Engineering Commons^™

Ceramic Welds, And A Method For Producing The Same, Greg Hilmas, William Fahrenholtz, Jeremy Lee Watts, Harlan James Brown-Shaklee

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A method of producing a ceramic weld, including identifying a ceramic first surface and a ceramic second surface to be bonded together, maintaining a non-oxidizing atmosphere over the first and second surfaces, and engaging the first and second surfaces to define a joint. An arc is generated between an electrode and the joint to create a liquid phase, and the liquid phase is cooled to yield a solid fusion layer, wherein the first and second surfaces are joined in the fusion layer.

Enhancing Thermal Video Using A Public Database Of Images, Hemin Qadir, Samuel Peter Kozaitis, Ehsan A. Ali

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

We presented a system to display nightime imagery with natural colors using a public database of images. We initially combined two spectral bands of images, thermal and visible, to enhance night vision imagery, however the fused image gave an unnatural color appearance. Therefore, a color transfer based on look-up table (LUT) was used to replace the false color appearance with a colormap derived from a daytime reference image obtained from a public database using the GPS coordinates of the vehicle. Because of the computational demand in deriving the colormap from the reference image, we created an additional local database of …

Information Technology News, Georgia Southern University

Information Technology: News & Publications (2012-2023)

• Congratulations to Ibrahim Waziri Jr

Signal-To-Noise Measurements And Particle Focusing In Liquid-Core Waveguides, Michael A. Olson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an analysis of the signal-to-noise ratio in liquid core anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguides (ARROWs) and the application of hydrodynamic focusing to the waveguides. These concepts are presented as a method to improve the detection capabilities of the ARROW platform. The improvements are specifically targeted at achieving single molecule detection (SMD) with the devices. To analyze the SNR of the waveguides a test platform was designed and fabricated. This test platform was then used to examine relationship between the SNR and the location of the excitation region. It was determined that the excitation region should be moved closer …

Management Of Water Resources In Shanshan, China: A System Dynamic Approach, Chao Chen, Zhixia Xu, Ajay Kalra, Sajjad Ahmad

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

Shanshan County, located in Xinjiang, China, has severe problems of water scarcity, overexploitation of groundwater. In need of efficient water resources management strategies, this study proposes a System Dynamics (SD) approach to simulate the water resource allocation, which can assist in providing a better understanding of the dynamic water supply and demand system and exploring different water resources management and allocation scenarios.

Bi-Directional Variable Stiffness Magnetorheological Elastomer (Mre) Design, Sarah S. Trabia

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

What is MRE?
•MRE is a semi-active silicon with embedded iron particles for variable stiffness changes under external magnetic flux

Research Objective
•Feasibility of using MRE as a haptic feedback device.
•Design a MRE device that can increase or decrease the stiffness.
•Design an effective way of providing a “pre-strain” to the base silicon material.

Computational Simulation
•COMSOL 4.3b Finite Element Analysis
•2D axisymmetric model
•Parametric sweep was run to find the amount of current needed to counteract the permanent magnet.

Plastic Deformation Of Steel Plates Under High Velocity Impact, Shawoon Kumar Roy

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

• Measure material deformation under high velocity impact.
• Explore the capabilities of the newly developed Multiplexed Photonic Doppler Velocimetry (MPDV) system.
• Study factors that affect the accuracy of computational techniques to simulate high velocity impact.

Investigation Of Phase Change In A36 Steel As A Result Of High Velocity Impact Loading, Mena Slewa

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

High velocity projectiles cause severe damage to target materials upon impact. The target material is subject to high pressure and temperature over a very short period of time. This work studies the effects of Lexan projectiles impacting A36 steel at velocities between 3 km/sec and 6 km/sec. The damage zone develops in the target within 5 microseconds. Some steel materials go through a reversible phase change when subject to elevated temperature and high quasi-static pressure. It is unknown whether A36 steel experiences this phase change during high velocity impact. The objective of this work is to investigate if any permanent …

Incorporating The Oceanic-Atmospheric Climate Variables To Enhance Streamflow Reconstruction Skill, Saria Bukhary, Parker Hill, Ajay Kalra, Sajjad Ahmad

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

Streamflow is a vital source of water supply. Information about the historic streamflow helps understand the range of climate variability and develop sustainable water management strategies for the future. The available instrumental data is usually limited and thus might be insufficient to describe the long-term hydrologic patterns of a region. Streamflow reconstruction, by increasing the length of the hydrologic data, is an important tool to understand past hydrology.

Computational Feasibility Study Of Dual Photon/Neutron Imaging Technique, Jessica Hartman, Alexander Barzilov

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

• Non-destructive testing (NDT) is crucial for industrial applications, particularly when imaging of internal components or structures is desired

• Current NDT imaging techniques, such as x-rays, focus primarily on isolating unique shapes. Rarely are these methods capable of distinguishing materials or material composition

• Potential application in the car industry for testing and examining the functional durability of products
  − Vehicle engines are composed of a combination of low-z and high-z materials with significant variation in density
  − Being able to determine the location of material during operation eliminates the need to disassemble an engine during study

4th Graduate Celebration, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

The Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering Graduate Celebration is an event that recognizes the scholarly work of our engineering and computer science graduate students within the college. The target audience includes undergraduate students, graduate students, college faculty and staff, and the campus community as well as local and regional stakeholders. The objective of the event is to promote and publicize the research activities of the College of Engineering and to inform our stakeholders of our students’ achievements.

All students whose advisors deem that their research is mature enough are invited to communicate their research by participating in the College’s …

Design And Experimental Testing Of Nanoinjection Protocols For Delivering Molecules Into Hela Cells With A Bio-Mems Device, Zachary Kendall Lindstrom

Theses and Dissertations

Delivering foreign molecules into living cells is a broad and ongoing area of research. Gene therapy, or delivering nucleic acids into cells via non-viral or viral pathways, is an especially promising area for pharmaceutics. All gene therapy methods have their respective advantages and disadvantages, including limited delivery efficiency and low viability. Nanoinjection, or delivering molecules into cells using a solid lance, has proven to be highly efficient while maintaining high viability levels. In this thesis, an array of solid silicon lances was tested by nanoinjecting tens of thousands of HeLa cancer cells simultaneously. Several molecule types were injected in different …

Full Control Of Quadruple Quantum Dot Circuit Charge States In The Single Electron Regime, M. R. Delbecq, T. Nakajima, T. Otsuka, S. Amaha, J. D. Watson, Michael J. Manfra, S. Tarucha

Birck and NCN Publications

We report the realization of an array of four tunnel coupled quantum dots in the single electron regime, which is the first required step toward a scalable solid state spin qubit architecture. We achieve an efficient tunability of the system but also find out that the conditions to realize spin blockade readout are not as straightforwardly obtained as for double and triple quantum dot circuits. We use a simple capacitive model of the series quadruple quantum dots circuit to investigate its complex charge state diagrams and are able to find the most suitable configurations for future Pauli spin blockade measurements. …

Path Optimization For Oil Probe, O'Neal Smith, Mark Rahmes, Mark Blue, Adrian M. Peter

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

We discuss a robust method for optimal oil probe path planning inspired by medical imaging. Horizontal wells require three-dimensional steering made possible by the rotary steerable capabilities of the system, which allows the hole to intersect multiple target shale gas zones. Horizontal "legs" can be over a mile long; the longer the exposure length, the more oil and natural gas is drained and the faster it can flow. More oil and natural gas can be produced with fewer wells and less surface disturbance. Horizontal drilling can help producers tap oil and natural gas deposits under surface areas where a vertical …

Color Night Vision System For Ground Vehicle Navigation, Ehsan A. Ali, Hemin Qadir, Samuel Peter Kozaitis

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Operating in a degraded visual environment due to darkness can pose a threat to navigation safety. Systems have been developed to navigate in darkness that depend upon differences between objects such as temperature or reflectivity at various wavelengths. However, adding sensors for these systems increases the complexity by adding multiple components that may create problems with alignment and calibration. An approach is needed that is passive and simple for widespread acceptance. Our approach uses a type of augmented display to show fused images from visible and thermal sensors that are continuously updated. Because the raw fused image gave an unnatural …

Greenscreen: Software To Improve Campus Water And Energy Use, Andrew T. Silva

University Scholar Projects

Water and energy are intrinsically linked together. Energy is required to produce clean water and water is used heavily to generate energy. These two resources are constantly held in check, as they are vital to the sustained operation of towns, cities, and campuses. At the University of Connecticut (UConn), the consumption of water and energy is reduced by an efficient power plant and a brand new water reclamation facility. To reach beyond these accolades, it is essential that a deeper understanding of campus water usage is developed. Linking this knowledge with information about the energy consumption of UConn facilities will …

The Electromagnetic Articulography Mandarin Accented English (Ema-Mae) Corpus Of Acoustic And 3d Articulatory Kinematic Data, Jeffrey J. Berry, An Ji, Michael T. Johnson

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

There is a significant need for more comprehensive electromagnetic articulography (EMA) datasets that can provide matched acoustics and articulatory kinematic data with good spatial and temporal resolution. The Marquette University Electromagnetic Articulography Mandarin Accented English (EMA-MAE) corpus provides kinematic and acoustic data from 40 gender and dialect balanced speakers representing 20 Midwestern standard American English L1 speakers and 20 Mandarin Accented English (MAE) L2 speakers, half Beijing region dialect and half are Shanghai region dialect. Three dimensional EMA data were collected at a 400 Hz sampling rate using the NDI Wave system, with articulatory sensors on the midsagittal lips, lower …

Sensorimotor Adaptation Of Speech Using Real-Time Articulatory Resynthesis, Jeffrey J. Berry, Cassandra North, Michael T. Johnson

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

Sensorimotor adaptation is an important focus in the study of motor learning for non-disordered speech, but has yet to be studied substantially for speech rehabilitation. Speech adaptation is typically elicited experimentally using LPC resynthesis to modify the sounds that a speaker hears himself producing. This method requires that the participant be able to produce a robust speech-acoustic signal and is therefore not well-suited for talkers with dysarthria. We have developed a novel technique using electromagnetic articulography (EMA) to drive an articulatory synthesizer. The acoustic output of the articulatory synthesizer can be perturbed experimentally to study auditory feedback effects on sensorimotor …

The Status Device, John Worcester, Jon Pace, Gabe Guodace, Santos Perez

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

We have come across an issue, that has saddened us deeply. The problem being that there are numerous stories across the nation about elderly patients with dementia and Alzheimer are getting lost and dying. These are not just stories about people losing track of where they live, but elderly patients under the care of senior home staff. Obviously not everyone can be everywhere at once, and we don't expect that. What we want to do is make it easier for the staff, assurance for the families, and almost importantly, for the patient.

What our plan is to do, is to …

Medibox, Bronson Kim, Chris Halverson, Devon Straub, Rose Adrian, Theo Nyguen

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Thoughts on design Concepts:

• Product must fill a need and appeal to its target consumer.
• A product must be wanted

The Industry's design concept for the elderly:

• Slightly alter products aimed toward other people.
• Promise to improve their lives by adding something new to their routine.

Our Findings and Ideas:

• The elderly have developed their methods and routines.
• They don't need something new to worry about.
• A product for the elderly should enhance their lives without burdening or inconveniencing them.
• Utilizing a familiar form and with an inventive look at exiating functionality.
• It is important to allow the elderly to …

Rotostorage Shelf Storage System, Alden Akeman, Garrett Cheadle, Jared Chin, Louis Duvoisin, Flynn Hutchinson, Paige Hval, Louie Liu, Yiling Liu

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

A problem faced by the elderly is the accessibility and ergonomics of storage space. The elderly often are unable to store items in higher places due to physical limitations. The current options for reaching items in high places are bulky, hard to use, and impractical.

After interviewing the elderly at , it was found that many seniors were not comfortable with storing items in higher places as they did not want to climb chairs to access the items. They also did not want to stoop to reach items in lower places due to the physical strain.

Our storage solution increases …

Building A Better Computer For The Aging Generation, Gretchen Baird, Boryeon Kwon, Dylan Lasner, Parker Swensen, Zane Ross, Adrik Gurganus

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

The problem which we have ventured out to solve is that the aging community does not have easily accessible computers and technologies.

The Smart Clock, Cory Koehler, Addison Loda, Hannah Posey-Scholl, Isak Rask

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Modern technology continues to change and improve constantly as people find ways to make things faster, smaller, and better - but these changes often leave the elderly behind. This year’s Innovation Challenge asked groups to focus on how to create and improve technology geared towards the aging generations. For our initial research, the Grant High School team and mentors visited an elderly care center and interviewed a few of the residents, asking what types of technology currently improve their lives, and what types of technology could potentially improve their lives.

The Problem: After the interviews, we were able to identify …

Making Way For Clearer Sound, Barbara Little, Jacob Stearn, Jake Elsewhere

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Problem: Hearing aids are posing difficulties for the elderly using them because of several factors. One of these factors is the filtering of background noise. Many affordable hearing aids on the market today do not produce quality sound because of inferior filtering of background noises.

Opportunity: Our team didn’t understand why this is still a problem since we have the technology currently that is capable of solving this. For instance, we have microphones and speakers that filter out background noise by removing or lessening it. After some research we found that Google Glass is working on a prototype of something …

Lifebrace: The Advanced Health Tracking Wristband, Jeremy Ferrando, Dylan O'Brien, Daniel Ortiz, Jonah Paivarinta

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Over 28 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Every 33 seconds someone dies of heart disease, claiming more lives than AIDS and all forms of cancer combined. Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non fatal injuries to elderly people.

These problems require constant supervision and frequent treatments to keep a patient stable, and they all become more serious with age. People with diabetes, heart conditions, or other debilitating conditions need frequent check-ups, and are always in danger of accidents. They also often need frequent doses of medicine.

The only way that these conditions can be monitored properly is …

Tech For Arthritis, Alex Gaiovych, Anna Velikoretskikh, Ephraim Lee, Karl Stephenson, Kevin Wu, Miguel Campos, Veyda Campos

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

In an era where technological advances are made on almost a daily basis, there are still many people who aren’t able or are scared to use modern technology. While computers and phones get smarter and more powerful, they are also getting smaller and more precise. Trying to push a tiny button, either real or virtual, can be a real problem for those who suffer from arthritis.

According to www.arthritis.org, over 50 million people are diagnosed with arthritis, most of which are senior citizens. Many of these seniors don’t use technology to its full potential because they simply can’t. For some, …

Long-Term Behavior Of Hygrothermaly Conditioned Concrete-Filled Fiber-Reinforced Polymeric Tubes Subjected To Axial Load, Sergio Arambula, Felipe Acosta

Purdue Road School

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Cellular Phone And Radar Forensics On Search And Rescue Duration For General Aviation Aircraft Accidents In The Contiguous United States, Ryan J. Wallace

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT) are generally the primary tool for locating distressed aircrews following an aircraft accident. In 2009, the International COSPAS-SARSAT organization ordered the cessation of 121.5 MHz ELT satellite monitoring to alleviate systemic false alarms and encourage pilots to upgrade ELTs to modern 406 MHz models. While most nations acquiesced to the mandate, the United States encountered severe resistance from pilot groups. As a result, 121.5 MHz ELTs are still in use in the U.S. but remain unmonitored by satellite systems. This study sought to assess the impact of alternative search methods such as radar and cellular phone …

Examining Young Students’ Problem Scoping In Engineering Design, Jessica Watkins, Kathleen Spencer, David Hammer

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Problem scoping—determining the nature and boundaries of a problem—is an essential aspect of the engineering design process. Some studies from engineering education suggest that beginning students tend to skip problem scoping or oversimplify a problem. However, the ways these studies often characterize students’ problem scoping often do not reflect the complexity found in experts’ designing and rely on the number of criteria a student mentions or the time spent problem scoping. In this paper, we argue for methodological approaches that take into account not just what students name as criteria, but also how they weigh, balance, and choose between criteria …

High School Student Information Access And Engineering Design Performance, Nathan Mentzer

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Developing solutions to engineering design problems requires access to information. Research has shown that appropriately accessing and using information in the design process improves solution quality. This quasi-experimental study provides two groups of high school students with a design problem in a three hour design experience. One group has access to the internet while the other does not. Quality of design solution was measured and the two groups were compared. Solution quality did not change significantly. Student information requests were categorized and the most commonly requested piece of information related to cost of materials. Students spent substantially more time in …