9.1.2 Structuring a Systems Engineering Program at UALR

Tutoring in cyberspace: Student impact and college/university collaboration

Proceedings of the 2018 MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS) conference

Planting the seeds for a Mechatronic curriculum at UALR

In 2014, 567,250 (19.1%) Arkansans were classified as food insecure (Feeding America, 2016). According to Dubick, Mathews, and Cady (2016), 48% of students at community colleges and four-year colleges/universities qualified as food insecure. For this study, we implemented a non-probability convenience sample of 478 students enrolled at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). Of the students who completed the survey: 54% identified as White; 37% Black or African American; 6% Hispanic or Latino; 3.5% Asian; 1% Native American and 62% were 19-24 years old. In terms of food security, 22.4% had enough to eat, but not always the kinds of food they wanted, 4.5% sometimes did not have enough to eat, 20.4% had to cut the size of their meals or skip meals because there was not enough money for food in the past three months, and 22.5% could not afford to eat balanced meals in the past three months. When one is always in search of their next meal, improper impulse controls can develop. Those who are food insecure or hungry, treat every meal as if it were their last. The link between food accessibility and academic performance can illustrate ways that policymakers can address the issue to help alleviate poverty and increase the chances that children can go to college and stay in college. By collaborating with students, faculty, and staff, UALR can increase its methods to address food insecurity among its college students.

A labscale hybrid rocket was used to study spectral bands produced by metal combustion. Bands in the ultraviolet visible region (300-750) are of interest. The rubber-like fuel, hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), was doped with a metallic salt for introduction into the plume during combustion. When introduced, the metals produce atomic line emissions as well as molecular bands due to excited forms of metallic molecules formed in combustion. The most likely molecular band emissions are from the excited states of metal oxides or metal hydroxides formed by these metals in the presence of the oxygen flow of the hybrid rocket. As the concentration of metallic dopants increases in the flame, the molecular band emissions also increase. The fashion by which they increase is observed here. The high concentrations observed for these metals result in intensity versus concentration curves that alter from the expected linear progression for manganese, magnesium and strontium. The molecular band emissions observed for calcium, barium and copper in this study followed linear progression, as does the atomic line emission for barium. The line emissions for manganese, strontium and calcium lean toward the concentration axis. The curves are attributed to self-absorption or increased interactions among mixing species as metal concentration increases in the flame. A pattern-like combustion routine for each metal can be characterized with further study. Introduction Atomic spectral techniques have been used in the past to provide diagnostics for engine health monitoring. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Stennis Space Center in particular have taken interest in these studies as health monitoring techniques for the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME).--' These techniques depend on the relationship of excited atomic species in the motor plume to the amounts introduced by failures in the engine system. It is important that a linear or otherwise describable and reproducible relationship exist, in order to be able to quantify wear or other elemental introduction factors in the motor or engine system. Molecular emissions as seen in the normal realm of atomic spectroscopy are viewed as interference. A classic example is that encountered with analysis of barium in the presence of calcium. The analytical atomic line of barium is swamped by the presence of an overwhelming molecular emission from calcium, such as CaOH. Steps are usually taken to minimize the presence of these molecular bands in such work. However, these type precautions are not applicable to the field of engine health monitoring or in combustion diagnostics when applied to exhaust plumes. Molecular emissions are present in rocket * Graduate Student, Student Member AIAA t Professor, Member of AIAA Copyright © 2000 by Keith Hudson. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautcs, Inc. with permission. 1 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (c)2000 American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics or Published with Permission of Author(s) and/or Author(s)' Sponsoring Organization. combustion, and should be factored in when quantitative data is required. A thorough study of the effect of molecular emissions in exhaust plumes is necessary to determine interference, fraction of species present as molecular versus atomic and other parameters. The Hybrid Rocket Facility at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) was constructed to provide combustion diagnostic testing, and uses a 2 X 10 inch labscale hybrid thruster.' Previous studies have revealed the usefulness of the labscale hybrid rocket system as a plume simulator for other propulsion systems, and characterized it for both atomic and molecular emissions.'' ' The presence of molecular bands was noted in these studies, both from the combustion of HTBP fuel and as formed by metallic dopants, such as manganese. In order to study tike molecular bands in rocket plumes, the labscale hybrid rocket fuel was doped with various levels of metallic salts. Combustion of these salts results in band emissions attributed to metal oxides or metal hydroxides. Some of the metals were chosen due to their presence in alloys used in certain engine components, and because they appear to have produced molecular bands in previous combustion studies.8'10'11'12'13 Other metals were added to the study based on their tendency to oxidize easily, thus are likely to produce refractory particles in combustion.

Measuring the Size and Charge of Dust Particles in the Martian Atmosphere

Measuring the Size and Charge of Dust Particles in the Martian Atmosphere

If we are to consider evaluating the available workforce under the spectrums of time, cost, and reliability, the theoretical teaching of software engineering fundamentals is not sufficient to provide the skills and knowledge expectations of the employers. Besides the specialized knowledge, the non-technical skills such as the communication ability within the group for partitioning, assigning, and monitoring task progress are required as part of the background. However, these skills are generally omitted while teaching software engineering due to lack of time, environment, and/or resources. Since traditional lectures are lacking of practical ways of creating software, the focus of this research is to present our experiments during a client-sponsored project in an applied classroom environment at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). Our goal is to provide not only the differences between the theoretical and practical education, but also the impact of a real client and the vital considerations and conditions taken by the development team in order to prevent failure in the project are expressed. Finally, to measure the outcome of the applied teaching and conduct future enhancements, a pre and post-knowledge assessment were conducted.

The Control and Sensor System (CASSY) was designed to use primarily off the shelf hardware and to be an inexpensive platform that allows educational institutions to teach control theory. Fabrication and assembly guides were prepared and the resulting materials proved valuable in teaching undergraduate and graduate students basic fabrication, machining, and soldering skills. The platform consists of four independently driven wheels instrumented with encoders, inertial yaw rate measurement of the body, and bluetooth telemetry. Physics students from Hendrix College, a liberal arts college, and engineering students from University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), a state sponsored university, used the guides to build several prototype CASSY robots and to explore autonomous programming, integration of new sensors, and other useful research skills.

Continuous improvement is an important requirement for Engineering Technology programs that are undergoing the accreditation review process by Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC) of ABET. This issue will remain important in the future as ABET emphasizes the importance of a continuous improvement process in their review process as it benefits both instructors and their students. The faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) developed a general assessment method to evaluate the student outcomes of the ABETEngineering Technology Accreditation criteria (a) through (k) as a part of their accreditation process [1]. Different courses in the MET program are used to evaluate and assess these student outcomes. The indirect student self-assessment scores and the direct student performance scores are correlated to assess the student outcomes. In addition to describing the general assessment method, this paper describes a specific course to explain the assessment process. We selected the first year computer graphics course to satisfy the student outcome (f) of the Associate of Science (AS) degree. The student outcome (f) places significant emphasis on written, oral, and graphical communication. Though the assessment method is general, this paper describes how it is applied to computer graphics course. In this paper, we present the course structure, assessment method and continuous improvement process.

Contributors

Integrating Core Systems Engineering Design Concepts into Traditional Engineering DisciplinesIn this study we describe the integration of core systems engineering design concepts intotraditional mechanical and electrical engineering curriculum at the University of Arkansas atLittle Rock (UALR) undergraduate Systems Engineering program. The program was launched in1999 in response to the industry demands for engineering graduates capable of managingcomplex engineering projects. The program has since graduated over 150 students who areworking in industry (aerospace, defense, manufacturing, design, and consulting), federal andstate government, or attending graduate school. The program curriculum has four broadcomponents: a 35 hour university core that covers basic math and science (11 hours) and generaleducation (24 hours); a 30 hour college core that enhances the math and science preparation witha course in engineering ethics; a 32 systems engineering component that introduces core systemsengineering concepts; and, a 32 hour option component that teaches the mechanical or electricalengineering disciplines. The program is accredited by ABET under general criteria, and plans areunderway to satisfy mechanical and electrical engineering program criteria. Students entering theprogram are introduced to systems engineering core concepts through courses in EngineeringEconomy, DES Modeling and Simulation, Optimization Methods, Decision and Risk Analysis,and Systems Engineering Design and Analysis. Among them, Engineering Economy coversengineering project evaluation and economic decision making. Optimization Methods in SystemsEngineering covers linear and nonlinear methods of engineering design optimization. DESModeling and Simulation covers theory and practice of discrete event simulation modeling.Decision and Risk Analysis covers uncertainty modeling and analytical techniques for rationaldecision making. Systems Engineering Design and Analysis covers the systems engineering life-cycle process, including identification of system requirements, engineering design andarchitecture, system modeling, testing and integration, and system operation and support. The128-hr program culminates in a two-semester Systems Engineering Capstone Design thatemphasizes the multi-disciplinary nature of the program. The students perform functional designin the first semester followed by detailed physical design and testing in the second semester. TheUALR program graduates skilled systems engineers who combine holistic thinking with deepproduct knowledge, strong technical background, effective communication skills, and goodinterpersonal skills.

About The Author

Platinum-based catalysts are used to activate hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction in conventional polymer-electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Reducing the amount of Pt is an important step towards lowering cost [1]. Pt alloys and core-shell structures that are more active for oxygen reduction than pure Pt have been demonstrated and these materials can enable low Pt loadings [2]. In fact, membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) with low loadings of highly active Pt-group metal (PGM) catalysts have already been demonstrated to exceed the U.S. DOE’s high-efficiency target of > 0.3 A/cm2 at 0.8 V [3]. However, DOE’s rated-power target of 1 W/cm2 cannot be met with these MEAs due to voltage losses at higher current densities that increase as the amount of catalyst is reduced. This behavior needs to be understood and mitigated in order to maintain present levels of performance while achieving meaningful cost savings. United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) is leading a DOE-supported research project that is focused on understanding and mitigating the transport losses in MEAs with ultra-low loading of PGM catalysts (i.e., ≤ 0.125 Pt/cm2 on both anode and cathode). This project is part of DOE’s Fuel Cell Performance and Durability (FC PAD) Consortia. UTRC is utilizing an iterative approach to address this challenging problem, which is illustrated in the figure. UTRC has developed and validated a new cathode-catalyst layer (CCL) model that builds upon conventional agglomerate models by including localized spherical diffusion and slow adsorption at the scale of the catalyst particles in addition to the processes at the scale of agglomerates that are normally considered [4]. Including transport losses associated with each platinum particle leads to limiting currents that are proportional to the amount of platinum, which is not a characteristic of traditional agglomerate models. Predictions using morphological parameters and physical properties from the literature are commensurate with published investigations into the influence of platinum loading on oxygen transport. As depicted in figure, the team is using the insights into the key CCL transport phenomena provided by this new hierarchal model to predict how these losses may potentially be mitigated. After providing a brief summary of UTRC’s model, the major focus of this talk will on the team’s efforts to improve the performance of MEAs with ultra-low PGM-catalyst loadings. Acknowledgements This work is supported by the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract number DE-EE0007652. The authors would like to thank their FC-PAD Consortia colleagues, especially those at LANL and ORNL, who have helped the team characterize electrodes and MEAs, as well as our FC-PAD project partners, Ion Power and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) for providing advanced materials. References H. Gasteiger, et.al., Appl. Cat. B: Environ., 56, 9 (2005).M. Shao, et.al., Chem. Rev., 116, 3594 (2016).D. Myers, et. al., DOE AMR, ID# FC106 (2015).A.Z. Weber, et. al., J. Electrochem. Soc., 161, F1254 (2014). Figure 1

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report the second phase of a study on the impact of one North American academic library extending library privileges gratis to community users.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports the results of a web‐based survey of community users at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), Arkansas, USA. The survey was conducted to obtain information on demographics and community users' perception of the value of library privileges.FindingsCommunity users often have some connection to the university and tend to be satisfied with and value the privileges. Receiving the privileges may increase the users' good will toward the university and willingness to donate to development efforts. The benefits to the organization, such as increase in good will and social capital, are difficult to measure.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper reports a study of the perceptions of community users at one North American academic library and may provide guidance for other libraries contemplating the value of community outreach. The results of this study may or may not be generalizable to all academic libraries.Originality/valueThere has been little research that attempts to assess community users' perception of the value of an academic library extending library privileges to them. Previous studies surveyed librarians about their perceptions of the pros and cons of extending privileges.