Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

Development Of An Iot-Based Energy Theft Detection System For A Single-Phase Smart Meter, Ojo Julius Oladele, Funso Kehinde Ariyo, Samson Oladayo Ayanlade, Ayooluwa Peter Adeagbo, Ismail Adeniyi Adeleke

Al-Bahir

Electricity theft causes annual global losses exceeding $96 billion, severely impacting distribution networks. This paper presents a novel IoT-based system integrating current differential sensing, physical tamper detection, and edge-cloud analytics to detect energy theft in single-phase smart meters. The design employs three ACS712 current sensors to monitor Kirchhoff-compliant current flow at the grid pole, meter input, and load output, coupled with a PIR sensor for cabinet intrusion. A SIM800L GSM module enables real-time theft alerts and remote disconnection, while closed-loop control autonomously restores power after tamper resolution — a feature absent in prior GSM-only systems. An Android application provides geotagged …

Design And Development Of Biomimetic Hydrogel Interfaces For Enhanced Bioelectrical Signal Acquisition, Daniela Nikoloska

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Every second, human skin processes over one million sensory signals while maintaining properties such as electrical conductivity, mechanical adaptability, and regenerative capability that surpass all synthetic materials. Contemporary bioelectronic devices prove inadequate when contacting skin surfaces due to poor adhesion and electrical contact issues that prevent effective sensing. Despite advancements in wearable and bioelectronic technologies, current devices face major drawbacks when interfacing with human skin, particularly in maintaining firm adhesion, conformability, and low-noise electrical signal acquisition.

This research focuses on the development of a biomimetic hydrogel-based interface for bioelectronic sensing. Specifically, a hybrid hydrogel system composed of polydopamine (PDA)- doped …

Quantum Sensing Of Magnetic And Thermal Fields Using Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers On Spoof Surface Plasmon Waveguides, Maxwell Stonham

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamonds are solid-state quantum defects capable of detecting magnetic fields and temperature at the nanoscale with high spatial resolution and optical addressability at room temperature. Their spin-dependent fluorescence enables optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR), a technique widely used for quantum sensing. However, enhancing optical readout efficiency remains a critical challenge for scalable integration and various methods can be used to improve this.

This thesis explores a hybrid quantum sensing platform that integrates NV-based sensing with spoof surface plasmon waveguides designed to enhance optical excitation and emission efficiency through localized spoof plasmon modes supported by subwavelength corrugated …

Stability Analysis Of Thermohaline Convection With A Time-Varying Shear Flow Using The Lyapunov Method, Kalin Kochnev

Honors Scholar Theses

This work applies the Lyapunov method to identify instabilities and compute the growth rate of a linear time-varying system. The linear system studied describes cold fresh water on top of hot salty water with a periodically time-varying background shear flow. A time-dependent weighting matrix is employed to construct a Lyapunov function candidate. The resulting linear matrix inequalities are discretized in time using the forward Euler method. As the number of temporal discretization points increases, the growth rate predicted by the Lyapunov method or Floquet theory, used for comparison, will converge to the same value obtained from numerical simulations. Furthermore, the …

Puf-Based Digital Money With Propagation-Of-Provenance And Offline Transfers Between Two Parties, Benjamin Bean, Cyrus Minwalla, Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou, Jim Plusquellic

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Building on prior concepts of electronic money (eCash), we introduce a digital currency where a physical unclonable function (PUF) engenders devices with the twin properties of being verifiably enrolled as a member of a legitimate set of eCash devices and possessing of a hardware-based root-of-trust. A hardware-obfuscated secure enclave (HOSE) is proposed as a means of enabling a PUF-based propagation-of-provenance (POP) mechanism, which allows eCash tokens (eCt) to be securely signed and validated by recipients without incurring any third party dependencies at transfer time. The POP scheme establishes a chain of custody starting with token creation, extending through multiple bilateral …

Emulation Of Orbital Dynamics And Control Of Fully Actuated Seven-Axis Prismatic Joint Systems, Bennett Russell

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This thesis details the system modeling, design, control, simulation, construction, and testing of a fully-actuated seven axis prismatic joint system created for the primary purpose of emulating on-orbit maintenance tasks. Additionally, it seeks to further research of space-based control schemas and investigate stiction as a case study with a mountable hybrid hinge system that emulates stiction. Controllers are evaluated under common limits and metrics, including time to escape, overshoot, mechanical work, and limit-exceedance counts. Comparisons span a PID baseline, deterministic MPC/MPPI, and a probabilistic POMDP policy. Results verify the emulator and hybrid hinge meet the intended design criteria and show …

“Bridging The Gap To Midwave Infrared Event-Based Sensors: Design, Sensitivity, And Radiation-Hardness Characterization Of A Single-Pixel Iii-V Event-Based Infrared Sensor For Space Applications, Zinah M. Alsaad

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Event-based sensing presents a revolutionary paradigm shift for next-generation space surveillance systems, where power consumption is an ever-worsening constraint as temporal resolution demands increase. In addition to reduced power consumption, low latency, and wide dynamic range, the event-based sensor fundamentally only produces data when there is a change in illumination from which events are generated; no data is produced if the scene remains static. With their event-based datastream being inherently focused on the dynamic information of the scene, they are particularly well-suited to machine vision and autonomous sensing applications. While these sensors have many compelling advantages, there are presently no …

A Bump Hunting Approach To Finding Interpretable Data Pockets, Tushar Ojha

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This dissertation approaches the problem of extracting simple interpretations from local regions of data. This is sometimes called bump hunting because the local regions of interest have a high concentration of a particular output value. This work develops a bump hunting method for discrete-valued tabular data where each bump is modeled by a rectangular region of the input data space so its rule-based description admits a simple logical interpretation that can inform decisions. This method is designed for labeled data where each input feature has a distinct meaning that may or may not be related to the output, and the …

Fedchae: Federated Learning With Client Clustering And Hybrid Adaptive Engagement, Chaeeun Park

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

As machine learning adoption expands, data privacy concerns have grown significantly. Federated Learning (FL) addresses this challenge by allowing clients to train locally and share only their model parameters with the server. However, conventional FL methods such as FedAvg suffer from high communication overhead, as all clients must participate in every global round.

This paper proposes FedChae (Federated Learning with Client Clustering and Hybrid Adaptive Engagement) to balance communication efficiency and model accuracy. FedChae alternates between Grouping Rounds, where all clients perform clustering, and Conventional Rounds, where one client per cluster updates the model.

Simulations with 100 clients using Multi-class …

Empowering Wireless Mesh Uav Networks Through Software-Defined Networking, Hieu Quang

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been widely deployed in applications such as environmental monitoring, disaster response, and surveillance. Effective coordination between UAVs depends on low-latency inter-UAV communication to exchange state information, decisions, and other critical data. UAV networks are inherently dynamic which necessitates a framework capable of handling scenarios such as traffic re-routing, and resilience to communication failures. To address the challenges of managing dynamic UAV networks, this thesis proposes a dual network approach composed of three main components. First, the Better Approach to Mobile Ad-hoc Networking (BATMAN) protocol is used to enable communication among UAVs. Second, the OpenFlow protocol …

Graph Based Planning With Guarantees, Trazon Tyrik Jimerson

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

This thesis presents two graph-based methods with formal guarantees for motion planning and routing. First, the invariant-set motion planner (ISMP), which uses constraint admissible positive invariant (CAPI) sets of closed-loop dynamics, is adapted for spacecraft attitude planning to avoid moving keep-out zones. Contributions include time bounds for maneuvers via exponential stability, a single-stage reachability graph from one-step backward reachable CAPI sets, and its multi-stage expansion to certify node safety over time. Simulations verify safe attitude control with moving obstacles. Second, we formulate a convex optimization problem over a network for evacuation planning with operational constraints such as helicopter capacity and …

Design And Development Of Evacuated Photovoltaic-Thermal Systems For Efficient Cogeneration Of Heat And Electricity, Behnam Roshanzadeh

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

In conventional PV systems, most of the solar energy is dissipated into the environment as heat. Accordingly, hybrid Photovoltaic-thermal systems have been developed to utilize the waste heat from PV cells for various thermal applications. However, most PVT systems suffer from low thermal performance compared to solar thermal collectors, as the absorber plate in PVT systems is partially or fully covered by PV cells. This dissertation focuses on improving the thermal performance of PVT systems by introducing the evacuated PVT systems.

An evacuated-tube PVT system was designed and simulated for domestic hot water supply. The evacuated-tube PVT system demonstrated 40% …

Analysing The Impact Of Bi-Directional Application Of Iliceto Shield Wire Scheme For Rural Electrification In Tanzania: A Chalinze-Hale Transmission Line Case Study, Santos Kihwele, Prisca Paul

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Clean energy accessibility including electricity remains a major challenge in Tanzanian villages despite the many efforts made by its government.  The primary obstacle is that these villages are located more than 100 kilometres away from high-voltage to medium-voltage (HV/MV) transformer stations. Therefore, electrifying these villages by conventional method is financially not feasible. One of the low-cost rural electrification techniques that can be used to solve the issue is the "Iliceto Shield Wire Scheme" (ISWS) technology, In Tanzania, the application of ISWS technology seems to be very promising.  However, the technology can be integrated with locally available renewable energy sources ( …

Evaluation Of Internal Field In Ppln And Studies On Qpm Shg Efficiency Factor, Prasath Rk Mr

Theses and Dissertations

Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate (PPLN) crystals have attracted interest in optoelectronics and nonlinear optics. The response to the applied electric field is determined by their larger electro-optic and nonlinear optical coefficients. An internal electric field exists in congruent PPLN crystals due to its defects. Its evaluation is important in controlling the electro-optical behavior. A simple nondestructive diffraction method is proposed to estimate the internal electric field present in the congruent lithium niobate crystal.

Due to the presence of an unrelaxed internal field, the as-poled sample acts as an index grating. When a light is incident on such a sample, it …

Parameter Informed Reinforcement Learning For Vehicle System Identification, Nathan Schaff

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Accurate system identification is essential for modeling and controlling vehicle dynamics. This dissertation explores the application of Parameter Informed Reinforcement Learning (PIRL) as a novel approach to system identification (SYSID). PIRL integrates prior system knowledge, such as physical parameters, into reinforcement learning (RL) frameworks to improve estimation accuracy. The study begins with an overview of traditional SYSID methods and then introduces PIRL as a modification of standard RL. The research applies PIRL to short-period aircraft dynamics, demonstrating its effectiveness in both offline and online learning frameworks. The dissertation then further explores PIRL’s utility in an indirect model reference adaptive control …

The Analysis And Design Of A Circular Waveguide Coated With A Magnetized Ferrite, Hassan Ali Ragheb, Mariam Hossam

Electrical Engineering

Abstract: This paper investigates the cut-off frequency of a perfectly conducting circular waveguide coated with an externally magnetized ferrite shell. Wave equations in both the ferrite shell and the core inside the cylinder are solved resulting in a Fourier series expansions involving Bessel and trigonometric functions with unknown coefficients. The influence of the magnetization current on the permeability tensor is considered in the analysis. By applying boundary conditions, four characteristic equations are derived, and their vanishing determinants define the cut-off frequencies of the structure. A MATLAB program is developed to numerically solve the derived equations. Results are presented for various …

Development And Validation Of 2nn-Meam Interatomic Potential For Sc And Al-Sc Alloys Thermodynamics Solidification And Intermetallic Ordering, Avik Mahata

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

We present a second-nearest-neighbor Modified Embedded Atom Method (2NN–MEAM) potential for Scandium (Sc) and Aluminum-Scandium (Al–Sc) alloys that unifies cohesive, thermodynamic, and solidification behavior within a single transferable framework. The Sc component accurately reproduces cohesive energy, lattice constants, defect energetics, and the experimental melting point obtained from two-phase coexistence, demonstrating reliable description of both hcp and liquid phases. The Al–Sc binary interaction parameters were fitted using the L1₂–Al₃Sc reference and benchmarked against first-principles and calorimetric data. The potential reproduces the strong negative formation enthalpy of Al₃Sc (–0.45 eV atom⁻¹), correct relative stability …

Exploring Interactive Robotic Music Therapy Systems For Rehabilitation: A Survey Paper, Hector A. Salinas Gordillo

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

Interactive robotic music therapy introduces an innovative opportunity, where human guided musical interaction with robotic systems can create adaptive and engaging therapeutic experiences. This survey explores the current state of research at the intersection of robotics, music, and rehabilitation, focusing on emerging technologies such as human robot interaction methods and system designs that help enable real time, interactive music therapy.

Potential patient groups include individuals undergoing motor or cognitive rehabilitation, such as those recovering from stroke, living with Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, or other motor impairments, as well as individuals with developmental disorders or limited mobility.

Traditional rehabilitation exercises may …

Career: Novel Direct Current Power Distribution For Large-Scale Electrified Transportation Charging, Hongjie Wang

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Wasatch Front Multi-Modal Corridor Electrification Plan, Regan Zane

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Engr 204 – Electrical Circuits Project Assignment: Exploring A Key Concept From The Textbook, Liubov Kreminska

Open Educational Resources

This assignment requires students to select a major concept from the ENGR 204 Electrical Circuits textbook and explore it through historical research, conceptual explanation, problem-solving, and real-world application. The project is structured to promote understanding through multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression, following Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. Students will describe the history and importance of the chosen concept, explain its main ideas using written or visual aids, solve representative and advanced problems related to the topic, and demonstrate how the concept appears in real-world engineering contexts. The submission must include clearly labeled sections, supporting visuals or simulations, …

Engr 204: 8-Week Op-Amp Major Project Series, Liubov Kreminska

Open Educational Resources

This submission outlines a collection of electronic design projects that can be completed within an 8-week timeframe, progressing from beginner-friendly circuits to advanced real-world applications involving op-amp design. Each project includes a week-by-week plan, required equipment, and key technical challenges. Through these projects, students gradually develop competence in signal processing, circuit stability, noise reduction, calibration, filter design, audio electronics, and bio-signal amplification. The structured timeline ensures systematic learning while allowing hands-on experimentation, troubleshooting, and refinement. The projects serve both as academic exercises and as practical foundations for more advanced electronic system design.

Iphone-Based Image Refocusing, Katie Jeong, Daniel Niu

Electrical and Systems Engineering Capstone Design Projects

In this project, we show that we can change the focus of a picture after we take it by using real optical physics instead of fake software blur. Modern phones try to create “portrait mode” effects, but those results are often not physically correct. Our approach uses multiple photos taken from slightly different positions to figure out the directions that light rays came from in the scene.

To collect the photos, we move an iPhone sideways on a slider in small, precise steps. Since we know exactly how far the phone moved for each picture, we can track how objects …

A Predictive Model For Multi- Week Respiratory Risk From Red Tide On Florida’S Gulf Coast., Elmer S. Ochaeta

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Florida’s Gulf Coast red tide (Karenia brevis) can put toxins into the air, making people cough, irritating the throat, and worsening asthma or other breathing problems especially when winds blow from the ocean toward the beach. Right now, most public updates don’t really help with the question people actually ask when planning a weekend or vacation: “Will going to or close to the beach be risky in the next few weeks?”.

In this project, I build a weekly early warning system that estimates respiratory risk for specific beaches and predicts that risk 2 to 4 weeks ahead. The study covers …

Developing A Waste-To-Energy Assessment Framework Integrating Engineering And Policy Dimensions Using A Triple Bottom Line Approach, Izech Brian O. Edwin, King Harold A. Recto

Electronics, Computer, and Communications Engineering Faculty Publications

The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) in swiftly urbanizing Philippine cities has emerged as a critical concern in both energy and governance. Dependence on landfills is approaching critical thresholds as disposal sites near saturation, transportation costs escalate, and host communities increasingly resist garbage transfers. In response, this study proposes a comprehensive Waste-to-Energy (WtE) assessment framework that integrates engineering evaluation with policy and stakeholder analysis to support sustainable decision- making.

Using Baguio City as a case study, the framework applies a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach to evaluate three waste management scenarios: (1) current landfill-dominated practices, (2) engineered landfill with …

Investigating The Impacts Of Agrivoltaic Design Choices On Inter-Row Shading And Electricity Production, Marcus Wu, Anna Stuhlmacher

Infinite Loop

No Abstract available.

Siamese: Stealing Fine-Tuned Visual Foundation Models Via Diversified Prompting, Madhureeta Das, Gaurav Bagwe, Miao Pan, Kaichen Yang, Xiaoyong Yuan, Lan Zhang

Michigan Tech Publications

Visual foundation models, characterized by their robust generalization and adaptability, serve as the basis for a wide array of downstream tasks. When fine-tuned for specific tasks, these models encapsulate confidential and valuable task-specific knowledge, making them prime targets for model stealing (MS) attacks. While recent efforts have exposed MS threats in practical scenarios such as data-free and hard-label contexts, these attacks predominantly target traditional victim models trained from scratch. Fine-tuned visual foundation models, pre-trained on vast and diverse datasets and then fine-tuned on downstream tasks, present significant challenges for traditional MS attacks to extract task-specific knowledge. In this paper, we …

Iso-Detr: A Novel Detection Transformer For Industrial Small Object Detection, Faisal Saeed, Anand Paul

School of Public Health Faculty Publications

Effectively detecting and assessing real-time structural and ecological parameters in contemporary manufacturing environments poses significant challenges, particularly in identifying minute objects within product images. The swift evolution of the industrial sector underscores the necessity for intelligent manufacturing environments to uphold stringent product quality standards. However, accelerating production processes at high speeds heightens the risk of defective product outcomes. This research addresses the challenges inherent in small object detection within industrial contexts, proposing an innovative detection transformer model tailored to modern manufacturing environments. The proposed model integrates a feature-enhanced multi-head self-attention block (FEMSA), merging cross-channel communication network and multiple multi-head self-attention …

The Equity Implications Of Pecuniary Externalities On An Electric Grid, Charles Sims, Gasser G. Ali, J Scott Holladay, Tim Roberson, Chien-Fei Chen, Islam H. El-Haddad

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The adoption of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems can create upward pressure on retail electricity rates as utilities are forced to spread their fixed costs of generation and transmission across a smaller customer base. Since high-income households are more likely to purchase PV systems, low-income households may be disproportionately impacted by these rate increases. Using a novel combination of agent-based computational economic modeling and a choice experiment of rooftop solar adoption, we show how this pecuniary externality between low- and high-income customers increases low-income electricity bills by 10% in an area with some of the highest poverty rates in the United …

Isolated Dc-Dc Converter For An Ev Microgrid, Oscar Yu, William Leiker

Electrical Engineering

This product is a redesign of a DC-DC buck-boost converter which utilizes a new topology, the flyback converter, for use in an electric vehicle (EV) as a microgrid. The main driver behind the redesign is to provide electrical isolation between elements in the microgrid. The EV microgrid consists of the battery, motor, external DC and AC ports, and the power electronics (DC-DC converter and AC-DC inverter) which were designed and built in previous senior projects. Using EV’s as microgrids can help relieve stress from the main power grid caused by charging electric vehicles. Implementing EV’s as a microgrid enables the …