Engineering and Computer Science Summer Research Scholarships 2009-2010
The following research topics are available, paying at least $5000 tax free.
To apply, contact the supervisor listed
before 14 October 2009
Status: Student Required
We are looking for a student to work on the development of a tool that uses DNS zone file data to drive surveys of hosts on the Internet. The tool will be modular and support plugins for collecting DNS information or web server information. Students applying for this project should have good programming skills in Python or Ruby, ideally have completed a networking course at 300-level and be able to work independently. In addition, knowledge of DNS protocols would be an advantage.
You would be expected to work for about 400 hours between 16th November and 12th February and you would be based at the industrial sponsor's workplace. The project would be co-supervised by Andy Linton, Ian Welch and Peter Komisarczuk. Please feel free to contact any of us directly about this opportunity.
Please send us a short CV or email showing us how you meet the criteria above.
Nonlinear System Modelling
Status: Student Appointed
Guitar amplifiers are deliberately nonlinear devices; it is the nonlinearity that makes the electric guitar sound interesting. Many attempts at modelling these nonlinearities have been conducted in the past, but none have applied such "black box" techniques as Volterra and/or Wiener models of nonlinear systems. A large data set has been collected ready for such modelling.The project may also include some comparison of subjective and some proposed objective measures of guitar amplifier quality.
Applicant Profile: The student will be capable of programming in Matlab, and have a very systematic and disciplined approach to working through data sets. Some understanding of signal processing is desirable but not required.
Passive Foetal Heartbeat Monitoring Evaluation
Status: Student Appointed
In August 2008 an algorithm was developed by the supervisor for extraction of the foetal heartbeat signal from contact microphone signals. The algorithm has been found to operate well on data collected in very late pregnancy. This project is to apply this algorithm to data we have collected from earlier stages of pregnancy and evaluate its performance. The project will also include tuning of the parameters of the algorithm and implementation of some alternative algorithms so that a performance comparison can be made.
Applicant profile: The student will be capable of programming in Matlab, and have a very systematic and disciplined approach to working through data sets. Some understanding of signal processing is desirable but not required.
Cancelling and Exploiting Reflections in Surround Sound
Status: Student Appointed
An end goal of Surround Sound Technology (SST) is to deploy it into practical sound environments such as the home. However, successful deployment in the home comes with significant challenges. Design of high performance systems typically requires a large number of loudspeakers, which is impractical to deploy in the home. Further, the room environment introduces reverberation, which can destroy the spatial impression created by a quality surround sound system. A challenge to the design of a loudspeaker array for SST is to ensure the array negates the effect of room reverberation. This project involves using an array of directional loudspeakers to combat the problem of reverberation in rooms. Typical surround sound implementations use standard loudspeakers possessing fixed directional responses. Using steerable loudspeakers, one may obtain better control of the sound field around a listener. One may (i) cancel detrimental wall reflections which interfere with the sound reproduction, or (ii) exploit reverberant reflections to create new spatial impressions, such creating a sound in a position where there is no loudspeaker. The project consists of designing loudspeaker arrays to control the reverberation in the mid-range. There is further scope to investigate cancelling resonances at low frequencies using woofers.
Applicant profile: The student will be capable of programming in Matlab. Some understanding of signal processing is desirable but not required.
Status: Student Appointed
The overall purpose of the project is to evaluate the effects of antenna spacing on the performance of wireless systems operating in the 700 MHz frequency band. Antenna separation is an important design consideration, as it effects the correlation of the data streams in a diversity receiver. To ensure spatial diversity gains, the antenna spacing should typically be on the order of one-half to one wavelength. In a 700 MHz system, however, where the signal wavelength is on the order of 40 cm, such spacing would not be possible in a portable device due to form factor restrictions.
The purpose of the project is thus to
- Analytically determine the validity of the classical capacity equation for MIMO systems with antenna separation of less then one-half avelength
- Include the effects of mutual coupling of antenna into the capacity equation
- Perform MATLAB-based simulations to evaluate the system performance and verify the analytical results
Applicant Profile: The student will be capable of programming in Matlab, and have basic understanding of communication systems fundamentals. Some understanding of information theory is desirable but not required.
Antenna Selection for Zero Forcing Methods in Multiuser MIMO Systems
Status: Position Open
The project will study the performance of multi-user, multi-antenna wireless system. Recently, sophisticated algorithms have been developed to eliminate co-channel interference in such systems by performing block-diagonalization of transmitted data streams. The main drawback of such systems is the limitation on the number of supported users due to the ratio of transmit-to-receive antennas. The research will consider the generalization of the block-diagonalization algorithm where a single stream to a selected antenna is transmitted per user. The selection of the receive antenna is a critical step in the process.
The purpose of the project is thus to
- Evaluate the performance of the block diagonalization algorithm with a single receive antenna chosen based on the eigenvalue of the associated channel.
- Obtain cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the capacity by virtue of Matlab simulation
- Consider metrics other than channel eigenvalues to aid in the antenna selection process
- Extend the method to selecting m of n receive antennas per user
Applicant Profile: The student will be capable of programming in Matlab, and have an understanding of digital communication techniques. Some understanding of information theory is desirable but not required.
Software Defined Radio MIMO Channel Estimation
Status: Student Appointed
Software Defined Radio is new technology developed in order to facilitate rapid and flexible development of wireless communications techniques. the aim of the Summer Research Assistantship will be to develop a research platform for multiple antenna (MIMO) channel estimation and prediction, as well as (time permitting) spectrum sensing in Cognitive Radio systems.
Applicant Profile: The student will be capable of programming in Matlab, and Python and have an understanding of digital communication techniques.
