ECE Seminars [Announcement: Feed no longer available after November 18th, 2015. See https://goo.gl/EMDRqe]

ECE595: Distinguished Microwave Lecture Talk

2015-10-26T00:33:53.000Z

When: Fri Apr 8, 2016 11am to 12:30pm CDT

Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Host: Danilo Erricolo

ECE 595 Seminar: Characterization of Space Shuttle Ascent Debris Based on Radar Scattering and Ballistic Properties – Evolution of the NASA Debris Radar (NDR) System by Brian M. Kent

2015-09-25T01:04:47.000Z

When: Fri Nov 20, 2015 11am to 12pm CST

Where: Lecture Center F6
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Characterization of Space Shuttle Ascent Debris Based on Radar Scattering and Ballistic Properties – Evolution of the NASA Debris Radar (NDR) System Brian M. Kent, Ph.D., Fellow of IEEE, AMTA, AFRL IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Lecturer Abstract: This is a presentation that introduces the NASA Debris Radar (NDR) system developed to characterize debris liberated by the space shuttle (and any follow-on rocket system) during its ascent into space. Radar technology is well suited for characterizing shuttle ascent debris, and is especially valuable during night launches when optical sensors are severely degraded. The shuttle debris mission presents challenging radar requirements in terms of target detection and tracking, minimum detectable radar cross-section (RCS), calibration accuracy, power profile management, and operational readiness. After setting the stage with background of the Columbia accident, I initially describe the NDR system consists of stationary C-band radar located at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and two X-band radars deployed to sea during shuttle missions. To better understand the signature of the shuttle stack, Xpatch calculations were generated at C and X band to predict the radar signature as a function of launch time. These calculations agreed very well with measured data later collected. Various sizes, shapes, and types of shuttle debris materials were characterized using static and dynamic radar measurements and ballistic coefficient calculations. The second part discusses the NASA Debris Radar (NDR) successes, which led to a new challenge of processing and analyzing the large amount of radar data collected by the NDR systems and extracting information useful to the NASA debris community. Analysis tools and software codes were developed to visualize the shuttle metric data in real-time, visualize metric and signature data during post-mission analysis, automatically detect and characterize debris tracks in signature data, determine ballistic numbers for detected debris objects, and assess material type, size, release location and threat to the orbiter based on radar scattering and ballistic properties of the debris. Future applications for space situational awareness and space-lift applications will also be discussed. Bio: Dr. Brian M. Kent is an adjunct Professor at Michigan State University, and recently retired as the Chief Scientist, Sensors Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio after serving for 37 years as a USAF Civilian. He is currently a part time engineering consultant supporting government, academic, and industrial partners related to the aerospace industry. During his tenure as Chief Scientist, he served as the directorate's principal scientific and technical adviser and primary authority for the technical content of the science and technology portfolio. He identified research gaps and analyzed advancements in a broad variety of scientific fields to advise on their impact on laboratory programs and objectives. He served as an internationally recognized scientific expert, and provided authoritarian counsel and advice to AFRL management and the professional staff as well as to other government organizations. He collaborated on numerous interdisciplinary research problems that encompass multiple AFRL directorates, customers from other DOD components, as well as the manned space program managed by NASA. Dr. Kent joined the Air Force Avionics Laboratory in 1976 as cooperative engineering student through Michigan State University. He began his career performing research in avionics, digital flight displays and radar signature measurements. Through a career broadening engineering assignment with the Directorate of Engineering, Aeronautical Systems Division, he modeled a number of foreign threat missile systems and performed offensive and defensive electronic combat systems assessments. He received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in 1979, working at both the Air Force Wright Aeronautical Laboratories and the Ohio State University Electroscience Laboratory until the completion of his doctorate. Dr. Kent spent two years in the Passive Observables Branch of the Avionics Laboratory, later transferring to the AFWAL Signature Technology Office. From 1985 to 1992, Dr. Kent was involved with classified research efforts, managed through the Air Force Wright Laboratory, now the AFRL. During his tenure with AFRL and its predecessor organizations, Dr. Kent held a variety of positions. He has made pioneering and lasting contributions to the areas of signature measurement technology, and successfully established international standards for performing radar signature testing. Dr Kent became an adjunct professor in 1998 at Michigan State University, and has served the department on the Visiting Curriculum Committee, ABET accreditation, ECE Chair Search Committee, Deans Search Committee, and Dean’s Advisory Committee. He has also participated in reforming the Senior Design Project classes, and has served for many years as a judge at the Spring and Fall Engineering “design day”. Dr. Kent has authored and co-authored more than 85 archival articles and technical reports and has written key sections of classified textbooks and design manuals. He has delivered more than 200 lectures, and developed a special DOD Low Observables Short Course that has been taught to more than 2,000 scientists and engineers since its inception in 1989. Dr. Kent has provided technical advice and counsel to a wide range of federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation, the Department of Justice and NASA's Space Shuttle Program. He is also an international technical adviser for the DOD and has provided basic research guidance to leading academic institutions. Host: Danilo Erricolo

ECE 595 Seminar: Kamal Sarabandi

2015-10-23T17:45:42.000Z

When: Fri Nov 13, 2015 11am to 1:30pm CST

Where: Lecture Center F1
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Prof. Kamal Sarabandi University of Michigan Host: Danilo Erricolo

ECE 595 Seminar: Emina Soljanin - CLOUD STORAGE SPACE VS. DOWNLOAD TIME FOR LARGE FILES

2015-09-03T13:58:58.000Z

When: Fri Nov 6, 2015 11am to 1:30pm CST

Where: Lecture Center F1
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: CLOUD STORAGE SPACE VS. DOWNLOAD TIME FOR LARGE FILES abstract: Users of cloud systems demand that their data be reliably stored and quickly accessible. Cloud providers today strive to meet these demands through over-provisioning: keeping processors ready to go at all times and replicating data over multiple servers. Special erasure codes have been designed and adopted in practice as a more storage-efficient way to provide reliability. We will show how coding reduces download time of large files, in addition to providing reliability against disk failures. For the same total storage used, coding exploits the diversity and parallelism in the system better than today's replication schemes, and hence gives faster download. We will introduce a fork-join queuing framework to model multiple users requesting their data simultaneously, and demonstrate the trade-off between the download time and the amount of storage space. At the end, we will mention several problems that arise in distributed systems when the stored data is large, changing, and expanding. bio: Emina Soljanin is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs, where she works as an information, coding, and queueing theorist. Her interests and expertise are wide. Over the past quarter of the century, she has participated in numerous research and business projects, as diverse as power system optimization, magnetic recording, color space quantization, hybrid ARQ, network coding, data and network security, and quantum information theory and networking. Dr. Soljanin served as the Associate Editor for Coding Techniques, for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, on the Information Theory Society Board of Governors, and in various roles on other journal editorial boards and conference program committees. She is a co-organizer of the DIMACS 2001-2005 Special Focus on Computational Information Theory and Coding and 2011-2015 Special Focus on Cybersecurity. Dr. Soljanin has mentored many summer interns, Ph.D. students, and postdocs, and have co-authored two monographs on network coding. She is a member of AMS and IEEE Fellow. Host: Daniela Tuninetti

ECE 595 Seminar: Subsurface Sensing and Super-Resolution Imaging: Application of Computational Acoustics and Electromagnetics by Qing Huo Liu from Duke University

2015-09-15T16:46:15.000Z

When: Fri Oct 30, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: Lecture Center F6
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Subsurface Sensing and Super-Resolution Imaging: Application of Computational Acoustics and Electromagnetics Abstract: Acoustic/seismic and electromagnetic waves have widespread applications in geophysical subsurface sensing and imaging. In these applications, often the problems of understanding the underlying wave phenomena, designing the sensing and imaging measurement systems, and performing data processing and image reconstruction require large-scale computation in acoustics and electromagnetics. It is very challenging to solve such problems with the traditional finite difference and finite element methods. In this presentation, several high-performance computational methods and super-resolution imaging in acoustics and electromagnetics will be discussed along with their applications in oil exploration and subsurface imaging. BIOGRAPHY Qing Huo Liu (S’88-M’89-SM’94-F’05) received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from Xiamen University in 1983 and 1986, respectively, and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989. His research interests include computational electromagnetics and acoustics, inverse problems, and their applications in geophysics, nanophotonics, and biomedical imaging. He has published over 300 refereed journal papers and 450 conference papers in conference proceedings, and his H-index is 45 (Google Scholar). He was with the Electromagnetics Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Research Assistant from September 1986 to December 1988, and as a Postdoctoral Research Associate from January 1989 to February 1990. He was a Research Scientist and Program Leader with Schlumberger-Doll Research, Ridgefield, CT from 1990 to 1995. From 1996 to May 1999 he was an Associate Professor with New Mexico State University. Since June 1999 he has been with Duke University where he is now a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Liu is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. Currently he serves as the inaugural Editor in Chief of the IEEE Journal on Multiscale and Multiphysics Computational Techniques, the Deputy Editor in Chief of Progress in Electromagnetics Research, an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, and an Editor for the Journal of Computational Acoustics. He was recently a Guest Editor in Chief of the Proceedings of the IEEE for a 2013 special issue on large-scale electromagnetics computation and applications. He received the 1996 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the White House, the 1996 Early Career Research Award from the Environmental Protection Agency, and the 1997 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. He serves as an IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Lecturer for 2014-2016. Host: Danilo Erricolo

ECE 595 Seminar: Spectrum Economics by Randall Berry

2015-09-08T19:54:33.000Z

When: Fri Oct 16, 2015 11am to 1:30pm CDT

Where: Lecture Center F1
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Talk: Spectrum Economics Randall Berry Professor of EECS Northwestern University Access to electromagnetic spectrum is the lifeblood of the wireless industry. This industry has seen rapid growth in demand for wireless data, which is project to continue for the next several years. Meeting the demand will require that wireless data services have access to additional spectrum. It is widely recognized that this in turn will require new approaches for spectrum management. In particular various mechanisms for sharing spectrum among multiple firms are attracting much interest. These approaches raise not only technical challenges but also can fundamentally impact the economic interactions among wireless service providers. This talk will discuss several models that seek to understand the interaction between economics and spectrum sharing technologies. Bio: Randall Berry joined Northwestern University in 2000, where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He received the M.S. and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1996 and 2000, respectively. His undergraduate education was at the University of Missouri-Rolla, where he received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1993. In 1998 he was on the technical staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the Advanced Networks Group. Dr. Berry is the recipient of a 2003 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. He is an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer for 2013-14. He has served as an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications from 2006 to 2009, and an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 2009 to 2011, in the area of communication networks. He has served on the program and organizing committees of numerous conferences including serving as the co-chair of the 2012 IEEE Communication Theory Workshop and a technical co-chair of 2010 IEEE ICC Wireless Networking Symposium. He is an IEEE Fellow. Host: Daniela Tuninetti

ECE 595 Seminar: Massive multiple access in wireless networks - Is coordination needed ? by Krishna Narayanan

2015-09-23T21:46:28.000Z

When: Fri Oct 2, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: Lecture Center F1
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Massive multiple access in wireless networks - Is coordination needed ? Krishna Narayanan Currently, there is interest in the design of multiple access schemes for large-scale wireless networks where coordination among users is difficult to acquire and maintain. This interest appears to be fueled by applications such as machine-to-machine communications, interactive satellite communications and large-scale wireless sensor networks/RFID. We are primarily interested in answering two questions in this talk - (i) how to design good random access protocols for such large-scale networks and (ii) Is there a throughput penalty due to the lack of coordination among users ? Traditional random access protocols such as slotted ALOHA suffer from a severe loss in throughput due to the lack of coordination (the throughput efficiency of slotted ALOHA is 37%). This inefficiency is primarily because collided packets are discarded in traditional slotted ALOHA. In this talk, we consider a paradigm where each user in the network transmits their packets many times according to a carefully chosen probability distribution. At the receiver, the collided packets are not discarded and an iterative collision resolution algorithm is used to recover the original packets. We will derive the optimal probability distribution in this talk and show that the throughput of slotted ALOHA can be increased to 100\%. This essentially means that there is no penalty due to the lack of coordination among users at least for the specific networks considered in this talk. We will point out interesting connections between the random multiple access problem and problems traditionally considered in coding theory as such message passing on graphs, rateless codes, raptor codes and physical layer network coding. Bio Krishna Narayanan received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1998 and since then he has been with the department of electrical and computer engineering at Texas A&M University, where he is currently a professor. His research interests are wireless networks, data storage and signal processing for big data. He was the recipient of the NSF career award in 2001. He also received the 2006 best paper award from the IEEE technical committee for signal processing for data storage for his work on soft decision decoding of Reed Solomon codes. He is a fellow of the IEEE. He has won several awards within Texas A&M university including the 2012 college level teaching award. Host: Daniela Tuninetti

ECE 595 Seminar: Research in Additive Manufacturing (AM) Processes by Yayue Pan

2015-09-10T18:30:26.000Z

When: Fri Sep 25, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: Lecture Center F1
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Research in Additive Manufacturing (AM) Processes Yayue Pan Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering University of Illinois at Chicago Abstract Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D Printing, is a class of technologies that can fabricate a physical object directly from digital data, usually in a layer-by-layer way. In spite of the recent advances in AM, some challenges remain, including the stair-stepping effect, the dilemma between build speed and resolution, limited materials and sizes. In this talk, I will present some research in addressing such challenges in Stereolithography related AM processes. First, I will introduce a controlled meniscus method, and a super-fast material recoating method, for minimizing the approximation error and build time in Projection SL system. After that, I will present the accuracy control, multi-scale and multi-material printing challenges and solutions. In addition to the layer-by-layer AM processes, I will also discuss layerless AM processes, including the Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology published by Carbon3D early this year. In the end, future research topics and applications of AM will be discussed. Biography Dr. Yayue Pan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Her research centers on Novel Additive Manufacturing Process Development, and innovative product design enabled by AM. Dr. Pan holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Southern California. Before joining UIC, Dr. Pan worked as a Research Engineer at 3D Systems Inc. Some of her recent awards include an Outstanding Paper Award in the SME 41st annual North American Manufacturing Research Conferences (NAMRC) in 2013, an Honorable Mention Paper Award in the 8th International Conference on MicroManufacturing (ICOMM) in 2013, a Best Paper Award in the ASME annual Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC) in 2012, and a National Science Foundation (NSF) fellowship in 2013. Host: Wenjing Rao

ECE 595 Seminar: Internship / Job Search Talk

2015-09-03T17:53:12.000Z

When: Fri Sep 4, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: Lecture Center F1
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Speaker: Tom Cicero Assistant Director, Engineering Career Center Abstract: In this workshop the following topics will be addressed and these questions will be answered. 1) The job/internship search process: Where should I be searching and applying? What is the most effective way to get a response after applying? Why should I be networking? 2) Interview process: How do I prepare for an interview? What questions should I ask during the interview? How do I increase my chances of getting an offer? 3) CPT/OPT process: What are the restrictions of CPT/OPT? When do I apply for CPT/OPT? Bio: Tom Cicero received his BS from Illinois State University in Public Relations. After graduating, he gained over ten years of professional experience in technical recruiting. His main focus was in the IT and telecommunications field, reviewing thousands of resumes and conducting hundreds of interviews during his time as a recruiter. He has placed engineers in companies like Boeing, Motorola, GE, AT&T and Honeywell. At the end of his career in recruiting, Tom became more interested in helping people prepare for their future careers. After receiving his MS from Northeastern Illinois University in Community Counseling, Tom joined the Engineering Career Center at UIC in the fall of 2014.

ECE Seminar: Job / Intern search topics

2015-04-16T05:06:39.000Z

When: Fri May 1, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Who: ECE Seminars
Where: Lecture Center D5
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Speaker: Tom Cicero Assistant Director, Engineering Career Center Abstract: In this workshop the following topics will be addressed and these questions will be answered. 1) The job/internship search process: Where should I be searching and applying? What is the most effective way to get a response after applying? Why should I be networking? 2) Interview process: How do I prepare for an interview? What questions should I ask during the interview? How do I increases my chances of getting an offer? 3) CPT/OPT process: What are the restrictions of CPT/OPT? When do I apply for CPT/OPT? Bio: Tom Cicero received his BS from Illinois State University in Public Relations. After graduating, he gained over ten years of experience in technical recruiting. His main focus was in the IT and telecommunications field, reviewing thousands of resumes and conducting hundreds of interviews during his time as a recruiter. He has placed engineers in companies like Boeing, Motorola, GE, AT&T and Honeywell. At the end of his career in recruiting, Tom became more interested in helping people prepare for their future careers. After receiving his MS from Northeastern Illinois University in Community Counseling last summer, Tom joined the Engineering Career Center at UIC in the fall of 2014. Host: Milos Zefran

ECE Seminar: Yury Shestopalov

2015-04-20T01:22:40.000Z

When: Thu Apr 30, 2015 5:15pm to 6:15pm CDT

Where: SEO 1000
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Numerical-analytical methods for the analysis of forward and inverse scattering by dielectric bodies in waveguides Yury Shestopalov Professor, University of Gävle, Sweden Thursday, April 30, 5:15 PM SEO 1000 851 South Morgan Street Chicago, IL 60607-7053 Host: Prof. Danilo Erricolo, derric1@uic.edu Abstract: We develop analytical and numerical techniques for the solution to inverse problems of reconstructing permittivity of homogeneous and inhomogeneous bodies in waveguides from the values of the transmission coefficient known at different frequencies. The methods employ nonlinear volume singular integral equations, operator method, and contraction mappings. For a particular family of inclusions in the form of layered dielectric parallel--‐plane diaphragms the solution to the inverse problem is obtained in a closed form. The contents of the presentation: Statement of forward problems of wave scattering and propagation in 2D and 3D waveguides with dielectric inclusions. Green's tensor function and volume singular integral equations. Statement of inverse problems of reconstructing permittivity of homogeneous and Inhomogeneous bodies. Existence, uniqueness, and solution methods employing iterations and contraction. Statement and solution of inverse problem for layered dielectric inclusions in the form of parallel--‐plane multi--‐sectional diaphragms in a waveguide of rectangular cross--section. Results of numerical simulation. Bio: Yury Shestopalov is now professor of mathematics at the University of Gävle, Sweden. He accomplished complete university career from teaching assistant to professor and department head at Moscow State University (MSU), Karlstad University and University of Gävle (since 2013). Y. Shestopalov has been continuously teaching (since 1977) all university courses in mathematics. In 1992-1993 he created and then was head of the department of computer science at the MSU Kolmogorov Advanced Education and Science Centre (AESC)—The Kolmogorov School. Y. Shestopalov organized the teaching of computer science, programming, and foundations of applied mathematics, worked out programs and basic courses, textbooks, compendiums, and course materials. As a member of Board of Advisors and then of the Board of Directors Y. Shestopalov initiated the Faculty of Higher Pedagogical Education at MSU. His main scientific results and contributions are within the following areas: spectral theory of operators and its application in mathematical methods for electromagnetics; methods of solution to inverse problems and problems with uncertain data; wave propagation in nonlinear media and nonlinear operator equations; integral equations, partial differential equations; numerical methods, optimization, applied computer codes, software and program packages. Among his recent achievements are complete description of the spectrum of waves in a broad class of inhomogeneously filled waveguides and mathematical theory of inverse waveguide problems. Y. Shestopalov has authored and co-authored five books, also published in USA and UK, more than 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals and in total more than 200 scientific works. He supervised several PhD works; among his disciples there are active professors in mathematics, applied mathematics and electrical engineering. Y. Shestopalov performs international cooperation as visiting professor and coheads international research projects with several institutions in Sweden, USA, Japan, Germany, Finland, Russia, and Ukraine. Since 1977 Y. Shestopalov organized more than 20 and participated in more than 60 international conferences and symposia; he is Vice-Chairman of Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium and Programme Committee member of several URSI conferences.

ECE Seminar: Roman Lysecky

2015-04-20T23:17:34.000Z

When: Wed Apr 29, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: SEO 1000
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Title: The SOC Whisperer Abstract: Modern processors in systems-on-a-chip (SOCs) incorporate advanced trace ports. Trace ports provide a vast information set, detailing the embedded processor’s cycle-by-cycle execution, including instruction execution, context switches, cache accesses, etc. While originally designed to efficiently log trace data in a laboratory using test equipment, these trace ports can be accessed to observe and analyze the execution behavior non-intrusively and without requiring change to the processor design. This talk provides an overview of two approaches that listen to these “whispers” to enable profiling, optimization, and verification of the system execution at runtime. First, we highlight how trace data can be utilized to profile the system execution at runtime to optimize performance and reduce power consumption. The resulting runtime optimization achieves greater performance improvements and power reductions compared to statically optimized systems. Second, we present an overview of a new method for non-intrusively detecting malware in embedded systems. Previous research has focused on devising formal models that capture system and task-level timing requirements. These timing models offer a unique opportunity to strengthen embedded system security by detecting subtle changes in the timing behavior of the system execution. We demonstrate that using such timing analysis, we can improve runtime malware detection capabilities. Bio: Roman Lysecky is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Riverside in 2005. His research interests focus on embedded systems, with emphasis on runtime optimization, embedded system security, non-intrusive system observation methods for in-situ analysis of complex hardware and software behavior, and data-adaptable systems. He was awarded the Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award from the European Design and Automation Association (EDAA) in 2006 for New Directions in Embedded Systems. He received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 2009 and four Best Paper Awards from the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Hardware-Software Codesign and System Synthesis (CODES+ISSS), the ACM/IEEE Design Automation and Test in Europe Conference (DATE), the IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Computer-Based Systems (ECBS), and the International Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous Computing, Systems, Services (UBICOMM). He is an inventor on one US patent. He has coauthored five textbooks on VHDL, Verilog, C, C++, and Java programming. His recent textbooks, published with zyBooks, utilize a web-native, interactive, and animated approach that has shown measurable increases in student learning and course grades. Host: Wenjing Rao

ECE Seminar: Marzieh Parandehgheibi from MIT

2015-02-09T14:36:46.000Z

When: Fri Apr 24, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: Lecture Center D5
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Reports from the several blackouts in the past few years show that the lack of situational awareness and communication between system operators is one of the main sources of cascading failures. Therefore, in order to avoid such blackouts in future, it is required to design a communication network that is responsible for online monitoring and control of the grid. However, this creates a strong interdependency between the power grid and communication network where the communication nodes receive their power from the grid and power grid relies on the communication network for control. While this dependence will be beneﬁcial during normal operation, it can be harmful when the networks are under stress. For example, a cascade of failures may occur where power failures can lead to communication failures, which, in turn, lead to more power failures. In this talk, we will present an online control scheme implemented by this communication network. We show that although adding this new control improves the operation of power grid, it pushes the system toward the operational margins and increases the risks of power failures in the case of communication loss. Finally, we present models for identifying the benefits and risks of adding communication network, and discuss how we can design the system to minimize the negative impacts. Bio: Marzieh Parandehgheibi is a Ph.D. candidate in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at MIT. Her research interests are mainly in Network Optimization and Control with applications in Cyber-Physical Systems, Smart Grid and Optical Communications. Marzieh has received two Master’s degrees in EECS and Operations Research from MIT in 2012, and a Bachelor’s degree in EE from Sharif University of Technology in 2009. She has been ranked 2nd in the National University Exam Entrance among more than 400,000 participants, and is the winner of several awards including the MIT Graduate Women of Excellence, MIT Neekeyfar fund award, Sharif University Dean Award, and silver medal for National Physics Olympiad. Host: Hulya Seferoglu

ECE Seminar: Besma Smida

2015-04-14T00:20:35.000Z

When: Fri Apr 17, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: SEO 1000
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Talk Title: Full-duplex wireless communication by means of reflected power Talk Abstract: One key limit to spectrum utilization efficiency involves the current practice of half-duplex communication, in which a node cannot transmit and receive on the same frequency at the same time. Some recent studies have provided experimental evidence and methodologies for full-duplex communication. However, to date, all full-duplex demonstrations have been predicated on the principle that the transmitter and the receiver must generate their own radio-carrier waves independently, which in practice results in a high level of self-interference at both nodes. This talk introduces a full-duplex wireless point-to-point communication based on reflected power. We employed backscatter modulation (BM), where electromagnetic waves are modulated and reflected by the same antenna that receives them. Within this framework, the end-user receives a signal free of self-interference. We analyzed the performance of the proposed systems and obtain an expression that captures the tradeoffs between received and backscatter power on the overall achievable throughput. Biography: Besma Smida is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University Calumet. From 2006 to 2009, she was Lecturer/Postdoctoral fellow at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University. From 1999 to 2002, she was a research engineer in the Technology Evolution and Standards group of Microcell Inc (now ROGERS Wireless), Montreal, surveying and studying radio-communication technology evolution. Dr. Smida also took part in major wireless normalization committees (3GPP, T1P1). She obtained the Ph. D. and M. Sc. from University of Quebec (INRS), Montreal, Canada, in 1998 and 2006 and the Diplome d’Ingenieur degree in telecommunications from Ecole Superieure des Communications de Tunis (SUPCOM), Tunisia. Her research work is focused in the areas of Wireless Communication Theory. She is the recipient of the Academic Gold Medal of the Governor General of Canada in 2007 and the NSF CAREER award in 2015.

Dennis Roberson, IIT

2015-03-30T15:06:07.000Z

When: Fri Apr 10, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: SEO 1000
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Title: The Case for Fixed Location Spectrum Observatory Networks Abstract: Spectrum observation has become an increasing important tool in the broader effort to more effectively manage the nation’s increasingly valuable spectrum resource. The talk includes an introduction to the topic of spectrum observation reviewing the key parameters involved in producing useful spectrum occupancy information that is tailored to meet various measurement needs. The presentation will focus on both the speaker’s experiences with fixed location Spectrum Observatory systems over the past decade and specifically those currently deployed at IIT’s Wireless Networks and Communications Research Center (WiNCom). Future goals for expanding the scope and benefit of these systems will also be discussed including an invitation for others to engage in the effort. The goal of this work is to first contribute to the understanding of spectrum usage in Chicago and through this in depth understanding to improve the efficient and effective use of spectrum in the nation and in the world.

ECE 595 Seminar: Amit Trivedi

2015-03-29T03:24:48.000Z

When: Tue Mar 31, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: SEO 1000
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Title: Low power neuromorphic computing with Tunneling Field Effect transistors (TFETs) Mr. Amit Ranjan Trivedi, Ph.D. Candidate, Georgia Institute of Technology Abstract: Electronic computing has advanced through low power platforms such as wearables and IoTs to ‘compute small and compute everywhere’ world. The next evolutionary task for these low power platforms is to facilitate seamless and natural interaction of computing devices with their users/ambience. Traditional computing paradigms lack efficiency in implementing tasks such as recognition/classification imperative for the above objective. Neuromorphic computing, a set of computing paradigms inspired by functioning of biological brain, is being investigated to bring such computing abilities in electronic devices. This talk focuses on power reduction in neuromorphic computing to make these suitable for low power sensors/system applications. This talk will discuss the role of emerging computing technology, Tunneling field-effect-transistor (TFET), in low power neuromorphic computing. Unique characteristics of TFET, such as its higher gm/IDS and lower off current, are utilized in low power energy-efficient neuromorphic computing. Furthermore, beyond a simple technology replacement, this talk will show non-conventional TFET design, where such a design builds neuromorphic circuits within a single transistor. Novel computing paradigms explore these non-conventional TFETs for area/energy-efficient neuromorphic operation. At the end, the talk also discusses how neuromorphic learning principles can be applied to reduce power of conventional digital computing designs. Bio: Amit completed his undergraduate and graduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. Amit was awarded the Academic Excellence Award by IIT Kanpur for standing among the top 5% of his peers. Following this, he was a research staff member at IBM Semiconductor Research and Development Center, where he was involved in compact modeling and characterization of advanced nanometer node transistors/processes. Since, Fall 2010, Amit is pursuing Ph.D. at Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests are in low power energy-efficient neuromorphic computing with emerging technologies, and particularly, with Tunneling field-effect-transistors. He has published more than ten journals and major conferences during his PhD studies. Amit was awarded IEEE Electron Device Society fellowship of the year, where he was one of the three recipients worldwide. Amit was a research intern at IBM T J Watson research center in summers of 2012, and Intel’s Circuit research lab in summers of 2014. Host: Dr. Shantanu Dutt

ECE Seminar: Ness Shroff from OSU

2015-02-10T01:53:51.000Z

When: Fri Mar 20, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: Lecture Center C1
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Host: Hulya Seferoglu

ECE Seminar: From VLSI to Cyber-Physical Systems: Innovations and Future Research Near the End of Scaling

2015-03-16T18:09:34.000Z

When: Wed Mar 18, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Who: ECE Seminars
Where: SEO 1000
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: By Frank Ying Liu IBM Research Austin VLSI systems are fundamental building blocks of computing platforms. Historically, scaling in CMOS technology has brought tremendous gain in performance/power of the VLSI systems. On one hand, the ubiquity of the VLIS systems has brought us not only the high-performance computers, but also the era of cyber-physical systems. On the other hand, continuous scaling itself is facing daunting technical challenges, of which variability and reliability are clear manifestations. In this talk, we will discuss efforts in addressing the scaling challenges, as well as the connections between VLSI and cyber-physical systems. Furthermore we will discuss research directions on how to achieve better performance/power for the future workloads as the scaling is slowing down.

ECE Seminar: Embedded and cyber-physical systems are used in numerous mission-critical and life-critical applications by Indranil Saha

2015-01-16T00:02:20.000Z

When: Fri Mar 13, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Where: D1 LC
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Embedded and cyber-physical systems are used in numerous mission-critical and life-critical applications Indranil Saha Abstract: Most of these systems run sophisticated control algorithms at their core in the form of embedded software. The development flow of such embedded software has two major steps: (1) mission planning from high level specification, that generates a sequence of tasks to be executed by the system, and (2) synthesis of a set of feedback controllers that regulate the system to perform the tasks, and implement them as real-time embedded software. In this talk, I will describe how automated synthesis techniques can be useful to implement these steps in developing high-assurance embedded control software. First, I will describe how one can synthesize the trajectories for a group of robots to satisfy their high-level mission specification by composing their motion primitives using an SMT solver. Second, I will describe how one can synthesize optimal performance software for the feedback controllers that regulate the robots to follow the motion primitives. I will conclude the talk by outlining several future research directions in the area of automated synthesis for embedded and cyber-physical systems. Bio: Indranil Saha is a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley and the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He participates in the project ExCAPE (Expeditions in Computer Augmented Program Engineering), one of the NSF’s Expeditions in Computing program, and in the project TerraSwarm, one of the six centers of STARnet, a Semiconductor Research Corporation program sponsored by MARCO and DARPA. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2013. Before coming to UCLA for his graduate study, he was a research scientist at Honeywell, Bangalore from 2005 to 2008. He received his Master of Technology (M.Tech.) degree in Computer Science from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata in 2005 and his Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Kalyani Govt. Engineering College, India in 2003. His research interests include embedded and cyber-physical systems, control theory, formal methods, and robotics. He was a recipient of the “Best Paper Award” at EMSOFT 2010 and a “Best Paper Nomination” at EMSOFT 2012. He received the ACM SIGBED Frank Anger Memorial Award in 2012 for his research in the intersection of embedded systems and software engineering.

ECE Seminar: Structured Sparsity: Models, Algorithms, and Applications

2015-03-02T16:46:17.000Z

When: Tue Mar 10, 2015 11am to 12pm CDT

Who: ECE Seminars
Where: ERF 1047
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Structured Sparsity: Models, Algorithms, and Applications Chinmay Hegde Abstract: Sparse representations for data have emerged as powerful tools in signal processing, statistics, and machine learning. However, signals and images encountered in practice often exhibit rich structure beyond mere sparsity. As one example, the dominant wavelet coefficients of natural images can be organized in the form of a connected tree. As another example, the nonzero pixels of a high-resolution image of the night sky occur as contiguous clusters. How do we leverage these notions of structure in large-scale data processing applications? In this talk, I will describe a general framework to capture secondary structure in sparse signals and images. The key idea lies in developing concise signal models for structured sparsity that exploit the inter-dependencies between values and locations of the signal coefficients. I will discuss techniques for constructing corresponding algorithms (with provable guarantees) for these new models. For specific models, I will show that these algorithms enjoy a (nearly) linear-time complexity, ensuring that they easily scale to massive datasets. I will discuss the impact of structured sparsity models in data sensing and inference applications. In particular, I will show that my methods enable: (i) asymptotically sample-optimal compressive sensing of natural image classes; and (ii) robust feature identification in images of the earth’s subsurface encountered in exploration geophysics. Bio: Chinmay Hegde joined the Theory of Computation (ToC) group at MIT in October 2012, where he is currently a Shell-MIT postdoctoral research associate. Prior to this, he received the B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras (India), and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rice University. Dr. Hegde is the recipient of the best student paper award in SPARS 2009, the Robert Patton award for university service in 2010, and the Ralph Budd award for best engineering thesis in Rice University in 2013. His research interests include signal and image processing, machine learning, and algorithm design.

ECE Seminar: Umesh Vaidya - Limitations and tradeoffs in control of large-scale stochastic networks

2015-02-13T04:17:04.000Z

When: Mon Mar 9, 2015 3pm to 4pm CDT

Where: SEO 1000
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Host: Sudip Mazumder Title: Limitations and tradeoffs in control of large-scale stochastic networks Analysis and control of large-scale stochastic networks is a problem of significant interest for engineering and natural science applications. Examples include electric power grid, biological networks, multi-agent systems, social networks, building systems and cyber physical systems. In this talk, we discover fundamental limitation results that arise in the control and estimation of nonlinear systems over stochastic networks. The fundamental limitation is expressed in terms of the measure theoretic entropy of the open loop system and the uncertainty statistics. The results are used to study the problem of synchronization in large-scale network systems with stochastic uncertainty in interactions. The main contribution is to provide analytical relationships for the interplay of roles played by the internal dynamics of the agents, network topology, and uncertainty statistics for network synchronization. The analytical characterization allows one to understand precise trade-off between the various network parameters necessary to achieve synchronization. In particular, for nearest neighbor networks with stochastic uncertainty in interactions, we show there exists an optimal number of neighbors with a maximum synchronization margin. Application of the results for understanding the vulnerability of power network to link-based attacks will be discussed. Brief Bio: Dr. Umesh Vaidya is Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University, Ames IA, USA. He received the PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering Department from University of California Santa Barbara, CA, USA in 2004. He was Research Engineer at United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) East Hartford, CT, USA. He is recipient of 2012 National Science Foundation CAREER award. His research interest is in the area of network controlled dynamical systems with applications to power systems, cyber physical systems, building systems, and aerospace systems.

ECE Seminar: Embedded Signal Processing via Stochastic Computing by Armin Alaghi

2015-03-02T16:52:12.000Z

When: Fri Mar 6, 2015 11am to 12pm CST

Where: LC D5
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Title: Embedded Signal Processing via Stochastic Computing Abstract: Mobile electronics are an essential part of our daily lives. With advances in the semiconductor and sensor technologies, wearable devices and medical implants are also becoming ubiquitous. The area/power constraints of such devices can be so demanding that they make conventional digital design approaches unsuitable, especially when energy efficiency is of concern. One potential alternative is to employ stochastic computing. This is a reemerging computation technique which processes data in the form of bit-streams that denote probabilities. It can implement complex operations by means of simple logic circuits. We show how efficient stochastic circuits can be designed and employed in signal processing applications. In particular, we demonstrate that the simplicity of stochastic circuits, allows massively parallel processing of images in real-time. We also show that stochastic circuits are very noise tolerant, a property that is becoming ever important as the electronic technology advances. Bio: Armin Alaghi is a PhD candidate in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Michigan. He received his Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and his Master's degree in computer architecture from the University of Tehran. He has received several awards and fellowships for his PhD research. His research interests include digital system design, embedded systems, VLSI circuits, and computer architecture.

ECE595 Seminar: Optimization Techniques for Alphabet-Constrained Signal Design by Mojtaba Soltanalian

2015-03-02T16:28:57.000Z

When: Tue Mar 3, 2015 11am to 12pm CST

Where: ERF 1047
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Faculty Candidate Seminar: Mojtaba Soltanalian Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Tuesday, March 3, 2015 11:00 a.m. ERF 1047 “Optimization Techniques for Alphabet-Constrained Signal Design” The theoretical and computational results in the field of signal design have been of interest to both engineers and mathematicians in the last decades. Signal optimization for active sensing and communications usually deals with various measures of quality (including estimation/detection and information-theoretic criteria), and moreover, the practical condition that the employed signals must belong to a limited signal set. Such diversity of design metrics and signal constraints paves the way for many interesting research works in signal optimization. We study the latest techniques facilitating signal design for optimized actuation, sensing, and communication over constrained sets. In particular, we focus on three different methodologies: (i) Alternating Projections on Converging Sets (ALPS-CS)--an alternating projections-based approach specialized for constrained alphabets; (ii) Power Method-Like Iterations--a fast approach for alphabet-constrained signal design that resembles power method; and a (iii) Monotonically Error-Bound Improving Technique for Optimization (MERIT)-- a novel optimization framework that lays the ground for obtaining computational data-dependent sub-optimality guarantees for the obtained solutions. The new guarantees typically outperform the a priori known guarantees of semidefinite relaxation (SDR)- a widely used approach for constrained signal design. Biography Dr. Mojtaba Soltanalian received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering (with applications in signal processing) under the supervision of Prof. Peter Stoica at the Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Sweden, in 2014. He is currently with California Institute of Technology. His research interests include different aspects of signal design and optimization for active sensing, communications and biology. He has been a recipient of -or supported in part by- different research grants from the European Research Council (ERC), the Swedish Research Council (VR), and Ericsson. ***Refreshments will be served*** Host: Dr. Dan Schonfeld

ECE Seminar: “The Role of mmWave In Future Wireless Systems” by Monisha Ghosh

2015-03-02T16:49:53.000Z

When: Mon Mar 2, 2015 3pm to 4pm CST

Who: ECE Seminars
Where: SEO 1000
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: “The Role of mmWave In Future Wireless Systems” As the requirements on mobile wireless data rates and user density continue to increase, the next generation of wireless systems will require more spectrum which is becoming increasingly scarce in the sub-6 Ghz bands. While solutions such as spectrum sharing are part of the solution, ultimately the need for wider channels will drive systems into the mmWave regime (30 Ghz - 300 Ghz). Hence, in the last few years, there has been growing interest in both industry and academia in developing systems in these bands. This talk will first provide an overview of the requirements of future wireless networks, followed by an examination of some of the opportunities and challenges of building systems in the mmWave bands. The issue of equalization for outdoor mmWave will then be discussed. The higher frequency-dependent path loss at these frequencies needs to be overcome by the use of high-gain directional antenna arrays at both transmitter and receiver. Due to the complexity and peak to average power ratio (PAPR) requirements of OFDM, single-carrier is being considered for the physical layer, which brings up the question of appropriate equalization. I will present a study of equalization structures specifically for a mmW outdoor system, using realistic ray tracing simulation software to generate multipath channels depending on the transmit and receive antenna beam-widths. This will be followed by a comparison of decision feedback equalization (DFE) with linear equalization (LE) for these channels that demonstrates that in an urban multipath environment the use of DFEs can offer significant gains even with very narrow antenna beams, while the gains are smaller in a suburban environment with less multipath. Biography Dr. Monisha Ghosh has been at InterDigital since 2012 working on research and standardization for next generation cellular and Wi-Fi systems. From 1999 to 2011, she was a Principal Member of Research Staff at Philips Research working on various wired and wireless systems, most recently on cognitive radio for the TV White Spaces with significant contributions to standards such as IEEE 802.22 and Ecma 392 as well as building prototypes and involvement in developing White Spaces regulation. From 1998 to 1999 she was at Bell Laboratories, working on wireless cellular systems. From 1991 to 1998 she was a Senior Member of Research Staff in the Video Communications Department at Philips Research where she had significant contributions in building early HDTV receivers. She received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1991 from the University of Southern California and a B.Tech in ECE from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1986. Her research interests include estimation, error correction, and signal processing for communication systems. She is a Fellow of the IEEE.

ECE Seminar Series: 3-D Nanotechnology Fabric for Future Integrated Circuits

2015-02-27T02:19:26.000Z

When: Fri Feb 27, 2015 11am to 12pm CST

Where: Lecturer Center D1
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: Mr. Mostafizur Rahman Integrated circuits (ICs) are at the core of the socio-economic development in the 21st century. Continuous scaling of the underlying CMOS fabric architecture has been the major catalyst in miniaturization of ICs. However, as we are entering sub-20nm technologies, scaling of CMOS is becoming very difficult as devices are reaching their fundamental limits and interconnection bottleneck is dominating operational power and performance. Scaling woes are exacerbated by growing manufacturing concerns. In my talk, I will present a new 3-D nanotechnology fabric that solves nanoscale challenges and can achieve orders of magnitude benefits over projected scaled CMOS. Its key innovations are in its architected features for fine-grained 3-D integration, the 3-D circuit styles, 3-D connectivity, and intrinsic heat management scheme. I will discuss key aspects of this fabric, and highlight its potential through large-scale 3-D circuit examples (e.g., microprocessor, high bit-width arithmetic circuits) we designed. I will present our bottom-up evaluation methodology, ranging from theoretical studies to simulations and experimental prototyping. I will highlight key progress in experimental demonstration of the device concept, as well as key fabric manufacturing steps. I will also touch upon other nanoscale post-CMOS computing directions that I have participated in over the years using emerging devices. Mr. Mostafizur Rahman is a PhD candidate in Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He works as a research assistant in the Nanoscale Computing Fabrics laboratory (http://www.umass.edu/nanofabrics/). His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and conferences including IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology (TNANO), ACM Journal on Emerging Computing (JETC), Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing (JPDC), IEEE/ACM International Conference on Nanoscale Architectures (NANOARCH 2011-2014), and IEEE Nanotechnology conference 2011 (IEEENANO). He is the Publication Chair for NANOARCH 2015. He is also a reviewer for IEEE TNANO, ACM JETC, JPDC, NANOARCH and other publications. He received several awards including IEEE NANOARCH 2014 and 2013 Best Paper awards, and 2nd prize in the UMASS entrepreneurship contest in 2011. He received his Bachelor of Computer Engineering from North South University, Bangladesh in 2008. His research interests are related to theoretical and experimental explorations of emerging nanoscale-computing foundations. In particular, he is focusing on 3-D post-CMOS computing, nanoscale VLSI, emerging volatile and non-volatile memory designs, neuromorphic computing, and related nanoscale fabrication and characterization approaches.