Engineering Commons^™

Using Source-To-Source Transformations To Add Debug Observability To Hls-Synthesized Circuits, Joshua Scott Monson

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation introduces a novel approach for exposing the internal, source-level expressions of circuits generated by high-level synthesis (HLS) for in-circuit debug. The approach uses source-to-source transformations to instrument specific source-level expressions with debug ports. These debug ports allow a user to connect a debugging instrument (e.g. an embedded logic analyzer) to record the activity of the expression corresponding to the debug port. This dissertation demonstrates that a debugging solution based on these source-to-source transformations is feasible and that individual debug ports can be added for a cost of a 1-2% increase in circuit area on average. It also introduces …

Measuring Soft Error Sensitivity Of Fpga Soft Processor Designs Using Fault Injection, Nathan Arthur Harward

Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly, soft processors are being considered for use within FPGA-based reliable computing systems. In an environment in which radiation is a concern, such as space, the logic and routing (configuration memory) of soft processors are sensitive to radiation effects, including single event upsets (SEUs). Thus, effective tools are needed to evaluate and estimate how sensitive the configuration memories of soft processors are in high-radiation environments. A high-speed FPGA fault injection system and methodology were created using the Xilinx Radiation Test Consortium's (XRTC's) Virtex-5 radiation test hardware to conduct exhaustive tests of the SEU sensitivity of a design within an FPGA's …

Towards Improved Estimates Of Upper Ocean Energetics, Alexander Grant Wineteer

Master's Theses

The energy exchanged between the atmosphere and the ocean is an important parameter in understanding the Earth’s climate. One way of quantifying this energy exchange is through the use of “wind work,” or the work done on the ocean by the wind. Since wind work is calculated according to the interaction between ocean surface currents and surface wind stress, a number of surface current decompositions can be used to decompose wind work calculations. In this research, geostrophic, ageostrophic, Ekman, and total current decompositions are all used to calculate wind work. Geostrophic currents are formed by the balance of surface pressure …

A Method And A Case Study For The Selection Of The Best Available Tool For Mobile Device Forensics Using Decision Analysis, Shahzad Saleem, Oliver Popov, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The omnipresence of mobile devices (or small scale digital devices - SSDD) and more importantly the utility of their associated applications for our daily activities, which range from financial transactions to learning, and from entertainment to distributed social presence, create an abundance of digital evidence for each individual. Some of the evidence may be a result of illegal activities that need to be identified, understood and eventually prevented in the future. There are numerous tools for acquiring and analyzing digital evidence extracted from mobile devices. The diversity of SSDDs, types of evidence generated and the number of tools used to …

Predicted Stresses In Ball-Grid-Array (Bga) And Column-Grid-Array (Cga) Interconnections In A Mirror-Like Package Design, Ephraim Suhir, Reza Ghaffarian, Johann Nicolics

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is an obvious incentive for using bow-free (temperature change insensitive) assemblies in various areas of engineering, including electron device and electronic packaging fields. The induced stresses in a bow-free assembly could be, however, rather high, considerably higher than in an assembly, whose bow is not restricted. The simplest and trivial case of a bow-free assembly is a tri-component body, in which the inner component is sandwiched between two identical outer components (“mirror” structure), is addressed in our analysis, and a simple and physically meaningful analytical stress model is suggested. It is concluded that if acceptable stresses (below yield stress …

An Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of A Multi-Disciplinary Decision Support System On System-Level Decision Making, Troy Mario Seletos

Theses and Dissertations

Decisions Support Systems (DSSs) are used to enhance decision maker speed and effectiveness. However, without a view of an entire system, any decision may have unanticipated effects such as sub-optimal outcomes. The purpose of this research is to show that with a system-level analysis, more informed decisions can be made that take into account a larger system or greater number of dimensions or objectives. This research also explores the benefits of using a DSS over analysis of unprocessed data and the effectiveness of integrating a product design generator (PDG) with a business DSS, creating a system DSS, where system-level effects …

A Second Language Acquisition Approach To Learning Programming Languages, Rachel Cunningham, Paula Sanjuan Espejo, Christina Frederick, Lulu Sun, Li Ding

Publications

The instructional design for modules in the study was based on the evidence that learning a programming language is analogous to students acquiring a second language, and utilized tools from Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory. A programming language has vocabulary, syntax, grammar and communicative outcomes that must be sufficiently developed for the learner to function successfully in the environment that utilizes the language. This proposed study utilized an SLA approach to programming language in a blended learning environment. Modifications to the course pedagogy included breaking the course topics into video lessons focusing on basic programming vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. These …

Cognitive Loading, Affect Regulation And Aerodynamic Considerations In Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Systems Refueling Operations, Sam Holley, Ian R. Mcandrew

Publications

Factors influencing aerodynamics involved in aerial refueling illustrate the potential for specialist operators to manage these operations for remotely piloted vehicles. The authors review aerodynamic characteristics of uninhabited aerial systems during refueling, drogue and boom design and associated flight dynamics, cognitive factors associated with control transfer and refueling, and affective components and their influence on decision making and operator performance. Attention is directed to cognitive loading and encoding challenges, with considerations for hippocampal mapping and hemispheric asymmetry. Implications for system state awareness are examined. Advantages for specially trained refueling pilot operators are discussed and recommendations given for areas of concentration.

Spring 2016 - Volume 40, Number 1, Full Issue

The Professional Constructor

No abstract provided.

Strategies For Reducing The Environmental Impacts Of Construction, Jordan Moran

The Professional Constructor

Sustainable building is a complex goal to reach even for the most seasoned project managers. If theyfocus on the ideas to reduce, reuse, and recycle that goal becomes much more obtainable. The project manager mustset his expectations and priorities from the moment the contract is signed to navigate which routes are most possible toachieve given the project scope and delivery method. The key to success is to relay the long term benefits of sustainablebuilding on to the owner, and make them realize that up-front cost should take a back seat to life cycle. This will save theenvironment and the owner’s …

General Interest Articles, The Professional Constructor

The Professional Constructor

No abstract provided.

Contractor Feasibility In Providing Cost Segregation Studies From Detailed Estimates: A Case Study, Ben F. Bigelow, Jeremy Robinson, John Killingsworth

The Professional Constructor

Profit margins are tight for general contractors, averaging under 3% (Construction Financial Management Association). Further, competition for projects can be very fierce, so any opportunity for increased profit or a competitive advantage in bidding bears consideration by general contractors. Cost segregation studies represent such an opportunity but the feasibility of a general contractor providing them has not been studied. A cost segregation study allows a property owner to accelerate the depreciation of certain portions of a building thus reducing tax liability and increasing cash flow. Because the information needed for a cost segregation study can be found in a detailed …

A Framework For Analyzing Intraorganizational Congruence Of Safety Practices On Safety Performance – A Pilot Study Of Construction, Benjamin Hill, Mohammed S. Hashem M. Mehany, Richard J. Gebken

The Professional Constructor

Previous research has determined that improving employee congruence on organizational methods and goals leads to improved organizational performance. This research establishes a comprehensive framework of common and recommended safety practices that can be used for intraorganizational congruence data collection regarding safety practices. The research is also developing a method for congruence calculation and examine the congruence effect on the subcontractor’s safety performance metrics through a pilot study. The established framework identified and organized 170 practices under seven conceptual, safety-practice categories. The congruence analysis and the pilot study revealed several areas of high and low congruency along with significant correlations between …

Factors Of Employee Loyalty Among Construction Management Field Personnel, Estimators & Bim/Design Specialists: Insights For General Contractors, Colby Humphrey, Ben F. Bigelow

The Professional Constructor

Since 2008 construction employment has dropped considerably and has remained below 2007 levels, with construction management positions still about 14% down (U.S. Department of Labor 2015). Despite the boom currently occurring in the construction industry, general contractors (GCs) are finding it difficult to fill project management positions (AGC 2014), and construction firms expect these challenges to continue (Mutikani 2014). With greater demand for managers, retaining quality people is a paramount concern. Everyone knows the adage that “money talks”, but what can a GC do to engender loyalty besides just paying more? To explore that question and attempt to better understand …

Amorphous Silicon Solar Vivaldi Antenna, Oisin O'Conchubhair, Kansheng Yang, Patrick Mcevoy, Max Ammann

Articles

An ultra-wideband solar Vivaldi antenna is proposed. Cut from amorphous silicon cells, it maintains a peak power at 4.25 V which overcomes a need for lossy power management components. The wireless communications device can yield solar energy or function as a rectenna for dual-source energy harvesting. The solar Vivaldi performs with 0.5 - 2.8 dBi gain from 0.95 - 2.45 GHz and in rectenna mode, it covers three bands for wireless energy scavenging.

Shape Dependence Of Transmission, Reflection, And Absorption Eigenvalue Densities In Disordered Waveguides With Dissipation, Alexey Yamilov, Sasha Petrenko, Raktim Sarma, Hui Cao

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The universal bimodal distribution of transmission eigenvalues in lossless diffusive systems underpins such celebrated phenomena as universal conductance fluctuations, quantum shot noise in condensed matter physics, and enhanced transmission in optics and acoustics. Here, we show that in the presence of absorption, the density of the transmission eigenvalues depends on the confinement geometry of the scattering media. Furthermore, in an asymmetric waveguide, the densities of the reflection and absorption eigenvalues also depend on the side from which the waves are incident. With increasing absorption, the density of absorption eigenvalues transforms from a single-peak to a double-peak function. Our findings open …

Faculty Intellectual Property In Capstone Design Projects, Jay R. Goldberg

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Reports on the Capstone Design challenge, focusing on design challenges for the participants. By focusing on the design process and allowing students to gain hands-on experience in design, they help prepare students for careers in engineering. In many capstone design courses, students design a product or device to solve a problem and build and test a prototype to verify and validate the design. Student teams are often advised by some combination of industry sponsors, clinical advisors, and/or faculty advisors. Faculty advisors serve as technical advisors to the teams and provide guidance to keep them on track. They are not members …

Instrumented Lumbar Corpectomy And Spinal Reconstruction Comparing Rhbmp-2/Compression-Resistant Matrix, Rhbmp-2/Absorbable Collagen Sponge/Ceramic Granules Mixture, And Autograft In Two Different Devices: A Study In Sheep, Jeffrey M. Toth, David G. Schwartz, Jean-Piere Mobasser, Joseph Williams

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Study Design. Fusion success with rhBMP-2 and autograft in titanium or PEEK corpectomy devices was evaluated in a sheep lumbar corpectomy model. The 6 treatment groups included titanium mesh or PEEK corpectomy devices filled with rhBMP-2 on a compression-resistant matrix (CRM) carrier; rhBMP-2 in a morselized absorbable collagen sponge (ACS) carrier combined with resorbable ceramic granules; and autograft.

Objective. The aim of this study was to determine fusion rates associated with 2 different preparations of rhBMP-2 as well as autograft in an instrumented ovine lumbar corpectomy model 6 months postoperatively.

Summary of Background Data. Vertebral reconstruction with corpectomy devices requires …

Cal Poly On-Site Water Treatment Project Proposal, Tanner Wingo

Biomedical Engineering

This report is based off of a competition hosted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): the 2015 Campus RainWorks Challenge. Student teams were encouraged to design an infrastructure that could manage storm water, benefit campus life, and promote sustainability. The report summarizes the engineering aspects that support the competition submittal. The design is to treat campus wastewater on-site and to a suitable level for either reuse or discharge into Brizzolara Creek.

Interactive Teachable Cognitive Agents: Smart Building Blocks For Multiagent Systems, Budhitama Subagdja, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Developing a complex intelligent system by abstracting their behaviors, functionalities, and reasoning mechanisms can be tedious and time consuming. In this paper, we present a framework for developing an application or software system based on smart autonomous components that collaborate with the developer or user to realize the entire system. Inspired by teachable approaches and programming-by-demonstration methods in robotics and end-user development, we treat intelligent agents as teachable components that make up the system to be built. Each agent serves different functionalities and may have prebuilt operations to accomplish its own design objectives. However, each agent may also be equipped …

Improving The Sensitivity Of Unobtrusive Inactivity Detection In Sensor-Enabled Homes For The Elderly, Alvin C. Valera, Hwee-Pink Tan, Liming Bai

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Unobtrusive in-home monitoring systems are gaining acceptability and are being deployed to enable relatives and caregivers to remotely monitor and provide timely care to their elderly loved ones or senior clients, respectively, who are living independently. Such systems can provide information about nonmovement or inactivity of the elderly resident. As prolonged inactivity could mean potential danger, several algorithms have been proposed to automatically detect unusually long durations of inactivity. Such schemes, however, suffer from low sensitivity due to their high detection latency. In this paper, we propose Dwell Time-enhanced Dynamic Threshold (DTDT), a scheme for computing adaptive alert thresholds that …

Foot Strike Patterns And Body Alignment Effects On Muscle Activity During Running., Nicole Knapp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The mechanics of the running stride was altered around the 1970s when shoes were released with an elevated heel (McDougall 2009). At this point in time a heel strike running style became increasingly common and has remained the popular pattern when running in traditional shoes. In fact, the exact same person has been seen to alter their stride when running in a traditional shoe where they heel strike verses barefoot where they take on a forefoot strike (Lieberman 2010).

When an individual heel strikes, the ground reaction force is greater and contains an initial peak which is void in a …

Solvent-Free Manufacturing Of Electrodes For Lithium-Ion Batteries, B. Ludwig, Z. Zheng, W. Shou, Y. Wang, Heng Pan

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Numerical Simulation Of Shock Response And Dynamic Fracture Of A Concrete Dam Subjected To Impact Load, Lu Lu, Xin Li, Jing Zhou, Genda Chen, Dong Yun

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The shock response and dynamic fracture of concrete gravity dams under impact load are the key problems to evaluate the antiknock safety of the dam. This study aims at understanding the effects of impact shock on the elastic response and dynamic fracture of concrete gravity dams. Firstly, this paper uses acceleration records of a concrete gravity dam under impact to establish the correct way to determine the concrete gravity dam of the fundamental frequency and present cut sheets multi-degree-of-freedom dynamic modeling. Under strong impact loading, the constitutive relation of concrete gravity dam and the highest frequency of the impact are …

Semiconductor Film Grown On A Circular Substrate: Predictive Modeling Of Lattice-Misfit Stresses, Ephraim Suhir, Johann Nicolics, G. Khatibi, M. Lederer

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

effective and physically meaningful analytical predictive model is developed for the evaluation the lattice-misfit stresses (LMS) in a semiconductor film grown on a circular substrate (wafer). The two-dimensional (plane-stress) theory-of-elasticity approximation (TEA) is employed in the analysis. The addressed stresses include the interfacial shearing stress, responsible for the occurrence and growth of dislocations, as well as for possible delaminations and the cohesive strength of a buffering material, if any. Normal radial and circumferential (tangential) stresses acting in the film cross-sections and responsible for its short- and long-term strength (fracture toughness) are also addressed. The analysis is geared to the GaN …

Requirements Quick Notes, William L. Honig, Shingo Takada

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A short introduction to requirements and their role in system development. Includes industry definition of requirements, overview of basic requirements process including numbering of requirements, ties to testing, and traceability. An introduction to requirements quality attributes (correct, unambiguous, etc.) Includes references to requirements process, numbering, and quality papers.

Requirements Metrics - Definitions Of A Working List Of Possible Metrics For Requirements Quality, William L. Honig

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A work in progress to define a metrics set for requirements. Metrics are defined that apply to either the entire requirements set (requirements document as a whole) or individual atomic (or singular, individual) requirements statements. Requirements are identified with standard names and a identification scheme and include both subjective and objective measures.

An example metric for the full set of requirements: Rd2 - Requirements Consistency, Is the set of atomic requirements internally consistent, with no contradictions, no duplication between individual requirements? An example of a metric for a single requirement: Ra4 - Requirement Verifiability, How adequately can this requirement be …

Efficacy Of Physical Layer Preamble Manipulation For Ieee 802.11a/Ac, Benjamin W. Ramsey, Jonathan D. Fuller, Christopher W. Badenhop

Faculty Publications

Wireless physical layer manipulation is a recently discovered technique for selective packet obfuscation. This process exploits the unique and proprietary nature of transceiver designs rather than manufacturing imperfections. To date, preamble manipulation has only successfully been demonstrated on low data rate transceivers operating in the2.4 GHz band. This Letter investigates the effectiveness of preamble manipulation on common 5 GHz IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.11ac wireless transceivers for the first time. Herein it is demonstrated that the preamble short training sequence length can be manipulated to discern among the six transceiver designs under test with greater than 99% accuracy using fewer …

Oil Recovery By Flooding; Sensitivity Analysis To Technical Parameters, Rana Osama Fahmi Saqer

Theses

Numerous enhanced oil recovery techniques including miscible gas injection, chemical, thermal and other methods are applied at the third phase of production after both primary and secondary recovery have been exhausted. Polymer flooding is one of the chemical methods that recover more oil by decreasing the mobility of the system; by increasing the viscosity of the injected water that results in an improvement in the volumetric sweep efficiency.

The objective of this work is to asses and select the development options using polymer process that maximize oil recovery for a synthetic reservoir model where technical parameters are optimized thoroughly.

Reservoir …

Contact Angle And Ift Measurements Of Smart Water At Elevated Temperatures And Pressures For Evaluating Wettability In A Selected Carbonate Reservoir In The Uae, Jassim Abubacker Ponnambathayil

Theses

Water flooding has been regarded as a well-known secondary oil recovery method. In the recent years, extensive research on crude oil, brine, and rock systems has acknowledged that the composition of the injected water can change wetting properties of the reservoir during a water flood in a promising way to improve oil recovery. Hence, injection of “smart water” with correct salinity and composition is considered as a tertiary recovery method. The mechanism behind wettability alteration that is promoted by smart water injection has been a topic of discussion in carbonate and sandstone formations. In this work, some key properties of …