Digital Commons Network^™

Using Flight Simulation As A Convenient Method For Uas Flight Assessment For Contractors, Colin Dees, Joseph M. Burgett

The Professional Constructor

Operating an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for commercial purposes in the United States requires the pilot to pass the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) knowledge exam to earn their UAS license. The exam does not include a practical component where flight proficiency is assessed. This represents a source of risk for contractors if flight proficiency is not evaluated in another way. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is a federal agency and has developed the Basic Maneuvering Test (BMT). It is the only nationally recognized UAS flight proficiency exam. While not required, the construction industry can benefit by using this …

Cellular Service With Settlement-Free Peering, Shahzeb Mustafa, Sayanta Seth, Murat Yuksel, Mostafizur Rahman

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Despite several iconic innovations in wireless networks, cellular service still remains largely unreliable with regards to non-urban network coverage. Cellular providers often need to make roaming agreements among each other for serving their customers with basic connectivity in areas where they do not have coverage. Considering all the technical limitations of domestic roaming, we present a “wireless peering” model for settlement-free spectrum sharing. It allows providers to extend their coverage to “off-network” regions without any hardware modifications. Its software-defined nature makes the model highly scalable, easy to deploy and cost-effective. Simulation results show a significant improvement in off-network wireless speed, …

Inspire Newsletter Spring 2022, Missouri University Of Science And Technology. Inspire - University Transportation Center

INSPIRE Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Optimization-Based Uav Fleet Routing And Safety Assurance – Models, Algorithms, And Prototyping, Zhenyu Zhou

Wayne State University Dissertations

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), especially multi-rotor drones, have been increasingly used in various scenarios in the last decade. With the reduced hardware costs, improved battery life, and enhanced processor performance, we can eventually allow all kinds of drones to automatically travel through the low-altitude airspace. The large-scale application of drones will extend the basic transportation facilities from the ground to the air and form 3D transportation networks for the future. Compared to current ground-vehicle and aircraft traffic systems, multi-UAV systems are far from well-developed. Most current multi-UAV systems are human-operated or pre-programmed to perform specific tasks. The current application of …

Machine Learning Algorithms For Forecasting The Impacts Of Connected And Automated Vehicles On Highway Construction Costs, Amirsaman Mahdavian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

A multitude of externalities affects transport efficiency and numbers of trips. Population expansion, urban development, political issues, fiscal trends, and growth in the field of connected, automated, shared, and electric (CASE) vehicles have all played prominent roles. While the market is keenly aware of the upcoming shift to the CASE vehicles, the transformation itself is reliant upon the development of technologies, customer outlook, and guidelines. The purpose of this research is to establish an overview of the possible network design problems, as well as potential consequences to vehicle automation systems by employing machine learning and system dynamics analysis. Finally, the …

Biking In Indianapolis: An Ethnographic Analysis Of Obstacles And Solutions, Emory Lietz

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Indiana is known as the ""Crossroads of America"" for its historic investment in vehicle infrastructure. This focus on automobiles has shaped Indianapolis's urban landscape, to the dismay of many cyclists. Based on semi-structured interviews with a range of stakeholders in the Indianapolis cycling community, including urban planners, bike commuters, IndyGo employees, city government officials, and bike advocates, this project identifies and evaluates the current barriers that prevent Indianapolis residents from riding their bikes. These obstacles, which include infrastructural, safety, and social factors, make it more difficult than it ought to be to bike in Indy.

For my thesis project, I …

Optimizing Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Investments And Activities To Improve Safety And Increase Revenue Collections, Brian Howell, Jennifer Walton, Andrew Martin

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) owns and maintains 14 fixed weigh stations for commercial vehicle enforcement. The Kentucky State Police (KSP) is responsible for staffing these facilities to conduct enforcement, while KYTC is responsible for constructing and maintaining these facilities. Like many states, Kentucky has experienced a decline of enforcement personnel to operate weigh stations limiting its ability to conduct inspections for safety enforcement and revenue collection. This study analyzes three CMV facilities for their impact on safety enforcement and revenue collection and determines their viability for potential replacement. All three existing weigh stations in Hardin, Fulton, and Henderson counties …

Predictions Of Produced Water Quality And Recycled Water Optimization For Spatially-Distributed Wells In Point Pleasant Formation, Armel Quentin Mbakop

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The treatment of produced water as a fracturing fluid is becoming an increasingly important aspect of water management surrounding the booming of the unconventional oil and gas industry. Two main problems facing the oil and gas industry are the availability of water for well drilling and completion and disposal of the produced water. Unconventional well drilling and completion in the Utica shale requires large amounts of water. The wastewater that results after production—containing high levels of organic and inorganic matter— is usually disposed of through deep well injection. A new approach reuses this produced water as part of subsequent fracturing …

Air-Assisted Communications Using Line-Of-Sight Links, Shaikha A. Alkandari

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recently, there has been a rapid increase in the use of air-assisted communications involv-
ing the use of airborne platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In air-assisted
networks, the UAVs can act like base stations in a traditional cellular network as long as an
appropriate backhaul is available. Alternatively, the UAVs could serve as relays, for instance,
connecting two ground-based users who are within range of the UAV. UAVs have the benefit
of being deployed and reconfigured rapidly and on demand.
Meanwhile, there has been a trend towards the use of higher and higher frequencies,
including those in millimeter-wave …

Humans In Algorithms, Algorithms In Humans: Understanding Cooperation And Creating Social Ai With Causal Generative Models, Lux Miranda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Cooperation is the hallmark human trait which has allowed us to congregate into the vast, continent-sprawling societies we live in today. Yet, the precise social, environmental, and cognitive mechanisms which enable this cooperation are not fully understood. Toward this, lucrative insights have been borne through the use of formal computational models of socio-cognitive phenomena: In simulating our own cooperative behavior, we can better deduce the exact factors which cause it. The combined knowledge of these factors and ability to computationally simulate them allows us to further two goals: First, it empowers us with the knowledge of how to modify our …

Healthcare Information Security Maturity Model Grande Ronde Hospital, Pallavi Agrawal, Riad Alharithi, Karthik Manjunath, Kamal Thapa, Eric Ingersoll, Sujitha Rajagopal

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Technology offers significant advantages in improving the delivery of healthcare to patients. The technology creates electronic data associated with each patient. The data journey starts from the collection point, through the data warehouses that store the data, the application that processes the data, and the medium that transfers the data throughout the patient's life. Data collection starts with patients filling out web forms on a provider's website. This information is stored for the Healthcare organization in remote servers managed by developers and is shared with healthcare specialists, hospitals, labs, pharmacists, insurance providers, and billing software among many other healthcare workers. …

Leveraging Machine Learning For Detecting Iot-Based Interference In Operational Wifi Networks, Josh Pulse

Honors Program Theses

IoT (Internet of Things) devices have become increasingly popular in recent years while WiFi continues to serve as primary network provider indoors. With the advancements in technology, the networks of IoT devices continue to weave closely with indoor WiFi network deployments. Both kinds of these networks primarily operate in 2.4 GHz ISM Band (though latest WiFi standards can operate in 5 GHz and 60 GHz bands, too). With the multitude of tiny IoT sensors being deployed indoors alongside operational WiFi networks, severe interference scenarios cannot be ruled out. As a result of this interference, performance of WiFi networks is bound …

C2 Microservices Api: Ch4rl3sch4l3m4gn3, Thai H. Nguyễn

School of Computer Science & Engineering Undergraduate Publications

In the 21^st century, cyber-based attackers such as advance persistent threats are leveraging bots in the form of botnets to conduct a plethora of cyber-attacks. While there are several social engineering techniques used to get targets to unknowingly download these bots, it is the command-and-control techniques advance persistent threats use to control their bots that is of critical interest to the author. In this research paper, the author aims to develop a command-and-control microservice application programming interface infrastructure to facilitate botnet command-and-control attack simulations. To achieve this the author will develop a simple bot skeletal framework, utilize the latest …

Uas For Public Safety: Active Threat Recognition, Joseph Cerreta, Tray Denney, Scott S. Burgess, Anthony Galante, David Thirtyacre, Gloria A. Wilson, Patrick Sherman

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The Center for Homeland Defense and Security identified an increase of active threat events, such as mass shootings, annually since 1999. Literature suggests that 90% of shootings were over before law enforcement arrived at the scene and the first responder response was limited to “surround and contain” until Special Weapons and Tactics Teams (SWAT) arrived on the scene. Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to detect which individual was the threat and type of weapon used can provide useful information to increase the speed of the response for first-on-scene rather than waiting for SWAT if the type of weapon was known. …

A Primer On Software Defined Radios, Dimitrie C. Popescu, Rolland Vida

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The commercial success of cellular phone systems during the late 1980s and early 1990 years heralded the wireless revolution that became apparent at the turn of the 21st century and has led the modern society to a highly interconnected world where ubiquitous connectivity and mobility are enabled by powerful wireless terminals. Software defined radio (SDR) technology has played a major role in accelerating the pace at which wireless capabilities have advanced, in particular over the past 15 years, and SDRs are now at the core of modern wireless communication systems. In this paper we give an overview of SDRs that …

Combining Green Metrics And Digital Twins For Sustainability Planning And Governance Of Smart Buildings And Cities, Casey R. Corrado, Suzanne M. Delong, Emily G. Holt, Edward Y. Hua, Andreas Tolk

VMASC Publications

Creating a more sustainable world will require a coordinated effort to address the rise of social, economic, and environmental concerns resulting from the continuous growth of cities. Supporting planners with tools to address them is pivotal, and sustainability is one of the main objectives. Modeling and simulation augmenting digital twins can play an important role to implement these tools. Although various green best practices have been utilized over time and there are related attempts at measuring green success, works in the published literature tend to focus on addressing a single problem (e.g., energy efficiency), and a comprehensive approach that takes …

A Proportionality-Based Framework For Government Regulation Of Digital Tracing Apps In Times Of Emergency, Sharon Bassan

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Times of emergency present an inherent conflict between the public interest and the preservation of individual rights. Such times require granting emergency powers to the government on behalf of the public interest and relaxing safeguards against government actions that infringe rights. The lack of theoretical framework to assess governmental decisions in times of emergency leads to a polarized and politicized discourse about potential policies, and often, to public distrust and lack of compliance.

Such a discourse was evident regarding Digital Tracing Apps (“DTAs”), which are apps installed on cellular phones to alert users that they were exposed to people who …

Model-Based Cognitive Communications For Low-Power Wireless Networks, Indika Sanjeewa Abeywickrama Dhanapala

Theses

Our world is increasingly being instrumented with low-power wireless networks that deliver data for diverse application domains such as energy management, health and well-being, security, and other Internet of Things services. As these wireless networks operate in the unlicensed radio spectrum while co-existing with various other communication networks, their communication reliability and energy efficiency are affected by the radio environment. Because of this vulnerability to radio interference, low-power wireless networks may be unable to deliver their application requirements and be inefficiently consuming energy, functioning as a low-dependability network. The situation is exacerbated in indoor environments such as office and residential …

Schaeffler E-Motor, Jenne Harasin, Zachary Zatta, Christopher Tvaroch

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will be focusing on the work accomplished at Schaeffler to convert an existing internal combustion engine, Ford F-250 truck, into a battery electric vehicle. This report focuses on the vehicle's integration with an emphasis on the bearing design, e-Axle housing's method for mounting, bus bar design, resolver design, differential options, wiring for low and high voltage, and oil pump and cooling system for e-Beam. The bearings for the differential as well as the power transmission system from the electric motor to the e-Axle will need to be specified. By late summer 2022, Schaeffler will have a working prototype …

A Design Thinking Framework For Human-Centric Explainable Artificial Intelligence In Time-Critical Systems, Paul Benjamin Stone

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen a surge in popularity as increased computing power has made it more viable and useful. The increasing complexity of AI, however, leads to can lead to difficulty in understanding or interpreting the results of AI procedures, which can then lead to incorrect predictions, classifications, or analysis of outcomes. The result of these problems can be over-reliance on AI, under-reliance on AI, or simply confusion as to what the results mean. Additionally, the complexity of AI models can obscure the algorithmic, data and design biases to which all models are subject, which may exacerbate negative outcomes, …

The Capabilities And Limitations Of Flywheel-Based Energy Storage System Pertaining To Subways In The Event Of A Power Outage, Jaskaran Singh

Dissertations and Theses

In the city that never sleeps, power outages or blackouts can be a shock, especially if you are on a train amid one. For example, during the infamous 2003 blackout, thousands of people were left stuck and stranded in parts of Northeastern United States. In particular, with no trains or buses in service throughout the 5 boroughs of NYC, those stranded essentially had no way to go back home. Hotels, terminals, and airports alike became places of camping as the city seemed to come to a halt. For the sake of public safety and transit efficiency, this study explores a …

A Citizen-Science Approach For Urban Flood Risk Analysis Using Data Science And Machine Learning, Candace Agonafir

Dissertations and Theses

Street flooding is problematic in urban areas, where impervious surfaces, such as concrete, brick, and asphalt prevail, impeding the infiltration of water into the ground. During rain events, water ponds and rise to levels that cause considerable economic damage and physical harm. The main goal of this dissertation is to develop novel approaches toward the comprehension of urban flood risk using data science techniques on crowd-sourced data. This is accomplished by developing a series of data-driven models to identify flood factors of significance and localized areas of flood vulnerability in New York City (NYC). First, the infrastructural (catch basin clogs, …

The Improvement Of The Regional Regulatory Governance System For Radiation Risk Management: Spatial Analysis On Radiation Hazards In South Korea, Sangwon Lee, Jaewon Lim, Chan Goo Yi

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, nuclear regulators have strength-ened safety standards or decided to decommission the nuclear power plant. The vast majority of radiation is from nuclear power plants, so safety measures are also concentrated in nuclear power plants. Radioactive materials located much closer to the people are scattered around the nation. However, it is difficult for citizens to predict the radiation risk around them because regulatory agencies do not provide adequate information on radiation. The main goal of this study is to analyze the spatial distribution patterns of radioactive materials that serve as indicators for potential …

Adapting Nlp Techniques In Transfer Learning For Forensic Authorship Profiling, Esam Alzahrani

All ETDs from UAB

Cybercrimes have risen and caused threats to regular internet users. In recent times, the increased use of online social networks (OSNs) allows people to easily share opinions, personal information, and others. Since a major part of OSNs content is textual content, immense research has focused on text analysis techniques using machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP). One important area of research focused on text analysis using machine learning is forensic text analysis. Digital forensics is a discipline concerns finding, preserving, and presenting admissible evidence in court. Sadly, the convenience of OSNs creates an optimal venue for cybercriminals to perform …

Strategies To Reduce Nonconformance Of Parts In Aerospace Manufacturing, John Louis Lloyd Jr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The cost of nonconformance of parts can impact the aerospace industry globally, resulting in revenue loss and consumer confidence degradation. Grounded in the eight disciplines of problem solving, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies aerospace manufacturing quality managers in the United States used to implement successful change initiatives to address the nonconformance of parts. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with four aerospace quality executives and supporting company documents. Data were analyzed using methodological triangulation, coding, and thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: (a) identify and implement a specific problem-solving strategy, (b) identify and mitigate employee …

การปรับปรุงกระบวนการขออนุมัติชิ้นงานตัวอย่างสำหรับซัพพลายเออร์, รุ่งทิพย์ อินทวงค์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยที่นำเสนอมีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อปรับปรุงกระบวนการอนุมัติตัวอย่างสำหรับซัพพลายเออร์และปรับปรุงกระบวนการทำงานของแต่ละหน่วยงานที่เกี่ยวข้อง เป้าหมายคือลดเวลารอเอกสาร ขจัดกระบวนการทำงานที่ซ้ำซ้อน และลดการใช้กระดาษ จากเดิมกระบวนการทำงานเป็นไปตามลำดับขั้น (Waterfall) ซึ่งแต่ละหน่วยงานต้องรอให้หน่วยงานก่อนหน้าทำงานเสร็จก่อนจึงจะดำเนินการต่อได้ กระบวนการทำงานนี้เกี่ยวข้องกับหน่วยงาน 4 หน่วยงาน และหากพบข้อผิดพลาดใดๆ กระบวนการจะต้องเริ่มต้นใหม่ตั้งแต่ต้น ทำให้มีเวลาเฉลี่ย 18 วันทำการต่อชุด จึงความจำเป็นต้องปรับปรุงกระบวนการเหล่านี้ ผู้วิจัยใช้แนวคิด SCRUM เป็นแนวทางในการปรับปรุงกระบวนการ การนำเฟรมเวิร์กที่คล่องตัวขึ้นมาใช้ ทำให้ทุกหน่วยงานสามารถเริ่มทำงานพร้อมกันได้ ทำให้สามารถแก้ไขปัญหาได้อย่างรวดเร็ว เพิ่มประสิทธิภาพ และความสามารถในการส่งมอบผลิตภัณฑ์ที่มีคุณภาพในขณะที่ตอบสนองต่อความต้องการของลูกค้าได้อย่างทันท่วงที โดยผู้วิจัยได้ศึกษาระบบ Robotic Process Automation (RPA) ที่มีอยู่และจัดทำรายการเอกสาร (Checklist) นำมาใช้ภายในกระบวนการทำงาน ดังนั้นเครื่องมือและเทคโนโลยีเหล่านี้จะช่วยปรับปรุงกระบวนการอนุมัติเร็วขึ้น ระยะเวลาการตรวจสอบลดลงเหลือเพียง 5 วันทำการ ลดการตรวจสอบซ้ำถึง 25% ผลการทดลองที่ได้รับจากการดำเนินการปรับปรุงแสดงให้เห็นถึงประสิทธิภาพในการแก้ไขปัญหาการอนุมัติชิ้นงานตัวอย่างที่ล่าช้าได้ ทำให้ระยะเวลาการตรวจสอบที่สั้นลงและงานตรวจสอบซ้ำที่ลดลง สำเร็จตามเป้าหมายที่ตั้งไว้

Understanding Perceptions Of Vulnerable Roadway Users On Autonomous Vehicles, Md Tawhidur Rahman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Public perceptions have been playing an important role in the development of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. Besides AV and non-AV users, the perceptions of vulnerable roadway users are critical, as AVs will become a part of multimodal transportation system. Pedestrians and bicyclists are among the vulnerable groups of roadway users, as they are relatively unprotected compared to the occupants of AVs or non-AVs. Although AV’s capability to monitor other vehicles has been documented in many studies, there are concerns about AV’s capability in monitoring pedestrians and bicyclists. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to investigate the perceptions of pedestrians …

Stormwater Sensitivities To The Climatic And Land Cover Drivers In A Heavily Urbanized Coastal Basin Along The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Usa., Md Faisal Razy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Stormwater runoff response in a complex coastal-urban basin varies with the changes in climatic and land cover drivers. This thesis aims to assess the runoff responses to variation in climatic and land cover variables and perform a sensitivity analysis in complex coastal-urban basins. The Buffalo San Jacinto Basin (BUSJ) of southeast Texas, USA was considered a pilot study area for this research. BUSJ is a heavily urbanized coastal basin, draining an area of 3132 km² through the City of Houston, Texas into the northern Gulf of Mexico, USA. A process-based hydrological model was developed with fine spatio-temporal resolutions for …

Impact Of Orthophosphate As A Corrosion Inhibitor And Chloramine Disinfectant On Drinking Water Biofilm Communities, Mitchell Cooke

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A drinking water distribution system (DWDS) must maintain conditions within quality standards which assure the effective and safe transport of finished drinking water from treatment plants to the household tap. Although safe to drink, finished water is not sterile, and may contain hundreds of microorganisms in a single milliliter. These microorganisms are present from the source waters, such as lakes, rivers and aquifers, and have passed through early treatment steps. Final treatment steps, such as the maintenance of disinfectant residuals, are used to further minimize viable cells present and focus on the reduction of harmful organisms. Microbial cells entering the …

Optimizing Exterior Lighting Illuminance And Spectrum For Human, Environmental, And Economic Factors., S. M. Simmons, Stuart Werner Baur, William L. Gillis, Devin Michael Burns, Heath Pickerill

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

With the recent widespread adoption of LED lighting in outdoor areas, numerous concerns have been raised about the potential for harmful effects on humans, animals, plants, and the night sky. These stem from the high blue light content of some LED bulbs and an incentive to increase lighting levels caused by higher efficiency and lower costs. While new lighting installations are often described as environmentally friendly due to their energy efficiency, factors such as light pollution are often neglected or not given enough weight. This research focuses on optimizing the design of exterior lighting for human, environmental, and economic factors …