Engineering Commons^™

Urban Cargo Transport Uav Final Design Review, Niko Giannakakos, Rafael Barreto Gutierrez, Tejas Bhavsar

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Delivery of goods to homes and offices over the last decades has seen a significant increase as more people and businesses need or want items sent directly to them. With the increase in demand, technology has also experienced a rapid growth, specifically in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Many major companies are currently researching UAVs as the future of their delivery operations. With this ever-growing demand, NASA has issued a design competition of a UAV developed for urban deliveries. This unmanned aircraft system (UAS) would need to be able to deliver small packages, in a timely manner, within …

Aerial Screw Vtol Rotorcraft, Macale Rielly, Alexa Culp, Thomas Osteen, Adeline Perry

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Known as the “Renaissance Man,” DaVinci’s impressive knowledge of mechanics and inventive prowess would influence engineers and innovators hundreds of years later to make human flight a reality. However, due to the limited capacity of engineering and manufacturing at the time, his invention had been shallowly investigated in a production setting. This project strove to properly acknowledge DaVinci’s invention by thorough examination and critical analysis of his concept with the hopes of gaining a better understanding of why it is considered the “foundation of vertical flight”.

An iterative design approach was employed, utilizing faculty and university resources, team knowledge from …

Lead Time Reduction At Rudolph Foods, Nelson Farfan, Arturo Rodriguez, Jackson Botti, Fahd Sharfuddin

Senior Design Project For Engineers

The overall goal of this project is to increase productivity and improve the processes of production as well as look at warehouse operations to see if there can be improvements implemented to the Rudolph Foods facility located in Lawrenceville, Georgia. While Rudolph Foods has a simple production process, there are improvements that can be made so that it may be more efficient. Rudolph Foods has an excellent production and shipping standard, but there are instances where management wishes production could be better. In some cases, while working on large orders, there are smaller orders that get put on the backburner …

Piezoelectricity And Hydropower Research, Ashley Gigon

Engineering & Physics Student Scholarship

Major: Pre-Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Theresa Moreau, Engineering and Physics

The primary focus of my research project is to find a new way to conserve energy from the force that is produced by the flow of water out of a household faucet and convert this energy to outside sources. I started completing my research by collecting data and finding how much force the water produced. After learning about piezoelectric crystals I was able to light up a LED while applying mechanical energy to the crystals. I used a soldering iron and I was able to strongly connect different colored LEDs …

The Arecibo Pisces-Perseus Supercluster Survey: Exploring The Large Scale Structure In The Local Universe, Olivia Jo Dickinson

Engineering & Physics Student Scholarship

Major: Applied Physics and Mathematics

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Joseph Ribaudo, Engineering and Physics

Construction And Use Of Radio-Telescope, Richard Thomson

Engineering & Physics Student Scholarship

Major: Pre-Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Joseph Ribaudo, Engineering and Physics

This academic year, I have worked independently (with Dr. Ribaudo as my mentor) to construct a radio-telescope. I then aspired to use this radio-telescope to extract weather data from the NOAA satellites as a means of producing legible maps of the Providence area to submit to an organization called The Thought Emporium to help create an independent version of Google Maps. However, due to the CODID-19 pandemic, I was unable to collect data with my completed apparatus. I hope in the coming years, students find interest in continuing my project, …

Civil Engineering And Construction News, Georgia Southern University

Civil Engineering & Construction: News & Publications (2011-2022)

• ASCE Student Chapter Wins GeoWall Challenge

On-Site And External Energy Harvesting In Underground Wireless, Usman Raza, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Energy efficiency is vital for uninterrupted long-term operation of wireless underground communication nodes in the field of decision agriculture. In this paper, energy harvesting and wireless power transfer techniques are discussed with applications in underground wireless communications (UWC). Various external wireless power transfer techniques are explored. Moreover, key energy harvesting technologies are presented that utilize available energy sources in the field such as vibration, solar, and wind. In this regard, the Electromagnetic(EM)- and Magnetic Induction(MI)-based approaches are explained. Furthermore, the vibration-based energy harvesting models are reviewed as well. These energy harvesting approaches lead to design of an efficient wireless underground …

Accelerating Reinforcement Learning With Prioritized Experience Replay For Maze Game, Chaoshun Hu, Mehesh Kuklani, Paul Panek

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper we implemented two ways of improving the performance of reinforcement learning algorithms. We proposed a new equation to prioritize transition samples to improve model accuracy, and by deploying a generalized solver of randomly-generated two-dimensional mazes on a distributed computing platform, our dual-network model is available to others for further research and development. Reinforcement Learning is concerned with identifying the optimal sequence of actions for an agent to take in order to reach an objective to achieve the highest score in the future. Complex situations can lead to computational challenges in terms of both finding the best answer …

Transcranial Electrical Stimulation Motor Threshold Can Estimate Individualized Tdcs Dosage From Reverse-Calculation Electric-Field Modeling, Kevin A. Caulfield, Bashar W. Badran, William H. Devries, Philipp M. Summers, Emma Kofmehl, Xingbao Li, Jeffrey J. Borckardt, Marom Bikson, Mark S. George

Publications and Research

Background

Unique amongst brain stimulation tools, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) currently lacks an easy or widely implemented method for individualizing dosage.

Objective

We developed a method of reverse-calculating electric-field (E-field) models based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans that can estimate individualized tDCS dose. We also evaluated an MRI-free method of individualizing tDCS dose by measuring transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) motor threshold (MT) and single pulse, suprathreshold transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) MT and regressing it against E-field modeling. Key assumptions of reverse-calculation E-field modeling, including the size of region of interest (ROI) analysis and the linearity of multiple E-field …

Improving The Stainless Steel System At Process Technology International Using 5s, Process Improvement, And Inventory Control, Juan Fernando Sanchez, Jordan Nash, Enis Ormanci, Erion Tafa

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Process Technology International (PTI) is a small manufacturing company producing industrial equipment used in the processing of steel. The purpose of this project is to reduce costs and improve inefficiencies within the stainless steel system.

After meeting with industry sponsors and determining their most pertinent issues, we decided to search for inefficiencies in three places: inventory controls, manual processes, and physical workspace arrangement. To measure how the current inefficiencies were affecting costs, the team performed EOQ analysis on the inventory controls and time study evaluations on the processes. By collecting demand data, holding cost, ordering cost and price break cost …

Kennesaw State University - Maintenance Optimization And Cost Analysis, Mary E. Ogidigben, David T. Murphy, William L. Fowler

Senior Design Project For Engineers

The Department of Housing and Residence Life was looking for ways to improve the quality of their work while saving costs at the same time. The department allowed the team to look over their work orders where the team noticed over 50% of the work orders were related to room turnover. After this discovery, the team focused all efforts on room turnover and went over the process in detail with management. The team asked to see the standard operating procedure for room turnover and learned that most of the staff did not know they had one.

The team wanted to …

Qlime-A Quadratic Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanation Approach, Steven Bramhall, Hayley Horn, Michael Tieu, Nibhrat Lohia

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, we introduce a proof of concept that addresses the assumption and limitation of linear local boundaries by Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME), a popular technique used to add interpretability and explainability to black box models. LIME is a versatile explainer capable of handling different types of data and models. At the local level, LIME creates a linear relationship for a given prediction through generated sample points to present feature importance. We redefine the linear relationships presented by LIME as quadratic relationships and expand its flexibility in non-linear cases and improve the accuracy of feature interpretations. We coin …

The Data Market: A Proposal To Control Data About You, David Shaw, Daniel W. Engels

SMU Data Science Review

The current legal and economic infrastructure facilitating data collection practices and data analysis has led to extreme over-collection of data and the overall loss of personal privacy. Data over-collection has led to a secondary market for consumer data that is invisible to the consumer and results in a person's data being distributed far beyond their knowledge or control. In this paper, we propose a Data Market framework and design for personal data management and privacy protection in which the individual controls and profits from the dissemination of their data. Our proposed Data Market uses a market-based approach utilizing blockchain distributed …

Establishing A Content Taxonomy For The Coherent Study Of Engineering In P-12 Schools, Greg Strimel, Tanner Huffman, Michael Grubbs, Eunhye Kim, Jamie Gurganus

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Engineering education has increasingly become an area of interest at the P-12 level, yet attempts to align engineering knowledge, skills, and habits to existing elementary and secondary educational programming have been parochial in nature (e.g., for a specific context, grade, or initiative). Consequently, a need exists to establish a coherent P-12 content framework for engineering teaching and learning, which would serve as both an epistemological foundation for the subject and a guide for the design of developmentally appropriate educational standards, performance expectations, learning progressions, and assessments. A comprehensive framework for P-12 engineering education would include a compelling rationale and vision …

Faculty Instruction Face Shield Project, David Holden, John Schneiderhan

Michigan Tech 3D Designs

Early in the spring of 2020 project contributors David Holden and John Schneiderhan began test printing a variety of open source Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)/Covid related items that could help protect or prevent the spread of the emerging virus. With assistance from Pete Baril of the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department (WUPHD) approval was obtained for the face shields to be used in the health care and nursing homes in the area. With the support and approval from university and library administration efforts were coordinated with Dr. Joshua Pearce and the students from the MOST lab to concentrate on the …

Hardware Security Of The Controller Area Network (Can Bus), David Satagaj

Senior Honors Theses

The CAN bus is a multi-master network messaging protocol that is a standard across the vehicular industry to provide intra-vehicular communications. Electronics Control Units within vehicles use this network to exchange critical information to operate the car. With the advent of the internet nearly three decades ago, and an increasingly inter-connected world, it is vital that the security of the CAN bus be addressed and built up to withstand physical and non-physical intrusions with malicious intent. Specifically, this paper looks at the concept of node identifiers and how they allow the strengths of the CAN bus to shine while also …

Data-Driven Investment Decisions In P2p Lending: Strategies Of Integrating Credit Scoring And Profit Scoring, Yan Wang

Doctor of Data Science and Analytics Dissertations

In this dissertation, we develop and discuss several loan evaluation methods to guide the investment decisions for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. In evaluating loans, credit scoring and profit scoring are the two widely utilized approaches. Credit scoring aims at minimizing the risk while profit scoring aims at maximizing the profit. This dissertation addresses the strengths and weaknesses of each scoring method by integrating them in various ways in order to provide the optimal investment suggestions for different investors. Before developing the methods for loan evaluation at the individual level, we applied the state-of-the-art method called the Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) …

Open Dynamic Interaction Network: A Cell-Phone Based Platform For Responsive Ema, Gisela Font Sayeras

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The study of social networks is central to advancing our understanding of a wide range of phenomena in human societies. Social networks co-evolve concurrently alongside the individuals within them. Selection processes cause network structure to change in response to emerging similarities/differences between individuals. At the same time, diffusion processes occur as individuals influence one another when they interact across network links. Indeed, each network link is a logical abstraction that aggregates many short-lived pairwise interactions of interest that are being studied. Traditionally, network co-evolution is studied by periodically taking static snapshots of social networks using surveys. Unfortunately, participation incentives …

Gas-Solid Reaction Pathway For Chlorination Of Rare Earth And Actinide Metals Using Hydrogen And Chlorine Gas, Parker Okabe, Matthew Newton, Devin Rappleye, Michael F. Simpson

Faculty Publications

Hydriding and chlorination of buttons of metallic cerium have been tested as a head-end step to separating metal impurities from actinides. The objective was to achieve complete conversion to chlorides while maintaining high surface area via small particles and open porosity. Hydriding by reaction with 100% H2 gas at 573 K was successful at reducing cm-scale metal buttons into small particles/fragments. This step was followed by reaction with flowing 99.5% anhydrous Cl2 gas at temperatures ranging from 423 to 573 K for 60 min. In experiments reported here, up to 92% conversion to cerium chloride was achieved from reacting with …

The Impact Of Pev User Charging Behavior In Building Public Charging Infrastructure, Ahmad Almaghrebi

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) play a significant role in the development of green cities since they generate less pollution than conventional vehicles. To promote PEV adoption and mitigate range anxiety, charging infrastructure should be deployed at strategic locations that are readily accessible to the public. Nebraska is working on the expansion of charging infrastructure around the state; however, stakeholders face several difficulties in trying to minimize irregular charging behaviors. Most electric vehicle users plug in and leave their vehicles for an extended time at public parking lots designated for PEVs. Some users even leave their vehicles for longer than 24 …

Evaluating Scenarios That Can Startle And Surprise Pilots, Rahim Daud Agha

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Startle and surprise on the flight deck is a contributing factor in multiple aviation accidents that have been recognized by multiple aviation safety boards. This study identified the effects startle and surprise had on commercial pilots with single and multiengine ratings. Surprise is defined here as something unexpected (e.g., engine failure), while startle is the associated exaggerated effect of an unexpected condition (e.g., thunder sound). Forty pilots were tested in a basic aviation training device configured to a Cessna 172 (single-engine) and a Baron 58 (multi-engine). Each pilot flew the single- and multiengine aircraft in a scenario that induced an …

A Numerical Investigation Of Microgravity Evaporation, Daniel Peter Ringle

Dissertations and Theses

Evaporation is important to myriad engineering processes such as cooling, distillation, thin film deposition, and others. In fact, NASA has renewed interest in using cabin air pressure evaporation as a means to recycle waste water in space. As one example, NASA recently conducted experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to measure evaporation rates in microgravity and to determine the impacts of porous structure on the process. It has long been assumed that differences in evaporation rates between 1-g₀ and microgravity are small. However, discrepancies by as much as 40% have been observed in practice. The assumption now …

Advanced Techniques To Detect Complex Android Malware, Zhiqiang Li

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Android is currently the most popular operating system for mobile devices in the world. However, its openness is the main reason for the majority of malware to be targeting Android devices. Various approaches have been developed to detect malware.

Unfortunately, new breeds of malware utilize sophisticated techniques to defeat malware detectors. For example, to defeat signature-based detectors, malware authors change the malware’s signatures to avoid detection. As such, a more effective approach to detect malware is by leveraging malware’s behavioral characteristics. However, if a behavior-based detector is based on static analysis, its reported results may contain a large number of …

A Prescriptive Criterion For Amphibious Foundation Design, Erin Hughes

Master of Science in Civil Engineering Theses

Flooding is the most frequently occurring natural disaster in the United States and worldwide (FEMA, 2004). Each year, when major flooding ravishes communities, residents are put in danger and often displaced from their homes and jobs for several weeks or months, if not more. The use of amphibious structures as a flood risk mitigation technique has currently only been implemented in individual or small-scale development. Information on the structural design of such buildings is limited and most of the current knowledge regarding amphibious structures is presented in architectural applications. The primary objective of this research is to develop a prescriptive …

Linear Covariance Navigation Analysis Of Range And Image Measurement Processing For Autonomous Lunar Lander Missions, Randall Christensen, David Geller, Michael Hansen

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

Growing interest in autonomous landing on the lunar surface has motivated in-depth studies of the navigation architectures to support such missions. The research presented in this paper extends linear covariance models of terrain-relative navigation architectures to incorporate both image-based measurements to known landmarks and laser range measurements to the lunar surface. The benefit of the range measurements is shown to be significant in reducing relative position and velocity errors in the altitude channel, as compared to an image-only navigation architecture. The range measurements are also shown to reduce the sensitivity of final relative navigation errors to the turn-on time of …

On-Chip Terahertz Modulation And Emission With Integrated Graphene Junctions, Joshua O. Island, Peter Kissin, Jacob Schalch, Xiaomeng Cui, Sheikh Rubaiat Ui Haque, Alex Potts, Takashi Taniguchi, Kanji Watanabe, Richard D. Averitt, Andrea F. Young

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The efficient modulation and control of ultrafast signals on-chip is of central importance in terahertz (THz) communications and a promis- ing route toward sub-diffraction limit THz spectroscopy. Two-dimensional (2D) materials may provide a platform for these endeavors. We explore this potential, integrating high-quality graphene p–n junctions within two types of planar transmission line circuits to modulate and emit picosecond pulses. In a coplanar strip line geometry, we demonstrate the electrical modulation of THz signal transmission by 95%. In a Goubau waveguide geometry, we achieve complete gate-tunable control over THz emission from a photoexcited graphene junction. These studies inform the development …

Performance Optimizations Of Nosql Databases In Distributed Systems, Tristyn Maalouf

Senior Honors Theses

Databases store information about a system and provide a mechanism for data to be accessed and manipulated. While advancements in the 1970s provided a relational database model that has persisted to this day, web-scale era mass data needs surfacing in the 1990s and the early 2000s revealed limitations in the scalability of the relational model. As systems grew and transitioned into distributed architectures to support mass data storage and parallel processing, a complete overhaul of distributed computing technologies evolved that fundamentally departed from the relational data model in favor of the NoSQL data model. The course of this research details …

Stationary Exercise Classification Using Imus And Deep Learning, Andrew M. Heroy, Zackary Gill, Samantha Sprague, David Stroud, John Santerre

SMU Data Science Review

In the current market, successful fitness tracking devices utilize heart rate and GPS to determine performance. These devices are useful, but don't extensively classify stationary exercise. This paper proposes a modern approach for tuning and investigating optimal neural network types on stationary exercises using Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). Using three IMUs located on the ankle, waist, and wrist, data is collected to map the body as it moves during the stationary physical activity. A novel five-stage deep learning tuning system was written and deployed to classify user movement as one of three classes: air squats, jumping jacks, and kettlebell swings. …

Ammonia Fiber Expansion (Afex) Pretreatment Of Lignocellulosic Biomass, Shishir P. S. Chundawat, Ramendra K Pal, Chao Zhao, Timothy Campbell, Farzaneh Teymouri, Josh Videto, Chandra Nielson, Bradley Wieferich, Leonardo Sousa, Bruce E Dale, Venkatesh Balan, Sarvada Chipkar, Jacob Aguado, Emily Burke, Rebecca Garlock Ong

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Lignocellulosic materials are plant-derived feedstocks, such as crop residues (e.g., corn stover, rice straw, and sugar cane bagasse) and purpose-grown energy crops (e.g., miscanthus, and switchgrass) that are available in large quantities to produce biofuels, biochemicals, and animal feed. Plant polysaccharides (i.e., cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin) embedded within cell walls are highly recalcitrant towards conversion into useful products. Ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX) is a thermochemical pretreatment that increases accessibility of polysaccharides to enzymes for hydrolysis into fermentable sugars. These released sugars can be converted into fuels and chemicals in a biorefinery. Here, we describe a laboratory-scale batch AFEX process to …