Prediction of energy consumption in campus buildings using long short-term memory

In this paper, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) was proposed to predict the energy consumption of an institutional building. A novel energy usage prediction method was demonstrated for daily day-ahead energy consumption by using forecasted weather data. It used weather forecasting data from a local meteorological organization, the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MET). The predictive model was trained by considering the dependencies between energy usage and weather data. The performance of the model was compared with Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). The experimental results with a dataset obtained from a building in Multimedia University, Malacca Campus from January 2018 to July 2021 outperformed the SVR and GPR. The proposed model achieved the best RMSE scores (561.692–592.319) when compared to SVR (3135.590–3472.765) and GPR (1243.307–1334.919). Through experimentation and research, the dropout method reduced overfitting significantly. Furthermore, feature analysis was done with SHapley Additive exPlanation to identify the most important weather variables. The results showed that temperature, wind speed, rainfall duration and the amount had a positive effect on the model. Thus, the proposed approach could aid in the implementation of energy policies because accurate predictions of energy consumption could serve as system fault detection and diagnosis for buildings

Indoor 3-D RT radio wave propagation prediction method: PL and RSSI modeling validation by measurement at 4.5 GHz

This article introduces an efficient analysis of indoor 4.5 GHz radio wave propagation by using a proposed three-dimensional (3-D) ray-tracing (RT) modeling and measurement. The attractive facilities of this frequency band have significantly increased in indoor radio wave communication systems. Radio propagation predictions by simulation method based on a site-specific model, such as RT is widely used to categorize radio wave channels. Although practical measurement provides accurate results, it still needs a considerable amount of resources. Hence, a computerized simulation tool would be a good solution to categorize the wireless channels. The simulation has been performed with an in-house developed software tool. Here, the 3-D shooting bouncing ray tracing (SBRT) and the proposed 3-D ray tracing simulation have been performed separately on a specific layout where the measurement is done. Several comparisons have been performed on the results of the measurement: the proposed method, and the existing SBRT method simulation with respect to received signal strength indication (RSSI) and path loss (PL). The comparative results demonstrate that the RSSI and the PL of proposed RT have better agreements with measurement than with those from the conventional SBRT outputs

Comparative study of engineering design project assessment rubrics to address the Washington accords complexity attributes

Over the years, various reports confirmed the importance of complex problem-solving in the workplace. However, in most cases, engineering educators often fail to design assessment rubrics that drive the ability to solve complex problems among the students. Literature review revealed that the studies of assessment rubrics in higher education have been undertaken in a wide range of disciplines but not in the field of engineering. Hence this study attempts to present the gaps in four assessment rubrics which were designed to assess engineering design projects. It applied comparative case studies to analyze and synthesize the similarities, differences and patterns from the assessment rubrics to produce generalizable knowledge about how and why particular assessment rubrics work or fail to work against the attributes of complex engineering problem solving and complex engineering activities defined by the International Engineering Alliance (2013), and the essential features of rubrics proposed by James Popham (1997). The results showed that engineering rubric designers generally fulfilled the requirements of designing a rubric. The shortcomings, however, it was found that not all-important design skills were addressed and limited characteristics of complex engineering problem solving were practiced by engineering educators, and the absence of complex engineering activities in the design of assessment rubrics. The understanding of these shortcomings is expected to benefit engineering educators in enhancing their instructional materials for implementing complex problem solving in engineering design projects and subsequently improve the ability of the engineering graduates to solve complex problems

Review of engineering programme outcome assessment models

The programme outcomes or synonymously known as graduate attributes stipulated in the International Engineering Alliance’s graduate attributes and professional competencies serve as a benchmark of standards for engineering education to higher learning institutions in Malaysia as well as other signatory countries under the educational accords. However, with regard to assessing the programme outcomes, the Engineering Accreditation Council Malaysia, similar to most accreditation bodies in the Washington Accord, does not prescribe any specific model to inspire innovation and creativity in assessment. As a result, higher learning institutions often experience challenges in implementing a model that can reflect students’ real performances in these programme outcomes. In essence, a few assessment models have been adopted, namely the accumulating, culminating and comprehensive culminating. This review paper unveiled the advantages and disadvantages of these models and revealed why the comprehensive culminating model is a better approach in the Malaysian experience. From the literature review, and document analysis of accreditation visit reports and records from some accreditation bodies and higher learning institutions, a systematic approach to implement the comprehensive culminating assessment model is proposed. This approach will be useful for higher learning institutions and faculty members in the Washington Accord signatory countries in sustaining assessment efforts

Dielectric Resonator Antenna Design with High Gain and Wide Bandwidth

This study presents a design of dielectric resonator antenna with filtering capability at C-band. The antenna design consists of dielectric substrate on which a dielectric material with permittivity of 10 is designed to work as radiated element. A pair of separated aperture coupling slots are etched on the ground plane to couple the microstip feed line to the top dielectric material. Open stub with microstip feedline is designed for filtering function. The proposed antenna can achieve a wide bandwidth of 456.5 MHz in the range from 4.8911-5.3476 GHz. High order harmonic suppression and low order harmonic suppression are achieved which improve the antenna filtering response. The antenna can achieve a gain of 6.34 dBi, return loss <-25 dB and VSWR of 1.1 dB. The proposed dielectric resonator antenna has high performance with good filtering response which is useful feature in modern wireless communication systems

Evaluation of Engineering Students’ Learning Outcomes: Creating a Culture of Continuous Quality Improvement

Assessment and evaluation of outcomes and continuous quality improvement often lead to uneasiness among engineering educators, which is a barrier to implementing an effective system of results-assessment. The sophisticated evaluation models and analytical instruments adopted by higher learning institutions are believed to worsen this uneasiness, impeding the successful implementation of programme quality improvement. In this paper, the challenges in assessing and evaluating learning outcomes, types of programme outcome assessment model and an analytical tool known as Engineering Outcome Analytics developed by Tunku Abdul Rahman University College for the assessment were presented. Documents related to quality improvement from two higher learning institutions in Malaysia were reviewed and discussed based on the key elements of continuous quality improvement. The results can be used to avoid the shortcomings and adopt the best practices in continuous quality improvement. With proper understanding on the key elements of continuous quality improvement, and adoption of culminating assessment model and a highly integrated analytical tool, engineering educators and programme owners are expected to benefit from this re-search in three ways. First, it cultivates a culture of continuous improvement of quality by increasing the educators' willingness to evaluate results. Second, it enhances their existing analytical tools to reflect students' actual developments, resulting in significant continuous actions to improve quality. Third, it satisfies the accreditation requirements on outcomes-based assessment

Evaluation of Engineering Students’ Learning Outcomes: Creating a Culture of Continuous Quality Improvement

Assessment and evaluation of outcomes and continuous quality improvement often lead to uneasiness among engineering educators, which is a barrier to implementing an effective system of results-assessment. The sophisticated evaluation models and analytical instruments adopted by higher learning institutions are believed to worsen this uneasiness, impeding the successful implementation of programme quality improvement. In this paper, the challenges in assessing and evaluating learning outcomes, types of programme outcome assessment model and an analytical tool known as Engineering Outcome Analytics developed by Tunku Abdul Rahman University College for the assessment were presented. Documents related to quality improvement from two higher learning institutions in Malaysia were reviewed and discussed based on the key elements of continuous quality improvement. The results can be used to avoid the shortcomings and adopt the best practices in continuous quality improvement. With proper understanding on the key elements of continuous quality improvement, and adoption of culminating assessment model and a highly integrated analytical tool, engineering educators and programme owners are expected to benefit from this re-search in three ways. First, it cultivates a culture of continuous improvement of quality by increasing the educators' willingness to evaluate results. Second, it enhances their existing analytical tools to reflect students' actual developments, resulting in significant continuous actions to improve quality. Third, it satisfies the accreditation requirements on outcomes-based assessment

A Comprehensive Review of Efficient Ray-Tracing Techniques for Wireless Communication

A comprehensive review of ray tracing (RT) techniques for wireless communication systems is presented in this paper. The conventional techniques are described with respect to the existing problems and solutions. The development of the computational speed in computer produced a significant change in electromagnetic theory by increasing the performance and by speeding up the numerical calculation method. Nowadays, it is effectively used in cellular wireless propagation investigation. Here, some ray- tracing techniques have been presented to remove the limitation of the uniform geometrical theory of diffraction (UTD) and geometrical optics(GO). Outlines to decrease the computational time and to increase accuracy are the main focus. A very clear synopsis of ray tracing is presented in this paper, with a very exceptional consideration to future high-frequency applications. New challenges in high frequency are described and some new smart ideas for solving those challenges are presented. First, ray-tracing elemental methods are described and the later recently upgraded methods are reviewed. Second, numerous ray-tracing progressive methods are reviewed and then grouped into several categories like heuristic, effective deterministic and special brute force. Finally, the hybrid ray tracing methods which used physical optics are reviewed along with the effective unevenness model to increase the outcome accuracy

Indoor 3-D RT Radio Wave Propagation Prediction Method: PL and RSSI Modeling Validation by Measurement at 4.5 GHz

This article introduces an efficient analysis of indoor 4.5 GHz radio wave propagation by using a proposed three-dimensional (3-D) ray-tracing (RT) modeling and measurement. The attractive facilities of this frequency band have significantly increased in indoor radio wave communication systems. Radio propagation predictions by simulation method based on a site-specific model, such as RT is widely used to categorize radio wave channels. Although practical measurement provides accurate results, it still needs a considerable amount of resources. Hence, a computerized simulation tool would be a good solution to categorize the wireless channels. The simulation has been performed with an in-house developed software tool. Here, the 3-D shooting bouncing ray tracing (SBRT) and the proposed 3-D ray tracing simulation have been performed separately on a specific layout where the measurement is done. Several comparisons have been performed on the results of the measurement: the proposed method, and the existing SBRT method simulation with respect to received signal strength indication (RSSI) and path loss (PL). The comparative results demonstrate that the RSSI and the PL of proposed RT have better agreements with measurement than with those from the conventional SBRT outputs

Prediction of energy consumption in campus buildings using long short-term memory

In this paper, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) was proposed to predict the energy consumption of an institutional building. A novel energy usage prediction method was demonstrated for daily day-ahead energy consumption by using forecasted weather data. It used weather forecasting data from a local meteorological organization, the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MET). The predictive model was trained by considering the dependencies between energy usage and weather data. The performance of the model was compared with Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). The experimental results with a dataset obtained from a building in Multimedia University, Malacca Campus from January 2018 to July 2021 outperformed the SVR and GPR. The proposed model achieved the best RMSE scores (561.692–592.319) when compared to SVR (3135.590–3472.765) and GPR (1243.307–1334.919). Through experimentation and research, the dropout method reduced overfitting significantly. Furthermore, feature analysis was done with SHapley Additive exPlanation to identify the most important weather variables. The results showed that temperature, wind speed, rainfall duration and the amount had a positive effect on the model. Thus, the proposed approach could aid in the implementation of energy policies because accurate predictions of energy consumption could serve as system fault detection and diagnosis for buildings