Using Manufacturing and Design Principles and Processes to Evaluate the Feasibility and Marketability of a Wooden Disc Golf Basket

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and discuss the product development process of a new product design of the commonly used disc golf basket as was executed through the Center for Manufacturing Excellence 2022 Senior Capstone Project. This project was executed over the course of the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 University of Mississippi undergraduate semesters by a team of six, consisting of two mechanical engineering students, one finance student, and three accounting students. The end goal of the project was to develop a production plan to produce 1,000 units a month based on market demand and analyze the effectiveness and profitability to determine the feasibility of implementation. The project began with team formation and a project management plan to meet predetermined goals and deadlines while distributing tasks equally amongst team members. This was followed by process and design creation for a prototype which led to design and process changes and costs analysis, finally resulting in a production plan. Post production analysis included discussion of why and how the decisions were made along the product development process and the effects of those decisions. Hindsight analysis of the consumer market, cost implications, and additional design and process improvements led to data driven discussion of the effectiveness of a wooden disc golf basket. The authors of this thesis will discuss the ideal vs actual implementation of manufacturing and design principles in relation to this project

Atomic White-Out: Enabling Atomic Circuitry Through Mechanically Induced Bonding of Single Hydrogen Atoms to a Silicon Surface

We report the mechanically induced formation of a silicon-hydrogen covalent bond and its application in engineering nanoelectronic devices. We show that using the tip of a non-contact atomic force microscope (NC-AFM), a single hydrogen atom could be vertically manipulated. When applying a localized electronic excitation, a single hydrogen atom is desorbed from the hydrogen passivated surface and can be transferred to the tip apex as evidenced from a unique signature in frequency shift curves. In the absence of tunnel electrons and electric field in the scanning probe microscope junction at 0 V, the hydrogen atom at the tip apex is brought very close to a silicon dangling bond, inducing the mechanical formation of a silicon-hydrogen covalent bond and the passivation of the dangling bond. The functionalized tip was used to characterize silicon dangling bonds on the hydrogen-silicon surface, was shown to enhance the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) contrast, and allowed NC-AFM imaging with atomic and chemical bond contrasts. Through examples, we show the importance of this atomic scale mechanical manipulation technique in the engineering of the emerging technology of on-surface dangling bond based nanoelectronic devices.Comment: 9 pages (including references and Supplementary Section), 8 figures (5 in the main text, 3 in Supplementary

New fabrication technique for highly sensitive qPlus sensor with well-defined spring constant

A new technique for the fabrication of highly sensitive qPlus sensor for atomic force microscopy (AFM) is described. Focused ion beam was used to cut then weld onto a bare quartz tuning fork a sharp micro-tip from an electrochemically etched tungsten wire. The resulting qPlus sensor exhibits high resonance frequency and quality factor allowing increased force gradient sensitivity. Its spring constant can be determined precisely which allows accurate quantitative AFM measurements. The sensor is shown to be very stable and could undergo usual UHV tip cleaning including e-beam and field evaporation as well as in-situ STM tip treatment. Preliminary results with STM and AFM atomic resolution imaging at $4.5\,K$ of the silicon $Si(111)-7\times 7$ surface are presented.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Distinctive Sans Forgetica Font Does Not Benefit Memory Accuracy In the DRM Paradigm

A common method used by memory scholars to enhance retention is to make materials more challenging to learn—a benefit termed desirable difficulties. Recently, researchers have investigated the efficacy of Sans Forgetica, a perceptually disfluent/distinctive font which may increase processing effort required at study and enhance memory as a result. We examined the effects of Sans Forgetica relative to a standard control font (Arial) on both correct memory and associative memory errors using the Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) false memory paradigm, to evaluate Sans Forgetica effects on overall memory accuracy. Across four experiments, which included nearly 300 participants, Sans Forgetica was found to have no impact on correct or false memory of DRM lists relative to a standard Arial control font, regardless of whether font type was manipulated within or between subjects or whether memory was assessed via free recall or recognition testing. Our results indicate that Sans Forgetica is ineffective for improving memory accuracy even when accounting for associative memory errors

Investigating how design concepts evolve in engineering students.

peer-reviewedA critical aspect to engineering in the workplace is the ability to design solutions to ill-structured problems. Prior research has shown that such solutions are highly effective when they are evaluated in relation to multiple design concepts. However, a documented problem among engineering students is that they tend to fixate on their initial design ideas rather than branching out and continuing to develop new concepts. In order to address the issue of fixation, 77 Design Heuristics has been established as a method to cultivate ideation among engineers and engineering students. This method for generating design concepts comes in the form of 77 cards, each with a different cognitive prompt for generating a solution (e.g., reduce material, flatten). Through the use of the 77 cards, engineers and engineering students are able to expand their horizons of possible design ideas and develop many unique concepts.Using a freshman engineering course, we integrated the 77 Design Heuristic cards to document how initial ideas develop into final concepts. We analyzed 12 first-year engineering students that were distributed in three different design teams, in order to better understand how they responded to the use of this instructional tool. Our findings demonstrate key influences that did foster idea fluency (Theme 1: Influence on Design Concepts) but also ways that students attached to certain concepts throughout the design process (Theme 2: Resilient Concepts).PUBLISHEDpeer-reviewe

Reducing False Recognition in the Deese-Roediger/McDermott Paradigm: Related Lures Reveal How Distinctive Encoding Improves Encoding and Monitoring Processes

In the Deese-Roediger/McDermott (DRM) paradigm, distinctive encoding of list items typically reduces false recognition of critical lures relative to a read-only control. This reduction can be due to enhanced item-specific processing, reduced relational processing, and/or increased test-based monitoring. However, it is unclear whether distinctive encoding reduces false recognition in a selective or global manner. To examine this question, participants studied DRM lists using a distinctive item-specific anagram generation task and then completed a recognition test which included both DRM critical lures and either strongly related lures (Experiment 1) or weakly related lures (Experiment 2). Compared to a read-control group, the generate groups showed increased correct recognition and decreased false recognition of all lure types. We then estimated the separate contributions of encoding and retrieval processes using signal-detection indices. Generation improved correct recognition by both increasing encoding of memory information for list words and by increasing memory monitoring at test. Generation reduced false recognition by reducing the encoding of memory information and by increasing memory monitoring at test. The reduction in false recognition was equivalent for critical lures and related lures, indicating that generation globally reduces the encoding of related non-presented items at study (not just critical lures), while globally increasing list-theme-based monitoring at test

Getting at the Source of Distinctive Encoding Effects in the DRM Paradigm: Evidence From Signal-Detection Measures and Source Judgments

Studying Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) lists using a distinctive encoding task can reduce the DRM false memory illusion. Reductions for both distinctively encoded lists and non-distinctively encoded lists in a within-group design have been ascribed to use of a distinctiveness heuristic by which participants monitor their memories at test for distinctive-task details. Alternatively, participants might simply set a more conservative response criterion, which would be exceeded by distinctive list items more often than all other test items, including the critical non-studied items. To evaluate these alternatives, we compared a within-group who studied 5 lists by reading, 5 by anagram generation, and 5 by imagery, relative to a control group who studied all 15 lists by reading. Generation and imagery improved recognition accuracy by impairing relational encoding, but the within group did not show greater memory monitoring at test relative to the read control group. Critically, the within group’s pattern of list-based source judgments provided new evidence that participants successfully monitored for distinctive-task details at test. Thus, source judgments revealed evidence of qualitative, recollection-based monitoring in the within group, to which our quantitative signal-detection measure of monitoring was blind