Engineering Commons^™

Integrating An Android Device Into Embedded Computer Systems, Eric Payne

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

An embedded system is a computer system designed to perform a specific set of tasks such as a GPS device or a digital camera. An embedded system is composed of three major parts: a processor (CPU), input devices, and output devices. The input devices are peripherals to take user command (switches and keypad) and sensors to measure environmental conditions (barometer and accelerometer). The output devices are actuators that generate light and sound (LED display and amplified speaker) and moving parts (servo motor). An important step in prototyping an embedded system is to design the input subsystem. It is traditionally done …

Characterization Of Rotor Aerodynamics Of The Laboratory-Scale Miniature Wind Turbines, Jason Wolf, Jordan Thomas

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

Wind energy has become a major contributor to energy production from renewable sources and is expected to increase its portion to the overall energy supply. Wind-tunnel testing of miniature wind turbine models plays an important role in understanding the turbine wake effects and interactions of wind farms with the incoming flow. However, previous research has often not carefully quantified the rotor aerodynamic characteristics of the mini wind turbines, i.e., how the power and thrust coefficients vary with respect to the tip speed ratio, and to what extent they represent the field-scale wind turbines. This work focuses on developing a robust …

Ultra-High Resolution Simulations Of The Atmospheric Boundary Layer Across The Shores Of Lake Erie, Stephen Kennedy

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

An accurate assessment of wind speeds at various heights and locations is important in the deployment of wind turbines. This study focuses on assessing wind speeds and their trends across the shores of the Lake Erie by unsteady, three dimensional, Large Eddy Simulations (LES) with a horizontal resolution of 50m. In a previous study the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) was used for the same region with a coarser resolution of 3km. It did not consistently predict the wind speeds, especially for a well- known nocturnal phenomenon—the Low Level Jet. Our LES code, DALES (Dutch Atmospheric Large Eddy Simulation), seems …

Privacy-Aware Computer-Vision Based Human Motion Tracking, Connor Gordon, Abou-Bakar Fofana

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

Computer-vision based human motion tracking has undergone intensive research for the past several decades. As exemplified by Microsoft Kinect, inexpensive portable computer-vision based motion sensors can now be used to accurately track human motions in many application domains, particularly in the healthcare area, such as rehabilitation exercises, fall detection, and safe patient handling. However, such computer-vision based technology is rarely used in venues such as hospitals and nursing homes, primarily due to privacy concerns. Even if a patient or a health caregiver has consented to being monitored, the vision-based motion sensor cannot guarantee that only the consented person is tracked …

Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy, David Ian Pendleton

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

Selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), or light sheet microscopy, is a microscopy technique that allows you to acquire high resolution fluorescence images of biological samples by illuminating the sample with a thin plane from the side, instead of along the imaging axis as in traditional transillumination or epi-illumination. The purpose of this SPIM research assignment was to combine two previously built systems, an inverted SPIM and a tunable lens system. This report includes use of optics, coupling lasers and proper technique to building optical systems. Programming in Matlab, LabVIEW, and other programming languages was used to synchronize the shutter and …

Islanded Wind Energy Management System Based On Neural Networks, Ziqiao Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wind power, as the main renewable energy source, is increasingly deployed and connected into electrical networks thanks to the development of wind energy conversion technologies. This dissertation is focusing on research related to wind power system include grid-connected/islanded wind power systems operation and control design, wind power quality, wind power prediction technologies, and its applications in microgrids. The doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbine is popular in the wind industry and thus has been researched in this Dissertation. In order to investigate reasons of harmonic generation in wind power systems, a DFIG wind turbine is modeled by using general …

Evaluating The Potential For Passive Greywater Irrigation In Northern Ghana, Chelsea L. Fagan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Water scarcity, malaria, and malnutrition are all concerns facing the people of Chirifoyili and the Northern Region of Ghana. Greywater pooling outside of homes increases human exposure to pathogens and provides breeding grounds for disease carrying insects, especially malaria spreading mosquitoes. This project looks at draining this water away from the home and using it to irrigate vegetables, fruit trees and other beneficial plants.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the effects of greywater irrigation on the growth of plants commonly found in village home gardens. The field project consisted of constructing and managing household greywater irrigation systems …

Automated Technique For Real-Time Production Of Lifelike Animations Of American Sign Language, John Mcdonald, Rosalee Wolfe, Jerry C. Schnepp, Julie Hochgesang, Diana Gorman Jamrozik, Marie Stumbo, Larwan Berke, Melissa Bialek, Farah Thomas

Visual Communications and Technology Education Faculty Publications

Generating sentences from a library of signs implemented through a sparse set of key frames derived from the segmental structure of a phonetic model of ASL has the advantage of flexibility and efficiency, but lacks the lifelike detail of motion capture. These difficulties are compounded when faced with real-time generation and display. This paper describes a technique for automatically adding realism without the expense of manually animating the requisite detail. The new technique layers transparently over and modifies the primary motions dictated by the segmental model, and does so with very little computational cost, enabling real-time production and display. The …

Thermally Induced Motion, Collision And Mixing Of Levitated Droplets, Ashkan Davanlou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the motion of a levitated droplet experimentally and analytically against the Marangoni flow in an immiscible outer fluid at higher speeds than is possible currently. Based on our earlier experiments, when a droplet is released from a height of 1.5 – 4 times its diameter from the liquid surface, it can overcome the impact and stay levitated at the liquid-air interface due to the existence of an air gap between the droplet and the liquid film. In order to explain this behavior of droplet traveling against the counter-current motion, we propose a simple approach: first, the Marangoni …

Biomechanics Of Developmental Dysplasia Of The Hip - An Engineering Study Of Closed Reduction Utilizing The Pavlik Harness For A Range Of Subtle To Severe Dislocations In Infants., Victor Huayamave

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH) is an abnormal condition where hip joint dislocation, misalignment, or instability is present in infants. Rates of incidence of DDH in newborn infants have been reported to vary between 1 and 20 per 1000 births, making it the most common congenital malformation of the musculoskeletal system. DDH early detection and treatment is critical to avoid the use of surgical treatment in infants and to prevent future complications such as osteoarthritis in adult life. To this day several non-surgical treatments involving the use of harnesses and braces have been proposed to treat DDH in infants, …

Resource Allocation And Load-Shedding Policies Based On Markov Decision Processes For Renewable Energy Generation And Storage, Edwards Jimenez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In modern power systems, renewable energy has become an increasingly popular form of energy generation as a result of all the rules and regulations that are being implemented towards achieving clean energy worldwide. However, clean energy can have drawbacks in several forms. Wind energy, for example can introduce intermittency. In this thesis, we discuss a method to deal with this intermittency. In particular, by shedding some specific amount of load we can avoid a total system breakdown of the entire power plant. The load shedding method discussed in this thesis utilizes a Markov Decision Process with backward policy iteration. This …

True Linearized Intensity Modulation For Photonic Analog To Digital Conversion Using An Injection-Locked Mode-Locked Laser, Edris Sarailou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A true linearized interferometric intensity modulator for pulsed light has been proposed and experimentally presented in this thesis. This has been achieved by introducing a mode-locked laser into one of the arms of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and injection-locking it to the input light (which is pulsed and periodic). By modulating the injection-locked laser, and combining its output light with the light from the other arm of interferometer in quadrature, one can achieve true linearized intensity modulator. This linearity comes from the arcsine phase response of the injection-locked mode-locked laser (as suggested by steady-state solution of Adler's equation) when it is …

Design Of A Framework To Measure The Degree Of Live Virtual Constructive (Lvc) Simulation Interoperability, Kiyoul Kim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accomplishment of the Live, Virtual and Constructive simulation interoperability has been a major goal and a challenge in the Modeling and Simulation (M&S) community. There have been efforts to interoperate individual Live, Virtual and Constructive simulations within a common synthetic environment through suitable technologies such as interface specifications, protocols, and standard middleware architectures. However, achieving interoperability of LVC simulation is a technologically complex since it is affected by multiple factors, and the characteristics are not yet satisfactorily defined and studied. A proper method is absent to measure the potential interoperability degree of LVC simulation. Therefore, there should be an appropriate …

Modeling Crowd Mobility And Communication In Wireless Networks, Gurkan Solmaz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents contributions to the fields of mobility modeling, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with mobile sinks, and opportunistic communication in theme parks. The two main directions of our contributions are human mobility models and strategies for the mobile sink positioning and communication in wireless networks. The first direction of the dissertation is related to human mobility modeling. Modeling the movement of human subjects is important to improve the performance of wireless networks with human participants and the validation of such networks through simulations. The movements in areas such as theme parks follow specific patterns that are not taken into …

Design Of Novel Devices And Circuits For Electrostatic Discharge Protection Applications In Advanced Semiconductor Technologies, Zhixin Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD), as a subset of Electrical Overstress (EOS), was reported to be in charge of more than 35% of failure in integrated circuits (ICs). Especially in the manufacturing process, the silicon wafer turns out to be a functional ICs after numerous physical, chemical and mechanical processes, each of which expose the sensitive and fragile ICs to ESD environment. In normal end-user applications, ESD from human and machine handling, surge and spike signals in the power supply, and wrong supplying signals, will probably cause severe damage to the ICs and even the whole systems. Generally, ESD protections are evaluated …

Safety Climate And Safety Outcomes In Aircraft Maintenance: A Mediating Effect Of Employee Turnover And Safety Motivation, Muhanna Alnoaimi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aircraft maintenance is viewed as a critical safety component in general and military aviation industries, and thus it is crucial to identify the factors that may affect aircraft maintenance. Because the safety climate is considered as a leading indicator of safety performance and safety outcomes, this study utilized this safety climate approach to develop a model which can explain the relationships between employee turnover, safety motivation, self-reported unsafe acts, reporting unsafe behaviors, incidents, and injuries in the aviation maintenance environment. This study included a sample of 283 technicians in military aircraft maintenance units who participated in a cross-sectional random survey. …

Experimental Investigation Of The Composite Action Between Hollowcore Slabs With Machine Cast Finish And Concrete Topping, Aiham Adawi, Maged Youssef, Mohamed E. Meshaly

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

Hollowcore slabs are precast/prestressed concrete elements produced at a manufacturing plant before shipping to the job site. Following installation, a layer of concrete topping is usually cast to connect the slabs and to have a level surface. According to current North American design standards, the topping should not be considered to act compositely with the slabs except if their surface satisfies a strict roughness requirement. This paper evaluates if such restriction is justified for hollowcore slabs with machine-cast finish through an experimental program that involves pull-off, push-off and full-scale tests. The surface roughness was first evaluated. The peel (bond) and …

Shear Capacity Of Rc Beams At Elevated Temperatures, Maged A. Youssef, Mohamed Diab, Salah El-Din F. El-Fitiany

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

Fire safety is a critical criterion for designing reinforced concrete structures. With the introduction of performance-based design, structural engineers need design tools to assess the capacity of different elements during fire exposure. This paper proposes an analytical method to predict the shear capacity of reinforced concrete beams exposed to elevated temperatures. The proposed method extends the use of existing ambient temperature methods by accounting for the effect of elevated temperatures on material properties. It involves heat transfer analysis, evaluation of the material properties at elevated temperatures, and application of the modified compression field theory to estimate the shear capacity. The …

Analytical Modeling Of The Interface Between Lightly Roughened Hollowcore Slabs And Cast-In-Place Concrete Topping, Aiham Adawi, Maged A. Youssef, Mohamed E. Meshaly

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

Hollowcore slabs are commonly used in different types of structures. They are usually topped with a 50 mm concrete topping. Structural engineers can use this topping to increase the slab load carrying capacity. North American design standards relate the horizontal shear strength at the interface between hollowcore slabs and the concrete topping to the slab surface roughness. This paper presents results of four push-off tests on hollowcore slabs supplied by two manufacturers and roughened using a conventional steel broom. The tested slabs sustained higher horizontal shear stresses than those specified by the design standards. Utilizing the data from the push-off …

Magnetic Resonance Imaging And Histology Correlation In The Neocortex In Temporal Lobe Epilepsy., Maged Goubran, Robert R Hammond, Sandrine De Ribaupierre, Jorge G Burneo, Seyed Mirsattari, David A Steven, Andrew G Parrent, Terry M Peters, Ali R Khan

Robarts Imaging Publications

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the histopathological correlates of quantitative relaxometry and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and to determine their efficacy in epileptogenic lesion detection for preoperative evaluation of focal epilepsy.

METHODS: We correlated quantitative relaxometry and DTI with histological features of neuronal density and morphology in 55 regions of the temporal lobe neocortex, selected from 13 patients who underwent epilepsy surgery. We made use of a validated nonrigid image registration protocol to obtain accurate correspondences between in vivo magnetic resonance imaging and histology images.

RESULTS: We found T1 to be a predictor of neuronal density in the neocortical gray matter (GM) …

A New Approach To Digital Generation Of Spherical Void Phase Porous Media Microstructures, Nolan J. Dyck, Anthony G. Straatman

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Collaborative Knowledge As A Service Applied To The Disaster Management Domain, Katarina Grolinger, Emna Mezghani, Miriam Am Capretz, Ernesto Exposito

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Cloud computing offers services which promise to meet continuously increasing computing demands by using a large number of networked resources. However, data heterogeneity remains a major hurdle for data interoperability and data integration. In this context, a Knowledge as a Service (KaaS) approach has been proposed with the aim of generating knowledge from heterogeneous data and making it available as a service. In this paper, a Collaborative Knowledge as a Service (CKaaS) architecture is proposed, with the objective of satisfying consumer knowledge needs by integrating disparate cloud knowledge through collaboration among distributed KaaS entities. The NIST cloud computing reference architecture …

A Generalized Service Replication Process In Distributed Environments, Hany F. Elyamany, Marwa F. Mohamed, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Am Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Replication is one of the main techniques aiming to improve Web services’ (WS) quality of service (QoS) in distributed environments, including clouds and mobile devices. Service replication is a way of improving WS performance and availability by creating several copies or replicas of Web services which work in parallel or sequentially under defined circumstances. In this paper, a generalized replication process for distributed environments is discussed based on established replication studies. The generalized replication process consists of three main steps: sensing the environment characteristics, determining the replication strategy, and implementing the selected replication strategy. To demonstrate application of the generalized …

Energy Cost Forecasting For Event Venues, Katarina Grolinger, Andrea Zagar, Miriam Am Capretz, Luke Seewald

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Electricity price, consumption, and demand forecasting has been a topic of research interest for a long time. The proliferation of smart meters has created new opportunities in energy prediction. This paper investigates energy cost forecasting in the context of entertainment event-organizing venues, which poses significant difficulty due to fluctuations in energy demand and wholesale electricity prices. The objective is to predict the overall cost of energy consumed during an entertainment event. Predictions are carried out separately for each event category and feature selection is used to select the most effective combination of event attributes for each category. Three machine learning …

Determining The Transport Enhancement Of Sodium Fluorescein In Mechanically-Loaded Canine Tibia, Andrew Joseph Zak

ETD Archive

Quantitative research concerning the impact of mechanical loading on the transport properties of bone has several critical applications. One such application is the effect of a microgravity environment, where the lack of mechanical forces on bone has been shown to negatively impact both growth and repair. A method has been developed in our lab that can potentially allow for the measurement of the effective permeability of large molecules (i.e., 300-15,000 Da in size) in bone tissue under both unloaded and mechanically loaded conditions. In proof-of-concept experiments, previous students have measured the effective diffusivity of the model solute, sodium fluorescein (376 …

Analytical And Numerical Validation Of Nozzle Spray Measurement Data Obtained From A Newly Developed Production System, Iddrisu Seidu

ETD Archive

A newly developed production test stand for measuring the spray angle of a pressure swirl atomizer was constructed and used to measure a product line of these pressure swirl atomizers -- the macrospray atomizer. This new test stand, utilizing constant temperature hot wire anemometers, captures the spray angle data based on the voltage drop the hot wire probes see as they traverse the spray cone of the atomizer and as fluid droplets impinge upon the wire. Datasets acquired from the experiments are compared and correlated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation data. In addition, angles obtained from another type of …

Comparison Of Criteria Used By State Transportation Agencies To Evaluate Proposed Lane Closures In Planned Work Zones, Sudheer Penimicha

ETD Archive

The purpose of this thesis was to compare the specific performance measures used by various state transportation agencies across the United States to evaluate the impact of proposed lane closures on the interstate system and decide whether the impact is acceptable or not, and thus whether or not to approve the proposed lane closure. Information about the policies, processes, and procedures for approving lane closures was obtained through a combination of searching the webpages of individual state departments of transportation, downloading pertinent materials, emailing requests for information, and contacting agency personnel by telephone. The collected documents and notes taken during …

Skill Retention For Driving Simulation Experiments, Nikhil Ravindra Sarwate

ETD Archive

Whether driving a car in the real world or a simulator vehicle in a computer generated world, the procedural aspects of driving are very similar. The steering wheel is used to control the direction of the vehicle while the accelerator and brake pedals are used to control the speed. This similarity means that people who already possess the skill of driving in the real world are expected to transfer those existing skills to drive a simulator vehicle. Recognizing the need for skill transference, the typical protocol for conducting driving simulation experiments includes a practice drive, which affords participants the opportunity …

Dynamic Model Of A Non-Linear Pneumatic Pressure Modulating Valve Using Bond Graphs, Christopher L. Brubaker

ETD Archive

This research develops a mathematical model of the dynamic pressure response to a variable travel input of a pneumatic pressure modulating valve intended for use in a vehicle air brake system. Generically, the valve is a multi-domain system consisting of a mechanical portion and a pneumatic portion. Included in the mechanical portion of the model are compliance of the springs, inertia of the components, and resistance of the sliding components. The pneumatic portion of the model includes capacitance due to the compressibility of the gas, flow resistance through connected plumbing, and flow resistance through the valve control orifices. The development …

Optimal Design And Control Of A Lower-Limb Prosthesis With Energy Regeneration, Holly E. Warner

ETD Archive

The majority of amputations are of the lower limbs. This correlates to a particular need for lower-limb prostheses. Many common prosthesis designs are passive in nature, making them inefficient compared to the natural body. Recently as technology has progressed, interest in powered prostheses has expanded, seeking improved kinematics and kinetics for amputees. The current state of this art is described in this thesis, noting that most powered prosthesis designs do not consider integrating the knee and the ankle or energy exchange between these two joints. An energy regenerative, motorized prosthesis is proposed here to address this gap. After preliminary data …