Engineering Commons^™

Music Dynamic Animations, Thuy-Vy Do

Computer Engineering

Audio visualization gives a graphical representation to beats, intensity, and the fluctuating sounds heard in music. Music dynamic animation, deriving from this concept of audio visualizers, implements a hard coded range styled beat detection. This algorithm prioritizes graphical representations of classical and instrumental music. These graphical representations are intended to provide a sense of imagery.

Activated Carbon, Carbon Nanofiber And Carbon Nanotube Supported Molybdenum Carbide Catalysts For The Hydrodeoxygenation Of Guaiacol, Eduardo Santillan-Jimenez, Maxime Perdu, Robert Pace, Tonya Morgan, Mark Crocker

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty and Staff Publications

Molybdenum carbide was supported on three types of carbon support—activated carbon; multi-walled carbon nanotubes; and carbon nanofibers—using ammonium molybdate and molybdic acid as Mo precursors. The use of activated carbon as support afforded an X-ray amorphous Mo phase, whereas crystalline molybdenum carbide phases were obtained on carbon nanofibers and, in some cases, on carbon nanotubes. When the resulting catalysts were tested in the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of guaiacol in dodecane, catechol and phenol were obtained as the main products, although in some instances significant amounts of cyclohexane were produced. The observation of catechol in all reaction mixtures suggests that guaiacol was …

Structural Evolution Of Molybdenum Carbides In Hot Aqueous Environments And Impact On Low-Temperature Hydroprocessing Of Acetic Acid, Jae-Soon Choi, Viviane Schwartz, Eduardo Santillan-Jimenez, Mark Crocker, Samuel A. Lewis Jr., Michael J. Lance, Harry M. Meyer Iii, Karren L. More

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty and Staff Publications

We investigated the structural evolution of molybdenum carbides subjected to hot aqueous environments and their catalytic performance in low-temperature hydroprocessing of acetic acid. While bulk structures of Mo carbides were maintained after aging in hot liquid water, a portion of carbidic Mo sites were converted to oxidic sites. Water aging also induced changes to the non-carbidic carbon deposited during carbide synthesis and increased surface roughness, which in turn affected carbide pore volume and surface area. The extent of these structural changes was sensitive to the initial carbide structure and was lower under actual hydroprocessing conditions indicating the possibility of further …

Installation, Evaluation, And Modification Of Adcon Telemetry Systems, Caitlin Held

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

No abstract provided.

Engineering As A Mode Of Acknowledging Worth: A Response To Wolterstorff’S Kuyper Prize Lecture, Juan Pablo Benitez Gonzalez

Student Work

This paper is a response to Nicholas Wolterstorff's 2014 Kuyper Prize Lecture given in the Miller Chapel at Princeton Theological Seminary and titled "Art, Justice and Liturgy". Its purpose is to continue Wolterstorff's discussion by considering the affinity that engineering has with art, liturgy, and justice – or, more precisely, the affinity that the practice of scientific innovation and design has with “the actions of paying absorbed attention to some work of the arts, of doing and seeking justice and of enacting the liturgy." It is an attempt to recognize engineering as a mode of "acknowledging goodness".

Cooperative Multi-Cell Mimo Downlink Precoding With Finite-Alphabet Inputs, Wenhao Wu, Kun Wang, Weiliang Zeng, Zhi Ding, Chengshan Xiao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This work investigates the design of linear precoders in cooperative multi-cell MIMO downlink coverage for finite-alphabet source signals. Traditional design of multi-cell MIMO downlink precoder relies on Gaussian input assumption, which may lead to performance loss when true data inputs consist of discrete non-Gaussian symbols. This work presents optimized precoders for finite-alphabet input by maximizing the sum rate under per-base station power constraints. Specifically, we propose two distributed algorithms: a finite-alphabet signal Gaussian interference gradient projection algorithm and a block diagonalization alternating optimization algorithm while supporting interference cancellation. Our numerical results demonstrate considerable performance gain in terms of approximate transmission …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Poly(Octanediol Citrate)/Gallium-Containing Bioglass Microcomposite Scaffolds, Ehsan Zeimaran, Sara Pourshahrestani, Belinda Pingguan-Murphy, Nahrizul Adib Kadri, Hussin A. Rothan, Rohana Yusof, Mark R. Towler, Ivan Djordjevic

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Bone can be affected by osteosarcomae requiring surgical excision of the tumor as part of the treatment regime. Complete removal of cancerous cells is difficult and conventionally requires the removal of a margin of safety around the tumor to offer improved patient prognosis. This work considers a novel series of composite scaffolds based on poly (octanediol citrate) (POC) impregnated with gallium-based bioglass microparticles for possible incorporation into bone following tumor removal. The objective of this research was to fabricate and characterize these scaffolds and subsequently report on their mechanical and biological properties. The porous micro composite scaffolds with various concentrations …

A Glass Polyalkenoate Cement Carrier For Bone Morphogenetic Proteins, Adel M.F. Alhalawani, Omar Rodriguez, Declan J. Curran, Russell Co, Sean Kieran, Saad Arshad, Timothy J. Keenan, Anthony W. Wren, Gazelle Crasto, Sean A.F. Peel, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This work considers a glass polyalkenoate cement (GPC)-based carrier for the effective delivery of bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) at an implantation site. A 0.12 CaO–0.04 SrO–0.36 ZnO–0.48 SiO₂ based glass and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA, Mw 213,000) were employed for the fabrication of the GPC. The media used for the water source in the GPC reaction was altered to produce a series of GPCs. The GPC liquid media was either 100 % distilled water with additions of albumin at 0, 2, 5 and 8 wt% of the glass content, 100 % formulation buffer (IFB), and 100 % BMP (150 µg …

Control Of Fluid Dynamics By Nanoparticles In Laser Melting, Chao Ma, Lianyi Chen, Jiaquan Xu, Jingzhou Zhao, Xiaochun Li

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Effective control of fluid dynamics is of remarkable scientific and practical significance. It is hypothesized that nanoparticles could offer a novel means to control fluid dynamics. In this study, laser melting was used to investigate the feasibility of tuning fluid dynamics by nanoparticles and possibly breaking existing limits of conventional laser processing techniques. Alumina nanoparticles reinforced nickel samples, fabricated through electrocodeposition, were used for laser melting experiments. Since the melt pool surface is controlled by the fluid dynamics, surface topographies were carefully studied to reveal the nanoparticle effect on the fluid dynamics. Characterizations of surface topographies and microstructures of pure …

An Interoperable System For Automated Diagnosis Of Cardiac Abnormalities From Electrocardiogram Data, Thidarat Tinnakornsrisuphap, Richard E. Billo

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Electrocardiogram (ECG) data are stored and analyzed in different formats, devices, and computer platforms. As a result, ECG data from different monitoring devices cannot be displayed unless the user has access to the proprietary software of each particular device. This research describes an ontology and encoding for representation of ECG data that allows open exchange and display of ECG data in a web browser. The ontology is based on the Health Level Seven (HL7) medical device communication standard. It integrates ECG waveform data, HL7 standard ECG data descriptions, and cardiac diagnosis rules, providing a capability to both represent ECG waveforms …

Net Zero Residential Design For Solar Calpoly, Bryce Reiko Willis

Master's Theses

The Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed Team Solar Cal Poly from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, as a competitor in the 2015 Solar Decathlon in February 2014. The Solar Decathlon is a biennial collegiate competition to construct a net-zero home and operate it for a week of “normal use”. Solar Cal Poly needed assistance with passive and active HVAC systems for the design, and thermal load models. The competition will take place in Irvine, CA [33.67⁰, 117.82⁰ W] from September 27 – October 3, 2015. After the completion, a potential final location for the house will be Santa …

Development Of An Autonomous Single-Point Calibration For A Constant Voltage Hot-Wire Anemometer, Ryan Murphy

Master's Theses

Traditionally, the measurement of turbulence has been conducted using hot-wire anemometry. This thesis presents the implementation of a constant voltage hot-wire anemometer for use with the Boundary Layer Data System (BLDS). A hot-wire calibration apparatus has been developed that is capable of operation inside a vacuum chamber and flow speeds up to 50 m/s. Hot-wires operated with a constant-voltage anemometer (CVA) were calibrated at absolute static pressures down to 26 kPa. A thermal/electrical model for a hot-wire and the CVA circuit successfully predicted the measured CVA output voltage trend at reduced pressure environments; however, better results were obtained when the …

Vibration-Based Health Monitoring Of Rotating Systems With Gyroscopic Effect, Nenad Gavrilovic

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the simulation of the gyroscopic effect using the software MSC Adams. A simple shaft-disk system was created and parameter of the sys-tem were changed in order to study the influence of the gyroscopic effect. It was shown that an increasing bearing stiffness reduces the precession motion. Fur-thermore, it was shown that the gyroscopic effect vanishes if the disk of system is placed symmetrically on the shaft, which reduces the system to a Jeffcott-Ro-tor. The second objective of this study was to analyze different defects in a simple fixed axis gear set. In particular, a cracked shaft, …

Video-To-Video Pose And Expression Invariant Face Recognition Using Volumetric Directional Pattern, Vijayan K. Asari, Almabrok Essa

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Face recognition in video has attracted attention as a cryptic method of human identification in surveillance systems. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end video face recognition system, addressing a difficult problem of identifying human faces in video due to the presence of large variations in facial pose and expression, and poor video resolution. The proposed descriptor, named Volumetric Directional Pattern (VDP), is an oriented and multi-scale volumetric descriptor that is able to extract and fuse the information of multi frames, temporal (dynamic) information, and multiple poses and expressions of faces in input video to produce feature vectors, which are …

Optimization-Free Optical Focal Field Engineering Through Reversing The Radiation Pattern From A Uniform Line Source, Yanzhong Yu, Qiwen Zhan

Electro-Optics and Photonics Faculty Publications

A simple and flexible method is presented for the generation of optical focal field with prescribed characteristics. By reversing the field pattern radiated from a uniform line source, for which the electric current is constant along its extent, situated at the focus of a 4Pi focusing system formed by two confocal high-NA objective lenses, the required illumination distribution at the pupil plane for creating optical focal field with desired properties can be obtained. Numerical example shows that an arbitrary length optical needle with extremely high longitudinal polarization purity and consistent transverse size of ~0.36λ over the entire depth of focus …

Sustainability In The Craft Brewing Industry: An Analysis Of Tertiary Wastewater Treatments, Jessica Uibel

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

In 2014, Firestone Walker began the implementation of an onsite Wastewater Treatment Plant to treat the brewery’s process wastewater. Although the secondary treatment of aerated lagoons was capable of lowering the effluent to Paso Robles discharge requirements, Firestone Walker considered investing in a tertiary treatment to reclaim water for industrial reuse in wash down, evaporative coolers, and steam generation.

The information required to determine to optimal tertiary treatment system included the effluent levels leaving the lagoons, the influent requirements for the reclamation uses, the discharge requirements from Paso Robles, and the flow rate of the process wastewater. With this information, …

A Clustering Approach To Domestic Electricity Load Profile Characterisation Using Smart Metering Data, Fintan Mcloughlin, Aidan Duffy, Michael Conlon

Articles

The availability of increasing amounts of data to electricity utilities through the implementation of domestic smart metering campaigns has meant that traditional ways of analysing meter reading information such as descriptive statistics has become increasingly difficult. Key characteristic information to the data is often lost, particularly when averaging or aggregation processes are applied. Therefore, other methods of analysing data need to be used so that this information is not lost. One such method which lends itself to analysing large amounts of information is data mining. This allows for the data to be segmented before such aggregation processes are applied. Moreover, …

Lightening Strikes Twice For Dit Geomatics, Audrey Martin

Articles

The Technological University Dublin (DIT) is rapidly becoming known as an international centre for excellence for all things geospatial. In September 2014, Kevin O'Mahony, a final-year BSc Geomatics student, won the international Trimble Geospatial Student Competition. Kevin is the second consecutive DIT student to win this prestigious award, following on from the success of David Hyland (BSc Geomatics) in 2012. Both students submitted their papers under the supervision of Dr Audrey Martin FSCSI FRICS, Chair of the recently accredited (by SCSI) DIT MSc in Geospatial Engineering. The worldwide student competition is held every two years and is open to all …

Unambiguous Evaluation Of The Relative Photolysis Rates Of Nitro Indolinyl Protecting Groups Critical For Brain Network Studies, Richard L. Comitz, Yannick P. Ouedraogo, Nasri Nesnas

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

Nitrated indolinyl photoprotecting groups are crucial tools extensively used in the study of neuronal signal transduction. Mononitrated photolabile protecting groups have been used effectively, however, recent advances in the introduction of a second nitro group have shown improvement in the photo efficiency of neurotransmitter (agonist) release, albeit, to varying extents, depending on the assessment methods employed. An unambiguous method is discussed based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), which is shown to be an effective technique in the relative overall rate comparison amongst varying nitrated protecting groups. Mononitrated and dinitrated photolabile protecting groups such as CDNIGlu and MNI-Glu are used as …

Macroscopic-Imaging Technique For Subsurface Quantification Of Near-Infrared Markers During Surgery, Michael Jermyn, Kolbein Kolste, Julien Pichette, Guillaume Sheehy, Leticia Angulo-Rodriguez, Keith D. Paulsen, David W. Roberts, Brian C. Wilson, Kevin Petrecca, Frederic Leblond

Dartmouth Scholarship

Obtaining accurate quantitative information on the concentration and distribution of fluorescent markers lying at a depth below the surface of optically turbid media, such as tissue, is a significant challenge. Here, we introduce a fluorescence reconstruction technique based on a diffusion light transport model that can be used during surgery, including guiding resection of brain tumors, for depth-resolved quantitative imaging of near-infrared fluorescent markers. Hyperspectral fluorescence images are used to compute a topographic map of the fluorophore distribution, which yields structural and optical constraints for a three-dimensional subsequent hyperspectral diffuse fluorescence reconstruction algorithm. Using the model fluorophore Alexa Fluor 647 …

Generalized Coupled-Line All-Pass Phasers, Shulabh Gupta, Qingfeng Zhang, Lianfeng Zou, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang, Christophe Caloz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Generalized coupled-line all-pass phasers, based on cascaded C-sections (CCSs), cascaded coupled-lines (CCLs), and hybrid-cascaded (HC) coupled transmission-line sections, are presented and demonstrated using analytical, full-wave, and experimental results. It is shown that for N commensurate coupled-line sections, CCL and HC phasers exhibit N group-delay peaks per coupled-line section harmonic frequency band, in contrast to the CCS configuration, which exhibits only one peak within this band. It is also shown that for a given maximum achievable coupling-coefficient, the HC configuration provides the largest group-delay swing. A wave-interference analysis is finally applied to the various coupled-line phasers, explaining their unique group-delay characteristics …

A Study Of Decision Process In Mcdm Problems With Large Number Of Criteria, Jian Liu, Peng Liu, Si Feng Liu, Xian Zhong Zhou, Tao Zhang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, an effective decision process method is proposed to address the challenge in a multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem because of large number of criteria. This method is based on the criteria reduction, tolerance relation, and prospect theory (PT). By building a discernibility matrix for tolerance relation (DMTR) in an MCDM problem with numerical values or interval numbers, this method first allows us to recognize a set of critical criteria from a large criteria pool and ignore the other criteria. Next, it establishes the criteria weights through the DMTR as they are usually not indicated in the data. …

Reference Diffraction Patterns, Microstructure, And Pore-Size Distribution For The Copper (Ii) Benzene-1,3,5-Tricarboxylate Metal Organic Framework (Cu-Btc) Compounds, L. Li, I. Williamson

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Immersive Visualization For Enhanced Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis, David Quam, Timothy J. Gundert, Laura M. Ellwein, Christopher E. Larkee, Paul Hayden, Raymond Q. Migrino, Hiromasa Otake, John F. Ladisa

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Modern biomedical computer simulations produce spatiotemporal results that are often viewed at a single point in time on standard 2D displays. An immersive visualization environment (IVE) with 3D stereoscopic capability can mitigate some shortcomings of 2D displays via improved depth cues and active movement to further appreciate the spatial localization of imaging data with temporal computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results. We present a semi-automatic workflow for the import, processing, rendering, and stereoscopic visualization of high resolution, patient-specific imaging data, and CFD results in an IVE. Versatility of the workflow is highlighted with current clinical sequelae known to be influenced by …

Composition And Work Function Relationship In Os–Ru–W Ternary Alloys, Phillip D. Swartzentruber, Michael J. Detisch, Thomas John Balk

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Os–Ru thin films with varying concentrations of W were sputter deposited in order to investigate their structure–property relationships. The films were analyzed with x-ray diffraction to investigate their crystal structures, and a Kelvin probe to investigate their work functions. An Os–Ru–W film with ∼30 at. % W yielded a work function maximum of approximately 5.38 eV. These results align well with other studies that found work function minima from thermionic emission data on M-type cathodes with varying amounts of W in the coatings. Furthermore, the results are consistent with other work explaining energy-level alignment and charge transfer of molecules on …

Highly Porous Titania Films Coated On Sub-Micron Particles With Tunable Thickness By Molecular Layer Deposition In A Fluidized Bed Reactor, Rajankumar L. Patel, Ying Bing Jiang, Xinhua Liang

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Titanium alkoxide (titanicone) thin films were coated on large quantities of sub-micron sized silica particles at 100 °C using molecular layer deposition (MLD) in a fluidized bed reactor. Titanium tetrachloride and ethylene glycol were used as precursors. The content of titanium on the particles increased linearly as the number of MLD coating cycles increased. The conformity of the films, with a thickness of ~12 nm, was verified using TEM for silica particles coated with 50 cycles of titanicone. The composition of the titan cone films was confirmed using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry. Porous titanium oxide films were formed for the …

Nanogrid Electrical Design And Analysis, Phillip Phung

Electrical Engineering

Power plant generators have quality protection over long-range transmission, but localized generation interacts with multiple power sources, and needs maintenance to ensure grid safety. Localized and distributed generation must solve these issues to remain viable economically and efficiently in power industries. Cal Poly’s Building 20 provides on-campus location to interconnect renewable generation with interconnection disconnect capabilities.

Cal Poly’s grid includes three localized generators flowing through the Cal Poly substation. Unlike other universities which use power from utilities across distant transmission lines, Cal Poly generates energy using onsite generators. Research including additional possible sites of power generation helps determine the effects …

Optimizing Harris Corner Detection On Gpgpus Using Cuda, Justin Loundagin

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Optimizing Harris Corner Detection on GPGPUs Using CUDA

The objective of this thesis is to optimize the Harris corner detection algorithm implementation on NVIDIA GPGPUs using the CUDA software platform and measure the performance benefit. The Harris corner detection algorithm—developed by C. Harris and M. Stephens—discovers well defined corner points within an image. The corner detection implementation has been proven to be computationally intensive, thus realtime performance is difficult with a sequential software implementation. This thesis decomposes the Harris corner detection algorithm into a set of parallel stages, each of which are implemented and optimized on the CUDA platform. …

Medical Device Software And Technology: The Past, Present And Future, Martin Mchugh

Articles

No abstract provided.

Efficient General Computational Method For Estimation Of Standard Atmosphere Parameters, Nihad E. Daidzic Ph.D., Sc.D.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Knowledge of standard air temperature, pressure, density, speed of sound, and viscosity as a function of altitude is essential information in aircraft design, performance testing, pressure altimeter calibration, and several other aeronautical engineering and aviation science applications. A new efficient computational method for rapid calculations of standard atmospheric parameters up to 86 orthometric km is presented. Additionally, mass and weight of each standard atmospheric layer were calculated using a numerical integration method. The sum of all fractional masses and weights represents the total mass and weight of Earth’s atmosphere. The results obtained here agree well with measurements and models of …