Graduate Students Seminar

Speaker 1: Katelynn Huneycutt

Title

Flutter in Suspension Bridges

Abstract

Flutter is a self-destabilization of an elastic structure, owing to the presence of a surrounding fluid flow. Following an aeroelastic bifurcation, the structure may lock into a sustained limit cycle oscillation. For the bridge configuration, this type of instability can manifest itself in a longitudinal or torsional motion with vastly different effects.

In this talk, we aim to characterize the different notions of instability for suspension bridges and to present numerical and analytical methods for investigating the mechanism of flutter using a nonlinear plate partial differential equation model.

Speaker 2: Lillian Chow

Title

Predicting Cow Weight Using Force Data and Curve Registration

Abstract

Cows are a vital portion of the farming industry in America, and cow bodyweight is used to help determine the health status of a herd.  However, traditional bodyweight measurement tools are often stressful for the herd and time inefficient. Step Analysis LLC developed a prototype of a machine that will streamline the weighing process by predicting the weight of a cow based on their functional gait data, that is, the characteristics of their walk as a function of time.  The machine measures the forces in the X,Y, and Z axes as well as the accelerometer data as the cow walks across the machine. In this talk, we will present one of the approaches we have used to model the data using curve registration. To analyze the recorded information, we calculated various locomotive parameters and used landmark registration to produce a model that could predict the weight of the cow using the data recorded by the device.