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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Connecting Self-Efficacy And Nature Of Science Shifts In Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina Quan Jul 2015

Connecting Self-Efficacy And Nature Of Science Shifts In Undergraduate Research Experiences, Gina Quan

Faculty Publications

Undergraduate research can support students’ more central participation in physics. We present analysis of one way this participation may shift: changes in their beliefs about the Nature of Science coupled to changes in a sense of ability to contribute to authentic research. Students in the study worked with faculty and graduate student research mentors on research projects and also participated in a seminar where they learned about research and reflected on their experiences. In videotaped interviews, we asked students to describe their experiences in research. Students developed nuanced views about how the research process works coupled to shifts in their …


Virtual Peer Teams: Connecting Students With The Online Work Environment, Thalia Anagnos, Alicia Lyman-Holt, Sean Brophy Jun 2015

Virtual Peer Teams: Connecting Students With The Online Work Environment, Thalia Anagnos, Alicia Lyman-Holt, Sean Brophy

Faculty Publications

This study examined the potential of online collaboration tools to develop team cohesiveness and research skills of undergraduates participating in Virtual Peer Teams (VPTs) in a geographically distributed research experience for undergraduates (REU). The VPTs mimic geographically dispersed virtual teams that are now common in industry. VPTs consisted of four to six students from multiple REU sites around the United States who were asked to experiment with various collaboration and social network technologies to complete specified research-based and social tasks. Surveys were used to collect formative and summative feedback. Students agreed their VPT experiences were significant in their professional development …


Tensions In The Productivity In Design Task Tinkering – Fundamental, Gina Quan, Ayush Gupta Jun 2015

Tensions In The Productivity In Design Task Tinkering – Fundamental, Gina Quan, Ayush Gupta

Faculty Publications

Tensions in the Productivity in Design Task TinkeringTinkering is an ad-hoc approach to a problem and involves the practice of manipulating objectsto characterize and build knowledge about a particular system in an exploratory way, often withthe goal of getting some product/idea to produce desired behavior (e.g. Turkle & Papert, 1991;Berland, 2013; Roth, 1996). Tinkering thus contrasts with more deliberate activity towardsunderstanding how some phenomenon works or towards achieving conceptual understanding.Some researchers have argued that tinkering is an unproductive process because it does notalways lead to progress and/or conceptual learning (Law, 1998; Yeshno & Ben-Ari, 2001).Others view it as productive for …


Global Technology Experiences For Upper-Division Engineering Students: An Assessment, Patricia Backer, Wenchiang Chung Jun 2015

Global Technology Experiences For Upper-Division Engineering Students: An Assessment, Patricia Backer, Wenchiang Chung

Faculty Publications

In order for students to thrive in the highly competitive global economy, it is critical for them to develop international perspectives and appreciation. As a result, in 2004, the San Jose State University’s Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering established a one-million-dollar Global Technology Initiative (GTI) program. The mission of the GTI program is to expand students’ horizons about the opportunities and challenges of a global economy, to expose them to global, environmental, and energy problems in which technology plays a central role, to motivate their learning of global issues and different cultures, and to introduce them to a more …


What Does The Time Constant Of The Pulmonary Circulation Tell Us About The Progression Of Right Ventricular Dysfunction In Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension?, Alessandro Bellofiore, Z. Wang, Naomi Chesler Jun 2015

What Does The Time Constant Of The Pulmonary Circulation Tell Us About The Progression Of Right Ventricular Dysfunction In Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension?, Alessandro Bellofiore, Z. Wang, Naomi Chesler

Faculty Publications

Compliance (C) and resistance (R) maintain a unique, inverse relationship in the pulmonary circulation, resulting in a constant characteristic time that has been observed in healthy subjects as well as patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). However, little is known about the dependence of right ventricular (RV) function on the coupled changes in R and C in the context of this inverse relationship. We hypothesized three simple dependencies of RV ejection fraction (RVEF) on R and C. The first model (linear-R) assumes a linear RVEF-R relation; the second (linear-C) assumes a linear RVEF-C relation; and the third one combines the …


Improving Student Learning Experience In An Engineering Graphics Classroom Through A Rapid Feedback And Re-Submission Cycle., Vimal Viswanathan, Maria Charlton Jun 2015

Improving Student Learning Experience In An Engineering Graphics Classroom Through A Rapid Feedback And Re-Submission Cycle., Vimal Viswanathan, Maria Charlton

Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering

Improving Student Learning Experience in an Engineering Graphics Classroom through the Mastery Approach Pictorial representation of three-dimensional objects has been one of the oldest forms of communication. Engineering graphics courses deal with the art of documenting three dimensional objects in two-dimensional format. Prior literature shows that graphics communication is a key skill for an engineer to possess. However, students in engineering graphics classrooms struggle to understand the concepts being taught due to a variety of reasons including poor visualization skills, limited class time, huge class sizes and unavailability of simple demonstrations. Most of the schools offer this course in the …


Software In Military Aviation And Drone Mishaps: Analysis And Recommendations For The Investigation Process, Veronica Foreman, Francesca Favaro, Joseph Saleh, Christopher Johnson May 2015

Software In Military Aviation And Drone Mishaps: Analysis And Recommendations For The Investigation Process, Veronica Foreman, Francesca Favaro, Joseph Saleh, Christopher Johnson

Faculty Publications

Software plays a central role in military systems. It is also an important factor in many recent incidents and accidents. A safety gap is growing between our software-intensive technological capabilities and our understanding of the ways they can fail or lead to accidents. Traditional forms of accident investigation are poorly equipped to trace the sources of software failure, for instance software does not age in the same way that hardware components fail over time. As such, it can be hard to trace the causes of software failure or mechanisms by which it contributed to accidents back into the development and …


Surface Oxidation Energetics And Kinetics On Mos2 Monolayer, Santosh Kc, Roberto Longo, Robert Wallace, Kyeongjae Cho Apr 2015

Surface Oxidation Energetics And Kinetics On Mos2 Monolayer, Santosh Kc, Roberto Longo, Robert Wallace, Kyeongjae Cho

Faculty Publications

In this work, surface oxidation of monolayer MoS2 (one of the representative semiconductors in transition-metal dichalcogenides) has been investigated using density functional theory method. Oxygen interaction with MoS2 shows that, thermodynamically, the surface tends to be oxidized. However, the dissociative absorption of molecular oxygen on the MoS2 surface is kinetically limited due to the large energy barrier at low temperature. This finding elucidates the air stability of MoS2 surface in the atmosphere. Furthermore, the presence of defects significantly alters the surface stability and adsorption mechanisms. The electronic properties of the oxidized surface have been examined as a function of oxygen …


Planning Freeform Extrusion Fabrication Processes With Consideration Of Horizontal Staircase Effect, Amir Ghazanfari, Wenbin Li, Ming Leu, Robert Landers Jan 2015

Planning Freeform Extrusion Fabrication Processes With Consideration Of Horizontal Staircase Effect, Amir Ghazanfari, Wenbin Li, Ming Leu, Robert Landers

Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering

An algorithm has been developed to estimate the “horizontal” staircase effect and a technique is proposed to reduce this type of geometrical error for freeform extrusion fabrication processes of 3D “solid” parts. The adaptive rastering technique, proposed in this paper, analyzes the geometry of each layer and changes the width of each line of the raster adaptively in order to reduce the staircase error and increase the productivity simultaneously. For each line, the maximum width that results in a staircase error smaller than a predefined threshold is determined for decreasing the fabrication time or increasing the dimensional accuracy, or both. …


Bus Rapid Transit (Brt) Toolbox: Brt Person Throughput-Vehicle Congestion Tradeoffs, Li Jingquan, H.-S. Jacob Tsao, Ching-Yao Chan, Kun Zhou, Wei-Bin Zhang Jan 2015

Bus Rapid Transit (Brt) Toolbox: Brt Person Throughput-Vehicle Congestion Tradeoffs, Li Jingquan, H.-S. Jacob Tsao, Ching-Yao Chan, Kun Zhou, Wei-Bin Zhang

Faculty Publications

This report documents a research effort to understand the current practice and issues associated with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) planning and deployment. It reviewed the design options incorporated into existing BRT deployments across California and the nation. The project team interviewed practitioners of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Districts and transit agencies to understand the BRT project approval decision-making process, the impacts of BRT implementation and the Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) for transit and non-transit system performance. The studies revealed that though Caltrans and transit agencies do use a similar set of MOEs for the evaluation of BRT projects, the …


A General Intuitive Design Pattern For Optimally Sequencing Treatment Combinations In 2k Factorial Experiment And A Simple Estimation Algorithm, H.-S. Jacob Tsao, Minnie Patel Jan 2015

A General Intuitive Design Pattern For Optimally Sequencing Treatment Combinations In 2k Factorial Experiment And A Simple Estimation Algorithm, H.-S. Jacob Tsao, Minnie Patel

Faculty Publications

The number of model parameters of a 2k factorial design grows exponentially. When the number of factors is large, numerous higher-order interactions constitute a vast majority of the model parameters while many of them do not exist or are insignificant. The classic methods of fractional factorial designs, Plackett–Burman designs, Taguchi designs, etc. seek an already developed and often cataloged design that fits exactly the problem being tackled or select a design that fits it the most. Most, if not all, of these designs were developed in absence of convenient computation tools and enjoy computational simplicity. The necessary number of treatment …


A Human-Centered Credit-Banking System For Convenient, Fair And Secure Carpooling Among Members Of An Association, H.-S. Jacob Tsao, Magdalini Eirinaki Jan 2015

A Human-Centered Credit-Banking System For Convenient, Fair And Secure Carpooling Among Members Of An Association, H.-S. Jacob Tsao, Magdalini Eirinaki

Faculty Publications

This paper proposes an unconventional carpool-matching system concept that is different from existing systems with four innovative operational features: (F1) The proposed matching system will be used by members of an association and sponsored by the association, e.g., the employees of a company, members of a homeowner association, employees of a shopping center. This expands the scope beyond commute trips. Such associations can also voluntarily form alliances to increase the number of possible carpool partners and geographical reach. (F2) Service provided by a driver or received by a rider incurs credit or debt to a bank centrally and fairly managed …


Non-Invasive Right Ventricular Efficiency Using 4d Flow Mri, Alejandro Roldán-Alzate, Scott Grogan, Heidi Kellihan, Alessandro Bellofiore, Naomi Chesler, Oliver Wieben, Christopher Francois Jan 2015

Non-Invasive Right Ventricular Efficiency Using 4d Flow Mri, Alejandro Roldán-Alzate, Scott Grogan, Heidi Kellihan, Alessandro Bellofiore, Naomi Chesler, Oliver Wieben, Christopher Francois

Faculty Publications

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PH) is a progressive disease of increased resistance to flow through the lungs, leading to right ventricular (RV) failure [1]. MRI is increasingly used to assess right ventricular (RV) function in PH. RV stroke work (SW) based on invasive pressure and volume measurements, is used to assess ventricular work. Determining RV work from MRI could enable a more complete characterization of RV and PA interactions in PH. The purpose of this study was to non-invasively estimate RV work from simultaneously acquired RV volume (VRV) and pulmonary artery flow (QPA) using a 4D flow-sensitive MRI sequence …


Optimal Rastering Orientation In Freeform Extrusion Fabrication Processes, Amir Ghazanfari, Wenbin Li, Ming Leu, Robert Landers Jan 2015

Optimal Rastering Orientation In Freeform Extrusion Fabrication Processes, Amir Ghazanfari, Wenbin Li, Ming Leu, Robert Landers

Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering

Many researchers have tried to optimize the build direction of additively manufactured parts to minimize the vertical staircase effect. However, the horizontal staircase effect should also be considered when fully dense parts are to be fabricated. In this paper, part inaccuracy due to the horizontal staircase effect is considered in order to determine the optimal rastering orientation in building the part. An algorithm is developed to estimate this inaccuracy and a technique is proposed to minimize it. The effect of rastering orientation on staircase errors is examined, and the particle swarm optimization method is used to determine the optimum rastering …


Methods Of Extrusion On Demand For High Solids Loading Ceramic Paste In Freeform Extrusion Fabrication, Wenbin Li, Amir Ghazanfari, Ming Leu, Robert Landers Jan 2015

Methods Of Extrusion On Demand For High Solids Loading Ceramic Paste In Freeform Extrusion Fabrication, Wenbin Li, Amir Ghazanfari, Ming Leu, Robert Landers

Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering

Fabrication of highly dense parts with complex geometry by paste-extrusion-based solid freeform fabrication processes requires a precise control of the extrusion flow rate to dispense material on demand, which is often referred as Extrusion-On-Demand (EOD). The extrusion process for aqueous ceramic pastes is complex and difficult to control due to their non-Newtonian behavior, compressibility and inhomogeneity. In this study, three methods of EOD (based on ram extruder, needle valve, and auger valve) are introduced and investigated for the extrusion of high solids loading (i.e., >50%, volumetric) aqueous alumina paste. Optimal extrusion process parameters for these methods are determined through printing …