Theses (AUS Sustainability)http://hdl.handle.net/11073/80402024-03-28T23:17:51Z2024-03-28T23:17:51ZA Strategic Framework for a Smart Campus: American University of Sharjah Case StudyAbuAlnaaj, Karam Hanihttp://hdl.handle.net/11073/166412021-03-28T09:15:07Z2019-09-01T00:00:00ZA Strategic Framework for a Smart Campus: American University of Sharjah Case Study
AbuAlnaaj, Karam Hani
As the term smart campus attracts the professionals and academics from multiple disciplines, and the technology keeps intervening in every aspect of life; it becomes inevitable for the smart campus to take place and contribute in the future vision of smart cities. As a first step to achieve this vision, it is very important to develop a clear understanding of what is a smart campus. To date, there is still no clear perception of how would a smart campus look like, or what are the main components that can form a smart campus. In this study, an intensive research is conducted to explore and compile the recent accomplishments in the fields of: smart cities, internet of things and smart campus; to utilize these recent studies into a coherent entity called ‘The Smart Campus’. The objective of this research is to propose a conceptual framework for the Smart Campus that underpins the most important criteria from the campus end users’ perception. The main criteria are defined from literature review, and a case study is conducted on the American University of Sharjah campus end users to assess the designated criteria. This exploratory research relies on both qualitative and quantitative methods to perform the analysis, taking into consideration the perceptions of students, faculties, and IT service providers. The results of the case study shows that 10 smart application scored High Importance level (H) (0.8 ≤ RII ≤ 1) based on the Relative Importance Index, and 15 other application are in the High-Medium importance level (H–M) (0.6 ≤ RI ≤ 0.8) based on the same index. Moreover, the case study shows that students prefer to deploy respectively the application of Smart Cards, Smart Classrooms, Smart Energy Management, and Smart Transportation in their campus life, and 60% of them believe that their university is capable to do the smart transformation. Nevertheless, professors and IT professionals confirmed the proposed smart criteria, and highlighted the main obstacles in: implementation cost, buildings’ reliability, and resistance to change. Finally, having defined and evaluated the criteria that underpins the smart campus framework, a set of recommendations are drawn to guide the utilization of a smart campus within higher education settings. This research opens the doors for future studies to gain a deeper insight into the type of decisions that need to be made in order to transform a traditional campus to a smart campus.
A Master of Science thesis in Engineering Systems Management by Karam Hani AbuAlnaaj entitled, “A Strategic Framework for a Smart Campus: American University of Sharjah Case Study”, submitted in November 2019. Thesis advisor is Dr. Vian Ahmed. Soft copy is available (Thesis, Approval Signatures, Completion Certificate, and AUS Archives Consent Form).
2019-09-01T00:00:00ZEvaluation of Microplastics in Beach Sediments along the Coast of Dubai, U.A.EAslam, Hudahttp://hdl.handle.net/11073/166402021-03-28T09:15:07Z2019-05-01T00:00:00ZEvaluation of Microplastics in Beach Sediments along the Coast of Dubai, U.A.E
Aslam, Huda
The unprecedented increase in consumption in conjunction with poor management of plastic waste have resulted in global contamination of both terrestrial and marine environments. Plastic debris undergoes fragmentation, resulting in the formation of microplastics, a synthetic polymers less than 5 mm in size. Significant amounts of microplastics have been globally observed in beach sediments. However, no studies have addressed microplastic contamination of marine sediments and/or coastal water in the United Arab Emirates. In this study, microplastic contamination in beach sediments of sixteen beaches along the Arabian Gulf coast in Dubai have been studied. Five samples of beach sediment were collected approximately from 1 cm below the surface from each beach along a 100 m stretch using a 0.5 m by 0.5 m, steel quadrant along the wrack lines. Density separation was used to extract microplastics from the sediment samples. The number of pieces of microplastics were identified under a 40X dissecting microscope and categorized by color and shape. Furthermore, microplastics polymer types were identified through FT-IR analysis. The results showed that the average weight of microplastic is 0.33 mg. g⁻¹ of sediment (or 953 mg.m⁻²) and the number of microplastic is 59.71 items.kg⁻¹ of sediment (or 165 items.m⁻²) in the study area. A total of 3366 pieces of microplastic were found in the 80 samples with 10 different colors; blue, red, green, yellow, black, white, grey, orange, pink, and transparent. The analysis showed that blue microplastics are more abundant in terms of numbers, while white ones are most abundant in terms of the number of microplastics per square meter (items.m⁻²) and number of microplastics per kg dry weight of sediment (items.kg⁻¹). Furthermore, four shapes of microplastics were identified including fiber (most dominant), string, pieces, and polystyrene spheres. FT-IR analysis was conducted to identify the polymer type of fibers and strings that were large enough to handle using forceps which were 1396 microplastics. 63.67% of the samples were identified to be polyethylene and 32.94% were found to be polypropylene. XRF analysis identified 14 heavy metals on the extracted microplastics including Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pb, which are classified as priority pollutants by EPA.
A Master of Science thesis in Civil Engineering by Huda Aslam entitled, “Evaluation of Microplastics in Beach Sediments along the Coast of Dubai, U.A.E”, submitted in May 2019. Thesis advisor is Dr. Tarig Ali and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Md. Mortula. Soft and hard copy available.
2019-05-01T00:00:00ZPerformance Analysis of An Earth Water Heat Exchanger in SharjahAtwany, Haninhttp://hdl.handle.net/11073/165792021-03-28T09:10:40Z2019-11-01T00:00:00ZPerformance Analysis of An Earth Water Heat Exchanger in Sharjah
Atwany, Hanin
The growing global demand for energy is amplifying the need for the development of sustainable and energy efficient systems. In the Arabian Gulf, cooling load represents about 70% of the overall energy consumed during the peak summer season. While geothermal cooling has been identified as an effective method for reducing the cooling load, the utilization of Earth Water Heat Exchanges (EWHE) has not been given much attention in the Gulf region. The inadequate research and data available on EWHE technology has hindered its adoption for practical use during structural development and building construction in the United Arab Emirates. In order to bridge this gap, this study demonstrates a comprehensive analysis of the performance of the EWHE through evaluating three critical factors: soil properties, vertical ground temperature distribution, and the EWHE design parameters. The properties of soil are being evaluated through lab testing of soil samples. Vertical ground temperature distribution data is collected from two boreholes located in different locations over the course of seven months. A setup mimicking the performance of an EWHE has been built to collect real time data over several planned test runs. Based on the findings of the current experiments and data, a three-dimensional numerical simulation model has been developed using ANSYS Fluent Release 19.1 to investigate the performance of a horizontal EWHE. The experimental study verified the presence of a geothermal cooling potential in the United Arab Emirates. At a flow rate of 0.15 kg/s and water inlet temperature of 340 K, water outlet temperature was lower by 30 K. The numerical analysis indicated the possibility of further enhancing the rate of heat exchanged through imbedding the heat exchanger in a backfill material of higher soil thermal conductivity. Soil properties and temperature data collected, present a valuable input for future geothermal research in the region.
A Master of Science thesis in Mechanical Engineering by Hanin Atwany entitled, “Performance Analysis of An Earth Water Heat Exchanger in Sharjah”, submitted in November 2019. Thesis advisor is Dr. Mohammad Omar Hamdan and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Bassam Abu-Nabah. Soft copy is available (Thesis, Approval Signatures, Completion Certificate, and AUS Archives Consent Form).
2019-11-01T00:00:00ZMulti Agent Reinforcement Learning Approach for Autonomous Fleet ManagementAlhusin, Mohammed Omer Alaminhttp://hdl.handle.net/11073/165772021-03-28T09:10:40Z2019-12-01T00:00:00ZMulti Agent Reinforcement Learning Approach for Autonomous Fleet Management
Alhusin, Mohammed Omer Alamin
A Master of Science thesis in Computer Engineering by Mohammed Omer Alamin Alhusin entitled, “Multi Agent Reinforcement Learning Approach for Autonomous Fleet Management”, submitted in December 2019. Thesis advisor is Dr. Michel Pasquier and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Gerassimos Barlas. Soft copy is available (Thesis, Approval Signatures, Completion Certificate, and AUS Archives Consent Form).
2019-12-01T00:00:00Z