Computer Engineering Commons^™

Digital Testing And Evaluation: Current Status, Challenges, And Prospects, Bo Sun, Kai Zheng

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Digital testing and evaluation (DTE) represents a novel paradigm in the evolution of testing and evaluation methodologies within the digital era. It is achieved through the integration of multiple digital theories and technologies to conduct testing and evaluations in the digital domain. This paper analyzed the characteristics of test objects across different historical periods, reviewed the core features of testing and evaluation techniques in each stage, and unveiled the paradigm shifts within the testing and evaluation technology system. Building upon this foundation, it explored the new demands placed on testing by test objects in the information age, clarifying the …

Dynamic Testing Architecture Of Intelligent Unmanned Systems Based On Parallel Battlefields, Dayong Liu, Zhiming Dong, Qisheng Guo, Wenjun Zhang, Jiancheng Gao

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To improve the inadequacy of traditional test and identification systems, this paper proposed an overall architecture for dynamic testing across the entire lifecycle based on the concept of parallel battlefield (integration of physical, virtual, and cognitive battlefields), meeting the new requirements for the testing of intelligent unmanned systems. This architecture included high-fidelity mapping between virtual and physical battlefields, red-blue adversarial deductions and model optimization, simulation to reality (Sim2Real), human-machine collaboration, and cloud-end integrated control, as well as multidimensional assessment and confidence analysis. Centered on the principles of "mutual driving between virtual and physical battlefields, dynamic closed-loop, human-machine collaboration, and …

Adaptive Sampling And Ghost Multi-Scale Fusion For Lightweight Weld Defect Detection, Bin Lu, Xuan Yang, Zhenyu Yang, Xiaotian Gao

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To improve the accuracy and speed of welding defect detection and achieve lightweight models, a lightweight weld defect detection network based on YOLOv8, named light adaptive-weight sampling-YOLO (LAW-YOLO), was proposed. A lightweight adaptive weight sampling LAWS module was designed. It constructed an adaptive weight attention feature map by learning the interacting features within the receptive field. An optimized efficient weighted bidirectional feature pyramid network was adopted as the feature extraction backbone in LAW-YOLO. Furthermore, a ghost multi-scale sampling module was designed, and a hybrid attention mechanism was introduced to enhance the detection capability for small-scale defect targets. Experimental results …

Optimization Of Product Oil Distribution With Multiple Trips And Multiple Due Dates Under Dynamic Demand, Yong Xie, Hailong Gao, Yutao Chen, Huanjiang Wang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: In the case of dynamic demand, considering the order due date, vehicle transportation time window, and other factors, this paper developed an optimization model of periodic product oil distribution with multiple trips and multiple due dates to maximize the distribution revenue. The paper also designed a reinforcement learning-based large neighborhood search algorithm to solve the problem. The initial solution was constructed based on the forward insertion heuristic algorithm. Then, a deep reinforcement learning model for neighborhood operator selection was designed. By fitting the action value function through the double deep Q network, the optimal neighborhood operator was selected, and …

Resource Allocation Method For Virus Spreading Control Based On Multi-Granularity Cooperative Coevolution, Xuanli Shi, Weineng Chen, An Song, Tianfang Zhao

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: According to the principle of simplifying a complex problem into sub-problems for solution, a resource allocation method for virus spreading control based on multi-granularity cooperative coevolution (MGCC) was proposed. According to the characteristics of human's social network structures, MGCC decomposed the network into sub-networks with different scales according to different decomposition granularities. A contribution-based decomposition granularity selection strategy was proposed. Historical archives were used to record the contribution of different decomposition granularities to optimization, and the appropriate decomposition granularity was selected according to the optimization status. A projection-based constraint repairing strategy was designed to ensure the feasibility of solutions. …

Research On Simulation Technology Of Fire Extinguishing In Engine Compartment Of Special Vehicle, Jianmin Niu, Yue Zhong, Feng Xu, Jindun Ma

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: In view of the difficulty of measuring the detection response time and evaluating fire extinguishing abilities of the fire extinguishing system after a fire accident in the engine compartment, the turbulence model was adopted, and numerical modeling of the fire propagation and the diffusion process of Halon fire extinguishing agent during the firefighting process was carried out. The development of fire and the fire extinguishing process at the corner and the middle position of the vehicle compartment was simulated, and the temperature changes during the occurrence and extinguishing of fires in different environments were collected, so as to obtain …

Study On Semi-Physical Simulation Method Of Air Turbo Rocket Engine In Startup Process, Xuesen Yang, Wei Zhao, Binglong Zhang, Sanqun Ren, Xiaorong Xiang, Qingjun Zhao

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To satisfy the requirements for validating the control law of air turbo rocket (ATR) engines, a semi-physical simulation approach was proposed based on serial communication. This platform integrated a rapid prototype system, a supply system, a measurement and control system, a signal simulator, a fault injection system, and a real-time computer. A digital model of the engine was developed based on cross-compilation technology, enabling the coupling and semi-physical simulation of the engine control system and the supply system. A semi-physical simulation of the ATR engine in the startup process was carried out, and the fault handling strategy of the …

Trajectory Planning And Tracking For Multi-Quadcopter In Dynamic Obstacle Environments, Haosheng Jiang, Fangfang Wu, Zexian Huang, Ziyue Ma, Chunyun Dong, Xubin Ping

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Multi-quadrotor UAV systems face challenges when performing complex tasks in dynamic obstacle environments. Therefore, a comprehensive particle swarm optimization-based task allocation method, a trajectory planning integrating the traditional Informed-RRT* and A* algorithms, and a trajectory tracking method based on model predictive control were designed. The multi-quadrotor task allocation problem was constructed as a classical multiple traveling salesman problem, and then, the particle swarm optimization was used to assign the task to multi-quadrotor UAVs. A fusion algorithm that combined the advantages of traditional Informed-RRT* and A* algorithms for quadrotor UAV trajectory planning was designed, so as to ensure that a …

Multi-Robot Hierarchical Collaborative K-Robust Path Planning For Path Interference, Kaixiang Zhang, Jianlin Mao, Niya Wang, Zhihao Xu

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To plan collision-free paths for multiple robots in interference environments, based on the multi-robot k-robust path planning, this paper designed a multi-robot hierarchical collaborative k-robust path planning framework. In the priority optimization layer, in response to the starting predicament caused by the solution sequence, the multi-robot path solving sequence was determined based on the closure factor. In the multi-robot robust coordination layer, with the goal of improving solution efficiency, a safety interval was introduced as the basis for the design of k-robustness and collision-free avoidance. A collision-free path constraint for multiple robots in the sense of k-robustness was given. …

Research On Non-Singular Fast Integral Terminal Sliding Mode Trajectory Tracking Control Of Six-Axis Robotic Arm, Tao Chen, Lizhong Wang, Xiangjun Zou, Xiaojuan Li

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To address the trajectory tracking control challenges caused by modeling parameter inaccuracies and disturbance uncertainties in robotic arms, a non-singular fast integral terminal sliding mode control scheme was developed. A new type of non-singular fast integral terminal sliding mode controller was designed. The non-singular fast terminal sliding mode ensured the rapid convergence of the system while avoiding the singularity during convergence. The integral term was used to enhance the suppression ability of disturbances and ensure the rapid response of the controller to errors. Lyapunov stability theory was applied to analyze the controller's convergence. The simulation results show that the …

Lightweight Driver Face Object Detection Algorithm Based On Yolov8-Df, Mingyu Li, Jiaquan Lin

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: The YOLOv8n detection algorithm has a large amount of computation and parameters in the driving environment. To address this issue, a lightweight driver facial object detection algorithm YOLOv8-DF was proposed. A lightweight multi-scale convolution module (LMCM) was proposed to replace the Conv module in the network, and the dual-channel design could reduce the computation and parameter quantity of the algorithm; the multi-scale design could enrich the feature information inside the network. The lightweight convolutional GhostConv, Fasterblock module, and C2f module were fused, and a dual-channel lightweight convolution module (DLCM) was fused with the SPPF module. The experimental results show …

Depaul Digest

DePaul Magazine

College of Communication faculty Matthew Ragas and Ron Culp mentor students on gaining access to executive-level administration. News briefs on exciting developments at DePaul University’s 10 colleges and schools, from nursing students studying public health protocols in Prague to a new DePaul-hosted conference exploring AI in filmmaking. DePaul alumni volunteers share their experiences spreading the Vincentian mission nationwide.

Early Detection Of Oak Wilt Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Uav) & Computer Vision, Muttaki I. Bismoy

Masters Theses

Forests are critical ecosystems, delivering services such as biodiversity conservation, climate regulation, timber production, and recreation. However, they face increasing threats from pathogens like Bretziella fagacearum, which causes Oak Wilt, a lethal disease that disrupts water transport in oak trees, leading to canopy dieback and eventual death. Traditional detection methods rely on manual ground surveys, which are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and prone to error, particularly in early disease stages.

This research presents an automated, scalable, high-precision Oak Wilt detection system using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) combined with deep learning-based computer vision. Expanding on earlier work with a lightweight CNN achieving an …

Re-Engaging Driver Attention Using Chatgpt: A Multimodal Study On Stress Impact And Driving Performance, Alaa Zaki Elfiqi

Theses and Dissertations

Driving is considered a complex task that requires continuous focus and attention from the driver. Driving performance can also be impacted by changes in the driver’s stress level. However, limited research explores methods to address this challenge. With the current advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) and their ability to engage in human-like interaction, this study investigates the potential of using ChatGPT, designed to speak Egyptian Arabic, in re-engaging driver attention under different driving scenarios for low-stress and high-stress conditions within a virtual reality (VR) environment driving simulator. Drivers were asked to follow a leading car into two scenarios with …

Multi-Layer Support For Component-Based Cyber-Physical Systems Applications, Oren Bell

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Component-based design is a paradigm meant to aid in development of software applications by modularizing different functionalities of a system. This building-block approach is used extensively in cyber–physical and robotic systems. Common and established solutions to specific problems, such as perception nodes, state estimators, and motion planners, can be developed, verified, and reused as off-the-shelf modules. These modules may be integrated atop today’s heterogeneous hardware platforms, where an application can be distributed across GPUs, FPGAs, and CPU cores. When heterogeneous computational devices share the workload of a collection of components, the very act of integration may inject timing uncertainty. For …

Design And Development Of Deep Learning Based Generic Platform For Promoting Precision Agriculture, Srilakshmi A

Theses and Dissertations

Precision agriculture also referred as precision farming or smart farming, is an innovative approach to agricultural management that leverages technology and data to optimize various aspects of the farming process. This approach aims to make farming more effective, sustainable, and profitable by affording farmers with the application tools and information they need to make more informed decisions.

Precision agriculture combines elements of agriculture, technology, and data science to enhance crop production, and resource utilization. Precision agriculture techniques can be highly effective in leaf disease detection within crop fields. Machine learning has been developed incredibly across multiple domains and shown it …

Encountering And Mitigating Selfish Mining In Bitcoin Mining Pools, Jeyasheela Rakkini M J

Theses and Dissertations

Blockchain, an innovative decentralized distributed, disrupting programming paradigm embodies key principles such as decentralization, data provenance, immutability, and transparency. At its core blockchain begins with the genesis block and progresses with each subsequent block containing the hash of the previous block, Merkle root, timestamp, a coin base transaction address, and a nonce. Miners compete to discover a target hash value (hash value of the previous block and nonce) for the current block, that is less than or equal to the difficulty value set by the system, a process known as mining.

This work encounters selfish mining attacks in bitcoin mining …

Ai Based Early Detection Of Hormonal Imbalance And Poly-Cystic Ovary Syndrome In Young Women, Reka S

Theses and Dissertations

A hormonal disorder, Poly-Cystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) usually affects women during the reproductive age. It is characterised by imbalances in hormones, particularly a rise in the female body's androgen level (male hormone) and enlarged ovaries with small cysts. PCOS can cause ovarian cysts, weight gain, acne, excessive hair growth, insulin resistance, and irregular menstrual cycles along with other health problems. While the exact origin of PCOS is uncertain and its symptoms are unclear, diagnosing PCOS in real-world conditions is a difficult task. Therefore, prompt and precise PCOS diagnosis is essential for efficient treatment and for averting long-term issues.

Clinicians typically …

Investigation Of Dependency Parsing Techniques For Digital Document Analysis Through Deep Learning Approach, Rekah D Ms

Theses and Dissertations

Digital document dependency parsing is a significant task in natural language processing. Dependency parsing supports verification of the grammatical correctness of a sentence besides enabling extraction of relevant documents. Inappropriate extraction of features may result in falsely parsing a document, leading to decreased accuracy. Machine learning methods have been employed to perform feature extraction. However, selecting pertinent features was never achieved which minimizes the time consumption and overhead.

Hence, novel machine learning and deep learning techniques have been designed in our work for accurate and computationally efficient digital document analytics through dependency parsing. Four different contributions have been proposed for …

Cyclone Intensity Prediction In The Bay Of Bengal Using Deep Learning Methods, Senthil Kumar J

Theses and Dissertations

The Bay of Bengal region's coastlines have been badly devastated by tropical cyclones, as the region experiences an average of five to six cyclones per year, with about two to three of these intensifying into tropical storms or severe cyclones. Thus it necessitates to study the accurate and efficient forecasting of their intensity to improve preparedness and response to natural disasters. The present study compares and examines three distinct approaches to cyclone intensity prediction using historical datasets from 1998 to 2020: hybrid optimisation, deep learning-based, and empirical approaches.The predicted accuracy, computational effectiveness, and feasibility for real-time scenarios of each model …

Design Of An Integrated Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithm For Device Level Security And Fraternal Cryptographic Algorithm For Communication Security In Medical Cyber Physical Systems, Vimala Devi P

Theses and Dissertations

Healthcare involves detecting symptoms, diagnosing conditions and giving treatment to patients. It is one of the fundamental human rights, and it might be difficult to provide healthcare to those with chronic illnesses, elderly people with disabilities and those under distant observation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide.

According to the prediction, CVD-related causes such as heart attacks and strokes, could result in 23.3 million deaths by 2030. In addition, the number of people with diabetes will reach 246 million; thereby, the prevalence of CVD patients and diabetics will …

Investigations Of Secure Memory For Vlsi Based Crypto System, Vijay Sai R Mr

Theses and Dissertations

Semiconductor technology is growing very rapidly in their architectural developments, involving the usage of processor and memory. Presence of memory, in general is a vital commodity in various devices which are almost embedded into human activity, from robust work stations to handy mobile phones. Security of data stored in memory is very important, and hence, observation must be made that these valuable data should not be thwarted by malicious means. Security in cache memory is a major issue in memory related applications such as smart cards and bio-metric implementations.

Cache, is a small and limited memory located between central processing …

Investigating Information Extraction And Language Models In Medical Domain Text Processing, Pouyan Nahed

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation demonstrates that carefully adapted language-model pipelines can transform unstructured clinical-trial and pharmacological prose into reliable, low-latency structured data. Four interconnected studies support this claim.Tri-AL platform. An open-source dashboard ingests all 440 k+ ClinicalTrials.gov records—including every historical revision—into a normalized schema and parses the 20 GB XML archive over 10x faster than a BeautifulSoup baseline, while exposing hooks for demographic analytics and supporting integration of user-defined modules. Clinical trial summarization. An encoder–decoder model is trained on 57k description–summary pairs to condense clinical trials into a few sentences. ROUGE evaluation shows a 20% improvement over the baseline, while graph-based evaluation …

The Dropbot: Design And Development Of A Custom Drone For Precision Water Drop Penetration Time (Wdpt) Testing, Mugundan Prakash

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Assessing the hydrophobic characteristics of soil is vital for understanding soil wettability or soil-water interactions, particularly in post-wildfire environments where water repellency can significantly impact ecosystem recovery, water infiltration, and erosion control. One key metric in soil wettability studies is the Water Drop Penetration Time (WDPT) test, which evaluates the hydrophobicity of soil and guides land treatment strategies. This thesis presents the design and development of DropBot, a custom-built drone platform engineered for the precise delivery and analysis of water droplets in WDPT tests.The DropBot, a custom drone, integrates a lightweight, 3D-printed frame with a self-leveling platform, enabling consistent droplet …

Beyond Single Metrics: A Holistic Benchmarking Framework For Low-Power Embedded Systems, Hassan Adam

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Modern embedded systems encounter a notable challenge in evaluation. While devices may meet traditional benchmarks, they often underperform in real-world applications due to neglected interactions at the system level. Current benchmarking suites, such as MLPerf Tiny and EEMBC ULPMark, evaluate specific metrics including computational throughput, energy efficiency, and memory usage. However, they do not consider the complex interdependencies that affect real-world performance. This thesis presents a benchmarking framework that concurrently evaluates multiple performance dimensions under realistic workloads, revealing system behaviors that are often hidden in conventional benchmarks.Through the comprehensive evaluation of three representative algorithms: Fast Fourier Transform, quantized neural network …

Autonomous Uav Swarm Formation Utilizing Gradient-Driven Contour Mapping For Radiation Source Localization, Edgar Amalyan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis presents a drone swarm for radiation mapping to aid source localization. The Department of Energy advocates employing UAVs for this task, but existing approaches remain inefficient and impractical in real-world scenarios. Three custom drones are built and flight-tested. A control algorithm to follow a contour, a constant-intensity path, is designed using a gradient fit. By knowing the source’s direction, the drone swarm can fly in the optimal trajectory at every step, leaving nothing to assumption. A program is created that implements formation flight and autonomous navigation. It is tested via a software-in-the-loop simulation utilizing radiation sources and detectors …

Csa-Xai: Channel–Spatial Attention And Explainable Ai In A Modular Multi-Backbone Framework For Lung Cancer Classification, Omar Ibrahim Obaid, Abdulbasit Alazzawi

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

Computed tomography (CT) scans require precise and early lung cancer detection to produce better clinical results. High accuracy in deep learning approaches (DL) poses an existing challenge to interpret their functionality effectively. This research presents an innovative modular multi-backbone structure that combines channel-spatial attention together with explainable AI (XAI) methods for three-class lung cancer diagnosis (Normal, Benign, and Malignant). Research was carried out to evaluate six pre-trained CNN backbones (ResNet-50, VGG19, Inception-V3, EfficientNet-B0, MobileNet-V2, DenseNet-121) which received hybrid attention enhancement on the IQ-OTH/NCCD dataset. The experimental data showed four pre-trained models reaching perfect accuracy at 100 percent whereas the others …

Class Weighting In Imbalanced Data For Leukocyte Classification Using Fine-Tuning Inception-V3, Wahyudi Setiawan, Meidya Koeshardianto, Eka Mala Sari Rochman, Aeri Rachmad, Tutut Herawan

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

This study investigates the classification of leukocyte images in an imbalanced dataset using deep learning techniques. The dataset consists of 14,514 images, categorized into five leukocyte types: basophils (301), neutrophils (8,891), lymphocytes (3,461), monocytes (795), and eosinophils (1,066). To address class imbalance, we applied class weighting alongside transfer learning and fine-tuning using the Inception-v3 architecture. The dataset was split into 80% for training and 20% for testing, and 5-fold cross-validation was conducted to evaluate model robustness. Hyperparameters were set with a learning rate of 0.0001, batch size of 32, and 30 training epochs, optimized using the Adam optimizer. Fine-tuning was …

Symmetric Toeplitz Matrices For A Class Of New Subclass Functions And Bazilevič Functions, Nihad H. Shehab, Abdul Rahman S. Juma

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

In this work, we describe and investigate a novel collection of analytic functions, including the new functions and the Bazilevič functions. An important component of analytic functions, Bazilevič functions have numerous uses in both pure and practical mathematics. For this class of functions, we concentrate on building Toeplitz matrices, examining their structural characteristics, and evaluating their eigenvalues and trends. We utilise these studies to draw sophisticated mathematical conclusions on the stability and convergence characteristics of Bazilevič functions, as well as possible uses in geometry and differential equations. This work aims to determine coefficient estimates for the functions in this family …

Orbital Maneuvers And Interplanetary Trajectory Design Via Reinforcement Learning, Roberto Cuéllar Rangel

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This dissertation investigates the application of reinforcement learning (RL) to the design and optimization of low-thrust spacecraft trajectories, with an emphasis on autonomy, adaptability, and robustness in the presence of system uncertainties and unmodeled perturbations. Classical approaches to low-thrust trajectory design are predominantly grounded in optimal control theory, which relies on the availability of precise dynamical models and often requires problem-specific reformulation and solver tuning. While optimal control methods offer high accuracy under deterministic conditions, their sensitivity to stochastic disturbances and computational limitations in highly nonlinear or uncertain environments pose significant challenges for future autonomous space missions.

To address these …