Engineering Commons^™

Libsbolj 2.0: A Java Library To Support Sbol 2.0, Zhen Zhang, Tramy Nguyen, Nicholas Roehner, Goksel Misirli, Matthew Pocock, Ernst Oberortner, Meher Samineni, Zach Zundel, Jacob Beal, Kevin Clancy, Anil Wipat, Chris J. Myers

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) is an emerging data standard for representing synthetic biology designs. The goal of SBOL is to improve the reproducibility of these designs and their electronic exchange between researchers and/or genetic design

Darp-Mp: Dynamically Adaptable Resilient Pipeline Design In Multicore Processors, Hu Chen, Sanghamitra Roy, Koushik Chakraborty

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this article, we demonstrate that the sensitized path delays in various microprocessor pipe stages exhibit intriguing temporal and spatial variations during the execution of real-world applications. To effectively exploit these delay variations, we propose dynamically adaptable resilient pipeline (DARP)-a series of runtime techniques to boost power-performance efficiency and fault tolerance in a pipelined microprocessor. DARP employs early error prediction to avoid amajor portion of the timing errors.We combine DARP with the state-of-art topologically homogeneous and power-performance heterogeneous (THPH) architecture to build up a new frontier for the energy efficiency of multicore processors (DARP-MP). Using a rigorous circuitarchitectural infrastructure, we …

Runtime Detection Of A Bandwidth Denial Attack From A Rogue Network-On-Chip, Rajesh Jayashankarashridevi, Dean Michael Ancajas, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we propose a covert threat model for MPSoCs designed using 3rd party Network-on-Chips (NoC). We illustrate that a malicious NoC can disrupt the availability of on-chip resources, thereby causing large performance bottlenecks for the software running on the MPSoC platform. We then propose a runtime latency auditor that enables an MPSoC integrator to monitor the trustworthiness of the deployed NoC throughout the chip lifetime. For the proposed technique, our comprehensive cross-layer analysis indicates modest overheads of 12.73% in area, 9.844% in power and 5.4% in terms of network latency.

Attacker-Induced Traffic Flow Instability In A Stream Of Automated Vehicles, Daniel D. Dunn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Highway systems world wide continue to see an ever increased number of vehicles and subsequently a rise in congested traffic. This results in longer commute times, wasted energy as vehicles idle in stop and go traffic, and increases the risk of accidents. In short, increased congestion costs time and money. These issues have prompted much research into Automated Highway Systems (AHS). In AHS vehicles using computer algorithms can safely travel at much smaller inter-vehicle distances than human drivers are capable of. This increases the capacity of existing highway systems. Sensors aboard each vehicle make this possible by monitoring their surroundings. …

Characterization Of An E2v Charge-Coupled Device For The Michelson Interferometer For Global High-Resolution Thermospheric Imaging Instrument, James Beukers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis presents the characterization process of an imaging device for a satellite. The camera system was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) and will be used in the Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) instrument for National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Ionospheric Con- nection Explorer (ICON) satellite. This mission will further scientists' understanding of the connection between the Earth's weather and ionospheric conditions. The ionosphere, a part of the atmosphere, interferes with satellite communications, causing disturbances and disruptions. By learning more about the ionosphere through the data collected by this instrument, scientists will better understand …

Tackling Voltage Emergencies In Noc Through Timing Error Resilience., Rajesh Jayashankarashridevi, Dean Michael Ancajas, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Aggressive technology scaling exacerbates the problem of voltage emergencies in emerging MPSoC systems. Network-on-Chips, the de-facto standard for connecting on-chip components in forthcoming devices play a central role in providing robust and reliable communication. In this work, we propose DrNoC (droop resilient network-on-chip)-two microarchitectural techniques to mitigate voltage emergency-induced timing errors in NoCs and preserve error-free communication throughout the network. DrNoC employs frequency downscaling and a pipeline error-recovery mechanism to reclaim corrupted flits in the router. Compared to the recently proposed NSFTR fault-tolerant technique, DrNoC offers a 27% improvement in energy-delay efficiency.

Opportunistic Turbo Execution In Ntc: Exploiting The Paradigm Shift In Performance Bottlenecks., Hu Chen, Dieudonne Manzi, Sanghamitra Roy, Koushik Chakraborty

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we investigate an intriguing shifting trend in performance bottlenecks for Near-Threshold Computing (NTC) processors. Our study demonstrates that the traditional memory latency bottleneck is largely superseded by the bottlenecks of Long Latency Datapaths (LLDs) within a processor core. To exploit this paradigm shift, we propose Opportunistic Turbo Execution (OTE). OTE dynamically boosts the performance of LLDs, by several factors, improving both performance and energy efficiency in an NTC core. Using a comprehensive circuit-architectural analysis, we demonstrate a 42.2% improvement in energy efficiency over a recently proposed technique, across a range of benchmarks.

Remote Heart Rate Estimation Using Consumer-Grade Cameras, Nathan E. Ruben

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

There are many ways in which the remote non-contact detection of the human heart rate might be useful. This is especially true if it can be done using inexpensive equipment such as consumer-grade cameras. Many studies and experiments have been performed in recent years to help reliably determine the heart rate from video footage of a person. The methods have taken an analysis approach which involves temporal Itering and frequency spectrum examination. This study attempts to answer questions about the noise sources which inhibit these methods from estimating the heart rate. Other statistical processes are examined for their use in …

Design Of Reliable And Secure Network-On-Chip Architectures, Dean Michael B Ancajas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The trend towards massive parallel computing has necessitated the need for an On-Chip communication framework that can scale well with the increasing number of cores. At the same time, technology scaling has made transistors susceptible to a multitude of reliability issues. This dissertation demonstrates design techniques that address both reliability and security issues facing modern NoC architectures. The reliability and security problem is tackled at different abstraction levels using a series of schemes that combine information from the architecture-level as well as hardware-level in order to combat aging effects and meet secure design stipulations while maintaining modest power-performance overheads.

Two Types Of Conformal Antennas For Small Spacecrafts, Salahuddin Tariq

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spacecraft and vehicular bodies often require antennas that are conformal to their surface. The advantage of this choice is that they do not suffer from air drag or breakage and can be formed into any desirable shape. We can make them to operate at those frequencies at which simple wire antennas will require considerably longer length. Our thesis is about conformal antenna design for two space projects. The first project involves an array of patch antennas placed on multi-layer cylindrical substrate. Four of these antennas are S-band and four of them are GPS-band antennas. The second project deals with the …

Smart Carabiner, Craig Manning

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Users of common climbing safety equipment rarely understand exactly the loads and forces they are exerting on the equipment at a given time. All climbing equipment comes with a certified safety rating for the amount of force, in kilonewtons, that particular piece of equipment can take. Unfortunately, calculating dynamic load strain on-the-fly is nearly impossible. There needs to be a reliable, easy way of knowing exactly what load is being placed on a piece of equipment at any given point of time.

Mimicking Robotic Backhoe, Taylor Chad Bybee

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The proposed project is to design and create a small robotic arm that mimics movements of a similar physical model. The manual model can be manipulated by a human. Sensors inside the manual model will detect the position in each part of the arm. The information from the sensors will then be relayed, processed, and forwarded to the mimicking model. The mimicking robotic model will appropriately respond to match the smaller model, thus mimicking its position and movements.

Lateral Control Of A Vehicle Platoon, Samuel A. Mitchell

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Multiple lateral control systems are analyzed for use in a vehicle platoon system. In order to ensure the safety of the vehicle platoon, the system must operate under three constraints: (1) accurate path following, (2) string stability, and (3) functionality in the presence of noise. Computer simulations are employed to analyze candidates according to the safety requirements. Actual vehicle kinematics and nonlinearities - limits on turn radius, velocity, and acceleration - are included in this analysis.

Successful control system candidates are implemented in a platoon of five differential-steer vehicles. The sensing and communication requirements of the control system are discussed. …

Optimization And Control Of Lumped Transmitting Coil-Based In-Motion Wireless Power Transfer Systems, Nazmul Hasan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis explores optimization and control aspects of in-motion electric vehicle charging. The vision is of an electrified roadway, where the vehicles can move and charge at the same time. The present systems have long tracks embedded in the roadway which transfer energy. This thesis explores smaller coils in the road, which has the promise of higher efficiency and lower volt ampere ratings. The promise can only be realized through optimized design and synchronized control of charging with respect to vehicle position. The existing design procedures lack comprehensiveness, require designer experience and use computationally costly 3D FEM algorithms. The proposed …

Microscopic Modeling Of Crowds Involving Individuals With Physical Disability: Exploring Social Force Interaction, Daniel S. Stuart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Nearly one quarter of a population is affected by a disability which influences crowd evacuation. Emergencies such as stampede or crowd crush can occur during evacuations. While research has investigated crowd evacuation, little has been researched involving individuals with disabilities. There is a need to understand and model individuals with disabilities in their interaction and how it impacts crowd movement. This dissertation creates a video tracking system to study heterogeneous crowds with individuals with disabilities towards conducting crowd experiments. A large-scale crowd experiment is conducted and the results are analyzed through a developed analysis graphical user interface. Preliminary results of …

Automatic Registration Of Fused Lidar/Digital Imagery (Texel Images) For Three-Dimensional Image Creation, Scott E. Budge, Neeraj S. Badamikar, Xuan Xie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Several photogrammetry-based methods have been proposed that the derive three-dimensional (3-D) information from digital images from different perspectives, and lidar-based methods have been proposed that merge lidar point clouds and texture the merged point clouds with digital imagery. Image registration alone has difficulty with smooth regions with low contrast, whereas point cloud merging alone has difficulty with outliers and a lack of proper convergence in the merging process. This paper presents a method to create 3-D images that uses the unique properties of texel images (pixel-fused lidar and digital imagery) to improve the quality and robustness of fused 3-D images. …

Wearout Resilience In Nocs Through An Aging Aware Adaptive Routing Algorithm, Dean Michael Ancajas, Kshitij Bhardwaj, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Continuous technology scaling has made aging mechanisms, such as negative bias temperature instability and electromigration primary concerns in network-on-chip (NoC) designs. In this paper, we extensively analyze the effects of these aging mechanisms on NoC routers and links. We observe a critical need of a robust aging-aware routing algorithm that not only reduces power-performance overheads caused due to aging degradation, but also minimizes the stress experienced by heavily utilized routers and links. To solve this problem, we propose an aging-aware adaptive routing algorithm and a router microarchitecture that routes the packets along the paths, which are both least congested and …

Textured Digital Elevation Model Formation From Low-Cost Uav Ladar/Digital Image Data, Taylor C. Bybee, Scott Budge

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Textured digital elevation models (TDEMs) have valuable use in precision agriculture, situational awareness, and disaster response. However, scientific-quality models are expensive to obtain using conventional aircraft-based methods. The cost of creating an accurate textured terrain model can be reduced by using a low-cost (<$20k) UAV system fitted with ladar and electro-optical (EO) sensors. A texel camera fuses calibrated ladar and EO data upon simultaneous capture, creating a texel image. This eliminates the problem of fusing the data in a post-processing step and enables both 2D- and 3D-image registration techniques to be used. This paper describes formation of TDEMs using simulated data from a small UAV gathering swaths of texel images of the terrain below. Being a low-cost UAV, only a coarse knowledge of position and attitude is known, and thus both 2D- and 3D-image registration techniques must be used to register adjacent swaths of texel imagery to create a TDEM. The process of creating an aggregate texel image (a TDEM) from many smaller texel image swaths is de- scribed. The algorithm is seeded with the rough estimate of position and attitude of each capture. Details such as the required amount of texel image overlap, registration models, simulated flight patterns (level and turbulent), and texture image formation are presented. In addition, examples of such TDEMs are shown and analyzed for accuracy.

Synthetic Biology Open Language (Sbol) Version 2.0.0, Bryan Bartley, Jacob Beal, Kevin Clancy, Goksel Misirli, Nicholas Roehner, Ernst Oberortner, Matthew Pocock, Michael Bissell, Curtis Madsen, Tramy Nguyen, Zhen Zhang, John H. Gennari, Chris Myers, Anil Wipat, Herbert Sauro

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Synthetic biology builds upon the techniques and successes of genetics, molecular biology, and metabolic engineering by applying engineering principles to the design of biological systems. The field still faces substantial challenges, including long devel

Smart Laboratory Instrument Control Framework, Kevin Scott Kennedy

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The collection of experimental results in power electronic research requires the coordination of a wide variety of laboratory instrument. Depending on the type of results required, each data point can take a few minutes to collect. This process becomes time consuming when a large number of data points is needed and detracts from long-term research objectives. While there are industry standards that specify communication with these devices, many equipment vendors elect not to follow the standards and use their own protocols for communication. This project provides a framework for developing a smart and connected lab. This includes hardware and software …