"Towards Performance and Cost-efficiency for Data-intensive Applications in Distributed Data Processing Systems" Abstract: Data-intensive science (DIS) has experienced a significant boom in the past decade. The emerging technologies of data-intensive services and infrastructures contribute to DIS's development and raise challenges. An ecosystem has been constructed considering performance, scalability, sustainability, and reliability to provide a high-quality […]

"All-optical Control of Magnetization in Nanostructures" Committee: Prof. Yongmin Liu (Advisor) Prof. Don Heiman Prof. Nian X. Sun Abstract: The switching of magnetization by a femtosecond laser within several picoseconds has recently gained substantial attention, because it promises next-generation, energy-efficient, and high-rate data storage technology. One of the most intriguing demonstrations is the helicity-dependent switching […]

"Factorization guided Lightweight Neural Networks for Visual Analysis" Committee: Prof. Yun Fu (Advisor) Prof. Ming Shao Prof. Lili Su Abstract: Deep learning has become popular in recent years primarily due to powerful computing devices such as GPUs. However, many applications such as face alignment, image classification, and gesture recognition need to be deployed to multimedia […]

"Composition of UML Class Diagrams Using Category Theory and External Constraints" Abstract: In large software development projects there is always a need for refactoring and optimization of the design. Usually software designs are represented using UML diagrams (e.g class diagrams). A software engineering team may create multiple versions of class diagrams satisfying some external constraints. […]

"Terahertz Communication for Space Systems" Abstract: With the ultimate vision of ubiquitous egalitarian worldwide coverage driven by the rapid proliferation of high-speed satellite networks, private companies are launching satellites into orbit at unprecedented rates. The main goal of such networks enabled by dense constellations in space is to build a more robust telecommunications infrastructure and […]

"Channel-and-Adversary-Resilient Radio Fingerprinting through Data-Driven Approaches at Scale" Committee: Prof. Tommaso Melodia (Advisor) Prof. Kaushik Chowdhury Prof. Francesco Restuccia Abstract: Radio fingerprinting authenticates wireless devices by leveraging tiny hardware-level imperfections inevitably present in the radio circuitry. This way, devices can be directly identified at the physical layer– thus avoiding energy-expensive upper-layer cryptography that resource-limited embedded […]

"Overcoming and Engineering Wireless Signals for Communication and Computation" Abstract: The 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 […]

"FPGA-based Accelerator of Neural Networks for Digital Predistortion" Committee: Prof. Miriam Leeser (Advisor) Prof. John Dooley Prof. Stefano Basagni Abstract: Power Amplifiers (PAs) are an essential part of wireless communications. As wireless standards evolve and become more demanding,  the requirements for PAs change as well.  Specifically, PAs need to balance linearity and energy efficiency while […]

Committee: Prof. Yun Fu (Advisor) Prof. Sarah Ostadabbas Prof. Ming Shao Abstract: The community has long enjoyed the benefits of synthesizing data, as it provides a reliable and controllable source for training machine learning models while reducing the need for data collection from the real world. Human face and body synthesis are especially appealing to […]

"Development of A Large-Aperture 160-Element Coherent Hydrophone Array System for Instantaneous Wide Area Ocean Acoustic Sensing" Abstract: A large aperture coherent hydrophone towed array system comprising of 160 elements and an aperture length of 192 meters has been developed for real-time instantaneous wide-area ocean acoustic remote sensing and monitoring. The design and manufacture of these […]