Beyond a Usage Threshold, NO Form of Energy is Sustainable or Green We are Running Out of “Garbage Dump Space ” To Dissipate “Used ” Energy Into

To date, almost all of the research on green/sustainable energy has been concerned with procurement of ever increasing amounts of energy for human consumption. This singular focus only on the supply-side of the problem completely overlooks what happens to the energy after we use it; thereby implicitly making the dangerously wrong assumption that the earth has unlimited capacity to dissipate energy. In this position paper, we remind the reader that the earth can dissipate only a finite amount of even the greenest of the green forms of energy, while still maintaining thermal equilibria that have evolved over eons. Any long term sustainable energy solution therefore must include a curbing/limiting/controlling our demand for (and consequently, our consumption of) energy. Otherwise, even if and even after all the green-house-effects are fully eliminated, the earth still might eventually experience unnaturally large temperature increase because the amount of energy dissipated is too large

Phrase-Verified Voting: Verifiable Low-Tech Remote Boardroom Voting: (How We Voted on Tenure & Promotion Cases during the Pandemic)

We present Phrase-Verified Voting, a voter-verifiable remote voting system assembled from commercial off-the-shelf software for small private elections. The system is transparent and enables each voter to verify that the tally includes their ballot selection without requiring any understanding of cryptography. This paper describes the system and its use in fall 2020, to vote remotely in promotion committees in a university. Each voter fills out a form in the cloud with their vote V (YES, NO, ABSTAIN) and a passphrase P-two words entered by the voter. The system generates a verification prompt of the (P,V) pairs and a tally of the votes, organized to help visualize how the votes add up. After the polls close, each voter verifies that this table lists their (P,V) pair and that the tally is computed correctly. The system is especially appropriate for any small group making sensitive decisions. Because the system would not prevent a coercer from demanding that their victim use a specified passphrase, it is not designed for applications where such malfeasance would be likely or go undetected. Results from 43 voters show that the system was well-accepted, performed effectively for its intended purpose, and introduced users to the concept of voter-verified elections. Compared to the commonly-used alternatives of paper ballots or voting by email, voters found the system easier to use, and that it provided greater privacy and outcome integrity

Development of a computational image sensor with applications in integrated sensing and processing

The objective of this research was to build a reprogrammable computational imager utilizing on-chip analog computations for the purpose of studying the capabilities of integrated sensing and processing. Unlike conventional imaging systems, which acquire image data and perform calculations on it, this system tightly integrates the computation and sensing into one process. This allows the exploration of intelligent and efficient sensory and processing. The IC architecture and circuit designs have focused on wide dynamic range signals. The fundamental computation performed is a separable two-dimensional transform. This allows various operations, including block transformations and separable convolutions. The operations are reprogramable and utilize analog memory and processing along with digital control. The random access to both the image plane and the computational operations allows for intraframe transform variations creating a hardware foundation for dynamic sampling and computation. One can also capture scenes with non-uniform resolution. Advantages, including utilization of feedback from processing to sensing and extensions of the technology including support for wavelets and larger transforms are also explored.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Hasler, Paul; Committee Member: Anderson, David; Committee Member: Ghovanloo, Maysam; Committee Member: Romberg, Justin; Committee Member: Smith, Mar

On Chip Error Compensation, Light Adaptation, and Image Enhancement with a CMOS Transform Image Sensor

CMOS imagers are replacing CCD imagers in many applications and will continue to make new applications possible. CMOS imaging offers lower cost implementations on standard CMOS processes which allow for mixed signal processing on-chip. A system-on-a-chip approach offers the ability to perform complex algorithms faster, in less space, and with lower power and noise. Our transform imager is an implementation of a mixed focal plane and peripheral computation imager which allows high fill factor with high computational rates at low power. However, in order to use the technology effectively a need to verify and further understand the behavior and of the pixel elements in this transform imager was needed. This thesis presents a study of the pixel elements and mismatches and errors in the pixel array of this imager. From there, a discussion about removing offsets and an implementation of a circuit to remove the largest offsets is shown. To further enhance performance, initial work to develop light adaptive readout circuits is presented. Finally, an overview is given of a newly designed one-megapixel transform imager with many design improvements.M.S.Committee Chair: Paul Hasler; Committee Member: David Anderson; Committee Member: Steven DeWeert

chip error compensation, light adaptation, and image enhancement with a cmos transform image sensor

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank all the members of my group, my advisor, and my committee for all their help and time

Neural and behavioral adaptations to frontal theta neurofeedback training: A proof of concept study.

Previous neurofeedback research has shown training-related frontal theta increases and performance improvements on some executive tasks in real feedback versus sham control groups. However, typical sham control groups receive false or non-contingent feedback, making it difficult to know whether observed differences between groups are associated with accurate contingent feedback or other cognitive mechanisms (motivation, control strategies, attentional engagement, fatigue, etc.). To address this question, we investigated differences between two frontal theta training groups, each receiving accurate contingent feedback, but with different top-down goals: (1) increase and (2) alternate increase/decrease. We hypothesized that the increase group would exhibit greater increases in frontal theta compared to the alternate group, which would exhibit lower frontal theta during down- versus up-modulation blocks over sessions. We also hypothesized that the alternate group would exhibit greater performance improvements on a Go-NoGo shooting task requiring alterations in behavioral activation and inhibition, as the alternate group would be trained with greater task specificity, suggesting that receiving accurate contingent feedback may be the more salient learning mechanism underlying frontal theta neurofeedback training gains. Thirty young healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to increase or alternate groups. Training consisted of an orientation session, five neurofeedback training sessions (six blocks of six 30-s trials of FCz theta modulation (4-7 Hz) separated by 10-s rest intervals), and six Go-NoGo testing sessions (four blocks of 90 trials in both Low and High time-stress conditions). Multilevel modeling revealed greater frontal theta increases in the alternate group over training sessions. Further, Go-NoGo task performance increased at a greater rate in the increase group (accuracy and reaction time, but not commission errors). Overall, these results reject our hypotheses and suggest that changes in frontal theta and performance outcomes were not explained by reinforcement learning afforded by accurate contingent feedback. We discuss our findings in terms of alternative conceptual and methodological considerations, as well as limitations of this research

Neural and behavioral adaptations to frontal theta neurofeedback training: A proof of concept study

Previous neurofeedback research has shown training-related frontal theta increases and performance improvements on some executive tasks in real feedback versus sham control groups. However, typical sham control groups receive false or non-contingent feedback, making it difficult to know whether observed differences between groups are associated with accurate contingent feedback or other cognitive mechanisms (motivation, control strategies, attentional engagement, fatigue, etc.). To address this question, we investigated differences between two frontal theta training groups, each receiving accurate contingent feedback, but with different top-down goals: (1) increase and (2) alternate increase/decrease. We hypothesized that the increase group would exhibit greater increases in frontal theta compared to the alternate group, which would exhibit lower frontal theta during down- versus up-modulation blocks over sessions. We also hypothesized that the alternate group would exhibit greater performance improvements on a Go-NoGo shooting task requiring alterations in behavioral activation and inhibition, as the alternate group would be trained with greater task specificity, suggesting that receiving accurate contingent feedback may be the more salient learning mechanism underlying frontal theta neurofeedback training gains. Thirty young healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to increase or alternate groups. Training consisted of an orientation session, five neurofeedback training sessions (six blocks of six 30-s trials of FCz theta modulation (4–7 Hz) separated by 10-s rest intervals), and six Go-NoGo testing sessions (four blocks of 90 trials in both Low and High time-stress conditions). Multilevel modeling revealed greater frontal theta increases in the alternate group over training sessions. Further, Go-NoGo task performance increased at a greater rate in the increase group (accuracy and reaction time, but not commission errors). Overall, these results reject our hypotheses and suggest that changes in frontal theta and performance outcomes were not explained by reinforcement learning afforded by accurate contingent feedback. We discuss our findings in terms of alternative conceptual and methodological considerations, as well as limitations of this research