Faculty: ECE faculty
ITS metaLab
Location: ETAS 303B
Summary of the equipment and the estimated value:
- Software: VISSIM and VISUM micro-simulation package, LINGO Optimization Software, TransCAD GIS Software, ILOG Optimization Libraries, Scientific Workplace with Maple Software, GAMS/CONOPT & XA Optimization Software and Criterion Decision Plus Software, TreePlan Decision Analysis, IDL (interactive Data Language), IMSL, MATLAB, and Microsoft Visual Studio. ($10,000)
- Equipment: GOES Satellite Dish (with GVAR image downloading software), OPNET: IT Decision Guru/Radio Module/Application Module, LIVE CAM CONNECT HD 1080 ($20,000)
- Computers: Intel NUC Kit D54250WYK, Workstations and Servers, running Windows and Linux OS ($3,000)
Use(s) of the lab:
Research –
External grants from
- U.S. Dept. of Transportation – 2004-2009 ($500,000)
- NASA – 2013-2015 ($20,000)
Undergraduate/graduate research –
- Currently working with three MS thesis students and two PhD students
Teaching –
- Optimization Methods in Systems Engineering
- Decision and Risk Analysis
- Multicriteria Decision and Risk Analysis
- Modeling Transportation Systems
- Linear Programming and Network Flows
- Spatial Time Series
- Networks and Combinatorial Optimization
Faculty: Seshadri Mohan
Software-defined Radio Laboratory
Location: ETAS 307
Summary of the equipment and the estimated $ value:
The lab offers the ability to implement software-defined radio testbed or cognitive radio testbed and test them. The lab consists of eight Ettus Research Universal Software-defined Radio Pheripherals (USRP) N210 and a dozen work stations costing approprimately $40,000
Use(s) of the lab: The laboratory facilitates both undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research in the area of software-defined radio and helps instructors to use in offering laboratory instructions in cognitive radio.
Laboratory of Network Optimization and Operating Systems
Location: ETAS 303-C
Summary of the equipment and the estimated $ value:
- Desktop PCs (estimated $4000 value)
Use(s) of the lab:
- Being used for teaching the advanced computer operating system and communication network courses.
- Mentioned in several proposals submitted to external agencies (NSF).
- Being used for graduate student research;
- Graduate students’ names:
- Bilal Al-Doori
- Ayad Bihnam
- Hamzeh Davarikia
- Mohammad Arani
Faculty: Andrew Wright
Mechatronics and Acoustics Lab
Location: ETAS 530
Summary of the equipment and the estimated $ value:
Mill, Lathe, specialized machining equipment: $20,000
Materials (metal, electronics components): $50,000
Data acquisition systems: $50,000
Computer equipment: $5,000
Sensors: $3,000
Acoustic and Vibration equipment: $10,000
Vex parts: $10,000
Custom robots: $10,000
Motors: $5,000
Plastics fab: $1,000
Furniture: $2,000
Use(s) of the lab: Research, undergraduate/graduate research, and teaching.
The lab has supported through the years several sponsored projects and was largely funded by NASA grants ($1,500,000). The lab will be used in an upcoming NSF grant (11/2 due date) that is being developed this semester on active learning in engineering education. The mechanical work in the grant will be made using the specialized machining capabilities in the lab.
The lab supports an active doctoral student (Trigun Maroo) who is developing a drone project for precision agriculture. This project should lead to funding opportunities in Arkansas. The student needs fabrication equipment, space to test the drones, measuring equipment to characterize the devices, and secure storage space for materials and equipment.
The lab is used to support both Capstone and Mechanical Design classes. In the past, students who need specialized instruction or access when UA Little Rock shop personnel are not available have been accommodated by Dr. Wright in ETAS 530. Having the fabrication space adjacent to the Capstone room (ETAS 529) allows students to assemble their projects and use the tools in ETAS 530, rather than trekking down to the UA Little Rock shop.
The vibration equipment will be used to support the new vibrations course which will be required with the beginning of the Mechanical Systems Engineering program beginning in Spring 2017.
The plastics fabrication equipment will be used to support SYEN 2118. Fabrication Lab II, which will be required with the beginning of the Mechanical Systems Engineering program beginning in Spring 2017.
Dr. Wright uses this facility to support his independent research projects. For instance, the CASSY robot platforms have been designed and built in conjunction with the ETAS 530. Since the machines can be configured and left set up, Dr. Wright can perform work in ETAS 530 that he cannot perform in the UA Little Rock shop, which has to be reconfigured for student projects on an hourly basis.
The servers, theduchy.ualr.edu, calliope.ualr.edu, and robotics.ualr.edu, are configured to use the ports in ETAS 530. Although this is not a critical feature of the lab, if the servers were to be moved, ITS would have to reconfigure 3 ports elsewhere on campus to the 144.168.99.xxx subdomain. Right now, 226, 227, and 228 are allocated to these servers and locked to the ports in ETAS 530. This would create disruption in several critical features that support campus and national obligations.
The server, calliope.ualr.edu is currently serving the course materials for SYEN 2233. This course has large video requirements that need more drive space than ITS provides.
The server, calliope.ualr.edu is currently serving the library of faculty senate minutes until a digital archive can be configured. This has been done temporarily to give the provost’s office and collections and archives time to develop the plan for taking this task over.
The server, theduchy.ualr.edu, has been in continuous operation since 1996. It has served as a mirror for NASA’s first Mars rover video archive in the 2000’s. Dr. Wright’s course materials have been linked from many different sites over the years. A google search reveals about 600 external links to theduchy.ualr.edu. The server, theduchy.ualr.edu also links files for a few publications that Dr. Wright has received and is the primary server maintaining the data archives from past NASA and NSF grants (see data management plan).
The server, robotics.ualr.edu is not as critical; however, the domain can be used (and has been used in the past) as an entry point for external viewers to see all of UA Little Rock’s robotics work. The server has been disrupted in recent months by UA Little Rock’s power outages, which have killed two motherboards. The replacement motherboard was finally obtained last week after about four requests for purchase across two chairs, and the server should resume its function presently.
Faculty: Andrew Wright (and others)
Robotic Lab (Capstone Room)
Location: ETAS 529
Summary of the equipment and the estimated $ value:
Materials and Supplies purchased through Capstone program: $5,000
This room is used as both a capstone project assembly room and space for undergraduate and graduate students to have temporary access. The key feature of the room is its size and the programmable magnetic lock on the door. Students can be given temporary access without the need to cut keys and revoke them when the space is no longer needed.
The pace is adjacent to Dr. Wright’s research lab (ETAS 530) and gives students easy access (usually through a graduate student) to tools and machines that facilitate assembly.
The room currently supports Capstone I&II, Elements of Mechanical Design, two undergraduate students independent studies (Jean Pamphile, Priscila Almeida), Trigun Maroo (doctoral student), and the Dancing Robot project (in conjunction with Theater and Dance).
If this space is reallocated, some other project space will have to be allocated for the capstone students’ projects (in particular). Such space should have easy access to the UA Little Rock machine shop so that assembly can be facilitated and should have the ability to provide revokable access to students so that they don’t need someone to open the doors for them.
Faculty: Dr. Hussain Al-Rizzo
Antennas and Wireless Systems Research
Location: ETAS Rooms 357 and 307, and suite 900
Summary of the equipment and the estimated $ value:
Engineering Software Packages for Design and Analysis
- CST Design Suite, Computer Simulation Technology
- High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), and ANSYS Designer by ANSYS
- SEMCAD by SPEAG
- Zeland’s Fidelity and IE3D
- EMPIRE by IMST
- FEKO by Comprehensive Electromagnetic Solutions
- Antenna Magus
- PropLab
- Keysight Technology Educational Support Product
- Matlab
For Prototyping
- Class 1000 clean room for photolithography
- FUJIFILM Dimatix material printer
- CNC milling machine
For Testing
State-of-the-art antenna testing facility that includes the following:
- Tapered Anechoic Chamber
- DUT: 3’ diameter sphere
- Frequency Range: 400 MHz through 18 GHz, Absorber attenuation: at least 35 dB at 400 MHz, 50 dB at 18 GHz
- Agilent E8362B PNA Series Network Analyzer, 10 MHz to 20 GHz
- Agilent E4440A PSA Series Spectrum Analyzer, 3 Hz to 26.5 GHz
- Agilent E8257D PSG Analog Signal Generator, 250kHz – 20 GHz
- Agilent 85070E Dielectric Probe Kit 200 MHz to 50 GHz
- Speag EASY 4 Four Channel Exposure Acquisition System for SAR measurement
- Upright SAM head & shoulders phantom, compatible with IEEE/CENELEC specifications
- Dell T7400 Computational Workstations
- Tektronix DPO 4104 Oscilloscope
- Tektronix Active Oscilloscope Probe
- Agilent E3642A DC Power Supply
- Agilent 34405A Digital Multimeter
- Agilent 33220A 20 MHz Arb. Waveform Generator
- Dimatix 2800 Materials Printer, FujiFilm
- 2090 Position Controller, ETS-Lindgren
- 2020 Multi-Axis Positioner Mast and Base, ETS-Lindgren
- 2110 Multi-Axis Positioner Mast, ETS-Lindgren
- EM Quest Measurement Software, ETS-Lindgren
- 3117 Double-Ridged Guide Horn Antenna, ETS-Lindgren
- 3164-06 Quad-Ridged Horn, ETS-Lindgren
- 3164-06 Quad-Ridged Horn, ETS-Lindgren
- 3126-450 Precision Sleeve Dipole
- 3126-920 Precision Sleeve Dipole
- 3126-1550 Precision Sleeve Dipole
- 3126-2450 Precision Sleeve Dipole
- 3126-5200 Precision Sleeve Dipole
- 3126-5800 Precision Sleeve Dipole
- 3147 Log Periodic Dipole Antenna Range Calibration Kit
- Armored Precision Test Cables 10′ (3), Micro-Coax
- Precision Test cables 60′, 10′, 6′, 4′, 3′, 1′, Pasternack
- Adapters – SMA, Type N, BNC, Pasternack
- WD-1 Soldering Station, Weller
- Micro-Drill Press, Cameron
- Carbide Micro-Drill Bits, Kyocera
Use(s) of the lab:
The UA Little Rock Antennas and Wireless Systems Research Laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art measurement/testing facilities and computer-aided design tools. The laboratory is supported by a specialized fabrication facility and an anechoic chamber. These facilities, coupled with a sixteen-year record of externally funded research in broad, multidisciplinary, and cutting-edge topics have created an education and research environment that is unique in the state of Arkansas and conducive to bringing government and industry together for collaboration on joint projects. The laboratory’s research focuses have included electrically small antennas/sensors; novel materials for compact body-worn antennas with enhanced performance; GPS antennas for horizon-to-horizon coverage and multipath mitigation; mutual coupling reduction in antenna arrays consisting of conformal elements and elements with vertical extents; flexible antennas and artificial magnetic conductors; carbon nanotube antennas and sensors for RF and microwave applications; interference and congestion minimization in industrial-scale WLAN networks; and system-level modeling of implantable medical devices.
Faculty: Jung H. Kim
Fault Tolerant Computing
Location: ETAS 582
Summary of the equipment and the estimated $ value:
PC and sensor tools (about $30,000)
Use(s) of the lab: Research, undergraduate/graduate research, and teaching. Research and graduate student teaching
Power Systems Lab
Location: ETAS155
Summary of the equipment and the estimated value in US$:
| Main Equipment | Units | Price US$/Unit | Total US$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop computers | 6 | 1,156 | 6,936 |
| Digital Oscilloscopes | 6 | 4,921 | 29,526 |
| Signal generators | 2 | 1,900 | 3,800 |
| High-power DC Supply | 2 | 5,582 | 11,164 |
| 3-phase power quality analyzer | 1 | 5,010 | 5,010 |
| LabView workstation | 2 | 5,000 | 10,000 |
| Total | 66,436 |
Brief description:
Power Systems Lab provides equipment and service for fundamental experiments of power systems, including three-phase systems, power transformers, electric machines, synchronous generators and operation. It also supports the experiments in power electronics, electronics design, and microprocessors and systems.
Recent development is the remote-accessible experiments of electric power systems by developing special interface between physical experimental system and computer, and using LabView workstation so that the experiments can be completed by computer and network. Remote-accessible experiments have been used for microprocessors & systems lab during last few years. Two Capstone projects have been completed to develop remote-accessible experimental systems for power transformers and synchronous generators. A NSF proposal “Cyber-Physical Experimental Systems for Electric Power Engineering Education” will be submitted on Nov. 2, 2016.
Power Systems Lab supports the two undergraduate Lab courses SYEN3134 “Microprocessors &Systems Lab”, SYEN3158 “Power Systems Lab”. Each semester around 10 undergraduate students use the lab to complete assigned lab projects. It also supports graduate course, “Introduction to Power Electronics”. The graduate students use the lab to complete the lab projects in the course.
The lab also supports undergraduate Capstone projects, master graduate thesis, and PhD graduate dissertation research projects. Currently there are two PhD students use the lab intensively for their research projects.
The lab provides the support for High School Research Program. During last three years, there were three high school students joined the lab to complete their research projects in summer.
ETAS208 shared with Dr. Iqbal and Dr. Kim for graduate students. It is also used for the inventory for best robotic hub.
Faculty: Jin Wook Lee
Fuel Cell Research Lab (I)
Location: ETAS 502
Summary of the equipment and the estimated $ value:
Equipped with basic electrochemical instruments such as a potentiostat, reference electrodes, a rotating disc electrode, vacuum oven, ultrasonication bath, an oxygen gas tank, and a computer etc. The total value is approximately $30,000.
Use(s) of the lab: undergraduate/graduate research.
Fuel Cell Research Lab (II)
Summary of the equipment and the estimated $ value:
Some of equipment will be moved from ETAS 502 to 582 if a fume hood is installed.
Use(s) of the lab: Last I heard they are being renovated. They are empty now except Jung’s equipment.
Faculty: Dr. Kamran Iqbal
Biomechanics and Human Movement Laboratory
The Biomechanics and Human Movement Laboratory is equipped with CCD cameras for recording human movement and wireless electromyography (EMG) sensors for recording muscle activations during movement. The kinematic data is recorded using reflective markers and VICON NEXUS software. Data analysis is performed using MATLAB and R for statistical computing. The projects carried out in the laboratory include characterization of human movement and disorders, identification of muscle synergies, identification of sensorimotor control strategies, and characterization of control signals for prosthetic devices.
Representative publications:
Real-time task discrimination for myoelectric control employing task-specific muscle synergies https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2015.2410176
Proficiency‐based recruitment of muscle synergies in a highly perturbed walking task (slackline) https://doi.org/10.1002/eng2.12253
Alteration of muscle synergy structure while walking under increased postural constraints https://doi.org/10.1049/ccs.2019.0021
Optimal time-varying postural control in a single-link neuromechanical model with feedback latencies https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-020-00843-9
Dr. Iqbal is the guest editor for MPDI Information special issue on Signal Processing in the Planning and Execution of Human Movement. Please see the following link for details: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/information/special_issues/Human_Movement