Engineering Commons^™

Asynchronous Delivery Format: Differential Effects On Performance And Engagement, Jessica Hamm, Leah Hayes, Makayla Reynolds, Raeanna Whitaker, Reganne Miller, Gregory Corso

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

In recent years, the number of online courses offered to students has increased. This increase brings the question of what format of online learning is the best for students. The purpose for this study was to investigate the effects of three asynchronous presentation formats on participant performance and engagement: slides with video-audio, slides with audio, and slides alone. We hypothesized significant differences among the formats in participant performance and engagement (best in video-audio format, worst in slides alone format). Participants (N=27) were randomly assigned to one of the three formats. Each format presented information about a fake island created by …

The Effects Of Nurse's Mental Health On Quality Patient Outcomes: A Quality Improvement Study, Alexandria Kincaid, Mara Walker, Mila Osborne, Tiyanna Jones, Victoria Clevenger

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

Morale among nurses is declining rapidly, this could be due to the rising mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, stress, worry and post-traumatic stress disorder. Not to mention the rate of suicide in female nurses is 11.97/ 100,000 compared to non-nurse females having a rate of 7.58/ 100,000. Also, male nurses have an incidence of suicide at a rate of 39.8/ 100,000 compared to non-nurse males at 28.2/ 100,000. A thorough literature review was conducted and a total of 40 studies were reviewed. Common themes that emerged were "A decrease in nursing staff retention related to low satisfaction, lack …

Who Are You? The Evolution Of Appalachian Identity, Kiersten Baum, Ashton Culp

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

No abstract provided.

Documenting Night Sky Brightness Using Sky Quality Meters, Ryan Sergent, Jennifer Birriel

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

The use of artificial light at night contributes to light pollution across the globe. Prior to 2005, artificial sources of light at night were mainly high- and low-pressure sodium light sources, which are yellow rich. The increased use of LED lighting is changing spectral signature of the night sky is changing. LEDs emit a peak in blue light. Blue light is scattered much more effectively than yellow and red, increased use of LEDs will increase both glare and skyglow. Unihedron’s Sky Quality Meter (SQM) is an instrument used widely by astronomers to measure the luminance of the night sky. Data …

Use Of Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy To Study Hydroxyfulvenes, Ashley Stefani

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

This project was conducted to determine the conditions necessary in Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (GCMS) for various hydroxyfulvenes. Several samples each having unique characteristics, such as high molar mass or specific functional groups, were used to determine the optimal conditions for each compound. Different GC parameters were varied including the inlet temperature, initial oven temperature and oven temperature ramp. Compounds were also studied at varying concentrations in order to determine the optimal conditions needed to produce reliable molecular ion data in the MS.

Emotion Recognition Using Brainwave Datasets, Bethlehem Seid, Heba Elgazzar

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

The purpose of this research project is to analyze the brainwave data collected from MUSE EEG headband and use machine learning techniques to select a small number of features and accurately predict the emotional state of an individual. The brainwave dataset records the reading of the MUSE EEG headband. Supervised machine learning techniques are designed and implemented on a brainwave dataset to predict positive, negative, and neutral emotional state. The classification algorithms: K-Nearest neighbors (KNN), Random Forest, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are used in this research. Further, the dimensions of this dataset were also reduced without compromising the accuracy …

An Overview Of The Qualified Immunity Doctrine And Its Application In Kentucky Law, Ethan Garvin, Joe Dunman

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that protects law enforcement officers from lawsuits if the courts find their actions fit three criteria: the action must be discretionary rather than ministerial, the action must be in good faith, and the action must be within the scope of the employee’s authority. By conducting a survey of cases in both the Kentucky court system and the federal court system, this presentation analyzes how qualified immunity is applied. This presentation looks at the doctrine and what the courts look for in various tort claims involving police officers, such as negligence, assault, and false imprisonment. …

Testing Turmoil, Laura Von Mann, Christopher Beckham

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

Test anxiety affects students throughout all grade levels, higher education, and even into adult life, at various levels of severity. With standardized testing becoming increasingly more present in the American school system, the condition known as test anxiety has also become a more prevalent topic amongst researchers and educators. This research aims to better understand test anxiety, its symptoms, causes, and possible treatments in order to ensure student success.

Cultivating Gratitude And Learning: Virtual Agriculture Education For Elementary School Students, Heather Smith, Joy Gritton

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

In a time when the majority of young children know more about a computer than agriculture, this project brings agriculture to them in a unique way. This presentation introduces a program that aims to connect elementary students with the vast agriculture industry in the digital age using appropriate technology. The project consists of teaching children in Eastern Kentucky and beyond about agriculture and land use through the virtual dissemination of relevant stories, facts, and activities. In this way children can learn how agriculture is vital to their everyday life. Featured topics include horticulture crops, agronomic crops, livestock, and the history …

Continuous Authentication Of Smartphone Users Using Machine Learning, Suhana Ambol, Sherif Rashad

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

Current smartphone security techniques offer less reliability. As an instance, personal identification numbers can be easily guessed or hacked, fingerprint scan requires hardware to operate, and face recognition can be affected by light, other people in the background, or different poses by the users. In addition, they are beneficial for one-time security, therefore commonly used at the time of login to verify users. However, what if there’s a change of user while accessing the smartphone, and the phone is accessed by an intruder after login. To deal with this issue, continuous authentication is applied which regularly and unnoticeably will address …

Etherapy: The Next Generation Of Physical And Occupational Therapy, Colin Elliott

Summer Scholarship, Creative Arts and Research Projects (SCARP)

The purpose of the research is to create software capable of revolutionizing the way physical and occupational therapy is done by utilizing wireless inertia sensors. The inertia sensors themselves can accurately identify their exact position in space. Hence, when they are attached correctly to a patient requiring therapy, they can provide precise data on the patient’s real-time motions. It is the goal of the software to leverage the power of the sensors to provide real-time feedback to the patient and to the therapist to ensure patients are performing prescribed exercises correctly and are restoring their range(s) of motion. For ease …

Photocatalytic Inactivation Efficacy Of Sars-Cov-2 In Hvac Systems, Andrew J. Freeman, Sudharshan Anandan, Ernest R. Blatchley Iii, W. Travis Horton, David M. Warsinger

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

The coronavirus pandemic has emphasized a need for robust and reliable air purification systems in buildings; with that comes a need for a standardized testing methodology for air purification technologies in HVAC air circulation systems. One such method of air purification is photocatalytic oxidation (PCO), a mechanism in which a catalyst irradiated by light produces reactive molecules that degrade a wide range of pollutants, including the aerosols that carry COVID. This technology has primarily been used in aqueous applications, but there have recently been developments in air purification that have made it a promising contender to existing technologies. One of …

Understanding Of Aerosol Transmission Of Covid 19 In Indoor Environments, Adama Barro, Cathal O'Toole, Jacob S. Lopez, Matthew Quinones, Sherene Moore

Publications and Research

Our reason for discussing severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or 2019 novel corona virus (Covid-19), is to understand its aerosol transmission characteristics in indoor spaces and to mitigate further spread of this disease by designing a new HVAC system. The problem that we are tackling is the spread of covid-19 droplets through aerosol transmission by looking at potential engineering solutions to the existing HVAC systems. The purpose is to eradicate the spread of the COVID-19 by testing indoor spaces in an effort to understand the effectiveness of ventilation controls. We believe that scientists and engineers have not …

Fabrication And Imaging Characterization Of Poly (Dimethyl Siloxane)/Sic Nano-Fillers Samples As Model Biomaterials, Tetiana Soloviova, Viorica Gutu, Zoya Vinokur, Akm S. Rahman, Subhendra Sarkar

Publications and Research

Biopolymers are being developed with embedded nanostructures for in vivo drug delivery to treat various diseases including cancers. In the current project we developed fabrication steps to prepare two biopolymers, poly di-methoxy siloxane (PDMS) with 0-0.9 vol% of SiC nano whisker (fillers) followed by non- destructive characterization. Optical reflection microscopy (5-100X) was performed to ensure loading and distribution of increasing SiC content. Optical microscopy showed progressively higher SiC distribution as filler loading was increased from 0-0.9 vol%. X-ray imaging at low kV (kilovoltage) and low mAs (milliamperage per second) were optimized to allow distinction between filled PDMS with SiC concentration …

The Core Of Social Network Modeling: Industrial Engineering., Shannon C. Roberts, Chaitra Gopalappa, Nazanin Nazanin

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

Networks are abound in our everyday lives, from disaster response networks to cellular networks to social networks. In this workshop, we will introduce the different types of networks and how Industrial Engineering is used to model these networks. Next, we will describe current social network modeling research done at UMass. Finally, we will delve into hands-on activities that include social network analysis, such as the clustering of people into groups, and modeling of the spread of ideas in a social network, such as how tweets spread on Twitter.

Shaping The Future Of Trusted Digital Identity: The Idef Registry With Health Information Use Cases, Noreen Y. Whysel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Brain Science = Biology + Engineering, Jennifer Welborn, Guangyu Xu, Morton Sternheim, Chris Emery

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

This interdisciplinary (physical and life sciences) seminar exposes participants to cutting edge research at UMASS, Amherst, on cell imaging using a chip which gathers a variety of data on the activities of single cells. Part of the seminar will be a presentation of current research in this area, followed by hands-on activities and a visit to the lab where this research is conducted. Application of this new technology to brain research will be discussed as well as the NGSS standards alignment and classroom applications at various levels and disciplines.

Superhero Robotics, Frank Sup, Brian Umberger, Nick Sawyer

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

No abstract provided.

Managing Your Professional Identity: Leveraging Social Media And Emerging Metrics To Demonstrate Professional Impact, Megan R. Sapp Nelson

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

This session will assist graduate students to deliberately develop an online professional identity that will uniquely identify them as an academic as well as positively highlight their personal strengths.

Students will walk away with a plan to create a unique professional identifier and an understanding of how to measure the impact of online scholarly communication.

Topics included are:

ORCID ID

social media, such as LinkedIn & ResearchGate

Alternative Metrics (Altmetrics), such has Kudos, ImpactStory, & AltMetric

Data repositories, such as GitHub & FigShare

Ozone, Uv, And Nanoparticles, Morton Sternheim, Jennifer Welborn

Nanotechnology Teacher Summer Institutes

•Ultraviolet light causes skin damage and cancer •Ozone in the stratosphere blocks UV •Sunscreen blocks UV, partly •Nanoparticles in sunscreen improve blocking Sunscreen PowerPoint and activities based on NanoSense web site:

http://nanosense.sri.com/activities/clearsunscreen/index.html

Nanomedicine, Mark Tuominen

Nanotechnology Teacher Summer Institutes

An overview of nanomedicine. The end goal of nanomedicine is improved diagnostics, treatment and prevention of disease. Nanotechnology holds key to a number of recent and future breakthroughs in medicine.