Engineering Commons^™

Measuring Solar Activity With Cosmicwatch Muon Detectors, Jade Marchant

Utah Space Grant Consortium

To expand upon the knowledge gained from the construction of the CosmicWatch detectors, we conducted an experiment that had specific aims to measure the correlation between muon detection and current solar activity. This was done by taking daily muon count measurements and comparing it to daily sunspot and solar flare activity data retrieved from various space weather agencies. This experiment allowed us to test the capabilities of the detectors while also exploring fascinating astrophysical phenomena. Our results indicate that muon detection through the CosmicWatch detectors does not correlate with changes in daily solar activity.

Are They Really Muons: Determining The Viability Of Cosmicwatch Muon Detectors In ‘Coincidence Mode’, Matt Wilkinson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Our project went forward in two stages, the first stage being the building and testing of the detectors and the second being the primary experiment to test the detectors in their coincidence modes. Experiences with the build phase, particularly with the setting of thresholds for the detectors, lead to the interest in determining the statistical significance of these values.

Rover Propulsion In Frozen Environments, Kyler Ingles

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The goal of this study is to find the optimal propulsion system for a rover on snowy terrain. The purpose of the study is to test multiple methods of driving a rover in deep fresh snow to later be used when designing a rover intended to traverse steep snowy terrain on other planets. The exploration of this topic is important for our study of other celestial bodies. A significant portion of the planets and moons in our solar system has a surface covered in frozen substances like carbon dioxide, methane, and oxygen. This research will help create a rover to …

Optimization Of Nozzle Profiles To Achieve Higher Thrust Performance And Lowering Manufacturing Costs, Chandler Taylor

Utah Space Grant Consortium

With the growing popularity in high-powered rockery the question of cost and performance is on every rocketeer’s mind. Then paired with the interest of flying higher and breaking records for armature rocketry flight the question is proposed, how does one make a rocket motor to increase its performance and lower its costs? In this we intend to answer that question. We will design a test for ammonium perchlorate motors and define methods to increase the performance and lower the cost. The way we can achieve this is testing in computer simulations with focused being on nozzle and materials optimization. Computer …

The Influence Of Mycorrhizal Associations On Monoterpene And Isoprene Emissions In Plants, Luis Valdez, Lane Law

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The Purpose of this research is to determine the extent of the influence of AMF symbiosis can exert on the VOC emissions profiles of plants, particularly whether AMF symbiosis has a positive or negative effect on isoprene and monoterpene emissions.

Development Of A Nano-Encapsulation Platform With A Novel Antioxidant Indigoidine For The Mitigation Of Space Radiation, Kyle Jackson, Jie Ren, Jixun Zhan, Yu Huang

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Space includes many hazards to the human species, one of the most detrimental to us is the biological damage from radiation. Loading an astronaut's immune system with free radical scavenging molecules as a potential shield from this damage is one method to prevent biologically relevant damage that has only been slightly explored. Unfortunately, the pharmacological potential of many antioxidants is severely restricted because of their low solubility/absorption. Here, I characterize a powerful delivery system that can deliver many different hydrophobic antioxidants to the cell, increasing their bioavailability. The novel antioxidant Indigoidine has been explored in this delivery system. It has …

Magnetically-Stabilized Let Joints For Origami-Based Space Arrays, Hunter Pruett, Spencer Magleby

Utah Space Grant Consortium

A review of surrogate folds is presented. From said review, a concept set of surrogate folds is generated and concept selection criteria are generated. The surrogate fold concept set is refined and the LET array is selected with justification. Novel stress considerations are presented for LET arrays seeking to minimize panel thickness and be as proximate as possible in the stowed state. The MaNO hinge is introduced, and the MaLDO, MaLO, and MaNO hinges are successfully incorporated into LET arrays demonstrating viable options for actuation and stabilization of origami-inspired mechanisms and arrays.

Ultra-Low Power Adcs For Space Sensors And Instruments, Shea Smith, Wood Chiang

Utah Space Grant Consortium

A 28nm 0.1V 10-bit 20kS/s time domain ADC with 225Hz bandwidth is proposed. This design opens the doors to both low supply and low power space sensors and instruments. Due to the stringent voltage supply, unique challenges arise that are met with innovation in the sample switch and the quantizer design. These components of the ADC architecture are aggressively optimized to perform successfully at a 0.1V supply with a sample rate suitable for most sensor applications.

Preliminary Exploration Of Approaches To Increase The Stability Of Flat-Foldable Origami-Adapted Designs In The Open, Flat State, Collin Ynchausti, Spencer Shirley, Larry L. Howell

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Deployable spacecraft-based systems are benefitted from origami-adapted systems because they can be folded compactly and then deployed to larger areas. This unfolding motion must be stopped and held in specific configurations. In the case of reflectarrays, the panels need to deployed to flat and be kept there. Strain energy can be utilized to stabilize these systems. This works shows three ways, based on three different thickness accommodation techniques, that strain energy may be used to stabilize the systems in their deployed, flat positions. Additionally, each technique shown creates co-planar top surfaces to benefit reflectarray antenna design cases.

Advances In Noninvasive Urine Oxygen Monitoring For Detection Of Acute Kidney Injury, Lars Lofgren, Kai Kück, Natalie Silverton

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of cardiac surgery that is associated with increased hospital length of stay and mortality risk. The most common diagnostic criteria come from the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes Guidelines. These criteria rely on detecting changes in serum creatinine relative to a baseline measurement and decreased urine output. These markers are meant to capture a decrease in the overall filtration rate. However, the filtration rate may or may not change depending on the baseline health of the individual patient and the type and severity of the injury. In addition, these markers are influenced …

Notes Of Black Holes, A. B. Chanson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Fully leveraging Analysis onto physics proves fruitful, as a number of results are displayed; in particular, emergent symmetries are, generally, categorized as information symmetries; together with Noether’s theorems, these laws are found dual to the Laws of Thermodynamics as well as the Three Isomorphism Theories (alongside the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra). Most remarkably, the fine structure constant is analytically derived (using monodromy techniques), the cosmological hierarchy problem is resolved (using thermodynamic techniques), and a new duality between quantum information, celestial holography, and black holes is exhibited and exploited to resolve the Arrow of Time.

Aerodynamic Effects Of Phase Offset Between Synchronized Propellers In Hover, Nathan Welker, Daniel Maynes

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Emerging advances in electric-propulsion technology are enabling aircraft to use distributed electric propulsion (DEP) to increase performance and maneuverability. Distributed electric propulsion can also provide unique take-off and landing abilities which are not commonly found on traditional aircraft. The implementation of DEP effectively decreases the spacing between propellers, introducing complex aerodynamic interactions that are not well understood. This study aims to present the findings of the effects of phase offset on the flow fields of synchronized propellers at close-proximity using a particle image velocimetry system. The tip vortex locations and peak vorticities were tracked and plotted for various phase offset …

Steering Colloids Using Chemical Gradients And Model Predictive Control, Mark N. Mcdonald, Cameron K. Peterson, Douglas R. Tree

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Creating the next generation of dynamic colloidal materials that change their structure based on external stimuli may require the capability to precisely manipulate colloidal particles. Colloidal particles can be manipulated using a variety of forces, such as electric, magnetic, and optical, but so far chemical reactions have been neglected. We consider here a novel paradigm for using chemical gradients to precisely manipulate colloidal particles in a microfluidic device. Specifically, we show in simulation that model predictive control can be applied to a set of spatially localized chemical reactions to move a small number of colloidal particles on a circular trajectory.

Modeling The Effects Of Space Travel On The Cardiovascular System Using A Bio-Mimetic In Vitro Hagfish Protein Model Of The Myocardium, Emilee Rickabaugh, Elizabeth Vargis

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Long-term space travel is a harsh experience for the human body. Astronauts exposed to the effects of space travel often experience bone and muscle loss, as well as an increased risk of diseases, including heart disease[1]. While the human heart has shown an impressive ability to adapt to spaceflight, many of the long-term effects on cardiovascular health are unknown [2]. To plan for missions requiring longer flight durations, understanding these effects is neccessary to assess the risk to the astronauts undertaking these missions. However, evaluating these risks is difficult due to the lack of a sufficiently accurate model. While animal …

Using Landsat And Sentinel To Investigate Drivers Of Algal Growth In Utah Lake, Kaylee B. Tanner

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Earth observation satellites provide a valuable opportunity to study spatial and temporal water quality trends in ways that are not possible with research based on in-situ water sampling. We used data from Sentinel 2 and the Landsat missions to analyze algae blooms on Utah Lake, a large, shallow, freshwater lake in Utah that is experiencing water quality challenges. We found that algae blooms mainly occur in the shallow bays and along the eastern shoreline of the lake, and are correlated with water temperature and turbidity. Our results suggest a need for further research and use of remote sensing data to …

Principles And Categorization Of Compliant Surrogate Folds For Deployable Origami-Inspired Mechanical Systems, Ivyann O. Running, Phebe Ramsdell, Spencer Magleby

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Origami principles, patterns, and thickness accommodation techniques have been explored and tested for engineering applications in many fields. Two of the main difficulties of transferring a design from folded paper to thicker, stiffer materials are accommodating thickness and replicating folding motion with surrogate folds. While literature reviews exist for thickness accommodation, it is difficult for a designer to survey and assess work that has been on the subject of surrogate folds. Currently, many engineering origami instances limit themselves to using pin hinges, adjusting all other design parameters to accommodate pure revolute motion. The possibilities for origami design and application are …

Venturi Adapters – Feedback Control And Dynamic Modeling Simulation, Trey Blackwell, Joseph Orr

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Administration of CPAP in moderate sedation medical procedures has been shown to reduce the risk of oxygen desaturation. Venturi adapters provide a more cost-efficient and logistically feasible alternative to non-invasive ventilators for administering CPAP. Flow-to-pressure tables provided with commercially available CPAP Venturi adapters do not account for inherent variables such as mask leak flow and inhalation flow rate. A dynamic model was developed to describe the pressure and oxygen behavior of a CPAP system utilizing a Venturi adapter. The model was evaluated to reflect system behavior with reasonable accuracy but high computational expense. PID and sliding mode controllers were implemented …

Service-Learning For Infrastructure Improvements In Herald Square - Accuracy, Gabriela Funes, Tanvir Ahmed, Annie Benson, William A. Loyed

Eagle Showcase: Excellence in Service-Learning (Archived)

Generation of Terrestrial LiDAR model to assist in the design of public infrastructure.

Service-Learning Modeling For Infrastructure Improvements In Herald Square, Shane M. Henry, Hayden A. Holder, Joel Juarez, Teresa M. Macias, Zenan C. Merritt, Luke H. Ward, Aniya A. Williams

Eagle Showcase: Excellence in Service-Learning (Archived)

Use of terrestrial LiDAR scanner in Service-Learning project to assist the design of public infrastructure.

Recent Developments In Hydrogen Fuel Cell-Powered Drones, Seyed Mohammad Sanjari Pirmahalleh

ATU Scholars Symposium

Hydrogen fuel cells have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional batteries for powering unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. In recent years, there has been a significant amount of research and development in hydrogen fuel cell powered drones, with several successful demonstrations and commercial deployments. This research provides a comprehensive review of the recent developments in hydrogen fuel cell technology for UAVs and the current state-of-the-art hydrogen fuel cell powered drones. The research first discusses the advantages of using hydrogen fuel cells in drones, such as higher energy density, longer flight time, and lower environmental impact. It …

College Of Business Prospective Students Application, Caden Bewley, Joseph Morton, Brayden Reddin, Marvin Martinez, Ashlyn Ward

ATU Scholars Symposium

The College of Business wanted a webpage that makes applying to one of their majors more user-friendly. Currently, incoming freshmen tend to choose the wrong major as the application process can be confusing. They needed to reduce the redundancy of inputting information, so they asked for the application on their webpage to auto-fill on Arkansas Tech University's application webpage.

Graduate Faculty Directory, Christopher Andrews, Cody Mckenney, Drake Traylor, Joseph Freeman

ATU Scholars Symposium

The Graduate College would like to update the current faculty search page to filter search results by Department and Research in addition to Name. With the current system, a person who wanted to find an unknown professor based upon a department or an interest in research topic would be unable to search because the only option is to type the professor's name. We have created a website linked to a database containing graduate faculty that is able to search by name, filter by department, and search through the professors' listed research topics. This website will be much more useful and …

Optimization Of Metallic Interconnectors For Clean Energy Power Systems, Mason Cox

Symposium of Student Scholars

The need to eliminate carbon emissions coupled with intensified energy demands have led to an intensified research and development activities in clean energy technology. Taking advantage of fuels such as green hydrogen, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) power systems can serve as a potential energy conversion system. SOFCs combine O2 from air and H2 gas to generate electricity, consequently producing water (H2O) as the only byproduct of the electrochemical reaction. SOFCs typically have an operational temperature in the range of 500-900C and generate electricity without the requirement of recharging, so long as the fuel is supplied. A single SOFC cell …

Design And Development Of A Solar Module Health Monitoring Device, Elijah Madaris, Christopher Baden, Sandip Das

Symposium of Student Scholars

Solar power has emerged as a promising renewable clean energy source and installations of solar panels are increasing sharply year after year. Monitoring the power output and health of solar panels is critically important to ensure safe and reliable operation of a solar power plant throughout its operational lifetime. In this project, we have designed and built a low-cost electronic device that is capable of measuring the electrical parameters of a solar cell or module. The device consists of a microprocessor with integrated analog-to-digital converter, a supercapacitor bank, current sense amplifier, and electromechanical relays. The microprocessor performs data acquisition through …

Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Helmet Laws In Reducing Motorcycle Fatalities In The United States: A State-Level Study In 2020, Liz Furlow

Symposium of Student Scholars

Motorcycle fatalities are a significant public health issue in the United States. Motorcyclists are more vulnerable than other motorists and have a higher risk of injury and death in the event of an accident. To reduce the number of preventable motorcycle fatalities, some states have implemented mandatory helmet laws. However, the effectiveness of helmet laws in reducing fatalities remains a topic of debate.

For this study, state-level data on motorcycle fatalities, motorcycle registrations, and helmet laws in the United States was collected for the year 2020. The data was obtained from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis …

Investigating The Severity And Rate Of Occurrence Of Motorcycle Crashes Across Different Land Uses In Georgia, Robert Edwards

Symposium of Student Scholars

In 2020, motorcycle crashes reached their highest number of fatalities nationally since 1975, when 5,579 motorcyclists were killed. Georgia, in recent years, has seen an increase in the number of fatal multi-vehicle crashes involving motorcycles. This would be indicative of the general trend and nothing more if the number of motorcycle crashes reported outside of urban populations did not increase—despite lockdown measures—by 1.7% in 2020. In this investigation, employing a thorough examination of the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Crash Data (GDOT) compiled from the last ten years and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) compiled from the last five years, …

Encrypted Malicious Network Traffic Detection Using Machine Learning, Niklas Knipschild

Symposium of Student Scholars

The research project aims to find ways to detect malicious packets inside encrypted network traffic. In addition to this goal maintaining user privacy is a priority. As encryption has become less expensive to implement more and more network traffic is encrypted. Currently, 90% of all network traffic is encrypted, and this trend is expected to increase. The creators of malware areemploying various methods to ensure delivery of their malware, including encryption. One proposed method to combat this suggests implementing machine learning with various algorithms to analyze packet attributes to determine if they contain malware, without actually knowing what's inside …

Ransomware: Evaluation Of Mitigation And Prevention Techniques, Juanjose Rodriguez-Cardenas

Symposium of Student Scholars

Ransomware is classified as one of the main types of malware and involves the design of exploitations of new vulnerabilities through a host. That allows for the intrusion of systems and encrypting of any information assets and data in order to demand a sum of payment normally through untraceable cryptocurrencies such as Monero for the decryption key. This rapid security threat has put governments and private enterprises on high alert and despite evolving technologies and more sophisticated encryption algorithms critical assets are being held for ransom and the results are detrimental, including the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in 2021 …

Advanced Biomedical Laboratory (Abl) Synergy With Communication, Robotics, And Iot, Razvan Cristian Voicu, Steven Steele, Jorge Diaz Rodriguez, Yusun Chang, Chan Ham

Symposium of Student Scholars

This paper proposes a framework for integrating IoT and automation in a biomedical laboratory to improve safety, optimize processes, and enhance students' learning experience. The framework incorporates a centralized control unit and distributed subsystems to control equipment and machinery and includes autonomous robotics and intelligent monitoring systems. The paper presents the results of undergraduate students' work on automating various biomedical processes, including developing an Intelligent Autonomous Monitoring (IAM) device. IAM utilizes machine learning algorithms to identify outliers in processes and safety hazards. Moreover, IAM autonomously detects and localizes biomedical tools and equipment. Results show the feasibility of delivering real-time results …

Biomedical Sensing - A Sensor Fusion Approach For Improved Medical Detection And Monitoring, Ammy Ovando, Ricardo Ramirez, Steven Steele, Amir Ali Amiri Moghadam, Yusun Chang, Razvan Voicu

Symposium of Student Scholars

Enhanced technological advancement in computation, communication, and sensing has dramatically changed the dynamics of modern medicine. Advancing preventive medicine is paramount to a sustainable improvement in the quality of life and life expectancy. On-body sensors provide continuous measurements for healthy and ailing individuals leading to faster recovery and more timely detection of illnesses. Novel sensor designs and sensor fusion for preventive monitoring can provide extensible benefits, including a better understanding of ailment progression, treatment optimization, and patient feedback through data analytics and visualization. However, existing research does not thoroughly investigate sensor fusion approaches in biomedical sensing, as well as spot …