Engineering Commons^™

Anion Exchange Membrane Transport And Accelerated Testing Methods For Co2 Electrolyzers With Cu-Based Electrocatalyst, John C. Hendershot

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Electrocatalytic carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduction to C₂₊ products holds promise for low carbon intensity fuels, chemicals, and food; however, durability challenges, particularly bicarbonate (HCO₃^-)and carbonate (CO₃^2-) salt precipitation, hinder their commercialization. This report considers water (H₂O) and ion transport properties of conventional anion exchange membranes (AEMs) in zero-gap membrane electrode assembly (MEA) configurations using Cu electrocatalysts. Transport characterization includes H₂O diffusion, permeability, potassium (K⁺) diffusion, and transference numbers using three commercial AEMs, including piperidinium-based (Versogen), quaternary ammonium-based (Fumasep), and imidazolium-based (Dioxide Materials) membranes. Accelerated lifetime …

Theoretical And Experimental Investigation Of Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation: Characterizing Elastin-Like-Polypeptides, Adam D. Quintana

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

This dissertation develops and validates a semi-empirical Flory–Huggins-based interaction model, combined with Cahn–Hilliard simulations, for predicting multi-component liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) in elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) systems. Equilibrium droplet compositions, measured using a PDMS-based microfluidic device, enabled direct parameterization of interaction coefficients. The model was applied to generate phase diagrams and assess composition dependence in ternary mixtures. Cahn–Hilliard simulations were conducted to explore potential phase morphologies under different interfacial conditions. Multi-component Lattice Boltzmann simulations were implemented to model droplet morphology evolution under varying interfacial and diffusive parameters, reproducing experimentally relevant morphologies. A three-phase wetting study revealed conditions for selective wetting and …

Flysurf: A Flying Robotic Surface With Shape Morphing And Motion Control, Kevin Aubert De Luchi Lomellini

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This thesis introduces FlySurf, a novel flying robotic surface capable of simultaneous shape morphing and motion control. FlySurf is modeled as a mesh-based dynamic structure actuated by multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, enabling complex deformations during flight. The proposed control architecture comprises three main components. First, a state estimator to infer the robotic surface state from limited observations. Second, a shape trajectory planner that incorporates an affine deformation term to preserve surface integrity during shape transitions. Third, a surface controller to minimize the error between the desired and actual surface configurations.

The methodology is validated through realistic simulations and hardware experiments, …

Soft Hexapod Robot With Tendon-Driven Continuum Legs For Internal Infrastructure Inspection, Setayesh Yavari

LSU Master's Theses

The need for robotic systems capable of operating in confined, hazardous, or complex environments has driven interest in soft and legged platforms for industrial inspection and structural integrity assessment. This thesis presents the design and fabrication of a tentacle-like, soft-legged hexapod robot, which uses six cable-stiffened, pre-curved, tendon-driven continuum robot (TDCR) legs. These biologically inspired legs are designed to offer a balance between compliance and control, enabling the robot to navigate unstructured terrains and potentially grasp cylindrical structures such as pipes. The design phase involved the development and comparison of multiple leg geometries using CAD modeling and finite element analysis …

Upcycling Of Polydicyclopentadiene (Pdcpd) Via Dynamic Bonds, Catherine Biju

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Thermoset polymers are valued for their exceptional mechanical strength and thermal stability, but suffer from irreversibility due to permanent covalent crosslinks, limiting recyclability. Polydicyclopentadiene (pDCPD), a widely used thermoset, exemplifies this limitation despite its excellent mechanical properties. In this study, we report an upcycling strategy for pDCPD through the incorporation of dynamic imine bonds. The successful integration of imine bonds was confirmed by ¹H NMR spectroscopy. Mechanical testing revealed that the modified pDCPD (pDCPD-imine) exhibits enhanced tensile strength and maintains its performance across multiple reprocessing cycles. Moreover, the dynamic nature of the imine bonds imparts healability to the network. This …

Low Temperature Methane Coupling With Co And Co2, A K M Kazi F.M. Aurnob

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Methane is the smallest hydrocarbon and the most abundant component in natural gas. Despite its availability, its chemical utilization has remained limited due to the challenges associated with direct methane activation and conversion. Most of the methane oxidation and oxidative carbonylation reactions in literature have been carried out at high-pressure using batch reactors or at ambient pressure using flow reactors. While batch reactors have been shown to have higher product yields, they are limited in their capability to provide real-time kinetic insights and comprehensive mechanistic understanding of the reactions involved due to the long residence time. This limits rationalization of …

Low Entropy Side-Channel Secure Hardware Implementations, Jhelum Dhar

Master’s Dissertations

The demand for symmetric-key cryptography implemented in hardware is growing due to the increasing need for faster, more efficient, and secure encryption in small devices. However, implementing block ciphers in hardware that are side-channel secure remains a challenging goal. This holds true because there exist sophisticated but well-studied attacks such as Differential Power Analysis, which uses the correlation between power consumption of a device and the information on it to allow attackers with physical access to the cryptographic device to get information about secret data. Masking is one of the techniques that is used to provide security against sidechannel attacks. …

Pd-Based Hydrogen Separation Membranes Synthesized Via A Liquid-Phase Route, Chase W. Thompson

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

Palladium (Pd) membranes have gained significant attention for their ability to selectively separate hydrogen, a critical process for clean energy applications such as fuel cells and hydrogen storage. However, challenges such as grain growth, sintering, hydrogen embrittlement, and film uniformity limit their scalability and long-term stability. This thesis focuses on the controlled synthesis, deposition, and stability of Pd nanoparticles to optimize membrane performance for hydrogen separation. This work investigates solution-phase synthesis of Pd nanoparticles, focusing on temperature, precursor concentration, and solvent composition as key variables influencing particle growth and dispersion. Pd membranes were fabricated using nanoparticle deposition onto porous supports, …

Ti-Ulpcs: Threshold-Issuance - Un-Linkable Policy Compliant Signatures, Kiran Deep Ghosh

Master’s Dissertations

Digital signatures, as a strong cryptographic primitive, ensure the authenticity and integrity of signed messages. On one hand, no one can forge a verifiable signature without knowing the secret key, on the other hand, any correctly formed signature is always verifiable under the public key of the signer. Besides signing digital data, they serve as foundational components in more advanced cryptographic systems, including blind signatures, group signatures, direct anonymous attestation, e-cash, e-voting protocols, adaptive oblivious transfer, anonymous credential schemes, Policy-Compliant Signatures, etc. Policy-Compliant Signatures (PCS) enable the enforcement of joint policies between the signer and the verifier. A signature of …

Zkipv: Zero-Knowledge Proofs For Image Provenance Verification, Bibek Ghosh

Master’s Dissertations

Recent advances in generative AI have significantly improved the ability to create photorealistic synthetic images, including so-called deepfakes, raising concerns about misinformation and the erosion of trust in digital media. Ensuring the integrity and authenticity of images, especially in sensitive domains like journalism, is thus increasingly critical. Existing solutions such as the C2PA (Content Provenance and Authenticity) framework provide origin verification through cameragenerated digital signatures, but fail to account for image modifications that invalidate these signatures. To address this limitation, we propose a zero-knowledge approach to verifiable image editing that preserves both integrity and privacy. This system, ZK-IPV, introduces a …

Approximating Data-Driven Combinatorial Search In The Feature Space: Pwfs, Mehmet Bugrahan Ayanoglu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development and application of a novel feature selection method, Probability Weighted Feature Selection (PWFS), designed to address key challenges in machine learning involving high-dimensional, noisy, or biased datasets. It is a comprehensive exploration of feature selection strategies to enhance the performance, interpretability, and practicality of machine learning models in both engineering systems and educational data mining. PWFS introduces a structured, probabilistic approach to feature selection that adaptively weights features based on their empirical contribution to model performance. This method not only accelerates convergence to near-optimal feature subsets but also enhances flexibility for ensemble learning by encouraging …

Ergonomic And Biomechanical Assessment Of Vertical Ladder Climbing For Exoskeleton Integration In Construction Tasks, Ehsan Shourangiz

LSU Master's Theses

Active exoskeletons are increasingly utilized in physically demanding industries such as construction and manufacturing to reduce strain and lower the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, supporting worker safety and long-term health. However, most existing systems are designed for repetitive tasks like lifting or prolonged standing, with limited consideration for dynamic activities such as vertical ladder climbing. Ladder climbing is common and physically demanding in industrial environments, often required to access elevated areas like scaffolding, tanks, or rooftops. Since exoskeletons are intended to remain worn throughout multiple tasks, requiring workers to remove and re-don the device during ladder climbing would reduce …

Participation Of Battery Energy Storage Systems In Load Frequency Control Of Power Systems, Zakaria Afsharbakeshloo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this research, functionalities and roles of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs) in power systems are extended beyond primary frequency control (PFC). The BESSs, while participating in PFC, are controlled through charge controllers to first maintain their state-of-charge (SOC) within an acceptable range through a primary charge controller, and to recharge the BESS to its maximum SOC through a secondary charge controller. This forms a hierarchical frequency and SOC control of power grids with BESSs. In this regard, multiple BESS case is considered as well, and by employing the SOC balancing principle, it is shown that desired power sharing among …

Efficient Simd Based Implementation Of Xoodyak, Soham Biswas

Master’s Dissertations

Modern computing devices—particularly in the domains of the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile computing, and embedded systems—often operate under severe resource constraints in terms of processing power, memory (RAM/ROM), bandwidth, and battery life. Devices such as IoT sensors, smart cards, medical implants, RFID tags, and wearable systems typically rely on low-power hardware, including 8-bit microcontrollers with only a few kilobytes of memory. Conventional cryptographic algorithms are frequently unsuitable for such environments, as they may consume excessive power, introduce unacceptable latency, or fail to execute altogether. Lightweight cryptography addresses these challenges by providing cryptographic primitives specifically designed to operate efficiently on …

The Monodromy Leak For A Generalized Montgomery Ladder, Arani Raychaudhuri

Master’s Dissertations

The Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol using elliptic curves is the most wide-spread approach to the establishment of a secure internet connection. As an important subroutine, Alice and Bob need to perform multiplications of elliptic curve points by large scalars. The textbook method for scalar multiplication is the double-and-add algorithm. For the sake of efficiency, one usually performs x-coordinate only arithmetic using projective coordinates, and doubling-and-adding is done using the Montgomery ladder. The advantage of using projective coordinates is that this avoids costly field inversions at each iteration. However, when Alice (say) uses the double-and-add algorithm for computing her public key …

In The Shadow Of Prompts: Adversarial Attacks And Model Cloning In Large Language Models, Kanchon Gharami

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Large-language models (LLMs) already power mission critical tasks such as command-and-control chat, satellite ground-station automation, military analytics, and cyber-defense. Since most of these services are offered through application programming interfaces (APIs) that still expose full or top-k logits and lack mature safeguards, they present a serious, often overlooked attack surface. Earlier work has shown how to rebuild the output projection layer or distill surface behavior, but no attack has produced a deployable clone within a tight query budget. In this thesis, we address this problem by presenting a practical pipeline for cloning LLMs under constrained settings. The approach first estimates …

Investigation Of The Isbr Method With A Quad Detector For The Measurement Of Turbine Rotor Inlet Temperature, A. Cole Cecil

Theses and Dissertations

Temperature measurements at the inlet of a gas turbine inlet have proven challenging due to the high flow velocities, limited space, and high temperatures. This work investigates the use of the Integrated Spectral Band Ratio (ISBR) method to measure temperature using a new set of gas bands and a new method for collecting, measuring m and converting raw signals to digital temperature data at low cost and high speed (4 Hz). The Pressurized Oxy-Coal (POC) reactor was refurbished and used in this work to simulate turbine inlet conditions. The POC was modified to produce a stable natural gas and air …

Magnetic Field Enabled Assembly And Propulsion Of Colloidal Particles In A Magnetic Medium, Hashir M. Gauri

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Colloidal particles are nano/micro meter-sized particles dispersed in a fluid medium and serve as diverse building blocks for assembling complex structures. The ease of tunability of the shape, size, and interparticle interactions of colloidal particles facilitates their assembly into rich structures and phases that mirror the assembly process of atomic systems. Often regarded as "big atoms" colloidal particles provide an ideal model system for investigating complex phenomena in condensed matter, such as crystallization and nucleation. While the assembly of colloids under thermodynamic equilibrium has been extensively studied, recent interest has shifted toward exploring colloids in non-equilibrium conditions to create dynamic …

Edge-Streamer: A Lightweight, Self-Supervised Event Segmentation Model, Lucas Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Event segmentation is the practice of autonomously detecting the boundaries of semantically connected sequences of actions within a video. It is connected to many areas of computer vision, including action recognition and event understanding. Nearly all current work requires the entire video to be stored in memory to be processed in multiple passes. This takes up valuable resources, increases processing time, prevents the use of low-power, low-memory devices, and precludes long-form content and live videos from undergoing event segmentation.

This thesis introduces EDGE-STREAMER, a real-time, lightweight, self-supervised, transformer architecture capable of performing event segmentation in a single pass. EDGE-STREAMER uses …

Exploring Sub-Protocols For Spectrum Cooperation And Transparency, Ashton Palacios

Theses and Dissertations

With the proliferation of terrestrial and space-based wireless radio frequency transmitters and receivers in recent years, there is a greater need for spectrum cooperation and transparency. Spectrum is a limited resource that is shared between all wireless devices, both active and passive. The spectrum needs of today and tomorrow demand new techniques to enable cooperation and device transparency. This dissertation explores an innovative field, wireless sub-protocols, that provides novel software solutions for spectrum cooperation and transparency. The first application is radio astronomy. Radio astronomy deploys highly sensitive, passive RF receivers to capture faint signals from distant celestial bodies. Because passive …

Design For Additive Manufacturing: Simultaneous Optimization Of Structural Integrity And Minimal Support Structures, Naresh Ahuja

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This dissertation addresses two core challenges limiting the widespread application of Topology Optimization (TO): the difficulty in fabricating its complex designs, especially for Additive Manufacturing (AM), and its significant computational costs. It develops a unified design framework that directly embeds AM constraints such as overhang angles and build direction into robust TO formulations. To enhance manufacturability, two distinct methodologies are proposed. Firstly, a Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) framework introduces a three-stage robust optimization algorithm. Secondly, the Geometric Projection Topology Optimization (GPTO) method inherently integrates overhang constraints by controlling individual geometric components and their inclined angles relative to a …

Non-Invasive Near-Field Microwave Sensors For Industrial Internet Of Things Applications, Abirami K

Theses and Dissertations

The industrial sector has been revolutionized by Industrial Revolution 4.0 with the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) which integrates the physical environment using smart sensors and Artificial Intelligence (AI) mechanisms. This demands the design of smart sensors and actuators to improve the quality of services in Industrial IoT (IIoT). The sensor design using the microwave resonating principle has attracted the research and industrial community for portable, non-invasive, non-destructive and hygienic means to evaluate the quality of substances in the food and farming industry. The microwave planar sensor has advantages in terms of low footprint, low cost, and ease …

Anion Exchange Membrane Durability For Electrochemical Co2 Reduction In Membrane Electrode Assembly Cells, Soundarzo Tasnim

LSU Master's Theses

The electrochemical reduction of CO₂ using membrane electrode assembly (MEA) cells has emerged as a promising approach for carbon capture and conversion into valuable products. This study investigates the degradation mechanisms of anion exchange membranes (AEMs) in CO₂ reduction applications, focusing on Sustainion X37-50, PiperION, and FAA-3-50. The research analyzes the impact of chemical and mechanical degradation on membrane performance, highlighting key stability challenges in long-term operation. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were employed to monitor functional group stability and ionic conductivity loss over extended operation. The results indicate that hydroxide-induced degradation leads to nucleophilic …

Energy Equity In The Built Environment: Analyzing Building Energy Consumption For American Low-Income Households, Sorena Vosoughkhosravi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The built environment consumes a significant amount of energy in the United States, with outdated and inefficient affordable housing increasing financial pressure on low-income households (LIHs) who face high energy burdens. This research aims to assess the energy performance of American households, focusing on LIHs, to promote energy justice by providing data-driven insights and models for energy efficiency improvements. More specifically, this research aims to (1) create a large-scale national residential building energy dataset by integrating the American Housing Survey and the Residential Energy Consumption Survey using machine learning techniques; (2) analyze and model American household occupancy profiles by leveraging …

Investigating Vacuum Insulator Flashover Resistance Of Rexolite And Acrylic Before And After Applying Novel Insulator Cleaning Techniques, Ritin Joseph

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Pulsed power involves accumulating large amounts of electrical energy and releasing it instantaneously. Large pulsed power accelerators use a vacuum insulator stack to facilitate power transfer from the liquid to vacuum section. Limiting the probability of surface flashover in this setting to acceptable levels improves machine longevity and prevents energy loss. Post-shot debris deposition requires a refurbishment process to prevent deterioration of dielectric performance, though the current technique of hand-sanding is long, labor-intensive, and pose serious health hazards. I have collected flashover data on frustrum-shaped Acrylic and C-Lec Rexolite® (cross-linked polystyrene) samples using a 500-kV, 20-ns risetime pulsed power test …

Analyzing The Interfacial Properties Of Natural Fiber Composites, Rahul Kumar Arram

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In response to growing environmental concerns and the urgent demand for sustainable development, the composite materials industry is increasingly challenged to balance high performance with environmental responsibility. Conventional composites, typically composed of synthetic fibers and petroleum-based resins, offer outstanding mechanical properties but are associated with significant ecological drawbacks due to their non-biodegradable nature and energy-intensive production. This has led to increased interest in the development of sustainable composites that minimize environmental impact without compromising functionality. This study presents the development of eco-friendly composites reinforced with natural bast fibers—specifically ramie and jute—through a comprehensive program of materials processing and characterization. To …

Tkbe : Two Key Broadcast Encryption For The Iot, Rachit Parikh

Master’s Dissertations

The growing usage of the Internet of Things (IoT) has made it necessary to ensure

the security of these interconnected devices. Key management becomes particularly

challenging when devices are not always online due to resource constraints or business

decisions. Moreover, the IoT infrastructure typically relies on the publish-subscribe

model for communication, which raises additional security considerations since the

message broker becomes a central point of attack. Existing solutions with end-toend

encryption from publisher to subscriber are either computationally expensive for

resource constrained devices or compromise on the decoupling in publish/subscribe

systems. This thesis tackles the problem of efficient key management …

Uncertainty-Driven Fusion For Conflictive Multiview Data: Beyond View Alignment Assumptions, Puspamalya Sahoo

Master’s Dissertations

Multiview learning aims to integrate diverse feature representations to achieve a comprehen- sive understanding of data. Traditional approaches often assume strict alignment across views, making them ill-suited for real-world scenarios where low-quality conflictive instances, i.e. in- stances with conflicting information across views are prevalent. Existing methods largely focus on eliminating conflicting instances by discarding them or substituting conflicting views, over- looking the need for practical decision making in such cases. Furthermore, while the recently proposed Reliable Conflictive Multiview Learning (RCML) framework introduces the idea of attaching reliabilities to decision outcomes, it leaves certain theoretical gaps unaddressed, es-pecially prioritization of conflictive …

Enhancing Power System Operation: Hydrogen, Dc Transmission Systems, And Robust Optimization, Anping Zhou

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The increasing penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs) has brought considerable economic and environmental benefits to power system operations. However, it also introduces several critical challenges that should be addressed to ensure system reliability and efficiency. First, from the generation side, energy curtailment remains a persistent issue due to the random and intermittent nature of RESs. Second, from the transmission side, delivering power from remote RESs (e.g., offshore wind farms) requires substantial infrastructure investment and careful planning. Third, from the operation side, the inherent uncertainty and variability of RES generation create operational difficulties that necessitate advanced mathematical optimization tools for …

Differential Privacy Enabled Deep Skin Image Classification Model Development, Prasun Kumar Mandal

Master’s Dissertations

Abstract In the era of big data, the explosive growth in data volume has significantly accelerated the development of deep learning. Deep learning is the most promising area of AI, yielding significant advancements in medical image classification. However, healthcare data contains important sensitive information and so privacy and security are crucial to preventing unauthorized access. Note that there are several data protection rules from multiple regulations to penalize any kind of data security violation, for example, the data protection principles (Article 5.1-2) and the data protection by design and by default (Article 25) of the General Data Protection Regulation from …