Architecture Commons^™

Sustainable Sensing With Paper Microfluidics: Applications In Health, Environment, And Food Safety, Sanjay Kumar, Jyoti B. Kaushal, Heow Pueh Lee

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This manuscript offers a concise overview of paper microfluidics, emphasizing its sustainable sensing applications in healthcare, environmental monitoring, and food safety. Researchers have developed innovative sensing platforms for detecting pathogens, pollutants, and contaminants by leveraging the paper’s unique properties, such as biodegradability and affordability. These portable, low-cost sensors facilitate rapid diagnostics and on-site analysis, making them invaluable tools for resource-limited settings. This review discusses the fabrication techniques, principles, and applications of paper microfluidics, showcasing its potential to address pressing challenges and enhance human health and environmental sustainability.

Cost Modeling Of Provision C.3 Green Stormwater Infrastructure Requirements For Residential Development In Concord, California, James Henry Mizutani

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To assist the city of Concord in achieving its housing goals as presented in its general plan, while still meeting the stormwater discharge requirements laid out in the city’s municipal discharge permit, I worked with local developers and consultants to create a spreadsheet modeling tool that allows housing developers to estimate the total cost of green stormwater infrastructure needed to comply with local regulations.

This report contains a summary of the conditions leading to the necessity of this tool, the steps the tool takes that go beyond existing models, a description of how the model operates, instructions on how to …

Modeling And Design Parameter Optimization To Improve The Sensitivity Of A Bimorph Polysilicon-Based Mems Sensor For Helium Detection, Sulaiman Mohaidat, F. M. Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Helium is integral in several industries, including nuclear waste management and semiconductors. Thus, developing a sensing method for detecting helium is essential to ensure the proper operation of such facilities. Several approaches can be used for helium detection, including based on the high thermal conductivity of helium, which is several times higher than air. This work utilizes the high thermal conductivity of helium to design and analyze a bimorph MEMS sensor for helium sensing applications. COMSOL Multiphysics software (version 6.2) is used to carry out this investigation. The sensor is constructed from poly-silicon and SiO₂ materials with a trenched …

A Peer Review Benchmark Portfolio For Architectural Design Studio: Situate, Matthew Miller

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio examines a third-year architectural design studio that emphasizes the development of designs that consider site and context. As part of a four-year sequence to gaining a Bachelor of Science in Design, this studio takes on a critical discourse of the impact designs may have on the environments they inhabit, the community of people that they interact with, and the cultures and practices followed within a region. This research examined how different modes of teaching could help with building narratives and identifying the measurable impact a design would have on its environment, community, and culture through repetition of verbal …

From Affordable To Equitable: An Analysis Of Affordable Housing As A Solution In A National Shortage, Machelle Cooper

Honors Theses

Amid a national shortage of housing, the United States needs housing solutions that both remedy infrastructural concerns imposed by outdated standards of urban development and address a widespread lack of equity across several urban areas. Conventional approaches to public housing have proven ineffective in promoting equitable change within underdeveloped contexts. These areas desire innovative, intentional interventions that adequately address all aspects of their social, economic, and environmental needs that existing patterns of development have neglected for decades. Public and state sentiments regarding areas of concentrated poverty and segregation in urban space must change for a future of equitable housing to …

Opportunities And Challenges Of Generative Ai In Construction Industry: Focusing On Adoption Of Text-Based Models, Prashnna Ghimire, Kyungki Kim, Manoj Acharya

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

In the last decade, despite rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) transforming many industry practices, construction largely lags in adoption. Recently, the emergence and rapid adoption of advanced large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s GPT, Google’s PaLM, and Meta’s Llama have shown great potential and sparked considerable global interest. However, the current surge lacks a study investigating the opportunities and challenges of implementing Generative AI (GenAI) in the construction sector, creating a critical knowledge gap for researchers and practitioners. This underlines the necessity to explore the prospects and complexities of GenAI integration. Bridging this gap is fundamental to optimizing GenAI’s …

Diagnosis Of Disease Affecting Gait With A Body Acceleration‑Based Model Using Reflected Marker Data For Training And A Wearable Accelerometer For Implementation, Mohammad Ali Takallou, Farahnaz Fallahtafti, Mahdi Hassan, Ali Al‑Ramini, Basheer Qolomany, Iraklis I. Pipinos, Sara A. Myers, F. M. Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This paper demonstrates the value of a framework for processing data on body acceleration as a uniquely valuable tool for diagnosing diseases that affect gait early. As a case study, we used this model to identify individuals with peripheral artery disease (PAD) and distinguish them from those without PAD. The framework uses acceleration data extracted from anatomical reflective markers placed in different body locations to train the diagnostic models and a wearable accelerometer carried at the waist for validation. Reflective marker data have been used for decades in studies evaluating and monitoring human gait. They are widely available for many …

Organic Electronics In Biosensing: A Promising Frontier For Medical And Environmental Applications, Jyoti Bala Kaushal, Pratima Raut, Sanjay Kumar

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The promising field of organic electronics has ushered in a new era of biosensing technology, thus offering a promising frontier for applications in both medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring. This review paper provides a comprehensive overview of organic electronics’ remarkable progress and potential in biosensing applications. It explores the multifaceted aspects of organic materials and devices, thereby highlighting their unique advantages, such as flexibility, biocompatibility, and low-cost fabrication. The paper delves into the diverse range of biosensors enabled by organic electronics, including electrochemical, optical, piezoelectric, and thermal sensors, thus showcasing their versatility in detecting biomolecules, pathogens, and environmental pollutants. Furthermore, …

Transportation Components Of The City Of Bennet Comprehensive Plan And Downtown Economic Development Plan, Kyle Mclaughlin

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

In partnership with the City of Bennet, the University of Nebraska, and Marvin Planning Consultants, this project assisted the creation of the City’s Comprehensive Plan and Downtown Economic Development Plan by creating a transportation focused report as a supplement to those plans. The project operates in six sections; Introduction and Overview, Evaluate the Present, Engage the Community, Recommendations, Strategies, and Policies, Implementation and Funding, and Monitoring and Evaluation. The project scope included existing conditions understanding, qualitative and quantitative transportation analysis, public engagement and stakeholder meetings, coordination with two plan creators, identifying transportation improvements, description of implementation steps, overview of available …

Water Wise Landscape Practices: A Case Study For The City Of Gering, Christina E. Land

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

This professional project is founded on my education, experiences, and networks. I have had the opportunity to use what I have learned thus far and be challenged to look at public planning from a different perspective. In partnership with the City of Gering I was able to get knee deep in the facility planning of the city owned property which is home to the Community Ever Green House. The project reviews how the property is integrated into the community and the impact it has. Then, identifies opportunities to improve overall functionality with a closer look at addressing hazard mitigation using …

Ten Questions Concerning Smart And Healthy Built Environments For Older Adults, Sanjay Kumar, Samuel H. Underwood, Julie L. Masters, Natalie A. Manley, Iason Konstantzos, Josephine Lau, Ryan Haller, Lily M. Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

In the past decade, the term ‘global aging’ has gained much attention among researchers, policymakers, civil societies, and governments worldwide. The continuous decline in fertility rates and increased life expectancy have resulted in an ongoing demographic transition where the share of adults aged 65 or older is increasing and outnumbering children younger than five years. In the United States and other developed countries, this rapid demographic transition is expected to continue to strain the existing health infrastructure as it becomes increasingly challenging to ensure healthy living environments for older adults. The ten questions and answers in this paper have been …

Toward Low Carbon Footprint And Lightweight Masonry Alkali-Activated Material, Zina Ebrahim, Mohammad Mastali, Marc Maguire

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The portland cement concrete industry and the masonry industry are undergoing changes in response to skilled labor shortages and concerns over climate and pollution. There may be interest from parts of the industry in lower carbon footprint and lightweight masonry products. Toward this aim, the use of hemp shiv--the woody core of the hemp plant--in alkali-activated concrete was investigated herein and shown to have a wide range of impacts on the hardened state characteristics of a material suitable for structural concrete masonry units (CMUs) in accordance with ASTM C90 requirements. Hemp shiv is well known for its use in hempcrete, …

Incentivizing Electric Vehicle Adoption Through State And Federal Policies: Reviewing Influential Policies, Joshua Sabata, Subhaditya Shom, Ahmad Almaghrebi, Anne Mccollister, Mahmoud Alahmad

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

All-electric vehicles (EVs), battery-powered EVs (BEVs), and plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVS) are gaining market share and increasing in popularity with the buying public because the battery range (longer) and cost (lower) have reached sweet spots, the charging infrastructure is more robust, and concern with global cli­mate change is high. In 2013, only 100,000 EVs were sold in the United States, but by 2022, approximately 800,000 have been purchased. A similar growth is seen in EV sup­ply equipment (EVSE), i.e., EV charging stations, with 19,742 documented EV charging station locations in the United States in 2013 to 50,054 documented EV charging …

Out-Of-Plane Flexural Behavior Of Insulatedwall Panels Constructed With Large Insulation Thicknesses, Jacob Luebke, Fray F. Pozo-Lora, Salam Al-Rubaye, Marc Maguire

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Insulated concrete sandwich wall panels (ICSWPs) are gaining popularity as energy regulations become stricter worldwide. ICSWPs are now being constructed with thinner wythes and thicker insulation to keep up with the changing market, which is reducing material costs and increasing thermal and structural efficiency. However, there is a need for adequate experimental testing to validate the current design methods for these new panels. This research aims to provide that validation by comparing the predictions of four different methods with experimental data obtained from six large-scale panels. The study found that while current design methods adequately predict the behavior of thin …

Simplified Engineering For Architects And Builders, 13th Edition, Sharon Kuska, Patrick Tripeny, James Ambrose

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The twelfth edition of the Work was published by the Publisher under the agreement between the Publisher and Patrick Tripeny dated February 24, 2014 (the “Twelfth Edition”).

The Publisher and the Author wish to work together to achieve the professional standards and success that they each desire from the Work, and agree as follows:

Revitalizing Main Street, Usa: Recovering From The American Dream And The Destruction Of The Rural Main Street, Rebecca Virgl

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

The American Dream is a national ethos that states any person, with enough hard work, can succeed in the United States; it is both critique of the pitfalls of capitalism and advocacy of the potentials the system offers. Over time, suburbia has come to represent the physical manifestation of the American Dream. In the world of planning and architecture, much discussion is given to the suburbanization of the United States. The relationship between the city and the suburb is well documented, and many plans for suburban improvements focus on making suburbs more like cities, where they are more walkable, dense, …

Energy Efficient Integrated Mems Neural Network For Simultaneous Sensing And Computing, Hamed Nikfarjam, Mohammad Megdadi, Mohammad Okour, Siavash Pourkamali, F. M. Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Biological systems seamlessly combine multiple functions in lightweight and energy-efficient structures. Such capability in synthetic structures would be desirable in numerous engineering applications such as aerospace, robotics and wearable devices. Here we report an integrated silicon-based structure configured to sense, perform different classification algorithms, and produce an action signal within the same physical layer. The algorithms are coded in the mechanical responses of the sensing elements of multiple coupled micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), simultaneously capturing acceleration measurements to produce an actuated signal. This all-in-one structure operates with zero circuitry and low power consumption. As a demonstration, we designed and fabricated a …

Reconfigurable Metatiles With Circular Maze-Like Space-Coiling-Based Acoustic Metastructure For Low-To-Mid Frequency Sound Attenuation, Sanjay Kumar, Heow Pueh Lee

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This study presents a compact, lightweight, and reconfigurable acoustic metatile for sound mitigation applications. The metatile prototype is designed based on a circular maze-like acoustic metastructure, which utilizes a space-coiling technique for enhanced acoustic performance in low-to-mid frequencies. The proposed labyrinthine acoustic metadisk structure comprises a central hollow front face sheet and two coiling-up backing cavities. Experimental results show that the metadisk has high absorption peaks of 0.81 and 0.75 at 574 and 1436 Hz, respectively, and exhibits high sound transmission loss (STL) values (≥25 dB) in separate wide frequency bands between 100–580 Hz and 820–1600 Hz. Based on the …

Structural Testing Of Concrete Walls On-Edge With Combined Axial And Out-Of-Plane Loading, Salam Al-Rubaye, Marc Maguire

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Full-scale testing of structural components can be time consuming and difficult. The design of full- scale slender concrete walls is highly influenced and controlled by second-order and out-of-plane bending loads. Previous experiments on out-plane bending of slender walls and insulated walls have been performed with bending in the direction of gravity (with or against). Additionally, most of the research considering out-of-plane bending does not include an axial load and suffers from inaccurate results due to not simulating the actual loading and constraining conditions or safety issues. This testing method was developed expressly for the determination of slender wall behavior in …

Relationships Between Residence Characteristics And Nursing Home Compare Database Quality Measures, Brian J. Puckett, Erica E. Ryherd, Natalie Manley, Carey S. Ryan

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Objective: This study evaluated relationships between physical characteristics of nursing home residences and quality-of-care measures.

Design: This was a cross-sectional ecologic study. The dependent variables were 5 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Nursing Home Compare database long-stay quality measures (QMs) during 2019: percentage of residents who displayed depressive symptoms, percentage of residents who were physically restrained, percentage of residents who experienced 1 or more falls resulting in injury, percentage of residents who received antipsychotic medication, and percentage of residents who received anti-anxiety medication. The independent variables were 4 residence characteristics: ownership type, size, occupancy, and region …

Analysis And Design Of Lateral Framing Systems For Multi-Story Steel Buildings, Husam Al Dughaishi, Jawad Al Lawati, Moad Alosta, Shaker Mahmood, Mohamed Faisal Al-Kazee, Nur Izzi Md Yusoff, Abdalrhman Milad

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This study focused on identifying the most appropriate structural system for multi-story buildings and analyzing its response to lateral loads. The study analyzed and compared the different structural systems to determine the most suitable option. The study aims to utilize three lateral framing systems (moment, braced, and diagrid) in order to investigate which system needs the least amount of steel to meet the design requirements. Thus, in order to determine the estimated steel savings of this system as compared to the moment and braced frames, the four-story and eight-story buildings that are 96' × 96' in the plane and utilize …

A Framework To Predict Variability Characteristics In Building Load Profiles, Sam Moayedi, Andrew Parker, Kevin James, Xiaoyue Cheng, Michael Hempel, Hamid Sharif, Mahmoud A. Alahmad

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The expansion of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) has provided building operators and researchers detailed information on building energy consumption. The majority of AMI systems, however, record data at relatively low resolutions of 15, 30, or 60 minutes, due to cost, storage and bandwidth limitations. Emerging applications in power flow analysis, Quasi-Static Time-Series Simulation (QSTS), smart grid integration and load matching, however, require data at higher resolutions. Short-term energy demand can deviate significantly from long-term averages, with an unknown magnitude and frequency when only low-resolution load profile data is available. This paper presents a novel data-driven approach to predict characteristics of …

Integration Of Real-Time Semantic Building Map Updating With Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization (Amcl) For Robust Indoor Mobile Robot Localization, Matthew Peavy, Pileun Kim, Hafiz Oyediran, Kyungki Kim

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

A robot can accurately localize itself and navigate in an indoor environment based on information about the operating environment, often called a world or a map. While typical maps describe structural layouts of buildings, the accuracy of localization is significantly affected by nonstructural building elements and common items, such as doors, appliances, and furniture. This study enhances the robustness and accuracy of indoor robot localization by dynamically updating the semantic building map with non-structural elements detected by sensors. We propose modified Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization (AMCL), integrating object recognition and map updating into the traditional probabilistic localization. With the proposed …

Evaluating Biophilic Design Characteristics In Lincoln Public Schools, Sarah Burr

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A mixed qualitative-quantitative study was conducted in Lincoln, Nebraska to observe and evaluate the biophilic design characteristics in Lincoln Public Schools (LPS). There is a significant lack of nature in urban environments, especially in older buildings and schools, therefore incorporating natural elements in school buildings can promote the success of students and contribute to improved well-being. The research question this study aims to address is: How and to what degree are Lincoln Public Schools integrating biophilic design characteristics in their high school buildings? Four high schools were toured utilizing an evaluation form with 10 biophilic design characteristics and a 5-point …

Dissipated Hysteretic Energy Reconstruction For High-Resolution Seismic Monitoring Of Instrumented Buildings, Milad Roochi, Eric M. Hernández, David V. Rosowsky

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This paper proposes a high-resolution seismic monitoring framework that employs dissipated energy as a feature for damage detection and localization in instrumented building structures. The the methodology consists of (1) implementing a nonlinear state observer to reconstruct the dynamic response at all degrees of freedom (DoF) of a structural model, (2) employing the reconstructed response to estimate element-by-element forces and displacements, and (3) using estimated displacement, forces, and constitutive laws to estimate elementlevel dissipated energy. The main advantages of the proposed energy-based approach are that i) the proposed feature is physically meaningful and correlates well with the level of cyclic …

Integrating Life-Cycle Analysis Into Civil Infrastructure Resilience Decision Making: Illustrative Application To Seismic Resilience Modeling Of Us Communities, Milad Roohi, Jiate Li, W. Van De Lindt

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This paper aims to integrate life-cycle analysis into civil infrastructure resilience modeling and decision-making in seismic-prone communities. To achieve this aim, the authors present a methodology for modeling seismic life-cycle resilience of interdependent buildings and lifeline systems and subsequently informing resilience decisions directly related to the maintenance and retrofit of interdependent infrastructure to enhance a community’s physical, social, and economic systems. The methodology consists of 1) community data collection, 2) seismic hazard analysis, 3) physical damage analysis, and 4) system-level functionality and restoration analysis, 5) socio-economic impact analysis, 6) life-cycle optimization and retrofit decisionmaking. The methodology begins by developing geospatial …

Applying Unsupervised Machine Learning Clustering Techniques To Early Childcare Soundscapes, Kenton Hummel, Erica E. Ryherd, Iason Konstantzos, Abbie Raikes

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Early childhood is a critical time period for language, brain, cognitive, and social/emotional development. Out-of-home childcare is a normative, typical experience for millions of young children. Although Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in K-12 settings has received recent, significant attention, the links between IEQ and children’s learning and development in early childcare settings is a less understood topic. This work focuses specifically on the sound aspect of IEQ in early childcare settings to better understand typical noise levels and occupant experience. Standard approaches to analyzing background noise will be presented alongside more detailed statistical analyses utilizing unsupervised machine learning clustering techniques. …

Interdisciplinary Design Studio: Programming Document Visioning For A Robotic Demonstration, Research, And Engagement Dairy, Steve(N) Hardy, Nate Bicak, Sarah Alduaylij, Noor Al-Maamari, Devyn Beekman, Kelsey Belgum, Lauren Chubb, Nicholas Forte, Mitchell Hill, Joshua Holstein, Dylan Lambe, Phuong Le, Mia Leriger, Elizabeth Loftus, Josh Lorenzen, Megan Lovci, Alex Martino, Zade Miller, Hannah Morgan, Annabelle Nichols, Collin Shearman, Rebecca Sowl, Nalin Theplikhith, Angela Vu, Shaylee Wagner, Ethan Watermeier, Trever Zelenka

Architecture Program: Student Creative Activity

The 2022 COLLABORATE Design Studio brought together students from various disciplines to address a complex, real-world project which required collaborative input from different perspectives. The studio worked to advance the co-creation of knowledge between external stakeholders, students, and instructors. The course was co-taught by faculty from different disciplines, and areas of expertise. During the semester, Nate Bicak and Steven Hardy worked with students from Architecture and Interior Design in collaboration with students in Dr. Tami Brown-Brandl’s students in Biological Systems Engineering and Animal Science to explore the values, spatial qualities, and area requirements of a Robotic Demonstration, Research, and Engagement …

Urban Wildlife Management Planning Process And Conflict Mitigation: A Case Study Of Denver’S Canada Goose Management Plan, Brent Johannes

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

In 2019 and 2020, the USDA in coordination with Denver Parks and Recreation removed 2,174 geese from 6 different parks within the City of Denver. The removals and use of lethal methods to manage the concerns related to the geese population in Denver’s parks caused a public conflict and resulted in multiple legal challenges with the City of Denver. The opposition group claimed that the city did not sufficiently engage with the public in the formation of the goose management plan, and did not provide any public notification about the plan to remove geese. City officials have claimed that attempts …

Foreign Object Debris Detection For Airport Pavement Images Based On Self-Supervised Localization And Vision Transformer, Travis Munyer, Daniel Brinkman, Xin Zhong, Chenyu Huang, Iason Konstantzos

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Supervised object detection methods provide subpar performance when applied to Foreign Object Debris (FOD) detection because FOD could be arbitrary objects according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) specification. Current supervised object detection algorithms require datasets that contain annotated examples of every to-be-detected object. While a large and expensive dataset could be developed to include common FOD examples, it is infeasible to collect all possible FOD examples in the dataset representation because of the openended nature of FOD. Limitations of the dataset could cause FOD detection systems driven by those supervised algorithms to miss certain FOD, which can become dangerous …