Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

An Underground Radio Wave Propagation Prediction Model For Digital Agriculture, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Underground sensing and propagation of Signals in the Soil (SitS) medium is an electromagnetic issue. The path loss prediction with higher accuracy is an open research subject in digital agriculture monitoring applications for sensing and communications. The statistical data are predominantly derived from site-specific empirical measurements, which is considered an impediment to universal application. Nevertheless, in the existing literature, statistical approaches have been applied to the SitS channel modeling, where impulse response analysis and the Friis open space transmission formula are employed as the channel modeling tool in different soil types under varying soil moisture conditions at diverse communication distances …

Underground Environment Aware Mimo Design Using Transmit And Receive Beamforming In Internet Of Underground Things, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

In underground (UG) multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO), the transmit beamforming is used to focus energy in the desired direction. There are three different paths in the underground soil medium through which the waves propagates to reach at the receiver. When the UG receiver receives a desired data stream only from the desired path, then the UG MIMO channel becomes three path (lateral, direct, and reflected) interference channel. Accordingly, the capacity region of the UG MIMO three path interference channel and degrees of freedom (multiplexing gain of this MIMO channel requires careful modeling). Therefore, expressions are required derived the degrees of …

(Poster) Combining Design And Entrepreneurial Mindset Development: Improved Multifunctional Charging Station, Allison Zwickl, Payton Staman, Evan Parduhn, Jake Smith, David Olawale, Stephen Spicklemire, Rashedul Sarker

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

It has become imperative to find ways to organize different devices of varying functions and sizes. This problem was introduced to us through customers who believed the current designs on the market could use improvement, or through the lack of organization that they have when charging multiple devices. A solution is a modular concept with a base station that will include a wireless pad and a few charging cords. Additionally customers can purchase specialized add ons that fit into the base station. The housing station will seamlessly charge a plethora of devices including; smart-phones, smart-watches, and speakers in a centralized …

(Poster) Internal Restoration And Modernization Of A 1948 Wwii Era Jukebox, Miles Furr, Cristiana Olarinre, Joel Carpenter, Elijah Knox, George Ricco, Paul Talaga, Suranga Dharmarathne

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

Using Six Sigma guidelines under the sponsorship of The University of Indianapolis in cooperation with the client, Brugh Industrial Engineering, this project is to modernize the functionality and interface of a Rockola Model 1428 Jukebox while maintaining its vintage appeal. The process of modernization includes meeting today's industrial safety standards, incorporating ethernet protocol, and utilizing a programmable logic controller, PLC. The jukebox is a showcase of current automation technology. Lighting has been upgraded from fluorescent and incandescent bulbs to addressable nano pixel LEDs. The amplifier, coin system, and record selection system were revitalized to OEM operation standards. All switches within …

Development Of A Set Of Pre-Class Videos For Electromagnetic Theory, Benjamin Mcpheron, Josiah D. Kunz

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

One important aspect of experiential learning is allowing students time to reflect on new concepts before the application of the material. Most commonly, this is attempted by assigning readings from a textbook, but research suggests that few students complete these readings. This discouraging fact has prompted the use of other resources, such as videos, to supplement pre-class readings in order to introduce new material. Previous work has been completed by this author to produce pre-class videos for use in an introductory circuits course. This paper extends that work to the development of pre-class videos for a senior level electrical engineering …

Interactive Simulations In Signals And Systems, Anthony Richardson

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

Several interactive simulations that promote a better understanding of concepts traditionally encountered in an undergraduate Signals and Systems course are described. The simulations were developed to support the text “Signals & Systems: Theory and Applications” by Ulaby and Yagle. The text and all simulation programs are available for free download (ss2.eecs.umich.edu) as part of the Free Electrical Engineering Textbook Initiative from the University of Michigan.

All simulations use graphical control elements that allow the student to interact with the simulation. Many of the simulations use either real audio or image data so that the student can vary parameters of the …

Course And Exam Statistics In Electrical Engineering, D Blandford, Mark Randall, Jessica Lofton

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

This paper examines the course and national exam records for about fifty students in electrical engineering. The data includes the following: SAT/ACT scores, high school math and science grades, high school GPA, high school class rank, and grades for math, science, and engineering courses in the first two years of the major for undergraduates in electrical engineering. The data is analyzed seeking a correlation with success in the major which is measured by the cumulative GPA at or near graduation.

Two types of correlation data are presented. First, correlation with individual data items and success in the major is established. …

A Theoretical Model Of Underground Dipole Antennas For Communications In Internet Of Underground Things, Abdul Salam, Mehmet C. Vuran, Xin Dong, Christos Argyropoulos, Suat Irmak

Faculty Publications

The realization of Internet of Underground Things (IOUT) relies on the establishment of reliable communication links, where the antenna becomes a major design component due to the significant impacts of soil. In this paper, a theoretical model is developed to capture the impacts of change of soil moisture on the return loss, resonant frequency, and bandwidth of a buried dipole antenna. Experiments are conducted in silty clay loam, sandy, and silt loam soil, to characterize the effects of soil, in an indoor testbed and field testbeds. It is shown that at subsurface burial depths (0.1-0.4m), change in soil moisture impacts …

Limitations Of Zt As A Figure Of Merit For Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials, Xufeng Wang, Mark Lundstrom

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Thermoelectric properties of nanocomposites are numerically studied as a function of average grain size or nanoparticle density by simulating the measurements as they would be done experimentally. In accordance with previous theoretical and experimental results, we find that the Seebeck coefficient, power factor and figure of merit, zT, can be increased by nanostructuring when energy barriers exist around the grain boundaries or embedded nanoparticles. When we simulate the performance of a thermoelectric cooler with the same material, however, we find that the maximum temperature difference is much less than expected from the given zT. This occurs because the …

Internet Of Things In Smart Agriculture: Enabling Technologies, Abdul Salam, Syed Shah

Faculty Publications

In this paper, an IoT technology research and innovation roadmap for the field of precision agriculture (PA) is presented. Many recent practical trends and the challenges have been highlighted. Some important objectives for integrated technology research and education in precision agriculture are described. Effective IoT based communications and sensing approaches to mitigate challenges in the area of precision agriculture are presented.

Transcribing Braille Code: Learning Equations Across Platforms, Deegan Atha, Courtney Balogh

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Deegan Atha, a graduating senior in electrical engineering and a future engineer, is interested in human-centered design and developing technology that helps students engage and be successful in STEM.

Courtney Balogh, a junior in mechanical engineering, is interested in human-centered design and the importance it plays in product development. Deegan and Courtney are members of the Purdue EPICS project, Learning Equations Across Platforms (LEAP). They partnered with the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI) to develop a braille transcription device and web application that converts braille to print in real time.

Remote Sensing Using I-Band And S-Band Signals Of Opportunity, Kadir Efecik, Benjamin R. Nold, James L. Garrison

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Measurement of soil moisture, especially the root zone soil moisture, is important in agriculture, meteorology, and hydrology. Root zone soil moisture is concerned with the first meter down the soil. Active and passive remote sensing methods used today utilizing L-band(1-2GHz) are physically limited to a sensing depth of about 5 cm or less. To remotely sense the soil moisture in the deeper parts of the soil, the frequency should be lowered. Lower frequencies cannot be used in active spaceborne instruments because of their need for larger antennas, radio frequency interference (RFI), and frequency spectrum allocations. Ground-based passive remote sensing using …

Experimental Evaluation Of A Krypton Propellant Arrangement In A T-100-3 Hall-Effect Thruster, Adam Patel, Javier Cortina Fernandez, Justin Chow, Osvaldo Alejandro Martin, Alexey Shashurin

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Stationary Hall thrusters are electric, moderate-specific impulse propulsion systems developed in Russia. These devices manipulate electric and magnetic fields to expel ionized gas (plasma) components, resulting in thrust. The success of Hall-effect engines in USSR satellite-transfer missions quickly sparked western interest in the design. Extensive government and academic study commenced shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when the technology was made available to the United States. The common SPT-100 model was the primary subject of such studies. Unfortunately, limited literature exists for rare and uncommon Hall thruster models. The T-100-3 stationary plasma thruster suffers from this gap; few …

Spice Based Compact Model For Electrical Switching Of Antiferromagnet, Xe Jin Chan, Jan Kaiser, Pramey Upadhyaya

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

A simulation framework that can model the behavior of antiferromagnets (AFMs) is essential to building novel high-speed devices. The electrical switching of AFMs allows for high performance memory applications. With new phenomena in spintronics being discovered, there is a need for flexible and expandable models. With that in mind, we developed a model for AFMs which can be used to simulate AFM switching behavior in SPICE. This approach can be modified for adding modules, keeping pace with new developments. The proposed AFM switching model is based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation (LLG). LLG along with an exchange coupling module is implemented …

Deep Neural Network Architectures For Modulation Classification Using Principal Component Analysis, Sharan Ramjee, Shengtai Ju, Diyu Yang, Aly El Gamal

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In this work, we investigate the application of Principal Component Analysis to the task of wireless signal modulation recognition using deep neural network architectures. Sampling signals at the Nyquist rate, which is often very high, requires a large amount of energy and space to collect and store the samples. Moreover, the time taken to train neural networks for the task of modulation classification is large due to the large number of samples. These problems can be drastically reduced using Principal Component Analysis, which is a technique that allows us to reduce the dimensionality or number of features of the samples …

A High-Efficiency Low Power Rectifier For Wireless Power Transfer, Zachary Loy, Alden Fisher, Brian Vaughn, Dimitrios Peroulis

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

With the number of implantable devices that utilize electronics increasing, there is an increasing need to find alternative ways of powering them. Currently, surgery is required to replace a battery for these devices; however, with advancements in Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) methods, the need for further surgeries will become negated. This paper explores the ability of WPT as an alternative powering method by investigating rectifier Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE). The rectifier converts high frequency waves to Direct Current (DC) energy that can provide usable power to devices requiring electrical power. It is targeted for low power applications centered around a …

Virtual Reality For Baseball Batting, Fengchen Gong, Tianjie Jia, Hong Tan, Casey Kohr

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Nowadays, researchers explore the applications of Virtual Reality in different aspects of people’s lives. A few studies of Virtual Reality focus on applications in sports training. In this research area, one of the most important benefits is that athletes can focus on the training of one specific skill at one time. This SURF project focuses on the development of the virtual reality environment by designing targeted training for baseball batters, with the goal to achieve sufficient realism as judged by the Purdue baseball coaches. With the Virtual Reality training, baseball batters can practice and perfect a specific skill without a …

Study Of The Effective Thermal Conductivity Of Polymer Composites With Varying Filler Arrangements, Debraliz Isaac Aragones, Rajath Kantharaj, Aaditya Candadai, Amy Marconnet

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Alternative thermal management solutions for electronic devices are being widely explored due to the increasing heat concentration that results from shrinking sizes and increasing power of modern electronics. Clearly, there is a need to spread the heat effectively in these systems, and polymer composites can potentially provide high thermal conductivity at low filler fraction while maintaining desirable mechanical properties for electronic packaging. The present study aims to investigate the effective thermal conductivity of various copper filler arrangements in a polymer matrix. The polymer composites are fabricated using laser cut acrylic templates to embed aligned copper rods in epoxy and create …

Analysis Of Metallic Shielding For Reduction Of Rf Induced Heating Of Electrode During Mri For Active Implants, Krishna M. Singhal

Open Access Dissertations

The options available to patients with implantable devices are limited. It is because there are multiple interactions between the MRI environment and the implantable medical devices. The three main components of MRI systems- static magnet, RF coil, and a gradient coil- interact with the implantable medical devices. These interactions can cause force, torque, device vibrations and RF-induced heating. Among all these potential hazards is the heating caused by the RF electromagnetic field. The lead wires of the implants can act as antennas and pick up the electric field generated by the RF coil. This results in the induced current traveling …

Employing A User-Centered Design Process For Cybersecurity Awareness In The Power Grid, Jean C. Scholtz, Lyndsey Franklin, Aditya Ashok, Katya Leblanc, Christopher Bonebrake, Eric Andersen, Michael Cassiadoro

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

In this paper, we discuss the process we are using in the design and implementation of a tool to improve the situation awareness of cyberattacks in the power grid. We provide details of the steps we have taken to date and describe the steps that still need to be accomplished. The focus of this work is to provide situation awareness of the power grid to staff from different, non-overlapping roles in an electrical transmission organization in order to facilitate an understanding of a possible occurrence of a cyberattack. Our approach follows a user-centered design process and includes determining the types …

Deep Gaze Velocity Analysis During Mammographic Reading For Biometric Identification Of Radiologists, Hong-Jun Yoon, Folami Alamudun, Kathy Hudson, Garnetta Morin-Ducote, Georgia Tourassi

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

Several studies have confirmed that the gaze velocity of the human eye can be utilized as a behavioral biometric or personalized biomarker. In this study, we leverage the local feature representation capacity of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for eye gaze velocity analysis as the basis for biometric identification of radiologists performing breast cancer screening. Using gaze data collected from 10 radiologists reading 100 mammograms of various diagnoses, we compared the performance of a CNN-based classification algorithm with two deep learning classifiers, deep neural network and deep belief network, and a previously presented hidden Markov model classifier. The study showed that …

Answering Food Insecurity: Serving The Community With Food And Knowledge Using Technology, Courtney Simpson

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The courses of Tech120, CGT110, and ENGT 180/181 and Red Gold at Purdue collaborated to design a robot that would plant and water a garden for a local community charter school. The students centered the project on the users’ needs for fresh food, nutrition education, and early exposure to STEM for children. The school, Anderson Preparatory Academy (APA), is comprised of many children who come from low-income families and are in the free or reduced lunch program. Inspired from “Farm Bot,” a similar system that allows for almost hands-free gardening, the “Boiler Bot” is designed to be scalable so children …

Design Of Dc-Link Vscf Ac Electrical Power System For The Embraer 190/195 Aircraft, Eduardo Francis Carvalho Freitas, Nihad E. Daidzic

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

A proposed novel DC-Link VSCF AC-DC-AC electrical power system converter for Embraer 190/195 transport category airplane is presented. The proposed converter could replace the existing conventional system based on the CSCF IDGs. Several contemporary production airplanes already have VSCF as a major or backup source of electrical power. Problems existed with the older VSCF systems in the past; however, the switched power electronics and digital controllers have matured and can be now, in our opinion, safely integrated and replace existing constant-speed hydraulic transmissions powering CSCF AC generators. IGBT power transistors for medium-level power conversion and relatively fast efficient switching are …

Parallel Computation Using Mems Oscillator-Based Computing System, Xinrui Wang, Ilias Bilionis, Salar Safarkhani

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In recent years, parallel computing systems such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been of great interest. In these systems which emulate the behavior of human brains, the processing is carried out simultaneously. However, it is still a challenging engineering problem to design highly efficient hardware for parallel computing systems. We will study the properties of networks of Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) oscillators to explore their capabilities as parallel computing infrastructure. Furthermore, we simulate the time-variant states of MEMS oscillators network under various initial conditions and performance of certain tasks. Recent theoretical results show that networks of MEMS oscillators have some …

Radcool: A Web-Enabled Simulation Tool For Radiative Cooling, Yu-Wen Lin, Evan L. Schlenker, Zhiguang Zhou, Peter Bermel

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems can generate electricity from high-temperature heat sources via thermal radiation. However, the intense heating of a photovoltaic (PV) cell can greatly reduce the overall efficiency of the system. Therefore, it is critical to develop techniques to keep the PV cells close to ambient temperature without consuming energy. Radiative cooling is a passive technique that dissipates heat into remote space via thermal radiation. A simulation tool to predict the performance of radiative cooling systems would be particularly helpful in designing new experiments. The current TPV model simulation tool, TPVexpt, can calculate the theoretical performance of the TPV system. …

Gui For Mri-Compatible Neural Stimulator And Recorder, Soo Han Soon, Nishant Babaria, Ranajay Mandal, Zhongming Liu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) are useful tools to analyze brain activities given active stimulation. However, the electromagnetic noise from the MRI distorts the brain signal recording and damages the subject with excessive heat generated on the electrodes attached to the skin. MRI-compatible recording and stimulation systems previously developed at LIBI lab were capable of removing the electromagnetic noise during the imaging process. Previously, the hardware systems had required the integrative software that could control both circuits simultaneously and enable users to easily change recording and stimulation parameters. Graphical user interface (GUI) programmed with computer language informed …

Bifacial Solar Panel Database Interfacepumet: A Tool For Global Meteorological Data Mining For Performance And Reliability Prediction Of Large Scale Solar Farms, Binglin Zhao, Xingshu Sun, Muhammad A. Alam

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Solar energy is one of the top runners among the renewable energy. The design and deployment of solar panels are geographic- and climate-specific to optimize the total energy yield. However, the existing meteorological databases are not accessible to users for direct download and visualization. Hence, we have developed a tool that allows users to download and visualize a variety of global meteorological databases, for instance, the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB). Enabled by our tool, both historical and Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) data, such as solar irradiance and ambient temperature, across the entire world in specific time intervals (e.g., hourly …

Using P-Band Signals Of Opportunity Radio Waves For Root Zone Soil Moisture Remote Sensing, Phillip H. Lipinski, Benjamin R. Nold, James L. Garrison

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Retrieval of Root Zone Soil Moisture (RZSM) is important for understanding the carbon cycle for use in climate change research as well as meteorology, hydrology, and precision agriculture studies. A current method of remote sensing, GNSS-R uses GPS signals to measure soil moisture content and vegetation biomass, but it is limited to 3-5 cm of soil penetration depth. Signals of Opportunity (SoOp) has emerged as an extension of GNSS-R remote sensing using communication signals. P-band communication signals (370 MHz) will be studied as an improved method of remote sensing of RZSM. P-band offers numerous advantages over GNSS-R, including stronger signal …

Web-Based Interactive Social Media Visual Analytics, Diego Rodríguez-Baquero, Jiawei Zhang, David S. Ebert, Sorin A. Matei

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Real-time social media platforms enable quick information broadcasting and response during disasters and emergencies. Analyzing the massive amount of generated data to understand the human behavior requires data collection and acquisition, parsing, filtering, augmentation, processing, and representation. Visual analytics approaches allow decision makers to observe trends and abnormalities, correlate them with other variables and gain invaluable insight into these situations. In this paper, we propose a set of visual analytic tools for analyzing and understanding real-time social media data in times of crisis and emergency situations. First, we model the degree of risk of individuals’ movement based on evacuation zones …

Carbon Removal And Optoelectronic Property Tuning In Copper Arsenic Sulfide Thin Films Through Ligand Exchange And Alloying, Louis R. Schroeder, Scott Mcclary, Rakesh Agrawal

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Solution processed thin film solar cells are attractive alternatives to conventional energy sources due to low waste generation, flexibility in substrate choice, and scalability. The novel semiconductor Cu3AsS4 in the enargite phase has a near ideal band gap of 1.4 eV and has earth abundant constituent elements; yet single-junction solar cells have yielded low efficiencies due to a secondary carbonaceous phase present, among other issues. This carbonaceous phase may be eliminated by exchanging the carbonaceous ligands with molecular metal chalcogenides. To characterize the ligand exchanged particles, UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and …