Engineering Commons^™

Building A Functional Cardiograph Over Four Semesters, Part 3: Estimating Heart Rate And Respiration Rate In The Time And Frequency Domains Using Matlab, Gail Baura, Francisca Fils-Aime, Vincent Chiun-Fan Chen, Leanne Kallemeyn

Engineering Science Faculty Publications

At Loyola University Chicago (LUC), all engineering courses are taught using a mandatory minimal lecture style, where the majority of course meeting time is devoted to group activities. Each activity may take place during that course meeting only, over the entire semester, or over multiple semesters. Curricular contextual threads take place over multiple semesters. One such contextual thread is the cardiograph project, whereby students build a functional cardiograph that estimates heart rate (HR) and respiration rate (RR) over four semesters (first, third, fifth, and sixth semesters). In Part III, students acquire their own electrocardiogram (ECG) using a custom motherboard, with …

Propositions For A Resilient, Post-Covid-19 Future For The Aec Industry, Hala Nassereddine, Kyung Wook Seo, Zofia K. Rybkowski, Christian Schranz, Harald Urban

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The coronavirus outbreak has challenged and continues to challenge every aspect of the supply chain within the AEC industry, forcing stakeholders to cope with increasing uncertainties and continuous change. The notion of resilience is especially salient now. While the need for the AEC industry to focus on resilience has been highlighted in recent articles, there is a need for a comprehensive discussion on what resilience means for the AEC industry and how companies can create built-in resilience. This paper takes the form of a high-level overview of where the industry is headed and aims to establish eleven propositions for a …

Assessing Intuition Used Among Undergraduate Engineering Technology And Engineering Students, Melissa Cai Shi, Therese M. Azevedo, Anne M. Lucietto

School of Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Intuition plays an essential role in decision-making and is independent of an analytical way of thinking that is considered a gut feeling. Individuals can shape their intuition, and each field of study develops a variety of skills and trains students for a way of thinking needed for that specific area. A focus on undergraduate engineering technology students and comparing them to undergraduate engineering students allows this study to examine the types of intuition used by these two groups. The Types of Intuition Scale (TIntS), an established, validated instrument, which categorizes intuition into inferential, affective, holistic abstract, and holistic big picture …

Building Services Engineering July/August 2021

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Modernization Of Scienttific Mathematics Formula In Technology, Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D, Prof. Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

Abstract
Is it true that we solve problem using techniques in form of formula? Mathematical formulas can be derived through thinking of a problem or situation. Research has shown that we can create formulas by applying theoretical, technical, and applied knowledge. The knowledge derives from brainstorming and actual experience can be represented by formulas. It is intended that this research article is geared by an audience of average knowledge level of solving mathematics and scientific intricacies. This work details an introductory level of simple, at times complex problems in a mathematical epidermis and computability and solvability in a Computer Science. …

Influencing Perceptions Of Stem Through The Best Stem Books List, Scott Bartholomew, Alexia Seymour

Faculty Publications

One day, while discussing engineering and science as potential career options with a female student, we opened a search engine and typed in “engineer” and “scientist.” However, on the first pages of image results, only one female appeared for engineering and only a few females appeared for “scientist” (see Figure 1). This disparity was disturbing—if this student never saw another person like her filling careers in STEM fields, would she ever “picture herself” in those fields?

Design For Living

DePaul Magazine

With health care increasingly moving online, DePaul has emerged as a leader in cutting-edge digital technology leveraged for the greater good. From harnessing design as a vehicle for social change to creating an app to help close racial inequity gaps in care, 21st-century advances with an eye toward Vincentian values are unfolding every day at DePaul thanks to the inventiveness and ingenuity of its faculty, staff and students.

Real Work With Real Consequences: Enlisting Community Energy Engineering As An Approach To Envisioning Engineering In Context, Michelle E. Jordan, Steve Zuiker, Wendy Wakefield, Mia Delarosa

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This study describes an illustrative case study from a year-round program that positions middle and high school youth to explore the social value of energy systems in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods. Designed to center existing youth assets, interests and values, Community Energy Engineering (CEE) frames engineering as a tool that students can enlist in order to understand and interrogate their local socio-energy system while also acting to transform it. CEE partners with Title 1 schools in Latino/a neighborhoods in the U.S. southwest. CEE situates youth community-based solar energy innovation projects as consequential, evolving in and with historically contingent engineering …

Making Makers: Tracing Stem Identity In Rural Communities, Jessie Nixon, Andy Stoiber, Erica Halverson, Michael Dando

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

In this article, we describe efforts to reduce barriers of entry to pre-college engineering in a rural community by training local teens to become maker-mentors and staff a mobile makerspace in their community. We bring a communities of practice frame to our inquiry, focusing on inbound and peripheral learning and identity trajectories as a mechanism for representing the maker-mentor experience. Through a longitudinal case study, we traced the individual trajectories of five maker-mentors over two years. We found a collection of interrelated factors present in those students who maintained inbound trajectories and those who remained on the periphery. Our research …

The Production Of Epistemic Culture And Agency During A First-Grade Engineering Design Unit In An Urban Emergent School, Heidi B. Carlone, Alison K. Mercier, Salem R. Metzger

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Primary school practices are often bound by traditions that perpetuate compliance and skills-based, decontextualized, rote memorization activities. These histories of practice, prevalent in schools serving mostly Black and Brown children, make it inordinately difficult for students to author themselves as knowledge builders (i.e., with epistemic agency), which is a form of injustice. Engineering is a potentially fertile context to support the creation of epistemic culture, whereby young students’ assets are recognized, named, and leveraged as they create and shape the group’s disciplinary knowledge. The authors investigated this potential. The primary research question was: How do first-grade students in an urban …

Adapted Tricycle 2021, Carolyn Graven, Daniel Coleman, Sebin Cho, Farhan Khan

Mechanical Engineering

This document describes and outlines the details of the senior project completed by a team of four mechanical engineering students in their final year at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The team worked with Linda Wolff at California Children’s Services to reach their main goal: to create an exercise tricycle that can be used by Savannah. Savannah is a young adult, and she needs to be able to steer, brake, and power the tricycle using almost entirely her core muscles. Over the course of the project, the team worked to design and build a safe and functional tricycle …

Inverted Fluorescence Microscope, Matthew B. Pfeiffer, Spencer George Hann, Thomas James Eggenberger, Trevor Lee Blythe

Mechanical Engineering

Team F13 is composed of Trevor Blythe, Spencer Hann, Matthew Pfeiffer, and Thomas Eggenberger. We are all majoring in mechanical engineering and in our final year of study here at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. This project is a continuation of a 2019-2020 senior project. The previous team designed and built a functioning inverted fluorescence microscope (IFM) from scratch. This device was created as a lab tool for undergraduate students to be able to perform experiments on microfluidic devices constructed in Cal Poly’s Microfabrication Laboratory. Although substantially functional, several design constraints had not yet been met. Our team has improved …

Journeyman International: Dwell Being Jonestown, Mississippi, Autumn Wagner

Architectural Engineering

Journeyman International is a non-profit organization that works with countries all over the world to support humanitarian projects by pairing clients with design professionals and volunteers to oversee the design and construction of projects. This specific project partners with Third Lens Ministries and But God Ministries, two organizations that are hoping to empower the community in Jonestown, Mississippi. Dwell Being promotes sustainability and affordable housing in a new housing community in Jonestown that is designed for healthy living and community interaction. Jonestown is a very small 0.4 square acre town that has roots in systemic racism and oppression. A once …

Frequency Domain Measurements Of Melt Pool Recoil Force Using Modal Analysis, Tristan Cullom, Cody Lough, Nicholas Altese, Douglas Bristow, Robert Landers, Ben Brown, Troy Hartwig, Andrew Barnard, Jason Blough, Kevin Johnson, Edward Kinzel

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Recoil pressure is a critical factor affecting the melt pool dynamics during Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) processes. Recoil pressure depresses the melt pool. When the recoil pressure is low, thermal conduction and capillary forces may be inadequate to provide proper fusion between layers. However, excessive recoil pressure can produce a keyhole inside the melt pool, which is associated with gas porosity. Direct recoil pressure measurements are challenging because it is localized over an area proportionate to the laser spot size producing a force in the mN range. This paper reports a vibration-based approach to quantify the recoil force exerted …

Stem Education In The Early Childhood Classroom, Julia Biagiotti

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This qualitative study focuses on the type of STEM education students are getting at the early childhood level (PK-2). Based on gaps found in literature, an interview protocol was created and six participants with various careers in the field of STEM education were interviewed. The research was concentrated on trying to determine what components of STEM education make it successful in the early childhood classroom. All of the interview responses were analyzed and coded and determined the results found below. A few integral parts of a successful STEM education seem to be curiosity, asking questions and a hands-on component, but …

Sound Resonance And Damping In Cylindrical Cavities, Rebecca Barry

Engineering & Physics Student Scholarship

Major: Physics
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Erich Gust, Engineering and Physics

We have measured the resonant frequencies and widths of sound resonances in gases in a cylindrical cavity over a wide range of cavity lengths and pressures. The resonance widths, which are related to the decay rate of sound vibrations, show an interesting non-trivial dependence on the frequency of the resonance. The purpose of this project was to quantify these variations in Nitrogen, Argon and Helium gases. This data will serve as a reference for future applications of the apparatus to viscosity measurement and gas identification.

Contributing To Engineering Colleges Students' Development Through Out-Of-Class Involvement: A Survey Of Chinese Private Colleges' Engineering Students, Wanlu Li

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the primary characteristics of engineering college students’ involvement in out-of-class activities (OA) at one private college in China through the use of the translated and culturally adapted Chinese version of the Postsecondary Student Engagement Survey (PosSES 2.1). This study provides the statistical analyses of the survey data completed by 283 senior engineering students on their perceptions about their levels of involvement related to positive/negative outcomes students perceive and affective engagement. Data results showed all levels of involvement have a significant influence on positive outcomes. Besides, active involvement degree, hours, and types of …

Meta-Network Analysis Of Complex Construction Systems: Improving Project Efficiency Using Novel Computer-Based Analytic Methodology, Ethan Cummiskey

Honors Scholar Theses

The objective of this study is to build upon the framework of a meta-network approach to assessing vulnerabilities in construction projects. By viewing these complex environments as configurations of various nodes and links, it is possible to show the relationship between each entity in the project and the overall completion that is achieved from these connections. To expand upon previous studies, the vulnerabilities measured from this approach will be used to optimize the current network to eliminate any shortcoming in the project model. By investigating the congruence of different agents on the project, resources and informational nodes can be supplied …

Design And Analysis Of A Process To Convert Methanol Into Dimethyl Ether, Elisa M. White

Honors Theses

A recent economic downturn led to the loss of a contract for a company that sells methanol. The company has two options to recover some of the profit lost from the contract termination. One option is to sell the excess methanol at the spot market price, and the second option is to implement a process to convert the excess methanol into dimethyl ether. This project investigated the implementation of a process to convert the methanol from the lost contract into dimethyl ether. The process was simulated in AVEVA Process Simulation to estimate the size of equipment needed. A toller provided …

Evaluating Asct Operations For Dodge Street Corridor, Anuj Sharma, Subhadipto Poddar, Atousa Zarindast, Christopher Day

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

As Adaptive Traffic Control (ATC) is increasingly being implemented by various traffic agencies, careful evaluation is needed of the degree to which a given ATC implementation improves traffic signal performance. The present study details the evaluation of ATC for two arterial corridors in the City of Omaha, Nebraska. Several performance measures were used across two stages of ATC implementation as well as during the unanticipated COVID-19 lockdown stage.

The average travel time and variability in travel time showed that Stage 1 of ATC implementation in Omaha did not improve traffic signal performance for the study’s main corridor, Dodge Street. This …

Improving Student Success And Engagement In Virtual And Hybrid Classrooms., Sydney Fogo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following thesis examines virtual classes from the University of Louisville in the Fall 2020 semester to discover points of weakness relative to keeping students engaged in online courses. Three surveys were taken by a select group of participants over the course of the fall semester in order to collect student opinion on specific classes. Interviews were held with a subset of students from the group of participants and also with professors who taught the study’s participants in the fall of 2020. Their responses and conversations were used to determine possible areas of improvement for virtual classes. This information was …

Building Services Engineering May/June 2021

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Senior Design Capstone: Using An Engineering Design Process To Create A Sawzall Wobble Fixture For Milwaukee Tools, Tyler Moore

Honors Theses

The overall objective of this design project was to successfully design a fixture to expedite the repairs of Sawzalls at the Milwaukee Tools repairs facility in Greenwood, Mississippi. This project was executed in accordance with guidelines set forth by the Senior Capstone Design class at the University of Mississippi as well as the quality engineers sponsoring the project at Milwaukee Tools. The fixture was created utilizing an engineering design process with the goal of allowing technicians to press two Sawzall wobbles onto an angled Sawzall wobble shaft using an arbor press with just one press. By beginning with a straightforward …

Characterizing Students’ Engineering Design Strategies Using Energy3d, Jasmine Singh, Viranga Perera, Alejandra Magana, Brittany Newell

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

The goals of this study are to characterize design actions that students performed when solving a design challenge, and to create a machine learning model to help future students make better engineering design choices. We analyze data from an introductory engineering course where students used Energy3D, an open source computer-aided design software, to design a zero-energy home (i.e. a home that consumes no net energy over a period of a year). Student design actions within the software were recorded into text files. Using a sample of over 300 students, we first identify patterns in the data to assess how students …

Enercon Station Vacuum Pump Replacement, Clint Hembree, Jared D'Amico, Connor Moore, Paul Jeffrey Fontenot, Sydnee Castello, J.J. Clements

Senior Design Project For Engineers

This details the progress of the ENERCON pump replacement project as completed by the Kennesaw State University interdisciplinary senior design group. This project is a two-semester capstone effort for the engineering program at Southern Polytechnic School of Engineering, overseen by Dr. McFall during Fall 2020 and Dr. Khalid during Spring 2021 semesters. The 2020-2021 KSU Interdisciplinary Senior Design team was tasked with completing an Engineering Change Package (ECP) for existing vacuum pumps at ENERCON Station. The mechanical, electrical, and civil students worked together, performing evaluations on existing plant systems to ensure the plant could support the new vacuum pumps. By …

Quantifying Surface Morphology Of Manufactured Activated Carbon And The Waste Coffee Grounds Using The Getis-Ord-Gi* Statistic And Ripley’S K Function, Sanghoon Lee, Sukjoon Na, Olivia G. Rogers, Sungmin Youn

All Engineering Faculty Research

Activated carbon can be manufactured from waste coffee grounds via physical and/or chemical activation processes. However, challenges remain to quantify the differences in surface morphology between manufactured activated carbon granules and the waste coffee grounds. This paper presents a novel quantitative method to determine the quality of the physical and chemical activation processes performed in the presence of intensity inhomogeneity and identify surface characteristics of manufactured activated carbon granules and the waste coffee grounds. The spatial density was calculated by the Getis-Ord-Gi* statistic in scanning electron microscopy images. The spatial characteristics were determined by analyzing Ripley’s K function and complete …

Changes In Wetland Soil Processes And Ecosystem Functions Six Years After Marsh Creation In Barataria Bay, Louisiana, Erol R. Knaus

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana contains about 40% of the conterminous United States coastal and estuarine wetlands but also has the highest rates of wetland loss at around 80% of the total. Approximately 4,900 km² of coastal land in Louisiana has been lost since 1930. Our study location, Barataria Bay, has one of the highest coastal wetland erosion rates in the nation, at ∼41 km² per year; and therefore, is a high priority for wetland restoration activities. In 2014, sandy sediment dredged from the bed of the Mississippi River was placed in Barataria Bay as part of a restoration effort. Samples were …

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

Faculty Publications

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

Bs News March/April

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Moving Hands-On Mechanical Engineering Experiences Online: Course Redesigns And Student Perspectives, Jaclyn E. Johnson, Nancy B. Barr

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Hands-on lab experiences are essential for enabling students to be successful engineers, especially those who identify as kinesthetic learners. This case study describes how a Mechanical Engineering Practice course sequence was redesigned during the COVID-19 emergency transition to remote learning and examines how students responded to these changes. The remote course included videos of Graduate Teaching Assistants conducting data acquisition phases of the practice session to replace hands-on experiments. To understand student perspectives and performance, researchers reviewed approximately 400 reflective essays from Spring 2020 and compared assignment submissions between Fall 2019 and Spring 2020. Results suggest that some students perceived …