Architectural Engineering Commons^™

Examining The Relationships Between Monaural And Binaural Classroom Acoustics Parameters And Student Achievement, Lauren M. Ronsse, Lily M. Wang, Paul L. Sim

Faculty Publications in Architectural Engineering

This study investigates the relationships between several classroom acoustics parameters and student achievement. Detailed binaural room impulse response measurements were conducted in four elementary school classrooms in a midwestern public school system in the United States. Unoccupied background noise levels were also recorded in these spaces. Previous studies have compared how different room acoustics metrics predict speech intelligibility, while another investigation examined perception-based binaural metrics in a typical classroom. This study extends these previous research areas by comparing both binaural classroom acoustics metrics and unoccupied background noise levels to each other and to the standardized student achievement scores of students …

Intricacies Of Professional Certifications For Quality Management (Qm), Edmund R. Martelli

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The modern manufacturing marketplace is extremely complex and constantly changing. Career professionals often seek job placement, career advancement, and continuing education through professional certifications. Professional certifications in the United States (U.S.) have been evolving since 1911. In the 1950s, engineering groups established professional certifications and licenses. In the 1980s, administration of accreditation of certification programs proliferated, and by the 1990s, many government and professional organizations sought to standardize procedures for the industry. Currently, professional certifications are available for virtually every profession and issued by multitudes of organizations.

Quality management (QM) encompasses an extensive combination ofprofessional abilities. Providers of professional certifications …

Transformation Of Industrial Space, Xin Jia

Masters Theses

By the 1970s the international markets had begun to change and the region’s industries were becoming less competitive. Mines began to close. Factories that had operated night and day fell silent. Their gates closed and they became “brownfield” sites in need of restoration.

For the over past 20 years, city planners regenerated these derelict industrial lands in different ways especially focus on renaturalizing them. Less attention is being paid to them as active and strategic roles in contemporary affairs. Today, people’s thinking about this issue demands more the character of sentimental stimulus- for either the re-creation or preservation of past …

Liquefaction Study Of Heterogeneous Sand: Centrifuge, Pradipta Chakrabortty, Radu Popescu, Ryan Phillips

Architectural Engineering

From past numerical research and small scale laboratory tests, it has been observed that more excess pore water pressure (EPWP) is generated during earthquakes in a heterogeneous sand deposit than in the corresponding homogeneous sand with relative density equal to the average relative density of the heterogeneous sand. This interesting phenomenon is investigated here in large scale experiments using geotechnical centrifuge modeling techniques. A series of liquefaction tests have been conducted at C-CORE’s geotechnical centrifuge facility: Two on variable sand and one on uniform sand deposits. A one level frame structure resting on two strip footings was also placed on …

Exceed Ii: Advanced Training For Even Better Teaching, Debra Larson, Allen Estes, Norman Dennis, Ronald Welch, Carol Considine

Architectural Engineering

In 2007, the American Society of Civil Engineering’s Committee on Faculty Development (CFD) conducted a longitudinal survey of all the past participants of the ExCEEd Teaching Workshop (ETW). The CFD received 173 responses, representing 40% of the ETW population at that time, to its survey about skills and the long term value of ETW. Important to this paper, 73% of the survey respondents said that they were interested in attending a post, advanced ETW. Motivated by these survey results, the CFD began its planning for a pilot ExCEEd II workshop during the 2008-2009 academic year. In the summer of 2009, …

Interdisciplinary Design: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Jill Nelson, Brent Nuttall, Allen Estes

Architectural Engineering

Today’s students are faced with far different challenges upon graduation than those encountered in past years. One of the most significant of these challenges is the need to work within the framework of integrated project delivery where all disciplines work as a cohesive team to produce a project. In 2004, the Construction Management Department at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo,CA began teaching a three credit hour design/build course focused on integrated project delivery. That course, taught primarily to construction management students, has now evolved into a true interdisciplinary experience that is taught in a team environment by …

Gender Representation In Architectural Engineering - Is It All In The Name?, Pamalee Brady, Allen Estes

Architectural Engineering

Under-representation of women in engineering is of concern as the decreasing supply of qualified engineers continues to plague the nation’s advancement. Understanding what factors influence choices of engineering disciplines has the potential for altering education to accommodate a more diverse student body that can be successful in engineering. University statistics reflect that the Architectural Engineering program at this school is comprised of 35% women, while the other engineering programs attract at best 20% women and at worst 5% women. The Architectural Engineering program at this university is in fact one of the most intense structural engineering programs in the country …

Theatre For A New Theater: A Play On Architecture, Alexander Coulombe

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Not Included

Activating Infrastructure, Joanna T. Myers

Honors Capstone Projects - All

“The City Implant is an urban design project that can be used to strengthen an existing center or create a new one. It is a spatial and programmatic upgrade that gives an area the status of a center or increases the density of an existing center. Rather than intervening in undeveloped land, a City Implant should be a transformer of empty land and even under-exploited traffic junctions. A City Implant should describe the quality of centrality itself.” Alex Wall “Boomtown v. Regiocity: Thinking and designing or the Networked City Region.” (Almy, 286)

Transportation infrastructures across the United States create issues …

[Dis]Lodge; A Transformation Of The Ski Lodge In Response To Function And Site, Jacob E. Schneck

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Over the past century skiing has experienced remarkable growth in popularity, equipment and technique. From 1946 to the present the number of ski resorts in North America with operating lifts has grown from 15 to over 600. During this time skiing has developed from a means of winter travel into a sport that combines paramilitary precision and control with leisure. Driven by economic interests and the superficial imitation of European alpine architecture the contemporary ski lodge model has failed to meaningfully address these changes and has failed to address function and context in terms of both its formal organization and …

Replacing Workplace Leadership With Political Expediency, Mark Daniel Leonhardt

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The study examines the adherence to principled leadership styles by persons in position of authority and develops a method to determine the extent to which those people deviate from principled leadership practices for purpose of political expediency. Two fortune 500 companies, three smaller local companies and select Western Kentucky University faculty were surveyed using the MACH V Attitude Inventory for determining Machiavellian tendencies via an online survey site. An examination and evaluation of survey results yielded a surpirsingly consistent neutral score, but no indication of Machiavellian tendencies within the respondent group.

Determination Of Material Emission Signatures By Ptr-Ms And Their Correlations With Odor Assessments By Human Subjects, Kwanghoon Han

Kwanghoon Han

The objectives of this study were to determine volatile organic compound (VOC) emission signatures of nine typical building materials by using proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) and to explore the correlation between the PTR-MS measurements and the measurements of acceptability by human subjects. VOC emissions from each material were measured in a 50-l small-scale chamber. Chamber air was sampled by PTR-MS to determine emission signatures. Sorbent tube sampling and TD-GC/MS analysis were also performed to identify the major VOCs emitted and to compare the resulting data with the PTR-MS emission signatures. The data on the acceptability of air quality assessed …

Breaking The Mould 5 : Comparative Simulation Of Internal Insulation Systems, Joseph Little

Articles

In the last edition of Construct Ireland ‘Breaking the Mould IV’ established the standard that should be used to evaluate thermal upgrades of single leaf walls, described steps to physically prepare the wall, explained some of the mechanisms that affect the likelihood of mould and gave criteria for judging the simulations outputs. The next step is to simulate a number of permutations of typical internal insulation systems using WUFI Pro under IS EN 15026.

Unlv Magazine, Cate Weeks, Tony Allen, Shane Bevell, Diane Russell, Brendan Buhler, Afsha Bawany, Erin O'Donnell

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Building Mechanical System Noise On Worker Performance And Perception, Lily M. Wang

Faculty Publications in Architectural Engineering

This paper presents results from a number of studies that investigated the effects of noise from building mechanical systems on human task performance and perception. Three phases of research were conducted, each of which utilized a different set of noise signals produced by building mechanical systems: (1) broadband noise at different levels and spectral qualities; (2) tonal noise conditions; and (3) noise conditions with time-varying fluctuations. In each phase, at least six different noise signals (many based on in-situ measurements) were reproduced in an office-like setting. Thirty participants completed tasks (e.g. typing, grammatical reasoning, math) plus subjective questionnaires, while exposed …

How And What To Communicate For Efficient Joist Design, John Lawson, Bruce Brothersen

Architectural Engineering

No abstract provided.

A Solution To Seismic Bracing Restrictions, John W. Lawson

Architectural Engineering

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Mould 4 : Condensation Risk Analysis – The Standards And The Issues, Joseph Little

Articles

The ‘Breaking the Mould’ series of articles was written to explore the range of issues associated with upgrading single leaf walls with a focus on occupant and building health as much as energy, just as the Home Energy Saving Scheme was launched. A year on from the first article the need for greater understanding and clear guidance for the Industry is greater than ever. This is because the Government’s ‘Energy Demand Reduction Target’ (EDRT), under the 2006 EU ‘Energy Services Directive’, is bringing energy utilities (e.g. ESB, Bord Gáis) into the refurbishment market.

Identification Of Physical Changes To A Steel Frame, Daniel Eric Means

Master's Theses

The thesis utilized physical testing and computer modeling to determine the feasibility of identifying a change to the mass or stiffness of a steel frame. Physical testing was performed using an accelerometer, linear shaker, and arbitrary function generator. Two methods of laboratory testing were developed: ambient vibration testing (AVT) and forced vibration testing (FVT). AVT was able to preliminarily identify the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the frame. FVT was able to precisely identify four distinct natural frequencies, mode shapes, and damping ratios. The baseline frame then underwent two physical changes: the addition of mass to its roof, and …

University Of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries Master Plan, Shirley Dugdale, Gerald Jay Schafer, Bryan Harvey, James Cahill, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, Leslie Horner Button, Theresa Warner, Pam Rooney, John Cunningham

Campus Planning Reports and Plans

Amherst Libraries, which is on the edge of significant change moving into a new era serving scholars, researchers and learners in the 21st Century. Over the last decade the Library has been a leader in many initiatives: increasing development of digital resources; collaborating with the Five Colleges Consortium, which was one of the first in the country to develop a shared book depository; developing a highly successful Learning Commons that engages partners in providing a broad range, of services and settings for learners; providing services through partners welcomed into library facilities, such the peer learning activities of the Learning Resources …