Engineering Commons^™

Creative Confidence In Organizational Knowledge Creation: A Synthesis Of The Literature, Elnaz Dario, Rafael Landaeta, Resit Unal, E.H. Ng. (Ed.), B. Nepal (Ed.), E. Schott (Ed.)

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Creative confidence is a newly rising topic in the innovation study area. In a world where creativity has become a vital source of knowledge creation, not believing in one's own creative capacity could be a barrier. At the organizational level, many good ideas are disappearing before ever being written down or shared. Organizations may lose talented people who have great creative potential by either not giving them the opportunity to express their creative ideas or due to a lack of confidence from the employee side, in sharing these ideas. This paper will contribute to the research stream on the role …

Human-Intelligence/Machine-Intelligence Decision Governance: An Analysis From Ontological Point Of View, Faisal Mahmud, Teddy Steven Cotter

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The increasing CPU power and memory capacity of computers, and now computing appliances, in the 21st century has allowed accelerated integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into organizational processes and everyday life. Artificial intelligence can now be found in a wide range of organizational processes including medical diagnosis, automated stock trading, integrated robotic production systems, telecommunications routing systems, and automobile fuzzy logic controllers. Self-driving automobiles are just the latest extension of AI. This thrust of AI into organizations and everyday life rests on the AI community’s unstated assumption that “…every aspect of human learning and intelligence could be so precisely described …

Integrating Idef0 Into A Systems Framework For Statistical Engineering, Teddy Steven Cotter

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Driven by a growing requirement during the 21st century for the integration of rigorous statistical analyses in engineering research, there has been a movement within the statistics and quality communities to evolve a unified statistical engineering body of knowledge (Horel and Snee, 2010; Anderson-Cook, 2012). Outside of the 2014 Statistical Engineering Agreement among the ASQ Statistics Division, DOT&E, NASA, and IDA, there has been little formal progress toward this goal since the May 2011 NASA Symposium on Statistical Engineering in Williamsburg Virginia. In the ASEM-IAC 2012, Cotter (2012) identified the gaps in knowledge that statistical engineering needs to address, explored …

Systemic Intervention For Complex System Governance Development, Charles B. Keating, Polinpapilinho F. Katina,, John C. Pyne, Ra’Ed M. Jaradat

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper explores the issues related to systemic intervention for Complex System Governance (CSG) development. Systemic intervention seeks to intentionally engage a system to influence trajectory or outcomes. CSG is an emerging field focused on the design, execution, and evolution of the functions necessary to provide continued system performance (stability) in the midst of incessant turbulence and increasing complexity. Integral to this field is the necessity to ‘intervene’ in a complex system to enhance system behavior, structure, or performance. Arguably, system interventions have an unremarkable record of success, ranging from declared success in improving a situation (system) to abysmal failure …

A Systems Theoretic-Based Framework To Discover Pathologies In Acquisition System Governance, Charles B. Keating, Joseph M. Bradley, Polinpapilinho F. Katina, Ra'ed M. Jaradat

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The acquisition field continues to face increasing pressures to perform under conditions of escalating complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. These conditions suggest that traditional approaches, practices, and acquisition technologies might be incongruent with support demands for acquisition practitioners. This research is focused on exploiting and extending recent developments in Complex System Governance (CSG) to advance the acquisition field. CSG is focused on the design, execution, and evolution of fundamental system functions necessary for control, communications, coordination, and integration of complex systems (e.g., acquisition). CSG is based in Systems Theory (fundamental laws governing complex systems), Management Cybernetics (the science of effective system …

Cockpit In The Systems Engineering Lenses, Aysen K. Taylor, Charles B. Keating, T. Steven Cotter

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The commercial transport aircraft of today vary greatly from early aircraft in regards to how they are controlled and the feedback provided from the machine to the human operator. Automation has improved operational precision and efficiency but at the cost of providing less feedback. Pilots are the last line of defense and current technology cannot provide the human ability to solve novel problems for which no computer logic can be written. The automated cockpits of today have may sub-components that interact in a manner often opaque and unpredictable when a sensor or sub-component fails or even in situations where no …

The Impact Of Requirements Management Documentation On Software Project Outcomes In Health Care, Sujatha Alla, Pilar Pazos, Rolando Delaguila

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Despite considerable time and resources spent on the initiation phase of software projects, discrepancies often exist between formal project documentation, customer requirements, and final project specifications. Such discrepancies in the requirements management process can have a very negative impact on final project outcomes. The Business Requirements Document (BRD) constitutes the formal software requirements documentation, which typically includes stakeholders’ needs and expectations and project scope while providing a clear project roadmap and project plan. According to IEEE standards, a BRD should be a structured document that includes specific elements such as functional and technical requirements while incorporating certain traits such as …

Women In Science 2017, Clark Science Center's Summer Research Fellows Program

SURF Abstracts (Women in Science)

Ever since its 1967 start, SURF has been a cornerstone of Smith’s science education. Women in Science 2017 summarizes research done by Smith College’s SURF Program participants during the summer of 2017. 151 students participated in SURF (144 hosted on campus and nearby eld sites), supervised by 58 faculty mentor-advisors drawn from the Clark Science Center and connected to its eighteen science, mathematics, and engineering departments and programs and associated centers and units. At summer’s end, SURF participants summarized their research experiences for this publication.

Research Area 2: Advanced Lightweight And Tailorable Materials, Vlsj Lab, Mechanical Engineering Department, Georgia Southern University

VLSJ Lab: Research Areas (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Research Area 3: Advanced Materials Joining, Vlsj Lab, Mechanical Engineering Department, Georgia Southern University

VLSJ Lab: Research Areas (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Solar Energy R & D Project: Teachers Incorporating Stem- Modules To Yield An Energy Literate Generation, Tricia Kirkland, Lindsay Snowden

ENgaging Educators in Renewable enerGY (ENERGY): Lesson Plans & Slideshows (2017-2019)

Background- Photovoltaic (PV) cells produce the largest amount of electricity when they are directly facing the sun. Solar panels that use tracking systems to position the panel to constantly face the sun have the greatest efficiency. But, these systems are expensive.

Aim- Design a dual axis tracking solar panel with microcontroller and sensors (light, humidity, temperature, and compass) that are both cost effective and efficient. Sensors will be used to determine performance depending on environmental factors.

Ethics Statement: Researchers will keep honest, clear, and accurate records when collecting all data in lab and communication of information learned.

Wind Energy, Bob Deckard, Jaimee Howard

ENgaging Educators in Renewable enerGY (ENERGY): Lesson Plans & Slideshows (2017-2019)

No abstract provided.

3d Bioprinting Hydrogel For Tissue Engineering An Ascending Aortic Scaffold, Benjamin Stewart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The gold standard in 2016 for thoracic aortic grafts is Dacron^®, polyethylene terephthalate, due to the durability over time, the low immune response elicited and the propensity for endothelialization of the graft lumen over time. These synthetic grafts provide reliable materials that show remarkable long term patency. Despite the acceptable performance of Dacron^® grafts, it is noted that autographs still outperform other types of vascular grafts when available due to recognition of the host's cells and adaptive mechanical properties of a living graft. 3-D bioprinting patient-specific scaffolds for tissue engineering (TE) brings the benefits of non-degrading synthetic …

Small-Scale Electric Vehicle Dc-Dc Converter For Nano-Grids Applications, Adam Johnston, Mason Johnson, John Sweat, Adel El-Shahat

Electrical & Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a self-sustained charging system that does not cost you any money on your electric bill? Electric car owners know that even though their cars do not require gasoline to run, they will require electricity and like everyone else that is tied to the grid will have to pay a price per kilowatt hour that is determined by their utility company. With gasoline prices falling somewhat in the past year the hype of electric vehicles has been somewhat less but who knows what the oil market is going to be …

Nano-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Nano-Mri) Gives Personalized Medicine A New Perspective, Lorenzo Rosa, Jonathan Blackledge, Albert Boretti

Articles

This paper reviews some of the major and most recent advances in nanoscale-magnetic resonance imaging (nano-MRI) for personalized medicine (PM). Nano-MRI may drastically expand the capabilities of the traditional magnetic resonance images (MRI), down to the nanometer scale and possibly, in the near future, at the atomic scale. Nano-MRI is potentially able to observe structures which cannot be seen using today’s molecular imaging, with sensitivities of many billions of times better than MRI as currently used in hospitals, for example. The paper briefly reports on the foremost research themes in nano-MRI.

Aphonic: Adaptive Thresholding For Noise Cancellation In Smart Mobile Environments, Ruairí De Fréin

Articles

We propose a signal-channel, adaptive threshold selection technique for binary mask construction, namely APHONIC, (AdaPtive tHreshOlding for NoIse Cancellation) for smart mobile environments. Using this mask, we introduce two noise cancellation techniques that perform robustly in the presence of real-world interfering signals that are typically encountered by mobile users: a violin busker, a subway and busy city square sounds. We demonstrate that when the power of the time-frequency components of the voice of a mobile user does not significantly overlap with the components of the interference signal, the threshold learning and noise cancellation techniques significantly improve the Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) …

Characterization Of The Sub-Micrometer Hierarchy Levels In The Twist-Bend Nematic Phase With Nanometric Helices Via Photopolymerization: Explanation For The Sign Reversal In The Polar Response, Vitaly Panov, Sithara Sreenilayam, Yuri Panarin, Jagdish Vij, Chris Welch, Georg Mehl

Articles

Photopolymerization of a reactive mesogen mixed with a mesogenic dimer, shown to exhibit the twist-bend nematic phase (NTB), reveals the complex structure of the self-deformation patterns observed in planar cells. The polymerized reactive mesogen retains the structure formed by liquid crystalline molecules in the twist bend phase, thus enabling its observation by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Hierarchical ordering scales ranging from tens of nanometers to micrometers are imaged in detail. Submicron features, anticipated from earlier X-ray experiments, are visualized directly. In the self-deformation stripes formed in the NTB phase, the average director field is found tilted in …

Passive Photonic Integrated Ratiometric Wavelength Monitor With Resolution Better Than 15pm, Pengfei Wang, Agus Muhamad Hatta, Haoyu Zhao, Wenlei Yang, Jing Ren, Yaxian Fan, Gerald Farrell, Gilberto Bramilla

Articles

This paper presents a compact and low-loss photonic integrated device consisting of a Y-branch and a pair of multimode interferometers (MMI) for a ratiometric wavelength monitoring around 1550 nm on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technique. Two MMIs are designed in terms of width and length to achieve overlapping but opposite slope spectral responses used as two edge filters over a wavelength measurement range from 1500 nm to 1600 nm. The developed integrated photonic ratiometric structure demonstrates a suitable discrimination range for a high-speed passive wavelength measurement, with a high resolution better than 15 pm over a 100 nm wavelength range.

An Analysis Of Harmonic Heating In Smart Buildings And Distribution Network Implications With Increasing Non-Linear (Domestic) Load And Embedded Generation, Chittesh Veni Chandran, Keith Sunderland, Malabika Basu

Articles

Harmonic distortion is generally not taken into account within domestic installations and the associated wiring systems, as its potential is considered sufficiently small to be neglected. Standards to limit harmonic manifestations in the low voltage (LV) network are available, but these can be breached as a consequence of advancements in power electronics in some modern household devices contributing higher levels of harmonic distortion than permitted. While these devices individually might not be considered serious in terms of system level harmonic distortion manifestations, electrical equipment failures and insulation failures - increasingly being derived from harmonic cable heating - suggest a different …

The Role Of The Dendritic Growth Models Dimensionality In Predicting The Columnar To Equiaxed Transition (Cet), M. Seredynski, Marek Rebow, J. Banaszek

Articles

The dendrite tip kinetics model accuracy relies on the reliability of the stability constant used, which is usually experimentally determined for 3D situations and applied to 2D models. The paper reports authors` attempts to cure the situation by deriving 2D dendritic tip scaling parameter for aluminium-based alloy: Al-4wt%Cu. The obtained parameter is then incorporated into the KGT dendritic growth model in order to compare it with the original 3D KGT counterpart and to derive two-dimensional and three-dimensional versions of the modified Hunt’s analytical model for the columnar-to-equiaxed transition (CET). The conclusions drawn from the above analysis are further confirmed through …

Probabilistics Risk Assessment Of Power Quality Variations And Events Under Temporal And Spatial Characteristic Of Increased Pv Integration In Low Voltage Distribution Networks, Shivananda Pukhrem, Malabika Basu, Michael Conlon

Articles

Integration of PVDG reduces the voltage unbalance as compared with no or low PVDG penetration. There is a higher probability of observing deep sag at the site as PVDG integration increases. This probabilistic approach can be used as a tool to assess the likely impacts due to PVDG integration against the worst-case scenarios.

Adaptive Linear Prediction For Optimal Control Of Wind Turbines, Mahinsasa Narayana, Keith Sunderland, Ghanim Putrus, Michael Conlon

Articles

In order to obtain maximum power output of a Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS), the rotor speed needs to be optimised for a particular wind speed. However, due to inherent inertia, the rotor of a WECS cannot react instantaneously according to wind speed variations. As a consequence, the performance of the system and consequently the wind energy conversion capability of the rotor are negatively affected. This study considers the use of a time series Adaptive Linear Prediction (ALP) technique as a means to improve the performance and conversion efficiency of wind turbines. The ALP technique is introduced as a real …

A Correction Current Injection Method For Power Flow Analysis Of Unbalanced Multiple-Grounded 4-Wire Distribution Networks, Keith Sunderland, M. Coppo, Michael Conlon, R. Turri

Articles

Power flow analysis of distribution networks incorporating LV consumer representation needs to be cognizant of an unbalanced load structure and the grounding network between the consumer and network operator (TNC-S earthing). In this paper, the asymmetrical 3-phase (and neutral) power flow problem is solved by a correction current injectionmethodology applied to a system represented by a complex admittance matrix. The correction current injection technique is adopted to adjust the power exchange of shunt elements, whose nominal admittances are included in the system admittance matrix, through suitable fringing currents in the iteration process. This methodology offers an improved and more …

Compact Humidity Sensor Based On A Multi-Layer Agarose Hydrogel Coated Silica Microsphere Resonator, Arun Mallik, Yuliya Semenova, Vishnu Kavungal, Dejun Liu

Conference Papers

In this paper we report on a novel approach to implementing a compact humidity sensor that utilizes whispering gallery mode (WGM) phenomena in a silica microsphere coated with Agarose hydrogel. The spectral positions of the WGM resonances for such a sensor depend strongly on the refractive index and thickness of the coating. The WGM’s spectral shift occurs due to adsorption/desorption of the water vapor in response to changes in ambient humidity and also due to the corresponding changes of the coating thickness. We experimentally investigated the WGMs spectral shift for a 100 μm diameter silica microsphere coated with Agarose hydrogel …

An Enhanced Spring-Particle Model For Red Blood Cell Structural Mechanics: Application To The Stomatocyte–Discocyte– Echinocyte Transformation, Mingzhu Chen, Fergal Boyle

Articles

Red blood cells (RBCs) are the most abundant cellular element suspended in blood. Together with the usual biconcave-shaped RBCs, i.e., discocytes, unusual-shaped RBCs are also observed under physiological and experimental conditions, e.g., stomatocytes and echinocytes. Stomatocytes and echinocytes are formed from discocytes and in addition can revert back to being discocytes; this shape change is known as the stomatocyte–discocyte–echinocyte (SDE) transformation. To-date, limited research has been conducted on the numerical prediction of the full SDE transformation. Spring- particle RBC (SP-RBC) models are commonly used to numerically predict RBC mechanics and rheology. However, these models are incapable of predicting the full …

Precise Flow-Control Using Photo-Actuated Hydrogel Valves And Pid-Controlled Led Actuation, Colm Delaney, Simon Coleman, Jeff Whyte, Nigel Kent, Dermot Diamond

Articles

Herein we demonstrate remarkable control of flow within fluidic channels using photo-actuated hydrogel valves. By polymerizing the valves in situ it has been possible to create highly reproducible valves. Through the use of an LED platform and a PID algorithm we have generated extremely accurate flow control and created prototype devices to document their potential application within the microfluidics field.

3d Printing Aids Acetabular Reconstruction In Complex Revision Hip Arthroplasty, Andrew J. Hughes, Cathal Debuitleir, Philip Soden, Brian O'Donnchada, Anthony Tansey, Ali Abdulkarim, Colm Mcmahon, Conor J. Hurson

Articles

Revision hip arthroplasty requires comprehensive appreciation of abnormal bony anatomy. Advances in radiology and manufacturing technology have made three-dimensional (3D) representation of osseous anatomy obtainable, which provide visual and tactile feedback. Such life-size 3D models were manufactured from computed tomography scans of three hip joints in two patients. The first patient had undergone multiple previous hip arthroplasties for bilateral hip infections, resulting in right-sided pelvic discontinuity and a severe left-sided posterosuperior acetabular deficiency. The second patient had a first-stage revision for infection and recurrent dislocations. Specific metal reduction protocols were used to reduce artefact. The images were imported into Materialise …

Design And Investigation Of De Vries Liquid Crystals Based On 5-Phenyl-Pyrimidine And (R,R)-2,3-Epoxyhexoxy Backbone., S.P. Sreenilayam", D. Rodriguez-Lojo, V. P. Panov, V. Swaminathan, J. K. Vij, Yuri Panarin, E. Gorecka, A. Panov, P.J. Stevenson

Articles

Calamitic liquid crystals based on 5-phenyl-pyrimidine derivatives have been designed, synthesized, and characterized. The 5-phenyl pyrimidine core was functionalized with a chiral (R,R)-2,3-epoxyhexoxy chain on one side and either siloxane or perfluoro terminated chains on the opposite side. The one involving a perfluorinated chain shows SmA^{*} phase over a wide temperature range of 82 °C, whereas the siloxane analog exhibits both SmA^{*} and SmC^{*} phases over a broad range of temperatures, and a weak first-order SmA^{*}-SmC^{*} transition is observed. For the siloxane analog, the reduction factor for the layer shrinkage R (relative to its thickness at the SmA^{*}-SmC^{*} transition temperature, …

Operational Analysis Of Improved Γ-Z-Source Inverter With Clamping Diode And Its Comparative Evaluation, Zeeshan Aleem, Mohamed Moin Hanif

Articles

Due to a substantial shortage of conventional energy sources, the utilization of renewable energy is gaining attention. Power converters form interfaces to provide power from renewable energy sources to end user systems. Impedance-source inverters (ZSIs) have become a research hotspot and are widely used to overcome the drawbacks of conventional voltage-source inverters and current-source inverters such as two-stage power conversion and less immunity to electromagnetic interference noises. This paper presents various transformer-based ZSIs mainly classified as trans-ZSIs, improved trans-ZSIs, inductor-capacitor-capacitor transformer ZSI, TZSIs, and their comparisons with a new family of ZSIs called Γ-Z-source inverters (ΓZSI). Full operational analysis of …

Miniaturized Dual-Band Antenna Array With Double-Negative (Dng) Metamaterial For Wireless Applications, Abdulrahman Shueai Mohsen Alqadami, Mohd Faizal Jamlos, Ping Jack Soh, Sharul Kamal Abdul Rahim, Guy Vandenbosch, Adam Narbudowicz

Articles

A miniaturized dual-band antenna array using a negative index metamaterial is presented for WiMAX, LTE, and WLAN applications. This left-handed metamaterial plane is located behind the antenna array, and its unit cell is a combination of split-ring resonator, square electric ring resonator, and rectangular electrical coupled resonator. This enables the achievement of a metamaterial structure exhibiting both negative permittivity and permeability, which results in antenna size miniaturization, efficiency, and gain enhancement. Moreover, the proposed metamaterial antenna has realized dual-band operating frequencies compared to a single frequency for normal antenna. The measured reflection coefficient (S11) shows a 50.25% bandwidth in the …