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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Northeastern University College of Engineering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240720T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240720T140000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240617T153424Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240617T153424Z
UID:44302-1721480400-1721484000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Graduate School of Engineering Campus Tour - In Person
DESCRIPTION:Want to learn more about Northeastern’s Boston campus? Then we welcome you to sign up for a Graduate School of Engineering campus tour! Led by one of our expert Graduate Student Ambassadors\, we’ll show you key locations on campus\, in addition to resources specific to Engineering\, and answer your questions about Boston. Please complete the registration form linked below to select the date and time that works best for you. Tours are open to all students interested in learning more about the Graduate School of Engineering. We can’t wait to meet you!
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/graduate-school-of-engineering-campus-tour-in-person-6/2024-07-20/
ORGANIZER;CN="Graduate School of Engineering":MAILTO:coe-gradadmissions@northeastern.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240722T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240722T120000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125557Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240731T141131Z
UID:43875-1721642400-1721649600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:CommLab Drop-In Writing Hours
DESCRIPTION:Graduate students\, are you looking for a place for focused research writing time?  Join the CommLab drop-in writing hours any Mondays from 10 am-12 pm ET.  Drop in any Monday and stay for a short time or the whole two hours.  CommLab Fellows will be available to provide feedback on your writing.  We will be meeting in 13 International Village.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/commlab-drop-in-writing-hours/2024-07-22/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240722T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240722T143000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T182500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182500Z
UID:45091-1721653200-1721658600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Miead Tehrani Moayyed PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nMiead Tehrani Moayyed \nTitle:\nRF Channel Models for Static and Mobile Scenarios: From Simulations to Models for Large-scale Emulations and Digital Twins \nDate:\n7/22/2024 \nTime:\n1:00:00 PM \nLocation:\nRoom: EXP-601A \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Stefano Basagni (Advisor)\nProf. Tommaso Melodia\nProf. Milica Stojanovic \nAbstract:\nThe extremely high data rates provided by communications at higher frequency bands\, such as mmWave\, can address the unprecedented demands of next-generation wireless networks. However\, several impairments limit wireless coverage at higher frequencies\, necessitating accurate models of wireless scenarios and large-scale testing to test and realize the potential of these new technologies. Large-scale accurate simulations and wireless network emulators now offer a time- and cost-effective solution for performing these tests in a lab before field deployment. This dissertation focuses on modeling\, calibration\, and validation of realistic RF scenarios for wireless network emulation at scale. The contributions of this work include: (i) Investigating the characteristics of the wireless channel at higher frequencies (mmWave) and evaluating the performance of mmWave communications on top of the NR standard for 5G cellular networks; (ii) developing a streamlined framework to create realistic RF scenarios with mobility support for Finite Input Response (FIR)-based emulators like Colosseum\, starting from rich inputs such as precise ray tracing methods or real-field measurements\, and (iii) creating an accurate AI-assisted propagation model that integrates joint measurements and simulations\, achieving the desired accuracy and reasonable computational requirements for real-time Digital Twin (DT) wireless networks. Particularly: \n(i) We derive channel propagation models via ray tracing simulations for mmWave transmissions with applications to V2X communications. We analyze aspects related to blockage modeling\, the effects of antenna beamwidth\, beam alignment\, and multipath fading in urban scenarios\, emphasizing the importance of capturing diffuse scattered rays for improved large-scale and small-scale radio channel propagation models. Furthermore\, we compare the performance of mmWave 5G NR with the 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standard in a realistic environment and demonstrate the impact of MIMO technology on improving the performance of 5G NR cellular networks. As transmitted radio signals are received as clusters of multipath rays\, identifying these clusters provides better spatial and temporal characteristics of the channel. We address the clustering process and its validation across a wide range of frequencies in the mmWave spectrum below 100 GHz. We analyze how the clustering solution changes with narrower-beam antennas and provide a comparison of the cluster characteristics for different types of antennas. \n(ii) Our framework for modeling wireless scenarios for large-scale emulators optimally scales down the large set of channel input to the fewer parameters allowed by the emulator using efficient clustering techniques and Channel-Impulse Response (CIR) re-sampling. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework by modeling realistic scenarios for Colosseum\, starting with rich input from commercial-grade ray tracing software\, Wireless InSite (WI) by Remcom. To support mobility\, we implement a mobile channel simulator on top of the WI ray-tracer\, consisting of two steps: (a) spatially sampling the mobile channels using the ray-tracer\, and (b) parsing the ray tracing outputs to extract the channels for each time instant of emulation. We also develop a Software-Defined Radio (SDR)-based channel sounder to precisely characterize emulated RF channels. The sounder framework is fully containerized\, scalable\, and automated to capture the gains and delays of the channel CIR taps. \n(iii) We extend these efforts to develop the first Digital Twins for Mobile Networks (DTMN) on Colosseum\, using the RF testbed Arena as a use case. This use case demonstrates the scope and capabilities of Colosseum as a DT\, providing the research community with a set of tools to replicate real-world environments. We compare key network performance metrics\, namely throughput and SINR\, of the Arena/Colosseum DTMN to validate the fidelity of our twinning process. Furthermore\, we present an AI-assisted propagation model to generate realistic\, real-time\, and scalable scenarios for DTMNs. This model seamlessly integrates measurements with ray tracing\, providing a high-resolution\, realistic channel model. We study the computational complexity and configuration trade-offs associated with ray tracing for high-fidelity prediction\, generating a large dataset to train this enhanced AI model. Our proof of concept highlights the accuracy and generalization capabilities of our AI model across previously unseen transmitter (TX) locations and unfamiliar environments\, outperforming state-of-the-art approaches and achieving significant improvements in accuracy. We analyze the computational complexity of our AI model\, comparing it to high-fidelity ray tracing. Profiling reveals a three-order-of-magnitude acceleration\, enabling real-time propagation prediction with reasonable accuracy. We explore key ray tracing parameters contributing to the discrepancy between measurements and simulations and demonstrate the integration of measurements into channel prediction\, thereby calibrating the model.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/miead-tehrani-moayyed-phd-dissertation-defense/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T123000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T182406Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182406Z
UID:45093-1721734200-1721737800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Andrea Lacava PhD Proposal Review on 7/23
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nAndrea Lacava \nTitle:\nEnabling Intelligent nextG Cellular Networks through the Open RAN  Architecture \nDate:\n7/23/2024 \nTime:\n11:30:00 AM \nLocation:\nEXP 501 \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Tommaso Melodia (Advisor)\nProf. Francesca Cuomo (Advisor)\nProf. Stefano Basagni\nProf. Ioannis Chatzigiannakis \nAbstract:\nThe 5th generation (5G) and beyond of cellular networks will support heterogeneous use cases at an unprecedented scale\, thus demanding automated control and optimization of network functionalities\, customized to the needs of individual users. However\, achieving such fine-grained control over the Radio Access Network (RAN) is unfeasible with the current cellular architecture. \nTo bridge this gap\, the Open RAN paradigm and its specification introduce an “open” architecture with abstractions that facilitate closed-loop control and enable data-driven\, intelligent optimization of the RAN at the user-level. This thesis focuses on the design and development of system-level solutions to enable intelligent control in the next generation of cellular networks through the Open RAN architecture. The main research areas explored in this thesis include (i) the design and evaluation of platforms for the creation\, datasets generation and testing of the Open RAN architecture solutions; (ii) the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) models for various deployments and networking scenarios; and (iii) innovative methodologies for agile spectrum\, infrastructure\, and AI management within Open RAN. Among the significant contributions of this thesis are ns-O-RAN\, the first open-source simulation platform that integrates a functional 5G protocol stack in Network Simulator 3 (ns-3) with an O-RAN-compliant E2 interface\, and the pioneering architectural design and implementation of the dApps\, the real-time controllers for the O-RAN architecture. Furthermore\, the solutions proposed in this thesis are leveraged to investigate various network optimization use cases deemed critical in cellular networks. The results demonstrate that our approach outperforms traditional Radio Resource Management (RRM) heuristics\, enhancing overall RAN conditions at scale in both simulations and state-of-the-art experimental testbeds. \n 
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/andrea-lacava-phd-proposal-review-on-7-23/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T170000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125640Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T184607Z
UID:44082-1721750400-1721754000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LeetCode Mock Interviews – CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Tuesday from 4-5 PM for our weekly LeetCode Mock Interview Workshop via Zoom. This workshop is tailored towards programming jobs and prior coding knowledge is expected. Boost your LeetCode problem-solving confidence for interviews by building your speaking skills while solving programming problems.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/leetcode-mock-interviews-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-23/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T210000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T220000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T182749Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182749Z
UID:45087-1721768400-1721772000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Zhenglun Kong PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nZhenglun Kong \nTitle:\nTowards Efficient Deep Learning for Vision and Language Applications \nDate:\n7/23/2024 \nTime:\n9:00:00 PM \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Yanzhi Wang (Advisor)\nProf. David Kaeli\nProf. Dakuo Wang\nProf. Weiyan Shi \nAbstract:\nMachine learning and AI have been advancing rapidly in recent years\, leading to numerous applications across diverse fields such as autonomous vehicles\, entertainment\, science\, healthcare\, and assistive technologies—significantly enhancing daily life. However\, this advancement has been accompanied by a significant increase in the size of deep neural network (DNN) models\, which poses considerable economic challenges. The substantial costs associated with the training\, inference\, and deployment of large vision and language models require extensive computational resources and time\, proving especially taxing for smaller entities and individuals. This also complicates deployment on resource-constrained devices and in areas with limited infrastructure. \nA major challenge is deploying AI models on devices with limited capacity\, such as wearables\, sensors\, and mobile phones. These edge devices\, often operating offline and requiring real-time processing\, are critical for many applications but struggle to support large models. My dissertation research addresses these pressing issues with the aim of enabling the practical implementation of AI. We ensure the effectiveness of AI models while adapting them for use in constrained environments by tackling fundamental AI challenges from four angles: \n1. Managing Massive Computation: We introduce a novel token pruning framework that reduces the latency of Vision Transformers (ViT) by up to 41% compared to existing works on mobile devices. Additionally\, we propose a quantization framework for large language models (LLMs)\, achieving an on-device speedup of up to 2.55x compared to FP16 counterparts across multiple edge devices. \n2. Mitigating Training Costs: We develop fast\, accurate\, and memory-efficient training methods by utilizing a hierarchical data redundancy reduction scheme\, which achieves up to a 40% speedup in ViT pre-training with minimal accuracy loss. \n3. Merging Multiple Models: We propose an efficient way to merge multiple LLMS\, yielding a more advanced and robust LLM while maintaining the model  size\, as well as  reducing knowledge interference. \n4. Co-designing Speed-aware Deep Neural Networks: We consider memory access cost\, the degree of parallelism\, and practical latency in the design of 2D and 3D object detection models for practical deployment.
 By addressing these areas\, my research aims to enable the effective and efficient use of AI models in constrained environments\, ensuring their practical implementation across various applications. \n 
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/zhenglun-kong-phd-dissertation-defense/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240724T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240724T160000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240708T133751Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240708T133751Z
UID:44422-1721833200-1721836800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Graduate Student Fellowship Writing Club-Hosted by NU CommLab and NetSI
DESCRIPTION:Join the NU CommLab and NetSI sponsored weekly graduate student fellowship writing club for support in writing your fellowship application!  The fellowship writing club meets virtually on Wednesdays from 3-4pm from July 10- August 21.  We will offer you an opportunity to ask questions to faculty\, staff and students who have reviewed\, mentored or applied and received fellowships.  We will provide fellowship writing tips and guidance as well as offer writing and draft review sessions.  Register to join our Zoom Sessions.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/graduate-student-fellowship-writing-club-hosted-by-nu-commlab-and-netsi/2024-07-24/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240724T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240724T170000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125353Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240517T125353Z
UID:44132-1721836800-1721840400@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LinkedIn\, CV\, Resume: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab’s empowering LinkedIn\, CV\, and Resume Drop-In Workshops any Wednesday from 4 pm to 5 pm ET. This collaborative space offers valuable advice and peer feedback to enhance your online profile and professional presence. Join this workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/linkedin-cv-resume-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-24/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T153000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T182301Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182301Z
UID:45095-1721916000-1721921400@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Rui Lou PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Announcing:\nPhD Dissertation Defense \nName:\nRui Luo \nTitle:\nShared Assistance Methods for Human-in-the-loop Robot Systems \nDate:\n7/25/2024 \nTime:\n2:00:00 PM \nLocation:\nEXP 701A. \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Taskin Padir (Advisor)\nProf. John Peter Whitney\nProf. Yanzhi Wang\nDr. Mark Zolotas \nAbstract:\nFully autonomous robot systems\, though highly desired\, face substantial theoretical and practical challenges when being deployed into a dynamic environment where human co-exists. To tackle this challenge\, this thesis investigates the concept of human-in-the-loop (HITL) systems\, which incorporate human input to enhance robot functionality. HITL systems offer a pragmatic alternative\, combining human versatility with robotic precision. \nThis research aims to address critical questions in one specific HITL system which  prioritizes the dominant role of human within the system\, positioning the robot primarily in an assistive capacity that adheres to human commands to facilitate the achievement of a shared goal. It explores two primary paradigms of shared assistance methods—Shared Control (SC) and Shared Autonomy (SA)—and discuss the system designs as well as specific algorithms to implement the three critical components in a HITL systems: human intention estimation\, modulation of human inputs and robot autonomy\, and the human-robot communication channel. \nDue to the variety of use cases and their specific challenges\, four distinct HITL systems are developed and analyzed to exemplify how shared assistance methods could be incorporated to assist human operators: an assistive wheelchair for indoor navigation\, a human-centered robot system design for industrial tasks\, a mobile bi-manual robot for tele-manipulation\, and a VR-based customizable shared control system for fine teleopeartion.  Although each system represents a comprehensive robotic solution\, the research contributions for each work vary. \nIn the assistive wheelchair navigation system\, the focus was on human intent estimation via low-throughput interface utilizing a recursive Bayesian filter\, with significant efforts dedicated to developing a real-time user interface serving as the communication channel. In the human-robot collaboration system for industrial setting\, the emphasis was on human state estimation through camera-based posture tracking and exploring the interplay between robot behavior and human ergonomics. For the two teleoperation systems\, the primary focus was on the real-time modulation of human inputs and robot autonomy to aid in achieving dexterous manipulation tasks. A novel VR-based user interface was developed to enable users to customize the level of robotic autonomous assistance. Each system was validated through a pilot study involving 10-20 human subjects\, accompanied by extensive data analysis to provide insights into designing HITL systems for various applications. \nIn conclusion\, this thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of HITL systems\, highlighting their potential to enhance human productivity\, ergonomics\, and quality of life in various applications through concrete examples. The integration of human intent estimation and real-time shared control methods into robotic systems demonstrates the feasibility and benefits of HITL approaches. Our extensive experimental analysis underscores the critical role of human feedback in designing practical HITL systems that can be deployed in real-world scenarios.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/rui-lou-phd-dissertation-defense/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T170000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125021Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T191427Z
UID:44142-1721923200-1721926800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Mock Interview: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Thursday from 4-5pm ET\, we’ll delve into the intricacies of interviews\, unveiling effective preparation strategies for any interview scenario. Engage in an interactive setting as we dissect the overall interview experience\, discuss common interview scenarios\, and share insights on what to do during critical moments. Join this hybrid workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/mock-interview-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-25/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T180000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125712Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240701T135457Z
UID:43938-1721926800-1721930400@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Poster Design and Presentation: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:The CommLab will host drop-in workshops for poster design and presentation to focus on crafting the best visual communication of your research and telling your research story! We will discuss techniques and implement communication strategies to successfully showcase your work. No matter where you are in the process\, whether it is just in the idea phase or you are trying to polish your final poster\, we are happy to help you.  Join us any Thursday from 5-6pm\,  on Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/poster-design-and-presentation-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-25/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240727T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240727T140000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240617T153424Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240617T153424Z
UID:44303-1722085200-1722088800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Graduate School of Engineering Campus Tour - In Person
DESCRIPTION:Want to learn more about Northeastern’s Boston campus? Then we welcome you to sign up for a Graduate School of Engineering campus tour! Led by one of our expert Graduate Student Ambassadors\, we’ll show you key locations on campus\, in addition to resources specific to Engineering\, and answer your questions about Boston. Please complete the registration form linked below to select the date and time that works best for you. Tours are open to all students interested in learning more about the Graduate School of Engineering. We can’t wait to meet you!
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/graduate-school-of-engineering-campus-tour-in-person-6/2024-07-27/
ORGANIZER;CN="Graduate School of Engineering":MAILTO:coe-gradadmissions@northeastern.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240729T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240729T103000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T182120Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182120Z
UID:45099-1722243600-1722249000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Ruyi Ding PhD Proposal Review
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nRuyi Ding \nTitle:\nTowards Robust and Secure Deep Learning: From Training through Deployment to Inference \nDate:\n7/29/2024 \nTime:\n9:00:00 AM \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Yunsi Fei (Advisor)\nProf. Aidong Ding\nProf. Lili Su \nAbstract:\nIn recent years\, deep learning has experienced rapid advancement\, leading to the development of numerous commercial deep neural network (DNN) models across diverse fields such as autonomous driving\, healthcare\, and recommendation systems. However\, this wide adoption has intensified concerns about AI security throughout a neural network’s lifecycle — from training to deployment\, and inference. Various vulnerabilities have emerged\, threatening confidentiality\, privacy\, and intellectual property (IP) rights: poisoned training datasets facilitate privacy leakage and backdoor injection; after deployment\, models may be misused through unauthorized transfer learning\, a new form of IP infringement\, and weights and parameters are subject to side-channel assisted model extraction attacks; during inference\, adversarial attacks may compromise DNN functionality\, causing misclassifications.\nThis dissertation addresses new security challenges across the neural network lifecycle through several novel contributions. We identify a new poisoning vulnerability in graph neural networks\, where injecting poisoned nodes exacerbates link privacy leakage\, allowing attackers to steal adjacent information from private training data\, highlighting the necessity of robust AI training. To prevent model misuse after deployment\, we introduce EncoderLock and Non-transferable Pruning\, employing innovative training schemes and pruning methods to restrict the malicious use of pre-trained models through transfer learning\, effectively implementing applicability authorization. Towards secure deep learning implementations\, we adopt a software-hardware co-design approach to address DNN vulnerabilities. Specifically\, we leverage the electromagnetic emanations from DNN accelerators in a new approach called EMShepherd\, which detects adversarial examples (AE) on edge devices in a ‘black-box’ manner. To protect deployed DNNs against side-channel-based weight-stealing attacks\, we develop PixelMask\, which leverages the characteristics of DNN for side-channel defense by masking out unimportant inputs and dropping related operations to obfuscate side-channel signals. Lastly\, we explore the use of Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) to safeguard model weights and data privacy against model stealing and membership inference attacks.\nThis proposal identifies key challenges of robust and secure deep learning\,  tackles vulnerabilities at various stages of the AI lifecycle\, and provides comprehensive protection mechanisms\, from securing the training process to safeguarding deployed models\, paving the way for more resilient and reliable AI technologies in real-world applications.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/ruyi-ding-phd-proposal-review/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240729T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240729T120000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125557Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240731T141132Z
UID:43876-1722247200-1722254400@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:CommLab Drop-In Writing Hours
DESCRIPTION:Graduate students\, are you looking for a place for focused research writing time?  Join the CommLab drop-in writing hours any Mondays from 10 am-12 pm ET.  Drop in any Monday and stay for a short time or the whole two hours.  CommLab Fellows will be available to provide feedback on your writing.  We will be meeting in 13 International Village.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/commlab-drop-in-writing-hours/2024-07-29/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240729T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240729T133000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T181948Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T181948Z
UID:45103-1722254400-1722259800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Shijie Yan PhD Proposal Review
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nShijie Yan \nTitle:\nEfficient Monte Carlo light transport algorithms in complex scattering media \nDate:\n7/29/2024 \nTime:\n12:00:00 PM \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Qianqian Fang (Advisor)\nProf. Steven Jacques\nProf. David Kaeli\nProf. Edwin Marengo \nAbstract:\nModeling light-tissue interactions is crucial for many optical imaging modalities\, for which the Monte Carlo (MC) method has been widely recognized as the gold-standard. Despite dramatic speed improvements gained via the use of graphics processing units (GPUs)\, MC simulations remain computationally intensive. Efficient and accurate MC algorithms are needed to further consider physiologically realistic tissue models\, especially for emerging optical imaging techniques. Voxel-based MC (VMC) and mesh-based MC (MMC) are two major MC methods for modeling complex tissues with their respective strengths and weaknesses. While VMC offers higher computational efficiency due to the simple data structure\, its accuracy suffers from the terraced boundary shape especially in low-scattering medium; on the other side\, MMC offers improved boundary fidelity but can be slow and memory-intensive\, particularly at high mesh density. Furthermore\, emerging wide-field diffuse optical imaging systems using structured light require more efficient modeling to handle numerous illumination patterns. Additionally\, niche applications such as polarized light imaging could also benefit from many of the recent advances from modern MC simulations such as GPU acceleration and handling of complex heterogeneous media. \nThis proposal is aimed to push the frontiers of modern MC simulation algorithms to fundamentally enhance their utilities in diverse applications. To reduce the staircase effect in VMC\, we have developed a hybrid MC algorithm\, named split-voxel MC (SVMC)\, where sub-voxel oblique surfaces are extracted using a marching-cubes algorithm and are incorporated into a memory-efficient voxelated data structure. SVMC allows VMC to handle curved surfaces while remaining computationally efficient. A GPU-accelerated marching-cubes algorithm was also developed to further accelerate SVMC domain preprocessing. On the other hand\, to further improve MMC computational efficiency\, a dual-grid MMC (DMMC) algorithm was developed to perform fast ray-tracing inside a coarse tetrahedral mesh while saving fluence data over a dense voxelated grid\, simultaneously achieving improved speed and output accuracy. To accommodate increasing needs of modeling wide-field pattern based sources\, we have developed a “photon sharing’’ MC algorithm that performs simulations of all illumination and detection patterns in parallel\, improving computational speed by an order of magnitude. Additionally\, we have developed a GPU-accelerated massively-parallel algorithm capable of modeling Mie scattering of sphere particles in three-dimensional media for polarized light imaging\, achieving nearly 1000$\times$ speed acceleration compared to sequential implementation. \nLastly\, we have also investigated a hardware-accelerated MMC algorithm using the NVIDIA OptiX ray-tracing framework\, leveraging modern GPU ray-tracing (RT) cores extensively optimized for graphics rendering. Preliminary results demonstrate comparable accuracy and significantly improved simulation speed compared to conventional tetrahedral MMC. \n 
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/shijie-yan-phd-proposal-review/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240729T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240729T170000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T182030Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182030Z
UID:45101-1722265200-1722272400@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Yunus Bicer PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nYunus Bicer \nTitle:\nNovel Methods for Electromyographic Hand Gesture Recognition: Expressive Gestures Sets with Minimal Calibration \nDate:\n7/29/2024 \nTime:\n3:00:00 PM \nLocation:\nISEC 632 –\nCommittee Members:\nProf. Deniz Erdogmus (Advisor)\nProf. Mathew Yarossi (Co-Advisor)\nProf. Eugene Tunik\nProf. Tales Imbiriba \nAbstract:\nGesture recognition\, the process of interpreting hand gestures through computational algorithms and devices\, is essenatial for enhancing human-computer interaction(HCI). This thesis focuses on surface electromyography (sEMG)-based gesture recognition\, where the signals generated by muscles are analyzed to identify hand gestures. sEMG systems provides more natural and intuitive interactions compared to traditional input methods and hold significant potential in assistive technology\, prosthetics\, and immersive environments such as virtual and augmented reality. Despite these advantages\, sEMG-based methods face challenges including user-specific variability in signals\, limited gesture expressivity\, and the need for extensive calibration time. This research aims to address these issues by proposing novel methods for minimizing calibration time and expanding expressivity of gesture recognition capabilities. Key innovations include a real-time probability feedback mechanism to facilitate user adaptation and techniques to recognize a wider range of gestures with minimal training data. This work seeks to enhance the usability and versatility of sEMG-based systems\, making them more accessible and effective for various applications.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/yunus-bicer-phd-dissertation-defense/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240730T133000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240730T143000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T181611Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T181611Z
UID:45105-1722346200-1722349800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Kyle Lockwood PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nKyle Lockwood \nTitle:\nLeveraging Submovements for Prediction and Trajectory Planning in  Human-Robot Handover \nDate:\n7/30/2024 \nTime:\n1:30:00 PM \nLocation:\nISEC 532 – \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Deniz Erdogmus (Advisor)\nProf. Eugene Tunik (Co-Advisor)\nProf. Mathew Yarossi\nProf. Tales Imbiriba \nAbstract:\nCollaborative physical interactions between humans and robots pose difficult modeling challenges. To create natural interactions\, engineers must consider human inference of intent\, anticipation of action\, and coordination of movement. Humans can handle these challenges effortlessly when interacting with one another\, but they are very difficult to overcome in robot implementations. Although human-human handover is a seemingly simple task\, it requires a complex perception-action coupling to determine when and where the handover will happen\, as well as choosing an appropriate trajectory to receive the object. Critically\, modeling human-robot handover requires incorporating knowledge about human inference and trajectory planning to obtain seamless interactions. Despite recent advancements in sensing and control\, human-robot handovers are far from approaching the fluidity and flexibility of human-human collaboration. Existing predictive models applied to human-robot handover often utilize classification methods and other approaches that suffer in accuracy when encountering noisy human trajectories that are not captured during their training. To address these challenges\, this work presents two models that act as robotic surrogates for human inference and trajectory planning in a handover task. This approach delivers promising results while remaining grounded in a physiologically meaningful feature of human motion: Gaussian-shaped submovements in velocity profiles. This thesis analyzes human-human handover kinematics to establish a baseline for model evaluation and investigate the influence of handover role\, it presents models for human inference and trajectory planning\, and it applies the inference model in human-robot handover experiments. \n 
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/kyle-lockwood-phd-dissertation-defense/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240730T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240730T170000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125640Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T184607Z
UID:44083-1722355200-1722358800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LeetCode Mock Interviews – CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Tuesday from 4-5 PM for our weekly LeetCode Mock Interview Workshop via Zoom. This workshop is tailored towards programming jobs and prior coding knowledge is expected. Boost your LeetCode problem-solving confidence for interviews by building your speaking skills while solving programming problems.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/leetcode-mock-interviews-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-30/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240731T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240731T160000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240708T133752Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240708T133752Z
UID:44423-1722438000-1722441600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Graduate Student Fellowship Writing Club-Hosted by NU CommLab and NetSI
DESCRIPTION:Join the NU CommLab and NetSI sponsored weekly graduate student fellowship writing club for support in writing your fellowship application!  The fellowship writing club meets virtually on Wednesdays from 3-4pm from July 10- August 21.  We will offer you an opportunity to ask questions to faculty\, staff and students who have reviewed\, mentored or applied and received fellowships.  We will provide fellowship writing tips and guidance as well as offer writing and draft review sessions.  Register to join our Zoom Sessions.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/graduate-student-fellowship-writing-club-hosted-by-nu-commlab-and-netsi/2024-07-31/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240731T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240731T170000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125353Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240517T125353Z
UID:44133-1722441600-1722445200@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LinkedIn\, CV\, Resume: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab’s empowering LinkedIn\, CV\, and Resume Drop-In Workshops any Wednesday from 4 pm to 5 pm ET. This collaborative space offers valuable advice and peer feedback to enhance your online profile and professional presence. Join this workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/linkedin-cv-resume-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-31/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240801T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240801T170000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125021Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T191432Z
UID:44143-1722528000-1722531600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Mock Interview: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Thursday from 4-5pm ET\, we’ll delve into the intricacies of interviews\, unveiling effective preparation strategies for any interview scenario. Engage in an interactive setting as we dissect the overall interview experience\, discuss common interview scenarios\, and share insights on what to do during critical moments. Join this hybrid workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/mock-interview-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-08-01/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240801T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240801T180000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125720Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240517T125720Z
UID:43939-1722531600-1722535200@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Poster Design and Presentation: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:The CommLab will host drop-in workshops for poster design and presentation to focus on crafting the best visual communication of your research and telling your research story! We will discuss techniques and implement communication strategies to successfully showcase your work. No matter where you are in the process\, whether it is just in the idea phase or you are trying to polish your final poster\, we are happy to help you.  Join us any Thursday from 5-6pm\,  on Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/poster-design-and-presentation-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-08-01/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240802T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240802T123000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240731T141728Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240731T141728Z
UID:44746-1722596400-1722601800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:CommLab Drop-In Writing Hours
DESCRIPTION:Graduate students\, are you looking for a place for focused research writing time?  Join the CommLab drop-in writing hours any Friday from 11 am-12:30 pm ET.  Drop in any Friday and stay for a short time or the whole hour and a half.  CommLab Fellows will be available to provide feedback on your writing.  We will be meeting in 13 International Village.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/commlab-drop-in-writing-hours-2/2024-08-02/
LOCATION:13 International Village\, 360 Huntington Ave\, 13 INV\, Boston\, MA\, 02115\, United States
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240803T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240803T140000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240617T153424Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240617T153424Z
UID:44304-1722690000-1722693600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Graduate School of Engineering Campus Tour - In Person
DESCRIPTION:Want to learn more about Northeastern’s Boston campus? Then we welcome you to sign up for a Graduate School of Engineering campus tour! Led by one of our expert Graduate Student Ambassadors\, we’ll show you key locations on campus\, in addition to resources specific to Engineering\, and answer your questions about Boston. Please complete the registration form linked below to select the date and time that works best for you. Tours are open to all students interested in learning more about the Graduate School of Engineering. We can’t wait to meet you!
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/graduate-school-of-engineering-campus-tour-in-person-6/2024-08-03/
ORGANIZER;CN="Graduate School of Engineering":MAILTO:coe-gradadmissions@northeastern.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240805T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240805T150000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T181432Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T181432Z
UID:45107-1722866400-1722870000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Joshua Groen PhD Proposal Review
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nJoshua Groen \n\nTitle:\nOptimizing and Securing Open RAN with Experimental System Validation \nDate:\n8/5/2024 \nTime:\n2:00:00 PM \nLocation:\nISEC232; \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Kaushik Chowdhury (Advisor)\nProf. Stratis Ioannidis\nProf Engin Kirda\nDr. Christopher Morrell \nAbstract:\n5G and beyond cellular networks promise remarkable advancements in bandwidth\, latency\, and connectivity\, with the emergence of Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) representing a pivotal direction. O-RAN inherently supports machine learning (ML) for network operation control\, with RAN Intelligence Controllers (RICs) utilizing ML models developed by third-party vendors based on key performance indicators (KPIs) from geographically dispersed base stations or user equipment (UE). Realistic and robust datasets are crucial for developing these ML models. We collect a comprehensive 5G dataset using real-world cell phones across diverse scenarios and replicate this traffic within a full-stack srsRAN-based O-RAN framework on Colosseum\, the world’s largest radio frequency (RF) emulator. This process produces a robust\, O-RAN compliant KPI dataset reflecting real-world conditions\, enabling the training of ML models for traffic slice classification with high accuracy. \nThe O-RAN paradigm introduces cloud-based\, multi-vendor\, open\, and intelligent architectures\, enhancing network observability and reconfigurability. However\, this also expands the threat surface\, exposing components and ML infrastructure to cyberattacks. We examine O-RAN security\, focusing on specifications\, architectures\, and intelligence proposed by the O-RAN Alliance. We identify threats\, propose solutions\, and experimentally demonstrate their effectiveness in defending O-RAN systems against cyberattacks\, offering a holistic and practical perspective on O-RAN security. \nWe investigate the impact of encryption on two key O-RAN interfaces: the E2 interface and the Open Fronthaul\, using a full-stack O-RAN ALLIANCE compliant implementation within the Colosseum network emulator and a production-ready Open RAN and 5G-compliant private cellular network. Our findings provide quantitative insights into the latency and throughput impacts of encryption protocols\, and we propose four fundamental principles for security by design within Open RAN systems. \nFinally\, we address the security of Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) in O-RAN. The O-RAN framework encourages multi-vendor solutions but increases the exposure of the open fronthaul (FH) to security risks\, especially when deployed over third-party networks. Synchronization is crucial for reliable 5G links\, with attacks on synchronization mechanisms posing significant threats. We demonstrate the impact of spoofing and replay attacks on Precision Time Protocol (PTP) synchronization\, causing catastrophic failures in a production-ready O-RAN and 5G-compliant private cellular network. To counter these threats\, we design an ML-based monitoring solution detecting various malicious attacks with over 97.5% accuracy\, and outline additional security measures for the O-RAN environment.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/joshua-groen-phd-proposal-review/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240806T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240806T110000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T181311Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T181324Z
UID:45109-1722938400-1722942000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Malith Jayaweera PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nMalith Jayaweera \nTitle:\nEnergy-Aware Transformations for Affine Programs on GPUs \nDate:\n8/6/2024 \nTime:\n10:00:00 AM\nCommittee Members:\nProf. David Kaeli (Co-advisor)\nProf. Yanzhi Wang (Co-advisor)\nDr. Norman Rubin\nProf. Martin Kong (Ohio State University) \nAbstract:\nGraphics Processing Units (GPUs) have been increasingly used to accelerate workloads ranging from high performance computing to machine learning. Development of high-level programming languages\, improved compilers\, and runtime drivers have helped to accelerate the widespread adoption of GPUs. Given the wider adoption and ever-increasing computing capabilities\, the power consumption of GPUs is quickly becoming a critical factor. Furthermore\, the GPU micro-architecture differs from vendor to vendor\, and even between hardware generations of the same vendor. Also\, program variants with similar performance could differ in energy consumption due to the difference in utilization of GPU resources such as Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) or memory. Despite performance improvements in compilation techniques\, energy-aware code generation for heterogeneous GPUs has not been aggressively explored. \nIn this dissertation\, we first identify the potential for energy-aware compilation techniques for GPUs. Next\, we use these insights to study loop tiling\, which is a popular loop transformation that has been successfully applied to computational domains such as linear algebra\, deep neural networks and iterative stencils. We then propose an energy-aware tile size selection for affine programs to generate energy-efficient code targeting GPUs. \nWe also investigate the challenging problem of optimizing the scheduling of complex sparse tensor algebra and expressions on GPUs\, with a focus on maximizing parallelism utilization to unlock optimal performance. We perform a comprehensive examination of the search space for sparse tensor expression scheduling\, seeking to characterize the intricate inter-relationships between kernel characteristics\, GPU architecture\, and hardware constraints such as memory bandwidth limitations\, to inform optimal scheduling decisions.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/malith-jayaweera-phd-dissertation-defense/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240806T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240806T170000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240517T125640Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T184608Z
UID:44084-1722960000-1722963600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LeetCode Mock Interviews – CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Tuesday from 4-5 PM for our weekly LeetCode Mock Interview Workshop via Zoom. This workshop is tailored towards programming jobs and prior coding knowledge is expected. Boost your LeetCode problem-solving confidence for interviews by building your speaking skills while solving programming problems.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/leetcode-mock-interviews-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-08-06/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240807T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240807T120000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T180213Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T180213Z
UID:45119-1723028400-1723032000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Kubra Alemdar PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nKubra Alemdar \nTitle:\nOvercoming and Engineering Wireless Signals for Communication and  Computation \nDate:\n8/7/2024 \nTime:\n11:00:00 AM \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Kaushik Chowdhury (Advisor)\nProf. Josep Jornet\nProf. Marvin Onabajo \nAbstract:\nThe phenomenal growth of connected devices\, especially rapid expansion of IoT networks and the increasing demand for wireless services are the main driving forces for the evolution of wireless technologies. However\, the realization of such technologies requires a radical transformation of existing infrastructures to satisfy the needs of changing wireless environments. The main limitation in delivering these systems stems from a vast diversity in their demands and constraints. To address this limitation\, this dissertation shows how wireless signals and their interaction with and within the wireless propagation domain can be used as communication or computational tools that enable us to achieve certain novel tasks. Specifically\, we build i) cross-functionality architectures to engineer the wireless channel to a) enable the operation of emerging technologies\, and b) demonstrate a new paradigm for computing with wireless signals\, and ii) intelligently shape the wireless channel to create reliable communication links. This dissertation presents an experimentally validated software-hardware systems with thorough analysis\, delivering the following key advancements with distinct contributions: \nFirst\, We present an innovative physical layer solution for distributed networks that provides over-the-air (OTA) clock synchronization\, known as RFCLOCK\, to overcome the hurdle of implementing fine-grained synchronization for emerging technologies. We first develop the theory for such precision synchronization\, and second implement it in a custom-design\, compatible with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software-defined radios (SDRs). We compare the performance of RFClock with popular wired and GPS-based hardware solutions\, both in terms of clock performance as well as impact on distributed beamforming. \nNext\, we propose two novel approaches\, utilizing reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) to ensure reliable connectivity in wireless networks by controlling the propagation environment: i) we present RIS-based spatio-temporal approach to enhance the link reliability for IoTs where sensors are small-factor designs with single-antenna in a rich multipath environment. We demonstrate the design of RIS and how it can effectively perturb the environment\, generating multiple wireless propagation channels and achieving the performance of a multi-antenna receiver in a Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) link. We compare the performance of the system with a multi-antenna receiver in terms of channel hardening and outage probability. ii) We introduce REMARKABLE\, an online learning based adaptive beam selection strategy for robot connectivity that trains kernelized  multi-armed bandit (MAB) model directly in real-world settings of a factory floor. We show how RISs with passive reflective elements can create beamforming towards target robots\, and provide a solution to the problem of adaptive beam selection in dynamic channel conditions. We experimentally demonstrate that REMARKABLE can achieve a significant reduction in beam selection time compared to classical approaches and adaptive beam selection in mobility settings. \nFinally\, we introduce AirFC\, a system harnessing the capability of OTA computation to run inference on a neural network (NN) consisting of a set of fully connected layers (FC) by leveraging multi-antenna systems. We experimentally demonstrate and validate that such computation is accurate enough when compared to its digital counterpart. \n 
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/kubra-alemdar-phd-dissertation-defense/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240807T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240807T120000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240820T180332Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T180332Z
UID:45117-1723028400-1723032000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Cobra Alemdar PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nKubra Alemdar \nTitle:\nOvercoming and Engineering Wireless Signals for Communication and  Computation \nDate:\n8/7/2024 \nTime:\n11:00:00 AM \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Kaushik Chowdhury (Advisor)\nProf. Josep Jornet\nProf. Marvin Onabajo \nAbstract:\nThe phenomenal growth of connected devices\, especially rapid expansion of IoT networks and the increasing demand for wireless services are the main driving forces for the evolution of wireless technologies. However\, the realization of such technologies requires a radical transformation of existing infrastructures to satisfy the needs of changing wireless environments. The main limitation in delivering these systems stems from a vast diversity in their demands and constraints. To address this limitation\, this dissertation shows how wireless signals and their interaction with and within the wireless propagation domain can be used as communication or computational tools that enable us to achieve certain novel tasks. Specifically\, we build i) cross-functionality architectures to engineer the wireless channel to a) enable the operation of emerging technologies\, and b) demonstrate a new paradigm for computing with wireless signals\, and ii) intelligently shape the wireless channel to create reliable communication links. This dissertation presents an experimentally validated software-hardware systems with thorough analysis\, delivering the following key advancements with distinct contributions: \nFirst\, We present an innovative physical layer solution for distributed networks that provides over-the-air (OTA) clock synchronization\, known as RFCLOCK\, to overcome the hurdle of implementing fine-grained synchronization for emerging technologies. We first develop the theory for such precision synchronization\, and second implement it in a custom-design\, compatible with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software-defined radios (SDRs). We compare the performance of RFClock with popular wired and GPS-based hardware solutions\, both in terms of clock performance as well as impact on distributed beamforming. \nNext\, we propose two novel approaches\, utilizing reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) to ensure reliable connectivity in wireless networks by controlling the propagation environment: i) we present RIS-based spatio-temporal approach to enhance the link reliability for IoTs where sensors are small-factor designs with single-antenna in a rich multipath environment. We demonstrate the design of RIS and how it can effectively perturb the environment\, generating multiple wireless propagation channels and achieving the performance of a multi-antenna receiver in a Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) link. We compare the performance of the system with a multi-antenna receiver in terms of channel hardening and outage probability. ii) We introduce REMARKABLE\, an online learning based adaptive beam selection strategy for robot connectivity that trains kernelized multi-armed bandit (MAB) model directly in real-world settings of a factory floor. We show how RISs with passive reflective elements can create beamforming towards target robots\, and provide a solution to the problem of adaptive beam selection in dynamic channel conditions. We experimentally demonstrate that REMARKABLE can achieve a significant reduction in beam selection time compared to classical approaches and adaptive beam selection in mobility settings. \nFinally\, we introduce AirFC\, a system harnessing the capability of OTA computation to run inference on a neural network (NN) consisting of a set of fully connected layers (FC) by leveraging multi-antenna systems. We experimentally demonstrate and validate that such computation is accurate enough when compared to its digital counterpart. \n 
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/cobra-alemdar-phd-dissertation-defense/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240807T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240807T160000
DTSTAMP:20260424T231431
CREATED:20240708T133752Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240708T133752Z
UID:44424-1723042800-1723046400@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Graduate Student Fellowship Writing Club-Hosted by NU CommLab and NetSI
DESCRIPTION:Join the NU CommLab and NetSI sponsored weekly graduate student fellowship writing club for support in writing your fellowship application!  The fellowship writing club meets virtually on Wednesdays from 3-4pm from July 10- August 21.  We will offer you an opportunity to ask questions to faculty\, staff and students who have reviewed\, mentored or applied and received fellowships.  We will provide fellowship writing tips and guidance as well as offer writing and draft review sessions.  Register to join our Zoom Sessions.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/graduate-student-fellowship-writing-club-hosted-by-nu-commlab-and-netsi/2024-08-07/
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR