Digital Commons Network^™

Visualization Of Geospatial Data As An Analytical And Educational Tool, Richard A. Vu

STAR Program Research Presentations

World Wind is an open-source API developed for Java, Android, and browsers that is designed to visualize and interact with geospatial data. The Web World Wind client is composed of four major components: the HTML template, the globe, geospatial features, and application features. The template was implemented using Bootstrap and hosts the globe provided by World Wind. This globe draws its data from multiple imagery sources, including the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service and Web Map Tile Service. This enables the application to perform and visualize complex calculations with multiple types of data such as weather and terrain. …

Tof-Sims Analysis Of Plant Seed Interactions With Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria, Tammy Pheuphong, Rachel Komorek, Xiao-Ying Yu

STAR Program Research Presentations

The use of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) in plant biology is a relatively unexplored and quickly developing field. The majority of research in plant SIMS involves the application of ToF-SIMS to study dried wood tissues, and only a handful of studies apply SIMS on plant stems, roots, and/or seeds. Our project provides a brief description and review of previous work using SIMS on plant stems, roots, and/or seeds, along with an emphasis on the sample preparation in each study. Additionally, the use of Brachypodium distachyon (Brachypodium) as a model system for research on grasses has also become more …

Applications Of Diels-Alder Chemistry In Polymer Synthesis, Joshua C. Stambaugh, Philip J. Costanzo, Sierra E. Gosting

STAR Program Research Presentations

Diels-Alder chemistry is utilized for a myriad of commercial applications during polymer synthesis, ranging from self-healing materials to heat responsive materials to emulsion coatings. In particular, the ability to regulate and control the amount and type of functional group linkages is key component for polymer applications. A common strategy that is employed is the use of phenolic maleimide as a dienophile during Diels-Alder synthesis to control the linkages on a polymer, which determines its properties and functionality. This summer was the beginning of a project to prepare a commercial scale, water-based emulsion floor coating/polish. The first step in this project …

Anisotropic Conductive Adhesives For Interdigitated Back Contact (Ibc) Silicon Solar Cells, Katherine M. Lohmuste, Manuel Schnabel, Maikel F.A.M. Van Hest

STAR Program Research Presentations

The current manufacturing process for solar panels using interdigitated back contact (IBC) silicon solar cells involves a multi-step metallization and interconnection process in which a substantial amount of silver is used. This work focuses on a new process using conductive adhesives (CA) which would increase efficiency and lower cost through a one-step metallization and interconnection process that combines with encapsulation using little silver and only requiring metal patterning on the back sheet or back glass. It would also not require direct metallization of the silicon, which would result in fewer defects, while increasing voltage and therefore efficiency. Silver-coated Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) …

Can We Detect Undeclared Facilities In The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Using Mathematical Simulations?, Kassandra Guajardo, Lee Burke, Romarie Morales Rosado

STAR Program Research Presentations

What if there was a way to detect undeclared (Clandestine) facilities using data sets from a nuclear facility? The Statistical Modeling and Experimental Design group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are developing the Modeling and Inference for Remote Sensing (MIRS) model. The model uses two deterrence scenarios within the nuclear fuel cycle to detect undeclared facilities. The two scenarios are used in an agent based nuclear fuel cycle simulator to produce the declared and undeclared feed, tails assay, and sink inventory in kilograms of Uranium. In the first scenario, natural uranium is being diverted from the conversion plant to …

Breakpoint Analysis Of Modis Vegetarian Cover Change In Southern California Deserts, Rebecca Baiman

STAR Program Research Presentations

This study applies time series breakpoint analysis to look at Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data of southern California. Past studies have looked at this desert land using Landsat data in order to analyze any changes the environment has gone through due to renewable energy development or other factors. This study develops a method for utilizing structural change models to study the DRECP land area. Focusing on breakpoints, this study found that most positive breakpoints represented years with high rainfall. Additionally, sandy washes with little vegetation did not yield any breakpoint between 2000 and 2018. This study can be used …

Experimental Study And Modeling Of The GM-I Dependence Of Long-Channel Mosfets, Michael Cheng, Vladimir I. Prodanov

Electrical Engineering

This paper describes an experimental study and modeling of the current-transconductance dependence of the ALD1106 and ALD1107 arrays. The study tests the hypothesis that the I-g _m dependence of these 7.8 μm MOSFETs conforms to the Advanced Compact Model (ACM). Results from performed measurements, however, do not support this expectation. Despite the relatively large length, both ALD1106 and ALD1107 show sufficiently pronounced `short-channel' effects to render the ACM inadequate. As a byproduct of this effort, we confirmed the modified ACM equation. With an m factor of approximately 0.6, it captures the I-g _m dependence quite well. The paper also introduces …

Asic Design Of Rf Energy Harvester Using 0.13um Cmos Technology, Jainish K. Zaveri

Master's Theses

Recent advances in wireless sensor nodes, data acquisition devices, wearable and implantable medical devices have paved way for low power (sub 50uW) devices. These devices generally use small solid state or thin film batteries for power supply which need replacement or need to be removed for charging. RF energy harvesting technology can be used to charge these batteries without the need to remove the battery from the device, thus providing a sustainable power supply. In other cases, a battery can become unnecessary altogether. This enables us to deploy wireless network nodes in places where regular physical access to the nodes …

Iris Biometric Identification Using Artificial Neural Networks, Kevin Joseph Haskett

Master's Theses

A biometric method is a more secure way of personal identification than passwords. This thesis examines the iris as a personal identifier with the use of neural networks as the classifier. A comparison of different feature extraction methods that include the Fourier transform, discrete cosine transform, the eigen analysis method, and the wavelet transform, is performed. The robustness of each method, with respect to distortion and noise, is also studied.

The Development And Validation Of Sinatra: A Three-Dimensional Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (Dsmc) Code Written In Object-Oriented C++ And Performed On Cartesian Grids, David Matthew Galvez

Master's Theses

The field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) primarily involves the approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations. However, these equations are only valid when the flow is considered continuous such that molecular interactions are abundant and predictable. The Knudsen number, $Kn$, which is defined as the ratio of the flow's mean free path, $\lambda$, to some characteristic length, $L$, quantifies the continuity of any flow, and when this parameter is large enough, alternative methods must be employed to simulate gases. The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is one which simulates rarefied gas flows by directly simulating the particles that compose the …

Design And Analysis Of A Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrator, George N. Skouras

Master's Theses

A prototype solar desalination system (SODESAL) with a parabolic-trough solar concentrator (PTSC) and evacuated tube was designed and analyzed to determine the solar thermal capabilities for small-scale distillation and energy generation. A proof-of-concept study verified that distillation is possible with the system as designed, however a rupture occurred in the copper heat-pipe heat exchanger due to overheating. The internal temperatures of an aluminum heat transfer fin were measured inside an evacuated tube typically used in solar water heater systems to understand the lateral heat distribution and identify possible causes of the rupture. Solar radiation was measured for both the summer …

Quantifying The Environmental Performance Of A Stream Habitat Improvement Project, Cody Morse

Master's Theses

River restoration projects are being installed worldwide to rehabilitate degraded river habitat. Many of these projects focus on stream habitat improvement (SHI), and an estimated 60%of the 37,000 projects listed in the National River Restoration Science Synthesis Program focus on SHI for salmon and trout species. These projects frequently lack a sufficient monitoring program or account for the environmental costs associated with SHI. The present study used life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques and topographic effectiveness monitoring to quantify environmental costs on the basis of geomorphic change. This methodology was a novel approach to assessing the cost-benefit relationship of SHI. To …

Looking Toward The Future: The Value Of Geothermal Energy In The United States Power Market, Reilly R. Moran

STAR Program Research Presentations

States are creating renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) that require utilities to run off a certain percentage of renewables. With the new RPSs and current emission standards the dynamic of the grids energy and reliability needs are changing. Because RPSs and emission standards, utilities are procuring the cheapest renewable resources, which tend to be solar and wind. As RPSs increase over time this causes higher procurements of solar and wind. Higher procurement and increasing penetration levels of solar and wind is causing their energy values to decrease as well as some reliability concerns. While geothermal energy value will continue to stay …

Pnnl Dark Matter Bubble Chamber, Ryan Robinson

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) prototype bubble chamber is intended to address issues encountered with the current PICO dark matter search detectors and improve the functionality of future experimental designs. The PNNL bubble chamber accomplishes this with a simplified interface between the hydraulic pressure controls and the target vessel and altering the standard chamber design such that it can be easily exchanged and replaced with vessels of various sizes and materials for testing purposes. The chamber itself is a glass vessel which houses perfluorobutane and holds the target fluid above room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The target fluid becomes …

Beyond Human Intelligence: Redefining Intelligence, Jens Pohl

Architecture

The digital revolution driven by global connectivity, computing as a utility, artificial intelligence, and information sharing on an unprecedented scale is forcing the redefinition of intelligence in a broader context that extends beyond human intelligence. This paper addresses the principal characteristics of biological intelligence, as it exists on planet Earth and the form it may take in an extraterrestrial context. Human intelligence, as the most evolved form of biological intelligence on Earth, is treated as the aggregation of multiple intelligences that cannot be encapsulated in a single metric such as an Intelligence Quotient (IQ). The concept of a postbiological civilization …

Adjusting To The New Abet Criteria 3 And 5: It’S Really Not Very Hard, Allen C. Estes, Peter Laursen, Pamalee A. Brady

Architectural Engineering

ABET has revised the criteria 3 (Student Outcomes) and 5 (Curriculum) of the general criteria. These changes have made it through the rigorous approval process and will be effective for the 2019-20 academic year. This paper analyzes the differences between the existing criteria and the proposed changes. Through a specific detailed example, the paper illustrates how an existing assessment system can seamlessly be adjusted for the new criteria. Most of the embedded indicators and direct measures of attainment can still be used. The results simply need to be organized differently.

Deep Learning For Automated Image Classification Of Seismic Damage To Built Infrastructure, B. Patterson, G. Leone, Maria Pantoja, Anahid A. Behrouzi

Architectural Engineering

The amount of structural damage image data produced in the aftermath of an earthquake can be staggering. It is challenging for a few human volunteers to efficiently filter and tag these images with meaningful damage information. The proposed solution is to automate post-earthquake reconnaissance image tagging activities by training a computer algorithm to classify each occurrence of damage per building material and structural member type. The approach is based on deep learning (DL), a subset of machine learning loosely based on the operation of a biologic neural system, which aims to learn and extract accurate representations from large data sets. …

Photo Tagging Tool For Rapid And Detailed Post-Earthquake Structural Damage Identification, Anahid A. Behrouzi, Maria Pantoja

Architectural Engineering

A significant task in earthquake reconnaissance is to conduct rapid and accurate assessments of damage to built infrastructure. This can be accomplished, in part, by analyzing the large volumes of high-resolution image data collected after a seismic event. However, detailed image tagging remains a task for trained human volunteers, which is both time-intensive and error prone. The authors developed a software tool to simplify and standardize the process of assigning damage and structure pairs to sub-regions of images. The goal of the tool is to facilitate the tagging of thousands of images from historic and recent earthquakes to train a …

Academic Senate - Agenda, 6/5/2018, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Comparative Analysis Of Physiological Measurements And Environmental Metrics On Predicting Heat Stress Related Events, Mckenzie Barlow

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Exposure to high heat and humidity can lead to serious health risks, including heat stroke and other heat-stress related events. Wet Bulb Globe Temperature has historically been used to predict heat stress events, but individualized factors are not included in the measurement. It has been shown that there is a relationship between cardiovascular measurements and heat stress, which could be used to measure on an individual level. Research has been done to find relationships between cardiovascular metrics in a workplace environment, however the study did not include the use of a controlled environment as a baseline. Our study will provide …

Preparation And Characterization Of Eva/Cort Microparticles For Rattlesnake Endocrinology Studies, Alexander C. Pauer

Materials Engineering

No abstract provided.

Column Tests Of Nitrate Breakthrough Behavior In Subsurface Sediments To Understand Transport In The Root-Zone, Rebecca Sally Haworth, Emma Rose Goodwin

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Nitrate has become an increasingly ubiquitous pollutant in surface and groundwater, posing a threat to hu- man health and ecosystems. Nitrogen is a necessary nutrient for plant growth and is limiting in many soils. As a result, farmers often add nitrogen to soil in a usable form such as nitrate, nitrite, or ammonia through the addition of fertilizer.

Cuoricino Thermal Pulse Classification By Machine Learning Algorithms, Joshua Mann

Physics

Many of the various properties of neutrinos are still a mystery. One unknown is whether neutrinos are Majorana fermions or Dirac fermions. Cuoricino and CUORE are experiments that aim to solve this mystery. Noise reduction in these experiments hinges on the ability to discern among alpha, beta and gamma particle detections using the thermal pulses they create. In this paper, we look at Cuoricino data and attempt to classify pulses, not as alpha, beta or gamma particles, but rather as signal, noise or calibration data. We will use this preliminary testing ground to examine various machine learning algorithms' abilities in …

Heavy Flavour In Jets And Azimuthal Correlations, Patrick J. Steffanic

Physics

We studied heavy-flavor azimuthal correlations using the semi-leptonic decay channel of hard-scattered bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 TeV. We used a mixed-event method to produce a corrected correlation that hinted at back-to-back pair production. We further studied the jets resulting from these heavy-flavor hard scatterings, and jets resulting from light-flavor and gluon scattering. We compared several kinematic variables from each of the jet populations, concluding that novel kinematic variables must be developed in order to effectively separate the jet populations.

Exploring The Relationship Between Cellular Structure And Mechanical Properties Of Polymer Foams, Timothy Lee Tan

Materials Engineering

Polymer foams are the material of choice for applications that require comfort, cushioning, and high energy absorption. While popular, the relationship between their microstructure and their mechanical properties is not yet strongly predictable. The aim of this project is to look at the different relationships between the area or volume occupied by pores compared to the amount of solid material and determine which method of quantifying this relationship will provide the best prediction of mechanical properties. To examine this relationship, foams of various densities made from either ethylene-co-vinyl acetate or thermoplastic polyurethane were first physically characterized through three methods: (1) …

An Analysis Of The Life Safety And Fire Protection Features Of A New Hotel On California’S Central Coast, James Henahan

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report examines the fire protection and life safety features of a new, 3-story plus basement, hotel on California’s Central Coast. These features are examined from both a prescriptive, code-driven perspective, as well as from a performance-based design point of view.

The prescriptive analysis includes exit configuration and capacity, the NFPA 13 sprinkler system, the NFPA 72 fire alarm system, and the building construction types. All were found to be acceptable when compared against the applicable codes the building is subject to, with the exception of some of the load- bearing exterior walls.

The performance-based component examines the affect two …

Deaddrop: Message Passing Without Metadata Leakage, Davis Mike Arndt

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Even when network data is encrypted, observers can make inferences about content based on collected metadata. DeadDrop is an exploratory API designed to protect the metadata of a conversation from both outside observers and the facilitating server. To do so, DeadDrop servers are passed no recipient address, instead relying upon the recipient to check for messages of their own volition. In addition, the recipient downloads a copy of every encrypted message on the server to prevent even the server from knowing to whom each message is intended. To these purposes, DeadDrop is mostly successful. However, it does not obscure all …

Finding Spanning Trees In Strongly Connected Graphs With Per-Vertex Degree Constraints, Samuel Benjamin Chase

Computer Science and Software Engineering

In this project, I sought to develop and prove new algorithms to create spanning trees on general graphs with per-vertex degree constraints. This means that each vertex in the graph would have some additional value, a degree constraint d. For a spanning tree to be correct, every vertex v_i in the spanning tree must have a degree exactly equal to a degree constraint d_i. This poses an additional constraint on what would otherwise be a trivial spanning tree problem. In this paper, two proofs related to my studies will be discussed and analyzed, leading to my algorithm …

Extractive Text Summarization With Deep Learning, Garrett G. Chan

Computer Engineering

This project explores extractive text summarization using the capabilities of Deep Learning. The goal of this project is to create an application with a neural network to take in text as its input, and create a summary that is a shorter, condensed version of the input text. This has been implemented in Python by configuring and training a neural network that takes in a vector of features that are extracted from the text using various Natural Language Processing libraries. The implementation demonstrates that we can train simple deep neural networks to successfully summarize text.

Metrology Computer Redesign, Natalie Lizama, Melinda Ong, Mitchell Aiken

Electrical Engineering

We are M[EE]² and our project is to redesign Micro-Vu’s metrology computer (the Q16) with modern components and updated firmware. Metrology machines take high precision and high accuracy measurements, and a computer attached to each machine reads out the measurements. We will be redesigning the logic and display circuit boards on the Q16. The ports and communication methods with the machine will stay the same as it must be a drop-in replacement.

The motivation behind the redesign stems from the age of the current design. The current design was created in 1986, and has not had significant modifications since. …