I2S Masters/ Doctoral Theses


All students and faculty are welcome to attend the final defense of I2S graduate students completing their M.S. or Ph.D. degrees. Defense notices for M.S./Ph.D. presentations for this year and several previous years are listed below in reverse chronological order.

Students who are nearing the completion of their M.S./Ph.D. research should schedule their final defenses through the EECS graduate office at least THREE WEEKS PRIOR to their presentation date so that there is time to complete the degree requirements check, and post the presentation announcement online.

Upcoming Defense Notices

Manu Chaudhary

Utilizing Quantum Computing for Solving Multidimensional Partial Differential Equations

When & Where:


Eaton Hall, Room 2001B

Degree Type:

PhD Dissertation Defense

Committee Members:

Esam El-Araby, Chair
Perry Alexander
Tamzidul Hoque
Prasad Kulkarni
Tyrone Duncan

Abstract

Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize computational problem-solving by leveraging the quantum mechanical phenomena of superposition and entanglement, which allows for processing a large amount of information simultaneously. This capability is significant in the numerical solution of complex and/or multidimensional partial differential equations (PDEs), which are fundamental to modeling various physical phenomena. There are currently many quantum techniques available for solving partial differential equations (PDEs), which are mainly based on variational quantum circuits. However, the existing quantum PDE solvers, particularly those based on variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) techniques, suffer from several limitations. These include low accuracy, high execution times, and low scalability on quantum simulators as well as on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices, especially for multidimensional PDEs.

In this work, we propose an efficient and scalable algorithm for solving multidimensional PDEs. We present two variants of our algorithm: the first leverages finite-difference method (FDM), classical-to-quantum (C2Q) encoding, and numerical instantiation, while the second employs FDM, C2Q, and column-by-column decomposition (CCD). Both variants are designed to enhance accuracy and scalability while reducing execution times. We have validated and evaluated our proposed concepts using a number of case studies including multidimensional Poisson equation, multidimensional heat equation, Black Scholes equation, and Navier-Stokes equation for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) achieving promising results. Our results demonstrate higher accuracy, higher scalability, and faster execution times compared to VQE-based solvers on noise-free and noisy quantum simulators from IBM. Additionally, we validated our approach on hardware emulators and actual quantum hardware, employing noise mitigation techniques. This work establishes a practical and effective approach for solving PDEs using quantum computing for engineering and scientific applications.


Syed Abid Sahdman

Soliton Generation and Pulse Optimization using Nonlinear Transmission Lines

When & Where:


Eaton Hall, Room 2001B

Degree Type:

MS Thesis Defense

Committee Members:

Alessandro Salandrino, Chair
Shima Fardad
Morteza Hashemi


Abstract

Nonlinear Transmission Lines (NLTLs) have gained significant interest due to their ability to generate ultra-short, high-power RF pulses, which are valuable in applications such as ultrawideband radar, space vehicles, and battlefield communication disruption. The waveforms generated by NLTLs offer frequency diversity not typically observed in High-Power Microwave (HPM) sources based on electron beams. Nonlinearity in lumped element transmission lines is usually introduced using voltage-dependent capacitors due to their simplicity and widespread availability. The periodic structure of these lines introduces dispersion, which broadens pulses. In contrast, nonlinearity causes higher-amplitude regions to propagate faster. The interaction of these effects results in the formation of stable, self-localized waveforms known as solitons.

Soliton propagation in NLTLs can be described by the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation. In this thesis, the Bäcklund Transformation (BT) method has been used to derive both single and two-soliton solutions of the KdV equation. This method links two different partial differential equations (PDEs) and their solutions to produce solutions for nonlinear PDEs. The two-soliton solution is obtained from the single soliton solution using a nonlinear superposition principle known as Bianchi’s Permutability Theorem (BPT). Although the KdV model is suitable for NLTLs where the capacitance-voltage relationship follows that of a reverse-biased p-n junction, it cannot generally represent arbitrary nonlinear capacitance characteristics.

To address this limitation, a Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method has been developed to numerically solve the NLTL equation for soliton propagation. To demonstrate the pulse sharpening and RF generation capability of a varactor-loaded NLTL, a 12-section lumped element circuit has been designed and simulated using LTspice and verified with the calculated result. In airborne radar systems, operational constraints such as range, accuracy, data rate, environment, and target type require flexible waveform design, including variation in pulse widths and pulse repetition frequencies. A gradient descent optimization technique has been employed to generate pulses with varying amplitudes and frequencies by optimizing the NLTL parameters. This work provides a theoretical analysis and numerical simulation to study soliton propagation in NLTLs and demonstrates the generation of tunable RF pulses through optimized circuit design.


Past Defense Notices

Dates

Yoganand Pitta

Insightful Visualization: An Interactive Dashboard Uncovering Disease Patterns in Patient Healthcare Data

When & Where:


Eaton Hall, Room 2001B

Degree Type:

MS Project Defense

Committee Members:

Zijun Yao, Chair
Prasad Kulkarni
Hongyang Sun


Abstract

As Electronic Health Records (EHRs) become more available, there is increasing interest in discovering hidden disease patterns by leveraging cutting-edge data visualization techniques, such as graph-based knowledge representation and interactive graphical user interfaces (GUIs). In this project, we have developed a web-based interactive EHR analytics and visualization tool to provide healthcare professionals with valuable insights that can ultimately improve the quality and cost-efficiency of patient care. Specifically, we have developed two visualization panels: one for the intelligence of individual patients and the other for the relevance among diseases. For individual patients, we capture the similarity between them by linking them based on their relatedness in diagnosis. By constructing a graph representation of patients based on this similarity, we can identify patterns and trends in patient data that may not be apparent through traditional methods. For disease relationships, we provide an ontology graph for the specific diagnosis (ICD10 code), which helps to identify ancestors and predecessors of a particular diagnosis. Through the demonstration of this dashboard, we show that this approach can provide valuable insights to better understand patient outcomes with an informative and user-friendly web interface.


Michael Cooley

Machine Learning for Navel Discharge Review

When & Where:


Eaton Hall, Room 1

Degree Type:

MS Project Defense

Committee Members:

Prasad Kulkarni, Chair
David Johnson
Jerzy Grzymala-Busse


Abstract

This research project aims to predict the outcome of the Naval Discharge Review Board decision for an applicant based on factors in the application, using Machine Learning techniques. The study explores three popular machine learning algorithms: MLP, Adaboost, and KNN, with KNN providing the best results. The training is verified through hyperparameter optimization and cross fold validation.

Additionally, the study investigates the ability of ChatGPT's API to classify the data that couldn't be classified manually. A total of over 8000 samples were classified by ChatGPT's API, and an MLP model was trained using the same hyperparameters that were found to be optimal for the 3000 size manual sample.The model was then tested on the manual sample. The results show that the model trained on data labeled by ChatGPT performed equivalently, suggesting that ChatGPT's API is a promising tool for labeling in this domain.


Sarah Johnson

Formal Analysis of TPM Key Certification Protocols

When & Where:


Nichols Hall, Room 246

Degree Type:

MS Thesis Defense

Committee Members:

Perry Alexander, Chair
Michael Branicky
Emily Witt


Abstract

Development and deployment of trusted systems often require definitive identification of devices. A remote entity should have confidence that a device is as it claims to be. An ideal method for fulfulling this need is through the use of secure device identitifiers. A secure device identifier (DevID) is defined as an identifier that is cryptographically bound to a device. A DevID must not be transferable from one device to another as that would allow distinct devices to be identified as the same. Since the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a secure Root of Trust for Storage, it provides the necessary protections for storing these identifiers. Consequently, the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) recommends the use of TPM keys for DevIDs. The TCG's specification TPM 2.0 Keys for Device Identity and Attestation describes several methods for remotely proving a key to be resident in a specific device's TPM. These methods are carefully constructed protocols which are intended to be performed by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) in communication with a certificate-requesting device. DevID certificates produced by an OEM's CA at device manufacturing time may be used to provide definitive evidence to a remote entity that a key belongs to a specific device. Whereas DevID certificates produced by an Owner/Administrator's CA require a chain of certificates in order to verify a chain of trust to an OEM-provided root certificate. This distinction is due to the differences in the respective protocols prescribed by the TCG's specification. We aim to abstractly model these protocols and formally verify that their resulting assurances on TPM-residency do in fact hold. We choose this goal since the TCG themselves do not provide any proofs or clear justifications for how the protocols might provide these assurances. The resulting TPM-command library and execution relation modeled in Coq may easily be expanded upon to become useful in verifying a wide range of properties regarding DevIDs and TPMs.


Anna Fritz

Negotiating Remote Attestation Protocols

When & Where:


Nichols Hall, Room 246

Degree Type:

PhD Comprehensive Defense

Committee Members:

Perry Alexander, Chair
Alex Bardas
Drew Davidson
Fengjun Li
Emily Witt

Abstract

During remote attestation, a relying party prompts a target to perform some stateful measurement which can be appraised to determine trust in the target's system. In this current framework, requested measurement operations must be provisioned by a knowledgeable system user who may fail to consider situational demands which potentially impact the desired measurement. To solve this problem, we introduce negotiation: a framework that allows the target and relying party to mutually determine an attestation protocol that satisfies both the target's need to protect sensitive information and the relying party's desire for a comprehensive measurement. We designed and verified this negotiation procedure such that for all negotiations, we can provably produce an executable protocol that satisfies the targets privacy standards. With the remainder of this work, we aim to realize and instantiate protocol orderings ensuring negotiation produces a protocol sufficient for the relying party. All progress is towards our ultimate goal of producing a working, fully verified negotiation scheme which will be integrated into our current attestation framework for flexible, end-to-end attestations.