Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

Lasting Impacts Of A Summer Bridge And Outdoor Experience Program On Student Relationships: A Social Network Analysis, Noah Salzman, Ann E. Delaney, Catherine Rose Bates, Donna C. Llewellyn

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this Complete Research paper, we present a social network analysis of an academic summer bridge and outdoor experience program designed to support the social and academic integration of incoming STEM majors at Boise State University. Summer bridge programs can support students through both the development of academic skills and the creation of intentional community and peer support networks which can facilitate students’ sense of belonging in both their chosen major and at the university. Alumni from the past five years of the program received a survey asking them to indicate their connections to other participants, faculty, and staff associated …

What Is The Derivative Of Music?, Thad B. Welch, Cameron H. G. Wright, Michael G. Morrow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In our continuing effort to prove to students that Signals & Systems is not just another mathematics course taught by the ECE Department, we ask the question, “What is the Derivative of Music?”

The first-order difference (or first-difference) is an incredibly simple algorithm that very accurately approximates the numeric derivative operator, especially for oversampled signals. Its inverse also accurately approximates the numeric integration operator, but not without numeric difficulty.

Given a real-time demonstration using winDSK8, we can now show students that these mathematical operators provide powerful signal processing filtering tools for real-world signals.

During this ASEE session, we will include …

Towards The Design Of A Wideband Reflective Long Period Grating Distributed Sensor, Sohel Rana, Nirmala Kandadai, Harish Subbaraman

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we computationally investigate the effects of metal coating length and coating coverage on the reflected spectrum of a long period grating (LPG) over a broad bandwidth. Simulation results indicate that coating the tail end of the fiber between the LPG and the end facet of the fiber provides a reflected spectrum that mimics the LPG transmission spectrum shape over a 400 nmbandwidth. Based on single LPG simulation results, we present the design of a distributed LPG structure containing a multiple number (n) of LPGs in reflection mode for the first time. Simulation results for n …

Work-In-Progress: Implementing Sophomore Cornerstone Courses In Electrical And Computer Engineering, Branimir Pejcinovic, Melinda Holtzman, Phillip Wong

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many engineering programs have significant project-based courses in the freshman and senior years. The project component in our freshman year-long sequence evolves from minimally structured projects, like designing and building Rube-Goldberg contraptions, to more complex microcontroller-based projects where formal tools for teamwork and project management are introduced. However, we do not yet enforce strict adherence to procedures and processes in the freshman year. This is unlike the senior capstone, where the expectation is that students will not only be familiar with these methods but will use them effectively throughout their projects. This presents an obvious problem: what happens in the …

Dim: Adaptively Combining User Interests Mined At Different Stages Based On Deformable Interest Model, Xiaoru Wang, Yueli Li, Zhihong Yu, Fu Li, Heng Zhang, Yali Cai, Lixian Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

User interest mining is widely used in the fields of personalized search and personalized recommendation. Traditional methods ignore the formation of user interest which is a process that evolves over time. This leads to the inability to accurately describe the distribution of user interest. In this paper, we propose the interest tracking model (ITM). To add the timing, ITM uses Dirichlet distribution and multinomial distribution to describe the evolutional process of interest topics and frequent patterns, which well adapts to the evolution of user interest hidden in short texts between different time slices. In addition, it is well known that …

Medusa: A Low-Cost, 16-Channel Neuromodulation Platform With Arbitrary Waveform Generation, Fnu Tala, Benjamin C. Johnson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Neural stimulation systems are used to modulate electrically excitable tissue to interrogate neural circuit function or provide therapeutic benefit. Conventional stimulation systems are expensive and limited in functionality to standard stimulation waveforms, and they are bad for high frequency stimulation. We present MEDUSA, a system that enables new research applications that can leverage multi-channel, arbitrary stimulation waveforms. MEDUSA is low cost and uses commercially available components for widespread adoption. MEDUSA is comprised of a PC interface, an FPGA for precise timing control, and eight bipolar current sources that can each address up to 16 electrodes. The current sources have a …

Spectrum Modeling Of Out-Of-Band Intermodulation For Dual-Band Rf Amplifiers In Ofdm Modulation, Xianzhen Yang, Siyuan Yan, Xiao Li, Qiang Wu, Fu Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dual-band RF amplifiers play increasingly important roles in next-generation mobile communication systems including 5G, and the out-of-band intermodulation products are often not negligible since they generate interference to adjacent channels. In this article, following our previous modeling of cross-modulation for amplified dual-band signals, an analytical expression of out-of-band intermodulation for dual-band orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing signals is derived using the third-order intercept points IP₃. The experimental measurement results validate the proposed analytical expression.

Inversion Of Head Waves In Ocean Acoustic Ambient Noise, Jie Li, Peter Gerstoft, Martin Siderius, Jun Fan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The virtual head wave is produced through cross-correlation processing of signals containing the real, acoustic head wave. The virtual head wave has the same phase speed as the head wave, but the travel time is offset, thus the term virtual. The virtual head wave, like the real head wave, propagates in a direction corresponding to the seabed critical angle. The virtual head wave travel time varies with array depth and water column depth. However, in a refracting environment, the travel time is also dependent on the depth-dependent sound speed profile. Previously, the virtual head wave was shown as observable from …

Improved Estimation For Saleh Model And Predistortion Of Power Amplifiers Using 1-Db Compression Point, Haider Al Kanan, Xianzhen Yang, Fu Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper proposes an improved estimation approach for modelling RF power amplifiers (PAs) using the Saleh behavioural model. The proposed approach is appropriate for solid-state PA technologies. The 1-dB compression point of the PA is included in the estimation approach to improve the estimation of the Saleh coefficients. Thus, expressions are derived to describe the relationship between the parameters of the Saleh model and the manufacturing specifications of PAs: gain (G), third-order intercept point (IP₃) and 1-dB compression point (P_1dB). This method is a simple estimation of a memoryless amplitude-to-amplitude (AM/AM) nonlinearity to benefit RF designers …

A Polarity-Based Approach For Optimization Of Multivalued Quantum Multiplexers With Arbitrary Single-Qubit Target Gates, Kevin Jin, Tahsin Soffat, Justin Morgan, Marek Perkowski

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Previous work has provided methods for decomposing unitary matrices to series of quantum multiplexers, but the multiplexer circuits created in this way may be highly non-minimal. This paper presents a new approach for optimizing quantum multiplexers with arbitrary single-qubit quantum target functions and ternary controls. For multivalued quantum multiplexers, we define standard forms and two types of new forms: Fixed Polarity Quantum Forms (FPQFs) and Kronecker Quantum Forms (KQFs). Drawing inspiration from the usage of butterfly diagrams, we devise a method to exhaustively construct new forms. In contrast to previous butterfly-based methods, which are used with classical Boolean functions, these …

Spatial Indexing For System-Level Evaluation Of 5g Heterogeneous Cellular Networks, Roohollah Amiri, Eren Balevi, Jeffrey G. Andrews, Hani Mehrpouyan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

System level simulations of large 5G networks are essential to evaluate and design algorithms related to network issues such as scheduling, mobility management, interference management, and cell planning. In this paper, we look back to the idea of spatial indexing and its advantages, applications, and future potentials in accelerating large 5G network simulations. We introduce a multi-level inheritance based architecture which is used to index all elements of a heterogeneous network (HetNet) on a single geometry tree. Then, we define spatial queries to accelerate searches in distance, azimuth, and elevation. We demonstrate that spatial indexing can accelerate location-based searches by …

Cyber-Informed: Bridging Cybersecurity And Other Disciplines, Char Sample, Sin Ming Loo, Connie Justice, Eleanor Taylor, Clay Hampton

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A recent study by Cybersecurity Ventures (Morgan 2018), predicts that 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs around the world will be unfilled by 2021. In the United States, the demand for professionals with cybersecurity expertise is outpacing all other occupations (NIST 2018). These reports, along with many others, underpin the need for increasing workforce development initiatives founded in cybersecurity principles. The workforce shortage is across all cybersecurity domains, yet problems continue to persist, as the lines between combatants and non-combatants are blurred. Combating this persistent threat, which is a 24/7 operation, requires a more aggressive and inclusive approach. Higher education institutions are …

Anatomical Fraction Segmentation In The Biomass Bales, Rahul Reddy Kancharla, William A. Smith, Elisa H. Barney Smith, Jordan L. Klinger

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

According to the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), creating a robust next-generation domestic bioenergy industry is an essential pathway for providing sustainable renewable energy alternatives. Using non-food feedstocks, like corn-stover and forest residue, in the biorefineries doesn't affect the food supply chain. In the commercial-scale bioenergy operations, a significant development in the technological advancements is required to determine the biomass feedstock quality at the preprocessing stage. The penetrating ability of the x-rays helps study the big biomass bales, but the feedstock heterogeneity—physical size, shape, and chemical composition—poses a significant challenge during milling, conveyance, feeding, and biofuel conversion processes. The inherent complexity …

A Quantum Algorithm For Automata Encoding, Edison Tsai, Marek Perkowski

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Encoding of finite automata or state machines is critical to modern digital logic design methods for sequential circuits. Encoding is the process of assigning to every state, input value, and output value of a state machine a binary string, which is used to represent that state, input value, or output value in digital logic. Usually, one wishes to choose an encoding that, when the state machine is implemented as a digital logic circuit, will optimize some aspect of that circuit. For instance, one might wish to encode in such a way as to minimize power dissipation or silicon area. For …

Resource Study Of Large-Scale Electric Water Heater Aggregation, Kevin Marnell, Conrad Eustis, Robert B. Bass

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Residential-scale distributed energy assets, like residential electric water heaters, individually present a negligible load to the power grid. When aggregated, however, these assets can impart significant effects within a balancing area; they may be dispatched en masse to provide grid services. An aggregation of water heaters may be controlled to assume generator-like functions with the ability to effectively “decrement power” through dispatch of load. This resource study examines the capabilities of a 10,000 unit water heater aggregation by subjecting the aggregate to dispatch requests of various size and duration, then analyzing how the aggregate responds to and recovers from these …

An Extended Approach For Generating Unitary Matrices For Quantum Circuits, Zhiqiang Li, Wei Zhang, Gaoman Zhang, Juan Dai, Jiajia Hu, Marek Perkowski, Xiaoyu Song

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we do research on generating unitary matrices for quantum circuits automatically. We consider that quantum circuits are divided into six types, and the unitary operator expressions for each type are offered. Based on this, we propose an algorithm for computing the circuit unitary matrices in detail. Then, for quantum logic circuits composed of quantum logic gates, a faster method to compute unitary matrices of quantum circuits with truth table is introduced as a supplement. Finally, we apply the proposed algorithm to different reversible benchmark circuits based on NCT library (including NOT gate, Controlled-NOT gate, Toffoli gate) and …

Multi-Scale Decision Network With Feature Fusion And Weighting For Few-Shot Learning, Xiaoru Wang, Bing Ma, Zhihong Yu, Fu Li, Yali Cai

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Learning from limited labelled examples is key a research hotspot with excellent scenarios and potential applications. Currently, most of metric learning-based few-shot models still have the problem of low recognition accuracy. This is mainly because that they only use the top-layer abstract feature with semantic information, which ignores the low-layer features that are also critical for the few-shot recognition. Therefore, the extracted features do not have abundant representation ability, and it is difficult to recognize easily confusing objects. Moreover, they usually adopt a fixed distance function or train a comparable network to measure features. These methods lack adaptability, cannot sufficiently …

Introduction To The Design And Simulation Of Reflectionless Filters, G. Lemire, Branimir Pejcinovic

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

One novel approach to improving filter performance is to use so-called reflectionless filters which have recently been proposed. In this paper we demonstrate how to design, simulate and manufacture a reference reflectionless low-pass filter with the corner frequency of 188 MHz. We have found very good agreement between measurements, simulations, and published data, which validates our implementation of the design procedure. We have also designed a comparable diplexer so that we can examine the relative advantages and disadvantages of the reflectionless filters vs. diplexers. Measurements, simulations and published data, all agree very well in this case as well. This agreement …

Laboratory Versus Daily Life Gait Characteristics In Patients With Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’S Disease, And Matched Controls, Vrutangkumar Shah, James Mcnames, Martina Mancini, Patricia Carlson-Kuhta, Rebecca I. Spain, John G. Nutt, Mahmoud El-Gohary, Carolin Curtze, Fay Horak

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background and purpose: Recent findings suggest that a gait assessment at a discrete moment in a clinic or laboratory setting may not reflect functional, everyday mobility. As a step towards better understanding gait during daily life in neurological populations, we compared gait measures that best discriminated people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and people with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) from their respective, age-matched, healthy control subjects (MS-Ctl, PD-Ctl) in laboratory tests versus a week of daily life monitoring.

Methods: We recruited 15 people with MS (age mean ± SD: 49 ± 10 years), 16 MS-Ctl (45 ± 11 years), 16 …

Quantum Algorithms And Experiment Implementations Based On Ibm Q, Wenjie Liu, Junxui Chen, Yinsong Xu, Jiahao Tang, Lain Tong, Xiaoyu Song

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

With the rapid development of quantum theory and technology in recent years, especially the emergence of some quantum cloud computing platforms, more and more researchers are not satisfied with the theoretical derivation and simulation verification of quantum computation (especially quantum algorithms), experimental verification on real quantum devices has become a new trend. In this paper, three representative quantum algorithms, namely Deutsch-Jozsa, Grover, and Shor algorithms, are briefly depicted, and then their implementation circuits are presented, respectively. We program these circuits on python with QISKit to connect the remote real quantum devices (i.e., ibmqx4, ibmqx5) on IBM Q to verify these …

Defending Against Adversarial Attacks In Transmission- And Distribution-Level Pmu Data, Jun Jiang, Xan Liu, Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez, Robert B. Bass, Xinghui Zhao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Phasor measurement units (PMUs) provide highfidelity data that improve situation awareness of electric power grid operations. PMU datastreams inform wide-area state estimation, monitor area control error, and facilitate event detection in real time. As PMU data become more available and increasingly reliable, these devices are found in new roles within control systems, such as remedial action schemes and early warning detection systems. As with other cyber physical systems, maintaining data integrity and security pose a significant challenge for power system operators. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of multiple machine learning techniques to detect malicious data injection within …

Sediment Interval Velocities From A Monostatic Multibeam Sonar, Charles W. Holland, Samuel Pinson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Interval velocities for marine sediments are generally obtained from source-receiver separations at various offsets. A method is described for estimating interval velocities using a monostatic configuration. Testing is performed using simulated data from rough layered seabeds and interval velocity is estimated within less than 1% of the true value. Monostatic multibeam data from the Gulf of Lion are also presented which exhibit many characteristics similar to the simulated data. The method applied to the measured data yield an interval velocity of 1569 m/s in an 18m sediment layer. This accords with nearby independent data from cores and wide-angle reflection analysis. …

Normalization Of Unconstrained Handwritten Words In Terms Of Slope And Slant Correction, Suman Kumar Bera, Akash Chakrabarti, Sagnik Lahiri, Elisa H. Barney Smith, Ram Sarkar

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In offline handwritten text slope (or skew) and slant are inevitably introduced, but to varying degrees depending on several factors, such as the writing style, speed and mood of the writers. Therefore slope and slant detection in offline handwritten text and their subsequent correction have become the critical preprocessing steps for document analysis and retrieval systems to neutralize the variability of writing styles and to improve the performance of word and character recognition systems. In this paper, we present new methods that use two novel core-region detection techniques to estimate both the slope and slant angles of offline handwritten word …

A Review Of Integrated Propulsion, Suspension And Guidance Passive Guideway Maglev Technologies, Jonathan Bird

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper provides a review of integrated propulsion, suspension and guidance maglev technology that use fully passive guideway structures.

Transmission-Scale Battery Energy Storage Systems: A Systematic Literature Review, Kevin Marnell, Manasseh Obi, Robert B. Bass

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

When the transmission capacity of an electrical system is insufficient to adequately serve customer demand, the transmission system is said to be experiencing congestion. More transmission lines can be built to increase capacity. However, transmission congestion typically only occurs during periods of peak demand, which occur just a few times per year; capitol-intensive investments in new transmission capacity address problems that occur infrequently. Alternative solutions to alleviated transmission congestion have been devised, including generation curtailment, demand response programs, and various remedial action schema. Though not currently a common solution, battery energy storage systems can also provide transmission congestion relief. Technological …

Kinetics Of Silver Photodiffusion Into Amorphous S-Rich Germanium Sulphide – Neutron And Optical Reflectivity, Yoshifumi Sakaguchi, Hidehito Asaoka, Maria Mitkova

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Silver photodiffusion is one of the attractive photo-induced changes observed in amorphous chalcogenides. In this research, we focus on amorphous S-rich germanium sulphide and study the kinetics of the silver photodiffusion by neutron reflectivity, as well as optical reflectivity. It was found from the neutron reflectivity profiles with 30 s time resolution that silver dissolved into the germanium sulphide layer, forming a metastable reaction layer between the Ag and the germanium sulphide layers, within 2 min of light exposure. Subsequently, silver slowly diffused from the metastable reaction layer to the germanium sulphide host layer until the Ag concentration in both …

Comparison Of The Electrical Response Of Cu And Ag Ion-Conducting Sdc Memristors Over The Temperature Range 6 K To 300 K, Kolton Drake, Tonglin Lu, Md. Kamrul H. Majumdar, Kristy A. Campbell

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Electrical performance of self-directed channel (SDC) ion-conducting memristors which use Ag and Cu as the mobile ion source are compared over the temperature range of 6 K to 300 K. The Cu-based SDC memristors operate at temperatures as low as 6 K, whereas Ag-based SDC memristors are damaged if operated below 125 K. It is also observed that Cu reversibly diffuses into the active Ge₂Se₃ layer during normal device shelf-life, thus changing the state of a Cu-based memristor over time. This was not observed for the Ag-based SDC devices. The response of each device type to sinusoidal …

Environmental Information Content Of Ocean Ambient Noise, Martin Siderius, John Thomas Gebbie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, methods have been developed to estimate a variety of environmental parameters based on measurements of the ocean ambient noise. For example, noise has been used to estimate water depth using the passive fathometer technique and bottom loss estimated and used to invert for seabed parameters. There is also information in the noise about the water column sound speed, volume attenuation, and the sea-state. The Fisher information can be used to quantify the basic information available in the noise measurements and its inverse, the Cramér–Rao lower bound (CRLB), provides the lower limit on the variance of an unbiased …

Simulation Of A Time-Varying Distributed Cathode In A Linear Format Crossed-Field Amplifier, Marcus Pearlman, Jim Browning

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The effects of a temporally modulated, distributed cathode in a linear format crossed-field amplifier (CFA) are simulated in VSim and analyzed. A linear format, 150 MHz, low power (100 W), moderate gain (7 dB), meander line CFA is used as the basis for the simulation model. This paper describes simulations with different time-varying distributed cathodes in which electron injection is modulated at the RF frequency both in and out of phase with the RF input. At low RF input power the modulated electron injection dominates the operation. Injecting in phase with the RF input shows gain increases from 23 dB …

Introducing Cornerstone Courses Into Electrical And Computer Engineering Curriculum, Branimir Pejcinovic

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Almost all engineering programs have some form of final, culminating design experience, which is typically taught as a senior year capstone design course. Due to ABET requirements these are team and project based. Many programs will also have projects interspersed among required and elective courses, but these tend to be overrepresented in freshman year. We have recently introduced a set of courses during sophomore year that mimic our approach to capstone courses and provide authentic engineering design experience. These so-called cornerstone courses provide scaffolding by introducing all of the components of teamwork and design process but in a less formal …