Engineering Commons^™

Dreamtemp: A Platform For Sleep Monitoring And Improvement, Michelle Lim, Kyle Pedersen, Will Cockrum

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

With 70 million Americans suffering from chronic sleep disorders and only 7500 board-certified sleep physicians, a clear logistical problem exists that technological solutions may be able to address. The proliferation of IoT devices in homes and on our person presents a unique opportunity to improve sleep quality by leveraging the data they produce, and the control they provide to us over our everyday lives. DreamTemp is a platform for sleep monitoring and improvement that aims to improve an individual’s quality of sleep by dynamically adjusting the room temperature based on the user’s sleep cycle using a smart wearable and thermostat. …

Rhea Breast Pump: Implementation Of Biomimicry Technology, Harper Daniels, Leanne James, Laini Reynolds, Courtney Rowe, Julia Yaklich

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Rhea Breast Pump is an innovative breast pump that implements biomimicry informed technology for a more efficient and comfortable breastfeeding experience. Our design implements a tongue actuator in conjunction with vacuum to mimic the suckling motion of a baby’s mouth, a heating element for pain alleviation, and a soft flange to maximize comfort. The development of this device is motivated by the goal of empowering women, specifically nursing mothers, to maintain their independence and individuality while raising a family. Our team, consisting of all female engineers, strongly believes in and supports the notion that women can and should have the …

Safehome, Meryem Esa, Siddarth Raj

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The SafeHome app was developed to address the significant communication challenges in refugee camps, where outdated methods such as flyers and intercoms limit the efficiency and reliability of information dissemination. Through extensive research and user-centric design, we developed a dual-interface application on the Firebase platform, featuring a web-based portal for camp administrators and a mobile application for refugees. The results showed effective functionality and enhanced communication, with refugees now able to receive timely updates, access crucial resources, and store personal documents securely. The successful implementation of SafeHome underscores the potential of leveraging technology to solve real-world challenges and enhance the …

Lever Drive Wheelchair With Gear-Changing Concept, Dylan Hsu, Julian Hermosura, Anugrah Murali, Brian Burke

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The team has taken notice of the limitations disabled people in wheelchairs experience in everyday life due to the insufficiencies of their wheelchairs. The purpose of this project is to create a wheelchair that is affordable for users and enables them to have more freedom when it comes to their areas of travel. Our wheelchair would allow patients to be more integrated into society by not only having more freedom in the areas that they can travel, but also to be a part of the economic society by potentially providing services to people with their updated mode of transport.

The …

Nautilus Rov Robot Manipulator, Dana Stefanides, Jenny Huynh, Andrew Stewart, Steven Reimer, Andrew Nguyen, Rebecca Walters, Matt Hayes

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Global warming and climate change are prevalent issues in today’s society. As a result, research in the ocean, our world’s biggest ecosystem, is imperative in efforts to protect the environment. Santa Clara University’s Robotic Systems Lab contributes to this field through work and developments on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). An existing ROV system called Nautilus consists of a robot arm, end effector, and storage system in order to collect various types of sediments at a depth of 300 feet. However, the previous system does not meet that requirement. In direct collaboration with researchers within the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, …

Robotic Arm Extrusion End Effector, Nicholas Viamin, David Blouin, Savannah Hunt, Nico Figueroa

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

This senior design project aims to enhance the capabilities of the Rotrics AIO Desktop Arm (Dexarm) by designing and implementing an extrusion device capable of smooth and consistent extrusion for 3D printing applications. The project focused on ensuring safety, affordability, and ease-of-use for users, while achieving precise control over the extrusion process. Various mechanical and electrical components were carefully selected to ensure compatibility with the Dexarm and to provide optimal performance. To maintain safety, extensive testing and risk assessments were conducted to minimize any potential hazards associated with the extrusion process. To achieve smooth and consistent extrusion, precise control mechanisms …

Dominican Republic Greenhouse Automation, Pedro Alvarenga, Henry Kayser

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The development process involved meticulous engineering and integration of the electrical components, ensuring seamless functionality and performance. The AGS was designed to be affordable, scalable, and easily replicable, with the intention of expanding its implementation beyond the DR to other underserved communities globally. By optimizing resource management, conserving energy, and minimizing the carbon footprint, the AGS promotes environmental sustainability in food production. Overall, this senior design capstone project successfully developed a cost-effective and user-friendly Automated Greenhouse System, addressing food insecurity challenges in the DR. The project demonstrated professional excellence, fulfilled the mission of SCU's School of Engineering, and strengthened the …

Neurogen: Eeg And Near-Infrared Light Stimulation Control System, Arnold Nieto, Jaylinn Solis, Matthew Tamanaha

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Light stimulation or transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) therapy has been shown to be effective when treating patients suffering neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. While there is currently no cure, light stimulation can help alleviate symptoms for those patient’s suffering from these diseases. With this in mind, the senior design team from last year began a prototype hybrid electroencephalography (EEG) and tPBM device. They implemented a specific wavelength of 810 nanometer (nm) near-infrared (NIR) light emitting diodes (LEDs), with a 16 channel EEG headset from OpenBCI. The device was intended to serve as a potential research tool, with a …

Wage Wizard, Jack Davey, Kyle Felip Mondina, Brett Rimmer

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Wage theft is a severe problem in Santa Clara County, with the Santa Clara Wage Theft Coalition identifying more than 25,000 local wage theft cases as of 20211. In this study we will be addressing the issue of wage theft particularly in the Santa Clara County caregiving industry. Wage theft is prevalent in the caregiving industry for several reasons. First, the industry employs many migrant Filipino workers who are unaware of their legal rights and protections or even the fact if they are experiencing wage theft or not. Second, the sizable undocumented portion of these workers are coerced to lower …

Machine Learning Fmri Autism Classifier, Nicholas Luckenbach

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is typically understood by observing patient behaviors. Advances in neuroimaging research and data collection have made it possible to investigate the neurobiological basis for ASD, and differences between subjects with ASD and healthy controls (HC) have been found using a variety of methods. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in particular has provided evidence for and against certain cognitive models of ASD based on measuring the functional connectivity of subjects’ brains. Various techniques have been explored for applying machine learning (ML) to fMRI data in order to find unique patterns and differences between ASD and HC subjects. …

Neurogen: Eeg And Near-Infrared Light Stimulation Device, Louisa Mantilla, Samantha Perez, Michelle Wong

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and Parkinson’s affect hundreds of millions of people across the nation and world each year. While medications targeting disease pathways have often resulted in debilitating side effects, neurodegenerative diseases may be targeted by common pathways that promote healing of tissues via reduced inflammation, increased perfusion, and increased energy production. Photobiomodulation (PBM) targets all of these physiological processes with non-invasive near infra-red light stimulation and for this application the treatment will be applied to the head. Transcranial PBM has been used to effectively treat neurodegenerative diseases with improved cognitive and motor control outcomes. PBM applied …

Latam Intelligent Filter For Education (Life), Andrew Lemus, Jonathan Woo, Edison Yang, Cinthya Jauregui, Daniel Mccann-Sayles

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The LIFE system is designed to inspire primary-aged students in Latin American schools to pursue higher education in STEM related fields. We hope the students educate others in their community about the public health implications stemming from the lack of clean water and grow to bring about more lasting solutions to the water crisis. Many family’s lives are stymied by the inability to access clean drinking water, with many students ending up spending hours carrying water or spending time recovering water themselves in lieu of attending school. The LIFE team created a tabletop water filter and pump system accompanied by …

A Low-Cost, Long-Range, And Solar-Based Iot Soil Quality Monitor, Salvador Garcia, Trina Nguyen, Julian Wong

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The project objective is to create a low-cost, long-range, and solar-based IoT soil quality monitoring system. The system must transmit packages of data gathered from separate nodes, consisting of two dierent types of sensors, to a centralized gateway receiver to be displayed to the user in an elegant and readable manner. The end goal of the project is to supplement produce grown by large agricultural bodies around the United States without the misuse of water resources. This report presents the need for this system, details the components of the system, and the rationale behind design choices. It serves as a …

Marine Robot Sample Retrieving System, Valeriya Chulyukina, Noah Villar, Kekoa Blair, Mandeep Singh, Nathan Burke

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The exploration of our underwater ecosystems is critical. The aquatic ecosystem has a significant effect on human life, yet our understanding of the oceanic environment is severely lacking. Santa Clara University’s Robotic Systems Lab contributes to subsea exploration through its investment in remotely operated vehicle (ROV) technology. This project was done with the guidance of not only professors in the Robotics Systems Lab, but also stakeholders from the US Geological Survey scientists and researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). Our team goal was to further advance SCU’s efforts by creating a sediment sample collection system consisting of …

Bioai For Anti-Infective Drug Discovery, Maria Esquivel, Johann Fernando, Anna Fisher, Cameron Leong, Adam Weaver

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Modern antibacterial drugs are quickly becoming insufficient for medical, agricultural and veterinary use, and the drug design techniques used to supplement the supply are not able to adequately and quickly produce enough effective candidates. We took a multi-pronged approach to remedying this problem, including shifting the target mechanism from antibiotic drugs in favor of anti-infective drugs, developing an AI which aimed to predict the interactions of small molecule fragments with the target protein, and refining wet lab testing protocols in order to make the drug design process holistically more efficient and effective. We have shown that there is potential in …

Neurogen: Eeg And Near-Infrared Light Stimulation Control System, Karina Sanchez, Sruthi Sakthivel, Michael Bose, Evan Jennings

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are widespread, affecting millions of people worldwide. These diseases occur when neurons in the brain or peripheral nervous system progressively lose function and deteriorate. Current pharmacological treatments manage some of the neurological symptoms, but there is no cure yet. Interventions that mitigate or restore loss of function can fill the void until that goal is met. Light stimulation, or transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) therapy, can help treat people with neurodegenerative diseases, as it has been shown to improve sleep, attention, memory, and cognitive function.

The objective of this project is to develop …

Dynamic Shading System, Alexander Kravtsov, Walker Battey

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Long exposure to UV-light radiation can lead to accelerated skin aging and skin cancer. Children are the most susceptible group to the dangers of high UV radiation because of their sensitive skin. Solar shading can provide the staff and clients of Kids on Campus with a way to prevent over-exposure to UV-light radiation by replacing the existing shading structure with a structure that offers significantly better protection from harmful rays. This new structure is also cost-effective, sustainable, and automated. By using a light calibrating sensor that calculates the UV index, we created a dynamic shading system to control and reduce …

Machine Learning Based Model For The Detection Of Brain Aneurysms From Mr Angiography, Katherine Becknell, Claire Bushnell, Rachel Fitzsimmons, Emily Sumner

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

A brain aneurysm is a thin or weak spot on a blood vessel wall that expands and fills with blood. Brain aneurysms are very dangerous due to the fact that in most cases, patients do not show any symptoms. Because of this, aneurysms are difficult to diagnose unless it becomes very large or ruptures, resulting in fatal hemorrhage.

Aneurysms can be detected by a number of different brain imaging methods including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA), Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) and other imaging methods but for the sake of this report we will only be focusing on …

Crossroad - Avoid Crowd Intelligence, Xukun Zhang, Yuzheng Wu, Haochen Zhang

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Nowadays, waiting takes big chunks of daily-life activity. People may always find themselves facing long queues, waiting in a crowded facility, even when they have tried to avoid peak hours. Heading to a highly populated public area may have felt like heading to a battlefield. Without access to the real-time information of the facility, people start to discover that waiting starts to become an unpredictable event that can sometimes delay their schedule or even worse. This project serves as a solution to tackle this lack of transparency. Crossroad aims to combine facilities’ cameras with micro-controller to see the engagement of …

Jamming Attack Workaround Study, Soren Madsen, Jack Schoen

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a fast growing industry with strong footholds in the smart home market featuring devices such as the Amazon Echo, Ring security cameras, smart TVs, and much more. However, it doesn’t stop there; the industrial sector has begun using smart devices for measurement, automated tasks, and time sensitive communication. Many of these devices have become reliant on WiFi technology and are vulnerable to attacks on the security of the protocols involved.

In this paper, we discuss the details of the deauthentication attack on WPA and WPA2 systems and propose a solution for detection and recovery …

Adaptive Robotic Chassis (Arc): Robocrop A Smart Agricultural Robot Toolset, Steven Bucher, Krissy Ikeda, Brooke Broszus, Alejandro Gutierrez, Ariana Low

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

RoboCrop is a payload system that attaches to an existing modular drivetrain to support the agriculture industry with their primary challenge of labor shortages. ARC: RoboCrop features three degrees of freedom as an XYZ Cartesian robot and is intended specifically for pruning strawberry flowers. The image bay camera attached to RoboCrop’s frame identifies the strawberry flowers, communicates their XYZ coordinates, and then the Cartesian robot moves to the desired locations. The snipping toolhead is interfaced at the bottom of the Z-stroke and performs the snipping process. RoboCrop has a proven success rate of at least 70% of flowers pruned in …

Mobile Nanogrid, Daniel Mendoza, Ben Mahony, Charles Ju, Michael Batshon

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The mobile nanogrid is a standalone mobile power solution which uses a combination of automatic and manual tracking mechanisms to maintain a solar panel's perpendicularity to the sun over the course of the day in order to maximize energy generation. The power can then be consumed by a user or stored. It is designed to be placed on the roof of a vehicle for the recreational camping market to meet the need for mobile power generation. A scaled-down functional prototype was designed in SolidWorks, modeled in MATLAB Simulink, fabricated in the machine shop using a combination of off-the-shelf and custom …

Marine Robot Deployment And Control System, Nicky Castillo, Nick Ellis, Trent Kelsall, Matt Kiyama

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

A full operations package for underwater research, including the mid-sized ROV Nautilus with a distributed control system, a topside graphical user interface (GUI), and a dedicated launch and recovery system (LARS), was developed to increase the operational efficiency of scientific exploration and experimentation missions through Santa Clara University’s (SCU’s) Robotics Systems Laboratory (RSL). Design of the mechanical subsystems on Nautilus added flexibility of usage and protection of components. The new GUI improved pilot control of Nautilus with an added heads-up display and easy access to sensor readouts. The simulated Nautilus altitude control system has an error of ±1% and a …

Project Shearwater Ground Effect Uav, Duncan Clark, Justin Cole, Zachary Karat, Aidan Nickels, Cole Wolfe

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The Shearwater unmanned aerial vehicle is a maritime fixed-wing drone that is designed to use ground effect force generated between the aircraft and a body of water to efficiently propel itself near the surface of a body of water. Shearwater features a virtual reality pilot interface and will act as a hybrid underwater vehicle that will eventually be able to operate both above and beneath the ocean’s surface. The Shearwater team developed existing design work to produce major subsystems that culminated in a flyable functioning prototype. An existing airframe was updated with working control surfaces tested in simulation and in …

The Modular Oceanic Autonomous Underwater Vehicle For Novel Actuation, Bryan Gilbertson, John Elstad, Matthew Holmes, Sean Even, Robert Percell, Andrew Kambe, Gregor Limstrom

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

A low-drag, high endurance, and high efficiency Long Range Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is a desired asset to Santa Clara University to aid future underwater vehicle development efforts. Such an vehicle will demonstrate novel actuation methods and provide the on-campus Robotics Systems Laboratory with a modular prototype to aid research and academic efforts. In this paper, we document the construction of a low cost, modular, demonstration vehicle that satisfies the requirements for high-efficiency operation and modular interfaces. The completed vehicle features standard actuation abilities utilizing low-drag methods that qualify it for shallow water operation. Furthermore, the vehicle demonstrates the feasibility of …

Santa Clara Community Garden Composter Device, Nick Buccino, Kyle Uyehara, Jay Weber

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Although studies show that people understand the negative effects of organic waste thrown into landfills, few take steps to help reduce the amount of methane pumped into the environment by composting their food scraps, garden waste, grass clippings, etc. Composting meets with resistance because it actually encompasses a complicated combination of factors and processes that involves knowledge, attention, and manual labor to perform correctly. Composting done improperly results in offensive odors such as ammonia and rotten eggs, a sloppy mess of half-decomposed raw materials, and an abundance of pests such as flies, racoons, and skunks. Individuals, communities, and cities often …

Adaptive Navigation Utilizing A Drone Cluster, Zach Cameron, Brendan Engh, Thomas Kambe, Aditya Krishnan

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The current infrastructure for drone piloting involves drones flying in a predetermined path to find an object, source, or target with a known location. Drones should be able to determine an optimal flight path mid-flight in order to find an undefined source or target given existing parameters that can be analyzed from incoming sensor data. However, a framework for such a feat is almost non-existent. Our project aims to build such a framework that allows for the control of and communication among multiple drones, called a cluster, and allows for in-flight analysis and processing of sensor information to determine how …

Adaptive Robotic Chassis (Arc), Darran Casey, Ryan Ku, Noah Kane Manuel, Isabella Morales, James Reimer, Lavelle Simmons

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The ARC is a width adjusting agricultural robot and accommodates auxiliary functions for supporting crop production and maintenance. Easily interchangeable payloads and components provide a modular solution to perform focused crop surveying functions with the potential for herbicide distribution, weeding, and harvesting while driving through varying crop rows. The potential auxiliary functions will be implemented by future teams with this year's effort being put toward finishing the physical chassis. The final product was successfully designed to weigh approximately 600 pounds targeting rolling speeds of0.90 fps to 2.30 fps with proof of concept shown in testing consisting of chain drive attached …

Heavy Lift Drone, Sam Carhart, David Cooper, Luis Gaitan, Michael Kaliterna, Sami Lama, Paul Rogel-Herrera, Yuya Yabe

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Despite the rapid rise in the number of drones in the past few years, there has been little work done to produce a drone that is optimized for the FAA' s 55 lb upper takeoff limit. This gap in the market is one that the Heavy Lift Drone (HLD) fills - a light-weight, higher payload capability, and inexpensive drone to be used in commercial applications - most notably irrigation monitoring. The HLD is a contra-rotating hexagonal configuration system featuring two levels of propellers that allow for larger propeller diameter and generate greater lift. After performing extensive finite element analyses and …

Basil Leaf Automation, Andrew Soong, Chris Nelson, John Goldsberry, Kalle Suzuki, Nikolas Abenoja, Sherene Victor, Simon Liu

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Recent population and wage increases have forced farmers to grow more food without a proportionate increase in work force. Automation is a key factor in reducing cost and increasing efficiency. In this paper, we explore our automation solution that utilizes position manipulation and vision processing to identify, pick up, and drop a leaf into a can. Two stepper motors and a linear actuator drove the three-dimensional actuation. Leaf and can recognition were accomplished through edge detection and machine learning algorithms. Testing proved subsystem-level functionality and proof of concept of a delicate autonomous pick-and-place robot.