Engineering Commons^™

Application Of Machine Learning For Predicting Iemi Upset In Multi-Architecture Microcontrollers, Daniel S. Guillette

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Four microcontrollers were programmed to execute a simple counting program. Pulsed RF signals – also known as Intentional ElectroMagnetic Interference (IEMI) – were injected into the clock input of the microcontrollers. At the same time, the output lines were monitored to determine whether the IEMI signal altered the output of the counting program – referred to as an upset. A state-of-the-art automated testing apparatus was used to collect and process 120,960 samples of IEMI upset data. The data was used to perform a traditional upset trends study and train a series of machine learning (ML) techniques – k-Nearest Neighbors, Support …

The Transport Of Acoustic Energy At Two-Dimensional Material Interfaces, Jesus Bolivar

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The control of vibrational energy within solids is a fundamental engineering challenge with numerous technological applications. While the control of electrons and photons has revolutionized computation and communication, the control of phonons, the quantized particle of vibrational energy, has been far less successful. Acoustic energy is a form of vibrational energy that involves coherent excitations of phonons to form larger elastic waves. It is this coherence that allows it to be a valuable engineering tool for applications in imaging, frequency/time control, and structural monitoring. Traditional methods of reflecting acoustic energy involve interfacing different phases of matter to reflect via an …

Design And Nonlinear Control Of A Haptic Glove For Virtual Palpation, Matthew Galla

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the design, kinematic analysis, and nonlinear control of a Haptic Glove for medical elastographic imaging virtual palpation. Of the 13 degrees of freedom present in the index finger, middle finger, and thumb of the hand, the design fixes 4, constrains 2 and controls 6 with pneumatic air cylinder actuators, allowing uncontrolled, but measured motion in the remaining 1 degree of freedom. Nearly linear bijective transfer functions between the actuator positions and joint angles are found in closed form for all 6 actuated joints. A nonlinear, sliding-mode controller that allows each actuator to be controlled by a single …

Optical Microresonator-Based Flow-Speed Sensor, Elie Ramon Salameh

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

Optical sensors have become more prominent in atmospheric measurement systems, with LiDAR instruments deployed on a variety of earth-bound, air-borne, and space-based platforms. In recent years, the interest in the human exploration of Mars has created a substantial push towards reliable and compact sensing elements for Mars exploration missions, particularly during a spacecraft’s entry, descent, and landing stages. Real-time sensors able to reliably measure the craft’s speed relative to the surrounding atmosphere during these stages are thus of great interest. In this dissertation, a proof-of-concept for an optical microfabricated sensor, which leverages the whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) and Doppler shift principles, is …

Equity Of Urban Neighborhood Infrastructure: A Data-Driven Assessment, Zheng Li

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Neighborhood infrastructure, such as sidewalks, medical facilities, public transit, community gathering places, and tree canopy, provides essential support for safe, healthy, and
resilient communities. This thesis proposes, develops, and implements an innovative approach to thoroughly examine the presence and condition of neighborhood infrastructure.
It demonstrates the necessity of considering multiple infrastructure types when studying
neighborhood infrastructure and its equity. This thesis provides an automated assessment
framework as well as case studies among four major metropolitan cities across the United
States, which expands the research opportunities for future infrastructure-related research.

The Effect Of Surface Gas/Liquid Entrapment On Drag Reduction, Haosen Tan

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

Economic globalization has made today’s world more closely linked, where transportation (e.g. shipping, pipeline) has played an important role. Approximately over 60% (in air), 80% (underwater), and 100% (in pipeline) propulsive power is used to overcome surface drag, so reducing surface drag will have a substantial impact economically and environmentally.

To develop a surface that has lower drag, the intuitive idea is to convert no-slip boundary conditions to slip or partial slip ones. To achieve that, the most promising approach is to replace the solid-liquid boundaries completely or partially with gas-liquid or liquid-liquid boundaries, because the shear stress is much …

Resistive Pulse Sensing Of Protein Unfolding And Transport In Solid-State Nanopores, Jugal Saharia

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

Solid-state nanopore sensors have attracted considerable attraction as a tool for solution-based single-molecule studies and have been successfully utilized for characterization of biomolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, glycans, viruses, etc. Among these, characterization of proteins has been more challenging due to their charge heterogeneity and the complex energy landscape associated with different protein conformations. Presented in this thesis is the fabrication of solid-state nanopores and their application for characterizing proteins and understanding their transport through nanopores. Fabrication of nanometer-sized pores in Si_xN_y membranes was achieved using the conventional controlled dielectric breakdown method as well as a …

Modeling Framework And Solution Methodologies For On-Demand Mobility Services With Ridesharing And Transfer Options, Sepide Lotfi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The growing complexity of the urban travel pattern and its related traffic congestion, along with the extensive usage of mobile phones, invigorated On-Demand Mobility Services (ODMS) and opened the door to the emergence of Transportation Network Companies (TNC). By adopting the shared economy paradigm, TNCs enable private car owners to provide transportation services to passengers by providing user-friendly mobile phone applications that efficiently match passengers to service providers. Considering the high level of flexibility, convenience, and reliability of ODMS, compared to those offered by traditional public transportation systems, many metropolitan areas in the United States and abroad have reported rapid …

Multi-Scale Modeling Of Dislocation Motion And Interaction: Theory, Plastic Properties, And Boundary Conditions, Abu Bakar Siddique

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Dislocation theory is the fundamental tool for explaining plasticity in the material. The elastic field of a material is always influenced by the presence of dislocations and other defects independent of the loading configurations. Scientists and researchers have minimal success in solving plasticity problems analytically. And for this reason, the capturing of dislocation dynamics is highly dependent on numerical modeling, which is always a challenge for its inherent multi-scale nature. Current research investigates and develops self-consistent numerical models for different plasticity problems based on the distributed-dislocation technique and the collocation-point method. Numerical methods are developed for different boundary conditions in …

Enhanced Design For Testability Circuitry For Test, Hui Jiang

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

More stringent defect detection requirements have led to the creation of new fault models, such as the cell-aware fault model, that attempts to model defects that might be missed by traditional test sets. Unfortunately, the resulting test sets can be long, and thus we have previously explored a DFT-based (Design for Testability-based) approach to reduce test time by harnessing scan shift cycles for cell-aware defect detection. This approach uses a MISR (Multiple Input Signature Register) structure to capture data on the functional inputs to selected scan flip-flops during the shifting procedure. The final signature in the MISR can then be …

Closed-Loop Brain-Computer Interfaces For Memory Restoration Using Deep Brain Stimulation, David Xiaoliang Wang

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The past two decades have witnessed the rapid growth of therapeutic brain-computer interfaces (BCI) targeting a diversity of brain dysfunctions. Among many neurosurgical procedures, deep brain stimulation (DBS) with neuromodulation technique has emerged as a fruitful treatment for neurodegenerative disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic amnesia, and Alzheimer's disease, as well as neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia. In parallel to the open-loop neuromodulation strategies for neuromotor disorders, recent investigations have demonstrated the superior performance of closed-loop neuromodulation systems for memory-relevant disorders due to the more sophisticated underlying brain circuitry during cognitive processes. Our efforts are …

Surface Acoustic Wave Characterization And Interdigitated Transducer Optimization For Studying Stress-Enhanced Phenomena, Brian D. Rummel

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Surface acoustic wave devices have not yet achieved their full potential as the effects of standing acoustic fields on stress-sensitive phenomena in semiconductor systems have been largely unexplored. From this perspective, it is necessary to develop novel methods to characterize surface acoustic wave devices quantitatively and prepare an experimental platform to probe stress-enhanced processes. In this dissertation, interdigitated transducer devices are fabricated on gallium arsenide to evaluate their potential impact on strain-enhanced phenomena. A novel Raman characterization technique characterizes the surface stress induced by a standing acoustic field, revealing stress values on the order of 10⁸ Pa. FEM software …

Enhancing Optical And Thermal Properties Of Nanofibrous Films Inspired By The White Beetle Scale, Bokyung Park

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

The Cyphochilus white beetle has received significant attention recently for its exceptional visible-light-scattering properties, owing to the beetle scale's anisotropic nano-fibrillar network structure. Inspiration from the remarkable optical properties of these biological species has directed research efforts to fabricating biomimetic nano-fibrillar structures with polymer materials. In this work, electrospun silk fibroin polymer films reproduce the white beetle scale's anisotropic nature to draw on its optical scattering properties and further improve the radiative-cooling capabilities of silk fabrics. An anisotropically restructured silk film with a mean fiber diameter of a few hundred nanometers substantially increases optical scattering strength in the visible spectrum …

Examination Of Ionization In Cesium Diode Pumped Alkali Lasers With An Ion Chamber Diagnostic, Benjamin Oliker

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Diode pumped alkali lasers (DPALs) are leading candidates for future high power applications, with many potential utilities for the military, aerospace, communications, and scientific diagnostics. A critical step in their development is measurement and understanding of unwanted ionization processes that occur inside the laser, which decrease efficiency, reduce the usable alkali population, and increase heat load. In this dissertation, direct measurement of the ionization rate of a cesium DPAL gain medium are made for the first time, via application of an ion chamber diagnostic. Results will demonstrate that the rate of ionization is slow compared to pump absorption, with a …

Decentralized Intelligent Decision Making In Cyber Physical Social Systems, Nathan Patrizi

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The accelerated evolution towards jointly considering the physical, cyber, and social space is expected to dramatically increase the interest of the research and industrial community to build efficient, resilient, and secure Cyber Physical Social Systems. In this dissertation, we focus our research activities on devising decentralized intelligent decision making models, frameworks, and algorithms to support the smooth operation of Cyber Physical Social Systems. The proposed decentralized intelligent decision making models are jointly exploiting theories from the field of Economics, such as Game Theory and Contract Theory, and from the field of Computer Science, such as Reinforcement Learning concepts. Reinforcement learning …

Ailbot: A Respiratory-Focused Symptom Checker Chatbot For Children, Gabrielle Mae V. Arco, Ken Ivan T. Cheng, Pamela S. Chong, Chico Andre G. Olaguer

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

Inadequate access to healthcare, accompanied by the spread of COVID-19 has significantly affected most Filipinos. The prolonged quarantine period in the Philippines due to this virus restricts the movement and lifestyle of people. Thus, it makes medical appointments difficult to arrange. The ever-growing number of healthcare chatbots can provide access to healthcare check-ups quickly. These systems are still in their infancy stages, with the majority focusing on the mental and emotional well-being of people and catering to the general public. This study aims to develop a chatbot geared toward the respiratory health of Filipino children. Through the use of Chatfuel, …

An Analysis On The Usability Of A Mental Health Assessment Chatbot For Teenagers, Amanda Maria R. Sablay, Fiona Amaia M. Tano, Jazmin Abigail R. Zulueta

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

Globally, people are faced with barriers to mental intervention due to a lack of resources, especially in low-income countries. Mental health chatbots have gained popularity due to their accessibility. However, the usability of a mental health chatbot designed to assess the mental well-being of Filipino teenagers is yet to be quantified. This paper aims to determine the acceptance of Filipino teenagers towards a chatbot as a medium to assess their mental well-being. This study presents a design for a conversation flow based on the Pediatric Symptom Checklist to create a text-based chatbot application verified by end-users and a psychologist. From …

A Microfluidic Assay For Single Cell Bacterial Adhesion Studies Under Shear Stress, Amanda Trusiak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of bacterial adhesion to host cells is important in understanding bacterial pathogenesis and developing new therapeutic approaches. Here, we studied bacterial adhesion under shear stress using a novel microfluidic method. Specifically, the adhesion of a uropathogenic E. coli strain (FimHOn, ATCC 700928/CFT073) to mannose-modified substrates was studied under flow conditions. The FimHOn E. coli strain expresses FimH which is a mannose-specific adhesin found on the fimbriae that binds to glycoproteins on the epithelium. We developed a microfluidic method that mimics bacterial adhesion to urothelial cells. First, the microfluidic channels were modified by sequentially adsorbing BSA-mannose and BSA onto …

Investigating The Effect Of Dissolved Oxygen-Assisted Corneal Cross-Linking (Cxl) On Porcine Corneas, Julianni Dar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Corneal cross-linking is a clinical procedure that is known to stop the progression of keratoconus, an eye disease that affects the cornea’s structure, ultimately leading to vision loss in its advanced stages. The typical treatment plan includes riboflavin and UV-A exposure in the hope to increase the mechanical properties of the cornea. There are two types of CXL pathways, with Type-II CXL requiring oxygen. Naturally, the dissolved oxygen is limited in the cornea; therefore, limiting the effect of Type-II CXL. This study proposes to improve the Type-II CXL contribution by integrating dissolved oxygen during the standard CXL treatment used in …

Automotive Sensor Fusion Systems For Traffic Aware Adaptive Cruise Control, Jonah T. Gandy

Theses and Dissertations

The autonomous driving (AD) industry is advancing at a rapid pace. New sensing technology for tracking vehicles, controlling vehicle behavior, and communicating with infrastructure are being added to commercial vehicles. These new automotive technologies reduce on road fatalities, improve ride quality, and improve vehicle fuel economy. This research explores two types of automotive sensor fusion systems: a novel radar/camera sensor fusion system using a long shortterm memory (LSTM) neural network (NN) to perform data fusion improving tracking capabilities in a simulated environment and a traditional radar/camera sensor fusion system that is deployed in Mississippi State’s entry in the EcoCAR Mobility …

Mechanical Property Relationships Of Cement Or Lime Stabilized Soils Throughout A Pavement's Life, Leigh E.W. Ayers

Theses and Dissertations

Soil-cement is an integral part of pavement design, especially in areas that are aggregate deprived, such as Mississippi. Current designs are reliant on the relationship of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) to other mechanical properties. The other properties discussed in this dissertation are Modulus of Elasticity (E), Indirect Tensile Strength (St), and Modulus of Rupture (MOR). This dissertation includes a comprehensive review of past design methods and mechanical property relationships. While some mechanical property relationships were shown to be well understood (i.e. St to UCS), others were not as accurate, especially for the later life mechanical properties (i.e. MOR to UCS …

Scalable Deeper Graph Neural Networks For High-Performance Materials Property Prediction, Sadman Sadeed Omee, Steph-Yves Louis, Nihang Fu, Lai Wei, Sourin Dey, Rongzhi Dong, Qinyang Li, Jianjun Hu

Faculty Publications

Machine-learning-based materials property prediction models have emerged as a promising approach for new materials discovery, among which the graph neural networks (GNNs) have shown the best performance due to their capability to learn high-level features from crystal structures. However, existing GNN models suffer from their lack of scalability, high hyperparameter tuning complexity, and constrained performance due to over-smoothing. We propose a scalable global graph attention neural network model DeeperGATGNN with differentiable group normalization (DGN) and skip connections for high-performance materials property prediction. Our systematic benchmark studies show that our model achieves the state-of-the-art prediction results on five out of six …

A Drift-Flux Model For Upward Two-Phase In Pipes With High Velocity Flows, Woochan Lee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study proposes the evaluation and development of a drift-flux model for upward two-phase high-velocity flow in large diameter pipes. A case where the proposed model is applicable is WCD (Worst-Case-Discharge) calculations for offshore wells. WCD assumes relatively larger pipe diameters and higher flow rates than the flow experiments at laboratory conditions utilized to validate and develop most of the flow models available in the literature.

Most of the two-phase flow models describe flow regime transitions as discrete processes by assigning the required void fraction or velocity for each flow regime transition. Therefore, for each flow regime, flow-regime-dependent correlations or …

Transformer Fault Event Detection And Classification Using Pmus, Yadunandan Paudel

Theses and Dissertations

Transformer is one of the most reliable components in an electric power system, however its failure has huge opportunity costs for an electric utility. In this work, we detect transformer electrical faults promptly and accurately classify the fault types using voltage/current data from Phasor Measurement Units. Our work can also eliminate uncertainties which are inherent in traditional transformer fault diagnostic techniques like dissolved gas analysis. In this thesis, first, possible causes of transformer failures are discussed, and four common transformer electrical faults are identified. Second, a comprehensive simulation model for electrical faults is developed. Third, fast and efficient abrupt change …

Modeling Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Problems With Applications In Last Mile Delivery And School Safety Assessment, Ayat Alrahahleh

Theses and Dissertations

The last-mile delivery option has become a focal point of academic research and industrial development in recent years. Multiple factors such as increased demands on delivery flexibility, customer requirements, delivery urgency, and many others are enforcing to adopt this option. For fulfilling this paradigm shift in delivery and providing additional flexibility, drones can be considered as a viable option to use for last-mile delivery cases. Numerous drones are available in the market with varying capacities and functionalities, posing a significant challenge for decision-makers to select the most appropriate drone type for a specific application. For this purpose, this study proposes …

Structural Sizing Of Post-Buckled Thermally Stressed Stiffened Panels, Walid Arsalane

Theses and Dissertations

Design of thermoelastic structures can be highly counterintuitive due to design-dependent loading and impact of geometric nonlinearity on the structural response. Thermal loading generates in-plane stresses in a restrained panel, but the presence of geometric nonlinearity creates an extension-bending coupling that results in considerable transverse displacement and variation in stiffness characteristics, and these affects are enhanced in post-bucking regimes. Herein a methodology for structural sizing of thermally stressed post-buckled stiffened panels is proposed and applied for optimization of the blade and hat stiffeners using a gradient-based optimizer. The stiffened panels are subjected to uniform thermal loading and optimized for minimum …

Impact Of Climate Oscillations/Indices On Hydrological Variables In The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer., Meena Raju

Theses and Dissertations

The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer (MRVAA) is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the United States. The main objectives of this research are to identify long term trends and change points in hydrological variables (streamflow and rainfall), to assess the relationship between hydrological variables, and to evaluate the influence of global climate indices on hydrological variables. Non-parametric tests, MMK and Pettitt’s tests were used to analyze trend and change points. PCC and Streamflow elasticity analysis were used to analyze the relationship between streamflow and rainfall and the sensitivity of streamflow to rainfall changes. PCC and MLR analysis …

Phase-Field Simulations Of The Precipitation Kinetics And Microstructure Development In Nickel-Based Superalloys, Caleb O. Yenusah

Theses and Dissertations

The continual research and development of nickel-based superalloys is driven by the global demand to improve efficiency and reduce emissions in the aerospace and power generation industries. Integrated Computational Material Engineering (ICME) is a valuable tool for reducing the cost, time, and resources necessary for the development and optimization of the mechanical properties of materials. In this work, an ICME approach for understanding the microstructure development and optimizing the mechanical properties in nickel-based superalloys is employed. Most nickel-based superalloys are precipitate strengthened by either the γ’ phase, γ” phase, or both. Therefore, understanding the precipitation kinetics and morphological evolution of …

A Harmonic Radar System For Honey Bee Tracking To Better Understand Colony Collapse Disorder, William B. Woo

Theses and Dissertations

Honey bees are some of the most important pollinators for agriculture in the world and are pivotal to the health of worldwide ecosystems. Like all insects, bees struggle with exposure to parasites, diseases, and other environmental factors that can negatively affect the overall health of the colony. Recently, a new unexplainable phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been wreaking havoc on bee populations worldwide. As a result, a system capable of tracking bees is required to understand the different contributions of chemicals, parasites, etc. to CCD. This research seeks to show data supporting the development of systems for an …

Challenges And Signal Processing Of High Strain Rate Mechanical Testing, Barae Lamdini

Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic testing provides valuable insight into the behavior of materials undergoing fast deformation. During Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar testing, stress waves are measured using strain gauges as voltage variations that are usually very small. Therefore, an amplifier is required to amplify the data and analyze it. One of the few available amplifiers designed for this purpose is provided by Vishay Micro-Measurements which limits the user’s options when it comes to research or industry. Among the challenges of implementing the Hopkinson technology in the industry are the size and cost of the amplifier. In this work, we propose a novel design of …