Engineering Commons^™

The Effect Of Recovery On Modeling Inactivation Of Bacillus Spores On Hvac Filters, Bharathi Murali, Jade Mitchell

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The ability of microorganisms to persist on fomite surfaces is an important component in modeling their spread in physical environment. For example, Bacillus anthracis (Ba) spores have been found to be extremely resistant to inactivation, environmental stresses, and stable over decades. Modeling the inactivation of spores could form an integral element for estimating the exposure and the subsequent health risks posed by them. However, there is a knowledge gap in the quantification of recovery of Bacillus spores on porous surfaces, which may have a significant effect on the quantification of their persistence in the environment. Our work investigates the recovery …

A K-Means Clustering Approach To Assess Wheat Yield Prediction Uncertainty With A Hydrus-1d Coupled Crop Model, Derek Groenendyk, Kelly Thorp, Ty Ferré, Wade Crow, Doug Hunsaker

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Soil moisture, especially under drought conditions, is a factor that is known to impact crop yield predictions. Crop growth models used to make these predictions rely on soil texture estimates, which influence simulated soil moisture and ultimately crop growth. The purpose of this research was to implement a k-means clustering approach to address the uncertainty of the soil texture estimates. By grouping similar soil textures based on their simulated responses, clustering reveals how soil texture uncertainty may impact yield estimates. Wheat growth simulations were conducted using a HYDRUS 1D and coupled crop model for soils defined on the USDA soil …

Gis-Based Environmental Modeling With Tangible Interaction And Dynamic Visualization, Anna Petrasova, Brendan Harmon, Vaclav Petras, Helena Mitasova

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We present a new, affordable version of TanGeoMS, a tangible geospatial modeling and visualization system designed for collaboratively exploring how terrain change impacts landscape pro­ cesses. It couples a physical, three-dimensional model of a landscape with geospatial modeling and analysis through a cycle of scanning and projection. Multiple users can modify the physical model by hand while it is being scanned; by sculpting the model they generate input for modeling of geophysical processes. The modeling results are then visualized by projecting images or animations back on the physical model. This feedback loop is an intuitive way to evaluate the impacts …

Calibration Of Simulation Platforms Including Highly Interweaved Processes: The Maelia Multi-Agent Platform, Romain Lardy, Pierre Mazzega, Christophe Sibertin-Blanc, Yves Auda, José-Miguel Sanchez-Perez, Sabine Sauvage, Olivier Therond

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The MAELIA project develops an agent-based modeling and simulation platform to study the environmental, economic and social impacts of various regulations regarding water use and water management in combination with climate change. An integrated modelling approach has been used to model the investigated social-ecological system. MAELIA combines spatiotemporal models of ecologic (e.g. water flow and plant growth) and human decision-making processes (e.g. cropping plan), socio-economic dynamics (e.g. land cover changes). Due to the diversity and the interweaving of the processes considered, the calibration and evaluation of such a multi-agent platform is a scientific challenge. Indeed, many parameters can reveal to …

An Environmental Modeling Language For Agents And Fields, Kor De Jong, Merijn De Bakker, Derek Karssenberg

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental modeling involves manipulating environmental attributes represented in soft­ware by agents, fields or both, but most modeling environments are designed to be especially useful for either agent-based or field-based modeling. Agent-based and field-based modeling environments have different properties with respect to their ease of use and how well both agents and fields can be represented and manipulated. Most agent-based modeling environments require the modeler to use a general purpose object oriented programming language like Java to express models, while field-based modeling environments often implement a high level, domain specific imperative language based on map algebra, or extent a general purpose …

An Integrated Approach For Including Social Capacities, And Economic Valuation In Risk Assessment Of Water Related Hazards In Uncertain Scenarios, Carlo Giupponi, Vahid Mojtahed, Animesh K. Gain, Stefano Balbi, Claudio Biscaro

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We propose a conceptual framework, KR-FWK (i.e. KULTURisk Framework from the name of the European project within which it originated) and its implementation methods SERRA (Socio-Economic Regional Risk Assessment) for integrated (physical and economical) risk assessment, and economic valuation of risk prevention benefits on multiple receptors. The KR-FWK and the SERRA approach are characterised by: (i) integration of physical-environmental dimensions and the socio-economic ones in risk assessment; (ii) consideration of the role of social capacities (adaptive and coping capacity) in reducing risk and related costs, (iii) quantitative (even monetary) assessment of risks and of the benefits of risk reduction measures, …

Agile Workflows For Climate Impact Risk Assessment Based On The Ci:Grasp Platform And The Jabc Modeling Framework, Samih Al-Areqi, Anna-Lena Lamprecht, Tiziana Margaria, Steffen Kriewald, Dominik Reusser, Markus Wrobel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Analyzing and assessing potential impacts of climate change are critical and challenging tasks that require the processing of large and heterogeneous datasets. These analyses are particularly demanding because of the multi-scale and multi-objective nature of environmental modeling for climate change impact assessment. The Climate Impacts: Global and Regional Adaptation Support Platform (ci:grasp) is a web-based climate information service for exploring climate change related information in its geographical context. In this paper, we show how the agile workflow development style supported by the jABC process modeling and execution framework permits us to leverage the processes implemented in the ci:grasp platform to …

The Data Processing Inequality And Environmental Model Prediction, Steven V. Weijs

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Prediction in environmental systems, such as hydrological streamflow prediction, is a challenging task. Although on a small scale, many of the physical processes are well described, accurate predictions of macroscopical (e.g. catchment scale) behavior with a bottom-up mechanistic approach often remains elusive. On the other hand, conceptual or purely statistical models fitted to data often perform surprisingly well for prediction. The data processing inequality, from the field of information theory, says that processing data with statistical procedures can only decrease, and not increase the information content of the data. This seems to contradict the intuition that our knowledge of physical …

Managing Agricultural Landscapes For Favouring Ecosystem Services Provided By Biodiversity: A Spatially Explicit Model Of Crop Rotations In The Gama Simulation Platform, Hugo Thierry, Aude Vialatte, Jean-Philippe Choisis, Benoit Gaudou, Claude Monteil

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The need to reduce the use of pesticides in agricultural ecosystems requires studying and developing new pest regulation methods. Individual-based models are useful to better understand how dynamics of insects interact with agricultural landscapes and to study the potential effects of alternative regulation methods, taking into account the spatial and temporal stochasticity of agricultural ecosystems caused by human management. Crop rotations and crop phenology have an important impact on the life cycles of populations of insects. We developed an individual-based model simulating the dynamics of an agricultural landscape from GIS data. The spatiotemporal stochasticity is simulated using typical landcover rotations …

Computational Study Of Heterojunction Graphene Nanoribbon Tunneling Transistors With P-D Orbital Tight-Binding Method, Sung Geun Kim, Mathieu Luisier, Timothy B. Boykin, Gerhard Klimeck

Birck and NCN Publications

The graphene nanoribbon (GNR) tunneling field effect transistor (TFET) has been a promising candidate for a future low power logic device due to its sub-60 mV/dec subthreshold characteristic and its superior gate control on the channel electrons due to its one-dimensional nature. Even though many theoretical studies have been carried out, it is not clear that GNR TFETs would outperform conventional silicon metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). With rigorous atomistic simulations using the p/d orbital tight-binding model, this study focuses on the optimization of GNR TFETs by tuning the doping density and the size of GNRs. It is …

Social Network Analysis Of Researchers' Communication And Collaborative Networks Using Self-Reported Data, Oguz Cimenler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research seeks an answer to the following question: what is the relationship between the structure of researchers' communication network and the structure of their collaborative output networks (e.g. co-authored publications, joint grant proposals, and joint patent applications), and the impact of these structures on their citation performance and the volume of collaborative research outputs? Three complementary studies are performed to answer this main question as discussed below.

1. Study I: A frequently used output to measure scientific (or research) collaboration is co-authorship in scholarly publications. Less frequently used are joint grant proposals and patents. Many scholars believe that co-authorship …

A Novel Asymptotic Expansion Homogenization Analysis For 3-D Composite With Relieved Periodicity In The Thickness Direction, Muhammad Ridlo Erdata Nasution, Naoyuki Watanabe, Atsushi Kondo, Arief Yudhanto

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new asymptotic expansion homogenization analysis is proposed to analyze 3-D composite in which thermomechanical and finite thickness effects are considered. Finite thickness effect is captured by relieving periodic boundary condition at the top and bottom of unit-cell surfaces. The mathematical treatment yields that only 2-D periodicity (i.e. in in-plane directions) is taken into account. A unit-cell representing the whole thickness of 3-D composite is built to facilitate the present method. The equivalent in-plane thermomechanical properties of 3-D orthogonal interlock composites are calculated by present method, and the results are compared with those obtained by standard homogenization method (with 3-D …

Interaction And Service Design As Offering Perspectives In A Space Of Action, Mattias Arvola

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper makes the proposition that interaction and service design can be seen as offering perspectives in a space of action where acting agents grasp a finite perspective depending on objects of concern and equipment, and then reorganize the space. The meaning of this proposition is outlined in the paper, and it also presents a case study of client meetings at banks, which illustrates the proposition. That case show how equipment was used in the background while the clerk attended the client. The clerk made things available for the client in their shared region, directing the client’s perspective on the …

Designing Affiliative Objects: Investigating The Affiliations Of Medical Identification Jewellery, Alexandra Haagaard, William Leeming

DRS Biennial Conference Series

affiliation of medical identification jewellery with paramedics as the central user group. In doing so, we use Suchman’s notion of the affiliative object to reframe medical identification jewellery as a compound epistemic object with affiliations to paramedics in the province of Ontario, Canada. The paper begins by providing background including the methods used to assess the use of medical identification jewellery. There follows a section on how the findings from fieldwork were used to develop a first iteration of design recommendations. A compliancy table then appends discussion of key findings and design recommendations. Three design concepts were found to be …

Diffuse Nutrient Pollution From Residential Catchments, Melissa Rachelle Butcher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nonpoint source nutrient pollution is diffuse pollution lacking discrete origin and conveyance. This thesis synthesizes and critically reviews research on residential nitrogen and phosphorus loss to stormwater runoff and leaching. The evaluation pulls from research covering influential socio-demographic indicators, such as use of lawn maintenance services and homeowner fertilizer practices. The extent to which such social and economic factors may influence the prevalence and fate of diffuse nutrients in stormwater runoff from residential areas has not been adequately established. Understanding the source and influencing factors of diffuse nutrient pollution is important in order to effectively protect surface and groundwater resources. …

Inactivation Of Ascaris In Double-Vault Urine-Diverting Composting Latrines In Panama: Methods And Environmental Health Engineering Field Applications, Daragh A. Gibson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals have prioritized improving access to sanitation, but unfortunately about a third of the global population is still without an improved sanitation source and one billion still practice open defecation. Lack of access to adequate and safe sanitation means the proliferation of dangerous pathogens in the environment, especially soil-transmitted helminths (STHs). In the Bocas del Toro Province of Panama (and similar locations in the world), composting latrines have been built in many of the indigenous communities in the area. They are a form of dry or ecological sanitation and are designed to produce an end …

Large Research Center Education And Outreach: Lessons From 5 Years Of Distributed Collaborative Design, Development And Implementation, Sean Brophy, Thalia Anagnos

Faculty Publications

Paper from the 121st ASEE Annual Conference, Indianapolis. The George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Summation (NEES) completes its tenth year of operation in September 2014. The NEES Center consists of a network of 14 large-scale experimental laboratories that collaborate and share resources in support of research to inform civil engineering practice and reduce losses from future earthquakes. Since the development of the center in 2003, the education, outreach and training (EOT) program has grown from a federation of local outreach activities to an integrated network of “specialists” working together to obtain significant impact towards defined education goals. …

Creating A Stem Identity: Investment With Return, Janet Callahan, Patricia Pyke, Susan Shadle, R. Eric Landrum

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Establishing a strong STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) identity at Boise State University, a metropolitan campus with approximately 3,655 undergraduate STEM students and a total undergraduate enrollment of approximately 19,042 (16,136 FTE) has been an important step toward creating a climate conducive to facilitating fundamental change. Examples of such change include building collaborations among faculty within and across departments, establishing the identity of students as part of a community beyond their chosen major, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of university systems, and perhaps most importantly, developing a framework to think deliberately about ways to effect change. This paper is …

The Peer Collaborative: Supporting Engineering Education Research Faculty With Near-Peer Mentoring Unconference Workshops, Alice L. Pawley, Adam R. Carberry, Monica E. Cardella, Maria-Isabel Carnasciali, Shanna R. Daly, Jenna L. Gorlewicz, Geoffrey L. Herman, Morgan M. Hynes, Shawn S. Jordan, Nadia N. Kellam, Micah Lande, Matthew A. Verleger, Dazhi Yang

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

The PEER Collaborative National Network is a national peer mentoring network for early career tenure-track or mid-career tenured faculty who conduct and are primarily evaluated based on their research related to engineering education. This paper discusses the development, logistics, and outcomes of two PEER workshops built around a community of practice framework. Data from internal and external evaluations are presented to provide insights into aspects that worked well and aspects that need further development. Additionally, by reflecting on the workshops, participants crafted vignettes describing the impact the PEER workshops had on their personal and professional lives. The paper concludes with …

Active Appearance Model Algorithm With K-Nearest Neighbor Classifier For Face Pose Estimation, Bing-Fei Wu, Chih-Chung Kao, Cheng-Lung Jen, Chia-Rong Chiang, Po-Hung Lai

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

In this paper, a face pose estimation (FPE) algorithm using active appearance model (AAM) with a k-nearest neighbor (kNN) classifier is presented. AAM is a model-based image representation method used to describe non-rigid visual objects, with both shape and texture variations, using a mean vector and linear combinations of a set of variation modes. Since AAM is a deformable model, it has several variations. Owing to the variations, the model is adjusted to the input test face image using iterative searching and fitting. The error, which measures the difference between the model and a test image, is minimized with the …

Design Of A Chart-Based Radar Simulator Augmented With A Multi-Agent Ship Traffic Simulation Platform, Shwu-Jing Chang, Yu-Ting Lai, Chun-Mai Hsu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This paper presents a radar simulation system developed under a request to deliver a radar and an Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) for the navigation bridge of a ship maneuvering simulator. It is designed to dynamically generate radar image based on the electronic navigational chart database and sensor information to provide flexibility in navigation area for exercise and maintain consistency with other sensors or systems of the bridge, especially the ECDIS. Since the successful delivery of our study, the radar simulation system has been augmented with a Multi-Agent Ship Traffic (MAST) simulation platform and evolved into a versatile …

Ethical Reasoning Development In Project-Based Learning, Elizabeth Pluskwik, Puteri S. Megat Hamari

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

This paper will describe the method of ethics instruction in a specific project-based learning program with the aim to improve the current level of moral reasoning skills in the engineering students enrolled in the program. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) have endorsed efforts to improve the teaching of ethics in the engineering curriculum. Criterion 3-f of the ABET outcomes,specifically calls for student attainment of an understanding of ethical and professional responsibility. In response, engineering educators seek to develop curriculum to improve moral reasoning skills, which should lead to increased …

Use Of A Onedimensional Link-Node Model To Develop Total Maximum Daily Load Strategies For The San Joaquin River Estuary, Mary Kay Camarillo, William T. Stringfellow, Joel Herr, Scott Sheeder, Gregory Weissmann, Shelly Gulati, Ashley Stubblefield

All Faculty Presentations - School of Engineering and Computer Science

A one-dimensional link-node model was used to simulate water quality conditions in the tidallyinfluenced, deep water ship channel (DWSC) of the San Joaquin River located in Central California. The DWSC has been plagued with low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions for decades and is currently a focus of restoration efforts. The model was calibrated using a six-year flow and water quality data set. Model simulations were run by removing the mass loads of each of the following major sources of oxygen depletion to determine the effects: elimination of the deepened ship channel (i.e., restore to its preexisting depth), elimination of import …

Use Of The Warmf Model To Identify Sources Of Oxygen Impairment And Potential Management Strategies For The San Joaquin River Watershed, William T. Stringfellow, Joel Herr, Scott Sheeder, Shelly Gulati, Gregory Weissmann, Mary K. Camarillo, Michael Jue

All Faculty Presentations - School of Engineering and Computer Science

Eutrophication of the San Joaquin River (SJR) has resulted in low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions, which has led to a regulatory response and development of total maximum daily load (TMDL) allocations. Due to the dynamic nature of processes governing oxygen depletion in the SJR, a model was needed to help stakeholders understand the fate and transport of nutrients and oxygendemanding substances that cause the low DO conditions. Here, the Watershed Analysis Risk Management Framework (WARMF) model was used to simulate nutrient removal and control strategies, accounting for the secondary effects of growth and transformation between sources and discharge. Using the …

Adventures In Paragraph Writing: The Development And Refinement Of Scalable And Effective Writing Exercises For Large-Enrollment Engineering Courses, Rebecca R. Essig, Cary David Troy, Brent K. Jesiek, Josh Boyd, Natascha Michele Trellinger

IMPACT Publications

Adventures in paragraph writing: the development and refinement of scalable and effective writing exercises for large enrollment engineering courses. The ability to communicate effectively is a highly desirable attribute for today’s graduating engineers. Additionally, the inclusion of communication components in technical courses has been shown to enhance learning of technical content and can be leveraged to satisfy non-technical learning outcomes. However, the incorporation of such components in undergraduate engineering curricula remains challenging due to resource limitations, credit hour crunches, and other issues. This paper presents the design considerations and preliminary results from our ongoing work to create an effective, transferrable, …

Linear State Feedback Design For Surge Control Of Axial Flow Compressor Dynamics, Der-Cherng Liaw, Yun-Hua Huang, Wen-Ching Chung

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Based on Moore and Greitzer’s model [15], the surge behavior of axial flow compression system was found to be attributed to the appearance of Andronov-Hopf bifurcationin [12]. In this paper, we focus on the design of control law to prevent and/or delay the occurrence of the bifurcations, which will then suppress the surge behavior. Both types of linear dynamic state feedback and linear washout filter controllers are proposed. The proposed washout design does not require the explicit knowledge of the operating point and keep the original equilibrium characteristic while the dynamic feedback design will change the equilibrium operating points for …

Dynamic Output Feedback Sliding Mode Controller Design For Chattering Avoidance, Jeang-Lin Chang, Jui-Che Tsai

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

For a class of linear MIMO uncertain systems, a dynamic output feedback sliding mode control algorithm that avoids the chattering problem and high gain control is proposed in this paper. Without using any differentiator, we develop a modified asymptotically stable second order sliding mode control law in which the developed controller can guarantee the finite time convergence to the sliding mode and the system states asymptotically approach to zero. Finally, a numerical example is explained for demonstrating the applicability of the proposed scheme.

Cubesat Electronic Power System, Benjamin Lynch, Callie Wallace

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

Cube Satellites are small satellites used by NASA and other non-governmental space companies as a cost-effective means to get a payload into space to perform research and develop new technologies. The Robotic Systems Lab at Santa Clara University has designed and launched several Cube Satellites over the last ten years. We will be continuing the design of a 3U CubeSat began by a senior design team last year. The goal of this project is to design and build an electronic power system (EPS) for the CubeSat. The EPS must be able to power all system components, including the communication board, …

Development Of A Strapdown Inertial Navigation System Simulation Platform, Dah-Jing Jwo, Jyun-Han Shih, Chia-Sheng Hsu, Kai-Lun Yu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This paper presents a strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) simulation platform. The numerical simulator solves the navigation equations in navigation frame where the quaternion vector is employed for attitude calculation. The measured quantities (angular body rates and specific force) are generated by the numerical simulator. The results are also confirmed with the navigation solutions given by a commercial inertial navigation system toolbox using the generated body angular rates and specific force of the SINS. The paper can provide the readers with further information for developing their own SINS simulation tools.

Wavelet Support Vector Machine For Face Recognition, Chen-Chia Chuang, Ping-Lun Liao, Jin-Tsong Jeng

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

In this paper a tool system with wavelet support vector machine (WSVM) under dimension reduction for face recognition is proposed. Eigenfaces and fisherfaces are the major methods used to reduce the dimension of face images in the proposed face recognition tool system. At the same time, noise interference image cases, namely Gaussian noise, with no ears and no eyes are also considered in this paper. Finally, the implementation of proposed system is based on objectoriented design software; the dimension reduction and wavelet kernel support vector machine are applied to the proposed tool system that can deal with face recognition problems …