Engineering Commons^™

Geospatial And Acoustic Application In An Artificial Reef Site Of South Korea, Myounghee Kang, Rina Fajaryanti, Kyounghoon Lee, Eun-A Yoon, Woo-Seok Oh, Eunbi Min, Young-Jae Shin, Yong-Suk Choi, Byung-Ho Yi, Hui Zhang, Doojin Hwang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Artificial reefs are important since they provide additional habitat leading to increasing abundance and biomass of marine biota. In a Bukchon artificial reef, Jeju Island, South Korea, environment data, artificial reef properties, and acoustic data in four seasons were integrated to visualize and examine their connections using a geographic information system (GIS). As a result, regarding the spatial and temporal distributions of fishes, January had the lowest Nautical Area Scattering Coefficient (NASC, m2/nm2) and June had the highest NASC, and relatively high NASC was observed from 5 to 30 m deep throughout seasons. The influential circle (effective distance from reef) …

Milkguard: Predictive Modeling And Mobile App Development For Affordable, Usable Breast Milk Diagnostic, Beau Hsia, Emma Mccurry

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Breast milk is considered the gold standard of infant nutrition, but some infants around the world lack access to it due to maternal health complications or other considerations. Human breast milk banks do exist to try to alleviate this problem, but most are underfunded and have high operational costs, making it difficult for some infants to obtain safe, reliable donated breast milk.

Existing methods of testing breast milk are expensive, so the MilkGuard project was conceptualized in 2017 as a fast, economical, and highly usable bacterial contamination detection system. Prior to this year, previous MilkGuard teams had developed a system …

A Method For Monitoring Operating Equipment Effectiveness With The Internet Of Things And Big Data, Carl D. Hays Iii

Master's Theses

The purpose of this paper was to use the Overall Equipment Effectiveness productivity formula in plant manufacturing and convert it to measuring productivity for forklifts. Productivity for a forklift was defined as being available and picking up and moving containers at port locations in Seattle and Alaska. This research uses performance measures in plant manufacturing and applies them to mobile equipment in order to establish the most effective means of analyzing reliability and productivity. Using the Internet of Things to collect data on fifteen forklift trucks in three different locations, this data was then analyzed over a six-month period to …

Modeling Action Potential Propagation During Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Through A Three-Dimensional Computational Model, Julia Elizabeth Kelley

Master's Theses

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common monogenic disorder and the leading cause of sudden arrhythmic death in children and young adults. It is typically asymptomatic and first manifests itself during cardiac arrest, making it a challenge to diagnose in advance. Computational models can explore and reveal underlying molecular mechanisms in cardiac electrophysiology by allowing researchers to alter various parameters such as tissue size or ionic current amplitudes. The goal of this thesis is to develop a computational model in MATLAB and to determine if this model can accurately indicate cases of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This goal is achieved by combining …

A Half Yearly Newsletter -Department Of Aeronautical And Automobile Engineering, Mohammad Zuber Dr

Faculty work

No abstract provided.

Electromagnetic Wave Propagation For Industry And Biomedical Applications, Fred Lacy

Faculty Publications

Superconductors have a wide array of applications, such as medical imaging, supercomputing, and electric power transmission, but superconducting materials only operate at very cold temperatures. Thus, the quest to engineer room temperature superconductors is currently a hot topic of research. To accomplish this mission, it is important to have a complete understanding of the material properties that are being used to create these superconductors. Understanding the atomic and electromagnetic properties of the prospective materials will provide tremendous insight into the best choice for the materials. Therefore, a theoretical model that incorporates electromagnetic field theory and quantum mechanics principles is utilized …

Music For Me, Zachary Graber, William Henrion

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Music For Me is an online web application that enables users to compose improvised music alongside an AI. Users have an array of understandable, easy to use yet powerful options available to them. While previous AI-collaborative music improvisation tools exist, they are either limited in scope, with minimal structure and user customization or completely overwhelming with a large amount of provided options so as to be inaccessible except to those dedicated to learning the program. This web application provides an intersection between these two extremes, providing a pick-up and play model that allows for a rich improvisational experience while still …

Non-Ribosomal In Vivo Protein Ligation, Sarah Desautel, Kenneth Joseph, Victorino Miguel Francisco

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Protein ligation is a process integral to many biomedical applications, however the current industry standard, expressed protein ligation (EPL), is highly error prone and time-and-cost inefficient. Our team sought to improve this integral process by proving the efficacy of a new method of protein ligation using the transpeptidase Sortase A. Sortase A is known to efficiently bind two peptide fragments so long as they are attached to LPXTG motifs, which signal and activate the enzyme’s ligation abilities. Previous studies affirm Sortase A’s binding ability and efficacy in in vitro situations, however none have yet confirmed its abilities in vivo. Operating …

Warming Enabled Upslope Advance In Western Us Forest Fires, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, John T. Abatzoglou, Charles H. Luce, Jan F. Adamowski, Arvin Farid, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increases in burned area and large fire occurrence are widely documented over the western United States over the past half century. Here, we focus on the elevational distribution of forest fires in mountainous ecoregions of the western United States and show the largest increase rates in burned area above 2,500 m during 1984 to 2017. Furthermore, we show that high-elevation fires advanced upslope with a median cumulative change of 252 m (−107 to 656 m; 95% CI) in 34 y across studied ecoregions. We also document a strong interannual relationship between high-elevation fires and warm season vapor pressure deficit (VPD). …

Minimizing Leakage In Thin Walled Structures Printed Through Selective Laser Melting, Andrew Spencer Yap

Master's Theses

In this project, the scan strategy of selective laser melting (SLM) for thin walled structures was investigated by changing laser parameters and tool path. Producing thin walled structures is difficult due to defects such as warpage and porosity. A layer on the SLM 125 consists of hatch volume, fill contours, and borders, however, for thin walls, hatch volume can become unavailable, resulting in a solely border/fill contour laser tool path.

Three central composite designs (CCD) were created to optimize the laser parameters of borders to minimize leakage rate and porosity. The two factors changed were border laser power and scanning …

Anthropogenic Drought: Definition, Challenges, And Opportunities, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Traditional, mainstream definitions of drought describe it as deficit in water-related variables or water-dependent activities (e.g., precipitation, soil moisture, surface and groundwater storage, and irrigation) due to natural variabilities that are out of the control of local decision-makers. Here, we argue that within coupled human-water systems, drought must be defined and understood as a process as opposed to a product to help better frame and describe the complex and interrelated dynamics of both natural and human-induced changes that define anthropogenic drought as a compound multidimensional and multiscale phenomenon, governed by the combination of natural water variability, climate change, human decisions …

The Thermal Conductivity Of Polar Firn, Simon Oster

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

A custom device is designed, validated, and used to make the first reported direct measurements of the effective thermal conductivity of polar firn. The firn cores spanned depths from 8 to 47 m from an undisturbed site near the South Pole in Antarctica. The thermal conductivity varies with depth, with values ranging from 0.617 to 1.018 W/mK, and the associated thermal diffusivities range from 20.95 to 25.68 m²/a. Density and porosity contribute to the variation in thermal conductivity but cannot be used to completely prescribe the conductivity. Initial analyses indicate that firn microstructure relates to conductivity through Euler-Poincaré …

Classifying Common Knee Rehabilitation Exercise Mistakes Using Imu Data, Fedor Myagkov

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

Physical therapy following major surgeries is a branch of medicine that has seen its fair share of technologically inspired advances. One important facet of physical therapy, the “at-home exercises” patients are prescribed to do, is still somewhat of a “black box” to many physical therapists (PTs). PTs have no way of knowing (1) whether the patient is doing the home exercises, or (2) whether the patient is doing the exercises in the correct and healthy manner. This lack of awareness makes it difficult for the PT to guide the patient, which can often lead to prolonged rehabilitation periods or (sometimes) …

Physically Based Rendering Techniques To Visualize Thin-Film Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Fluid Simulations, Aditya H. Prasad

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

This thesis introduces a methodology and workflow I developed to visualize smoothed hydrodynamic particle based simulations for the research paper ’Thin-Film Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Fluid’ (2021), that I co-authored. I introduce a physically based rendering model which allows point cloud simulation data representing thin film fluids and bubbles to be rendered in a photorealistic manner. This includes simulating the optic phenomenon of thin-film interference and rendering the resulting iridescent patterns. The key to the model lies in the implementation of a physically based surface shader that accounts for the interference of infinitely many internally reflected rays in its bidirectional surface …

The Discrete-Event Modeling Of Administrative Claims (Demac) System: Dynamically Modeling The U.S. Healthcare Delivery System With Medicare Claims Data To Improve End-Of-Life Care, Rachael Chacko

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

The shift of the U.S. healthcare delivery system from the treatment of acute conditions to chronic diseases requires a new method of healthcare system analysis to properly assess end- of-life (EOL) quality throughout the country. In this paper, we propose the Discrete-Event Modeling of Administrative Claims (DEMAC) system, which relies on a hetero-functional graph theory and discrete event-driven framework to dynamically model EOL care on multiple levels. The heat map visualizations produced by the DEMAC system enable the elucidation of not only patient-specific EOL care but also broader treatment patterns among providers and hospitals. As a whole, the DEMAC system …

Object Manipulation With Modular Planar Tensegrity Robots, Maxine Perroni-Scharf

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

This thesis explores the creation of a novel two-dimensional tensegrity-based mod- ular system. When individual planar modules are linked together, they form a larger tensegrity robot that can be used to achieve non-prehensile manipulation. The first half of this dissertation focuses on the study of preexisting types of tensegrity mod- ules and proposes different possible structures and arrangements of modules. The second half describes the construction and actuation of a modular 2D robot com- posed of planar three-bar tensegrity structures. We conclude that tensegrity modules are suitably adapted to object manipulation and propose a future extension of the modular 2D …

Patella Resection In Total Knee Arthroplasty: An Analytical Comparison Of Three Techniques, Kelsey Cushway

Medical Engineering Theses

Patella resection, as a routine component of TKA, can be both difficult to plan and difficult to execute. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the repeatability of three unique patellar resection techniques used in total knee arthroplasty. The secondary purpose of this study was to establish whether different surgical techniques were able to reproduce preoperative plans made by each surgeon. We used radiographic measurements to evaluate patellar thickness and patellar cut angle preoperatively and postoperatively. Three techniques (45 cases in total) were evaluated, revealing qualitative differences between surgical techniques and significant quantitative differences between average patellar thickness …

Analysis Of The Use Of Waste Material In 3d Printing, Alexander Laurence

Materials Engineering

Globally, only 9% of plastic by mass is recycled. Allowing consumers to directly convert polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste into 3D filament can increase the recycling rate by reducing contamination and costs from traditional large-scale recycling methods. This was tested by heating strips of PET to various temperatures within its glass transition region and pressing a roller with a 1.75 mm indentation against it to observe strip deformation. PET was also placed in a hemispherical well with a 1.75 mm diameter hole at the bottom and heated above its melting temperature to determine the mass of PET required to extrude 3D …

A Practical Framework To Assess The Sustainability And Resiliency Of Civil Infrastructure, Thomas Adam Robbins, Bhaskar C. S. Chittoori

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research within civil engineering is focusing on newer ideas and philosophies such as sustainability and resiliency (S&R). This is evident in the development of frameworks for assessing the sustainability or the resiliency of civil infrastructures. Several frameworks have been developed by researchers to quantify the S&R of civil infrastructures. It is evident that the S&R are not mutually exclusive, and it is important to assess these aspects at the same time and that frameworks are able to accommodate simultaneous assessments. While there are other frameworks that follow a unified approach to S&R assessments, they do not account for the risk …

Investigating The Relationship Between The Fatigue Cracking Resistance And Thermal Characteristics Of Asphalt Binders Extracted From Field Mixes Containing Recycled Materials, Eslam Deef-Allah, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Asphalt components have a significant contribution to the fatigue cracking resistance of asphalt mixes. Softer asphalt binders, characterized through the Superpave grading system, resist fatigue cracking more than stiffer binders. During the long-term aging, the binders’ components changed from lower- to higher-molecular-weight constituents that increased binders’ stiffnesses. Using recycled materials in the mixes increases the stiffnesses of the binders inside these mixes by altering the binders’ components. The binders were extracted and recovered (E & R) from field mixes containing different percentages of recycled materials [reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and recycled asphalt shingles] and binders’ performance grades. The fatigue resistance …

Design Of An Automatic Fish Processing Line Using Machine Learning, Sangam Mainali

Master's Theses

This thesis presents an approach to automatic fish processing in the fishing industry using artificial intelligence. Using transfer learning approach (VGG16 model), convolutional neural network (CNN), and image processing, this thesis demonstrates the series of steps from intake of fishes, chopping of head and tail to collecting the body parts of fishes separately thus making it ready for post-processing or direct packaging as per the industrial and consumer needs. To present the idea of the classification of fishes, we have considered five different fishes and one shrimp, altogether six classes. After the classification, the fishes are sorted out according to …

Learning Medical Materials From Radiography Images, Carson Molder, Benjamin Lowe, Justin Zhan

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Deep learning models have been shown to be effective for material analysis, a subfield of computer vision, on natural images. In medicine, deep learning systems have been shown to more accurately analyze radiography images than algorithmic approaches and even experts. However, one major roadblock to applying deep learning-based material analysis on radiography images is a lack of material annotations accompanying image sets. To solve this, we first introduce an automated procedure to augment annotated radiography images into a set of material samples. Next, using a novel Siamese neural network that compares material sample pairs, called D-CNN, we demonstrate how to …

Center Pivot Project Specifications, Charles M. Burt

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This note provides an example of items that are included in a specification for center pivots. It is a supplement to design drawings that have numerous additional details. This example combines items from various ITRC jobs, and therefore the units are not consistent (there is a mix of metric and English units). The intention, however, is not to provide a precise specification that can be replicated, but rather to show the key items that are typically included.

In such projects, there are two primary sets of specifications:

• The details of the center pivots themselves and warranties for the pivots
• The …

B-91 Fire Protection Analysis, Evan Phillips

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

B-91 is a multiuse building on a Department of Defense installation rented out to a defense contractor consisting of laboratory, office, storage, and utility spaces. To determine the adequacy of the building’s fire protection systems as determined by the state-adopted 2015 International Building Code, a prescriptive analysis was performed with specific areas of focus on the building construction and occupancy, emergency egress capacity, fire suppression systems, and fire alarm systems. The building is compliant with code requirements in its construction and the fire alarm systems are adequately designed to provide notice, but the egress from the building’s main conference room …

Fire Protection Analysis For The Tritium Engineering Building, Jack Smeck

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report analyzed several different aspects of the fire protection and life safety strategy for the Tritium Engineering Building (TEB) at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, SC. The TEB is a single-story, Type IIB building that primarily houses engineering and technical staff. The building is approximately 15,560 ft2 and consists of two large “open areas” enclosed by hard- wall offices. Modular workstations are located in both “open areas” and accommodate the majority of the building occupants. This analysis provided both a prescriptive and a performance-based approach for analyzing fire hazards within the building. The prescriptive- based analysis evaluated the …

College Sports Center Fire Protection Analysis, Elijah Kimmig

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The purpose of this project was to analyze and compare the existing fire protection systems in the college sports center to current applicable codes and standards. Both prescriptive based analysis and performance based analyses were performed.

The prescriptive based analyses included analyzing the structural fire protection, fire suppression, fire alarm, and egress systems. Overall, the majority of the fire protection systems appeared to meet the requirements of the current codes but there are a few items that were found that appear to not meet current code. These items are listed below along with recommendations to mitigate: (1) Placement of certain …

The Effects Of Artificial Intelligence On Competitive Sports, Qiyu Pu

School of Professional Studies

This Research thesis is to explore the application and impact of artificial intelligence in the field of competitive sports, discover the risks and problems in it, and discuss solutions. Nowadays, artificial intelligence has been applied to all walks of life, and the field of competitive sports is no exception, such as VR video technology, artificial intelligence for competition and player data analysis, artificial intelligence equipment to help players train, artificial intelligence to develop tactics, etc. But artificial intelligence has also brought about problems such as disrupting game viewing, making intellectual competitive sports meaningless, and threatening the status of industry practitioners. …

Radio Frequency Direction Finding System, Jacob Taub, Austin Colon

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

In certain terrain types It is difficult to locate people, objects, animals, etc. In particular, using one’s eyes and ears to locate something has certain disadvantages. Visible light propagates at high frequencies and is easily stopped by terrain. Also, sound waves do not propagate as effectively as electromagnetic waves in open air because they are mechanical waves. Therefore, our goal is to create a system that can locate emitters that output electromagnetic waves in the radio frequency (RF) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS). RF operates at a lower frequency than visible light and will diffract around mountains and pass …

Data Integrity Preservation Schemes In Smart Healthcare Systems That Use Fog Computing Distribution, Abdulwahab Fahad S. Alazeb, Brajendra Panda, Sultan Ahmed A Almakdi, Mohammed Saleh H. Alshehri

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The volume of data generated worldwide is rapidly growing. Cloud computing, fog computing, and the Internet of things (IoT) technologies have been adapted to compute and process this high data volume. In coming years information technology will enable extensive developments in the field of healthcare and offer health care providers and patients broadened opportunities to enhance their healthcare experiences and services owing to heightened availability and enriched services through real-time data exchange. As promising as these technological innovations are, security issues such as data integrity and data consistency remain widely unaddressed. Therefore, it is important to engineer a solution to …

The State Of Artificial Intelligence In Medical Imaging, Catalin Cristian Veghes

School of Professional Studies

This study explores the current state of Artificial Intelligence in medical imaging and provides an accessible assessment of how radiologists perceive the emerging technologies. Throughout the research, we analyze different aspects such as the adoption rate of Artificial Intelligence or the performance of state-of-the-art models, and we identify some of the significant barriers that prevent a wider adoption, such as the lack of collaboration between radiologists and computer scientists. Additionally, we provide a brief theoretical background that explains how deep learning works and how it can be helpful in medical imaging. We describe the architecture of a binary classifier in …