Engineering Commons^™

What Types Of Uncertainty Emerge In Instructional Aviation Incidents?, Abigail Henson

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study utilized narrative reports from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) database to examine the types of uncertainty present in near-miss instructional aviation incidents occurring within the United States between 2015 and 2025. The final dataset consisted of 86 reports, with each report containing a set of narrative accounts from both the student pilot and the flight instructor operating under Part 91 regulations. Each instructional event was classified using a combined framework incorporating uncertainty categorizations and the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS). Results indicate that epistemological uncertainty was the most common …

Instructions To Authors, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Journal Acknowledgements And Editorial Board, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Keynote Address And Meeting Program, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Business Meeting Report (Secretary's And Treasurer's Report), Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Sperm Morphology In The Eastern Narrow-Mouthed Frog, Gastrophryne Carolinensis (Anura: Microhylidae), S. E. Trauth

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Studies by Scheltinga et al. (2002) and Scheltinga and Jamieson (2003) provide the most comprehensive analysis and only review of sperm morphology in Narrow-Mouthed Frogs (family Microhylidae). Of the 490+ species known to occur in this anuran family (Vitt and Caldwell 2014), only 3 are distributed in the United States (Powell et al. 2016), and 2 of these occur in Arkansas (Trauth et al. 2004). Surprisingly, sperm studies on only 12 microhylid species have been conducted (Scheltinga and Jamieson 2003), and no sperm studies are available on any North American species.

Multiple Nuclear Configurations And Microtubular Arrangements In Spermatozoa Of The Western Siren, Siren Nettingi (Caudata: Sirenidae), S. E. Trauth

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

I examined the ultrastructure of spermatozoa of the Western Siren, Siren nettingi, using transmission electron microscopy. My primary objective in this study was to elucidate, for the first time, the unique morphological complexity of biflagellated sperm in this species. This study also represents my fifth addition in a series of investigations that highlight the novel nature of all aspects of spermatogenesis in this salamander I show the basic sperm transverse and sagittal design which includes a nucleus, 2 axial fibers supporting 2 undulating membranes which have 2 axonemes residing at their terminal ends, several circular mitochondria, and several electron-dense masses. …

Binucleation And Seasonal Cycle Of Sertoli Cells In The Western Lesser Siren, Siren Nettingi (Caudata: Sirenidae), S. E. Trauth

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

I examined binucleation and the seasonal cycle of Sertoli cells in the Western Siren (Siren nettingi) using light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. My primary objective in this study was to report, for the first time, the presence of double nuclei in Sertoli cells in a salamander. This study also represents the sixth contribution in a series of investigations that highlight the novel nature of all aspects of spermatogenesis in this unique salamander. My findings add to a growing list of extraordinary morphological and reproductive features that distinguish this salamander from all other vertebrates.

Distal Urogenital Anatomy And Epithelial Morphology In The Male Eastern Narrow-Mouthed Frog, Gastrophryne Carolinensis (Anura: Microhylidae), S. E. Trauth

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

I investigated the microanatomy of the distal urogenital system in male Eastern Narrow-Mouthed Frogs (Gastrophryne carolinensis) from a small sample (n = 5) collected in central Arkansas in April, May, and July (2021) and May 2022. Specifically, my primary goals were to elucidate the histology of the following: (1) the paired Wolffian (urogenital) ducts caudally from the kidneys to their merging with the urodeum of the cloaca, (2) the structure of seminal vesicles, and (3) the epithelial morphologies among the distal urogenital tract, the posterior alimentary canal, and the cloaca. My histological analysis confirmed the presence of …

Academy Presidents And Institutional Members, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Journal Of The Arkansas Academy Of Science Volume 79, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Equipping Biomedical Engineering Students With Clinical Needs Identification Skills: Insights From A Clinical Immersion Course, Lauren E. Edmunds

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A major goal of biomedical engineering is the development of novel and innovative medical technology that advances and improves healthcare outcomes. An essential component of medical device design is identifying the clinical needs of patients and healthcare providers and applying engineering solutions to meet these needs. Our biomedical engineering department has developed a clinical and industry immersion course, which exposes students to the environment in which physicians and patients practice and engages students in this needs identification process. This study evaluates the impact of clinical immersion on undergraduate biomedical engineering students' confidence and perceived ability to identify and define unmet …

Reflective Analysis Of Industrial Engineering Leadership Skills Applied In Being A Capstone Team Leader, Sarah Nesmith

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper presents a reflective analysis of leadership skills that I, Sarah Nesmith, have acquired and applied as an honors student serving as a capstone team leader within the Industrial Engineering program at the University of Arkansas. My senior capstone project is in partnership with Walmart’s Transportation and Optimization Department and focuses on identifying the root and contributing causes of empty miles (miles driven without freight on a truck) and exploring backhaul opportunities. The ultimate goal is the development of a tool or method that can identify these opportunities to save money while maintaining service level. As the appointed team …

A Multi-Objective Optimization Framework For Equitable Stormwater Management In Urbanizing Rural Communities, Harry L. Wilson

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to limited technical and financial resources, urbanizing rural communities often face growing stormwater management challenges while undergoing rapid development. This thesis proposes a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) framework that integrates topography-driven stormwater flow behavior, infrastructure placement constraints, and multiple planning objectives to support cost-effective stormwater infrastructure decisions. Our model accounts for budget constraints, gravity-driven surface water flow, infiltration capacity, and spatial contiguity requirements to determine optimal pond placements that balance flood reduction and implementation costs. A synthetic discretized grid representing a small municipality is used to demonstrate model behavior under varying rainfall and topographic conditions. Results demonstrate the framework's …

Multi-City Travel Routing Tool: Reducing Travel Costs And Time Spent Planning Using Apis, Trey R. Merreighn

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Travel planning is a time-consuming and ever-changing problem that can diminish the travel experience and greatly increase expenditure, if not done correctly. It is important to have an easy travel planning experience so you can enjoy the travel experience more and not waste time where it is not needed. This thesis aims to minimize the costs and time spent on travel planning using APIs and simple optimization models, creating a travel planning tool. This travel planning tool was developed in Java with the main API being Amadeus, this was combined with a greedy best-permutation heuristic to create the main route …

The Expectation Of Pain: Effects On Threshold, Tolerance, And Perception, Emma Paulus

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Brain activity in pain-related regions of the cortex is thought to be influenced by interactions between expectations and incoming sensory information. However, the subjective experience of pain based on expectation has not been thoroughly explored. By changing visual and auditory cues to set expectation levels, a relationship between unconscious expectation of pain and actual sensory pain experienced was characterized. With IRB approval, volunteers were randomly and blindly grouped into low and high pain expectancy groups. Each group completed a survey about initial pain expectations before the muscle stimulation tolerance test, followed by a survey about actual pain perception after the …

A Forecasting Framework For Distribution Center Capacity Utilization: An Applied Industry Study, Jordan J. Shortt

Data Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project develops and evaluates a predictive modeling framework for forecasting distribution center capacity utilization at Company Y, with monthly forecast horizons up to one year. Motivated by the operational challenges of seasonal demand volatility, promotional cycles, and the absence of a formally defined capacity metric, the study first constructs a historical capacity utilization measure from raw warehouse management system data — reconciling item volumes, location dimensions, and utilization factors across all DCs — which serves as the target variable for all modeling work. Four models are developed and evaluated against a naïve seasonal baseline: SARIMA, LightGBM, LSTM, and a …

Securing Distributed Energy Resources: A Dnp3 Master Station With Semantic Web Integration For Decentralized Der Data Sovereignty, Ethan J. Coffman

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

As current electrical grids trend toward a heavier reliance on DERs, there is a growing need to secure DER communications while maintaining data sovereignty for device owners. Previously, work by Donna Thakadipuram established the foundation for a decentralized framework using Solid by implementing a prototype that used a Raspberry Pi and a DSP to simulate Modbus traffic and upload the data to a Solid server. This thesis extends her work to simulate multiple DERs using Typhoon HIL and communicate to each device over DNP3/TCP. The system uses a Python-based DNP3 master to collect telemetry from all 12 DERs before transforming …

Protocol-Aware Enforcement-Point Postcards And Collector Feedback For Ot/Ics Forensic Readiness And Closed-Loop Defense, Haden Fowler

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this work, we apply P4-programmable switches to Operational Technology (OT) and Industrial Control System (ICS) traffic with the objective of turning enforcement decisions into structured forensic evidence that can also support fast, scoped feedback. OT investigations often rely on later correlation of endpoint logs, passive packet traces, and historian data, but those sources can be incomplete, hard to align in time, and missing the decision made at the enforcement point. We address this gap by implementing a P4-based enforcement switch that parses Modbus/TCP write traffic, applies protocol-aware policy checks, and exports protocolaware postcards to a collector. The collector stores …

Small-Scale Analog Spiking Neural Network: Design And Simulation Of An Analog Deep Neural Network, Lucas Hogue

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

A small-scale analog schematic of a spiking neural network (SNN) is designed and demonstrated through the analog design environment (ADE) within Cadence Virtuoso. An SNN is a type of neuromorphic system that utilizes components mimicking the function of the neurons and synapses found in biological neural networks. The SNN designed in this project is composed of four layers: one input layer, two hidden layers, and one output layer. The inclusion of more than one hidden layer classifies the network as “deep” and increases the network’s efficiency at handling data with increased complexity. The SNN categorizes inputs by producing a set …

​Autonomous Agentic Orchestration For Physics-Aware Scientific Discovery: An Integrative Multimodal Framework For 2d Material Characterization​, Sankalp Pandey

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The advancement of next-generation semiconductor and quantum technologies relies on the scalability of the fabrication of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals heterostructures. However, this process is severely bottlenecked by characterization workflows. Optical microscopy provides high-throughput imaging of 2D material flakes, but lacks the explicit physical priors required for the discernment of sub-nanometer thickness variations, such as distinguishing monolayers from bilayers. The use of computer vision models to automate the localization and characterization process of the flakes was proposed. As a part of this effort, we develop QuantumFlake, an open-source framework to streamline the integration and deployment of computer vision models …

Turning Down The Heat: Fine-Tuning Tempo-Modified Nanocellulose And Emim-Ac Ionic Liquid Membranes For Kidney Dialysis, Olivia Reid

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

TEMPO modified nanocellulose membranes are utilized across various laboratory and industrial applications from protein purification to advancements in kidney dialysis. This study investigates the effect of varying coagulation temperatures on the morphology and transport properties of these membranes to enhance their performance for targeted filtration. It was hypothesized that higher temperatures would accelerate the solvent-nonsolvent exchange during phase inversion, resulting in larger pore structures. Conversely, lower temperatures were expected to slow solvent diffusion, yielding smaller, more uniform pores. The membranes[JH1]  were synthesized using 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyl-1-oxyl (TEMPO) to improve selectivity and antifouling characteristics. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) served as the primary …

Strengthening Kidney Dialysis One Membrane At A Time: Enhancing Tempo-Oxidized Nanocellulose And Ionic Liquid Membrane Strength Through The Variation Of Cosolvents, Bailey M. Butler

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Chronic kidney disease occurs when the kidneys lose the ability to effectively filter the blood, which causes waste build up. End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) is the most severe case of kidney disease and requires either dialysis or a kidney transplant. Hemodialysis, the most common form of dialysis, is an extremely time-intensive and physically burdensome process that is currently limited by membrane performance. The polysulfone (PSf) membranes that are widely used for dialysis today have many limitations, including fouling, toxin rejection, and essential protein loss. Recently, new membranes made from TEMPO-Oxidized nanocellulose dissolved in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EMIM-Ac) have shown promising characteristics, …

From Kernel To Carbon Footprint: Using Life Cycle Analysis To Teach Sustainability In Chemical Engineering, Neal Z. Kinney

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Many chemical engineering departments in the United States are currently lacking developed sustainability coursework, leaving many students without a developed understanding of topics such as life cycle analysis (LCA). [1] Therefore, there is a need for engaging and flexible educational tools that can be easily incorporated into course frameworks. This study develops an interactive learning module, expanding upon the work from Pollution Prevention Through Popcorn, a study developed by Rowan University. [2] The module combines experimental analysis of popcorn popping methods with life cycle assessment using OpenLCA to evaluate the environmental impacts of common types of popcorn packaging. Results of …

Shooting For The Stars: Stem Outreach Strategies Between 2nd And 7th Grade, Paige Miller

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Engineering and planetary science outreach programs are increasingly important as industries and research organizations face growing demand for STEM professionals. Despite the importance of these fields, many students receive little exposure to engineering careers during their early educational experiences. This honors thesis examines the effectiveness of interactive STEM outreach presentations designed for elementary and middle school students. Specifically, this study evaluates outreach activities centered on chemical engineering applications and the NASA M2M CO₂ regeneration project for Martian environments.

Two student age groups participated in this study: 2nd grade students at Butterfield Elementary School and 7th grade students at Woodland Junior …

A Baseline Study Of Artificial Intelligence Use Among Chemical Engineering Undergraduates At The University Of Arkansas, Natalie J. Erickson

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has shifted from a novel innovation to a tool used in daily life, particularly within higher education. While anecdotal evidence suggests high levels of student engagement with AI, empirical data regarding usage patterns remains limited. This baseline study investigates AI integration among undergraduate chemical engineering students at the University of Arkansas. Through an anonymous survey (N=68; comprising 20 freshmen, 14 sophomores, 16 juniors, and 18 seniors), researchers assessed usage frequency, student comfort levels, and their evolving relationship with AI tools. The findings reveal that 75% of respondents utilize AI for coursework at least once …

Optimizing College Food Pantry Locker Systems Through Simulation Techniques, Jacob W. Holmes

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Food insecurity affects 10.5% of households in the United States. Among those affected, college students are a group with increasing food insecurity. Through novel food pantry order methods, such as locker order systems, some effects of college food insecurity can be alleviated. The Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry (FCFP) at the University of Arkansas implemented a locker system, beginning in the Fall of 2020. There is a lack of investigation into locker management policies for pantries, such as how much time clients should be allowed to pick up orders after they are placed in lockers, how many lockers …

An Experimental Study Of The Morphology Of Dna-Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Structures In Direct Dna Sequencing, Avery P. Davis

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hybrid structures formed between single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) have emerged as promising components in future direct DNA sequencing technologies due to their unique morphological and electronic properties. The nanoscale configuration of these hybrids, including the DNA wrapping angle, pitch, and contour behavior, directly influences their potential for stable electronic readout. This thesis presents an experimental study of DNA-SWCNT hybrid morphology using a fixed, reproducible wrapping protocol designed to minimize environmental variability and isolate the influence of DNA nucleotide sequence on hybrid structure. As described in prior work, this protocol produces well-dispersed hybrids suitable for high-resolution imaging. …

Harness: Hybrid Architecture For Resilience In Networked Engineering System Simulations, Daniel Scott

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development of HARNESS, a unified, domain-agnostic framework for the modeling, optimization, and evaluation of complex systems under conditions of degradation and uncertainty. The research addresses a persistent challenge in systems engineering: the lack of a generalizable, behaviorally grounded approach for quantifying resilience and robustness across diverse domains. HARNESS integrates graph-theoretic dependency modeling, GPU-accelerated evolutionary optimization, and agent-based simulation into a modular architecture that enables both system design and diagnostic analysis. The framework models system interdependencies through user-defined components, parameters, and constraints, allowing architectures to evolve dynamically while maintaining structural validity. A mutation-only genetic algorithm with a …