i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

able guidance, regular source of encouragement and assistance throughout this dissertation work. I would also like to express my gratitude to my supervisor at IPP-HURRAY!, Dr. Mário Alves, for his outstanding supervision, counsel, advice, support, inspiration, patience, and for always being available during the course of my work in IPP-HURRAY! Research Group. I must thank my co-supervisor at IPP-HURRAY, Ricardo Severino, for his guidance and help on a day to day basis. I must state that the dissertation work would not have been in the present shape without his inspirational support. I also wish to thank the IPP-HURRAY! team and management, for giving me the opportunity to work in their lab and use the facilities. Also, I would like to thank my colleagues at Hands-On lab, Joel Gonçalves, with whom I shared the lab and Ricardo Gomes, for his help in hardware configuration. I also wish to thank my friends at IIT Roorkee, especially Rahul Bishnoi for his valuable suggestions and timely help. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for encouraging me to take my own decisions and for helping me maintain a balanced perspective in life. I would also like to thank my elder brother for guiding me throughout my student life and my sister for being interested, understanding and encouraging in my academic and non-academic endeavours