Engineering Commons^™

Sign Language Glove, Nicholas Born

Electrical Engineering

Between 500,000 and 2 million Americans use American Sign Language (ASL) as their primary language. As such, a device capable of translating those movements into text would be useful in many areas, such as teaching and the entertainment industry.

The goal of this project was to show that the creation of a glove device that takes in sign language letters, interprets them into the desired characters, and can input those characters into a computer is feasible. I chose to work on this project for many different reasons. One reason is many members of my family know sign language and use …

Snmp Integration Into The Cygnet Scada System, Paul Fake

Computer Engineering

The SNMP Remote Device is a CygNet-integrated software device that can communicate (read-only) with any managed network hardware. It has the ability to retrieve any managed object, requiring only a host name or IP, a community name (password), and the object identifier (OID). This Remote Device is fully-integrated into the CygNet SCADA system. Users can create the device in the DDS service, create a Point for each managed object, map the Points to UDCs, store data into the Points, and schedule the retrieval of data.

Bluetooth "Clicker": Response Pads For Large Classes, Using Bluetooth Devices, Dana Goyette

Computer Engineering

When teaching classes with many students, many teachers opt to use “Clicker” devices to electronically poll students. This project aims to replace these “Clicker” devices with standard Bluetooth devices. The overall goal of this project is to create a framework for two-way communications between a base station and multiple remote devices.

Development Towards A Protocol To Test For The Creation Of A “Diabetic” Environment In A Blood Vessel Mimic, Kaitlyn Kirk, Development Towards A Protocol To Test For The Creation Of A “Diabetic” Environment In A Blood Vessel Mimic

Biomedical Engineering

Diabetes mellitus affects a huge proportion of people; about 6% of the population in the US had diabetes in 2007 (16). Diabetes promotes dyslipidemia, an imbalance in the circulating levels of lipids and lipoproteins, and diabetes is one of the leading risk factors for coronary artery and peripheral vascular diseases (11, 51, 52).  There are two types of diabetes; type 1 diabetes accounts for about 10% of diagnosed cases and type 2 accounts for about 90% (11).  Diabetic patients react differently to stents and there is a great need to enhance the treatment.  The goal of this project was, and …

Offset Right-Turn Lanes For Improved Intersection Sight Distance, Karen Schurr, Timothy J. Foss Jr.

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Aperture Coupled Microstrip Antenna Design And Analysis, Michael Paul Civerolo

Master's Theses

A linearly-polarized aperture coupled patch antenna design is characterized and optimized using HFSS antenna simulation software. This thesis focuses on the aperture coupled patch antenna due to the lack of fabrication and tuning documentation for the design of this antenna and its usefulness in arrays and orthogonally polarized communications. The goal of this thesis is to explore dimension effects on aperture coupled antenna performance, to develop a design and tuning procedure, and to describe performance effects through electromagnetic principles.

Antenna parameters examined in this study include the dimensions and locations of the substrates, feed line, ground plane coupling slot, and …

Scale Model Shake Table Testing Of Underground Structures In Soft Clay, Victor A. Crosariol

Master's Theses

Underground structures perform an important role in transportation systems in many seismically active regions around the world, but empirical data regarding the seismic behavior of these structures is limited. This research works towards filling that empirical gap through the use of scale model shake table testing. Underground seismic soil-structure interaction (USSSI) effects were investigated for a stiff rectangular tunnel cross-section embedded within soft clay. San Francisco Young Bay Mud was used as a prototype soil for developing a scale model soil mixture consisting of kaolinite, bentonite, class C fly ash, and water. A single cell Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) …

Frontal Plane Humeral Elevation Effects On The Pullout Strength Of Suture Anchors Used In Rotator Cuff Repair, Peter Joshua Larson

Master's Theses

The rotator cuff offers the stabilizing forces necessary for fine arm movement. The most common injury to the rotator cuff is the partial or full thickness tear of the supraspinatus tendon, which attaches the humerus to the scapula on the superior side, due to an acute or chronic injury. These injuries account for more than 4.5 million physician visits per year. Depending on the degree of tear, arthroscopic surgery may be needed to reattach the torn tendon to the humeral head. The current preferred method of surgery involves the insertion of a suture anchor into the humeral head that ties …

Applied System Identification For A Four Wheel Reaction Wheel Platform, Seth F. Silva

Master's Theses

Applied System Identification for a Four Wheel Reaction Wheel Platform

By

Seth Franklyn Silva

At the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo there is a four-wheel reaction wheel pyramidal simulator platform supported by an air-bearing. This simulator has the current capability to measure the wheel speeds and angular velocity of the platform, and with these measurements, the system identification process was used to obtain the mass properties of this simulator. A handling algorithm was developed to allow wireless data acquisition and command to the spacecraft simulator from a “ground” computer allowing the simulator to be free of induced torques …

Multiple Robot Boundary Tracking With Phase And Workload Balancing, Michael Jay Boardman

Master's Theses

This thesis discusses the use of a cooperative multiple robot system as applied to distributed tracking and sampling of a boundary edge. Within this system the boundary edge is partitioned into subsegments, each allocated to a particular robot such that workload is balanced across the robots. Also, to minimize the time between sampling local areas of the boundary edge, it is desirable to minimize the difference between each robot’s progression (i.e. phase) along its allocated sub segment of the edge. The paper introduces a new distributed controller that handles both workload and phase balancing. Simulation results are used to illustrate …

Suitable Knowledge Management In Project Environment, Taya Polyaninova

Dissertations

Knowledge is becoming one of the main assets for organizations that want to improve their competitiveness in currently changing market. Knowledge comes from different sources within organizations, such as internal processes, projects, customers and stakeholder information. As markets and the way of doing things changes, many companies implement different projects to deal with those changes, which leads to accumulation of knowledge and information. Companies use Knowledge Management to create, identify and distribute knowledge and experiences arising from projects within organisation. However, as projects are done to create unique deliverables and they are never the same, there is a difficulty in …

Educational Operations Four Days A Week, Charles O. Pringle, William Bender

Engineering Technologies, Safety, and Construction Faculty Scholarship

Four day work weeks have been employed by industry, state agencies, and recently by higher education. The generally perceived benefit of the four day work week is reduced energy costs. These costs savings include more efficient building operations and less energy consumption driving to a facility. The generally perceived negative impact of four day operations, particularly of state agencies, is a decreased level of service.

How much energy would be saved and could the level of service be maintained in a higher educational environment by switching from five to four day weeks? This study occurs at a regional university within …

Non-Explosive Actuator Simulator, Bryan Costanza

Aerospace Engineering

The CubeSat group at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo discovered the need for a new piece of ground test equipment. Previous testing of the non-explosive actuator has been very expensive and is not repeatable; two undesirable traits. The analysis of the fuse as well as the design and test of the simulator concept and final article is discussed. The simulator has already seen real use and its entire build and operation cost is much less than the cost of one test of the actual hardware. Performance of the simulator based on burn time and reset time is acceptable …

Cubesat Developers' Workshop 2010, Tracy Owens, Ryan Race

Communication Studies

This project is the narrative component of the 7th Annual CubeSat Developers' Workshop 2010 planning process. It reviews the steps and team dynamics over the seven months spent coordinating the conference for the Aerospace Department. It was the first time that students from the Communcation Studies Department were brought in to help with the event, and the gap between the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Engineering was bridged.

Blended Wing Body Form Factor Code And Model Center Integration, Simone (Simo) Alberti

Aerospace Engineering

This senior project investigated a method of calculating the form factor of an arbitrarily shaped wing, such as a blended wing body, from its pressure coefficient distribution. A Matlab script was coded and integrated into an existing Model Center tool for blended wing bodies. Model Center allows a VSP model to be analyzed with PMARC, a panel code, to determine the pressure distribution over a wing. The Matlab code can then calculate the form factor and critical Mach number. It was found that the code can accurately model simple planar wings, validated against empirical equations, and is robust for blended …

Design, Construction, And Evaluation Of A Direct Drive Mud Motor, Jarrett Martin

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This senior project discusses the design and construction of a direct drive mud motor. The motor will be mounted on the back of a flat bottom, aluminum boat. The design includes the engine, prop, and everything between. Upon completion of the project, the motor will be field tested to verify operation.

Improved Rf Power Extraction From 1.55um Ge-On-Soi Pin Photodiodes With Load Impedance Optimization, Andrew L. Huard

Master's Theses

VLSI miniaturization has created the need for high-density, low-cost, monolithically-integrated optical interconnects. High output power photodetectors are needed to directly drive load circuitry, which improves the noise performance and dynamic range of optical communications links by eliminating a post amplifier stage. Elimination of the post amplifier also reduces circuit cost and complexity. A new Si-Ge PIN waveguide photodiode with 31GHz bandwidth and 93% quantum efficiency at 1550nm has been developed by Yin et al., which was fabricated using standard CMOS processes on a Silicon substrate. This thesis demonstrates a method for improving the RF power extraction from these photodiodes by …

Modified Sequential Kriging Optimization For Multidisciplinary Complex Product Simulation, Wang Hao, Wang Shaoping, Mileta M. Tomovic

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Directing to the high cost of computer simulation optimization problem, Kriging surrogate model is widely used to decrease the computation time. Since the sequential Kriging optimization is time consuming, this article extends the expected improvement and put forwards a modified sequential Kriging optimization (MSKO). This method changes the twice optimization problem into once by adding more than one point at the same time. Before re-fitting the Kriging model, the new sample points are verified to ensure that they do not overlap the previous one and the distance between two sample points is not too small. This article presents the double …

Strategies For Using Technology When Grading Problem-Based Classes, Susan L. Murray, Ruwen Qin, Ivan G. Guardiola, Abhijit Gosavi

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

More and more work is being done today using technology. Email and digital drop boxes are useful tools for professors; however the challenge comes when one is teaching a quantitative class. The issue of using technology to manage work in a quantitative class is increasing as more engineering programs embrace distance education. In this paper we will review the advantages and disadvantages of several methods of collecting, grading, and returning homework assignments to students. The techniques considered include faxing, PDF grading using a Wacom Tablet, and various email approaches. Student survey results are also included in the paper.

Expanding Horizons With Chameleon: Team Missouri's Innovative Home Automation System, Bryan Glass, Ben Brannon, Katie Grantham, Stuart Werner Baur

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Team Missouri's 2009 Solar Decathlon entry featured a revolutionary home automation system, Chameleon, promoting both convenience and energy savings. This was accomplished using the typical controls of a convenience based automation system, while maintaining user set points, such as a home's ambient temperature, in the most energy efficient manner. Environmental features of the system include controls for home heating, ventilation and air conditioning, lighting, windows, shades, appliances, indoor air quality, as well as indoor and outdoor irrigation. Further analysis and refinement to the prototype system displayed at the competition is also presented in this paper.

Residential Energy Performance Metrics, Christopher Wright, Stuart Werner Baur, Katie Grantham, Robert B. Stone, Scott Erwin Grasman

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Techniques for residential energy monitoring are an emerging field that is currently drawing significant attention. This paper is a description of the current efforts to monitor and compare the performance of three solar powered homes built at Missouri University of Science and Technology. The homes are outfitted with an array of sensors and a data logger system to measure and record electricity production, system energy use, internal home temperature and humidity, hot water production, and exterior ambient conditions the houses are experiencing. Data is being collected to measure the performance of the houses, compare to energy modeling programs, design and …

Damage Detection Via Structural Model Updating Using Frequency Response Functions And Genetic Algorithms, Bassam Sabry Fawzy Elsaid

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis covers the development of a model updating technique which relies on the introduction of correction factors to the elemental stiffness matrix of a beam Finite Element Model (FEM). A Genetic Algorithm selects the values of correction factors by minimizing the difference between an experimentally measured Frequency Response Function (FRF) and the FRF calculated from the FEM being updated. The model updating technique was employed as a damage detection algorithm. The first phase of damage detection is to use model updating to eliminate experimental and modeling errors between the FRF of a beam measured experimentally and the FRF of …

Measuring Atmospheric Scattering From Digital Images Of Urban Scenery Using Temporal Polarization-Based Vision, Tarek El-Gaaly

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Suspended atmospheric particles (particulate matter) are a form of air pollution that visually degrades urban scenery and is hazardous to human health and the environment. Current environmental monitoring devices are limited in their capability of measuring average particulate matter (PM) over large areas. Quantifying the visual effects of haze in digital images of urban scenery and correlating these effects to PM levels is a vital step in more practically monitoring our environment. Current image haze extraction algorithms remove all the haze from the scene and hence produce unnatural scenes for the sole purpose of enhancing vision. We present two algorithms …

An Extended Configurable Uml Activity Diagram And A Transformation Algorithm For Business Process Reference Modeling, Yosra Osama Badr

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions provide generic off-the-shelf reference models usually known as "best practices". The configuration !individualization of the reference model to meet specific requirements of business end users however, is a difficult task. The available modeling languages do not provide a complete configurable language that could be used to model configurable reference models. More specifically, there is no algorithm that monitors the transformation of configurable UML Activity Diagram (AD) models while preserving the syntactic correctness of the model. To fill these gaps we propose an extended UML AD modeling language which we named Configurable UML Activity Diagram (C-UML …

Resonant Microcantilevers Vibrating Laterally In Viscous Liquid Media, Russell Cox, Fabien Josse, Stephen M. Heinrich, Isabelle Dufour, Oliver Brand

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The characteristics of microcantilevers vibrating in the in-plane flexural mode (also known as lateral vibration) in viscous liquid media are investigated. A numerical model was utilized to determine a correction to Stokes' solution for an infinite plate to obtain an analytical expression for the hydrodynamic forces acting on a laterally vibrating microcantilever as a function of both Reynolds number and aspect ratio (thickness over width). The results allowed for the resonant frequency and quality factor to be investigated as a function of both beam geometry and medium properties. Trends in these characteristics can be used to optimize device geometry and …

Impact Characteristics Of Nano Composites, Ammar Mohamed Al Omari

Theses

Nanocomposite materials have seen a significant increase in use and have created a revolution in high-performance structures. They exploit the properties of different materials which create structures that are stronger, stiffer, impact resistant and more durable against environmental factors. They can be tailored to have better electric, magnetic, optical properties, and be chemically, thermally and explosion resistant depending on the application. The current research study investigates the impact characteristics of polymeric based nanaocomposites strengthened with various types of nano and micro filler. An in-house designed impact testing machine was utilized to typify the impact characteristics of different nanocomposite materials through …

Recovery Of Carbon Dioxide From Flue Gases, Fahad Husain Al-Masabi

Theses

In this thesis, the modeling and simulation of the absorption of dilute CO₂ into falling film of aqueous solutions of a sterically hindered amine, 2-anino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP), was carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics Version 3.3. The operating cases were divided in two groups: (1) gas turbine operating cases (CO₂ 3 mol %) and (II) boiler operating cases (CO₂ 8.5 mol %). The key operating parameters for the studied cases are CO₂ partial pressure, operating temperature and amine concentration in the aqueous solution. The simulation focused on the following: (1) CO₂ Loading in aqueous AMP solution; (2) …

Key Technical Challenges For The Electric Power Industry And Climate Change, Lisa M. Beard, Judith Cardell, Ian Dobson, Floyd Galvan, David Hawkins, Ward Jewell, Mladen Kezunovic, Thomas J. Overbye, Pankaj K. (Pk) Sen, Daniel J. Tylavsky

Engineering: Faculty Publications

This paper, prepared by the Climate Change Technology Subcommittee, a subcommittee of the Power and Energy Society Energy Development and Power Generation Committee, identifies key technical issues facing the electric power industry, related to global climate change. The technical challenges arise from: 1) impacts on system operating strategies, configuration, and expansion plans of emission-reducing technologies; 2) power infrastructure response to extreme weather events; 3) effects of government policies including an expanded use of renewable and alternative energy technologies; and 4) impacts of market rules on power system operation. Possible lessons from other industries' responses to climate change are explored.

5 Ghz Band Vehicle-To-Vehicle Channels: Models For Multiple Values Of Channel Bandwidth, Qiong Wu, David W. Matolak, Indranil Sen

Faculty Publications

In Sen and Matolak's earlier paper, 5-GHz-band vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) channel models were presented for channel bandwidths of 5 and 10 MHz. In this paper, we provide additional tapped delay line models for bandwidths of 1, 20, 33.33, and 50 MHz based upon the data used in Sen and Matolak's paper. We provide tables of channel parameters for five types of V2V channel classes and also include example tap correlation coefficients. Root-mean-square delay spread values are summarized, as are values of bandwidth for which the channel frequency correlation takes values of 0.7 and 0.5. As with the results from Sen and …

Steady-State Green’S Function Solution For Moving Media With Axial Conduction, A. Haji-Sheikh, J. V. Beck, Kevin D. Cole

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

The objective of this presentation is the development of a generalized steady-state Green’s function solution to study the temperature field in moving bodies. This type of solution permits the inclusion of different nonhomogeneous boundary conditions, volumetric heat sources, and possible position-dependent thermophysical properties. Although the mathematical formulation is for moving solids, it can be used to study the heat transfer in a moving fluid with a non-uniform velocity distribution passing through a micro-channel or fluid-saturated porous ducts. Additionally, this presentation includes the application of this Green’s function solution to acquire numerical information for selected examples to further illustrate the numerical …