Engineering Commons^™

Slo Children’S Museum Music Education Exhibit, Charles Coffen, Madeline Carleton-Sniff, Yael Castillo, Anthony Ramos

Mechanical Engineering

The Children’s Museum in San Luis Obispo is a non-profit facility providing education to young children through interactive exhibits. The proposed project would address a basic introduction to musical theory through mechanical engineering principles. The target audience for this musical art installation would be young children, aged 5-10, who would be regularly interacting with this exhibit, as well as their parents, and the employees of the museum. The installation will educate children in basic musical understanding through interaction while still being engaging enough to hold their attention. This document describes the final concept design and various methods of verification in …

Two-Dimensional Quantum Material Identification Via Self-Attention And Soft-Labeling In Deep Learning, Xuan Bac Nguyen, Apoorva Bisht, Benjamin Thompson, Hugh O.H. Churchill, Khoa Luu, Samee U. Khan

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Detecting two-dimensional (2D) materials in silicon chips presents a significant challenge in the field of quantum machines due to the difficulty of data collection. Specifically, among thousands of flakes, not all flakes are useful or well-annotated, resulting in noisy and hard samples within the dataset, which challenges the deep neural network (DNN) to learn. To address this problem, we propose a novel method for identifying quantum 2D flakes even when there is a high rate of missing annotations in the input images. In particular, we first propose a new mechanism for automatically detecting false negative flakes that are missing annotations. …

Scene Decomposed Blind Deconvolution And Neural Network Based Multi-Frame Image Restoration Techniques For Astronomical Imagery, Joshua S. Sprang

Theses and Dissertations

Ground based astronomical imaging is an important method in gaining situational awareness of orbiting and far off objects in space. This method of imaging is accessible to everyone that can look up into the sky, but the accessibility to digital telescope systems allows for more exciting methods of extracting information. A use case for these telescopes is finding nearby objects to larger brighter known objects. The number satellites in low-earth orbit and geosynchronous earth orbit is becoming more congested as these orbits increase in population. Tens of thousands of satellites and debris now exist in this orbit, with the number …

Improving Military Medical Evacuation System Performance Via Stochastic Optimization, Virbon B. Frial

Theses and Dissertations

This research highlights the importance of improving the performance of military medical evacuation systems to reduce the risk of permanent disability or death among service members in deployed environments. We employ a range of stochastic optimization techniques relating to integer programming, Markov decision process, approximate dynamic programming, and machine learning, as appropriate, to gain insights into factors that contribute to improving system performance.

Integrating Blockchain Technology Into The Software Development Life Cycle To Satisfy The Software Bill Of Materials Requirement For Government Software Systems, Walter T. Scott Ii

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the integration of Blockchain Technology (BT) into the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to satisfy the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) requirement for government software systems. This study begins by synthesizing a standard SDLC definition from various government and industry references, which may provide the foundation for future efforts to standardize software development practices across the government software development community. This study proceeds to define working definitions for the software supply chain (SSC) and software supply chain management (SCM) before introducing and detailing the SBOM requirement as well as providing an overview of prior research regarding SBOMs …

An Analysis Of Electrical Energy Resilience Technologies As Applied To Air Force Operations, Eric D. Danko

Theses and Dissertations

An analysis of 46 Resilient Energy Devices and Technology Concepts was conducted to determine their suitability for use in supporting Air Force Operations both at home station and abroad. The research consisted of two endeavors: an extensive literature review and a rank-ordering matrix. The dual nature of the efforts was designed to maximize usability and understanding for the End User, who may not be familiar with some principles of energy technologies, resilience, or design. The results showed the superiority of novel Solid (Metal) Fuels and Lead-Acid Batteries for Energy Storage and Thermoelectric Generators, Solar Photovoltaic Panels, Geothermal Extraction, Diesel Generators, …

Autonomous Experimentation For Accelerated Calibration Of Fused Deposition Modeling 3d Printers, Graig S. Ganitano

Theses and Dissertations

Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, has emerged as a key component of Industry 4.0, enabling reduced cost, quick production, greater sustainability, and increased design complexity compared to its traditional manufacturing counterpart. Currently, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology dominates the AM market with respect to the number of 3D printers in use. However, the FDM process is sensitive to changes in system configuration, especially the feedstock material. Utilizing a new feedstock requires a time-consuming trial-and-error process to identify optimal settings for a large number of process parameters, acting as a barrier to the technology.

To enable greater accessibility …

Optimal Placement Of Artificial Hair-Cell Airflow Sensors For Bioinspired Flight-By-Feel, Alex C. Hollenbeck

Theses and Dissertations

The Sparse Sensor Placement Optimization for Prediction (SSPOP) algorithm reduces highdimensional airflow data to a low-dimensional sparse approximation to identify an optimal placement for any number of sensors on airfoil or wing models of arbitrary shape and size, and outperforms conventional optimization techniques in accuracy and speed. For 2D flow this algorithm found a sensor placement solution (design point, or DP) which predicts AoA to within 0.10 degrees and ranks within the top 1 percent of the design space. On 3D wing models SSPOP found four-sensor DPs ranked well within the top 0.10 percent. Experimental validation with velocity and pressure …

Guidance, Navigation, And Control For Multi-Agent Inspection Of An Unknown Space Object, Mark R. Mercier

Theses and Dissertations

On-orbit inspection is a rapidly growing mission that enables extending the life of aging legacy space systems through refueling, replacing, or upgrading components. For an inspection operation, multiple agents taking observations simultaneously can more quickly map an RSO and assure an inspection is complete regardless of RSO dynamics. A multi-agent guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) scheme must be designed with cooperation in mind to achieve inspection objectives, while leveraging the unique capabilities of a distributed inspection system. This work splits the GNC system into two parts composed of an offline guidance scheme for translational reference trajectory generation and an online …

Machine Visual Perception For Autonomous Docking Maneuvers, Derek B. Worth

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a novel approach to autonomous docking using machine learning for visual perception, particularly during probe and drogue aerial refueling. Autonomous vehicles have become pervasive in both civilian and defense sectors, and their ability to interact with their surroundings and each other autonomously is critical for future operations. Traditional methods relying on signals or inertial sensors face significant limitations such as interference, jamming, and drift. This research focuses on developing a computer vision-based solution to overcome these limitations. A novel pipeline, termed relative vectoring, is introduced, which utilizes dual object detection and machine learning to estimate relative positions …

Aligning Human And Computational Coherence Evaluations, Jia Peng Lim, Hady Wirawan Lauw

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Automated coherence metrics constitute an efficient and popular way to evaluate topic models. Previous work presents a mixed picture of their presumed correlation with human judgment. This work proposes a novel sampling approach to mining topic representations at a large scale while seeking to mitigate bias from sampling, enabling the investigation of widely used automated coherence metrics via large corpora. Additionally, this article proposes a novel user study design, an amalgamation of different proxy tasks, to derive a finer insight into the human decision-making processes. This design subsumes the purpose of simple rating and outlier-detection user studies. Similar to the …

Enhancing Multi-Agent System Testing With Diversity-Guided Exploration And Adaptive Critical State Exploitation, Xuyan Ma, Yawen Wang, Junjie Wang, Xiaofei Xie

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Multi-agent systems (MASs) have achieved remarkable success in multi-robot control, intelligent transportation, and multiplayer games, etc. Thorough testing for MAS is urgently needed to ensure its robustness in the face of constantly changing and unexpected scenarios. Existing methods mainly focus on single-agent system testing and cannot be directly applied to MAS testing due to the complexity of MAS. To our best knowledge, there are fewer studies on MAS testing. While several studies have focused on adversarial attacks on MASs, they primarily target failure detection from an attack perspective, i.e., discovering failure scenarios, while ignoring the diversity of scenarios. In this …

Bugs In Pods: Understanding Bugs In Container Runtime Systems, Jiongchi Yu, Xiaofei Xie, Ceng Zhang, Sen Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Container Runtime Systems (CRSs), which form the foundational infrastructure of container clouds, are critically important due to their impact on the quality of container cloud implementations. However, a comprehensive understanding of the quality issues present in CRS implementations remains lacking. To bridge this gap, we conduct the first comprehensive empirical study of CRS bugs. Specifically, we gather 429 bugs from 8,271 commits across dominant CRS projects, including runc, gvisor, containerd, and cri-o. Through manual analysis, we develop taxonomies of CRS bug symptoms and root causes, comprising 16 and 13 categories, respectively. Furthermore, we evaluate the capability of popular testing approaches, …

Quantum Relaxation For Solving Multiple Knapsack Problems, Monit Sharma, Jin Yan, Hoong Chuin Lau, Rudy Raymond

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Combinatorial problems are a common challenge in business, requiring finding optimal solutions under specified constraints. While significant progress has been made with variational approaches such as QAOA, most problems addressed are unconstrained (such as Max-Cut). In this study, we investigate a hybrid quantum-classical method for constrained optimization problems, particularly those with knapsack constraints that occur frequently in financial and supply chain applications. Our proposed method relies firstly on relaxations to local quantum Hamiltonians, defined through commutative maps. Drawing inspiration from quantum random access code (QRAC) concepts, particularly Quantum Random Access Optimizer (QRAO), we explore QRAO's potential in solving large constrained …

Forgotten Topological Index And Its Properties On Neutrosophic Graphs, G. Vetrivel, M. Mullai, R. Buvaneshwari

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Topological indices play a significant role in crisp, fuzzy graphs and their real-life application. But to avoid the vagueness in the final result, these indices should be dealt with in the neutrosophic environment since it consolidates the uncertain quantity or values of an event in the name of "indeterminacy membership". Except for the wiener index, no other indices are introduced under the neutrosophic graphical setting. In this article, we consider the forgotten topological index (ToI) and the Edge forgotten index in the 3-valued logic neutrosophic graph and came up with some important theorem results and applications.

Some Operations On Neutrosophic Hypersoft Matrices And Their Applications, Jayasudha J, Raghavi S

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

This paper aims to extend the concept of Neutrosophic Hypersoft Matrix (NHSM) theory. NHSM is the matrix representation of a Neutrosophic Hypersoft Set (NHSS), where NHSS is the combination of a Neutrosophic set and a Hypersoft set. An NHSS can be stored in computer memory using the matrix notion, which is very useful and applicable. Based on NHSM, we provide some new notions (operations) such as NHS-sub-matrix, Equal NHSM, Null NHSM, Universal NHSM, Complement NHSM, NH-choice matrix (NHCM), product of NHCM and combined NHCM along with examples and characterizations. Additionally, we develop an NHSM algorithm using a value matrix, grace …

An Exponential Cone Programming Approach For Managing Electric Vehicle Charging, Li Chen, Long He, Yangfang (Helen) Zhou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

To support the rapid growth in global electric vehicle adoption, public charging of electric vehicles is crucial. We study the problem of an electric vehicle charging service provider, which faces (1) stochastic arrival of customers with distinctive arrival and departure times, and energy requirements as well as (2) a total electricity cost including demand charges, costs related to the highest per-period electricity used in a finite horizon. We formulate its problem of scheduling vehicle charging to minimize the expected total cost as a stochastic program (SP). As this SP is large-scale, we solve it using exponential cone program (ECP) approximations. …

Addressing The Effect Of Intra-Seasonal Variations In Developing Rainfall Thresholds For Landslides: An Antecedent Rainfall-Based Approach, Vishnu Chakrapani Lekha, Thomas Oommen, Snehamoy Chatterjee, Kochappi Sathyan Sajinkumar

Michigan Tech Publications

We developed a rainfall threshold model with the objective of limiting the effects of uncertainties typically associated with them, such as a lack of robust landslide database, the selection of the contributing rain gauge, seasonal variations in rainfall patterns, and the effect of extreme rainfall conditions. With the aid of gauge-corrected satellite precipitation data and a landslide database compiled from various sources, separate rainfall thresholds were developed for two waves of the monsoon season in the Western Ghats, India. The daily vs. antecedent rainfall distributions for different scenarios of antecedent rainfall were analyzed for landslide occurrence. The different scenarios considered …

Study On The Storage Stability And Rheological Property Of Bio-Oil/Lignin Composite-Modified Asphalt, Guixiu Guo, Junfeng Gao, Dongzhao Jin, Xuan Wang, Yanqiu Bi, Peng Guo

Michigan Tech Publications

The objective of this study is to investigate the storage stability and rheological property of bio-oil/lignin composite-modified asphalt. The composite-modified asphalt with different proportions of bio-oil was prepared and cured at 105 °C, 135 °C, and 165 °C for 24 h and 48 h. The storage stability of the composite-modified asphalt was evaluated based on the softening point difference, the storage stability index derived from rotational viscosity, the segregation rate based on temperature sweep, and the non-recoverable creep compliance measured through the Multiple Stress Creep Recovery test. The storage stability of bio-oil/lignin composite-modified asphalt was evaluated through testing and analysis …

Verifying An Improved Intermittent Water Distribution Network Analysis Method Based On Epa-Swmm, Dondu Sarisen, Raziyeh Farmani, David W. Watkins, Brian Barkdoll, Brian Rivers, Chao Zhang, Fayyaz Ali Memon

Michigan Tech Publications

Modelling Intermittent Water Supply (IWS) presents challenges, as traditional hydraulic methods based on EPANET are often inadequate due to their inability to simulate the network filling process. While EPA-SWMM (EPA’s Storm Water Management Model)-based methods enhance IWS analysis, they remain network-specific and lack universal applicability. This study aims to calibrate and verify an improved EPA-SWMM-based model on a 6 m × 5 m laboratory-scale IWS. Experiments were conducted to capture flow rate data from demand nodes under various conditions. The EPA-SWMM model, based on uncontrolled outlets with flow rate varying by pressure, was calibrated using, an automated procedure that integrated …

Appointment Scheduling With Delay Tolerance Heterogeneity, Shuming Wang, Jun Li, Marcus Ang, Tsan Sheng Ng

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this study, we investigate an appointment sequencing and scheduling problem with heterogeneous user delay tolerances under service-time uncertainty. We aim to capture the delay-tolerance effect with heterogeneity, in an operationally effective and computationally tractable fashion, for the appointment scheduling problem. To this end, we first propose a Tolerance-Aware Delay (TAD) index that incorporates explicitly the user-tolerance information in delay evaluation. We show that the TAD index enjoys decision-theoretical rationale in terms of Tolerance Sensitivity, Monotonicity, Convexity and Positive Homogeneity, which enables it to incorporate the frequency and intensity of delays over the tolerance in a coherent manner. Specifically, the …

Comparison Of Evolutionary Algorithms: A Case Study On The Multi-Objective Carbon-Aware Mine Planning, Nurul Asyikeen Binte Azhar, Aldy Gunawan, Shih-Fen Cheng, Erwin Leonardi

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The NP-hard precedence-constrained production scheduling problem (PCPSP) for mine planning chooses the ordered removal of materials from the mine pit and the next processing steps based on resource, geological, and geometrical constraints. Traditionally, it prioritizes the net present value (NPV) of profits across the lifespan of the mine. Yet, the growing shift in environmental concerns also requires shifts to more carbon-aware practices. In this paper, we use the enhanced multi-objective version of the generic PCPSP formulation by adding the NPV of carbon costs as another objective. We then compare how the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and the Pareto …

Validation Of Mobile Devices In Arbitrary Locations Against Force Plate Standard For Balance Assessment, German J. Ellsworth

Master's Theses

With balance assessment being essential to the prediction of fall risk and detection and assessment of motor disorders, increasing clinical accessibility to objective balance metrics is essential. Work has been done validating center of mass (COM) acceleration metrics against well regarded force plate center of pressure (COP) position standards for mobile device data acquisition systems, but most research is restricted to devices being close to the COM or strapped in a harness configuration. Through the use of rigid body kinematics and the inverted pendulum model, this study develops novel methodology for calculating COM acceleration using mobile devices in arbitrary positions, …

A Data-Driven Framework For Analyzing And Predicting Social Media Engagement During Rumor Propagation, Joseph E. Faza

Master's Theses

The spread of rumors on social media has become a significant concern, as platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter) enable rapid dissemination of unverified information. These rumors can shape public perception and behavior, making it crucial to understand the dynamics of their spread. The main objective of this study is to explore how users interact with rumor-related tweets and identify key factors that predict tweet engagement. By analyzing tweets from seven different rumor events, this research aims to uncover patterns in user engagement and provide insights into the spread of misinformation. The study utilized a dataset of tweets from …

Assessment Of Dune Change Using Historical Aerial And Satellite Photos, Topographic Surveys, And Wave Data At Toro Creek Beach, Owen D. Emerson

Master's Theses

Coastal sand dunes play an important role in the littoral processes of California’s coastline. Functioning as both source and sink for sand, these dunes often protect coastal infrastructure and provide a buffer between anthropogenic development and coastal forces. At Toro Creek Beach, north of Morro Bay California, recent extreme winter storms have raised concerns about the erosion of the sand dunes that front California State Highway 1. This thesis attempts to characterize the historical growth and recession patterns of the Toro Creek dunes since 1977, the dune movement over the 2023-2024 winter seasons, the wave forcings behind recent high erosion …

Seal Counting On Our Plages (S.C.O.O.P.), Kaanan Kharwa

Master's Theses

The Vertebrate Integrative Physiology (VIP) lab monitors the population of northern elephant seals at the largest mainland breeding colony, located at Piedras Blancas (San Simeon, CA). As the population expands, more human-seal interactions and conflicts over land use occur. The VIP lab's work informs California State Parks and helps with the management of the rookery. Currently, members of the VIP lab fly a drone over the beaches, capture multiple images, and manually count the seals, which takes around 14 to 21 hours of analysis per survey. Machine learning methods such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Region-based Convolutional Neural Networks …

Generation And Implementation Of Mixed Radiation From Laser Interactions On A Liquid Target, Benjamin M. Knight

Theses and Dissertations

The simultaneous generation of different forms of radiation from the same source is highly desirable but technically challenging. We present the generation of D-D fusion neutrons and >MeV-energy x-rays from extreme intensity (∼ 10¹⁹ W/cm² ), high repetition-rate (1 kHz) laser pulses on a thin liquid target. Total neutron fluxes of ∼ 105 neutrons/s and x-ray exposure rates up to ∼ 200 R/hr at 74 cm are measured. Evidence of D-D fusion is verified with a measurement suite including three independent neutron detection systems: an EJ-309 organic scintillator, a ³He proportional counter, and a set of 36 …

Nanofluid-Assisted Enhanced Sealing Security For Efficient Geological Hydrogen Storage In Saudi Arabian Basalt, Muhammad Ali, Nurudeen Yekeen, Sarmad Al-Anssari, Aliakbar Hassanpouryouzband, Alireza Keshavarz, Hussein Hoteit

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The modification of hydrophobic rock surfaces to the water-wet state via nanofluid treatment has shown promise in enhancing their geological storage capabilities and the efficiency of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) containment. Despite this, the specific influence of silica (SiO2) nanoparticles on the interactions between H2, brine, and rock within basaltic formations remains underexplored. The present study focuses on the effect of SiO2 nanoparticles on the wettability of Saudi Arabian basalt (SAB) under downhole conditions (323 K and pressures ranging from 1 to 20 MPa) by using the tilted plate technique to measure the contact angles between H2/brine and …

Impact Of 3d Printing Parameters On Static And Fatigue Properties Of Polylactic Acid (Pla) Bone Scaffolds, Hamed Bakhtiari, Alireza Nouri, Majid Tolouei-Rad

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In the present study, polylactic acid (PLA) scaffolds with a 60 % porosity and gyroid pore structure were 3D printed using the extrusion-based method and employing various printing parameters. The specimens were loaded under quasit-static and cyclic conditions and their mechanical behaviour were evaluated. The Taguchi method was utilized to design experiments and investigate the impact of printing parameters on the compressive properties of the scaffolds. Moreover, thermography analysis was used to examine the influence of cyclic heating during fatigue experiments. The results indicated that extrusion width was the sole variable significantly affecting the quasi-static properties of scaffolds. The largest …

Nano-Enhanced Phase Change Materials: Fundamentals And Applications, Zafar Said, A. K. Pandey, Arun Kumar Tiwari, B. Kalidasan, Furqan Jamil, Amrit Kumar Thakur, V. V. Tyagi, Ahmet Sarı, Hafiz Muhammad Ali

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) enable thermal energy storage in the form of latent heat during phase transition. PCMs significantly improve the efficiency of solar power systems by storing excess energy, which can be used during peak demand. Likewise, they also contribute to reduced overall energy demand through passive thermal regulation. Nonetheless, thermal energy charging and discharging are restricted due to the low conducting nature of the energy storage medium. Various research investigations are being carried out to improve the thermal characteristics of PCMs through techniques such as a) dispersion of nanoparticles, b) inserting fins, and c) cascading PCMs. Among the …