Triggering the Solar Revolution

by

Halversen, Justin Triggering the Solar Revolution Faculty Mentor: John Salmon, Mechanical Engineering The sun’s energy emissions are significantly higher than other alternative energy sources. All other energy sources combined would not provide even one percent of the potential collectible energy from the sun. The amount of potential solar power available is well over 5000 times […]

Origami: Numerical Solutions of Apparent Absorptivity in Origami Folds

by

Michael Farnsworth and Faculty Mentor: Brian Iverson, Mechanical Engineering Introduction There are three major types of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. In many cases, radiation is ignored due to the fact that the amount of heat transferred by this method tend to be small compared to conduction and convection. However, in space and in […]

Design and Comparison of Variable-Stiffness Compliant Joints for Haptic Devices

by

David Usevitch and Faculty Mentor: Mark Colton, Mechanical Engineering Introduction Haptic interfaces or devices are computercontrolled robotic systems that seek to replicate the touch experience of a human user1. The purpose of this research is to develop a viable variable-stiffness compliant joint for haptic interfaces that eliminate rotation joints or screw mechanisms that induce friction, […]

Safety of Tubular Nylon Webbing: The Effect of Wet and Cold Environments

by

Caleb Duncan and Landon Wright with John Salmon, Mechanical Engineering Tubular nylon webbing is an effective and relatively inexpensive anchoring solution for search and rescue groups, fire departments, canyoners, and rock climbers. As an anchoring solution nylon webbing is vital to the safety of anyone who uses it. Serious injury or death will often occur […]

Droplets Rolling on Superhydrophobic Inclines Simulating Real World Application Environments

by

Braquel Burnett and Faculty Mentor: Julie Crockett, Mechanical Engineering Superhydrophobic surfaces offer unique characteristics such as extreme water repellency, drag reduction and enhanced condensation rates. These effects are possible due to a combination of micro/nano-texturing and a hydrophobic chemical coating. With the advent of micro/nano-fabrication, research and development on superhydrophobic surfaces has sky-rocketed due to […]

The Influence of Crystallographic Constraints on Percolation

by

Jarrod Lund and Faculty Mentor: Oliver Johnson, Mechanical Engineering Introduction Within polycrystalline materials (e.g. metals and ceramics), grain boundary networks (GBN) influence the effective properties such as diffusion, conductivity, and crack and creep propagation1. In precision applications such as jet engine turbine blades and solid oxide fuel cells, understanding and characterizing GBN are essential for […]

Energy from Thin Air: Compressed Air Power Harvesting Systems

by

Zachary Sadler and Faculty Mentor: Matthew Jones, Mechanical Engineering Introduction Energy is an important resource within the world we live. The demand for power requires new energy resources. Much of the power that is generated is eventually wasted in the form of waste heat. As much as 435 GW of energy is transferred from virtually […]

Mentored Environment for Isogeometric Analysis

by

Kevin Tew and Michael Scott 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: Weekly group meetings where research concepts were discussed, scientific literature was reviewed, and progress was […]

Experimental Testing of a Carbon Nanotube Lance Array for Nanoinjections

by

Dallin Lindstrom and Brian Jensen, Mechanical Engineering Introduction A silicon nanoinjection lance array has previously been developed to deliver charged propidium iodide (PI) molecules into tens of thousands of HeLa culture cells simultaneously. DNA is also charged, so applying a voltage to the lance array attracts DNA molecules to the lances. The voltage can be […]

Improved Efficiency for Platinum Coated CNTs

by

Carson Storey and Brian Iverson, Mechanical Engineering Introduction This project deals with improving the efficiency of thin carbon nanotube (CNT) filters as a means to detect glucose levels in a given solution. It has been shown in previous work that when glucose reacts with oxygen in the presence of glucose oxidase, gluconic acid and H2O2 […]