Engineering Commons^™

Simulating Information And Communication Applications In Employee Interaction Network Models, Matthew Kanter

Student Research Submissions

Information and communication technology (ICT) use has been identified throughout its development and evolution with the Internet boom as a net positive tool for most employees and organizations in the working world. Only recently have studies regarding employees’ well-being begun to come to the forefront of research regarding these rapidly evolving technologies, however these are important issues to discuss in the context of work-life boundary management, emotional exhaustion, overwhelming stress levels, and moral disengagement among other employee well-being dimensions. To explore how employees’ well being might be influenced by ICT use, this study conducted a quantitative survey and analyzed a …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Enablers And Barriers Of Communication In Virtual Engineering Teams: The Role Of Teamwork Skills And Emergent Conflict, Pilar Pazos, Francisco Cima

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Communication is a critical process that facilitates team members' coordination, expertise exchange, decision-making, and, consequently, team elfectiveness. A focus on effective communication is critical in virtual teams due to their lack of face-to-face interactions and social presence. Communication becomes challenging in remote settings, and specific skills emerge as more essential to success. It is known that effective teams rely on planning, execution, and interpersonal skills to be successful. Still, the specific impact of these skills on virtual team effectiveness is not well understood. Additionally, conflict can emerge as a significant barrier to collaboration for remote teams that can hinder their …

The Impact Of Human Factors And Maintenance Documentation On Aviation Safety: An Analysis Of 15 Years Of Accident Data Through The Pear Framework, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Natalie Zimmermann

Publications

Regardless of the type of maintenance performed on aircraft, instructions are to be used to provide the aviation technicians completing the maintenance activities with guidance on, and an outline of, the maintenance items to be performed and completed. However, the use of instructions does not guarantee the correct and proper completion of the maintenance activities as the instructions may be erroneous and/or maintenance personnel can misunderstand, misinterpret, or improperly follow the procedures outlined. Resulting maintenance errors can potentially result in aircraft accidents, as illustrated by Air Midwest Flight 5481. With the purpose of understanding how human factors associated with written …

Competency-Based Education: A Framework For A More Efficient And Safer Aviation Industry, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Julius Keller, Brian G. Dillman

Publications

Aircraft design and reliability as well as pilots’ education and training have steadily and significantly improved in the last 20 years. Nevertheless, high-profile accidents still occur, even when the aircraft and related systems are operating adequately. Controlled flight into terrain, runway incursion accidents, and loss of control in flight are examples of mishaps in which inadequate decision-making, poor leadership, and ineffective communication are frequently cited as contributing factors. Conversely, the investigation of accidents (e.g., US Airways Flight 1549, in the U.S. on Jan. 15, 2009) and serious incidents (e.g., TAM Linhas Aereas Flight 3756 in Brazil on June 17, 2011) …

High Wind Alerts: A System Created With Observations From The X-Band Teaching And Research Radar, Lauren Warner

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Following the August 13, 2011, Indiana State Fair stage collapse tragedy, caused by a wind gust from an approaching thunderstorm, Purdue University enforced a wind speed restriction of 30 mph (13 m s-1) for tents at outdoor events. During these events, volunteers stand outside with handheld anemometers, measuring and reporting when the wind speeds exceed this limit. In this study, we report testing of a new system to automate high-wind alerts based on observations from a Doppler radar, the X-band Teaching and Research Radar (XTRRA), near Purdue’s campus. XTRRA scans over campus at low elevations approximately every 5 minutes. Using …

Brave New World - Connectivity, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

The trifecta of globalization, urbanization and digitization have created new opportunities and challenges across our nation, cities, boroughs and urban centers. Cities are in a unique position at the center of commerce and technology becoming hubs for innovation and practical application of emerging technology. In this rapidly changing 24/7 digitized world, city governments worldwide are leveraging innovation and technology to become more effective, efficient, transparent and to be able to better plan for and anticipate the needs of its citizens, businesses and community organizations. This class will provide the framework for how cities and communities can become smarter and more …

Making Engineers: An Ethnography Of Undergraduate Engineering Students In A Project-Based Program, Bethany Popelish

Masters Theses, 2020-current

In a project-focused engineering program, undergraduate students are taught engineering skills through the ‘bike project’ in which students work as teams to design and fabricate a human-powered vehicle for a member of the community whose disabilities make riding a traditional bicycle prohibitive. To understand the learning that happens in the course of this project, the researcher conducted a 20-month ethnography of the engineering program, focusing on the sophomore students’ organizational experiences. As a participant observer, the researcher went to classes with the students, participated in trainings, and observed them through each stage of their project. Ethnographic observations were collected as …

Team Creation Methods In Practice: Understanding The Potential Effects Of Nonverbal Communication In The Leadership Of Team Formation, Troy Allen Robertson

Dissertations

Teams require leadership, even if they are self-managed. The group of individuals who make up a team must be gathered in some form or another. For self managed teams to function successfully, the first step is the process of creating the team. Many aspects may factor into the creation process. Often time is of the essence and methods to quickly assess and form teams show merit. First impressions in general are based largely on nonverbal communication. The focus of this mixed-methods concurrent embedded study is to analyze the potential effects of nonverbal communication on influencing team creation. A group of …

Rezistance: Diné Grassroots Organization And Modes Of Activism, Eric Robert Dougherty

Senior Projects Spring 2020

This ethnography looks at themes of Indigeneity and activism as it exists in the everyday realities of young people living in or around the Navajo reservation in the southwest United States. Through work-related projects of hogan construction, land reclamation, watershed management, and language restoration Navajo youth are given opportunities to take control of their present circumstances and imagine a different future for themselves and their families. Besides work, youth and activism are constituted through other mediums and spaces that allow people to express who they are, what they care about, and why these things are important to them. The consistent …

Cyber Metaphors And Cyber Goals: Lessons From “Flatland”, Pierre Trepagnier

Military Cyber Affairs

Reasoning about complex and abstract ideas is greatly influenced by the choice of metaphors through which they are represented. In this paper we consider the framing effect in military doctrine of considering cyberspace as a domain of action, parallel to the traditional domains of land, sea, air, and space. By means of the well-known Victorian science-fiction novella Flatland, we offer a critique of this dominant cyber metaphor. In Flatland, the problems of lower-dimensional beings comprehending additional dimensions are explored at some length. Inspired by Flatland, our suggested alternate metaphor for cyber is an additional (fourth) dimension. We …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Ua66/1/1 Spring "New"Sletter, Issue 16, Wku Ogden College Of Science & Engineering

WKU Archives Records

Newsletter created by and about WKU Ogden College of Science & Engineering.

Using Conversation Analysis In Data-Driven Aviation Training With Large-Scale Qualitative Datasets, William A. Tuccio Ph.D., Maurice Nevile Ph.D.

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

This paper contributes to a growing body of work related to the Conversation Analytic Role-play Method (CARM) by studying the primary flight instruction environment to create training interventions related to radio communications and flight instruction practices. Framed in the context of conversation analysis, an approach to the detailed analysis of naturally occurring interaction, the large-scale, long-duration qualitative audio/video data collection and coding methodology is discussed, followed by trends identified in the ongoing study. The concept of CARM “trainables” are discussed with examples. The study shows that large-scale qualitative datasets may be leveraged to produce valuable data-driven training interventions.

Engineering Students Recognized By International Society, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

Cedarville University’s solar boat racing team, which has won nine world solar splash titles, hopes to build its next boat so that it will “fly on water.”

Leading this effort for Cedarville are former solar boat team members Elijah Thompson and Caleb Jacobson, both 2016 mechanical engineering graduates. They and four other engineering students submitted a 20-page technical article introducing their recent breakthrough in hydrofoil design to the International Hydrofoil Society. Their work netted them an honorable mention on their website and a $1,000 prize.

The Tornado That Struck Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University On Christmas Day, 2006: Lessons Learned From A Near-Miss, John M. Lanicci

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

An F2 tornado that touched down in Daytona Beach on Christmas Day afternoon caused over $50 million of damage to the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus and nearby neighborhoods. The tornado was part of a severe-weather outbreak over Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina that began during the overnight hours of 25 December 2006. Examination of surface and upper-level meteorological charts and vertical soundings on the morning of 25 December showed stability and wind-shear conditions favorable for tornadic thunderstorms over this region. The evolution of the squall line that moved through east-central Florida, and the parent thunderstorm that produced the tornado was …

The Future Of Farming In Capable And Small Hands: The Young Farmer’S Movement In Waterloo Region 1907-1924, Morgan Williams

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Semantic Shift To Pragmatic Meaning In Shared Decision Making: Situation Theory Perspective, M. Canan, A. Sousa-Poza, S. F. Kovacic

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The way humans establish communication depends on the generation and conveyance of meaning. Linguistically, meaning in information is dependent on the meaning that is ascribed to signifiers in the context of the communication. These signifiers can include items such as words, phrases, signs, and symbols. Conveyance of meaning may, however, imprecise and prone to error. The meaning of information in communication may arise from a change in the context in which a signifier is placed (intrinsic), or a change in the paradigm with which the signifier and context are perceived (extrinsic). In simple situations, where paradigms are reconcilable, semantic shift …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Roboboat Team Earned Judge’S Award In International Competition, Beth Ford

News Releases

For the fourth consecutive year, Cedarville University’s robotics team competed in the International Roboboat Competition in Virginia Beach and came away with an award. The June 8-13 competition featured boats that performed various water maneuvers. Cedarville's team was awarded the “Biggest Bang for the Buck” honor for its accomplishments as a smaller team on a limited budget.

Engineering competitions challenge the students to think more critically and initiate excitement for technology, science, engineering, and mathematics. Cedarville competed against Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Villanova University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and many other nationally recognized engineering schools.

Cedarville Robotic Team Wins Second Consecutive Championship, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

For the second consecutive year, a team of Cedarville University engineering students won the American Society of Engineering Education’s (ASEE) Autonomous Robotics competition. The event was held in Indianapolis.

The annual competition is open to freshmen and sophomore engineering students. Each team is required to build and program a robot that completes a task, which is selected to be specific to the host city. This year teams had to race their robots around a miniature track in honor of the Indianapolis 500. For last year’s competition in Atlanta, robots were required to collect orange golf balls in honor of Georgia …

Building Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Is Goal Of Cedarville Engineers, Josiah Clemons

News Releases

Racing in supermileage car competitions has been the norm at Cedarville Univesity since 1991. In these competitions, first with SAE (1991-2010) and now with Shell (since 2007), the teams of Cedarville engineering students have gained practical learning knowledge while winning awards in the process.

Navigating Pregnancy And Parenthood: Work-Family Considerations For Men And Women Graduate Students In Stem And Other Disciplines, Ziyu Long, Patrice M. Buzzanell, Abigail Selzer King

ADVANCE-Purdue Gender and STEM Research Symposium

Scholars and non-academicians consider popular key advantages to be flexibility in career trajectories as well as autonomy and control over one’s schedule and the work that one chooses to do (e.g., Buzzanell & Lucas, 2006, 2013). Although academic careers seem to offer these benefits, there are questions about whether and how such flexibility actually occurs, particularly in times of pregnancy/adoption, family leave, and work-life “balance” (e.g., Stone, 2008). Implicit in academic flexibility is that graduate student careers might evidence some of the same flexibility but within institutional structures that can range from lockstep to a build-you-own-plan and timetable model. In …

Wooden Bikes Present Capstone Challenge For Engineering Students, Jenni Hodges

News Releases

Four Cedarville seniors are building and testing wooden bicycles for a capstone engineering project. Team leader Jake Miller said the project offers a unique opportunity for students to connect their interests in engineering, woodworking and cycling.

Dual Operation Human-Machine Interface, Petr Krupansky, Jiri Vasek, Claudia Keinrath, Michael C. Dorneich, Larry Ball

Michael C. Dorneich

The paper describes a Dual Operation concept and one example of its design. The amount of information the pilot must process, already high in current Air Traffic Management (ATM) operation, will increase dramatically in the envisioned future ATM environment. New pilot functions will require new levels of automation. Thus cockpit displays must be modified in order to facilitate the pilot's future tasks and to manage the increased information available. One approach to these challenges is to adaptively modify the displays depending on current pilot tasks and situation. Simply adding functionality to current day displays has the potential to reach an …

Integrated Data Link Concept - An Adaptive System Facilitating Controller Pilot Data Link Communication, Michael C. Dorneich, Jiri Vasek, Claudia Keinrath, Petr Krupansky, Bretislav Passinger, Stephen Whitlow, Chris Hamblin

Michael C. Dorneich

An adaptive system to address workload issues due to the migration towards datalink communications in future flight decks is presented in this paper. Air traffic in Europe is expected to more than double by 2020. New technologies being proposed will significantly add to pilot roles and responsibilities, and has the potential to add further periods of high workload to pilot operations. The CAMMI (Cognitive Adaptive Man Machine Interface) program addresses human factors priorities in the aviation domain by developing concepts that balance operator workload, support added future operator roles and responsibilities and resulting new task and information requirements, while allowing …

The Role Of Conflict Management On Virtual Team Performance And Satisfaction, Pilar Pazos, Anil Ustun, Rolando Delaguila

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The role that input factors from project planning processes play on conflict emergence and conflict resolution in virtual teams is not well understood. Of particular interest for this paper is the role that factors during planning stages play in preventing interpersonal conflict, supporting conflict resolution and ultimately enhancing team outcomes in virtual team settings. This study examines the relationships among commitment to team goals, conflict management and team outcomes in virtual teams. First we provide an in depth review of relevant empirical findings. Next, we describe a study examining the relationships between three sets of variables: 1) goal commitment, 2) …

Hybrid Rationale For Shared Understanding, David Mott, Cheryl Giammanco, Michael C. Dorneich, Dave Braines

Michael C. Dorneich

Understanding the reasoning of others is a key aspect to achieving a shared understanding when collaboratively solving a problem, such as the generation of a plan, and recent observations of military planners suggest that it plays a key role in the planning process. An example of rationale is described where a misunderstanding is only resolved by the joint exploration and cross-challenging of the rationale. A prototype tool is described that permits the creation and visualization of the basic rationale via the use of Controlled English (CE). Using the example, the paper explores mechanisms that could potentially make more effective use …

Making Plans Alive, Jitu Pater, Michael C. Dorneich, David Mott, Ali Bahrami, Cheryl Giammanco

Michael C. Dorneich

Over the years, researchers have expended considerable effort in attempts to improve military planning, most notably via the provision of automated planning support tools. While there have been some successes (e.g. the DART system which was used for movement planning during Gulf war), planning still remains a very human‐orientated activity with little technical support. Why? A possible reason for this predicament is that researchers have not fully conceptualized the problem that planners face. For instance, a common approach has been to consider planning as a single process or a homogenous set of problems to be solved. Unfortunately, military planning is …

Manifest Greatness The Final Original Version By Emmanuel Mario B Santos Aka Marc Guerrero, Emmanuel Mario B. Santos Aka Marc Guerrero

Emmanuel Mario B Santos aka Marc Guerrero

MANIFEST GREATNESS vf24jan2010 WE COME TOGETHER THERE OUGHT TO BE NO POOR WE TAKE CHARGE.