Here are a few of the projects we have played a role in... 

VLF  Communications Project:  

(Project details to follow)

Doppler Geolocation Project:   

(Project details to follow)

Real-Time Streaming MPEG Video/GPS Integration Project:

We were responsible for preliminary software design, development and hardware integration for a proprietary real-time streaming  audio and video surveillance and management system for law enforcement. Involved the integration of multiple composite video streams into two outgoing MPEG2 and one outgoing MPEG4 video stream, encrypted and having an embedded GPS signal. Wrote prototype kernel level device driver for field testing streaming tape drive. Project not completed due to corporate funding shortfall

Ionospheric Modeling / Space Weather Forecasting Technology:

This application grew from the SWIFT application we worked on for Mission Research Corp. in the late 1990s, but has been modified and extended to be a more general ionospheric model. It provides users with relatively accurate predictions of local ionospheric electric- and magnetic-field conditions about an hour ahead.

The model utilizes near real-time satellite data on the charged particle flux from the Sun and continuously recalculates and maps the currents of charged particles in the ionosphere onto a 3-D finite-element grid with 100-kilometer spacing. From those maps we can derive the electric and magnetic field maps.

This model of the ionosphere is about ten kilometers thick and about one-hundred kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The algorithms are a work in progress. This link leads to images of predicted potential patterns. Here is a contour plotting demonstration using some data from early verisons.

Severe solar (geomagnetic) storms cause communications problems, abruptly increase drag on spacecraft, and can cause electric utility blackouts over a wide area. When used as a space weather forecasting technology, the predications it provides can be of great benefit to communications providers and the power distribution industry allowing them to take preemptive action.

Here is a link to my report of an eclipse expedition I was part of in 1979.

Flexible Antenna Control Workstation

This application controls the positioning and tasking of a wide variety of movable antennas used in satellite tracking, terrestrial spectrum monitoring and high gain wireless communication systems.

The control axes include azimuth, elevation, two polarization axes and a time axis. All control axes are integrated with various other databases for antenna tasking, pointing and tracking.

Control of the antenna is augmented by a map showing current azimuthal orientation and a pointing database for "point-and-click" positioning. The acquisition of antenna physical geolocation and accurate GMT time, via GPS, and alignment / orientation, via an electronic compass, are integrated as well.

Multiple antennas can be controlled from a single operator workstation over a LAN or over the Internet utilizing TCP/IP.

Flexible Antenna Control Workstation

UHF / VHF Spectrum Monitoring / Signal Location System

This system was designed and built as a compliance and enforcement tool for the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS). It is used to monitor spectrum usage and to quickly locate transgressors in the frequency range from 20 MHz to 2 GHz.

The workstation software provides for manual or automatic control of the three remote Watkins-Johnson DF processors and broad-band receivers, geolocation of signals of interest (SOI), creation and scheduling of unattended data collection, analysis and storage of collected data and retrieval of the data from the system database.

Radio Monitoring

Firmware Operating Systems / Satellite Uplink-Downlink

For this project, we developed embedded firmware operating systems for eight (8) distinct pieces of equipment which together comprise a complete remote satellite downlink/uplink station for a Japanese television company (NHK). The station can be controlled remotely via TCP/IP.

Each unit shares portions of a common operating system but has operating functionality unique to that unit added to the OS. The eight units are: Uplink, Downlink, Up/Down, Hub, Spectral Analyzer, IF, Recorder and Equalizer.

Employing a TCP/IP connection from a remote location...

- The system can be remotely controlled.
- Current system and individual unit status can be monitored.
- Outgoing (uplink) or incoming (downlink) signals can be switched to alternate paths.
- Signals can be analyzed.
- Remote diagnosis can be made for failure modes.
- The system can be restarted, unit-by-unit or all together.

The units are designed for complete remote control, but have a manual mode for on site diagnostics. I believe the actual installation was made on a remote island in the northwest part of the Pacific Ocean, nearJapan.

TDOA Test System:

This is an equipment control application for testing and debugging apparatus used in the time-delay-of-arrival (TDOA) geolocation of cellular telephone transmissions.

It runs across a distributed network via TCP/IP, serial and IEEE 488 protocols. Several different pieces of equipment might need to be tested, each in a variety of configurations, so an extremely flexible, yet easily automated system was required.

We devised and wrote the scripting language which allows the user to directly interface with whatever pieces of test equipment are necessary to perform the task at hand. Multiple levels of includes, looping and real time parameter variation allows scripts to be reused even within a current test.

The user interface consists of two operation panels:

The purpose of the first control panel view is to directly create and edit test scripts using standard Windows user interface controls, such as radio buttons, check boxes, etc. The user can generate a script line-by-line without any knowledge of the underlying scripting language or can write the script by hand.

Creating a new script

The second operator control panel is the script selection and execution panel. This control view allows the user to begin a test run, monitor the ongoing operation of the test, pause the test, step through the test or cancel the test. The results of the run are saved to a log file if the user chooses.

TrueTest main control view

Magnetic Czchoralski Silicon Crystal Growth  

I was Principal Investigator into the feasibility of growing Si and GaAs crystals in magnetic fields as well as being responsible for the design and development of the software for design and testing of the Silicon crystal growing furnaces.  I postulated that an axially oriented magnetic field would inhibit convective transport of oxygen from the crucible walls and thus control the resistivity of the final boule. Used computer based modeling to simulate the fluid flows in the crucible. 

 

Designed and wrote this program in Basic involving integration of many fluid flow algorithms I’d developed.  Because of the memory limitations at the time, the program had to be broken up into executable modules and run one segment at a time to produce results.  This work led to the design and building of a prototype furnace using low temperature conductive fluid (99.9999% Ga) in a smaller solenoidal magnet to model the high temperature activity of Si and GaAs. 

 

This line of investigation proved quite successful and many commercial crystal growing furnaces were produced based on this work. I earned admission to the MIT Graduate School in the Material Science Department with a full scholarship.

 

Additionally, I used advanced fluid mechanics and thermodynamics to write applications to model the flow of viscous magnetic liquid under realistic conditions requiring extensive algorithm design for heated fluid flows in magnetic fields.