User:LACEYNICOLE89

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Lacey N Kucerak

Lacey Kucerak is currently a second semester freshman at Stony Brook University, NY. Her declared major is Environmental Science with an emphasis on oceanic studies. She has a passion for her world and wants to protect it in any way she can. Lacey is in the WISE program and has an internship at Dr. Nick Fisher’s lab at South Campus, Stony Brook University. Lacey is nineteen years of age (as of January 2008) and lives in Central New York. She has two supportive parents, a younger brother, and an older sister. Lacey likes to keep active within the college, weather it may be intramural sports or volunteering at a sponsored event. She loves to play sports- any sport- and likes to run, swim, and ski. She also happens to be very competitive. Music is always playing in her room because it keeps her going through the day. She loves to go to concerts, be surrounded by her friends, and have a good time. Lacey is always up for something new and is willing to try anything once. After obtaining her undergraduate degree, Lacey plans on working toward her master’s degree in another country in the same area of study. Once completed, she would like to enroll in the Peace Corps for two years. She wishes to help other less fortunate countries with her newly acquired knowledge before herself. She is currently undecided as to a job in the future. She would like to ultimately set up programs to educate others about the environment, although anything is possible at this point.

Lacey's University: SUNY Stony Brook

Project Home MARIACHI

MARIACHI Lab Work!

Day ONE! Today, we were able to do some hands on activities in the Radio Signal Lab. I found this much more interesting and beneficial than the classroom learning style because I am more of a hands-on learner than anything. We went to the computers and were able to use the AM/FM freq program on the computer. At the first glance, I thought I would never be able to use it because the program looked complex with a million different buttons and switches. After the explanation and fooling around with the program, I was able to get a more solid grasp of the program. My partner and I were able to find a radio station and I was able to record 10 seconds of the song "Brown Eyed Girl" (which remained stuck in my head the entireee day). Overall I thought it was a productive day because we were able to use the equipment ourselves with each others help and support. What I would like to figure out is how to make my HUGE picture of myself smaller. haha. No idea.

Day TWO! Today, we were able to learn about the computer applications to radio signals. We used matlab and a program on the computer to test frequencies,periods, wave length, signals, and we used the axis and equations. Matlab was actually alot of fun as we were able to create a program and equations using symbols. It was quite confusing at first but by the end of the lab, I was able to grasp the concepts better.

Day THREE! So, today was another day on the computers using MATLAB. I think I learned more this time because I was actually on the computers typing in the commands. We were able to generate sound signals using the Matlab application. We noticed in our first experiment that using the equation y(t)= sin(2pi*ft), the bigger the f value, the more periods and higher the frequency. When we used a small number such as (1/8000) we noticed that the plot was small and irregular. This was due to the large number of periods and not enough information or room. We then moved on to the actual audio portion of Matlab. We used the equation y(t)=sin(2pi*440t) to plot different sounds and frequencies using different intervals and notations. When we entered sound((n<1) sampled signal, freq) we heard a tone. Yet when we entered sound((n>/=1) sampled signal, freq) we heard the same tone as the previous except louder. Yet when we divided the frequency by two, it produced a long low tune in comparison when we multiplied the frequency by two that produced a short, high note. My group worked quickly and efficiently so we then moved on to the next assignment which had to do with additive noise and WAVE file processing in MATLAB. the fct "randn" produced Gaussian Noise in a N x M array. A Gaussian Noise is a white noise that sounds like static. We first produced this noise all by itself. After, we were able to produce a sound note without static. Once we were able to do both of these individually, we then combined them to produce a Gaussian Noise along with the former note combined. We then were able to produce both of these applications as the same time, yet we made the frequency of the note longer and more produced than the white noise, thus blocking the static sound out appearing to only produce the original note. This additive noise seems quite interesting and I look forward to learning more about this next lab.

Day FOUR! Today we continued our work on MATLAB. We learned about WAVE file saving and loading. This lab was especially confusing and took a very long time to complete. We discovered that the higher the frequency, the higher the pitch of the tone when using sound(readsignalX,fsX). When comparing different frequencies, we noted that the original had a medium tone. Then second one using 2 as the X, we noted that the tone was harsh and buzzed a bit which we think may be due to static. It was louder and had a higher pitch. It was the same as fs=8,000 because the f=tone. From this example, we were able to see that f=tone. After many trial and error, we were able to plot the new noise and signal in time, which is shown here.

Day FIVE! MATLAB again today. We used the GUI in MATLAB and saw all the different applications that can be used with this service. We first loaded sound and saw that the higher the frequency, the higher and faster the noise plays. The lower the frequency, the slower, longer, and lower the pitch is. As we generated and plotted information, we saw the relationship between periods and the F1 value. The more periods plotted, the more likely to have a straight line. Also, as the F1 increases, the more periods are plotted. If we have a small F1 value, the graph shows a sharp peak to the left. Accordingly, if the F1 value is large, the sharp peak moves toward the right. When we plotted two, the sinosoid peaks were broken up and jagged. Viewing iv on the generating the plot, we saw that the frequency is complex and jagged, but had a wave like pattern. The noise level has no pattern assosiating with the value large or small. But as the noise level increases, the amplitude increases. Likewise as the noise level decreases the amplitude decreases. WE were slightly confused at first, but when viewing the graph closely, we saw that the Y-axis had moved for a better profile view, thus shifting the graph.

OFFICIAL PROJECT

Day One of Two Today we started the official project for this lab. It was really hard because I still have not gotten the hang of MATLAB nor I do not know what it is used for in the real world. First we had to figure out how to use MATLAB and Excel together because we did not want to use MATLAB, although the transformation from one program to the next caused enough confusion as it was. Once we had everything figured out, we chose a file name and then plotted signal power in dB v time, sig pwr not in dB v T, est noise power in dB v T and est noise power not in dB v T. The image that is not in decibels is a straight, positive, linear line with the first series missing. The image in decibels is much more detailed. the lines are much more jagged with more points showing. Series1 is lower than Series2 and is horizontal to the -100 Time mark. The Series2 slowly increases from a range -100 to approximately -70. I am currently tyring to download the images to this wiki but it is posing multiple problems. We were able to graph multiple graphs including A) Signal Power (in dB) vs time B) Signal Power (not in dB) vs time C) Estimated noise power (in dB) vs time D) Estimated noise power (not in dB) vs time. Shown here are the graphs in comparison with one in dB while the other is not

Day Two of Two: Last Day Today was our last day at the lab. We continued working on our final project and completed it. I worked with Carolina C and Sesha D. It was a really good day because things finally clicked with us and we were able to generate formulas and graphs without much help. What took us much longer the first day, we were able to accomplish in less than half the time. It was a really good feeling of accomplishment that we lacked throughout the lab sessions. Unfortunately, it clicked a bit late, as today was our last day. Although, I suppose I got the most I could out of this lab session. Even if it did take quite awhile to understand, I finally did get a better understanding and grasp the concepts better. We used a combination of MATLAB and Excel and I think this worked best for us, because we all had more knowledge of Excel than MATLAB. Although, I do think it would be much easier to do the project completely on MATLAB, we did not have enough knowledge for it at the point in time. It worked out well and we did understand and learn more about each program through this final project. We worked on Task Two and Three today and we were able to generate plots and graphs from the information we generated using MATLAB and Excel. To understand the detection part of the lab, we used Excel to generate the 1 and 0 indicators by typing in [=f(C1-6>D1,1,0]. this indicated that if the numbers in the column C1 was less than the numbers in D1 after subtracting 6, then it would show up as 1. To count the transitions between the 0 and 1s indicated in a row, we used the formula [=if(and(H1=0,H2=1),1,0). This would count just the transitions from 0 to 1 and not the numbers itself. Shown here are the graphs generated.

The first sample we used, we generated 37 indicators. We were able to find this value from the SUM generator on the Excel document which worked quite efficiently [=sum(F1:Fx]. The other file we used, T07121500, generated 32 indicators, but after modifications it was 31.

Our final graph was most victorious because we were able to do it completely by ourselves without any help. We were so excited because we finally understood! High Fives for everyone! Go Team!