Digital Commons Network^™

Adopting Critical Power Grid Infrastructure Technologies: An Organizational Cybersecurity Assessment Against Ransomware, Fayez Alsoubaie

Dissertations and Theses

For many years, researchers and practitioners have studied emerging technologies in field of energy production and distribution. Power grid systems carry major weights in the energy branch of the economy. Researchers and scientists have been interested in finding ways to connect the power grid gap and improve protection for its technologies.

The research supports organizational adoption and prioritization of critical cybersecurity technologies for ransomware protection in power grid infrastructure. As utilities increasingly integrate digital technologies, they become more vulnerable to sophisticated cyberattacks that can disrupt services and put public safety at risk. The main focus of the study is to …

Diagnosis Of Covid-19 Impact On The Construction Employment: Decline And Recovery, Anil Baral, Abdullah Alnuaimi, Yunping Liang, Baabak Ashuri, Mohsen S. Shahandashti

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) had an unprecedented impact on U.S. construction employment. The assessment of employment declines and recoveries across various construction sectors, workforce demographics, and geographic regions helps develop inclusive long-term plans to overcome the setbacks of natural hazards, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing methods for quantifying the employment decline from sudden shocks do not consider trends and seasonality of construction employment under normal conditions. Hence, it is not clear whether the employment declines are due to the impact of a disaster or associated with trends and seasonal patterns of employment. The objective of this research is …

Applications Of Geosynthetics In Tunnels Construction: A Sustainable Approach To Carbon Footprint Reduction, Ibraheem Rais, Abdullah H. Alsabhan, Md. Rehan Sadique, Shamshad Alam

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

The use of geosynthetics has transformed tunnelling practices by enhancing structural integrity, durability, and environmental sustainability. This review adopts a systematic literature review design, covering publications from 2000 to 2025 sourced from Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. The selected studies were screened based on relevance, quality, and focus on tunnelling applications, then thematically analyzed into four domains: geosynthetic types, applications, sustainability, and performance evaluation. This review focuses on the applications of various geosynthetics, including geotextiles, geogrids, geocomposites, geocells, and geomembranes, in tunnelling projects. These materials play crucial roles in reinforcing tunnel walls and slopes, improving load distribution, …

Design Of Precise Hinges For Optical Space Arrays, Jacob Sutton

Theses and Dissertations

Deployable origami-based arrays offer significant advantages for space optical systems due to their ability to stow compactly and deploy to a large surface area. However, achieving the panel alignment precision required for optical applications remains an open challenge, particularly for non-rigid-foldable patterns such as the flasher, where large relative motion during deployment and geometric constraints at panel interfaces limit the effectiveness of traditional hinge designs. This thesis addresses the precision alignment challenge through the design, prototyping, and experimental testing of novel passive precision hinges for rigid-panel origami-based deployable space arrays. A compact kinematic coupling hinge incorporating Lamina Emergent Torsional (LET) …

Development Of A Low-Cost Roadside Monitoring System For Identifying High-Emitting Heavy-Duty Trucks, Spencer Larson

Theses and Dissertations

This project investigated the feasibility of using low-cost sensors to identify high-emitting heavy-duty diesel trucks through roadside emissions monitoring. A sampling system was designed and tested in both laboratory and field environments to evaluate sensor performance and measurement reliability. In the laboratory, controlled engine testing enabled direct comparison between low-cost sensors and research-grade instruments to establish baseline accuracy, response time, and sources of uncertainty. These tests demonstrated that while low-cost sensors exhibit greater bias and slower response, several are capable of detecting transient emission events. Field deployments revealed that real-world conditions, such as plume dilution, spatial variability, and short exposure …

Fisheye Camera Object Detection For Traffic Surveillance, Hugo Yang, Robert Luo

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Effective traffic management is hampered by the physical limitations of traditional pinhole cameras, whose narrow fields of view create blind spots that require costly multi-camera infrastructure to overcome. Fisheye cameras offer a wide-angle alternative capable of single-camera intersection coverage, but the radial distortion inherent in their optics renders standard object detection algorithms unreliable, limiting their practical deployment in traffic surveillance.

This thesis investigates specialized object detection pipelines for fisheye traffic imagery by reproducing and building upon two top-ranked submissions from the 2025 AI City Challenge Track 4: the VNPT and SKKU-AutoLab pipelines. Both were successfully reconstructed outside their original containerized …

Corrigendum To " Computational Investigation Of Cavitation Inception In Centrifugal Pumps"

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Abstract is not required.

Optimization Of Cyanide Leaching Process Based On Grain Size And Slurry Density In Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining In Tatelu Area, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, Dadan Mohamad Nurjaman, Harmin Sulistiyaning Titah, Adji Kawigraha, Ipung Fitri Purwanti, Wahyu Hidayat

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in Tatelu Village, North Sulawesi, has shifted from mercury amalgamation to cyanide leaching. However, gold recovery remains inefficient, requiring process optimization. This study uses multiple linear regression analysis to evaluate the influence of grain size and slurry density on gold dissolution. The results indicate that grain size plays a dominant role in leaching efficiency, while slurry density, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), and cyanide concentration have statistically insignificant effects (p > 0.05). Laboratory tests show that finer grain sizes enhance dissolution, with the highest recovery rate of 89.08% achieved at 75% passing through 44 …

Investigation Of Portland Limestone Cement Blended With Biochar From Downdraft Gasification: Hydration Kinetics, Microstructure, Rheology, And Performance Mechanisms, Ugochukwu Ewuzie, Paul C. Ani, Abdulkareem O. Yusuf, Joseph D. Smith, Monday Uchenna Okoronkwo

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The widespread adoption of Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) in U.S. concrete production has necessitated research into commercially available supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) for formulating high-performance, low-carbon blended binders with PLC. This study investigated the influence of biochar (BC) in biochar-PLC composites (CBCs), focusing on hydration kinetics, microstructure, rheology, pore-solution chemistry, compressive strength, and the underlying mechanisms. Biochar was produced via downdraft gasification at 850 °C and incorporated into PLC at 5, 7, and 10% substitution by mass. Isothermal calorimetry and hydration data modeled using the Knudsen equation revealed that BC retarded early hydration but improved hydration degree and later-age heat …

Rape Pregnancies And Consequent Ptsd Resulting From The Overturn Of Roe V. Wade, Emma Lindenfelser, Yulia Garaeva, Nenette Nti-Agyemang, Ellen Davis, Anna Kabwa, Alexandra M Calaman

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Prior to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, access to safe legal abortions was limited and often restricted along racial, economic, and geographic lines. Nearly fifty years later, women’s health policy evolved again following the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade. This court ruling decimated federal protections of abortion. This paper presents the research that the 2022 Dobbs judicial decision may contribute to and exacerbate rape-related PTSD on 1 out of 20 American who are unable to access a safe abortion after a rape-related pregnancy. Pregnant women living in conservative states that have outlawed …

Ml Models For Child-Parent Speech Diarization, Kenneth Kang

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

This senior design thesis presents a machine learning research pipeline for child-parent and child-directed speech diarization. Speech diarization is the task of determining who spoke and when in an audio recording. Although this problem is well studied in adult meeting, broadcast, and conversational speech, child-parent audio is a more uneven setting. Children may speak in short turns, change pitch quickly, vocalize without producing clear words, interrupt adults, overlap with adult speech, cry, laugh, or code switch. These behaviors are normal in real family interaction, but they can confuse diarization systems that were mostly designed and evaluated on adult speech.

The …

The Shrinking Caspian Sea: Eco‐Hydrological Responses To Human And Climate Pressures, Jesse Duku, Mohammad J. Tourian, Marzi Azarderakhsh, Rovshan Abbasov, Ali Mehran, Ali Torabi Haghighi, Stefanos Xenarios, Azara Boschee, Salih Babagiray, Mojtaba Sadegh, Nima Shokri, Ali Nazemi, Alireza Farahmand, Samaneh Ashraf, Temur Khujanazarov, Elmira Hassanzadeh, Dalal Najib, Daniel Placht, Shamshagul Mashtayeva, Ekaterina Rets, Hamid Norouzi, Kaveh Madani, Manoochehr Shirzaei, Hossein Shafizadeh-Moghadam, Chiyuan Miao, Ali Mirchi, Shuo Wang, Amir Aghakouchak

Publications and Research

The Caspian Sea, the Earth's largest inland water body, faces water level decline, drawing comparisons to the collapse of the Aral Sea. Unlike the Aral Sea, the relative roles of climatic variability, hydrological changes, and anthropogenic pressures on the Caspian Sea remain poorly understood. Here, we integrate satellite observations, in situ hydrological records and reanalysis data to examine recent drivers of the Caspian water loss. We show that total river inflow to the Caspian Sea has declined significantly, primarily due to reduced discharge from the Volga River. At the same time, precipitation over the basin has remained broadly stable, while …

Trends In Non-Profit Cybersecurity: Analyzing Three Years Of Incident Data From The Npcir, Stanley Mierzwa, Joanna Paliszkiewicz, Edyta Skarzyńska

Center for Cybersecurity

This study analyzes cyberattack trends targeting non-profit organizations using longitudinal data collected over a three-year period within the Non-Profit Cybersecurity Incident Repository (NPCIR). Developed through a National Security Agency Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (NSA CAE-CD) designated center, the NPCIR applies an open-source intelligence (OSINT) methodology to systematically document cybersecurity incidents affecting the global non-profit sector. This study examines attack types, threat actor characteristics, sectoral distribution, and cybersecurity impacts using the Confidentiality–Integrity–Availability (CIA) triad framework. The results indicate that availability-related incidents, particularly ransomware and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, constitute the most prevalent threats, while confidentiality breaches remain highly …

Implementation Of A Mixed Precision Iterative Solver On An Amd Apu, Saeyeon Kim, Henrik Evers

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Solving systems of linear equations is a core operation in high-performance computing and many scientific and engineering applications. One of the most widely used direct methods for solving such systems is LU factorization. Mixed-precision methods accelerate these solvers by using low-precision LU factorization with iterative refinement, improving performance and energy efficiency while preserving high numerical accuracy. AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), which integrate CPU and NPU resources, provide an opportunity to explore this approach on emerging heterogeneous architectures. However, effective NPU utilization remains challenging due to workload partitioning, buffer management, data-movement overhead, and software tooling limitations.

This project implements a …

Evaluating Chest-Worn Light Logger Adherence: Development And Application Of A Wear/Non-Wear Model, Carlyn Patterson Gentile, Adah Thomas, Ryan Shah, Blanca Marquez De Prado, Nichelle Raj, Christina Szperka, Geoffrey Aguirre

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

Light exposure plays an important role in overall health because it entrains circadian rhythms. Recent technological advances in wearable light loggers allow measurement daily light exposure habits. Using a chest-worn light logger, our goal was to (1) develop methodology for differentiating adherent versus non-adherent use, and (2) define differences in lighting intensity in indoor and outdoor environments, to improve data reliability in future clinical studies using this technology. Four testers used a 10-channel chest worn light logging device under different conditions of wear and non-wear (experiment 1), and another tester made measurements with the light logger across a variety of …

Matching Two Long Interferometric Pathlengths Using Low Temporal Coherence Light For Finding Hong–Ou–Mandel Dip, Keith A. Wyman, Noah S. Everett, Anil K. Patnaik

Faculty Publications

Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) dip from a biphoton source in a two-photon interferometer provides a myriad of quantum tools for quantum communication and sensing. But the stringent requirements for spatial coherence between the photon pair makes it prohibitively difficult to observe high-fidelity HOM dip in long-distance free-space implementations, e.g., for the photon pairs involved in quantum communication need to match the two path lengths within a few 10 s of micron because of the short coherence width of the two-photon wave-packet. While many techniques for the pathlength balancing of two interferometric arms have been studied and applied extensively, such balancing is further …

Foundations' Deep, Emily Williams, Morgan Williams

University Honors Theses

Most historic buildings do not survive as they were built, yet preservation frameworks still tend to evaluate them as if they did.

Foundations' Deep begins with a structure located in Helena, Montana 59602, a building that sits uneasily within the categories it has been asked to meet. Built in the early twentieth century, it has persisted through alteration, abandonment, and use. What remains is not a stable artifact but a record of accumulated decisions, some careful and many indifferent, now embedded in the fabric of the building itself.

The thesis grows from this condition and from the limits of the …

Numerical Assessment On The Use Of Structured Coral Reefs To Mitigate Tsunamis, Rim Ahmed Alsheikh Ali

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

This thesis investigates the role of coral reefs as nature-based tsunami protection systems for coastlines in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study is significant because the UAE is located near the seismically active Makran Subduction Zone in the Arabian Sea, which may generate tsunami hazards. The research provides a quantitative assessment of how coral reef morphology, particularly reef width and depth, influences tsunami wave attenuation, flow velocity, flow depth, roughness, and bed shear stress.

The study used a multi-phase methodology combining literature review, laboratory experiments, and numerical modelling. Flume experiments were conducted at UAEU using high-fidelity 3D-printed Acropora coral …

Declination Of Groundwater Potential Zones Of Nashik, Maharashtra Using Geographic Information System With Analytic Hierarchy Process-Fuzzy Techniques, Madhusudhan M. Reddy, Bhogayya G. Naidu, Bharat N. Mulay, Ramanjaneyulu B, Ravi K. Kumar, Mirzi L. Betasolo, Praveen U. Goud, Snehal N. Chaudhari

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Groundwater is a critical resource for agriculture and domestic use in the semi-arid region of Nashik District, Maharashtra, where overexploitation and erratic climatic conditions have led to declining groundwater availability. This study integrates Geographic Information System (GIS) with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy-AHP techniques to delineate groundwater potential zones (GWPZs) and identify suitable sites for artificial recharge. A total of ten thematic layers drainage density, rainfall, geomorphology, elevation, distance from river, geology, slope, land use/land cover, topographic wetness index (TWI), and curvature were derived from SRTM DEM, Landsat-8, and IMD datasets, representing key controls on groundwater recharge, infiltration, and …

Broncosgo: Driving Student Event Participation Via Human-Ai Collaborative Event Curation, Katherine Carter, Ethan Sychangco

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

College campuses rely heavily on email communication for event advertisement. However, due to the sheer number of emails any student may receive, the individual effectiveness of each advertisement decreases. A better alternative for event promotion was needed. How could we introduce students to events they would not usually find on their own, without continuing to fill up their email inbox? And how would information on all of those events be collected and maintained without requiring organizations to jump through extra hoops? Our project, BroncosGo, solves this issue by maintaining a database of campus events which is populated with information provided …

Club Finance Management Application, India Bell, Lydia Martin, Sola Kawahara, Zachariah Wang

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

There are over 160 Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) at SCU as of 2023 [6]. There is currently no centralized system that RSO treasurers use to track and manage club finances. As a result, many organizations rely on fragmented methods such as spreadsheets, shared documents, email chains, and manual record keeping to manage budgets, reimbursements, and financial reports. These disconnected systems often lead to inconsistent organization, communication difficulties, and challenges during leadership transitions between club officers. This project proposes the development of a web-based Club Finance Management Application, Kaikei, designed specifically for Santa Clara University student organizations. The application centralizes financial …

Sleepfocus – The Attributes And Application, Austin Kim, Erik Keifer, Isaac Amedie

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Insufficient sleep is a widespread public health concern, yet many consumer sleep tools still emphasize retrospective dashboards over personalized, actionable guidance. Platforms such as Apple Health, Fitbit, Whoop, and Oura collect detailed biometric and sleep data, but users are often left to interpret trends and decide what to change on their own.

SleepFocus was built to address that gap by turning wearable sleep data into clearer feedback, personalized recommendations, and healthier sleep routines. SleepFocus is a native iOS application that integrates with Apple HealthKit to collect sleep-stage data and biometric streams such as heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, …

Fatigue Behavior Characterization Of Magnesium And Aluminum Alloys In Military Trainer Aircraft, Alysson Sousa Rabelo, José Aécio Gomes De Sousa, Feliciano José Ricardo Cangue, Luiz Leroy Thomé Vaughan

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The increasing demand for lightweight and durable materials in aviation industry necessitates continuous improvements in research into fatigue-resistant alloys to improve operational efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness. The estimation of the operational life of aeronautical structures is directly related to the study of their mechanical properties, particularly concerning fatigue behavior due to the constant exposure to cyclic loads. For this reason, the aeronautical sector often invests significant capital in research for the development of new alloys that enable high structural performance, lightness, low cost, high durability, and tolerance to environmental damage. Despite the advancements in composite materials, aluminum and magnesium alloys …

Iajes Website Redesign, Justin Fan, Nicolas Gibson, Isabelle Hu, Anisha Malani

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

The International Association of Jesuit Engineering and Science Schools (IAJES) connects more than sixty Jesuit institutions worldwide to promote collaboration and shared learning in STEM research. Santa Clara University is one of more than sixty member universities whose faculty and staff participate in conferences and task forces to address priority issues identified by the Society of Jesus. IAJES’ existing website, built on a static no-code platform, limited the organization’s ability to manage content, support member interaction, and scale with its growing global network. Users faced unclear navigation options, a basic design, and no effective tools for managing roles, resources, or …

Wearable Hazard Detection System For The Visually Impaired, Nolan Daly, Sergio Diaz, Brandon Ng

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

This project presents a wearable assistive system designed to help blind or visually impaired people navigate their surroundings more safely. The system uses a Raspberry Pi 5 connected to Camera Module 3 (NoIR Wide) sensors to capture a wide field of view. Real-time object detection is performed using a lightweight YOLOv8 model, and a redundancy-based merging algorithm combines detections across cameras to improve reliability. By requiring agreement between multiple cameras, the system reduces false positives and increases confidence in identifying obstacles.

The device is designed to operate in real time and provide reliable feedback about nearby hazards, helping users make …

A Provable Semi-Infinite Programming Approach For Solving Constrained Dynamic Games, Tyler C. Gardner, Matthew W. Harris, Logan Lancaster

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

Many engineering problems must account for the non-cooperative decisions and actions of multiple players. These problems can be modeled within a game-theoretic framework. The approach herein is to model such problems as mathematical games, convert them to semi-infinite programs, and utilize a semi-infinite program solver whose output is provably an ϵ-optimal Nash equilibrium. The approach is successfully benchmarked on two low-dimensional problems. Two types of higher-dimensional linear quadratic dynamic games are then investigated: ones where each player’s problem is convex and ones where at least one player’s problem is nonconvex. Within each type, variations based on information structure, control …

Bilingual Math For Kindergartners (Biki), Anna Aldrin, Caroline Tapia, Lillian Le

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

For many children from bilingual households, kindergarten represents a critical, learning benchmark where the introduction of fundamental math concepts coincides with their first significant exposure to the English language. Traditional educational methods often fail to support English language learners, leading to a disconnect between their understanding of math in the home and its application in the classroom. This linguistic barrier frequently results in reduced engagement, diminished confidence, and an unstable educational foundation that can discourage students from pursuing STEM careers later in life. While existing platforms like Khan Academy and Duolingo address either language acquisition or mathematical proficiency independently, they …

Bridgeide, Maya Srimal, Jeshwin Prince, Arnav Gupta, Will Zumbolo

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Anyone who has done a group project knows the pattern: the first meeting burns an hour on logistics—which document to use, who has access, why the formatting broke on one laptop—before real work begins. In computer science courses that gap is worse. Students must install the right compiler, runtime, and libraries on their own machines; a four-person team on four different laptops can lose the first week to setup alone. Instructors who want to review submissions often download every zip from the learning management system and run each one locally. Existing tools solve pieces of this puzzle—real-time document editing, browser-based …

Maya Roots, Erin Schmidt, Megu Kanzawa

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

This project focused on the continued development of Maya Roots, a mobile and web-based platform designed for farmers in Tahcabo: a rural agricultural community located in Yucatán, Mexico. Yucatán faces unique agricultural challenges due to its karst limestone terrain and highly variable land conditions that can significantly impact farming outcomes. At the same time, traditional agricultural knowledge such as Milpa farming practices is increasingly at risk of being lost across generations. These environmental and cultural challenges highlighted the need for a portable, accessible system that could preserve agricultural knowledge, improve access to geospatial information, and strengthen communication between farmers and …

Stomp (The Student Organization Management Portal), Lindsey Leong, Madeline Follosco, Noelle Evanich, Irene Chang

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

At Santa Clara University, the Center for Student Involvement (CSI) leads to support hundreds of student-led organizations with different audiences and ambitions, but all aim to bring students together nonetheless. However, such development regarding student organization management proves to be much harder when administrative processes are decentralized and cumbersome, often involving numerous layers of manual work and departmental bottlenecks. Restructuring and optimizing administrative workflows would entail more energy towards the growth of student life at Santa Clara University.

The Student Organization Management Portal, or StOMP, is a web application that aims to centralize and optimize student organization-related processes, as well …