Heterogeneous Thermal Effects On Structural-Grade Steel, Eric Wickersham

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The AISC Steel Construction Manual covers structural steel design while at atmospheric and elevated temperatures. The manual does not, though, cover what happens to the steel after it has cooled from elevated temperatures. To fill in this knowledge gap, A36 steel was studied with respect to three main criteria: time, temperature, and cooling. Time was sub-divided into a standard burn (17-20min) and a prolonged burn (90min). Temperature was sub-divided into an average burn (600-800⁰F) and an extreme burn (>1200⁰F). To reach such temperatures, a forge was constructed and used during the burning process. Cooling was sub-divided into standard (air …

Deep Excavations In Urban Environments: A Review Of Recent Developments, Micah D. Nine

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Failure of excavations can be incredibly costly. Lives can be lost, projects delayed for months, and adjacent structures damaged by ground surface settlement related to both basal-heave and serviceability failures. This report summarizes developments in recent years that pertain to deep excavations in urban environments and mathematical methods to best avoid failures. The ultimate limit state (basal-heave and piping failure), and serviceability limit state (ground surface settlement and lateral wall defection) are the basis for geotechnical design in excavations. Structurally, the strength limit state (structural strength of the wall), serviceability limit state (deformation of the retaining wall), and stability (such …

Pediatric Electrical Stimulation For Limb Lengthening: A Non-Invasive Approach, Corey J. Schurko, Sofia Chinchilla, Amanda E. Pinheiro, Jacob A. Brock

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Leg Length Discrepancy (LLD) is a problematic ailment for children as the differences in limb lengths can lead to scoliosis, hip, knee, and ankle problems, and back pain. If LLD is untreated, the symptoms will worsen as the child matures. Today LLD is corrected by using the Ilizarov Method, which uses pins that are externally attached to the broken bone for extension over time using a fixator or by using internal plates that do not require externalization. In our project we aim to use external electrical stimulation to correct the limb discrepancies. Several companies, such as Zimmer Biomet, have created …

Impacts Of Water Sources On The Effectiveness Of Point-Of-Use Water Treatment, Robert Brophy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Disinfection of drinking water provides a safe, reliable, and clean water supply and has been protecting public health successfully throughout the 20th century. However, factors such as deteriorating infrastructure, introduction of microbial pathogens, or disinfection byproducts create problems and reduce the effectiveness of a drinking water treatment plant. Every day the public is drinking known carcinogens that are regulated by the EPA and tested for quarterly by treatment plants. To combat rising costs involved with upgrading source water treatment, point-of-use treatment is a popular option that treats water as it leaves the distribution system instead of being treated before discharge. …

De-Anonymization Attack Anatomy And Analysis Of Ohio Nursing Workforce Data Anonymization, Jacob M. Miracle

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Data generalization (anonymization) is a widely misunderstood technique for preserving individual privacy in non-interactive data publishing. Easily avoidable anonymization failures are still occurring 14 years after the discovery of basic techniques to protect against them. Identities of individuals in anonymized datasets are at risk of being disclosed by cyber attackers who exploit these failures. To demonstrate the importance of proper data anonymization we present three perspectives on data anonymization. First, we examine several de-anonymization attacks to formalize the anatomy used to conduct attacks on anonymous data. Second, we examine the vulnerabilities of an anonymous nursing workforce survey to convey how …

Transient Analysis Of A Solid Oxide Fuel Cell/ Gas Turbine Hybrid System For Distributed Electric Propulsion, Venkata Adithya Chakravarthula

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Gas turbine technology for aerospace applications are approaching limits in efficiency gains as increases in efficiency today occurs in very small increments. One limitation in conventional gas turbine technology is the combustion process, which destroys most of the exergy in the cycle. To address this limitation in a traditional Brayton power cycle, a hybrid system which is integrated with Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) and gas turbine is developed. Hybrid systems involving fuel cells have better efficiencies than conventional power generation systems. Power generation systems with improved performance from low fuel utilizations and low maintenance costs are possible. The combination …

Characterization Of Peripheral Lung Lesions By Statistical Image Processing Of Endobronchial Ultrasound Images, Aaron T. Madaris

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This thesis introduces the concept of implementing greyscale analysis, also known as intensity analysis, on endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) images for the purposes of diagnosing peripheral lung tumors. The statistical methodology of using greyscale and histogram analysis allows the characterization of lung tissue in EBUS images. Regions of interest (ROI) will be analyzed in MATLAB and a feature vector will be created. A feature vector of first-order, second-order and histogram greyscale analysis will be created and used for the classification of malignant vs benign peripheral lung tumors. The tools that were implemented were MedCalc for the initial statistical analysis of receiver …

Identifying Offensive Videos On Youtube, Rajeshwari Kandakatla

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Harassment on social media has become a critical problem and social media content depicting harassment is becoming common place. Video-sharing websites such as YouTube contain content that may be offensive to certain community, insulting to certain religion, race etc., or make fun of disabilities. These videos can also provoke and promote altercations leading to online harassment of individuals and groups. In this thesis, we present a system that identifies offensive videos on YouTube. Our goal is to determine features that can be used to detect offensive videos efficiently and reliably. We conducted experiments using content and metadata available for each …

Computer Graphics And Visualization Based Analysis And Record System For Hand Surgery And Therapy Practice, Venkatamanikanta Subrahmanyakartheek Gokavarapu

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In this thesis, we have designed and developed a computer graphics and visualization based analysis and record system for hand surgery and therapy practice. In particular, we have designed and developed three novel technologies: (i) model-based data compression for hand motion records (ii) model-based surface area estimation of a human hand and (iii) an emulated study of hand wound area estimation. First, we have presented a new data compression technique to better address the needs of electronic health record systems, such as file storage and privacy. In our proposed approach, we will extract the patient's hand motion information and store …

Evaluation Of Real-Time Adaptive Display Systems In A Pilot Training Environment, Jerred Charles Holt

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The Air Force (AF) has traditionally utilized a frequency-based approach that relies on after-action review for feedback to train their pilots. The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of adding real-time adaptive supplemental feedback to this approach. A synthetic task environment was developed to emulate the current AF training platform. Supplemental HUD displays were developed that captured various degrees of expertise at the flight task, thereby serving as a both training and performance aids. Varied presentation schedules for these supplemental displays and triggers for their dynamic behavior were compared and evaluated based on performance, knowledge and workload …

The University Of Akron Human Powered Vehicle Team, Maria E. Rizzo, Andrew J. Derhammer, Christopher M. Trowbridge, Timothy M. Nutt, Joseph R. Boyd, Jeremy W. Marcum, Jonathan E. Adams, Donald G. Haiss, Julia Wood, Brian D. Goshia, Scott T. Fagan, Joshua D. Everhard, Rebecca L. Slivka

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The University of Akron Human Powered Vehicle Team’s 2016 vehicle, Klokan, was designed, manufactured and tested with safety, reliability, performance and ease of use in mind. The vehicle is a fully faired tadpole trike with a lightweight aluminum frame constructed from 6061-T6 tubing having a total weight of 8.9 lbs. To complement the lightweight frame, the fairing is constructed from polycarbonate, PETG and carbon fiber strips which combine into a lightweight, easy to manufacture weather barrier and aerodynamic structure. Klokan was designed to be a safe and efficient mode of everyday transportation which ensures that riders are sufficiently protected by …

The Effect Of Green Structures On Hydrology In Urban Areas Of Akron, Ohio, Brooke Hayes, Brian Long

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Stormwater runoff is a major environmental concern in dense urban areas. Runoff in these areas contributes to flooding as well as water quality problems in the streams, lakes, and reservoirs downstream. The Cuyahoga River is the receiving waterbody for the City of Akron’s stormwater runoff. Currently, combined sewer overflow (CSO) from the city's outdated sewer system is the overriding reason for poor water quality in the Cuyahoga River.

Implementation of green infrastructure is one way to mitigate problems associated with stormwater runoff from urban areas. In this study, hydrologic modeling of the Little Cuyahoga watershed was conducted to determine how …

Smart Coffee Table, Matthew Owens

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report documents the process I followed while working on my senior design project. It includes how I decided to build a Smart Coffee Table, my engineering process, the design of all features and mechanical components, relevant research necessary to complete the project, the performance of the structures, the methods for controlling and powering the table, and any problems along the way. Over the course of the last two semesters, I learned valuable lessons pertaining to working on a project from start to finish as an individual rather than in a group.

Emlighten, Emily Mulvany

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project is focused on creating a system to increase patient satisfaction in hospitals. My senior design team has been working hand in hand with the emergency department of Akron General to design this system called EMlighten. The goal is to create an experience for patients where they exit the hospital feeling more satisfied than they currently are. Patient satisfaction is a key performance indicator used by many hospitals to determine how much additional funding each hospital department is granted. If patients feel more satisfied, not only is that indicative of better care, but departments will receive extra funding. EMlighten …

Developing The Stress Strain Curves For An Epoxy Undergoing High Speed Impact, Stanford L. Howdyshell 7867559

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Hopkinson Split Bar test can be used to accurately develop the relationship between the stress and strain a material undergoes during a high speed impact (rates of 1000/s). This information has many industrial uses, for example the auto industry can use this technology to analyze how materials will behave under crash-like circumstances. In this experiment the stress-strain curves were developed for the PC-Plumbing epoxy.

One of the variables that can be adjusted in the Split Hopkinson Bar test is the ration between the height of the sample and the width of the sample (Hs/Ds). This experiment investigated how three …

Zipping Towards Stem: Simulation Wind Tunnel, Emma Pierson, Greg Flohr, Devon Goldberg, Brandon Hein, Jeremy Hein

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The simulation wind tunnel was created to be integrated into a larger project funded by the National Science Foundation titled Zipping Towards STEM: Integrating Engineering Design into the Middle School Physical Science Curriculum. The goal of this project is to integrate the engineering design process of computer modeling, simulation, rapid prototyping, and testing into the 8^th grade level curriculum by letting students design and test their own mini soap box derby cars. The simulation wind tunnel will be used to help the students understand the basics of aerodynamics so they can design an aerodynamic mini soap box derby …

Plc Water Pump Control, Kevin Logsdon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project set out to use a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) to control a water pump to maintain the water level in a tank at a desired setpoint. A proximity sensor is mounted above the upper reservoir to detect the distance to the water level from the sensor, which will be communicated back to an Allen-Bradley CompactLogix PLC. To control the water level, an AC variable speed drive, that can receive instructions from the PLC, is connected to a water pump that will ramp up the RPM as the water level drops below the setpoint to bring it back to …

Improving Anomaly Detection Through Identification Of Physiological Signatures Of Unconscious Awareness, Alyssa Marie Piasecki

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Missed anomalies have the potential to cause detrimental effects in the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) domain. One possible cause of these missed anomalies is that cognitive processing may not reach conscious awareness and may only be perceived by the unconscious mind. Identification of correlates of these unconscious processes could provide an insight into potential missed targets. The present study explored missed anomalies in a visual search task and the possibility of unconscious awareness. Eye metrics were recorded and a "Detection Threshold Model" was created and validated with a nominal logistic regression model, in order to characterize the search patterns …

Private Record Linkage: A Comparison Of Selected Techniques For Name Matching, Pawel B. Grzebala

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The rise of Big Data Analytics has shown the utility of analyzing all aspects of a problem by bringing together disparate data sets. Efficient and accurate private record linkage algorithms are necessary to achieve this. However, records are often linked based on personally identifiable information, and protecting the privacy of individuals is critical. This work contributes to this field by studying an important component of the private record linkage problem: linking based on names while keeping those names encrypted, both on disk and in memory. We explore the applicability, accuracy, speed and security of three different primary approaches to this …

Aircraft Thermal Management Using Liquefied Natural Gas, Sean Robert Nuzum

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Many technological advances are expected to increase the capabilities of the future aircraft, both civilian and military. These improvements come in many forms such as new wing or fuselage shapes to improve lift or decrease drag. Other improvements are internal. One of these areas is the inclusion of advanced electronic systems for various roles. These changes affect a wide range of aircraft systems including, but not limited to avionics, power generation and thermal management. While these modifications promise to increase aircraft capabilities such as its range, payload or other key performance parameters, there are some significant drawbacks. One drawback is …

Hybrid Particle Image Velocimetry With The Combination Of Cross-Correlation And Optical Flow Method, Mark Bradley Johnson

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Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) has been of relevant discussions lately as the equipment used to obtain temporally and spatially resolved flow fields have advanced rapidly. Despite these advancements, the accuracy of evaluating these images have yet to exceed expectations. Current techniques typically utilize one method, either correlation based (frequently) or optical flow (non-frequently), and both are vulnerable to specific conditions incorporated in the PIV images. Only through the combination of two methods, cross correlation and optical flow, can a technique benefit from the strengths of each method while concealing the flaws each individual method contains. The Hybrid Particle Image Velocimetry …

Dynamic Level-2 Cache Memory Locking By Utilizing Multiple Miss Tables, Andrew Louis Mocniak

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Cache memory plays a vital role in a system's performance by acting as a buffer to quickly supply requested instruction/data blocks from the main memory to the central processing unit (CPU). Cache management techniques may increase or decrease a system's performance. The results vary from process to process, depending on how well optimized the cache management technique is for a particular process. The inclusion of level-2 (L2) cache locking has been shown in previous studies to be beneficial in increasing a system's performance. This is further improved upon through the inclusion of a miss table (MT), which keeps track of …

A Stochastic Petri Net Based Nlu Scheme For Technical Documents Understanding, Adamantia Psarologou

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Natural Language Understanding (NLU) is a very old research field, which deals with machine reading comprehension. Despite the many years of work and the numerous accomplishments by several researchers in the field, there is still place for significant improvements. Here, our goal is to develop a novel NLU methodology for detecting and extracting event/action associations in technical documents. In order to achieve this goal we present a synergy of methods (Kernel extraction, Formal Language Modeling, Stochastic Petri-nets (SPN) mapping and Event Representation via SPN graph synthesis). In particular, the basic meaning of a natural language sentence is given by its …

Β-Aminopropionitrile-Induced Reduction In Enzymatic Crosslinking Causes In Vitro Changes In Collagen Morphology And Molecular Composition, Silvia P. Canelón, Joseph M. Wallace

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Graduate Student Publications

Type I collagen morphology can be characterized using fibril D-spacing, a metric which describes the periodicity of repeating bands of gap and overlap regions of collagen molecules arranged into collagen fibrils. This fibrillar structure is stabilized by enzymatic crosslinks initiated by lysyl oxidase (LOX), a step which can be disrupted using β-aminopropionitrile (BAPN). Murine in vivo studies have confirmed effects of BAPN on collagen nanostructure and the objective of this study was to evaluate the mechanism of these effects in vitro by measuring D-spacing, evaluating the ratio of mature to immature crosslinks, and quantifying gene expression of type I collagen …

Pothole Reporting System, Alissa L. Mcgill, Brian G. Simmons, Sean D. Querry, Elizabeth J. Hammell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to create a pothole detection device that can be attached to the underside of a commercial vehicle. Potholes cost motorists around 6.4 billion dollars annually, thus demonstrating the need for a system to aid with the detection and reporting of potholes. The four systems we needed to consider for the implementation of this project were the power system, the sensing system, the data processing system, and the reporting and logging system. Power pulled from the vehicle will enable the sensors and data processing module. The data processing module will analyze the readings from the …

Roobockey "Autonomous Hockey Robot", Keith R. Martin, Troy W. Bowers, Deboshri Sadhukhan, John A. Supel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of the ROOBockey project is to design and construct a floor hockey robot that can competitively shoot a puck. The robot design quickly locates a specific beacon through the use of image processing and uses a pneumatic shooting mechanism to send a puck to a specified target. The beacons act as possible player or goal positions in a hockey game. The robot also utilizes a wireless controller device to allow a user to maneuver the robot across a hockey field.

Economical Retrofit System To Reduce Cooking Emissions In Third World Dwellings, Jonathan Vanzummeren, Tyler Sturgeon, Ben Dalessandro

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Abstract:

The purpose of this document is to propose and demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of substituting an open flame biomass cooking process with a closed system with the capabilities of sustaining an adequate fire. Clay ovens or “chulhas” are the traditional piece of cooking equipment used in poorer areas of the world. They are often built inside cramped one-room housing units with little or no ventilation. The emissions released from burning fuel sources such as wood, coal, or animal waste bring with them detrimental and often fatal health problems and results in approximately 1.3 million deaths per year.

The …

Optimization Of Formula Sae Electric Vehicle Frame With Finite Element Analysis, Alexander Prorok

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Optimization of Formula SAE Electric Vehicle Frame with Finite Element Analysis

Nfpa 2015/2016 Chainless Challenge, Andrew Tupta, Stefan Stamboldziev, Sean Catchpole, Jordon Spence, Andrew Ball

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Parker Hannifin has issued a challenge to student design teams of creating a Chainless bike using a hydraulic system. Each student design team will be assigned a technical advisor from the University. The project will be divided into two phases after the initial kickoff. The first phase will align with senior design course for motion control and hydraulics and will yield the student obtaining knowledge in hydraulics, including bio-degradable fluids, pneumatics, electromechanical systems, green technologies (sustainable energy) and controlling force and motion. Students will be provided data sheets, a list of in-stock Parker components and by the end of the …

Rocket Fin Test Fixture Development & Exploration Of Rotation Inducing Fin Design, Ryan A. Saylor Mr., David J. Royak Mr., Jacob P. Byron Mr.

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this senior project was to develop a method of applying rotation inducing rocket fin concepts to rockets for the benefit of the University of Akron Akronauts; the student led rocket design team. The project was performed independently of the team’s current efforts as a research and development endeavor for future team projects. Main project goals were divided into three parts: design a fin test fixture for verification testing in the University’s wind tunnel, develop a parameter-driven software model that could be used to generate design options with theoretical performance data as an output, and run fluid dynamics …