Engineering Commons^™

Process Improvement And Lift Design For The Installation Of A Metrology Machine Assembly, Dalt J. Lasell, James Mitchell O'Meara, Matthew Steensma

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The objective is to work with Onto Innovations, a leading provider of semiconductor metrology and manufacturing solutions, to develop a system that safely installs a 250lb optics plate into the Atlas III: one of their metrology machines. Based in Milpitas, CA, Onto Innovations utilizes a variety of operations to create different products and assembles each product on site. The 250lb optics plates are WIP that are transferred between fixtures and the Atlas III using a combination of lifts and human workers. The WIP have long lead times, high tolerances, and large costs associated with their manufacturing process.

Onto Innovations identified …

Automation Of Data Analysis In Formula 1, Adam Joseph Mourad, Prescott Jeanne Delzell, Patrick Conner Mccabe

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This paper explores economic solutions for Formula 1 racing companies who are interested in data visualization tools. The research was conducted on the current development of data gathering, data visualization, and data interpretation in Formula 1 racing. It was found that a large chunk of racing companies within the league needs an affordable, effective, and automated visualization tool for data interpretation. As data collection in Formula 1 arises, the need for faster and more powerful software increases. Racing companies profit off-brand exposure and the more a racing team wins, the more exposure they receive. The goal of the paper focuses …

Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling With Autonomous Learning Effects, Jordan M. Ticktin

Master's Theses

It's commonly assumed that experience leads to efficiency, yet this is largely unaccounted for in resource-constrained project scheduling. This thesis considers the idea that learning effects could allow selected activities to be completed within reduced time, if they're scheduled after activities where workers learn relevant skills. This paper computationally explores the effect of this autonomous, intra-project learning on optimal makespan and problem difficulty. A learning extension is proposed to the standard RCPSP scheduling problem. Multiple parameters are considered, including project size, learning frequency, and learning intensity. A test instance generator is developed to adapt the popular PSPLIB library of scheduling …

A Case Study: The First Coastal Nuclear Decommissioning Project In California, Willie Aaron Quiros

Construction Management

San Onofre Nuclear Generating System (SONGS) is one of two nuclear power plants in California. Since the shut down in 2012, there is only one actively remaining, Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, which is set to shut down in 2024. This paper will examine the decommissioning of SONGS thus far; the first coastal nuclear decommissioning project in California’s stringent permitting process. This project was awarded as a joint venture to AECOM and Energy Solutions, both having experiencing in the field of nuclear decommissioning. This paper will outline what nuclear decommissioning challenges have been in the past; general steps of decommissioning …

Keeping Humans In The Loop: Pooling Knowledge Through Artificial Swarm Intelligence To Improve Business Decision Making, Lynn E. Metcalf, David A. Askay, Louis B. Rosenberg

Industrial Technology and Packaging

This article explores how a collaboration technology called Artificial Swarm Intelligence (ASI) addresses the limitations associated with group decision making, amplifies the intelligence of human groups, and facilitates better business decisions. It demonstrates of how ASI has been used by businesses to harness the diverse perspectives that individual participants bring to groups and to facilitate convergence upon decisions. It advances the understanding of how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to enhance, rather than replace, teams as they collaborate to make business decisions.

Human Powered Vehicle Trainer, Nicholas Hung Nguyen, Gregory Reece Bridges, Jacinta Garcia, Mitchell Sidney Smith

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review (FDR) document describes the final design and completed prototype of a Mechanical Engineering senior project team at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The project goal is to create an adjustable human powered vehicle training bike for George Leone that allows a rider to gain confidence with the unique reclined bike geometry ahead of the World Human Powered Speed Challenge at Battle Mountain, Nevada. This document outlines the customer’s needs and technical research performed which together determine the project’s scope and engineering specifications. Next, we present the initial idea generation process and its results, along …

Cisco Nexus 9200 Robustness Redesign, Colin Berge, Ethan Gold, Cole Christopherson, Rahul Makhijani

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Certain configurations of Cisco's Nexus 9200 product experienced issues with bending during shipping. Two solutions were developed to eliminate this problem: an external brace that could quickly address the problem yet was expensive and unsustainable, and a redesigned chassis, which was more economical but came with a longer time to implement. Real world packaging and shipping conditions were simulated in SolidWorks and Finite Element Analysis was used to model the stresses experienced when the product is dropped. Both designs were found to significantly reduce stress in critical areas, thus reducing the chance of failure and the cost of the problem. …

Redesign Of Cubesat For Beam Charging, Kuba Preis

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This paper is intended to be a study in the applications of the design freedom granted by additive manufacture in the design of a 1U CubeSat frame. The main loads experienced by a CubeSat are structural (during launch) and thermal (solar radiation). Beam charging is an emerging technology which involves charging a CubeSat using a laser beam. In this paper, a CubeSat frame was redesigned to account for the structural loads induced during launch and the thermal loads induced when beam charging. The thermal, weight, design, and structural requirements for a new CubeSat design were derived. The 1U CubeSat frame …

Amplifying The Collective Intelligence Of Teams With Swarm Ai, David Askay, Lynn E. Metcalf, Louis B. Rosenberg, Gregg Willcox, David Baltaxe

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Group decision-making is strengthened by the varied knowledge and perspectives that each member brings, yet teams often fail to capitalize on their diversity. This paper describes how Swarm AI, a novel collaborative intelligence technology modeled on the decision-making process of honey bee swarms, enables networked human groups to more effectively leverage their combined insights. Through an empirical study conducted on 60 small teams, each of 3 to 6 members, we demonstrate the capacity of Swarm AI to significantly amplify the collective intelligence of human groups. A well-known testing instrument—the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test —was used to …

Additive Manufacturing Powder Removal: Viper 2.0, Andrew D. Epperson, Sean Mccracken, Melissa O'Neil, Alex Ward

Mechanical Engineering

This report presents the final design review of this senior project team. The project is being sponsored by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a federal design agency. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is interested in improving their metal additive manufacturing process. The goal of this senior project is to improve the efficiency and safety of a method currently being used to remove metal powders for additively manufactured components. A senior project team in 2017-2018 created the Vibration Induced Powder Evacuator and Reclaimer (VIPER), a device that uses a vibration motor to shake a printed part until it is clean from excess powder. …

Application Of Big Data Analytics In Agriculture Supply Chain Management, Sankara Narayanan Mangalam Ananthapadmanabhan

Master's Theses

The increasing trend in frequency of natural disasters in tandem with globalization of business makes the agricultural supply chain significantly vulnerable to disruption. This thesis presents a pragmatic approach for creating a Business Continuity Model that can notify supply chain planners when there is an increase in risk of agriculture supply chain disruption due to natural disasters. The methodology presented in this thesis applied big data analytics and machine learning algorithms along with agriculture product related exponential decay function to create a regionalized composite risk score, that incorporated both direct and indirect risk associated with the Agriculture Fresh Supply Chain. …

Characterization Of Resistance Change In Stretchable Silver Ink Screen Printed On Tpu-Laminated Fabrics Under Cyclic Tensile Loading, Corey R. Sutton

Master's Theses

A stretchable silver ink was screen printed to TPU sheets, then tensile coupons of the TPU, both bare and laminated to cotton, Denim and spandex fabric, were subjected to 1000 cycles of 20% uniaxial strain. In-situ resistance measurements of printed traces were processed to generate datasets of maximum and minimum resistance per cycle. A mechanistic fit model was used to predict the resistance behavior of the ink across TPU/fabric levels. The results show that traces strained on TPU laminated to spandex (polyester) fibers had an average rate of increase in resistance significantly lower than that of traces strained on bare …

Development Of A Myoelectric Detection Circuit Platform For Computer Interface Applications, Nickolas Andrew Butler

Master's Theses

Personal computers and portable electronics continue to rapidly advance and integrate into our lives as tools that facilitate efficient communication and interaction with the outside world. Now with a multitude of different devices available, personal computers are accessible to a wider audience than ever before. To continue to expand and reach new users, novel user interface technologies have been developed, such as touch input and gyroscopic motion, in which enhanced control fidelity can be achieved. For users with limited-to-no use of their hands, or for those who seek additional means to intuitively use and command a computer, novel sensory systems …

Enhancing Group Social Perceptiveness Through A Swarm-Based Decision-Making Platform, David A. Askay, Lynn E. Metcalf, Louis Rosenberg, Gregg Willcox

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Swarm Intelligence is natural phenomenon that enables social animals to make group decisions in real-time systems. This process has been deeply studied in fish schools, bird flocks, and bee swarms, where collective intelligence has been observed to emerge. The present paper describes swarm.ai—a collaborative technology that enables swarms of humans to collectively converge upon a decision as a real-time system. Then we present the results of a study investigating if groups working as “human swarms” can amplify their social perceptiveness, a key predictor of collective intelligence. Results showed that groups reduced their social perceptiveness errors by more than half when …

Measuring Group Personality With Swarm Ai, Gregg Willcox, David Askay, Louis Rosenberg, Lynn Metcalf, Bryan Kwong, Richard Liu

Industrial Technology and Packaging

The aggregation of individual personality tests to predict team performance is widely accepted in management theory but has significant limitations: the isolated nature of individual personality surveys fails to capture much of the team dynamics that drive real-world team performance. Artificial Swarm Intelligence (ASI), a technology that enables networked teams to think together in real-time and answer questions as a unified system, promises a solution to these limitations by enabling teams to take personality tests together and converge upon answers that best represent the group’s disposition. In the present study, the group personality of 94 small teams was assessed by …