War Eagles: Auburn University’s Tradition of Training Soldiers

McCall, Daniel Garrison Auburn University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

As a land-grant university, Auburn University maintains a tradition of training American soldiers. Its Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) unit was once central to campus life, but in 1969 the university eliminated its mandatory ROTC program. Having offered a remarkable contribution to national defense, as a case study Auburn University Army ROTC embodies an exceptional microcosm for understanding how the United States government has prepared the Army to fight wars requiring mass mobilization. With the old model of cadet training based upon raising a mass army to fight wars in the industrial age and the new model based upon fighting wars with more powerful weaponry but fewer personnel in the modern age of science and technology, examining how these developments within the Army interrelate to the evolution of Auburn University Army ROTC provides an opportunity to consider the significance of how Auburn’s commitment as a land-grant university to supporting ROTC has remained constant, although the centrality of Army ROTC to campus life is dramatically different.

Assessment of Disharmony and Disaffection

German, Nicole Marie ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Auburn University 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

Intimate relationship researchers’ need to accurately assess conflict resolution and emotional connection has driven the development of instruments measuring disharmony and disaffection, constructs that assess these respective processes. Research on existing measures provides a basis of empirical support for disharmony and disaffection, as well as their association with relationship distress; however, these measures lack a theoretical underpinning and evidence of construct validity. The current study empirically examines a theoretically-guided higher-order model of disharmony and disaffection within a sample of students at a large, Southeastern university. The hypothesized model of both constructs was largely supported. Notably, the retained model suggests that disharmony and disaffection share a cognitive component; specifically, each includes a factor indicative of the belief that one is misunderstood and criticized by one’s partner. Further, disharmony and disaffection independently contribute to lower positive relationship satisfaction, as well as higher negative relationship satisfaction. Overall, findings suggest that two distinct patterns of relationship function, each contributing to evaluations characterized by dissatisfaction.

Academic Business: Professionalization and the University Business Officer

McWhorter, Lynn Price Auburn University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation examines the place of the college and university business officer in institutions of higher education across the U.S. South. In 1927, George Howell Mew, newly minted business officer at Emory University, was the driving force behind the creation of the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers [SACUBO]. Over the next fifty years members of SACUBO succeeded in creating an institution which transformed the business officer from a functionary who reported bookkeeping numbers to the board of trustees into an administrator and vice-president of the university. In the process, business officers helped transformed the college and university from an individual institution working with hundreds of students into campuses enrolling tens of thousands students and managing billions of dollars. A number of forces pushed college and university business officers into a position of responding to external pressures: philanthropy in the 1920s, research grants in the 1930s and 1940s, the need to train military personnel for wars from World War I into the 1980s and the accompanying regulations, the alliance of research universities with industry, and social pressures such as race relations and student protests. Though sometimes better than others, SACUBO helped college and university business officers navigate the complexities of the modern university.

Low-Bandwidth Three Dimensional Mapping and Latency Reducing Model Prediction to Improve Teleoperation of Robotic Vehicles

Woodall, William J., IV Auburn University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 2012 해외박사(DDOD)

This thesis uses novel three dimensional sensors like the Microsoft Kinect [1] and the Asus Xtion Pro Live [2] to generate three dimensional environments and use the recon- structed environment with a predictive model in order to assist the teleoperation of mobile vehicles. Ultimately this work would be applicable to any teleoperated vehicle equipped with sensors providing three dimensional data of the environment, such as an automated ATV with a stereo vision system or a Velodyne LiDAR [3] system. The challenges related to utilizing dense three dimensional data in a way that is practical for teleoperation scenar- ios are identified, and solutions are proposed and implemented. To simplify the approach, the problem is split into three smaller tasks: three dimensional mapping, teleoperation and telemetry visualization, and latency reduction techniques. The three dimensional mapping pertains to using the three dimensional sensor data in concert with the mobile vehicle nav- igation solution to generate a three dimensional map of the environment in real-time. The resulting map must be efficiently sent to the teleoperator and visualized in the teleoperation and telemetry visualization section of the thesis. Additionally, latency greatly reduces the teleoperator’s ability to drive the vehicle, so methods for reducing the perceived latency are investigated, including using a vehicle model to simulate the vehicle motion in the absence of timely telemetry updates. It is shown that existing mapping techniques can be used effi- ciently and effective to aid teleoperation, even in low bandwidth environments. Experimental results show that by giving the teleoperator three dimensional information about the envi- ronment, the teleoperator can more successfully navigate tight obstacles and reduce impacts with the environment. Finally, experiments are conducted that show having a prediction of the vehicle motion based on user input can improve teleoperation in high latency situations.

Charting the Volunteering Characteristics of College Students In a Land-Grant University

Nadar, Madhumalini Muralikrishnan ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Auburn University 2019 해외박사(DDOD)

Volunteerism in the undergraduate years can be a predictor highly correlated with remarkable increase in social integrity, civic-mindedness, (Astin & Sax, 1998; Eyler & Giles, 1999; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Vogelgesang & Astin, 2000; Cruce & Moore, 2007, 2012; Johnson, 2014; Plante & Halman, 2016), continued participation after college (Astin et al., 2000) and selecting service-oriented careers (Astin et al., 1999), which are attributes for accomplishing the land-grant university service mission. Distinguishing these environmental characteristics that influence volunteering will substantially benefit universities and colleges in concentrating on these measures to increase student participation.This quantitative study was conducted to understand the volunteering characteristics of college students in a land-grant university. Participants of this study were 8,318 college students enrolled from 2013-2018, that completed the National Survey of Student Engagement questionnaire. The research model controlled for the demographic characteristics and examined the college experience measures that influenced the intensity of volunteering in college students. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation and Multinomial regression analysis. Results from the logistic regression analysis validated that the suggested set of predictors considerably increased the odds of predicting volunteerism in college students of a land-grant university.Among the study sample 50.5% students had volunteered 1-5 hours during college in a land-grant university. The environmental characteristic variables that demonstrated higher likelihood to volunteering were athletic involvement and membership in a social organization. The demographic variables that presented greater likelihood to volunteering were gender, age, and race. The current study results were consistent with previous findings that majors like engineering, physical science and mathematics were constantly challenged to incorporate service into the curriculum in ways that provided applicable and meaningful learning for the college students (Felder & Silverman, 1988).The land-grant university being predominantly white, with a majority of traditional age group students enrolled full-time has multiple student groups volunteering 1-5 hours per week, suggesting that the institution has an established inclusive volunteering program on campus. Generally, integrating volunteering into the academic curriculum among all majors, that are practical and applicable can substantially increase student engagement and support land-grant universities in effectively achieving their service mission.

Robust Gain-Scheduled Observer Design with Application to Vehicle State Estimation

Wang, Yan ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Auburn University 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation develops an application of the state-of-the-art convex optimization algorithms to the vehicle state estimation problem. The main challenge in this field is that the time-varying uncertain parameters and nonlinearity are both contained in the vehicle dynamical models. In the automotive control systems products, the gain-scheduled control and estimation algorithms are widely used to deal with these difficult components. However, the tuning of the stable controller and observer parameters is a heuristic and time-consuming task. A vast amount of simulation and validation experiments have to be implemented to verify the performance of the algorithm. Sometimes, the trial-and-error cycle is inevitable. Therefore, an efficient gain-scheduled observer design methodology for both linear and nonlinear systems is the main topic of this dissertation.First, the linear-parameter-varying (LPV) representation of the three degree-of-freedom (DOF) bicycle model is presented, where the longitudinal velocity and acceleration are treated as the online measurable time-varying parameters. The LPV design methodology overcomes some eminent drawbacks of the traditional gain scheduled design methods. In the LPV framework, the search of the globally convergent observer parameters are resorted to a semidefinite programming problem. It is also shown that some robust controller design methods can be applied to develop an optimal unstructured LPV observer.Next, the LPV observer is extended to a gain-scheduled interval observer where the variation range of the uncertain cornering stiffness parameters is incorporated into the observer design. Instead of a single estimation curve for each state variable, the interval observer computes the lower and upper bounds of all the admissible values of the states in the presence of parametric uncertainty. For automotive active safety systems, this envelope provides an estimation of the worst case bounds for the critical vehicle state under uncertain road conditions.Although the gain-scheduled interval observer directly takes the uncertain cornering stiffness parameters into consideration, the tire-road friction is a highly complex nonlinear phenomenon such that the linear observer is far from satisfactory in some extreme maneuvers. To further improve the performance of the estimation algorithm, a nonlinear observer design methodology is also developed for a class of differentiable Lipschitz continuous nonlinear systems. Since the nonlinear bicycle model also contains the time-varying parameters, the time invariant nonlinear observer is further augmented to a gain scheduled nonlinear observer.The simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed gain-scheduled observer design to provide accurate and robust estimation of vehicle states, such as tire slip angles in the presence of time-varying parameters and nonlinearities.All the vehicle state estimation algorithms proposed in this dissertation are verified by using the simulation data from CarSim, a commercial vehicle simulation software package. Additionally, all the observer design methodologies are formulated in a high-level systematic approach, which allow them to be applied to other systems.

Development of Standard Data for Donning and Doffing Personal Protective Equipment

Carpenter, Luann Sims Auburn University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 2016 해외박사(DDOD)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is specialized clothing or equipment worn to minimize exposure to a variety of occupational hazards. It has been estimated that 20 million U.S. workers wear some form of PPE. How much time it takes for employees to don and doff PPE and whether they should be compensated for this time has been frequently litigated in the last decade. Surprisingly, few studies have been performed to determine empirical donning and doffing times for PPE where the detailed method is documented for the given times. Three studies were conducted as part of this dissertation. In one study, a detailed method was developed for donning a single-use personal fire escape mask (aka smoke hood). A time study of the method was conducted to derive a donning time standard. In another study, donning and doffing multiple layers of different combinations of work gloves was conducted. In a third study, donning and doffing methods and times for common PPE used in industry such as ear plugs, aprons, safety glasses, etc. were developed. A computer model was refined to enable researchers or practitioners to easily determine standard times for donning and doffing. The studies demonstrate that Time Study is an effective means of determining don and doff times for PPE.

Barriers, Motivators, and Perceived Abilities Related to Completion of the Doctoral Degree

Lovelace, Jennifer McGhee ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Auburn University 2015 해외박사(DDOD)

Student retention has been a well-researched topic in higher education for decades (Austin, Cameron, Glass, Kosko, Marsh, Abdelmagid, & Burge, 2009; Ericson & Gardner, 1992; Lau, 2002; Pang, 2009; Thompson, 2007; Wetzel, O’Toole, & Peterson, 1999). Many universities receive funding based on the number of students enrolled each term so keeping students enrolled is not only in the best interest of the institution financially but also in the best interest of overall student success (Titus, 2004). Maintaining high rankings is also vital since retention and graduation rates are widely published and many students base their choice of higher education on these rankings (Hossler, 2006).The study of the relationship between perceived barriers and doctoral student completion rates could possibly lead to policy creation aimed at increasing student retention at the doctoral level. Since most of the retention theory and policy creation is directed toward undergraduate students, results of this study could yield implications for doctoral support programs. Research estimated that 40-60% of doctoral students do not persist to finishing their degree (Austin, et al., 2009; Bowen & Rudenstein, 1992; Cassuto, 2013; Di Pierro, 2012; Frischer & Larsson, 2000; Galima, 2013; Green, 2005; Golde, 2005; Holley & Caldwell, 2011; Ivankova & Stick, 2007; Katz, 1997; Kiley & Millins, 2005; Lahenius & Martinsuo, 2011; Spaulding & Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2012; Stallone, 2004; West, Golkap, Vallejo, Fischer, & Gupton, 2011) and that 20% of those that advance to candidacy do not finish the dissertation phase (Bowen & Rudenstine, 1992; Frischer & Larsson, 2000; Green 2005; Katz, 1997: Kiley & Millins, 2005). Studying the motivating factors of students who have returned to finish their doctoral programs can seek to provide this motivation before student departure occurs.The literature review related key departmental differences that lead to a culture within academic departments in doctoral study (Hawlery, 2003). Student socialization happens primarily at the department level (Gardner, 2007; Golde, 1998). The educational silos created in doctoral programs, leads to a sense of a community or culture of graduate study that varies per department (Spaulding & Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2012). Because of the community type environment created by these educational silos, the research approach used in this study was ethnography.The defining characteristics of ethnography generally include developing a complex description of the culture of a group, identifying patterns of group activities, starting with a theory and drawing from cognitive science to understand ideas and belief, and extensive fieldwork (Creswell, 2013). The overall analysis results in an understanding of how the culture group works, how it functions, and the general way of life of the group (Creswell, 2013).I conducted this study within the College of Education at a public land-grant institution in the southeastern region of the United States. The College of Education at this institution is comprised of three departments and one school. I recruited participants from these four disciplines because they were nearing the end of their doctoral studies or had recently graduated with their PhD.Participants were doctoral students over the age of 19 who were currently enrolled or had just completed a doctoral program within the College of Education. I made special effort to target individuals approaching the end of their doctoral studies or new graduates. My goal was to understand the barriers and motivators that graduate students experience on the way to completing their degree. Students closer to the end of their degree and recent graduates are more likely to have experienced both.For this research study, analysis will begin the moment data collection begins. Analysis involved a constant jumping back and forth between emic and etic perspectives. Interpretation of data begins to happen as the interviewer and the interviewee converse. Even the method in which I transcribed the interview was a form of analysis.The findings of this study were instrumental in understanding the cultures of the College of Education disciplines at one land-grant University in the southeastern United States. Understanding the culture within a department can aid in the development of best practices models for graduate student attrition. An important next step would be to conduct similar studies with current students focusing on the major themes identified here and work to develop a best practices model for doctoral students in different culture (departmental) groups.

Efficient Numerical Algorithms for Solving Nonlinear Filtering Problems

Bao, Feng Auburn University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

Examples of nonlinear filtering problems arise in biology, mathematical finance, signal processing, image processing, target tracking and many engineering applications. Commonly used numerical simulation methods are the Bayesian filter which is derived from the Bayesian formula and the Zakai filter which is related to a system of stochastic partial differential equation known as ``the Zakai equation''.This dissertation mainly focuses on developing and analysing novel, efficient numerical algorithms for solving nonlinear filtering problems. We first introduce a novel numerical algorithm which lies in the general framework on the Bayesian filter. The algorithm is constructed based on samples of the current state obtained by solving the state equation implicitly. We call this algorithm the ``implicit filter method''. Rigorous analysis has been done to prove the convergence of the algorithm. Through numerical experiments we show that our algorithm is more accurate than the Kalman filter and more stable than the particle filter.In the second effort of this work, we propose a hybrid numerical algorithm for the Zakai filter to solve nonlinear filtering problems efficiently. The algorithm combines the splitting-up finite difference scheme and hierarchical sparse grid method to solve moderately high dimensional nonlinear filtering problems. When applying hierarchical sparse grid method to approximate bell-shaped solutions in most applications of nonlinear filtering problem, we introduce a logarithmic approximation to reduce the approximation errors. Some space adaptive methods are also introduced to make the algorithm more efficient. Numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate the performance and efficiency of our algorithm.In this dissertation, we also develop high order numerical approximation methods for backward doubly stochastic differential equations (BDSDEs). One of the most important properties of BDSDEs is it's equivalence to the Zakai equation. In this connection, our numerical approximation methods for BDSDEs can be considered as efficient numerical approaches to solving nonlinear filtering problems. The convergence order is proved through rigorous error analysis for each algorithm. Numerical experiments are carried out to verify the theoretical results and to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed numerical scheme.

Design Improvements for School Bus Emergency Evacuation Systems

Gunter, Leslie Alan Auburn University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 2019 해외박사(DDOD)

BackgroundSchool bus accidents are often accompanied by high anxiety and traumatic headlines because these vehicles transport young pre-school and kindergarten children. Young children are extremely vulnerable during emergency egress scenarios due to their size, strength, limited cognition, and lack of experience. One recent example occurred in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on November 20, 2016 when a school bus carrying thirty-five kindergarten through fifth-grade students left the road, rolled over and struck a tree, killing six and injuring more than twentythree additional children (Figure 1.1). First responders extricated the children through the various emergency exit systems of the bus, such as the rear exit door and roof hatches. On December 2, 2014, in East Knoxville, Tennessee, a collision caused a school bus to overturn killing two children, one adult, and injuring twelve others.More recently, on January 30, 2018, a school bus in Warner Robins, Georgia, carrying thirty students ranging in age from five to eleven years old, rolled onto its side while traveling downhill, killing a six-year-old child and injuring five others. The risk of fatalities, or serious injury, is more likely if a bus rolls over. It is very difficult to ascertain the annual frequency of school bus rollovers due to the lack of data including detailed accident specifics, but we believe is most likely between 10 and 99 rollovers per year. Though this number is small in comparison to the total number of school bus accidents each year in the United States, the potential severity of occupants not being able to escape in a timely manner, or at all (unassisted), makes this scenario a ‘credible’ one worthy of further investigation.School buses are statistically the safest means of transportation for students to and from school and extracurricular activities. Yet there are approximately 26,000 accidents involving school buses each year [24]. Between 2005 and 2014, 106 people either riding in, or driving a vehicle designated as a school bus, were killed in the United States [24]. These numbers are remarkable considering that each school day in 2015, nearly 484,000 school buses transported over half of the United States K–12 student population (26.9 million children) to and from school and school-related activities [26].A commonly used school bus is the type “D”, which has a capacity of up to 90 passengers depending on seating configuration [29]. School buses were first used in the United States in the early 1900’s as motorized vehicles when roadways began to emerge and develop. In 1939, a conference at Teachers College, Columbia University, drafted a set of forty-four specifications to standardize and improve safety for school buses including interior and exterior dimensions, as well as forward-facing seating. Modern school bus design requirements are mandated by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) [7].In the event of an accident involving a school bus, three factors contribute to the safety and wellbeing of the children aboard the bus in the aftermath: 1) The design of the emergency evacuation system, 2) The evacuation time required to clear the passengers, and 3) The response time for first responders.