Digital Commons Network^™

Tackling Mathematical Difficulties In Transport Theory Education: Insight From Semiotics, Abdel-Rahman Hassan

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

Transport theory involves the study of phenomena most relevant to engineering such as fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and diffusion. These phenomena appear in almost every engineering artifact, from drug delivery to the nuclear reactor. In several disciplines, core courses are dedicated to this science. I have studied and taught transport theory in several engineering disciplines: nuclear engineering, materials science, and biomedical engineering. Here, I reflect on this experience and describe a source of difficulty that runs throughout that experience.

Can An Engineering Competition Catalyze Curriculum Innovation?, Ryder C. Winck, Alan Jern, Carlotta Berry, Yosi Shibberu

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

This article describes the ongoing efforts of a multidisciplinary group of faculty at an undergraduate institution to form a team and compete in the IBM AI XPRIZE competition. We describe the advantages and disadvantages of faculty participation in major engineering competitions over more traditional professional activities at undergraduate engineering institutions. Our discussion is focused on the benefits to three major groups: undergraduate students, faculty, and academic institutions. We use examples from our one year of experience in the competition and from the literature to illustrate these benefits. Already observed benefits from the competition include increased student engagement, development and introduction …

Using A Lightboard To Enhance And Retrofit An Existing Course, Nicholas S. Rosasco

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

IT 642 is a graduate information technology course that addresses a mix of technical and conceptual topics that has been delivered in both in-person and on-line formats. After several semesters of the course being offered in both on-line and in-person formats, the lack of human connection between instructor and students became a concern with the online versions. The need to bridge this gap became an opportunity to use Birdwell and Peshkin’s Lightboard design for video teaching. The experiences of the staff and faculty involved confirms the low barrier to entry they describe for using this technology and also demonstrate utility …

Bringing Contemporary Issues And Topics Into An Electromagnetics Course, Rebecca L. Thomas

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

Electromagnetism describes foundational principles in the field of electrical engineering. However, in a typical course, the connection to modern engineering topics can easily be missed while focusing on complex mathematics, physics and the mechanics of vector algebra. A final project in an electromagnetics course at Valparaiso University was developed to highlight the continued significance and applicability of this field of study. For this assignment, student pairs selected and presented a reputable article reporting on a contemporary issue directly related to an electromagnetic device, concept or system that was of interest to them. This project provided students with an opportunity to …

Uindy Engineering Designspine: Engineering Leadership Development Through Interdisciplinary Teams And Early Exposure To Real Life Problems, David O. Olawale, Jose Sanchez, Stephen Spicklemire

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

The engineering challenges facing the world are very complex, and they require a new type of engineer who can work in interdisciplinary teams as well as multicultural teams to solve open-ended problems. Employers are looking for engineers who have not only technical competency but also systems (broad) and business mindsets. To develop these engineers, the R. B. Annis School of Engineering at the University of Indianapolis (UIndy) developed the DesignSpine. The DesignSpine framework makes it possible to create interdisciplinary teams of students who apply knowledge and principles of Six Sigma, project management, research methods, entrepreneurship, and leadership and communication (SPREL). …

Evaluations Of Interactive Learning Tools Among Engineering Students: Effects Of Grit And Gender, Il-Seop Shin, Eun Go, Colin Ross Harbke, Prathivadi Ravikumar, Blair Mcdonald, Khaled Zbeeb

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

This study explores what determines engineering students’ evaluations of interactive learning tools (ILTs). Engineering students (n = 323) from large U.S. universities who had used McGraw-Hill’s SmartBook and Connect participated in the study. This study confirms that grit and gender are important factors in opinions and attitudes toward such tools. Specifically, among males, those with higher grit found ILTs as more useful and usable. Moreover, higher levels of grit were related to favorable attitudes toward ILTs. Interesting to note was that females reported more favorable evaluations on ILTs overall. These findings suggest strategies for the use of interactive learning tools …

Standards-Based Specifications Grading In Thermodynamics, Julie Mendez

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Philanthropy: The Seduction Of The Masses, Aurélie Vialette

Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures

What's in a nineteenth-century philanthropist? Fear of an uprising. But the frightened philanthropist has a remedy. Aware that the urban surge of the working-class masses in Spain would create a state of emergency, he or she devises a means to seduce the masses away from rebellion by taking on himself or herself the role of the seducer: the capitalist intellectual hero invested in the caretaking of the unpredictable working class. Intellectual Philanthropy examines cultural practices used by philanthropists in modern Iberia. It explains the meaning and role of intellectual philanthropy by focusing on the devices and apparatuses philanthropists devised to …

Remote Sensing Of Soil Moisture Using S-Band Signals Of Opportunity: Model Development And Experimental Validation, Marvin Jesse, Benjamin Nold, James L. Garrison

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Root zone soil moisture (RZSM) is a vital aspect in meteorology, hydrology, and agriculture. There are currently some methods in passive and active remote sensing at L-band, but these methods are limited to a sensing depth of approximately 10 cm. Observing RZSM (water in the top meter of soil) will require lower frequencies, thus presenting significant difficulties for a spaceborne instrument, because of the required antenna size, the presence of radio-frequency interference (RFI), and competition for spectrum allocations (in the case of active radar). Bistatic radar using Signal of Opportunity (SoOp) (e.g. digital satellite transmitters) provides an opportunity for remote …

Purdue Air Sense: A Methodology For Improving The Accuracy Of Ambient Aerosol Mass Concentration And Size Distribution Measurement With Low-Cost Optical Sensing Techniques, Rishabh Ramsisaria, Satya Sundar Patra, Brandon Emil Boor

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

There is a global lack of a means for monitoring air pollutant levels at a local level due to expensive and bulky instrument requirements. It is important to monitor toxic gas levels, as well as particulate matter levels, in the atmosphere to study their effects on human health and to further develop city- and community-level air pollution solutions. In this study, with the means of a Raspberry Pi, low-cost Alphasense Optical Particle Counter and gas sensors, and methodical calibration techniques, we built a portable 3-D printed module powered by clean electricity generated by an on-board Voltaic solar cell that measures …

Deep Neural Network Architectures For Modulation Classification Using Principal Component Analysis, Sharan Ramjee, Shengtai Ju, Diyu Yang, Aly El Gamal

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In this work, we investigate the application of Principal Component Analysis to the task of wireless signal modulation recognition using deep neural network architectures. Sampling signals at the Nyquist rate, which is often very high, requires a large amount of energy and space to collect and store the samples. Moreover, the time taken to train neural networks for the task of modulation classification is large due to the large number of samples. These problems can be drastically reduced using Principal Component Analysis, which is a technique that allows us to reduce the dimensionality or number of features of the samples …

Full Baseband To Rf Reader Design For A Passive Rfid Tag With Multiple Environmental Sensors, Volkan Arslan, Yuhang Zhu, John Peterson Iii, Saeed Mohammadi

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers are being widely used for transmitting and receiving information from chips or tags. The RF reader in this project will be used for communicating with previously designed self-powered sensors for humidity and temperature. The design has two main components, the analog frontend and digital baseband. Transceiver is operating at 1.2 GHz. For digital baseband, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is used for interpreting data coming from RF frontend circuit. The FPGA decodes, processes, and then stores the data. The data rate of reader is 333 kbps.

Selecting Trusted Nodes For Resilient Distributed State Estimation Of Linear Time Invariant Systems, Xingchen Wang, Shreyas Sundaram, Aritra Mitra

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

We study estimation of the state of a dynamical system via a network of nodes (or sensors). Such networks are vulnerable to malicious adversaries that compromise some of the nodes and cause them to deviate from the estimation algorithm. It is thus vital to increase the robustness of the system against such attacks. We consider the problem of allocating enough budget to make a small fraction of the nodes attack-immune, thereby making them “trusted”. These nodes must be chosen carefully so that the entire network is capable of reliably estimating the state of the system. We prove that this problem …

Portrait Of The L2 Writer As A Writing Center Visitor, Vicki Kennell, Molly Rentscher

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Presentations

This presentation shares results of IRB-approved, cross-institutional survey research studying the role of writing centers in L2 writers' development as writers. Data showed that writers share some similarities across institutions (such as in their understanding of tutor and writer roles), but they also differ (such as in the number of appointments made in one year). Results are discussed in the context of helping writing centers use data like this to think about how they work with L2 writers and how assumptions can contribute to tutoring difficulties.

Zooming Into A Tinkering Project: The Progression Of Learning Through Transitional Objects, Priyanka Parekh, Elisabeth R. Gee

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

The Maker Movement has been received by the field of K–12 education with great enthusiasm as a way of teaching STEM content to children. We call attention to and identify learning opportunities in children’s projects created in a playful, informal environment with easily available materials. In keeping with research in the field of maker education and learning sciences, we describe tinkering as a constructionist learning activity in which meaning making is captured through transitional objects (Bamberger, 1995). First, we examine one specific tinkering project and identify transitional objects within the project. Next, we discuss the process of meaning making as …

Enhancing User Experience: A Multifaceted Approach To Designing Better User Experiences Using Compassionate Design Thinking, Socially Conscious Design And Psychophysiological Measures, Priya Seshadri

Open Access Dissertations

The goal of this research is to help in creation of better user experience (UX) by enabling engineers and designers to get a deeper understanding of the users by focusing on the users’ needs, emotions, experiences and social issues. The main research question that guides this work is: How can engineers and designers better understand their users to create designs that aim at enhancing user experiences? Understanding the users and UX has many facets and dimensions. The users make decisions based on emotions and experiences, which also determine the value they associate with a design. Experiences are related to the …

Exploring The Cognitive Tasks Surrounding Professional Horse Judging Practices In Stock- Type Halter Classes, Paige Marie Arehart

Open Access Theses

A standardized procedure for how and why professional equine judges approach their practice in a specific way has yet to be documented. Learning the background, approach, processes, and procedures taken by professional horse judges when engaged in stock-type halter classes is important for establishing a training protocol that can be used in coaching and/or training situations.

This study applies cognitive task analysis to the concepts, processes, and principles of professional horse judges in stock-type halter classes to develop a teaching and learning resource for novice and trainee judges of various ages. Specifically, an action and decision chart that details the …

Priming Sentence Comprehension In Older Adults, Emily Hosokawa

Open Access Theses

Syntactic priming is thought to reflect ongoing language learning processes throughout the life span. However, little is known on if and how the mechanisms of syntactic priming change in aging. This study examined whether syntactic priming influences sentence comprehension in healthy older adults and whether such effects occur independently of, or in conjunction with, lexically specific (verb) information. We further examined if older adults show persisting priming effects. Twenty older adults completed a written sentence-picture matching task involving the interpretation of prepositional phrases (the chef is poking the solider with an umbrella) that were ambiguous between high and low attachment …

Conceptual Framework For Implementing Integrated Project Delivery For Infrastructure Projects In Peru., Sulyn Cossett Gomez Villanueva

Open Access Theses

Integrated project delivery (IPD) implies a transformational change of project participants’ behaviors and current practices. This change aims to break down the traditional silos of construction and improve collaboration, communication, and alignment between the different stakeholders in a project. Diverse implications of integration have been developed and applied in the project management literature. Therefore, there is a need to structure the industry’s approach towards integration and identify common characteristics among these diverse approaches. In this study, the author explored the blueprints of integration in the project management literature and identified common patterns across the theoretical foundations and case studies that …

The "Snake" Effect: Investigation Of A Novel Haptic Illusion, Frederico Marcolino Quintao Severgnini

Open Access Theses

This study was based on tactual illusions produced by vibrotactile units. A novel haptic effect based on amplitude modulation was developed, called here the ”snake effect”, which consists on a continuous motion that is smooth, wavy and creepy. Two studies were conducted in order to parameterize this novel haptic effect aiming to: (1) find the fundamental parameters that allow the snake effect to happen in a straight line, (2) assess if the parameters can be implemented for curved trajectories after being combined with funneling, as seen for apparent motion in literature. Study 1 used a 2x6 haptic display in the …

Co-Design Of Reconfigurable And Multifunction Passive Rf/Microwave Components, Mohamed F. Hagag

Open Access Dissertations

In order to meet the market demands, multi-band communication systems that are able to accommodate different wireless technologies to be compatible with different wireless standards should be investigated and realized. Multifunction and multi-band RF front-end components are promising solutions for reducing the size and enhancing the performance of multi-band communication systems. This dissertation focuses on the design and implementation of different multifunction and tunable microwave components for use in multi-standard, flexible transceiver.

For frequency-domain duplexing (FDD) communication systems, in which the uplink and downlink channels are carried on different RF frequencies, a diplexer is an essential component to separate the …

Holostream: High-Accuracy, High-Speed 3d Range Video Encoding And Streaming, Tyler Bell

Open Access Dissertations

In recent decades, three-dimensional (3D) scanning techniques have improved in terms of speed, quality, and usability. These improvements have helped 3D scanning applications become increasingly popular within many different fields and industries, such as entertainment, security, manufacturing, and human computer interaction. However useful, real-time 3D scanning techniques generate large amounts of data, which may limit real-time storage or transmission of acquired 3D data. A platform which can enable high-quality, low-bandwidth 3D video communications could then be very useful within a broad range of applications, for example, telemedicine.

The goal of telemedicine is to use telecommunications technology to remotely diagnose, monitor, …

Mesoscale Modeling Of Defects And Phase Transformations In Crystalline Materials, Yifei Zeng

Open Access Dissertations

Strength of nanolayered metallic composite, stacking fault strengthening mechanism in random alloys especially high entropy alloys and solid state amorphization during mechanical milling are investigated in detail using phase field based method. Nanolayered metallic composite are comprised of alternating layers of two or more different metallic phases. It exhibits superior strength and ductility in ambient and extreme environment [1–4]. The key phenomenon characterizing the strength of this material is the slip transmission of single dislocation from one layer to the other. It is observed that both the modulus and the lattice parameters of different phases affect the slip transmission strength. …

Gist Of A Gest: Learning Gestures For The First Time, Maria Eugenia Cabrera Ubaldi

Open Access Dissertations

Humans are able to understand meaning intuitively and generalize from a single observation, as opposed to machines which require several examples to learn and recognize a new physical expression. This trait is one of the main roadblocks in natural human-machine interaction. Particularly, in gestures which are an intrinsic part of human communication. In the aim of natural interaction with machines, a framework must be developed to include the adaptability humans portray to understand gestures from a single observation. This problem is known as one-shot gesture recognition, and it has been researched previously. Nevertheless, most approaches rely heavily on purely numerical …

Pathology Or Neurodiversity?: Cognitive Accessibility And The Rhetorical Construction Of Adhd In Higher Education, Samuel James Dunn

Open Access Dissertations

It is estimated that 2-8% of college students (approximately 1 in 20) report clinically significant diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Typically, those with verifiable diagnoses of ADHD are eligible to receive certain accommodations through the university which, in theory, put them on even footing with their peers; however there has been very little research done to actively address the needs of these students in the context of the composition classroom itself. To address this gap, in this dissertation I discuss the rhetorical positioning and identity construction of ADHD in the contemporary American university and ways in which composition …

Detecting Popularity Of Ideas And Individuals In Online Community, Chien-Yi Hsiang

Open Access Dissertations

Research in the last decade has prioritized the effects of online texts and online behaviors on user information prediction. However, the previous research overlooks the overall meaning of online texts and more detailed features about users’ online behaviors. The purpose of the research is to detect the adopted ideas, the popularity of ideas, and the popularity of individuals by identifying the overall meaning of online texts and the centrality features based on user’s online interactions within an online community.

To gain insights into the research questions, the online discussions on MyStarbucksIdea website is examined in this research. MyStarbucksIdea had launched …

Graphic Design Students' Development Of Adaptive Expertise In Ideation Strategies, Shih-Ping Kuo

Open Access Dissertations

This exploratory study uses the convergent design of mixed methods to integrate adaptive expertise theory to study how individual student participant from graphic design or non-graphic-design majors to solve a novel ideation problem in graphic design. Adaptive expertise includes six dimensions: metacognition, flexibility, dynamic knowledge, ability to welcome challenges, efficiency and deep understanding of the domain knowledge, and multiple perspectives. Those are desired qualities for a learner to stand out in the global market that are constantly changing with complex challenges. Thirty undergraduate students participated in this study. This study aims to answer four questions: types of graphic design tool …

The Mathematical Content Preparation Of Elementary Teachers, Brooke Max

Open Access Dissertations

Prospective elementary teachers’ (PTs) preparation often includes courses focused on deepening K–8 mathematical content knowledge and, in some cases, considering the content from a teacher’s perspective. Standards and recommendations from professional organizations have included attention to mathematical content (e.g., Mathematical Education of Teachers II [MET II]), mathematical processes (e.g., Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: Standards for Mathematical Practice [CCSSM SMPs]), and mathematical proficiency (e.g., Adding It Up). The publication of these documents has raised questions about how mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) incorporate these standards and recommendations in PTs’ coursework, particularly in Mathematics Content for Elementary Teachers (MCfET) courses, which …

Guided Data Fusion, Romila Pradhan

Open Access Dissertations

While the volume and variety of data furnished by disparate data sources has rocketed over the years, often there is little to no restraint over the quality of data available on the Internet; data sources often provide conflicting information for the same data item (a real-world entity or event).

Recent years have witnessed a number of data fusion systems that propose solutions to consolidate multiple instances of a data item, distinguish correct from incorrect information and present a unified, consistent and meaningful record to users. Most of these fusion systems are focused on automatically identifying correct information for data items. …

Micropropulsion Trade Study And Investigation For Attitude Control Of Nanosatellites, Katherine L. Fowee

Open Access Theses

Since their inception two decades ago, CubeSats have become dominant in the small satellite market, enabling new mission architectures, technology development, and education opportunities. However, the limited mass, power, and volume inherent in this small platform, constrains the on board subsystems and thus the capabilities compared to larger satellites. Attitude control is essential to maximizing the potential of CubeSats and other nanosatellites, though traditional momentum control systems such as reaction wheels are not feasible on the smallest CubeSats. Micropropulsion is an intriguing alternative to traditional methods, and many miniaturization efforts have been made for chemical and electrical propulsion systems. One …