Engineering Commons^™

Drone Applications In Residential Construction, Leo Geiger

Construction Management

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have revolutionized various industries since their creation, particularly in construction. Originally used for military and recreational purposes, drones began to find their place in construction in the early 2010s, primarily for surveying and mapping. While tons of research has been conducted on drones' capabilities in surveying, there is a gap in studies focusing on their applications for general contractors, particularly in large-scale developments. Five interviews were conducted, three with general contractors who have integrated drone technology into their teams and two drone companies that provide subcontracted drone services. Through these interviews, the primary applications …

Site Development Feasibility Study, Andy A. Tenekjian

Construction Management

A feasibility study in the world of construction is deemed as a preliminary due diligence process in which key components of a project are addressed to determine if the project is viable or not. These components are related to time and money, and the end goal of a feasibility study is to determine if the initial investment of time and money is worth the amount of future financial return. What deems a project successful in the preliminary stage is up for interpretation. Each developer and investor have their own return on investment threshold in a multi-family project like the one …

Conceptual Proposal For New Student Housing In San Luis Obispo, Jack F. Tunney

Construction Management

This real property development project walked through the steps and procedures that are typical for real property development. The project focused on a conceptual multi-unit student housing project located near Cal Polys campus. The rental market in San Luis Obispo is very competitive and through market and financial analysis, it was determined that there is a demand for projects like the one proposed. The project walked through the processes associated with the financial analysis of a potential construction project in San Luis Obispo. The project identifies a site, creates a budget both for construction, development, and design costs, then analyzes …

Engineers In Action Bridge Program - Creation Of The Cal Poly Chapter, James Foad

Construction Management

The purpose of this project was to establish a chapter of Engineers in Action at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Engineers in Action is a non-profit organization which is dedicated to constructing footbridges in underserved countries. Bridges are linked to many benefits for those without reliable access year-round. Chapters of this organization work to design, fund, and build the footbridges in remote locations consisting of West Virginia, eSwatini, and Bolivia. The plan for the chapter was to establish a founding team which can work together to both recruit new members, and complete the tasks needed to successfully …

Understanding Slo 22 - Lifelong Learning, Madeleine Zetterquist

Construction Management

This paper is an informative overview of the student learning objective SLO 22, lifelong learning, in relation to the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Construction Management Department. The student learning objective of lifelong learning is an existing university objective for Cal Poly, however, recently has also become a department specific objective for Construction Management. This senior project explores what lifelong learning means to the Construction Management department. Further, the paper explores how the current outcomes of this objective may improve to more closely embody the department mission. These findings will allow for emphasis on lifelong learning in order …

Neca Ghana Project, Michael T. Klee

Construction Management

Cal Poly’s motto is, “Learn by Doing" and for Cal Poly’s NECA Chapter, this isn’t simply a motto, but a directive for proactive change. For my senior project I will be leading the Cal Poly NECA chapter in the design, pre- fabrication and construction of a 5-7kw solar array, community center, ice production room and technology room in the remote fishing village of Agbokpa, Ghana. The solar array will power multiple industrial DC freezers, high efficiency LED lighting and charging stations while additionally powering water filtration and irrigation systems. Like many other fishing villages around the world, Agbokpa has no …

Assessment Of The Potential Of Proposed Stations Of The California High-Speed Rail As Major Hubs For Physical And Economic Development, Seitu Akira Coleman

Master's Theses

This study investigated the potential for development of station catchment areas around the proposed California High-Speed Rail System. The study was prompted by a review of practices of Japanese railway company groups that engage not only in train operations, but also in business diversification and property development within the station areas of their lines. These actions allow the company groups to diversify their revenues streams, increase ridership on their lines, and operate as a whole with net profits. This is in contrast to transit agencies in the United States, which only focus on transporting passengers along their lines and do …

Small-Scale Intelligent Vehicle Design Platform, Christopher Grant, Jay Miley, Evan Phillips

Mechanical Engineering

Intelligent Vehicle Design is a growing field with the potential to save many lives by actively minimizing the impacts of human error. Though there are many ways to research intelligent vehicle control, full-scale implementations are expensive and dangerous and computer simulations have extremely steep learning curves. Researchers and students need an accessible, adaptable, and robust development platform to rapidly create and test autonomous control algorithms. While small-scale platforms are often designed from the ground up for specific projects, this requires analysis, design, and manufacture. The goal of this project is to develop a small-scale intelligent vehicle that can be configured …

Tournament Wizard: Simple And Lightweight Software For Running Fencing Tournaments, John Ryan Daley

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Many sports use technology to assist in officiating and administration. Fencing tournament organizers use specialized software to help determine how their matches occur, and to help them administer a tournament. However, the software most commonly used to run these tournaments has some significant limitations, and is not well-suited for use with small events. As a former President of Cal Poly’s Fencing Club, I have had a chance to interact with one popular application for running fencing tournaments a number of times, and made note of its shortcomings. These included issues with operating system compatibility, license transference, and amount of space …

Ymca Operations Manual Development, Devlin Stewart

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The San Luis Obispo YMCA sports department was losing money and overworking their employees due to lack of processes and organizational issues. To address this, a plan was made with the sports director to begin organizing the sports department. This would be done by creating an operations manual for them to organize and consolidate all of their relevant information.

The project was scoped to develop a plan for the YMCA to implement an operations manual. By delivering a work breakdown structure, a gantt chart, and a plan for continuous improvement, the YMCA could use these tools to develop their operations …

Multi-Axis Machining Project Development, Ryan Patrick Blodgett, Andre Peter Rivera

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Multi-axis milling is a manufacturing material removal process in which computer numerically controlled (CNC) tools cut away excess material through movement in four or more axes. Compared to traditional three-axis machining, multi-axis machining greatly increases the capability and accuracy of the CNC machining processes by reducing the amount of operations required to completely machine a part. Currently, the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department at Cal Poly lacks an advanced CNC class that incorporates fourth and fifth axis CNC machining in the curriculum. This report describes the process behind creating a project for such a class. The class will demonstrate the …

Cal Poly Formulasae Engine Development, Matthew Ales, Rafael Mendoza, Mitchell (Mitch) Thomas, Leon Vinokurov

Mechanical Engineering

This project, engine development, was sponsored by Cal Poly FormulaSAE. The FormulaSAE team proposed this project in order to have a more reliable and more powerful engine for their car, to improve their overall performance at their competition. The baseline output of the engine is 37 hp and 24 lb-ft of torque. The goal of this project was to increase the output to 45 hp, to meet requirements determined by a trade study. We planned to increase the engine’s output using several strategies.

We evaluated all potential design decisions using a Ricardo WAVE model. Ricardo WAVE is a software tool …

Facility And Database Design For The Research Development Center, Nicholas J. Mehas

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this project is to create a new facility and database design to replace the current Research Development Center located on the campus of California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo and the database in use at the facility. Currently the Research Development Center is a condemned building and the database lacks up-to-date technology. The project will develop new designs for both, based on concurrent engineering. The outcome of the project will be a new design for a new building that increases capacity and capability; a new database design that integrates newer technologies and methods for tracking tools.

Design And Development Of An Integrated Waste Management System For Huai Nam Khun, Thailand, Annie Duong

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Background

A rural village in Thailand has always been limited in access to waste collection services and processing facilities. As a result, their behaviors of disposing waste in ineffective manners such as dumping and burning causes a variety of environmental impacts. In addition, the people dwelling in these areas are often unaware of the health risks associated to these types of engagements because of the inadequate education system. For a long time coming these circumstances remained untouched until a non-profit organization recently shed light to the need for a solution. An investigation, to develop a design solution in order to …