Prof. Amin Zollanvari amin.zollanvari@nu.edu.kz 1. Big Data Analytics for Genome-wide Association StudiesThe search for genetic variants associated with disease traits has epitomized sequence-based studies for nearly a decade [1,2]. The limited success of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), possibly precipitated by the polygenic nature of the complex traits, however, has demonstrated the need for novel, machine learning methods capable of quantitatively capturing interactions between a host of genetic factors [3]. Our goal in this project is to primarily use innovative machine learning techniques to: 1) construct predictive model of a complex trait; 2) capture the multifactor effects of numerous genetic variants that underlies a complex trait; and 3) identify the pathways, biological processes, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) super classes with the most significant predictive power. Through use of abstraction and prediction [3], we anticipate seeing this methodology generalizable and applied to the study of various complex traits and behaviors. The project has been approved for funding by NU for three years and, as such, the student working on the project receives research assistantship and has the opportunity to participate international conferences and/or visit our collaborative sites in USA. Prerequisite: Strong math and programming skills. However, a strong interest in machine learning and bioinformatic is needed. Type of journals publishing an excellent work in this area: Science, Nature, Plos Genetics, Bioinformatics, IEEE Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, BMC Bioinformatics.[1] Zondervan, K.T. & Cardon, L.R. The complex interplay among factors that influence allelic association. Nature reviews. Genetics 5, 89-100 (2004).[2] Hirschhorn, J.N. & Daly, M.J. Genome-wide association studies for common diseases andcomplex traits. Nature reviews. Genetics 6, 95-108 (2005).[3 Zollanvari, A., Alterovitz, G., SNP by SNP by Environment Interaction Network of Alcoholism, BMC Systems Biology, 11, 2017.

2. Large-dimensional Machine Learning Many classical techniques in pattern recognition and signal processing have been fashioned for situations in which the sample size (n) is much larger than the number of variables (p) [1]. This is in large part due to the classical notion of statistical consistency, which guarantees the performance of a statistical technique in situations where the number of measurements unboundedly increases (n →∞) for a fixed dimensionality of observation (fixed p). In a finite sample operating regime, this implies that in order to expect an acceptable performance from a statistical technique, we need to have many more sample points than variables – a scenario that is exactly the opposite to what we currently face in many modern datasets. The goal of this project is to explore two mathematical–statistical machineries that are potentially capable of constructing techniques for analyzing high-dimensional observations: (1) shrinkage and sparsity assumption [2]; and (2) high-dimensional asymptotics (n →∞, p →∞, p/n → c¿ [3]. The latter has been also referred to as the “new paradigm” in signal processing and statistical learning [4,5]. The students will apply these two machineries on some classical learning techniques and calibrate them to fit high-dimensional settings.

Prerequisite: Having a strong mathematical background. Type of journals publishing an excellent work in this area: Any Multidisciplinary Journal; or machine learning/signal processing journals such as IEEE TSP, IEEE PAMI or Pattern Recognition, …

[1] B. Efron, Bayesians, frequentists, and scientists. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 100:1-5, 2005.[2] H. Zou and T. Hastie, "Regularization and variable selection via the elastic net," J. R. Stat. Soc. B, vol. 67, pp. 301-320, 2005.[3] A. Zollanvari, E. R. Dougherty, Generalized Consistent Error Estimator of Linear Discriminant Analysis, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 60:2804-2814, (2015).[4] R. Couillet and M. Debbah, Signal Processing in Large Systems, A New Paradigm, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 24-39, (2013).[5] Zollanvari, A., High-Dimensional Statistical Learning, Roots, Justifications, and Potential Machineries, Cancer Informatics, 5, 109-121, (2016).

3. Analytical Study of Performance of Subspace-Based Approaches in Array Signal ProcessingA fundamental problem in array signal processing is estimating the signal spatial parameters such as the directions of arrival (DoA). In this regard, various subspace-based approaches such as Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC), Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Techniques (ESPIRIT), StateSpace Realization (SSR), etc. are available. Nevertheless, the performance of these techniques is generally guaranteed in situations where a large number of measurements (snapshots) is available for a fixed number of sensors in the array. However, in many practical scenarios the number of snapshots is in the same order of magnitude as the number of sensors/antennas and/or the number of sources whose signals are impinging on the sensor array. On the other hand, in the recent years, a solid mathematical theory, known as random matrix theory, has found an eminent role in signal processing. Random matrix theory is rooted in the work of Eugene P. Wigner, the Nobel prize physicist who, in the context of quantum physics, developed the idea [1,2,3]. In this project, we leverage the power of random matrix theory to analytically characterize the performance of subspace-based approaches and to introduce additional modifications and calibration to improve the performance of such approaches in situations where the number of sensors, snapshots, and/or sources are comparable. Prerequisite: Strong mathematical background and strong interest to learn new mathematical theories in signal processing Type of journals publishing an excellent work in this area: IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, Journal of Machine Learning Research, Pattern Recognition, Journal of Multivariate Analysis, …. . [1] Zollanvari, A., High-Dimensional Statistical Learning, Roots, Justifications, and Potential Machineries, Cancer Informatics, 5, 109-121, (2016).

[2] Wigner E.P., Characteristic vectors of bordered matrices with infinite dimensions. Ann Math. 1955; 62:548–64.[3] Wigner E.P., On the distribution of the roots of certain symmetric matrices. Ann Math. 1958 ; 67: 325–7. 4. Classification of cardiac pathologies on electrocardiogram images using Deep Learning approaches .

Cardio diseases are the main cause of human mortality in Kazakhstan. The main goal of this project is to adopt deep learning techniques for the detection and classification of the pathologies in electrocardiography (ECG), which are widely used in diagnosis of heart problems. Deploying deep learning techniques in this project is warranted because these methods have shown very promising results compared to classical approaches [1], [2], [3]. Nevertheless, to optimize the performance of our developed framework and maximize the signal-to-noise ratio, we will use various signal processing techniques before deploying our classification tools. The project is in collaboration with CMC Technologies LLP, which is currently developing the full-fledged commercial product based on a knowledge driven approach.

The scope for this project includes but is not limited to the following:1) Preparation of large dataset of ECGs that could include

o Recognition and segmentation of multiple ECG signals from the ECG images

o Transformation of images

o Conversion of analogue signal into the digital vector format.

o Annotation of signals by the human experts

2) ECG pre-processing

o Denoising

o Outliers detection

o Dataset normalisation

3) Features extraction (*)

o Segmentation of signals into heartbeats

o Extraction morphological and statistical features

4) Classification of pathologies using deep learning methods

5) Evaluation the results and implementing the end to end software module.

* Manual Features extraction could be avoided in case of automatic feature extraction using convolutional neural network.

Prerequisite: knowledge of machine learning and programming languages such as python or R.

[1] Zubair, M., Kim, J. and Yoon, C. (2016). An Automated ECG Beat Classification System Using Convolutional Neural Networks. 2016 6th International Conference on IT Convergence and Security (ICITCS).

[2] Acharya, U., Fujita, H., Lih, O., Adam, M., Tan, J. and Chua, C. (2017). Automated detection of coronary artery disease using different durations of ECG segments with convolutional neural network. Knowledge-Based Systems, 132, pp.62-71.

[3] Yan, Y., Qin, X. and Wang, L. (2017). ECG Annotation and Diagnosis Classification Techniques. Health Information Science, pp.129-154.

Prof. Daniele Tosi daniele.tosi@nu.edu.kz

1. Fiber optic semi-distributed sensors The thesis will revolve around the development of semi-distributed sensors, which have the possibility to detect a physical parameter (strain, temperature, vibrations, pressure) in several points along the fiber. Several architectures will be arranged, using chirped fiber Bragg gratings, microwave photonics, ultra-long gratings and other architectures for different sensing ranges. The sensors hereby developed will be applied to biomedical engineering projects, and in wearable smart textiles. The student will investigate the effect of polarization and dispersion in sensing using optical backscatter reflectometry (OFOR). The PhD student will be co-funded by a NU research grant, and in partnership with National Laboratory Astana (NLA) and Bio-Medical Campus of Rome (Italy). The student will spend a research period to Bio-Medical Campus, and to Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Spain).

[1] Tosi D, Macchi EG, Gallati M, Braschi G, Cigada A, Rossi S, Leen G, Lewis E. Fiber-optic chirped FBG for distributed thermal monitoring of ex-vivo radiofrequency ablation of liver. Biomedical optics express. 2014 Jun 1;5(6):1799-811.

[2] Ricchiuti AL, Barrera D, Sales S, Thevenaz L, Capmany J. Long weak FBG sensor interrogation using microwave photonics filtering technique. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters. 2014 Oct 15;26(20):2039-42.[3] S. Korganbayev, Y. Orazayev, S. Sovetov, A. Bazyl, E. Schena, C. Massaroni, R. Gassino, A. Vallan, G. Perrone, P. Saccomandi, M. A. Caponero, G. Palumbo, A. Iadicicco, S. Campopiano, D. Tosi, “Detection of thermal gradients through fiber-optic Chirped Fiber Bragg Grating (CFBG): Medical thermal ablation scenario,” Optical Fiber Technology, vol. 41, pp. 48-55, 2018. (Invited paper).

2. Wearable fiber-optic smart textiles.

Wearable technologies are being combined with smart textiles, in order to provide pervasive sensing. The development of smart textiles with onboard fiber-optic sensors will be investigated in this project. The student will develop two systems, with different ranges of performance and portability.

A first system is based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, arranged in up to 100 sensors and performing multiplexed sensing. A portable sensing unit will be assembled. A second system is based on an all fiber-smartphone architecture [1], where a 3D printed connector socket will be used to couple light from the smartphone flashlight to the sensing fiber, and from the fiber to the camera used as detector. For both projects, the target is to detect respiratory rates, chemical contaminations, pressure, and temperature. The integration of sensors into textiles will be investigated. The project will be partially funded by a MES grants and an ORAU grant funded at NU. The student will spend a research period to Biomedical Campus of Rome, Italy.

[1] A. Sultangazin, J. Kusmangaliyev, A. Aitkulov, D. Akilbekova, M. Olivero, D. Tosi, “Design of a smartphone plastic optical fiber chemical sensor for hydrogen sulfide detection,” IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 17, no. 21, pp. 6935-6940, 2017.[2] Massaroni C, Venanzi C, Silvatti AP, Lo Presti D, Saccomandi P, Formica D, Giurazza F, Caponero MA, Schena E. Smart textile for respiratory monitoring and thoraco‐abdominal motion pattern evaluation. Journal of biophotonics. 2018 Jan 3.[3] H. Li, H. Yang, E. Li, Z. Liu, K. Wei, “Wearable sensors in intelligent clothing for measuring human body temperature based on optical fiber Bragg grating,” Opt. Expr. 20(11), pp. 11740-11752, 2012.

3. Fiber-optic biosensors for biomarker detectionRecently, fiber optic sensors have been increasingly applied to the detection of biomarkers in situ, and the evolution of this topic is to be able to apply this technology in vivo. The principle of operation merges optical phenomena, such as surface plasmon resonance and the interaction of evancescent waveguide modes with changes of refractive index, and surface chemistry - functionalizing optical waveguides to bind with specific cells. In this project, the student will investigate sensing technologies based on coatings on fiber glass surfaces, microstructured and tapered fibers, and grating-based solutions in order to obtain a characterization of the fiber coatings. Selective functionalization will be performed either through APTES on glass fiber, or through thin metallic film deposition. The student will investigate bioreceptors and chemical bonding of biomarkers to the bioreceptors. The thesis will be carried out jointly with the School of Medicine (Prof. Luca Vangelista) and National Laboratory Astana; it is expected that the student has interdisciplinary competencies in biology, optics, and/or thin film deposition.

[1] Albert J, Shao LY, Caucheteur C. Tilted fiber Bragg grating sensors. Laser & Photonics Reviews. 2013 Jan 1;7(1):83-108.[2] Caucheteur C, Guo T, Albert J. Review of plasmonic fiber optic biochemical sensors: improving the limit of detection. Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry. 2015 May 1;407(14):3883-97.[3] M. Shaimerdenova, A. Bekmurzayeva, M. Sypabekova, D. Tosi, “Interrogation of coarsely sampled Tilted Fiber Bragg Grating (TFBG) sensors with KLT,” Optics Express, vol. 25, no. 26, pp. 33487-33496, 2017.

Dr. Kanat Dukenbayev kdukenbayev@nu.edu.kz

Near-field Optical Investigation of Living Tissue in Liquid using PMMA Based Probes. The application of glass optical fibers nowadays in optical characterization of living tissue gaining more and more prevalent among optical research community. The application of combined probe together with glass optical fiber and a quartz tuning fork is becoming one of the popular Near-field Scanning Optical Microscope (NSOM) sensor for near-field optical and topographical investigation of living tissues in liquid [1, 2].In our recent study using home-made NSOM sensor using in combination of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) optical fiber probes showed a number tremendous technical advantages, for example, easiness of chemical etching to produce very sharp tip, high durability of assembled probe (comparing to glass optical fibers), high Quality factor rate (Q-factor) in the range of 2000-6000, and additionally has perspectives in application for scanning in aqueous conditions [3, 4].Proposed research for PhD candidate will be realized under research supervision of faculties of the Signal Processing and Communication Networks group of the School of Engineering, Nazarbayev University. Also, along realization of thesis, it is planned several short visits to the LPMV, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland. [1] K. Dukenbayev, S. K. Sekatskii, D. V. Serebryakov, A. V. Zayats, G. Dietler, “Scanning near-field optical microscope based on double-resonant fiber probe montage and its operation in liquids”, in Novel Photonics Materials: Optics and Optical Diagnostics of Nanostructures, Journal of SPIE, Vol. 6728, 6728-84, 2007.[2] D. V. Serebryakov, S. K. Sekatskii, A. P. Cherkun, K. Dukenbayev, I. V. Morozov, V. S. Letokhov and G. Dietler, “Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscope based on a double resonant fiber probe montage and equipped with time-gated photon detection”, Journal of Microscopy, Vol. 229, pp. 287–292, Pt 2, 2008.[3] H. Chibani, K. Dukenbayev, M. Mensi, S. K. Sekatskii and G. Dietler, “Near-field scanning optical microscopy using polymethylmethacrylate optical fiber probes”, Journal of Ultramicroscopy, Vol. 110, issue 3, pp. 211-215, February 2010.[4] A. Smirnov, E. Rostova, G. Dietler and S. K. Sekatskii, “Near-field scanning optical microscopy using plastic optical fibers”, Conference Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Plastic Optical Fibers, 13-15 September, 2017.

Dr. Carlo Molardi carlo.molardi@nu.edu.kz

1. Design and characterization of multi-core high power fiber laser

Because its superior capability to maintain high quality output beam, fiber laser occupies a particular position in laser technology. This characteristic makes fiber laser particularly feasible for precision micro-machining. Fiber design is critical to obtain high performance in terms of mode field diameter and delivered power, while preserving single mode operation. In particular mode instabilities (MIs) have quickly become the most limiting effect for the average power scaling of nearly diffraction-limited beams from state-of-the-art fiber laser systems. Multi-core microstructured fibers have recently attracted the attention of scientific community because their capability to reduce MI effects. Since this

kind of fibers has a large number of degrees of freedom as well as an intrinsic difficulty in their characterization, particular effort is required for their numerical investigation. The student will develop a novel numerical model for the investigation of this family of fiber, in order to define the optimum design in term of thermal and mode instability resilience. This project will involve a collaboration with the Department of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Parma (Italy).

[1] Otto, H. J., Klenke, A., Jauregui, C., Stutzki, F., Limpert, J., & Tünnermann, A. (2014). Scaling the mode instability threshold with multicore fibers. Optics letters, 39(9), 2680-2683.[2] Jollivet, C., Mafi, A., Flamm, D., Duparré, M., Schuster, K., Grimm, S., & Schülzgen, A. (2014). Mode-resolved gain analysis and lasing in multi-supermode multi-core fiber laser. Optics express, 22(24), 30377-30386.[3] Schulzgen, A., Anderson, J., Jollivet, C., Van Newkirk, A., Schuster, K., & Grimm, S. (2015, October). Multi-Core Fiber Lasers. In Laser Science (pp. LTu2H-2). Optical Society of America.

2. Optic fiber sensors for wearable smart textile

This project will investigate the potential of combining wearable fiber optic sensors within smart textile, to provide a non-invasive, low cost, continuous multi-point monitoring of vital functions such body temperature, breathing pattern and blood pressure. The student will be involved in the development of a systems based on a large number of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors to integrate into the textile. In particular the project will dedicate attention on the strategy to embed the sensors arrays, which is critical to maintain both wearability and sensing performances. Another part of the project will take in consideration the interrogation unit for the sensor array, which shall be portable and cost effective in harmony with the fundamental purpose of this activity. The methodology for processing the data, obtained by the sensors, and their relative analysis will be carefully investigated. The project will be partially funded by a NU ORAU grant.

[1] H. Li, H. Yang, E. Li, Z. Liu, K. Wei, “Wearable sensors in intelligent clothing for measuring human body temperature based on optical fiber Bragg grating,” Opt. Expr. 20(11), pp. 11740-11752, 2012.[2] J. Witt, F. Narbonneau, M. Schukar, K. Krebber, J. De Jonckheere, M. Jeanne, D. Kinet, B. Paquet, A. Depré, L. T. D’Angelo, T. Thiel, R. Logier, “Medical textiles with embedded fiber optic sensors for monitoring of respiratory movement,” IEEE Sens. J. 12(1), pp. 246-254, 2012.[3] D. Tosi, “Advanced interrogation of fiber-optic Bragg grating and Fabry-Perot sensors with KLT analysis,” Sensors, vol. 15, pp. 27470-27492, 2015.

Prof. Behrouz Maham behrouz.maham@nu.edu.kz 1. Beamwidth Selection and Resource Allocation for Millimeter-Wave Networks

To accommodate the growing surge of high data rates in wireless communication networks, the system capacity has been enhanced using advanced modulation and signal processing techniques. Nonetheless, the efficiency of these schemes is restricted because of the narrow bandwidth of the legacy networks. Hence, millimeter-wave (mm-wave) technology is a promising choice to abate the imminent spectrum scarcity and boost the network capacity (see [A] for further discussion). However, there are some technical challenges in the development of communication networks based on the mm-wave technology. The channel path loss in the mm-wave bands is generally higher than that of traditional microwave frequencies. Moreover, due to inherent propagation characteristics, mm-wave signals are more sensitive to blockage compared to the conventional bands. The small wavelength at the mm-wave bands allows the implementation of vast number of antenna elements in the current size network devices. Thus, beamforming techniques are adopted to overcome the severe path loss. As an example of resource allocation problems in mm-wave based wireless network, one can see [B].[A] M. Xiao et al., "Millimeter Wave Communications for Future Mobile Networks," IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 35, no. 9, pp. 1909-1935, 2017.[B] A. Eshraghi, B. Maham, and V. Shahmansouri , "Millimeter-Wave Device-to-Device Multi-Hop Routing for Multimedia Applications ," in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC'16), Kuala-Lampur, Malaysia, May 2016.

2. Modeling and Analysis of Neuro-Spike Communications

Molecular communication is a promising technology for applications requiring nanoscale networks. The human nervous system is an important type of molecular communication for transferring vital information throughout the body.Despite decades of research, no detailed explanation and scientific model yet exist for many brain activities. As part of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) aims to understand the human mind and reveal new ways to prevent and cure brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, and epilepsy [C]. In this work, we consider a point-to-point communication model between two neurons. We consider several sources of randomness to achieve to a realistic model. These random factors consist of axonal noise, random vesicle release, random amplitude and synaptic noise. Similar to [D], we evaluate the performance of the neuro-spike communication system via modeling the neuro-spike communication channel as two cascaded binary channels which are axonal transmission and synaptic transmission, respectively. Then, we can extend our analytic works by considering a multiple-input single-output and multiple-input single-output axonal transmission channels and investigate the capacity of these channels under different environment.[C] D. Malak, O. B. Akan, “Communication Theoretical Understanding of Intra-body Nervous Nanonetworks,” IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 129-135, April 2014.[D] B. Maham, “A Communication Theoretic Analysis of Synaptic Channels under Axonal Noise,” IEEE Communications Letters, vol. 19, no. 11, pp. 1901-1904, Nov. 2015.

Prof. Theodoros Tsiftsis, theodoros.tsiftsis@nu.edu.kz 1. LTE-WiFi Spectrum Sharing in Unlicensed Bands

The utilization of licensed LTE bands and unlicensed bands from 700MHz to 3.6GHz is already high, leading to two consequences. First mobile cellular systems must be allocated more licensed spectrum and second, mobile systems start looking for means to utilize unlicensed spectrum. Therefore, new spectrum bands are being added to the licensed spectrum and meet the end users’ requirements for higher data throughput [1]. Considering that the unlicensed spectrum bands assigned to users is much wider than the licensed ones, it is obvious that the use of LTE-A in the unlicensed spectrum, known as Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) within the 3GPP, could tackle with the above-mentioned problem and open new horizons for the unlicensed spectrum. Nevertheless, LTE has been designed to work on licensed spectrum and its expansion on the WiFi bands (especially above 5GHz) will cause new unwanted situations for the WiFi users. It is obvious that the coexistence of LTE and WiFi will be set under a new set of mechanisms and also the impact of the LTE transmission on WiFi band should be investigated in depth. The current PhD Thesis aims at studying in depth and provide simulation results on all the functionalities set by 3GPP such as: i) Listen Before Talk (LBT), ii) Discontinuous Transmission (DTX), iii) Carrier Selection (CS) and iv) Transmit Power Control (TPC). New algorithms, techniques and proposed solutions will verify the optimal scenarios for fair coexistence of two networks.The PhD Thesis will be based on the LTE-A TU Wien Simulator, and, thus, excellent knowledge of MATLAB, C/C++ is prerequisite. Also, very good knowledge on networking, MAC Layer, and WiFi will be considered as an advantage.

[1] A. Galanopoulos, F. Foukalas and T. A. Tsiftsis, "Efficient Coexistence of LTE With WiFi in the Licensed and Unlicensed Spectrum Aggregation," IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 129-140, June 2016. 2. Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) Techniques in Cognitive Radio NetworksNon-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has attracted great attention by researchers recently since it seems to be a technique where superior spectral efficiency can be achieved. Particularly, different from traditional MA schemes, NOMA serves multiple users at different power levels and thus utilizes spectrum more efficiently. Another technology that utilizes the spectrum scarcity efficiently is the cognitive radio (CR) under three different CR techniques: underlay, interweave and overlay [1]. In this Thesis, the PhD candidate will investigate the performance NOMA cognitive radio networks. The overall performance of the network will be investigated under different fading and shadowing conditions. Moreover, physical layer security aspects will be also studied in the above NOMA CR networks and new algorithms will be designed for increased security of the systems.The PhD Candidate is expected to have very good MATLAB skills and strong mathematical background.

[1] Y. Liu, Z. Ding, M. Elkashlan and J. Yuan, Non-orthogonal Multiple Access in Large-Scale Underlay Cognitive Radio Networks, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technologies, to appear in 2016. 3. Hybrid mmWave-VLC in 5G Communication Systems Visible light communication (VLC) has gained tremendous attention recently in short-range communication scenarios which is currently under standardization in 5G networks. VLC is considered one of the candidate technologies towards 5G networks for wireless access provision in

indoor environments. The ability of exploiting visible light in the large unregulated bandwidth between 375–780 nm for data transmission provides some inherent advantages that can help significantly the highly demanding 5G system requirements on high spectral and energy efficiency [1]. Millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum, with a small coverage area and abundant available bandwidth, has also become a promising technology for 5G networks to enable Gbps data transmission [2]. By combining the above two very promising technologies, each one can serve as a complement to the other. For example, the mmWave transmission can be an alternative method to combat the problems VLC inherently have either with their uploading due to self-interference. Hybrid schemes are usually necessary for maintaining the desired quality of service and increase the reliability of the communications. The PhD candidate should investigate the co-existence of the above technologies and propose effective scenarios. The possibility to design VLC systems assisted by high capacity mm-Wave technologies will be also investigated.The PhD Candidate is expected to have very good MATLAB skills and strong mathematical background.

[1] A. Vavoulas, H. G. Sandalidis, T. A. Tsiftsis, and N. Vaiopoulos, "Coverage Aspects of Indoor VLC Networks," IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol.33, no.23, pp.4915-4921, December 2015.[2] L. Feng, R. Q. Hu, J. Wang, P. Xu and Y. Qian, "Applying VLC in 5G Networks: Architectures and Key Technologies," in IEEE Network, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 77-83, November-December 2016. Prof. H S V S Kumar Nunna, sivanand.nunna@nu.edu.kzSchool of Engineering

Topic 1: Transactive energy frameworks for smart distribution systems with high penetration of renewable energy sources and

Power system deregulation has successfully unbundled the vertically integrated structure of the conventional power systems while introducing the competition into many aspects of the system operation. As a result, the retailers, distribution companies (DISCos) and bulk consumers are able to choose the electricity suppliers through wholesale or spot electricity markets, and the consumers can choose the retailers or service providers as per their choice. However with the advent of smartgrid technologies and proliferation of onsite or distributed energy resources (DERs), such as distributed generation, demand response, energy storage, the utilities and market regulators across the world are attempting to fully liberalise the electricity markets. The full liberalisation will allow the end-users, irrespective of the scale, to buy the electricity directly from onsite suppliers, such as solar PV or wind based electricity generators, or the retailers of their choice. Also, the producers, consumers and prosumers (producer cum consumer) will be privileged to trade the energy and ancillary services regionally. Although this new dimension of the deregulation appears to be effective, its massive deployment is limited by many technical and operational challenges. All the new features and the corresponding principles of the new dimension of deregulation are embraced by the buzzword called transactive energy, which refers to the set of mechanisms or techniques to manage the onsite energy resources, consumption and flow of electricity using market based constructs without violating the operational preferences of the distribution systems. The main focus of this research project is to

develop intelligent transactive energy models relying on principles of multi-agent systems to organise the onsite energy (both heat and electricity) markets that reinforce the successful integration of various kinds of DERs into the system operation. The specific objective of the frameworks is the optimal integration of the local energy resources using market based constructs by respecting the operating limits of the consumers and DERs. Potential candidates having strong background in power system operation and mathematical foundation are encouraged to apply

The selected students have to collaborate with the researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, University of Salerno, Italy, and National University of Singapore, Singapore.

References: 1. H. S. V. S. K. Nunna and D. Srinivasan, "Multiagent-Based Transactive Energy Framework

for Distribution Systems With Smart Microgrids," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 2241-2250, Oct. 2017.

2. P. H. Divshali, B. J. Choi and H. Liang, "Multi-agent transactive energy management system considering high levels of renewable energy source and electric vehicles," in IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution, vol. 11, no. 15, pp. 3713-3721, 10 19 2017.

3. Y. K. Renani, M. Ehsan and M. Shahidehpour, "Optimal Transactive Market Operations with Distribution System Operators," accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. Available online. doi: 10.1109/TSG.2017.2718546

4. E. Vaahedi, K. Nodehi, D. Heim, F. Rahimi and A. Ipakchi, "The Emerging Transactive Microgrid Controller: Illustrating Its Concept, Functionality, and Business Case," in IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 80-87, July-Aug. 2017.

Topic 2: Improving Power System Resiliency using flexible distributed energy resources

Increased proliferation of flexible energy resources such as energy storage systems, demand response, electric vehicles etc. together with renewable energy sources made the operation of power system complex. In addition, the uncertainty associated with the renewable energy sources is multiplying the complexity involved in the system operation. Besides the complexity in system operation, the resources such as energy storage systems coupled with renewable energy sources can reduced the burden on the power grid especially during high demand periods and act as reliable backup power sources during the unexpected or scheduled grid outages. Such ancillary support systems make the power grid more resilient to withstand the low frequency but high impact events such as extreme weather, natural disasters and even cyber‐attacks. Besides providing a reliable backup, energy storage systems can be used for multiple applications such as frequency regulation, VAR support, and grid stabilisation. However, in most of the approaches the operation of the energy storage systems and renewable energy sources at the transmission level and the corresponding system level performance improvement were studied. With the increasing number of DERs and distributed energy storage systems at the distribution level, it is imperative to study the impact of these pluggable energy resources on the overall system considering different operation strategies of

the energy resources coordinated by the utility operators. Therefore, the overarching goals of this research project is to a) develop suitable indices to judge the resiliency levels of a power system and methods to improve it using the distributed flexible energy resources, b) develop an energy and ancillary service management (reactive power support and frequency regulation) framework for energy storage systems at distribution level.

Potential candidates having strong background in power system operation are encouraged to apply and selected students have to collaborate with the researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India and University of Salerno, Italy.

References: 1. Y. Wang, C. Chen, J. Wang and R. Baldick, "Research on Resilience of Power Systems

Under Natural Disasters—A Review," in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 1604-1613, March 2016.

1. H. S. V. S. Kumar Nunna, S. Battula, S. Doolla, and D. Srinivasan, “Energy management in smart distribution systems with vehicle-to-grid integrated microgrids,” accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. Available online.

2. Z. Bie, Y. Lin, G. Li and F. Li, "Battling the Extreme: A Study on the Power System Resilience," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 105, no. 7, pp. 1253-1266, July 2017.

3. X. Yan, C. Gu, F. Li and Z. Wang, "LMP-based Pricing for Energy Storage in Local Market to Facilitate PV Penetration," accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems. Available online. doi: 10.1109/TPWRS.2017.2785286

4. Q. Huang, Y. Xu, T. Wang and C. Courcoubetis, "Market Mechanisms for Cooperative Operation of Price-maker Energy Storage in a Power Network," accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1-1. doi: 10.1109/TPWRS.2017.2762350

Topic 3: Developing intelligent service restoration schemes for self-healing distribution systems

Faults and unexpected overloading of the lines or transformers are the main factors influencing the reliability of the service delivery in distribution systems. Once such faults are detected and the corresponding component or section is isolated, the service restoration process commences in order to resume the service to the affected area as soon as possible. The restoration is an optimal decision making process in which the sequence of actions to be taken are identified in order to minimise the number of end users or loads affected by the faults without compromising the security and operability limits of the system. In the classical service rotation problems, the system operating conditions (i.e. load and generation) are assumed as invariant during the process of restoration. However, the load on the system varies during the restoration period. Moreover, the variation in operating conditions is significant in distribution systems with high penetration of uncertain distributed energy resources. Therefore, the goal is to solve the service restoration problem in uncertain environment in the presence of stochastic distributed energy resources such as renewable energy sources, electric vehicles together with deferrable and interrupted loads. However, in order to develop such restoration schemes a detailed understanding of the stochastic behaviour of these

sources is required to fully exploit their potential in restoring the service. The goal of this project is to develop distributed self-healing frameworks for power distribution system with high population of stochastic energy resources using the distributed computational intelligence tools, such as multi‐agent system.

Potential candidates having strong background in power system operation are encouraged to apply and selected students have to collaborate with the researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India and University of Salerno, Italy.

References: 1. Y. Xu, C. C. Liu, K. P. Schneider, F. K. Tuffner and D. T. Ton, "Microgrids for Service

Restoration to Critical Load in a Resilient Distribution System," in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 426-437, Jan. 2018.

2. A. Felix, H. S. V. S. Kumar Nunna, Suryanarayana Doolla and Anshuman Shukla, “Multi-Agent Based Restoration for Smart Distribution System with Microgrids”, in proceedings of Seventh Annual IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE 2015), Montreal, Canada, Sep. 2015.

3. A. Arif and Z. Wang, "Networked microgrids for service restoration in resilient distribution systems," in IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution, vol. 11, no. 14, pp. 3612-3619, 9 28 2017.

4. M. AlOwaifeer and M. AlMuhaini, "Load Priority Modeling for Smart Service Restoration," in Canadian Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 217-228, Summer 2017.

Prof. Mehdi Bagheri, mehdi.bagheri@nu.edu.kz School of Engineering 1. Real-time Transformer Winding Fault DiagnosisIntelligent condition monitoring deals with all items of equipment in power system and when it comes to transmission system it pays more attention to those with higher capital and maintenance expenses such as transformers. Transformers are in service in various climates as well as different electrical and mechanical conditions. Based on this fact, transformers are continually facing enormous hazards over the course of operation. On the other hand, yielding information continuously from insulation system condition and having a reasonable understanding about internal mechanical stability is vitally important for the system operators. In practice, various types of faults are jeopardizing transformers steady state operation and tending to take this expensive equipment out of service. In this regard, one of the main problems in transformers is mechanical defect. Hence, mechanical diagnostic methods have been emerged to recognize transformer active part displacement as well as winding deformation. The most important diagnosis method on this case is Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) as it is fast, accurate and economical; however, FRA implementation is still conducting off-line after many years. Not only transformer manufacturers are interested to find online FRA technique and obtaining its device for new transformer production, but also transformer owners and operators are interested significantly to install such a system on their used transformers.

Therefore, a new technique and system is required to be able to cover and support both new and old used transformers in different voltage level. This PhD project is focused to perform deep study and develop Real-time Transformer Winding Fault Diagnosis. Projects steps are as follows: (1) develop non-linear model for transformer, and a model for online FRA exploration, (2) simulate and analyze normal and abnormal conditions of transformer to find the boundary conditions for smart system training, (3) develop and implement real-time FRA with prognosis algorithm for transformer mechanical integrity using machine learning, (4) develop and implement cloud computing for real-time transformer winding analysis, monitoring as well as protection system. This research project will have a strong impact in the engineering and industry. The project will be funded by ORAU grant at NU. Co-supervisor of the project would be Prof. Amin Zollanvari. The student can spend a research period in Kensington Campus, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

[1] M. Bagheri, Mohammad S. Naderi, Trevor Blackburn, “Advanced Transformer Winding Deformation Diagnosis: Moving from Off-line to On-line,” IEEE Transaction on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, Vol. 19, Issue. 6, pp. 1860-1870, 2012. [2] W. Ziomek, K. Vijayan, D. Boyd, K. Kuby and M. Franchek, "High voltage power transformer insulation design", IEEE Electr. Insul. Conf., Maryland, USA, pp. 211-215, 2011.[3] M. Bagheri and M. S. Naderi, “Moisture diagnostics of power transformers using dielectric response and paper samples methods”, IEEE Electr. Insul. Conf. (EIC), Annapolis, Maryland, USA , pp. 36-40, 2011.[4] M. Bagheri, B.T. Phung, T. Blackburn, “Transformer Frequency Response Analysis: Mathematical and Practical Approach to Interpret Mid-frequency Oscillations,” IEEE Transaction on Dielectric and Electrical Insulation, Vol. 20, Issue 6, pp. 1962-1970, 2013.

2. Improving Wind/Solar Power Dispatch Control in Electricity Market Recent growths in solar/wind energy generation are led to penetration of renewable energy plants in power system grids. However, ignoring the issues and challenges initiated by this penetration is quite difficult and even sometimes impossible. Between all the challenges; irregular habit of wind/solar energies and random fluctuations and stochastic habit of climate should be managed to avoid detrimental and possibly negative influences on the performance and stability of the power network. A possible resolution to diminish these difficulties is the combination of an energy storage system (ESS) with solar/wind power plant. This solution can provide desirable reliability, improve quality of power, origin energy availability, and deduct the energy generation price. The objective of this project is to design an intelligent power control system for optimum wind/solar energy dispatch using a BESS in time shifting application. Control system which is proposed in this project comprised of three key parts: (a) based on electricity price power as well as peak and off-peak demand periods of the day; the candidate should develop an online tracking reference; (b) a controller part based on model predictive control (MPC) should be developed, and (c) a fuzzy logic control (FLC) to prepare data for MPS is supposed to be developed. This project is the industry demand for green energy dispatch.Prerequisite: Strong mathematical background and knowledge on MPC as well as strong interest to learn new mathematical theories.

The candidate is supposed to collaborate with researchers at University of New South Wales in this Project. For more information, you can contact mehdi.bagheri@nu.edu.kz or a.khatamianfar@unsw.edu.au .

[1] Arash Khatamianfar, Muhammad Khalid, Andrey V. Savkin, Vassilios G. Agelidis: “Wind power dispatch control with battery energy storage using model predictive control” IEEE Trans. Sustain. Energy, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 745-755, 2013.[2] X. Y. Wang, D. M. Vilathgamuwa, and S. S. Choi, "Determination of battery storage capacity in energy buffer for wind farm," IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 868-878, Sep. 2008.[3] J. Barton and D. Infield, "Energy storage and its use with intermittent renewable energy," IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 441-448, Jun. 2004.

3. Renewable Energy Dispatch Optimization to Reach Maximum Life-time of Battery Energy Storage System Implementation of battery energy storage system (BESS) in green power plants has been becoming popular in recent years. Feeding BESS energy into the power grid when the green power plant has less generation is quite practical these days. However, the time of discharging BESS energy into the grid is completely unclear and even in most cases unpredictable. In fact, discharging time comes through weather condition and lack of electricity production in green power plant. In addition, the amount of energy needs to be discharge from BESS system in quite unclear. Therefore, BESSs are facing with huge amount of aging and deterioration due to stochastic and random discharge. Hence, this project is concentrated to study and develop an optimized renewable energy dispatch to minimize BESS aging rate and maximize its lifespan. Mathematical modelling of BESS and developing an algorithm to minimize BESS ageing rate would be one of the task in this project. Furthermore, the candidate is supposed to study on renewable energy dispatch and come up with an intelligent algorithm for power dispatch control considering BESS limitations. Prerequisite: Strong mathematical background and MATLAB software knowledge.

[1] S. Teleke, M. E. Baran, S. Bhattacharya, A. Q. Huang, "Rule-based control of battery energy storage for dispatching intermittent renewable sources", IEEE Trans. Sustain. Energy, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 117-124, Oct. 2010.[2] Y. Ru, J. Kleissl, S. Martinez, "Storage size determination for grid-connected photovoltaic systems", IEEE Trans. Sustain. Energy, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 68-81, Jan. 2013.[3] Roberto Valentinz, Nga Dang , Marco Levorato , Eli Bozorgzadeh, “Modeling And Control Battery Aging in Energy Harvesting Systems”, arXiv:1511.03495 [cs.SY].

Prof. Alex James alex.james@nu.edu.kz 1. Deep learning for machine intelligence hardware architectures Deep learning is a modern machine learning approach used for large data classification and analysis. In this project, you will be developing new methods and techniques for deep learning with an aim to

build it in VLSI hardware. There are several open challenges in building learning systems in hardware, including scalability issues, reliability issues, and speed issues. In the 3-4 year duration of your study, you will look into some of the specific issues in building such hardware, including fabrication of an IC. You are expected to have a background in electronics or computer science to take up the project. Further, it is expected of you to have some previous research experience or publications in academic or industry projects.

2. Deep learning for machine intelligence hardware architectures Deep learning is a modern machine learning approach used for large data classification and analysis. In this project, you will be developing new methods and techniques for deep learning with an aim to build it in VLSI hardware. There are several open challenges in building learning systems in hardware, including scalability issues, reliability issues, and speed issues. In the 3-4 year duration of your study, you will look into some of the specific issues in building such hardware, including fabrication of an IC. You are expected to have a background in electronics or computer science to take up the project. Further, it is expected of you to have some previous research experience or publications in academic or industry projects.

Prof. Nazim Mir-Nasiri: nazim.mir-nasiri@nu.edu.kz 1. Exoskeleton for human motion enhancement The task is to develop an exoskeleton that is able to enhance the human motion. It included the development of the mechanical structure and the electronic control system. The exoskeleton should be able to suppress the weight of the human during the walk so that human will not feel much tension on the leg muscles. It should allow also for human to carry additional load without much tension felt by the leg muscles.

[1] Jung-Hoon Kim, et al, “Design of a Knee Exoskeleton Using Foot Pressure and Knee Torque Sensors”, International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2005[2] Mir-Nasiri “Efficient Lower Limb Exoskeleton for Human Motion Assistance”, WeROB 2016, International conference on Wearable Robotics, Spain[3] A. Zoss. and H. Kazerooni, “Design of an electrically actuated lower extremity exoskeleton”, Advanced Robotics, Vol. 20, No. 9, pp. 967–988, 2006

2. Visual servoing for the robotic manipulators.The task is to develop a theory for visual servoing of the robotic manipulators by means of cameras installed on the robot arm wrist. The theory will allow the robot arm to adjust the orientation of the robot arm by controlling the joint motor. The control will be implemented by analyzing images acquired from the camera and processed by the computer. The objective will be to restore constantly the original view of the image from the distorted ones. It will have a very good application in automation lines when the smart robot has to adjust properly his hand to grab the object from the conveyer belt.

[1] Yun-Hui Liu, Hesheng Wang ,“Adaptive Visual Servoing of Robot Manipulators”, Advances in Robot Control, Springer, 2006, pp55-82 [2] J. Cid-Monjaraz, F. Reyes-Cortes´ and P. Sanchez-S ´anchez, “A visual servoing controller for robot manipulators”, International Journal of Circuits, Systems and Signal Processing, Issue 3, Volume 1, 2007, pp 217-223.[3] Paulo J. S. Gonc¸alves, Pedro M. B. Torres, “Learning Approaches to Visual Control of Robotic Manipulators”, COGNITIVE 2010 : The Second International Conference on Advanced Cognitive Technologies and Applications, pp 103-108 [4] Nagamanikandan G, Rajadurai A, “A Mobile 5 Axes Manipulator Robot with Visual Servo Control and Navigation”, International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, 2017

3. Development of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller for the efficient solar energy accumulation from the satellite solar panels. “Any autonomous power supply system, containing in its composition batteries must contain a battery charge control agent. This work is focused on the increase in energy and a decrease in the time when the battery is charged by the solar battery by finding the point of maximum power and implemented in MPPT controller. MPPT Controller enables full use of the potential of solar cells and consequently remove 15-30% more energy compared to other controllers. This project is important for economic problems, where the solar panels are used (solar power plant) and also can be used in remote sensing satellites, as these devices use low solar synchronous orbits and the time spent on the sunny side of the very few, at the same time there is the problem quickly charge the battery (space industry).

[1] P. Pakkiraiah and G. Dugna Sukumar, “Research Survey on Various MMPT Performance Issues to Improve the Solar PV System Efficiency” Journal of Solar Energy, 2016, 20 pages[2] S. Venkatesan and M. Saravanan, “Simulation and Experimental Validation of New MPPT Algorithm with Control Method for PV Application”, Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, V.8, 2016, doi:http//dxdoi.org/10.1063/1.4959007[3] Bruce Salmi et al, “P13271: AMSAT Maximum Power Point Tracker”, Multidisciplinary Senior Design Conference, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, 2013

Prof. Alexander Ruderman alexander.ruderman@nu.edu.kz 1. Time Domain Evaluation of Multilevel Converters Voltage and Current Quality

Multilevel power converters voltage and current quality (measured using Total Harmonic Distortion

- THD) is typically analysed using computer simulations (e.g., Matlab / Simulink FFT tool).

Available frequency domain mathematical methods are quite complicated and not suitable for an

everyday engineering practice. Our research group is systematically developing simple time domain

averaging based methods for multilevel converters voltage and current THD evaluation. The

expected deliverables comprise relatively simple formulas for voltage and current THD for PWM

multilevel converters and numerical solutions for converters with a staircase modulation obtained by

simple and effective constrained optimization. Theoretical solutions will be confirmed by computer

simulation. There will be a possibility of making a prototype. Required skills: circuit theory (RL-

circuits, RMS values), basic math skills (trigonometry; Fourier analysis, integrals, symbolic

calculations etc), Matlab programming (constrained optimization solver), power electronics circuits

computer simulation (Matlab / Simulink) and prototyping.

Our relevant papers can be found following the links below -

IEEE Xplore

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/searchresult.jsp?

sortType=desc_p_Publication_Year&searchWithin=%22First%20Name%22:alex&searchWithin=

%22Last%20Name%22:ruderman

Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jG3h-dQAAAAJ&hl=en

ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alex_Ruderman2

Refik Kizilirmak refik.kizilirmak@nu.edu.kz 1. Use of Radio Frequency (RF) in Visible Light Communication (VLC) Networks Visible light communication (VLC) technology is an emerging technology for wireless short-range data transmission. Radio frequency (RF) technologies, which are generally more established as compared to VLC systems, have also found place in the context of VLC for different purposes. First of all, RF is considered to provide reverse link to VLC systems which are usually one directional. Second, RF is used as data backhauling in VLC systems, i.e., to bring the data to the luminary. Finally, hybrid use of RF and VLC systems are implemented in order to increase the throughout and link availability. In this work, student is expected to analyze the performance of different kinds of RF/VLC systems and explore novel techniques that improves the performance of such systems.

[1] Kashef, Mohamed, et al. "Energy efficient resource allocation for mixed RF/VLC heterogeneous wireless networks." IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications 34.4 (2016): 883-893.[2] Burchardt, Harald, et al. "VLC: Beyond point-to-point communication." IEEE Communications Magazine 52.7 (2014): 98-105.[3] Basnayaka, Dushyantha A., and Harald Haas. "Hybrid RF and VLC systems: Improving user data rate performance of VLC systems." Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring), 2015 IEEE 81st. IEEE, 2015.

2. Visible Light Communication Techniques for Future Generation Underwater NetworksUnderwater communications has recently found places in pollution monitoring, oceanographic data collection, offshore exploration, disaster prevention and tactical surveillance applications. In real-time applications, a wired links, particularly optical fiber cables, are generally employed. In many

practical applications, however, the difficulties in operating a wired system necessitate the wireless data transmission technologies.Currently, acoustic systems are widely used in wireless underwater communication networks. In long range applications, underwater acoustic systems can achieve only a few tens of Kbps and fail to support high data rates. In this project, underwater visible light communications (UVLC) systems will be investigated as an alternative and/or complementary technology to current acoustic systems.

[1] Kaushal, Hemani, and Georges Kaddoum. "Underwater optical wireless communication." IEEE Access 4 (2016): 1518-1547.[2] Komine, Toshihiko, and Masao Nakagawa. "Fundamental analysis for visible-light communication system using LED lights." IEEE transactions on Consumer Electronics 50.1 (2004): 100-107.[3] Mesleh, Raed, Hany Elgala, and Harald Haas. "On the performance of different OFDM based optical wireless communication systems." Journal of Optical Communications and Networking 3.8 (2011): 620-628.

3. VLC for UAV aided intelligent transport systems

Intelligent transport systems (ITSs) are considered as one of the significant features of future smart cities. The current ITS systems that are mainly based on information and communication technologies (ICT), are expected to be upgraded with connected and autonomous vehicle technologies. As the vehicles get connected and autonomous, many new applications and services will be enabled.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have found place in many areas such as military, agriculture, security and surveillance, delivery of goods and services. Recently, their potential roles in ITS systems have also been mentioned. For instance, they can assist the overall automation of the transportation system, replace the role of roadside units or traffic polices by just flying over the vehicles (for a list of different applications, see [1]). In addition, UAV networks, a.k.a Flying Ad-Hoc Networks (FANETs), improve the reliability, energy efficiency, connectivity and scalability of the network architecture in which they are integrated [2,5]. In the literature, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) interface, which is a radio frequency (RF) based industry standard for vehicular communications, is suggested for UAV to vehicle communication [1]. RF based technologies are regulated, less energy efficient than optical systems, and less secure due to the unguided propagation characteristics of radio waves.In this project, student will explore the potential usage of visible light communication (VLC) in UAV-vehicle communication as an alternative to RF based systems. Student is expected to propose novel physical layer methods for VLC based UAV assisted systems, evaluate and compare their performances with the current RF based systems.

References

[1] Menouar, Hamid, et al. "UAV-Enabled Intelligent Transportation Systems for the Smart City: Applications and Challenges." IEEE Communications Magazine 55.3 (2017): 22-28

[2] J. Wang, C. Jiang, Z. Han, Y. Ren, R. G. Maunder and L. Hanzo, "Taking Drones to the Next Level: Cooperative Distributed Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicular Networks for Small and Mini Drones," in IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 73-82, Sept. 2017.[3] K. Namuduri, S. Chaumette, J. H. Kim J.P.G. Sterbenz, ''UAV Networks and Communications''. Cambridge University Press: 2017, pp. 111-118. [4] Information Resources Management Association, 'Transportation Systems and Engineering: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications'. IGI Global, 2015, pp. 149-158.[5] W. Fawaz, R. Atallah, C. Assi and M. Khabbaz, "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as Store-Carry-Forward Nodes for Vehicular Networks," in IEEE Access, vol. 5, pp. 23710-23718, 2017.

Prof. Prashant Jamwal prashant.jamwal@nu.edu.kz

1. Development of an Intelligent Robot Assisted Gait Rehabilitation System using BCI (In collaboration with University of Wollongong, Australia and Robotics and Autonomous systems, University of Leeds).Neurological disorders such as stroke and incomplete spinal cord injuries (ISCI) often result in upper or lower limb disability and loss of mobility. Robot driven physiotherapy has been actively researched since past two decades to help physiotherapists provide improved treatment. However, existing designs of robotic orthoses are extremely heavy and rigid and are not suitable to work with human users. Moreover, these orthoses forces the subject’s limbs on predefined tracks without taking into account patient’s disability level. In order to advance the present state of robotic physiotherapy, this research will investigate in the biomechanical modelling of human tissues such as ligaments, muscles and tendons apart from the modelling of bone segments and joints. We endeavour to explore new designs of robotic orthoses which will be more flexible, light weight and with the use of special muscle like actuators (called pneumatic muscle actuators), the actuation of robotic orthosis will be more compliant, soft and human friendly. Besides design improvements in robotic devices, we will also develop intelligent controller based on ‘assist-as-needed’ approach whereby the robotic assistance to the subjects can be attuned to their neurological impairment levels using algorithms and feedback from subjects’ intentions using BCI (brain Computer Interface). Methods will be developed to identify subject’s musculoskeletal capabilities using robot as a tool and thereby therapeutic outcomes will be assessed. Physiotherapy, employing our new robotic orthosis design, intelligent controller and methods to identify musculoskeletal function, will be safe, objective and evidence based.

[1] S. Hussain, "State-of-the-art robotic gait rehabilitation orthoses: design and control aspects," NeuroRehabilitation, vol. 35, pp. 701-9, 2014.[2] S. Hussain, P. Jamwal, M. Ghayesh, and S. Xie, "Assist-as-Needed Control of an Intrinsically Compliant Robotic Gait Training Orthosis," IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. PP, pp. 1-1, 2016.[3] S. Hussain, S. Q. Xie, and P. K. Jamwal, "A bio-inspired robotic orthosis for gait rehabilitation," in Proceedings of the IEEE RAS and EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, 2012, pp. 1470-1475.

2. Structural and Functional Modelling of Human Musculoskeletal System and study of their interaction with brain signals. (In collaboration with Department of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, University of Leeds, UK) Human joint motions are complex since they are caused by simultaneous actuation of multiple muscles. Musculoskeletal elements at the joints such as ligaments, muscles and tendons have complex arrangements and exhibit transient and nonlinear behaviour. Development of musculoskeletal models for various key human joints is crucial for multi-joint movement study, simulations, diagnosis of joint disorders and assessment of subsequent treatments, neurological interaction between brain and muscles. This research will produce musculoskeletal models of hip, knee, ankle and elbow joints and will reveal insight about interaction between brain and musculoskeletal systems. These models will be used to predict mechanical characteristics (motion and moments) of joints (both passive and active) through considerations of forces applied along ligaments and muscle-tendon units. The dynamics of the joints and their surrounding ligaments and muscle-tendon units will be modelled and formulated into a state space model to facilitate simulations of the model. A graphical user interface (GUI) shall also be developed during this research in order to include the visual anatomical information in the anatomical models by converting it to quantitative information on coordinates. Validation of the models will be carried out by comparing model results and experimental data obtained from literature.

[1] Riener, R. and T. Edrich, Identification of passive elastic joint moments in the lower extremities. Journal of Biomechanics, 1999. 32(5): p. 539-544.[2] Liacouras, P.C. and J.S. Wayne, Computational modeling to predict mechanical function of joints: Application to the lower leg with simulation of two cadaver studies. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 2007. 129: p. 811-817.[3] Delp, S.L., et al., OpenSim: Open-Source Software to Create and Analyze Dynamic Simulations of Movement. Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on, 2007. 54(11): p. 1940-1950. 3. Meta-model Based Fuzzy Evolutionary Algorithm for Multi-criteria Optimization (In collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India). Connotation of optimization in the realm of multi-criteria problems (MCPs) differs from its usual context of maximization or minimization. It is normally a best compromised solution set which is a non-singular set of equitable solutions that normally accepted when dealing with real world problems. The process of obtaining such set of solutions is cumbersome using classical optimization methods. Consequently, in the past two decades, evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have emerged as a plausible alternative. While carrying out simultaneous optimization of multitude of objectives, EAs are able to provide equitable solutions in a single simulation run. Applications ranging from engineering design, groundwater monitoring, and autonomous vehicle navigation to polymer extrusion, city planning and many more have been benefited significantly by the use of EAs. The concept of Non-dominated sorting based genetic algorithm (NSGA) in EAs has been predominantly used by many researchers. However, while dealing with large number of objectives, the concept of non-dominance loses its significance. EAs, are also criticized for issues such as uncertain termination criterion, absence of user preference inclusion and difficulty in selecting the final solution from the set of Pareto optimal solutions. In the present research, we shall investigate a new concept of meta-

model based fuzzy evolutionary algorithm (FEA) which is a robust analytical approach. From preliminary research, it has been observed that FEA is able to address most of the issues concerning EAs. It will be interesting to see how FEA can be implemented on real world problems which have many objectives to optimize simultaneously. [1] P. K. Jamwal, S. Hussain, "Multi-criteria Design Optimization of a Parallel Ankle Rehabilitation Robot: Fuzzy Dominated Sorting Evolutionary Algorithm Approach," IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems, vol. D.O.I.: 10.1109/TSMC.2015.2478389 (In press), 2015.[2] K. Deb, Multi-objective optimization using evolutionary algorithms. 2004: John Wiley & sons, Ltd.C.A. Coello Coello, Multi-objective evolutionary algorithms in real-world applications: Some recent results and current challenges, in Computational Methods in Applied Sciences. 2015. p. 3-18.

Prof. Akhtar, Muhammad Tahir (muhammad.akhtar@nu.edu.kz)(Main research theme, keywords, and a few projects are explained below. The interested PhD students are, however, welcome to discuss other topics in the area of acoustic and biomedical signal processing.)

Research Theme: Signal Processing Techniques for Acoustic and Biomedical ApplicationsKeywords: Active noise control, Blind source separation and independent component analysis, Multichannel hands-free communication, EEG signal processing and analysis, Adaptive noise cancellation, Acoustic feedback in Digital hearing aid systems

1. Investigating distributed adaptive algorithms for multichannel active noise control systemsThe basic principle of active noise control (ANC) is quite simple: cancel the unwanted noise by acoustically generating and combining an antiphase signal. The most successful scenario for active control of acoustic noise is a single-channel situation, which comprises one primary (reference) microphone, one secondary (cancelling) loudspeaker, and one error microphone. The reference microphone picks-up the reference noise in advance. The primary noise propagates via the so-called primary acoustic path to the location of error microphone where the noise reduction is in fact desired. The secondary (cancelling) signal generated by the control filter (which is in fact an adaptive filter) propagates via the so-called secondary (electro-acoustic) path. The objective of the control filter is to generate an appropriate (anti-phase) signal which would result in the cancelling of primary noise, and hence a reduction of the sound pressure level at the location of the error microphone. Finally, the error microphone senses the result of destructive interference between the acoustic waves. The multi-channel ANC systems, comprising array of microphone and loudspeakers are needed, whenever the objective is to cover a large space. Many efficient signal processing strategies proposed for single-channel ANC has already been extended for multi-channel scenarios. Considering the recent research trends in the area of wireless acoustic sensor networks, this work would explore developing efficient distributed adaptive strategies for multi-channel ANC systems.

1. A. H. Sayed, “Adaptation, Learning, and Optimization over Networks. Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning,” vol. 7, no. 4-5, pp. 311–801, 2014.

2. M. Ferrer, M. de Diego, G. Piñeron, A. Gonzalez, “Active noise control over adaptive distributed networks,” Signal Processing, vol. 107, pp. 82–95, 2015

2. Developing intelligent signal processing for nonlinear active noise control systems

In this project we aim at studying nonlinear active noise control (ANC) systems. The non-linearity in ANC may arise due, for example, to noise sources, acoustic environment, and/or sensors/actuators. To tackle various nonlinear effects, many researchers have developed nonlinear ANC systems using, viz., normalized Gaussian radial basis function networks, Volterra filtered-X LMS and RLS algorithms, bilinear filtered-X LMS algorithms, etc. The use of evolutionary computing algorithms, for example genetic algorithms (GAs), neural networks, and particle swarm optimization (PSO), in ANC system has been reported. The main issue in implementing such algorithms in practical systems in an increased computational complexity. In the first phase of this project, an exhaustive literature review will be carried out, and simulations will be performed for the existing nonlinear ANC algorithms. Our objective in this research would be to develop intelligent signal processing-based algorithms for practical non-linear ANC systems.

1. S. K. Behera, D. P. Das, and B. Subudhi, “Adaptive nonlinear active noise control algorithm for active headrest with moving error microphone,” Applied Acoustics, vol. 123, pp. 9-19, 2017.

2. M. Rathod, V. Patel, and N. V. George, “Generalized spline nonlinear adaptive filters,” Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 83, pp. 122-130, 2017.

3. G. L.Sicuranza, Alberto Carini, “Nonlinear system identification using quasi-perfect periodic sequences,” Signal Processing, vol. 120, pp. 174–184, 2016

3. Characterizing and mitigating howling & entrainment artifacts in digital hearing systemsA typical hearing aid comprises a microphone to pick-up the input signal, a signal processing block essentially to perform the amplification and a receiver (loudspeaker). The primary objective of any hearing aid system is to amplify the speech signal to help the user having hearing impairment. In a noisy environment, however, hearing aids amplify the desired speech signal as well as the noise. Furthermore, in reverberant place, hearing aids will amplify the late multipath arrivals as well as the direct first-arrival signal. A major problem is a strong acoustic feedback associated with high output hearing aids, limiting the maximum gain available to user and making hearing aid oscillate at higher gains - an effect most commonly known as howling. Another common artifact in hearing aids is entrainment, which is typically described as feedback after cessation of the sound, additional tones, warbling, or echoes. The hearing aid will entrain when the feedback cancellation algorithm erroneously attempts to cancel a tonal input to the hearing aid. We believe that efficient acoustic feedback neutralization can mitigate the entrainment. The above mentioned issues will be explored in this research. The main objective is to rigorously understand the howling & entrainment, and develop efficient signal processing techniques to mitigate these artifacts.

1. J. M. Kates, Digital Hearing Aids. Plural Publishing, 2008.2. T. van Waterschoot and M. Moonen, “Fifty years of acoustic feedback control: state of the

art and future challenges,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 99, no. 2, pp. 288–327, Feb. 2011.3. F. Strasser and H. Puder, “Correlation detection for adaptive feedback cancellation in

hearing aids,” IEEE Sig. Precess. Lett., vol. 23, no. 7, pp. 979–983, Jul. 2016.

Prof. Mohammad Hashmi (E-mail: mohammad.hashmi@nu.edu.kz)

Topic 1. Highly Efficient and Linear Adaptive Multi-standard and Multi-band Wireless Transmitter Both terrestrial and satellite communications technologies have migrated to multi-carrier broadband type of applications such as WLAN, WiMAX, LTE, and UWB. This essentially necessitates the installation and deployment of self-adaptive, highly power-efficient, and spectrum-efficient transmitters, both for handsets and base stations, to handle complex modulated signals of high peak-to-average power ratio (MC-CDMA, nQAM, OFDM, etc.) across a wide range of environmental and traffic conditions. To address these concerns, Digital Signal Processing/Radio Frequency (DSP/RF) co-designed techniques such as Software Defined Radio (SDR) based transceivers, therefore, were earmarked as the potential candidate for wireless standards such as 4G and other wireless standards with career aggregated (CA) feature. The SDR transceivers, constrained by extremely stringent specifications in terms of linearity and power efficiency, rely heavily on the performance of Radio Frequency Power Amplifier (RFPA). It is due to the fact that RFPAs are the most critical and power hungry block in the transmitter and introduce serious bottlenecks such as efficiency degradation and nonlinearity. There have been several efforts to address these important problems but in general fully integrated hardware realization are the key challenges which are still evolving. Furthermore, it is imperative to understand that the rapid emergence in wireless communication standards has necessitated devices and base stations capable of operating under multi-frequency and multi-mode conditions. In essence, advancements in multi-frequency and multi-mode transmitters are extremely important to fully utilize the capability of existing wireless standards considering that the futuristic 5G systems are still a long way away. Moreover, the research and advancements pursued in the context of current wireless standards will also facilitate faster deployments of 5G systems whenever it is launched. References:1. F. M. Ghannouchi and M. S. Hashmi: Load-Pull Techniques with Applications to Power Amplifier Design, ISBN-13: 978-9400744608 - Springer Netherlands, First Edition, 2013.2. R. Gani, G.A. Ellis, C.S. Teoh, “Reconfigurable MMIC Power Amplifier Using Tunable Interstage Matching Network,” Microwave Journal, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 78-92, April 20113. M. Hedayat, D. Banerjee, and M. S. Hashmi, "An Enhanced Frequency-Ratio Coupled-Line Dual-Frequency Wilkinson Power Divider," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems (TCAS-II), (Accepted / Aug 2017). DOI (identifier) 10.1109/TCSII.2017.2749407.4. Yiqioa Lin, Christophe Quindroit, Haedong Jang and Patrick Roblin, “3-D Fourier Series Based Digital Predistortion Technique for Concurrent Dual-Band Envelope Tracking With Reduced Envelope Bandwidth”, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 63, No. 9, pp. 2764-2775, 2015.

Prof. Mohammad Hashmi (E-mail: mohammad.hashmi@nu.edu.kz)

Topic 2: Antenna Design, Propagation and Localization in Body Centric CommunicationA network of wearable, implantable and body worn devices are collectively known as Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). It provides a flexible platform to connect the sensor

nodes wirelessly measuring and recording the physiological parameters of the body. Antenna which forms an integral part of these devices plays a vital role to establish a link between wearable (On body or off body) and base station (remote location away from the body). Although this area has been extensively studied in the past few years still issues like large antenna size at medical body area network and Wi-Fi bands, considerable radiation towards body, change in effective dielectric constant in presence of multiple layer of superstrates (textiles), and localization of sensors require further investigations. Research in WBAN focuses mostly on antenna design for off body communication (between body and external base station), specific absorption rate (SAR) reduction, human body loading, structural deformations. However, large size of antenna at Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulated band for medical purpose, communication between sensors located on body and implants localization are still in infancy due to some fundamental challenges.

Firstly, most works in literature have large sizes of antennas at MBAN and Wi-Fi frequencies. This reduces the comfort level of the wearer if worn on 24x7 basis. Secondly, communication between devices on body and implants take place either through body or along the body. The signal loss through these communication channels is very high which is not seen in off-body communication which mostly take place though air. This can be attributed to the fact that the human body is susceptible to absorb EM radiation and attenuate the signal radiated along or through the body. Proper antenna with knowledge of signal loss between the wireless devices can lead to design of reliable link. In the absence of proper link loss model, the signal may get attenuated below the threshold value and that will lead to loss of essential data. Thirdly, present wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) subjugate the problems of conventional endoscopy like ability to reach entire small intestine. It utilizes the localization of RF source encapsulated in the device to identify abnormality in the gastrointestinal tract. However, the present localization technique is not able to detect the RF source inside the body precisely.

The objective of this research entails the development of miniaturized antenna with optimum gain and minimum back lobes. The miniaturization could be achieved by employing techniques such as DGS and improvement in gain and back lobes could be achieved by incorporating artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) plane. In the context of on-body and in-body (RF source localization) communication, the research directions envisaged are the design of low SAR miniaturized end fire antenna, link loss model for the whole body, and reducing the error in the detection of RF source inside the body to make the technique useful for practical applications. The proposed designs and algorithms will be validated by measurement on physical phantom made of liquid and gel.

References: 1. J. Trajkovikj and A. K. Skrivervik, “Diminishing SAR for wearable UHF antennas,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 14, pp. 1530–1533, 20152. S. Yan, P. J. Soh, and G. A. E. Vandenbosch, “Low-Profile Dual-Band Textile Antenna With Artificial Magnetic Conductor Plane”, ,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 62, no. 12, pp. 6487-6490, Dec. 2014.

Lead Supervisor: Prof. Ikechi A. Ukaegbu ikechi.ukaegbu@nu.edu.kz (www.idslab.info) Internal Co-Supervisors:Prof. Behrouz Maham behrouz.maham@nu.edu.kzProf. Mohammad Hashmi mohammad.hashmi@nu.edu.kz

External Co-Supervisors:Prof. Hyo-Hoon Park (KAIST)Prof. Sang-Gug Lee (KAIST)

1. Optoelectronic Circuits and Systems for Optical Interconnect Applications

As the advancement of device technology has resulted to increase in signal processing speed, metal-based interconnects on printed circuit boards (PCBs) will experience bandwidth limitations due to signal attenuation and distortion, crosstalk, electromagnetic interference, and power dissipation. Optical interconnections have been widely studied as the solution to the electrical interconnect bottleneck and as the potential technology for meeting the high speed and bandwidth requirements of the next generation computer systems. While the mature silicon CMOS (Si-CMOS) technology is well established for high speed information processing, optical systems excel at information transmission. The future and next generation computer and consumer electronic systems are likely to incorporate electronic components communicating along an optical channel that requires optoelectronic devices such as optoelectronic transceivers to convert signals from electrical to optical domain and vice versa. In this project, we will be developing new, more efficient and compact optoelectronic circuits that will facilitate in the miniaturization of optoelectronic systems for optical interconnect applications.

Research Topics: Compact and Low Power Bidirectional Transceiver for Optical Interconnect Applications Transceiver Design for Optical Chip-to-chip and Nanophotonics Applications Voltage Regulator for Optoelectronic Transceiver and Nanophotonics applications

[1] I. A. Ukaegbu, M. Rakib-Uddin, J. Sangirov, N. T. H. Nguyen, T.-W. Lee, M.-H. Cho, H.-H. Park, “Design of Full-duplex and Multifunction Bidirectional CMOS Transceiver for Optical Interconnect Applications” Optical and Quantum Electronics, vol. 49, no. 7, pp. 243, July, 2017[2] I. A. Ukaegbu, M. Rakib-Uddin, J. Sangirov, N. T. H. Nguyen, T.-W. Lee, M.-H. Cho, H.-H. Park, “Thermal Effect Analysis on Crosstalk and Performance of Optoelectronic Transmitter Modules for Optical Interconnects” Optical and Quantum Electronics, vol. 49, no. 8, pp. 277, August 2017[3] J. Sangirov, M. Rakib-Uddin, I. A. Ukaegbu, T.-W. Lee, H.-H. Park, “Power Saving Bidirectional Optical Transceiver Design and Fabrication” Optical and Quantum Electronics, vol. 47, no. 8, 3101-3116, May, 2015

2. Nanophotonics: Photonic Computing and Photonic Integrated Circuits

All-optical network of photonic integrated circuits promises a future of stronger, more economical, and more flexible communication, sensing, biophotonic and optical signal processing systems. Silicon photonics use laser light to transfer data among computer chips for what is called “computing at the speed of light”. Optical rays can carry more data and can transfer data faster than electrical semiconductors. In this project, we explore, develop and analyze contemporary circuits and structures that would pave the way towards the realization of all-optical photonic computing systems.

Research Topics: Dot Product Operator for Photonic and Edge Computing Applications Silicon Photonics Based All-optical Logic Gates On-Chip Optical Fast Fourier Transforms (OFFTs) for Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) Photonic Integrated Circuit Solutions for Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM), Long-Short

Term Memory (LSTM) and Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) 2D/3D Silicon Photonics-Based Optical Phased Arrays for UAVs and Driverless Vehicles 3D Photonic Integrated Circuits Design Silicon Photonics Based Sensors

[1] M. J. R. Heck, “Highly integrated optical phased arrays: photonic integrated circuits for optical beam shaping and beam steering,” Journal of Nanophotonics, Vol.6, Issue 1, pp. 93-107, Feb. 2016[2] S. J. Ben Yoo, B. Guan and R. P. Scott, “Heterogeneous 2D/3D photonic integrated microsystems,” Microsystems & Nanoengineering 2, 16030, 2016[3] John E. Bowers, “Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuits,” Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OSA Technical Digest, Optical Society of America, 2015

3. Modeling and Signal Integrity Future electronic systems will consist of several significantly heterogeneous modules such as Optoelectronic and analog RF links, mixed-signal analog to digital converters (ADC), digital signal

processors (DSP), Central Processor Units (CPU), Memory modules, Micro-fabricated Electro-Mechanical (MEM) resonators, sensors and actuators with power electronics converters. When assembling such heterogeneous set of modules on a single package as in Systems on Package (SoP) structures or integrated circuit substrate as in Systems on Chip (SoC) structures, compatibility issues are seen to arise from many possible perspectives. In this project, we address the physical electromagnetic perspective. We aim to encompass phenomena that range from the well-known electric field capacitive cross-talk, to the more challenging magnetic field inductive coupling, and even full-wave propagating electromagnetic field couplings. We find the standard approach to Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) used on Chip-on-Board (CoB), Systems-on Board (SoB) quite inappropriate for Systems on Chip (SoC) where prototyping, metal shielding and ground planes are often expensive, and sometimes completely impractical. We consider such methods such as the use of efficient 3D electromagnetic field solver for analyzing and verifying designs against all sorts of electromagnetic interference before fabrication. Other methods include various modeling techniques for circuit-level, chip-level, board-level and system-level characterization.

Research Topics: Signal and Crosstalk Analysis Using Optical Convolution of  Transmitted Optical Signals Equivalent Circuit Model of Memristor Cells for Mixed Signal Applications Input/Output Buffer Information Specification (IBIS) Modeling Channel Modeling and Optimization

[1] J. Eric Bracken, “Improved Formulas for Crosstalk Coefficients,” Proceedings of DesignCon 2016, Santa Clara, Jan, 2016[2] I. A. Ukaegbu, J. Sangirov, M.-H. Cho, T.-W. Lee, and H.-H. Park, “Analytical Model for Crosstalk Analysis of Optoelectronic Transmitter Modules for Optical Interconnetcs,” Journal of Optical Engineering, Vol. 50, no. 7, pp. 075401(1)-(8), July, 2011.

4. High Bandwidth Packaging Design and Solutions

Terahertz consists of electromagnetic waves at frequencies from 300GHz to 3THz. Some of the significant features of THz wave include high bandwidth, penetration of a variety of materials, traveling in a straight line, as well as being harmless to human body. THz technology finds applications in areas such as in the field of environment/pollution, food inspection, security, in-substance defect observation, bio-diagnostics and communication. This project focuses on the applications for chip-to-chip communication in consumer electronics.

Research Topics: Wireless Chip-to-chip Interconnects Using the THz band for PCB Applications THz Transceiver Design for Chip-to-chip PCB Applications High-Bandwidth Package (HBP) Design and Characterization Wireless Channel Modeling and Analysis of Chip-to-Chip THz Interconnects Crosstalk Analysis of Chip-to-Chip THz Interconnects

[1] A. Matsuzawa, “High Data Rate 60 GHz CMOS Transceiver Design,” Tokyo Institute of Technology, Nov. 2015

[2] M. Fujishima, “Device Characterization and Modeling for Terahertz CMOS Design,’ Proceedings of IEEE International Microwave and RF Conference, 2015[3] J.C. Dickinson, T. M. Goyetter, and J. Waldman, “High Resolution Imaging Using 325 GHz and 1.5 THz Transceivers, International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology, 2004

Professor Mohammad S. Obaidat; e-mail mohammad.obaidat@nu.edu.kz

Fellow of IEEE and Fellow of SCS, Past President of the Society for Modeling and Summation International, SCS, Founding Editor-in-Chief, Security and Privacy Journal, Wiley, Editor in Chief, International Journal of Communication Systems, Wiley, Editor, IEEE Wireless Communications, and Editor, IEEE Systems Journal

Research Areas include: Cybersecurity, Wireless Networks and Communications, Smart Cities, Homes and Systems, Computer Networks, Performance Evaluation of Computer Networks and Systems, and Modeling and Simulation

I. Biometric-based Physical and Cybersecurity Systems

Securing access to computer and network systems as well as other physical systems has become a vital issue in recent days. This is due to the reliance of individuals and organizations on these systems on a daily basis. The proliferation of ICT gadgets including lap tops, tablets, smart phones, and their widely acceptance worldwide has even made it more crucial to secure access these computer networks and systems as well as the Critical Infrastructures and Key Resources (CIKR). User authentication by passwords is a reliable and efficient access control procedure, however, it is not a sufficient way these days as it is subject to many problems. Additional authentication procedures are needed to enhance the security beside the password usage in computerized systems. Even other authentication and verification security schemes have been devised and employed, there is still need to devise more accurate and robust schemes. Biometrics –based security approaches have been found to be very accurate especially, if they are used on top of traditional security schemes. Behavioral biometric-based authentication schemes whether physiological or behavioral, are a way to authenticate people based on their behavior. They are used to strengthen password authentication efficiently and cheaply.

Existing risk-based authentication systems rely on basic web communication information such as the source IP address or the velocity of transactions performed by a specific account, or originating from a certain IP address. Such information can easily be spoofed, and as such, put in question the robustness and reliability of the proposed systems. In this work, we propose new online risk-based authentication systems that provides more robust user identity information by combining mouse dynamics and keystroke dynamics biometrics in a multimodal framework. The work involves devising new schemes based on biometric features or combined traditional approaches with biometric- based schemes as well as experimental evaluation of proposed models that can use behavioral (such as keystroke dynamics and mouse gestures/movements) and /or physiological metrics (such as iris scan, and finger prints) as features to authenticate users and secure access to ICT

systems and even physical systems. Performance metrics include: False Acceptance Rate, False Rejection Rate and Equal Error Rate as well as newly devised metrics.

References:

1. M. S. Obaidat, I. Traore and I. Woungang,” Biometric-based Security Systems: State of the Art and Perspectives,” Springer, 2018.

2. M. S. Obaidat and B. Sadoun," Verification of Computer Users Using Keystroke Dynamics", IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 261-269, April 1997.

3. B. Sayed, I. Traore, I. Woungang, and M. S. Obaidat,” Biometric Authentication using Mouse Gesture Dynamics,” IEEE Systems Journal, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 262-274, Feb 2013.

4. I. Traore, I. Woungang, B. Khalilian, M. S. Obaidat, and A. Ahmed,” Dynamic Sample Size Detection in Learning Command Line Sequence for Continuous Authentication,” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics- Part B, Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 1343-1356, 2012.

5. I. Traore, I. Woungang, M. S. Obaidat, and Y. Nakkabi,” Online risk-based authentication using behavioral biometrics,” Multimedia Tools and Applications Journal, Springer, Vol. 71, No. 2, pp. 575-605, 2014.

6. M. L. Brocardo, I. Traore, I. Woungang and M. S. Obaidat,” Authorship Verification Using Deep Belief Network Systems,” Int. J. Communication Systems, Wiley, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2017; e3259. doi:10.1002/dac.3259.

7. P. V. Krishna, S. Misra, D. Joshi, A. Gupta, M. S. Obaidat, "Secure Socket Layer Certificate V e r i f i c a t i o n U s i n g L e a r n i n g A u t o m a t a ”, Security a n d C o m m u n i c a t i o n Networks, Wiley , Vol. 7, No. 11, 2014, pp. 1712-1718.

8. M.S. Obaidat and D. T. Macchairllo, “An On-line Neural Network System for Computer Access Security", IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 40, No.2, pp. 235242, April 1993.

9. S.A. Bleha and M.S. Obaidat "Computer User Verification Using the Perceptron ", IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Vol.23, No. 3, pp. 900-903, May/June, 1993.

10. I. Traore, I. Woungang, M. S. Obaidat, Y. Nakkabi, and I. Lai,” Combining Mouse and Keystroke Dynamics Biometrics for Risk-Based Authentication in Web Environments,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Digital Home, ICDH 2012, pp.138-145, Guangzhou, China, 2012.

11. M. S. Obaidat," A Verification Methodology for Computer Systems Users", Proceedings of the 1995 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 258-262, Nashville, TN, Feb. 1995.

II. Efficient Congestion Avoidance Schemes for Healthcare Wireless Sensor Networks

One of the key challenges in wireless sensor network (WSN) research is to reduce congestion in the network’s traffic, without compromising energy of the sensor nodes. Congestion disturbs the continuous flow of data, causes loss of information, postponement in the arrival of data to the destination and unnecessary consumption of significant amount of the very limited amount of energy in the nodes. Clearly in healthcare WSN applications, especially in the ones that serve medical emergencies, it is desirable to prevent congestion from happening and if it occurs, to diminish the loss of data due to congestion. In this research work, we will address the issue of congestion in the nodes of healthcare WSN using a machine learning schemes such as learning automata (LA)- based approaches, neural networks (NN), deep learning (DL), genetic algorithms (GA), and others. Our chief objective is to adaptively make the processing rate in the nodes equal to the transmitting rate, so that the occurrence of congestion in the nodes is effortlessly prevented. We did some work in this area and like to continue doing so using new schemes.

For example, we proposed an algorithm, named as Learning Automata-Based Congestion Avoidance Algorithm in Sensor Networks (LACAS), which can counter the congestion problem in healthcare WSNs efficiently. One key important feature of LACAS is that it intelligently “learns” from the past and improves its performance significantly as time progresses. The model was evaluated using simulation analysis representing healthcare WSNs. The obtained results were encouraging. For example, performance metrics like the number of collisions, the energy consumption at the nodes, the network throughput, the number of unicast packets delivered, the number of packets delivered to each node, the signals received and forwarded to the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and the change in energy consumption with variation in transmission range, have shown that the proposed LA-based scheme is capable of successfully avoiding congestion in typical healthcare WSNs.

References:

1.S. Misra, V. Tiwari, M. S. Obaidat, “ LACAS: Learning Automata-Based Congestion Avoidance Scheme for Healthcare Wireless Sensor Networks,” IEEE Journal on Selected Area on Communications (JSAC), Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 466-479, May 2009. [Featured in

IEEE ComSoc Technology News, July 2013].

2. S. Dhurandher, M. S. Obaidat, S. Misra and S. Khairwal, “Efficient Data Acquisitionin Underwater Wireless Sensor Ad-Hoc Networks,” IEEE Wireless Communications, Vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 70-78, December 2009.

3. N. Kumar, S. Misra, J. Rodrigues, and M. S. Obaidat, “Coalition Games for Spatio-Temporal Big Data in Internet of Vehicles Environment: A Comparative Analysis," IEEE Internet of Things Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 310-320, August 2015.

4. S. Misra, A. Mandal, T. Ojha, M. Dash, and M. S. Obaidat,” Effects of Wind-induced Near-surface Bubble Plumes on the Performance of Underwater Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks" IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 16, No. 11, pp. 4092 – 4099, June 2016.

5. N. Kumar, S. Misra, J. Rodrigues, J-Y. Lee, M. S. Obaidat, N. Chilamkurti, “Playing

the Smart Grid Game: Performance Analysis of Intelligent Energy Harvesting and Traffic Flow Forecasting for Plug-In Electric Vehicles,” IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine,” Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 81-92, Dec 2015.6. Z. Ning, X. Hu, Z. Chen, M. Zhou, B. Hu, J. Cheng, and M. S.Obaidat,” A Cooperative Quality-aware Service Access System for Social Internet of Vehicles,” IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 2017. 10.1109/JIOT.2017.2764259. 7 . M. S. Obaidat, S. Dhurandher,” “An Ant Swarm-Inspired Energy-Aware Routing Protocol for Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks, “Journal of Systems and Software, Elsevier, Vol. 83, No. 11 pp. 2188-2199, Nov 2010.

8.M. S. Obaidat, S. Dhurandher,” “An Ant Swarm-Inspired Energy-Aware Routing Protocol for Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks, “Journal of Systems and Software, Elsevier, Vol. 83, No. 11 pp. 2188-2199, Nov 2010.C. Ramachandran, M. S. Obaidat, S. Misra, and F. Pena-Mora,” A Secure, and Energy-Efficient Scheme for Group-Based Routing in Heterogeneous Ad-Hoc Sensor Networks and Its Simulation Analysis,” Simulation: Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International, Vol. 84, No.2-3, pp. 131-146, Feb/March 2008.

9. S. K. Dhurandher, S. Misra, M. S. Obaidat, V. Bansal, P. Singh and V. Punia, "EEAODR: An Energy-Efficient On-Demand Routing Protocol for Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks",

International Journal of Communication Systems, Wiley , Vol. 22, No. 7, 2009, pp. 789-

817.

11.M. S. Obaidat and S. Misra,” An Energy-Aware Routing Protocol for Ad-Hoc Networks

Based on the Foraging Behavior in Ant Swarms,” Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Communications, ICC 2009, Dresden, Germany, June 2009.

III. Energy-aware and Secure Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

(WSNs)

The traditional trend in wireless network protocol design and development is towards maximization of the performance observed by the end-user, in terms of perceived high throughput, and QoS, and low delay and power consumption, etc. Nevertheless, the rate of advances in battery technology continues to lag behind that of semiconductor technology, which is still predicted by the celebrated

Moore’s law. This disparity in the rate of advances produces a gap between the energy a wireless network needs and the battery capacity that powers its nodes. Therefore, the requirement of energy-efficiency appears as an extremely important property of new protocols for wireless networks with battery-powered mobile nodes. Moreover, energy-efficiency is the tool to realize the vision of green wireless networks, which are deemed important these days due to the increasing share of wireless systems of the total energy consumed in communications and networking systems. Energy-awareness contributes to achieving the task of energy-efficiency, as it provides the ability to networking protocols to adapt their operation according to the energy reserves of the network nodes and thus increases the energy-efficiency of a system.

Securing the access to wireless sensor networks is challenging as this requires light protocols that do no consume much power and do not need computational power and memory space.

We aim to design protocols for WSNs that are energy-efficient and at the same time secure.

Such proctors can be based on Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Genetic Algorithms (GA), Learning Automata (LA), or Neural Networks (NN), among others. The key is to devise new schemes that provide performance better than what is available in reported literature so far.

References:

1. M. S. Obaidat and Sudip Misra,” Principles of Wireless Sensor Networks,” Cambridge University Press, 2014.

2. M. S. Obaidat, A. Anpalagan, and I.Woungang,” Handbook of Green Information and Communication Systems," Elsevier, 2013.

3. M. S. Obaidat and Sudip Misra,” Cooperative Networking,” John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

4. S. Dhurandher, M. S. Obaidat, S. Misra and S. Khairwal,” Efficient Data Acquisition in Underwater Wireless Sensor Ad-Hoc Networks,” IEEE Wireless Communications, Vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 70-78, December 2009.

5. C. Lin, J. Zhou, C. Guo, H. Song, G. Wu, M. S. Obaidat,” TSCA: A Temporal-Spatial Real-Time Charging Scheduling Algorithm for On-Demand Architecture in Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, Vol. 17, No. 1, PP. 211-224, January 2018.

6. S. Das, S. Misra and M. S. Obaidat,” Quality-assured Secured Load Sharing in Mobile Cloud Networking Environment" IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, 2017. DOI: 10.1109/TCC.2015.2457416

7. Misra, S. Goswami, C. Taneia, A. Mukherjee and M. S. Obaidat,” A PKI Adapted Model for Secure Information Dissemination in Industrial Control and Automation 6LoWPANs,” IEEE Access, Vol. 3, pp. 875-889, 2015.

8. S. Tanwar, S. Tyagi, N. Kumar and M. S. Obaidat, “LA-MHR: Learning Automata Based Multi-level Heterogeneous Routing for Opportunistic Shared Spectrum Access to Enhance Lifetime of WSN”, IEEE Systems Journal, 2018. DOI:

10.1109/JSYST.2018.2818618. 9. H Mostafaei, MU Chowdhurry, and M. S. Obaidat,” Border Surveillance With WSN

Systems in a Distributed Manner,” IEEE Systems Journal, 2018. DOI: 10.1109/JSYST.2018.2794583

10. S. Misra, S. Dhurandher, M. S. Obaidat, M. Gupta, K. Diwakar and P. Gupta ,” An Efficient Angular Routing Protocol for Inter-Vehicular Communication in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks,” IET Communications, IET, Vol. 4, No. 7, pp. 826-836, 2010.

11. M. S. Obaidat, S. Dhurandher,” “An Ant Swarm-Inspired Energy-Aware Routing Protocol for Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks, “Journal of Systems and Software, Elsevier, Vol. 83, No. 11 pp. 2188-2199, Nov 2010.

12. S. K. Dhurandher, S. Misra, M. S. Obaidat, V. Bansal, P. Singh and V. Punia, "EEAODR: An Energy-Efficient On-Demand Routing Protocol for Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks",

International Journal of Communication Systems, Wiley , Vol. 22, No. 7, pp. 789-817, July 2009. 13. S. K. Dhurandher, M S. Obaidat and M. Gupta” An Efficient Technique for Geocast Region

Holes in Underwater Sensor Networks and Its Performance Evaluation,” Simulation: Modeling Practice and Theory, Elsevier, Vol. 19, No. 9, pp. 2102-2116, Sep 2011.

14. G. Wu, X. Chen, and M. S. Obaidat,” A High Efficient Node Capture Attack Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Network based on Route Minimum Key Set,”Security and Communication Networks, Wiley, Vol.6, No. 2, pp. 230-238, 2013.

15. P. V. Krishna, S. Misra, M. S. Obaidat and V. Saritha,” An Efficient Approach for Distributed Dynamic Chanel Allocation with Queues for Real Time and Non-Real Time Traffic in Cellular Network,” Journal of Systems and Software, Elsevier, Vol. 82, No. 7, pp. 1112-1124, 2009.

16. M. S. Obaidat, S. K. Dhurandher, D. Gupta, N. Gupta and A. Asthana,” DEESR: Dynamic Energy Efficient and Secure Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks in Urban Environments,” Journal of Information Processing Systems, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 269-294, KIPS, 2010.

17. M. S. Farash, S. K. Hafizul Islam, M. S. Obaidat, “A provably secure and efficient two- party password-based explicit authenticated key exchange protocol resistance to password guessing attacks, “Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, Wiley, Vol. 27, No. 17, pp. 4897-4913, 2015.

18. S. Smaoui, M. S. Obaidat, F. Zarai, and K.F. Hsiao,” A New Secure and Efficient Scheme for Network Mobility Management,” Security and Communications Networks, Wiley, Vol. 8, No. 7, pp. 1360-1377, 2015.

19. D. Giri, T. Maitra and M. S. Obaidat, “An Efficient Fog based Secure Data Transmission of Healthcare Sensors for e-Medical System,” Proceedings of IEEE GlobeCom 2017, pp. 1-6, Singapore, Dec 2017.

20. M. Gupta, M. S. Obaidat and S. Dhurandher,” "Energy-efficient wireless sensor networks" in Handbook on Green Information and Communication Systems, (M. S. Obaidat, A. Alagan and I. Woungang, (Eds.), pp. 353-369, Elsevier, 2013.

21. I. Woungang, S. K. Dhurandher, and M. S. Obaidat,” Using Ant Colony for Designing Energy-Efficient Protocols for Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks,” in Handbook on Green Information and Communication Systems, (M. S. Obaidat, A. Alagan and I. Woungang, (Eds.), pp. 611-629, Elsevier, 2013.

22. M. S. Obaidat, G. I. Papadimitriou, and A. S. Pomportsis, “An Efficient Adaptive Bus Arbitration Scheme for Scalable Shared-Medium ATM Switches,” Computer Communications Journal, Elsevier, Vol. 24, No. 9, pp. 790-797, May 2001.

23. M. S. Obaidat, G. I. Papadimitriou, and A. S. Pomportsis, “Efficient Fast Learning Automata, Information Sciences Journal, Elsevier, Vol. 157, pp. 121-133, 2003.

24. C. Ramachandran, M. S. Obaidat, S. Misra, and F. Pena-Mora,” A Secure, and

Energy-Efficient Scheme for Group-Based Routing in Heterogeneous Ad-Hoc Sensor Networks and Its Simulation Analysis,” Simulation: Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International, Vol. 84, No.2-3, pp. 131-146, Feb/March 2008.

25. . M. S. Obaidat and Mieso Denko, and Isaac Woungang, “Pervasive Computing and Networking” John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

M. S. Obaidat and S. Misra,” An Energy-Aware Routing Protocol for Ad-Hoc Networks Based on the Foraging Behavior in Ant Swarms,” Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Communications, ICC 2009, Dresden, Germany, June 2009.

26. P. Nicopolitidis, G.I. Papadimitriou, M.S. Obaidat, and A.S. Pomportsis, “A New Protocol for Wireless LANs and Its Performance,” Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE International Conference on Communications, ICC2002, pp. 3434-3438, New York, April/May 2002.

IV. Enabling Protocols and Schemes for Smart Home, City and Grid Systems

We are witnessing a period of great worldwide urbanization and development. It is essential to improve means and systems that enhance the community’s quality of life including the built andnatural environments, economic affluence, social stability and parity, educational prospects, and cultural, and entertainment opportunities, among others. The development and design of these systems and their support mechanisms and protocols must be robust, scalable, energy aware, environment friendly, and cost effective. In this research work, we will devise new protocols and schemes that can optimize operation of networks in these systems including smart homes and cities, smart grids and smart transportation systems.

We designed and built an Advanced Internet of Thing based Security Alert System for Smart Homes in order to detect an intruder or any unusual event at home, when nobody is available there. With improving the security in smart home, the result of proposed approach has met our expectations, where attached sensors are properly working in real-time scenarios. As future work, we will apply fog computing in our proposed system in order to minimize the propagation delay and enhance the security level of the smart home.

In smart home systems, users enjoy the comfort and convenience by rule subscription and execution. However, with the increase in the complex and the number of rules, there is an increased risk of redundancy within the process of rule customization and execution. Obviously, redundancy will add weight to the system, affect the administrative operation, and reduce the system efficiency. To address the above-mentioned issues, a formal model Trigger-Actuator-Status (TAS) for rules is devised. Such rules are defined as a tuple, which contains triggers, actuators, and states.Among the other related efforts, we have done and plan to continue doing is proposing a computational learning utility, for efficient power management in smart grids (LAPM) using learning automata, genetic and ant colony optimizing algorithms, and neural networks (NN). The proposed systems, can help in identifying the electricity required for various distribution substations and control the usage of power by various devices (i.e., preventing unauthorized use of power). As an initial work, we used a LA paradigm for this purpose and obtained encouraging results. The proposed system, LAPM, helps in identifying the electricity required for various distribution substations and controls the usage of power by various devices (i.e., preventing unauthorized use of power). The use of LA enables performing a dynamic analysis of power usage and providing decision making for its effective usage. The system is evaluated on a real-life-resembling environment, with respect to performance metrics like power utilization and customer satisfaction. We studied the problem of allowing customers to use their storage energy, grid energy, as well as privately owned renewable sources of energy. The customer has three options – grid, storage and self-generated energy, to fulfill the energy requirements. The grid decides real-time price to maximize its revenue, while ensuring customers’ participation depending on three factors – ‘demand’, ‘supply’ and ‘time of use.’ We have proposed a Markov Decision Process (MDP)-based approach to study the customers’ decision for energy cost optimization in order to maximize the customer’s utility. Based on this optimization approach, we have shown how the customers can get the benefit from this decision making process, and also we see that the total expenses can be reduced. We have proposed the decision process of one customer to one source, where one customer has no information about the energy consumption behavior of the other customers. Future extension of this work includes how the decision process can be formulated using more than one customer, so that the customer can achieve more reliable and efficient service with maximization of the pay-off.

We studied the problem of distributed home energy management system with storage (HoMeS) in a coalition, which consists of multiple microgrids and multiple customers, using the multiple-leader–multiple-follower Stackelberg game theoretic model—a multistage and multilevel game.Using the proposed distributed scheme, i.e., HoMeS, the earned profit of the grid improves up to 55%, and the customers consume almost 30.79% higher amount of energy, which, in turn, increases the utilization of the generated energy by the microgrids. As future extension of this work, we like to analyze how the energy distribution can be improved by exchanging less number of messages, so that the delay in energy supply can be reduced, and the service provided by the microgrids to the customers can be improved, thereby improving the utilization of the microgrids.

We also devised a priority-based Service Differentiation and Adaptive CSMA/CA (SDA-CSMA/CA) algorithm to provide differentiated QoS for various Smart Grid applications as well as dynamically initialize backoff exponent according to traffic conditions. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed SDA-CSMA/CA scheme significantly outperforms the IEEE 802.15.4 slotted CSMA/CA in terms of effective data rate, packet loss rate, and average delay. We plan to continue on this area as well using more effective algorithms such as LA, NN, genetics and ant colony algorithms.

References:

1. M. S. Obaidat and P. Nicopolitidis,” Smart Cities and Homes-Key Enabling Technologies,” Elsevier, 2016.

2. N. Naeem, M. Iqbal, A. Anpalagan, A. Ahmad and M. S. Obaidat,” Optimization Classification and Techniques of WSNs in Smart Grids,” in Smart Cities and Homes-Key Enabling Technologies, (M. S. Obaidat, and P. Nicopolitidis, Eds.), pp. 323- 343, Elsevier, 2016.

3. T. Guelzm, and M. S. Obaidat,” Cloud Computing Systems for Smart Cities and Homes, in Smart Cities and Homes- Key Enabling Technologies, (M. S. Obaidat, and P. Nicopolitidis, Eds.), pp. 241-260, Elsevier, 2016.

4. A. Belghith and M. S. Obaidat,” Wireless Sensor Networks Applications to Smart Homes and Cities,” in Smart Cities and Homes-Key Enabling Technologies, in Smart Cities and Homes- Key Enabling Technologies, (M. S. Obaidat, and P. Nicopolitidis, Eds.), pp. 17-40, Elsevier, 2016.

5. S. Misra, V. Saritha, P. Venkata Krishna, and M. S. Obaidat,” Learning Automata as a Utility for Power Management in Smart Grids,” IEEE Communications, Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 98-104, January 2013.

6. S. Misra and M. S. Obaidat,” Distributed Home Energy Management System with Storage in Smart Grid Using Game Theory,” IEEE Systems Journal, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 1857-1866, 2017.

7. S. Moulik, S. Misra and M. S. Obaidat,” "SMART-EVAC: A Big Data-based Decision Making System for Emergency Evacuation", IEEE Cloud Computing Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 58-65, 2015. (Selected as “Featured Article”).

8. A. Mondaly, L. S. Pately, S. Misra and M. S. Obaidat, “DEMANDS: Distributed Energy Management Using Non-cooperative Scheduling in Smart Grid,” IEEE Systems Journal, 2017. DOI: 10.1109/JSYST.2017.2723961

9. Z. Ning, F. Xia, X. Hu, Z. Chen, and M. S. Obaidat, “Social-oriented Adaptive Transmission in Opportunistic Internet of Smartphones, “ IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 810-820, 2017.

10. N. Kumar, R. Iqbal, S. Misra, J. Rodrigues, and M. S. Obaidat,” Bayesian Cooperative Coalition Game as a Service for RFID-Based Secure QoS Management in Mobile Cloud,” IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics Computing, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 58-71, 2018.

11. Z. Li, Tin-Yu Wu, Y. Sun, J. Xu and M. S. Obaidat,” A TAS-Model based Algorithm or Rule Redundancy Detection and Scene Scheduling in Smart Home Systems, “IEEE Systems Journal, 2017. DOI: 10.1109/JSYST.2017.2771349

12. N. Omheni, I. Bouabidi, A. Gharsallah, F. Zaraiand and M. S. Obaidat, “Smart Mobility Management in 5G Heterogeneous Networks,” IET Networks, 2017.

DOI: 10.1049/iet-net.2017.0208 , 13. J. Park, M. S. Obaidat and V. Loia,” Smart Devices and Spaces for Pervasive Computing,

Journal of Systems Architecture, Elsevier, pp. 668-672,Vol. 60, No. 8, Sep 2014.

14. S. Bera, S. Misra, and M. S. Obaidat, “'Economics of Customer’s Decisions in Smart Grid”, IET Networks, IET, Vol. 4, No., pp. 37-43, March 2015.

15. T. Maitra, M. S. Obaidat, R. Amon, S. Islam, S. Chaudhry, and D. Giri”

A Robust ElGamal Based Password Authentication Protocol Using Smart-Card for Client-Server Communication,” International Journal of Communication Systems, Wiley, Vol. 30, No. 11, e3242, July 2017.

16. S. Tanwar, P. Patel, K. Patel, S. Tyagi, N. Kumar, M. S. Obaidat, “An Advanced Internet of Thing based Security Alert System for Smart Home,’ Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer, Information and Telecommunication Systems, CITS 2017, pp. 25-29, Dalian, China, July 2017.

17. S. Bera, S. Misra and M. S. Obaidat, “ Energy Efficient Smart Metering for Green Smart Grid Communication,” Proceedings of IEEE GlobCom 2014- Symposium on Selected Areas in Communications: GC14 SAC Green Communication Systems and Networks, pp. 2768-2773, Austin, TX, Dec 2014.

18. N. Kumar, S. Misra and M. S. Obaidat, “Routing as a Bayesian Coalition Game in Smart Grid Neighborhood Area Networks: Learning Automata-Based Approach” Proceedings of 2014 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2014), Cognitive Radio and Networks Symposium ('ICC'14 CRN'), pp. 1508-1513, Sydney, Australia, June 2014.

19. S. Misra, M. S. Obaidat,” Residential Energy Management in Smart Grid: A Markov Decision Process-Based Approach,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things, (iThings 2013), pp. 1152-1157, Beijing, Aug 2013.

20. A. Dua, N. Kumar, and M. S. Obaidat,” Secure Message Communication Among

Vehicles Using Elliptic Curve Cryptography in Smart City,” Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE International Conference on Computer Information and Telecommunication Systems, CITS 2016, pp. 52-57, Kunming, China, 2016.

21. N. Kumar, S. Misra, J. Rodrigues, J-Y. Lee, M. S. Obaidat, N. Chilamkurti, “Playing the Smart Grid Game: Performance Analysis of Intelligent Energy Harvesting and Traffic Flow Forecasting for Plug-In Electric Vehicles,” IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine,” Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 81-92, Dec 2015.

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Prof. Annie Ng (Email: annie.ng@nu.edu.kz)Topic 1 Investigation of novel materials and nanostructures for optoelectronics and sensor applications

A diversity of new materials and nanostructures have emerged in research fields. The unique properties of these materials result in significant breakthroughs in technologies of electronics in terms of efficiency, sensitivity, resolution, bandwidth, operation speed, energy consumption, compactness, size, production cost and other new functionalities. This project aims to explore novel materials and develop new technologies for fabricating high-functional optoelectronic devices and sensors. Students will look into the emerging materials for various electronic devices such as 2-D materials including graphene, black phosphorus and transition metal dichalcogenides; perovskite materials including inorganic perovskites and organometal halide perovskites; and other promising organic materials. This project will also include research of wide bandgap nanostructured materials such as ZnO, TiO2, SnO2, WO3, In2O3, NiO, Ga2O3 etc. Students will synthesize different nanostructures and investigate their properties by a series of state-of-the-art techniques (e.g. SEM, TEM, AFM, XRD and different spectrometers etc.). The optimized materials will be applied in optoelectronic devices (e.g. solar cells, LED etc.) or different kinds of sensors (e.g. biosensors, gas sensors, light sensors etc.). The ultimate goal of this project is to accelerate the innovation of electronic technologies, leading to revolution of lifestyles in the 21st century.

(1) K. K. Wong, A. Ng, X. Y. Chen, Y. H. Ng, Y. H. Leung, K. H. Ho, A. B. Djurišić, A. M. C. Ng, W. K. Chan, L. Yu, D. L. Phillips, “Effect of ZnO Nanoparticle properties on dye-sensitized solar cell performance,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 4, 1254, 2012.

(2) A. Ng, W. K. Yiu, Y. Foo, Q. Shen, A. Bejaoui, Y. Zhao, H. C. Gokkaya, A. B. Djurišić, J. A. Zapien, W. K. Chan, C. Surya, “Enhanced performance of PTB7:PC71BM solar cell via different morphologies of gold nanoparticles,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 6, 20676, 2014.

(3) C. Liu, R. Zhu, A. Ng, Z. Ren, S. H. Cheung, L. Du, S. K. So, J. A. Zapien, A. B. Djurišić, D. L. Phillips, C. Surya, “Investigation of high performance TiO2 nanorod array perovskite solar cells,” J. Mater. Chem. A, 5, 15970, 2017.

Topic 2 Research on Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics: Mechanism, Characterization and Device Fabrication

Solar energy is one of the abundant and easy accessible energy sources. Comparing to other renewable energies such as wind power, hydropower and geothermal energy, solar energy is relatively less limited by the geographical factors of the environment. With the adequate energy harvesting devices i.e. solar cells, the energy of light can be converted into the useful electrical energy. Nowadays, the photovoltaic industry is still optimizing the solar technologies in order to develop solar cells with high performance, novel properties (lightweight, flexible, transparent) as well as low production costs. This project requires students to do research on the new generation thin-film solar cells (organic or perovskite solar cells). Students will work in laboratories and have hands-on experience in material growth and device fabrication. They also need to use modern characterization techniques to investigate the properties of materials and devices. Based on the literature and experimental results, students need to find out effective strategies to solve one or multiple problems in the research field of thin-film solar cells and propose the underlying mechanisms. This project not only enhances the students’ knowledge in research but also develops their critical thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills throughout the training period, which equip them for future success in the research and career.

(1) A. Ng, Z. Ren, Q. Shen, S. H. Cheung, H. C. Gokkaya, G. Bai , J. Wang, L. Yang, S. K. So, A. B. Djurišić, W. W. Leung, J. Hao, W. K. Chan, C. Surya, “Efficiency enhancement by defect engineering in perovskite photovoltaic cells prepared using evaporated PbI2/CH3NH3I multilayers,” J. Mater. Chem. A, 3, 9223, 2015.

(2) A. Ng, Z. W. Ren, Q. Shen, S. H. Cheung, S. K. So, A. B. Djurišić, Y. Y. Wan, X. J. Wu, C. Surya “Crystal engineering for high efficiency perovskite solar cells by hybrid chemical vapor deposition growth technique,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 8, 32805, 2016

(3) A. B. Djurišić, F. Z. Liu, H. W. Tam, M. K. Wong, A. Ng, C. Surya, W.Chen, Z. B. He, “Perovskite solar cells – An overview of critical issues,” Prog. Quantum Electron. 53, 1, 2017.

Topic 3 Development of flexible thin-film based photovoltaics for practical applicationsThe solar technology is of significant importance to support the sustainable development

in the 21st century as it is easy to be infiltrated into our everyday life through the installation of solar cells/panels onto the buildings, transportations or electronics etc., which introduce us revolutionary changes in utilizing the clean, safe and renewable energy. The organic solar cells and perovskite solar cells are the emerging photovoltaics with the record power conversion efficiency of 11.5 % and 22.7% respectively. In contrast to the market-dominant crystalline silicon solar cells, organic solar cells and perovskite solar cells have their advantages such as lower manufacturing costs, lightweight, transparent and high flexibility, which open up many opportunities for novel applications (e.g solar windows, portable solar chargers and wearable solar cells). In this project, students need to fabricate the device based on flexible substrates and solve the existing problems such as device stability and film uniformity for realizing practical applications of organic/perovskite solar cells with selection of appropriate materials, optimization of material deposition techniques, development of effective encapsulation strategies and design of efficient modules. Finally, students should demonstrate the potential applications of their developed flexible solar cells in any aspect. (1) A. B. Djurišić, F. Liu, A. M. C. Ng, Q. Dong, M. K. Wong, A. Ng, C. Surya, “Stability

issues of the next generation solar cells,” Phys. Status Solidi RRL, 10, 281, 2016.(2) H. Jinno, K. Fukuda, X. Xu, S. Park, Y. Suzuki, M. Koizumi, T. Yokota, I. Osaka, K.

Takimiya, T. Someya, “Stretchable and waterproof elastomer-coated organic

photovoltaics for washable electronic textile applications,” Nat. Energy, 2, 780, 2017.(3) L. Qiu, L. K. Ono, Y. Qi, “Advances and challenges to the commercialization of organic–

inorganic halide perovskite solar cell technology” Mater. Today Energy, 7, 169, 2018.

Students involved in all research projects above will work closely with experienced researchers in National Laboratory Astana, Optoelectronic and Nanomaterials Laboratory in The University of Hong Kong and Microfabrication Laboratory in The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The projects mentioned above require theoretical studies and experimental investigations. Students who have strong interests in the field of optoelectronics, sensors and related devices with high level of self-disciplined, motivated, and patient attitudes are very welcome to join us.