Engineering Commons^™

Technology Forecasting Of Digital Single-Lens Reflex Camera Market: The Impact Of Segmentation In Tfdea, Byung Sung Yoon, Apisit Charoensupyanan, Nan Hu, Rachanida Koosawangsri, Mimie Abdulai, Xiaowen Wang

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

With the advancement of digital image technology, the big change in the camera market is that digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) have replaced film type single-lens reflex cameras, which have seen very little development lately. This advancement is reflected in some core technologies of DSLRs such as digital image sensors and electronic shutter mechanisms, which have allowed taking photographs even in the toughest conditions. Therefore, as a disruptive technology, the developments in DSLR technologies are worthy of notice.

This paper utilizes technology forecast using data envelopment analysis (TFDEA), which is a quantitative forecasting method. In the study, we use input …

Nanomaterials For Photo-Based Diagnostic And Therapeutic Applications, Baohong Yuan, Jyothi Unnikrishna Menon, Khanh Vu, Parth V. Jadeja, Kytai Truong Nguyen, Pranjali P. Tambe

Bioengineering Faculty Publications - Archive

Photo-based diagnosis and treatment methods are gaining prominence due to increased spatial imaging resolution, minimally invasive modalities involved as well as localized treatment. Recently, nanoparticles (NPs) have been developed and used in photo-based therapeutic applications. While some nanomaterials have inherent photo-based imaging capabilities, others including polymeric NPs act as nanocarriers to deliver various fluorescent dyes or photosensitizers for photoimaging and therapeutic applications. These applications can vary from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and optical imaging to photothermal therapy (PTT) and chemotherapy. Materials commonly used for development of photo-based NPs ranges from metal-based (gold, silver and silica) to polymer- based (chitosan, dextran, …

A Cmos Conductometric Circuit For Chemical Sensing Using Nanowire Sensor Arrays, Sujith S. Dermal

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

In this thesis, a readout circuit for conductometric electrochemical sensor array is designed and implemented. It is designed to work with the output range of a Carbon Nanotube Chemiresistive Sensor Array. The sensor arrays are designed to measure the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the environment. The circuit reads out the outputs of the sixteen conductometric sensor arrays and calculates the change in conductance during the interaction with the chemicals present in the environment. A constant voltage is applied to the sensor arrays and when the sensor detects the VOCs, it changes the conductance and a change in current through …

Distributed Data Dimensionality Reduction And Denoising, Abiodun T. Aduroja

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

With the recent upsurge in the amount of data transmission and use, giving rise to the era of big data, research has put a lot of emphasis on designing efficient methods to extract useful information by reducing the size of a large set of data to a much smaller set. This is the main idea in data dimensionality reduction which is a critical step in applications that involve a constantly increasing data size, and limited computational and communication resources. Such a situation appears in sensor networks where there is a large number of sensors acquiring data. However, the informative part …

Eutectic Diffusion Brazing Process For Joining Aluminum Laminae With Macro- And Micro- Scale Features, Paul Wilson

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Eutectic brazing occurs when two metals, such as aluminum and copper, react and diffuse together at a temperature lower than either material would melt separately. Commonly used in electronics manufacturing, this brazing method provides the basis for a new process of joining a laminated device with micro fluidic features. The proposed process overcomes the challenges of aluminum oxidation resulting from traditional diffusion bonding of aluminum laminae and does not require flux or caustic material pre-treatments. The process also protects surface geometries and avoids warpage, which is common with other higher-temperature joining processes such as welding. This research provides a foundation …

Outcome And State Transition Modeling For Adaptive Interdisciplinary Pain Management, Aera Kim Leboulluec

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Pain management is a major global health problem. The World Health Organization estimates that, globally, 1 in 5 adults suffer from chronic pain and in the United States alone, chronic pain affects nearly 100 million adults resulting in an estimated annual cost of $560 to $635 billion. The University of Texas at Arlington and the Eugene McDermott Center for Pain Management at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (The Center) are collaborating to seek adaptive treatment strategies for interdisciplinary pain management in a two-stage program. Interdisciplinary pain management combines multiple disciplines of professionals to understand the biological …

Development Of Optimal Decision Model For Multi-System Process Capability Improvements Through A Personnel Environment And Integration (Pei) Framework Utilizing Radio Frequency Identification (Rfid) Technology, Maurice Dwayne Cavitt

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This research describes a framework that minimizes uncertainty and risk in lead time and excessive costs associated with multi-automating systems in very complex and dynamic environments. Further, by seeking to reduce risk by increasing the reliability component of the system, crucial inventories levels are maintained and leveraged in complex an environment that provides additional organization cost savings and enhanced flexibility by enhancing their ability to optimize inventories. Inventory control is crucial for any supply chain as it drives the costs which influence business decision models. The reliability of the systems that maintain the important inventories in complex operations is crucial …

Multistep Second Order Training For The Multilayer Perceptron, Melvin Deloyd Robinson

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Training a feedforward multilayer perceptron (MLP) requires obtaining train- ing data and solving a non-convex optimization problem to calculate the network's weights. Various problems can arise during training that ultimately can limit a MLP's usefulness such as slow convergence and high computational complexity. Additionally, when training one needs to have confidence that the chosen algorithm is working optimally for the chosen coordinate system.We introduce novel second order training algorithms to overcome these difficulties. In the process, a piecewise affine model of the multilayer perceptron is introduced which shows that objective functions for training are poorly modeled by quadratic functions of …

A Study Of The Characteristics And Limitations Of Various Platings On Cylindrical Electrical Conductors, Robert C. Scully

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This work explores the impedance characteristics of copper wires plated with tin, silver, or nickel, the most common type of wiring used in the computer, communications, and aerospace industries. The background of plated wires and a brief review of related research is provided. This is followed by a detailed development of the theory of plated wires, accompanied by a MAPLE code in the appendix that can be used for the numerical analysis of plated wires having two or more plating layers. The code was used to generate a series of curves predicting the impedance behavior of both solid, "pure" metals, …

Capacity Fading Induced On Electrochemical Energy Storage Cells As A Result Of High C Discharge, Biju Shrestha

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

A number of electrochemical energy storage devices have been developed and used widely to power portable electronic systems. Lithium-ion batteries are extremely popular for use in portable devices as a result of their high energy density, which is higher than almost all other similar technologies available. Despite their high energy density, most commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) cells are only modestly power dense, limiting them from being used to drive high power or pulsed power applications. Recently, improvements in the electrode structures and electrolytes have led to the development of lithium-ion batteries which have a higher combined power and energy density than …

Optimizing The Use Of Systems Engineering On Proposals, Clement Douglas Smartt

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Organizations whose primary business is executing contracts must be able to capture contracts to survive. When the contracts involve engineering complex systems, systems engineering often plays a significant role in the proposal process, sometimes leading the technical effort. This research seeks to find an optimal use of systems engineering in proposal management to maximize the probability that a supplier organization will be awarded contracts. A number of systems engineering related factors that can potentially be used to predict contract awards are identified that pertain to the organization, the skill levels of employees, the competitive environment, the proposal project, the contract, …

Elevated Recharge Of Electrochemical Cells, Peter Novak

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Electrochemical cells are energy dense storage devices used to power everything from small portable electronics such as cell phones, to larger systems including electric and hybrid-electric vehicles or even electric utility backup supplies. In recent years, the electrochemical community has analyzed many aspects of cell performance with papers covering the influence of temperature, humidity, pressure, and various other factors on the aging of different types of cells. Despite the abundance of information on various issues, very little work has been presented in the area of high rate elevated charge and even less work regarding high rate pulsed elevated charge. This …

Internal Structure And Dynamic Decisions For Coalitions On Graphs, Muhammad Aurangzeb

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The notions of collaboration, advantage, cost and impact are investigated in this dissertation, following are the details. Contribution to Cooperation between Agents for Routing in an Unknown Graph Using Reinforcement LearningFirst of all this work investigates the cooperation between agents to achieve a common goal. The problem of steering a swarm of autonomous agents out of an unknown maze to some goal located at an unknown location is discussed in this context. The routing algorithm given here provides a mechanism for storing data based on the experiences of previous agents visiting a node that results in routing decisions that improve …

Wireless Power Transmission Based On Retro-Reflective Antenna Array, Shaoshu Sha

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In recent years, there is a lot of research on wireless power transmission (WPT) for various applications, such as mobile devices, electric vehicles, implanted medical devices, sensors, RFID, etc. Compared to wired power transmission, WPT is more convenient and allows the devices to move more freely. Microwave beamforming WPT has been investigated extensively because its fast tracking capability, multiple target tracking capability and so on. A retro-reflective antenna array based on novel phase-conjugate method is proposed in this dissertation. The phase of the received signal is detected individually and simultaneously at each antenna and the conjugated phase is applied to …

Rfid And Rtls Enhancement For Retained Surgical Instrument In The Body, Ida Lumintu

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Retained surgical items (e.g., sponges, needles, and instruments) are classified as preventable medical errors that cost the United States about $17 to $29 billion each year and the most frequently reported sentinel events in 2011 as reported by the Joint Commission. This research proposes a new approach to decrease such preventable medical errors by developing a Radio Frequency Identification-based Real Time Locating System (RTLS) for surgical operations (RfSurg). Patient safety concern, e.g. the excessive exposure of x-ray to the patient after the surgery, is a major motivation behind the need of RTLS in this research. The use of RTLS techniques …

Multiport Dc Energy Conversion Systems, Hamid Behjati

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Sustainable energy sources and power electronic systems for utilizing such energy sources are becoming indispensible components of the modern power grid. The ability of multiport converters to mitigate the intermittency issues associated with these energy sources have made them attractive candidates for renewable energy conversion systems. Two single-stage multiport dc-dc converters, with independent and series outputs, are proposed in this dissertation. The advantages and applications of the proposed topologies are discussed. The ability of the proposed converters to regulate the input powers, coming from different energy sources, in addition to regulating the output voltages stands out. Specific switching schemes are …

Investigation Of Degradation In Advanced Analog Mos Technologies, Md. Iqbal Mahmud

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The focus of this work is to study the noise and degradation in advanced high and low voltage analog Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFET). Medium and high voltage transistors, especially lateral double diffused MOS (LDMOS) FETs have numerous practical applications. Although the LDMOS concept dates back some years, importance of low-frequency noise (also known as 1/f noise) characteristics of these devices have attracted attention only recently, due to some major reliability concerns. As an example, 1/f noise can cause a severe impact in System-on-Chip (SOC) applications when the LDMOS transistor is coupled with other devices or circuits through …

Design And Fabrication Of Guided-Mode Resonant Tunable Optical Filters, Mohammad Jalal Uddin

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Tunable optical filters have many applications in optical communication, multispectral and hyper-spectral imaging, bio-sensing, and display application. In optical communication, tunable optical filters (TOF) are used extensively in different wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) related applications. In display applications TOFs have been being used as color filters (CF) to separate primary colors from incident white light. In this study, two types of TOFs have been designed and fabricated: 1) thermo-optic tunable optical filters (TOTOF) working in optical communication bands and 2) tunable color filters (TCF) working in visible wavelength range.TOTOFs with deep (120 nm grating depth) and shallow (20 nm grating …

Nanogap Break Junctions And Solid-State Micropores As Electronic Biosensors, Azhar Ilyas

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Cancer has been the top ranked fatal disease for the last several decades. Most of the cancers remain silent at its earlier stage and are usually diagnosed at advanced and incurable phase. Early detection of cancer can have immediate and far reaching impact on better prognosis of cancer patients. Diseases are initially expressed at molecular and cellular scale and identification of these deadly diseases at such small scales would be a great step toward early detection. The study of biological molecules and diseased cells require efficient fabrication techniques to develop sensing devices with molecular size entrapment. Bio-nanotechnology and BioMEMs promise …

Compressive Sensing For Wireless And Sensor Systems, Ji Wu

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Compressive sensing (CS) is an emerging field based on the revelation that a small collection of linear projections of a sparse signal contains enough information for stable, sub-Nyquist signal acquisition. It provides a potential way to acquire the sparse data efficiently, or equivalently, highly accurate recovery of sparse data from undersampled measurements. Huffman coding and compressive sensing are adopted to compress real-world wind tunnel data. Both uniform and non-uniform Huffman coding are evaluated in terms of the number of quantization levels, mean square error, codeword length and compression ratio. The main drawback of Huffman coding is that it requires calculating …

Cooperative Control Of Multi-Agent Systems; Stability, Optimality And Robustness, Kristian Hengster Movric

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In this work design methods are given for distributed synchronization control of multi-agent systems on directed communication graphs. Conditions are derived based on the relation of the graph eigenvalues to a region in a complex plane that depends on the single-agent system and the solution of the local Riccati equation. The synchronizing region concept is used. Cooperative observer design, guaranteeing convergence of the local estimates to their true values, is also proposed. The notion of convergence region for distributed observers is introduced. A duality principle is shown to hold for distributed observers and controllers on balanced graph topologies. Application of …

Sparsity Enhanced Reconstruction Algorithms For Diffuse Optical Tomography, Jixing Yao

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Conventional reconstruction algorithms for diffuse optical tomography (DOT) is based on Tikhonov regularization method and the simple white Gaussian noise (WGN) assumption. These approaches usually lead to the following problems: 1. The reconstructed images are blurry; 2. In 3D reconstruction problems, the reconstructed objects are usually in the wrong depths; 3. The shape of a reconstructed object might be different from its original one due to the noise.In this work, after study the nature of DOT images as well as the data acquisition process, several sparsity regularization related reconstruction methods were developed to improve the spatial resolution as well as …

Reliability Unit Commitment In Ercot Nodal Market, Hailong Hui

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is the independent system operator (ISO) that ensures a reliable electric grid and efficient electricity markets in the ERCOT region. ERCOT has successfully transited from a zonal market to an advanced nodal market since Dec. 2010. In the new ERCOT nodal wholesale market, a reliability unit commitment (RUC) process has been designed and implemented to ensure transmission system reliability and security. The main objective of RUC is to ensure that enough resource capacity, in addition to ancillary service capacity, is committed in the right locations to reliably serve the forecasted load in the …

Nanostructured Surfaces Using Thermal Nanoimprint Lithography: Applications In Thin Membrane Technology, Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting And Tactile Pressure Sensing, Bhargav Pradip Nabar

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Nanoimprint lighography (NIL) is emerging as a viable contender for fabrication of large-scale arrays of 5-500 nm features. The work presented in this dissertation aims to leverage the advantages of NIL for realization of novel Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (NEMS). The first application is a nanoporous membrane blood oxygenator system. A fabrication process for realization of thin nanoporous membranes using thermal nanoimprint lithography is presented. Suspended silicon nitried membranes were fabricated by Lowe-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD) in conjunction with a potassium hydroxide-based bulk michromachining process. Nanoscale features were imprinted into a commercially available thermoplastic polymer resist using a prefabricated …

A Low-Noise, Low-Power Cmos Amperometric Circuit For Glucose Sensing, Niranjan Karandikar

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Diabetes is disorder associated with an insufficiency of insulin secretion. Large number of people around the world suffers from this disorder which can result into damages to eyes, kidneys, nerves and even death. One of the most common methods to detect the diabetes is to monitor the levels of glucose is the blood stream. Other biological fluids like tear fluid can also be used to detect levels of glucose. With emergence of MEMS technology several biosensors are developed, less invasive or non-invasive, which can detect these glucose levels from blood or tear. Central idea behind the developments of these biosensors …

Implementation Of An Adaptive Block Filter On Sub-Blocks Of A Macroblock In H.264/Avc, Bhavana Prabhakar

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Plenty of coding tools are being developed to boost the efficiency of H.264/AVC. Some of these tools are implemented in the key technical area (KTA). The adaptive interpolation filter (AIF) [3], the high precision interpolation filter [5], and the adaptive loop filter (ALF) [4] have already been introduced in order to provide a more precise reference picture. Other efficient coding methods, such as the motion vector competition [6] and the extended macro-block (MB) [7], are also implemented in the KTA [16].In order to improve the coding efficiency of H.264/AVC, an adaptive prediction block filter (APBF) based on Wiener filter is …

Embedded And Rf Powered Implantable Medical Device For Gastric Electrical Stimulation (Ges), Guru Moorthy Ravi

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Gastric electrical stimulation (GES) has attracted significant attention in the treatment for Gastroparesis-a common disorder caused in patients suffering from diabetes, cancer and Parkinson's disease. Symptoms include vomiting, nausea, abdominal bloating etc. due to loss of motility in the stomach muscles. GES uses electrical pulses on the stomach tissues to help regain normal motility and reduce the symptoms. Conventional gastric stimulator needs a long surgery to be implanted and it is a big pacemaker like device that runs by a non-rechargeable battery. It has to be replaced once the battery gets exhausted every 5 to 6 years. Hence another round …

Diagnosing Wi-Fi Association Issues And Optimizing Network Performance, Suma Subbarao

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Extensive deployment of Wi-Fi networks at homes and public places has triggered research interest in several aspects of Wi-Fi technology like deployment strategies and optimization. People use Wi-Fi or 802.11 networking, to connect their computers at home or office for instant internet access and it is a common scenario to have faced association and network congestion problems. Finding appropriate solution to these issues is a challenging task. In this thesis, an attempt has been made to solve Wi-Fi related concerns through a novel approach. Diagnosing problems occurring during the association process with the network and getting better throughput from the …

A Cmos Switched Capacitor Based Amperometric Readout Circuit For Microneedle Glucose Sensor, Sunil Govardhan

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Accurate regulation of glucose metabolism is one of the key factors in keeping a healthy state among mammalians. Increase in failure of this natural blood glucose regulatory mechanism has propelled the research for improvements in blood glucose measurement and its regulation. Also, advancement in the research of internet of things has increased the demand for smart sensors creating a revolution in health care industry and which has inturn led to the improvement in point-of-care testing.Therefore in this thesis work a microneedle glucose sensor is chosen as it can be fabricated by MEMS process which allows it to be easily integrated …

Adiabatic Flame Temperature For Combustion Of Methane Ii, Rebeca Pupo

Undergraduate Journal of Mathematical Modeling: One + Two

We calculate the adiabatic flame temperature of a mixture of methane and oxygen in the presence of a diluent gas then determine the mole fractions of methane without respect to nitrogen and solve for the moles of oxygen present. Knowing the moles of methane and oxygen, allows us to calculate the moles of nitrogen present at four constant mole fractions of nitrogen, and the adiabatic flame temperature is determined from the energy released by the reaction. Lastly, we produce several graphs to compare the adiabatic flame temperatures at different mole fractions of nitrogen.