Engineering Commons^™

Anion Exchange Membrane Transport And Accelerated Testing Methods For Co2 Electrolyzers With Cu-Based Electrocatalyst, John C. Hendershot

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Electrocatalytic carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduction to C₂₊ products holds promise for low carbon intensity fuels, chemicals, and food; however, durability challenges, particularly bicarbonate (HCO₃^-)and carbonate (CO₃^2-) salt precipitation, hinder their commercialization. This report considers water (H₂O) and ion transport properties of conventional anion exchange membranes (AEMs) in zero-gap membrane electrode assembly (MEA) configurations using Cu electrocatalysts. Transport characterization includes H₂O diffusion, permeability, potassium (K⁺) diffusion, and transference numbers using three commercial AEMs, including piperidinium-based (Versogen), quaternary ammonium-based (Fumasep), and imidazolium-based (Dioxide Materials) membranes. Accelerated lifetime …

H2-Rich Biogas Production From Fixed Bed Wheat Straw Pyrolysis And The Potential Of Produced Biochar As H2 Storage Material, Tawanda Matamba, Hussein Rasool Abid, Alireza Keshavarz, Stefan Iglauer

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

H2 is a clean energy source, and is targeted as one of the ways to transition from fossil fuels. However, there are drawbacks in production and storage of hydrogen. To cover the supply, we need H2 from many resources and because of its low density we need materials that can store bulky quantities of H2. Here we investigated the potential of a renewable source (waste wheat straw) to produce and store H2 through pyrolysis and adsorption. The impact of pressure and temperature (500–900 °C, and 1.01–30 bar range) on the selectivity of H2 rich gas production was systematically investigated; and …

Conceptualizing The Research Cycle For The Field Of Materials Science And Engineering, Jennifer L.W. Carter

Faculty Scholarship

Abstract: Early-career materials researchers often receive guidance from their individual advisors on best practices for conducting research, but the materials science community lacks an explicit model of the research process. As a result, the lived experience of an individual researcher can be quite different from their peers since they may be exposed to a different unique set of implicit research steps. In this article, we translate an existing research heuristic from other fields and make explicit the steps, methodologies, and strategies materials science engineering researchers utilize to advance our collective materials science knowledge. This newly proposed research cycle can improve …

Conceptualizing The Research Cycle For The Field Of Materials Science And Engineering, Jennifer Carter

Faculty Scholarship

Early-career materials researchers often receive guidance from their individual advisors on best practices for conducting research, but the materials science community lacks an explicit model of the research process. As a result, the lived experience of an individual researcher can be quite different from their peers since they may be exposed to a different unique set of implicit research steps. In this article, we translate an existing research heuristic from other fields and make explicit the steps, methodologies, and strategies materials science engineering researchers utilize to advance our collective materials science knowledge. This newly proposed research cycle can improve the …

The Potential Of Microbial Fuel Cells As A Dual Solution For Sustainable Wastewater Treatment And Energy Generation: A Case Study, Shajjadur Rahman Shajid, Monjur Mourshed, Md. Golam Kibria, Bahman Shabani

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bio-electrochemical systems that harness microorganisms to convert organic pollutants in wastewater directly into electricity, offering a dual solution for sustainable wastewater treatment and renewable energy generation. This paper presents a holistic techno-economic and environmental feasibility assessment of largescale MFC deployment in Dhaka’s industrial zone, Bangladesh, as a relevant case study. Here, treating 100,000 cubic meters of wastewater daily would require a capital investment of approximately USD 500 million, with a total project cost ranging between USD 307.38 million and 1.711 billion, depending on system configurations. This setup has an estimated theoretical energy recovery of 478.4 …

Exploring The Effect Of Led-To-Photodetector Spacing On Subcutaneous Photoplethysmography For Continuous Blood Pressure Measurement, Dario Cabal, Brian Nguyen, David B. Green, Kevin Kilgore, Varun Thakkar, Michael J. Fu, Steve J. Majerus

Student Scholarship

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is widely used to measure heart rate, blood oxygenation, and more recently, blood pressure. Implanted PPG systems offer the possibility to measure similar real-time measures of cardiovascular health, however, the detection method may vary due to a lack of capillary vessels for PPG sensors to observe in muscle tissue. To improve volumetric blood detection in large muscles, without relying on the capillary density of skin, a flexible PPG sensor was developed. The sensor included multiple spacing of illuminating infrared (IR) light emitting diodes (LEDs) and a single IR photodetector. This arrangement was expected to enable detection of blood …

Upcycling Of Polydicyclopentadiene (Pdcpd) Via Dynamic Bonds, Catherine Biju

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Thermoset polymers are valued for their exceptional mechanical strength and thermal stability, but suffer from irreversibility due to permanent covalent crosslinks, limiting recyclability. Polydicyclopentadiene (pDCPD), a widely used thermoset, exemplifies this limitation despite its excellent mechanical properties. In this study, we report an upcycling strategy for pDCPD through the incorporation of dynamic imine bonds. The successful integration of imine bonds was confirmed by ¹H NMR spectroscopy. Mechanical testing revealed that the modified pDCPD (pDCPD-imine) exhibits enhanced tensile strength and maintains its performance across multiple reprocessing cycles. Moreover, the dynamic nature of the imine bonds imparts healability to the network. This …

Analysis Of A Saline Dust Storm From The Aralkum Desert - Part 1: Consistency Between Multisensor Satellite Aerosol Products, Xin Xi, Jun Wang, Zhendong Lu, Andrew M. Sayer, Jaehwa Lee, Robert C. Levy, Yujie Wang, Alexei Lyapustin, Hongqing Liu, Istvan Laszlo, Changwoo Ahn, Omar Torres, Sabur Abdullaev, James Limbacher, Ralph A. Kahn

Michigan Tech Publications

The Aralkum Desert presents a challenging environment for satellite aerosol observations due to its very bright, heterogeneous, and dynamic surfaces and the lack of in situ constraints on region-specific aerosol properties. We survey current global satellite algorithms capable of detecting the presence, column burden, and elevation of airborne dust over the Aral Sea basin. Discrepancies and potential biases in retrieved UV aerosol index (UVAI), mid-visible and thermal infrared optical depth (AOD), and layer height due to different assumptions on surface and aerosol properties are assessed. The results indicate that (1) UVAI products consistently delineate dust plume extent but show large …

Impactor Displacement As A Predictor Of Thoraco-Abdominal Organ Injury: Comparison Of Isolated Organ To Whole Body Tests, Jack Seifert, Jared Michael Koser, Alok Shah, Lance Frazer, Frank A. Pintar, Narayan Yoganandan, Dan Nicolella, Timothy B. Bentley, Brian D. Stemper

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

Body armor is used to protect the wearer from penetrating injuries. However, when the armor defeats the projectile, it deforms at high rates into the wearer, referred to as back face deformation (BFD). This deformation can cause a variety of superficial and internal injuries and consequently should be considered when designing body armor. However, current design standards do not adequately consider the effects of BFD, and new data are necessary to inform future design thresholds for BFD. The objective of this study was to develop blunt impact injury risk curves for in vitro thoraco-abdominal organs and determine their applicability …

Flysurf: A Flying Robotic Surface With Shape Morphing And Motion Control, Kevin Aubert De Luchi Lomellini

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This thesis introduces FlySurf, a novel flying robotic surface capable of simultaneous shape morphing and motion control. FlySurf is modeled as a mesh-based dynamic structure actuated by multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, enabling complex deformations during flight. The proposed control architecture comprises three main components. First, a state estimator to infer the robotic surface state from limited observations. Second, a shape trajectory planner that incorporates an affine deformation term to preserve surface integrity during shape transitions. Third, a surface controller to minimize the error between the desired and actual surface configurations.

The methodology is validated through realistic simulations and hardware experiments, …

The Relative Importance Of Wind And Hydroclimate Drivers In Modulating Wind-Blown Dust Emissions In Earth System Models, Xinzhu Li, Longlei Li, Yan Feng, Xin Xi

Michigan Tech Publications

Windblown dust emissions are subject to large uncertainties in Earth system models (ESMs), yet model discrepancies in dust variability and its physical drivers remain poorly understood. This study evaluates the consistency of 21 ESMs in simulating the climatological distribution and interannual variability of global dust emissions and applies dominance analysis to quantify the relative influence of near-surface wind speed and five hydroclimate variables (precipitation, soil moisture, specific humidity, air temperature, leaf area index) across different climate zones. In hyperarid regions, the models exhibit poor agreement in dust variability, with only 10 % of pairwise comparisons showing significant positive correlations. Most …

Soft Hexapod Robot With Tendon-Driven Continuum Legs For Internal Infrastructure Inspection, Setayesh Yavari

LSU Master's Theses

The need for robotic systems capable of operating in confined, hazardous, or complex environments has driven interest in soft and legged platforms for industrial inspection and structural integrity assessment. This thesis presents the design and fabrication of a tentacle-like, soft-legged hexapod robot, which uses six cable-stiffened, pre-curved, tendon-driven continuum robot (TDCR) legs. These biologically inspired legs are designed to offer a balance between compliance and control, enabling the robot to navigate unstructured terrains and potentially grasp cylindrical structures such as pipes. The design phase involved the development and comparison of multiple leg geometries using CAD modeling and finite element analysis …

Low Entropy Side-Channel Secure Hardware Implementations, Jhelum Dhar

Master’s Dissertations

The demand for symmetric-key cryptography implemented in hardware is growing due to the increasing need for faster, more efficient, and secure encryption in small devices. However, implementing block ciphers in hardware that are side-channel secure remains a challenging goal. This holds true because there exist sophisticated but well-studied attacks such as Differential Power Analysis, which uses the correlation between power consumption of a device and the information on it to allow attackers with physical access to the cryptographic device to get information about secret data. Masking is one of the techniques that is used to provide security against sidechannel attacks. …

Location Selection Of Migrating Beetles Under Neutrosophic Model With Sensitivity And Comparative Analysis, Rabih Sbera, Ahmed A El-Douh, Darin Shafek, Tareef S. Alkellezli

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Location Selection of Migrating Beetles has different criteria to select the best location. So, multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) is used to deal with different and numerous criteria in this study. This study proposes an MCDM methodology to rank the locations and select the best criterion. The average method is used to compute the criteria weights. The locations are ranked using the root assessment method (RAM). This study uses eight criteria and 20 locations. We use the single valued neutrosophic numbers (SVNNs) to overcome uncertainty and vague information. The RAM methodology is used under the SVNNs. The results show that Availability …

Risk Management Of The Open Data Services Industry In Digital Transformation Under Neutrosophic Sets, Fadhl Ehsan Hadi, Mohammed Musa Mohammed, Noorhan Waleed Abdullah, Baraa Hasan Hadi

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

The open data services industry is very important for artificial intelligence and digital transformations. The open data services industry has different risks and challenges, so this study proposed a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach for risk management in open data services industry. This study uses the average method to compute the criteria weights and the WASPAS method to rank the alternatives. The triangular neutrosophic set (TNS) is used in this study to overcome uncertainty and vague information. It has three membership functions such as truth, indeterminacy, and falsity. This study uses nine criteria and 18 risks to be evaluated. The …

Type-2 Neutrosophic Set With Mcdm Methodology For Fire Safety Estimation In Healthcare Services, Eman Sayed

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Fire safety represents a critical priority in healthcare facilities, where complex infrastructures and the vulnerability of patients present significant challenges to evacuation and emergency response. Traditional fire risk assessment methods often fall short in addressing the linguistic variability, uncertainty, inconsistency, and indeterminacy inherent in expert evaluations. While fuzzy and Neutrosophic approaches have been applied in broader healthcare decision-making contexts, no existing study has utilized Type-2 Neutrosophic Numbers Sets (T2NNs) for prioritizing hospital departments based on fire risk. To address this gap, this study introduces a novel multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework that integrates T2NNs for expert modeling, the Entropy method for …

Type-2 Neutrosophic Numbers For Artificial Intelligence Software Choice For Cybersecurity Testing, O.M. Akash, We’Am Adel Talafha, Mamdouh Gomaa

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

The choice of artificial intelligence (AI) software for cybersecurity testing is a multi-criteria decision-making approach (MCDM) due to it including different criteria. Evaluation decision making problems include uncertainty and vague information. So, the neutrosophic set is used in this study to overcome this uncertainty and vague information. It has three functions such as truth, indeterminacy, and falsity functions. Type-2 neutrosophic numbers is a type of neutrosophic set that includes nine membership functions. This study uses the average method of computing the criteria weights. The CoCoSo method is used to rank alternatives. Six experts and decision makers created the decision makers …

Neutrosophic Numbers For Selection Best Strategy For Dual Supply Chains With Green And Non-Green Products, Nada A. Nabeeh, Waleed Abd Elkhalik, Gawaher Soliman Hussein

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Dual supply chains with green and non-green products are an important aspect of supply chain management, which enable companies to balance traditional operations with ethical and eco-friendly practices to reduce carbon emissions. This study proposed a novel approach that combines the Probabilistic Simplified Neutrosophic Set (PSNS) with the Ranking of Alternatives Method (RAM) for the selection of best strategy selection for dual supply chains with green and non-green products. The novel approach uses PSNS as a representation of uncertainty, by incorporating probabilistic degrees of truth, indeterminacy, and falsity, which occurred in real life situations. Furthermore, RAM illustrates efficient ranking and …

Pd-Based Hydrogen Separation Membranes Synthesized Via A Liquid-Phase Route, Chase W. Thompson

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

Palladium (Pd) membranes have gained significant attention for their ability to selectively separate hydrogen, a critical process for clean energy applications such as fuel cells and hydrogen storage. However, challenges such as grain growth, sintering, hydrogen embrittlement, and film uniformity limit their scalability and long-term stability. This thesis focuses on the controlled synthesis, deposition, and stability of Pd nanoparticles to optimize membrane performance for hydrogen separation. This work investigates solution-phase synthesis of Pd nanoparticles, focusing on temperature, precursor concentration, and solvent composition as key variables influencing particle growth and dispersion. Pd membranes were fabricated using nanoparticle deposition onto porous supports, …

Low Temperature Methane Coupling With Co And Co2, A K M Kazi F.M. Aurnob

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Methane is the smallest hydrocarbon and the most abundant component in natural gas. Despite its availability, its chemical utilization has remained limited due to the challenges associated with direct methane activation and conversion. Most of the methane oxidation and oxidative carbonylation reactions in literature have been carried out at high-pressure using batch reactors or at ambient pressure using flow reactors. While batch reactors have been shown to have higher product yields, they are limited in their capability to provide real-time kinetic insights and comprehensive mechanistic understanding of the reactions involved due to the long residence time. This limits rationalization of …

Book Review: Building A God, Carl Lee Tolbert

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

No abstract provided.

Explicit Bounds And Parallel Algorithms For Counting Multiply Gleeful Numbers, Sara Moore, Jonathan P. Sorenson

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Let k ≥ 1 be an integer. A positive integer n is k-\textit{gleeful} if n can be represented as the sum of kth powers of consecutive primes. For example, 35=2³+3³ is a 3-gleeful number, and 195=5²+7²+11² is 2-gleeful. In this paper, we present some new results on k-gleeful numbers for k > 1.

First, we extend previous analytical work. For given values of x and k, we give explicit upper and lower bounds on the number of k-gleeful representations of integers n ≤ x.

Second, we describe and analyze two new, efficient parallel …

Ti-Ulpcs: Threshold-Issuance - Un-Linkable Policy Compliant Signatures, Kiran Deep Ghosh

Master’s Dissertations

Digital signatures, as a strong cryptographic primitive, ensure the authenticity and integrity of signed messages. On one hand, no one can forge a verifiable signature without knowing the secret key, on the other hand, any correctly formed signature is always verifiable under the public key of the signer. Besides signing digital data, they serve as foundational components in more advanced cryptographic systems, including blind signatures, group signatures, direct anonymous attestation, e-cash, e-voting protocols, adaptive oblivious transfer, anonymous credential schemes, Policy-Compliant Signatures, etc. Policy-Compliant Signatures (PCS) enable the enforcement of joint policies between the signer and the verifier. A signature of …

Zkipv: Zero-Knowledge Proofs For Image Provenance Verification, Bibek Ghosh

Master’s Dissertations

Recent advances in generative AI have significantly improved the ability to create photorealistic synthetic images, including so-called deepfakes, raising concerns about misinformation and the erosion of trust in digital media. Ensuring the integrity and authenticity of images, especially in sensitive domains like journalism, is thus increasingly critical. Existing solutions such as the C2PA (Content Provenance and Authenticity) framework provide origin verification through cameragenerated digital signatures, but fail to account for image modifications that invalidate these signatures. To address this limitation, we propose a zero-knowledge approach to verifiable image editing that preserves both integrity and privacy. This system, ZK-IPV, introduces a …

Approximating Data-Driven Combinatorial Search In The Feature Space: Pwfs, Mehmet Bugrahan Ayanoglu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development and application of a novel feature selection method, Probability Weighted Feature Selection (PWFS), designed to address key challenges in machine learning involving high-dimensional, noisy, or biased datasets. It is a comprehensive exploration of feature selection strategies to enhance the performance, interpretability, and practicality of machine learning models in both engineering systems and educational data mining. PWFS introduces a structured, probabilistic approach to feature selection that adaptively weights features based on their empirical contribution to model performance. This method not only accelerates convergence to near-optimal feature subsets but also enhances flexibility for ensemble learning by encouraging …

Prospects For Telemedicine Adoption: Prognostic Modeling As Exemplified By Rural Areas Of Usa, Jisun Kim, Hamad Alanazi, Tugrul Daim

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Experts predict that in the majority of countries state healthcare expenditures will continue to rise. Usage of telemedicine applications – the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) in order to provide clinical health care at a distance – will help optimize the costs of healthcare in the long-term. The main advantages of telemedicine include reducing the number of doctor’s errors, saving both patients and physicians time, and improving the efficiency of healthcare organizations. It also ensures timely and quality services for large segments of the population living in remote territories with difficult socio-economic conditions, particularly rural areas.The paper forecasts …

Efficient Simd Based Implementation Of Xoodyak, Soham Biswas

Master’s Dissertations

Modern computing devices—particularly in the domains of the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile computing, and embedded systems—often operate under severe resource constraints in terms of processing power, memory (RAM/ROM), bandwidth, and battery life. Devices such as IoT sensors, smart cards, medical implants, RFID tags, and wearable systems typically rely on low-power hardware, including 8-bit microcontrollers with only a few kilobytes of memory. Conventional cryptographic algorithms are frequently unsuitable for such environments, as they may consume excessive power, introduce unacceptable latency, or fail to execute altogether. Lightweight cryptography addresses these challenges by providing cryptographic primitives specifically designed to operate efficiently on …

The Monodromy Leak For A Generalized Montgomery Ladder, Arani Raychaudhuri

Master’s Dissertations

The Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol using elliptic curves is the most wide-spread approach to the establishment of a secure internet connection. As an important subroutine, Alice and Bob need to perform multiplications of elliptic curve points by large scalars. The textbook method for scalar multiplication is the double-and-add algorithm. For the sake of efficiency, one usually performs x-coordinate only arithmetic using projective coordinates, and doubling-and-adding is done using the Montgomery ladder. The advantage of using projective coordinates is that this avoids costly field inversions at each iteration. However, when Alice (say) uses the double-and-add algorithm for computing her public key …

The Rise Of Foss In India: Empirical Evidence And Insights From Cross-Sectoral Case Studies, Arul George Scaria, Suryaprakash Mishra, Shubham Shinde, Rashi Singhal

Research Reports

The report analyses the adoption of FOSS in India, primarily through case studies across four sectors (healthcare, education, finance, and software and IT services) and different types of organisations (start-ups, non-profits, medium, large, and public sector organisations). The study highlights both the benefits and challenges experienced by organisations using FOSS. The study illustrates that while organisations benefit from increased innovations, cost/ time savings, flexibility, and enhanced security, they also face challenges such as lack of enough skilled personnel and limited community support. Organisations are also seen taking a cautious approach to licensing, favouring permissive licenses over restrictive ones. Based on …

Participation Of Battery Energy Storage Systems In Load Frequency Control Of Power Systems, Zakaria Afsharbakeshloo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this research, functionalities and roles of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs) in power systems are extended beyond primary frequency control (PFC). The BESSs, while participating in PFC, are controlled through charge controllers to first maintain their state-of-charge (SOC) within an acceptable range through a primary charge controller, and to recharge the BESS to its maximum SOC through a secondary charge controller. This forms a hierarchical frequency and SOC control of power grids with BESSs. In this regard, multiple BESS case is considered as well, and by employing the SOC balancing principle, it is shown that desired power sharing among …