Computer Engineering Commons^™

Behavioral Modeling And Fpga Synthesis Of Ieee 802.11n Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (Ofdm) Scheme, Ragahv Sharma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the field of communications, a high data rate and low multi-path fading is required for efficient information exchange. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a widely accepted IEEE 802.11n (and many others) standard for usage in communication systems operating in fading dispersive channels. In this thesis, we modeled the OFDM algorithm at the behavioral level in VHDL/Verilog that was successfully synthesized/verified on an FPGA. Due to rapid technology scaling, FPGAs have become popular and are low-cost and high performance alternatives to (semi-) custom ASICs. Further, due to reprogramming flexibility, FPGAs are useful in rapid prototyping. As per the IEEE …

Threshold Voltage Defined Switches And Gates To Prevent Reverse Engineering, Ithihasa Reddy Nirmala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

¹Semiconductor supply chain is increasingly getting exposed to variety of security attacks such as Trojan insertion, cloning, counterfeiting, reverse engineering (RE), piracy of Intellectual Property (IP) or Integrated Circuit (IC) and side-channel analysis due to involvement of untrusted parties. In this thesis, we use threshold voltage-defined switches to design a logic gate that will camouflage the conventional logic gates both logically and physically to resist RE and IP piracy. The proposed gate can function as NAND, AND, NOR, OR, XOR, and XNOR robustly using threshold defined switches. We also propose a flavor of camouflaged gate that represents reduced functionality …

Methodologies To Exploit Atpg Tools For De-Camouflaging, Deepak Reddy Vontela

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Semiconductor supply chain is increasingly getting exposed to Reverse Engineering (RE) of Intellectual Property (IP). Camouflaging of gates in integrated circuits are typically employed to hide the gate functionality to prevent reverse engineering. The functionalities of these gates cannot be found by De-layering as they don’t leave any layout clues. Adversaries perform reverse engineering by replacing the camouflaged gate with the known gate and by developing custom software to determine test patterns. These test patterns are used to analyze the outputs and to conclude the functionality of the camouflaged gate.

In this thesis, we show that reverse engineering of camouflaged …

Protocol Guided Trace Analysis For Post-Silicon Debug Under Limited Observability, Yuting Cao Cao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers the problem of reconstructing system level behavior of an SoC design from a partially observed signal trace. Solving this problem is a critical activity in post-silicon validation, and currently depends primarily on human creativity and insights. In this thesis, we provide algorithms to automatically infer system level flows from incomplete, ambiguous, and noisy trace data. This thesis also demonstrates the approach on two case studies, a multicore SoC model developed within the within the GEM5 environment, and a cycle accurate register transfer level model of a similar SoC design.

Enforcing Security Policies On Gpu Computing Through The Use Of Aspect-Oriented Programming Techniques, Bader Albassam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a new security policy enforcer designed for securing parallel computation on CUDA GPUs. We show how the very features that make a GPGPU desirable have already been utilized in existing exploits, fortifying the need for security protections on a GPGPU. An aspect weaver was designed for CUDA with the goal of utilizing aspect-oriented programming for security policy enforcement. Empirical testing verified the ability of our aspect weaver to enforce various policies. Furthermore, a performance analysis was performed to demonstrate that using this policy enforcer provides no significant performance impact over manual insertion of policy code. Finally, future …

Design Exploration And Application Of Reversible Circuits In Emerging Technologies, Saurabh Kotiyal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The reversible logic has promising applications in emerging computing paradigms, such as quantum computing, quantum dot cellular automata, optical computing, etc. In reversible logic gates, there is a unique one-to-one mapping between the inputs and outputs. To generate a useful gate function, the reversible gates require some constant ancillary inputs called ancilla inputs. Also to maintain the reversibility of the circuits some additional unused outputs are required that are referred to as the garbage outputs. The number of ancilla inputs, the number of garbage outputs and quantum cost plays an important role in the evaluation of reversible circuits. Thus minimizing …

Synthesis Techniques For Sub-Threshold Leakage And Nbti Optimization In Digital Vlsi Systems, Shilpa Pendyala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rising power demands and cost motivates us to explore low power solutions in electronics. In nanometer Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) processes with low threshold voltages and thin gate oxides, subthreshold leakage power dominates total power of a circuit. As technology scales, Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) emerged as a major limiting reliability mechanism. It causes a threshold voltage shift which, over time, results in circuit performance degradation. Hence, leakage power and NBTI degradation are two key challenges in deep sub micron regime.

In this dissertation, interval arithmetic based interval propagation technique is introduced as an effective leakage optimization …

Kinematic Control Of Redundant Mobile Manipulators, Mustafa Mashali

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A mobile manipulator is a robotic arm mounted on a robotic mobile platform. In such a system, the degrees of freedom of the mobile platform are combined with that of the manipulator. As a result, the workspace of the manipulator is substantially extended. A mobile manipulator has two trajectories: the end-effector trajectory and the mobile platform trajectory. Typically, the mobile platform trajectory is not defined and is determined through inverse kinematics. But in some applications it is important to follow a specified mobile platform trajectory. The main focus of this work is to determine the inverse kinematics of a mobile …

Embedded System Design Of A Real-Time Parking Guidance System, Omkar Dokur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The primary objective of this work is to design a parking guidance system to reliably detect entering/exiting vehicles to a parking garage in a cost-efficient manner. Existing solutions (inductive loops, RFID based systems, and video image processors) at shopping malls, universities, airports etc., are expensive due to high installation and maintenance costs. There is a need for a parking guidance system that is reliable, accurate, and cost-effective. The proposed parking guidance system is designed to optimize the use of parking spaces and to reduce wait times. Based on a literature review we identify that the ultrasonic sensor is suitable to …

Knowledge Discovery And Predictive Modeling From Brain Tumor Mris, Mu Zhou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Quantitative cancer imaging is an emerging field that develops computational techniques to acquire a deep understanding of cancer characteristics for cancer diagnosis and clinical decision making. The recent emergence of growing clinical imaging data provides a wealth of opportunity to systematically explore quantitative information to advance cancer diagnosis. Crucial questions arise as to how we can develop specific computational models that are capable of mining meaningful knowledge from a vast quantity of imaging data and how to transform such findings into improved personalized health care?

This dissertation presents a set of computational models in the context of malignant brain tumors— …

Dual 7-Degree-Of-Freedom Robotic Arm Remote Teleoperation Using Haptic Devices, Yu-Cheng Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A teleoperated system of dual redundant manipulator will be controlled in this thesis. The robot used with the dual redundant manipulator in this thesis is Baxter. Baxter’s redundant robot arms are 7-degree-of-freedom arms. The problem that will be solved in this thesis is optimization of the 7-degree-of-freedom robot arms. The control algorithm of the 7-degree-of-freedom robot arms will be discussed and built. A simulation program will be built to test the control algorithm. Based on the control algorithm, a teleoperation system will be created for Baxter. The controller used is Omni, which is a six-joint haptic device. Omni will also …

Low-Power And Robust Level-Shifter With Contention Mitigation For Memory And Standalone Applications, Kenneth M. Ramclam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The scaling down of transistor sizes has imposed significant challenges in today's technology. Memories such as eDRAM, are experiencing poor retention time because of challenges such as reference voltage variation, high transistor leakage, and low cell capacitance. It can be seen that we must consider not only the first order effects, but also the second order effects to ensure we keep up with current technology trends such as Moore's law. In this thesis we explore various circuit level techniques on level shifters in order to achieve better retention time. With our research, we have addressed important design challenges and propose …

Dcms: A Data Analytics And Management System For Molecular Simulation, Meryem Berrada

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the fact that Molecular Simulation systems represent a major research tool in multiple scientific and engineering fields, there is still a lack of systems for effective data management and fast data retrieval and processing. This is mainly due to the nature of MS which generate a very large amount of data - a system usually encompass millions of data information, and one query usually runs for tens of thousands of time frames. For this purpose, we designed and developed a new application, DCMS (A data Analytics and Management System for molecular Simulation), that intends to speed up the process …

Embedded System Design For Real-Time Monitoring Of Solitary Embedded System Design For Real-Time Monitoring Of Solitary, Robert Philip O'Brien

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia cause cognitive disabilities in the afflicted person. As a result, the person with dementia often requires assistance from a primary caregiver. However, while the caregiver is away from the home they are unaware of the person's status and may not be able to find out without returning to the home due to dementia's effects on cognition.

In this thesis work, a system of embedded devices is presented which tracks a solitary dementia patient in the home in real-time. The system is composed of three main hardware components. Multiple passive and active sensors are …

Low Power Real-Time Video And Audio Embedded System Design For Naturalistic Bicycle Study, Janardhan Bhima Reddy Karri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts [9], bicyclist deaths and injuries in 2013 are recorded as 732 and 48,000, respectively. In the State of Florida the safety of bicyclists is of particular concern as the bicycle fatality rates are nearly triple the national average. Further Florida ranks #1 on bicycle fatality rate in the nation for several years. To determine the cause of near-misses and crashes, a detailed study of bicyclist behavior and environmental conditions is needed. In a Florida Department of Transport (FDOT) funded project, USF CUTR has proposed naturalistic bicycle study based on ride data collected from 100 …

Visual Slam And Surface Reconstruction For Abdominal Minimally Invasive Surgery, Bingxiong Lin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Depth information of tissue surfaces and laparoscope poses are crucial for accurate surgical guidance and navigation in Computer Assisted Surgeries (CAS). Intra-operative Three Dimensional (3D) reconstruction and laparoscope localization are therefore two fundamental tasks in CAS. This dissertation focuses on the abdominal Minimally Invasive Surgeries (MIS) and presents laparoscopic-video-based methods for these two tasks.

Different kinds of methods have been presented to recover 3D surface structures of surgical scenes in MIS. Those methods are mainly based on laser, structured light, time-of-flight cameras, and video cameras. Among them, laparoscopic-video-based surface reconstruction techniques have many significant advantages. Specifically, they are non-invasive, provide …

A Comparative Study Of Dual-Tree Algorithms For Computing Spatial Distance Histogram, Chengcheng Mou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Particle simulation has become an important research technique in many scientific and engineering fields in latest years. However, these simulations will generate countless data, and database they required would therefore deal with very challenging tasks in terms of data management, storage, and query processing. The two-body correlation function (2-BCFs), a statistical learning measurement to evaluate the datasets, has been mainly utilized to measure the spatial distance histogram (SDH). By using a straightforward method, the process of SDH query takes quadratic time. Recently, a novel algorithm has been proposed to compute the SDH based on the concept of density map (DM), …

Reducing The Control Burden Of Legged Robotic Locomotion Through Biomimetic Consonance In Mechanical Design And Control, Caitrin Elizabeth Eaton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terrestrial robots must be capable of negotiating rough terrain if they are to become autonomous outside of the lab. Although the control mechanism offered by wheels is attractive in its simplicity, any wheeled system is confined to relatively flat terrain. Wheels will also only ever be useful for rolling, while limbs observed in nature are highly multimodal. The robust locomotive utility of legs is evidenced by the many animals that walk, run, jump, swim, and climb in a world full of challenging terrain.

On the other hand, legs with multiple degrees of freedom (DoF) require much more complex control and …

Improvements On Scientific System Analysis, Vladimir Grupchev

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thanks to the advancement of the modern computer simulation systems, many scientific applications generate, and require manipulation of large volumes of data. Scientific exploration substantially relies on effective and accurate data analysis. The shear size of the generated data, however, imposes big challenges in the process of analyzing the system. In this dissertation we propose novel techniques as well as using some known designs in a novel way in order to improve scientific data analysis.

We develop an efficient method to compute an analytical query called spatial distance histogram (SDH). Special heuristics are exploited to process SDH efficiently and accurately. …

Security Of Non-Volatile Memories - Attack Models, Analyses, And Counter-Measures, Jae-Won Jang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The unprecedented demand for performance in the latest technologies will ultimately require changes in the way we design cache. Emerging high density embedded memories such as Spin-Transfer Torque Random Access Memory (STTRAM) have emerged as a possible candidate for universal memory due to its high speed, low power, non-volatility, and low cost. Although attractive, STTRAM is susceptible to contactless tampering through malicious exposure to magnetic field with the intention to steal or modify the bitcell content. In this thesis, we explore various attack techniques on STTRAM and then propose a novel array-based sensor to detect the polarity and magnitude of …

Robust, Low Power, Discrete Gate Sizing, Anthony Joseph Casagrande

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ultra-deep submicron circuits require accurate modeling of gate delay in order to meetaggressive timing constraints. With the lack of statistical data, variability due to the mechanical manufacturing process and its chemical properties poses a challenging problem. Discrete gate sizing requires (i) accurate models that take into account random parametric variation and (ii) a fair allocation of resources to optimize the solution. The proposed GTFUZZ gate sizing algorithm handles both tasks. Gate sizing is modeled as a resource allocation problem using fuzzy game theory. Delay is modeled as a constraint and power is optimized in this algorithm. In GTFUZZ, delay is …

Task-Based Robotic Grasp Planning, Yun Lin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Grasp should be selected intelligently to fulfill different stability properties and manipulative requirements. Currently, most grasping approaches consider only pick-and-place tasks without any physical interaction with other objects or the environment, which are common in an industry setting with limited uncertainty. When robots move to our daily-living environment and perform a broad range of tasks in an unstructured environment, all sorts of physical interactions will occur, which will result in random physical interactive wrenches: forces and torques on the tool.

In addition, for a tool to perform a required task, certain motions need to occur. We call it "functional tool …

Generalized Conditional Matching Algorithm For Ordered And Unordered Sets, Ravikiran Krishnan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Designing generalized data-driven distance measures for both ordered and unordered set data is the core focus of the proposed work. An ordered set is a set where time-linear property is maintained when distance between pair of temporal segments. One application in the ordered set is the human gesture analysis from RGBD data. Human gestures are fast becoming the natural form of human computer interaction. This serves as a motivation to modeling, analyzing, and recognition of gestures. The large number of gesture categories such as sign language, traffic signals, everyday actions and also subtle cultural variations in gesture classes makes gesture …

Using Embedded Systems To Determine The Configuration Of A Static Wheelchair Mounted Robotic Arm, Daniel Ashley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The calibration of a 9 degree of freedom (DOF) robotic manipulator using multiple three axis accelerometers and an embedded system will be accomplished in this work. The 9-DOF robotic system used in this study is a 7-DOF robotic arm attached to a 2-DOF power wheelchair. Combined they create a Wheelchair Mounted Robotic Arm (WMRA). The problem that will be solved by this thesis is the calibration of the robotic system during start up. The 7 DOF robotic arm is comprised of rotational joints only. These joints have dual channel encoders to determine the joint position, among other useful data. The …

Human Mirna Sequence Based Variations Database, Nadim Georges Bou Zeidan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are studied as key genetic elements that regulate the gene expression involved in different human diseases. Clinical sequence based variations like copy number variations (CNVs) affect miRNA biogenesis, dosage and target recognition that may represent potentially functional variants and relevant target bindings.

To systematically analyze miRNA-related CNVs and their effects on related genes, a user-friendly free online database was developed to provide further analysis of co-localization of miRNA loci with human genome CNV regions. Further analysis pipelines such as miRNA-target to estimate the levels or locations of variations for genetic duplications, insertions or deletions were also offered. Such …

Analysis And Prevention Of Code-Injection Attacks On Android Os, Grant Joseph Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Injection attacks are the top two causes of software errors and vulnerabilities, according to the MITRE Common Vulnerabilities list [1]. This thesis presents a threat analysis of injection attacks on applications built for Android, a popular but not rigorously studied operating system designed for mobile devices. The following thesis is argued: Injection attacks are possible on off-the-shelf Android systems, and such attacks have the capacity to compromise the device through resource denial and leaking private data. Specifically, we demonstrate that injection attacks are possible through the OS shell and through the SQLite API. To mitigate these attacks, we augment the …

A Hybrid Privacy-Preserving Mechanism For Participatory Sensing Systems, Idalides Jose Vergara

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Participatory Sensing (PS) is a new data collection paradigm in which people use their cellular phone resources to sense and transmit data of interest to address a collective problem that would have been very difficult to assess otherwise. Although many PS-based applications can be foreseen to solve interesting and useful problems, many of them have not been fully implemented due to privacy concerns. As a result, several privacy-preserving mechanisms have been proposed. This dissertation presents the state-of-the-art of privacy-preserving mechanisms for PS systems. It includes a new taxonomy and describes the most important issues in the design, implementation, and evaluation …

An Analysis Of (Bad) Behavior In Online Video Games, Jeremy Blackburn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies bad behavior at large-scale using data traces from online video games. Video games provide a natural laboratory for exploring bad behavior due to their popularity, explicitly defined (programmed) rules, and a competitive nature that provides motivation for bad behavior. More specifically, we look at two forms of bad behavior: cheating and toxic behavior.

Cheating is most simply defined as breaking the rules of the game to give one player an edge over another. In video games, cheating is most often accomplished using programs, or "hacks," that circumvent the rules implemented by game code. Cheating is a threat …

A Brain Robot Interface For Autonomous Activities Of Daily Living Tasks, Don Indika Upashantha Pathirage

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There have been substantial improvements in the area of rehabilitation robotics in the recent past. However, these advances are inaccessible to a large number of people with disabilities who are in most need of such assistance. This group includes people who are in a severely paralyzed state, that they are completely "locked-in" in their own bodies. Such persons usually retain full cognitive abilities, but have no voluntary muscle control.

For these persons, a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is often the only way to communicate with the outside world and/or control an assistive device. One major drawback to BCI devices is …

Performance And Power Optimization Of Gpu Architectures For General-Purpose Computing, Yue Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Power-performance efficiency has become a central focus that is challenging in heterogeneous processing platforms as the power constraints have to be established without hindering the high performance. In this dissertation, a framework for optimizing the power and performance of GPUs in the context of general-purpose computing in GPUs (GPGPU) is proposed. To optimize the leakage power of caches in GPUs, we dynamically switch the L1 and L2 caches into low power modes during periods of inactivity to reduce leakage power. The L1 cache can be put into a low-leakage (sleep) state when a processing unit is stalled due to no …