Engineering Commons^™

Novel Kinetic Description Of Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Characterizes Interrelated Effects Of Sample, Master Mix, And Cycle Time, David Tafur

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction fluorescent curves are influenced by the quantification method, template length, primer sequence, polymerase activity, reaction conditions, and unwanted side reactions. Interpretation of these curves depends on understanding the subjacent mechanisms by which those factors can alter the curve profile, particularly on highly diluted analytes or impure samples. However, such factors are individually described today, or their interplay is not fully developed. The present work examines the effect of primer dimer formation and extension, resource competition, template reannealing, and polymerase thermodegradation, in addition to novel descriptions of polymerase competitive inhibition, extended primer amplification, and the probability …

Multifidelity Comparison Of Supersonic Wave Drag Prediction Methods Using Axisymmetric Bodies †, Troy Abraham, David Lazzara, Douglas Hunsaker

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

Low-fidelity analytic and computational wave drag prediction methods assume linear aerodynamics and small perturbations to the flow. Hence, these methods are typically accurate for only very slender geometries. The present work assesses the accuracy of these methods relative to high-fidelity Euler, compressible computational-fluid-dynamics solutions for a set of axisymmetric geometries with varying radius-to-length ratios (R/L). Grid-resolution studies are included for all computational results to ensure grid-resolved results. Results show that the low-fidelity analytic and computational methods match the Euler CFD predictions to around a single drag count (~1.0 × 10^–4) for geometries with R/L ≤ 0.05 …

Lessons From Immersive Online Collaborative Modeling To Discuss More Adaptive Reservoir Operations, David E. Rosenberg

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This work had the purpose to provoke discussion about more adaptive reservoir operations. This work created online collaborative modeling environments by using web spreadsheets (Google Sheets) during a video conference session. In each session, up to 6 collaborators immersed in water user roles. Then the collaborators consumed, saved, and traded water in response to their available water, other choices, and real-time discussion of choices. The collaboration was an alternative to prior offline or high-performance computing efforts that programmed water allocation rules to try to satisfy forecasted water demands across hydrologic scenarios. The collaboration also differed from prior efforts that excluded …

Correlation Of Am Lpbf Processing Parameters To Grain Morphology Of Ss316l, Patrick Merighe

Student Research Symposium

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) is a 3D printing technology that uses a recoater to spread powdered metal across a substrate. A laser then selectively fuses layers of this metal powder, intricately shaping three-dimensional objects. This process repeats, with each new layer of powder being spread across the previous layer to form a solid part.

Testing Resilience Of Microalgae Biofilms When Exposed To Hydrothermal Liquefaction Aqueous Phase, Davis Haag

Student Research Symposium

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a process that transforms wet biomass into a mixture of aqueous phase (AP), biochar solids, biocrude oil, and biogas.

The HTL process is not economically viable on a large scale partially because the HTL-AP is a toxic waste product with no current use.

The HTL-AQ contains high amounts of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), but also environmental toxins such as phenolic compounds. The N and P could potentially be used to grow algae if it can survive the toxins.

Rotating algal biofilm reactors (RABRs) provide a method to grow algae biomass as a biofilm on plastic …

Offshore Wind Farm Pycnocline Mixing From Varied Flow Types, Laura Lundahl

Student Research Symposium

As the demand for sustainable low carbon energy grows, offshore wind farms (OWFs) are becoming increasingly popular and are being pushed into stratified regions where a pycnocline exists (Figure 1). These wind farms may cause turbulent mixing of the pycnocline, which will harm the phytoplankton ecosystem. This project quantifies pycnocline mixing to gain knowledge of effective methods for mitigating harmful effects.

Examining The Impact Of Weather And Air Quality On University Commuters' Travel Behavior, Atul Subedi

Student Research Symposium

Introduction

• Understanding Transportation Choices: Essential for creating a compatible (socially and environmentally) transportation system.
• Role of Weather and Air Quality: Key factors affecting travel behavior.
• Commuting Options to Utah State University (USU): Diverse, including private, public and active modes (walking and bicycling)
• Research Aim: Investigate how weather and air quality influence university commuter choice decision.

Effects Of Process Design And Light Quality On Biomass Growth And Nutrient Uptake In Rotating Algal Biofilm Reactors, Emily Hanson, Hayden Harrison, Colby Hamson, Shanelle Sorensen

Student Research Symposium

Goal: Produce algae, to be used as bioproducts, from wastewater containing high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous. Determine if a single-stage or a two-stage reactor has a higher algae biomass yield.

Approach: Use single-stage and two-stage reactors to conduct experiments in triplicate to determine the reactor design that leads to the highest biomass yield and nutrient uptake.

Quasi-Static Compression Performance Of Three Subscale Origami-Inspired Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer, Chase Mortensen

Student Research Symposium

Sandwich-structured composites are made of a lightweight core material between two thin composite panels. Variants of the Ori-Miura folding pattern have been investigated and compared to both the traditional Miura folding pattern (Fig. 1) and the more commonly used core design, the honeycomb. While the honeycomb design is favored over the Miura folding pattern and its variants due to its simple shape and better performance in compression, honeycomb cores also present drawbacks that are detrimental to the integrity of the sandwich structure. These drawbacks include, but are not limited to:

• Honeycomb cores consist of closed channels trapping moisture and heat. …

Optical Distortion In High-Magnification Camera-Based Deformation, Brayden Monson

Student Research Symposium

DIC (Digital Image Correlation): By randomly speckling a specimen with paint, we can track how each speckle of paint moves via a camera and, thus, how a material deforms in different conditions.

Advantage of DIC: Traditional methods of measuring material properties cannot be used in extreme conditions, such as in high-temperature or radiation chambers. DIC does not have this limitation, by virtue of using a camera and being non-contacting.

Optical Properties:

Refraction: Light bends as it goes through a material, creating distortion

Reflection: Parts of light reflects when entering a new medium, reducing the quality …

Engineering Faculty Perspectives On Student-Use Of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gai) In Course Completion: A Work-In-Progress, Michaela Harper

Student Research Symposium

How do engineering faculty perceive student use of GAI assistance in undergraduate course completion?

Simulating Low Gravity Particle-Laden Flow, Ryan Lewis

Student Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Identify And Quantify The Adverse Effects Of Plastics In Water-Soil-Plant System, Junjie Tang

Student Research Symposium

Plastic pollution has become impossible to ignore.

- Within that roughly 20-year span, we have generated 2.5bn tonnes of plastic waste and each year we produce about 380 million tonnes. More.

- Plastic waste:

(1) beaches

(2) landfills

(3) fruits and vegetables

(4) human organ

Energy-Aware Vehicle Routing Problem, Derek Redmond

Student Research Symposium

Outline

• Motivation
• The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP)
• Solution Techniques
• Ant Colony Optimization
• Current Work
• Future Work

Voltage Scaled Low Power Dnn Accelerator Design On Reconfigurable Platform, Rourab Paul, Sreetama Sarkar, Suman Sau, Sanghamitra Roy, Koushik Chakraborty, Amlan Chakrabarti

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The exponential emergence of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) has accelerated research on hardware implementation of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). Among all DNN processors, domain-specific architectures such as Google’s Tensor Processor Unit (TPU) have outperformed conventional GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) and CPUs (Central Processing Units). However, implementing low-power TPUs in reconfigurable hardware remains a challenge in this field. Voltage scaling, a popular approach for energy savings, can be challenging in FPGAs, as it may lead to timing failures if not implemented appropriately. This work presents an ultra-low-power FPGA implementation of a TPU for edge applications. We divide the systolic array of …

A Scalable Approach To Minimize Charging Costs For Electric Bus Fleets, Daniel Mortensen, Jacob Gunther

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Incorporating battery electric buses into bus fleets faces three primary challenges: a BEB’s extended refuel time, the cost of charging, both by the consumer and the power provider, and large compute demands for planning methods. When BEBs charge, the additional demands on the grid may exceed hardware limitations, so power providers divide a consumer’s energy needs into separate meters even though doing so is expensive for both power providers and consumers. Prior work has developed a number of strategies for computing charge schedules for bus fleets; however, prior work has not worked to reduce costs by aggregating meters. Additionally, because …

High-Fidelity Turbulence Modelling Of Double-Diffusive Mixing In Buoyancy Driven Flows, Sanaz Izadifar

Student Research Symposium

Double-diffusive convection is the flow caused by buoyancy gradient in a fluid, where two different scalars cause density gradients, and each scalar has significantly different diffusion rates.

Dynamics Of Rotating 2d Ellipse In Stratified Flow, Anton Kadomtsev

Student Research Symposium

• In nature, there exist innumerable flows with varying density, known as stratified flows.

• The density variation is caused by salt content or temperature variation.

• Submersibles in stratified flows approximated by spheroid.

• Fluid parcels perturbed from their neutral position gain potential energy, which becomes kinetic energy. Inherent oscillation is Brunt-Väisälä frequency.

• Stratification affects the flow structures and forces on bodies.

Wake Characteristics Of In-Phase And Out-Phase Array Of Oscillation Airfoils, Yi-Cheng Chen

Student Research Symposium

In order to solve the hydrodynamics of a school of fish using the open-source SEM solver Nek5000, an oscillating mesh is required to simulate fish oscillations and at the same time simplify the process of mesh partitioning and satisfy the limitation of nek5000 that the mesh must be quadrilateral.

Buckling Analysis Of A Novel High-Throughput Assembly For Accelerated Fatigue Test, Mehedi Hasan Mahfuz

Student Research Symposium

The novel high-throughput assembly was developed by Singh et al.[2024] previously to study creep, which we are using to study fatigue instead.

The main difference of testing creep and fatigue is, during fatigue test, the specimens are loaded with half-time compression and half-time tension where creep is only subjected to tensile load.

Machine Learning Based Control Of Digital Throttle For Impulse Design In Hybrid Rockets, Eric Larsen

Student Research Symposium

Research Goals

• Develop a Hybrid Rocket model to generate expected thrust profiles given a CD profile
• Create a ML method to generate expected Thrust profiles given an Injector CD Profile
• Develop a method to then generate CD profiles from a desired Thrust profile of a motor

Mechanical Property Variability In Lpbf Ss316l Due To Defects Formation And Process Interruption, Tasrif Ul Anwar

Student Research Symposium

This project aims to understand the correlation between the manufacturing process, defect formation, process interruptions, and the resulting properties of components made with laser powder bed fusion techniques.

Characterization Of Functionally Graded Regolith-Metal Powder Mixtures For Additive Manufacturing In Space, Ian Jones

Student Research Symposium

Additive manufacturing (AM), colloquially known as 3D Printing, is a manufacturing process in which a component is fabricated layer-by-layer. For metallic materials, the most common AM methods use powders as feedstock materials. To print in space, one abundantly available material is the loose powder covering the moon, i.e., lunar regolith. However, past research has shown that regolith does not have ideal properties for AM.

There are two main material properties that affect AM performance: (1) powder flowability, and (2) packing density. Powders must be able to flow over the print bed, otherwise the printer will jam. When powders naturally pack …

Dynamic Angle Of Repose Of Ss316l Powders Fabricated By Gas Atomization For Additive Manufacturing Applications, S. M. Mahid

Student Research Symposium

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, unlike conventional manufacturing methods like turning and milling, construct objects by incrementally adding layers of material. Various processes can be used to 3D print including laser or electron beams to melt or sinter metallic powder particles.

A Novel Camera Based Measurement Technique For High Temperature Applications, Prasenjit Dewanjee

Student Research Symposium

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is an optical technique for camera-based measurements.

Uncertainty Quantification In Neural Networks For Cfd, Cody Grogan

Student Research Symposium

Neural Networks have surged to popularity in many fields because of their ability to model complex functions. However, for most scientists, this comes at the cost of interpretability.

The aim of this research is to compile the different methods to uncertainty quantification in Neural Networks and apply them to a CFD problem.

Trip Production Models For Persons With Disabilities, Pouyan Saeidian

Student Research Symposium

People with disabilities constitute nearly 13% of the US population, with their mobility being more restricted compared to other groups. To provide equitable access to transportation facilities, it's crucial to delve deeper into their travel patterns and mobility. Our research examines their mobility patterns by comparing daily trip metrics with those without disabilities and modeling and analyzes factors influencing their travel frequency to inform policy enhancements

An In-Depth Investigation Into Factors Influencing Pedestrian Crash Severity: Comparative Analysis Of Generalized Ordered Probit, Stacking Ensemble Model, And Tabnet, Amir Rafe

Student Research Symposium

• Pedestrian Vulnerability: In 2021, there were 7,388 pedestrian deaths in the U.S., with urban settings, intersections, and dark lighting conditions being significant contributing factors.

• Prediction Models in Research: Pedestrian safety research employs a range of statistical, machine learning, and deep learning methods to assess factors affecting crash severity. TabNet, a novel deep learning model, is being used for the first time in the analysis of pedestrian crash severity.

Simulating Low Gravity Particle Dynamics, Ryan Lewis

Student Research Symposium

Lunar and Martian dust can pose a serious risk to astronauts and equipment due to the abrasive nature. A better understanding of how dust particles behave in low gravity is crucial in minimizing risks for future NASA Lunar and Martian missions.

• Existing methods are too expensive for detailed studies.
• We are developing an experimental platform that offers an affordable and robust way to study low gravity particle- laden flow.
• In this novel approach, the total body force on a dust particle is a proxy for gravitational force and can be controlled by imparting a vertical coulomb force on a charged …

Seasonal Shifts And Insights: Updating The Great Salt Lake Halogen Study (2022/24), Himalaya Sapkota

Student Research Symposium

Halogens compounds, particularly chlorine- and bromine-related species, may alter the photochemical reactions influencing local and regional air quality – including particulate formation (PM_2.5) and ozone (O₃) cycling.