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2015

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Articles 2761 - 2790 of 7527

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Energy Harvesting Potential Of Terfenol-D For On-Board Bearing Health Monitoring Applications, Raul Estrada, Heinrich D. Foltz, Constantine Tarawneh, Rene Moreno Jun 2015

Energy Harvesting Potential Of Terfenol-D For On-Board Bearing Health Monitoring Applications, Raul Estrada, Heinrich D. Foltz, Constantine Tarawneh, Rene Moreno

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

One of the limiting factors in on-board bearing health monitoring systems is the life of the batteries used to power the system. Thus, any device that can extend the life of the battery, or entirely replace it, is a notable improvement on any currently available systems. Existing on-board monitoring systems, not optimized for low power, are designed to run on approximately 300 mW of power. Current bearing health monitoring systems have proven effective with as few as one reading every four minutes. The environment under which railroad bearings operate is a harsh one, making most forms of energy harvesting very …

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Skyport Airframe: Design And Manufacturing, Thomas Clark, Michael Dewane, Siosiua Faleta, Robert Llanos-Hinson Jun 2015

Skyport Airframe: Design And Manufacturing, Thomas Clark, Michael Dewane, Siosiua Faleta, Robert Llanos-Hinson

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Many rural areas of developing countries lack the necessary transportation infrastructure to have reliable access to basic needs. This is particularly true for medical supplies. To combat the issue of insufficient access to vaccines in developing areas, the SkyPort project has developed the SkyPort UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). The SkyPort UAV has the vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities of a quadcopter, as well as the efficient, sustained flight of a fixed-wing aircraft. It provides a cheaper, quicker, and safer delivery method than existing alternatives for vaccines in areas that lack a reliable transportation infrastructure. The role of the SkyPort …

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Tracking Of Spall Deterioration On Tapered Roller Bearings, Amy Gonzalez, Constantine Tarawneh, Ping Hu, Joseph A. Turner, Brent Wilson Jun 2015

Tracking Of Spall Deterioration On Tapered Roller Bearings, Amy Gonzalez, Constantine Tarawneh, Ping Hu, Joseph A. Turner, Brent Wilson

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Fatigue spall initiation is one of the major modes of premature bearing failure. The spall initiation is often exacerbated by the presence of impurities in the near-surface region (∼400 μm) of the bearing raceways. Once a spall initiates, it can propagate rapidly, leading to abnormal bearing operation and possible catastrophic failure if not detected early. Testing performed at the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) has focused on ultrasonically scanned tapered roller bearings found to have inclusion content within 400 μm of the surface of the raceways. These bearings undergo accelerated service life tests in which spall initiation is detected and …

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Fatigue Life Estimation Of Modified Railroad Bearing Adapters For Onboard Monitoring Applications, Alexis Trevino, Arturo A. Fuentes, Constantine Tarawneh, Joseph Montalvo Jun 2015

Fatigue Life Estimation Of Modified Railroad Bearing Adapters For Onboard Monitoring Applications, Alexis Trevino, Arturo A. Fuentes, Constantine Tarawneh, Joseph Montalvo

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a study of the fatigue life (i.e. number of stress cycles before failure) of Class K cast iron conventional and modified railroad bearing adapters for onboard monitoring applications under different operational conditions based on experimentally validated Finite Element Analysis (FEA) stress results. Currently, freight railcars rely heavily on wayside hot-box detectors (HBDs) at strategic intervals to record bearing cup temperatures as the train passes at specified velocities. Hence, most temperature measurements are limited to certain physical railroad locations. This limitation gave way for an optimized sensor that could potentially deliver significant insight on continuous bearing temperature conditions. …

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The Effects Of Aircraft Certification Rules On General Aviation Accidents, Carolina L. Anderson Jun 2015

The Effects Of Aircraft Certification Rules On General Aviation Accidents, Carolina L. Anderson

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The purpose of this study was to analyze the frequency of general aviation (GA) airplane accidents and accident rates on the basis of aircraft certification to determine whether or not differences in aircraft certification rules had an influence on accidents. In addition, the narrative cause descriptions contained within the accident reports were analyzed to determine whether there were differences in the qualitative data for the different certification categories. The certification categories examined were: Federal Aviation Regulations Part 23 (Part 23), Civil Air Regulations 3 (CAR 3), Light Sport Aircraft (LSA), and Experimental-Amateur Built (E-AB). The accident causes examined were those …

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Evaluation Of Distribution Environment In Ltl Shipment Between Central Europe And South Africa, Peter Borocz, Paul Singh, Jay Singh Jun 2015

Evaluation Of Distribution Environment In Ltl Shipment Between Central Europe And South Africa, Peter Borocz, Paul Singh, Jay Singh

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Due to the global expansion of transportation and handling companies, the distribution and supply chains of both raw materials and finished products now requires a better understanding of the shipping environment. This international shipping and handling information describing the physical and climatic conditions provides packaging engineers the required technical information to design better packaging to provide protection to products in various segments of the supply chain. In these global supply chains, products emerging from Central Europe also play an increasingly important role today. From this region, the truck and vessel combination is the most dominant transportation mode for non-time sensitive …

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Image Processing For The Extraction Of Nutritional Information From Food Labels, Nate Matsunaga, Rick Sullivan Jun 2015

Image Processing For The Extraction Of Nutritional Information From Food Labels, Nate Matsunaga, Rick Sullivan

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Current techniques for tracking nutritional data require undesirable amounts of either time or man-power. People must choose between tediously recording and updating dietary information or depending on unreliable crowd-sourced or costly maintained databases. Our project looks to overcome these pitfalls by providing a programming interface for image analysis that will read and report the information present on a nutrition label directly. Our solution involves a C++ library that combines image pre-processing, optical character recognition, and post-processing techniques to pull the relevant information from an image of a nutrition label. We apply an understanding of a nutrition label's content and data …

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Ikamvayouth, Weihan Li, Ann Parden Jun 2015

Ikamvayouth, Weihan Li, Ann Parden

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

IkamvaYouth is a non-profit organization in South Africa that would benefit from a streamlined system that expedites registration and optimizes communication for volunteers and learners. IkamvaYouth currently has multiple mediums for registering users, which is hard to track and manage. Our solution is to make a product for volunteers and learners. The learners will be able to identify the nearest branch. The volunteers will be able to identify the nearest branch and register for a position at that branch. The primary considerations for an application in South Africa is that it is practical and usable. The solution provide is based …

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Flippit: A Local Marketplace Mobile Application, Kyle Alwyn, Taylor Roden Jun 2015

Flippit: A Local Marketplace Mobile Application, Kyle Alwyn, Taylor Roden

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Every year, university students spend hundreds, if not thousands on textbooks. However, students cannot effectively sell off or return the used books. Current solutions do exist, but they are slow, difficult to use, and do not give a reasonable refunded amount. To solve the problem, we implemented a hybrid mobile application, built to be available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Throughout the development process, several competitors emerged in the local bookselling market, therefore, our team pivoted and went more broad, allowing users to buy and sell anything, rather than restricting the platform to only books. …

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Low-Cost Electrocardiogram Device For Preventative Healthcare In Rural Populations Of Developing Countries, J.P. Ertola, Michael Whalen Jun 2015

Low-Cost Electrocardiogram Device For Preventative Healthcare In Rural Populations Of Developing Countries, J.P. Ertola, Michael Whalen

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

We have created a prototype electrocardiogram (ECG) device to screen rural populations of developing countries for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Our device is affordable and easy to use so it can be accessible to as many people as possible. We leverage widespread SMS infrastructures to remotely report cardiovascular health to doctors; thus not requiring the doctor to be on-site to interpret test results. Our device can be used to screen people for cardiovascular warning signs. Therefore, it is not meant to be a diagnostic tool.

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Compression Transmission Collar For Fastening, Patrick Atkinson, David Lecronier Jun 2015

Compression Transmission Collar For Fastening, Patrick Atkinson, David Lecronier

Mechanical Engineering Patents

A compression transmission collar apparatus (20) for implantation into a bone (22) with a hole (28) having a hole wall (32) comprising an intramedullary nail (34) defining a bore (40) and a threaded fastener (42) and a compression transmission collar (58) including an exterior face (64) and a top edge (60) and a bottom edge (62) and a first end (70) intersecting the top edge (60) at an acute angle and the bottom edge …

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Smart Thermostat, Matt Allen, Sam Billett, Kevin Read Jun 2015

Smart Thermostat, Matt Allen, Sam Billett, Kevin Read

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

The current thermostat marketplace is dominated by programmable thermostats that are engineered to give the user as much control as possible. However, not all users program these thermostats optimally. Some prefer comfort over energy efficiency and will heat an empty house. Others do not care to program their thermostat and leave it at a set temperature. The Smart Thermostat that we have created is engineered to optimize the temperature for the user, using the common sense of the engineer to lower energy consumption. It uses a Raspberry Pi as a platform to implement a fuzzy logic control System. By removing …

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Pilot-1: Autonomous Fixed-Wing Aircraft Control System, Chris Millsap, Nathan Garvey, Faisal Hayat Jun 2015

Pilot-1: Autonomous Fixed-Wing Aircraft Control System, Chris Millsap, Nathan Garvey, Faisal Hayat

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

In the past decade, the personal ownership of unmanned aerial vehicles has exploded in the US and around the world. The rapidly declining size and cost of integrated circuits, sensors and embedded micro-controllers has lead to a flourishing community of hobbyists designing flight controllers with levels of sophistication approaching those for government and military applications. The typical flight assisted controllers integrate data from the user's control system and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in order to keep the craft level and on course. Deriving mostly from the radio controlled (RC) hobby industry, the flight control technologies for both rotary and …

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Legacy Borehole Project, Piper Connelly, Rhys Marks, Ronald Saavedra Jun 2015

Legacy Borehole Project, Piper Connelly, Rhys Marks, Ronald Saavedra

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

To assist scientists in their pursuit of important research of the subseafloor, the Legacy Borehole Project designed a unique structure that will be lowered to the ocean floor for data collection beneath the ocean floor. This derrick structure will provide support for a sensor package to access pre-existing boreholes, deep and narrow holes drilled into the Earth's crust beneath the sea floor. Our team has completed the second year effort of the three-year plan. In this paper we detail our work on the structure, which will be assembled on a ship's deck and lowered onto the borehole reentry cone with …

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Sunplanter, Matthew Diaz, Joseph Gaither, Stephen Hight, J. Brandon Suehiro Jun 2015

Sunplanter, Matthew Diaz, Joseph Gaither, Stephen Hight, J. Brandon Suehiro

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Although the cost of solar technology has been reduced by nearly seventy percent in the last ten years, the cost of implementing solar panels for residential and commercial use has remained stagnant. Due to the lack of affordable, easily installable solar panel systems on residential properties, the goal of our Senior Design Project is to design a stand-alone solar tracking structure. Since the system is stand-alone, it can be easily implemented on a wide range of properties in most areas of California. Our design for the support of the solar tracking system is a two-pole structure, with a wide base …

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Rsl Autonomous Rover, Cris Madrigal, Jiachi Zhang, Nicholas Peacock, Brogan O'Hara Jun 2015

Rsl Autonomous Rover, Cris Madrigal, Jiachi Zhang, Nicholas Peacock, Brogan O'Hara

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Autonomous vehicles are useful for a variety of applications such as military, urban, and agricultural environments. This paper discusses adding an autonomous navigation system to an all-terrain vehicle by implementing controllers that interface with its current system, installing sensors on the vehicle for obstacle detection, and developing effective safety mechanisms to prevent injury to others. The result is a vehicle capable of waypoint navigation and obstacle avoidance. Testing the vehicle showed that the LIDAR and the autonomous navigation system were integrated seamlessly, and that the sensor output signals were successfully translated into vehicle commands the existing system uses. This system …

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Sustainable Development For People Or Profit?, Eric Rr Weaver Jun 2015

Sustainable Development For People Or Profit?, Eric Rr Weaver

Suburban Sustainability

As Earth’s populations grow, will key planetary systems be pushed over the “tipping point” beyond Earth’s carrying capacity for sustaining human life? There is a strong body of literature developing the concept of Planetary Boundaries to help identify the limits for maintaining the Earth’s environmental stability. It is presumed that exceeding the Planetary Boundaries will result in an environmental tipping point, shifting the earth into a new environmental equilibrium detrimental to life as we know it. Research shows industrial agriculture is a major force pressing the environment to, and beyond, these limits. This review of top tier journals details the …

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Using Virtual Reality For Anxiety Therapy, Bryce Mariano, Paul Thurston Jun 2015

Using Virtual Reality For Anxiety Therapy, Bryce Mariano, Paul Thurston

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Phobias, defined as a persistent and often irrational fear of an object or situation, are a very common type of anxiety disorder that can make it extremely difficult if not impossible for sufferers to interact with the world in a normal and healthy fashion. Traditionally therapists have used a concept known as systematic desensitization to help patients gain control of the emotional and physical reaction to their phobia. Systematic desensitization is employed using a type of treatment known as exposure therapy in which the patients are gradually made to think about and eventually face whatever triggers their anxiety until they …

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Interview With Jim Weber, Rca Heritage Program Jun 2015

Interview With Jim Weber, Rca Heritage Program

RCA Oral History Transcripts

Interview with Jim Weber for the RCA Heritage Program Oral History grant.

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Interview With Joe Pane, Rca Heritage Program Jun 2015

Interview With Joe Pane, Rca Heritage Program

RCA Oral History Transcripts

Interview with Joe Pane for the RCA Heritage Program Oral History grant.

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Interview With Jim Hemshoot, Rca Heritage Program Jun 2015

Interview With Jim Hemshoot, Rca Heritage Program

RCA Oral History Transcripts

Interview with Jim Hemschoot for the RCA Heritage Program Oral History grant.

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Interview With David Armstrong, Rca Heritage Program Jun 2015

Interview With David Armstrong, Rca Heritage Program

RCA Oral History Transcripts

Interview with David Armstrong for the RCA Heritage Program Oral History grant.

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A Tale Of Two Nucleases: Using Talens To Edit The Genome Of C. Elegans, Clare Bartlett, Kriszten Kocmond, Erin Root Jun 2015

A Tale Of Two Nucleases: Using Talens To Edit The Genome Of C. Elegans, Clare Bartlett, Kriszten Kocmond, Erin Root

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Genetic engineering is an emerging technology that offers the potential to prevent, treat, or cure genetic diseases. The technology can permanently alter the genome, providing an alternative therapy to drugs and surgery. Specifically, gene therapy is a promising treatment option for many incurable genetic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and muscular cell dystrophy. Our project gives rise to a better understanding of TALENs and its uses in the genetic engineering field. TALENs, transcription activator-like effector nucleases, are a genetic engineering technology that can be used for targeted gene modification. They are engineered proteins that can bind to specific sequences of …

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Omnisplit: A Mobile Food Ordering Platform For Restaurant Staff And Patrons, Andres De Artola, Jordan Buschman, Ashley Sehatti Jun 2015

Omnisplit: A Mobile Food Ordering Platform For Restaurant Staff And Patrons, Andres De Artola, Jordan Buschman, Ashley Sehatti

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

The takeout industry has benefited greatly from smartphone technology, but the dine- in experience has lagged behind. There are several major issues with the current dining experience, including how to split the check and how to address the issue of poor customer feedback. Some mobile and desktop apps have tired to address individual issues of the restaurant dining process, but there is no single platform that attempts to fix the experience as a whole. We begin by outlining the idea behind OmniSplit, a small to medium business solution that seeks to address many of these issues simultaneously. OmniSplit combines online …

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Exploring The Effects Of Atmospheric Forcings On Evaporation: Experimental Integration Of The Atmospheric Boundary Layer And Shallow Subsurface, Kathleen Smits, Victoria Eagen, Andrew Trautz Jun 2015

Exploring The Effects Of Atmospheric Forcings On Evaporation: Experimental Integration Of The Atmospheric Boundary Layer And Shallow Subsurface, Kathleen Smits, Victoria Eagen, Andrew Trautz

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications - Archive

Evaporation is directly influenced by the interactions between the atmosphere, land surface and soil subsurface. This work aims to experimentally study evaporation under various surface boundary conditions to improve our current understanding and characterization of this multiphase phenomenon as well as to validate numerical heat and mass transfer theories that couple Navier-Stokes flow in the atmosphere and Darcian flow in the porous media. Experimental data were collected using a unique soil tank apparatus interfaced with a small climate controlled wind tunnel. The experimental apparatus was instrumented with a suite of state of the art sensor technologies for the continuous and …

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Proof Of Concept Planetary Lander Test Article, Aja Hartman, Heather Montgomery, Shane Hereford, Grant Goyette Jun 2015

Proof Of Concept Planetary Lander Test Article, Aja Hartman, Heather Montgomery, Shane Hereford, Grant Goyette

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The goal of this proof of concept planetary lander is to safely deliver an exploration rover to a planet surface. This lander was designed to be used as the last stage of landing in the existing entry, descent, and landing procedures used in previous Mars missions. The design improved upon past missions to Mars by reducing risk of failure during landing by utilizing a passive system with no electronics or control systems while also increasing landing site accuracy. These goals were accomplished by incorporating external crushable materials and internal damping systems. Five drop tests of our final design were completed. …

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Might-E Wheel, Abigail Grills, Daniel Doke, Jared O'Rourke, Zach Jesberger Jun 2015

Might-E Wheel, Abigail Grills, Daniel Doke, Jared O'Rourke, Zach Jesberger

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Electric bikes are proving to be an increasingly reliable source of transportation, but with large price tags and existing conversion kits proving too complicated and unapproachable for the average user, commuters are failing to consider electric bicycles as an option. A prototype of a wireless, rear-wheel replacement to convert a bicycle from manual to full-power electric was built. This motorized wheel is called Might-E Wheel. Might-E Wheel was designed as the most approachable and user-friendly way to convert a bicycle from manual to full-power electric. Might-E Wheel was able to achieve a top speed of 27.5 km/h, a range of …

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Mobile Music: A Musical Therapy Assistance Device, Alex Hildebrand, Tanner Malkoff Jun 2015

Mobile Music: A Musical Therapy Assistance Device, Alex Hildebrand, Tanner Malkoff

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Children suffering from Cerebral Palsy often undergo gait therapy in order to strengthen and coordinate their trunks and legs. The patients often feel unmotivated to perform their gait training because the physical movements associated with it are difficult and there is no immediate reward. Physical therapists (PT) will often play music as an incentive to get the children focused on their physical therapy, but this is inefficient and impedes the PT from analyzing and tuning the patients' gait. Mobile Music is a small device designed for automating musical therapy during gait training. In this paper, we go through several design …

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Akabot 2.0: Pet 3d Printing Filament From Waste Plastic, Jay Dubashi, Brian Grau, Alex Mckernan Jun 2015

Akabot 2.0: Pet 3d Printing Filament From Waste Plastic, Jay Dubashi, Brian Grau, Alex Mckernan

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Extrusion is how 3D printing filament is created. Melted plastic is pushed through an extrusion die and is shaped into a long thin strand of plastic. Extrusion machines are usually sized for industrial use, capable of creating hundreds of feet of filament a day. This filament is expensive to purchase, and many end-users would prefer to extrude their own filament, from a virgin plastic input or plastic waste input. There are no homescale filament extruders on the market for Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic waste. AkaBot was designed to allow end users to produce their own filament from a PET plastic …

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Direct Atmospheric Evidence For The Irreversible Formation Of Aqueous Secondary Organic Aerosol, Marwa M. El-Sayed, Yingqing Wang, Christopher J. Hennigan Jun 2015

Direct Atmospheric Evidence For The Irreversible Formation Of Aqueous Secondary Organic Aerosol, Marwa M. El-Sayed, Yingqing Wang, Christopher J. Hennigan

Publications

The reversible nature of aqueous secondary organic aerosol (aqSOA) formation was characterized for the first time through direct atmospheric measurements. Water-soluble organic carbon in the gas and particle phases (WSOCg and WSOCp) was measured simultaneously to quantify aqSOA formation in Baltimore, Maryland. During the nighttime, aqSOA formation was evident as WSOCg increasingly partitioned to the particle phase with increasing relative humidity (RH). To characterize the reversible/irreversible nature of this aqSOA, the WSOCp measurement was alternated through an unperturbed ambient channel and through a “dried” channel maintained at ~40% RH (with 7 s residence time) to mimic the natural drying particles …

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