Engineering Commons^™

Fusion Of Audio And Visual Information For Implementing Improved Speech Recognition System, Vikrant Satish Acharya

Masters Theses

Speech recognition is a very useful technology because of its potential to develop applications, which are suitable for various needs of users. This research is an attempt to enhance the performance of a speech recognition system by combining the visual features (lip movement) with audio features. The results were calculated using utterances of numerals collected from participants inclusive of both male and female genders. Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) coefficients were used for computing visual features and Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) were used for computing audio features. The classification was then carried out using Support Vector Machine (SVM). The results …

Quantification Of The Impact Of Photon Distinguishability On Measurement-Device- Independent Quantum Key Distribution, Garrett K. Simon, Blake K. Huff, William M. Meier, Logan O. Mailloux, Lee E. Harrell

Faculty Publications

Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution (MDI-QKD) is a two-photon protocol devised to eliminate eavesdropping attacks that interrogate or control the detector in realized quantum key distribution systems. In MDI-QKD, the measurements are carried out by an untrusted third party, and the measurement results are announced openly. Knowledge or control of the measurement results gives the third party no information about the secret key. Error-free implementation of the MDI-QKD protocol requires the crypto-communicating parties, Alice and Bob, to independently prepare and transmit single photons that are physically indistinguishable, with the possible exception of their polarization states. In this paper, we apply the …

Frugal Clay Press For Nicaragua: Design Of A Human-Powered Clay Brick Press For Rural Application, Rafael Delfin C. Guerrero, Milan O. Copic, Kevin A. Ellis, L. Isaac Marcia

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

This team was connected to a brick-making social entrepreneurship in Ciudad Darío, Nicaragua. Travel to Nicaragua in March of 2018 determined that the entrepreneurship wanted a manual brick press to increase the mechanical properties of bricks while decreasing the time needed for the bricks to dry before being baked. Fabrication of a semi-functional beta prototype was completed in May of 2018. Prototype operational tests showed that one cycle of brick compression and retrieval took roughly 3.5 minutes to produce a single double-sized brick. Water absorptivity tests determined that compressed bricks of red art clay experienced a percent absorptivity of 20.5%, …

The Evaluation Of The Integration Of Sustainability In Industrial Engineering Education At Louisiana State University, Kloe’ M. Liner

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Simulating Fluid Flow And Gas Expansion In The Marine Riser Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd) Software, Ross Teichman

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Phoenix Y6, Sean Backes, Michael Destin, Alastair Hood, Bruce Iverson, Brian Meier, John Strong

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The mission of this project is to design and fabricate a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fixed-wing drone for use by firefighters and other emergency services. This vehicle will be designed for uses that include surveying wildfires, as well as spotting vehicular accidents, urban fires, and floods. Current drones available on the market are expensive or not designed specifically for emergency response. Our goal is to develop a working prototype of a vehicle that will be able to collect and relay important data such as live video and thermal images in addition to other measurements such as air velocity and …

Automated Filament Positioner For Microcombustion Pyrometry, Lauren F. Baxter

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

“Effectiveness Of Measuring Pedestrian And Bicycle Traffic Volumes Using Eco-Counter Passive Infrared Counting Technology”, Clarissa Bruns

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

On The Use Of Hertz’S Contact Stress For A Deformable Roller On A Half Space, Trent M. Andrus

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Vacuum-Operated Microfluidic Device For Colorimetric Determination Of Sperm Motility In Aquatic Species, Faiz Alam

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Case Study: Cooling Channels For Material Testing Applications Using Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Benjamin M. Doane, Ryan P. O'Hara, K. Liu, Carl R. Hartsfield

Faculty Publications

Additive Manufacturing continues to gain a reputation as a key technology that will have a major impact on all aspects of mechanical engineering. The United States Air Force’s (USAF) Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), based in Dayton, Ohio, has expanded its AM-focused education and R&D capabilities with the purchase of a Laser Powder Bed Fusion system from Germany’s Concept Laser.

Evaluation Of Hertz’S Contact Stress Solution For Deformable Truncated Indenters, Kathleen M. Edwards

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Flight Simulation Training Time, Aircraft Training Time, And Pilot Competence As Measured By The Naval Standard Score, Aaron D. Judy

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships between US Navy T-45C flight simulation training time, actual aircraft training time, and intermediate and advanced jet pilot competence as measured by the Naval Standard Score (NSS). Examining the relationships between US Navy T-45C flight simulation time and actual aircraft flight time may provide further information on flight simulation training versus actual aircraft training to aviation authorities, flight instructors, the military aviation community, the commercial aviation community, and academia. The study was non-experimental, correlational, causal-comparative with an emphasis upon the establishment of mathematic and predictive relationships using archival data from …

Heterogeneous Templated Grain Growth, Dallin James Frandsen

Theses and Dissertations

Heterogeneous Templated Grain Growth (HTGG) is a developing method to fabricate designedcrystallographic textures of polycrystalline materials. Designed crystallographic texturesare important for enhancing desired material properties for specific applications. Four steps toHTGG have been identified: fabricating single crystal seeds, aligning seeds embedded into a powdermatrix, compacting seeds in the powder matrix, and promoting templating through sintering.Experimental research was performed on processing parameters, powder particle size and compaction,to indicate template coarsening trends during sintering. The results demonstrated thatlarger powder particles were influenced faster by the seeds crystallographic orientations comparedto smaller particles. The local effects of porosity on the seed and powder interface …

Stress Modulated Grain Boundary Mobility, Derek Michael Lontine

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of a thermodynamically based kinetic model that more accurately predicts grain boundary mobility (GBM) over a large range of thermodynamic states including changes in temperature, pressure and shear stress. The form of the model was validated against calculated GBM values for Al bicrystals via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. A total of 98,786 simulations were performed (164 different GBs, each with a minimum of 250 different thermodynamic states, and 2 different driving forces). Methodology for the computation of the GBM via MD simulations is provided. The model parameters are directly linked to extensive thermodynamic quantities and suggest potential …

A Cognitive Approach To Predicting Academic Success In Computing, Colby Goettel

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the possible correlations between a computing student's learning preference and their academic success, as well as their overall satisfaction with their major. CS and IT seniors at BYU were surveyed about their learning preferences and satisfaction with their major. The research found that IT students who are more reflective in their learning preference tend to have higher grades in their major. Additionally, it found that student age and their parents' education level were significant players in their academic success. However, there were no correlations found between major satisfaction and academic performance.

Simulated Tremor Propagation In The Upper Limb: From Muscle Activity To Joint Displacement, Thomas Henry Corie

Theses and Dissertations

Although tremor is the most common movement disorder, there are few non-invasive treatment options. One of the obstacles to creating effective tremor suppression devices is our lack of understanding regarding where tremor originates (which muscles), how it propagates through the limb (to which degrees of freedom, DOF), and where it manifests most severely (which DOF). To investigate these questions, we created a simple, linear time-invariant model to simulate tremor, with tremorogenic muscle activity input (in the 15 major superficial muscles from the shoulder to the wrist) and joint displacement output (in the 7 major upper limb DOF). The model included …

Towards Net Zero Energy Buildings: A Parametric Study On Building Energy Performance For Different Us Climate Zones, Owen Geraldo Betharte

Theses and Dissertations

A Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) can produce as much energy as it requires over an annual basis. This research investigated the building energy performance of different parameters over six US climate zones to ascertain which passive and active strategies would be most effective in each climate zone. Six cities were chosen to represent different climate zones. The focus of this study is for the Alumni House at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, FL to achieve NZE through retrofitting energy efficient measures (EEMs). An implementation of all active and passive strategies, also referred to Energy Efficiency Measures (EEM), …

The Circuit, Spring 2018, Department Of Electrical And Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Newsletters

Table of Contents:

• Fugere Generosity Creates Opportunities
• Faculty News
• Sparsifying Graphs for Faster Data Processing
• Manipulating Electromagnetic Waves by Artificial Materials
• Taking a Close Look at Computing
• COVOX is My Co-Pilot
• Taking on New Departmental Roles
• Student News
• Alumni Spotlight

Implications Of Data Sampling Resolution On Water Use Simulation, End-Use Disaggregation, And Demand Management, A. Cominola, M. Giuliani, A. Castelletti, David E. Rosenberg, Adel M. Abdallah

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Understanding the tradeoff between the information of high-resolution water use data and the costs of smart meters to collect data with sub-minute resolution is crucial to inform smart meter networks. To explore this tradeoff, we first present STREaM, a STochastic Residential water End-use Model that generates synthetic water end-use time series with 10-s and progressively coarser sampling resolutions. Second, we apply a comparative framework to STREaM output and assess the impact of data sampling resolution on end-use disaggregation, post meter leak detection, peak demand estimation, data storage, and meter availability. Our findings show that increased sampling resolution allows more accurate …

Findings Of A User Study Of Automatically Generated Personas, Joni Salminen, Haewoon Kwak, Jisun An, Soon-Gyo Jung, Bernard J. Jansen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We report findings and implications from a semi-naturalistic user study of a system for Automatic Persona Generation (APG) using large-scale audience data of an organization's social media channels conducted at the workplace of a major international corporation. Thirteen participants from a range of positions within the company engaged with the system in a use case scenario. We employed a variety of data collection methods, including mouse tracking and survey data, analyzing the data with a mixed method approach. Results show that having an interactive system may aid in keeping personas at the forefront while making customer-centric decisions and indicate that …

Augmented Keyword Search On Spatial Entity Databases, Dongxiang Zhang, Yuchen Li, Xin Cao, Jie Shao, Heng Tao Shen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we propose a new type of query that augments the spatial keyword search with an additional boolean expression constraint. The query is issued against a corpus of structured or semi-structured spatial entities and is very useful in applications like mobile search and targeted location-aware advertising. We devise three types of indexing and filtering strategies. First, we utilize the hybrid IR2" role="presentation" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; position: relative;">IR2IR2-tree and propose a novel hashing …

Entagrec(++): An Enhanced Tag Recommendation System For Software Information Sites, Shawei Wang, David Lo, Bogdan Vasilescu, Alexander Serebrenik

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Software engineers share experiences with modern technologies using software information sites, such as Stack Overflow. These sites allow developers to label posted content, referred to as software objects, with short descriptions, known as tags. Tags help to improve the organization of questions and simplify the browsing of questions for users. However, tags assigned to objects tend to be noisy and some objects are not well tagged. For instance, 14.7% of the questions that were posted in 2015 on Stack Overflow needed tag re-editing after the initial assignment. To improve the quality of tags in software information sites, we propose EnTagRec …

Development Of Waste-Based-Thermoplastic Composite Heat Insulators, Waseem Yousef Hittini

Mechanical Engineering Theses

The main scope of this research is to develop polymer-filler thermal insulators utilizing natural and industrial local waste such as date pit powder (DPP), devulcanized tire rubber (DVR), and buffing dust (BD). Recycling and reuse of these local wastes as fillers in insulation materials has significant benefits for the UAE environment. An objective of this work was to study the effect of the combination of these local wastes with polystyrene (PS) on the physical, mechanical, and thermal properties of the developed thermal insulators. PS was used as a matrix, mixed in different proportions with the waste fillers. Each mixture was …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of A Gaze-Based Training Intervention On Latent Hazard Anticipation Skills For Young Drivers: A Driving Simulator Study, Yusuke Yamani, Pinar Biçaksiz, Dakota B. Palmer, Nathan Hatfield, Siby Samuel

Psychology Faculty Publications

A PC-based training program (Road Awareness and Perception Training or RAPT; Pradhan et al., 2009), proven effective for improving young novice drivers' hazard anticipation skills, did not fully maximize the hazard anticipation performance of young drivers despite the use of similar anticipation scenarios in both, the training and the evaluation drives. The current driving simulator experiment examined the additive effects of expert eye movement videos following RAPT training on young drivers' hazard anticipation performance compared to video-only and RAPT-only conditions. The study employed a between-subject design in which 36 young participants (aged 18-21) were equally and randomly assigned to one …

Effects Of Verbal Vs Graphical Weather Information On A Pilots Decision-Making During Preflight, Warren Phillip Pittorie

Theses and Dissertations

Before a general aviation pilot conducts a flight, they obtain a preflight weather briefing that shares information on possible hazards along the intended route of flight. These preflight weather briefings are typically obtained either verbally, via a narrative delivered over a telephone, or visually, where graphical and textual information is presented on a computer or tablet display. This study compared verbal and graphical/textual weather briefings in a within-subjects study that altered the order in which participants received each format. Thirty-six participants were given a survey that contained two flight scenarios, each with specific weather scenarios and a specific briefing format. …

Development Of A Static Aeroelastic Database Using Nastran Sol 144 For Aircraft Flight Loads Analysis From Conceptual Design Through Flight Test, Ryan M. Haughey

Theses and Dissertations

This paper describes a method for predicting aircraft aerodynamic and inertial loading on a structural finite element model, (FEM) based on static aeroelastic coefficients. These coefficients are computed via interpolated spline methods within NASTRAN Solution 144 (static aeroelastic solution) and the “TRIM” module to connect the doublet-lattice model (DLM) and the structural finite element model for a coupled solution. The database is created by selecting key breakpoints where linear interpolation techniques can be utilized to develop and predict static aeroelastic coefficients for the prediction of any aircraft state for a given transient solution. This method is applicable from conceptual design …

Impact Of First-Year Initiatives On Retention Of Students: Are There Differences In Retention Of Students By Ethnicity And Gender?, Patricia Backer, Joseph Green, Bryan Matlen, Cindy Kato

Faculty Publications

Project Succeed is a campus-wide initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Its focus is to improve the 5-year graduation and retention rates and close the achievement gap for Under-Represented Minorities (URMs) across all majors at San José State University (SJSU). In addition, SJSU has a high percent of first generation students. We have several thrusts under this project: block scheduling, Faculty/Staff Mentor program, expanding Peer Educators, developing a First Year Experience Program, and developing more student living learning communities. This project is in its fourth year and we have analyzed each project effort with respect to its impact …

Integration Of A Sensory Driven Model For Hand Grasp Function In 3d Printed Prostheses, Austin T. Hetherington

Senior Theses

My Honors Thesis was completed through the Biomedical Engineering senior design project I worked on. Our project took a mechanically operated 3D printed prosthetic hand and automated the process by which it makes a grasp. The purpose of this project was to provide an affordable, automatic prosthetic hand to those either capable and incapable of wrist flexion. The current 3D printed prosthetic models require users to bend their wrist to initiate a simple grasp. However, our design took an alternative approach by using an EMG sensor placed on the ventral side of the forearm to record muscle activity, which, upon …

Increasing Drug Delivery Efficacy Of Drug-Coated Balloons, Alexander Galan, Eric Bidinger, Franco Godoy, Shrusti Patel

Senior Theses

Peripheral artery disease (PAD), the narrowing of peripheral arteries located in areas such as the arms and legs, is a common disease that affects 12% to 20% of people over 65. Numerous therapies have been developed to treat PAD, the most recent technology being drug-coated balloons. Drug-coated balloons release drugs, such as Paclitaxel (PTX), into the arterial wall during balloon angioplasty to locally treat PAD. Current levels of drug transfer from the balloon to the vascular endothelium are at a low 10%-18%. Our Biomedical Engineering Senior Design project aims to increase drug delivery of drug-coated balloons by manipulating the clinically-controllable …