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Faculty And Student Awards | College Of Engineering, Utah State University

College of Engineering News

We extend our congratulations to three faculty and one outstanding student for being recognized at two separate awards ceremonies. Please join me in celebrating the recent success of Ryan Berke, Idalis Villanueva, Spencer Wendell, and student Taylor Clegg.

Civil Engineering Student Receives All-West Team Hockey Award | College Of Engineering, Utah State University

College of Engineering News

Civil engineering undergrad and hockey team captain Josh Kerkvliet received the All-West Team award.

Engineering Education Students Present Research At The Aera Annual Meeting | College Of Engineering, Utah State University

College of Engineering News

Theresa Green and Darcie Christensen, two doctoral students in the Department of Engineering Education, presented research at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association (AERA) held on April 5-9 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

A High Magnification Uv Lens For High Temperature Optical Strain Measurements, Robert S. Hansen, Trevor J. Bird, Ren Voie, Katharine Z. Burn, Ryan B. Berke

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) measures full-field strains by tracking displacements of a specimen using images taken before and after deformation. At high temperatures, materials emit light in the form of blackbody radiation, which can interfere with DIC images. To screen out that light, DIC has been recently adapted by using ultraviolet (UV) range cameras, lenses, and filters. Before now, UV-DIC had been demonstrated at the centimeter scale using commercially available UV lenses and filters. Commercial high-magnification lenses using visible light have also been used for DIC. However, there is currently no commercially available high-magnification lens that will allow images to …

Veteran Educator Named Head Of Usu Engineering Education Department | College Of Engineering, Utah State University

College of Engineering News

An award-winning educator and veteran engineer has been named the head of the Department of Engineering Education at Utah State University.

Water Walking As A New Mode Of Free Surface Skipping, Randy Craig Hurd, Jesse Belden, Allan F. Bower, Sean Holekamp, Michael A. Jandron, Tadd T. Truscott

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Deformable elastomeric spheres are evaluated experimentally as they skip multiple times over a lake surface. Some spheres are embedded with small inertial measurement units to measure the acceleration experienced during water surface impact. A model for multiple impact events shows good agreement between measured acceleration, number of skipping events and distanced traveled. The experiment reveals a new mode of skipping, “water walking”, which is observed for relatively soft spheres impacting at low impact angles. The mode occurs when the sphere gains significant angular velocity over the first several impacts, causing the sphere to maintain a deformed, oblong shape. The behavior …

Computational Prediction Of Host-Pathogen Protein Interactions Between Melioidosis Pathogen Burkholderia Pseudomallei And Human, Chathumadavi Ediriweera

Student Research Symposium

Background:

Burkholderia pseudomallei (Bp) is a critical biothreat agent, causes Melioidosis: a disease associated with high case-fatality rates in animals and humans; even with treatment, its mortaility is up to 50%. It also infects plants. Yet few effector proteins have been functionally characterized to date and little work has been carried out to understand the host-pathogen protein-protein interactions (PPI) which are important to develop efficient prevention measures. To address these issues, we deployed diverse in-silico methodologies to identify virulence factors and their interactions with host proteins to characterize bacterial infection mechanisms.

Fair Resource Allocation In An Mec-Enabled Ultra-Dense Iot Network With Noma, Qun Wang

Student Research Symposium

Ultra-dense Internet of Things (IoT) network has greatly facilitated the development of smart environments and the realization of diverse sophisticated applications. Power constrained and resource-limited IoT devices often need to perform computation-intensive and delay-sensitive tasks in such a network. Mobile edge computing and non-orthogonal multiple access are two promising techniques to address the corresponding challenges. In order to improve the fairness and resource efficiency among IoT users, resource allocation problems are formulated in ultra-dense MEC-enabled IoT networks with NOMA considered. An iterative algorithm based on successive convex approximation technique is proposed to solve those challenging non-convex problems.

Exploiting Wall Street: An Algorithmic Approach To Investing, Sterling Lemon

Student Research Symposium

Technology has advanced dramatically over the years, yet the old investment strategy of "buy and hold" has remained prevalent. While this strategy performed well historically, it serves as a stark contrast to modern investing which, by utilizing machine learning and advanced data analytics, is generating unprecedented returns This research project will demonstrate the strength behind algorithmic investing and how the investment strategy of "buy and hold" will become a thing of the past.

Propulsion Unit Optimization For Small Uas, Cory Goates

Student Research Symposium

Selection of a propulsion system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is a complex and iterative process. Attempts have been made to provide effective modelling of propulsion systems. However, due to the discrete nature of the design space, effective optimization tools have yet to be developed. We present an optimizer which presents designers with feasible propulsion systems based on given parameters. This optimizer also allows designers to view trend in the design space and more quickly determine an optimum solution.

Augmenting Anaerobic Digestion Of Microalgal Biomass, Anna Doloman

Student Research Symposium

Anaerobic digestion of microalgal biomass cannot be achieved without specialized hydrolytic microorganisms. Potentially algalytic bacteria belonging to Citrobacter and Alcaligenes species were isolated from a wastewater lagoon system. A combination of two potentially algalytic bacteria was successfully incorporated into the granular anaerobic consortia. A series of anaerobic cultures were prepared with different microbial combinations to test the methane production from algal biomass collected from a local wastewater treating trickling filter. The anaerobic microbial community mixed with two algalytic bacteria produced 10% more methane when compared to the methane produced by a native granular consortium. The presence of the algalytic bacteria …

Robust Structured Group Local Sparse Tracker Using Convolutional Neural Network Features, Mohammadreza Javanmardi

Student Research Symposium

Sparse representation has recently been successfully applied in visual tracking. It utilizes a set of templates to represent target candidates and find the best one with the minimum reconstruction error as the tracking result. In this presentation, we propose a robust deep features-based structured group local sparse tracker, which exploits the convolutional neural network (CNN) features of local patches inside target candidates and represents them by a set of templates in the particle filter framework. To extract the local CNN features, we first set the size of each target candidate to 64 by 64 pixels to contain sufficient object-level information …

Faculty Promotions 2019 | College Of Engineering, Utah State University

College of Engineering News

The College of Engineering at Utah State University extends its congratulations to six newly-promoted faculty members. On April 5, these faculty members received official word from the USU Board of Trustees of their rank promotions:

Use Of Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (Sers) Probes To Detect Fatty Acid Receptor Activity In A Microfluidic Device, Han Zhang, Wei Zhang, Lifu Xiao, Yan Liu, Timothy A. Gilbertson, Anhong Zhou

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

In this study, 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA)-Au nanorods conjugated with a GPR120 antibody were developed as a highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) probe, and were applied to detect the interaction of fatty acids (FA) and their cognate receptor, GPR120, on the surface of human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293-GPRR120) cultured in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic device. Importantly, the two dominant characteristic SERS peaks of the Raman reporter molecule MBA, 1078 cm⁻¹ and 1581 cm⁻¹, do not overlap with the main Raman peaks from the PDMS substrate when the appropriate spectral scanning range is selected, which effectively avoided the …

Improved Production Of Antifungal Angucycline Sch47554 By Manipulating Three Regulatory Genes In Streptomyces Sp. Scc-2136, Ozkan Fidan, Riming Yan, Du Zhu, Jixun Zhan

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Sch47554 and Sch47555 are two angucyclines with antifungal activities against various yeasts and dermatophytes from Streptomyces sp. SCC‐2136. The schgene cluster contains several putative regulatory genes. Both schA4 and schA21were predicted as the TetR family transcriptional regulators, whereas schA16shared significant similarity to the AraC family transcriptional regulators. Although Sch47554 is the major product of Streptomyces sp. SCC‐2136, its titer is only 6.72 mg/L. This work aimed to increase the production of this promising antifungal compound by investigating and manipulating the regulatory genes in the Sch47554 biosynthetic pathway. Disruption of schA4and schA16 led to a significant increase …

Analytical Models For 3-D Diffusion Of Ions From Salt-Contaminated Aggregates, Robert J. Thomas, Andrew D. Sorensen, Marc Maguire

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This article presents an analytical investigation of the mobility of salts from contaminated aggregates in concrete. Salt-contaminated aggregates may have varied effects on the mechanical properties and durability of concrete. These depend primarily on the mobility of salts within the concrete matrix. Existing diffusion-based models for the mobility of salts in concrete focus on their intrusion from external sources (e.g., chloride penetration from deicing salts and brines). Such problems are well described by the closed-form solution of Fick’s law for diffusion in one dimension from a continuous source. Salt-contaminated aggregates represent a case of diffusion from a finite internal source …

Professor Receives Award From The Center For Women And Gender | College Of Engineering, Utah State University

College of Engineering News

USU engineering professor, Elizabeth Vargis was awarded the ‘Early Career-Faculty award’ from the Center for Women and Gender.

Low-Cost, Open-Source, And Low-Power: But What To Do With The Data?, Jeffery S. Horsburgh, Juan Caraballo, Maurier Ramírez, Anthony K. Aufdenkampe, David B. Arscott, Sara Geleskie Damiano

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

There are now many ongoing efforts to develop low-cost, open-source, low-power sensors and datalogging solutions for environmental monitoring applications. Many of these have advanced to the point that high quality scientific measurements can be made using relatively inexpensive and increasingly off-the-shelf components. With the development of these innovative systems, however, comes the ability to generate large volumes of high-frequency monitoring data and the challenge of how to log, transmit, store, and share the resulting data. This paper describes a new web application that was designed to enable citizen scientists to stream sensor data from a network of Arduino-based dataloggers to …

Usu’S Aerolab Making Industry Shockwaves | College Of Engineering, Utah State University

College of Engineering News

Utah State University’s AeroLab is ahead of its time with cutting-edge research for developing aircraft of the future.

Ascending The Data Usability Gap In Mountainous Regions Through Scientist-Stakeholder Co-Production, Alan Rhoades

Spring Runoff Conference

No abstract provided.

Water Challenges In The Lower Colorado River Basin And The Drought Contingency Plan, Sharon Megdal

Spring Runoff Conference

No abstract provided.

Water Management In The West—A Federal Perspective, Brent Esplin

Spring Runoff Conference

No abstract provided.

Harmful Algae Blooms In Utah, Scott Daly

Spring Runoff Conference

No abstract provided.

An Update On Water Legislation From The 2019 Utah Legislative Session, Tim Hawkes

Spring Runoff Conference

No abstract provided.

Spring Runoff Conference 2019: Water Challenges In The West, Spring Runoff Conference

Spring Runoff Conference

The Spring Runoff Conference, hosted by the USU Water Initiative, is held annually on the campus of Utah State University. The conference provides a forum for interdisciplinary sharing and exchange of ideas on water-related issues in Utah and the lntermountain Region

Peloton Tracking And Analysis From The 2016 Tour De France, Tadd T. Truscott, Jesse Belden

Browse all Datasets

The work associated with this project is described in a manuscript entitled "How vision governs the collective behavior of cycling pelotons" by Belden et al., along with an electronic supplementary material document. We investigate properties of densely packed groups of bicycle racers, which are known as cycling pelotons. These pelotons exhibit features of collective animal behavior, including emergent behavior from inter-individual interactions. In this data set, we classify global shapes of the peloton, and identify and track individual cyclists to determine the details of network structure. We also investigate motion waves that propagate through the pelotons.

Usu Students Take Third In Robotics Competition | College Of Engineering, Utah State University

College of Engineering News

Engineering students at USU placed third at a recent national robotics challenge held in California.

A New Method For Microsimulation Model Calibration: A Case Study Of I-710, Hossein Nasr Esfahani, Ziqi Song

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

As a part of the feasibility analysis of electric truck roadways for some of the major corridors near Los Angles, California, this paper aims to introduce and investigate a new method for microsimulation model calibration. The model of I-710 southbound was developed in VISSIM software and calibrated through two sets of data: O-D demand from planning models and field data which was consist of traffic flow and speed. Due to the lack of proper count data for on-ramps/off-ramps, the O-D demand was estimated via path flow estimator. After determining the calibration parameters, in an attempt to avoid unnecessary VISSIM’s time-consuming …

Develop A 3d Neurological Disease Model Of Human Cortical Glutamatergic Neurons Using Micropillar-Based Scaffolds, Cheng Chen, Xin Dong, Kai-Heng Fang, Fang Yuan, Yao Hu, Min Xu, Yu Huang, Xixiang Zhang, Danjun Fang, Yan Liu

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Establishing an effective three-dimensional (3D) in vitro culture system to better model human neurological diseases is desirable, since the human brain is a 3D structure. Here, we demonstrated the development of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) pillar-based 3D scaffold that mimicked the 3D microenvironment of the brain. We utilized this scaffold for the growth of human cortical glutamatergic neurons that were differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells. In comparison with the 2D culture, we demonstrated that the developed 3D culture promoted the maturation of human cortical glutamatergic neurons by showing significantly more MAP2 and less Ki67 expression. Based on this 3D culture …

Congratulation A-Pin Recipients | College Of Engineering, Utah State University

College of Engineering News

College of Engineering Dean Dr. Jagath Kaluarachchi and department heads from across the college recognized 78 students on Wednesday for receiving the prestigious A-pin award for the Spring and Fall of 2018.