Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

Pvpbc: Privacy- And Verifiability-Preserving E-Voting Based On Permissioned Blockchain, Muntadher Sallal, Ruairí De Fréin, Ali Malik

Articles

Privacy and verifiability are crucial security requirements in e-voting systems and combining them is considered to be a challenge given that they seem to be contradictory. On one hand, privacy means that cast votes cannot be traced to the corresponding voters. On the other hand, linkability of voters and their votes is a requirement of verifiability which has the consequence that a voter is able to check their vote in the election result. These two contradictory features can be addressed by adopting privacy-preserving cryptographic primitives, which at the same time as achieving privacy, achieve verifiability. Many end-to-end schemes that support …

An Evaluation Of A Computational Technique For Measuring The Embeddedness Of Sustainability In The Curriculum Aligned To Aashe-Stars And The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Philippe Lemarchand, Cormac H. Macmahon Dr, Mick Mckeever, Philip Owende

Articles

Introduction: SDG 4.7 mandates university contributions to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through their education provisions. Hence, universities increasingly assess their curricular alignment to the SDGs. A common approach to the assessment is to identify keywords associated with specific SDGs and to analyze for their presence in the curriculum. An inherent challenge is associating the identified keywords as used in the diverse set of curricular contexts to relevant sustainability indicators; hence, the urgent need for more systematic assessment as SDG implementation passes its mid-cycle.

Method: In this study, a more nuanced technique was evaluated with notable capabilities …

Deep Learning Framework For Intelligent Pavement Condition Rating: A Direct Classification Approach For Regional And Local Roads, Waqar Shahid Qureshi, David Power, Ihsan Ullah, Brian Mulry, Kieran Feighan, Susan Mckeever, Dympna O'Sullivan

Articles

Transport authorities rely on pavement characteristics to determine a pavement condition rating index. However, manually computing ratings can be a tedious, subjective, time-consuming, and training-intensive process. This paper presents a deep-learning framework for automatically rating the condition of rural road pavements using digital images captured from a dashboard-mounted camera. The framework includes pavement segmentation, data cleaning, image cropping and resizing, and pavement condition rating classification. A dataset of images, captured from diverse roads in Ireland and rated by two expert raters using the pavement surface condition index (PSCI) scale, was created. Deep-learning models were developed to perform pavement segmentation and …

Enhanced Fractional Adaptive Processing Paradigm For Power Signal Estimation, Naveed Ishtiaq Chaudhary, Zeshan Aslam Khan, Muhammad Asif Zahoor Raja, Iqra Ishtiaq Chaudhary

Articles

Fractional calculus tools have been exploited to effectively model variety of engineering, physics and applied sciences problems. The concept of fractional derivative has been incorporated in the optimization process of least mean square (LMS) iterative adaptive method. This study exploits the recently introduced enhanced fractional derivative based LMS (EFDLMS) for parameter estimation of power signal formed by the combination of different sinusoids. The EFDLMS addresses the issue of fractional extreme points and provides faster convergence speed. The performance of EFDLMS is evaluated in detail by taking different levels of noise in the composite sinusoidal signal as well as considering various …

Rapid Detection Of Sars-Cov-2 Nucleocapsid Protein By A Label-Free Biosensor Based On Optical Fiber Cylindrical Micro-Resonator, Ru-Lei Xia, Bin Liu, Yingying Hu, Juan Liu, Yue Fu, Xing-Dao He, Ping Lu, Yingying Hu, Gerald Farrell

Articles

The current global outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to be a severe threat to human health. Rapid, low-cost, and accurate antigen detection methods are very important for disease diagnosis. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleocapsid protein (N-Protein) is often used as the diagnostic and screening for coronavirus detection. To this end, we propose and experimentally validate a highly sensitive whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical cylindrical micro-resonator (CMR) for bio immunoassay detection. To study the biokinetic process of immunoassay, the surface of the WGM micro-resonator is functionalized with N-Protein monoclonal antibody (N-Protein-m Ab), which led to the specific detection …

Deactivation Effects Of Tb3+ On Ho3+ Emission In Fluoroindate Glasses For 3.9 Μm Laser Applications, Zhi Zhang, Zhuowei Cheng, Ruicong Wang, Shunbin Wang, Gerald Farrell, Shijie Jia, Pengfei Wang

Articles

A series of Ho3+/Tb3+ co-doped fluoroindate glasses with good thermal stability have been synthesized to study the deactivation effects of Tb3+ on the Ho3+: 3.9 μm emission. Efficient 3.9 μm emission enhancement is obtained under excitation by an 888 nm laser diode (LD). The Judd-Ofelt (J-O) intensity parameters and radiative properties are calculated to evaluate the spectroscopic properties. Possible energy transfer processes resulting in emission reinforcement are discussed. A higher spontaneous transition probability and larger peak emission cross section are achieved with the inclusion of Tb3+. This analysis supports the conclusion that Ho3+/Tb3+ co-doped fluoroindate glass is a potentially useful …

High-Sensitivity Vector Bend Sensor Based On A Fiber Directional Coupler Inscribed By A Femtosecond Laser, Ke Tian, Mingyuan Zhang, Chuanzhein Zhao, Huibin Li, Shilong Li, Yuxuan Jiang, Gerald Farrell, Pengfei Wang

Articles

In this Letter, we demonstrate a high-sensitivity vector bend sensor based on a fiber directional coupler. The fiber directional coupler is composed of two parallel waveguides inscribed within a no-core fiber (NCF) by a femtosecond laser. Since the two written waveguides have closely matched refractive indices and geometries, the transmission spectrum of the fiber directional coupler possesses periodic resonant dips. Such a fiber directional coupler exhibits a good bending-dependent spectral shift response due to its asymmetric structure. Experimental results show that bending sensitivities of -97.11 nm/m-1 and 58.22 nm/m-1 are achieved for the 0° and 180° orientations in the curvature …

Efficient 2075-Nm Laser Emission From Ho3+-Doped Fluorotellurite Glass In A Compact All-Fiber Structure, Liyuan Wang, Xiaotong Zhao, Nian Lv, Niannian Xu, Zhenrui Li, Gerald Farrell, Shunbin Wang, Pengfei Wang

Articles

In this Letter, we report an Ho3+-doped fluorotellurite glass all-fiber laser at 2075 nm. The gain fiber is pumped in-band with a 1976-nm fiber laser and connected by fusion splicing. A high-quality fusion splicing point with a loss of < 0.1 dB was obtained by finely adjusting the splicing power and offset. In addition, by optimizing the writing parameters, a third-order fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with a reflectivity of 98% was achieved at 2075 nm using the femtosecond laser direct-writing method. Using the FBG as the laser cavity mirror and a relatively short 28-cm-long home-made Ho3+-doped fluorotellurite fiber as the laser medium, a laser with a maximum unsaturated output power of 7.33 W was obtained, and the corresponding slope efficiency was as high as 93.4%. The first, to the best of our knowledge, demonstration of the fluorotellurite glass all-fiber ∼2.1-µm laser presented in this work may pave the way for a high-power 2.1-µm fiber laser with a compact structure.

Zno Varistors – The Ideal Microstructure And Characteristics, And Methods Investigated And Developed To Achieve These, Maura Kelleher

Books/Book Chapters

ZnO-Bi2O3-Sb2O3 varistors have been extensively studied since their discovery 5 decades ago. Their function in protecting increasingly sensitive electronic components by absorbing random surges of energy is even more important today. Also, the metal oxides from which they are made from are becoming even more precious. Their electrical characteristics are highly dependent on their microstructural characteristics which are highly dependent on their composition and methods used. The purpose of this article is to explain the ideal microstructure required to obtain the ideal electrical characteristics, the powder preparation methods investigated and developed to achieve it, and some future directions are outlined.

Comparing The Iwl-Mvm-Rs And Minstrel-Ht Rate Adaptation Algorithms Under Different Local Error Conditions, Luhan Wang, Mark Davis

Conference papers

WLAN technology has grown rapidly and now provides increasingly reliable and fast wireless connectivity. A number of Rate Adaptation Algorithms (RAAs) which are designed to select the optimal line rate according to the channel conditions have been proposed. Iwl-Mvm-Rs RAA which is implemented in the Intel wireless chips and Minstrel-HT RAA which is implemented in the Linux kernels are two such well known algorithms. Many existing papers evaluate these two algorithms with regard to device mobility and signal fading. However, the causes of frame errors can be divided into two categories: weak signal reception and collisions. Therefore, in this paper, …

Simultaneous Measurement Of Gas Pressure And Temperature Using A Microbubble Resonator Combined With An Fbg, Ketan Dong, Ke Tian, Chuanzhen Zhao, Huibin Li, Jibo Yu, Angzhen Li, Xiaoling Sun, Elfed Lewis, Gerald Farrell, Pengfei Wang

Conference Papers

We propose and demonstrate a microbubble resonator combined with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) for simultaneous measurement of gas pressure and temperature. The approach used allows for very close proximity (<200 >μm) between the FBG and the microbubble resonator. The microbubble resonator is fabricated in a section of hollow-core fiber (HCF), spliced to a single-mode fiber (SMF) with a pre-inscribed FBG to form a single-ended open structure. Fresnel reflection from the HCF cleaved end means that broadband light is reflected backwards in the same direction as the Bragg wavelength from the FBG. A tapered fiber couples the reflected broadband light …

Tunable Erbium-Doped Fiber Ring Laser With A Polymer Micro Bottle Resonator, Anuradha Rout, Zhe Wang, Zhuochen Wang, Yuliya Semenova

Conference Papers

A new tunable fiber laser structure based on an erbium-doped fiber ring laser (FRL) and a polymer-based microbottle resonator (PMBR) as the wavelength selective filter is proposed and demonstrated. The tunability of the laser output in response to axial strain of up to 253.6 με applied to the PMBR is demonstrated experimentally. When the strain was applied to the PMBR’s long axis, the central lasing wavelength shifted towards shorter wavelengths in a linear fashion. The laser's strain sensitivity was determined to be 0.69 pm/με. The proposed strain-tunable PMBR laser offers the advantages of simple structure, low cost, robust performance, and …

Investigation Of Dielectric And Mechanical Properties Of Lignocellulosic Rice Husk Fibril For High And Medium Voltage Electrical Insulation Applications, T. Rajamanikandan, S. Banumathi, B. Karthikeyan, R. Palanisamy, Mohit Bajaj, Hossam Zawbaa, Salah Kamel

Articles

The insulating material is made from rice husk and epoxy resin which are ecologically friendly and incredibly durable. When coarse Rice husk is mechanically disintegrated, fibrils are formed. By weaving together fibrillated threads, and robust biodegradables, lightweight dielectric fibers are created. Then the Composites are examined utilizing a blend of agave Rice husk fibers (10–35%) and an epoxy resin solution. The Chemical treatment of the Rice husk fibers increases the composites’ mechanical strength and electrical insulating properties. The tensile strength of Rice husk in epoxy composites is increased from 37.84 MPa to 48.32 MPa. The experimental results are compared using …

An Investigation Of 3.5 Μm Emission In Er3+-Doped Fluorozirconate Glasses Under 638 Nm Laser Excitation, Haiyan Zhao, Ke Tian, Xin Wang, Dejun Liu, Shunbin Wang, Gerald Farrell, Pengfei Wang

Articles

Intense 3.5 μm mid-infrared emission has been achieved in Er3+-doped ZBYA glasses, which is ascribed to the Er3+: 4F9/2→4I9/2 transition. Based on the absorption spectrum of Er3+ ions, a 638 nm laser was utilized to directly pump the upper level (Er3+: 4F9/2) to achieve 3.5 μm emission with enhanced quantum efficiency. Spectroscopic parameters were predicted by Judd-Ofelt theory. The maximum emission cross-section of the Er3+-doped ZBYA glass was estimated to be 5.5×10-22 cm2 at 3496 nm. Additionally, the fluorescence spectra and energy level lifetimes of ZBYA glass samples with different Er3+ ions doping concentrations were also measured. The theoretical and …

A Label-Free Fiber Ring Laser Biosensor For Ultrahigh Sensitivity Detection Of Salmonella Typhimurium, Shi Qiu, Bin Liu, Yuankui Leng, Edward Fox, Xian Zhou, Binbin Yan, Xinzhu Sang, Long Long, Xingdao He, Jinhui Yuan, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu

Articles

The rapid detection of low concentrations of Salmonella Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is an essential preventive measure for food safety and prevention of foodborne illness. The study presented in this paper addresses this critical issue by proposing a single mode-tapered seven core-single mode (STSS) fiber ring laser (FRL) biosensor for S. Typhimurium detection. The experimental results show that the specific detection time of S. Typhimurium is less than 20 min and the wavelength shift can achieve -0.906 nm for an S. Typhimurium solution (10 cells/mL). Furthermore, at a lower concentration of 1 cell/mL applied to the biosensor, a result of -0.183 …

Swarm Electrification: A Comprehensive Literature Review, Stephen Sheridan, Keith Sunderland, Jane Courtney

Articles

In the global North, the need to decarbonize power generation is well documented and the challenges faced are endemic to the design of the electrical grids. With networks relying on centralized generation, it can be difficult to replace fossil-fuel power plants with renewable energy sources as generation may be intermittent causing grid instability when there is no ‘spinning reserve’ [1]. In parts of the global south, however, many under-electrified nations have high levels of solar irradiance. This, combined with falling prices for solar panels, is allowing for alternative paths to electrification from costly grid extensions and has resulted in grids …

A Strong Scattering Solution With Applications To Remote Sensing Systems Modelling, Jonathan Blackledge

Conference papers

Although not always fully appreciated as such, the linear stationary convolution model for a signal and/or image, generated by the interaction of an incident wave field with an inhomogeneous medium, is based on the ‘weak scattering condition’, commonly referred to as the ‘Born approximation’. This approximation forms the basis for signal processing and analysis associated with applications over a broad range of frequencies. The Born approximation assumes that a scattering interaction is based on single scattering events alone and that the scattered field is therefore a weak field in comparison to the incident field. The physical limitations of such a …

Printed-Dipole End-Fire Array For Mm-Wave Applications, Neeraj Kumar Maurya, Max Ammann

Conference papers

A novel curved printed-dipole element in an end-fire array for mmWave communication is presented. The curved dipole element is printed on both sides of a RO5880 substrate of 0.5mm thickness. The proposed antenna operates in the frequency bands n257, n258, and n261 (22.79 GHz - 29.7 GHz) and the 4-element array has a peak gain of 8.85 dBi.

Fully 3d-Printed Hemispherical Dielectric Resonator Antenna For C-Band Applications, Jakub Przepiorowski, Irina Munina, Max Ammann, Daniel Trimble

Conference papers

This paper investigates the 3D printing of a hemispherical dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) on a ground plane made from a 3D printed conductive material. The DRA is designed to operate in the C-band (3700 – 4200 MHz) and is intended for satellite communication (SATCOM) applications. The proposed antenna prototype achieved a -10 dB bandwidth of 12.2% with an average and peak gain of 4.69 dBi and peak gain of 5.39 dBi respectively.

H2020 Auto-Dan Project: Enhance The Participation Of The Community To Demand Response By Providing The State-Of-The-Art Technological And Policy Solution, Rene Peeren, Dharmesh Dabhi, John Dalton

Conference papers

The growing demand for electricity in Europe has increased the need for a more flexible and sustainable power system. In recent years, Demand Response (DR) has emerged as a promising solution to meet this need, by providing an opportunity for residential and smaller commercial consumers to actively participate in the electricity market. This research paper investigates the potential for DR among the residential community and small commercial electricity consumers in Europe and identifies the technological barriers and drivers that impact consumer engagement with DR programs in Europe. The different DR opportunities are identified and validated at the six different demo …

Quantum Classifiers For Video Quality Delivery, Tautvydas Lisas, Ruairí De Fréin

Conference papers

Classical classifiers such as the Support Vector Classifier (SVC) struggle to accurately classify video Quality of Delivery (QoD) time-series due to the challenge in constructing suitable decision boundaries using small amounts of training data. We develop a technique that takes advantage of a quantum-classical hybrid infrastructure called Quantum-Enhanced Codecs (QEC). We evaluate a (1) purely classical, (2) hybrid kernel, and (3) purely quantum classifier for video QoD congestion classification, where congestion is either low, medium or high, using QoD measurements from a real networking test-bed. Findings show that the SVC performs the classification task 4% better in the low congestion …

Optimising Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure In Dublin Using Geecharge, Alexander Mutua Mutiso, Ruairí De Fréin, Ali Malik, Eliel Kibanza, Marco Sahbane, Maxime Pantel

Conference papers

Range anxiety poses a hurdle to the adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs), as drivers worry about running out of charge without timely access to a Charging Point (CP). We present novel methods for optimising the distribution of CPs, namely, EV portacharge and GEECharge. These solutions distribute CPs in Dublin, in this paper, by considering the population density and Points Of Interest (POIs) or road traffic. The object of this paper is to (1) develop and evaluate methods to distribute CPs in Dublin city; (2) optimise CP allocation; (3) visualise paths in the graph network to show the most used roads …

Biogeography Based Optimization With Salp Swarm Optimizer Inspired Operator For Solving Non-Linear Continuous Optimization Problems, Vanita Garg, Kusum Deep, Khalid Abdulaziz Alnowibet, Hossam Zawbaa, Ali Wagdy Mohamed

Articles

In this paper, a novel attempt is made to incorporate the two effective algorithm strategies, where BBO has a strong exploration and Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA) is used for exploitation of the search space. The proposed algorithm is tested on IEEE CEC 2014 and statistical, convergence graphs are given. The proposed algorithm is also applied to 10 real life problems and compared with its counterpart algorithm. Results obtained by above experiments have demonstrated the outperformance of the hybrid version of BBO over other algorithms.

Investigating The Effects Of Network Dynamics On Quality Of Delivery Prediction And Monitoring For Video Delivery Networks, Obinna C. Izima

Doctoral

Video streaming over the Internet requires an optimized delivery system given the advances in network architecture, for example, Software Defined Networks. Machine Learning (ML) models have been deployed in an attempt to predict the quality of the video streams. Some of these efforts have considered the prediction of Quality of Delivery (QoD) metrics of the video stream in an effort to measure the quality of the video stream from the network perspective. In most cases, these models have either treated the ML algorithms as black-boxes or failed to capture the network dynamics of the associated video streams.

This PhD investigates …

Series-Fed Omnidirectional Mm-Wave Dipole Array, Neeraj Kumar Maurya, Max Ammann, Patrick Mcevoy

Articles

THE rapid expansion in the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency domain has completely changed the course of wireless communication. One of the most important steps to make smart cities, the Internet-of-Things (IoT), smart homes, and vehicular communication a reality is to use mm-wave frequencies for wireless applications. The rise in the number of wireless appliances has also led to a rise in data traffic [1]. The adoption of mm-wave frequencies enabled several gigahertz of bandwidth, allowing data rate and latency limits to be exceeded. The availability of a broad electromagnetic spectrum and frequency reusability are the most important characteristics of mm-wave deployment …

Exploiting Multimode Antennas For Mimo And Aoa Estimation In Size-Constrained Iot Devices, Abel Zandamela, Alessandro Chiumento Alessandro Chiumento, Alessandro Chiumento, Nicola Marchetti, Max Ammann, Adam Narbudowicz

Articles

This work proposes compact multimode Multiple-Input–Multiple-Output (MIMO) antennas for Angle of Arrival (AoA) estimation in miniaturized Internet of Things (IoT) systems. The method excites different orthogonal radiating modes (TM 21 , TM 02 , and TM 31 modes) for beamforming capabilities, and the AoA performance is investigated using the Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm, executed using numerical and experimental data. The technique is tested at 2.238GHz , while using an antenna diameter

Pattern And Polarization Diversity Multisector Annular Antenna For Iot Applications, Abel Zandamela, Nicola Marchetti, Max Ammann, Adam Narbudowicz

Articles

This work proposes a small pattern and polarization diversity multisector annular antenna with electrical size and profile of ka = 1.2 and 0.018λ, respectively. The antenna is planar and comprises annular sectors that are fed using different ports to enable digital beamforming techniques, with efficiency and gain of up to 78% and 4.62 dBi, respectively. The cavity model analysis is used to describe the design concept and the antenna diversity. The proposed method can produce different polarization states (e.g., linearly and circularly polarized patterns) and pattern diversity characteristics covering the elevation plane. Owing to its small electrical size, low-profile and …

Subnetwork Ensembling And Data Augmentation: Effects On Calibration, A. Çağrı Demir, Simon Caton, Pierpaolo Dondio

Articles

Deep Learning models based on convolutional neural networks are known to be uncalibrated, that is, they are either overconfident or underconfident in their predictions. Safety-critical applications of neural networks, however, require models to be well-calibrated, and there are various methods in the literature to increase model performance and calibration. Subnetwork ensembling is based on the over-parametrization of modern neural networks by fitting several subnetworks into a single network to take advantage of ensembling them without additional computational costs. Data augmentation methods have also been shown to enhance model performance in terms of accuracy and calibration. However, ensembling and data augmentation …

Gated Deep Reinforcement Learning With Red Deer Optimization For Medical Image Classification, Narayanan Ganesh, Sambandan Jayalakshmi, Rama Chandran Narayanan, Miroslav Mahdal, Hossam Zawbaa, Ali Wagdy Mohamed

Articles

The brain is one of the most important and complex organs in the body, consisting of billions of individual cells. Uncontrolled growth and expansion of aberrant cell populations within or around the brain are the main causes of brain tumors. These cells have the potential to harm healthy cells and impair brain function [1]. Tumors can be detected using medical imaging techniques, which are considered the most popular and accurate way to classify different types of cancer, and this procedure is even more crucial as it is noninvasive [2]. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one such medical imaging technique that …

Development Of Holographic Recording Material For Fabrication Of Solar Concentrators For Micro Satellites, Brian Rogers

Doctoral

Holographic solar concentration has been a topic of increasing interest over recent years because of the lightweight and physically compact nature of holograms, which gives them an advantage over other, conventional concentration methods. As holographic recording materials develop further, their characteristics prove to meet the demands required of them to make more effective holographic solar concentrators. The development of photovoltaics in tandem with holographic materials has led to a host of solar concentrating device designs that take advantage of the unique properties of diffractive optics. Compared to refractive optics, holographic devices are more lightweight and compact. This makes holographic devices …