (IDSs) to discern patterns indicative of potential attacks amidst the vast amounts of IoT data. Our investigation delves into various aspects …

Enhanced Privacy-Enabled Face Recognition Using Κ-Identity Optimization, Ryan Karl

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

Facial recognition is becoming more and more prevalent in the daily lives of the common person. Law enforcement utilizes facial recognition to find and track suspects. The newest smartphones have the ability to unlock using the user's face. Some door locks utilize facial recognition to allow correct users to enter restricted spaces. The list of applications that use facial recognition will only increase as hardware becomes more cost-effective and more computationally powerful. As this technology becomes more prevalent in our lives, it is important to understand and protect the data provided to these companies. Any data transmitted should be encrypted …

Inverse Engineering Of Absorption And Scattering In Nanoparticles: A Machine Learning Approach, Alex Vallone, Nooshin M. Estakhri, Nasim Mohammadi Estrakhri

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We use a region-specified machine learning approach to inverse design highly absorptive multilayer plasmonic nanoparticles. We demonstrate the design of particles with a wide range of absorption to scattering ratios (i.e., cloaked absorbers and bright absorbers) and for different visible wavelengths.

On The Prediction Of The Mechanical Properties Of Limestone Calcined Clay Cement: A Random Forest Approach Tailored To Cement Chemistry, Taihao Han, Bryan K. Aylas-Paredes, Jie Huang, Ashutosh Goel, Narayanan Neithalath, Aditya Kumar

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) is a sustainable alternative to ordinary Portland cement, capable of reducing the binder's carbon footprint by 40% while satisfying all key performance metrics. The inherent compositional heterogeneity in select components of LC3, combined with their convoluted chemical interactions, poses challenges to conventional analytical models when predicting mechanical properties. Although some studies have employed machine learning (ML) to predict the mechanical properties of LC3, many have overlooked the pivotal role of feature selection. Proper feature selection not only refines and simplifies the structure of ML models but also enhances these models' prediction performance and interpretability. This …

Harnessing The Power Of Neural Networks For The Investigation Of Solar-Driven Membrane Distillation Systems Under The Dynamic Operation Mode, Pooria Behnam, Masoumeh Zargar, Abdellah Shafieian, Amir Razmjou, Mehdi Khiadani

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Accurate modeling of solar-driven direct contact membrane distillation systems (DCMD) can enhance the commercialization of these promising systems. However, the existing dynamic mathematical models for predicting the performance of these systems are complex and computationally expensive. This is due to the intermittent nature of solar energy and complex heat/mass transfer of different components of solar-driven DCMD systems (solar collectors, MD modules and storage tanks). This study applies a machine learning-based approach to model the dynamic nature of a solar-driven DCMD system for the first time. A small-scale rig was designed and fabricated to experimentally assess the performance of the system …

Using Machine Learning To Assist Auditory Processing Evaluation, Hasitha Wimalarathna, Sangamanatha Veeranna, Minh Vu Duong, Chris Allan Prof, Sumit K. Agrawal, Prudence Allen, Jagath Samarabandu, Hanif M. Ladak

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Introduction: Approximately 0.2–5% of school-age children complain of listening difficulties in the absence of hearing loss. These children are often referred to an audiologist for an auditory processing disorder (APD) assessment. Adequate experience and training is necessary to arrive at an accurate diagnosis due to the heterogeneity of the disorder.

Objectives: The main goal of the study was to determine if machine learning (ML) can be used to analyze data from the APD clinical test battery to accurately categorize children with suspected APD into clinical sub-groups, similar to expert labels.

Methods: The study retrospectively collected data from 134 children referred …

Cometrics: A New Software Tool For Behavior‑Analytic Clinicians And Machine Learning Researchers, Walker S. Arce, Seth G. Walker, Morgan L. Hurtz

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Cometrics is a Microsoft Windows compatible clinical tool for the collection and recording of frequency- and duration-based target behaviors, physiological signals, and video data. This software package is designed to record in-vivo observational and physiological data. In addition, we have included features that allow observers to capture video from real-time camera feeds and import saved video for retroactive data collection. By using Microsoft Excel-based spreadsheets, also called keystroke files, assessment and treatment sessions are exported into a single document using the click of a button. Integrated interobserver agreement metrics allow comparisons across primary and reliability observers, with the output exported …

Unobtrusive Data Collection In Clinical Settings For Advanced Patient Monitoring And Machine Learning, Walker Arce

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

When applying machine learning to clinical practice, a major hurdle that will be encountered is the lack of available data. While the data collected in clinical therapies is suitable for the types of analysis that are needed to measure and track clinical outcomes, it may not be suitable for other types of analysis. For instance, video data may have poor alignment with behavioral data, making it impossible to extract the videos frames that directly correlate with the observed behavior. Alternatively, clinicians may be exploring new data modalities, such as physiological signal collection, to research methods of improving clinical outcomes that …

Dense & Attention Convolutional Neural Networks For Toe Walking Recognition, Junde Chen, Rahul Soangra, Marybeth Grant-Beuttler, Y. A. Nanehkaran, Yuxin Wen

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Idiopathic toe walking (ITW) is a gait disorder where children’s initial contacts show limited or no heel touch during the gait cycle. Toe walking can lead to poor balance, increased risk of falling or tripping, leg pain, and stunted growth in children. Early detection and identification can facilitate targeted interventions for children diagnosed with ITW. This study proposes a new one-dimensional (1D) Dense & Attention convolutional network architecture, which is termed as the DANet, to detect idiopathic toe walking. The dense block is integrated into the network to maximize information transfer and avoid missed features. Further, the attention modules are …

A Machine Learning Specklegram Wavemeter (Maswave) Based On A Short Section Of Multimode Fiber As The Dispersive Element, Ogbole C. Inalegwu, Rex E. Gerald, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Wavemeters are very important for precise and accurate measurements of both pulses and continuous-wave optical sources. Conventional wavemeters employ gratings, prisms, and other wavelength-sensitive devices in their design. Here, we report a simple and low-cost wavemeter based on a section of multimode fiber (MMF). The concept is to correlate the multimodal interference pattern (i.e., speckle patterns or specklegrams) at the end face of an MMF with the wavelength of the input light source. Through a series of experiments, specklegrams from the end face of an MMF as captured by a CCD camera (acting as a low-cost interrogation unit) were analyzed …

When Less Is More: How Increasing The Complexity Of Machine Learning Strategies For Geothermal Energy Assessments May Not Lead Toward Better Estimates, Stanley P. Mordensky, John Lipor, Jacob Deangelo, Erick R. Burns, Cary R. Lindsey

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Previous moderate- and high-temperature geothermal resource assessments of the western United States utilized data-driven methods and expert decisions to estimate resource favorability. Although expert decisions can add confidence to the modeling process by ensuring reasonable models are employed, expert decisions also introduce human and, thereby, model bias. This bias can present a source of error that reduces the predictive performance of the models and confidence in the resulting resource estimates.

Our study aims to develop robust data-driven methods with the goals of reducing bias and improving predictive ability. We present and compare nine favorability maps for geothermal resources in the …

Investigating The Effects Of Network Dynamics On Quality Of Delivery Prediction And Monitoring For Video Delivery Networks, Obinna C. Izima

Doctoral

Video streaming over the Internet requires an optimized delivery system given the advances in network architecture, for example, Software Defined Networks. Machine Learning (ML) models have been deployed in an attempt to predict the quality of the video streams. Some of these efforts have considered the prediction of Quality of Delivery (QoD) metrics of the video stream in an effort to measure the quality of the video stream from the network perspective. In most cases, these models have either treated the ML algorithms as black-boxes or failed to capture the network dynamics of the associated video streams.

This PhD investigates …

Biocybersecurity And Deterrence: Hypothetical Rwandan Considerations, Issah Samori, Gbadebo Odularu, Lucas Potter, Xavier-Lewis Palmer

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Digitalization and sustainability are popular words within modern disciplines as practitioners each look toward the future of their respective fields. Specifically for the African continent, which is making great strides in developmental targets, those two terms are central to core aspects of policy initiatives that may foster cooperation across its varied lands and nations. One of the underlying challenges that confront Africa is a lack of strong regional integration across socioeconomic and political programs; there is value in African regions having more regional connectedness. We assess the rate of regional integration and development in Africa and discuss how to alleviate …

Heart Disease Prediction Using Stacking Model With Balancing Techniques And Dimensionality Reduction, Ayesha Noor, Nadeem Javaid, Nabil Alrajeh, Babar Mansoor, Ali Khaqan, Safdar Hussain Bouk

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

Heart disease is a serious worldwide health issue with wide-reaching effects. Since heart disease is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, early detection is crucial. Emerging technologies like Machine Learning (ML) are currently being actively used by the biomedical, healthcare, and health prediction industries. PaRSEL, a new stacking model is proposed in this research, that combines four classifiers, Passive Aggressive Classifier (PAC), Ridge Classifier (RC), Stochastic Gradient Descent Classifier (SGDC), and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), at the base layer, and LogitBoost is deployed for the final predictions at the meta layer. The imbalanced and irrelevant features in the …

A Survey On Artificial Intelligence-Based Acoustic Source Identification, Ruba Zaheer, Iftekhar Ahmad, Daryoush Habibi, Kazi Y. Islam, Quoc Viet Phung

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The concept of Acoustic Source Identification (ASI), which refers to the process of identifying noise sources has attracted increasing attention in recent years. The ASI technology can be used for surveillance, monitoring, and maintenance applications in a wide range of sectors, such as defence, manufacturing, healthcare, and agriculture. Acoustic signature analysis and pattern recognition remain the core technologies for noise source identification. Manual identification of acoustic signatures, however, has become increasingly challenging as dataset sizes grow. As a result, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques for identifying noise sources has become increasingly relevant and useful. In this paper, we …

Deep-Learning-Based Classification Of Digitally Modulated Signals Using Capsule Networks And Cyclic Cumulants, John A. Snoap, Dimitrie C. Popescu, James A. Latshaw, Chad M. Spooner

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a novel deep-learning (DL)-based approach for classifying digitally modulated signals, which involves the use of capsule networks (CAPs) together with the cyclic cumulant (CC) features of the signals. These were blindly estimated using cyclostationary signal processing (CSP) and were then input into the CAP for training and classification. The classification performance and the generalization abilities of the proposed approach were tested using two distinct datasets that contained the same types of digitally modulated signals, but had distinct generation parameters. The results showed that the classification of digitally modulated signals using CAPs and CCs proposed in the paper …

Toward Real-Time, Robust Wearable Sensor Fall Detection Using Deep Learning Methods: A Feasibility Study, Haben Yhdego, Christopher Paolini, Michel Audette

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Real-time fall detection using a wearable sensor remains a challenging problem due to high gait variability. Furthermore, finding the type of sensor to use and the optimal location of the sensors are also essential factors for real-time fall-detection systems. This work presents real-time fall-detection methods using deep learning models. Early detection of falls, followed by pneumatic protection, is one of the most effective means of ensuring the safety of the elderly. First, we developed and compared different data-segmentation techniques for sliding windows. Next, we implemented various techniques to balance the datasets because collecting fall datasets in the real-time setting has …

Opioid Use Disorder Prediction Using Machine Learning Of Fmri Data, A. Temtam, Liangsuo Ma, F. Gerard Moeller, M. S. Sadique, K. M. Iftekharuddin, Khan M. Iftekharuddin (Ed.), Weijie Chen (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than 932,000 people in the US have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. Just about 75% of drug overdose deaths in 2020 involved Opioid, which suggests that the US is in an Opioid overdose epidemic. Identifying individuals likely to develop Opioid use disorder (OUD) can help public health in planning effective prevention, intervention, drug overdose and recovery policies. Further, a better understanding of prediction of overdose leading to the neurobiology of OUD may lead to new therapeutics. In recent years, very limited work has been done using statistical …

Transfer Learning Using Infrared And Optical Full Motion Video Data For Gender Classification, Alexander M. Glandon, Joe Zalameda, Khan M. Iftekharuddin, Gabor F. Fulop (Ed.), David Z. Ting (Ed.), Lucy L. Zheng (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This work is a review and extension of our ongoing research in human recognition analysis using multimodality motion sensor data. We review our work on hand crafted feature engineering for motion capture skeleton (MoCap) data, from the Air Force Research Lab for human gender followed by depth scan based skeleton extraction using LIDAR data from the Army Night Vision Lab for person identification. We then build on these works to demonstrate a transfer learning sensor fusion approach for using the larger MoCap and smaller LIDAR data for gender classification.

A Survey Of Using Machine Learning In Iot Security And The Challenges Faced By Researchers, Khawlah M. Harahsheh, Chung-Hao Chen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become more popular in the last 15 years as it has significantly improved and gained control in multiple fields. We are nowadays surrounded by billions of IoT devices that directly integrate with our lives, some of them are at the center of our homes, and others control sensitive data such as military fields, healthcare, and datacenters, among others. This popularity makes factories and companies compete to produce and develop many types of those devices without caring about how secure they are. On the other hand, IoT is considered a good insecure environment for cyber …

A Fiber-Optic Sensor-Embedded And Machine Learning Assisted Smart Helmet For Multi-Variable Blunt Force Impact Sensing In Real Time, Yiyang Zhuang, Taihao Han, Qingbo Yang, Ryan O'Malley, Aditya Kumar, Rex E. Gerald, Jie Huang

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Early on-site diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) will provide the best guidance for clinical practice. However, existing methods and sensors cannot provide sufficiently detailed physical information related to the blunt force impact. In the present work, a smart helmet with a single embedded fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor is developed, which can monitor complex blunt force impact events in real time under both wired and wireless modes. The transient oscillatory signal "fingerprint" can specifically reflect the impact-caused physical deformation of the local helmet structure. By combination with machine learning algorithms, the unknown transient impact can be recognized quickly …

Application Of Machine Learning And Cyber Security In Smart Grid, Soham Dutta Dr.

Technical Collection

Unplanned islanding of microgrids is a major hindrance in providing continuous power supply to the critical loads. The detection of these islanding instants needs to be very fast so that the distributed generators (DG) are able to take control actions in minimum time. Due to high quality data at a rapid rate, micro phasor measurement unit (μ-PMU) are becoming widely popular in distribution system and micro grids. These μ-PMUs can be leveraged for island detection. However, the working of μ-PMU is hugely dependent on communication network for data transmission which is prone to cyber-attacks. In view of the above facts, …

Digital Twin For Hvac Load And Energy Storage Based On A Hybrid Ml Model With Cta-2045 Controls Capability, Rosemary E. Alden, Evan S. Jones, Huangjie Gong, Abdullah Al Hadi, Dan Ionel

Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky Faculty Publications

Building modeling, specifically heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) load and equivalent energy storage calculations, represent a key focus for decarbonization of buildings and smart grid controls. Widely used white box models, due to their complexity, are too computationally intensive to be employed in high resolution distributed energy resources (DER) platforms without simulation time delays. In this paper, an ultra-fast one-minute resolution Hybrid Machine Learning Model (HMLM) is proposed as part of a novel procedure to replicate white box models as an alternative to widespread experimental big data collection. Synthetic output data from experimentally calibrated EnergyPlus models for three existing …

Sers Spectroscopy With Machine Learning To Analyze Human Plasma Derived Sevs For Coronary Artery Disease Diagnosis And Prognosis, Xi Huang, Bo Liu, Shenghan Guo, Weihong Guo, Ke Liao, Guoku Hu, Wen Shi, Mitchell Kuss, Michael J. Duryee, Daniel R. Anderson, Yongfeng Lu, Bin Duan

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the major cardiovascular diseases and represents the leading causes of global mortality. Developing new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for CAD treatment are critically needed, especially for an early accurate CAD detection and further timely intervention. In this study, we successfully isolated human plasma small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) from four stages of CAD patients, that is, healthy control, stable plaque, non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurement in conjunction with five machine learning approaches, including Quadratic Discriminant Analysis, Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbor, Artificial Neural network, were then …

Sers Spectroscopy With Machine Learning To Analyze Human Plasma Derived Sevs For Coronary Artery Disease Diagnosis And Prognosis, Xi Huang, Bo Liu, Shenghan Guo, Weihong Guo, Ke Liao, Guoku Hu, Wen Shi, Mitchell Kuss, Michael J. Duryee, Daniel R. Anderson, Yongfeng Lu, Bin Duan

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the major cardiovascular diseases and represents the leading causes of global mortality. Developing new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for CAD treatment are critically needed, especially for an early accurate CAD detection and further timely intervention. In this study, we successfully isolated human plasma small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) from four stages of CAD patients, that is, healthy control, stable plaque, non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurement in conjunction with five machine learning approaches, including Quadratic Discriminant Analysis, Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbor, Artificial Neural network, were then …