For their submission at the International Telemetering Conference (ITC), Jamison Ebert, Bryan Redd, and Autumn Twitchell received 2nd place in the Student Best Paper category. The conference took place in Las Vegas on October 21-24, 2019.
Their paper, titled “DFT-Based Frequency Offset Estimators,” explores the issues prevalent in carrier acquisition that cause interruptions and phase information loss.
To explain the article further, Bryan Redd said, “We measure and estimate the frequency and phase offsets of received signals in an air-to-ground wireless communication link.”
Autumn Twitchell added, “It’s a way to be able to get the data that we transmitted, actually receive it, and be able to figure out what was being transmitted in the first place. A lot can happen when you transmit.”
Because the transmitter frequency and the receiver frequency may differ due to variations in the electronics, the signal in the receiver often appears to have a frequency offset. Engineers need to design electronics in such a way that they can function even with these distortions.
Dr. Michael Rice, the advisor over the students explained that “it takes very sophisticated techniques to try and fix all those [issues] so we can detect what was sent. Cell phones are actually doing a lot of work that we’re not even aware of.”
The group was able to learn more about these issues through use of simulations and mathematics. They began their work in April as part of IMMERSE undergraduate research.
Most of the students on the project have been interested in radio communications for years, so working with Dr. Rice was a natural fit.
Autumn said, “It’s magic! All these frequencies around us and we can’t even see them. When I was deciding which research group to join, I was thinking about Dr. Rice’s group and radio astronomy and it was something that went in place; I always thought it was a really cool concept.”
Similarly, when Jamison first entered the electrical engineering program, he discovered how much he enjoyed the combination of math and engineering. He liked how Dr. Rice’s group was an application of those subjects.
In conjunction with Jamison’s thoughts, Bryan said, “That’s why I like engineering, because you can really focus on whatever you want and have a job while you do it, whether it’s really math-heavy or hardware-heavy or computer-heavy. They are all really technically-challenging fields, but that’s all covered in electrical engineering. And I think wireless communications is a cool hybrid between the physical mechanism and the math.”