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The goal of the current topic is to examine how semi-ellipse irregularity affects torsional surface waves in an initially stressed anisotropic porous medium that is positioned between two anisotropic heterogeneous semi-infinite media. The upper and lower semi-infinite spaces are considered to exhibit exponential and hyperbolic variation in the directional rigidities, density, and initial stress, respectively and the irregularity appears as a semi-ellipse at the interface where the layer and the lower semi-infinite medium are separated. A closed form for the torsional wave dispersion equation has been developed. In the event of no irregularity, the velocity equation is also obtained. As the study shows, the torsional wave propagation is significantly impacted by irregularity, initial stress, porosity, heterogeneity and anisotropy factor. It has also been noted that the velocity equation simplifies to the Love wave's standard equation for a uniform media. Researchers and scientists studying seismology, geophysicists and structural and earthquake engineers are all very interested in the findings of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital libraries are complex information systems, which run on the Internet. Their facilities are increasing daily with the advances in the technology. The purpose of the digital libraries is to provide the required information to its users in a convenient format in time. Since the digital libraries are running on the Internet and the users are from different psychological, educational and social backgrounds, the usage of digital libraries is varying from user to user which necessitates the best user interface. Hence web sites providing single point of access to applications and information is important. The paper discusses library’s knowledge portal, technologies used, digital resources, web sites, and related services.

Knowledge is non-uniform in nature. Everyone has different notion of a particular knowledge. And here we are trying to capture this multidimensional knowledge, which is vast in terms of size, continuum and dynamic in nature and has diverse sources. Knowledge has become the precious asset to every academic institution and in the contemporary generation has realized its consequences. In this modern knowledge environment well equipped techniques and management is required to organize, store and access; information and knowledge. Knowledge Portals are the tools for executing knowledge management procedures. It is a piece of software that helps to convert explicit knowledge to implicit knowledge and share among the patrons.

Information communication technology has brought out changes in the field of digital library in handling digital library services. An electronic library is a focused collection of digital objects include text, visual, material, stored as electronic media formats. In this paper highlights technological architectural components, how the digital library software works, flow, and handle with various tools to carry out the digital library in a defined purpose and also paper highlights the technological understanding and issues involving in creating digital library.

Introductory Circuit Analysis laboratory exercises are critical for future student success in Electrical Engineering. Through circuit analysis labs, students are expected to grow and improve many important skills, such as being able to read and interpret written instructions, to recognize physical circuit components, to place those components properly on a breadboard and to build physical circuits by following circuit schematics. These labs will also serve to reinforce concepts and theories through experiments and enable students to apply the knowledge necessary to design circuits to meet specifications, followed by building and testing them. In addition, to accomplish these tasks in the lab, students must learn to operate different electronic power and measurement instruments. Over many semesters of instructional experience, we have observed that a significant proportion of students struggle to effectively translate and apply their understanding of electric circuit theories gained in the classroom environment to the practical lab environment. Students often struggle and display incompetence in building circuits correctly and in some instances, fail to complete experiments within the given time. As a result, the student learning experience and learning outcomes are adversely impacted. We believe that the main cause of such inefficiency and incompetence is the lack of preparedness to conduct experiments in the lab. In this work, we attempt to improve student competence and learning outcomes associated with ABET criterion 6 (an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze, and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions) related to a Circuit Analysis lab at our university. We aim to achieve improved student learning through the development of enhanced comprehensive laboratory instructional resources including revised and redesigned lab-manuals, a series of virtual lab tutorials/audiovisual instructions to complement the written instructional materials, integrating industry-standard LTspice-based simulation exercises invoked through mandatory pre-laboratory exercises, developing lab exercises with more design emphasis, and creating lab datasheets to streamline and support efficient data collection process for students. In this funded project, all our developed resources will be open-sourced and made available to the public freely. In a pilot study, the enhanced lab instructional materials are implemented in two lab sections (treatment group) for four lab exercises. Two control lab sections are presented with the legacy lab materials. Instructional materials' quality and impacts are compared through a survey that solicits student perception of the lab learning experience. Details on the design of these comprehensive lab instructional resources and our observations on the improvement of student competence and learning outcomes are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solar photovoltaics (PV) industry has created the fastest growing job market in the US demanding highly skilled engineers. Modeling and simulation of solar cells and design of solar photovoltaic systems are highly marketable skills desired by the industry. Simulation tools provide a robust platform to build models and help students to analyze the behavior and performance of the devices and systems. This paper discusses on the MATLAB-Simulink based simulation exercises integrated within a renewable energy course in undergraduate Electrical Engineering curriculum. The simulation exercises include building single diode equivalent circuit model of a solar cell and analysis of the simulated current-voltage (I-V) and power-voltage (P-V) curves using MATLAB scripts and Simulink graphical simulation environment. Students then study the effect of solar irradiance, temperature, series and shunt resistances on the resulting photovoltaic parameters, such as open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, fill factor, and efficiency of the cell. By interconnecting multiple cells in series, students designed PV modules. Finally, students studied the effect of partial shading in series connected modules and learned the utility of bypass diodes. Successful integration of the simulation exercises could substantially help to optimize the student learning outcome. The impact of the simulation exercises and learning outcome were measured by pre- and post-exercise tests and student perceptions via student feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results from an investigation into how interdisciplinary senior design projects emphasizing nuclear engineering applications can best be managed, along with suggested technical content areas within nuclear engineering carrying strong interdisciplinary potential. This work is important because an aging nuclear industry workforce will need to be replaced soon, and due to recent national emphasis on detection of nuclear materials to fight terrorism, radiation detection and monitoring for nuclear medicine applications, and design of small modular nuclear reactors. In the paper, the most likely technical content overlap between nuclear and other fields of engineering is discussed. Also, results of a literature search demonstrate that nuclear engineering projects are exceedingly rare within interdisciplinary senior design. Therefore, a project management framework using results from an exploration of the literature on interdisciplinary senior design to identify salient issues pertaining to nuclear engineering is presented. Issues include raising awareness among faculty mentors from different subject areas about potential project areas; addressing nuclear specific codes and standards; and challenges when working across disciplines in project funding, the student team formation process, student credit hours granted, and workload allocation for faculty advisors to the projects. Finally, two interdisciplinary case studies involving nuclear engineering topics are discussed - one from mechanical engineering and one from electrical engineering. These case studies include descriptions of the projects along with reflections and assessments by students and faculty mentors on their impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]