Engineering Commons^™

Structure And Deformation Of Carbyne Deposited On A Nickel Substrate, Abigail Eaton

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Carbyne is a nanomaterial of great interest due to its ability to withstand high forces similarly to other carbon allotropes such as graphene or carbon nanotubes. However, it is currently difficult to synthesize and maintain without the assistance of a composite material substrate that the carbyne can be integrated with, which will affect its reaction to varying conditions. This thesis focuses on studying the effects of carbyne on a nickel surface and its mechanical properties to predict its future usages and potential for applications in varying fields. We perform a three-point bending test simulation using molecular dynamics with pure Ni …

Enhancement Of Phase Change Material Sorbitol By Nanoparticle Inclusion For Improving Thermal Energy Storage Capabilities, Joshua Kasitz

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Thermal management of electronic devices has become an increasingly vital field of study with the rapid miniaturization of many key electrical components. With the significant improvement of semiconductor manufacturing and intensified focus on interconnects, electronic devices have decreased in size at an incredible rate. Decreasing spatial requirements is essential to improving device capabilities as the electronic system is able to incorporate more components. Currently, electronic systems are drastically limited by the capabilities of their cooling mechanisms. Smaller devices lead to large increases in the energy density of the system and require more powerful cooling systems to maintain proper component operating …

Medusa: A Low-Cost, 16-Channel Neuromodulation Platform With Arbitrary Waveform Generation, Fnu Tala, Benjamin C. Johnson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Neural stimulation systems are used to modulate electrically excitable tissue to interrogate neural circuit function or provide therapeutic benefit. Conventional stimulation systems are expensive and limited in functionality to standard stimulation waveforms, and they are bad for high frequency stimulation. We present MEDUSA, a system that enables new research applications that can leverage multi-channel, arbitrary stimulation waveforms. MEDUSA is low cost and uses commercially available components for widespread adoption. MEDUSA is comprised of a PC interface, an FPGA for precise timing control, and eight bipolar current sources that can each address up to 16 electrodes. The current sources have a …

The Development Of On-Chip Optofluidic Droplet Lasers, Han Zhang

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Optofluidic lasers have been an emerging field for the applications of biological sensing and diagnosis, chemical sensing, and point-of-care devices. Droplets, as optical cavities, confines whispering gallery modes with high quality factors in small volumes. Optofluidic droplet lasers have brought the droplet-based microfluidics and droplets as micro-resonators to one platform, showing potentials on applications in highly sensitive bio/chemical detection, tunable lasers, cell tracking and tissue imaging. Until now, optofluidic droplet lasers can be categorized into two types, static droplet lasers and droplet lasers on the flow. Static droplet lasers offer long lifetime for biosensing, while droplet lasers on the flow …

Fabrication And Examination Of Magnetic Bacterial Cellulose As A Material For Biomedical Engineering, Xi Chen

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is one of the most abundant biopolymers in nature. Several attributes such as facilitative modification, high pore size/porosity, able to mass produce as well as biocompatibility renders BC a promising candidate for many fronts of biomedical engineering. One consideration for BC as a biomedical material over conventional plant cellulose is the ease in which BC can be obtained to provide high purity cellulose. In comparison to collagen, another biopolymer with considerable prospects for biomedical engineering, BC possesses a higher degree of elasticity, water retention, and lower degradability. The high affinity towards water and high porosity provide BC …

Examination Of The Effects Of Confined Migration On Androgen Resistant Prostate Cancer And Potential Treatment Option For Drug Resistant Pc3 Cells With Calcitriol, Emily Torrey Ann Hills

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

When localized to the prostate, prostate cancer (PCa) has a near 100% 5-year survival rate, however, when prostate cancer metastasizes the survival rate drastically drops to around 30%. The low death rate of primary PCa is due to the wealth of knowledge we have of non-metastatic cancer and the sufficient treatment regimens. However, this understanding does not apply to metastatic cancer, so therapies are greatly lacking. To gain a better understanding of the invasion process for PCa we utilized microchannel technology to uncover the differences between migratory and non-migratory PCa. Specifically, the following study examines the effects of confined migration …

Robust, Time-Critical, Evidence-Based Adaptive Data Fusion, Mohammad Amin Javadi

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Sensors have become inevitable part of many studies and working areas ranging from navigation, transportation and medical applications. A sensor can help a user in a variety of situations including dangerous, inaccessible, time and money-consuming circumstances. Applying multiple sensors simultaneously allows for improving the accuracy of measurement estimates for system states. As an example, a part of this study uses a GPS sensor to increase the accuracy of the position estimation obtained by an IMU in an indoor environment. The same GPS device with position outputs can also be studied to provide a new measuring dimension such as velocity. This …

Some New Results On Statistical Information And Evidence, Maryam Moghimi

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation represents an attempt to relate some fundamental statistical problems using the notions of information, entropy, and evidence.

Impact Of Viscoelastic Properties Of Low Loss Printed Circuit Boards (Pcbs) On Reliability Of Wcsp Packages Under Drop Test, Akshay Boovanahally Lakshminarayana

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Reliability of electronic packages is a major concern as different failure modes are induced due to factors such as temperature loads, mechanical stresses, humidity, corrosion and so on. Finite element analysis (FEA) is often performed to assess reliability under different loading conditions such as thermal cycling, drop testing, power cycling and vibrational loads. Having accurate material property data is one of the key requirements to perform successful FEA study, and a significant amount of time and money is spent to perform accurate material characterizations. Lump modeling approach, where components are represented by a block and assigned effective properties, is commonly …

Measurement Of Change In Cte Of Pcbs Due To Single Phase Immersion Cooling And Impact Of Changed Properties Of Pcbs On Solder Joint Reliability Of Bga Package, Sameer Hemant Dhandarphale

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Oil immersion cooling in high-density data centers is emerging as an alternative for traditional air cooling because of the less power consumption, capacity to handle high power density and less space requirement. To adopt this technique extensively, effect of immersion on reliability of server components in dielectric coolant needs to be evaluated. One of the major reliability concerns in BGA package is 2nd level solder joint failure. The primary reason of solder joint failure is CTE mismatch between the PCB and the package. Also, difference in stiffness of the PCB and the package affects the solder joint reliability. As properties …

Single Step Fabrication Of Shape Morphing 3d Surfaces, Amirali Nojoomi

Material Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Shape-changing materials that can adopt programmable 3-dimensional (3D) shapes offer promise for a wide range of applications. Form the formation of the leaves and flowers to the shaping of complex organs, the analogues of such shape-morphing 3D surfaces are abundant in nature. However, since the formation of such surfaces in biological systems is fundamentally different from that of human-made materials, replicating their complex morphologies, movements, and thereby functions remains a challenge. Inspired by living organisms, we introduce an approach, called digital light 4D printing (DL4P), that encodes thermosensitive 2D hydrogels with a specific pattern of network density and thus temperature-induced …

Numerical Investigation Of Concrete Breakout Strength Of Anchors In Shear Within Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Yash Hitendrakumar Patel

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This study investigates the numerical analysis of concrete breakout strength of cast in place anchors in shear within synthetic fiber reinforced concrete (SYN-FRC). A three dimensional, full-scale model was developed using the ABAQUS 6.14 software. The 3D solid elements with consideration of material nonlinearities were chosen to stimulate the SYN-FRC beam anchorage. The numerical analysis was conducted with a fixed loading rate of 300lb per step to obtain the behavior of fiber-reinforced concrete breakout with design-mix compressive strength of 4,000 psi and fiber volume fraction of 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%. An inverse analysis was used to calibrate the material …

Experimental And Numerical Study Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Structures Subjected To Internal Explosion, Nikhil Vasant Moon

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This research investigates the effect of an accidental explosion of a steam boiler in a boiler room on steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) structure in an industrial facility, using nonlinear analysis in ABAQUS FEA software. The mechanical properties of SFRC are calculated through testing at the UTA Civil Engineering Laboratory Building. Steel fiber dosages in concrete at different volume fractions are examined for the mechanical properties of concrete. In total, 9 (4” x 8”) cylindrical specimens for compressive strength and modulus of elasticity test, 9 (4” x 8”) cylindrical specimens for tensile strength test, and 9 (6” x 6” x …

Oxidative Protection Using Pluronic Micelles, Mitchell Glen Heap

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Methods for drug delivery are currently being researched in many different applications. One significant obstacle to drug delivery is a drug's inherent hydrophobic character. Drugs that are hydrophobic are difficult to successfully administer since the body consists mostly of water. Therefore, a greater variety of drugs could potentially be used for the treatment of disease if they could successfully be administered. Recent research in oncology and virology has attempted to overcome the obstacles posed by hydrophobic drugs by encapsulating them in micelles. Micelles form spontaneously from compounds that contain both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions and can be used to increase …

Designing Technology For Different Scales Of Irrigation Scheduling, Paolo Alexander Consalvo

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Uncertainty in water availability is a significant challenge to the agriculture industry. Farmers and irrigators depend on novel uses of sensors and data to maximize water efficiency. Documented studies have demonstrated scheduling irrigation is a straightforward, deterministic means of achieving water efficiency. Irrigation scheduling uses several parameters to determine the moment of crop water stress due to available water in the soil. However, sensors and data for soil moisture and matric potential, a parameter describing water available to plants, have the potential to train machine learning algorithms to forecast water irrigation needs based on previous measurements. Satellite remote-sensing is another …

Characterization Of Rhodopseudomonas Palustrus Strains For The Production Of Fixed Nitrogen Fertilizer For Mars, Daniel Kade Derrick

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The purpose of this project was to characterize the potential of various strains of purple non-sulfur bacteria for the production of fixed nitrogen fertilizers for the manned Mars missions. Six strains of Rhodopseudomonas palustris (CGA009, CGA010, TIE-1, NifA*, and PB23) were all investigated. Through initial growth trial experiments, R. palustris NifA* and PB23 were selected for their engineered nitrogen fixation and rapid growth respectively. Growth curves and ammonium concentrations were collected over time in pilot scale batch photobioreactors (200 mL). Biomass production was then scaled up to benchtop photobioreactors (1.5 L) and then 14 L total volume for both NifA* …

Ten Questions Concerning Well-Being In The Built Environment, Sergio Altomonte, Joseph Allen, Philomena M. Bluyssen, Gail Brager, Lisa Heschong, Angela Loder, Stefano Schiavon, Jennifer A. Veitch, Lily M. Wang, Pawel Wargocki

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Well-being in the built environment is a topic that features frequently in building standards and certification schemes, in scholarly articles and in the general press. However, despite this surge in attention, there are still many questions on how to effectively design, measure, and nurture well-being in the built environment. Bringing together experts from academia and the building industry, this paper aims to demonstrate that the promotion of well-being requires a departure from conventional agendas. The ten questions and answers have been arranged to offer a range of perspectives on the principles and strategies that can better sustain the consideration of …

A Machine Learning Approach For Allocating Route Cost To Customers For Transportation And Logistics Services., Alison Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advancements in big data enabled management practices inspire logistics companies to study deeper into their transportation operations with a data driven approach. One such question asks: How can a logistics firm identify high-cost customers in their service network? In the presence of rich data on routes involving many customers, this thesis develops a framework to allocate a route cost among customers that the route serves, where each route is associated with multiple route features related to the transportation cost. Cost is allocated using the proportional allocation approach in combination with the random forest method in machine learning. First, this framework …

Gridhub: A Grid-Based, High-Density Material Handling System., Gang Hao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the past twenty years, the share of e-commerce has increased (FRED, 2019). Since more and more activities, such as picking and sorting customers’ orders, are done in warehouses, high efficiency warehouses are in demand. Furthermore, the efficiency of warehouses is related to customer satisfaction (Colla and Lapoule, 2012). Storage systems are key components in warehouses, which are related to the efficiency of warehouse operations. In this dissertation, we address an automatic puzzle-based storage system under decentralized control. We call this system GridHub. GridHub meets standards of Industry 4.0 (Lasi et al., 2014), and it features high throughput with parallel …

Mathematical Modeling Approaches In Sustainable Food Supply Chains, Amin Gharehyakheh

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Access to high quality and safe food is vital for sustainable development in societies. Perishable foods lose a major portion of their quality after harvesting until the consumption point due to poor storage and distribution conditions. Thus, improvements in food supply chain operations are very critical in the sustainable development of society and the industry. The first part of this dissertation seeks to find a cost-effective and reliable tool to monitor the quality loss and implementation of the least shelf life first-out inventory management policy in food banks. Application of the Gompertz model and Arrhenius equation based on time-temperature data …

Locating Relay Nodes To Maximize Wireless Sensor Network Lifetime: A Numerical Study, Maria Rene Arandia Jimenez

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a group of sensors deployed over an area, which monitor changes in the environment, collects them as data and forwards it between sensors through wireless links. Data is routed, either in a single-hop or multi-hop manner, with the goal of getting this collected data to the sink nodes, which have higher computational capabilities and connects the network with a user interface. Studies have determined that multi-hop WSNs that integrate relay nodes, which function is to only receive and forward data, can maximize lifetime network. A linear programming model, created by Chang and Tassiulas in …

Potential Of Existing And Proposed Bicycle Facilities To Link Multiple Origin And Destination Needs For Non-Motorized Travel In San Luis Obispo, Sheridan Nansen

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of linking multiple origins and destinations for efficient non-motorized travel in San Luis Obispo, California. The city currently has seventy-five miles of bicycle infrastructure with the intention to add thirty-five more miles to create a more functional bicycle network and foster an increase in bicycle trips taken.

Many cities in the United States are following their European counterparts in the push towards more sustainable forms of transportation by promoting bicycling, walking, and the use of public transit. Recently, we have seen an increase in both local and national legislative efforts …

Bike And Pedestrian Safety Planning: Excelsior/Outer Mission District, Alexandra Lee-Gardner

City and Regional Planning

San Francisco’s Outer Mission and Excelsior districts host a vibrant community of small business owners and residents from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. The neighborhood is known for its diversity and sense of community. However, lack of adequate infrastructure and high-speed roadways has created great safety concerns within the community. In the last five years, the Excelsior/Outer Mission area had 828 collisions, nine of which were fatal (Transbase, n.d.). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has identified nearly 14 miles of streets in the project area that are on the City’s high injury network, meaning collisions there are highly …

Extracellular Matrix Disparities In An Nkx2-5 Mutant Mouse Model Of Congenital Heart Disease, Deanna Bousalis, Christopher S. Lacko, Nora Hlavac, Fariz Alkassis, Rebecca A. Wachs, Sahba Mobini, Christine E. Schmidt, Hideko Kasahara

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects almost one percent of all live births. Despite diagnostic and surgical reparative advances, the causes and mechanisms of CHD are still primarily unknown. The extracellular matrix plays a large role in cell communication, function, and differentiation, and therefore likely plays a role in disease development and pathophysiology. Cell adhesion and gap junction proteins, such as integrins and connexins, are also essential to cellular communication and behavior, and could interact directly (integrins) or indirectly (connexins) with the extracellular matrix. In this work, we explore disparities in the expression and spatial patterning of extracellular matrix, adhesion, and …

Optical Metabolic Imaging As A Predictor Of Patient Tumor Response To Therapy And Apoptosis, Andrew Larey

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite a plethora of medical advancements, malignant tumors remain difficult to treat due to complex cancer biology and interpatient heterogeneity. Phenotypically similar tumors may respond differently to a given treatment. In clinical oncology, it is paramount to quantify tumor response to therapy for predicting treatment outcome, monitoring tumor changes, identifying effective therapies, and avoiding unnecessary cost and toxicity to the patient. Current standards of monitoring tumor response to therapy include CT, MRI, PET, and histopathology; these methods either take a merely anatomical approach or are invasive and time consuming, necessitating a functional biomarker approach. MPM represents a metabolic-level method of …

Identifying And Addressing Improvement Opportunities In Primary Care Clinics, Mozhdeh Sadighi

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

ABSTRACT: The main aim of this dissertation is to study how unrecognized opportunities for improving efficiency of in-person patient visits in a primary care clinic can be identified and addressed. To fulfill this goal, the research is divided into three distinct but related sections. Section one, with the most holistic view, uses a combination of scientific and rigorous methods along two research paths and, as a result, explores two opportunities for improvement in the clinic. These opportunities are high patient waiting time and unbalanced workload. Sections two and three each focus on underlying conditions driving one of these two opportunities. …

Përdorimi I Veturave Elektrike Në Komunën E Prishtinës Në Mbështetje Të Impaktit Ekologjik, Rron Kamberi

Theses and Dissertations

Ndotja e ajrit nga veprimtaria e njeriut është duke u cilësuar si problem global i cili është duke paraqitur shqetësime në mjedis dhe në shëndetin e njeriut. Ndotja e ajrit si koncept është shumë i gjerë, por ajo mund të kuptohet si lloj i kontaminimit të ajrit i cili shkaktohet nga shumë faktorë të ndryshëm, duke filluar nga djegia e vazhdueshme e karburanteve fosile për gjenerim të energjisë, qoftë ajo elektrike apo termike, përdorimi i tepruar i insekticideve, pesticideve dhe plehrave në aktivitetet bujqësore e shumë faktorë tjerë nga të cilët kryësori është njeriu me veprimet e tij të pakontrolluara. …

Multiple Input Single Output Converter With Uneven Load Sharing Control For Improved System Efficiency, Kristen Y. Chan

Master's Theses

This paper presents the development and study of multiple-input single-output converter (MISO) for the DC House project that utilizes a controller to maximize the overall converter’s efficiency. The premise of this thesis is to create uneven load current sharing between the converters at different loading conditions in order to maximize the efficiency of the overall MISO converter. The goal is to find a proper ratio of current from each converter to the total load current of the MISO system to achieve the greatest efficiency. The Arduino microcontroller is implemented to achieve this goal. The design and operation of the MISO …

A Novel Arc Welding Power Supply With Improved Power Factor Correction, Benjamin H. Tan

Master's Theses

This paper presents the design and development of a novel Arc Welding Power Supply utilizing a modified two-switch forward converter topology. The proposed design improves the power quality by improving power factor to near unity and reducing total harmonic distortion. State space analysis of the proposed circuit showed that the circuit followed a boost-buck input output relationship. Simulation of the circuit was first implemented in LTspice to verify the functionality of the new topology. Hardware implementation of the proposed design was built on a scaled-down prototype for a proof-of-concept of the new topology. The prototype specifications were created for a …

Multiple Input Single Output Converter With Maximum Power Point Tracking For Renewable Energy Applications, Kenneth K. Nguyen, Taufik Taufik

Master's Theses

In this thesis, a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for multiple input single output (MISO) converter is presented such that power generated from multiple individual energy sources can be combined to deliver the maximum amount of power to a common resistive load. Typically, MISO converters will employ techniques that yield equal current sharing from each energy source. However, this may not be desirable since each source may be rated at different power ratings and/or may experience different operating conditions, preventing the system MISO converter to acquire the most available total power from the sources. Utilizing MPPT control would therefore be …