Articles — Project / Lab Report

Muons compose the penetrating component of Cosmic Rays. At sea level, they constitute the largest part of Secondary Cosmic Rays, giving an average flux of ≈ 100 m−2s−1sr−1. The aim of our experiment is to estimate, from muon decay, the mean lifetime and the mass of invisible products. Our experimental setup includes four detectors: three of them are plastic scintillators and compose the trigger system, while the last one is a liquid scintillator which measures the particles energy. All these scintillators are read by photomultipliers. Trigger and pulse thresholds are computed by logical and temporal modules in a VME crate. The Data Acquisition System has been verified to work properly. It is composed of two fADCs modules, one I/O Register, one Motorola computer and a Farm. The liquid scintillator has been calibrated in energy using both passing muons and 60CO gamma source. Thanks to the charge-energy conversion factor we estimated electron energy spectrum. In particular we selected a sample of decay events by estimating muon mean lifetime τμ = 2.19 ± 0.34 μs; then we finally extrapolated an upper limit for invisible products mass mν < 5.99 ± 0.73 MeV/c2.

For an electron moving in a circular path in a magnetic field, if we know the magnetic field strength, accelerating voltage, and radius of the electron's trajectory, then we can make an estimation of the electron's charge to mass ratio. We calculated an average charge to mass ratio of \(2.08 \times 10^{11} \pm 1.81 \times 10^8\) Coulombs per kilogram.

Accurate prognosis and prediction of a patient's current disease state is critical in an ICU. The use of vast amounts of digital medical information can help in predicting the best course of action for the diagnosis and treatment of patients. The proposed technique investigates the strength of using a combination of latent variable models (latent dirichlet allocation) and structured data to transform the information streams into potentially actionable knowledge. In this project, I use Apache Spark to predict mortality among ICU patients so that it can be used as an acuity surrogate to help physicians identify the patients in need of immediate care.

A dual energy radiography method using basis decomposition was developed, the process to do it is shown and it is compared against an alternate more direct method of analyzing the data using the logarithm of the original data, concluding that this second method does work but it is not better than basis decomposition.

Suppose you have a data matrix comprised of several stock options over a set period of time. How do you choose the optimal collection of stocks such that you maximize your returns for a given level of risk? What Markowitz found was an elegant equation. What we realized rather quickly is there does not exist a closed form solution to this problem. Instead we use the tried and tested linear approximation. By transforming this problem into Matrix multiplication, we are able to quickly and (with desired accuracy) approximate the optimal solution, using only linear algebra.

This paper is a report of an assignment of a course Computational Intelligence. The main goal of the assignment is to apply computational intelligence techniques in a practical setting - building a controller for a race car in The Open Racing Car Simulator (TORCS) using artificial neural network and evolving that network with evolutionary algorithm techniques. Keywords: computational intelligence, car controller, artificial neural network

As part of the NASA IMPACT program to model mechanical interactions with bodies in space such as comets, asteroids, and other Near Earth Objects (NEOs), the Colorado School of Mines team is designing a motor stage apparatus to interact with JSC-1A regolith simulant surfaces. This initial study involved development and testing of a prototype motor stage apparatus which was used to drive three types of probes into JSC-1A surfaces while collecting force data under standard Earth atmospheric conditions. The probes used were a conical-tipped probe, a wedge-tipped probe, and an anchoring probe. Main goals of the prototype system were to acquire general force trends for each interaction, and to isolate the most important design features for a more-complex in-vacuum system. Our data revealed force interactions that were very small in magnitude—on the order of tenths of Newtons—and more complex than our simple stiff beam probe and mount model could accurately predict. Our results lead us to recommend a more complex experimental model that can accurately represent deflection in the probes while also allowing for better measurement of regolith movement near the tip of the probes. Specifically, we recommend the following design features for the in-vacuum system: a load cell capable of measuring at very low ranges (thousandths of Newtons), reliability of structural axis alignment between trials, a robust mounting system that can accommodate each different type of probe, and consistency of sample preparation between trials.

Recent work on information extraction has suggested that fast, interactive tools can be highly effective; however, creating a usable system is challenging, and few publically available tools exist. In this paper we present IKE, a new extraction tool that performs fast, interactive bootstrapping to develop high-quality extraction patterns for targeted relations, and provides novel solutions to these usability concerns. In particular, it uses a novel query language that is expressive, easy to understand, and fast to execute - essential requirements for a practical system - and is the first interactive extraction tool to seamlessly integrate symbolic and distributional methods for search. An initial evaluation suggests that relation tables can be populated substantially faster than by manual pattern authoring or using fully automated tools, while retaining accuracy, an important step towards practical knowledge-base construction.

In this experiment, we attempt to better understand how materials properties are tested. We tested a number of simple beams of different materials under a stress. The bending of the materials allowed for us to calculate the Poisson's Ratio and elastic moduli for each material. From this, we were able to not only compare materials but also methods of measuring elasticity. Despite some error in our results, which can be explained by the scale of our measurements in relation to the stiffness of certain materials, we find both strain gauges and equations of cantilever to be appropriate measurement techniques for measuring the elastic modulus of simple beams.