Engineering Commons^™

Plagiarism Detection Avoidance Methods And Countermeasures, Brian R. Snider

Faculty Publications - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Plagiarism is a major problem that educators face in the information age. Today's plagiarist has a near limitless supply of well-written articles via the internet. Due to the scale of the problem, detecting plagiarism has now become the domain of the computer scientist rather than the educator. With the use of computers, documents can be conveniently scanned into a plagiarism detection system that references public web pages, academic journals, and even previous students' papers, acting as an "all-seeing eye."

However, plagiarists can overcome these digital content detection systems with the use of clever masking and substitutions techniques. These systems cost …

Wave Energy Converter Array Optimization: A Genetic Algorithm Approach And Minimum Separation Distance Study, Chris Sharp, Bryony Dupont

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

With the need to integrate renewable energy sources into the current energy portfolio and the proximity of power consumers to ocean coastlines, it is important to evaluate marine energy systems, specifically wave energy converters (WECs), as potential solutions for meeting electricity needs. The ability to model these systems computationally is vital to their eventual deployment. The power development, economics, grid integration requirements, operations and maintenance requirements, and ecological impacts must be understood before these devices are physically installed. However, the research area of WEC array optimization is young, and the few available results of previously implemented optimization methods are preliminary. …

Metabolic Patterning On A Chip: Towards In Vitro Liver Zonation Of Primary Rat And Human Hepatocytes, Young Bok (Abraham) Kang, Jinsu Eo, Safak Mert, Martin L. Yarmush, O. Berk Usta

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

An important number of healthy and diseased tissues shows spatial variations in their metabolic capacities across the tissue. The liver is a prime example of such heterogeneity where the gradual changes in various metabolic activities across the liver sinusoid is termed as “zonation” of the liver. Here, we introduce the Metabolic Patterning on a Chip (MPOC) platform capable of dynamically creating metabolic patterns across the length of a microchamber of liver tissue via actively enforced gradients of various metabolic modulators such as hormones and inducers. Using this platform, we were able to create continuous liver tissues of both rat and …

Factors Influencing Household Solar Adoption In Santiago, Chile, Jeffrey P. Walters, Jessica Kaminsky, Claudio Huepe

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

In Santiago, Chile, the market conditions are seemingly excellent for the household adoption of photovoltaic (PV) technology, yet the uptake is negligible. To explore this paradox, the authors conducted a Delphi study to solicit the knowledge of a panel of Chilean PV experts. These efforts yielded 26 factors—both motivations and barriers—impacting the diffusion of PV in Santiago. Of the 26, experts were in consensus on the relative importance of 21. The literature suggests that diffusion of PV technologies is influenced by complex technical, economic, and social factors. Similarly, the experts saw influence from financial, environmental, and energy supply (e.g., electrical …

A Systems Analysis Of Factors Influencing Household Solar Pv Adoption In Santiago, Chile, Jeffrey P. Walters, Jessica Kaminsky, Lawrence Gottschamer

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Societal uptake of household solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is the result of a complex and interdependent array of technical, social, political and economic factors. This novel study employs a systems lens to examine both technical and non-technical barriers to renewables, with a focus on interactions that are empirically influential on PV uptake. Using local solar expert stakeholder input into a participatory systems approach, this study provides a structural analysis of factors influencing household solar adoption. The approach is applied and assessed for household solar PV systems in Santiago, Chile, to gain insight into the interconnected factors driving technology adoption. Barriers …