Architecture for Better Days: Design Solution for Homelessness

The homelessness is not an dilemma with clear boundaries. It could happen to anybody for any reason. Poverty is the leading cause of being homeless despite the fact that people think otherwise. The homeless people are not people who do not know or too lazy to take care of themselves but they are the people who just got caught in the unfortunate events. Some homeless people even have a job but they are just not making enough money to afford a house but making too much money to get the government assist. There are shelters and supportive housings but in both cases, they are either unfit for the habitation or very limited on the availability of space. We see the homeless people on the street and we can see they are under stress from the condition of street. The current system that the government provides is broken and it harms the homeless people rather than helping them. What if the shelter can move with its owner? Instead of we force homeless people to get to the shelters that are not in favor of their situation, what if a transportable shelter can come to them and they can move with the shelter? These shelters can be on the street at the designated space where they could be monitored or on the private property given permission by the property owner. When the informal settlements are demolished, they becomes a waste that we have to deal with. However if the shelter is transportable, it could be transport with its owner in the moment of need. It is obvious that the system we currently have does not work well with the homeless. The system does not favor neither the schedule of the homeless people if they have a job or the situation of homeless people who require a special treatment. It is rather designed to hide the homeless from the general population. There must be a way architecture could, if not able to solve the dilemma, help with the situation. The architectural solution for this dilemma is not designing more affordable homeless shelter. What if the solution can move with its owner? If a homeless person is hired at the company too far way from his current place, would it not be better for him to take and move with his shelter rather than he has to go through the process of finding a suitable shelter that is near to his new employment? The transportable shelter can solve all the problems that we are facing today. This thesis will provide a transportable solution with an inexpensive design to help with the homeless dilemma and keep them in a safe and working environment until they get back on their feet

Fast WiFi scanning

In some countries, unlicensed spectrum used by WiFi networks is shared with radar systems. WiFi networks that operate in such bands employ radar detection and avoidance. A WiFi transceiver spends a certain channel sojourn (dwell) time scanning a channel prior to starting communication on it. A full scan takes about seven seconds, a user-perceptible delay. This disclosure describes techniques to reduce scan time by leveraging radar detection procedures that have already been completed by nearby access points. If a nearby access point has recently transmitted a frame or emits a wide-band transmission, it is an indication that the nearby access point has confirmed that the channel is clear of radar. Therefore, a device that is about to initiate a full scan can abbreviate its scan duration substantially. With implementation of the techniques of this disclosure, scan times drop from seven seconds to under two seconds

Intelligent wireless network selection

WiFi network selection is typically based on the received signal strength of an access point (AP). However, the strongest signal does not necessarily lead to good user experience. For example, a strong signal or SSID may simultaneously attract many WiFi clients, causing congestion. This disclosure utilizes machine learning models trained to intelligently select a wireless access point or an SSID based on multiple factors, e.g., neighboring APs, neighboring clients, historical service information, signal and interference levels, ping jitter, time-of-day, day-of-week, etc. Per the techniques, the selected AP is associated with a best overall score as determined by the machine learning model based on several factors. The selected AP therefore is not necessarily the AP with the strongest signal or geographically nearest to the client device making the selection. User experience is improved by selecting the AP in this manner

Establishing a trusted federation of wireless access points

A federation of wireless access points (APs) enables superior network connectivity when compared to a single wireless AP. This disclosure describes secure formation of an AP federation. An AP discovers the presence of a neighboring AP by detection of beacons and probe responses transmitted by the neighboring AP or by explicit transmission of a probe request. A known credential is presented by the AP to the neighboring AP to establish a connection and obtain an IP address. A federation service discovery message is transmitted specifying a port number and the IP address associated with the neighboring AP. A response message is transmitted by the neighboring AP that includes a base MAC address associated with the neighboring AP, a federation service IP address associated with the base MAC address, and the port number. Federation service discovery messages are exchanged between the APs that denote the access points as trusted members of the federation

Operations plans and sensitivities of the IceCube Upgrade Camera System

The IceCube Upgrade consists of seven new strings to be deployed in the central region of the existing IceCube detector. The goals of the IceCube Upgrade are two-fold: to enhance sensitivity to neutrinos in the GeV range, and to improve the calibration of the IceCube detector as a means of reducing systematic uncertainties due to the optical properties of the ice. Among other calibration devices designed to study ice properties, a novel camera system will be deployed as part of the Upgrade. The system will include three cameras, each paired with an illumination LED, included in each of the Upgrade optical modules. In total, 2,300 cameras will be deployed. A combination of photographic images from transmitted and reflected light will measure optical properties of both the bulk ice in-between strings and the local ice refrozen in the drill hole. In this contribution, we present the operations plans for these two types of measurements and the sensitivities to the ice properties and geometry of the new modules that can be achieved with the new camera system.Comment: Presented at the 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2023). See arXiv:2307.13047 for all IceCube contribution

Spatiotemporal Mapping of Photocurrent in a Monolayer Semiconductor Using a Diamond Quantum Sensor

The detection of photocurrents is central to understanding and harnessing the interaction of light with matter. Although widely used, transport-based detection averages over spatial distributions and can suffer from low photocarrier collection efficiency. Here, we introduce a contact-free method to spatially resolve local photocurrent densities using a proximal quantum magnetometer. We interface monolayer MoS2 with a near-surface ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and map the generated photothermal current distribution through its magnetic field profile. By synchronizing the photoexcitation with dynamical decoupling of the sensor spin, we extend the sensor's quantum coherence and achieve sensitivities to alternating current densities as small as 20 nA per micron. Our spatiotemporal measurements reveal that the photocurrent circulates as vortices, manifesting the Nernst effect, and rises with a timescale indicative of the system's thermal properties. Our method establishes an unprecedented probe for optoelectronic phenomena, ideally suited to the emerging class of two-dimensional materials, and stimulates applications towards large-area photodetectors and stick-on sources of magnetic fields for quantum control.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure