Engineering Commons^™

Zebra: Zebra Finch Expression Brain Atlas—A Resource For Comparative Molecular Neuroanatomy And Brain Evolution Studies, Peter V. Lovell, Morgan Wirthlin, Taylor Kaser, Alexa A. Buckner, Julia B. Carleton, Brian R. Snider, Anne K. Mchugh, Alexander Tolpygo, Partha P. Mitra, Claudio V. Mello

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

An in-depth understanding of the genetics and evolution of brain function and behavior requires a detailed mapping of gene expression in functional brain circuits across major vertebrate clades. Here we present the Zebra finch Expression Brain Atlas (ZEBrA; www.zebrafinchatlas.org, RRID: SCR_012988), a web-based resource that maps the expression of genes linked to a broad range of functions onto the brain of zebra finches. ZEBrA is a first of its kind gene expression brain atlas for a bird species and a first for any sauropsid. ZEBrA's >3,200 high-resolution digital images of in situ hybridized sections for ~650 genes (as of June …

Plagiarism Detection Avoidance Methods And Countermeasures, Brian R. Snider

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Plagiarism is a major problem that educators face in the information age. Today's plagiarist has a near limitless supply of well-written articles via the internet. Due to the scale of the problem, detecting plagiarism has now become the domain of the computer scientist rather than the educator. With the use of computers, documents can be conveniently scanned into a plagiarism detection system that references public web pages, academic journals, and even previous students' papers, acting as an "all-seeing eye."

However, plagiarists can overcome these digital content detection systems with the use of clever masking and substitutions techniques. These systems cost …

Teaching Security Defense Through Web-Based Hacking At The Undergraduate Level, Brent Wilson

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

The attack surface for hackers and attackers is growing every day. Future cybersecurity professionals must have the knowledge and the skills to defend against these cyber attacks. Learning defensive techniques and tools can help defend against today’s attacks but what about tomorrow's? As the types of attacks change so must the cybersecurity professional. The only way for the cybersecurity professional to achieve this nimbleness is to understand the structural anatomy of the various attack types. Understanding the threat environment is the key to future success. Security defense through offensive techniques should and can be taught at the undergraduate level. Using …

Estimation Of Localized Ideal Oximetry Sensor Lag Via Oxygen Desaturation-Disordered Breathing Event Cross-Correlation, Brian Snider, A Kain

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

In previous work, we attempted to identify events using sensor data from full-night polysomnography studies using a global 20-second oximetry sensor lag across all studies. However, we observed that oxygen desaturation onset trailed the corresponding human expert-labeled events by varying amounts of time, even within the same study. In this work, we estimate the localized ideal oximetry (SpO₂) sensor lag using the cross-correlation between the labeled disordered breathing event and the observed desaturation.

Ongoing Development And Evaluation Of An Engineering Service Course, Mike Foster, Gary Spivey

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

George Fox University has a service-learning course required of all engineering program graduates. The course began in 2010 as a one-credit per semester, four-semester sequence starting in the spring of the sophomore year. This structure provided an overlap of students in their first and second year in the course. All student teams met concurrently one evening per week to work on faculty-provided projects. Each faculty member was responsible for approximately four teams. Faculty and students began each year of the program with excitement, but over time, a number of significant challenges emerged, among these the explosive growth of the George …

Easy Distributed Grid Architecture For Research: Easy Access To Supercomputing, Brent Wilson

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Current distributed systems present many challenges for students who may not be very skilled at programming parallel applications for use on such systems. Grid computing is a cost effective means of providing supercomputing computation for both scientists and students of computing. Easy Distributed Grid Architecture for Research (EDGAR) is a grid computing solution that meets two critical constraints, namely ease of application programming for users and platform independence in implementation. Satisfying these two constraints makes EDGAR one of the only time and cost effective grid computing solutions. EDGAR creates an easy of use high performance solution for scientists and students …

Preparing Engineers For Service, Mike Foster, Gary Spivey

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

George Fox University has a strong service mentality. As the result of the university’s “Serve Day” at the Oregon School for the Blind, faculty members developed a passion to connect engineering students with service opportunities that require a technical solution. In the spring of 2010, the engineering department initiated a course sequence required for all engineering students. The program affiliated with the EPICS program (started at Purdue University) and utilized much of their course material for documenting the design process.

Students’ initial excitement for the course waned as they began to feel burdened by the large documentation requirements; the instructors …

The Chirps Prototyping System, Gary Spivey

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Oregon State University has been a pioneer in developing a “Platform for Learning” using their TekBots platform as a fundamental part of their electrical and computer engineering curriculum. At George Fox University, we fundamentally affirm this concept of a “Platform for Learning,” but we additionally desire a “Platform for Prototyping.” By “Platform for Prototyping,” we mean a platform that will enable our engineering students to create significant engineering projects as part of a myriad of service-learning projects, student research, course projects, and the senior capstone experience. To be effective across our curriculum, this system must not only be usable by …

Wanted: Trained Security Specialists', Brent Wilson, Jim Aman, Josée Bourget

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

This paper looks at security concerns within the IT industry and how to increase student interest in this field of study. One specific activity is presented as a way to expose students to security concerns they are likely to encounter as a system administrator.

Observations Upon Entering The Kettle, Gary Spivey

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

An oft told parable relates how a frog, when dropped in a kettle of hot water, will instantly jump out. But if you drop that frog in a kettle of cold water, and slowly heat it up, the frog will not be aware of the gradual change in its environment and will die in the kettle. I had formerly limited the kettle analogy to the broad concepts of the “worldly culture” alluded to by pastors who use this imagery. Then, after completing educational experience at major state universities and a fifteen year career in industry, I decided to enter upon …

Logic Foundry: Rapid Prototyping For Fpga-Based Dsp Systems, Gary Spivey

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

We introduce the Logic Foundry, a system for the rapid creation and integration of FPGA-based digital signal processing systems. Recognizing that some of the greatest challenges in creating FPGA-based systems occur in the integration of the various components, we have proposed a system that targets the following four areas of integration: design flow integration, component integration, platform integration, and software integration. Using the Logic Foundry, a system can be easily specified, and then automatically constructed and integrated with system level software.

Meade: A Modular, Extensible, Adaptable Design Environment For Asic And Fpga Development, Gary Spivey

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

We present MEADE, a Modular, Extensible, Adaptable Design Environment. MEADE has been developed to answer the need for an adaptive design framework for encapsulation of Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools and management of the massive amounts of data associated with the design process. Other frameworks have existed but lacked the critical open source requirement that enables rapid adaptation to a rapidly advancing design methodology. While the initial application and development of MEADE is targeted toward ASIC and FPGA design, the MEADE engine can be easily adapted to abstract any procedural application.

MEADE allows the definition of procedures, which are defined …

Applications Of Object Database Technology In Thermodynamics And Materials Science, R Venkatesh, David Hansen, David Maier, James T. Stanley Ii

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Over the last few decades there has been a continual development of computer programs and databases directed at storage and manipulation of scientific data. The data these programs manipulate are typically kept in a proprietary format with little thought given to portability, upgrading or interfacing with other software. Hence, there is an inability to share data across programs of between data sources. We believe that many of the difficulties with sharing scientific data and building on previous computational efforts result from the incompatibility of programs and data in the scientific domain. We are involved in exploring an alternative data management …

Characterization Of A Resistive Half Plane Over A Resistive Sheet, John R. Natzke, John L. Volakis

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

The diffraction of a resistive half plane over a planar resistive sheet under plane wave illum1ination is determined via the dual integral equation method (a variation of the Wiener-Hopf method). The solution is obtained upon splitting the associated Wiener-Hopf functions via a numerically efficient routine. Based on the derived exact half plane dliffraction coefficient, a simplified equivalent model of the structure is developed when the separation of the half plane and resistive plane is on the order of a tenth of a wavelength or less. The model preserves the geometrical optics field of the original structure for all angles and …

Electric Fields Of An H-Plane Tapered Iris, John R. Natzke, T. Koryu Ishii

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Microwave electric fields of an X -band H -plane tapered iris are calculated and plotted using the moment method for the first time. The moment method results are compared with previously obtained experimental measurements and numerical results based on an equivalent circuit approach, giving confirmation that the tapered iris is both a reciprocal and asymmetrical network. The moment method results now reveal that the asymmetry stems from the asymmetry in the phase of the input and output voltage reflection coefficients, their magnitudes being equal.

Electromagnetic Field Plot Of An Inductive Window By The Moment Method, John R. Natzke, Mark R. Wolski, Thomas Koryu Ishii

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

A moment method is used to plot the electromagnetic field of an inductive window in a TE10 -mode rectangular waveguide. Green's dyadic functions are derived based on Tai's approach, which is a modified form of Hansen's vector wave functions. Based on the computed electric fields, the S matrix and the equivalent aperture reactance of the waveguide window are calculated. This calculation agrees with the previously published closed-form results of Marcuvitz.

Scattering By A Narrow Gap In An Impedance Plane, John R. Natzke

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

No abstract provided.