Engineering Commons^™

Systematic Review Of Driver Distraction In The Context Of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (Adas) & Automated Driving Systems (Ads), Apoorva Pramod Hungund

Masters Theses

Advanced Vehicle Systems promise improved safety and comfort for drivers. Steady advancements in technology are resulting in increasing levels of vehicle automation capabilities, furthering safety benefits. In fact, some of these vehicle automation systems are already deployed and available, but with promised benefits, such systems can potentially change driving behaviors. There is evidence that drivers have increased secondary task engagements while driving with automated vehicle systems, but there is a need for a clearer scientific understanding of any potential correlations between the use of automated vehicle systems and potentially negative driver behaviors.

Therefore, this thesis aims to understand the state …

Formally Verifiable Synthesis Flow In Fpgas, Anurag V. Muttur

Masters Theses

FPGAs are used in a wide variety of digital systems. Due to their ability to support parallelism and specialization, these devices are becoming more commonplace in fields such as machine learning. One of the biggest benefits of FPGAs, logic specialization, can lead to security risks. Prior research has shown that a large variety of malicious circuits can snoop on sensitive user data, induce circuit faults, or physically damage the FPGA. These Trojan circuits can easily be crafted and embedded in FPGA designs. Often, these Trojans are small, consume little power in comparison to the target circuit, and are hard to …

Integration Of Digital Signal Processing Block In Symbiflow Fpga Toolchain For Artix-7 Devices, Andrew T. Hartnett

Masters Theses

The open-source community is a valuable resource for many hobbyists and researchers interested in collaborating and contributing towards publicly available tools. In the area of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) this is no exception. Contributors seek to reverse-engineer the functions of large proprietary FPGA devices. An interesting challenge for open-source FPGA engineers has been reverse-engineering the operation and bitstreams of digital signal processing (DSP) blocks located in FPGAs. SymbiFlow is an open-source FPGA toolchain designed as a free alternative to proprietary computer-aided design tools like Xilinx’s Vivado. For SymbiFlow, mapping logical multipliers to DSP blocks and generating DSP block bitstreams …

Applications Of Thermal Energy Storage With Electrified Heating And Cooling, Erich Ryan

Masters Theses

With a clear correlation between climate change and rising CO₂ emissions, decarbonization has garnered serious interest in many sectors to limit the adverse effects of global warming. Heating and cooling systems have been a focus of decarbonization efforts, with heat pumps becoming more popular in the United States and abroad. In fact, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning accounts for nearly 27% of total energy use in the United States [1]. Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) utilizing borehole heat exchangers (BHE) have been shown to be an effective method of electrifying heating and cooling systems, maintaining some of the best …

Chromatographic Dynamic Chemisorption, Shreya Thakkar

Masters Theses

Reaction rates of catalytic cycles over supported metal catalysts are normalized by the exposed metal atoms on the catalyst surface, reported as site time yields which provide a rigorous standard to compare distinct metal surfaces. Defined as the fraction of exposed metal surface atoms to the total number of metal atoms, it is important to measure the dispersion of supported metal catalysts to report standardized rates for kinetic investigations. Multiple characterization techniques such as electron microscopy, spectroscopy and chemisorption are exploited for catalyst dispersion measurements. While effective, electron microscopy and spectroscopy are not readily accessible due to cost and maintenance …

Measuring Accessibility To Food Services To Improve Public Health, Efthymia Kostopoulou

Masters Theses

Food accessibility has lately been of primary interest given its impact on public health outcomes. This thesis illustrates the gaps in food access by applying spatial analysis in Massachusetts accounting for a variety of demographic and socioeconomic factors. The number of grocery stores, farmers markets, and convenience stores within 1/4 and 1 mile of the Census tracts’ centroids are the two accessibility metrics used in the spatial analysis. In addition, a regression model is developed using the Gradient Boosting machine learning method to show the relationship between the socioeconomic factors and the number of grocery stores within 1 mile of …

Theory And Analysis Of Backprojection Processing For Interferometric Sar, Marc Closa Tarres

Masters Theses

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a well-known radar technique widely used for 2D and 3D imaging since the 1960s. SAR systems offer all-weather, day and night, high-resolution imaging by using the motion of the antenna over the target of interest. By later use of signal processing techniques, the received echoes can be put back together using precise knowledge of the system location and geometry to obtain the distinct high-resolution SAR imagery.

Moreover, when the system is equipped with multiple antennas, topography and topographic changes in the region of interest can be inferred using interferometric techniques.

The Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory …

Euplectella Aspergillum’S Natural Lattice Structure For Structural Design & Stability Landscape Of Thin Cylindrical Shells With Dimple Imperfections, Zoe Y. Sloane

Masters Theses

The first portion of this thesis assesses the structural application of a bracing design inspired by the deep-sea sponge, Euplectella Aspergillum. Many studies have investigated the natural strength found in the unique skeletal structure of this species. The braced design inspired by the sponge features square frames with two sets of cross-braces that are offset from the corners of each frame, creating a pattern of open and closed cells. This study reports the results of multiple Finite Element Analysis (FEA) computations that compare the described bracing pattern to a more common bracing design used in structural design. The designs …

Application Of The New Iec International Design Standard For Offshore Wind Turbines To A Reference Site In The Massachusetts Offshore Wind Energy Area, Samuel C. Roach

Masters Theses

This thesis summarizes the simulation and analysis performed for the MassCEC project described herein. The intent was to perform a “dry run” of the new IEC offshore wind turbine design standard, IEC 61400-3-1 and to illustrate the use of that standard in the Massachusetts Offshore Wind Energy Area. IEC 61400-3-1 is a design standard used to ensure wind turbine structural performance over the design life of the machine. Each installed wind turbine must be certified by a Certified Verification Agent using this standard before installation. The certification process typically uses a structural dynamics model to predict a turbine’s structural response …

Planar Ultra-Wideband Modular Antenna (Puma) Arrays For High-Volume Manufacturing On Organic Laminates And Bga Interfaces, James R. Lacroix

Masters Theses

This work proposes wideband and broadband Planar Ultra-wideband Modular Antenna (PUMA) arrays designed to improve cost and reliability for high production volume commercial and military applications. The designs feature simplified PCB stack-ups with high dielectric constant (Dk) dimensionally stable materials to improve the manufacturing cost and yield. Additionally, the packages use ball grid array (BGA) interconnects, commonly used in digital electronics, for simple solder reflow integration with radio frequency (RF) electronics. While high Dk materials present practical manufacturing benefits, theoretical background will show how and why PUMA arrays lose frequency bandwidth and scan volume with high Dk materials. Further, a …

Controlled Codelivery Of Mir-26a And Antagomir-133a With Osteoconductive Scaffolds To Promote Healing Of Large Bone Defects, Cole J. Ferreira

Masters Theses

Often caused by trauma or tumor removal, large bone defects frequently result in delayed or non-union. The current gold standard for treatment is autograft. However, due to limitations, such as the size and location of the defect, these cannot always be utilized. A common alternative to autograft is the use of BMP-2 with a collagen scaffold, however, this treatment is limited by numerous side effects. In recent years, genetic materials such as microRNAs (miRNAs) have offered possible alternative therapies. MiRNAs are small non-coding RNA molecules that generally range from 20-24 nucleotides, serve as repressors of gene expression, and are involved …