Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Roadmap On Artificial Intelligence-Augmented Additive Manufacturing, Ali Zolfagharian, Liuchao Jin, Qi Ge, Wei-Hsin Liao, Andrés Díaz Lantada, Francisco Franco Martínez, Tianyu Zhang, Tao Liu, Charlie C.L. Wang, Mohammad Hossein Mosallanejad, Reza Ghanavati, Abdollah Saboori, Alejandro De Blas De Miguel, William Solórzano-Requejo, Yi Cai, Xiangyang Dong, Huangyi Qu, Najmeh Samadiani, Guangyan Huang, Austin Downey, Yanzhou Fu, Lang Yuan

Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence-augmented additive manufacturing (AI2AM) represents a transformative frontier in digital fabrication, where artificial intelligence (AI) is embedded not as a peripheral tool, but as a central framework driving intelligent, adaptive, and autonomous additive manufacturing (AM) systems. The objective of this Roadmap is to present a comprehensive vision of the state-of-the-art developments in AI2AM while charting the future trajectory of this rapidly emerging field. As AM applications continue to expand across diverse sectors, conventional design and control strategies face growing limitations in scalability, quality assurance, and material complexity. AI uses tools like computer vision, generative design, and large language models …

Natural Convection Of Cuo-Water Nanofluid Flow Along A Vertical Plate With Variable Thermophysical Properties And Discrete Heat Sources, Nepal Roy, Ioan Pop, Rama Subba Reddy Gorla

Faculty Publications

Effects of discrete heat sources along a vertical plate are of practical importance due their occurrence in electronic devices. For growing demand of electronic appliances and their advancement, cooling processes of them must be improved. As usual fluids have limited heat transfer, nanofluids made by dispersing nanoparticles into them are utilized to enhance thermal performance. However, flow characteristics and heat transfer of a nanofluid for discrete heat sources along a vertical plate need to be explored. For this reason, this study analyzes the natural convective heat transfer and flow behaviors of CuO-water nanofluid induced by discrete heat sources along a …

Numerical Study Of Nutrient Mixing In Trabecular Bone In Microgravity, Disuse And Normogravity, Sagar Gharti

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Mechanical loading is known to regulate bone remodeling by driving interstitial fluid flow which stimulates cells and drives nutrient transport within the trabecular network. In microgravity, the absence of mechanical stimulation or loading suppresses convective flow processes, causing diffusion-driven nutrient mixing and renewal, and accelerated bone loss. This thesis investigates how oscillation frequency and trabecular bone density jointly control nutrient mixing and wall shear stress within trabecular cavities.

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) framework is developed in STAR-CCM+ using a soft-cap oscillation model that mimics cyclic compression. Three idealized trabecular morphologies are simulated across different frequencies to represent microgravity or …

Ellie - Exteroceptive Light Locomotion In Eukaryote-Fungi, Brandon Etwarroo

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Over the past decade, fungal research and its technological applications have expanded across multiple disciplines, including the emerging field of biohybrid systems. This thesis develops and evaluates a wireless, untethered mobile robot controlled by the action potential-like activity generated by Pleurotus ostreatus sporocarps under red, green, and blue optical stimulation. Light is applied to the sporocarps, the resulting electrical responses are recorded, and these signals are transmitted wirelessly to actuate the mobile robot. Both the action potential-like activity patterns and the robot’s movement trajectories were analyzed. The results demonstrate that wireless robotic control mediated by fungal electrophysiology is feasible. Overall, …

Effect Of Nozzle Pressure Ratio On Thrust And Flow Behavior In A Supersonic De Laval Nozzle, Esha Jain

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Supersonic nozzles operate across a range of flow regimes. While an ideally expanded condition yields optimal thrust, practical propulsion systems rarely operate at this design point due to variations in altitude and engine operating conditions. As a result, nozzles frequently operate in off-design conditions. In overexpanded regime, where the exit pressure is lower than the ambient pressure, shock-induced separation may occur within the divergent section of the nozzle, potentially degrading nozzle performance. Understanding the aerodynamic behavior of nozzles operating under off-design conditions is therefore important for improving propulsion system performance and stability. In particular, direct thrust measurements provide a key …

Evaluating Uav Visual-Inertial Odometry Trajectory Error And Feature-Level Metrics Over Repetitive Floor Patterns, Anass El Mekkoussi

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO) is a widely used state estimation technique for Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) navigation in environments where Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals are unavailable. VIO systems that rely on visual feature tracking are susceptible to performance degradation when operating over surfaces containing repetitive visual textures, where visually similar features can produce ambiguous correspondences that introduce errors into the trajectory estimate. Despite the prevalence of repetitive textures in indoor UAV operating environments such as warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and infrastructure corridors, the specific impact of different repetitive pattern geometries on per-surface VIO accuracy has received limited systematic study, and …

Materials Testing Furnace 2026, Austin Gregson, Lucas Lafayette, Mekhi Hale

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

This thesis presents the design, analysis, manufacturing, and testing of a material testing furnace for its intended use at Santa Clara University. The goal of this project is to develop a cost-effective and adaptable furnace capable of providing a controlled hightemperature, inert environment for material characterization. The furnace incorporates welded aluminum chambers, stainless steel load-transfer rams, an argon-based atmospheric control system, and planned tungsten heating elements for reaching temperatures up to 2000 ◦C. Trade-off analyses were conducted on the ram cooling channel geometry as well as the choice of coolant through both plates and rams. Manufacturing efforts were focused on …

Pool Pump Controls For Load Shifting, Andrew Minocha, Angelo Piziali, Cade Benner, Brinley Chrzanowski

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Residential swimming pool pumps represent the second largest source of energy consumption in California homes, and with approximately 1.3 million pools operating across the state, they collectively represent a significant opportunity for grid-level load flexibility. This project presents the design, construction, and commissioning of a proof-of-concept laboratory test rig developed to validate a load-shifting algorithm on a commercially available variable-speed pool pump. The system retrofits a donated Pentair Intelliflo3 VSF pump with an external Raspberry Pi 4 controller that commands pump speed through relay-based digital inputs and logs hydraulic and electrical performance data in real time. A simulated pool filtration …

Enhancing Nasa Sounding Rocket Capabilities Through Composite Material Adoption, Robert Burth

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Sounding rockets are a suborbital research platform employed by NASA for heliophysics, astrophysics, geospace science investigations, and for technology development. They follow semi-parabolic trajectories and are launched using surplus military, and commercial, solid-propellant rocket motors. NASA sounding rocket payloads are comprised of standard, modular subassemblies, designed to perform specific functions critical to achieving specific mission success criteria.

Since the program’s inception, payload length and mass have trended upwards, limiting the capability of the platform to reach exospheric apogees and decreasing the time above critical altitudes to observe solar and celestial targets. To offset this trend, composite materials may be of …

Cure Sound Project: Study In Silence?, Quezia Abrao, Deeya Bhadresa, Elisa Castro, Fiona Coulbourne, Carlos Flores, Lizzeth Holguin, Lazarus Maldonado, Jeremy Mares, Andrew Martini, Nicole Matthews, Katherine Montero, Mariana Reyes, Jacob Rodriguez, Julieta Ruiz, Eliana Sanchez, Gabriela Varela

Posters - 2026

Difference in sound levels in study areas across campus can affect students’ ability to work and learn efficiently 1.

According to the WHO, safe sound levels are measured to be around 70dB 2. Some study areas on campus experience sound levels exceeding the safe threshold. Unsafe sound levels are considered to be at or above 85dB 3. These unsafe and excessive noise levels negatively affect a student’s ability to concentrate and work efficiently which correlates to a decrease in class performance, attention deficits, and stress 4.

This study aims to get a base-line measurement of dB levels in common study …

Bio-Payload Senior Design Report, Connor Bishop, Oliver Goodall, Marcus Kirk, Gabby Robles, Anish Shanmuganathan

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

This project focuses on the design and development of an autonomous experimental platform capable of conducting cellular biology experiments in a well plate within a CubeSat environment. The system integrates microfluidics, robotics, and onboard sensors to remotely initiate experiments, monitor them, and collect data without human intervention. The objective is to create a platform for automated biological experimentation in microgravity, while reducing reliance on ground-based control and increasing mission efficiency and reproducibility. The team used Saccharomyces cerevisiae to assess the biocompatibility of the well plate and monitor changes in cell culture, including optical density and cell viability.

2026 (Spring) Ensi Informer Magazine, Morehead State University. Engineering Sciences Department

ENSI Informer Magazine Archive

The ENSI Informer Magazine published in the spring of 2026.

Quantum Spin-Like Behavior Of Elastic Guided Waves: Quantized Geometric Phase For Nde And Shm, Md Ebrahim Khalil Bhuiyan

Theses and Dissertations

Ultrasonic guided waves are widely used in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM) for detecting defects and damage in engineering materials and structures. Conventional diagnostic features, such as attenuation of wave amplitude, shifts in time-of-flight, and frequency variations are widely used for damage identification. However, these metrics are inherently sensitive to environmental and operational variations, including temperature, pressure, humidity, sensor coupling conditions, boundary constraints, and external loading. Such sensitivities introduce significant uncertainty in signal interpretation, often obscuring damage-related signatures. Recent advances in wave physics have revealed that elastic guided waves exhibit intrinsic spin angular momentum (SAM), arising from …

Development And Optimization Of Aluminum-Water Reactors For Efficient And Sustainable Hydrogen Production, Guru Prasad Dhungel

Theses and Dissertations

Hydrogen is a promising clean energy carrier; however, safe, controllable, and on- demand hydrogen generation remains a significant engineering challenge. Aluminum– water reactions offer high theoretical hydrogen yield, but practical implementation is limited by oxide passivation and difficulty in maintaining stable thermal and pressure conditions.

This study investigates hydrogen generation from aluminum foam–steam reactions under controlled temperature and pressure using engineered reactor configurations. Three reactor designs, horizontal, vertical, and cylindrical—were experimentally optimized, developed and evaluated to enhance hydrogen production rate and pressure stability without chemical additives. The experiments focused on heat transfer behavior, steam management, pressure buildup, and reaction stability. …

Strain-Induced Oxygen Vacancy Effect On Thermoelectric Properties In Oxide Thin Films, Ebenezer Seesi

Theses and Dissertations

The development of highly efficient and cost-effective thermoelectric (TE) materials is critical for converting waste heat into electricity in advanced power generators. For high-temperature TE applications, transition metal oxides (TMOs) have attracted significant interest because they are comparatively safe, earth-abundant, and stable under oxidizing conditions where many conventional heavy-metal and chalcogenide TE materials degrade. However, the TE performance of TMOs is limited by the intrinsic trade-off between the Seebeck coefficient (S) and electrical conductivity (σ), both of which depend inversely on charge carrier concentration. This constraint limits the achievable power factor (PF = S²∙σ) and remains a central obstacle for …

Plasma Dynamics And Chemistry In Atmospheric Pressure, Ayoub Al Wahaibi

Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric-pressure plasmas are attractive for practical chemical and energy applications because they can be generated without vacuum systems and can produce reactive environments under relatively mild bulk conditions. However, these discharges are often non-uniform and highly sensitive to operating conditions, especially when water or multiphase flows are introduced. This dissertation investigates how atmospheric- pressure plasma behavior and plasma-driven chemistry change in three challenging but application-relevant regimes: water-mist dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs), multiphase plasma-assisted fuel reforming, and striated AC glow discharges. The work combines optical and electrical diagnostics, imaging, chemical analysis, and time-dependent analysis to connect discharge characteristics with measurable chemical …

Deep Learning Models For Anomaly Detection In Industrial Inspection, Jiawei Guo

Theses and Dissertations

Anomaly detection plays a pivotal role in ensuring the longevity and safety of engineered systems, particularly in domains where defects can have significant operational or economic consequences. From internal damage in structural parts to subtle visual defects in manufactured components, identifying abnormal patterns requires models that are both computationally efficient and suitable for real-world deployment. This dissertation explores deep learning-based solutions designed to address these challenges, with a focus on Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and industrial defect inspection under real-world scenarios.

This dissertation first addresses the problem of efficient and reliable component- level perception with limited supervision and strict hardware …

Laser-Based Wideband Guided Ultrasonic Wave Inspection Of Isotropic And Anisotropic Materials, Andrew Philip Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM) have experienced significant growth in both capability and utility as material evaluation and damage detection methods for structural components throughout various industries over the past two decades. Evaluating a structure throughout its life cycle or on demand as needed can identify critical weaknesses that impact safe operation and may prevent failures. Various NDE/SHM methods have been shown to be effective; among them, guided ultrasonic waves (GUW), particularly Lamb wave-based methods, have been intensively studied due to their capability to interrogate internal defects and their relatively larger coverage. With the advancements in new …

Optimizing Auv Perception For Competitive Underwater Robotics: Analyzing Performance And Simplicity Of Machine Vision Hardware, Joseph King

Honors Theses

Underwater robotics is a growing field with many practical applications, such as pipeline and offshore structure monitoring, deep sea mining, mine reconnaissance/removal, and marine environmental monitoring. USM’s Robotics Club will participate in the international RoboSub competition, where student-led teams build autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that perform a variety of tasks within a pool requiring camera-based object detection. This project analyzes affordable hardware and software options for providing machine vision to USM’s future RoboSub AUV. The performance of an ESP32-CAM microcontroller, Raspberry Pi 5, and Jetson Orin Nano single-board computers running FOMO and YOLO object detection models was compared. These models …

Unveiling Value In Plastic Waste: Synthesis Of 1,3-Dioxolan-4-Ones From Polylactic Acid And Polyoxymethylene To Enhance Plastic Biodegradation, Mi-Hyun Lee, Joohyun Park, Hyeongyeong Lee, Woo Yeon Cho, Semin Son, Pyung Cheon Lee, In-Hwan Lee, Hye-Young Jang

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Catalytic plastic upcycling protocols are essential for resolving the environmental and economic challenges associated with massive plastic production and disposal, as they convert complex waste streams into value-added chemicals. We report an efficient acid-catalyzed upcycling strategy for transforming poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and polyoxymethylene (POM) plastic waste. This innovative process directly yielding dioxolanones (DOXs) can be extended to use POM with various naturally abundant α-hydroxy acids. This work significantly expands the high-value chemical portfolio derivable from common plastic wastes. Incorporation of the synthesized DOXs into the poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) backbone results in materials with enhanced thermal stability and superior biodegradability. Critically, …