Other Engineering Commons^™

Design Of Control Logic And The Human-Machine Interface For A Demonstration Plant Growth Chamber Implemented On A Programmable Logic Controller, Rachael Koehler

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This honors thesis covers the planning, development, and implementation of system controls and human-machine interface (HMI) for a demonstration plant growth chamber. The work is a continuation of an ongoing project to be used as an educational and recruiting tool manifesting the skills acquired from the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas’ College of Engineering. This work includes emergency controls, overall design interface, and controls for both the aeration and lighting subsystems of the growth chamber. Overall design interface controls established included development of two user modes, Administrator and Visitor. The Administrator user will have full …

Characterizing Students’ Engineering Design Strategies Using Energy3d, Jasmine Singh, Viranga Perera, Alejandra Magana, Brittany Newell

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

The goals of this study are to characterize design actions that students performed when solving a design challenge, and to create a machine learning model to help future students make better engineering design choices. We analyze data from an introductory engineering course where students used Energy3D, an open source computer-aided design software, to design a zero-energy home (i.e. a home that consumes no net energy over a period of a year). Student design actions within the software were recorded into text files. Using a sample of over 300 students, we first identify patterns in the data to assess how students …

Project Blipper, Peter Jacobs, Preston Delaware, Ryan Foster

Senior Design Project For Engineers

This project was sponsored by Clorox to design and create an automatic bottle-unscrambling system for possible implementation at their bottling plant in Chile. The objective was to use a robotic arm to unscramble bottles from an incoming conveyor belt and place them upright on an outbound conveyor belt. Throughout the research, design, and testing of solutions for this project, several design alternatives were found for each discipline, and will be presented to Clorox so that they can make an informed decision for how and if they want to move forward with implementation of this project.

The project was split into …

Kennesaw State University And United Alloy Corporation Robotic Pick And Place Project, Kathryn Bharadwaj, Logan Spencer, Tharkun Hudlow

Senior Design Project For Engineers

United Alloy Corporation (UAC), a company specializing in unique aluminum parts for aeronautics, needed a fix to their error prone, labor-intensive billet press operation. The process has a problem of adding the wrong size or wrong alloy billet to the induction oven, which results in a waste of raw materials. The billets range from ten to thirty-seven inches in length and weigh up to three hundred pounds. Currently, an operator uses a gantry crane to check and lift the billets from a rack onto the magazine of an induction oven. The magazine can hold up to three billets safely and …

Versatile Home Workspace Environment, Kayli Holmes

Honors Theses

Since the initial spread of COVID-19, many individuals around the world have experienced a rapid shift from an external workplace, to needing a dedicated workspace within the home. While some individuals have been faced with new distractions like family members and pets, others have been faced with the struggle of having a workspace in common areas, where relaxation and socialization normally occur. Due to the needs for many people to work from home and be isolated from coworkers, it is essential for living spaces to be adaptable to meet these needs. Producing an effective separation can help lead to overall …

Hinging, Propping, And Latching Mechanisms For Sunseeker Solar Car, Zachary Ruppenthal

Honors Theses

In this project, designs for the hinging, propping, and latching mechanisms on the 2021 Sunseeker Solar Car were created. These designs allow for the car’s array of solar panels to be held at any desired angle to maximize collection of solar power and give the team access to the battery and driver compartment. Removable telescoping prop rods with pin attachments are used to set the array at a desired angle. The hinging mechanism allows for the array to be lifted vertically prior to rotation in order to avoid interference with the car’s roll cage. To accomplish this, two four-bar linkages …

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 2

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 2.

The Importance Of Managerial Positions In The Agile Development Process, Adam Gray

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In software engineering, the Agile development process is becoming one of the most effective methods to handle the issues of continuous change and fast development. However, there are still some perceived issues that many Agile developers face, and a lot of these issues can seemingly stem from their managers. For example, it may seem like the manager is not always up-to-date on the various aspects of the project, or that they have closed off their mind to new ideas. In this paper, we include an in-depth analysis of the various managerial positions that can be found in the Agile development …

Visual Management In Engineering Can Improve Resource Utilization And Reduce Administrative Non-Value Added Time, Brian Kirby Trent

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This research has demonstrated how Visual Management (VM) can be used in an engineering environment to improve engineering resource utilization. Furthermore, it reduces the administrative time associated with unclear project scope, schedule, budget, and task alignment amongst engineers and project leadership. The research references a case study in which low engineering utilization was directly impacting overall project success. Inconsistent visibility of scheduled engineering activities, changes in tasking, and project metrics created uncertainty and resulted in greater than appropriate administrative time. The methodology used was to implement visual project management tools and track engineer utilization over two years. Quarterly utilization results …

Study Of Fragility Functions For Assessing Damage To Water Pipe Networks Caused By Earthquake Loading, Dylan Joseph Merlo

Master's Theses

The performance of water lifelines during seismic events is an area of ongoing research. In this study we evaluate eight (8) different seismic events and the impact that ground shaking and ground deformations had on water pipeline systems. The overall goal of this work is to provide municipalities and utility providers with tools for mitigating the consequences of seismic hazards on water lifeline systems by analyzing the accuracy of damage estimation models. Three (3) different repair rate models are evaluated using data collected from the seismic events and compared to observed repair rate data. Results are analyzed to examine the …

Cost Functions Of Crabs: Applications Of Hermit Crab Shell Exchange Behavior To Vacancy Chain Modelling, Hannah Miele

Senior Honors Theses

Vacancy chain systems function as a method of resource distribution in domains such as housing and labor markets. Hermit crabs also employ vacancy chains as a method of shell exchange. Application of vacancy chain modelling in engineering has been attempted, but numerous flaws exist in the developed vacancy chain scheduling algorithm. This work addresses the lack of an appropriate vacancy chain cost function by developing a generalizable cost function based on hermit crab shell exchange behavior. The cost function’s purpose is enabling development of realistic engineering experiments and models based on real-world vacancy chain systems.

Exploiting Pull-In/Pull-Out Hysteresis In Electrostatic Mems Sensor Networks To Realize A Novel Sensing Continuous-Time Recurrent Neural Network, Mohammad H. Hasan, Amin Abbasalipour, Hamed Nikfarjam, Siavash Pourkamali, Muhammad Emad-Un-Din, Roozbeh Jafari, Fadi Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The goal of this paper is to provide a novel computing approach that can be used to reduce the power consumption, size, and cost of wearable electronics. To achieve this goal, the use of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors for simultaneous sensing and computing is introduced. Specifically, by enabling sensing and computing locally at the MEMS sensor node and utilizing the usually unwanted pull in/out hysteresis, we may eliminate the need for cloud computing and reduce the use of analog-to-digital converters, sampling circuits, and digital processors. As a proof of concept, we show that a simulation model of a network of …

Optimizing Critical Values And Combining Axes For Multi-Axial Neck Injury Criteria, Ethan J. Gaston

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force employs ejection seats in its high-performance aircraft. While these systems are intended to ensure aircrew safety, the ejection process subjects the aircrew to potentially injurious forces. System validation includes evaluation of forces against a standard which is linked to the probability of injury. The Muti-Axial Neck Injury Criteria (MANIC) was developed to account for forces in all six degrees of freedom. Unfortunately, the MANIC is applied to each of the three linear input directions separately and applies different criterion values for each direction. These three separate criteria create a lack of clarity regarding acceptable neck loading, leading …

Quasi-Static Nonlinear Seismic Assessment Of A Fourth Century A.D. Roman Aqueduct In Istanbul, Turkey, Semih Gonen, Ece Erdogmus, Engin Karaesmen, Erhan Karaesmen

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The majority of architectural heritage consists of load-bearing masonry components made up of stone units and relatively weak mortar joints, yielding potential weak planes for masonry structures where tension and shear failures are expected to occur. Advanced nonlinear analyses are required to simulate these phenomena and predict the corresponding nonlinear structural behavior of historic masonry constructions. In this context, this paper presents a model of a stone masonry Roman aqueduct (the Valens Aqueduct), constructed in the fourth century A.D. in Istanbul, Turkey, to explore the seismic capacity and behavior using the discrete element method (DEM). The employed modeling approach comprises …

Exploring How Prize Challenges Complement An Organization's Innovation Efforts, Ademir Vrolijk, Zoe Szajnfarber

CESUN Conference

prize challenge, open innovation, crowdsourcing, NASA, 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, additive manufacturing

Investigating The Performance Of Hydroponic Nutrient Solutions As Potential Draw Solutions For Fertilizer Drawn Forward Osmosis, Mohamed Bassiouny Abu Qersh

Theses and Dissertations

This research project aims at investigating the performance of hydroponic nutrient solutions as draw solutions for desalination using the fertilizer drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) process. Six different lettuce and leafy greens hydroponic nutrient stock solutions were prepared according to the literature and used in this study and tested on a bench-scale forward osmosis unit as draw solutions for the process. The feed solutions for the process was de-ionized water mixed with Sodium Chloride in different concentrations to represent different salinities of brackish groundwater. The draw efficiency of each solution was measured based on water flux, reverse solute flux, water recovery, …

Feasibility Of Lora For Smart Home Indoor Localization, Kyungki Kim, Sining Li, Milad Heydariaan, Nour Smaoui, Omprakash Gnawali, Wonho Suh, Min Jae Suh, Jung In Kim

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

With the advancement of low-power and low-cost wireless technologies in the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been growing rapidly in numerous areas of Industry 4.0 and smart homes. With the development of many applications for the IoT, indoor localization, i.e., the capability to determine the physical location of people or devices, has become an important component of smart homes. Various wireless technologies have been used for indoor localization includingWiFi, ultra-wideband (UWB), Bluetooth low energy (BLE), radio-frequency identification (RFID), and LoRa. The ability of low-cost long range (LoRa) radios for low-power and long-range communication has made this …

Scaffolding Middle And High School Students’ Engineering Design Experiences: Quality Problem-Scopeing Promoting Successful Solutions, Andrew Hughes, Cameron Denson

Educational Leadership & Technology Faculty Publications

Highly proficient expert engineers begin the iterative process of design by thoroughly investigating the design problem. Engineering students are often distracted by surface details, leading to a faulty conception of the problem and inappropriate solution strategies. Adequate problem-scoping is arguably the most important step in the design process. To address this issue, the researchers developed an instructional framework to help teachers scaffold students’ cognitive and metacognitive processes during the problem-scoping phase of a design challenge. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate the impact that scaffolded instruction related to the SCOPE process had on students’ solution success during …

The North Sky And The Otherworld: Journeys Of The Dead In The Neolithic Considered, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

The majority of Irish passage tombs (c. 230) predominantly date to the Middle Neolithic (c. 3600–3000 BC). A small number of summit cairns may also contain passage tombs because of their round form, proximity and intervisibility. The island’s passage tombs and related cairns share distinguishing characteristics – elevated siting, visibility and long-range views of distant horizons in varying directions of the compass. This chapter presents the findings of the first scenic analysis of the horizon and views at these sites recorded at an island scale. The method uses measured orientations of horizon sectors related to observed variation in horizon range. …

Optimisation Of Retrofit Wall Insulation: An Irish Case Study, Rakshit D. Muddu, D M. Gowda, Anthony James Robinson, Aimee Byrne

Articles

Ireland has one of the highest rates of emissions per capita in the world and its residential sector is responsible for approximately 10% of total national CO2 emissions. Therefore, reducing the CO2 emissions in this sector will play a decisive role in achieving EU targets of reducing emissions by 40% by 2030. To better inform decisions regarding retrofit of the existing building stock, this study proposes Optimum Insulation Thicknesses (OIT) for typical walls in 25 regions in Ireland. The calculation of OIT includes annual heat energy expenditure, CO2 emissions, and material payback period. The approach taken is based on Heating …