Engineering Commons^™

Progress Towards Terahertz Acoustic Phonon Generation In Doping Superlattices, Thomas E. Wilson

Physics Faculty Research

Progress is described in experiments to generate coherent terahertz acoustic phonons in silicon doping superlattices by the resonant absorption of nanosecond-pulsed far-infrared laser radiation. Future experiments are proposed that would use the superlattice as a transducer in a terahertz cryogenic acoustic reflection microscope with sub-nanometer resolution.

Self-Assembly Of Nanoparticles On Live Bacterium: An Avenue To Fabricate Electronic Devices, Vikas Berry, Ravi F. Saraf

Papers in Nanotechnology

Recently, hybrid structures of microorganisms with inorganic nanoscale moieties have received great interest due to their potential in fabricating electronic systems. Electronic properties of metal nanoparticles, due to single electron transport of current[1], make them ideal material for nanodevices. Concomitantly, the nanostructure of microorganisms such as bacteria[2], viruses[3;4] and yeast[5] are attractive scaffolds for nanoparticle templating due to surface charge and biological affinities for specific molecules [2-7]. However, the key challenges in building hybrid devices are patterning nanostructures without destroying the biological construct of the microorganism and achieving active integration of biological response to the electrical transport in nanoparticle device. …

A Patterning Process Utilizing A Nanoimprint Lithography For Fabrication Of Planar Perpendicular Patterned Magnetic Media, Robert Grove Iii

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the results of applied research in the area of patterned magnetic media. Current magnetic media is pushing the physical limits of magnetic bits by compressing them into very small spaces - a process that will eventually be hampered by the superparamagnetic effect. The superparamagnetic effect will require the magnetic media industry to find a modified method of storing magnetic bits. Perpendicular patterned magnetic media could be the method of choice for future generations of magnetic data storage. Patterning magnetic media allows bits to be stored in isolated magnetic islands instead of in a continuous magnetic surface, as …

Least-Squares Finite-Element Scheme For The Lattice Boltzmann Method On An Unstructured Mesh, Yusong Li, Eugene J. Leboeuf, P. K. Basu

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

A numerical model of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) utilizing least-squares finite-element method in space and the Crank–Nicolson method in time is developed. This method is able to solve fluid flow in domains that contain complex or irregular geometric boundaries by using the flexibility and numerical stability of a finite-element method, while employing accurate least-squares optimization. Fourth-order accuracy in space and second-order accuracy in time are derived for a pure advection equation on a uniform mesh; while high stability is implied from a von Neumann linearized stability analysis. Implemented on unstructured mesh through an innovative element-by-element approach, the proposed method …

Work In Progress - An Investigation Into The Effect Of An Institutional Honor Code Policy On Academic Behavior, Donald D. Carpenter, Trevor S. Harding, Cynthia J. Finelli, Matthew Mayhew

Materials Engineering

Research indicates significant cheating at institutions of higher learning; however, evidence indicates that a well-designed and clearly-communicated campus honor code might have a mitigating effect. This is the impetus behind the implementation of an Academic Honor Code Policy at a private university beginning in the fall of 2004. This situation presented a unique opportunity to investigate the potential of an academic honor code to change the culture and behavior at a university. This investigation will involve conducting a longitudinal study on the academic habits of students as they progress through the curriculum and include students whose academic careers began under …

The Ballet Model In Engineering Classes – What Works, What Doesn't, And What's New, Blair London, Lisa Deyo

Materials Engineering

Six different engineering courses were taught using aspects of the classical ballet instruction model in organization, teaching methods, and learning strategies. There was a strong focus on performance. The courses spanned sophomore to senior levels. Some aspects of the ballet model worked well: setting rules for the Sacred Space for learning, the beginning activity (“stretch”), the overall organization of the class session, communicating the known ideal, including historical background, and using demonstrations. Some aspects did not work (thus far): exams are not yet performances on stage, little practice or rehearsal occurs, little competition between students occurs, asking students questions in …

A Case Study On Research In Engineering Education: Designing, Testing, And Administering The Paces-2 Survey On Academic Integrity, Cynthia J. Finelli, Jamie L. Szwalek, Donald D. Carpenter, Trevor S. Harding

Materials Engineering

Most engineering educators excel at planning and conducting technical research in their field, but few are proficient doing this for a project in engineering education. Recently, however, there has been increased emphasis on conducting rigorous research in engineering education. This paper provides practical advice for planning and conducting such research. The authors use their long term project to predict academic dishonesty in engineering college students as a case study representing one approach to research in engineering education. In particular, the authors present the design, testing, and administration of a two-part survey instrument to collect information from college students about their …

Plasma Deposition Of Spin Chucks To Reduce Contamination Of Silicon Wafers, Emir Gurer, Ed C. Lee, Richard Savage

Materials Engineering

An apparatus for delivering a fluidic media to a wafer includes a housing defining a process chamber. A fluidic media delivery member is coupled to the process chamber. A rotatable chuck is positioned in the process chamber. The rotatable chuck has a wafer support surface coated with a coating material. A vacuum supply line is coupled to the rotatable chuck.

Tunnel Geology As Seen By Geologists: Manhattan, New York City, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer, Masud Ahmed, Alan R. Slaughter, Belal A. Sayeed, Dorean J. Flores, Mario Jo-Ramirez

Publications and Research

Current exploratory boring operations in and around Manhattan, New York City are providing geologists and geotechnical engineers with a plethora of new and interesting geological information, which has not been previously reported. The rocks encountered, mostly medium to high-grade metamorphic rocks, with both mafic and felsic intrusives, are highly variable in competency and mechanical durability. One of the most frequently encountered rock types is a garnetiferous-muscovite-biotite schist which grades into schistose gneiss and displays a wide variety of structural, compositional, and textural attributes. Metamorphic minerals showing the variable degree of metamorphism include graphite, talc, garnet, kyanite, tourmaline, emory, and occasionally …

Properties Model For Aqueous Sodium Chloride Solutions Near The Critical Point Of Water, Bing Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional excess Gibbs energy models in terms of temperature, pressure, and concentration become progressively less effective in describing the thermodynamics of aqueous solutions at temperatures above 300 ¢ªC, and are totally inadequate in the critical region of water. This deficiency is due to the strong ion association and the large property fluctuations (such as density) with small variations in pressure, temperature, and solute concentration around the critical point of water. In this work, a speciation-based model has been developed to describe the thermodynamic properties of aqueous sodium chloride solutions in the critical region of water. The anomalous fluctuation problem is …

Coupling Between Helix-Coil And Coil-Globule Transitions In Helical Polymers, Vikas Varshney, Gustavo A. Carri

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

We explore the coupling between the helix-coil and coil-globule transitions of a helical polymer using Monte Carlo simulations. A very rich state diagram is found. Each state is characterized by a specific configuration of the chain which could be a helix, a random coil, an amorphous globule, or one of various other globular states which carry residual helical strands. We study the boundaries between states and provide further insight into the physics of the system with a detailed analysis of the order parameter and other properties.

Royal Society Of Chemistry - Gold-Plated Bacteria, Ravi F. Saraf, Vikas Berry

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: News Releases

No Abstract

Evaluation Of Textile Fabric Properties Utilized In Foam-In-Place Head Restraints, Rebecca Anne Pfeifer

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to evaluate and compare the physical properties of knitted fabrics in bilaminate and trilaminate composite forms used in Foam-In-Place (FIP) manufacturing technology for automotive applications. Seven physical tests employed by the automotive industry to evaluate the physical properties of fabric were used. The factors tested were Elongation, Boardiness, Weight, Thickness, Stretch and Set, Breaking Radius, and Ravel. Each test was performed according to standard test methods established by American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) or Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) or the specifications of tier-one automotive seat suppliers. Fabric samples consisted of three …

Sub-Surface Corrosion Research On Rock Bolt System, Perforated Ss Sheets And Steel Sets For The Yucca Mountain Repository — Quarterly Technical Report No. 5, Dhanesh Chandra, Jaak J.K. Daemen

Publications (YM)

This report encompasses the work done for this third quarter, 2005, in accordance to cooperative agreement of University of Nevada system for the Task 019 “Subsurface Corrosion Research on Rock Bolt System, Perforated SS Sheets and Steel Sets for the Yucca Mountain Repository”, the overall objective of which is to conduct corrosion research and predict the durability of rock-bolts and other underground metallic roof supports. We have started oxidation tests using Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA), and Potentiodynamic tests to determine the corrosion rates of rock bolts, other support materials including bench mark materials. In this quarter, we have also performed (1) …

Confinement-Induced Ordering Of Alkanes Between An Elastomer And A Solid Surface, Kumar Nanjundiah, Ali Dhinojwala

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

We have studied the molecular structure of liquid alkanes confined between a flexible elastomeric poly(dimethyl siloxane) lens and a rigid sapphire substrate using surface-sensitive infrared-visible sum frequency generation spectroscopy. The reduction in the gauche defects suggests ordering of liquid alkanes under confinement. The cooling of confined liquid below the freezing temperature leads to crystallization with alkane molecules lying on the substrate with the symmetry axis parallel to the surface normal. This structure is very different from the bulk alkane crystals next to sapphire or air interfaces.

Magneto-Photonic Crystal Isolators, Miguel Levy

Michigan Tech Patents

A magneto-optical isolator (20) for an optical circuit. The isolator includes a substrate, and an optical channel (350) disposed next to the substrate. The optical channel and substrate are configured to transmit optical radiation within the optical channel. The isolator further includes a photonic- crystal rotator (24) formed with the substrate and the optical channel. The rotator has at least one defect (52) and magnetic (M) and non-magnetic (N) materials.

Wavelet Based Feature Extraction And Dimension Reduction For The Classification Of Human Cardiac Electrogram Depolarization Waveforms, Christopher S. De Voir

Dissertations and Theses

An essential task for a pacemaker or implantable defibrillator is the accurate identification of rhythm categories so that the correct electrotherapy can be administered. Because some rhythms cause a rapid dangerous drop in cardiac output, it is necessary to categorize depolarization waveforms on a beat-to-beat basis to accomplish rhythm classification as rapidly as possible. In this thesis, a depolarization waveform classifier based on the Lifting Line Wavelet Transform is described. It overcomes problems in existing rate-based event classifiers; namely, (1) they are insensitive to the conduction path of the heart rhythm and (2) they are not robust to pseudo-events. The …

The Role Of Cavitation In Acoustically Activated Drug Delivery, Mario A. Diaz, Ghaleb A. Husseini, William G. Pitt, Eric S. Richardson, Douglas A. Christensen

Faculty Publications

The triblock copolymer, Pluronic P105, has been found to be an ideal ultrasonically activated drug delivery vehicle because it forms micelles with hydrophobic polypropylene oxide cores that sequester hydrophobic drugs (Fig. 1). These micelles release their contents upon the application of low frequency ultrasound [1]such that drugs can be released specifically at the ultrasonicated region (Fig. 2). Such ultrasonically controlled release has been effective against cancer cells in vitro [2] and in vivo [3]. This poster presents our results showing that collapse cavitation is associated with drug release. Cavitation is generally divided into two types of behavior. Stable cavitation is …

Analysis Of Gaits For A Rotating Tripedal Robot, Damian M. Lyons, Kiran Pamnany

Faculty Publications

A goal of robotics has been to develop mechanisms that have the efficiency and speed of wheeled robots with the terrain flexibility of legged robots. In previous work, we have proposed a unique three-legged mechanism, the rotopod, designed to integrate these two useful approaches to locomotion. In this paper, we present an analysis of the variety of gaits that can be exhibited by the rotopod. We present examples of many of these gaits and discuss their potential use. A trajectory generation algorithm is presented that can be used to generate point to point trajectories using one of three different styles …

Computing Mean And Variance Under Dempster-Shafer Uncertainty: Towards Faster Algorithms, Vladik Kreinovich, Gang Xiang, Scott Ferson

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many real-life situations, we only have partial information about the actual probability distribution. For example, under Dempster-Shafer uncertainty, we only know the masses m1,...,mn assigned to different sets S1,...,Sn, but we do not know the distribution within each set Si. Because of this uncertainty, there are many possible probability distributions consistent with our knowledge; different distributions have, in general, different values of standard statistical characteristics such as mean and variance. It is therefore desirable, given a Dempster-Shafer knowledge base, to compute the ranges of possible values of mean E and of variance V.

In their recent paper, A. T. …

Interval-Based Robust Statistical Techniques For Non-Negative Convex Functions, With Application To Timing Analysis Of Computer Chips, Michael Orshansky, Wei-Shen Wang, Martine Ceberio, Gang Xiang

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In chip design, one of the main objectives is to decrease its clock cycle. On the design stage, this time is usually estimated by using worst-case (interval) techniques, in which we only use the bounds on the parameters that lead to delays. This analysis does not take into account that the probability of the worst-case values is usually very small; thus, the resulting estimates are over-conservative, leading to unnecessary over-design and under-performance of circuits. If we knew the exact probability distributions of the corresponding parameters, then we could use Monte-Carlo simulations (or the corresponding analytical techniques) to get the desired …

Integration Of Micro Nano And Bio Technologies With Layer -By -Layer Self -Assembly, Dinesh Shankar Kommireddy

Doctoral Dissertations

In the past decade, layer-by-layer (LbL) nanoassembly has been used as a tool for immobilization and surface modification of materials with applications in biology and physical sciences. Often, in such applications, LbL assembly is integrated with various techniques to form functional surface coatings and immobilized matrices. In this work, integration of LbL with microfabrication and microfluidics, and tissue engineering are explored. In an effort to integrate microfabrication with LbL nanoassembly, microchannels were fabricated using soft-lithography and the surface of these channels was used for the immobilization of materials using LbL and laminar flow patterning. Synthesis of poly(dimethyldiallyl ammonium chloride)/poly(styrene sulfonate) …

Ontologies In Web Personalization, Magdalini Eirinaki, Michalis Vazirgiannis

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Igipi Ontological Framework: Integrating Gene Interactions With Protein Interactions, Bill Andreopoulos, Aijun An, Xiangji Huang

Faculty Publications, Computer Science

No abstract provided.

Cm Facilities Update, Construction Management Department

Construction Management

No abstract provided.

Proactive Real-Time Traffic Safety Implementation Strategy On Freeways, Mohamed Abdel-Aty, Anurag Pande, Nizam Uddin

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Reactive traffic management strategies such as incident detection are becoming less relevant with the advancement of mobile phone usage. Freeway management in the 21^st century needs to shift focus toward proactive strategies that include anticipating incidents such as the crashes. Predicting crash occurrences would also be the key to traffic safety. A two-step approach to identify freeway locations with high probability of crashes through real-time traffic surveillance data is presented here. For this study historical crash and corresponding traffic data from loop detectors were gathered from a 58-km (36-mile) corridor of Interstate-4. Following an exploratory analysis two types of …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 47 Number 2, Fall 2005, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

6 - THE DRIVE TO CREATE by Elizabeth Kelley Gillogly '93. Albert Hoagland, an adjunct professor at SCU for more than 20 years, helped to build the first disk drive. Now is he working to preserve the history of magnetic disk storage.

10 - UNFINISHED MESSAGE by Toshio Mori. We share an excerpt from a collection of short stories by Mori, whose work highlights the plight of Japanese immigrants in the U.S. during World War II. The book is a part of the California Legacy Series, a partnership between SCU and Heyday Books.

14 - THE FAMILIAR STRANGER By Cynthia …

Effect Of Interface States On Spin-Dependent Tunneling In Fe/Mgo/Fe Tunnel Junctions, Kirill D. Belashchenko, Julian P. Velev, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal

Materials Research Science and Engineering Center: Faculty Publications

The electronic structure and spin-dependent tunneling in epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe(001) tunnel junctions are studied using first-principles calculations. For small MgO barrier thickness the minority-spin resonant bands at the two interfaces make a significant contribution to the tunneling conductance for the antiparallel magnetization, whereas these bands are, in practice, mismatched by disorder and/or small applied bias for the parallel magnetization. This explains the experimentally observed decrease in tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) for thin MgO barriers. We predict that a monolayer of Ag epitaxially deposited at the interface between Fe and MgO suppresses tunneling through the interface band and may thus be used to …

Nature - Nanotechnology-Live Wire, Ravi F. Saraf, Vikas Berry

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: News Releases

No Abstact.

A Fe-Fd Hybrid Scheme For Solving Parabolic Two-Step Micro Heat Transport Equations In Irregularly Shaped Three Dimensional Double -Layered Thin Films Exposed To Ultrashort -Pulse Lasers, Brian R. Barron

Doctoral Dissertations

Multi-layer thin films are important components in many micro-electronic devices. These films are often used when a single film layer is insufficient to meet devices specifications. The continued reduction in component size has the side effect of increasing the thermal stress on these films and consequently the devices they comprise. Understanding the transfer of heat-energy at the micro-scale is important for thermal processing using a pulse-laser. Often, micro-voids may be found in processed devices. This is due to thermal expansion. Such defects may cause an amplification of neighboring defects resulting in severe damage and consequently the failure of the device. …