Engineering Commons^™

Application Of Lean Six Sigma For Improving Quality Laboratory Process, Sarmad Al Hilli

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Oftentimes, manufacturing companies concentrate on improving the production processes and neglecting other processes like purchasing, IT, quality control, etc. Just like production processes, uncontrolled and non-optimized of any of these processes could be main reasons of product defects, late deliveries, and high costs. Recently, an automotive OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) in the southeastern United States faces difficulties in performing quality control operations in a way that matches the production pace. This inadequacy has increased due to changes in customer requirements and launches a new assembly line for a new customer. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to apply Lean …

Pollutant Forecasting Using Neural Network-Based Temporal Models, Richard Pike

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Jing-Jin-Ji region of China is a highly industrialized and populated area of the country. Its periodic high pollution and smog includes particles smaller than 2.5 μm, known as PM2.5, linked to many respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. PM2.5 concentration around Jing-Jin-Ji has exceeded China’s urban air quality safety threshold for over 20% of all days in 2017 through 2020.

The quantity of ground weather stations that measure the concentrations of these pollutants, and their valuable data, is unfortunately small. By employing many machine learning strategies, many researchers have focused on interpolating finer spatial grids of PM2.5, or hindcasting PM2.5. However, …

Bioactivity And Structural Properties Of Hydroxyapatite On Ti6a|4v And Si(100) Surfaces By Pulsed Laser Deposition, Salizhan Kylchbekov

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Although biomedical implant technology is very advanced, there are still caveats in terms of biocompatibility properties because metals are inert to biological processes such as osseointegration, cell growth, and cell adhesion. This results in statistically significant complications and opens rooms for improvements. Among many techniques to improve this problem, coating the metal surface with biologically functional materials has resulted in the best performances. Hydroxyapatite (HAP), Ca_₁₀(PO_₄)_₆(OH)_₂, is the most stable form of calcium phosphates in human body environment and is functional in key processes such as ion exchange, osteoblast (bone cells) formation, …

Hydrological Dynamics Of Surface-Groundwater Interactions Between Major Springs Of Mammoth Cave And The Green River, Kentucky, Usa, Matthew Cecil

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Mammoth Cave is an iconic example of the cave and karst systems that underlie over 50% of the United States and provide around 13% of the world’s population with water resources. These environmental features are vulnerable to drought, pollution, and human impacts. The complex hydrological regime of the Mammoth Cave system has been studied in the past, but there are improvements and updates that can be made to the past research. The dynamics of the surface-groundwater system, particularly reversals of the Green River and how it backfloods into the cave, are some examples. Echo River and River Styx Springs provide …

Dice: Blessed Or Cursed?, Warren Campbell, Cameron Miller, Xavier Simpson

SEAS Faculty Publications

Every year, hundreds of millions of dice are manufactured and sold. Because of the impossibility of precise dimensional control and nonuniform density, none of these dice are fair. Polyhedral dice manufactured for role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons typically contain 4-sided, 6-sided, 8-sided, 10-sided, 12-sided, and 20-sided dice (D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20). D20s are especially problematic. In 3000-roll tests of several D20s, only about one-quarter tested fair. In light of the inherent unfairness of most dice, we explored the possibility of using dice mechanics involving multiple dice to obtain fairer results. For D20s, summing three dice gave …

Source Code Plagiarism Detection Using Jplag & Stack Overflow Data, Sudheer Yetthapu

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Advancements in computer technology and internet services have led to the availability of vast amounts of information like videos, articles, research papers, and code samples. Free online information will increase the possibility of plagiarism and collusion among students. People can commit plagiarism in both text and code [1], as tools used to detect plagiarism between texts and between codes are distinct. Traditionally plagiarism in code is detected using manual inspection, which is a tedious process and misses to compare code from previous submissions and external sources. To overcome this issue, systems that can automatically detect plagiarism in code were developed …

Bibliography, Huanjing Wang

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Huanjing Wang.

Bibliography, Mark Doggett

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Mark Doggett.

Dice Testing With The Running Chi-Square Distribution, Warren Campbell, Hunter Wimsatt

SEAS Faculty Publications

Dice are not fair. Producing a geometrically precise, uniform die is not possible. Casino dice come as close as possible to perfectly random dice because they are machined to an accuracy of a few ten-thousandths of an inch and the putty used for the pips (dots) is the same density as the plastic die body. Polyhedral dice used in games like Dungeons and Dragons are far more difficult to manufacture to high tolerances. Some dice are fairer than others. Since 20-sided dice (D20s) are very difficult to manufacture precisely, they were the focus of this study. The running chi-square distribution …

Robust Sensor Design For The Novel Reduced Models Of The Mead-Marcus Sandwich Beam Equation, Ahmet Aydin

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Novel space-discretized Finite Differences-based model reductions are proposed for the partial differential equations (PDE) model of a multi-layer Mead-Marcus-type beam with (i) hinged-hinged and (ii) clamped-free boundary conditions. The PDE model describes transverse vibrations for a sandwich beam whose alternating outer elastic layers constrain viscoelastic core layers, which allow transverse shear. The major goal of this project is to design a single boundary sensor, placed at the tip of the beam, to control the overall dynamics on the beam.

For (i), it is first shown that the PDE model is exactly observable by the so-called nonharmonic Fourier series approach. However, …

Western Kentucky University Stormwater Utility Survey 2022, Warren Campbell

SEAS Faculty Publications

The main goal of this survey is to identify as many U.S. Stormwater Utilities (SWUs) as possible. Because many stormwater professionals do not have the time to respond to questionnaires, our primary method of identification was Internet searches. We searched on key terms such as “stormwater utility”, “stormwater fee”, and “drainage fee”. We scoured on-line municipal codes such as Municode, AmLegal, Sterling, LexisNexis, General Code, and others. We searched through many city web sites trying to find utilities. We have also had many people contact me to update fees and identify new utilities. However, the data primarily comes from Internet …

A Low-Cost And Low-Tech Solution To Test For Variations Between Multiple Offline Programming Software Packages., Steffen Wendell Bolz

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This research paper chronicles the attempt to bring forth a low-cost and low-tech testing methodology whereby multiple offline programming (OLP) software packages’ generated programs may be compared when run on industrial robots. This research was initiated by the discovery that no real research exists to test between iterations of OLP software packages and that most research for positional accuracy and/or repeatability on industrial robots is expensive and technologically intensive. Despite this, many countries’ leaders are pushing for intensive digitalization of manufacturing and Small and Mediumsized Enterprises (SMEs) are noted to be lagging in adoption of such technologies. The research consisted …

K-Means Clustering Using Gravity Distance, Ajinkya Vishwas Indulkar

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Clustering is an important topic in data modeling. K-means Clustering is a well-known partitional clustering algorithm, where a dataset is separated into groups sharing similar properties. Clustering an unbalanced dataset is a challenging problem in data modeling, where some group has a much larger number of data points than others. When a K-means clustering algorithm with Euclidean distance is applied to such data, the algorithm fails to form good clusters. The standard K-means tends to split data into smaller clusters during a clustering process evenly.

We propose a new K-means clustering algorithm to overcome the disadvantage by introducing a different …

The Impact Of Gemba Walks On Preventative Maintenance Productivity, Jake Donald Taylor

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Gemba Walks are a tool to get management involvement in areas where the work is taking place. Gemba Walks allow individuals involved first-hand to voice and reduce waste within the process and general operations. This research measured the benefits and improvements Gemba Walks had on the availability of equipment. For example, reducing the number of events that equipment is down for maintenance and its duration to repair these events, therefore improved availability. Maintenance is a critical aspect of keeping a company running, and making improvements found during this research significantly impacted the company by creating lean improvements. The improvements focused …

Manufacturing: The Qualitative Study Of A Transition To A Green Facility, Brandon David Staves

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This qualitative study focused on answering three core questions: How have facilities reduce pollutions in regards to the quality of air, water, land, light and noise? Which Types of pollution reduction projects are more or less successful to implement? What types of pollution are facilities focusing on and why? The results of the 15 companies surveyed show a variety of projects that facilities have used to reduce pollution, it also shows that cost is a major factor in the unsuccessful projects, and that facilities are actively focused on reducing Air, Land, and Water pollution. While the data shows a variety …

Western Kentucky University Stormwater Utility Survey 2021, Warren Campbell, Jerry Bradshaw

SEAS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Statistical Study Of The Effect Of Implementing An Airveyor System On The Warpage Of Injection Molded Closures, Charles Wesley Bozarth

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Berry Global in Bowling Green, Kentucky produces predominantly polypropylene container closures. One variant, the 83mm lined jar closure, is produced by first being injection molded, placed in work-in-progress (WIP) hold for 24 hours to cool, and then finished through the auxiliary liner operation into a final product. While this process is an effective method to produce a quality large-diameter closure and allows the polypropylene adequate time to cool without warping out of shape, the 24-hour WIP time and the manpower needed to accomplish this can negatively impact several business metrics as well as employee safety.

The purpose of this thesis …

Changes In Consumer Market Preference And Purchase Frequency In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sean Thomas Dial

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research literature throughout 2020 indicate consumer behavioral changes in response to the systemic effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, but these studies investigate transient adaptations in consumer behaviors during the early quarantine period of the pandemic. This study intends to investigate lasting or permanent changes in consumer market preference and purchase frequency between BAM and online retail due to the effects of the pandemic. The principal investigator designed a survey for participants to estimate purchase frequencies and market preferences for apparel, electronics, groceries, and general purchases before and after the pervasive effects of the pandemic (N = 1195; n = …

Visual Management In Engineering Can Improve Resource Utilization And Reduce Administrative Non-Value Added Time, Brian Kirby Trent

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This research has demonstrated how Visual Management (VM) can be used in an engineering environment to improve engineering resource utilization. Furthermore, it reduces the administrative time associated with unclear project scope, schedule, budget, and task alignment amongst engineers and project leadership. The research references a case study in which low engineering utilization was directly impacting overall project success. Inconsistent visibility of scheduled engineering activities, changes in tasking, and project metrics created uncertainty and resulted in greater than appropriate administrative time. The methodology used was to implement visual project management tools and track engineer utilization over two years. Quarterly utilization results …

Using Machine Learning To Interpret Dice Rolls, Hunter Wimsatt, Aarohi Panzade, Kaaustaaub Shankar, Warren Campbell

SEAS Faculty Publications

Gamers use polyhedral dice that come with 4 sides (D4), 6 sides (D6), 8 sides (D8), 10 sides (D10), 12 sides (D12) and 20 sides (D20). All dice are unfair, some more than others. The goal of this project was to develop a machine learning and computer vision solution for the interpretation of dice rolls. When combined with an automated dice roller it would facilitate the study of dice unfairness. In the machine learning literature, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are the preferred method of computer classification of images. The CNN convolves images with different weights and biases through multiple layers …

Simplification Of Robotics Through Autonomous Navigation, Grant Turner

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

With self-driving vehicles, college campus food delivery, or even automated home vacuuming systems, robotics is undoubtedly becoming more prevalent in everyday society and it can be expected to continue with time. While many people are owners, users, or even just spectators of theses robotic products or services, there seems to be a negative perception of robotics that poses an intimidation factor regarding the attempt to understand the ideas driving technology. This perception tends to view robotics as machines that require rich education to understand the complexity and interworkings of, thus attempts understand the field are neglected.

To combat this line …

Synthesis And Catalytic Properties Of Metal-Organic Frameworks Mimicking Carbonic Anhydrase, Longji Li

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The natural enzyme carbonic anhydrase has gained attention in recent years for its ability to catalyze the interconversion of aqueous carbon dioxide (CO₂) and bicarbonate. However, it lacks the efficiency to qualify practical usage on a large scale due to its inherent deficiency and fragile nature. On the other hand, its active center can be used as an ideal model for the design of novel catalytic materials targeting carbon dioxide capture and sequestration. This study focused on the synthesis of a zinc-based metal-organic framework (Zn-MOF-1) mimicking the carbonic anhydrase using the solvothermal method. Important properties such as catalytic …

Diving Into Reliable Numerical Observability And Stabilization Of The One-Dimensional Wave Equation, Emma Moore

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In this project, a one-dimensional wave equation, which is a partial differential equation (PDE) describing vibrations on a string, is considered. It is known that the PDE model is exactly observable and exponentially stabilizable. The main goal of this project is to construct a numerical approximation technique, so-called the direct filtering technique, to prove that the Finite Difference and Finite Element space-discretized 1-D wave equations (i) with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions are uniformly observable, (ii) with controlled boundary conditions are uniformly exponentially stable, as the approximation parameters tend to zero. It is crucial to develop reliable numerical approximation techniques for …

Wind Tunnel Data Acquisition System Development Using Labview, Riley Bishop

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Utilizing an educational-purpose wind tunnel, a data acquisition system through LabVIEW was created to experimentally analyze the aerodynamic forces experienced by objects in uniform external flow by automatically performing trials and interpreting electrical measurement signals. To verify experimental results from pressure distribution data around an object, a force balance was designed to mount objects stationarily in the wind tunnel test section while directly measuring the total lift and drag forces, calculating the pitching moment (for airfoils), and monitoring the angle of attack. The force balance design includes three load cells, one for measuring drag force and two for measuring total …

An Analysis Of A Hybrid Steel Bridge, Andrew Iglehart

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The American Institute of Steel Construction hosts a competition for graduating college seniors each year. The competition is designing and fabricating a scaled steel bridge within certain parameters. Each year the parameters change to allow different seniors to face similar challenges without copying the previous year’s work. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, a bridge was fabricated as per the rules in the 2020, and the same bridge was used for the 2021 competition. With a bridge already fabricated and being used for the competition, a question arose about analyzing the bridge.

This thesis encompasses the entire analysis of the steel …

Wind Hazard Resilient Construction Mitigation Decision-Making Using A Multi-Objective Optimization, Erin Gregory

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

While storms worsen and damage to homes increases, limited information is available about mitigations that are effective in lessening damage to homes and/or buildings. Information on past storms exists within FEMA’s Hazus-MH application, but the information provided by the data within the Hazus-MH application, while very informative on its own, was decidedly more precise and useful when optimized to provide defined information to those responsible for determining building codes or regulations for homes.

The research available from Hazus-MH details results from past storms categorized by building type, mitigations, and intensity of disaster. The data can be used to simulate storm …

Utilization Of Lidar Technology To Assess Vertical Clearances Of Civil Infrastructure, Daniel Levi Mcintosh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The issue of vertical clearances along highway systems impact the functionality of the road network. Extracting current routing clearances for each structure can be a challenging and hazardous task. Pavement changes and roadway rehabilitation projects can alter roadway geometry, complicating efforts to maintain accurate clearance databases. Vertical clearance measurements may vary from one lane to another beneath overhead structures and are often difficult to obtain due to high traffic volumes. Inherently, traditional methods that are used to obtain the measurements routinely impede the flow of traffic and subject workers to dangerous environments. This study will examine the use of a …

Supply Chain Analysis To Determine E-Commerce Distribution Center Locations, Fatima Chebchoub

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Supply chain management is the key success for each business. Having a robust supply chain will help the business to improve service, quality, reduce the costs, improve the speed, and be more flexible. Organizations need to look at data and deploy plans to move the product from operation to logistics to manage a global chain. In this paper we will use E-Comm shipment data to identify the best locations to build a new distribution center (DC).

Novel Application Of Graphene Oxide Based-Biosensor Utilizing Crispr/Dcas9 For Rapid Detection Of Antibiotic Resistance Genes, Joel Omage

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges globally. To combat this threat, we have designed a method for the facile and rapid detection of antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) in bacteria. We utilized an emerging tool termed the clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) in complex with deactivated CRISPR associated proteins (dCas9) on conjugated 2-dimensional graphene oxide (GO) sheets. Nuclease-deactivated Cas9 in complex with customized single guided RNA (sgRNA) was used for the target DNA recognition. The sgRNA was easy to design and we demonstrated that it is complementary to its target sequence by performing a …

Western Kentucky University Stormwater Utility Survey 2020, Warren Campbell

SEAS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.