Engineering Commons^™

Autonomous Terrain-Mapping Robot For Search And Rescue, Soumil Joshi, Seann Calub

Electrical Engineering

This report documents the design, modular testing, and challenges faced while developing an autonomous terrain-mapping robot intended to navigate to a destination waypoint and deliver a small payload for search-and-rescue applications. The system combines a LiDAR sensor, an IMU sensor, and a Raspberry Pi 3B as the onboard processor, and an ESP32 microcontroller interfacing with motor drivers over a four-wheel chassis. A companion mobile application was developed to enable remote control and monitoring of the robot over a WiFi hotspot connection. A lithium-ion battery pack supplies power to all onboard components, with power budgets verified against component datasheets. Testing progresses …

Explainable And Hybrid Machine Learning For Predicting Fatal Crash Risk, Hussein Khanjar, Abdolmajid Erfani

Michigan Tech Publications

Road traffic fatalities remain one of the most persistent public safety challenges, demanding predictive models that are not only accurate but also reliable and interpretable. While numerous machine-learning models have been developed for crash severity prediction, most remain limited in three critical dimensions: they simplify the unit of analysis by focusing only on the driver or the most severe occupant per crash, they emphasize predictive performance while neglecting model confidence and probability calibration, and they often function as black boxes lacking interpretability for real-world decision support. To address these gaps, this study proposes a calibrated hybrid machine-learning framework for nationwide, …

Examining Data Richness In Undergraduate Students’ Reflections: A Linguistic Analysis Of Three Data Collection Methods, Kirsten A. Davis, Anne Wrobetz

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Researchers select data collection methods for a variety of reasons. In our research on experiential education programs, we perceived that when we collected students’ reflections using different methods, the data we received was different. However, we found few existing studies to help us characterize what was different across our data sets to inform our decisions about which methods to use. Thus, the purpose of our study was to compare data richness across three data sets from previous studies of engineering students studying abroad, each collected using a different method (written diaries, interviews, video diaries). We used linguistic inquiry as a …

Direct Ink Writing Of Functional Fiber/Granular Composites, Zhuoyuan Yang

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Direct ink writing provides a versatile manufacturing route for fabricating functional fiber and granular composites with controlled architecture, tunable interfaces, and customized material distributions. Fiber reinforced composites offer high stiffness, strength, fatigue resistance, and functional anisotropy, while granular composites provide scalable access to particle based structures with high material efficiency and broad resource compatibility. However, the additive manufacturing of these composite systems remains challenging. For fiber based composites, precise control of fiber placement, matrix impregnation, interfacial bonding, and freestanding deposition is difficult to achieve during printing. For granular composites, stable particle flow, controllable packing, binder infiltration, and shape retention are …

Cohesive Zone Modelling Of Fiber–Matrix Interface In Composite Materials, Arjun Myadam

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Carbon Fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are widely used in aerospace, automotive, and structural applications due to their high specific strength, stiffness, and design flexibility. Their mechanical performance is critically governed by the fiber–matrix interface which controls stress transfer and directly influences damage initiation, crack propagation, and fracture behaviour. The interface properties are quantified through the Interfacial Shear Strength (IFSS) and fracture energy, both serving as key indicators of composite integrity. Effective interfacial bonding is therefore essential to the composite’s strength. Nanoscale fiber surface modifications provide a promising approach to enhance interfacial bonding and can also impart multifunctionality. These multifunctionalities can …

Classification Of Aircraft Checklist Usability Problems Using Natural Language Processing, Borvorn Kasemtanakul

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The use of checklists has been identified as a recurring issue in aviation accident investigations, highlighting the need for continued improvement in aircraft checklist design. However, existing aviation safety taxonomies do not systematically address checklist usability problems. Therefore, a systematic classification of these problems is needed to support the extension of existing aviation safety taxonomies and to facilitate safety data analysis for checklist design improvements. Furthermore, applications of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques in aircraft checklist research remain underexplored, despite their potential to identify meaningful patterns in textual safety data.

This exploratory research aimed to develop a data-driven classification of …

Compact Cislunar Orbital Representation For Efficient Tracking In Cislunar Space, Mauro Palomo

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Expanding lunar missions require efficient, interoperable orbital tracking where existing methods fail to scale. Two-Line Elements (TLEs) lack applicability beyond geocentric regimes, while high-accuracy Orbit Ephemeris Messages (OEMs) require excessive data volumes and bandwidth to communicate. To support increased lunar traffic, this paper proposes the Compact Cislunar Orbital Representation (CCOR), providing a novel framework that strikes a balance between TLE level efficiency and OEM-level fidelity, ensuring multi-actor communication for missions in the cislunar region. By evaluating the framework across six diverse cislunar trajectories, this study demonstrates the CCOR’s robustness and ability to compress thousands of OEM state vectors into a …

Experimental-Motion-Driven Cfd Investigation Of Slosh Dynamics In Propellant Tanks Of Spacecraft And Launch Vehicles, Priyanshu Savaliya

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Liquid sloshing in partially filled propellant tanks can generate transient forces and moments that affect spacecraft and launch vehicle stability, guidance, and control. This research develops a one-way experimental-to-Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) integration framework to investigate free-surface slosh behavior under realistic excitation conditions.

The overarching goal of this thesis is to develop and evaluate a one-way experimental-motion-driven computational framework for predicting liquid slosh response in a partially filled cylindrical tank. Rather than relying on idealized sinusoidal inputs, this work uses experimentally measured actuator-feedback motion as the prescribed excitation for high-fidelity CFD. The central objective is to establish the experimental and …

A Machine-Learning-Based Systematic Framework For Modeling Compression And Recompression Indices For Florida Soils, Michael Morales

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This thesis develops a machine-learning framework for estimating the compression index and the recompression index of Florida soils from routinely measured index properties, and reports two studies that build it. Consolidation settlement design requires both indices, and both are obtained from the incremental-loading oedometer test, which occupies a specimen for one to two weeks; the index tests that accompany it are complete within hours. Empirical correlations have filled that interval since the 1950s, but their coefficients are calibrated on specific soil populations and transfer poorly between regions. The first study analyzes 376 consolidation tests compiled for the Florida Department of …

Enhancing Virtual Reality Cockpit Procedure Training With Haptic Feedback, Christian K. Jaedicke

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Pilot training is time-consuming and costly, and not all phases require full-flight simulators or actual aircraft. Virtual reality (VR) offers a potential means to reduce cost and duration while supporting practical cockpit procedure training. While prior research in the VR domain suggests that providing haptic feedback can support training of muscular control and increase perceived immersion, it remains unclear whether haptic feedback improves spatial cognition in an unfamiliar VR environment. This study examined whether haptic feedback and cockpit complexity affected response time and position error under limited-visibility, time-constrained conditions in a VR cockpit environment (i.e., a quasi-blindfold cockpit check).

Grounded …

Evaluating The Safety Efficiency Of U.S. Air Traffic Control Tower Operations Using Data Envelopment Analysis, Kenneth James Gilbert Ii

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Air traffic control (ATC) tower safety efficiency remains inadequately measured despite critical workforce challenges, including staffing shortages, training pipeline constraints, and geographic retention difficulties. This mixed-methods study developed and validated a comprehensive framework for measuring tower safety efficiency by integrating subject-matter expert insights with multi-model data envelopment analysis (DEA) across 66 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tower facilities from 2016 to 2024. Six focus group interviews with experienced professionals (100% with > 20 years of experience), averaging 96.4 minutes, identified critical efficiency factors through systematic coding, achieving substantial inter-rater reliability (Cohen's kappa 𝜅 = .68). Qualitative findings showed that staffing shortages don't …

Noise-Optimized Routes For Air Taxi, Waleed Raza

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Community noise is a primary barrier to the public acceptance and deployment of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) air taxi operations. This dissertation develops a coupled siting, routing, and noise optimization framework that links vertiport placement to its downstream acoustic consequences, demonstrated through a Daytona Beach case study. Candidate vertiports are screened and selected using accessibility, safety, demand, and feasibility criteria, and the selected sites form a directed network of 20 routes. Each trajectory is evaluated with a physics-based acoustic pipeline reporting Lmax, SEL, and EPNL at school, hospital, and residential receptors, showing that received exposure …

Optimal Integrated Cfd-Gnc Model For Drag-Based Reentry Dynamics, Sebastian Lopez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This research focuses on optimizing the control of a drag-maneuvering, Starship-class re-entry vehicle by closely integrating high-fidelity aerodynamic data derived from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, specifically using StarCCM+. The aerodynamic models, tailored to the unique geometry of a drag-maneuvering body, are seamlessly incorporated into a guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) framework. This integration enables closed-loop CFD simulations with real-time control feedback, allowing for direct analysis and optimization of vehicle stability, trajectory, and control demands throughout the re-entry process.

Building upon the work of Gaglio and Bevilacqua, this advanced CFD-GNC model introduces high-order aerodynamic effects, such as aerodynamic moments and …

Online Ppo-Based Multi-Hop Task Offloading Strategy For Vehicular Edge Computing, Wenzhu Zhang, Yuewei Bian, Fuli Xiong, Siqi Cai

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To address the problems of frequent communication link interruptions caused by dynamic network topologies and the sharp increase in computational complexity triggered by high-dimensional decision spaces in the vehicular edge computing (VEC) environment, a multi-hop task offloading strategy for VEC based on an online PPO algorithm was proposed. A multi-hop task offloading optimization model simultaneously considering link effective time, transmission rate, and computing resource constraints was constructed; a multi-hop A* path search algorithm integrating link stability and end-to-end delay was designed; an online offloading decision framework based on PPO was proposed, which transformed the 0-1 mixed integer nonlinear programming …

Improved Pbs Algorithm For Multi-Agent Path Planning Based On Conflict Guidance And Punishment Mechanism, Jinbao Zhang, Jianlin Mao, Chengze Qian, Guimi Sun, Kaixin Tong

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To address the bottleneck in which the priority-based search (priority-based search, PBS) algorithm for multi-agent path planning easily falls into conflict loops and generates invalid node expansions in complex scenarios, an improved algorithm based on conflict guidance and a punishment mechanism (improved PBS multi-agent path finding algorithm based on conflict guidance and punishment mechanism, CGP-PBS) was proposed. A conflict-guided node expansion mechanism was constructed; in high-level search, it comprehensively evaluated path cost and the number of conflicts, preferentially expanded child nodes with high potential for conflict resolution, and delayed the expansion of high-conflict nodes, thereby effectively compressing the search …

Research On Temporal Action Localization Methods For Cross-Modal Understanding, Jinwei Li, Xiaoyang Liu, Rusheng Ju

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To address the problems of insufficient localization accuracy and high model complexity in the temporal action localization (TAL) task for video-text cross-modal understanding, an anchor-free action transformer (AFAT) model was proposed. Based on the anchor-free framework, the local self-attention mechanism of Transformer was introduced to enhance the global modeling capability of temporal features. A multi-scale feature pyramid structure was combined to strengthen the representation of actions with different durations, and a lightweight predictor was adopted to reduce computational redundancy. Experimental results show that the average precision of this model on the THUMOS14 dataset is significantly improved compared with the …

How Does Competitive Adsorption Between Vma And Pce Influence Yield Stress Of Cement Paste? A Novel Insight From Interparticle Forces And Percolation Threshold, Huamin Sun, Le Teng, Xiaohan Yu, Xin Shu, Zhangli Hu, Jiaping Liu, Kamal H. Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Viscosity modifying admixture (VMA) and polycarboxylate superplasticizer (PCE) are often combined to optimize rheological properties of cement-based materials. However, the competitive adsorption of these complex admixtures can greatly influence rheological properties. Many studies have investigated the variation of yield stress due to competitive adsorption between VMA and PCE; but the mechanisms are not fully understood. This study aims to shed a new light on this question in cement paste systems prepared with low water-to-binder ratios of 0.16–0.30. The competitive adsorption of VMA and PCE was quantitatively assessed using the Total Organic Carbon and Ultraviolet-Visible Spectroscopy measurements. The effect of competitive …

Influence Of Stormwater Flooding Events On The Mobile County School District Student Population, Kadence Kali Johnston

Honors Theses

Mobile County, Alabama, receives among the highest annual rainfall totals in the United States resulting in frequent stormwater flooding that intersects with existing socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Within the Mobile County Public School System (MCPSS), 77% of students are economically disadvantaged and over 10% experience homelessness, creating heightened risk for educational disruption during flood events. This study investigates how stormwater flooding influences school attendance, closures, and academic performance across MCPSS, providing insight into how climate-driven hazards exacerbate educational inequities. The research integrates flood frequency, school performance metrics, and GIS flood-zone mapping and teacher perceptions to understand how flooding affects student learning opportunities. …

Robot Remote Control Utility, Jeremy Cantu, Paul Uhlig

Systems Manuals - 2026

The purpose of this document is to describe the Robot Control Management Utility developed in the course of this graduate project. Information included in this document will include the background of the developed product, as well as the functional requirements, data structures, software modules, interface design, installation guide, and sample and troubleshooting guides.

Dataset To Analyzing Energy Use In 2 & 3d Imaging Systems And Workflows, Michael J. Bennett

Published Works

Analyzing Energy Use in 2D & 3D Imaging Systems and Workflows Dataset

CONTENTS: Z-WaveReportingProfiles; SessionInput; DroneFlights; SessionsComputed; Types; ByType; GrossSummaryUnweighted; WeightingSummary; Raw Sampling History Data

Managing Risks Under Nuclear Power Plant Projects: A Latent Similarity-Guided Contract Customization, Mariam Elazhary, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Global energy is transforming, with nuclear power emerging as a pivotal player in achieving sustainable and low-carbon energy goals. The nature of nuclear technology introduces unique challenges, such as stringent safety and environmental requirements. Existing studies focus on general risk identification, such as supply chain delays, cost overruns, and public perception issues. However, these studies fail to address integrating these risks into tailored contractual provisions, which are critical for navigating the unique challenges of nuclear projects. The goal of this paper is to examine how standard construction contracts can be tailored to better accommodate the risks inherent in nuclear power …

Interpretable Machine Learning Of Plasma Proteomics Reveals Stage-Specific Signatures Across The Alzheimer's Disease Continuum, Hemshankar Laugi

2026 Spring Honors Capstones Projects

Alzheimer’s pathology begins years before clinical symptoms, starting early with amyloid-β accumulation, followed by tau deposition and neurodegeneration. Although existing tools, such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) screening and PET/MRI imaging, can accurately track disease progression, they are invasive, expensive, and not scalable for population-level screening. So, there is a growing interest in using blood-based plasma biomarkers as a scalable alternative. While recent studies demonstrate strong predictive performance with plasma biomarkers, most rely on a small set of canonical blood-based protein biomarkers such as amyloid-β, p-tau, and neurofilament light. These biomarkers primarily reflect downstream brain pathology and may fail to capture …

Dimpled Surfaces For Thermal Performance Enhancement In Solar Collectors, Furqan Jamil, Baig, Amna Adil, Aasia Farrukh

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

With escalating environmental concerns, solar energy is a feasible approach to support a sustainable environment, considering the pressing need to move away from fossil fuels. Optimizing solar collector’s efficiency improves energy capture and lowers carbon emissions. One innovative technique is to the surface of solar collectors. The heat transfer is greatly increased by adding such tiny indentations, encouraging turbulence in the incoming working fluid. The article reviews the effect of dimples on the efficiency of various collector applications, including flat plate collector, solar water heaters, solar air collectors, parabolic trough solar collectors, photovoltaic thermal systems, desalination, and many others. The …

Adaptive Solar Energy Collection Fenestration Systems; Measured Performance On Test Cell Under Real Weather Conditions., Noel O’Neill

Doctoral

Buildings account for a significant share of global energy use, and improving façade performance is critical to achieving nearly zero-energy building targets. This research addresses the challenge of integrating multiple adaptive functions into a single façade system to reduce heat loss, harness solar energy, and provide dynamic environmental control. The aim was to design, construct, and evaluate an adaptive Multi-Functional Façade (MFF) that integrates vacuum glazing, switchable opacity glazing, and a ventilated cavity with active airflow control to provide façade insulation, heated fresh air, recirculated air, or exhaust ventilation.

A Solar Thermal Test Cell (STTC) designed to Passive House standard, …

Resilience Modeling Method For Combat System-Of-Systems Based On Hypernetwork And Game Theory, Yuxian Duan, Hanqiang Deng, Jiarui Zhang, Jian Huang, Shijia Zhang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: In view of the difficulties in dynamic reconfiguration and resilience evaluation faced by modern combat system-of-systems in a highly adversarial environment, and the deficiencies of existing studies in depicting high-order interaction relationships and cluster evolution mechanisms, this paper proposed a resilience modeling method for combat system-of-systems integrating hypernetwork and game theory, aiming to analyze the resilience mechanism of the system-of-systems in all dimensions from micro, mesoscopic, to macro levels. At the micro level, a high-order motif structure was introduced to represent the complex interaction modes among combat units, which overcame the information loss of traditional binary relationships in depicting …

Simulation Study Of Elevator Group Control Scheduling Based On Real-Time Occupancy Perception, Yiyong Han, Shiyu Wang, Yang Ye, Zhen Zhang, Fengque Pei, Minghai Yuan

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To address the conflict between car space allocation and peak passenger flow response efficiency in elevator group control scheduling, a multi-objective scheduling method based on proximal policy optimization (PPO) with real-time occupancy perception was proposed. A simulation environment considering car capacity constraints was constructed, and a reward-penalty mechanism with average passenger waiting time, system energy consumption, and car congestion as optimization objectives was designed. Based on this, state and action spaces were defined to form a PPO-based scheduling framework; a simulation platform integrating traffic flow visualization, policy scheduling, and performance evaluation was developed. Simulation results show that this method …

Adaptive Spatiotemporal Graph Neural Network-Based Net Load Forecasting For Residential Areas, Yongqi Yang, Cong Wang, Hongli Zhang, Ping Ma, Yue Meng, Tianhao Zhou

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To address the issue that traditional residential overall power load forecasting methods fail to fully consider the differences in users' electricity consumption habits, making it difficult to improve prediction accuracy, a residential net load forecasting method combining representation learning clustering and an AGCN-Transformer was proposed. The representation learning method was utilized to fully extract the latent features of users' net load data, and users were divided into different groups based on the similarity of electricity consumption behaviors; the net load data of the same group were aggregated, and a graph structure suitable for this task was constructed by comprehensively …

Evolution And Prospects Of Polarization Image Simulation Technology, Gengpeng Li, Wei Cai, Zhiyong Yang, Zhili Zhang, Xiaowei Wang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Polarization image simulation technology is a key means to break through the bottleneck of polarization data acquisition and promote the development of polarization vision. This study systematically reviewed three evolutionary paradigms of this technology: Physical mechanism simulation, based on the polarization bidirectional reflectance distribution function and polarization ray tracing, strictly solves polarization light transmission, which has high interpretability and credibility, but it is computationally complex and lacks visual realism. Data-driven simulation, using models like neural radiance fields to learn polarization appearance from data, has high generation efficiency and visual fidelity but weaker physical consistency and interpretability. Physics-data fusion simulation …

Mbse Design And Approach-Phase Operational Simulation Of Bdsbas Airborne Receiver, Ruihua Liu, Tongwei Wang, Zan Ma

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: In view of the problem that traditional document-based design methods are difficult to effectively capture the dynamic characteristics and internal interactions in navigation accuracy and integrity assurance required by BeiDou satellite-based augmentation system (BDSBAS) airborne receivers during the approach phase, which easily leads to designs deviating from actual requirements and affects system performance, a model-based systems engineering(MBSE) method was introduced. A multi-dimensional system architecture model encompassing system requirement analysis, behavior description, structure design, and parameter constraints was established. Taking BDSBAS as the object, a co-simulation method of system modeling language and MATLAB for required navigation performance (RNP) was proposed, …

Simulation Study On The Vulnerability Of Belt And Road Composite Transportation Network Based On Cascading Failure, Mingjun Qian, Chao Yin, Zhiwen Huang, Quanneng Wang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To address the issues of unclear cascading failure propagation mechanisms and difficult-to-quantify vulnerability evolution laws caused by the structural complexity and node heterogeneity of the "Belt and Road" multimodal transport network, a vulnerability assessment method for composite transportation networks integrating physical analogy and improved cascading failure model was proposed. Sub-networks were constructed based on main transportation modes of the Belt and Road, and nodes in the same city were coupled to build a composite transportation network model. An information entropy-Joule's law model was constructed to identify key nodes of the composite network and its subnetworks. A load-capacity cascading failure …