Engineering Commons^™

The Core Of Social Network Modeling: Industrial Engineering., Shannon C. Roberts, Chaitra Gopalappa, Nazanin Nazanin

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

Networks are abound in our everyday lives, from disaster response networks to cellular networks to social networks. In this workshop, we will introduce the different types of networks and how Industrial Engineering is used to model these networks. Next, we will describe current social network modeling research done at UMass. Finally, we will delve into hands-on activities that include social network analysis, such as the clustering of people into groups, and modeling of the spread of ideas in a social network, such as how tweets spread on Twitter.

The Analysis And Deployment Of A Fully Open Monitoring System In The Sri Lankan Deduroya Basin: The 4onse Project, Massimiliano Cannata, Daniele Strigaro, Imran Shahid, Rangajeewa Ratnayake, B.H. Sudantha

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

The 4onse project studies non-conventional monitoring systems fully based on open technologies (hardware, standard protocols, software and data) for the management of resources and natural hazards in developing countries. After the design of hydro-meteorological stations and software for the collection, management and distribution of data, the study involves the installation of 30 stations in the Deduroya Oya river basin in Sri Lanka. The system will be analysed to fully understand the real cost of ownership, data quality and applicability in real situations. If properly validated, these systems can provide an alternative solution, effective and sustainable for the protection of property ...

Ndvi And Lst Extraction Of Modis Data Under A Gis Open Source Application - Rickettsia Study Case In Angola, Ana Cláudia Teodoro, Lia Duarte, Patrícia Barradas, T. L. Mateus, Zoraima Neto

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

Fevers of unknown origin can have different aetiologies. The overlapping symptomatology of rickettsial infection and other endemic diseases that cause fever leads to a misdiagnosis or under-diagnosis of spotted fever group of Rickettsia (SFGR).

To better understand the epidemiology of this vector-borne disease in Angola, a comprehensive seroprevalence study was conducted investigating the exposure to SFGR in a sample of 92 febrile, Malaria and Yellow Fever negative human plasma specimen, collected to the study of the national surveillance of febrile syndromes between 2016 and 2017, in Angola.

The seroprevalence of IgG antibodies against SFG Rickettsia in humans was calculated by ...

Crowdsourcing The Georeferencing Of Historical Pictures, Timothée Produit, Nicolas Blanc, Sarah Composto, Jens Ingensand, Loic Furhoff

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

Countless organizations own archive pictures which are not used due to the difficulty of localizing them. Only the participation of volunteers can help to identify the image content. Through an accessible web interface called smapshot, citizens are able to georeference historical images without any prior specific competence. To avoid the volunteers to face the complexity of 3D digitization and navigation, we implemented a state of the art photogrammetry camera orientation algorithm in the platform. Currently several thousand images from all around Switzerland have been georeferenced by the crowd. At this time the tool is mainly used by the population for ...

Istsos Version 3, Cannata Massimiliano, Milan Antonovic, Daniele Strigaro, Mirko Cardoso

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

istSOS version 3 is a new full stack open source application framework that, implementing the Sensor Observation Service standard from the OGC and including some special features, offers the capability to manage and disseminate observation from sensors networks. istSOS3 has been redesigned with the mission to solve the problems of high loads environments and quality of service. After some recent researches that have shown that istSOS version 2 is not adequate to meet high demanding environment in terms of high concurrency, big data and performance, istSOS version 3 has been rewritten from ground up taking advantages from the latest technologies ...

Robust Railroad Cable Detection In Rural Areas From Mls Point Clouds, Máté Cserép, Péter Hudoba, Zoltán Vincellér

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

Monitoring of the railroad infrastructure is crucial for safety concerns and accident prevention. This task requires regular surveillance which is nowadays still carried out by expensive and time consuming manual visual inspections in many countries. The problem of railroad cable recognition (contact cables, catenary cables, return current cables) in rural areas based on LiDAR point clouds has it own methods, but current state of the art solutions suffer from extremely high computational load due the extensive size of the datasets. In this study we analyzed and compared novel robust solutions focusing on minimizing the assumptions (positions and distances of track ...

Seasonal Impacts Of Climate Change On Future Peak River Discharge In The U.S. Northeast, Christina Wu

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

This research uses projected changes in future precipitation to calculate the changes in the magnitude, frequency, and timing of streamflow, particularly peak annual flows, in the U.S. Northeast through 20 representative watersheds. Temperature and precipitation data on a 3-hourly time step from five climate projection from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) are downscaled and bias- corrected using the Spatial Downscaling and Bias Correction (SDBC) method. These data are used to force a regional hydrological model (WRF-Hydro) to estimate daily future streamflow. The changes in magnitude at various return intervals of peak flow events are determined ...

Formation Of Low-Molecular-Weight Dissolved Organic Nitrogen In Two-Stage And Four-Stage Pre-Denitrification Biological Nutrient Removal Processes, Siwei Chen

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

To alleviate the eutrophication caused by excessive loading of nutrients, the upgrading of conventional activated sludge (CAS) process to biological nutrients removal (BNR) process has been widely applied in USA. In this study, we found that the dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) release can be effectively controlled by this upgrading, but dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) especially LMW-DON, which now is regarded as another important N source for supporting growth of phytoplankton in coastal water, cannot be removed effectively by BNR systems, especially by four-stage BNR systems. Different pre-denitrification BNR processes have different LMW-DON production rates. A four-stage pre-denitrification BNR releases more ...

Development Of Application Software For Water System Data Management, Visualization, And Analysis With The Shiny Framework, Nicholas Zinck

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

A comprehensive watershed protection plan includes the collection of water quality, meteorological, and hydrological data. Large amounts of data can be difficult to manage if proper systems are not put in place for data management. Poor data management can be detrimental and may result in data loss, poor quality data, or underutilized data due to the lack of an efficient process of querying, visualizing, and analyzing data. Database software is a great solution to store and organize large datasets, yet database software often lack data visualization and analysis tools. Commonly, databases are paired with an outside application specialized for data ...

Application Of Ce-Qual-W2: Wachusett Reservoir Contaminant Spill Modeling, William Yan

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

This research was done to investigate the fate and transport of a simulated contaminant spill into Wachusett Reservoir using the CE-QUAL-W2 model. The reservoir is located in central Massachusetts (north east of Worcester) and was first filled in 1908. The Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) uses the reservoir as a primary source of drinking water for the metropolitan Boston area. The 65-billion-gallon reservoir is replenished by 9 tributaries and also supplemented by the transfer of water from Quabbin Reservoir (412 billion-gallon capacity) through the Quabbin Aqueduct. This transfer is used to meet system water demands, manage the water surface elevation ...

Factors Impacting The Cultivation, Structure, And Oxygen Profiles Of Oxygenic Photogranules For Aeration-Free Wastewater Treatment, Megan Hann

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Oxygenic photogranules (OPGs) are novel biogranules which have successfully treated wastewater without external aeration at the bench scale. The formation of OPGs under both static and hydrodynamic conditions is a unique phenomenon which has no known counterpart. This report examines some of the granulation mechanisms and structural and functional differences between statically and hydrodynamically cultivated OPGs. As previously reported, filamentous cyanobacteria are an essential component of both types of OPGs. The addition of Oscillatoria in augmented activated sludge inoculum showed successful static OPG formation in a shorter time (28 vs 35 days) and produced more settled OPGs than native sludge ...

Determination Of The Rate Constant For Reaction Of Ozone With 1-Hexene In Water, Pranav Mashankar

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

Low molecular weight aldehydes such as formaldehyde may be formed as disinfection byproducts (DBPs) of ozonation when low molecular weight, aliphatic, alpha olefins are present as contaminants in water. Such alkenes form a small but significant part of crude oil, and would therefore be present in water contaminated with an oil spill. This project studied the kinetics of the reaction between ozone and 1-hexene in water as part of a study to predict the effects of an oil spill on the water quality in the Wachusett reservoir in Massachusetts. The data for the reaction rate constant for the aqueous ozonolysis ...

The Construction Of Open Data Portal Using Dkan For Integrate To Multiple Japanese Local Government Open Data, Toshikazu Seto, Yoshihide Sekimoto

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

In recent years, the Code for Japan, a civic tech community in Japan, has focused on the context of the FOSS4G. Consequently, the Japanese have published open data in more than 150 local governments, but these data are almost simply provided as a file on their website. And also CKAN portal are used less than 20 cities. In this study, we built open data platform that uses DKAN for integrated open data distribution of Japanese local governments.

Effect Of Substrate Roughness, Slope, And Body Size On Climbing Behavior And Performance Of Juvenile American Eels (Anguilla Rostrata), Zahra Anwar

Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Masters Projects

The effect of ramp slope and substrate grain size on the passage of juvenile American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) over indoor ramps was tested from May – August 2016. Two size classes of fish (300 glass eels 50 – 70 mm and 300 elvers 90-114 mm), five substrates varying in coarseness (Substrate 1: 0.18-0.25 mm grain size, Substrate 2: 0.25-0.60 mm grain size,

Substrate 3; 0.60-1.00 mm grain size, Substrate 4: 1.00 – 2.00 mm grain size, Substrate 5: 2.00-

4.00 mm grain size), and three ramp slopes (25, 35 and 45 degrees) were ...

A Safety And Emissions Analysis Of Continuous Flow Intersections, Joshua Wolfgram

Transportation Engineering Masters Projects

Increasing travel demand, and challenges associated with high percentages of left-turning vehicles, have encouraged the introduction of significant infrastructure advancements. Certain alternative intersection designs, such as continuous flow intersections, median U-turns, and jughandles, eliminate the traditional protected left-turn, increasing the intersection's optional efficiency. While the design and operations of these intersection types have been studied to varying degrees, their safety and emissions-related impacts are not well-understood.

This project develops a series of microsimulation models for two continuous flow intersections (CFI) located in Missouri and Colorado, and uses the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) to determine the impact of those ...

Design For Sustainability Through A Life Cycle Assessment Conceptual Framework Integrated Within Product Lifecycle Management, Renpeng Zou

Masters Theses

The need to include sustainable design principles during product realization poses several challenges in need of research. The demand for greener products has increased while competition has shortened product realization processes. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) provides solutions in accelerating the development process and time to market by managing the information through a full life cycle of a product line. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides a way to predict the environmental impacts that should be expected over the complete life cycle of a given product, but LCA methods are not well suited to efficient comparison of product alternatives during early design ...

All-Red Clearance Intervals For Use In The Left-Turn Application Of Flashing Yellow Arrows, Francis Tainter

Masters Theses

With the advancement of implementation for a novel traffic control device, the Flashing Yellow Arrow (FYA), agencies across the country have continually sought strategies to improve intersection operations and safety, specifically with respect to the left-turn application. More so, permissive left-turn intervals have been communicated to drivers using several traffic signal indications; however, most frequently these phases are represented through the circular green (CG) ball and more recently, the FYA. Previous research in this area determined that the FYA indication produced the most effective communication of permissive left-turns. Further, this previous research led to the inclusion of the FYA in ...

Syllabus: Drinking Water, Sanitation, And Global Development, Emily Kumpel

Sustainability Education Resources

Within the past three decades, more than 2.6 billion people have gained access to an improved water source and 2.1 billion have gained access to an improved sanitation facility. However, improved does not always mean people have safe, reliable, accessible, or equitable water and sanitation services. Waterborne diseases continue to cause and estimated 500,000 deaths each year. What causes waterborne diseases, and what is the role of engineered systems in their spread or prevention? How can we evaluate interventions to improve health and well-being? How can research address these challenges?

Zero-Emission Transit Bus And Refueling Technologies And Deployment Status: A Review Across U.S. Transit Agencies, Aikaterini Deliali

Transportation Engineering Masters Projects

Globally there have been considerable efforts of decarbonizing the transportation sector, as it has been found to be largely responsible for greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. One strategy to achieving this is the implementation of zero-emission buses in transit fleets. This paper summarizes the characteristics of three zero-emission bus technologies: 1) battery electric buses; 2) fuel cell battery electric buses; and 3) fuel cell plug-in hybrid electric buses. All of these technologies do not produce tailpipe emission and can potentially be emission-free in a well-to-wheel content, depending on the fuel source. This study aims in gathering the needed information ...

Applications Of Physical Unclonable Functions On Asics And Fpgas, Mohammad Usmani

Masters Theses

With the ever-increasing demand for security in embedded systems and wireless sensor networks, we require integrating security primitives for authentication in these devices. One such primitive is known as a Physically Unclonable Function. This entity can be used to provide security at a low cost, as the key or digital signature can be generated by dedicating a small part of the silicon die to these primitives which produces a fingerprint unique to each device. This fingerprint produced by a PUF is called its response. The response of PUFs depends upon the process variation that occurs during the manufacturing process. In ...

Streamwise Flow-Induced Oscillations Of Bluff Bodies - The Influence Of Symmetry Breaking, Tyler Gurian

Masters Theses

The influence of symmetry breaking on the flow induced oscillations of bluff bodies in the steamwise direction is studied. First, a series of experiments is conducted on a one-degree-of-freedom circular cylinder allowed to exhibit pure translational motion in the streamwise direction over a range of reduced velocities, 1.4 < U* < 4.4, corresponding to a Reynolds number range of 970 < Re < 3370. Two distinct regions of displacements were observed in reduced velocity ranges of 1.6 < U* < 2.5 and 2.75 < U* < 3.85. Measured force coefficients in the drag and lift direction were examined, along with the wake visualization, through the range of reduced velocities, to infer the resulting wake modes. A new Alternating Symmetric (AS) mode was found. This transition from symmetric to AS shedding occurred near the end of the first region of response. Similar tests were run with a square prism in the parameter space of 2.4 < U* < 5.8 and 757 < Re < 1900 over angles of incidence of 0° ≤ α ≤ 45°. A distinct region of lock-in is observed for α = 0°, 2.5°, 5°, 7.5° over 3.2 < U* < 5.4 for α = 0°, and decreasing with increasing α. The wake structures were found to be roughly symmetric for α = 0°, but transitioned towards asymmetry with ...

Reward Allocation For Maximizing Energy Savings In A Transportation System, Adewale O. Oduwole

Masters Theses

Transportation has a major impact on our society and environment, contributing 70% of U.S petroleum use, 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, over 34,000 fatalities and 2.2 million injuries in 2013. Punitive approaches to used to tackle environmental issues in the transportation sector, such as congestion pricing have been well documented, although the use of incentives or rewards lags behind in comparison. In addition to the use of more fuel-efficient, alternate energy vehicles and various other energy reduction strategies; energy consumption can be lowered through incentivizing alternative modes of transportation. This paper focused on modifying ...

Improvements To The Umass S-Band Fm-Cw Vertical Wind Profiling Radar: System Performance And Data Analysis., Joseph Waldinger

Masters Theses

Upgrades to the University of Massachusetts S-Band FMCW boundary layer vertical wind profiling radar for use in the VORTEX-Southeast campaign are discussed. During the experiment, the radar characterizes velocity and reflectivity in clear-air and light to moderate precipitation conditions. Data is presented from the experiment which illustrates system performance and typical environmental results. This thesis begins with relevant background information on FM-CW radar operation, scattering mechanisms, and other calculations relevant to results discussed. The system hardware is described, along with improvements and modifications made prior to and during the experiment. Collected data is used to demonstrate system capabilities, improvements made ...

Electroplating Of Copper On Tungsten Powder, Richard Berdos

Masters Theses

Strengthening, resistant and shielding properties, to name a few, can be achieved by implementing a surface material coating onto an engineering component. Various elements of these compounded parts can augment the functionality of the part, such as, increased life time and more interactive surfaces. Tungsten has proven to be a challenge to plate with other metals, but if done correctly, the results can allow for the cold spray of tungsten. Cold spraying tungsten particles alone provides a challenge because the powder is too hard and instead of adhering, it erodes the surface it is attempting to plate. Coating tungsten in ...

A Numerical Flutter Predictor For 3d Airfoils Using The Onera Dynamic Stall Model, Pieter Boersma

Masters Theses

To be able to harness more power from the wind, wind turbine blades are getting longer. As they get longer, they get more flexible. This creates issues that have until recently not been of concern. Long flexible wind turbine blades can lose their stability to flow induced instabilities such as coupled-mode flutter. This type of flutter occurs when increasing wind speed causes a coupling of a bending and a torsional mode, which create limit cycle oscillations that can lead to blade failure. To be able to make the design of larger blades possible, it is important to be able to ...

Skinnysensor: Enabling Battery-Less Wearable Sensors Via Intrabody Power Transfer, Neev Kiran

Masters Theses

Tremendousadvancement inultra-low powerelectronics and radiocommunica tionshas significantly contributed towards the fabrication of miniaturized biomedical sensors capable of capturing physiological data and transmitting them wirelessly. However, most of the wearable sensors require a battery for their operation. The battery serves as one of the critical bottlenecks to the development of novel wearable applications, as the limitations offered by batteries are affecting the development of new form-factors and longevity of wearable devices. In this work, we introduce a novel concept, namely Intra-Body Power Transfer (IBPT), to alleviate the limitations and problems associated with batteries, and enable wireless, batteryless wearable devices. The innovation ...

On-Chip Communication And Security In Fpgas, Shivukumar Basanagouda Patil

Masters Theses

Innovations in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) manufacturing processes and architectural design have led to the development of extremely large FPGAs. There has also been a widespread adaptation of these large FPGAs in cloud infrastructures and data centers to accelerate search and machine learning applications. Two important topics related to FPGAs are addressed in this work: on-chip communication and security. On-chip communication is quickly becoming a bottleneck in to- day’s large multi-million gate FPGAs. Hard Networks-on-Chip (NoC), made of fixed silicon, have been shown to provide low power, high speed, flexible on-chip communication. An iterative algorithm for routing pre-scheduled ...

Thermal Radiation Measurement And Development Of Tunable Plasmonic Thermal Emitter Using Strain-Induced Buckling In Metallic Layers, Amir Kazemi-Moridani

Masters Theses

An infrared radiometry setup has been developed based on a commercially available FTIR spectrometer for measuring mid-infrared thermal radiation. The setup was calibrated with a lab-built blackbody source. The setup was tested with a grating structure with 4-micron periodicity. Periodic microstructures using nickel and gold are fabricated on elastomeric substrates by use of strain-induced buckling of the nickel layer. The intrinsically low emissivity of gold in the mid-infrared regime is selectively enhanced by the surface plasmonic resonance at three different mid-infrared wavelengths, 4.5 µm, 6.3 µm, and 9.4 µm. As the thermal emission enhancement effect exists only ...

Impact Of Perceptual Speed Calming Curve Countermeasures On Drivers’ Anticipation & Mitigation Ability – A Driving Simulator Study, Krishna Valluru

Masters Theses

A potential factor for curve accidents are anticipatory skills. Horizontal curves have been recognized as a significant safety issue for many years. This study investigates the impact and effectiveness of three curve based perceptual speed calming countermeasures (advanced curve warning signs, chevron sign, and heads-up display(HUD) sign) on drivers’ hazard anticipation and mitigation behavior across both left and right-winding curves, and sharp (radius 200m) and flat (radius 500m) curves. Experimental results show that the speed and lateral control in the horizontal curves differed with respect to curve radii, direction, and the type of countermeasure presented. These differences in behavior ...

Evaluation And Validation Of Distraction Detection Algorithms On Multiple Data Sources, Shashank Mehrotra

Masters Theses

This study aims to evaluate algorithms designed to detect distracted driving. This includes the comparison of how efficiently they detect the state of distraction and likelihood of a crash. Four algorithms that utilize measures of cumulative glance, past glance behavior, and glance eccentricity were used to understand the distracted state of the driver and were validated on two separate data sources (i.e., simulator and naturalistic data). Additionally, an independent method for distraction detection was designed using data mining methods. This approach utilized measures like steering degree, lane offset, lateral and longitudinal velocity, and acceleration. The results showed a higher ...