Travis Allen

The Variation of Pressure Due to Stall Inception in a High-powered Compressor Rig using Koolite Pressure Sensors

Description coming soon.

Department of Aerospace and
Mechanical Engineering
Adviser: Associate Professor Scott Morris

Patrick Braga-Henebry

Robust Distributed Informatics

Description coming soon.

Department of Computer Science
and Engineering
Adviser: Assistant Professor Douglas Thain

Angela Comana

Optimization of Wireless Sensor Networks

Many researchers have identified different possible wireless routing schemes. While these schemes may be robust in theory, it is quite a different matter to put them into practice. I am conducting experiments which will test the limits of wireless networks. Motes attached to robots maneuver themselves into areas with poor signal strength. Data from these tests is analyzed so that next semester a thorough investigation can be completed soon.

Department of Electrical Engineering
Adviser: Associate Professor Martin Haenggi

Mark Durst

Identifying Commonalities and Improving Collaboration among Engineering Service Learning Teams

For my Honors Senior Thesis, I would like to perform a Community Based Research project studying service learning in engineering as applied nationally and internationally. There exist hundreds of engineering-focused service learning programs that operate independently and with little collaboration among the groups. By identifying commonalities among the groups and encouraging collaboration, the quality of the work done by these programs, the experience of the participating students, and extent to which the community is served will all be enhanced. To improve collaboration, an online wiki is being developed for groups to share their experiences and best practices, and the construction and use of this wiki will be discussed in the paper.

Department of Computer Science
and Engineering
Adviser: Research Professor Greg Madey and Paul Brenner of the Notre Dame Center for Research Computing

Chris Fallin

Automatic Face Feature Localization for Face Recognition

Classifiers employed in facial recognition typically take as input a rectangular matrix of pixel values. Feature-based classifiers will examine some subset of these pixels -- fiducial points -- in order to extract useful information and make a decision. In the Elastic Bunch Graph Matching method, fiducial points must be placed manually on an initial set of images so that the system learns the features. In this thesis, a method for automatically choosing these points is presented, eliminating a tedious process and generalizing the system to different sorts of images while making almost no impact on matching performance. Recognition rates are examined and presented against performance of various other systems on the FERET dataset. The thesis closes with a technical overview of the prototype system built for this purpose.

Department of Computer Science
and Engineering
Adviser: Professor Patrick Flynn

Lauren Floccare

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) of Nanoparticles and Biomolecules within a Nanochannel

Lauren is examining different designs of nanochannel geometries and types of nanoparticles and biomolecules using fluorescent microscopy in combination with current and impedance measurements.

Department of Chemical and
Biomolecular Engineering
Adviser: Bayer Processor Hsueh-Chia Chang

Sarah Lane

Study of Airplane Wake Decay

The objective of this research is to investigate the safety of a new FAA regulation concerning vertical distance between planes. Due to increased air traffic, the required vertical distance between planes was reduced from 2,000 feet to 1,000 feet. Three aspects of the vortices are being explored: decay, descent, and linking. For wake decay, data taken via the tower fly-by technique was gathered and nondimensionalized for plotting and comparison to IversonÕs correlation. For wake descent, three differential equation models of descent were numerically integrated using 4th order Runge-Kutta. The solutions to the differential equations were plotted, and sensitivity studies were conducted to determine which variables changed the descent the most. Finally, the time to linking was calculated and compared to the descent data.

Department of Aerospace and
Mechanical Engineering
Adviser: Professor Robert C. Nelson

Eugene Leyden

Computational Modeling of Progressive Collapse in Structures

Through the use of computer modeling, Eugene is investigating the phenomenon of progressive collapse of structures resulting from a localized failure of one or more members. His study includes various types of connection sub-assemblages and the micromechanical response of materials.

Department of Civil Engineering
and Geological Sciences
Adviser: Assistant Professor Kapil Khandelwal

Nathaniel Menendez

Computational Modeling of N-Nitroso Dimethylamine

N-Nitrosodimethylamine (nNDMA) is an extremely toxic carcinogen with a maximal allowable concentration in drinking water of 7 nanograms/liter. In addition to being a waste product from several industrial processes, nNDMA can form when water containing nitrates is treated with chlorine. As chlorine treatment is commonly used as a method water purification, this is of some concern. Furthermore, nNDMA is extremely water soluble and is therefore not removed via activated carbon or other normal water purification filters, requiring other purification processes to be used.

This research uses computational chemistry techniques to understand the energetics and physical and electronic conformations of nNDMA. Furthermore, the reduction of nNDMA with hydrogen is studied by modeling the conformation and energy of each of the species formed by adding hydrogen radicals in sequence to nNDMA. From these data, it is possible to predict a possible reaction mechanism for the reduction of nNDMA to water, ammonia, and dimethylamine, which would remove nNDMA from the water supply. The modeling is performed in the gas phase using Gaussian 3 with B3LYP DFT calculations and a 6-311G** basis set. Further work in either this or a future project will use these results as the basis for similar aqueous phase calculations.

Department of Chemical and
Biomolecular Engineering
Adviser: Associate Professor
William Schneider

Alexandra Minnis

Design of Electroosmotic Flow (EOF) Pumps to Aid in the Development of Field Deployable Chemical Sensing Devices

Alexandra is studying different constructions of EOF pumps in order to develop an accurate means of chemical sensing with a very small sample size.

Department of Chemical and
Biomolecular Engineering
Adviser: Arthur Schmitt Professor Paul W. Bohn

Katie Pierret

Resisting the Effects of Noise in Electronic Systems: Shaping and Optimizing Cost Cumulants

In optimization of control systems, we are often faced with the problem of noise both from electronic components and in our measurements. We will make a model of the system, including the random noise. Because of the presence of this noise, the function to be minimized is random. Our goal in the research is to shape the probability density of this function in such a way that the performance of the system variables is made more desirable. The shaping of the performance function will be controlled by means of its cumulants, a set of statistics derived from its second characteristic function. These are chosen instead of the moments derived from the first characteristic function because most of their value is concentrated in the first few (e.g., four) terms of the series approximation to the (second) characteristic function. The performance improvements are then implemented by inserting sources into the system network and driving the sources by an optimal feedback gain operating on the output of a Kalman filter.

Department of Electrical Engineering
Adviser: Frank M. Freimann Professor Michael K. Sain

Tim Politano

Rapid Synthesis and Encapsulation of Giant Unilamellar Vesicles under AC-Electric Fields

While giant unilamellar vesicles have been studied for their potential use as drug delivery carriers, with most of the focus on the effect of film thickness, Tim is exploring the optimal conditions of AC-field induced formations, possibly leading to a phase diagram and additional info on advanced drug delivery systems.

Department of Chemical and
Biomolecular Engineering
Adviser: Assistant Professor Yingxi E. Zhu

Patricia Strei

Iris Image Analysis

Description coming soon.

Department of Computer Science
and Engineering
Adviser: Schubmehl-Prein Chair
Kevin W. Bowyer

Claire VerHulst

Aerodynamic Measurements and Analysis of a Modern, Highly Loaded Turbine Nozzle

Description coming soon.

Department of Aerospace and
Mechanical Engineering
Adviser: Associate Professor Scott Morris