A. James Clark School of Engineering

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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.

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    Development of Low-Cost Autonomous Systems
    (2023) Saar, Logan Miles; Takeuchi, Ichiro; Material Science and Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    A central challenge of materials discovery for improved technologies arises from the increasing compositional, processing, and structural complexity involved when synthesizing hitherto unexplored material systems. Traditional Edisonian and combinatorial high-throughput methods have not been able to keep up with the exponential growth in potential materials and relevant property metrics. Autonomously operated Self-Driving Labs (SDLs) - guided by the optimal experiment design sub-field of machine learning, known as active learning - have arisen as promising candidates for intelligently searching these high-dimensional search spaces. In the fields of biology, pharmacology, and chemistry, these SDLs have allowed for expedited experimental discovery of new drugs, catalysts, and more. However, in material science, highly specialized workflows and bespoke robotics have limited the impact of SDLs and contributed to their exorbitant costs. In order to equip the next generation workforce of scientists and advanced manufacturers with the skills needed to coexist with, improve, and understand the benefits and limitations of these autonomous systems, a low-cost and modular SDL must be available to them. This thesis describes the development of such a system and its implementation in an undergraduate and graduate machine learning for materials science course. The low-cost SDL system developed is shown to be affordable for primary through graduate level adoption, and provides a hands-on method for simultaneously teaching active learning, robotics, measurement science, programming, and teamwork: all necessary skills for an autonomous compatible workforce. A novel hypothesis generation and validation active learning scheme is also demonstrated in the discovery of simple composition/acidity relationships.
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    INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS IN NONPROFIT UNIVERSITY: A PROJECT GOVERNANCE PERSPECTIVE
    (2016) Ghosh, Soumajit; Cui, Qingbin; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The universities rely on the Information Technology (IT) projects to support and enhance their core strategic objectives of teaching, research, and administration. The researcher’s literature review found that the level of IT funding and resources in the universities is not adequate to meet the IT demands. The universities received more IT project requests than they could execute. As such, universities must selectively fund the IT projects. The objectives of the IT projects in the universities vary. An IT project which benefits the teaching functions may not benefit the administrative functions. As such, the selection of an IT project is challenging in the universities. To aid with the IT decision making, many universities in the United States of America (USA) have formed the IT Governance (ITG) processes. ITG is an IT decision making and accountability framework whose purpose is to align the IT efforts in an organization with its strategic objectives, realize the value of the IT investments, meet the expected performance criteria, and manage the risks and the resources (Weil & Ross, 2004). ITG in the universities is relatively new, and it is not well known how the ITG processes are aiding the nonprofit universities in selecting the right IT projects, and managing the performance of these IT projects. This research adds to the body of knowledge regarding the IT project selection under the governance structure, the maturity of the IT projects, and the IT project performance in the nonprofit universities. The case study research methodology was chosen for this exploratory research. The convenience sampling was done to choose the cases from two large, research universities with decentralized colleges, and two small, centralized universities. The data were collected on nine IT projects from these four universities using the interviews and the university documents. The multi-case analysis was complemented by the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to systematically analyze how the IT conditions lead to an outcome. This research found that the IT projects were selected in the centralized universities in a more informed manner. ITG was more authoritative in the small centralized universities; the ITG committees were formed by including the key decision makers, the decision-making roles, and responsibilities were better defined, and the frequency of ITG communication was higher. In the centralized universities, the business units and colleges brought the IT requests to ITG committees; which in turn prioritized the IT requests and allocated the funds and the resources to the IT projects. ITG committee members in the centralized universities had a higher awareness of the university-wide IT needs, and the IT projects tended to align with the strategic objectives. On the other hand, the decentralized colleges and business units in the large universities were influential and often bypassed the ITG processes. The decentralized units often chose the “pet” IT projects, and executed them within a silo, without bringing them to the attention of the ITG committees. While these IT projects met the departmental objectives, they did not always align with the university’s strategic objectives. This research found that the IT project maturity in the university could be increased by following the project management methodologies. The IT project management maturity was found higher in the IT projects executed by the centralized university, where a full-time project manager was assigned to manage the project, and the project manager had a higher expertise in the project management. The IT project executed under the guidance of the Project Management Office (PMO) has exhibited a higher project management maturity, as the PMO set the standards and controls for the project. The IT projects managed by the decentralized colleges by a part-time project manager with lower project management expertise have exhibited a lower project management maturity. The IT projects in the decentralized colleges were often managed by the business, or technical leads, who often lacked the project management expertise. This research found that higher the IT project management maturity, the better is the project performance. The IT projects with a higher maturity had a lower project delay, lower number of missed requirements, and lower number of IT system errors. This research found that the quality of IT decision in the university could be improved by centralizing the IT decision-making processes. The IT project management maturity could be improved by following the project management methodologies. The stakeholder management and communication were found critical for the success of the IT projects in the university. It is hoped that the findings from this research would help the university leaders make the strategic IT decisions, and the university’s IT project managers make the IT project decisions.