Engineering Commons^™

Rf Roaming System Locator: A Modular Omnidirectional Antenna System, George Stathakis, Josh Sullivan, Christian Ayscue

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Drones are increasingly common in everything from entertainment to delivery services. Currently, GPS and wireless triangulation are the two main methods of tracking drones and collision avoidance. The main problem with these two methods are accuracy and mobility. This thesis goes into building a system that is able to solve the two main drawbacks, by using a completely contained antenna system. The system is robust and can work in a variety of environments and situations. While the thesis focuses on drone tracking, the system is built with modularity in mind and can be adapted to track other RF signals with …

Design Of Metamaterials With Graduating Poisson's Ratio Through Periodic Void Patterns, Xiaoming Liang

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

It has been known that when introducing alternating elliptical extrusions in a solid material with a positive Poisson's Ratio, the material's effective Poisson's Ratio can become negative. Furthermore, the change in the effective Poisson's ratio depends on two factors: the elliptical extrusions' aspect ratio and the porosity. Using this phenomenon, a study is conducted by combining elliptical extrusions with different aspect ratios and porosity to construct a composite material with gradually varying Poisson's Ratio. Numerical and physical compression studies are conducted to characterize the material's effective properties. The results show that the material can effectively stabilize its own structure under …

Perfect Snap, Manoj Adhikari, Colby Harper, Sean Karstein

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Taking group photos during important events is a common practice. Group photos are taken to remember cheerful times when people had an opportunity to meet many other people. However, an unappealing facial expression of one person can easily ruin the entire photo. Capturing the wrong moments when a person doesn’t look attractive can leave him/ her displeased from the complete event experience. A solution is to develop a mobile app that captures the moment when everyone is smiling with eyes wide open. Our solution aims to develop an iPhone app that will preclude users from worrying about not having a …

Vehicle To Everything Communication Using Vlc, Andrew Harris, Michael Karachewski, Nick Schnabel

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

Autonomous vehicles are currently self contained. However, we are coming to an age where there will be so many smart vehicles on the road, they will need a way to communicate with each other. In addition, the radio frequency spectrum is crowded and additional communication methods are needed to keep up with future needs. With these two ideas, this paper looks into a very new and developing form of communication - visible light communication - to provide an alternative to traditional radio waves for vehicular communication. We analyze the viability of this system as a proof-of-concept for the technology. We …

Metabolic Patterning On A Chip: Towards In Vitro Liver Zonation Of Primary Rat And Human Hepatocytes, Young Bok Abraham Kang, Jinsu Eo, Safak Mert, Martin L. Yarmush, O. Berk Usta

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

An important number of healthy and diseased tissues shows spatial variations in their metabolic capacities across the tissue. The liver is a prime example of such heterogeneity where the gradual changes in various metabolic activities across the liver sinusoid is termed as “zonation” of the liver. Here, we introduce the Metabolic Patterning on a Chip (MPOC) platform capable of dynamically creating metabolic patterns across the length of a microchamber of liver tissue via actively enforced gradients of various metabolic modulators such as hormones and inducers. Using this platform, we were able to create continuous liver tissues of both rat and …

Strategic Competences For Pricing Quantity Surveying Consultancy Services, Michael Adesi, De-Graft Owusu-Manu, Róisín Murphy

Articles

Professional quantity surveying (QS) services are critical to successful delivery of construction projects within planned budget, quality, and duration. The supply of QS professional services is largely dependent on the price level of services and the willingness of clients to pay. The pricing of professional QS consultancy services has been confronted with a myriad of pricing challenges due to rapid changes in the business environment; the pervasive influence of information technology; and the complexity of clients’ expectation. It isthereforenecessary for QS consultancy firms to develop strategic competence for the pricing of their services. In addition, numerous studies have not given …

Dark Current Rts-Noise In Silicon Image Sensors, Benjamin William Hendrickson

Dissertations and Theses

Random Telegraph Signal (RTS) noise is a random noise source defined by discrete and metastable changes in the magnitude of a signal. Though observed in a variety of physical processes, RTS is of particular interest to image sensor fabrication where progress in the suppression of other noise sources has elevated its noise contribution to the point of approaching the limiting noise source in scientific applications.

There have been two basic physical sources of RTS noise reported in image sensors. The first involves a charge trap in the oxide layer of the source follower in a CMOS image sensor. The capture …

Process Intervention For Water Recovery In Food Manufacture, Christian Michael Wisniewski

Theses and Dissertations

A case study has been conducted for the recovery of water from complex wastewater at a soluble coffee manufacturing factory. The study has evaluated separation methods for process intervention based on environmental and economic assessments. Water recovery was identified in two possible wastewater streams at the factory: the overall plant effluent and an intermediate stream before it enters on-site pre-treatment. A novel vibratory field membrane separation was tested at the laboratory scale using real factory wastewater and scaled-up using appropriate design protocols. Recovery of water from the intermediate stream proved the most effective, both environmentally and economically. The full-scale vibratory …

Competitiveness Of Hybrid Electric Aircraft On Short Range Scheduled Flights, Johannes Anton, Hans-Joachim K. Ruff-Stahl

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Hybrid electric aircraft are expected to enter the small regional aircraft market within the next two decades. The aim of this study was to investigate if a hybrid electric passenger aircraft with 50 seats can be competitive against the established 100 seat aircraft on short range scheduled flights. The Embraer EMB 145 and EMB 190 regional jets were chosen as benchmarks for that market. A hypothetical hybrid version of the EMB 145 with increased fuel efficiency was tested on a cost per available seat mile (CASM) basis. The t tests confirmed significant (p < 0.05) competitiveness of the hybrid version, while in contrast the conventional 50-seater was significantly more expensive compared to the 100seat aircraft. This indicates that hybrid aircraft could enter the short haul market with a competitive advantage, even against the established 100 seat regional jets.

Investigation Into The Behavior Of An Open Web Steel Joist Bridge, Zahra Andalib, Piero Caputo, Sattar Dorafshan, Marc Maguire, William Collins

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Open web steel joists (OWSJ) have been extensively used in the building industry due to numerous advantages when compared with other structural systems. They are lighter than comparable rolled steel shapes, allowing for faster and less costly construction, in addition to their reduced material costs. However, OWSJ are rarely used for bridge structures. This paper examines the behavior of an OWSJ system in a bridge located at the Nucor plant in Brigham City, Utah.

High Efficiency, High Performance Metal-Organic Framework (Mof) Membranes In Hollow Fibers And Tubular Modules, Sankar Nair, Kiwon Eum, Christopher W. Jones, Ali A. Rownaghi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A reactor cell for measuring gas and liquid permeation is disclosed. A hollow fiber is supported by and sealed into a first hole and a second hole of the reactor module. The first and second ends of the hollow fiber are sealed with a sealing solution. Methods for making and using the reactor cell are also disclosed. As made and used, the reactor cell further comprises a molecular sieving membrane that is uniform and free of defects grown on an inner bore surface of the hollow fiber.

River Channel Geometry And Rating Curve Estimation Using Height Above The Nearest Drainage, Xing Zheng, David G. Tarboton, David R. Maidment, Yan Y. Liu, Paola Passalacqua

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

River channel geometry is an important input to hydraulic and hydrologic models. Traditional approaches to quantify river geometry have involved surveyed river cross-sections, which cannot be extended to ungauged basins. In this paper, we describe a method for developing a synthetic rating curve to relate flow to water level in a stream reach based on reach-averaged channel geometry properties developed using the Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) method. HAND uses a digital elevation model of the terrain and computes the elevation difference between each land surface cell and the stream bed cell to which it drains. Taking increments in water …

A Cybergis Integration And Computation Framework For High‐Resolution Continental‐Scale Flood Inundation Mapping, Yan Y. Liu, David R. Maidment, David G. Tarboton, Xing Zheng, Shaowen Wang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

We present a Digital Elevation Model (DEM)-based hydrologic analysis methodology for continental flood inundation mapping (CFIM), implemented as a cyberGIS scientific workflow in which a 1/3rd arc-second (10m) Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) raster data for the conterminous U.S. (CONUS) was computed and employed for subsequent inundation mapping. A cyberGIS framework was developed to enable spatiotemporal integration and scalable computing of the entire inundation mapping process on a hybrid supercomputing architecture. The first 1/3rd arc-second CONUS HAND raster dataset was computed in 1.5 days on the CyberGIS ROGER supercomputer. The inundation mapping process developed in our exploratory study couples HAND …

Wearable Assistive Technologies For Autism: Opportunities And Challenges, Emma Mansouri Benssassi, Juan-Carlos Gomez, Louanne E. Boyd, Gillian R. Hayes, Juan Ye

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Autism is a lifelong developmental condition that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. Challenges with typical social engagement, common in the autism experience, can have a significant negative impact on the quality of life of individuals and families living with autism. Recent advances in sensing, intelligent, and interactive technologies can enable new forms of assistive and augmentative technologies to support social interactions. However, researchers have not yet demonstrated effectiveness of these technologies in long-term real-world use. This article presents an overview of the social and sensory challenges of autism, which offer great opportunities and challenges for …

One-Dimensional Turbulence Modeling For Cylindrical And Spherical Flows: Model Formulation And Application, David O. Lignell, Victoria B. Lansinger, Juan Medina, Marten Klein, Alan R. Kerstein, Heiko Schmidt, Marco Fistler, Michael Oevermann

Faculty Publications

The one-dimensional turbulence (ODT) model resolves a full range of time and length scales and is computationally efficient. ODT has been applied to a wide range of complex multi-scale flows, such as turbulent combustion. Previous ODT comparisons to experimental data have focused mainly on planar flows. Applications to cylindrical flows, such as round jets, have been based on rough analogies, e.g., by exploiting the fortuitous consistency of the similarity scalings of temporally developing planar jets and spatially developing round jets. To obtain a more systematic treatment, a new formulation of the ODT model in cylindrical and spherical coordinates is presented …

Scu Evals, Fredrik Blomqvist, Joseph Théberge

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Evaluating professors and classes is a common task at universities across the United States. It helps professors improve courses, and guides students when choosing classes tailored to their learning style. The current available evaluation platforms do not offer intuitive, up-to-date, and encouraging solutions to this problem; thus, SCU Evals was launched. Our platform has a production-ready foundation with a significant amount of optimized features to maximize the user experience. Furthermore, it utilizes the latest technologies, and the project is fully open source to increase its overall lifetime. The end goal is to provide a platform that would improve the academic …

Proton Irradiation Effect On Thermoelectric Properties Of Nanostructured N-Type Half-Heusler Hf0.25Zr0.75Nisn0.99Sb0.01, Karthik Chinnathambi, Brian J. Jaques

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Thermoelectric properties of nanostructured half-Heusler Hf_0.25Zr_0.75NiSn_0.99Sb_0.01 were characterized before and after 2.5 MeV proton irradiation. A unique high-sensitivity scanning thermal microprobe was used to simultaneously map the irradiation effect on thermal conductivity and Seebeck coefficient with spatial resolution less than 2 μm. The thermal conductivity profile along the depth from the irradiated surface shows excellent agreement with the irradiation-induced damage profile from simulation. The Seebeck coefficient was unaffected while both electrical and thermal conductivities decreased by 24%, resulting in no change in thermoelectric figure of merit ZT. Reductions in thermal and …

Webinar: Firsthand Data Collection: Students Get Behind The Wheel Of Vehicle Dynamics, Roger Lindgren, Jordan Preston

TREC Webinar Series

Vehicle operating dynamics data have a fundamental impact on the design of roadways, but collecting this type of data is not part of your typical college curriculum. Instead, engineering students are handed a textbook, leaving them without a firsthand experience of how accelerations and decelerations “feel” to the driver, the ultimate consumer of their designs. Seeking to change this norm, Roger Lindgren and C.J. Riley, civil engineering professors at the Oregon Institute of Technology, undertook a NITC education project to incorporate more real-world data collection and analysis into transportation courses. This webinar will offer a detailed look at the recently …

Formal And Informal Undergraduate Ethics Education In Engineering, Grace Ports

Undergraduate Voices

This literature review attempts to answer the question of whether formal education or informal education of ethics within civil engineering is more beneficial. If there is a lack of structured education of ethics in civil engineering, then another area of interest is to discover where engineers are being informally educated. Another area of inquiry is whether it is more beneficial to teach engineers ethics prior to the time when they are required to study the code of ethics for their certification exam, or should engineers wait until moments before the exam to study the code. This article examines the potential …

Sustainability In Chemical Engineering, Alec T. Raber

Undergraduate Voices

For much of the past century, the world has seen industrial and technological progress that has helped make life better for humans but hurt the environment while doing so. Once people realized the damage that was being done, it was observed that this kind of development was not sustainable, meaning it did not “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland, 1987, p. 3). While different experts may define the term “sustainability” (or “sustainable development”), differently, they will all share the substance of Brundtland’s definition. Ever since the light …

Discrimination Against Women In The Field Of Engineering, Julia Weber

Undergraduate Voices

This article focuses on the position of women in the field of engineering, specifically why the field is male-dominated and why this condition should change. When I state the field is male-dominated, I am addressing both the proportion of men in the field in comparison to women and discrimination towards women in the workplace.

Throughout this article, I will be focusing on women in the field of engineering. I will look into why the field is so male-dominated (Chu, 2005; Hunt, 2016; Ramirez & Wotipka, 2001) and how this has begun to change over time (Hill, Corbett, & St Rose, …

Ethics Education In Engineering: Practices On And Off The Campus, Katherine Theis

Undergraduate Voices

This paper will focus on two major methods for educating engineers in ethics. It is important to realize that two sets of standards exist within the field of engineering, both from the professional standards set within industries and from the personal moral standards held by engineers themselves. This article first examines the education of ethics within the workplace as some engineers have no previous training in ethics. Second, it discusses how ethics is introduced to engineers through university undergraduate and graduate courses. It will also evaluate whether ethics courses are more effective than the real-world application found through the professional …

Engineering's Effects On Communities Through An Ethical Framework, Bailey A. Reid

Undergraduate Voices

Engineering is at the forefront of innovation and progression in our society, but often has various impacts on the communities in which projects take place. This article focuses on several ethical guidelines established through education and engineering’s effects on surrounding communities. Ethics inside of community actions and approach will also be explored.

Analysis Of Electricity Consumption Rationing At Enterprisesferrous Metallurgy, F.A. Khoshimov, I.U. Rakhmonov

Technical science and innovation

Electricity consumption regulation is the primary technical basis for energy consumption planning. Electricity consumption is regulated in the form of specific electricity consumption per unit of production or per unit of work performed. Specific energy consumption rate is understood as the consumption of electricity necessary and sufficient to produce a unit of production or to perform a unit of work in the planned conditions of production and operation. Electricity saving takes place if its actual specific consumption is comparable with progressive norms developed on the basis of introduction of new equipment and technology into production, rational operation of technological equipment …

Analysis Of Energy Performance Of Ferrous Metallurgyenterprises Based On The Scheme Of Decomposition, I.U. Rakhmonov

Technical science and innovation

The task of determining specific electricity consumption is complex, as it is necessary to take into account a large number of factors affecting the energy indicators that determine the level of these indicators. At the same time, the type and technical condition of the main and auxiliary process equipment in the process of melting, the nomenclature of metal, the volume of consumed components of the process and secondary energy carriers (compressed air, nitrogen, oxygen and other auxiliary components), etc. are taken into account. The error in taking these factors into account may lead to deviations from the actual values of …

Impact Of Upstream Chlorination On Filter Performance And Microbial Community Structure Of Gac And Anthracite Biofilters, Glen Andrew De Vera, Daniel Gerrity, Mitchell Stoker, Wilbur Frehner, Eric C. Wert

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Drinking water filters may be operated to promote or deter biological activity through upstream oxidant addition. While there are several water quality benefits from biofiltration, microbial growth in biofilters warrants further investigation. In this study, routine monitoring detected target DNA sequences for Naegleria fowleri in source water and Acanthamoeba spp. in source water and biofilter effluent, triggering further microbial community characterization. Full-scale anthracite and granular activated carbon (GAC) filters receiving chlorinated waters were compared in terms of effluent water quality (i.e., turbidity and particle counts), biological activity (i.e., adenosine triphosphate (ATP)), and the composition of the microbial community (i.e., 16S/18S …

Dynamic Modeling Of An Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, Komal Rathore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Advanced wastewater treatment plants have complex biological kinetics, time variant influent rates and long processing times. The modeling and operation control of wastewater treatment plant gets complicated due to these characteristics. However, a robust operational system for a wastewater treatment plant is necessary to increase the efficiency of the plant, reduce energy cost and achieve environmental discharge limits. These discharge limits are set by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants to limit the amount of nutrients being discharged into the aquatic systems.

This document summarizes the research to develop a supervisory operational …

Simulation Of Turbulent Air Jet Impingement For Commercial Cooking Applications, Shantanu S. Shevade

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The research work in this dissertation focuses on turbulent air jet heat transfer for commercial cooking applications.

As a part of this study, convective heat transfer coefficient and its interdependency with various key parameters is analyzed for single nozzle turbulent jet impingement. Air is used as the working fluid impinging on the flat surface. A thorough investigation of velocity and temperature distributions is performed by varying nozzle velocity and height over diameter ratio (H/D). Nusselt number and Turbulent Energy are presented for the impingement surface. It was found that for H/D ratios ranging between 6 and 8, nozzle velocities over …

Production Of Living Nanoparticles For Blood Cancer Therapy, Michael Pierotti, Matthew Piro, Peter Mitchell

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Current cancer therapies leave much to be desired because they are very harmful to the patient and cause a significant decrease in quality of life. Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) are a promising novel approach for treating specific types of leukemia due to their binding affinity for proteins expressed solely on leukemia B cells. This approach increases specificity of how cells receive treatment, thus allowing for the destruction of cancerous cells while leaving the healthy cells unharmed. In this experiment, we show that production of CAR expressing exosomes (liposome like vesicles produced naturally by human cells) is possible through cell transfection. …

The Effect Of Nd On Mechanical Properties And Corrosion Performance Of Biodegradable Mg-5%Zn Alloy, Lilach Elkaiam, Orly Hakimi, Jeremy Goldman, Eli Aghion

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Mg based implants are limited by their poor strength, ductility, and corrosion performance in physiological environments, drawbacks further compounded by their premature loss of mechanical integrity and evolution of harmful hydrogen gas. Neodymium additions to magnesium have been shown to improve mechanical properties through precipitation and solid solution hardening. Therefore, the present study incorporated Nd additions (up to 3%) into a promising Mg-5%Zn-0.13%Y-0.35%Zr alloy to improve mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. The microstructure evaluation of a series of alloys was performed using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction analysis. The mechanical properties were examined in terms of …