Architecture

Authors: Nathaniel Stucki. Mentors: Brandon Ro. Insitution: Utah Valley University. In the field of architectural design, the invention of artificial Intelligence or (AI) has sparked incredible amounts of curiosity and debate in regard to its potential impact on classical design principles. For this Project I will dive into the relationship between AI and classical Architecture and aim to determine whether AI can Measure up to the educated experts of classical architecture and how we can use AI as a tool for design.The project will unravel in three separate phases (1-3). Phase 1 will explore the interior and exterior images provided by AI when describing a building akin to the Pantheon because it is considered to be the pinnacle of beauty. The incremental process of refining the text prompt is essential to obtain quality images to continue into the subsequent phases.In phase 2, the VAS by 3M, will be used to assess which of the AI images are the most captivating for both the exterior images and the interior images. The winning interior image and the winning exterior image will then move on to phase 3.Phase 3 will take these AI images and compare them to photographs of the Pantheon VAS 3M. This phase will evaluate the extent that AI can pull attention and will offer insights into the potential utility for architects or designers to use in the design process during the conceptual phase.In conclusion, I expect findings will show VAS attention percentages are slightly skewed in favor of human design and, while AI can enhance the efficiency in the design process, it cannot replace years of classical training. Architects would be wise to, instead of resisting change, fully embrace AI as a tool for design enhancement. This study emphasizes the importance of collaboration between “man and machine” in shaping the future for architecture.

Authors: Josh Lythgoe. Mentors: Brandon Ro. Insitution: Utah Valley University. Is the average American content with their home? If not, why are they discontent? One study suggests that how one perceives their home has more impact on them than the actual physical makeup of their home. This research will be added to by determining how the average homeowner perceives their home, and whether or not they are content with their current home. This research will be executed via a survey with a target sample size of at least one-hundred individuals. Factors such as race, socioeconomics, gender, and education will be studied to see what correlations exist between these factors and contentment in each category. Participants will be gathered by posting the survey on various forms of social media, as well as distributing flyers in public locations and randomly selected neighborhoods. Homeowners will be directed to rate various aspects of their home in the following areas: aesthetics and beauty, layout and flow, spaciousness and comfort, timelessness and longevity, maintenance and upkeep, and neighborhood and location. An average will be taken from each category to assess homeowners contentment by topic. The expected results are that on average homeowners will be more discontent than content in each of the above mentioned categories. A statistical analysis will be conducted to look for correlations between who designed the home and contentment. There is an expected positive correlation between contentment with one's home if they were involved in the design process. Similarly, there is an anticipated positive correlation with contentment if an architect designed the home. This research will be used to help guide design professionals to know how they can improve owner contentment with homes being newly constructed and renovated. The findings will help raise awareness of whether or not the current method of designing and constructing houses is meeting the homeowner’s needs, and expectations.

Authors: Sadie Stutz. Mentors: Ben Felix. Insitution: Utah Valley University. The Pagoda is a World War I memorial located in Memory Grove Park in Salt Lake City Utah. This structure was designed by Slack Winburn who was a WWI veteran and local architect in Salt Lake City. It was built in 1925 and is placed to the right after the entry gates of this park. The structure is built out of marble and has simple but intricate detail around the top of the entablature. The pedestal and urn placed in the middle of the structure was added in later years. As you walk around this pedestal you are able to read the names of those in Utah who have passed on and have fought for our country. This memorial is a very elegant and peaceful structure to pay tribute to those who have passed on. The purpose of this project was to study and research this structure. I went to the structure and measured the different details, I composed this analytique to show the beauty in this structure. This composition is done with pencil and watercolor. I have shown an enlarged Doric column, entablature, and pedestal. There is a flower motif of a forget-me-not flower that is repeated through the ornamentation on the entablature and on the pedestal. I have shown the floor plan and floor details with the broken pieces of colored marble which focuses your attention on the pedestal in the middle to remember these men who fought. In the center of the composition is an elevation of the entire structure, surrounded by rose bushes. file:///C:/Users/sadst/Downloads/Sadie%20Stutz%20-%20Pagoda%20Analytique.pdf

Authors: Gabe Snow, Joseph Ward. Mentors: Cammy Peterson. Insitution: Brigham Young University. Unmanned aerial system (UAS) research is fast becoming an important area of development in commercial and military applications. As UAS become more prevalent commercially and recreationally, there is a growing need to accurately track large numbers of these aircraft. This is particularly important in compact urban environments where potential flight paths are limited. Our research team at BYU is developing the Local Air Traffic Information System (LATIS), allowing multiple radar ground stations to communicate and track UAS across multiple fields of view. One major component of this system is Recursive Random Sample Consensus (R-RANSAC)---an algorithm used to correlate and combine the data from multiple sources. The process a ground station uses for calibration is to collect Real-Time Kinematic Global Positioning System (RTK GPS) coordinates of a friendly UAS as it passes through the field of view of a station's radar. R-RANSAC is then used to a) filter noise from the raw radar data, and b) identify "tracks," or paths which UAS have followed, using temporal and spatial proximity. The Orthogonal Procrustes Problem then provides a method to rotate data from the local radar frame to the global frame. These steps can be done live or with recorded data. Following this, the calibrated radar uses R-RANSAC to filter data and identify passing UAS with high accuracy. Our contributions to the project are developing communication software, refining R-RANSAC, and helping to implement the whole system in flight experiments. We are continuing to work on analyzing the data taken from flight tests and publish the improvements of this system compared to existing methods.

Authors: Lais Oliveira, Corinne Jackson. Mentors: Spencer Magleby. Insitution: Brigham Young University. Space applications, such as LiDAR telescopes and reflectarray antennas, often need large arrays that deploy to meet specific mission requirements. These deployable arrays transform from a compact stowed volume to a large deployed surface area, and it is crucial for them to be light and compact with a high functional area. In this project we are improving the ratio with research in deployment by investigating the deployment of various array designs developed by the Compliant Mechanisms Research lab, intended for space applications. We obtain relative metrics, including the deployment energy curves for each design, so designs can be compared for specific applications. Specifically, we aim to assess each design’s compatibility with the aim to minimize volume and maximize surface area. This research will allow us to determine which deployment techniques can be combined, or design for external structures to aid in deployment, if needed, to create an efficient deployable array.

Authors: Davis Wing. Mentors: Larry Howell. Insitution: Brigham Young University. Origami-based mechanisms provide the opportunity for constructing highly compact systems for deployment in space and other applications. One pattern that shows great promise in this field is the flasher pattern, which unfurls a flat, rotationally symmetric arrangement of panels from a cylindrical spiral. The fold pattern is complex, and in attempting to better understand how it can be made from non-zero-thickness materials, and desiring a model which could be easily 3D printed, the following research was developed.As a result of this research, a flasher model was constructed which folds out to a deployed state that has almost triple the projected area of the stowed state. The idealized flasher was designed using Tessellatica, a program developed by Dr. Robert Lang. Turning the two-dimensional output from Tessellatica into a structure suitable for 3D printing required beginning with the stowed form of the flasher and thickening it across all panels. Fold lines were preserved at zero-thickness to ensure correct kinematics, and the bottom face of the model was constrained to be flat. Initial attempts at fulfilling these design requirements made apparent the need for more constraints, such as constraining the thicknesses of different panel sections to be proportional to their distance from the center and ensuring that the final unfolded state involved no overhangs.The final step in designing the model involved the implementation of living hinges. In a 3D printed design, living hinges offer mobility without assembly at the cost of being potential failure points, depending on print line orientations. Any hinge built from paths running in line with that hinge would immediately fail upon bending. The solution to this problem of parallelism was to use two layers with 0.1mm thickness on the bottom of the model, at 90° angles to one another. This allowed for all of the hinges, regardless of orientation, to be able to have the strength necessary to form a workable part.This research advances the manufacturability of zero-thickness origami patterns by providing models capable of being conveniently manufactured by anyone with a 3D printer. Specifically, it demonstrates a method for developing a zero-thickness model into a foldable structure of non-negligible thickness, and how to use default 3D slicer settings to build robust living hinges. The models have been uploaded on two popular file-sharing websites, Thingiverse and Printables, and have been downloaded hundreds of times.

Authors: Joseph Moore. Mentors: Jeff Hill. Insitution: Brigham Young University. Shape memory alloys are extensively utilized in many industries due to their ability to return to a predefined shape when heated. For medical applications, Nitinol, a nickel-titanium shape memory alloy, holds significant favor due to its biocompatibility and super elasticity. Since its discovery in the early 1960s, Nitinol has been the subject of ongoing research and fresh insights into how this alloy operates are of great importance to the industry.Nitinol wires sourced from manufacturers exhibit substantial uncertainty in their actuation temperature, also known as the austenite finish temperature. This study aims to investigate a heat-treatment method that can reduce these uncertainties, ultimately narrowing down the precise and consistent austenite finish temperature for two types of Nitinol wire: a single wire and a coiled variant.To achieve this, Nitinol samples were subjected to heat treatment in a furnace, with temperature and time parameters ranging from 500 to 650 °C and 5 minutes to 2 hours. Subsequently, the austenite finish temperature was triggered and recorded by immersing the heat-treated samples in degassed and deionized water at a controlled temperature.This research defines a straightforward yet effective approach that produces dependable results under controlled conditions. This method has the potential to streamline the determination of austenite finish temperatures, making future research more efficient. It may also open doors for innovative and efficient methods investigating the impact of heat treatment on Nitinol wires.

Authors: Benjamin Merrell. Mentors: Preston Manwaring. Insitution: Brigham Young University. Stage 1 and 2 labor is often characterized by manual examination of the maternal pelvis for fetal position and continuous monitoring by fetal cardiotocography. This practice has not changed in decades despite newer technology becoming available. Manual pelvic examinations have wide inter-examiner variability. Newer technology requires education and training. Unfortunately, both the decades old standard of care and newer technologies target Western markets with high reimbursements. Our lab is seeking to develop simple, robust, reliable, and low-cost technologies for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that don’t require the extensive education and training of modern western medical technologies. To facilitate this development, we, in collaboration with obstetric professionals, have created a 3D-printed test jig with a movable carriage that follows the normal path of fetal head delivery to test various stage 1 and 2 labor technologies in both dry and aqueous environments. Device requirements include: 1) delivery path must be representative of normal nulliparous and multiparous fetal head trajectories; 2) device must not utilize electronics or metal that could interfere with various tracking technologies; 3) device must provide a repeatable path for inter-technology evaluations; 4) device should allow for later expansion for higher-fidelity simulations. This presentation represents our early development work and initial outcomes.