Engineering Quarterly VOL.I. . . No.4
University of Mary
FREE
SUMMER 2019
W ELCOME ! Welcome to the last issue of Volume 1 of the Engineering Quarterly, a newsletter published four times a year by the University of Mary School of Engineering. In it we include articles from each of the four engineering majors that we currently offer on campus: Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Construction Management. We report on items and events of interest to engineering students and companies such as service and outreach activities in the community, scholarships, internships, guest speakers, and we even include assignment problems and projects that our students have completed as part of their course work. The EQ’s intended audience are engineers, engineering students, engineering alumni, future engineering students, and people working in fields closely related to engineering such as science, computing, and mathematics. As this is the Summer issue of EQ there are few student activities to report. The students are either away on internships or home with their families across the nation and the world. Therefore, in this issue, our articles mainly deal with program developments. We have started construction of our new engineering building and have moved into a temporary space in Bismarck where we will be for the next year until the new building is completed. We outline our engineering curriculum for each of our majors and we list the course requirements for each degree. We include a few articles that you may find interesting such as articles about Chaos Theory, a prison teaching program at the North Dakota State Penitentiary, concrete in ancient Rome, as well as problems you can try and a word-search puzzle to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Enjoy! Terry Pilling
N EW P ROFESSOR OF E LECTRICAL E NGINEERING Professor Khalid Oweis has joined our team starting this Fall and will be teaching Electrical Engineering courses. Dr. Oweis earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Khalid Oweis Electrical Engineering from the University of Jordan in 2002, his Master’s in Computer Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 2004, and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from George
Washington University in 2011 with a focus in Biomedical Engineering. His dissertation was titled Developmental Analysis of Activation Patterns in Language Region of Interests in the Human Brain for Healthy Subjects and Patients of Epilepsy: An fMRI study. Since 2012, Dr. Oweis has been a faculty member (and Chair) of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the American University of Madaba in Jordan. We are very happy to welcome Dr. Oweis to our school. This fall semester he will be teaching EEL 321 Electronics I, EEL 321L Electronics I Lab, and EEL 409 Power Systems I. A DJUNCT P ROFESSORS
The University of Mary School of Engineering considers it very important that our students get plenty of real world experience during their education. This comes from a number of sources including internships, Coops, design projects requested by companies, and also instruction by professionals from industry. Therefore we eagerly invite practicing engineers to come in and teach courses for us in their areas of expertise. We believe this is a valuable experience for the students and ensures that they are learning the cutting edge tools and techniques that are being used in today’s workplace. Below, we introduce you to the four Adjunct Professors who are joining us and teaching courses this fall. Nancy Barth earned her Associate degree in Arts at Sacramento City College in 1996, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geophysics from the University of Nancy Barth California at Berkeley in 2001, a Master of Science in Geology at California State University, Sacramento, in 2010, and a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa in 2018. Nancy currently works as a Hydrologist for the U.S.G.S in Bismarck and will be teaching our ECI 421 Hydrology course this fall. Dwight Hinkel earned his Associate of Arts degree in Business from Bismarck Junior College in 1970 along with certifications in Data ProcessDwight Hinkel ing, Systems Analysis, and Metal Fabrication. He followed this with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from NDSU in 1982. Dwight has been a Professional engineer since 1984 in North Dakota and since 1999 in Texas. Dwight founded Applied Engineering in 1985 and Applied Solutions, Inc. in 1990. Dwight will be teaching EME 425 Fluids Power Lab
this fall, a course which he designed and built using a generous equipment donation from Bobcat/Doosan in Bismarck. Dwight is also the author of a new book called Puppies, Lambs, Bunnies & Motorcycles which is available on Amazon. Tom Volkman earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Engineering Technology from DeVry Institute of Technology in Kansas City in Tom Volkman 1986, his Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 1999, and his EPSE diploma from the University of California, San Diego in 2007. Since 2000 Tom has been the Senior Principal Engineer for Hughes Network Systems, and since 2018 he works at National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) in Mandan. Tom will be teaching our EEL 452 and EEL 452L Embedded Systems course and lab. Wes Dickhut earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Geological Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1993 and his Master of Science in Geological Engineering from the UniverWes Dickhut sity of Idaho in 1999. Wes is a professional engineer in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming (formerly also licensed in New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky) and is currently Associate Principal Engineer at Braun Intertec Corporation in Bismarck. Wes has taught our Soil Science Lab course as well as our Earth Dynamics and Geophysics course here at Mary Engineering since the Fall of 2017 and this fall he will be teaching ECI 444 Contracts and Specifications. N EW P ROFESSOR OF P HYSICS Professor Tony Musumba has joined our Physics department starting in the Fall. Dr. Musumba earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Moi University, Kenya, in Tony Musumba 1995, his Master of Philosophy in Physics from Moi University in 2001, and his PhD in Physics from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2008 where he specialized in Space Science with dissertation entitled Mid-Latitude F-Region studies using ISS-B and DE-2 satellite observations. Tony taught at Bismarck State College from 2008 until he joined our physics department this year. Physics is an important part of the edu-
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cation of all of our engineering students and we are excited to work with Tony on student course design and research projects.
SENIOR ASSESSMENT:
Common Core Requirements (taken by all majors) HUM 122/ELA 110 First Year Experience Seminar (with Presidents Seminar) ENG 121 Composition II COM 110 Oral Communication ART: ART ART ART ART ART COM ENG THR MUS MUS MUS
108 116 121 127 210 200 140 105 196 211 212
SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING Introduction to Photography Introduction to Film Art of Rome and Paris (Rome campus) Introduction to Drawing Topics in Textile Arts Visual Communication Introduction to Narrative Acting Technique I Introduction to Music Concert Band (3 semesters) Concert Choir (3 semesters)
GLOBAL STEWARDSHIP: POL 101 Responsible Citizenship and one of the following: ANT 171 Cultural Anthropology SOC 107 General Sociology HIS 103/104 Western Civilization and World History I or II ECN 101 Economics of Social Issues CTH/HIS 330 Catholicism & The Modern World CLA/HIS 311 Grandeur of Rome (Rome campus) Language (any 300 level or above) THEOLOGY: THE 120 Search for God THE/CTH 234 Benedict - yesterday & today
Electrical Engineering Degree Requirements
HUM 499 senior assessment
T HE E NGINEERING C URRICULUM
Over the past four years, as we have been developing our engineering program, we have interviewed numerous companies and organizations who have an interest in hiring our graduates, we have closely examined the courses and outcomes of other top engineering schools across the nation, and we have discussed and debated the courses and degree paths among ourselves in order to design the best possible collection of courses which would satisfy the requirements of ABET as well as prepare our graduates for the greatest chance of success. Our courses have therefore evolved significantly since we began the Engineering program and we now have a fairly stable collection of courses in each of our majors which have been vetted by professors, students, and engineers from industry. Starting in Fall of 2020, our degree requirements will be as given below. We begin by listing the common core requirements in the arts and humanities which are taken by all students regardless of their major. We follow this with the requirements for each of the specific majors: Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. Please note that our Construction Management program is still being developed and has the first 5 semesters completed thus far. We will outline the degree requirements for that degree in a future issue of the Engineering Quarterly.
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Civil Engineering Degree Requirements MAT 209 Calculus I CHE 111 General Inorganic Chemistry I ENR 101 Introduction to Engineering ENR 200 Computer Applications in Engineering MAT 210 Calculus II ENR 210 Computer Aided Measurements PHY 251 Engineering Physics I PHY 251L Engineering Physics I Lab MAT 211 Calculus III PHY 252 Engineering Physics II PHY 252L Engineering Physics II Lab ENR 201 Engineering Mechanics I ECI 313 General Surveying with Lab ENR 280 Engineering Design Lab I ECI 202 Civil Engineering and Sustainability ENR 203 Engineering Mechanics II ENR 203L Engineering Mechanics II Lab GEOL 203 Earth Dynamics & Geophysics ENR 281 Engineering Design Lab II MAT 334 Differential Equations ENR 338 Advanced Engineering Mathematics ECI 301 Civil Engineering Materials Lab ENR 306 Fluid Mechanics ECI 351 Structural Mechanics with Lab ECI 412 Soil Mechanics with Lab ECI 416 Transportation Engineering ECI 431 Water Resources with Lab ECI 432 Environmental Engineering w Lab ECI 451 Steel Design ENR 419 Engineering Data Analysis ECI 453 Reinforced Concrete Design ECI 482 Civil Engineering Design Project ECI 4xx Technical Elective 1 ENR 498 FE Exam Preparation ECI 4xx Technical Elective 2 ECI 444 Contracts and Specifications ENR 460 Engineering Economy ENR 470 Engineering Ethics ENR 488 Senior Design
MAT CHE ENR ENR ENR PHY PHY MAT MAT PHY PHY ENR EEL EEL ENR PHY ENR EEL EEL MAT ENR EEL EEL EEL EEL EEL EEL EEL ENR ENR EEL EEL EEL EEL EEL ENR EEL EEL ENR EEL ENR ENR ENR EEL
TECHNICAL ELECTIVES ECI ECI ECI ECI
404 414 421 4xx
Civil Engineering Internship Foundation Engineering Hydrology Pavement Design and Mgt w Lab
Mechanical Engineering Degree Requirements MAT CHE ENR ENR MAT ENR PHY PHY MAT PHY PHY EME ENR ENR ENR ENR ENR ENR ENR PHY MAT ENR EME EME ENR EME ENR ENR EME EME EME EME EME ENR EME EME EME ENR ENR ENR ENR EME
209 Calculus I 111 General Inorganic Chemistry I 101 Introduction to Engineering 200 Computer Applications in Engineering 210 Calculus II 210 Computer Aided Measurement 251 Engineering Physics I 251L Engineering Physics I Lab 211 Calculus III 252 Engineering Physics II 252L Engineering Physics II Lab 298 Manufacturing Technologies Lab 201 Engineering Mechanics I 280 Engineering Design Lab I 304 Computer Aided Analysis 203 Engineering Mechanics II 203L Engineering Mechanics II Lab 206 Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering 281 Engineering Design Lab II 253 Engineering Physics III 334 Differential Equations 306 Fluid Mechanics 322 Design of Machinery 305 System Dynamics 338 Advanced Engineering Mathematics 301 Materials Science 405 Control Systems 405L Control Systems Lab 418 Manufacturing Processes 341 Thermodynamics I 483 Mechanical Measurements Lab 487 Mechanical Engineering Design Project 4xx Technical Elective 1 419 Engineering Data Analysis 323 Machine Component Design 323L Machine Component Design Lab 441 Thermodynamics II 498 FE Exam Preparation 460 Engineering Economy 488 Senior Design 470 Engineering Ethics 474 Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer
209 Calculus I 111 General Inorganic Chemistry I 101 Introduction to Engineering 200 Computer Applications in Engineering 210 Computer Aided Measurements 251 Engineering Physics I 251L Engineering Physics I Lab 210 Calculus II 211 Calculus III 252 Engineering Physics II 252L Engineering Physics II Lab 304 Computer Aided Analysis 206 Circuits I 206L Circuits I Lab 280 Engineering Design Lab I 253 Engineering Physics III 281 Engineering Design Lab II 313 Circuits II 313L Circuits II Lab 334 Differential Equations 338 Advanced Engineering Mathematics 321 Electronics I 321L Electronics Laboratory I 314 Signals and Systems 314L Signals and Systems Lab 316 Electric & Magnetic Fields 421 Electronics II 421L Electronics Laboratory II 405 Control Systems 405L Control Systems Lab 462 Digital Systems with Lab 409 Power Systems I 452 Embedded Systems 452L Embedded Systems Lab 480 Electrical Engineering Design Project 419 Engineering Data Analysis 4xx Technical Elective 1 461 Advanced Programming 498 FE Exam Preparation 4xx Technical Elective 2 488 Senior Design 460 Engineering Economy 470 Engineering Ethics 4xx Technical Elective 3 TECHNICAL ELECTIVES:
EEL EEL EEL ENR
401 404 410 450
Electric Drives Lab Electrical Engineering Internship Power Systems II Robotics
N EW E NGINEERING B UILDING The demolition of our engineering facilities on campus began in May as soon as the
students had left for the summer. The new building construction will take place over the course of a year with completion in June of next year. We moved the entire engineering school, including offices, lab equipment, and classrooms, to our new temporary location at the BismarckBurleigh Public Health Building in Bismarck.
PHILOSOPHY: TECHNICAL ELECTIVES: PHI 108 Search for Truth and one of the following: PHI 208/308 Philosophical Ethics PHI/CTH 210 Search for Happiness: Faith and Reason in Life.
EME EME EME EME EME ENR
404 455 461 462 406 450
Mechanical Engineering Internship Fluid Power Lab Vibrations Finite Element Method Advanced Systems Modeling Robotics
We will be using the lower level of that building to hold our classes and labs for the next two semesters until Fall, 2020, when our permanent facility on campus is completed. We have retained a laboratory facility, classroom,
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and machine shop on campus where we will continue to hold some of our courses and store our large equipment such as Universal Testing Machines, Mills, Lathes, CNC Routers, as well as our wood shop and metals shop.
The electronics laboratories, computer programming lab, as well as construction management labs with large scale blueprints printer and scanners will be located in the temporary facility and all of our Junior and Senior level courses will be held there. The Freshman courses will continue to be held entirely on campus while the Sophomore level courses are split between campus and the Bismarck facility. The engineering part of the temporary building is entirely contained on the lower level and the upper floors will continue to be occupied by companies and various other organizations. A bus service has been arranged to transport the students to and from the main campus. We also have a kitchen and dining room available in the space for students to hang out and eat between classes. Of course, being right in downtown Bismarck, there are plenty of restaurants near by for students to walk to as well.
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The kids enjoyed playing with the science and engineering focused hands-on displays for a couple of hours before going to the game. One thing that we discovered during this event as well as others we have attended, such as Discover Engineering, is that young children respond best to hands-on items and it also helps if the activities involve several kids at the same time. For example, one of the items that was very popular at our table was plastic water bottles that we filled with water and iron filings. We had several powerful neodymium magnets that the kids could then use to mold, move, and shape the filings through the side of the bottle. This allowed them to see the magnetic field from the magnets and learn how to manipulate things with it. We also had an electric generator but I think we need to put a bit more work into that one to make it more interesting to kids. One of our goals for the comming school year is to put some time into designing better display activities and give-aways which will help the younger generations become more interested in science and engineering.
I DENTIFY THIS P HOTOGRAPH
By symmetry, the CofM must lie on the angular bisector of the slice.
(a) Compute the mass of the slice of the pizza. [H INT: dm = σ0 dA = σ0 r dr dθ] (b) Re-express the mass of the slice in terms of MT . (c) Compute the mass-weighted distance of the pizza elements projected onto the angular bisector of the slice. [H INT: Mass elements with the same r, but different θ, do NOT contribute equally to the mass-weighted sum.]
(d) Determine the mass-weighted average position of the pizza elements by dividing the result in (c) by the mass of the slice, determined in (a).
By MATTHEW SCERBAK
(e) Confirm your result by taking the limits: (i) Θ0 → 0, (ii) Θ0 → π, (iii) Anyone who is interested in the Fibonacci Θ0 → 2π Sequence or Fractals will find this photograph absolutely fascinating. What is it? FPGA V ERILOG PROBLEM By TERRY PILLING
Build a combinational circuit for an FPGA written in Verilog. The circuit should have four inputs, in[3:0], and three outputs: out and: output of a 4-input AND gate, out or: output of a 4-input OR gate, and out xor: output of a 4-input XOR gate.
BASIN E LECTRIC E NERGY E DUCATION DAY By RODRIGO DA COSTA APARECIDO
Here is the start of the solution, try to complete it:
On Wednesday, June 12, Basin Electric Power Cooperative put on their annual Energy Education Day.
PK’ S P IZZA P ROBLEM By PATRICK KELLY
The ONE - HANDED PIZZA GRAB is a common foraging technique, performed by undergraduate students around the world, in which one grasps a pizza slice directly beneath its centre of mass [CofM] so as to reduce the likelihood of the toppings sliding off. Our goal is to ascertain the location of the CofM of a pizza slice, employing the following model. The event was held at the Bismarck Larks baseball game where a number of different companies and organizations were there to explain the science and technology of energy to elementary school students who were bused in to see the baseball game.
/
module top_module( input [3:0] in, output out_and, output out_or, output out_xor );
S TATICS P ROBLEM By ERIC GARCIA
The entire pizza has total mass MT , radius R, area A = π R2 , and an effecAt its worst state, the angle of inclinatively constant areal mass density, σ0 . tion of the leaning tower of Pisa reached of / The slice is a circular wedge with an- 5.5 degrees from the global vertical (y-axis) gular width Θ0 = 2 × θ0 and radius R. and stayed in equilibrium without collapsing.
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In this problem assume that: - the tower reaches 60m high. - the tower is a hollow cylinder for the first 7 floors with the cross-section shown. - the top floor is half the weight of the other floors (i.e. height of the floor is the same as the rest, but its volume is half of the others.) - the tower is completely made of Tuscan marble that has a density of 2600kg/m3 . - the weight of the tower acts at the center of gravity with the coordinates x = 12m and y = 30m. - a lateral wind force of 1620 kN acts at the mid-height (y=30m) of the tower, from left to right. - all reactions at the base are acting a fixed support at point A (x=9m, y=0). Determine: (a) Volume of the tower’s marble shell using the cross-section given. (b) Mass of the tower’s marble shell (c) Total weight of the tower’s marble shell (d) All of the unknown reactions at the base that would keep this tower in equilibrium.
C HAOS T HEORY By TERRY PILLING
Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics which explores the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. This sensitivity results in unpredictive behavior even though the equations themselves are completely deterministic. The subject of Chaos has been made popular among the general public in Hollywood movies such as The Butterfly Effect, Sliding Doors, About Time, Jurasic Park, and others. In the conventional equations of physics, if we take measurements of the state of a system – for example, the position and velocity of a projectile – we can very precisely determine where it will be in the future. This is behavior that we have come to expect from large classes of systems in nature and is, in fact, the reason why science works! If knowing the current state of a system did not allow prediction of future states we would not have discovered the laws of nature in the first place. On the other hand, we also see chaotic systems in nature. Examples are the double pendulum, the logistic model of population growth (for certain parameter values), and the Lorenz Attractor model of the weather. Even the solar system is a chaotic system if you
try to predict too far ahead. The thing I find most interesting about these systems is that they are based on deterministic equations. In other words, if we knew the current state of the system exactly we could use the equations to predict the future state exactly as well. With chaotic systems, the sensitivity to small variations in the initial conditions is why they become upredictable. Our technology can never measure the current state of any system exactly down to infinitely many decimal places. In the case of the double pendulum we can’t get the exact initial angle and even being off by a teeny tiny amount in measuring the initial angle will result in a huge difference in the final position after only a short time. With the weather, the situation is even worse in that there are just too many particles making up the atmosphere for us to have any hope of measuring their initial states. Commercial aircraft are aerodynamically stable, so that a small turbulent nudge wont push the plane out of a level flight path. On the other hand, this stability is somewhat of an inconvenience to fighter pilots who prefer their aircraft to make rapid changes with minimal effort. Modern fighter jets achieve great maneuverability by virtue of being aerodynamically unstable the slightest nudge is enough to drastically alter their flight path. They are equipped with on-board computers which constantly adjust the flight surfaces to cancel out the unwanted chaotic effects, leaving the pilot free to exploit the sensitivity and make rapid moves in short time periods. So what is the value of studying Chaos Theory if we can never get exact predictions? Well, it turns out that there are patterns which emerge and allow us to extract valuable information about the system without needing to know exact initial numbers. In the Lorenz model of atmospheric convection we find regions of the solution space dubbed Strange Attractors. These are regions where the system will have a higher probability of finding itself even within the overall chaos. So the key to unlocking the hidden structure of a chaotic system is to determine its preferred set of behaviors – its attractors. The mathematician Ian Stewart used the following example to illustrate an attractor. Imagine taking a ping-pong ball far out into the ocean and letting it go. If released above the water it will fall, and if released underwater it will float. No matter where it starts, the ball will immediately move in a very predictable way towards its attractor, the ocean surface. Once there it clings to its attractor as it is buffeted to and fro in a literal sea of chaos, and quickly moves back to the surface if temporarily thrown above or dumped below the waves. Though we may not be able to predict exactly how a chaotic system will behave moment to moment, knowing the attractor allows us to narrow down the possibilities and it also allows us to accurately predict how the system will respond if it is jolted off its attractor. One important application of this lies in understanding your heartbeat. The millions of cells that make up your heart are constantly contracting and relaxing separately as part of an intricate chaotic system with complicated attractors. These millions of cells must work in sync, contracting in just the right sequence
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at just the right time to produce a healthy heartbeat. Fortunately, this intricate state of synchronization is an attractor of the system – but it is not the only one. If the system is jolted somehow, it may find itself on an altogether different attractor called fibrillation, in which the cells constantly contract and relax in the wrong sequence. The purpose of a defibrillator, the device that applies a large voltage of electricity across the heart, is not to “restart” the heart cells as such, but rather to give the chaotic system enough of a kick to move it off the fibrillating attractor and back to the healthy heartbeat attractor. What we would like to do in this article is explore the attractor of a chaotic system. We will start by simulating such a system on a computer and then we will build an electric circuit that models the same system. The attractor that we are going to explore here is a famous one called the “Lorenz Attractor” named after meteorologist Edward Lorenz who found it while studying weather patterns. The Lorentz Attractor is described by the following system of differential equations: dx = s(y − x) dt dy = rx − y − xz dt dz = xy − bz dt where s, r, and b are constant parameters. As usual, the way we will simulate differential equations is to first discretize the time into steps of size ∆t and write our differential equations as ∆x = s(y − x) ∆t ∆y = rx − y − xz ∆t ∆z = xy − bz ∆t where ∆x = xn+1 −xn is the change in x during the nth time interval ∆t and similarly for ∆y and ∆z. Our system of equations then becomes a system we can iterate on a computer: xn+1 = xn + s(yn − xn )∆t yn+1 = yn + (rxn − yn − xn zn ) ∆t zn+1 = zn + (xn yn − bzn ) ∆t Here is a computer program written in C which simulates these equations: lorenz-attractor.c / / s i m u l a t i n g the Lorenz attractor differential equations : / / dx / d t = s ( y−x ) / / dy / d t = rx−y−x z / / d z / d t = xy−b z # i n c l u d e < s t d i o . h> # i n c l u d e < s t d l i b . h> # define # define # define # define # define
dt 0.001 TIME 1 0 0 . 0 X0 1 Y0 1 Z0 1
i n t main ( i n t a r g c , char ∗∗ a r g v ){ i f ( a r g c != 4) { f p r i n t f ( s t d e r r , ”USAGE : %s s
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screen. As students in our electrical engineering program discover in their electronics courses, differential equations can be solved } f l o a t s = a t o f ( argv [ 1 ] ) ; by operational amplifiers. This is one of the f l o a t r = a t o f ( argv [ 2 ] ) ; main uses of op amps and comes from the fact f l o a t b = a t o f ( argv [ 3 ] ) ; that they can be set up as differentiators, intef l o a t t , x=X0 , y=Y0 , z=Z0 ; grators, and summers. We use these when we design control systems circuits and allow us f o r ( t = 0 . 0 ; t <TIME ; t += d t ) { x = x + s ∗ ( y−x ) ∗ d t ; to control everything from chemical refineries y = y + ( r ∗x−y−x∗ z ) ∗ d t ; and thermostats to cars and fighter jets using z = z + ( x ∗y−b ∗ z ) ∗ d t ; them. It all comes down to differential equaf p r i n t f ( s t d o u t , ”%f \ t%f \ t%f \ t tions. %f \n ” , t , x , y , z ) ; So how do we recreate our system of dif} return 0; ferential equations for the Lorenz Attractor } using operational amplifiers? Let’s review some electronics theory. Here is an operaIf you run the program with param- tional amplifier wired as an integrator. eters s = 10, r = 28 and b = 2.66 and plot the resulting output as a z versus x you find the following pic− x ture which shows the Lorenz Attractor. r b\ n ” , a r g v [ 0 ] ) ; return 1;
+
The theory of ideal op amps tells us that no current flows into the op amp through either the + or the − terminals. Hence the node voltage method (i.e. current conservation) at the negative input gives the current through the capacitor as iC = −a/R. The element law for the capacitor gives
You see that there are two regions around dx which x(t) and z(t) cycle but that the actual (1) iC = −C dt values, at any given time step, are unpredictably chaotic. and so, with the op amp wired like this, the For the remainder of this article, we want output voltage x satisfies the equation: to get out our circuit boards and see if we can dx a = (2) get this picture to show up on an oscilloscope dt RC
W ORD P UZZLE COMMEMORATING THE 50 TH A NNIVERSARY OF THE 1969 A POLLO 11 M OON L ANDING Y S V R J Y F O R T Y S E V E N W S I X N R
T G A E C F T N O I T C A R F E R Z Z O V M
N M K T I O A I L V L D J L O O P L R I H W
E V Y R U L M D L I N I Y A R M S T R O N G
C D E O D R D M Q I T I E O M A H E S N A A
S Z T R T Q N R U T U T L N L A E F S G M M
E G I E T T T V A N L Q L P M F L Y I A S K
R N M F Z Z U B R S I Q N E P V K D D F H U
C O E L I L A G A Q E O R A W E I N R O T P
B L U E W A X I N G X I N W R E Z E I I O H
C A P C O M T R T D C N S E I T S D T P N G
Y R I T R E S M I A T T S M X L X T E N B Y
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
first astronaut first name (4 letters) second astronaut first name (5 letters) third astronaut first name (7 letters) second astronaut nickname (4 letters) second astronaut lastname (6 letters) third astronaut lastname (7 letters) landing site name (11 letters)
T B A O N A S N N L R U E D O D C L G L A A
M N W R L U E A E J O N K E R M G D N W I M
G B O G O C V R D H Y C R R C A E I O B P R
R H U B L I B B G D O G L D E O X T M V A L
W O B I A I P N T T S E R N E O L U E Y E D
D I P T S A I E S E A W W U N E L L L R S R
G S I T U T K D D H T Y V H M O R E I E Y R
E O R L S C O W C Y C Q W R C M I H D N D M
N A V E O O I I Q A O G G O M G A I T B S Q
B I W R W N M J J W M J R U H F T N L E Y W
8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32.
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If we now wire two sources to the integrator in the following way x −y
−
x
+
we get a a summer integrator circuit which solves the following differential equation dx = s(y − x) dt where s = 1/RC. Which is exactly the first of the differential equations we want to solve for the Lorenz Attractor. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out how to get the other two differential equations. The only added complication is that they involve the products of voltages xz and xy. To get these we use an integrated circuit called an analog multiplier. The one that I used is called an MPY634 produced by Texas Instruments and you simply input the two voltages that you want to multiply and the output will be the product of the voltages divided by a scale factor of 10. You can then input this into op amp integrators similar to the ones above and fix the resistor and capacitor values to give you the parameters s = 10, r = 28, and b = 2.66. Finally, you take the outputs x and z and feed them into an oscilloscope set to x − y mode and you will see the Lorenz Attractor appear on the screen.
command module name (8 letters) main rocket engine (7 letters) astronaut was also an engineer (6 letters) abbreviation for capsule communications personnel (6 letters) lunar module name (5 letters) president made phone call from oval office to lunar surface (5 letters) war protests at Harvard 3 months before moon landing (7 letters) released their first album the year of the moon landing (2 words, 10 letters) giant outdoor concert 1 month after moon landing (9 letters) number of days journey to the moon (5 letters) ship that picked up the crew after splash down (6 letters) number of pounds of moon rocks brought home (2 words, 11 letters) device left on the moon to take seismic measurements (11 letters) device left on moon to precisely measure Earth-Moon distance (*****reflector) engineering company designed and built the lunar lander (7 letters) engineering company designed and constructed the Command Service Module (3 letter acronym) engineering company designed and constructed the second stage of the Saturn V rocket (21 letters, same company as above) engineering company designed and built the large engine on the Saturn V (10 letters) engineering company built the real time computers for Mission Control (3 letter acronym, computers) engineering company designed and build the third stage of the Saturn V (7 letters, now called McDonnell-Douglas) engineering company designed and build the astronaut space suits (ILC D***r) engineering company designed and built the guidance systems for the lunar module (2 letters, General Motors) engineering company designed and built the Engine Compartment Conditioning System for the Saturn V second stage (8 letters, blimp) engineering company designed and built the space kitchen and freeze dried food (9 letters) engineering company designed and built the lunar camera (12 letters, electric corporation)
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33. engineers and geologists from this organization made the first detailed maps of the lunar surface (4 letter acronym)
53. ocean effect caused by moon (5 letters)
34. four ******* thousand engineers worked on the moon landing project
55. the moon is the ***** largest satellite in the solar system (5 letters)
35. earth gravity is this many times higher than moon gravity
56. satellite communications (6 letter abbreviation)
36. how did the three astronauts of the Apollo One mission die in 1967? (4 letters)
54. darkside of the moon album (2 words, 9 letters)
3D F OOTPRINTS ON THE M OON
37. orange drink astronauts drank while in space for the Apollo missions (4 letters) 38. name of the crater near the lunar landing site for Apollo 11 (l*******st) 39. who did Buzz Aldrin punch in the face in 2002? (2 words, just Google it) 40. This astronaut was an Eagle Scout? (9 letters) 41. Buzz Aldrin performed this religious ritual on the moon (9 letters) 42. the astronauts were *********** for two weeks after arriving back on Earth (11 letters) 43. pope who blessed the crewmen of Apollo 11 (****VI) 44. different shapes of the moon are called (6 letters) 45. once in a **** moon (4 letters) 46. a type of moon shape (8 letters, thin) 47. moon phase meaning “getting bigger” (6 letters) 48. moon phase just after first quarter (7 letters)
Each of the pictures above was taken from a slightly different position to create a stereo-graphic image. Squint your eyes and try to 50. moon covers sun (7 letters) 51. scattering of sunlight in the Earth’s atmosphere (named after Lord focus the two pictures simultaneously until they merge into a single 3R******h) D image of the astronaut’s footprint. It is very cool when you manage 52. bending light through material (10 letters) to do it. 49. discovered craters on the moon (7 letters, b. 1564)
W HY ROMAN CONCRETE LASTS FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS AND OURS FOR ONLY FIFTY By MATTHEW SCERBAK
Have you ever wondered, while driving under bridges or overpasses, why you see spalled concrete and exposed rebar? In other words, why modern concrete seems to break down after only fifty years while Roman concrete structures are still standing after 2,000? Engineers and scientists have puzzled over this question for a long time. Why does Roman concrete get stronger with time unlike modern concrete? Progress anyone? The precise formulation of Roman cement, the critical element in concrete (aggregate and water being the other two ingredients) has actually been a puzzle for much longer than you might think. Few people realize that after the fall of Rome in 476 AD, knowledge of the ingredients of Roman cement were lost to time, and western civilization was without concrete as a building material for over 1,000 years. The great cathedral of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, which sought to best one of the most brilliant concrete structures of all time - the Roman Pantheon - by building its dome just a few feet in diameter larger than the dome of the Pantheon, was done entirely in brick masonry. That was in 1420, and serious tinkering with cement mixtures did not begin until the 16th Century. Modern Portland cement came into use in the 1850’s, not too long before the American Civil War, but these developments were independent of any knowledge of what the Romans used to make their concrete. Scientists did know one thing about Roman concrete: it contained a very rare hydrothermal mineral called aluminum tobermorite (Al-tobermorite). Gradually developing over decades and then centuries, it was this mineral structure that gave Roman concrete its strength. Al-tobermorite could be reproduced in a laboratory, but the question was
how was it incorporated into concrete, accomplished in the field, and on a Roman job site? The answer, discovered by scientists in 2017, turned out to be surprisingly - if not stunningly simple, the kind of thing that is missed although it was there in full view all along. The Romans used seawater instead of regular water in their concrete mix. The seawater percolated through the cement matrix and reacted with volcanic ash and crystals to form Al-tobermorite and a porous mineral called phillipsite. Since these two minerals take centuries to form, scientists and engineers are trying to develop formulations that take much less time. Saltwater presents problems with the iron reinforcing in modern concrete which is something the Romans did not use (this makes their achievements even more remarkable). The Pantheon was completed in 126 AD, but perhaps before 2,000 years have elapsed, we’ll see a modern version of Roman concrete, a concrete that not only lasts but gets stronger with time.
S OLUTION TO P HOTOGRAPH P ROBLEM
The photograph is a plant called a Romanesco Cauliflower. I saw it at a farmers market in Fairbanks, Alaska. I asked the producer if they could bring back some large pristine ones the following week, which they did, and so I bought one took it home to photograph. They also invited me to come out to their farm and photograph anything I liked, and so I did that on several occasions. They had a large variety of beautiful and unusual vegetables, plants, and flowers. Wikipedia says the Romanesco Cauliflower has been cultivated in Italy since the the 16th Century. I was stunned by the cross between mathematics and vegetable in this plant, which, by the way, tastes exactly like cauliflower although it is technically in a category all it’s own. It is also referred to as Romanesco Broccoli.
S OLUTION TO PK’ S P IZZA P ROBLEM (a) σ0 θ0 R2 (b)
Θ 2π
(c)
2 3
(d)
2 sin(θ0 ) 3 θ0
MT =
θ π
MT
σ0 sin(θ0 ) R3 R
(e) (i) 32 R, (ii)
4R , 3π
(iii) 0
S OLUTION TO V ERILOG P ROBLEM
module top_module( input [3:0] in, output out_and, output out_or, output out_xor ); assign out_and = in[0]&in[1]&in[2]&in[3]; assign out_or = in[0]|in[1]|in[2]|in[3]; assign out_xor = in[0]ˆin[1]ˆin[2]ˆin[3]; endmodule S OLUTION TO S TATICS P ROBLEM (a) Vf loor = (π92 − π6.52 )(60m/8) = 913m3 ΣVT otal = (Vf loor ×7)+(Vf loor /2) = 6848m3 (b) mtotal = Vtotal × ρ = 6848m3 × 2600kg/m3 = 17, 804, 800kg (c) W = mg = 1.75 × 105 kN (d) ΣFx = 0 = (1620kN )(30m) + Ax ⇒ Ax = 1620kN ← ΣFy = 0 = Ay − 1.75 × 105 kN ⇒ Ay = 1.75 × 105 kN ↑ ΣM = 0 = (1620kN )(30m) + (1.75 × 105 kN )(3m) + MA ⇒ MA = 573, 600KN m
VOL.I. . . No.4
B RINGING H IGHER E DUCATION TO THE S TATE P ENITENTIARY By TERRY PILLING
A little over a year ago, I initiated a prison teaching program at the North Dakota State Penitentiary (NDSP), a maximum security facility located in Bismarck, which currently houses 732 inmates. The program has university professors volunteering to teach college courses free of charge to the prisoners inside the facility. I began last summer by teaching a course on mathematical games to test the waters and see how things work in there. First, I contacted Tom Petrik who was the Community Resource Manager at the NDSP at the time1 .
Tom put me in touch with Stephanie Kuehn who is the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DOCR) Principal in charge of prison education. Stephanie and I have worked together since then to build and improve the higher education volunteer program. The goal is to have courses and degree opportunities for inmate students which are free of charge and taught by university professors on a volunteer basis. In other words, there is no cost to either the inmates or the prison itself. The first course I taught, on mathematical games, was not offered for college credit, but was just a test run to see how things would work and what the students are like. Entering the prison, you first go through a metal detector followed by a series of doors and gates, each of which requiring a wait until the guard, who is watching via the video cameras, releases the latches remotely, until eventually you arrive at the entrance to the NDSP education department. Incredibly, once you enter the door to the school area, it looks exactly as if you are in a high school. There are white boards, desks, and books, with teachers teaching and students studying. Next to the school is the NDSP library which contains a collection of books which have been purchased or donated to the prison. Most of the books which the inmates can check out and read are paperback fiction novels but there are also some non-fiction and educational books. I even found a shelf containing interesting books on physics and mathematics such as Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe, and Roger Penrose’s The Road To Reality. I met the teachers and discovered that one of them, Sean, who is teaching mathematics in the prison, is a former student of mine from NDSU. Sean showed me to my classroom 1
Engineering Quarterly SUMMER 2019 while at the same time reminding me about how ridiculously impossible my physics exams were back at NDSU. Haha. The students arrived, each dressed in identical prison clothing, and took their seats. They were selected for participation in the course from among all those who expressed interest in the course using a ‘best behavior first method’ where those on the top of the good behavior list were the first ones allowed to enroll in the course. The students were enthusiastic learners and constantly asked questions, absorbing knowledge like sponges. One of the students, Thomas, became completely fascinated and absorbed by an unsolved mathematics problem that I presented to the class during one of our sessions. The problem was the Collatz Problem which you may recall I wrote about in an article for our first issue of the Engineering Quarterly in the Fall, 2018. I was told later that Thomas had spent day and night poring over the problem and that he wrote over one hundred pages of notes on the problem after my course had ended. In any case, the course went very well through to completion. I taught twice per week from 8 to 10am for 8 weeks and, when the course ended, the students thanked me profusely for taking the time to come in and teach them. A number of the students in the class don’t expect to get out for many years, if ever, and they expressed the depressing thought that they felt like society had forgotten about them. They had no friends, no family, nobody on the outside who cared about them. It is sad to think about these bright, interested students with such a bleak future and even bleaker past. After that first course, I approached one of my colleagues, Professor Renaud Gauthier, from the Mathematics department at the University of Mary, and asked if he might be interested in teaching a course inside. He loved the idea and immediately went to complete the PREA2 and radio training that is required to teach inside the prison. Over the subsequent two semesters, Dr. Gauthier taught a College Algebra course in the evenings. I have been quite busy building our engineering program at the university and, therefore, was unable to teach during the regular semester this year. This summer, however, I taught a course in astrophysics which began on May 7th and continued twice a week for 8 weeks. There were more than 30 students who signed up when the course was announced but only 12 were selected to participate. After the very first lecture three of the students decided to drop out stating that they were pretty sure it would be too difficult for them and the next three on the list were allowed to take their places. I was happy to see that Thomas, from my previous math course, was one of those students! I asked him how the past year had gone and he told me that, after my course had ended, he signed up for Dr. Gauthier’s College Algebra course and he had also gotten a job as a tutor in the NDSP education department in order to help his fellow inmates
7
with their math GEDs. Thomas seemed to really know his way around the school this time and when I asked if we had any calculators he immediately left to another part of the school and returned with 12 calculators for us to use. Thomas is scheduled for release in only a couple of months and his plan is to attend the United Tribes Technical College and pursue a degree in Mathematics. He has discovered that he loves mathematics and he really wants to be a math teacher eventually. There is nothing more gratifying to a teacher than to have one of his students say this. It is especially gratifying when that student began as a middle school dropout who ended up in prison and now is so inspired and excited by higher education that he is eager to pursue a degree. It brings tears to my eyes and I am pretty sure that, if you saw the state of these students, a transformation like this would bring tears to your eyes as well. Higher education has the power to open the mind and completely transform lives3 .
Apollo Moon Landing by Shane Hysell, NDSP inmate #39872 This oil painting was presented to me as a gift from the class. It was painted by a student named Shane Hysell to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing on July 20, 1969. In 1994, incarcerated individuals lost access to Pell Grant assistance, which destroyed most prison post-secondary education in the country. There are a number of trade job offerings at the prison where students can learn trade skills and, at the same time, earn money but the only other education available is the GED program. This is an extremely important program since 41% of incarcerated populations do not have a high school diploma and, if you narrow this to the prisoners inside State prisons, the number rises to 68% who do not have a high school diploma4 . The availability of GED programs in state prisons has been integral to inmate literacy along with math and science skills. Raising these skills to a high school level enables inmates to better function in society where reading, writing, and math are crucial. Without these abilities there is very little that a person can do once they re-
Tom has now left the NDSP and Lori Girard is the current Community Resource Manager. Lori is a wonderful person and is extremely supportive of the program, as is the prison Warden, Colby Braun. 2 Prison Rape Elimination Act. 3 If you are interested in the thoughts and writing of today’s incarcerated prisoners I would recommend the excellent book by Jeff Evans: Undoing Time, American Prisoners in Their Own Words, Northwestern University Press, 2001. 4 Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Caroline Wolf Harlow PhD, 2003.
VOL.I. . . No.4
enter society aside from returning to the same lifestyle which got them incarcerated in the first place. Currently there are few educational opportunities in prisons at a level higher than high school except in rare and isolated instances. There is the possibility of taking correspondence courses to complete a degree but, as the students do not have internet access, these correspondence courses must be conducted by mail which makes it logistically difficult since mail correspondence courses have become fairly scarce, with most universities switching from mail to online programs. Those correspondence schools that still exist cost money and most inmates at the penitentiaries across the country have quite meager financial resources. Some residents at the North Dakota State Penitentiary do manage to participate in the correspondence degree programs from Adams State University out of Alamosa, Colorado. Recently, U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced the Restoring Education and Learning (REAL) Act, a bill that would restore Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals. “When we give people in prison an opportunity to earn an education, our communities are safer, taxpayers save money, and we can end the cycle of recidivism,” Senator Schatz said. Senator Lee stated that he is “proud to be an original cosponsor,” and Senator Durbin added that “The REAL Act is about breaking the cycle of recidivism by increasing access to education for incarcerated individuals. By restoring Pell Grant assistance that can fund educational programs in federal prisons, we will empower individuals to better themselves through education and find career paths once they reenter society.” Companion legislation in House of Representatives is being led by U.S. Representatives Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), and French Hill (R-Ark.). If this bill manages to pass it will enable prisoners to pay for higher education and help jump start prison education across the country. The bill helps to solve the cost problem to education but it still doesn’t solve the problem of access to the courses. Either prisons will have to allow internet access to students taking online courses or universities will have to start offering courses inside the prison5 . I sincerely hope that the REAL act passes but, even if it doesn’t, the program that I started here at our state penitentiary will continue unaffected. Our program is taught by PhD professors who volunteer to go inside the prison and teach. It is free to the prisoners, free to the prison, and costs nothing to any taxpayer. Our courses are designed and taught so that they are equivalent to courses taught at the universities and colleges across the state, with the same assignments and exams and level of rigor as required by those schools. The intention is that the courses will be trans5
Engineering Quarterly SUMMER 2019 ferable for credit into any of the schools across the state if the student were to pursue a degree upon release6 . At the moment, we do not have the resources or professors required to offer a complete degree to the inmates while incarcerated, but having a few courses completed before release should increase the incentive to complete the degree if it becomes possible in the future. Why is higher education important for incarcerated prisoners anyway? There are a number of reasons. It enables them to guide their thoughts in a more positive direction. Most of these students have nothing to occupy their thoughts other than the drama and violence of incarceration, the bitterness and pain of events that got them incarcerated in the first place, and the depression and sorrow of the years they have yet to remain confined. When the mind dwells on certain thoughts and emotions for years at a time, the mind becomes those thoughts and emotions, in the sense that those emotions continue to guide the person’s thoughts even after release, thereby leading to predictable results. In 2012, taxpayers paid $39 billion to incarcerate inmates and the result is this: - 57.6% of released prisoners are rearrested within one year of release. - 67.8% of released prisoners are rearrested within three years of release. - 76.6% of released prisoners are rearrested within five years of release.
8
It will reduce recidivism to extremely low levels, it will counteract the violence, bitterness, and self-denigration that landed them in prison in the first place, and replace these negative emotions with dignity and self-worth. They will still, upon release, re-enter society with the many disadvantages and stigma that come with being an ex-con, but they will now have a new mindset, a sense of hope, and a drive to achieve goals that they never could have dreamed of achieving before, all to the direct benefit of their families, their coworkers, and our shared communities. Recently, two more professors from the University of Mary have decided to join our program at the NDSP. Professor Matthew Brumit, has volunteered to teach courses in literature, creative writing, and composition, and Professor James Peliska has volunteered to teach a combined science course along with me and Renaud. We will announce a sign-up opportunity to the students and we expect they will start these courses in the early fall. Next on the agenda is to recruit more professors and to start teaching courses at the Women’s correctional facility in New England, ND. It is a bit more difficult, logistically, to teach at the women’s prison since it is a two hour drive from Bismarck and so it takes an entire day to go there and teach a class. It is important that the women get these same opportunities and I am determined to find a way to do it.
Think about those numbers. Now consider these numbers: - 30% of released prisoners recidivate after vocational training. - 13.7% of released prisoners recidivate after an Associate degree. - 5.6% of released prisoners recidivate after a Bachelor’s degree. - 0% of released prisoners recidivate after a Master’s degree. Even some vocational training reduces the recidivism rate from 76.6% down to 30% and with a Bachelor’s degree or higher the rate goes down to less than 6%. For those of us in the higher education industry these numbers are not at all surprising. We see the evolution of minds constantly as students progress through the system from new freshmen through to graduation. It is obvious to us that the education we are providing profoundly changes the mental state and future outlook of the students. They emerge from college confident, knowledgeable, men and women, determined to succeed and to serve their communities. Education does this to people. I believe that providing higher education to prisoners is important to society in general.
Above all things, that the Abbot may not neglect or undervalue the welfare of the souls entrusted to him. Rule of St. Benedict
Contact Information If you have questions about any of our articles, if you would like more information about our engineering program at the University of Mary, if you would like to request back issues, or if you would like to help us to continue publishing the Engineering Quarterly via a charitable donation, please send an email to tgpilling@umary.edu. Your help and your comments are warmly appreciated. Thank you for being part of our community.
The Senate legislation is S.1074 - Restoring Education and Learning Act of 2019, and the House legislation is H.R.2168 - REAL Act of 2019. At the time of this writing the legislation has been introduced and the the Senate referred it to Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, whereas the House referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor. Both bills have been sitting there since April 9th, 2019. 6 The NDSP Principal Stephanie Kuehn and I have been working on drafting an agreement with the North Dakota University System (NDUS) to guarantee the transferability of prison credits to the NDUS schools across the state, including NDSU and UND, but although they have verbally agreed to accept the transfers for equivalent courses, we have yet to convince them to put it in writing.