Engineering Commons^™

Soft, Curved Electrode Systems Capable Of Integration On The Auricle As A Persistent Brain–Computer Interface, James J. S. Norton, Dong Sup Lee, Jung Woo Lee, Woosik Lee, Ohjin Kwon, Philip Won, Sung-Young Jung, Huanyu Cheng, Jae-Woong Jeong, Abdullah Akce, Stephen Umunna, Ilyoun Na, Yong Ho Kwon, Xiao-Qi Wang, Zhuangjian Liu, Ungyu Paik, Yonggang Huang, Timothy Bretl, Woon-Hong Yeo, John A. Rogers

Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Publications

Recent advances in electrodes for noninvasive recording of electroencephalograms expand opportunities collecting such data for diagnosis of neurological disorders and brain–computer interfaces. Existing technologies, however, cannot be used effectively in continuous, uninterrupted modes for more than a few days due to irritation and irreversible degradation in the electrical and mechanical properties of the skin interface. Here we introduce a soft, foldable collection of electrodes in open, fractal mesh geometries that can mount directly and chronically on the complex surface topology of the auricle and the mastoid, to provide high-fidelity and long-term capture of electroencephalograms in ways that avoid any significant …

Skin-Like Electronics For A Persistent Brain-Computer Interface, Woon-Hong Yeo, Yongkuk Lee

Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Publications

There exists a high demand for a continuous, persistent recording of non-invasive electroencephalograms in both clinical and research fields. Head-cap electrodes with metal conductors and conductive gels are widely used and considered as the gold standard for such measurement. This physical interface, however, is poorly suited to uninterrupted, long-term use due to the uncomfortable rigid electrodes, skin irritation due to the gel, and electrical degradation as the gel dries. These issues can be addressed by using a newly developed, dry form of electronics. Here, we briefly review a class of soft electronic technology in the aspects of mechanics, materials, and …

Young's Modulus Of [111] Germanium Nanowires, M. Maksud, J. Yoo, C. T. Harris, N. K. R. Palapati, A. Subramanian

Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Publications

This paper reports a diameter-independent Young’s modulus of 91.9 ± 8.2 GPa for [111] Germaniumnanowires (Ge NWs). When the surface oxide layer is accounted for using a core-shell NW approximation, the YM of the Ge core approaches a near theoretical value of 147.6 ± 23.4 GPa. The ultimate strength of a NW device was measured at 10.9 GPa, which represents a very high experimental-to-theoretical strength ratio of ∼75%. With increasing interest in this material system as a high-capacity lithium-ion battery anode, the presented data provide inputs that are essential in predicting its lithiation-induced stress fields and fracture behavior.

Online Auction-Based Relay Selection For Cooperative Communication In Cr Networks, Tao Jing, Fan Zhang, Wei Cheng, Yan Huo, Xiuzhen Cheng

Computer Science Publications

Cognitive radio and cooperative communication are two new network technologies. So, the combination of these two new technologies is a novel solution to solve the problem of spectrum scarcity. Two main challenges exist in the integration of cognitive radio and cooperative communication. First, there is a lack of incentives for the participating wireless devices to serve as relay nodes. Second, there is not an effective relay selection policy. In this paper, we propose an online auction-based relay selection scheme for cooperative communication in cognitive radio (CR) networks. Specifically, we design an auction scheme through adopting stopping theory. The proposed scheme …

Nanocuration Workflows: Establishing Best Practices For Identifying, Inputting, And Sharing Data To Inform Decisions On Nanomaterials, Christina M. Powers, Karmann A. Mills, Stephanie A. Morris, Fred Klaessig, Sharon Gaheen, Nastassja Lewinski, Christine Ogilvie Hendren

Chemical and Life Science Engineering Publications

There is a critical opportunity in the field of nanoscience to compare and integrate information across diverse fields of study through informatics (i.e., nanoinformatics). This paper is one in a series of articles on the data curation process in nanoinformatics (nanocuration). Other articles in this series discuss key aspects of nanocuration (temporal metadata, data completeness, database integration), while the focus of this article is on the nanocuration workflow, or the process of identifying, inputting, and reviewing nanomaterial data in a data repository. In particular, the article discusses: 1) the rationale and importance of a defined workflow in nanocuration, 2) the …

Generation Of Multicellular Tumor Spheroids With Microwell-Based Agarose Scaffolds For Drug Testing, Xue Gong, Chao Lin, Jian Cheng, Jiansheng Su, Hang Zhao, Tianlin Liu, Xuejun Wen, Peng Zhao

Chemical and Life Science Engineering Publications

Three dimensional multicellular aggregate, also referred to as cell spheroid or microtissue, is an indispensable tool for in vitro evaluating antitumor activity and drug efficacy. Compared with classical cellular monolayer, multicellular tumor spheroid (MCTS) offers a more rational platform to predict in vivo drug efficacy and toxicity. Nevertheless, traditional processing methods such as plastic dish culture with nonadhesive surfaces are regularly time-consuming, laborious and difficult to provide uniform-sized spheroids, thus causing poor reproducibility of experimental data and impeding high-throughput drug screening. In order to provide a robust and effective platform for in vitro drug evaluation, we present an agarose scaffold …

Transplantation Of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Alleviates Cerebral Inflammation And Neural Damage In Hemorrhagic Stroke, Jie Qin, Xun Ma, Haiyun Qi, Bo Song, Yanlin Wang, Xuejun Wen, Qing Mei Wang, Shilei Sun, Yusheng Li, Rui Zhang, Xinjing Liu, Haiman Hou, Guangming Gong, Yuming Xu

Chemical and Life Science Engineering Publications

Background

Little is known about the effects of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) treatment on acute cerebral inflammation and injuries after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), though they have shown promising therapeutic potentials in ischemic stoke.

Methods

An ICH model was established by stereotactic injection of collagenase VII into the left striatum of male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Six hours later, ICH rats were randomly divided into two groups and received intracerebrally 10 μl of PBS with or without 1×10⁶ of iPSCs. Subsequently, neural function of all ICH rats was assessed at days 1, 3, 7, 14, 28 and 42 after ICH. …

Genome-Scale Resources For Thermoanaerobacterium Saccharolyticum, Devin H. Currie, Babu Raman, Christopher M. Gowen, Timothy J. Tschaplinski, Miriam L. Land, Steven D. Brown, Sean F. Covalla, Dawn M. Klingeman, Zamin K. Yang, Nancy L. Engle, Courtney M. Johnson, Miguel Rodriguez, A Joe Shaw, William R. Kenealy, Lee R. Lynd, Stephen S. Fong, Jonathan R. Mielenz, Brian H. Davison, David A. Hogsett, Christopher D. Herring

Chemical and Life Science Engineering Publications

Background

Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum is a hemicellulose-degrading thermophilic anaerobe that was previously engineered to produce ethanol at high yield. A major project was undertaken to develop this organism into an industrial biocatalyst, but the lack of genome information and resources were recognized early on as a key limitation.

Results

Here we present a set of genome-scale resources to enable the systems level investigation and development of this potentially important industrial organism. Resources include a complete genome sequence for strain JW/SL-YS485, a genome-scale reconstruction of metabolism, tiled microarray data showing transcription units, mRNA expression data from 71 different growth conditions or timepoints …

Recdroid: A Resource Access Permission Control Portal And Recommendation Service For Smartphone Users, Gerrit Bond, Steven Jackson, Marcus Pare

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The rapid growth of the smartphone applications market raises security concerns regarding untrusted applications. Studies have shown that most apps in markets request to collect data irrelevant to the main functions of the apps. Traditional Android permission control design based on one-time decisions on installation has been proven to be ineffective in protecting users’ privacy and poorly utilizes scarce mobile resources (e.g. battery). RecDroid is designed to help protect user data in a market where unauthorized data collection is prevalent in most applications. With RecDroid’s recommendation feature, which is based on expert analysis, the user will be able to avoid …

Rams Onboard: Improving Employment Process, De-Shunda White, Yamil Boo Irizarry, Samuel Brazil

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In order for the Virginia Commonwealth University Engineering Human Resources department to provide seamless new hire integration, they need to upgrade their current post-hire information gathering techniques. Currently the HR department continues to provide paper forms and packets to new hires to fill out and return for review. This method requires over $30,000 in cost for materials and labor. The main goal of our project is to establish a way for newly hired employees to complete their new hire forms electronically through the VCU server.

By successfully executing our project we are moving VCU’s onboarding process to a completely paperless …

Grid Game: Developing A Java/Android Version For Increased Accessibility And Usability, Sean Amos, Patrick Sivils, Aidan Collins

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Objective: Idaho University has implemented a power grid simulator game as a teaching aid for students enrolled in their Resilient Control Systems course. The game was created in LabView and requires the user to download the LabView client, as well as install the Grid Game on their machine in order to play. Our goal is to recreate the Grid Game in a Java based web-browser format so that the game is more accessible and easy to use. By recreating the Grid Game in a format that can be played in browser, other universities, companies, and individuals will easily be able …

Virtual Bus Simulation: Driver And Fuel Efficiency, James Freund, Ivan Grinkevich, Justin Boswell

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement: VCU will be putting together state of the art 3D curved screen driving simulator. This simulator will mimic fleets of vehicles behavior and will be networked with INL and Univ. of Idaho simulators. The project will entail putting the simulator together and improving existing simulator software.

Rationale: Conduct research in the areas of important behaviors to increase driver efficiency, how simulation training can encourage good driving habits, Psychology of driver habits and distractions, and benefits of audio and visual cues to assist drivers. Approach: Identify the most optimal 3d engine and develop simulation environment using the chosen engine. …

Smart Grid Network Simulation, Morgan Waser, Brandon Perkins, Benjamin Koppier

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem: In the coming years the United States is working to move towards a smarter electric grid. One that is more versatile and can adjust to different situations. To move forward with these from our current electric grid to the Smart Grid, simulations are needed to understand how the new grid is likely to behave in different situations.

Rationale: The importance of creating these simulations is to try and predict which topological set-ups are best for different kinds of scenarios as well as how the grid might behave under different circumstances. Once different situations are simulated, Smart Grid developers can …

Scientifically Defensible And Measurable Anti-Phishing Training, Josh Rymer, Chris Neville, Robert Hodges

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem: How can the effectiveness of a phishing attack be quantified and/or measured?

Applications: This project will provide a resource for Idaho National Labs to quantitavely evaluate the effectiveness of their security awareness program in regards to phishing attacks. In turn, it will aid them in hardening the human element of security at the research facility.

Approach: Our approach is to construct a fully functional phishing system where we can craft phishing emails, send emails, and place links that point to our web application. We hope to use this system to conduct an anonymous and non-malicious experiment. This data will …

Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities In The Smart Grid & Thermodynamical Properties Database Software, Abderrahmen Chouat, Shiyoon Joo, Jacob Holcombe

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Project Scope: Smart grid stability and issues/ challenges associated with coupling nuclear and renewable energy source will be researched. The changes we can expect in grid technology so the robustness and resilience could be further improved will be addressed. This projects will entail literature surveys and may involve running some simulation software and comparisons. Another aspect of the project will be focus on nuclear plant as part of the future smart grid stability challenge. Specifically, this part of the project will entail CFD modeling of zig-zag Printed Circuit compact heat exchanger and modeling it in MATLAB and seeing the difference …

Text Analytic System: Document Similarity, Ryan Murphy, James Cecil, Joseph Contarino

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Knowledge discovery is a critical function of infrastructure protection in the U.S. By analyzing key text documents, we can gain insight into the interwoven and interdependent infrastructure system of the U.S., and better understand the security aspects of the system as a whole. Massive amounts of relevant data resides in text documents, which must be gathered and parsed to be analyzed on a large scale. Our algorithm collects web-based text embedded in HTML pages and analyzes it in various ways to decipher similarities. It will be a needed component of the larger system being developed by the Idaho National Laboratory, …

Clover Care: Website And E-Marketing Development, Parker Bryant, Amber Elliott, Weston Kingery, Ervin Ramos

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Clover Care is a geographically diverse company with both caregivers and clients spread across multiple counties. Efficient resource management and communication is critical for such a broadly distributed company. Clover Care also expects to continue expanding its geographical service area, making a solution even more critical. Clover Care was interested in updating and expanding their existing website to address this need. The centralization provided by using a website allows caregivers, clients and their families, and managers a way to quickly and effectively communicate.

The primary Clover Care forms that were to be centralized included the caregiver timesheet, client case management …

Predator-Prey Game To Maintain Stable Fish Population For Ecotoxicological Studies, Jason Blondin, Catherine Halpern, Tyler Malkus

Capstone Design Expo Posters

With the state of the environment on the forefront of many minds today, it’s important for our society to be able to understand how we interact with our local ecosystems and the potential impacts we can cause. Creating computational simulations of these environments can help to predict the possible effects of different situations. The purpose of our project was to create a predator-prey simulation of different species of fish that could take into account different population management strategies and accurately reflect the waves that could be caused by the introduction of various chemicals into the fish’s environment.

In order to …

Church Hill Activities & Tutoring, Dhundi Acharya, Dhruvil Shah, Michael Mcalexander

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement: Church Hill Activities and Tutoring ( CHAT ), a non-profit organization which invests in the lives of Richmond’s most at-risk children by establishing strong connections through one-on one tutoring, mentorship, and enrichment activities , is facing difficulty in managing consistent communication with parents and volunteers. Each of these audiences requires different channels and information, and currently, sending paper to the home through students has become the primary channel for communicating with parents. The reliability of this practice is limited but continues because parents’ contact information, such as phone number or email, changes frequently.

Rationale: Since CHAT is facing …

Tatami: An Open Source Enterprise Social Network, Kenny Hegeland, Jeremy Narron, Kameron Spruill

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Tatami is an open source enterprise social network created by Ippon, a consulting and software design company with offices in France and the USA. Any company can install Tatami, allowing its employees to communicate in a Twitter-like fashion. Self-hosting Tatami also lets a company retain ownership of its data, keeping it out of the hands of third parties.

Tatami’s front end was originally coded using the Backbone.js library, which can make it challenging to add and modify features. Ippon decided to have it rewritten using the AngularJS web application framework, which will fix the previously mentioned problems. This rewrite will …

Searchblox Project Indexer Agent, Tri Nguyen, Tom Vaele, Zachary Johnson

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In this digital world, access to information is essential. We need it and almost every day; Google, Bing, Yahoo, or one of these other major services that help us find what we’re looking for so we can use a resource or answer a simple question. SearchBlox, an enterprise elasticsearch toolkit which boasts a robust and easy to use indexing system for an array of MIME types lacks an essential capability: remoting. The scope of this problem requires the ability to efficiently index particularly voluminous, dense, or distributed file-systems to a centralized SearchBlox indexing server while keeping the services that clients …

Optimizing Data Center Operations With Virtualization, Jason Kruse, Osman Sesay, Stephanie Goggin-Burns

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Design a computer network using two or more host servers that supports a virtual hosting environment.

The importance of creating a successful datacenter is to allow a company to maintain data accessibility while keeping the data secure. One way of doing this is to have servers at multiple locations to insure that data isn’t lost in case of a failure at one server location. The impact of a datacenter that supports a virtual hosting environment is to maximize hardware recourses, grants the ability to quickly stand up server services and increases availability during hardware failure due to software like VMotion. …

The Optimization And Comparison Of A Cerium Salt-Based Phosphate Filtration System To Industry Standard Phosphate Removal Water Filtration Systems, Nicholas Seymour, Snehi Shrestha, Laura Viktoria Pretzman

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Phosphorous, being one of the fundamental building blocks of life, has been linked with the increase of cyanobacteria and algae growth. One of the main ways that phosphorous enters the marine ecosystem is through the form of runoff phosphates from fertilizers and industrial processes. In addition to disrupting the biology of ecosystems another drawback of excess of phosphates is the tendency for these chemical groups to form scale buildup on metal through the form of calcium phosphate.

The goal of our project is to investigate a novel way of removing phosphate groups from wastewater with the use of the rare …

Rapid Diagnostics With Nanoparticles, Lance Johnson, Sai Katikala, Maaz Nawaz

Capstone Design Expo Posters

More than 500,000 open-heart surgeries are performed in the United States every year. The anticoagulant Heparin is used to decrease the likelihood of thrombosis or hemorrhaging in each surgery by bonding to the enzyme inhibitor antithrombin III (AT-III). However, anesthesiologists currently lack the ability to measure antithrombin levels in a patient quickly, making appropriate Heparin dosages difficult to determine and possibly resulting in thrombosis or hemorrhaging if thrombin levels move outside the allowable range. This could be prevented with a simple bedside test. Current tests use gold, but we believe Iron (III) Oxide (commonly known as rust) can be used …

A Treatment For Menorrhagia And Irregular Menstruation: Free Flowing Cryo-Fluid Endometrial Ablation, Julia Biddle, Hubertina Rose Tolpa, Krystal Zentgraf

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Menorrhagia (abnormally heavy and prolonged menstrual period) is a condition suffered by many women; these women have menstrual flow greater than 80 mL per cycle compared to the average 30 mL for normal cycles. The area of the uterus responsible for menorrhagia is the regenerative basal layer of the endometrium (inner uterine layer). In order to relieve menorrhagia, the endometrium needs to be destroyed through the basal layer. This project looks to address issues which patients face with current standard menorrhagia treatments, such as invasiveness, intense pain, or incomplete treatment of the uterine wall, by developing a superior remedy.

The …

Effluent Treatment And Recovery Of Polyether Using Nanoporous Technology, Suhaib Alramamneh, Zachary Turner, Allison Warth

Capstone Design Expo Posters

This semester Evonik Industries, a specialty chemical producer located in Hopewell, Virginia, approached VCU’s Chemical Engineering department with a project that would reduce their costs and increase process sustainability. The project is to determine a way to separate their liquid organic product from their waste stream in order to recycle the lost product. Liquid-Liquid extraction is a procedure used across most of the chemical industry. Proven separation techniques already exist for the standard liquid-liquid separation; however, when one liquid is miscible in the other the difficulty of separation is greatly increased. In order to do a liquid-liquid separation of an …

Separation Technologies Of Base Oils: The Optimization Of An Anaerobic Thermal Desorption Unit, Kelsey Mangham, Nicholas Montesdeoca, Michael "Ngyuon" Lay

Capstone Design Expo Posters

There has been a recent increase in the amount of oil and natural gas exploration due to fuel reserves that were once inaccessible in North America becoming available through methods such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. However, these methods of exploration generate substantial amounts of oil contaminated waste which pose significant pollution risks of which current methods of treatment are slow and ineffective. This project aims to design a better operating process for use with Anaerobic Thermal Desorption Units (ATDU) that are currently manufactured by RLC Technologies which offer more environmentally safe and quick processing of such wastes.

Current …

3-D Culture Systemfor Rapid Expansion Of Human Neural Stem Cells, Waleed Ilyas, Jeeyun Park, Dan Reep, Lawrence Talej

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Research into stem cells is a growing field of contemporary biology due to their extraordinary potential to develop into myriad cell types for use in regenerative medicine and research applications. Stem cells can vary from adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS. Due to the high potential for therapeutic applications, or individualized medicine, there is an increasing demand for stem cell quantities since a critical cell count must be met to demonstrate any therapeutic effect. The problem lies in the amount of time it takes to culture this critical cell count. Isolating fibroblasts in …

A Device For The Objective Assessment Of Adhd Using Eye Movements, Ankita Dosaj, Jefferson Overlin, Cassie Turnage

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorder characterized by lack of focus, self-control,and hyperactivity. ADHD is difficult to diagnose without extensive observation by an expert, and even then is often misdiagnosed. Current methods of pediatric diagnosis rely on subjective measures of activity and behavior relative to other children [3]. Proper diagnosis is critical in preventing unnecessary prescription of the powerful, habit-forming nature of the drugs used to manage ADHD, such as Adderall and Ritalin [1][5]. Research has shown that patients with ADHD show abnormalities in reading tests and antisaccade tests, as these tests gauge ability to …

Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring System, Brittany Martinez, Brittany Noah, David Decker

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The objective of this project is to create a non-invasive hypoglycemic alert system that will detect a drop in blood sugar in type 1 diabetics during sleep. This will be achieved by creating an algorithm that couples heart rate variability with skin conductance to increase the accuracy of hypoglycemia detection. The device will be housed in a torso strap that will include: electrodes located over the user’s rib cage, a skin conductance sensor placed in the user’s armpit, a microcontroller to collect and process the data, and vibrating motors that will awaken the patient if hypoglycemia is detected. Integrating the …