Engineering Commons^™

A Characterization Of Undersea Neutron And Capture Gamma Signatures Resulting From Special Nuclear Material On A Maritime Vessel, Elizabeth Troy

Purdue Workshop on Nonproliferation: Technology and Approaches

Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) located aboard ships emit radiation that may be detectable in the undersea environment. An Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) could be equipped with detection capabilities to determine whether commercial or private vessels are carrying SNM prior to reaching port. Additional research is needed improve such a UUV’s ability to detect and discriminate between types of SNM and reduce false- positive detections. This research builds on past work by C. T. McKay to provide a higher fidelity characterization of detectable radiation signatures from SNM in the undersea environment with a focus on plutonium-bearing SNM. 252Cf will be used …

A Theoretical Model Of Underground Dipole Antennas For Communications In Internet Of Underground Things, Abdul Salam, Mehmet C. Vuran, Xin Dong, Christos Argyropoulos, Suat Irmak

Faculty Publications

The realization of Internet of Underground Things (IOUT) relies on the establishment of reliable communication links, where the antenna becomes a major design component due to the significant impacts of soil. In this paper, a theoretical model is developed to capture the impacts of change of soil moisture on the return loss, resonant frequency, and bandwidth of a buried dipole antenna. Experiments are conducted in silty clay loam, sandy, and silt loam soil, to characterize the effects of soil, in an indoor testbed and field testbeds. It is shown that at subsurface burial depths (0.1-0.4m), change in soil moisture impacts …

Improving Human-Machine Collaboration Through Transparency-Based Feedback – Part I: Human Trust And Workload Model, Kumar Akash, Katelyn Polson, Neera Jain

School of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we establish a partially observable Markov decision process(POMDP) model framework that captures dynamic changes in human trust and workload for contexts that involve interactions between humans and intelligent decision-aid systems. We use a reconnaissance mission study to elicit a dynamic change in human trust and workload with respect to the system’s reliability and user interface transparency as well as the presence or absence of danger. We use human subject data to estimate transition and observation probabilities of the POMDP model and analyze the trust-workload behavior of humans. Our results indicate that higher transparency is more likely to …

Improving Human-Machine Collaboration Through Transparency-Based Feedback – Part Ii: Control Design And Synthesis, Kumar Akash, Tahira Reid, Neera Jain

School of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

To attain improved human-machine collaboration, it is necessary for autonomous systems to infer human trust and workload and respond accordingly. In turn, autonomous systems require models that capture both human trust and workload dynamics. In a companion paper, we developed a trust-workload partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) model framework that captured changes in human trust and workload for contexts that involve interaction between a human and an intelligent decision-aid system. In this paper, we defne intuitive reward functions and show that these can be readily transformed for integration with the proposed POMDP model. We synthesize a near-optimal control policy …

Water Resources In Indiana: Past, Present And Future, Keith A. Cherkauer

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Conference Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Disciplinary Learning From An Authentic Engineering Context, Catherine Langman, Judith Zawojewski, Patricia Mcnicholas, Ali Cinar, Eric Brey, Mustafa Bilgic, Hamidreza Mehdizadeh

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This small-scale design study describes disciplinary learning in mathematical modeling and science from an authentic engineeringthemed module. Current research in tissue engineering served as source material for the module, including science content for readings and a mathematical modeling activity in which students work in small teams to design a model in response to a problem from a client. The design of the module was guided by well-established principles of model-eliciting activities (a special class of problem-solving activities deeply studied in mathematics education) and recently published implementation design principles, which emphasize the portability of model-eliciting activities to many classroom settings.

Two …

Effect Of Salt Valency And Concentration On Shear And Extensional Rheology Of Aqueous Polyelectrolyte Solutions For Enhanced Oil Recovery, Anna V. Walter, Leidy N. Jimenez, Jelena Dinic, Vivek Sharma, Kendra Erk

School of Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

The injection of polymer solutions into an oil basin can lead to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by increasing the microscopic sweep of the reservoir, improving the water-oil motility ratio, and thus leading to greater yield from oil fields. In this contribution, we characterize both shear and extensional rheological response of aqueous solutions of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM), the most commonly used polymer for EOR, for velocity gradients in both the flow direction (extensional) and perpendicular to flow (shear) arise in EOR applications. As HPAM is a charged polymer, to better emulate the environment in oil basins, the rheological response was …

Limitations Of Zt As A Figure Of Merit For Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials, Xufeng Wang, Mark Lundstrom

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Thermoelectric properties of nanocomposites are numerically studied as a function of average grain size or nanoparticle density by simulating the measurements as they would be done experimentally. In accordance with previous theoretical and experimental results, we find that the Seebeck coefficient, power factor and figure of merit, zT, can be increased by nanostructuring when energy barriers exist around the grain boundaries or embedded nanoparticles. When we simulate the performance of a thermoelectric cooler with the same material, however, we find that the maximum temperature difference is much less than expected from the given zT. This occurs because the …

Board 51: An Initial Step Towards Measuring First-Generation College Students’ Personal Agency: A Scale Validation, Dina Verdín, Allison Godwin

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

This research paper describes the development of a scale to measure how first-generation college students use engineering as a tool for making a difference in their community and world or personal agency. Personal agency is a capability that every individual holds; it is described by Bandura as an individual’s beliefs about their capabilities to exercise control over events that affect their lives through purposeful and reflective actions. Agentic actions allow students to explore, maneuver and impact their environment for the achievement of a goal or set of goals. This study identifies how cognitive processes of forethought, intention, reactivity, and reflection …

Eager: Broadening Participation Of First-Generation College Student, Jessica M. Smith, Dina Verdín, Juan C. Lucena

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

No abstract provided.

Internet Of Things In Smart Agriculture: Enabling Technologies, Abdul Salam, Syed Shah

Faculty Publications

In this paper, an IoT technology research and innovation roadmap for the field of precision agriculture (PA) is presented. Many recent practical trends and the challenges have been highlighted. Some important objectives for integrated technology research and education in precision agriculture are described. Effective IoT based communications and sensing approaches to mitigate challenges in the area of precision agriculture are presented.

Recognizing Engineering Students’ Funds Of Knowledge: Creating And Validating Survey Measures, Dina Verdín, Jessica M. Smith, Juan Lucena

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

This research base paper examines students who are the first in their families to attend college. Our research seeks to understand the role students’ funds of knowledge makes in first-generation college students’ undergraduate experience. Funds of knowledge are the set of formal/informal knowledge and skills that students learn through family, friends, and communities outside of academic institutions. This paper reports funds of knowledge themes relevant to first-generation college students in engineering and the process of gathering validity evidence to support the funds of knowledge themes.

Using ethnographic and interview data, six themes emerged: connecting experiences, community networks, tinkering knowledge, perspective …