Engineering Commons^™

2021 Fall Engr333 Project Assignment, Matthew K. Heun

ENGR 333

The Fall 2021 ENGR333 project focused on the sustainable housing and featured a partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Kent County.

I asked the students “What is the expected carbon emissions savings of the [Habitat for Humanity] carbon footprint build house?” And “If the carbon footprint build house is not carbon-neutral, you must answer a second question: How can carbon emissions be reduced by a further 20%?”

Calvin’s PR office followed the students’ work throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, the project was featured on Calvin’s News and Stories site with an article by Matt Kucinski …

The Emily Dickinson Machine & Hybrid Poetry Generation, Juliana Shihadeh

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

This thesis introduces EMILY, a machine that creates original poems in the style of renowned poet Emily Dickinson. Dickinson’s succinct and syntactically distinct style with unconventional punctuation makes for an interesting challenge for automated poetry creation. Furthermore, we adapt EMILY to answer the following hypothetical question: What if Emily Dickinson had collaborated with another poet from a different time period? To this end, we introduce Hybrid Generative Poetry, which simultaneously integrates poetic elements from multiple poets. Using two distinct approaches to Hybrid Poetry generation, we create poetry in the combined styles of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. User studies are …

Application Of Artificial Neural Networks To Power System State Estimation, James P. Carmichael, Yuan Liao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Presentations

State estimation function is essential for effective and timely execution of power system automation and control systems, especially in modern active distribution systems where more intermittent renewable energy systems are integrated into the grid. Distribution system state estimation faces a lot of challenges including lack of monitoring devices and possible incorrect topology information. Developing efficient state estimation for distribution systems is thus of great interest. This paper presents results on utilizing artificial neural networks for this purpose.

Artificial neural networks have been used in power distribution system state estimation. However, there is a lack of systematic analysis and study of …

Role Of Protective Relaying In The Smart Grid, J. Anderson, Alex Apostolov, R. Fowler, J. Gers, R. Kazimier, S. Klecker, Yuan Liao, M. Majidi, P. Myrda, T. Raffield

Electrical and Computer Engineering Presentations

This paper discusses the role of protective relaying in a Smart Grid. It outlines the definition, attributes, and benefits of a Smart Grid. The role that protective relays can play in implementing Smart Grid functionality and the impact that a Smart Grid design may have on modern protective relays is discussed. Specific examples of Smart Grid applications that may be implemented using modern protective relays and other intelligent electronic devices are provided.

Geomagnetic Disturbances (Gmd) Impacts On Protection Systems, Qun Qiu, V. Madani, Tapan Manna, T. Raffield, S. Klecker, Yuan Liao, S. Meliopoulos, D. Fontana

Electrical and Computer Engineering Presentations

This paper provides background and historical events of Geomagnetic Disturbances (GMD), and reviews GMD impacts on power systems equipment, and associated protection and control systems, mitigating measures, and Geomagnetic Induced Current (GIC) monitoring methods. This paper is a summary of the IEEE PES-TR72 report, titled, GMD Impacts on Protection Systems, prepared by the K17 Working Group of the IEEE Power System Relaying and Control committee.

Zip Load Modeling For Single And Aggregate Loads And Cvr Factor Estimation, Yiqi Zhang, Yuan Liao, Evan S. Jones, Nicholas Jewell, Dan M. Ionel

Electrical and Computer Engineering Presentations

ZIP load modeling has been used in various power system applications. The aggregate load modeling is common practice in utility companies. However, little research has been done on the theoretical formulation of the aggregate load. This paper formulates the aggregate ZIP load model using the single ZIP load model. The factors that may affect aggregate ZIP load estimation are studied. Common ZIP parameter estimation methods including least squares method, optimization method and neural network method have been used in this paper to estimate ZIP parameters. The case studies are based on the IEEE 13-bus and 34-bus system built in OpenDSS. …

Clustering Of Pain Dynamics In Sickle Cell Disease From Sparse, Uneven Samples, Gary K. Nave Jr, Swati Padhee, Amanuel Alambo, Tanvi Banerjee, Nirmish Shah, Daniel M. Abrams

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Irregularly sampled time series data are common in a variety of fields. Many typical methods for drawing insight from data fail in this case. Here we attempt to generalize methods for clustering trajectories to irregularly and sparsely sampled data. We first construct synthetic data sets, then propose and assess four methods of data alignment to allow for application of spectral clustering. We also repeat the same process for real data drawn from medical records of patients with sickle cell disease -- patients whose subjective experiences of pain were tracked for several months via a mobile app. We find that different …

Multi-Operator Cell Tower Locations Prediction From Crowdsourced Data, Mostafizur Rahman, Mohammad Arif Hossain, Murat Yuksel

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Cell tower locations are not publicly available due to business interests of wireless providers. Very often wireless providers provide exaggerated coverage maps that may mislead the public. In addition to providing a neutral check on the coverage maps, prediction of cell tower locations hosting multiple operators’ access nodes could also be helpful in disaster communications and public safety in general. The localization of the disaster-affected towers can be very conducive to respond and reach to the victims. Further, victims’ devices could utilize this knowledge to initiate device-to-device (D2D) or unmanned aerial vehicular (UAV) communications as alternatives to the damaged cellular …

Validation Of The Mathematics Motivation Questionnaire (Mmq) For Secondary School Students, Logan Fiorella, So Yoon Yoon, Kinnari Atit, Jason R. Power, Grace Panther, Sheryl Sorby, David H. Uttal, Norma Veurink

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Background: Motivation is critical for supporting persistence and achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In this study, we focus on the assessment of mathematics motivation among secondary school students. We provide validity and reliability evidence for the Mathematics Motivation Questionnaire (MMQ)—adapted from the Science Motivation Questionnaire designed for college students—using data from 2551 secondary students from seven states across the United States. Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed five latent factors of the MMQ indicated by 19 items: intrinsic value, self-regulation, self-efficacy, utility value, and test anxiety. The nonlinear SEM reliability coefficients of the five constructs …

Temporal Evolution Of Structure And Function In The Periphery And Central Auditory Systems With Mild Blast Induced Tinnitus In Rat Animal Models, Ningning Shao

Dissertations

Exposure to blast causes debilitating trauma including tinnitus among soldiers and civilians (Cave et al., 2007; Remenschneider et al., 2014; Singh et al., 2016). Tinnitus is a constant ringing noise perception without external acoustic event; it affects sleep, concentration, behavior, leading to suicidal tendencies (Swan et al., 2017). Though blast induced tinnitus has been studied, structural and functional dysfunctions along auditory systems have not been systematically studied. It was hypothesized in this work that blast causes tinnitus even while the ears are mechanically protected, and the damage occurred in both central and peripheral auditory systems, which contributed to increased anxiety …

An Integrated Model Of Optofluidic Biosensor Function And Performance, Joel Greig Wright, Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Optofluidic flow-through biosensor devices have been in development for fast bio-target detection. Utilizing the fabrication processes developed by the microelectronics industry, these biosensors can be fabricated into lab-on-a-chip devices with a degree of platform portability. This biosensor technology can be used to detect a variety of targets, and is particularly useful for the detection single molecules and nucleic acid strands. Microfabrication also offers the possibility of production at scale, and this will offer a fast detection method for a range of applications with promising economic viability. The development of this technology has advanced to now warrant a descriptive model that …

Electrical Property Of Polypropylene Films Subjected To Different Temperatures And Dc Electric Fields, Huseyin R. Hiziroglu, Chuyan Zhang, Weichen Shi, Qiao Wang, Mingguang Diao

Electrical & Computer Engineering Publications

A polypropylene (PP) film is usually used as a dielectric material in capacitors as well as cables. However, PP films may degrade because of the combined effect of temperature and electric field. In an earlier study, plain PP films and PP films loaded with nano-metric natural clay were studied under sinusoidal (AC) electric fields at power frequency and temperatures above the ambient. To better understand the electrical characteristics of PP film under various conditions, the objective of this study is to determine the time-to-breakdown of the plain PP and PP filled with 2% (wt) natural nano-clay when subjected to time-invariant …

Validation Of The Mathematics Motivation Questionnaire (Mmq) For Secondary School Students, Logan Fiorella, So Yoon Yoon, Kinnari Atit, Jason R. Power, Grace Panther, Sheryl Sorby, David H. Uttal, Norma Veurink

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: Motivation is critical for supporting persistence and achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In this study, we focus on the assessment of mathematics motivation among secondary school students. We provide validity and reliability evidence for the Mathematics Motivation Questionnaire (MMQ)—adapted from the Science Motivation Questionnaire designed for college students—using data from 2551 secondary students from seven states across the United States. Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed five latent factors of the MMQ indicated by 19 items: intrinsic value, self-regulation, self-efficacy, utility value, and test anxiety. The nonlinear SEM reliability coefficients of the five constructs …

Unintended Consequences Of Air Cleaning Chemistry, Douglas B. Collins, Delphine K. Farmer

Faculty Journal Articles

Amplified interest in maintaining clean indoor air associated with the airborne transmission risks of SARS-CoV-2 have led to an expansion in the market for commercially available air cleaning systems. While the optimal way to mitigate indoor air pollutants or contaminants is to control (remove) the source, air cleaners are a tool for use when absolute source control is not possible. Interventions for indoor air quality management include physical removal of pollutants through ventilation or collection on filters and sorbent materials, along with chemically reactive processes that transform pollutants or seek to deactivate biological entities. This perspective intends to highlight the …

Analysis And Performance Evaluation Of Entropic Thresholding Image Processing Techniques For Electrical Capacitance Tomography Measurement System, Josiah Nombo, Alfred Mwambela, Michael Kisangiri

Tanzania Journal of Science

To improve image quality generated from the electrical capacitance tomography measurement system, the use of entropic thresholding techniques is investigated in this article. Based on the analysis of the principle of Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) image reconstruction and entropic thresholding, various algorithms have been proposed for easy extraction of quantitative information from tomograms generated from the ECT system. Experiments indicate that proposed algorithms can provide high-quality images at no or minimum computational cost. It is easier to implement and integrate with classical algorithms such as Linear Back Projection, Singular value decomposition, Tikhonov regularization, and Landweber. Entropic thresholding techniques present a …

Maintenance Automation Architecture And Electrical Equipment Fault Prediction Method In Tanzania Secondary Distribution Networks, Hadija Mbembati, Kwame Ibwe, Baraka Maiseli

Tanzania Journal of Science

Distribution networks remain the most maintenance-intensive parts of power systems. The implementation of maintenance automation and prediction of equipment fault can enhance system reliability while reducing the overall costs. In Tanzania, however, maintenance automation has not been deployed in secondary distribution networks (SDNs). Instead, traditional methods are used for condition prediction and fault identification of power assets (transformers and power lines). These (manual) methods are costly and time-consuming, and may introduce human-related errors. Motivated by these challenges, this work introduces maintenance automation into the network architecture by implementing effective maintenance and fault identification methods. The proposed method adopts machine learning …

Drug Releasing Hydrogels For Opioid Use Disorder, Kaytlyn M. Crowe

Theses

Ease of access to prescription opioids and the strength of synthetic opioids have contributed to the rise in over use disorders, overdose, and death rates during the opioid epidemic. The current overdose standard of care, rescue NLX (NLX), is a competitive antagonist to the μ-opioid receptor but has a relatively short period of action compared to opioid agonists, especially synthetic agonists. Rises in the abuse of these synthetic and semi-synthetic agents in recent years have shown the weaknesses of rescue NLX, as it can leave overdose patients vulnerable to renarcotization and precipitated withdrawal. To prevent both from occurring, we developed …

Patient Transport In The Time Of Covid-19: Using Health Care Failure Mode And Effect Analysis With Simulation To Test And Modify A Protocol, John Kwock, Jeffrey Holmes, Shelly Chipman, Erin Siebers, Angela Berry, Sonja Orff, Victoria Boutin, Leah Mallory

Journal of Maine Medical Center

Introduction: In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an interprofessional, interdisciplinary team at Maine Medical Center used Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (HFMEA) and in situ simulation to rapidly identify and mitigate latent safety threats (LST) in patient transport protocols.

Methods: Following HFMEA steps, stakeholders representing a variety of disciplines assembled to address transport of patients with COVID-19. A process map was created to describe the process. With hazard analysis using table-top simulation followed by in situ simulation, we identified, categorized, and scored LSTs. Mitigation strategies were identified during structured debriefing.

Results: Fourteen LSTs were identified in …

Alcohol As A Catalyst For Hiv-Associated Neuroinflammation And Tbi-Induced Iron Toxicity, Agnieszka Agas

Dissertations

Alcohol has long been considered an exacerbator of diseases, disorders, and injuries as well as many of the accompanying symptoms. As an alternative approach, this dissertation explores alcohol as a catalyst for two different human disease conditions, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated neuroinflammation and traumatic brain injury (TBI)-induced iron toxicity. In HIV-1 infection, this dissertation presents a novel anti-viral drug, called Drug-S, for a possible inhibition and treatment of HIV-1 disease progression.

The first aim explores the influence of alcohol with HIV-associated neuroinflammation on macrophage migration across an in vitro model of the blood brain barrier. There is a gap in …

Contact Angle Measurement Using A Hele-Shaw Cell: A Proof-Of-Concept Study, Haipeng Zhang, Jacob Gottberg, Sangjin Ryu

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Contact angle is an important property to quantify the wettability of a solid surface with a liquid, which characterizes interactions of the solid-liquid pair. Generally, to measure contact angle, special instruments such as a goniometer are necessary, but they are not readily available in certain research settings. In this study, an alternative method to measure contact angle based on a Hele-Shaw cell, microscopy imaging, and image processing is suggested. In this method, a liquid drop is injected into a transparent Hele-Shaw cell, the meniscus of the drop is captured in the top or bottom view using a brightfield microscope, and …

Bright And Blind Spots Of Water Research In Latin America And The Caribbean, Alyssa J. Devincentis, Hervé Guillon, Romina Díaz Gómez, Noelle K. Patterson, Francine Van Den Brandeler, Srthur Koehl, Pablo Ortiz-Partida, Laura E. Garza-Díaz, Jennifer Gamez-Rodríguez, Erfan Goharian, Samuel Sandoval Solis

Faculty Publications

Water resources management in Latin America and the Caribbean is particularly threatened by climatic, economic, and political pressures. To assess the region's ability to manage water resources, we conducted an unprecedented literature review of over 20 000 multilingual research articles using machine learning and an understanding of the socio-hydrologic landscape. Results reveal that the region's vulnerability to water-related stresses, and drivers such as climate change, is compounded by research blind spots in niche topics (reservoirs and risk assessment) and subregions (Caribbean nations), as well as by its reliance on an individual country (Brazil). A regional bright spot, Brazil, produces well-rounded …

Effect Of Shock Vector/Polarization Vector Configuration On The Generation Of Ultrahigh Voltage By Adiabatically Compressed Ferroelectric Materials, Sergey I. Shkuratov, Jason Baird, Vladimir G. Antipov

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Compact autonomous megawatt-power systems based on shock depolarization of ferroelectric materials are capable of producing kiloampere currents and ultrahigh-voltage pulses with amplitudes exceeding 100kV. Herein, we report the results of experimental investigations of the generation of ultrahigh voltage by poled Pb0.99(Zr0.95Ti0.05)0.98Nb0.02O3 and Pb0.99(Zr0.52Ti0.48)0.98Nb0.01O3 ferroelectrics subjected to shock loading at different shock vector/polarization vector configurations. Our experiments demonstrated that under loading perpendicular to the polarization vector (transverse stress mode) the ferroelectrics are capable of generating high voltages exceeding 400kV, while the loading parallel to the polarization vector (longitudinal stress mode) causes a distortion of the depolarization process in ferroelectrics of large …

Designing A Computer-Vision Application: A Case Study For Hand-Hygiene Assessment In An Open-Room Environment, Chengzang Zhong, Amy R. Reibman, Hansel A. Mina, Amanda J. Deering

Department of Food Science Faculty Publications

Hand-hygiene is a critical component for safe food handling. In this paper, we apply an iterative engineering process to design a hand-hygiene action detection system to improve food- handling safety. We demonstrate the feasibility of a baseline RGB-only convolutional neural network (CNN) in the restricted case of a single scenario; however, since this baseline system performs poorly across scenarios, we also demonstrate the application of two methods to explore potential reasons for its poor performance. This leads to the development of our hierarchical system that incorporates a variety of modalities (RGB, optical flow, hand masks, and human skeleton joints) for …

A Compact 1200 V, 700 A, Igbt-Based Pulse Generator For Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation In Vivo Laboratory Experiments On Small Animals, Daniel Senda, Haley Strong, Dustin Hines, Rochelle Hines, R. Jacob Baker

Psychology Faculty Research

An insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) pulse generator for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation used for in vivo laboratory experiments on small animals, such as mice, is reported. The pulse generator is based upon an IGBT that can switch 700 A of current for 1 ms and that has a DC breakdown voltage of 1200 V. The duration of the design’s output pulse is controlled by, and follows, an input trigger pulse. The voltage amplitude of the output pulses is determined by an external high-voltage power supply and the energy stored in a 330 µF capacitor bank. The approach enables the amplitude …

Sediqa: Sound Emitting Document Image Quality Assessment In A Reading Aid For The Visually Impaired, Jane Courtney

Articles

For visually impaired people (VIPs), the ability to convert text to sound can mean a new level of independence or the simple joy of a good book. With significant advances in optical character recognition (OCR) in recent years, a number of reading aids are appearing on the market. These reading aids convert images captured by a camera to text which can then be read aloud. However, all of these reading aids suffer from a key issue—the user must be able to visually target the text and capture an image of sufficient quality for the OCR algorithm to function—no small task …

Silk-Cellulose Acetate Biocomposite Materials Regenerated From Ionic Liquid, Ashley Rivera-Galetti, Chrtstopher R. Gough, Farhan Kaleem, Michael Burch, Chris Ratcliffe, Ping Lu, David Salas-De La Cruz, Xiao Hu

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

The novel use of ionic liquid as a solvent for biodegradable and natural organic biomaterials has increasingly sparked interest in the biomedical field. As compared to more volatile traditional solvents that rapidly degrade the protein molecular weight, the capability of polysaccharides and proteins to dissolve seamlessly in ionic liquid and form fine and tunable biomaterials after regeneration is the key interest of this study. Here, a blended system consisting of Bombyx Mori silk fibroin protein and a cellulose derivative, cellulose acetate (CA), in the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EMIMAc) was regenerated and underwent characterization to understand the structure and physical …

Federated Variational Learning For Anomaly Detection In Multivariate Time Series, Kai Zhang, Houbing Song, Yushan Jiang, Lee Seversky, Chengtao M. Xu, Dahai Liu

Publications

Anomaly detection has been a challenging task given high-dimensional multivariate time series data generated by networked sensors and actuators in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Besides the highly nonlinear, complex, and dynamic nature of such time series, the lack of labeled data impedes data exploitation in a supervised manner and thus prevents an accurate detection of abnormal phenomenons. On the other hand, the collected data at the edge of the network is often privacy sensitive and large in quantity, which may hinder the centralized training at the main server. To tackle these issues, we propose an unsupervised time series anomaly detection framework …

Stable Thermally-Modulated Nanodroplet Ultrasound Contrast Agents, Anastasiia Vasiukhina, Javad Estraghi, Adib Ahmadzadegan, Craig J. Goergen, Pavlov P. Vlachos, Luis Solorio

School of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Liquid perfluorocarbon-based nanodroplets are stable enough to be used in extravascular imaging, but provide limited contrast enhancement due to their small size, incompressible core, and small acoustic impedance mismatch with biological fluids. Here we show a novel approach to overcoming this limitation by using a heating–cooling cycle, which we will refer to as thermal modulation (TM), to induce echogenicity of otherwise stable but poorly echogenic nanodroplets without triggering a transient phase shift. We apply thermal modulation to high-boiling point tetradecafluorohexane (TDFH) nanodroplets stabilized with a bovine serum albumin (BSA) shell. BSA-TDFH nanodroplets with an average diameter under 300 nanometers showed …

Assessment Of Key Imperatives For Enhancing Precast Adoptability In Egypt, Mostafa Sameh

Theses and Dissertations

Precast Concrete’s modular application concept is a major construction method that has been used historically seen in various shapes, forms, and with a wide range of constituents. Examples include Ancient Egypt and China among several impressive structures in old civilizations. The major advantages of precast concrete lie in its adaptability, resilience, and versatility which makes precast concrete one of the most agile building materials. Precast concrete as we know it today has been introduced to our markets over the past several decades. Having similar advantages to that of old precast building methods, the road has been paved for wider use …

Problems Of Modeling And Control Of The Technological Process Of Ore Grinding, Djalolitdin Pakhritdinovich Mukhitdinov, Sanjar Boybutayev

Chemical Technology, Control and Management

The article analyzes the methods of mathematical modeling of the closed-loop process of fine grinding of ore in order to predict the composition of the crushed raw material. Analyzed modeling methods that consider the control of classification of crushed raw materials and finished products by the size of the recirculating load, simulation modeling methods, methods that use neuro-phase netthe research apparatus, in which the fuzzy logic apparatus serves as a fundamental component for the formation of conclusions. The materials presented in the article reflect the theoretical substantiation and generalization of the accumulated practical experience in modeling and control of the …