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Fatemeh Akbarian made cloud control systems safer.
Publicerad: 2024-06-20
Title of thesis: Resilient Cloud Control: Securing, Adapting, and Thriving. Link to thesis in Lund University Research portal. Defence: Friday, May 17th 09:15, room E:1406.
Describe your research in a popular science way
Imagine the cloud as an...
Title of thesis: Resilient Cloud Control: Securing, Adapting, and Thriving.
Link to thesis in Lund University Research portal.
Defence: Friday, May 17th 09:15, room E:1406.
Describe your research in a popular science way
Imagine the cloud as an invisible, unlimited storage and processing power- house floating in the digital sky. It?s like a magical library that not only holds all your digital treasures but also has endless rooms where you can work, cre- ate, and manage everything from family photos to entire business operations. Businesses, in their quest for efficiency and flexibility, are increasingly moving their controller?the brains behind their operations?into this cloud. This transition allows them to operate more smoothly, access data from anywhere, and scale up or down as needed without investing in expensive hardware. However, moving to the cloud isn?t without its challenges. It?s akin to moving into a shared space where security and privacy become paramount concerns. There?s also the issue of ensuring everything runs smoothly, without delays or hiccups, despite the physical distance between the cloud (where the data and applications are hosted) and the actual physical location of the business. Imagine trying to control a drone flying in California from a remote control in New York; the further the distance, the trickier it is to ensure smooth operation. In my thesis, I tackle these challenges head-on. For security, I propose a robust plan that acts like an advanced, ever-vigilant security system. This system not only keeps a watchful eye for any potential threats but also has the capability to neutralize these threats before they can cause harm. It ensures businesses can trust their operations to the cloud without fearing cyber-attacks or data breaches. On the performance front, I address the problem of delays, which can be likened to the lag you might experience during a video call when the internet is slow. I introduce a strategy that compensates for these delays, ensuring that commands and controls are executed in a timely manner, just as if the cloud controllers and physical operations were side by side. This means businesses can rely on cloud-based control systems without worrying about interruptions or inefficiencies. Furthermore, I explore the challenges brought by the ever-changing cloud environment, where the workload can shift dramatically due to the actions of many users and different applications. It?s akin to living in a house where the amount of electricity and water available changes depending on how many devices are being used or how many faucets are running. To tackle this, I propose a flexible strategy that adapts the system?s "pace" or "rhythm" to keep up with these changes, ensuring it stays efficient and responsive, no matter how crowded or busy the cloud environment becomes. This approach not only keeps the system running smoothly but also promotes resource frugality. By adjusting its operations to match the current demand accurately, the system avoids wasting computational power and energy, much like smart home technology that dims lights or adjusts the thermostat to save electricity. This ensures that, just like your home?s utilities adjust to your needs in the most efficient way, the cloud system automatically optimizes its resources, providing a seamless experience without slowdowns, interruptions, or unnecessary waste. By solving these problems, my thesis paves the way for businesses to fully embrace the cloud, leveraging its vast capabilities without falling prey to security risks or performance pitfalls. It?s about making the cloud not just a place to store data but a secure, efficient, and reliable extension of the business itself. It enables operations to soar to new heights with the confidence and assurance that they are protected and optimized, no matter the circumstances.
What made you want to pursue a PhD?
I pursued a PhD to deepen my understanding of a topic I'm passionate about and to contribute meaningfully to the field through original research.
What is the most fascinating or interesting with your thesis subject?
The most fascinating aspect of my thesis subject is the potential for integrating control systems with the cloud. While cloud computing can provide significant advantages for industry, such as increased flexibility, scalability, and cost-savings, it also introduces new challenges that can make companies hesitant to fully embrace cloud-based control systems. In my research, I aimed to provide solutions to these challenges and make Cloud Control Systems (CCS) more resilient. Specifically, I focused on ensuring CCS are resilient to cyber attacks and delays, while also enabling the system to adapt its frequency according to the current cloud environment. By addressing these key challenges, my research seeks to motivate industry to fully utilize the advantages of cloud computing in their control systems. Rather than ignoring the benefits of the cloud due to its potential drawbacks, my work demonstrates how these challenges can be overcome, empowering companies to embrace the transformative potential of integrating control systems with the cloud.
Do you believe some results from your research will be applied in practice eventually? And if so, how / how?
Yes, I believe that some results from my research will be applied in practice. For instance, the methods I applied to a real testbed for a Cloud Control System (CCS) demonstrated the ability to make the system resilient to cyber attacks and delays, and adapt its frequency according to the cloud environment. These findings have practical implications for ensuring the reliability and efficiency of cloud-based systems.
What are your plans?
After completing my PhD, I plan to pursue a postdoctoral position in machine learning to further expand my knowledge and expertise in this field.
Länk till artikeln Fatemeh Akbarian made cloud control systems safer.
Hamid Karrari improved performance of analog-to-digital converters.
Publicerad: 2024-06-04
Title of thesis: Analog-to-Digital Converters for High-Speed Applications
Link to thesis in Lund University Research Portal.
Defence: Friday June 14th, 09:15, room E:1406. Zoom link. Zoom ID: 67608675506.
Describe your research in a popular...
Title of thesis: Analog-to-Digital Converters for High-Speed Applications
Link to thesis in Lund University Research Portal.
Defence: Friday June 14th, 09:15, room E:1406.
Zoom link. Zoom ID: 67608675506.
Describe your research in a popular science way
The rapid transmission of information and data has fundamentally transformed our world. While we once imagined the internet creating a global village, the current reality surpasses this vision; it has compressed this village into the confines of our homes. This transformation is largely attributed to the ability to wirelessly transfer high data rates and perform complex functions on the data in the digital domain. Digital processing offers many advantages, such as seamless and flawless data storage, reconfigurability, and programmability. Consequently, it is desired to transform analog signals into digital to leverage the advantages of digital signal processing. However, real-world phenomena are mostly analog. The interface bridging these two domains is known as an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). High-speed and high-resolution ADCs are crucial in communication systems for efficiently sampling the analog signals, preserving signal accuracy, maximizing spectral efficiency, enabling advanced signal processing, and meeting the demands of modern communication standards such as 5G and beyond. Our research journey delved into the intricacies of ADC design, leveraging CMOS technology to push the boundaries of speed and resolution. By harnessing innovative methodologies and cutting-edge techniques, we endeavored to enhance the performance of ADCs, striving to achieve high levels of accuracy and efficiency in the data conversion.
What made you want to pursue a PhD?
Ever since I started my bachelor's degree, I always wanted to get a PhD. To see what is at the end of this road. After finishing my Master's, it was decision time: industry or academia? I weighed the options, and since teaching is another passion of mine, the PhD totally won!
What are your plans?
While in the past few months I have been very busy meeting multiple deadlines, it has been a period of immense growth. Now that things have settled, I'm at a crossroads ? academia versus industry. I am still weighing the pros and cons of each path to find out what truly motivates me now: the theoretical exploration of academia or the practical problem-solving of industry?
Länk till artikeln Hamid Karrari improved performance of analog-to-digital converters.
Rikard Gannedahl designed novel radio circuits for 5G and 6G communication
Publicerad: 2024-05-29
Title of thesis: Frequency Generation and Baseband Filters for mm-Wave 5G and 6G Transceivers
Link to thesis in Lund University Research Portal.
Defence: Thursday May 30th, 09:15, room E:1406. Zoom link. Zoom ID: 66635753300.
Describe your...
Title of thesis: Frequency Generation and Baseband Filters for mm-Wave 5G and 6G Transceivers
Link to thesis in Lund University Research Portal.
Defence: Thursday May 30th, 09:15, room E:1406.
Zoom link. Zoom ID: 66635753300.
Describe your research in a popular science way
My research has focused on designing radio circuits for 5G and 6G communication operating at the so-called mm-wave frequencies, that is, frequencies between 30 and 300 GHz. In previous generations (4G and earlier), the frequencies have been limited to 6 GHz or below. However, as our phone usage has shifted from calls and texting to much more data-intensive tasks like streaming and video calls, our bandwidth needs have dramatically increased. This has resulted in data traffic congestion at these sub-6-GHz frequencies, which is why 5G, and in the future 6G, has allowed for the use of mm-waves, enabling unprecedented bandwidths and data rates.
However, the use of mm-waves does not come without a cost. Radio circuits tend to perform significantly worse at these frequencies. Additionally, the path loss ? the power that is lost when the signal is propagating from transmitter to receiver ? is significantly higher at these frequencies. To overcome these issues, innovative circuit designs and system optimizations are necessary.
More specifically, my research has focused on two very important parts of a radio transceiver: frequency generation and baseband filters. The role of frequency generation is to generate a very stable and clean tone at a specific frequency. It is this frequency that determines which radio channel we will receive from/transmit to. We have designed two frequency generation circuits operating at mm-wave frequencies which have the capability to self-correct errors that arise during the manufacturing of the chips, resulting in very robust operation.
Baseband filters should filter out everything that is not the desired signal, which can be noise or other interfering signals. We have compared two types of filters to see which one is most suitable for the extremely wide bandwidths that are expected in 6G.
What made you want to pursue a PhD?
While it had always been in the back of my mind to do a PhD during my engineering studies ? I mean, who doesn?t want to be able to put ?Dr? as a title when booking a plane ticket? - it wasn?t until I did my Master?s thesis that I started to give it serious consideration. I began then to fully grasp the depth of this field and how much there was to learn, and a PhD seemed like the best opportunity to explore a wide range of subjects in the field and learn as much as possible.
I was also intrigued by the teaching aspect of the job, having worked as both a homework tutor after high school and a lab supervisor during my bachelor?s, and thoroughly enjoying both jobs.
What are your plans?
Having seen the academic side of our field for the last few years, I would now like to see it from an industry perspective. So, while nothing is finalized yet, I?m hoping to continue my career in circuit design with a company in the Lund-Malmö region.
Länk till artikeln Rikard Gannedahl designed novel radio circuits for 5G and 6G communication