Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Simplicity As A New Environmental Virtue, Justin Wheeler

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper argues for the addition of a new environmentally focused virtue, simplicity, to the virtue ethical framework developed by Aristotle. First, relevant background from Aristotle’s virtue ethics are developed including the crucial, “doctrine of the mean”, a balance between excess and deficiency of a specified character trait. The tenets of the new virtue simplicity are developed with practical examples based on Aristotle’s method of developing a virtue of character. Simplicity is proposed as a desire to take the appropriate amount from the natural world and an acceptance of one’s circumstances. Those possessing simplicity will not fall victim to the …

High Dimensional Event Exploration Over Multiple Simulations, Steven Deron Scott

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

In this project, we introduce a visualization technique to analyze event simulation data. In particular, we allow the user to discover families of events based on the topological evolution of discrete events across simulations. Discovering how events behave across runs of a simulation has applications in financial market analysis, military simulations, physical mechanics, and other settings. Our approach is to use established methods to produce a linearized tour through parameter space of arbitrary dimension and visualize events of interest in two dimensions, where the first dimension is the tour ordering and the second dimension is usually time. This paper presents …

Implementing Theta-2-Theta Measurements To Measure Mirror Reflectance, Kylie Wolfe

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Our research group studies multilayer mirrors for use in space-based telescopes. The mirror property we are most interested in optimizing is reflectance. In the past, measuring the reflectance of our sample mirrors was difficult, as we either had to travel to the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, California or we had to conduct and combine the data from many single-axis scans by hand. This made measuring reflectance tedious, error-prone, and time-consuming. By adding an automated theta-2-theta scan to our system, I removed these issues, allowing us to study our mirrors much more efficiently.

Mineralogy Of Great Salt Lake: An Analogue For Martian Evaporites, Calli B. Cahill, Adrik Z. Da Silva

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Gypsum (CaSO₄ · 2H₂O) and mirabilite (Na₂SO₄ · 10H₂O) are common precipitates at the Great Salt Lake (GSL). NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, found veins of gypsum deposited by water in 2011 and gypsum has been detected on Mars as early as 2005 by the ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter. On Earth, gypsum is formed in hypersaline environments, in minerals left behind when water evaporates, trapping microorganisms in fluid inclusions. Likewise, GSL mirabilite develops when mineral-rich groundwater meets cold winter air to create crystalline structures. While there is no physical evidence of mirabilite …

Materials Design For High-Performance Organic Redox Flow Batteries And Electrocatalytic Carbon Dioxide And Nitrogen Reduction, Bo Hu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Nowadays, the utilization of renewable energy resources such as solar and wind energy has been realized to be a sustainable and environmentally benign strategy to alleviate the world’s severe dependency on traditional fossil fuels, and thus enables the environmental recovery and sustainable development of the economy. The massive commercialization of solar and wind energy raises the demands for advanced energy storage technologies, among which the redox flow battery has been recognized as a promising solution due to it is low cost, safe, environmentally benign, and easy to be scaled up. All vanadium redox flow battery stands for the most important …

Determining The Phase Of The Diurnal, Solar Thermal Tidal Wave In The Upper Atmosphere Using Nighttime Na Lidar Measurements, Trevor Harshman

Physics Capstone Projects

Solar thermal tidal waves play a critical role in the dynamics of the mesosphere and thermosphere. Obtaining measurements of the diurnal tidal wave above 100 km is difficult. This could be solved using a physics-based empirical model. To derive this model requires knowing the phase at different points along the tidal wave. In this study, I determine the phase at multiple points along the thermal diurnal tidal wave using measurements taken by a fluorescence lidar in the range of 80 to 100 km. A simple calculation of the phase based on the zeroes and extrema of the wave is demonstrated.

Synthesis Of Graphene By Liquid Precursors At Lower Temperatures, Clayton Hansen

Physics Capstone Projects

Benzene, toluene, and xylene can be liquid precursors for graphene and carbon nanotube synthesis. However, the growth mechanisms can have greater variances for different carbon allotropes. In the case of graphene, Cu can be the catalyst for dehydrogenation and provides a weakly-coupled substrate for 2-dimensional graphene nucleation and growth. In the case of carbon nanotubes, Fe nanoparticles are essential to catalyze the C-C bonds breaking and dissolve carbon before the precipitation of a graphene cap over the catalyst particle where a tube forms. Controlling the precursor feed rate is crucial for a successful synthesis. In this research, we developed a …

Material Outgassing Kinetics: The Development Of A Testing Capability, Alex Kirkman

Physics Capstone Projects

Contamination due to outgassing of materials can cause the degradation of critical hardware of a spacecraft. Using outgassing rates, kinetic expressions can be developed and used in models to predict the evolution of molecules and migration of contaminants for specific materials. These models could be used in the selection process of materials to help mitigate the amount of contamination of mission critical hardware for the expected life of the spacecraft. By using the ASTM E1559 test standard this can be achieved. This standard uses the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) collection approach. A temperature-controlled effusion cell, containing the sample material, impinges …

Fabrication Of Suspended Microbolometers On Soi Wafers, Isaac Maxfield

Physics Capstone Projects

A bolometer is a device to measure radiation energy by converting photon energy into heat on an isolated absorber. We plan to use carbon-nanotube (CNT) based absorber to enhance the photon absorption. The absorber is a few microns in size and is suspended with micron-sized bridges which also support metal lines for electrical measurements.

Waves Over Mcmurdo Station, Robert Johnson

Physics Capstone Projects

Atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) are generated by gravity acting on weather systems effectively causing them to oscillate. These waves can then propagate upwards into the upper atmosphere, where they are observed as they pass through glowing layers of gas, called airglow, in the upper atmosphere at approximately 87 kilometers altitude. Using Physics and a little bit of chemistry we can observe the properties of these waves with special infrared cameras. Combining the data between images taken at the same time but with different filters, we can determine the temperature amplitudes of the waves, important for improving our understanding of their …

Private Land, Public Trust: Strategic Conservation Planning For Public Wildlife On Private Lands Through The Usfws Partners For Fish And Wildlife Program, Clint Wirick

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Law requires federal agencies to develop long-term strategic plans. Strategic plans define goals, objectives, and performance measures defining how the agencies and programs will reach their stated goals. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife (PFW) develops strategic plans every five years. Each individual state develops a plan for their respective state. Those state plans are compiled for the region and become part of Regional Comprehensive Strategic Plan. The current strategic plan expires in 2021. States will begin the strategic planning process in 2020. In Utah, PFW staff will also begin developing a strategic plan for the …

Demystification Of Graph And Information Entropy, Bryce Frederickson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Shannon entropy is an information-theoretic measure of unpredictability in probabilistic models. Recently, it has been used to form a tool, called the von Neumann entropy, to study quantum mechanics and network flows by appealing to algebraic properties of graph matrices. But still, little is known about what the von Neumann entropy says about the combinatorial structure of the graphs themselves. This paper gives a new formulation of the von Neumann entropy that describes it as a rate at which random movement settles down in a graph. At the same time, this new perspective gives rise to a generalization of von …

Nanotextural And Nanochemical Constraints On The Role Of Heat In The Development Of Crystalline-Hosted, Silica-Rich Fault Mirrors In The Wasatch Fault Damage Zone, Utah, Usa, Leah M. Houser

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Earthquakes occur on faults, or rock that has experienced displacement at depth. Experimental work on a range of rock types reveals that >90% of earthquake energy on fault surfaces is given off as heat. Heat weakens rock and promotes earthquake rupture propagation. Thin (<0.5mm), high-gloss, "polished", light-reflective exposed fault surfaces are called fault mirrors (FMs). Fault mirrors may record rapid thermal, textural, and chemical changes that occur during an earthquake event.

The Wasatch Mountains are a N-S trending mountain range in Northern Utah that are the backdrop for Salt Lake City, Provo, Ogden, and Brigham City. This mountain range is currently built by the active Wasatch fault, and includes the exposed Wasatch fault damage zone. Many segments of the Wasatch fault are overdue for a potentially catastrophic …

Predicting The Impact Of Weather On Rural Travel Times Using Now-Cast Weather Forecast Data, Manish Meshram

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the states which record extreme weather conditions and high snow in winters, the travel time to drive between cities can get highly affected due to these bad weather conditions. The present solutions to tackle this problem are largely flow or time related and do not take weather conditions into account while making the predictions about travel time. Also these solutions can mostly be used for real time travel and not the future travel. In addition to that, the studies that have been done in this space are mostly for urban travel times but most parts of the interstate highways …

The Marshmallow Lab: A Project-Based Approach To Understanding Functional Responses, Melissa Pulley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This paper presents a three-part lesson plan to improve student’s understanding of Holling’s type II functional response model. This model describes the interaction between a predator and how much it is able to consume given a constant number of prey. According to the model, while increased availability of prey allows predators to consume portionately more prey for low values, after some number of prey, predators will only be able to capture a limited number of prey even as the prey continues to increase. This phenomenon is known as saturation. Holling first develop this important ecological theory through his “disc experiment” …

Using Imagery To Improve Program Quality In Computer Programming, Joseph S. Ditton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A common practice in sports is to review film footage of a game. This is done in the hope that individuals on the team or the a team as a whole might learning something about technique, form, process, or strategy that they either did well on or need to improve on. We believe that the benefits of doing this could extend to computer science, and more specifically, the process of writing a computer program. This has never been done in the past, as such this research is exploratory in nature. A new tool called Phanon can record someone writing a …

Extreme Ultraviolet Application Of Carbon Nanotube Structures, Scott Olsen, Richard Vanfleet, David Allred, Steve Turley

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Windows for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) sources are challenging because of the lack of transparent materials in these wavelengths. Thus, differential pumping apertures and slits are standard. Our group has developed a carbon nanotube (CNT) window consisting of a dense array of square holes. The open area allows a large range of wavelengths to be transmitted, and the high density of holes restricts gas flow, allowing a large pressure difference with differential pumping. The versatility of CNTs allows us to select the peak transmission and pressure ratio (low/high). We have observed pressure ratios of 0.000924, 0.000667, 0.000494, and 0.00118 for air …

Leveraging Commercial Nuclear Reactors To Power Space Exploration, Ben Johnson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

This study is aimed at exploring the adaptation of commercial nuclear reactors as an alternative to NASA’s current high-power fission reactor systems, particularly with respect to applications on the surface of Mars. The study concludes that while the Kilopower architecture is brilliantly poised to provide affordable, near-term power in the 1-10 kilowatts electric (kWe) range, the financial barrier to higher power scaling of such systems is significant. This financial barrier adds risk to the development of greater than 10kWe systems and is likely to result in the failure to successfully scale the technology to higher powers for space exploration applications. …

Internal Waves Generated From Asymmetric Topographies, Kyle Hakes

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Internal waves are a key part of the energy budget of the ocean and atmosphere. The generation of internal waves in the ocean from tides is dependent on the frequency of oscillation, the profile of the underwater mountain range, and the density of water in the surrounding ocean. A study of the effect of an asymmetric mountain range, with varying pro-files, on the generation of internal waves is presented. Results begin to indicate that the wave is mostly similar when generated on either side of the topography, but might extend to higher wavenumbers in Fourier space when generated on the …

Links Between Eruptive Styles, Magmatic Evolution, And Morphology Of Shield Volcanoes: Snake River Plain, Idaho, Katelyn J. Barton, Michelle Hurst

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Despite their similar ages and geographic locations, two low-shield volcanoes on the eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho, Kimama Butte (87 ka) and Rocky Butte (95 ka), have strikingly different profiles. In this study, these two volcanoes are examined to determine the connections between chemical composition, intensive parameters, eruption style, and topographic features of basaltic shield volcanoes. Because lava temperature, magma viscosity, and chemical composition overlap at the two volcanoes, they are probably not important controls on the differences in morphology. The main difference at the two shields, aside from general vent morphology, is the presence of late-stage, phenocryst-rich, high viscosity …

Resistivity Of Nickel Silicide Thin Films, Rylan Woods

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The characterization of resistivity within thin films is paramount for proper integration into modern electronics wherein they show promise as contact materials due to their low contact resistance and high conductivity. Nickel silicide compounds often form in microelectronics at intersections between nickel and silicon, traditionally forming as a variety of intermetallic compounds including NiSi, Ni₂Si, Ni₃Si, Ni₃Si₂, and NiSi₂. Within this study, nickel silicide thin films ranging in thickness from 25nm to 110nm were synthesized on a silicon wafer substrate utilizing vapor deposition at a temperature of 900°C in low …

A Miniaturized Multi Sensor Array For Balloon-Borne Air Measurements, Phase Ii, Drew Huber, Huiling (Renee) Xie, John E. Sohl, Jeffrey D. Page

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Weber State University’s High-Altitude Ballooning team, HARBOR, is developing a lightweight, flexible, expandable sensor array for both high-altitude balloon flight and low-altitude drone flight.

The system will have the following capabilities:

1.Gas sensor and air quality board/chamber:

a. Gases: CO, CO₂, NO₂, NH₃, SO₂, O₃, VOCs

b. Particulates: PM1, PM2.5, PM10.

2. Metrological data measurement suite:

a.Temperature, pressure (with two sensors), %RH.

b. Wind by proxy for balloon flights via the GPS.

3. Flight dynamics and geolocation suite:

a. High altitude GPS

b. 9-axis inertial measurement: acceleration, gyroscope, and magnetometer. …

Lunar Mining: Designing A Robust Robotic Mining System, Ted Goodell, James Ehlers, Rian Simpson, Tina Hayward, Ali Almiskeen, Logan Peterson, Joshua Miraglia, Alexander Charters, Palmer Clegg, Chandler Millar, Emerson Labon, Jonathan Warner, Matthew Cohen, Evan Cleveland, Jackson Dean, Todd Renner, Sergio Nunez, Pramit Chalise, Arthur Steur, Jake Erickson, Kenny Ho

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The annual NASA Robotic Mining Challenge: Lunabotics tasks teams with building robots capable of traversing and mining simulated Lunar terrain. The competition goal is to utilize automation and sensing alongside mechanical systems to harvest icy regolith (gravel) from beneath the satellite’s surface.

This year, Utah Student Robotics sought to improve upon the design from last year. The 2019-2020 rover is based on proven NASA concepts, such as the RASSOR 2.0 digging drum, and the Rocker-Bogie mobility platform.

What In Tarnation? Monitoring Animal Entrapments At The Rozel Tar Seeps, Mary Sanchez, Cayla Martin, Jaimi Butler, David Kimberly, Foad Yousef

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The Great Salt Lake (GSL) is one of the largest migratory stops for many species of birds in North America. At Rozel Point, along the banks of the Great Salt Lake, there are tar seeps where some species of birds have gotten entrapped and died. These petroleum seeps are both naturally occurring and human created. The temperature that the seeps become sticky, the possibility of prey animals drawing predators in, and the appearance of the tar seeps are all important aspects of why birds are drawn to these seeps. Using motion sensor cameras and temperature monitoring devices, the animals that …

Accuracy Of The Generic Equation To Convert Cci To Chlorophyll Concentration In The Apogee Model Mc-100 Chlorophyll Concentration Meter, Shuyang Zhen, Paul Kusuma

Techniques and Instruments

Chlorophyll strongly absorbs photons below 700 nm and transmits above 700 nm. Because of this property, chlorophyll concentration can be estimated by measuring the ratio of transmitted photons though a leaf at specific wavelengths. Chlorophyll concentration is then calculated using empirical relationships.

The Two Types Of Society: Computationally Revealing Recurrent Social Formations And Their Evolutionary Trajectories, Lux Miranda

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Comparative social science has a long history of attempts to classify societies and cultures in terms of shared characteristics. However, only recently has it become feasible to conduct quantitative analysis of large historical datasets to mathematically approach the study of social complexity and classify shared societal characteristics. Such methods have the potential to identify recurrent social formations in human societies and contribute to social evolutionary theory. However, in order to achieve this potential, repeated studies are needed to assess the robustness of results to changing methods and data sets. Using an improved derivative of the Seshat: Global History Databank, we …

Boolean Rank And Isolation Number Of N-Regular Tournaments, Matthew F. Deangelo

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

We examine Boolean rank and isolation number of a class of matrices, the adjacency matrices of regular tournaments. Boolean rank is defined as the minimum k such that a m x n matrix can be factored into m x k and k x n matrices, using Boolean arithmetic. Isolation number is defined as the maximum number of 1’s that do not share a row, column, or 2 x 2 submatrix of 1’s. Linear programming can be applied by using the underlying structure of the tournament matrices to develop a relationship between Boolean rank and isolation number. We show possible methods …

Semisimple Subalgebras Of Semisimple Lie Algebras, Mychelle Parker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Let g be a Lie algebra. The subalgebra classification problem is to create a list of all subalgebras of g up to equivalence. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a software toolkit within the Differential Geometry package of Maple for classifying subalgebras of In particular the thesis will focus on classifying those subalgebras which are isomorphic to the Lie algebra sl(2) and those subalgebras of which have a basis aligned with the root space decomposition (regular subalgebras).

Teaching Distributed Application Design Using Drones, Cameron Frandsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis provides a new platform that instructors can use to create a learning environment for students to learn how to design and implement distributed applications. One possible way to use the platform uses milestones to test the student’s understanding of different concepts. Milestones contain pretests that students can use to test their code. Each milestone focuses on a different concept, including interprocess communication, reliability, and security. A monitor process can be created by the students to provide away for the instructor to see how well the students are learning the concepts by using a monitor process. The platform gives …

Applications Of Machine Learning In High-Frequency Trade Direction Classification, Jared E. Hansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The correct assignment of trades as buyer-initiated or seller-initiated is paramount in many quantitative finance studies. Simple decision rule methods have been used for signing trades since many data sets available to researchers do not include the sign of each trade executed. By utilizing these decision rule methods, as well as engineering new variables from available data, we have demonstrated that machine learning models outperform prior methods for accurately signing trades as buys and sells, achieving state-of-the-art results. The best model developed was 4.5 percentage points more accurate than older methods when predicting onto unseen data. Since finance and economics …