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Browsing by Author "Sharma, Arjun"

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    Contemporary Arts Museum in Roanoke: an Entrance to the City
    Sharma, Arjun (Virginia Tech, 2008-10-20)
    Roanoke, as a city, needs to redefine itself and to constantly respond to what new should come to the city. Society and culture become an important factors in design. The insertion into an existing fabric requires a careful dialogue between past, present and future. The proposed building sets in contrast to the existing structures in the neighborhood of the site, establishing its own response to time. Although contrasting the existing buildings the proposition is responsive to context in terms of scale and materials. The context is important to continue the harmony and rhythm of the urban fabric. The site is located at one of the main entrances to downtown Roanoke and market square and hence the proposed building acts as a gateway to the future of the city. Due to its location the building will project the first image of the city. Therefore the proposed building should enhance and adapt to the social and cultural roots of the city. My thesis is a reaction to the existing conditions at the site for what I believe to be a lack of sensitivty to the context and the needs of the people of Roanoke. A museum is a public institution to provide insight into the attitudes and values of the local community. Through design the building is intended to symbolize the gateway to the future of the city. The basic shape of the building is curved in response to the plan of the site while allowing for an urban plaza in front. Cantilevered masses which radiate from Market square are inserted into the primary building mass providing a connection to a larger context. The cantilevered masses(which hosts art galleries)hover over and project into the urban plaza providing Roanoke city with a public space downtown. Thus the two most important elements i) Cantilevered masses and ii) The Urban Plaza are means to weave the thesis project into the existing urban fabric of the Roanoke.
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    Portable Micro-Gas Chromatography with Multidimensional Compound Identification Analysis
    Sharma, Arjun (Virginia Tech, 2023-03-16)
    Gas Chromatography (GC) is an analytical technique in the chemistry field widely used to separate compounds present in a sample mixture. Conventional GC systems are an extremely versatile and powerful tool to perform complex separations. However, these systems come with the cost of being bulky and requiring a high amount of power for operation. With considerable research for over 40 years, the advent of Micro-Gas Chromatography (µGC) made it possible for miniaturized, compact, low-power, and field portable GC systems. This thesis presents a portable µGC system that enables real-time analysis of complex compound separations, made possible with the use of multiple separation columns and a novel multidimensional compound identification algorithm. The system architecture and the software design with multiple features enabling portability of the µGC system are discussed. A set of microfabricated separation columns (µSCs) and photoionization detectors (PIDs) are integrated to realize a fully functional µGC system that is tested with different types of complex compound mixtures. An in-depth analysis of processing the output chromatograms obtained from the setup for signal filtering and peak detection is described in this thesis. A multidimensional analysis for compound identification in complex mixtures is presented.