Comparative airship economics

As future LTA vehicles will be doomed right from the start if they do not fill a real need, some differences in transport philosophy between design engineers on the one hand and freight forwarders on the other are discussed. Watching rising costs of energy necessary to transport our cargo from A to B, and realizing that this price of energy is always included in the product's selling price at B, the apparent correlation between installed specific tractive force per unit of cargo weight and pure freighting cost are contemplated. Very speedy and progressive Airship designs are mistrusted, because the key to any low cost transport tool is to design it for its given task only, without any unnecessary sophistication

What is the Value of Ethanol to Nebraska Corn Producers?

In this thesis, we examine the role of local ethanol plants on net price received by Nebraskan corn growers, with net price comprised of the grain buyer’s bid onsite less the transportation cost incurred through delivery. As each farm operation is uniquely located between different sets of grain buyers, an ethanol plant impacts each grower’s net price to a different degree, depending on location. Exploring this, we use grain bid and transportation cost data based on actual ethanol plants, grain elevators, and sample farm locations in Nebraska, estimating the diversely located corn grower’s net prices received from surrounding grain buyers. We find higher net prices available at ethanol plants for a large majority of farm locations considered in this study. This not only indicates that ethanol plants generally offer higher prices than grain elevators; it also suggests the offered price sufficiently compensates for transportation costs and incentivizes corn growers to travel more miles to deliver to an ethanol plant. We observe some cases where corn growers bypass their local elevator and still attain a higher net price at the ethanol plant, while farm locations in closer proximity to the plant achieved as much as $0.54 per bushel more delivering to the ethanol plant over nearby grain elevators. In addition to varying across location, ethanol’s impact is also found to differ by ethanol plant size and fluctuate by season. Our findings suggest ethanol plants with larger capacities provide greater value over a wider scope. In addition, the net price differential between ethanol plant and grain elevators is found to be the greatest in Spring. Advisors: Cory Walters, Kathleen Brook

Interface design to support situation awareness in virtual puppetry

Virtual Heritage is the use of digital media to reconstruct cultures and cultural artifacts as they are today or as they might have been in the past. The central element is usually a threedimensional computer model of a person, place, or thing. Frequently, these are ancient monuments, temples, homes, and other social spaces (Jacobson, 2008). The goal of Virtual Heritage is to draw viewers into the virtual world and allow them to directly experience the overall context of the environment. This phenomenon is known to researchers as “presence.” It is a long held belief that the increased presence yields better the opportunities for deeper learning (Devine, 2007)

Influence of Street Trees on Roadway User Safety

This thesis aims to understand trends of trees in transportation planning and to determine if street trees have a negative or positive influence on crash frequency and severity. As roadways become more walkable and livable, they become safer. Street trees are a vital component of this trend. Planners must understand the impacts of trees on roadway user safety as they work to reduce crash risk. Although spatial analysis suggests there may be a negative relationship between trees and crash frequency, correlation models find a significant correlation between trees and crash severity, but no significant correlation between trees and crash frequency. Regression models of crash reports, tree inventory data, and other related variables in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, show that the presence of trees has a positive relationship on crash severity but no relationship on crash frequency. For every one unit increase in trees there is a 1.428 increase in predicted severe crashes, but an increase in trees does not result in any statistically significant influence on crash frequency. These findings are useful in gaining an understanding of tree influences on crash frequency and severity at the block group level, but further analysis of other variables is necessary for any further conclusions to occur. Advisor: Daniel Piatkowsk

Nebraska National Agri-Marketing Association and the COVID-19 Effect

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) student organization is one of more than 30 student chapters across the U.S. and Canada. The objective of the student NAMA on campus is to learn first-hand about the many career opportunities in agri-marketing from professionals in marketing, advertising, communications, promotion, sales, and public relations. As chapter members, students develop valuable personal contacts and working relations with agri-marketing professionals and have meaningful opportunities to develop and practice their managerial skills and leadership abilities

A Successful Year for the Nebraska National Agri-Marketing Association

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln National Agri- Marketing Association (NAMA) chapter finished in second place at this year’s national marketing competition. The chapter also won the John Deere Signature Award. The John Deere award is given to student chapters based on business knowledge, academic excellence, leadership development and community citizenship. Chapter members Marydith Donnelly and Brent Miller earned scholarships and Allison Brockman made finals in the sales competition. NAMA marketing team members presented their marketing plan for EnTotal, a dog food made from black soldier fly larvae. The students developed the product concept, which is modeled on insect-based dog foods available in Canada and Europe. The marketing team spent the last academic year researching and developing the EnTotal marketing plan. They interviewed dog food manufacturers to gain a better understanding of the industry. Endless hours were spent researching consumer attitudes toward insects, dog food purchasing habits, and market trends. The students used this research to develop two customer profiles who would be most likely to purchase EnTotal. A detailed action plan to reach these customers was a key component of the marketing plan. They also developed a business proposition and financial statements

Responsible deployment of a projectile device in society

The superhero genre includes numerous examples of highly advanced technologies such as the Iron Man suit, the trick arrows used by Hawkeye, and the shrinking suit of Hope van Dyne (the Wasp). Another technology is the War Machine suit – an exoskeleton suit worn by Colonel James Rhodes. The War Machine suit is home to a plethora of weapons such as a Gatling gun. In this paper we present a prototype of a projectile device based on coils, which we constructed ourselves, that can replicate the projectile capability of a traditional projectile device. However, unlike traditional projection technologies, we imagine that this device could be used for the benefit of society to improve transportation systems and upgrade space travel