Engineering Commons^™

Application Of Big Data Analytics In Agriculture Supply Chain Management, Sankara Narayanan Mangalam Ananthapadmanabhan

Master's Theses

The increasing trend in frequency of natural disasters in tandem with globalization of business makes the agricultural supply chain significantly vulnerable to disruption. This thesis presents a pragmatic approach for creating a Business Continuity Model that can notify supply chain planners when there is an increase in risk of agriculture supply chain disruption due to natural disasters. The methodology presented in this thesis applied big data analytics and machine learning algorithms along with agriculture product related exponential decay function to create a regionalized composite risk score, that incorporated both direct and indirect risk associated with the Agriculture Fresh Supply Chain. …

Methodology To Qualify And Monitor A Chemically Bonded Sand System Used In Foundries, Prayag Pravinbhai Patel

Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation is to establish a new quality control framework that combines a statistical process control (SPC) approach to casting quality for chemically bonded sand systems used in foundries. Foundries in the United States use the American Foundry Society standardized sand testing to monitor chemically bonded sand systems. These standardized tests are inefficient for two reasons. Firstly, standard tests are based on mechanical, physical, chemical and thermal properties of a sand system that do not consider interaction between these properties, but sand casting processes are inherently thermo-mechanical, thermo-chemical and thermo-physical. Secondly, these tests can only detect large …

Additive Manufacturing Powder Removal: Viper 2.0, Andrew D. Epperson, Sean Mccracken, Melissa O'Neil, Alex Ward

Mechanical Engineering

This report presents the final design review of this senior project team. The project is being sponsored by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a federal design agency. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is interested in improving their metal additive manufacturing process. The goal of this senior project is to improve the efficiency and safety of a method currently being used to remove metal powders for additively manufactured components. A senior project team in 2017-2018 created the Vibration Induced Powder Evacuator and Reclaimer (VIPER), a device that uses a vibration motor to shake a printed part until it is clean from excess powder. …

Characterization Of Resistance Change In Stretchable Silver Ink Screen Printed On Tpu-Laminated Fabrics Under Cyclic Tensile Loading, Corey R. Sutton

Master's Theses

A stretchable silver ink was screen printed to TPU sheets, then tensile coupons of the TPU, both bare and laminated to cotton, Denim and spandex fabric, were subjected to 1000 cycles of 20% uniaxial strain. In-situ resistance measurements of printed traces were processed to generate datasets of maximum and minimum resistance per cycle. A mechanistic fit model was used to predict the resistance behavior of the ink across TPU/fabric levels. The results show that traces strained on TPU laminated to spandex (polyester) fibers had an average rate of increase in resistance significantly lower than that of traces strained on bare …

Exploring Seafloor Stretching In Mariana Trench Arc Via The Squeeze And Excitation Network With High-Resolution Multibeam Bathymetric Survey, Shasha Liu, Jie Wang, Lina Zang, Rui Nian, Xiaoyu Li, Bo He, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Multibeam Bathymetry Data Could Represent Nearly Continuous Coverage Depth Measurements of the Seafloor and Reveal Geomorphological Regions. Recent Studies Have Utilized Multibeam Bathymetry Data to Provide Geological Maps, but their Delineations Were Done Manually. Manual Classification and Delineation Are Inherently Subjective and Therefore Can Be Inaccurate. in This Paper, We Try to Develop One Strategy to Explore Seafloor Stretching in Mariana Trench Arc Via Squeeze and Excitation Network, Combining Data Clustering, Slope and Gradient. in Our Experiments, We Use the High-Resolution Multibeam Bathymetric Data Collected by Noaa Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (Oer). the Geomorphological Seabed in the Mariana …

Complementary Use Of Glider Data, Altimeter For Exploring Vertical Structure Of Mesoscale Eddies In The New England Coast, Yu Cai, Xue Geng, Hui He, Rui Nian, Qiang Yuan, Xiaoyu Li, Bo He, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Mesoscale Eddies Are Ubiquitous Features in the Global Oceans, Having Long Been Recognized to Influence the Distribution of Physical, and Biogeochemical Properties in the Marine Environment. They Have Also Been Shown to Contribute to Shelf-Slope Exchange and to Strongly Influence Biological Processes, Either by Inducing Vertical Fluxes of Nutrients that Can Support New Production or by Passively Advecting Phytoplankton. Observations from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (Ooi) Pioneer Array Suggest that Coastal Ocean Dynamics Are Changing Rapidly New England, Changes to Shelf-Slope Exchange May Significantly Affect Nutrient Transport between the Deep Ocean and the Continental Shelf, with Consequences for Higher Trophic …

Investigating Consumer Satisfaction Towards Mobile Marketing, Dr Surabhi Singh

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The extensive applications of mobile phones are visible in global companies for the marketing of their products. The popularity of mobile marketing is increasing considerably. This paper has provided insights into the perspectives of consumer attitude towards mobile marketing in India. The companies will develop an understanding of how mobile marketing influence consumer attitudes. The scale of measurement used for Attitudes was Likert scale and explained the consumer's behavior towards mobile marketing. The factors identified through the study will provide insights into Consumer buying behavior via mobile platforms. The analytical tool SPSS has been used for analysis by using methods …

Amplifying The Collective Intelligence Of Teams With Swarm Ai, David Askay, Lynn E. Metcalf, Louis B. Rosenberg, Gregg Willcox, David Baltaxe

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Group decision-making is strengthened by the varied knowledge and perspectives that each member brings, yet teams often fail to capitalize on their diversity. This paper describes how Swarm AI, a novel collaborative intelligence technology modeled on the decision-making process of honey bee swarms, enables networked human groups to more effectively leverage their combined insights. Through an empirical study conducted on 60 small teams, each of 3 to 6 members, we demonstrate the capacity of Swarm AI to significantly amplify the collective intelligence of human groups. A well-known testing instrument—the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test —was used to …

Redesign Of Cubesat For Beam Charging, Kuba Preis

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This paper is intended to be a study in the applications of the design freedom granted by additive manufacture in the design of a 1U CubeSat frame. The main loads experienced by a CubeSat are structural (during launch) and thermal (solar radiation). Beam charging is an emerging technology which involves charging a CubeSat using a laser beam. In this paper, a CubeSat frame was redesigned to account for the structural loads induced during launch and the thermal loads induced when beam charging. The thermal, weight, design, and structural requirements for a new CubeSat design were derived. The 1U CubeSat frame …

Human Powered Vehicle Trainer, Nicholas Hung Nguyen, Gregory Reece Bridges, Jacinta Garcia, Mitchell Sidney Smith

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review (FDR) document describes the final design and completed prototype of a Mechanical Engineering senior project team at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The project goal is to create an adjustable human powered vehicle training bike for George Leone that allows a rider to gain confidence with the unique reclined bike geometry ahead of the World Human Powered Speed Challenge at Battle Mountain, Nevada. This document outlines the customer’s needs and technical research performed which together determine the project’s scope and engineering specifications. Next, we present the initial idea generation process and its results, along …

Geometric Top-K Processing: Updates Since Mdm'16 [Advanced Seminar], Kyriakos Mouratidis

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The top-k query has been studied extensively, and is considered the norm for multi-criteria decision making in large databases. In recent years, research has considered several complementary operators to the traditional top-k query, drawing inspiration (both in terms of problem formulation and solution design) from the geometric nature of the top-k processing model. In this seminar, we will present advances in that stream of work, focusing on updates since the preliminary seminar on the same topic in MDM'16.

Coordinating Supply And Demand On An On-Demand Service Platform With Impatient Customers, Jiaru Bai, Kut C. So, Christopher S. Tang, Xiqun Chen, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We consider an on-demand service platform using earning sensitive independent providers with heterogeneous reservation price (for work participation) to serve its time and price sensitive customers with heterogeneous valuation of the service. As such, both the supply and demand are "endogenously'' dependent on the price the platform charges its customers and the wage the platform pays its independent providers. We present an analytical model with endogenous supply (number of participating agents) and endogenous demand (customer request rate) to study this on-demand service platform. To coordinate endogenous demand with endogenous supply, we include the steady-state waiting time performance based on a …

Persuasion, Political Warfare, And Deterrence: Behavioral And Behaviorally Robust Models, William N. Caballero

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines game theory models in the context of persuasion and competition wherein decision-makers are not completely rational by considering two complementary threads of research. The first thread of research pertains to offensive and preemptively defensive behavioral models. Research in this thread makes three notable contributions. First, an offensive modeling framework is created to identify how an entity optimally influences a populace to take a desired course of action. Second, a defensive modeling framework is defined wherein a regulating entity takes action to bound the behavior of multiple adversaries simultaneously attempting to persuade a group of decision-makers. Third, an …

Interventions Of Waterjet Technology In Skin Incisions, Nadi Atalla

Dissertations

This research explores the use of waterjet (WJ) technology in performing skin incisions. The study defines the analytical relationships between the skin properties and the operating parameters of the WJ which include the skin thickness, its elastic modulus, the WJ pressure, the nozzle’s orifice diameter, its stand-off distance and the traverse speed of the WJ as well as the duration of applying the WJ pressure. An analytical model is developed to measure the depth incision of the skin, the water pressure and the water velocity, while using a WJ. Systemization and optimization models that determine the optimal operating parameters levels …

Stress Shielding In Cemented Hip Implants Assessed From Computed Tomography, Bharadwaj Cheruvu, Indresh Venkatarayappa, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Aseptic loosening is the major cause of revisions for hip replacement. This mode of failure is often caused by stress shielding. Stress shielding in the femur occurs when some of the loads are taken by the prosthesis and shielded from going to the bone. There is little information regarding the stress shielding among cemented hip implants. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of stress shielding on the proximal femur with a femoral prosthesis. Methods: A patient had undergone open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) due to a comminuted reversed oblique fracture of the right …

Design And Implementation Of An Automated Oil Distribution System For A Homogenizer Machine In Gea Mechanical Equipment – Niro Soavi, Luca Gandolfi

Theses

This thesis shows the steps that have been followed and done in order to improve a critical operation of a technological process of the GEA Mechanical Equipment. The critical operation was the filling with different types of oils the homogenizing machine because it was characterized by a lot of inefficiencies and, in particular, by huge risks for job security. These critical issues gave the opportunity and the chance to realize a project in order to give a process optimization and security improvement.

After having faced all the aspects and steps needed for this project, it has been realized a system …

Modeling The Economic Machine Using Bayesian Inference And Statistical Networks, And Optimal Portfolio Construction Using Operations Research, Richard Yang

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

In this paper, we propose a network-based model to attempt to connect modern macroeconomic theory with real world economic observations and trends. We find that by extending macroeconomic theory with credit leveraging/deleveraging thresholds, we are able to explain economic cycles in addition to long-term growth. Furthermore, we specifically explore the growth-inflation view of the macro economy as a basis for optimal portfolio construction and efficient asset trading. Connecting our network-based macroeconomic model and our optimal portfolio construction algorithm, we create a novel macroeconomic asset-trading framework.

Sufficient Conditions For Optimal Control Problems With Terminal Constraints And Free Terminal Times With Applications To Aerospace, Sankalp Kishan Bhan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Motivated by the flight control problem of designing control laws for a Ground Collision Avoidance System (GCAS), this thesis formulates sufficient conditions for a strong local minimum for a terminally constrained optimal control problem with a free-terminal time. The conditions develop within the framework of a construction of a field of extremals by means of the method of characteristics, a procedure for the solution of first-order linear partial differential equations, but modified to apply to the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation of optimal control. Additionally, the thesis constructs these sufficient conditions for optimality with a mathematically rigorous development. The proof uses an approach …

Bmap/G/C Queueing Model With Group Clearance Useful In Telecommunications Systems – A Simulation Approach, Srinivas Chakravarthy, Alexander Rumyantsev

Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Publications

Queueing models in which customers or messages arrive in batches with inter-arrival times of batches possibly correlated and services rendered in batches of varying sizes play an important role in telecommunication systems. Recently queueing models of BMAP/G/1-type in which a new type of group clearance was studied using embedded Markov renewal process as well as continuous time Markov chain whose generator has a very special structure. In this paper, we generalize these models to multi-server systems through simulation approach. After validating the simulation model for the single server case, we report our simulated results for much more general situations.

Fault Adaptive Workload Allocation For Complex Manufacturing Systems, Charlie B. Destefano

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research proposes novel fault adaptive workload allocation (FAWA) strategies for the health management of complex manufacturing systems. The primary goal of these strategies is to minimize maintenance costs and maximize production by strategically controlling when and where failures occur through condition-based workload allocation.

For complex systems that are capable of performing tasks a variety of different ways, such as an industrial robot arm that can move between locations using different joint angle configurations and path trajectories, each option, i.e. mission plan, will result in different degradation rates and life-expectancies. Consequently, this can make it difficult to predict when a …

A Study Of Nonlinear Dynamics Of Eeg Responses To Simulated Unmanned Vehicle Tasks, Ziqing Xu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the contemporary world, mental workload becomes higher as technology evolves and task demand becomes overwhelming. The operators of a system are usually required to complete tasks with higher complicity within a shorter period of time. Continuous operation under a high level of mental workload can be a major source of risk and human error, thus put the operator in a hazardous working environment. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor and assess mental workload. In this study, an unmanned vehicle operation with visual detection tasks was investigated by means of nonlinear analysis of EEG time series. Nonlinear analysis is considered …

Characterizing Truck Parking Shortages In Arkansas: A Data Analytical Approach, Morgan Hartsell

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Truck Parking Problem occurs when drivers have met the daily driving limit and encounter a decision between driving over time or parking in unauthorized locations. This research applies data analytics to gain further knowledge to characterize the truck parking shortage in Arkansas. Truck parking shortages are a serious problem that truck drivers face daily and is complex due to Hours of Service (HOS) regulations restrictions on legal parking areas and design. Existing research includes a one-day annual survey which compiles where public rest stops, businesses, and private rest stops are utilized by truck drivers. This research expands on the …

Hybrid Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment-Based Multi-Objective Optimization: A Case For Sustainable Fleet Mix, Burak Sen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sustainable transportation idea includes not only switching from conventional energy sources to alternative fuel resources, but also diverging from private vehicle use and shifting to alternative transportation modes. As a part of alternative transportation mode, utilizing alternative fuels in public transportation operation supports sustainable transportation at it full-glance. Given their implications in terms of air quality and sustainable movement of people, transit buses, which provide the primary public transportation service, are considered an ideal domain for the deployment of alternative fuels. An input-output (IO) model is developed based on Eora database – a detailed IO database that consists of national …

Data Visualization Of Treatment Outcomes For Tuberculosis Patients, Joy Jenkins

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease, and different treatments have been discovered over the years. However, patients may develop various drug resistance levels that affect the likelihood of becoming cured or dying. In this study, we sought to employ data visualization to explore the relationship between treatment trajectory, as indicated by smear and culture results in the follow-up tests and patient outcomes. A large sample of patients have been broken down by demographics including age, gender, and drug resistance status. Sankey diagrams were used to visualize the pathway progression of the patients over time split between two time periods- months 0-6 …

Crude Oil Price Prediction With Decision Tree Based Regression Approach, Engu Chen, Xin James He

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Crude oil is an essential commodity for industry and the prediction of its price is crucial for many business entities and government organizations. While there have been quite a few conventional statistical models to forecast oil prices, we find that there is not much research using decision tree models to predict crude oil prices. In this research, we develop decision tree models to forecast crude oil prices. In addition to historical crude oil price time series data, we also use some predictor variables that would potentially affect crude oil prices, including crude oil demand and supply, and monthly GDP and …

Vulnerability Analysis Of Modern Electric Grids: A Mathematical Optimization Approach, Matthew Millis

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Electrical power must be transmitted through a vast and complicated network of interconnected grids to arrive at one’s fingertips. The US electric grid network and its components are rapidly advancing and adapting to the advent of smart technologies. Production of electricity is transitioning to sustainable processes derived from renewable energy sources like wind and solar power to decrease dependence on nonrenewable fossil fuels. These newly pervasive natures of smart technology and the variable power supply of renewable energy introduce previously unexamined vulnerabilities into the modern electric grid. Disruption of grid operations is not uncommon, and the effects can be economically …

Modeling Of Complex Parts For Industrial Waterjet Cleaning, Braden James

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Industrial high-pressure waterjet cleaning is common to many industries. The modeling in this paper functions inside a collaborative robotic framework for high mix, low volume processes where human robot collaboration is beneficial. Automation of pressure washing is desirable for economic and ergonomic reasons. An automated cleaning system needs path simulation and analysis to give the operator insight into the predicted cleaning performance of the system. In this paper, ablation, the removal of a substrate coating by waterjet, is modeled for robotic cleaning operations. The model is designed to work with complex parts often found in spray cleaning operations, namely parts …

Maximizing Space Utilization In Unit-Load Warehouses., Luis Felipe Cardona Olarte

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a unit-load warehouse, products are stored and retrieved in pallet quantities. Examples include retail distribution centers (DC), third-party DCs, and transshipment hubs in freight transportation. Expenses related to space are a significant component of the operational cost of unit-load warehouses; therefore, maximizing space utilization is important. Moreover, the continuing revolution of retail e-commerce is changing the role and design of modern distribution centers (Boysen et al., 2018). An important trend with serious implications for design is the desire of many distributors to locate DCs in or near metropolitan areas in order to support same-day service or better (Thuermer, 2018). …

A Two-Stage Approach To Ridesharing Assignment And Auction In A Crowdsourcing Collaborative Transportation Platform., Peiyu Luo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collaborative transportation platforms have emerged as an innovative way for firms and individuals to meet their transportation needs through using services from external profit-seeking drivers. A number of collaborative transportation platforms (such as Uber, Lyft, and MyDHL) arise to facilitate such delivery requests in recent years. A particular collaborative transportation platform usually provides a two sided marketplace with one set of members (service seekers or passengers) posting tasks, and the another set of members (service providers or drivers) accepting on these tasks and providing services. As the collaborative transportation platform attracts more service seekers and providers, the number of open …

Application Of The Gradient Projection Method To An Optimal Control Problem In Quantum Biology, Rashad Abdulla

Theses and Dissertations

Quantum biology is an emerging field which seeks to understand and analyze the effects of quantum mechanical phenomena on biological systems. One such phenomenon is the formation of radical pairs, compounds which exist in a quantum superposition of two states until they collapse into one or the other. The probability of the collapse into a preferred state can be calculated from the Schrödinger equation, and is in fact dependent on external magnetic fields. This project utilizes principles of mathematical optimal control and quantum biology to determine the precise sequence of magnetic field pulses that maximize the probability of achieving the …