Engineering Commons^™

College Of Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

College of Engineering & Computing: News & Publications (2010-2023)

• IT student wins prestigious CSX scholarship!

Biomechanics Of Pediatric Manual Wheelchair Mobility, Brooke A. Slavens, Alyssa J. Schnorenberg, Christine M. Aurit, Sergey Tarima, Lawrence C. Vogel, Gerald F. Harris

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Currently, there is limited research of the biomechanics of pediatric manual wheelchair mobility. Specifically, the biomechanics of functional tasks and their relationship to joint pain and health is not well understood. To contribute to this knowledge gap, a quantitative rehabilitation approach was applied for characterizing upper extremity biomechanics of manual wheelchair mobility in children and adolescents during propulsion, starting, and stopping tasks. A Vicon motion analysis system captured movement, while a SmartWheel simultaneously collected three-dimensional forces and moments occurring at the handrim. A custom pediatric inverse dynamics model was used to evaluate three-dimensional upper extremity joint motions, forces, and moments …

The Study Of Plga Drug Delivery Systems: Implications For Management Of Crohn’S Disease, Christin Pramudiati

Kaleidoscope

The purpose of this research is to develop biodegradable drug delivery systems. One of the delivery systems that we have developed is a suture-like structure for the treatment of Crohn’s disease that utilizes a biodegradable polymer, poly(DL-lactideco-glycolide) acid (PLGA). Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel condition. Aside from the gut involvement, perianal complications develop in the form of enterocutaneous fistulas. Medical management of Crohn’s disease consists of various drugs with immunosuppressive properties. Complicated disease manifestation requires surgical interventions in the form of bowel resection or fistula drainage with Setons. Setons are suture-like devices that help to drain associated abscesses and …

Amelia Earhart - A Study In Courage, Daring And Foolhardiness, Gene Tissot

ERAU Prescott Aviation History Program

Amelia Earhart, disappeared while almost completing an around-the-world flight. This was just one of her many daring adventures. Hear the story of her relatively short, but dynamic aviation career from Gene Tissot, whose father was Amelia’s mechanic during her Hawaii to California flight in 1935. Admiral Tissot knows the pacific well as a decorated combat pilot in Korea & Vietnam. He became the third naval aviator to achieve 1000 arrested carrier landings, without an accident over 20 years, flying 11 different aircraft types.

Secure Degrees Of Freedom Of N ×N ×M Wiretap Channel With A K-Antenna Cooperative Jammer, Mohamed Nafea, Aylin Yener

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The secure degrees of freedom (s.d.o.f.) of a multiantenna Gaussian wiretap channel with N antennas at the transmitter and receiver and an arbitrary number of antennas, M, at the wiretapper is characterized when a multiantenna cooperative jammer (CJ) is available as a helper. This generalizes our previous result that assumed the same number of antennas at the eavesdropper as the legitimate parties. In particular, for arbitrary values of N and M, the s.d.o.f. is derived for all possible values of the number of antennae at the CJ, K. The achievability is based on a variety of signaling, beamforming, and alignment …

Secure Massive Mimo Transmission In The Presence Of An Active Eavesdropper, Yongpeng Wu, Robert Schober, Derrick Wing Kwan Ng, Chengshan Xiao, Giuseppe Caire

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we investigate secure and reliable transmission strategies for multi-cell multi-user massive multiple input multiple-output (MIMO) systems in the presence of an active eavesdropper. We consider a time-division duplex system where uplink training is required, and an active eavesdropper can attack the training phase to cause pilot contamination at the transmitter. This forces the precoder used in the subsequent downlink transmission phase to implicitly beamform towards the eavesdropper, thus increasing its received signal power. We derive an asymptotic achievable secrecy rate for matched filter precoding and artificial noise (AN) generation at the transmitter when the number of transmit …

A Free Deterministic Equivalent For The Capacity Of Mimo Mac With Distributed Antenna Sets, An An Lu, Xiqi Gao, Chengshan Xiao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we propose a free deterministic equivalent for the capacity analysis of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) multiple access channel (MAC) with distributed antenna sets. In the analysis, we use the operator-valued free probability framework, which is much more straightforward than the widely used methods, i.e., the Bai and Silverstein method and the Gaussian method. By replacing independent random Gaussian variables with freely independent circular entries, we obtain the free deterministic equivalent of our channel model. To evaluate the capacity, we use the Shannon transform of the free deterministic equivalent to approximate that of the channel model. The free deterministic …

Simultaneous Stress And Field Control Of Sustainable Switching Of Ferroelectric Phases, P. Finkel, M. Staruch, A. Amin, M. Ahart, Samuel E. Lofland

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

In ferroelectrics, manifestation of a strong electromechanical coupling is attributed to both engineered domain morphology and phase transformations. However, realization of large sustainable and reversible strains and polarization rotation has been limited by fatigue, nonlinearity and hysteresis losses. Here, we demonstrate that large strain and polarization rotation can be generated for over 40 × 106 cycles with little fatigue by realization of a reversible ferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition in [011] cut Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT) relaxor ferroelectric single crystal. Direct tuning of this effect through combination of stress and applied electric field, confirmed both macroscopically and microscopically with x-ray and Raman scattering, reveals …

2015 Fall Engr333 Project Assignment, Matthew K. Heun

ENGR 333

The Fall 2015 ENGR333 project focused on building operational efficiency.

I asked the students “What would it take for Calvin College to save $600,000/year on campus operations?”

Customer

The customer for this project was Calvin’s Physical Plant director Phil Beezhold.

Carboxymethylcellulose Hydrogels Support Cns-Derived Tumor Cell Chemotactic Migration, Tanya Singh, Chandrasekhar Kothapalli, Devika Verma, Steven Nicoll, Maribel Vazquez

Publications and Research

The local microenvironment plays an important role in maintaining the dynamics of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the cell-ECM relationship. ECM is a complex network of molecules with distinct mechanical and biochemical characteristics. When the mechanisms that are in place to maintain ECM homeostasis are deregulated, most likely, this is the onset of cancer. The ECM becomes highly disorganized and the cell-matrix relationship changes, thus promoting alternations in cell mechanisms and metastasis. Medulloblastoma (MB) is one of the most common, malignant pediatric brain tumors in the United States. In order to gain a better understanding between the cell-ECM relationship and …

Long-Term Stability Of 14yt-4sc Alloy At High Temperature, Lulu Li, Weizong Xu, Mostafa Saber, Yuntian Zhu, Carl C. Koch, Ronald O. Scattergood

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

14YT alloy (Fe-14Cr-0.25wt.%Y2O3-0.4wt.%Ti) with 4 at.% Sc addition was previously reported to exhibit a nanoscale microstructure and high strength when annealed at temperatures up to 1000 °C (0.65Tm) for 1 hour. Here we report that the microstructure and mechanical behavior of 14YT-4Sc alloy after long-term annealing for up to 60 hours at 1000 °C. FIB analysis shows abnormal grain growth with annealing time, while a large fraction of the matrix still consists of nanoscale grains. TEM images reveal a slight growth of nano grains, with estimated grain growth exponent, n, to be 0.29. Sc-Ti-Y-O enriched nano oxide particles (nm) were …

An Improved Statistical Analysis For Predicting The Critical Temperature And Critical Density With Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo Simulation, Richard A. Messerly, Richard L. Rowley, Thomas A. Knotts Iv, W Vincent Wilding

Faculty Publications

A rigorous statistical analysis is presented for Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations. This analysis reduces the uncertainty in the critical point estimate when compared with traditional methods found in the literature. Two different improvements are recommended due to the following results. First, the traditional propagation of error approach for estimating the standard deviations used in regression improperly weighs the terms in the objective function due to the inherent interdependence of the vapor and liquid densities. For this reason, an error model is developed to predict the standard deviations. Second, and most importantly, a rigorous algorithm for nonlinear regression is compared …

Analysis Of A Clinically Failed, Mechanically Intact, Reconstructive Compression Plate, Bharadwaj Cheruvu, Sunil Karmacharya, Richard T. Laughlin, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

A reconstructive orthopedic bone plate was submitted for analysis. Traditional failure analysis methods were used to assess the mode of the plate failure. Metallographic investigation of the plate was carried out in this report. Since limited data was available in the literature and clinical data related to subject demography, date of removal as well as reasons for removal unknown, in depth analysis was not possible. However, the plate was received in in-tact condition with minor biological deposits and scratches, it is speculated that the failure of the plate may have been due to biological/clinical reasons, likely infection, rejecting the device …

Sediment Loss And Its Cause In Puerto Rico Watersheds, Y. Yuan, Y. Jiang, E. V. Taugas, Eric G. Mbonimpa

Faculty Publications

A major environmental concern in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is increased sediment load to water reservoirs, to estuaries, and finally to coral reef areas outside the estuaries. Sediment deposition has significantly reduced the storage capacity of reservoirs, and sediments, with their associated contaminants and nutrients that are adsorbed, can stress corals and negatively impact reef health. To prevent and manage sediment loss it is therefore important to understand local soil erosion and sediment transport processes. The main objective of this study was to determine the influence of landscape characteristics on sediment loss. We analyzed available precipitation and sediment data …

Accelerated Aging Test On Multiple Xlpe Mv Cables Simultaneously To Induce Water Trees, Shane Conlan, Jane Courtney, Tom Looby

Conference papers

The objective of this paper is to develop an accelerated ageing test to induce water tree growth which is capable of testing up to ten 10 kV cable samples simultaneously. An existing accelerated ageing method was used as a basis for this project. This method uses a high frequency power supply (3 kHz) to achieve a test duration of 14 days. Modifications were made to this method to allow for multiple samples to be tested simultaneously. A specially designed variable inductor was utilised in a parallel RLC resonance circuit. This resonance circuit limits the current draw from a high frequency …

Implications Of Variable Waste Placement Conditions For Msw Landfills, Jason T. Cox, Nazli Yesiller, James L. Hanson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

This investigation was conducted to evaluate the influence of waste placement practices on the engineering response of municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. Waste placement conditions were varied by moisture addition to the wastes at the time of disposal. Tests were conducted at a California landfill in test plots (residential component of incoming wastes) and full-scale active face (all incoming wastes including residential, commercial, and self-delivered components). The short-term effects of moisture addition were assessed by investigating compaction characteristics and moisture distribution and the long-term effects by estimating settlement characteristics of the variably placed wastes. In addition, effects on engineering properties …

Lessons For Life, Story Musgrave

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This piece explores the creation of character and talent through a wide diversity of education and experience.

Ecoscience + Art Initiative: Designing A New Paradigm For College Education, Scholarship, And Service, Changwoo Ahn

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The paper presents a new initiative, EcoScience + Art, which blooms at George Mason University. The creator explains the background, history, and recent activities of the initiative, and also introduces an on-going special project called “The Rain Project”, a student participatory project to design, construct, and monitor a green infrastructure (i.e., floating wetland) for sustainable stormwater management on campus. The special project is geared to design and present a new paradigm to integrate college education, scholarship, and service. The relevance of the initiative and the special project to STEAM education is discussed.

Beer And Brewing In German Culture: Bridging The Gaps Within Steam, John D. Sundquist

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

A university-level course on science, history, and culture of beer and brewing offers students from a wide range of disciplines a unique opportunity to learn from each other. They gain an appreciation for STEAM and the interaction of a number of disciplines while examining a subject of growing interest. This paper provides a brief description of such a course and includes specific examples of ways in which students explore science, engineering, humanities and the arts, as these areas of research come together in the study of beer and brewing.

Pigs Feet, Jesse W. Standlea

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

My sculpture “Pigs Feet” has literal foundations upon casts of live pig’s feet. I locally sourced the pig’s feet before casting them. My sculpture makes use of a once cutting edge casting technology, alginate. Alginate molds were once the standard in dentistry. Alginate is an appealing casting material as it is refined from brown seaweeds, is both food and skin safe, it is suitable for educators, for artists and engineers alike.

Design Of High-Area-Ratio Nozzle Contours Using Circular Arcs, K. Schomberg, J. Olsen, Graham Doig

Aerospace Engineering

A method using circular arcs to generate the divergence contour in a supersonic nozzle is presented. Comparison of the arc-based geometry with existing nozzle contours demonstrated that an average decrease in axial length of 7.5% can be expected when the arc-based design method is applied to a core stage nozzle. Two arc-based and conventional nozzles were evaluated numerically across the pressure operating range of a core stage engine to compare calculated thrust and separation characteristics with existing data. The length-weighted thrust coefficient was increased by 0.3–1.8% in the arc-based design in both configurations. Separated flow characteristics were compared using contours …

Wind Energy And Ireland: Could Forecasting Errors Lead To A Flawed Market?, Michael Mcdonald, Thomas Woolmington, Keith Sunderland

Conference papers

This paper explores wind energy forecasting consistency by considering the error benchmarks associated with the generation output of a small wind farm in comparison to the national forecasting as provided by Eirgrid, the Irish TSO. This percentage error analysis will contrast the predicted (Eirgrid) capacity and actual wind energy output observations (Wind farm) and postulations that consider alternative prediction metrics are discussed. The findings suggest that in monthly like for like comparisons over a twelve month period, total MWh percentage errors of -0.36% and 5.7% are observed respectively for the actual generation and the forecasted …

Viability Assessment Of The Use Of Ground Tire Rubber In Asphalt Pavements, Biswajit Kumar Bairgi

Student Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study is to assess the viability of the use of ground tire rubber (GTR) in paving materials. In an experimental plan, a PG 64-22 binder has been modified with different contents (10%, 15%, and 20%) of GTR to prepare asphalt rubber (AR). The Fourier Transformation Infrared (FTIR) test, Atomic Force Microcopy (AFM) imaging, Superpave tests, and moisture susceptibility tests have been conducted in this study. The FTIR analysis revealed the presence of various alkanes, and amines groups in unmodified and GTR-modified binders, respectively. The AFM image analysis showed that there are ‘bee-like’ structures in the PG …

The Effect Of Surface Modification Of Aligned Poly-L-Lactic Acid Electrospun Fibers On Fiber Degradation And Neurite Extension, Nicholas J. Schaub, Clémentine Le Beux, Jianjun Miao, Robert J. Linhardt, Johan G. Alauzun, Danielle Laurencin, Ryan J. Gilbert

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The surface of aligned, electro spun poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) fibers was chemically modified to determine if surface chemistry and hydrophilicity could improve neurite extension from chick dorsal root ganglia. Specifically, diethylenetriamine (DTA, for amine functionalization), 2-(2-aminoethoxy) ethanol (AEO, for alcohol functionalization), or GRGDS (cell adhesion peptide) were covalently attached to the surface of electro spun fibers. Water contact angle measurements revealed that surface modification of electro spun fibers significantly improved fiber hydrophilicity compared to unmodified fibers (p < 0.05). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of fibers revealed that surface modification changed fiber topography modestly, with DTA modified fibers displaying the roughest surface structure. Degradation of chemically modified fibers revealed no change in fiber diameter in any group over a period of seven days. Unexpectedly, neurites from chick DRG were longest on fibers without surface modification (1651 ± 488 μm) and fibers containing GRGDS (1560 ± 107 μm). Fibers modified with oxygen plasma (1240 ± 143 μm) or DTA (1118 ± 82 μm) produced shorter neurites than the GRGDS or unmodified fibers but were not statistically shorter than unmodified and GRGDS modified fibers. Fibers modified with AEO (844 ± 151 μm) were significantly shorter than unmodified and GRGDS modified fibers (p< 0.05). Based on these results, we conclude that fiber hydrophilic enhancement alone on electro spun PLLA fibers does not enhance neurite outgrowth. Further work must be conducted to better understand why neurite extension was not improved on more hydrophilic fibers, but the results presented here do not recommend hydrophilic surface modification for the purpose of improving neurite extension unless a bioactive ligand is used.

Novel Methodologies For Locomotion Mode Identification In Lower Limb Prosthesis, Taimoor Afzal

Theses and Dissertations

Lower limbs enable human beings to move in an uncomplicated manner. They support the weight of the body, provide postural stability while moving the body forward and even move it backwards. Regardless of the environment these limbs have the capacity to adapt to any terrain. However, disability as a result of amputation may lead a person to live a dismal life. The deficiency of the ability to walk can have undesirable effect on the amputee from both the physical and psychological point of view. Use of prosthetic devices helps in overcoming this deficiency. The use of prostheses goes back to …

Caracterización De Las Propiedades Indices De Los Flujos De Lodos En 3 Km2 De La Ladera Oriental De La Ciudad De Medellín, Juan Camilo Viviescas, Juan Pablo Osorio

Conference papers

La caracterización de las propiedades índices de los geomateriales es una de las labores más importantes en la ingeniería geotécnica, al ser estos un insumo fundamental para la identificación y determinación de propiedades geomecánicas de los suelos. Las principales propiedades índices estudiadas en la geotecnia son el contenido de agua, los límites de Atterberg, la granulometría, el peso unitario y la gravedad específica, las cuales son la base para clasificación de suelos. En este artículo se presenta el análisis estadístico de las propiedades índices de suelos tipo flujo de lodos de la ladera oriental de Medellín, a partir del análisis …

Propiedades Geotécnicas De La Turba Intervenida Antrópicamente, Juan Pablo Osorio

Conference papers

La intervención antrópica en turberas genera cambios significativos en las propiedades geotécnicas de un material orgánico, altamente compresible y con baja resistencia al esfuerzo cortante. Existen diferentes formas de intervención, dependiendo de las tradiciones de cada lugar. Sin embargo, los procesos de intervención más comunes son la precarga por medio de terraplenes y el drenaje, las cuales generan una reducción en el contenido de humedad, la compresibilidad y la permeabilidad, así como un incremento en la resistencia al esfuerzo cortante. En el presente artículo, se discute el efecto de la intervención antrópica en las propiedades geotécnicas de las turbas, a …

Continuum-Scale Investigation Of Evaporation From Bare Soil Under Different Boundary And Initial Conditions: An Evaluation Of Nonequilibrium Phase Change, Andrew C. Trautz, Kathleen M. Smits, Abdullah Cihan

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications - Archive

Evaporation and condensation in bare soils govern water and energy fluxes between the land and atmosphere. Phase change between liquid water and water vapor is commonly evaluated in soil hydrology using an assumption of instantaneous phase change (i.e., chemical equilibrium). Past experimental studies have shown that finite volatilization and condensation times can be observed under certain environmental conditions, thereby questioning the validity of this assumption. A comparison between equilibrium and nonequilibrium phase change modeling approaches showed that the latter is able to provide better estimates of evaporation, justifying the need for more research on this topic. Several formulations based on …

An Energy Cube Project For Teaching Engineering Design Process, Fionnuala Farrell, Shannon Chance, Micheal O'Flaherty

Conference papers

This year, the College of Engineering and the Built Environment at our institute inaugurated a new Common First Year design project module that helps inform students in the selection of a specific engineering discipline. Each student, prior to selecting their bachelor’s specialism, completes three group-based design projects: a bridge design project (to familiarise students with civil and structural engineering), a RoboSumo project (involving robotics, programming, electrical and electronics engineering), and an Energy Cube project (introducing fundamentals of mechanical, manufacturing and design, and building services engineering). This paper focuses on how the engineering design process was taught via the Energy Cube. …

Spectroscopic Separation Of Čerenkov Radiation In High-Resolution Radiation Fiber Dosimeters, Arash Darafsheh, Rongxiao Zhang, Stephen Chad Kanick, Brian W. Pogue, Jarod C. Finlay

Dartmouth Scholarship

We have investigated Čerenkov radiation generated in phosphor-based optical fiber dosimeters irradiated with clinical electron beams. We fabricated two high-spatial resolution fiber-optic probes, with 200 and 400  μm core diameters, composed of terbium-based phosphor tips. A generalizable spectroscopic method was used to separate Čerenkov radiation from the transmitted signal by the fiber based on the assumption that the recorded signal is a linear superposition of two basis spectra: characteristic luminescence of the phosphor medium and Čerenkov radiation. We performed Monte Carlo simulations of the Čerenkov radiation generated in the fiber and found a strong dependence of the recorded Čerenkov …