OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY

I would like to sincerely thank my advisor, Prof. Zongxuan Sun, for allowing me to work on this exciting project for my Master’s thesis. He has been a constant source of inspiration and has helped me improve my technical as well as presentation skills. His deeper insights and his encouragement to pursue new ideas added greatly to my learning experience. I would like to express my gratitude for his referral to intern with the R&D group of General Motors and to interview with another company when I was looking for a job. I would also like to thank Dr. Rajesh Rajamani and Dr. Demoz Gebre-Egziabher for accepting my request to serve as my examining committee. I would like to extend my thanks to all the members of our lab group – Pradeep, Azrin, Chien Shin, Yongsoon, Ke, Chen, Yu, Mike, Meng, and Yaoying, who have made my stay more memorable. I would also like to acknowledge the help Chien Shin provided me in setting up the experiment. I would like to thank the Transmission Lab Systems Group at General Motors, Dr. Kumar Hebbale, Dr. Dongxu Li for providing me with everything I needed to obtain th