NDSU Faculty/Staff Research & Scholarship

Permanent URI for this communityhdl:10365/32201

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 125

Academic Research Landscape: A Setting for Developing Partnerships
(North Dakota State University, 2018) Mocnik, Joe
Presented at the ARC18 OCLC Americas Regional Council Conference held in Chicago, Illinois on October 25-26, 2018.
Accuracy Enhancement of Anomaly Localization with Participatory Sensing Vehicles
(2020) Bridgelall, Raj; Tolliver, Denver D.; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
Transportation agencies cannot afford to scale existing methods of roadway and railway condition monitoring to more frequently detect, localize, and fix anomalies throughout networks. Consequently, anomalies such as potholes and cracks develop between maintenance cycles and cause severe vehicle damage and safety issues. The need for a lower-cost and more-scalable solution spurred the idea of using sensors on board vehicles for a continuous and network-wide monitoring approach. However, the timing of the full adoption of connected vehicles is uncertain. Therefore, researchers used smartphones to evaluate a variety of methods to implement the application using regular vehicles. However, the poor accuracy of standard positioning services with low-cost geospatial positioning system (GPS) receivers presents a significant challenge. The experiments conducted in this research found that the error spread can exceed 32 m, and the mean localization error can exceed 27 m at highway speeds. Such large errors can make the application impractical for widespread use. This work used statistical techniques to inform a model that can provide more accurate localization. The proposed method can achieve sub-meter accuracy from participatory vehicle sensors by knowing only the mean GPS update rate, the mean traversal speed, and the mean latency of tagging accelerometer samples with GPS coordinates.
Accuracy Enhancement of Roadway Anomaly Localization Using Connected Vehicles
(2016) Bridgelall, Raj; Tolliver, Denver D.; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
The timely identification and localization of roadway anomalies that pose hazards to the traveling public is currently a critical but very expensive task. Hence, transportation agencies are evaluating emerging alternatives that use connected vehicles to lower the cost dramatically and to increase simultaneously both the monitoring frequency and the network coverage. Connected vehicle methods use conventional GPS receivers to tag the inertial data stream with geospatial position estimates. In addition to the anticipated GPS trilateration errors, numerous other factors reduce the accuracy of anomaly localization. However, practitioners currently lack information about their characteristics and significance. This study developed error models to characterize the factors in position biases so that practitioners can estimate and remove them. The field studies revealed the typical and relative contributions of each factor, and validated the models by demonstrating agreement of their statistics with the anticipated norms. The results revealed a surprising potential for tagging errors from embedded systems latencies to exceed the typical GPS errors and become dominant at highway speeds.
Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Capstone Course Evolution at North Dakota State University
(American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, 2005) Bon, Tom A.; Kucera, Henry L.
The approach to the department's capstone design course has changed considerably since the 1960s. The general evolution of the course has proceeded from extended laboratory exercises to individuals working on self-defined projects to team-based projects. Interactions between the capstone course and other courses have been attempted with varying success. This paper presents the development of the NDSU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department' s capstone course and thoughts on possible future modifications to the course.
An Application of Natural Language Processing to Classify What Terrorists Say They Want
(2022) Bridgelall, Raj; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
Knowing what perpetrators want can inform strategies to achieve safe, secure, and sustainable societies. To help advance the body of knowledge in counterterrorism, this research applied natural language processing and machine learning techniques to a comprehensive database of terrorism events. A specially designed empirical topic modeling technique provided a machine-aided human decision process to glean six categories of perpetrator aims from the motive text narrative. Subsequently, six different machine learning models validated the aim categories based on the accuracy of their association with a different narrative field, the event summary. The ROC-AUC scores of the classification ranged from 86% to 93%. The Extreme Gradient Boosting model provided the best predictive performance. The intelligence community can use the identified aim categories to help understand the incentive structure of terrorist groups and customize strategies for dealing with them.
Applying Unsupervised Machine Learning to Counterterrorism
(2022) Bridgelall, Raj; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
To advance the agenda in counterterrorism, this work demonstrates how analysts can combine unsupervised machine learning, exploratory data analysis, and statistical tests to discover features associated with different terrorist motives. A new empirical text mining method created a “motive” field in the Global Terrorism Database to enable associative relationship mining among features that characterize terrorist events. The methodology incorporated K-means co-clustering, three methods of non-linear projection, and two spatial association tests to reveal statistically significant relationships between terrorist motives, tactics, and targets. Planners and investigators can replicate the approach to distill knowledge from big datasets to help advance the state of the art in counterterrorism.
Architectural Research@NDSU
(North Dakota State University, 2018) Mahalingam, Ganapathy
Architectural research is different from basic or applied research, in that design processes are involved as part of the research. Architectural research attempts to solve a research problem, answer a research question, or address a design issue, using designs as the vehicle for the inquiry. The instruments of the research are often drawings, animations, models, simulations and other design artifacts. The researcher attempts to solve a design problem, answer a research question, or address a design issue, using these design artifacts as research instruments. The Architectural Research Studio is a viable curricular offering in a professional, graduate, accredited curriculum in Architecture. It provides the benefits of boosting research productivity in a department, strengthening ties with architectural firms that have an alumni presence, providing career networking opportunities for graduate students, generating valuable intellectual property, fostering research careers, and adding to the knowledge base of the Architecture profession. The all-around benefits far outweigh the challenges that have to be overcome in offering this studio.
Artistic Green Thumb: North Dakota art professor and painter goes to work with inspiration from Monet's garden
(Fargo Forum, 2021-04-27) Lamb, John
This April 2021 article from the Fargo Forum features NDSU art professor Kimble Bromley and discusses Monet's influence on his painting.
Assessing Nitrogen Contamination Potential via Remote Sensing
(North Dakota State University, 2002) Seelig, Bruce; Beard, Larry W.; Mita, Dath
A remote sensing-based cropland layer (CDL) was included in a group of natural and anthropogenic factors to assess the potential for nitrogen contamination of groundwater in Dickey County, North Dakota. The CDL, produced by the Spatial Analysis Research Section, USDA, NASS and the Cooperative Extension Service, NDSU, was used to determine areas of cultivation, corn or potatoes, and summer fallow. ARCVIEW was used to import the CDL image of North Dakota for 1998. The image was converted to a grid and clipped to the appropriate area of assessment. Compared to natural factors, many of the anthropogenic factors are subject to considerable change over time. Consequently, land use information from one season was modified using the ARCVIEW neighborhood statistics function to provide an estimate of land use probability. Mean values were calculated for areas of 1/2 mile radius with respect to cultivation, potatoes or corn, and summer fallow. These values were used to classify areas as low, intermediate, or high probability for these types of land use. The three land use probability layers were used in combination with other factors to determine groundwater sensitivity to nitrogen contamination.
At Lightning Speed? The Recent Surge of Long-Needed Changes to LCSH
Gross, Tina
In the past few years, changes to longstanding problematic (dehumanizing, pejorative, marginalizing) Library of Congress Subject Headings are being made at an unprecedented rate. Particularly since the "lightning rod" of the urgency of changing the subject heading "Illegal aliens" galvanized the library world in 2016, so many have been changed recently that it's actually hard to keep up! This presentation gives a quick overview of newly created & changed subject headings, subject headings are still unchanged & needed headings that are still lacking, and changes currently in progress (as of March 2023).
Attack Risk Modelling for the San Diego Maritime Facilities
(2020) Patterson, Douglas A.; Bridgelall, Raj; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
California is the largest economy among states in the US. More than 40% of the nation's containerized cargo flows through the marine ports of California. Cruise ships also call on four of California's largest ports, with the Port of San Diego growing the fastest. This study assessed the attack risk for the Port of San Diego by applying a model from the risk assessment framework recommended by the Department of Homeland Security. Quantification of the model's threat and consequence factors was based on economic data derived from various databases. The findings show that the risk of attack is more pronounced for cruise ship operations than for marine cargo operations. The risk is directly proportional to the level of vulnerability to expected perpetrator tactics and weapons. Based on expert knowledge of the port characteristics, the vulnerability assessment points to a low probability that anticipated attack methods could succeed. However, the behavior of terrorists can be unpredictable as they continuously adapt to exploit vulnerability gaps that may be unforeseen. Therefore, it is wise to develop policies that encourage a security culture to avoid complacency and to conduct regular risk assessments.
Beyond "Is It Peer-Reviewed?": Exploring Information Creation in the Sciences
(North Dakota State University, 2018) Juve, Nicole; Twomey, Beth
Undergraduate students tend to rely on simplistic criteria for choosing sources for their research, such as whether a particular source is peer-reviewed or not. This one-shot instruction session is designed to expand students’ view of scholarly outputs. It prompts students, working in groups, to analyze and uncover for themselves the relationships between different types of scholarly outputs which occur over time from raw data to original research and book chapters. Each student group works with a diverse set of documents about a specific body of research to collectively determine how they relate to each other and their role in the research and scholarly publication process. This lesson was originally designed for upper level plant sciences students, but is readily adaptable by discipline, breadth, and depth.
Biographical Dictionary of Great Plains Architects
(North Dakota State University, 2019) Ramsay, Ronald L.M.
The Biographical Dictionary of Great Plains Architects is a web-based research project. This is a user-friendly index devoted to the presence of architects on the Great Plains of the United States. From the 1830s in parts of east Texas to the 1930s, architecture has emerged as a profession in this region. This project attempts to document the hundreds of architects that have lived and practiced their profession here.
Budgeting the Adoption of Sensors on Connected Trains
(2021) Bridgelall, Raj; Tolliver, Denver D.; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
Railroads can save millions of dollars by deploying multi-sensor track scanners on connected trains to detect track and roadbed problems that could cause accidents. However, uncertainties about performance and return-on-investment impeded the development and deployment of such sensor systems. This research develops a budget model that both manufacturers and railroads can use to decide on a suitable tradeoff between price affordability and achievable performance. A case study of five Class 1 railroads demonstrates that a payback within two years is achievable at $4,000 per device and an annual maintenance cost of one-quarter the system deployment cost.
Calibration of Smartphone Sensors to Evaluate the Ride Quality of Paved and Unpaved Roads
(2020) Yang, Xinyi; Hu, Liuqing; Ahmed, Hafiz Usman; Bridgelall, Raj; Huang, Ying; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
Transportation agencies report that millions of crashes are caused by poor road conditions every year, which makes the localization of roadway anomalies extremely important. Common methods of road condition evaluation require special types of equipment that are usually expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, the use of smartphones has become a potential alternative. However, differences in the sensitivity of their inertial sensors and their sample rate can result in measurement inconsistencies. This study validated those inconsistencies by using three different types of smartphones to collect data from the traversal of both a paved and an unpaved road. Three calibration methods were used including the reference-mean, reference-maximum, and reference-road-type methods. Statistical testing under identical conditions of device mounting using the same vehicle revealed that the roughness indices derived from each device and road type are normally distributed with unequal means. Consequently, applying a calibration coefficient to equalize the means of the distributions of roughness indices produced from any device using the reference mean method resulted in consistent measurements for both road types.
Campus Parking Supply Impacts on Transportation Mode-Choice
(2014) Bridgelall, Raj; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
Parking demand is a significant land-use problem in campus planning. The parking policies of universities and large corporations with facilities located in small urban areas shape the character of their campuses. These facilities will benefit from a simplified methodology to study the effects of parking availability on transportation mode mix and impacts on recruitment and staffing policies. This study introduces an analytical framework Using simple models to provide campus planners with insights about how parking supply and demand affects campus transportation mode choice. The methodology relies only on aggregate mode choice data for the special generator zone and the average aggregate volume/capacity ratio projections for all external routes that access the zone. This reduced data requirement significantly lowers the analysis cost and time and obviates the need for specialized modelling software and spatial network analysis tools. Results illustrate that the framework is effective for analysing mode choice changes under different scenarios of parking supply and population growth.
Catalog of Change: Partnering with Subject Librarians to Improve ILS Discovery
(North Dakota State University, 2019) Hughes, Rex Allen
The cataloging environment in libraries has undergone extensive changes in recent years, including wider acceptance of alternative metadata standards, automation tools, and enhanced ILS features. This sea change in metadata services presents librarians with an opportunity to collaborate with the cataloging team and share their suggestions for record enhancements. While metadata standards should continue to provide structure to our discovery systems, improved cataloging tools now make it easier to integrate new ideas than ever before. At North Dakota State University, the cataloging team has undergone a two year experiment to give subject librarians the opportunity to share their recommendations through an online “Metadata Request” form. Throughout this process, we have discovered new methods of approaching requests, either by revisiting local policy or by using modern tools such as MarcEdit. This breakout session provided an overview of the Metadata Request and Consultation Process, referencing tools such as Google Forms, MarcEdit, and OpenRefine.
Characterizing Pavement Roughness at Non-Uniform Speeds Using Connected Vehicles
(2017) Bridgelall, Raj; Hough, Jill; Tolliver, Denver D.; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
Methods of pavement roughness characterizations using connected vehicles are poised to scale beyond the frequency, span, and affordability of existing methods that require specially instrumented vehicles and skilled technicians. However, speed variability and differences in suspension behavior require segmentation of the connected vehicle data to achieve some level of desired precision and accuracy with relatively few measurements. This study evaluates the reliability of a Road Impact Factor (RIF) transform under stop-and-go conditions. A RIF-transform converts inertial signals from on-board accelerometers and speed sensors to roughness indices (RIF-indices), in real-time. The case studies collected data from 18 different buses during their normal operation in a small urban city. Within 30 measurements, the RIF-indices distributed normally with an average margin-of-error below 6%. This result indicates that a large number of measurements will provide a reliable estimate of the average roughness experienced. Statistical t-tests distinguished the relatively small differences in average roughness levels among the roadway segments evaluated. In conclusion, when averaging roughness measurements from the same type of vehicle moving at non-uniform speeds, the RIF-transform will provide everincreasing precision and accuracy as the traversal volume increases.
Characterizing Ride Quality With a Composite Roughness Index
(2022) Bridgelall, Raj; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
There are many important applications that require ride quality characterization. However, the only international standard that specifies a roughness index is not suitable for applications beyond assessing the ride quality of paved roads. Other potential applications include automated ride quality characterization of gravel roads, bike or wheelchair paths, railways, rivers, airways, hyperloops, and elevator channels. This work proposes a composite index that characterizes roughness from multidimensional movements along any path. Statistical tests demonstrate two important properties—that the index is consistent based on an ever-decreasing margin-of-error of the mean, and distinguishable among different paths. A low-cost sensor package of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and a speedometer produced the data for spatio-temporal transformation. The experiments conducted on buses revealed that both the consistency and distinguishability of the index improves with the number of measurements. The approach is best suited for applications that can use in-situ sensors or crowdsensing to automate ride quality characterization.
Closed Form Models to Assess Railroad Technology Investments
(2020) Bridgelall, Raj; Tolliver, Denver D.; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
Class I railroads in North America collectively invested $11.2 billion to comply with a federal mandate to deploy positive train control. This amount dwarfs the potential savings from accidents the technology could prevent. Therefore, railroads must seek additional benefits. This research contributes simple closed-form models to inform strategies that can leverage the technology deployment by estimating the annual additional net benefits, internal rate of return, and benefit-cost ratio needed for a desired payback period.

Browse

Browsing NDSU Faculty/Staff Research & Scholarship by Title