Engineering Commons^™

A Guide To An Effective Cal Poly Construction Management Internship, Vincenzo Lucich

Construction Management

Internships provide a multitude of opportunities for students to learn and apply curriculum concepts. Internships are a window providing students with a glimpse of industry standards and practices. For employers, internships can provide value in the form of assistance with documentation, providing a fresh pair of eyes, and providing potential hires. That being said, currently there is no common set of internship standards, producing varying results for interns. The purpose of this research paper is to provide a professional blueprint for current and future CM companies to integrate in their internships. Student surveys and industry professional interviews were conducted to …

Headlamp/Bike Light Damping System, Ethan Reece Clark, Alec Stonehouse, Omeed Ostry, Mitchel Anderson

Mechanical Engineering

The task for this project is to design a headlamp and/or bike light that absorbs the impact shocks from the user’s actions. The user that the system is being designed for may be riding a bike or running on a trail in the evening or early in the morning where the light needs to be stabilized and their path must be illuminated. This report presents the final design chosen after months of prototyping and design iteration. It encompasses the system design, design verification through testing, implementation, future recommendations, and lessons learned throughout the process. The chosen design utilizes a fully …

Treadmill Platform For Quadrupedal Robots, Baxter J. Bartlett, Jack F. Butler, Phillip A. Shafik, Tarun S. Ganamur

Mechanical Engineering

Cal Poly Legged Robots, led by Professor Refvem and Professor Xing, has been leading Cal Poly’s attempts to simulate, produce, and test their legged robots. The initial testing of the locomotion of these robots can be dangerous to the robot since any bugs in the code could cause the robot to fall over and harm itself. Our responsibility as a team was to deliver a portable platform for testing the locomotion capabilities containing a fall prevention mechanism. In short, we have designed a platform for this purpose that consists of a treadmill surrounded by a wheeled chassis with a system …

Programmable Vibration Table Retrofit With Eagle Medical, Jonathan Ilagan, Madhav Asok, Max Lewter

Biomedical Engineering

This project aimed to repair and upgrade a vibration table used for package testing for the sponsor, Eagle Medical - a medical packaging and sterilization company based in Paso Robles, California. The current vibration table is not programmable and lacks circuit diagrams, making it difficult to repair. In addition, it is not functional due to internal circuitry issues and power requirements. To address these issues, the team will implement several upgrades to improve the product and allow for better random cyclic vibration testing. A full assessment of the existing vibration table will be conducted to ensure the viability of these …

Safety First Means Safety Fits- An Awareness Campaign For Inclusive Ppe Designed For Women, Reagan Kellen Tonda

Construction Management

The construction industry has long overlooked the unique needs of women in terms of personal protective equipment (PPE), leading to discomfort and safety risks. This paper presents the "Safety First Means Safety Fits" social media awareness campaign, which aims to increase awareness about the importance of size-inclusive PPE for women and the progress being made in the industry. The campaign utilized social media, specifically Instagram, as a platform for dialogue and information distribution. The campaign involved the creation of an Instagram account (@safetyfits_CP) and the development of six posts addressing various aspects of women's PPE. The posts were promoted through …

City Farm Slo Educational Pizza Oven, Koby J. Ramage

Construction Management

City Farm SLO is a nonprofit that educates the public about growing food, and they donate the produce to food banks and communities in need. Their mission is to promote healthy living through sustainable agriculture and farm-based education. This senior project is to build them an educational pizza oven for them to use in their classes. With it they will give lessons where they cook pizzas using ingredients that they grow on site. To do this, the builder had to make it lightweight and able to move around the property to different meeting places and outdoor classrooms. It is also …

Standardizing Hands-On Building Activities In Commercial Construction Management And Recommendations For Semester Conversion Adaptations, Lauren T. Mcclurg

Construction Management

CM 313 Commercial Construction Management at Cal Poly is an integrated lab course and one of the main hands-on learning experiences construction management students participate in. It is currently administered in the quarter system and as the university transitions to the semester calendar, the lab needs to be converted in order to accommodate this change. The main purpose of this project was to document existing practices and improve the process and experience for students, instructional students assistants, Simpson Strong Tie coordinator, and other professors of CM 313. This project included creating a builders guide to help the student assistants by …

The Torii Project, Edward Anthony Sanchez Pascua

Construction Management

This is a summary of the Torii Project: how the project came to be, and the process behind the preconstruction of installing the structure. A Torii is a Japanese gate structure in Japanese Shinto practices, as the structure is a frame for a significant space. The project was initially started by the Japanese Student Association, and has grown over time become an interdisciplinary design build project involving architects, civil engineers, landscape architects and construction management majors. The design came from Cal Poly Architecture Alumni Amir Hossler who has studied the construction of Toriis in Japan and was the main source …

Filters For Fiji: A Modified Cracker Box Biosand Filter For Rural Fiji, Geneva Newell, Cameron Lowrey, Thomas Burt, Lexie Caterine

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Water quality remains a major issue throughout rural Fiji, as current solutions rely on outside organizations providing money or technology. The goal of Filters for Fiji’s research was to develop a sustainable water filtration method for the people of rural Fiji, through ethnographic and biological research. In order to be sustainable, the filter had to be inexpensive (less than USD$15), simply built and maintained, and suitable for the end-user. The driving question of the research was: can a plastic, modified biosand filter be constructed from materials that could be sourced locally in rural Fijian communities? To answer this question, feedback …

Design And Validation Of A Wearable Smartsole For Continuous Detection Of Abnormal Gait, Karoline M. Wucherer

Master's Theses

Residual gait abnormalities are common following lower limb injury and/or stroke and can have several negative impacts on an individual’s life. Without continuous treatment and follow up, individuals can be prone to chronic pain as abnormal gait may lead to non-physiological loading of the musculoskeletal system. The current industry gold standard for diagnosing abnormal gait requires specialty equipment that is generally only available at designated gait facilities. Due to the inaccessibility and high cost associated with these facilities, a wearable SmartSole device to continuously detect abnormal gait was proposed. A previous iteration of the SmartSole was unable to properly detect …

Cubicom: Noisy Office Environment Communication Device, Nicholas Alan Maley, Joshua Michael Heeren, Alejandro Peña

Electrical Engineering

The CubiCom is a system that enables secure and clear communication between users in a noisy office space. It can function in any small cubicle within a 12 foot radius. The system consists of a series of wireless headsets for 6 users to transmit and receive audio, and a communication box that facilitates this process. These headsets are noise-dampening, preventing ambient sounds from interrupting conversation and making sure that all parties can hear each other clearly. Line-of-sight (L.O.S.) with each headset is required to have proper communication between users. This feature ensures no one outside of the room can eavesdrop, …

High Performance Radar System, Danny Maas

Electrical Engineering

This report covers the design, fabrication, and test of an X-band FMCW radar inspired by the radars from Cal Poly course EE 541, “Advanced Microwave Laboratory.” In this class, 2.4GHz Doppler and FMCW radars are designed and built using consumer off-the-shelf (COTS) components. Operability is the focus of this class, sacrificing performance, accuracy, and precision. this project aims to improve upon those radars by using custom-designed components instead of COTS components and shifting the operating frequency to 10GHz.. The use of custom components can improve output power and frequency stability, and higher frequency reduces component size. The FCC allows amateur …

Programmable And Modular Dc-Dc Converter, Joshua C. Hutchinson, Elijah M. Gordon

Electrical Engineering

This project considers the design, implementation, and testing of an open-source dc-dc converter for microgrid prototyping. Unlike conventional dc-dc converters that are proprietary and require specialist knowledge, and are usually designed for a single function, the proposed dc-dc converter will comprise of a programmable MCU and a Raspberry Pi (RPi) interface to allow less-skilled consumers to monitor and modify a power converting system. We will develop an open-source library that contains voltage control, current control, maximum power point tracking, and battery charge control profiles. Each library will be easy to implement through a GUI on the Raspberry Pi and will …

Vr Force Feedback Gloves, Mark Wu, Claire Chen

Electrical Engineering

The goal of this project is to produce a manufacturing plan for a consumer VR glove. The total addressable market of VR is over 170 million global users as of 2022 (Kolmar , 2022) with a serviceable available market of 300,000 users on Meta’s own social platform (Heath, 2022). The targeted Quest 2 platform utilizes handheld controllers, which causes a lack of immersivity in social settings and gaming scenarios. One common use of the platform involves social platforms such as “Horizons” where users meet in a virtual world to interact; handheld controllers don’t allow users to shake hands, make finger …

Hvac Fan Cooling System Using Modicon M580, Ogbonnaya Okoronkwo Okorie, Nicolas Jens Fache

Electrical Engineering

A common problem that many devices have when operating is overheating. Whether it is operating at full capacity or idle, those devices that we use exert heat to some type of extent. The physical and electronic components of the device can only withstand so much heat before the component becomes damaged. This product provides a method of preventing overheating by being a cooling system for your device. A solution for preventing overheating of the components in these electronic devices is by having some sort of cooling system. Our product’s cooling system will be based on energy efficiency, which means that …

Paired Storage Distributed Energy System Design For A Local Community Farm, Neil Albert Collison, Lily Goldman

Electrical Engineering

This project considers the design of a renewable energy microgrid for a 19-acre community farm in San Luis Obispo, CA as the farm seeks to increase the magnitude of its electrical loads, and gain back-up electrical capability. The microgrid design will enable lower carbon emissions, reduce demand on the utility grid while saving on energy costs, and provide improved reliability and resiliency to the operator of the community farm. The eventual implementation of the design by a professional engineering entity will allow the community farm to expand its education program to include renewable energy as well as gain notoriety in …

Detecting Alzheimer's Disease Using Artificial Neural Networks, Sally Lee, Mia Keegan

Electrical Engineering

This project aims to use artificial neural networks (ANN) in order to detect Alzheimer’s disease. More specifically, convolutional neural networks (CNN) will be utilized as this is the most common ANN and has been used in many different image processing applications. The purpose of using artificial neural networks as a detect method is so that an intelligent way for image and signal analysis can be used. A software that implements CNN will be developed so that users in medical settings can utilize this software to detect Alzheimer’s in patients. The input for this software will be the patient’s MRI scans. …

Variable Frequency Motor Drive Application, Jason G. Milne, Nick Mark

Electrical Engineering

This project entails the development of an electrical engineering undergraduate lab module focusing on utilizing a variable frequency drive (VFD) controlled with a programmable logic controller (PLC) — the Modicon M580. The variable frequency drive is a device that is able to automatically change the frequency of an object through automation without having to physically change the device that is being controlled (ex: fans, pumps, motors, etc.). This project will guide students to understand the software for programming and controlling the PLC within a 3 hour laboratory experiment. Throughout the lab, the students will learn how to implement the PLC …

Development Of Cal Poly’S Hybrid Ac/Dc House, Eduardo Andres Muñoz, Giovanni Ramirez Angel

Electrical Engineering

The Hybrid House provides an example for what sustainable housing solutions could look like. It also functions as a potential solution to the current rural electrification issues many developing countries face. The use of a DC-DC MISO converter allows for combining multiple power sources into a single DC bus. The Hybrid House integrates the DC bus by employing the use of DC-DC converters for home use. This system may potentially improve the overall system efficiency by avoiding the losses associated with AC-DC converters. The use of the DC bus further leverages the Solar Panel renewable energy solution to become a …

Sky Survey Radio Telescope, Jack E. Mcguigan

Electrical Engineering

This document outlines the design of a radio telescope designed to perform hydrogen line sky surveys. The telescope produces radio images mapping the intensity and relative velocities of hydrogen concentrations to their sky coordinates. Over the course of a day, the telescope images the regions of space visible to it, allowing sky survey imagery to be updated daily. Sky survey images are comprised of an array of pixels corresponding to specific sky coordinates. Each 8-bit RGB pixel contains information on the concentrations of hydrogen in the brightness and relative velocity in the color. Radio images mapping the concentrations and velocities …

Development Of Multiple Input Single Output Dc-Dc Converter, Ryan Bailey, Miguel Carmona, Jose Velez-Lopez

Electrical Engineering

This senior project report details the testing and validation of the designed DC-DC Multiple Input Single Output converter. The MISO uses four-switch buck-boost topology to output a single 48V from multiple nominal 24V inputs. The previous iteration of the MISO was plagued with an overheating mosfet that would drastically reduce the lifespan of the boards and reduce efficiency. This newest iteration includes more ground panes to combat the issues. In addition, the 200W MISO board was redesigned to utilize an edge connector for secure installment, removal, and replacement in the actual DC House system panel. The slots also have a …

Smart Table Top, Conner Sima, Nathan R. Jaggers, Jacob Barnes

Electrical Engineering

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition (D&D) is a tabletop role playing game (TTRPG) with complicated mechanics and a seemingly overwhelming amount of information. D&D players are often looking for ways to more effectively track information and products that enhance their game experience. One such product is a custom miniature; players use these to track their character’s location and for the enjoyment of creating a physical representation of their imagination. Virtual Tabletops (VTT’s) were developed to make the entire experience digital. The digital nature of VTT’s make all of the game’s rules and mechanics accessible at the click of the mouse; …

Reaction Wheel Based Rocket Active Spin Stabilization, Tanuj Vemuri

Electrical Engineering

Cal Poly Space Systems is the high-powered and experimental rocketry club at Cal Poly SLO. They aim to design, test, and launch fully integrated launch vehicles. In order to create efficient and reliable vehicles, stabilization systems must be implemented. One parameter that can be actively stabilized is the vehicle’s roll. The roll of the vehicle can have noticeably effects on vehicle performance, as uncontrolled roll leads to decreased system stability in flight. Un-controlled roll can also have negative impacts on the quality of onboard video, which is used for post-flight analysis and marketing.

Reaction wheels are a popular method for …

Spice Modeling Of Biosensing Field-Effect Transistor, Alex Castro

Electrical Engineering

This project created a user manual on how to generate an easily configurable and implementable Spice model for Field Effect Transistor (FET) devices created in the Cal Poly clean room. The document contained step by step procedures depicting the proper execution techniques and example results for different experiments required to gather the proper information for these models. This testing methodology was shown for finding the numerous different device parameters of a FET, including the I-V curves, threshold voltage, and subthreshold current values. The manual then described how to transfer this data into a new Spice model to allow for simulation …

Cardio Trainer, Levi Rash, Cristian Rodriguez

Electrical Engineering

The Cardio Trainer Device is a wearable device that guides the user through a physical exercise based on the user’s heartbeat measurements. Users interface with the device via a wearable band. The band determines the heartbeat of the user in real time and, using that reading, gives the user verbal instructions to optimize their workout. These verbal instructions then serve to control the physical exertion of the user and are delivered through an audio device. Users input personal physical metrics to the Cardio Trainer Device that tailor the performance of the device in a manner of ways: rate of instruction, …

Tehachapi Mountain Trail Association – Trail Bridge Construction, Michael Bowman

Construction Management

The Tehachapi Mountain Trail Association is a nonprofit organization which operates 32 miles of hiking and mountain biking trails year-round. The 650-acre property is located in the foothills above Tehachapi, CA and offers local residents and enthusiasts from around the area an area to exercise and enjoy nature. TMTA is able to operate through yearly memberships that allow the association to hold insurance as well as continue to maintain and build new trails year-round. After completing a separate project for TMTA in Winter 2022 for CM 420 Construction Service Learning, the President, Brandon Griffiths approached me with the idea of …

French Drain Construction For Woods Humane Society, Cade M. Rees

Construction Management

The Woods Humane Society is a prominent animal care facility that aims to rehabilitate, rescue, and assist in the adoption of dogs and cats in the greater San Luis Obispo area. The property contains multiple dog playpen areas which consist of a concrete slab surrounded by a chain link fence, designed for the animals to have an open space to run around throughout the day. Employees are required to hose down the slab hourly to maintain a clean environment for the animals. When employees hose down the playpen areas, a considerable amount of water runs off the slab and into …

United Methodist Children's Center Playground Improvements, Kyle Passey, Hayden Garcia, Mario Taurian

Construction Management

The project consists of multiple pieces that were done as a team to improve the outdoor areas of the United Methodist Children’s Center. The scope of the work consists of placing gorilla hair mulch, making a bench for the kids, removing, grading, and placing artificial turf, and replacing the canvas of a shade structure. There are a few other smaller pieces that will be completed as well but those are the main pieces of the project. The project was executed by teaming up with multiple companies and getting teams of students together to construct the pieces of the project in …

Heavy Equipment Operation Topics Course As Part Of Construction Management Curriculum, Billy Miller

Construction Management

Heavy civil equipment is composed of many types of machines, brands, and models that serve different purposes all with the end goal of completing a job. With fuel prices being as high as they are, picking the right piece of equipment for a heavy civil job is critical. In order to do this, you must understand how each piece of equipment works in order to best utilize it. The focus for this course is the introduction and effective use of the primary pieces of heavy equipment used on job sites all over the country through the use of class discussion, …

Understanding The Legal Impacts Of Integrated Project Delivery And Building Information Modeling, Samuel Chris Wong

Construction Management

This research paper aims to understand the legal ramifications of using integrated project delivery (IPD) and Building information Modeling (BIM) regarding shared risk and reward between parties and impacts of contract law. Using IPD and BIM allows for projects to be more collaborative and work through issues quickly. However, shared design can lead to legal issues that may cause problems if not resolved or accounted for at the beginning of the project. This paper serves as research to further understand the legal consequences of integrating IPD and BIM into construction projects in the United States. There are some differences to …