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Using Piezoelectric Bumps to Enhance Urban Intersections
No full textA poster submitted in ENG 207 taught by Dr. David Prescott for the Fall 2016 semester.The UAE population has undergone a rapid increase, from 2.46 million to 9.27 million, since 1996 [1]. This led to an increase in the number of vehicles, especially in Dubai, which ultimately decreased the transportation system’s efficiency. Furthermore, congested traffic caused an economic setback of AED 2.9 billion in 2013 in Dubai, due to the loss of working hours and excess fuel consumption [2]. Speeding at intersections is another source of concern that limits the full efficiency and safety of Dubai's transportation systems
Enhancing the Tsunami Alert System
No full textA poster submitted in ENG 207 taught by Dr. David Prescott for the Fall 2016 semester.The Circum-Pacific belt, is the zone of earthquakes surrounding the Pacific Ocean-about 90% of the world's earthquakes occur there [1]. The current tsunami alert system, DART 2, consists of a network of sensors underground and the communication infrastructure aboveground. The underground sensors are the tsunameter which is a pressure sensor and the other sensor is the ocean buoy. The aboveground communication infrastructure covers the satellite and the ground stations. DART 2 has been implemented in many areas around the world. However, this system is inefficient
Solving The 2D Biharmonic Equation: A Numerical Approach Based On Spline Collocation
No full textA Master of Science thesis in Mathematics by Heba Qasim Alkafri entitled, "Solving The 2D Biharmonic Equation: A Numerical Approach Based On Spline Collocation," submitted in July 2016. Thesis advisor is Dr. Suheil Khoury and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Ali Sayfy. Soft and hard copy available.In this thesis, several numerical methods, that are based on spline basis functions, are suggested for the solution of a general class of fourth order boundary value problems. In particular, The two-dimensional biharmonic equation complemented with Dirichlet boundary conditions is considered. The methods include the bivariate spline collocation using B-splines of degree 5 and 7. Moreover, a combination of finite difference and spline collocation is suggested. Numerical experiments are included to demonstrate the applicability and accuracy of the proposed schemes and to compare them with other techniques that are available in the literature. The numerical results include a special case of the problem which models the two-dimensional steady state incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in streamfunction formulation.College of Arts and SciencesDepartment of Mathematics and StatisticsMaster of Science in Mathematics (MSMTH
Reflective Teaching: Impact, Supports, and Barriers from UAE-Based ESL Teachers' Perspectives
No full textA Master of Arts thesis in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) by Cherine Sinno entitled, "Reflective Teaching: Impact, Supports, and Barriers from UAE-Based ESL Teachers' Perspectives," submitted December 2016. Thesis advisor is Dr. Cindy L. Gunn. Soft and hard copy available.A reflective practice requires conscious efforts by teachers to critically examine their pedagogy with the aim to enhance the quality of their teaching and instill positive transformations in their classrooms. Reflective teachers constantly engage in a cyclical process of inquiry and self-assessment, as they re-examine their underlying assumptions about teaching and work on aligning their practices with their beliefs. Practitioners delve into this rigorous examination, typically using introspective reflective teaching (RT) tools and techniques that may include surveys, interviews, journals, case-studies, peer observations, session recordings, and action research. While previous studies have investigated the impact of reflective teaching on pre-service teachers during their teacher training periods, few studies addressed the impact of reflective teaching on in-service teachers and its status in real-life classrooms. This paper probes the perspectives of seven ESL in-service teachers based in the UAE on the impact of reflective teaching. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews conducted after the teachers' participation in a six-week RT program. Regarding the status of reflection in classrooms, the candidate selection procedure revealed that while many teachers recognize the significance of RT, few of them implemented reflective tools and engaged in systematic, evidence-based reflection in their daily practices. Following the RT program, the teachers indicated that RT provided valuable insights into teaching, allowed teachers to monitor their students' progress, and deepened the teachers' understanding of classroom events. Many of the teachers, also, reported that the RT approach enabled them to re-examine their teaching beliefs and enhanced their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Furthermore, the participants identified the teacher's openness to change and improvement as a main supporting factor to teacher reflection. Conversely, the teachers found time constraints, culture, and the teacher's own resistance to be major inhibitors of reflection.College of Arts and SciencesDepartment of EnglishMaster of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MA TESOL
Random Aerial Beamforming for Underlay Cognitive Radio with Exposed Secondary Users
No full textIn this paper, we introduce the exposed secondary users problem in underlay cognitive radio systems, where both the secondary-to-primary and primary-to-secondary channels have a Line-of-Sight (LoS) component. Based on a Rician model for the LoS channels, we show, analytically and numerically, that LoS interference hinders the achievable secondary user capacity when interference constraints are imposed at the primary user receiver. This is caused by the poor dynamic range of the interference channels fluctuations when a dominant LoS component exists. In order to improve the capacity of such system, we propose to use an Electronically Steerable Parasitic Array Radiator (ESPAR) antenna at the secondary terminals. An ESPAR antenna involves a single RF chain and has a reconfigurable radiation pattern that is controlled by assigning arbitrary weights to M orthonormal basis radiation patterns via altering a set of reactive loads. By viewing the orthonormal patterns as multiple virtual dumb antennas, we randomly vary their weights over time creating artificial channel fluctuations that can perfectly eliminate the undesired impact of LoS interference. This scheme is termed as Random Aerial Beamforming (RAB), and is well suited for compact and low cost mobile terminals as it uses a single RF chain. Moreover, we investigate the exposed secondary users problem in a multiuser setting, showing that LoS interference hinders multiuser interference diversity and affects the growth rate of the SU capacity as a function of the number of users. Using RAB, we show that LoS interference can actually be exploited to improve multiuser diversity by boosting the effective number of users
Three-Stage Forward and Closed Loop Supply Chain Models Under Consignment Stock Partnership
No full textA Master of Science thesis in Engineering Systems Management by Osama Alkhatib entitled, "Three-Stage Forward and Closed Loop Supply Chain Models under Consignment Stock Partnership," submitted in November 2016. Thesis advisor is Dr. Rami As'ad and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Moncer Hariga. Soft and hard copy available.Achieving operational excellence is a vital goal ought to be emphasized throughout supply chain (SC) practices nowadays. The integration of raw material procurement decisions at the upstream stages, along with the production and dispatching decisions at the downstream stages, greatly impacts the production schedule and chain-wide total cost. The significance of this research work is that it is the first to address and propose mathematical models for a three-stage forward and closed loop supply chain systems operating under consignment stock (CS) partnership in which the inbound and outbound logistical decisions are simultaneously accounted for, coupled with the production sequencing decisions at the vendor stage. The objective is to optimize the raw material replenishment schedule (i.e., quantity and frequency) as well as the production sequence and the delivery schedule of the finished product to the downstream buyer. Throughout this work, mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) models are developed that jointly seek to optimize the procurement decisions of raw material, the length of the production cycle, the sequence to follow in the production of newly and remanufactured batches, number of newly and remanufactured batches produced within one production cycle, as well as the initial inventory levels of recovered and finished products at the vendor's and buyer's premises, respectively, in order to minimize the chain-wide total cost. Extensive numerical experiments are also conducted with the purpose of assessing the impact of key problem parameters on the behavior of the developed models. The three stage forward model generated production schedule with larger batch size when compared to the just-in-time raw material ordering policy for the two-stage forward model. Moreover, the closed loop model economically outperformed the "manufacturing only" policy with cost savings ranging between 7% and 33%. Sensitivity analysis results indicates that the intermittent sequences, in which the setup for either newly manufactured or remanufactured products takes place more than once, are economically preferable in the case of high remanufacturing and low manufacturing setup costs.College of EngineeringDepartment of Industrial EngineeringMaster of Science in Engineering Systems Management (MSESM
Load Partitioning for Matrix-Matrix Multiplication on a Cluster of CPUGPU Nodes Using the Divisible Load Paradigm
No full textA Master of Science thesis in Computer Engineering by Lamees Elhiny entitled, "Load Partitioning for Matrix-Matrix Multiplication on a Cluster of CPUGPU Nodes Using the Divisible Load Paradigm," submitted in November 2016. Thesis advisor is Dr. Gerassimos Barlas. Soft and hard copy available.Matrix-matrix multiplication is a component of many numerical algorithms; however, it is a time consuming operation. Sometimes, when the matrix size is huge, the processing of the matrix-matrix multiplication on a single processor in not sufficiently fast. Finding an approach for efficient matrix-matrix multiplication can scale the performance of several applications that depend on it. The aim of this study is to improve the efficiency of matrix-matrix multiplication on a distributed network composed of heterogeneous nodes. Since load balancing between heterogeneous nodes forms the biggest challenge, the performance model is derived using the Divisible Load Theory (DLT). The proposed solution improves performance by: (a) the reduction of communication overhead, as DLT-derived load partitioning does not require synchronization between nodes during processing time, and (b) high utilization of resources, as both Control Processing Unit (CPU) and Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) are used in the computation. The experiments are conducted on a single node as well as a cluster of nodes. The results prove that the use of DLT equations balances the load between CPUs and GPUs. On a single node, the suggested hybrid approach has superior performance when compared to C Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines (cBLAS) and OpenMP Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines (openBLAS) approaches. On the other hand, the performance difference between the hybrid and GPU only (CUDA Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines) approaches is mild as the majority of the load in the hybrid approach is allocated to the GPU. On a cluster of nodes, the computation time is reduced to almost half of the GPU only processing time; however, the overall improvement is impeded by communication overhead. It is expected that faster communication media could reduce the overall time and further improve speedup.College of EngineeringDepartment of Computer Science and EngineeringMaster of Science in Computer Engineering (MSCoE
Remediation of water from crude oil spill using a fibrous sorbent
No full textRemediation of oil-polluted water was studied using waste tire cord fiber WTCF as a waste fibrous sorbent. The rate of sorption, sorption capacity, oil retention, water uptake, adsorption isotherm model, and kinetic behavior were evaluated. It was found that the oil sorption capacity was equal to 15.45 g oil/g sorbent. For fixed amount of sorbent, oil sorption was increased with an increasing of the amount of oil until equilibrium state was reached. The sorbent was proven to have a high retention time; it can save 66.3% of the adsorbed oil after five minutes drainage. This property makes the material as a unique material to have such high retention time. The reusability of sorbents showed that this sorbent can have 75.7% of the sorption capacity after 10 cycles. The total amount of adsorbed oil was 107.66 g oil/g of WTCF for 10 cycles. Langmuir, Frendlich, Timken, Hurkins–Jura, Halsay, Radlich–Peterson, and Dubinin–Radushkevich adsorption isotherm models were applied to fit the adsorption remediation process. The remediation process using WTCH was following a second order rate kinetic and Radlich–Peterson adsorption isotherm model
Efficient Dynamic Cost Scheduling Algorithm for Data Batch Processing
No full textA Master of Science thesis in Engineering Systems Management by Alia Al Sadawi entitled, "Efficient Dynamic Cost Scheduling Algorithm for Data Batch Process," submitted in May 2016. Thesis advisor is Dr. Abdulrahim Shamayleh and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Malick Ndiaye. Soft and hard copy available.Batch scheduling and processing play a critical role in many manufacturing and service industries. They are widely used in service industries such as banking to process data which makes them of great importance since data communication, monitoring and execution are essential whether they are done online or offline. Batch processing is defined as the execution of a set of required tasks within a specific time frame without violating predecessors' requirements and constraints set by the client. The goal is to achieve the agreed service level contracted with clients using the minimum amount of resources. This research investigates the scheduling problem of processing a set of tasks of non-identical sizes and priority using a set of processors. The objective is to minimize the data batch processing cost while taking into consideration the available resources and the tasks predecessors and constraints. Different types of costs will be included which are: servers and software basic leasing cost, rental cost for additional resources needed in case of overload and extra work, penalty cost of failing to execute the batch process as per the Service Level Agreement (SLA), and the opportunity cost representing the cost of idling a resource for any period of time due to inefficient task allocation. An iterative algorithm with an optimization model at each iteration was developed to optimize the data batching process while minimizing the aforementioned costs. A sensitivity analysis is conducted by varying the main model parameters, one at a time to study their impact on the total cost and the problem under study. Also, different network sizes and complexities were tested to study the effectiveness of the developed algorithm. It was found that it is more effective to include all types of costs in one optimization model along with priority, weight, predecessor and time factors. The algorithm proved its effectiveness by allocating files with higher priority and weight prior to other files while taking into consideration time and different types of costs which led to lower batch process total cost. It is recommended that penalty cost and extra processors different costs should be negotiated thoroughly between stakeholders prior to signing the SLA since it was found that those costs affect the time and number of rented extra processors which consequently affects the whole batch process.College of EngineeringDepartment of Industrial EngineeringMaster of Science in Engineering Systems Management (MSESM
Smart Homes: Connectivity and Self-Sustainability
No full textA poster submitted in ENG 207 taught by Dr. David Prescott for the Fall 2016 semester.A smart home is a sustainable home that applies advanced systems to provide sophisticated control over the building’s functions.
The use of computer hardware and software as well as Information Technology to control, monitor, and optimize household appliances and systems