Engineering Commons^™

Sensitive And Makeable Computational Materials For The Creation Of Smart Everyday Objects, Te-Yen Wu Mr

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

The vision of computational materials is to create smart everyday objects using the materi- als that have sensing and computational capabilities embedded into them. However, today’s development of computational materials is limited because its interfaces (i.e. sensors) are unable to support wide ranges of human interactions , and withstand the fabrication meth- ods of everyday objects (e.g. cutting and assembling). These barriers hinder citizens from creating smart every day objects using computational materials on a large scale.

To overcome the barriers, this dissertation presents the approaches to develop compu- tational materials to be 1) sensitive to a wide variety of …

Leveraging Neutrosophic Uncertainty Theory Toward Choosing Biodegradable Dynamic Plastic Product In Various Arenas, Mona Mohamed, Karam M. Sallam

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Numerous studies in recent years have documented the negative effects of plastic waste on the environment and human wellness. Due to their widespread usage in daily life, particularly in packaging, and their rising direct or indirect discharge into the environment, plastics are recognized as an emerging environmental hazard. Thus, this point is considered the first problem in this study. As a result, efforts to replace traditional plastics with bioplastics have intensified. However, studies regarding the effects of conventional and bioplastics (BioPs) are also important. Hence, biodegradable polymers for industrial and commercial usage are essential in the present day as an …

Consolidated Chamber Design And Protocol For Olfactory Conditioning Assay With Drosophila Melanogaster, Sasha Bronovitskiy, Andres Castillo, Michael Yan, Fang Ju Lin

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

The olfactory conditioning assay is widely used in Alzheimer’s disease research to quantify learning and memory in Drosophila melanogaster. The assay tests ability to recall an aversive conditioned stimulus of scent paired with electrical shock when presented a choice between shock-associated and unrelated scents. The T-maze, a commonly used apparatus for olfactory conditioning assays, employs an elevator mechanism to transfer live flies from the shock-delivering training chamber to the scent selection point. This elevator mechanism is known to cause fly casualty. T-mazes are not commercially available and often difficult to reproduce. Other existing variations of olfactory conditioning apparatuses use …

Predicting Suicide Risk Among Youths Using Machine Learning Methods, Saswati Bhattacharjee

Master's Theses

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youths in the USA. Although machine learning approaches have provided great potential for predicting suicide risk using survey data, prediction accuracy may not meet the need for clinical diagnosis due to the intrinsic characteristics of datasets. In this study, I perform a comparative study of six classification algorithms including naïve Bayes (NB), logistic regression (LR), multilayer perceptron (MLP), AdaBoost (Ada), random forest (RF), and bagging using YRBSS dataset and investigate the effectiveness of several data handling techniques to improve the overall performance of suicide risk prediction.

The dataset consists of 76 …

Balance Assessment Using A Smartwatch Inertial Measurement Unit With Principal Component Analysis For Anatomical Calibration, Benjamin M. Presley, Jeffrey C. Sklar, Scott J. Hazelwood, Britta Berg-Johansen, Stephen M. Klisch

Biomedical Engineering

Balance assessment, or posturography, tracks and prevents health complications for a variety of groups with balance impairment, including the elderly population and patients with traumatic brain injury. Wearables can revolutionize state-of-the-art posturography methods, which have recently shifted focus to clinical validation of strictly positioned inertial measurement units (IMUs) as replacements for force-plate systems. Yet, modern anatomical calibration (i.e., sensor-to-segment alignment) methods have not been utilized in inertial-based posturography studies. Functional calibration methods can replace the need for strict placement of inertial measurement units, which may be tedious or confusing for certain users. In this study, balance-related metrics from a smartwatch …

Surface Electromyographic (Semg) Transduction Of Hand Joint Angles For Human Interfacing Devices (Hid), Brendan P. Beauchamp

Masters Theses

This is an investigation of the use of surface electromyography (sEMG) as a tool to improve human interfacing devices (HID) information bandwidth through the transduction of the fingertip workspace. It combines the work of Merletti et al and Jarque-Bou et al to design an open-source framework for Fingertip Workspace based Human Interfacing Devices (HID). In this framework, the fingertip workspace is defined as the system of forearm and hand muscle force through a tensor which describes hand anthropometry. The thesis discusses the electrophysiology of muscle tissue along with the anatomy and physiology of the arm in pursuit of optimizing sensor …

Anomalous Lattice Thermal Conductivity Driven By All-Scale Electron-Phonon Scattering In Bulk Semiconductors, Z. Z. Zhou, Y. C. Yan, X. L. Yang, Yi Xia, G. Y. Wang, X. Lu, X. Y. Zhou

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Electron-phonon coupling (EPC) has been broadly considered to govern the charge transport in solids, whereas its effect on thermal conductivity, especially for semiconductors at ambient temperatures, is a widely debated issue in condensed-matter physics. Employing state-of-the-art first-principles calculations to quantify all the possible scattering factors, we show the dominant role of EPC in phonon transport of n-doped GaSb, which yields an unprecedented reduction of lattice thermal conductivity and triggers anomalous temperature-independent behavior. The significant EPC impact hinges on the joint effect of multiple conduction pockets, large EPC strength, and bunched heat-carrying acoustic branches, provoking strong electron-phonon scattering to surpass the …

Swietenia Mahagoni Leaves Extract: Antifungal, Insecticidal, And Phytochemical Analysis, Wael M. Khamis, Ahmed A. Heflish, Sarah El-Messeiry, Said I. Behiry, Abdulaziz A. Al-Askar, Yiming Su, Ahmed Abdelkhalek, Mohamed K. Gaber

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

In this study, we investigated the antifungal properties of an acetone extract derived from the leaves of Swietenia mahagoni (SMAL) against two isolated fungi, Fusarium equiseti (OQ820153) and Rhizoctonia solani (OQ820152), from rice sheath. The extract was effective in inhibiting the growth of both fungi at the highest concentration tested, 3000 μg·mL⁻¹. Laboratory tests on the LC20 of SMAL extract (49.86 mg·L⁻¹) versus pyriproxyfen 10% EC (1.96 mg·L⁻¹) were accomplished on Aphis gossypii Glover. The extract potently reduced the survival of the nymphs (49.58%) more than the other treatments. The longevity of nymphs treated …

Leveraging Neutrosophic Uncertainty Theory Toward Choosing Biodegradable Dynamic Plastic Product In Various Arenas, Mona Mohamed, Karam M. Sallam

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Numerous studies in recent years have documented the negative effects of plastic waste on the environment and human wellness. Due to their widespread usage in daily life, particularly in packaging, and their rising direct or indirect discharge into the environment, plastics are recognized as an emerging environmental hazard. Thus, this point is considered the first problem in this study. As a result, efforts to replace traditional plastics with bioplastics have intensified. However, studies regarding the effects of conventional and bioplastics (BioPs) are also important. Hence, biodegradable polymers for industrial and commercial usage are essential in the present day as an …

Spectral Fits Of Brown Dwarfs: Discovering Trends Across The Spectral Type Sequence, Savanah Turner, Denise Stephens, Conner Scoresby

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that form like stars but never achieve the core temperatures and pressures needed to ignite hydrogen fusion. These "failed stars" have been shown to exhibit complex atmospheres similar to those of planets, making them useful analogs for exoplanets. As a brown dwarf cools over time, different cloud species condense or fall below the surface of the atmosphere, causing changes in the resulting spectrum of the object. Comparison of theoretical atmospheric models to real brown dwarf spectra can provide insight into the physical and chemical processes occurring in the atmosphere of the object. We have fit …

Comparing A 3-D Printed Hemispherical-Head And Rankine Body Probe Shapes For Very Low Speed Air Data Measurements, Stephen A. Whitmore, Zheng Qi C. Case

Utah Space Grant Consortium

This study investigates the feasibility of using Flush Air Data Sensing (FADS) System technology for air data measurements at the very low-airspeeds, where many Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) operate. FADS is a non-intrusive alternative to pitot probes, where the vehicle nosecone, wing leading edge, or other aerodynamic surface is configured with multiple pressure-ports distributed along the windward surface. Although FADS technology has been used for a variety of high-speed aircraft, FADS has never been applied to very low-airspeed flight regimes. This study reports on wind tunnel tests of two 3-D printed shapes: 1) a cylindrical body with a hemispherical head, …

Continuous-Time Trajectory Estimation For Differentially Flat Systems, Jacob C. Johnson, Joshua G. Mangelson, Randal W. Beard

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Continuous-time estimation using splines on Lie groups has been gaining traction in the literature in recent years due to their ability to incorporate high-frequency sensor data without introducing new optimization parameters. However, evaluating time derivatives and Jacobians of Lie group splines is computationally expensive, limiting their use mainly to offline applications. Motivated by the trajectory planning literature, we develop a new estimation technique that leverages the differential flatness property of many dynamic systems to define the spline in the system's flat output space, which is often Euclidean, and show an example of its use with the unicycle dynamic model. We …

One-Dimensional Radial Turbomachinery Modeling, Chase Oliphant

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Centrifugal flow impellers are commonly used in a wide variety of industrial machines. Predicting the performance of these impellers over the entire operating range is key to the system development during the early design stages. The two element in series (TEIS) and two-zone model can be used to accurately predict impeller performance based on flow physics and empirical correlations. Correlations were made with linear regression on a database of 50 pumps and 75 impellers. These correlations were later found to only apply to designs that are similar to those in the database. This paper proposes a new method to generate …

A Preliminary Review And Discussion Of Metrics For Origami-Based Deployable Arrays, Katie Varela, Spencer P. Magleby

Utah Space Grant Consortium

When designing deployable structures, there are many things to consider that help the deployment method integrate with the system. Preliminary metrics are proposed to help rate the deployment systems to determine the best methods for each application. The top four metrics that apply to most space applications are mass, usable area, volume, and energy. Additional considerations that are less quantifiable are included for the value they contribute to the system. Trade-offs may be necessary for different applications.

Experimental Characterization Of Internal Wave Generation By Multiple Peak Topographies, Natasha Wilson, Julie Crockett

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Internal waves are generated in the oceans and atmosphere and play an important role in their energy budgets. The semidiurnal oscillation of the tides over topography in the oceans combined with the density stratification can create internal waves that radiate away from their source. The effect multiple peaks on a single topography has on internal wave generation is explored. Three and four topography peaks create three and four crests respectively in the internal wave beams. Five and six peak topographies generate internal wave beams characterized by two bounding crests and several smaller crests in the middle of the beam. In …

Development, Modeling And Performance Analysis Of An Electric Vtol Aircraft With Tiltable Rotors, Clayton Spencer, Samantha Burton, Tianyi He

Utah Space Grant Consortium

In this paper, the development and modeling of an electric Vertical-Take-Off-and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft with tiltable rotors. The front two rotors have tilting capability for transition flight from vertical take-off to forward-direction level flight. This paper focuses on the design and analysis of an eVTOL aircraft platform. The study includes layout and system architecture, the selections and optimization of components, such as electric motors, batteries, and controllers, as well as the integration of these components into the overall aircraft system. In addition, the dynamical model is derived as a nonlinear differential equation. Afterwards, a linearization-based model and Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) …

Fabrication Of Metallic Far-Infrared Filters, Jared E. Payne, Joseph Eddy, Hunter R.J. Stevenson, Brad Ferguson, Ryan T. Beazer, Gregory N. Nielson, Stephen M. Shultz

Utah Space Grant Consortium

A far-infrared filter is fabricated by creating metallic squares on a dielectric substrate. This capacitive metallic filter is fabricated using direct write laser ablation consisting of a femtosecond laser in combination with a high numerical aperture objective. A representative capacitive filter is fabricated on soda-lime glass substrate with a period of 100 µm and separation width of 30 µm. A capacitive filter was also fabricated on a thin film polypropylene substrate with similar dimensions. The filter was tested and the frequency response is discussed.

Facilitation Of Deployable Antennas Using A Panel Structure Optimization Framework, Nathan Coleman

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Origami has become a popular method for beginning mechanical design due to its ability to stow compactly and deploy to a large area. One common origami pattern is the Flasher, which has a roughly circular shape and aspect ratio, centers around a polygon which can be grounded, and is easily extensible. Because of these advantages, the Flasher is a candidate for many deployable applications, including space-based optical telescopes, LiDaR telescopes, solar arrays, and reflectarray antennas. One of the primary difficulties when implementing the Flasher pattern is that it is not rigid-foldable and is subject to panel interference at high-degree vertices. …

Optimizing Nitrogen Use For Continuous Recycling In Closed Life Support Systems, Noah J. Langenfeld, Bruce Bugbee

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Nitrogen (N) is needed by plants in the highest amount among root-zone-derived nutrients. Closed life-support systems for space missions will rely on in-situ food production for long-term sustainability, but high resupply and N fixation costs necessitate N recycling to support human nutrition for extended mission durations. We studied combinations of four N forms [ammonium, nitrate, urea, and N-fixing bacteria (protein)] for their use as an optimal N source for lettuce (Lactuca sativa) grown in peat moss in two container sizes (1.7 L and 8 L). Plants grown with ammonium nitrate consistently had the highest mass. When ammonium, urea, or microbial …

Lasso (L1) Regularization For The Development Of Sparse Remote Sensing Models Of Water Quality, Anna C. Cardall, Riley C. Hales, Kaylee B. Tanner, Gustavious P. Williams, Kel N. Markert

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Remote sensing data (data contained in satellite imagery) are used extensively to monitor waterquality parameters such as clarity, temperature, and chlorophyll-a (chl-a). This is generally done bycollecting in situ data coincident with satellite data collections, then creating empirical water qualitymodels using approaches such as multi-linear regression or step-wise linear regression. Theseapproaches, which require modelers to select model parameters, may not be well-suited for opticallycomplex waters, where interference from suspended solids, dissolved organic matter, or otherconstituents may act as “confusers”. For these waters, it may be useful to include non-standard terms,which might not be considered using traditional methods. Recent machine learning …

Measuring The Period Of Variable Stars In Ngc 188, Molly Christensen, Connor Smith, Christian Draper

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Galactic cluster NGC 188 is 1.93 kpc away located in the constellation Cepheus. This cluster is one of the oldest clusters that contain W UMa stars W UMa variables are a type of eclipsing binary butare unique because they share an envelope of materia laround two stars. According to Simbad there are 741 interacting binaries in NGC 188. 70 of these are eclipsing binaries. We chose NGC 188 because it is an ideal place to study the evolution of W UMa stars because it is one of the oldest galactic clusters with this type of star. Despite the overabundance of …

The First Snap Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances, Mikaela Cowles, Joseph B. Jensen, Brent Tully, John P. Blakeslee, Ehsan Kourkchi

Utah Space Grant Consortium

We have successfully acquired F110W (J-band) images of 68 massive elliptical galaxies inclusters and groups out to 80 Mpc by taking advantage of the efficient Hubble Space Telescope SNAP observing mode. We used the Surface Brightness Fluctuation (SBF) technique to measure distances to 44 of the galaxies so far with a typical uncertainty of ~5% indistance by implementing a new Python-based pipeline to simplify and automate the SBF analysis procedure. This new SNAP sample doubles the total number of IRSBF distances to galaxies beyond 50 Mpc. The new distances will allow for more accurate determination ofthe mass distribution in the …

Modelling Filter Response Of Galactic Emission Line Spectra, Jessica Johnson, Christian Draper

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The overall goal of our research is to begin to make a map of the universe in order to find evidence for the cold dark matter theory. Dark matter, which is 85% of all matter, does not interact with light, making it invisible to telescopes. However, we know it exists due to its gravitational effects on visible matter, which can be hard to detect.

Collisional Losses In A Vasimr (Variable Specific-Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket), Benjamin Miera, Philip Matheson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

A VASIMR (Variable Specific-Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) engine is an electrically-powered engine that uses plasma as a propellant for accelerating spacecraft in the vacuum of space. The VASIMR engine is designed to provide higher specific impulse and greater thrust efficiency compared to traditional chemical rockets. The engine works by ionizing a gas, such as argon or hydrogen, and heating it to extremely high temperatures to create a plasma. This plasma is then accelerated and ejected out of the engine at high speeds, producing thrust. VASIMR is seen as a promising technology for future deep space missions due to its potential to …

Creating A System For Automated Imaging Of Atmospheric Gravity Waves, James Morley, Kim Nielsen

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Atmospheric gravity waves are disturbances in the atmosphere and near-space environments caused by displacement of air in a stable environment. These waves transport energy away from the source of the disturbance and can transfer large amounts of energy between atmospheric regions through wave dissipation. One of the regions of most energy transfer is the mesopause region, in the transition between the Earth's atmosphere and the near-space environment. This is a region that is difficult to observe, but the presence of certain atoms and molecules allows for remote sensing of faint emissions called airglow. As the waves pass through the airglow, …

Characterization, Comparison And Confirmation: Atmospheric Composition Of Wasp-39b With Jwst, Brian Seamons, Joshua Lothringer

Utah Space Grant Consortium

In late 2022, astronomers from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Team (ERS) observed WASP-39b, an ultra hot (1200 K) planet with a Jupiter-like radius and Saturn-like mass using the JWST Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec), which provides broad-wavelength observations between (0.5 and 5.5 μm). Zafar Rustamkulov et al. 2023 revealed that they had not only confirmed previous characterizations of WASP-39b’s atmosphere by the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, but found strong evidence for multiple chemicals, such as Na, H₂O, CO₂, CO, and surprisingly, SO₂ .

A Generative Adversarial Network For Image Reconstruction, Jeremy Tait, Eliza Ballantyne, Ellie Evans, Vern Hart

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Survival rates for most cancers have increased steadily over the past few decades as new technologies have led to better treatment outcomes. However, this process often relies heavily on the detection of cancer in its earliest stages, before symptoms occur or a tumor is visible in a CT or MR image. This is particularly true for diseases such as pancreatic cancer that exhibit almost no symptoms until very late stages and have extremely low survival rates as a result. Even some commonly treatable diseases, such as breast cancer, become far more problematic in later stages. As such, any efforts to …

Construction And Characterization Of A Nd:Yvo4 Laser For Pumping A Baga4se7 Nonlinear Optical System, Brantson Wayman, Alexander Gibb, York Young

Utah Space Grant Consortium

One way to probe tissue for disease is via long wave infrared spectroscopy. This technique uses wavelength dependent absorption of specific molecules which serve as early indicators of disease onset in human tissue.

Open-Source Antenna Pattern Measurement System - Phase Ii, Matthew Finger, Christian Hearn, Ren Fisher, Justin Knighton

Utah Space Grant Consortium

No abstract provided.

Euhalothece: The Story Of A Primary Producer And The Great Salt Lake Benthic Food Chain, Caitlin Christensen, Bonnie K. Baxter

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Euhalothece is a genus of cyanobacteria that thrive in hypersaline lacustrine and marine environments, including Great Salt Lake, where it dominates primary production in the benthic zone. This occurs primarily through its role as a major architect of microbialite structures. The ongoing rapid decline of GSL subjects these structures to desiccation and elevated salinity, threatening Euhalothece and the benthic ecosystem at large. The purpose of this research was to first review Euhalothece and its role in the GSL benthic food web, then to isolate Euhalothece from GSL microbial mats in an attempt to characterize this species. Additionally, microbialite mats can …