Engineering Commons^™

Implementing Dei In Aviation Education: Coping And Addressing Mental Health Concerns, Jorge L. D. Albelo Ph.D., Michael F. O'Toole Ph.D., Samantha Bowyer

Publications

In recent years, different global events have led to increased awareness of the benefits of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and education. Notably, the aviation industry is seeing increased research initiatives to promote DEI among all generations. Nevertheless, given the rising concerns about mental health in higher education, this paper sought to connect coping and addressing mental health through implementing DEI teachings in aviation education. Integrating DEI in the aviation classroom can be challenging, as many faculty members might feel uncomfortable addressing the topic in their courses. Consequently, the researchers proposed and tested an aviation education approach …

Metal Organic Framework Modifications Of Structural Fibers, Marwan Al-Haik

Publications

A reinforced carbon composite can include a carbon sub­strate and a metal organic framework bonded to the carbon substrate. For example, a reinforced carbon composite can include a first layer, a second layer, and a resin adhered to the first layer and the second layer. The first layer can include a carbon substrate and a metal organic framework bonded to the carbon substrate. The second layer can include a carbon substrate and a metal organic framework bonded to the carbon substrate.

Development Of Ultra-High Performance Engineered Geopolymer Composites (Uhp-Egcs), Hassan Noorvand, Miladin Radovic, Marwa Hassan, Svetlana Sukhishvili, Gabriel Arce, Ruwa Abufarsakh, Adriana A. Alvarado, Oscar Huang, Sang Zhen

Publications

This study investigated the possibility of developing novel UHP-EGC materials for the repair and new construction of transportation infrastructure in Region 6 by utilizing locally available resources. To this end, the geopolymers (GPs) in this study were synthesized by activating metakaolin (MK) with potassium silicate and sodium silicate solutions. The solutions were manufactured in the laboratory by dissolving silica fume and potassium hydroxide (KOH) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in deionized water. MK-based GP binders, mortars, and fiber-reinforced composites were manufactured and evaluated to determine their density, compressive strength, tensile properties, and slant shear bond strength to Portland cement concrete (PCC). …

Comparative Analysis Of 3d Printed Bridge Construction In Louisiana, Amirhosein Jafari, Ali Kazemian, Sarah Ataei

Publications

A construction 3D printing system could result in automated infrastructure development at reduced cost and time, significantly boosting overall productivity. Although there has been a growing interest in using construction 3D printing for projects such as house construction, implementing this innovative technology for infrastructure development, particularly bridge construction, has not been investigated as extensively. This study aims to compare the environmental impact of precast and 3D concrete printing (3DCP) techniques with a pedestrian bridge case study, located in Louisiana, where the bridge elements were 3D printed off-site and then transported and assembled on the bridge site. A detailed cradle-to-site life …

Mental Health Needs Among Minority Aviation Students, Jorge L. D. Albelo Ph.D., Stacey Mcintire

Publications

Higher education, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, benefit our society and economic growth. However, overcoming gender disparity and increasing the retention of underrepresented minorities within these programs is challenging. Mental health across higher education has shown to be on the rise, and when it comes to the mental health needs of aviation students, research shows that underrepresented minorities experience unique challenges in achieving academic success. This paper focused on identifying aviation minority students' unique challenges in a small STEM university. This mixed-methods action research study collected quantitative data using an adapted version of the Counseling Center Assessment …

Aviation Supply And Demand In The São Paulo And Rio De Janeiro Systems Evolution: An Exploratory Study, Leila Halawi, Bruno De Paula Balan, Renan Cipriano Da Cunha, Maria Claudia Ferreira Da Cunha

Publications

Aim/purpose – Multiple factors affect a passenger’s origin and destination airport choice. This study explores some of the leading indicators associated with performance in cities with more than one airport. Two important Multi-Airport Systems (MAS) in Brazil were the object of this study: São Paulo (Congonhas and Guarulhos) and Rio de Janeiro (Santos Dumont and Galeão), the most significant demand-generating centers in the country and the most critical distribution centers of flights from South America.

Design/methodology/approach – Using public databases presenting the evolution of supply and demand from 2013 to 2018, the evolution of flights, and the sales by airlines …

A Machine Learning Approach Towards Analyzing Impact Of Surface Weather On Expect Departure Clearance Times In Aviation, Dothag Truong, Shlok Misra, Godfrey V. D'Souza

Publications

Commercial air travel in the United States has grown significantly in the past decade. While the reasons for air traffic delays can vary, the weather is the largest cause of flight cancellations and delays in the United States. Air Traffic Control centers utilize Traffic Management Initiatives such as Ground Stops and Expect Departure Clearance Times (EDCT) to manage traffic into and out of affected airports. Airline dispatchers and pilots monitor EDCTs to adjust flight blocks and flight schedules to reduce the impact on the airline’s operating network. The use of time-series data mining can be used to assess and quantify …

Rebar-Free 3d Printing Of Transportation Infrastructure, Ali Kazemian, Marwa Hassan, Hassan Noorvand, Gabriel Arce, Hassan Ahmed, Ilerioluwa Giwa

Publications

This study investigates the fresh and hardened-state properties of printing mixtures including different dosages of steel fibers, especially at higher dosages which have not been investigated before. This study also considers the effects of other parameters such as sand-to-powder ratio and the limestone content on the properties of steel fiber reinforced printing materials, to reduce the Portland cement content which has a high carbon footprint. The obtained experimental results revealed that high-performance materials incorporating up to 2.5% steel fibers (by volume) can be successfully 3D printed. The mechanical properties of the reinforced mixtures improved significantly at high fiber dosages (2% …

Development Of Robotics & Automation Roadmap For Road Construction/Maintenance Projects, Ashrant Aryal, Chao Wang, Chintan Vijay Vora, Sueed A. Willoughby

Publications

Over the past few decades, there have been no significant improvements in the construction industry's productivity. Outside the construction industry, robots have proven to be beneficial in improving productivity, safety, and quality. There is a growing interest in adopting robots in the construction industry to address these issues. As robots get introduced to the project sites, human-robot interaction becomes an important consideration for wide-scale adoption. The success of deploying robots in the construction industry depends on how well humans collaborate with the robots. This project focused on investigating the perception of various construction industry stakeholders in adopting robots in their …

Low-Cost Sustainable Engineered Geopolymer Composites (Egcs) For Repair And New Construction Of Transportation Infrastructure, Hassan Noorvand, Marwa Hassan, Miladin Radovic, Svetlana Sukhishvili, Gabriel Arce, Ruwa Abufarsakh, Adriana A. Alvarado, Oscar Huang, Sang Zhen

Publications

This study evaluated the use of cost-effective alternative materials in the formulation of novel low-cost Engineered Geopolymer Composite (EGC) materials for repair and new construction of transportation infrastructure in Region 6. Previous studies and reports have shown that EGCs have excellent mechanical properties, which makes them an eco-friendly and more sustainable alternative to Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECCs). However, the mass adoption of these emerging composites is expected to be hindered by their cost, which is mainly driven by the use of PVA reinforcing fibers, silica fume (SF), and manufactured microsilica sand (MS). To address this key shortcoming, novel low-cost EGC …

Event-Triggered Optimal Adaptive Control Of Partially Unknown Linear Continuous-Time Systems With State Delay, Rohollah Moghadam, Vignesh Narayanan, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Publications

This paper proposes an event-triggered optimal adaptive output feedback control design approach by utilizing integral reinforcement learning (IRL) for linear time-invariant systems with state delay and uncertain internal dynamics. In the proposed approach, the general optimal control problem is formulated into the game-theoretic framework by treating the event-triggering threshold and the optimal control policy as players. A cost function is defined and a value functional, which includes the delayed system output, is considered. First, by using the value functional and applying stationarity conditions using the Hamiltonian function, the output game delay algebraic Riccati equation (OGDARE) and optimal control policy are …

Tutorial: Knowledge-Infused Learning For Autonomous Driving (Kl4ad), Ruwan Wickramarachchi, Cory Henson, Sebastian Monka, Daria Stepanova, Amit Sheth

Publications

Autonomous Driving (AD) is considered as a testbed for tackling many hard AI problems. Despite the recent advancements in the field, AD is still far from achieving full autonomy due to core technical problems inherent in AD. The emerging field of neuro-symbolic AI and the methods for knowledge-infused learning are showing exciting ways of leveraging external knowledge within machine/deep learning solutions, with the potential benefits for interpretability, explainability, robustness, and transferability. In this tutorial, we will examine the use of knowledge-infused learning for three core state-of-the-art technical achievements within the AD domain. With a collaborative team from both academia and …

Tutorial: Neuro-Symbolic Ai For Mental Healthcare, Kaushik Roy, Usha Lokala, Manas Gaur, Amit Sheth

Publications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems for mental healthcare (MHCare) have been ever-growing after realizing the importance of early interventions for patients with chronic mental health (MH) conditions. Social media (SocMedia) emerged as the go-to platform for supporting patients seeking MHCare. The creation of peer-support groups without social stigma has resulted in patients transitioning from clinical settings to SocMedia supported interactions for quick help. Researchers started exploring SocMedia content in search of cues that showcase correlation or causation between different MH conditions to design better interventional strategies. User-level Classification-based AI systems were designed to leverage diverse SocMedia data from various MH conditions, …

Permeable Curbs For Storm Water Pollution, Aldo Hernandez, Drew Johnson, Marcio Giacomoni

Publications

One of the problems that increased urbanization poses is storm water pollution. Several control measures exist that are used to treat and reduce pollution in our waterways, one of those being permeable concretes; but these have not been widely adopted. The goal of this project was to develop a permeable curb apparatus that could be used in retrofitting conventional streets. The permeable curb is comprised of a permeable concrete mix with a perforated pipe running through its center, this allows for water to filter through the porous concrete and continue downstream through the perforated pipe which would eventually lead to …

Coupled Situational Awareness System To Improve Transportation Infrastructure Performance During Extreme Events, Hatim Sharif, Samer Dessouky, Md Jobair Bin Alam, Raghava Kommalapati, Hongbo Du Ph.D

Publications

The dense road networks and numerous low water crossings throughout Texas may be contributing to the higher recurrence rates of floods that pose a danger to vehicles. A timely issue that should be addressed by researchers is the compounding of disaster. Flooding can be combined with other life-threatening occurrences such as power loss and interruptions of health and emergency services. During these events, rescue requests from the stranded communities overwhelm the emergency response facilities; impassable roadways and the paucity of reliable information on the affected areas and their accessibility hamper emergency response operations, causing several detours and delays that put …

A Protocol For Coupling Volumetrically Dynamic In Vitro Experiments To Numerical Physiology Simulation For A Hybrid Cardiovascular Model, Abraham Umo, Ethan Kung

Publications

Objective: The Physiology Simulation Coupled Experiment (PSCOPE) is a hybrid modeling framework that enables a physical fluid experiment to operate in the context of a closed-loop computational simulation of cardiovascular physiology. Previous PSCOPE methods coupled rigid experiments to a lumped parameter network (LPN) of physiology but are incompatible with volumetrically dynamic experiments where fluid volume varies periodically. We address this limitation by introducing a method capable of coupling rigid, multi-branch, and volumetrically dynamic in-vitro experiments to an LPN. Methods: Our proposed method utilizes an iterative weighted-averaging algorithm to identify the unique solution waveforms for a given PSCOPE model. We confirm …

Design And Development Of A Multi-Material, Cost-Competitive, Lightweight Mid-Size Sports Utility Vehicle’S Body-In-White, Amit M. Deshpande, Rushabh Rajesh Sadiwala, Nathan Brown, Sai Aditya Pradeep, Leon M. Headings, Ningxiner Zhao, Brad Losey, Ryan Hahnlen, Marcelo J. Dapino, Gang Li, Srikanth Pilla

Publications

Vehicle light-weighting has allowed automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to improve fuel efficiency, incorporate value-adding features without a weight penalty, and extract better performance. The typical body-in-white (BiW) accounts for up to 40% of the total vehicle mass, making it the focus of light-weighting efforts through a) conceptual redesign b) design optimization using state-of-the-art computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools, and c) use of advanced high strength steels (AHSS), aluminum, magnesium, and/or fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) composites. However, most of these light-weighting efforts have been focused on luxury/sports vehicles, with a relatively high price range and an average production of 100,000 units/year or …

Defining Aviation “Skills” To Ensure Effective, Safe, And Efficient Evaluations: A Qualitative Study, Jorge L. D. Albelo Ph.D., Haydee M. Cuevas, Marisa Aguiar, Christopher Piccone, Karlene Petitt, Raquel Villagomez

Publications

The present qualitative case study strives to define the term skill within aviation, drawing from the cognitive psychology, organizational psychology, and training literature as well as input from subject matter experts in the aviation industry. A review of the published literature revealed no consensus for defining what constitutes a skill. While some definitions follow a task-based approach, others emphasize more cognitively based representations. Moreover, a formal, commonly accepted definition of the term skill within the aviation domain is lacking. The researchers employed a qualitative case study methodology to extract true descriptions from the subject matter experts to bound and expand …

Learning To Automate Follow-Up Question Generation Using Process Knowledge For Depression Triage On Reddit Posts, Shrey Gupta, Anmol Agarwal, Manas Gaur, Kaushik Roy, Vignesh Narayanan, Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, Amit Sheth

Publications

Conversational Agents (CAs) powered with deep language models (DLMs) have shown tremendous promise in the domain of mental health. Prominently, the CAs have been used to provide informational or therapeutic services (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy) to patients. However, the utility of CAs to assist in mental health triaging has not been explored in the existing work as it requires a controlled generation of follow-up questions (FQs), which are often initiated and guided by the mental health professionals (MHPs) in clinical settings. In the context of `depression', our experiments show that DLMs coupled with process knowledge in a mental health questionnaire …

Metaversekg: Knowledge Graph For Engineering And Design Application In Industrial Metaverse, Utkarshani Jaimini, Tongtao Zhang, Georgia Olympia Brikis

Publications

While the term Metaverse was first coined by the author Neal Stephenson in 1992 in his science fiction novel “Snow Crash”, today the vision of an integrated virtual world is becoming a reality across different sectors. Applications in gaming and consumer products are gaining traction, industrial metaverse applications are, still in their early stages of development with one of the challenges being interoperability across various metaverse development platforms and existing software tools. In this work we propose the use of a knowledge graph based semantic data exchange layer, the Metaverse Knowledge Graph, to enable seamless transfer of information across platforms. …

Sme Coffee Hour: Human Factors: Dirty Dozennorms And Complacency, Linda Vee Weiland

Publications

Presentation about the relevance between communication, language, complacency and norms related to flight safety.

Towards Efficient Scoring Of Student-Generated Long-Form Analogies In Stem, Thilini Wijesiriwardene, Ruwan Wickramarachchi, Valerie L. Shalin, Amit P. Sheth

Publications

Switching from an analogy pedagogy based on comprehension to analogy pedagogy based on production raises an impractical manual analogy scoring problem. Conventional symbol-matching approaches to computational analogy evaluation focus on positive cases, and challenge computational feasibility. This work presents the Discriminative Analogy Features (DAF) pipeline to identify the discriminative features of strong and weak long-form text analogies. We introduce four feature categories (semantic, syntactic, sentiment, and statistical) used with supervised vector-based learning methods to discriminate between strong and weak analogies. Using a modestly sized vector of engineered features with SVM attains a 0.67 macro F1 score. While a semantic feature …

Height Information Aided 3d Real-Time Large-Scale Underground User Positioning, Houbing Song, Chengkai Tang, Cunle Zhang, Lingling Zhang, Yi Zhang

Publications

Due to the cost of inertial navigation and visual navigation equipment and lake of satellite navigation signals, they cannot be used in large‐scale underground mining environment. To solve this problem, this study proposes large‐scale underground 3D real‐time positioning method with seam height assistance. This method uses the ultrawide band positioning base station as the core and is combined with seam height information to build a factor graph confidence transfer model to realise3D positioning. The simulation results show that the proposed real‐time method is superior to the existing algorithms in positioning accuracy and can meet the needs of large‐scale underground users.

Examining Drivers’ Behaviors To Connected And Automated Vehicles, Hany Hassan, Taniya Sultana

Publications

It is envisioned that Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) are the future of transportation as they can assist in minimizing some inefficiencies with the current transport systems. However, it is not clear how drivers of conventional vehicles would interact with CAVs in a mixed traffic environment containing both CAVs and human driven vehicles (HDVs). Thus, this study aims to investigate drivers’ behaviors towards CAVs through driving simulation experiment and national survey study. Two on-ramp and two off-ramp driving simulation scenarios were designed where drivers were asked to merge with two-lane highway in presence of HDVs and CAVs truck platoon in …

Rocket Measurements Of Electron Energy Spectra From Earth’S Photoelectron Production Layer, Aroh Barjatya, Shantanab Debchoudhury, Glyn A. Collinson, Alex Glocer, Dennis Chornay, Et Al.

Publications

Photoelectrons are crucial to atmospheric physics. They heat the atmosphere, strengthen 28 planetary ambipolar electric fields, and enhance the outflow of ions to space. However, 29 there exist only a handful of measurements of their energy spectrum near the peak of 30 photoproduction. We present calibrated energy spectra of pristine photoelectrons at their 31 source by a prototype Dual Electrostatic Analyzer (DESA) instrument flown on July 11 32 2021 aboard the Dynamo-2 sounding rocket (NASA № 36.357). Photopeaks arising from 33 30.4nm He-II spectral line were observed throughout the flight above 120km. DESA also 34 successfully resolved the rarely observed …

Comprehensive Review Of Heat Transfer Correlations Of Supercritical Co2 In Straight Tubes Near The Critical Point: A Historical Perspective, Nicholas C. Lopes, Yang Chao, Vinusha Dasarla, Neil P. Sullivan, Mark Ricklick, Sandra Boetcher

Publications

An exhaustive review was undertaken to assemble all available correlations for supercritical CO2 in straight, round tubes of any orientation with special attention paid to how the wildly varying fluid properties near the critical point are handled. The assemblage of correlations, and subsequent discussion, is presented from a historical perspective, starting from pioneering work on the topic in the 1950s to the modern day. Despite the growing sophistication of sCO2 heat transfer correlations, modern correlations are still only generally applicable over a relatively small range of operating conditions, and there has not been a substantial increase in predictive capabilities. Recently, …

Development Of A Machine Learning-Based Model To Determine The Optimum And Safe Restriping Timing Of Thermoplastic Pavement Markings In Hot And Humid Climates, Momen R. Mousa, Marwa Hassan

Publications

Due to limited budget, most transportation agencies restripe their thermoplastic pavement markings based on a fixed schedule or based on visual inspection instead of monitoring the retroreflectivity and restriping when the retroreflectivity drops below a pre-determined threshold. These strategies are questionable in terms of efficiency and economy. Therefore, previous studies proposed degradation models to predict the retroreflectivity of thermoplastic markings based on key variables. Yet, most of these studies reported low R² (as low as 0.1), which placed little confidence in these models. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate and predict the field performance of thermoplastics …

A Deep Learning Tool For The Assessment Of Pavement Smoothness And Aggregate Segregation During Construction, Mostafa Elseifi, Ramchandra Paudel, Md Tanvir Ahmed Sarkar, Hossam Abohamer, Nirmal Dhakal

Publications

Pavement construction monitoring and quality assurance (QA) practices are mostly based on costly, discrete, and destructive methods. Most quality assurance programs are based on pavement construction procedures encompassing in-situ coring for layer thickness determination, density measurements, laboratory testing to measure volumetric properties, and smoothness measurements in case of the availability of a profiler. The main objective of this study was to develop a machine learning-based classifier for predicting pavement roughness and aggregate segregation based on digital image analysis, image recognition, and deep learning machine models. The developed Convolution Neural Networks (CNN) models were trained, tested, and validated using 600-pavement surface …

Alternative Supplementary Cementitious Materials In Ultra-High Performance Concrete, Craig Newtson, Seyedsaleh Mousavinezhad, Gregory J. Gonzales, William K. Toledo, Judit M. Garcia

Publications

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is an emerging material with remarkable mechanical and durability properties that contains large amounts of cementitious materials. Silica fume is a main supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in UHPC, however, it is more expensive than cement and other SCMs, so it is often substituted with inexpensive class F fly ash. Unfortunately, future availability of fly ash is uncertain as the energy industry moves toward renewable energy. Fly ash shortages create an urgent need to find cost-effective and environmentally-friendly alternatives for fly ash. This study investigated replacing cement, fly ash, and silica fume in UHPC mixtures with ground …

Performance Monitoring Leveraging Advanced Ai Technique With Cnn, Suyun Ham Ph.D, Stefan Romanoschi, Yin Chao Wu, Dafnik Saril Kumar David, Sanggoo Kang

Publications

The main goal of this project is to study and develop a reliable nondestructive testing (NDT)-based structural performance prediction model framework leveraging the advanced machine learning convolutional neural network (CNN) technique and rapid crack evaluation system. There are two steps of application CNN technique in this project: 1) the first step is to identify delamination, noise, and the unexpected signal produced by the existing damage identification algorithm to improve the accuracy of NDT results. The input image or training data of NDT data for CNN is comprehensively studied with several features, such as the duration of the signal, the starting …