Engineering Commons^™

Irrigation Management, Environment, And Profits: Who Wins?, Emily O'Donnell

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The impact of irrigation technology on farmers’ management strategies and resulting environmental benefits depends upon agronomic properties and market forces. We evaluate the role of deficit irrigation using soil moisture probe technology on corn yield and evapotranspiration, which is a measure of water use efficiency. Evapotranspiration represents the water that transits through the plant during planting to harvest (transpiration) and the evaporation from the soil into the environment, or the displaced water in the production process. We develop yield and evapotranspiration response functions to inform a constrained profit maximization model used to identify the optimal irrigation level across a variety …

U.S. Government Aviation Safety Information Resources, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Presentation covering U.S. Government aviation safety information resources. Topics addressed include U.S. laws,legislation, regulations, court cases, information resources from agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation Security Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, congressional aviation oversight committees and congressional support agencies including the Congressional Budget Office, Congressional Research Service, and Government Accountability Office.

Advanced Recurrent Network-Based Hybrid Acoustic Models For Low Resource Speech Recognition, Jian Kang, Wei-Qiang Zhang, Wei-Wei Liu, Jia Liu, Michael T. Johnson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have shown an ability to model temporal dependencies. However, the problem of exploding or vanishing gradients has limited their application. In recent years, long short-term memory RNNs (LSTM RNNs) have been proposed to solve this problem and have achieved excellent results. Bidirectional LSTM (BLSTM), which uses both preceding and following context, has shown particularly good performance. However, the computational requirements of BLSTM approaches are quite heavy, even when implemented efficiently with GPU-based high performance computers. In addition, because the output of LSTM units is bounded, there is often still a vanishing gradient issue over multiple layers. …

Compact Hardware Implementation Of A Sha-3 Core For Wireless Body Sensor Networks, Yi Yang, Debiao He, Neeraj Kumar, Sherali Zeadally

Information Science Faculty Publications

One of the most important Internet of Things applications is the wireless body sensor network (WBSN), which can provide universal health care, disease prevention, and control. Due to large deployments of small scale smart sensors in WBSNs, security, and privacy guarantees (e.g., security and safety-critical data, sensitive private information) are becoming a challenging issue because these sensor nodes communicate using an open channel, i.e., Internet. We implement data integrity (to resist against malicious tampering) using the secure hash algorithm 3 (SHA-3) when smart sensors in WBSNs communicate with each other using the Internet. Due to the limited resources (i.e., storage, …

Non-Gnss Smartphone Pedestrian Navigation Using Barometric Elevation And Digital Map-Matching, Daniel Broyles, Kyle J. Kauffman, John F. Raquet, Piotr Smagowski

Faculty Publications

Pedestrian navigation in outdoor environments where global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are unavailable is a challenging problem. Existing technologies that have attempted to address this problemoften require external reference signals or specialized hardware, the extra size,weight, power, and cost of which are unsuitable for many applications. This article presents a real-time, self-contained outdoor navigation application that uses only the existing sensors on a smartphone in conjunction with a preloaded digital elevation map. The core algorithm implements a particle filter, which fuses sensor data with a stochastic pedestrian motion model to predict the user’s position. The smartphone’s barometric elevation is then …

Survey Results On Adults And Cybersecurity Education, Frank Breitinger, Joseph Ricci, Ibrahim Baggili

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Cyberattacks and identity theft are common problems nowadays where researchers often say that humans are the weakest link in the security chain. Therefore, this survey focused on analyzing the interest for adults for ‘cyber threat education seminars’, e.g., how to project themselves and their loved ones. Specifically, we asked questions to understand a possible audience, willingness for paying / time commitment, or fields of interest as well as background and previous training experience. The survey was conducted in late 2016 and taken by 233 participants. The results show that many are worried about cyber threats and about their children exploring …

Forewarned Is Forearmed: Review Of Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards And Risk Reduction In The Modern World By Timothy H. Dixon (2017), Jason Makansi

Numeracy

Timothy H. Dixon. 2017. Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards and Risk Reduction in the Modern World. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press) 300 pp. ISBN 978-1108113663.

Curbing Catastrophe for the most part lives up to what is claimed in the foreword: “…a compelling account of recent and historical disasters, both natural and human-caused, drawing on common themes and providing a holistic understanding of hazards, disasters, and mitigation for anyone interested in this important and topical subject.” This is a pretty thorough treatment of an extraordinarily complex subject, and the gaps identified in this review should be considered explications more than …

Connected Autonomous Vehicles: Capacity Analysis, Trajectory Optimization, And Speed Harmonization, Amir Ghiasi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emerging connected and autonomous vehicle technologies (CAV) provide an opportunity to improve highway capacity and reduce adverse impacts of stop-and-go traffic. To realize the potential benefits of CAV technologies, this study provides insightful methodological and managerial tools in microscopic and macroscopic traffic scales. In the macroscopic scale, this dissertation proposes an analytical method to formulate highway capacity for a mixed traffic environment where a portion of vehicles are CAVs and the remaining are human-driven vehicles (HVs). The proposed analytical mixed traffic highway capacity model is based on a Markov chain representation of spatial distribution of heterogeneous and stochastic headways. This …

Three Professions Come Together For An Interdisciplinary Approach To 3d Printing: Occupational Therapy, Biomedical Engineering, And Medical Librarianship, Joan Wagner, Laurel Scheinfeld, Blanche Leeman, Keith Pardini, Jamie Saragossi, Katie Flood

Library Faculty Publications

Background: Although many libraries have offered 3D printing as a service or available technology, there is a lack of information on course-integrated programs for 3D printing in which the library played a primary role. Therefore, librarians at the Touro College School of Health Sciences began exploring 3D printing for inclusion in the occupational and physical therapy curriculum. Case Presentation: The goal of this project was to educate occupational and physical therapy students and faculty about the potential applications of 3D printing in health care and provide hands-on experience, while increasing collaboration between librarians and faculty. Students’ tasks included designing and …

Economic Development In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Internet Use, Nature-Based Tourism, Federal Tax Policy And Workforce Development: 2018 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer

Rural Futures Institute: Publications

Conclusion

The proportion of rural Nebraskans accessing the Internet using their cell phone has increased compared to two years ago. But, the proportion subscribing to high-speed Internet service at home remained stable during the past two years. Persons living in or near the smallest communities are less likely than persons living in or near larger communities to have high-speed Internet service at home.

Not many rural Nebraskans report significant limitations from their home Internet service on their ability to do most tasks. At least one in ten report being limited significantly or not being able to play real time video …

The Influence Of Engineers On Public Policy, Sarah Bouazzaoui

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Engineers play a vital role in society and contribute positively to economic growth in various areas, including energy, transportation, telecommunications, and others. In the United States of America, these areas are monitored by public policies that are set by policy actors—mainly lawyers, public administrators and social scientists—at legislative and regulatory levels. In these domains, engineers have a reduced voice with key decision makers on critical engineering issues, and their input is very limited. Their lack of involvement results in costly unintended consequences, affecting both the interest of the profession and the interest of the nation.

Research has shown that increased …

Exploring Offline Friendships On The Social Information Network: Network Characteristics, Information Diffusion, And Tie Strength, Felicia Natali

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The rapid increase in online social networking services over the last decade has pre- sented an unprecedented opportunity to observe users’ behaviour both on a societal and individual level. The insight gained from analysing such data can help foster a deeper understanding of social media users and the flow of information, while also offering valuable business applications. User relationships are among the most studied aspects of online behaviour. These relationships are not homogeneous. Past research has shown that people use social networks to both socialize and source in- formation. Hence, different types of links – used to socialize, gain information, …

Experience Constructing The Artifact Genome Project (Agp): Managing The Domain's Knowledge One Artifact At A Time, Cinthya Grajeda, Laura Sanchez, Ibrahim Baggili, Devon R. Clark, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

While various tools have been created to assist the digital forensics community with acquiring, processing, and organizing evidence and indicating the existence of artifacts, very few attempts have been made to establish a centralized system for archiving artifacts. The Artifact Genome Project (AGP) has aimed to create the largest vetted and freely available digital forensics repository for Curated Forensic Artifacts (CuFAs). This paper details the experience of building, implementing, and maintaining such a system by sharing design decisions, lessons learned, and future work. We also discuss the impact of AGP in both the professional and academic realms of digital forensics. …

Using Eeg-Validated Music Emotion Recognition Techniques To Classify Multi-Genre Popular Music For Therapeutic Purposes, Dejoy Shastikk Kumaran

The International Student Science Fair 2018

Music is observed to possess significant beneficial effects to human mental health, especially for patients undergoing therapy and older adults. Prior research focusing on machine recognition of the emotion music induces by classifying low-level music features has utilized subjective annotation to label data for classification. We validate this approach by using an electroencephalography-based approach to cross-check the predictions of music emotion made with the predictions from low-level music feature data as well as collected subjective annotation data. Collecting 8-channel EEG data from 10 participants listening to segments of 40 songs from 5 different genres, we obtain a subject-independent classification accuracy …

Recommended Corrective Security Measures To Address The Weaknesses Identified Within The Shapash Nuclear Research Institute, Khadija Moussaid, Oum Keltoum Hakam

International Journal of Nuclear Security

The Shapash Nuclear Research Institute (SNRI) data book was issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2013. The hypothetical facility data book describes the hypothetical site, which is divided into two areas: the low-security area, known as the administrative area, and the very high-security area, known as the protected area. The book contains detailed descriptions of each area’s safety and security measures, along with figures of multiple buildings in both areas, and also includes information about the site’s computer networks.

This paper aims to identify security weaknesses related to the institute’s location, the Administrative Area (AA), the Protected …

Designing With Meaningful Data: Deep Personalisation In The Air Travel Context, Mengqi Yuan, Rebecca Price, Jeroen Erp, Jorge Andres Osorio Socha

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Data and artificial intelligence (AI) are revolutionising the way customers interface with organisations and vice versa. However, there is limited knowledge regarding how data and AI are used as material during the design process. It is to this practice- research gap that this paper responds, by providing practical insight into a project between a Dutch airline, named AirlineX for the purpose of this paper, and a university-based design team. The project let to the development of a principle for personality-driven design that deeply personalises digital touchpoints within AirlineX’s operations. This principle is informed by ‘big five’ personality theory from the …

Using Eeg-Validated Music Emotion Recognition Techniques To Classify Multi-Genre Popular Music For Therapeutic Purposes, Dejoy Shastikk Kumaran

The International Student Science Fair 2018

Music is observed to possess significant beneficial effects to human mental health, especially for patients undergoing therapy and older adults. Prior research focusing on machine recognition of the emotion music induces by classifying low-level music features has utilized subjective annotation to label data for classification. We validate this approach by using an electroencephalography-based approach to cross-check the predictions of music emotion made with the predictions from low-level music feature data as well as collected subjective annotation data. Collecting 8-channel EEG data from 10 participants listening to segments of 40 songs from 5 different genres, we obtain a subject-independent classification accuracy …

Book Review: Fundamentals Of International Aviation, Alan Bender

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Not applicable.

The Cost Of Jaywalking On Traffic Congestion In An Intersection In Greater Cairo: A Case Study, Hussein Gawdat

Theses and Dissertations

There have been many studies focusing on different types of traffic delays, pedestrians’ interaction at signalized intersections and economic losses as a result of these delays. However, there is a huge gap in the current literature, regionally and globally, in studying the traffic delays associated with jaywalking. In Egypt, jaywalking is considered a common phenomenon, however, population increased drastically over the past decades in Greater Cairo leading to more congested streets. This research provides a case study that investigates the economic effect of jaywalking on traffic flow in Mashaal, a sample location in Greater Cairo, due to traffic congestion. The …

Iceland’S Renewable Energy Sources & Climate Change, Daniel Roberts, Michael Conway

Student Works

Nearly all of Iceland’s energy comes from renewable resources, with the majority being hydroelectric energy, and the remainder being geothermal. For several months undergraduate student researchers from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, aided by faculty from the Office of Undergraduate Research, conducted secondary-source research on the effect climate change has on Iceland’s renewable resources currently, and progressing throughout the century. Additionally, research was conducted on how the Icelandic Government plans on responding to these eminent changes. Earth's rising temperatures are causing a shrinkage of Iceland’s glaciers, and changing the water runoff from their glaciers at an alarming rate. Iceland’s dams are currently …

Feeding The World With Die Rolls: Potential Applications Of Quantum Computing

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science

No abstract provided.

The Mouhefanggai And Cavalieri's Principle

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science

No abstract provided.

Ethical Regulation Of Medical Experiments On Humans, Nick Awertschenko

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science

No abstract provided.

The Science Behind Memory: Hippocampal Neural Cell Assemblies, Nishi Jain

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science

No abstract provided.

The Immunity Of The Many: Ethical Considerations Of Vaccinations In Light Of Herd Immunity, Sophia Koval

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science

No abstract provided.

Frontiers In Dna Synthesis: Click Chemistry

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science

No abstract provided.

Cilia And Flagella: From Discovery To Disease, Dylan J. Cahill

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editor

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science

No abstract provided.

Wearable Assistive Technologies For Autism: Opportunities And Challenges, Emma Mansouri Benssassi, Juan-Carlos Gomez, Louanne E. Boyd, Gillian R. Hayes, Juan Ye

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Autism is a lifelong developmental condition that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. Challenges with typical social engagement, common in the autism experience, can have a significant negative impact on the quality of life of individuals and families living with autism. Recent advances in sensing, intelligent, and interactive technologies can enable new forms of assistive and augmentative technologies to support social interactions. However, researchers have not yet demonstrated effectiveness of these technologies in long-term real-world use. This article presents an overview of the social and sensory challenges of autism, which offer great opportunities and challenges for …

Engineering's Effects On Communities Through An Ethical Framework, Bailey A. Reid

Undergraduate Voices

Engineering is at the forefront of innovation and progression in our society, but often has various impacts on the communities in which projects take place. This article focuses on several ethical guidelines established through education and engineering’s effects on surrounding communities. Ethics inside of community actions and approach will also be explored.