Engineering Commons^™

Sensing Population Distribution From Satellite Imagery Via Deep Learning:Model Selection, Neighboring Effects, And Systematic Biases, Xiao Huang, Di Zhu, Fan Zhang, Tao Liu, Xiao Li, Lei Zou

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The rapid development of remote sensing techniques provides rich, large-coverage, and high-temporal information of the ground, which can be coupled with the emerging deep learning approaches that enable latent features and hidden geographical patterns to be extracted. This article marks the first attempt to cross-compare performances of popular state-of-the-art deep learning models in estimating population distribution from remote sensing images, investigate the contribution of neighboring effect, and explore the potential systematic population estimation biases. We conduct an end-to-end training of four popular deep learning architectures, i.e., VGG, ResNet, Xception, and DenseNet, by establishing a mapping between Sentinel-2 image patches and …

Hydrogen Adsorption On Sub-Bituminous Coal: Implications For Hydrogen Geo-Storage, Sefan Iglauer, Hussein Abid, Ahmed Z. Al-Yaseri, Alireza Keshavarz

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Hydrogen is a clean fuel that can potentially revolutionize the energy supply chain and decarbonize fuel consumption. However, a key hurdle that needs to be overcome before a full-scale hydrogen economy can be established is hydrogen storage which is currently the main limitation. Here, we propose that hydrogen gas can be stored in underground coal seams, where it adsorbs on the coal surface. However, currently, no hard data related to such a procedure exists. We, therefore, demonstrate experimentally that significant amounts of hydrogen gas can be stored via this route. Hydrogen adsorption capacities reached 0.6 moles H₂/kg of …

Here You Have To Be Mixing: Collaborative Learning On An Engineering Program In Ireland As Experienced By A Group Of Young Middle Eastern Women, Shannon Chance, Bill Williams

Articles

This research project uses grounded theory to analyze interviews conducted with eight women from Oman and Kuwait. Members of the sample group were studying together at an institute of technology in Dublin, Ireland. The paper reports patterns in 15 interviews collected in the years 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 to provide a longitudinal overview of the experience of the learners. During the coding process, three major themes emerged having to do with the experience of learning with others and/or learning in groups. The first theme involved communication within the group and the group's approaches to working together. The second identified …

A Critical Analysis Of How Large Irish Architectural Practices Responded To Initial Covid-19 Restrictions And The Affect Implementing Remote Working Had On Bim Processes, Policies, And People, Bim Tudublin, John Mcenroy

Capstone Reports

The unprecedent events which transpired in the 88-day period from the 31st of December 2019 to the 27th of March 2020 have changed the world in which we live and work. The outbreak of Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) and the ensuing pandemic which has evolved are descripted as one in a hundred-year events. This paper researched and critically analyses the operations which large Irish Architecture firms initiated during this period in order to facilitate the ability of its employees working from a remote location, focusing on how the People, Processes and Policies of BIM (3 Ps of BIM); adapted to …

To What Extent Can Lean Construction Processes And Principles Be Utilised In The Design Stage Of A Bim Project In The Irish Design And Construction Industry, Bim Tudublin, Barry Sheramn

Capstone Reports

Although different in many ways, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Lean Construction are two processes that are having a significant impact on the Design & Construction Industry. In recent years, the Irish AECO industry has seen a tenfold increase across numerous construction disciplines with the adoption of new workflows and processes centred around both BIM and Lean methodologies. Existing literature identifies a strong synergistic relationship between the two processes and highlights the opportunity for Lean processes and principles to be implemented into the design stage workflow. This paper investigated existing literature relating to several lean processes currently implemented in the …

An Examination Of The Use Of Geotechnical Bim To Provide Value Engineering Solutions For Coastal Infrastructure., Bim Tudublin, Eric Brennan

Capstone Reports

The digitisation of construction is taking root as Building Information Modelling is becoming more prevalent across the industry. From an Irish context, the adoption rate of BIM has been slow; nationally its advantages and merits have been welcomed and the appropriate government support is either available, soon to be implemented or in the early conceptual stage. Within the Irish governments Project Ireland 2040 framework there are significant infrastructure developments looming ahead, in particular regarding ports and harbours. The importance of this type of infrastructure is only further compounded due to the UK’s departure from the EU and the need for …

Disaster Analysis Using Satellite Image Data With Knowledge Transfer And Semi-Supervised Learning Techniques, Palavi Jain

Reports

With the increase in frequency of disasters and crisis situations like floods, earthquake and hurricanes, the requirement to handle the situation efficiently through disaster response and humanitarian relief has increased. Disasters are mostly unpredictable in nature with respect to their impact on people and property. Moreover, the dynamic and varied nature of disasters makes it difficult to predict their impact accurately for advanced preparation of responses [104]. It is also notable that the economical loss due to natural disasters has increased in recent years, and it, along with the pure humanitarian need, is one of the reasons to research innovative …

Recent Advances In The Redox-Responsive Drug Delivery Nanoplatforms: A Chemical Structure And Physical Property Perspective, Shirin Mollazadeh, Marcin Mackiewicz, Mostafa Yazdimamaghani

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Poor water solubility, off-target toxicity, and small therapeutic window are among major obstacles for the development of drug products. Redox-responsive drug delivery nanoplatforms not only overcome the delivery and pharmacokinetic pitfalls observed in conventional drug delivery but also leverage the site-specific delivery properties. Cleavable diselenide and disulfide bonds in the presence of elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glutathione concentration are among widely used stimuli-responsive bonds to design nanocarriers. This review covers a wide range of redox-responsive chemical structures and their properties for designing nanoparticles aiming controlled loading, delivery, and release of hydrophobic anticancer drugs at tumor site.

Water Absorption Enhancement Of Sodium Poly Acrylate And Poly(2-Acrylamido-2-Methylpropane Sulphonic Acid) Based Hydrogel Mixtures, Sohair A. Darwish, Ibrahim M. Ibrahim, Nasser Y. Mostafa, Mostafa A. Radwan, Mohamed A. Sadek, Hany A. Elazab

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Introduction: Hydrogels are hydrophilic polymers which are cross-linked to form three-dimensional structures, which can absorb, swell and retain huge amounts of water or aqueous fluids. Objective: This paper reports the preparation and characterization of Poly (2-Acrylamido-2-Methylpropane Sulphonic Acid) (PAMPS) hydrogel with different crosslinking intensities. Methodology: 2-Acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS) monomer was purchased from Alfa Aesar Company as reagent grade. It was used as received (>98% purity) without any further purification. PAMPS hydrogel was prepared by free radical crosslinking solution polymerization of AMPS in water at room temperature under a nitrogen blanket in cylindrical glass tubes. The characteristics of the …

Enhancing Emulsion Liquid Membrane System (Elm) Stability And Performance For The Extraction Of Phenol From Wastewater Using Various Nanoparticles, Faris H. Al-Ani, Qusay F. Alsalhy, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Emulation liquid membrane (ELM) technology has recently garnered attention as an efficient alternative for separating pollutants, but it faces the problem of instability during the application, as well as emulsion breaking. With this in mind MgO, Al₂O₃, and three magnetic Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles (of different sizes) were utilized to fabricate a new Pickering ELM system (PELM). The extraction efficiency of phenol from aqueous solution by PELM was studied with different NPs types and with different phenol concentrations (1,000; 500; 100; and 50 ppm). It was found that the type of NPs and concentration of …

Fluid Dynamic Analysis Over Turbulent Flows, Bryce Mcguire, Tevin James, Dareon Medley

NSF REU: Propulsion, Aerodynamics & Controls of Aerial Vehicles (2021)

The purpose of this research is to run CFDs (Computational Fluid Dynamics) with several type of objects that consist of the following: 90-Degree Pipe, Combustors, Scramjets, Scramjets with Fuel Injectors, and Airfoils. The sole reasoning is to get a clear understanding of the mechanisms that are ran through by using the computational software called: ANSYS. With this, it will aid into running fluid flows through these objects to observe the desirable variables such as: Velocity, Temperature, Pressure, Total Pressure, Total Temperature, Eddy Viscosity, Turbulence Kinetic Energy, Turbulence Eddy Dissipation, etc.

Investigations Of The Combustion And Emissions Characteristics Of Jet-A Fuel In A Single Stage Turbo Jet Engine Through Numerical And Experimental Analysis, Amanda Weaver, Richard C. Smith Iii

NSF REU: Propulsion, Aerodynamics & Controls of Aerial Vehicles (2021)

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of 30°-90° Blended Winglet Additions To Cessna 172, Piper Malibu, And Boeing 737 Wings, John Crowe, Fernando Ramos

NSF REU: Propulsion, Aerodynamics & Controls of Aerial Vehicles (2021)

The objective of this research is to determine the effect of different cant angle winglet additions to multiple types of aircraft throughout various angles of attack. The winglet design to be studied is the blended winglet. Its cant angle is altered to be 30, 60, and 90 degrees. Three different wings were chosen to be modeled and simulated, each with different geometry to attempt to encompass a wide range of wing types. The three wings were a rectangular wing, a tapered wing, and a swept wing. Those models are represented by the Cessna 172, Piper PA-46, and the Boeing 737-300, …

Knowledge Infused Policy Gradients With Upper Confidence Bound For Relational Bandits, Kaushik Roy, Qi Zhang, Manas Gaur, Amit Sheth

Publications

Contextual Bandits find important use cases in various real-life scenarios such as online advertising, recommendation systems, healthcare, etc. However, most of the algorithms use at feature vectors to represent context whereas, in the real world, there is a varying number of objects and relations among them to model in the context. For example, in a music recommendation system, the user context contains what music they listen to, which artists create this music, the artist albums, etc. Adding richer relational context representations also introduces a much larger context space making exploration-exploitation harder. To improve the efficiency of exploration-exploitation knowledge about the …

Dynamic Behavior And Interactions Of Ferrofluid Droplets Under Magnetic Fields In Low Reynolds Number Flows, Md Rifat Hassan

Doctoral Dissertations

Digital microfluidics in combination with emulsion microfluidics are crucial building blocks of droplet-based microfluidics, which are prevalent in a wide variety of industrial and biomedical applications, including polymer processing, food production, drug delivery, inkjet printing, and cell-based assays. Therefore, understanding the dynamics and interactions of droplets as well as the interactions between the droplets and solid surfaces are of great importance in order to improve the performance or product in these applications.

Recently, several studies in the literature have demonstrated the potential of magnetic fields in controlling the behavior of droplets in microscale; however, the fundamental mechanism behind the interesting …

Development Of A Real Time Human Face Recognition Software System, Askar Boranbayev, Seilkhan Boranbayev, Mukhamedzhan Amirtaev, Malik Baimukhamedov, Askar Nurbekov

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

In this study, a system for real-time face recognition was built using the Open Face tools of the Open CV library. The article describes the methodology for creating the system and the results of its testing. The Open CV library has various modules that perform many tasks. In this paper, Open CV modules were used for face recognition in images and face identification in real time. In addition, the HOG method was used to detect a person by the front of his face. After performing the HOG method, 128 face measurements were obtained using the image encoding method. A convolutional …

Testing And Validation Framework For Autonomous Aerial Vehicles, Mustafa I. Akbas

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Autonomous aerial vehicles (AAV) have the potential to have market disruptions for various industries such as ground delivery and aerial transportation. Hence, the USAF has called for increased level of autonomy. There has been a significant progress in artificial intelligence engines, complex and non-deterministic system components, which are at the core of the autonomous aerial platforms. Traditional testing and validation methods fall short of satisfying the requirement of testing such complex systems. Therefore, to achieve highly or fully autonomous capabilities, a major leap forward in the validation is required. The key challenges are the localization of problems, development of object …

Implementing Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning Into Advanced Qualification Programs, Jennifer R. Herr

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Since its start, the Advanced Qualification Program (AQP) has encouraged new and innovative strategies for training airline crewmembers. The foundation of AQP is to train crew the way they fly and to find new and innovative ways to increase safety through training. By using data collected through the AQP process, training methods can be refined and improved. New technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can make data analysis and training more effective and efficient. This paper will explore these concepts and how AI and machine learning could be implemented in the AQP process to make training more …

Can Backward-Chained, Ab-Initio Pilot Training Decrease Time To First Solo?, Samuel M. Vance, Kat Gardner-Vandy, Jared Alan Freihoefer

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Flight simulation has made progressively significant inroads into pilot training at all levels of a pilot’s career – typically starting with training for the Instrument rating in light aircraft and concluding with Type Certification in transport category jetliners. This research was designed to explore if significant training inroads could also be offered to ab-initio pilots, those with no prior flight experience. An experimental group of four pilot trainees, without prior flight experience, were exposed to flight in a backwards-chained simulation starting from 4’ AGL (Above Ground Level). Graduated, exponential increments of both altitude and distance from landing were successively added …

The Influence Of Channel Deepening On Tides, River Discharge Effects, And Storm Surge, S. A. Talke, Ramin Familkhalili, D. A. Jay

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

We combine archival research, semi-analytical models, and numerical simulations to address the following question: how do changes to channel geometry alter tidal properties and flood dynamics in a hyposynchronous, strongly frictional estuary with a landward decay in tidal amplitudes? Records in the Saint Johns River Estuary since the 1890s show that tidal range has doubled in Jacksonville, Florida. Near the estuary inlet, tidal discharge approximately doubled but tidal amplitudes increased only ∼6%. Modeling shows that increased shipping channel depths from ∼5 to ∼13m drove the observed changes, with other factors like channel shortening and width reduction producing comparatively minor effects. …

Large-Scale Variation In Wave Attenuation Of Oyster Reef Living Shorelines And The Influence Of Inundation Duration, Rebecca L. Morris, Megan K. La Peyre, Bret M. Webb, Danielle A. Marshall, Donna M. Bilkovic, Just Cebrian, Giovanna Mcclenachan, Kelly M. Kibler, Linda J. Walters, David Bushek, Eric L. Sparks, Nigel A. Temple, Joshua Moody, Kory Angstadt, Joshua Goff, Maura Boswell, Paul Sacks, Stephen E. Swearer

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

One of the paramount goals of oyster reef living shorelines is to achieve sustained and adaptive coastal protection, which requires meeting ecological (i.e., develop a self-sustaining oyster population) and engineering (i.e., provide coastal defense) targets. In a large-scale comparison along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, the efficacy of various designs of oyster reef living shorelines at providing wave attenuation was evaluated accounting for the ecological limitations of oysters with regards to inundation duration. A critical threshold for intertidal oyster reef establishment is 50% inundation duration. Living shorelines that spent less than half of the time ( …

Online Bus Speed Prediction With Spatiotemporal Interaction: A Laplace Approximation-Based Bayesian Approach, Haipeng Cui, Kun Xie, Bin Hu, Hangfei Lin

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This study proposes a novel Bayesian hierarchical approach for online bus speed prediction by explicitly accounting for the spatiotemporal interaction (STI) of speed observations. The use of Laplace approximation can expedite the estimation of Bayesian models and enable the implementation of online prediction. Large numbers of trials are carried out to identify significant predictors and the optimal length of the look-back time window to achieve the highest prediction accuracy. The spatiotemporal interacting patterns are also explored, and results show that the Type IV model assuming the structured spatial effect interacts with the structured temporal effect can best accommodate the bus …

Nonlinear Wave Evolution In Interaction With Currents And Viscoleastic Muds, Elham Sharifineyestani, Navid Tahvildari

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A numerical model is extended to investigate the nonlinear dynamics of surface wave propagation over mud in the presence of currents. A phase-resolving frequency-domain model for wave-current interaction is improved to account for wave modulations due to viscoelastic mud of arbitrary thickness. The model compares well with published laboratory data and performs slightly better than the model with viscous mud-induced wave damping mechanism. Monochromatic and random wave simulations are conducted to examine the combined effect of currents, mud-induced wave dissipation and modulation, and nonlinear wave-wave interactions on surface wave spectra. Results indicate that current effects on wave damping over viscoelastic …

Save-T: Safety Analysis Visualization And Evaluation Tool, Yuan Zhu, Sami Demiroluk, Kaan Ozbay, Kun Xie, Hong Yang, Di Sha

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Traffic crashes are one of the biggest issues which constitute a threat to lives of the motorists and disrupt operations of the transportation system. To reduce the number of crashes and alleviate their impacts, it is necessary to scrutinize the factors contributing to the risk of traffic crashes. Lately, visual analytics tools become very popular for data exploration and obtaining insights from the data. In this paper, a new web-based data visualization tool called Safety Analysis Visualization and Evaluation Tool (SAVE-T) was introduced. This tool enables users to interactively create queries and visually explore the results. By utilizing an online …

Wave Climate Associated With Changing Water Level And Ice Cover In Lake Michigan, Chenfu Huang, Longhuan Zhu, Gangfeng Ma, Guy A. Meadows, Pengfei Xue

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Detailed knowledge of wave climate change is essential for understanding coastal geomorphological processes, ecosystem resilience, the design of offshore and coastal engineering structures and aquaculture systems. In Lake Michigan, the in-situ wave observations suitable for long-term analysis are limited to two offshore MetOcean buoys. Since this distribution is inadequate to fully represent spatial patterns of wave climate across the lake, a series of high-resolution SWAN model simulations were performed for the analysis of long-term wave climate change for the entirety of Lake Michigan from 1979 to 2020. Model results were validated against observations from two offshore buoys and 16 coastal …

Exploring And Visualizing Spatial Effects And Patterns In Ride-Sourcing Trip Demand And Characteristics, Bishoy Kelleny, Sherif Ishak

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The complex demand pattern of ride-sourcing remains to be a challenge to transportation modeling practitioners due to the infancy and the inherently dynamic nature of the ride-sourcing system. Spatial effects exploration and analysis protocols can provide informative insights on the underlying structure of demand and trip characteristics. Those protocols can be thought of as an opportunistic strategy to alleviate the complexity and help specifying the appropriate econometric models for the system. Spatial effects exploration is comparable to point pattern analysis, in which, signals from spatial entities, like census tracts, can be analyzed statistically to reveal whether a specific phenomenon respective …

Characterizing Seagrass Effects On Hydrodynamics Of Waves And Currents Through Field Measurements And Computational Modelling, Ramin Familkhalili, Navid Tahvildari

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Low-lying coastal and estuarine areas are among the most populated regions globally, have high economic significance, and are increasingly threatened by climate change, sea level rise, nuisance flooding, and extreme storms. Nature-based coastal protections are sustainable and sea-level resilient alternatives compared to traditional solutions such as dikes and seawalls. Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) or seagrasses can provide coastal flood and erosion protection by attenuating storm wave and current energy and stabilizing seabed sediments. However, more research is needed to understand the interactions between flow, SAVs, and sediments. These dynamic interactions affect flow at different scales and seagrass productivity. In this …

Effects Of Hydrological And Climatic Variables On Cyanobacterial Blooms In Four Large Shallow Lakes Fed By The Yangtze River, Jian Huang, Qiujin Xu, Xixi Wang, Hao Ji, Edward J. Quigley, Mohamadali Sharbatmaleki, Simeng Li, Beidou Xi, Biao Sun, Caole Li

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Shallow lakes, one of the most widespread water bodies in the world, are easily shifted to a new trophic state due to external interferences. Shifting hydrologic conditions and climate change can cause cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) in shallow lakes, which pose serious threats to ecological integrity and human health. This study analyzed the effects of hydrologic and meteorological variables on cyanobacterial blooms in Yangtze-connected lakes (Lake Dongting and Poyang) and isolated lakes (Lake Chao and Tai). The results show that (i) chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration tends to decrease exponentially with increasing relative lake level fluctuations (RLLF) and precipitation, but to …

Strengthening Prestressed Concrete Bridge Girders And Building Beams With Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Sheets, Herish A. Hussein, Zia Razzaq

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The effect of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) retrofitting and concrete type on the flexural strength of prestressed concrete I-section girders used in bridges and beams in buildings is investigated. Non-linear moment-curvature relationships are predicted using an iterative algorithm for both non-retrofitted and CFRP-retrofitted prestressed concrete girder and beam cross-sections with various concrete types. Two different CFRP-retrofitting schemes are analyzed for comparing their effectiveness. It is found that although non-retrofitted beam section exhibits greater ductility, the use of CFRP retrofitting in both tension and compression regions simultaneously results in a significant increase in flexural strength. It is also found that …

Land Use And Land Cover Classifications Of Horqin Sandy Land Dune-Meadow Areas, Wenmei Cao, Tingxi Liu, Xixi Wang, Guanli Wang, Dongfang Li, Xing Tong

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

In this study, we determine land use/land cover (LULC) types using only optical remote sensing data in a dune-meadow area of Horqin Sandy Land in northeast China. We used 64 Sentinel-2 remote sensing images from 2018. An LULC decision tree recognition rule was established by combining image segmentation technology, vegetation phenology information, and habitat characteristics. The overall classification accuracy was 0.91, and the Kappa coefficient was 0.89. The classification results show that most of the study region was dryland area, accounting for 33.79%, followed by shrub communities at 25.03%. High-diversity semi-shrub communities and arbor forests accounted for 14.54% and 10%, …