Engineering Commons^™

Smart Grid Security Simulator, Christopher Woo

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Smart Pantry, Audrey Hou, Sukruth Krishnakumar, Jacob Lucke

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Two-thirds of food waste at home is due to food going bad before it is used. Mitigating this food waste would mean keeping track of groceries’ shelf lives, which is a time sink. Our solution is a grocery monitoring system that tracks grocery items, saves time, and makes meal planning more convenient and efficient through recipe recommendation. Tracking groceries is accomplished through using a camera in tandem with weight sensors. Grocery items are identified using computer vision to avoid the tedium of manually inputting grocery information. With the data collected, a dashboard is generated with groceries currently on the scale …

Urban Planning Optimization Via “Cities: Skylines”, Carter Duncan, Jack Cunningham, Andrew Wang, Alexander Kennedy

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have recently become a hot topic in terms of software solutions to complex problems. Every year, new prototypes and projects are created to solve specific problems, ranging from self-driving vehicles to facial recognition. One project which interested our team was OpenAI Five, which created an artificial intelligence agent to play the complex online competitive game DotA 2. We wanted to create our own agent to design optimized city layouts in the game Cities: Skylines. By doing so, we hope to illustrate the viability of using artificial intelligence as a tool in urban planning for real …

Stickars: Effortlessly Apply A Fun Overlay To The Real World, Théo Arrouye, Jackson Centeno, Morgan Fleshren, Vasilis Odysseos

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Augmented Reality (AR) technology has slowly seeped into the mainstream as many mobile phone manufacturers increasingly develop hardware and software that enable AR applications. While the technology has been available for the past few years, there are not many compelling AR applications available on mobile phones. Additionally, shared AR experiences are difficult to produce and share. In order to create a compelling AR application, we created StickARs, an iOS application that makes it easy to create and share AR experiences , by placing virtual stickers anywhere in the world.

StickARs allows users to choose from a predefined set of sticker …

Snow Evolution In A Changing Climate, Abigail Brazil

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

Climate change is rapidly melting ice and snow worldwide, increasing the production of meltwater on ice sheets and glaciers. Depending on temperature, porosity, and saturation conditions, meltwater may move horizontally as runoff, refreeze into ice, or be stored as a liquid within the snow. When water is stored in the snow for multiple years, it is considered a perennial firn aquifer. These aquifers have received recent attention due to their potential to act as a buffer against sea level rise. Though it is still unclear if this connection truly exists, these features remain of interest to scientists trying to understand …

Modeling The Effect Of Igg Subclasses And Specificity In The Translocation Of Monoclonal Antibodies Across The Placental Barrier, Sayuri Tais Miyamoto Magnabosco

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

Infections are responsible for over half a million neonatal deaths every year (Lawn et al., 2014). Thus, there is huge interest in leveraging maternal immunization against infectious diseases to grant fetal protection during its development through the vertical transferring of IgG antibodies, the only Ig subclass that can significantly cross the placental barrier. Studies about vertical immunization rely on in-vitro models to extrapolate physiological conditions of the human placenta. The BeWo Transwell model (Bode et al., 2006) presents itself as a reliable model to mimic the transplacental transport mechanism of antibodies (Ellinger et al., 1999; Poulsen et al., 2009) …

Autonomous Navigation Of The Surface Autonomous Vehicle For Emergency Rescue (Saver), Andrew Skow

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

Once dropped into the ocean, SAVER will autonomously navigate towards the Advanced Next-Generation Emergency Locator beacon, worn by every NASA astronaut, that emits a 121.5 MHz distress signal. Using a rotating directional loop antenna SAVER is able to detect and identify the direction of the distress beacon and navigate itself towards the signal source. The autonomous navigation system is dependent on several electrical, and mechanical systems to function properly and presents a novel systems engineering problem. Given testing limitations, NASA requires that SAVER is designed to operate indoors and with an umbilical power supply. The radio direction finding (RDF) system …

A Consumer-Based Aquatic Trash Collecting Drone: A Engineering Design Case Study, Andrew C. Josselyn

Honors Projects

Trash is polluting our world’s oceans and water sources rapidly. Studies estimate about 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans each year with 0.8 to 2.7 million metric tons entering through rivers. ARTEMIS is designed to help mitigate the influx of trash into the ocean by cleaning up trash in our local waterways. ARTEMIS is for drone enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who are passionate about ocean cleanup. The purpose of designing a consumer-based device is to engage a wide range of people. Through the fun activity of collecting trash using ARTEMIS, we hope to spark people’s interest to …

The Identification And Prediction In Abundance Variation Of Atlantic Cod Via Long Short-Term Memory With Periodicity, Time–Frequency Co-Movement, And Lead-Lag Effect Across Sea Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Salinity, Catches, And Prey Biomass From 1919 To 2016, Rui Nian, Qiang Yuan, Hui He, Xue Geng, Chi Wei Su, Bo He, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Population of Atlantic Cod Significantly Contributes to the Prosperity of Fishery Production in the World. in This Paper, We Quantitatively Investigate the Global Abundance Variation in Atlantic Cod from 1919 to 2016, in Favor of Spatiotemporal Interactions over Manifold Impact Factors at Local Observation Sites and Propose to Explore the Predictive Mechanism with the Help of its Periodicity, Time–frequency Co-Movement, and Lead-Lag Effects, Via Long Short-Term Memory (Lstm). We First Integrate Evidence Yielded from Wavelet Coefficients, to Suggest that the Abundance Variation Potentially Follows a 36-Year Major Cycle and 24-Year Secondary Cycle at the Time Scales of 55 Years …

End-Breakages Of Carded Ring-Spun Yarns., Rizk El-Bealy, S. Ibrahim, Ismail Rakha

Mansoura Engineering Journal

In the present work, the rate of end-breakages during the spinning of carded yarns 20 Nm up to 50 Nm from Egyptian (Giza 75) cotton fiber have been observed. The phenomenon has been investigated considring the effect of twist, draft, spindle speed, traveller weight and doffing position. The experiments were carried out by varying two-variables at different levels and three-variables using 33 factorial design technique. The results declared that the end-breakage rate was found to be influenced significantly by: twist, draft, spindle speed and doffing position. In addition to the above parameters, the two-factor interaction such as spindle speed with …

Regional Water Quality Data Viewer Tool: An Open-Source To Support Research Data Access, Danisa Dolder

Theses and Dissertations

Water quality data collection, storage, and access is a difficult task and significant work has gone into methods to store and disseminate these data. We present a tool to disseminate research in a simple method that does not replace but extends and leverages these tools. In the United States, the federal government maintains two systems to fill that role for hydrological data: the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Information System (NWIS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Storage and Retrieval System (STORET), since superseded by the Water Quality Portal (WQP). The Consortium of the Universities for the Advancement …

Echo E-Reporting, Suma Hegde Subray

Manipal School of Information Sciences, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Nicaragua Weather Application, Alexa Grau, Justin Ling, Greta Seitz

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

ASDENIC is an organization that partners with local farmers and citizens in northern Nicaragua to provide resources and information to ensure the safety of residents and optimize agricultural techniques. Currently, a singular, localized weather station collects useful information on patterns that can be used for indicators, yet the data requires manual processing and there is not a system in place to report the findings. The current method of information transfer is in person during weekly meetings which can be ineffective and inconsistent.

In continuation of a previous project focused on sharing water quality information, our mobile application acts as a …

Understanding Covid-19 Public Sentiment Towards Public Health Policies Using Social Media Data, Olivia Figueira, Yuka Hatori, Liying Liang, Christine Chye

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, an overabundance of information related to the virus was released through social media. While more information can ultimately help people learn about the virus and how to protect themselves from it, there has been a lack of uniformity amongst individual states and the federal government in regards to policies and health guidelines (69), which may lead to the public being confused on the best guidelines to follow. There has also been an ideological divide driven by political polarization in the US on how to respond to this pandemic, causing greater contention (17; 86; …

Flash Radiotherapy: Skin Pigmentation As A Non-Invasive Indicator For Radiation-Induced Damage, Brady Mccallister

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

FLASH ultra-high dose rate radiotherapy (RT) is one of the most rapidly growing subfields of radiation oncology today due to its potential to increase the limits of the therapeutic ratio. The FLASH effect, which includes heightened normal tissue sparing paired with iso-effective tumor cell killing, has been literature documented, in a limited manner, in rodent models, a few large animals, and one clinical patients.

A porcine-based experiment was conducted to test the effects of FLASH RT on normal tissue compared to conventional (CONV) RT. A clinical linear accelerator (LINAC) was reversibly converted to be capable of FLASH RT. A female …

Design Of Autonomous Coupling Mechanism For Modular Reconfigurable Lunar Rovers, Christopher Lyke

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

Modular reconfigurable robotics consist of modules that can join together to form larger entities capable of changing their morphologies for improved versatility, robustness, and cost. Coupling mechanisms play a key role in these systems, as they are the component connecting the modules and enabling the robot to change shape. Coupling mechanisms also define the structure, rigidity, and function of modular systems.

This paper details the development of the autonomous coupling mechanism for SHREWs, a modular reconfigurable system of rovers designed to explore the permanently shadowed regions of the Moon. The coupling mechanism allows the modules to connect and form collaborative …

Strengthening Of Continuous Reinforced Concrete Deep Beams With Large Openings Using Cfrp Strips, Mohammed Riyadh Khalaf, Ali Hussein Ali Al-Ahmed, Abbas Abdulmajeed Allawi, Ayman El-Zohairy

Faculty Publications

To accommodate utilities in buildings, different sizes of openings are provided in the web of reinforced concrete deep beams, which cause reductions in the beam strength and stiffness. This paper aims to investigate experimentally and numerically the effectiveness of using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips, as a strengthening technique, to externally strengthen reinforced concrete continuous deep beams (RCCDBs) with large openings. The experimental work included testing three RCCDBs under five-point bending. A reference specimen was prepared without openings to explore the reductions in strength and stiffness after providing large openings. Openings were created symmetrically at the center of spans …

Jamming Attack Workaround Study, Soren Madsen, Jack Schoen

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a fast growing industry with strong footholds in the smart home market featuring devices such as the Amazon Echo, Ring security cameras, smart TVs, and much more. However, it doesn’t stop there; the industrial sector has begun using smart devices for measurement, automated tasks, and time sensitive communication. Many of these devices have become reliant on WiFi technology and are vulnerable to attacks on the security of the protocols involved.

In this paper, we discuss the details of the deauthentication attack on WPA and WPA2 systems and propose a solution for detection and recovery …

Seabed Observations At The New England Mud Patch: Reflection And Scattering Measurements And Direct Geoacoustic Information, Charles W. Holland, Chad M. Smith, Zackary Lowe, Jim Dorminy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Seabed reflection and scattering measurements were conducted at the New England Mud Patch to better understand the acoustic properties of fine-grained (muddy) sediments. The measurement philosophy and the measurements themselves are summarized. In addition, geoacoustic information accessed directly from the data in the time and frequency domains is presented. The main result is the existence of an angle of intromission. This observation proves that the mud sound speed is less than that of the water and yields a sediment sound speed ratio 0.9865 with outer bounds {0.985 0.989}. Another result is the observation of strong scattered arrivals from within the …

A Three-Dimensional Musculoskeletal Model Of The Dog, Heiko Stark, Martin S. Fischer, Alexander Hunt, Fletcher Young, Roger Quinn, Emanuel Andrada

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Abstract The domestic dog is interesting to investigate because of the wide range of body size, body mass, and physique in the many breeds. In the last several years, the number of clinical and biomechanical studies on dog locomotion has increased. However, the relationship between body structure and joint load during locomotion, as well as between joint load and degenerative diseases of the locomotor system (e.g. dysplasia), are not sufficiently understood. Collecting this data through in vivo measurements/records of joint forces and loads on deep/small muscles is complex, invasive, and sometimes unethical. The use of detailed musculoskeletal models may help …

Detection Of Subsurface, Nanometer-Scale Crystallographic Defects By Nonlinear Light Scattering And Localization, Farbod Shafiei, Tommaso Orzali, Alexey Vert, Mohammad-Ali Miri, Pui Yee Hung, Man Hoi Wong, Andrea Alù, Gennadi Bersuker, Michael C. Downer

Advanced Science Research Center

Heteroepitaxial crystalline films underlie many electronic and optical technologies but are prone to forming defects at their heterointerfaces. Atomic-scale defects such as threading dislocations that propagate into a film impede the flow of charge carriers and light degrading electrical/optical performance of devices. Diagnosis of subsurface defects traditionally requires time-consuming invasive techniques such as cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. Using III–V films grown on Si, noninvasive, bench-top diagnosis of subsurface defects have been demonstrated by optical second-harmonic scanning probe microscope. A high-contrast pattern is observed of subwavelength “hot spots” caused by scattering and localization of fundamental light by defect scattering sites. Size …

Siheyuan, Andrea Horvath, Isabel Wu

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Learning Chinese as a second language often poses a challenge to students, and the extensive non-alphabetic script that accompanies it adds to the complexity of the language. It can take years for a student to feel comfortable writing with Chinese characters, and practice is a key component of this learning process. Most practice includes repetitive writing of the characters until the student memorizes the look and stroke order of a character, but this method could be improved with the addition of visuals and audio to enhance the learning experience. The stakeholders of this problem are students seeking to learn the …

Proceedings Of The 8th International Junior Researcher And Engineer Workshop On Hydraulic Structures, International Association For Hydro-Environmental Engineering And Research

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

Full proceedings for the 8th International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures.

Adaptive Routing Behavior With Real-Time Information Under Multiple Travel Objectives, Ravi Venkatraman, Stephen D. Boyles, Rachel James, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Priyadarshan N. Patil

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Real-time information about traffic conditions is becoming widely available through various media and connected-vehicle technology. In such conditions, travelers have better knowledge about the system and adapt as the system evolves dynamically during their travel. Drivers may change routes during their travel in order to optimize their own objective of travel. Various travel objectives are captured in mathematical models via disutility functions. The focus of this research was to study the behavior of travelers with multiple trip objectives when they are provided real-time information, and assess their ability to determine “optimal” routing policies, compared to exact solutions based on the …

A Review On Alpha Case Formation And Modeling Of Mass Transfer During Investment Casting Of Titanium Alloys, R. Sharon Uwanyuze, Janos E. Kanyo, Sarah F. Myrick, Stefan Schafföner

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Titanium alloys have excellent corrosion resistance, high temperature strength, low density, and biocompatibility. Therefore, they are increasingly used for aerospace, biomedical, and chemical applications. Investment casting is a well-established process for manufacturing near-net-shape intricate parts for such applications. However, mass transfer arising from metal-mold reactions is still a major problem that drastically impairs the surface and properties of the castings. Although there have been astounding developments over the past 20 years, they remain scattered in various research papers and conference proceedings. This review summarizes the current status of the field, gaps in the scientific understanding, and the research needs for …

Biotransformation Of Doxycycline By Brevundimonas Naejangsanensis And Sphingobacterium Mizutaii Strains, Ting He, Jianguo Bao, Yifei Leng, Daniel D. Snow, Shuqiong Kong, Tong Wang, Xu Li

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The fate of doxycycline (DC), a second generation tetracycline antibiotic, in the environment has drawn increasing attention in recent years due to its wide usage. Little is known about the biodegradability of DC in the environment. The objective of this study was to characterize the biotransformation of DC by pure bacterial strains with respect to reaction kinetics under different environmental conditions and biotransformation products. Two bacterial strains, Brevundimonas naejangsanensis DD1 and Sphingobacterium mizutaii DD2, were isolated from chicken litter and characterized for their biotransformation capability of DC. Results show both strains rely on cometabolism to biotransform DC with tryptone as …

Satellite Security And Performance In An Era Of Dual Use, Joseph N. Pelton

Online Journal of Space Communication

Since the mid-1990s the U.S. Government and military forces have placed more and more reliance on commercial satellite systems for military communications of a non-tactical nature. Requirements such as the U.S. Armed Forces Radio and Television require a great deal of bandwidth but do not require any special security protection. Further there are many other forms of communications involving national security or defense systems where a varying degree of security is required. Many of these applications do not require a very high level of "top secret" protection since these communications do involve tactical, strategic or highly classified messages. For instance, …

International Guidelines For The Preservation Of Space As A Unique Resource, Phillip D. Anz-Meador

Online Journal of Space Communication

n/a

Overview: Satellite Signal Security: Copyright Protection Korean Dbs Content And Transaction Security, Don Flournoy

Online Journal of Space Communication

As a result of new developments in broadband communication, residential users, office workers and those who move from place to place have more ways to access the programming and services they want when they want them.

Space-Based Offensive Weapons: Have Policymakers Discussed This Enough?, Kathleen M. Sweet

Online Journal of Space Communication

Arguably, one of the most significant global security policy debates of the 21st century is whether the United States and more specifically the Bush Administration should develop and deploy space-based weaponry. The age of space is upon us. But how convinced is the rest of America, the West and potential adversaries of the legitimate need to do so? For almost half a century, the world's space powers have abstained from deploying such weapons as basic unwritten policy. To date, the military has been limited to surveillance, navigation and communications satellites