Engineering Commons^™

Autonomous Vehicle For Asphalt Laying, Gilberto Gonzalez

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Autonomous vehicles are constantly being developed and are gaining recognition from many industries to improve workplace safety and efficiency. This project intends to weaken the barrier that prevents the usage of autonomous vehicles in the workplace. To move toward this objective, this project focuses on developing a computer vision system for an autonomous utility vehicle that lays asphalt. The goal of this project is to directly address the issue of the high number of potholes in our driving roads, which create a dangerous and hazardous environment for persons that utilize motorized and non-motorized vehicles on roads. The vehicle’s computer vision …

3d Printing Of Lunar Regolith Based Ceramics Via The Dlp Method, Ricardo Vasquez

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Ceramic parts generally have poor machinability due to their high hardness and high brittleness. Researchers and industries have overcome the difficulty of machining ceramics and have manufactured parts with intricate geometry by using pre-ceramic polymers in stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing and using slurries based on ceramic powder and photopolymer resin in digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing, among other methods. This presentation will discuss the processes involved in the 3D printing of ceramic and ceramic composite parts via the DLP technique. A vital step in ceramic 3D printing is to optimize the printing parameters for a specific slurry formulation in …

Synthesis Of Bone Scaffold For Pediatric Bone Defects Using 3d Printing, Amy M. Ramos-Homs

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Pediatric bone defects, requiring surgical interventions and implants, include malignant and nonmalignant bone tumors and trauma fractures. Malignant bone tumors (MBT), such as Osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma, are aggressive primary cancers that affect growing adolescent bones (10- to 19-year-olds) and require complex reconstruction due to large bone excision during surgical interventions. Pediatric bone fractures requiring surgical interventions peak in 10- to 14-year-olds and are a major public health concern in the US with an impact on patients, parents, and healthcare costs of approx. 350 billion. These diseases require bone tissue replacement in changing bones.

Bone reconstruction and medical implant design …

Probing The Mechanical Properties Of Soft And Hard Biomaterials: Polydimethylsiloxane (Pdms) Micropillars And Alligator Teeth, Matty Sey

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Mechanical properties are essential to quantitatively characterize materials' intrinsic properties ranging from soft to rigid scales. It can effectively facilitate optimal material selection corresponding to their practical applications. Unlike mesoscale, microscale mechanical properties measure localized structural and fundamental components, which is especially superior for assessing materials with hierarchical or ultrastructural properties. This study aims to characterize localized mechanical properties of soft and hard materials: engineering polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micropillars and alligator teeth. The stiffness of PDMS pillar arrays is designed by the solvent-casting method, a raw input parameter to calculate the twitch force of cardiac microtissues. The microstructure-associated mechanical properties of …

In-Operando Optical Observation/Visualization Of Lithium-Sulfur Battery Discharge Process, Ana G. Claus

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Lithium−Sulfur (Li-S) batteries have attracted attention due to their high-energy density, 2500 Wh/𝑘𝑔𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 [1], and theoretical capacity of 1672 mAh/g-S [2]. In addition to that, sulfur abundance makes it a good candidate for rechargeable batteries. However, Li-S system has a few challenges that hinder its commercialization. Such as the insulating nature of the sulfur element, volume expansion, capacity fade due to intermittent polysulfide dissolution in the electrolyte and drop in capacity during the initial discharge cycles [3]. Herein, we have designed a Li-S in-operando optical observation cell, which allowed us to visualize the formation of higher to lower-order polysulfides as …

Expanding Faculty-Student Interactions In Statics: An Exploratory Study Of A Statics Course With Learning Assistants, Valerie V. Bracho Perez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Statics is one of the first fundamental engineering classes within the ME undergraduate curriculum, in which a student’s performance in the course can impact their overall academic success. Recent efforts to enhance students learning in fundamental engineering courses have included integrating Learning Assistants (LAs), undergraduate peers who have previously excelled in the course, into the instructional team of the course. The purpose of this Master's thesis is to explore the enactment of a Statics classroom with LAs, the interactions that characterize it, and the impact it has on the students and instructional teams. A qualitative case study of a Statics …