Role Of Salt On Coating Failure, Kyle Krause

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

It is important to understand the role of salt in the coating failure because it may influence the coating degradation mechanism that is related to coating performance. This project will study the role of salt on two types of organic coatings under two different immersion environment. The environment selected was 3.5% by weight sodium chloride solution and deionized (DI) water. The two coatings were Neorez 1080 (a waterborne polyurethane) and Joncryl 587-AC (a solvent borne polyurethane). Each coating was tested in each environment using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurement which presented a total of four data sets. The equivalent circuit …

Gymfo: A Gym Finding Ios App Using Google Maps Api, Clay A. Wyers

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project explores iOS mobile app development. I developed a gym finding app in Swift, using Google Maps APIs,and called it Gymfo. Other technologies were studied as well, including the cloud computing service Microsoft Azure. Through this project I learned the basics of XCode and Swift, Google APIs, and sending and receiving HTTP requests. The final product is an iOS app that allows users to search for nearby gyms and displays the results on an interactive map.

Smart Fan, Jacob A. Carroll, Joshua B. Blanchard, Peter A. Gross, Joshua D. Riegel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Modern box fans offer a simple solution to cooling an area. However, the simplicity that makes these fans appealing also limits their potential. A smart box fan that preserves its original simplicity while providing enhanced technological features such as smartphone connectivity and variable speed selection should lead to ease of use, improved performance, and increased customer satisfaction. To this end, a regular box fan will be instrumented and technology-enhanced, thus “smart fan.” The standard AC motor will be replaced with a DC motor for finer speed selection over the allowable range. The smart fan will offer three categories of operation: …

Developing Afm Techniques For Testing Peg Hydrogels, Hannah L. Cebull, Jessica Stukel, Rebecca Willits

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Many instruments are used to find elastic properties of biological samples using methods such as tensile and bending tests, but using the atomic force microscope (AFM) is considered a non-destructive method because it can provide repeated local stiffness information without damaging the sample. It additionally allows the sample to be tested in an aqueous environment, which is optimal for soft materials such as hydrogels. The nanoindentation is performed via cantilever, measuring the deflection of the cantilever during the contact of the sample using a laser. Compared to hard samples, testing soft materials can present more challenges when working with the …

Lawn Mower Lift, Randall E. Schelcher

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Our team of engineers were given the task of coming up with a design project and designing the system, creating calculations, and brainstorming ideas. We set out to design a riding lawn mower lift. The purpose of this design was to assist in general maintenance like replacing blades, oil changes, etc.

To accomplish this task, our team started to brainstorm ideas and make sketches to look at all the options. We then did research and looked at different size lawn mowers and looked at the specifications. This helped our team to be able to design the size of platform needed …

Protein Release Study Using Heparin Modified Methacrylamide Chitosan Hydrogels, Dakotah G. Cox

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study was performed to improve the release of proteins from hydrogels in order to increase their effectiveness in treating spinal cord injuries. Heparin, which has the ability to bind to proteins and slow their release, underwent methacrylation, was added to prepared methacrylamide chitosan (MAC) solutions with a model protein (SDF-1α) and photopolymerized to create MAC-heparin hydrogels. Varying weight percentages of methacrylated heparin were tested in order to determine the optimal amount needed to improve the release profile. The pure MAC hydrogels and gels with 10 wt% heparin had a rapid release of the SDF-1α (>23% and >29%, respectively, …

Design And Testing Of Flexible Lithium-Ion Batteries, Ryan C. Kramanak, Matt A. Murrow, Matt Stolfer, Jered Tyler, Aaron Moser

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this disquisition is to delineate the development of a material and casing suitable for flexible lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. Development of these cells is driven by increasing interest in portable and flexible electronics. The goal is to implement them into items such as smart cards, wearable electronics, novelty packages, flexible displays, and transdermal drug delivery patches. To accomplish this task, a number of individual cathode compounds were explored that used different compositions of lithium cobalt oxide and other compounds. These cells were tested in a generic and easily manufacturable cell casing. After the catholyte compound testing was completed …

Process Control Laboratory Skid Refurbishment, Danny Crowder

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project evaluates a salvaged process control skid for potential refurbishment and educational re-use. In-lab work evaluated the existing skid. Several process control elements have been recommended for replacement, including the process tank (due to corrosion), the pressure transmitter (operability/corrosion), the flow meters (mechanical) and the control system (age). The control valves, temperature elements and transmitters, pump, holding tanks, and the electrical heat exchanger should be salvaged. An I/P converter and pressure relief valve should be added to the pneumatic feed. Enclosing of all electrical components should be prioritized. An electrical schematic for a new control system should be implemented. …

Lighted Ear Curette, Kaitlin Klotzle, Kelsey Ashmore, Crysta Yamamoto, Katrina Elfrink, Cynthia Stoller

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The ear canal is a sensitive and small part of the human body that is prone to accumulate cerumen or lodge foreign bodies. In order to clean the ear canal or remove foreign bodies, three hands are required: one to brace the patient's head, one to maneuver the curette that is used to clean the ear, and one to hold a light source in order to make the small, dark area visible. Therefore, a design is needed that can allow a doctor to safely clean an ear with an instrument that only requires two hands. Furthermore, the design must have …

System For Workout Information Management, Mark Archual, Ethan E. Schweinsberg

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Power racks are a weight machine used by swimmers to provide resistance while they swim away from a wall toward the center of the pool. The objective of this project is to build a modular data system that can be added to these machines to record and log quantitative information during their use. This information will be stored on a web server, and made available to the user for analysis and visualization through a web application. Workout data can also be downloaded and interpreted at a later time, independent of the web application. The data system should be water resistant, …

Wardjet Waterjet Cutting Head Actuator Design, Micah Steiner, Jacob D. Augustynovich, Benjamin Heckert

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In an effort to increase efficiency and productivity, WARDJet was seeking a better actuation method for the cutting head on their waterjets. Current actuation methods were, for the most part, purely mechanical, relying on compressed air, springs, and water pressure to open and close the valve to 60,000 psi of water. Increasing the speed of the on/off cycle times of the waterjet would allow for faster movements of the cutting head from one cut to the next, increasing the overall amount of products cut in a day, week, and year. This obviously points to increased sales, increased profit, and increased …

Water Jet Cutting Head Actuator, Jacob D. Augustynovich

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In an effort to increase efficiency and productivity, WARDJet was seeking a better actuation method for the cutting head on their waterjets. Current actuation methods were, for the most part, purely mechanical, relying on compressed air, springs, and water pressure to open and close the valve to 60,000 psi of water. Increasing the speed of the on/off cycle times of the waterjet would allow for faster movements of the cutting head from one cut to the next, increasing the overall amount of products cut in a day, week, and year. This obviously points to increased sales, increased profit, and increased …

Indoor Mapping Drone, Benjamin J. Plevny, Andrew Armstrong, Miguel Lopez, Davidson Okpara

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project addresses the need for an autonomous indoor mapping system that will create a 3D map of an unknown physical environment in real time. The aerial system moves and avoids obstacles autonomously, without the need for human remote control or observation. An aerial system produces a map of an unknown indoor environment by transmitting data received from the aerial device’s sensors. The transmission occurs over a wireless channel from the aerial device to a remote server for processing and storage of the data. As the transmission is done in real time, the aerial system does not require hardware for …

Smart Fitness Machine, Tyler M. Masters

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper details the design of a smart fitness machine that, by the use of sensors and a central micro controller, tracks an individual users exercise performance data and provides a platform for the data to be easily accessed either by the trainer or user.

The Design And Testing Of A High Performance Formula Sae Powertrain, Ryan T. Harty

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Every year the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) tasks collegiate students with designing, constructing, testing, and competing with an open wheel formula style racecar. This vehicle has to meet stringent technical requirements that are provided in a rule book published by SAE. The Formula SAE (FSAE) rule book is a very comprehensive set of requirements that are centered on safety of the driver of the vehicle and the safety of the track workers. The students are required to read and understand the rulebook in order to use sound engineering practices to build not only a high performing vehicle but a …

Lighted Ear Curette, Kelsey Ashmore, Kaitlin Klotzle, Crysta Yamamoto, Katrina Elfrink, Cynthia Stoller

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The ear canal is a sensitive and small part of the human body that is prone to accumulate cerumen or lodge foreign bodies. In order to clean the ear canal or remove foreign bodies, three hands are required: one to brace the patient's head, one to maneuver the curette that is used to clean the ear, and one to hold a light source in order to make the small, dark area visible. Therefore, a design is needed that can allow a doctor to safely clean an ear with an instrument that only requires two hands. Furthermore, the design must have …

Optimization Of Acoustic Soundboard Through Modal Analysis And Material Selection, Noah C. Nicholas, Cody Gruber, Nicholas Hartman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this design project was to determine if it is plausible to design an acoustic top plate assembly made of a non-traditional material which is equivalent in sound quality to that of a standard wooden guitar. Since wood must be crafted by skilled luthiers, the overall cost of producing the completed product is fairly high. To reduce the cost of a finished acoustic guitar, we proposed to alter the material to that of one that is easier to manufacture, such as plastics and composites.

Based on our research, our team chose to test both ABS plastic and carbon …

The Influence Of Light On The Electrochemical Characteristics Of Pure Aluminum, Hongbo M. Cong

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of this work was to study the influence of light (wave length ~ 460 nm) on the electrochemical characteristics of pure aluminum. The open circuit potential (OCP) measurements, potentiostatic polarization, cyclic potentiodynamic polarization and Zero Resistance Ammetry (ZRA) were performed in 0.1 M NaCl solution. It was observed that the incident light shifted the OCP in the noble direction by 100 mV. Furthermore, ZRA was performed to measure the galvanic current between illuminated and non-illuminated aluminum electrodes. Cyclic potentiodynamic polarization tests revealed the influence of light on the pitting potential, passive current density, corrosion current density, and repassivation …

Stringless Guitar, Kue Z. Yang, Anthony Batey, Dominic Mercorelli, Nathaniel Hawk

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The aim of this project is to improve the design of a typical guitar by designing a digital stringless guitar. Due to the nonlinearities inherent in a guitar, it would be difficult to reproduce guitar tones by summing harmonic components; therefore, digital samples of guitar tones were taken in order to preserve these unique and wonderfully sounding tones. These digital samples were stored in the guitar and used to produce its tones when played. The digital guitar includes fingerboard position sensors as well as strum sensors for each string. The fingerboard position sensors detect the player’s fingers at discrete positions. …

Chocolate Bar Wrapping Machine, Austin M. Hoff, Daniel R. Trepke, Caleb B. Krichbuam

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Gilbert Chocolates has proposed to manufacture a machine to wrap chocolate bars. This machine is intended to replace two people wrapping the chocolate bars by hand, which is a time consuming method. This is especially apparent between October and January when the workers are working long hours in preparation for the Christmas rush of customers. Currently wrapping a bar takes about a minute and Gilbert Chocolates wants this time reduced down to 20-30 seconds. The budget for this project is set at $1000, and is being funded by the company. This machine needs to fit in a cubic foot of …

Hovercam, Kevin Rauh, Ross Palenik

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Quadcopters are widely used in recreational areas and often have video cameras mounted to them. The Hovercam increases the range of usefulness of quadcopters and allow the user to record him or herself while performing any task. The Hovercam will use GPS to track and follow a target. A smartphone application will be used to control the Hovercam in its basic functions of taking off, hovering, and landing.

Design Of Natural Rubber Extraction From Tks Dandelion, Jehad S. Alrawajfeh, Trevor Cody, Jason Pogozelski

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A design was developed for a controlled environment agriculture 3D greenhouse to grow and harvest TKS dandelions, as well as a processing plant to extract natural rubber and inulin from the roots. The design capacity was scaled for both pilot- and full-scale production: 100 and 100,000 tonnes of natural rubber per year, respectively. The byproducts of the process were dandelion greens, inulin, cellulose, and glucose; all of these except for cellulose were able to be valorized. The greenhouse was designed based on existing 3D hydroponic growing environments, and the extraction process was designed based on the original TKS dandelion extraction …

Packmule, Jared M. Alexander, Jared J. Ford, Timothy J. Griffiths, Andray Pennington

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

People face demands of hauling equipment and belongings with them every day, whether it be for work or leisure. This design report discusses and details a product that would allow people to overcome the struggles of this. The Packmule is an autonomous following robot that has the capability of carrying a load up to 30 pounds. The design involves two independently controlled motors operating two drive wheels so that the Packmule will be flexible in the directions it can move. There are also two more steering wheels for support of the base and the load inside. The way in which …

Design And Construction Of An Optimum Method To Present Uncertainty Of Convective Weather Forecasts To Air Traffic Personnel, Anna K. Selchow, Austin Wright

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this design project was to develop a new weather display for air traffic controllers to utilize that shows the probabilistic hazard information for convective weather forecasts. Multiple iterations of maps were generated and evaluated for overall effectiveness in conveying uncertainty information for convective weather observations and forecasts with the final maps being tested through interviews with retired air traffic personnel. The goal of these maps was to improve upon current convective weather displays to more accurately show uncertainty and probabilistic hazard information to aid the air traffic controllers (ATCs) in providing guidance for aircraft pilots.

Underwater Robot, Joseph E. Beck, Matthew Crislip, Cody Bobek, Peyton Lucas

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are remote controlled drones operated by a non-local user. The ROV we plan to build is connected by a tethering wire to a floating buoy that contains an antenna which will send signals between the base station and the ROV. The ROV is equipped with a video camera, ballast system, propulsion system, lights, and a depth sensor. The ROV will transmit a live video feed to the user, while receiving input signals to control its movement from the base station.

Augmented Reality Helmet, Kevin Kapko

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Cyclists need a detection method for vehicles to help prevent accidents and a method to display exercise data in order to maximize their workout. An array of sensors paired with a display allows a cyclist to be notified of workout information and any surrounding traffic. A smartphone app calculates the information from the sensors and sends the calculations to the display. This will allow the user to be able to see their exercise information without disrupting their bike ride as well as give some measure of safety to the cyclist when sharing the street with cars.

Characterization Of Polyurethane For Use As Substrate In Nanofiber Sensor For Biomedical Applications, Megan Theaker

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to begin to determine properties of polymer nanocomposites that make a suitable substrate for nanofiber sensors. In this work, sensitivity of a sodium ion selective sensor constructed with polyurethane was used as a benchmark for comparison with sensors constructed with nylon-6. The sensors were characterized using contact angle and chronoamperometry. Using an ANOVA analysis, the results showed that the multi-walled carbon nanotube type was a significant factor on sensor response both with and without additional functionalization of the polymer by calixarene. The weight percentage of polyurethane in the electrospinning solution was also statistically significant …

Polarized Elastic Nanofiber Tubular Mat, Elizabeth Moore

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Abstract

The scope of this project is to find the optimal parameters to polarize a nanofiber membrane in a tubular geometry as spun on a metal spring. Several different recipes were tested for electrospinning and polarization. Some recipes proved unable to be electrospun. A polymer solution with 12 weight percent resulted in good fiber formation. The results from the polarization attempts proved inconclusive as the electrostatic surface charge did not appear to change. The readings were taken with an electrostatic field meter. As a future experiment a new measurement technique with a Faraday cage will be utilized.

Corrosion Resistance Of Silane Coatings On Aluminum And Magnesium Alloys, John Demopoulos

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project was to increase the corrosion resistance of aluminum and magnesium alloys by coating the coupons with a silane on the surface. Four different silanes: 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), Bis(triethoxysilylpropyl)amine (Bis), (Heptadecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrodecyl)trichlorosilane (FTS), and (Heptadecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrodecyl)triethoxysilane (non Cl FTS) will be used and compared to see which silane would give the best corrosion resistance. Each silane solution was coated on the coupons by using a solution method in which the coupon was submerged for 24 hours and then thermally cured for another 24 hours. Once the coating was applied, the water contact angle and the thickness of the coating …

Chemical Modification Of Crumb Rubber To Increase Its Bonding With Concrete, Mary T. Mccannon, Kendall J. Sweitzer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The hydrophilicity of crumb rubber was increased with wet chemical modification and added to concrete to increase its adhesion with concrete, consequently the compressive strength relative to that of concrete with untreated rubber. Other modification methods were tested on crumb rubber and rubber sheets to yield an increase in hydrophilicity. Certain tests were less reliable for powder testing or tedious and time consuming and concrete materials and rubber may not be homogeneous.

For wet chemical modification, several approaches were attempted. First, crumb rubber was soaked in 5% sodium hydroxide, 5% potassium permanganate and saturated sodium bisulfite, tested for hydrophilicity using …