Engineering Commons^™

Understanding Failure Mechanisms Using Multi-Scale Analyses To Improve The Performance Of Zinc Metal And Lithium-Ion Batteries, Brendan E. Hawkins

Dissertations and Theses

We are beginning a global transition away from the use of fossil fuels for our energy needs toward using renewable energy sources in order to mitigate the effects of climate change. One of the biggest challenges to this transition is that, unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy systems have inherent intermittency and require supporting energy storage systems to enable reliable power distribution and electrified transportation. Rechargeable batteries are an attractive energy storage option because of their high energy efficiency, versatility, modularity, and ease of use. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have dominated the rechargeable battery market for portable electronics for the past two …

Soft X-Ray And Susceptibility Based Magnetic Resonance Imaging To Map Iron Distribution In Apples: Initial Results To Model Iron Storage In Water-Deficient Or Dehydrated Biological Tissue, Subhendra Sarkar, Eric Lobel, Evans Lespinasse, Zoya Vinokur, Analia Basilicata, Sonia Orellana, Maria Orellana, Aaliyah Salmon, Joanna Syska, Aravis Mcbroom, Jian Wang, Anam Riaz, Jody-Ann Douglas

Publications and Research

Radiology departments have contributed significantly to greenhouse gases including release of toxic imaging contrast media to environment. We feel Radiology also has several spectroscopy and imaging tools that may apply to monitor and support cleaner environmental goals. The current manuscript is one of the firsts to prompt Radiology to move in that direction by non-invasive imaging of bio metals that are less abundant in biological tissues but play key roles as co-factors in tissue structure and function. Conventional analytical tools are mostly invasive and cannot characterize the native oxidation states of bio metals. We chose carbohydrate matrix of metal-rich fruits …

Ultra-High Field Mri Methods For Precise Anatomical And Spectroscopic Measurements In The Brain And Application To Neurological And Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Judy Alper

Dissertations and Theses

Neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases and disorders are a major burden on society, impairing the health and functioning of millions of people every year. There is a need to define the biological bases of these diseases and identify potential biomarkers to improve diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment efficacy across multiple diseases.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a noninvasive imaging technique which facilitates detection of brain lesions and visualization of the brain overall. However, limitations in contrast and resolution at clinical field strengths may hinder investigation of the underlying biological mechanisms of these diseases. Ultra-high field MRI scanners, such as those at 7-Tesla, …

Measurement Of Fluid Movement Throughout The Brain Via Multiple Magnetic Resonance Imaging Techniques During High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, Jack W. Beaty Mr

Dissertations and Theses

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive method of neuromodulation with applications in neuroscience, clinical care, and biomedical engineering. tDCS has been well established as a safe method of applying low amplitude current between two or more electrodes to alter excitation thresholds and neuroplasticity. Recently, in-vitro and clinical studies have suggested that DC stimulation can induce a transient, polarity-specific, effect of increased water exchange across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The electroosmotic effect, the proposed phenomenon driving water exchange, is a biophysical response of charged ions moving across an oppositely-charged surface, i.e., the tight junction, when subjected to an electric …

Design Aspects Of Deep Water Distribution Shafts, Navid Allahverdi, V. Nasr

Publications and Research

This paper covers aspects of planning and designing of deep shafts with reference to two water distribution shafts under construction in New York City. The new shafts will be sunk into soil and rock to a depth to connect to existing Queens-Brooklyn tunnel section of City Tunnel No. 3 (CT3). The inside diameter of the upper parts of both shafts is 14.9 meter. Artificial ground freezing is specified as preferred method of excavation support for the entire stretch in soil. Excavation in competent rock will be performed using drill and blast technique preceded by a pre-excavation grouting program. Membrane waterproofing …

Design, Concept, And Visualization Of Urban Multi-Level Growing Table Systems In Hyper Urban Areas, Aaryan Manoj Nair, Shaheed Mohammed, Omar Rahama

Publications and Research

As of a 2019 study conducted by the National Urban Gardening Program (National Urban Gardening Program), urban farming accounts for approximately 19% of the total national farming output and is expected to triple to almost 45% by 2025. There is intensive research being conducted on aspects of reduced recidivism, communal health benefits, natural carbon capture systems, improved urban ecology and the necessity for reducing the carbon footprint of food, (informally dubbed “food miles”) there is little substantive research on optimisation, and maximation of crop productivity in hyper-urban areas.

The purpose of this report is to understand the functionalities of urban …

Scientists And Activists Work To Save The Planet, Myriam G. Vidal Valero

Capstones

Climate change and human intervention in nature are affecting people, ecosystems and ways of living all over the world. This portfolio of environmental pieces showcases the dire consequences of not addressing these issues, how solutions can be reached and the challenges facing those who try to change things.

Additive Manufacturing Process Development Of Geopolymer Based Habitable Construction On Space, Husnain Khan, John Anthony, Maria Hashmi, Charudatta Mhasde

Publications and Research

Extraterrestrial travel and housing are topics that have come up in recent times. There is a possibility of living on the moon. Now geopolymers are solid ceramic-like materials at near ambient temperatures. In order to do that while keeping costs at a minimum, we are researching and developing a geopolymer using lunar dust to 3D print houses on the moon. Due to the fact we are using lunar dust, the number of materials that need to be shipped out gets cut dramatically. We are studying the composition of both lunar mares and lunar highlands in order to fully understand what …

The Living Breakwaters Pdr Efforts Econcrete Resource Analysis, Guianina Ferrari, Shervon Stephens, Calvin O. Walters Jr.

Publications and Research

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy impacted 443,000 people and caused nearly $19 billion (about $58 per person in the US) worth of damage within New York City. As part of the New York City infrastructure reparation plan, the Living Breakwaters project in Tottenville addressed coastal resilience, allocating $100M of public funds to a series of artificial breakwaters by the southwest coast of Staten Island. Each breakwater is constructed and designed to mitigate water flow in storm events. ECOncrete, a primary element of the breakwater, is a specialty cast cementitious product that is marine organism-friendly that encourages biocalcification and photosynthesis. …

Use Of Ai And Machine Learning For Engineering Applications, Max Rios Carballo

Publications and Research

In this paper, we examine how artificial intelligence (AI) and computer-based intelligence (CBI) may be used to address design challenges. We examine artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) as they relate to developing applications from the inside out, highlighting the most challenging issues as well as intriguing research areas for further consideration.

Bitrdf: Extending Rdf For Bitemporal Data, Di Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Internet is not only a platform for communication, transactions, and cloud storage, but it is also a large knowledge store where people as well as machines can create, manipulate, infer, and make use of data and knowledge. The Semantic Web was developed for this purpose. It aims to help machines understand the meaning of data and knowledge so that machines can use the data and knowledge in decision making. The Resource Description Framework (RDF) forms the foundation of the Semantic Web which is organized as the Semantic Web Layer Cake. RDF is limited and can only express a binary …

Deception Detection Across Domains, Languages And Modalities, Subhadarshi Panda

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With the increase of deception and misinformation especially in social media, it has become crucial to develop machine learning methods to automatically identify deception. In this dissertation, we identify key challenges underlying text-based deception detection in a cross-domain setting, where we do not have training data in the target domain. We analyze the differences between domains and as a result develop methods to improve cross-domain deception detection. We additionally develop approaches that take advantage of cross-lingual properties to support deception detection across languages. This involves the usage of either multilingual NLP models or translation models. Finally, to better understand multi-modal …

Coded Matrix Multiplication, Xiaodi Fan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Matrix multiplication is a fundamental building block in many machine learning models. As the input matrices may be too large to be multiplied on a single server, it is common to split input matrices into multiple sub-matrices and execute the multiplications on different servers. However, in a distributed infrastructure, it is common to observe stragglers whose performance is significantly lower than other servers at some time. Compared to replicating each task on multiple servers, coded matrix multiplication, i.e., a combination of coding theoretic techniques and distributed matrix multiplication, can tolerate the same number of stragglers with much fewer servers. The …

Design Practice Book Of Mt-293 Parametric Computer-Aided Design, Raymond K.F. Lam, Md. Shahadat Hossain

Open Educational Resources

The design practice book is written for students who are enrolled in the MT-293 Parametric Computer-Aided Design course at CUNY Queensborough Community College. The book provides step-by-step instructions on creating two-dimensional models and three-dimensional models using SolidWorks software. The book also include laboratory assignments.

Arrayed Waveguide Lens For Beam Steering, Mostafa Honari-Latifpour, Ali Binaie, Mohammad Amin Eftekhar, Nicholas Madamopoulos, Mohammad-Ali Miri

Publications and Research

Integrated planar lenses are critical components for analog optical information processing that enable a wide range of applications including beam steering. Conventional planar lenses require gradient index control which makes their on-chip realization challenging. Here, we introduce a new approach for beam steering by designing an array of coupled waveguides with segmented tails that allow for simultaneously achieving planar lensing and off-chip radiation. The proposed arrayed waveguide lens is built on engineering the evanescent coupling between adjacent channels to realize a photonic lattice with an equi-distant ladder of propagation constants that emulates the continuous parabolic index profile. Through coupled-mode analysis …

Finite-Difference Analysis Of Stresses Of A Non-Uniform Functionally Graded Material Circular Disk Rotating In The Magneto-Thermal Environment: An Equal Mass Study, Pranta Rahman Sarkar, Akm S. Rahman

Publications and Research

The stress field of a functionally graded material rotating disk is studied for different cases of non-uniform thickness variation in the magneto-thermal environment. Three different cases of thickness variation are considered by assuming the variation of non-uniform thickness profiles to be linear, rational, and exponential functions of radius. The mass of the functionally graded material disk is considered equal in all cases of uniform/non-uniform thickness variation. The finite-difference method is used to obtain the numerical results for an Al/Al₂O₃ functionally graded material disk of fixed-free boundary conditions. The resultant thermo-elastic analysis has shown that the decrease in …

Student Self-Grading Form, Brett Whysel

Open Educational Resources

This is a word document that students use at the beginning, midpoint, and end of a semester to set relevant goals, measure progress towards goals, and self-grade. It is intended to build motivation, metacognition, and accountability. Instructors may use it on its own or to supplement other assessment tools, and improve the accuracy, validity, and fairness of final grades.

Positive Rate-Dependent Action Potential Prolongation By Modulating Potassium Ion Channels, Candido Cabo

Publications and Research

Pharmacological agents that prolong action potential duration (APD) to a larger extent at slow rates than at the fast excitation rates typical of ventricular tachycardia exhibit reverse rate dependence. Reverse rate dependence has been linked to the lack of efficacy of class III agents at preventing arrhythmias because the doses required to have an anti-arrhythmic effect at fast rates may have pro-arrhythmic effects at slow rates due to an excessive APD prolongation. In this report we show that, in computer models of the ventricular action potential, APD prolongation by accelerating phase 2 repolarization (by increasing I_Ks) and decelerating …

Spotlight Report #6: Proffering Machine-Readable Personal Privacy Research Agreements: Pilot Project Findings For Ieee P7012 Wg, Noreen Y. Whysel, Lisa Levasseur

Publications and Research

What if people had the ability to assert their own legally binding permissions for data collection, use, sharing, and retention by the technologies they use? The IEEE P7012 has been working on an interoperability specification for machine-readable personal privacy terms to support this ability since 2018. The premise behind the work of IEEE P7012 is that people need technology that works on their behalf—i.e. software agents that assert the individual’s permissions and preferences in a machine-readable format.

Thanks to a grant from the IEEE Technical Activities Board Committee on Standards (TAB CoS), we were able to explore the attitudes of …

A Python Implementation Of The Quasi-Harmonic Approximation: Ab-Initio Study Of The Thermoelastic Properties Of Magnesium Oxide And Calcium Oxide, Adewumi Bakare

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When heated up, materials change volume, typically they expand, and they also change their elastic properties, typically by softening. Computational methods to calculate materials properties at finite temperature are needed to compensate for the lack of experimental data, as well as to predict materials properties at conditions difficult to be reached in experimental labs. In this research project, I designed a set of Python codes implementing a quasi-harmonic approximation (QHA) method to calculate thermodynamic functions at constant volume, equation of state, and the isothermal Bulk modulus of cubic materials. To validate the new computational tools, this implementation of QHA has …

A Machine Learning Approach To Predicting The Onset Of Type Ii Diabetes In A Sample Of Pima Indian Women, Meriem Benarbia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Type II diabetes is a disease that affects how the body regulates and uses sugar (glucose) as a fuel. This chronic disease results in too much sugar circulating in the bloodstream. High blood sugar levels can lead to circulatory, nervous, and immune systems disorders. Machine learning (ML) techniques have proven their strength in diabetes diagnosis. In this paper, we aimed to contribute to the literature on the use of ML methods by examining the value of a number of supervised machine learning algorithms such as logistic regression, decision tree classifiers, random forest classifiers, and support vector classifiers to identify factors …

Designing The Electrode Geometry And Electrolyte To Enhance The Product Selectivity And Activity In Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction, Samaneh Sharifi Golru

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Excessive utilization of the fossil fuels due to the rapid growth of the global population has resulted in a dramatic increase in the carbon dioxide (CO₂) level in the atmosphere which is the main reason for global warming and climate change. Therefore, green technologies are in high demand to develop carbon-neutral energy cycles. In this regard, CO₂ electroreduction (CO2ER) has been proposed as a promising approach for CO₂ utilization. CO2ER can mitigate the CO₂ level in the atmosphere as well as produce value-added chemicals and fuels at ambient conditions. Despite the benefits of CO_{2 …}

Happiness And Policy Implications: A Sociological View, Sarah M. Kahl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The World Happiness Report is released every year, ranking each country by who is “happier” and explaining the variables and data they have used. This project attempts to build from that base and create a machine learning algorithm that can predict if a country will be in a “happy” or “could be happier” category. Findings show that taking a broader scope of variables can better help predict happiness. Policy implications are discussed in using both big data and considering social indicators to make better and lasting policies.

Recent Advances In Bone Research 2022 Edition, Jean-Philippe Berteau, Laurent Pujo-Menjouet

Publications and Research

More and more scientific and engineering applications in bone research make pivotal advances in treating patients with orthopedics issues. Hence, bone research in the 21st century combines, inter alia, biology, chemistry, mathematics, and mechanics with complementary characteristics that help a holistic approach to bone-related pathologies. Nowadays, it is hard to connect new evidence when jargoning and money remain two significant obstacles to sharing knowledge. “Recent Advances In Bone Research” is a free book – no money involved at any stage - that combines the most recent efforts in bone research from several experts with different backgrounds, every expert seeks to …

The Living Breakwaters Pdr Efforts: Conceptual Scheduling, Calvin O. Walters Jr.

Publications and Research

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy caused nearly $19 billion in damages in New York City including 69,000 residential units across the five boroughs. This disaster precipitated a post-disaster-rebuilding (PDR) project including roughly $4.2 billion in a Community Development Block Grant allocated towards PDR projects. A portion of the grant was used to construct a living breakwater in Tottenville, Staten Island, consisting of a resiliency approach to risk reduction through erosion prevention, wave energy attenuation, and enhancement of ecosystems and social resiliency to improve resistance to storms for the community of Tottenville. The ridges of each breakwater are designed with …

Automated Robotic Light Bulb Testing Platform, Agha I. Akram, Muhammad Ali Ummy

Publications and Research

The main purpose of this project is to create a functional prototype of a multilayered system that incorporates aspects of electrical, mechanical, and computer engineering technology. The main objective of the system is to be able to determine whether a light bulb is working or not. The building blocks of this system are a robotic arm that is able to slide along a rail (for added mobility), a conveyor belt, and an electromechanical device that holds and tests light bulbs. Initially, the robot arm picks up a light bulb and places it into the holder which then tests it. A …

The Energy Challenge: Moving From Fossil Fuels To Biofuels, Hydrogen, And Green Energy Sources, Aneeza Hussain, Afrina S. Nishat

Publications and Research

The aim of this literature research is to evaluate and identify alternative sources of energy instead of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels like natural gas, oil, and coal are known as nonrenewable resources because they are finite resources that cannot be readily replenished at the same pace as their consumption. The alternatives that will be searched for in this literature review are specifically, biofuels, hydrogen, and green energy sources which are all known as renewable. The review will then focus on hydrogen as true potential replacement of fossil fuels. In some countries, alternative renewable sources include geothermal energy, nuclear energy, solar …

Exploring Solidworks Simulation And Structural Analysis Tools To Predict Real-World Physical Behaviors, Itay Rubin

Publications and Research

Computer Aided Design (CAD) Software can optimize the product design process prior to manufacturing. This project examines engineering solutions using CAD software called SolidWorks. It simulates how the product will behave under a variety of engineering constraints. These simulations allow designers to optimize performance, cost, and speed efficiencies. The project uses simulations and finite element analysis to replicate real world behavior. It presents high-level capabilities in the design process, exposing new engineers to simulation tools that are available and relevant in mechanical engineering design. This project required independent research to obtain an advanced understanding of the software interface and capabilities.

Designing Respectful Tech: What Is Your Relationship With Technology?, Noreen Y. Whysel

Publications and Research

According to research at the Me2B Alliance, people feel they have a relationship with technology. It’s emotional. It’s embodied. And it’s very personal. We are studying digital relationships to answer questions like “Do people have a relationship with technology?” “What does that relationship feel like?” And “Do people understand the commitments that they are making when they explore, enter into and dissolve these relationships?” There are parallels between messy human relationships and the kinds of relationships that people develop with technology. As with human relationships, we move through states of discovery, commitment and breakup with digital applications as well. Technology …

Representation Learning For Chemical Activity Predictions, Mohamed S. Ayed

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Computational prediction of a phenotypic response upon the chemical perturbation on a biological system plays an important role in drug discovery and many other applications. Chemical fingerprints derived from chemical structures are a widely used feature to build machine learning models. However, the fingerprints ignore the biological context, thus, they suffer from several problems such as the activity cliff and curse of dimensionality. Fundamentally, the chemical modulation of biological activities is a multi-scale process. It is the genome-wide chemical-target interactions that modulate chemical phenotypic responses. Thus, the genome-scale chemical-target interaction profile will more directly correlate with in vitro and in …