Final Year Projects

2011
School of Electrical, Electronic & Computer Engineering
 IDEAL House Projects
For general enquiries:
Project Leader:
Dr. Jasmine Henry
Email: jasmine@ee.uwa.edu.au
Phone: 6488 2537

Please see individual supervisors for specific enquiries about each project.
If you have ideas for another project topic not listed here, please contact Dr. Henry to discuss how
your idea might be incorporated into the IDEAL House.
General:
The Intelligently Designed Engineering for Advanced Living (IDEAL) House is a large multi-disciplinary
endeavour being launched by the School of EE&CE to provide students (and staff) with the
opportunity to contribute to the future of human habitation on this planet. While this initiative can
be broadly divided into the two major areas of sustainability and automation, it is meant to be
inclusive of all aspects where electrical, electronic, and/or computing technologies can contribute to
human well-being within a habitat.

1) IDEAL House: Weather Station Design, Implementation and Monitoring

Dr. Jasmine Henry
Email: jasmine.henry@uwa.edu.au
Phone: 6488 2537

The IDEAL house currently has 1.7kW of photovoltaic panels installed on the roof. The power out of
these panels depends highly on the weather conditions at the time. It would be desirable to have
the ability to monitor the ambient conditions – temperature, humidity, wind, rain, insolation – at any
time and correlate this to the time of year and the power output of the photovoltaic panels. The
objective of this project would be to design and install a weather station on the IDEAL house, collect
data from the weather station and finally to have this data available on the IDEAL House website.

2) Electromagnetic Compatibility in the IDEAL house

Supervisor: Dr Franz Schlagenhaufer (franz-s@watri.org.au)

IDEAL House – Electromagnetic Compatibility Issues

As more and more sophisticated electronic equipment is installed in homes

and offices, electromagnetic interference is of growing concern. In
particular, wires and cables play an important role as they often make
excellent antennae. These can detect electromagnetic signals and transmit
them to sensitive devices which are then disturbed and unable to perform as intended; or these
wires can radiate signals injected by noisy devices, such as energy efficient lighting. The high-
frequency characteristics of cables and wires are therefore crucial
for interference-free operation of electronic equipment. In this project the performance of cables
and wires under high frequency operation will be investigated through measurements and
simulations.

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3) Integration of the IDEAL House Network and Software Systems
Associate Professor Gary Bundell (bundell@ee.uwa.edu.au)
Dr Roberto Togneri (roberto@ee.uwa.edu.au)

In this project you will be involved with the specification, reconfiguration, evaluation and
documentation of the network and software systems currently being deployed in the IDEAL House.
The motivated student (or team) can work on any one or all of the following
tasks: reconfiguring the internal LAN and the wireless WAN connection, deployment of the GPAC
software system, reconfiguring the main software server and services to better meet the needs of
the current and future demands on the house, deployment of new or enhanced key hardware or
software infrastructure from discussions with potential sponsors and clients . Students will also be
expected to liase and discuss options with students involved with other 3rd and final-year IDEAL
House projects in 2009.

4) Electronic Monitoring of the IDEAL House

Dr. Jasmine Henry (jasmine@ee.uwa.edu.au)
Dr Roberto Togneri (roberto@ee.uwa.edu.au)

This project will involve the motivated student (or team) to do a feasibility study, design with a
costings analysis, possibly target sponsors for equipment and software, and then configure and
deploy critical infrastructures and services to improve the integration, usability and flexibility of all
activities in the house.

Specific tasks (which may be undertaken by different students) include:

1) providing a web interface to the data logging and smart metering, including using a
touch-screen to integrate all aspects of the house monitoring and control (which can
then be demonstrated)

2) deployment of an external weather monitoring station and webcam, as well as

internal temperature and humidity sensors so that power usage can be linked with
current weather conditions (for optimum control)

5) Solid-State Lighting and Sensors for Managing the Home Environment

Supervisors: A/Prof. John Dell, Prof. Laurie Faraone, Dr. Charlie Musca, A/
Prof Brett Nener, Dr. Gia Parish

This area encompasses the use of semiconductor devices (solid state devices) such as photodiodes
and LEDs for use in various sensing and control applications, such as lighting, motion detection, and
temperature and atmospheric monitoring. Specific projects include, but are not limited to:
· high-efficiency LEDs for solid-state lighting
· Control of lighting, including multi-colour LEDs for custom and mood lighting.
· Ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) photodetectors for air quality assessment.
· IR detectors for motion sensing
· UV detectors for UV level monitoring
· Use of LEDs and sensors to enhance gaming experience (such as interactive lighting or
sensors for human interface)

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Joint Project between School of EECE and Faculty of Architecture Landscape and Visual Arts (ALVA)

6) Optimisation of design and energy generation of the Pingelly IDEAL-ALVA house.

Supervisors: Dr J. Henry (EECE) , Dr D. Trimboli (ALVA) and Dr Patrick Beale (ALVA)

The IDEAL House concept has expanded to include a substantial timber framed home consisting of 3
bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and living areas. This IDEAL-ALVA House is located at Pingelly
(about 2.5 hours drive south east of Perth) and will be the manager's house on a UWA Smart Farm.
The house will be connected to the electricity grid but it is envisaged that the house will eventually
be self sustaining in an energy and water sense.

This project will focus on the possible energy solutions that could be implemented to make the
house energy self-sufficient, and also how the design and set up of the House can best support
energy efficiency (solar passive aspects, appliance choice etc) and also accommodate any equipment
required to generated electricity (such as pv panels, wind turbines etc). It is possible that this
project may involve one or more field trips to the Pingelly house, which will be organised by the
supervisors of this project.

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Automation Computing
and Energy Research
Group (ACE)
ACE is a multidisciplinary research group which brings together researchers from engineering,
science, mathematics, physics and medicine. The Centre combines an active undergraduate and
postgraduate teaching programme with pure and applied research to provide an environment in
which innovative theoretical developments can be rapidly turned into technologies that provide
solutions to a range of real-world problems. The focus of the research is the development of
intelligent information processing systems and their applications. The group is active in the areas of
artificial neural networks, computer-assisted learning, control, digital signal processing, human-
computer interaction, image processing, parallel and reconfigurable computing, robotics, software
engineering, and spoken language systems.

The staff of the group include:

Assistant Professor Mike Alder (School of Mathematics and Statistics), Email:

mike.alder@uwa.edu.au, Telephone: 6488 3360.
Ms Linda Barbour (Administrative Assistant CIIPS), Room 4.14, Email: linda.barbour@uwa.edu.au,
Telephone: 6488 3897.
Professor Thomas Bräunl (Director CIIPS), Room 4.15, Lab 3.13, Email: thomas.braunl@uwa.edu.au,
Telephone: 6488 1763.
Professor Gary Bundell (Adjunct Professor), Room 4.12, Lab 3.02, Email: gary.bundell@uwa.edu.au,
Telephone: 6488 3815.
Mr Chris Croft (Adjunct Research Fellow CIIPS), Room 3.11, Email: Christopher.croft@uwa.edu.au,
Telephone: 6488 3897.
Profesor Karen Haines (Director WASP, School of Physics), Email: karen@wasp.uwa.edu.au,
Telephone: 6488 8741.
Associate Professor Jasmine Henry (Associate Professor), Room 1.67, Email:
jasmine.henry@uwa.edu.au, Telephone: 6488 2537.
Professor Tam Tien Nguyen (Director ESC), Room 4.08, Email: tam.nguyen@uwa.edu.au, Telephone:
6488 2559.
Professor Terry Woodings (Adjunct Associate Professor - also Computer Science and Software
Engineering), Room 4.18, Lab 3.02, Email: terry.woodings@uwa.edu.au, Telephone: 6488 2618.
Associate Professor Kevin Vinsen (Research Associate Professor), Email: kvinsen@ee.uwa.edu.au.
Professor Anthony Zaknich (Adjunct Professor), Room 4.04, Email: tonko@ee.uwa.edu.au,
Telephone: 6488 1764.

AUTOMOTIVE LAB
(Prof. Thomas Bräunl)
The Automotive Lab was established in 2008 and is dedicated to research in alternative drive
systems, such as plug-in electric vehicles, as well as active driving safety, such as driver-assistance
systems. The Automotive Lab currently houses four vehicles, a BMW X5, a Hyundai Getz, a Lotus
Elise S2 and a Formula SAE race car.

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A list of all projects is available at: http://robotics.ee.uwa.edu.au/students/projects.html

Electric Cars - REV

REV (Renewable energy vehicle)

This is a Faculty-wide project and looks at finding alternatives to petrol-based cars. These projects
are suitable for students in Mechanical, Mechatronics, Electrical, Computer Engineering and
Computer Science.
REV is conveting the following cars to electric drive:
• Economy car: Conversion of a 2008 Hyundai Getz to electric drive using DC technology
• Performance car: Conversion of a 2002 Lotus Elise S2 to electric drive using AC technology
• Formula SAE Electric (FSE) car: Conversion of 2001 UWA Motorsport car to pure plug-in
electric car
Web: theREVproject.com

Drive-by-wire
The BMW X5 is being converted to steer-by-wire and brake-by wire while maintaining its normal
drivability. The car is being used as a test vehicle for evaluating vision-based driver assistance
systems.

Projects available:

1. BATTERY/CONTROLLER management for Electric Performance Car

Design and implement circuitry for connecting the electric motor, batteries and controller box.
Analyzing and experimenting with controller box, finding optimal drive parameters.

2. ON-BOARD INSTRUMENTATION for Economy and Performance Car

Using a color LCD touch-sreen, develop a central car information center that can display all relevant
driving information and car status info.

3. BLACK BOX for Electric Performance Car

Develop a black box for a car, similar to a flight recorder in a plane. This will comprise an embedded
controller, sensors including GPS, Accelerometer, Analog inputs for current/voltage and a USB
memory stick for data recording.
The project also includes the requirement for a user interface both on the black-box side (start-stop
recording) as well as on the PC side (graphical presentation of results, e.g. Excel)

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4. DRIVE-BY-WIRE for BMW X5
Conduct a study and design all components for converting a performance car to drive-by-wire. This
requires gas-by-wire, brake-by-wire, steering-by-wire.
Note: Our aim is to keep the car street-legal, so an essential part of this project is to make sure all
legislative requirements are being met.

5. GETZ AND LOTUS: Mechatronic: Performance analysis

Compare and contrast operational efficiencies of these two electric vehicles under different driving
conditions, and propose modifications which may improve their performance.

6. FORMULA SAE ELECTRIC (FSE) - build Mechanical: Aluminium Spaceframe Chassis Design
Using in-wheel motors will free up a lot of the space in the vehicle body, and calls for a unique
chassis layout and design. Steel spaceframe chassis are commonly used for Formula SAE, but can
aluminium offer superior strength to weight?

7. FORMULA SAE ELECTRIC (FSE) - Mechanical: Carbon Fibre Spaceframe Chassis Design
Using in-wheel motors will free up a lot of the space in the vehicle body and calls for a unique chassis
layout and design. In recent years the UWA Motorsport team had used a carbon fibre bathtub
chassis design for their Formula SAE vehicles, but can the structural advantages of spaceframe
designs combined with the strength to weight of carbon fibre offer a superior solution?

8. FORMULA SAE ELECTRIC (FSE) - Mechanical: Suspension design

The 2011 will use in-wheel (hub) motors, which presents unique challenges for suspension design.
This project requires familiarisation with suspension technology, and its application to our FSE
vehicle with special attention to the consequences of increased unsprung mass.

9. FORMULA SAE ELECTRIC (FSE) - Mechanical (Aerodynamics): Passive Ground Effect Devices
Passive ground effect devices use aerodynamics beneath a vehicle to increase downforce through
reducing under-body air pressure. Is this a viable proposition for Formula SAE?

10. FORMULA SAE ELECTRIC (FSE) - Mechanical: (Aerodynamics) Dynamic Control Surfaces
Electronically controlled dynamic control surfaces such as variable-angle wings can modify a
vehicle's downforce and drag balance in realtime, offering more downforce during cornering without
compromising drag coefficient during straightaways. Are they a viable option in Formula SAE?

11. FORMULA SAE ELECTRIC (FSE) - Electrical (Power Electronics): Brushless DC Motor Controller
Electric vehicles can use their motor(s) to slow the car down, reducing the load on mechanical
brakes. However most commerical motor controllers have greatly reduced regenerative braking
capabilities, which restricts the usefulness of regen braking. Design a BLDC motor controller which
can provide as much regen current as drive current.

12. FORMULA SAE ELECTRIC (FSE) - Electrical (Power Electronics): Electromechanical Brake Energy
Storage
Regenerative braking performed by motors in electric vehicles can offer powerful braking, but few
batteries can accept a high enough rate of charge. Design an electronic device based around either
ultracapacitors or shunt resistors which can accept high rates of current from a DC buss.

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13. FORMULA SAE ELECTRIC (FSE) - Mechatronic: Advanced Cabin Design for FSE Vehicles
In an electric Formula SAE vehicle the driver will need to view various vehicle parameters such as
battery state of charge, power flow, motor temperatures, and be able to quickly respond to any
emergency conditions. Design an intuitive cabin layout for a FSE vehicle which complies with
Formula SAE rules.

14. FORMULA SAE ELECTRIC (FSE) - Computer Eng: Realtime FSE Telemetry Monitoring Software
Our 2011 FSE vehicle will have a variety of onboard telemetry systems being transmitted in realtime
back to a monitoring PC. Design some software to view and analyse this datastream.

ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LAB

(Professor Thomas Bräunl)
The Robotics and Automation lab has been active since 1998 undertaking research on all types of
autonomous mobile robots, including intelligent driving and walking robots, autonomous
underwater vehicles, and unmanned aerial vehicles. We also work on the design of embedded
controllers and embedded operating systems, as well as on simulation systems.

A list of all projects is available at: http://robotics.ee.uwa.edu.au/students/projects.html

Projects available:

1. Driver Assistance Systems

We have developed a new version of the image processing rapid-prototyping tool "Improv". This
tool is based on the library OpenCV and is to be used for implementing vision-based driver-
assistance functions for automobiles.
1.1. Lane Recognition in BMW X5:
Using an embedded system and our image processing framework ImprovCV, implement a
driver-assistance system that can automatically detect lane markings and warn the driver
acoustically of a dangerous situation.
Note: We have existing software for lane recognition. This project will have to port this PC
software to a small embedded System. Good C/C++ knowledge is required

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 1.2. Vehicle detection and vehicle tracking with collision avoidance.
1.3. Automatic braking assistant for collision mitigation.
1.4. Porting and extending of standard OpenCV image processing functions to Improv.

2. Automotive Simulation System

We are building a comprehensive automotive
simulation system as a group project. The simulation
system will run either on a standard Windows PC or
on a full mock-up with driver cabin and projectors. A
public domain full 3D physics engine is used in this
project to calculate realistic acceleration forces and
motion vectors. The simulation system will later be
used as a testbed for driver-assistance functions

2.1. User Interface Implementation.

2.2. Design of car models (graphics and physics features).
2.3. Design of environment models (streets, traffic signs, buildings):
We will use true map data and recreate subsets for the cities of: Perth (AUS), Los Angeles (US),
München (GER). Inner-city scenes as well as highway scenes will have to be modelled.
2.4. Design of car API and virtual sensor interfaces and implementation.

3. Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

This group project is to build mechanics, electronics and
software for an autonomous underwater vehicle. The goal
is to participate in the new Australian AUV competition.
Link: US AUVSI competition:
http://www.auvsi.org/competitions/water.cfm
3.1. Echo-sounder based navigation and control
3.2. Vision-based detection tasks

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4. Autonomous Wheel-Chair
We have built an electric wheel-chair platform that operates as an autonomous vehicle. The wheel-
chair will be equipped with a number of sensors and on-board controllers. This is a joint project for
several students working together.

4.1. Driving along a corridor:

The wheel-chair should be able to drive along a
corridor without hitting the wall, obstacles or
people.
4.2. Autonomous door-way passing:
The wheel chair should adjust itself and drive
through a narrow door-way autonomously.
4.3. Navigation:
After entering a room number, the wheel-chair
should autonomously find its way in the EE building
and drive to the desired room.

5. Second Life
UWA has a Second Life presence as of Oct. 2009. The goal
of this project is to model interactive robots and possible
electric cars developed in the Robotics and Automation lab
and bring them into Second Life.

5.1. Omni-Wheelchair
5.2. Biped Robots
5.3. EyeBot Robots
5.4. REV Eco+Racer

6. Augmented Reality
The goal of this project is to develop an interactive
application between real and simulated robots on one side
and human operators on the other side. The set-up will
include a ceiling-mounted projector that displays scenarios on
a table and a ceiling-mounted camera that gives feedback
about the interaction.

6.1. Graphics generation

6.2. Implementation of virtual (simulated) robots

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7. Advanced Embedded Systems

We are developing a new RoBIOS-Version on top of Linux for the latest EyeBot M6 controller project.
The hardware is an ARM9 together with a Xilinx FPGA and stereo cameras. The following projects
concentrate on software development for this new hardware.

7.1. Development of image-preprocessing routines in VHDL for FPGA

7.2. Development of actuator and sensor routines (motor and sensor
drivers) for controller
7.3. Porting of all RoBIOS functions
7.4. Development of Monitor program

8. EyeSim Simulation Systems

For the new high-performance embedded controller, we need an new version of the EyeSim
simulator, which can also emulate the new controller features such as:
• widescreen, color LCD
• touch-screen
• dual (stereo) cameras
• updated RoBIOS functions

8.1. Modify EyeSim user interface

8.2. Update EyeSim-RoBIOS functions

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 SIGNAL PROCESSING AND DATA ARCHIVAL FOR RADIO ASTRONOMY
(Andreas Wicenec, Kevin Vinsen, and/or Christopher Harris)

These projects are in collaboration with the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
(ICRAR). ICRAR is a joint venture between the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Curtin
University of Technology supported with funding from the Government of Western Australia. ICRAR
aims to make a significant contribution to scientific and technical programs supporting the
Australian SKA Pathfinder and SKA by participating in key science programs involving very large scale
surveys, time-domain astronomy and data intensive research which pose a computational challenge
for the computer programs used in analysis due to the sheer scale of the data involved.

NGAS is a highly scalable file object archiving and distribution system which supports globally
distributed components. It is based on two main requirements: combining archive and data transfer;
and co-locate processing and storage. It is being used at ESO since 2001 and at NRAO since 2008 and
is currently being deployed for ALMA and the eVLA.

Projects Available:

1. NGAS Buildout

The core of the Next Generation Archive System (NGAS) has been implemented back in 2001 already
using Python 1.6 in the beginning.
Around that time there was no proper build and distribution process for big projects available and
thus a proprietary system had been implemented. In the meantime there are a few very advanced
build and distribution systems around and it now makes sense to move NGAS to use one of those. In
particular for this project the zc.buildout should be evaluated in detail and at least the build part
should also be implemented. If time permits the extended NGAS tests should also be migrated into
the new system.

2. NGAS Multi Process

The Next Generation Archive System (NGAS) is implemented in 100% pure Python. One draw-back of
the Python interpreter for efficient usage of modern multi-core processors is the so-called global
interpreter lock.
This lock prevents Python code of using more than one core in multi-threaded programs. In Python
version 2.6 a new module is available which exposes individual processes in the same way as the
Python threading library, thus making it possible to refractor multi-threaded programs into truly
multi-process programs. The goal of this project is to first evaluate the impact of such a refactoring
for NGAS and if the impact seems to be justified implement the usage of the multi-process module.

3. NGAS Postgres Plugin

The Next Generation Archive System (NGAS) already allows the usage of five different relational
database systems as a backend. The database backend is encapsulated in a plugin system and thus
implementing another database boils down to implementing a plugin for that database. The goal of
this project is to implement a backend plugin for the Postgres database.

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4. OpenCL Fast Transient Detector

Maximising the performance of the CRAFT GPU-based fast transient detector will allow it to search
for a wider range of transient events. While the current GPU transient detector is CUDA-based,
developing an OpenCL-based version will enable the use of a wider range of heterogeneous parallel
accelerator architectures. The Open Computing Language (OpenCL) is an open industry standard
framework for writing programs that can be executed across a range of such platforms.

In this project, the student will port the existing CUDA-based GPU fast transient detector to OpenCL
and investigate the performance on NVIDA and AMD ATI graphics processing units, as well as
multicore CPUs. Testing will use Aricebo data, and there will be scope for improving the algorithm
for improved peak detection and radio frequency interference. The student should be comfortable
programming in C, and have some experience with a parallel heterogeneous programming
framework such as CUDA or OpenCL.

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING ANALYSIS MANAGEMENT

(Mr Chris Croft and Professor Thomas Bräunl)

Projects Available:

1. Real time analysis of music to determine the chord progression:

The aim of the project is to sample music and determining the chord progression in real time. The
project will be in two stages, first stage to break down the musical sound into the harmonics and
determine the root frequency as well as the harmonics. The key will be know for this process. The
second stage will be to sample the whole song and determine the key, then using this information in
real time determine the chord progression.

2. Railway Safety System

Develop methods of determining the state of the foundation of a rail formation in advance of a
moving train. This project has real benefits to rail operators where the rail line may be intact but the
supporting formation may be compromised. This will be part of an ongoing research project that we
will be approaching industry for implementation. This first stage will require some interaction with
geotechnical engineering. Chris Croft as co supervisor will be able to provide that assistance as he is
a civil engineer and has worked as a geotechnical engineer. The project has major economic benefits
for major rail users world wide and would suit a student that may be interested in pursing this
project past undergraduate level, either in postgraduate study or while in industry.

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MICROELECTRONICS RESEARCH
GROUP
The Microelectronics Research Group (MRG) is headed by Professor Laurie Faraone, and consists of
7 academic staff, 7 research staff, and 20 postgraduates. The MRG has built up to be one of
Australia’s largest and most respected microelectronics research groups. This has led to
collaboration with a wide range of international and Australian industry and research organisations 1.
In 2008, the Microelectronics Research Group was awarded a prestigious Eureka Prize for Science in
Support of Defence and Security for its world leading work.
The projects undertaken by the MRG cover:
• Microelectronics,
• Optoelectronics,
• Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS),
• Nanotechnology, and
• VLSI
with applications in:
• Agriculture,
• Defence,
• Manufacturing,
• Medicine,
• Remote sensing and environmental monitoring,
• Spectroscopy,
• Surveillance, and much more
The work covers areas from semiconductor device modelling, fabrication, and fundamental material
characterisation, through instrumentation and control electronics, to systems integration and
analysis. The support for the research and engineering projects undertaken by the MRG comes from
a mixture of Government and industrial funding.
The facilities available are among the best in Australia in the area of semiconductor material and
device fabrication, characterisation and modelling. The group operates a nanofabrication facility for
fabrication of semiconductor devices, and has a multitude of test and characterisation equipment, as
well as commercial packages used for device and circuit simulations, modelling and layout. For many
projects in this area students will use state-of-the-art equipment and techniques to measure a
number of important semiconductor or device parameters. In some projects students will also
undertake data analysis and help develop explanations of the observed semiconductor
material/device behaviour, much of which will be new and never before reported. There is also
scope to develop automated instrumentation control software in some areas.

1
Some of the organisations with which the MRG has ongoing links include: Defence Science and Technology
Organisation (DSTO, Australia), Tenix Defence Systems (Australia), CSIRO Division of Telecommunications and
Industrial Physics (Australia), Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE, Australia),
Integrated Spectronics (Australia), Grain Research and Development Corporation (GRDC Australia), IMEC
(Belgium), CEA-LETI (France), CNRS (France), University of Tabriz (Iran), Technion (Israel), Korean Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST, Korea), Vigo Systems (Poland), US Navy Space and Naval Warfare
Center (SPAWAR, USA), Lakeshore Cryotronics (USA), University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB, USA),
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC, USA), Naval Research Laboratories (NRL, USA), DRS Infrared
Technologies (Dallas, USA), Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA, USA), Army Research Labs
(ARL, USA), Night Vision Electronic Sensor Directorate (NVESD, Washington, USA), Raytheon Vision Systems
(Santa Barbara, USA), University of New Mexico (Albuquerque), Charles University, Prague (Czech Republic),
Parma University (Italy)
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All the final year projects offered by the MRG are self-contained but are related to, or support, larger
ongoing projects (for more information about these visit the MRG web page at
http://mrg.ee.uwa.edu.au/). The type of work involved varies from fundamental and theoretical
research through to applied instrumentation control and development. Most projects include some
mixture of experimental and theoretical work. Final year students will work alongside postgraduate
students and research staff with all projects conducted in a collegiate atmosphere of collaboration
between students and staff.
The following sections describe the general areas of research undertaken by the MRG. There are a
number of projects available in each area. Most projects tend to be somewhat open-ended as
would be expected with a research program. The exact limits and expected outcomes of your
project depend to some extent on your interests, and will be defined in consultation with you. You
will be part of a team of staff and postgraduate students, each working on different aspects of a
larger project and who are interested and keen to see your project succeed. In return for this
support, you will be expected to regularly report your results to the group and take a wider interest
in the overall project. For more information about projects, please contact any of the members of
the MRG. Particular experience and/or skills are advantageous to achieve the requirements of some
of the projects described. However, the scope of projects is sufficient to allow the student to obtain
these skills during the course of project.

Academic Staff Research Staff

Laurie Faraone faraone@ee.uwa.edu.au Jarek Antoszewski jarek@ee.uwa.edu.au
Room: 1.78 Room: 1.65
Farid Boussaid Mariusz Martyniuk mariusz@ee.uwa.edu.au
boussaid@ee.uw Room: 4.17
a.edu.au
Room: 4.20
John Dell johnd@ee.uwa.edu.au Leo Schuler schuler@ee.uwa.edu.au
Room: 1.68 Room: 1.02A
Charlie Musca charlie@ee.uwa.edu.au Dilusha Silva dsilva@ee.uwa.edu.au
Room: 1.66 Room: 4.22
Brett Nener brett@ee.uwa.edu.au Gilberto Umana-Membreno umana-
Room: 1.72 ga@ee.uwa.edu.au
Room: 1.21B
Gia Parish giap@ee.uwa.edu.au Tamara Fehlberg tamara@ee.uwa.edu.au
Room: 1.76 Room: 3.22
Adrian Keating Gordon Tsen gtko@ee.uwa.edu.au
keating@mech.u Room: 1.21B
wa.edu.au
(MechEng) Room: 1.02B

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The following postgraduate students are doing their research with the MRG:

Azlan Baharin Kwan Ting Ng Yueqin (Jerome) Wu (UQ)

Tamara Fehlberg Mohamad Susli David Wyndham
Stuart Hatch Gordon Tsen Yimeng Yang
Timothy James Hari Kiran Vege Jing Zhang
Fei Jiang Yan Wang Xiaoxiao Zhao
Meifang Lai Danny Wee Xiaojin Zhao
Jason Milne Ryan Westerhout

The following are international visitors to the MRG (2009):

Prof. H.C. Liu National Research Council, USA

Prof. Wei Lu Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai
Prof. Klaus Ploog Paul Drude Institute, Germany
Prof. A. Rogalski Military University of Technology, Poland

A. MICROWAVE DEVICES AND OPTOELECTRONIC SENSORS

These projects fall into three main areas; gallium nitride-based devices; micro-machined sensors;
infrared (IR) sensors and systems. Projects in the devices area involve a combination of
experimental and theoretical work. Fabrication, characterisation and/or modelling of devices
from all three of the sub-areas are undertaken by the MRG.
Many of the projects involve collaborative work with international researchers from University of
California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Lakeshore Cryotronics in
the USA, Vigo Systems in Poland, Raytheon Vision Systems (USA), NVESD (USA), and DRS Infrared
Technologies (Dallas).
GaN-BASED DEVICES
(BD Nener, G Parish, L Faraone, J Antoszewski, G Umana Membreno,)
This project aims to achieve reliable, manufacturable high performance III-nitride (GaN, AIN, InN and
alloys) transistors for use in high power, high frequency applications such as radar and
communication systems. The GaN-based FET technology offers significantly improved performance
for applications in RF/microwave power amplifiers, high speed switching for power electronics, and
operation in harsh electrically noise environments, such as the automotive industry, space
applications, and switch mode power supplies. Despite rapid progress in performance, AlGaN/GaN-
based transistors are hampered by a variety of impediments. Two particular thrusts of our research
in this area are ion implantations and dielectrics. Ion implantation offers the potential to enable a
reliable, commercially feasible fabrication technology for GaN-based electronic devices. Dielectric
thin-film technologies are desired for gate-insulation and surface passivation layers to enhance the
performance, and overcome present limitations, of GaN- and AlGaN/GaN-based microwave
transistors for high power and high temperature applications. The third thrust is improvement in
electronic properties of InN, which will enable even faster electronic devices due to the high mobility
and peak velocity in InN compared to GaN.

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Projects in this area include:

A.1 AlGaN/GaN Transistor Device Reliability

What are the key limitations to AlGaN/GaN device performance? This project will involve the study
of degradation effects on critical device parameters such as channel properties in AlGaN/GaN field
effect transistors. In particular, understanding charge distribution and behaviour at the AlGaN/GaN
interface has been identified as a crucial issue by our partners at UCSB, in the path to
commercialisation of microwave GaN-based transistors.

A.2 Magneto-Transport of GaN-Based Transistor Structures

Q: What makes a transistor a HEMT (high electron mobility transistor)? A: Excellent carrier transport
properties. This project will involve measurement of carrier transport in FET devices, under the
influence of an applied magnetic field. Current joint projects with UCSB include investigations into
the effect of passivation layers such as silicon nitride, and use of ion implantation for industrial scale
processing. This project is closely related to A.1.

A.3 Modelling and Simulation of GaN Devices

The AlGaN material system exhibits many unique properties that must be carefully considered in
modelling device behaviour. Furthermore, as a relatively new material system, there are many
aspects and parameters that are unknown or as yet unconfirmed experimentally. This project will
involve development of in-house modelling packages for GaN-based devices through adaptation of
commercial packages such as Sentaurus. Models developed will be used to simulate device
behaviour and compare with measured results.

A.4 Electronic Biological/Chemical Sensors

This project aims to develop a novel electronic biosensor. A bio-friendly, chemically inert and stable
III-Nitride-transistor-based bio/chem-sensor will be developed to detect responses to various
specific compounds/chemicals , particularly through cell receptors. The ability to monitor biological
and chemical signals with an electronic device is a tremendously innovative approach for cell
research and process control in pharmaceutical and microbiological production, and chemical
sensing applications. The primary aims are:
• Study biocompatibility between the semiconducting material used as the sensor and living cells.
• Develop and optimise electronic device structures to attach and confine the living cells to the
semiconductor surface of the biosensor.
• Study the behaviour of the electronic bio/chem-sensor before and after exposure to
chemicals/compounds. Identify the dominant physical mechanisms that influence the detection
limit of the bio/chem-sensor.

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 MICRO ELECTRO-MECHANICAL SYSTEMS (MEMS)
(JM Dell, J Antoszewski, L Faraone, A Keating, M Martyniuk)

Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) represent the integration of mechanical elements,

sensors and actuators, with photonics and electronics on a single substrate. The application of
microfabrication technology, developed for the manufacture of silicon very-large-scale-integrated
(VLSI) circuits, to generate miniature three-dimensional structures such as motors, gears,
accelerometers and pressure sensors on the same substrate as the associated drive and sensing
electronics has dramatically changed and expanded the field of mechatronics. In addition to
allowing mechanical manufacture on a micro-miniature scale, MEMS technology brings the low-cost,
high-throughput techniques of VLSI technology to mechanical and sensor systems. Specific
applications of MEMS include accelerometers for air-bag deployment and shock sensors,
micropumps for drug delivery, pressure sensors for measuring tyre pressures. The Microelectronics
Research Group is working on optical MEMS technology to make optical detectors which are only
sensitive over a small, electrically tuneable wavelength range.

A.5 Investigation of Chemical Sensing Technologies Based on MEMS Devices

Small, inexpensive and robust chemical sensing is now a major business, with applications from
security (detection of explosives at an airport for example), to global warming (determination of
total carbon in soil is important for carbon sequestration and development of carbon-credit
schemes), medicine, automotive engineering, … This project will investigate the use of MEMS and
some innovative properties of materials developed at UWA for applications in chemical sensing. The
devices to be developed will be effectively electronic noses. This project will is quite open and could
be a broad scoping study, or could investigate a particular type of device in detail. It will primarily be
theoretical. Skills required for this project will be an interest in innovative technologies and the
ability to mathematically model a number of different physical phenomena including optical
waveguides and mechanical resonances in small structures.

A.6 Creating Micro-electromechanical Systems Outside the Cleanroom

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are becoming common place technologies in air bags,
pressure sensors and projectors. Developing new MEMS technologies offers the opportunities for
new products, applications and companies to be created. However MEMS are currently fabricated
in cleanrooms which have large costs associated with them, making development costs high and
prevents this technology from filtering down to the undergraduate units. This project will educate
students about the process required to make MEMS. The student will then look at these processes
and any alternative processes which can be borrowed from other fields (such as the printed circuit
board fabrication industry) to allow the MEMS to be created outside of the cleanroom, in a safe
operating environment. Students will test out these processes, fabricate their own MEMS, test the
MEMS using the advanced metrology facilities available within MRG and compare the results with
simple models (analytical, Coventorware or ANSYS).

A.7 Mapping Micro-photoelastic-induced Changes for Characterization of Biosensors

Microcantilever based biosensors are a novel next generation approach to building high sensitivity
sensor arrays. The aim of this project is to create a computer controlled system which focuses a
pulsed high power laser onto an absorbing thin film. The absorbed thermal pulse is expected to
cause localized thermal expansion, resulting in a propagating acoustic wave. A laser Doppler
vibrometer will be used to measure the induced vibrations. After programming of the XY-motion

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stage and laser to map the surface, the process will be characterized to determine the magnitude of
the induced thermal expansions. Using simple structures such as micro-cantilevers, the project will
investigate optimal locations where the photo-induced thermal expansion can be applied.

INFRARED SENSORS
(J Antoszewski, JM Dell, L Faraone, BD Nener)

The ability of IR detectors to directly sense the thermal output of an object has found wide
application in thermal imaging for medical diagnostics, bushfire detection, satellite remote sensing,
search and rescue, thermal loss budget estimation, as well as the more traditional defence and
aerospace applications. In addition, emerging applications of IR detectors are found in spectroscopic
systems for mineral exploration, pipeline monitoring, pollution detection and identification, and gas
monitoring systems. Specific examples include; detection of tumours and tissue damage, detecting
illegal waste disposal by ships in harbours, preventative maintenance in electrical switchgear such as
high voltage transformers. For the fabrication of sensitive IR detectors, the highest performance is
achieved in devices using the semiconductor material mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe or MCT).
There are a number of unique properties which give MCT an advantage over competing
technologies, with the main advantage being the ability to bandgap engineer the material, for
specific applications. The MRG has recently developed new detector structures that are at the
leading edge of IR sensor technology. A large amount of research is being carried out to characterise
and test the performance of new devices. Projects in this area will include:

A.8 Characterisation and Modelling of HgCdTe Photovoltaic Detectors

This project will undertake theoretical modelling and performance measurements of infrared
photodiodes fabricated in the MRG laboratory. The junctions are formed using an in-house
developed process, and are expected to deliver state-of-the-art performance. These detectors are
employed in large two-dimensional arrays that are used for infrared imaging for applications such as
night vision, surveillance, medical imaging and environmental applications. A commercial modelling
package, Sentaurus Device, will be used to perform two-dimensional modelling of devices.

A.9 Characterisation of HgCdTe Heterojunction Photodiodes

This work will investigate the performance of HgCdTe photodiodes based on bandgap engineered
structures. This will involve both measurements and theoretical calculations. Bandgap engineering
is one of the latest methods used to improve device performance and functionality, and involves the
control of material thickness down to the atomic layer level.

A.10 Noise in HgCdTe Based Photodetectors

The signal-to-noise ratio in photodetectors is a key performance parameter. The measurement of

noise and the identification of noise mechanisms is a fundamental requirement in the improvement
of performance. This project will look at theoretical noise models and measurement of noise. The
project will use devices known as gated-photodiodes to measure and identify noise mechanisms.

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B. SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIAL PROCESSES AND CHARACTERISATION
(J Antoszewski, JM Dell, L Faraone, G.Parish, BD Nener, G Umana Membreno, M Martyniuk, G.
Tsen)
The MRG has some of Australia’s best facilities for undertaking materials characterisation for a wide
range of semiconductors, and has developed techniques that are now licensed by large
semiconductor facilities around the world. A number of projects are available in this area, working
on the development of new techniques, as well as using techniques we have already established to
measure the properties of semiconductor layers.
The data obtained from these measurements give information about the electrical, optical and
structural properties of the semiconductor layers. This information will be used to design new
growth processes and develop new electronic and sensor devices.
Students will gain experience in high technology instrumentation, low-level signal measurement
techniques, and low-noise system layout. These skills are applicable in a wide range of
communications and electronics areas, as well as in the mainstream semiconductor industry.

B.1 Sensitivity of Quantitative Mobility Spectrum Analysis (QMSA) Technique

QMSA is a state-of-the-art analysis technique developed at UWA, and currently licensed to a US

scientific equipment supplier, for characterising multiple hole and/or electron carrier species that
often exist in modern semiconductor materials and devices. This project seeks to investigate
theoretically the influence of sample’s non-uniformities (such as material composition, doping level,
thickness) on the transport parameters extracted by QMSA.

B.2 Characterisation of Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) Materials

In the present bulk-Si nanoelectronics technology, where individual transistors are already
approaching the size comparable with silicon layer thickness (tens of nanometres), the size/thickness
related issues lead to fundamental problems in the process of scaling devices. It is generally believed
that further miniaturisation will be achieved through Silicon On Insulator (SOI) technology, which, in
contrast to its predecessor, is based on silicon layers with thickness approaching less than ten
nanometers, allowing further scaling without compromising the size/thickness ratio.
This project involves characterisation of electrical transport properties of state of the art SOI wafers,
supplied by oversees vendors, using Hall Effect and Magnetoresistance techniques.

MERCURY CADMIUM TELLURIDE

The MRG has an established Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) growth facility for mercury cadmium
telluride (HgCdTe) semiconductor structures for high-performance infrared detectors. MBE, a state
of the art technology for semiconductor crystal growth, allows growth of layers of different
semiconductors, from as thin as a single atomic layer, to layers tens of microns thick. MBE
technology is very important for fabrication and design of ultra-high performance electronics and
optoelectronics devices using bandgap engineering. The Defence Science and Technology
Organisation (DSTO) selected the Microelectronics Research Group to establish a university based
MBE facility for the growth of mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) semiconductors, using equipment
worth ~$3.5 million donated by DSTO.

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B.3 How to Make Stable Semiconductor Materials

While mercury cadmium telluride is the best material to make infrared detectors, it also has many
difficulties. One of these is that the surface of the semiconductor is very sensitive. To fix this
problem, the surface is coated using another material (cadmium telluride). While this works, it is
unclear why it works and if this is the optimum way of fixing the problem. This project will
investigate the interface between the two materials to try and understand what is happening. This
will be done using very simple semiconductor devices – capacitors and photoconductors. The
capacitor (a metal-insulator-semiconductor or MIS capacitor) allows extraction of data related to
charges trapped at the interface and how they are trapped. A photoconductor is a light sensitive
resistor that can be used to measure rate at which electrons and holes are trapped at the surface.
HgCdTe material used in this work is either grown in-house (using Molecular Beam Epitaxy) or
purchased externally. In either case, to prove the device quality of the material photoconductors are
an ideal test device.

B.4 How to Make Nano-scale pn Junctions in Mercury Cadmium Telluride

Making a pn junction diode in mercury cadmium telluride is the basis of the most sensitive infrared
detector structures. The size of the pn junction directly relates to how sensitive the detector is (may
be surprisingly, the smaller the size of the diode, the more sensitive the detector can be). We have
developed a very simple technique that should allow us to make pn junctions diodes with areas less
than 1μm×1μm (that is less than 10-6mm2, or less than around one hundredth the diameter of a
hair). The problem is then, how to you characterise such small diodes or even make contact to
them. In this project you will use a scanning laser microscope (SLM) to do this. The SLM can be used
for a number of techniques including: transient lifetime, laser beam induced current (LBIC) spatial
photoresponse.
• Transient lifetime measurements are used to measure the lifetime of carriers in a semiconductor.
Carrier lifetime is one of the most important semiconductor parameters and has a significant
affect on the performance of devices fabricated from semiconductors. Transient lifetime is
measured by illuminating the semiconductor with a pulsed focussed laser, and measuring the
decay time of the resulting electrical signal.
• The LBIC technique is being investigated as a non-destructive in-process testing tool for the
characterisation of IR arrays. Ideally the LBIC tests will give information about individual
photodiode performance, and the overall uniformity of the arrays. Projects in this area will
investigate the correlation between LBIC signature and device performance.
• Spatial photoresponse uses a focussed laser to stimulate carriers in a photodetector device,
enabling the local response of the material to be measured. By scanning the laser in a 2-
dimensional space enables the uniformity of the detector active area to a quantitatively assessed.
These projects involve use of lasers, low-noise amplifiers and the measurement of extremely low
signals. Once measurements are obtained various data analysis techniques are then employed
determine device and material performance.

B.5 Characterisation of MBE Grown Material

Molecular Beam Epitaxy is the required semiconductor growth method for fabrication of complex
multilayered device structures. The MRG runs an MBE growth facility that can grow HgCdTe. This
project will look at the analysis of the grown semiconductor layers using a number of material
characterisation techniques including Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS), LBIC, and Hall
measurements and transient lifetime.

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B.4.1. Characterisation of MBE grown MCT by x-ray diffraction

The X-ray diffraction facility at LaTrobe University in Melbourne has recently gone 'on-line'. Be the
first to use this 'telepresence' system to make measurements on the sub-nanometer scale of the
crystal structure of MCT samples grown at UWA. The results will be analysed to give information
about strain and defect formation in the semiconductor layers.

B.4.2. Measurement of molecular fluxes in molecular beam epitaxy using cavity ring-down
spectroscopy

This project is the start of a much larger project which aims to measure very low concentrations of
gases in a semiconductor crystal growth chamber using optical absorption techniques. Cavity ring-
down spectroscopy is a new ultra-sensitive laser absorption spectroscopy technique that can be
used to detect gas concentrations to much less than one part per billion. The student will be
involved in predicting the sensitivity of various cavity ring-down experiments and constructing
models of the optical absorption spectra expected during crystal growth.

B.4.3. High precision multi-channel voltmeter/data acquisition system

High performance analogue to digital conversion (ADC) chips are now readily available at low cost,
offering the possibility of constructing a high precision / low data rate voltmeter with computer
interface at a lower cost than commercial systems. This project aims to create a multi-channel data
acquisition system for monitoring several process variables during semiconductor crystal growth.
The system will require a PC user interface (written in LabVIEW) to communicate with a
microcontroller/ADC board and low-noise input electronics

B.6 Characterisation of Plasma Processed HgCdTe

Plasma processing via reactive ion etching (RIE) is the technique used by the MRG to convert p-type
HgCdTe to n-type and thus form an n-p junction. This project will undertake characterisation of this
converted region. The methods that will be used include Hall measurements and Secondary Ion
Mass Spectrometry (SIMS).

III NITRIDE

III nitride (GaN, AIN, InN and alloys) semiconductor technology is relatively immature, with
significant progress in this material system only having been achieved in the last 15 years or so.
Despite the many inherent advantages of nitride-based materials, significant challenges still exist in
the growth and fabrication of devices. Therefore there is much to be learned regarding both the
fundamental material properties of and defects within the material. Such studies are critical in
enabling nitride-based technology to reach its true potential.
The majority of the III nitride materials studied the in MRG are obtained as part of a long standing
collaborative arrangement with the University of California at Santa Barbara. The MRG undertakes
the detailed materials characterisation needed in the development of new device structures.

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B.7 Optical Measurements of GaN Minority Carrier Properties

Measure an important but elusive property in nitride material. GaN material quality is directly
related to its ability to emit light, which in turn is related to minority carrier lifetime. This project will
use novel techniques that utilise photocurrent and photo-induced luminescence to investigate
minority carrier properties in GaN material, and consequently use this information for improved
materials and device performance.

B.8 Defect characterisation of GaN Based Materials

Knowledge of the defects present in material is the first step to eliminating them. Deep level
transient spectroscopy (DLTS) will be used to investigate the electrical defects, and hence quality, of
GaN-based structures. This is particularly critical information for our current collaborative projects
with UCSB, which aim to improve material properties to enable commercially viable high power
microwave (RF) AlGan/GaN transistors.

B.9 Device Processing of GaN

Help develop state-of-the-art gallium nitride processing capabilities. GaN is a desirable material
partly because of its high temperature stability and chemical inertness. However, these properties
also make device fabrication difficult. This topic includes investigations into etched wafers and
fabricated metal contacts, both challenging but vital processing steps.

B.10 Hall/QMSA of III-nitride Materials

Good transport properties (carrier concentration and mobility) of III-nitride materials are of vital
importance for application of these materials into state-of-the-art devices. These projects will
involve transport measurements using the powerful 12T magnet and then analysis of results using
QMSA. Particular materials of interest include ion-implanted GaN, and InN.

POROUS SILICON

Porous silicon is a novel nano-material with the capability to perform as a mirror, waveguide, light
emitting diode, photodetector, and sensor. Porous silicon is formed by the anodisation of crystalline
silicon, and can be produced with a wide range of refractive indices, varying surface area, variable
energy bandgap. Furthermore a variety of materials can be infiltrated into the nanopores, including
polymers, biological species, and liquid crystals. Aside from optoelectronics, other applications
include: photonic bandgap structures in micro-optics, solar cells for energy conversion, gas sensing
for environmental monitoring, high etch selectivity for wafer technology, highly controllable etching
parameters for micromachining, biosensors, and enzyme immobilization in biotechnology.
B.10 Development of Porous Silicon-based Devices for Optoelectronic Applications
This area of research is relatively new within the group and hence work in this area will concentrate
on the development of a process for the fabrication of porous silicon and characterisation of the
material. The ultimate aim is to produce devices for optoelectronics applications. Some key
parameters of porous silicon are: porosity, porous silicon depth, optical properties, homogeneity.
These parameters are to be measured as a function of the formation process parameters. This
project will involve the investigation of techniques to produce uniform layers of porous silicon for
optoelectronic device applications.
Porous silicon-based devices that are currently being developed within the group are: distributed
Bragg reflectors (mirrors) for optical filters, and anti-reflection coatings for micro lenses.

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B.11 Build a Sensor Based on Porous Silicon

Porous silicon is an advanced material which can be used for biological and gas sensing applications.
This project explores the possibility to make a low cost optical sensor based on porous silicon. An
array of light emitting diodes, each with a different wavelength will be reflected from the porous
silicon surface and measured over time. The change is reflected signal level will provide an
indication of the analyte being sensed. This project is perfect for mechatronics engineers. The
project includes electronic and mechanical design. Skills to be developed include mechanical design,
optical sensing, an understanding of porous silicon, and understanding of sensing technologies,
signal processing, data collection and analysis.

B.12 Study of Stability of Porous Silicon

One ongoing issue with porous silicon is that the material is not stable when exposed to
atmosphere, which leads to device characteristics changing over time. This project aims to
implement a series of tests to determine if various treatments will render the material stable.
Approaches for stabilising porous silicon include annealing and functionalisation of the surface.
Accelerated aging tests will be performed on the material and tools such as reflectance
measurements and FTIR will be used to assess the stability.

B.13 Measurement of Thermally-induced Stress and Its Effect on the Optical Properties of Porous
Silicon

The thermal and optical properties of silicon are well known. However, when forming pSi, a
significant portion of the silicon matrix is replaced with air (pores). If these pores are filled with
different material (oxides or nitrides) the optical and mechanical properties of the films change.
Since these films are used for the creation of optical (bio) sensors and micro-electro-mechanical
devices, and understanding of these properties is extremely important. As part of this work,
students will have access to and learn about a range of advance metrology tools such as Fourier
Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometers, optical profilometers and optical characterization systems.

B14 Direct Laser Writing of Structures into Porous Silicon

PSi is extremely important for forming optical (bio) sensors and micro-electro-mechanical devices,
however optical photolithography (used extensively in microelectronics) cannot be used on these
films as the films are incompatible with the chemical used. Recently, we have developed a
technique to make these films robust (passivating) in the presence of these chemical, but requires
heating films rapidly to 600C ina nitrogen atmosphere. This project aims a using a focused laser
beam onto the surface of the pSi to achieve the temperatures required in a very localised region,
selectively passivating areas of the film. Subsequent exposure to a weak-base should remove all
regions which were not exposed to the laser. Using a computer controlled XY stage, we intent to
directly write features into the porous film.

C. ELECTRONIC/OPTIC SYSTEMS
(JM Dell, A Keating)

The projects in this area involve the design and production of electronic and optics systems that
assist in characterising MRG devices or demonstrating the capabilities of MRG work.

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C.1 Design of Automated Soil Analysis Instrumentation for Agriculture.

In agriculture, the cost of inputs to production (seed, water, fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, etc)
is rapidly increasing, and returns are increasingly tied to crop quality. The ability to be able to
monitor soils and target where fertilizers, herbicides etc need to be applied, and where the highest
quality produce is likely to be harvested is now essential information for farmers, but is so expensive
to obtain that it can only be used on a limited scale. Projects in this area are examining the
instrumentation required to be able to measure key soil parameters in real time using optical
techniques including infrared analysis and laser light scatter, and electrical probe measurements.
Specific projects include design of optical systems to measure infrared signatures of soil,
implementation of laser scattering measurements to determine particle size, use of electronic and
RF probing techniques to determine moisture content, and analysis of infrared signatures to extract
soil properties. Applications include wheat, rice and other grain farming, and analysis of soils for
vineyard production monitoring. These projects will be undertaken in cooperation with the School
of Earth and Geographical Sciences and the School of Plant Biology.

C.2 Infrared Analysis of Breast Milk

Breast milk is recognised as the optimum nutritional source for new born infants. However, for
premature babies, it is often essential to supplement breast milk in order that essential nutrients are
included in the baby’s food. To determine if such supplements are needed, the mother’s breast milk
must be analysed, requiring often significant sample volumes, which are then not available to the
baby. This project, undertaken in collaboration with Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UWA, is
examining ways in which infrared spectroscopy, microfluidics and signal processing can be combined
to obtain real time measurement of key nutrients in breast milk using very small sample volumes.

C.3 Design of a Sub-picofarad Capacitance Measurement System

To accurately control displacement in many MEMS devices, the capacitance between two parallel
plates is measured. Because of the size of the devices, this capacitance is very small. This project
will look at capacitance measurement techniques that can be implemented in analogue field
programmable gate arrays. The initial designs will use a technique that called a “balanced-bridge,”
but other techniques are possible. The skills required for this project are an interest in electronics
design, an interest in implementation of a system, and some budgetary skills (the project will have a
budget which is reasonably large but not infinite).

C.4 Design of a Position Control System for MEMS Tuneable Detectors

This project will look at implementation of a control system to accurately and precisely set the
wavelength of a tuneable detector. It is an electronics design project, which will be implemented in
a combination of analogue and digital field programmable gate arrays. The control system is
notionally simple, generating a voltage that controls the separation between two plates. The
capacitance between the plates will be used to sense the separation between the plates (it is this
separation that controls the wavelength of the tuneable detector). The skills required for this project
are an interest in electronics design, an interest in implementation of a system, and some budgetary
skills (the project will have a budget which is reasonably large but not infinite).

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C.5 An Automated Computer-controlled Gantry for Improving Porous Silicon Fabrication

The aim of this project is to design and build an automated computer controlled gantry for a multi-
bath porous silicon growth system. Background: Porous silicon is a novel material for many opto-
electronics applications. The Microelectronics Research Group is currently investigating growing
porous silicon using a multibath method. To be able to do this safely and in an automated fashion a
mechatronic gantry to move the porous-silicon growth cell between the baths is needed. The gantry
will need to be approximately 600-800 mm wide and 400-600 mm tall. It will have a crane on the top
rail controlled by stepper motors which can accurately move the porous-silicon growth cell between
up to four baths. The baths themselves are 120x180mm and will be located on a raised platform.
The system will be controlled using a computer through a PIC micro-controller and an RS232
interface. The student undertaking this project will gain basic knowledge of the porous silicon
growth process and how the system is aiming to improve on current limitations. The project will
involve skills in mechanical and electronic design, and as such will ideally suit a mechatronics
engineer although mechanical and electrical engineers are encouraged to consider this project.

C.6 Build an Ellipsometer to Measure Scattering in Porous Silicon

To understand the characteristics of porous silicon, an advanced material used for sensors, detailed
optical characterization if required. Current methods used are inadequate to accurately determine
the porosities of the film and the roughness of the porous silicon/silicon interface. This project is
perfect for mechatronics engineers. The student will gain an understanding of porous silicon and it’s
applications, design, build, test and analyse an ellipsometer to characterize porous silicon. The
ellipsometer requires high precision 2-axis rotational control of a optical beam and the sample. Skills
in signal processing, mechanical design and control will be developed as part of the project.

C.7 Build a Micro-gram Scale for Gravimetric Measurements of Porosity in Porous Silicon

To find the porosity (density of holes) in porous silicon it is required to measure the weight of the
silicon before and after forming pores (porosification). However, the expected change in weight is in
the order of 10-4 grams, requiring a scale with an accuracy of at least 10-times less than this value.
Commercial scales often compromise between range of measurement and accuracy. However, the
largest weight we expect to measure is the bare silicon, which comes to around 1.4 grams, requiring
a dynamic range of only 105. This project aims to build, characterize and calibrate a highly accurate
scale for porous silicon. The student will subsequently form porous silicon samples and determine
the porosity verse anodization current. This project is perfect for mechatronics engineers. The
student will gain an understanding of porous silicon and its applications, design, build, test and
analyse a highly accurate scale and address the issues associated with the scale accuracy including
drift due to temperature, humidity and air movements. Skills in signal processing, mechanical design
and control will be developed as part of the project.

D. ATMOSPHERIC PROPAGATION
(N Fowkes, BD Nener)

The ultimate performance of an EO System is determined by the atmosphere. The atmosphere can
degrade the signal through scattering and absorption by aerosols, background radiation, scintillation
and refraction. Projects in this area are both theoretical and/or involve experimental work. The
experimental work is at sites like Rottnest measuring atmospheric parameters important to EO
propagation and involves the design and installation of the instruments, and the analysis and
modelling of atmospheric data and effects. The theoretical work involves mathematical and

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numerical modelling of atmospheric effects relevant to EO systems, particularly refraction and
scintillation.
Current work is funded by the Australian Department of Defence and Tenix Defence Systems Ltd (an
Australian owned defence contractor). The effort is in collaboration with the UWA Department of
Mathematics and Statistics; the Remote Sensing and Satellite Research Group (RSSRG) of the Physics
Department of the Curtin University of Technology; CIMSS, Space Science and Engineering Center,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, and the US Navy Space and Naval Warfare Center
(SPAWAR), San Diego, USA.

D.1 Refractive Index Change in Atmosphere

Modelling of the effects on light and microwave propagation of refractive index changes due to
temperature gradients in the atmosphere over the ocean; modelling of mirages and other image
distortions of objects seen at large distances; scintillation.

E. INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DESIGN

(Farid Boussaid)

Each project will involve design, implementation and layout of an integrated circuit. If the
performance of the integrated circuit is good, the chip will be fabricated and tested. This is a great
opportunity to acquire expertise in the actual design of mixed-mode integrated circuits.

E.1 Camera-on-chip

The current trend in Digital Imaging Technology is towards building camera-on-a-chip imaging
systems, i.e., CMOS imagers. The fully integrated product results in significant manufacturing cost
savings, reduced system size, but also in lower power consumption. The unique concept of CMOS
imagers offers the opportunity to integrate photo-sensing array and signal processing circuitry on a
single silicon chip, enabling the development of a new generation of smart mobile imaging systems.
Half the size of a small postage stamp, a CMOS imager chip can even be swallowed (pill-camera) to
transmit images from inside the body. Besides biomedical, CMOS imagers have numerous
commercial applications in cell phones, PC notebooks or any application for which a “micro-camera”
can be requested. The MRG group is working towards integrating “human like” features and thus
“intelligence” in even smaller size CMOS vision sensors. As a consequence, a CMOS vision sensor will
not only “see” the outside world but also process the image, enabling in turn on–chip vision-based
decision making a key trend in machine vision research. Our approach is that of designing electronic
circuits that are able to mimic part of the processing that is undertaken in biology vision systems, the
ultimate trend being to mimic the human eye. To integrate such a processing power into a single
chip, semiconductor industry state-of-the-art deep sub-0.25µm CMOS processes are used.

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 Microphotograph of a fabricated CMOS
imager (3.5×3.5mm2)

Proposed final year projects may include: Digital Pixel Sensors and Spiking Pixel Architectures, ultra-
low Power Mega-pixel CMOS Imagers, high Dynamic Range CMOS Imagers, development of smart
CMOS imagers with on-chip processing capabilities such as face or fingerprint recognition, using the
FPGA Celoxica RC300 platform.

E.2 Electronic nose

You will develop an Electronic Nose, (or ENose for short), that can recognize almost any compound.
The ENose is much more sensitive than the human nose, as it can detect 1 part per million. The
ENose has many applications, like detection of dangerous gases in workplace or in the battlefield.
You will investigate a biologically inspired approach that enables the integration of the recognition
system on a single chip.

Microphotograph of the fabricated gas recognition system

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E.3 Neuromorphic Engineering

Neuromorphic engineering seeks to close the gap between biological systems and their artificial
counterparts by using the physical structure and/or representations found in biological nervous
systems. There are several reasons why this practice is an important tool when designing new
computational systems. First, there are countless tasks at which the capabilities of biological systems
far exceed the performance of any engineered system to date. These include face and object
recognition as well as scene analysis and understanding. By studying neurobiological systems, it is
hoped that we can glean important insights of the information representation and architectures
used by those systems, and apply similar principles to engineered systems with similar benefits.
Second, biological systems operate under many of the same constraints (low energy consumption,
real-time requirements, low latency, compact size, high system reliability, etc…) that engineered
systems do. Thus, a careful study of the tradeoffs and techniques chosen by biological systems can
provide insight when engineering our own systems. Third, neuromorphicly engineered systems can
serve as an important tool for neurobiologists by providing them an arena in which to test their
hypotheses about the operation of biological systems. Neuromorphic engineered systems can thus
accelerate our understanding of neurology and related sciences. Finally, there has been a long
history of similar biological inspiration for engineered systems, whether explicitly "neuromorphic" or
not, an example of these systems being the sonar, which derives from echo-location systems of bats
and dolphins. Neuromorphic engineering projects involve understanding neural proceses and
computations and implementing them in silicon. Examples include neural processing in the retina,
cochlear and nose.

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 Optical + Biomedical Engineering Laboratory
Staff: Professor David Sampson, Dr Robert McLaughlin, Dr Brendan Kennedy, Dr Dirk Lorenser, Dr
Rajesh Pillai, Mr Andrea Curatolo, Mr Bryden Quirk, Mr Rodney Kirk.

PhD Students: Loretta Scolaro, Blake Klyen, Thomas Gutzler, Yih Miin Liew, Boon Yew (Teddy) Yeo,
Xiaojie Yang.

Webpage: http://obel.ee.uwa.edu.au

If you are interested in instrumentation, optoelectronics, lasers, optical engineering or computer

vision, and their applications in medicine and biology, then OBEL could be for you. Projects in OBEL
will help to develop your practical skills in these areas as well as in systems integration, interfacing,
numerical modelling, or programming. These skills are sought in a wide range of industries in the
instrumentation, telecommunications, biomedical engineering, and biotechnology sectors.

OBEL develops new medical and biological imaging techniques based on optics. Although our
research is strongly motivated by these biomedical applications and based on the use of light, YOU
DO NOT NEED PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF BIOMEDICINE OR OPTICS.

OBEL’s final year projects fall into one or more of the following categories:

• Systems integration, interfacing and software design and development;

• Optical engineering – design and realization of optical systems;
• Mechanical systems – design and realization of mechanics for endoscopic and portable
hand-held devices;
• Image processing, 3D reconstruction and visualization;
• Numerical modelling; and
• Microscopy of biological cell and tissue samples.

Your project will form a part of the group’s research and will be strongly collaborative and team
based. OBEL’s staff and postgraduate students will be interested in your project, and will be eager
to help you succeed.

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All project areas can accommodate two or more students. From the project descriptions alone, it
may not be completely clear to you what you would actually do – come and talk to us so that we can
define a project around your skills. Contact details are on our webpage.

1. Medical imaging with optical coherence tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an ultra-high resolution medical imaging modality.
Conceptually, it is similar to ultrasound imaging, except that reflections of light are detected rather
than sound. This enables a much finer scale of image than is possible with ultrasound. OCT is
providing images of unprecedented clarity of living biological entities and is providing new
information on a variety of diseases and conditions, including cancer and muscular dystrophy.

OCT research at OBEL aims at understanding and improving the technique and in designing and
building instruments for various applications, including breast cancer (with surgeons at Sir Charles
Gairdner Hospital), skin (scar assessment with the Laboratory for Genetic Epidemiology, WAIMR),
and animal muscle tissue (for muscular dystrophy research with Miranda Grounds at Anatomy &
Human Biology).

Examples of possible projects:

i) Instrumentation Design: Design and

construct a compact OCT system for
clinical use. The focus is on
miniaturization of the current optical
fibre-based system and involves the
design and construction of
portable/compact electronic and optical OCT image of muscle for muscular dystrophy research.
modules. The portability and reliability of
the system will be tested under clinical
conditions;
ii) Muscle imaging: Early work suggests OCT may be able to differentiate between dystrophic and
non-dystrophic mice, which could reduce the need for subjects and improve the statistics and
accuracy of many experiments. You will continue investigating what OCT can provide.
iii) Image Processing for Breast Cancer: OBEL is currently exploring the use of OCT to detect breast
cancer in lymph nodes. You will develop image processing algorithms to improve these images
and help clinicians to identify cancerous regions. This is a software-based project and will
require knowledge of either Matlab or C++.

(left): Optical coherence tomography scan of a human breast lymph node. (right) Matching
H&E histology image of the lymph node.

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Top: Miniaturised OCT needle probe and a tissue sample.
Bottom: OCT scan of a human lymph node.

2. OCT needle probes for breast cancer

We have developed a number of prototype needle probes, where the miniaturised optics of the OCT
system are encased in a medical hypodermic needle. These probes will enable surgeons to more
accurately detect cancer during surgery, through assessment of lymph nodes and testing tumour
margins.

We are actively exploring new probe designs, and possible projects will focus on the optics and
mechanical design of the probe itself. These are hardware-based projects that will involve
researching a new probe design, fabrication of the optics and assessment of the probe.

3. High resolution elastography

Elastography is a new imaging technique which creates an image of what tissue ‘feels’ like. It can be
used to differentiate between healthy and diseased tissue by measuring the elastic properties of the
tissue. We have combined this technique with optical coherence tomography to achieve extremely
high resolution images. Examples of possible projects are:
i) Construct an ‘artifical’ phantom tissue: Design and develop a set of validation objects, which
have the same elastic and optical properties as human tissue. Such objects are made from
biological substances such as fibrinogen, thrombin and collagen. They are critical to allow
calibration of an elastography scanner before it can be used clinically, and also allow
researchers to test new imaging methods.
ii) Mechanical modelling of tissue: Create a numerical model of how forces are transmitted
through different layers of tissue. This will allow elastography measurements to be converted
into absolute quantities, allowing reliable differentiation of features such as cancerous and
healthy tissue.

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 Normal tissue

Tissue
surface
Cut

High resolution elastography.

Left: Tissue around the cut on the finger has different elastic properties to the surrounding tissue.
Right: High resolution elastography image showing micro-vibrations in the tissue during imaging.

4. Spectral imaging of tissue

What gives your skin its colour is the interplay of absorption (by melanin - brown and haemoglobin -
red) and the scattering of various wavelengths of light within the tissue. In this project, we are using
spectral imaging of tissue to understand its structure, specifically around scars and burns. This may
lead to better ways for doctors to assess scars and burns, and help them to choose the most
appropriate clinical treatment.
Examples of possible projects:

Hardware project: Develop optics and electronics for a hand-held spectral imaging system used to
assess skin scarring.

Software project: Implement computer vision algorithms to filter and analyse spectral images of skin.

5. High resolution fluorescence imaging of tissue

OBEL works closely with researchers at the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis
(CMCA), both at UWA and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. We are developing new techniques to use
confocal and multi-photon microscopy to image tissue. These techniques involve illuminating tissue
with focused light of a particular wavelength, and then creating an image from the resulting
fluorescence which is emitted. They can achieve remarkably high resolution, visualising features that
are only a few microns in size.
Examples of possible projects:
i) Clearing agents: Examine and quantify the effects and dynamics of clearing agents in tissues
samples, which allow these techniques to image deeper in tissue;
ii) Pilot in vivo applications: Study two-photon imaging of malignant and normal tissue samples;
and
iii) Benchmark studies: Compare fresh, frozen, and fixed two-photon and fluorescence lifetime
images of tissue samples.

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 Signals and Systems Engineering

The Signals and Systems Engineering (SSE) has several research laboratories outlined below:
 The Signals and Information Processing Laboratory undertakes key research in the areas of
speech processing and speech and speaker recognition leading to developments in voice-
activated technologies, robust speech recognition in real environments and biometric
security by speaker verification.
 The Control Systems Research Laboratory undertakes theoretical and applied research in the
areas of mathematical modeling, state estimation, robust control and sliding mode control.
 The Biomedical Engineering Laboratory undertakes research into applying theoretical
control techniques to biomedical systems such as blood glucose control in diabetics, closed-
loop control of mechanical ventilation in critically ill and patient controlled analgesia.
 The Power Electronics Applications and Research Laboratory undertakes fundamental and
applied research into power electronic concepts and systems such as switch-mode power
supplies, inverters, ac and dc machines.
 The Signal Processing for Wireless Communications Laboratory undertakes fundamental and
applied research into broadband radio communications and underwater acoustic
communications leading to applications in areas such as broadband wireless to the bush,
oceanographic data collection, and offshore pipeline monitoring.
 The Renewable Energy Laboratory undertakes fundamental and applied research into
renewable energy technologies.

Key areas of expertise

 Biomedical Systems
 Control Systems
 Power Electronics Applications
 Renewable Energy
 Signal Processing for Wireless Communication
 Speech and Image Processing and Recognition
 Underwater Acoustic Communications

Facilities
Software: Matlab, PSIM, Pspice, Nuance SDK, NS/2, Mathematica, and LabView

Hardware: Specialized hardware for control, communication, power electronics, renewable energy
and signal processing,

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 SIGNALS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEMS
A/Prof. Roberto Togneri
We are currently in the first century of the information age and the new era of information systems
engineering. The Signals and Information Processing (SIP) Lab is offering exciting and challenging
final-year projects to students who can demonstrate the required interest, motivation and passion.
If you are interested in any of the projects on offer please email Roberto Togneri at
<Roberto.Togneri@uwa.edu.au> or drop by Room 4.10 for an obligation free discussion, additional
information and reading material to help you make a truly informed choice. Also please have a look
at the online version http://www.ee.uwa.edu.au/~roberto/research/projects2011.html which
includes links (home pages, resources, etc.) for you to investigate.

1. Microphone Arrays for Speaker Localisation

Microphone arrays consist of multiple microphones geometrically arranged so as to capture the

directional information of speech and interfering sources. In this way it is possible to separate
different speakers and speakers from interfering noise based on their spatial location. In this project
you will investigate the application of microphone array technology in the SIP Lab to the task of
speech source separation. More than one project is possible covering several interdependent
investigations: setup and configuration of the microphone array hardware, software and processing
for microphone arrays, simple practical beamforming (BF) to separate two (or more!) actual
speakers, sophisticated signal processing algorithms for the estimation of Direction of Arrival (DOA)
of the desired speech source, or Blind Source Separation (BSS) of individual spatially diverse sources.
Projects can be hands-on, experimental or highly mathematically theoretical. The student will be co-
supervised by post-doc researchers and PhD students from the SIP Lab. Team projects also quite
possible.

2. Biometric Speaker Identification

We identify who we are based on a variety of personal characteristics like: how we speak, how we
look, and behavioural traits (for example, gestures). Biometric identification is the use of such
personal characteristics to validate the identity of a person. So rather than relying on secure but
inscrutable passwords and PINs which can be forgotten or, worse yet, stolen why not just do it the
natural way: identify people by what makes each of us different? Such speaker (how we speak) and
face (what we look like) recognition systems are now becoming quite common, especially multi-
modal systems which fuse speaker and face features for improved performance and resilience to
degradation (e.g. background noise and poor lighting). In this project you will implement a basic
audio-visual speaker recognition prototype using standard tools for face recognition and speaker
recognition. You can do this by direct capture of audio-visual features of friends and family,
recordings of pertinent TV broadcasts (e.g. newsreader broadcasts) or make use of available AV
corpora. This project will involve an exciting combination of hands-on audio/video data acquisition,
algorithm implementation and testing, or explore more sophisticated theories in the processing of
either the audio features, the visual features, or their fusion and the classification, up to you! Oh yes,
did we say biometric identification is also non-intrusive (unlike fingerprint or retinal scans) so you
can use hidden cameras and microphones to identify who has been smudging your IPad?
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3. Speech Enhancement and Noise Control

In telecommunications (human-human communication) and speech recognition (human-machine

communication) involving human speech (e.g. you are speaking to your friend over the phone) the
presence of any background environmental noise (e.g. passing cars) and other speakers (e.g. in the
same room with you) will be also be picked up and make it difficult for your speech to be
heard/recognised. To address this problem one can use signal processing to transform the signal and
separate out or suppress the interfering noise from the desired speech, this is known as Speech
Enhancement (SE). Better yet if you have direct access to the interfering noises you can also directly
cancel the noise, this is Active Noise Control (ANC). In this project you will investigate one or more
key algorithms for SE: Spectral Subtraction, Wiener filtering, or Subspace methods, etc., the latest
research in the area, and how effective the algorithms are. So how much of the noise can you
remove? How intelligible is the resulting signal? Can you improve the enhancement by tweaking the
parameters? Or for a more hands-on project you can consider ANC and attempt to remove the noise
before you actually hear it by setting up an anti-noise speaker to cancel the noise. This will require
two microphones, an electronic speaker and a well-defined, accessible noise source (maybe a motor
running nearby). Can you really remove the noise where you are sitting? How effectively can you do
this? Or will you instead add to the noise rather than remove it! Do this project and find out!

4. Visual Object Identification and Tracking

From forensic analysis to medical diagnosis, the ability to correctly detect and identify objects of
interest from images is paramount. In video surveillance the object is a person, who has to detected,
then identified and finally tracked. In this project you can either: detect the presence of people in an
image (and if possible their location and the number of people present), or detect and track a person
in a sequence of images (ideally from a stereo camera which will provide depth information). You
will do this exploring a variety of techniques from image and video processing: camera calibration, x-
y location extraction, z-depth calculation, etc.; and pattern recognition: skin detection, feature
selection, body component classification, etc. You can capture your own images of people in
different environments (dark room, crowded mall, etc.), or use the available equipment and
image/video data, and see how well you can detect the location and number of people in the image
or whether you can at least track one person moving around in the room (using standard software
tested in real environments, or developing your own customised system or enhancements). This is a
challenging project for students interested in one of the strategic image and visualisation issues:
object detection, identification and tracking.

5. Robust Speech Recognition in Noise

Human-machine communication invariably involves a speech recognition system. You know this
when you are asked to say in a “few words” when you call Telstra (and then you are at loss at what
to say because you don’t know what the simple minded recognition system expects from you!).
Most commercial applications use simple recognition to ensure accuracy. One reason for this is that
speech recognition degrades significantly in the presence of mismatch. This pretty much will happen
100% of the time since you will speak from an environment which was not the same as the training
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data (acquired by some unknown research lab; certainly you weren't invited to contribute your
voice!). In this project you will investigate time-frequency domain processing of the speech signal
and how to extract features which are robust to (i.e. insensitive to) the key types of environmental
noise encountered: additive noise, channel distortion, and if you are brave, reverberant noise. You
will first become familiar with basic speech recognition: how to extract features, build models and
recognise what is being said (see also project 10). Then you will investigate one or more of the
multitude of robust feature extraction paradigms: time filtering, frequency filtering, normalisation,
yes even speech enhancement and psychoacoustic analysis (see also projects 3 and 6), evaluated
under different environmental conditions. This is an ideal algorithm, experimental project involving
minimal software coding but maximal evaluation and testing (what engineering is all about).

6. Psychoacoustics and Speech Perception

The human auditory system allows us to listen to the subtlest sounds and yet cope with the loudest
noises. We can understand one another in the presence of other speakers and other noises.
However when engineers attempt to get communications systems to code, transmit and recognise
speech it becomes apparent from the difficulties involved there is a lot we don't understand about
human audition. In this project you will explore different auditory and perception models (there are
at least 4 different freeware modelling toolkits you can access) and implement one or more of these
as a frontend feature extraction to a speech recognition system (see project 5) and evaluate the
performance under both quiet speech and noisy speech. This is an ideal project for the highly
motivated student interested in biomedical processing with a solid background in signal processing,
systems modelling and a keen interest in how human hearing works, and when it doesn't! Your
investigation will contribute to the Australian research effort in speech and hearing through a better
understanding of what aspects of human speech perception are important for speech recognition,
especially under noisy conditions (our human hearing has plenty of "smarts" to improve the quality
of noisy or degraded speech but how exactly does it do this?).

7. Voice Activity Detection for Speech Processing

In telecommunications (especially VoIP), speech enhancement and in speech recognition an

important signal processing ability is to detect when a person is speaking or not. The applications are
obvious: more efficient VoIP if there is no transmission during periods of no speech, estimation of
the background noise in speech enhancement during non-speech, and to start and stop a speech
recogniser based on when there is speech present. Seems simple enough? Well not really, especially
if one has to detect the presence of speech in every 20ms interval or so. The problem is also
compounded when there is background noise and with words starting or ending with so-called weak
fricatives (/f/our, heal/th/, etc.). In this project you will appreciate how difficult this problem can be,
the varied theoretical statistical measures used to evaluate performance and the strategies one can
use to detect the presence of voicing, from simple energy thresholding to more sophisticated
spectrum detection theory approaches. This is an experimental, signal processing algorithm
development and evaluation project with a very simple goal: given a sample of, possibly noisy,
speech can you automatically detect when there is speech (and when there isn't)?

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8. Compressive Sensing for Speech Signals

Compressive sensing (CS) has gained popularity in the last few years as a technique used to
reconstruct a signal from few training examples, a problem which arises in many machine learning
applications. In CS the underlying signal must possess a representation domain (e.g. the frequency
spectrum) in which it is sparsely represented and as such one can apparently defy the Nyquist
sampling theorem and still be able to reconstruct the signal with fewer samples than would normally
be expected. This has profound implications for source compression, signal acquisition and even
pattern classification. In this project the highly motivated student with a strong mathematics
background and penchant for all things signal processing looking to be challenged by an emerging
research (and technology) area, will be tasked to investigate CS and develop the theory, implement
algorithms, perhaps carry out simulations involving application of CS, especially, to speech and audio
signals. Possible investigations from recent research: sparse signal reconstruction from zero
crossings, compressive beamforming, compressed sensing of speech signals (can it be done?), or any
other application areas that come to mind.

9. Deep Belief Networks for Speech Recognition

Over the past 25 years or so, speech recognition technology has been dominated by a “shallow”
architecture --- hidden Markov models (HMMs). Significant technological success has been achieved
using complex and carefully engineered variants of HMMs. The next generation of the technology
requires solutions to remaining technical challenges under diversified deployment environments.
These challenges, not adequately addressed in the past, arise from the many types of variability
present in the speech generation process. Overcoming these challenges is likely to require “deep”
architectures with efficient learning algorithms. Deep Belief Networks (DBN) are examples of this
ability for "deep" learning. In this challenging theoretical research project the highly motivated
students with a strong background in mathematics and computer science will research the paradigm
of DBN and embark on either a theoretical, algorithmic or experimental investigation expounding
the virtues (and limitations) of this new exciting area.

10. Build Your own Speech Recognition System

This is a systems engineering project where you will build a speech recognition system using either
the HTK, CMU Sphinx, FBDTW, etc. toolkits. Possible speech recognition systems you may like to
build include: limited vocabulary (e.g. financial transactions, control commands, etc.), English
alphabet recognition (for dictation and spelling), recognition of complete phrases rather than just
words, recognition in another language, recognition of connected speech (speaking a limited set of
words with deliberate pauses), and real-time voice-activated applications (e.g. design of a reliable
voice-activated switch). For a more challenging project you can investigate advanced issues like:
keyword spotting, task independent phone models, continuous speech recognition, tone and syllable
recognition (e.g. spoken Mandarin), recognition of the confusable /e/ set of alphabets: "b", "d", "e",
"g", "p", "t", complete software design specification of the HTK software, real-time implementation
with minimum memory and computational requirements, etc.. Team projects also possible.

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 CONTROL SYSTEMS RESEARCH LABORATORY
Prof. Victor Sreeram and A/Prof.Tyrone Fernando

Projects on Control System Theory: The following projects involve theoretical analysis and Matlab
simulations.

1. Model Reduction Techniques (2 projects)

Mathematical description of the dynamic characteristics of a system is called a mathematical model.

The dynamic system may be a chemical process, multimachine electrical power system altitude
control of a space craft, synchronous orbit satellite, etc. Deriving a reasonable mathematics model is
the most important part of analysis and design of dynamic systems. In many practical situations, one
can obtain a fairly complex and a very high order model for the system. This complexity often makes
it difficult to obtain a good understanding of the behaviour of the system. The analysis and design of
such systems can be accomplished with greater ease if a low-order model is derived which provides
a good approximation. This problem is known as "model reduction problem". The objective of model
reduction problem is to find a low-order model for a given high-order system such that the low-
order model retains or closely approximates the input-output behaviour of the system.

In this project, we analyse and compare different model reduction techniques for various
applications such as Circuit simulation, Nonlinear systems, Electromagnetics, etc.

2. Functional Observers (2 Projects)

State observers estimate all the states of a system and require a full order dynamical system for
estimation. The functional observers on the other hand estimate linear functions of the states and
the dynamical system that estimates can be of much lower order than the state observer. In this
project it is required to investigate various design procedures reported for functional observer
design and propose a new scheme.

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 Projects on Control System Implementation

Control System Design via Programmable Logic Controllers (4 Projects)

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are widely used in industry to automate many basic functions
and are well known to be very versatile and durable. With the proper sensors, PLC’s can operate on
most routine processes. The programming structure of PLC’s is called ladder logic and is very similar
to circuit design in digital electronics. However, unlike a circuit, the logic can be easily changed to
accommodate changes in what you want the robot or process to do. In this project PLCs are used to
design controllers for the following applications:

1. Control of DC Motor Position System

2. Control of Two Tank Process
3. Control of Lifts
4. Control of Traffic lights at a junction

SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS LABORATORY

A/Prof. David Huang

Final-year projects offered in SPWCL are focused on the implementation, simulation and analysis of
various future generation communication systems.

1. Underwater Acoustic Communications

Acoustics is the primary means to achieve wireless communications in the oceans. Underwater
acoustic communications could play a key role in many subsea applications such as oceanographic
data collection, environmental monitoring, and offshore hydrocarbon exploration and production. In
this project, you will investigate various signal processing techniques for underwater acoustic
communications. Potentially, you can also build an acoustic modem (the key component in
underwater acoustic communications) using a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) platform.

2. Broadband Wireless to the Bush

Wireless communications, due to its potentially low initial deployment cost, high scalability and
flexibility, will play a key role in providing broadband communications to sparsely populated areas of
Australia. This project focuses on promising technologies for future broadband wireless
communications especially to rural areas:
• Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO) Systems
• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Systems
• Fountain Codes
• Multiple Access Techniques
• Low Density Parity Check Codes

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3. Build Your Own Radio Station Using USRP

Can you imagine using a single gadget to produce and receive all the possible radio signals (e.g.,
digital radio, TV signal, CDMA signal, GSM signal, GPS signal, to mention a few)? The USRP (Universal
Software Radio Peripheral), aided with a general purpose computer and the “software-defined
radio” technology, can achieve this task. So using the USRP, you can easily build your own radio
station. Potentially, you can also use the box to eavesdrop your mates’ mobile phone conversation,
though we do not recommend you to do so.

RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY

Prof. Victor Sreeram and A/Prof. Herbert Iu

1. Smart Grid (2 Projects)

Presently there is a global concern about the economic downturn and a green earth which in turn is
related to a better and efficient method to generate and transmit electric power. With the advent
of plug-in electric vehicles and renewable energy generators, a smarter more efficient and customer
friendly power grid is essential. Governments around the world are investing in R&D strategies to
construct a smart electric power transmission infrastructure which supports the decentralized
approach of power generation, employs two-way intelligent communications for real-time
monitoring, demand and fault management and utilizes latest security protocols to contribute
towards a rigid and attack free electric power network. The aim of this project is to study the
various methodologies proposed for Smart Grid and analyse the performance of power systems in
terms of quality, efficiency and reliability.

2. Regenerative Braking for Electric Cars (3 Projects)

In a conventional braking, the kinetic energy of the car is wasted as heat in the brake pads due to
friction, where as in regenerative braking, much of this energy is converted to electricity which can
be use to charge the car’s batteries. This setup will not only increase the range of the battery
powered electric car, but also reduces the wear and tear of the brakes. Regenerative braking is
currently only available in significantly more expensive AC motors. The objective of this project is to
develop regenerative braking scheme in cost-effective DC motors in order to increase the range of
the battery powered electric vehicles in which DC motors are utilized.

This project is funded by a grant from Australian Power Institute. The project involves working with
dc machines and designing and building power electronic circuits.

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3. Development of Memristor Based Chaotic Circuits (1 Project)

The memristor was postulated as the fourth circuit element by L.O. Chua in 1971. In 2008,
researchers in HP fabricated a solid state implementation of the memristor. Potential applications of
such memristor span diverse fields ranging from nonvolatile memories on the nano-scale, to model
neural networks. Recently, memristor based chaotic circuits have been constructed. In this project,
we will develop and analyze the memristor based chaotic circuits. Also, we will study the chaos
control algorithm in these circuits.

The project involves mathematical analysis, Matlab simulations, and hardware implementation of
the actual circuits.

Photovoltaic Research Laboratory (ACE)

Dr J. Henry
Phone: 2537
Email:jasmine.henry@uwa.edu.au

Dr J. Livingstone
Phone: 3099
Email: john.livingstone@uwa.edu.au

Laboratory Based Projects

1) Wavelength response of Position sensitive detectors

Position sensitive detectors, or PSDs, comprise an important class of optical sensor, producing an
electrical output, either voltage or current, which utilises the lateral photovoltaic effect to give a
linear relation between the output and the location of a spot of light impinging on a semiconductor
junction. Position sensitive detectors, or PSDs, operate in similar fashion to solar cells except that a
lateral photovoltaic effect, where photovoltage is developed along the plane of the junction, is
utilised rather than the transverse photovoltaic effect where a photovoltage is developed across the
p-n layers of the junction.

Students undertaking this project will test Schottky barrier devices under a variety of light sources to
optimize response and to pinpoint the groups of devices which require further development.

Research and Modelling

1) Possible scenarios to implement the 20% Mandatory Renewable Energy Target in

Electricity supply by 2020.

As a part of a Carbon Reduction Strategy the Australian government has legislated to implement that
20% of electricity requirements should come from renewable sources by 2020. Discuss the following:

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possible scenarios, impact on power quality of implementing these scenarios, impact on electricity
costs and the status of other nations in this area.

2) Impact of small PV implementation on the power quality of the Perth electricity grid.

Currently householders are being encouraged to install small PV systems which can feed-in
electricity during times of low household load. This will have an impact on the voltage level and
other aspects of power quality. Discuss what impacts domestic PV installations have on utility-
generated power quality and the levels of penetration that are sustainable by Perth.

3) Delineation and impact of energy saving measures on households and WA.

The potential impact of climate change, a scarcity of non-renewable sources of energy and the
reduction of biodiversity are impacting quality of life and equity of living standards across the world.
The focus of interest in this project is Western Australia, which has experienced unprecedented
levels of economic activity and growth, due to its recent resources boom. This has resulted in a
rapidly growing population and growing demand for goods and services. While the WA population
grew at an average rate of approximately 1.7% between 1996 and 2006, per capita residential
energy consumption increased at an average annual rate of increase of 2.7%. The total amount of
power consumed has risen by 5% per annum and is likely to continue into the future (Western
Power, 2009). These consumption patterns are the drivers of many environmental pressures in the
State, including a loss of biodiversity, air pollution, impacts on water quantity and quality and the
generation of wastes. In terms of capital investment –can WA reduce its peak load requirements.
The top 15% of load appears for less than 2% of time per year. Peak energy loads can be reduced by
having consumers consider the timing of their consumption to reduce the peak load and hence the
requirement for additional infrastructure (eg extra generators were purchased to cope with the peak
summer demand in 2007/2008).

This project will look at ways for households and commercial businesses to reduce their electricity
consumption through a variety of measures – including behaviour change, appliance choices, lighting
choices etc. Further work would be to model how these changes might impact on overall energy
consumption for a household, and in a bigger picture, on state electricity consumption.

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 POWER & ENERGY SYSTEMS PROJECTS
Supervisor: Professor T. T. Nguyen
Room 4.08, Tel: 6488 2559
e-mail: tam@ee.uwa.edu.au

Research Staff: Dr. Van Liem Nguyen

Postgraduate research students:

Sushama Wagh, Hassanali Sadegi-Barazani, Shantanu Kumar, Ashkan Yousefi.

The final year projects offered are in the area of power and energy systems analysis, design, control,
protection and operation. The University of Western Australia has a collaborative research program
with Western Power in this area of research which is carried out by Professor T.T. Nguyen in the
School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering. He also undertakes research and
investigation for other organisations in the power industry. The final year projects have a balance
between theory and practical application. There are also projects which have a focus on the
restructuring and deregulation in the electric power supply industry and energy markets. The scopes
of some of the topics offered are large ones. Several separate projects investigating different aspects
can be in the same topic. Academic and research staff members and postgraduate research students
will provide appropriate support in your projects.

A. PROJECTS RELATED TO SMART GRIDS

1. POWER SYSTEMS CONTROL AND OPERATION WITH DEMAND RESPONSES

With the aim of maximising the utilisation of power system having increased penetration of
renewable sources such as wind power generation, a number of issues related to security in system
operation arise:

• Possibility of congestion in the transmission network

• Adverse impact on system frequency control due to fluctuating nature of renewable sources.

The project will investigate the inclusion of customers demand responses in power system control
with the objective of addressing the above operational issues. The project will assess the
contribution of demand responses, and develop online control coordination among demand
responses and existing power system controllers to achieve optimal responses required of a smart
transmission system.

2. PROTECTION OF DISTRIBUTION SMART GRID

Traditionally, a distribution network does not have generators directly connected to it. The network
which is of a radial structure is protected by overcurrent protection systems and their coordination.
However, the use of embedded or distributed generation in the distribution network is on the
increase, and this raises important issues related to network protection:

• Protection operating time. Due to the requirement of coordination based on time and
current gradings to achieve discrimination, the operating time for fault clearance is slow,
and may not be suitable for the system having its own generators. Fast fault clearing time is
required for maintaining distributed generators stability.
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• Identification of the faulted item of plant. Traditional overcurrent protection for a system
with multiple generation infeeds may not be able to identify the faulted power equipment
accurately, particularly when backup protection operation occurs. This would prevent the
timely rectification of the fault and restoration of the equipment which has been faulted.
Fast fault rectification and circuit restoration are essential features required of a smart
distribution network.

Drawing on the availability of extensive communications and real-time synchronised measurements

using PMUs (phasor measurement units) in a smart distribution system, the project will develop a
fast and highly discriminative protection signal processing algorithms which remove the limitations
inherent in traditional overcurrent protection identified in the above.

3. SMART DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Traditionally, analysis methods for distribution systems are based on single-phase equivalent (for
power-flow calculations) and symmetrical phase sequences (for short-circuit fault analysis). These
methods assume that the load demands and network parameters are balanced ones. These
assumptions are not necessarily true for a smart distribution system, and can lead to substantial
errors in the results of calculations. Load demands can be highly unbalanced, particularly with
residential demand responses and their non-uniform distribution to be taken into account in the
analysis. There are single-wire earth return (SWER) systems which are a part of the grid. The project
will develop analysis techniques to handle the unbalances encountered in the distribution system as
identified in the above. Comparative studies using traditional methods and those developed in the
project will be performed to evaluate their performances when unbalances are encountered in
system operation.

4. STATE ESTIMATION FOR SMART DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Although state estimation has been developed and extensively applied to transmission systems, its
adoption for use in distribution system is very limited if there is any. However, to operate and
control in an efficient manner a smart distribution system, it is required to have in real time the
relevant information about the state of the system defined in terms of system voltages from which
power flows in individual distribution circuits are evaluated. State estimation in smart distribution
systems has, therefore, an increased importance in terms of their control and operation. The
objective of the project is to develop an efficient state estimation method by which system voltages
are determined, drawing on the measurements from synchronised PMUs (phasor measurement
units). The method will exploit the topology peculiar to the distribution system to achieve fast and
accurate estimation with minimum number of PMUs.

5. POLE-SLIPPING PROTECTION

Following a large disturbance such as a short-circuit fault, synchronism of one synchronous

generator or a group of synchronous generators in a power system might be lost, depending on the
severity of the disturbance. This condition is referred to as the loss of system transient stability or
pole-slippings in generators. If these unstable generators are not isolated, very severe consequences
can be encountered in the power system. They include power system blackout, permanent
mechanical and/or thermal damage to the generators, and substantial voltage fluctuations in the
power network. The function of pole-slipping protection is to detect with very fast response time or
even to predict the imminent condition of pole slipping. On the basis of pole-slipping detection or
prediction, tripping commands will be sent to the relevant circuit breakers for isolating the

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generators which experience pole-slippings or are going to encounter pole-slippings. The project has
the objective of developing algorithms for online applications of pole-slippings detection or pole-
slipping prediction. The algorithms will be implemented in software.

6. ONLINE MAXIMISATION OF POWER TRANSMISSION CAPACITY

For achieving competitiveness in the market environment in which present power systems operate,
it is required to maximise in real time the transmission system utilisation, using control techniques
implemented with flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) devices. The project has the objective of
developing constrained optimisation method for maximising the power transfer margins in selected
paths in the transmission system. Contingencies in which transmission circuits are lost from service,
due to disturbances, are represented in the optimisation. The optimised power transfer margins are
then available for meeting increases in load demands, even when they are unexpected.

7. WIDE-AREA BACK-UP PROTECTION

Power system protection is provided at two levels: the primary (or main) protection and back-up
protection. The back-up protection provides the back-up function in the event of failure of the
primary protection. In general, the operation of the back-up protection leads to the loss of multiple
transmission circuits. This can cause the overload of some of the remaining transmission lines and
lead to cascading trips of overloaded transmission lines, which can result in a widespread blackout.
Drawing on the availability of system-wide measurements and power system topology in the
prevailing condition, the project has the objective of developing a wide-area back-up protection
scheme which eliminates the drawback of the traditional back-up protection. The new scheme is to
have the following features:

• minimisation of the number of transmission circuits to be removed from service for

isolating the fault from the system
• determination of the transmission circuits to be removed subject to the constraint that the
remaining transmission circuits will operate within their limits.

8. INTEGRATED SECONDARY CONTROL

Security is a primary concern in power system operation. Following a disturbance, system security in
terms of transmission circuit power flows and system voltages can be impaired, depending on the
severity of the disturbance and pre-disturbance operating condition. In principle, preventative
control can be implemented to maintain system security following any credible disturbance
postulated. However, this approach would lead to higher operating cost, and is not a preferred one
in the competitive market environment at present. Corrective control is an attractive method by
which system security is maintained at a lower operating cost. The objective of the project is to
develop a control scheme to maintain or restore both voltage security and power-flow security
following any disturbances. The control will be based on online adjustments of the reference inputs
to both voltage controllers and power-flow controllers together with system reconfiguration to
achieve the objective of maintaining or restoring system security. Control algorithms drawing on
constrained optimisation will be developed in the project, and a range of controllers including
generator excitation controllers and flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) devices controllers will
be considered.

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B. OTHER PROJECTS

9. SECURITY-CONSTRAINED ANCILLARY SERVICES ALLOCATION

In addition to the main energy market in which optimal dispatches are determined at regular time
intervals to meet the forecast demand, a balancing market is required for power system operation
due to load demand fluctuations between successive dispatches and contingencies. Within the
category of ancillary services, there are service providers who participate in the balancing market,
and their ancillary services include those related to frequency control and reserves (both spinning
and non-spinning). Although the net requirements in terms of active-power for the services can be
determined by the system operator (SO), the important aspect of maintaining power network
security needs to be considered in allocating the services to individual generators in various
locations in the power system.

The purpose of the project is to include power network security constraints in the optimal
allocations of the ancillary services to individual providers participating in the balancing market. A
secondary objective of the project is that of determining the marginal prices of the ancillary services
following their allocation.

10. HARMONIC ANALYSIS IN POWER SYSTEMS

With substantial increase in nonlinear loads and the use of nonlinear controllers in power systems,
there is a growing concern about harmonic distortions in voltage and current waveforms, given that
there are National and International Standards on harmonic distortions. There is a need for
harmonic analysis to assess the level of waveform distortions against the limits specified in the
Standards. Depending on the assessment, harmonic distortion mitigation measures are designed and
implemented. The objective of the project is to develop formulation and technique for evaluating
distortions at individual harmonic frequencies of voltages and currents at all of the locations in the
power system. Nonlinear frequency dependence of power system parameters is to be taken into
account in the evaluation. Unbalanced operating conditions including those caused by single-phase
loads will be considered in the development of the formulation and evaluation procedure.

11. EFFECTS OF FACTS DEVICES ON TRANSMISSION PRICING IN ELECTRICITY MARKETS

Following the restructuring and deregulation of the power supply industry, the power transmission
network is owned and operated by the transmission company which is separated from generation
companies. The transmission company provides the service of transmitting power from generation
to load demands. Transmission pricing refers to the mechanism by which the cost of the
transmission service is determined for charging the market participants (generators, and consumers)
using the transmission service. The payments for the service from the market participants provide
the revenue and return of the investment to the transmission company. At present there are various
options and models for transmission pricing which are adopted in electricity markets. The project
has the following objectives:

a) review of the existing transmission pricing options and models. In the review, detailed
comparisons among the models will be performed.

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b) application of constrained optimisation techniques in transmission pricing. The pricing will
be based on optimal power flow solution and LMPs (locational marginal prices) or nodal
prices.

c) evaluation of the effects of FACTS (flexible AC transmission system) devices on transmission

pricing. The use of FACTS devices in power systems for voltage and power flow control is on
the increase at present to maximise the utilisation of the transmission system. The beneficial
effects of FACTS devices in reducing the transmission cost will be quantified.

12. IMPACT ON POWER QUALITY OF WIND-TURBINE POWER GENERATION

Due to growing concern about environment, the trend of using renewable energy sources for power
generation is on the increase at present. The project has the focus on wind-turbine power
generation, and particularly, its impact on the power quality expressed in terms of power system
voltage and current waveforms distortions, system voltage and frequency fluctuations. The power
quality issue associated with the grid-connected wind-turbine generators will be more acute as the
wind power penetration in the power system increases. The factors which are related to wind power
generation and cause power quality deterioration include:
• the starting of wind-turbine induction generators. This can lead to severe voltage transients
in the system
• the nonlinear controllers used in controlling wind-turbine generators for their efficient
operation. These controllers can cause in their operation harmonic distortions in system
voltages and currents waveforms
• fluctuation in wind speed which can lead to severe system frequency and voltage transients.

The objective of the project is to perform studies and investigation for quantifying the impact arising
from the above factors on power quality.

13. STABILITY AND CONTROL OF OFFSHORE OIL PLATFORM POWER SYSTEM

An offshore oil platform power system is an isolated one with relatively small capacity. The issues of
voltage stability, frequency stability and transient stability associated with its operation are
therefore, in general, more acute than those encountered in a large interconnected power system
with high capacity. The platform power system is required to supply voltage- and frequency-
sensitive loads such as AC drives and converters. The control for achieving stability in respect of
voltages, frequency and synchronism is of importance, and has high priority in the planning and
design of an offshore oil platform power system. The project has the following objectives:
• to evaluate the system dynamic performance of the power system in relation to the stability
issues referred to in the above
• to design control schemes which maintain/restore system stability following disturbances.

14. ASSESSMENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN EMISSION TRADING SCHEME

The project is in the context of CO2 emission arising from power generation in the operation of
power systems. Internationally, various emission trading schemes (ETS) have been in operation for
some time, such as those in Europe, with the objective of effectively reducing the emission by some
nominated target. Currently, in Australia, there is a proposal for ETS which is being considered by the

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Federal Parliament, with a view for its implementation in the near future. The project has the
following objectives:
• to review and study the proposed ETS, with particular reference to the aspects relevant to
power generation in Australia
• to assess the potential impacts of the proposed ETS on electricity prices
• to estimate, with postulated scenarios, the likely reduction in the CO2 emission compared to
the current emission level.

15. HVDC TRANSMISSION SYSTEM DYNAMIC MODEL

With the current trend of interconnecting AC power systems in different geographical areas
separated by long distances, or even seas, to form energy markets, the application of high voltage
DC (HVDC) transmission is on the increase. Recently, in Australia, a submarine HVDC link with a
distance of about 300 km has been installed to interconnect the AC power system in Tasmania and
that in Victoria, to include Tasmania in the Australian Energy Market. The purpose of the project is to
develop a dynamic model to represent the HVDC transmission system in transient operating
conditions initiated by disturbances. The model developed will include the HVDC link and its
controllers together with the interfaces with AC power systems. Dynamic simulation based on the
model will be performed to assess the system performance in relation to stability.

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