Engineering Commons^™

Aluminum/Carbon Composites Materials Fabricated By The Powder Metallurgy Process, Amélie Veillère, Hiroki Kurita, Akira Kawasaki, Yongfeng Lu, Jean-Marc Heintz, Jean-François Silvain

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Aluminum matrix composites reinforced with carbon fibers or diamond particles have been fabricated by a powder metallurgy process and characterized for thermal management applications. Al/C composite is a nonreactive system (absence of chemical reaction between the metallic matrix and the ceramic reinforcement) due to the presence of an alumina layer on the surface of the aluminum powder particles. In order to achieve fully dense materials and to enhance the thermo-mechanical properties of the Al/C composite materials, a semi-liquid method has been carried out with the addition of a small amount of Al-Si alloys in the Al matrix. Thermal conductivity and …

Chapman Ambassador Tour Robot, Alexandra Lewandowski, Yanni Parissis, Khiry Carter, Hilary Lee

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Being a student ambassador improves a student's confidence and leadership skills. With an increasing demand for technology skills, our project will display how the ambassador robot can assist student ambassadors while improving upon their efficiency, by discussing information during college campus tours and familiarizing students with robot applications and their technology. The ambassador robot can support students during tours by answering a question about specific knowledge that may have slipped an ambassador's mind. The robot will also be able to create a group-focused atmosphere that will allow ambassadors to have the opportunity to lean on a dependable teammate for specific …

Sensor Emulation With Physiolocal Data In Immersive Virtual Reality Driving Simulator, Jungsu Pak, Oliver Mathias, Ariane Guirguis, Uri Maoz

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Can we enhance the safety and comfort of AVs by training AVs with physiological data of human drivers? We will train and compare AV algorithm with/without physiological data.

International Space Object Orbit Tracker, Nicole Navarro

Publications and Research

This software engineering project involves development of machine learning algorithms for embedded applications. High speed 32-bit hardware devices such as Raspberry Pi and ARM microcontrollers has become inexpensive and readily available. Machine learning algorithms for applications such as image processing and image recognition are computationally intensive. But with the availability of low cost 32-bit embedded computing devices, it is now feasible to implement then on embedded hardware. This project will explore embedded applications of machine learning algorithms by following a software engineering design and test approach.

Image Restoration Using Automatic Damaged Regions Detection And Machine Learning-Based Inpainting Technique, Chloe Martin-King

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

In this dissertation we propose two novel image restoration schemes. The first pertains to automatic detection of damaged regions in old photographs and digital images of cracked paintings. In cases when inpainting mask generation cannot be completely automatic, our detection algorithm facilitates precise mask creation, particularly useful for images containing damage that is tedious to annotate or difficult to geometrically define. The main contribution of this dissertation is the development and utilization of a new inpainting technique, region hiding, to repair a single image by training a convolutional neural network on various transformations of that image. Region hiding is also …

Investigation Of A Neuro-Stimulator Retrieved Posthumously, Megan Markl, Rodney J. Gutherie, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

A neurostimulator was investigated in this paper posthumously. Device was presented to our anatomical gift program. Investigation was multi-fold and contained visual inspection, using an optical microscope, and mechanical and electrical testing of leads and its insulator. It was concluded that the device could have been damaged during implantation, in vivo, during removal, and/or during transportation to author’s laboratories. The damage observed on the lead insulation is similar to that which can occur due to anchoring of the lead and hardening due to oxidation. Insulation stiffness was determined to be 1/10 of new insulator. The results reported here on the …

Cuo/Cu Core/Shell Nanostructured Photoconductive Devices By Hwt And Hips, Khalidah Hussein Habeeb Al-Mayalee

Theses and Dissertations

Over recent years, great efforts are being dedicated to developing low cost and high-efficiency nanostructured design for optoelectronic applications. Nanostructured semiconductor materials have demonstrated superior performance as compared to bulk materials. Core/shell nanostructured geometries have received a great deal of attention not only in the area of synthesis and characterization but also in their potential applications. These structures have been used in abundance in various areas such as electronics, sensors, catalysis, biomedical, and optical devices. Well-controlled core/shell nanostructured geometries can offer a significant improvement in the devices' performance. Therefore, the fabrication of complex 3D core/shell architectures with controlled morphology, homogeneous …

Static Taint Analysis Of Binary Executables Using Architecture-Neutral Intermediate Representation, Elaine Cole

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Ghidra, National Security Agency’s powerful reverse engineering framework, was recently released open-source in April 2019 and is capable of lifting instructions from a wide variety of processor architectures into its own register transfer language called p-code. In this project, we present a new tool which leverages Ghidra’s specific architecture-neutral intermediate representation to construct a control flow graph modeling all program executions of a given binary and apply static taint analysis. This technique is capable of identifying the information flow of malicious input from untrusted sources that may interact with key sinks or parts of the system without needing access to …

Voice Controlled Augmented Reality: A Comparison Of Speech-Recognition Tools For Ar Applications, Juan Estrella

Publications and Research

Augmented Reality (AR) refers to the technologies that enhance the version of the physical environment with computer-generated sensory input such as sound and graphics overlaid on top of the user’s view of the real world. Artificial Intelligence (AI) studies how to make computer programs and machines "smart" and take decisions. Our research project focuses on exploring the Integration of AI in AR applications. Specifically, on using Speech Recognition or Natural Language Processing for controlling virtual AR objects and enhancing the human-computer interaction. It is obvious that integration of AI and AR is of great value. However, for developers, it is …

Self-Driving Toy Car Using Deep Learning, Fahim Ahmed, Suleyman Turac, Mubtasem Ali

Publications and Research

Our research focuses on building a student affordable platform for scale model self-driving cars. The goal of this project is to explore current developments of Open Source hardware and software to build a low-cost platform consisting of the car chassis/framework, sensors, and software for the autopilot. Our research will allow other students with low budget to enter into the world of Deep Learning, self-driving cars, and autonomous cars racing competitions.

Vertical Electrical Impedance Measurements Of Concrete Bridge Decks, Jared Scott Baxter

Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the creation, validation, automation, and deployment of a nondestructive vertical electrical impedance (VEI) bridge deck assessment apparatus. A multichannel impedance analyzer with a moving platform is developed that can assess the deterioration state of a bridge deck without stationary traffic control. The multichannel apparatus is capable of taking over 500 impedance samples a second and can scan a bridge deck over 500 times faster than more traditional techniques. This research also shows VEI measurements are inversely proportional to the diffusivity of ions through concrete and that an impedance measurement frequency of 25 kHz is the most …

Static Analysis Of Circular Plates Under Mechanical Loads, Harpreet Lalia

Publications and Research

In this research statics analysis of circular plates is performed using SolidWorks.

Circular plates with different material properties, thickness to radius ratios, and boundary conditions under mechanical loads are modeled and analyzed in SolidWorks.

The results are obtained for deflections of circular plates under uniform and point loads.

A three-dimensional (3D) model of circular plates is first created in SolidWorks. Then the material properties, mechanical loads and boundary conditions are defined for the plate.

It is found deflection of plates is depended on magnitude of mechanical loads, geometrical parameters, boundary conditions and material properties. Responses of SolidWorks for deflections of …

Advanced Security Analysis For Emergent Software Platforms, Mohannad Alhanahnah

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Emergent software ecosystems, boomed by the advent of smartphones and the Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, are perpetually sophisticated, deployed into highly dynamic environments, and facilitating interactions across heterogeneous domains. Accordingly, assessing the security thereof is a pressing need, yet requires high levels of scalability and reliability to handle the dynamism involved in such volatile ecosystems.

This dissertation seeks to enhance conventional security detection methods to cope with the emergent features of contemporary software ecosystems. In particular, it analyzes the security of Android and IoT ecosystems by developing rigorous vulnerability detection methods. A critical aspect of this work is the …

Lightweight Racing Suspension, Colin Haynes

Honors Theses

The purpose of this senior design project is to design and optimize the new suspension system for Western Michigan University’s 2020 solar car. The current solar car was 43% heavier than the average solar car, and was the heaviest single occupant vehicle competing in the American Solar Challenge. The scope of the project is to reduce the weight as much as possible from the old 2016 suspension. The new suspension weighed 34.91 lbs less than the 2016 suspension system while maintaining a minimum factor of safety greater than 1.5, compliant with American Solar Challenge regulations. The design consists of a …

Energy & Carbon Neutral Nyc, Evan Banks, Elena Zimareva, Elena Malysheva

Publications and Research

In 2016, the world's leading countries signed the Paris Agreement which focused on reducing anthropogenic climate change on the planet. On May 2019, New York State and New York City declared its own ambitious goals aimed at decarbonizing the city and restricting the state’s energy use to relying completely on renewables.

Some of these goals specifically target infrastructure in the city since estimates cite buildings as accounting for nearly 70% of New York’s energy use. The main law of New York’s Climate Policy, Local Law 97, requires all buildings over 25,000 sq ft to reduce their CO2 footprint by 40% …

The Fog Development Kit: A Platform For The Development And Management Of Fog Systems, Colton Powell

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), fog computing has emerged to help traditional cloud computing in meeting scalability demands. Fog computing makes it possible to fulfill real-time requirements of applications by bringing more processing, storage, and control power geographically closer to end-devices. How- ever, since fog computing is a relatively new field, there is no standard platform for research and development in a realistic environment, and this dramatically inhibits innovation and development of fog-based applications. In response to these challenges, we propose the Fog Development Kit (FDK). By providing high-level interfaces for allocating computing and networking resources, …

The Trolley Problem In Virtual Reality, Jungsu Pak, Ariane Guirguis, Nicholas Mirchandani, Scott Cummings, Uri Maoz

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Would people react to the Trolley problem differently based on the medium? Immersive Virtual Reality Driving Simulator was used to examine participants respond to the trolley problem in a realistic and controlled simulated environment.

How Degrees Of Freedom Affects Sense Of Agency, Akima Connelly, Jungsu Pak, Tian Lan, Uri Maoz

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Can the rubber-hand illusion be extended to a moving robotic arm in different degrees of freedom (DOF), inducing sense of ownership & agency over the arm? We hypothesize that DOF closer to what humans possess will result in a stronger sense of ownership and agency.

The Investigation Of Noise, Vibrations And Emissions Of Aero-Gas Turbine Combustion With Synthetic Kerosene Fuels, Margaret Kilpatrick

Honors College Theses

Climatic changes from aviation emissions are complex and include effects of greenhouse gases such as: CO2, NOx, and aerosols. For that reason, the objectives of this study were to investigate the noise, vibrations and emissions characteristics of synthetic kerosene combustion in an aerospace gas turbine to reduce the engine’s environmental impact. Sustainably produced synthetic kerosene is known for having low soot emissions due to little to no aromatics (compounds that create particle pollutants), and for being a sustainable alternative fuel source to imported oil. The noise and sound levels were collected using Bruel & Kjaer microphones to measure various mid …

Green Roof System Integrated Soil Methods, Jude R. Vallon, Ivan L. Guzman

Publications and Research

Large metropolitan areas like NYC are seeking to integrate sustainability into retrofitting buildings for the development of green infrastructure. Among the many environmental issues of urbanization, the UHI (urban heat island) effect and storm water runoff are of particular interest when it comes building structures. Individual buildings can contribute towards mitigating these effects with implementation of vegetative rooftops, i.e. Green Roofs. Commercial buildings are currently receiving government incentives and new constructions are required to include green roof installations. However, if existing buildings are considering the addition of a green roof on an existing roof, they have to factor in the …

Passive Separation Of Binary Fluid Mixtures In Microchannels Using Lattice Boltzmann Method, Mohanad Kamil Radhi

Dissertations and Theses

Fluid mixtures in real life exist in two forms: miscible and immiscible. Separation of these mixtures using chemical agents or thermal energy has both environmental and economic disadvantages. The high cost and the environmental damage caused by the traditional separation techniques have stimulated both academia and industry to seek alternatives. The emergence of microfluidics offers robust solutions for a broad span of transport problems due to the high surface to volume ratio and reduced length scales. Particularly, the separation efficiency increases significantly due to the aforementioned feature. However, there is still a pressing need of passive separations for the sake …

Modeling The Effects Of Distribution System Topology On Water Quality, Chun-Ying Chao

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Inadequate treatment of drinking water causes the formation of disinfection by-products and the regrowth of harmful microbial species. Various studies have addressed the problem of water quality monitoring, but very few have employed topological analysis, a valuable mathematical tool widely applied in biological, business, and social research. This thesis examines the relationship between the topological properties of water distribution systems and water-quality models. In particular, the research proposes a novel framework for mapping network topological attributes to water-quality models. This research adopts topological metrics to assess the accuracy of the predictions of chlorine concentrations in dead ends. It examines four …

Fabrication And Imaging Characterization Of Poly (Dimethyl Siloxane)/Sic Nano-Fillers Samples As Model Biomaterials, Tetiana Soloviova, Viorica Gutu, Zoya Vinokur, Akm S. Rahman, Subhendra Sarkar

Publications and Research

Biopolymers are being developed with embedded nanostructures for in vivo drug delivery to treat various diseases including cancers. In the current project we developed fabrication steps to prepare two biopolymers, poly di-methoxy siloxane (PDMS) with 0-0.9 vol% of SiC nano whisker (fillers) followed by non- destructive characterization. Optical reflection microscopy (5-100X) was performed to ensure loading and distribution of increasing SiC content. Optical microscopy showed progressively higher SiC distribution as filler loading was increased from 0-0.9 vol%. X-ray imaging at low kV (kilovoltage) and low mAs (milliamperage per second) were optimized to allow distinction between filled PDMS with SiC concentration …

Static Analysis Of Structural Members, Amani Calderon, Alexis Villalona, Farhad Alinaghizadeh

Publications and Research

This research is devoted to statics analysis of structural members under mechanical loads. Static analysis of beams under uniform transverse mechanical loads is presented. The beams are supported by simply supported boundary condition at both sides. The equilibrium equation of the beams is obtained and solved using analytical method and numerical method. The numerical method employed in this work is generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method. The type of differential quadrature method used for numerical solution is the polynomial-based GDQ method. The differential equation is discretized into algebraic equations based on the GDQ technique. The algebraic equations are then solved to …

Low-Cost Near Infrared Diffuse Optical Imaging System, Mohammed Z. Shakil, Chen Xu

Publications and Research

Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) and Optical Spectroscopy using near-infrared (NIR) diffused light has demonstrated great potential for the initial diagnosis of tumors and in the assessment of tumor vasculature response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The NIR technique utilizes intrinsic hemoglobin contrast, which is directly related to tumor angiogenesis development, a key process required for tumor growth and metastasis. The NIR diffuse tomography holds great promise in distinguishing early-stage invasive breast cancers from benign lesions. This technique also provides insight into tumor metabolism and tumor hypoxia, important indicators of tumor response to various forms of therapy. Currently, the high cost of the …

65th Conference On Senior Engineering Design, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

Senior Engineering Design Conference

The 65th Conference on Senior Engineering Design Projects. The conference will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences on the Parkview Campus of Western Michigan University. The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences sponsors the conference to showcase the work of its graduating seniors, who are required to complete a capstone project that puts into practice what they have learned. Many of the projects are sponsored by business and industry.

Analysis Of Shock Wave Unsteadiness Using Space And Time Correlations Applied To Shadowgraph Flow Visualization Data, Shannon Marko, Phillip M. Ligrani

PRC-Affiliated Research

Unsteady flow characteristics of a normal shock wave, a lambda foot, and a separated turbulent boundary layer are investigated within a unique test section with supersonic inlet flow. The supersonic wind tunnel facility, containing this test section, provides a Mach number of approximately 1.54 at the test section entrance. Digitized shadowgraph flow visualization data are employed to visualize shock wave structure within the test section. These data are analyzed to determine shock wave unsteadiness characteristics, including grayscale spectral energy variations with frequency, as well as time and space correlations, which give coherence and time lag properties associated with perturbations associated …

Analysis Of Shock Wave Unsteadiness Using Space And Time Correlations Applied To Shadowgraph Flow Visualization Data, Shannon Marko, Phillip M. Ligrani

PRC-Affiliated Research

Unsteady flow characteristics of a normal shock wave, a lambda foot, and a separated turbulent boundary layer are investigated within a unique test section with supersonic inlet flow. The supersonic wind tunnel facility, containing this test section, provides a Mach number of approximately 1.54 at the test section entrance. Digitized shadowgraph flow visualization data are employed to visualize shock wave structure within the test section. These data are analyzed to determine shock wave unsteadiness characteristics, including grayscale spectral energy variations with frequency, as well as time and space correlations, which give coherence and time lag properties associated with perturbations associated …

Analysis Of Shock Wave Unsteadiness Using Space And Time Correlations Applied To Shadowgraph Flow Visualization Data, Shannon Marko, Phillip M. Ligrani

PRC-Affiliated Research

Unsteady flow characteristics of a normal shock wave, a lambda foot, and a separated turbulent boundary layer are investigated within a unique test section with supersonic inlet flow. The supersonic wind tunnel facility, containing this test section, provides a Mach number of approximately 1.54 at the test section entrance. Digitized shadowgraph flow visualization data are employed to visualize shock wave structure within the test section. These data are analyzed to determine shock wave unsteadiness characteristics, including grayscale spectral energy variations with frequency, as well as time and space correlations, which give coherence and time lag properties associated with perturbations associated …

Simulation Of Skull Fracture Due To Falls, Anthony Vicini, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

This study presents novel predictive equations for von Mises stress values of bones in the frontal and lateral regions of the skull. The equations were developed based on results of a finite element model developed during this research. The model was validated for frontal and lateral loading conditions with input values mimetic to fall scenarios. Using neural network processing of the information derived from the model achieved R2 values of 0.9990 for both the stress and deflection. Based on the outcome of the fall victims, a threshold von Mises stress of 40.9 to 46.6 MPa was found to indicate skull …