Engineering Commons^™

Estimating Transit Ridership Patterns Through Automated Data Collection Technology: A Case Study In San Luis Obispo, California, Ashley Kim

Master's Theses

Public transportation offers a crucial solution to the travel demand in light of national and global economic, energy, and environmental challenges. If implemented effectively, public transit offers an affordable, convenient, and sustainable transportation mode. Implementation of new technologies for information-harvesting may lead to more effective transit operations. This study examines the potential of automated data collection technologies to analyzing and understand the origin-destination flow patterns, which is essential for transit route planning and stop location placement.

This thesis investigates the collection and analysis of data of passengers onboard San Luis Obispo Transit buses in February and March 2017 using Bluetooth …

Children’S Social Network: Kids Club, Eiman Alrashoud

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Young children often have a profound interest that if nurtured, would develop to great social cues and skills thereby improving their social aspects of life. Parents can conveniently benefit from a swift data sharing in the collaborative scrutiny of their kid's participation, in public activities facilitated through the internet digital technology. To facilitate the involvement of shared activities among children, an interactive website is essential. The aim of my project is to develop a website that is intended to be an interactive platform for a variety of events selection. Additionally, the website will aid parents in the creation, discovery and …

Cubesat Data Transmission And Storage Throughput Optimization Through The Use Of A Zynq Soc Based Cubesat Science Instrument Interface Electronics Board, Caleb Mosby Munsill

Master's Theses

The CubeSat standard sprang from the desire to create a satellite standard that would open the doors for universities and other lower budget research institutions by making it more feasible to get their work into space. Since then, many other institutions and industries have been adopting variations on the standard for their own use. As more people are seeking out to use the CubeSat standard as their main bus, the standards and practices of the community have grown and expanded and with this growth, new challenges have been created. One such challenge is the bandwidth limitation in the RF-downlink. When …

Effect Of Cohorts On Student Retention In Engineering, Patricia Backer, 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). There are three major goals: strengthen SJSU’s core academic performance in retention and graduation; provide an improved supportive environment for URM students; and enhance the delivery and integration of academic and co-curricular support services. For Fall 2015, newly matriculated students in the College of Business, College of Engineering, and Child and Adolescent Development Department (CHAD) were assigned schedules …

Improving Student Engagement In Engineering Using Brain-Based Learning Principles As Instructional Delivery Protocols, John Solomon, Vimal Viswanathan, Eric Hamilton, Chitra Nayak

Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering

This paper presents a study on the academic engagement issues of the upper level engineering students in an HBCU (name of the university will be added later) and strategies implemented to overcome these issues using brain based learning principles as instructional delivery protocols. Although student engagement issues inside engineering classrooms have several components, we focus our attention in this paper mainly on two issues: the dis-engagement arising due to the lack of understanding of pre-requisites and insufficient mathematical skills of students reaching junior and senior engineering classes. A previous pilot study confirmed that a large fraction of students who reach …

Estimation Of Size And Rotations Of Icebergs From Historical Data Utilizing Scatterometer Data, Jeffrey Scott Budge

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the development and methodology of a new, consolidated BYU/NIC Antarctic Iceberg Tracking Database is presented. The new database combines data from the original BYU daily iceberg tracking database derived from scatterometers, and the National Ice Center's weekly Antarctic iceberg tracking database derived from mostly optical and infrared sensors. Using this data, interpolation methods and statistical analyses of iceberg locations are discussed. The intent of this database is to consolidate iceberg location data in order to increase accessibility to users.Active microwave remote sensing instruments are used to track tabular icebergs and provide a daily estimate of their positions …

A Survey Of Sparse Channel Estimation In Aeronautical Telemetry, Christopher James Hogstrom

Theses and Dissertations

Aeronautical telemetry suffers from multipath interference, which can be resolved through the use of equalizers at the receiver. The coefficients of data-aided equalizers are computed from a channel estimate. Most channels seen in aeronautical telemetry are sparse, meaning that most of the coefficients of the channel are zero or nearly zero. The maximum likelihood (ML) estimate does not always produce a sparse channel estimate. This thesis surveys a number of sparse estimation algorithms that produce a sparse channel estimate and compares the post-equalizer bit error rates (BER) using these sparse estimates with the post-equalizer BER using the ML estimate. I …

Flexible Micro-N-Line Probe And Apparatus To Characterize Electronic Conductivity Of Li-Ion Battery Electrode Films, Derek Van Clement

Theses and Dissertations

A key metric that affects Li-ion battery cell performance is the electronic conductivity of the electrode films. Previous research has found that the conductivity of electrodes is not homogeneous throughout the entirety of the deposited film area. To further characterize the non-homogeneity of the conductivity of electrode films, a micro-N-line probe and a micro-flex-line probe were developed to take micro-scale conductivity measurements of thin-film battery electrodes in a non-destructive manner. These devices have been validated by comparing test results to those of it's predecessor, the micro-four-line probe, on various commercial-quality Li-ion battery electrodes. Results show that there is significant variation …

Injury Severity Of Truck Drivers In Crashes At Highway–Rail Grade Crossings, Waleed Ali Khan

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is a noticeable difference between different road users, specifically between passenger vehicles and heavy vehicles such as its length and weight. The majority of previous research were focused on general highway traffic that included passenger cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, etc. Moreover, HRGC safety studies of specific types of vehicles are relatively few and heavy vehicle safety at grade crossing is even more under-explored.

This research thus focuses on the following objectives: Identify factors related to different injury severity levels of heavy-vehicle drivers (truck/truck-trailer) drivers in crashes reported at HRGCs; to identify a more suitable statistical model for injury severity …

Regulatory Barriers To Approval Of New Technologies For Small Drinking Water Systems, Deanna T. Ringenberg

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

Small drinking water systems face different challenges than large drinking water systems. Innovative technologies can provide cost and reliability benefits to small systems, but new technologies are not frequently considered. One important barrier to the implementation of new technologies is obtaining state drinking water agency approval.

To identify specific state regulatory barriers, a survey including sixteen questions was sent to the 49 state agencies. The survey included questions regarding their acceptance programs, experiences with new technologies, barriers, data needs for technology approval, and interest in a shared approach for acceptance of new technologies. The survey was sent in 2015 and …

Improving Quality Of Patient Care Through Automated Nerve Segmentation, Madisen D. Phillips

Maseeh Summer Undergraduate Research Experience

A continuous peripheral nerve block cPNB is most commonly used in patients during the post-operative period, with documented benefits that include a decrease in reported pain, a decrease of opioid related side effects, and an increase in patient satisfaction. Accurately identifying nerve structures for cPNB placement is a critical step for proper insertion. The aim of this research is to use supervised learning techniques (least squares regression and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis) to build a model that can segment and annotate a bundle of nerves known as the brachial plexus (BP) while minimizing segmentation error. Dependent on large …

Diplomacy Lab Provides Term-Length Group Projects Integrating Policy Analysis And Liberal Arts Into The Traditional Engineering Classroom, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Science in diplomacy, the use of trained scientist to inform and support foreign policy objectives, has been a part of U.S. foreign policy since the time of Benjamin Franklin. The Diplomacy Laboratory project, a public-private partnership, allows the Department of State to 'course source' projects to seek input from universities and to recruit talented students to consider careers in diplomacy. This paper provides a summary of a case study using a DipLab project as part of a term-length, writing assignment in courses for undergraduate and graduate environmental engineering students. An overview of DipLab and suggested best practices to integrate DipLab …

Reducing Costs While Maintaining Learning Outcomes Using Blended, Flipped, And Mastery Pedagogy To Teach Introduction To Environmental Engineering, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

As part of a cost-savings initiative, an existing course of 'introduction to environmental engineering' offered using a 'traditional' format of didactic class meetings supplemented with hands-on laboratory sessions, was changed significantly. The 'modified' format uses 'blended', 'flipped', and 'mastery' approaches to teach "2601: Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering" to approximately 60 sophomores pursuing baccalaureate degrees in environmental, civil, or architectural engineering, each semester. This paper presents a summary of the results from eight course offerings over a period of four years to more than 450 total students. Assessments included student grades; open-ended invitations for anonymous feedback at the end of each …

Using Nursing Theory To Improve The Teaching Of Engineering Practice, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Engineering education includes both classroom training in sciences and professional skills as well as learning-through-doing to integrate practice and engineering design into the future licensed Professional Engineer (PE). In a similar manner, nursing education includes both classroom training in sciences and professional skills as well as learning through doing to integrate practice and caring into the future licensed Registered Nurse (RN). From the mid-19th century until modern day, the fields of environmental engineering and community health nursing have worked side-by-side to prevent disease while promoting health and wellness. This paper provides a synthesis of previously published case studies by the …

Using The Voice Of The Student To Evaluate Learning Management Systems, Elizabeth A. Cudney, Susan L. Murray, Brittany Groner, Katie M. Kaczmarek, Bonnie Wilt, Kamaria Blaney, Julie Phelps

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A learning management system is an educational tool employed in higher education to organize, document, track, report, and deliver courses. Selecting the appropriate learning management system is a critical decision for a university. This study explores the usability of two leading systems, Blackboard and Canvas, from the students’ perspective. The goal is to gather and analyze user preferences in order to select an appropriate learning management system. Data was collected through surveys of student’s experience with the two learning management systems. The survey evaluated the ease of the following tasks: finding course documents, viewing grades, ease of navigation, intuitiveness, and …

Heteromer Nanostars By Spontaneous Self-Assembly, Caitlin Brocker, Hannah Kim, Daniel Smith, Sutapa Barua

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Heteromer star-shaped nanoparticles have the potential to carry out therapeutic agents, improve intracellular uptake, and safely release drugs after prolonged periods of residence at the diseased site. A one-step seed mediation process was employed using polylactide-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), silver nitrate, and tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium chloride (THPC). Mixing these reagents followed by UV irradiation successfully produced heteromer nanostars containing a number of arm chains attached to a single core with a high yield. The release of THPC from heteromer nanostars was tested for its potential use for breast cancer treatment. The nanostars present a unique geometrical design exhibiting a significant …

A Solution To Low Read Rate Problem In Rfid Scattering Networks, Shadi Ebrahimi-Asl, Mohammad Tayeb Ahmad Ghasr, Maciej J. Zawodniok

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

High interference and low read rate have repeatedly been reported by radio frequency identification (RFID) consumers as the main drawback of passive RFID technology. We investigate a solution to this problem by employing low scattering antennas. We propose a new state of scattering state for RFID tags in that tags will switch to low scattering states to suppress their interference to an established and ongoing backscattering link between an RFID reader and a target tag. We evaluate the efficiency of our proposed solution by random deployment of tags in a network of ten antennas. We show that by using our …

Is The Whole Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts?, Liangyue Li, Hanghang Tong, Yong Wang, Conglei Shi, Nan Cao, Norbou Buchler

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The PART-WHOLE relationship routinely finds itself in many disciplines, ranging from collaborative teams, crowdsourcing, autonomous systems to networked systems. From the algorithmic perspective, the existing work has primarily focused on predicting the outcomes of the whole and parts, by either separate models or linear joint models, which assume the outcome of the parts has a linear and independent effect on the outcome of the whole. In this paper, we propose a joint predictive method named PAROLE to simultaneously and mutually predict the part and whole outcomes. The proposed method offers two distinct advantages over the existing work. First (Model Generality), …

Deepmon: Mobile Gpu-Based Deep Learning Framework For Continuous Vision Applications, Nguyen Loc Huynh, Youngki Lee, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The rapid emergence of head-mounted devices such as the Microsoft Holo-lens enables a wide variety of continuous vision applications. Such applications often adopt deep-learning algorithms such as CNN and RNN to extract rich contextual information from the first-person-view video streams. Despite the high accuracy, use of deep learning algorithms in mobile devices raises critical challenges, i.e., high processing latency and power consumption. In this paper, we propose DeepMon, a mobile deep learning inference system to run a variety of deep learning inferences purely on a mobile device in a fast and energy-efficient manner. For this, we designed a suite of …

Focusing On Writing To Learn Approach To Increase Engagement And Performance In Digital Design Lab, Salman Siddiqui, Rami Haddad, Mohammad Ahad

Electrical & Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

In an effort to help students in the discipline build on their writing skills throughout the undergraduate curriculum, Georgia Southern University initiated a quality enhancement plan (QEP) with a focus on writing across the Electrical Engineering curriculum. As part of this plan, the Digital Design Lab course, offered at the sophomore level in the curriculum, implemented several strategies to help students build on their previous writing skills, and in the process improved their technical vocabulary, the ability to communicate using it, increased students’ engagement, collaboration, and performance in the course. In this work, the effect of deliberately engaging students in …

Metallization Of Self-Assembled Dna Templates For Electronic Circuit Fabrication, Bibek Uprety

Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the deposition of metallic and semiconductor elements onto self-assembled DNA templates for the fabrication of nanodevices. Biological molecules like DNA can self-assemble into a variety of complex 2-D and 3-D architectures without the need for expensive patterning tools. In addition, self-assembled DNA templates can be designed to controllably place functional nanomaterials with molecular precision. These characteristics make DNA an attractive template for fabricating electronic circuits from biological molecules. However, electrically conductive structures are required for electronic applications. While metallized DNA nanostructures have been demonstrated, the ability to make thin, continuous wires that are electrically conductive still represents …

The Application Of Artificial Neural Networks For Prioritization Of Independent Variables Of A Discrete Event Simulation Model In A Manufacturing Environment, Rebecca Pires Dos Santos

Theses and Dissertations

The high complexity existent in businesses has required managers to rely on accurate and up to date information. Over the years, many tools have been created to give support to decision makers, such as discrete event simulation and artificial neural networks. Both tools have been applied to improve business performance; however, most of the time they are used separately. This research aims to interpret artificial neural network models that are applied to the data generated by a simulation model and determine which inputs have the most impact on the output of a business. This would allow prioritization of the variables …

Low-Noise Speed-Optimized Large Area Cmos Avalanche Photodetector For Visible Light Communication, Md. Mottaleb Hossain, Sagar Ray, Jeng Shiuh Cheong, Liang Qiao, Aina N.A.P. Baharuddin, Mona Mostafa Hella, John P.R. David, Majeed M. Hayat

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Mean-gain and excess-noise measurements are presented for a 350 × 350 μm ² P+/N-well/P-sub and a 270 × 270 μm ² N-well/P-sub avalanche photodetectors fabricated using 0.13-μm CMOS technology. The active area of the P+/N-well/P-sub device was divided into multiple subsections to decrease transit time and increase speed. For the P+/N-well structure, remarkably low excess-noise factors of 4.1 and 4 were measured at a mean gain of 16 corresponding to a k value of approximately 0.1, using a 542 (633) nm laser. For a variant N-well/P-sub structure, excess-noise factors of 6.5 and 6.2 were measured at a mean-gain of 16 …

Optimizing Cloud-Service Performance: Efficient Resource Provisioning Via Optimal Workload Allocation, Zhuoyao Wang, Majeed M. Hayat, Nasir Ghani, Khaled B. Shaban

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Cloud computing is being widely accepted and utilized in the business world. From the perspective of businesses utilizing the cloud, it is critical to meet their customers' requirements by achieving service-level-objectives. Hence, the ability to accurately characterize and optimize cloud-service performance is of great importance. In this paper a stochastic multi-tenant framework is proposed to model the service of customer requests in a cloud infrastructure composed of heterogeneous virtual machines. Two cloud-service performance metrics are mathematically characterized, namely the percentile and the mean of the stochastic response time of a customer request, in closed form. Based upon the proposed multi-tenant …

Effects Of Vegetation On Slope Stability: A Review, Roberto José Marín Sánchez, Juan Pablo Osorio

Articles

Slope stability is usually affected by factors that reduce soil strength and increase driving forces acting on the slope material, sometimes generating mass movements. Among these factors, vegetation has an important role related to hydrological (e.g. evapotranspiration and infiltration) and mechanical (e.g. tree surcharge and root reinforcement provided by trees) mechanisms. In this review, vegetation influences associated to slope stability are identified, describing the mechanisms involved in the occurrence of mass movements. Finally, the way these factors affect slope stability is explained according to soil properties, climatic conditions and environmental characteristics.

Design And Implementation Of An Archetype Based Interoperable Knowledge Eco-System For Data Buoys, Paul Stacey, Damon Berry

Conference papers

This paper describes the ongoing work of the authors in translating two-level system design techniques used in Health Informatics to the Earth Systems Science domain. Health informaticians have developed a sophisticated two-level systems design approach for electronic health documentation over many years, and with the use of archetypes, have shown how knowledge interoperability among heterogeneous systems can be achieved. Translating two-level modelling techniques to a new domain is a complex task. A proof-of-concept archetype enabled data buoy eco-system is presented. The concept of operational templates-as-a service is proposed. Design recommendations and implementation experiences of re-working the proposed architecture to run …

The Effects Of Tether Placement On Antibody Stability On Surfaces, Thomas A. Knotts, Rebecca W. Grawe

Faculty Publications

Despite their potential benefits, antibody microarrays have fallen short of performing reliably and have not found widespread use outside of the research setting. Experimental techniques have been unable to determine what is occurring on the surface of an atomic level, so molecular simulation has emerged as the primary method of investigating protein/surface interactions. Simulations of small proteins have indicated that the stability of the protein is a function of the residue on the protein where a tether is placed. The purpose of this research is to see whether these findings also apply to antibodies, with their greater size and complexity. …

Corrosion Map For Metal Pipes In Coastal Louisiana, Sanjay Tewari

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Transportation agencies often allow metal pipes as an option for cross drains under/along roads and highways. Metal culverts can corrode over time at various rates based on their environmental conditions (e.g., corrosive nature of coastal soils, high water table, and saltwater intrusion).

This project was focused on applying available soil data, such as spatial distribution of soil types and soil characteristics (e.g., pH and conductivity), towards creating a Geographic Information System (GIS) based map to identify corrosion zones in coastal Louisiana. The effect of the soil characteristics (pH and conductivity) was incorporated in to the published corrosion models for calculating …

Scan: Multi-Hop Calibration For Mobile Sensor Arrays, Balz Maag, Zimu Zhou, Olga Saukh, Lothar Thiele

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Urban air pollution monitoring with mobile, portable, low-cost sensors has attracted increasing research interest for their wide spatial coverage and affordable expenses to the general public. However, low-cost air quality sensors not only drift over time but also suffer from cross-sensitivities and dependency on meteorological effects. Therefore calibration of measurements from low-cost sensors is indispensable to guarantee data accuracy and consistency to be fit for quantitative studies on air pollution. In this work we propose sensor array network calibration (SCAN), a multi-hop calibration technique for dependent low-cost sensors. SCAN is applicable to sets of co-located, heterogeneous sensors, known as sensor …

Antenna Design For Small Uav Locator Applications, Randall L. Musselman, Steve Eugene Watkins

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An antenna design problem is presented for a small UAV application. A UAV locator system must include an on-board transmitter with the capability to provide a beacon signal, in the event of a crash, and a receiver that is tailored for a transmitter hunt. This specific context for applying antenna theory allows a variety of design constraints, technical approaches, performance measures, and required results. The paper provides a structure for organizing the material, example approaches that illustrate possible design choices, and recommendations on educational implementation.