Systems and Communications Commons^™

Femtosecond Laser Micromachining Of Low-Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic And Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Printed Circuit Boards Materials, Raif Farkouh

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

Low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC), and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) printed circuit boards (PCBs) are two materials used for the packaging of electronics. The excellent mechanical and electrical properties of LTCC, combined with the ability to embed passive components offer superior radio frequency (RF) performance and device miniaturization for high-frequency applications. Due to its unique properties, LTCC provides superior performance in applications as diverse as military radar, imaging systems, advanced automotive sensing, telecommunications, and satellites. The use of LTCC in these applications has created a demand for the micromachining of holes, channels, and cavities with specific geometries and structures. Likewise, …

Tiled Time Delay Estimation In Mobile Cloud Computing Environments, Ruairí De Fréin

Conference papers

We present a tiled delay estimation technique in the context of Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) environments. We examine its accuracy in the presence of multiple sources for (1) sub-sample delays and also (2) in the presence of phase-wrap around. Phase wrap-around is prevalent in MCC because the separation of acoustic sources may be large. We show that tiling a histogram of instantaneous phase estimates can improve delay estimates when phase-wrap around is sig- nificantly present and also when multiple sources are present. We report that error in the delay estimator is generally less than 5% of a sample, when the …

Application Of Real Field Connected Vehicle Data For Aggressive Driving Identification On Horizontal Curves, Arash Jahangiri, Vincent Berardi, Sahar Ghanipoor Machiani

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The emerging technology of connected vehicles generates a vast amount of data that could be used to enhance roadway safety. In this paper, we focused on safety applications of a real field connected vehicle data on a horizontal curve. The database contains connected vehicle data that were collected on public roads in Ann Arbor, Michigan with instrumented vehicles. Horizontal curve negotiations are associated with a great number of accidents, which are mainly attributed to driving errors. Aggressive/risky driving is a contributing factor to the high rate of crashes on horizontal curves. Using basic safety message data in connected vehicle data …

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 …

Queue Stability Analysis In Network Coded Wireless Multicast., Nadieh Mohamadi-Moghadam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation queue stability in wireless multicast networks with packet erasure channels is studied. Our focus is on optimizing packet scheduling so as to maximize throughput. Specifically, new queuing strategies consisting of several sub-queues are introduced, where all newly arrived packets are first stored in the main sub-queue on a first-come-first-served basis. Using the receiver feedback, the transmitter combines packets from different sub-queues for transmission. Our objective is to maximize the input rate under the queue stability constraints. Two packet scheduling and encoding algorithms have been developed. First, the optimization problem is formulated as a linear programming (LP) problem, …

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 …

Design And Simulation Of An 8-Bit Successive Approximation Register Charge-Redistribution Analog-To-Digital Converter, Sumit K. Verma

Electrical Engineering Theses

The thesis initially investigates the history of the monolithic ADCs. The next chapter explores the different types of ADCs available in the market today. Next, the operation of a 4-bit SAR ADC has been studied. Based on this analysis, an 8-bit charge-redistribution SAR ADC has been designed and simulated with Multisim (National Instruments, Austin, TX). The design is divided into different blocks which are individually implemented and tested. Level-1 SPICE MOSFET models representative of 5μm devices were used wherever individual MOSFETs were used in the design. Finally, the power dissipation during the conversion period was also estimated. The supply voltage …

Ka-Band Vivaldi Antenna With Novel Core Element For High-Gain, Manh-Ha Hoang, Kansheng Yang, Matthias John, Patrick Mcevoy, Max Ammann

Conference Papers

A high gain Vivaldi antenna employing an integrated core element is proposed. The maximum antenna gain is 16.9 dBi and it performs better than 14 dBi over the complete Ka (24 - 40 GHz) band. The design methodology, excitation arrangement and field distribution features are described.

Applying Heterogeneous Teams Of Robotic Agents Using Hybrid Communications To Mapping And Education, Jonathan M. West

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Robotic agents are being increasingly utilized to carry out tasks that are difficult or dangerous for humans. Many of these missions are best performed by heterogeneous teams of agents with various individual abilities. Communication among agents and with operators is a critical element in the performance and efficiency of these missions. Although radio frequency communications dominate the robotic networking field, they are limited in range and bandwidth due to spectrum congestion and subject to interference from noise or hostile jamming and can be intercepted. Optical communication has many advantages such as higher bandwidth and focused beam, however the line-of-sight requirement …

A Study Of Very Short Intermittent Ddos Attacks On The Performance Of Web Services In Clouds, Huasong Shan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks for web applications such as e-commerce are increasing in size, scale, and frequency. The emerging elastic cloud computing cannot defend against ever-evolving new types of DDoS attacks, since they exploit various newly discovered network or system vulnerabilities even in the cloud platform, bypassing not only the state-of-the-art defense mechanisms but also the elasticity mechanisms of cloud computing.

In this dissertation, we focus on a new type of low-volume DDoS attack, Very Short Intermittent DDoS Attacks, which can hurt the performance of web applications deployed in the cloud via transiently saturating the critical bottleneck resource of the …

Hardware Based Testing Of Communication Based Control For Dc Microgrid, Mahmoud Saleh, Yusef Esa, Ahmed Mohamed

Publications and Research

This paper further describes our work presented in Industry Application Society 2016 Conference, with more details related to the control and operation of the microgrid. The DC microgrid facility was custom designed and implemented at CCNY with minimal off-the-shelf components to enable flexibility and reconfiguration capability. The design steps, requirements, and experimental results of the developed testbed were discussed. As a case study, a central controller for energy management algorithm was developed and tested under several operational scenarios. The experimental results verify the applicability of the developed testbed for validating DC microgrid controllers.

2017 Eclipse Rfd-900 Still Image System, Tristan Running Crane, Uciel Garcia Olmedo, David Schwehr

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

As part of the NASA Space Grant 2017 Eclipse Ballooning Project, Montana Space Grant Consortium designed a camera system capable of transmitting still images from a balloon borne payload to a remote ground station via a RFD-900 radio. This payload consists of a Raspberry Pi, a Raspberry Pi camera, custom power supply and a RFD 900MHz radio. This system was designed to record pictures at high and low resolution at altitude. The low resolution images could be selected for downlinking back to the ground via the radio, while the high resolution pictures were saved to the Raspberry Pi memory card. …

University Of Maine High Altitude Ballooning Eclipse Experience, Kent Seneres, Derek Haas, William Bessette, Richard Eason

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

The University of Maine High Altitude Ballooning (UMHAB) team launched two balloons during the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse, producing a consistent online video stream of the eclipse to an altitude of 110,000 feet. This paper discusses the key factors that lead to a successful launch and recovery, such as thorough testing procedures, redesign of components, choice of launch site, and a touch of luck. In preparation for the event, the team tested the equipment and code over eleven balloon launches. Airplane based testing and land testing were conducted for the tracking and video stream components. The payloads and …

28 Ghz 5g Radio Over Fiber Using Uf-Ofdm With Optical Heterodyning, E Martin, C Browning, L Barry, A Farhang, L Doyle, Manh-Ha Hoang, Matthias John, Max Ammann

Conference Papers

A 5G millimeter-wave radio over fibre optical fronthaul system based on optical heterodyning, utilising an externally injected gain switched distributed feedback laser, is successfully demonstrated. Five bands of UF-OFDM are transmitted over 25 km of fibre and a 28 GHz Vivaldi Antenna wireless link. Transmission performance below the 7% FEC limit is achieved with an aggregate total data rate of 4.56 Gb/s.

Quantitative Analysis Of Regenerative Energy In Electric Rail Traction Systems, Mahmoud Saleh, Oindrilla Dutta, Yusef Esa, Ahmed Mohamed

Publications and Research

This paper aims at determining the influential factors affecting regenerative braking energy in DC rail transit systems. This has been achieved by quantitatively evaluating the dependence of regenerative energy on various parameters, such as vehicle dynamics, train scheduling, ground inclination and efficiency of the electrical devices. The recuperated power and energy have been presented by a mathematical model, comprising of a set of empirical forms, which allows for thorough analysis. A detailed simulation model of a typical DC-traction system has been developed to validate the developed empirical forms. The results verified the validity of the proposed mathematical model, and demonstrated …

Optimal Microgrids Placement In Electric Distribution Systems Using Complex Network Framework, Mahmoud Saleh, Yusef Esa, Nwabueze Onuorah, Ahmed Mohamed

Publications and Research

This paper provides a new approach to find the optimal location for Microgrids (MGs) in electric distribution systems using complex network analysis. An optimal location in this paper refers to a location that would result in increased grid resilience, reduced power losses, less line loading, higher voltage stability and secured supply to critical loads during power outage. The criteria used to find the optimal placement of MGs were based on the centrality analysis adopted from complex network theory, the center of mass concept used in physics, and the controlled delivery grid (CDG) concept. An IEEE 30-bus system was used as …

Energy Management Algorithm For Resilient Controlled Delivery Grids, Mahmoud Saleh, Yusef Esa, Ahmed Mohamed, Haim Grebel, Roberto Rojas-Cessa

Publications and Research

Resilience of the power grid is most challenged at power blackouts since the issues that led to it may not be fully resolved by the time the power is back. In this paper, a Real-Time Energy Management Algorithm (RTEMA) has been developed to increase the resilience of power systems based on the controlled delivery grid (CDG) concept. In a CDG, loads communicate with a central controller, periodically sending requests for power. The central controller runs an algorithm, based on which it may decide whether to grant the requested energy fully or partially. Therefore, the CDG limits loads discretionary access to …

Improving Speech Recognition For Interviews With Both Clean And Telephone Speech, Sung Woo Choi

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

High quality automatic speech recognition (ASR) depends on the context of the speech. Cleanly recorded speech has better results than speech recorded over telephone lines. In telephone speech, the signal is band-pass filtered which limits frequencies available for computation. Consequently, the transmitted speech signal may be distorted by noise, causing higher word error rates (WER). The main goal of this research project is to examine approaches to improve recognition of telephone speech while maintaining or improving results for clean speech in mixed telephone-clean speech recordings, by reducing mismatches between the test data and the available models. The test data includes …

Information Theoretic Study Of Gaussian Graphical Models And Their Applications, Ali Moharrer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In many problems we are dealing with characterizing a behavior of a complex stochastic system or its response to a set of particular inputs. Such problems span over several topics such as machine learning, complex networks, e.g., social or communication networks; biology, etc. Probabilistic graphical models (PGMs) are powerful tools that offer a compact modeling of complex systems. They are designed to capture the random behavior, i.e., the joint distribution of the system to the best possible accuracy. Our goal is to study certain algebraic and topological properties of a special class of graphical models, known as Gaussian graphs. First, …

Distributed Emitter Detector Design Under Imperfect Communication Channel, Soumyadip Patra

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

We consider the distributed detection of an emitter using multiple sensors deployed at deterministic locations. The signal from the emitter follows a signal attenuation model dependent on the distance between the sensor and the emitter. The sensors transmit their decisions to the fusion center through a parallel access Binary Symmetric Channel (BSC) with a cross-over probability. We seek to optimize the detection performance under a prescribed false alarm at the sensor level and at the system level. We consider the triangular topology structure and using the least favorable emitter range study the impact of the BSC on the system level …

Gui For Mri-Compatible Neural Stimulator And Recorder, Soo Han Soon, Nishant Babaria, Ranajay Mandal, Zhongming Liu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) are useful tools to analyze brain activities given active stimulation. However, the electromagnetic noise from the MRI distorts the brain signal recording and damages the subject with excessive heat generated on the electrodes attached to the skin. MRI-compatible recording and stimulation systems previously developed at LIBI lab were capable of removing the electromagnetic noise during the imaging process. Previously, the hardware systems had required the integrative software that could control both circuits simultaneously and enable users to easily change recording and stimulation parameters. Graphical user interface (GUI) programmed with computer language informed …

Ocean Wind Speed Measurement Using Wideband Gnss-R Signals, Brandon J. Kozel, Han Zhang, James L. Garrison, Benjamin Nold

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The use of Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) for remote sensing of ocean wind speeds has been explored for nearly two decades and has become an important passive remote sensing technique for verification of hurricane formation models. To obtain wind speed measurements, reflected GNSS signals are first cross-correlated with locally generated copies to construct delay-doppler maps (DDMs). Through statistical models, DDMs can provide information about the mean-square slope (MSS) of the ocean surface, which is related to wind speed. Previous studies have focused on legacy signals such as GPS L1. However, it is expected that the MSS relationship with ocean …

On-Chip Training Of Memristor Crossbar Based Multi-Layer Neural Networks, Raqibul Hasan, Tarek M. Taha, Christopher Yakopcic

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Memristor crossbar arrays carry out multiply-add operations in parallel in the analog domain, and so can enable neuromorphic systems with high throughput at low energy and area consumption. On-chip training of these systems have the significant advantage of being able to get around device variability and faults. This paper presents on-chip training circuits for multi-layer neural networks implemented using a single crossbar per layer and two memristors per synapse. Using two memristors per synapse provides double the synaptic weight precision when compared to a design that uses only one memristor per synapse. Proposed on-chip training system utilizes the back propagation …

A Gps Signal Generator Using A Roach Fpga Board, Kurt L. Pedrosa

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

A Global Positioning System (GPS) signal simulator is a valuable testing tool. It allows for testing of GPS receivers, systems, and anti-spoofing algorithms. With the increased popularity of software defined radios (SDRs) merging GPS signal simulators and SDRs is a natural choice. A detailed review of the construction of a GPS signal generator using the ROACH processing board is presented herein. The ROACH, developed by the Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER) team, is a processing board that can be configure to function as a SDR. In this research, the ROACH was transformed to function as a …

Two Senior Projects: 2.4 Ghz, 40% Efficiency Radio Frequency Amplifier, Ieee Design Contest, & Design And Implementation Of A Software Costas Loop For Audio Frequencies, Robert J. Tong

Electrical Engineering

How to Read this Document:

This document combines two senior project reports. The first senior project documents designing a class AB RF amplifier. The second, discusses the design and implementation of a software Costas loop for audio frequencies. The first report begins on the next page, while the Costas loop report starts on page 24. The two reports are orthogonal from one another. It is not a prerequisite to read the RF amplifier report before reading the Costas loop report. This document is merely two reports combined into one document. The second report, about the Costas loop, was written as …

Application-Aware Cognitive Multi-Hop Wireless Networking Testbed And Experiments, Trenton T. Evans

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

In this thesis, we present a new architecture for application-aware cognitive multihop wireless networks (AC-MWN) with testbed implementations and experiments. Cognitive radio is a technique to adaptively use the spectrum so that the resource can be used more efficiently in a low cost way. Multihop wireless networks can be deployed quickly and flexibly without a fixed infrastructure. In presented new architecture, we study backbone routing schemes with network cognition, routing scheme with network coding and spectrum adaptation. A testbed is implemented to test the schemes for AC-MWN. In addition to basic measurements, we implement a video streaming application based on …

Impact Of Threshold Clipping On Bit Error Rate In Ofdm-Like Systems, Felipe Hoshino, Theodore Grosch

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

In wireless communications, 3GPP LTE is one of the solutions to meet the greater transmission data rate demand. One issue inherent to this technology is the PAPR (Peak-to-Average Power Ratio) of OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) modulation. This high PAPR affects of the efficiency of power amplifiers. One approach to mitigate this effect is the Crest Factor Reduction (CFR) technique. In this work we simulate the impact of Hard Limited Clipping Crest Factor Reduction technique on BER (Bit Error Rate) in OFDM based Systems. In general, the results showed CFR has more effect on higher digital modulation schemes, as expected. …

Autonomous Speed Control For Kia Optima, Andrew J. Combs, Kyle Fugatt, Kevin Mcfall

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

The standard method for speed control is the cruise control system built into most modern vehicles. These systems employ a PID controller which actuates the accelerator thus, in turn, maintains the desired vehicle speed. The main drawback of such a system is that typically the cruise control will only engage above 25 mph. The goal of this paper is to describe a system which we used to control vehicle speed from a stop to any desired speed using an Arduino microcontroller and a CAN BUS shield, from where autonomous features can be built upon. With this system, we were able …

Smart Grid Technology In The Developing World, Jacob R. Young

Honors Projects

A smart grid is the integration of communication and information technologies with contemporary power infrastructure to enhance load service and to incorporate continually evolving end-use applications. It is the latest advancement in the areas of power generation, transmission and distribution. It has advanced beyond the traditional grid structure at every stage; a smart grid is capable of incorporating distributed generation (DG) renewable sources and has improved transmission capabilities through implementation of technologies such as Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS). Through the addition of control technology in the distribution network a smart grid is able to implement “self-healing” and other methods …

The Following Robot, Juan D. Cerda, Matthew S. Kwan, Vi M. Le

Computer Engineering

The objective of this project is to design, build, and test an autonomous robot with an associated Android application. The robot uses on board inertial measurement sensors (magnetometer, accelerometer, gyroscope) and coordinates itself through Bluetooth communication with the similar built­in measurement sensors on the Android phone to mimic and follow movement. The Following Robot incorporates the same basic movement functionality as a typical RC car. The robot follows the user’s phone through an application on one’s phone. This application accesses the phone’s accelerometer and gyroscope data and translates into appropriate conversions. Methods of tracking and calculating distance or angular displacement …