Engineering Commons^™

A Low-Cost Method For Collecting Hyperspectral Measurements From A Small Unmanned Aircraft System, Ali Hamidisepehr, Michael P. Sama

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are a relatively new tool for collecting remote sensing data at dense spatial and temporal resolutions. This study aimed to develop a spectral measurement platform for deployment on a UAS for quantifying and delineating moisture zones within an agricultural landscape. A series of portable spectrometers covering ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS), and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths were instrumented using a Raspberry Pi embedded computer that was programmed to interface with the UAS autopilot for autonomous data acquisition. A second set of identical spectrometers were fitted with calibrated irradiance lenses to capture ambient light during data acquisition. Data …

Tutorial: Determination Of Thermal Boundary Resistance By Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Zhi Liang, Ming Hu

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Due to the High Surface-To-Volume Ratio of Nanostructured Components in Microelectronics and Other Advanced Devices, the Thermal Resistance at Material Interfaces Can Strongly Affect the overall Thermal Behavior in These Devices. Therefore, the Thermal Boundary Resistance, R, Must Be Taken into Account in the Thermal Analysis of Nanoscale Structures and Devices. This Article is a Tutorial on the Determination of R and the Analysis of Interfacial Thermal Transport Via Molecular Dynamics (MD) Simulations. in Addition to Reviewing the Commonly Used Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium MD Models for the Determination of R, We Also Discuss Several MD Simulation Methods Which Can Be …

Analyzing Operating And Support Costs For Air Force Aircraft, Scott C. Hewitson, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Edward D. White, Gregory Brown

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Recent legislation resulted in an elevation of operating and support (O&S) costs’ relative importance for decision-making in Department of Defense programs. However, a lack of research in O&S hinders a cost analyst’s abilities to provide accurate sustainment estimates. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate when Air Force aircraft O&S costs stabilize and to what degree. Next, a parametric O&S model is developed to predict median O&S costs for use as a new tool for cost analyst practitioners.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Utilizing the Air Force total ownership cost database, 44 programs consisting of 765 observations from 1996 to 2016 …

Multispectral Remote Sensing For Yield Estimation Using High-Resolution Imagery From An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Mahyar Aboutalebi, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, Niel Allen

AggieAir Publications

Satellites and autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are two major platforms for acquiring remotely-sensed information of the earth’s surface. Due to the limitations of satellite-based imagery, such as coarse spatial resolution and fixed schedules, applications of UAVs as low-cost remote sensing systems are rapidly expanding in many research areas, particularly precision agriculture. UAVs can provide imagery with high spatial resolution (finer than 1 meter) and acquire information in visible, near infrared, and even thermal bands. In agriculture, vegetation characteristics such as health, water stress, and the amount of biomass, can be estimated using UAV imagery. In this study, three sets …

Bridge Inspection: Human Performance, Unmanned Aerial Systems And Automation, Sattar Dorafshan, Marc Maguire

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) have become of considerable private and commercial interest for a variety of jobs and entertainment in the past 10 years. This paper is a literature review of the state of practice for the United States bridge inspection programs and outlines how automated and unmanned bridge inspections can be made suitable for present and future needs. At its best, current technology limits UAS use to an assistive tool for the inspector to perform a bridge inspection faster, safer, and without traffic closure. The major challenges for UASs are satisfying restrictive Federal Aviation Administration regulations, control issues in …

Implications Of Sensor Inconsistencies And Remote Sensing Error In The Use Of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems For Generation Of Information Products For Agricultural Management, Mac Mckee, Ayman Nassar, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, Mahyar Aboutalebi, William Kustas

AggieAir Publications

Small, unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) for remote sensing represent a relatively new and growing technology to support decisions for agricultural operations. The size and power limitations of these systems present challenges for the weight, size, and capability of the sensors that can be carried, as well as the geographical coverage that is possible. These factors, together with a lack of standards for sensor technology, its deployment, and data analysis, lead to uncertainties in data quality that can be difficult to detect or characterize. These, in turn, limit comparability between data from different sources and, more importantly, imply limits on the …

Automatic, Simultaneous Control Of Molar Mass And Composition In Free Radical Copolymerization Using Acomp/Ci, Wayne F. Reed, Terry Mcafee, Thomas Zekoski, Aide Wu, Curt Jarand, Rick Montgomery

Polymer Reaction Engineering X (PRE 10) (2018)

ACOMP/CI has progressed to the point where molar mass and composition can be automatically controlled during free radical copolymerization reactions. The topics covered will be:

i) Automatic, simultaneous control of molar mass and composition in free radical copolymerization. The original strategy used to control only molar mass involved the use of two proportionality parameters, a_A and p, without any detailed kinetic models. a_A is monomer A conversion rate and p the link between instantaneous weight average molar mass M_w,inst and monomer concentration. a_A and p can be re-measured during a reaction as frequently as needed and …

Conference Program, John Tsavalas, Fouad Teymour, Jose R. Leiza, Jeffrey Stubbs

Polymer Reaction Engineering X (PRE 10) (2018)

No abstract provided.

Predicting The Dynamic Binding Capacities For Adsorbents Using Bsa As A Model Protein, Gaoshan Li

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Research Publications

Membrane adsorbers are one alternative to traditional bead-based chromatography that receive attention in the bioseparation process because of their ability to process material with lower residence times. However some properties of membranes make membrane adsorbers unrealistic for some applications. For example, some membrane adsorbers exhibit lower binding capacities compared with the traditional bead-based chromatography counterparts. The dynamic binding capacity (DBC) in this study is defined as the amount of protein bound in the column when the outlet reaches a certain concentration, which is 10% [2], and the equilibrium binding capacity (EBC) is the binding capacity under the equilibrium conditions, when …

A Comparative Analysis Of Integrated Optical Waveguide Isolators With Magneto-Optic Layers, Reyhane Oztekin

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study is to theoretically devise an on-chip optical isolator which is monolithically integrated with a semiconductor waveguide layer yielding low loss. The optical properties of iron are modeled for the use of optical waveguide isolators by improving the Brendel-Bormann model. Our model for iron shows excellent fit with the optical data up to 30 electronvolts (eV). The semiconductor optical waveguide isolator with magneto-optic layers based on non-reciprocal loss shift is developed in this study. Fe, Co, and Ni metals as well as cerium-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Ce:YIG) have been used as magneto-optic layers. We have shown …

Soft-Microrobotics: The Manipulation Of Alginate Artificial Cells, Samuel Sheckman

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

In this work, the approach to the manipulation of alginate artificial cell soft-microrobots, both individually and in swarms is shown. Fabrication of these artificial cells were completed through centrifugation, producing large volumes of artificial cells, encapsulated with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles; these artificial cells can be then externally stimulated by an applied magnetic field. The construction of a Permeant Magnet Stage (PMS) was produced to manipulate the artificial cells individually and in swarms. The stage functionalizes the permanent magnet in the 2D xy-plane. Once the PMS was completed, Parallel self-assembly (Object Particle Computation) using swarms of artificial cells in complex …

A Microresonator-Based Laser Doppler Velocity Sensor For Interplanetary Atmospheric Re-Entry, Benjamin Wise

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a laser velocity sensor concept based on optical microresonators is presented and the application to spacecraft atmospheric entry is explored. The concept is based on the measurement of Doppler shift of back-scattered laser light. Specifically, the Doppler shift is detected by observing the whispering gallery optical modes (WGM) of a dielectric microresonator excited by the back scattered light from particulates and gas molecules. The microresonator replaces the typical Fabry-Perot interferometer and CCD camera system, thereby significantly reducing the size and weight of the overall detection system. This thesis presents proof-of-concept results for this measurement approach. The Doppler …

Blunt And Ballistic Impacts On Human Head Models: An Analytical And Numerical Study, Yongqiang Li

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

Head injuries, as a leading cause of death, have become a major health care issue for civilians and soldiers. There has been an urgent need to understand mechanisms of such injuries. The objective of this dissertation research is to study some head injuries and related mechanisms using analytical and computational models.

In Chapter 2, a new analytical (non-linear) model for the impact of a solid sphere on a fluid-filled spherical shell is developed by including the stress wave propagation effect in addition to the Hertzian contact deformations and the shell membrane and bending actions. A simplified (linearized) model incorporating the …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Improving System-On-Chip Test Networks For: Bandwidth, Security, And Power, Saurabh Gupta

Computer Science and Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Modern System-on-Chips (SoCs) provide benefits such as reduction in overall system cost, and size, increased performance, and lower power consumption. Increasing complexity of these Integrated Circuits (ICs) has resulted in a higher probability of manufacturing defects. Manufacturing defects can result in the faulty operation of a system. Thus, it is essential to test an IC after it is manufactured to detect any possible faults in it. These SoCs include on-chip embedded instruments that can be used for test, debug, diagnosis, validation, monitoring, characterization, configuration, or functional purposes. IEEE 1687 Std. (IJTAG) provides a standard interface for the reconfigurable access and …

Subspace Averaging Of Auditory Evoked Potentials, Xiaoliang Wang

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The auditory evoked potential (AEP) is an electric potential generated in the brain in response to auditory stimuli. It has clinical importance in the detection of newborn infant hearing loss. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the AEP is low, so signal averaging is typically employed to estimate it. Often, thousands of trials must be averaged before a sufficiently high SNR estimate is obtained.

In this research, we have developed a new AEP averaging method called subspace averaging. The subspace averaging method projects onto the signal subspace: the span of the principal eigenvectors of the signal correlation matrix. The …

Linear Phase Multi-Frequency Notch Filter Via Quadratic Programming, Yueran Ma

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Discrete-time notch filters can be divided into infinite impulse response (IIR) and finite impulse response (FIR) notch filters. Infinite impulse response notch filters are easy to design and implement but suffer from nonlinear phase characteristics and unacceptable startup transients. Finite impulse response filters on the other hand can be designed to have linear phase but require more coefficients to achieve narrow notch widths. Multiple frequency FIR notch filters that can effectively reject several selected spectral regions while providing high transmission at frequencies outside the rejected regions have applications in communication systems, radar systems and biomedical signal processing.

A new multi-frequency …

High-Speed Single-Channel Sar Adc Using Coarse And Fine Comparators With Background Comparator Offset Calibration, Guanhua Wang

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

A 1-GS/s 8-bit single-channel successive-approximation-register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) using coarse and fine comparators with fully background comparator offset calibration is presented. Low-power coarse comparators and low-noise fine comparators are both employed to improve the comparator power efficiency. Non-binary digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with redundancy is employed to tolerate possible errors in the most-significant-bit (MSB) decisions. A novel comparator offset calibration scheme is proposed to remove the offsets between the different comparators, without slowing down the speed of the SAR conversion. The prototype ADC is simulated in a 28 nm CMOS technology and achieves an SNDR of 42.13 dB near Nyquist …

Computational Theories For Human Stereo Vision, Han Gao

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Binocular stereopsis refers to the ability to perceive depth, which has always been a central problem in perception since the time of da Vinci. The foremost theoretical difficulty that arises when attempting to understand how the visual system computes disparity is known as the correspondence or matching problem. Decades of research upon macaque primary visual cortex has shown that in each layer of the primary visual cortex (V1) long-range horizontal connections among striate cortex cells exist which integrate information from different parts of the visual field. Inspired by long-range horizontal connections in V1 and the Jeffress model, a time-delay neural …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Harmful Radiation On Type-Ii Strained Layer Superlattice Focal Plane Arrays Operated In The Long Wave Infrared, Patrick Fumo

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

In-situ exposure of InAs/InAsSb strained layer superlattice focal plane arrays to gamma-rays revealed the possibility of a detector capable of imaging through a total ionizing dose event. Two long wave infrared focal plane arrays were exposed to a Co⁶⁰ source at dose rates of 60 Rads/s and 70 Rads/s in incremental steps up to a total accumulated dose of 30 kRads. The first device showed no degradation in dark current density with accumulated dose while the second device tested showed a small increase up to 1 kRad and minimal increases with subsequent dose steps. The primary imaging defect in …

Cell-Aware Fault Analysis And Test Set Optimization In Digital Integrated Circuits, Fanchen Zhang, Jennifer Dworak

Computer Science and Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Structural tests have many advantages over functional patterns. The fault coverage of structural patterns is generally higher and easier to quantify, well-known algorithms are available to generate them, and they are often a much easier choice for debugging and diagnosis. However, depending on the fault models used, traditional structural patterns can still miss many defects, such as the defects that may occur inside the standard cells, and when chips are placed on a board, they may fail in functional mode even if they pass all structural tests. This can happen even if those same structural tests are applied in-system on …

Modeling Kidney Transplantation Decisions: Regulatory Oversight, Information Sharing, And Post-Transplant Drug Choice, Zahra Gharibi

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

The United States and many other nations are encountering a disturbing obstacle: A shortage of available organs for patients who are in need of kidney transplantation. This dissertation strives to analyze this trend and present potential solution by focusing on three different aspects, namely regulatory oversight, information sharing, and post-transplant immunosuppressant drug choice. In my first essay, I propose a stochastic model that identifies a socially-optimal kidney transplant choice given the inherent trade-off between the expected wait time (driven by supply and demand) and the quality of received donor kidney.

I modify the model to account for changes made by …

Discovering The Needs Of People At The 10/40 Window With Data Science, Germán H. Alférez, Ceila M. González

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Abstract: We propose an approach to discover the needs of people in particular areas of Iraq, a country located at the 10/40 Window, by means of Data Science applied to Open Big Data. The resulting model predicts refugee crises and artillery attacks with high accuracy even in areas with scarce data.

Analysis Of Data Erasure Capability On Sshd Drives For Data Recovery, Andrew Blyth

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Data Protection and Computer Forensics/Anti-Forensics has now become a critical area of concern for organizations. A key element to this is how data is sanitized at end of life. In this paper we explore Hybrid Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHD) and the impact that various Computer Forensics and Data Recovery techniques have when performing data erasure upon a SSHD.

Knowledge Expiration In Security Awareness Training, Tianjian Zhang

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Positive Identification Of Lsb Image Steganography Using Cover Image Comparisons, Michael Pelosi, Nimesh Poudel, Pratap Lamichhane, Devon Lam, Gary Kessler, Joshua Macmonagle

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In this paper we introduce a new software concept specifically designed to allow the digital forensics professional to clearly identify and attribute instances of LSB image steganography by using the original cover image in side-by-side comparison with a suspected steganographic payload image. The “CounterSteg” software allows detailed analysis and comparison of both the original cover image and any modified image, using sophisticated bit- and color-channel visual depiction graphics. In certain cases, the steganographic software used for message transmission can be identified by the forensic analysis of LSB and other changes in the payload image. The paper demonstrates usage and typical …

Exploring The Use Of Graph Databases To Catalog Artifacts For Client Forensics, Rose Shumba

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Cloud computing has revolutionized the methods by which digital data is stored, processed, and transmitted. It is providing users with data storage and processing services, enabling access to resources through multiple devices. Although organizations continue to embrace the advantages of flexibility and scalability offered by cloud computing, insider threats are becoming a serious concern as cited by security researchers. Insiders can use authorized access to steal sensitive information, calling for the need for an investigation. This concept paper describes research in progress towards developing a Neo4j graph database tool to enhance client forensics. The tool, with a Python interface, allows …

Optimizing The Removal Of Stormwater Pollutants In Small-Scale, Constructed Treatment Wetlands, Isabella Evans

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Research Publications

Natural wetlands use plants to absorb and break down harmful pathogens and water pollutants. This process improves water quality in a natural and efficient way. By mimicking natural wetlands with constructed wetlands, we are able to perform the same functions. We used the two small-scale treatment wetlands in the Cook Laboratory for Bioscience Research to perform experiments to optimize the removal of stormwater pollutants. These two treatment wetlands consist of three connected basins each with the goal of removing harmful pollutants in each basin. These stormwater pollutants include total suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand (organic carbon), and nitrate. Past studies …

Completing Cooperative Task By Utilizing Eeg-Based Brain Computer Interface, Jongwoon Kim

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

We sought to design a cooperative brain computer interface (BCI), wherein multiple users contribute brain activities that are decoded towards a common goal. We used a base design involving collection of electroencephalographic (EEG) brain activity from a low-cost consumer system (the Muse Headband), then classified the ensuing signals into different mental states as either relaxed or focused. The goal of the cooperative BCI was to have two subjects drive a cursor on the screen to some acceptance range given a prescribed path. Each subject was responsible for controlling either the direction or the displacement of the ball. EEG patterns for …

Exploiting Click-Chemistry And Microfluidics To Map The Neuronal Itinerary Of App Processing And Amyloid-Beta Generation, Namratha Srinivas

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease and is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States with approximately 5.5 million Americans diagnosed with it. The neuropathological hallmark includes extracellular senile plaques and intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles. Recent GWAS studies have identified genes associated with AD, and have revealed several classes of genes implicated in disease pathogenesis. In particular, three general pathways associated with an increased risk of AD included: 1) cholesterol metabolism, innate immune system, and the membrane trafficking. Our lab has focused on intracellular trafficking as it relates to the processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP), …