Many engineering problems stem from the issue of weight. Engines can only give so much propulsion, buildings can only hold so much weight, and wings can only provide so much lift. The Hammig Research Group is currently researching nanoparticle synthesis. The group already has basic recipes for them, but experimentation is needed. Several syntheses have taken place, including one lead-telluride sample and three aluminum samples.
Nanoparticle Synthesis Read More »
Water scarcity is a pressing issue that impacts over two thirds of the global population. With populations growing and atmospheric temperatures rising, this problem will only worsen with time. Desalination is considered to be a great solution to this issue, but it can be very costly and energy intensive. This study was carried out to determine the viability of solar optics active nanostructures in water desalination. These nanoparticles have the ability to generate intense localized heat when exposed to sunlight. By creating a panel containing these nanoparticles, we could convert the heat into usable energy. These panels have the potential to power individual, decentralized water treatment plants. In this project, we envisioned the technology to be used for this application by review the current solar water treatment technologies. Furthermore, we created an engineering design for the nanostructure panel by computer-aided design method. We anticipate that our approach could help address the water scarcity issue in addition to being a more sustainable option.
Solar Optics Active Nanostructures and their Applications Read More »
Existing sensors of x-rays and nuclear radiation suffer from either poor energy resolution or high cost or both. Solution-based synthesis allows one to achieve facile, scalable, low-cost synthesis. Nanosemiconductors allow one to control the thermal noise in the material which governs the energy resolution. We therefore have developed nanosemiconductor, solution-based sensors composed of lead telluride (PbTe) nanoparticles to create high resolution, low cost radiation detectors. We make PbTe nanoparticle semiconductors via an aqueous process, with particles that are then filtered through an aramid nanofiber (ANF) to create a semiconductor. The resulting solid is then tested after creating an electric field across the material. The nanocomposite detectors are exposed to gamma-ray sources and the resulting spectral distributions are measured. Our bare PbTe-ANF detectors have energy resolutions comparable to single-crystalline cadmium-telluride detectors. We have also developed conductive contacts composed of copper and lead nanoparticles that are under optimization, the goal of which is to improve the uniformity of the electromagnetic field and thereby increase the intrinsic detection efficiency of the solids.
Nanosemiconductor-base Sensor Development Read More »
Human drivers often perform and react to high speed maneuvers unpredictably, cutting in and out of traffic on highways with varying rates, acceleration, reaction time, and more. By analyzing naturalistic driving data from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute database, it is possible to determine some relevant distributions and tendencies of these variables. Data was queried from a large database with Structured Query Language, and then processed in MATLAB to find instances of vehicles cutting in and out. After the cutting events were manually verified, culminating in 857 cut in events and 866 cut out events, the variables associated with the events, including range, range rate, lateral rate, and average acceleration were analyzed using methods from statistics and machine learning, including logistic regression, support vector machine, and decision trees. Correlations between key variables were found, as well as models for predicting the impact of cutting events on traffic. More specifically, range and range rate were found to be significant variables in determining the braking behavior of a vehicle in response to a cut in, with decision trees and variants being used to predict the behavior. These results have implications on future design of autonomous vehicles, such as the safe integration with human drivers and minimizing risk during partially unpredictable events.
Data mining for modeling drivers’ responses to cutting-in and out of traffic Read More »
This project was created to develop a simple, smart, and low cost alternative to the commercially available Geiger-Müller (GM) radiation detection systems for use in the classroom. Unfortunately, the complexity of circuitry and software of professional grade equipment is too large for most students. A kit was developed that consists of GM tubes recovered from fallout shelters, a Raspberry Pi computer, assorted basic electronics components (resistors, capacitors, inductor, transistors), and a printed circuit board (PCB). All components have through hole technology (THT) mounting to facilitate students learning soldering. The limited number of components allows for an affordable design that someone with basic electronics knowledge can build and understand. The system features a command line interface and smartphone application, enhancing opportunities for students learning not present with commercial systems. The original design for the project had a flaw where the circuit would attempt to put 5V on a 3.3V GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi which would damage it. This work reports on a new design that has a reworked circuit that uses an operational amplifier to protect the general purpose input output (GPIO) of the Raspberry Pi and add stability to the circuit to ensure the components operate in their intended voltage regions. In addition, there were test points that were added to help debug the circuit and the PCB was redesigned to make it easier to solder. The smartphone application was also improved for publication on both Android and iOS platforms.
Currently, providing hands-on, educational radiation health physics experience to those unfamiliar with the field is difficult due to financial and safety constraints. To create an engaging and more accessible way to teach radiation and health physics principles, we designed and developed a virtual reality video game that realistically implemented radiation sources, shields, and detectors. How the radiation physics was implemented into the virtual reality game while balancing the accuracy of the physics and the game’s performance is discussed. In particular, the approach to the problem, the associated scripts developed to simulate the physics, and how this code was implemented into the virtual reality game in the Unity game development platform are emphasized. We aim to educate people by accurately portraying the physics in an accessible, captivating, and memorable way. With the VR game, we are able to provide interactive demonstrations of radiation principles such as geometric attenuation, shielding, and dose. Further, we provide exposure to using detectors and dosimeters for health physics applications.
Realistic implementation of radiation physics for a virtual reality game Read More »
Participation in high school computer science classes has always been low, especially among students from traditionally underrepresented or underserved groups. This research project aims to explore an approach of creating opportunities to integrate computer science into existing non-CS classes which creates the opportunity for students to engage with computer science and gain an introduction to programming. By creating curriculum and proprietary data visualization tools for high school social studies classes, this project hopes to create computational tools that social studies teachers will actually adopt, and that will then identify an increase in student’s self-efficacy in regard to computer science. Our procedure to obtain student success data in learning data visualizations will be conducted through data logging of the proprietary software DV4L (Data Visualizations for Literacy). The product created for this study includes our own proprietary tool DV4L, as well as curriculum for high school teachers to understand and teach existing data visualization tools. I have been working to create minimal manuals hosted on the project web book that help teachers use data visualization tools. Additionally, I have been working on creating slow reveal graphs that allow students to understand the components of various data visualizations. Finally, I have been supporting the underlying infrastructure that hosts these manuals and tools by creating a new server platform for the project web book. With these products we hope to be able to change high school social studies instruction in the state, and eventually change the social studies classes on a nationwide basis. Our project hopes to see an increased understanding of data visualizations in high school students, and in the future see an increase in computer science class participation.
Programmable Tools for Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies Classes Read More »
A missed opportunity in K-12 education is the introduction of computer science principles and data literacy. The research project, Computing for Data Literacy, aims to give educators the ability to teach data literacy in their social studies classrooms. This is a design based research project in which we are introducing a potential solution to a problem and then analyzing how well our solution works. This is different from traditional hypothesis testing research. Our solution is through the prototype web tool named DV4L, “Data Visualization for Learning”. DV4L allows for students to ask historical driving questions and then get the relevant data visualizations so they can inquire about the answer. The contribution that my team and I are making is tracking the activity of each user on the website to determine whether they are gaining educational curiosity. My team and I make sure to never attach student identification information to our log files as to maintain the privacy of the students.”Gaining educational curiosity” is measured through many different fields. First, the student would be gaining educational curiosity if they were asking driving questions that were out of the syllabus or assignment given to them. It also tracks whether they write down notes to go along with their new graphs. Lastly, it also checks if the students were looking inside the underlying script, or source code, for each of their graphs. With those measures and more we are going to be able to analyze whether students are benefiting from data visualizations. This project is still ongoing, and we are hoping to have our tools in actual classroom settings sometime this semester.
Programmable Tools for Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies Classes Read More »
In the world of teaching social studies to k-12 students, one of the key learning objectives that teachers lack the proper resources to teach is data literacy. This study includes the key components that interviewed teachers wanted as part of their data literacy tool. An important takeaway from these interviews was that teachers believed that not many interactive or useful digital timeline tools existed for use in their classrooms. From the established criteria from the interviews, an interactive timeline allowing students to create event blocks that would then appear on a timeline would be the most useful tool for the team to create. First, three individual mockups were created from the criteria and then put together into a finalized mockup on Figma. From the Figma mockup, the best development tools needed to be decided to achieve the cleanest and most functional result. The working prototype was created by splitting up the development into a timeline and event block component which were then joined to create a final functional prototype that satisfies the initial design requirements. This study is part of a larger effort to incorporate useful programmable and interactive tools into classrooms across the country to aid with teaching and learning effectively.
Programmable Tools for Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies Classes Read More »
In a rapidly evolving world centered around connectivity and technology, data literacy and basic programming knowledge have turned into some of the most valuable skills children can learn in school. The problem is, however, learning data literacy and programming skills can be daunting even for college students and adults, and research needs to be done on ways to make learning these key skills easier for children. In order to introduce foundations of data literacy to students, one option is to combine data skills with other, more traditional, classes. This project is about creating a timeline tool for middle school students. We hope this tool will allow students to provide data on important historical events and generate a visualization of the data in the form of a timeline. While the project has not finished, we currently are hoping to create a tool that is both easy for teachers to teach and students to use, all while being helpful in advancing student’s knowledge of history and data literacy. In doing this, we hope that this will result in satisfied teachers who are comfortable combining non-data based subjects with data-based learning through this timeline tool and beyond. we hope to see an increased interest in programming and data among students as well as an increase in data literacy. In the end, we are aiming for an easy-to-use timeline creator that will empower students to learn about programming and gain basic data literacy.
Programmable Tools for Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies Classes Read More »
