Engineering Commons^™

Floating Gate Schottky Junction Solar Cells With Improved Output Power, Amirhossein Ghods, Vishal Saravade, Andrew Woode, Corey Lerner, Chuanle Zhou, Ian T. Ferguson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this article, the concept of floating gate Schottky junction (FGSJ) solar cell with improved photovoltaic properties, compared to those of the conventional Schottky junction solar cell, is proposed. The floating gate junction is electrically isolated from the current collection junction in order to prevent reduction in the barrier height at the floating gate contact from load voltage. The unaffected barrier height at the floating gate junction leads to a more effective separation of photo-generated electron-hole pairs, and therefore, a better photovoltaic response. Single junction FGSJ solar cells based on n-type GaAs with different doping concentration levels and gate contact …

Singapore Airlines: Profit Recovery And Aircraft Allocation Models During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Michelle L. F. Cheong, Ulysses M. Z. Chong, Anne N. T. A. Nguyen, Su Yiin Ang, Gabriella P. Djojosaputro, Gordy Adiprasetyo, Kendra L. B. Gadong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

COVID-19 has severely impacted the global aviation industry, causing many airlines to downsize or exit the industry. For airlines which attempt to sustain their operations, they will need to respond to the increase in passenger and cargo demand, as countries recover slowly from the crisis due to the availability of vaccines. We built a series of spreadsheet models to first project the COVID-19 recovery rates by countries from 2021 to 2025, then forecast the passenger and cargo demand, using historical data as base figures. Using the financial and operation data, the revenue, expense, and profit can be projected, then an …

Waste Collection Routing Problem: A Mini-Review Of Recent Heuristic Approaches And Applications, Yun-Chia Liang, Vanny Minanda, Aldy Gunawan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The waste collection routing problem (WCRP) can be defined as a problem of designing a route to serve all of the customers (represented as nodes) with the least total traveling time or distance, served by the least number of vehicles under specific constraints, such as vehicle capacity. The relevance of WCRP is rising due to its increased waste generation and all the challenges involved in its efficient disposal. This research provides a mini-review of the latest approaches and its application in the collection and routing of waste. Several metaheuristic algorithms are reviewed, such as ant colony optimization, simulated annealing, genetic …

Populist Supporters On Reddit: A Comparison Of Content And Behavioral Patterns Within Publics Of Supporters Of Donald Trump And Hillary Clinton, Andreas Jungherr, Oliver Posegga, Jisun An

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The international rise of populism has been attributed, in part, to digital media. These media allow the backers of populists to share and distribute information independent of traditional media organizations or elites and offer communication spaces in which they can support each other and strengthen communal ties irrespective of their societal standing. Can we identify these functions in distinct usage patterns of digital media by supporters of populists? This could find expression through posting content that comports with the central tenets of populist ideology, higher activity levels, use of distinct vocabularies, and heightened levels of community building. We investigate differences …

First-Principles Studies Of Mof Absorption On Hydroxylated And Non-Hydroxylated Metal Oxide Surfaces And Implications For Atomic Layer Deposition Of Mos2, Matthew Lawson, Elton Graugnard, Lan Li

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Significant interest in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides has led to numerous experimental studies of their synthesis using scalable vapor phase methods, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD). ALD typically allows lower deposition temperatures, and nucleation of chemical precursors requires reactions with surface functional groups. A common first-principles method used to study ALD modeling is the calculation of activation energy for a proposed reaction pathway. In this work we calculated the partial charge densities, local density of states (LDoS), Bader charge analysis, adsorption energies, and charge density difference using density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the …

Interface Structure And Luminescence Properties Of Epitaxial Pbse Films On Inas(111)A, Kevin D. Vallejo, Paul J. Simmonds

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Epitaxial heterostructures of narrow-gap IV-VI and III-V semiconductors offer a platform for new electronics and mid-infrared photonics. Stark dissimilarities in the bonding and the crystal structure between the rocksalt IV–VIs and the zincblende III–Vs, however, mandate the development of nucleation and growth protocols to reliably prepare high-quality heterostructures. In this work, we demonstrate a route to single crystal (111)-oriented PbSe epitaxial films on nearly lattice-matched InAs (111)A templates. Without this technique, the high-energy heterovalent interface readily produces two populations of PbSe grains that are rotated 180° in-plane with respect to each other, separated by rotational twin boundaries. We find that …

Low-Cost Modal Identification Sensors For Bridge Field Testing, Daniel Linzell, Saaed Eftekhar Azam, Samira Ardani, Ahmed E Rageh

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This report provides a framework for experimental load rating of bridges via inclusion of low-cost dynamic sensors and dynamic tests. Currently 25% of the bridges in Nebraska are posted for live load. According to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) in 2012, 93% of all postings in the US were based analytical load ratings, 7% were posted using field evaluation and engineering judgement, and 1% were posted using experimental load rating methods.

Instrumentation costs and traffic interruptions can be problematic when load testing is necessary to accurately assess in-situ bridge live load capacity. Recent advances in (i) sensing technology and (ii) …

State Energy Research Center, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about the State Energy Research Center (SERC). Highlights the Energy & Environmental Research Center’s technology development, skilled workforce, and funding sources. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

Development Of An Internet Of Things (Iot) Enabled Novel Wireless Multi Sensor Network For Infield Crop Monitoring, Nipuna Chamara

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Multispectral imaging systems on satellite, aerial, and ground platforms are used commonly to monitor in-field crops in precision agriculture by farmers and researchers. Limited spatial and temporal resolution and weather dependence of the data collection are two main disadvantages of these methods. In-field sensor networks can continuously monitor environmental and plant physiological parameters by leveraging low-power computation and long-range communication technologies. We built and tested a novel sensor network equipped with soil moisture, multispectral and RGB imaging sensors in an experimental soybean field at Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center, NE, USA. 10 down-looking and 1 up-looking sensor node were …

A Comparison Of Porphyrin Photosensitizers In Photodynamic Inactivation Of Rna And Dna Bacteriophages, Joe Heffron, Matthew Bork, Brooke K. Mayer, Troy Skwor

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Effective broad-spectrum antiviral treatments are in dire need as disinfectants and therapeutic alternatives. One such method of disinfection is photodynamic inactivation, which involves the production of reactive oxygen species from dissolved oxygen in response to light-stimulated photosensitizers. This study evaluated the efficacy of functionalized porphyrin compounds for photodynamic inactivation of bacteriophages as human virus surrogates. A blue-light light emitting diode (LED) lamp was used to activate porphyrin compounds in aqueous solution (phosphate buffer). The DNA bacteriophages ΦX174 and P22 were more resistant to porphyrin TMPyP photodynamic inactivation than RNA bacteriophage fr, with increasing rates of inactivation in the order: ΦX174 …

Solar Soiling Mitigation, Claire Desmith

Electrical Engineering

This senior project aims to mitigate performance losses that occur in Photovoltaic (PV) systems due to soiling of the panels. Soiling is the natural occurrence of debris accumulation on panels, depending on local climate conditions. Soiling loss refers to efficiency lost due to dirt and dust accumulation on the panels. The debris reduces system output by shading on a smaller scale. In addition to uniform soiling, corner soiling is observed in framed modules as debris collects in the corners of the modules. While solutions currently exist to clean modules to mitigate soiling losses, these solutions are often expensive and time …

Enterprise Architecture Transformation Process From A Federal Government Perspective, Tonia Canada, Leila Halawi

Publications

The need for information technology organizations to transform enterprise architecture is driven by federal government mandates and information technology budget constraints. This qualitative case study aimed to identify factors that hinder federal government agencies from driving enterprise architecture transformation processes from a compliancy to a flexible process. Common themes in interviewee responses were identified, coded, and summarized. Critical recommendations for future best practices, including further research, were also presented.

Fatigue And Its Management In The Aviation Industry, With Special Reference To Pilots, Rajee Olaganathan, Timothy B. Holt, Jackie Luedtke, Brent D. Bowen

Publications

Abstract Fatigue is a significant contributing factor that reduces human ability and leads to accidents and threatens the safety of aircraft and human lives. Approximately 70% of fatal accidents that occur in commercial aviation operations are due to human factors. More specifically, crew fatigue contributes to nearly 15 to 20% of the accidents (Akerstedt, 2000). These accidents and incidents are associated with pilot fatigue because of the long duty periods, disruption of circadian rhythms, and inadequate sleep that are common among both commercial and military pilots. Though fatigue is seen in all the disciplines associated with the aviation industry, this …

Spectral Induced Polarization Study On Enzyme Induced Carbonate Precipitations: Influences Of Size And Content On Stiffness Of A Fine Sand, Bate Bate, Junnan Cao, Chi Zhang, Na Hao

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Heterogeneity in either chemically or microbiologically induced carbonate-based ground improvement methods is a major obstacle in engineering application. Spectral induced polarization (SIP), an innovative and nondestructive method, which has demonstrated promise in monitoring microbial activity, was used in this study to monitor enzyme induced carbonate precipitation (EICP). The complex conductivities, together with the shear wave velocities (Vs), of an EICP modified sand were monitored using a self-developed spectral induced polarization–bender element column. The mean precipitate size was calculated by relaxation time (τ) and the Schwarz equation. The precipitate contents were calculated by cumulative gamma distribution function on the global polarization …

The Effects Of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Command And Control Latency During Within-Visual-Range Air-To-Air Combat, David Thirtyacre

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The type of military missions conducted by remotely piloted aircraft continues to expand into all facets of operations including air-to-air combat. While future within-visual-range air-to-air combat will be piloted by artificial intelligence, remotely piloted aircraft will likely first see combat. The purpose of this study was to quantify the effect of latency on one-versus-one, within-visual-range air-to-air combat success during both high-speed and low-speed engagements. The research employed a repeated-measures experimental design to test the various hypothesis associated with command and control latency. Participants experienced in air-to-air combat were subjected to various latency inputs during one-versus-one simulated combat using a virtual-reality …

Application Of Short-Time Stochastic Subspace Identification To Estimate Bridge Frequencies From A Traversing Vehicle, Nan Jin, Y. B. Yang, Elias G. Dimitrakopoulos, Themelina S. Paraskeva, Lambros S. Katafygiotis

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study establishes a short-time stochastic subspace identification (ST-SSI) framework to estimate bridge frequencies by processing the dynamic response of a traversing vehicle. The formulation uses a dimensionless description of the response that simplifies the vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) problem and brings forward the minimum number of parameters required for the identification. With the aid of the dimensionless parameters the analysis manages to successfully apply ST-SSI despite the time-varying nature of the VBI system. Further, the proposed approach eliminates the adverse effect of the road surface roughness using a transformed residual vehicle response obtained from two traverses of a vehicle at …

Project G.H.O.S.T., Matthew Morell, Austin Conrad, Zackeris Gordon, Conan Estes

Mechanical Engineering

Project G.H.O.S.T aimed to produce a model transmission with a control system for high performance/racing electric vehicles to utilize the full capability of the electric motor at higher speed applications. Current electric vehicles have a large amount of torque and use a fixed gear ratio that compromises between both high and low speeds with performance peaking around 65 miles per hour. A typical electric motor used in this application has approximately 1800 ft-lbs of torque up to 5,000 rpm. Past approximately 5,000 rpm, the torque rapidly drops off and so does the overall vehicle performance. Though transmissions exist that could …

Smud Solar Regatta, Logan Garby, Nam Le, Jacob Singer, Alejandro Carrera, Laura Casas

Mechanical Engineering

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) hosts the Solar Regatta every year in Rancho Seco, CA, a competition which consists of teams building a solar powered boat to compete in three races: the sprint race, endurance race, and slalom race. The Cal Poly Solar Regatta team was informed mid-project by SMUD that the competition has been canceled once again for spring 2021, but the team decided to move forward with the construction of the boat. The previous Cal Poly team from 2019/2020 designed the hull and propulsion system of the boat. The 2020/2021 team worked with the previous team in …

Enduro Campers, Ryan J. Shomsky, Alexander W. Horst, Kevin S. Pickering, Jackson L. Aplanalp, Luke Arana, Will Firestone

Mechanical Engineering

The Enduro Campers senior project team (Formerly known as Lobo Campers senior project team) was recruited by Mr. Leif Stein to assist in the design, manufacturing, and testing of the materials and components of his company’s expedition box camper. The two main focuses of the project, divided into two sub-teams, were on the testing and manufacturing process of the materials used in the camper, and on the design and analysis of the camper’s access door, step box, and other subsystems.

The focus of the materials analysis and manufacturing team was based around the design parameter to use composite sandwich panels …

Final Design Report Cal Poly Wind Power - Balancing System, Caleb Seth Cross, Ethan Andrew Czuppa

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Wind Power club is anticipating joining the annual Collegiate Wind Competition in the year 2021. This competition hosts schools from all around the country, who meet and compete against each other by testing the wind turbines they have made throughout the academic school year. Tasks included in the competition test the wind turbine’s efficiency, power generation, overall design, and stability in extreme conditions.

Cal Poly is planning to implement a formal balancing system to support their 2021 wind turbine. Our senior project team undertook mitigating mass imbalance in the wind turbine; mass imbalance occurs when the center …

A Method For Visualizing The Structural Complexity Of Organizational Architectures, Jacob Michael B. King

Master's Theses

To achieve a high level of performance and efficiency, contemporary aerospace systems must become increasingly complex. While complexity management traditionally focuses on a product’s components and their interconnectedness, organizational representation in complexity analysis is just as essential. This thesis addresses this organizational aspect of complexity through an Organizational Complexity Metric (OCM) to aid complexity management. The OCM augments Sinha’s structural complexity metric for product architectures into a metric that can be applied to organizations. Utilizing nested numerical design structure matrices (DSMs), a compact visual representation of organizational complexity was developed. Within the nested numerical DSM are existing organizational datasets used …

Demonstration Of Three True Random Number Generator Circuits Using Memristor Created Entropy And Commercial Off-The-Shelf Components, Scott Stoller, Kristy A. Campbell

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this work, we build and test three memristor-based true random number generator (TRNG) circuits: two previously presented in the literature and one which is our own design. The functionality of each circuit is assessed using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Statistical Test Suite (STS). The TRNG circuits were built using commercially available off-the-shelf parts, including the memristor. The results of this work confirm the usefulness of memristors for successful implementation of TRNG circuits, as well as the ease with which a TRNG can be built using simple circuit designs and off-the-shelf breadboard circuit components.

A Hybrid Droplet Vaporization-Adaptive Surrogate Model Using An Optimized Continuous Thermodynamics Distribution, Simcha L. Singer, Michael Hayes, Alanna Y. Cooney

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Liquid transportation fuels are composed of hundreds of species, necessitating the use of surrogates in CFD simulations. Surrogates composed of a few species are often formulated to emulate the combustion properties targets (CPTs) of pre-vaporized fuels but fail to reproduce their vaporization behavior, implying that such surrogates cannot replicate the CPTs in the presence of preferential vaporization. The prevailing approach to this problem proposes a physical–chemical surrogate formulated to match the fuel’s distillation curve in addition to its CPTs. However, the physical–chemical surrogate approach requires more species, may not reproduce the instantaneous (distillation-resolved) CPTs, and is not well-suited to conditions …

Knowledge Infused Policy Gradients For Adaptive Pandemic Control, Kaushik Roy, Qi Zhang, Manas Gaur, Amit P. Sheth

Publications

COVID-19 has impacted nations differently based on their policy implementations. The effective policy requires taking into account public information and adaptability to new knowledge. Epidemiological models built to understand COVID-19 seldom provide the policymaker with the capability for adaptive pandemic control (APC). Among the core challenges to be overcome include (a) inability to handle a high degree of non-homogeneity in different contributing features across the pandemic timeline, (b) lack of an approach that enables adaptive incorporation of public health expert knowledge, and (c) transparent models that enable understanding of the decision-making process in suggesting policy. In this work, we take …

"Is Depression Related To Cannabis?": A Knowledge-Infused Model For Entity And Relation Extraction With Limited Supervision, Kaushik Roy, Usha Lokala, Vedant Khandelwal, Amit P. Sheth

Publications

With strong marketing advocacy of the benefits of cannabis use for improved mental health, cannabis legalization is a priority among legislators. However, preliminary scientific research does not conclusively associate cannabis with improved mental health. In this study, we explore the relationship between depression and consumption of cannabis in a targeted social media corpus involving personal use of cannabis with the intent to derive its potential mental health benefit. We use tweets that contain an association among three categories annotated by domain experts - Reason, Effect, and Addiction. The state-of-the-art Natural Langauge Processing techniques fall short in extracting these relationships between …

Me-Em Enewsbrief, March 2021, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering eNewsBrief

No abstract provided.

Deep Learning For Anisoplanatic Optical Turbulence Mitigation In Long-Range Imaging, Matthew A. Hoffmire, Russell C. Hardie, Michael A. Rucci, Richard Van Hook, Barry K. Karch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We present a deep learning approach for restoring images degraded by atmospheric optical turbulence. We consider the case of terrestrial imaging over long ranges with a wide field-of-view. This produces an anisoplanatic imaging scenario where turbulence warping and blurring vary spatially across the image. The proposed turbulence mitigation (TM) method assumes that a sequence of short-exposure images is acquired. A block matching (BM) registration algorithm is applied to the observed frames for dewarping, and the resulting images are averaged. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is then employed to perform spatially adaptive restoration. We refer to the proposed TM algorithm as …

Studying The Efficacy Of An Injectable 3-Dimensional Fibrin Extracellular Matrix To Characterize The Effects Of Antitumor Agents On Sw620 Cells In A Microfluidic Device, Thèo Anastos

Master's Theses

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States and there is currently a lot of research going into new antitumor agents to kill the cancer. One method for replicating the tumor response to a drug in vivo is by creating an in vitro drug testing model to replicate the in vivo condition. This research project was conducted to determine the efficacy of testing tumor cultures in a microfluidic device as a way to provide accurate drug responses in vitro instead of using in vivo subjects in clinical trials. A total of four experiments were conducted with …

A Comparison Of Risk Factors And Risk Models For Stroke By Age Group Using Tilda Data, Elizabeth Hunter, John D. Kelleher

Conference papers

Models to predict stroke risk with the aim of stroke prevention often use age as a factor in the model (Choudhury et al., 2015; Conroy et al., 2003; D’Agostino etal., 2008; Wolf et al., 1991). However, stroke risk scores often underestimate risk
for specific age groups, particularly younger age groups and the contribution of different risk factors to overall stroke risk changes over time (Boehme et al., 2017; Seshadri et al., 2006). Additionally, because age is a strong predictor of stroke, age can dominate the risk score (Leening et al., 2017). Longitudinal Studies such as the Irish Longitudinal study on …

Electro-Muscle-To-Muscle Transfer, Hailey Quinn Casino, Jake Keola Javier, Samuel Joseph Borda, Charlotte Amalie Anderson

Biomedical Engineering

The Electro Muscle to Muscle Transfer (EMMT) system will entail designing, manufacturing, and providing a wearable device that stimulates paralyzed muscles in the hand by sampling and amplifying muscles from the forearm. With further development, the system may be capable of using different muscle inputs other than the forearm muscles along with different stimulated muscle outputs other than the hand. The system functions as a rehabilitative device for spinal cord injuries, irreparable nerve loss and/or damage, and improper neuromuscular function. It is not for total treatment nor for curing of the disabilities listed above but to alleviate the side effects …