Engineering Commons^™

Implementation And Evaluation Of Gated Recurrent Unit For Speech Separation And Speech Enhancement, Sagar V. Shah

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Hearing aids, automatic speech recognition (ASR) and many other communication systems work well when there is just one sound source with almost no echo, but their performance degrades in situations where more speakers are talking simultaneously or the reverberation is high. Speech separation and speech enhancement are core problems in the field of audio signal processing. Humans are remarkably capable of focusing their auditory attention on a single sound source within a noisy environment, by de-emphasizing all other voices and interferences in surroundings. This capability comes naturally to us humans. However, speech separation remains a significant challenge for computers. It …

Aluminum And Silicon Metal-Semiconductor-Metal (Msm) X-Ray Photodetector, Cinthya Dallana Barbosa Medina

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The main goal of this research was to construct a metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) device, that could detect x-rays. The following thesis covers the theory behind MSM devices, as well as the theory of detecting x-rays. More importantly, we showed that aluminum was transparent to x-rays, therefore allowing our MSM device to detect only x-rays.

Both p-type and n-type MSM wafers resulted in the predicted Schottky curve. By analyzing our various configurations, we hypothesis the ideal dimensions for this device configuration. We also showed that the effect caused by the interaction with regular light.

Apart from what was accomplished in this paper …

Fabrication Of Ultra-Fine Cathodes For Cold-Field Emission, Srujana Valluri

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis discusses the different fabrication steps involved in producing ultra-fine cathodes that are suitable for cold field emission. A four-step nanofabrication process has been developed to obtain the cathodes with tip diameters ranging from 10nm to 20 nm. First, a mask is patterned on a 2-inch silicon wafer using monodisperse 1.18µm silica spheres. These particles are self-assembled using vortex-flow enabled assembly technique to form close-packed monolayers. Then the silicon is etched using a reactive ion etching technique. An inductively coupled plasma etcher is used to perform anisotropic and isotropic etching. The etching recipes used are chosen such that they …

The Effects Of Using A Mobile Digital Assistive Tutor For Circuit Analysis On Students’ Academic Achievement, Problem-Solving And Self-Efficacy, Kenie Moses

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This experimental research study examined the effects of using a mobile learning environment (MLE) that provided scaffolded assistive tutoring on student achievement in a Circuit Analysis (Network Theory) course. It also aimed to examine the relationships between students’ user learning analytics and their learning outcomes. The design and development of the mobile app was based on the Model of Contingent Instruction and Metacognitive Support which critically applies scaffolding as its operative in transferring domain knowledge in expert to novice problem-solving.

This experimental research study collected data from eighty-three undergraduate college students who were randomly assigned into one of three groups …

Improving Link Quality Estimation In Zigbee Networks, Srikar Meka

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Estimation of links in a Wireless Sensor Network and using such estimates to decide between all the multiple paths available in a network is important. There are several link estimation methods available. This thesis evaluates the performance of PRR based method (P-success method), suggested in the ZigBee specification and LQI based method (LQI method) used by different organizations, in various scenarios. The performance of these two link cost estimation methods is also compared under Wi-Fi interference. This comparison is done using a network simulator (NS3). It is observed that, if there is no Wi-Fi interference, both the P-success and LQI …