IEEE PNEC Perspective - Spring 2012

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Transcript of IEEE PNEC Perspective - Spring 2012

Page 1: IEEE PNEC Perspective - Spring 2012
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Career Counseling Meet III IEEE-PNEC organized the 3rd Career Counseling meet on 17th No-vember 2011. The objective was to create awareness among the undergraduate students about what is expected of them in industry and particularly, how to get there. Deputy General Manager HR, SSGC was the first one on the speaker’s list. Amid all the jokes and laughs he cracked at the future engineers, he addressed some really important issues regarding job placement and how to succeed in ones profession. The next speaker to come on stage was the repre-sentative from PPL, Mr. Bilal Ahmad Khan, who answered questions about the hiring process of PPL and do’s and don’ts of a job inter-view. Microsoft representatives enlightened the audience about their engineering and technology competitions internship opportu-nities. They explained Imagine Cup, a global competition held annu-ally, with participation all across the world. Visioni explained the CV writing process and the steps to ace your interview.

IEEE PNEC PERSPECTIVE | Vol. 2 | spring issue | 2012 | page 2 |

in the News

Career Counseling Meet III SPARKLE Robotics Workshop

Techfest ‘11

USEFP Interactive Session

WIE Trip to PN Model School

Elections ‘12

SPARKLE

On September 15, 2011 IEEE PNEC launched a weekly lecture series called SPARKLE. Short for System Providing Access to Research Knowledge Learning and Education, SPARKLE aims to broaden the scope of to-be engineers’ knowledge while promoting a progressive culture of research and innovation amongst the students. So far we have learned about Has-san Idrees’s experience of attending the R10 SC ’11 in New Zealand, Fundamentals of GSM technology, Re-cent Advancement in Optical Communication, Practical Implementation of Data Encryption, Do’s and Don’ts of Final Year Project, Problems faced by Women in the field and to How to be Irreplaceable at Work which was delivered by the honorable Dean EPE, Capt. S.M. Babur.

Robotics Workshop IEEE PNEC organized a Robotics workshop for the students of PNEC. The workshop focused on constructing and design-ing a robot from scratch operating on wall detection, line following and line seeking. Workshop was conducted under the supervision of Dr AttaUllah Memon and was conducted by a final year student, Rameez Qasim, who is also the Spe-cial Project Officer IEEE PNEC. Workshop was a success amongst the enthusiasts with a good percentage ending up with a working robot.

Capt. S.M. Babur presenting the shield to Mr. Shahbaz Islam, DGM HR SSGC

Rameez Qasim explaining OrCAD, a PCB designing software

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Techfest ‘11 WIE IEEE PNEC was honored to hold its annual event, the TECH-FEST this year on 21st December 2011. Tech-Fest is the biggest event or-ganized by WIE IEEE PNEC. This time, Tech-Fest had more innova-tions and novelties with the fun filling Poster Design Competition, the interesting & informative Quiztronic & the enlightening Speaker Session. The Commandant, Rear Admiral Syed Imdad Imam Jaffri graced the occasion with his presence. In his closing speech, he ap-preciated the efforts of WIE IEEE PNEC and encouraged the students to regularly take part in such mind freshening activities.

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USEFP

Interactive

Session

On 14th of December 2011, IEEE-PNEC arranged an informative session regarding the United States Educational Foundation Program for students of NUST PNEC where we re-ceived a number of eager students from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd semester. The exchange pro-gram focuses on higher educational experiences in the U.S. and Pakistan. Another objec-tive of this program is to create awareness among the western society of our existence in the modern world, imparting cultural values and eradicating certain prejudices.

WIE Trip to PN Model School The Women in Engineering Affinity Group-Pakistan Navy Engineering College (PNEC) at Karachi has been immensely active throughout the year of 2011. One of the highlights was to create awareness regarding the field of engineering among the younger generations. In this regard, WIE-PNEC and its volunteers arranged a trip to PN Model School, Karsaz. The aim was to brief younger minds about the vast field of engineering, our college and need-less to say, Women In Engineering. An interactive session was held with the students of matriculation and above on 25th November 2011.

Rear Admiral Imdad Jafri surveying the art-work drawn by the participants

The students at PN Model School

Elections ‘12 After a fiercely fought elections with a total of 65 members eligible to vote and 16 posts up for grabs, the following were the winners. Kudos to the successful candidates and consolation to the unsuccessful ones.

Chairman Vice Chair

General Secretary Treasurer

Corporate Liaison Officer Membership Officer

Outreach Officer Communications Officer

Onib Nasir Zain Gill Rehma Javed Osama Ansari Khizer Laghari Faraz Afzal Ahmad Hassan Hamza Zahid

Web & Media Officer Editor

Special Project Officer Program Officer

WIE Chair WIE Vice Chair WIE Secretary WIE Treasurer

Adil Faqah Rabia Jamal Usman Yousuf Fahaad Humayun Kanza Basit Iqra Sajid Sumayya Abbas Ramsha Asim

And we would like to congratulate the newly nominated Junior Officer, Asim Ahmed. We wish you the best and a busy and hectic year!

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RFID - Its Applications and Interfacing

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What is RFID or Radio Frequency Identification?

RFID is a means of capturing data about an object without using a human to read the data, the object is identified using this data. Data transmitted by each object (tag) is unique and can be used as a key. RFID and Bar-codes both belong to a group of technologies called Automatic Identification and Data Capture. An RFID tag is just like a barcode but RFID communicates its digital code through radio frequency while barcode is an optical code. An RFID based system consists of a reader, a tag (transponder or carrier) and a computer/controller. Reader is a Two-way radio transmitter-receiver which sends a signal to the tag and read its response. The

readers generally transmit their observations to a computer system running RFID software or RFID middleware.

Readers are a power source for Passive tags.

By Usman Yousuf - Student at National University of Sciences & Technology

Interfacing an RFID reader module with microcontroller or

a computer is not a rocket science. It’s simply serial communication

of the two devices. Most of the reader modules transmit the data

and tag ID at 9600baud which is standard baud rate. Output voltage

level depends upon the reader, some readers transmit according to

RS232 standards while others transmit TTL/CMOS level. If a reader

is of RS232 type a middleware IC is required to interface it with

CMOS type microcontroller. Block diagram of Interfacing RFID reader with microcontroller

An RFID tag or a transponder is the actual key. The tag's information is stored electronically in a non-volatile memory chip. RFID tags contain at least two parts: an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modu-lating and demodulating a radio-frequency (RF) signal, collecting DC power from the incident reader signal, and other specialized functions; and an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal. The RFID tag includes a small RF trans-mitter and receiver. An RFID reader transmits an encoded radio signal to interrogate the tag. The tag receives the message and responds with its identification information usually 10 to 16 digits in length. This may be only a unique tag serial number, or may be product-related information such as a stock number, lot or batch number, production date, or other specific information.

RFID systems are more reliable as compared to barcode or magnetic card system. Since every tag has a unique

ID they can easily be used for personal identification and thus have a wide range of applications. Most applications

use passive tags, active tags have long range and mostly used for military purposes. Most commonly used passive

tags operate at frequency of 135 kHz. RFID’s have been used in animal husbandry and object tracking since long. Cur-

rently RFID is used in bill payment, product tracking, passports, identification, attendance, log keeping and access

control system. In medical science RFID implants are used to store primary disease or allergies of patients admitted to

certain hospitals, such tags are implanted in right arm. Encrypted tags are used for sensitive security systems. One of

the most commonly observed application in Pakistan is the Motorway e-toll system.

Implantable Tag Commonly available Tags

RFID tags can be either passive, active or battery assisted pas-sive. An active tag has an on-board battery that periodically transmits its ID signal. A battery assisted passive (BAP) has a small battery on board that is activated when in the presence of a RFID reader. A passive tag is cheaper and smaller because it has no battery. Instead, the tag uses the radio energy transmitted by the reader as its energy source. The interrogator must be close for RF field to be high enough to trans-fer enough power to the tag.

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Graphene - Thin Stuff A Big Fat Deal!

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Ever thought the lead in the pencil that we use to be worthy enough of winning the Nobel Physics Prize? It is indeed true! Professors Geim and Nosolev were awarded the prestigious accolade of the Nobel Physics Prize in 2010 for their research on graphene and its properties. Graphene is the name given to a flat monolayer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice and is the building block for graphitic materials of all other dimensionalities. It can be wrapped up into 0D fullerenes, rolled into 1D nanotubes or stacked into 3D graphite. The discovery of graphene all started with a strip of scotch tape! The two professors used scotch tape to pull thin lay-ers of carbon off a block of pencil lead. Using this carbon, they were able to demonstrate interesting electronic effects. All this happened in a lab at University of Manchester in 2004. Since then graphene has made tremendous progress and holds a prom-ising potential to imbue technological advancements in the years to come. Graphene is not only the thinnest possible material that is feasible, it is also about 200 times stronger than steel and conducts

By Onib Nasir - Student at National University of Sciences & Technology

This image of a carbon nanotube made from graphene was created using a scanning tunneling microscope. The reddish or yellow blobs are individual carbon atoms, with dark hex-

agonal holes between atoms.

Silicon was the starting point of the evolution in the electronics industry. But silicon has been reaching its fundamental limits, which could mean an end to the remarkable boost in computer speed achieved over the past few decades. There has been an impending need to find a suitable replacement for silicon. Graphene may in fact be the answer to this problem. Graphene transistors have been developed and demon-strated to be operational at more than 1 THz frequencies, while the cur-rent Si transistors operate at only MHz frequencies. That would imply a leap of 1000 time’s greater speed of the switching time of the current transistors! phene’s potential for electronics is usually justified by citing

mobility of its charge carriers. Electrons move through graphene with almost no resistance, generating little heat. And since graphene is itself a good thermal conductor, the heat is dissipated quickly. Graphene has caught the attention of the industrial giants and companies such as Intel, IBM and Hewlett-Packard has been funding the research. When graphene sheets are incorporated into composites, you could come up with a material that’s many times stronger than Kevlar. The Chinese are already working on carbon – nanotube yarn for spacesuits and bullet-proof vests. Gra-phene composites could be produced less expensively than the current generation of carbon – nanotubues composites. That opens the way for lighter, cheaper body armour, as well as lighter auto bodies and airplane fuselages. Graphite is already being used extensively in electric batteries. Graphene powder looks to take over from there too. An ultimately large surface-to-volume ratio and high conductivity provided by graphene powder can lead to improvements in batteries efficiency. Carbon nanotubes have also been considered for this application but graphene powder possesses the fru-gal advantage of being cheap to produce. Other applications where graphene’s use is being currently researched are embedding the material in plastics to en-able them to conduct electricity, graphene-based sensors could sniff out dangerous molecules, opto-electronics, stiffer-stronger-lighter plastics, leak-tight, plastic containers that keep food fresh for weeks, transparent conductive coatings for solar cells and displays, stronger wind turbines, stronger medical implants, better sports equipment, advancements in touch screen, LCD’s, high-power high frequency electronic devices. All these possibilities are being currently explored, while not all of them might turn out to be true yet the future still looks to be enticing with graphene at the helm of it. It may take another decade when we really start to see graphene play a significant role in our lives, but it is a sure thing that graphene will eventually make an impact. The initial discovery coupled with the rigorous lab-work that followed is why Professors Geim and Novoselov won the Nobel Physics Prize. They are trying to ensure that graphene does not become a fleeting fashion but is here to stay, bringing up both more exciting physics and, perhaps, even wide ranging applications. Talk-ing to Reuters, Geim said “I can only accurately predict the past, not the future. I would compare this situation with one 100 years ago when people discovered polymers. It took some time before polymers went into use in plastics and became so im-portant in our lives.”

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Nanoantennas for Energy and Environment

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Introduction

Alternate energy sources and their security is an issue of great importance for both developed and develop-ing nations because this defines the pace of their development. It is known for a long time that declining reserves of world’s fossil fuels will run out within 50-100 years and currently we have probably already reached “Peak Oil” pro-duction in the world which is currently considered the main source of energy. It also seems like that human are radi-cally and irreversibly changing the world’s climate by emitting the Green House gases which itself is a big problem. There is a realization that we need to have more sustainable society and alternate sources of energy by which cost-effective generation can be made possible to fulfill the needs of the whole country.

What is Nanophotonics?

Nanophotonics is the study of the behavior of light on the nanometer (nm) scale. It is considered as a branch of optical engineering which deals with optics, or the interaction of light with particles or substances, at deeply sub-wavelength scales. The term typically refers to phenomena of ultraviolet, visible and near IR light, with a wave-length of approximately 300-1200nm.

Introduction to Antennas

Antennas have played an essential role in the development of Electromagnetism and its related theory and they have several important applications in the design of modern wireless communication systems. In telecom ap-plications, the need for greater bandwidth due to many bandwidth hungry applications has demanded the use of higher frequencies of the supporting electromagnetic waves. The use of high-frequency radio waves and the inclu-sion of microwave radiations improved the performance and capacity of the previous links. At the same time, the antenna design developed more sophisticated layouts that have been successfully applied. Another important leap in the evolution of antenna design was done with the advent of planar antennas structures. Planar antenna like patch antennas can be fabricated with imprinting and thin-film technologies on an appropriate substrate with a spe-cific dielectric constant. In the electromagnetic spectrum, the shrinking in wavelength has been associated with the downscaling of antenna structures. Fortunately, the available fabrication techniques and the good radiation-metal interaction have allowed the realization and demonstration of the devices at shorter wavelengths.

Nanoantennas—How they work?

Nanoantennas (also called Nantennas) are the nano-scale structures fabricated to collect solar radiation or designed to absorb specific wavelengths that are proportional to the size of the nanoantenna. Based on antenna theory, a nanoantenna can absorb any wavelength of light efficiently provided that the size of the nanoantenna is optimized for that specific wavelength. Ideally, they would be used to absorb light at wavelengths between 400-1600nm because these wavelengths have higher energy than infrared (shorter wavelength) and make up about 85% of the solar radiation spectrum. Nanoantennas can — similarly to a burning lens, but much more efficient — collect light and concentrate it into tiny spaces. This allows a more efficient utilization of light energy. There are many applications for these optical antennas, ranging from photovoltaics to integrated circuits that work with light instead of electrons. The theory be-hind nanoantennas is essentially the same as rectifying antennas. Incident light on the antenna causes electrons in

By Dr. Bilal A. Khawaja - Assistant Professor at National University of Sciences & Technology

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the antenna to move back and forth at the same frequency as the incoming light. This is caused by the oscillating electric field of the incoming electromagnetic wave. The movement of electrons is an alternating current in the an-tenna circuit. To convert this into DC power, the AC current must be rectified, which is typically done with some kind of diode. The resulting DC current can then be used to power an external load. The resonant frequency of an-tennas (frequency which results in lowest impedance and thus highest efficiency) scales linearly with the physical dimensions of the antenna according to simple microwave antenna theory developed many years ago. It is also al-ready known that the wavelengths in the solar radiation spectrum range from approximately 0.3-2.0μm. Thus, in order for a rectifying antenna to be an efficient electromagnetic collector in the solar spectrum, it needs to be on the order of hundreds of nm in size.

Nanoantenna structures and Fabrication Nanoantennas are fabricated at the nano-scale and typically have the size of 1/25th the diameter of a hu-man hair. Focused Ion Beam (FIB) method is one of the popular methods to fabricate nano and micro-scale struc-tures and the same method can be used to fabricate these nanoantennas and Figure 1 shows a dipole nanoan-tenna fabricated at Interface Analysis centre, University of Bristol, UK. Figure 1: Nano-scale Focused Ion Beam (FIB) images of a dipole Nanoantenna

Due to the size of nanoantennas, they absorb energy in the infrared part of the spectrum, just outside the range of what is visible to the eye. The sun radiates a lot of infrared energy, some of which is soaked up by the earth and later released as radiation for hours after sunset. Nanoantennas can take in energy from both sunlight and the earth's heat, with higher efficiency than conventional solar cells.

Figure 2: Fabricated Nanoantenna Array [2]

Another method to fabricate nanoantennas is demonstrated by Idaho Na-tional Laboratory (INL), USA as shown in Figure 2 where the researchers demon-strated a plastic sheet of nanoantenna arrays, created by embossing the antenna structure and depositing a conductive metal in the pattern. Each square contains roughly 260 million antennas. Nanotechnology R&D usually occurs on the centi-meter scale, but this INL-patented manufacturing process demonstrates nano-scale features can be produced on a larger scale. The researcher estimates individ-ual nanoantennas can absorb close to 80 percent of the available energy. The cir-cuits themselves can be made of a number of different conducting metals, and the nanoantennas can be printed on thin, flexible materials like polyethylene, a plastic that's commonly used in bags and plastic wrap.

Pakistan’s Energy Crisis Presently Pakistan is engulfed by worst kind of energy crisis which has stalled our economic growth. One of the ways to come out of this dilemma, also suggested by many energy experts, is to increase the use of renewable and green sources for energy generation. A very interesting fact is that Pakistan is blessed with the abundance of these resources which include solar, wind and ocean waves etc. Among all these resources the most important and abundant sustainable energy source is solar radiation which is available almost all over Pakistan which is shown graphically in Figure 3.

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Figure 3: Annual Solar Radiation in Pakistan – Area wise

Nanoantennas Research and Development in Pakistan’s Current Energy Crisis In Pakistan’s current energy crisis, the country desperately needs an alternate sustainable energy source to support the currently available power generation infrastructure. This could be solar radiation based Nanoantennas which are cost effective in fabrication if fabricated at bulk scales. These are also easily handled devices as compare to there counterpart solar cells and have much better efficiency. The need at this point is to start a collaborative research effort in Pakistan with the help of foreign Universities at smaller scales with in Universities on Nanoantennas photovoltaic research and development because Nanophotonics is a vibrant and growing area for engineering and science applications in general and for energy applications in particular. This research effort can help in developing infrastructures which enable Pakistan to generate there own low cost nanoantennas based photovoltaic for their future energy needs.

References / Sources for the Article Corkish, R., M. A. Green, and T. Puzzer. “Solar Energy Collection By Antennas.” Elsevier Science Ltd. (2003): 1-7. ScienceDirect. Elsevier. 15 Feb. 2009 Novack, Steven D., et al. “Solar Nantenna Electromagnetic Collectors.” American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Aug. 2008): 1-7. Idaho National Laboratory. 15 Feb. 2009 Green, Hank. “Nano-Antennas for Solar, Lighting, and Climate Control.” Ecogeek. 7 Feb. 2008. 15 Feb. 2009 Nanoantennas to Harvest the Energy of the Sun, Source: Idaho National Laboratory, USA (http://www.azocleantech.com/Details.asp?ArticleID=25) A presentation on “Nanophotonics for Energy, the Environment and Health”, by Martin J Cryan, Centre for Communications Research, University of Bristol, UK, Dec 2010 National Renewable Energy Laboraory, USA Web: http://www.nrel.gov/gis/pdfs/swera/afg_pak/pak_10km_dir.pdf Javier Alda, José M. Rico-García, José M. López-Alonso and Glenn Boreman, “Micro- and Nano-Antennas for Light Detection”, Egypt. Journal of Solids, Vol. (28), No. (1), 2005

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Introduction to Long Term Evolution

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Mobile networks continue to develop at an exciting pace. In ten years, mobile networks may well support services beyond that of today’s multi-megabit fixed connections, while the amount of data traffic on mobile net-works could surpass that of today's broadband connections in the next decade. As consumer demand grows for ever-richer services and connected lifestyles, mobile networks will evolve, and the mobile industry is already hard at work defining the technical solution that will allow mobile networks to meet the growing demand for wireless broadband services. The radio access technologies enabling these networks have been given the name Long Term Evolution of Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network – or LTE for short. LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the newest standard introduced in 2007. LTE defines new radio connections for mobile networks, and will utilize Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), a widely used modulation technique that is the basis for Wi-Fi, WiMAX digital broadcasting technologies. The targets for LTE indicate band-width increases as high as 100 Mbps on the downlink, and up to 50 Mbps on the uplink. However, this potential in-crease in bandwidth is just a small part of the overall improvement LTE aims to provide. LTE is optimized for data traffic, and it will not feature a separate, circuit-switched voice network, as in 2G GSM and 3G UMTS networks.

By Kinza Shafique - Student at National University of Sciences & Technology

latency (the time it takes data to travel within the network), but also helps to significantly reduce cost, since fewer pieces of network equipment are needed to achieve the same results. Also driving down operators’ cost per transmitted bit will be the use of OFDM, which offers high spectral efficiency, and the increased capacity LTE will offer – essentially allowing operators to squeeze more data into the same bandwidth of spectrum.

A number of people from all over the world are working on this standard. We at the BE level are trying to implement the physical layer of this standard on FPGA. This hardware is programmable and the designer has full control over the actual design implementation without the need (and delay) for any physical IC fabrication facility. An FPGA combines the speed, power, and density attributes with the programmability of a general purpose proc-essor. An FPGA could be reprogrammed for new functions by a base station to meet future needs particularly when new design is going to fabricated into chip.

The evolution to LTE may be compel-ling for many operators because of the re-duced capital and operating expenditures it requires over previous 3G networks. A key aspect of LTE is its simplified, flat network architecture, derived from it being an all-IP, packet-based network, and the use of new techniques to get high volumes of data through a mobile network. This allows many of the network elements involved in the data transport between an operators’ base sta-tions and its core network in current cellular systems to be removed. This helps to reduce

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Digital Images – Capturing and Processing

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By Bilal Muhammad Zaki - Student at National University of Sciences & Technology

Figure1

Processing Image With this much signal input processing an image may seem a very difficult task, well it really was, but with the advancements in computers and high computational software we are now able to perform the larger number of iterations, as we get an input from the camera a matrix is created in which every element shows the input from one sensor.

Capturing Image Capturing memories, biomedical details etc and storing them in the best shape possible is very much important to us. Just to give you a touch with electronic aspect of digital images we capture. The Images, in digital terms is nothing but brightness level signal generated by a matrix of photo-sensors. Each pixel of a digital image repre-sents a brightness level from one photo-sensor in grayscale. For colored images, RGB, we get input from three (3) sensors, red-green-blue, for the construction of each pixel. So when we say that my cell phone has a 5MP Camera that in the world of electronics mean that our cell phone camera actually takes input from matrix of 3x (5x106) photo-sensors (RGB), to construct an image with each sensor representing 1byte (8bit) data, well you can do the simple math and get the approximate image size for your camera. The brightness level for each pixel in unit8 (8bit) format can vary from 0 to 255, i.e. 28, which tells us that each sensor can give us 256 different intensity lev-els.

Introduction Human being strives for information. We all know that we have billions of tons or in a bit more modern terms billions of terabytes of information around us. Extracting the useful information from the signals around us is processing. We have been gifted with a processor which can process information intuitively at magnificent pace. For our machines that do not comply, we need defined techniques to process any quantity measurable through time or over space. To get results near to reality we need extremely complex techniques and high computational power.[1] Signal Processing can be classified into many branches; one of the major and most heard branch now-a-days is Image Processing which is composed of brightness signals. As famously said that a picture is worth a thousand words and accepting the fact that mankind has always been fond of pictures which imply that we deal with lots of images daily. And since everything is now being digitized there occurs a need of optimized digital image processing techniques, moreover digital videos are also high-speed still images in sequence, so in short we are dealing with a huge amount of pictorial data.

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Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure4

Image processing involves changing the nature of an image in order to either improve its pictorial informa-tion for human interpretation or render it more suitable for autonomous machine perception. Digital image processing is the only practical technology for Classifica-tion, Feature Extraction, Projection, Multi-Scale Signal Analysis etc.[2] Digital image processing involves a digi-tal processing unit to change the nature of a digital im-age. It is necessary to realize that these two aspects rep-resent two different but equally important aspects of image processing. A procedure which satisfies condi-tion:

A procedure which makes an image looks better. Humans like their images to be sharp, clear and de-tailed; machines prefer their images to be simple.

To achieve these two targets we need to enhance the edges of an image to make it appear sharper; as shown in Figure1. Remove noise from an image, noise being random errors in the image; as given in Figure2. Remov-ing motion blur from an image, example figure3. Ob-taining the edges in an image, this may be necessary for the measurement of objects in an image; as shown in Figure 4. Removing detail from an image, we may not be interested in all the detail in an image. [3] Processing an image to perform above mentioned tasks we use techniques, few of them are:

Linear Filtering Partial Differential Equations Pixelization Neural Networks Wavelets Principle & Independent Analysis

References: [1] Rafael Gonzalez and Richard E.Woods. Digital Image Processing. Prentice Hall, 3

rd

edition, 2007. [2] Dana H. Ballard and Christopher M. Brown. Computer Vision. Prentice Hall, 1982. [3] Alasdair McAndrew, An Introduction to Digital Image Processing with Matlab, School of

Computer Science and Mathematics - Victoria University of Technology

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Exclusive Interview with Dr. Faisal Amir

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Dr Faisal Amir with his Award

Dr. Faisal Amir is a talented patriot who, by his hard work & determina-tion, has brought laurels to Pakistan. Dr. Faisal Amir joined the University of Manchester, UK in 2006 enrolling for an MSc leading to a PhD program under a National University of Sci-ences and Technology (NUST) scholar-ship. He completed his MSc in 2007 with a distinction. He has been awarded IEEE Electron Devices Soci-ety (EDS) 2009 PhD student fellowship for the demonstration of significant ability to perform independent re-search in the field of Electron Devices. How has IEEE helped you reach the aca-demic height? In general, IEEE has been the forerunners as far as the research is concerned. IEEE awards one year fellowships for recognition of PhD level study. In 2009, I participated, & conse-quently, was awarded IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS) 2009 PhD student fellowship in the field of Electron Devices for the Europe/Middle East/Africa region. Moreover, IEEE provided me with an opportunity to attend IEDM 2009 which is one of the most prestig-ious conferences of IEEE. It gave me a golden chance to interact with the leaders & intellec-tuals of Electronic Industry & enriched my ex-posure in the field of latest electronic devices.

How do you believe can IEEE help the current students pursuing undergraduate studies and what should an IEEE student member focus on to maximize IEEE mem-bership benefits? IEEE membership has several benefits. Even for an undergraduate, researching and pub-lishing one’s work is vital in today’s world. IEEE membership gives you the access to sev-eral research papers and documentations. IEEE Magazine, ‘the Spectrum’, is a peek into the technological world. Also the opportunities of links you can make via IEEE with other student branches and cor-porations is essential for any engineer’s growth professionally. Not to forget, IEEE pro-

dents to think beyond their course curriculum. IEEE is playing a vital role in this re-gard, in Pakistan as well as globally.

The best advice you never took? ‘Keep a balance between fam-ily & career.’ My focus has al-ways been on my work and due to which my family has suffered. Time passes and things move on. I abide by this advice now, but even then have to do some late hour sit-ting.

Your advice to the young engineers of Pakistan? First and foremost: Research! Understand what you’re studying and why you’re studying it. Have both practical and theoretical knowledge. Whatever you read, read it from application point of view, so when at the field, you would know how to do it. The world today is knowledge based. Broaden your horizons and equip yourself with knowledge. Join many societies related to your field and stay abreast with the latest innovations and technolo-gies. Acquiring the degree is only one part of studying. The other part is to polish your speaking skills, presentation skills and way of conduct. It gives you an edge and makes you stand out. The most important thing is per-sistent hard work & dedication. Always remember, there are no shortcuts.

vides its members with a prospect to partici-pate in international competitions globally.

What, in your opinion, is the major rea-son for low educational standards in Pakistan & what needs to be changed about it? I believe that lack of priority given to educa-tion by the people and the government is the fundamental cause of low educational stan-dards in Pakistan. On one side, we in general, are not willing to spend a decent amount on our children’s education when the same amount of money can be used to feed us twice a day. On the other side of the spec-trum, our government is also not spending sufficient amount on education. Another reason for the inadequate educa-tional standards, in my opinion, is that the quality of teachers is not at a high level due to which students suffer. Teachers should be of high caliber and paid well to maintain the standards. Whereas, the scenario is reciprocal nowadays. Changes should be made at the grass root level. Basics should be made strong at school level to improve the quality and standards of education. Increased govern-ment and private investments need to be made in the sector. Ample national & interna-tional scholarships should be provided to the students from remote areas to encourage them to work harder.

How do you believe we can promote re-search as a culture amongst the under-graduate students of Pakistan? One of the ways to promote research as a cul-ture amongst the undergraduate students of Pakistan is to introduce research as part of the curriculum from the beginning, not just at the undergraduate level, but also in high schools. Because this is when students can develop a habit of looking further than just Wikipedia link! In University of Manchester the Graduate School conducts a workshop where students can carry any independent research projects. Teachers could also give advance topics to students as assignments for private research. Research competition also encourages stu-

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IEEE News from Across the Globe Humanitarian Technology Challenge

It is a new initiative of IEEE to help people

who live in under-developed countries.

The humanitarian challenge is focusing on

reliable electricity, data connectivity and

individual ID. Student branches are encour-

aged to participate in this projects chal-

lenge.

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Global

Integrated

Network of

IEEE

[GINI]

In SB Networking, every SB has a GINI Branch

Coordinator. All the Branch Coordinators

work to create a healthy and effective net-

work among their student branches by meet-

ing regularly and following up. In the Collabo-

ration Platform, the CP Ambassadors main-

tain a steady web presence on the GINI web-

site, the email group and social media.

Educational Activities Board

This has two programs by the name of EP-

ICS and TISP. The aim of EPICS is the estab-

lishment of a relationship between the

professionals, engineers and high school

students. TISP aims to promote applied

inquiry based learning and guide the high

school students in selecting a major.

IEEE R10 Meeting 2012 The IEEE R10 2012 Meeting would be held in Kolkata, India on 3rd March where a minimum of one represen-tative of each section of Re-gion 10 Asia Pacific will be present.

The IR branch works to carve internships, job offers and industrial projects and mentor-ship for active IEEE student members. The current team from Pakistan includes Hassan Idrees, Syed Ahmed Fuad, Nimrah Hashmi and Rabia Khalid from Karachi, Fatma Faruq, Usama Shahid , Shahzada Shahrukh, Ahsan and Maryam Syed from Islamabad and Synnia Tanveer and Ali Turab from Lahore.

Pakistan

WIE

Forum

[PWF]

IEEE Pakistan WIE Forum, initiated in May 2011, has been working hard to contribute

to the world of women and education. Two major projects were started under the IEEE

PWF team; Pakistan’s Mission to Progress (PMP) and Discover WIE.

All PMP episodes have included: 1. Survey of the current gender-equality status through questionnaire 2. Gender equality promotion in co-operation with rural areas 3. A seminar in the three IEEE Sections of Pakistan to change mind sets

The first Discover WIE session was held at NFC Faisalabad on 6th May, 2011 and was hosted by IEEE NFC-IEFR. The second Discover WIE session as held at UET Lahore on 19th May, 2011 at the

‘Footsteps of Illustration’ event by IEEE UET, Lahore.

Page 14: IEEE PNEC Perspective - Spring 2012

Chairperson

Editor

Designer

Reviewer

Rabia Khalid

Onib Nasir

Adil Faqah

Bilal Zaki

Contact us

Room A-007

IEEE PNEC Student Branch

Pakistan Navy Engineering College

National University of Sciences and Technology

[email protected]

www.ieee.org/pnec

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