Engineering Commons^™

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 …

Autonomous And Interactive Control Of A Mobile Robot, Dylan Hoover, Tanner Kaczmarek, Kevin Molumphy, Stephen Tambussi

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

An autonomous and interactive control of a mobile robot is a desired asset to the Robotics Systems Laboratory (RSL) at Santa Clara University and to the food automation company, L2F. This benefits their future endeavors of having helpful cobots navigate and assist entities in their respective environments. This paper documents the development of software for a cobot that satisfies the basic requirements for easy and safe control of an autonomous robot within a dynamic environment. The completed software includes the ability for the cobot to track a person and then autonomously follow that person around at a safe following distance …

A Parallelizable Algorithm For Stabilizing Large Sparse Linear Systems With Uncertain Interconnections, Aleksandar Zečević, Maryam Khanbaghi

Electrical and Computer Engineering

This paper proposes a new method for permuting sparse matrices into an upper block triangular from. The algorithm is highly parallelizable, which makes it suitable for large-scale systems with uncertain interconnection patterns. In such cases, the proposed decomposition can be used to develop flexible decentralized control strategies that produce a different gain matrix whenever the configuration changes. Applications to interconnected microgrids and supply and demand networks are provided to illustrate the versatility of the proposed approach.

Coconut Oil Space Cooler, Hannah Covington, Alexander Fessler, Largim Zhuta

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

During summer months there is reliance on air conditioning (A/C), which is energy intensive in nature. The mass use of A/C units during peak hours taxes the energy grid significantly as a demand spike occurs during these peak hours. This demand spike requires an equal response in supply which disproportionately produces greenhouse gas emissions as reserve power plants come online to meet this demand. These reserve power plants, are relatively inefficient, and more expensive to run than base load plants. The Coconut Oil Space Cooler utilizes the latent thermal storage capabilities of phase change materials (PCMs) to provide a temporary …

Dual Axis Solar Tracker With Automated Cleaning System, Kevin Ehlers, Justin Eng, Nicholas Gallo, Matthew Kelley, Jonathan Lung, Brian Weitzenkamp

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Photovoltaic panels are fundamental in the generation of renewable energy both on a local scale and a utility scale. The mounting systems for such panels can be costly, require large amounts of maintenance, and miss out on energy savings. Manual cleaning and single axis tracking systems leave more to be desired from such systems. In this paper, we propose, research, test and manufacture a two axes solar tracking system with integrated water cleaning to obtain the most energy savings possible from a single PV panel. Our work shows that two axis tracking combined with an automated cleaning system can provide …

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

Mechanical Engineering 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 …

Cost Efficient Radio Telescope, Nick Arroyo, Brian Benedicto, Tyler Ikehara

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

This project aims to construct a smaller and less expensive radio telescope compared to traditional radio telescope designs by utilizing a Software Defined Radio (SDR). This is the first stage of a multi-year effort to bring radio astronomy capabilities to Santa Clara University. The implementation of this project includes designing and building a pyramidal horn antenna centered around the hydrogen line frequency of 1420 MHz. The project will also be comparing specifications of low noise amplifiers (LNA) and designing band-pass filters. Lastly, this project implements an SDR to process the signals received by the telescope to recreate a map of …

Remote Crop Disease Detection Using Deep Learning With Iot, Ivy Chung, Anoushka Gupta

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

Agriculture is such a vital part of our society, and according to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), plant diseases are considered one of the two main causes of decreasing food availability. This paper explores not only the methods and findings of building a CNN-based disease detection model, but that of building a deployable remote crop disease detection system incorporating IoT technology. By using transfer learning with AlexNet, we were able to predict with 89.8% accuracy tomato plant images into one of the ten pre-defined disease classes. Our proposed system tracks plant health throughout the day by using …

Supetai Well Water Purification, Claire Russon, Geovanni Usher, Nicole Valdivia

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

The rural Kenyan community of Oldonya Rasha had depended on water from a distant spring of unknown quality from which there have been reports of typhoid. A non-governmental organization, Sabore’s Well, built the centrally-located Supetai Well with the intention of solving the lack of accessible potable water, but due to high fluoride levels in the groundwater, this water source is unsafe. The team designed a water treatment system to be integrated into the existing well infrastructure that removes fluoride and pathogens to meet Kenyan and World Health Organization (WHO) water quality standards. The design includes dosage of alum and soda …

Home Ranch - A Single Family Residential Development In Gilroy, Ca, Patrick Hagerty, Luke Lazzarini

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Project Overview

The purpose of this project was to provide a housing development plan for an undeveloped plot in the South Gilroy area.

Project Statement

The City of Gilroy needs additional housing to support the growth of their community. This project seeks to determine the best use of the undeveloped McCutchin Creek subplot and design its site layout. This plot of land is constrained by the City development codes, the 2023 City of Gilroy housing element, and the site specific development code.

The deliverables presented to the client are a grading plan, site layout plan, stormwater and sewage plan, potable …

Skin Phantom For Wearable Device Benchtop Testing, Laura Apolloni, Vindhya Mullapudi, Takumi Simon

Bioengineering Senior Theses

The biowerables constitute one of the fastests growing sectors of the medical device industry. Novel approaches for rapid prototyping have increased design and development speeds. However, in vivo testing that is currently used for many medical devices makes testing time-consuming, costly, and presents ethical issues. As an alternative, benchtop testing tools promise to alleviate these concerns. Artificial tissue phantoms that are capable of mimicking the characteristics of human tissues are required for demonstrating a medical device’s safety and efficacy in benchtop tests. While there are many hydrogels that are able to mimic these relevant properties of human tissue, creating a …

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 …

Identification Of Messenger Molecule For Immuno-Antibacterial Infection Drug Discovery With The Usage Of Bio-Ai, Minqiao (Lisa) Jin

Bioengineering Master's Theses

Facing the danger of Gram-positive bacterial infection, mammalian cells have their defense line. A functional proteomics study aided with Deep Learning indicates the direct interaction between collagen V from mammalian cell membrane and Sortase A which catalyzes the display of virulence factors on the gram positive bacteria. And CHO cell proteomes conducted with the use artificial intelligence via Tensorflow and found that the identified anti collagen V binds to Sortase A of S. aureus and regulates its monomer-homodimer equilibrium, which is responsible for the bacterial cell wall sorting activity. Our results suggest that the collagen V plays an instrumental role …

Operating Machine Learning To Identify Tools (Omlit), Jason Chavez, Grant Schorr, Sebastian De La Cruz

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Today’s society is heavily reliant on using data to improve systems and create innovative technology. This project takes advantage of artificial intelligence, specifically machine learning (ML) which has allowed us to create a web application that detects tools, specifically hand tools. By having the user upload an image of one of three hand tools (screw driver, handsaw, or power drill) the user will be able to identify the tool as well as be provided information on hand tool safety. This identification system is handled by a pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model and trained using a self built data set. …

Water Storage Analysis And Design Portfolio For Nocaima, Colombia, Philip Bortz, Lola Martin Uribe, Claudia Newell, Gisselle Paz-Ortiz

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

In partnership with Santa Clara University Frugal Innovation Hub and the Institución Universitaria of Politécnico Grancolombiano, the project aims to provide a single household, self-managed, water storage solution for residents of rural Nocaima, Colombia. Currently, the impacts of climate change and the lack of a sufficient community water system threaten the water security of rural Nocaima and the livelihoods of its residents. Proposed are two rainwater collection and storage systems, one including slow sand filtration and tank storage system, and the other a retention pond that will not be filtered. Components of the solutions include collection, storage, and filtration systems, …

Microgrid For Scu With Vehicle-To-Grid, Kurt Williams, Cameron Refaee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

Santa Clara University is a large loads in Santa Clara needed two finders and a maximum of over 8MW peak demand; however, this consumption will only increase as the student body and electric vehicles on campus continue to grow. To meet this rising demand in both a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner, we proposed and simulated a complete energy management system with cost analysis of energy savings of a microgrid capable of reducing the power supplied to Santa Clara University’s campus from the grid by 40% using renewable energy, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) functionality, and real SCU energy data. The project further …

Healthy Hive: A Beehive Health Management Tool, Kwadwo Amoako

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

Honeybees are important pollinators and are essential in the preservation of ecosystems as well as agricultural production. They are crucial to the pollination of 85% of the world’s food crops. However, honeybee populations have been in decline over the past decade, due to external environmental conditions such as diseases and pests (invasive varroa mite), pollution (insecticide), or inadequate forage/poor nutrition. These conditions can have a severe impact on the health of hives. This project will serve as a tool for the monitoring system of tracking the activities of honeybees entering and exiting their beehive. The health condition of the bee …

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

Electrical and Computer Engineering 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 different 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 …

Saint Joseph Hall Retrofit, Jordan Masutomi, Martin Duran

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Santa Clara University has always strived to create a healthy and safe learning environment for students and faculty. The curriculum taught at the University empowers students, faculty, and staff to build a more humane, just, and safe world. With safety at the forefront of engineering ethics it is imperative that this is not only taught in our classrooms but also showcased in our campus infrastructure. Our project seeks to conduct a seismic retrofit for Saint Joseph Hall, a building that has served the Bronco community for over 100 years. In this paper we will discuss our investigation of old campus …

Emergency Relief Structure For Natural Disaster Evacuees And The Homeless Population, Madeline Yee, Margaret Tolan, Rodrigo Mendez

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

In California, many communities lack the resources to provide support for natural disaster evacuees and those devastated by economic loss (our growing homeless community). An improved interim housing solution needs to be developed - a solution that provides comfort, privacy, and community - in the hopes of maintaining the dignity of those experiencing these hardships. In order to address this problem, the team designed a modular, panelized structure to provide shelter to those who are subject to emergency situations. A structural design and analysis was completed for both a cold-formed steel and a timber structure. A parcel of land in …

Full Body Image Animation With Deep Learning: A Review, Rachael Brooks

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

Deepfake technology has been undoubtedly growing at a rapid pace since 2017. Particularly since using GAN architecture was popularized, research in this area has grown and seems to only be gaining momentum. One interesting area is animating images of full body humans using deep learning. This paper looks at the research done in this area and research that can influence it by looking at papers regarding human pose transfer, human motion transfer, and human motion generation. All of these types of papers have similar requirements, where a target pose must be abstracted to a skeleton and combined with appearance data …

Deep Learning-Based Low Complexity And High Efficiency Moving Object Detection Methods, Bingxin Hou

Engineering Ph.D. Theses

Moving object detection (MOD) is the process of extracting dynamic foreground content from the video frames, such as moving vehicles or pedestrians, while discarding the nonmoving background. It plays an essential role in computer vision field. The traditional methods meet difficulties when applied in complex scenarios, such as videos with illumination changes, shadows, night scenes,and dynamic backgrounds. Deep learning methods have been actively applied to moving object detection in recent years and demonstrated impressive results. However, many existing models render superior detection accuracy at the cost of high computational complexity and slow inference speed. This fact has hindered the development …

Optimal Power And Frequency Control Of Microgrid Cluster With Mixed Loads, Saleh Dinkhah, Johana Salazar Cuellar, Maryam Khanbaghi

Electrical and Computer Engineering

In recent years, voltage and frequency regulation issues have been extensively discussed for the microgrid clusters (MGCs), as the high penetration of renewable energy resources (RES) might affect the continuous operation of the microgrid (MG). Furthermore, to enhance the MGC’s operation reliability, stability concerns need to be addressed. In this study, a residential MGC connected to a commercial MGC has been considered. A novel control scheme that combines both droop control and virtual inertia control is proposed. This control strategy relies on online measurements, and it can be adapted to different situations. At each iteration, the damping coefficient and droop …

Investigation Of An Optimized Occupancy-Driven Hvac Control Strategy And Development Of A Scalable House/Grid Simulation, Kaleb Pattawi

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

Energy consumption in buildings is projected to increase more than 50% by 2050. Renewable energy sources are expected to increase and will help alleviate some of the energy demand; however, the intermittent nature of renewables makes it tough to effectively use energy in buildings. Various pricing schemes, including time of use electricity pricing, are used to encourage users to shift loads. Buildings need to be able to proactively react to changing energy sources and electricity prices in order to reduce over-generation of electricity and save money. This work demonstrates an optimized Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) control strategy that …

Adaptive Navigation Of Three-Dimensional Scalar Fields With Multiple Uavs, Robert Ka-Hing Lee

Engineering Ph.D. Theses

Adaptive Navigation (AN) control strategies allow an agent to autonomously alter its trajectory based on realtime measurements of its environment. Compared to conventional navigation methods, AN techniques can potentially reduce the time and energy needed to explore scalar characteristics of unknown and dynamic regions of interest (e.g., temperature, concentration level). Multiple Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) approaches to AN can improve performance by exploiting synchronized spatially-dispersed measurements to generate realtime information regarding the structure of the local scalar field for use in navigation decisions. This dissertation presents initial results of a comprehensive program to develop, verify, and experimentally implement mission-level AN …

Engineering News, Fall 2021, School Of Engineering

Engineering News

No abstract provided.

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 62 Number 2, Fall 2021, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

18 - WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS The pandemic stole an entire year of games from them. But this team still won it all. Written by Harold Gutmann. Illustrated by Liam Eisenberg.

26 - INFORMED BY STRUGGLE. How hardship forged a sense of gratitude in SCU finance professor Meir Statman and his wife, Navah. Written by Deborah Lohse.

30 - TWEETING GOOD There’s a Bronco who finds hope, God, and cat pictures online. We talk with @padreSJ. Interviewed by Leslie Griffy. Illustrated by Kyle Hilton.

34 - SIGNALS FROM A CHANGING PLANET. The imprints of humans on the environment spell a …

The Emily Dickinson Machine & Hybrid Poetry Generation, Juliana Shihadeh

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

This thesis introduces EMILY, a machine that creates original poems in the style of renowned poet Emily Dickinson. Dickinson’s succinct and syntactically distinct style with unconventional punctuation makes for an interesting challenge for automated poetry creation. Furthermore, we adapt EMILY to answer the following hypothetical question: What if Emily Dickinson had collaborated with another poet from a different time period? To this end, we introduce Hybrid Generative Poetry, which simultaneously integrates poetic elements from multiple poets. Using two distinct approaches to Hybrid Poetry generation, we create poetry in the combined styles of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. User studies are …