Digital Commons Network^™

Murray Grading Method: Impacts On Student Self-Efficacy, Stephanie E. Handford

Honors Theses

Pre-existing assessment methods in engineering lack the ability to ensure student mastery of material, simulate real world situations, and often have ambiguity in the valuation of grades. The goal of this study is to eliminate or reduce those shortcomings by evaluating the effectiveness of a modified no-partial-credit assessment method, the Murray Grading Method. Historical data alongside an introductory statics course cohort provided data for how the Murray Grading Method impacted student grades, course opinion, self-efficacy, and study methods. The Murray Grading Method demonstrated little to no changes in course grade averages while significantly improving the lowest grades, thus increasing the …

Evolving Enemy Behavior In Video Games, Hermie H. Adams Iii

Honors Theses

The video game I developed for my senior project lacked complex and engaging enemy artificial intelligence. The standard implementations of AI systems such as finite state machines and behavior trees felt like side-steps rather than innovative solutions. Upon seeing the 'magic' of machine learning in perfecting games such as Snake, Super Mario, and Flappy Bird, I was inspired to seek my answer in the field of evolutionary computation. However, my challenge differed in that the problem space would be defined by dynamic player strategies, making it not well-defined or static. As such, my evaluations are based on enemies exhibiting emergent …

Civil Engineering Capstone Building Design And Seismic Analysis, Ander P. Mcdade

Honors Theses

The building for the University of Mississippi civil engineering senior design class was designed and analyzed. The building is in Oxford Mississippi. The current address according to the Lafayette Parcel is 825 Sisk Avenue Suite 200. The floor plan, column, and beam design were performed based on engineering judgment and industry standards. The dead, live, snow, rain, and roof live loads were calculated to be 13.3, 50, 20, 27.51, and 20 psf respectively. The building model was created in SAP2000, which was used to generate all loads and load combinations. An analysis was performed to determine the critical loads on …

An Adaptation Of Nonlinear Aerodynamic Models For Non-Traditional Control Effectors, Christian R. Bolander, Douglas F. Hunsaker

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

This paper presents the development of a novel aerodynamic model tailored for the Bio-Inspired Rotating Empennage (BIRE), a non-traditional fixed-wing aircraft empennage inspired by avian flight. The BIRE replaces the conventional vertical stabilizer with an extra degree of freedom for the horizontal stabilizer, which is allowed to rotate about the body-fixed x axis. This empennage is similar to the tail of a bird, and allows control of both longitudinal and lateral moments. However, such a design introduces complex nonlinear longitudinal and lateral aerodynamic interactions, not typically accounted for in most fixed-wing aircraft aerodynamic models below stall. This work presents a …

American Football Internal Helmet Padding Material And Design Testing, Spencer J. Pigman

Honors Thesis

Football helmets have evolved significantly to improve player safety and reduce the risk of concussions and traumatic brain injuries. Early leather designs offered minimal protection, while modern helmets use advanced materials to absorb and distribute impact forces more effectively. To support ongoing helmet safety research, a custom 3D-printed headform modeled from a human scan was equipped with a WitMotion BWT901BLECL5.0 accelerometer and used in controlled drop tests. The study evaluated various internal padding materials including spray foam, two sizes of bubble wrap, Oobleck, scrub sponges, KTOESHEO foam, Hijelyn air pillows, and the standard padding from a Riddell Victor youth helmet. …

Production Of Sustainable Liquid Fuel From Waste Polymeric Materials Via Thermal Pyrolysis, Md. Sabbir Ahmed, Selim Reja, Sk Md Ali Zaker Shawon, Farhana Nazmin, Abdullah Mohammad Sarjish, Yousuf Ali, M. Azizur R. Khan, M. Jasim Uddin, Md. Wasikur Rahman

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

The widespread use of polymeric materials has become an environmental threat as they are durable and nonbiodegradable in nature, which is directly responsible for severe ecological consequences. Thermal pyrolysis offers a sustainable and efficient approach to converting these polymeric waste materials into liquid fuel, which is also referred to as pyrolysis oil (PO). In this study, a novel method was developed for producing oil from a composite of waste polymers that include vehicle tires, tubes, and medical waste. A fixed-bed stainless steel reactor is used to thermally breakdown the waste polymeric feedstock (300–750°C) in an inert environment. The PO was …

Direct Computations Of Spatially Resolved Viscoelastic Moduli Of Biomolecular Condensates, Liwen Gu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Biomolecular condensates are viscoelastic materials formed by liquid-liquid phase separations (LLPS) of biopolymers. In this study, we develop a modified graph Laplacian-based collective model to characterize viscoelastic heterogeneity within condensates based on results of lattice-based Metropolis Monte Carlo (MMC) simulations. By integrating random graph models and simulations of A1-LCD, a type of intrinsically disordered protein, we examine how network topology influences storage modulus, loss modulus, crossover frequency, and relaxation time spectra. Our results reveal a strong correlation between topological features and mechanical response, with the condensate interior exhibiting higher stiffness and faster relaxation than the interface. The relaxation spectra provide …

2025 Spring Commencement, Harding University

Commencement Programs

Program for the Harding University Commencement on May 10.

Commencement Speakers:
9a.m.: Dr. Lisa Ritchie
noon: David Johnson
3p.m.: Mark Sweesy

Prevalence Of Well Water Contaminants In Georgia From 2010-2022, Angelique B. Willis, Suhasini Ramisetty-Mikler, Christine E. Stauber, Uttam Kumar Saha

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: Safe, reliable, and clean drinking water sources are a basic necessity. More than 1.7 million individuals rely on private wells for drinking water in Georgia and are confronted with water quality challenges stemming from chemical contamination as private wells are not under mandated regulations as public water supplies. In Georgia, previous studies suggested that the variation of soil and rock in a physiographic province (region) plays an essential role in the quality of private well water. There is a need to understand the distribution of these chemical contaminants above the federal Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) and how different geologies …

Cholesterol Mass Fingerprinting To Probe Cholesterol-Protein Interactions, Warren Lowther

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cryomicroscopy, crystallography and NMR have been considered the “gold standard” of structural biophysics for some time. Recent successes in using these techniques has provided us with a plethora of insight into the architecture of different macromolecules like channels, transporters, and other molecular machines. However, information is often limited to a single allosteric state with the macromolecule in a non-native environment. Additionally, these traditional methods tend to be expensive and labor-intensive, requiring samples that are concentrated and highly purified. Chemical crosslinking coupled with mass spectrometry (CX-MS) has emerged as the ideal accessory for the aforementioned structural tools. In order to address …

Region-Specific Brain Targets Drive Circuit Formation And Maturation Of Human Retinal Ganglion Cells, Kang-Chieh Huang, Han-Yin Jeng, Qudrat Abdulwahab, Victoria R Cuevas, Eyad Shihabeddin, Claire Young, Melody Hernandez, Jason S Meyer, Nicholas M Tran, Melanie A Samuel

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Human vision relies on retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), and their connectivity with distinct brain regions enables higher order visual processing. RGCs vary considerably between species, and small model organisms display distinct RGC innervation patterns from that in humans. There is thus a need for robust models of human RGC circuit formation that preserves innervation specificity. Here, we developed an in vitro microfluidics eye-to-brain connectivity model using human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived RGCs to assess brain region-specific connectivity features. We find that cultured human RGCs segregate their dendrites and axons and display axonal features that align with that of their in …

Allogeneic Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Products Cemacabtagene Ansegedleucel/Allo-501 In Relapsed/Refractory Large B-Cell Lymphoma: Phase I Experience From The Alpha2/Alpha Clinical Studies, Frederick L Locke, Javier L Munoz, Michael T Tees, Lazaros J Lekakis, Sven De Vos, Rajneesh Nath, Don A Stevens, Shahbaz A Malik, Geoffrey P Shouse, Mehdi Hamadani, Olalekan O Oluwole, Miguel-Angel Perales, David B Miklos, Paul W Fisher, Amy Feng, Lynn Navale, John B Le Gall, Sattva S Neelapu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Off-the-shelf, allogeneic CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell products may improve access to treatment versus autologous ones. We report the phase I experience of the allogeneic CD19 CAR T-cell product cemacabtagene ansegedleucel (cema-cel) and its predecessor, ALLO-501, in CD19 CAR T-naïve patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma (R/R LBCL).

Methods: In the ALPHA2/ALPHA studies, the safety and efficacy of allogeneic CD19 CAR T cells were evaluated in CD19 CAR T treatment-naïve patients with R/R LBCL. Patients received healthy donor-derived, human leukocyte antigen-unmatched cema-cel/ALLO-501 following a 3-day lymphodepletion regimen of fludarabine (30 mg/m2 once daily), cyclophosphamide (300 or 500 mg/m2 …

Chasing Meaning, Julian Coleman

Cardinal Compositions

No abstract provided.

Using Speakers As Sensors: Detecting Acoustic Loads With Dense Neural Networks And Impedance Features, Max Chen, Keisuke Alexander Nakamura, Noori Kim

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

The use of speakers as sensors to detect ear canal conditions has been previously demonstrated using variable syringe lengths attached to earphones. Building on this foundation, our research explores the potential of a single speaker to function as both an actuator and sensor by leveraging electrical impedance measurements under varying acoustic loads, analyzed with Dense Neural Networks (DNN). Electrical impedance data, including magnitude and phase, were collected from four speakers across fourteen distinct acoustic load conditions, yielding a dataset of 5,600 samples. The raw data were processed through the DNN model, achieving an 87% accuracy in length prediction independent of …

The Role Of Oxygen During Thermal Runaway Of Lithium-Ion Batteries, Nicholas Baehl, Jason Ostanek

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

Energy storage has become an important technology due to the increasing utilization of renewable resources. Although LIB usage continues to rise, latent defects and abuse pose safety risks. Modeling and simulation tools are applied to simulate failure conditions such as thermal runaway. CFD tools may be used to simulate thermal runaway with consideration of important physics including: gas generation, venting, and combustion of evolved gases. Previous CFD-based studies have investigated thermal runaway and venting, but none have considered the instantaneous composition of gases which may lead to ignition within the cell body. This work explores the progression of thermal runaway …

Pulse Flow Reverse Osmosis With Feed Flow Reversal, Jarrod Robbins, John Murray, Jose M. Garcia-Bravo

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

The purpose of this study is to increase the efficiency and water recovery of household scale reverse osmosis systems. Due to the small membranes and simple design, current household RO systems send much of the feed water to the drainage system. This system will be capable of implementing Feed Flow reversal in order to increase the lifespan of the RO membrane as Pulse Flow RO may lead to uneven loading due to variances in salinity and increased pressure spikes.

Personalizing Engineering Education Through Environmental Backgrounds And Augmented Reality, Mohammed Metwaly, Farid Breidi

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

This study aims to design, develop, and evaluate a Personalized Engineering Playground (PEP) that connects students' environmental backgrounds with engineering applications. It investigates the impact of early outdoor experiences on students' motivation to pursue engineering careers. Utilizing a comprehensive survey of over 150 engineering technology students, the study collected both quantitative and qualitative data on nature-related activities, career influences, and environmental perceptions. The findings indicate that activities such as building (23%), exploring (17%), and observing nature (20%) play a significant role in shaping engineering interest. Approximately 45% of the students reported that outdoor experiences had a positive influence on their …

Performance Analysis Of A Dc Nanogrid Heat Pump System For Residential House, Ehijie Ebewele, William Hutzel

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

The increasing demand for energy-efficient systems has led to the exploration of Direct Current (DC)-powered technologies in residential applications, as most residential appliances and devices now run on DC voltage. The future of renewable energy integration will depend heavily on powering the planet with DC voltage because most distributed energy systems (PV panels, batteries, etc.) are DC-driven. For this reason, energy efficiency in buildings is today a prime objective, among building services, the growth in HVAC systems energy use is particularly significant (50% of building consumption and 20% of total consumption in the USA.

Neuronal Signal Activity Image Classification, Ardavan Vakil, Miad Faezipour

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

Neurodegenerative disorders can cause signal disturbances on the neuronal spiking patterns within the brain. Parkinson’s disease, as an example, produces burst firings and synchronized oscillatory signal patterns. Accurately distinguishing between different brain spiking pattern activities is essential in finding effective neuromodulation or neurostimulation treatments for neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson disease. Due to the lack of publicly available neuronal spiking pattern datasets containing different neuronal signal patterns and classes, we propose the generation of a novel three-class dataset. We then convert the generated signals into 2D images and separate the generated signal images into test and train datasets. We aim to …

Integrating Environmental Identity Into Engineering Education Through Augmented Reality, Mohammed Metwaly, Farid Breidi, Wade Goodridge, Sarah Bargal, Carie Green, Aqlan Faisal

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

This study aims to design, develop, and evaluate a Personalized Engineering Playground (PEP) that connects students' environmental experiences with engineering applications. It investigates the impact of early outdoor experiences on students' motivation to pursue engineering careers. Utilizing a comprehensive survey of over 150 engineering technology students, the study collected both quantitative and qualitative data on nature-related activities, career influences, and environmental perceptions. The findings indicate that activities such as building (23%), exploring (17%), and observing nature (20%) play a significant role in shaping engineering identity. Approximately 45% of the students reported that outdoor experiences had a positive influence on their …

Hierarchical Convolutional Attention Mixing (Hi-Cam) Transformer For Medical Image Segmentation, Md Motiur Rahman, Shiva Shokouhmand, Smriti Bhatt, Miad Faezipour

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

We propose Hi-CAM, a Hierarchical-Convolutional Attention Mixing transformer for medical image segmentation. It uses a pre-trained MaxViT encoder and a novel decoder that combines multi-head self-attention, spatial attention, and squeeze-and-excitation modules to capture long-range dependencies. Deep and shallow convolutions enhance spatial features, while skip connections fuse multi-level features and suppress noise. Experiments on ACDC and Synapse datasets show that Hi-CAM significantly outperforms state-of-the-art models, highlighting the effectiveness of the hierarchical attention-mixing strategy.

Extended Reality-Enabled Teleoperation Platform For Industrial Operations, Israa Azzam, Farid Breidi

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

Extended Reality (XR) environments enhance the efficacy of teleoperation systems, overcoming the limitations of 2D settings. This work aims to advance industrial teleoperations by investigating the capabilities of remote XR environments, selecting the optimal configuration, and developing an XR-Enabled Teleoperation Platform that integrates advanced controllers, allowing minimizing latency. The XR-Enabled Teleoperation Platform is designed integrating control protocols, including Adaptive Smoothing & Model Predictive Control to minimize latency and enhance synchronization. This framework is tested on a 6-DOF robotic arm, serving as a Digital Twin (DT), enabling bi-directional data exchange between the physical robotic arm and its virtual shadow

Enhancing Surgical Tool Classification Using A Semi-Supervised Learning Autoencoder Approach, Shiva Shokouhmand, Md Motiur Rahman, Smriti Bhatt, Suranjan Panigrahi, Miad Faezipour

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

The purpose of this study is to develop a robust approach for identifying and classifying surgical instruments while addressing the challenges associated with traditional supervised learning methods, which require large annotated datasets. By comparing the performance of supervised machine learning and deep learning models with a semi-supervised autoencoder approach, this study aims to enhance efficiency and accuracy in automated and robotic-assisted surgical procedures. This will ultimately improve workflow optimization, error minimization, and real-time decision-making in the operating room

Efficient Heating For High Altitude Housing In Peru, Ajay Dalal, William Hutzel, Walter Leon-Salas

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

A research station is being built in Sumbay, Peru, located at an elevation of 13,543 feet above sea level. Because of the constant cold temperatures throughout the year and the remote off-grid location of the station, a efficient heating system is required for the on-site Airbnb residence. This project explores the viability of an air-source heat pump (ASHP) under high-altitude conditions with much lower air density. An Engineering Equation Solver (EES) model, an "altitude factor," and 8760-hour weather analysis were utilized to estimate the heating requirements. Preliminary results indicate as much as 40% derating in capacity at the high altitude, …

Demonstration Of A Digital Twin Framework For A Two-Actuator Hydraulic Application, Marvin R. Durango -Cogollo, Jose M. Garcia-Bravo

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

This project presents a digital twin framework for controlling a hydraulic crane using AI, mixed reality, and real-time actuation. Leveraging a Jetson Nano and Xbox Kinect for perception and a Raspberry Pi with DRV103 for control, the system enables adaptive motion planning and obstacle-aware navigation. A Unity-based interface integrated with HoloLens2 allows operators to visualize and manipulate the crane through FABRIK inverse kinematics. Real-time environmental mapping from Kinect enables obstacle detection to update the motion path dynamically. Early experiments confirm the ability to compute joint angles in real-time, detect environmental objects, and demonstrate closed-loop control in a virtual-physical hybrid system.

Compost Bin Monitoring System Through Iot And Lorawan, Nicolas Rendon-Arias, Luis Gerardo Ruiz Gonzalez, Sehyeon Lim, Walter Daniel Leon-Salas

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

This project improves agricultural land management and composting techniques by utilizing sensors and the Internet of Things. The initiative intends to enhance sustainable agriculture practices, maximize resource usage, and minimize waste. LoRaWAN wireless technology and sensors are used to continuously monitor parameters like temperature and composting conditions (CO2, ammonia, and pH), allowing for improved compost quality and accurate decision making. A crucial step in the creation of our system was the deployment of the LoRaWAN network, which enables long-distance sensor monitoring. Additionally, our system has an intuitive web-based interface to visualize the data at any place.

Burn Severity Assessment Using Deep Learning: Balancing Performance And Computational Efficiency, Saeka Rahman, Md Motiur Rahman, Mo Rastgaar, Miad Faezipour

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

Burn injuries present a substantial global public health challenge. This work presents a comprehensive analytical study of eight deep learning techniques designed for assessing burn severity in terms of four characteristics: inflammation, scar, uniformity, and pigmentation, in small datasets of 2-dimensional (2D) images captured using digital (smartphone) camera

A Preliminary Examination Of Chatgpt’S Capability In Developing Construction Education Instruments Through Bloom’S Taxonomy, Yanchao Zheng, Deniz Besiktepe, Luciana Debs

Purdue Polytechnic Graduate Student Poster Symposium

Effective assessment is essential in construction management (CM) education to evaluate student understanding of industry-demanded skills. Integrating the Bloom’s Taxonomy, American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) provides student learning outcomes (SLOs) for targeted learning objectives, as well as guiding assessment development. However, crafting high-quality assessment questions remains challenging for CM instructors. This study explores the potential of ChatGPT to generate assessment questions aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy and using two ACCE student learning outcomes (SLOs): 1) creating construction project cost estimates and 2) analyzing methods, materials, and equipment. Generated questions were evaluated for alignment with Bloom’s levels, clarity, sufficiency, feasibility, and …

Counting Doors By Integrating Pomdp Models And Pid Controllers, Rwaida Alssadi, Sara Zuiran, Jolie Elliott, Phi Duong, Chinedum Ajabor, Alwaleed Alsaleemi, Samuel Boddepalli, Vamshi Gattikoppula, Pavan Manigandla, Akram Alghanmi, Muntaser Syed, Samaher Damanhori, Marius Silaghi

Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

This paper presents an enhanced hybrid planning architecture that integrates Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) with Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control for indoor robot navigation under uncertainty. Our approach uses PID controller feedback—proportional, integral, and derivative signals—as observation variables in the POMDP model, exploiting well tested mechanisms of processing sensor data. A case study is conducted using an iCreate3 robot navigating a university corridor to deliver a load to a specified room by identifying door frames. We evaluate three progressively refined models with increasing sensor integration and probabilistic reasoning. Experimental results demonstrate that the multi-sensor fusion model achieves an 85% task …

A Visual Question Answering-Based Object Detection Framework Using A Team Of Multi-Agent Uavs, Stéphane Lee, Nathan Rayon, Hakki Erhan Sevil

Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

This paper presents an autonomous multi-agent unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system designed to perform object detection through Visual Question Answering (VQA) using aerial imagery. The system utilizes an entropy-based distributed behavior model to coordinate UAV movements toward designated waypoints. A VQA model is used to analyze aerial footage for detection of objects of interest. The study investigates the impact of various distributed behavior configurations, including number of UAVs, UAV formations, flight altitude, and separation distance. After analysis, a final optimized configuration for maximizing surface area coverage and VQA model performance were found. These findings contribute to the development of aerial …