Digital Commons Network^™

Economic Development In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Internet Use, Nature-Based Tourism, Federal Tax Policy And Workforce Development: 2018 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer

Rural Futures Institute: Publications

Conclusion

The proportion of rural Nebraskans accessing the Internet using their cell phone has increased compared to two years ago. But, the proportion subscribing to high-speed Internet service at home remained stable during the past two years. Persons living in or near the smallest communities are less likely than persons living in or near larger communities to have high-speed Internet service at home.

Not many rural Nebraskans report significant limitations from their home Internet service on their ability to do most tasks. At least one in ten report being limited significantly or not being able to play real time video …

Improving Stb Devices’ Parental Control, Mahmood Fawzi Alfathe

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, an IPTV system was designed with new viewer parental control authentication method. People deal with traditional IPTV systems that use simple authentication numeric passcodes, and this topic did not receive the attention to overcome its security problems. In this dissertation two contributions were introduced, the first one is to design and implement an IPTV system that uses humans’ Biometrics authentication instead of numeric passwords; the second contribution was presented by integrating and testing the efficiency of the suggested solution as an authentication key against traditional numerical passcodes. Also, the characteristics of this new method were tested. In …

Evaluating Opportunities And Barriers To Improving The Energy Efficiency Of Small Nebraska Wastewater Treatment Plants, Matthew J. Thompson

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP)s account for about 0.8% of U.S. electricity use. Small WWTPs serving communities of populations less than 10,000 accounts for 95% of treatment plants in Nebraska. These plants are significantly less efficient compared to large systems and thus improving their energy efficiency (E2) is a growing focus in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with their operation. Energy use of plant unit operations was evaluated for several plants and included analysis of energy for space heating. Specific infrastructure and/or operational changes reported by operators following an E2 benchmarking project were evaluated by quantifying the change in …

Engineering's Effects On Communities Through An Ethical Framework, Bailey A. Reid

Undergraduate Voices

Engineering is at the forefront of innovation and progression in our society, but often has various impacts on the communities in which projects take place. This article focuses on several ethical guidelines established through education and engineering’s effects on surrounding communities. Ethics inside of community actions and approach will also be explored.

The 2018 Nvidia Ai City Challenge, Milind Naphade, Ming-Ching Chang, Anuj Sharma, David Anastasiu, Vamsi Jagarlamudi, Pranamesh Chakraborty, Tingting Huang, Shuo Wang, Ming-Yu Liu, Rama Chellappa, Jenq-Neng Hwang, Siwei Lyu

Faculty Publications

The NVIDIA AI City Challenge has been created to accelerate intelligent video analysis that helps make cities smarter and safer. With millions of traffic video cameras acting as sensors around the world, there is a significant opportunity for real-time and batch analysis of these videos to provide actionable insights. These insights will benefit a wide variety of agencies, from traffic control to public safety. The second edition of the NVIDIA AI City Challenge, being organized as a CVPR workshop, provided a forum to more than 70 academic and industrial research teams to compete and solve real-world problems using traffic camera …

Deterioration Prediction Modeling For The Condition Assessment Of Concrete Bridge Decks, Aqeed Moshin Chyad

Dissertations

Bridges are key elements in the US transportation system. There are more than six hundred thousand bridges on the highway system in the United States. Approximately one third of these bridges are in need of maintenance and will cost more than $120 billion to rehabilitate or repair. Several factors affect the performance of bridges over their life spans. Identifying these factors and accurately assessing the condition of bridges are critical in the development of an effective maintenance program. While there are several methods available for condition assessment, selecting the best technique remains a challenge. Therefore, developing an accurate and reliable …

6u Cubesat Platform For Disaster Relief Communications, Uchechukwu Agwu, Duncan Bradley, Corey Brown, Mani Gnanasivam, Grant Mishler, Steven Parks

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Natural disasters can seriously damage telecommunications infrastructure in affected areas, drastically limiting the channels of communication between locals and emergency relief teams. In such situations it is critical to have readily-available communications infrastructures that can be deployed and utilized as soon after the event as possible. Our mission is part of a multi-year effort to provide satellite-based amateur radio communications to areas impacted by humanitarian crises to facilitate relief efforts. Specifically, we developed the mechanical subsystems of a 6U CubeSat, a small satellite, in order to provide expanded volume, enhanced power generation, and Earth referenced orientation control compared with previous …

Identifying Prevalent Mathematical Pathways To Engineering In South Carolina, Eliza Gallagher, Christy Brown, D. Andrew Brown, Kristin Kelly Frady, Patrick Bass, Michael A. Matthews, Thomas T. Peters, Robert J. Rabb, Ikhalfani Solan, Ronald W. Welch, Anand K. Gramopadhye

Faculty Publications

National data indicate that initial mathematics course placement in college is a strong predictor of persistence to degree in engineering, with students placed in calculus persisting at nearly twice the rate of those placed below calculus. Within the state of South Carolina, approximately 95% of engineering-intending students who initially place below calculus are from in-state. In order to make systemic change, we are first analyzing system-wide data to identify prevalent educational pathways within the state, and the mathematical milestones along those pathways taken by students in engineering and engineering-related fields. This paper reports preliminary analysis of that data to understand …

Reserved Optimisation: Handling Incident Priorities In Emergency Response Systems, Muralidhar Konda, Supriyo Ghosh, Pradeep Varakantham

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Emergency (medical, fire or criminal) Management Systems(EMSs) are crucial for ensuring public safety and security. Typically in many cities, less than 20% of the cases received by EMSs belong to the extremely serious category and require immediate help. Rest of the incidents typically are less serious and thereby allow more flexibility in response time. Therefore, for efficient management of EMS requests, several EMSs now categorise an incoming emergency request into apriority level based on well studied “triaging” methods. Leading research on optimising emergency response has either focussed on data-driven models for settings with homogenous incidents or on generic heuristics (that …

Bridge Inspection: Human Performance, Unmanned Aerial Systems And Automation, Sattar Dorafshan, Marc Maguire

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) have become of considerable private and commercial interest for a variety of jobs and entertainment in the past 10 years. This paper is a literature review of the state of practice for the United States bridge inspection programs and outlines how automated and unmanned bridge inspections can be made suitable for present and future needs. At its best, current technology limits UAS use to an assistive tool for the inspector to perform a bridge inspection faster, safer, and without traffic closure. The major challenges for UASs are satisfying restrictive Federal Aviation Administration regulations, control issues in …

Knowledge Expiration In Security Awareness Training, Tianjian Zhang

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Usu Researcher Receives Major Grant To Improve Aerial Imagery | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Our bird’s-eye view is about to get much sharper.

Applying Attribute-Based Encryption In Two-Way Radio Talk Groups: A Feasibility Study, Michael Andreas Gough

Theses and Dissertations

In two-way radio systems, talk groups are used to organize communication. Some situations may call for creating a temporary talk group, but there are no straightforward ways to do this. Making a new talk group requires programming radios off-line. Temporary groups can be created, but this requires inputting radio IDs which is tedious on a radio's limited controls. By describing group members using attributes, ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) can be used to quickly create sub-groups of a talk group. This scheme requires fewer button presses and messages sent in the new talk group are kept secret. CP-ABE can be used …

Addressing The Regulator's Dilemma: A Self Drive Framework For Balancing Safety And Innovation, Craig Maughan

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Policymakers are tasked with creating regulations that responsibly oversee the growth and deployment of emerging technologies. I argue that the SELF DRIVE Act, currently being deliberated in Congress, offers one such intelligent regulatory structure for autonomous vehicles: it prioritizes public safety over adherence to outdated requirements, giving innovators greater freedom to field-test new designs. More importantly, I examine how key principles of the SELF DRIVE Act should be applied to other emerging technologies currently facing regulatory roadblock. Specifically, I suggest the drone industry be subject to regulatory changes that incentivize safety, allow exploration, and anticipate future growth. Such regulations allow …

Autonomous Cars And The Anonymous Threat: The Immediate Need For Cybersecurity Legislation For Self-Driving Vehicles, Forrest Albiston

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

This paper addresses the immediate need for cybersecurity regulations on self-driving cars. The focus of this paper is to discuss the urgency of these laws and put forth the SPY Car Act of 2017 as a solution with some edits. This Act will help ensure the safety of US citizens and will also benefit businesses.

Efficient Control Message Dissemination In Dense Wireless Lighting Networks, Conrad Dandelski

PhDs

Modern lighting systems using LED light sources lead to dense lighting installations. The control of such systems using wireless Machine-to-Machine (M2M) where standard LED light sources are replaced by wirelessly controllable LED light sources create new problems which are investigated in this thesis. Current approaches for control message transmission is such networks are based on broadcasting messages among luminaires. However, adequate communication performance - in particular, sufficiently low latency and synchronicity - is difficult to ensure in such networks, in particular, if the network is part of a wireless building management system and carries not only low-latency broadcast messages but …

Direct Potable Reuse Of Wastewater, Aaron Henry, Molly Churchwell, Lauren Clark, Boyce Bethel, Dakota Rusk, Sabrina Castle

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Water is essential to our societies and mankind. Currently, 844 million people across the globe lack access to potable water. By 2025, it is projected that half of the world population will be in a region of water stress.5 The water crisis is often thought of as a problem limited to places that have always struggled to have clean water, but it is now affecting new areas such as the southwest United States. With increasing population demands and drought, the feasibility of direct potable reuse (DPR) of wastewater is being considered. According to an EPA report in 2017, there are …

Direct Potable Reuse Of Wastewater, Dakota Rusk, Molly Churchwell, Lauren Clark, Sabrina Castle, Boyce Bethel, Aaron Henry

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Water is essential to our societies and mankind. Currently, 844 million people across the globe lack access to potable water. By 2025, it is projected that half of the world population will be in a region of water stress. The water crisis is often thought of as a problem limited to places that have always struggled to have clean water, but it is now affecting new areas such as the southwest United States. With increasing population demands and drought, the feasibility of direct potable reuse (DPR) of wastewater is being considered. According to an EPA report in 2017, there are …

Direct Potable Reuse Of Wastewater, Sabrina Castle

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Water is essential to our societies and mankind. Currently, 844 million people across the globe lack access to potable water. By 2025, it is projected that half of the world population will be in a region of water stress.5 The water crisis is often thought of as a problem limited to places that have always struggled to have clean water, but it is now affecting new areas such as the southwest United States. With increasing population demands and drought, the feasibility of direct potable reuse (DPR) of wastewater is being considered. According to an EPA report in 2017, there are …

Evaluation Of A Side-By-Side Full-Scale Biofiltration Conversion In A Nutrient-Limited Environment, Stetson S. Bassett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In order to meet increasing water demands and more stringent regulations drinking water treatment plant managers must continually look to new treatment strategies and optimization techniques. One such strategy is to eliminate chlorine residual before filtration, allowing indigenous bacteria already present in the source water to grow on the filter media. These microorganisms help improve effluent water quality by increasing organic and inorganic contaminant removal. The process is known as biological filtration, or biofiltration. The implications of converting a conventional filtration plant (not specifically designed for biofiltration) to a biofiltration plant are still not well understood. Therefore, the purpose of …

Examination Of Steel Pin And Hanger Assembly Performance: Retrofit To Replacement, Chandana Chickamagalur Balakrishna

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A number of steel, multi-beam bridges exist in the United States that contain pin and hanger assemblies. Pin and hanger assemblies are fracture critical members whose failure would result in collapse of the bridge or render it unable to perform its expected functions. As these bridges continue to age, many assemblies have deteriorated to a point where retrofit or replacement has to be considered and performed to maintain intended safety and performance. States have taken various approaches to address the pin and hanger assembly retrofit and replacement options. However, there is no single document that summarizes these approaches.

This research …

Intersection Safety Analysis Methodology For Utah Roadways, Joshua Daniel Gibbons

Theses and Dissertations

Roadway safety continues to be a priority for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) Traffic and Safety Division. UDOT has participated in and managed several research projects in recent years to determine the roadway segments of highest safety concern in the state. This research has provided UDOT with more tools to assist in safety project prioritization. Researchers in Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Brigham Young University (BYU) have worked with UDOT and the Statistics Department at BYU to create two network screening statistical tools called the Utah Crash Prediction Model (UCPM) and the Utah Crash Severity Model (UCSM) …

Risk Analysis Of Autonomous Vehicle And Its Safety Impact On Mixed Traffic Stream, Plaban Das

Theses and Dissertations

In 2016, more than 35,000 people died in traffic crashes, and human error was the reason for 94% of these deaths. Researchers and automobile companies are testing autonomous vehicles in mixed traffic streams to eliminate human error by removing the human driver behind the steering wheel. However, recent autonomous vehicle crashes while testing indicate the necessity for a more thorough risk analysis. The objectives of this study were (1) to perform a risk analysis of autonomous vehicles and (2) to evaluate the safety impact of these vehicles in a mixed traffic stream. The overall research was divided into two phases: …

Ecological Footprint Of Flood Mitigation Structures At The Absecon Inlet, Eduardo Garcia, Mackenzie Carr, Jason Loeffler

STEM Student Research Symposium Posters

The primary goal of this clinic project is to measure the ecological footprint of the flood mitigation structures in Absecon Inlet. This area is prone to floods due to rising sea levels and storms. Beaches and boardwalks were affected during numerous hurricanes including: Jose (2017), Andrea (2013), Sandy (2012), Irene (2011), and Hanna (2008). Seawalls, sand dunes, and jetties were constructed to protect the shoreline from these floods based on the studies conducted by the US Army Corp of Engineers. In this clinic, we assess the effect of these man-made structures on the ecology of the surrounding areas. The ecology …

The Santa Clara, 2018-04-12, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

Cyclic Testing Of Reinforced Earthbag Walls, David Aguilar Rodriguez, Jeff Stein, Taylor Darby

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Earthen construction is the most popular building method around the world. One particular building method, using earthbags, has shown promise in performing well against seismic activity. This project undertook the goal of developing a preliminary seismic response modification factor, R, to be used in the design of homes in seismically active areas. Two 4’ wide x 6’ tall x 1’ deep walls were cyclically loaded using a Three-Degree-of-Freedom (TDOF) Test Frame provided by Santa Clara University to determine the in-plane shear capacity of each wall. Testing revealed an average yield force of 419 lbs, an average ultimate force 1058 lbs, …

Rainwater Capture And Purification System For Rural Tanzania, Audrey Gozali, Nathan Miyashiro, Matthew Sasaki

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The project was a rainwater capture and purification system for the Buturi community in rural northwestern Tanzania. Recent research indicates the northwestern communities in Tanzania will suffer greatly under the effects of climate change. Using this demonstrated need as impetus, the project created a long-term solution for water accessibility in a community of 57,000 villagers who currently live in extreme poverty. The team visited the Buturi community from March 24 to April 7, 2018 to install the project in the main village, the Makongoro village. The project installation took place at the Buturi Primary School and Community Center. Workshops with …

Phoenix Y6, Sean Backes, Michael Destin, Alastair Hood, Bruce Iverson, Brian Meier, John Strong

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The mission of this project is to design and fabricate a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fixed-wing drone for use by firefighters and other emergency services. This vehicle will be designed for uses that include surveying wildfires, as well as spotting vehicular accidents, urban fires, and floods. Current drones available on the market are expensive or not designed specifically for emergency response. Our goal is to develop a working prototype of a vehicle that will be able to collect and relay important data such as live video and thermal images in addition to other measurements such as air velocity and …

An Unsupervised Cluster: Learning Water Customer Behavior Using Variation Of Information On A Reconstructed Phase Space, Michele Rae Bizub Malinowski

Dissertations (1934 -)

The unsupervised clustering algorithm described in this dissertation addresses the need to divide a population of water utility customers into groups based on their similarities and differences, using only the measured flow data collected by water meters. After clustering, the groups represent customers with similar consumption behavior patterns and provide insight into ‘normal’ and ‘unusual’ customer behavior patterns. This research focuses upon individually metered water utility customers and includes both residential and commercial customer accounts serviced by utilities within North America. The contributions of this dissertation not only represent a novel academic work, but also solve a practical problem for …

Variable Speed Simulation For Accelerated Industrial Control System Cyber Training, Luke M. Bradford

Theses and Dissertations

It is important for industrial control system operators to receive quality training to defend against cyber attacks. Hands-on training exercises with real-world control systems allow operators to learn various defensive techniques and see the real-world impact of changes made to a control system. Cyber attacks and operator actions can have unforeseen effects that take a significant amount of time to manifest and potentially cause physical harm to the system, making high-fidelity training exercises time-consuming and costly. This thesis presents a method for accelerating training exercises by simulating and predicting the effects of a cyber event on a partially-simulated control system. …