Undergraduate Research Projects

The following descriptions are undergraduate projects that are taking place in Electrical and Computer Engineering labs.(revised summer 2007)

Project Title:On-Chip Substrate Noise Suppression Using Clock Randomization Methodology

Description:Substrate noise coupling has become one of the challenges in designing high-precision, high-performance mixed-signal circuits. The analog and digital portion of the mixed-signal circuit commonly share the same power supply and ground lines, which in turn opens up conductive paths for the digital switching noise to propagate into the sensitive analog circuit affecting its performance. The measurements have shown that the spectra of the substrate and power supply noise contain strong discrete tones that are concentrated at integer multiples of the system clock frequency. This research project is focused on developing a clock randomization methodology in order to suppress these noise spectral spikes. We propose to randomize the system clock. As a result of such a random switching, the simultaneous switching activities will be spread compared with those in single periodic clock designs. The spectral spikes of the substrate and power supply noise induced by the high-speed switching activities will hence endure a spectrum spread and their magnitudes will decrease. In this project we use a standard data acquisition and processing unit that consist of a Sigma-delta ADC followed by the DSP that performs a Fourier analysis of the data acquired by the ADC. The ADC and DSP units share the same power supply and ground lines such that the ADC is directly exposed to the digital switching noise. As part of the project, we plan to evaluate the performance of the ADC + DSP system driven by the random clock and compare the performance with the standard (periodic) system clock case.

Contacts: Zeljko Ignatovic

Students: David Heaton

Project Title: SENSORs project "Being There": User-centric Wireless Image-based Sensor Networks.

Description: The research will focus on different aspects of the image-based sensor network project. The students will continue on-going work on interfacing an analog camera with the MoteIV Tmote Sky motes, further refining the camera-motes and enabling low resolution images to be transmitted wirelessly over the low data rate IEEE 802.15.4 radios. In addition, the students will explore simple pixel-domain compression techniques, such as ADPCM, to reduce the time to transmit an image, and they will explore the effects of channel noise on the received images. They will also research different medium access control protocols for enabling multiple camera-motes to operate simultaneously.

Contacts: Mark Bocko, Wendi Heinzelman, Zeljko Ignatovic, Gaurav Sharma

Students: Kyle Aures, Jian (Johnny) Chen, and Iain Marcuson

Project Title:  Protocol Architectures for Multi-media Radios

Description: This research involves putting together an end-to-end demonstration system that shows clearly the per-user performance achievable using our TRACE framework for real-time voice and video tranmission in a mobile ad hoc network. The goal of this system is to demonstrate a complete voice or video system that illustrates the video or voice quality that each individual user obtains in the TRACE network. This demonstration platform will aid in the analysis of the trade-offs among several metrics when varying certain parameters in the TRACE protocols, and the student will perform experiments to correlate the quantitative data we already have with this new qualitative data.

Contacts: Wendi Heinzelman

Students: Steven Wik

Project Title:Automatic real-time distance-finding for human interactions

Description: The student will continue our work on developing mote-based ultrasound and RF-based solutions for automatic distance finding between two participants in a human interaction study. The goal of the project is to develop original algorithms to find distance using these methods and to test and quantify their effectiveness in a real setting. Furthermore, the students will develop Bluetooth-based voice analysis systems to automatically detect emotion in study participants.

Contacts: Wendi Heinzelman

Students: Kyle Aures, Jian (Johnny) Chen and Sarah Rosenstein

Project Title: Cross-layer Design for Sensor Management in Wireless Sensor Networks

Description:The students will continue our work on sensor management protocols and cross-layer design for wireless sensor networks. Specific tasks include comparing the performance of several layer-fusion protocols with layered protocols that employ information sharing, utilizing our new architecture called X-lisa, determining the result of parameter changes in existing cross-layer protocols, and performing experiments with these protocols on the motes.

Contacts: Wendi Heinzelman

Students: Steven Wik and Sarah Rosenstein

Project Title: Design, construct, & test a 3F square wave relay driver for microfluidic device applications

Description: An enrolled undergraduate ECE major is sought to help design, build, and test a 3F digital waveform generator that uses an input timing pulse train from a standard signal generator to produce three (3) voltage outputs having a 3F timing relation. These phased signals will drive a set of reed relays to control voltages fed to microelectrode arrays for electric field transport of droplets in a microfluidic device. The work is heavily lab-oriented and the student will be expected to show independence and resourcefulness.

Minimum requirements: rising Jr. or Sr. ECE major with grade of B or higher in ECE112 (or equiv.); strong recommendation from an ECE faculty member.

Faculty supervisor: TB Jones position filled by Brian Chia, ECE major, class of 2008

Project Title: FEM simulation

Minimum requirements: rising Jr. or Sr. majoring in engineering or physical science; strong recommendation from a U of R faculty member.

Faculty supervisor: TB Jones position filled by Steven Ivancic, ME major, class of 2008

Project Title: Room temperature and cryogenic Electrical measurements of ballistic transport devices

Description: This is one aspect of a research project in its early stages, to develop a new type of electronics based upon ballistic transport in nano-structures. Extensive measurements to characterize these devices are required at room temperature and cryogenic temperatures (77 K and 4.2 K). This includes Hall measurements in sub-Tesla magnetic fields.

Faculty Supervisor: Marc Feldman

Students: Aaron Westcott

Project Title: Physics REU Program

Faculty Supervisor: Roman Sobolewski

Student: Kishore Padmaraju, ECE/Physics double major

Project Title: Ballistic Deflection Transistors (BDT) simulator

Faculty Supervisor: Paul Ampadu

Student: Dennis Huo, ECE/CS double major