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Design, Testing And Evaluation Of Robotic Mechanisms And Systems For Environmental Monitoring And Interaction, James K. Higgins

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have significantly lowered the cost of remote aerial data collection. The next generation of UAVs, however, will transform the way that scientists and practitioners interact with the environment. In this thesis, we address the challenges of flying low over water to collect water samples and temperature data. We also develop a system that allows UAVs to ignite prescribed fires. Specifically, this thesis contributes a new peristaltic pump designed for use on a UAV for collecting water samples from up to 3m depth and capable of pumping over 6m above the water. Next, temperature sensors and their …

Essays On Conflict And Organisation Theory., Dushyant Kumar Dr.

Doctoral Theses

Throughout the human civilization, domestic (intra country) conflicts have been present across societies, cultures and countries. These conflicts are extremely common as well as persistent. For the period 1960-2006, twenty percent of the countries have experienced at-least ten years of conflicts with more than 1000 casualties per year (Blattman and Miguel, 2010). It causes huge loss of human life, quantitatively, as well as qualitatively. It results in huge number of casualties, as well as damage to the existing output, resources and infrastructure. The persistent presence of such conflicts across the world means that a significant number of people as well …

Professional Development For The Integration Of Engineering In High School Stem Classrooms, Jonathan E. Singer, Julia M. Ross, Yvette Jackson-Lee

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in the U.S. is in transition. The recently published A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas as well as the Next Generation Science Standards are responsive to this call and clearly articulate a vision that includes engineering practices as key components. This shift presents significant challenges to school districts owing to a stark lack of research-based engineering-focused instructional materials and corresponding teacher professional development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a professional development program on high school STEM teachers’ ability to enact design-based …

Infographic: Stem Workforce And Careers, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

School educators are being encouraged to give students more information about STEM-related careers. So, what are the top occupations of STEM graduates? Find out in this Teacher infographic.

A Multidisciplinary Approach To Creating The Entrepreneurial Mindset Amongst Graduates, Angela Hamouda, Colman Ledwith

Irish Journal of Academic Practice

The aim of this paper is to investigate how one third level college in Ireland has responded to economic change with the development of a multi-disciplinary entrepreneurship programme and to explore its impact on the development of entrepreneurial mind-sets amongst its current students and graduates. The findings are based on results of surveys from twenty graduates from the programme who have come from a cross section of engineering and science disciplines. Findings of this study indicate that a dedicated entrepreneurship programme specifically designed for non-business students has had an overwhelming positive impact on their entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions. In particular, …

Ncma Groundwater Model Using Usgs Modflow-2005/Pest, Brian Matthew Wallace

Master's Theses

A numerical model for the NCMA aquifer complex is presented. The objective of the study is to develop a numerical groundwater model for the NCMA aquifer system to enhance the understanding of subsurface groundwater flow. Infiltration, streamflow, pumping, and return flows are implemented to characterize the aquifer complex over time. The numerical model is calibrated to municipal and monitoring well data, average monthly water balances, and hydraulic contours. Transient aquifer inflows and outflows are assessed in the results of the study and are compared to balance terms from previous studies. The 2007 Todd Engineers Study subsurface inflows and outflows generate …

Females In Automotive Careers: Career Decision-Making Influences And Experiences During University Preparation And Beyond, Russell A. Leonard Jr.

Dissertations

Today, women fill nearly 50% of the jobs in the U.S. economy (U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2014). While women are making progress in many careers once considered male only, they are still underrepresented in the male-dominated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers, filling only 25% of available STEM jobs (Beede et al., 2011). The problem is not a lack of interest in STEM subjects, but a “leaky pipeline” that develops early in adolescence. By the eighth grade, half as many girls are interested in STEM careers as boys (National Science Foundation [NSF], 2007). Even after graduation from college, women …

An Investigation Of The Impact A Rov Competition Curriculum Has On Student Interest In Stem, Specifically Technology And Engineering, Daniel Gordon Bates

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the impact a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) program has on student interest in, and perception of, technology and engineering (sTEm). ROV programs embed areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) into their curriculum; however, emphasis for this study is placed on interest and perception of the "T" and "E" of STEM. Although there are many articles detailing the benefits of ROV programs, there is little empirical data documenting the impact on student interest and perception of sTEm. This study outlines the background of a few major ROV programs in the U.S.; specifically Utah Underwater Robotics (UUR), …

An Investigation Of The Impact A Rov Competition Curriculum Has On Student Interest In Stem, Specifically Technology And Engineering, Daniel Gordon Bates

Student Works

This research investigates the impact a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) program has on student interest in, and perception of, technology and engineering (sTEm). ROV programs embed areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) into their curriculum; however, emphasis for this study is placed on interest and perception of the "T" and "E" of STEM. Although there are many articles detailing the benefits of ROV programs, there is little empirical data documenting the impact on student interest and perception of sTEm. This study outlines the background of a few major ROV programs in the U.S.; specifically Utah Underwater Robotics (UUR), …

Office Of Stem Education Annual Report 2015-2016, Uno Office Of Stem Education

Student Learning

During 2015-2016 the Office of STEM (OSTEM) Education at UNO has continued to move aggressively forward in undertaking and leading STEM Learning projects, many of which collaborate closely with several other UNO colleges and other formal and informal educational institutions. Also continuing into 2016, OSTEM is steadily transitioning to becoming more of a focused departmental organization, while the UNO STEM Leadership Team takes over more of the campus-wide STEM Priority efforts.

This report describes the TED STEM successes, ongoing efforts and challenges this last year with a direct focus on the TED and COE context, and only lightly touches on …

Stem Community Chairs Progress Updates Spring 2016, Uno Stem Leadership Team

Student Learning

The following is a brief update of the activities and efforts being undertaken by UNO’s Dr. George and Sally Haddix Community Chair of STEM Education as being held by Dr. Neal Grandgenett. The goal of this position is:

Position Goal: To organize, lead and inspire collaborative STEM initiatives at UNO, that cross colleges and disciplines, and that aggressively position UNO to be a true national leader in interdisciplinary STEM programs. (Curriculum, Capacity, Collaboration)

A Qualitative Study Of African American Women In Engineering Technology Programs In Community Colleges, Jacquelyn Blakley

All Dissertations

This study examined the experiences of African American women in engineering technology programs in community colleges. There is a lack of representation of African American women in engineering technology programs throughout higher education, especially in community/technical colleges. There is also lack of representation of African American women in careers related to engineering. The enrollment for African American women students in engineering technology programs is minimal compared to the overall student enrollment in the programs. Previous research focuses on minorities in engineering programs in higher education but does not focus specifically on African American women in engineering technology programs in community …

Mathematics & Engineering 2016 Los Alamos Self-Study & Documents, University Of New Mexico - Los Alamos Campus

UNM Academic Program Review

UNM Los Alamos Mathematics & Engineering self-study report, review team report, comments from the dean, and response to review report for Spring 2016.

Lnfluence Of Persulfate On Solidification/Stabilization Characteristics Of Iss Treatment, Jeffrey M. Hudson

Masters Theses

Two environmental remediation technologies that lend themselves well to being combined in a single application are In Situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO) using activated persulfate (PS), and In Situ Stabilization (ISS). Persulfate can be activated by increasing the pH to 10.5 and/or increasing temperatures to 30ºC. Many common ISS amendments increase temperature to 30°C and/or pH to 10.5 when in contact with soil water. Laboratory experiments were conducted with various soils to determine the ability of eight ISS amendments to activate persulfate. All eight ISS amendments activated persulfate. This work also showed that the relative contribution of heat vs. alkaline activation …

Building Teen Futures With Underwater Robotics, Michael L. Wallace, William M. Freitas

Journal of Extension

Preparing young Americans with science and technology skills has been on the forefront of educational reform for several years, and Extension has responded. Robotics projects have become a natural fit for 4-H clubs, with members' experiences ranging from using Lego® Mindstorms® and other "purchase and assemble" robotics kits to building and programming robots from raw materials. This article addresses one such club's impacts on educational engagement, career trajectory, and life skills development. An annotated resource list for engaging youth in building underwater robots is provided in the Tools of the Trade article "Resources for Underwater Robotics Education" in this issue …

Physics Alumni Newsletter Spring 2016, Terry Goforth

Physics Alumni Newsletter

Physics Alumni Newsletter

The Physics Alumni Newsletter is produced by the SWOSU Physics Department.

Our Engineering Physics students are recruited in fields such as electronics, aerospace, mechanical engineering, petroleum engineering and software engineering. Graduates also have careers in meteorology, architecture, education and more.

Women In Engineering: Shifting The Balance, Samuel A. Barnhart

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This writing was submitted as the final research paper for my English class. The paper includes analysis of multiple sources and my original research done via survey of female engineering students at the University of Dayton. The paper underwent several peer reviews in class, assessed by the professor before submission, and was critiqued at the Write Place before submission.

Efficient And Adaptively Secure Constructions Of Identity-Based Cyrptographic Primitives., Somindu Chaya Ramanna Dr.

Doctoral Theses

Public-key encryption (PKE) is an elegant solution to the fundamental problem of cryptography – secure communication between two parties over a public (insecure) channel. The basic idea is that every user A holds two keys – a public key (PKA) and a secret key (SKA). A user who wants to send a message to A encrypts it with PKA and sends the resulting ciphertext along the public channel. A, at the other end of the channel, decrypts the ciphertext using SKA and obtains the message. SKA is known to user A alone. Any third party intercepting data on the public …

Strategies For Enhancing The Utilization Of Information And Communication Technology (Ict)-Based Library Resources In Research, Vincent Anayochukwu Ani, Emmanuel Onyeka Ani 2, Columbus Okechukwu Ugwu 3, Arnold Ibeawuchi Nwachukwu 4, Jonathan Chigbo Obianuko 5, George Ikechukwu Ndaji 6, Emeka Eusebius Maduchie 7

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study was conducted to investigate the problems that hinder the utilization of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based library resources for postgraduate research in Nigerian Universities (federal, state, and private). Four objectives and four research questions guided the study. A sampling technique was used in carrying out the work. A total number of five hundred and ten (510) respondents were used for the study. The instruments for data collection were questionnaire and observation checklist. Five hundred and ten (510) copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the postgraduate researchers at the three universities in the South East Nigeria and three …

Application Of Combinatorial Structures In Wireless Communication., Samiran Bag Dr.

Doctoral Theses

Wireless communication has a compelling need in today’s world. This need is driven by the sudden surge in the demand of ad-hoc networks like wireless sensor networks. These networks consist of many isolated devices called nodes that use the wireless medium for communication. There are three security notions attached to any wireless communication. These are data confidentiality, data integrity and data availability. Cryptographic protocols are required for achieving the first two notions which in turn require shared secret keys. The last notion viz. data availability mainly deals with protecting the data from ‘denial of service attack’.In this thesis, we apply …

Late Morning Concurrent Sessions: Innovations In Aviation Technologies: Presentation: Relative Material Loss: A Methodology For Assessing Island Airport Steel Marine Bulkheads, Robert Ernsting, Constantine M. Koursaris

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

A July 2015 report from the Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA) states “U.S. airports are long overdue for [a] major structural improvement projects. Most U.S. airports are aging, … and because of budgetary restrictions, they’re not aging well.”(Garcia and Clampet, 2015). The average US age is 40 years old with the youngest (Denver International) recently turning 20 years old. As airports continue to age, airport commissioners will struggle to find creative ways to either fund airport replacements or extend the service life of existing airport facilities (commonly referred to as service life extension projects or SLEP). Due to …

The Development Of Project Grade-Up, Dalin Glenn Williams

MS in Computer Science Theses

The university classroom has greatly evolved from a simple syllabus and in class discussion to the modern online documentation and virtual classrooms. These developments have changed the way students review their grades and balance their workloads. With the plethora of new technologies, students are often burdened with a full school schedule, work, and social events, with few tools to help them effectively understand their grades or manage their time. Current solutions addressing this issue do not present data in an organized way that allows the student to easily comprehend their past performance or up coming work load. Our solution builds …

The Behavior Of Simply Supported Plates Under Extreme Shear Loading, Mhd Ammar Hafez

ETD Archive

Steel plates are planar structural elements with one dimension significantly smaller than the others. These elements may fail due to either material yielding or buckling. Buckling is a sudden failure mode, which is not desirable in structural engineering applications. Buckling is called an “elastic buckling” when it happens before material yielding, and is termed as “plastic buckling” if it happens after material yielding. The focus of this thesis is on shear plates, which are plates that are primarily subjected to shear loads. Several studies were conducted to increase the elastic buckling capacity of plates by adding stiffeners to plates. However, …

Tabletop Die Cast System, Brad C. Barringer

All Undergraduate Projects

The project was to design, manufacture, and test a tabletop die cast system to be used as lab equipment in MET 257 – Casting Processes. The motivation for this project was the MET 257 – Casting Processes instructor’s desire to physically demonstrate the die casting process, but they were unable to find a system that would meet all of their requirements. They required a system design that was small, portable, would fit in the foundries limited space, had an open concept to allow students to see what was occurring during the pour, and compatibility with the foundries current equipment. The …

The Effect Of Impeded Information Sharing And Transparency On Power Differentials And Organizational Dysfunction, Mustafa Canan, A. Sousa-Poza

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The constituents of an organization have to interact with each other. The purpose of the interaction is to maintain flow of information, to exchange knowledge, to share individual situational awareness, and to give rise to an organizational shared awareness. The rate of information exchange is constrained by multiple factors and impacts the effectiveness of the communication in an organization. For instance, extensive communication may not result in informativeness all the time. Communication channels induce constraints between the interacting agents. These constraints can impede information flow. Impeding information flow will result in an accumulation of knowledge with a particular agent. Consequently, …

Anatomy Of Invention, Larry L. Howell

BYU Studies

BYU Studies has a long history of publishing the annual lecture given by the recipient of the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award, BYU’s highest faculty honor. It is with great pleasure that BYU Studies Quarterly publishes this year’s lecture by Dr. Larry L. Howell, a professor of mechanical engineering. His speech was delivered as a forum address on May 17, 2016, at Brigham Young University.

Honors @ Georgia Southern, University Honors Program Students And Staff, Georgia Southern University

Honors College: News & Publications (2008-2020)

• Honors Alumnae Published
• Honors LLC
• Honors in Action
• Alumni News

Section 2: Design & Manufacturing, Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. 31-62

Section 4: Materials, Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. 95-124

Section 5: Miscelleneous, Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. 125-152