I would like to extend a very heartfelt thank you to my committee chairman, Dr. Mario Perhinschi, who gave me the opportunity, guidance, and support to complete this research and thesis. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Jacky Prucz and Dr. John Loth, for agreeing to help me reach this point in my academic career. I would also like to thank Matthew Cunningham, Ondrej Karas, and Phil Evans for being great sounding boards and helping me out in troubleshooting some of the random quirks of MATLAB and Simulink. I would like to thank my friends that I have met in Morgantown as well as my "sister" and "brother" from home. I want to thank them for putting up with me during the stressful times and for always offering their encouragement to see this through the end. I also want to thank my grandparents and great aunt and uncle as well as the rest of my extended family and friends for keeping me grounded. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Terry and Rebecca Beamer, for always being there for me through thick and thin offering their unending love and support and for encouraging me to follow my dreams. .