Engineering Commons^™

Prioritizing Mental Health Awareness In The Construction Industry, Molly E. Pryde

Construction Management

The construction industry is known as one of the most demanding industries for employees, both physically and mentally. Due to various factors associated with the working conditions and lifestyles of construction workers, the likelihood of mental health challenges amongst this demographic is quite high. Furthermore, industry culture surrounding masculinity poses a barrier to properly addressing the issue. Because of the dynamic and fast-paced work environment, assessing potential risks to protect workers is an integral part of each day on the job site. As a key component in company success and individual well-being, safety has become ingrained in construction culture. However, …

Blacow Road Improvement Plan, Nishita Kandikuppa

City and Regional Planning

Providing safe and accessible entrances to schools, especially elementary, middle, and high schools where children are below the age of 18, should be of utmost priority to cities. Providing wide sidewalks, painted bicycle lanes and continental crosswalks (with the lateral lines) are just basic infrastructure improvements that can be made within the vicinity of a school. However, due to lack of funding or attention from the city departments, many school entryways are being neglected and the direct impact of this is increased collisions among students, drivers, and bicyclists. My senior project studied one such school in Fremont, California where the …

The Benefits And Challenges Of Automation In The Modular Construction Industry, Allen Le

Construction Management

Modular construction combined with automation technology such as robotics presents benefits and challenges associated with it. Modular construction takes on the traditional building methods and has streamlined the production of modules making it safer, efficient, and productive. Along with innovation and cutting-edge technology such as automation, it offers an alternative building method to the modular construction industry that enhances productivity, worker safety, and efficiency. This research presents an investigation on factors that may be benefited from the adoption of automation but also addresses the challenges in modular construction. Qualitative interviews with designers and consultants in the modular industry were conducted …

The Optimization Of Financial Investment In Project Safety Practices, Ryan Stewart Nielsen

Construction Management

This research paper explains the notable benefits to pursing a comprehensive safety plan complete with the most cost-effective safety practices in the industry. Through communication with environmental health and safety professionals within the construction industry, it was determined that certain safety practices are deemed essential on any active jobsite. Enforcing mandatory jobsite safety training to all individuals entering a jobsite serves as the first line of defense when attempting to protect individuals and mitigate risk. This educational and effective safety practice highlights the potential safety concerns of a jobsite while also mitigating contractor liability if an accident were to occur. …

A Case Study On The Ucsf Transplant Center Renovation: Mitigating Covid-19 Risks And Tracking Cost Impact, Alec Steven Woodyatt

Construction Management

At the beginning of 2020, the world was turned upside down at the hands of the global coronavirus pandemic. Today, economies and business are counting the costs and wondering what recovery will look like – how to navigate and adapt to a new style of life after returning from government-mandated lockdowns. The question on everyone’s minds is, “how do we continue to work while keeping people safe?” This question is extremely relevant in the construction industry where, for most people, working from home is not an option. This case study will delve into how Dome Construction, along with their client, …

Workers Head Protection Preferences In Construction, Matthew R. Langbehn

Construction Management

Head injuries are one of the most common ways workers are injured on a construction site, but head protection has not evolved over the last few decades. A new style of head protection, a safety helmet is being introduced to better protect workers, but the new style has not been widely adopted. A survey was conducted to determine workers preferences when choosing head protection and 31 responses were collected. 68% of the respondents currently wear a safety helmet, but 60% of the respondents would choose a traditional helmet if given the choice. 73% workers with more than 5 years of …

Development Of A Safety Performance Decision-Making Tool For Flight Training Organization, Marisa D. Aguiar

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 141 flight training organizations are actively pursuing ways to increase operational safety by introducing advanced risk assessment and decision-making techniques. The purpose of the dissertation was to create and validate a safety performance decision-making tool to transform a reactive safety model into a predictive, safety performance decision-making tool, specific to large, collegiate Title 14 CFR Part 141 flight training organizations, to increase safety and aid in operational decision-making. The validated safety decision-making tool uses what-if scenarios to assess how changes to the controllable input variables impact the overall level of …

Optimizing Critical Values And Combining Axes For Multi-Axial Neck Injury Criteria, Ethan J. Gaston

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force employs ejection seats in its high-performance aircraft. While these systems are intended to ensure aircrew safety, the ejection process subjects the aircrew to potentially injurious forces. System validation includes evaluation of forces against a standard which is linked to the probability of injury. The Muti-Axial Neck Injury Criteria (MANIC) was developed to account for forces in all six degrees of freedom. Unfortunately, the MANIC is applied to each of the three linear input directions separately and applies different criterion values for each direction. These three separate criteria create a lack of clarity regarding acceptable neck loading, leading …

Bilingual Training Course For Redwood Residential Fence Company, Adriana Bernabe Martinez

Construction Management

The Hispanic population has been increasing in the US over the past twenty years, and made up 42.9% of the construction workforce in 2018 (Data USA, n.d.). Because of this population increase, it’s expected that 1 in 4 persons will be of Hispanic descent by the year 2050 (Canales, 2009). Due to this increase, many language barriers exist that can create serious issues in construction. Language barriers cause productivity to decrease and increase concerns for the workers’ safety. Although OSHA trainings are available in Spanish, the opportunity to take these courses vary from company to company and it is rare …

The Use Of Virtual Reality In Construction Safety Training, Matthias S. Guegler

Construction Management

The emergence of virtual reality has seemingly limitless possibilities in the construction industry. One of the most significant applications of this technology in construction, is its use in virtual reality safety training, as it allows for more immersive and retainable training programs. Construction VR training programs have been developed to allow workers to train in a safe working environment and develop the necessary skills in recognizing hazardous jobsite situations. The purpose of this study is to measure the effectiveness and potential of virtual reality construction training as it compares to traditional industry training through attitudinal research. To this end, a …

Common Issues Of Compliance With Personal Protective Equipment For Construction Workers, Alexandra N. Gattuso

Construction Management

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is an essential component to the safety of workers on construction jobsites. Construction is ranked one of the most dangerous industries to work in, with the highest reports of fatal work injuries. For this reason, it is required that construction employees wear PPE to keep them safe during work. Despite this requirement, many workers neglect to wear PPE, exposing themselves to high risk of injury and death. A survey was conducted on thirty-three (33) construction workers in California to gain a better understanding of issues with PPE and reasons for non-compliance. The survey found that only …

Scaling, Experiments, And Simulations Of Condensation Heat Transfer For Advanced Nuclear Reactors Safety, Palash Kumar Bhowmik

Doctoral Dissertations

“The purpose of this research was to perform scaled experiments and simulations to validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and empirical models of condensation heat transfer (CHT) for the passive containment cooling system (PCCS) of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). SMRs are the futuristic candidates for clean, economic, and safe energy generation; however, reactor licensing requires safety system evaluations, such as PCCS. The knowledge in the reviewed relevant literature showed a gap in experimental data for scaling SMR’s safety systems and validating computational models. The previously available test data were inconsistent due to unscaled geometric and varying physics conditions. These inconsistencies lead …

Hard Hat Ambient Liability Observer (Halo), Hunter Hykes, Nathan Kish, Brian Thomson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Capturing workplace incident information is a growing area of concern for most companies. To assist with this, the design team proposed the H.A.L.O. This design uses time-of-flight sensors connected to LEDs to create a proximity-based hazard warning system. It also records incident data using an accelerometer and micro-SD card. This helps workers avoid some of the most common workplace injuries, slips, trips, and falls and accidental collisions.

Students have created a design with engineering, and marketing requirements that accomplish this task. The proposed design allows for this monitoring and mitigation systems to be attached to hard hats. Team members developed …

Application Of Project Management Strategies And Tools For An Efficient And Successful Competition-Based Engineering Senior Capstone Design Project, Benton Duane Morris

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The industry-level engineering workforce for a project in modern times requires a clear plan and management process to execute the goals of the consumer and the producer. The engineers of tomorrow need the ability to be competitive and successful upon entry into the industry, where there have already been established management tactics for the execution of the company's goals. The mentality within the industry is adaptable to senior collegiate-level competition-based capstone projects. Therefore the West Virginia University EcoCAR Mobility Challenge team has adapted, altered, or adjusted industry-level practices in order to have an overall functioning and effective team that follows …

Pandemic Healthcare: Face Shield Modification, Nathan Giunto, Sefra Manos, Brandon Ross, Catherine Seno, Catherine Howell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Current face shields used in home and institutional healthcare settings create hardships for their wearers, which makes normal work routines more difficult. Recent mandates require healthcare workers to wear both surgical masks as well as plastic face shields when tending to patients. Unfortunately, the majority of face shields have been designed for hospital settings, which does not address the specific requirements for in-home therapist use. Some of the issues include their restrictive size, tendency to fog, susceptibility to glare, and sterilization and re-use issues. Our team proposes to design a face shield for homecare occupational therapists that addresses their unique …