Engineering Commons^™

Resources: Handheld Computing Devices, Cameron Denson

Publications

The article features a valuable resource to aid teachers in their effort to satisfy the need to implement modern instructional technology and their students' need to access green technology. It states that handheld computing devices are currently being widely used in many classrooms and technology savvy educators can manifest to the benefits of these data-collection systems. It believes that handheld units can offer students with an all-inclusive technological device that caters to all learners.

Engineering Student Outcomes For Grades 9 - 12, Vincent W. Childress, Craig Rhodes

Publications

The article focuses on a study by Dearing and Daughtry about postsecondary engineering education. The study used a modified Delphi technique that they conducted with technology teachers, technology teacher educators, and engineering educators to identify engineering outcomes for high school pre-engineering students. The purpose of the study was to identify those concepts that are necessary to teach high school students in order to prepare them for postsecondary engineering education, while preserving the mission of teaching technological literacy.

Quality And Characteristics Of Recent Research In Technology Education, Scott D. Johnson, Jenny Daugherty

Publications

The focus of research in technology education has evolved throughout its history as the field changed from industrial arts to technology education (Spencer & Rogers, 2006). With the move to technology education, the field has begun to broaden its focus to better understand the teaching, learning, curriculum, and policy implications of preparing the next generation of technological thinkers. Although a complete “paradigm shift” may not have occurred completely within all technology-oriented programs (Sanders, 2001), the current emphasis on engineering within technology education indicates a need to examine and assess the status of technology education research over the past ten years …

Resources: E-Book Readers, Daniel Brenner, Todd R. Kelley

Publications

The article provides information on the resources of electronic book (e-book) reader. It cites that an e-book reader is a device where people can download, store, and read printed materials. However, e-book readers are not applicable in educational setting because textbooks are not yet available for download. There are funding programs for e-books readers in schools emerged like Target Early Childhood Reading Grants, HP Technology for Teaching Grant Initiative, and EDS Technology Grant Program.

Resources: Getting There - Space, Todd R. Kelley

Publications

The article presents a school activity about transportation concepts using the DVD "Black Sky: The Race for Space & Winning the X-Prize." The article describes the video as a good resource to explore novel ideas in space travel with students. It suggests that the video inspires students to learn more about space transportation and the science and technology of modern rocketry.

Lidar Based Emissions Measurement At The Whole Facility Scale: Method And Error Analysis, Gail E. Bingham, Christian C. Marchant, Vladimir V. Zavyalov, Douglas J. Ahlstrom, Kori D. Moore, Derek S. Jones, Thomas D. Wilkerson, Lawrence E. Hipps, Randy S. Martin, Jerry L. Hatfield, John H. Prueger, Richard L. Pfeiffer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Particulate emissions from agricultural sources vary from dust created by operations and animal movement to the fine secondary particulates generated from ammonia and other emitted gases. The development of reliable facility emission data using point sampling methods designed to characterize regional, well-mixed aerosols are challenged by changing wind directions, disrupted flow fields caused by structures, varied surface temperatures, and the episodic nature of the sources found at these facilities. We describe a three-wavelength lidar-based method, which, when added to a standard point sampler array, provides unambiguous measurement and characterization of the particulate emissions from agricultural production operations in near real …

Pyrene Fate Affected By Humic Acid Amendment In Soil Slurry Systems, Y. Liang, D. Sorensen, Ronald C. Sims, Joan Mclean

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Background

Humic acid (HA) has been found to affect the solubility, mineralization, and bound residue formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). However, most of the studies on the interaction between HA and PAH concentrated on one or two of the three phases. Few studies have provided a simple protocol to demonstrate the overall effects of HA on PAH distribution in soil systems for all three phases.

Methods

In this study, three doses of standard Elliott soil HA (ESHA), 15, 187.5, and 1,875 μg ESHA/g soil slurry, were amended to soil slurry systems. ¹⁴C-pyrene was added to the systems along …

The Power Of Soil: Using It To Our Advantage, Judith L. Sims, R. Otis

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Final Report For Irrigation Water Quality Monitoring Of The Jordan River, 2008, Richard C. Peralta, Bassel Timani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The goal of the Jordan River Water Quality Project is to assess the quality of irrigation water removed from the Jordan River at three diversion locations: Jordan Narrows (JN), Cahoon and Maxfield (CM), and Jordan & Salt Lake Canal (JSLC). During 2008, Salt Lake City Corporation personnel took water samples on 12 dates from April 18 to September 25, 2008. Utah State University Analytical Laboratories (USUAL), an EPAcertified laboratory, performed water analyses on the samples. USUAL is located at Utah State University (USU) in Logan, Utah.

Optimal In-Situ Bioremediation System Design Using Simulated Annealing, H. J. Shieh, Richard C. Peralta

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The presented procedure combines continuous simulated annealing (CSA) heuristic optimization with BIOPLUME II simulation for optimizing in-situ bioremediation system design. The design goal is to minimize the total cost of facility installation and operation needed to achieve contaminant plume containment and cleanup. System design elements include pumping rates and well locations. During optimization, pumping rates are treated as continuous variables, differing from previously reported simulated annealing combinatorial optimization for groundwater management. To improve computation efficiency, CSA annealing schedules employing four different temperature update functions (TUF) are contrasted. Each yields somewhat different optimal designs and requires different computation effort. An adaptive …

Vulnerability Of Shallow Aquifers Of The Conterminous United States To Nitrate: Assessment Of Methodologies, Karthik Kumarasamy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Groundwater is an important natural resource for numerous human activities, accounting for more than 50% of the total water used in the United States. Groundwater is vulnerable to contamination by several organic and inorganic pollutants such as nitrate, heavy metals, and pesticides. Assessment of groundwater vulnerability aids in the management and protection of limited groundwater resources.

The focus of this thesis is to (1) statistically compare two groundwater vulnerability assessment models; modified DRASTIC (Acronym for Depth to water, net Recharge, Aquifer media, Soil media, Topography, Impact of vadose zone, and hydraulic Conductivity of aquifer) and ordinal logistic regression for NO …

Rate-Distortion Optimized Vector Spiht For Wavelet Image Coding, Y. Liang, Scott E. Budge

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, a novel image coding scheme using rate-distortion optimized vector quantization of wavelet coefficients is presented. A vector set partitioning algorithm is used to locate significant wavelet vectors which are classified into a number of classes based on their energies, thus reducing the complexity of the vector quantization. The set partitioning bits are reused to indicate the vector classification indices to save the bits for coding of the classification overhead. A set of codebooks with different sizes is designed for each class of vectors, and a Lagrangian optimization algorithm is employed to select an optimal codebook for each …

A Handheld Texel Camera For Acquiring Near-Instantaneous 3d Images, B.M. Boldt, Scott E. Budge, R.T. Pack, P.D. Israelsen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A Texel camera is a device which synchronously captures depth information via a ladar and digital imagery of the same scene. The ladar and digital camera are co-boresighted to eliminate parallax. This configuration fuses the ladar data to the digital image at the pixel level, eliminating complex post-processing to register the datasets. This paper describes a handheld version of a Texel Camera which can be used to create near-instantaneous 3D imagery. The hardware configuration of the Texel Camera, issues and method associated with ladar/camera calibration, and representative imagery are presented.

Integrated Modeling Of Nitrate Contamination Of Groundwater In Agriculture-Dominated Watersheds, M. Almasri, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents and implements a framework for modeling the impact of land use practices and protection alternatives on nitrate pollution of groundwater in agricultural watersheds. The framework utilizes the national land cover database (NLCD) of the United State Geological Survey (USGS) grid and a geographic information system (GIS) to account for the spatial distribution of on-ground nitrogen sources and corresponding loadings. The framework employs a soil nitrogen dynamic model to estimate nitrate leaching to groundwater. These estimates were used in developing a groundwater nitrate fate and transport model. The framework considers both point and non-point sources of nitrogen across …

Urban Particulate Matter Casues Er Stress And The Unfolded Protein Response In Human Lung Cells, T. L. Watterson, B. Hamilton, Randy S. Martin, R. A. Coulombe Jr.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Because of its presumed adverse health effects, particulate air pollution (PM) has received growing attention, but the cellular mechanisms by which PM exerts toxicity are not well elucidated. PM has been associated with early mortality from illnesses that share endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress as a mechanism of pathogenesis. In this study, we examined whether PM would induce the unfolded protein response (UPR) which is a cellular response to ER stress. Coarse (PM10) and fine (PM2.5) PM was collected from a single location in Northern Utah's Cache Valley during atmospheric inversions occurring in January 2002 and January 2003. Extracts of PM …

Effects Of Pm2.5 Collected From Cache Valley, Ut On Genes Associated With The Inflammatory Response In Human Lung Cells, T L. Watterson, J. Sorensen, Randy S. Martin, R. A. Coulombe Jr.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

In January 2004, the normally picturesque Cache Valley in northern Utah made national headlines with the highest PM2.5 levels in the nation. Epidemiological studies linked exposure to particulate air pollution in other locations with stroke and Alzheimer's disease and to early mortality from all causes, cancer, and cardiopulmonary diseases. To determine potential effects of these particles on human health, human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) were cultured with PM2.5collected from various locations in the Cache Valley. These particles were slightly cytotoxic, but more potent than NH4NO3, the major chemical component of Cache Valley PM2.5. Gene expression analysis of PM2.5-exposed cells was …

Year Three Annual Report: Activities, Findings And Evaluators' Reports, Ncete Faculty

Reports to NSF

The Center continues to strengthen the research climate across the institutional settings. A number of activities have been directed at this effort: internal funding of small student and faculty research projects; development of an internal funding process for doctoral student research; and presentations by researchers at Center meetings and professional conferences. The internal research program has been successful in providing relatively non-threatening experiences with proposal preparation, review, negotiation, and the conduct of small research projects. Six proposals were funded for exploratory research projects in 2005-06 and five projects were funded in 2006-07. As these projects are completed, findings are shared …

A Validation Procedure For A Ladar System Radiometric Simulation Model, B.C. Leishman, Scott E. Budge, R.T. Pack

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The USU LadarSIM software package is a ladar system engineering tool that has recently been enhanced to include the modeling of the radiometry of Ladar beam footprints. This paper will discuss our validation of the radiometric model and present a practical approach to future validation work. In order to validate complicated and interrelated factors affecting radiometry, a systematic approach had to be developed. Data for known parameters were first gathered then unknown parameters of the system were determined from simulation test scenarios. This was done in a way to isolate as many unknown variables as possible, then build on the …

A Nationwide Comparison Of Aviation Programs, D. Jason Mcconnell

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Students considering a college education have many different priorities in mind. When considering a career in aviation after graduation, it brings a whole new set of priorities into the picture. When I was searching for a university degree in aviation I had two major concerns: location and quality of the flight school. Cost was also on my list of concerns but more as a restriction than an option. In other words, I was willing to pay more for the schooling provided it did not get so excessive that I could no longer afford to go. Utah State was among three …

Analysis Of The Day Side Equatorial Anomaly, Jayaprabha Shankar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) is a region of peak plasma density found at ± 10 ◦ to 20 ◦ magnetic latitudes at F-region altitudes. In 2002, NASA launched the Global Ultra Violet Imager (GUVI), which can observe the EIA at various local times, longitudes, and seasons by the glow of the recombining electrons and ions in the plasma. This thesis presents the observations of the geomagnetic quiet time EIA and its global behavior at all local times using 1356 ˚A radiance data from high altitude GUVI limb scans. Limb data is prepared for analysis using reduction techniques that remove from …

A Formal Approach To Specifying And Verifying Spacecraft Behavior, Allan I.S. Mcinnes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Process algebra can provide spacecraft designers with a mathematical formalism for specifying, understanding, analyzing, and verifying spacecraft system behavior. Although it is standard practice to mathematically model and analyze the subsystems of a spacecraft to ensure that they will function correctly when built, the system-level behavior of the spacecraft is generally understood in much less rigorous terms. This leaves the spacecraft system vulnerable to design errors which may not become apparent until the integration and test phase, when design changes are most expensive. In this dissertation, we develop a formal approach to engineering spacecraft behavior, based on mathematical models of …

Design Of A Low-Power Automatic Wireless Multi-Logger Networking Device, Kelly S. Lewis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Virtually every industry and discipline (e.g., mining, pharmaceutical, construction, agriculture, reclamation, etc.) is finding applications for wireless data acquisition for monitoring and managing processes and resources. Two sectors, namely agriculture and environmental research, are seeking ways to obtain distributed soil and plant measurements over larger areas like a watershed or large fields rather than a single site of intensive instrumentation (i.e., a weather station). Wireless sensor networks and remote sensing have been explored as a means to satisfy this need. Commercial products are readily available that have remote wireless options to support distributed senor networking. However, these systems have been …

Tropospheric Spectrum Estimations Comparing Maximum Likelihood With Expectation Maximization Solutions And Fast Fourier Transforms, Stanley James Wellard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The FIRST program (Far Infrared Spectroscopy in the Troposphere) was created as an Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) by NASA Langley to demonstrate improved technology readiness levels (TRLs) for two technologies needed in the design of new imaging Fourier transform spectrometers (IFTS). The IIP IFTS was developed at the Space Dynamics Laboratory and flown to an altitude of 103,000 feet on an instrumented NASA balloon payload. The sensor collected approximately 15,000 interferograms during its 6-hour flight.

Fourier transforms (FFT) produced acceptable results except for noise equivalent temperature differences (NETD) that were five times higher than goal and inconclusive transforms at seven …

Application Of The Relevance Vector Machine To Canal Flow Prediction In The Sevier River Basin, John T. Flake

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This work addresses management of the scarce water resource for irrigation in arid regions where significant delays between the time of order and the time of delivery present major difficulties. Motivated by improvements to water management that will be facilitated by an ability to predict water demand, this work employs a data-driven approach to developing canal flow prediction models using the Relevance Vector Machine (RVM), a probabilistic kernel-based learning machine. Beyond the RVM learning process, which establishes the set of relevant vectors from the training data, a search is performed across model attributes including input set, kernel scale parameter, and …

Langmuir Probe Measurements In The Ionosphere, Aroh Barjatya

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Electric probes have been the primary instruments for the in situ investigation of plasma parameters in the Earth’s ionosphere. This dissertation is a compendium of three papers, each dealing with a separate spacecraft that carried one or more instruments based on the electric probe technique.

The first paper presents data from the Sudden Atom Layer sounding rocket that carried an RF Impedance Probe, a DC fixed-bias Langmuir Probe (DCP), and an Electric Field Probe. The combined dataset indicates a case of payload surface charging, the causes of which are investigated within the paper. A generic circuit model is developed to …

A Bayesian Method For Groundwater Quality Monitoring Network Analysis, Khalil A. Ammar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Water resources management is best done when an efficient and reliable information system is available that provides data about the state of the water system being managed. Herein, a new methodology is developed and demonstrated that incorporates different aspects of monitoring, including vulnerability assessment, environmental health risk, the value of information, and redundancy reduction in an existing monitoring network. These various objectives reflect a desire for cost- efficiency, while taking into account uncertainty in predictions of groundwater contamination potential. This methodology is presented within an integrated approach to groundwater quality monitoring that includes several multi-objective aspects associated with decisions about …

The History And Dynamics Of The Plasma Impedance Probe, Wayne G. Sanderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For over 40 years Utah State University / Space Dynamics Laboratory and their predecessors have built instruments to measure electron density in the ionosphere. These instruments have incrementally improved as new measuring techniques have developed and new technologies have been introduced. This thesis introduces the properties and measurement of electron density in the ionosphere. It maps the instrument advancements from the early radio frequency probes of the 1960's to the present Plasma Impedance Probe (PIP), with emphasis on the introduction of the phase lock looped Plasma Frequency Probe (PFP) and the rediscovery of the Swept Impedance Probe (SIP). The current …

Regulating Waste Discharge With Fuzzy Effluent Limitations For Toxic Pollutants, Tong Yin, David King Stevens

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Many traditional water quality standards are based on extreme percentiles; often, there is the risk of making wrong decisions with these standards because of high estimation uncertainty. Standards expressed as fuzzy intervals in the form of [trigger, enforcement limitation] make it possible to control the risks for the discharger and the consumer simul taneously. With fuzzy interval compliance, corrective action is initiated when the trigger is exceeded; noncompliance is declared when the en forcement limitation is exceeded. Fuzzy intervals would digest the risks that are inherent when a single enforcement limitation is used to determine compliance; the risks can be …

Production Of Bio-Hydrogen By Mesophilic Anaerobic Fermentation In An Acid-Phase Sequencing Batch Reactor, D. Y. Cheong, C. L. Hansen, David King Stevens

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The pH and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) were varied to optimize the conversion of carbohydrate-rich synthetic wastewater into bio-hydrogen. A full factorial design using evolutionary operation (EVOP) was used to determine the effect of the factors and to find the optimum condition of each factor required for high hydrogen production rate. Experimental results from 20 runs indicate that a maximum hydrogen production rate of 4,460-5,540 mL/L/day under the volumetric organic loading rate (VOLR) of 75 g-COD/L/day obtained at an observed design point of HRT = 8 h and pH = 5.7. The hydrogen …

Rockport Reservoir Final Environmental Assessment And Finding Of No Significant Impact Pro-06-004, Peter Crookston, U.S. Department Of The Interior, Bureau Of Reclamation

All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository)

No abstract provided.