Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

Speckle Effects In Target-In-The-Loop Laser Beam Projection Systems, Mikhail Vorontsov

Electro-Optics and Photonics Faculty Publications

In target-in-the-loop laser beam projection scenarios typical of remote sensing, directed energy, and adaptive optics applications, a transmitted laser beam propagates through an optically inhomogeneous medium toward a target, scatters off the target’s rough surface, and returns back to the transceiver plane. Coherent beam scattering off the randomly rough surface results in strong speckle modulation in the transceiver plane. This speckle modulation has been a long-standing challenge that limits performance of remote sensing, active imaging, and adaptive optics techniques. Using physics-based models of laser beam scattering off a randomly rough surface, we show that received speckle-field spatial and temporal characteristics …

Graphene Field Effect Transistors For Highly Sensitive And Selective Detection Of K+ Ions, Hongmei Li, Yihao Zhu, Md. Sayful Islam, Md. Anisur Rahman, Kenneth B. Walsh, Goutam Koley

Publications

Graphene-based ion sensitive field effect transistors (GISFETs) with high sensitivity and selectivity for K+ ion detection have been demonstrated utilizing valinomycin based ion selective membrane. The performance of the GISFETs for K+ ion detection was studied in various media over a concentration range of 1 μM–2 mM. The sensitivity of the sensor was found to be >60 mV/decade, which is comparable to the best Si-based commercial ISFETs, with negligible interference found from Na+ and Ca2+ ions in high concentration. The sensor performance did not change significantly in Tris–HCl solution or with repeated testing over a period of two months highlighting …

3d Printed Pcu/Uhmwpe Polymeric Blends For Artificial Knee Meniscus, Raissa Araujo Borges

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

3D printing was used to fabricate porous artificial knee meniscus material from biocompatible polymeric blends of polycarbonate-urethane (PCU) and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) to enable “weep” lubrication that mimics the native meniscus. 3D printed and molded pure PCU, as well as molded PCU and UHMWPE, were used for comparison. Preliminary printing was done to evaluate the impact of process parameters on the results. The samples were subject to a variety of rotational oscillating friction and wear tests under simulated body fluid and loading conditions to replicate the natural motion of the knee. Results show that 3D printed PCU samples yielded a …

Label-Free Refractive Index Sensing With Free-Space Coupled Photonic Crystal Slabs, Yonghao Liu

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Label-free optical resonance sensors can detect small changes of refractive index (RI), which could be used for biochemical molecular detection, drug screening or gas detection. One of the most critical parameters in these sensors is the sensor detection limit (DL). Reducing DL can be achieved by increasing the resonance quality factors (Q) and the spectral sensitivity (S). Another critical research challenge in these sensors is the sensing specificity. In this thesis, based on Fano resonance principle in two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs (PCS) and the integration with gas separation columns, we investigated various free-space coupled on-chip optical resonance sensors for both …

Label Free Optical Detection Of Electrical Activity In Mammalian Neurons, Sarmishtha Satpathy

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

We describe an optical technique for label-free detection of the action potential in cultured mammalian neurons. Induced morphological changes due to action potential propagation in neurons are optically interrogated with a phase sensitive interferometric technique. Optical recordings composed of signal pulses mirror the electrical spike train activity of individual neurons in a network. The optical pulses are transient nanoscale oscillatory changes in the optical path length of varying peak magnitude and temporal width. Exogenous application of glutamate to cortical neuronal cultures produced coincident increase in the electrical and optical activity; both were blocked by application of a Na-channel blocker, Tetrodotoxin. …

Large Dimensional Analysis And Optimization For Massive Mimo Wireless Networks, Longwei Wang

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The Last decade has seen a massive growth of wireless devices. Demands for high capacity and massive connectivity always increases. To meet the these requirements, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology is proposed for the next generation wireless systems. With massive antenna arrays at the BS, the channel vectors between the users and the BS are asymptotically orthogonal, and the intercell interference can be eliminated with simple linear processing method. The effects of fast fading, and uncorrelated noise tend to disappear as the number of BS station antennas grows large. In this thesis, we mainly focus on the performance analysis and …

On Chip Hybrid Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers, Shih-Chia Liu

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

We report here the design and experimental demonstration of optically pumped photonic crystal bandedge membrane lasers on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and on bulk silicon (Si) substrates, based on heterogeneously integrated InGaAsP multi-quantum-well membrane layers transfer printed onto patterned photonic crystal cavities. Single mode lasing under room-temperature operation was observed at 1542 nm, with excellent side mode suppression ratio greater than 31.5 dB, for the laser built on SOI substrate. For the laser built on bulk Si substrate, the improved thermal characteristics are favorable for lasers operating potentially at higher temperatures and higher power. We also report the experimental and theoretical investigations …

Molecularly Engineered Surfaces For Early Cancer Diagnosis, Mohammad Raziul Hasan

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Early detection of cancer can have immediate and significant impact on effective treatments for cancer patients and better disease prognosis. In the early stage of cancer, symptoms are initially expressed at molecular and cellular scales. Identification and capture of cancer cells can greatly advance cancer research. This research work is aimed to introduce novel biosensors and technologies for early cancer detection. We developed a one-step method to create nanotextured polymer substrates and showed the effect of surface nanotexture on cancer cell adhesion and cell surface interactions. The nanotextured surface was functionalized with an antibody to selectively capture cancer cells from …

Massive Mimo Performance Analysis And Radar Sensor Networks Based Target Detection, Ganlin Zhao

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In this dissertation, we apply massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) performance analysis and radar target detection based on radar sensor networks(RSN). In recent years, massive MIMO draws great interest for wireless communication re- searchers. As a highly scalable technology for 5G networks, massive MIMO will meet the increasing demand for wireless throughput. Also, radar target detection is also an important topic for military and civilian applications. Improving detection accuracy when target is embedded in strong background clutter is a challenging task. In Chapter 2, we investigate scaling law of theoretical transmission capacity limit in an uplink multi-user MIMO system. In 5G network …

Distributed Model Predictive Control Of Power Converters In Microsrids Under Different Modes Of Operation, Riyadh Toman Thahab Toman

Dissertations

Microgrids consist of many distributed energy sources (DERs) and the overall system is viewed as a number of subsystems. In this work, a finite control set model predictive control is proposed to control power converters in both grid and island modes of operation of the microgrid. Each subsystem is assigned a local controller that relies on measurements of common coupling point (PCC) and/or terminal quantities to provide accurate regulation of current or voltage components. This meets the local objective of each subsystem and contributes to the global objective of the microgrid.

In the first part of the work, a microgrid …

Development Of Flexible Sensing Systems And Energy Harvesters Using Printing Techniques, Sepehr Emamian

Dissertations

Printed electronics (PE) has been gaining a significant level of interest and is being used for developing a wide range of electronic systems for various applications, specifically in the sensor fields. This dissertation focuses on the development of flexible sensors and energy harvesters for application in sensing systems by employing additive manufacturing processes.

Initially, an efficient surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate was fabricated by gravure printing a thin film of silver nanoparticle ink on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet. The feasibility of the printed substrate to be used as a SERS substrate for the detection of explosive materials, …

Evolution Characteristics Of Perovskite Solar Cells In Air And Vacuum Environments, Xiaohui Wang, Hojjatollah Sarvari, Hongmei Dang, Zhi Chen, Vijay P. Singh

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Solid state hybrid organometal halide perovskite solar cells have become the research hotspots recently. We prepared perovskite solar cells by the simple two-step method in the ambient condition. The solar cell samples were kept in air and vacuum environments, respectively. J_sc shows good stability in vacuum for up to 27 days, while it drops a lot in air. There is a remarkable promotion of FF for the air-stored samples compared that of the vacuum-stored samples. Changes in V_oc of vacuum-stored and airstored samples exhibited a similar behavior, both showing a slight increase. We believe the moisture in air …

Automated Multistep Classifier Sizing And Training For Deep Learner, Kanishka Tyagi

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Training algorithms for deep learning have recently been proposed with notable success, beating the start-of-the-art in certain areas like audio, speech and language processing. The key role is played by learning multiple levels of abstractions in a deep architecture. However, searching the parameters space in a deep architecture is a difficult task. By exploiting the greedy layer-wise unsupervised training strategy of deep architecture, the network parameters are initialized near a good local minima. However, many existing deep learning algorithms require tuning a number of hyperparameters including learning factors and the number of hidden units in each layer. Apart from this, …

Nearest Neighbor Classifiers With Improved Accuracy And Efficiency, Sinchan Bhattacharya

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Nearest Neighbor algorithms are non-parametric algorithms that use distance measure techniques for classification and regressions. This thesis uses the method of pruning to improve accuracy and efficiency of a nearest neighbor classifier and also states the different stages the pruning algorithm can be applied and shows the best stage for pruning which gives the maximum accuracy. The performance of the classifier is shown to be better than other improved nearest neighbor classifiers. A fast method of finding the optimal k in a k-nearest neighbor classifier is proposed in the thesis. A method of optimizing the distance measure using a second …

Analytical Technique To Evaluate Impact Of Mutual Coupling On Transmission Line Protection Schemes, Azade Brahman

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

While there are numerous literatures that have addressed the impact of mutual coupling on the reliability and security of protection schemes and have provided possible mitigation solutions, there has not been adequate research and documentation presenting a comprehensive analytical approach to 1) estimate the magnitude of mutual coupling and 2) quantify the adverse impact of mutual coupling in real-life scenarios under several system faults across various types of protective elements. This should be considered as the first stage of any mutual coupling related study preceding the second stage in which the mitigation against mutual coupling is to be developed. The …

Bit-Rate Reduction Using Superpixel For 360-Degree Videos - Vr Application, Swaroop Krishna Rao

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Superpixels are applied on the side views of the 2D projected video. Then the video is partitioned into Coding Tree Units (CTUs). The CTUs and the superpixels positions will be compared within the frame of video. During comparison, the following cases will be considered: Case-1: If two or more CTUs are covered by the same superpixel, then the CTUs will be merged into one large coding tree unit. This merged CTU will be called as Intra CTU. Case-2: If one CTU is covered by two or more superpixels, then it will be referred to as Boundary CTU. After finding the …

Implementation And Comparison Of Serial And Parallel Algorithms Of Sao In Hevc, Harsha Nagathihalli Jagadish

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard is the latest video coding project developed by the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) which involves the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standardization organizations. HEVC also known as H.265 supports encoding videos with wide range of resolutions, starting from low resolution to beyond High Definition i.e. 4k or 8k. The HEVC standard is an optimization of the previous standard H.264/AVC (Advanced Video coding) which is a very well established and widely used standard in industry and finds its applications …

Steerable Antenna Array For Uav Applications, Varsha Vijaykumar

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

An antenna array system design, demonstrating the possible application on an unmanned aerial vehicle platform using a full wave electromagnetic simulation software is presented. Linear array of patches in E plane and H plane are designed consisting of 4 elements with a beam steering ability of ±40 degree from the broadside direction with a peak gain of 12.23dB. Further an arrangement illustrating four such linear arrays, that can switch between each other to cover the entire azimuth scanning is shown. After a series of modified patch antenna designs with an attempt to increase the gain, an inset fed microstrip patch …

Real Time And High Fidelity Quadcopter Tracking System, Tyler Mckay Hall

Computer Engineering

This project was conceived as a desired to have an affordable, flexible and physically compact tracking system for high accuracy spatial and orientation tracking. Specifically, this implementation is focused on providing a low cost motion capture system for future research. It is a tool to enable the further creation of systems that would require the use of accurate placement of landing pads, payload acquires and delivery. This system will provide the quadcopter platform a coordinate system that can be used in addition to GPS.

Field research with quadcopter manufacturers, photographers, agriculture and research organizations were contact and interviewed for information …

Rf Front End For An Integrated Silhouette Capture And Boundary Detection Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave Ultra-Wideband Radar System For The Extension Of Independent Living, Adrian Smet

Master's Theses

Limitations of current eldercare monitoring systems leave a need for new solutions. A monitoring system based on a frequency modulated continuous wave ultra-wideband short-range radar is proposed for this application. The complete proposed monitoring system is comprised of four blocks: boundary detection, silhouette capture, human identification, and data transmission. This paper develops the RF front end hardware for the silhouette capture subsystem.

System requirements are derived for the silhouette capture subsystem. An architecture for the RF front end is designed, and required individual component specifications are determined. Components are selected off the shelf or custom designed for each socket. Full …

Smart Dc/Dc Wall Plug Design For The Dc House Project, Richard Sinclair Liu

Master's Theses

The present day duplex wall receptacle in the United States provides 120Vrms AC at 60Hz, which comes from a standard set for AC loads by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. With a DC system, such as what is used in the DC House project currently being developed at Cal Poly, providing DC power to DC loads presents a technical challenge due to the different required DC operating voltages of the loads. This thesis entails the design and construction of a Smart DC/DC Wall Plug, which can automatically adjust its output voltage to match any required DC load voltages. In the …

Computer-Aided Diagnoses (Cad) System: An Artificial Neural Network Approach To Mri Analysis And Diagnosis Of Alzheimer's Disease (Ad), Berizohar Padilla Cerezo

Master's Theses

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic and progressive, irreversible syndrome that deteriorates the cognitive functions. Official death certificates of 2013 reported 84,767 deaths from Alzheimer’s disease, making it the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. The rate of AD is estimated to double by 2050. The neurodegeneration of AD occurs decades before symptoms of dementia are evident. Therefore, having an efficient methodology for the early and proper diagnosis can lead to more effective treatments.

Neuroimaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can detect changes in the brain of living subjects. Moreover, medical imaging techniques are the …

Recursive Non-Local Means Filter For Video Denoising, Redha A. Ali, Russell C. Hardie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we propose a computationally efficient algorithm for video denoising that exploits temporal and spatial redundancy. The proposed method is based on non-local means (NLM). NLM methods have been applied successfully in various image denoising applications. In the single-frame NLM method, each output pixel is formed as a weighted sum of the center pixels of neighboring patches, within a given search window.

The weights are based on the patch intensity vector distances. The process requires computing vector distances for all of the patches in the search window. Direct extension of this method from 2D to 3D, for video …

Anti-Icing Properties Of Femtosecond Laser Surface Processed Material, Ryan James Bell

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this thesis, the use of femtosecond laser surface processing (FLSP) to enhance the anti-icing properties of a commonly used aircraft alloy, Al 7075-O Clad is described. By changing the surface morphology through FLSP and the surface chemistry through siloxane vapor deposition, the wettability of Al 7075-O Clad was altered.

Condensation and the subsequent freezing of condensates on FLSP Al 7075-O Clad was studied. Both structure height and surface wettability were shown to play a role in the delay of freezing. Freezing occurred on the FLSP superhydrophilic surface faster than on the unprocessed Al 7075-O Clad surface, however, freezing was …

Condensation And Subsequent Freezing Delays As A Result Of Using A Femtosecond Laser Functionalized Surface, Chongji Huang

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Femtosecond laser surface processing (FLSP) enhances the anti-icing properties of a commonly used aircraft alloy, Al 7075-O Clad. The wettability of Al 7075-O Clad was altered by changing the surface morphology through FLSP and the surface chemistry through siloxane vapor deposition. Tall mound and short mound FLSP functionalized surfaces were created through two sets of laser parameters. Atmospheric condensation and subsequent freezing of condensates on FLSP Al 7075-O Clad was studied. Results indicate that both structure height and surface wettability play a role in the delay of freezing. Freezing occurred on the FLSP superhydrophilic surface faster than on a unprocessed …

Performance Evaluation Of Mission Critical Communications Services Over Lte Networks, Kehinde Olumide Olasupo

Theses and Dissertations

he existing Private/Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) technologies designed specifically for Mission Critical Communication (MCC) systems are narrowband and wideband devices, with limited network data capacity in emergency scenarios. They are majorly used to support MCC voice communications and low data rate applications during mission critical operations. However, the need for broadband systems that would support high radio data capacity keep increasing during major incidents and accident scenarios. Because of this, the MCC agencies were attracted by the broadband capabilities of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. But, the uplink capacity of LTE- based MCC systems is still a concern. In planning …

Flexible Custom Electric Skateboard, Caleb Adam Kelsay

Electrical Engineering

At Cal Poly traveling long distances only accessible by foot such as across campus or from the car park to class can be tiring and time-consuming. While not physically demanding, the trek consumes time in our tight college life schedule. To improve our time efficiency this project provides a relatively lightweight, powered solution to quickly and effectively travel long distances while maintaining full control and safety even on hills, a current limitation of traditional skateboards.

This electric skateboard includes the battery capacity to travel all around campus on a single charge with a compact and flexible skateboard design that provides …

Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality Applications, Tuan Ho

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Virtual Reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are the emerging fields of research. VR enables the immersive, being-there feelings of the viewers in a recorded or virtual environment, while AR enhances the real-world perception with the aid of an electronic device. On the VR part, this thesis introduces the novel 360-degree video stitching algorithms for dual-fisheye lens cameras, which are compact and affordable. On the AR section, this work presents a new approach in compressing the 3-dimensional point cloud models that are used in free view-point sports and tele-immersive applications.

Parents' Perceptions Of Smartphone Use And Parenting Practices, David Jackson Johnson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The present study is a qualitative examination aiming to gain insight into parents’ perceptions of their smartphone use and the effects it may be having on their children as well as parenting practices. Participants (N=12) were smartphone using parents that consisted mostly of young college-educated females. Thematic analysis of individual interviews resulted in five primary themes: (1) Disengagement, (2) Concern for Future, (3) Change in Social Norms, (4) Boundaries, and (5) Cognitive Dissonance. These findings indicate significant effects parental smartphone use is having in the lives of study participants. These thematic findings call for additional research examining the impact parental …

Dc-To-Dc Buck Converter, Kyle Christopher Roman

Electrical Engineering

The growth of sustainable energy requires many components to work in harmony creating one efficient and effective system. Sustainable energy generation that produces a DC current varying in voltage requires a subsystem to convert voltage to a practical and usable value. The DC to DC Buck converter converts high DC solar generated voltage to a 12V output. This Modular -Level power electronic (MLPE) device performs as a solar charge controller for small lithium ion batteries. Fluctuating voltage levels generated by Photovoltaic cells makes the solar controller a critical part of the solar system. Regulating the DC voltage allows safe and …