Micro scale systems are being utilized in a wide variety of chemical, biological and heat exchanger applications, but suffer from the development of vapor bubbles inside the microchannels due to convective boiling, leading to decreases in system performance. In this work, a simulation-based control strategy is employed to eliminate flow...
Practical bipedal robots need to be simultaneously efficient, robust, and versatile machines, but designing robots dynamically capable of these demands has been a significant bottleneck. We designed ATRIAS to be a highly dynamic biped capable of both walking and running untethered in real environments. To meet these goals, ATRIAS is...
Engineering design projects are implemented to accomplish a variety of goals in organizations. As the complexity of each project grows, the risk and uncertainty accompanying each project increases as well. As a result project managers must identify potential risks to projects and create plans to avoid realized risks leading to...
Innovation is a key element for a product to achieve market success, but identifying it within product or even defining the term is a difficult task. Identifying innovation has been approached in many different ways. Experts in design engineering may identify innovative designs based on an analysis of a product's...
Innovation can be considered the driving force behind product design. This thesis strives to improve the ease at which innovation is achieved. Firstly by examining how design information is presented and comprehended by various personality types. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test is a quick, easy, and accurate way to determine...
Ocean Wave Energy Converters (WECs) operating on the water surface are subject to storms and other extreme events. In particular, high and steep waves, especially breaking waves, are likely the most dangerous to WECs. A method for quantifying the breaking severity of waves is presented and applied to wave data...
This thesis is comprised of two manuscripts based on a laboratory experiment conducted to examine realistic wave forcing on a vertical wall subjected to tsunami loading. The first manuscript examined tsunami force and pressure distributions on a rigid wall that was fronted by a small seawall. Six different seawall heights...
An interdisciplinary study into the theory of design decisions has yielded a model for tracking design changes in hardware/software systems, but it still needs to be applied to a larger system to test its efficiency at tracking important data. This thesis creates an implementation of PLEXIL, a language in development...
This research proposes a Human Fallibility Identification and Remediation Methodology (HFIRM) that supports the systematic identification and remediation of potential human errors. The objective of this research was to develop and test a prototype framework that supports the practical application of human factors knowledge to the analysis and design of...
While the locomotion performance of legged robots over flat terrain or known obstacles has improved over the past few decades, they have yet to equal the performance of their animal counterparts over variable terrain. This work analyzes a multi-legged reduced order model of cockroach locomotion on variable slopes which will...