Engineering Commons^™

Acetone, Butanol, And Ethanol Production From Algae Biomass Using Anaerobic Solventogenic Microorganisms, Neal Hengge, Joshua Ellis

Student Showcase

The ability to convert the carbohydrates present within algae biomass to high value industrial solvents, namely bio-acetone and bio-butanol, has been demonstrated. Clostridium sp., an obligate anaerobic, spore forming, saccharolytic, and acetone butanol and ethanol (ABE) producing microorganism is capable of metabolizing the carbohydrates present in algal cells. This metabolic activity produces acetone and butanol, in relatively high quantities, as fermentative byproducts. This has been confirmed via GC analysis of the clarified supernatant measured against calibration curves established using analytical standards. Our claim is that we can produce these high value and renewable solvents using algae biomass as well as …

Impulse, Dana Hess, Kyle Johnson, Eric Landwehr

Impulse (Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering Publication)

College:
[Page] 2 The ceremony must go on: For the College of Engineering, at least, there still is a winter commencement.
[Page] 4 Delvin DeBoer: Thousands of students are thankful for a call Dwayne Rollag made to DeBoer in 1981.
[Page] 6 Lighting the way: In October 2011, Pavel Dutta completed the requirements to become the first graduate of the photovoltaics doctoral program. Two others soon followed him.
[Page] 9 Academic updates: News from software engineering, computer science, geospatial science and engineering, and computational science and statistics.
[Page] 10 Endowed professorship: Professor David Galipeau becomes the first to hold the …

Datalogger Sequence Execution Engine (Dsqee), Edmund Yingxiang Yee

Computer Engineering

The PolySat Research Group accepts projects from several companies that wish to use a CubeSat for some experiment. One of the projects called Intelligent Payload Experiment, or IPEX, needs software to interact with out system avionics. One of these software will be datalogger, which will be augmented from its original datalogging scheme to support sequentially execution of commands/algorithms that our client, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, need. My part of the project explains the software design decisions behind datalogger.

Check Image Processing: Webp Conversion And Micr Scan Android Application, Trevor Bliss

Computer Engineering

As more users favor smartphones over computers for simple tasks, small businesses are constantly exploring mobile options to present to their customers. This write-up documents an Android application designed for a small company, which allows users to send pictures of checks to the company’s servers for processing. The picture is taken with the devices built-in camera and is converted to Google’s new image format, WebP. The company’s server processes the check and returns the check’s MICR code as a response. This application leverages the Android NDK and JNI to use Google’s open source image conversion libraries as well as socket …

The Engineering Design Process As A Model For Stem Curriculum Design, Krystal Sno Corbett

Doctoral Dissertations

Engaging pedagogics have been proven to be effective in the promotion of deep learning for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. In many cases, academic institutions have shown a desire to improve education by implementing more engaging techniques in the classroom. The research framework established in this dissertation has been governed by the axiom that students should obtain a deep understanding of fundamental topics while being motivated to learn through engaging techniques. This research lays a foundation for future analysis and modeling of the curriculum design process where specific educational research questions can be considered using standard techniques. Further, …

The Search For An Optimal Means Of Determining The Minmax Control Parameter Using Sensitivity Analysis, John Teye Brown

Doctoral Dissertations

The use of computational methods for design and simulation of control systems allows for a cost-effective trial and error approach. In this work, we are concerned with the robust, real-time control of physical systems whose state space is infinite-dimensional. Such systems are known as Distributed Parameter Systems (DPS). A body whose state is heterogeneous is a distributed parameter. In particular, this work focuses on DPS systems that are governed by linear Partial Differential Equations, such as the heat equation. We specifically focus on the MinMax controller, which is regarded as being a very robust controller. The mathematical formulation of the …

Section Abstracts: Aeronautical And Aerospace Sciences

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Aeronautical and Aerospace Sciences Section for the 90th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 23-25, 2015. Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia.

Folate Nanoparticle Conjugates, Safwat A. Masood

All Capstone Projects

The folate receptor is overexpressed on the surface of numerous cancer cell types including those of the breast, lung, kidney, ovary, and brain. Recent interest has exploded in the use of folate to deliver payloads and imaging agents to folate receptor positive cancer cells based on several positive clinical trials including phase III trials of EC-145, which is poised to become the first folate targeted, FDA approved drug. Given the success of EC-145 and numerous other agents in the pharmaceutical pipeline, there remains a great interest in the exploitation of this technology in the delivery of nanoscale agents to folate …

Spiking Neuron Computation With The Time Machine, Vaibhav Garg, Ravi Shekhar, John G. Harris

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Time Machine (TM) is a spike-based computation architecture that represents synaptic weights in time. This choice of weight representation allows the use of virtual synapses, providing an excellent tradeoff in terms of flexibility, arbitrary weight connections and hardware usage compared to dedicated synapse architectures. The TM supports an arbitrary number of synapses and is limited only by the number of simultaneously active synapses to each neuron. SpikeSim, a behavioral hardware simulator for the architecture, is described along with example algorithms for edge detection and objection recognition. The TM can implement traditional spike-based processing as well as recently developed time …

Developing Unique Engineering Solutions To Improve Patient Safety, Bradley Watts, Douglas Van Citters, Brian Shiner, Peter Mills

Dartmouth Scholarship

Many efforts to improve healthcare safety have focused on redesigning processes of care or retraining clinicians. Far less attention has been focused on the use of new technologies to improve safety. We present the results of a unique collaboration between the VA National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) and the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. Each year, the NCPS identifies safety problems across the VA that could be addressed with newly-engineered devices. Teams of Thayer students and faculty participating in a senior design course evaluate and engineer a solution for one of the problems. Exemplar projects have targeted …

Fertilization Effects On The Ecohydrology Of A Southern California Annual Grassland, Anthony J. Parolari, Michael L. Goulden, Rafael L. Bras

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Nitrogen limits leaf gas exchange, canopy development, and evapotranspiration in many ecosystems. In dryland ecosystems, it is unclear whether increased anthropogenic nitrogen inputs alter the widely recognized dominance of water and energy constraints on ecohydrology. We use observations from a factorial irrigation and fertilization experiment in a nitrogen-limited southern California annual grassland to explore this hypothesis. Our analysis shows growing season soil moisture and canopy-scale water vapor conductance are equivalent in control and fertilized plots. This consistency arises as fertilization-induced increases in leaf area index (LAI) are offset by reduced leaf area-based stomatal conductance, gs. We interpret this as evidence …

Green Reverse Osmosis Pretreatment, Kelilah Wolkowicz, Andrew Richard

Honors Senior Capstones and Theses

This report presents a solution for the 2012 Environmental Design Contest sponsored by NMSU’s Institute for Energy and the Environment. PROTEUS was proposed as a sustainable alternative to using disposable filters for pretreating turbid water prior to reverse osmosis desalinization. PROTEUS employs a granular media filter followed by a redundant parallel train cartridge filter system each arranged in series. Various experiments were conducted to ensure the functionality and reliability of the system. Ultimately, PROTEUS addresses particulates down to 0.1 micron, consumes 2.25k-W-Hr/Kgal, filters 30,000 gpd, maintenance time is approximately 30 minutes every replacement cycle, occupies 54 ft3 of volume with …

The Analysis Of Ion Flow Between The Human Body And Local Ground, Paul T. Rioux

Honors Theses and Capstones

The project was designed to get a better sense of the phenomenon referred to as Earthing. Earthing is defined as the process where the human body is in contact with the earth and can freely transfer ions between the Earth and itself. Those promoting the idea of earthing say that this transfer of ions is important in maintaining a healthy immune system, and they claim that the recent increase in autoimmune diseases is the result of humans being insulated from the ground because of the shoes they wear and the places in which they live.

Estimating Connecticut Stream Temperatures Using Predictive Models, Erik Carlson

Honors Theses and Capstones

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) seeks to better classify their streams into thermal regimes (cold, cold transitional, warm transitional, and warm water). A prediction model was created based upon physical characteristics such that CT DEEP could classify streams into thermal regimes based upon the parameters described in Lyons et al. 2009 and compare them to their own classification system. Accurately classifying these thermal regimes determines the environmental protection provided to a stream as well as the potential for establishing fisheries.

Putting Supply Chain Management (Scm) Theory Into Practice: The Role And Importance Of The People Dimension, Edward Sweeney

Practitioner Journals

This article deals with a number of supply chain management (SCM) issues:

• SCM’s “Big Idea” – integration
• Divergence of Theory and Practice - the limitations of “hard-wiring”
• The “Human Chain”
• The Way Forward – asking the right question?

The Influence Of Heterogeneous Meninges On The Brain Mechanics Under Primary Blast Loading, Linxia Gu, Mehdi S. Chafi, Shailesh Ganpule, Namas Chandra

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

In the modeling of brain mechanics subjected to primary blast waves, there is currently no consensus on how many biological components to be used in the brain–meninges–skull complex, and what type of constitutive models to be adopted. The objective of this study is to determine the role of layered meninges in damping the dynamic response of the brain under primary blast loadings. A composite structures composed of eight solid relevant layers (including the pia, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), dura maters) with different mechanical properties are constructed to mimic the heterogeneous human head. A hyper-viscoelastic material model is developed to better represent …

The Solar Thermal Decoupled Electrolysis Of Water Process: An Investigation Of The Electrochemistry In A Base, Jessica Guertin

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

The solar research team at Valparaiso University is developing solar thermal chemical processes that will transform solar energy into economically viable and reusable energy forms. One subgroup is working on the Solar Thermal Decoupled Electrolysis of Water Process. In this multi-step process, the electrolysis of water to generate hydrogen occurs at room temperature outside of the solar reactor, and it is facilitated by the oxidation of magnetite (Fe3O4) to hematite (Fe2O3). The hematite is then pumped to the solar reactor where it is reduced back to magnetite at high temperatures with the liberation of oxygen. This cycle is then repeated. …

An Improved Multiple Scattering Method For Via Structures With Axially Isotropic Modes In An Irregular Plate Pair, Yaojiang Zhang, Arun Reddy Chada, Jun Fan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An improved multiple scattering method is developed for an irregular plate pair where via pad/antipad radius is electrically small and the spacing between any two vias is relatively large so that the axially anisotropic parallel plate modes can be neglected. the plate-pair impedance matrix, widely used as an important parameter in power integrity analysis and also a critical part for via coupling in the intrinsic and the physics-Based via models, is found to be related to the addition theorems of the zero-order axially isotropic propagating modes. as the impedance matrix of an irregular plate pair can be calculated by many …

Nuts And Bolts: Newsletter 45 - Issue 1 - Spring 2012

Friends of the Larsen Tractor Museum

Friends of the Larsen Tractor Museum-An Update! by Don Edwards

Our Chinese tractor: How it got here by Lou Leviticus

Arched Bridges, Lily Beyer

Honors Theses and Capstones

An exploration of arched bridges through history. Influence lines for three-pinned and two-pinned arches for moment and axial load are developed. An analysis of the Chesterfield Brattleboro Bridge is included

Electrochemical Deposition Of Ag-Sn Nanoparticles For Photovoltaic Current Collection Efficiency, Rebecca Wilson

Honors Theses and Capstones

Photovoltaic cells utilize a semiconductor to harness the sun's energy, then conduct the energy by silver current collector lines to an energy storage device. To make photovoltaic cells less expensive and more energy efficient, silver-tin nanoparticles were researched to incorporate into the silver polymer paste that makes up current collector lines. The Ag-Sn alloy was synthesized by electrochemical deposition, and was then characterized by it's melting point and crystal structure.

Section Abstracts: Astronomy, Mathematics And Physics With Materials Science

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Astronomy, Mathematics, and Physics with Material Science Section for the 90th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 23-25, 2012, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia

Ceg 221-01: Advanced C For Engineers, Jay Dejongh

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This course introduces advanced constructs, algorithms, and data structures in the C programming language. Emphasis is on problem solving and techniques useful to engineers. Topics include functions, array, pointers, structures as well as sorting algorithms, linked lists, complex numbers, stacks, queues, hash tables, and binary trees. 4 credit hours. Prerequisite: CEG220 (Introduction to C Programming for Engineers).

Ceg 355-01: Introduction To The Design Of Information Technology Systems, Thomas C. Hartrum

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Introduction to the design of information systems comprising modern technologies such as SQL database programming, networks, and distributed computing with CORBA, electronic and hypertext (HTML) documents, and multimedia.

Ceg 460/660-01: Introduction To Software Computer Engineering, Nikolaos Bourbakis

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This course is concerned with the techniques of designing and constructing large programs. Some of the required basic concepts necessarily have to be developed using small programs as examples. To this extent, we also study programming-in-the-small. The overall objectives are to present an overview of issues in the development of software, to discuss terminology, to illustrate via example case studies, and to give sufficiently detailed advice on how to develop quality software and present a way of communication via UML. Hands-on experience is emphasized through the use of homework and a class project.

Ceg 479/679-01: Computer Animation, Thomas Wischgoll

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Ceg 702-01: Advanced Communication Networks, Bin Wang

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Ceg 260-01: Digital Computer Hardware/Switching Circuits, Meilin Liu

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

We will discuss and cover basic digital, combinational and sequential logic systems. Labs will be used to gain valuable practical experience in implementing elementary circuits and logic designs.

Ceg 2350: Os Concepts And Usage, Richard Van Hook

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Provides introduction to Linux and Windows operating systems and system administration. Covers files and directories, ownership and sharing, programs and processes, system calls, libraries, dynamic linking, command line shells, scripting, regular expressions and secure network protocols.

Ceg 360/560-01: Digital System Design, Travis E. Doom

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Design of digital systems. Topics include flip-flops, registers, counters, programmable logic devices, memory devices, register-level design, and microcomputer system organization. Students must show competency in the design of digital systems. 3 hours lecture, 2 hours lab. Prerequisite: CEG 260.