UNH ECE faculty and students perform research in the following areas:
Computer communications
Several ECE faculty and a large number of ECE graduate students perform computer communications research at the UNH InterOperability Lab (IOL). This laboratory has a working relationship with over 100 networking hardware and software vendors organized in various consortia. These consortia provide an unparalleled environment where members of our department can interact with industry and work on the latest computer communications technologies. The IOL currently employs over 50 ECE undergraduate and graduate students.
Embedded computing
Embedded computing research is concentrated in the Consolidated Advanced Technologies Lab (CATlab). CATlab is a collaborative research and development effort between UNH and the NH Department of Safety and is supported by the U.S. Department of Justice. The research effort is aimed at integrating embedded mobile computing equipment and wireless networking into NH State Police Cruisers. The system will use voice technology, as well as integration with car-based electronics systems to offer advanced support for NH State Troopers.
The New England Academic Center for Emergency Preparedness and Response is a regionally based, national resource advancing theory, technology and human learning for homeland defense through innovative education. The Center has a specific emphasis on the development of the thinking, reasoning, and decision-making skills individuals require to respond skillfully and proficiently. The Center focuses on research, development, testing, and deployment of preventive, response, and recovery systems.
The ECE Department at UNH is working in conjunction with Mitretek Center for Criminal Justice Technology (CCJT) in the development and pilot testing of a interoperability test bed to explore aspects of implementing the reading and validation of biometrically encoded drivers licenses. The goal of this project is to develop a proof-of-concept test bed capable of exploring methods of implementation for a targeted handheld or fix-mount device suitable for law enforcement officer field use, either in a stand alone fashion or in conjunction with an officer's existing Mobile Data Terminal (MDT).
The Mitretek Center for Criminal Justice Technology is conducting a study in collaboration with the ECE Department at UNH and state and local law enforcement agencies to assess how wireless portable communications between various agencies and their personnel can be implemented to support inter agency cooperative efforts when emergency situations exist. The Un-tethered Office Project focuses on the wireless communications technologies, such as CapWIN, that will allow a responding officer to leave his or her patrol vehicle and continue to capture real-time voice, video, and sensor information in the normal course of assessing an incident, managing the incident, performing investigations, and assisting people.
Digital signal processing (DSP)
Digital signal processing is part of several research efforts at the ECE department. The longest running research effort in DSP in our department is the processing of radar data about meteor winds. The purpose of this effort is the monitoring of neutral winds in the mesosphere-lower thermosphere. The meteor radar has the capability to measure winds in the 80 to 110 km height region with time scales from 15 minutes to days and months.
ECE faculty are also involved in work with real-time synthetic vision systems. In a new effort several faculty members are working on combining their expertise to build learning robotic systems equipped with synthetic vision.
As part of the CATlab program ECE faculty work on speech processing. The effort is aimed at improving speech recognition performance in the car environment.
Robotics and vibration control
The research emphasis of the Robotics and Vibration Control Laboratory is the application of fast associative memories and other neural network learning techniques (such as CMAC neural networks) to problems in control, pattern recognition, and signal processing. The emphasis is on designing hardware and software systems that improve their own performance through learning and practice.
Critical Infrastructure Dependability Lab (CIDLAB)
The mission of the Critical
Infrastructure Dependability Laboratory is to focus on tools and processes
for the high-level design of FPGA and other reconfigurable systems. Both
undergraduate and graduate student teams sharpen real-world skills in:
developing specifications; integrating off-the-shelf Intellectual Property (IP)
blocks; creating new IP; developing project management tools; participating in
distance learning programs; developing simulation and design verification
methodologies.
Satellite instrumentation
The UNH Space Science Center (SSC) is part of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space (EOS) at UNH. At the SSC interdisciplinary groups of faculty and students work on small satellite instrumentation to be used in space research. One of the projects at SSC is CATSAT, in which student-engineering teams will design, build, and operate a scientific satellite mission. Currently several ECE faculty and students are part of the CATSAT effort.
Biomedical instrumentation
Research in biomedical instrumentation is performed in the Human Factors Research and Development Laboratory. The lab concentrates on research and development projects in the areas of noninvasive instrumentation for the detection of carpal tunnel syndrome and other upper body musculoskeletal diseases,
development of interoperability standards for
medical devices, noninvasive detection methods for workplace disorders, electro surgery, rehabilitation engineering, apnea prediction, and the determination of BPH.
