<div>Automotive manufacturers are striving to go green, while exceeding the expectations of their stakeholders. The Engineering Technology Capstone Project focused on implementing a photovoltaic (PV) system at the Kokomo Transmission Plant (KTP). The installation of a PV system will reduce KTP’s dependency on fossil fuels, while reducing their carbon footprint. The capstone project is to improve KTP’s environmental impact while reducing their electrical consumption cost in kilowatt per hour (kWh). The capstone project investigated the type of roof mounted PV system, maintenance, cost, benefits and environmental impact.</div>

The hydrocarbon combustion process used to generate electricity releases harmful levels of Carbon, Sulfur and Nitrogen Oxides into the atmosphere. The alternative to environmentally toxic hydrocarbon based fuel, is electricity generated from solar powered microgrids. Solar photovoltaic microgrids represent a clean, renewable and economically viable energy alternative to hydrocarbon based fuel. The microgrid project outlined the specifications required to the charge the battery powered material handling vehicles at General Stamping & Metalworks. The project was designed to replace utility supplied electrical power with a solar microgrid to charge three lead acid type batteries. The solar microgrid project specifies the system requirements, equipment selection and installation methodology. Operational strategies for additional photovoltaic applications within the organization are discussed. Outlined in the report are the costs of installation and return on investment. The project was designed to demonstrate a practical application of microgrids within a manufacturing environment. The goal of the project was to design and build a small scale installation to provide a proof of concept. The overarching goal was to reduce the toxic emissions produced by utility supplied electrical power by installing a solar powered microgrid. The end result of the analysis was that photovoltaic powered microgrids represent a viable energy generating system for battery powered applications. However, based on the regional utility price of .092 $/kWh, the solar installation did not meet the organizations investment acceptance criteria.

<p>Numerous studies have shown multiple benefits gained through professional development for teachers, which address increasing pedagogical content knowledge, increasing student achievement and increasing teacher job satisfaction (Banks, 2008; Colbert, Brown, Choi &Thomas, 2008; Dash, de Kramer, O’Dwyer, Masters & Russell, 2012). However, barriers to professional development, including cost, time and access, make face-to-face professional development sessions difficult to meet teacher needs (Carr, 2016). Online professional development can help to address these barriers, while meeting the needs of teachers. Employing best practices established through both online learning pedagogy and professional development techniques, teachers can increase their pedagogical content knowledge and opportunities for collaboration using online platforms. This study demonstrated, using a blend of qualitative and quantitative assessments that online professional development was comparable in effectiveness to face-to-face professional development in preparation for teaching an introductory logistics course and the Manufacturing Skills Standards Council Certified Logistics Associate certification exam. </p>

This research study explores the gamification of SandBoxModel's Project Team Builder, a project management simulation software. Scope, time and cost are the three constraints of project management with quality being the fourth dimension. The software provides a simulated environment where the students are responsible for handling the aforementioned constraints with the objective of executing a complete project. The software is used to teach project management concepts to students who take the CNIT 480 - Managing Information Technology Projects course at Purdue University. The perception survey was used to analyze whether gamification had a significant effect on student understanding of project execution concepts. The triple constraint survey was used to analyze students' level of comprehension regarding the triple constraints after using the simulation software. Gamification was not a success in enhancing project execution concepts since no significant differences were found in student perceptions on comparing the data of the three semesters. However, simulation independent of gamification was successful in improving students' understanding of triple constraint. <br>

<div>The present study evaluated the feasibility and social validity of using a wearable technology to detect anxiety for educational purposes. Twenty college student who planned to take a Graduate Study Exam (GRE) for attending graduate school were recruited to participate in the study. Each participant completed a practice GRE with quantitative and verbal reasoning sections. The participants were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire and State and Trait Anxiety Inventory before the practice exam. An acceptability questionnaire was administered after the practice exam to collect data on the social validity of the wearable technology. During the practice exam, the participants were asked to tap a button on the wearable device to report stressful incidents (SI) when they felt the exam questions were causing them to feel stressed. The participants’ heart rate and skin conductance data were collected and analyzed with the timing of their self-reported SI. The data indicated that significant heart rate changes were detected in 66% and 70% of the self-reported SI in the quantitative and verbal reasoning sections, respectively. The results indicated heart rate data could be used for short-term anxiety monitoring for educational purposes in the real classrooms. The social validity data indicated polarized results for the acceptance of an anxiety monitoring technology for educational purposes. Participants with higher familiarity with wearable devices in general reported the wearable device used in the study less distracting during the practice exams. Participants with higher levels of anxiety reported being less comfortable with their physiological signals monitored during the practice exams. Implications and suggestions for future research studies are discussed.</div>

<div><b>Background: </b>Purdue Polytechnic’s Tech12000, Design Thinking in Technology, course incorporates many instances of team work. Over the last 8 years, there have been varied methods of how to create the teams for the projects.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Purpose: </b>This study compares two methods of team formation, software generated and instructor/student-selected, to determine which, if any, method generates increased perception of team member satisfaction and increased team member contribution.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Methodology: </b>The subjects for this study were students enrolled in a design course at a Purdue Polytechnic, divided into a comparison group with instructor/student-selected teams, and a treatment group with software-generated teams. These students were predominately first year students enrolled in their first semester of college.</div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Findings/conclusions: </b>The researcher discovered that the computer software-generated teams produced teams that had slightly larger mean scores on satisfaction and contribution versus the instructor/student-selected teams, although not at a statistically significant level.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Implications:</b> The findings of this study provide another tool for educators, with possible implications for industry, to generate teams in the classroom.</div>

The atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been widely used for the investigation of the surface topography and high precision force measurements at the nano-scale. Researchers have utilized AFM to quantify the viscosity of the cell membrane in the vertical direction, which is a primary indicator of a cell's functionality and health condition. A modified lateral force microscopy (LFM) to quantify viscosity through lateral force measurements applied on the sidewall of cell membranes. The resulting twist of the cantilever in mLFM is induced by the contact between sidewalls of the tip and features on the sample. However, the measurement sensitivity of the mLFM requires improvement. This thesis focused on optimizing probe geometries and materials to improve the measurement sensitivity. <div>Probes (cantilevers and tips) with different geometries and materials properties were proposed and their deformations in the mLFM force measurement were studied. The force measurement process, in which the tip contacted the sidewall of control samples, including a hard sample and a soft sample, was modeled by finite element analysis (FEA). This study calculated torsional spring constants and measurement sensitivities according to the data produced from FEA. The impact of various geometric parameters on the torsional spring constant and measurement sensitivity were presented and discussed. The optimal probe configuration and material for measurement sensitivity was found from the parameters tested in this research. For the hard sample, the cantilever with a "T-shape" cross section and a tetrahedral tip made from graphite had optimum measurement sensitivity. For the soft sample, the cantilever with a "T-shape" cross section and a conical tip with a 600nm-radius sphere tip apex had the optimum measurement sensitivity. The reason for the difference in optimum probe combination for hard and soft sample was that the measurement sensitivity for hard sample was more susceptible to change in lever arm distance and measurement sensitivity for soft sample was more susceptible to the change in tip radius. The measurement sensitivity has been improved significantly on both hard sample and soft sample compared to a DNP V-shaped probe. </div>

The recent push for more detailed graphics and realistic visuals in animated productions has sparked much debate around the new films’ photorealistic visual style. Some critics argue that the new “live-action” versions of movie classics such as the Lion King are not as visually stylish as the original ones, and the photorealistic characters are not as likeable, fun and intriguing as their stylized counterparts. This paper reports ongoing research whose goal is to examine whether it is possible to apply traditional animation principles to photorealistic animated animal characters in order to make them more expressive, convincing and ultimately entertaining. In particular, the study reported in the paper investigated the extent to which varying degrees of exaggeration affect the perceived believability and appeal of a photorealistic, anthropomorphic cat character performing a series of actions in a high detail environment. The study included 82 participants and compared three levels of exaggeration applied to the cat’s motions, e.g. no exaggeration, low exaggeration and high exaggeration. Findings show that subjects found the no-exaggeration clip more appealing and believable than the exaggerated versions, although the difference in appeal was not statistically significant. When comparing the two exaggerated clips, participants rated the high exaggeration clip higher for believability and appeal than the low exaggeration one.

User interfaces often incorporate sound to notify users of application updates, to enhance games, and to assist complex interactions. Sound exists as a medium that can provide information that humans cannot understand through a purely visual interaction, and in a mobile interface context, using another medium could be useful to mitigate visual limitations in screen space and the amount of users’ attention focused on screen. Smartphones are now a ubiquitous part of people’s lives, and sound interactions can play an important role within these experiences. This study conducts research on users’ interactions with supplemental sounds while using Facebook Messenger. Facebook Messenger is the most popular messaging app in the United States, and its design includes a variety of unique user interface sounds. This study contributes design considerations for both researchers and industry professionals to apply to further research or the application of audio within a mobile messaging space.

<div>With the development of web-based technologies, online evaluation systems have been replacing paper-based ones in various domains at a fast pace because of their many advantages such as easy administration, high efficiency, and eco-friendliness. This study aims at developing an online thesis evaluation system which can act as a substitute to the paper-based one being currently used in Department of Computer Graphics Technology at Purdue. It contains two parts: the development of the online thesis evaluation system, and the assessment of the system. The system was developed using Angular as the client-side technology, PHP as the server-side technology, MySQL as the database management system, and D3 for the data visualization. Bootstrap was also used to simply format the table and forms. The developed system features easy administration, easy to do evaluations, visual reports of evaluation results and so on. Surveys were used to assess the system. The experimental results indicate this system has relatively good performance, usability, and reliability. However, further development and assessment are in need to make it a better substitute of the current paper-based evaluation system.<br></div>