In disaster scenarios involving airborne contaminants, where the dispersal of toxic agents can impact human lives, first responders require fast and accurate dispersal trajectory information. Existing methods that detect the local presence of an agent do not provide insight towards dispersal trajectory, and long range spread is either simulated with sparse reference data or measured […]

Thermo-photovoltaic (TPV) systems are optical heat engines that convert radiant heat to electricity using a photovoltaic cell. TPV is a highly promising technology that can potentially be used to generate electric power from any high-temperature heat source including concentrated solar radiation, industrial waste heat, heat from radioisotope decay, and fuel combustion systems. However, the performance […]

The world’s electricity grids need affordable batteries to store large amounts of energy and allow for increased renewable power sources like wind and solar. Instead of building new batteries from scratch, millions of used batteries from retired electric vehicles can be given a second life on the electricity grids for a lower price and a […]

This research seeks to find a method of predicting how much heating is required to maintain comfort in homes. By collecting information such as outside weather conditions and inside temperatures along with thermostat ontime, a method of predicting the needed heat for the home will be determined. Research involves installing devices in homes that record […]

The excessive burning of fossil fuels into our atmosphere is causing our climate to change rapidly. This change in climate will have detrimental effects on home security, crop yield, energy security, and water scarcity. Many geopolitical and social pressures are present to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As of now over 70% of electricity in […]

This project is motivated by the demands for automation of industrial structure inspection. An autonomous re-configurable robot system is proposed to facilitate the inspection of structures with confined spaces, like airframes or ship hulls. The robot will be able to realize various types of legged locomotion by means of configuration changes. The general objective of […]

Hydroponics is a farming method that does not require soil, but rather utilizes a porous medium to hold plants so that waste of irrigation solution is minimized. This type of farming is considered more expensive than traditional open-field agriculture. However, it has been found to function well in enclosed spaces with a controlled environment, especially […]

The conventional utility pole design methodologies used a decade or so ago produced poles that would be considered “safe” but in most cases they were not cost-effective solutions. This is because the resulting poles were usually over-designed, mainly due to several simplifying assumptions and incorporation of various rules-of-thumbs in the design procedures. Such design practices […]

Additive manufacturing offers new opportunities for designing high performance composite structures. However, sophisticated numerical approaches are required to tackle the complex task of designing structures which take full advantage of additive manufacturing capabilities. The proposed research project aims to apply topology optimization, a numerical approach capable of determining the best shape of a structure, to […]

Solid-state nanopores—small holes in thin membranes comparable in size to individual molecules—are promising candidates as sensors with which to revolutionize DNA sequencing, personalized medicine, point-of-care diagnostics, and next-generation information storage methods. A method by which these nanopores can be fabricated on an industrial scale was recently invented, but challenges remain, particularly in quality-controlling source materials […]

Over the air (OTA) test is the standard procedure for wireless devices to verify the transceiver and antennas performance together in specified conditions. Any wireless device such as tablets, phones and laptop must go under OTA testing. Furthermore, regulatory organizations require OTA testing before the wireless device being certified. Due to the time-consuming procedure of […]

This project is to purpose to use computer vision to identify the various error types during the operation of 3D printers to boost their throughput and enhance their application in the manufacturing industry. Nevertheless, due to the lack of precision and controllability inside the printers, engineers cannot achieve a reliable printing process and acceptable quality […]