Engineering Commons^™

Cyber Attacks Against Industrial Control Systems, Adam Kardorff

LSU Master's Theses

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are the foundation of our critical infrastructure, and allow for the manufacturing of the products we need. These systems monitor and control power plants, water treatment plants, manufacturing plants, and much more. The security of these systems is crucial to our everyday lives and to the safety of those working with ICS. In this thesis we examined how an attacker can take control of these systems using a power plant simulator in the Applied Cybersecurity Lab at LSU. Running experiments on a live environment can be costly and dangerous, so using a simulated environment is the …

Multichannel Low-Cost Sensor For Iaq Monitoring: Implementation And Guidelines, Isaac Ntiamoah

LSU Master's Theses

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is adversely affected by both indoor and outdoor environments, and rental homes occupied by low-income families suffer the most. Poor indoor air can be detrimental to the health of occupants, especially for susceptible populations like those with respiratory diseases such as asthma. Although IAQ monitoring is necessary, it is a challenging, costly, and time-intensive task. Moreover, the protocol for assessing IAQ in residential settings varies, and additional research is needed to establish a standard operating procedure that incorporates new monitoring technologies, such as low-cost air sensors. However, there is a dearth of comprehensive, evidence-based protocols for …

Empowering Student Success: Unlocking The Potential Of Project-Based Steel Design Education, Aly Mousaad Aly

Faculty Publications

In the pursuit of student success, it is essential to acknowledge that a singular teaching style does not universally cater to all students. The educator's crucial role lies in creating an optimal learning environment that fosters students' endeavors to excel. This endeavor transcends mere classroom success or employment prospects, encompassing a broader impact on societal well-being. An experiential learning approach, where students actively engage in practical tasks, emerges as the most effective mode of instruction. Integrating project-based learning activities into the curriculum holds immense potential for enhancing student learning. Additionally, the utilization of analysis software tools like FTool and STAAD …

The Impact Of Case Management Intervention For Insured Asthma Patients In Louisiana, An Empirical Study, Mohamed Mohamed Ohaiba

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Asthma is a chronic condition whose symptoms are managed/prevented using medication and interventions. The overarching objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of patients' demographics on case management enrollment and healthcare utilization, as well as to develop machine learning models to predict high-cost patients.

To accomplish these goals, the Man-Whiteness test, the chi-squares test, logistic regression and odds ratios, and machine learning models were implemented. The average cost of the non-enrolled CM group was significantly higher than the enrolled group (p-value .0001). In addition, the non-enrolled groups had considerably more visits to the emergency department than the other …

Effect Of Automation Level On Cognitive Workload When Collaborating With A Robotic Assistant, Mitchell A. Champagne

LSU Master's Theses

Manufacturing robotics have been used for decades to perform repetitive tasks, or tasks that require increased levels of speed, strength, or precision to meet production and specification requirements. Determining the appropriate degree of automation for both the human and robot collaborative team members is critical to optimize production as well as user experience. If the degree of automation is too high, the human will be out of the loop which can result in the loss of situational awareness and be detrimental to intervention time and accuracy. If the degree of automation is too low, then the human may experience greater …

A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach With Prioritized Experience Replay And Importance Factor For Makespan Minimization In Manufacturing, Jose Napoleon Martinez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this research, we investigated the application of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to a common manufacturing scheduling optimization problem, max makespan minimization. In this application, tasks are scheduled to undergo processing in identical processing units (for instance, identical machines, machining centers, or cells). The optimization goal is to assign the jobs to be scheduled to units to minimize the maximum processing time (i.e., makespan) on any unit.

Machine learning methods have the potential to "learn" structures in the distribution of job times that could lead to improved optimization performance and time over traditional optimization methods, as well as to adapt …

Designing For The Future: Sensor And Gauge Assembly Work Cell Design, Kaitryana Leinbach

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

An Improved Earned Value Management Method Integrating Quality And Safety, Brian Briggs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The construction industry invests significant time and money to improve quality and safety while reducing cost and schedule impacts. The industry has a sincere desire to improve construction project management methods to improve efficiency. Historically, quality and safety underperformances result from undermanaged quality control and safety activities. The cost and schedule impacts associated with poor quality work have always had an impact on construction operations. The unprecedented challenges and uncertainties of COVID-19 highlighted the need to improve the Earned Value Management (EVM) method within construction to reflect these quality and safety activities. The central goal of this dissertation is to …

Energy Consumption And Tardiness Improvement For A Flexible Job Shop And A Warehouse, Ahmad Ebrahimi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years, energy consumption (EC) is studied to see its effects on monetary and non-monetary costs in manufacturing and warehousing. EC in manufacturing and warehousing, however, needs to be studied with conventional performance measures such as production/operation tardiness since there is a trade-off between EC and tardiness costs. Therefore, this research is conducted with four objectives to study EC and tardiness for a flexible job shop and a warehouse as follows. The first objective of this research is to integrate job scheduling and layout, which are interrelated in improving EC and tardiness for a flexible job shop. Thus, we …

The Effect Of Aircraft Manufacturing Riveting Tools On Hand-Arm Vibrations And Muscle Fatigue, Lou Toua Vi

LSU Master's Theses

The overall objective of this research was to compare four types of rivet guns varying by manufacturer and piston material (Tungsten vs. Steel), two rivet gun handle positions (Horizontal and Vertical), and three bucking bars including two with similar dimensions bars made of tungsten and steel, and a Honsa new technology spring dampener and tungsten combined bucking bar based on their impact on hand-arm vibrations and the effect of these vibration levels on muscle fatigue. This objective was covered in three parts. The first part consisted of examining the impact of these factors on riveters’ vibration exposure and muscle fatigue, …

Development Of Water Coning Control Design Metrics In Naturally Fractured Reservoirs, Samir Prasun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Naturally fractured reservoirs (NFRs) with bottom-water are known for their instant water breakthrough and severe water coning that reduces oil recovery. This is because water channels through the highly permeable fractures easily connecting the well to the aquifer bypassing the oil contained in the matrix. Remedial techniques such as producing below critical-oil rate, optimizing the well spacing and installing the downhole water sink (DWS)/ downhole water loop (DWL) technology, have already been successfully tested in single-porosity reservoirs (SPR). However, applicability of these techniques in NFRs are unknown since only a few studies have been performed on their feasibility in NFRs, …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Continuing Education At Emergency Medical Services, Tasmia Mustaquim

LSU Master's Theses

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) require staff to recertify periodically, which involves a significant amount of continuing education. Great effort is given to designing and delivering a continuing education program, but it is also important to know if the training had all of the intended impacts. Nationally, there is no evidence-based system in place for training evaluation at EMS. This research proposes a framework being used at East Baton Rouge Parish Emergency Medical Services (EBRP-EMS) to evaluate a course, generate reports to indicate the performance of staff, and identify areas of improvement.

The Kirkpatrick Model, which is a 4-level evaluation, is …

Barriers And Facilitators Influencing Compliance With Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Protocol: A Qualitative Study, Paige Boudreaux

LSU Master's Theses

Standardization in many industries has proven to lead to improved productivity and efficiency, however, standard practice in healthcare has proven difficult due to patient and physician variation. Evidence-based practices provide an opportunity to create more standardization. Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) programs are attempting to standardize the surgical pathways of patients by implementing standard evidence-based steps, beginning in the surgeons office and continuing through a patients discharge (Ljungqvist, Scott, & Fearon, 2017). Implementing ERAS to standardize the surgical care of patients has shown to improve patient outcomes, reduce length of stay and reduce readmissions, however, there is a lack of …

Retrospective Study Of Fmol Health System Utilization Using Geospatial Information, Deekshith Mandala

LSU Master's Theses

Medicaid Expansion and closing of Emergency Departments (ED) like Earl K. Long, Baton Rouge General Mid-City ED, and Champion Medical Center changed the health care landscape in East Baton Rouge Parish (EBRP). In this research study, a Geographical Information System (GIS) is used to analyze the impact of the expansion of Medicaid and the inauguration of Our Lady of the Lake North Baton Rouge ED (OLOL NBR ED) over the utilization of Franciscan Missionaries of our Lady Health System (FMOLHS) for both emergency and non-emergency health care services. This study is performed across the 58 neighborhoods of EBRP. Overutilization of …

Rfid Item-Level Tagging In A Grocery Store Environment, Brian Truman

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to investigate how effective item-level Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tagging would be using current RFID technology as a replacement for barcodes in a supermarket/grocery store environment.

To accomplish this, an experiment was be performed that utilized commercially available RFID technology. Passive Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID Tags were affixed to various grocery store items of different material categories (Food, Metal, Plastic, Liquid, and Glass), and placed in a metal shopping cart. Eight (8) antenna arrangements were created, comprised of different combinations of four (4) antennas in different locations around the cart.

The experiment was …

Systems Approach To Evaluating Mih-Cp (Mobile Integrated Healthcare – Community Paramedicine): A Case Study Of East Baton Rouge Parish (Ebrp) Emergency Medical Services (Ems) Community Paramedicine Program Initiative, Oluwakemi Aiyedun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study applied a holistic method of healthcare program assessment, known as systems approach, to evaluate the efficacy of the East Baton Rouge Parish (EBRP) EMS Community-integrated Health Program (CIHP). The author developed assessment metrics following the Quadruple Aim Framework: IHI (Institute for Healthcare Improvement) Triple Aim + Provider Experience.

Results showed that the CP program in this study delivers high ratings on patient experience and provided a 51% return on investment (ROI) through reduced emergency service utilization, ED visits and inpatient hospital admissions. However, findings did not demonstrate meaningful improvement in patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and self-efficacy …

Impacts Of Freight Consolidation And Truck Sharing On Freight Mobility, Tieming Liu, Chaoyue Zhao

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 17ITSOKS02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"The trucking industry is an important sector of the U.S. economy. However, it is quite fragmented, hindering the efficiency of cargo transportation and the ability for small carriers to identify demands to fill full truck loads. The focus of this research is to study models and algorithms in order to aid online freight marketplaces to identify efficient consolidation strategies. To accomplish this aim, a new mixed integer programming model for the pickup and delivery problem has been developed. The model is geared …

Impacts Of Freight Consolidation And Truck Sharing On Freight Mobility, Tieming Liu, Chaoyue Zhao

Publications

The trucking industry is an important sector of the U.S. economy. However, it is quite fragmented, hindering the efficiency of cargo transportation and the ability for small carriers to identify demands to fill full truck loads. The focus of this research is to study models and algorithms in order to aid online freight marketplaces to identify efficient consolidation strategies. To accomplish this aim, a new mixed integer programming model for the pickup and delivery problem has been developed. The model is geared towards identifying effective freight consolidation opportunities. A branch-and-cut algorithm to solve the model was also developed. The model …

Identifying Key Factors Associated With High Risk Asthma Patients To Reduce The Cost Of Health Resources Utilization, Amani Ahmad

LSU Master's Theses

Asthma is associated with frequent use of primary health services and places a burden on the United States economy. Identifying key factors associated with increased cost of asthma is an essential step to improve practices of asthma management.

The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with over utilization of primary health services and increased cost via claims data and to explore the effectiveness of case management program in reducing overall asthma related cost.

Claims data analysis for Medicaid insured asthma patients in Louisiana was conducted. Asthma patients were identified using their ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes, forward variable …

The Effect Of Rest Period On Fatigue Using Electromyography During Manual Lifting, Nandakumar Prabhakar

LSU Master's Theses

Manual materials handing (MMH) is the main cause and concern for injuries in the working population which lead to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). MSDs significantly contribute to the cost of workers’ compensation and loss of productivity, thus impacting economy of the United States. MSDs are mainly caused due to over exertion and fatigue experienced by workers involved in manual materials handling. In addition to over-exertion and fatigue, lack of short and frequent rest intervals between tasks contributes to the risk of MSDs. The objective of this research was to study the effect of rest period on muscle fatigue using electromyography (EMG) …

Throughput And Yield Improvement For A Continuous Discrete-Product Manufacturing System, Md Shahriar J. Hossain

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A seam-welded steel pipe manufacturing process has mainly four distinct major design and/or operational problems dealing with buffer inventory, cutting tools, pipe sizing and inspection-rework facility. The general objective of this research is to optimally solve these four important problems to improve the throughput and yield of the system at a minimum cost.

The first problem of this research finds the optimal buffer capacity of steel strip coils to minimize the maintenance and downtime related costs. The total cost function for this coil feeding system is formulated as a constrained non-linear programming (NLP) problem which is solved with a search …

Quality Function Deployment Method And Its Application On Wearable Technology Product Development, Mir Salahuddin

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate consumers and product developer’s expectations of wearable technology products in the context of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) framework. The specific objectives were to: 1) Explore the quality features that consumers consider most important when purchasing wearable technology product. 2) Explore the technical features product developers consider most important in the development of wearable technology. 3) Identify the technical features that wearable technology product developers need to focus on to meet the customer requirements.

The Qualtrix online survey system was used to collect demographic, quantitative and essay length written responses from participants. …

The Evaluation Of The Integration Of Sustainability In Industrial Engineering Education At Louisiana State University, Kloe’ M. Liner

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Simulating The Effects Of Co2 Gas Influx On The Thermodynamic Conditions Inside A Marine Riser Filled With Oil Based Mud, Hassan Al Dawood

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Determination Of Recovery Time For A Simple Lifting Task Based On Weight, Frequency, And Duration Of The Lift, Milad Amini

LSU Master's Theses

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a leading cause of injury in American workplaces which cost the economy billions of dollars each year. Extensive research has shown that job fatigue is one of the causes of MSDs. Allocating frequent and adequate rest break is suggested to be an effective method in mitigating the work overload and fatigue prevention. The objective of this research was to determine rest periods for lifting tasks based on the activity heart rate and by using a set of task variables. Twenty-four university male students took part in this study. The two response variables were perceived level of …

An Optimal Operational Policy For An Integrated Production-Delivery System Under Continuous Price Decrease, Deniz Mungan

LSU Master's Theses

In today’s competitive world, the unit cost of a high-tech product declines significantly over its life cycle. An integrated inventory model for products experiencing continuous decrease in unit cost is studied in this research. In this integrated model a manufacturing facility purchases raw material from outside supplier at a fixed size and supplies a fixed quantity of finished products to a buyer periodically after using its production processes. Moreover, buyers demand frequent deliveries of small lots of finished products since the price is continuously decreasing, and this emphasizes the significance of just-in-time (JIT) inventory management for successful companies in technology-related …

Effect Of Repetitions On Static And Dynamic Strength, Sai Chaitanya Reddy Bogolu

LSU Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of repetitions on static and dynamic strength. The study is divided into two parts, the first part investigated static and dynamic strength during one, three and six repetitions per minute, and the second part of the study analyzed dynamic strength data collected using the Multiaxial Multipurpose Isokinetic Dynamometer. The study comprised of dynamic strength test data at three speeds of one, five and ten inch per second. Five male subjects participated in the first part of the study, and the results were analyzed by plotting a time series to observe …

Influence Of Circadian Rhythm On The Physical And Mental Performance, Maryam Muhammed Amin

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis studied the temperature circadian rhythm and its relationship with the physical and mental performance of the individuals. The objectives of this study were to determine (1) the effect of temperature circadian rhythm on the mental and physical performance, (2) whether a common oral temperature circadian rhythm pattern exists for all the participants, (3) the times of the day when the participants perform their best and worst in comparison to their highest and lowest temperatures respectively, (4) find out whether the effect of the oral temperature circadian rhythm on the physical and mental performance is different in males and …

Grinding Wheel Condition Monitoring With Boosted Classifiers, Fengming Tang

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis, two data sets collected in grinding process under different cutting and wheel conditions were studied. One is the cutting forces in three directions, i.e. X, Y and Z, collected under two different cutting conditions. The other one is the acoustic emission (AE) signals collected under different wheel conditions(sharp and dull). For the goal of grinding wheel condition monitoring, the regression model with autocorrelated errors was proved to be effective and was used to extract features from signals in this study. The coefficients of the models served as the features used in the classification step that employed boosting …

Effect Of Overhead Drilling Support On Muscular Activity Of Shoulder, Bharat Kumar Bhogaraju Bhallam Venkata

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the effect of an overhead drilling support and position of the arm on muscular activity of the shoulder. Five male participants simulated an overhead drilling task by using a drill in near, middle and far reach positions. Electromyographic measurements were taken from the dominant side anterior deltoid, bicep and trapezius muscles. Root mean square amplitude (RMS) of the EMG activity from these muscles was used to determine the load on the muscular system. The participants used a subjective rating scale to evaluate the overhead support stand and holding position. The results demonstrate that the overhead support stand …