Digital Commons Network^™

Socio-Physical Human Orchestration In Smart Cities, Nathan Patrizi

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

In this thesis, we present a novel socio-physical human orchestration framework to deal with the increasing complexity of smart city environments, by capitalizing on recent advances in game theory and reinforcement learning, with the goal of solving the efficient management of a smart city while improving the quality of life for the humans living in said smart city. This problem has become more challenging as the smart cities have become more complicated and complex with new technologies. In the proposed framework, each human selects a Point of Interest (PoI) that it wants to visit. This selection is performed by acting …

5g Vs 4g, What's The Difference?, Michael Fermanis

Engineering Student Trade Journal Articles

5G is rolling out in 2020. What is going to be different than 4G? Compared to the fourth generation, 5G will have lower latency, faster download speed, and will be able to connect the Internet of Things on a world scale. The possibilities that come with 5G will revolutionize how the world works.

Resilience Of School Systems Following Severe Earthquakes, Emad M. Hassan, Hussam N. Mahmoud, Bruce R. Ellingwood

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Natural disasters may have catastrophic and long-lasting impacts on communities' physical, economic, and social infrastructure. Slow recovery of educational services following such events is likely to cause traumatic stress in children, lead families to out-migrate, and affect the community's overall social stability. Methods for quantifying and assessing the restoration process of educational systems and their dependencies on other supporting infrastructure have not received adequate attention. This study introduces, for the first time, a new framework to evaluate the functionality, recovery, and resilience of a school system following severe earthquake events. The framework considers both the quantity and quality of education …

Cdl Data Quality Assessment, Valerie Keathley-Helil, Mallory Brown, Andrew Martin, Amir E. Najarzadeh, Brian K. Howell, Jennifer R. Walton

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Quality issues related to commercial driver license (CDL) data present ongoing challenges to state and federal transportation agencies. This study highlights several problems with CDL data, including a lack of standardization for state-specific traffic infractions; process and workflow difficulties that degrade the accuracy, validity, and timeliness of data; adjudication procedures that can potentially mask serious violations from CDL driver history records; inadequate recordkeeping in state law enforcement citation and court case management software applications; outdated mainframe systems in urgent need of upgrades; IT personnel who are not paid enough; and insufficient reporting requirements for federal agencies that issue traffic citations. …

An Outline Of The Roles Of The Principle Participants In The ‘Traditional’ Construction Procurement Process, Tony Cunningham

Other Resources

The construction industry is a complex and fragmented industry comprised of a wide range of participants. This study examines the roles of principle participants in the process, and focusses on the role of the client, the contracting organisation, the architect and design and management professionals including the quantity surveyor. Other parties who are indirectly involved in the industry including the regulatory authorities, the wider property sector and end users are commented upon, but are not examined in great detail. The study has identified that effective teamwork is crucial to successfully achieving the goals of delivering the project safely, to the …

Bridge Infrastructure Asset Management System: Comparative Computational Machine Learning Approach For Evaluating And Predicting Deck Deterioration Conditions, Rayan Assaad, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Bridge infrastructure asset management system is a prevailing approach toward having an effective and efficient procedure for monitoring bridges through their different development phases including construction, operation, and maintenance. Damage to any structural component of a bridge will negatively affect its safety, integrity, and longevity. Bridge decks are more susceptible to severe deterioration because they are exposed to harsh conditions including heavy traffic, varying temperatures, road salts, and abrasive forces. The ability to forecast the conditions of bridges in an accurate way has been a great challenge to transportation agencies. Many previous research studies highlighted the need to have a …

Characteristics Of Effective Metropolitan Areawide Public Transit: A Comparison Of European, Canadian, And Australian Case Studies, Michelle Derobertis, Christopher E. Ferrell, Richard W. Lee, John M. Eells

Mineta Transportation Institute

This research project investigates the replicable characteristics, policies, and practices of successful metropolitan areawide public transportation networks that contribute to high usage and make transit an effective competitor to the private motor vehicle. The research method involves the qualitative and quantitative analysis of ten international (non-U.S.) case studies. The principal methods employed were web-based research and data collection, as well as telephone interviews with transit agency staff or regional planners as needed. The case studies were limited to developed western countries with similar metropolitan conditions to those in the United States.

This research focuses on key characteristics of highly effective …

Art In Engineering: Evoking A Creative Response From Engineering Students And More, Jamie Goggins, Marta Fuente, Eamonn Madden

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

The concept of creativity being only associated with writers, painters, and artistic professions is outdated. The future engineer must embrace maths, art and creativity to unlock innovative solutions. Traditional engineering courses with an emphasis predominately on maths and science can produce graduates who are constrained in developing design solutions without creativity to unlock innovative solutions. This paper describes a short course introduced in the School of Engineering at NUIGalway in 2018 to expose students to creative thinking research and principles and engage in various forms of creative expression (photography, painting and essay writing) to articulate their response to a set …

A Review Of The Engineering Constraints And Project Management Challenges Involved In Utilising Scot’S Church As A Heritage Asset Through Responsible Adaptive Reuse And Conservation Strategies, Óisín Smith

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

In the field of structural building, there has been a rising popularity in adaptive reuse of older structures, which stems from a variety of stimuli. Apart from preserving built heritage, providing old buildings with new functions promotes sustainability while preventing and containing urban sprawl. Target 11.4 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 explicitly outlines that “more efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage” are required. In order to valorise and regenerate obsolescent structures, intervention is often required. The dissertation provides a comprehensive overview of conservation engineering and demonstrates the importance of an engineer’s …

Conversion Of Legacy Inspection Data To Bridge Condition Index (Bci) To Establish Baseline Deterioration Condition History For Predictive Maintenance Models., Nicola Ann Stevens, Myra Lydon, Kristopher Campbell, Thomas Neeson, Adelle Marshall, S. E. Taylor

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Bridge Management Systems (BMS) have been introduced across the world with the goal of aiding the decisions regarding maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement (MR&R) of bridges. Deterioration modelling is the most important part of the BMS because the ability to predict the future condition is vital as it will determine the quality of the decisions made. Markovian-based models are the most common predictive maintenance tool utilised in existing BMS, by obtaining probabilities of transition of bridge condition from one state to another based on historic bridge inspection data. Prior to the introduction of the Bridge Condition Index (BCI) the use of …

Community-Engaged Learning: A Building Engineering Case Study, Jamie Goggins, Magdalena Hajdukiewicz

Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020

Community engaged learning is a form of experiential education with a civic underpinning. Community engaged learning is embedded with the civil engineering curriculum at NUI Galway and is framed by a research orientation, commitments to civic engagement and building university-community partnerships, city-university partnerships and partnerships with other official agencies, so that community users can provide real learning problems and contexts for students and researchers and benefit from the results. This paper presents the positive experience of the authors in facilitating over 300 community engaged learning projects undertaken by undergraduate students in civil engineering at NUI Galway. The paper highlights how …

Revision And Thinking About Agent-Based Modeling Research To Group Violent Activity, Chen Peng, Jianguo Chen, Hongyong Yuan

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: The current work about Agent-based modeling research on group violent incidents was reviewed, which included the social science theory which undertakes the group violence simulation, the studies about Agent categorization, relationship modeling, Agent emotion production, adaptive decision-making process and evolution of complex behaviors. It was indicated that the constructing of Agent model experienced the process in which the Agent model transited from simplicity to more complexity, thus, focusing on individuality and heterogeneity's model construction which was integrated more on sociology and psychology would become a significant development trend. Following that, some suggestions and thinking which included the principle of …

An Evacuation Simulation Method Based On Disaster Avoidance Psychology And Disaster Impact, Zhang Han, Liping Zheng, Huang Kang, Haibo Lin

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Evacuating people safely and efficiently during disasters is the important guarantee to public safety, and the effective and feasible evacuation simulation method is theoretically and practically significant. The main methods seldom consider the dynamic evolution of disasters, so a dynamic Evacuation Route Replanning Based on Psychology (DERR) method is proposed. DERR method focuses on the psychological parameters of disaster avoidance of people. According to the change of disasters area, DERR can perform the real time evacuation process by using A* routing algorithm to re-plan and optimize the evacuation path. The simulation experiment shows the evacuation process of this method. …

A Gis-Based Approach For Auditing Sustainable Development Of New Industrial Communities: The Case Of “New Borg Elarab” City, Egypt, Yasser Fouda, Deena Elkhazendar

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

As till the present time most of the industrial cities in Egypt have not achieved the necessary objectives aimed for them, they need different strategic auditing plans to ensure that the city urban area is developed in a sustainable manner.

Resilience In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Capacity To Overcome Disasters And Hardships, 2020 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca Vogt, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel, Brad Lubben, L.J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer, Steve Schulz, Jason L. Weigle

Rural Futures Institute: Publications

The definition of resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. Synonyms include toughness, perseverance and grit. Last spring’s severe weather events and this year’s ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are likely testing the resilience of rural Nebraskans. Given that, how do rural Nebraskans rate their communities on dimensions that measure their resiliency? How confident are they that the federal government or local emergency management authorities can contain infectious disease outbreaks? How do they rate their ability to help their community handle adversities? How prepared are rural Nebraskans to deal with financial emergencies? This paper provides a detailed analysis of these …

Traffic Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: Statewide Analysis Of Social Separation And Activity Restriction, Scott Parr, Brian Wolshon, John Renne, Pamela Murray-Tuite, Karl Kim

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant social and economic impacts throughout the world. In addition to the health consequences, the impacts on travel behavior have also been sudden and wide ranging. This study describes the drastic changes in human behavior using the analysis of highway volume data as a representation of personal activity and interaction. Same-day traffic volumes for 2019 and 2020 across Florida were analyzed to identify spatial and temporal changes in behavior resulting from the disease or fear of it and statewide directives to limit person-to-person interaction. Compared to similar days in 2019, overall statewide traffic volume dropped …

Development Of A Structural Design Methodology For Cementitious Sprayed Applied Pipe Linings In Gravity Storm Water Conveyance Conduits, Amin Darabnoush Tehrani

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Culverts are important components of the highway infrastructure. They form passageways through the embankment to convey storm water. Culverts are structurally designed to support superimposed earth loads or other fill materials as well as live loads. Corrugated metal pipes (CMPs) and reinforced concrete pipes (RCPs) are commonly used as culverts in the United States. Most of these culverts were installed four to five decades ago and have reached their design life. Spray applied pipe linings (SAPLs) are trenchless technology solutions for culvert rehabilitation that prevent further deterioration, such as corrosion, abrasion, etc., and can provide structural support for severely damaged …

Application Of Artificial Intelligence And Geographic Information System For Developing Automated Walkability Score, Md Mehedi Hasan

Dissertations

Walking is considered as one of the major modes of active transportation, which contributes to the livability of cities. It is highly important to ensure walk friendly sidewalks to promote human physical activities along roads. Over the last two decades, different walk scores were estimated in respect to walkability measures by applying different methods and approaches. However, in the era of big data and machine learning revolution, there is still a gap to measure the composite walkability score in an automated way by applying and quantifying the activityfriendliness of walkable streets. In this study, a street-level automated walkability score was …

Artificial Intelligence And Game Theory Controlled Autonomous Uav Swarms, Janusz Kusyk, M. Umit Uyar, Kelvin Ma, Eltan Samoylov, Ricardo Valdez, Joseph Plishka, Sagor E. Hoque, Giorgio Bertoli, Jefrey Boksiner

Publications and Research

Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating as a swarm can be deployed in austere environments, where cyber electromagnetic activities often require speedy and dynamic adjustments to swarm operations. Use of central controllers, UAV synchronization mechanisms or pre-planned set of actions to control a swarm in such deployments would hinder its ability to deliver expected services. We introduce artificial intelligence and game theory based flight control algorithms to be run by each autonomous UAV to determine its actions in near real-time, while relying only on local spatial, temporal and electromagnetic (EM) information. Each UAV using our flight control algorithms positions itself …

Evaluating R&D Projects In Regulated Utilities: The Case Of Power Transmission Utilities, Edwin Garces

Dissertations and Theses

R&D project selection is essential for many organizations; however, it is a complex decision since it is affected by many factors. These factors vary among organizations because of their different objectives and conditions. There are limited budgets for the investments, and the current R&D project selection methods are focused on financial analysis or complex mathematical probabilistic calculations. Therefore, the main motivation of this research is to create a method to help improve the ex-ante selection of R&D projects in regulated organizations. More importantly, the case application is the electric transmission utilities sector, which plays one of the most critical roles …

Severe Weather In Nebraska: Impacts On Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans. 2020 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel, Bradley Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer, Steve Schulz, Jason L. Weigle

Rural Futures Institute: Publications

In March 2019, a bomb cyclone produced a historic blizzard as well as flooding that impacted many counties in Nebraska. Given that, did rural Nebraskans experience extreme weather events or natural disasters in 2019? To what extent were they harmed by these weather events? What personal impacts did they experience? How concerned are they about weather events? This paper provides a detailed analysis of these questions. This report details 1,979 responses to the 2020 Nebraska Rural Poll, the 25th annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions about weather events. Comparisons are made among …

Towards A Sociotechnical Reconfiguration Of Engineering And An Education For Ethics : A Critical Realist Investigation Into The Patterns Of Education And Accreditation Of Ethics In Engineering Programmes In Ireland, Diana Adela Martin

Doctoral

The focus of this thesis is on the provision and evaluation of ethics in engineeringprogrammes in Ireland, by placing this examinationin the wider cultural context of engineering education.The study benefitted from the support of the national accrediting body Engineers Ireland, and included 23 engineering programmes from 2 institutes of technology and 4 universities in Ireland which underwent accreditation between 2017-2019.By using a Critical Realistframe, the study undertakes a multi-layeredinvestigation of the engineering education system that takes into consideration theindividual level of single agents such as instructors and evaluators, the institutional level comprised of engineering programmes, as well as the policy …

Novel Multi-User Chirp Signaling Schemes For Future Aviation Communication Applications, Nozhan Hosseini

Theses and Dissertations

Many wireless communication systems will need to accommodate a larger number of users in the future. One application in particular in which this is critical is low data rate, long range communication links with very large numbers of nodes, such as the internet of things (IoT), possibly the internet of flying things (IoFT), etc. These systems demand advanced multi-access techniques with minimal multiple access interference (MAI). They should also be robust to multiple impairments, including multipath channel distortions, Doppler spreading, and interference. Chirp waveforms are one type of waveform set that can satisfy future system demands in the presence of …

Analysis Of Performance Measures Of Traffic Incident Management In Utah, Mitchell Gregory Hadfield

Theses and Dissertations

In 2009 the Federal Highway Administration published a report regarding a Focus States Initiative that had been conducted with 11 states to discuss the development of national Traffic Incident Management (TIM) standards. Performance measures were defined, and a national TIM dashboard created, but very little data has been added to the dashboard since. In this research study, performance measures of the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) TIM program were analyzed. Data availability was first assessed to determine whether these performance measures could be calculated. It was determined that crash response data available from the Utah Highway Patrol (UHP) could be …

Adaptive Navigation Utilizing A Drone Cluster, Zach Cameron, Brendan Engh, Thomas Kambe, Aditya Krishnan

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The current infrastructure for drone piloting involves drones flying in a predetermined path to find an object, source, or target with a known location. Drones should be able to determine an optimal flight path mid-flight in order to find an undefined source or target given existing parameters that can be analyzed from incoming sensor data. However, a framework for such a feat is almost non-existent. Our project aims to build such a framework that allows for the control of and communication among multiple drones, called a cluster, and allows for in-flight analysis and processing of sensor information to determine how …

Delay-Based Physical Unclonable Function Implementation, Abigail Aguirre, Michael Hall, Timothy Lim, Jonathan Trinh

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

As we venture further into the 21st century, it becomes much clearer that hardware security is at the forefront of many challenges that we face today in ensuring that data is protected. “Keys” (a sequence of bits) can be used to unlock pieces of data and is a concept that is pervasive throughout cryptography, but storage in memory makes this sole method nonviable. To make the approach more practical, one can dynamically generate a key through a Physical Unclonable Function (PUF). PUFs are circuit primitives that use intrinsic variations of microchips created during the manufacturing process to generate a unique …

Intelligent Acp Based Experimental Approach, Bin Chen, Xiaogang Qiu, Yiping Wang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: As an approach to solve the problems in complex system research, ACP (Artificial Society, Computational Experiments, Parallel Execution) has played an important role in research fields such as public safety. With the development of information technologies such as big data, intelligent learning, game play theory, an intelligent ACP based experimental approach was proposed to solve the kernel problems in current complex system research. The possibility analysis of the approach in public safety, biological threats and joint combat experiments was illustrated. The applications including evacuation, network opinion and chemical industrial park security of the approach in safety science …

Changes In The Exposure Of California’S Levee-Protected Critical Infrastructure To Flooding Hazard In A Warming Climate, Iman Mallakpour, Mojtaba Sadegh, Amir Aghakouchak

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Levee systems are an important part of California's water infrastructure, engineered to provide resilience against flooding and reduce flood losses. The growth in California is partly associated with costly infrastructure developments that led to population expansion in the levee protected areas. Therefore, potential changes in the flood hazard could have significant socioeconomic consequences over levee protected areas, especially in the face of a changing climate. In this study, we examine the possible impacts of a warming climate on flood hazard over levee protected land in California. We use gridded maximum daily runoff from global circulation models (GCMs) that represent a …

Rf Power Amplifier, Angel De Jesus Delgado, Rachanon Wajanakunakorn, Andrew John Ferguson

Electrical Engineering

Wireless devices are part of everyday life, cellphones and radio receivers impact more people than any piece of technology. Thus, the respective building blocks continue to advance and achieve better performance. A primary component of all wireless communication systems is the power amplifier that drives the antenna. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) holds the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) every year where teams compete internationally for the most efficient RF Power Amplifier (PA). Power amplifier technologies strive to maximize efficiency and linearity. Topologies to consider are D, E, F, F-1 and Doherty since they have a maximum theoretical …

Energy And Economic Losses Due To Soiling On Utility Scale Pv Systems To Guide Timing Of Cost Effective Cleaning, Sophia Mcmillin Stockburger, Vicente Jesus Rios

Electrical Engineering

The purpose of this senior project is to develop and recommend a cleaning schedule for Goldtree Solar Farm that is both economically beneficial and an efficient use of cleaning for the client. Solar farms can have various factors that influence the cleaning schedule such as weather behavior, time of the year, soiling, and other factors. Through this senior project, the goal is to assess these factors effect on the solar farm to produce a cleaning schedule that will maximize energy production, maximize profits, and prevent insignificant cleaning

This analysis is motivated by defining and promoting the benefits of regular maintenance …