The Center for Advanced Communications (CAC) recently welcomed visitors from around the world to its internationally renowned laboratories, where they worked with Dr. Moeness Amin, Director of the CAC; research faculty; postdoctoral fellows; and students to advance research in the areas of signal processing, radar, acoustics, and ultrasound.
In July, Dr. Irena Orovic, Assistant Professor at the University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro, visited the CAC to work with Dr. Amin on signal and image processing research. A widely recognized expert in algorithm developments relating to watermarking, non-stationary signal analyses, estimation, and detection, Dr. Orovic helped CAC researchers address challenging problems in target tracking and multipath resolutions for over-the-horizon radar applications.
Cher Hau (Alex) Seng, a PhD student and Research Associate from the University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, visited from March through August to work on research problems in image processing, enhancement, and segmentation. His expertise helped the CAC progress on different fronts pertaining to research aimed at advancing acoustic and ultrasound technologies for the medical and industrial communities, which is funded by a $600,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) grant. He also contributed to three papers, which are currently under review by leading journals and transactions in the field. Seng worked with Dr. Amin earlier this year during his visit to the University of Wollongong as part of ongoing joint research collaboration between both institutions.
For the second consecutive summer, the CAC hosted two graduate students from the Grenoble Institute of Technology in France. Cindy Bernard and Cyrielle Chauvin, each pursuing her Master of Science in Signal Processing, conducted research in the Acoustics & Ultrasound Laboratory (AUL) from February through August alongside Dr. Amin and Dr. Ramazan Demirli, Associate Research Professor and Director of the AUL.
Bernard worked on ultrasound imaging for non-destructive evaluation of faulty material in support of the CAC’s NSF-sponsored research on signal processing and ultrasound imaging for industrial applications. She used conventional and high-resolution methods to detect cracks and anomalies that are caused by stress and strain forces, as well as dynamic and periodic pressure applied to different parts of small and large alloys and structures.
Chauvin worked on a project defined by Siemens Corporation of Princeton, N.J., and partner in the NSF PFI research, to analyze acoustic signals from a factory operation involving motors and washers. Her objective was to determine the acoustic signatures of the different components underlying the operation and to identify their source locations. Challenges included the highly non-stationary and time-varying spectra of the acoustic signals, as well as the overlapping among signatures resulting from simultaneously active components. Chauvin generated several technical reports, including new analyses and results, for Siemens.
