Engineering Commons^™

Information Technology News, Georgia Southern University

Information Technology: News & Publications (2012-2023)

• Shane Scott – 2009 IT Alum Update

Verifying Performance For Autonomous Robot Missions With Uncertainty, Damian M. Lyons, Ronald Arkin, Tsung-Ming Liu, Shu Jiang, Paramesh Nirmal

Faculty Publications

Establishing performance guarantees for robot missions is especially important for C-WMD applications. Software verification techniques, such as model checking (Clark 1999, Jhala & Majumdar 2009), can be applied to robotic applications but characteristics of this application area, including addition of a robot environment model and handling continuous spatial location well, exacerbate state explosion, a key weakness of these methods. We have proposed an approach to verifying robot missions that shifts the focus from state-based analysis onto the solution of a set of flow equations (Lyons et al. 2012). The key novelty introduced in this paper is a probabilistic spatial representation …

An Engineering Physics Introduction To Electronics For Ece Sophomores, Steve Eugene Watkins

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Electronic devices and circuits are fundamental parts of undergraduate curricula in electrical engineering and computer engineering (ECE). A sophomore-level course that gives a balanced treatment of semiconductor device physics and electronic circuit analysis is described. The course topics are semiconductor physics, diodes, transistors, operational amplifiers, and optoelectronics. The course is a prerequisite for upper-level electronics, semiconductor physics, and semiconductor circuit layout curricula. A stronger link between physical principles and device behavior and an improved sequence in electronics instruction are outcomes.

Educating The Professional Engineer Of 2020: The Changing Licensure Requirements, Susan L. Murray, Terri M. Lynch-Caris

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Engineering education programs would be well served to align their curricula and program outcomes to the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam and Professional Engineer (PE) Exam specifications. These exams are required steps in the process of becoming a licensed engineer in most states. NCEES (the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing professional licensure for engineers and surveyors. It develops, administers, and scores these examinations used for engineering licensure. Starting in 2011, NCEES held survey-creation meetings with diverse teams to develop a draft survey containing the subjects in each discipline and …

Electronic Flashcards As A Tool To Improve Exam Readiness, Susan L. Murray, Julie Phelps

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Many college classes have basic information that must be learned before students can master the more complex application and analysis of advanced ideas in the class. Students often struggle with identifying and learning these facts, terms, and principles. This paper reports on a project that evaluated the use of electronic flashcards in two undergraduate engineering classes. The study materials (online flashcards) were developed in conjunction with the university's Educational Technology Office.

Boiling Heat Transfer On Superhydrophobic Surfaces, Nathan Tulett, Dr. Daniel Maynes

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the last few years a great deal of attention has been given to superhydrophobic surfaces and their impact on drag reduction in fluid flow dynamics. Such surfaces are now employed as self-cleaning substrates and it is expected that their use in the coming years will greatly multiply. In the laboratory, these surfaces often consist of alternating microribs and microcavities that are etched into a silicone substrate using a deep reactive ion etching process (DRIE) as seen in Fig. 1.

The Equi-Biaxial Fatigue Characteristics Of Epdm Under True (Cauchy) Stress Control Conditions, Mark Johnson

Conference Papers

Strain amplitude control is most often employed when carrying out fatigue testing of rubber components. Often the design engineer requires fatigue test data that is based on load amplitude control. This is analogous to engineering or nominal stress amplitude control. This usually makes it easy to maintain the load within the specified test limits during extended testing. Values of true stress and strain can be obtained from this approach, but the magnitudes of the maximum true stresses in these tests increase with accumulated cycles, whereas the equivalent maximum engineering stress values remain constant. This is easily demonstrated in the uniaxial …

Apparatus And Method For Growing Biological Organisms For Fuel And Other Purposes, David J. Bayless, Morgan Lefay Vis-Chiasson, Ben J. Stuart, Gregory G. Kremer

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A bioreactor apparatus in which a container has sidewalls, a floor and a ceiling defining a chamber that contains a slurry of water, nutrients and photosynthetic microorganisms. A plurality of optical fibers, each of which has a first end disposed outside the chamber and a second end in the mixture. A light collector spaced from the container has light incident on it and focuses the light onto the first ends of the plurality of optical fibers, thereby permitting the light to be conveyed into the mixture to promote photosynthesis. At least one nozzle is in fluid communication with a source …

Optimizing Redundant Wrist And Forearm Rotations, Jenny Pate, Dr. Steven Charles

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Many Americans struggle with wrist injuries that severely impact their ability to work (typing, writing, etc.) and perform basic everyday functions (eating, holding, etc). These injuries often result from repeatedly forcing the wrist to move in unnatural ways. To properly combat these challenges and improve the lives of wrist patients, a better understanding of the human wrist is required. Extensive research has been conducted in arm reaching movements, but limited documentation has been presented regarding the human wrist. In particular, although it appears that humans choose certain wrist movements over others, it is unclear which paths are preferred, why they …

Developing The Confocal And Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques To Visualize The Eliposomes Inside Of Cells To Treat Cancer, Tara Pandey, Dr. William Pitt

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Cancer is among the leading causes of death in the world. The goal for this project was to visualize a liposome containing perfluorocarbon emulsion an eLiposome, inside of tumor cells using confocal and fluorescence microscopes. A successful study of this project would help to understand the behavior of cancer cells in the presence of drugs during targeted drug delivery for cancer.

Corrosion Measurement Of Reinforcing Steel In Concrete Using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy, Eric Sumsion, Dr. Spencer Guthrie

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Corrosion affects reinforced concrete structures throughout the world. Corrosion, induced by concrete carbonation and penetration of chloride ions from deicing salts and/or seawater, reduces the load-bearing area of reinforcing steel, weakens the bond between steel and concrete, and cracks the concrete surrounding the steel. As a result of these effects, corrosion can cause premature failure of reinforced concrete structures.

Beyond Jee: Finding Publication Venues To Get Your Message To The ‘Right’ Audience, Amy S. Van Epps

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Very few publications exist outlining the different publishing opportunities within engineering education as a discipline. Most researchers think immediately of the Journal of Engineering Education (JEE), and as the primary publication associated with the American Society for Engineering Education it is a logical first thought.

Questions arise with new graduate students and young faculty who are trying to learn the scope of engineering education as a research discipline and need to identify possible publication venues. A broad list of publications has been generated and is maintained by the ASEE Student Division in cooperation with the Center for Engineering Learning and …

Using Ebsd Images To Determine 3d Crystal Structure, Caroline Sorensen, Dr. David Fullwood

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The research I have completed over the past year has been very successful. The results will soon (i.e. in the next week or two) be submitted for publication, most likely to the journal “Metallurgical and Material Transactions A.” Preliminary findings from this research were also presented earlier this year at the annual conference of The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society in San Diego, CA. In this final report I will overview the initial goal and proposed methods, outline a few of the problems that were encountered and solved in my research, discuss the implications of the results, and suggest further …

High Resolution Characterization Of Polycrystalline Triple Junctions, Samikshya Subedi, Dr. David Fullwood

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study was to understand and predict the role of the triple junction on crack initiation in polycrystals. I intended to study dislocation density fields and local elastic strain around the triple junction area in a metal and understand how these factors facilitate crack nucleation and propagation.

Flapping Flight, Michael Tree, Dr. Scott Thomson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Operation of existing micro air vehicles (small, unmanned aircraft, with a maximum size of 6 inches or less, also known as MAVs) is difficult in urban areas. Most MAVs use a fixed-wing design that is unsuitable for high maneuverability, thus limiting their potential usefulness.

The Effect Of Lanthanum On Iron Based Water-Shift Catalysts, Trevor Slade, Dr. Morris Argyle

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The water-gas shift reaction is the reaction where carbon monoxide and water react to form carbon dioxide and hydrogen as shown in equation 1.

Research And Testing Of Pvc Solvent Bonding Methods, David Williams, Dr. William Pitt

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this research project was to determine the optimal method to solvent bond polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pieces together. Understanding how to create a strong solvent bond in PVC is important to a related prosthetic leg project that has been performed at BYU. This was completed by bonding flat samples of PVC that were prepared with varying methods.

Industry Based Multimedia Education, Cameron Wilson, Dr. Geoffrey Wright

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My goal was to study how the cinematographic industry teaches multimedia and digital production, and compare that with how Utah schools teach multimedia and digital production. The outcome was somewhat of a surprise to me. I thought that public school teachers, having proper pedagogical training, and all having graduated from college would be able to provide the students with an adequate learning environment. I found this to be wrong. The students at the Industry based schools overall were much more prepared to go out in the world and be successful in the industry of multimedia. The findings are backed by …

Cloud Security For Medical Imaging, Craig Treasure, Dr. Chia-Chi Teng

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Current medical imaging technology exists in the form of large and expensive systems in hospitals inside the network firewalls. Data from these machines is only transmitted on a hospital’s computer network to maintain the privacy of patient’s personal information and images. These expensive machines require high processing power to process medical images to be used by physicians and doctors. Patient’s data is protected by keeping it within the hospital’s private computer network.

The Equi-Biaxial Fatigue Characteristics Of Epdm Under True (Cauchy) Stress Control Conditions, Mark Johnson, Ray Ekins, Niall Murphy, Stephen Jerrams, John Hanley

Conference Papers

ABSTRACT: Strain amplitude control is most often employed when carrying out fatigue testing of rubber components. Often the design engineer requires fatigue test data that is based on load amplitude control. This is analogous to engineering or nominal stress amplitude control. This usually makes it easy to maintain the load within the specified test limits during extended testing. Values of true stress and strain can be obtained from this approach, but the magnitudes of the maximum true stresses in these tests increase with accumulated cycles, whereas the equivalent maximum engineering stress values remain constant. This is easily demonstrated in the …

Creating Exact Bezier Representations Of Cst Shapes, David D. Marshall

Aerospace Engineering

The paper presents a method of expressing CST shapes pioneered by Kulfan into standard Bezier curves and surfaces. Out of the seven standard shape classes identified by Kulfan as representable using CST curves, four of them, including airfoils, can be represented as Bezier curves exactly. For the other three, a convergent series expansion proves insufficient to achieve any practical accuracy, however these three classes are not the most commonly used of the CST classes. With the ability to express most common CST curves and surfaces as generic Bezier curves and surfaces, CST shapes can be used in CAD, solid modeling, …

Mathematical Dynamics Of Fluid Motion Inside Of A Spherical Boundary, Taylor Killian, Dr. Tadd Truscott

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of the proposed research was to mathematically define and model the flow of fluid within a partially filled sphere. The goal of this modeling was to aid the study of the effects an enclosed fluid had on its boundary. We desired to demonstrate the movements of the fluid numerically. Professor Truscott’s laboratory observed that the rebound of a sphere, partially filled with fluid, is greatly reduced by the motion of the fluid inside the sphere and wanted to understand the dynamics of this event.

Capillary Action In A Rectangular Micro-Channel, Jeffrey Hendricks, Dr. Tadd Truscott

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The study of fluid flow on a microscale has become of increasing interest in recent years. We have studied the effects of capillary action in a micro-channel with a rectangular cross-section having a large width to height ratio. In general, capillary action allows fluid to fill a horizontally oriented tube smaller than the capillary length (on the order of 2 mm in water). When the far end of such a tube is capped, typically the fluid is drawn through the tube until it meets a pressure field that is equal but opposite of the surface tension force. We have found …

Rebound Suppression Of A Partially Filled Sphere, Robert Klaus, Dr. Tadd Truscott

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Sloshing is a very common phenomenon that we encounter everyday. Anytime that a liquid is enclosed within a moving container there exists the potential for sloshing. In some cases, such as trucks & ships, the sloshing of the fluid can produce undesired vehicle motion and even lead to catastrophic results. On the other hand, street hockey balls use fluid sloshing to help mitigate the rebound inherent to elastic spheres. In this research, high-speed imaging has been used to capture the sloshing motion and understand its effect on the rebound of partially filled, hollow, elastic spheres.

Investigation Of Ripple-Limited Low-Field Mobility In Large-Scale Graphene Nanoribbons, M. Luisier, T. B. Boykin, Z. Ye, A. Martini, Gerhard Klimeck, N. Kharche, X. Jiang, S. Nayak

Birck and NCN Publications

Combining molecular dynamics and quantum transport simulations, we study the degradation of mobility in graphene nanoribbons caused by substrate-induced ripples. First, the atom coordinates of large-scale structures are relaxed such that surface properties are consistent with those of graphene on a substrate. Then, the electron current and low-field mobility of the resulting non-flat nanoribbons are calculated within the Non-equilibrium Green's Function formalism in the coherent transport limit. An accurate tight-binding basis coupling the sigma- and pi-bands of graphene is used for this purpose. It is found that the presence of ripples decreases the mobility of graphene nanoribbons on SiO2 below …

Growth And Electrical Characterization Of Al0.24ga0.76as/Alxga1-Xas/Al0.24ga0.76as Modulation-Doped Quantum Wells With Extremely Low X, Geoff C. Gardner, John D. Watson, Sumit Mondal, Nianpei Deng, Gabor A. Csathy, Michael J. Manfra

Birck and NCN Publications

We report on the growth and electrical characterization of modulation-doped Al0.24Ga0.76As/AlxGa1-xAs/Al0.24Ga0.76As quantum wells with mole fractions as low as x = 0.00057. Such structures will permit detailed studies of the impact of alloy disorder in the fractional quantum Hall regime. At zero magnetic field, we extract an alloy scattering rate of 24 ns(-1) per% Al. Additionally, we find that for x as low as 0.00057 in the quantum well, alloy scattering becomes the dominant mobility-limiting scattering mechanism in ultra-high purity two-dimensional electron gases typically used to study the fragile nu = 5/2 and nu = 12/5 fractional quantum Hall states. …

Charcoal Briquette Manufacturing In The Uros Islands Of Peru, Aaron Harrison, Dr. Vincent Wilding

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Uros Islands in Peru, also known as the floating islands on Lake Titicaca, are made from reeds by the inhabitants. These reeds serve not only as shelter, but also as the main cooking fuel for nine months of the year. During the other three months the reeds are too wet to burn, so the islanders use propane to prepare their food. Unfortunately, propane can cost more than 50% of their monthly income which is a financial burden to most families on the islands. Additionally, breathing the smoke from these reeds can increase the islanders’ risk of contracting a respiratory …

Waste Treatment For The Uros Islands, Spencer Bowen, Dr. Randy Lewis

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The goal of this project was to design and install one bio-toilet system before the end of May 2011 in cooperation with the inhabitants of the Uros Islands on Lake Titicaca, Peru. The system is composed of two parts: the bio-toilet infrastructure and the treatment of waste. This proposal focuses on waste treatment. The bio-toilet infrastructure was developed in tandem via another project. There are several bio-toilet and waste treatment designs useful for land applications¹; however, the unique challenge of this project was to develop a system that will be able to serve the people living on man-made, …

Optical Characterization Of Optofluidic Waveguides Using Scattered Light Imaging, Micah Jenkins, Dr. Aaron Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

One exciting field of research within optics involves using on chip optical waveguides as biological sensors. Dr. Aaron Hawkins and his team of students have worked to develop a platform for bio-sensing using ARROW’s (anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguides) to confine light to a hollow core channel. These devices are filled with sample solutions and can be used to detect changes in optical transmission as fluorescently tagged particles traverse the hollow core channel.

Tapered Photoresist In The Manufacture Of Nanosieves, Meagan Bracken, Dr. Aaron Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project was to assist in the manufacturing of nanosieves. The device is designed to separates nano-size particles from the fluid substance in which they are contained. An example of this, and one of the main targets of this project, is the separation of HDL and LDL cholesterol particles from a sample of blood. This goal of separating cholesterol has many benefits to the medical world. By creating a method to characterize HDL cholesterol sizes and concentrations we can monitor a person’s risk for heart disease. Because cholesterol particles have this important attribute of size characterization, it …