Computer 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. …

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The SafeHome app was developed to address the significant communication challenges in refugee camps, where outdated methods such as flyers and intercoms limit the efficiency and reliability of information dissemination.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 …

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, …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Justrun - Social Gps Running Game, Riley Bergin, Maggie Cai, Simran Judge, Grace Ling

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

With advances in technology allowing people to live more sedentary lives, more and more people are struggling to live a healthy active lifestyle. In the efforts to combat unhealthy styles of living, we wish to introduce a mobile app that takes advantage of motivational game mechanics to motivate players will make go on runs regularly.

Lactic Acid Threshold Stimulator, Justin Brackett, Karen Carreon, Fernando Guerra, Malyna Sanchez

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

As a person works out, the threshold of lactic acid will build causing anywhere from discomfort to pain. Reducing the discomfort caused by lactic acid could greatly improve an individual’s performance while working out. Reducing this discomfort may be done through Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS), which is the procedure of contracting muscles through sending electrical signals. Our team’s goal is to create LATS, a wearable and mobile application that alleviates discomfort and aids muscle recovery during the intense parts of a workout. The system consists of a heart rate monitor to measure lactic acid levels, a garment that is worn …

Machine Learning Solution To Organ-At-Risk Segmentation For Radiation Treatment Planning, Brie Goo, Katrina May, Haobo Zhang, James Olivas

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

In the treatment of cancer using ionizing radiation, it is important to design a treatment plan such that dose to normal, healthy organs is sufficiently low. Today, segmentation requires a trained human to carefully outline, or segment, organs on each slice of a treatment planning computed tomography (CT) scan but it is laborious, time-consuming, and contains intra- and inter-rater variability. Currently, existing clinical automation technology relies on atlas-based automation, which has limited segmentation accuracy. Thus the auto-segmentations require post process editing by an expert. In this paper, we propose a machine learning solution that shortens the segmentation time of organs-at-risk …

Pilot-1: Autonomous Fixed-Wing Aircraft Control System, Chris Millsap, Nathan Garvey, Faisal Hayat

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

In the past decade, the personal ownership of unmanned aerial vehicles has exploded in the US and around the world. The rapidly declining size and cost of integrated circuits, sensors and embedded micro-controllers has lead to a flourishing community of hobbyists designing flight controllers with levels of sophistication approaching those for government and military applications. The typical flight assisted controllers integrate data from the user's control system and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in order to keep the craft level and on course. Deriving mostly from the radio controlled (RC) hobby industry, the flight control technologies for both rotary and …

Rsl Autonomous Rover, Cris Madrigal, Jiachi Zhang, Nicholas Peacock, Brogan O'Hara

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Autonomous vehicles are useful for a variety of applications such as military, urban, and agricultural environments. This paper discusses adding an autonomous navigation system to an all-terrain vehicle by implementing controllers that interface with its current system, installing sensors on the vehicle for obstacle detection, and developing effective safety mechanisms to prevent injury to others. The result is a vehicle capable of waypoint navigation and obstacle avoidance. Testing the vehicle showed that the LIDAR and the autonomous navigation system were integrated seamlessly, and that the sensor output signals were successfully translated into vehicle commands the existing system uses. This system …

Uavino, Matthew Belesiu, Aaron Chung, Kirby Linvill, Nathan Carlson, Phillip Coyle, Megan Peekema

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

UAVino is a drone solution that uses aerial imagery to determine the overall plant health and water content of vineyards. In general, the system focuses on automating crop inspection by taking aerial imagery of a vineyard, conducting post-processing, and outputting an easily interpreted map of the vineyard's overall health. The project's key innovation is an auto-docking system that allows the drone to automatically return to its launch point and recharge in order to extend mission duration. Long term, UAVino is envisioned as a multi-year, interdisciplinary project involving both the Santa Clara University Robotics Systems Laboratory and local wineries in order …

Aquasift: Point-Of-Use Microfluidic Detection System, Daniel Beyers, Jasper Tan, Brandon Young

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

AquaSift is a portable, affordable, point-of-use system that performs microfluidic detection of contaminants in drinking water. It comprises four main components: a three-electrode sensor, a potentiostat circuit device, an Android application, and an online database. It utilizes three-electrode voltammetry by applying a voltage stimulus across the electrodes and reading the induced current on the water sample. Testing has shown that our system is able to detect arsenic in solution samples. The Android application serves as the user interface to the system, and the online database allows the mapping of test results on an easy-to-use website.

Mobile Audiometry Application, Kevin Nguyen, Shweta Panditrao

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The Mobile Audiometry Application hopes to utilize the ubiquity of the mobile device by providing a means of healthcare focused on audiometry. This application enables a mobile device to perform audiometric testing to detect a user's hearing range, and notify the user whether he or she is suffering from hearing loss. This project seeks to fulfill a social need for increased access to hearing testing by providing a portable, affordable, and reliable screening tool that is accurate. The result was sleek application that provided a calibration method, executed an audiometry test using accurate and calibrated files, displayed the results graphically, …

Legacy Borehole Project, Maza Brady, Luke Cashman, Erin Hicks, Meghan Richey

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The Legacy Borehole Project is a three-year effort to design and build a sensor package that will be used to explore the geological and chemical conditions of the ocean floor. Over the course of three years, a mechanical structure and a robotic system will be constructed to lower sensors into previously drilled boreholes. As the team responsible for the development of the first year of this project, we have constructed a prototype sensor package and mock mechanical structure to test a communication interface between the sensors and a graphical user interface. The sensors were tested by lowering the sensor package …

Distributed Smart Camera Network For Safety And Security, Nathan Fox, Matthew Kelley, Christopher Rapa, Christopher Yarp

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Current CCTV surveillance solutions are generally retrospective tools. Because real time use of CCTV requires human monitors to view a potentially exorbitant number of video feeds, CCTV is usually only useful after an incident has occurred. However, new technologies are making it possible for machines to perform some tasks that previously required a human monitor. The proposed project seeks to augment existing CCTV systems with behavioral analytics. The system uses a series of cameras, FPGAs, and computers to track object movement throughout a facility. This information is used to build a model of normal movement. Object movements are compared against …

Arsenic Detection Project: Electronics, Anthony Clemetson, John Barth

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

This project is a collaboration with a team of bioengineers to adapt the functionality of laboratory equipment onto a platform which could be used in the field to determine the concentration levels of toxins in ground water. To this end, using a set of printed electrodes, a device was designed and fabricated with the constraints of field use in mind: low power, low cost, with a mobile user interface. An Android phone served as the mobile user interface, and also as the power supply for the circuit and microcontroller that performed the test. This circuit applied a stimulus voltage across …