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Articles 1 - 30 of 74
Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Determining The Viability Of Marine Sensor Construction, Roman Sequeira
Determining The Viability Of Marine Sensor Construction, Roman Sequeira
Honors College
I intend to determine the viability of building a sensor that can be deployed in marine environments. Viability is defined as a summary of economic affordability, practicality of construction and deployment, knowledge required, and effectiveness. In order to get the best results, our sensor must be able to be modified to suit individual circumstances, constructed out of easy to obtain materials, be robust enough to withstand less than lab grade environments, and most importantly function well enough to be worth the effort of building it. I have built a sensor using the cheapest and most widely available options available. It …
Autonomous Fish Identification For The Remotely Operated Vehicle Control System, Jacob Wildes
Autonomous Fish Identification For The Remotely Operated Vehicle Control System, Jacob Wildes
Honors College
A Remotely Operated Vehicle was designed, constructed, and programmed as a senior design project in Electrical and Computer Engineering by Dyllon Dunton and Jacob Wildes. The system was intended to be an alternative means to inspect the underside of ships. Given the small footprint of the system, it can be easily extended into other applications. In this thesis project, the observation system is modified to detect if a fish is present or not, classify the species, localize where in the image the fish is, and mask the fish by separating fish pixels from non-fish pixels. Additionally, the original design will …
A Study Into The Fundamentals And Enhancements Of Solenoid Based Accelerators, William Poole
A Study Into The Fundamentals And Enhancements Of Solenoid Based Accelerators, William Poole
Honors College
The utilization of Solenoid-Based Accelerators (SBAs) is complicated due to the multitude of interacting variables in the design of the system. Additionally, SBAs also known as coilguns, are typically inefficient and have a peak efficiency of around 22% [1]. Even with the low efficiency, there is much interest in coilgun systems due to their ability to accelerate objects faster than chemical reactions, with speeds reaching 11km/s [1,2]. In addition to the peak speed, there are other advantages such as the reduced contact with the projectile and controllable launch speeds which allow for applications including the launching of nanosatellites [2]. With …
On The Fly Audio Processing For The Vocal Conditioning Unit, Tim Lester
On The Fly Audio Processing For The Vocal Conditioning Unit, Tim Lester
Honors College
The Vocal Conditioning Unit was a device designed, constructed, and programmed as a senior design project in Electrical and Computer Engineering by Tim Lester and Grady White. The device’s intended goal was to perform a role similar to Auto-Tune, but as a standalone device similar to effects pedals used by guitarists and other musicians on stage. On-the-fly audio processing, however, was deprioritized in the design of the original device due to other design considerations. In this thesis project, the original design of the Vocal Conditioning Unit is analyzed, and critical functionalities of the device are identified. Then, the device is …
Stackpole Bridge: Rebuilding A Connection To The Past, Abigail Morrison-Ouellette
Stackpole Bridge: Rebuilding A Connection To The Past, Abigail Morrison-Ouellette
Honors College
Many historical structures are still appreciated today for their beauty, the skill required to construct them, and how they preserve and complement the natural environment. Aqueducts, buildings, and bridges constructed by ancient civilizations are excellent examples of some of the stone structures that remain standing today that offer tangible ties to the past. Many of these structures foster local pride, create a strong sense of community, and provide economic benefits beyond their physical function.
Some of the most durable historical structures are stone arch bridges, which have been used worldwide for centuries for transportation over terrain that would otherwise be …
Thermal Stability Of Platinum-Silicon Alloy Films Grown On Langasite Substrates For Use In Microwave Acoustic Sensor Technology, Kell Fremouw
Honors College
Wireless sensors that can operate in temperatures up to 1000°C are widely needed for real time monitoring of large-scale industrial processes. Such sensors will improve efficiency and prevent component failure. Under previous work at UMaine, Surface Acoustic Wave Resonator (SAWR) sensors fabricated on piezoelectric langasite (La3Ga5SiO14) wafers have shown promise for wireless strain measurements at high temperatures. However, there is a major technical challenge in attaching SAWR langasite based sensors to metal parts because the large differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between langasite and metals leads to large thermal stresses and …
A Study On Scaling Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Geometry And Hydrostatics With Increasing Turbine Size, Samuel Davis
A Study On Scaling Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Geometry And Hydrostatics With Increasing Turbine Size, Samuel Davis
Honors College
Floating offshore wind offers a clean and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels for the future of energy production. In Maine in particular, there is a great opportunity to take advantage of the wind resource off the coast and become a global leader in offshore wind. With the Maine coastal waters being too deep for fixed-bottom turbine structures, floating platforms that support the turbines have the opportunity to gain traction as the technology matures. As wind turbines increase in size and capacity, the floating hulls must also increase in size. The research presented in this thesis aimed to calculate and examine …
Simulation And Testing Of A High-Temperature Oscillator Circuit, Jude Zanoni
Simulation And Testing Of A High-Temperature Oscillator Circuit, Jude Zanoni
Honors College
A high-temperature Pierce oscillator circuit was designed, analyzed, simulated, built and tested. The oscillator was designed as part of a high-temperature sensor system for monitoring the condition of equipment operating in harsh environments. The oscillator was designed using a silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) common source amplifier with an LC tank resonant circuit. It was manufactured using gold paste on alumina with 1 mil gold wire bonded between components. All components needed to be capable of operating at temperatures up to 400°C. To this end, high-temperature spiral planar inductors were designed and fabricated. These were found to …
Exploring The Relationship Between Designing And Composing With An Analog Synthesizer, Felix Morrissey
Exploring The Relationship Between Designing And Composing With An Analog Synthesizer, Felix Morrissey
Honors College
For my electrical engineering capstone, I designed and built a handheld analog synthesizer. This analog synthesizer is a musical instrument which uses electrical analog components to generate sounds with properties based on the user’s input. My goal when creating this device was to maximize its utility while remaining within the scope of the capstone project. After the synthesizer was built, I wrote and recorded several pieces of music which each utilized the synthesizer prominently. The aim of this process was to be able to explore the relationship between an instrument’s design and the quality of the music produced utilizing it. …
The Performance Assessment Of A Small Lighter-Than-Air Vehicle For Earth Science Remote Sensing Missions, Maxwell F. Burtis
The Performance Assessment Of A Small Lighter-Than-Air Vehicle For Earth Science Remote Sensing Missions, Maxwell F. Burtis
Honors College
This summer, a lighter-than-air (LTA) drone was tested in Alaska to measure glacier bedrock fracture density and orientation. Five flights were made in low wind conditions, and the directional stability of the airship made it too challenging to control in flight to realistically acquire useful image sets. The directional stability of the airship, when compared to an actively stabilized consumer-grade quadcopter was inferior. Flight logs and GPS data from the GPS on the LTA drone were analyzed and a quantitative assessment of the observed instability was made. The yaw axis and pitch were analyzed, and the yaw axis instability was …
Near-Field Thermal Radiation In Graphene-Based Systems, Hua Lin
Near-Field Thermal Radiation In Graphene-Based Systems, Hua Lin
Honors College
Radiative heat transfer between two media separated by a sub-wavelength distance (the dominant wavelength of thermal radiation at room temperature is around 10 m.) is referred to as near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT). Graphene was found to have one of the greatest levels of NFRHT [1]. Additionally, NFRHT of graphene can be modulated externally via application of a bias voltage to the material [1][2], thereby altering its Fermi energy level. As such, graphene is an ideal candidate for several applications such as NFRHT for thermal switching, nano-gap thermophotovoltaic waste heat recovery, and thermal rectification. Modulation ratios as large as 77.7274 …
Investigating 3d-Printability Of A Maine-Based Bio-Ink, Jordyn Judkins
Investigating 3d-Printability Of A Maine-Based Bio-Ink, Jordyn Judkins
Honors College
Biofabrication is the process of creating complex biologic products, such as artificial tissues, from raw materials such as living cells, biomaterials, and molecules. This can be done using 3D printed bio-ink, which is a combination of biomaterials and cells. However, the bio-ink must be a shear thinning fluid to allow for high-resolution and continuous printing, but also demonstrate post-printing mechanical integrity to self- support the structure, which is challenging to achieve. The research conducted here investigates how to improve the mechanical functionality of bio-ink using additives available in Maine. Chitosan, sodium alginate, and TEMPO nano fibrillated cellulose were chosen as …
Life Cycle Analysis And Implications Of 3d Printed Bio-Based Homes, A Preliminary Study, Claire Liedtka
Life Cycle Analysis And Implications Of 3d Printed Bio-Based Homes, A Preliminary Study, Claire Liedtka
Honors College
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the life cycle, embodied energy, and sustainability potential for large scale additive manufacturing of 3D printed homes. Additive manufacturing is the process of selectively depositing materials using a 3D printing process, which optimizes material usage and reduces waste. I performed a preliminary Cradle to Cradle Life Cycle Analysis for constructing 3D printed homes using a bio-based material, poly-lactic acid (PLA) filled with wood flour. For purposes of this study, I consider the Life Cycle Analysis to be the environmental assessment of each stage of a product’s life cycle, from material sourcing, processing, …
Wavelet-Based Automatic Breast Segmentation For Mammograms, Basel White
Wavelet-Based Automatic Breast Segmentation For Mammograms, Basel White
Honors College
As part of a first of its kind analysis of longitudinal mammograms, there are thousands of mammograms that need to be analyzed computationally. As a pre- processing step, each mammogram needs to be converted into a binary (black or white) spatial representation in order to delineate breast tissue from the pectoral muscle and image background, which is called a mammographic mask. The current methodology for completing this task is for a lab member to manually trace the outline of the breast, which takes approximately three minutes per mammogram. Thus, reducing the time cost and human subjectivity when completing this task …
The Hate Within, Kora Kukk
The Hate Within, Kora Kukk
Honors College
A novel in its beginning stages, The Hate Within (May 2021) is the product of discovering a way to be able to eloquently combine biomedical engineering with creative writing which will intrigue young adult readers. This thesis contains the first few chapters of the story along with an additional journal entry, the story’s outline with a list of plot events, and a disquisition exploring the motivation and methodology behind creating this thesis.The novel is about a junior in high school named Alaita. She is a super sweet, kind, and popular girl in school until one day she is diagnosed with …
Scientific Knowledge Shaping Perceptions Of Bioengineered Food Among Undergraduate Students, Kathleen Tims
Scientific Knowledge Shaping Perceptions Of Bioengineered Food Among Undergraduate Students, Kathleen Tims
Honors College
While commonplace in our grocery stores, GMO-foods have persevered through years of controversy. As the availability of bioengineered(BE) commodities grows and biotechnical industries make strides, studies have shown that the average consumers’ knowledge concerning biotechnology has not. In addition to widely held misconceptions and the general lack of knowledge regarding bioengineered commodities reported by young adults, especially students, the recent United States Department of Agriculture mandate for BE product labeling prompts further research into the consumer perspective on bioengineered products. This research looked to expand upon prior work regarding students’ individual perspective towards topics such as GMOs, knowledge of BE …
Efficiency Of The United States Navy's Mid-Air Refueling System: Do The Best Pilots In The World Use The Best Equipment?, Austin Westfield
Efficiency Of The United States Navy's Mid-Air Refueling System: Do The Best Pilots In The World Use The Best Equipment?, Austin Westfield
Honors College
The United States Navy has used the Drogue refueling system since the 1950’s. This system, while incredibly effective, has design elements that, if improved upon, could save the Navy millions of dollars per year. For my thesis project within the University of Maine Honors College, I studied the drag characteristics of two models of a refueling apparatus. One model mirrored the current Navy design and the other was based on my sensor array design implemented within my Mechanical Engineering Capstone team project, which was to design, build, and fly a remote-controlled (RC) aircraft that deployed and retracted a towed array …
Computational Analysis And Classification Of Shg Images Of Cancerous Pancreatic Tissue Based On Collagen Fiber Alignment, Gerren Welch
Computational Analysis And Classification Of Shg Images Of Cancerous Pancreatic Tissue Based On Collagen Fiber Alignment, Gerren Welch
Honors College
Pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease, with a low five-year survival rate partly due to the difficulty in diagnosing the cancer early in its development, as it shares symptoms with more common and less lethal conditions. Using Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) microscopy and computer analysis, our knowledge of the biophysics of the pancreatic tumor microenvironment increases which may lead to the development of more effective therapies. In collaboration with Maine Medical Center Research Institute (MMCRI), we have identified 20 pancreatic cancer patients. In these 20 pancreatic cancer patients, Dr. Jones, a pathologist at MMCRI has identified normal adjacent pancreas, fibrotic …
Effects Of Process Parameters And Meso-Structures On Dissipative Properties Of Additively Manufactured Structures, Peter Berube
Effects Of Process Parameters And Meso-Structures On Dissipative Properties Of Additively Manufactured Structures, Peter Berube
Honors College
With approximately 5.9 million vehicular collisions in the United States per year, the ability of a vehicle to absorb energy during a collision is critical to reducing the likelihood and severity of injuries. A primary means to absorb energy during a collision is a crush tube, which is a predominantly-prismatic-shaped, metallic structure located at the front or rear of a vehicle intended to absorb energy by progressively buckling in addition to dissipating energy, crush tubes must be light weight to reduce vehicular green-house gas emissions, resilient to fatigue, resilient to environmental exposure, and economically feasible to manufacture. Historically, these competing …
Conductive Agnw/Tempo Cnf Thin Film, David Flewelling
Conductive Agnw/Tempo Cnf Thin Film, David Flewelling
Honors College
Cellulose is a strong, readily available biologically sourced polymer with a wide potential for applications in many fields. Its high degree of biodegradability makes it an excellent candidate for environmentally friendly sensors, but it is necessary to devise a method by which to render it conductive. Silver nanowires are highly conductive nanoparticles with many potential applications in sensing, as well as being on a similar order-of-magnitude in size as cellulose derivatives, which makes them a prime candidate for use in this application. Methods of casting cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), and TEMPO-Oxidized CNF (TEMPO CNF) films were explored, and …
A Method For Orientation Of Cellulose Nano Fibers For Addition Of Biological Nanoparticles And Tissue Integration, Joshua Hamilton
A Method For Orientation Of Cellulose Nano Fibers For Addition Of Biological Nanoparticles And Tissue Integration, Joshua Hamilton
Honors College
The University of Maine is one of the world’s leading producers of cellulose nanofibers (CNF). This material has the power to revitalize the Maine paper industry. This has led to an abundance of labs on campus researching applications for the material. Active research activities at the University of Maine include industrial applications such as filtration, biodegradable packaging, building materials and niche health care applications. Niche health care applications include wicking pads for point of care diagnostics and tunable biomaterials ranging from dressings to implantable bone-like materials. Medical applications require an analysis of the biocompatibility of CNF.CNF is biocompatible in general: …
Exploration Of The Relationship Between The Fractal Dimension Of Microcalcification Clusters And The Hurst Exponent Of Background Tissue Disruption In Mammograms, Betelhem Abay
Honors College
Breast cancer is one of the most frequent cancers among women worldwide and holds the second place in cancer-related death. Mammography is the most commonly used screening technique, however, the dense nature of some breasts makes the analysis of mammograms challenging for radiologists. The 2D Wavelet Transform Modulus Maxima (WTMM) is one mathematical approach that is used to for the analysis of mammograms. In 2014, a team from the CompuMAINE Lab characterized differences between benign microcalcification clusters (MC) from malignant MC by calculating their fractal dimension, D, with the aid of the 2D WTMM method. In a different implementation of …
Selectivity Of The Catalytic Hydrogenation Of Cinnamaldehyde Using A Polymer Cross-Linked Catalyst, Madeline Logan
Selectivity Of The Catalytic Hydrogenation Of Cinnamaldehyde Using A Polymer Cross-Linked Catalyst, Madeline Logan
Honors College
The transition from non-renewable fossil fuel chemical feedstocks to bio-renewable chemical feedstocks will be vital for the health of the environment. The current processing and use of fossil fuels produced by the petroleum industry release greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide into the air causing heat to get trapped in the atmosphere. If greenhouse gas emissions continue at the rate they are now it is expected to cause polar ice caps to melt, ocean levels to rise, and climate all over the globe to change. By switching to bio-renewable feedstocks, the level of greenhouse gasses emitted would drastically decrease because processing …
Using Cellulose Nanofibrils And Calcium Carbonate In Single-Use Utensils, Sierra Yost
Using Cellulose Nanofibrils And Calcium Carbonate In Single-Use Utensils, Sierra Yost
Honors College
As humanity becomes aware of the environmental issues that come from plastics, substitutes for single-use plastic are needed. Straws, expanded polystyrene, and grocery bags especially have been placed under scrutiny, but there is a need to replace other single use plastics such as eating utensils and cup lids. In this thesis, the properties of cellulose nanofibrils and calcium carbonate mixtures are characterized to determine the feasibility of their use as a plastic replacement. Using cellulose nanofibrils poses two challenges: 1) it shrinks when dried causing difficulty in forming an object, and 2) it is produced in a 3 weight percent …
Comparison Of Drying Methods Of Cellulose Nanofibrils Low Density Foams And Their Effects On Structural Properties, Lauren Ryan
Comparison Of Drying Methods Of Cellulose Nanofibrils Low Density Foams And Their Effects On Structural Properties, Lauren Ryan
Honors College
Cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) are a promising biomaterial made of cellulose, the most abundant biopolymer on the planet, and are produced in mass quantities by the Process Development Center at the University of Maine.One promising application of these materials are low-density foams, or aerogels, which are commonly prepared using lyophilization and solvent-exchange methods. Each of these methods rely on different physical and chemical processes to remove liquid from a given substrate and may impact the overall structure of a material in different ways. The purpose of this work was to determine if these drying techniques have any significant effect on the …
A Benefit-Cost Analysis Of Community Solar For Low To Moderate Income Residents Of Mount Desert Island, Maine, Abigayle Hargreaves
A Benefit-Cost Analysis Of Community Solar For Low To Moderate Income Residents Of Mount Desert Island, Maine, Abigayle Hargreaves
Honors College
No abstract provided.
An Upper Extremity Exoskeleton Utilizing A Modified Double Parallelogram Linkage Mechanism With Proximally Located Actuators, Connor Bouffard
An Upper Extremity Exoskeleton Utilizing A Modified Double Parallelogram Linkage Mechanism With Proximally Located Actuators, Connor Bouffard
Honors College
The shoulder joint is an extremely complex joint, with a wide range of motion (ROM), which makes designing an upper extremity exoskeleton a complicated task. This thesis presents a 3-degree-of-freedom (DOF) exoskeleton with a modified double parallelogram mechanism (DPM) that fits any wearer independent of their biological frame. The DPM is remarkably useful in wearable robotics. The mechanism creates a remote center of rotation about the shoulder joint while remaining unobtrusive and not colliding with the wearer’s body. Its fixed link lengths, however, requires it to be specially fitted to each individual user. This is inconvenient for most exoskeletons that …
A Layman's Guide To Malignancies: Cancer And Cancer Research In Everyday Terms, Bailee Bartash
A Layman's Guide To Malignancies: Cancer And Cancer Research In Everyday Terms, Bailee Bartash
Honors College
In the 200,000 years that humans have existed in our current homo sapien sapien form, we built our civilizations based in part on our desire to understand the world around us. The difficult part about this is the fact that our world has grown so vast and so quickly (think Moore’s Law, the observation that the speed and capability of computers is projected to double each year with an increasing number of transistors that can fit into a microchip), especially within the past century, that many people have been left behind due to their capability to understand. This gap in …
The Good Family, James Hannigan
The Good Family, James Hannigan
Honors College
The Good Family is a story following a group of seventeens in their historic and scrutinized ’68 Birth-Night Battalia. The characters, who have trained since as early as age twelve and as late as fourteen – with heavy combat training for up to a year and as little as six months, are well prepared by the Tokien system. Demonstrating their Link-worthy will be a challenge that none of them can fully imagine, as this year is the unveiling of a Tokien-engineered tech development that will undoubtedly change the course humanity rides in the closing of the 22nd century.
Techno-Economic Analysis Of A Seaweed Extraction Process, Zachary Applebee
Techno-Economic Analysis Of A Seaweed Extraction Process, Zachary Applebee
Honors College
The goal of this thesis was to perform a techno-economic analysis of a seaweed polysaccharide extraction process that could estimate how economically viable it would be to harvest and process seaweed in Maine to produce algal polysaccharides. I pursued two investigations to answer this question:
First, I continued the research I have been doing on an EPSCoR SEANET funded undergraduate research team working on the extraction and fractionation of sugar kelp (Saccharina Latissima) to produce three different separated polysaccharides: alginate, laminarin, and fucoidan. My contributions to this project were primarily to hydrolyze whole pieces of seaweed and extracted …