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1. Comparison of Various Theoretical Measures of Aromaticity within Monosubstituted Benzene

   https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29102260  

   Swain, Caleb K; Scheiner, Steve (May 2024, Molecules)

   The effects of monosubstitution on the aromaticity of benzene are assessed using a number of different quantitative schemes. The ability of the mobile π-electrons to respond to an external magnetic field is evaluated using several variants of the NICS scheme which calculate the shielding of points along the axis perpendicular to the molecule. Another class of measures is related to the drive toward the uniformity of C-C bond lengths and strengths. Several energetic quantities are devised to approximate an aromatic stabilization energy and the tendency of the molecule to maintain planarity. There is a lack of consistency in that the various measures of aromaticity lead to differing conclusions as to the effects of substituents on the aromaticity of the ring. 

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2. Demo Abstract: An Ultra-Low-Power Custom Integrated Circuit based Sound-Source Localization System

   de Godoy, Daniel; Xia, Stephen; Fernandez, Wendy; Jiang, Xiaofan; Kinget, Peter R (April 2018, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Internet-of-Things Design and Implementation)

   The aim of this demo is to explore the implementation of an ultra-low-power analog-to-feature ASIC to an IoT embedded system. The custom integrated circuit, designed to optimize the power consumption of a traditional sound-source localization systems, is capable of extracting the time-difference of arrival (TDoA) between 4 microphones consuming only 78.2nW. An end-to-end embedded system is presented; a microphone array is connected to the ASIC that converts the TDoA to digital information and sends it to a host computer. A machine-learning algorithm, running in the host, is then used to detect the bearing of the sound-source. During the demonstration, the audience is able to verify the benefits and drawbacks of the custom integrated circuit solution, both in the perspective of the signal-processing performance of the ASIC, and the impact it introduces to the complexity of the system’s integration. 

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3. Vulnerability assessment of Structural Insulated Panels with metal skins subjected to windborne debris impact

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2020.108163  

   Saini, D.; Shafei, B. (June 2020, Composites)

   Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), which consist of a composite of an insulating polymer foam sandwiched between two layers of structural skins, are widely used in residential and commercial buildings. Such panels, in the regions prone to hurricanes and tornadoes, are often exposed to the risk of windborne debris impact. Despite the consequences associated with damage to SIPs, the studies on their perforation resistance and design variables have been rather limited. To address this gap, the current study develops a computational framework to assess the vulnerability of the SIPs of various configurations subjected to a range of windborne debris impact scenarios. For this purpose, impact simulations are conducted to quantify the response and evaluate the extent of damage to the SIPs. The study is further extended to evaluate the effect of various structural details and material properties on the perforation resistance of the SIPs. Based on the simulation results, a set of vulnerability curves are developed for the first time to capture the risk of failure of the SIPs under the windborne debris hazard. This is expected to improve the design of this important category of wall panels, especially to ensure their safety and performance during severe windstorms. 

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4. Building the Collaboration Graph of Open-Source Software Ecosystem

   https://doi.org/10.1109/MSR52588.2021.00086  

   Lyulina, Elena; Jahanshahi, Mahmoud (May 2021, 2021 IEEE/ACM 18th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR))

   null (Ed.)

   The Open-Source Software community has become the center of attention for many researchers, who are investigating various aspects of collaboration in this extremely large ecosystem. Due to its size, it is difficult to grasp whether or not it has structure, and if so, what it may be. Our hackathon project aims to facilitate the understanding of the developer collaboration structure and relationships among projects based on the bi-graph of what projects developers contribute to by providing an interactive collaboration graph of this ecosystem, using the data obtained from World of Code [1] infrastructure. Our attempts to visualize the entirety of projects and developers were stymied by the inability of the layout and visualization tools to process the exceedingly large scale of the full graph. We used WoC to filter the nodes (developers and projects) and edges (developer contributions to a project) to reduce the scale of the graph that made it amenable to an interactive visualization and published the resulting visualizations. We plan to apply hierarchical approaches to be able to incorporate the entire data in the interactive visualizations and also to evaluate the utility of such visualizations for several tasks. 

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5. Board 300: Greater Equity, Access, and Readiness for Success in Engineering and Technology (GEARSET) - An Alternate Pathway to Engineering and ET

   Berhan, L.B. (June 2023, 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   The Greater Equity, Access, and Readiness for Engineering and Technology (GEARSET) Program, an NSF funded S-STEM program was developed GEARSET to address several institutional needs at the university. The original target population for the GEARSET program was identified as a subset of the students who applied to the College of Engineering and do not meet all the admissions requirements and are admitted to an Exploratory Studies major in the university’s University College. Historical data indicates that approximately 170 students per year with a high school GPA of 3.00 or higher are admitted to Exploratory Studies because they do not meet the College of Engineering admissions criteria. Of these, roughly 78 students remain at the University after one year. Of those 78, only about 45 students per year transition to college of Engineering majors by the end of their first year. These numbers do not accurately reflect the ability of these students, but rather are due in part to curricular bottlenecks, lack of institutional support, and lack of significant relevant exposure of students to material meant to engage their engineering future selves. This data motivated the creation of the GEARSET program. Specifically, the program was designed to 1. Increase recruitment, retention, student success, and transfer rates into engineering of students who are not admitted directly to engineering but who are instead admitted to the university’s University College. 2. Increase meaningfulness and engineering relevance of pre-engineering curriculum. 3. Increase diversity within the student population of various engineering departments in the College of Engineering. 4. Remove bottlenecks in curriculum and improve access to engineering and decrease length to degree. A key aspect of the program is a curated curriculum. All students in the GEARSET program are enrolled in multiple courses historically proven to promote better understanding of the key areas of Math, Chemistry and Physics needed to be successful engineers. All students have access to advisors within the COE to help them better understand the programs, curriculum and professional outcomes of each discipline of Engineering. Another key component of the program is that low income students in the GEARSET cohort who successfully transfer to a major within the COE after one year receive scholarship support. Here we describe the Program, the results to date, and the impact of the recent global pandemic and the subsequent transition to test optional admissions criteria on the definition of the GEARSET cohort, program implementation, and student participation. 

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