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Five senior electrical and computer engineering majors presented their research at national conferences this year; they also published their papers in their respective conference proceedings. The experiences allowed them to share their work with professionals in the field.
Ismail Jouny, Dana Professor and head of electrical and computer engineering, advised projects by Trustee Scholar Mark Lodato ’06(Hamilton, N.J.) and Marquis Scholar John Kolba ’06(Chelmsford, Mass.). Jouny notes that preparation for and participation in national conferences improves an undergraduate’s confidence while giving the student opportunities to see state-of-the-art research and experience academic publishing.
“It shows they are generating new results worthy of publication,” he says.
Lodato published and presented his paper “A Practical Timing Attack on RSA Over a LAN” at the SPIE Defense & Security Symposium April 18-20 in Orlando, Fla. For his honors thesis, he explored the vulnerabilities in computer server codes to improve security against hackers.
“By presenting in a national conference, I was able to learn more about the state-of-the-art in my field, get ideas about current and future research projects, and gain valuable contacts in industry and academia,” he says. “It [acceptance to present] shows that others in your field care about your work and want to learn about what you did.”
Kolba also presented his paper “Analysis of Subbanding Techniques in Blind Source Separation” at the SPIE Defense & Security Symposium. Kolba broke new ground in his senior honors thesis by working with a set of signal processing techniques called blind source separation to determine which method is most effective at finding sources of mixed signals. He also published and presented “Blind Source Separation in Tumor Detection in Mammograms” at the 32nd annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference April 1-2 hosted by Lafayette.
Yih-Choung Yu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, advised projects by Marquis Scholar Joshua Porter ’06 (Pittstown, N.J.) and Simon Mushi ’06 (Gaborone, Botswana). Like Jouny, Yu believes national conference exposure benefits students by allowing them to exchange information with other professionals.
Porter presented his paper “Pressure Flow Modeling of a Rotary Ventricular Assist Device” at the Northeast Bioengineering Conference, where he won first place for undergraduate student oral presentation. His EXCEL Scholars research on rotary heart assist devices is significant because the numerous types of artificial hearts are cumbersome for patients, with batteries and control systems that have to be carried outside the body. Porter also is scheduled to present “Mathematical Modeling of a Ventricular Suction Induced by a Rotary Ventricular Assist Device” at the 2006 American Control Conference June 14-16 in Minneapolis, Minn.
Also at the Northeast Bioengineering Conference, Mushi presented his paper “Evaluation of a Simple Cardiovascular Model with Short-term Baroreflex,” winning first place for undergraduate student poster presentation. Mushi also is scheduled to present at the American Control Conference.
“Papers submitted to both conferences are usually authored by graduate students and researchers worldwide,” explains Yu. “The paper acceptance rate is usually between 60 and 70 percent. [That] their papers were accepted in these conferences made me believe their research capabilities are competitive with graduate students. The research quality at Lafayette is beyond undergraduate level.”
Todd Wey, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, advised a project by Marquis Scholar JoAnna Vetreno ’06 (Oakland, N.J.). Vetreno presented her paper “Nonlinear Time Domain Model of a Phase-Locked Loop for Phase Noise Prediction” at the 20th annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research April 6-8. She also will present her paper “Time Domain Noise Modeling to Predict Phase-Locked Loop Performance” at the 16th annual MPRG/Virginia Tech Symposium on Wireless Personal Communications June 7-9 in Blacksburg, Va. Vetreno researched phase noise in advanced electronics.
As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Forty students were accepted to present their research at this year’s conference.