Engineering Commons^™

Multi-Period Coordinated Planning Of Xfcs In Coupled Tn-Pdn Networks: Integrating Demand Charge Reduction And Pre-Existing Infrastructure, Waqas Ur Rehman, Siyuan Wang, Liheng Lv, Jonathan W. Kimball, Rui Bo

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and transportation electrification is encumbered by two chief barriers: i) the limited driving range of EVs in the market today and ii) inadequate charging infrastructure support. This paper aims to address the latter bottleneck and proposes a strategic multi-period coordinated planning model to optimally site and size battery energy storage system (BESS) assisted extreme fast charging stations in a highway transportation network and solar systems in a power distribution network. The proposed approach accounts for pre-existing charging stations, the increasing EV penetration levels, decreasing technology costs, and technological advancements in the future and …

Mitigating Hysteresis In Metal-Coated Fibers Via Optimized Thermal Treatment For Advanced Distributed High-Temperature Sensing Applications, Koustav Dey, Rony Kumer Saha, Bohong Zhang, S. Narasimman, Farhan Mumtaz, Jeffrey D. Smith, Rex E. Gerald, Ronald J. O'Malley, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Metal-coated optical fibers are widely employed in sensing applications owing to their superior mechanical strength and corrosion resistance. However, their calibration at elevated temperatures is hindered by hysteresis, manifested as discrepancies between heating and cooling cycles, primarily caused by residual strain from mismatched thermal expansion coefficients (TECs) between the metal coating and silica cladding. This research introduces an optimal heat treatment procedure aimed at minimizing the impact of the mismatch in TECs between the cladding and the coating materials that causes the residual strain in gold (Au) and copper (Cu) coated fibers for achieving reliable distributed high temperature sensing up …

Integrating Optical And Radiofrequency Interferometry For Enhanced Phase Sensing, Ruimin Jie, Zhaopeng Zhang, Chen Zhu, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Interferometry is a crucial investigative technique used across diverse fields to achieve high-precision measurements. It works by analyzing the phase difference between two interfering waves, which results from variations in optical path lengths within an interferometer. We introduce a novel method for directly measuring changes in the phase difference within an optical interferometer, importantly, with the added advantage of a controllable enhancement factor. This approach is achieved through a two-step process: first, the optical phase difference is encoded into a sub-GHz radiofrequency (RF) signal using microwave-photonic manipulation; then, RF interferometry-assisted phase amplification is implemented at the destructive interference point. In …

Enhancing Measurement Accuracy: The Impact Of Missing Data On Parameter Estimation In Mass-Spring-Damper Systems, Michkath Omanda Bouraima, Steven Thompson, Maciej J. Zawodniok

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In sensor-driven dynamic systems, missing data can severely degrade parameter estimation accuracy. This article investigates the impact of missing data on phase estimation in a mass-spring-damper system using an information-theoretic framework based on the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB). Closed-form CRLB expressions are derived for four scenarios: complete data, missing completely at random (MCAR) deletion, MCAR-based imputation, and missing at random (MAR) missingness via a selection-weighted formulation. These bounds are used as theoretical benchmarks to evaluate classical imputation methods (last observation carried forward (LOCF), linear interpolation) and advanced approaches (Kalman filtering, Rauch-Tung-Striebel (RTS) smoothing, Bayesian inference, and transformer-based imputation) through Monte …

Online Lifelong Optimal Adaptive Control Of Partially Uncertain Strict Feedback Discrete-Time Systems With Application To Quadrotor Uavs, Maxwell Geiger, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article considers the infinite time horizon optimal adaptive tracking control of partially uncertain strict feedback discrete-time (DT) systems with application to quadrotor uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs). First, the strict feedback DT system is transformed into an equivalent affine nonlinear DT system in terms of the tracking error dynamics. The optimal adaptive tracking control problem is solved using an augmented system approach, where a horizon of future bounded reference trajectory points is used in the augmented state, when compared to using a single point. It is assumed that the internal dynamics of the strict feedback system are unknown, but the …

Effect Of Process Parameters On Thermal Response Of An Oxy-Fuel Burner/Injector Panel In An Electric Arc Furnace Via Fiber Optic Sensors, Mobashir Ahmed, Rony Kumer Saha, Koustav Dey, Todd Sander, Jie Huang, Ronald J. O'Malley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Modern oxy-fuel burner/injectors in electric arc furnaces (EAFs) play a critical role in scrap melting, liquid steel refining, and slag foaming. However, varying operational modes, combined with dynamic process conditions, such as arcing and slag behavior, can expose the injector panel surface to intense thermal conditions that can compromise efficiency and safety. Conventional monitoring techniques, including cooling water temperature measurements and thermocouples, fail to capture localized thermal anomalies due to their limited spatial resolution and susceptibility to electromagnetic interference. In this study, four high-resolution Rayleigh backscattering-based fiber optic sensors, interrogated via optical frequency domain reflectometry, were embedded in top and …

Sapphire Optical Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors Based On Dispersive Microwave-Photonic Frequency-Time Domain Analysis, Ruimin Jie, Chen Zhu, Farhan Mumtaz, Koustav Dey, Bohong Zhang, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Sapphire fiber Bragg gratings (SFBGs) have attracted growing interest for high temperature sensing in harsh environments, yet their interrogation typically relies on optical spectrum measurements, demanding a high-resolution optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) that is bulky, expensive, and constrained in acquisition speed. Moreover, the inherently multimode nature of sapphire fiber further complicates spectrum-based demodulation, thereby limiting the achievable sensing resolution. In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a microwave-photonic interrogation approach for SFBG sensors. Instead of measuring the optical reflection spectrum, the complex frequency response in the microwave domain of an SFBG is acquired using a vector network analyzer (VNA) …

Corrections To: Enhancing Measurement Accuracy: The Impact Of Missing Data On Parameter Estimation In Mass-Spring-Damper Systems (Ieee Transactions On Instrumentation And Measurement (2026) 75 (1–12) Doi: 10.1109/Tim.2026.3676091), Michkath Omanda Bouraima, Steven Thompson, Maciej J. Zawodniok

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the above article [1], a wording ambiguity appears in Proposition 4 regarding the description of the missing at random (MAR) mechanism. The published sentence states that the probability of observing the kth sample depends on the realized measurement value. This wording may be interpreted as dependence on the current unobserved value y[tk], which could suggest a missing not at random (MNAR) mechanism. The intended MAR mechanism is that the observation probability for the kth sample depends only on previously observed measurement information, such as y[tk-1], and not on the current unobserved value y[tk]. Therefore, the corrected wording clarifies that …

Resolving Stiffness Trade-Offs In Simultaneous Pressure And Vibration Sensing Using A Corrugated-Tube Fiber-Optic Sensor, Yizheng Chen, Yan Tang, Jie Huang, Qi Zhang, Biyao Shi, Zewei Wu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article proposes and experimentally demonstrates a corrugated-tube-based fiber-optic sensor capable of measuring pressure, vibration, or both simultaneously. To address the limited sensitivity of conventional diaphragm-based designs, the sensor incorporates an optimized corrugated tube that balances the conflicting stiffness requirements for pressure and vibration measurements. The corrugated tube, acting as a mechanical transducer, is integrated with an extrinsic fiber-optic Fabry–Perot interferometer (EFPI). The EFPI cavity is formed between a reflective surface at the sealed end of the corrugated tube and the cleaved end face of an optical fiber fixed within a mounting assembly. In this configuration, displacement of the corrugated …

Nash Equilibrium Strategies For Multicluster Pursuit–Evasion Game With Disturbances: A Prescribed-Time Convergence Approach, Lei Xue, Xian Yu, Yongbao Wu, Jian Liu, Changyin Sun, D. C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article investigates the problem of prescribed-time Nash equilibrium (NE) seeking for a multicluster pursuit–evasion game (PEG) subject to external disturbances. To mitigate the impact of disturbances and reach the NE within a user-defined prescribed time, a prescribed-time disturbance observer (PTDO) is devised to estimate and compensate for them. Based on this observation, a novel control algorithm is developed, which facilitates collaboration among multiple pursuers to capture multiple evaders within the prescribed time. It is theoretically demonstrated that the designed algorithm ensures prescribed-time convergence to the NE of the multicluster PEG with disturbances. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to verify …

Lidar-Based Framework For Detecting Suspicious Human Activities, Ahd Aljumah, Charalampos Antoniadis, Hakim Ghazzai, Nawfal Guefrachi, Ahmad Alsharoa, Gianluca Setti

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study explores the development of Human Activity Recognition (HAR) systems capable of identifying suspicious activities to enhance security in public spaces. We propose an innovative solution that integrates LiDAR sensors with deep learning technologies. Our method employs advanced models operating on LiDAR point cloud, PV-RCNN for human detection, and LidarGait++ for classifying activities into categories such as standing or walking (non-suspicious) and sneaking or fighting (suspicious). Due to the scarcity of suitable real-world datasets for training such systems, we utilize a 3D simulation tool, Blender, to create realistic environments and generate labeled point cloud data. This synthetic dataset allows …

Deep Learning Approach For Microwave Imaging Based On Deep Convolutional Asymmetric Encoder-Decoder Structure And Physics-Induced Loss, He Ming Yao, Shiji Song, Michael Kwok Po Ng, Lijun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we introduce an innovative deep learning (DL) methodology designed for real-time quantitative microwave imaging (MWI). Our approach is centered around the utilization of a deep convolutional asymmetric encoder-decoder structure (DCAEDS), which requires only a single-frequency far-field measurement of the electromagnetic (EM) scattered field as input and subsequently predicts the contrasts (permittivities) of the target materials. During the offline training process, we incorporate an EM forward solver specifically crafted to compute the EM scattered field generated by the predicted target contrasts (permittivities) produced by the DCAEDS. The DCAEDS is seamlessly integrated with this EM forward solver to optimize …

Effect Of Sample Properties On Short-Circuited Waveguide Measurements For Materials Characterization, Alexander Hook, Jared Sinkey, Kristen M. Donnell

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Microwave materials characterization measurements can be performed using a number of well-established approaches. One such approach, the filled transmission line approach featuring a short-circuited rectangular waveguide (SC-RWG) sample holder, is known to have sample placement restrictions related to measurement viability. This work focuses on this approach and addresses the measurement restrictions within the context of sample length and dielectric properties. The complex reflection properties, S11, of a sample placed in a SC-RWG sample holder are studied to quantitively define when a sample must be offset from the SC-end. The impact of the sample holder is also studied from a measurement …

Printer For Music Box, Chad Lewis, Caleb Murawski, Zion Smith, Bryan Tibbs

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The traditional method of creating music box sheet music involves manually punching holes into a paper strip using a hand-operated hole punch. This process involves precise knowledge of each note’s location and the ability to achieve perfect accuracy for hours.

The goal of this system is to automate this process, significantly reducing the time required while greatly improving the accuracy of the resulting music box playback. The user simply uploads a MIDI file of their choice into a user-friendly application. Here, the file is modified based on the user’s needs and sent to an automated hole-punching system to punch the …

Adaptive Lighting System, Jacob Samerdak, Ethan Schwartz, Brandon Breen, Matthew Carozza

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Adaptive Lighting System is a modular network of components that requires minimal installation in homes. Additionally, all components of the system communicate wirelessly and interface with a mobile application. The system utilizes occupancy and daylight sensors to detect the environment of a room and adjust the lighting accordingly. The system detects ambient lighting as well as occupancy within a room. Using the data collected from the sensors, the system adjusts lighting temperature, color, and brightness. The user can also manually control these settings. The Adaptive Lighting System aims to help regulate circadian rhythm, so there is a configuration in …

Dashboard And Racing Telemetry, Cole Barach, Jacob Koshel, Ethan Zifzal, Matthew Sullivan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The main goal of the project is to design and manufacture a combined dashboard and data logger for the vehicles produced by the Zips Racing design team. The dashboard will intuitively display real-time information to the driver and record all received information while driving. This information may be pulled off the device later for performing data analysis. This project will incorporate custom PCB design, surface mount soldering, embedded software development, and the CAN communication protocol.

Aquaflow Pro, Ashton Henley, Jeannie Fritz, Khalin Rubbo

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Changing aquarium water is a hassle, and when done incorrectly, it will result in changes in water quality and potential harm to aquatic life. Aquarium water changes are crucial in removing toxins such as ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. There is a need for an automated, stressless fish tank water-changing solution that ensures aquatic safety. To this end, an automatic temperature-controlled fish tank water changing system was designed, carrying out a water change for a designated main tank in which water heated within an inbound reservoir is pumped into the tank to replace the outbound water, responding to both the tank’s …

C. Difficile Detection Method For First Responder Glove Application, Alli N. Senedak

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Clostridioides Difficile (C. diff) is a Anaerobic Gram-positive bacillus that is capable of spore formation, making it difficult to control its spread and duration in clinical environments. This phenomenon can provide danger to first responders, healthcare workers, and patients. The goal of this project is to create a biosensor capable of detecting C. diff in a clinical setting that can be applied to a glove apparatus. The project will involve the use of C. diff aptamers activated on the surface of an electrode. Once surface activation has been verified via surface analysis, the electrodes will be exposed to C. diff …

Towards Optimal And Resilient Ac/Dc Microgrids: Control Design, Analysis, And Implementation, Jun Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microgrids serve as a small-scale power grid for utilizing renewable energy to enhance energy reliability, sustainability, and resilience. As an autonomous system, an islanded microgrid can disconnect from the utility grid and operate independently by maintaining system voltage and frequency. However, this new feature introduces coordination problems among distributed generators (DGs), such as 1) how to make sure the voltage profile and current sharing in DC microgrid with different types of converters; 2) how to reduce the impact of cyberattack when the system coordination is performed based on communication, and 3) how to calculate the steady state under a droop …

Brrbox, Shawn J. Myers, Lane Cline, Michael Davis, Christian Secrest

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report details the project known as “The BRRBOX”, a reusable, insulated thermoelectric cooler developed to keep internal temperatures at refrigeration levels or cooler for at least 48 hours. The cooler will track its internal temperature during this period and be able to give the data at the end of its delivery cycle to keep up with food and pharmaceutical standards during delivery. The BRRBOX uses Peltier-based cooling alongside vacuum insulation panels and fans to achieve efficient thermal control. An onboard microcontroller will monitor temperature, record the data, and adjust the cooling output to minimize power consumption. The box will …

Automated Pill Dispenser, Ryan Oderkirk, Connor Beaven, Rachelle Labrie, Josue Panchana

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The project we propose is an automated system for dispensing dosages of medication throughout the day. It will be able to alert a user when their pills need to be taken and give them the correct dosages of up to four different medications. These dosages are configurable as well as the scheduled time they are to be taken. In addition, the pill dispenser will alert users when they are low on medications and need to refill the machine.

Automatic Pet Feeder Network, Daniel J. Herttna, David A. Bechtel, Alexander Deskovich

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will describe the design process and research behind the Automatic Pet Feeder Network, otherwise known as The Petwork. The system consists of a tank to hold the food, a latching system to drop the food at the desired time, a weight sensor to verify that the proper amount of food has been dispensed, a power supply unit that steps down 120V AC standard wall outlet power, & a microcontroller that will interpret the user's input from a mobile phone application. The networking portion is covered by having a primary and a secondary feeder. The mobile application will communicate …

Development Of A Scalable 32x32 Capacitive Sensing Array Using Fpga Controlled Multi-Bus I2c Communication, Jonathan Digby

2026 Research Poster Competition

High-resolution capacitive sensor arrays are widely used in applications such as robotics, wearable devices, and biomedical devices where accurate detection of touch, proximity, and motion is crucial. As these systems are scaled up to achieve higher resolutions, challenges pertaining to communication reliability, data synchronization, and system latency become more important. Capacitive sensor arrays detect changes in capacitance caused by disturbances in nearby electric fields. While these arrays are effective at small scales, large arrays often suffer from signal degradation and latency when all sensors rely on a single controller and communication bus. This research addresses these challenges by developing a …

Application Of Matlab Simulation For Quantum Wells And Absorption Modelling, Mohamed Nur

Electrical Engineering Theses

The Quantum-Well User Entered Simulation Tool (QUEST), originally developed at the University of Texas at Arlington in 2005, is a simulation program built in MATLAB for computing energy eigenvalues and wavefunctions in user-defined semiconductor quantum well structures. This thesis presents a new revision and extension of QUEST with three primary contributions: compatibility updates to the existing MATLAB codebase, intersubband absorption modelling, and a redesigned graphical user interface for ease-of-use in testing.

The modernization effort for this program addresses incompatibilities introduced by changes to the MATLAB runtime environment since QUEST’s original release in 2005, including corrections to the self-consistent Schrödinger-Poisson solver …

Ontological Runtime Monitoring For Mission Engineering, Alexander R. Will

Theses and Dissertations

The advent of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concept will bring low-altitude aviation to civilians through passenger and cargo transport. However, the prospective vehicles in UAM studies are predominantly autonomous, raising questions about their efficacy and stability in densely populated urban areas. At the same time, extensive work has been performed to define a new branch of systems engineering that focuses on runtime behavior, synchronization, communication, and task allocation.This field is known as "mission engineering". Mission engineering has been deployed in military scenarios to model human-autonomy cooperation. By applying the concepts from this field to UAM, full systems-of-systems can be …

Nanomagnet Based Straintronic Devices For Unconventional Computing: Simulation And Performance Analysis, Rahnuma Rahman

Theses and Dissertations

Nanomagnetic devices are of great interest in digital hardware because of their non-volatility and dynamic ability to change magnetization but suffer from high switching error rates and temperature sensitivity. Magnetostrictive nanomagnets that utilize strain to switch between stable magnetization states encoding bit information are of interest since they are extremely energy efficient as piezoelectric layers can be used to rotate magnetization that have switching energies in the range of attojoules. Their stochasticity can also be useful in probabilistic, analog, neuromorphic, and collective computing systems, where occasional switching errors are not devastating. The dissertation extends spintronics beyond conventional computing schemes by …

Multi-Level Energy Optimization For Connected And Automated Vehicles: From Cooperative Multi-Vehicle Control To Individual Powertrain Management, Pruthwiraj Santhosh

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The transportation sector currently accounts for nearly 30% of global energy consumption, necessitating urgent advancements in vehicle efficiency to meet Net Zero targets. Leveraging connectivity and automation, this dissertation proposes and validates methodologies to reduce the energy consumption of light-duty vehicles at both fleet and individual levels.

First, a validation framework is developed to bridge the “simulation-to-real world” gap in Cooperative Automated Vehicle (CAV) research. Moving beyond virtual simulations, the study establishes a methodology for physically validating centralized control architectures via a custom Cellular V2X network. By synchronizing vehicle-powertrain models with physical test vehicles, the framework successfully orchestrates complex arterial …

Texels: A Programmable Textile Interface For Replicating Textures, Maya E. Eusebio

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Self-moving fabric interfaces have massive potential for applications in fields ranging from art to haptic feedback to deployable space structures. However, current systems of implementation face the impracticalities of bulkiness, burnout, and energy consumption on top of limiting designs that can only contract uniformly or create one pre-programmed shape. For this technology to bring the change that it promises, we must break the barriers of usability and sustainability to make it a practical choice. This thesis aims to develop a scalable model of fabric that designers, programmers, and anyone else can acquire or create with accessible materials, integrate into design …

The Design And Analysis Of Robust Mems Devices For Extreme Space Environments, Joshua Taggart

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to analyze aluminum nitride (AlN) micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators designed for extreme-environment applications. The devices of study are Lamb wave, piezoelectric resonators designed and fabricated using conventional semiconductor manufacturing processes and operating around various frequencies in the megahertz range. The purpose of this study is to advance understanding of MEMS devices in extreme-temperature and radiated environments for outer-space applications.

Devices were tested under vacuum at temperatures ranging from room temperature (~21°C) to 800°C. Under these conditions, the device was measured both as a resonator and in an oscillator circuit. Results show that the resonant …

Unified Bayesian And Machine Learning-Based State Of Charge Estimation In A Pv Battery System, Showrov Rahman

Open Access Dissertations

The state of charge (SOC) of a battery indicates the remaining charge in the battery relative to its nominal maximum charge capacity. The accurate estimation of SOC is of utmost importance for efficient energy management as it indicates the level of energy stored in the battery.

Bayesian and machine learning (ML) approaches represent two distinct estimation strategies for battery state estimation. Bayesian filters, such as the Kalman filter (KF) and particle filter (PF), operate sequentially by incorporating physical models of battery dynamics. In contrast, ML-based methods are data-driven, and their performance largely depends on the quantity and quality of training …