MSc.

Projects in 2020 for the School of Computer Science and

Electronic Engineering

1. Allocation of Dissertation Projects

A dissertation project supervisor needs to be allocated to you over the coming weeks. This
will provide you with extra time to prepare for your dissertation project, and also allow you to
start your project work earlier if you so wish.

Please note: Extensions to complete your dissertation project this year will only be
granted in cases where there are strong extenuating circumstances. Therefore, it is
expected that you will submit your bound dissertation at the end of August, 2020. If
there are extenuating circumstances that require an extension, you must request an
extension at least 3 weeks in advance of the deadline.

Anyone missing this deadline (due only to strong extenuating circumstances, as stated
above) will then not be able to receive notification of your result until mid-February at
the earliest.

Some of you have already been investigating possible supervisors. If you have already
decided, then please let me know (email: w.j.teahan@bangor.ac.uk). Please also indicate the
Otherwise, I suggest you speak to prospective supervisors about possible projects, and
indicate your decision within two weeks using Blackboard (by sending a project title and
supervisor). If you wish, you can come and have a chat with me, and then I can suggest
possible supervisors (and also speak to them on your behalf if you wish). Those who have not
decided will then be allocated a supervisor based on the subjects that they are most interested
in.

2. Project requirements.

Included below is slightly amended material taken from the MSc briefing
document (that can be found in Blackboard) with regards to your project.
Please make sure that you read this carefully. In particular, note the
requirement that you MUST submit a list of aims and objectives along with a
draft of your Literature Review, plus a document detailing the legal, social,
ethical and professional issues for your project by the end of July.

2.1 Execution of Project

At the start of second Semester, the Course Director will communicate to all students
a list of possible projects and prospective supervisors. You should arrange to meet
with several prospective supervisors to discuss suitable projects. If you wish to do a
project with a local company, then arrange a meeting with the Course Director (Dr.
Bill Teahan), who will then find a suitable placement for you.

Once you have chosen a specific project, please communicate the name of the project
and your supervisor to the Course Director. The Course Director will ensure that a
project is allocated to you at the beginning of the second semester. If you have not
chosen a project by then, a meeting will be arranged for you with the Course Director
to discuss options. Once your project has been allocated, you should informally begin
the process of preparation. You will be allowed to start your project work at this time,
if you wish, under the guidance of your supervisor.
The first task for you is to understand the problems and the requirements. This
is likely to involve interaction with the supervisor and considerable background
reading, etc. The supervisor should advise on the forms of documentation
required for the project, and assist in planning the final dissertation – do not be
tempted to leave the entire dissertation until the end of the project.

Before the project work can start, the Supervisor must complete the Ethical
Approval form. This form has already been posted into Blackboard and must be
submitted by your supervisor to the School Ethical Approval officer. The process
for obtaining ethical approval has already been discussed in a previous ICE-4001
lecture, and is discussed in the project briefing document that can be found in
Blackboard.

2.2 Starting and Completing Your Project

You should proceed with the design and implementation of the specified
programme of work, and the preparation of the specified documentation. We
recommend that detailed notes of all decisions taken should be recorded in your
project diary.

You must meet with your supervisor at least once a week during the project practical
execution over the summer. The supervisor's role at this stage is to monitor progress,
and to advise on the more difficult problems that may arise.

By the end of July 2020, you can submit a PDF or MS Word draft document to
Blackboard that contains (for example) your Literature Review that includes relevant
citations in the text and a list of references. The document you submit in July can be
checked for plagiarism by your supervisor and yourself using the TurnItIn software. If
the documents are found to be unsatisfactory, you can easily correct them at this stage
and resubmit. You are free to submit as many drafts as you like to Blackboard and
should do this as one last check a few weeks before final submission to ensure you
have a satisfactory similarity report as produced by the TurnItIn software. (Note that
the similarity score produced is only a guideline. A more important consideration will
be the presence of many sentences and paragraphs in the dissertation where there is
strong evidence of similarity with another source or sources, especially if this has not
been attributed in the text using citations).

At the final project meeting, you must present the implemented design, final version
of equipment/tests, or software to the supervisor. On or before the deadline, you must
submit a draft dissertation to your supervisor for constructive criticism. Once you
have completed the final corrections, you must submit a single document (in PDF or
MS Word format) of your dissertation to Blackboard before the deadline. This should
include the list of references and all appendices, as well as the one for the document
you completed in July detailing the legal, social, ethical and professional issues. At
the same time, you must submit to Blackboard all of your source code pasted as text
into a separate PDF or Word document. These documents will then be checked for
plagiarism using the TurnItIn software. If the documents are found to be
unsatisfactory, you will be asked to correct them and resubmit.
As already stated, extensions to complete your dissertation project will only be
granted in cases where there are strong extenuating circumstances. Therefore, it is
expected that you will submit your bound dissertation and documents at the end of
August.

3. List of MSc Projects 2020

The following summarises the list of projects that are available for MSc students
(both CS and EE) this year.

Please feel free to contact staff directly about these projects for more information or
ask whether there are further projects available not listed here. (Note: Each student
is also free to suggest their own project in agreement with one of the supervisors
below).



Prospective supervisors in Computer Science are listed in the following
table:

Supervisor Research areas of interest
Dr. Llyr ap Cenydd Computer Animation, Virtual Reality, AI for Games
Dr. Cameron Gray Learning analytics; cyber security projects, especially on
Internet-scale systems, digital identity and infrastructure
elements
Prof. Lucy Kuncheva Pattern recognition, classifier ensembles
Dr. Ik Soo Lim Volume data visualization and its application to
biomedicine and other domains
Dr. Sa’ad Mansoor Simulation and Modelling, Distributed systems
Dr. Dave Perkins Developing technologies and using these to repurposing
old-technologies in exciting ways. Develop and assist in the
use of new technologies across the institution and to
encourage innovation in teaching using open educational
practice.
Dr. Panagiotis Ritsos Mixed and virtual reality, information visualization, visual
analytics, wearable computing and human-computer
interaction.
Prof. Jonathan Roberts Information Visualisation, Scientific Visualisation, Graphics
Dr. Bill Teahan Artificial Intelligence, Computer Animation, Virtual
Humans, Data/Text/Web Mining, Natural Language
Processing, Machine Translation, NetLogo, Evolutionary
Algorithms, Data Science
Dr. Franck Vidal Image processing, medical physics, visualisation, graphics,
modelling, simulation, artificial evolution, haptics, GPU
programming, medical applications.

Prospective supervisors in Electronic Engineering are listed in the
following table:

Supervisor Research areas of interest

Dr. Xianfeng Chen Bio-nano-photonics, 2D-nanomaterial integrated photonics,
biosensors, optical sensors, fibre gratings, laser micro/nano
fabrication, opto-microfluidics, optical communications and
lasers
Dr. Roger Giddings DSP-based systems for advanced, intelligent and
dynamically reconfigurable optical networks
Dr. Yanhua Hong Dynamics of semiconductor lasers, optical instabilities,
chaos and photonic microwave
Dr. Jeff Kettle Semiconductor device fabrication, characterization and
modelling; reliability engineering including root cause
analysis (RCA), predictive ageing, reliability modelling and
Design of Experiments (DoE)
Dr. Mohammed Mabrook Graphene-based sensors: Morphology and electronic
properties
Dr. Maziar Nezhad Nanophotonics, nan-optomechanics, plasmonics, group IV
photonics (silicon, germanium, diamond), nanofabrication
and the application of photonics in other disciplines
Dr. Cris Palego Bioelectronics, microwaves, energy harvesting, IoT
Dr. Daniel Roberts Designing semiconductor devices for generating THz
emission, either utilising a three-laser DFB (distributed
feedback) kind of system, or looking at developing the
design of a dual-wavelength laser configuration
Prof. Paul Spencer Semiconductor laser dynamics, optical feedback effects,
pulse propagation, and optical waveguide properties of
optoelectronic devices
Prof. Jianming Tang Optical communications systems, data networks, ultra-fast
dynamics of semiconductor laser devices, digital signal
processing, network convergence, 5G networks and beyond
Dr. Zengbo (James) Wang Nanophotonics, metamaterial and laser processing, with
special focuses on super-resolution microscopy, imaging,
sensing, laser cleaning and processing for industry

A summary of the projects available for Computer Science are shown below.

Supervisor Project title(s)

Dr. Llyr ap Cenydd Mobile Virtual Reality
Procedural Generation
Dr. ap Cenydd Deep Reinforcement Learning in Unity
Dr. Cameron Gray Learning analytics
Dr. Jeff Kettle Machine learning for enhanced material design
Using neural networks for forecasting sensor behaviour and
environmental measurements
Prof. Lucy Kuncheva An Investigation on Classifier Ensembles
Semi-supervised Learning in Non-stationary environments
Dr. Ik Soo Lim Computer modelling of cooperation, behavioural synchrony and
status in social networks
Superman's Eyes: See-Through Visualisation of Volumetric Data
Computer Simulation of the Evolution of Overconfidence.
Dr. Sa’ad Mansoor Simulation and modelling; distributed systems.
Dr. Panagiotis Ritsos Smartphone-based Interactive Visual Data Exploration in Large
Displays
A Mixed Reality Role Playing Game
Dr. Jonathan Roberts Information Visualisation
Dr. Bill Teahan AI project I
AI project II
Analysing the Language Used in Impact Case Studies for the
Research Excellence Framework
The investigation of process in narrative from psychotherapy
transcripts using natural language processing
Bio-inspired 3D Printed Octapod Spider Robots and Humanoid
Robots
Autonomous Waypoint-Based Location and Navigation

Dr. Franck Vidal Open project

Artefact correction in CBCT reconstruction algorithms
Parallelisation of a respiration model
Tumour segmentation in PET images and interactive multi-
modal visualisation
Interactive multi-modal visualisation
Multi-objective optimisation using artificial evolution
3D reconstruction using optical microscopes
Implementation of a diaphragm segmentation method
The smart(phone)-microscope
Computer automated data extraction from video images of
commercial fisheries catches
HDR imaging and interactive evolutionary computing

A summary of the projects available for Electronic Engineering are shown
below.


Supervisor Project title

Dr. Xianfeng Chen Biochemical sensors based on optical fibre gratings
Laser micro- nanomachining for integrated microfluidic and
photonic devices
Dr. Roger Giddings The Impact of Different Channel Modulation Formats on
System Performance in DFMA-Based Optical Access
Networks
Design and Implementation of a DSP-based Algorithm for
Channel Timing Offset in DFMA-based Optical Access
Networks
Optimisation of DSP-based digital orthogonal filters for
optical channel multiplexing
Multi-frame detection algorithm for real-time optical OFDM
transmission system
Dr. Yanhua Hong Numerical simulation of microwave photonic signal
generation based on period one dynamic of vertical-cavity
surface emitting lasers
Time-delay signature of chaos generated in a semiconductor
laser by optical feedback
Dr. Jeff Kettle Development of spray coating of metal oxides
Development of spray coating of metallic nanowires
Dr. Mohammed Mabrook Graphene-Based gas Sensor
Dr. Maziar Nezhad Design and fabrication of integrated photonic chips with
metal waveguides embedded in polymer claddings
Simulation and design of a nanostructured flat lens
Dr. Cris Palego Energy scavenging of honey-bee movement for battery-
less insect telemetry
Inkjet-printed lab-on-chip for biological cell sensing and
manipulation
Biophysical modelling of cancer cells
Dr. Daniel Roberts Designing semiconductor devices for generating THz
emission, either utilising a three-laser DFB (distributed
feedback) kind of system, or looking at developing the
design of a dual-wavelength laser configuration
Prof. Paul Spencer Maxwell’s Eqns – Interface conditions ( at abrupt
interface )
Multi-moded waveguides – spatial imaging
Prof. Jianming Tang Random Lasers
Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) Algorithms for next-
generation Optical Access Networks
Advanced optical transmission techniques and their
applications in future elastic optical networks
Dr. Zengbo (James) Wang Superlens transforming microscope into nanoscope
Security marking with Lasers
Development of a Raspberry-Pi driven lab instrument

Further details for most of these projects are provided below.

3.1 Computer Science Projects

Supervisor: Dr. Llyr ap Cenydd

Project title: Mobile Virtual Reality

Requirements: Good programming skills, good Unity skills.

Objectives: Develop innovative applications using mobile Virtual Reality

(VR) technology like the Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Go or Oculus Quest. This
could include a suitable project in the following topics:

• Environment interaction in VR
• Movement modalities in VR
• Procedural Animation in VR
• Training, education or tourism in VR

Project title: Procedural Generation

Requirements: Excellent programming skills.
 Objectives: Develop procedural generation algorithms driven by artificial
intelligence. This could include a suitable project in the following topics:

• Procedural generation of complex 3D environments
• Procedural animation of quadrupeds and bipeds
• Procedural animation of complex group behavior
• Procedural generation of building interiors
• Procedural generation of gameplay scenarios

Project title: Deep Reinforcement Learning in Unity

Requirements: Excellent programming skills, good Unity skills.

Objectives: This project will include using the ML-

Agents and TensorFlow software libraries to develop artificial agents trained
using deep reinforcement learning. This could include developing agents that
can walk on their own, play games against each other or learn complex
physically simulated tasks. This project will require a very high programming
proficiency in high level languages like C# and Python, and experience with
Unity.

Supervisor: Prof. Lucy Kuncheva

Project title: An Investigation on Classifier Ensembles

Requirements: See below

Classifier ensembles are state-of-the-art classification methods which have been

shown to outperform single classifier models. This project will investigate some
of the new classifier ensemble methods on different benchmark data sets.

Literature: Kuncheva L.I. Combining Pattern Classifiers. Methods and

Algorithms, Wiley, 2004
http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471210781.html

Skills: Maths – probability and statistics. Programming – MATLAB.

Project title: Semi-supervised Learning in Nonstationary Environments

Requirements: See below

In semi-supervised learning, some (usually small) part of the data is labelled

into classes, and the data which come from the real application afterwards are
unlabelled. The task is to label the incoming data as correctly as possible. If
there was no change of the distribution of the incoming data, the initial classifier
could be used without change. However, the distributions often fluctuate,
requiring modification of the classifier along with the changes in the data
stream. The project will be an experimental study involving methods proposed
in the recent literature. The methods should be implemented from the
algorithmic descriptions in the papers. Applications semi-supervised learning in
streaming data is often applied to tracking of objects in videos and sentiment
recognition.
 Literature (initial reading, pdfs can be found online with Bangor login
credentials or in Research Gate):

Ditzler G. and Polikar R. (2011) Semi-supervised Learning in Nonstationary

Environments, Proceedings of International Joint Conference on Neural
Networks, San Jose, California, USA.

Grabner H., Leistner C., Bischof H. (2008) Semi-supervised On-Line Boosting

for Robust Tracking. In: Proceedings of the ECCV 2008, Lecture Notes in
Computer Science, vol 5302.

Skills: Maths - probability and statistics. Programming - MATLAB.

Supervisor: Dr. Ik Soo Lim

Project title: Computer modelling of cooperation, behavioural synchrony and

status in social networks

Computer modelling of group coordination will be carried out to test whether

social hierarchy can be an adaptive feature of the community and how falling
communication costs affect the social hierarchy among others.

Project title: Superman's Eyes : See-Through Visualisation of Volumetric Data

Volumetric Data are widely available: medical data (e.g. MRI or CT body
scans), engineering and scientific data, etc. Analysis and understanding of these
data are most efficiently done with visualisation of them. One of the key
visualisation technique for volumetric data is Direct Volume Rendering, which
allows one to see-through multiple layers of surfaces contained in the
volumetric data. This project will not only implement conventional Direct
Volume Rendering, but also an improved version of it, which will lead to
publications.

Project title: Computer Simulation of the Evolution of Overconfidence.

Confidence is an essential ingredient of success in a wide range of domains

ranging from job performance and mental health to sports, business and combat.
It has been also suggested that not just confidence but overconfidence—
believing you are better than you are in reality—is advantageous because it
serves to increase ambition, morale, resolve, persistence or the credibility of
bluffing, generating a self-fulfilling prophecy in which exaggerated confidence
actually increases the probability of success. However, over-confidence also
leads to faulty assessments, unrealistic expectations and hazardous decisions, so
it remains a puzzle how such a false belief could evolve or remain stable in a
population of competing strategies that include accurate, unbiased beliefs.

In this project, we will implement an evolutionary model showing that

overconfidence maximizes individual fitness and populations tend to become
overconfident, as long as benefits from contested resources are sufficiently large
compared with the cost of competition. The fact that overconfident populations
 are evolutionarily stable in a wide range of environments may help to explain
why overconfidence remains prevalent today, even if it contributes to hubris,
market bubbles, financial collapses, policy failures, disasters and costly wars.

We will also improve the evolutionary model by relaxing unrealistic

assumptions of it, which could lead to publications.

Supervisor: Dr. Panagiotis Ritsos

Project title: Smartphone-based Interactive Visual Data Exploration in Large
Displays
Requirements: Good programming skills.

Interactive displays are increasingly being used for analytical tasks, resulting in
interesting opportunities for data visualization. Such displays allow larger, more
detailed views of data and (may) support collaborative interaction. For this
project you are required to use a combination of web technologies
(JavaScript/D3.js, HTML/CSS + Sockets.io) to create and evaluate an
information visualization tool that allows interaction with graphical depictions
via a remote webpage, viewable on a mobile phone.

Technologies: JavaScript, HTML/CSS

Indicative Reference:
https://iml-dresden.net/cnt/uploads/Horak_David-meets-Goliath_CHI2018.pdf

Project title: A Mixed Reality Role Playing Game

Requirements: Good programming skills.

Mixed/Augmented Reality (MR/AR) is a technology that allows digital content

to be superimposed to the physical world. Recent technological progress and
standardisation allows the use of Web-technologies for the implementation of
MR/AR applications. Contemporary JavaScript libraries have been becoming
more and more popular for such demonstrations. For this project, using web-
based MR/AR, and a combination of QR-codes and AR markers you are
required to create an interactive, turn-based role-playing game. The
combination of different markers will allow to define different class/role
avatars, and different equipment sets, for each character in the game.

Technologies: JavaScript, HTML/CSS

Indicative Reference: http://pdritsos.com/files/Ritsos-et-al-IAW-2017.pdf

Supervisor: Professor Jonathan Roberts

Project title: Information Visualization
Requirements: Good programming skills.

The project will take data (chosen with supervisor and student) and perform a
data analysis, then create a data visualization of the data. This will be similar to
 the information visualization module, but for this project you would take a more
complex dataset.

Supervisor: Dr. Bill Teahan

Project title: Artificial Intelligence I / II.
Requirements: Good programming skills.

Any project in the following areas (with mutual agreement between you and the
supervisor):

Artificial Intelligence, Computer Animation, Virtual Humans, Data/Text/Web

Mining, Natural Language Processing, Machine Translation, NetLogo,
Evolutionary Algorithms

Some possibilities:
- Texas Hold’em in NetLogo
- Converting Constituent Grammatical Evolution to Genetic Programming
- Java Monkey Engine and NetLogo
- Computer games using Pygame in Python
- NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) and Python
- Data Mining in NetLogo using WEKA
- Machine Translation for [insert your native language here]
- Part of speech tagging for [insert your native language here]
- Automatic programming
- Text compression / Text Mining
- Analysing thoughts and opinions in autobiographical texts
- Mining public domain game source code
- etc.

Supervisor: Dr. Bill Teahan

Project title: Analysing the Language used in Impact Case Studies for the
Research Excellence Framework.
Requirements: Good programming skills.

Impact Case Studies are a crucial part of the research evaluation that is
undertaken as part of the Research Evaluation Framework (REF) which
assesses the research of British higher education institutions. The purpose
of this project will be to analyse the language used to identify which is most
effective at achieving a higher ranking. The project will also investigate
whether it is possible to automatically classify Impact Case Studies
according to their ranking.

Project title: The investigation of process in narrative from psychotherapy

transcripts using natural language processing.
Requirements: Good programming skills; interest in learning to program in
Python and the NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit).

Despite decades of research into psychotherapy and endless debate around

evidence of efficacy and how best to demonstrate it, precious little is really
 understood about the process of psychotherapy itself as it is actually practiced.
A new approach to investigation would move beyond the sort of turf war
investigation that frequently suffers from allegiance bias and in any case often
reveals little about the underlying mechanisms that contribute to change. The
purpose of this investigation is to pilot the use of natural language processing
methods to identify themes within the psychotherapy process.

Project title: Bio-inspired 3D Printed Octapod Spider Robots and Humanoid

Robots
Collaborator: Dr. Llyr ap Cenydd
Requirements: Good programming skills.

Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfiHOpv6HtI to see a bio-

inspired 3D printed octapod robot. The purpose of this project will be to build
something similar, but first evolve the movement components using
evolutionary algorithms. The project will also explore adapting the methods in
order to produce 3D printed humanoid robots.

Project title: Autonomous Waypoint-Based Location and Navigation

Requirements: Good programming skills.

One of the skills we take for granted is the exploration of unknown areas and
the ability to navigate ourselves from A to B even if we don't know the exact
route we intend to take. We can’t possibly remember an entire map indicating
that we have an ability to simplify a route to the important points needed for
navigation. This study will explore novel algorithms for waypoint-based
navigation in autonomous agents.

Supervisor: Dr. Franck Vidal

Project title: Open project
Requirements: Good programming skills.

Open project in image processing, medical imaging/physics, visualisation,

graphics, modelling, simulation, optimisation methods, artificial
evolution, haptics, GPU programming, medical applications.

Objectives: The specific project topic has not yet been set and will be
decided with you in discussion with Dr Vidal. It will make use of image
processing, computer graphics, artificial evolution, etc.

Project title: Artefact correction in CBCT reconstruction algorithms
Requirements: Good programming skills.

Context: This project is focused on developing new software technologies

for X-ray cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). It is based on accurate
physical models implemented using high performance computing. CBCT is
widely used in medicine, inc. radiotherapy of cancer. It produces images of
trans-axial planes through the body. Metal implants, secondary radiation
(mostly Compton scattering), polychromatism and impulse response of the
detector lead to strong artefacts in the CBCT volumes of patients.
Correcting these artefacts is not performed in clinical routine due to the
computation time required.

Objectives: The project will mainly focus in implementing numerically
accurate physical models that are computationally efficient within a CBCT
reconstruction algorithm. Therefore, state-of-the-art massively parallel
techniques (such as GPU computing) will need to be deployed to reduce the
trade-off between speed and accuracy.

Additional reading: http://dx.doi.org/10.1118/1.3611828
http://www.fpvidal.net/research/pdf/Vidal2009TPCG.pdf
http://www.fpvidal.net/research/pdf/Vidal2010EGPoster.pdf

Project title: Parallelisation of a respiration model

Requirements: Good programming skills.

Context: Analytical models of respiration are very useful in a wide range

of applications, e.g. image guided treatment, radiotherapy, training tools
using virtual reality, etc. Such mathematical models are based on patient
specific data extracted from real medical images. To date, no automatic
segmentation of diaphragms is available as the diaphragm is barely visible
in the medical images. Diaphragms are therefore manually segmented,
which is highly time consuming (e.g. at least 3 hours for a well trained
operator, and 3 days for an inexperienced medical student).

Objectives: The aim of this project is to re-implement our respiration
model using parallel programming (e.g. pthread, OpenCL, CUDA, multi-
GPUs) to speed up computations.

Additional reading: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2012.2213251
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11548-009-0367-1

Project title: Tumour segmentation in PET images and interactive multi-modal

visualisation
Requirements: Good programming skills.
 Context: The radiotherapy tumour volume (TV) is still manually or semi-
automatically defined using anatomical CT data only, this is called ‘gross
tumour volume (GTV)’. The use of PET data will ease the segmentation of
tumours to define ‘biological target volumes (BTVs)’. The main advantage
of BTV over GTV is to take into account biological information during the
treatment planning.

Objectives: A graphical user interface (GUI) will be designed to exploit
reconstructed PET images using automatic or semi-automatic
segmentation to extract BTVs and help generating treatment plans. The
segmentation results will be then used in a multi-modal visualisation to
show both anatomical and biological information.

Additional reading: http://fpvidal.net/fly4pet/

Project title: Interactive multi-modal visualisation

Requirements: Good programming skills.

Objectives: Develop interactive visualisation techniques to combine data

from CT and PET scanners as well as radiotherapy treatment planning data.

Additional reading: http://fpvidal.net/fly4pet/

Project title: Multi-objective optimisation using artificial evolution

Requirements: Good programming skills.

Context: Analytical models of respiration are very useful in a wide range

of applications, e.g. image guided treatment, radiotherapy, training tools
using virtual reality, etc. Such mathematical models are based on patient
specific data extracted from real medical images. To date, no automatic
segmentation of diaphragms is available as the diaphragm is barely visible
in the medical images. Diaphragms are therefore manually segmented,
which is highly time consuming (e.g. at least 3 hours for a well trained
operator, and 3 days for an inexperienced medical student).

Objectives: The aim of the project is to investigate the use of multi-
objective evolutionary optimisation techniques. It will be used to minimise
the numerical errors in our respiration model and produce the best
estimates of liver, diaphragm and lungs for a real-time simulation
framework.

Additional reading: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2012.2213251

Project title: 3D reconstruction using optical microscopes

Requirements: Good programming skills.

Objectives: The aim of this project is to build a software platform to
reconstruct 3D volumes from 2D images. It will make use of computer
 graphics, and image processing techniques. Good programming skills are
necessary for:
• Programming a piezo drive,
• Taking stack of 2D pictures,
• Building a 3D representation of nanostructures, small insects, etc.
from the successive 2D pictures.
• This project will be conducted in close collaboration with Dr Colin
Watson from the School of Electronic Engineering.

Project title: Implementation of a diaphragm segmentation method

Requirements: Good programming skills.

Context: Analytical models of respiration are very useful in a wide range

of applications, e.g. image guided treatment, radiotherapy, training tools
using virtual reality, etc. Such mathematical models are based on patient
specific data extracted from real medical images. To date, no automatic
segmentation of diaphragms is available as the diaphragm is barely visible
in the medical images. Diaphragms are therefore manually segmented,
which is highly time consuming (e.g. at least 3 hours for a well trained
operator, and 3 days for an inexperienced medical student).

Objectives: The main objective of the project is to design and implement a
diaphragm segmentation method that is automatic or semi-automatic. The
diaphragm is a muscle that is only observable using a priori
knowledge from the lungs, ribs, spine, etc. Thus the segmentation method
will be based on geometrical constraints that depend on the surrounding
tissues. The segmentation method may embed non-automatic steps if
appropriate.

Requirements: Good programming skills.

Additional reading: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11548-009-0367-1

Project title: The smart(phone)-microscope

Context: The use of smartphones is increasing and it is now invading the
lab space. With the amount of integrated sensors, functionalities and
processing capability rapidly expanding, new-generation portable handsets
can now be converted to replace or complement stationary lab
instruments. The aim of this project is to validate one such proof-of-
concept conversion: the transformation of a smartphone into an optical
microscope. The student will develop a software to enable analysis of
photos and videos taken directly with the phone’s built-in camera, e.g.
detect the number of biological cells, where they are located, and how they
are moving. This project will be conducted in close collaboration with Dr
Cristiano Palego from the School of Electronic Engineering.

Additional reading:
http://www.instructables.com/id/10-Smartphone-to-digital-microscope-
conversion/
Project title: HDR imaging and interactive evolutionary computing
High dynamic range (HDR) is a dynamic range higher than what is considered
to be standard dynamic range in imaging (0 to 255). In images with a very high
contrast, details may be lost in the darkest and brightest areas due to the
standard dynamic range. To address this deficiency, photographers take several
pictures of the same scene at different shutter speed and blend these images
using a tone mapping algorithm. The user needs to finely tune the parameters of
the algorithm to generate the perfect image that the photographer wants. We
propose to solve this using an interactive evolutionary algorithm.

3.2 Electronic Engineering Projects

Supervisor: Dr Xianfeng Chen

Project title: Biochemical sensors based on optical fibre gratings (Mohammed

Saad Shaikh)
Fibre optic sensing technology has been developed for qualitative and
quantitative analysis in biochemistry. The mechanism of fibre optic
biochemical sensing is based on evanescent field interactions between
propagating light of fibre devices and the surrounding-medium.
This MSc project will initially focus on the development of fibre gratings.
New functional nanomaterials will be deposited on sensor surface to form a
sensing layer followed by the investigation of surface characterisation and
device sensitivity. The proposed optical sensor will be used for biochemical
sensing applications. The student undertaking the project is expected to have a
good understanding of fibre optics and nanomaterials, as well as some basic
experimental skills of how to handle dedicate and expensive optical
components in the research lab.

Project title: Laser micro- nanomachining for integrated microfluidic and

photonic devices
Laser micro/nano machining is a flexible, high precision manufacturing
method offering enhanced quality and reproducibility ideally suited to the
fabrication of advanced optical and photonic structures such as opto-biochips
and microfluidics.
This MSc project will focus on using ultrafast laser to fabricate miniaturised
photonic devices that combine the microfluidic channels with the fibre optics
for optical sensing and environmental monitoring. The student undertaking the
project is expected to have a good understanding of lasers and optics as well
as the strong experimental design and skills.
Supervisor: Dr Roger Giddings

Project title: The Impact of Different Channel Modulation Formats on

System Performance in DFMA-Based Optical Access Networks

Digital filter multiple access (DFMA) passive optical networks (PONs) are
a recently proposed solution for future optical access networks. The
DFMA-PON employs digital orthogonal filters, implemented in digital
signal processing (DSP)-based optical transceivers, to multiplex multiple
logical channels over a single optical fibre. The different channels can
theoretically support independent signal modulation methods. The aim of
the project would be to adapt an existing system model of a DFMA system
to support various signal modulation methods and to evaluate their
associated transmission performance in the DFMA system. The
performance of a number of modulation formats would be compared in
terms of tolerance to channel frequency response characteristics, additive
Gaussian noise and interference from other DFMA channels.

Project title: Design and Implementation of a DSP-based Algorithm for
Channel Timing Offset in DFMA-based Optical Access Networks

Digital filter multiple access (DFMA) passive optical networks (PONs) are a
recently proposed solution for future optical access networks. The DFMA-
PON employs digital orthogonal filters, implemented in digital signal
processing (DSP)-based optical transceivers, to multiplex multiple logical
channels over a single optical fibre. The timing alignment of orthogonal
channels is critical to the system performance. The project would use a model
of a DFMA system to firstly analyse the sensitivity of the system performance
to channel timing offset. A DSP algorithm would then be designed and
implemented to determine the required timing offset adjustment for each
channel, most likely through the use of training sequences. The robustness of
the algorithm to variations in the channel characteristics would also be
explored.

Project title: Optimisation of DSP-based digital orthogonal filters for optical

channel multiplexing
Digital orthogonal filters based on Hilbert-pairs can be employed for channel
multiplexing in optical communications to support the newly emerging
paradigm of software defined networking (SDN). Digital orthogonal filters
have been implemented with digital signal processing (DSP) in a real-time
FPGA-based system. This project will explore the optimisation of the filter
design by investigating the impact of parameters such as sample quantisation
level, filter coefficient precision and signal clipping levels on system bit error
rate (BER). The objective being to optimise the filter performance whilst
maintaining acceptable implementation complexity. Simulation tools will be
used to determine optimum filter parameters which can then be tested in the
real-time FPGA-based optical transceiver platform.

Project title: Multi-frame detection algorithm for real-time optical OFDM

transmission system
 Optical OFDM is an advance modulation technique with potential application
in future optical networks. OFDM symbols are structured as frames and multi-
frames which contain pilot symbols, test-data symbols and user-data symbols.
The digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms in the optical receiver must
detect the location of the frame and multi-frame boundaries. The objective of
the project is to design and implement an algorithm for multi-frame detection
which is robust to transmission impairments and bit errors. Simulation tools
will be used to design, implement and test the algorithm before verification in
the real-time FPGA-based optical transceiver platform.

Supervisor: Dr Yanhua Hong

Project title: Photonic microwave generation based on nonlinear dynamics of

semiconductor lasers

Description: Microwave signal generation has long been the focus of research
interest because of its widespread applications. The generation of microwaves
signals has traditionally been based upon the mature technology of electronic
oscillators/resonators and transmission lines. Such generation is beginning to
struggle to meet the increasing demand for higher frequency microwave
generation. An alternative approach, which uses photonics to assist
microwaves generation, processing, and distribution, is increasingly drawing
interest. This alternative approach is generally referred to as microwave
photonics. Microwave photonics is particularly suited to radio-over-fibre
technologies and in particular, holds great promise for next-generation
wireless networks, photonic circuits and biosensors.
This project will explore the generation of photonic microwave based on
nonlinear dynamics of a semiconductor laser. The project initially will
characterize the semiconductor laser’s specifications, such as, threshold
current, lasing wavelength. The project will then generate photonic
microwave in an optically injected semiconductor laser. The generated
photonic microwave signal will be coupled into the different lengths of optical
fibre. The output from the fibre will be detected and analysed.

Project title: Time-delay signature of chaos generated in a semiconductor laser

by optical feedback
Description: Optical chaos has attracted considerable research interests
because of its potential applications in secure optical communications, random
number generators and time domain reflectometry. One of the common
methods used to generate optical chaos is using optical feedback in
semiconductor lasers. The typical chaos generated by optical feedback
includes recurrence features termed time delay (TD) signature because of
optical round trip in the external cavity. The TD signature is a harmful feature
for the applications of chaotic optical communications and random number
generators. The TD signature may provide the opportunity for an eavesdropper
to extract a key parameter, which may compromise the security of chaotic
optical communications. The TD signature reduces the randomness of the
chaotic optical signal and affects the symmetrical distribution of random bits.
This project will study the TD signature of chaos generated in a
semiconductor laser by optical feedback from ordinary mirror and fibre Bragg
 grating (FBG) and will in particular look at whether the TD signature of chaos
can be suppressed by optical feedback from FBG.

Supervisor: Dr Jeff Kettle

Project title: Development of spray coating of metal oxides

Metal oxide semiconductors will become an important enabling technology

for the electronics, sensor and optoelectronics industry, as it offers much
greater electrical performance and better stability than organic
semiconductors, whilst maintaining the same low cost and low-temperature
processing opportunities. This MSc project will investigate the use of spray
coating to fabricate metal oxide thin film layers for sensors or thin film
transistors.

The project will initially focus on developing materials from commercial

solutions. Material characterisation will be undertaken using a combination of
UV-Vis, photoluminescence, XRD, TOF-SIMs and SEM/AFM imaging. The
project will then look at using these materials in thin film transistors and
gas/optical sensors.

Project title: Development of spray coating of metallic nanowires

Transparent electrodes are used in numerous applications; LCD displays,
AMOLEDs displays, touch screens. However the incumbent technology,
Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) suffers from many deficiencies including high cost,
cracking during bending and relatively high sheet resistance.

The project will investigate the use of silver nanowires (AgNWs) as an

alternative to ITO. The AgNWs will be spray coated from a non-toxic solution
onto a substrate and characterised for transparency, conductivity and
morphology. Post treatment techniques using lithography will be used to
improve sheet resistance and morphology.

Dr Mohammed Mabrook

Project title: Graphene-Based gas Sensor

In the last few years, graphene becomes one of the very important materials in
nowadays technologies, replacing some of the currently used materials. In
terms of its properties, graphene certainly has the potential to be the main
material in several electronic applications such as sensors. This project will
investigate a way in which a gas sensor can be produced using thin film of
graphene that can sense alcohol at concentrations below 10ppm. The main
objective of the research is conducting investigation on the use of graphene in
the production of gas sensors using different conventional deposition techniques
such as drop casting and self-assembly (SA) technique. AFM, SEM and electro-
microscopy with be used to study the surface morphology of the thin film.
Changes to electrical current in response to different concentrations of alcohol
 (ethanol or methanol) will be used to investigate the sensing properties of the
graphene thin films.

Supervisor: Dr Maziar Nezhad

Project title: Design and fabrication of integrated photonic chips with metal
waveguides embedded in polymer claddings.

This project will involve the design and microfabrication of nanophotonic

chips consisting of optical waveguides that can support the propagation of
long-range surface plasmon modes. The waveguides will consist of thin
metallic stripes made of suitable metals such as gold and silver. You will carry
out the design phase using both analytic and finite element (COMSOL
Multiphysics) tools. The design phase will investigate the effect of parameters
such as metal thickness, metal type and the cladding material. After the design
phase is completed you will fabricate the devices in the Bangor University
cleanroom. The microfabrication steps will involve lithographic mask design,
metal deposition, patterning by lift-off and spinning and processing of
polymer thin films.

Project title: Simulation and design of a nanostructured flat lens

In this project you will use analytic and finite element simulation tools to
analyse and design a special type of lens using photonic nanostructures. You
will be expected to become proficient in using COMSOL Multiphysics,
especially the Wave Optics Module. You will have access to the PI’s high
performance computation and simulation infrastructure. Desirable
characteristics of the lens include numerical aperture, focal length and focal
spot size.

Supervisor: Dr Cris Palego

Project title: Energy scavenging of honey-bee movement for battery-less insect

telemetry

The global decline in honey bee colonies has ignited efforts to better
understand the spatial interaction of bees with their environment. The
monitoring of bee movements requires effective radio-tracking in the field
which is currently constrained by transmitter size, battery life and a transmitter
weight (minimum 0.2g) which is heavier than a honey bee (90 mg). This study
will assess the feasibility of novel microgenerators [1] that harvest electric
energy from the bee’s mechanical vibration to power miniaturized transmitters
and support radar tracking of the insects. This eliminates the need for bulky
battery-powered transmitters and could provide an unlimited energy source
over the insect’s lifetime. Through multi-physics simulation complementary
harvesting approaches will be benchmarked including piezoelectric resonators
transforming mechanical strain into electrical charge, and metallic
nanoparticle layers that are coated on the bee’s thorax to increase its radar
cross section. Circuit optimization will follow to hit the ideal tradeoff between
 achievable tracking range and size/weight of the “ultimate wearable chip” for
tacking of bees behaviour in remote as in populated (and polluted) areas.
[1] E. Aktakka, H. Kim, and K. Najafi, “Energy scavenging from insect
flight. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering”, 21, 095016,
2011.

Project title: Inkjet-printed lab-on-chip for biological cell sensing and manipulation

This project will use the recently acquired capability for rapid prototyping of
lab-on-chip (LOC) devices through inkjet printing technology. A LOC will be
designed and tested for electromanipulation of biological cells (e.g. yeast) by
dielectrophoresis (DEP) forces, which use non-uniform electric fields to
control dielectric particles position and motion. Notably, the project will
model analytically the transition from positive DEP response (cells attracted to
high field-regions at the LOC electrodes’ edges) to negative DEP response
(cells repelled from electrode edges) for experimentally validated electrode
topologies.
Technical requirements: elementary analytical skills (geometrical
understanding, integration) physical background (electrostatics and theory of
dielectrics) circuit theory (equivalent circuits, time and frequency domain
analysis).
[1] Y. Ning et al. “Broadband electrical detection of individual biological
cells”, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 62
No.9, pp. 1905-1911, September 2014.

Project title: Biophysical modeling of cancer cells

This project will focus on modeling of the topology and response of cancer
cells under applied electrical stimulation using a compact equivalent circuit
approach. Intracellular properties and behavior will be correlated with the
dielectric response that can be measured by positioning a single or few cells
across the micro-scale electrodes of a planar chamber in our lab. A novel
software (e.g. Matlab) tool will be developed to account for different cell
shape, number and position in a microfluidic channel environment. This
computational tool will enable to describe cell transmembrane potential
variation and status much in the way that PSpice models describe
semiconductor devices under various biasing conditions.
Technical requirements: elementary analytical skills (geometrical
understanding, integration) physical background (electrostatics and theory of
dielectrics) circuit theory (equivalent circuits, time and frequency domain
analysis), programming skills (matlab, spreadsheet analysis).
[1] P. Marszalek et al. “Schwan equation and transmembrane potential
induced by alternating electric field.,” Biophys. J., vol. 58, (4), pp. 1053–8,
Oct. 1990.

Supervisor: Prof Paul S Spencer

Project title: Maxwell’s Eqns - Interface conditions ( at abrupt interface )
 Wave Eqn , one & two dimensions , homogeneous and time independent
medium drawing attention to inhomogeneous and time dependent media ;
wave eqn for Harmonic time dependent fields ; introduce concept of wave
impedances (( along different axes )) ; relate to wave propagation on
Transmission Lines ; consider waves in ‘’lossy’’ media ; generalise to media
with complex permittivity ( and permeability ) ; Power flux / Poynting
vector ; relate wave propagation in complex permittivity media with material
( Optical ) Gain / Loss ;
Reflection and Refraction at abrupt interface between two semi-infinite
homogenous media using field matching at interface; do same using
transmission lines and impedances ; extend calculations to media with
complex permittivity ; reflection and refraction from multi-layer media – i.e.,
multiple interfaces separating piece-wise homogeneous media – using both ,
cascaded-matrix and segmented transmission-line analyses ; (( draw attention
to the fact that this is an excitation of structure analysis )) ; extensive details
of various cases to be presented later but draw attention to Fabry-Perot (
cavity ) resonators & periodic structures ;

Project title: Multi-moded waveguides – spatial imaging

Multi-layer structure ( Guided ) Mode solutions – Waveguides – Eigenvalue

problem ; simple 3-layer slab dielectric waveguide solutions – field matching
analysis – longitudinal and transverse mode impedances ; waveguide solutions
as transverse resonance condition ; relate slab waveguide mode as a particular
, solution of partially ( dielectric ) filled parallel-plate metal waveguide ;
coupled-waveguides as multilayer slab waveguides – relate to coupled
waveguide analysis ; perturbation analysis of slab waveguide ; coupled mode
analysis as a particular case of ( lateral / transverse ) perturbation analysis –
relate to ( optical confinement factor / modal gain in guided wave photonic
devices ) ; coupled mode analysis for longitudinal perturbation (( relate to
periodic structures )) ;
Introduce concept of Surface waves ( reactive transverse impedance ) – relate
to slab dielectric waveguide ( bound ) modes ; extend to study of Surface
Plasmon waves , slab and cylindrical geometries ; Tamm modes etc ;

Supervisor: Prof Jianming Tang

Project title: Random Lasers

This project explores the configuration and output performance of a novel
laser known as “Random Laser” proposed very recently by the
communications research group . The laser’s cavity is formed utilising
standard single-mode fibre-based Rayleigh backscattering and a reflective
semiconductor optical amplifier. Extensive experimental measurements are
undertaken to investigate not only the laser output characteristics in both the
time and spectral domains, but also the feasibility of utilising such lasers to
improve the transmission performance of practical optical networks. The
student undertaking the project is expected to have a good understanding of
operating principles of conventional semiconductor lasers, as well as some
basic experimental skills of how to handle dedicate and expensive optical
components in the research lab.
Project title: Advanced optical transmission techniques and their applications in
future elastic optical networks

Increasing the signal transmission spectral efficiency with a cost-effective

approach is an ultimate goal when designing advanced optical
communications systems. To address such a fundamental challenge, use can
be made of three general strategies including signal multiplexing, high signal
modulation formats and rich digital signal processing-(DSP) based advanced
transmission techniques. Signal multiplexing, however, often requires
expensive optical components and/or sophisticated transceiver architectures.
Whilst high signal modulation formats demand large optical signal-to-noise
ratios (OSNRs), thus also leading to an increased transceiver cost. On the
other hand, a DSP-based advanced transmission technique typically
incorporates a combination of both signal multiplexing and relatively high
signal modulation formats, and is capable of offering optimum trade-offs
among signal transmission capacity, spectral efficiency and transceiver cost.
This project will explore a novel signal transmission technique recently
proposed by Bangor in terms of its optimum transceiver design and maximum
achievable transmission performances for various application scenarios. The
student undertaking the project is expected to have a sound understanding of
communications systems.

Project title: Bandwidth Allocation Algorithms for Next-Generation Optical

Access Networks

Based on traditional time-division-multiplexing (TDM) DBA algorithms

widely implemented in various existing optical access networks, this project
explores the feasibility of introducing wavelength-division-multiplexing
(WDM) into existing TDM DBA algorithms to improve the multiple access
performance of next generation optical access networks of different
architectures. During the project, a new multiple access protocol is proposed,
and a theoretical model describing the dynamics of the proposed protocol is
established, based on which numerical simulations are also carried out to
evaluate the network performance of the proposed protocol for various data
traffic conditions. The student undertaking the project is expected to have a
good mathematical and numerical simulation skills, and have a reasonable
understanding of operating principles of communications systems and
networks across different layers.

Supervisor: Dr Zengbo (James) Wang

Project title: Superlens transforming microscope into nanoscope

Conventional microscope has a limited resolution, so it doesn’t allow directly
observation and fabrication of nanoscale objects and structures. We have
pioneered a new type of super-resolution lens (superlens) which allows
transformation of a conventional microscope into nanoscope. The work was
previously widely publicised. The existing superlens, however, doesn’t have
scanning functionality so imaging is limited to a small area. In this project, we
 aim to develop such scanning function for superlens imaging. Lens holder will
be designed and fabricated using a 3D printer. The assembly lens system will
then be scanned using a high-precision 3D piezo motion stage. Images will be
captured and stitched to form a large-area super-resolution image of the whole
sample. A journal publication is expected as the outcome of the project.

Project title: Security marking with Lasers

Laser has been widely as the marking device in manufacturing, for example,
the iPhone logo , every computer keyboard and letters on the jewellery. The
markers are induced by laser interaction with marking objects through surface
ablation or oxidation. In this project, we would explore the possibility of
adding security features onto laser marked patterns. The idea is to use Bangor-
developed superlens to mark additional small security features onto previous
markings. These nano-features cannot be directly observed by human eye but
are visible under microscope, thus representing as a security identify. The
student will have the opportunity to test the marking experiments on various
objects which his/her own mobile phone covers.

Project title: Development of a Raspberry-Pi driven lab instrument

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a
keyboard. It is a capable little computer which can be used in electronics
projects, and for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like
spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video.
We want to DIY some lab instrument based on Raspberry-Pi as the main
controller. The initial thought is to develop a spin coater which is widely used
for preparation of thin films of polymers, photoresists etc. The goal is to
develop a low-cost system that can perform comparably well with commercial
products. Functionalities considered include speed control, multi-step
programmer and an integrated optical monitoring system