Engineering Commons^™

Engineering Students’ Perceptions Of Mathematical Modeling In A Learning Module Centered On A Hydrologic Design Case Study, Madeline F. Merck, Melissa A. Gallagher, Emad Habib, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Engineering students need to spend time engaging in mathematical modeling tasks to reinforce their learning of mathematics through its application to authentic problems and real world design situations. Technological tools and resources can support this kind of learning engagement. We produced an online module that develops students‚Äô mathematical modeling skills while developing knowledge of the fundamentals of rainfall-runoff processes and engineering design. This study examined how 251 students at two United States universities perceived mathematical modeling as implemented through the online module over a 5-year period. We found, subject to the limitation that these are perceptions from not all students, …

High Pressure Responsive Luminescence Of Flexible Eu3+ Doped Pvdf Fibrous Mats, Carlos Hernandez, Santosh K. Gupta, Jose P. Zuniga, Jorge Vidal, Rene Galvan, Hector Guzman, Lilian N. Chavez, Karen Lozano, Yuanbing Mao

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Exploring lanthanide doped materials and their high-pressure optical properties is important from the perspective of designing pressure sensors, piezoelectric materials, scintillators, and optoelectronic devices, just to mention a few. Understanding the high-pressure optical properties of polymeric fibrous mats provides significant advantages in terms of flexibility, tunability, facile processability, and malleability. In this work, we have developed flexible polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) fibrous mats doped with an Eu3+ source of Eu(NO3)3·5H2O (EN-PF) or Eu2(SO4)3 (ES-PF) by a Forcespinning® method. Microstructural analysis of these two systems indicates that Eu(NO3)3·5H2O and Eu2(SO4)3 are homogeneously distributed and dispersed into the PVDF matrix. Fiber formation …

The Effect Of Cement And Blast Furnace Slag Characteristics On Expansion Of Heat-Cured Mortar Specimens, Jair G. Burgos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Delayed ettringite formation (DEF) is a durability issue that typically occurs in concrete exposed to high temperatures at an early age such as precast elements and massive concrete structural elements. There are many advantages to precast concrete such as its quality control, better safety control, and reusable forms, which make them cheaper than casting on site [1]. Heat curing of precast concrete is conducted to obtain high early-strength. However, in doing so, durability issues can arise in the form of internal sulfate attack also known as DEF, if the internal temperature of concrete exceeds 70°C. Past this threshold, ettringite decomposes …

An Analysis Of Suspended Sediment Dynamics In A Partially Mixed Estuary, Riyadh Hamad Muttaleb

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this work is to investigate via data analysis and numerical modeling the SPM (suspended particulate matter) dynamics of a heavily contaminated partially urban estuary, the Lower Passaic River estuary (LPR), NJ. Accordingly, I investigate the quantity and mechanics of variation of fine and coarse SPM in the LPR via data analysis. Data analysis focuses on the parameters that affect SPM dynamics at six moored stations occupied during the Fall and Spring seasons, from near the estuary mouth to tidal freshwater. A 3D hydrodynamic model (Delft3D-FM) is used to analyze the effects of estuary topography on the dynamic …

Channel Estimation In Multi-User Massive Mimo Systems By Expectation Propagation Based Algorithms, Mohammed Rashid

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology uses large antenna arrays with tens or hundreds of antennas at the base station (BS) to achieve high spectral efficiency, high diversity, and high capacity. These benefits, however, rely on obtaining accurate channel state information (CSI) at the receiver for both uplink and downlink channels. Traditionally, pilot sequences are transmitted and used at the receiver to estimate the CSI. Since the length of the pilot sequences scale with the number of transmit antennas, for massive MIMO systems downlink channel estimation requires long pilot sequences resulting in reduced spectral efficiency and the so-called pilot …

On The Impact Of Gravity Compensation On Reinforcement Learning In Goal-Reaching Tasks For Robotic Manipulators, Jonathan Fugal, Hasan A. Poonawala, Jihye Bae

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Advances in machine learning technologies in recent years have facilitated developments in autonomous robotic systems. Designing these autonomous systems typically requires manually specified models of the robotic system and world when using classical control-based strategies, or time consuming and computationally expensive data-driven training when using learning-based strategies. Combination of classical control and learning-based strategies may mitigate both requirements. However, the performance of the combined control system is not obvious given that there are two separate controllers. This paper focuses on one such combination, which uses gravity-compensation together with reinforcement learning (RL). We present a study of the effects of gravity …

Primer Payload System For Higher-Order Multiplex Lamp: Design And Development Of Unit Processes, Tochukwu Dubem Anyaduba

KGI Theses and Dissertations

Design and Development of Platforms for the Application of Loop-mediated Isothermal Nucleic Acid Amplification, LAMP, in the Diagnosis of Polymicrobial Diseases

Tochukwu Dubem Anyaduba, Travis Schlappi (PI)

For the past two decades, several isothermal nucleic acid amplification technologies have emerged. These are mostly in response to the need for robust molecular diagnostic tools amenable to point-of-care and limited-resource settings. Of these, loop-mediated isothermal amplification, LAMP, stands out as a highly specific and rapid alternative to the polymerase chain reaction, PCR. One of LAMP's significant characteristics involves using four essential and two loop (rate increasing) primers to recognize six to eight …

Mathematical Analysis Of Line Intersection And Shortest Distance Algorithms, Sajina Pradhan, Suk-Seung Hwang, Dongbin Lee

All Faculty Articles - School of Engineering and Computer Science

The time of arrival (TOA) trilateration is one of the representative location detection technologies (LDT) that determines the true location of a mobile station (MS) using a unique intersection point of three circles based on three radii corresponding to distances between MS and base stations (BSs) and center coordinates of BSs. Since the distance between MS and BS is estimated by using the number of time delays, three circles based on the estimated radii are generally increased and they may not meet at a single point, resulting in the location estimation error. In order to compensate this estimation error and …

Temperature-Immune Self-Referencing Fabry–Pérot Cavity Sensors, Hengky Chandrahalim, Jonathan W. Smith

AFIT Patents

A passive microscopic Fabry-Pérot Interferometer (FPI) sensor an optical fiber a three-dimensional microscopic optical structure formed on a cleaved tip of an optical fighter that reflects a light signal back through the optical fiber. The reflected light is altered by refractive index changes in the three-dimensional structure that is subject to at least one of: (i) thermal radiation; and (ii) volatile organic compounds.

Solid-State Transducer, System, And Method, Andrew Barnard

Michigan Tech Patents

The present disclosure includes solid-state transducers, a system, and a method. In one embodiment, a solid-state transducer includes a housing, a first end portion, a second end portion, a plurality of electrical conductors, and a thin-film resistive material. The thin-film resistive material is disposed between and in electrical communication with a plurality of electrical conductors. The thin-film resistive material is configured to receive one or more electrical signals from the plurality of electrical conductors, and generate thermal oscillations to create pressure waves in a medium in response to receiving the one or more electrical signals.

Detection Of Myocardial Infarction Using Ecg And Multi-Scale Feature Concatenate, Jia-Zheng Jian, Tzong-Rong Ger, Han-Hua Lai, Chi-Ming Ku, Chiung-An Chen, Patricia Angela R. Abu

Department of Information Systems & Computer Science Faculty Publications

Diverse computer-aided diagnosis systems based on convolutional neural networks were applied to automate the detection of myocardial infarction (MI) found in electrocardiogram (ECG) for early diagnosis and prevention. However; issues; particularly overfitting and underfitting; were not being taken into account. In other words; it is unclear whether the network structure is too simple or complex. Toward this end; the proposed models were developed by starting with the simplest structure: a multi-lead features-concatenate narrow network (N-Net) in which only two convolutional layers were included in each lead branch. Additionally; multi-scale features-concatenate networks (MSN-Net) were also implemented where larger features were being …

Impact Damage Ascertainment In Composite Plates Using In-Situ Acoustic Emission Signal Signature Identification, Robin James, Roshan Prakash Joseph, Victor Giurgiutiu

Faculty Publications

Barely visible impact damage (BVID) due to low velocity impact events in composite aircraft structures are becoming prevalent. BVID can have an adverse effect on the strength and safety of the structure. During aircraft inspections it can be extremely difficult to visually detect BVID. Moreover, it is also a challenge to ascertain if the BVID has in-fact caused internal damage to the structure or not. This paper describes a method to ascertain whether or not internal damage happened during the impact event by analyzing the high-frequency information contained in the recorded acoustic emission signal signature. Multiple 2 mm quasi-isotropic carbon …

Plasmonic Photocatalysis For Gas-Phase Degradation Of Total Volatile Organic Compounds: Theory, Experimentation, And Catalyst Stability, Amaury P. Betancourt Iii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Plasmonic nanomaterials have become a strong contender for improving the efficiency of photocatalytic degradation of air pollutants. This study demonstrates an easy and scalable fabrication method, employing electron beam evaporation and rapid thermal annealing, for producing plasmonic photocatalysts. Samples were made by either coating silver on, or layering silica-protected (i.e., silica-coated) or unprotected (i.e., uncoated) silver beneath, the photocatalyst (either zinc oxide or titanium dioxide). Stability and catalytic performance for gas-phase toluene degradation was assessed by monitoring total volatile organic compound (TVOC) concentration versus ultraviolet-A (UV-A) illumination time in a recirculating batch reactor (plate-type flow-through). Samples were characterized using a …

Applications Of Biomimicry In Construction And Architecture: A Bibliometric Analysis, Mugdha Praveen Kshirsagar Mrs, Sanjay Kantrao Kulkarni Dr, Ankush Kumar Meena Mr, Danby Caetano D’Costa Mr, Sushant Sunil Bhavsar Mr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Biomimicry can be considered to be a way of connecting the environment created by man to the natural world. Biomimicry is a science that, as a model, a measure and a tutor, looks to nature. Via site work, construction and everyday operations, biomimicry can be used to enhance the way the built environment is constructed. The main objective of this paper is to perform a bibliometric study of biomimicry-related literature in order to discover the growth of biomimicry as an architectural method in recent years. The time frame considered for this survey is between 1990 and 2020. The findings, however, …

The Influence Of Policy Implementation In The Midwest: How A Sstem Program Broadens Participation And Enhances Engineering Identity For Community College Students, Sarah L. Rodriguez, Maria L. Espino, Brian D. Le, Kelly J. Cunniham

Faculty Publications

This qualitative research study describes how a Midwest community college’s implementation of an Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (SSTEM) program influences engineering identity development for its students with financial need. Using a phenomenological approach, the study finds that the program enables community college students to have greater financial freedom and an ability to focus on engineering identity. In addition, the SSTEM program enhances student connections with STEM faculty, program staff, and peers. The study highlights the need for creating spaces for engineering identity development, developing connections between faculty, staff, and students, and enhancing transfer connections through different experiences. …

Characterization Of Particle Size And Composition Of Respirable Coal Mine Dust, Lei Pan, Sean Golden, Shoeleh Assemi, Marc Freddy Sime, Xuming Wang, Yuesheng Gao, Jan Miller

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Respirable coal mine dust (RCMD) particles, particularly the nano-sized fraction (<1 >μm) of the RCMD if present, can cause severe lung diseases in coal miners. Characterization of both the particle size and chemical composition of such RCMD particles remains a work in progress, in par-ticular, with respect to the nano-sized fraction of RCMD. In this work, various methods were sur-veyed and used to obtain both the size and chemical composition of RCMD particles, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy (S-TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AsFIFFF). It was found that the micron-sized fraction …

Ignition Process And Flame Lift-Off Characteristics Of Dimethyl Ether (Dme) Reacting Spray, Khanh Duc Cung, Ahmed Abdul Moiz, Xiucheng Zhu, Seong-Young Lee

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Advanced combustion systems that utilize different combustion modes and alternative fuels have significantly improved combustion performance and emissions compared to conventional diesel or spark-ignited combustions. As an alternative fuel, dimethyl ether (DME) has been receiving much attention as it runs effectively under low-temperature combustion (LTC) modes such as homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) and reactivity control combustion ignition (RCCI). Under compression-ignition (CI), DME can be injected as liquid fuel into a hot chamber, resulting in a diesel-like spray/combustion characteristic. With its high fuel reactivity and unique chemical formula, DME ignites easily but produces almost smokeless combustion. In the current study, …

Weather-Related Construction Delays In A Changing Climate: A Systematic State-Of-The-Art Review, Steven J. Schuldt, Matthew R. Nicholson, Yaquarri A. Adams Ii, Justin D. Delorit

Faculty Publications

Adverse weather delays forty-five percent of construction projects worldwide, costing project owners and contractors billions of dollars in additional expenses and lost revenue each year. Additionally, changes in climate are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of weather conditions that cause these construction delays. Researchers have investigated the effect of weather on several aspects of construction. Still, no previous study comprehensively (1) identifies and quantifies the risks weather imposes on construction projects, (2) categorizes modeling and simulation approaches developed, and (3) summarizes mitigation strategies and adaptation techniques to provide best management practices for the construction industry. This paper accomplishes …

A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Into The Impact Of Bim On The Social Dynamics Of The Aec Professional In The Workplace., Malachy Mathews Dr.

Doctoral

A review of the literature published surrounding new digital design and construction technologies and associated processes described within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) community as Building Information Modelling (BIM) or Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) reveals a gap in the theoretical understanding of the impact these technologies are having on professionals who work in this industry. The central aim of this research is to discover if there has been a shift in social dynamics as a result of the adoption of BIM in the workplace and, if there has been, to discuss the meaning of this for the industry …

Enhancement Of Electrospun Nanofiber Properties Via Automated Track Post-Draw Processing, David Anthony Brennan

Theses and Dissertations

Electrospinning is an alternative manufacturing method, capable of producing fibers with nanoscale diameters from a wide range of different polymers in a process which is relatively simple and inexpensive in comparison to other forms of nanofiber production. This has made electrospinning the subject a great deal of research as a method of producing nanofibers for various high-performance applications. However, electrospun nanofiber tensile strength is weak in comparison to conventional fibers of the same material, preventing widespread use and marketization. This disparity in mechanical strength is attributed to poor polymer chain alignment in individual fibers, caused by the absence of a …

Unpacking Professional Shame: Patterns Of White Male Engineering Students Living In And Out Of Threats To Their Identities, James L. Huff Ph.D., Benjamin Okai, Kanembe Shanachilubwa, Nicola W. Sochacka, Joachim Walther

Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Although prior research has provided robust descriptions of engineering students' identity development, a gap in the literature exists related to students' emotional experiences of shame, which undergird the socially constructed expectations of their professional formation.

Purpose

We examined the lived experiences of professional shame among White male engineering students in the United States. We conceptualize professional shame to be a painful emotional state that occurs when one perceives they have failed to meet socially constructed expectations or standards that are relevant to their identity in a professional domain.

Method

We conducted unstructured interviews with nine White male engineering students …

Evolving Tides Aggravate Nuisance Flooding Along The U.S. Coastline., Sida Li, Thomas Wahl, Stefan A. Talke, David A. Jay, Philip M. Orton, Xinghui Liang, Guocheng Wang, Lintao Liu

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nuisance flooding (NF) is defined as minor, nondestructive flooding that causes substantial, accumulating socioeconomic impacts to coastal communities. While sea-level rise is the main driver for the observed increase in NF events in the United States, we show here that secular changes in tides also contribute. An analysis of 40 tidal gauge records from U.S. coasts finds that, at 18 locations, NF increased due to tidal amplification, while decreases in tidal range suppressed NF at 11 locations. Estuaries show the largest changes in NF attributable to tide changes, and these can often be traced to anthropogenic alterations. Limited long-term measurements …

Powell, William E., Collection, 1912-2011, Special Collections, Leonard H. Axe Library

Finding Aids

A collection of documents, papers, and letters regarding William E. Powell’s research of mining and European immigrants in southeast Kansas.

Dr. William E. Powell received his Bachelor of Science in Geology (major) and Geography (minor) from Oklahoma State University in 1954. He went on to receive his Master of Science in Geology from the University of Arkansas in 1958 and his Doctor of Philosophy in Geography from the University of Nebraska in 1970. While earning his doctorate, Dr. Powell studied French and German. Later in his life he began to learn Italian, striving for complete fluency. He was a professor …

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering: News & Publications (2013-2023)

• 2021 Engineering Design Challenge

Memristor Crossbar Array Testing Using Sneak Paths, Rasika Dhananjay Joshi

Dissertations and Theses

Moore's law decline has paved the way to shift to new technologies at architectural and device levels. CMOS based technologies are facing many challenges with the growing demand for miniaturization. The growing heat dissipation is the major limitation for performance, energy efficiency and reliability with the increasing transistor count in integrated circuits. Manufacturing costs and process/memory performance gap have also grown steadily over the last several decades with the scaling down of the CMOS feature size. Memristor, a nanoscale device, has the potential to address the CMOS limitations because of its non-volatility, high density, low power operation, low cost per …

Exploiting Pull-In/Pull-Out Hysteresis In Electrostatic Mems Sensor Networks To Realize A Novel Sensing Continuous-Time Recurrent Neural Network, Mohammad H. Hasan, Amin Abbasalipour, Hamed Nikfarjam, Siavash Pourkamali, Muhammad Emad-Un-Din, Roozbeh Jafari, Fadi Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The goal of this paper is to provide a novel computing approach that can be used to reduce the power consumption, size, and cost of wearable electronics. To achieve this goal, the use of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors for simultaneous sensing and computing is introduced. Specifically, by enabling sensing and computing locally at the MEMS sensor node and utilizing the usually unwanted pull in/out hysteresis, we may eliminate the need for cloud computing and reduce the use of analog-to-digital converters, sampling circuits, and digital processors. As a proof of concept, we show that a simulation model of a network of …

Kegg2net: Deducing Gene Interaction Networks And Acyclic Graphs From Kegg Pathways, Sree K. Chanumolu, Mustafa Albahrani, Handan Can, Hasan H. Otu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway database provides a manual curation of biological pathways that involve genes (or gene products), metabolites, chemical compounds, maps, and other entries. However, most applications and datasets involved in omics are gene or protein-centric requiring pathway representations that include direct and indirect interactions only between genes. Furthermore, special methodologies, such as Bayesian networks, require acyclic representations of graphs. We developed KEGG2Net, a web resource that generates a network involving only the genes represented on a KEGG pathway with all of the direct and indirect gene-gene interactions deduced from the pathway. KEGG2Net offers …

Implementing Inverse Design Tools For Plasmonic Digital Logic Devices, Krishna Narayan, Mark C. Harrison

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Despite the benefits that optics and photonics have brought to improving communications, there remains a lack of commercialized optical computing devices and systems, which reduces the benefits of using light as an information-carrying medium. We are developing architectures and designs of photonic logic gates for creating larger-scale functional photonic logic circuits. In contrast to other approaches, we are focusing on the development of logic devices which can be cascaded in arbitrary ways to allow for more complex photonic integrated circuit design. Additionally, optical computing often uses on-off keying, which fails to take advantage of denser encoding schemes often used to …

Analysis Of Recent Trends In Malware Attacks On Android Phone: A Survey Using Scopus Database, Sonali Kothari Tidke, Vijayshri Khedkar

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

In past few years, smartphone use has shifted from professional access to personal need. Smartphone has now become an essential requirement to perform day to day activities. This has made smartphones unsecured and vulnerable to cyber threats and malware attacks. This study is also focused on finding intersection between malware attacks and Android OS considering Android as the most widely used mobile OS. A comprehensive search is conducted on Scopus Database for peer-reviewed articles. The study is carried out on bibliometric data of the considered articles to generate a highly useful concept map.

Relative International Energy Conservation Code (Iecc) Energy Impacts By Compliance Path, Florida Solar Energy Center, Philip W. Fairey

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The EnergyGauge® USA (v.6.2) residential building energy simulation software tool is used to examine energy impacts in two-story, 2,376 ft², single-family homes configured in accordance with the minimum requirements of Section R402-R404 of the 2018 IECC in fourteen representative U.S. cities.⁴ EnergyGauge USA is a RESNET-accredited HERS software tool capable of evaluating not only the HERS Index and the IECC Section R406 Energy Rating Index Compliance Alternative but also the IECC Section R405 Simulated Performance Alternative as well as the IECC Section R402 R-Value and Total UA Alternative prescriptive methods along with all of the IECC mandatory …