ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING TODAY

Scott Stoller, a master's student studying electrical engineering here at Boise State, is scheduled to present his thesis Novel Memristor Based True Random Number Generator on Friday, October 9 at 10 AM. The memristor is the fourth fundamental circuit element. A true random number generator is designed using a memristor device to capture entropy. This thesis discusses the design, fabrication, and characterization of the novel memristor-based TRNG. SPEAKER BIO |  Scott Stoller graduated from Texas A&M University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He moved to Boise after graduation where began work as a NAND Integration Product Engineer at Micron.  Stoller is now in his final semester of study at Boise State. Stoller is supported in his thesis research by ECE professor Dr. Kris Campbell and his supervisory committee, Drs. Barney and Cantley. This is a remote presentation.    Tune in using this link

ECE doctoral candidate Al-Amin Ahmed Simon was recently granted access to the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) as part of a Rapid Turnaround Experiment aimed at developing a better temperature sensor. The NSUF is a program established by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy for the purpose of accelerating nuclear power research. Specifically, they seek to understand how radiation affects existing and proposed reactor materials over time. Al-Amin and his collaborators have been developing sensors made for high-radiation environments. His team includes ECE masters student Lyle Jones, Dr. Isabella Van Rooyen from the Idaho National Lab, and Dr. Maria Mitkova, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boise State. Al-Amin's research will provide reliability data about a new type of printed temperature sensor, which utilizes the phase-change property of chalcogenide glass.  Ultimately, this research will lead to an improved ability to measure temperatu...

Adam Croteau is pursuing his master of science in electrical and computer engineering at Boise State University.  Join us at 10 AM on Friday, July 10 , for a presentation of Croteau's thesis  Design and Characterization of Low-Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Arrays for Killing and Removing Bacterial Biofilms.   Image of a Floating Plasma Line Cold atmospheric pressure (CAP) plasma has found novel uses in the electronics, medical, and food processing industries. CAP devices that can remove or etch away bacterial biofilm are free from harmful cleaning chemicals and completely renewable. Devices such as these represent the next step in medical and agricultural sanitation and disinfection and are currently under testing and optimization at Boise State University.  Image of a Plasma Array This research highlights the current state-of-the-art in dielectric barrier discharge CAP devices at Boise State. Single line discharge devices and plasm...

ECE PhD Candidate Sumedha Dahl to present her dissertation The Effect of Radiation on Memristor-Based Electronic Spiking Neural Networks  on Wednesday, June 10. Spiking neural networks are designed to learn spatio-temporal patterns representing 25 and 100-pixel characters. Two-terminal resistive memory devices (memristors) are used as synapses to manipulate conductivity paths in the network. Spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) learning behavior results in pattern learning and is achieved using biphasic shaped pre- and post-synaptic spikes. A TiO2 based non-linear drift model in Verilog-A is used to implement memristor behavior and is modified to include experimentally observed effects of state-altering, ionizing, and off-state degradation radiation on the device. Effects of state-altering radiation on the STDP learning rule, system stability, and pattern learning ability of the spiking neural network are observed. In general, radiation interaction events distort the STDP learn...

ECE PhD Candidate Nishatul Majid to present his dissertation Design of an Offline Handwriting Recognition System Tested on the Bangla and Korean Scripts  on Monday, April 27. This dissertation presents a flexible and robust offline handwriting recognition system that is tested on the Bangla and Korean scripts. Offline handwriting recognition is one of the most challenging and yet to be solved problems in machine learning. While a few popular scripts (like Latin) have received a lot of attention, many other widely used scripts (like Bangla) have seen very little progress. Features such as connectedness, vowels structured as diacritics make it a challenging script to recognize. A simple and robust design for offline recognition is presented which not only works reliably but also can be used for almost any writing system. The framework has been rigorously tested for Bangla and demonstrated how it can be transformed to apply to other scripts through experiments on the Korean script...

ECE PhD Candidate Shelton Jacinto to present his dissertation Towards Hybrid Quantum-Classical Ciphersuite Primitives April 6 at 11 AM. With the dawn of quantum computing in scale, current secure classical primitives are at risk. Protocols with an immediate risk of breach are those built on the advanced encryption standard (AES) and Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) algorithms. To secure classical data against a quantum adversary, a secure communications ciphersuite must be developed. The ciphersuite developed in this work contains components that do not necessarily rely on quantum key distribution (QKD), due to recent insecurities found when a QKD-based protocol is faced with a quantum eavesdropper. A set of quantum-classical ciphersuite primitives were developed using less common mathematical methods where a quantum adversary will take a non-deterministic polynomial-time to find a solution, but still easy enough for communicating classical computers to evaluate. The methods util...

Congrats to ECE PhD candidate Muhammad Kamran Latif who was recognized with an honorable mention for Outstanding Graduate Student at the annual International Graduation Celebration hosted by Boise State's Center for Global Education this week. In 2013, Muhammad Kamran Latif earned a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan. Kamran spent a year working as an embedded software developer before moving to Boise to earn his Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering (MSECE). Kamran's thesis research focused on the applications of power electronics in power systems and using computer engineering to improve smart grids. After completing his MSECE in 2017, Kamran stayed at Boise State, this time working on his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Said Ahmed-Zaid (advisor) and Dr. Nader Rafla (co-advisor). Kamran's doctoral research involved the development of a device that helps to mitigate voltage...

Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) are a way for students to earn academic credits for working alongside faculty on ambitious multi-semester research and community projects.  The College of Innovation and Design recently sponsored an event to showcase current VIP and Maker Lab projects.  Two teams including ECE students and faculty participated. The VIP Plasma team  (pictured above) is led by ECE professor Jim Browning and Chemistry professor Ken Cornell.  The team's focus is on the applications of plasma as a sterilization technique.  Research is aimed at developing cold atmospheric pressure plasma to kill and remove bacteria and biofilms from wounds, food, and food processing equipment. Transdisciplinary Plasma Team at 2019 VIP Showcase from the left - Rachael Neckels, Ken Cornell, Madison Sullivan, Brett Nelson, Adam Croteau, Amanda White The VIP Audio Signal Processing team  (Dr. Jenny Smith, Justin Stadlbauer ,  German Barcenas, and ...

Students Setting up a Tetrahedron Sensor Structure to Monitor Gunshot in Field Tests Left to right: Grady Anderson, John Viera, Ian McLennan Field tests are underway for a transdisciplinary research team at Boise State. Led by professor of electrical and computer engineering Dr. Sin Ming Loo, and geosciences professor Dr. HP Marshall, the team is working to develop a competitively-priced, self-contained system with the ability to pinpoint infrasound. What on earth is infrasound? Much like the light spectrum which ranges beyond human perception (e.g. infrared), sound is also a spectrum. Infrasound refers to those sound waves with frequencies below the lower limit of human hearing. This month, the team is testing their work at Black's Creek Public Shooting Range. Special thanks to Don Sturtevant and John Keane for their help at the Black's Creek facility.  Spending a sunny day at a shooting range sounds like fun, but these critical tests also provide students with im...

We're excited to have Amelia Palmer select electrical and computer engineering as one of her majors here at Boise State.  Her passion for universal design lends an important perspective to engineering endeavors.   Read more >>  

Electrical and Computer Engineering doctoral candidate Nishatul Majid recently attended the 15th International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition along with his dissertation advisor Dr. Elisa Barney. Dr. Elisa Barney (left) and doctoral candidate Nishtaul Majid The conference included a doctoral consortium on September 22 which featured a poster presentation showcasing the work of 19 doctoral students from around the world.  Majid won the poster competition with his entry  Developing an Offline Bangla Handwriting Recognition System.

Graduate students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering know how to represent!   A total of 18 ECE grad students presented their research at the spring Graduate Student Showcase, the largest showing from any one program.  Five of the participating ECE students received awards for their research posters. Rahul Reddy Kancharla took home the CAES Energy Efficiency Research Institute Award in Sustainable Energy, including a $250 cash prize. His research for the graduate conference focused on X-ray imaging for Biomass Analysis . Shah Mohammad Rahmot Ullah was recognized for his research poster, Materials Characterization of Dissolved Chalcogenide Spin Coated Thin Films, taking home a cash prize of $200. Muhammad Kamran Latif earned a College of Engineering award for his research poster submission, earning $250 in the process.  Latif's project explores Conservation by Voltage Reduction Using a Single-Phase Residential Static VAR C...

Pradeep Kumaravadivel, a doctoral candidate in electrical and computer engineering at Boise State University was recognized for his outstanding poster presentation at the annual Idaho Academy of Science and Engineering Symposium. Kumaravadivel's research focuses on the Influence of the Type of Chalcogen (Ch) Atom on the Electrical Properties of a Ge2Se3/Sn-Ch Memristive Device , a collaborative effort between Kumaravadivel and his advisor, Dr. Kris Campbell. The Idaho Academy of Science (IAS) was organized in 1958 and seeks to improve the effectiveness of science education in Idaho, as well as to promote public understanding and appreciation of the sciences and applied technology in the modern world.  

Sohel Rana, a doctoral candidate in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Boise State, has been awarded a prestigious graduate fellowship sponsored by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Focused on the development of fiber-optic sensors which measure pressure, temperature, and deformation, Rana’s research explores in-pile sensing inside a nuclear reactor. Part of the Fiber-Optics, Lasers, and Integrated-photonics Research (FLAIR) Laboratory at Boise State University, Rana collaborates with his advisor Dr. Harish Subbaraman and co-advisor Dr. Nirmala Kandadai from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Boise State University. Rana is the second student from the ECE department to have earned this fellowship. In the early years of study, graduate fellows in this program will spend most of their time taking classes. That balance will shift in the later years of their doctoral programs, as they spend the majority of their time at INL conducting rese...

After landing the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Scholarship three years in a row, ECE student Christopher Calderwood received the G. Ray Ekenstam Memorial Scholarship which recognized him as an honorably discharged US Veteran seeking an electrical engineering degree in the field of power and energy systems. Caulderwood's impressive scholarship and service record led the IEEE PES to formally recognize his award during the IEEE PES General Meeting in Portland, OR. Upon his arrival, Caulderwood discovered that he had also been selected as a figure in the IEEE PES media campaign. "We're incredibly proud of Chris and his achievements," says Caulderwood's academic advisor Dr. Said Ahmed-Zaid.  "He is a great representative of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department...the sort of student who makes Boise State look good."

Elisa Barney, Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Boise State University, and doctoral student Nishatul Majid attended the International Conference on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition (ICFHR) in Niagara Falls. Doctoral student Nishatul Majid (right) discusses research results with his advisor Dr. Barney Majid presented a poster along with a peer-reviewed paper he co-authored with Dr. Barney, "Introducing the Boise State Bangla Handwriting Dataset and an Efficient Offline Recognizer of Isolated Bangla Characters." Dr. Barney was a co-chair of the Tutorials and Workshops committee and will be a program chair representing the Americas for ICFHR 2020 to be held in Dortmund Germany in September 2020.