Jerry Francis

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I am expecting my M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in May 2003.

I received my B.S. degree in Computer Engineering in May 2001.

Work History                                                                                      

Center for Power Electronics Systems (Jan 2000 - Current) 

Assistanship funded by PNGV and PEBB (described below)
PEBB (Power Electronics Building Blocks) PnP: Sponsored by The Office of Naval Research  

Ø      Design, implementation, and test of a Universal Controller for Distributed Control Applications with the following features (In progress):

§         An Analog Devices ADSP-21160 80MHz, 480MFLOPS SIMD Floating Point Multiprocessor DSP

§         A Xilinx Virtex FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) as a bridge between four asynchronous busses (XCV400-4BG560)

§         A PCI interface (Via PMC, PCI Mezzanine Card.  IEEE Std. p1386.1)

§         JTAG interfaces for programming the DSP and FPGA

§         An Analog Devices DAC (AD8582AR)

§         A TI Hex Display (TIL-311)

§         Two Flash Programmable Memory chips (AM29LVC080, AM29BL802C)

§         A Xilinx Configuration EEPROM for storing FPGA configurations

§         A redundant dual ring optical

Ø      Design of fault tolerant real-time control protocol

Ø      Proposal for PnP project for 2001 and 2002

Ø      Conference Paper

Ø      Government Reports

 

For more information, please see the PEBB Website for Virginia Tech 

 

Presentation 04-Dec-00 (NSWC, Philadelphia PA)

Presentation 20-Mar-01 (ONR, Arlington VA)

 

 

PNGV (Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles): Sponsored by Ford, Crystler, GM ATV, and the US Army

Ø      Construction of Saber MAST Templates to simulate the following:

§         A 3 Phase hard switching inverter

§         A 3 Phase auxiliary resonant commutated pole inverter (ARCP) switching model

§         A controller for six step space vector modulation (SVM)

§         A control timing block for an ARCP inverter

§         A 3 phase pulse width modulated signal generator

Ø      Testing a Zero-Current-Transition Soft Switching Inverter on the CPES Dynamometer

Ø      Programming the Analog Devices ADMC300 Motor Controller / Digital Signal Processor

Ø      Increasing the switching frequency of the inverter from 10 to 20kHz

Ø      Programming Altera EPLDs using Altera Max Plus II

Ø      Government Reports

 

Exegetics Inc. (March 1999 - April 2000)

Ø      Systems Adminsitration

Ø      Microsoft Exchange Server Administration

Ø      Microsoft Windows NT Server Administration

Ø      Manual Test of Exegetics document storage product StorEdge

Wonderware Corp. (May 1997 - December 1998 alternating semesters)

Ø      Design and implementation of Active-X controls (COM Objects) used in Wonderware realtime control product InControl  for process controls that ran under Windows NT 4.0 and CE 2.XX using Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 with the Windows CE EDK.

Ø      Used the Microsoft Active-X Template Library (ATL) to design and implement classes to simplify the development of controls (“Factory Objects”) that can be embedded in both the InControl Development Environment and the Runtime Engine

Ø      Design and implementation of a realtime multithreaded serial communications Active-X control for industrial process control

Ø      Built Windows CE versions 2.xx, 3.0 test platforms using Microsoft Windows CE Embedded Development Kit

Ø      Made images of Windows CE for use in an embedded controller, Foxboro MicroIA

Ø      Quality Assurance for InControl soft Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)

Ø      Automated test of Profibus, DeviceNet, Optomux, Interbus-S and AB DH+ IO.

Ø      Development of QA scripting libraries used with Segue QA Partner

Ø      Development of QA scripts and test plans used to test I/O drivers and Relay Ladder Logic (IEC 1131-3) for InControl

Ø      Use of SFC (Sequential Flow Charts), RLL (Relay Ladder Logic), ST (Structured Text), and OCX controls to manually test I/O drivers

For more information on realtime control product, Wonderware InControl, click HERE 

 

Publications

Conference and Seminar Papers

Ø      Jerry Francis, Jinghong Guo, and Dushan Boroyevich, “Protocol Design of Dual Ring PESNet (DRPesnet),” CPES Annual Seminar 2002 conference proceedings

Ø      Jerry Francis, Dushan Boroyevich, "Design of a Universal Controller for Distributed Power Electronics Applications," CPES Annual Seminar 2001 conference proceedings

Ø      Wei Dong, Jerry Francis, Fred Lee, Dushan Boroyevich, "Maximum Pulse Width Space Vector Modulation for Soft Switching Inverters," APEC 2001 conference proceedings

Ø      Jae-Young Choi, Dushan Boroyevich, Jerry Francis, and Fred C. Lee, "A Novel ZVT Inverter with Simplified Auxiliary Circuit," CPES Annual Seminar 2001 conference proceedings

Journal Papers

Ø      Ivan Celanovic, Jerry Francis and Dushan Boroyevich, “Control Architectures of PEBB Based Converters,” submitted to IEEE Special Issue on Power Electronics for May 2003

PEBB Related

Ø      Jinghong Guo, Jerry Francis, Ivan Celanovic, Dushan Boroyevich, Stephen Edwards and Fred C. Lee “PEBB Plug and Play and System Integration – Annual Report 2001,” Government Report 2001

Ø      Dushan Boroyevich et al., “PEBB Plug and Play Control Architectures, Proposal to ONR”, March 2001

PNGV Related

Ø      Wei Dong, Jae-Young Choi, Yong Li, Jerry Francis, Michael Pochet, Matthew Turner, Fred C. Lee, Dushan Boroyevich, Jason Lai, Huijie Yu, Xiukuan Jing, Dimos Katsis and Mao Ye, “Soft Switching Inverters for AC Adjustable Speed Drives – Final Report,” Government Report 2001

Ø      Wei Dong, Jae-Young Choi, Matthew Turner, Michael Pochet, Jerry Francis, Yong Li, Huijie Yu, Fred C. Lee, Dushan Boroyevich, and Jason Lai, “Soft Switching Inverters for AC Adjustable Speed Drives – Dynamometer Test of Closed-Loop Auxiliary Resonant Commutated Pole (ARCP) Zero Voltage Transition (ZVT) Inverter,” Government Report 2000

Ø      Yong Li, Jerry Francis, Jae-Young Choi, Huijie Yu, Wei Dong, Mao Ye, Fred C. Lee, Jason Lai, Dushan Boroyevich, “Soft Switching Inverters for AC Adjustable Speed Drives – Closed Loop Dynamometer Test of the Zero-Current Transition (ZCT) Inverter with Six Auxiliary Switches,” Government Report 2000

 

 

Resume

My Resume (HTML)  (OLD)
My Resume (MS WORD)  (OLD)

 

Relevent Projects and Reports

Ø      (ECPE 4535) PI Control of a DC Motor using the Motorola HC11 to generate PWM (Pulse-Width Modulated) signals

Ø      (ECPE 4734) Fuzzy Control of a DC Motor using the Motorola HC12 to generate PWM signals

Ø      (AOE 5224) Design of a reduced-order optimal control system for the Lateral Axis of an F-12 Aircraft using LQR (Linear Quadratic Regulator) and H-Infinity methods

Ø      (ECPE 4406) Digital Control of an Inverted Pendulum using PI (Proportional-Integral) and LQR (Linear Quadratic Regulator) methods

Ø      (ECPE 4506) Design and implementation of a band pass filter using VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) for a Xilinx FPGA 

 

Relevant Courses – Masters In Electrical Engineering [Plan of Study]

Fall 2001

ECPE 5515: Computer and Network Architectures I

5515: Advanced computer architectures, focusing on multiprocessor systems and the principles of their design. Parallel computer models, program and network properties, principles of scalable designs. Case studies and example applications of pipeline processors, interconnection networks, SIMD and MIMD processors.

ECPE 6414: Adaptive Control and Nonlinear Stability Theory

Survey of approaches to adaptive control, stability in the sense of Lyapunov, absolute stability, input-output stability, design of stable adaptive controllers. Pre: 5704. (3H,3C) II

Spring 2002

ECPE 5984: Modeling and Control of Three Phase PWM Converters

Develop understanding of power conversion principles in three-phase PWM converters and learn to design the control for the converters used in most applications through: the use of switching state vectors and different modulation schemes, development of averaged models of rectifiers and inverters in stationary and rotating coordinates, small-signal modeling in rotating coordinates, and closed-loop control design.

ISE 5174: Engineering Program and Project Management

The project approach as applied in the accomplishment and management of complex technical work typically performed by engineers, scientists and other technology professionals. Practical application and ongoing enhancement of program and project management systems with emphasis on process, techniques, standards, empirical guidelines, computer software, teamwork and economic considerations.

Fall 2002

ECPE 5505: Testing and Fault-Tolerant Computing I

Various topics on digital circuit testing and fault-tolerant computing are studied. 5505: digital circuit testing including test pattern generation, design for testability and fault simulation.

ECPE 5234: EMI and Noise Reduction

Theory and practice of E.M. noise coupling; Techniques for noise reduction: shielding, grounding and filtering. Measurement of EMI to comply with government regulation. EMI problems and solutions to switching power supply applications. Design of EMI filter.

Spring 2003

ECPE 5506: Testing and Fault-Tolerant Computing II

Various topics on digital circuit testing and fault-tolerant computing are studied. 5506: fault-tolerant computer design techniques including hardware and software redundancy, reliability and maintainability modeling, self-checking systems, and fault-tolerant multiprocessor architectures. Pre: 4505 for 5505; 4505 for 5506. (3H,3C).

 

Relevant Courses – Bachelors in Computer Engineering [Transcript]

Control

ECPE 5404: Multivariable Control [Spring 2001]

An introduction to state space control design. The solutions to the linear-quadratic regulator problem, Kalman filtering problem, and the linear-quadratic-Gaussian problem will be examined. The robustness of the resulting control system will be analyzed and the loop-transfer recovery technique introduced.

AOE 5224: LINEAR OPTIMAL CONTROL SYSTEMS [Spring 2000]

State-variable and transfer function description for linear systems; relation of canonical matrices to state models; transition matrices; controllability, observability, stability, Luenberger observers, optimal linear feedback control laws, Kalman filtering, optimal solutions to deterministic and stochastic linear quadratic gaussian regulators.

ECPE 4734 (ME 4734): MECHATRONICS [Fall 1999]

Electromechanical system modeling, control and applications. Design of electronic interfaces and controllers for mechanical devices. Sensor technology, signal acquisition, filtering, and conditioning. Microcontroller-based closed-loop control and device communications. Sensor and actuator selection, installation, and application strategies. 

ECPE 4405-4406: CONTROL SYSTEMS [Fall 1999, Spring 2000]

ECPE 4405: Introduction to control systems, modeling techniques, root locus analysis and design, Nyquist criteria, frequency domain compensation. 4406: Introduction to sample data techniques for control system design.

ECPE 4994: Undergraduate Research [Fall 2000]

Modeling of piezoelectric actuators; Evaluation of a monolithic integrated circuit for an H-Bridge with built-in PWM circuitry; Modeling and Simulation of IC and Piezoelectric Load; Construction of controller and verification of system.

Final Report (15-December-00)

 

Computers

CS 3204: Operating Systems [Spring 2001]

The concept of a process, a processor, and asynchronous concurrently executing processes synchronized via shared data using semaphores or monitors. Deadlock and the Banker's Algorithm. Storage allocation and management including virtual memory. Processor allocation and management including multiprocessing. Secondary storage management. System security; data privacy; performance evaluation. One example extant operating system will be examined as a case study.

ECPE 4505-4506: DIGITAL DESIGN [Fall 1999, Spring 2000]

Design of digital devices including gate and flip-flop level design using standard integrated circuit chips, programmable logic array design, and system level design using a hardware description language. Computer aided design tools will be used to create and verify designs. Pre: 2504. (3H,3L,4C) I,II.

ECPE 4535-4536: MICROPROCESSOR SYSTEM DESIGN [Spring 1999, Fall 2000]

ECPE 4535: Operation and applications of microprocessors including system level organization, analysis of specific processors and software and hardware interface design. 4536: Microprocessor development systems including in-circuit emulation, programming using higher-level languages, and implementation of application algorithms. Comparative analysis of advanced architecture and specialty architectures. Laboratory work is required.

Electronics

ECPE 4224: POWER ELECTRONICS [Fall 2000]

Power devices and switching circuits including inverters and converters; electronic power processing and control as applied to industrial drives, transportation systems, computers, and spacecraft systems.

ECPE 4205: ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT DESIGN [Fall 2000]

Stability and response of feedback amplifier, wideband amplifiers, operational amplifier characteristics, waveform generators and wave shaping, nonlinear circuit applications, signal generators, and photolithography. Design of analog electronic circuits, circuit simulation, response characterization, and printed-circuit construction.

 

 

Interests

Ø      Process Automation / Industrial Field busses (e.g. Profibus, DeviceNet, ControlNet)

Ø      Embedded System Design and System Integration

Ø      Fiber Optics

Ø      Optimization Techniques and Optimal Control

Ø      Mechatronics

Ø      Power Electronics