Engineering Commons^™

Space Operations In The Suborbital Space Flight Simulator And Mission Control Center: Lessons Learned With Xcor Lynx, Pedro Llanos, Christopher Nguyen, David Williams, Kim O. Chambers Ph.D., Erik Seedhouse, Robert Davidson

Pedro J. Llanos (www.AstronauticsLlanos.com)

This study was conducted to better understand the performance of the XCOR Lynx vehicle. Because the Lynx development was halted, the best knowledge of vehicle dynamics can only be found through simulator flights. X-Plane 10 was chosen for its robust applications and accurate portrayal of dynamics on a vehicle in flight. The Suborbital Space Flight Simulator (SSFS) and Mission Control Center (MCC) were brought to the Applied Aviation Sciences department in fall 2015 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach campus. This academic and research tool is a department asset capable of providing multiple fields of data about suborbital simulated flights. …

Enhancing Student Experience In Team-Based Project Courses Using Essence Reflection Meetings, Todd Sedano, Cécile Péraire

Cécile Péraire

Background: Many software engineering curriculum contain a team-based project course. This is the case of Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley’s masters of science in software engineering. In this context, we have been using Essence Reflection Meetings for five semesters with 17 teams and approximately 70 students. During these meetings, the teams reflect on various project’s dimensions based on a systems thinking framework. The positive results have been published in research papers.

Activity and Discussions: Participants will learn about Essence Reflection Meetings for team-based project courses by practicing in a classroom environment. They will discuss challenges and solutions for team-based project …

Using Essence Reflection Meetings In Team-Based Project Courses, Todd Sedano, Cécile Péraire

Cécile Péraire

No abstract provided.

Integrating Games To Teach A First Programming Course, Soumia Ichoua

Soumia Ichoua

In the past few years, there has been an increased interest in game-based learning as a powerful tool to stimulate students’ interest and promote their engagement in the learning process. In this paper, we discuss our experience in integrating gaming to teach a first programming course. The course is restructured and redesigned to allow teaching the basics of programming through games. Students actively use fundamental programming concepts learned to modify and create two dimension games using C# and XNA with .Net framework. This is an on-going work. Surveys and worksheets are developed to be used in assessing the effectiveness of …

Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education, Lynn Stein, Mark Somerville, Jessica Townsend, Vincent Manno

Jessica Townsend

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering was created to address several perceived needs for engineering graduates of the future and to be an experimental laboratory for engineering education. As such, Olin College is not only dedicated to innovation within its boundaries but also to catalyzing change throughout the engineering enterprise. The curriculum aims to support life-long learning, teamwork, communication, and contextual understanding, along with rigorous quantitative and qualitative skills.

Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education, Lynn Stein, Mark Somerville, Jessica Townsend, Vincent Manno

Vincent P. Manno

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering was created to address several perceived needs for engineering graduates of the future and to be an experimental laboratory for engineering education. As such, Olin College is not only dedicated to innovation within its boundaries but also to catalyzing change throughout the engineering enterprise. The curriculum aims to support life-long learning, teamwork, communication, and contextual understanding, along with rigorous quantitative and qualitative skills.

Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education, Lynn Stein, Mark Somerville, Jessica Townsend, Vincent Manno

Lynn Andrea Stein

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering was created to address several perceived needs for engineering graduates of the future and to be an experimental laboratory for engineering education. As such, Olin College is not only dedicated to innovation within its boundaries but also to catalyzing change throughout the engineering enterprise. The curriculum aims to support life-long learning, teamwork, communication, and contextual understanding, along with rigorous quantitative and qualitative skills.

Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education, Lynn Stein, Mark Somerville, Jessica Townsend, Vincent Manno

Mark Somerville

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering was created to address several perceived needs for engineering graduates of the future and to be an experimental laboratory for engineering education. As such, Olin College is not only dedicated to innovation within its boundaries but also to catalyzing change throughout the engineering enterprise. The curriculum aims to support life-long learning, teamwork, communication, and contextual understanding, along with rigorous quantitative and qualitative skills.

Nanoscience For All: Strategies For Teaching Nanoscience To Undergraduate Freshmen Science And Non-Science Majors, Thomas Tretter, M. Jones, Michael Falvo

Thomas Tretter

Rethinking Classroom Participation, Rita Gardiner

Rita A Gardiner

Within the classroom, feelings of alienation can adversely affect students’ ability to speak, and thus serve to reproduce social inequities. This is especially the case with some first year students who may not have had many opportunities to speak, as well as students from different cultures where talking in class may not be the norm. To help mitigate power imbalances, it is necessary to develop a diversity of teaching practices and approaches to learning to ensure that each student feels that her class participation counts. In this workshop, I want to consider ways in which it is possible to encourage …

Measurements Of Nh3 Linestrengths And Collisional Broadening Coefficients In N2, O2, Co2, And H2o Near 1103.46 Cm−1, Kyle Owen, Et-Touhami Es-Sebbar, Aamir Farooq

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Laser-based ammonia gas sensors have useful applications in many fields including combustion, atmospheric monitoring, and medical diagnostics. Calibration-free trace gas sensors require the spectroscopic parameters including linestrengths and collisional broadening coefficients to be known. Ammonia's strong ν2 vibrational band between View the MathML source has the high absorption strength needed for sensing small concentrations. Within this band, the 1103.46 cm−1 feature is one of the strongest and has minimal interference from CO2 and H2O. However, the six rotational transitions that make up this feature have not been studied previously with absorption spectroscopy due to their small line spacing ranging from …

Effects Of N2o And O2 Addition To Nitrogen Townsend Dielectric Barrier Discharges At Atmospheric Pressure On The Absolute Ground-State Atomic Nitrogen Density, Et. Es-Sebbar, N. Gherardi, F. Massines

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Absolute ground-state density of nitrogen atoms N (2p3 4S3/2) in non-equilibrium Townsend dielectric barrier discharges (TDBDs) at atmospheric pressure sustained in N2/N2O and N2/O2 gas mixtures has been measured using Two-photon absorption laser-induced fluorescence (TALIF) spectroscopy. The quantitative measurements have been obtained by TALIF calibration using krypton as a reference gas. We previously reported that the maximum of N (2p3 4S3/2) atom density is around 3 × 1014 cm−3 in pure nitrogen TDBD, and that this maximum depends strongly on the mean energy dissipated in the gas. In the two gas mixtures studied here, results show that the absolute N …

Temperature-Dependent Absorption Cross-Section Measurements Of 1-Butene (1-C4h8) In Vuv And Ir, Et-Touhami Es-Sebbar, Yves Benilan, Aamir Farooq

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and infrared (IR) absorption cross-section measurements of 1-butene (1-C4H8; CH2=CHCH2CH3; Butylene) are reported over the temperature range of 296–529 K. The VUV measurements are performed between 115 and 205 nm using synchrotron radiation as a tunable VUV light source. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is employed to measure absorption cross-section and band strengths in the IR region between 1.54 and 25 μm (∼6500–400 cm−1). The measured room-temperature VUV and IR absorption cross-sections are compared with available literature data and are found to be in good agreement. The oscillator strength for the electronic transition (A1A′→X1A′) around 150–205 nm …

Capacitively Coupled Radio-Frequency Discharges In Nitrogen At Low Pressures, L. L Alves, L. Marques, C. D Pintassilgo, W. Wattieaux, Et. Es-Sebbar, J. Berndt, E. Kovačević, N. Carrasco, L. Boufendi, G. Cernogora

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

This paper uses experiments and modelling to study capacitively coupled radio-frequency (rf) discharges in pure nitrogen, at 13.56 MHz frequency, 0.1–1 mbar pressures and 2–30 W coupled powers. Experiments performed on two similar (not twin) setups, existing in the LATMOS and the GREMI laboratories, include electrical and optical emission spectroscopy (OES) measurements. Electrical measurements give the rf-applied and the direct-current-self-bias voltages, the effective power coupled to the plasma and the average electron density. OES diagnostics measure the intensities of radiative transitions with the nitrogen second-positive and first-negative systems, and with the 811.5 nm atomic line of argon (present as an …

Ionization Photophysics And Rydberg Spectroscopy Of Diacetylene, M. Schwell, Y. Benilan, N.. Fray, M.-C. Gazeau, Et. Es-Sebbar, F.-G. Levrel, N. Campion, S. Leach

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Photoionization of diacetylene was studied using synchrotron radiation over the range 8–24 eV, with photoelectron-photoion coincidence (PEPICO) and threshold photoelectron–photoion coincidence (TPEPICO) techniques. Mass spectra, ion yields, total and partial ionization cross-sections were measured. The adiabatic ionization energy of diacetylene was determined as IEad = (10.17 ± 0.01) eV, and the appearance energy of the principal fragment ion C4H+ as AE = (16.15 ± 0.03) eV. Calculated appearance energies of other fragment ions were used to infer aspects of dissociation pathways forming the weaker fragment ions , C3H+, and C2H+. Structured autoionization features observed in the PEPICO spectrum of diacetylene …

A Critical Perfomance Analysis Of Thin Client Platforms, Faith J. Shimba, Renatus Michael

Faith Joel Shimba

The nature of operation of Thin Client computing makes their performance to be affected by both the quality of the network and the terminals. For the past few years, there are few analyses on the performance of Thin Clients that can produce reliable, valid, and up-to-date results collected in a well designed and evaluated experiment based research. This paper analyses the performance of Thin Clients through experiment based research. The approach is to use benchmark application which is designed specifically for measurement of desktop computers by inserting delays in the visual elements of such benchmark application. In this technique, packet’s …

Volatile Products Controlling Titan’S Tholins Production, N. Carrasco, T. Gautier, Et. Es-Sebbar, P. Pernot, G. Cernogora

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

A quantitative agreement between nitrile relative abundances and Titan’s atmospheric composition was recently shown with a reactor simulating the global chemistry occurring in Titan’s atmosphere [Gautier et al. (2011) Icarus, 213: 625]. Here we present a complementary study on the same reactor using an in-situ diagnostic of the gas phase composition. Various initial N2-CH4 gas mixtures (methane varying from 1 to 10%) are studied, with a monitoring of the methane consumption and of the stable gas neutrals by in-situ mass spectrometry. Atomic hydrogen is also measured by optical emission spectroscopy. A positive correlation is found between atomic hydrogen abundance and …

Vuv Photoionization Of Acetamide Studied By Electron / Ion Coincidence Spectroscopy In The 8-24 Ev Photon Energy Range, M. Schwell, Y. Bénilan, N. Fray, M.-C Gazeau, Et. Es-Sebbar, Gustavo A. Garcia, L. Nahon, N. Champion, S. Leach

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

A VUV photoionization study of acetamide was carried out over the 8-24 eV photon energy range using synchrotron radiation and photoelectron/photoion coincidence (PEPICO) spectroscopy. Threshold photoelectron photoion coincidence (TPEPICO) measurements were also made. Photoion yield curves and branching ratios were measured for the parent ion and six fragment ions. The adiabatic ionization energy of acetamide was determined as I.E (12A’) = (9.71±0.02) eV, in agreement with an earlier reported photoionization mass spectrometry (PIMS) value. The adiabatic energy of the first excited state of the ion, 12A”, was determined to be ≈ 10.1 eV. Assignments of the fragment ions and the …

Ict And The Education Sector In Tanzania: Effectiveness Of Introducing And Applying Ict In Higher Learning Institutions In Tanzania: The Case Of Ardhi University, Kristofa S. Nkembo, Daniel Koloseni, Faith J. Shimba

Faith Joel Shimba

Academic Institutions are heavily investing in ICT in order to improve delivery and quality of education. But the process of introducing and applying ICT in Higher learning institutions is not effective to enable higher learning Institutions to reap fully the benefits offered by ICT. This book describes a number of factors that hindered the introduction and application of ICT at Ardhi University, which are limited ICT infrastructure, inadequate ICT personnel, inadequate training provided to staff, limited support services, inadequate financial resources,and insufficient budget for ICT infrastructure. Further it recommends among other things, improvement of ICT infrastructure, increasing the number of …

Vuv Absorption Cross Section Of Benzene, Relevance For Titan’S Atmosphere, F-J. Capalbo, Y. Bénilan, N. Fray, M. Schwell, Et. Es-Sebbar, N. Champion, T. Koskinen, R. Yelle

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, is the only one in the Solar System known to have a thick N2/CH4, planet like atmosphere. The dissociation of these principal components and the recombination of the products make this atmosphere to be rich in organic compounds of high interest for astrobiology. Solar and stellar occultations observed by the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) on board the Cassini spacecraft can be used to characterize the composition of Titan’s upper atmosphere (400 – 1400 km). The results depend strongly on the knowledge of the molecular absorption cross sections of the atmospheric constituents (Ferradaz et al. 2009). This …

Characterization Of Continuous Vacuum Ultraviolet Lamps-Implication On The Study Of Methane Photolysis At Lyman Alpha (121.6 Nm), M-C. Gazeau, Y. Benilan, Et. Es-Sebbar, A. Jolly, E. Arzoumanian, N. Fray, H. Cottin

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Low-temperature hydrogen plasmas are widely used as continuous vacuum ultraviolet irradiation sources in photochemical studies and, in particular, in laboratory simulations of planetary atmospheres. One of the most challenging objectives of such experiments is to retrieve accurate quantitative laboratory data allowing a reliable comparison with theoretical and/or observational ones. This task can only be achieved when the irradiation source delivers a well characterised radiation in terms of flux and wavelength dependency. As an example, we will present a study, developed in the frame of a program dedicated to simulations of Titan’s atmosphere, on methane photolysis at Lyman alpha (121.6 nm). …

Formation Of Hcn And Nh3 As Primary Compounds Of Titan’S Atmosphere Simulations Using N2-Ch4 Afterglow Plasma’’, M-C. Gazeau, Y. Bénilan, E. Arzoumanian, Et. Es-Sebbar, A. Jolly, C.D. Pintassilgo

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

No abstract provided.

Challenges Associated With Ict Asset Disposal In Tanzania, Faith J. Shimba, Daniel Koloseni

Faith Joel Shimba

Government and non–Government institutions are heavily investing in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance their businesses and operational activities. This trend has partially been inspired by the lift of computer ban in 1980s where millions of ICT assets had been imported. Subsequently, there is a rapid increase of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Mobile Service Providers (MSP), and ICT asset vendors’ country-wide. This implies a massive increase in imported ICT assets as well as the number of ICT assets that are going out of the ICT asset life cycle. In order to study challenges facing Tanzania in disposing end of …

Computing Without Borders? Adapting An Irish Programme For The Tanzanian Ict Market, Faraja Igira, Herman Mandari, Bosi Masamila, Salehe Mwachaka, Zanifa Omar, Jafari Said, Faith J. Shimba, Rose Tinabo, June Barret, Damian Gordon, Paul Kelly, Fredick Mtenzi, Oliver O'Connor, Patricia O'Byrne, Ciaran O'Leary

Faith Joel Shimba

A Tanzanian higher education institution (Institute of Finance Management) and an Irish higher education institutio (Dublin Institute of Technology) have worked in partnership to develop the final stage of a Computer Science programme to meet the specific needs of the Tanzanian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. The designed stage sits above three stages of a programme designed for the Irish ICT sector which was transplanted to the Tanzanian context. The final stage is crucial as it represents the final bridge between the employment market and the programme, which is informed by the best practice, needs and requirements of both …

Cloud Computing: Strategies For Cloud Computing Adoption, Faith J. Shimba

Faith Joel Shimba

The advent of cloud computing in recent years has sparked an interest from different IT stakeholders. This is a result of the new economic model for the IT department that cloud computing promises. The model promises to remove the need for heavy investment for limited IT resources towards renting IT resources and paying based on usage. Although, the adoption of cloud computing promises various benefits to organizations, a successful adoption requires an understanding of different dynamics and expertise in diverse domains. Currently there are inadequate guidelines for adoption and this book proposes a roadmap for cloud computing adoption called ROCCA. …

Absolute Ground-State Nitrogen Atom Density In A N2/Ch4 Late Afterglow: Talif Experiments And Modelling Studies, Et. Es-Sebbar, M.-C. Gazeau, Y. Benilan, A. Jolly, C D. Pintassilgo

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Following a first study on a late afterglow in flowing pure nitrogen post discharge, we report new two-photon absorption laser-induced fluorescence (TALIF) measurements of the absolute ground-state atomic nitrogen density N(4S) and investigate the influence of methane introduced downstream from the discharge by varying the CH4 mixing ratio from 0% up to 50%. The N (4S) maximum density is about 2.2 × 1015 cm−3 in pure N2 for a residence time of 22 ms and does not change significantly for methane mixing ratio up to ~15%, while above, a drastic decrease is observed. The influence of the residence time has …

Experimental And Theoretical Studies On Nitrogen Plasma And Methane Photolysis: Implications For Laboratory Simulations Of Titan’S Atmosphere, M-C. Gazeau, Y. Benilan, E. Arzoumanian, Et. Es-Sebbar, A. Jolly

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

No abstract provided.

Spectroscopic Studies Applied To Uvis Observations Of Titan, Y. Benilan, F. Capalbo, Et. Es-Sebbar, N. Fray, A. Jolly, M-C. Gazeau, J-C. Guillemin, M. Schwell

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

No abstract provided.

Talif Investigation And Modelling Of The Absolute N(4s) Density In A N2-Ch4 Late Afterglow, C.D. Pintassilgo, Et. Es-Sebbar, Y. Benilan, M-C. Gazeau, A. Jolly

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

The purpose of the present work is the experimental and numerical study of the absolute ground-state nitrogen atoms density N(4S) in the late afterglow of a pure N2 flowing microwave discharge in which different amounts of CH4 have been injected at 25 cm downstream from the nitrogen discharge. The absolute N(4S) concentrations have been measured using Two-photon Absorption Laser-Induced Fluorescence (TALIF), while a detailed kinetic model has been developed to simulate both the discharge and the post-discharge regions. Theoretical predictions are then compared to experimental measurements.

Combined Experimental And Theoretical Studies On Methane Photolysis At 121.6 Nm And 248 Nm- Implications On A Program Of Laboratory Simulations Of Titan’S Atmosphere, C. Romanzin, E. Arzoumanian, Et. Es-Sebbar, A. Jolly, S. Perrier, M.-C. Gazeau, Y. Bénilan

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Methane is, together with N2, the main precursor of Titan’s atmospheric chemistry. In our laboratory, we are currently developing a program of laboratory simulations of Titan’s atmosphere, where methane is intended to be dissociated by multiphotonic photolysis at 248 nm. A preliminary study has shown that multiphotonic absorption of methane at 248 nm is efficient and leads to the production of hydrocarbons such as C2H2 (Romanzin et al., 2008). Yet, at this wavelength, little is known about the branching ratios of the hydrocarbon radicals (CH3, CH2 and CH) and their following photochemistry. This paper thus aims at investigating methane photochemistry …