Engineering Commons^™

Analysis Of Factors Affecting Technological Innovativeness In Engineering Enterprises In Tanzania, Emanuel Mjema

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

This paper discusses the technological innovativeness in engineering enterprises in Tanzania and analyses the factors affecting the innovativeness. It starts by analyzing various concepts regarding innovation, then analyzed from documentary review factors affecting innovativeness and then analyzed the innovativeness in Tanzanian enterprises. From the documentary review it was learnt that the following key factors influence technological innovativeness: Existence of innovation management; Existence of market to absorb the products of innovation; Existence of partnership between the universities and the firms; Existence of positive culture and politics towards innovation; The government playing its role to influence innovation; Existence of the right knowledge; …

Optimal Tuning Of System Stabilizer Parameters Using Pbil With Adaptive Learning Rate, K. A. Folly, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents an optimal tuning of Power System Stabilizers (PSS) for a multi-machine power system using Population-Based Incremental Learning (PBIL) algorithm with adaptive learning rate. the proposed (APBIL) algorithm can adjust the learning rate automatically according to the degree of evolution of the search. the objective of the design is to achieve adequate stability over a wide range of operating conditions. the proposed controller is compared with traditional PBIL with fixed learning rate (PBIL) and tested under various operating conditions. Simulation results show that the APBIL based PSS provides a more efficient search capability and gives a better damping …

Voltage Prediction Using A Cellular Network, Lisa L. Grant, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Better identification tools are needed for power system voltage profile prediction. the power systems of the future will see an increase in both renewable energy sources and load demand increasing the need for quick estimation of bus voltages and line power flows for system security and contingency analysis. a Cellular Simultaneous Recurrent Neural Network (CSRN) to identify and predict bus voltage dynamics is presented in this paper. the benefit of using a cellular structure over traditional neural network architectures is that the network can represent a direct mapping of any power system allowing for easier scalability to large power systems. …

Gms Considering Uncertainty In Wind Power In A Wind-Hydrothermal Power System, Y. Yare, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An optimal preventive generator maintenance scheduling (GMS) in a smart grid environment comprising wind-hydrothermal energy resources is presented in this paper. GMS problem is solved with the aim of maximizing economic benefits subject to satisfying system constraints. This GMS formulation becomes a challenging problem because of the variability and intermittency of wind speed and the incorporation of uncertainty in wind generation. the objective is to perform preventive GMS in such a manner that the annual generation cost is minimized, the annual cost saving is increased while all operating constraints are satisfied in the presence of uncertainty in wind generation. Discrete …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2010, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

Bio-Inspired Algorithms For Autonomous Deployment And Localization Of Sensor Nodes, Raghavendra V. Kulkarni, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Optimal deployment and accurate localization of sensor nodes have a strong influence on the performance of a wireless sensor network (WSN). This paper considers real-time autonomous deployment of sensor nodes from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Such a deployment has importance, particularly in ad hoc WSNs, for emergency applications, such as disaster monitoring and battlefield surveillance. the objective is to deploy the nodes only in the terrains of interest, which are identified by segmentation of the images captured by a camera on board the UAV. Bioinspired algorithms, particle swarm optimization (PSO) and bacterial foraging algorithm (BFA), are presented in this …

The Circuit, Fall 2010, Department Of Electrical And Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Newsletters

Table of Contents

• Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiatives at Michigan Tech
• Tech Receives $3 Million to Develop EV Education Programs
• ECE Student Brings Laptops to Ghana
• Tech's Online Power Engineering Program Marks 10th Anniversary
• Dave House: Why Research is Key to the Future of Tech and to ECE
• Alumni Gifts Fund New Center for Computer Systems Research
• Faculty and Student News

Opportunistic Cooperation For Multi-Antenna Multi-Relay Networks, Weiliang Zeng, Chengshan Xiao, Youzheng Wang, Jianhua Lu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A low-complexity, near-optimal transmit antenna selection algorithm is proposed for multi-relay networks where all nodes are equipped with multiple antennas. We first establish a system model and a unified capacity maximization framework for a two-hop opportunistic relaying scheme where the source node (S) transmits signals to multiple relay nodes (R) in the first time slot, and the selected relay antennas and their corresponding relay nodes receive, decode and forward the messages to the destination (D) in the second time slot. based on the system model, we develop a transmit antenna selection algorithm that maximizes the network capacity assuming that the …

Iphone 3gs Forensics: Logical Analysis Using Apple Itunes Backup Utility, Mona Bader, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The iPhone mobile is used worldwide due to its enhanced computing capabilities, increased storage capacity as well as its attractive touch interface. These characteristics made the iPhone a popular smart phone device. The increased use of the iPhone lead it to become a potential source of digital evidence in criminal investigations. Therefore, iPhone forensics turned into an essential practice for forensic and security practitioners today. This research aimed at investigating and examining the logical backup acquisition of the iPhone 3GS mobile device using the Apple iTunes backup utility. It was found that significant data of forensic value such as e-mail …

Efficient Utilization Of Renewable Energy Sources By Gridable Vehicles In Cyber-Physical Energy Systems, Ahmed Yousuf Saber, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The main sources of emission today are from the electric power and transportation sectors. One of the main goals of a cyber-physical energy system (CPES) is the integration of renewable energy sources and grid able vehicles (GVs) to maximize emission reduction. GVs can be used as loads, sources and energy storages in CPES. a large CPES is very complex considering all conventional and green distributed energy resources, dynamic data from sensors, and smart operations (e.g., charging/discharging, control, etc.) from/to the grid to reduce both cost and emission. If large number of GVs are connected to the electric grid randomly, peak …

Architectural Considerations For Single Operator Management Of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Gabriel T. Bugajski

Theses and Dissertations

Recently, small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have become ubiquitous in military battlefield operations due to their intelligence collection capabilities. However, these unmanned systems consistently demonstrate limitations and shortfalls with respect to size, weight, range, line of sight and information management. The United States Air Force Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047 describes an action plan for improved UAS employment which calls out single operator, multi-vehicle mission configurations. This thesis analyzes the information architecture using future concepts of operations, such as biologically-inspired flocking mechanisms. The analysis and empirical results present insight into the engineering of single-operator multiple-vehicle architectures.

Systems Engineering Analysis And Digital Communication Bus Design For The Cal Poly Super Project, Matt Marcus Camack

Master's Theses

With an expected lifetime of 20 years and an expected cost of $500, the Cal Poly Sustainable Power for Electrical Resources (SuPER) project needed a strong central design. This thesis looks at the work completed by students over the previous 5 years, with an eye on the future, to create the phase 2 design. Part of this new structure focuses on a distributed communication bus for monitoring system health and status. Instead of complex and costly computer or FPGA systems, the new system will run solely with microcontrollers. This reduces costs and will hopefully still be used within 5, 10, …

Air Piston Approach To Wave Power Generation, Arun Ramadass

Theses

Scientists have calculated that, by tapping just 0.2% of the energy produced by the world's oceans we can provide for all the worlds current energy needs. It is generally accepted that a combination of traditional energy production methods, (oil, coal, gas, nuclear) mixed with a combination of renewable energy production approaches is the future in providing for an increasingly energy hungry world. Wind, solar and biomass have moved into the public arena only in the last few years.

The proposed patented device (US Patent No.: 7,468,563) Ocean Wave Energy Converter harnesses the energy of ocean waves by continually raising and …

Gate 3 Grid Connection Group Processing Approach:An Analysis, John Leahy

Msc. in Energy Management

The aim of this project is to analyse the Group Processing Approach (the “GPA”) to renewable generator grid connections, and in particular the Gate 3 process which is the latest round of the GPA that is currently being implemented in the Republic of Ireland, to determine if it is the most effective approach for connecting new renewable generation. Gate 3 is the third series of the GPA for connecting renewable generation to the Irish Electricity grid where applications are processed in groups or batches. The size of the Gate 3 has bee capped at 3,900MW with applicants being selected based …

Architecture, Inertial Navigation, And Payload Designs For Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Personal Remote Sensing, Calvin Coopmans

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis presents work done towards a Personal Remote Sensing (PRS) system: small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with electronic, control, and sensing subsystems. Based on papers presented to conferences (AutoTestCon2008 and MESA2009), as well as other work on PRS, multiple levels of engineering are detailed: complex multi-UAV data flow; attitude estimation filters; real-time microprocessor functionality; and small, mobile power systems. Wherever possible, Open-Source tools and designs have been used, modified, or studied, providing excellent cost to performance ratios in most cases. First, the overall PRS UAV architecture, AggieAir, is presented with a motivating examples (GhostEye and EagleEye camera payloads). Then, …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2010, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Each student in his or her senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. The senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real-world solution to an engineering challenge.

A highlight of the year-long senior design project is the senior design competition. This competition, which usually takes place the week before finals each semester, helps focus the senior students on increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects.

Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on innovation, commercial …

Modeling And Analysis Of Low Earth Orbit Satellite And Ground Station Data Exchange Topology, Ersin Kocoglu

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In order to utilize space effectively, the primary function of satellite control in orbit around the Earth must be accomplished. This controlling process includes two main segments, ground stations serving as the controller units and orbiting satellites as the units to be controlled. This thesis explores a topological data exchange model that contains one satellite and multiple ground stations. The model is implemented in digital computer software. This model has multiple purposes and can be used to simulate satellite passes over ground stations and can also be used to predict communication time and the amount of transferred data. The model …

Acoustic Censusing Using Automatic Vocalization Classification And Identity Recognition, Kuntoro Adi, Michael T. Johnson, Tomasz S. Osiejuk

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper presents an advanced method to acoustically assess animal abundance. The framework combines supervised classification (song-type and individual identity recognition), unsupervised classification (individual identity clustering), and the mark-recapture model of abundance estimation. The underlying algorithm is based on clustering using hidden Markovmodels (HMMs) and Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) similar to methods used in the speech recognition community for tasks such as speaker identification and clustering. Initial experiments using a Norwegian ortolan bunting (Emberiza hortulana) data set show the feasibility and effectiveness of the approach. Individually distinct acoustic features have been observed in a wide range of animal …

Recurrent Neural Networks Based Impedance Measurement Technique For Power Electronic Systems, Peng Xiao, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Keith Corzine, Jing Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

When designing and building power systems that contain power electronic switching sources and loads, system integrators must consider the frequency-dependent impedance characteristics at an interface to ensure system stability. Stability criteria have been developed in terms of source and load impedance, and it is often necessary to measure system impedance through experiments. Traditional injection-based impedance measurement techniques require multiple online testing that lead to many disadvantages, including prolonged test time, operating point variations, and impedance values at limited frequency points. The impedance identification method proposed in this paper greatly reduces online testing time by modeling the system with recurrent neural …

Thermal Robotic Arm Controlled Spraying Via Robotic Arm And Vision System, Dermot Breen

Doctoral

The Tribology Surface Engineering industry is a worldwide multi billion euro industry with significant health and safety risks. The thermal spraying sector of this industry employs the technique of applying molten surface coating material to a substrate via a thermal spray process which is implemented either by manual spraying or pre-programmed robotic systems. The development of autonomous robotic systems for thermal spraying surface coating would significantly improve production and profitability over pre-programmed systems and improve health and safety over manual spraying. The aim of this research was to investigate and develop through software simulation, physical modelling and testing the development …

Dynamic Reconfiguration And Control Of Smart Power Systems, Pinaki Mitra

Doctoral Dissertations

"To address the increasing demand and complexity, modern power systems need intelligence at almost all levels which can transform them into 'smart' power systems. The term 'smart power systems' not only refers to the terrestrial power systems with a significant penetration of distributed energy resources and energy storage such as plug-in electric vehicle parking lots (SmartParks), but also includes other isolated power systems, such as the power systems of naval electric ships. The research presented in this dissertation contributes to the dynamic reconfiguration and control of both terrestrial and ship power system with the application of computational intelligence methods.

In …

2008 Solar Technologies Market Report, U.S. Department Of Energy

Publications (E)

This report focuses on the U.S. solar electricity market, including photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies. The report provides an overview of global and U.S. installation trends. It also presents production and shipment data, material and supply chain issues, and solar industry employment trends. It also presents cost, price, and performance trends; and discusses policy and market drivers such as recently passed federal legislation, state and local policies, and developments in project financing. The final chapter provides data on private investment trends and near-term market forecasts.

The 2009 Analysis Of Information Remaining On Disks Offered For Sale On The Second Hand Market, Andy Jones, Craig Valli, Glenn S. Dardick, Iain Sutherland, G. Dabibi, Gareth Davies

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The ever increasing use and reliance upon computers in both the public and private sector has led to enormous numbers of computers being disposed of at the end of their useful life within an organisation. As the cost of computers has dropped, their use in the home has also continued to increase. In most organisations, computers have a relatively short life and are replaced on a regular basis with the result that, if not properly cleansed of data, they are released into the public domain containing data that can be relatively up to date. This problem is exacerbated by the …

An Adaptive Control Strategy For Dstatcom Applications In An Electric Ship Power System, Pinaki Mitra, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM) is a shunt compensation device that is generally used to solve power quality problems in distribution systems. In an all-electric ship power system, power quality issues arise due to high-energy demand loads such as pulse loads. This paper presents the application of a DSTATCOM to improve the power quality in a ship power system during and after pulse loads. The control strategy of the DSTATCOM plays an important role in maintaining the voltage at the point of common coupling. A novel adaptive control strategy for the DSTATCOM based on artificial immune system (AIS) is presented in …

Dynamic System Eigenvalue Extraction Using A Linear Echo State Network For Small-Signal Stability Analysis - A Novel Application, Jiaqi Liang, Jing Dai, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Ronald G. Harley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A large nonlinear dynamic system usually has complex dynamic modes corresponding to the system's eigenvalues. These eigenvalues govern the system's local behavior and thus are critical information for designing system operation and control strategies. Without the availability of the system's analytical model, which is often the case for large nonlinear systems, the system's eigenvalues need to be estimated. a linear echo state network (ESN) based method for extracting observable eigenvalues of a dynamic system together with the participation factors of these eigenvalues in the accessible system states is presented in this paper. a linear ESN is first trained to track …

Missing-Sensor-Fault-Tolerant Control For Sssc Facts Device With Real-Time Implementation, Wei Qiao, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Ronald Harley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Control of power systems relies on the availability and quality of sensor measurements. However, measurements are inevitably subjected to faults caused by sensor failure, broken or bad connections, bad communication, or malfunction of some hardware or software. These faults in turn may cause the failure of power system controllers and consequently severe contingencies in the power system. to avoid such contingencies, this paper presents a sensor evaluation and (missing sensor) restoration scheme (SERS) by using auto-associative neural networks (auto-encoders) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). based on the SERS, a missing-sensor-fault-tolerant control (MSFTC) is developed for controlling a static synchronous series …

Potentials And Promises Of Computational Intelligence For Smart Grids, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The electric power grid is a complex adaptive system under semi-autonomous distributed control. It is spatially and temporally complex, non-convex, nonlinear and non-stationary with a lot of uncertainties. the integration of renewable energy such as wind farms, and plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles further adds complexity and challenges to the various controllers at all levels of the power grid. a lot of efforts have gone into the development of a smart grid to align the interests of the electric utilities, consumers and environmentalists. Advanced computational methods are required for planning and optimization, fast control of power system elements, processing of …

Comparative Study Of Population Based Techniques For Power System Stabilizer Design, Pinaki Mitra, Chuan Yan, Lisa Grant, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Komla Folly

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Power System Stabilizers (PSSs) are used in interconnected power systems in order to mitigate low frequency oscillations. the comparison of the performances of four advanced population-based techniques in tuning the parameters of PSS in a three-machine-nine-bus test system is presented in this paper. the algorithms considered in this paper are A) Differential Evolution based Particle Swarm Optimization (DEPSO), b) Modified Clonal Selection Algorithm (MCSA), c) Small Population based Particle Swarm Optimization (SPPSO) and d) Population based Incremental Learning (PBIL). the comparative study is focused on the frequency domain performances. It is observed that MCSA is performing better than the other …

A Real-Time Implementation Of A Pbil Based Stabilizing Controller For Synchronous Generator, Komla A. Folly, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents the optimal tuning of power system stabilizer parameters using a newly introduced evolutionary algorithm called Population based Incremental Learning (PBIL). to robustly stabilize the system, an objective function that minimizes the infinity norm of the closed-loop system is introduced such that the parameters of a fixed structure PSS are optimally tuned, and the controller stabilizes a pre-specified set of system models. the PBIL-PSS is compared with the Conventional PSS (CPSS). the simulation results presented in this paper show that the proposed PBIL-PSS is more effective than the Conventional PSS in damping the low frequency oscillations. the performance …

Getting An Nsf Career Award And Beyond, Ganesh Kumar Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The National Science Foundation (NSF), USA, CAREER program is a premier program that emphasizes the importance the Foundation places on the early development of academic careers solely dedicated to stimulating the discovery process in which the excitement of research enriched by inspired teaching and enthusiastic learning. This paper presents the research and education experiences gained by the principal investigator - Vinayagamoorthy and his research collaborators and students as a result of a NSF CAREER proposal been awarded by the Power, Control and Adaptive Networks (PCAN) program of the Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems Division, effective June 1, 2004. the main …