Comparison of the Variance in the R-Value Calculated Using the Power Law in IF Steel to Experimental Measurements

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Craig Przybyla and Dr. Brent Adams, Mechanical Engineering As advances in engineering and technology increasingly require engineers and scientists to work in smaller length scales, they must have a greater understanding about how materials and their properties behave at these scales. This is true particularly in the field of mechanical engineering with the development of […]

Characterization of Silicon Oxide and Silicon Nitride Deposition Using Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD)

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Stephen Markham and Dr. Aaron Hawkins, Electrical and Computer Engineering Abstract: Waveguides will become more important as optical networks replace traditional wire networks for data transfer. This research explores one method of creating multimode waveguide that uses Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition to grow oxide and nitride layers on Silicon. As the Information Age matures, […]

A Configurable Electro-Anesthesia Device

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Preston Manwaring and Dr. Mark Manwaring, Electrical and Computer Engineering Electro-anesthesia devices offer the ability to alleviate pain and maintain drug-induced anesthesia without re-administering drugs by passing a specially designed electrical current through the brain to sustain naturally or chemically produced endorphins. This potential extends the clinicians armementarium for pain management, drug-addiction rehabilitation, and general […]

Reproducible, Low-temperature Growth of Nanocrystals in an Amorphous Silicon Film

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Spencer Kellis and Dr. Aaron Hawkins, Electrical and Computer Engineering During Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) crystal growth, an electric field between two charged plates dissociates a gas into a cloud of positive and negative ions called a plasma. The silicon ions descend to the silicon wafer and bond to the surface. Temperature is controlled […]

Electromagnetic Properties of Water in the Presence of a Protein

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Kelly Jeppesen and Professor Travis Oliphant, Electrical Engineering Light scattering is a means of detecting certain chemical properties of a sample of material. As a photon (light packet) encounters any material, there is some probability that the photon will be absorbed. The energy from an absorbed photon will either work to heat the sample or be reemitted. […]

Alignment of Metal Electrodes with Optical Fibers

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Benjamin Ipson and Dr. Stephen Schultz, Electrical and Computer Engineering The field of fiber optics is becoming an increasingly important field to the world of communications. With increased use of optical fibers for communication comes the need for devices to use with the fibers. I have been working on the creation of an in-fiber electro-optic […]

Anisotropic Etching in Silicon and Other Materials Using a Reactive Ion Etcher

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Justin Henrie and Dr. Aaron Hawkins, Electrical and Computer Engineering Microfabrication technology has been one of the major areas of advancement of technology from the latter half of the twentieth century until today. Initially, microfabrication wasn’t a new concept—it started as a way to make large, complex electronic circuits smaller, and therefore more durable and […]

Calibration of SeaWinds on ADEOS-II via the QuikSCAT Calibration Ground Station

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Spencer Haycock and Dr. David G. Long, Electrical and Computer Engineering Introduction A scatterometer is essentially an orbiting radar aimed at the Earth’s surface. It can be used to study weather patterns, track icebergs, observe polar sea ice, detect climatic changes, and estimate environmental factors such as vegetation and soil moisture. Correct calibration of the […]

Co-validation of Jason-1 and QuikSCAT Wind Speeds Within the Context of TRMM Rain Data

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Ryan Halterman and Dr. David Long, Electrical and Computer Engineering SeaWinds on QuikSCAT is a satellite-based scatterometer designed to measure near-surface winds over the earth’s oceans. Ocean surface wind speed is an important parameter in many short-term and long-term climate and weather analyses. QuikSCAT is a rapidly developed replacement for the successful, although prematurely terminated, […]

Static Stability of Micro-Air Vehicles

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Griffiths, Stephen; Knoebel, Nathan; Reimann, Daniel; Ostler, Jon with Dr. Jerry Bowman, Mechanical Engineering Objective The purpose of this research was to find the optimal combination of three static stabilityenhancing features: dihedral angle, vertical position of center of gravity, and tail volume ratio. Procedure Five test aircraft were built using a computer aided foam-cutting machine. […]