Electrical and Electronics Commons^™

Light Based Wireless Communication, Nick Ghaffarian, Gibson Puckett

Electrical Engineering

The demand for high-speed, secure wireless communication is escalating, particularly in high-density environments like urban areas, and critical sectors such as healthcare and defense. Traditional Wi-Fi struggles with issues like signal congestion, electromagnetic interference, and security vulnerabilities, compromising connectivity quality. LiFi is much more suitable for areas like hospitals which contain equipment highly sensitive to electromagnetic interference, has a high bandwidth far away from standard radio waves which enables strong communication in highly congested areas.

We developed a small scale, low-cost LiFi system to demonstrate a proof of concept of LiFi that grants the user full access to the internet. …

Cal Poly Gen 2 Battlebot Electrical System, Kelvin C. Villago

Electrical Engineering

BattleBots is a popular robot combat sport where engineers from all over the world design and construct a robot with the aim to disable or impair the opposing robot. The Cal Poly Gen 2 BattleBot aims to complete a robot from scratch with hopes to compete in the official competition. This report focuses on the electronic design behind the robot, specifically the printed circuit board (PCB) and component selection. The design process of this project involved choosing specific motors and microcontrollers based on cost, efficiency, and benefits with the end goal of a complete printed circuit board (PCB). Brushed motors …

Baja Motherboard, Jay Henry Kahling V, Kyle Robert Tse

Electrical Engineering

The Baja Racing Motherboard is a compact PCB device that connects multiple electronics modules together in order to control the Baja SAE vehicle’s transmission. It uses multiple buck converters to regulate the voltage to microcontrollers, sensors, and multiple data logging devices while still being compact, lightweight, and serviceable. It uses IP-67 rated bulkheads to prevent water ingress in difficult conditions. The motherboard streamlines integration while still maintaining modularity, so when individual components are damaged the whole system need not be fully scrapped. The motherboard will save future team members time, money, and effort as it is a modular device that …

Impact Force Helmet Device For Concussion Monitoring, Patrice Mulligan, Karina Mealey, Zack Borthwick, Benjamin Fick

General Engineering

To track head trauma in football, our device is placed inside a football helmet to measure both linear and gyroscopic (rotational) accelerations. These measurements are taken using an ADXL375 linear accelerometer and an LSM6DSOX accelerometer and gyroscope. The data from these sensors is processed and transmitted wirelessly by a SparkFun Thing Plus microcontroller to another SparkFun Thing Plus microcontroller connected to a laptop on the sidelines. Our program on the laptop stores the acceleration impact data into a .csv file for each player. If a likely concussive impact is detected, the program displays a popup warning. Testing results were promising …

Design Of A Dynamic, Reconfigurable, Self-Balancing Battery Pack, Alexander Hallett Neiman

Master's Theses

This thesis details the design and testing of a reconfigurable battery array. Reconfigurable battery arrays, specifically for mobile applications, have the potential to reduce or eliminate use of auxiliary charging, balancing, and inverter systems. Design work included a bidirectional solid state switch and a cell-to-cell bidirectional current-limiting power converter. While the overall efficiency, size, and cost of the battery pack was not competitive with existing options, it demonstrated cell-to-cell balancing and native four-level square wave AC inverter output with an array of only two cells. This demonstrates viability of the concept as well as reveals important requirements and safety features …

Design And Characterization Of A Broadband Rf Switch Utilizing Surface Mount Devices, Daniel Bracamontes

Master's Theses

High frequency solid-state switches are critical elements in communication systems, radio frequency (RF) systems and instrumentation. Key parameters to an RF switch include insertion loss while on and off-state isolation. Power handling and linearity are important to consider for a cost-effective construction. This becomes a design challenge into K-band frequencies as components required need to be small, dielectric losses and transmission lines need to be physically matched for proper isolative and through states. This thesis presents a novel single pole eight throw (SP8T) hybrid design composed of commercially available surface mount technology solutions to achieve high isolation and low insertion …

Design And Analysis Of A New Buck-Boost Converter With A Low-Side Switch, Abdullah Awidah

Master's Theses

This work explores the design, simulation, construction, and analysis of a novel Non-isolated DC-DC Buck-Boost converter which has the advantage of incorporating a low-side switch compared to the traditional buck-boost which requires a high-side switch. This allows the use of a low-side driver which further simplifies the design and operation of the converter. The proposed Buck-Boost converter was constructed to provide -24 V output from an input range of 12V-18V with 15V nominal input at 10W maximum output power utilizing 500kHz switching frequency. Findings from simulations and hardware tests verify that the converter effectively provides the desired -24 V output …

Network Slicing And Noma Enabled Mobile Edge Computing For Next-Generation Networks, Mohammad Arif Hossain

Dissertations

The advent of next-generation wireless networks ushers in a new era of potential, harnessing cutting-edge technologies like mobile edge computing (MEC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and network slicing as pivotal drivers of transformation. Within this landscape, an innovative approach is proposed by introducing a NOMA-enabled network slicing technique within MEC networks. This approach aims to achieve multiple objectives: meeting stringent quality of service requirements, minimizing service latency, and enhancing spectral efficiency. By seamlessly integrating NOMA with network slicing in edge computing environments, significant reductions in overall latency are achieved, alongside ensuring optimal resource allocation for NOMA users. To address these …

Computational Microscopy For Biomedical Imaging With Deep Learning Assisted Image Analysis, Yuwei Liu

Dissertations

Microscopy plays a crucial role across various scientific fields by enabling structural and functional imaging with microscopic resolution. In biomedicine, microscopy contributes to basic research and clinical diagnosis. Conventionally, optical microscopy derives its contrast from the amplitude of the optical wave and provides visualization of the physical structure of the sample qualitatively. To understand the function at the cellular or tissue level, there is a need to characterize the sample quantitatively and explore contrast mechanisms other than light intensity. Image enhancement or reconstruction from microscopic imaging systems is known as computational microscopy, and it involves the application of computational techniques …

Interaction Of Particles With Plasma And Shock Produced By Pulsed Spark Discharge, Shomik Mukhopadhyay

Dissertations

Interactions of powders with high-temperature plasma and shockwaves occur in diverse scenarios, such as nuclear blasts, accidental industrial dust explosions, solid propellant combustion in explosive charges and when removing contaminants from surfaces. Electrostatic Discharge (ESD), known for generating shock and plasma, is a promising lab-scale technique for simulating these interactions. Studies with ESD involved placing powders near a spark-producing gap between electrodes and observing mechanical and chemical processes like particle motion and ignition. A limited range of spark conditions and material properties have been tested, which facilitated the development and validation of preliminary computational models describing this system. Significant gaps …

Information Theoretic Bounds For Capacity And Bayesian Risk, Ian Zieder

Dissertations

In this dissertation, the problem of finding lower error bounds on the minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) and the maximum capacity achieving distribution for a specific channel is addressed. Presented are two parts, a new lower bound on the MMSE and upper and lower bounds on the capacity achieving distribution for a Binomial noise channel. The new lower bound on the MMSE is achieved via use of the Poincare inequality. It is compared to the performance of the well known Ziv-Zakai error bound. The second part considers a binomial noise channel and is concerned with the properties of the capacity-achieving distribution. …

Graph-Based Modeling And Optimization Of Wpt Systems For Evs, Matthew J. Hansen, Greg Droge, Abhilash Kamineni

Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Research

A model of a system of wireless power transfer (WPT) pads is developed, where each WPT pad is modeled as a node and the coupling between pads is modeled as graph edges. This modeling approach is generalized to admit primary, secondary, and booster coils, where power can flow among the pads and a pad can fill multiple roles. An excitation in one pad induces voltage and current in all neighboring pads, causing each pad to act as both a booster coil and either a transmitter or a receiver. Power flow through the entire system can be modeled with the graph …

The Next Strike: Pioneering Forward-Thinking Attack Techniques With Rowhammer In Dram Technologies, Nakul Kochar

Theses

In the realm of DRAM technologies this study investigates RowHammer vulnerabilities in DDR4 DRAM memory across various manufacturers, employing advanced multi-sided fault injection techniques to impose attack strategies directly on physical memory rows. Our novel approach, diverging from traditional victim-focused methods, involves strategically allocating virtual memory rows to their physical counterparts for more potent attacks. These attacks, exploiting the inherent weaknesses in DRAM design, are capable of inducing bit flips in a controlled manner to undermine system integrity. We employed a strategy that compromised system integrity through a nuanced approach of targeting rows situated at a distance of two rows …

Design And Implementation Of Non-Isolated High Gain Dc-Dc Converter For Photovoltaic Application, Rajesh R

Theses and Dissertations

Fossil fuel-based power plants emit 25% of greenhouse gases and 40% of carbon emissions globally. Therefore, several countries focus on deploying RES-based electricity production (such as solar and wind). As per the International Energy Agency report, solar PV might be the lowest-cost option for generating electricity in the future. Solar energy is highly emission-free, but it is still a key challenge in procuring the maximum amount of energy from solar PV due to its non–linear characteristics. Therefore, a DC-DC converter must integrate with solar PV to increase the output voltage level. Many existing topologies exist in the literature, but the …

Effects Of Rf Signal Eventization Encoding On Device Classification Performance, Michael J. Smith, Michael A. Temple, James W. Dean

Faculty Publications

The results of first-step research activity are presented for realizing an envisioned “event radio” capability that mimics neuromorphic event-based camera processing. The energy efficiency of neuromorphic processing is orders of magnitude higher than traditional von Neumann-based processing and is realized through synergistic design of brain-inspired software and hardware computing elements. Relative to event-based cameras, the development of event-based hardware devices supporting Radio Frequency (RF) applications is severely lagging and considerable interest remains in obtaining neuromorphic efficiency through event-based RF signal processing. In the Operational Technology (OT) protection arena, this includes efficient software computing capability to provide reliable device classification. A …

Scalability And Connectivity Challenges For The Future Of Digital Radio Communication, Christopher Bayliss

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis explores future challenges in digital radio communication, particularly focusing on scalability and connectivity issues that could impede technological advancements. With the increasing production of digital technology and reliance on radio frequencies, there is a need for innovative solutions to overcome limitations in spectrum availability, interference management, and bandwidth constraints. This work evaluates current modulation techniques, spectrum allocation strategies, and advanced communication technologies such as cognitive radio systems and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. Through a comprehensive literature review and analysis, this thesis identifies promising developments, including dynamic spectrum sharing and symbiotic radio systems, that could significantly enhance spectrum efficiency and …

Design And Analysis Of Passive Correlator Radio-Frequency Identification Tagging, Albert Kilgore

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a technology used in many industries to locate and track assets. Passive RFID tags are popular because they are inexpensive and flexible, but they have limited accuracy. My thesis aims to improve the accuracy of passive RFID tags by investigating two solutions: (a) Using orthogonal RFID configuration and exploiting phase information available to an RFID reader, in addition to the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) metric; and (b) Designing a novel voltage multiplier-based correlator circuit that can be integrated directly onto the tag. To further reduce power consumption and silicon area, we propose an architecture …

Co-Designing Situated Displays For Family Co-Regulation With Adhd Children, Lucas M. Silva, Franceli L. Cibrian, Clarisse Bonang, Arpita Bhattacharya, Aehong Min, Elissa M. Monteiro, Jesus A. Beltran, Sabrina E. B. Schuck, Kimberley D. Lakes, Gillian R. Hayes, Daniel A. Epstein

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Family informatics often uses shared data dashboards to promote awareness of each other’s health-related behaviors. However, these interfaces often stop short of providing families with needed guidance around how to improve family functioning and health behaviors. We consider the needs of family co-regulation with ADHD children to understand how in-home displays can support family well-being. We conducted three co-design sessions with each of eight families with ADHD children who had used a smartwatch for self-tracking. Results indicate that situated displays could nudge families to jointly use their data for learning and skill-building. Accommodating individual needs and preferences when family members …

Unveiling Hidden Patterns: Real-Time Experiments With Wi-Fi Signal Strength And Location Data Indoors, Tomas Valentin, Li Geng

Publications and Research

Real-time indoor location tracking is indispensable for numerous applications spanning healthcare equipment management, security, navigation, and smart building operations. However, accurately determining the relationship between location and signal strength can be challenging due to indoor multipath phenomena. In this study, we propose an approach to address this challenge by developing a robot car using the GoPiGo3 Raspberry Pi kit. The robot car will navigate indoor environments autonomously, continuously transmitting timestamped coordinate data to a software platform. Leveraging advanced data analysis techniques, we aim to uncover hidden patterns within the collected data, elucidating the intricate relationship between location and signal strength …

Reducing Switching Noise And Losses In Two-Stage Electric Power Converters, Abhijeet Prem

Student Research Symposium

Advancements in semiconductor devices are enabling the design of better electrical power converter systems. Wide Bandgap (WBG) switching devices from Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride can operate at high temperatures, voltages, and frequencies with faster turn-on/off periods, improving converter performance over silicon devices. However, WBG technology is still new, and the rapid switching transitions of these devices lead to issues such as voltage overshoots, ringing, and electromagnetic interference, which need to be addressed for widespread adoption. This work introduces a new control method for reshaping the switching voltages, which overcomes the disadvantages of fast transition time without increasing the system's …

Affordable Bioprint Head-Adapter For 3d Printers, Andrew Ceralde, Dominic Drake, Noah Engles, Mohammad Alwan, Nevada Perry

Honors Capstones

Introduction: Addressing the need for affordable and accessible bioprinting technology, the Northern Illinois University bioprinting research and design project aims to democratize the field by developing an open source bioprint head. The initiative targets the prohibitive cost of commercial bioprinters by proposing an optimal design that can be integrated with widely available 3D printers, like the Creality Ender-3. This approach seeks to enable the widespread adoption of bioprinting technology, particularly for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Methods: Leveraging SolidWorks for design, the project employs a methodology that combines a precision extrusion system with thermal and UV crosslinking capabilities. …

Low Noise Amplifier For 5ghz Wi-Fi Applications On 22nm, Harshdeep Singh

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

More devices than ever are being used to connect to the internet via Wi-Fi than ever before. This creates the demand for improving Wi-Fi standards and wireless transceivers. On of the most important stages of a Wi-Fi receiver is the low noise amplifier (LNA), this is because it is the very first stage after the antenna receives the signal. The LNA is responsible for boasting the incoming signal while adding a low amount of noise to boast the signal enough to make it receptible to the rest of the receiver system. This study sought to design an inductively degenerated common …

Enhancing Cybersecurity In Wireless Sensor Networks: Machine Learning, Blockchain And Future Perspectives, Ilemona Solomon Atawodi

Dissertations

Security in the Industrial Internet of Things encounters various security issues but the main issues can be broken down into three core issues: Availability, Integrity, and Confidentiality. Security challenges generally tend to be caused by a failure of the system in one of these areas or cause a failure in one of these areas. Therefore researching scalable solutions to these security issues is prudent to explore methods that could be applied to large-scale industrial IIoT with tens to hundreds of devices as well as small-scale systems on a tiny factory floor comprising of just a few devices. In our research, …

Bottling Automation System, Dylanie Tippit

Honors College Theses

This report details the complete design of an automated bottling system. Each bottle is 5.97 centimeters tall and has an outer diameter of 3.81 centimeters. The goal of the project is to successfully fill and cap twelve bottles in under three and a half minutes. The system will have two conveyors in series, a water dispenser, an electrolyte dispenser, capping station, Human Machine Interface (HMI) and Allen Bradley programmable logic controller (PLC). The water and electrolyte dispenser will have two ball valves in series, with the desired amount of volume to dispense the designated liquid. The capping station will be …

Building A Wireless Electronic Control Unit For An Electric Vehicle, Hector S. Sosa

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Modern vehicles have a variety of features such remote start systems, advance drive assist systems, smart suspension systems, and a feature rich infotainment system. With all this technology in the car, there exists a complex network of computers working together in conjunction to deliver the modern driving experience that many people have today. To be competitive in the market, auto manufacturers are tasked to add additional features to vehicles by adding additional or modifying electronic control units (ECUs). In this study, an ECU will be designed for a mock electric vehicle which contains an already established network of ECU’s. The …

Challenges For Room Temperature Operation Of Electrically Pumped Gesn Lasers, A. R. Ellis, D. A. Duffy, I. P. Marko, S. Acharya, W. Du, S. Q-. Yu, S. J. Sweeney

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent demonstrations of room-temperature lasing in optically pumped GeSn show promise for future CMOS compatible lasers for Si-photonics applications. However, challenges remain for electrically pumped devices. Investigation of the processes that limit device performance is therefore vital in aiding the production of future commercial devices. In this work, a combined experimental and modelling approach is utilised to explore the dominant loss processes in current devices. By manipulating the band structure of functioning devices using high hydrostatic pressure techniques at low temperature, the dominant carrier recombination pathways are identified. This reveals that 93 ± 5% of the threshold current is attributable …

Analyzing A Software Based Lossy Compression Algorithm On An Fpga Platform, Tripp Herlong

All Theses

In HPC, the ability to generate data is outpacing our hardware capabilities of storing said data. This presents the need for compression so we can keep important data preserved without costly hardware upgrades or worrying about hardware speed limitations. Traditional forms of compression are software based, which presents a speed issue that can lead to bottlenecks when storing data.Scientific data lossy compression methods such as SZ enable a speedup on memory transfer by simplifying computation to minimize the essential data size. SZx is a lightweight version of the popular SZ floating point compressor that may benefit from hardware acceleration. This …

Comprehensive Current Flow Modeling And Circuit Parameter Analysis For A Brushed Dc Motor Regenerative Braking System, Caleb Nathaniel Bondy

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The literature surrounding regenerative braking systems deals heavily with control system analysis and less to do with the electrical analysis of the circuitry itself. This thesis develops a step-by-step current flow model for a single-phase brushed DC motor regenerative braking system using the RL unit step-response equation as a starting point. This model and the equations derived from it will be analyzed to see what limitations arise from the circuitry on the overall performance of the system, such as non-ideal resistances, switching delays, and affects from current draw of accessory circuitry. The efficiency will be calculated in the context of …

Neural Network Based Digital Twin For A Half-Bridge Llc Resonant Converter, Nicholas Green

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This paper introduces a Neural Network based approach for creating a Digital Twin of a Half-Bridge LLC Resonant Converter. By using a set of measured inputs, the Digital Twin system can characterize the component values, and hard to measure switch characteristics such as the Junction Temperature or Gate-Source Capacitance. This capability is useful for reliability or health applications, and may also be useful for adaptive control. A case study is done for the LLC Resonant converter designed around an operating point. Data sweeps around that operating point are simulated to form a dataset. An introduction to Neural Networks is given …

Multi-Task Learning For Hybrid Communication Waveforms: Exploring Model Enhancement Techniques And Establishing Task Relationships, Saksham Dewan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Wireless communications have become ubiquitous, enabling seamless connectivity and driv- ing innovations across various domains. As we look to the future, visible light communication (VLC) is a promising technology that offers the potential to revolutionize how we transmit and receive data. It seamlessly integrates multiple functionalities, including localization, control/sensing, and high-speed data transmission.This thesis proposes a multi-task learning deep convolutional neural network approach to optimize a hybrid waveform for VLC-enabled networks. By integrating Beacon Posi- tion Modulation (BPM), Beacon Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), and OFDM symbols within a virtual Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) envelope, this waveform supports localization, control/sensing, and …