Engineering Commons^™

A Multi-Objective Model For Sustainable Perishable Food Distribution Considering The Impact Of Temperature On Vehicle Emissions And Product Shelf Life, Amin Gharehyakheh, Caroline C. Krejci, Jaime Cantu, K. Jamie Rogers

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The food distribution process is responsible for significant quality loss in perishable products. However, preserving quality is costly and consumes a tremendous amount of energy. To tackle the challenge of minimizing transportation costs and CO2 emissions while also maximizing product freshness, a novel multi-objective model is proposed. The model integrates a vehicle routing problem with temperature, shelf life, and energy consumption prediction models, thereby enhancing its accuracy. Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II is adapted to solve the proposed model for the set of Solomon test data. The conflicting nature of these objectives and the sensitivity of the model to shelf …

Ensuring A Safety Workplace By The Automation Of The Ammonia Cooling System, Luis Felipe Cordoba

English Language Institute

Ammonia presents high efficiency in freezing food products for preserving them for exportation; however, the use of this refrigerant implies a high risk to human life because it presents high concentrations of toxic gases that can produce deadly consequences to human beings. Smart relays present a flexible manner to automate industrial process; therefore, this poster aims to replace the manual and inefficient manner of controlling ammonia cooling system by using a smart relay that can control the levels of this refrigerant in the precooler and cooler section; resulting in considerable decrease workers’ in exposure to this refrigerant.

Application Of Optimized Laser Surface Re-Melting Process On Selective Laser Melted 316l Stainless Steel Inclined Parts, Jafar Ghorbani, Jianzhi Li, Anil K. Srivastava

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Lower surface quality of selective laser melting (SLM) manufactured parts remains to be a key shortcoming particularly for high performance functional components. In this paper, the authors utilized Box–Behnken methodology to explore the effect of laser surface re-melting process parameters. The process parameters are:laser power, laser exposure time, laser point distance, and shell layer thickness. The experiments were conducted using Renishaw AM-250 machine. SLM manufactured parts with inclination of 45˚ up-skin were treated with a given surface roughness using laser surface re-melting (LSR). The optimization of process parameters was conducted using response surface methodology and the validation tests was carried …

An Urban Modelling Framework For Climate Resilience In Low-Resource Neighbourhoods, Ulrike Passe, Michael Dorneich, Caroline Krejci, Diba Malekpour Koupaei, Breanna Marmur, Linda Shenk, Jacklin Stonewall, Janette Thompson, Yuyu Zhou

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Climate predictions indicate a strong likelihood of more frequent, intense heat events. Resource-vulnerable, low-income neighbourhood populations are likely to be strongly impacted by future climate change, especially with respect to an energy burden. In order to identify existing and new vulnerabilities to climate change, local authorities need to understand the dynamics of extreme heat events at the neighbourhood level, particularly to identify those people who are adversely affected. A new comprehensive framework is presented that integrates human and biophysical data: occupancy/behaviour, building energy use, future climate scenarios and near-building microclimate projections. The framework is used to create an urban energy …

Transceivers As A Resource: Scheduling Time And Bandwidth In Software-Defined Radio, Nathan D. Price, Maciej Jan Zawodniok, Ivan G. Guardiola

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the future, software-defined radio may enable a mobile device to support multiple wireless protocols implemented as software applications. These applications, often referred to as waveform applications, could be added, updated, or removed from a software-radio device to meet changing demands. Current software-defined radio solutions grant an active waveform exclusive ownership of a specific transceiver or analog front-end. Since a wireless device has a limited number of front-ends, this approach puts a hard constraint on the number of concurrent waveform applications a device can support. A growing trend in software-defined radio research is to virtualize front-ends to allow sharing and …

Structural Health Monitoring Of Pipelines In Radioactive Environments Through Acoustic Sensing And Machine Learning, Michael Thompson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Structural health monitoring (SHM) comprises multiple methodologies for the detection and characterization of stress, damage, and aberrations in engineering structures and equipment. Although, standard commercial engineering operations may freely adopt new technology into everyday operations, the nuclear industry is slowed down by tight governmental regulations and extremely harsh environments. This work aims to investigate and evaluate different sensor systems for real-time structural health monitoring of piping systems and develop a novel machine learning model to detect anomalies from the sensor data. The novelty of the current work lies in the development of an LSTM-autoencoder neural network to automate anomaly detection …

University Startup Accelerators: Startup Launchpads Or Vehicles For Entrepreneurial Learning?, Lynn E. Metcalf, Thomas M. Katona, Jonathan L. York

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Over the past decade, universities have invested heavily in startup accelerator programs; however, their role in the university entrepreneurial ecosystem is ambiguous. Are university startup accelerators intended to educate or are they created to facilitate business starts and to contribute to regional economic development? In contrast, most private-sector startup accelerators serve a consistent and differentiated role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem—they provide programming and resources to startups to increase the probability of a return on investment. Understanding the role of university startup accelerators is an important precursor to evaluating their impact and whether or not the return is worth the considerable …

Gender Differences And Cockpit Design, Susan Archer, Heidi Brewer, Stacie Fain, Stephanie Smith

Student Works

The design project reported in this paper examined female pilots’ experiences with how well or poorly cockpit design allowed them to safely accomplish their flying missions. The general aviation aircraft cockpit is not designed for female pilots, often causing them to find ways to adapt to the cockpit in order to operate the aircraft safely. Two primary focal areas for adaptations address issues with accessibility of controls and “viewability” inside and outside the cockpit. The design team used a Situation Awareness-Oriented Interface Design (SAOD) approach in preparing cockpit design recommendations for general aviation aircraft that would accommodate female pilots.

Online Coordination Mechanism For Road Infrastructure Restoration Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Mohammad Amin Farzaneh

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to study two barriers of efficient road network restoration, namely, the lack of debris information and the lack of coordination among the restoration operations. We develop an integrative online optimization model with a model-based data diffusion component to coordinate three restoration-interdependent operations in the disaster response phases such as damage assessment, road recovery, and relief distribution. The model developed for the damage assessment operation controls the debris data diffusion speed in the integrative framework. This data is periodically shared with an online model developed to prioritize the recovery process for blocked roads. Road prioritization …

Work In Progress: Students' Perception Of Collaborative Online International Learning, Philip Appiah-Kubi, Jennifer Nichwitz

Engineering Management and Systems Faculty Publications

Teaching and learning in the digital age harness the opportunities created by internet technologies to distribute and learn various information all over the world. This is commonly referred to as connectivism, and it values the impact of stakeholder information appraisal skills, virtual and personal communication skills [1], and the sense of cultural awareness. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), a type of connectivism, typically involves instructors and students from at least two geographically and culturally distinct areas who collaborate virtually on a common project for four or more weeks.

The objective is to create a culturally diverse virtual environment where students …

Embedding Computer Simulation Based Classroom Activities To Enhance The Learning Experience For Manufacturing Systems, Tzu-Liang Bill Tseng, Md Fashiar Rahman, Richard Chiou, Ivan Arturo Renteria-Marquez, Aditya Akundi, Amit J. Lopes, Jeevarathinam Senthilkumar

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent time, manufacturing environment are bracing higher end technologies to achieve high productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. Due to the adoption of the sophisticated technologies, the system is becoming very complex and stochastic. Moreover, the manufacturing system is interconnected among its different subsystems and components, which cannot be described only through the theoretical explanation. Here, computer simulation can be integrated to design and visualize the stochastic and complex system. This paper uses the advantage of simulation to describe a series classroom activity using SIMIO software, which are deployed in industrial systems simulation course in the University of Texas at El …

Solar Photovoltaic Considerations For Operational And Warfighter Support Capabilities, Dylan Martin-Abood [*], Douglas Dudis, Torrey J. Wagner

Faculty Publications

This work highlights the fundamental mechanisms and historical perspective for military PV technology applications and addresses the operational considerations for effectively deploying PV technology. PV materials, structures and architectures have matured into competitive and readily available energy technologies based on their levelized cost of energy (LCOE). However, enhancing warfighting capabilities requires attention to systems considerations beyond cost per watt or LCOE. While PV is impractical for fighters and bombers as it can meet less than 1% of their power requirements, there are numerous areas that could benefit from the application of PV technology. For example, installing PV arrays on all …

Thermal Conductivity Performance Of 2d Hbn/Mos 2/Hybrid Nanostructures Used On Natural And Synthetic Esters, Jaime Taha-Tijerina, Hélio Ribeiro, Karla Aviña, Juan Manuel Martínez, Anna Paula Godoy, Josué Marciano De Oliveira Cremonezzi, Milene Adriane Luciano, Marcos Antônio Gimenes Benega, Ricardo Jorge Espanhol Andrade, Guilhermino José Macedo Fechine

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, the thermal conductivity behavior of synthetic and natural esters reinforced with 2D nanostructures-single hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), single molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), and hybrid h-BN/MOS2-were studied and compared to each other. As a basis for the synthesis of nanofluids, three biodegradable insulating lubricants were used: FR3TM and VG-100 were used as natural esters and MIDEL 7131 as a synthetic ester. Two-dimensional nanosheets of h-BN, MoS2, and their hybrid nanofillers (50/50 ratio percent) were incorporated into matrix lubricants without surfactants or additives. Nanofluids were prepared at 0.01, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, and 0.25 weight percent of filler fraction. The experimental …

Feasibility Of Electric Field Assisted Clogging Reduction In Cold Gas Spraying Nozzle, Hendric Tronsson

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

The relatively novel cold spraying process expands its range of applications constantly. In order to continue this trend, this process still has various hurdles that need to be overcome such as clogging. Clogging within the cold gas spraying process causes porous coatings with less material properties and lower durability; a solution is needed in order to reduce the clogging and so expand the cold gas spraying applications. This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using an electric field to reduce clogging. To do so a simplified channel was used to simulate charged particle trajectory shifts under the influence of …

Virginia Digital Shipbuilding Program (Vdsp): Building An Agile Modern Workforce To Improve Performance In The Shipbuilding And Ship Repair Industry, Joseph Peter Kosteczko, Katherine Smith, Jessica Johnson, Rafael Diaz

VMASC Publications

Industry 4.0 is the latest stage in the Industrial Revolution and is reflected in the digital transformation and use of emergent technologies including the Internet of Things, Big Data, Robotic automation of processes, 3D printing and additive manufacturing, drones and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the manufacturing industry. The implementation of these technologies in the Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Industry is currently in a nascent stage. Considering this, there is huge potential to increase cost savings, decrease production timelines, and drive down inefficiencies in Lifecyle management of ships. However, the implementation of these Industry 4.0 technologies is hindered by a noticeable …

Flexibly Serving A Finite Number Of Heterogeneous Jobs In A Tandem System, Yun Fong Lim, Bingnan Lu, Rowan Wang, Wenjia Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Many manufacturing and service systems require a finite number of heterogeneous jobs to be processed by two stations in tandem. Each station serves at most one job at a time and there is a finite buffer between the two stations. We consider two flexible servers that are cross-trained to work at both stations. The duration for a server to finish a job at a station is exponentially distributed with a rate that depends on the server, the station, and the job. Our goal is to identify an efficient policy to dynamically assign the servers to the stations such that the …

Goods Consumed During Transit In Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problems: Modeling And Solution, Wenzhe Yang, Di Wang, Wei Pang, Ah-Hwee Tan, You Zhou

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This article presents the modeling and solution of an extended type of split delivery vehicle routing problem (SDVRP). In SDVRP, the demands of customers need to be met by efficiently routing a given number of capacitated vehicles, wherein each customer may be served multiple times by more than one vehicle. Furthermore, in many real-world scenarios, consumption of vehicles en route is the same as the goods being delivered to customers, such as food, water and fuel in rescue or replenishment missions in harsh environments. Moreover, the consumption may also be in virtual forms, such as time spent in constrained tasks. …

Developing Open Source Software Using Version Control Systems: An Introduction To The Git Language For Documenting Your Computational Research, Jared D. Smith, Jonathan D. Herman

All ECSTATIC Materials

Version control systems track the history of code as it is committed (saved) by any number of developers. Have you made a coding error and cannot debug it? Version control systems allow for resetting code back to when it worked, and show what code has changed since previous commits.

The contents of this lecture provide an introduction to the git version control language, GitHub for cloud hosting open source code repositories, and tutorials that demonstrate common and useful git and GitHub practices. This lecture is intended to be coupled with a discussion on creating reproducible computational research.

The zipped folder …

Securing Photovoltaic (Pv) System Deployments With Data Diodes, Robert D. Larkin, Torrey J. Wagner, Barry E. Mullins

Faculty Publications

A survey of a typical photovoltaic (PV) system with and without the cybersecurity protections of a data diode is explored. This survey includes a brief overview of Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and their relationship to the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and Industry 4.0 terminology. The cybersecurity features of eight data diodes are compared, and the cyber attack surface, attack scenarios, and mitigations of a typical PV system are discussed. After assessing cybersecurity, the economic considerations to purchase a data diode are considered. At 13.19 cents/kWh, the sale of 227,445 kWh is needed to fund one …

A Multi-Criteria Logistics Analysis Of Photovoltaic Modules For Remote Applications, Nathan Thomsen [*], Dimitri Papazoglou, Torrey J. Wagner, Andrew J. Hoisington, Steven J. Schuldt

Faculty Publications

Reliable electrical power grids are frequently unavailable or inaccessible in remote locations, including developing nation communities, humanitarian relief camps, isolated construction sites, and military contingency bases. This often requires sites to rely on costly generators and continuous fuel supply. Renewable energy systems (RES) in the form of photovoltaic (PV) arrays and energy storage present a rapidly improving alternative to power these remote locations. Previous RES literature and PV optimization models focused on economics, reliability, and environmental concerns, neglecting the importance of logistics factors in remote installations. This paper proposes additional optimization variables applicable to remote PV systems and compares PV …

The Effects Of Computer And Information Technology On Education, Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

In the society of ours, is it true really that computers and information technology have contributed immensely to the way we learn? After observing and reading various educational paraphernalia and scanning the environment research has shown that the educational systems have greatly been impacted by computers and information technology. With the growth of technology, the ways we learn have been improved tremendously. Innovative technologies have contributed to the innovation of learning in the education arena and outside. The traditional ways of conveying instructions to learners have been augmented with the use of computers information technologies. The educational system of our …

Smart Environments For Assisted Living: A Multidisciplinary Collaboration In Engineering And Architecture Education, Adriana Rios-Santiago, Anabel Pineda-Briseno, Jesus A. Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Uriel Saul Huerta

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents a description of a collaborative project based on the integration of technology development in the built environment for assisted living. The multidisciplinary collaboration is developed as a cooperative commitment to provide support for cross-border, collective projects. It was initiated as a project-based learning setting between undergraduate engineering students, and four years later the program shifted to include undergraduate architecture students and engineering master’s students. The learning experience opens the gate to a completely new collaborative setting, yet to be established, independent from its predecessor setting of project-based learning, focusing now towards an interdisciplinarity setting in cross-border collaboration. …

Rapid Manufacturing Of Critical Industrial Parts: A Method Based On Reverse Engineering, Rapid Prototyping, And Coordinate Metrology, Immanuel Edinbarough, Aditya Akundi

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents a method of rapidly manufacturing industrial parts that are critical to the production. In order to assist the Advanced Manufacturing industry, a senior project team at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) applied Rapid Manufacturing (RM) to manufacture or fabricate critical machine parts used to maintain production machines. Failures of parts and tools in industrial settings cost money and hurt output. Usually, the problem arises when the tooling being used is one of a kind and repair or replacements come with long leadtimes. Other problems are encountered when original part or tool engineering drawing is …

Text Mining-Based Qualitative Student Assessment Of Interactive Simulation Learning Using Simio Tool – A Work In Progress, Aditya Akundi, Immanuel Edinbarough

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Computer simulations complement and extend the real-world components of industries and manufacturing organizations. Teaching simulation-based tools helps students in modeling and analyzing the behavior of real time systems. With the increased demand observed in products and technology consumption, manufacturing industries are evolving to embrace new technologies and initiatives. To keep the emerging workforce technically competent in current tools to understand and interpret manufacturing processes, this paper portrays an effort by the authors in introducing SIMIO i.e. a tool on Simulation of intelligent objects to undergraduate students at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and in understanding the influence of using …

Expanding Engineering And Technology Opportunities To Students In The Border Region Through International Collaboration, Jesus A. Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Immanuel Edinbarough, Adriana Rios-Santiago, Anabel Pineda-Briseno

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Expanding Engineering and Technology Opportunities to Students in the Border Region through International Collaboration

For some years now, our Department of Engineering Technology of the XXXX, has collaborated with Universities across the southern border to carry out different activities such as undergraduate research, collaborative course-based projects, and senior design projects. We have observed how students benefit from being exposed to work in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams.

We now expand this form of work to a higher-level research collaboration where students and faculty from four different institutions participate. Two institutions of higher education in Mexico and a University and a Community …

Application Of Mounting Personal Pid Voc Sensors To Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems To Aid First Responders, Cheri Marcham

Publications

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems in Emergency Response

• Current sUAS Uses
• Search and rescue
• Thermal imaging
• Evaluating structural stability
• Spread of wildfires
• Storm damage

A Retrial Queueing Model With Thresholds And Phase Type Retrial Times, Srinivas R. Chakravarthy

Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Publications

There is an extensive literature on retrial queueing models. While a majority of the literature on retrial queueing models focuses on the retrial times to be exponentially distributed (so as to keep the state space to be of a reasonable size), a few papers deal with nonexponential retrial times but with some additional restrictions such as constant retrial rate, only the customer at the head of the retrial queue will attempt to capture a free server, 2-state phase type distribution, and finite retrial orbit. Generally, the retrial queueing models are analyzed as level-dependent queues and hence one has to use …

Maintenance Isn’T Just About Grease, Jim Burgin

Operations Management Presentations

Document maintenance is becoming a bit of a challenge. Slowly, but surely, business leaders are realizing that maintenance isn’t just a “necessary evil” but a competitive advantage that can help differentiate their company from others in the same industry. Maintenance is a broad concept, and this webinar is just to get you thinking about maintenance in a different way. Because of the “necessary evil” concept, professional maintenance resources are rare.

Maintenance costs real money. Depending on the size of the operation, labor, contractors, and material costs can be significant. While that seems like a lot of money, consider the costs …

Hollow-Core Photonic Crystal Fiber Mach–Zehnder Interferometer For Gas Sensing, Kaveh Nazeri, Farid Ahmed, Vahid Ahsani, Hang-Eun Joe, Colin Bradley, Ehsan Toyserkani, Martin B. G. Jun

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A novel and compact interferometric refractive index (RI) point sensor is developed using hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) and experimentally demonstrated for high sensitivity detection and measurement of pure gases. To construct the device, the sensing element fiber (HC-PCF) was placed between two single-mode fibers with airgaps at each side. Great measurement repeatability was shown in the cyclic test for the detection of various gases. The RI sensitivity of 4629 nm/RIU was demonstrated in the RI range of 1.0000347–1.000436 for the sensor with an HC-PCF length of 3.3 mm. The sensitivity of the proposed Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) sensor increases when …

Modeling And Simulation Of A Robotic Bridge Inspection System, Md Monirul Karim, Cihan H. Dagli, Ruwen Qin

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Inspection and preservation of the aging bridges to extend their service life has been recognized as one of the important tasks of the State Departments of Transportation. Yet manual inspection procedure is not efficient to determine the safety status of the bridges in order to facilitate the implementation of appropriate maintenance. In this paper, a complex model involving a remotely controlled robotic platform is proposed to inspect the safety status of the bridges which will eliminate labor-intensive inspection. Mobile cameras from unmanned airborne vehicles (UAV) are used to collect bridge inspection data in order to record the periodic changes of …