Other Engineering Commons^™

Enhancing Bim Implementation In The Ethiopian Public Construction Sector: An Empirical Study, Solomon Belay, James D. Goedert, Asregedew Woldesenbet, Saeed Rokooei3

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Recently, the popularity of BIM has grown rapidly in the public construction sector. However, only a few studies so far have been seeking to address the BIM adoption benefits and barriers in developmental public projects across the low-income countries. Thus, the study aims to investigate the benefits and barriers of BIM adoption in the context of the Ethiopian infrastructure market. To achieve the objectives, a comprehensive systematic literature review was conducted to identify BIM adoption benefits and barriers in developing countries. Then, a structured questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from various professionals working in organizations including client, consultant, …

Solar Photovoltaic Performance Monitoring: A Bibliometric Review, Research Gaps And Opportunities, Javed Sayyad, Paresh Nasikkar

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Electrical power generation has been revolutionized by growing demand and use of Renewable Energy (RE) sources such as Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) as the main electricity source in modern times. The main objective of this bibliometric analysis is to understand the scope of the literature available for SPV performance characterization. This detailed reviewed was performed on the documents related to SPV research considering all the subject categories from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases. The patterns for the particular set of keywords were broke down with the recuperated outcomes from Scopus database in the language, publication type, year of publication, …

Condition Rating Prediction Using An Interactive Deterioration Model Development Package, Minwoo Chang, Mitchell S. Maguire

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This paper presents an advanced method to determine explanatory variables required for developing deterioration models without the interference of human bias. Although a stationary set of explanatory variables is ideal for long-term monitoring and asset management, the penalty regression results vary annually due to the innate bias in the inspection data. In this study, weighting factors were introduced to consider the inspection data collected for several years, and the most stationary set was identified. To manage the substantial amount of inspection data effectively, we proposed a software package referred to as the Deterioration Model Development Package (DMDP). The objective of …

The Impact Of Automation On Student's Career Decision, Muhammad Hizkil Imran, Arshveen Ramesh, T Rudran

Introduction to Research Methods RSCH 202

We study the impact of automation on employment and students’ career paths, by obtaining credible datasets from the Government of Singapore. The manufacturing and construction sectors were the most affected industries over the last 15 years. Along with the limited studies, we propose a survey to quantify and analyse students’ views on automation. The shift in employment rate in various sectors due to automation was found to be a contributing factor for students’ career decisions. Based on our findings, we observed that more students are acknowledging the impact of automation and finding the need for job securities and opportunities by …

Bayes’ Network And Smart Sensors – Occupancy Detection, Donald Tryon

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation presents a Bayesian analysis for determining residential occupancy using inexpensive commercially available passive infrared (PIR) motion detectors, compared against two other detectors that were used to establish ground-truth. One of the ground-truth detectors was a GPS signal from a smartphone, the second was a Bluetooth key fob. Data were gathered from four residential locations, and then analyzed to determine occupancy. The occupancy data collected from the PIR sensors were compared against ground-truth to verify the results of the PIR sensor events that were collected every minute for a week. The Bayesian training data that was used to determine …

Framework For Extracting And Characterizing Load Profile Variability Based On A Comparative Study Of Different Wavelet Functions, Andrew Parker, Kevin James, Dongming Peng, Mahmoud Alahmad

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) on the electric power system is changing traditional power flow and analysis studies. DERs may cause the systems' protection and control equipment to operate outside their intended parameters, due to DERs' variability and dispatchability. As this penetration grows, hosting capacity studies as well as protection and control impact mitigation become critical components to advance this penetration. In order to conduct such studies accurately, the electric power system's distribution components should be modeled correctly, and will require realistic time series loads at varying temporal and spatial conditions. The load component consists of the built …

Writing Standards-Based Lesson Plans To Standards For Technological And Engineering Literacy, Scott Bartholomew, Thomas Loveland, Vanessa Santana

Faculty Publications

While written lesson plans may seem like a lot of work, with little purpose or benefit to new teachers, a well-written lesson plan is quite valuable for many reasons. The process of writing lesson plans at the beginning of one’s teaching career can be very time-consuming (Arnett-Hartwick and Cannon, 2019); however, the development of sequenced lessons that result in effective learning must be organized and articulate, not done haphazardly. Designing a lesson through a written document can help a teacher see the pattern, flow, and implications of a lesson and how it will help all students; this can be especially …

Method Of Joints: Theory And Practice Of Designing, Building, And Testing Trusses, Andrew J. Hughes, Chris Merrill

Educational Leadership & Technology Faculty Publications

The authors of this article, like many of us, are proponents of engineering education but are also proponents of shop skills, craftsmanship, technological literacy, and the tacit knowledge and skills developed through applying sound theories during practical hands-on learning. The authors believe that engineering is an important aspect of our discipline, but so are the application of thinking, tool skills, measurement, geometric construction, manufacturing, instrumentation, testing and analysis, mathematical and scientific theories, and many other hands-on, minds-on skillsets that all need to maintain association with our discipline. As the authors are proponents for engineering education that is done well, they …

Wind Hazard Resilient Construction Mitigation Decision-Making Using A Multi-Objective Optimization, Erin Gregory

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

While storms worsen and damage to homes increases, limited information is available about mitigations that are effective in lessening damage to homes and/or buildings. Information on past storms exists within FEMA’s Hazus-MH application, but the information provided by the data within the Hazus-MH application, while very informative on its own, was decidedly more precise and useful when optimized to provide defined information to those responsible for determining building codes or regulations for homes.

The research available from Hazus-MH details results from past storms categorized by building type, mitigations, and intensity of disaster. The data can be used to simulate storm …

Social Enterprise And Sustainability: Key Factors That Lead To The Successful Establishment Of Sustainable Development Initiatives In Ireland, Gerard Doyle

Doctoral

International research points to the positive impact that social enterprises with an environmental focus (also referred to as sustainable development initiatives) perform in the transition to low carbon societies. This thesis examines the capacities required for the establishment and maintenance of sustainable development initiatives in Ireland. The thesis is based on five pieces of research which are either published in international peer-reviewed publications or of a publishable standard. One of the published pieces provides an explanatory framework addressing the reasons why the social enterprise sector in Ireland is less developed than in a number of European countries, details a number …

The Irish Construction Industry’S State Of Readiness For A Bim Mandate In 2020, Barry Mcauley, Alan V. Hore, Roger P. West

Conference papers

It was recently announced that a BIM mandate for the Irish public sector is not imminent, suggesting that the sector is not yet ready for what such a mandate implies. Following on from a forward-looking BIM Roadmap for Ireland in 2017 and the publication by the authors of a detailed BIM in Ireland study in 2017 and 2019, what is the actual state of readiness for a more general BIM mandate in Ireland? This paper will review recent publications, seminars and industry initiatives on this topic of interest supported by an online survey to assess the current state of readiness …

Engineering And Technology For The Better Good Of Society, Pit-Oer, Huixin Wu, Raymond Lam, Dimitrios Stroumbakis

Open Educational Resources

Understanding the importance of New America's commitment to strengthening the outcomes of non-profits and the public sector. We at QCC's Engineering Technology (ET) Department are dedicated to contributing to the nationwide efforts underway by Universities to establish Public-Interest-in-Technology curriculums. Technology impacts our every day lives like never before and it is time to augment the technologists' and engineers' education with curriculum components to enhance their ability to serve the good of society by:

• Teaching students to leverage 3D printing, Open Source Coding, Project Management and Engineering Ethics for the good of society.
• Exposing ET students to put into practice the …

Bim Research In Irish Academic Institutions 2015-19, Barry Mcauley, Alan V. Hore, Roger P. West

Conference papers

The use of BIM in the Irish construction industry has become pervasive in the last decade and it is an essential element in improving productivity in the market. The developments in BIM education and training in supporting the increase in Ireland’s BIM maturity has been well documented in recent years, principally through the proceedings of the BIM Gatherings and the BIM in Ireland 2017 and 2019 reviews. Similarly, the public and private sectors have been surveyed to establish their readiness for digital transformation on their BIM journey. However, BIM research undertaken by Irish academics, while individually strong, has not been …

Household’S Willingness (Wtp) To Pay To The Utility, Rakhshinda Bano, Mehdi Khiadani, Steven Burian

Research Datasets

The dataset contains the water use at household level, payments to the utility and household income.

What The Post-Coronavirus University Will Look Like, Thomas Power

Articles

The opportunity of a crisis is that it forces an industry to re-examine its policies and practices. Since the coronavirus pandemic university leadership teams have been forced to re-examine its policies and practices on teaching, learning, research and funding.

Share Buybacks And Income Inequality, Thomas Power

Articles

Should you care what companies do with their profits? Two U.S. democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders, in an article in the New York Times, argue that we should all care because what companies do with their profits can damage the economy and jobs.

Bio Circuits For Evolutionary Biotech, Camilo Toruno

ENGS 86 Independent Projects (AB Students)

The field of bioengineering has much promise for renewable chemical production, bioremediation, and of course medical applications. Developing new useful microorganisms is extremely time and capital intensive, typically taking 50 million USD and eight years. This is due in large part to the low throughput techniques that are characteristic of the field of metabolic engineering. Here we describe the modification of an existing synthetic biosensor to measure the pharmaceutical dopamine, and the use of a circuit simulator Cadence to predict improvements to the biosensor. This biosensor paired with directed evolution techniques could reach throughputs of 5 million cells per day …

The Effects Of Computer And Information Technology On Education, Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

In the society of ours, is it true really that computers and information technology have contributed immensely to the way we learn? After observing and reading various educational paraphernalia and scanning the environment research has shown that the educational systems have greatly been impacted by computers and information technology. With the growth of technology, the ways we learn have been improved tremendously. Innovative technologies have contributed to the innovation of learning in the education arena and outside. The traditional ways of conveying instructions to learners have been augmented with the use of computers information technologies. The educational system of our …

An Iot Framework For Modeling And Controlling Thermal Comfort In Buildings, Fadi Alsaleem, Mehari K. Tesfay, Mostafa Rafaie, Kevin Sinkar, Dhaman Besarla, Parthiban Arunasalam

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Humans spend more than 90% of their day in buildings, where their health and productivity are demonstrably linked to thermal comfort. Building thermal comfort systems account for the largest share of U.S energy consumption. Despite this high-energy cost, due to building design complexity and the variety of building occupant needs, addressing thermal comfort in buildings remains a difficult problem. To overcome this challenge, this paper presents an Internet of Things (IoT) approach to efficiently model and control comfort in buildings. In the model phase, a method to access and exploit wearable device data to build a personal thermal comfort model …

Ten Questions Concerning Well-Being In The Built Environment, Sergio Altomonte, Joseph Allen, Philomena M. Bluyssen, Gail Brager, Lisa Heschong, Angela Loder, Stefano Schiavon, Jennifer A. Veitch, Lily M. Wang, Pawel Wargocki

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Well-being in the built environment is a topic that features frequently in building standards and certification schemes, in scholarly articles and in the general press. However, despite this surge in attention, there are still many questions on how to effectively design, measure, and nurture well-being in the built environment. Bringing together experts from academia and the building industry, this paper aims to demonstrate that the promotion of well-being requires a departure from conventional agendas. The ten questions and answers have been arranged to offer a range of perspectives on the principles and strategies that can better sustain the consideration of …

Towards Gross-Pitaevskiian Description Of Solar System & Galaxies, Florentin Smarandache, Victor Christianto, Yunita Umniyati

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this paper, we argue that Gross-Pitaevskii model can be a more complete description of both solar system and spiral galaxies, especially taking into account the nature of chirality and vortices in galaxies. We also hope to bring out some correspondence among existing models, e.g., the topological vortex approach, Burgers equation in the light of KAM theory, and the Cantorian Navier-Stokes approach. We hope further investigation can be done around this line of approach.

Engaging First Year Students With Intellectual Property, Marian G. Armour-Gemmen

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Since intellectual property is so important to engineers, creating enthusiasm from the beginning of their engineering studies is imperative. Since first year students have not learned how to apply technological concepts to real life, demonstrating intellectual property could be a challenge. To engage first year engineering students in the concept and the value of intellectual property, students were introduced to basic concepts and applications. Different concepts were applied to real life examples allowing them to interface with technology from an intellectual property perspective. This paper highlights not only patents, but also trademarks and trade secrets.

Millimetre-Wave Planar Bruce Array Antenna, Zeeshan Ahmed, Manh Ha Hoang, Patrick Mcevoy, Max Ammann

Conference papers

A tri-band mm-wave planar Bruce array antenna for fifth generation communications (5G) is presented. The 16-element planar Bruce array antenna is simulated and fabricated on Rogers RT/Duroid 5880 substrate with thickness of 0.254 mm. For a compact and simple structure, the antenna has a highly directional fan-beam radiation pattern at broadside and peak realized gain of 14.0 dBi.

Extending Complex Conjugate Control To Nonlinear Wave Energy Converters, David G. Wilson, Rush D. Robinett Iii, Giorgio Bacelli, Ossama Abdelkhalik, Ryan Coe

Michigan Tech Publications

This paper extends the concept of Complex Conjugate Control (CCC) of linear wave energy converters (WECs) to nonlinear WECs by designing optimal limit cycles with Hamiltonian Surface Shaping and Power Flow Control (HSSPFC). It will be shown that CCC for a regular wave is equivalent to a power factor of one in electrical power networks, equivalent to mechanical resonance in a mass-spring-damper (MSD) system, and equivalent to a linear limit cycle constrained to a Hamiltonian surface defined in HSSPFC. Specifically, the optimal linear limit cycle is defined as a second-order center in the phase plane projection of the constant energy …

Concrete Beam Design: Pouring The Foundation To Engineering In T&E Classrooms, Andrew J. Hughes, Chris Merrill

Educational Leadership & Technology Faculty Publications

Ask a middle or high school student if they could design a concrete beam that weighs only 20 pounds and is 36” long but must hold 600 pounds without failing. What is the student likely to say? What if the student was told that, with some optimized decision making based on relatively straightforward mathematics, their beam could hold 2400 pounds or more? The focus of this article is not on concrete beam design, it is rather an introduction to engineering principles in beam design using a lab activity. The concepts and skills learned in this article will lead students into …

Applying Facets Of Work As A Source Of Knowledge And Insight For Requirements Determination, Steven Alter

Business Analytics and Information Systems

This conceptual contribution explains how the idea of “facets of work” can bring more knowledge and richer, more evocative ideas to the development of system requirements in organizational settings. Focusing on facets of work potentially provides useful guidance without requiring unnecessary details, precision, and notation. A background section summarizes how the current research emerged from partial overlaps between separate research efforts. Table 1 identifies 18 facets of work. Five other tables look at a subset of the facets to illustrate concepts associated with specific facets, common success factors and tradeoffs, sub-facets and other topics. Use of the same subset of …

Comparison Of Hybridizing Options For Solar Heat, Biomass And Heat Storage For Electricity Generation In Spain, Cm Iftekhar Hussain, Brian Norton, Aidan Duffy

Articles

Diurnal and seasonal variations of direct solar energy circumscribe locations suitable for sole use of concentrated solar power for electricity generation, whereas to generate electricity at night and during winter months, biomass systems can be used that incur fuel expenditures and may encounter fuel supply discontinuities. Combining solar heat, biomass conversion and heat storage in a hybrid electricity generation plant may overcome the limitations of sole use of any one of these energy sources in specific geographic and/or economic conditions. In this work standalone biomass, hybrid concentrated solar power-biomass and hybrid concentrated solar power-biomass-thermal energy storage power generation systems are …

Mapping The In-Plane Electric Field Inside Irradiated Diodes, L. Poley, A.J. Blue, C. Buttar, V. Cindro, C. Darroch, V. Fadayev, J. Fernandez-Tejero, C. Fleta, C. Helling, C. Labitan, I. Mandic, S.N. Santpur, D. Sperlich, M. Ullan, Y. Unno

Articles

A significant aspect of the Phase-II Upgrade of the ATLAS detector is the replacement of the current Inner Detector with the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk). The ATLAS ITk is an all-silicon detector consisting of a pixel tracker and a strip tracker. Sensors for the ITk strip tracker have been developed to withstand the high radiation environment in the ATLAS detector after the High Luminosity Upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which will significantly increase the rate of particle collisions and resulting particle tracks. During their operation in the ATLAS detector, sensors for the ITk strip tracker are expected …

An Experiential Online Training Approach For Underrepresented Engineering And Technology Students, Arefeh Mohammadi, Kevin Grosskopf, John Killingsworth

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Workforce pipelines are essential to sustain a productive workforce in an increasingly competitive, high-tech environment. Advanced automation, sensors, materials and data analytics will increase the need for highly skilled workers in the manufacturing (and manufactured construction) sector. Attracting and developing the next-generation workforce is not without its challenges; however, students are often deficient in technical skills and generally have negative perceptions about manufacturing and construction. As a result, new education and training models have been developed to provide instruction at all levels of the educational system, with a focus on both traditional students and non-traditional students, including ethnic minorities, women, …

Investigating Multidimensional Characteristics Of Noise Signals With Tones From Building Mechanical Systems And Their Effects On Annoyance, Joonhee Lee, Lily M. Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This paper investigates multidimensional characteristics of tonal noise from heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems, besides loudness and tonality, to improve prediction of annoyance. Two studies were conducted: multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis to determine what other perceptual signal characteristics are important and perceptual weight analysis (PWA) to understand the impact of multiple tones in a signal. In the MDS study, paired comparison tasks were conducted to gather similarity and annoyance data. Results show that the latent perceptual dimensions are related to the signal’s tonality, loudness, sharpness, and roughness. Including metrics for these perceptions, except roughness, improves the performance of earlier annoyance …