Engineering Commons^™

An Interdisciplinary Research-Based Education Program For Engaging Plant/Agriculture Sciences, Chemical Sciences, And Engineering Students (Irep-4-Pace) At Minority Institutions, Sharanabasaweshwara Asundi, Gregory C. Bernard, Willard E. Collier

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

An interdisciplinary Research-based Education Program for Engaging Plant/Agriculture sciences, Chemical sciences and Engineering students (iREP-4-PACE) is envisioned with the underlying intent to improve Tuskegee University's (TU’s) STEM retention through the introduction of interdisciplinary, guided, inquiry experiments focused on the production of high-value chemicals from plants. At large, chemicals are synthesized from petroleum resources and it is well established that the continued extraction of these resources is detrimental to the environment. On the contrary, synthesizing chemicals from "plant factories" may be a boon to the environment and have a negative carbon …

Wake Vortex Pair Formation As An Analog For Dust Devil And Tornado Genesis, Robert L. Ash

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

In 1966, meteorologist R.S. Scorer attempted to explain how large-scale oceanic tropical depressions become hurricanes or typhoons. His model was based on the idea that when these large-scale tropical depression structures begin to rotate, mostly due to Coriolis effects, an annular outer portion of that structure changes suddenly to a potential vortex segment, with the same outer radial limit as the low-pressure structure, but with an inner radius that conserves the overall system angular momentum and kinetic energy. By analogy with the "jump" instability describing sudden buckling of a vertical column, this paper shows that his conjecture merits additional consideration. …

Energy Lesson Design, Jessica Lyons

ENgaging Educators in Renewable enerGY (ENERGY): Lesson Plans & Slideshows (2017-2019)

No abstract provided.

Pico-Grid Smart Homes Power Management System, Kathleen Hobbs, Mbonya Myers

ENgaging Educators in Renewable enerGY (ENERGY): Lesson Plans & Slideshows (2017-2019)

No abstract provided.

An Interactive Game For Cultural Proficiencytraining Featuring Virtual Reality Immersion, Paul J. Hershberger, Blaine A. Klingler, Matt Davis, Sankalp Mishra, Miteshkumar Vasoya, Dixit Patel, Aishwarya Bositty, Tanuja Addanki, Frank A. Allen, Suneesh Menon, Sabrina Neeley, Angie Castle, Todd Pavlak, Yong Pei, Thomas Wischgoll

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Geothermal Resource Assessment Of Mississippi, Adam Blake Goodwin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geothermal energy is exploited through the process of using hot water or steam extracted from reservoirs of geothermal heat in Earth's crust which is derived from the upward convection and conduction of heat from Earth’s mantle and core. This energy can be harnessed to power geothermal heat pumps, heat water, or to generate electricity. Previous geothermal assessments of Mississippi have been locally focused, either in the southern Mississippi River flood plains or in eastern north central Mississippi at an active lignite coal mine. The focus of this project was to calculate and map heat flow estimates within the entire state …

A Numerical Study Of Granular Dam-Break Flows, Nuttita Pophet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Granular flows are mass movements of mixtures of solid particles and interstitial fluid. Examples include landslides, debris flows and tailings dam-break flows. These types of flows are often catastrophic events, and cover a wide range of phenomena of interest to both scientists and engineers. The mechanical properties of granular materials and the hydraulic behavior of the flows originate from solid and fluid phases, their distribution and interaction. Understanding the behavior of these types of flows and developing reliable predictive models are important.

Mac-Phy Frameworks For Lte And Wifi Networks' Coexistence Over The Unlicensed Band, Hadi Ahmad Kasasbeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main focus of this dissertation is to address these issues and to analyze the interactions between LTE and WiFi coexisting on the unlicensed spectrum. This can be done by providing some improvements in the first two communication layers in both technologies. Regarding the physical (PHY) layer, efficient spectrum sensing and data fusion techniques that consider correlated spectrum sensing readings at the LTE/WiFi users (sensors) are needed. Failure to consider such correlation has been a major shortcoming of the literature. This resulted in poorly performing spectrum sensing systems if such correlation is not considered in correlated-measurements environments.

Dynamic Code Selection Method For Content Transfer In Deep Space Network, Rojina Adhikary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Space communications feature large round-trip time delays (for example, between 6.5 and 44 minutes for Mars to Earth and return, depending on the actual distance between the two planets) and highly variable data error rates, for example, bit error rate (BER) of 10−5 is very comand even higher BERs on the order of 10−1 is observed in the deep- space environment. We develop a new content transfer protocol based on RaptorQ codes and turbo codes together with a real-time channel prediction model to maximize file transfer from space vehicles to the Earth stations. While turbo codes are used to correct …

Enabling Space Time Division Multiple Access In Ietf 6tisch Protocol, Sedat Görmüş, Sercan Külcü

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

IETF 6TiSCH standard aims to create reliable, deterministic, and low-power networks by scheduling bandwidth resources in time and frequency domains. The main emphasis of 6TiSCH protocol is that it creates Internet of things (IoT) networks with a deterministic and controllable delay. However, many of its benefits are tied to the ability of the 6TiSCH scheduler to optimally distribute radio resources among wireless nodes which may not be possible when the number of frequency resources are limited and several other wireless technologies share the same frequency band (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4). Here the integration of a low-complexity directional antenna …

Stegogis: A New Steganography Method Using The Geospatial Domain, Ömer Kurtuldu, Mehmet Demi̇rci̇

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Geographic data are used on a variety of computing devices for many different applications including navigation, tracking, location planning, and marketing. The prevalence of geographic data makes it possible to envision new useful applications. In this paper, we propose using geographic data as a medium for secret communication, or steganography. We develop a method called StegoGIS for hiding messages in geographic coordinates in the well-known binary of fast-moving objects and transmitting them secretly. We show that discovering this secret communication is practically impossible for third parties. We also show that a large amount of secret data can be transmitted this …

Secc Solar Panels Project Summary, Lorenzo Cena, Melanie A. Vile

Sustainability Research & Creative Activities Grants Reports

This project addressed WCU-CAP objective #3.1: “Produce Renewable Energy via Installation of Small-Scale Photovoltaics on Campus.” The newly constructed Science & Engineering Center and Commons (SECC) building with dedicated space for an Environmental Health lab, provided an ideal scenario for designing a basic photovoltaic system which can be expanded in the future. The project involves three phases: PHASE I – Shade Study, PHASE II – System Design, PHASE III – System Installation

Improving Undersampling-Based Ensemble With Rotation Forest For Imbalanced Problem, Huaping Guo, Xiaoyu Diao, Hongbing Liu

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

As one of the most challenging and attractive issues in pattern recognition and machine learning, the imbalanced problem has attracted increasing attention. For two-class data, imbalanced data are characterized by the size of one class (majority class) being much larger than that of the other class (minority class), which makes the constructed models focus more on the majority class and ignore or even misclassify the examples of the minority class. The undersampling-based ensemble, which learns individual classifiers from undersampled balanced data, is an effective method to cope with the class-imbalance data. The problem in this method is that the size …

Examination Of Adoption Theory On The Devops Practice Of Continuous Delivery, Andrew John Anderson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many organizations have difficulty adopting advanced software development practices. Some software development project managers in large organizations are not aligned with the relationship between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions, as moderated by experience, with intent to adopt the DevOps practice of continuous delivery. The purpose of this study was to examine the statistical relationships between the independent variables—performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions, as moderated by experience—and the dependent variable of behavioral intent to adopt a continuous delivery system. Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis's unified theory of acceptance and use of technology provided …

Leadership Characteristics In Flexible Information Technology Environments, Chrisilia Bristow

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have found that a positive correlation exists between information technology (IT) flexibility, IT effectiveness, and strategic alignment in organizations. It has been determined that within inflexible IT environments maintainability is reduced and key business factors become at risk. An IT flexibility measurement matrix was developed to assess IT flexibility however leadership characteristics were not identified for measurement with that model. Determining the leadership characteristics needed for IT flexibility was the purpose of this multiple case study. Leveraging the empowerment, situational leadership, IT-business equilibrium, and complexity change theories, the research questions were focused on the leadership characteristics exhibited by organizational …

Multigenerational Cohorts, Gender, Experience, Technology And Voluntariness Effects On Efficiency And Productivity, Jason Larry White

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since the beginning of the 2000s, unique challenges for a multigenerational workforce (MW) using different types of current technology (CT), informational and noninformational, at an increasing rate have surfaced. Necessary considerations were made among companies using these types of CT that changed frequently and influenced employee efficiency (EE) and organizational productivity (OP), leading to an under-identified impact on management decisions. The problem addressed in this study was the difficulty management had in managing work tasks and activities when CT was used in a MW. Most of the Baby Boomer generation will be retiring over the next decade, thus compromising and …

Multigenerational Cohorts, Gender, Experience, Technology And Voluntariness Effects On Efficiency And Productivity, Jason L. White

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since the beginning of the 2000s, unique challenges for a multigenerational workforce (MW) using different types of current technology (CT), informational and noninformational, at an increasing rate have surfaced. Necessary considerations were made among companies using these types of CT that changed frequently and influenced employee efficiency (EE) and organizational productivity (OP), leading to an under-identified impact on management decisions. The problem addressed in this study was the difficulty management had in managing work tasks and activities when CT was used in a MW. Most of the Baby Boomer generation will be retiring over the next decade, thus compromising and …

Retention Strategies For Oil And Gas Industry Managers, Faye Gerard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The turnover cost of specialized employees in the oil and gas industry can exceed 400% of an employee's annual salary. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore successful strategies that oil and gas company managers used to retain specialized employees. The specific population for the study was 8 managers from 4 oil and gas companies in a metropolitan city in the southern United States, which included 5 hiring managers and 3 engineering managers who had demonstrated success in retaining specialized employees. The conceptual lens used in this research study was the job embeddedness theory. Study data were …

Evaluation Of Suas Education And Training Tools, Brent Terwilliger, Scott Burgess, James Solti, Kristine Kiernan, Christian Janke, Andrew Shepherd

Publications

The wide distribution and demographic composition of students seeking small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) education presents a need to fully understand the capabilities, limitations, and dependencies of effective training tools. Concepts, practices, and technologies associated with modeling and simulation, immersive gaming, augmented and mixed-reality, and remote operation have demonstrated efficacy to support engaged student learning and objective satisfaction. Identification and comparison of key attributes critical to an aviation educational framework, such as competency-based training, enables educational designers to identify those tools with the highest potential to support successful learning. A series of factors, such as system performance, regulatory compliance, environmental …

Application Of Droop Control And Synchronization For Single-Phase Inverters In Ac Microgrid Integration, Shuai Yang

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With the increasing requirements on environment-friendly and sustainable clean energy [1], people have paid more attention to renewable energy around the world in the past few decades. As a result, power systems have undergone a paradigm shift from centralized generation to distributed generation. Smart grids, which are a combination of power systems and communication networks, were proposed to allow power systems to meet future challenges. In smart grids, especially in AC microgrids, converters play an important role in many areas including microgrid integration, uninterrupted power supply, and flexible alternating current transmission systems. The inverter is a power conversion device [2] …

Development Of A Sensing System For Underground Optic Fiber Cable Conduit Mapping, Sherif Bakr

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The motivation of this research is to obtain an accurate three-dimensional (3D) layout of an underground conduit, which may be beneficial to optic fiber cable installers and engineers. A newly designed algorithm for 3D position tracking with the help of an inertial sensor and an encoder has been developed. Two types of representations (Euler angle and Quaternion) for orientation and rotation are also introduced, followed by several data pre-processing procedures. A sensing fusion method is utilized to overcome the accumulated errors introduced by the sensor drifting. Considering the application of 3D underground duct mapping in this research, a sensing system …

Flow Fields Past Grain Bins As It Relates To Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Placement Optimization, Jon Richter

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis studies the 3D flow field of grain bins as it relates to Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) placement. Numerical CFD simulations using ANSYS FLUENT were created and validated with the Minnesota State University, Mankato water channel. It was found that the best speed-up regions were on the outer most sides of the models, closest to the walls of the water channel. The model that is furthest upwind in the group has the best speed-up velocity. As the models become closer together, an asymmetric flow field develops. VAWT placement between the models for any case researched is not recommended. …

Thévenin Equivalent Of Solar Cell Model, Chiedozie Osigwe

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis considers the problem of determining impedance parameters of a solar cell in operation. Typically, solar cell devices are characterized by the manufacturer using empirical data prior to placing the solar cell in use. There are a number of solar cell degeneration mechanisms that are of interest to measure or detect. Therefore, active measurement of solar cell impedance parameters periodically over time is advantageous. We propose a methodology developed from a Thévenin equivalent model of a typical solar cell. This method allows periodic updating of the solar cell’s parameters which can be used to update the cells characterization and/or …

Synthesis Of Fault Traces In Se Louisiana Relative To Infrastructure, David Culpepper, Elizabeth Chinn Mcdade, Nancye Dawers, Mark Kulp, Rui Zhang

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 17GTLSU12. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"Geological faulting has been implicated as a contributor to subsidence, coastal land-loss and submergence of marshlands in southern Louisiana. This report reviews whether fault motion, either by slow creep or more sudden slip, can cause deformation of engineered structures resulting in increased infrastructure maintenance and repair costs. The impact of surface, or near-surface, geologic faulting on critical infrastructure is insufficiently documented in southeastern Louisiana, but the state has a vast amount of energy-sector subsurface data that to date has been under-utilized for …

Causes And Prevention Of Electric Power Industry Accidents: A Delphi Study, Ganesh Narine

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The electric power industry is very complex, dangerous, and challenging. The number of workplace accidents declined over the last decade, but worker injuries and fatalities continue to occur. The purpose of this Delphi study was to gain consensus regarding the most feasible and desirable methods to prevent accidents and deaths. The research question focused on gaining consensus from a panel of experts regarding the most desirable and feasible solutions to fatal and serious workplace accidents in the United States. The Bolman and Deal 4-frame model proved useful for understanding challenges within the electric industry and how workers and leaders can …

Noise Reduction In Eeg Signals Using Convolutional Autoencoding Techniques, Conor Hanrahan

Dissertations

The presence of noise in electroencephalography (EEG) signals can significantly reduce the accuracy of the analysis of the signal. This study assesses to what extent stacked autoencoders designed using one-dimensional convolutional neural network layers can reduce noise in EEG signals. The EEG signals, obtained from 81 people, were processed by a two-layer one-dimensional convolutional autoencoder (CAE), whom performed 3 independent button pressing tasks. The signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the signals before and after processing were calculated and the distributions of the SNRs were compared. The performance of the model was compared to noise reduction performance of Principal Component Analysis, with …

Exploring Age-Related Metamemory Differences Using Modified Brier Scores And Hierarchical Clustering, Chelsea Parlett-Pelleriti, Grace C. Lin, Masha R. Jones, Erik Linstead, Susanne M. Jaeggi

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Older adults (OAs) typically experience memory failures as they age. However, with some exceptions, studies of OAs’ ability to assess their own memory functions—Metamemory (MM)— find little evidence that this function is susceptible to age-related decline. Our study examines OAs’ and young adults’ (YAs) MM performance and strategy use. Groups of YAs (N = 138) and OAs (N = 79) performed a MM task that required participants to place bets on how likely they were to remember words in a list. Our analytical approach includes hierarchical clustering, and we introduce a new measure of MM—the modified Brier—in order to adjust …

Deep Temporal Convolutional Networks For Short-Term Traffic Flow Forecasting, Wentian Zhao, Yanyun Gao, Tingxiang Ji, Xili Wan, Feng Ye, Guangwei Bai

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

To reduce the increasingly congestion in cities, it is essential for intelligent transportation system (ITS) to accurately forecast the short-term traffic flow to identify the potential congestion sites. In recent years, the emerging deep learning method has been introduced to design traffic flow predictors, such as recurrent neural network (RNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM), which has demonstrated its promising results. In this paper, different from existing work, we study the temporal convolutional network (TCN) and propose a deep learning framework based on TCN model for short-term city-wide traffic forecast to accurately capture the temporal and spatial evolution of traffic …

Techno-Economic And Sustainability Study Of Pv Inverter Controllers In Distribution Networks For Voltage Regulation, Kapil Duwadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing distributed solar installations in low voltage distribution grids tend to increase the feeder voltage. The rise in voltage is only acceptable to a certain limit, and control strategies are required to keep voltage within defined bounds for equipment safety and system reliability. PV inverter control strategies are cost-effective methods to prevent overvoltage. Different inverter control strategies have different impacts on their techno-economic performance, ultimately affecting their sustainability. An evaluation framework for long-term techno-economic and sustainability analysis of overvoltage prevention methods in PV-rich LV networks is proposed to decide suitable control methods by making use of quasi-steady-state time-series (QSTS) software …

Flexure Properties Of 3d Printed Nylon Carbon Fiber Composite And Stiffness Of 3d Printed Modified Cuttlefish Bone Structure, Shashikanth Reddy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Flexure strength is one of the most widely used mechanical properties to represent the mechanical behavior of the composite. Fiber reinforcements increase the flexure strength of a composite. Specifically, there has been tremendous growth in the use of Carbon Fiber (CF) in the manufacturing industry due to its significant contribution to enhance the mechanical properties of a composite. Fiber orientation, void content, bonding between the layers (delamination), and fiber distribution are some of the factors that affect the flexure strength of a reinforced composite. The laminate (composite with reinforced layers) composites, has been a focus of study by researchers from …