Entrepreneurship in Power Semiconductor Devices, Power Electronics, and Electric Machines and Drive Systems introduces the basics of entrepreneurship and a methodology for the study of entrepreneurship in electrical engineering and other engineering fields. Entrepreneurship is considered here in three fields of electrical engineering, viz. power semiconductor devices, power electronics and electric machines and drive systems, and their current practice. It prepares the reader by providing a review of the subject matter in the three fields, their current status in research and development with analysis aspect as needed, thus allowing readers to gain self-sufficiency while reading the book. Each field's emerging applications, current market and future market forecasts are introduced to understand the basis and need for emerging startups. Practical learning is introduced in: (i) power semiconductor devices entrepreneurship through the prism of 20 startups in detail, (ii) power electronics entrepreneurship through 28 startup companies arranged under various application fields and (iii) electric machines and drive systems entrepreneurship through 15 startups in electromagnetic and 1 in electrostatic machines and drive systems. The book: (i) demystifies entrepreneurship in a practical way to equip engineers and students with entrepreneurship as an option for their professional growth, pursuit and success; (ii) provides engineering managers and corporate-level executives a detailed view of entrepreneurship activities in the considered three fields that may potentially impact their businesses, (iii) provides entrepreneurship education in an electrical engineering environment and with direct connection and correlation to their fields of study and (iv) endows a methodology that can be effectively employed not only in the three illustrated fields of electrical engineering but in other fields as well. This book is for electrical engineering students and professionals. For use in undergraduate and graduate courses in electrical engineering, the book contains discussion questions, exercise problems, team and class projects, all from a practical point of view, to train students and assist professionals for future entrepreneurship endeavors.

Optimal Power Flow Using FACTS Devices: Soft Computing Techniques develops intelligent algorithms to analyze optimal power flow (OPF) and to enhance the power transfer capability of the transmission line with reduced congestion. By providing elaborate studies on FACTS devices and by using soft computing metaheuristics algorithms such as Firefly, Cuckoo, Flower Pollination, and others., this book enables readers to know about algorithms in real-time power system applications and damping of subsynchronous resonance (SSR) oscillations. Key features of this book include: Offers comprehensive review of FACTS devices and the importance of soft computing techniques for solving OPF. Describes the various problems associated with power system operation and control. Addresses issues of SSR in power systems and proposes soft techniques for SSR analysis in power systems. Demonstrates of the importance of SSR and congestion management using intelligent FACTS devices as part of OPF. Covers power systems' reliability, quality, cost-effectiveness, effects on customer goodwill, and pollution limits, including the deregulation of markets and different intelligent controllers. Optimal Power Flow Using FACTS Devices: Soft Computing Techniques is aimed at researchers and professionals in the field of power systems.

There has been an increasing interest in multi-disciplinary research on multisensor attitude estimation technology driven by its versatility and diverse areas of application, such as sensor networks, robotics, navigation, video, biomedicine, etc. Attitude estimation consists of the determination of rigid bodies' orientation in 3D space. This research area is a multilevel, multifaceted process handling the automatic association, correlation, estimation, and combination of data and information from several sources. Data fusion for attitude estimation is motivated by several issues and problems, such as data imperfection, data multi-modality, data dimensionality, processing framework, etc. While many of these problems have been identified and heavily investigated, no single data fusion algorithm is capable of addressing all the aforementioned challenges. The variety of methods in the literature focus on a subset of these issues to solve, which would be determined based on the application in hand. Historically, the problem of attitude estimation has been introduced by Grace Wahba in 1965 within the estimate of satellite attitude and aerospace applications. This book intends to provide the reader with both a generic and comprehensive view of contemporary data fusion methodologies for attitude estimation, as well as the most recent researches and novel advances on multisensor attitude estimation task. It explores the design of algorithms and architectures, benefits, and challenging aspects, as well as a broad array of disciplines, including: navigation, robotics, biomedicine, motion analysis, etc. A number of issues that make data fusion for attitude estimation a challenging task, and which will be discussed through the different chapters of the book, are related to: 1) The nature of sensors and information sources (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, GPS, inclinometer, etc.); 2) The computational ability at the sensors; 3) The theoretical developments and convergence proofs; 4) The system architecture, computational resources, fusion level.

Introduction to Plant Automation and Controls addresses all aspects of modern central plant control systems, including instrumentation, control theory, plant systems, VFDs, PLCs, and supervisory systems. Design concepts and operational behavior of various plants are linked to their control philosophies in a manner that helps new or experienced engineers understand the process behind controls, installation, programming, and troubleshooting of automated systems. This groundbreaking book ties modern electronic-based automation and control systems to the special needs of plants and equipment. It applies practical plant operating experience, electronic-equipment design, and plant engineering to bring a unique approach to aspects of plant controls including security, programming languages, and digital theory. The multidimensional content, supported with 500 illustrations, ties together all aspects of plant controls into a single-source reference of otherwise difficult-to-find information. The increasing complexity of plant control systems requires engineers who can relate plant operations and behaviors to their control requirements. This book is ideal for readers with limited electrical and electronic experience, particularly those looking for a multidisciplinary approach for obtaining a practical understanding of control systems related to the best operating practices of large or small plants. It is an invaluable resource for becoming an expert in this field or as a single-source reference for plant control systems. Author Raymond F. Gardner is a professor of engineering at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York, and has been a practicing engineer for more than 40 years.

The PID controller is the most common option in the realm of control applications and is dominant in the process control industry. Among the related analytical methods, Internal Model Control (IMC) has gained remarkable industrial acceptance due to its robust nature and good set-point responses. However, the traditional application of IMC results in poor load disturbance rejection for lag-dominant and integrating plants. This book presents an IMC-like design method which avoids this common pitfall and is devised to work well for plants of modest complexity, for which analytical PID tuning is plausible. For simplicity, the design only focuses on the closed-loop sensitivity function, including formulations for the H and H2 norms. Aimed at graduate students and researchers in control engineering, this book: Considers both the robustness/performance and the servo/regulation trade-offs Presents a systematic, optimization-based approach, ultimately leading to well-motivated, model-based, and analytically derived tuning rules Shows how to tune PID controllers in a unified way, encompassing stable, integrating, and unstable processes Finds in the Weighted Sensitivity Problem the sweet spot of robust, optimal, and PID control Provides a common analytical framework that generalizes existing tuning proposals

The PIC16F1847-Based PLC project supports up to 4 analog inputs and 1 analog output, 1 High Speed Counter, 2 PWM (pulse width modulation) outputs, 1 Drum Sequencer Instruction with up to 16 steps, the implementation of Sequential Function Charts (SFCs) with up to 24 steps. This volume presents advanced concepts of the PIC16F1847-Based PLC project and consists of topics like program control, high speed counter and PWM macros. It further explains memory related drum sequencer instruction, sequential functional charts, and analog input and output modules. Aimed at researchers and graduate students in electrical engineering, power electronics, robotics and automation, sensors, this book: Presents program control macros to enable or disable a block of PLC program or to move execution of a program from one place to another. Proposes a High-Speed Counter and four PWM Macros for high speed counting and PWM operations. Develops memory related macros to enable the user to do memory read/write operations. Provides a Drum Sequencer instruction with up to 16 steps and 16 outputs on each step. Discusses the implementation of Sequential Function Chart (SFC) elements with up to 24 steps.

Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) have been used extensively and are offered in terms of functions, program memories, and the number of inputs/outputs (I/Os), ranging from a few to thousands. With a focus on how to design and implement a PLC, this volume explains hardware and associated basic concepts of PLC. Authors have used PIC16F1847 microcontroller with: 8192 words of Flash program memory, 1024 bytes of SRAM data memory, 256 bytes of EEPROM data memory, the maximum operating speed of 32 MHz, 16-level deep hardware stack, an enhanced instruction set consisting of 49 single-word instructions. Flowcharts are provided to help the understanding of macros (instructions). Aimed at researchers and graduate students in electrical engineering, power electronics, robotics and automation, sensors, this book: Explains how to design and use a PIC16F1847 microcontroller-based PLC. Provides easy to use software structures written by using the PIC Assembly programming language. Describes a PLC from a designer's perspective. Explains the basic hardware and basic software structures of the PIC16F1847 based PLC. Focuses on concepts like Contact and Relay Based Macros, Flip-Flop Macros, Timer Macros, Counter Macros and Comparison Macros.

The volume focusses on intermediate concepts of the PIC16F1847-Based PLC project, and covers arithmetical operation ability of PLCs, logical function performers and operations like AND, NAND, OR, NOR. Further, it explains shift and rotate macros moving bits in a register to right or left, and selection macros enabling one value to be selected from several given values according to certain criteria. Demultiplexer circuit is illustrated, which is used to send a signal to one of many devices. Finally, it explains decoder, priority encoder and conversion macros. All the concepts are supported using flowcharts. Aimed at researchers and graduate students in electrical engineering, power electronics, robotics and automation, sensors, this book: Presents arithmetical and logical macros to carry out arithmetical and logical operations to be used for 8-bit or 16-bit variables and/or constant values. Provides shift and rotate macros to do arithmetical or logical shift and rotate operations to be used for 8-bit or 16-bit variables. Proposes selection macros to enable the user to do 8-bit or 16-bit move, load, selection, maximum, minimum, limiting, multiplexing and byte multiplexing operations. Develops demultiplexer macros, decoder macros and priority encoder macros to be used as combinational circuits. Presents conversion macros to provide functions to convert given data from one format to another one.

This book presents a guideline for EWMA filter design for industrial wireless networked control system, both theoretically and practically. The filter's key advantages are simple, effective, low computational overhead. This book also provides a guideline for practical implementation of EWMA filter for improving networked control performance of various process plants. It further discusses not only the advantages of the filter, but also the limitations and how to avoid them when implementing the filter from practical point of view.

Current energy consumption mainly depends on fossil fuels that are limited and can cause environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. These factors have stimulated the search for alternate, clean, and renewable energy sources. Solar cells are some of the most promising clean and readily available energy sources. Plus, the successful utilization of solar energy can help reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. Recently, organic solar cells have gained extensive attention as a next-generation photovoltaic technology due to their light weight, mechanical flexibility, and solution-based cost-effective processing. Organic Solar Cells: Materials, Devices, Interfaces, and Modeling provides an in-depth understanding of the current state of the art of organic solar cell technology. Encompassing the full spectrum of organic solar cell materials, modeling and simulation, and device physics and engineering, this comprehensive text: Discusses active layer, interfacial, and transparent electrode materials Explains how to relate synthesis parameters to morphology of the photoactive layer using molecular dynamics simulations Offers insight into coupling morphology and interfaces with charge transport in organic solar cells Explores photoexcited carrier dynamics, defect states, interface engineering, and nanophase separation Covers inorganic-organic hybrids, tandem structure, and graphene-based polymer solar cells Organic Solar Cells: Materials, Devices, Interfaces, and Modeling makes an ideal reference for scientists and engineers as well as researchers and students entering the field from broad disciplines including chemistry, material science and engineering, physics, nanotechnology, nanoscience, and electrical engineering.

Harmonics, Power Systems, and Smart Grids, Second Edition compiles the most relevant aspects of harmonics in a way that the unfamiliar reader can better grasp the subject matter and the experienced reader can directly access specific subjects of interest. The text begins with a definition of harmonics, along with analytical expressions for electrical parameters under nonsinusoidal situations, and then: Discusses important and widely used industry standards to control harmonic distortion levels Describes methods to mitigate the effects of harmonics, detailing the operation principles and design of passive filters and active filter fundamentals Presents alternative methods, such as stiffer AC sources, power converters with increased number of pulses, series reactors, and load reconfiguration Reviews the elements that play a role in the study of the propagation of harmonic currents in a distribution network Explains how to determine power losses in electrical equipment attributed to harmonic waveform distortion Covers harmonics from solar and wind power converters and power electronics in FACTS and HVDC technologies Explores harmonics from electric vehicles connected to the grid, superconductive fault current limiters, and electric vehicle charging stations Featuring three new chapters, a number of new examples and figures, and updates throughout, Harmonics, Power Systems, and Smart Grids, Second Edition provides a comprehensive reference on harmonic current generation, propagation, and control in electrical power networks, including the broadly cited smart grid.

This book describes advanced research results on Modeling and Control designs for Fuel Cells and their hybrid energy systems. Filled with simulation examples and test results, it provides detailed discussions on Fuel Cell Modeling, Analysis, and Nonlinear control. Beginning with an introduction to Fuel Cells and Fuel Cell Power Systems, as well as the fundamentals of Fuel Cell Systems and their components, it then presents the Linear and Nonlinear modeling of Fuel Cell Dynamics. Typical approaches of Linear and Nonlinear Modeling and Control Design methods for Fuel Cells are also discussed. The authors explore the Simulink implementation of Fuel Cells, including the modeling of PEM Fuel Cells and Control Designs. They cover the applications of Fuel cells in vehicles, utility power systems, and stand-alone systems, which integrate Fuel Cells, Wind Power, and Solar Power. Mathematical preliminaries on Linear and Nonlinear Control are provided in an appendix.

Linear and Non-Linear System Theory focuses on the basics of linear and non-linear systems, optimal control and optimal estimation with an objective to understand the basics of state space approach linear and non-linear systems and its analysis thereof. Divided into eight chapters, materials cover an introduction to the advanced topics in the field of linear and non-linear systems, optimal control and estimation supported by mathematical tools, detailed case studies and numerical and exercise problems. This book is aimed at senior undergraduate and graduate students in electrical, instrumentation, electronics, chemical, control engineering and other allied branches of engineering. Features Covers both linear and non-linear system theory Explores state feedback control and state estimator concepts Discusses non-linear systems and phase plane analysis Includes non-linear system stability and bifurcation behaviour Elaborates optimal control and estimation

The study of electromagnetic field theory is required for proper understanding of every device wherein electricity is used for operation. The proposed textbook on electromagnetic fields covers all the generic and unconventional topics including electrostatic boundary value problems involving two- and three-dimensional Laplacian fields and one- and two- dimensional Poissonion fields, magnetostatic boundary value problems, eddy currents, and electromagnetic compatibility. The subject matter is supported by practical applications, illustrations to supplement the theory, solved numerical problems, solutions manual and Powerpoint slides including appendices and mathematical relations. Aimed at undergraduate, senior undergraduate students of electrical and electronics engineering, it: Presents fundamental concepts of electromagnetic fields in a simplified manner Covers one two- and three-dimensional electrostatic boundary value problems involving Laplacian fields and Poissonion fields Includes exclusive chapters on eddy currents and electromagnetic compatibility Discusses important aspects of magneto static boundary value problems Explores all the basic vector algebra and vector calculus along with couple of two- and three-dimensional problems

This book presents a comprehensive, ordered relationship between malfunctions and symptoms occurring in large turbogenerators. With this book, the operator and/or engineer in a generating station could identify underlying causes of a developing component degradation or a failure quicker, which could potentially save both time and money and reduce the trial-and-error troubleshooting process. Large turbogenerators are the most important source of electricity. They can be found in thousands of power stations in every country. Forced outages, failures and degradation of these very expensive machines have an enormous aggregate cost to society. As such, any tool that can ameliorate loss of production by shaving time from troubleshooting activities, and avoiding unnecessary costs by detecting and promptly responding to component degradation, represents a step forward.

Multisensor Data Fusion: From Algorithms and Architectural Design to Applications covers the contemporary theory and practice of multisensor data fusion, from fundamental concepts to cutting-edge techniques drawn from a broad array of disciplines. Featuring contributions from the world's leading data fusion researchers and academicians, this authoritative book: Presents state-of-the-art advances in the design of multisensor data fusion algorithms, addressing issues related to the nature, location, and computational ability of the sensors Describes new materials and achievements in optimal fusion and multisensor filters Discusses the advantages and challenges associated with multisensor data fusion, from extended spatial and temporal coverage to imperfection and diversity in sensor technologies Explores the topology, communication structure, computational resources, fusion level, goals, and optimization of multisensor data fusion system architectures Showcases applications of multisensor data fusion in fields such as medicine, transportation's traffic, defense, and navigation Multisensor Data Fusion: From Algorithms and Architectural Design to Applications is a robust collection of modern multisensor data fusion methodologies. The book instills a deeper understanding of the basics of multisensor data fusion as well as a practical knowledge of the problems that can be faced during its execution.

The integration of electronics in large systems and installations steadily increases, consider for example the emergence of the Industrial Internet of Things. Power consumption decreases while the operating speed increases making equipment potentially more vulnerable for interference. The responsibility of the installer is shifting towards that of the system integrator, requiring more in-depth knowledge to achieve and maintain EMC during the technical and economical lifespan of the system or installation and the distinction between both diminishes. EMC for Installers: Electromagnetic Compatibility of Systems and Installations combines an integral risk based approached to EMC design and management with robust technical measures. Written by two experts, who both started nearly three decades ago in EMC, it provides guidance to those new in the field and servers as reference to those with experience. The book starts with the basic concept of EMC and evolves gradually towards more difficult topics. Particular attention is given to grounding concepts and the protection of cabling and wiring. This book puts a strong focus on passive means that are widely available for each installer: cable conduits used for cable routing can be exploited for significant improvement of the EMC-behavior of the system or installation. In addition, it will be explained how to use standard metallic enclosures to enhance the EMC-performance. For most demanding situations shielded rooms and shielding cabinets are explained. This book describes pre-compliance and full-compliance testing tailored to large systems. Templates and checklists are provided for both risk and management and test management. Electromagnetic compatibility explained as simple as possible, without over-simplifying. Practical approach, with hands-on demonstrations based on an example installation. Learn how to exploit cable conduits, used for cable routing anyway, to improve the EMC performance of an installation. Learn how to exploit standard metallic enclosures to improve EMC in systems. Design of power distribution networks to minimize disturbing fields. Toolbox and templates for managing and sustaining EMC over a long lifetime.

This book addresses the need to understand the development, use, construction, and operation of smart microgrids (SMG). Covering selected major operations of SMG like dynamic energy management, demand response, and demand dispatch, it describes the design and operational challenges of different microgrids and provides feasible solutions for systems. Smart Micro Grid presents communication technologies and governing standards used in developing communication networks for realizing various smart services and applications in microgrids. An architecture facilitating bidirectional communication for smart distribution/microgrid is brought out covering aspects of its design, development and validation. The book is aimed at graduate, research students and professionals in power, power systems, and power electronics. Features: * Covers a broad overview of the benefits, the design and operation requirements, standards and communication requirements for deploying microgrids in distribution systems. * Explores issues related to planning, expansion, operation, type of microgrids, interaction among microgrid and distribution networks, demand response, and the technical requirements for the communication network. * Discusses current standards and common practices to develop and operate microgrids. * Describes technical issues and requirements for operating microgrids. * Illustrates smart communication architecture and protocols.

This book facilitates the VLSI-interested individuals with not only in-depth knowledge, but also the broad aspects of it by explaining its applications in different fields, including image processing and biomedical. The deep understanding of basic concepts gives you the power to develop a new application aspect, which is very well taken care of in this book by using simple language in explaining the concepts. In the VLSI world, the importance of hardware description languages cannot be ignored, as the designing of such dense and complex circuits is not possible without them. Both Verilog and VHDL languages are used here for designing. The current needs of high-performance integrated circuits (ICs) including low power devices and new emerging materials, which can play a very important role in achieving new functionalities, are the most interesting part of the book. The testing of VLSI circuits becomes more crucial than the designing of the circuits in this nanometer technology era. The role of fault simulation algorithms is very well explained, and its implementation using Verilog is the key aspect of this book. This book is well organized into 20 chapters. Chapter 1 emphasizes on uses of FPGA on various image processing and biomedical applications. Then, the descriptions enlighten the basic understanding of digital design from the perspective of HDL in Chapters 2-5. The performance enhancement with alternate material or geometry for silicon-based FET designs is focused in Chapters 6 and 7. Chapters 8 and 9 describe the study of bimolecular interactions with biosensing FETs. Chapters 10-13 deal with advanced FET structures available in various shapes, materials such as nanowire, HFET, and their comparison in terms of device performance metrics calculation. Chapters 14-18 describe different application-specific VLSI design techniques and challenges for analog and digital circuit designs. Chapter 19 explains the VLSI testability issues with the description of simulation and its categorization into logic and fault simulation for test pattern generation using Verilog HDL. Chapter 20 deals with a secured VLSI design with hardware obfuscation by hiding the IC's structure and function, which makes it much more difficult to reverse engineer.

This book focuses on hydraulic components and machines, and illustrates how a machine's noise-radiating surfaces affect noise. It reviews the basics and terminology of sound, vibration, vibration isolation, fluid pulsations, Fourier analysis, cavitation, hydraulic shock, and enclosure design.

Microgrids provide opportunities to develop new electrical networks targeted for the needs of communities. The fourth industrial revolution is associated with the global trend toward decentralizing energy grids. Within this context, microgrids are seen as a solution to how renewable electricity can be supplied to local areas. The Fundamentals of Microgrids: Development and Implementation provides an in-depth examination of microgrid energy sources, applications, technologies, and policies. This book considers the fundamental configurations and applications for microgrids and examines their use as a means of meeting international sustainability goals. It focuses on questions and issues associated with microgrid topologies, development, implementation and regulatory issues. Distributed energy resources are defined, stand-a-lone generation systems are described and examples of typical microgrid configurations are provided. The key components of developing a business model for microgrid development are also considered. Features: Describes what microgrids are and details the basics of how they work while considering benefits of microgrids and their disadvantages. Provides answers to the fundamental questions energy managers and other professionals want to know about the basics of microgrids. Details the applications for microgrids and demystifies the types of microgrid architectures that are successful. Includes real-world examples of functioning microgrids which provide models for the development of microgrids in the future. Discusses the key considerations that must be addressed to develop a business case for microgrid development.

Improve the Safety, Flexibility, and Reliability of Autonomous Navigation in Complex Environments Autonomous Vehicle Navigation: From Behavioral to Hybrid Multi-Controller Architectures explores the use of multi-controller architectures in fully autonomous robot navigation-even in highly dynamic and cluttered environments. Accessible to researchers and graduate students involved in mobile robotics and fully autonomous vehicle navigation, the book presents novel techniques and concepts that address different complex mobile robot tasks. The author examines the development of reliable elementary controllers and proposes mechanisms to manage the interaction of these multi-controller architectures while addressing different constraints and enhancing metrics/criteria linked to the safety, flexibility, and reliability of the proposed control architectures. He covers the modeling of subtasks, reliable obstacle avoidance, appropriate stable control laws for target reaching/tracking, short- and long-term trajectory/waypoint planning, navigation through sequential waypoints, and the cooperative control and interaction of a group of mobile robots. The author's website provides MATLAB (R) and Simulink (R) source code of the main procedures related to the task modeling, planning, and control of mobile robots. It also includes videos showing the main simulations and experiments given in the text. In addition to flexible and bottom-up construction, multi-controller architectures can be formally analyzed to achieve reliable navigation in complex environments. This book reveals innovative control architectures that can lead to fully autonomous vehicle navigation in these challenging situations.

This title provides a concise guide to all the essential steps for setting up wind business services in developing countries. It deals with all the key aspects of promoting wind energy for domestic end uses, as well as giving a guide to needs assessment, resource assessment, the economics of small wind machines and technology choice. Most of the practical information explained in this book is taken from installations in Peru and Sri Lanka. The book describes the factors critical for sustainable development of small wind systems in rural areas. It also addresses the challenge of scaling-up, defined as the conditions and the strategy needed to move from a limited number of units to a widespread sustainable industry. Institutional aspects, business development and the policy environment are also examined.

A microfluidic biochip is an engineered fluidic device that controls the flow of analytes, thereby enabling a variety of useful applications. According to recent studies, the fields that are best set to benefit from the microfluidics technology, also known as lab-on-chip technology, include forensic identification, clinical chemistry, point-of-care (PoC) diagnostics, and drug discovery. The growth in such fields has significantly amplified the impact of microfluidics technology, whose market value is forecast to grow from $4 billion in 2017 to $13.2 billion by 2023. The rapid evolution of lab-on-chip technologies opens up opportunities for new biological or chemical science areas that can be directly facilitated by sensor-based microfluidics control. For example, the digital microfluidics-based ePlex system from GenMarkDx enables automated disease diagnosis and can bring syndromic testing near patients everywhere. However, as the applications of molecular biology grow, the adoption of microfluidics in many applications has not grown at the same pace, despite the concerted effort of microfluidic systems engineers. Recent studies suggest that state-of-the-art design techniques for microfluidics have two major drawbacks that need to be addressed appropriately: (1) current lab-on-chip systems were only optimized as auxiliary components and are only suitable for sample-limited analyses; therefore, their capabilities may not cope with the requirements of contemporary molecular biology applications; (2) the integrity of these automated lab-on-chip systems and their biochemical operations are still an open question since no protection schemes were developed against adversarial contamination or result-manipulation attacks. Optimization of Trustworthy Biomolecular Quantitative Analysis Using Cyber-Physical Microfluidic Platforms provides solutions to these challenges by introducing a new design flow based on the realistic modeling of contemporary molecular biology protocols. It also presents a microfluidic security flow that provides a high-level of confidence in the integrity of such protocols. In summary, this book creates a new research field as it bridges the technical skills gap between microfluidic systems and molecular biology protocols but it is viewed from the perspective of an electronic/systems engineer.

This book focuses on solar energy conversion systems that can be implemented in the built environment, at building or at community level. The quest for developing a sustainable built environment asks for specific solutions to provide clean energy based on renewable sources, and solar energy is considered one of the cleanest available energy on Earth. The specific issues raised by the implementation location are discussed, including the climatic profile distorted by the buildings, the available surface on the buildings for implementation, etc. This book also discusses the seasonal and diurnal variability of the solar energy resource in parallel with the variability of the electrical and thermal energy demand in the built environment (particularly focusing on the residential buildings). Solutions are proposed to match these variabilities, including the development of energy mixes with other renewables (e.g. geothermal or biomass, for thermal energy production). Specific solutions, including case studies of systems implemented on buildings all over the world, are presented and analyzed for electrical and for thermal energy production and the main differences in the systems design are outlined. The conversion efficiency (thus the output) and the main causes of energy losses are considered in both cases. The architectural constraints are additionally considered and novel solar energy convertors with different shapes and colors are presented and discussed. The durability of the solar energy conversion systems is analyzed considering the specific issues that occur when these systems are implemented in the built environment; based on practical examples, general conclusions are formulated and specific aspects are discussed in relation to experimental results and literature data. With renewables implemented in the built environment likely to expand in the near future, this book represents welcome and timely material for all professionals and researchers that are aiming to provide efficient and feasible solutions for the sustainable built environment.