SEPTEMBER CALENDAR

Mr. Silva graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering, and obtained an MBA degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Before joining Smith Barney, Mr. Silva was instrumental in starting Solarmetric, a Java data objects implementation. He also started a new international light business for Fresnel Optics, did statistical process work for Reflexite Corporation, and served as a project manager for 3M.

Wednesday, September 22

Linear Systems in Ranking Applications

In recent years in the business of college football, much effort has been spent looking for a way to rank NCAA teams effectively. Traditionally, rankings in the league have been determined by a ballot system where college coaches and press associates cast their votes.

Many argue that this system is flawed by its subjectivity. A new ranking system, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), ranks teams based on several components of play and averages the scores arbitrarily. Even this system has serious faults, since there is no scientific basis to how the scores are weighted.

There is, however, a new possibility. Modeling the league as a linear system offers a surprisingly simple and accurate way to determine a relative raking for the entire league. The peculiar characteristics of this system offers insight to the twists and turns of both the ranking system itself and linear system theory as a whole.

This presentation introduces the system and analyzes the results to give verify the accuracy. The system is analyzed from a linear system perspective, allowing parallels to be drawn between the mathematics and the model.

Mike Gilliom graduated from Virginia Tech with a BSEE in the spring of 2002. He is currently working to complete his masters thesis which deals with complex control systems in the field of power electronics. He has been working with control systems in power electronics for 3 years and has a strong interest in bringing more powerful and complex controllers into the field of power conversion and motor drives.

Thursday, September 23

Intelligent RF Systems and Antennas

The current trend is to require more functionality of a portable or not-so-portable radio system: operate at many frequencies for more than one application, adapt to the signal space, adapt to changes in the environment, operate at low power levels (and cost nothing). As examples of current research areas at the University of Colorado at Boulder that address sub-sets of this problem, this talk will cover experimental adaptable (intelligent) microwave circuits which optimize power usage, and smart antennas with adaptive analog signal processing.

In specific, the design of an ultra-high efficiency 10-GHz transmitter power amplifier with dynamic power supply and MEMS tuning circuits will be presented. The power amplifier is a switched-mode amplifier and therefore highly nonlinear. The linearity characterization and improvements using dynamic biasing will be presented. Two smart antenna arrays will also be presented:
(a) a small 2-GHz array of 2 antennas which performs like a larger array of 5 antennas using signal processing analogous to sonar processing in bats, and
(b) an antenna array which can perform blind signal separation, i.e. separate completely unknown broadband signals scrambled through propagation.

The dynamic holographic optoelectronic processor for this antenna system is a collaborative project with the University of Colorado physics department.

Zoya B. Popovic received her Dipl. Ing. degree from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia in 1985, and Ph. D. degree from Caltech, Pasadena, California, in 1990. She joined the faculty of the University of Colorado in Boulder in August 1990, where she became a full professor in 1998. She has developed five undergraduate and graduate electromagnetics and microwave laboratory courses and co-authored (with her father) a textbook Introductory Electromagnetics (Prentice Hall) for the junior-level core course for electrical and computer engineering students. Her research interests include microwave and millimeter-wave quasi-optical techniques, high-efficiency microwave circuits, intelligent RF front ends, RF-optical techniques and low phase noise oscillators for atomic clocks. She is the winner of the 1993 Microwave Prize from the IEEE MTT Society for the best journal paper.

Tuesday, September 28

Broadband over Power Line (BPL) Technology and Channel Description Overview Access Networking

Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) has emerged as an exciting development in communications. This technology uses the existing electricity distribution infrastructure to provide broadband access to homes and businesses. Jim Mollenkopf from Current Technologies will address key facets of this technology, including an overview of the powerline communications channel and how channel impairments are mitigated. Network architecture and performance tradeoffs will be discussed, as well as how this technology integrates with power system operations. BPL access technology is currently in field trials in Manassas, VA (MainNet, Israeli company) and Potomac, MD (Current Tech), and is currently offering service to several thousand homes in Cincinnati, OH. It is the subject of much discussion by the IEEE and the FCC.

Jim Mollenkopf serves as the Vice President, Architecture and Products, at Current Technologies, a leading developer of broadband over power line systems. In this role he is responsible for systems architecture, network performance and planning, product management, key technology development, and regulatory compliance. Prior to joining Current at its founding in 2000, he worked at Orbital Sciences where he led the communications system design team for the Orbcomm space segment. Prior to joining Orbital, he served for 11 years with the US Government in a variety of technology development positions.

Wednesday, October 6

Active Behavior as a 4th Dimension for Identity Authentication

Identity Gains Greater Importance in Era of Terrorism

Computerized identity authentication systems (CIAS) have traditionally been based on 3 independent concepts:

What you know (passwords, PINs),
What you have (Smart Card, ID badge), and
What you are (biometric and natural behavior systems).

A fourth authentication concept incorporates deliberate perturbation of natural behavior in an authentication test, which may provide an inexpensive dimension to the authentication process. Research under way is focused on determining whether such a technique could be used to advantage without incurring an excessive penalty.

Several disadvantages need further exploration. The research process invokes comparisons of theoretically developed active behavior versus the real world environment. Using an Active Behavior Test Bed revealed a practical entropy significantly lower than that calculated by probability calculations. Future research will explore practical entropy limits and correlations.

George Washington University information security researchers consider authentication system effectiveness in terms of vulnerability to attacks, effect on human factor vulnerabilities, and effects on authentication entropy. Entropy is an information technology concept that provides a measure of the theoretical uncertainty associated with guessing a password, etc. The George Washington University Information Security Group has developed and studied a system called Time Domain Sensitive Password Protection, which shows promise for providing protection from various forms of attack.

Dr. Christopher Hekimian is the research director for Adams Security Research Associates, LLC. He received the Ph.D. degree in systems engineering management at GWU in 2004. He earned the MSEE degree in 1955 at the California Polytechnic University in Pomona. Dr. Hekimian is the founder of DXDT Engineering & Research, LLC. He has three patents-pending on techniques for the security of biometric authentication systems and has a patent pending for a TV-interactive technique.

Tuesday, October 12

The Alfred T. C. Chang Memorial Symposium (Sponsored by W/NV GRSS)

Dr. Alfred T. C. Chang, IEEE Fellow, graduated with a degree in physics from National Central University in Taoyuan, Taiwan. He then received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, also in physics, at the University of Maryland. He was employed by NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center from 1974 until his death on May 26, 2004.

Dr. Chang's main area of research was the use of microwave instruments for remotely-sensing properties of the atmosphere and land. Most of his illustrious career was spent on analysis of microwave data of snow cover and rainfall, and he produced several seminal papers on these subjects, beginning in the '70s, that are still being referenced today. Dr. Chang published more than 100 journal articles, and among his many honors and awards is the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement.

Wednesday, October 20

Three Mile Island in Historical Perspective

On this 25^th Anniversary of the worst accident involving a nuclear power plant in the United States, it is important to understand what actually occurred at Three Mile Island. The event which began at 4:00 a.m. on March 28, 1979 was watched by the entire world. Authorities at the highest level were called to the crippled plant as they as they sought to prevent the emission of dangerous quantities of ionizing radiation into the environment. Sam Walker will provide an analysis and overall perspective of the human drama that unfolded on that fateful day and for the weeks and months that followed the accident. He will provide a clear picture of the human drama that surrounded the accident while placing it in the context of the intense debate that was occurring over the benefits of using nuclear power for the generation of electricity. The presentation will cover questions relating to studies of the long-term health effects from the accident and will offer a unique perspective into the issues of dealing with a critical event in today’s world.

J. Samuel Walker is the official historian of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He has held academic positions at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland. He is the author of numerous publications. Previous books include "Permissible Dose: A History of Radiation Protection in the Twentieth Century" and "Containing the Atom: Nuclear Regulation in a Changing Environment."

9/20/04