Engineering Commons^™

Urban Water Quality: Socio-Economic Distribution Of Stream Degradation, And The Influence Of Climate On Bmp Performance, Isabelle Horvath

Dissertations (1934 -)

Urban water quality impairments have long burdened urban aquatic ecosystems in a phenomenon termed “urban stream syndrome”. The symptoms of this “syndrome” include physical changes in stream morphology and water level, biologically stressed environments, and perturbations in ecosystem processes. Despite years of research and costly investments in restoration and rehabilitation, urban waterways are still plagued by degradation. Improvement in urban water quality will require multi-faceted efforts, including progress on 2 key fronts 1) increased understanding of current impairments, and 2) increased knowledge about urban stormwater infrastructure like best management practices (BMPs). Towards both topics, engineers have quantified the influence of …

Camera-Radar Sensor Fusion For Depth Estimation, Lonnie D. Chien , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Self-driving cars rely on sensors for their perception of the surrounding environment. Depth estimation provides crucial information for the control systems of autonomous vehicles, as avoiding collisions and accidents is impossible without knowledge of the 3-dimensional locations of other objects on the road. Monocular depth estimation, or depth estimation from a single camera, shows promise as a relatively inexpensive yet effective solution to the depth estimation task. Cameras, however, are limited by the image formation process in their ability to calculate 3-dimensional depth from 2-dimensional images. Traditional machine-learning models use images paired with ground-truth depth labels for training. The image-label …

Model For Movement Classification Of The Bicep, Youssef Kharrat , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This project introduces a classification model whose purpose is the distinction between the two possible movements done by the bicep; namely flexion and rotation. Surface EMG data was collected using the MIKROE-2621. It was later sampled from Analog to Digital by a Nucleo 401-RE board at 200 Hz. To generate the dataset, I connected the apparatus to my arm and performed the movements a total number of 300 times. This data was later analyzed and a choice of features were made that eventually was fed into MATLAB Classification Learner. A Support Vector Machine performed best and was able to classify …

Web Scraping Mlb Statistics To Predict Player Salaries Based On Performance, Alexander J. Schoessler , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Crum Woods Boardwalk, Emily C. Van Assendelft , '23, Jonah D. Ring , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This project combines civil and environmental engineering concepts to design, test, and construct a boardwalk in the Crum Woods in order to improve the Crum Woods trail system for the broader Swarthmore community. This project is motivated by a dedication to serve Swarthmore’s community, an appreciation for the Crum Woods trails as cross country runners, and past work experience on conservation crews. The goal is to make the Crum Woods’ trails more sustainable and less susceptible to erosion.

The area of focus for this project is a section of trail that commonly floods and becomes too muddy for use, causing …

Language As A Factor In Aviation Accidents And Serious Incidents: A Handbook For Accident Investigators Ed. 3, Elizabeth Mathews, Joan Carson, Anthony Brickhouse, Enrique Valdes

Handbooks

In an increasingly multicultural and multilingual aviation industry, it is important that accident investigators understand the complex role of language in maintaining safe operations. This Handbook supports investigators to systematically identify language factors in aviation accidents and serious incidents.

Embroidered Calculator, Judith Weng Zhu , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

A calculator was designed with textiles and embroidering techniques. The surface of the calculator is made of fabric and the keypad is made out of embroidered conductive thread. The inputs and calculations are displayed on an OLED screen display. All controls and calculations are operated by a FLORA microcontroller, which was coded through Arduino IDE. The entire calculator is powered by three AAA batteries. Users will be able to input numbers (0 to 9) and four different operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) by pressing the embroidered keys, which work through capacitive touch. Numbers can be modified to be positive …

Agen/Bsen 112 Final Project: Moving And Temperament Of Cattle, Elly Vo, Taetum Baxa, Ved Patel, Brady Giles, Tami M. Brown-Brandl, Rossana Villa-Rojas

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

Cattle movement and weather may affect the body temperature of cows which in turn affects their natural behavior and can influence their metabolism. Cattle take several days to resume their normal eating patterns after being overheated, and that can affect dairy production. This project was assigned to study the effect of temperament (calm vs excitable) and evaporative cooling on the body temperature of moving animals to optimize the environmental conditions around the cattle and consequently, dairy production.

The project began with processing of a data set from Tami Brown-Brandl who was the client/adviser for the group. The data contained the …

Systems Thinking As A Method For Leveraging Smart Classrooms, Jazmyne V. Del Hierro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Digital technologies have revolutionized enterprises across our personal lives, and most major industries. The digital transformation can be considered a strategic response to digital trends (Vial, 2019), encompassing substantial changes in society and industry caused by technology development (Taj, et al., 2010). It is a complex journey that needs to be guided by clear strategy. Digital transformation is more about people, than it is about technology (Frankiewiczz, B., 2020). It requires organizational changes that are backed by leadership and driven by challenges to culture (Abbu, H., 2022). Digital transformation requires leaders to build trust (Mugge, Abbu, and Gudergan 2021; Gudergan …

Grid Independence Studies Of Eddy-Resolving Models At The Scale Of A River Reach Along A Transect In Marble Canyon Of The Colorado River, Arizona, Rosa Elena España Urresty

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study presented a novel approach for evaluating the impact of changes in spatial resolution on field-scale models to identify turbulent flow patterns in hydraulic features in canyon-bound rivers. The methodological framework incorporated seven different computational domain resolutions to analyze the sensitivity of field-scale models to spatial resolution changes by employing techniques such as turbulent kinetic energy spectrum, spatiotemporal analysis of eddy structures, divergent Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, Nash-Sutcliffe (NS) model efficiency coefficient, wavelet power spectrum, and GCI calculation. Statistical and physical-based skill metrics are employed to quantifying information loss to evaluate a set of domain resolutions. Grid independence studies have …

Transfer Learning, Model Interpretation, And Dataset Bias Analysis For Automated Violence Detection From Video, Erik Clemens

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Many communities have installed surveillance cameras in an effort to deter and respond to violence.Due to the difficulty of constantly monitoring such camera feeds, these systems are rarely used to provide real-time information. To enable rapid alerts and information for first responders, this thesis develops a proof-of-concept system capable of automatically detecting violence from video footage. This system is developed by fine-tuning a convolutional neural network that has previously demonstrated success on general action recognition tasks. This thesis explores two new techniques to improve the accuracy of the fine-tuned model. The first is a data augmentation technique that generates aspect …

Soot Formation And Ignition Characteristics Of Gasoline/Ethanol Fuel Blends Using A Rapid Compression Machine, Joseph Richard Keller Gross

Master's Theses (2009 -)

With the growing societal concern toward vehicle emissions, renewableforms of fuel are garnering increased interest in the fuel research world. While electrification is prevalent amongst the light duty sector, many challenges arise for such type of powerplant in heavy duty vehicles. Further, current heavy duty mixing-controlled combustion uses diesel fuel, which produces significant black carbon emissions in the exhaust. Alcohol fuels from biological sources serve as a promising source ofrenewable energy for heavy duty engines. The soot emissions and thermodynamic properties of ethanol/gasoline blended fuels must be understood and quantified in order to develop heavy duty combustion engine technology capable …

Seismically Induced Column Buckling In Special Concentrically Braced Frames In Steel Buildings, Noah Meisner

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Special concentrically braced frames (SCBFs) are efficient lateral-force-resisting systems that are specifically detailed for steel buildings in regions with high seismic hazard. Current design standards for SCBFs intend to ensure inelastic deformation capacity through strict ductile and capacity-based design requirements. Braces are intended to yield in tension and buckle in compression to dissipate seismic energy. The current standards apply expected brace forces to all framing elements and connections to concentrate yielding in the braces. In these standards it is conservatively assumed that brace yielding and buckling simultaneously occur on all stories, and columns are designed considering the accumulated brace demands …

Design, Realization, And Verification Of A Planar, Tendon-Driven, Variable Stiffness Finger, Allison Goetz

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Traditional robotic manipulators are designed for accurate absolute positioning and require a highly structured environment to perform simple operations. They are unable to compensate for small discrepancies in the relative positioning of the robot end-effector with respect to its environment. A task-appropriate compliance allows a robotic manipulator to compensate for small discrepancies in the position or orientation of an object when the object is constrained. A better means of realizing task-appropriate structured compliant behavior is needed to allow a robot to perform dexterous manipulation.In this thesis, three agonist-antagonist variable stiffness actuators (VSAs) are used to independently control the joint stiffnesses …

Effect Of Storage Condition On Penetration Threshold Of Porcine Skin Tissue, Jared Michael Koser

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Buried blast explosions create small projectiles which can become lodged in the tissue of personnel as far away as hundreds of meters. Without appropriate treatment, these lodged projectiles can become a source of infection and prolonged injury to soldiers in modern combat. Human cadavers can be used as surrogates for living humans for ballistic penetration testing, but human cadavers are frozen during transport and storage. The process of freezing and thawing the tissue before testing may change the biomechanical properties of the tissue. The goal of the current study was to investigate the effect of tissue storage on penetration threshold …

Usage Of Drone For Building Facade Inspection, Sahara Adhikari

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The taller the building the higher the risk caused by pieces breaking off from the building façade. 13 major cities in the USA have regulations that mandate building façade inspected by a certified professional as per regulations imposed by local authority. Conventional ways of inspecting build facades are manual contact methods where a certified professional inspects the building façade with the help of scaffolding, mobile cranes, or monorails. Visual inspections with contact methods face several challenges, including poor safety, productivity, and reliability. The results of visual inspection can be reliable when dealing with small structures with easily visible parts, but …

Biodegradable Preformed Particle Gel (Ppg) Made Of Natural Chitosan Material For Water Shut-Off Application, Reem Elaf, Ahmed Ben Ali, Mohammed Saad, Ibnelwaleed A. Hussein, Hassan Nimir, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Oil and Gas Extraction Frequently Produces Substantial Volumes of Produced Water, Leading to Several Mechanical and Environmental Issues. Several Methods Have Been Applied over Decades, Including Chemical Processes Such as In-Situ Crosslinked Polymer Gel and Preformed Particle Gel, Which Are the Most Effective Nowadays. This Study Developed a Green and Biodegradable PPG Made of PAM and Chitosan as a Blocking Agent for Water Shutoff, Which Will Contribute to Combating the Toxicity of Several Commercially Used PPGs. the Applicability of Chitosan to Act as a Crosslinker Has Been Confirmed by FTIR Spectroscopy and Observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy. Extensive Swelling Capacity …

Laboratory Comparative Study Of Anionic And Cationic High-Viscosity Friction Reducers In Moderate To Extremely High Total Dissolved Solids Environments, Xiaojing Ge, Abdulmohsin Imqam

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

High-Viscosity Friction Reducers (HVFRs) Have Been Recently Gaining More Attention and Increasing in Use, Not Only as Friction-Reducing Agents But Also as Proppant Carriers. Reusing Produced Water Has Also Been Driven by Both Environmental and Economic Benefits. Currently, Most Friction Reducers on the Market Are Anionic Friction Reducers, Which Are Fully Compatible with Most Produced Water with Low to Medium Level of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) But Show a Significant Drop at High TDS Conditions in Terms of their Friction Reduction Performance in Most Cases. on the Contrary, Cationic Friction Reducers Are Believed to Have Better TDS Tolerance and Friction …

Considerable Factors In Determining The Sustainability Benefits Of The Demolition Of An Existing Structure For A New Build And Of The Renovation Of An Existing Structure, Dev Boyd Hippenstiel

Construction Management

The decision between whether to demolish or renovate a building comes down to which one will satisfy the owner’s needs and objectives while remaining within budget. This project will identify factors in determining sustainability benefits between a completely new construction project that demolishes the existing structure prior to rebuilding and a renovation project that reuses some or all of the existing structure. Research on construction data, interviews conducted with leading industry members, and journals that reported on both these strategies are presented. This project will examine considerations that reduce the demolition’s negative impact on the environment and improve the overall …

Designing Safety Vests To Fit Women, Claire Peters

Construction Management

This paper focuses on the design and construction of safety vests for women, particularly in XS and XXL sizes. Safety vests are an essential piece of protective equipment worn by individuals working in environments requiring high visibility for safety reasons. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) develop safety vest standards to ensure 360-degree visibility of workers, but these standards create limitations in manufacturer’s abilities to create a well-fitted vest for women of smaller stature, particularly in the sizes between XXS and S, as the required square inches of material result in a baggy …

Drinking Water Contaminants: Bacteria, Bruce I. Dvorak, Becky O. Schuerman

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Testing drinking water for fecal bacteria or Escherichia coli (E. coli) is commonly used as an indicator of the presence of pathogenic microorganisms. The presence of pathogenic (disease-causing) microorganisms is a concern when considering the safety of drinking water. Pathogenic microorganisms can cause flu-like systems, intestinal infections, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid fever, cholera, and other illnesses.

Computational Fluid Dynamics Model Of Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy., Olivia Cooney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is a procedure that targets abdominal tumors in the intraperitoneal space. During the procedure, chemotherapy heated to 40-43^oC is cycled through the abdomen for 1 to 2 hours. Although a majority of studies have focused on clinical outcomes, the dynamics of the intra-abdominal flow remain poorly understood. Consequently, it has been difficult to gauge the tumor targeting efficacy, which depends critically on temperature and chemotherapy flow rates. This study establishes a computational framework to evaluate the dynamics of fluid flow during HIPEC, with the goal to enable optimization of tumor drug exposure. A computer …

Metabolomic Differentiation Of Tumor Core And Edge In Glioma., Mary E. Baxter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glioma is one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer. It has been shown that the microenvironments differ significantly between the core and edge regions of glioma tumors. This study obtained metabolomic profiles of glioma core and edge regions using paired glioma core and edge tissue samples from 27 human patients. Data was acquired by performing liquid-liquid metabolite extraction and 2DLC-MS/MS on the tissue samples. In addition, a boosted generalized linear machine learning model was employed to predict the metabolomic profiles associated with O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation.

A panel of 66 metabolites was found to be statistically significant …

Robotic Arm Extrusion End Effector, Nicholas Viamin, David Blouin, Savannah Hunt, Nico Figueroa

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

This senior design project aims to enhance the capabilities of the Rotrics AIO Desktop Arm (Dexarm) by designing and implementing an extrusion device capable of smooth and consistent extrusion for 3D printing applications. The project focused on ensuring safety, affordability, and ease-of-use for users, while achieving precise control over the extrusion process. Various mechanical and electrical components were carefully selected to ensure compatibility with the Dexarm and to provide optimal performance. To maintain safety, extensive testing and risk assessments were conducted to minimize any potential hazards associated with the extrusion process. To achieve smooth and consistent extrusion, precise control mechanisms …

Neurogen: Eeg And Near-Infrared Light Stimulation Control System, Arnold Nieto, Jaylinn Solis, Matthew Tamanaha

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Light stimulation or transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) therapy has been shown to be effective when treating patients suffering neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. While there is currently no cure, light stimulation can help alleviate symptoms for those patient’s suffering from these diseases. With this in mind, the senior design team from last year began a prototype hybrid electroencephalography (EEG) and tPBM device. They implemented a specific wavelength of 810 nanometer (nm) near-infrared (NIR) light emitting diodes (LEDs), with a 16 channel EEG headset from OpenBCI. The device was intended to serve as a potential research tool, with a …

Targeting Lncrna Ddit4-As1 Sensitizes Triple Negative Breast Cancer To Chemotherapy Via Suppressing Of Autophagy, Ting Jiang, Jiaojiao Zhu, Shilong Jiang, Zonglin Chen, Ping Xu, Rong Gong, Changxin Zhong, Yueying Cheng, Xinyuan Sun, Wenjun Yi, Jinming Yang, Wenhu Zhou, Yan Cheng

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

In this study, it is found that the lncRNA, DNA damage inducible transcript 4 antisense RNA1 (DDIT4-AS1), is highly expressed in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell lines and tissues due to H3K27 acetylation in the promoter region, and promotes the proliferation, migration, and invasion of TNBC cells via activating autophagy. Mechanistically, it is shown that DDIT4-AS1 induces autophagy by stabilizing DDIT4 mRNA via recruiting the RNA binding protein AUF1 and promoting the interaction between DDIT4 mRNA and AUF1, thereby inhibiting mTOR signaling pathway. Furthermore, silencing of DDIT4-AS1 enhances the sensitivity of TNBC cells to chemotherapeutic agents such as paclitaxel both …

Spin Mediated Topological Black Hole In Acoustic Metamaterials Near Dirac-Like Cone Frequencies., Mustahseen Mobashwer Indaleeb

Theses and Dissertations

A unique bulk-boundary distinction and acoustic topological phenomena is discovered and explained in this dissertation. The overall objective was to discover the hidden physics, dynamic and mechanics of acoustic wave behavior that causes the formation of extremely rare ‘Topologically protected Black Hole’ (TBH) in acoustic microarchitecture metamaterials. This behavior is immensely valuable for numerous mechanical and civil engineering applications where acoustic insulators are required to create sound-free or vibration-free exterior surfaces. On the other hand, to contain the energy within the structure, for impact mitigation and energy absorption in vehicles, space crafts, aircrafts, and civil infrastructures such materials will be …

Semantics-Based Data Security Models, Theppatorn Rhujittawiwat

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we studied how an adversary could attack databases and how the system could prevent or recover from such an attack. Our motivation to improve the current security capabilities of database management systems. We provided better recovery capabilities of database management systems by incorporating data provenance. We also expand our study to express security and privacy needs of data in the Internet of Things (IoT) environments such as a smart home environment. For this, we proposed a stream data security model to theoretically represent the data in the IoT network. We built a dynamic authorization model on our …

High-Performance Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Power Modules Enabled By Advanced Two-Phase Mini-Channel Cooling, Bo Tian

Theses and Dissertations

There is a widespread need for high performance wide bandgap power modules in both commercial and military applications. However, given the rapid advancements of wide bandgap power module technology, conventional cooling solutions have not kept up and do not provide the thermal management performance needed for high power density. Based on the two-phase cooling approach, two-phase microchannels operating at low fluid flow rates with low pressure drops have huge potential in enabling higher power density applications. Several studies have illustrated the potential great advantages of two-phase cooling compared to single-phase cooling in terms of maximum device temperature, spatial thermal distribution …

Deep Learning Based Fault Diagnosis And Prognosis For Bearing, Guangxing Niu

Theses and Dissertations

Rolling element bearings are critical components in industrial rotating machines. Faults and failures of bearings can cause degradation of machine performance or even a catastrophe. Therefore, it is significant work to perform bearing fault diagnosis and prognosis (FDP) reliably and effectively. Diagnosis aims to detect and estimate the fault state of bearing in real-time. Prognosis aims to conduct a long-term prediction to predict the fault evolution and estimate the remaining useful life (RUL) of the bearing.

Deep learning (DL) based FDP methods have become an important branch of bearing FDP methods due to their powerful capabilities in feature automatic learning, …