Can my chip behave like my brain?

Many decades ago, Carver Mead established the foundations of neuromorphic systems. Neuromorphic systems are analog circuits that emulate biology. These circuits utilize subthreshold dynamics of CMOS transistors to mimic the behavior of neurons. The objective is to not only simulate the human brain, but also to build useful applications using these bio-inspired circuits for ultra low power speech processing, image processing, and robotics. This can be achieved using reconfigurable hardware, like field programmable analog arrays (FPAAs), which enable configuring different applications on a cross platform system. As digital systems saturate in terms of power efficiency, this alternate approach has the potential to improve computational efficiency by approximately eight orders of magnitude. These systems, which include analog, digital, and neuromorphic elements combine to result in a very powerful reconfigurable processing machine.Ph.D

Using Remote Lab for Enhancing E-Learning on FPAAs

Analog and digital electronic subjects are part of the electronic engineer degree but its taught is not easy because they are founded in opposite methodologies. The electronic design in the digital field is centered in the use of microprocessor and FPGA based circuits using high level programing/configuring languages. The counterpart analog design is traditionally based in the use of elementary com- ponents associated with macroblocks such operational am- plifiers in order to built-up the wanted mission circuit. Some few components, as the FPAA, are analogically configurable in a similar manner already used with the FPGA. However the use of this kind of components is not straightforward once is necessary acquire some concepts not taught in the traditionally analog electronic classes. The current work present an innovative remote lab to sup- port teaching of the FPAAs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Building a Profile of the Fire Safety Community in Australia

The Fire Protection Association of Australia seeks to ensure the highest level of fire safety for the Australian community. The goal of this project was to provide recommendations to broaden and strengthen the membership and networking of FPA Australia. To accomplish this, we created a visual web representing the fields of the fire protection community and the networks that exists between them. We then identified specific fields that are not adequately represented and provided strategies for increasing membership and networking in two of these fields

2009 ESMD Space Grant Faculty Project Final Report

The Constellation Program is the medium by which we will maintain a presence in low Earth orbit, return to the moon for further exploration and develop procedures for Mars exploration. The foundation for its presence and success is built by the many individuals that have given of their time, talent and even lives to help propel the mission and objectives of NASA. The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) Faculty Fellows Program is a direct contributor to the success of directorate and Constellation Program objectives. It is through programs such as the ESMD Space Grant program that students are inspired and challenged to achieve the technological heights that will propel us to meet the goals and objectives of ESMD and the Constellation Program. It is through ESMD Space Grant programs that future NASA scientists, engineers, and mathematicians begin to dream of taking America to newer heights of space exploration. The ESMD Space Grant program is to be commended for taking the initiative to develop and implement programs that help solidify the mission of NASA. With the concerted efforts of the Kennedy Space Center educational staff, the 2009 ESMD Space Grant Summer Faculty Fellows Program allowed faculty to become more involved with NASA personnel relating to exploration topics for the senior design projects. The 2009 Project was specifically directed towards NASA's Strategic Educational Outcome 1. In-situ placement of Faculty Fellows at the NASA field Centers was essential; this allowed personal interactions with NASA scientists and engineers. In particular, this was critical to better understanding the NASA problems and begin developing a senior design effort to solve the problems. The Faculty Fellows are pleased that the ESMD Space Grant program is taking interest in developing the Senior Design courses at the university level. These courses are needed to help develop the NASA engineers and scientists of the very near future. It has been a pleasure to be part of the evaluation process to help ensure that these courses are developed in such a way that the students' educational objectives are maximized. Ultimately, with NASA-related content used as projects in the course, students will be exposed to space exploration concepts and issues while still in college. This will help to produce NASA engineers and scientists that are knowledgeable of space exploration. By the concerted efforts of these five senior design projects, NASA's ESMD Space Grant Project is making great strides at helping to develop talented engineers and scientists that will continue our exploration into space

Teaching and learning Operational Amplifiers using a reconfigurable and expandable kit

Operational Amplifiers (OpAmps) are one of the most important integrated circuits in the area of electronics. These type of devices are widely adopted in the area since they allow the design of simple and/or complex analogue circuits without many efforts. It is therefore fundamental to create innovative educational solutions to facilitate their teaching and learning, and in particular the inclusion of more experimental work in a course curricula. For this purpose, it was designed and implemented a reconfigurable and expandable kit to teach and learn electronic circuits based on the OpAmp uA741. The kit comprises a software application and a hardware platform. The software application allows the simulation and the reconfiguration of real electronic circuits based on the OpAmp uA741 included in the hardware platform. For measuring and/or applying signals to a particular reconfigured circuit, users may establish automatic connections. In this paper it is described the features and functionalities provided by the kit, and an overview about the OpAmp uA741. At the end, some teachers’ opinions about their perceptions concerning a possible adoption of the kit in a real educational scenario are presented.N/

An Alternative Way of Teaching Operational Amplifiers Using a Reconfigurable and Expandable Kit

Early on, students must develop competences by implementing simple or complex electronic circuits with Operational Amplifiers (OpAmps). Traditionally, these skills were mainly developed in laboratory classes, but technology allows us to explore other and complementary ways of aiding students in this achievement. This paper presents a contribution to improve the way OpAmps are included in electronic engineering courses’ curricula. A reconfigurable and expandable kit to teach electronic circuits based on the OpAmp uA741 was designed and implemented. This kit comprises a software application locally interfaced with a hardware platform capable of running in a PC. This platform includes a circuit with the OpAmp uA741 able to reconfigure according to a set of parameters defined by a software application. Its reconfiguration capability also enables the establishment of automatic connections for measuring and for applying signals to a reconfigured circuit, plus the ability to simulate the same or other OpAmp-based circuits. This paper provides an overview about the OpAmp uA741 and its relevance in engineering education. After presenting the kit and make some considerations for its improvement, at the end a brief discussion about its implementation in education according to specific educational strategies and methodologies are provided.This work was supported in part by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia under Grant FCT-UID-EQU-04730-2013info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Creation of a Collaborative Information Hub for the Fire Protection Industry of Australia

This project investigates the criteria for creating the most effective collaborative and informative online learning environment for the Fire Protection Association of Australia. Our team determined the content and technology necessary to implement this online learning Hub through interviews, surveys, focus groups and background research. The Hub will serve as an informative tool for the fire protection industry and will have the potential to improve industry knowledge as well as fire safety throughout Australia

Analog and Neuromorphic computing with a framework on a reconfigurable platform

The objective of the research is to demonstrate energy-efficient computing on a configurable platform, the Field Programmable Analog Array (FPAA), by leveraging analog strengths, along with a framework, to enable real-time systems on hardware. By taking inspiration from biology, fundamental blocks of neurons and synapses are built, understanding the computational advantages of such neural structures. To enable this computation and scale up from these modules, it is important to have an infrastructure that adapts by taking care of non-ideal effects like mismatches and variations, which commonly plague analog implementations. Programmability, through the presence of floating gates, helps to reduce these variations, thereby ultimately paving the path to take physical approaches to build larger systems in a holistic manner.Ph.D