ECE Theses and Dissertations
Recent Submissions
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ShuFFLE: Automated Framework for HArdware Accelerated Iterative Big Data Analysis
(2014-10-22)This thesis introduces ShuFFLE, a set of novel methodologies and tools for automated analysis and hardware acceleration of large and dense (non-sparse) Gram matrices. Such matrices arise in most contemporary data mining; they are hard to handle because of the complexity of known matrix transformation algorithms and the inseparability of non-sparse ... -
A Data and Platform-Aware Framework For Large-Scale Machine Learning
(2015-04-24)This thesis introduces a novel framework for execution of a broad class of iterative machine learning algorithms on massive and dense (non-sparse) datasets. Several classes of critical and fast-growing data, including image and video content, contain dense dependencies. Current pursuits are overwhelmed by the excessive computation, memory access, and ... -
Client Beamforming for Rate Scalability of MU-MIMO Networks
(2015-04-24)The multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology allows an AP with multiple antennas to simultaneously serve multiple clients to improve the network capacity. To achieve this, the AP leverages zero-forcing beamforming (ZFBF) to eliminate the intra-cell interference between served clients. However, current MU-MIMO networks suffer from two fundamental problems ... -
Compressive Sensing in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Imaging
(2015-04-16)Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine functional imaging modality, applicable to several clinical problems, but especially in detecting the metabolic activity (as in cancer). PET scanners use multiple rings of gamma ray detectors that surround the patient. These scanners are quite expensive (1-3 million dollars), therefore a ... -
Inference by Reparameterization using Neural Population Codes
(2015-12-04)Behavioral experiments on humans and animals suggest that the brain performs probabilistic inference to interpret its environment. Here we present a general-purpose, biologically plausible implementation of approximate inference based on Probabilistic Population Codes (PPCs). PPCs are distributed neural representations of probability distributions ... -
High resolution light field capture using GMM prior and sparse coding
(2014-10-07)Light fields, being inherently a 4D function cannot be mapped onto the 2D sensor in a single image without loosing out on resolution. A natural way to overcome this barrier is to capture multiple images to record the light field. However, this method only works for static scenes, therefore the resolution problem stays unresolved, it only gets transformed ... -
Controlling Race Conditions in OpenFlow to Accelerate Application Verification and Packet Forwarding
(2014-10-24)OpenFlow is a Software Defined Networking (SDN) protocol that is being deployed in critical network systems. SDN application verification takes an important role in guaranteeing the correctness of the application. Through our investigation, we discover that application verification can be very inefficient under the OpenFlow protocol since there are ... -
Linkify: A Web-Based Collaborative Content Tagging System for Machine Learning Algorithms
(2014-12-03)Automated tutoring systems that use machine learning algorithms are a relatively new development which promises to revolutionize education by providing students on a large scale with an experience that closely resembles one-on-one tutoring. Machine learning algorithms are essential for these systems, as they are able to perform, with fairly good ... -
Methods for Ripple Detection and Spike Sorting During Hippocampal Replay
(2015-09-21)In the rat hippocampus, fast oscillations termed sharp wave ripples and an associated sequential firing of neurons, termed replay, have been identified as playing a crucial role in memory formation and learning. The term 'replay' is used since the observed spiking encodes patterns of past experiences. To determine the role of replay in learning and ... -
mobileVision: A Face-mounted, Voice-activated, Non-mydriatic "Lucky" Ophthalmoscope
(2014-12-11)mobileVision is a portable, robust, smartphone-based ophthalmoscopy system intended to reduce the barriers to ocular pathology screening in developing and underserved regions. Through smartphone integration and ergonomic design, the system demonstrates automatic compensation for patient refractive error, voice-activated multi-shot retinal image ... -
Imaging Plasmons with Compressive Hyperspectral Microscopy
(2015-04-23)With the ability of revealing the interactions between objects and electromagnetic waves, hyperspectral imaging in optical microscopy is of great importance in the study of various micro/nano-scale physical and chemical phenomena. The conventional methods, however, require various scanning processes to acquire a complete set of hyperspectral data ... -
Indelible Physical Randomness for Security: Silicon, Bisignals, Biometrics
(2014-11-11)In this thesis, I investigate the nature and properties of several indelible physical randomness phenomena. I leverage these indelible statistical properties to design robust and efficient security systems. Three different phenomena are discussed in this thesis: randomness in biosignals, silicon chips, and biometrics. In the first part, I present a ... -
Virtual Ring Buffer for Camera Application Concurrency
(2015-01-26)Smartphones with integrated cameras have inspired a growing number of real- time, computer vision applications. Existing camera software architectures, however, do not support concurrency: only one application accesses the image stream at any time. A naive solution that makes a copy of every image for every application is inherently ine cient. Towards ... -
Imaging and Visual Classification by Knowledge-Enhanced Compressive Imaging
(2015-09-10)Compressive imaging is a technology that uses multiplexed measurements and the sparsity of many natural images to efficiently capture and reconstruct images. The compressive single pixel camera is one embodiment of such an imaging system and has proven capable of imaging static images, dynamic scenes, and entire hyperspectral datacubes using fewer ... -
GPU Accelerated Reconfigurable Detector and Precoder for Massive MIMO SDR Systems
(2015-12-02)We present a reconfigurable GPU-based unified detector and precoder for massive MIMO software-defined radio systems. To enable high throughput, we implement the linear minimum mean square error detector/precoder and further reduce the algorithm complexity by numerical approximation without sacrificing the error-rate performance. For efficient GPU ... -
Wafer-scale films of aligned single-wall carbon nanotubes: preparation, characterization, and optoelectronic applications
(2015-11-20)Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are one-dimensional materials defined by a cylindrical and hollow structure with aspect ratios of up to 10^7:1. Individual SWCNTs have been shown to possess excellent electric, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties that are promising for electronic and optoelectronic device applications. However, when they ... -
Full-duplex Wireless with Large Antenna Arrays
(2015-12-03)To meet the growing demand for wireless data, base stations with very large antenna arrays are being deployed in order to serve multiple users simultaneously. Concurrently, there is growing interest in full-duplex operation. The challenge to full-duplex is suppressing the high-powered self-interference caused by transmitting and receiving at the same ... -
WrAP: Hardware and Software Support for Atomic Persistence in Storage Class Memory
(2015-04-23)In-memory computing is gaining popularity as a means of sidestepping the performance bottlenecks of traditional block-based storage devices. However, the volatile nature of DRAM makes these systems vulnerable to system crashes, while the need to continuously refresh massive amounts of passive memory-resident data increases power consumption. Emerging ... -
Molecular Plasmonics: Graphene Plasmons in the Picoscale Limit
(2015-08-20)Doped graphene supports surface plasmons in the mid- to far-infrared that are both electrically and spatially tunable. Graphene has been shown to enable greater spatial confinement of the plasmon and fewer losses than typical noble metals. Reduced-dimensional graphene structures, including nanoribbons, nanodisks, and other allotropes including ... -
SocialSync: Sub-Frame Synchronization in a Smartphone Camera Network
(2014-09-17)SocialSync is a sub-frame synchronization protocol for capturing images simultaneously using a smartphone camera network. By synchronizing image captures to within a frame period, multiple smartphone cameras, which are often in use in social settings, can be used for a variety of applications including light field capture, depth estimation, and free ...
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