Digital Commons Network^™

Design And Control Of Modular Soft Robotic Actuators With Architected Structures, Nicholas Pagliocca

Theses and Dissertations

Soft robotic systems composed of highly compliant materials offer unparalleled advantages compared to rigid-body systems in applications such as fragile material handling and human-machine interactions. Often, their motions are prescribed by structural anisotropy and reinforcement materials to directionally limit motion. The continuum motion and non-linear material response intrinsic to soft robotics makes their design, modeling, and control a formidable challenge for engineers. Leveraging the deformation driven response of soft robotic actuators, highly versatile compliant architected structures whose local deformations dictate global material response can be integrated into soft robotic actuators for tunable mechanical responses. In this thesis, flexible center-symmetric perforated …

Mpc-Stanet: Alzheimer’S Disease Recognition Method Based On Multiple Phantom Convolution And Spatial Transformation Attention Mechanism, Yujian Liu, Kun Tang, Weiwei Cai, Aibin Chen, Guoxiong Zhou, Liujun Li, Runmin Liu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with insidious and irreversible onset. The recognition of the disease stage of AD and the administration of effective interventional treatment are important to slow down and control the progression of the disease. However, due to the unbalanced distribution of the acquired data volume, the problem that the features change inconspicuously in different disease stages of AD, and the scattered and narrow areas of the feature areas (hippocampal region, medial temporal lobe, etc.), the effective recognition of AD remains a critical unmet need. Therefore, we first employ class-balancing operation using data expansion and …

Brilliance Bias In Gpt-3, Ashley Troske, Edith Gonzalez, Nicole Lawson

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Language has a profound impact on how we perceive the world. With GPT- 3’s rise in popularity, present in 300 applications averaging 4.5 billion words per day, it is critical for us as programmers to identify and correct biases in its generations. A variety of biases have been identified in generative language models, spanning biases based on gender, race, and religion. Our project pioneers the study of the Brilliance Bias for generative models. This implicit, yet powerful bias imposes the idea of “brilliance” being a male trait and in turn, sets back women’s achievements starting as young as 5-7 years. …

When And Why Do Children Make Decisions About Stem Careers And Opportunities For Sports Engineering?, Charlene Willis, Daniel James, Jeff Parker, James Lee

International Sports Engineering Association – Engineering of Sport

No abstract provided.

Bbt Side Mold Assy, Bill Hemphill

STEM Guitar Project’s BBT Acoustic Kit

This electronic document file set covers the design and fabrication information of the ETSU Guitar Building Project’s BBT (OM-sized) Side Mold Assy for use with the STEM Guitar Project’s standard acoustic guitar kit. The extended 'as built' data set contains an overview file and companion video, the 'parent' CADD drawing, CADD data for laser etching and cutting a drill &/or layout template, CADD drawings in AutoCAD .DWG and .DXF R12 formats of the centerline tool paths for creating the mold assembly pieces on an AXYZ CNC router, and support documentation for CAM applications including router bit specifications, feeds, speed, multi-pass …

Axial Hypersensitivity Is Associated With Aberrant Nerve Sprouting In A Novel Model Of Disc Degeneration In Female Sprague Dawley Rats, David J. Lillyman, Fei San Lee, Evie C. Barnett, Tyler J. Miller, Moreno Lozano Alvaro, Henry C. Drvol, Rebecca A. Wachs

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Chronic low back pain is a global socioeconomic crisis and treatments are lacking in part due to inadequate models. Etiological research suggests that the predominant pathology associated with chronic low back pain is intervertebral disc degeneration. Various research teams have created rat models of disc degeneration, but the clinical translatability of these models has been limited by an absence of robust chronic painlike behavior. To address this deficit, disc degeneration was induced via an artificial annular tear in female Sprague Dawley rats. The subsequent degeneration, which was allowed to progress for 18-weeks, caused a drastic reduction in disc volume. Furthermore, …

Monitoring Balance In Rowing Using A Modified Dynamic Ergometer, Matthew T. O. Worsey, Regina Arias, David V. Thiel, Jonathan Shepherd, Allan Hahn, Hugo G. Espinosa

International Sports Engineering Association – Engineering of Sport

No abstract provided.

Electromyograph Estimation Of Wheelchair Operators Using Deep Learning, Shimpei Aihara, Ryusei Shibata, Ryosuke Mizukami, Takara Sakai, Akira Shionoya

International Sports Engineering Association – Engineering of Sport

No abstract provided.

Improvement Of Ex Vivo Testing Methods For Spine Biomechanical Characterization, Aubrie Lisa Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation contributed three main areas to flexibility testing and biomechanical characterization of human spinal segments. The first was a literature review of existing testing methodology, the second examined common spine fixation procedures, and the third developed an improved fixation method. Spine biomechanical characterization is the primary technique for assessing the healthy, diseased, and surgically treated response of spinal tissues. However, despite decades of use, no standard testing protocol or reporting methodology for flexibility testing conditions has been established. As part of the present work, a comprehensive, systematic literature review was performed, and the methods sections of 242 relevant journal …

Antimicrobial Mechanisms Of Biomaterials: From Macro To Nano, Shounak Roy, Sanchita Sarkhel, Deepali Bisht, Samerender Nagam Hanumantharao, Smitha Rao, Amit Jaiswal

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Overcoming the global concern of antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest challenge faced by scientists today and the key to tackle this issue of emerging infectious diseases is the development of next-generation antimicrobials. The rapid emergence of multi-drug resistant microbes, superbugs and mutated strains of viruses have fueled the search for new and alternate antimicrobial agents with broad-spectrum biocidal activity. Biomaterials, ranging from macroscopic polymers, proteins, and peptides to nanoscale materials such as nanoparticles, nanotubes and nanosheets have emerged as effective antimicrobials. An extensive body of research has established the antibacterial and antiviral efficiencies of different types of biomaterials. …

Computational Methods To Simulate Molten Salt Thermophysical Properties, Talmage Porter, Michael M. Vaka, Parker Steenblik, Dennis Della Corte

Faculty Publications

Molten salts are important thermal conductors used in molten salt reactors and solar applications. To use molten salts safely, accurate knowledge of their thermophysical properties is necessary. However, it is experimentally challenging to measure these properties and a comprehensive evaluation of the full chemical space is unfeasible. Computational methods provide an alternative route to access these properties. Here, we summarize the developments in methods over the last 70 years and cluster them into three relevant eras. We review the main advances and limitations of each era and conclude with an optimistic perspective for the next decade, which will likely be …

Memristive Synaptic Device Based On A Natural Organic Material - Honey For Spiking Neural Network In Biodegradable Neuromorphic Systems, Brandon Sueoka, Feng Zhao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Spiking neural network (SNN) in future neuromorphic architectures requires hardware devices to be not only capable of emulating fundamental functionalities of biological synapse such as spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) and spike-rate dependent plasticity (SRDP), but also biodegradable to address current ecological challenges of electronic waste. Among different device technologies and materials, memristive synaptic devices based on natural organic materials have emerged as the favorable candidate to meet these demands. The metal-insulator-metal structure is analogous to biological synapse with low power consumption, fast switching speed and simulation of synaptic plasticity, while natural organic materials are water soluble, renewable and environmentally friendly. …

Illuminator, Volume 5, Issue 2, Batten College Of Engineering & Technology, Old Dominion University

College of Engineering & Technology Newsletter

June 2022 issue of Illuminator, a monthly publication of ODU's Batten College of Engineering and Technology.

A Novel Electroconductive Nanofibrous Scaffold For Bone Regeneration, Mitchell Kenter

Medical Engineering Theses

The goal of this study was to develop a biodegradable and conductive scaffold to mimic the piezoelectric properties of bone and the architecture of the extracellular matrix. Poly(3,4- ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is a conductive polymer of great interest in tissue engineering due to excellent electrical stability and biocompatibility. To enhance its conductivity, dopants such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) can be added. Engineered graphene oxide (GO) can also be introduced as oxidant to enhance conductivity and mechanical properties. PEDOT nanocomposites were synthesized by oxidative polymerization of 3, 4-Etylenedioxythiophene monomer (EDOT) in the presence of GO, DMSO, ferric chloride and various solvents. The …

Minimally Invasive 3d Printed Microneedles For Glucose Monitoring, Eduardo Quintero, Justin Wong

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) provides an instantaneous real-time display of glucose level, rate of change of glucose, alerts, and alarms for actual or impending hypo- and hyperglycemia. Continuous glucose monitors are able to stay implanted on the patient anywhere from 7-14 days, giving patients and doctors valuable information to help improve patient care for diabetics, and providing them with a way to continuously monitor their blood glucose level concentration throughout the day.

Conventional methods of glucose detection such as blood glucose meters require the patient to gather frequent blood samples to generate instantaneous results that are only accurate as of …

Towards Targeted Delivery To Cns Neurons By Conquering The Bbb, David G.A. Bengford

Bioengineering Master's Theses

Brain cancer treatments have long been restricted by the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Semi-permeable in the most selective way, this barrier may be crossed by one of three methods: membrane integrity disruption, passive transport, or active transport. The third option offers the opportunity for many medically relevant cargoes, such as proteins and nucleic acids, to be shuttled into the brain. The concept of a therapeutic “Trojan horse” builds on this capability by employing engineered nanovesicles—in this work, engineered exosomes—whose surfaces are studded with ligands functioning as the keys to crossing the BBB. Exosomes are a powerful methodology for this approach because …

Immuno-Anti-Infective Drug Design Using Bioai, Cathy Chen, Vivian Zhang

Bioengineering Senior Theses

According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today. A growing number of infections, like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, are becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used to treat them become less effective. As a result, the primary concern for infections in the hospital setting is due to the S. aureus’s growing resistance to antibiotics. Therefore, in response to this global health threat, our project focuses on furthering the research in developing a drug that S. aureus will not develop resistance to. In this paper, we assess …

Shear Detection Of Microencapsulated Cells For Monoclonal Antibody Production Scaleup, Kendall Defelippi, Dwight Johnson

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Scale the reported hydrodynamic shear values in industrial bioreactors for monoclonal antibody production to the shear stress measured in our custom microneedle prototype by extruding microencapsulated CHO cells. A correlation between the number of extrusion loops to reduction in cell viability enables a scalable screening method for bioprocessing efficiency.

Training Thinner And Deeper Neural Networks: Jumpstart Regularization, Carles Riera, Camilo Rey, Thiago Serra, Eloi Puertas, Oriol Pujol

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

Neural networks are more expressive when they have multiple layers. In turn, conventional training methods are only successful if the depth does not lead to numerical issues such as exploding or vanishing gradients, which occur less frequently when the layers are sufficiently wide. However, increasing width to attain greater depth entails the use of heavier computational resources and leads to overparameterized models. These subsequent issues have been partially addressed by model compression methods such as quantization and pruning, some of which relying on normalization-based regularization of the loss function to make the effect of most parameters negligible. In this work, …

Engineering Hydrogels For Delivery Of Therapeutic Proteins, Francesca Briggs, Daryn Browne

Bioengineering Senior Theses

In this project, we investigate how innate hydrogel properties can be leveraged for controlled protein drug release platforms. Therapeutic proteins have many valuable applications within the medical field, however, professionals often face many obstacles with obtaining controlled drug release. This paper analyzes how the manipulation of hydrogel properties can improve protein drug release rates. We started these investigations by varying hydrogel concentrations since we saw that this affects the release of small molecules. Additionally, we wanted to see what the addition of a second hydrogel network would do to protein release rates. These experiments concluded that raising polymer concentrations and …

Improving Pain Assessment Using Vital Signs And Pain Medication For Patients With Sickle Cell Disease: Retrospective Study, Swati Padhee, Gary K. Nave Jr, Tanvi Banerjee, Daniel M. Abrams, Nirmish Shah

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common inherited blood disorder affecting millions of people worldwide. Most patients with SCD experience repeated, unpredictable episodes of severe pain. These pain episodes are the leading cause of emergency department visits among patients with SCD and may last for several weeks. Arguably, the most challenging aspect of treating pain episodes in SCD is assessing and interpreting a patient's pain intensity level. Objective: This study aims to learn deep feature representations of subjective pain trajectories using objective physiological signals collected from electronic health records. Methods: This study used electronic health record data collected …

Observation And Control Of Photoemission And Electric Field Enhancement Of Plasmonic Antennas Through Photoemission Electron Microscopy, Christopher M. Scheffler

Dissertations and Theses

Photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) is an imaging method which uses electrons excited through the photoelectric effect to characterize a sample surface with nanometer-level resolution. In PEEM, a high intensity laser excites electrons from the surface of the material and electron optics are used to form an image from the intensity and spatial distribution of the photoemission from the sample. The goal of this research was to study and maximize light confinement, which was accomplished using plasmonic nanostructures. Surface plasmons represent oscillations in the electron density of a material and can occur along the transition interface between a metal and a …

Rod Bend Approximator For Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery, Amanda Hansell, Anise Ghandchi, Shervin Moghimi

Biomedical Engineering

This Final Report will go over the project deliverables and future steps in the making of a rod bending approximator tool by the Cal Poly Senior Design team for the client SeaSpine. The latest designs and research done regarding minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is covered including the impediments with the current methods. SeaSpine presented the need to our team for an approximating tool within the MIS procedure. Our team began project planning through task generation and schedule development. Once the product definition was fully understood, competition was evaluated and engineering specifications were created for the project. A conceptual design was …

Developing A Miniature Smart Boat For Marine Research, Michael Isaac Eirinberg

Computer Engineering

This project examines the development of a smart boat which could serve as a possible marine research apparatus. The smart boat consists of a miniature vessel containing a low-cost microcontroller to live stream a camera feed, GPS telemetry, and compass data through its own WiFi access point. The smart boat also has the potential for autonomous navigation. My project captivated the interest of several members of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s (Cal Poly SLO) Marine Science Department faculty, who proposed a variety of fascinating and valuable smart boat applications.

Smart Bottle Ble Integration, Joshua M. Rizzolo

Electrical Engineering

In 1975, four percent of children aged five to nineteen were categorized as overweight or obese. As of 2016, this figure climbed above 18 percent [1]. Researchers at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) want to investigate the effect of overeating in early childhood on later childhood obesity. This research requires collecting feeding pattern data on infants, which proves challenging. Parents cannot be relied on to regularly collect clean data due to factors including work schedule, multitasking, and general exhaustion. Thus, we have developed a tool to automatically collect data on feeding frequency and duration, as well …

Bicep Muscle Rep Counter With Semg, Matthew Max Garcia

Electrical Engineering

The Bicep Muscle Rep Counter with SEMG is a device that was made to develop three repetition thresholds or difficulty levels from a fully-flexed bicep brachii muscle and signal to the user when consequent bicep muscle contractions pass said thresholds or levels. This device can be used when performing a bicep-focused movement or when generally flexing the bicep muscle. Essentially, this device serves to make sure each repetition of a muscle contraction passes a percentage value calculated from the electrical activity outputted from a max contraction.

The device is not designed for and does not produce data for muscle growth, …

Development Of Flexible Hybrid Electronics For Sterilization And Structural Health Monitoring Applications, Arnesh Kumar Bose

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Staphylococcus Aureus Sortase A Protein Applications And Methods: (1) Drug Discovery In Anti-Infectious Agents; (2) A Biotechnique Analysis For Indication Sortase A Protein Purification Methods; (3) In Vivo Protein Ligation For Discovery Of Novel Protein Engineering Methods:, Melina Huang Xia

Bioengineering Master's Theses

It has been understood that during Gram-positive bacterial infection, the bacterial cells interact with host mammalian cells via the virulence factors whose anchorage onto the bacterial surface are mainly catalysed by Sortase A[2]. Emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, especially the Gram-positive bacteria, has rendered the rise of many antibiotic resistant bacteria, resulting in rise of infection cases that bypass traditional first-line antibiotics treatments. It is crucial for the public health that scientists and researchers discover an alternative treatment for the bacterial infection that targets the underlying pathogenic mechanism that are responsible for the increased virulence of such bacteria without contributing …

Latam Intelligent Filter For Education (Life), Andrew Lemus, Jonathan Woo, Edison Yang, Cinthya Jauregui, Daniel Mccann-Sayles

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The LIFE system is designed to inspire primary-aged students in Latin American schools to pursue higher education in STEM related fields. We hope the students educate others in their community about the public health implications stemming from the lack of clean water and grow to bring about more lasting solutions to the water crisis. Many family’s lives are stymied by the inability to access clean drinking water, with many students ending up spending hours carrying water or spending time recovering water themselves in lieu of attending school. The LIFE team created a tabletop water filter and pump system accompanied by …

Therapeutic Mechanical Horse, Cade M. Liberty, Aleya Dolorfino, Peter Philips, Zuzanna Dominik, Luke Watts

Mechanical Engineering

Jack's Helping Hand and its hippotherapy participants required a device to serve as an alternative to a live horseback riding experience that could also increase the range of riders. This would provide more clients with equine-assisted therapy that has proven to better the lives of people with both physical and mental disabilities. Horses can be unpredictable, tall, and sometimes anxiety-inducing, especially for new riders. Our group’s aim was to develop a mechanical horse that will be able to reduce these issues for equine therapy centers and the riders they help. When a rider gets to practice sitting on the horse …