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Career: Advocating For Engineering Through Hidden Curricula: A Multi‐Institutional Mixed Method Approach, Idalis Villanueva

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Usu Engineering Faculty Receives Prestigious Nsf Career Grant | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release – Dec. 26, 2016 – A Utah State University professor who specializes in the emerging field of engineering education has been selected to receive a major grant from the National Science Foundation for her ongoing research into improving engineering teaching practices.

Mannequin Challenge | Biological Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Who says that learning about the various properties of Biomaterials is boring? Clearly, they haven't taken Dr. Yu Huang's BENG 2330 Properties of Biomaterials course. Not only do these students know how to distinguish the differences between natural and synthetic biomaterials.They know how to have a good time bringing the mannequin challenge into their lab clean up.

Defense Company Donates $5,000 To Society Of Women Engineers | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release – LOGAN, UTAH, Dec. 14, 2016 – The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at Utah State University was presented with a check for $5,000 from defense company Northrop Grumman on Dec. 1.

Vicarious Calibration Of Suas Thermal Imagery For Scientific Remote Sensing Applications [B53h-0607], Alfonso F. Torres-Rua

AggieAir Presentations

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) have become an accessible technology for collection of spatially distributed temperature data at fine resolution. Nevertheless, lack of standard procedures for atmospheric temperature correction can have an adverse impact on the conclusions and replicability of studies using this technology. This work presents a vicarious calibration methodology for sUAS thermal imagery traceable back to NIST standards. For this methodology, a 3-yr. data collection campaign with a sUAS technology, called “AggieAir”, developed at the Utah Water Research Laboratory, was performed under different daytime conditions. A comparison between original and vicarious calibration for the sUAS thermal imagery is …

Usu Classroom Outfitted For Student Stress Research | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release - LOGAN, UTAH, Dec. 12, 2016 – Utah State University will soon be home to a specialized classroom designed to measure the triggers and effects of student academic stress.

Dr. Idalis Villanueva, an assistant professor of engineering education at USU, is the principal investigator and is targeting her research around engineering programs.

Enhancement Of Volumetric Specific Impulse In Htpb/Ammonium Nitrate Mixed Hybrid Rocket Systems, Jacob Ward Forsyth

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Hybrid rocket systems are safer and have higher specific impulse than solid rockets. However, due to large oxidizer tanks and low regression rates, hybrid rockets have low volumetric efficiency and very long longitudinal profiles, which limit many of the applications for which hybrids can be used. This research investigates a method for increasing the volumetric efficiency and improving the form factor of hybrid rocket systems by a non-combustible load of solid oxidizer to the hybrid fuel grain. Including such oxidizers increases the regression rate of the fuel and lowers the amount of fluid oxidizer needed for optimal combustion. This type …

Adaptive Biasing Cell Association In Ffr Aided Multi-Tier Heterogeneous Networks Under Dynamic Load Variation, Didarul Alam, Tashikur Rahman, Shakil Ahmed, Mostafa Zaman Chowdhury

Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Research

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) adopting fractional frequency reuse (FFR) improves cell coverage, network capacity, efficiency, assures higher data rates, and better quality of service (QoS) for next generation wireless networks. However they fail to handle dynamic load variation. So we attempt biasing cell association (BCA) to offload user from macrocell to small cell base stations (SCBs) to overcome capacity reduction and throughput degradation. It is based on range expansion of SCBSs by adding a positive bias to the reference signal received power (RSRP). In this paper we propose a FFR aided twin layer HetNet with an adaptive biasing scheme for load …

Investigating The Highest Melting Temperature Materials: A Laser Melting Study Of The Tac-Hfc System, Omar Cedillos-Barraza, Dario Manara, K. Boboridis, Tyson Watkins, Salvatore Grasso, Daniel D. Jayaseelan, Rudy J. M. Konings, Michael J. Reece, William E. Lee

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

TaC, HfC and their solid solutions are promising candidate materials for thermal protection structures in hypersonic vehicles because of their very high melting temperatures (>4000 K) among other properties.  The melting temperatures of slightly hypostoichiometric TaC, HfC and three solid solution compositions (Ta1−xHfxC, with x = 0.8, 0.5 and 0.2) have long been identified as the highest known. In the current  research, they were reassessed, for the first time in the last fifty years, using a laser heating technique.  They were found to melt in the range of 4041–4232 K, with HfC having the highest and TaC the lowest. …

Creating Tomorrow - Engineering Stories Heard On Utah Public Radio | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Changing the Conversation

Our perception of who engineers are and what they do is a little skewed. And now, engineers are trying to change that.

Investigating And Improving Bridge Management System Methodologies Under Uncertainty, Minwoo Chang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation presents a novel procedure to select explanatory variables, without the influence of human bias, for deterioration model development using National Bridge Inventory (NBI) data. Using NBI information, including geometric data and climate information, candidate explanatory variables can be converted into normalized numeric values and analyzed prior to the development of deterministic or stochastic deterioration models. The prevailing approach for explanatory variable selection is to use expert opinion solicited from experienced engineers. This may introduce human influenced biases into the deterioration modeling process. A framework using Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) penalized regression and covariance analysis are …

Design For Manufacturability And Assembly Of An Assistive Technician Creeper, Including Single Drive Control Of A Multi-Degree Of Freedom Kinematic Mechanism, Larry T. Wilde Jr.

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 2011, a team of engineering students at Utah State University designed and built an assistive technician creeper to assist persons with lower-extremity physical disabilities to work in low-clearance areas. In order to put this technology on the market, a complete product redesign was needed to address safety and functionality concerns. This thesis outlines the specific design needs, presents the detailed design approach, and summarizes the final creeper solution. The mechanisms of the initial prototype were modified to independently incline or recline the upper body, and raise or lower the seat surface with a single motor. This will be especially …

Measuring The Effects Of High-Altitude Flight And Upper Atmospheric Radiation On Muscle Cells, Annelise Dykes

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

There are several physiological barriers to long-term space travel, including the effects of launch, landing, and microgravity on muscle cells. A payload capsule was designed to maintain cell growth during a high altitude balloon flight to model some of these physiological processes. Murine muscle cells (strain C2C12) were cultured and launched in a capsule on a balloon satellite in November 2016. Cells were monitored for changes due to temperature, flight motion, radiation, and gravity differences by quantifying cell characteristics before and after the flight using physical measurements and cell viability. Instruments were selected to monitor flight data, and a payload …

Best Practices For Volume Flow Rate Measurements Using Piv At The Exit Of A Turbulent Planar Jet, Rick Cressall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to make volume-flow-rate measurements at the exit of a turbulent, planar nozzle. The objective of this report is to assess a range of data acquisition and processing parameters. Data is acquired for volume flow rates of Reynolds numbers between 10,000 and 100,000 for both two-component (2C) and stereo PIV. The parameters are systematically changed one at a time and evaluated using differences in uncertainty, calculation time, and volume- flow-rate deviation. Data acquisition parameters follow the trends of previous work. A multitude of processing parameters were varied for several PIV processing methods. Recommendations for each …

Adaptive Background Modeling With Temporal Feature Update For Dynamic Foreground Object Removal, Li Yin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis explores several approaches in order to develop an effective algorithm for separating the moving objects from the background so that the background alone may be displayed in a video sequence. In particular, this thesis seeks to develop an algorithm that can successfully remove a moving teacher from the whiteboard, so that the writing on the whiteboard may be fully visible to the audience.

In this thesis, some prior works related to this problem are studied to understand the basic principles of adaptive background modeling, or removing the foreground from a background with occasional changes in a video sequence. …

Usu Engineering Professor Wraps Up International Speaking Tour | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release – Nov. 30, 2016 – Engineers around the world are getting a glimpse into the latest electrical engineering research taking place at Utah State University thanks to the ambitious speaking tour of USU Associate Professor Dr. Rose Hu.

Ncer Assistance Agreement Annual Progress Report For Grant #83582401 - Assessment Of Stormwater Harvesting Via Manage Aquifer Recharge (Mar) To Develop New Water Supplies In The Arid West: The Salt Lake Valley Example, Ryan Dupont, Joan E. Mclean, Richard C. Peralta, Sarah E. Null, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The aims of the original proposed project remain the same, that is, to test the hypothesis that Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) for stormwater harvesting is a technically feasible, socially and environmentally acceptable, economically viable, and permittable option for developing new water supplies for arid Western urban ecosystems experiencing increasing population, and climate change pressures on existing water resources. The project is being carried out via three distinct but integrated components that include: 1) Monitoring of existing distributed Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) harvesting schemes involving a growing number of demonstration Green Infrastructure (GI) test sites; 2) Integrated stormwater/vadose zone/groundwater/ ecosystem services …

Cee Dept. Announces Water Cluster Hire | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) seeks talented applicants for a cluster hire of three tenure eligible positions at the assistant or associate level whose research will yield more holistic approaches to solving water problems in natural, built, and/or agricultural environments. We seek bright, creative and interdisciplinary researchers who can increase Utah State University’s (USU) capacity to lead and develop the next generation of resilient solutions to water problems in these linked environments. We especially seek applicants with the passion and ability to work with others from a broad range of disciplines to advance fundamentally new and innovative …

Be Students Visit Nasa | Biological Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Early in November students from Utah State University's Biological Engineering program presented their research project, Eden, to the Scientists and Engineers employed by NASA.

Importance Of Heat And Pressure For Solubilization Of Recombinant Spider Silk Proteins In Aqueous Solution, Justin A. Jones, Thomas I. Harris, Paula F. Oliveira, Brianne E. Bell, Abdulrahman Alhabib, Randolph V. Lewis

Biology Faculty Publications

The production of recombinant spider silk proteins continues to be a key area of interest for a number of research groups. Several key obstacles exist in their production as well as in their formulation into useable products. The original reported method to solubilize recombinant spider silk proteins (rSSp) in an aqueous solution involved using microwaves to quickly generate heat and pressure inside of a sealed vial containing rSSp and water. Fibers produced from this system are remarkable in their mechanical ability and demonstrate the ability to be stretched and recover 100 times. The microwave method dissolves the rSSPs with dissolution …

Hydrodeoxygenation Of Pinyon Juniper Catalytic Pyrolysis Oil To Hydrocarbon Fuels, Hossein Jahromi, Foster Agblevor

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

As a renewable source, biomass is an essential option for diminishing dependence on conventional fossil fuel energy sources. Pyrolysis is a promising technology for the conversion of biomass into liquid fuels. However, several challenges associated with using pyrolysis oils such as their high acidity and low energy content inhibit their direct use as transportation fuels. We conducted a batch hydrodeoxygenation of pinyon juniper catalytic pyrolysis oil using Ni/SiO2-Al2O3 catalyst to improve the following properties of the oil: heating value, acidity, oxygen content, water content, and viscosity. During the hydrogenation process, the influence of four experimental factors; temperature, catalyst loading, residence …

Usu Students Outshine Peers In National Scholarship Challenge | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release – LOGAN, UTAH, Nov. 15, 2016 – Students and faculty at Utah State University’s College of Engineering are celebrating an unusual success. This fall, eight engineering students received prestigious scholarship awards from the American Nuclear Society – a significant accomplishment considering USU does not have a nuclear engineering program.

But the university is no stranger to the topic. Two engineering researchers here recently received major research funding from the U.S. Department of Energy totaling $5.8 million, and several other engineering faculty at USU are considered top experts in nuclear engineering fields.

Boostnoc: Power Efficient Network-On-Chip Architecture For Near Threshold Computing, Chidhambaranathan Rajamanikkam, Rajesh Jayashankarashridevi, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

While near threshold design space provides a promising approach towards energy-efficient computing, it is plagued by sub-optimal performance. Application characteristics and hardware non-idealities of conventional architectures (optimized for the nominal voltage) prevent us from fully leveraging the potential of NTC systems. Further, the popular approach of increasing the computational core count to compensate for the performance loss severely burdens the on-chip communication fabric with an increased communication demand. In this work, we quantitatively analyze the performance bottleneck createdby a conventional NoC architecture in many-core NTC systems. To reclaim the performance lost due to a sub-optimal NoC, we propose BoostNoC - …

Survey Of Selected Additively Manufactured Propellant For Arc-Ignition Of Hybrid Rockets, Stephen A. Whitmore, Stephen L. Merkley, Louis Tonc, Spencer D. Mathias

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Results of a testing campaign to assess multiple commercially available three-dimensional printer materials for effectiveness in an arc-ignition system for hybrid rockets are presented. Previously, a form of additive manufacturing known as fused deposition modeling was used to fabricate high-density acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) fuel grains so that, when properly layered, they possess unique electrical breakdown properties. When subjected to an inductive charge, an electrical arc flows along the layered material surface and seeds combustion when the arc occurs simultaneously with the introduction of an oxidizing flow. This study investigates commercially available three-dimensional printable materials to search for equivalent or …

Be Students Attend Bmes Conference | Biological Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

The Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) is a society of professionals devoted to developing and using engineering and technology to advancing human health and well-being. This year students from the Biological Engineering department at Utah State University attended the annual BMES conference. Here is what one of our students, Ian Wadsworth had to say about the conference.

Animal, Dairy, And Veterinary Sciences Center For Integrated Biosystems | Biological Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

The goal of my research group is to develop and investigate methods and tools to understand and detect diseases. We currently have 3 research thrusts: modeling subretinal tissue, simulating microgravity and radiative effects on skeletal muscle, and separating and identifying bacteria. We use micropatterning and 2D cultures with spider silk to model normal and diseased layers of the subretina. For our muscle research, we are currently using a rotating cell culture system and Cesium disks to replicate the conditions during spaceflight. To identify mycobacterial strands, we are combining dielectrophoresis with Raman spectroscopy for fast and accurate detection. In each of …

The Pop-Up Effect: Why Buoyant Spheres Don’T Always Leap Out Of The Water | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release – LOGAN, UTAH, Nov. 2, 2016 – It’s a common swimming pool game: Force a buoyant ball underwater and let it go. The ball springs to the surface and jumps into the air. But, submerge the ball deeper underwater and the effect is often disappointing. Contrary to intuition, increasing the release depth often leads to a decreased pop-up height.

Usu Awwa Tour | Civil And Environmental Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

The newly formed student chapter of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) recently went on tours of two water facilities. In early October, ten students attend a tour of the Utah Water Research Laboratory here at USU. The students enjoyed seeing applied research that is conducted at the lab. This week, the chapter also visited the Franklin Idaho Drinking Water Treatment Plant. This exposure to the industry has been a remarkable professional and academic experience for the Chapter.

New Scholarship Endowment Honors Former Usu Civil Engineering Professor Roland Jeppson | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

News Release – LOGAN, UTAH, Oct. 26, 2016 – A newly-established scholarship endowment for USU College of Engineering students will honor former professor Roland Jeppson and his wife, Mary Anna, of Providence, Utah.

The Jeppsons established the fund to help civil and environmental engineering undergraduate students successfully complete their degrees and pursue careers in water resources engineering.

New Visiting Scholar | Engineering Education, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Professor Jacek Uziak is currently a visiting scholar in the Department of Engineering Education at Utah State University. He is helping the Department in the design of a Graduate Certificate in Engineering Education to be offered as an online program starting next fall. He is also collaborating with different faculty in various areas of Engineering Education research including the teaching of mechanics, engineering leadership, and application of learning management systems (LMS).