Networked Cyberphysical Systems, by P. R. Kumar

Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 9:00

Abstract: Networked computers controlling distributed physical systems represent the next phase of development from several different technological points of view. For the networking community, they can be seen as the next logical step beyond sensor networks, since actuation is also supported. For the real time community, it represents an advanced into networked systems. For the control community, they can be regarded as the third generation of control, coming after the first two generations of analog control and digital control. Such networked cyberphysical systems are expected to be increasingly important as we enter the large scale system building era of the twenty-first century. We present both an account of several foundational research topics that underlie this area, as well as examples of system building possibilities. As research topics of interest for these next generation systems, we survey issues in data fusion, real-time communication, clock synchronization, security, middleware, hybrid systems and proofs of correctness.

Bio: P. R. Kumar obtained his B. Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering (Electronics) from I.I.T. Madras in 1973, and the M.S. and D.Sc. degrees in Systems Science and Mathematics from Washington University, St. Louis, in 1975 and 1977, respectively. From 1977-84 he was a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. From 1985-2011 he was a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois. Currently he is at Texas A&M University, where he holds the College of Engineering Chair in Computer Engineering.
Kumar has worked on problems in game theory, adaptive control, stochastic systems, simulated annealing, neural networks, machine learning, queueing networks, manufacturing systems, scheduling, wafer fabrication plants and information theory. His current research interests are in wireless networks, sensor networks, and networked embedded control systems. His research is currently focused on wireless networks, sensor networks, cyberphysical systems, and the convergence of control, communication and computation.
Kumar is a member of the National Academy of Engineering of the USA, as well as the Academy of Sciences of the Developing World. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule) in Zurich. He received the IEEE Field Award for Control Systems, the Donald P. Eckman Award of the American Automatic Control Council, and the Fred W. Ellersick Prize of the IEEE Communications Society. He is a Fellow of IEEE. He is a Guest Chair Professor and Leader of the Guest Chair Professor Group on Wireless Communication and Networking at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He is also an Honorary Professor at IIT Hyderabad. He was awarded the Daniel C. Drucker Eminent Faculty Award from the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois, and the Alumni Achievement Award from Washington University in St. Louis.

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MIMO Situational Awareness Radar, by Jeffrey Krolik

Wed, Dec 14, 2011, 13:00

Slides and talk.

Abstract: This work addresses the problem of radar surveillance in environments where multipath and non-line-of-sight propagation limit the effectiveness of conventional systems. Complex propagation is prevalent in applications as diverse as automotive radar, indoor radar, and over-the-horizon radar. For ground-moving target indication (GMTI) radar, multipath propagation can result in target masking by Doppler-spread ground clutter which cannot be mitigated by conventional space-time adaptive processing. For synthetic aperture radar (SAR), non-line-of-sight propagation can cause troubling image artifacts. In this paper, we discuss how MIMO space-time processing can be used to improve both GMTI and SAR situational awareness from a moving vehicle. The unique MIMO radar capability of discriminating both radar signal direction-of-arrival and direction-of-departure as a function of time delay is shown to be critical for situational awareness in complex environments. In addition to simulation results, a real-time testbed radar demonstration will be presented.

Bio: Jeffrey Krolik is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University in Durham, NC. Canadian-born, he received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1987. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Concordia University in Montreal. Interested in signal processing applications in the ocean sciences, he joined the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego as an Assistant Research Scientist in 1990. At Scripps, he developed physics-based sensor array processing methods that exploit multi-path underwater acoustic propagation. Since coming to Duke in 1992, he has broadened his research interests to include statistical signal processing for surveillance radars and microwave remote sensing, active and passive sonar, and medical imaging. Some of his current projects include the development of aircraft height finding for over-the-horizon HF radar, through-the-sensor environmental monitoring of near-surface atmospheric conditions using a shipboard microwave radar, active sonar array shape estimation from reverberation, and functional magnetic resonance imaging algorithms which are robust to head motion. As a consultant, he has worked for the Office of Naval Research, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Air Force Rome Laboratories.

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Educational and Research Activities at the Student Research Development Center of the Ana G. Mendez University System, by Juan F. Arratia

Thu, Dec 15, 2011, 9:00

Abstract: The Ana G. Mendez University System (AGMUS), the second university system in Puerto Rico, includes three main campuses - Universidad Metropolitana (UMET), Universidad del Turabo (UT) and Universidad del Este (UNE), sixteen off-campus centers (three in Florida) serving underrepresented minority students, a PBS Television Station, and a recently started Universidad Virtual. The total AGMUS enrollment is 42,000 students, 3,726 full-time and adjunct faculty, multiple, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) BSD and graduate programs.
UMET and The Arecibo Observatory are developing the Puerto Rico Photonics Institute at the facilities of the Barceloneta Scientific Research Park in northern Puerto Rico. This institute is partnering with Honeywell, the Aguadilla facility, in the development of laser technology for GPS Instrumentation and laser applications in navigation systems. Honeywell is negotiating the implementation of an MS in Aerospace Engineering with AGMUS. The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded 2.3 million to UMET for the construction of an Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR) at the geomagnetic conjugate point of the Arecibo Observatory in La Plata, Argentina. The Principal Investigator of the project is working with Stanford Research Institute (SRI) for the construction, transportation and installation of the radar in Argentina. The main objective of this radar is to study the plasma flow at the ionosphere in conjunction with a heater at the Arecibo Observatory. The AMISR facility in Argentina will be operated in partnership with Universidad de La Plata, the Arecibo Observatory and AGMUS, impacting undergraduate, graduate students, faculty and scientists from Puerto Rico, Argentina, and the US scientific community.
This presentation will address the history of the transformation of the AGMUS institutions from liberal art colleges to a leading undergraduate research organization in Puerto Rico by describing the outcome of each grant sponsored by the NSF.

Bio: Juan F. Arratia, Ph.D., was born in Pomaire, Chile. He graduated from Universidad Técnica del Estado with a BS in Electrical Engineering in 1973. He was awarded an MSc in Engineering from Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri in 1985. He has taught and conducted research at universities in Chile (Universidad Técnica del Estado and Universidad Austral de Chile), Puerto Rico (Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico and University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez), and the US mainland including Washington University in St. Louis, and Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. He has lectured and given conferences on advanced automation, robotics, vision systems, artificial intelligence, total quality management and science and engineering education in Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Perú, Canada, Jordan, Costa Rica, Russia, South Africa, Romania, Taiwan, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia, China, Puerto Rico and in the US Mainland. He worked as the Advanced Manufacturing Manager for Medtronic, Inc., a leading pacemaker company, and is a consultant in advanced automation for pharmaceutical and medical devices companies in Puerto Rico. For fourteen years he was the Director and Principal Investigator of the Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE) Project, a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored program based at Universidad Metropolitana in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Since 2007, he is the Executive Director of the Ana G. Méndez University System (AGMUS) Student Research Development Center, designed to disseminate MIE best practices to Universidad del Turabo and Universidad del Este. Since 2008 he is the Director and Principal Investigator of the AGMUS Institute of Mathematics, a grant for 2.1 million from NSF, since 2009 the Director and Principal Investigator of the Caribbean Computing Center for Excellence (CCCE) Alliance, a grant for 2.3 million from NSF, and since 1010 the Director and Principal Investigator of the MRI-Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR), a grant for 2.3 million from NSF to install a radar in the geomagnetic conjugate point of Arecibo Observatory in La Plata, Argentina. In November 2007 he was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring at a ceremony in the White House in Washington DC. Dr. Arratia had secured funding from the NSF at the level of over 35 million for institutional and minority student development for Universidad Metropolitana in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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The Limited Feedback Revolution in Wireless Communication, by Robert W. Heath Jr.

Thu, Dec 15, 2011, 13:00

Slides (no animation and with animation) and talk.

Abstract: Wireless communication systems have improved efficiency in several dimensions in the past decade. One prominent change is the sweeping incorporation of multiple antennas, at both the transmitter and receiver, to achieve higher capacity, better quality, and resilience to interference through new modes of operation. A corresponding advance, resulting from increasing flexibility in the transmitter configuration, is algorithms that adapt the transmit strategy to the dynamic propagation environment. The concept of limited feedback lies at the heart of these two fundamental changes in wireless design. Limited feedback is a methodology for obtaining and exploiting propagation channel state information at the transmitter. It uses a finite rate feedback control channel to convey quantized observations of the channel from the receiver to the transmitter. Limited feedback allows the transmitter to adjust how antennas are configured and change other parameters like the transmission rate to maximize performance. This presentation reviews several breakthroughs in limited feedback multiple antenna wireless communication. The connection between limited feedback and quantization on the Grassmann manifold is explained. Then, a new approach for adaptive high resolution limited feedback beamforming is revealed. It leverages temporal correlation in the channel through a new predictive coding framework that reduces feedback rates and/or increases effective resolution. The application of this new framework specifically for high resolution limited feedback interference alignment in interference channels is discussed.

Bio: Robert W. Heath Jr. received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. He is an Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Austin and is Associate Director of the Wireless Networking and Communications Group. He is also President and CEO of MIMO Wireless Inc. and VP of Innovation at Kuma Signals LLC. Prof. Heath is co-recipient of best student paper awards at IEEE VTC 2006 Spring, WPMC 2006, IEEE GLOBECOM 2006, IEEE VTC 2007 Spring, and IEEE RWS 2009, as well as co-recipient of the Grand Prize in the 2008 WinTech WinCool Demo Contest. He was a technical co-chair for the 2007 Fall Vehicular Technology Conference, general chair of the 2008 Communication Theory Workshop, general co-chair, technical co-chair and co-organizer of the 2009 IEEE Signal Processing for Wireless Communications Workshop, and was technical co-chair for the 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory. He is the recipient of the David and Doris Lybarger Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Engineering. He is a licensed Amateur Radio Operator, a registered Professional Engineer in Texas, and is an IEEE Fellow.

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When is Distributed as Good as Centralized? by José M.F. Moura

Fri, Dec 16, 2011, 9:00

Abstract: From networks of social agents, interacting locally but aspiring to global understanding, to physical networked systems like the power grid, where distributed SCADAs could become candidates to replace centralized supervisory control and data acquisition systems, we can ask if and when a distributed algorithm offers performance guarantees similar to those of a centralized solution. We consider consensus+innovations algorithms that combine local cooperation among agents (in-network processing) with local exchanges with the external world (sensing). To understand these mixed scale algorithms we establish their path behavior and the exponential decay rates of the probability of rare events (large deviations principle.) These algorithms need careful design, in particular, how to weigh the consensus and innovations terms. We illustrate relevant tradeoffs among network parameters (e.g., rate of diffusion, communication and sensing signal-to-noise ratios,) and determine that, under broad conditions, yes, distributed can be as good as centralized.

Bio: José M. F. Moura is a University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) where he founded the Center for Sensed Critical Infrastructure Research and the Information and Communication Technologies Institute. He holds a D.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was visiting Professor at MIT (84-86, 99-00, 06-07) and on the faculty at Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal). His research interests include algebraic and statistical signal/image processing, with projects on distributed algorithms, large scale critical physical infrastructures, and intelligent compilers for signal processing algorithms.

He is IEEE Division IX Director Elect (2011), a member of the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board (2010-11) and the IEEE Education Activities Board (2010-11), was President of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, was the Editor in Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, and was on the Boards of the IEEE Proceedings and the ACM Sensors Journal. He has received several awards, including Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the AAAS, corresponding member of the Academia das Ciências of Portugal, IEEE 3rd Millennium Medal, IEEE SPS Meritorious Service Award, IBM Faculty Award, CMU’s College of Engineering Outstanding Research Award, CMU’s Phillip Dowd Fellowship Award for Excellence in Engineering Education. In 2010, he was elected University Professor at CMU.

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Faster than Nyquist but Slower than Tropp, by Robert Calderbank

Fri, Dec 16, 2011, 13:00

Abstract: The sampling rate of analog-to-digital converters is severely limited by underlying technological constraints. Recently, Tropp et al. proposed a new architecture, called a random demodulator, that attempts to overcome this limitation by sampling sparse, band limited signals at a rate much lower than the Nyquist rate. An integral part of this architecture is a random bi-polar modulating waveform that changes polarity at the Nyquist rate of the input signal. Technological constraints also limit how fast such a waveform can change polarity.
We propose an extension of the random demodulator that uses a run-length limited (RLL) modulating waveform, and which we call a constrained random demodulator (CRD). The RLL modulating waveform changes polarity at a slower rate. We demonstrate that a CRD enjoys theoretical guarantees similar to the RD and that these guarantees are directly related to the power spectrum of the modulating waveform. Further, we show that the relationship between the placement of energy in the spectrum of the input signal and the placement of energy in the power spectrum of the modulating waveform has a major effect on the reconstruction performance of signals sampled by a CRD.

Bio: Robert Calderbank is Dean of Natural Sciences at Duke University. He was previously Professor of Electrical Engineering and Mathematics at Princeton University where he directed the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics. Prior to joining Princeton in 2004, he was Vice President for Research at AT&T, responsible for directing the first industrial research lab in the world where the primary focus is data at scale.

At the start of his career at Bell Labs, innovations by Dr. Calderbank were incorporated in a progression of voiceband modem standards that moved communications practice close to the Shannon limit. Together with Peter Shor and colleagues at AT&T Labs he showed that good quantum error correcting codes exist and developed the group theoretic framework for quantum error correction. He is a co- inventor of space-time codes for wireless communication, where correlation of signals across different transmit antennas is the key to reliable transmission.