17 students including 9 high school students enroll in and complete.
Presentations at the 2024 ASEE Annual Conference, Portland, OR, Jun. 2024
K. Chandra, O. Batarseh, S. Kraemer, E. Aoki, and F. Norceide, Integrating Model-Based Systems Engineering and Systems Thinking Skills in Engineering Courses, Systems Engineering Division Session: Systems Thinking.
K. Chandra, S. Tripathy, S. Lewis, and N. Sahila, Building Research, Teamwork and Professional Skills in an Engineering Summer Bridge Program: Reflections Towards an Allyship Model, Women in Engineering Division (WIED) Session: Leadership and Persistence.
Presentations at the 186th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Ottawa, CN, May 2024
Thompson and Chandra organized a special session “Cyber Threats and Acoustical Systems”.
C. Thompson, M. F. Nia, E. Aoki, F. Norceide, V. Tran, and K. Chandra, Nonlinear bone conducted hearing, Session 1pPA, Physical Acoustics: Cyber Threats and Acoustical Systems.
F. Castro, K. Chandra, and O. Arias, SoK: Sensor Wars: Attacks and Defenses on Acoustic Sensors, Session 1pPA, Physical Acoustics: Cyber Threats and Acoustical Systems.
V. Tran, K. Quinn, F. Norceide, E. Aoki, K. Chandra, and C. Thompson, Acoustic feature analysis of directional sound from parametric array speakers with application to mitigate attacks on voice-activated systems, Session 1pPA, Physical Acoustics: Cyber Threats and Acoustical Systems.
A. Keefe and C. Thompson, Acoustic streaming in the Cochlea resulting from periodic excitation, Session 1pPA, Physical Acoustics: Cyber Threats and Acoustical Systems.
Presentation at the 18th Annual IEEE SysCon 2024 Conference, Montreal, CN, April 2024
E. Aoki, B. Tran, F. Norceide, V. Tran, S. Sastry, C. Thompson, and K. Chandra, Integrating Software and Systems Engineering: A Framework for Human-Centric Design of Augmented Reality Applications, 2024 IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon), Montreal, QC, Canada, 2024.
Presentation at the 17th Annual IEEE SysCon 2023 Conference, Vancouver, CN, April 2023
E. Aoki, B. Tran, V. Tran, K. Soth, C. Thompson. S. Tripathy. K. Chandra, S. Sastry, Representing Augmented Reality Applications in System Modeling Language, 2023 IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon), Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2023, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/SysCon53073.2023.10131060.
Presentations at the 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Chicago, IL., May 2023
E. Aoki, P. Gandhi, F. Norceide, K. Chandra and C. Thompson, Model Based Spectral Features Analysis in Reverberant Acoustic Fields, Session 1aPA, Physical Acoustics: Acoustic Remote Sensing in Urban Environments.
N. Le, J.Y. Au, C. Thompson and K. Chandra, Synthesis of Non-uniformly Spaced Arrays, Session 5aPA: General Physical Acoustics II, Application, Measurements and Novel Effects.
Presentations at the 2023 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Baltimore, MD.
19 students including 10 high school students enroll in and complete RAMP.
Presentations at 183rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Nashville, TN, Dec. 2023
C. Thompson, M. Denis and K. Chandra, Acoustic Streaming in a Channel, in Physical Acoustics and Biomedical Acoustics: Acooustofluidics Session.
C. Thompson, S.Kamal, N. Shah and K. Chandra, Acoustic wave propagation in a toroid cavity carrying a steady flow, in General Topics in Physical Acoustics II Session.
G. Remillard, A. Keefe, N. Le, C. Thompson and K. Chandra, Room Acoustics: Connecting research, academics and mentoring, in Education in Acoustics: Connecting Industry and Education Session.
CACT Students complete MS and PhD Theses, May 2023
Pratik Gandhi completes PhD with dissertation on Acoustic Channel Modeling and Source Localization in Indoor Environments.
Most Paradorn completes MS research in EE with thesis on A Comparison of Maximum Length Sequence and Power Spectral Analysis of the Impulse Response of a Time-Invariant Linear System.
Sarah Kamal completes MS research in EE with thesis on Modeling the Fluid Flow through the Semi-Circular Canals of the Vestibular Systems.
Grace Remillard completes MS research in EE with thesis on Modeling Dynamics of a Tape Spring and Representation in System Modeling Language.
2022
Presentations at the 183rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Nashville, TN, December’22
Thompson co-chairs Acoustofluidics Sesssion
C. Thompson, M. Denis and K. Chandra, ‘Acoustic streaming in a channel,’ 1aPA5, in Acoustofluidics Session.
C. Thompson, S. Kamal, N. Shah, and K. Chandra, ‘Acoustic wave propagation in a toroid cavity carrying a steady flow,’ 4aPAb4, in General Topics in Physical Acoustics Session.
G. Remillard, A. Keefe, N. Le, C. Thompson and K. Chandra, ‘RAMP summer bridge: Room Acoustics: Connecting Research, Academics and Mentoring,’ 4pED6, in Connecting Industry and Education Session.
Future of Work with Augmented Reality: CACT Hosts Researchers from University of Akron, August’22
Dr. Bach Tran, UAkron, trains CACT students on Microsoft Hololens application development. Scenarios are designed for experiments with AR on the conveyor belt physical system.
Eight participants conduct AR experiments and take part in participatory action research focus groups with Dr. Tripathy.
RAMP 2022 in its fifth year, July-Aug, 2022
21 first-year students, 2 transfer students and 8 high school students enroll in and complete RAMP.
Chandra serves on NSF grantees panel in workshop on Engineering Education Funding Programs at NSF
Chandra, K., & Kershaw, T., & Tripathy, S., & Denis, M., & Allen, J., & Liu, H., & Yu, T., & Thompson, C. (2022, August), Work in Progress: Engaging Graduate Students as Co-creators of Educational Modules on an Interdisciplinary Topic Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. https://peer.asee.org/41517
E. Deterding, N. Agyeman, S. Tripathy, C. Keough, S. Lewis and K. Chandra, ‘Inclusive Teamwork: Using Participatory Action Research (PAR) to Improve Teamwork Projects in Intro to Mechanical Engineering,‘ Proc. 2022 Northeast ASEE Conference, 2022.
V. Paradorn, S. Singh Poma, N. Agyeman, T. Robinson, K. Chandra and S. Tripathy, ‘An Application Driven Framework for Delivering System and Product Life- Cycle Management Concepts in Engineering Education,’ Proc. 2022 Northeast ASEE Conference, 2022.
G. Remillard, S. Kamal, J. An, C. Thompson and K. Chandra, ‘Co-Creating a Cyber-Physical Systems Educational Module: A Project-Based Learning Approach‘, Proc. 2022 Northeast ASEE Conference, 2022.
Presentations at 182nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Denver, CO, May 2022
P. Gandhi, N. Uhunsere, A. Paul, K. Chandra and C. Thompson, ‘Exploiting spatio-temporal spectral features of the indoor acoustic field for sound source localization’, J. Acoustical Society of America, 151, A232, (2022).
C. Thompson, K. Chandra, E. Aoki and A. Keefe, ‘Acoustic Streaming in the Cochlea, J. Acoustical Society of America’, 151, A272, (2022).
CACT Students complete MS and PhD Theses
Emi Aoki completes MS research in EE with thesis on A Statistical Characterization of Covid-19 Infections Considering Population Density, Race and Ethnicity, and Poverty Rate as Covariates, May 2022.
Pratik Gandhi completes PhD dissertation on Acoustic Channel Modeling and Source Localization in Indoor Environments, December’22
2021
CACT students enter graduate programs and industry careers
Despite a disruptive year with Covid in 2020, CACT students successfully completed Master’s and Doctoral research and graduated in 2021.
Habibat Olimi defended her MS thesis and is currently employed at Intel Corporation as R&D Engineer
Flore Stécie Norcéide received her BS degree in Electrical Engineering and is currently pursuing her Ph.D at UMASS Lowell.
Sarah Kamal graduated with a BS EE degree and joined the MS program at UML
Russ Perkins graduated with a MS EE degree and continues in the PhD program at UML
Chandra and Tripathy serve on Deshpande Symposium Panel
Engaging Students and Industry: The Co-creation of Inclusive Learning Experiences in Engineering and Entrepreneurship Education: This panel explored two student-centered models for engaging industry professionals with students to promote early learning experiences that address entrepreneurship, teamwork, communication skills and mentorship. The Entrepreneurship Center at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School offers one example of this work in action — the Eship Scholars program — for other institutions that are looking to implement solutions to support high-potential entrepreneurs from traditionally underrepresented, underserved and underfunded backgrounds. The University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Research, Academics & Mentoring Pathways (RAMP)summer bridge program serves as an example of such a program in the field of engineering, with its focus on helping new female students and students of color be better prepared for the transition from high school to an undergraduate engineering degree program. Student participants from these programs will provide an overview of their experiences. The panel highlighted the various models of interaction between students, entrepreneurs and industry leaders that both Eship and RAMP have implemented.
ASEE 2021 Paper: Engaging Women Engineering Undergraduates as Peer Facilitators in Participatory Action Research Focus Groups (Tripathy, Chandra, Hsu, Li, Reichlen)
Nationally, the percentage of females enrolled in engineering degree pathways in four-year public universities has remained in the 15 – 20% range and that number for females who are also students of color is around 5%. With major efforts and financial resources having been applied to address this problem, there is currently a need to carefully identify and assess strategies and models that have demonstrably contributed to the persistence of women in engineering degree pathways. Among such models are the inclusion of counter spaces in STEM environments for underrepresented groups, peer mentors and mentoring opportunities as well as the students’ own agency in creating environments that promote belonging and success in the program. This study is part of a longitudinal effort that begins with a summer program offered to incoming female students in engineering majors and continues with opportunities and support for the participants to become engaged as peer mentors and focus group facilitators in subsequent years. Using the results of a survey on student experiences in engineering majors administered to all students in their junior and senior years, we analyze the responses from participants in the summer program with those from students who did not have this opportunity. We also analyze the agency of those who have participated in the summer program with respect to their engagement in mentoring, leadership roles and efforts in recruiting students and facilitating focus groups. We also use a participatory action research (PAR) approach to examine how student-driven program evaluation processes can be used to formulate action steps for program change and increase sense of belonging, personal agency, and engineering identity among engineering undergraduates
NSF Innovations in Graduate Education Award
NSF Future of Work Planning Grant Award
NSF S-STEM Award
UML Seed Grant for Inclusive Teamwork Design
July-August 2021: RAMP Program moves to hybrid mode with twenty new students beginning their engineering education
Fall 2021: Campus back to in-person program
2020
Covid-19 closes campus in March 2020 and after an extended spring break we settle into virtual classes.
Research investigated the application of Participatory Action Research (PAR) for Formative Assessment of the STEM Summer Bridge Program. Student perspectives and experiences were captured through four focus groups on topics geared towards creating psychologically safe spaces for sharing experiences, providing feedback on program activities and reflecting on personal goals, values and aspirations.
2019
Thompson and Denis co-chair Special Session on Acoustofluidics at the 2019 Annual Acoustical Society of American Conference
At the 169th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, a special session: Acoustofluidics: Interaction of Acoustics and Fluid Dynamic Phenomena Cochaired by Charles Thompson and Max Denis convened. The topics included Acoustic tweezers, steady streaming, and surface acoustic wave microfluidics. The following were invited Speakers: James Friend (University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA), Tony Jun Huang (The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA), Sadhal Satwindar (University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA), Charles Thompson (University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA), Siew-Wan OHL (Institute of High Performance Computing, Fusionopolis Way, Singapore).
This book examines the topics of applied mathematical functions to problems that engineers and researchers solve daily in the course of their work. The text covers set theory, combinatorics, random variables, discrete and continuous probability, distribution functions, convergence of random variables, computer generation of random variates, random processes and stationarity concepts with associated autocovariance and cross covariance functions, estimation theory and Wiener and Kalman filtering ending with two applications of probabilistic methods. Probability tables with nine decimal place accuracy and graphical Fourier transform tables are included for quick reference. The author facilitates understanding of probability concepts for both students and practitioners by presenting over 450 carefully detailed figures and illustrations, and over 350 examples with every step explained clearly and some with multiple solutions.
Linear and Nonlinear Control of Small-Scale Unmanned Helicopters (Raptis and Valavanis, Springer)
Helicopters are underactuated, highly nonlinear systems with significant dynamic coupling that needs to be considered and accounted for, during controller design and implementation. Most reliable mathematical tools for analysis of control systems relate to modern control theory. Modern control techniques are modeled-based since the controller architecture depends on the dynamic representation of the system to be controlled. Therefore, the flight controller design problem is tightly connected with the helicopter modeling.This book provides a step-by-step methodology for designing, evaluating and implementing efficient flight controllers for small-scale helicopters.
For graduate students in engineering and finance with basic knowledge of probability theory, this volume is designed to give a concise understanding of martingales, stochastic integrals, and estimation. It emphasizes applications. Many theorems feature heuristic proofs; others include rigorous proofs to reinforce physical understanding. Numerous end-of-chapter problems enhance the book’s practical value.After introducing the basic measure-theoretic concepts of probability and stochastic processes, the text examines martingales, square integrable martingales, and stopping times. Considerations of white noise and white-noise integrals are followed by examinations of stochastic integrals and stochastic differential equations, as well as the associated Ito calculus and its extensions. After defining the Stratonovich integral, the text derives the correction terms needed for computational purposes to convert the Ito stochastic differential equation to the Stratonovich form. Additional chapters contain the derivation of the optimal nonlinear filtering representation, discuss how the Kalman filter stands as a special case of the general nonlinear filtering representation, apply the nonlinear filtering representations to a class of fault-detection problems, and discuss several optimal smoothing representations.
This pocket book serves as an immediate reference for the various formulae encountered in linear systems, control systems, probability, communication engineering, signal processing, quantum mechanics, and electromagnetic field theory. It includes novel results on complex convolutions; clearly explains real and complex matrix differentiation methods; provides an unusual amount of orthogonal functions; and presents properties of Fourier series, Fourier transforms, Hilbert transforms, Laplace transforms, and z-transforms. Singular value decomposition techniques for matrix inversion are also clearly presented.
Partnerships with Industry and US Air Force (2017-2018)
CACT faculty, graduate students and post-doc partner with National Security Information Associates at Oak Ridge, TN on the Command and Control Display Equipment Requirements Specification for the Force Protection / Integrated Base Defense Security System program office in the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hanscom Air Force Base.
