Engineering Commons^™

An In Vivo Study Of The Effects Of Perinatal Caffeine Exposure On Synaptic Efficacy In The Hippocampus Of Freely Moving Adult Rats, Jee Eun Park

Senior Theses and Projects

The synapse from the perforant path to the dentate gyrus has been widely used successfully to demonstrate long-term potentiation, a cellular model underlying learning and memory. Caffeine is one of the most widely consumed psychoactive stimulants in the world. Caffeine consumption increases in alertness, improvements in motor skills, and neurological functions, and these effects have promoted its use throughout history. Although the many short term cognitive benefits of caffeine intake are well understood, the long term effects of caffeine exposure have been widely disputed. Despite this, it is estimated that over 80% of women continue to consume caffeine throughout pregnancy. …

Mose: Salvare Venezia, Salvatore T. Siciliano

Senior Theses and Projects

Since 1900, the water levels in the Venetian Lagoon have risen almost 16 centimeters. In the same timeframe the city of Venice has gone from averaging 7 floods a year to over 100 in 2004 alone. It’s clear that in order for Venice to survive this problem a solution must be found. Fortunately, in 2003 MOSE (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico), a network of floodgates constructed at each entrance to the lagoon that prevents flooding during high tides, finally began its long awaited construction, that today is in its final stages.

When looking at MOSE from an engineering perspective, the mechanics behind …

Device For On-Site Production Of Sterile Water For Injection In A Disaster Zone, Chislon M. Richardson, Jeff Hebert

Senior Theses and Projects

This project sought to design and produce a device for the on-site manufacture of sterile water to be subsequently used to produce IV fluid in disaster zone. In order to accomplish this, the water produced must be pure, sterile, non-pyrogenic, and satisfy the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) standard for water for injection (WFI). Ideally, the device should be low powered, low cost, robust yet portable and deliver at least 10 liters per hour. Our design incorporated the purification methods of carbon filtration, reverse osmosis and Ultra-violet treatment. However, due to power and cost constraints our device was neither able to …

Design And Implementation Of A Waste Vegetable Oil (Wvo) Fuel System With Temperature Controlled Heating For A 1985 Mercedes, Han Wu

Senior Theses and Projects

Waste vegetable oil (WVO) has been recognized as a clean and cheap fuel for diesel engines. However, WVO can only be used if it is heated to approximately 160 to 180 degree F, due to its high viscosity at lower temperatures. In this project, a fuel system was designed and built for a 1985 Mercedes 300SD diesel car to use either WVO or diesel. It uses both engine coolant and electric heating wires for heating WVO. A temperature-controlled switch is used to control the temperature of WVO entering the engine. The heating components were designed and simulated using Matlab, and …

Gaze Controlled Human-Computer Interface, Steve Petkovsek, Kevin Huang, Binay Poudel

Senior Theses and Projects

The goal of the Gaze Controlled Human Computer Interface project is to design and construct a non-invasive gaze-tracking system that will determine where a user is looking on a computer screen in real time. To accomplish this, a fixed illumination source consisting of Infrared (IR) Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) is used to produce corneal reflections on the user’s eyes. These reflections are captured with a video camera and compared to the relative location of the user’s pupils. From this comparison, a correlation matrix can be created and the approximate location of the screen that the user is looking at can …

Implementation Of A Simultaneous Localization And Mapping Algorithm In An Autonomous Robot, Adam T. Norton, Anson R. Mccook

Senior Theses and Projects

A robot was built and programmed to implement a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) Algorithm. Traditional robotic mapping suffers from compounding sensor error, thus resulting in maps that become highly erroneous over time. SLAM combats this problem by taking a probabilistic approach to mapping. By combining odometry data with sensor measurements of surrounding landmarks through a Kalman Filter, the robot was able to accurately map its surrounding environment, and localize itself within that environment.

Modeling Cardiac Muscle Mechanics, Lorenzo Sewanan

Senior Theses and Projects

The heart is a complex electro-mechanical system which is intrinsically and intimately linked to physiology and pathology. Cardiac muscle tissue underlies the dynamics of the heart; understanding cardiac muscle tissue allows insight into the working of the heart at a fundamental level. Indeed, models allow a theoretical understanding of systems which necessarily exceeds that of experiment. Here, we describe a novel mathematical model of cardiac muscle mechanics based on functional relations.