ECE Currents
ECE Currents is an opportunity to see recent research by faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students in UA ECE. Talks are about 5 minutes long, with the same time for questions. Currents is held on odd Wednesdays from 3:00-4:00 in ECE 530.
For more information about ECE Currents (or to volunteer to give a talk), contact Jonathan Sprinkle (sprinkle@ECE.Arizona.Edu)
Next ECE Currents: 2:00 pm!! Wednesday 21 April 2012
| Speaker | Topic |
|---|---|
| Prof. David Cox | Radiation Effects on Space Electronics |
| George Hwang Model-Based Design Lab (Rozenblit) | Technical Realization of the Optimal Motion Planning Method for Minimally Invasive Surgery This talks describes a mechatronic (mechanical and electronic) realization of the optimal trajectory planning and guidance algorithms for minimally invasive surgical training. Specifically, the realization implements optimal navigation paths for surgical instruments in laparoscopic exercises. The underlying system platform is the Computer-Aided Surgical Trainer (CAST) that consist of mechanical fixtures equipped with encoders and servo motors. This hardware provides a means to accurately track the tip movements of laparoscopic instruments used in minimally invasive surgery. Furthermore it provides feedback to a PID controller which implements the optimal instrument trajectories. Supporting software provides all calibration procedures necessary to maintain the desired system's accuracy. Details of the mechanical, hardware, and software components are presented, along with their limitations and preliminary results. |
Future ECE Currents Talks
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | ||
Previous talks in the ECE Currents Series
| Date | Speaker | Topic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | |||
| 4/04 | Dr. Peter Hansen | the Tricorder project the Tricorder project aims to develop accessible real-world handheld devices capable of sensing a variety of atmospheric, electromagnetic, and spatial phenomena for applications from science education to environmental monitoring. | |
| Min Liang Xin Lab | An X-Band Luneburg Lens Antenna Fabricated by Rapid Prototyping Technology I'll talk about the design, fabrication and performance of a 3-D Luneburg lens in this talk. Dielectric constant control of the lens is based on the mixing ratio of air voids and polymer. The effective permittivity of the unit cell is estimated by effective medium theory and extracted by full-wave finite-element simulations. Fabrication is implemented by a polymer jetting rapid prototyping method. In the measurement, the lens antenna is fed by an X-band waveguide. The measured gain of the antenna at X band is from 17.3 dB to 20.3 dB. The measured half-power beam width is from 19 degrees to 12.7 degrees while the side lobes are about 25 dB below the main peak. Good agreement between simulation and experimental results is obtained. | ||
| Xiaoju Yu Xin Lab | Microwave Direction of Arrival Estimation Using Luneburg Lens A broadband passive direction finding system utilizing Luneburg lens has been investigated. The simulated Luneburg lens model demonstrates the advantage of broadband behavior and a high gain. Numbers of detectors are placed in a circle on the surface of the Luneburg lens as receivers. With the received power information at the receivers, the Cramér–Rao bound (CRB) expression for 360° 2-D direction of arrival (DoA) estimation is derived and plotted with comparison to root mean square error (RMS) of the correlation estimation method under the assumption of an additive Gaussian white noise. With the error estimation information, one is able to decide how many detectors are needed under certain noise environment and frequency range of interest. | ||
| 3/21 | Xiong Wang Xin Lab | Thermoacoustic Imaging for Breast Cancer Detection | |
| Yoon Kah Leow Akoglu, S. Lysecky Labs | Energy and Performance Tradeoffs in Designing FPGA based Visual Sensor Network in Greenhouse Crop Monitoring Systems | ||
| 3/7 | Prof. David Egolf Visiting Professor, U. Idaho | The Acoustic Orifice as a Nonlinear Resistor: Simulated and Experimental Results Given in this presentation is a numerical-iteration scheme for simulating the propagation of broadband sound through an orifice (small hole) in a thin plate. Such devices behave according to a fluid-mechanics phenomenon known as vena contracta, whereby orifice impedance is linear at low sound pressures (analogous to voltage) and highly nonlinear at high sound pressures. The orifice was modeled with an electrical-analog circuit comprised of both linear and nonlinear elements. The numerical method was a modified version of harmonic balance, where linear elements are treated in the frequency domain and nonlinear elements in the time domain. Mathematical convergence was improved by initializing the iteration with orifice volume- velocity (analogous to current) data collected via the describing function method by earlier authors. Experimental validation was demonstrated by recording sound-pressure signals both upstream and downstream of the orifice plate. | |
| Sean Whitsitt Sprinkle Lab | DARES | ||
| 2/22 | Dr. Dathon Golish | AWARE-Wide Field The AWARE-Wide Field project, formerly MOSAIC, is a DARPA-funded program to build a high resolution, wide field of view, near real-time camera. The camera relies on a multi-scale imaging design that partitions the global field of view among an array of many "microcameras". We have previously discussed the optical, electronic, and image formation architectures of the camera. Here, we will provide an update on the status of the project, tracking the evolution of the image quality over the past 18 months. AWARE-Wide Field is a multi-institutional effort, led by Duke University. Prof. Michael Gehm's lab is leading the image formation and data processing effort. | |
| Yequn Zhang Djordjevic Lab | Rate-Adaptive Four-Dimensional Nonbinary LDPC-Coded Modulation for Long-Haul Optical Transport Networks Modern optical communication networks have an elevated demand for high-speed transmission over long distances. However, high-speed optical transmission at data rates beyond 40 Gb/s is severely affected by fiber impairments including chromatic dispersion (CD), polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) and nonlinearities. Coded modulation when combined with capacity-approaching low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes has been shown to be an effective technique to attain aggregate data rates beyond 100 Gb/s at low operating symbol rates. In this project, we combine exceptional error correction performances of nonbinary LDPC codes with power-efficient 4D constellations to enable a rate-adaptive four-dimensional nonbinary-LDPC-coded modulation scheme for high-speed long-haul optical transport networks. Transmission distances range from 5,800 km to 8,900 km at flexible information bit rates beyond 100 Gb/s. | ||
| Kun Zhang Sprinkle Lab | Synthesis of Android Services from Models | ||
| 2/08 | Bané Vasic | Postmodern coding theory The talk is about a new class of iterative error-correcting decoders for low-density parity check codes surpassing the state-of-the-art belief propagation algorithms with a fraction of their complexity. | |
| Dan Ford Faisel/Sprinkle | InfoMax Control for Acoustic Exploration of Objects by a Mobile Robot We may want an agent such as a robot to gather information about its environment, even without a specific task to be performed. Knowledge of the surrounding area can help the agent improve its task performance or identify new useful tasks. InfoMax control, in which negative Shannon entropy over objects in the environment is the reward function for reinforcement learning in a POMDP, is a recently proposed framework for motivating such exploration. We apply InfoMax control to a physical robot that gathers acoustic signatures of objects to determine the optimal sequence of actions to maximize the robot's information about objects in its environment. We also discuss the implications of InfoMax control and situations in which it may or may not be appropriate. | ||
| Gregory Striemer Akoglu Lab | Interrogating the Convergent Recombination Hypothesis for Immune Systems of Jawed Vertebrates with GPU Based DNA Recombination Process We are exploring the process of DNA recombination, known as V(D)J recombination. It is responsible for the development of the adaptive immune system. A greater understanding of V(D)J recombination can lead to the development of life saving drugs. This process, which occurs naturally in our bodies, can be simulated using computer hardware. However it is extremely computationally demanding. In this study we mapped the recombination process to a massively parallel GPU architecture, and for the first time have been able to exhaustively perform recombination on mouse genes. Using the information obtained from this study we have been able to evaluate the Convergent Recombination Hypothesis. | ||
| 2011 | |||
| 11/30 | Prof. Rick Ziolkowski | Passive and Active Metastructures: RF and Optical Applications Metamaterials are artificial materials whose electromagnetic properties can be tailored to specific applications. We are using passive and active metamaterial-inspired constructs to miniaturize a variety of radiating and scattering systems while improving their performance characteristics. Several metastructure-engineered examples, including high performance electrically small UHF and optical nano-antennas, will be reviewed briefly. | |
| Vida Ravanmehr Vasic Lab | Cyclic codes exhibiting the gene regulatory network of the cell cycle We present a Boolean gene regulatory network based on cyclic codes, which can correct, at every given time, one gene expression error. The topology of a network is highly symmetric and requires only simple Boolean functions that can be synthesized using genes of various organisms. The methodology allows construction of artificial gene regulatory networks with the number of phases larger than in natural cell cycle. | ||
| 11/16 | Ludovic Danjean Vasic Lab | Iterative Reconstruction Algorithms in Compressed Sensing Compressed Sensing (CS) is a relatively new field in signal processing which concerns the recovery of a sparse signal from a small set of measurements. The recovery the sparsest data is known to be NP-hard, however the L1-minimization problem can be solved by Linear Programming methods. However these methods have a polynomial complexity in the length of the signal, which is impractical in some applications. We give then an overview of current results in iterative reconstruction of sparse signals using low-density parity check (LDPC) matrices as measurement matrices as the links between Compressed Sensing and Channel Coding has be done recently. We will describe two iterative reconstruction algorithms, Interval Passing (IP) algorithm and verification algorithm. We then compare their performance to the L1-minimization performance using quasi-cyclic low-density parity check (QC-LDPC) matrices in order to show the trade-off between the performance and the complexity in the reconstruction of sparse data. | |
| Dung Nguyen Vasic Lab | "Two-Bit Bit Flipping Decoding of Binary LDPC Codes" We propose a new class of bit flipping algorithms for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over the binary symmetric channel (BSC). Compared to the regular (parallel or serial) bit flipping algorithms, the proposed algorithms employ one additional bit at a variable node to represent its "strength." The introduction of this additional bit increases the guaranteed error correction capability by a factor of at least 2. An additional bit can also be employed at a check node to capture information which is beneficial to decoding. These algorithms outperform the Gallager A/B algorithm and the min-sum algorithm at much lower complexity. Concatenation of two-bit bit flipping algorithms show a potential to approach the performance of belief propagation (BP) decoding in the error floor region, also at lower complexity. | ||
| Feng Liu Bilgin Lab | "Compressive Sensing of Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum Signals" Rapid switching of the carrier among many frequency channels using a pseudorandom sequence makes Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) signals difficult to capture if the hopping sequence is unknown. The conventional approach to capture such FHSS signals without the knowledge of the hopping sequence necessitates capturing all frequency channels and, thus, requires the analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) to sample at very high rates. The recent compressive sensing theory demonstrates that sparse signals can be reconstructed from much fewer samples than suggested by the Nyquist theorem. Using the fact that the FHSS signals have sparse instantaneous spectra, we propose compressive sensing strategies for capturing them without the knowledge of the hopping sequence. | ||
| 11/2 | Prof. Loukas Lazos Assistant Professor, ECE | "Detecting and Isolating Packet Droppers in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks" Wireless ad hoc networks realize end-to-end communications in a cooperative manner. In this paradigm, multiple nodes collaboratively form a multi-hop route, when communication needs to take place between a source and a destination that are not within communication range. However, deployed environments may have selfish and nodes that do not comply with the protocol. This talk addresses the problem of identifying and isolating misbehaving nodes that refuse to forward packets to the destination. | |
| Adrian Lizarraga UECS Lab (S. Lysecky) | "Dynamic Profiling and Fuzzy Logic Based Optimization of Sensor Network Platforms" Sensor network platforms are becoming increasingly complex to design and optimize due to the multitude of interdependent parameters that must be considered. To assist platform developers and application experts of diverse technical backgrounds, we present a dynamic profiling and optimization platform for sensor-based systems that enables users to rapidly optimize a sensor network for a particular application without requiring extensive knowledge of the underlying physical hardware platform. | ||
| Ning Zhu Ziolkowski Lab | "Rectennas and Power Harvesting" Rectennas, short for rectifying antennas, are an important component of a variety of power harvesting and wireless power transmission (WPT) systems. Rectifying efficiency for specified input power levels and size are two significant figures of merit for a rectenna system. I will illustrate our approach emphasizing an electrically small, metamaterial- inspired near field resonant parasitic (NFRP), planar protractor antenna that is designed for a GPS L1 rectenna (1.5754 GHz). When the input power is 0 dBm, the measured rectifying efficiency of the rectenna (ka = 0.808) is 78% at the GPS L1 frequency | ||
| 10/19 | Juan Russo Kostuk Lab | "Spectral Characterization of the Temperature Performance of Silicon Solar cells" Silicon photovoltaic cells are characterized with modified incident spectrum to reduce the cell operating temperature. The incident spectrum was modified using filters achieving cell temperature reduction with the power output marginally affected in some cases. | |
| Yan Zhang Lazos Lab | "Secure Channel Access Protocol for Multi-channel Wireless Networks" The IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless LAN allows for the use of multiple non-overlapping channels at the physical layer. In this paradigm, multiple transmissions can take place simultaneously without interference, and thus a higher throughput can be achieved. In such multi-channel wireless networks, coordinating multiple users to access a common set of channels becomes a critical issue, and selfish or malicious nodes may manipulate with protocol parameters in order to obtain unfair share of network resources. This talk addresses the problem of identifying such misbehaving nodes, as well as mitigating their impact on network performance (e.g. throughput). | ||
| Lu Ding UECS Lab (S. Lysecky) | "Application-Specific Customization of Dynamic Profiling Mechanisms for Sensor Networks" To reduce the complexity associated with application-specific tuning of sensor-based systems, dynamic profiling enables an accurate view of the application behavior, such that the network can be re-optimized at runtime in response to changing application behavior or environmental conditions. However, dynamic profiling must be able to accurately capture application behavior without incurring significant runtime overheads. We evaluate a variety of profiling methodologies suitable for dynamically monitoring sensor-based platforms and analyze the network traffic, power, and code impacts associated with each method. | ||
| 10/05 | Dr. Liana Napalkova Visiting Research Assistant Professor Model-Based Design Lab (Rozenblit's Lab), ECE | "Optimization for Minimally Invasive Surgical Training" The efficiency of a surgical training system plays a significant role in the reduction of operative risks and stress associated with insufficient experience of a trainee. The primary goal of such systems is to get a trainee to a higher level of proficiency without putting patients at risk in the operating room. This talk will present a novel prototype of a computer-assisted surgical training system, which provides continuous visual guidance on optimal navigation and enables the performance assessment based on predefined proficiency levels for the tasks. | |
| Alejandro Proaño | Resource-Efficient Location Privacy Protection in Wireless Sensor Networks Open wireless sensor networks permit adversaries to intercept packet communications. In this research, we propose a resource- efficient scheme for privacy protection in a wireless sensor network, based on the generation of bogus traffic. Our scheme uses node scheduling techniques, which find connected dominating sets (CDS) of nodes in the network. The CDSs are used for the generation of bogus traffic as well as the transmission of real traffic. | ||
| Theresa Klein Lewis Lab | "A Neurorobotic Model of Walking" Walking in animals is a fluid process in which the dynamics of the body, interactions with the environment, and the center nervous system interact to produce a stable gait. This walking is fluid, resistant to perturbations, and incorporates passive swings of the limbs. By comparison, most walking robots are controlled in a top-down fashion where the body is carefully balanced and controlled to conform to a desired trajectory. We developed a bipedal robot that is designed based on principles of mammalian leg muscle architecture, and controlled using a simulated neural network that models the central pattern generator in the spinal column. The robot incorporates load sensors that model the role of Golgi tendon organs in regulating the gait during locomotion, as well as other sources of afferent feedback. | ||
| 2010 | |||
| 11/24 | Mingguang Tuo Xin Lab | Microwave characterization of carbon nanotube with a FET transistor configuration | |
| Tom Cleary Sanfelice Lab | TBD | ||
| 11/10 | Nathan Goodman Associate Professor, ECE | KECOM | |
| Kihun Chang Xin Lab | "High-efficiency Rectenna for Wireless Power Harvesting" | ||
| 10/27 | Dr. Dathon Golish | "The (other) MOSAIC Project" MOSAIC is a DARPA-funded program created to build a large field of view, high resolution, near real-time camera. In traditional camera design there is a common trade-off between field of view and angular resolution. Generally, cameras that achieve both require extremely expensive and complex lens systems. Alternatively, "scan and pan" systems raster-scan a high resolution, narrow field of view camera over a large field of view to stitch together a full image. These systems can be much cheaper; however, they are typically very slow. MOSAIC leverages multi-scale design at the optical, electronic, and data processing levels to parallelize many high resolution cameras, which together look over a large field of view at near real time speeds. MOSAIC will consist of approximately 3600 small "microcameras" arrayed behind a single objective lens. Each microcamera will have dedicated electronics that flow together in a heirarchical way to combine the images from each camera into one large view. MOSAIC is a multi-institutional effort, led by Duke University. Prof. Michael Gehm's lab is leading the image formation and data processing effort for MOSAIC. | |
| Dr. Amit Ashok | "Sampling - Nyquist to Random: What is Next?" It is well known that band-limited signals can be sampled without loss of information according to the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem. Papoulis generalized this sampling theorem to include sampling at 1/mth the Nyquist rate when using m distinct samplers. Recently, the emergence of compressed sensing theory has shown that random sampling at a sub-Nyquist rate can achieve perfect reconstruction for sparse signals. This progressive development of sampling theorems from Nyquist to random compressive sampling represents incorporation of more prior information about signal of interest in devising novel and increasingly efficient sampling schemes. However, by exploiting prior information more carefully a still more efficient sampling can be achieved. I will talk about one example of such a sampling approach. | ||
| 9/29 | Bane Vasic Professor, ECE | "Iterative decoding beyond belief ... propagation" Error correcting codes are an integral part of modern day communications, computer and data storage systems and play a vital role in ensuring the integrity of data. At the heart of modern coding theory is the fact that the low-density parity check codes can be efficiently decoded by the algorithm known as belief propagation (BP). The BP is an iterative algorithm which operates on a graphical representation of a code by sending coded bit likelihoods - beliefs. In this talk we describe new paradigm for the design and analysis of decoding algorithms which are much simpler yet better than belief propagation. Unlike BP decoders, these decoders do not propagate beliefs but a rather different kind of messages that reflect the local structure of the code graph. | |
| Travis Hoffman Rozenblit Lab | "Queral Networks-a novel model of computation" The physics of transistors set practical limits on the maximum speed of serial computation; parallelism provides the only clear path forward. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are one alternative, deriving their power from their highly-connected structure and asynchronous behavior. ANNs develop software automatically (by training) but only in a write-only language. In this talk I will present the Queron, a generalization of and improvement upon the Neuron, which can be connected in Queral Networks (QNs). QNs are a novel Model of Computation leveraging the structure of ANNs while addressing the inherent write-only problem, allowing the developer to validate and learn from evolved QNs. | ||
| Sean Whitsitt Sprinkle Lab | "Crowd Sourcing and Citizen Science to Aid Global Climate Research" Currently, expensive satellite and aerial imagery have been the only source of image data for vegetation index and phenology research. In this project, we are developing an end-to-end system for collecting land surface images for vegetation index and phenology research. The citizen science portion of this project is an iPhone application that uses geo-positioning, accelerometer, date/time, and other metadata are then embedded with the images in a transmission to a centralized processing server where they are validated, post-processed, and made available in an interactive visualization system. Joint work with Prof. Kamel Didan and students. | ||
| 4/21 | Prof. Janet Wang Associate Professor, ECE | "Predicting Yeast Growth Using Hierarchical Design Automation Models" Current experimental approaches such as chromatin immunoprecipitation (chip) and microarray analysis of strains by deleting a single network component, provide only a limited view of gene network structure and function. In addition, because the nature of the interaction could vary from one target gene to another, models and algorithms derived from such data are incomplete and inaccurate. Hence, biologists are skeptical about what exactly these models and algorithms can help in real experiments and labs. Unknown factors, changing setups and varying environment introduce uncertainties into the biology system and thus lead to different outcomes. At the same time, large volume lab data also demands approaches that can handle high computational complexity. This project targets a new hierarchical approach based on Curvelet to build an executable biology framework for budding yeast cell cycle. We choose budding yeast cell cycle because yeast cell cycle is stable and has been regarded as the path to understand cancer cell and other cell cycles. | |
| Hussam Batshon Djordjevic Lab | "Three-dimensional LDPC-coded modulation with hybrid direct/coherent detection." We present a three-dimensional (3-D) low-density parity check (LDPC)-coded modulation scheme that enables optical transmission beyond 320 Gb/s in aggregate rate using currently available commercial components operating at 40 GS/s. This scheme introduces significant performance improvement of up to 4.1 dB at a bit-error ratio of 10^-9 over the corresponding two-dimensional scheme. In addition, by using LDPC-coded 1024-3D-constellation it is possible, at least in theory, to achieve beyond a total of 1Tb/s transmission using transmission equipment operating at 100GS/s, once it reaches the maturity of 40-Gb/s systems. | ||
| Kristin Jagiello SPACL (Prof. Ryan) | "Leveraging the Parallels Between Error-Correction Coding and Compressive Sensing" This talk will provide a brief introduction to compressive sensing (CS) and error control coding (ECC). The parallels between the two technologies will be discussed. The topic will be supported by an overview of relevant papers. | ||
| 4/7 | Prof. Salim Hariri Professor, ECE | "a-CMF: Autonomic Cyberspace Management Framework" The autonomic paradigm is inspired by the human autonomic nervous system that handles complexity and uncertainties, and aims at realizing computing systems and applications capable of managing themselves with minimum human intervention. To achieve the project goal, we propose to use autonomic agents, along with statistical and data mining techniques, anomaly behavior analysis, and intelligent decision fusion to: (i) develop an Autonomic Cyberspace Management framework (a-CMF); (ii) use the a-CMF to manage security and faults of critical cyperspace applications; and (iii) develop an a-CMF testbed to develop, demonstrate and evaluate the next generation of trustworthy management techniques and tools. | |
| Yookyung Kim SPACL (Prof. Bilgin) | "Compressed Sensing using a Gaussian Scale Mixture Model in Wavelet Domain" Compressed Sensing (CS) theory has gained attention recently as an alternative to the current paradigm of sampling followed by compression. While initial Compressed Sensing (CS) techniques assumed that sparsity transform coefficients are independently distributed, recent results indicate that dependencies between transform coefficients can be exploited for improved performance. In this talk, we explain a method of using a Gaussian Scale Mixture (GSM) model for exploiting the dependencies between wavelet coefficients in CS. | ||
| Han Oh SPACL (Prof. Marcellin) | "Visually Lossless JPEG2000" In this talk, we explain a method of encoding images in a visually lossless manner using adaptive visibility thresholds and visual masking effects within the framework of JPEG2000. Our adaptive visibility thresholds (VTs) are determined through psychophysical experiments for measuring quantization distortion models. These VTs are further adjusted using visual masking effects present in the background image where distortion appears, and are used to determine the quantization level in the embedded bit-plane coder for visually lossless coding. Codestreams encoded with this method are fully compatible with Part-I of the JPEG2000. Compared with numerically lossless compression of JPEG2000, this method achieves a significant reduction in bitrate without visual quality degradation. | ||
| 3/24 | Prof. Susan Lysecky Asst. Professor, ECE | "SEED Pod Testbed and Future Research Directions" Beginning in the fall of 2007, a multidisciplinary team from the University of Arizona began to design, experiment, and fabricate an 800-square foot home to demonstrate feasibility of solar powered homes to compete in the Department of Energy’s 2009 Solar Decathlon. In this talk, we will provide a short overview of the existing solar home testbed as well as the future research, specifically a management framework to optimize energy usage of appliances based on existing and predicted resource availability. | |
| Lu Pan SPACL (Prof. Ryan) | "Serial Turbo Coding Performance for Rectangular-Grain TDMR Models" This paper studies the performance of a serial turbo code on two simplified rectangular-grain models for two dimensional magnetic recording at a density of more than 0.5 bits/grain. We derive one- dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) rectangular models and from these present finite-state-machine (FSM) representations. From the FSM for the 1D model we computed achievable information rates assuming independent and uniformly distributed (i.u.d.) binary inputs. From the (approximate) FSM for the 2D model, we present a detector. We then present a serial turbo code architecture with constituent convolutional codes that is capable of achieving 80% of i.u.d. capacity for the 1D model and 65% of the average of upper and lower bounds on capacity for the 2D model (from an earlier paper). Joint work with Roger Wood, Alek Kavcic, and Bane Vasic. | ||
| Chad Rossmeissl (Prof. Tharp) | "'Ping-Pong' Control" Ping-Pong Control system is a learning tool designed to teach the basic concepts of system identification, modeling and control. Developed with an undergraduate electrical engineer’s background in mind, Ping-Pong Control guides a student through typical system design steps such as construction, linearization, programming and implementation. The students design constant gain, PI and PID controllers and evaluate their ability to cope with disturbances and overall robustness. The Ping-Pong Control system is low cost so the students are encouraged to keep the system and continue development upon completion of the course. | ||
| 3/10 | Dr. Amit Ashok Sr. Research Scientist, OCPL | "Compressive Imaging: Beyond Random Projections" Imaging devices such as cameras, scanners, microscopes typically employ a measurement basis composed of impulse-like vectors resulting in an isomorphic measurement referred to an "image." However, such a traditional measurement basis ignores the fact that nearly all natural scenes are inherently redundant (sparse/compressible) and therefore, the resulting requirement on the number of measurements (e.g. pixels) is overly strict. Compressed sensing theory shows that sparse/compressible signals can reconstructed exactly using a random measurement basis even when the number of measurements is much smaller than the signal/image dimensionality (hence the name compressive). This talk with focus on a hybrid measurement basis that incorporates scene prior information beyond sparsity to further improve the fidelity of the reconstructed signal. | |
| Maribel Hudson Sprinkle Lab | "Hybrid Control of a Micro Aerial Vehicle" The project work focuses on designing a controller for the pitching up of a micro air vehicle with vertical take-off and landing capabilities. Because the dynamic model of the vehicle is highly nonlinear it readily lends itself to a hybrid controller model to provide a robust transition. The designed hybrid controller uses multiple PID controllers as well as state feedback. It performs significantly better than a single PID controller. | ||
| Sisi Liu Prof. Krunz, Prof. Lazos | "Spectrum Opportunity-Based Control Channel Assignment in Cognitive Radio Networks" We address the problem of dynamic assignment of coordination (control) channels in cognitive radio networks (CRNs) by exploiting time- and space- varying spectrum opportunities. Motivated by the inherent grouping of Cognitive Radio (CR) users according to channel availability, we propose a cluster-based architecture for control-channel assignment in a CRN. CRs are grouped in the same cluster if they roughly sense similar idle channels and are within communication range, either directly or via a clusterhead. We formulate the clustering design as a maximum edge biclique problem. A distributed cluster agreement algorithm called Spectrum-Opportunity Clustering (SOC) is proposed to solve this problem. SOC provides a desirable balance between two competing factors: the set of common idle channels within each cluster and the cluster size. A large set of common idle channels within each cluster allows graceful migration from the current control channel should primary radio (PR) activity appear on that channel. | ||
| Saravanakrishnan Krishnamoorthy RNSL (Prof. Lewis) | "Computational, Artificial Personality" A computational framework for artificial personality in cognitive robots is introduced. While every robot has some form of personality, our framework is flexible and enables the exploration of different behaviors on the same robotic platform. The framework described here maintains a probabilistic representation of an internal state that includes emotion, motivation, sensing, and previous action. The next action is computed by using a massive number of rules implemented using Bayes Rule. This flexible Bayesian representation of personality allows the robot's personality to be designed by a personality generator algorithm. | ||
| 2/24 | Jonathan Sprinkle Assistant Professor, ECE | "A New ECE Testbed for Unmanned Ground Vehicle Applications" Starting 2/25, our lab will have a fully actuated Ford Escape Hybrid available as a research platform. This talk will serve as a motivator for collaborative research among faculty developing sensing, control, and navigation algorithms that involve unmanned ground vehicles. Topics include available data and control inputs enabled by actuation of the vehicle. | |
| Dzung Nguyen SPACL (Prof. Vasic) | "Construction of LDPC Codes from Latin Squares" Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are error correcting codes that can approach the theoretical limit of the channels, called Shannon capacity. LDPC codes can be classified into two categories: random and structured codes. Random codes possess excellent error-correcting properties but have many shortcomings, one of which is the lack of mathematical structure in the parity-check matrices of such codes. Structured LDPC codes do not have this disadvantage, but at the cost of some performance loss, due to a large number of harmful subgraphs, usually called trapping sets. We are currently studying methods to reduce the number of such harmful subgraphs while keeping the structure of the codes intact. | ||
| Prof. Srini Associate Professor, ECE | "Network Tomography" Network tomography refers to identification of link and node characteristics in networks using end-to-end measurements. Network tomography may be employed in communication networks to identify bit-error rates on links, delay at nodes, detect intrusion at links and nodes, by observing the characteristics of multi-hop paths. In addition, network tomography may be employed to evaluate the characteristics of wires (connections) in nanoelectronic circuits. In this talk, we will discuss the fundamental network tomography problem to identify additive link metrics and its interesting characteristics. | ||
| 2/10 | Prof. Ricardo Sanfelice Asst. Professor, AME | "Robust Stability Analysis of Hybrid Control Systems" Driven by recent technological advances, hybrid systems have become prevalent when describing complex systems with both continuous and discrete dynamics. This ongoing trend has been the thrust for research on modeling, stability analysis, control design, validation, verification, and simulation of hybrid systems. These research efforts are also relevant in the design of advanced control algorithms with mixed continuous/discrete dynamics, that is, hybrid control systems. Even though hybrid control systems have been shown to enhance the robustness properties of the closed-loop system in most applications, the analysis and design for robustness of these systems have not been pursued in a systematic manner due to the lack of formal tools for that purpose. Instead, this has been carried out with tools suitable for the particular application of study. In this short talk, we take a dynamical systems approach to modeling and robust stability analysis of general hybrid systems. We introduce a mathematical framework for robust stability of compact sets and pinpoint several engineering control problems. | |
| Shiva Planjery SPACL (Prof. Vasic) | "Iterative decoding beyond belief propagation" At the heart of modern coding theory lies the fact that low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes can be efficiently decoded by belief propagation (BP). The BP is an inference algorithm which operates on a graphical model of a code, and lends itself to low-complexity and high-speed implementations, making it the algorithm of choice in many applications. LDPC codes approach theoretical limits of channel capacity underr BP decoding. However, this capacity approaching property holds only in the asymptotic limit of code length, while codes of practical lengths suffer abrupt performance degradation in the low noise regime known as the error floor phenomenon. Our study of error floor has led to an interesting and surprising finding that it is possible to design iterative decoders which are much simpler yet better than belief propagation! These decoders do not propagate beliefs but a rather different kind of messages that reflect the local structure of the code graph. This talk will briefly introduce this new paradigm. | ||
| Tao Shu Krunz Lab | "Efficient and truthful mechanisms for opportunistic spectrum access: an economic perspective" Opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) is a new technology that can significantly improve the utilization of the spectrum. Under OSA, a secondary radio (SR) is allowed access to a channel that is not currently being used by the primary radios (PRs) of the channel. In this talk, I will give an economic view on the operation of an OSA network, in which the activities of PRs and SRs are driven by profit. I will identify various research issues that stem from the for-profit nature of the network. I will also briefly introduce our research achievements on addressing some of these issues. | ||
| 2009 | |||
| W Nov 18 | Hyun-jin Park HF Packaging Lab | "Automatic RF Impedance Correction Circuits for ATE Test" This is an Automatic Reconfigurable Frequency Matched Tuner design for an automatic match control (AMC) system to be used for Device Under Test (DUT) unit. The tuners using Microstrip Rogers Duroid 4003 and 6010 substrate materials were designed and verified. The tuners are able to tune its resonant frequency of 1750MHz and 2170MHz to match with frequency dependent loads using varactor diodes that are loaded at each stub. A parameter study was performed to minimize the tuner size from 3.17 inch by 2.7 inch to 0.74 inch by 0.5 inch. | |
| Rongguo Zhou Xin Lab | "An improved two-antenna direction of arrival (DOA) technique inspired by human ears" Microwave passive direction finding is a very important technology that has many military and commercial applications including electronic warfare, mobile communications, etc. In this presentation, we propose a novel DOA estimation technique using only two antennas, which is inspired by the human auditory system. The improved DOA estimation accuracy is domonstrated in both simulation and experiment. | ||
| Rajdeep Bondade Ma Lab | "A PLL/DLL-regulated DC-DC Power Converter for VLSI applications" Abstract: A delay-locked loop (DLL) regulated single-inductor multiple-output (SIMO) power converter is presented. It takes advantage of the fast phase locking property of a DLL to identify the SIMO converter's regulation errors between the output voltages and their corresponding references. In response to these errors, an adaptive peak current modulation technique is proposed to adjust the instantaneous duty ratios, and thus minimize the regulation errors in the converter. The DLL acquires locking within 350 ns, allowing it to respond to load dynamics promptly, which is very desirable for DVS-enabled power-efficient VLSI systems. | ||
| W Nov 4 | Murat Arabaci Djordjevic Lab | "Non-binary-LDPC-Coded Modulation Schemes Enabling Ultra High-Speed Optical Communication" Abstract: We present coded modulation schemes based on component non-binary LDPC codes and show how they can be used to enable ultra high-speed communication in optical fiber links. We compare the proposed schemes against the corresponding bit-interleaved coded- modulation (BICM) schemes from both complexity and performance standpoints, and demonstrate the dramatic improvement that proposed schemes have to offer for future forward error correction modules. | |
| Jon Dyhr Higgins Lab | "Biologically inspired models of visual speed estimation" Many insects use estimates of the angular speed of the visual image for a variety of behaviors, including flight speed control, visual odometry and depth estimation. While these behaviors have been studied extensively, we have yet to identify the underlying neuronal circuit. In this talk I will present data supporting a non-directionally sensitive, correlation-type mechanism as potentially underlying the brain's computation of the speed of the visual image. This data will come from behavioral experiments using live bumblebees and behavioral simulations using non-directionally selective motion detectors. | ||
| Deming Zhang Kostuk Lab | "Design and Fabrication of a Holographic Solar Concentrator" Abstract: Most commercial solar cells with moderate series resistance will have an efficiency gain by concentration of incident solar flux. We have designed a concentrator system using transmission holographic gratings. This concentrator system can be tailored knowing the properties of the photovoltaic material. The system can operate at low to medium concentration (2x-20x) without having active cooling and tracking of the sun. Holographic grating is fabricated with spin-coated Dichromated Gelatin(DCG) on glass substrate. Modeling and prototypes showed at least 20% increase in overall energy yield. | ||
| W Oct 21 | Amit Ashok Senior Research Scientist OCPL Lab | "When Less is More!" Abstract: Compressive sensing is an emerging area of research in the signal processing community with potential for widespread impact in the general areas of sensing and imaging. I will brifely talk about the basic theory of compressive sensing and our group's research to advance and exploit this theory to design new sensors/imagers with reduced size, complexity, power and weight requirements. | |
| Yikai Wang Ma Lab | "Medical Imaging with a Portable Ultrasound System" Abstract: An adaptive data prediction based ultrasound receiver is proposed for power-efficient high-resolution ultrasound imaging processing. The system efficiently comprises of only a LNA and a 10-bits ADC with a 8th-order linear predictor. The adaptive data prediction based ADC enhance the overall dynamic range up to 96 dB. Meanwhile, by eliminating the TGC and its controller in the conventional receiver design, the noise, distortion as well as the power consumption coming from these circuits is completely removed. Hence, a low-power high-resolution design is achieved. | ||
| Ichi Lin Higgins Lab | "A Visual Small Target Tracking System Using Live Dragonflies" Abstract: The remarkable ability of dragonflies to pursue small targets under high speed is due to their rapid processing and relaying of visual information from its brain through the ventral nerve cord (VNC) to the thoracic motor centers. Open-loop studies have revealed that among the eight target selective descending neurons (TSDNs) identified in each of the two parallel connectives of the VNC, at least one was selective for target movement in the leftward, rightward, upward, and downward directions. This project will investigate the role of these neurons in closed-loop small target tracking in a simulated environment. | ||
| Michael Valenzuela Rozenblit Lab | "Asymmetric Threat Response and Analysis Project (ATRAP) II" Abstract: Asymmetric Threat Response and Analysis Project (ATRAP), is a "cognitive amplifier," that can ingest and process more information than a human could ever read (e.g. terabytes of emails, web-pages, and reports). Visual text processing and correlation capabilities allow ATRAP to fuzzy match and extract patterns from the data. Reoccurring patterns of activity can even be used to help predict future events. Future versions will include behavioral analysis of organizations and groups designed to increase confidence in the software’s threat assessments. | ||
| W Oct 7 | Haoting Luo Prof. Louri and Prof. Wang | "Self-Organization and Self-Healing Techniques for Reliable On-Chip Networks" Abstract: Fault-tolerant approaches typically require expensive additional resources and external control, which may consume a large portion of the area and power budget for the on-chip networks. This talk introduces a self-organization and self-healing technique by using reconfigurable multi-functional blocks. This embedded fine-grained hardware can help repair the system swiftly and flexibly, thus reaching high-reliability with very little area overhead. | |
| Chen Zheng Ma Lab | "Dual-DLL-Based CMOS All-Digital Temperature Sensor for Microprocessor Thermal Monitoring" Abstract: A low-power high-resolution CMOS all-digital temperature sensor is proposed for microprocessor thermal monitoring. Dual delay-locked loops (DLLs) are employed to sense the temperature-induced delay variations. The temperature information is converted into digital domain with 8-bit resolution. An analog interpolator is also used to further improve the sensing accuracy. | ||
| Ziran Wu | "3-D Electromagnetic Crystal Based Components for THz Applications" Abstract: Research involving Terahertz (THz) spectrum has enjoyed dramatic growth in terms of technical achievement as well as commercial implementation recently. Together with a perspective of THz backgrounds, this presentation will highlight our group's research on 3-D electromagnetic crystal based THz components, including design, realization and characterization of various components, and potential applications for them. | ||
| W Sep 23 | Chuan Feng Research Asst. Professor, UA ECE, Model-Based Design Lab | "Turn-by-turn navigation for minimally invasive surgery" Abstract: To optimize the benefits of minimally invasive surgery (MIS), it is important to minimize the dangers of its requisite technology. A GPS like turn-by-turn navigation system will give surgeons additional guidance within the constrained working space. A prototype system is under development and a "smart" instrument will be introduced in the future. | |
| Mario Riojas S. Lysecky and J. Rozenbilt | "Engineering Education Outreach Work in TUSD" Abstract: Students in middle school are at a critical age where exposure to engineering can greatly impact their future education goals. Yet, the challenge remains on adapting pedagogical methods commonly used at the college level to the middle school classrooms. We are working in the development of an educational platform to enable users with no formal knowledge in programming and electronics to design and implement a variety of systems in an intuitive manner. Our work with two local middle schools shows promising results for the advancement of precollege engineering education. | ||
| Brian Fox Potter Lab | "Effects of Gamma-Radiation on Rare-Earth-Doped Optical Fibers" Abstract: Factors such as reliability and high efficiencies drive an ever-increasing demand to utilize optical fiber technology in adverse, ionizing-radiation environments. In this presentation the effect of gamma-radiation on rare-earth-doped fibers will be investigated and the underlying physical process, known as radiation-induced photodarkening, explained. | ||
| W Sep 09 | Bane Vasic Professor, UA ECE, Math | "What is Error Correction?" Abstract: We give intuition behind iterative decoding of low-density parity check codes. These codes have revolutionized digital communications and are becoming part of numerous standards. | |
| Loukas Lazos Asst. Professor, UA | "Avoiding Selective Jammers" Abstract: We explore selective jamming attacks in wireless networks, which attempt to maximize the impact on the network performance while minimizing the energy expended for jamming and the probability of detection. We pose several challenges in the realization and mitigation of selective jamming. | ||
| Jerrie Fairbanks Higgins Lab | "Brain-Computer Interfacing" We will explore a project to interface a robot with a dragon fly, and the spike sorting technique for analyzing nerve cord data. | ||
| W Aug 26 | Roman Lysecky Asst. Professor, UA ECE | "Dynamic and Autonomous Software-to-Hardware Translation for High-Performance and Low-Power Embedded Computing" Abstract: This talk will provide an overview of some of the current and future challenges of dynamic software-to-hardware translation for embedded computing systems, specifically presenting recent results in efficient non-intrusive profiling of multithreaded applications. | |
| Diyang Chu Sprinkle Lab, UA ECE | "Transition Maneuver Simulation of VTOL MAV based on Wind-Tunnel Data" Abstract: Based on wind-tunnel data, the VTOL MAV simulator is developed, which is used to search the steady state flight conditions of the MAV. Simulations are performed to investigate MAV design tradeoffs. Different control algorithms are discussed and flight test data are presented. | ||
Previous Seminars
ECE Currents, 2008-2009
| Date | Speaker | Affiliation | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | |||
| W May 6 | Dr. Kamel Didan | Research Professor, UA ECE | "NASA Earth Science Data in Support of Global Change Research" |
| Anantha Krishnan | Graduate Student Researcher, Vasic Lab | "Two-Dimensional Magnetic Recording" | |
| Hussain Al-Helal | Undergraduate Researchers, Sprinkle Lab | "UAV Search: Maximising Target Acquisition" Abstract: This talk describes analysis of optimal control techniques for simulated quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) performing search and rescue missions. Analysis of the controller and guidance laws governing the UAV are described in detail culminating in a closed form expression describing the probability of detection by camera over a certain field. | |
| W Apr 22 | Prof. Chuck Higgins | Associate Professor, UA ECE | "Hybrid Bio-Robotics" Abstract: Discussion of the lab's recent work in using living insects as sensory systems for mobile robots, including our visual experiments with hawkmoths and concluding with future plans for dragonflies. |
| Gregory M. Striemer | Undergraduate Researcher, Akoglu Lab | "Sequence Alignment with GPU: Performance and Design Challenges" Abstract: In bioinformatics, alignments are commonly performed in genome and protein sequence analysis for gene identification and evolutionary similarities. However, execution time of these algorithms on general purpose processor based systems makes it impractical for use by life scientists. In this talk we explore the architectural features of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and evaluate the challenges the hardware architecture poses, as well as the software modifications needed to map the program architecture on to the GPU. | |
| Andreas Schuster | Visiting Scholar, Sprinkle Lab, TU Berlin | "Synthesizing Experiments from Structural Models of Component-Based Systems" Abstract: In order to build complex robotics systems, software and robotics experts agree that a component-based approach is a good way to allow the reuse of working software. However, most robotics experts are not familiar with middleware programming, and middleware programmers often lack knowledge of the robotics domain domain.This talk discusses a domain-specific modeling environment that provides the features to set up robotics experiments or simulations without having to be either a robotics or middleware expert. | |
Computer Engineering Seminar, 2007-2008
In 2007-2008, the Computer Engineering Seminar was held. More information on those talks (including PDF versions of the slides) is available at CE Seminar.