Engineering Commons^™

Normalization Of Unconstrained Handwritten Words In Terms Of Slope And Slant Correction, Suman Kumar Bera, Akash Chakrabarti, Sagnik Lahiri, Elisa H. Barney Smith, Ram Sarkar

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In offline handwritten text slope (or skew) and slant are inevitably introduced, but to varying degrees depending on several factors, such as the writing style, speed and mood of the writers. Therefore slope and slant detection in offline handwritten text and their subsequent correction have become the critical preprocessing steps for document analysis and retrieval systems to neutralize the variability of writing styles and to improve the performance of word and character recognition systems. In this paper, we present new methods that use two novel core-region detection techniques to estimate both the slope and slant angles of offline handwritten word …

Transmission-Scale Battery Energy Storage Systems: A Systematic Literature Review, Kevin Marnell, Manasseh Obi, Robert B. Bass

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

When the transmission capacity of an electrical system is insufficient to adequately serve customer demand, the transmission system is said to be experiencing congestion. More transmission lines can be built to increase capacity. However, transmission congestion typically only occurs during periods of peak demand, which occur just a few times per year; capitol-intensive investments in new transmission capacity address problems that occur infrequently. Alternative solutions to alleviated transmission congestion have been devised, including generation curtailment, demand response programs, and various remedial action schema. Though not currently a common solution, battery energy storage systems can also provide transmission congestion relief. Technological …

A Review Of Integrated Propulsion, Suspension And Guidance Passive Guideway Maglev Technologies, Jonathan Bird

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper provides a review of integrated propulsion, suspension and guidance maglev technology that use fully passive guideway structures.

Kinetics Of Silver Photodiffusion Into Amorphous S-Rich Germanium Sulphide – Neutron And Optical Reflectivity, Yoshifumi Sakaguchi, Hidehito Asaoka, Maria Mitkova

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Silver photodiffusion is one of the attractive photo-induced changes observed in amorphous chalcogenides. In this research, we focus on amorphous S-rich germanium sulphide and study the kinetics of the silver photodiffusion by neutron reflectivity, as well as optical reflectivity. It was found from the neutron reflectivity profiles with 30 s time resolution that silver dissolved into the germanium sulphide layer, forming a metastable reaction layer between the Ag and the germanium sulphide layers, within 2 min of light exposure. Subsequently, silver slowly diffused from the metastable reaction layer to the germanium sulphide host layer until the Ag concentration in both …

Comparison Of The Electrical Response Of Cu And Ag Ion-Conducting Sdc Memristors Over The Temperature Range 6 K To 300 K, Kolton Drake, Tonglin Lu, Md. Kamrul H. Majumdar, Kristy A. Campbell

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Electrical performance of self-directed channel (SDC) ion-conducting memristors which use Ag and Cu as the mobile ion source are compared over the temperature range of 6 K to 300 K. The Cu-based SDC memristors operate at temperatures as low as 6 K, whereas Ag-based SDC memristors are damaged if operated below 125 K. It is also observed that Cu reversibly diffuses into the active Ge₂Se₃ layer during normal device shelf-life, thus changing the state of a Cu-based memristor over time. This was not observed for the Ag-based SDC devices. The response of each device type to sinusoidal …

Can Routers Provide Sufficient Protection Against Cyber Security Attacks?, David Leal, Sanjeev Kumar

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nowadays many devices that make up a computer network are being equipped with security hardware and software features to prevent cyber security attacks. The idea is to distribute security features to intermediate systems in the network to mitigate the overall adverse effect of cyber attacks. In this paper, we will be focusing on the Juniper J4350 router with the Junos Software Enhanced, and it has security-attack protections in the router. We are going to evaluate how the Juniper router with built-in security protections affected the overall server performance under a cyber security attack.

Environmental Information Content Of Ocean Ambient Noise, Martin Siderius, John Thomas Gebbie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, methods have been developed to estimate a variety of environmental parameters based on measurements of the ocean ambient noise. For example, noise has been used to estimate water depth using the passive fathometer technique and bottom loss estimated and used to invert for seabed parameters. There is also information in the noise about the water column sound speed, volume attenuation, and the sea-state. The Fisher information can be used to quantify the basic information available in the noise measurements and its inverse, the Cramér–Rao lower bound (CRLB), provides the lower limit on the variance of an unbiased …

Simulation Of A Time-Varying Distributed Cathode In A Linear Format Crossed-Field Amplifier, Marcus Pearlman, Jim Browning

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The effects of a temporally modulated, distributed cathode in a linear format crossed-field amplifier (CFA) are simulated in VSim and analyzed. A linear format, 150 MHz, low power (100 W), moderate gain (7 dB), meander line CFA is used as the basis for the simulation model. This paper describes simulations with different time-varying distributed cathodes in which electron injection is modulated at the RF frequency both in and out of phase with the RF input. At low RF input power the modulated electron injection dominates the operation. Injecting in phase with the RF input shows gain increases from 23 dB …

Reinforcement Learning For Self Organization And Power Control Of Two-Tier Heterogeneous Networks, Roohollah Amiri, Mojtaba Ahmadi Almasi, Jeffrey G. Andrews, Hani Mehrpouyan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Self-organizing networks (SONs) can help manage the severe interference in dense heterogeneous networks (HetNets). Given their need to automatically configure power and other settings, machine learning is a promising tool for data-driven decision making in SONs. In this paper, a HetNet is modeled as a dense two-tier network with conventional macrocells overlaid with denser small cells (e.g. femto or pico cells). First, a distributed framework based on multi-agent Markov decision process is proposed that models the power optimization problem in the network. Second, we present a systematic approach for designing a reward function based on the optimization problem. Third, we …

Approximate Pattern Matching Using Hierarchical Graph Construction And Sparse Distributed Representation, Aakanksha Mathuria, Dan Hammerstrom

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

With recent developments in deep networks, there have been significant advances in visual object detection and recognition. However, some of these networks are still easily fooled/hacked and have shown “bag of features” failures. Some of this is due to the fact that even deep networks make only marginal use of the complex structure that exists in real-world images, even after training on huge numbers of images. Biology appears to take advantage of such a structure, but how? In our research, we are studying approaches for robust pattern matching using still, 2D Blocks World images based on graphical representations of the …

Introducing Cornerstone Courses Into Electrical And Computer Engineering Curriculum, Branimir Pejcinovic

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Almost all engineering programs have some form of final, culminating design experience, which is typically taught as a senior year capstone design course. Due to ABET requirements these are team and project based. Many programs will also have projects interspersed among required and elective courses, but these tend to be overrepresented in freshman year. We have recently introduced a set of courses during sophomore year that mimic our approach to capstone courses and provide authentic engineering design experience. These so-called cornerstone courses provide scaffolding by introducing all of the components of teamwork and design process but in a less formal …

Teaching The Hardware Implementation Of Cybesecurity Encryption Algorithms On Fpga Using Hands-On Projects, Nader Rafla, H. Shelton Jacinto, Luka Daoud

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cybersecurity is an important concept in today’s age of information and is of major interest to keep information secure, helping to protect sensitive information in the presence of untrusted third-parties. This has presented the need for an implemented hardware variant of secure algorithms with small footprint to help add protection while reducing processing time/overhead on a standard processor.

In this work we present two hands-on projects that are designed specifically to teach these two concepts using project-based learning techniques in an innovative cooperative learning environment. The learning environment served to combine both student-peer learning and jigsaw strategies.

The technical contents …

Easing Students’ Transitions To University Via A Summer Bridge And Outdoor Experience Program, Noah Salzman, Ann Delaney, Catherine Rose Bates, Donna C. Llewellyn

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this Complete Evidence-based Practice paper, we describe the development and evolution of a combined academic summer bridge program and outdoors experience program designed to support the academic success and development of incoming STEM majors at Boise State University. First-time, first-year students’ transitions to university can be challenging for a wide variety of reasons, including increased independence, leaving behind parents and friends while simultaneously struggling to form new peer groups, and adapting to more rigorous coursework with less externally imposed structure than prior learning experiences. These challenges, especially those related to students’ sense of belonging and connection to other students, …

Work In Progress: Mastery-Based Grading In An Introduction To Circuits Class, Noah Salzman, Kurtis D. Cantley, Gary L. Hunt

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Circuits is often the first required course in an electrical engineering curriculum that demands application of multiple concepts from prerequisite math and physics courses. This integration of knowledge can be a challenge for many students. Effective teaching methods can enhance the overall learning experience, increase program retention, and improve student understanding of foundational topics in electrical engineering. This paper outlines a mastery-based grading structure implemented in a sophomore-level circuits class. The focus is placed at this level because the course is a critical prerequisite for many other courses in the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) curriculum. The knowledge that students …

Board 63: Work In Progress: Adapting Scrum Project Management To Ece Courses, Branimir Pejcinovic, Phillip Wong, Robert B. Bass

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scrum is a popular form of Agile project management. Its applications now include diverse areas such as software development, engineering, urban planning, and law. Scrum has also been used in software engineering educational programs, but its use in other engineering education is lagging. Within our electrical and computer engineering program, we introduced Scrum to help students improve their teamwork efficacy in projects and courses. Earlier, we have presented some initial experiences and observations when implementing Scrum in ECE courses. In this paper we will elaborate on how Scrum is applied across different years and how we scaffold student learning. Scrum …

High Speed Roll-To-Roll Printable Transistor Enabled By A Pulsed Light Curable Cnt Ink, Harish Subbaraman

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper reports the first high speed roll-to-roll printable transistor using a carbon nanotube (CNT) semiconducting layer. The transistor is made possible through the development of a pulsed light curable CNT ink compatible with typical drop on demand inkjet cartridges. This CNT ink uses a xylene based solvent with methanol, glycerin, and Triton X-100 modifiers to create an evaporable solution with appropriate absorption spectra for a mercury or xenon flash lamp with strong energy transmission in the UVB to mid visible light range, allowing the solution to absorb the energy from the flash lamp and evaporate. Transistor dimensions were defined …

Impact Of Beam Misalignment On Hybrid Beamforming Noma For Mmwave Communications, Mojtaba Ahmadi Almasi, Mojtaba Vaezi, Hani Mehrpouyan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper analyzes the effect of beam misalignment on rate performance in downlink of hybrid beamforming-based non-orthogonal multiple access (HB-NOMA) systems. First an HB-NOMA framework is designed in multiuser millimeter wave (mmWave) communications. A sum-rate maximization problem is formulated for HB-NOMA, and an algorithm is introduced to design digital and analog precoders and efficient power allocation. Then, regarding perfectly aligned line-of-sight (LoS) channels, a lower bound for the achievable rate is derived. Next, when the users experience misaligned LoS or non-LoS (NLoS) channels, the impact of beam misalignment is evaluated. To this end, a misalignment factor is modeled and each …

Electromagnetic Analysis Of A Wind Turbine Magnetic Gearbox, Kang Li, Sina Modaresahmadi, Wesley B. Williams, Jonathan Bird

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The design of the second stage of a 59:1 multi-stage magnetic gearbox for a wind turbine demonstrator is presented. The multi-stage series-connected magnetic gearbox is composed of a 6.45 first stage and 9.14 second stage. A flux-focusing spoke-type rotor typology is used with a unique segmented fully laminated design. The impact of structural design changes is considered with respect to torque density. A new rotor typology is presented that enables the magnetic gearbox to be mechanically assembled first without magnets.

Evaluation Of Bus-Bicycle And Bus/Right-Turn Traffic Delays And Conflicts, Katherine L. Keeling, Travis B. Glick, Miles Crumley, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research evaluates conflicts and delays caused by interactions among buses, bicycles, and right-turning vehicles at a mixed traffic corridor in Portland, OR. The study site has a near-side bus stop and a right curbside lane designated for buses and right-turning vehicles. Next to the bus/right-turn lane is a bicycle lane with a bicycle box ahead of the bus stop (i.e., between the intersection and the bus stop). This research examines two concerns caused by these overlapping bus, bicycle, and automobile facilities; the first is the number of bus-bicycle conflicts (as a proxy for safety) and the second is bus …

Challenges In Designing A Mentorship Program For Electrical Engineering Freshmen, Branimir Pejcinovic, Melinda Holtzman

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This Work in Progress Innovative Practice Paper addresses three challenges we face when teaching freshmen: a) how to present a wide variety of sub-fields in electrical engineering, b) how to establish the relevance of electrical engineering to things they care about, and c) how to relate electrical engineering to students' experiences. We are attempting to address these through a mentorship program involving recent alumni working with teams of freshman electrical engineering students. Mentors are expected to: (i) come to class and speak about their job experience, (ii) meet with their teams early in the term to help them get started …

Structural Transformation In GeXS100−X (10 ≤ X ≤ 40) Network Glasses: Structural Varieties In Short-Range, Medium-Range, And Nanoscopic Scale, Y. Sakaguchi, T. Hanashima, K. Ohara, Al-Amin A. Simon, M. Mitkova

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Precise x-ray diffraction measurements using high-energy x rays of synchrotron radiation and systematic Raman scattering measurements were carried out for Ge_xS_100−x (10 ⩽ x ⩽ 40) network glasses. The structural models of the network glasses were proposed based on the results. In the stoichiometric composition Ge₃₃S₆₇, GeS₄ tetrahedral units are connected forming either corner-sharing or edge-sharing structures. In the S-rich glasses, S atoms are inserted between two neighboring GeS₄ tetrahedra, resulting in a flexible floppy network. In a much more S-rich region, some S₈ ring molecules are isolated from the …

Lens-Based Millimeter Wave Reconfigurable Antenna Noma, Mojtaba Ahmadi Almasi, Roohollah Amiri, Mojtaba Vaezi, Hani Mehrpouyan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper proposes a new multiple access technique based on the millimeter wave lens-based reconfigurable antenna systems. In particular, to support a large number of groups of users with different angles of departures (AoDs), we integrate recently proposed reconfigurable antenna multiple access (RAMA) into non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). The proposed technique, named reconfigurable antenna NOMA (RA-NOMA), divides the users with respect to their AoDs and channel gains. Users with different AoDs and comparable channel gains are served via RAMA while users with the same AoDs but different channel gains are served via NOMA. This technique results in the independence of …

Multi-Stream Ldpc Decoder On Gpu Of Mobile Devices, Roohollah Amiri, Hani Mehrpouyan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Low-density parity check (LDPC) codes have been extensively applied in mobile communication systems due to their excellent error correcting capabilities. However, their broad adoption has been hindered by the high complexity of the LDPC decoder. Although to date, dedicated hardware has been used to implement low latency LDPC decoders, recent advancements in the architecture of mobile processors have made it possible to develop software solutions. In this paper, we propose a multi-stream LDPC decoder designed for a mobile device. The proposed decoder uses graphics processing unit (GPU) of a mobile device to achieve efficient real-time decoding. The proposed solution is …

Optimization Of Advanced Encryption Standard (Aes) Using Vivado High Level Synthesis (Hls), Luka Daoud, Fady Hussein, Nader Rafla

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) represents a fundamental building module of many network security protocols to ensure data confidentiality in various applications ranging from data servers to low-power hardware embedded systems. In order to optimize such hardware implementations, High-Level Synthesis (HLS) provides exibility in designing and rapid optimization of dedicated hardware to meet the design constraints. In this paper, we present the implementation of AES encryption processor on FPGA using Xilinx Vivado HLS. The AES architecture was analyzed and designed by loop unrolling, and inner-round and outer-round pipelining techniques to achieve a maximum throughput of the AES algorithm up to 1290 …

A Compact And High Gain Dielectric-Loaded 60ghz Multi-Stepped Waveguide Antenna Array, Saeideh Shad, Hani Mehrpouyan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, a wideband high-gain 2 × 2-element subarray is presented for 60 GHz applications. The antenna is fed with waveguide-fed cavity backed configuration and designed entirely via simple rectangular apertures. To improve radiation pattern characteristics and reduce the antenna size, steppedradiating apertures loaded with a solid dielectric material. A standard WR-15 rectangular waveguide is designed to excite the antenna at the input port over the operation frequency. The most significant advantage of using this design is its efficient radiation patterns, ability to decrease complexity and cost of fabrication. Simulated results demonstrate a maximum gain of about 19.5 dB, …

Icdar 2019 Time-Quality Binarization Competition, Rafael Dueire Lins, Ergina Kavallieratou, Elisa Barney Smith, Rodrigo Barros Bernardino, Darlisson Marinho De Jesus

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The ICDAR 2019 Time-Quality Binarization Competition assessed the performance of seventeen new together with thirty previously published binarization algorithms. The quality of the resulting two-tone image and the execution time were assessed. Comparisons were on both in "real-world" and synthetic scanned images, and in documents photographed with four models of widely used portable phones. Most of the submitted algorithms employed machine learning techniques and performed best on the most complex images. Traditional algorithms provided very good results at a fraction of the time.

A Spatiotemporal Pattern Detector, Robert Ivans, Kurtis D. Cantley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A spatiotemporal pattern detector design is presented which can identify three fundamental spatiotemporal patterns consisting of two spikes (from different neurons or from the same neuron). These fundamental cases provide the building blocks for construction of more complicated arbitrary spatiotemporal patterns. The overall design consists of three primary subcircuits, and the operation of each is described. The detection of the three cases of spatiotemporal patterns, and the detection of a more complicated pattern by a network of Spatiotemporal Pattern Detectors, is then demonstrated through simulation using the Cadence Virtuoso platform.

Feature Extraction Using Spiking Convolutional Neural Networks, Ruthvik Vaila, John Chiasson, Vishal Saxena

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Spiking neural networks are biologically plausible counterparts of the artificial neural networks, artificial neural networks are usually trained with stochastic gradient descent and spiking neural networks are trained with spike timing dependant plasticity. Training deep convolutional neural networks is a memory and power intensive job. Spiking networks could potentially help in reducing the power usage. There is a large pool of tools for one to chose to train artificial neural networks of any size, on the other hand all the available tools to simulate spiking neural networks are geared towards computational neuroscience applications and they are not suitable for real …

Learning Behavior Of Memristor-Based Neuromorphic Circuits In The Presence Of Radiation, Sumedha Gandharava Dahl, Robert C. Ivans, Kurtis D. Cantley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, a feed-forward spiking neural network with memristive synapses is designed to learn a spatio-temporal pattern representing the 25-pixel character ‘B’ by separating correlated and uncorrelated afferents. The network uses spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) learning behavior, which is implemented using biphasic neuron spikes. A TiO₂ memristor non-linear drift model is used to simulate synaptic behavior in the neuromorphic circuit. The network uses a many-to-one topology with 25 pre-synaptic neurons (afferent) each connected to a memristive synapse and one post-synaptic neuron. The memristor model is modified to include the experimentally observed effect of state-altering radiation. During the learning process, …

Indoor And Outdoor Penetration Loss Measurements At 73 And 81 Ghz, Mahfuza Khatun, Changyu Guo, David Matolak, Hani Mehrpouyan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we present millimeter-wave (mmWave) penetration loss measurements and analysis at E-bands—73 GHz and 81 GHz. Penetration loss was measured for common building materials such as clear glass, metal, tinted glass, wood, and drywall on the campus of Boise State University in the city of Boise. A horn antenna with a gain of 24 dBi was used at the transmitter and receiver at both bands, and both antennas were boresight-aligned with respect to the test material. A total of twelve locations were selected to test five materials. We tested two indoor materials (clear glass and wood) in at …