Computer Engineering Commons^™

Digital, Automated Reactive Target System, Nicholas Haas, Saipranay Vellala, Trandon Ware, Thomas Martin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this era, technology is woven into almost every facet of our leisure activities. Although technology has innovated hobbies ranging from chess to soccer, the art of shooting has been neglected. Unnecessary insufficiency such as bullet ricochets off of mechanical steel targets, ineffective progress tracking, and general inaccessibility to outdoor training facilities are all improvable areas of this sport. The Dynamic Automated Reactive Target (D.A.R.T) System aims to fill some of these gaps and help modernize recreational marksmanship. Modeling the system after a dueling tree will optimize the use of the system and allow for different training models to challenge …

Terraria Server On A Raspberry Pi, Bradley Stoldt

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My senior project is designed to display some of the material I have learned throughout the four years at The University of Akron, as well as explore into a newer piece of technology. I will be researching and documenting myself setting up a live network at my house that will have a raspberry pi running on it as a game server. The goal of this project is to get internal users to connect to the server, as well as users that are outside of my home network.

Resource Efficient Design Of Quantum Circuits For Cryptanalysis And Scientific Computing Applications, Edgard Munoz-Coreas

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Quantum computers offer the potential to extend our abilities to tackle computational problems in fields such as number theory, encryption, search and scientific computation. Up to a superpolynomial speedup has been reported for quantum algorithms in these areas. Motivated by the promise of faster computations, the development of quantum machines has caught the attention of both academics and industry researchers. Quantum machines are now at sizes where implementations of quantum algorithms or their components are now becoming possible. In order to implement quantum algorithms on quantum machines, resource efficient circuits and functional blocks must be designed. In this work, we …

Demand-Driven Execution Using Future Gated Single Assignment Form, Omkar Javeri

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation discusses a novel, previously unexplored execution model called Demand-Driven Execution (DDE), which executes programs starting from the outputs of the program, progressing towards the inputs of the program. This approach is significantly different from prior demand-driven reduction machines as it can execute a program written in an imperative language using the demand-driven paradigm while extracting both instruction and data level parallelism. The execution model relies on an executable Single Assignment Form which serves both as the internal representation of the compiler as well as the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) of the machine. This work develops the instruction set …

Implementation Of A Hierarchical, Embedded, Cyber Attack Detection System For Spi Devices On Unmanned Aerial Systems, Jeremy J. Price

Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) create security concerns as their roles expand in commercial, military, and consumer spaces. The need to secure these systems is recognized in the architecture for a Hierarchical, Embedded, Cyber Attack Detection (HECAD) system. HECAD passively monitors the communication between a flight controller and all its peripherals like sensors and actuators. It ensures the functionality of a UAS is within the set of defined behavior and reports all potential problems, whether the errors were caused by cyber attacks or other physical faults. A portion of the design for Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) devices on board a flight …

Hardware-Entangled Software Execution Using Dynamic Pufs, Wenjie Xiong

Yale Day of Data

Low-end computing devices are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, especially due to the widespread deployment of Internet-of-Things products. There is, however, much concern about sensitive data being processed on these low-end devices which have limited protection mechanisms in place. This paper proposes a Hardware-Entangled Software Protection (HESP) scheme that leverages hardware features to protect software code from malicious modification before or during run-time. It also enables implicit hardware authentication. Thus, the software will execute correctly only on an authorized device and if the timing of the software, e.g., control flow, was not changed through malicious modifications. The proposed ideas are based on …

Involuntary Signal-Based Grounding Of Civilian Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas) In Civilian Airspace, Keith Conley

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the involuntary signal-based grounding of civilian unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in unauthorized air spaces. The technique proposed here will forcibly land unauthorized UAS in a given area in such a way that the UAS will not be harmed, and the pilot cannot stop the landing. The technique will not involuntarily ground authorized drones which will be determined prior to the landing. Unauthorized airspaces include military bases, university campuses, areas affected by a natural disaster, and stadiums for public events. This thesis proposes an early prototype of a hardware-based signal based involuntary grounding technique to handle the problem …

Adaptive-Hybrid Redundancy For Radiation Hardening, Nicolas S. Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

An Adaptive-Hybrid Redundancy (AHR) mitigation strategy is proposed to mitigate the effects of Single Event Upset (SEU) and Single Event Transient (SET) radiation effects. AHR is adaptive because it switches between Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) and Temporal Software Redundancy (TSR). AHR is hybrid because it uses hardware and software redundancy. AHR is demonstrated to run faster than TSR and use less energy than TMR. Furthermore, AHR allows space vehicle designers, mission planners, and operators the flexibility to determine how much time is spent in TMR and TSR. TMR mode provides faster processing at the expense of greater energy usage. TSR …

Weight Controlled Electric Skateboard, Zachary Barram, Carson Bertozzi, Vishnu Dodballapur

Computer Engineering

Technology and the way that humans interact is becoming more vital and omnipresent with every passing day. However, human interface device designers suffer from the increasingly popular “designed for me or people like me” syndrome. This design philosophy inherently limits accessibility and usability of technology to those like the designer. This places severe limits of usability to those who are not fully able as well as leaves non-traditional human interface devices unexplored. This project set out to explore a previously uncharted human interface device, on an electric skateboard, and compare it send user experience with industry leading human interface devices.

Planr.: Planar Learning Autonomous Navigation Robot, Gabrielle S. Santamorena, Daniel Kasman, Jesus Mercado, Ben Klave, Andrew Weisman, Anthony Fortner

Computer Engineering

PLANR is a self-contained robot capable of mapping a space and generating 2D floor plans of a building while identifying objects of interest. It runs Robot Operating System (ROS) and houses four main hardware components. An Arduino Mega board handles the navigation, while an NVIDIA Jetson TX2, holds most of the processing power and runs ROS. An Orbbec Astra Pro stereoscopic camera is used for recognition of doors, windows and outlets and the RPLiDAR A3 laser scanner is able to give depth for wall detection and dimension measurements. The robot is intended to operate autonomously and without constant human monitoring …

Tidalsim Senior Project Report, Kent Zhang, Colin Vandervoort

Computer Engineering

Throughout the course of this project, our team helped the Cal Poly Biological Sciences department refine an intertidal zone simulator. The aim of this device is to allow any marine biologist to easily simulate a vast range of tidal zones in order to test animal behaviors within these zones. Another goal of this project is to make each simulation tank independent from the others by using a single microcontroller to handle all inputs and outputs of the system as well as logging all relevant data. The current system is set up so that a separate microcontroller handles dissolved oxygen and …

Smart Dc Wall Outlet Design With Improved Load Voltage Detection, Patrick Donovon Granieri

Master's Theses

A standard home in the United States has access to the 120V AC power grid for use with home appliances. Many electronics used at home are powered by a DC power supply, which loses energy in the conversion from AC power. The DC House project avoids any conversion between AC and DC by storing energy in batteries as DC power and supplying it directly to DC appliances. While AC systems feature a standardized output voltage, no such standard exists for DC systems. The Smart DC Wall Outlet solves this by automatically adjusting its output voltage to meet any required DC …

An Fpga Implementation Of Digital Guitar Effects, Carson James Robles

Computer Engineering

One of the most versatile aspects of the electric guitar is its ability to change its sound completely and on-the-fly through the use of effects pedals. Conventional guitar pedals contain one effect and can be chained together. The goal of this project is to serve as a contained multi-effects station with five popular electric guitar effects packed into one product. On top of this, the effects each have two tunable parameters to allow users to dial in the exact tone they are looking for. All of the signal processing done in this project is conducted on an FPGA which also …

Low-Energy Acceleration Of Binarized Convolutional Neural Networks Using A Spin Hall Effect Based Logic-In-Memory Architecture, Ashkan Samiee, Payal Borulkar, Ronald F. Demara, Peiyi Zhao, Yu Bai

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Deep Learning (DL) offers the advantages of high accuracy performance at tasks such as image recognition, learning of complex intelligent behaviors, and large-scale information retrieval problems such as intelligent web search. To attain the benefits of DL, the high computational and energy-consumption demands imposed by the underlying processing, interconnect, and memory devices on which software-based DL executes can benefit substantially from innovative hardware implementations. Logic-in-Memory (LIM) architectures offer potential approaches to attaining such throughput goals within area and energy constraints starting with the lowest layers of the hardware stack. In this paper, we develop a Spintronic Logic-in-Memory (S-LIM) XNOR neural …

Hardware Ip Classification Through Weighted Characteristics, Brendan Mcgeehan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today’s business model for hardware designs frequently incorporates third-party Intellectual Property (IP) due to the many benefits it can bring to a company. For instance, outsourcing certain components of an overall design can reduce time-to-market by allowing each party to specialize and perfect a specific part of the overall design. However, allowing third-party involvement also increases the possibility of malicious attacks, such as hardware Trojan insertion. Trojan insertion is a particularly dangerous security threat because testing the functionality of an IP can often leave the Trojan undetected. Therefore, this thesis work provides an improvement on a Trojan detection method known …

3d Printed Smart Mobile, Bingfang Chen

Publications and Research

The goal of this research project is to design and build a prototype of a smart mobile robot to participate and compete in IEEE Micro-mouse and similar competitions. The robot has to find its way out of a maze as quickly as possible, by exploring and learning the paths in the maze. 3D printing technology will be used to build a lightweight robot frame so that it can move at a fast speed.

Design Of Remote Datalogger Connection And Live Data Tweeting System, Zachary Wofford

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Low-Impact Development (LID) is an attempt to sustainably respond to the potential hazards posed by urban expansion. Green roofs are an example of LID design meant to reduce the amount of runoff from storm events that are becoming more intense and less predictable while also providing insulation to buildings. LID has not yet been widely adopted as it is often a more expensive alternative to conventional infrastructure (Bowman et. al., 2009). However, its benefits are apparent. The University of Arkansas Honors College awarded a grant to research the large green roof atop Hillside Auditorium. One part of this grant is …

Graph-Based Temporal Analysis In Digital Forensics, Nikolai A. Adderley

Theses and Dissertations

Establishing a timeline as part of a digital forensics investigation is a vital part of understanding the order in which system events occurred. However, most digital forensics tools present timelines as histogram or as raw artifacts. Consequently, digital forensics examiners are forced to rely on manual, labor-intensive practices to reconstruct system events. Current digital forensics analysis tools are at their technological limit with the increasing storage and complexity of data. A graph-based timeline can present digital forensics evidence in a structure that can be immediately understood and effortlessly focused. This paper presents the Temporal Analysis Integration Management Application (TAIMA) to …

Instantaneous Bandwidth Expansion Using Software Defined Radios, Nicholas D. Everett

Theses and Dissertations

The Stimulated Unintended Radiated Emissions (SURE) process has been proven capable of classifying a device (e.g. a loaded antenna) as either operational or defective. Currently, the SURE process utilizes a specialized noise radar which is bulky, expensive and not easily supported. With current technology advancements, Software Defined Radios (SDRs) have become more compact, more readily available and significantly cheaper. The research here examines whether multiple SDRs can be integrated to replace the current specialized ultra-wideband noise radar used with the SURE process. The research specifically targets whether or not multiple SDR sub-band collections can be combined to form a wider …

Ict: In-Field Calibration Transfer For Air Quality Sensor Deployments, Yun Cheng, Xiaoxi He, Zimu Zhou, Lothar Thiele

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in urban air pollution monitoring, where hundreds of low-cost air quality sensors are deployed city-wide. To guarantee data accuracy and consistency, these sensors need periodic calibration after deployment. Since access to ground truth references is often limited in large-scale deployments, it is difficult to conduct city-wide post-deployment sensor calibration. In this work we propose In-field Calibration Transfer (ICT), a calibration scheme that transfers the calibration parameters of source sensors (with access to references) to target sensors (without access to references). On observing that (i) the distributions of ground truth in both source and …

A Comparative Study Of Wireless Star Networks Implemented With Current Wireless Protocols, Sizen Neupane

Masters Theses

Wireless communication is one of the most advanced technological developments of this era. Wireless technology enables both short-range and long-range services. Today, there are several different wireless communication technologies in existence. Each has its characteristics different from another one. This thesis will implement three short-range wireless technologies in star connection and compare the performance in the wireless network.

For this thesis, the performance of three different RF protocols - a proprietary packet protocol called Enhanced ShockBurst in nRF24L01+, Bluetooth Low Energy, and a special Wi- Fi protocol ESP-Now was compared. The general concept was to establish a star network for …

Annual Report 2018-2019, Depaul University College Of Computing And Digital Media

CDM Annual Reports

LETTER FROM THE DEAN

I am pleased to share with you the 2018-19 College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM) annual report, highlighting the important work done by our faculty, students, and staff. We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again: it was a big year. In 2018-19, programs across all three of our schools (Computing, Cinematic Arts, and Design) were ranked nationally. Our faculty were published in dozens of scholarly journals, screened their films over 100 times, and had their work exhibited globally. Student and alumni accomplishments included an Emmy nomination, a first place win in a Department …

Uncertainty Theory Based Reliability-Centric Cyber-Physical System Design, Houbing Song, Ya Jiang, Mingzhe Wang, Xun Jiao, Hui Kong, Rui Wang, Yongxin Liu, Jian Wang, Jiaguang Sun

Publications

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are built from, and depend upon, the seamless integration of software and hardware components. The most important challenge in CPS design and verification is to design CPS to be reliable in a variety of uncertainties, i.e., unanticipated and rapidly evolving environments and disturbances. The costs, delays and reliability of the designed CPS are highly dependent on software-hardware partitioning in the design. The key challenges in partitioning CPSs is that it is difficult to formalize reliability characterization in the same way as the uncertain cost and time delay.

In this paper, we propose a new CPS design paradigm …

Smart Parking Deck, Ryne Turner, Matthew Mcdade, Julie Aichinger, Laveréna Wienclaw

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Smart Parking Deck employs elementary circuit design elements and mobile application development. Each device module uses laser proximity sensors to check the availability of an individual parking space and a Zigbee unit to communicate with the adjacent device module. The modules are connected to a network hub that manages all of the incoming and outgoing parking data. This data is displayed on the mobile application. The system is easily manageable and energy efficient, significantly decreasing the costs associated with other smart parking systems on the market. This system is aimed at decreasing commute time for students by allowing them …

Safe Pass, Alycia Riese, Julia Hariharan, Greg Synek, Jonathan Hall

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to design a sensor to be mounted on Class IV and higher vehicles to detect on-coming traffic. If traffic has been detected, the system is to warn drivers behind the stopped vehicle that passing is unsafe. The vehicle detection is to be implemented using a LiDAR detection method along with signal processing. A wireless transceiver is to transmit from the front radar module to the rear warning indicator module when the conditions are unsafe for passing. The project goals are to increase road safety and maintain traffic flow. The report details the challenges due …

A Companion Study Guide For The Cisco Dcicn Data Center Certification Exam (200-150), Miguel Ramlatchan

Distance Learning Faculty & Staff Books

The official Cisco DCICN book and practice exams are great resources, but this is not an easy exam. This study guide is a companion to those resources and summarizes the subject areas into additional review questions with an answer description for each item. This book is not a "braindump" and it is not bootleg screenshots of the actual exam. Instead, this book provides additional context and examples, serves to complement other study guides, and provides additional examples. If you are getting ready to take the exam for the first time, I hope that this guide provides the extra help to …

Injecting Control Commands Through Sensory Channel: Attack And Defense, Farhad Rasapour

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Industrial Control System (ICS) is responsible for controlling and managing critical infrastructures like nuclear plants and power plants. ICS is equipped with various devices like communication media, Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), actuators, and sensors. Sensors are used to measure a physical phenomenon and send these measurements through the sensory channel to the control devices so they can make decisions on the movements of the actuators in the systems. While tampering with the sensor measurements has been the focus of many studies, there is some research that has concentrated on misusing a sensor and sensory channel as an axillary attack device …

Criticality Assessments For Improving Algorithmic Robustness, Thomas B. Jones

Computer Science ETDs

Though computational models typically assume all program steps execute flawlessly, that does not imply all steps are equally important if a failure should occur. In the "Constrained Reliability Allocation" problem, sufficient resources are guaranteed for operations that prompt eventual program termination on failure, but those operations that only cause output errors are given a limited budget of some vital resource, insufficient to ensure correct operation for each of them.

In this dissertation, I present a novel representation of failures based on a combination of their timing and location combined with criticality assessments---a method used to predict the behavior of systems …

Hardware And Software (Ksu), Rebecca Rutherfoord, Dawn Tatum, Susan Vandeven, Richard Halstead-Nussloch, James Rutherfoord, Zhigang Li

Computer Science and Information Technology Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Hardware and Software was created under a Round Eleven ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

Investigating The Effect Of Detecting And Mitigating A Ring Oscillator-Based Hardware Trojan, Lakshmi Ramakrishnan

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The outsourcing of the manufacturing process of integrated circuits to fabrications plants all over the world has exposed these chips to several security threats, especially at the hardware level. There have been instances of malicious circuitry, such as backdoors, being added to circuits without the knowledge of the chip designers or vendors. Such threats could be immensely powerful and dangerous against confidentiality, among other vulnerabilities.

Defense mechanisms against such attacks have been probed and defense techniques have been developed. But with the passage of time, attack techniques have improved immensely as well. From directly observing the inputs or outputs, adversaries …