Annual Report 2014

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

College of Engineering

D e p a r t m e n t o f E l e c t r i c a l a n d C o m p u t e r E n g i n e e r i n g

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Message From the Department Head ......................1Empowering Power Systems: Researchers Light Up Possibilities With Solar Power-Based Design ...2Holonic Multi-Agent Control of Intelligent Power Distribution Systems .........................................3Alumni Professional Progress Awardees ..................4

Contents

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is pleased to present this annual report on our department’s activities and highlights. These are exciting times in ECE with new faculty, students and staff aspiring to reach new heights in both our undergraduate and graduate programs. Our students continue to be very active in their academic studies and their participation and leadership in student organizations and competition teams. The addition of new faculty always brings a sense of energy and opportunities. In January we welcomed David Thompson from the University of Michigan, and joining us in fall 2014 is Timothy Burg from Clemson University. The department is also very proud of our other faculty accomplishments, such as the selection of Anil Pahwa as a Jefferson Science Fellow for this coming academic year. Faculty such as Dr. Pahwa, Dr. Thompson and Dr. Burg will certainly have key roles in our contributions to the K-State 2025 strategic plan to become a Top 50 public research university.

In this report you will hear about work currently being done on intelligent distributed energy generation through a project called “Holonic Multi-Agent Control of Intelligent Power Distribution Systems.” This is a joint project with faculty from both ECE and computer science at K-State. Another project we are showcasing is a collaboration between multiple faculty and students here at K-State with Heartspring Inc. to help develop tools and technologies to assist in Heartspring’s services to children with severe developmental disabilities. The third feature is on the research that new NSF CAREER awardee Behrooz Mirafzal is performing the development of the next generation of power inverters for more efficient and reliable energy systems. We are very excited about all three of these areas in addition to many others actively occurring in the department.

Construction is currently underway for the new building that will become home to the majority of the department in fall 2015. Made possible by the University Engineering Initiative Act, it will give students and faculty the space and opportunities to grow in reaching our K-State 2025 goals. This year our students have been extremely competitive as shown by another outstanding Eta Kappa Nu chapter award, the fifth-place finish of our Robotics Competition Team in the California Micromouse competition, the top 10 placing of the Wind Turbine Design Team, and the top 5 placing of the Unmanned Aerial System team. Student organizations like the Electronics Club also provide a tremendous service to our students by assisting and promoting electrical and computer engineering projects for both our students and prospective students. We are very proud of all of our student organizations. They do an excellent job of representing the department.

Please enjoy this snapshot of our recent growth. While it cannot capture all of the activities that are ongoing, additional information on our program can be found at our website, ece.k-state.edu. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore areas of collaboration or other common interests.

Don M. Gruenbacher

Department Head

Message From the Department HeadETA KAPPA NU (HKN), Outstanding Chapter of the Year ...........................................................................4Developing Technology With a Heart .......................5Power Electronics Research Group at Kansas State University ..................................................6Advisory Council Member .............................................7Research ..............................................................................8Faculty ..............................................................................12ECE Student Group Highlights ................................14

• Designing agent-based distributed monitoring and control at every layer of the holonic system. Additionally, the research involves devising the optimal way of estimation and control under the influence of both the neighborhood and cross-layer agent communication network.

• Applying Nash equilibrium to analyze the consumption and trading patterns of electrical energy in islanded microgrids when the generation is restricted to renewable resources such as photovoltaic (PV) panels. Nash equilibrium (NE) in user behavior is established by means of evolutionary optimization, such that each user maximizes its individual utility.

• Designing and implementing a secure real-time Operating System for CPS that can provide guarantees on certain properties for critical applications to get their jobs done in a timely manner even under an adversarial environment.

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Holonic Multi-Agent Control of Intelligent Power Distribution SystemsLarge scale integration of rooftop solar power generation is transforming traditionally passive power distribution systems into active ones. High penetration of such devices create new dynamics for which the current power distribution systems are inadequate. The changing paradigm of power distribution system requires them to be operated as cyber-physical systems (CPS). A power distribution system is, by nature, highly distributed and hierarchical in structure, which suggest a multi-layer hierarchy such as holonic multiagent systems (HMAS) for their operation and control. The autonomous nature of agents allows them to make decisions based on local knowledge and constraints thus allowing the system to adapt quickly and efficiently to its changing environment. A team of eight Kansas State University researchers — including four professors and three graduate students of electrical and computer engineering — is using a four-year (2011 – 2015) $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Cyber-Physical Systems program to investigate various issues related to future

distribution systems.

A summary of the research questions being explored in this project are given below.

Goal-Based, Holonic Architecture – How can we define goals at each level of the architecture that are consistent between levels? How can we design organizations to support proactive and reactive adaptive functionality while incorporating security? How can we learn and use various profiles and factors to predict behavior? How should we define protocols for negotiations and information sharing?

Information Enabled Modeling - How much information is required for system state estimation and what is the cost of that information? How can the communication network adapt to provide required information for estimation, inferencing and control? How is control optimality affected by local actions? How much information uncertainty (delay, errors) can be tolerated before the system becomes unstable.

Security/Reliability – Are current protocols sufficient to ensure communications

integrity? How can we detect malicious agents and reduce their potential damage? What kind of formal threat model and security assumptions are required? How can we quantify and measure risks related to agent trustworthiness?

Faculty and students efforts are focused on five overlapping tasks:

• Developing a novel cyber-physical architecture to support intelligent power distribution systems (IPDS). Unlike many agent systems, where agents work together in a group under a single specification of organizational guidelines, our agents are forming multiple groups in a recursive, hierarchical structure called a holarchy.

• Implementing a holonic optimization architecture for loss minimization using the reactive power injections at the rooftop solar PV. The research is examining scalability issues for implementing the methodology for large systems.

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For the fourth year in a row, the Beta Kappa chapter of Eta Kappa Nu at Kansas State University received an outstanding chapter of the year award from the national organization.

The chapter was involved in many activities throughout the 2013-2014 school year. In the fall semester, we volunteered at the local Flint Hills Breadbasket by packaging and delivering food to members of the community. We were also honored to award the Distinguished Faculty Award to William Hageman, professor of electrical engineering at K-State, and organized the annual Chili Feed before final exams. During the spring semester, we hosted Burns & McDonnell and AGCO, and attended the annual HKN conference at Iowa State University. We also hosted speakers Jay McDaniel, graduate student in electrical engineering at the University of Kansas, and Susan Young, CEO of Get In Front Communications, with their presentations of “Graduate School vs. Industry” and “Attitude Adjustment 101,” respectively. We then organized the curriculum display at the All-University Open House and the annual Spaghetti Feed at the end of the year.

ETA KAPPA NU (HKN), Outstanding Chapter of the Year

Several electrical and computer engineers are developing tools to help children with special needs.

Steven Warren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Punit Prakash, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, are collaborating with Heartspring Inc. The Wichita-based nonprofit organization is a therapeutic residential and day school program that utilizes evidence-based and emerging best practices to serve students who often have multiple diagnoses, including autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy, speech and language impairments and other developmental disabilities.

Warren and Prakash’s collaborative work is supported by a five-year $125,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s General and Age-Related Disabilities Engineering program.

The professors are using the grant to teach senior design courses where engineering students develop customized devices and software to help children at Heartspring. The professors and students collaborate with Heartspring administrators, clinicians and paraeducators to understand the needs of these children. Most of the children have a primary diagnosis of autism and a majority are nonverbal.

“The intent of this program is to pursue a specific design for a specific child when possible,” Warren said. “When we are finished with a design, that individual would then get to keep and use a copy of the design. This is research where you can add immediate benefit to these children’s lives.”

The design courses began in fall 2011. Nearly 30 professors and students were involved on design teams during the 2013-2014 academic year. The courses have involved several engineering departments, including electrical and computer engineering; mechanical and nuclear engineering; biological and agricultural engineering; and industrial and manufacturing systems engineering.

“It’s often the students’ first exposure to an open-ended design problem,” Prakash said. “They identify a specific problem and propose how they can

address that. It’s a real-world problem, similar to the kind they will work on throughout their professional careers.”

Some of the student-developed projects have included:

• Smartphone tools and apps to help paraeducators track and record children’s behavioral, physiological and cognitive development.

• Wearable sensors, such as accelerometers, that can be placed in shoes or clothing to monitor self-abusive behaviors. The engineers are working with Minyoung Suh, assistant professor of apparel, textiles, and interior design, to develop wearable sensors embedded in clothing.

• A musical toothbrush that tracks brushing activity and plays different songs so children know how long to brush the different areas of their mouths.

• Multi-touch surface computer games that teach children how to sort items, take turns and interact with other children.

• Mattress and bed sensors that track breathing rates, heart rates and movement of children while they are sleeping and potentially can alert paraeducators of seizures and bedwetting.

• Shoe sensors to quantify the progress of children learning to walk.

Other university collaborators include Stephen Dyer, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Kim Fowler, instructor of electrical and computer engineering; Bala Natarajan, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Edwin Brokesh, instructor of biological and agricultural engineering; Garth Thompson, professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering; and Jack Xin, associate professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering.

Developing Technology With a Heart— By Jennifer Tidball, Division of Communications and Marketing

Navin Nagiah, San Jose, California, 1995 graduate of Kansas State University in electrical engineering. He is president and CEO of DNN and has two decades of experience guiding enterprise technology companies to global success. Nagiah has been instrumental in helping DNN acquire more than 2,500 customers who use its software for creating and managing online content, building and nurturing customer

communities, and increasing market engagement. Before joining DNN, he served as president and CEO of Cignex, an open-source enterprise content management software company, and was the founder, president and CEO of Xisource, a San Francisco-based enterprise software company. Before Xisource, he was one of the founding employees of Internet Securities Inc., where he set up the company’s operations in India, China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and was the managing director for Asia at the time of the company’s acquisition by Euromoney.

Stuart Gillen, Austin, Texas, 1997 graduate of Kansas State University in electrical engineering, who also has a Master of Business Administration from the university and a Vibration Level III Certification from the Vibration Institute of America. For the past 15 years, Gillen has worked for National Instruments in Austin. He is currently the principal marketing manager for the company’s condition monitoring

platform. His other roles with National Instruments include support, product management and senior group manager of a team responsible for a $25 million hardware and software product line. Gillen was named lead recruiting sponsor for Kansas State University at National Instruments and has recruited more than 50 full-time and intern employees from the university. He has been a member of the electrical and computer engineering department’s advisory council for more than five years.

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Advisory Council Members

The power electronics research group at Kansas State University is working on applications of power electronics in renewable energy conversion systems.

The group is led by Behrooz Mirafzal, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development, or CAREER, awardee.

Mirafzal’s group has been funded by the NSF and the power industry to conduct research on several topics, including: characterizing a novel single-stage boost inverter for solar applications; designing a new direct-drive wind energy conversion system using boost converters; developing a model and control of grid-interactive converters; and improving the life span and safety of power converters.

The last project — supported by Mirafzal’s CAREER award — should improve the life span and safety of grid-interactive power converters through detection of incipient faults, and take corrective actions to mitigate effects of abnormalities without direct human intervention whenever possible, which also is a long-term research plan of the U.S. Department of Energy’s

Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability.

“Right now we have sensors in the converters that detect when something has gone really bad. But we want to know before that happens, while it is still working, to give us time to plan for remedial actions. We don’t want a surprise failure,” Mirafzal said. “Just like we may not feel we have high cholesterol, but when the doctor takes the blood test, it can be detected and corrected before something more serious happens.”

According to Mirafzal, the short life span and maintenance cost of the grid-tied converters are some of the technical challenges for penetrating more renewable energy sources in the power grid.

“If we are going to have more wind and solar power in our energy infrastructure, the number of grid-tied converters will increase,” Mirafzal said. “The converters have a relatively short lifetime. If you distribute those without thinking of including diagnostic, self-healing and lifetime prognostic features to the existing technology, you are basically distributing components in the system that can adversely impact the reliability and the robustness of the whole system.”

Power Electronics Research Group at Kansas State University

— By Stephanie Jacques, Division of Communications and Marketing

The department places great value in its alumni and other partners from industry and government as it strives to improve the quality of its undergraduate and graduate programs. The ECE Advisory Council provides guidance to the department for both the educational and research aspects.

Department faculty maintain extensive links to alumni and other industry personnel. These contacts keep the program offerings current to provide the best possible match between our graduates and their employer’s needs. A formal Advisory Council meets periodically to guarantee that these goals are met.

Upper row, from left Bill Dowling ’79, Gabe Hernandez ’95, Leslie Gordon ’01, Don Gruenbacher ’89, ’91, ’94

Bottom row, from left: Ben McBride ’03, ’07, Bob Beims ’81, Matt Spexarth ’06, Terry Weaver ’73, Don Gemaehlich ’83, ’84

Not pictured: Mackenzie Martin ’03, Glen Fountain ’65, ’66, Joel Andrews ’97, ’99, Jesse Schriner ’92, Mark Brown ’82

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• Undergraduate student design competition involving the design and marketing of a small wind turbine.

The Wind Applications Center, or WAC, also runs the Wind for Schools program, in which small wind turbines are installed at K-12 schools throughout Kansas for educational purposes. Undergraduate students assist with school selection, communications and siting. The WAC coordinates a variety of industry donors to accomplish the installations with minimal costs to the schools and enhanced cooperation with electric utilities. Through mid-2014, 24 turbines had been installed at Kansas schools. The Wind Applications Center is funded by the Department of Energy under its Wind Powering America program.

Kansas State EPICENTERece.k-state.edu/epicenter_wikiKansas State University’s EPICENTER is a laboratory directed by Caterina Scoglio within ECE that provides resources to analyze, build and simulate mathematical models for spreading phenomena in complex networks. One of the main goals of EPICENTER is to provide policymakers with real-time, flexible modeling tools to curtail epidemiological outbreaks in humans, animals or plants. The key strength of EPICENTER is development of complex network approaches for application to several cross-disciplinary research problems in agriculture, veterinary science, biology, public health, social sciences and engineering.

Highlights of two key areas under K-State EPICENTER are as follows:

• Modeling of vector-borne zoonotic diseases. Network-based meta-population models are developed and calibrated in this project to predict efficacy and effectiveness of containment strategies for complex vector–borne zoonosis. Main emphasis is given to the detection of patterns of spread and areas at risk based on disease vectors’ abundance and hosts’ presence and movement in the event one virus is introduced to the United States. For example, modeling Rift Valley fever, nodes of the networks represent livestock farms, livestock markets and feedlots, and links represent cattle movement and mosquito diffusion between different nodes. Humans, cattle and mosquito populations are treated with different contact networks to assess virus propagation.

• Modeling of interconnections among human behavior and epidemic spreading. Human behaviors play a crucial role in how an epidemic spreads in a social society. Despite the extensive studies on how human beings perceive a disease and the behavior they show in response, not many results have been reported on how human behavior would actually affect the epidemic spread. The goal in this study is to provide interconnected models for epidemic spread and individual behaviors, followed by simulation and analysis of the models.

Sunflower Networking Groupece.k-state.edu/sunflower_wikiThe Sunflower Networking Group, or SNG, conducts fundamental research in cutting-edge network theory problems and develops optimal solutions to state-of-the-art real-world problems in the computer networking area. General areas of interest include network theory, complex networks modeling and analysis, as well as computer network design and optimization.

Two main topics of focus are as follows:

• Spreading Processes over Multilayer and Interconnected Networks.This project advances the boundaries of network theory by analyzing spreading processes over multilayer and interconnected networks, which abound in nature and man-made infrastructures, and about which many interesting questions remain unanswered. Multilayer networks are an abstract representation where multiple

Research

types of links exist among nodes. Interconnected networks are an abstract representation where two or more simple networks, possibly with different and separate dynamics, are coupled to each other. The rationale for this project is that viral-spreading dynamics over multilayer and interconnected networks exhibit behaviors that cannot be attributed to single-network characteristics and play a highly relevant role in practice. This project uses rigorous mathematical tools from network science, spectral graph theory, nonlinear dynamics, stochastic processes, controls, game theory and optimization.

• OpenFlow/GENI — Enabling Network Innovation at K-State. The Global Environment for Network Innovations, or GENI, is a virtual laboratory that consists of programmable network resources from major control frameworks such as OpenFlow, PlanetLab and ProtoGENI. In GENI, each experimenter is provided a conceptual “slice” of resources to stage innovative ideas in order to gain the experience and confidence necessary for real-world deployments. Furthermore, slice isolation mechanisms ensure that rogue experiments do not affect the operation of other existing slices. OpenFlow is the network “arm” of GENI and as such, facilitates network research in domains such as wireless networks, traffic engineering and new possibilities for future Internets. To date, SNG has enabled OpenFlow within ECE and is currently engaged in ongoing experiments concerning traffic engineering and elephant flow detection for smart grid applications.

Medical Component Design LaboratoryThe Medical Component Design Laboratory, or MCDL, supports work in interoperable component design for medical systems: plug-and-play hardware/software elements that can be assembled to create care systems matched to patient needs. Interoperability standards, wireless devices, wearable sensors and light-based devices play important roles in this research, which targets physiologic monitoring for humans and animals. Quality of life issues (e.g., successful aging and technology applications for the disabled) are important drivers for the pervasive care environments addressed by these projects. This laboratory also plays an important role in engineering education via the delivery of research products into the classroom and grant-sponsored research that focuses on how students learn and how students transfer and retain knowledge over multiple semesters. Primary collaborators include Heartspring (Wichita, Kansas), East Carolina University, the Food and Drug Administration, the University of Pennsylvania, and the following K-State departments/centers: kinesiology, computing and information sciences, anatomy and physiology, entomology, Electronics Design Laboratory, mathematics and physics. Project funding has been received from the National Science Foundation (CCLI/TUES, CNS, CRI, REESE, CPS and GARDE programs), NASA (HRP and EPSCoR), Cerner and the National Institutes of Health (NIBIB Quantum). For more information, contact Steve Warren at swarren@k-state.edu or 785-532-4644.

Community WindDue to increasing energy costs, diminishing supplies of fossil fuels and environmental concerns, significant attention is being paid to different alternatives of power generation. The U.S. is continuing to push all states for energy reform to include a higher percentage of renewable energy in their portfolio. Kansas is second among all states in wind generation potential. However, the best wind generation sites are located predominantly in sparsely populated areas, creating energy transportation problems. Therefore, interest in community wind projects has been increasing. As part of a project, funded by the Department of Energy, a distribution system in rural western Kansas, where interest in community wind exists, was examined to determine the economic potential of community wind generation. A

Agents, Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence Groupece.k-state.edu/~sdas/bic/bic.htmThe Agents, Algorithms & Artificial Intelligence Group, or AAA, formerly BIC, is involved in theoretical and applied research in machine learning, algorithm analysis, multi-agent systems, game theory, multi-objective optimization and soft computing techniques for prediction, structure discovery and other applications in terrestrial and shipboard power systems, smart grid and computational genomics.

The group has received external funding from the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense and the Department of Agriculture in the areas of gene network modeling, shipboard systems and power distribution systems.

Communication Circuits Laboratoryece.k-state.edu/crl/cclThe Communications Circuits Laboratory, or CCL, conducts coordinated teaching and research in analog and radio frequency, or RF, design. Within the teaching area, students design, build and test complete radios and radar systems at VHF through microwave frequencies. Students also design radios in a single-chip form using modern electronic-design-automation, or EDA, software tools. This gives our graduates the practical, hands-on experience necessary for working with wireless hardware that is at the heart of so many commercial products in our increasingly connected world. Our research efforts have been primarily focused on design of transceivers in integrated circuit form, with special emphasis on the modeling and application of high-Q spiral inductors and performance of semiconductor processes. Lately this work has been extended to research in microwave characterization

of materials at frequencies of 40 GHz and higher as well as radio propagation studies. Students and faculty connected with the CCL have experience with bulk-CMOS; silicon-on-insulator, or SOI; silicon-on-sapphire, or SOS; and GaAs integrated circuit processes. Designs are created with tools from both Agilent and Cadence and are tested at the board and chip levels with industry-caliber measurement equipment and probing stations. Examples of research and development work include our Mars microtransceiver developed in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a currently active NASA project researching biosensors and radio technology for future robotic and human long-duration missions. Please see ece.k-state.edu/crl, ece.ksu.edu/research/mars/ and nasa.ece.ksu.edu/ for additional information.

The Kansas Wind Applications Centerwac.ece.k-state.edu

The Kansas Wind Applications Center’s missions are to educate electrical engineers on the basics of wind energy, and to be a source of information on wind energy for the people of Kansas who want to harvest wind power for the benefit of themselves, their children and the state. Research projects include the following:

• Siting of small wind turbines, including means of assessing surface roughness and turbulence.

• Design of inverters with power factor correction ability.

• Optimization of control systems for increased efficiency and higher power capture.

• Optimal sizing and placement of distributed renewable-energy generation and storage for minimum loss and maximum renewable generation on a microgrid.

• Development of curricula for use in K-12 and informal educational settings such as 4-H, focusing on topics of energy and sustainability.

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NASA EPSCoR Projectnasa.ece.k-state.edu/This NASA-funded project is a cooperative effort between the Department of Kinesiology, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the Electronic Design Laboratory at K-State, as well as various NASA centers and industry partners in Kansas. Within the three-year project we are developing and testing new medical sensors, studying and measuring intra-suit wireless propagation, developing a wireless sensor communication network, developing and demonstrating radio hardware in the 400 MHz MedRadio band, and increasing public awareness of NASA’s mission. Faculty and student efforts are divided among the following overlapping tasks:

• Task 1: Kinesiology and ECE are working together to identify and develop sensing techniques and hardware that assess/predict wellness and the onset of fatigue by astronauts working in low-gravity environments. Part of this work involves commercial sensors, whereas custom sensors are being developed to fill gaps in commercial tool availability.

• Task 2: In the study of radio propagation inside the spacesuit environment, we are working with two different electromagnetic models in EM Pro software as well as a full-scale model suit made with conductive fabric to simulate the radio-opaque aluminized mylar layers in actual NASA spacesuits. The full-scale suit model was commissioned under the project and designed and built by Erin Monfort-Nelson in K-State’s Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design.

• Task 3: Since batteries are dangerous to place inside an oxygen-rich environment such as a spacesuit, new methods of collecting energy using “energy harvesting” are being developed. This task is researching ultra-low power radio network designs to allow the medical sensors identified and developed in Task 1 to communicate using only the heat energy available from the human body. In the spacesuit, this energy could be harvested from the temperature difference between an astronaut and the cooling garment, which keeps her comfortable inside her thermally insulated suit.

• Task 4: The radio being developed in this task is a modification of a micro-transceiver designed under a previous NASA project. This general purpose transceiver allows small low-power implementations of radios to be easily prototyped by students working on the project. We are also working with a local Kansas company to investigate ways to transition the research results into future commercial products.

• Task 5: Teams of undergraduate students have made vital contributions to the project and have provided workshops for three summer programs at K-State: Engineering and Science Summer Institute, EXCITE and GROW, in addition to studying commercial biomedical sensors under Task 1. During the summers of 2013 and 2014, undergraduate researchers also worked with the model spacesuit developed in Task 2 to determine the best solution for the intra-suit wireless networking of Task 3. A visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center at the end of the 2014 spring semester allowed us to test both energy harvesting and radio propagation technologies using real spacesuits, and to connect with the NASA personnel who work directly with astronauts.

Biomedical Computing and Devices Labbcdl.ece.k-state.eduThe Biomedical Computing and Devices Lab, of which Punit Prakash is principal investigator, conducts research on non- and minimally-invasive systems for image-guided therapy of human and animal disease. Of particular interest are technologies that enable targeted energy deposition within the body for image-guided thermal therapy — thermal ablation and hyperthermia — of cancer and benign disease. Some projects conducted over the past year include:

characterization of the broadband dielectric and magnetic properties of nanoparticle contrast agents; design, fabrication and evaluation of antennas for targeted microwave ablation of cancer; and theoretical modeling of energy deposition, bioheat transfer and bioeffects to facilitate optimization of patient-specific treatment strategies. Our interdisciplinary activities provide students with the opportunity to participate in both theoretical and experimental efforts.

Our research is supported through grants from the Johnson Cancer Research Center at K-State, National Science Foundation and industry partners.

Wireless Communications and Information Processing (WiCom) Groupece.k-state.edu/research/communications/wicomThe Wireless Communications and Information Processing group, or WiCom group, directed by Bala Natarajan, supports wide range of fundamental as well as applied research in the areas of wireless communication and information processing. The core expertise of the group lies in mathematical/statistical modeling, estimation and detection/decision theory, optimization and control theory, and information theory. The group has received funding from federal and state agencies such as the National Science Foundation, NASA EPSCOR program, Kansas Deptartment of Transportation, Sandia National Labs through the Department of Energy, U.S Marines via M2 Technologies, state of Kansas, Kansas State University Targeted Excellence program, as well as industry partners such as Garmin Inc., Trisquare Communications, etc. Researchers in the group have contributed to more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in the last five years.

Key projects in the wireless communication area include resource allocation and quality of service assurance in a competitive cognitive radio network and femtocell networks; energy aware signal processing in heterogeneous networks; and precoding for MIMO and MIMO-OFDM systems. The group’s contribution to the fields of spread spectrum communication has resulted in one awarded patent in the area of customized sequence design and two pending patent applications related to MIMO precoding. Additionally, the group is currently engaged in advancing PHY-layer security by designing new secret key generation methods that exploit relay-based cooperative MIMO architectures.

Projects in the area of information processing in sensor networks include resource allocation in collaborative target tracking; information aggregation and fusion strategies for distributed event detection over bandwidth constrained networks; optimal control-based sensor deployment strategies; sensor fusion in biomedical applications, networked control of distributed systems; and automated pavement distress detection via image processing and sensor fusion methods. Researchers in the group have also made significant contributions to the area of estimation and control in cyberphysical systems, or CPS. The focus of the group is on a specific type of cyberphysical system, namely spatially distributed cyberphysical systems. Here sensors and actuators are physically separated but may still have overlapping observation/measurement space. The group has recently addressed the long-standing unanswered problem of quantifying the impact of information loss due to communication network on estimation and control stability in such systems. Researchers are currently working on developing and analyzing the performance of distributed networked estimation and control strategies for this special class of CPS. These methods directly impact critical engineered systems such as a smart distribution grid, transportation grid, etc.

feasibility study based on historical data, economic factors and current grid constraints was performed. Since the majority of the load in this area is from pivot-point irrigation systems, load distributions were created based on temperature ranges instead of a linear progression of concurrent days. To test the economic viability, three rate structures were examined: flat energy rate, demand rate and critical peak pricing. Through an economic analysis it was found that a flat rate is the most economically viable rate structure. A Monte Carlo simulation was designed and run to simulate 20-year periods based on the available historical data. Twenty-year net present worth calculations show that community wind is a viable option to consider.

Power and Energy Systems Groupece.k-state.edu/research-power-and-energy-systemsIt is hard to imagine life without electricity in modern society. The power delivery system, which provides electricity to the consumers in the U.S., is among the most reliable systems in the world. The National Academy of Engineering has declared electrification as the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century. The conventional power systems are now undergoing major changes and are steadily moving toward adopting the concept of smart grid, or SG. The SG is based on using advanced communication, computing and power electronics to change the power system from a static infrastructure to a dynamic infrastructure with proactive delivery management. Migrating to SG serves an important role in facilitating energy efficiency programs and the integration of renewable and distributed generations, or DGs. The move toward the SG is currently one of the most active and dynamic research and development topics in the emerging field of power and energy systems.

The Power and Energy Systems Group focuses on different aspects of electricity generation, transmission and distribution systems to study various design and operation issues for effective utilization of electrical energy both in terrestrial and shipboard power systems. Specific focus is on application of smart grid technologies for exploration and applications of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and associated power electronics. Examples of specific projects include investigating the influence of environmental factors on outages in electricity distribution systems; building a holonic multi-agent system for control of power distribution systems with large penetration of rooftop solar generation; developing an integrated micro-boost inverter for photovoltaic energy conversion applications and another with power factor correction ability for small-to-mid-size wind generators; building a model micro-grid to demonstrate stable operation under real generation and load patterns with high penetration of renewable energy; analyzing economic feasibility under different conditions for wind and solar generation across Kansas; studying safe reconnection of distributed generators embedded in smart grids; and evaluating short-term emergency ratings for double-circuit transmission lines. Several of these projects are funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the Electric Power Affiliate Program.

Power Electronics Research Group ecepower.ece.ksu.edu/htmlThe conventional power system is undergoing a major restructuring and is steadily moving toward adopting the concept of smart grid, or SG. The SG is based on using communication, computing and power electronics to change the power system from a static infrastructure and operation as designed to a dynamic infrastructure and proactive

delivery management. Adoption of the SG serves an important role in facilitating energy efficiency programs and the integration of renewable and distributed generations, or DGs. The SG will enhance every facet of energy systems, including generation, transmission, distribution and consumption. The move toward the SG is currently one of the most active and dynamic research and development topics in the emerging field of energy systems, which can provide many grant opportunities and industry collaborations. The trend toward deployment of the SG has provided potential research and innovation opportunities on the fundamental enabling technologies driving the SG, including integrated communication technology, sensing and measurement technology, power electronics and diagnostics technology, and intelligent and advanced control technology. These technologies are facing major technical challenges that need to be

systematically identified based on the envisioned SG. Power electronic converters are used for grid interfacing of electronically coupled DGs, including micro-turbine generators, fuel cells, wind and photovoltaic generation systems. The research challenges in this area lie in the development of (i) efficient, modular, scalable and reliable power electronic converters with fail-safe, plug-and-play and communication capabilities, and (ii) advanced control methodologies with the capability of providing ancillary services.

The power electronics research group at Kansas State University is working on applications of power electronics in renewable energy conversion systems, motor drives and power supplies. The group has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the power industry to conduct research on several topics, including: characterizing a novel single-stage boost inverter for solar applications; designing a new direct drive wind energy conversion system using boost converters; developing a model and control of grid interactive converters; three-phase unity power-factor power supplies for more electric aircraft; and improving the life span and safety of power converters.

National Science Foundation Cyber Physical System project: Holonic Multi-Agent Control of Intelligent Power Distribution Systemsipds.cis.k-state.eduPower distribution systems of the future will have homes with smart meters to monitor energy consumption, on-site grid-connected solar or wind generation, battery storage and plug-in vehicles. The feeders will have advanced power electronic switching devices to control the system, sensors at strategic locations to measure flow of real and reactive power, voltage and current. The current level of automation in distribution systems in not adequate to handle the dynamics created because of integration of a large number of these devices. In this project, funded by the CPS program at NSF, we are developing a holonic multi-agent system architecture capable of adaptively controlling future electrical power distribution systems. The goal is to produce a general, extensible and secure cyberarchitecture based on holonic multi-agent principles to support adaptive power distribution system. It will produce new analytical insights to quantify the impact of information delay, quality and flow on the design, and analysis of the power distribution system. The architecture will be capable of optimizing performance and maintaining the system within operating limits during normal and minor events, such as cloud cover that reduces solar panel output. The architecture will also allow the operation of a distribution system as an island in emergencies, such as hurricanes/earthquakes, grid failures or terrorist acts.

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Faculty — education and overview

CHANDRA, SatishPh.D., Electrical Engineering, Auburn University, 1984 M.S., Electrical Engineering, Auburn University, 1980

Research: Multimedia coding and communication over networks, multimedia water marking and security, biomedical signal and image processing

Teaching: Electric circuits and control, multimedia compression, computer design, discrete-time and computer-control systems, digital image processing

DAS, SanjoyM.S., Ph.D., Computer Engineering, Louisiana State University, 1994

Research: Multi-agent system, machine learning, neural networks, evolutionary computation, quantum computing, game theory, modeling and optimization

Teaching: Multi-agent systems, neural networks, computational intelligence, scientific computing, computer design

DAY, DwightPh.D., Electrical Engineering, Oklahoma State University, 1987 M.S., Electrical Engineering, Oklahoma State University, 1981 B.S., Electrical Engineering, Oklahoma State University, 1980

Research: Computer vision, pattern recognition, speech processing

Teaching: Digital computer design, computer interfacing, digital filtering, digital signal processing, computer engineering methods, digital image processing

DEVORE, JohnPh.D., Engineering, Kansas State University, 1984 M.S., Computer Science, Kansas State University, 1973 B.S., Physics, Kansas State University, 1971

Research: Instrumentation, embedded systems, road smoothness testing

Teaching: Embedded systems, digital design, microcontroller programming

DOUGLAS MILLER, RuthPh.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Rochester, 1990 M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Rochester, 1985 B.S., Electrical Engineering, Lafayette College, 1984

Research: Renewable energy (wind and photovoltaic applications), electromagnetics, bioelectromagnetics, health effects of electromagnetic fields, electronics

Teaching: Electronics engineering lab, electronics, electromagnetic theory, introduction to biomedical engineering, wind and solar energy engineering, engineering ethics

DYER, StephenPh.D., Engineering, Kansas State University, 1977 M.S., Electrical Engineering, Kansas State University, 1974 B.S., Physics, Kansas State University, 1973

Research: Instrumentation and measurement, numerical methods, communication theory, audio and electroacoustics, history of engineering

Teaching: Electronics, linear systems, audio engineering, rapid design

GRUENBACHER, DonPh.D., Electrical Engineering, Kansas State University, 1994 M.S., Electrical Engineering, Kansas State University, 1991 B.S., Electrical Engineering, Kansas State University, 1989

Research: Communication networks, digital design, HDL synthesis and modeling, error-control coding, intrusion detection

Teaching: Networking, digital design

HAGEMAN, WillPh.D., Optics, University of Central Florida, 2010 M.S., Optics, University of Central Florida, 2008 M.S., Electrical Engineering, Kansas State University, 2002 M.S., Physics, Kansas State University, 2000 B.S., Physics, Kansas State University, 1999

Research: Solid-state lasers, fiber lasers, nonlinear optics, optical system design, thermo-optical modeling

Teaching: Optoelectronics, electronics laboratory, circuit theory, applied optics

KUHN, BillPh.D., Electrical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1996 M.S., Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1982 B.S., Electrical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1979

Research: Analog/digital/RF circuit design, integrated circuit development, RF device technologies, wireless telecommunications systems design and implementations with emphasis on physical layer

Teaching: Intro to electrical engineering, electronics, design of communication circuits, microwaves and antennas, IC design, digital radio hardware design

MIRAFZAL, BehroozPh.D., Marquette University, 2005 M.Sc., Electrical Engineering, University of Mazandaran, Iran, 1997 B.Sc., Electrical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Iran, 1994 Research: Power electronics and applications in sustainable energy conversion systems and motor drives

Teaching: Power electronics and advanced power electronics

MORCOS, Medhat M.Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 1984 M.Sc., Electrical Engineering, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, 1978 B.Sc., Electrical Engineering, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, 1966 B.Sc., Military Science, Military Academy, Egypt, 1966

Research: Power electronics, power systems, electric machines, high-voltage engineering, gaseous dielectrics, engineering education

Teaching: Power electronics, control systems, energy conversion, power quality

NATARAJAN, BalaPh.D., Electrical Engineering, Colorado State University, 2002 B.E., Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, 1997

Research: Estimation and detection/decision theory, communication systems and theory, wireless communications, optimization and control theory,

sensor signal processing and networks, stochastic modeling and analysis

Teaching: Theory of statistics, communication systems, wireless communications estimation and detection theory, information theory

PAHWA, AnilPh.D., Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 1983 M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Maine, Orono, 1979 B.E., Electrical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, 1975

Research: Power distribution system automation, reliability, analysis and design; intelligent

computational methods for power systems; integration of renewable resources into power systems

Teaching: Power system analysis, design, protection; distribution system design and planning

PRAKASH, PunitPh.D., Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2008 M.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2006 B.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2004

Research: Image-guided thermal therapy of cancer and benign disease, hyperthermia and thermal ablation, therapeutic medical devices, bio-heat transfer, patient-specific models of image-guided interventions, medical instrumentation

Teaching: Bioinstrumentation design laboratory, theory and techniques of bioinstrumentation, therapeutic medical devices

RYS, AndrewPh.D., Electrical Engineering, Texas Tech University, 1983 M.S./B.S., Electronics Engineering, Technical University of Wroclaw, Poland, 1978

Research: Solid-state electronics, design and fabrication of integrated circuits, characterization of wide band-gap semiconductor materials

Teaching: Introduction to electrical engineering, electronics, integrated circuit design, IC devices and processes, solid-state devices

SCHULZ, NoelPh.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1995, Minor: Computer Science

Research: Application of computers, including intelligent systems, to solve problems

Teaching: Power systems, energy conversion, application of computer programs to power

engineering, application of intelligent systems to engineering problems, fundamentals of electrical circuits and technical communications in engineering

SCOGLIO, CaterinaDr. Eng., Electronics Engineering, Sapienza – University of Rome, 1987

Research: Network science, computational epidemiology, complex networks, modeling and control of epidemics, dynamic networks

Teaching: Network science, computer networks, circuit theory, epidemic models

SOLDAN, DavidPh.D., Engineering, Kansas State University, 1980 M.S., Electrical Engineering, Kansas State University, 1976 B.S., Electrical Engineering, Kansas State University, 1969

Research: Engineering education and accreditation, curriculum development, economic models for universities, first-year experiences

Teaching: Introductory logic design, digital systems design, computer architecture

STARRETT, ShelliPh.D., Electrical Power Engineering, Iowa State University, 1994 M.S., Electrical Power Engineering, University of Missouri, Rolla, 1990 B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Missouri, Rolla, 1988

Research interests: Power system stability and control, voltage stability, applications of artificial

intelligence to power systems, wide-area analysis, measurements and control, nonlinear simulations, innovations in engineering education, learning communities

Teaching: Introduction to electrical engineering, power system stability, power laboratory, energy conversion, power seminar, advanced systems theory

THOMPSON, DavePh.D., Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2012 M.S.E., Electrical Engineering-Systems, University of Michigan, 2011 M.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2009 B.S., Electrical Engineering, Kansas State University, 2006

Research: Brain-computer interface, electroencephalogram (EEG), wearable and implantable medical devices, embedded systems

Teaching: Embedded systems, scientific computing, topics courses

WARREN, StevePh.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, 1994 M.S., Electrical Engineering, Kansas State University, 1991 B.S., Electrical Engineering, Kansas State University, 1989

Research: Biomedicine, home care, light-based biomedical instrumentation, student learning, telemedicine, numerical analysis and simulation

Teaching: Circuit theory, linear systems, introduction to biomedical engineering, computer graphics, theory and techniques of bioinstrumentation, bioinstrumentation design laboratory, computer engineering methods for analysis, simulation and design

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Unmanned Aerial Systems Team Takes Fourth at International Competition

Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society Among the Best in the Nation — By David L. Soldan

The Kansas State University Unmanned Aerial Systems Team made the right maneuvers to land a top five finish at the recent 12th annual Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s student competition. This year’s event was June 18-21 at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station near Lexington Park, Maryland.

The competition featured 48 teams from around the world, including from the U.S., Canada, India, Israel, Romania and Turkey.

Earning fourth place at the competition was the Kansas State team. To compete, teams design, build and fly an aerial vehicle that can autonomously takeoff; execute certain intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks during a flight mission; and land. Teams must also submit a journal article describing their design approach and make an oral readiness presentation describing how they plan to meet the flight mission requirements and precautions to ensure safety.

Competition team members included:

Ethan Koch, junior in computer engineering, Baileyville; Blake Smethers, sophomore in computer engineering, Olathe; Matthew Roselli, May 2014 bachelor’s graduate in computer engineering, Overland Park; Kyle McGahee, senior in computer engineering, Shawnee; Kyle McGahee, senior in computer engineering, Shawnee; and Steven Blits, junior in computer engineering, Lebo.

For the flight mission, each team’s aircraft payload includes an autopilot, cameras, radios and computers. A ground station receives and further processes information gathered by the

aircraft’s onboard systems and provides the operators with displays that they use to monitor operation as well as derive and deliver information to the competition judges on how well the aircraft is doing on the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks that must be completed during flight.

Each team’s unmanned aircraft must autonomously find targets, identifying their color, shape, character, and geodetic location and orientation. Teams also have to decipher a message spelled out by the characters on the targets.

For the fourth year in a row, the Kansas State University electrical and computer engineering honor society is among the nation’s best.

“What makes this chapter so excellent is the outstanding leadership of its officers and the enthusiastic participation of its members in all activities,” said David Soldan, professor of electrical engineering and the chapter’s faculty adviser. “Much of the credit for this honor goes to Sarah Carr, the 2012-2013 president-elect, for writing the report required for the award, as well as officers from previous years who helped raise the level of chapter activities.”

The chapter’s activities include tutoring, developing a curriculum display about the Department of Electrical and Computer engineering for the All-University Open House, annually awarding the Eta Kappa Nu Distinguished Faculty Award, providing tutoring for electrical and computer engineering classes two nights a week, maintaining the Paslay Singing Tower in Sunset Cemetery and more.

Eta Kappa Nu is for juniors in electrical and computer engineering who are in the top quarter of their class or seniors in the top third of their class. Members must also have successfully passed the course Circuit Theory 1.

The award was presented at a special dinner March 24 in Napa, California as part of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association annual meeting. Don Gruenbacher, electrical and computer engineering department head, represented Kansas State University at the award ceremony.

Wind Turbine Competition Offers Students Chance to Compete, NetworkElectrical and Computer Engineering’s Wildcat Wind team participated in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Collegiate Wind Competition. The competition, in Las Vegas in early May, challenged 10 universities across the country to design and construct a lightweight, transportable wind turbine that can power small electronic devices such as a cellphone, tablet or laptop computer. The university teams were made up of engineering students — mechanical, biological systems and electrical on the Wildcat team — as well as business students to help with the competition’s required marketing plan.

“This exciting, educational and challenging experience provided a new interactive way for college students to develop fresh ideas,” said Ruth Douglas Miller, associate professor of electrical engineering and the adviser to the Kansas State University team.

While the university’s team didn’t win the competition, Miller said the team did stand out with its marketing plan. Each team had to develop an efficient marketing plan to sell to different companies. Kansas State’s team decided to focus on power generation

during coastal disasters and emergencies, as well as providing lighting on boardwalks and piers without using grid power.

Constructing a product that can power electronic devices is a difficult task to accomplish. Miller said the Kansas State University team came up with a vertical axis design.

“Instead of spinning like a fan, it spins like an egg beater. Though this design was not able to capture much power, it was fun to look at,” she said.

Competing wasn’t the only experience the students will remember about the competition, Miller said.

“Being a part of the wind turbine competition also gave the students networking and job opportunities,” she said. Several companies involved in energy efficiency and renewable energy were at the competition to look for students interested in jobs in the field.

Students are already looking forward to the next competition.

Electronics Design Club The Kansas State University Electronics Design Club has experienced immense growth this year. With so many young members, the club has focused on developing design skills so that the students can design new projects.

The club has sponsored five guest presentations by ECE faculty this year for all engineering students. Tim Sobering presented on the “Basics of Electronics” and on op amps. Dwight Day spoke about his design work with SSI and gave the lecture “The Hidden Secrets of Matlab”. David Soldan gave a lecture about amateur radio in conjunction with an amateur radio testing session at K-State.

Experienced club members developed several electronics kits for the club to assemble, use and learn from. The first kit is an easy-to-build 555 timer circuit that blinks LEDs. A simple bipolar power supply kit was developed to teach power supply design. A small audio amplifier kit was made to give students and

introduction to amplifiers. Finally, a simple LED matrix kit was used as an introduction to microcontrollers. Each of these kits feature a custom- printed circuit board and all of the parts required to build the project.

The club showed 15 projects at the K-State Engineering Open House, encompassing two rooms in the department. In one room, the club showed LED projects in a darkened room, including an interactive 12x12 RGB LED table. In the second room, the club showed projects ranging from 3-D printers to quadcopters. These projects helped show the public what electrical and computer engineering is all about.

EDC, in conjunction with K-State’s IEEE chapter, gave away 150 box kits to the public at open house. The club hopes to increase interest in engineering through these kits.

The club looks forward to taking on new projects and developing new kits next year.

ECE Student Group Highlights:

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