Architectural Engineering Commons^™

The Xenaform: Structure Through Geometry, Justin Tobias Mendoza Ocampo, Emily Marie Labrador, Banyan Walker, Paul Minchev, Brayden Sean Kelleher, Ethan Mario Ceccarelli

Architectural Engineering

The XenaForm is a geometry-driven structural system that incorporates complex forms generated from simple rules of stability, inspired by the work of Iannis Xenakis and reworked by Professor Edmond Saliklis. This project investigates how structural stability can be achieved through geometric configurations rather than a reliance upon material strength alone. By utilizing the design principles of trilateration and the interconnection of triangular panels, the XenaForm was constructed in accordance with the rules of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures Pavilion Competition. The team generated several design iterations and selected a final design to fabricate and construct, considering affordability, …

Hidden Systems, Samuel Choi

Masters Theses

Across buildings and cities, moisture is managed, concealed, and discharged through convoluted systems of containment. Still, water ultimately resists this framework. It reveals itself as leaks, puddles, condensation—moments typically understood as technical failure. Hidden Systems reframes these conditions as architectural knowledge, one that becomes evidence of water’s material capacity, limits of infrastructure, and a record of time.

NYC is constructed on, powered by, and profiting from water. Although it hosts a robust network, seepages disrupt control, allowing systems to be traced across scales. As pipes expand, contract, and freeze, the project unfolds seasonally, moving through water’s three states: solid, liquid, …

Deployable Shelter Systems For Emergency Response Using Scissor Mechanism, Farzad Saeidi

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

This thesis investigates the architectural potential of deployable scissor-based structures as rapid-response shelter systems for emergency, post-disaster, and transitional recovery contexts. While deployable systems are often valued for speed and compactness, this research frames deployability as a broader architectural capacity that integrates structural performance, transportability, constructability, habitability, and adaptability to uncertain environmental and social conditions.

Climate Responsive Design For Airport Terminals In Hot Arid Climates, Zahra Salmizadeh

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

This thesis argues that the roof of an airport terminal can be transformed from a neutral cover into an operational design tool that actively shapes passenger experience in hot arid environments. Drawing from observed challenges in contemporary airport concourses, including those identified through the D Gates concourse at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas as an example, the study examines roof structure, envelope, and form as distinct but interrelated design fields. It investigates how these components influence wayfinding clarity, thermal and visual comfort, acoustic performance, and spatial identity in large scale airport interiors.

Domain-Specific Design On Fpga And Npu For Scientific Computing And On-Device Llm Inference, Miaoxiang Yu

All Dissertations

High-performance computing (HPC) is changing rapidly as scientific simulations and large language model (LLM) workloads push the need for higher performance under tight power and memory constraints. Conventional platforms such as CPUs and GPUs accelerate computation through instruction-driven parallelism, relying on multithreading, SIMD, and SIMT execution, but increasingly encounter scalability limits imposed by the power and memory walls. In contrast, Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Neural Processing Units (NPUs) offer a high-efficiency alternative through dataflow-oriented architectures that exploit deep pipelining and customized memory hierarchies to reduce data movement. However, the performance potential of these spatial accelerators remains largely unrealized when …

Mineral King Cabin Roof Rennovation, Leilani G. Lau

Architectural Engineering

This project explored performance-based design by analyzing and redesigning the roof for a cabin built in the 1950s and located in Mineral King Valley in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California. The Sierra Nevada Mountains experience heavy amounts of snow during the winter season. In the winter, the cabin is unoccupied, so the performance objective was collapse prevention, rather than life safety. Since the performance objective focused on collapse prevention at a time when the building was unoccupied, the probability of failure did not need to be low, so safety factors were omitted. This approach required deeper understanding of the code …

Innovative Approach To Enhance The Efficiency Of Building Integrated Photovoltaic Panels Through Automated Cooling And Cleaning Using Condensate Water In Extreme Climates, Ali Hasan Shah

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

Photovoltaic (PV) systems in hot and arid climates experience significant performance degradation due to elevated operating temperatures and rapid dust accumulation. Temperature increase alone reduces power output by about 0.4% to 0.5% per degree Celsius above rated conditions. In desert regions, module temperature commonly exceeds standard conditions, which results in power loss above 10%. Dust accumulation adds further degradation, and field measurements report soiling losses above 1% per day without cleaning, with cumulative losses exceeding 20% within short exposure periods. When high temperatures and dust occur together, the combined effect leads to a severe reduction in energy yield. Current mitigation …

Rethinking Housing Evolution In The Uae: An Investigation Of Sha’Abiat, Socio-Spatial Integration, And Sustainable Urban Development In Al Ain City, Boshra Hassan

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

Housing is both a fundamental human need and a core driver of urban form, social life, and cultural continuity. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the rapid transformations of the post-oil era were marked by the establishment of the first national housing model, the Sha’abiat, compact, community-oriented neighborhoods that shaped the early urban form of Emirati cities and reinforced social cohesion. Over time, however, housing policies shifted the housing-scape toward private villas, leaving Sha’abiat increasingly challenged by demographic change, maintenance deficiencies, displacement, and demolition under modernization pressures. Despite these challenges, Sha'abiat remains integral to the UAE’s urban identity and provides …

Restoration Of Rogers Hall, Patsy Glenn

Documents

History and information on much needed repairs of Rogers Hall at UNA, 2006

College Building Transformed Into Museum, Dolly Dalrymple

Documents

An article from The Birmingham News-Age Herald about Wesleyan Hall, its impact on the university and students/faculty, and the addition of a museum to the building, 1940

Una's Predecessor Dates To Feb. 14, 1855, Lorene Frederick

Documents

History of Wesleyan Hall and important dates on the history of UNA

The New Building, The Florence Times

Documents

Information on the new annex for Wesleyan Hall, 1909

Wesleyan Hall An Alabama Landmark, Centerpiece For Training Educators, The Timesdaily

Documents

A walk back in time-some history of Wesleyan Hall by William Lindsey McDonald

Project Courtview Preservation Of Rogers Hall, Project Courtview University Of North Alabama

Documents

Brochure of events for Project Courtview-a fundraising campaign for renovations and preservation of Rogers Hall at UNA

Campaign For Rogers Hall Rededication Ceremony, Campaign For Rogers Hall

Documents

Program for the Rededication Ceremony for Rogers Hall, 2007

Welcome Mat's Out, Susan C. Taylor

Documents

Open House for Rogers Hall, 1985

Hall Of Work, Michele Brown

Documents

Much needed renovations are about to begin on Rogers Hall at UNA

*Article from The TimesDaily

Wesleyan Hall Named Landmark, The Florence Times-Tri-Cities Daily

Documents

Nomination of Wesleyan Hall to the National Register of Historic Places, 1974

New Building Is Accepted By Governor, Florence Times

Documents

New hall at FSTC named for Governor Bibb Graves, 1930

College Is Planning For An Extensive Building Program, Florence Times

Documents

With limited space on campus, Florence State needs to expand