Engineering Commons^™

Integrating Wave-Powered Batch Reverse Osmosis With Pressure Retarded Osmosis For Higher Efficiency Desalination Method, David M. Warsinger, Akshay Rao, Abhimanyu Das, Sultan Alnajdi, Ali Naderi, Antonio Esquivel, Alondra Ramos, Cole Heald, Vivek Singh, Ryan Soltis, Kaitlyn Kelsey, Adriana Hisham, Aaron Harp, Bryan Pamintuan, Paige Beck, Matthew Sheridan, John Pacholski, Carolina Bernal Botero

School of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Overpopulation, intensive industrial water usage and climate change are some of the occurrences that are exacerbating global water scarcity. By 2050, the United Nations predicts that over 6 billion people will be affected by water scarcity. Over 70% of the earth's surface is covered by oceans yet its water remains unusable due to the high salinity of seawater. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is the most common method of desalinating water but is dependent on non-renewable generated electricity to meet its high energy requirements. The majority of the power supplied to desalination plants is generated using emission-heavy fuels. Given the UN’s goal …

Refrigeration & Pressure Circuits For The Test Apparatus On Triaxial Properties Of Polymer Foams At Arctic Temperatures, Nathaniel Ackerman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of this project is to modify the previous testing apparatus used by Dr. M. Hoo Fatt for exploration of Crushing Behavior of Polymer Foams in Sandwich Structures Operating in Arctic Regions commissioned by the Office of Naval Research and performed under the University of Akron’s Mechanical Engineering testing facilities. To do this, it is required to design a system capable of operating at a constant temperature during a testing cycle, reaching down to -60⁰C. This apparatus must also be compatible with prior equipment, facilities, persons, samples, and media.

Primarily, a copper-tube refrigeration coil design was considered to lead …

Autonomous Wildfire Detection System, Matthew Pyle, Nick Garrett

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

According to the National Fire Protection Association Journal, federal wildfire suppression costs in the United States have risen from an annual average of about $425 million from 1985 to 1999 up to $1.6 billion from 2000 to 2019. On average, more than 200,000 acres in the United States are burned per year due to wildfires, with more than 700,000 acres burned in 2020 alone. With the risk of wildfire ever rising, there is a need for better early detection of remote wildfires, as existing methods often include long delays like satellites or rely on human lookout towers. The objective is …

Totally Tubulair - Adjustable Nasal Cannula, Megan Bruns, Emily Mcgrath, Angelina Marchio, Olivia Renkel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Many individuals require short-term and long-term oxygen therapy. These users experience discomfort and problems with the standard nasal cannula that are compounded by issues with oxygen sources being heavy with limited supply and tubing getting tangled, kinked, or not providing enough mobility. The objective of this project was to address ergonomic issues with oxygen therapy devices to increase the ease of use for healthcare workers, patients, and families. By following the engineering design process, a prototype was developed for a nasal cannula with interchangeable prongs. The new design allows users to select a prong size that is more comfortable for …

Smart Kettlebell, Cole Russell, Patrick Davis, Ryan Deboer, Isaac Stecker

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of design team 08’s senior design project is to create and implement a workout device that will be able to calculate the caloric expenditure, repetitions, and length of a workout. Once the duration of a workout is completed, the user metrics will be communicated from the kettlebell system to a user application via Bluetooth. The caloric expenditure will be used using the data that is provided from the accelerometer. The duration of the workout will be controlled using a push button that is connected to the kettlebell system that will allow for the start and stop of a …

Extraction Of Melanin From Black Knot Fungus: Optimization And Applications, Amara Davis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this research project was to optimize the extraction of melanin from black knot fungus and to analyze possible applications of the extracted melanin. An extraction method that was previously created was examined for possible improvements. Improvements that were studied include the elimination of steps in the extraction process while obtaining the same quality of product, examining options for machinery that could be used to increase production rate when moved to a production plant setting, and optimize the concentrations of the raw materials that are used in the extraction for possible reduction of cost without compromising yield or …

Retaining Thermoresponsive Poly(Vinyl Methyl Ether) To Cellulose Via (3-Aminopropyl)Triethoxylsilane Network, Grace Tolhurst

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Stimuli-responsive supports and devices that are fabricated from inexpensive materials are attractive candidates for a variety of applications, such as environmental protection, and regenerative medicine. Poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME), a thermoresponsive polymer (TRP), has recently been used as thermoresponsive cell culture supports for cell growth/proliferation followed with cell/cell sheet harvesting by simply switching temperature. Cellulose is an attractive candidate to replace glass/silicone supports as it is inexpensive and environmentally friendly. This project focuses on retaining PVME to the cellulose membrane via 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) network to generate TR membranes and flexible liners that can be incorporated into bioreactors for producing cells …

Large, Complex Housing, Alyssa Carnicella

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this capstone project was to develop a design for a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) generator housing with built-in passageways for oil to flow through and cool the machine. The machine should be made using advanced manufacturing. A 3D model concept was designed with the use of SolidWorks. The appropriate hand calculations were completed to ensure that the generator housing would contain the components within itself under various environmental conditions.. The model was then 3D printed to produce a prototype that displays the design features within the housing. The next stage of the project will include completing …

Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Analysis Of Corrosion Of Reinforcing Steel In Fly Ash Mortar By Means Of Transmission Line Modeling, Padraig Stack

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is an important non-destructive tool that allows for a deeper understanding of the electrochemical processes and mechanisms occurring in an electrochemical cell. Equivalent electrical circuits (EECs) are used to model the impedance data into electrical components, such as resistors and capacitors, on a circuit. Current potentiostat offers software packages that can analyze the frequency response, but the software only supports “simple” EEC that can be written as fixed electrical components in some combination of series and parallel. Park and Macdonald propose a transmission line model (TLM) that does not use lumped-element models, instead, the values of …

Mimicking The Namib Desert Beetle With Hydrophilic And Hydrophobic Surfaces, Tyler Bracewell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Namib Desert beetle, Stenocara gracilipes, condenses fog that rolls in off the west coast of Namibia to provide itself with the water it needs for the day. By lifting its abdomen into the air to collect the water vapor, it condenses on hydrophilic bumps that are about 500μm in diameter and are spaced apart about 500-1500μm. Once the water reaches a critical size, the droplet rolls off the hydrophilic bump and onto the flat hydrophobic surface of the elytra. Since the beetle is angled with its abdomen in the air, the water rolls down to its mouth. A …

Design Of Computer Vision Systems For Optimizing The Threat Detection Accuracy, Sina Gholamnejad Davani

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation considers computer vision (CV) systems in which a central monitoring station receives and analyzes the video streams captured and delivered wirelessly by multiple cameras. It addresses how the bandwidth can be allocated to various cameras by presenting a cross-layer solution that optimizes the overall detection or recognition accuracy. The dissertation presents and develops a real CV system and subsequently provides a detailed experimental analysis of cross-layer optimization. Other unique features of the developed solution include employing the popular HTTP streaming approach, utilizing homogeneous cameras as well as heterogeneous ones with varying capabilities and limitations, and including a new …

Power Systems Cascading Failure Analysis And Mitigation Using Discrete Events Systems Approach, Wasseem Al Rousan

Wayne State University Dissertations

A power system cascading failure can propagate through sequential tripping of components in the network. As a result, a complete or partial shutdown may occur. Many models were developed to understand the failure propagation mechanism at a higher abstract level and methods were implemented for failure mitigation. This work introduces a unified framework of modeling and mitigating cascading failures. Based on a Discrete Event Systems (DES) approach, a power system is modeled by an automaton via parallel composition of the sub-models of system components. A modified DES supervisory control (SC) strategies are introduced as a solution to mitigating cascading failures …

Laser-Assisted Sound Source Localization Inside A Solid Enclosure, Antonio Figueroa Mombela

Wayne State University Dissertations

Sound source localization is typically conducted in open space so that the line of sight is not blocked among individual sensors. This research presents a new technology that enables one to see acoustically through a solid Plexiglass enclosure to locate a sound source stationed inside at some arbitrarily selected locations. By using SODAR technology, non-invasive laser-assisted microphones, analog, and digital signal processing (band-pass filtering, fast Fourier transform algorithm, cross-correlations, and triangulations) satisfactory sound source localization results were obtained. In this project, the enclosure walls were flat; only the azimuth angle of a sound source could be determined. To obtain the …

Sdn-Enabled Efficient Resource Utilization In A Secure, Trustworthy And Privacy Preserving Iov-Fog Environment, Jamal N. Alotaibi

Wayne State University Dissertations

The development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) is aided by the advent of Internet-of-Vehicles (IoV), which is a decentralized network that allows connected vehicles and vehicular ad hoc networks to share data (VANETs). However, today's IoV networks face a number of challenges, including effective resource utilization, security and privacy, trust, information irregularity, etc. In addition, IoV applications have a wide range of Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements, making it difficult to develop an efficient solution to deal with big data in IoV. Furthermore, the solution should be scalable and extendable, as well as lightweight and cost-effective to maintain. By outsourcing computationally-intensive operations …

Optical Signal Processing With Discrete-Space Metamaterials, Mohammad Moein Moeini

Wayne State University Dissertations

As digital circuits are approaching the limits of Moore’s law, a great deal of efforthas been directed to alternative computing approaches. Among them, the old concept of optical signal processing (OSP) has attracted attention, revisited in the light of metamaterials and nano-photonics. This approach has been successful in realizing basic mathematical operations, such as derivatives and integrals, but it is difficult to be applied to more complex ones. Inspired by digital filters, we propose a radically new OSP approach, able to realize arbitrary mathematical operations over a nano-photonic platform. We demonstrate this concept for the case of spatial differentiation, image …

A Combined Additive - Deformation - Machining (Adm) Manufacturing Process With Controlled Microstructures, Ahmed Nabil Taher Elalem

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACTA COMBINED ADDITIVE - DEFORMATION - MACHINING (ADM) MANUFACTURING PROCESS WITH CONTROLLED MICROSTRUCTURES by AHMED NABIL TAHER ELALEM August 2022

Advisor: Dr. Xin WuMajor: Mechanical Engineering Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Direct metal additive manufacturing provides great flexibility in 3D shaping compared to traditional manufacturing processes of metal casting, deformation followed by machining and joining for obtaining the final production shape. On the other hand, it suffered from its dendric microstructure produced during solidification. This study reports the development of new combined metal additive and deformation processes to take advantage and reduce/eliminate the drawback of individual processes. The heating source mainly …

Assessment Of Small-Scale Mechanical Damage On Safety Performance Of Lithium-Ion Batteries, Maher A. Almohammedali

Wayne State University Dissertations

Battery safety studies of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) related to mechanical abusive loadinginvolving contact compression of hard objects, bending and nail penetration usually show that LIBs can withstand some mechanical deformation prior to internal short circuit (ISC). Stress or strain-based criteria has been suggested to understand local conditions between the anode, cathode and the separator due such abusive mechanical loading. A strain-based criterion has also been developed at Wayne State and reported in open literature (Newaz et al.) Focus of such work has been to determine strain levels that may rupture the separator putting in contact the anode and cathode leading …

Assessing The Impacts Of Covid-19 On Activity-Travel Scheduling: A Survey In The Greater Toronto Area, Alireza Dianat, Jason Hawkins, Khandker Nurul Habib

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 lockdown provided many individuals an opportunity to explore changes in their daily routines, particularly when considered in combination with an ever-changing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) landscape. These new routines and alternative activities have the potential to be continued in the post-COVID era. Transportation planners must understand how routines vary to effectively estimate activity-travel scheduling. The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on activity-travel behavior and the adoption of ICT-based alternative options. A special emphasis is placed on predicting the long-term effects of this disturbance on activity-travel scheduling. This study …

Effects Of Friction On The Dynamic Behavior Of Flexible Rocking Bodies, S. Mohammadreza Farooghi Mehr, Christine E. Wittich

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Flexible rocking bodies are freestanding structures that are free to deform and rock, potentially overturning, when subject to ground excitation. Prior research on the seismic behavior of this type of structure typically assumed sufficient friction at the ground surface to avoid sliding motion. However, experimental observations showed that this assumption was often violated and structures demonstrated non-negligible sliding during their responses. The overarching goal of this study is to evaluate the impact of sliding on the overturning response of flexible rocking bodies. To this end, a two-dimensional analytical model was developed in a Lagrangian formulation, which is presented in this …

Investigation Of Pilots' Visual Entropy And Eye Fixations For Simulated Flights Consisted Of Multiple Take-Offs And Landings, Salem M. Naeeri, Ziho Kang, Ricardo Palma Fraga

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Eye movement characteristics might provide insights on pilots' mental fatigue during prolonged flight. The visual entropy, eye fixation numbers, and eye fixation durations of ten novice pilots and ten expert pilots were analyzed for a four-hour simulated flight task consisting of four consecutive flight legs. Each flight leg lasted approximately one hour and contained five flight phases: takeoff, climb, cruise, descend, and landing. The pilots maneuvered the simulated B-52 aircraft following instrument flight rules (IFR) in a moderate-fidelity Microsoft Flight Simulator environment. Our results indicate that experts’ eye movement characteristics were significantly different from those of novices. In detail, novices' …

Engaging Elementary School Students And Their Parents In After-School Stem Activities, Yury A. Kuleshov, Anne M. Lucietto

Indiana STEM Education Conference

The authors are implementing a program to engage elementary school students and parents in after-school STEM activities to promote technical disciplines and STEM career paths. Children from Hispanic communities are often left behind when promoting STEM among the youth. The program will be available in two languages, English and Spanish, to address the gap. The authors will conduct post-program surveys with the parents of the participating children to access participants’ perception of STEM. The results will guide future STEM activities among elementary school students in the local community and be useful for other STEM teachers, who target Hispanic and other …

Bridging The Gap: Connecting High School Students To Advanced Stem Education Through Online Learning Modules, Kathleen Jurecka, Stacey D. Lyle Rpls

Indiana STEM Education Conference

Texas A&M researchers worked in partnership with the VA to extend the memorialization of Texas A&M Aggie veterans enshrined in the Houston National Cemetery though the Aggie Legacy Project. This was accomplished using advanced technologies to create a 3D module of the cemetery, an artificial intelligence to read and record headstone content, interactive maps, and biographical tributes to Texas A&M veterans. The team also created educational content designed to introduce K 12 students to these technologies with the intent to help students explore STEM career paths early , allowing time to make informed decisions regarding future career opportunities.

Exploring Youths’ Decision To Participate In Stem Afterschool Programs, Brooke M. Stafford, Virginia L. J. Bolshakova

Indiana STEM Education Conference

STEM afterschool programs offer a range of academic, social, and emotional outcomes to support positive youth development. In particular, STEM afterschool programs have been shown to increase student self-efficacy and interest in pursuing STEM careers (Chan et al., 2020; Dabney et al., 2012). Youth must first choose to attend the STEM afterschool programs to gain the many benefits offered. However, participation in such programs decreases as youth get older and encounter additional competing interests (i.e., home responsibilities, jobs, etc.). To get youth to attend, STEM afterschool programs must meet the needs of youth by leveraging resources, activities, and relationships.

This …

Goals And Proceedings Information, Preface And Acknowledgments, William S. Walker Iii, Lynn A. Bryan Ph. D., S. Selcen Guzey, Elizabeth Suazo-Flores

Indiana STEM Education Conference

No abstract provided.

Workforce Development Strategies In Additive Manufacturing, Mel Cossette, Ismail Fidan, Gaffar Gailani, Angran Xiao

Publications and Research

Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D Printing (3DP), is one of the newest manufacturing technologies with growing utilization in our daily life. Parallel to this growth, new materials, machines, and specific processes are being developed to produce parts in better-finished quality, at lower cost, and with shorter production time. However, workforce education in this evolving field has not advanced at the same pace as the technology, lacking proven curriculums, high-quality/accredited degree programs, and specialized advanced degrees. In this paper, some best practices established by the authors are introduced. The list is far from exhaustive but is proven to be …

Visualization And Validation Of Twin Nucleation And Early-Stage Growth In Magnesium, Lin Jiang, Mingyu Gong, Jian Wang, Zhiliang Pan, Xin Wang, Dalong Zhang, Y. Morris Wang, Jim Ciston, Andrew M. Minor, Mingjie Xu, Xiaoqing Pan, Timothy J. Rupert, Subhash Mahajan, Enrique J. Lavernia, Irene J. Beyerlein, Julie M. Schoenung

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

The abrupt occurrence of twinning when Mg is deformed leads to a highly anisotropic response, making it too unreliable for structural use and too unpredictable for observation. Here, we describe an in-situ transmission electron microscopy experiment on Mg crystals with strategically designed geometries for visualization of a long-proposed but unverified twinning mechanism. Combining with atomistic simulations and topological analysis, we conclude that twin nucleation occurs through a pure-shuffle mechanism that requires prismatic-basal transformations. Also, we verified a crystal geometry dependent twin growth mechanism, that is the early-stage growth associated with instability of plasticity flow, which can be dominated either by …

Machine Learning For Accessible Web Navigation, Tlamelo W. Makati

Conference papers

This research looks at the application of Machine Learning to Web Accessibility. It considers how Machine Learning (ML) can be used to help make the processes of Web Navigation more accessible in line with Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) 2.4 Navigable, which demands that ways be provided "to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are." ML techniques such as reinforcement learning have been applied to website navigation in diverse ways. These include goal-directed search to answer questions and task-oriented problems such as booking a flight. Related work includes Web Automation and Testing. These techniques typically involve a …

Synthesis And Advanced Characterization Of Energy Materials, Erik Sarnello

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Catalysts are used in an extremely broad range of systems including everything from biological systems to industrial processes. An ideal catalyst offers robust stability and high activity. This work focuses on the synthesis and characterization of materials that show promise in the field of catalysis. Advanced synchrotron characterization techniques and unique experimental design are highlighted to provide foundation work that will provide the necessary information to aid in designing and fabricating catalytic materials. Supported metal nanoparticle (SMN) catalysts are enormously crucial for many catalytic applications. However, catalyst deactivation, caused by sintering and coke formation, is a ubiquitous problem that significantly …

Comparison Of Lean Healthcare Systems Engineering Process (Lhse) For Healthcare Improvement Projects With Earlier Improvement Initiatives, Bohdan W. Oppenheim, Michael H. Kanter, Aleksander Buczacki

Systems Engineering Faculty Works

A new process called Lean Healthcare Systems Engineering (LHSE) recently invented for improving healthcare workflows and designing new care is reviewed and compared to previous quality initiatives: PDSA, TQM, Six Sigma, Lean, Theory of Constraints, and several others. LHSE is applicable to workflow improvement or new care design projects in clinical environments, including hospitals, operating suites, emergency departments, clinics, imaging and clinical laboratories, pharmacies, population health, and telemedicine. LHSE integrates the strengths of Lean Six Sigma and Systems Engineering (SE). Lean’s overarching philosophy of “do what is necessary to deliver the value and reject everything else as waste” governed the …

A Crash Course In Good And Bad Controls, Andrew Forney, Carlos Cinelli, Judea Pearl

Computer Science Faculty Works

Many students of statistics and econometrics express frustration with the way a problem known as “bad control” is treated in the traditional literature. The issue arises when the addition of a variable to a regression equation produces an unintended discrepancy between the regression coefficient and the effect that the coefficient is intended to represent. Avoiding such discrepancies presents a challenge to all analysts in the data intensive sciences. This note describes graphical tools for understanding, visualizing, and resolving the problem through a series of illustrative examples. By making this “crash course” accessible to instructors and practitioners, we hope to avail …