Engineering Commons^™

9-Axis Motion Tracking To Aid Therapeutic Recovery Via Visualization, Analysis And Progress Monitoring, Megan Wiser, Liam A'Hearn, Christopher Tamayo, Liam Kelly

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

This paper presents an innovative approach to enhance at-home physical therapy exercises through the development of a wearable motion tracking system. The proposed system utilizes motion tracking bands worn by patients during exercises, specifically focusing on a squat jump for the initial phase of the project. The bands, placed around the ankle and knee, monitor the alignment of the user's motion and transmit data via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to a dedicated webpage. This webpage integrates real-time data analysis, offering immediate feedback to users, enabling them to monitor their form and track progress over time. The collected data is stored …

Federated Learning Based Autoencoder Ensemble System For Malware Detection On Internet Of Things Devices, Steven Edward Arroyo

Theses and Dissertations

New technologies are being introduced at a rate faster than ever before and smaller in size. Due to the size of these devices, security is often difficult to implement. The existing solution is a firewall-segmented “IoT Network” that only limits the effect of these infected devices on other parts of the network. We propose a lightweight unsupervised hybrid-cloud ensemble anomaly detection system for malware detection. We perform transfer learning using a generalized model trained on multiple IoT device sources to learn network traffic on new devices with minimal computational resources. We further extend our proposed system to utilize federated learning …

How Ai And Digitalization Can Help To Improve Managing Projects In Lean Manufacturing & Supply Chain Environment, Abhijeet Hange

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

This research examines how digitalization and machine learning (ML) revolutionize project management in supply chain and lean manufacturing settings. To improve the efficiency and caliber of their operational procedures, Acuity Brands, Amazon, Walmart, Apple, and other medium-sized businesses—which are at the center of today's competitive markets—are resorting to automation and digitalization. With an emphasis on the fusion of digital and artificial intelligence (AI), the paper explores how successful transformation initiatives are essential to the automation and digitization of manufacturing and distribution hubs. The study uses quantitative methods approach to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of these technology integrations by integrating …

Physical Effects On The Worst-Case Delay Analysis And Signal Integrity Of Buses And Spirals, Mahmoud Mahany

Theses and Dissertations

Physical effects have a significant impact on the IC design which will be investigated in this thesis. Moving toward advanced technology nodes, magnetic effects become more dominant than capacitive effects. As the dimensions of the devices go down and the interconnect manipulates the circuit behavior more and more. Cross talking and voltage drops are affecting the design heavily, however - going to the full electromagnetic point of view - current return path (CRP) adds significant parasitics to the performance of the chip. Neglecting the CRP gives wrong intuition and simulation of the designs, especially that the environment and surroundings can …

Emergent Magnetism And Hyperthermia In Phase- And Size-Tunable Iron Oxide Nanostructures, K Mudiyanselage Tharindu Supun Bandara Attanayake

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) hold immense potential across diverse fields, from spintronics, magnetic hyperthermia to drug delivery, biodetection, and magnetic resonance imaging. Unlocking these applications hinges on our ability to tailor the magnetic properties of IONPs, and this dissertation presents novel and powerful approaches for enhancing magnetic and hyperthermic responses of multiphase iron oxide nanostructures. This is achieved by manipulating their phase volume fraction, size, and shape with a focus on the magnetic tunability of nanostructures via strategic control over structural and environmental parameters. The aforementioned has been achieved by the following three key approaches: (i) phase-tunability of iron oxide …

A Machine Learning Framework For Predicting Fabrication Hours For Industrial Steel Structure Projects, Dalia Ibrahim

Theses and Dissertations

Construction projects are considered high risk projects especially due to their required large capital making them require extreme attention in estimation as overestimating a project will lead to losing bids and underestimating them will lead to incurring more costs than budgeted resulting in losses. However, estimators are often faced with very tight timelines to finish their estimates leading them to primarily rely on their experience disregarding some crucial factors resulting in inaccurate estimates. In the steel structures industry, the steel fabrication phase accounts for 30 to 40% of the overall project cost; in addition, the steel industry is labor driven; …

Assessment For Sustainable Transportation Systems In Egypt, Hagar Mohamed Fares

Theses and Dissertations

The assessment of a sustainable transportation system poses a significant challenge for local governments, as it dramatically influences the promotion of environmentally friendly modes of transportation with the objective of safeguarding the public's welfare and health in their daily activities. The integration of such assessment should be implemented from the initial stages of system planning to its operational and maintenance phases, particularly in light of the increasing number of urban development activities nationwide. In order to facilitate decision-making processes, it is imperative to establish an efficient rating system that incorporates cultural and social constraints and comprehensively considers the three dimensions …

Hiv3: An Efficient Beehive Monitoring System, Jack Ursillo, Aneal Kuverji, Connor Merhab, Anshuman Sahu

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Beehive monitoring plays a major role in ensuring the health of beehives by checking for overpopulation or underpopulation within a hive. Beehive monitoring provides beekeepers with the opportunity to take action and save the hive before the problem becomes irreversible. Most solutions are too expensive for everyday beekeepers and lack elements of sustainability, making it impractical for small scale beekeepers. In this thesis, we propose a solution to this problem, demonstrating its sustainability and user-friendliness, which enables us to effectively reach a larger consumer market. We support these claims through the use of sustainable systems such as using a solar …

Enhancing Vqgan-Based Model With Connext For Blind Super-Resolution, Lebin Zhou

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

This thesis presents a novel super-resolution model based on Vector Quantized Generative Adversarial Network (VQGAN) to enhance image resolution. Inspired by recent advancements in the field of image reconstruction, we apply VQGAN to the super-resolution task, leveraging its powerful generative capabilities to produce higher quality high-resolution images.

Building on the VQGAN framework, we propose an improved architecture that incorporates an additional ConvNeXt feature extractor based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) to effectively capture and refine features from low-resolution images. To further enhance model performance, we implemented various strategies to optimize the utilization of the codebook, including capacity optimization, improved initialization, …

Transforming Orthopedic Surgery: Autonomous Image-Guided Techniques For Femur Fracture Robotic Surgery, Marzieh Sadat Saeedi-Hosseiny

Theses and Dissertations

Long-bone fractures, particularly femur fractures, are prevalent and necessitate surgical intervention due to traumatic forces. Manual reduction procedures pose challenges, including excessive traction forces and reliance on limited X-ray imaging, resulting in malalignment-related complications and repeated surgeries. Current methods for femur fracture reduction are prone to inaccuracies, prolonged surgical times, and postoperative complications. This research introduces image-guided methods to automate a surgical robotic system, Robossis, to enhance femur alignment accuracy, reduce procedure times, and improve patient outcomes. To address these challenges, a marker-based approach utilizing a few X-ray images is developed to detect the spatial relative position of the femur …

Design And Fabrication Of Passive Microfluidic Devices For Enhancing Membrane-Based Biosensors, Tanner N. Wells

Theses and Dissertations

Microfluidic devices and systems have demonstrated wide applicability in sample processing and analysis. The ability to integrate sample processing and analysis into a single platform is a key benefit of microfluidic technologies. This dissertation describes the design and fabrication two types of microfluidic devices developed to enhance membrane-based biosensors. First is a device for collecting particles into a highly confined region, locally enhancing their concentration. Second is a device for size-based particle separation capable of separating differently sized particles into separate streams. Both types of devices are fabricated with a thin top layer, providing a platform for synthetic membrane-based technologies. …

The Design, Prototyping, And Validation Of A New Wearable Sensor System For Monitoring Lumbar Spinal Motion In Daily Activities, Brianna Bischoff

Theses and Dissertations

Lower back pain is a widespread problem affecting millions worldwide, because understanding its development and effective treatment remains challenging. Current treatment success is often evaluated using patient-reported outcomes, which tend to be qualitative and subjective in nature, making objective success measurement difficult. Wearable sensors can provide quantitative measurements, thereby helping physicians improve care for countless individuals around the world. These sensors also have the potential to provide longitudinal data on daily motion patterns, aiding in monitoring the progress of treatment plans for lower back pain. In this work it was hypothesized that a new wearable sensor garment that makes use …

Ultra Low-Power, High-Performance Presence Detection System, Dante Bajarias, Cristian Medal, Jashan Kaeley

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices emphasizes a greater connection between humans and smart technology. From computer peripherals, personal electronics, and domestic appliances to building access management, healthcare, and security systems, modern applications are generating as much data or more than they are receiving from other sources. Human presence is a type of data that is becoming a compelling requirement for a plethora of today’s applications that must ensure seamless interactions of users with the systems and their associated services. The ultra low-power, high performance presence detection system is an accelerometer-based system capable of person detection, people counting, …

Manipulating Colloidal Particles Using Chemical Gradients And Top-Down Control, Mark Nichols Mcdonald

Theses and Dissertations

Colloidal particles provide the ideal building blocks for the next generation of microdevices, such as advanced sensors and precision drug delivery systems. However, many such applications require the use of top-down (i.e. humanly controllable) forces to manipulate colloidal particles with single-particle precision, and current methods can only achieve such precision for small numbers of particles at a time. To address this challenge, we propose using chemical forces in combination with existing top-down techniques to enable the control of larger numbers of particles simultaneously. Controlling colloids using chemical reactions is a novel technique not typically utilized. Due to its distinct difference …

Edge-Connected Microcontroller Security, Divya Syal, Gavin Ryder, Neena Ekanathan

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

With a wide range of applications and the rise of cyber attacks, securing microcontrollers has become imperative; however, ensuring microcontroller performance is also crucial given how interconnected today’s systems are. This project examines the security and performance of next-generation microcontroller units leveraging new security solutions for IoT edge applications. By benchmarking these MCUs against key performance metrics, their viability will be assessed to facilitate the widespread adoption of this latest firmware.

Our research focuses on profiling the power consumption and performance of the new STM32H573 and the integrated Secure Manager, a new technology from ST Microelectronics that allows for privileged …

Autonomous Microgrid System, Xavier Kuehn, Brian Xiong

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Microgrids have made a revolutionary change in the realm of energy distribution due to the features that they offer, including localized, resilient, and sustainable energy solutions. Operating renewable resources in a microgrid while maintaining generation-load balance and acceptable voltage-frequency limits has been an open research problem. This thesis presents smart python agents for microgrid systems to automate the operations and control of microgrid renewable resources in an effort to provide resilient solutions to the intermittence issues that could potentially arise within the microgrid energy system. The smart agents operate the microgrids by not only integrating the use of renewable energy …

Infrared Light-Based Data Association And Pose Estimation For Aircraft Landing In Urban Environments, David Akagi

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we explore an infrared light-based approach to the problem of pose estimation during aircraft landing in urban environments where GPS is unreliable or unavailable. We introduce a novel fiducial constellation composed of sparse infrared lights that incorporates projective invariant properties in its design to allow for robust recognition and association from arbitrary camera perspectives. We propose a pose estimation pipeline capable of producing high accuracy pose measurements at real-time rates from monocular infrared camera views of the fiducial constellation, and present as part of that pipeline a data association method that is able to robustly identify and …

Feasibility Of Parallelized Measurement Of Local Thermal Properties, Alexander J. Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents research done in the development and the exploration of feasibility for a high-throughput method to measure local thermal properties. The present capabilities in the measurement of local thermophysical properties such as thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and Kapitza resistance are very inefficient and impractical to fully understand and characterize heat transport through certain materials and features. This work follows up on past work in local thermal property measurement via the spatial domain thermoreflectance (SDTR) method, and explores the possibility of parallelizing the process. The parallelized SDTR (P-SDTR) method involves using laser projector sources to periodically heat and measure …

Remote Vibration Based Monitoring Of Bridge Scour, Alan Kazemian

Dissertations

The gradual erosion of the sediment around a bridge foundation is called Scour. This erosion is caused by water flow and increases during times of high-water flow such as flooding. The scour leaves the bridges structurally unsound over time and jeopardizes the safety of the structure. Approximately 60 percent of bridge failures in the United States are caused by scour. A variety of types of devices have been used to detect scour. Most of these devices only observe the scour and not the structural integrity of the bridge. The typical approach has relied on visual inspections of the bridges after …

Design Of Precision Deployable Origami-Based Space Arrays, Clark Thomas Roubicek

Theses and Dissertations

Deployable origami-based arrays can offer many benefits for a wide variety of engineering applications because of their ability to stow compactly and deploy to a large area. These types of arrays have been demonstrated for use in solar arrays, heat shields, and more; however, they have yet to be shown in high precision applications such as telescopes. The biggest roadblock to using origami in high precision arrays is align- ment in the deployed state; in optical systems, local (single panel) and global (entire array) misalignment can drastically reduce performance. Precision positioning of origami-based arrays can be a challenge because of …

Enhanced Adaptive Image-Codebook Learning For Image Reconstruction, Yutong Ge

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

In the field of image reconstruction and super-resolution, using codebooks has shown promising results despite various image degradations. Previous methods either use distinct codebooks for each image category or multiple codebooks per category, with the latter achieving better performance by capturing more nuanced image features. Our research proposes a novel method that employs enhanced sets of codebooks and weight maps tailored to each image category. These weight maps dynamically combine different codebook bases to adapt to various reconstruction tasks, resulting in improved image recognition and robustness. This approach significantly enhances the expressiveness and quality of reconstructed images, making it versatile …

Preclinical Examination Of A Nerve Specific Fluorophore Using Ex Vivo Human Tissues, Logan Michael Bateman

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) is a nascent field which seeks to improve patient safety and surgical outcomes using fluorescent agents known as fluorophores. Fluorophores are molecules which upon excitation with a specific wavelength of light emit a photon of a specific wavelength which can be detected using a modified camera system. Creation and translation of a fluorophore for clinical use is a costly, laborious, and time intensive process. Only a handful of fluorophores have received FDA approval and they required multiple years of tightly regulated clinical trials. Prior to these first-in-human studies these agents are subject to a litany of preclinical …

Aligning Language Models With The Human World, Ruibo Liu

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

The field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) has undergone a significant transformation with the emergence of large language models (LMs). These models have enabled the development of human-like conversational assistants (e.g., OpenAI's ChatGPT), and expert-level AI software engineering agents (e.g., Devin from Cognition Lab). However, these models face a fundamental challenge related to their training methodology. Predominantly trained on vast datasets scraped from the web, their self-supervised learning objective---predict missing tokens---unintentionally perpetuates the biases, inaccuracies, and sensitive information inherent in their training data. These issues lead to what is termed misaligned}behaviors and pose a significant hurdle in the development of …

Advancing Omnimodality: Expanding Human Creativity Through Adaptable And Accessible Multimodal Computing Systems, Joshua Urban Davis

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Emerging technologies have given us a whole host of new ways for people to be

creative. From the immersive worlds of AR/VR to the synthesis powers of largelanguage

models and generative AI, these new tools hold the potential to reshape

human expression and creativity. But how can we ensure that these new modalities

are accessible to everyone, even those who aren’t able bodied? This thesis advocates

for a human-centered approach to the development of many-modal systems. I will

probe how our machines support, direct, or inhibit creativity as a mode of problem

solving through 6 novel multimodal prototype interfaces and …

Heartfev1: A Mobile Electrocardiogram Based System For Inferring Forced Expiratory Volume In One Second From Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Maria Nyamukuru

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), characterized by chronic airway inflammation and airflow obstruction, is the third leading cause of death globally. Patients with COPD experience exacerbated symptoms like breathlessness and cough, significantly impacting their quality of life and leading to costly hospitalizations. Early detection of COPD exacerbations is crucial for mitigating these negative effects.

The most critical element for early detection of COPD exacerbations is daily monitoring of lung function, particularly forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), a key metric of lung function. By tracking declines in FEV1, COPD exacerbations can be predicted up to two weeks in advance, …

E-Scooter Black Box, Soham Phadke, Suvass Ravala, Joshua Jerome, Raghav Batra, Mubashir Hussain

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

The burgeoning market for shared e-scooters is significantly hampered by the short lifespan of commercial e-scooters, which currently average just three months due to rough handling by users. To address this challenge, our project aims to extend the lifespan of shared e-scooters through an innovative onboard solution that discourages detrimental riding behaviors.

Our solution integrates a portable sensor hub from STMicroelectronics to capture ride data, which is then processed and sent via a user’s iOS app to a Google Firebase backend. A machine learning model running in the cloud analyzes the data to extract valuable metrics. These metrics are displayed …

Performance Evaluation Of A Novel Dual-Bed Gasification Reactor For The Production Of Green Energy, Ogooluwa Philip Ojo

Theses and Dissertations

The need to maximize current energy sources and create new ones has increased due to the world's growing energy demand and the depletion of major energy sources. Biomass and solid waste, such as wood, sawdust, plant wastes, paper, cardboard, and plastics, present promising carbon-neutral alternatives, collectively accounting for over 10% of global energy generation. The concept of integrating fixed and fluidized bed reactors in industrial applications needs additional research to ascertain the optimal configuration and interplay between these reactor types. Hence this research focuses on the utilization of a unique hybrid modular gasification system that combines fixed and fluidized bed …

3d Printing Filament Producer: A Reverse 3d Printer, Jackson Mar, Adnesh Tondale, Charles Wallace

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

PLA filament stands out as the most widely utilized material in FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) 3D Printing. This additive manufacturing process involves the layer-by-layer construction of 3D objects, employing a variety of materials. Commonly used materials in 3D printing include PLA, ABS, and PETG plastics, each with unique characteristics suited to specific project requirements. For example, PLA is known for its high tensile strength, while PETG, with its higher melting point, is suitable for applications requiring greater thermal resistance.

Despite the versatility of these materials, the inherent challenge arises with the accumulation of filament waste, comprising supports, benchmark prints, and …

Residual Transformer Unet For Medical Image Segmentation, Ruopu He

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

With the continuous development of deep learning theory in the field of medical images, information technology-assisted treatment methods represented by medical image segmentation technology can help doctors to quickly determine the shape and location of the lesions and improve the diagnosis efficiency of brain tumors. Based on deep learning technology, this thesis carries out related research work on MRI image segmentation. The main contents are as follows:

To begin with, acquire and prepare the brain tumor (MRI) image segmentation dataset from the official MICCAI Society website. This involves normalizing the images, cropping, and slicing, as well as scaling the data …

Using Discrete-Event Simulation To Balance Staff Allocation And Patient Flow Between Clinic And Surgery In A Pediatric Hospital Setting, John Forbus

Theses and Dissertations

We review the problem of a system-level balanced scheduling scenario. A hospital clinic has a queue for patients needing care. After being seen in clinic, many require follow-up surgery, for which they also wait in a queue. The rate-limiting factor is physician availability for both clinic visits and surgical cases. Much existing work has been done to optimize clinic appointments, as well as to optimize surgical appointments. This novel approach models the entire patient journey at the system level, through both clinic and surgery, to optimize the total patient experience. A discrete-event simulation model of the system is built based …