Digital Commons Network^™

Compact Heterogeneous Architectures And Algorithmic Methods For Enhanced Real-Time Digital True Time Delay Beamforming And Radar Applications, Nathan Lynn Burnett

Theses and Dissertations

Modern radar and signal processing systems require efficient computational architectures to handle increasing data rates while still being able to maintain dynamic configurability and complex tasks. This thesis presents and explores hardware and algorithmic approaches addressing these demands across several different applications. First, a low-cost tracking platform and architecture for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is developed, which provides detection and tracking capabilities, compliant with new FAA remote ID regulations. Second, a GPU-FPGA based digital true time delay beamformer is implemented to achieve real-time wideband radio frequency interference (RFI) mitigation. Specifically this beamformer explores weight calculation and calibration through particle swarm …

Versatile Waveform Generation And Clocking Techniques For Rfsoc-Based Digital Designs, Michael David Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Within an ever-evolving radio-frequency (RF) environment, designers are required to adapt systems to increasingly constricted parameters. The available tools continually grow to match this need, but so does the complexity in using them. The radio-frequency system-on-chip (RFSoC) is an innovation that combines a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) with an integrated RF chain. Designing with an RFSoC allows for high-precision data transmission, sampling, and processing, but it can be difficult and time-consuming to develop specialized circuits. The open-source CASPER project aims to provide a library of abstracted block-design components to simplify the design process. An arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) is created …

Accelerating Gnn Inference On Multi-Core Systems, Binglin Ji

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are becoming increasingly popular, with their applications expanding across diverse domains. As the scale of graph data continues to grow, including larger numbers of nodes, edges, and higher embedding dimensions, standardized libraries such as DGL and PyG have been developed to facilitate GNN computation. However, with the rapid increase in the number of processor cores and the evolution of multi-core architectures, these libraries often show poor scalability and fail to execute GNN inference efficiently on the latest multi-core systems, particularly those with upwards of a hundred cores. To address this limitation, we present FGI, a Fast …

An Inexpensive, Open, And Extensible Hardware-In-The-Loop Cubesat Test And Simulation Infrastructure, Andrew Greenberg, Glenn Lebrasseur, Max Eltzroth, Rose Edington, Anna Meneely, Maxwell Millar

Small Satellite Conference

We have developed an inexpensive, open source, and extensible hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test and simulation system to allow even small CubeSat teams to dramatically improve their testing infrastructure to increase reliability during flight.

Retracted: Mathematical Properties And Simulations Of The Neutrosophic Gompertz-Inverse Burr-X Distribution With Application To Under-Five Mortality, Mustafa Hassan Jumaa, Asmaa S. Qaddoori, Sara A. Khalaf, Nooruldeen A. Noori, Mundher A. Khaleel

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

Despite significant progress in the development of statistical distributions, there remain clear gaps in modelling complex datasets, such as those involving uncertainty or requiring flexible representations of multidimensional variables. This study introduces a new distribution the Neutrosophic Gompertz-Inverse Burr-X (NGoIB-X) distribution to address these challenges. The model is based on the Neutrosophic Gompertz family (NGo-G), which itself employs the T-X method in its formulation. Characterised by four Neutrosophic parameters and a Neutrosophic random variable, the NGoIB-X distribution offers enhanced flexibility for representing and analysing uncertain data. The theoretical properties of the NGoIB-X distribution are explored, including its Neutrosophic probability density …

A New Lightweight Encryption Method Based On The Dna-Rc4 Substitution For Resource-Constrained Iot Devices, Athraa J. H. Witwit, Ahmed Fanfakh, Ali Kadhum Idrees

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

Technology's impact on daily life necessitates increased data protection. Cryptographic systems improve security, ensuring confidentiality and legitimacy of Internet of Things systems. However, resource-constrained devices face challenges like memory, battery life, processing power, and small size. In light of this, lightweight cryptography (LWC) provides techniques specifically tailored to the constraints of resource-constrained Internet of Things devices. However, the presence of a fixed S-Box in some LWC algorithms, such as Advanced Encryption Standard, or the absence of one in others, such as Speck and Tiny Encryption Algorithm, renders them more susceptible to attacks. In this paper, we suggest a new lightweight …

Scalable And Adaptive Agile Framework For Semiconductor Foundry: Advanced Packaging And Heterogeneous Integration Perspective, Pravin Thorat

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

This research addressed the critical requirement for a scalable and adaptive agile framework specifically designed for the unique demands of semiconductor foundries specializing in advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration (HI). The semiconductor industry was encountering growing pressure to innovate and respond quickly to rapidly evolving demands, yet traditional manufacturing processes often struggled to adapt. Existing agile frameworks, mainly developed for the software industry, lacked the necessary adaptations to address the complexities of semiconductor manufacturing, including extended lead times, high capital investment, rigorous quality requirements, and the integration of various technologies. This research gap hindered the ability of semiconductor foundries to …

Enhanced Global Oil Spill Dataset From 1967 To 2023 Based On Text-Form Incident Information, Yiming Liu, Zhuoli Yin, Hua Cai

The School of Sustainability Engineering and Environmental Engineering (SEE) Faculty Publications

Knowing how much oil was released into the environment in each incident is critical to studying the environmental, ecological, and economic impacts of oil spills. However, the release amounts (RAs) for numerous oil spill incidents remain unavailable in a structured format for large-scale analysis. The most extensive global oil spill database, managed by NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration, only documents the worst-case scenario estimations in the machine-readable dataset, while more accurate values are embedded within unstructured incident descriptions and subsequent updates. To enhance the dataset with more accurate RAs, we developed a framework to extract the actual RAs from …

Exploring The Role Of Accessibility In Enhancing User Experience: Trends, Challenges, And Opportunities Across Digital Platforms, Adiba Khan

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

Accessibility was a fundamental aspect of enhancing user experience (UX) across digital platforms, ensuring equitable access to information and services for a diverse range of users, including individuals with visual, auditory, cognitive, or motor impairments. As digital products became increasingly central to education, commerce, and communication, the need for inclusive design grew. This study explored the intersection of accessibility and UX, with a specific focus on how accessibility-driven design improved usability, user satisfaction, engagement, and the overall quality of digital interactions. Grounded in Agile project management principles, the research examined how early integration of accessibility into the software development lifecycle …

64th Annual Rocky Mountain Conference On Magnetic Resonance

Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance

Final program, abstracts, and information about the 64th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance. Held in the Snowbird Resort and Conference Center, Snowbird, Utah, August 3-7, 2025.

Design Of A Fan-Based Test Stand For Evaluating Multicopter Handling In Turbulent Flow, Salim Roig

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

With the innovation of eVTOL rotorcraft the need to analyze how turbulence-induced disturbances from orthogonal flow affect various rotorcraft configurations outside of simulations have grown significantly. To investigate the behavior of this type of flow and how it interacts with various rotorcraft configurations, a turbulent inducing test stand was designed and constructed. The test stand will have two walls of computer fans arranged in an L-shape frame, creating wind gusts that simulate the non-linear turbulent wind experienced by eVTOL. This also aids the Eagle Flight Research Center (EFRC) in their efforts to better understand how disturbances affect the handling qualities …

Genetic Algorithm Optimization To Maximize Sensitivity Of Triboelectric Mems Accelerometers, Yu Tian, Benyamin Davaji, Shahrzad Towfighian

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Scholarship

A genetic algorithm is used to optimize the sensitivity of a triboelectric MEMS accelerometer fabricated using CMOS-compatible processes. The optimization focuses on the structural parameters of an awl-shaped serpentine microspring (ASSM) connected to the proof mass. Constraints are defined by microfabrication standards and the available chip area. Three different constraint problems are considered, and the algo- rithm yields designs with maximized sensitivity in each case. Simulations under various sinusoidal vibration scenarios show that the optimized designs significantly outperform the previous version, achieving a 2.72× improvement at 1000 Hz and up to 20× at 500 Hz.

Towards Applying Artificial Intelligence To Solve Np-Complete Problems Using Quantum Computing, Andrew Robert Haverly

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the methodology for more thoroughly entangling artificial intelligence and quantum computing. This is explored through a background search of problems solved using Grover’s quantum algorithm, a new quantum protein folding and drug discovery algorithm, using Grover’s algorithm to train quantum artificial neural networks, using quantum artificial neural networks for reinforcement learning, mapping classical assembly instructions to quantum circuits to make quantum programming easier, and using prompt engineering to get a classical artificial intelligence agent to solve an NP-Complete problem using a Grover’s algorithm. This method not only simplifies the creation of algorithms but also opens new avenues …

Optical Trapping For The Study Of The Chemical And Physical Dynamics Of Single Particles, Yukai Ai

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the combined technique of optical trapping and Raman spectroscopy (OT-RS) to study the physical and chemical properties, as well as the dynamic surface changes, of single aerosol particles in air. The study covers a wide range of aerosol types, including bioaerosols (such as pollen, bacteria, and fungi), dust particles (such as black carbon, terrestrial, and extraterrestrial materials), and liquid droplets (such as sea-spray aerosols). The optical trapping system used in this work is based on the universal optical trap (UOT), which is capable of trapping and manipulating a wide variety of particle types. These include both transparent …

Load Balancing For Stream Processing In Edge Computing, Faiza Akram

Theses and Dissertations

Unlike cloud-based systems, where resources are centralized for data processing and located at a distance from the source, leading to an increase in the response time, edge computing emerges as a transformative paradigm that processes the data closer to the sources to meet the application’s service requirements. Since the resources in edge computing are distributed and limited, load balancing is crucial. To ensure the prevention of bottlenecks and failures in resource-constrained environments, load balancing is an important aspect of edge computing as it optimizes resource utilization while maintaining the requirements of low-latency applications, improved fault tolerance, energy efficiency, adaptability, scalability, …

Emergence Of Norms In The Presence Of Social Network Structure In A Stochastic Evolutionary Game Theory Model, Parker Foresman

Dissertations and Theses

In their 2000 paper, The Emergence of Classes in a Multi-Agent Bargaining Model, Axtell, Epstein, and Young introduced an agent-based bargaining model to study how social norms can emerge and persist from the decentralized, asynchronous interactions of individual agents in the presence of noise, even when these agents have no predefined preferences or advantages. This thesis extends their model by incorporating structured interaction networks, allowing us to investigate how the topology of agent interactions influences long-run dynamics and norm formation. Using a custom simulation package built in the Julia programming language, we replicate the original results under a complete …

Iraqi’S Car License Plate Recognition Based On Deep Learning, Mushreq Abdulhussain Shuriji, Husam Al-Behadili, Hadel A. Hussain

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

Vehicle license plate recognition is essential due to the rising number of operational cars, which leads to an increasing difficulty of this task even for humans. Systems for car license recognition normally consist of two branch systems, namely, license plate recognition and license plate detection. The aim of the detection part is to pinpoint the car and the position of its license plate, while the objective of the recognition part is to recognize characters on that plate. In this work, the emphasis is on Arabic car license plates. In this category of plates, there are three lines containing numerals and …

Novel Nanomaterials For Developing Bone Scaffolds And Tissue Regeneration, Nazim Uddin Emon, Lu Zhang, Shelby Dawn Osborne, Mark Allen Lanoue, Yan Huang, Z. Ryan Tian

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nanotechnologies bring a rapid paradigm shift in hard and soft bone tissue regeneration (BTR) through unprecedented control over the nanoscale structures and chemistry of biocompatible materials to regenerate the intricate architecture and functional adaptability of bone. This review focuses on the transformative analyses and prospects of current and next-generation nanomaterials in designing bioactive bone scaffolds, emphasizing hierarchical architecture, mechanical resilience, and regenerative precision. Mainly, this review elucidated the innovative findings, new capabilities, unmet challenges, and possible future opportunities associated with biocompatible inorganic ceramics (e.g., phosphates, metallic oxides) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approved synthetic polymers, including …

Coding For Nonstandard Channels: A Capacity-Oriented Approach, J Daniel Harman

Theses and Dissertations

This work addresses the issue of coding for non-standard channel models with an emphasis on capacity-oriented channel analysis and system design. The first channel studied is the Wyner wiretap channel. Channel sounding results were obtained to calculate the capacity for the multi-antenna case of the Wyner wiretap channel to ascertain the potential for secure communication via secrecy coding. The second channel studied is an asymmetric binary crossover erasure channel (ABCEC) with a short-blocklength constraint. The capacity for this channel was derived, and linear codes were chosen and tested. Another study was conducted on the ABCEC within a degraded wiretap channel …

Investigation Of The Boulder Porphyry Prospect Jefferson County, Montana, Everett Labudda

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

With increasing demand for domestic sources of base, precious, and critical metals, previously underexplored mineral systems in the United States are gaining attention. The Boulder Porphyry project (BPP), located 15 miles north of Butte, in Jefferson County, Montana, represents a concealed and underexplored copper-molybdenum porphyry system that shares a similar geologic setting with the world-class mining district in Butte, Montana. This thesis applies a combination of traditional and modern exploration techniques to better understand the nature of hydrothermal mineralization at the BPP. Short-wave infrared (SWIR) analysis of drill core, coupled with bulk rock geochemistry, is used to characterize hydrothermal alteration …

Measurements Of Spinal Posture During Common Strawberry Picking Positions Using Inertial Measurement Units, Madeline E. Everson

Master's Theses

Physically demanding professions, such as agriculture, put people at an increased

risk for experiencing back pain. This is due to the awkward and harmful postures sustained

throughout their workday. While studies have been done demonstrating that back pain is

prevalent amongst this community, most do not collect motion capture (MoCap) data,

leaving the specifics of the kinematics, such as the amount of time spent in harmful

postures, unknown. Unfortunately, MoCap data is typically limited to that of a lab or

facility where the cameras are housed. Therefore, this study aimed to mitigate the

inaccessibility of traditional MoCap by validating that …

An Inference Approach For Assessing Place-Based Vulnerability To Heat Mortality, Junkang Xu, Chao Fan, Xing Xu, Haoying Han

Publications

A global increase in the frequency, severity, and scale of extreme heat raises concerns about human vulnerability to climate change and associated mortality. Heat vulnerability and mortality have largely been studied separately, lacking an understanding of their causation. Here, we create a non-parametric generalized inference approach that links socioeconomic, environmental, and infrastructure factors articulated in vulnerability theory and heat mortality between 2010 and 2020 for counties across the United States. We find that the lack of vegetation coverages drives mortality in the Southern U.S. and among Hispanic people. Limited air conditioning is a key factor in heat-related mortality among White …

Development Of A Machine Learning Framework For An Irrigation Decision Support System, Eric Wilkening, Derek M. Heeren, Yeyin Shi, Laila A. Puntel, Guillermo R. Balboa, Abia Katimbo, Kuan Zhang, Precious Nneka Amori, Bruno Lena

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Currently used irrigation scheduling techniques often require significant human intervention and are time consuming, particularly for variable rate irrigation. This research aimed to develop a conceptual framework that incorporates disparate data sources leveraging both mechanistic and machine learning (ML) approaches. The overarching objective is to utilize the growing availability of data and technology to manage irrigation more precisely, which will minimize negative impacts of irrigation on our water resources. An initial irrigation machine learning model was proposed and tested in this study as a key component of an edge-cloud computing and federated learning decision-making framework. The specific objectives were (1) …

An Active Quasi-Circulator Ic And Technique For 1-255 Mhz Resonance-Based Spectroscopic Impedance Plethysmography, Sharisse Poff

Theses and Dissertations

Impedance measurement is a promising avenue for noninvasive glucosemonitoring. Specifically,resonance-basedimpedancemeasurements exhibit good correlation with glucose levels at excitations from tens of MHztoover 100 MHz. Additionally, plethysmographic impedance measurements are needed to separate arterial blood signals, which contain strongerglucose information, frominterstitialfluidsignals. Weanticipate that plethysmographic measurements across a range of frequencies— spectroscopic plethysmography—at excitations from tens to over 100 MHz could enable resonance-based monitoring with higher selectivity for arterial glucose than previous work. Afour-point impedance measurement circuit is designed, and its ability to measure constant and periodically time-varying impedance is demonstrated. This circuit presents high impedance to the device-undertest (DUT), which fails …

Design, Modeling, Control, And Analysis Of A Modular Two-Wheeled Self-Balancing Robotic System, Mishek Jair Musa

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two-wheeled self-balancing robots have garnered substantial attention within the realms of research and innovation in academia and industrial settings. In particular, advances in control algorithms, machine learning, reinforcement learning, and sensor technologies have played a pivotal role in their development. Although primarily recognized for their utility in personal transportation in the commercial sector, these robots possess potential applications across various domains, including search and rescue, healthcare, material handling, logistics, etc., due to their active stabilization and exceptional maneuvering capabilities. A particular area of interest lies in the creation of modular self-balancing robots designed for seamless reconfiguration and enhanced human interaction. …

Decoding Anisotropic Porous Medium: A Synergy Of Lattice Boltzmann Modelling And Operator Learning To Predict Permeability As A Function Of Orientation, Soumya Shouvik Bhattacharjee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Understanding the directional properties of porous media is essential for accurately predicting flow behavior, reactive transport, and fluid-solid interactions in systems ranging from geothermal reservoirs to energy storage devices and biological tissues. Directional variations in permeability - reflecting a medium's response to flow at different angular orientations - are particularly important for complex, inherently anisotropic geometries. In this study, we employ a Lattice Boltzmann (LBM) model to calculate directional permeabilities from porous media images subjected to varying flow inlet angles. Three classes of porous media were investigated: (1) synthetic media with circular grains, serving as isotropic baselines; (2) synthetic media …

Effects Of Environmental Stressors On Human Tissue-On-A-Chip Platforms, Andie Padilla

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As space exploration begins to extend beyond low earth orbit, it has become increasingly critical to understand the interaction of the extreme environment of space flight with human systems. While it is known that space-travel induces a vast array of complications to cardiac, neural, musculoskeletal, and immune systems, the mechanisms by which these complications occur are poorly understood. Current research to study the effects of microgravity and radiation are limited to ground simulations, which rarely account for the multifactorial stressors experienced during spaceflight, or long duration studies aboard the International Space Station. Similarly, traditional two-dimensional (2D) models lack the ability …

Enhancing Credit Path Planning With Llm-Based Multi-Agent Systems, Sahar Yarmohammadtoosky

Dissertations

This work explores applying Multi-Agent (MA) Large Language Models (LLMs) to enhance credit card management, an underexplored area for their multi-step reasoning capabilities. Focusing on Equifax’s Optimal Path™ model [1]—a personalized solution for credit score optimization—the study addresses two key challenges: first, designing a natural language interface for financial credit models to improve accessibility and aid customer decision-making, and second, enhancing the reliability and real-world applicability of complex financial models prone to generating invalid or unfeasible recommendations caused by a lack of practical interpretability and susceptibility to edge cases. To tackle these, we propose and evaluate various MA designs, including …

Integration And Testing Of A Quadruped Robot With Ros2, Jeremy S. West

Master's Theses

The Cal Poly Legged Robotics Group has been developing research and teaching platforms for agile legged robotics since 2020. These platforms are expected to provide students with opportunities to develop complete legged-robot systems from low-level control to advanced robotics tasks such as motion planning and decision making. However, the current prototyped quadruped robot lacked the software and sensing capabilities for high-level quadrupedal gaits and advanced robotic research.

To address these challenges, this project developed Switch, a robotic platform that builds upon the previous BRUCE platform with significant hardware and software upgrades. Switch features a modular design that allows individual software …

Development Of A Control System For An 8-Dof Quadrupedal Robotic Research Platform, Jack Butler

Master's Theses

Quadrupedal robots offer a versatile locomotion option that can extend the operating space of a robot into uneven terrains. However, controlling these systems presents significant challenges due to nonlinearities introduced by various factors.

In this thesis, model-predictive control (MPC) is applied to an 8-DOF legged robot developed by Cal Poly’s Legged Robotics group. The MPC framework employs a lumped rigid-body model that treats the robot as a single rigid body with forces applied directly at the foot contact points. The controller is developed within the ROS2 environment, with integration of state estimation and gait-pattern generation, to provide maximum modularity and …