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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

People Like Me: Increasing Likelihood Of Success For Underrepresented Minorities In Stem By Providing Realistic And Relatable Role Models, Nir Aish, Philip Asare, Elif Miskioglu Oct 2017

People Like Me: Increasing Likelihood Of Success For Underrepresented Minorities In Stem By Providing Realistic And Relatable Role Models, Nir Aish, Philip Asare, Elif Miskioglu

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

Seeing themselves represented in the role models they aspire to, has been shown to be important to students' sense of belonging and success. Underrepresented college students in STEM fields are exposed to only a small set of role models. This set often consist of famous individuals with extraordinary stories (we call these outliers), and represent unfeasible paths to success for a large majority of these students. We aim to remedy this by identifying a set of role models who represent more feasible paths to success (we call these non-outliers) for many underrepresented students. We contend that, despite the less extraordinary …


Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (‘Drones’) To Collect Data From Tagged Fishers In The Environment, Vu A. Pham, Marc Horney, Aaron Drake Aug 2017

Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (‘Drones’) To Collect Data From Tagged Fishers In The Environment, Vu A. Pham, Marc Horney, Aaron Drake

STAR Program Research Presentations

Fisher (Pekania pennant) belongs to the weasel family. In October 2014, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the West Coast Distinct Population Segment of fisher as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. We wish to better define where fishers live within their habitats and use that information to improve conservation efforts. Previously, to track the behavior of wild fishers, researchers put tracker collars on the animals and relied on networks of fixed antennas on the ground in the environment to collect data. We are experimenting with using unmanned aerial vehicles (‘drones’) to collect data …


Testing Our Assumptions: The Role Of First Course Grade And Course Level In Mathematics And English, Janet Callahan, Marcia Belcheir Aug 2017

Testing Our Assumptions: The Role Of First Course Grade And Course Level In Mathematics And English, Janet Callahan, Marcia Belcheir

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Methods that provide an early indicator of factors that affect student persistence are important to colleges and universities. This quantitative research focused on the role of level of entry mathematics and English and also on grades earned in those classes as they relate to persistence after one year. The research showed that by far, the variable most predictive of first-time, full-time students enrolling one year later was earning a grade of “A” in English. Compared to those who did not pass their first English course, students who earned an “A” were three times more likely to persist. The variables which …


The Soil Moisture Velocity Equation, Fred L. Ogden, Myron B. Allen, Wencong Lai, Jianting Zhu, Mookwon Seo, Craig C. Douglas, Cary A. Talbot Jun 2017

The Soil Moisture Velocity Equation, Fred L. Ogden, Myron B. Allen, Wencong Lai, Jianting Zhu, Mookwon Seo, Craig C. Douglas, Cary A. Talbot

Publications

Numerical solution of the one-dimensional Richards' equation is the recommended method for coupling groundwater to the atmosphere through the vadose zone in hyperresolution Earth system models, but requires fine spatial discretization, is computationally expensive, and may not converge due to mathematical degeneracy or when sharp wetting fronts occur. We transformed the one-dimensional Richards' equation into a new equation that describes the velocity of moisture content values in an unsaturated soil under the actions of capillarity and gravity. We call this new equation the Soil Moisture Velocity Equation (SMVE). The SMVE consists of two terms: an advection-like term that accounts for …


Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong Feb 2017

Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong

Kate Perkins

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) undertook this study for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). It explores the practice and application of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in STEM, with a particular focus on natural and physical sciences, information technology, and agriculture departments in Australian universities. The project involved a detailed ‘stocktake’ of WIL in practice in these disciplines, with collection of information by interview, survey instruments, consultation with stakeholders and literature reviews. Every university in Australia was visited as part of this project, with interviews and consultation sessions gathering insight from more than 120 academics and support …


Derivative-Free Kalman Filter-Based Control Of Nonlinear Systems With Application To Transfemoral Prostheses, S. Mahmoud Moosavi Jan 2017

Derivative-Free Kalman Filter-Based Control Of Nonlinear Systems With Application To Transfemoral Prostheses, S. Mahmoud Moosavi

ETD Archive

Derivative-free Kalman filtering (DKF) for estimation-based control of a special class of nonlinear systems is presented. The method includes a standard Kalman filter for the estimation of both states and unknown inputs, and a nonlinear system that is transformed to controllable canonical state space form through feedback linearization (FL). A direct current (DC) motor with an input torque that is a nonlinear function of the state is considered as a case study for a nonlinear single-input-single-output (SISO) system. A three degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot / prosthesis system, which includes a robot that emulates human hip and thigh motion and a powered …