Engineering Commons^™

New Model Improves Management Of Wetland, Floodplain And River Habitats, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Utah State University News Release — March 3, 2020 — Wetlands, floodplains and aquatic habitats are some of Utah’s most important ecosystems. They are home to many bird, plant and fish species, and they provide unique outdoor recreation opportunities.

New Constraint-Driven Mission Construct For Small Satellites And Constrained Missions, Lee Jasper, Barbara Braun, Lauren Hunt

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

Small satellites, though increasingly prevalent in the industry today, tend to not follow traditional development paths, technically or programmatically. In contrast to traditional requirements-driven missions, where meeting requirements is the primary metric of success, small satellite missions tend to be constraints-driven, where mission scope is tradable to maintain cost and schedule constraints.

Clean, Robust Alkali Sources By Intercalation Within Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite, Rudolph N. Kohn Jr., Matthew S. Bigelow, Mary Spanjers, Benjamin K. Stuhl, Brian L. Kasch, Spencer E. Olson, Eric A. Imhof, David A. Hostutler, Matthew B. Squires

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

We report the fabrication, characterization, and use of rubidium vapor dispensers based on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) intercalated with metallic rubidium. Compared to commercial chromate salt dispensers, these intercalated HOPG (IHOPG) dispensers hold an order of magnitude more rubidium in a similar volume, require less than one-fourth the heating power, and emit less than one-half as many impurities. Appropriate processing permits exposure of the IHOPG to atmosphere for over ninety minutes without any adverse effects. Intercalation of cesium, potassium, and lithium into HOPG has also been demonstrated in the literature, which suggests that IHOPG dispensers may also be made …

Waterlogged: How Usu Engineering Students Keep Library Books Dry, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Feb. 28, 2020 — Utah State University’s Merril-Cazier Library has recently had problems with leaks from its foundation and from pipes throughout the building. The potential for water damage poses a serious challenge to the university’s Special Collections and Archives, which are housed in the basement beneath overhead pipes.

Living Cell Imaging Technique Sheds Light On Molecular View Of Obesity, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Utah State University researchers develop probes to help improve techniques to test drugs for obesity-related conditions.

Initial Development Of Corn Seedlings After Seed Priming With Nanoscale Synthetic Zinc Oxide, Michel Esper Neto, David W. Britt, Lorena Moreira Lara, Anthony Cartwright, Rayssa Fernanda De Santos, Tadeu Takeyoshi Inoue, Marcelo Augusto Batista

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Nanofertilizers are increasingly explored for sustainable micronutrient delivery in agriculture. Pre-treating seeds with nanofertilizers prior to planting (i.e., seed priming) reduces concerns about nanoparticle (NP) fertilizer non-target dispersion; however, priming formulations and concentrations must be carefully selected to avoid germination inhibition and toxicity. Here we investigate changes in corn seed germination and seedling development after seed priming with ZnO NPs, ZnO bulk and ZnCl₂. To evaluate the effects sterile seeds were immersed in priming solutions of 0, 20, 40, 80, 160 mg L⁻¹ Zn for the three Zn sources. Following an 8 h priming the seeds were …

Usu Shines At American Water Works Association Scholarship Challenge, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Feb. 13, 2020 — Utah State University engineering students recently won three of four scholarships from the American Water Works Association, Intermountain Section.

Usu Students Win National Dam Safety Competition, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Feb. 7, 2020 — Utah State University engineering students Kyler Olsen, Braiden Amata, Jack Tousley and Kat Margetts, with Assistant Professor Brian Crookston as their faculty advisor, won the Association of State Dam Safety Officials dam model competition.

Reformulated Red Mud: A Robust Catalyst For In Situ Catalytic Pyrolysis Of Biomass, Foster Agblevor, Huamin Wang, S. Beis, K. Christian, A. Slade, O. Hietsoi, D. M. Santosa

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Biomass feedstocks contain inorganic compounds generally classified as ash. The ash consists of compounds of potassium, calcium, magnesium, silicon, phosphorus. and other elements. These elements have been reported to influence both the pyrolysis reactions as well as the destabilization of the pyrolysis oils during storage. The inorganic elements have also been reported to deposit on catalyst surfaces during in situ catalytic pyrolysis leading to the eventual deactivation of acidic catalysts such as zeolites. The deposition of inorganic elements and their effects on formulated red mud (FRM) catalyst during in situ catalytic pyrolysis of pinyon juniper wood was investigated. The inorganic …

Swe Extravaganza Jr Inspiring A New Generation Of Engineers, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Feb. 3, 2020 — The USU section of the Society of Women Engineers hosted a brand new event, Extravaganza Jr!, on January 25, 2020 from 8 a.m. – 12p.m. This event is aimed at elementary school children, grades two through five, who attend school in Cache Valley.

Conference On Roads And Electric Vehicle Returns To Park City, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Jan. 30, 2020 — One of the premier international conferences on electric roads and vehicles returns to Park City, February 9–11. CERV, or the Conference on Electric Roads & Vehicles, connects leaders from around the globe in charging and transportation infrastructure, electric utilities and auto manufacturing.

Usu Professor And Student Featured In Forbes Article, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Jan. 28, 2020 — A study conducted by USU civil engineering researcher Patrick Singleton and PhD student Prasanna Humagain was recently featured in an article on the Forbes magazine website.

Ground And In-Flight Calibration Of The Osiris-Rex Camera Suite, D. R. Golish, C. Drouet D'Aubigny, B. Rizk, D. N. Dellagiustina, P. H. Smith, K. Becker, N. Shultz, T. Stone, M. K. Barker, E. Mazarico, E. Tatsumi, R. W. Gaskell, L. Harrison, C. Merrill, C. Fellows, B. Williams, S. O'Dougherty, Michael Whitely, Jed Hancock, B. E. Clark, C. W. Hergenrother, D. S. Lauretta

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

The OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) onboard the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is used to study the shape and surface of the mission’s target, asteroid (101955) Bennu, in support of the selection of a sampling site. We present calibration methods and results for the three OCAMS cameras—MapCam, PolyCam, and SamCam—using data from pre-flight and in-flight calibration campaigns. Pre-flight calibrations established a baseline for a variety of camera properties, including bias and dark behavior, flat fields, stray light, and radiometric calibration. In-flight activities updated these calibrations where possible, allowing us to confidently measure Bennu’s surface. Accurate calibration is critical not only for establishing a …

Influence Of Model Grid Size On The Estimation Of Surface Fluxes Using The Two Source Energy Balance Model And Suas Imagery In Vineyards, Ayman Nassar, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, William Kustas, Hector Nieto, Mac Mckee, Lawrence E. Hipps, David King Stevens, Joseph Alfieri, John Prueger, Maria Mar Alsina, Lynn Mckee, Calvin Coopmans, Luis Sanchez, Nick Dokoozlian

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key variable for hydrology and irrigation water management,with significant importance in drought-stricken regions of the western US. This is particularly true for California, which grows much of the high-value perennial crops in the US. The advent of small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) with sensor technology similar to satellite platforms allows for the estimation of high-resolution ET at plant spacing scale for individual fields. However, while multiple efforts have been made to estimate ET from sUAS products, the sensitivity of ET models to different model grid size/resolution in complex canopies, such as vineyards, is still unknown.The variability …

Engineering Students To Represent Usu At Women In Engineering Conference, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Jan 15, 2020 — Utah State University undergraduate student Morgan Bishop and PhD student Lori Caldwell were selected as finalists for the Women in Engineering Local Collegiate Competition to be held in Salt Lake City, Feb. 7-8. Both Bishop and Caldwell will be recognized as outstanding contributors to engineering at the conference. Bishop is in her final semester at USU, earning a bachelor’s degree in biological engineering. Caldwell earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biological engineering from USU and is now in the second year of her PhD program under the direction of Dr. Angela Minichiello, assistant professor in …

Research Goes Viral: Usu Alum's Thesis Has 100,000 Downloads, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Utah State University News Release — Jan. 14, 2020 — College of Engineering alumnus Colter Hollingshead didn’t expect his thesis to turn too many heads. Civil engineers, after all, are known for publishing technical studies with unfamiliar terms and lots of math.

Effort: Enhancing Energy Efficiency And Error Resilience Of A Near-Threshold Tensor Processing Unit, Noel Daniel Gundi, Tahmoures Shabanian, Prabal Basu, Pramesh Pandey, Sanghamitra Roy, Koushik Chakraborty, Zhen Zhang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Modern deep neural network (DNN) applications demand a remarkable processing throughput usually unmet by traditional Von Neumann architectures. Consequently, hardware accelerators, comprising a sea of multiplier and accumulate (MAC) units, have recently gained prominence in accelerating DNN inference engine. For example, Tensor Processing Units (TPU) account for a lion's share of Google's datacenter inference operations. The proliferation of real-time DNN predictions is accompanied with a tremendous energy budget. In quest of trimming the energy footprint of DNN accelerators, we propose EFFORT-an energy optimized, yet high performance TPU architecture, operating at the Near-Threshold Computing (NTC) region. EFFORT promotes a better-than-worst-case design …

Usu Student Published In Leading Satellite Magazine, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

January 13, 2020 Aerospace Engineering student Grace Graham was recently published on the front cover of satellite industry magazine VIA Satellite, with her article titled “Mother Nature Will Not be Denied: Hurricanes and the Future of Space Flight,” in the December 2019 issue.

Native American Engineering Student Featured In "Winds Of Change", Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Jan. 9, 2020 — Cedric Mannie grew up in a small rural Native American community called Kinlichee on the Navajo Reservation. The closest grocery store was an hour away, and the only access he had to the internet was at his school.

Biological Engineering Undergrad To Represent Usu At Women In Engineering Conference, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

LOGAN, UTAH — Jan. 8, 2020 — Utah State University undergraduate student Morgan Bishop was selected as an undergraduate finalist for the Women in Engineering Local Collegiate Competition to be held in Salt Lake City, Feb. 7-8. Bishop will compete in an onsite technical poster competition as well as a lightning talk and will be recognized as an outstanding contributor to engineering at the conference. Bishop is in her final semester at Utah State, earning a bachelor’s degree in biological engineering.

Engineering Education Phd Student To Represent Usu At Women In Engineering Conference, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

LOGAN, UTAH — Jan. 7, 2020 — Utah State University PhD student Lori Caldwell was selected as a graduate student finalist for the Women in Engineering Local Collegiate Competition to be held in Salt Lake City, Feb. 7-8. Caldwell will be recognized as an outstanding graduate student contributor in engineering at the conference. Caldwell earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in biological engineering from USU and is now in the second year of her PhD program under the direction of Dr. Angela Minichiello, assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education.

Near-Field Pressure Signature Splicing For Low-Fidelity Design Space Exploration Of Supersonic Aircraft, Christian R. Bolander, Douglas F. Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

As interest in supersonic overland flight intensifies, new ways to meet government restrictions on sonic boom loudness must be implemented. Low-fidelity aerodynamic tools, such as PANAIR, can estimate the near-field pressure signature that ultimately determines the loudness of the sonic boom at the ground. These tools can greatly benefit the exploration of large design spaces due to their computational efficiency. One of the limitations of low-fidelity tools is the accuracy of the solution produced, which is dependent on the fundamental physical assumptions made in the development of the governing equations. If flow patterns are produced that severely violate these fundamental …

Identifying Optimal Equivalent Area Changes To Reduce Sonic Boom Loudness, Troy Abraham, Douglas F. Hunsaker, Jonathan M. Weaver-Rosen, Richard J. Malak Jr.

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

This work explores the design space created from modeling the effect of localized geometric changes on a supersonic aircraft’s near-field pressure signature. These geometric changes are used to alter the aircraft’s near-field pressure signature in a way that reduces its sonic boom loudness at the ground. The aircraft used in this work is the NASA 25D concept and its near-field pressure signature is modeled using two separate methods. The first method uses the PANAIR panel code to obtain a near-field pressure signature for an axisymmetric representation of the 25D. This near-field signature is propagated to the ground using the NASA …

Minimum Induced Drag For Tapered Wings Including Structural Constraints, Jeffrey D. Taylor, Doug F. Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

For a wing in steady level flight, the lift distribution that minimizes induced drag depends on a tradeoff between wingspan and wing-structure weight. In 1933, Prandtl suggested that tapered wings have an advantage over rectangular wings due to this tradeoff. However, Prandtl’s solutions were obtained using assumptions that correspond to rectangular wings. Therefore, his claim was not analytically proven by his 1933 publication. Here, an approach similar to Prandtl’s is taken with more general approximations that apply to wings of arbitrary planform. This more general development is used to study Prandtl’s claim about tapered wings. Closed-form solutions for the optimum …

Information Visualization Of Metacognitive Skills During The Software Development Process Based On An Adapted Engineering Design Metacognitive Questionnaire, R. R. Adisurya, H. B. Santoso, S. Fadhilah, Oenardi Lawanto

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

In software development, either alone or in a team, there are many aspects that determine the success in developing the software, including each developer's skills. Studies show that the application of metacognition can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of software development. To measure a metacognition skill, there need to be a metacognition measurement tools. One example of this measurement method is adapted engineering design metacognitive questionnaire. However, the respondents feel that existing tools still have not given them any benefits. This research is conducted to develop an information visualization tools for the metacognition measurement from an adapted engineering design metacognitive …

Peer-Prompted Engineering Design: How Do Adolescents Interact And Strategize?, Kristin Marie Strong, Oenardi Lawanto, Amy Wilson-Lopez

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Engineering design was integrated into K–12 science education in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013), but teaching design remains a challenge for educators. Design problems are ill-defined, ill-structured, and complex problem-solving tasks. Their solutions require creativity and recursive, metacognitive processes that cannot be taught with simple algorithms. Moreover, adolescents do not demonstrate fully developed metacognitive skills because they are undergoing profound developmental changes. In this comparative case study, we explored how peer-delivered metacognitive prompts supported adolescents during a design challenge. We investigated how scripted prompts sparked reflection and stimulated design changes and identified which prompts were most …

Example Take-Home Final Exam Questions From Cee 433: Water Technology & Policy At The University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Ashlynn Stillwell

All ECSTATIC Materials

The following example questions were part of take-home final exams spanning 2014-2020 in CEE 433: Water Technology & Policy, taught by Dr. Ashlynn S. Stillwell at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These questions were part of the take-home final exam, with additional questions not reported here.

Dynamics Within A Tunable Harmonic/Quartic Waveguide, Rudolph N. Kohn Jr., James A. Stickney

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

We present an analytical solution to the dynamics of a noninteracting cloud of thermal atoms in a cigar-shaped harmonic trap with a quartic perturbation along the axial direction. We calculate the first and second moments of position, which are sufficient to characterize the trap. The dynamics of the thermal cloud differ notably from those of a single particle, with an offset to the oscillation frequency that persists even as the oscillation amplitude approaches zero. We also present some numerical results that describe the effects of time-of-flight on the behavior of the cloud in order to better understand the results of …

Would You Rather Teleport Or Spend Some Time Commuting? Investigating Individuals’ Teleportation Preferences, Prasanna Humagain, Patrick A. Singleton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

• Teleportation test, a survey instrument developed to measure Positive Utility of travel (PUT)

"If you could snap your fingers or blink your eyes and instantaneously teleport yourself to the desired destination, would you do so"

• "Yes"- Regarding travel as disutility i.e. means to reach destination
• "No"- Find benefits during travel or traveling itself

Comparison Of Locational Beamforming Algorithms On Audio Targeting, Thomas Bradshaw

Electrical and Computer Engineering

This project uses a digital signal processing algorithm known as beamforming to attempt to isolate an audio signal from nearby interfering audio signals. This is done using an array of microphones and a PC computer.

This project was initially designed to be used in a snore cancellation system. However, this project could also be used in applications such as recording live lectures for distance education as it can remove distractions like rustling papers and whispering students.