Browsing Faculty of Arts and Sciences by Keyword "Engineering"
Now showing items 1-20 of 47
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The Ability of Flux Balance Analysis to Predict Evolution of Central Metabolism Scales with the Initial Distance to the Optimum
(Public Library of Science, 2013)The most powerful genome-scale framework to model metabolism, flux balance analysis (FBA), is an evolutionary optimality model. It hypothesizes selection upon a proposed optimality criterion in order to predict the set of ... -
Basketball Shooting as a Model System for Understanding Skill Learning and Motor Variability
(2022-05-12)The motor system has the incredibly ability to learn complex movements which require fine control and coordinated timing of numerous joints and limbs. The study of motor learning and motor control has traditionally studied ... -
Building in flow
(2023-01-23)This dissertation features one experimental study, field study, and literature review to address building in flow. We start with the small-scale observations of a localized logjam. Chapter one is to understand the ... -
Building the Theoretical Foundations of Deep Learning: An Empirical Approach
(2022-05-18)While tremendous practical progress has been made in deep learning, we lack a clear theoretical understanding of what makes deep learning work well, and why. In this thesis, we take a ``natural sciences'' approach towards ... -
Changing Climates: Deserts, Desiccation, and the Rise of Climate Engineering, 1870-1950
(2014-10-22)This dissertation examines the impact of the nineteenth-century discussions about climate change and desiccation on large engineering projects in desert regions between 1870 and 1950. It demonstrates that the debate over ... -
Combating Infertility: Machine Learning for Clinical Decision Support
(2022-06-03)One in eight couples is affected by infertility in the United States. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the most popular treatment option. Unfortunately, the process is time-consuming (1-2 months), costly (\$12,000-15,000), ... -
Controlling fluxes for microbial metabolic engineering
(2014-10-21)This thesis presents novel synthetic biology tools and design principles usable for microbial metabolic engineering. Controlling metabolic fluxes is essential for biological manufacturing of fuels, materials, and high value ... -
Controlling Interneuron Activity in Caenorhabditis Elegans to Evoke Chemotactic Behaviour
(Nature Publishing Group, 2012)Animals locate and track chemoattractive gradients in the environment to find food. With its small nervous system, Caenorhabditis elegans is a good model system in which to understand how the dynamics of neural activity ... -
Design and Locomotion Studies of a Miniature Centipede-Inspired Robot
(2013-10-08)Many applications, such as search and rescue missions, hazardous environment exploration, and surveillance, call for miniature robots capable of agile locomotion in a variety of unpredictable environments. Recent advances ... -
Design of Mixing Pulses for NMR Spectroscopy by Repeated Rotating Frames
(2014-06-06)In protein NMR spectroscopy, homonuclear mixing pulses are used to reveal correlations amongst chemically bonded nuclear spins. -
Device fabrication: Three-dimensional printed electronics
(Nature Publishing Group, 2015) -
Diffusion, Deformation, and Damage in Lithium-Ion Batteries and Microelectronics
(2014-06-06)This thesis explores mechanical behavior of microelectronic devices and lithium-ion batteries. We first examine electromigration-induced void formation in solder bumps by constructing a theory that couples electromigration ... -
Directional Optical Antennas, Wafer-Scale Metasurfaces, and Single Molecule Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering
(2013-10-17)Within the field of optics, one of the topics being currently investigated with considerable interest is that of plasmonics, which refers to the use of surface plasmons on metallic nanostructures to manipulate light. It ... -
Femtosecond laser direct writing of 3D metallic structures and 2D graphite
(2014-06-06)This thesis explores a novel methodology to fabricate three dimensional (3D) metal-dielectric structures, and two dimensional (2D) graphite layers for emerging metamaterials and graphene applications. The investigations ... -
Femtosecond-laser hyperdoping and texturing of silicon for photovoltaic applications
(2014-06-06)This dissertation explores strategies for improving photolvoltaic efficiency and reducing cost using femtosecond-laser processing methods including surface texturing and hyperdoping. Our investigations focus on two aspects: ... -
Flight Control of a Millimeter-Scale Flapping-Wing Robot
(2014-10-21)Flying insects display remarkable maneuverability. Unlike typical airplanes, these insects are able to execute an evasive action, rapidly change their flight speed and direction, or leisurely land on flowers buffeted by ... -
FRAP Analysis: Accounting for Bleaching during Image Capture
(Public Library of Science, 2012)The analysis of Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) experiments involves mathematical modeling of the fluorescence recovery process. An important feature of FRAP experiments that tends to be ignored in the ... -
From Rings to Smoke: the quest to uncover a mechanism of turbulence
(2021-04-01)The equations of motion that govern the dynamics of fluid flows--the Navier-Stokes equations--were formulated nearly two centuries ago. In that time, we have made immense advancements in the ways that we understand these ... -
Getting Out Of A Tight Spot: Physics Of Flow Through Porous Materials
(2013-10-15)We study the physics of flow through porous materials in two different ways: by directly visualizing flow through a model three-dimensional (3D) porous medium, and by investigating the deformability of fluid-filled ... -
Mechanics of Electrodes in Lithium-Ion Batteries
(2013-03-05)This thesis investigates the mechanical behavior of electrodes in Li-ion batteries. Each electrode in a Li-ion battery consists of host atoms and guest atoms (Li atoms). The host atoms form a framework, into which Li atoms ...