Engineering Commons^™

Fabrication And Application Of A Polymer Neuromorphic Circuitry Based On Polymer Memristive Devices And Polymer Transistors, Robert A. Nawrocki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neuromorphic engineering is a discipline that aims to address the shortcomings of today's serial computers, namely large power consumption, susceptibility to physical damage, as well as the need for explicit programming, by applying biologically-inspired principles to develop neural systems with applications such as machine learning and perception, autonomous robotics and generic artificial intelligence.

This doctoral dissertation presents work performed fabricating a previously developed type of polymer neuromorphic architecture, termed Polymer Neuromorphic Circuitry (PNC), inspired by the McCulloch-Pitts model of an artificial neuron. The major contribution of this dissertation is a development of processing techniques necessary to realize the Polymer Neuromorphic …

The Significance Of The Transition Of Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (Sada) Systems To Tcp/Ip Platforms, Matthew Alexander Care

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

SCADA system security is a significant United States national security issue based on the systems’ vulnerabilities and the cyber threats that seek to exploit them. Within the last fifteen years as SCADA systems have collectively transitioned to Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks, analysts and policy-makers have expressed increased concern over the general security and protection of SCADA systems, which are responsible for monitoring and controlling our nation’s critical infrastructure. SCADA systems are susceptible based on their ease of entry and their attractiveness as a target. In addition, there a number of cyber threats such as hackers and malware, …

Computation Of Fifteen Thermodynamic Properties Along Arbitrary Paths From Fundamental Equations Of State Correlations, Prashanth Krishnamoorthy

ETD Archive

In this work, a set of fifteen thermodynamic properties for thirty pure compounds has been estimated using fundamental equations of state (FEOS). A computer program was written which allows to input any two of four fundamental thermodynamic properties entropy, pressure, temperature and density to fix a state point and then use the FEOS to generate any other property at that given state. The program further applies the FEOS to trace thermodynamic processes like isochoric, isobaric, isenthalpic, isothermal and isentropic state changes to find the final state of the compound. The program subsequently displays the initial, final and intermediate state points …

Low Cost Adsorbents For Sustainable Dye Containing-Wastewater Treatment, Siew Teng Ong, Pei Sin Keng, Siew Ling Lee, Yung Tse Hung

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Dyes are coloured substances that can be applied to various substrates such as textile materials, leather, paper and hair. The usage of dyes has continuously increased in many industries but the removal of this pollutant remains as a problematic issue as they are generally stable to light and oxidizing agents and are resistant to aerobic digestion. This literature review paper provides and lists several low cost adsorbents to serve as an alternative method for dye removal. Adsorption using low cost materials can be viewed as a sustainable treatment process because most of these materials are of naturally occurring, locally available …

Electrical And Computer Engineering Department 2013-2014 Newsletter, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

Electrical and Computer Engineering Newsletter

• A Word from the Department Chair
• New Faculty
• Exploring the Intersection of Biology and ECE
• Laboratory Upgrades
• New Initiatives
• Student Highlight
• Students Create New Startup
• Senior Design Highlights
• Student Organizations
• Student Highlight
• Chaotic Circuits
• Recent Publications and Grants

A Comparative Survey Of Domestic And International Experiences In Capstone Design, Beshoy Morkos, Joshua D. Summers, Samantha Thoe

All CEDAR Publications

This paper studies the differences between student experiences in domestic and international capstone design offerings for mechanical engineering students at Clemson University. For this, we conducted surveys and interviews of students participating in both the traditional domestic version of a capstone course at Clemson University and a group of students that participated in an international, study abroad version of a capstone course jointly administered by Clemson University and West Virginia University. The surveys were given to students before and after the program to assess whether the international component had an impact on their global awareness when compared to their peers …

Assembly Time Estimation: Assembly Mate Based Structural Complexity Metric Predictive Modeling, Joseph E. Owensby, Joshua D. Summers

All CEDAR Publications

This paper presents an automated tool for estimating assembly times of products based on a three step process: connectivity graph generation from assembly mate information, structural complexity metric analysis of the graph, and application of the complexity metric vector to predictive artificial neural network models. The tool has been evaluated against different training set cases, suggesting that partially defined assembly models and training product variety are critical characteristics. Moreover, the tool is shown to be robust and insensitive to different modeling engineers. The tool has been implemented in a commercial CAD system and shown to yield results of within ±25% …

Development Of A Geometric Model Retrieval System: A Design Exemplar Case Study, Murty Srirangam, Srinivasan Anandan, Joshua D. Summers

All CEDAR Publications

This paper presents a case study examining design exemplar technology implemented as a search and retrieval tool for tyre mould inserts. Limitations of using the geometric-based exemplar approach, such as tediousness of authoring exemplars and time complexity, are identified and addressed through a new parametric-based exemplar approach. Here, the maxima and minima are calculated based upon the specifications of the query mould insert. The design exemplar is demonstrated to be useful primarily in prototyping query mechanisms. Ultimately, customer requirements necessitated implementing the parametric approach as a dedicated software package grounded on the exemplar-based prototyped query mechanism.

Manufacturing Assembly Time Estimation Using Structural Complexity Metric Trained Artificial Neural Networks, Michael G. Miller, James L. Mathieson, Joshua D. Summers, Gregory M. Mocko

All CEDAR Publications

Assembly time estimation is traditionally a time-intensive manual process that requires detailed geometric and process information, which is often subjective and qualitative in nature. As a result, assembly time estimation is rarely applied during early design iterations. In this paper, the authors explore the possibility of automating the assembly time estimation process while reducing the level of design detail required. In this approach, they train artificial neural networks (ANNs) to estimate the assembly times of vehicle subassemblies using either assembly connectivity or liaison graph properties, respectively, as input data. The effectiveness of estimation is evaluated based on the distribution of …

Noisy Gradient Descent Bit-Flip Decoding For Ldpc Codes, G. Sundararajan, Chris J. Winstead, E. Boutillon

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A modified Gradient Descent Bit Flipping (GDBF) algorithm is proposed for decoding Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes on the binary-input additive white Gaussian noise channel. The new algorithm, called Noisy GDBF (NGDBF), introduces a random perturbation into each symbol metric at each iteration. The noise perturbation allows the algorithm to escape from undesirable local maxima, resulting in improved performance. A combination of heuristic improvements to the algorithm are proposed and evaluated. When the proposed heuristics are applied, NGDBF performs better than any previously reported GDBF variant, and comes within 0.5 dB of the belief propagation algorithm for several tested …

Water Resource Systems Analysis And Management - Amirkabir University Of Technology, Jamshid Mousavi

All ECSTATIC Materials

Course taught at Amirkabir University of Technology.

A Framework For The Development Of A Model For Successful, Sustained Lean Implementation And Improvement, Julie Sisson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lean is a business philosophy focused on shortening lead times by removing waste and concentrating on value-added processes. When implemented successfully, it not only allows for cost reduction while improving quality, but it can also position a company to achieve tremendous growth. The problem is that though many companies are attempting to implement lean, it is estimated that only 2-3% are achieving the desired level of success. The purpose of this research is to identify the key interrelated components of successful lean transformation. To this end, a thorough literature review was conducted and the findings indicate six key constructs that …

Social Media For Informal Science Learning In China: A Case Study, Ke Zhang, Fei Gao

Visual Communications and Technology Education Faculty Publications

This article reports a case study on a popular informal science learning community via social media in China, named GuoKr (meaning “nutshell” in English). Data were collected through a variety of Chinese social media and social networking sites, web-based community portals, and discussion boards. Content analyses and data mining were conducted to investigate how GuoKr successfully attracted and engaged public in informal learning on scientific topics in particular. The study found three key characteristics that contributed to the success of such learning communities: (a) utilizing a variety of social media to empower participants with just-in-time, accidental learning opportunities; (b) daily …

Exploring The Use Of Discussion Strategies And Labels In Asynchronous Online Discussion, Fei Gao

Visual Communications and Technology Education Faculty Publications

Drawing on research in both constrained online discussion environments and strategy instruction, this approach combines explicit instruction on discussion strategies with the use of post type labels. In a trial of this approach in an online course, students actively used the discussion strategies and post type labels in their discussion. Analysis of student posts and survey responses suggested that students in the experimental group used discussion strategies more frequently after the intervention as compared to the control group and perceived that this approach positively impacted their discussions. In addition, there is a certain degree of improvement in the quality of …

Facilitating Information Retrieval In Social Media User Interfaces, Anthony Costello

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the amount of computer mediated information (e.g., emails, documents, multi-media) we need to process grows, our need to rapidly sort, organize and store electronic information likewise increases. In order to store information effectively, we must find ways to sort through it and organize it in a manner that facilitates efficient retrieval. The instantaneous and emergent nature of communications across networks like Twitter makes them suitable for discussing events (e.g., natural disasters) that are amorphous and prone to rapid changes. It can be difficult for an individual human to filter through and organize the large amounts of information that can …

Cascaded Plasmon Resonances For Enhanced Nonlinear Optical Response, Seyfollah Toroghi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The continued development of integrated photonic devices requires low-power, small volume all-optical modulators. The weak nonlinear optical response of conventional optical materials requires the use of high intensities and large interaction volumes in order to achieve significant light modulation, hindering the miniaturization of all-optical switches and the development of lightweight transmission optics with nonlinear optical response. These challenges may be addressed using plasmonic nanostructures due to their unique ability to confine and enhance electric fields in sub-wavelength volumes. The ultrafast nonlinear response of free electrons in such plasmonic structures and the fast thermal nonlinear optical response of metal nanoparticles, as …

On Kernel-Base Multi-Task Learning, Cong Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Multi-Task Learning (MTL) has been an active research area in machine learning for two decades. By training multiple relevant tasks simultaneously with information shared across tasks, it is possible to improve the generalization performance of each task, compared to training each individual task independently. During the past decade, most MTL research has been based on the Regularization-Loss framework due to its flexibility in specifying various types of information sharing strategies, the opportunity it offers to yield a kernel-based methods and its capability in promoting sparse feature representations. However, certain limitations exist in both theoretical and practical aspects of Regularization-Loss-based MTL. …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Workload Measures In The Nuclear Domain, Joseph Mercado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An operator's performance and mental workload when interacting with a complex system, such as the main control room (MCR) of a nuclear power plant (NPP), are major concerns when seeking to accomplish safe and successful operations. The impact of performance on operator workload is one of the most widely researched areas in human factors science with over five hundred workload articles published since the 1960s (Brannick, Salas, & Prince, 1997; Meshkati & Hancock, 2011). Researchers have used specific workload measures across domains to assess the effects of taskload. However, research has not sufficiently assessed the psychometric properties, such as reliability, …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Uncertainty Analysis For Payload Fairing Spacecraft Environmental Control Systems, Curtis Groves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Spacecraft thermal protection systems are at risk of being damaged due to airflow produced from Environmental Control Systems. There are inherent uncertainties and errors associated with using Computational Fluid Dynamics to predict the airflow field around a spacecraft from the Environmental Control System. This paper describes an approach to quantify the uncertainty in using Computational Fluid Dynamics to predict airflow speeds around an encapsulated spacecraft without the use of test data. Quantifying the uncertainty in analytical predictions is imperative to the success of any simulation-based product. The method could provide an alternative to traditional “validation by test only” mentality. This …

Detection Of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Using Support Vector Machines In Multi-Parametric Quantitative Mr Imaging., Diego Cantor-Rivera, Ali R Khan, Maged Goubran, Seyed M Mirsattari, Terry M Peters

Robarts Imaging Publications

The detection of MRI abnormalities that can be associated to seizures in the study of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a challenging task. In many cases, patients with a record of epileptic activity do not present any discernible MRI findings. In this domain, we propose a method that combines quantitative relaxometry and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with support vector machines (SVM) aiming to improve TLE detection. The main contribution of this work is two-fold: on one hand, the feature selection process, principal component analysis (PCA) transformations of the feature space, and SVM parameterization are analyzed as factors constituting a classification …

Are Students Satisfied With Media: A Canadian Case Study, Gerd Gidion, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Ken Meadow, Michael Grosch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

The article presents partial results of a survey about media usage habits for studying and learning conducted in 2013 at Western University, a large Canadian university. The article focuses on students’ frequency of use and satisfaction with media for studying and learning. The results of this study support the assumption that student’s media usage includes a mixture of traditional and new media. The main traditional media continue to play an important role in the students’ academic life, and some new media have emerged as seemingly on equal footing or even more important than the traditional forms of media. The use …

Effect Of Crumb Rubber Dissolution On Low-Temperature Performance And Aging Of Asphalt-Rubber Binder, Amir Ghavibazoo, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Asphalt binder plays a critical role in defining the low-temperature performance of asphalt pavement, and, therefore, enhancing its mechanical behavior at low service temperatures through modification always has been of great interest. Crumb rubber modification of asphalt is one of the common practices in the industry. However, the effect of a crumb rubber modifier (CRM) on low-temperature performance of the binder is not well understood. A CRM swells by absorbing the aromat-ics and light molecular components of asphalt at low interaction temperatures (i.e., 160°C) and dissolves at higher interaction temperatures (i.e., 190°C, 220°C). Each of those activities affects the performance …

How Robotics Programs Influence Young Women’S Career Choices: A Grounded Theory Model, Cecilia D. Craig

2010-2016 Archived Posters

Women in college, alumnae of a well-known high school robotics program, shared how it influenced their career choices and who they have become in this qualitative study. A general system theory model was developed using grounded theory practices, after conducting online focus groups and interviews.

Energy And Cost Saving Of A Photovoltaic-Phase Change Materials (Pv-Pcm) System Through Temperature Regulation And Performance Enhancement Of Photovoltaics, Ahmad Hasan, Sarah Mccormack, Ming Jun Huang

Articles

The current research seeks to maintain high photovoltaic (PV) efficiency and increased operating PV life by maintaining them at a lower temperature. Solid-liquid phase change materials (PCM) are integrated into PV panels to absorb excess heat by latent heat absorption mechanism and regulate PV temperature. Electrical and thermal energy efficiency analysis of PV-PCM systems is conducted to evaluate their effectiveness in two different climates. Finally costs incurred due to inclusion of PCM into PV system and the resulting benefits are discussed in this paper. The results show that such systems are financially viable in higher temperature and higher solar radiation …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Impact Of Wind Energy Penetration On Electricity Prices In Ireland, Micheal O'Flaherty, Niall Riordan, Noel O'Neill, Ciara Ahern

Articles

The maturity of wind technology combined with availability of suitable sites means Ireland is on course to generate 40% of its electricity from the wind by 2020.This work sets out to quantify, to what degree, if any, increased wind penetration translates into reduced wholesale and retail prices for electricity. The consensus from the literature is that increasing wind penetration reduces wholesale electricity prices, but views vary as to what degree this translates into reduced retail prices for the consumer.

This work demonstrates the effect of wind energy penetration on the price of electricity in Ireland using quantitative data from the …

A Distributed Consensus Algorithm For Decision Making In Service-Oriented Internet Of Things, Shancang Li, George Oikonomou, Theo Tryfonas, Thomas M. Chen, Li Da Xu

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

In a service-oriented Internet of things (IoT) deployment, it is difficult to make consensus decisions for services at different IoT edge nodes where available information might be insufficient or overloaded. Existing statistical methods attempt to resolve the inconsistency, which requires adequate information to make decisions. Distributed consensus decision making (CDM) methods can provide an efficient and reliable means of synthesizing information by using a wider range of information than existing statistical methods. In this paper, we first discuss service composition for the IoT by minimizing the multi-parameter dependent matching value. Subsequently, a cluster-based distributed algorithm is proposed, whereby consensuses are …

Multiscale Modeling Study Of Methanol Oxidation By Ion-Modified Mdh Enzymes, Purnima Kharidehal

Doctoral Dissertations

Enzymes have been considered as molecular electrocatalysts due to their extraordinary characteristics such as their ability to accelerate reactions enormously, to operate under physiological conditions, and to produce fewer by-products during a catalytic reaction. However, enzyme based fuel cells have been reported to have power output and stability limitations, which are restricting the use of this kind of fuel cell to small electronic devices. Methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) is one such enzyme, which oxidizes methanol and other primary alcohols to their corresponding aldehydes. The active site of MDH contains a divalent cation (Ca2+), a co-factor pyrrolo-quinoline quinone (PQQ), several amino acids, …

Simplified Method To Derive The Kalman Filter Covariance Matrices To Predict Wind Speeds From A Nwp Model, Conor Lynch, Michael J. O'Mahony, Ted Scully

NIMBUS Articles

This paper espouses a simplified approach to predict wind speed 1 hour ahead for a wind turbine located on the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) college campus by utilising a Kalman Filter to predict the bias between a campus based turbine and the output from a Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model for Cork Airport.

Furthermore, this paper investigates the optimum number of samples required (n) in a fixed sampling interval process to derive the covariance matrix of the system equation Qt and the covariance matrix of the observation equation Rt . The main contents of this paper include …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 56 Number 1, Fall 2014, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

14 - HEARING THE CRY OF THE POOR: The Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador by Ron Hansen M.A. ’95. Their murder in November 1989 marked a turning point in the country’s civil war. What do they have to say to us now?

25 - THE OPEN WINDOW by Lucía Cerna. A first-person account by the housekeeper in the Jesuit community at the University of Central America. She witnessed the killing of six Jesuits by government soldiers, and telling the truth about that night cost her dearly.

29 - WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR? By Mary Jo (Hull) Ignoffo ’78. The …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 55 Number 2, Winter 2014, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

16 - RISE UP, MY LOVE by Brian Doyle. There are sanctuaries built for worship—and that carry beauty visible to everyone. Then there are the improvised places of faith, more subtle in how they speak to the wonder worked there.

18 - THE CHAPLAIN IS IN THE HOUSE by Jeremy Herb ’08 with Ppotos by Pat Semansky ’08. With the way things have gone recently in Congress, looking to the heavens for some help and guidance might seem like a very good idea. Enter Pat Conroy, S.J., M.Div. ’83.

24 - WELCOME TO CITIZENVILLE by Jim Cottrill. Who published the …