DigiPen Institute of Technology’s Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering degree program has been accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, the global accreditor of college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology.
Continue reading Computer Engineering Program Attains ABET Accreditation
Dept. Chair and Associate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, DigiPen Institute of Technology, Redmond, WA.
Research Scientist, NorthWest Research Associates, Redmond, WA.
Affiliate Associate Professor, Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Contact info: jnt at uw.edu; 1 (206) 947 2678
Mailing address: DigiPen Institute of Technology, 9931 Willows Rd NE, Redmond, WA 98052
Curriculum Vitae
Publications
Invited Presentations
Overview of Research Interests:
Numerous natural processes drive geophysical electric and magnetic fields. In my research, I study these fields to further our understanding of Earth’s atmosphere and space environment. My work has focused on a diverse group of electric and magnetic field sources, including lightning, middle atmospheric discharges, solar-terrestrial effects in the ionosphere and magnetosphere, and sources within the Earth’s crust. I have experience in both experimental techniques and theoretical modeling. This includes designing, building, and testing instrumentation and acquisition systems, analyzing data, and developing numerical simulations. My work plans include projects related to in situ measurements inside and above thunderstorms, ground-based sensing of middle atmospheric discharges that affect the ionosphere, investigating geomagnetic perturbations from dc to low frequency radio bands, and fusing lightning and satellite radiometer data to study tropical cyclones. All of my research plans include opportunities for students to design, build, and test complete sensor systems, as well as analyze data using signal processing techniques.
In addition to geophysics related research, I have worked with DigiPen students to design, build, and test numerous embedded systems platforms, including autonomous robotic toys, human interface devices, and hand-held gaming consoles.
In the News:
No link between earthquakes and solar activity
Earthquake prediction in National Geographic
Loma Prieta earthquake in Susan Hough’s book “Predicting the Unpredictable: The Tumultuous Science of Earthquake Prediction” (see Chpt 10)
Links:
DigiPen Computer Engineering Program
DigiPen: Introduction to Robotics — Robotic Scorpion Project
Bard College: Atmospheric Science
U. Washington: ESS 102 — Space and Space Travel
Student-driven study of urban effects on lightning activity in New York City
Word Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN)
The purpose of this project is to make instrument learning software available to anyone and for any instrument. We present a hardware implementation of a sound to MIDI converter. A Piezo sensor is used to get better quality sound data from acoustic instruments. By combining a Piezo pickup, a high performance microcontroller, and Fast Fourier Transforms we can determine the notes played on the instrument. The paper will also discuss the techniques used to get more accurate data, such as Harmonic Product Sum from the Fast Fourier data. The use of HAL drivers will be discussed to allow programming in C++ on the STM32F4 ARM chip. Power consumption is another major topic that will be discussed, as well as sending data wirelessly with XBEE.
Student: Kevin Secretan
The goal of Project RADAR is to use radar imaging to possibly detect human survivors in burning or collapsed buildings. The project focuses on using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), as SAR images are a useful tool for picking out possible humans. Recording the information for a SAR image using this radar system requires moving the radar in a straight line over ten feet, in two inch increments, acquiring range data at each point. To move the radar automatically a time lapse dolly was constructed out of PVC pipes, rollerblade wheels attached to a platform, and a DC motor, driven by a MSP430 microcontroller.
Continue reading Project RADAR
Student: Matthew Kaes
Direct Abstraction is a high level scripting language that brings a shared code base to both the PC environment and ARM hardware. In the case of the PC version there is an interpreter that parses the user’s code in a text file and executes it. For the ARM device an embedded virtual machine will look for code on an SD card on boot up to parse and run. In both instances development time is improved by removing the need for long compile times and having to deal with complex tool chains in order to get the code to build. Since the code base is the same for both the PC and the ARM device this means that the developer can write code for the end device without ever running the code on the device. Code can be rapidly developed on a PC environment with instant turnaround time for testing and then the final code can simply be ported to the final device and work.