ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
Proposals
2015 / 2016
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
1
Image Processing Techniques for Lung Lesion / Nodule
Detection in Chest CT Scans
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ing. Carl James Debono, carl.debono@um.edu.mt
Co-supervisor (if any):
Dr Paul Bezzina, paul.bezzina@um.edu.mt
Dr Francis Zarb, francis.zarb@um.edu.mt
Problem Background
Medical image analysis provides a tool for diagnostics of organs inside
and outside of the body. Image processing allows for the isolation of the
organ of interest from the rest of the body parts in the image and then
search for any abnormalities. The aim of this project is to detect lesions /
nodules in lungs.
•
Project Objective(s):
•
•
Project Resources
•
•
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
No
Apply image processing techniques on CT scans to detect the
lung structure and the presence of any lesions / nodules
Develop a curve fitting algorithm to enclose the lesions / nodules
detected
Evaluate the accuracy of the method through expert analysis of
results
Budget: €__0___
CT scans will be available from Malta’s General Hospital
OpenCV or Maltab
Publications
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
Software developed
Experimental results
Analysis and comparison of results
Student background /
interest:
•
•
Programming
Image processing
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
■ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
Project will analyse patient medical data
■ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
The CT scans will come from patients at Malta’s General Hospital
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
2
Wireless Transmission of Ultrasound Video using HEVC
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ing. Carl James Debono, carl.debono@um.edu.mt
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Transmission of medical video is more stringent than other content
because the received video must be of high quality to allow medical
practitioners to perform diagnostics. More robust video coding techniques
can be applied to protect regions of medical interests better than other
areas. Furthermore, HEVC provides higher compression ratios and thus
the performance under error conditions needs to be investigated.
•
•
•
Project Objective(s):
Project Resources
•
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
No
Implement region of interest coding for medical video
Evaluate the performance under different packet error rates
Suggest methods to improve the quality of experience
Budget: €__0___
Visual Studio .NET, Matlab
Publications
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
Software developed
Experimental results
Analysis and comparison of results
Student background /
interest:
•
•
Programming
Multimedia Communications
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
3
A Study on Compression of Light-Field Imaging
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ing. Carl James Debono, carl.debono@um.edu.mt
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
The JPEG committee has launched a new activity called JPEG PLENO.
The target of this activity is to eventually provide a standard framework
that allows the representation and exchange of new image modalities.
One of these new modalities is light-field imaging. This study will review
available techniques, benchmark them, and propose possible solutions.
•
•
•
Project Objective(s):
Project Resources
•
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
No
Review the literature
Benchmark the techniques used and implement one solution
Propose possible solutions for new frameworks
Budget: €__0___
Matlab, OpenCV
Publications
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
Review of available techniques
Software and results of one technique
Proposal for future work
Student background /
interest:
•
•
•
Programming
Multimedia Communications
Image processing and coding
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
4
Video Broadcasting in Vehicular Networks
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ing. Carl James Debono, carl.debono@um.edu.mt
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
New vehicles are equipped with on-board computers and can also have
wireless access. The IEEE 802.11p standard defines the lower network
layers for vehicle communications. Visual communications can provide
important information for the driver while it can be of entertainment to
passenger in the vehicle. However, video data generates huge amounts
of data that needs adequate routing to meet playback deadlines. Multihop and cluster-based methods will be studied as possible routing
solutions.
•
•
Project Objective(s):
•
Project Resources
•
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
No
Develop a model of the network
Design and implement the multi-hop and cluster-based routing
algorithms
Analyze the performance
Budget: €__0___
SUMO and (OMNET++ or NS-3)
Publications
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
Software developed
Experimental results
Analysis and comparison of results
Student background /
interest:
•
•
Programming
Telecommunication networks
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
5
Home Monitoring System
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ing. Edward Gatt edward.gatt@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
The popularity of home automation has been increasing greatly in recent
years due to much higher affordability and simplicity through smartphone
and tablet connectivity. The concept of the "Internet of Things" has tied in
closely with the popularization of home automation.
A home automation system integrates electrical devices in a house with
each other. The techniques employed in home automation include those
in building automation as well as the control of domestic activities.
Devices may be connected through a home network to allow control by a
personal computer, and may allow remote access from the internet.
Through the integration of information technologies with the home
environment, systems and appliances can communicate in an integrated
manner which results in convenience, energy efficiency, and safety
benefits
Project Objective(s):
The project aims at producing an FPGA module which can allow
monitoring of different environmental properties.
Project Resources
•
Budget: € 400
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
FPGA interfacing to sensors
Student background /
interest:
VHDL/Electronics
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
6
Body Monitoring System
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ing. Edward Gatt edward.gatt@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Recent technological advances in sensors, low-power microelectronics
and miniaturization, and wireless networking enabled the design and
proliferation of wireless sensor networks capable of autonomously
monitoring and controlling environments. One of the most promising
applications of sensor networks is for human health monitoring. A number
of tiny sensors, strategically placed on the human body, create a body
area network that can monitor various vital signs, providing real-time
feedback to the user and medical personnel.
Project Objective(s):
The project aims at producing an FPGA module which can allow
monitoring of different human vital signals.
Project Resources
•
Budget: € 600
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
FPGA interfacing to sensors
Student background /
interest:
VHDL/Electronics
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
■ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
7
Design of an Intelligent Multimeter
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ing. Edward Gatt edward.gatt@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
A multimeter is used to make various electrical measurements, such as
AC and DC voltage, AC and DC current, and resistance. It is called a
multimeter because it combines the functions of a voltmeter, ammeter,
and ohmmeter. Multimeters may also have other functions, such as diode
and continuity tests. T
Project Objective(s):
The project aims at producing an FPGA module which can allow
monitoring of different electrical signals with automatic scaling and
ranging facilities.
Project Resources
•
Budget: € 400
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
FPGA interfacing to sensors
Student background /
interest:
VHDL/Electronics
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
8
Learning Parameters of COSFIRE Object Recognition Model
Supervisor(s):
Dr George Azzopardi george.azzopardi@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
COSFIRE filters are highly effective to detect and recognize objects in
complex scenes. A COSFIRE filter is trainable in that it is configured to
detect an object that a user specifies in a training phase. In its current
form, a COSFIRE filter is configured by analyzing the geometrical
properties of a single training example. While this is very useful in
applications where we only have one training example, it lacks the ability
to generalize when multiple training examples are available.
Project Objective(s):
In this project we will aim to configure COSFIRE filters by learning the
parameters from multiple training examples. We will explore machinelearning techniques such as maximization expectation to determine the
involved parameters. As to the evaluation, we will use an object detection
benchmark
data
set
(e.g.
car
side
view
detection:
http://tinyurl.com/jvpmy48), to compare the enhanced COSFIRE filters
that uses multiple examples for configuration with the basic COSFIRE
filters that use only one training example.
There is a high potential that this project will lead to a publication.
Downloads:
• Research paper on COSFIRE filters: http://tinyurl.com/mdb6gmk
• Matlab code of the current COSFIRE filters:
http://tinyurl.com/n3t5r7g.
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
Literature survey
Develop a learning algorithm to determine the parameters of
COSFIRE filters for the modeling of objects
Evaluation on benchmark data sets; e.g. side-view car detection
Thesis
Student background /
interest:
Interest in machine learning and/or vision systems
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
9
Smart Phone App for Interactive Line Drawing of Natural
Images
Supervisor(s):
Dr. George Azzopardi george.azzopardi@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
The idea is to allow a user converting images taken by a smart phone into
line drawings.
Project Objective(s):
The aim of this project is to improve the efficiency of the existing stateof-the-art CORF algorithm and to implement it as a smartphone app.
Just like the image enhancements functionalities on smartphones we will
add a new app to extract the contours of a given picture. The extraction of
contours may also be performed in an interactive way. For instance, the
user may be allowed to extract the contours only of selected objects, such
as faces. Also the user will be able to add, remove and modify strokes
created by the algorithm.
The student will then evaluate the implemented app by comparing its
improved efficiency with other state of the art contour extraction
algorithms and by analyzing a user satisfaction questionnaire.
Downloads:
• Matlab
code
of
the
contour
detection
algorithm:
http://tinyurl.com/kkkplnd
• Research paper of the CORF algorithm:
http://tinyurl.com/pexz4xh
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
Literature survey
Implementation of an efficient version of the CORF contour
detection algorithm as a smart phone app.
Evaluation on benchmark data sets and user satisfaction survey
Thesis
Student background /
interest:
Interest in vision systems and smart phone applications
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
10
Aggression Detection in Urban Areas Based on Audio
Analysis
Supervisor(s):
Dr George Azzopardi george.azzopardi@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Aggression detection in urban environments is an important application
as it increases the piece of mind of residents. Surveillance cameras are
used to record the visual and audio information of particular place. This
topic has attracted the interest of a large research community
Project Objective(s):
The aim of this project to detect and recognize audio signals, which are
associated with aggression. In particular we will investigate three types of
audio signals, namely gunshots, screams, and breaking of glass. We will
use a benchmark data set of audio signals created by the University of
Salerno with whom I have close collaboration.
For the detection of the mentioned three patterns we will compare at least
two techniques: dynamic time warping and COSFIRE filters.
This work has a high potential of a publication.
Project Resources
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
University of Salerno
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Budget: €__0___
•
•
•
•
Literature survey
Implementation of the detection of screams, gunshots and
breaking of glass patterns in audio signals
Comparison of the dynamic time warping method with COSFIRE
filters
Thesis
Student background /
interest:
Interest in audio analysis is required
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
11
Image Classification using Bag of Visual Words and Novel
COSFIRE Descriptors
Supervisor(s):
Dr George Azzopardi george.azzopardi@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Image classification is used in several computer vision applications,
ranging from scene categorization, movie shot detection, object
recognition, music categorization in genres based on their spectrogram,
among others.
The bag of visual words (BOVW) approach has gained particular
popularity in computer vision especially in image classification tasks. The
main idea is to describe an image as a histogram of keypoint descriptors.
A keypoint descriptor is a set of numerical values that describes the
(geometrical) properties around a point. The SIFT, SURF, and LBP are
among the mostly used descriptors in BOVW.
Project Objective(s):
In this project the student will evaluate a new type of keypoint operators
called COSFIRE (Combination of Shifted Filter Responses). COSFIRE
filters are trainable and they have been found highly effective in various
applications, including traffic sign detection and recognition in complex
scenes, detection of vascular bifurcations in retinal images and
handwritten digit recognition. The student will extend the COSFIRE filters
by generating descriptors and use them within the BOVW model.
The student will use an image classification benchmark data set (such as
scene
categorization,
CALTECH
data
sets,
see:
http://tinyurl.com/kava77p) to compare the performance of BOVW using
the new COSFIRE descriptors with the traditional BOVW that uses SIFT
keypoint detectors.
There is a high potential that this project will lead to a publication.
Downloads:
• Research paper on COSFIRE filters: http://tinyurl.com/mdb6gmk
• Matlab
code
of
the
current
COSFIRE
filters:
http://tinyurl.com/n3t5r7g
Project Resources
Budget: €__0___
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
•
Literature survey
Develop COSFIRE based descriptor
Implementation of bag of words using COSFIRE descriptors
Evaluation on a benchmark data set of image classification
Thesis
Student background /
interest:
Interest in vision systems
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
12
Delineation of Vessels in Retinal Fundus Images
Supervisor(s):
Dr George Azzopardi george.azzopardi@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Retinal images provide a unique opportunity to investigate the health
status of a person in a non-invasive way. Besides eye-related diseases
(e.g. diabetic retinopathy, and age-macular diseases), from such images
medical experts can identify signs of other pathologies such as
atherosclerosis and hypertension.
The delineation of vessels in retinal images is a crucial step in medical
differential analysis. The ability of delineating the vessel tree from the rest
of the image can help medical experts to perform better diagnosis.
This is not a new problem in the literature and several attempts have
been made. Recently, a vessel delineation algorithm, called B-COSFIRE,
has been proposed for the delineation of vessels in retinal images
(Azzopardi et al. 2015). While it is highly effective to detect medium size
vessels, it suffers from insufficient ability to detect thin vessels.
Project Objective(s):
In this project we will use insight from the inhibition mechanism that was
proposed in a contour detection operator (Azzopardi and Petkov 2014),
which achieves high robustness to low signal-to-noise ratio. We expect
that by adding a similar inhibition mechanism to the B-COSFIRE
algorithm, we will be able to improve the performance especially on
detecting thin vessels.
There is high potential that this project will lead to a publication.
Downloads:
• Matlab code of the B-COSFIRE algorithm:
http://tinyurl.com/pfxcxl5
• Matlab code of the contour detection algorithm:
http://tinyurl.com/kkkplnd
• Research paper of the B-COSFIRE algorithm:
http://tinyurl.com/l43z7oy
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
•
Literature survey
Develop an inhibition mechanism to B-COSFIRE filters
Implementation of retinal segmentation using the developed BCOSFIRE filters with inhibition
Evaluation on benchmark data sets of retinal images
Thesis
Student background /
interest:
Interest in vision systems and/or medical image analysis
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
13
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
Design of a Multistage Noise Shaping (MASH) Converter using
the 0.18 µm CMOS Process
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ivan Grech ivan.grech@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
ADCs are an important element for most systems in order to interface the
analogue sensors to the digital processing section. Noise-shaping
converters are widely used since they rely on low-precision components
and can still achieve high resolution. The multistage approach achieves
st
nd
high order noise filtering using only 1 and 2 order closed loop
modulators, eliminating problems with stability.
Project Objective(s):
The scope of this project is to design a 1-1-1 or a 2-1 noise shaping
converter using the 0.18 µm AMS CMOS process.
Project Resources
•
Cadence with AMS 0.18µm hit kit (available).
Industrial Partners
involved:
•
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
Literature review on MASH conveters
Design of ADC building blocks and simulation results
Student background /
Interest:
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
•
Analogue circuit design
Please tick if any of the following apply
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
14
Design of MEMS-Based Resonators
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ivan Grech ivan.grech@um.edu.mt
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
MEMS resonators offer high quality (narrow band) response and also
compatibility with CMOS processes. Furthermore, by appropriate choice
of the resonant modes and electrode placement, it is possible to achieve
balanced/unbalanced port termination, which greatly opens the
application field of such resonators.
Project Objective(s):
•
•
•
•
•
Choice of appropriate drive/sense transduction mechanism (piezo /
electrostatic)
Design of basic resonator structures (1 or 2 port) including Q-factor
characterization
Analysis of unbalanced/balanced port topologies
Analysis of resonators for impedance transformation
Analysis of the possibility of fine tuning using appropriate DC bias
Project Resources
•
Coventor or ANSYS FEM software (available)
Industrial Partners
involved:
•
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Literature review on MEMS resonators
Design and simulation of simple 1 or 2 –port resonators
Design and simulation of balanced/unbalanced port resonators
Design and simulation of resonators intended for impedance
transformation
Analysis of the possibility of fine tuning via DC bias
Student background /
Interest:
•
•
Analogue circuit design
MEMS design
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
15
Auditory Processing Modelling using FPGAs (continuation)
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ivan Grech ivan.grech@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
The inner ear structure, referred to as the cochlea performs important
spectral analysis of the incoming audio signal whose output is further
processed by the auditory pathway and the brain in order to performs
tasks such as speech recognition and sound localization. Traditionally,
silicon models of the cochlea were designed using analogue hardware.
However, today’s FPGAs can compete in speed with analogue systems,
with the added advantage of higher precision and flexibility, making FPGA
implementation of cochlea models an attractive solution. A digital model
of the inner ear has already been developed in a previous FYPs. The
scope of this project is to add further processing capability as well as post
auditory signal processing for pitch and localization cues extraction.
Project Objective(s):
The objective of this project is to model auditory processing which takes
place in the auditory nerve using FPGA hardware. Such processing
includes, auto-correlation, cross correlation and peak detection in order to
extract pitch information and localization cues Automatic gain control in
the inner ear will also be modeled. The digital system should extract
monaural and binaural cues which can be used for sound source
localisation.
Project Resources
•
•
•
•
Xilinx ISE Foundation Series
MATLAB
ModelSim
FPGA Evaluation board
Industrial Partners
involved:
•
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
Student background /
interest:
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
•
•
•
Literature review of cochlea and post-cochlea processing with
emphasis on digital implementations
Design of the HDL code for the cochlea and auditory pathway
modeling
Simulation Results.
VHDL/ FPGA programming
Familiarity with Xilinx ISE Foundation Series / Modelsim
Please tick if any of the following apply
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
16
Implementation of a Customisable Decimation Filter for SigmaDelta Converters using VHDL
Supervisor(s):
Prof. Ivan Grech ivan.grech@um.edu.mt ;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Sigma-delta ADCs are used in applications requiring high resolution and
relatively low sampling rates. The analogue front-end of sigma-delta
ADCs (called a sigma-delta modulator), produces a
1-bit, high
oversampled bit stream that needs to be processed into a low frequency
high resolution output. In this process, there is a compromise between
output data rate and resolution.
Project Objective(s):
The objective of this project is to design customisable VHDL code which
will implement the decimation filter. The decimation rate (and output
resolution) should be user-programmable. The code should also be easily
adaptable to different converter topologies. Test sequences for the
designed VHDL code can be generated using a Simulink Model for the
sigma-delta modulator front-end.
Project Resources
•
•
•
•
Xilinx ISE Foundation Series
MATLAB
ModelSim
FPGA Evaluation board
Industrial Partners
involved:
•
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Literature review on decimation filters for sigma-delta modulators
Design of the HDL code for the decimation filer
Simulation Results.
Integration with simulink model for sigma-delta modulator
VHDL/ FPGA programming
Familiarity with Xilinx ISE Foundation Series / Modelsim
Student background /
interest:
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
17
A LLVM Bitcode Interpreter for Microcontrollers
Supervisor(s):
Dr Joshua Ellul joshua.ellul@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Over the past decade LLVM [3] has been gaining more traction and
adoption by both academia and the industry alike. LLVM provides a
compiler infrastruc- ture and intermediate representation (IR) that allows
different source languages (e.g. C and Java) to be compiled for different
architectures. LLVM uses its IR as the target of the first ’Frontend’
compilation pass. A final ’Backend’ compilation pass is performed on IR
to produce the native code for the target architecture (e.g. x86, ARM, etc).
IR is often smaller than native code. In resource constrained
microcontrollers having tens of kilobytes of program space and around
ten kilobytes of memory, space is of prime importance.
In this project we will investigate techniques to interpret LLVM IR code on
resource constrained 16-bit microcontrollers in an efficient manner. We
will aim to specifically implement an interpreter for Atmel AVR 8-Bit
microcontrollers, how- ever will also focus on facilitating other resource
constrained microcontrollers. In doing so we will investigate intermediate
representation design [1], garbage collection and memory management
[2] techniques.
References:
[1] Faisal Aslam, Luminous Fennell, Christian Schindelhauer, Peter
Thiemann, Gidon Ernst, Elmar Haussmann, Stefan Ru ̈hrup, and Zastash
A Uzmi. Op- timized java binary and virtual machine for tiny motes. In
Distributed Com- puting in Sensor Systems, pages 15–30. Springer,
2010.
[2] Niels Brouwers, Koen Langendoen, and Peter Corke. Darjeeling, a
feature- rich vm for the resource poor. In Proceedings of the 7th ACM
Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems, pages 169–182.
ACM, 2009.
[3] Chris Lattner and Vikram Adve. Llvm: A compilation framework for
lifelong program analysis & transformation. In Code Generation and
Optimization, 2004. CGO 2004. International Symposium on, pages 75–
86. IEEE, 2004.
Project Objective(s):
Implement an LLVM Bitcode Interpreter for Atmel AVR microcontrollers
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
N/A resources in hand
Industrial Partners
involved:
N/A
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Interpreter for LLVM Bitcode for Atmel AVR microcontrollers
Student background /
interest:
C, Assembly
Ethical and Data
Please tick if any of the following apply.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
18
Protection Issues
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
19
Multi-core Thread Scheduling
Supervisor(s):
Dr Kevin Vella kevin.vella@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
Mr Keith Bugeja, Mr Sandro Spina
Problem Background
This project concerns the efficient scheduling light-weight threads on
contemporary multi-core processors. The principal aim is to minimise
overheads and maximise the utilisation of computational resources. A
number of alternative designs for thread schedulers will be proposed and
implemented, and their relative merits and shortcomings compared and
contrasted through empirical measurement. Issues to be considered
include the impact of alternative scheduling queue arrangements,
contention on shared scheduler data structures, effective utilisation of the
cache hierarchy, automatic thread migration across cores and integration
with the operating system.
•
•
Project Objective(s):
•
•
•
Project Resources
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
N/A
Implement a uniprocessor thread scheduler
Implement a multiprocessor thread scheduler with per-core run
queues
Implement a multiprocessor thread scheduler with a shared run
queue
Investigate, propose and implement alternative run queue
arrangements for the multiprocessor thread scheduler
Measure and contrast the relative performance of the above
design alternatives across a variety of work-loads
Budget: €__0___
A multi-core PC
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
Literature review on thread scheduling
Working implementations of various thread schedulers
Empirical results that characterise the relative performance of the
alternative designs, and a thorough analysis
Student background /
interest:
•
•
•
•
Concurrent programming
Operating systems and systems programming (preferably Linux)
Contemporary computer architecture
C and assembly language
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
20
EEG Analysis and Epileptic Seizure Detection
Supervisor(s):
Dr Lalit Garg lalit.garg@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Epilepsy is a serious neurological disease that has an adverse socioeconomic impact on a substantial segment of the world population. A
number of studies have been carried out in the past to explore the
feasibility of a practical real-time seizure detector for effective
management and mitigation of this disease [1]. With this goal in sight we
have already developed/ proposed some novel methods using machine
learning techniques such as singular vector machine (SVM) and extreme
learning machine (ELM) [2-3] for seizure detection using an exhaustive
scalp EEG data collected from pediatric patients. [2]. In this final year
project (FYP), we will extend our work to develop novel machine learning
approaches for seizure detection. Empirical datasets would be used to
assess these novel approaches against existing approaches.
1. Ali H. Shoeb, John V. Guttag: Application of Machine Learning To
Epileptic Seizure Detection. ICML 2010: 975-982.
2. Huang, G. B., Wang, D. H., & Lan, Y. (2011). Extreme learning
machines: a survey. International Journal of Machine Learning and
Cybernetics, 2(2), 107-122.
3. Huang, G. B., Zhu, Q. Y., & Siew, C. K. (2006). Extreme learning
machine: theory and applications. Neurocomputing, 70(1), 489-501.
4. Agrawal A, Garg L, Dauwels J (2013) Application of empirical mode
decomposition algorithm for epileptic seizure detection from scalp
EEG, The 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC’13) Osaka,
Japan, 3-7 July 2013.
Project Objective(s):
1. Review of literature on EEG analysis methods, epileptic seizure and
methods for epileptic seizure detection.
2. Understand popular approaches for EEG analysis and epileptic
seizure detection.
3. Understanding of advanced signal processing and machine learning
methods for EEG analysis and epileptic seizure detection.
4. Problem analysis and design.
5. Acquiring exhaustive scalp EEG data of seizure patients.
6. Rigorous testing and comparison of existing epileptic seizure
detection methods.
7. Developing novel approaches for epileptic seizure detection by
analyzing EEG data.
8. Implementing these techniques using real datasets using Matlab/
C/ C++.
9. Evaluating these approaches using real datasets.
10. Report writing
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
A computing device (PC or Laptop), Internet Access, Matlab, C/C++, UM
Library access, Access to high quality literature resources.
Industrial Partners
None
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
21
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
•
Literature review on EEG analysis methods, epileptic seizure and
methods for epileptic seizure detection.
A fully properly tested working prototype implementation of
approaches for epileptic seizure detection by analyzing EEG data.
Critical evaluation of these approaches
Results, analysis and conclusion
The project Report
Student background /
interest:
Knowledge of basic signal processing methods, Good programming skills
in a language of your choice. strong analytical and problem solving skills
and fast learning abilities, reliable, responsible, hardworking, enthusiasm
and determination to learn and acquire new skills.
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
■ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
22
Hospital Admission Pattern Analysis, Bed Resource
Requirements Forecasting, Allocation and Management
Supervisor(s):
Dr Lalit Garg lalit.garg@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Healthcare resource planners need to develop policies that ensure
optimal allocation of scarce healthcare resources. This goal can be
achieved by analysing admission patterns to forecast daily resource
requirements to ensure optimum allocation and management of available
resources. If resources are limited, admission should be scheduled
according to the resource availability. Such resource availability or
demand can change with time. We here model admissions and patient
flow through the care system as a discrete time Markov chain. In order to
have a more realistic representation, a non-homogeneous model is
developed which incorporates time-dependent covariates, namely a
patient’s present age and the present calendar year. However, more
sophisticated models are required to better manage changes in
admission patterns and resource requirements. As our previous work, we
have already developed many such sophisticated models for better
modelling admission patterns and resource requirements [1-4]. In this
final year project (FYP), we will extend our work to develop novel
approaches to effectively solve the problem using AI/ML based methods.
1. Garg L, McClean SI, Meenan BJ, Millard PH (2010). A nonhomogeneous discrete time Markov model for admission scheduling
and resource planning in a care system. Health Care Management
Science. 13(2):155–169.
2. Garg L, McClean SI, Meenan BJ, Millard PH (2009). Nonhomogeneous Markov Models for Sequential Pattern Mining of
Healthcare Data. IMA journal Management Mathematics. 20(4): 327344.
3. Garg L, McClean SI, Meenan BJ, Barton M, Fullerton K (2012).
Intelligent patient management and resource planning for complex,
heterogeneous and stochastic healthcare systems. In press. IEEE
Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics--Part A: Systems
and Humans.
4. Garg L, McClean SI, Meenan BJ, Barton M, Fullerton K (2013). An
Extended Mixture Distribution Survival Tree for Patient Pathway
Prognostication. Communications in Statistics: Theory and
Methodology. 42(16):2912-2934.
Project Objective(s):
1. Review of literature on hospital admission pattern analysis, bed
resource requirements forecasting, allocation and management and
hospital waiting lists.
2. Understand approaches for forecasting and scheduling.
3. Understanding of advanced AI and machine learning methods,
including phase type survival tree analysis, survival analysis, Markov
process model, Bayesian Analysis.
4. Problem analysis and design.
5. Pattern analysis and mining of hospital admission data.
6. Developing novel models for characterizing hospital admissions
and its interrelationship with bed resource requirements,
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
23
enhancing/ improving on the existing models.
7. Implementing these models characterizing hospital admissions
and its interrelationship with bed resource requirements using
Matlab/ C/C++.
8. Evaluating the model using a real database from a hospital.
9. Report writing
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
A computing device (PC or Laptop), Internet Access, Matlab, C/C++, UM
Library access, Access to high quality literature resources.
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
•
Literature review on hospital bed occupancy and requirements
forecasting
A fully properly tested working implementation of characterizing
hospital admissions and its interrelationship with bed resource
requirements.
Critical evaluation of the model
Results, analysis and conclusion
A Report
Student background /
interest:
Knowledge of basic probabilistic methods, Good programming skills in a
language of your choice. strong analytical and problem solving skills and
fast learning abilities, reliable, responsible, hardworking, enthusiasm and
determination to learn and acquire new skills.
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
■ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
24
Machine Learning Methods for Handling Missing Data in Medical
Questionnaires
Supervisor(s):
Dr Lalit Garg lalit.garg@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
The proposed project is a part of a University funded project. Self-report
questionnaires are used as an extremely valuable instrument to assess
the quality of life of a patient, its relationship with socioeconomic and
environmental factors, disease risk/ progress, treatment and disease
burden, treatment response and quality of care. However, a common
problem with such questionnaires is missing data. Despite enormous care
and effort to prevent it, some level of missing data is common and
unavoidable. Such missing data can have a detrimental impact on
statistical analyses based on the questionnaire responses. A variety of
methods have been suggested for missing data imputation. Nevertheless,
more research is desperately needed to assess and improve the reliability
of data imputation. We have already developed/ proposed some novel
methods to handle missing data [1-4]. In this final year project (FYP), we
will extend our work to develop novel machine learning procedures
enforcing collaborative filtering to complete missing data in medical
questionnaires. Empirical datasets would be used to assess these novel
methods against existing methods.
1. Garg L, Dauwels J, Earnest A, Pang L (2013) Tensor based methods
for handling missing data in quality-of-life questionnaires. IEEE
Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics. In press. doi:
10.1109/JBHI.2013.2288803.
2. Asif MT, Srinivasan K, Garg L, Dauwels J, Jaillet P (2013) Lowdimensional Models for Missing Data Imputation in Road Networks,
ICASSP 2013, May 26 - 31, 2013.
3. Dauwels J, Garg L, Earnest A, Pang LK (2012). Tensor Factorizations
for Missing Data Imputation in Medical Questionnaires, The 37th
International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal
Processing (ICASSP), Kyoto, Japan, March 25 - 30, 2012.
4. Dauwels J, Garg L, Earnest A, Pang LK (2011). Handling Missing
Data in Medical Questionnaires Using Tensor Decompositions. The
Eighth International Conference on Information, Communications, and
Signal Processing (ICICS 2011). Singapore 13-16 December, 2011.
Project Objective(s):
1. Review of literature on missing data imputation, types of missingness
in data, missing data in medical questionnaires and novel machine
learning methods for collaborative filtering.
2. Understand approaches for missing data imputation.
3. Understanding of advanced probabilistic, mathematical and machine
learning methods, including Singular vector decomposition, extreme
learning machine, tensor decomposition methods.
4. Problem analysis and design.
5. Acquiring real data and simulating data with different
proportions, patterns and types of missingness.
6. Rigorous testing and comparison of existing missing data
techniques for application to medical questionnaires
7. Developing novel missing data techniques, specifically designed
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
25
for repeated medical questionnaires.
8. Implementing these techniques using real and simulated
datasets using Matlab/ R/ C/ C++.
9. Evaluating these techniques using real and simulated datasets.
10. Report writing
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
A computing device (PC or Laptop), Internet Access, Matlab, C/C++, UM
Library access, Access to high quality literature resources.
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
•
Literature review on missing data handling in survey questionnaires
and missing data imputation techniques.
A fully properly tested working implementation of tools for missing
data handling in medical questionnaires.
Critical evaluation of the model
Results, analysis and conclusion
The project Report
Student background /
interest:
Knowledge of basic AI methods, Good programming skills in a language
of your choice. Strong analytical and problem solving skills and fast
learning abilities, reliable, responsible, hardworking, enthusiasm and
determination to learn and acquire new skills.
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
■ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
26
Design and Implementation of RF Microstrip Filters
Supervisor(s):
Dr Ing. Owen Casha owen.casha@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Project Background:
Radio frequency (RF) filters represent a class of electronic filters,
designed to operate on signals in the megahertz to gigahertz frequency
ranges. Filter designs beyond 1 GHz are difficult to realize with discrete
components because the wavelength becomes comparable with the
physical filter element dimensions, resulting in various losses that
severely degrade the circuit performance. Thus, to arrive at practical
filters, the lumped component filters must be converted into distributed
element realizations. Such filters are commonly used as building blocks
for duplexers and diplexers to combine or separate multiple frequency
bands.
Project Objective(s):
The aim of this project is to design, simulate and implement various RF
microstrip filters such as Stepped-Impedance L-C Ladder Type Lowpass
Filters, Quasilumped Highpass Filters, Stub Bandpass Filters and
Optimum Bandstop Filters.
Project Resources
•
•
•
•
QUCS - Quite Universal Circuit Simulator
SonnetLite - Electromagnetic Simulator
Vector Network Analyzer (VNA)
MATLAB
Industrial Partners
involved:
•
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
Literature review
Modeling and simulation of RF microstrip filters
Implementation of the filter prototypes on a PCB
Testing and Characterization
Student background /
Interest:
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
•
Radio and Microwave Theory
Please tick if any of the following apply
□ The project has data protection issues: N/A.
□ The project has ethical issues: N/A.
□ The project involves human subjects: N/A.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
27
IoT in 4G and Beyond
Supervisor(s):
Dr. Ing. Saviour Zammit, savior.zammit@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
The Internet of Things promises to change current business processes by
connecting all “things” to the Internet. The Internet-connected fridge is a
good example, which can inform its owner when supplies run low or how
efficient it is running, but can also inform the white goods supplier about
the mechanical and electrical health of the fridge itself, to enable
preventive and corrective maintenance. However, the sheer number of
devices to be connected, security issues, M2M communications and low
power applications need careful design and implementation in 4G and
beyond. This project investigates these aspects.
Project Objective(s):
•
•
To perform a literature review on the subject.
To propose and model schemes supporting IoT implementation in 4G
and 5G mobile systems.
Project Resources
•
•
•
•
Budget: None Required
Indicate source of funds: None Required
Literature: UoM Subscription
Software: Matlab
Industrial Partners
involved:
•
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
Literature Review, Physical and Link layer models, Protocol Analysis.
A study of secure M2M communications in 4G and 5G
Documentation - Dissertation (including documented simulation
models and results)
Student background /
interest:
•
•
Interest in Matlab programming and signal processing
Interest in data communications protocols
IP Issues
□ The project has patent possibilities; please specify.
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
1
1
If you tick the box then please consult the UREC webpage http://www.um.edu.mt/urec/gpropform for guidelines to
prepare the necessary documents to accompany your proposal that will be forwarded to FREC to be approved by UREC.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
28
Portable Device for Detecting Electric Fields in Water
Supervisor(s):
Dr. Ing. Saviour Zammit, savior.zammit@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
Dr. Chris Cooke, Coovers Infosec Ltd. (UK)
Problem Background
Swimming pool installations usually employ electric pumps, water
treatment and underwater lighting. In event of fault conditions or poor
engineering practice, electrical hazards can arise.
The problem is the detection of water-borne electric fields, for the
purposes of safety testing and certification of swimming pools.
Hazardous electric fields will be simulated and there will be no actual
exposure to hazardous voltages.
Project Objective(s):
•
Project Resources
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
•
Expected Project
Deliverables:
• HARDWARE - Demonstrator or pre-production prototype (analogue
test harness + microcontroller)
• SOFTWARE - Compiled microcode (plus annotated source code)
• DOCUMENTATION - Dissertation (including appended test results &
software documentation)
Student background /
interest:
•
•
•
To develop a hand portable, battery-operated module, based on a
programmable micro-controller and discrete interface components, to
detect differential alternating electrical potentials and output to a
normalised scale on an LED display with audio alarm.
• Selection of the optimum microcontroller will be an essential preobjective. It is highly desirable to mature the design sufficiently to be
able to build a PCB-based demonstrator / pre-production prototype.
Successful project outcome would be the microcontroller properly
performing against the target functional requirements.
• The project scope includes the design of analogue components,
however this is limited to those necessary for interfacing with and
programming the microcontroller, and for testing purposes.
Budget: €500
Indicate source of funds: Coovers Infosec Ltd is able to reimburse the
cost of components purchased. Coovers Infosec Ltd. requires to own
the IP in return for its financial and technical support.
• Equipment/Software/Literature
Coovers Infosec Ltd. The company will provide a detailed target
technical specification which is available on request. Guidance on
preparation of an analogue test harness can also be provided (this is to
simulate hazardous electric fields without any exposure to hazardous
voltages.)
IP Issues
Interest in Microprogramming
Interest in Microcontrollers and DSP
Interest in analogue electronics
□ The project has patent possibilities; please specify.
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
2
2
If you tick the box then please consult the UREC webpage http://www.um.edu.mt/urec/gpropform for guidelines to
prepare the necessary documents to accompany your proposal that will be forwarded to FREC to be approved by UREC.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
29
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
Smart Metering
Supervisor(s):
Dr. Ing. Saviour Zammit, savior.zammit@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
The remote reading of utility meters can be of significant benefit to utility
companies and their customers. Collecting the remote meter data in a
reliable, timely and cost-effective manner depends on the optimization of
the data communications protocols in use between the smart meters and
the utility’s data collection points. This final year projects sets to analyze
the data communications protocols in use so as to improve the timely and
reliable collection of data.
Project Objective(s):
•
•
•
•
•
To perform a literature review on the subject.
To develop a model of the data communications channel between a
smart meter and the data collection point.
To develop a model of the data communications protocol on top of
the data communications channel.
To predict the behavior of data communications between the smart
meter and the data collection points based on these two models.
To study improvements in the data protocols to increase the
throughput and reliability of the data exchanges between the smart
meters and the data collection points.
Project Resources
•
•
•
•
Budget: None Required
Indicate source of funds: None Required
Literature: UoM Subscription
Software: Matlab
Industrial Partners
involved:
•
Maltese utility company
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
Literature Review, Physical and Link layer models, Protocol Analysis.
A study of performance enhancement techniques.
DOCUMENTATION - Dissertation (including documented simulation
models and results)
Student background /
interest:
•
•
Interest in Matlab programming and signal processing
Interest in data communications protocols
IP Issues
□ The project has patent possibilities; please specify.
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
3
3
If you tick the box then please consult the UREC webpage http://www.um.edu.mt/urec/gpropform for guidelines to
prepare the necessary documents to accompany your proposal that will be forwarded to FREC to be approved by UREC.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
30
Configurable Soft Microprocessor on FPGA
Supervisor(s):
Dr Ing. Trevor Spiteri, trevor.spiteri@um.edu.mt
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Soft microprocessors can be implemented completely using logic
synthesis. Such soft cores can be implemented on FPGAs.
In this project, a simple microprocessor with a number of configurable
features be designed. For example, the word size and the address bus
width can be configurable. Also, some features and their corresponding
instructions can be enabled or disabled. For example, a multiplier with a
multiplication instruction can be implemented and enabled or disabled
during configuration.
As a starting point, a VHDL implementation of a very basic
microprocessor with a minimalist instruction set is provided.
Project Objective(s):
The aim is to start with a simple microprocessor with a minimalist
instruction set, and then add some more specialized instructions, or
change the basic features such as word size and address bus width.
These features will be configurable, and a GUI application is to be
designed to configure the microprocessor before synthesis.
Project Resources
•
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
None
Budget: €__0___
FPGA development board (available in labs)
Xilinx ISE WebPACK design software
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
VHDL code
GUI application to configure the microprocessor
Testing
Performance analysis
Student background /
interest:
•
•
Hardware design using VHDL
Simple GUI programming (Java, C#, Visual Basic, or any other
language is suitable)
Microprocessors
•
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
31
Fast Block-Matching Motion Estimation Search on FPGA
Supervisor(s):
Dr Ing. Trevor Spiteri, trevor.spiteri@um.edu.mt
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Most of the processing time in video compression algorithms is taken by
the motion estimation search, making the motion estimation search a
suitable target for optimization and acceleration.
A macroblock is a block of pixels. A motion estimation search for a
macroblock involves searching for a similar macroblock in a reference
video frame. The displacement of this matching macroblock in the
reference frame from the original macroblock is called a motion vector, as
it represents the motion of the block from one frame to another.
Unlike exhaustive searches, where all the possible macroblocks in a
particular window are compared to the macroblock, fast searches involve
matching only macroblocks at specific relative locations, and iterating a
few times. This greatly reduces the amount of matches to compute.
Project Objective(s):
The aim is to develop a fast block-matching motion estimation search on
FPGA that can be used to accelerate a video coding application. If there
is enough time, different block-matching techniques can be developed
and compared.
Project Resources
•
•
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
None
Budget: €__0___
FPGA development board (available in labs)
Xilinx ISE WebPACK design software
Test video sequences
Expected Project
Deliverables:
•
•
•
•
VHDL code
Simulation results
Testing
Performance analysis
Student background /
interest:
•
•
Image processing
Hardware design using VHDL
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
32
Text Detection and Localisation in Video
Supervisor(s):
Prof Ing Victor Buttigieg victor.buttigieg@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Indexing video using semantic information is in general not an easy task.
However, one way how this can be facilitated is by making use of any text
embedded in the video. For example news video sources normally
caption each news item using a corresponding headline. This can be
used to segment the news video into different stories and the headline
text to give an indication of what the news story is about.
Project Objective(s):
To detect artificial text in video and to localise its position. An OCR
engine is then used to recognise this text. The extracted text is then used
to suitably index the video.
Project Resources
•
•
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Software (and relative documentation) implementing text detection and
localisation algorithms.
Student background /
interest:
Signal/Image processing, Programming in C# (very similar to Java/C++)
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
Budget: €0
1 PC running Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Visual Studio (freely available to ICT students)
Video Indexer Platform (Locally developed software that facilitates the
processing of videos – freely available)
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
33
Efficient Implementation of Sequence Matching
Supervisor(s):
Prof Ing Victor Buttigieg victor.buttigieg@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
There are several application areas (e.g. bioinformatics, error-correcting
codes, information retrieval) where we need to compare two long
sequences and to measure their similarity. Sequences may differ in
symbol substitutions, insertion of extra symbols, deletion of symbols, or
possibly transposition of adjacent symbols.
Project Objective(s):
The project’s objectives are to research algorithms to compare long
sequences and to implement in software one (or more) such algorithm in
an efficient way. Parallel implementations may also be investigated
(using CUDA or other parallel architectures).
Project Resources
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Implemented algorithm that measures the similarity between sequences.
Student background /
interest:
Programming. Optimised algorithm implementation. Parallel processing.
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
Budget: €0
Software and hardware readily available
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
34
Digital Fountain Codes
Supervisor(s):
Prof Ing Victor Buttigieg vitor.buttigieg@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Digital Fountain Codes are a very efficient class of erasure-correcting
codes. Erasures occur when data is lost over a channel, but it is known
to be lost. For example a packet of data is lost over a network. The
biggest advantage of Fountain Codes is that they are rate-less, and extra
redundant bits are only transmitted only if required.
Project Objective(s):
The objective of this project is to familiarise oneself with these codes,
implementing a coder and a decoder for a simple Fountain code and to
analyse its performance over typical network scenarios.
Project Resources
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Implemented codec in software and analysis simulation results.
Student background /
interest:
Programming. Computer networks
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
Budget: €0
Software and hardware readily available
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
35
Sound Localisation
Supervisor(s):
Prof Ing Victor Buttigieg victor.buttigieg@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
In several application areas it is required to automatically determine the
location of a sound source. One possible application is to separate the
sound from two different speakers located in different locations in a room.
Project Objective(s):
The objective of this project is to research different techniques that can be
used to localise sound and to implement a simple, effective and cost
efficient solution.
Project Resources
•
•
Industrial Partners
involved:
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
A system (using a computer) that is able to determine the location of the
sound.
Student background /
interest:
Signal Processing, programming
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
Budget: €0
A number of microphones may need to be purchased dependent on
the technique adopted
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
36
Implementation and Comparison of Data Embedding
Algorithms
Supervisor(s):
Dr Johann A. Briffa johann.briffa@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Spatial-domain information hiding in images consists in the modification
of pixel data in order to represent some message sequence. The
resistance of each embedding method to lossy image compression
schemes (such as JPEG) and the detectability of the embedding have a
direct impact on the usability of these schemes. This project is researchoriented, and has potential for publication.
Project Objective(s):
Investigate the relationship between the parameters for the hidden
information (such as message length, embedding strength, etc.) and the
resistance to image compression and detectability
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Student background /
interest:
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
•
•
•
Interest in information hiding.
Some knowledge of digital imaging fundamentals.
Aptitude and willingness to program (the project is likely to use a
selection of languages, including C++ and Python).
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
37
Algorithm Implementation on Highly Parallel Architectures
Supervisor(s):
Dr Johann A. Briffa johann.briffa@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
Problem Background
CUDA is an interface for general-purpose programming on
Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) from NVIDIA. The architecture of
GPUs emphasises
massive parallelism of arithmetic units at the
expense of control units and memory caching. This allows a very high
speed-up for classes of
computationally-intensive data-parallel
problems, often found in scientific computing. This is an implementation
project, with a significant research orientation.
Project Objective(s):
Implement a compute-intensive algorithm on GPUs; suitable algorithms to
be
discussed with supervisor
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Student background /
interest:
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
• Interest in parallel computing.
Aptitude and willingness to program (the project requires the use of
C++ and NVIDIA CUDA; prior OO development experience in another
language is suitable).
•
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
38
High Density 2D Barcodes - Research
Supervisor(s):
Dr Johann A. Briffa johann.briffa@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
Problem Background
A number of standards for 2D barcodes exist, which allow the encoding of
more data (in the same physical space) than conventional 1D barcodes.
Various companies, including Microsoft and HP, have shown interest in
techniques that increase the encoding density – that is, the amount of
data that can be encoded per unit area. Other researchers have also
used techniques from watermarking and steganography to create
barcodes that do not look random. This project is research-oriented, and
has potential for publication.
Project Objective(s):
Investigate existing standards and proposed techniques, comparing
their embedding density and decoding reliability. It is expected that
some of these techniques will need to be implemented and tested.
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
•
Interest in information hiding.
•
Some knowledge of digital imaging fundamentals.
•
Aptitude and willingness to program (the project is likely to use a
selection of languages, including C++ and Python).
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Student background /
interest:
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
39
High Density 2D Barcodes - Implementation
Supervisor(s):
Dr Johann A. Briffa johann.briffa@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
Problem Background
A number of standards for 2D barcodes exist, which allow the encoding of
more data (in the same physical space) than conventional 1D barcodes.
Various companies, including Microsoft and HP, have shown interest in
techniques that increase the encoding density – that is, the amount of
data that can be encoded per unit area. Other researchers have also
used techniques from watermarking and steganography to create
barcodes that do not look random. This project is implementationoriented.
Project Objective(s):
Investigate and compare existing standards and proposed techniques.
Implement a reader for a specific system on an embedded or portable
device (such as a mobile phone).
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
•
Interest in information hiding.
•
Some knowledge of digital imaging fundamentals.
•
Aptitude and willingness to program.
•
Knowledge of Java and Android development would be helpful.
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Student background /
interest:
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
40
Information Hiding using Imperceptible Yellow Printer Dots
Supervisor(s):
Dr Johann A. Briffa johann.briffa@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Since the introduction of high quality colour laser printers, the US
Government has required colour laser printouts to imperceptibly embed
document tracking information. This has been achieved by creating an
imperceptible grid of tiny yellow dots across the page. Yellow dots are
used to take advantage of a weakness in the human visual system that
makes seeing yellow on white difficult. If the dots need to be extracted, a
blue light can be shone on page, resulting in the dots becoming visible,
and thus enabling manual detection. Our previous work has
demonstrated that the same technique can be used to embed arbitrary
data, which can then be automatically extracted after printing and
scanning. This project is challenging, heavily research based and would
aim to produce a publication.
Project Objective(s):
This project will look to continue our previous work in this area. There are
two possible streams that could be looked at.
\begin{enumerate}
Project Resources
•
Optimising the placement of the yellow dots in order to both reduce
errors and increase capacity. This may also involve looking at whether
it is possible to interleave our dots with those printed by the laser
printer itself – currently we print our documents on ink jet printers that
do not print their own yellow dots. This is a more practical based
approach and will involve conducting extensive testing and require
good programming skills to implement any changes.
•
A more theoretical approach would look at optimising the error
correction code currently used. We initially used a naive error
correction code as proof of concept, however, there is substantial
scope for optimisation. This would involve both conducting tests to
evaluate the characteristics of the channel (printing and scanning
documents to determine error rates) as well as constructing a more
optimised error correction code.
•
Budget: €__0___
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Student background /
interest:
•
•
Interest in information hiding
Willingness to program – the current implementation is in Java, so
good Java skills are essential
• For stream 2 a background in mathematics or error coding is desirable
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
41
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
42
Updates to Distributed Simulator for Communications Systems
Supervisor(s):
Dr Johann A. Briffa johann.briffa@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
SimCommSys is a multi-platform distributed Monte Carlo simulator for
communication systems. The error control coding component implements
various kinds of binary and non-binary codes, including turbo, LDPC,
repeat-accumulate, and Reed-Solomon. This code base has been in
continuous development since 1997, and currently weighs in at over 45
700 physical lines of code, written by Dr Briffa and collaborators. The
distributed computing component of this code uses a client/server
architecture built on TCP/IP to facilitate running simulations on grid
resources; this also works well on local clusters.
Project Objective(s):
This project will look to extend the existing code base, continuing our
previous work in this area. Various extensions could be looked at,
including:
Project Resources
•
Writing a cross-platform GUI for the simulator (i.e. writing software
to create and edit simulation files in a user-friendly way).
•
Writing a back-end / middle-ware for matching resources with
simulations.
•
Adding a result validation component to confirm simulation
reproducibility and facilitate the use of public computing.
•
Budget: €__0___
•
Interest in low-level computing issues and parallel computing.
•
Aptitude and willingness to program (the project requires the use of
C++; prior OO development experience in another language is
suitable).
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Student background /
interest:
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
43
Image Forensics
Supervisor(s):
Dr Johann A. Briffa johann.briffa@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
This topic involves participation in the supervisor's ongoing work in
multimedia security. The topic of image forensics deals with issues
related to the authentication of digital images, or the identification of their
provenance. Usually these topics are of interest to cases in the courts of
law, where such images are used as evidence.
Project Objective(s):
Depends on identified problems within the supervisor's ongoing work, as
agreed with the student.
Project Resources
•
Budget: €__0___
•
Interest in image forensics / multimedia security.
•
Some knowledge of digital imaging fundamentals.
•
Aptitude and willingness to program (the project is likely to use a
selection of languages, including C++ and Python).
Industrial Partners
involved:
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Student background /
interest:
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
44
A Finger Detection System for a Projected Phone Keypad
Supervisor(s):
Dr. Ing. Nicholas J. Sammut nicholas.sammut@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
A Finger Detection System for a Projected Phone Keypad
Research is underway to have nano video projectors replace touch
screens and hence increase the portability of mobile phones, tablets,
laptops and wearable devices. To complete the human interface, a robust
finger detection system is required to allow the user to control the device,
select buttons and move cursors on the projected image. If these issues
are overcome, the user would be able to use a projected image in the
same way as a touchpad. Apart from the challenges of detecting the
finger itself such systems have other practical considerations stemming
from shadows and the lack of an actuator to indicate selection.
Project Objective(s):
This project involves the setting up of the necessary hardware to detect a
finger on a projected phone keypad, distinguish it from its shadow and
finding a practical method of distinguishing user selection from user
browsing. This very interesting practical project may have commercial
value and may be patentable.
Project Resources
Budget: €750 + license fees
(Video projector, video camera, tilt sensor, actuator, Matlab or LabVIEW
Vision toolbox license)
Industrial Partners
involved:
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Hardware and software system to select phone buttons of a projected
mobile phone keypad.
Student background /
interest:
Computer Engineering
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
45
An Automatic Projection Correction System for Corner Surfaces
Supervisor(s):
Dr. Ing. Nicholas J. Sammut nicholas.sammut@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
An Automatic Projection Correction System for Corner Surfaces
Video projected images are skewed when projected onto wall or ceiling
corners or round surfaces. This creates challenges for video immersion
applications and projections of advertisements on corner surfaces or
round surfaces due to misalignments between the projector and the
screen.
Project Objective(s):
This project involves the setting up of the necessary hardware to detect
and measure the image skew as well as the programming of the
calibration system, the image reconstruction, the image rendering and the
overall correction of the skew effects on the uneven surfaces. This very
interesting practical project may have commercial value and may be
patentable.
Project Resources
Budget: €750 + license fees
(Video projector, video camera, tilt sensor, Matlab or LabVIEW Vision
toolbox license)
Industrial Partners
involved:
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Hardware and software system to correct the skewed images of
projectors on corners and/or round surfaces.
Student background /
interest:
Computer Engineering
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
46
Automatic Automotive Mirror Correction System
Supervisor(s):
Dr. Ing. Nicholas J. Sammut nicholas.sammut@um.edu.mt;
Co-supervisor (if any):
None
Problem Background
Automatic Automotive Mirror Correction System
The wrong adjustment of vehicle side and room mirrors results in blind
spots that are the cause of several road accidents. Drivers often forget to
adjust the mirrors correctly especially when they change their position in
the car or when they use a different vehicle.
Project Objective(s):
This project involves the setting up of the necessary hardware and
software to automatically find the optimum mirror angle for vehicles. The
system includes a camera system to detect the position of the driver a
software system to perform the image processing and the control system
to control the mirror angle.
Project Resources
Budget: €1000 + license fees
(2 automatic side mirrors with controllers, video camera, proximity sensor,
Matlab or LabVIEW Vision toolbox license)
Industrial Partners
involved:
None
Expected Project
Deliverables:
Hardware and software system to correct the projector mirror angles
Student background /
interest:
Computer Engineering
Ethical and Data
Protection Issues
Please tick if any of the following apply.
□ The project has data protection issues; please specify.
□ The project has ethical issues; please specify.
□ The project involves human subjects; please specify.
ICT3903 – Final Year Project in Computer Engineering
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Engineering
Faculty of ICT, Final Year Project Proposal
47