Computer Engineering Commons^™

A New Look At Azimuthal Wave Propagation Constants Of An N-Layered Dielectric Coated Pec Cylinder, Jason V. Paul, Peter J. Collins, Ronald A. Coutu Jr.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A method for determining the azimuthal wave propagation constants supported by an n-layered dielectric coated PEC cylinder is presented. The method, based on a Green's function described in , is designed to optimally handle layered cylinders where the number of layers is extremely large as might be encountered in structures designed using transformational optics. The method is also tractable for any stratification profile without the need for individual layer analysis. We implement a recently developed numerical method to calculate Bessel functions of complex order and argument. Our method is verified by comparison with previously published results. We also present new …

The Evolution Of Successful Service-Learning Courses In The Computing Curriculum: From Infancy To Innovation, Jean F. Coppola Phd, Susan Feather-Gannon, Catharina Daniels, Nancy Lynch Hale, Pauline Mosley

Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship

The purpose of this paper is to relate the evolution of successful service-learning courses in a school of computer science and information systems spanning over a 20-year period. The authors share their experiences in developing technology-based service-learning courses for both majors and non-majors. Most recently, these courses have enabled undergraduate first-year students to be exposed to exciting technologies, such as robotics and mobile app development. The challenges, benefits, and lessons learned are discussed.

Ennet: Inferring Large Gene Regulatory Networks From Expression Data Using Gradient Boosting, Janusz Slawek, Tomasz Arodź

Computer Science Publications

Background

The regulation of gene expression by transcription factors is a key determinant of cellular phenotypes. Deciphering genome-wide networks that capture which transcription factors regulate which genes is one of the major efforts towards understanding and accurate modeling of living systems. However, reverse-engineering the network from gene expression profiles remains a challenge, because the data are noisy, high dimensional and sparse, and the regulation is often obscured by indirect connections.

Results

We introduce a gene regulatory network inference algorithm ENNET, which reverse-engineers networks of transcriptional regulation from a variety of expression profiles with a superior accuracy compared to the state-of-the-art …

An Entropy-Based Automated Cell Nuclei Segmentation And Quantification: Application In Analysis Of Wound Healing Process, Varun Oswal, Ashwin Belle, Robert Diegelmann, Kayvan Najarian

Computer Science Publications

The segmentation and quantification of cell nuclei are two very significant tasks in the analysis of histological images. Accurate results of cell nuclei segmentation are often adapted to a variety of applications such as the detection of cancerous cell nuclei and the observation of overlapping cellular events occurring during wound healing process in the human body. In this paper, an automated entropy-based thresholding system for segmentation and quantification of cell nuclei from histologically stained images has been presented. The proposed translational computation system aims to integrate clinical insight and computational analysis by identifying and segmenting objects of interest within histological …

Comparison Of Post-Detonation Combustion In Explosives Incorporating Aluminum Nanoparticles: Influence Of The Passivation Layer, William K. Lewis, C. G. Rumchik, M. J. Smith, K. A. Shiral Fernando, Christopher A. Crouse, Jonathan E. Spowart, Elena A. Guliants, Christopher E. Bunker

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Aluminum nanoparticles and explosive formulations that incorporate them have been a subject of ongoing interest due to the potential of aluminum particles to dramatically increase energy content relative to conventional organic explosives. We have used time-resolved atomic and molecular emission spectroscopy to monitor the combustion of aluminum nanoparticles within the overall chemical dynamicsof post-detonation fireballs. We have studied the energy release dynamics of hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) charges incorporating three types of aluminum nanoparticles: commercial oxide-passivated nanoparticles, oleic acid-capped aluminum nanoparticles (AlOA), and nanoparticles in which the oxide shell of the particle has been functionalized with an acrylic monomer and copolymerized into …

Special Issue On Medical Simulation, Michel Audette, Hanif M. Ladak

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

We would like to welcome you to this Special Issue on Medical Simulation, the first of its kind not only for SIMULATION: Transactions of The Society for Modeling and Simulation International, but for any technical journal. Our respective backgrounds are an indication of the technical and clinical breadth of medical simulation, as we approach the subject as primarily medical image analysis and biomechanics experts respectively, each with a variety of clinical interests spanning virtual reality (VR)–based neuro-, orthopedic and ear-nose-and-throat surgery. Moreover, we believe that the breadth of the papers that comprise this issue reflects an even broader perspective. After …

Applying Mobile Application Development To Help Dementia And Alzheimer Patients, Jean F. Coppola Phd, Marc A. Kowtko, Christina Yamagata, Shannon Joyce

Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship

Caregiver anecdotes attest that music and photographs play an important role for family members diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), even those with severe AD. Tablets and iPads, which are prevalent, can be utilized with dementia patients in portraying favorite music and family photographs via apps developed in close partnership with geriatric facilities. This study addresses cognitive functioning and quality of life for people diagnosed with dementia via technology. Research has shown that technology instruments such as iPods, help stimulate those with dementia. This study focuses on innovative devices such as iPads and tablets, which are mainstream and easy to use, …

Multiple Bounding Boxes Algorithm In Collision Detection And Its Performances In Sequential Vs Cuda Parallel Processing, Min Qi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The traditional method for detecting collisions in a 2D computer game uses a axisaligned bounding box around each sprite, and checks to determine if the bounding boxes overlap periodically. Using this single bounding box method may result in a large amount of pixel intersection tests, since a sprite may be composed of areas where the pixels are empty and the intersecting bounding box test results in false positives.

Our algorithm analysis shows that the optimal two or three bounding boxes is the best partition we can get for a reasonable time complexity. The results further show significantly diminishing returns for …

Radar Based Collision Avoidance For Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Allistair A. Moses

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have become increasingly prevalent and will represent an increasing percentage of all aviation. These unmanned aircraft are available in a wide range of sizes and capabilities and can be used for a multitude of civilian and military applications. However, as the number of UAS increases so does the risk of mid-air collisions involving unmanned aircraft. This dissertation aims present one possible solution for addressing the mid-air collision problem in addition to increasing the levels of autonomy of UAS beyond waypoint navigation to include preemptive sensor-based collision avoidance. The presented research goes beyond the current state of …

Reducing Communication Delay Variability For A Group Of Robots, Goncalo Martins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A novel architecture is presented for reducing communication delay variability for a group of robots. This architecture relies on using three components: a microprocessor architecture that allows deterministic real-time tasks; an event-based communication protocol in which nodes transmit in a TDMA fashion, without the need of global clock synchronization techniques; and a novel communication scheme that enables deterministic communications by allowing senders to transmit without regard for the state of the medium or coordination with other senders, and receivers can tease apart messages sent simultaneously with a high probability of success. This approach compared to others, allows simultaneous communications without …

An Efficient Algorithm To Solve High-Dimensional Data Clustering: Candidate Subspace Clustering Algorithm, Chin-Chieh Kao

Theses Digitization Project

For this project, a comprehensive literature review on high dimensional data clustering is conducted and a novel density-algorithm to perform high dimensional data clustering is developed.

Exploring Spatial Business Data: A Roa Based Ecampus Application, Thanh Thoa Pham Thi, Linh Truong- Hong, Junjun Yin, James Carswell

Conference papers

In "Smart" environments development, providing users with search utilities for interacting efficiently with web and wireless devices is a key goal. At smaller scales, Google Maps and Google Earth with satellite and street views have helped users for querying general information at specific locations. However, at larger local scales, where detailed 3D geometries linked to business data are needed, there is a recognized lack of related information and functionality for in depth exploration of an area. Linking spatial data and business data helps to enrich the user experience by fulfilling more task specific user needs. This paper presents an eCampus …

Robot Team Formation Control Using Communication "Throughput Approach", Fatmazahra Ahmed Benhalim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we consider a team of robots forming a mobile robot network cooperating to accomplish a mission in an unknown but structured environment. The team has no a-priori knowledge of the environment. Robots have limited memory storage capabilities, not enough to map the environment. Each robot also has limited sensor capability and computational power. Due to the need to avoid obstacles and other environment effects, some robots get delayed from the rest. Using tracking controller, the robot team should follow the leader in a flexible formation shape without losing network connectivity, and that was achieved by monitoring the …

Navigation & Control Of An Automated Swath Surface Vessel For Bathymetric Mapping, Ketan Rasal

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

With the abundant amount of water on the earth, the study of underwater terrain plays an important role in the use and sustainability of marine resources. A wide variety of technical systems are used to collect such bathymetric data, and autonomous vehicles are being explored as a manner in which to make this process more cost-effective. Students in Santa Clara University's Robotic Systems Laboratory are contributing to this effort through the development of an autonomous SWATH boat that can create such maps. As part of this thesis work, the navigation and control system of this SWATH boat has been significantly …

Dependence On Cyberscribes - Issues In E-Security, Thomas R. Mclean, Alexander B. Mclean

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Examining Student Participation In Three Learning Activities Supported By Social Annotation Tools, Tian Luo, Fei Gao, Kathryn S. Hoff

Visual Communications and Technology Education Faculty Publications

Social annotation (SA) allows learners to highlight and comment on Web pages and share annotations with each other online. Despite its potential in promoting collaborative learning, examining how to integrate it into educational settings has not been fully studied. The purpose of the study is to examine student participation in three different SA-based online activities: (1) peer review, (2) annotated discussion, and (3) collaborative reading. Students participated in all three SA-based activities and took a survey at the end reporting the effectiveness of these activities. The analysis of students’ annotations and their survey responses suggested that although participants perceived the …

Xing-Zone Bridge Construction For Multi-Hop Cognitive Radio Networks With Channel Bonding, Feng Ye, Yi Qian, Yaoqing Lamar Yang, Hamid Sharif

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Cognitive radio is an efficient technique to relieve the tense of wireless spectrum scarcity by allowing unlicensed secondary users (SUs) to access the licensed band opportunistically without causing interference to primary users (PUs). Although Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently ruled that the data of PU activity schedule is accessible to SUs 24 hours ahead, which relieves SUs from heavy sensing or interruption by sudden PU activity, however, multi-hop wireless cognitive radio networks (MWCRN) suffers a unique problem caused by the fact that the spectrum resources are not unified in different areas affected by different PUs. In other words, an SU …

A Hierarchical Power Management Strategy For Multiple Single-Phase Roadway Microgrids, Yanping Jiao, Wei Qiao

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

This paper proposes a centralized hierarchical power management strategy for multiple single-phase wind/solar generation-based roadway microgrids integrated into a threephase utility distribution grid. The proposed power management strategy consists of a Central Power Management Controller (CPMC) operating at the distribution grid level to regulate the power flow between the distribution grid and the microgrids, a Supervisory Power Management Controller (SPMC) operating at the microgrid level for voltage and frequency control of each microgrid under the coordination of the CPMC, and a Local Power Management Controller operating at the unit level for power management of each individual unit under the coordination …

Sizing Router Buffer For The Internet With Heterogeneous Tcp, Peng Yang, Ertong Zhang, Lisong Xu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

The router buffer sizing problem is a vital problem to the performance of the Internet. The traditional rule-of-thumb is that the router buffer size should be equal to the bandwidthdelay product (BDP) of a link. Recent studies show that the router buffer size can be significantly smaller than the BDP without causing negative impact on the TCP performance in the Internet. But a fundamental assumption of all those studies is that all the TCP traffic in the Internet is generated by the traditional RENO protocol, which, however, is no longer true as the current Internet is dominated by multiple different …

Stability And Dynamic Performance Improvement Of A Sensorless Ipmsm Drive Via Adaptive Estimated-Speed- Assisted Position Prediction And Current Quality Evaluation, Yue Zhao, Wei Qiao, Long Wu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

This paper studies stability issues of sensorless torque control of high power interior permanent magnet synchronous machines (IPMSMs) under large load transients, e.g., complete torque reversals with the highest slew rate allowed. To perform a sensorless vector control, a current model-based sliding-mode observer is utilized to estimate the rotor position. The correlation between current regulation quality and position estimation accuracy is theoretically studied and experimentally verified. Based on the correlation, the accuracy of position estimation can be evaluated online indirectly. Moreover, an adaptive estimated-speed-assisted position prediction (ESAPP) scheme is proposed to improve the stability and performance of the sensorless control …

On Physical Layer Security For Cognitive Radio Networks, Zhihui Shu, Yi Qian, Song Ci

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

In this article we explore the security issues on physical layer for cognitive radio networks. First we give an overview on several existing security attacks to the physical layer in cognitive radio networks. We then discuss the related countermeasures on how to defend against these attacks. We further investigate one of the most important physical layer security parameters, the secrecy capacity of a cognitive radio network, and study the outage probability of secrecy capacity of a primary user from a theoretical point of view. Furthermore, we present performance results for secrecy capacity and outage probability between a node and its …

Wind Turbine Fault Detection And Isolation Using Support Vector Machine And A Residual-Based Method, Jianwu Zeng, Dingguo Lu, Yue Zhao, Zhe Zhang, Wei Qiao, Xiang Gong

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

This paper proposes a novel scheme combining support vector machines (SVM) and a residual-based method for wind turbine fault detection and isolation (FDI). SVMs with radius basis function kernels are used for detecting and identifying sensor stuck and offset faults, where binary codes of fault types are used as the outputs of the SVMs to minimize the number of SVMs being used. The same output of a SVM may correspond to different types of faults and the final decision is made by all SVMs instead of one SVM. Moreover, a residual-based fault detection method using a time-variant threshold is developed …

Multilayered Plasmonic Covers For Comblike Scattering Response And Optical Tagging, Francesco Monticone, Christos Argyropoulos, Andrea Alu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

We discuss the potential of multilayered plasmonic particles to tailor the optical scattering response. The interplay of plasmons localized in thin stacked shells realizes peculiar degenerate cloaking and resonant states occurring at arbitrarily close frequencies. These concepts are applied to realize ultrasharp comblike scattering responses and synthesize staggered, ideally strong superscattering states closely coupled to invisible states. We demonstrate robustness to material losses and to variations in the background medium, properties that make these structures ideal for optical tagging.

Broadband Absorbers And Selective Emitters Based On Plasmonic Brewster Metasurfaces, Christos Argyropoulos, Khai Q. Le, Nadia Mattiucci, Giuseppe D'Aguanno, Andrea Alu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

We discuss the possibility of realizing utlrabroadband omnidirectional absorbers and angularly selective coherent thermal emitters based on properly patterned plasmonic metastructures. Instead of relying on resonant concentration effects that inherently limit the bandwidth, we base our design on the combination of two inherently nonresonant effects: plasmonic Brewster funneling and adiabatic plasmonic focusing. Using this approach, we propose compact, broadband absorption and emission spanning terahertz, infrared, and optical frequencies, ideal for various energy and defense applications.

Plasmonic Nanoparticles And Metasurfaces To Realize Fano Spectra At Ultraviolet Wavelengths, Christos Argyropoulos, Francesco Monticone, Giuseppe D'Aguanno, Andrea Alu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

We discuss the possibility to realize sharp Fano scattering signatures in the ultraviolet (UV) range, based on dipolar scattering of nanoparticles. At these frequencies, material losses usually do not allow sharp resonant effects, hindering plasmonic applications based on higher-order multipolar modes, like conventional Fano resonances. We propose to excite degenerate scattering states supported by core-shell nanoparticles made of a sapphire core and an aluminum shell. We predict enhanced, highly confined fields, supporting sharp far-field scattering signatures from single nanoparticles and planar arrays of them. These results may lead to the design of UV filters, photodetectors, sensors, and energy-harvesting devices.

Prediction Of Peptides Binding To Mhc Class I And Ii Alleles By Temporal Motif Mining, Cem Meydan, Hasan H. Otu, Osman Ugur Sezerman

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: MHC (Major Histocompatibility Complex) is a key player in the immune response of most vertebrates. The computational prediction of whether a given antigenic peptide will bind to a specific MHC allele is important in the development of vaccines for emerging pathogens, the creation of possibilities for controlling immune response, and for the applications of immunotherapy. One of the problems that make this computational prediction difficult is the detection of the binding core region in peptides, coupled with the presence of bulges and loops causing variations in the total sequence length. Most machine learning methods require the sequences to be …

Exploring The Microsoft .Net Micro Framework For Prototyping Applied Wireless Sensor Networks, Jay D. Carlson, Mateusz Mittek, Lance C. Pérez

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Most Wireless Sensor Network platforms – such as the Mica, Iris, and Telos B families of motes – use lowpower 8-bit microprocessors which have limited memory and processing capabilities, thus requiring researchers to implement communication protocols and data processing routines using lowlevel programming practices that are tedious and cumbersome. Rich features available in modern desktop operating systems – such as threads, memory management, and exception-handling – are largely absent. The Microsoft .NET Micro Framework implements a scaled-back .NET framework suitable for development on low-cost, low-power wireless sensors, while providing developers a rapid software development environment for prototyping embedded applications. Here, …

Bearing Fault Diagnosis For Direct-Drive Wind Turbines Via Current-Demodulated Signals, Xiang Gong, Wei Qiao

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Bearing faults account for a large portion of all faults in wind turbine generators (WTGs). Current-based bearing fault diagnosis techniques have great economic benefits and are potential to be adopted by the wind energy industry. This paper models the modulation effects of bearing faults on the stator currents of a direct-drive wind turbine equipped with a permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) operating with a variable shaft rotating frequency. Based on the analysis, a method consisting of appropriate current frequency and amplitude demodulation algorithms and a 1P-invariant power spectrum density algorithm is proposed for bearing fault diagnosis of variable-speed direct-drive wind turbines …

Inactivation Of E. Coli Affected By Medium Conductivity In Pulsed Electric Field Processing, Tanya Kirilova Gachovska, Jeyamkondan Subbiah, Harshavardhan Thippareddi, David Marx, Frazer Williams

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Vibration Energy Harvesting For Wireless Underground Sensor Networks, Salman Kahrobaee, Mehmet C. Vuran

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Recent developments in wireless underground communication have enabled the realization of underground sensor network applications. To this end, it is desirable to provide a sustainable operation for wireless underground sensor networks (WUSNs) with extended lifetimes as maintenance is significantly costly. One promising method towards sustainable operation is to harvest energy underground based on the vibration sources in the environment. However, to the best of our knowledge, underground vibration energy harvesting has not been investigated before. In this paper, the feasibility of vibration energy harvesting for WUSNs is investigated. First, an analytical framework is developed to model the maximum harvestable power …