Engineering Commons^™

Nonconvex Optimization For Statistical Learning With Structured Sparsity, Chengyu Ke

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

Sparse learning problems, known as feature selection problems or variable selection problems, are a popular branch in the field of statistical learning. When faced with a dataset with only a few observations but a large number of features, we are interested in extracting the most useful features automatically by solving an optimization problem. In this dissertation, we start by introducing a novel penalty function as well as an iterative reweighted algorithm to solve the group sparsity problem, a special type of feature selection problems. The penalty function, named group LOG, shows a better ability to recover the ground-truth compared to …

Run Toward The Incident: Collaboration Between Academia And Law Enforcement For Cybersecurity, Center For Cybersecurity, Stanley Mierzwa

Center for Cybersecurity

Collaboration and partnership between academia and law enforcement can bring about positive contributions for future research and activities in cybersecurity.

A Study Of Issues And Mitigations On Ddos And Medical Iot Devices, Jing-Chiou Liou, Robin Singh

Center for Cybersecurity

The Internet of Things (IoT) devices are being used heavily as part of our everyday routines. Through improved communication and automated procedures, its popularity has assisted users in raising the quality of work. These devices are used in healthcare in order to better collect the patient's data for their treatment. .

Research Days Poster: Cyberbullying Detection Utilizing Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning, Annaliese Watson, Aysha Gardner, Dahana Moz Ruiz

Center for Cybersecurity

Technology is a tool that can be used to gain knowledge and for advancements in areas like medicine, machinery, and everyday tasks. It can be used to connect with friends, work from home, and to improve quality of life. But some social media users can use it to hurt others. Cyberbullying is a major issue that has been steadily growing over the past few years. Cyberbullying has also steadily increased the rates of stress, anxiety, depression, violent behavior, low self-esteem and may cause suicide. Cyberbullying is an ongoing problem for social media users, and it is urgent that a solution …

Research Days Poster: Security Operation Center, Jaineel A. Shah, Jing-Chiou Liou

Center for Cybersecurity

A Security Operations Center (SOC) is an organizational framework for cybersecurity, staffed by cybersecurity professionals who monitor an organization's security, analyze potential or current breaches, and respond accordingly. The SOC's goal is to diagnose, evaluate, and respond to cybersecurity events using technology solutions and established procedures. SOCs mainly operate 24/7, with security analysts monitoring environmental data for emerging threats and responding as needed. The SOC manages and enhances an organization's overall security posture.

Research Days Poster: A Study On Ransomware And Possible Mitigations, Robin Singh, Jing-Chiou Liou

Center for Cybersecurity

Ransomware is a quite violent attack that has been persistent throughout the industry for so many years. This malware doesn’t only affect the regular computer users but it has been targeting the big organizations and businesses also. Ransomware (ransom software) is a subset of malware designed to restrict access to a system or data until a requested ransom amount from the attacker is satisfied [2].In this poster, we will go over our findings on ransomware spreads, its actions, exploited vulnerabilities and few mitigation to reduce the impact of infection.

Detecting Physiological Concentrations Of Alzheimer’S Associated Amyloid-Β Protein Utilizing A Cell-Based Response, Brittany Elizabeth Watson

Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized symptoms of cognitive impairment resulting from blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown and neuronal cell death. AD is associated with aggregated amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques deposited around brain vasculature and within the brain. Changes in the brain occur up to 20 years before symptoms arise; however, there is currently no pre-symptomatic detection method available for AD. An intact BBB requires tight junction proteins (TJs) that render relatively high transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER). AD-associated breakdown of the BBB correlates with vascular Aβ deposition, suggesting that aggregated, pathological Aβ can modulate TEER. We explore leveraging this cellular response for early …

Analysis Of Material Properties For Wooden Octet Trusses, Julio A. Del Cid , '23, David Mendoza , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

The introduction of new construction materials has given rise to different, unique construction projects emphasizing architectural value without sacrificing strength, safety, and durability. This project proposed the design for a wooden octet truss along with an efficient fabrication process; furthermore, it studied the plausibility of implementing columns of octet trusses into everyday structures. Compressive loading tests were conducted on each fabricated truss in order to determine its strength properties and areas that could be improved upon in future iterations. In constructing each truss, priority was placed on maximizing load capacity and overall resistance to deformations while reducing both construction time …

Understanding The Role Thin Film Interfaces Play In Solar Cell Performance And Stability, Mirra M. Rasmussen, Laura S. Bruckman, Ina T. Martin

Student Scholarship

As more efficient and cost-effective photovoltaic (PV) architectures are developed, solar becomes an ever more competitive and viable replacement for fossil fuels. Full grid electrification necessitates the development of efficient, reliable, cost-effective technologies - and there is room for many different kinds of PV in this expanding market. The practical challenges and constraints of terawatt PV production have brought scalability and durability into sharp scientific focus. From a materials perspective, there are commonalities in the materials questions and challenges across different PV technologies. Whereas most PV technology is referred to by the absorber layer - e.g. silicon, or perovskite solar …

Research Days Poster: An Analysis Of Sql Injection Techniques, Uko Ebreso, Pankati Patel, Jing-Chiou Liou

Center for Cybersecurity

Storing information in a database allows web applications to operate with users who have their information stored online. ● The retrieval of information from the database is done using Structured Query Language (SQL) - a language used by the database that allows for data manipulation. ● SQL Injection (SQLIi) is an attack on a susceptible system using SQl which results in a loss of confidentiality, authentication, authorization and integrity of the software/system.

Characterization Of The Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Floodplain Surface-Water Circulation, Shailesh Cyriel Van Der Steeg

Theses and Dissertations

Floodplains are spatially complex landscapes with a variety of surface features and landforms. These low-relief, low-gradient landscapes may contain extensive networks of well-defined channels and topographically connected depressions, and in some cases, the channels originate as cuts across levees or banks of the main river, referred to as through-bank channels. Corresponding complex patterns of inundation and flow have been detected through remote sensing and in field observations. The complex floodplain flows in response to the passing of flood waves is, however, poorly quantified. This work aims to increase fundamental understanding of floodplain flows and to highlight controls on floodplain wetting, …

Mathematical Analysis Of Electrochemical Systems, Shiv Krishna Reddy Madi Reddy

Theses and Dissertations

A solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) growth model is developed in a mixed modethat contains solvent diffusion through the SEI layer and corresponding solvent reduction kinetics at the SEI/electrode interface. The governing equations are solved by the Landau transformation, which makes the moving layer fixed to predict the open circuit potential, SEI layer thickness, and capacity loss. The estimated parameters fitted with experimental data from the literature are computed using COMSOL and MATLAB. Results show that the mixed mode model predicts lower capacity loss and thinner SEI layer due to its growth under open circuit conditions than previously reported by others. …

Quantized State Simulation Of Electrical Power Systems, Joseph Micah Hood

Theses and Dissertations

An alternative is proposed to the current state-of-the-art simulation methods for the transient simulation of electrical power systems. The proposed method combines the Latency Insertion Method (LIM), the Quantized Discrete Event Specification (QDEVS), and the Quantized State System (QSS) method of integration. Using LIM, the power system state equations are decoupled in a way that allows the formulation of the system into a QDEVS-compliant model, which can then be directly solved with various QSS integration techniques. This combination of methods is called the Quantized DEVS-LIM method, or simply, QDL. A key feature of QDL is the asynchronous updates of all …

Simulating Steam Jets Due To Rapid Plate Tectonics: A Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis, Emilie Hatton

Senior Honors Theses

According to the Bible's account of earth's physical history, the majority of geological change from creation to the Ice Age is a consequence of the global Flood cataclysm described in Genesis 6-8. The changes included large-scale tectonic activity, recycling all pre-Flood ocean floor into the mantle, and generating all present-day igneous ocean floor by seafloor spreading at mid-ocean rift zones. Along the middle of these zones, strips of newly formed seafloor were present near the melting temperature of basaltic magma. Above these strips of extremely hot rock, intense jets of steam would almost certainly form. This research seeks to investigate …

Design Of Wythe Connectors For Concentrated Out-Of-Plane Loading Of Insulated Walls, Ammar Al-Maabreh, Fray F. Pozo, Marc Maguire

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Partially composite concrete insulated wall panels must be designed to handle different types of loading, including out-of-plane concentrated loads. Currently, there is a lack of information that describes and helps engineers analyze the mechanics of axial load transfer for insulated wall panels for concentrated out-of-plane loads that may occur from lifting, handling, or floor/roof reactions. Such loading generates axial and shear forces in the wythe connectors, making it important to choose the type and quantity of connectors in the design process. This paper aims to develop a better understanding of out-of-plane point load mechanics on concrete sandwich wall panels. A …

An Inexpensive, Reproducible Method To Quantify Activated Sludge Foaming Potential: Validation Through Lab-Scale Studies And Year-Long Full-Scale Sampling Campaign, Grace K. Scarim, Emily Lou Lamartina, Kaushik Venkiteshwaran, Daniel Zitomer, Ryan J. Newton, Patrick J. Mcnamara

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Activated sludge is a conventional treatment process for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) removal at water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). Foaming events are a common operational issue in activated sludge and can lead to decreased treatment efficiency, maintenance issues, and potential environmental health risks. Stable foaming events are caused by biological and chemical drivers (i.e., microbes and surfactants) during the aeration process. However, foaming events are difficult to predict and quantify. We present an inexpensive and easy-to-use method that can be applied at WRRFs to quantify foaming potential. Subsequently, the method was applied over a year-long …

A Hybrid Active Learning Framework For Personal Thermal Comfort Models, Duygu Zeynep Tekler, Yue Lei, Yuzhen Peng, Clayton Miller, Adrian Chong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Personal thermal comfort models are used to predict individual-level thermal comfort responses to inform design and control decisions of buildings to achieve optimal conditioning for improved comfort and energy efficiency. However, the development of data-driven thermal comfort models requires collecting a large amount of sensor-related measurements and user-labelled data (i.e., user feedback) to achieve accurate predictions, which can be highly intrusive and labour intensive in real-world applications. In this work, we propose a hybrid active learning framework to reduce data collection costs for developing data-efficient and robust personal comfort models that predict users’ thermal comfort and air movement preferences. Through …

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

Dissertations (1934 -)

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

Evaluating The Impact Of Land Use Changes, Drivers Of Tmdl Development, And Green Infrastructure On Stream Impairments, Charitha Jayasri Gunawardana

Dissertations (1934 -)

Despite the water quality improvements and regulatory advancements over the last 50 years since the enactment of the Clean Water Act, water bodies within the United States are still impaired for a broad range of contaminants from non-point source pollution. Improving watershed management approaches to meet this challenge will require a greater understanding of (1) how changes within a watershed, such as changing land use, impact stream water quality, (2) what influence socioeconomic, spatial and political factors may have on the progress towards meeting water quality goals, such as those set within Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), and (3) how …

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

Handbooks

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

Active Noise Cancellation: Analog Circuit, Uladzislau Hes , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) is a technology used in many commercial and professional products, one of which are ANC headphones that provide a listener with the comfort of attenuation of ambient noise. ANC is possible due to the wave interference phenomenon and is implemented using a combination of analog circuitry and digital algorithms in commercial headphones. The aim of this project was to explore the possibility of successfully implementing ANC using only analog circuitry. This project concludes that it is possible to implement Active Noise Cancellation using analog circuitry, but such implementation introduces a trade-off between which frequencies one desires …

Heat Load For The Abc House, Jonathan Odim , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Following the protocol set forth in the ASHRAE 2021 Fundamentals Handbook, this project modeled the heating load of the house for a design season (winter). This project reports the heating load calculation for a 1960 residential dwelling used as student housing in Swarthmore, PA. The infiltration, window, door, attic, 1st-3rd floor, and basement loads were found to be 5641 kW, 3239 kW, 273 kW, 262 kW, 4073 kW, and 514 kW respectively: resulting in a total design season heat load of 14001 kW. The three biggest contributors to the seasonal heat load were Infiltration, Window, and Wall load (40.3%, 29.1%, …

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

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

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

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

Embroidered Calculator, Judith Weng Zhu , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

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

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

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

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

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

Quantifying The Impact Of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement On The Skid Resistance Of Surface Mixtures, Sheng Hu, Fujie Zhou, Tom Scullion, Emmanuel Fernando, Mena I. Souliman

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Pavement skid resistance is critical for public safety, especially in wet-weather conditions. In Texas, as the population grows and the likelihood of wet-surface crashes and fatalities increases, the use of Surface Aggregate Classification A (SAC-A) aggregate has significantly increased each year to improve pavement skid resistance. Texas Department of Transportation specifications allow for the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) to conserve natural resources and save costs. However, the impact of RAP on the skid resistance of the surface mixture was unknown or not quantitatively studied. Currently, all RAPs are categorized as Surface Aggregate Classification B aggregate in Texas. This …

Computational Design Of Fiber-Optic Probes For Biosensing, Suwarna Karna

Electrical Engineering Theses

This thesis presents a study on the optical characteristics of hollow-core photonic crystal fibers (HC-PCFs) with a band gap cladding structure and their applications in optical fiber sensing. This 800B HC-PCF exhibited excellent optical properties and has a flexible structure, which makes them suitable for a wide range of industrial applications. Finite element simulations and structural optimization designs were conducted using the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique to determine the optimal performance parameters of the 800B HC-PCF. The fiber was further modified using the SPR technique to improve its practical detection capabilities. The performance of the modified fiber was observed …

Droplet Capture In A Fiber Array, Karl Cardin, Christophe Josserand, Raúl Bayoán Cal

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Droplets interacting with fiber arrays is ubiquitous in nature, textiles, microelectromechanical devices, and fog harvesting. The phenomena of droplet impact on an equidistant array of fibers is experimentally investigated. Drop tower tests are performed to characterize the droplet dynamics in the absence of the effects of gravity which could deform fibers and bias equilibrium configurations. Results show that contact line dissipation is largely responsible for arresting the droplet. Additionally, the penetration length is affected by fiber flexibility. A model is developed predicting the droplet penetration dynamics which shows good agreement with experiments.

Spectroscopic Sensor Data Fusion To Improve The Prediction Of Soil Nutrient Contents, Bidhan Ghimire

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

This study aims to advance the understanding and application of spectroscopic sensor data fusion for improving soil nutrient content predictions. In addition to presenting an extensive review of studies on the spectroscopic sensor data fusion, a research investigation was conducted to assess the effectiveness of five fusion algorithms in predicting three primary nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium) and two secondary nutrients (Calcium and Magnesium) in soil using Visible and Near-Infrared, Mid-Infrared, and X-ray Fluorescence data. Among the five fusion algorithms, one was a low-level fusion involving data concatenation. Two were mid-level fusions, incorporating feature extraction by applying (i) Principal Component …

Estimating Crop Stomatal Conductance Through High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping, Junxiao Zhang

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

During photosynthesis and transpiration, crops exchange carbon dioxide and water with the atmosphere through stomata. When a crop experiences water stress, stomata are closed to reducing water loss. However, the closing of stomata also negatively affects the photosynthetic efficiency of the crop and leads to lower yields. Stomatal conductance (gs) quantifies the degree of stomatal opening and closing by using the rate of gas exchange between the crop and the atmosphere, which helps to understand the water status of the crop for better irrigation management. Unfortunately, gs measurement typically requires contact measuring instruments and manual collection in the field, which …