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X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://ece.northeastern.edu
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230302T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230302T100000
DTSTAMP:20260626T220629
CREATED:20230223T212222Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230223T212222Z
UID:6150-1677747600-1677751200@ece.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Matthew Schinault's PhD Proposal Review
DESCRIPTION:“Development of A Large-Aperture 160-Element Coherent Hydrophone Array System for Instantaneous Wide Area Ocean Acoustic Sensing” \nAbstract: \nA large aperture coherent hydrophone towed array system comprising of 160 elements and an aperture length of 192 meters has been developed for real-time instantaneous wide-area ocean acoustic remote sensing and monitoring. The design and manufacture of these arrays requires a multidisciplinary approach to achieve acoustic performance capable for detection\, classification\, localization and tracking. Drawing from disciplines such as material science\, electrical engineering\, mechanical engineering\, hydrodynamics\, oceanography\, bioacoustics and signal processing. Due to the cost and complexity of towed array technology\, development of large aperture towed arrays has been limited at the university level. With military\, oil and gas exploration as the chief technology developers and users. The military and commercial focus is narrow and does not allow for scientific study\, resulting in significant gaps in the way we understand ocean acoustics around the globe. Here we model\, design\, fabricate and field test a broadband array for general ocean sensing that is configured to support a wide range of research to include study of marine mammals\, fish shoals\, geophysical processes\, surface or subsea man-made craft\, seismic surveying and the various challenges associated with detection\, classification and localization of underwater sound sources. \nHere\, we present the design process\, beginning with modeling and measurement of piezoelectric material properties. This allows us to perform finite element analysis\, estimating beampatterns and frequency response with a hydrophone electrical model. A pressure to voltage input model of the hydrophone is used to obtain the voltage levels produced to then configure amplification\, gain and filter stages providing a system level transfer function from analog to digital conversion. The array performance with a delay and sum beamformer is estimated for a broad range of frequencies\, with beamforming above half-lambda spacing. The components of the mechanical tow package are modeled to inform array construction estimating vibration and flow noise. A turbulent boundary layer model for flow noise estimation and environmental noise model determines the gains and cutoff frequencies necessary for performance. The comprehensive performance model is compared with a parameter estimation from test data to quantify array performance. \nTowed arrays are subject to environmental extremes\, with time at sea being costly. To increase the reliability\, the array is designed using field replaceable pressure tolerant components including hydrophones\, pre-amplifiers\, power modules\, telemetry and analog to digital conversion units. All components are verified by pressure chamber testing to ensure operation at depth. This large aperture array was able to be made without specialized facilities by utilizing modular interchangeable array interconnects allowing for conventional array populating and oil-filling methods with aperture lengths that are serviceable onboard research vessels. Array design\, fabrication and assembly was performed on-site at Northeastern University in Boston\, Massachusetts. Examples of passive acoustic data from array deployment during a sea trial in the U.S. Northeast coast are presented illustrating array capabilities. \nCommittee: \nProf. Purnima Ratilal Makris (Advisor)\nProf. Marvin Onabajo\nProf. Yongmin Liu\nDr. Alessandra Tesei
URL:https://ece.northeastern.edu/event/matthew-schinaults-phd-proposal-review/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230303T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230303T110000
DTSTAMP:20260626T220629
CREATED:20230223T212329Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230223T212329Z
UID:6152-1677837600-1677841200@ece.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Guanying Sun's PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:“Optimizing Reconstruction for Mm-Wave Body Scanner Imaging” \nCommittee: \nProf. Carey Rappaport (Advisor) \nProf. Edwin Marengo \nProf. Jose Martinez-Lorenzo \nAbstract: \nIn the past decades\, due to evolving threats\, passenger screening has become an important secure measure at airport and other secure locations. Numerous passenger screening techniques have been developed by researchers in both academia and industry to detect threats from explosives and weapons. Among these developments\, the multistatic mm-wave radar Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) system was developed at Northeastern University. A problem with this system is the sidelobes from its physical limitations\, such as the finite aperture extent and the violation of the Nyquist sampling criterion by the sparse array. Therefore\, it is important to suppress the sidelobes so that to improve the quality of the reconstruction image. In this proposal\, we investigate two categories of methods\, one is based on post-processing\, and the other is based on system configuration optimization. In the former category four methods are developed\, while in the latter two methods are proposed. \nIn the first category\, the first method is the phase coherence method which is designed to weight the coherent sum based on the phase diversity of the reconstructed solutions for different transmitters. In this method\, two ways are considered to construct the Phase Coherence Factor (PCF). The first way is to use the information of wrapped phase\, and the second way is to use the information of unwrapped phase\, which is more intuitive than the first way. The second method is the coherence factor related method. Three coherence-factor based methods are analyzed and then incorporated into the imaging procedure of our nearfield millimeter-wave radar security scanning system. The third method is the SNR-dependent coherence factor method\, which takes SNR into consideration when forming the coherence factor. This method can generate better results than the pure coherence-factor based methods by choosing a proper set of parameters. The fourth method is the block-weighting algorithm where the neighbor weight amplifies bright areas and attenuates dark areas\, while the block keeps the influence local. The effectiveness of these methods has been verified with both simulation and measurement data. \nIn the second category\, the first method is optimizing receiver positions via PSF-based multi-objective optimization. Two metrics for measuring image quality of the PSF are proposed and defined as objective functions. The solution-selection metric is introduced to select the desired solution from the numerous Pareto-optimal solutions. Simulation shows that the optimized receiver design generates images with lower sidelobe level than the uniform receiver design. The second method is the dual-frequency radar design\, where a dual frequency\, wideband antenna array is designed by combining a high frequency subarray with a low frequency subarray. The image of the dual frequency array is obtained by multiplying the images of the two subarrays. We analyzed the amplitude of the PSF theoretically and proposed a criterion for the selection of dual frequency array design. The system imaging simulation shows that the grating lobes are significantly reduced for the dual frequency array with fewer radar modules/elements than the conventional array. This design will make the new generation system superior to the conventional scanning system.
URL:https://ece.northeastern.edu/event/guanying-suns-phd-dissertation-defense/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230303T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230303T153000
DTSTAMP:20260626T220629
CREATED:20230227T195344Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230227T195344Z
UID:6157-1677852000-1677857400@ece.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Kerem Enhos' PhD Proposal
DESCRIPTION:“Software-Defined Inter-medium Visible Light Communication and Underwater Acoustic Networks” \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Tommaso Melodia (Advisor)\nProf. Kaushik Chowdhury\nProf. Stefano Basagni\nDr. Emrecan Demirors \nAbstract:\n“Multi-Domain Operations” paradigm has been receiving significant attention both in military and civilian worlds. To realize this novel paradigm\, it is imperative to establish robust communication links to transfer data between devices operating in multiple domains. However\, as of today\, establishing high data rate\, robust\, secure\, and bi-directional communication links between aerial and underwater assets across the air-water interface is still an open problem. We address these challenges with software-defined visible light networking to establish bi-directional wireless links through the air-water interface. After generating a simulation model for inter-medium communication channel\, we also empirically derived an optimal parameter selection for carrierless amplitude and phase (CAP) modulation. Then\, we design and prototype a software-defined visible light  communication (VLC) modem and conducted extensive experimental evaluation. Apart from inter-medium communication\, software-defined networking can also be leveraged for underwater acoustic communication (UWAC)\, where we designed and assessed coexistence of multi-dimensional chirp spread spectrum (MCSS) with other UWAC schemes. We first evaluated the performance of the proposed communication scheme in a heterogeneous network setting  where it co-exists with a ZP-OFDM communication link\, then in a homogeneous network setting where all links are using MCSS scheme. Finally\, we used  this software-defined networking system to implement a single-input  multiple-output (SIMO) system for UWAC modems that are  deployed in a  distributed manner. Then\, we conduct a thorough experimental evaluation in  ocean environment for various subcarrier bandwidths and constellations  using three distributed receivers.
URL:https://ece.northeastern.edu/event/kerem-enhos-phd-proposal/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230315T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230315T153000
DTSTAMP:20260626T220629
CREATED:20230315T181507Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230315T181507Z
UID:6210-1678888800-1678894200@ece.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Sadjad Asghari Esfeden's PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:“Spatiotemporal Localization of Object Handover for Human Robot Collaboration” \nCommittee Members: \nProf. Deniz Erdogmus (Advisor) \nProf. Taskin Padir \nProf. Eugene Tunik \nProf. Mathew Yarossi \nAbstract: \nHuman-robot interaction in a physical world like handover of objects requires perception systems to be efficient in localizing the object of interest. We propose an approach to estimate the location of the object with a low-cost RGB camera in a real-time inference for human-robot handover. While handover can take place in a short amount of time\, it is important for a robot to keep track of the object and fill in the gaps of missing detections in the perception module\, especially when the object is partially or completely occluded. A robot needs to proactively detect and track the object since the human decides where and when to transfer the object to the robot in a human to robot object handover.  In order to develop a perception system for robot to be capable of constantly localizing the object and predict its location and time of transfer\, we integrate an object detection algorithm with a tracking framework. The evaluation of this pipeline shows promising results for the goal of localization and tracking of the handover object and can help its location prediction in future.
URL:https://ece.northeastern.edu/event/sadjad-asghari-esfedens-phd-dissertation-defense/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230322T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230322T190000
DTSTAMP:20260626T220629
CREATED:20230131T012350Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230131T012350Z
UID:6072-1679508000-1679511600@ece.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:PlusOne Information Session
DESCRIPTION:LEARN ABOUT THE PLUSONE ACCELERATED MASTER’S DEGREE PROGRAM \nA master’s degree can provide you an additional level of expertise in an area aligned with your career goals. As a currently enrolled Bachelor of Science (BS) student in the College of Engineering at Northeastern\, you have the opportunity to earn a Master of Science degree (MS) in an accelerated time period with the PlusOne program. Once accepted into the program in an approved PlusOne pathway\, which is a BS and MS PlusOne combination\, you can earn an MS degree with\, in most cases\, just one extra year of study beyond your undergraduate degree program. \nIn this virtual information session\, College of Engineering undergraduate and graduate academic advisors will provide an overview of the PlusOne program to give you the knowledge and next steps to take advantage of the program if you choose. \nWHAT YOU WILL LEARN: \n\nWhat is PlusOne\nBenefits of the program\nEligibility\nCo-op considerations\nFinancial considerations\nSelecting your pathway\nAcademic advising resources\nTimeline to apply\nThe application process\nCourse registration\nTransitioning to graduate school\n\nZoom
URL:https://ece.northeastern.edu/event/plusone-information-session-4/
ORGANIZER;CN="Graduate School of Engineering":MAILTO:coe-gradadmissions@northeastern.edu
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