Engineering Commons^™

From The Editors, Rully Karim Dr.

Journal of Project Management & Construction

The Journal of Project Management and Construction (JPMC) is a peer-reviewed publication dedicated to advancing the field of project management and construction, grounded in the principles outlined in the PMBOK 6th Edition. Our focus encompasses the ten knowledge areas essential to successful project management: Integration, Scope, Schedule, Cost, Quality, Resource, Communications, Risk, Procurement, and Stakeholder Management.

JPMC publishes original research papers written in English that provide deeper insights into these knowledge areas and contribute to the development of best practices in project management and construction. Submissions may include theoretical analyses, computational models, experimental observations, or a combination of both theoretical …

Thermal Properties Of Novel Materials, Wilarachchige D.C. Bhagya Gunatilleke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thermal properties play an important role in various aspects of applications of technology startingfrom the materials property determinations to device performance improvements and their safety and stability. Measurements of the thermal properties of such materials of interest pose challenges due to the demands of these measurements for determination of intrinsic materials properties. The research included in this dissertation involved both synthesis of novel materials and their measurement of thermal properties. Solid-state materials synthesis involves various synthesis and processing techniques, while specific technological applications demand synthesis of defect-free single crystals. Such synthesis techniques were explored for the research included in this …

Site Specific Reliability-Targeted Snow Loads And Winter Wind Parameters Across The World, Brennan Bean, Nicholas Brimhall, Bikram Bhusal, Marc Maguire, Maha Moussa

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

This report presents a framework for estimating Reliability Targeted Snow Loads (RTSLs) and Winter Wind Parameters (WWPs) at locations outside the Conterminous United States (OCONUS). The methodology integrates ground-based in-situmeasurements with gridded global climate products to generate spatially continuous RTSL estimates for nearly any location in OCONUS. RTSLs are computed at qualifying in-situ stations, and predictive models relating gridded climate products to in-situRTSLs enable estimation at locations lacking direct measurements. This report describes the development of the in-situ annual maximum snow load database, the construction of global gridded climate summaries, the estimation of site-specific RTSLs and Service Targeted …

Elucidating The Effects Of Water Activity On The Hydration Kinetics And Thermodynamics Of Ye’Elimite–Calcium Sulfate Hydrate Systems, Godwin I. Ogbuehi, Rupack R. Halder, Aditya Kumar, Gaurav Sant, Monday U. Okoronkwo

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Relative humidity and water activity (aH) reductions have been known to suppress the hydration of anhydrous cement clinker phases. However, the relationship between ye'elimite (C4A3$) hydration kinetics and water activity remain unclear. This study employs experimental and thermodynamic modeling approaches to investigate the influence of water activity on ye'elimite hydration in the "C4A3$ + water", and "C4A3$ + gypsum + water" systems. Experimental findings indicate that as water activity decreases, C4A3$ hydration diminishes until the reaction is brought to a halt at a threshold aH. The critical aHand corresponding solubility constant of C4A3$ (KC4A3S¯) estimated from thermodynamic analysis are 0.46 …

A Hybrid Data Assimilation Approach For Parameter Estimation In Dynamical Systems, Xuejian Li

Math Department Colloquium Series

In this talk, we present a hybrid data assimilation (DA) method that integrates continuous data assimilation (CDA) with particle filtering to estimate parameters in dynamical systems. Parameter estimation in such systems is particularly challenging because it involves both determining the parameters and estimating the often high-dimensional physical state. To address this difficulty, we decouple the estimation of states and parameters by employing CDA for state estimation and particle filtering for parameter estimation, with information exchanged alternately between the two. This hybrid framework leverages the strengths of CDA in handling high-dimensional state estimation and the efficiency of particle filters in estimating …

Preparing Tomorrow’S Professionals: Industry-Informed Ai Integration, Brent A. Terwilliger Ph.D, John Faraca

Publications

As AI reshapes operations across aviation and aerospace, organizations are investing in ways to preserve data integrity, safeguard proprietary knowledge, and uphold critical professional competencies. This presentation shares emerging findings from a study that surveys and interviews industry professionals about their use of AI tools, their concerns about misuse, and the importance of secure, enterprise-controlled “walled garden” environments. The work explores how employers define appropriate, effective, and innovative AI adoption, particularly in roles requiring high-stakes decision-making, compliance, and technical acumen.

By analyzing organizational expectations around AI-related knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), this research offers practical guidance for academic programs seeking …

Student Perspectives On Ai-Enabled Tools For Adaptive Learning, John Faraca

Publications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly influencing the delivery of higher education, especially in aviation technical disciplines. From AI-assisted gimbals and video production tools to generative AI platforms, these technologies are helping learners to engage with course material, accomplish objectives, and connect academic concepts with professional applications. By offering pathways for personalization, streamlining resource access, and supporting interactive instruction, AI tools expand opportunities for effective learning. This work builds on a current collaborative research project with a faculty researcher to explore the student perspective in the active review and application of these tools to highlight their potential to improve usability, address …

The Science And Economics Of 3d-Printed Filament Recycling, Michael Domingo, Dane Freund, John Mcswiggin, Adam Meadows

Sustainability Conference

In recent years, 3D printing has grown rapidly, both in homes and commercially. This has led to increased demand for plastic filaments, many of which contribute to plastic waste. This project explores the potential of recycling household plastics into 3D printing filament, promoting sustainability and creating a circular economy. Materials like PLA, PETG, ABS, and polypropylene can be recycled or even composted. Existing research has shown that recycled filaments can maintain comparable tensile strength to their virgin counterparts, depending on the recycling process. Furthermore, implementing circular economy practices for plastics could save billions annually by mitigating pollution and reducing landfill …

Localized Nuclear Utility For Erau Environmental Improvement, Timothy Schroeder, Jacob Blanton, Christopher Anderson

Sustainability Conference

The reliance of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) on energy supplied by Florida Power & Light (FPL), which currently draws large amounts of power from fossil fuel sources, is continuously suboptimal both environmentally and financially. This study proposes assessing the feasibility of deploying a campus scale nuclear reactor tailored to ERAU’s power consumption profile. This serves as a path toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting dependence on external fossil fuel generation. The methods used are primarily literature review(s), and numerical analysis on comparable use cases. The literature reviews focused on design theory and yield of nuclear reactors on a …

Advancing Power System Reliability And Security With Efficient And Resilient Graph Neural Network Frameworks, Seyed Hamed Haghshenas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Enhancing the reliability and security of smart grids is critical for ensuring their seamless operation and resilience against disruptions. The increasing integration of distributed energy resources, advanced measurement devices, and cyber-physical elements introduces both opportunities and challenges for grid management. While these advancements provide enhanced visibility and operational control, they also expose the grid to vulnerabilities from cyber-physical stresses, such as cyber-attacks, equipment failures, and fluctuating power demands. Traditional methods for reliability assessment and threat detection often rely on model-based approaches that struggle to adapt to the complexity and dynamic nature of modern smart grids. These limitations necessitate novel data-driven …

Energy-Harvesting Concurrent Lora Mesh With Timing Offsets For Underground Mine Emergency Communications, Hilary Kelechi Anabi, Samuel Frimpong, Sanjay Madria

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Underground mine emergencies destroy communication infrastructure when situational awareness is most critical. Current systems rely on centralized network infrastructure, which fails during emergencies when miners are trapped and require rescue coordination. This paper proposes an energy-harvesting LoRa mesh network that addresses self-powered operation, interference management, and adaptive physical layer optimization under severe underground propagation conditions. A dual-antenna architecture separates RF energy harvesting (860 MHz) from LoRa communication (915 MHz), enabling continuous operation with supercapacitor storage. The core contribution is a decentralized scheduler that derives optimal timing offsets by modeling concurrent transmissions as a Poisson collision process, exploiting LoRa's capture effect …

Living Shoreline Prioritization And Hydrodynamic Habitat Suitability Models For Restoration In The Indian River Lagoon And Lake Worth Lagoon, Florida, Kelly M. Kibler, Melinda J. Donnelly, Vincent Encomio, Madison Giuntoli, Manisha Thenuwara, Brice Bennett, Laura Andrade Barron, Mariam Sonbol, Wynter Raine Seppala, Namritha Ramakrishnan, Jennifer Jordan Báez, Beth Orlando, Irene Arpayoglou, Melissa Meisenburg

Indian River Lagoon Shorelines

The spatial dataset: UCF_shorelinemodel_IRL_LWL.shp, was created with support from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuaries Program and Florida Sea Grant. These projects cumulatively led to creation of a living shoreline restoration prioritization model and hydrodynamic habitat suitability models for 1,550 km (963 miles) of estuarine shorelines in Indian River Lagoon and Lake Worth Lagoon.

The dataset presented herein includes:

1. shoreline data from >15,000 transects collected in the field,
2. shoreline wave climate data created through hydrodynamic modeling and frequency analysis of historic data,
3. categorization of potential risk for shoreline boat wake impact,
4. persistence of seagrass within 210 m of the shoreline, …

Universal Crackling Noise Links Plasticity In Nanoindentation With Compression In Metallic Glasses, Jordan Sickle, Wesley H. Higgins, Kerry A. Baker, Mayisha Nakib, Xiaojun Gu, George M. Pharr, Wendelin Wright, Karin A. Dahmen

Faculty Journal Articles

For decades, compression tests have been a standard method for identifying materials properties. However, these tests are slow, destructive, and require fabricating multiple potentially expensive bulk samples. Nanoindentation is fast, almost non-destructive, and requires only a single sample, to which large numbers of indents can be applied. Furthermore, nanoindentation is widely applicable, even to materials that are too brittle for traditional compression tests. Here, we show that nanoindentation is sufficient for extracting much of the same information that is measured in traditional sample compression tests in metallic glasses. The dynamics and statistics of the plasticity of two types of metallic …

The Role Of Atmospheric Turbulence On Cloud Droplet Distribution And Droplet Impaction On An Airfoil, Arash Shad, Hashnayne Ahmed, ‪Nadim Zgheib, S. Balachandar, S. A. Sherif

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

We conduct turbulence-informed Euler–Lagrange simulations of droplet-laden flow to examine the effects of atmospheric turbulence on droplet impingement characteristics on a NACA 0012 airfoil. We implement statistical overloading, whereby we inject millions of droplets, ranging in diameter from 1 to 160 microns, upstream of the airfoil at an average streamwise velocity of 120 m/s. Within a fraction of a second, these droplets would have either impinged on the airfoil or continued downstream. While the incoming air flow is maintained uniform, droplet injection is informed by ambient turbulence, affecting both the droplet velocity distribution as well as the size-dependent preferential concentration …

Towards Zero Emissions Ports In Saudi Arabia : Drivers, Barriers, And Opportunities, Saad Hulil S Alshahrani

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Oil Spill Pollution In The Caspian Sea In Case Of Azerbaijan : Evaluating Spill Patterns And Governance Gaps In Azerbaijan’S Marine Oil Pollution Response, Ulviyya Hasanova

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Integrating Environmental Impact Assessment Into International Shipping Governance : A Bbnj-Pssa Synergy Framework, Thi Thuy Linh Pham

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Study On The Influence Of Ship Type And Size On Co2 Emissions Based On The Eu Mrv Data, Sangdae Seo

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Assessing Marpol Annex V Port Reception Facilities Of The National Port Of Liberia (Freeport Of Monrovia), Barbara Wade Cummings

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of The Impact Of Illegal Sand Mining On The Coastline Of Liberia, Alphena J. Logan

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Renewable Energy Capture Utilization For Mpulungu Harbour, Dorica Nayame

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Examining The Perception Of Maritime Instructors In Upskilling And Reskilling Seafarers Towards Decarbonization, Michelle Margallo

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Decarbonization Of The Fishing Fleet In The Galapagos Islands : Governance Challenges And Opportunities For Implementing Renewable Energy Sources, Byron Eduardo Robles Romero

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Preparedness And Response To Oil And Biofuel Spills : A Case Study Of The Western Indian Ocean, Soifoine Abdillah

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Assessing Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Industrial Bottom Trawlers Using Vessel Monitoring System Data : A Case Study Of Ghana, Emmanuel Agbeko

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Marine Environmental Protection : An Investigation Into Existing Global Laws Addressing Marine Plastic Pollution, Maryland De Castro

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Decarbonization And Climate Justice : Challenges And The Effect On Shipowners, Sofiana Kontouri

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Ratification And Implementation Of The International Maritime Organisation (Imo) Instruments : A Social And Policy Persepctive On Maritime Governance In Fiji, Miriama Latianara

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Implementation Of The Ballast Water Management Convention In Nigeria : The Possible Contribution Of The Experimentalist Governance Approach, Muhammad Ahmad

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Coal Phase-Out In The Silesian Coal Regions – Building Sustainable Scenario On Past Experiences, Adam Drobniak, Jan Bondaruk, Mirosław Skibski

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The dynamics of phasing out of hard coal mining are currently the subject of many debates and policies programming the energy transition. Diversity of opinions on the speed of the hard coal mining transition is evident. This discourse uses a number of technical, environmental, economic and social arguments that are not always supported by evidence-based analyses. As assumed in the European Green Deal, a responsible approach to decarbonisation requires just transition values. Thus, the negative effects of mining phasing out should be well recognized to enable their mitigation. This applies especially to the Silesian Voivodeship, where the concentration of so-called …