Lines and results of Research

The PhD Program related to the Masters'Degree in Electronic Systems Engineering is supported by the activity of four main research groups made up of people belonging to the Department of Electronics Engineering and/or the Institute of Optoelectronic Systems and Microtechnology (ISOM), promoter and support entities of the aforementioned program. Thus, the fundamental substratum are the research groups:

• Integrated Systems' Laboratory (LSI) [1]
• High-speed Electronics Group (HISEL)/ISOM [2]
• Speech Technology group (GTH) [3]
• Biomedical Imaging Technology Group (BIT) [4]

The research work carried out by the PhD students is based on the work that takes place in these research groups. Additionally, there is a collaboration with other the faculty staff from other institutions, as established in other sections of this application.
A brief description of the research lines of each group and the main projects carried out by them (results can be seen in the form of publications and Theses in the corresponding sections) will be given. The program's teachers that take part on the groups are also set out, although some of them may come from other departments and are therefore not included here, even though they normaly collaborate in R&D projects. It also identifies the courses taught by these teachers and the correspondence between the activities carried out and the Program courses that are the responsibility of the students. Therefore, the program is a direct result of broad scientific and technical activity, which has been evolving and completing over the last 30 years in which this program, with this or another name, has been taught in the Department of Electronics Engineering at ETSI Telecomunicación of the UPM, and whose associated scientific activity has achieved national and international recognition.

The former Department of Digital Systems at ETSIT-UPM was a section of the National Microelectronics Center, from 1985 to 1987. Since 1988 it has been established as Integrated Systems' Laboratory within the Department of Electronic Engineering in the same university.

However, the activities of the LSI began in 1981, focusing on the design of digital architectures for deploying speech and video processing in real time. Part of this work was carried out in close collaboration with the Speech Technology Group (GTH).
In order to meet with the growing requirements posed by previous architectures, in 1983 the activities of the LSI were extended to cover the area of Design and Testing of microelectronic circuits and CAE tools to support the simulation, design and test of those circuits.
At present, the LSI has been carrying out research into both the aforementioned technologies and certain fields of their application, which include: home automation systems, biomedical systems, and wireless services.
Here follows a list of the current research lines:

• Microelectronics: Design of Integrated Circuits (ASICs y FPGAs), Tools for designing automated electronics systems (EDA), Synthesis of high-speed digital electronics.
• Design of Systems on chip (SoC) and optimization of consumption: Design of low-temperature and ageing circuits. Dedicated processor architectures, compilers, tools for simulation and estimation of consumption.
• High-performance digital architectures: high-speed circuits for communications, supercomputing based on coprocessors with FPGAs and GPUs.
• Embedded Systems: Rapid prototyping systems (incorporating DSPs, FPGAs and microPS), optimization of consumption in embedded systems, design and integration, design of systems with smart cards.
• Hardware/software Co-Design: Hardware/software compilation, Co-synthesis of complex heterogeneous systems, specification of heterogeneous systems with general purpose programming languages, heterogeneous operating systems.
• Services and applications in mobility, security and home automation: Applications using Simtoolkit, eCommerce on GSM / Bluetooth, heterogeneous cable networks (ADSL, PSTN), heterogeneous networks of short-distance radio (WLAN, Bluetooth), heterogeneous networks of long-distance radio (GSM, GPRS), remote control and remote control using mobile GSM/GPRS and cable networks.

Over all these years, and under several PhD programs, the LSI has contributed to the advanced training of postgraduates. In the following link you can see the pdf file with a summary of the latest projects and research results from our group. (PDF) [5]
 

The activities in high-speed electronics started at the Department of Electronics Engineering in 1974, carrying out research related to the manufacturing and characterization of devices based on semiconductor-III-V and having the application of communications, optoelectronics and sensors as special motivation since then.

The Institute of Optoelectronic systems and Microtechnology (ISOM) was established on the initiative of this group (HISEL) and with the collaboration of the Madrid Regional Government together with Telefónica. It is affiliated to the Technical University of Madrid (BOCM 28-3-2000). Currently, researchers and teachers belong to it, coming from the Departments of Electronics Engineering and Physics Applied to Information Technology, ETSI Telecommunications; Chemical Engineering, Industrial and Environmental Engineering of ETSI Industriales.

ISOM has its facilities on the ground floor of the López Araujo building in the School of Telecommunications at the UPM. It has 400 m2 of clean rooms, 300 m2 of laboratory with central air conditioning, and 200 m2 of instrumentation and electronics laboratory. A group of of 50 researchers work together at ISOM, 1 engineer from the Center of Technology, 4 technicians and one manager. This is a group with important people whose research work has been consolidating in recent years. In particular, these groups have participated in numerous research projects funded by the European Union for the past 20 years.

The objective of ISOM is to carry out research in the detection, processing, transmission and storage of information through the Optoelectronics and Micro-and Nanotechnology, and dissemination of the results to industry. The innovative professional training is carried out by participation in these research and development tasks. Below is a list of current lines of research:

• Epitaxial semiconductors III-V Technology for molecular beams (MBE): UV detectors for solar applications, laser diodes and LEDs in blue and ultraviolet based on GaN, nanostructures for optoelectronic devices.
• Transmitters and quantum detectors in infrared (1.5 ?m): QW lasers in 1.5m, Tricolor QWIP detectors, GaN HEMT transistors for microwave, design, manufacture and characterization, development of technological processes.
• Devices: Electronics and nanoelectronics at high speed, High Electronic Mobility Transistor, surface acoustic wave devices (SAW), chemical sensors and microsystems, integration of SAW devices with photodetectors and 2DEG heterostructures.

The Speech Technology Group began its activities in 1980 with projects on text-to-speech conversion. However, in 1978 a synthesis prototype was developed in the time domain with a limited vocabulary, which was applied to a speaking calculator in Spanish. This project emerged as an evolution of previous activities in the development of support systems for the disabled, especially the blind, with the aim of replacing the Braille interface with a "spoken" interfrace.

The group has evolved and developed various technologies, currently focusing on research and development in various areas of science and speech technology, in particular synthesis and recognition, applications of this technology in the office environment, telephone and support for the disabled.

Below is a list in some detail of the current lines of research:

• Text to speech conversion: Conversion of voices, Prosodic modeling, Synthesis with emotions.
• Speech recognition: Trust measures, recognition in robust environments, recognition of isolated speech, continuous, spelling, speaker adaptation techniques and task.
• Converting text to speech: generation of quality voices and generation of voice with emotions.
• Systems of human-machine dialogue: Initiative of the machine, mixed initiative.
• Indexing information: detection of speakers at a meeting.
• Identification of language and speaker: detection of the speaker identity and the language used.
• Natural Language processing: compression of natural language and translation of languages.
• Augmentative and alternative communication systems: Algorithmic, User Interfaces, Hardware for real-time operation.
• Electronic systems with speech technology: Algorithmic and experimental development of systems, Implementation and simulation in real-time, Systems of speech recognition, Systems for conversion of text to speech.
• Rehabilitation technology: Voice processing applied to diagnosis, rehabilitation of speech problems, Methods of visual feedback for voice applied to the teaching of languages, text telephone for the deaf.
• Speech Technology:Agents, Applications in telecommunications and office services, assistance for the disabled, speech understanding, generation of spoken messages, analysis tools for speech and text, language indentification, identification/verification of speakers, identification of emotion in voice, basic research into system models, peripheral auditory, neural networks, rehabilitation of speech.

In the following link you can view a pdf file with a summary of recent projects and the results of our research group. (PDF) [6]
 

The Group of Biomedical Imaging Technology (BIT) established itself as research group recognized by the UPM in 2008. However, it started its research activities in 2000, within the framework of the Integrated Systems Laboratory (LSI), while contributing significantly to the improvement in postgraduate studies. Gradually, by having a line of differentiated research, it began to carry out its research independently.

The research activities of the BIT Group are framed within the field of biomedical engineering, with special emphasis on the diagnosis technologies and observation of anatomy, Physiology and pathological situations through processes of medical and molecular imaging. In this context, the group actively develops research work both nationally and internationally along the following lines:

• Data acquisition systems: design and characterization of cameras for the emission of high-resolution positron tomography (Positron Emission Tomography, PET), mainly for pre-clinical applications or PET dedicated systems(Eg: functional mammography); design of specific hardware modules for acquisition data PET systems focusing on completely digital systems. (fully digital); design and characterization of system components for magnetic resonance imaging, etc..
• Methods and algorithms of data PET processing: formation of images through image reconstruction algorithms, modeling and processing of data from dynamic PET data (temporal series), registration and merging of functional PET images with images from other modalities (MRI, axial tomography, etc.. ); correction of respiratory motion effects in the images obtained through anatomical information using axial tomography and specific algorithms (elastic registration, super-resolución techniques, etc.)
• Characterization of cardiac activity using images obtained primarily through advanced ultrasound or magnetic resonance techniques(MRI), to help improve the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases by providing functional and quantitative information on the state of the heart. Particular emphasis has been placed on the study of motion and myocardial perfusion for the characterization and detection of ischemic conditions, by using algorithms of elastic image registration and other methods developed through the researchers in the Group.
• Processing and analysis of dynamic microscopy images (4D) to research cellular destination, the phenomenon through which a cell is committed to carrying out a program of cell differentiation as a part of the body plan of the organism.
• Applications of medical and molecular imaging technologies in eHealth systems: telemedicine systems for remote diagnostics and the collaborative work between professionals, support tools for diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease in primary care centers, etc.

The vast majority of work carried out through these lines of research are being conducted in close collaboration with medical professionals and specialized staff from hospitals and clinics, such as the Unit of Experimental Medicine and Surgery of the University General Hospital "Gregorio Marañón ", PET Technological Institute, Hospital Puerta de Hierro. Moreover, the Group has a series of collaborations with leading companies in the biomedical technology sector nationally and a large number of institutes and biomedical research centers in several European countries.