Ahmad Khayyat

Smart Campus

To design and develop a smart campus system where all services and operations are automated. Example services include automatic presentation loading for faculty, automatic note-taking, auto-login to campus computer facilities, auto-charging for services such as cafeteria and photocopying.

Prerequisites: ICS 202, COE 306, COE 344, and COE 444 or COE 405 or COE 424

Outcome: A complete system with at least one provided service.

Requirements:

• Automatic recognition of faculty, staff and students.
• Customizable service levels.
• Protected users’ privacy and data security.
• Non-invasive solution, i.e. does not require users to wear anything!

Advisor:	Dr. Muhammad Elrabaa	No. of students:	3
Status:	Available

---

Solar Mirror Control

Design of a servo-controller for a self-cleaning solar mirror. It includes controlling (1) two actuators for steering the mirror, (2) two actuators of a cleaning arm for moving the head over a predefined trajectory, and (3) on/off valves for a jet of air and a jet of water. The project involves programming of a few sets of operation scenarios for 2 dofs steering, 2 dofs scanning, and 2 dofs cleaning. Testing and validation is needed to evaluate the design.

Prerequisites: COE 306

Outcome: A prototype embedded system for self-cleaning solar arrays.

Requirements:

• Driving two motors and sensing their actual angles. It implements an angular steering function (servo function) in which user provides a desired angle. The system generates motor driving control, which causes the motor to steer to the desired angle.

• Interface with another set of two motors (arm), where the user assigns a trajectory of angular positions to the two motors. The above system generates motor driving control which causes the motors to follow up the assigned trajectory with some controlled accuracy.

• Interface with a set of two valves (air jet and water jet) which are controlled by user setting of their state as open or close.

Advisor:	Dr. Mayez Al-Mouhamed	No. of students:	4
Status:	Available

---

Sensing Robot

Sensor network on robotic systems to access harsh areas and collect measurement data. Parts are available. This is a real life requirement from an industrial partner.

Prerequisites: Dedicated Students

Outcome: Sensing Robot.

Requirements:

Consult project advisor.

Advisor:	Dr. Basem Almadani	No. of students:	2
Status:	Available

---

Hack-Proof Mechanism for BMW Keyless Entry

The project is based on a novel idea for protecting chip-based keys of modern cars from cloning. The algorithm is available. The project involves implementing the algorithm and testing that a playback attack by a hacker does not go through.

Prerequisites: Embedded system development

Outcome: Testbench of data.

Requirements:

• A testing criteria for hack-proof techniques.
• RFID Interface.

Advisor:	Dr. Wasim Raad	No. of students:	2
Status:	Available

---

Garage Door Opener based on Image Processing

Design and implementation of a garage door opener. Unlike a traditional garage opener that uses a remote control, the system analyzes images of approaching cars and opens the door when a recognized car plate is identified.

Prerequisites: Programming, math

Outcome: A working protoype of the system.

Requirements:

• Accurate identification of car plates (low false positives).
• Resist fake attempts to open the door, e.g. using a picture of a legitimate car plate.
• Implemented with open source hardware and software.

Advisor:	Dr. Ahmad Almulhem	No. of students:	2
Status:	Available

---

Electronic Part Tracker

A system for tracking electronic parts of the COE department, and managing part borrowing. It should allow its users to check the availability of a given part and to borrow it. A part is available if the department has it and it is not checked out (borrowed).

Prerequisites: ICS 324 (Database Systems)

Outcome: An operational system with sample data of some parts showcasing available and borrowed parts, and how to borrow and return parts.

Requirements:

• Add new parts and their quantities. Similar but non-identical parts should be distinguishable. Include part photos.
• Flexible categorization of parts.
• Allow authorized users to request to borrow parts. Requests are approved by the part owner (has the part physically).
• Track individual parts to show whether a part is available or borrowed.
• Filter parts by category, borrower, availability, … etc.
• Configurable privileges. Examples (can be changed by the admin):
  • Only faculty members can check out parts. Students need a faculty member to borrow parts on their behalf.
  • Only a system admin can change the categories.
• Deployment of the system in a way accessible to all intended users.

Advisor:	Dr. Ahmad Khayyat	No. of students:	2–3
Status:	Available

---

FPGA-Based Design and Implementation of a Controller for a Dual-Axis SunTracking System

Solar energy is believed to be the most promising source among all renewable energy sources available. It is free, secure, pollution-free, available all over the world, and will last forever. This energy is harvested through the use of solar panels made up of interconnected photovoltaic (PV) cells. These panels capture the solar energy from the sun and convert it into direct current electricity. There are several factors that affect the efficiency (percentage of sun’s energy striking the PV cell that is converted into electricity) of the solar panel. The two major ones are: (1) the PV cell efficiency and, (2) the intensity of sun rays received on the surface of the panel which is function of the sun’s position in the sky. Although there is a continuous technological improvement in the PV materials to enhance PV cell efficiency, current technology delivers PV cells with an efficiency level ranging from 10 to 20%). Therefore, to enhance the efficiency of solar panels in order to lower the cost of the KWh, we need to rely on the dimensions of the panels and/or the radiation intensity. Increasing the surface area of the solar panels is not a viable solution. It increases investments cost and requires more ground surface. A more feasible and economical solution however, is to maximize power extraction from the panel by operating the cell arrays at their full potential. This can be achieved by continuously exposing the surface of the panel at a right angle to the sun’s rays. This strategy can be accomplished by a sun tracker, a device onto which a solar panel is fitted to track the movement of the sun across the sky. In this project, students will explore the design and implementation of an FPGA-based sensor-driven intelligent controller applied to a dual-axis sun tracking system. The real-time controller determines when and how much to tune the driving motors to minimize the misalignment of the solar panel with the sun’s incident rays in order to maximize power extraction from the panel. The system needs to be design taking into account execution speed and design complexity.

Prerequisites: COE 405

Outcome: A working and efficient sun tracking system.

Requirements:

• Literature survey of existing solutions
• Evaluation of different solution options and adopting an approach
• Design and implementation of the system
• Testing correct functionality of the system and determining performance measures

Advisor:	Dr. Aiman El-Maleh	No. of students:	2
Status:	Available

---

Design and Implementation of a Client-Server Research Firewall

Design and implement a client-server research firewall application to study malware behavior and user responses to firewall warnings. The firewall should record malware and benign processes’ behavior. It should also record users’ responses to different firewall warnings and correlate them to what the user was doing when responded to the warning.

Prerequisites: Good programming skills.

Outcome: A running client-server firewall application in which client-firewalls collect data and behave according to rules specified by a server-firewall application.

Requirements:

The project is comprised of the following phases:

PHASE 1 (Client side application):

• Detect any incoming and outgoing traffic.
• Associate traffic with its process (application).
• Group traffic based on it process and/or conversations.

PHASE 2 (Client side application):

• Can produce false warning based on given criteria.
• Record user’s responses to firewall warnings.
• Record applications’ traffic behavior.
• Ability to block traffic *. (not very important now)

PHASE 3 (Server side application):

• Assigned an ID to every client-firewall.
• Time sync all client-firewalls.
• Updates warning messages and criteria.
• Receive statistics from all client-firewalls.
• Participants’ reward mechanism.
• Exit survey updates

Advisor:	Dr. Muhammad Mahmoud	No. of students:	2
Status:	Available

---

Color Detection for the Visually Impaired People

Visually impaired people can experience colors through biofeedback such as voltage signals, vibration, auditory pitches, pinboards, and reading pins. Color detectors can allow for the visually impaired to identify clothing articles, color walls, or simply appreciate art.

The group is expected to produce a wearable device with a wrist strap. Different types of sensors will be used.

This project will be supervised by Dr. Yahya Osais and Dr. Jihad Alsadah (owner of the idea).

Prerequisites: Senior standing.

Outcome: Working wearable device.

Requirements:

Consult project advisor.

Advisor:	Dr. Yahya Osais	No. of students:	2
Status:	Available