Engineering Commons^™

Impact Of Chain Architecture On The Thickness Dependence Of Physical Aging Rate Of Thin Polystyrene Films, Gregory Brown, Elizabeth Lewis, Bryan D. Vogt

Honors Research Projects

The dynamics of polymer thin films have been demonstrated to be significantly altered from the bulk, but the origins of such differences are not well defined. In this work, we seek to understand the differences in the structural dynamics (or physical aging) of polystyrene (PS) through branching and other well defined architectures (comb and centipede). The aging dynamics of ultrathin films (< 30 nm) differ from relatively thick films (100-150nm) with linear PS thin films aging more rapidly than the relatively “bulk-like” thick films. Ellipsometric measurements are used to characterize the physical aging rate of the films. The change in film thickness and refractive index as the films are held below the glass transition temperature (T_g) provides a simple measure of the physical aging. In this study, four different architectures (linear, comb, 4 arm star, and centipede) will be investigated. For each PS architecture, the aging rate will be determined for film thickness ranging ...

What You Don’T See, Brent Sturlaugson

Architecture Faculty Publications

Follow the supply chains of architecture and you’ll find not just product manufacturers but also environmental polluters and elusive networks of financial power and political influence.

My Catalyst, Gabrielle Gambino Lyon

Celebration of Learning

Over the course of my internship and shadow program with Pepper Lawson Construction and Ziegler Cooper Architects, I was able to explore the various career paths involved in the design, construction, and civil engineering fields. My work on the construction site of a high-rise apartment building located in the heart of Houston, TX allowed me first-hand experience working and learning alongside project engineers, contractors, building developers, and the construction team.

This project was the perfect confluence of my main areas of interest: structural, mechanical, civil, and environmental engineering, as well as architecture. My daily work consisted of on-site walk throughs ...

Mechanical Team Final Design Report: Same Polytechnic College, Meghan L. Smith, Katie D. Nute, Long T. Hoang

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this document is to communicate the research, findings, and recommendations of the mechanical engineering team regarding the Same Polytechnic College project. This report includes a discussion of the design process utilized by the interdisciplinary team to construct preliminary building designs for both classroom and dormitory building modules. The mechanical team conducted testing using the wind tunnel to verify major building envelope design decisions. The following report also includes an explanation of the thermal testing that the team conducted to measure the thermal conductivity, diffusivity, and specific heat of bricks made to mimic those made locally in Same ...

Defect-Tolerant Gate Macro Mapping & Placement In Clock-Free Nanowire Crossbar Architecture, Ravi Bonam, Yong-Bin Kim, Minsu Choi

Minsu Choi

Recently, we proposed a new clock-free nanowire crossbar architecture based on a delayinsensitive paradigm called Null Convention Logic (NCL). The proposed architecture has simple periodic structure that is suitable for non-deterministic nanoscale assembly and does not require a clock distribution network - so it is intrinsically free from timing-related failure modes. Even though the proposed architecture offers improved manufacturability, it is still not free from defects. This paper elaborates on the different programming techniques to map a given threshold gate macro on a random PGMB (Programmable Gate Macro Block) with predefined dimension. Defect-Aware and Defect Unaware approaches have been considered to ...

Clock-Free Nanowire Crossbar Architecture Based On Null Convention Logic (Ncl), Ravi Bonam, Shikha Chaudhary, Yadunandana Yellambalase, Minsu Choi

Minsu Choi

There have been numerous nanowire crossbar architectures proposed till date, although all of them are envisioned to be synchronous (i.e., clocked). The clock is an important part in a circuit and it needs to be connected to all the components to synchronize their operation. Considering non-deterministic nature of nanoscale integration, realizing them on a nano wire crossbar system would be quite cumbersome. Unlike the conventional clocked counterparts, a new clock-free crossbar architecture is proposed to resolve the issues with clocked counterparts in this paper, where the use of clock is eliminated from the architecture. This has been done by ...

Archaeology And Conservation Of The Middle Phrygian Gate Complex At Gordion, Turkey, Semih Gönen, Richard F. Liebhart, Naomi F. Miller, Elspeth Dusinberre

Classics Faculty Contributions

In 2016, a project was undertaken at Gordion, Turkey, to stabilize and conserve the remains of a rubble platform built early in the Middle Phrygian period (ca. 800–700 b.c.e.) under the vast Gate Complex leading to the megarons on the Citadel Mound. In the process, aspects of Middle Phrygian building strategies came to light that enhanced our understanding gained from the original excavation in the 1950s. This article outlines the archaeology of the Middle Phrygian Gate Complex and the sophisticated internal structures that lent stability to the rubble platform upon which it was built, and examines the ...

Cal Poly Caed Interdisciplinary Competition, Richard Nguyen

Construction Management

In an effort to promote relationships between Construction management students with other majors in Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design, an interdisciplinary competition should be encouraged. Targeted towards second-year students, an interdisciplinary competition will provide valuable experience in competition environment, while establishing relationships with students in other majors. Each team member will learn more about the other professions and the issues affecting their work. Conducted over an academic quarter (10 weeks), students will be presented with site information and strategic development plan materials to support the effort. The teams require participation and input from architectural engineering, architecture ...

Journeyman International - Dream Soccer Academy Cameroon, Gerhard Hohbach

Construction Management

This project based senior project was completed through Journeyman International, an organization that pairs Architecture, Architectural Engineering and Construction Management students with projects in need of their services. This document contains the Construction Management students portion of the work. The DREAM Soccer Academy is a group of coaches and mentors that counsels and guides youth in Mamfe, Cameroon, empowering the youth through soccer. The organization is seeking to expand their operations to a housing, education and sports facility soccer. The proposed design includes two dormitories, three soccer fields, six classrooms, conference rooms, an indoor gym, cafeteria, health center, cafeteria, bleachers ...

Alternative Mission Concepts For The Exploration Of Outer Planets Using Small Satellite Swarms, Andrew Gene Blocher

Master's Theses and Project Reports

Interplanetary space exploration has thus far consisted of single, expensive spacecraft missions. Mission costs are particularly high on missions to the outer planets and while invaluable, finite budgets limit our ability to perform extensive and frequent investigations of the planets. Planetary systems such as Jupiter and Saturn provide extremely complex exploration environments with numerous targets of interest. Exploring these targets in addition to the main planet requires multiple fly-bys and long mission timelines. In LEO, CubeSats have changed the exploration paradigm, offering a fast and low cost alternative to traditional space vehicles. This new mission development philosophy has the potential ...

Creating A Team Tutor Using Gift, Stephen B. Gilbert, Anna Slavina, Michael C. Dorneich, Anne M. Sinatra, Desmond Bonner, Joan Johnston, Joseph Holub, Anastacia Macallister, Eliot H. Winer

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Publications

With the movement in education towards collaborative learning, it is becoming more important that learners be able to work together in groups and teams. Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) have been used successfully to teach individuals, but so far only a few ITSs have been used for the purpose of training teams. This is due to the difficulty of creating such systems. An ITS for teams must be able to assess complex interactions between team members (team skills) as well as the way they interact with the system itself (task skills). Assessing team skills can be difficult because they contain social ...

Measuring The Evolving Internet Ecosystem With Exchange Points, Mohammad Zubair Ahmad

Zubair Ahmad

The Internet ecosystem comprising of thousands of Autonomous Systems (ASes) now include Internet eXchange Points (IXPs) as another critical component in the infrastructure. Peering plays a significant part in driving the economic growth of ASes and is contributing to a variety of structural changes in the Internet. IXPs are a primary component of this peering ecosystem and are playing an increasing role not only in the topology evolution of the Internet but also inter-domain path routing. In this dissertation we study and analyze the overall affects of peering and IXP infrastructure on the Internet. We observe IXP peering is enabling ...

Embedded Processors On Fpga: Hard-Core Vs Soft-Core, Vivek J. Vazhoth Kanhiroth

Masters Theses

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are integrated circuits (ICs) that can be reprogrammed by the consumer after manufacturing. They are based on a matrix of configurable logic blocks connected via programmable interconnects that enables the designer to quickly recreate hardware circuits. In the past, FPGAs were primarily used for prototyping and debugging purposes. However, with their increased popularity, many commercial products now incorporate FPGAs.

In the late 1990s, FPGA vendors introduced System-on-chip (SoC) devices that housed one or more hard-core processors and an FPGA fabric on a single IC to allow for more complex designs that involved hardware and software ...

High-Speed Programmable Fpga Configuration Memory Access Using Jtag, Ammon Bradley Gruwell

All Theses and Dissertations

Over the past couple of decades Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have become increasingly useful in a variety of domains. This is due to their low cost and flexibility compared to custom ASICs. This increasing interest in FPGAs has driven the need for tools that both qualify and improve the reliability of FPGAs for applications where the reconfigurability of FPGAs makes them vulnerable to radiation upsets such as in aerospace environments. Such tools ideally work with a wide variety of devices, are highly programmable but simple to use, and perform tasks at relatively high speeds. Of the various FPGA configuration ...

The Architecture Of An Effective Software Application For Managing Enterprise Projects, Reza R. Zamani, Robert B. K Brown, Ghassan Beydoun, William J. Tibben

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

No abstract provided.

A Secure, Reliable And Performance-Enhancing Storage Architecture Integrating Local And Cloud-Based Storage, Christopher Glenn Hansen

All Theses and Dissertations

The constant evolution of new varieties of computing systems - cloud computing, mobile devices, and Internet of Things, to name a few - have necessitated a growing need for highly reliable, available, secure, and high-performing storage systems. While CPU performance has typically scaled with Moore's Law, data storage is much less consistent in how quickly performance increases over time. One method of improving storage performance is through the use of special storage architectures. Such architectures often include redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID). RAID provides a meaningful way to increase storage performance on a variety of levels, some higher-performing than others ...

Using Extensible Modeling In Systems Engineering And Architectural Search, Jason Paul Dauby, Cihan H. Dagli

Cihan Dagli

The system architecting process is the hierarchical reduction of ambiguity associated with user needs and system design. Design allocation, and subsequent integration, implicitly requires a mechanism by which levels of detail can be added and removed from a decision scenario. This paper addresses the idea of engineering model sharing through the concept of vertical and horizontal extensibility as one mechanism by which hierarchical reduction in ambiguity can be facilitated. Extensible modeling introduces a systems architecting approach to the modeling community by identifying model interfaces and carefully decomposing the model domain. While the actual system hardware is not known at the ...

Complex Systems Architecting Using Design Primitives, Comparative Analysis And Fuzzy Analytical Feedback, Jason Paul Dauby, Cihan H. Dagli

Cihan Dagli

Modern systems are increasing in complexity. It is advantageous to understand and control this complexity as early in the design lifecycle as possible. The system architecting community must reconcile the inherent ambiguity in a system description with the need for analytical assessments of system attributes so as to increase the likelihood of developmental success. Presently, it is commonplace to decompose systems and subsystems using assumptions of idealized severability and reliance on superposition to estimate composite performance. It is suggested that these assumptions can result in errant oversimplification and represent an opportunity for new systems engineering research. This paper introduces a ...

Vertical Implementation Of Cloud For Education (V.I.C.E.), Travis S. Brummett

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

There are several different implementations of open source cloud software that organizations can utilize when deploying their own private cloud. Some possible solutions are OpenNebula, Nimbus, and Eucalyptus. These are Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud implementations that ultimately gives users virtual machines to undefined job types. A typical IaaS cloud is composed of a front-end cloud controller node, a cluster controller node for controlling compute nodes, a virtual machine image repository node, and many persistent storage nodes and compute nodes. These architectures are built for ease of scalability and availability.

Interestingly, the potential of such architectures could have in the educational field ...

Broad Street Apartments, Carla Alejandra Simental, Viviana C. Sanchez

Architectural Engineering

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Architecture Design: Environmental And Economic Benefits, Michael Babcock

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis examines the movement of environmentalism, and its impact on architecture and construction. During an interview with a professional architect, a basis for research of sustainable design was devised, when he explained that “good” architecture attempts to holistically integrate the external and built environment. Presently, the main measurement for sustainability is energy efficiency. Therefore, architects constantly implement new technology in an attempt to unify both the external and built environment in an energy efficient manner. Furthermore, this thesis provides an environmental and financial cost analysis of implementing sustainable design and build. Research shows that the life cycle and up-front ...

Mining And Civilization, Fathi Habashi

Fathi Habashi

Computational Intelligence Based Complex Adaptive System-Of-Systems Architecture Evolution Strategy, Siddharth Agarwal

Doctoral Dissertations

The dynamic planning for a system-of-systems (SoS) is a challenging endeavor. Large scale organizations and operations constantly face challenges to incorporate new systems and upgrade existing systems over a period of time under threats, constrained budget and uncertainty. It is therefore necessary for the program managers to be able to look at the future scenarios and critically assess the impact of technology and stakeholder changes. Managers and engineers are always looking for options that signify affordable acquisition selections and lessen the cycle time for early acquisition and new technology addition. This research helps in analyzing sequential decisions in an evolving ...

A Social Metamodel To Control The Participatory Process In Complex System Modelling, Michel Lample, Denis Bailly, Johanna Ballé-Béganton

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The metamodel framework is a new tool for co-construction of models involving societal or political participation. Rather than an attempt to model the social factor by numerical techniques which amounts to project the social paradigm in the model paradigm, the metamodel framework provides a way to overcome the difficulties of social behaviour by an inverse projection of the model paradigm into the social one. The framework asks for a strict methodology based on a suitable agenda, a quality process and the management by an Architect team. Furthermore, this framework accommodates lean modelling techniques that system platforms are able to provide.

Ecs Game Engine Design, Daniel Masamune Hall

Computer Engineering

Game programming design and organization can be difficult and complicated. To simplify the development process, frameworks with an array of tools and utilities known as game engines are used. The main goal of this project is to explore game engine designs and develop a design for a modular and expandable game engine. The designs covered in this paper are Object Oriented Programing (OOP) and two Entity Component System (ECS). OOP designs, commonly used in computer science, use a hierarchy of objects to share functionality. ECS designs are based off of the concepts Composition over inheritance in which objects contain features ...

The Space Plug-And-Play Architecture Services Manager And Its Relevance In Diverse Plug-And-Play Software Systems, Brandon Holdaway

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports

The Space Plug-and-Play Archichecture System Manager (SSM) is a system of Space Plug-and-Play Architecture (SPA) hardware, software components, and services for rapid integration of satellite systems. It was originally designed to help decrease the amount of time and money required to integrate payloads onto a satellite. The features of the SSM make it useful in non-satellite systems. In this report, I demonstrate diverse uses of the SSM in a multi-use payload manage- ment and underwater vehicle software solution which was designed and implemented using the SSM. Further I give a detailed explanation of the successes and failures of the software ...

Architecture Designed Zno Hollow Microspheres With Wide-Range Visible-Light Photoresponses, Ziqi Sun, Ting Liao, Jae-Geun Kim, Kesong Liu, Lei Jiang, Jung Ho Kim, S X. Dou

Shi Xue Dou

It is a challenge to increase the visible-light photoresponses of wide-gap metal oxides. In this study, we proposed a new strategy to enhance the visible-light photoresponses of wide-gap semiconductors by deliberately designing a multi-scale nanostructure with controlled architecture. Hollow ZnO microspheres with constituent units in the shape of one-dimensional (1D) nanowire networks, 2D nanosheet stacks, and 3D mesoporous nanoball blocks are synthesized via an approach of two-step assembly, where the oligomers or the constituent nanostructures with specially designed structures are first formed, and then further assembled into complex morphologies. Through deliberate designing of constituent architectures allowing multiple visible-light scattering, reflections ...

The Actual Cost Of Food Systems On Roadway Infrastructure, Omar G. Smadi, Inya Nlenanya, Marwan Ghandour, Silvina Lopez Barrera

Silvina Lopez Barrera

This project was designed to provide more insight into the infrastructure challenges of agricultural enterprises in Iowa and to also facilitate the understanding needed to implement broader energy-related policy and planning. This work will also provide farmers and farmer networks with the necessary resources to justify increased local and state investments in the local and regional food systems.

A Distributed Consensus Algorithm For Decision Making In Service-Oriented Internet Of Things, Shancang Li, George Oikonomou, Theo Tryfonas, Thomas M. Chen, Li Da Xu

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

In a service-oriented Internet of things (IoT) deployment, it is difficult to make consensus decisions for services at different IoT edge nodes where available information might be insufficient or overloaded. Existing statistical methods attempt to resolve the inconsistency, which requires adequate information to make decisions. Distributed consensus decision making (CDM) methods can provide an efficient and reliable means of synthesizing information by using a wider range of information than existing statistical methods. In this paper, we first discuss service composition for the IoT by minimizing the multi-parameter dependent matching value. Subsequently, a cluster-based distributed algorithm is proposed, whereby consensuses are ...

Liquid Crystalline Graphene Oxide/Pedot: Pss Self-Assembled 3d Architecture For Binder-Free Supercapacitor Electrodes, Md. Monirul Islam, Alfred T. Chidembo, Seyed Hamed Aboutalebi, Dean Cardillo, Hua-Kun Liu, Konstantin K. Konstantinov, S X. Dou

Australian Institute for Innovative Materials - Papers

Binder-free self-assembled 3D architecture electrodes have been fabricated by a novel convenient method. Liquid crystalline graphene oxide was used as precursor to interact with poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) in dispersion in order to form a conductive polymer entrapped, self-assembled layer-by-layer structure. This advanced network containing PEDOT:PSS enabled us to ascribe the superior electrochemical properties of particular graphene sheets. This layer-by-layer self-assembled 3D architecture of best performing composite (reduced graphene oxide-PEDOT:PSS 25) showed excellent electrochemical performance of 434 F g⁻¹ through chemical treatment. To highlight these advances, we further explored the practicality of the as-prepared ...