OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY

First of all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to my advisor, Professor Sachin Sapatnekar, for his guidance, encouragement and support throughout the five years of my doctoral study at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He turned my dream of earning a PhD and becoming a rigorous researcher into a reality. It has been my great pleasure and an honor working with him. I am deeply grateful to Professor Antonia Zhai and Professor Chris Kim, who have provided the precious help and guidance to my research and contributed to a significant portion of this thesis work. Thanks to my PhD committee members, Professor Antonia Zhai, Professor Chris Kim and Professor Keshab Parhi, for reviewing my thesis and giving valuable feedback. I owe many thanks to colleagues in the VEDA Lab and at the University of Minnesota for their help and many meaningful discussions: Baktash Boghrati, Sanjay Kumar