Digital Commons Network^™

Fast Computation And Model Order Reduction Of The Friction Stir Welding Process With Pod-Deim, Joshua Kay, Zilong Song

Mathematics and Statistics Student Research and Class Projects

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state manufacturing process widely used in joining aluminum and other metal workpieces. The FSW process can be modeled by a coupled system of non-Newtonian Navier–Stokes and heat-transfer equations. However, solving this non-linear system with high accuracy requires significant computational power. This work refines the system by introducing corrected coefficients and new treatments for boundary conditions near the tool. Then, model order reduction, including the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Discrete Empirical Interpolation Method (DEIM), is applied to efficiently solve the FSW system in a low-dimensional space. To enhance accuracy and effectiveness, two novel treatments …

More Than A Name: Reparative Description For Women’S Archives, Allison Mccormack, Hallie Oines

Journal of Western Archives

This article describes a reparative description initiative at an academic library aimed at improving access to women’s archival collections. By hiring a metadata specialist through grant funding, the project revised legacy MARC records to update, expand, and standardize collection descriptions. Prioritizing inclusive language and accurate subject headings, the team addressed gaps that previously hindered discovery of women’s materials. Over two years, 818 records were remediated, enhancing creator, topical, and genre/form access points. The article discusses project challenges, strategies for respectful description, and the resulting improved discoverability, offering a replicable model for reparative archival work.

A Brief History Of Irrigation In Utah, Burdette Barker, Reagan Wytsalucy

All Current Publications

Irrigation is essential for most crop production in Utah. With an ever-increasing population, regular drought cycles, and environmental concerns, there is a public discourse about agricultural irrigation water use. This fact sheet is an effort to step back in time to consider the heritage of irrigated agriculture in Utah, from prehistory to the present, and the modernization of irrigation driven by global industrialization and the information age.

General Education Subcommittee Agenda September 3, 2026, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Call to Order
• Approval of Minutes
• Course Approvals/Removals/Syllabi Approvals
• Additional Items
• Adjourn: 9:30 am

General Education Subcommittee Minutes September 3, 2026, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Call to Order
• Approval of Minutes - April 2, 2026
• Course Approvals/Removals/Syllabi Approvals
• Additional Items
• CI Courses and Pre-requisites
• Retreat Follow-up on University Studies and Depth Designations
• Reduced-Credit Bachelor's Degree Policy Discussion
• Adjourn: 9:32 am

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes September 3, 2026, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Approval of Minutes - April 2, 2026
• Program Proposals
• Other Business
• Sub-120 Credit Degree Programs
• Deadlines and Curriculum Resources
• Course Modalities
• Courses Not Taught for Five Years
• Adjourn: 2:55 pm

Educational Policies Committee Minutes September 3, 2026, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Approval of Minutes - April 2, 2026
• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Program Proposals
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee
• Center for Civic Excellence
• Other Business
• Three-year academic plans
• Reduced Credit Bachelor's Programs Policy
• Adjourn: 3:48 pm

Curriculum Subcommittee Agenda September 3, 2026, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Approval of Minutes
• R401 - Program Proposals
• Semester Course Approval Review
• Other Business
• Adjourn: 3:00 pm

Educational Policies Committee Agenda September 3, 2026, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Approval of Minutes
• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee
• Center for Civic Excellence
• Other Business
• Adjourn: 4:00 pm

Irrigation Management With A Field Water Balance And Virus Incidence In Dahlia Cut Flowers, Chloe Seeborg, Melanie Stock, Claudia Nischwitz, Xin Dai, Cambry Adams, Burdette Barker

Plants, Soils and Climate Student Research

Irrigation guidelines are needed for the field production of emerging specialty crops to support the sustainability and economic viability of small farms. The goal of this study was to establish crop coefficients (K_c) of dahlia (Dahlia × hybrida), a popular, profitable cut flower crop, while documenting virus infection. A two-year field study was conducted with two industry-important cultivars that vary in production timing and bloom: ‘Boom Boom White’, an earlier and mid-sized formal decorative, and ‘Café au Lait’, a later and large informal decorative bloom type. A field water balance was used to evaluate five irrigation …

2026 Report On The State Of Great Salt Lake Social Science, Creed Jones, Avyrlie Smith, Shae Barber, Stacia Ryder, Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed, Georgie Corkery, Jennifer Givens, Anna Mcentire, Carla Trentelman, Jessica Ulrich-Schad, Kirsten Vinyeta, Bryn Watkins

Publications

Great Salt Lake (GSL) faces rapid decline that presents more than just a hydrological risk; it poses an existential social hazard. As water levels decline, ecosystems, economies, cultures, and societies face irreversible harm. Since the lake reached its lowest levels in 2022, this issue has specifically gained increased attention in Utah and beyond. Given both the degree to which human consumption contributes to the problem, and the potential risks that the drying of the lake poses for community health, social science research is a crucial for informing successful water management policies and mitigating impacts. The purpose of this report is …

Utahns' Views On Data Centers - Statewide Sample Descriptive Report, Jessica Schad, Gina Gilson, Stacia Ryder, Elizabeth Long-Meek, Alexandrea Sherman

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

As data center development accelerates in the western U.S, there are growing concerns about impacts to land, water, and air. This is especially true in rural communities, where development is rapidly increasing and communities have fewer resources. Broadly, data centers increasingly face vocal opposition from siting communities, who are concerned about water use, energy demand, and air quality. However, the impacts of data centers are highly context specific and localized, depending on regional energy availability, cooling technologies, and, increasingly, state-specific regulations.

Over the last year, Utah policymakers have increased efforts to monitor data centers and mitigate their impacts. However, such …

Organic Pesticides: A General Overview, Marion Murray, Ann Mull

All Current Publications

Organic pesticides are naturally occurring, nonsynthetic, or minimally processed substances that control unwanted organisms in the environment. Categories include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and miticides.

Building Wellbeing Through Nature And Adventure For Justice-Involved Youth, Lewis Kogan, Meagan Ricks, Janna Coulter, Miranda Margetts, Lori Butterfield, Ben Ukoh-Eke

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Justice-involved youth often experience elevated levels of stress, mental health challenges, and reduced access to positive developmental opportunities. A nature- and adventure-based youth development program designed to strengthen resilience, self-efficacy, nature-connectedness, and well-being among justice-involved youth was piloted in 2025 to address these challenges. Pilot findings indicated improvements in resilience, self-efficacy, hopefulness, and connectedness to nature.

Youth Gopher Trapping: Benefits For Agriculture And Youth, Melanie Heaton, Kalen Taylor

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Utah State University Extension partnered with local government and conservation districts to reduce agricultural losses while creating meaningful opportunities for youth. Over three years, 92 participants removed 3,941 rodents, earned $26,620, and gained practical skills through hands-on conservation work. The program shows how Extension-led partnerships can strengthen agricultural profitability, youth development, and community collaboration at the same time.

Expanding Access To Outdoor Recreation Through Adaptive Trail Riding In Utah, Makenna L. Pahlke

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Limited access to outdoor recreation limits opportunities for people with disabilities to enjoy the physical and psychosocial benefits of horseback riding. The Utah State University Equine Experience, an Extension program focused on horses, assessed an adaptive trail riding initiative for participants aged 12 to 40. Findings showed improvements in confidence, self-awareness, engagement, and social connections, highlighting the public benefit of enhancing accessible equine-assisted activities.

Improving Public Perceptions Of Dairy Production Through On-Farm Educational Tours, Drew Swartz, Justin Wyatt Clawson, Jaydee Gunnell, Elise Jenson, Dylan Waldron, Jenna Dyckman

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Utah dairy producers identified public perceptions as a top concern. Utah State University Extension partnered with Cache County organizations to offer dairy farm tours. Participants reported increased knowledge, more favorable perceptions, and stronger intentions to engage with agriculture, supporting experiential education as a means to strengthen understanding of dairy production.

Piloting The Strong Bodies Strength Training Program In Utah, Gabriela Murza, Jenna Dyckman, Cris Meier, Emma Parkhurst, Sadie Wilde, Christina Pay, Naomi Brower, Cindy Nelson

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Muscle and bone loss occurs as we age, impacting health and independence. We evaluated a pilot 12-week strength training program for older adults in Utah. Participants showed improved fitness metrics and increased confidence. Results demonstrate the program’s effectiveness and public value in expanding access to evidence-based exercise that supports healthy aging.

Best Practices For Managing Human–Beaver Conflicts In North America: Balancing Ecological Benefits And Human Interests, Alec J. Sundelius, Jerry Altermatt, Doug Brimeyer, Derek J. Broman, Jared Duquette, Cory Mosby, Falyn Owens, Shawn Rossler, David B. Ruid, Brian F. Wakeling, H. Bryant White

Human–Wildlife Interactions Monographs

We explore the complexities of managing beaver (Castor canadensis) conflicts in North America, describing the most common approaches used by natural resource management agencies to address conflicts. We identify specific conflicts caused by beavers, the ecological benefits beavers provide, and the tools commonly used to address conflicts. We discuss regional differences in beaver management strategies, including ecosystem restoration and conflict prevention. We specifically discuss a variety of management practices including public education, land use management, trapping, translocation, exclusion, shooting, dam removal, repellants, and harvest incentive programs; we then review the challenges and benefits of these tools. We discuss …

A Discrepancy Evaluation Of Workforce Capacity And Emerging Skills: A Utah Case Study, Lendel K. Narine, Paul A. Hill, Andreé Walker-Bravo

Extension Research

This study examined employer-perceived competency discrepancies, anticipated competency requirements, hiring barriers, and valued educational experiences in Utah. Survey data were collected between September and October 2025 from 226 individuals with hiring responsibility in Utah-based organizations. The Ranked Discrepancy Model (RDM) quantified discrepancies between respondents’ ratings of competency importance and their satisfaction with demonstrated employee proficiency. Respondents reported the largest discrepancies for time management, critical thinking, conflict resolution, ethical judgment, and verbal communication of ideas. Respondents rated communication, collaboration, analytical thinking, and lifelong learning highest among competencies anticipated to matter most over the next five to ten years. Most employers identified …

American Plum Borer In Utah Orchards (Euzophera Semifuneralis), Emilie Demard, Marion Murray, Claudia Nischwitz

All Current Publications

This fact sheet provides information on American plum borer in Utah orchards, also known as APB. This pest primarily damages fruit trees. APB moths were detected in traps in 2026, but to date, no tree damage has been found. This fact sheet discusses hosts, identification, and management methods.

Utah Vegetable Production Guide (5th Edition), Nick Volesky, Marion Murray, Amelia Olds, Bridger Carey

All Current Publications

This guide, written by a collection of Utah State University (USU) Extension faculty and specialists, provides information on general Utah vegetable production, soil, nutrient, and water management, integrated pest management practices, and pesticides. The included chapters cover various vegetable crops, including brassicas, cucurbits, leafy greens, potatoes, legumes, onions, root crops, sweet corn, and solanaceous crops.

Operational Resilience In Cubesat Tracking Operations Through Complementary Architectures At Dss-17, Andrea Togni, Emily Walter, Chloe Hart, Ryan Collins, Noah Patrick, Christo Smith, Nathan Fite, Benjamin Malphrus, Marc Sanchez-Net

Small Satellite Conference

Loss of phase-locked loop (PLL) lock during CubeSat tracking can simultaneously eliminate both telemetry and Doppler observables, leaving operators blind during critical mission phases. While closed-loop receivers provide high-precision tracking under nominal conditions, they remain vulnerable to low signal-to-noise ratio, rapid Doppler dynamics, oscillator instability, and modeling errors. This single-point failure mode reduces operator situational awareness precisely when it is most needed. This work presents a dual-acquisition architecture that eliminates single point failure in CubeSat ground tracking. Implemented at DSS-17, Morehead State University's 21-meter deep-space antenna, the system pairs a conventional closed-loop modem with a parallel open-loop receiver implemented on …

Automatic Modulation Classification For Spectrum Sensing In Shared Satellite–Lte/5g Bands, Nahal Maleki, Todd Williams, Ulugbek Jainakov, Jason Jugar, Gilberth Caamano, Jeffrey Arnold

Small Satellite Conference

Automatic modulation classification (AMC) is a critical capability for spectrum monitoring, interference detection, and signal identification in increasingly congested satellite and terrestrial communication environments. This paper presents a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based AMC framework that classifies analog, digital, and multicarrier communication signals directly from raw in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) samples. The proposed framework supports twelve modulation classes, including binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature PSK (QPSK), 8PSK, 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), 64QAM, pulse amplitude modulation (PAM)4, Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK), continuous phase FSK (CPFSK), broadcast FM (B-FM), single-sideband amplitude modulation (SSB-AM), double-sideband AM (DSB-AM), and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing …

Scaling Orbital Dynamics To The Laboratory: An Industrial-Robot Hardware-In-The-Loop Testbed For Small Satellites, Kelsey Tresemer, Shawn Higbee, Eric Albin, Steven Magana-Zook, Monwen Shen, Aaron Peer, Eric Reichel, Miranda Stern, Steve Hunter, Zach Shields

Small Satellite Conference

This paper summarizes an emerging hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) capability that uses collaborative robots (cobots) to reproduce satellite relative motion in a laboratory environment. The system maps orbital dynamics into a room-scale workspace while preserving mission-relevant pose evolution for small satellite applications such as rendezvous and proximity operations, formation flying, inspection, and cislunar concepts. The platform treats robot selection as a multi-parameter trade among workspace, orientation coverage, payload capacity, stiffness, acceleration, and path-tracking performance. Representative motion profiles define the required operating envelope, and the facility supports modular payloads that can host optics, avionics, inertial units, and flight computers. An external metrology system …

The Billion Dollar Surprise: How Solar Cycle 25 Cut Satellite Lifetimes In Leo, Scott Shambaugh

Small Satellite Conference

Solar Cycle 25 has run far stronger than the 2019 consensus forecast issued by the NOAA/NASA/ISES prediction panel, with densities in low Earth orbit from 2022-2026 holding at 2-3x the predicted levels. The cumulative drag impulse experienced by LEO satellites, which is the driving metric for propellant budgets and mission lifetimes, reached 5-6 standard deviations beyond the forecast’s stated uncertainty. This means that even operators who designed conservatively against the two-sigma worst case fell short of their drag budgets. This paper quantifies a lower bound on the economic cost of that misprediction.

Starting from the 13,704 payloads on-orbit below 800 …

Catarina-A2: A Cubesat-Based Approach To Environmental Data Collection Using Sdr Technology In The Catarina Constellation, Gabriel Mariano Marcelino, Carlos Augusto Porto Freitas, Carlos Eduardo Possamai, Heitor Azuma Kagueiama, Elço João Dos Santos Junior, Flávio Gabriel Oliveira Barbosa, Paulo Alberto Macedo Vieira Violada

Small Satellite Conference

The Catarina Constellation is a Brazilian small-satellite initiative conceived to expand and modernize national space-based services through low-cost, scalable, and application-oriented CubeSat missions. Structured into mission-specific fleets, the constellation is designed to address strategic national needs while simultaneously fostering technological development and industrial capability within Brazil. Its first fleet is dedicated to environmental data collection, supporting governmental agencies and research institutions that rely on timely and reliable information for environmental monitoring, water resource management, and agricultural planning. Within this context, the Catarina-A2 mission represents a key step in the deployment of the constellation’s environmental data collection segment. Catarina-A2 is a …

Enabling Multi-Manifest Launch Agility For Responsive Space Access, Erik C. Mellquist, Akhil Gujral, Vinay Goyal, Jacob Rome, Randolph Kendall

Small Satellite Conference

The Aerospace Corporation in collaboration with the United States Space Force National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Program continues to make investments towards improving access to space by increasing launch responsiveness, resiliency, and agility. This includes a significant increase in the focus on launching multiple spacecraft on a single launch vehicle. These multi-manifest launches provide several benefits including cost efficiency, increased launch opportunities, diversification of risk, and improved access to space. Though there are many benefits associated with multi-manifest launches, the aggregation of multiple mission partners can increase complexity and schedule risk. One of the most significant complications with multi-manifest launches …

Access To Space For Nasa Small Sats: Current And Future Needs, Alicia Mendoza-Hill, Katherine Nelson

Small Satellite Conference

Small spacecraft technology advancements have fundamentally shifted how NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) executes science investigations. To support this approach, the SMD Rideshare Office (SRO) was established in 2020 to lead the definition and implementation of a directorate-wide rideshare strategy. Serving as the central point of contact for coordinating compatible NASA payloads with launch opportunities, the SRO maximizes science, exploration, and technology return on investment by enabling rideshare or other access to space opportunities for small spacecraft on SMD primary mission launches, Venture Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract commercial launch procurements, and other government agency launch opportunities. …

In-Orbit Demonstration Of Pbi Water Ion Thruster: Rapid Startup Capability For Small Satellite Missions, Yuichi Nakagawa, Kazuya Yaginuma

Small Satellite Conference

As small satellite constellations proliferate, the demand for safe, responsive propulsion systems has intensified to support agile orbital maneuvering. To address the lengthy startup downtimes of conventional systems, a 1U-class water-based ion thruster utilizing electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma generation was developed. This thruster is characterized by a drastically minimized Time-to-Thrust (TTT), which maximizes the operational window for primary payload activities. Extensive ground testing established a robust baseline, demonstrating a 99.9% ignition success rate across 2,476 automated firing cycles with a highly reproducible median TTT of 73 seconds. Ground validations also confirmed an operational lifespan supporting a total impulse exceeding …