Engineering Commons^™

A R-Som Analysis Of The Link Between Financial Market Conditions And A Systemic Risk Index Based On Ica-Factors Of Systemic Risk Measures, Patrick Kouontchou, Amaury Lendasse, Yoan Miche, Alejandro Modesto, Peter Sarlin, Bertrand Maillet

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Due to the Recent Financial Crisis, Several Systemic Risk Measures Have Been Proposed in the Literature for Quantifying Financial System Wide Distress. in This Note We Propose an Aggregated Index for Financial Systemic Risk Measurement based on EOF and Ica Analyses on the Several Systemic Risk Measures Released in the Recent Literature. We Use This Index to Further Identify the States of the Market as Suggested in Kouontchou Et Al. [18]. We Show, by Characterizing Markets Conditions with a Robust Kohonen Self-Organizing Maps Algorithm that This Measure is Directly Linked to Crises Markets States and There is a Strong Link …

Towards Developing Product Applications Of Thick Origami Using The Offset Panel Technique, Michael R. Morgan, Robert J. Lang, Spencer P. Magleby, Larry L. Howell

Faculty Publications

Several methods have been developed to accommodate for the use of thick materials in origami models which preserve either the model’s full range of motion or its kinematics. The offset panel technique (OPT) preserves both the range of motion and the kinematics while allowing for a great deal of flexibility in design. This work explores new possibilities for origami-based product applications presented by the OPT. Examples are included to illustrate fundamental capabilities that can be realized with thick materials such as accommodation of various materials in a design and manipulation of panel geometry resulting in an increased stiffness and strength. …

Flash Sintering Of Covalent Non–Oxide Ceramics At Low Temperatures With Low Dc Electric Fields: An In Situ Edxrd Study By Synchrotron Probe, Thomas Tsakalajos

Electric Field Assisted Sintering and Related Phenomena Far From Equilibrium

The fundamental purpose in Functional Ceramics Technology is to obtain 100% dense polycrystalline covalent nonoxide ceramics with grain size / micro B₄C powder at low temperature <1000 >^oC so as to obtain a properly sintered ceramics. Also as to obtain a fully with small grain size. The applied electric field helps to reduce the sintering temperature by at least a factor 0.33. The time frames involved are measured in minutes/seconds and not in tens of hours/days. We will focus on the B4C system. However, other nonoxide ceramics nanocomposites such as ZrB₂, TiB₂, Si_{3 …}

Highly Transparent Spinel Windows By Microwave Sintering, Jasbinder Sanghera

Electric Field Assisted Sintering and Related Phenomena Far From Equilibrium

Transparent magnesium aluminate spinel (MgAl₂O₄) ceramic possesses excellent mechanical and optical properties enabling its potential use in many applications, especially those in harsh environments. We have previously demonstrated fabrication of transparent spinel ceramic with very low absorption loss (6ppm/cm) at 1 mm using the hot pressing method. However, microwave sintering offers several potential advantages over conventional densification methods such as uniform heating, shorter sintering time, finer microstructure of the ceramics, and scalability to large sizes. Previous attempts to microwave sinter spinel powder resulted in only opaque or translucent ceramics. In this talk, we report the fabrication …

Spark Plasma Sintering Of A Functionally Graded Material Consisting Of A High– Alloyed Crmnni–Steel And Varying Mg–Psz Content, Sabine Decker, Lutz Kruger

Electric Field Assisted Sintering and Related Phenomena Far From Equilibrium

A functionally graded material (FGM) consisting of a TRIP steel matrix (TRansformation Induced Plasticity) and a varying Mg-PSZ particle reinforcement (MgO Partially Stabilized Zirconia) was sintered by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS). The used steel is high-alloyed (16 wt.% Cr, 7 wt.% Mn, 3 wt.% Ni) and the Mg-PSZ content decreases along the sample height from 100 vol.% to 0 vol.%. Hence, the bottom of the sample consists of a pure ceramic layer. Due to the different melting temperatures and therefore different optimal sintering temperatures of steel and Mg-PSZ, it is challenging …

Influence Of An Electric Field On Grain Growth And Sintering In Strontium Titanate, Wolfgang Rheinheimer, Fabian Lemke, Michael Hoffman

Electric Field Assisted Sintering and Related Phenomena Far From Equilibrium

Within the last five years considerable efforts were done in investigating electric field assisted sintering (flash sintering). However the experiments are hard to control: shrinkage occurs within seconds and the local temperature is undefined due to joule heating. Therefore the present study removes these two parameters by investigating grain growth under electric field in the no-current-case for strontium titanate.

The impact of an electric field on grain growth in strontium titanate is investigated between 1350°C and 1550°C for fields of up to 50V/mm. To prevent joule heating by a current flowing through the material insulating Al2O3 plates separate the electrodes …

The Influence Of Fields And Dopants On Grain Boundary Mobility, Wayne Kaplan, Amir Gabay

Electric Field Assisted Sintering and Related Phenomena Far From Equilibrium

During field assisted sintering, exposure to an electric field often results in faster sintering rates compared to conventional sintering methods. This research focuses on the influence of electromagnetic fields on grain growth. As a model system, SiC was sintered using conventional pressureless sintering at 2100°C. Samples then underwent conventional annealing, and annealing using spark plasma sintering (SPS) without pressure, at identical and at lower temperatures, and the grain size as a function of annealing time was characterized.

From these experiments, the grain boundary mobility of SiC at 2100°C under conventional heating versus SPS was determined. SPS annealing resulted in a …

Field–Assisted And Flash Sintering Of Nanocrystalline Yttria: Densification And Microstructural Evolution, Hidehiro Yoshida

Electric Field Assisted Sintering and Related Phenomena Far From Equilibrium

Y₂O₃ ceramics have special chemical and physical properties such as high resistance to halogen-plasma corrosion and thermal stability. At the same time they are difficult to sinter. Conventional sintering requires very high temperatures typically >1400°C, and a vacuum or hydrogen atmosphere. We show that high-purity, undoped Y₂O₃ can be sintered nearly instantaneously to almost full density by flash-sintering, where densification occurs in a few seconds under a threshold condition of temperature and applied field [1]. The Y₂O₃ shows flash-sintering at the fields above 300 V/cm. For instance, full densification is achieved …

Flash Sintering Of Zno, Tio2 And Other Oxides: The Origin Of Onset Flash And Effects Of Atmosphere, Doping And Particle Size, Jian Luo

Electric Field Assisted Sintering and Related Phenomena Far From Equilibrium

Flash sintering of ZnO, TiO₂ and a few other oxide systems has been investigated. A quantitative model has been developed to forecast the thermal runaway conditions (Fig. 1) [1]. The predicted thermal runaway temperatures from the measured conductivities are in excellent agreements with the observed onset flash temperatures for at least 15 cases with different base materials, doping and surface treatments, particle sizes, and sintering atmospheres, attesting that the “flash” starts as a thermal runaway.

Furthermore, a range of new phenomena of electric field/current effects on sintering and microstructural evolution have been observed and explained, which include: …

Flash Microwave Sintering Of Oxide Ceramics, Kirill Rybakov

Electric Field Assisted Sintering and Related Phenomena Far From Equilibrium

We report the results of flash microwave sintering of various oxide ceramics to full density in a time less than several minutes. Ultra-rapid microwave sintering has been observed on Al₂O₃, Y₂O₃, MgAl₂O₄, and (Yb_0.05La_0.1Y_0.85)₂O₃ samples compacted from nanosized and submicron powders.

The samples were heated in the applicator of a gyrotron system for microwave processing of materials with a maximum microwave power of up to 6 kW at a frequency of 24 GHz with a feedback computer control over …

Mechanistic And Economical Characteristics Of Asphalt Rubber Mixtures, Mena I. Souliman, Annie Eifert

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Load associated fatigue cracking is one of the major distress types occurring in flexible pavement systems. Flexural bending beam fatigue laboratory test has been used for several decades and is considered to be an integral part of the new superpave advanced characterization procedure. One of the most significant solutions to prolong the fatigue life for an asphaltic mixture is to utilize flexible materials as rubber. A laboratory testing program was performed on a conventional and Asphalt Rubber- (AR-) gap-graded mixtures to investigate the impact of added rubber on the mechanical, mechanistic, and economical attributes of asphaltic mixtures. Strain controlled fatigue …

Session E-3: Addressing Ngss Engineering Standards With An Alternative Energy Module, Peter Clancy, Mark Carlson

Professional Learning Day

In our Engineering class at IMSA, we have taught an Alternative Energy unit over the last four semesters. We will discuss how the 4 engineering NGSS standards are addressed through the various activities involved with this unit. We will also discuss how the unit has evolved over the last 2 years.

Session B-4: Stem Integration: Statistics Is The Connection, Karen Togliatti, Lindsey Herlehy

Professional Learning Day

In this activity, participants will complete a STEM-integrated lesson incorporating problems in aerodynamics. Using the mathematical, science and engineering practice standards, they will design and model parachutes to determine a life-size chute to support their body weight. Participants will also consider design criteria for rate of descent, and graphically represent data and mathematical information as a scatter plot.

Session C-3: Engineering With Reinforced Concrete, Patrick Young

Professional Learning Day

Does your school need a shelter? Whether your students are concerned about tornadoes, sharknadoes, or a zombie apocalypse, reinforced concrete is the answer! Learn about the history and chemistry of concrete. Make your own. Design a test to evaluate the strength of your concrete, based on anticipated threat (the natural or unnatural disaster of your choice). Conduct that test using small, preformed slabs. Making and breaking concrete is easy and fun, but wear your play-clothes. You will get dirty.

Dimensionality Reduction Based Optimization Algorithm For Sparse 3-D Image Reconstruction In Diffuse Optical Tomography, Tanmoy Bhowmik, Hanli Liu, Zhou Ye, Soontorn Oraintara

Bioengineering Faculty Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

Advance Transit Real Time Bus Arrival Smartphone App, Donald Stayner, Paul Donnelly, Roxana Gheorghe, Adam Grounds, Nicolas Gutierrez

ENGS 89 Reports (BE Students)

Advance Transit (AT) is a non-profit transit company annually serving around 600,000

free rides across the Upper Valley. Though real time estimates for bus arrivals are available

through AT’s website and automated call line, there is currently no simple way for AT riders to

visualize their bus route and bus arrival times from a smartphone. Over 44% of riders surveyed in

October 2015 indicated they would ride the bus more often if they had easier access to real-time

bus arrival information. The goal of the project is to develop a system that gives AT riders easy

access to their bus …

Predicted Molecular Signaling Guiding Photoreceptor Cell Migration Following Transplantation Into Damaged Retina, Uchenna John Unachukwu, Alice Warren, Ze Li, Shawn Mishra, Jing Zhou, Moira Sauane, Hyungsik Lim, Maribel Vazquez, Stephen Redenti

Publications and Research

To replace photoreceptors lost to disease or trauma and restore vision, laboratories around the world are investigating photoreceptor replacement strategies using subretinal transplantation of photoreceptor precursor cells (PPCs) and retinal progenitor cells (RPCs). Significant obstacles to advancement of photoreceptor cell-replacement include low migration rates of transplanted cells into host retina and an absence of data describing chemotactic signaling guiding migration of transplanted cells in the damaged retinal microenvironment. To elucidate chemotactic signaling guiding transplanted cell migration, bioinformatics modeling of PPC transplantation into light-damaged retina was performed. The bioinformatics modeling analyzed whole-genome expression data and matched PPC chemotactic cell-surface receptors to …

Winning The Water War Starts With Winning The Battle On Data | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

March 3, 2016 – The water meter buried in your front yard isn’t exactly the most cutting-edge piece of technology. While they are accurate, most residential water meters are read only once per month, resulting in rough usage data – often rounded to the nearest 1,000 gallons. With the limited data, water utility managers can’t distinguish individual uses, such as sprinklers versus toilets, or determine usage by time of day. This limits their ability to spot costly leaks or see opportunities for water conservation. And it gives water users no useful information about how and when they use water.

Mentored Environment For Isogeometric Analysis, Kevin Tew, Michael Scott

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The mentored environment for isogeometric analysis (IGA) has trained engineering and computer science students to develop isogeometric numerical methods and accompanying software to solve challenging problems in science and engineering. The mentoring environment consisted of:

1. Weekly group meetings where research concepts were discussed, scientific literature was reviewed, and progress was monitored.
2. Pairing of students with a faculty members to develop IGA design-through-analysis methodologies.
3. Preparation of results for peer-reviewed publications.

Power Transfer System, Hua Bai, Xuan Joe Zhou

Electrical & Computer Engineering Patents

A power transfer system and method are provided for transferring power from an AC supply outputting an AC voltage. The system includes a controller and a primary rectifier coupled to the controller and to the AC supply for converting the AC voltage to a DC bus voltage. An inverter is coupled with the primary rectifier and the controller for converting the DC bus voltage to a primary AC voltage. A primary coil is connected to the inverter. A secondary coil is in communication with the primary coil for producing an induced AC voltage. A secondary rectifier is connected to the …

Intensive Mentoring And Micro-Electronics Research For Students In Engineering (Immerse) 2014, Aaron Hawkins, Stephen Schultz

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The MEG funds used for this projects supported undergraduate students working in the IMMERSE program starting in the Summer of 2014. IMMERSE employed a total of 35 students, with 14 of them being supervised directly by Dr. Aaron Hawkins and Stephen Schultz. The students working for Drs. Hawkins and Schultz were paid hourly wages for their research work from this MEG grant.

Meg Report: Elastic Frames For Earthquake Resistance, Paul Richards

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The topic of the proposal was steel frames with superior elastic energy capacity that will permit buildings to better withstand severe earthquake loading. The anticipated outcomes related to mentoring were: each student researcher would be the lead author on a conference publication, students would present results at a national conference, and each student researcher would be a co-author on a journal article; with the graduate student researcher as a lead author.

Throughput Optimisation For Energy Harvesting Transmitter With Partial Instantaneous Channel State Information And Finite-Alphabet Inputs, Xiaodong Zhu, Weiliang Zeng, Chengshan Xiao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Wireless communication systems with energy harvester are attracting much attention due to their ability to improve the system operation time. Extensive research has been carried out on how to maximize the sum of mutual information over multiple time slots (i.e. the throughput). However, most research focuses on the energy harvesting transmitter with Gaussian inputs and single antenna. This study considers the throughput maximization problem for an energy harvesting transmitter with causal energy constraint over multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. Different from existing works, the authors consider the MIMO system with finite-alphabet inputs and partial instantaneous channel state information (CSI). Specifically, the …

A New Architecture For Application-Aware Cognitive Multihop Wireless Networks, Trenton Evans, Kossivi Tossou, Feng Ye, Zhihui Shu, Yi Qian, Yaoqing Yang, Hamid Sharif

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this article, we propose a new architecture for AC-MWN. Cognitive radio is a technique to adaptively use the spectrum so that the resource can be used more efficiently in a low-cost way. A multihop wireless network can be deployed quickly and flexibly without fixed infrastructure. In our proposed new architecture, we study backbone routing schemes with network cognition, and a routing scheme with network coding and spectrum adaptation. A testbed is implemented to test the proposed schemes for AC-MWN. In addition to basic measurements, we implement a video streaming application based on the proposed AC-MWN architecture using cognitive radios. …

Spring Runoff Conference 2016 - Call For Abstracts | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

March 2, 2016 — Utah State University’s Spring Runoff Conference is just weeks away. The annual spring runoff conference brings together researchers, scientists, and top experts in Utah and Intermountain West to discuss water issues. This year’s conference will take place April 5-6, 2016 at the Eccles Conference Center on USU’s Logan campus.

Enhancement Of Supercapacitor Energy Storage By Leakage Reduction And Electrode Modification, Tete Tevi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Supercapacitors have emerged in recent years as a promising energy storage technology. The main mechanism of energy storage is based on electrostatic separation of charges in a region at the electrode-electrolyte interface called double layer. Various electrode materials including carbon and conducting polymers have been used in supercapacitors. Also, supercapacitors offer high life cycle and high power density among electrochemical energy storage devices. Despite their interesting features, supercapacitors present some disadvantages that limit their competitivity with other storage devices in some applications. One of those drawbacks is high self-discharge or leakage. The leakage occurs when electrons cross the double layer …

Biopolymeric Mucin And Synthetic Polymer Analogs: Their Structure, Function And Role In Biomedical Applications, Sundar Prasanth Authimoolam, Thomas D. Dziubla

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Mucin networks are viscoelastic fibrillar aggregates formed through the complex self-association of biopolymeric glycoprotein chains. The networks form a lubricious, hydrated protective shield along epithelial regions within the human body. The critical role played by mucin networks in impacting the transport properties of biofunctional molecules (e.g., biogenic molecules, probes, nanoparticles), and its effect on bioavailability are well described in the literature. An alternate perspective is provided in this paper, presenting mucin’s complex network structure, and its interdependent functional characteristics in human physiology. We highlight the recent advances that were achieved through the use of mucin in diverse areas of bioengineering …

Characterization Of Superabsorbent Poly(Sodium-Acrylate Acrylamide) Hydrogels And Infuence Of Chemical Structure On Internally Cured Mortar, Matthew J. Krafcik, Kendra Erk

School of Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Internal curing of mortar through superabsorbent polymer hydrogels is explored as a solution to self-desiccation. Four different hydrogels of poly(sodium-acrylate acry- lamide) are synthesized and the impact of chemical composition on mortar is assessed with relative humidity and autogenous shrinkage testing. The hydrogels are characterized with swelling tests in different salt solutions and compression tests. Chemical composition af- fected both swelling kinetics and gel network size. Mortar containing these hydrogels had increased relative humidity and markedly reduced autogenous shrinkage. Additionally, the chemical structure of the hydrogels was found to signifcantly impact the mortar’s shrink- age. Hydrogels that quickly released most …

High Temperature Electrochemical Engineering And Clean Energy Systems, Brenda L. Garcia-Diaz, Luke Olson, Michael Martinez-Rodriguez, Roderick Fuentes, Hector Colon-Mercado, Josh Gray

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Global power demand is projected to more than double by 2050 and meeting this increased power demand will require maintaining or increasing power output from all existing energy sources while adding a large amount of new capacity. The power sources that have the greatest opportunity to fulfill this demand gap over this time period are clean energy sources including solar and nuclear power. One of the areas of expertise that SRNL has been applying to help with a variety of clean energy technologies is in high temperature electrochemistry. Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in collaboration with industrial and university partners …

Skycsr: Optimal Communication Methods For Coordinating Ground Support In A Private And General Aviation Setting, Jessica Burke

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Delays due to miscommunication of between the pilot and ground service providers are increasing. The objective of this project is to develop a new method of communication between pilots, line service technicians and customer service agents. This will be achieved first through an investigation into current methods and state of the industry, followed by a survey conducted with a group of pilots and flight schools. This culminates in a web application that will take the deficiencies identified in the survey, to make sure ground service or fuel orders are explicitly clear and minimize the probability of a mis-fueling, overlooked fueling, …