Engineering Commons^™

Tuning Radiation And Microgravity Exposure For Human Brain Organoids, Bailey Mcfarland

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The environment of space, specifically radiation and microgravity, poses a substantial threat to astronauts' brain health. Understanding the damage mechanism and therefore paving the way to finding potential remedies is critical to protect astronauts during space flight. Current models are insufficient at representing the human brain, and insufficient research has been conducted on the effect of radiation and microgravity on the higher structures of the human brain. This ongoing research aims to use brain organoids, a tissue-engineered model that recapitulates the human brain's anatomy and structure and investigate the effects of radiation and microgravity on the brain. At the current …

Miniature Multi-Sensor Array (Mini-Msa) For Ground-To-Stratosphere Air Measurement, Phase Ii, Zachary Kennedy, Drew Huber, Huiling Renee Xie

Utah Space Grant Consortium

There are numerous college research groups doing high altitude ballooning and working with drones. Many of these are making air quality measurements. Those measurements are effectively random. We are designing an inexpensive and easy to build assembly that others can build for under $500 with the goal of having a uniform data set that can be compared. This will provide more useful data for atmospheric studies. Our first version had too many noise issues and the gas sensor signals were unstable. In December 2020 Winsen Sensors (China) came out with a “multi-in-one sensor module,” the ZPHS01B. At a price point …

Simulated And Phantom Detection Of Microscopic Targets By Raman Spectroscopy, Jordyn Hales

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The goal of this study is to determine the minimum spatial sampling resolution required to accurately detect microscopic targets within a sample using Raman spectroscopy. The resolution depends on the light scattering properties of the material. We use Monte Carlo simulations to study how measurement geometry and optical properties of a sample affect the Raman signal detected from an embedded target. We confirm these results using polystyrene beads embedded in artificial tissue phantoms.

Identifying Carbon Structure Via Raman Spectroscopy, Nathaniel Bunker

Utah Space Grant Consortium

• Raman Spectroscopy: a method to determine molecular composition.
• Graphene: a conductive, strong, and lightweight material.
• Our Setup: meant for examining biological samples, not optimized for graphene analysis.

Byu 2021 High Power Rocketry Team, Ryan Thibaudeau, Ryan Merrell

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Project Objective

Design, build and test a high-power rocket that is capable of carrying a 4 kg payload to 10,000 feet AGL with a commercial motor with less than 40,960 N_-S of impulse.

Project Background

The BYU Rocketry Association competes annually in the Spaceport America Cup's International Rocket Engineering Competition. Previous rockets have flown to within 500 feet of the target with a variety of payloads.

Mapping Relative Sand Abundance, Ice-Rich Regions, And Linear Dune Properties Of Titan, Ben Lake, Delaney Rose

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The equatorial regions of Titan are dominated by linear dune fields made of complex organic particles [1, 2] and have many similarities to terrestrial dunes such as those found in the Namib Sand Sea [1, 3]. Previous studies of Titan’s sand seas included mapping sand sea margins [4, 5, 6, 7] and some dune tracing, but did not involve mapping relative sand abundances. Our work involves mapping relative sand abundances coupled with relative abundances of water ice, as well as more detailed mapping of linear dune morphology.

Lunar Mining: Designing A Versatile Robotic Mining System, James Ehlers, Alexander Charters, Joshua Miraglia, Rian Simpson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The annual NASA Robotic Mining Challenge: Lunabotics tasks teams with building robots capable of traversing and mining in a simulated Lunar terrain. The competition goal is to utilize automation and sensing alongside mechanical systems to harvest icy regolith (simulated with gravel) from beneath the satellite’s surface.

Creation And Optimization Of A Mechanical Obstacle Avoidance Sensor For Autonomous Exploration Of Venus, Ryan Hardin

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Exploration of the surface of Venus is currently one of the most lacking areas of planetary research in our solar system today. This is because the surface of Venus is an extremely hostile environment, especially when considering the use of conventional Mars-type rovers. With temperatures exceeding 400 degrees Celsius, pressures 90 times that of Earth, and a sulfuric acid atmosphere, traditional electronics would quickly fail.

A Preliminary Approach To Select An Origami Source Pattern For Deployable Space Arrays, Diana S. Bolanos

Utah Space Grant Consortium

This paper presents a systematic approach for selecting an origami pattern for deployable space array applications. A wide variety of origami patterns exist, thereby introducing a daunting task to decide on which pattern is most suitable for the application at hand. Similarly, different space missions present varying requirements. The focus of this paper is to provide aerospace engineers and designers with a framework for identifying optimal origami source models for space array applications.

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

Utah Space Grant Consortium

A 28nm 0.1V 10-bit 2kS/s time domain ADC design 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 optimized to perform successfully at a 0.1V supply with a sample rate suitable for most sensor applications.

Assessing Thickness Accommodation Techniques For Deployable Hexagonal Origami Space Arrays, Collin Ynchausti

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Origami-based and origami-inspired designs provide paths to achieve highly compact, stowable designs, that can be deployed to large surface areas. This potential is highly beneficial to the area of space antennas and LIDAR as these require compact stowing in a launch payload, but large apertures when deployed in space. Because the engineering materials used to build these antennas are thick, thickness accommodation techniques must be applied to realize the same folding motions as the zero-thickness models. This paper presents a hexagonal twist origami pattern in thick materials using three different thickness accommodation techniques. These techniques are compared. The metrics used …

Resolution Enhancement Limitations For Spaceborne Scatterometers, Harrison Garrett

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The main limitation to the resolution enhancement of spaceborne scatterometers is the amplification of both measurement noise and model error. A few components to model error include: model discretization errors, interpolation errors, and the aliasing of frequency content introduced by each measurement spatial response function (MSRF). Using bandlimited reconstruction theory, we estimate the maximum resolution enhancement of a given sampling geometry through its inherent maximum square bandlimit. Simulations suggest that under bandlimited assumptions, the number of independent and uniformly distributed samples are proportional to the area of the sampling geometry’s supported bandlimit. Furthermore, if we assume that the measurement noise …

Electromagnetic 3d Printing For Responsive Architectures With An Orthogonal Magnetic Field, Brian Elder

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The integration of nanomaterials with 3D printing can enable the creation of responsive architecture with highly tunable functional properties. Magnetic nanopatterning is attractive for its ability to produce untethered, high energy density actuation with a broad range of applications. For example, biocompatible materials (such as silicone rubber) can be programmed in an extrusion-based 3D printing process to create a responsive medical soft robot structure.

Pitch-Efficient Trajectory Tracking For Winged Evtol Uavs, Jacob B. Willis

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Current control methods for winged eVTOL UAVs consider the vehicle primarily as a fixed-wing aircraft with the addition of vertical thrust used only during takeoff and landing. These methods provide good long-range flight handling but fail to consider the full dynamics of the vehicle for tracking complex trajectories. We present a trajectory tracking controller for the full dynamics of a winged eVTOL UAV in hover, fixed-wing, and partially transitioned flight scenarios. We show that in low-to moderate-speed flight, trajectory tracking can be achieved using a variety of pitch angles. In these conditions, the pitch of the vehicle is a free …

A Process To Produce Battery Grade Silicon From Natural Halloysite Clay, Nathan Clarke

Utah Space Grant Consortium

We demonstrate the production of silicon from a clay mineral, halloysite, as a low-cost silicon source for high-energy anodes in aviation batteries. The halloysite-derived silicon demonstrated 1800 mAh/g capacity after formation cycles, comparable to other developing silicon materials.

Long-Term Spatiotemporal Monitoring And Analysis Of Chlorophyll-A Concentrations In Utah Lake, Kaylee Tanner

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Utah Lake is a unique and valuable natural resource in the semi-arid Utah Valley. Shallow, turbid, eutrophic, and slightly saline, the lake degrades and stabilizes pollution well [1]. The lake is a highly productive ecosystem and provides ecological habitats, water storage, and recreation. Detection of harmful algal blooms (HABs), however, has closed Utah Lake beaches every summer since 2016 [2] and raised concerns over the health of the lake ecosystem [3, 4]. HABs, which involve excessive algal growth that can cause hypoxic and/or toxic water conditions [5], have numerous detrimental effects [6] on lakes and reservoirs in the United States …

Predicting Propofol-Induced Burst Suppression Using An Individualized Model-Based Approach Over Repeated Treatments, Jason C. Huang

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Our group is investigating the antidepressant effects of high-dose propofol, but dosing propofol to induce standardized changes in EEG activity (“burst suppression”) is challenging due to limited knowledge of each subject’s pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD). In this paper, we approximated PK-PD models for propofol-induced burst suppression (PIBS), based on multiple subjects over repeated treatments. We then applied these models to predict BSR in each subject’s repeated treatment, then evaluate their predictive performances. We hypothesized that predicting BSR from a greater number of previous treatments would improve performance, but our current results are not conclusive enough to validate the hypothesis. …

Defect Detection Limits For Additively Manufactured Parts Using Current Thermography Techniques, Nicholas J. Wallace

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Additive manufacturing (AM) will support NASA in their moon and mars missions by reducing the amount of redundant equipment carried into space and by providing crew members with the flexibility to design and create parts as needed. The ability to monitor the quality of these additively manufactured parts is critical, especially when using recycled or in-situ materials as NASA plans to do. This project assesses the possibility of detecting small, shallow AM defects with existing active thermography techniques. An axisymmetric, numerical model was created in COMSOL to simulate the heat transfer within AM structures during active thermography. The effects of …

Aerodynamic Interactions Of Synchronized Propellers, Nathan Welker

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Emerging advances in electric-propulsion technology are enabling aircraft to use distributed electric propulsion (DEP) to increase efficiency 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 obtain experimental measurements of the flow fields of synchronized propellers at close-proximity in a side-by-side configuration using both 2D particle image velocimetry (PIV) and 3D stereoscopic PIV (SPIV) in a wind tunnel. The results of this work will be …

Feedback Control Of Particle Positions Using Electric Fields And Chemical Gradients, Mark Mcdonald

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Programmable self-assembly is a promising route to new biomaterial and metamaterial synthesis methods. An important step towards programmable self-assembly is moving component parts to desired locations. We do this by designing and simulating a controller that modifies an external field to move particles on desired paths. We first design a controller using electric fields by modifying established methods, then we apply the insights gained from the electric field controller to a chemical controller that uses model predictive control.

Shape Memory Alloy Deployable Device For Cubesat Satellite, Nicholas Loftis, Adam Lapointe

Thinking Matters Symposium

The purpose of this project was to design and create a release mechanism for a cubesat satellite with the use of shape memory alloys. The goal of the project was to design and create a lightweight, reliable, and simple release mechanism to deploy stowed solar arrays attached to the exterior of a Cubesat satellite. The design and creation of this mechanism is intended to further USM’s goal of creating and launching a Cubesat satellite into low orbit to expand the university into space exploration. The Cubesat project was created by the California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University’s Space Systems …

Husky Hand: A Low-Cost Electro-Mechanical Prosthetic Arm For The Underprivileged, Adam Robert

Thinking Matters Symposium

A continuation of a low-cost prosthetic upper limb prototype design which was investigated in EGN 301. The prosthetic is specifically designed for the needs and requirements of under privileged individuals in the Dominican Republic with upper limb amputations. The project focuses on the creation of an open-source computer aided prosthetic hand/arm model. The design allows consumer-grade fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3-D printers to be used. The improved design allows for the integration of the PQ-12 linear actuator for grasp and finger control. This simplifies the assembly, while, also reducing the size and mass of the whole unit. Producing a low-cost …

Finite Element Analysis Of Impact Resistant Composites Inspired By Peacock Mantis Shrimp, Nandati Shrestha

Thinking Matters Symposium

The fist-like club of the peacock mantis shrimp, a 5-inch marine crustacean, can strike its prey with speed faster than a .22-caliber bullet with an impact force more than 1,000 times its own weight. Although these creatures punch so fast that it even boils the water, they don’t take any damage. This incredible insusceptibility is due to the arrangement of mineralized fiber layers in which each fibrous layer is laid at a slightly rotated angle to form a helicoidal structure that acts as a shock absorber for the club. The goal is to perform a finite element analysis to investigate …

Investigating The Heat Release From A Single-Cylinder Diesel Engine, Sarah Payne, Scott Eaton Phd

Thinking Matters Symposium

This project develops a dynamic measuring processes and filtering technique to acquire accurate engine thermodynamic data using LabVIEW. A single-cylinder Kohler diesel engine (model KD440) is instrumented with an in-cylinder pressure monitoring transducer to obtain cylinder pressure and volume data as a function of crank angle position. From this data, several calculations will be made using thermal analysis to understand the engine's performance. An additional objective of the project is to increase the efficiency of the engine's air intake system by modifying the current configuration. We show that the monitoring software accurately measures real-time engine efficiency and combustion dynamics enabling …

App Development For Wearable Sensors, Connor Pittman, Christopher Chappie, Patrick A. Tetreault

Thinking Matters Symposium

The objective of this research project was to create a wearable device that monitors bodily functions for the user to view on their smartphone. Sensor data is processed using the Arduino Nano 33 BLE microcontroller. The sensors used in this project include: proximity, temperature, humidity, heart rate, pressure, and skin impedance. This project takes advantage of the Arduino's Bluetooth low energy (BLE) capabilities so that all the data can be transmitted to a smartphone. This presentation shows the challenges faced during the project and how they were overcome. Some of these challenges include: programming, how heart rate sensors work, and …

Mems Directional Acoustic Sensors, Colby Damren

Thinking Matters Symposium

The purpose of my project is to test and verify two Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) microphones. The two MEMS devices are biomimetic microphones that imitate the eardrums of the Ormia Ochracea, a parasitic fly that listens for host crickets to lay their eggs. The MEMS microphones mimic the eardrum spacing of the Ormia Ochracea with a spacing of 1000um. This is roughly twice the opening of the Ormia Ochracea. The microphones will be tested for directionality inside a wooden box. This box will be lined with beveled foam to prevent any echo or outside noise from interfering with the results. These results …

Nitinol Robotic Arm, Brandon Cousino, Connor Sweatt

Thinking Matters Symposium

The goal of our project is to create a remotely controlled robotic arm using a nickel-titanium alloy (Nitinol) that exhibits “shape memory” tendencies and a 9-lumen tube. The arm must be able to move in all for directions (forward, left, right, backwards) with the control of a joystick and return to an upright position upon halting user input (thus requiring a two-way shape memory ability). The final product must operate without any unwanted twisting of the arm, crosstalk between the different nitinol wires due to heating, and be easily manufacturable. Easy replacement of the arm from the main mechanism is …

Design, Simulation And Testing Of Biomimetic Directional Acoustic Sensors, Brendan Francis

Thinking Matters Symposium

The Ormia ochracea, a species of parasitic fly, has become the focal point in sound localization research because of its finely tuned hearing abilities. The female of this species uses its super highly directional hearing to pinpoint the call of a host cricket, with hypersensitivity of frequency and phase difference, to reach and dispose of its eggs on the host. The goal of this study was to further the research of a previous Project in Professor Guvench’s group which implemented MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical System) technology on a chip to replicate these abilities. In this iteration, however, some commercially available …

Design Of A Constant Volume Combustion Chamber, John Bono, Collin Gould, Scott Eaton

Thinking Matters Symposium

This project designs a high-temperature, high-pressure fuel injection chamber for the visualization of diesel fuel injection spray patterns. The study and characterization of diesel fuel spray is important for the development of new engine designs and adoption of alternative fuels. In addition, the chamber can be used to support teaching research projects at the University of Southern Maine. A 3-D SolidWorks model is developed to meet visual accessibility and operating temperature and pressure requirements. Three experimental imaging techniques will be compared, with an emphasis on schlieren photography and videography. Data acquisition and controls systems will be developed including digital imaging …

Sedan Performance/Economy Rear Diffuser, Jacob Boucher Koris

Thinking Matters Symposium

This project consists of designing in SolidWorks a model of the performance/fuel economy diffuser. The design is modeled with an Ahmed body (recommended shape for CFD testing vehicles) and the diffuser will be applied to the bottom of the rear bumper of the car. After this is done the model will be imported into ANSYS for CFD testing. Testing entails importing the model, then creating a mesh around the model, and then setting up the program to run analysis for calculating the coefficient of drag. Then building this SolidWorks model as a full working prototype for actual road-testing purposes. With …