Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Study Of Face Embedding In Face Recognition, Khanh Duc Le

Master's Theses

Face Recognition has been a long-standing topic in computer vision and pattern recognition field because of its wide and important applications in our daily lives such as surveillance system, access control, and so on. The current modern face recognition model, which keeps only a couple of images per person in the database, can now recognize a face with high accuracy. Moreover, the model does not need to be retrained every time a new person is added to the database.

By using the face dataset from Digital Democracy, the thesis will explore the capability of this model by comparing it with …

Hypersurfaces With Nonnegative Ricci Curvature In Hyperbolic Space, Vincent Bonini, Shiguang Ma, Jie Qing

Mathematics

Based on properties of n-subharmonic functions we show that a complete, noncompact, properly embedded hypersurface with nonnegative Ricci curvature in hyperbolic space has an asymptotic boundary at infinity of at most two points. Moreover, the presence of two points in the asymptotic boundary is a rigidity condition that forces the hypersurface to be an equidistant hypersurface about a geodesic line in hyperbolic space. This gives an affirmative answer to the question raised by Alexander and Currier (Proc Symp Pure Math 54(3):37–44, 1993).

Dish: Democracy In State Houses, Nicholas A. Russo

Master's Theses

In our current political climate, state level legislators have become increasingly impor- tant. Due to cuts in funding and growing focus at the national level, public oversight for these legislators has drastically decreased. This makes it difficult for citizens and activists to understand the relationships and commonalities between legislators. This thesis provides three contributions to address this issue. First, we created a data set containing over 1200 features focused on a legislator’s activity on bills. Second, we created embeddings that represented a legislator’s level of activity and engagement for a given bill using a custom model called Democracy2Vec. Third, we …

Real-Time Ray Traced Global Illumination Using Fast Sphere Intersection Approximation For Dynamic Objects, Reed Phillip Garmsen

Master's Theses

Realistic lighting models are an important component of modern computer generated, interactive 3D applications. One of the more difficult to emulate aspects of real-world lighting is the concept of indirect lighting, often referred to as global illumination in computer graphics. Balancing speed and accuracy requires carefully considered trade-offs to achieve plausible results and acceptable framerates.

We present a novel technique of supporting global illumination within the constraints of the new DirectX Raytracing (DXR) API used with DirectX 12. By pre-computing spherical textures to approximate the diffuse color of dynamic objects, we build a smaller set of approximate geometry used for …

Effectiveness Of Windrow Composting Methodology In Killing A Thermo-Tolerant Species Of Salmonella During Mortality Composting, Spencer Gabriel Myers

Master's Theses

In a large agricultural operation, such as the one at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, disposal of deceased animals is an immense issue. The cost of transporting and rendering every dead animal is inhibitory to the general function of the agricultural operations and their thin budget. Therefore, we propose that composting mortalities could be an economical alternative. Composting is a recognized method for taking animal waste products along with carbon waste and turning it into a pathogen-free, nutrient-rich topsoil. Carcass composting is in fact performed in other countries and states to varying degrees of success. However, the California EPA limits …

Combining Parts Of Speech, Term Proximity, And Query Expansion For Document Retrieval, Lubomir Stanchev, Eric Labouve

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Document retrieval systems recover documents from a database and order them according to their perceived relevance to a user's search query. This is a difficult task for machines to accomplish because there exists a semantic gap between the meaning of the terms in a user's literal query and a user's true intentions. The main goal of this study is to modify the Okapi BM25 document retrieval system to improve search results for textual queries and unstructured, textual corpora. This research hypothesizes that Okapi BM25 is not taking full advantage of the structure of text inside documents. This structure holds valuable …

Fabrication Of Miniaturized Paper-Based Microfluidic Devices (Micropads), E. Brandon Strong, Spencer A. Schultz, Andres Martinez, Nathaniel W. Martinez

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (microPADs) are emerging as cost-effective and portable platforms for point-of-care assays. A fundamental limitation of microPAD fabrication is the imprecise nature of most methods for patterning paper. The present work demonstrates that paper patterned via wax printing can be miniaturized by treating it with periodate to produce higher-resolution, high-fidelity microPADs. The optimal miniaturization parameters were determined by immersing microPADs in various concentrations of aqueous sodium periodate (NaIO₄) for varying lengths of time. This treatment miniaturized microPADs by up to 80% in surface area, depending on the concentration of periodate and length of the reaction …

Low Cost Timing System For High Precision Particle Detection, Eric Madrigal, Sasha Dolgashev, Vi Tran

STAR Program Research Presentations

The project goal was to find a way to make a low-cost high precision timing system. High precision timing systems are already on the market, however, at a high cost. Various particle research projects need a large number of timers, so a substantial budget is required. In order to bypass the need for a large enough budget, commercially available parts were used and tested. The timing system consisted of multiple parts with different low-cost microchips and counters. In order for the project to meet its goal, the timers need to work under 50 picoseconds. Although some tests showed the timers …

Ultra-Fast X-Ray Diffraction Of Metastable Structures During Hydrogen Crystallization, Andrew Pham

STAR Program Research Presentations

Big discoveries can come from small element, and hydrogen is the simplest element in the universe, but its property has been intensely studied in recent years. Hydrogen has a notably complex phase diagram, and its application is important to many scientific fields, such as fundamental physics, inertial confinement fusion, planetary sciences, etc. While sophisticated static observations have probed its structure at extremely high pressures, the higher-temperature studies applying dynamic compression is confined to optical measurement methods. In this project over the summer, I will present spectrally resolved x-ray scattering assessment from plasmons in dynamic compressed deuterium. Collaborating Compton scattering and …

Computing Homology Of Hypergraphs, Jackson Earl

STAR Program Research Presentations

In the modern age of data science, the necessity for efficient and insightful analytical tools that enable us to interpret large data structures inherently presents itself. With the increasing utility of metrics offered by the mathematics of hypergraph theory and algebraic topology, we are able to explore multi-way relational datasets and actively develop such tools. Throughout this research endeavor, one of the primary goals has been to contribute to the development of computational algorithms pertaining to the homology of hypergraphs. More specifically, coding in python to compute the homology groups of a given hypergraph, as well as their Betti numbers …

The Lick Agn Monitoring Project 2011: Photometric Light Curves, Anna Pancoast, Andreas Skielboe, Liuyi Pei, Vardha Nicola Bennert, Jong-Hak Woo

Physics

In Spring 2011, the Lick AGN Monitoring Project observed a sample of 15 bright, nearby Seyfert 1 galaxies in the V band as part of a reverberation mapping campaign. The observations were taken at six ground-based telescopes, including the West Mountain Observatory 0.91 m telescope, the 0.76 m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, 0.6 m Super-LOTIS at Kitt Peak, the Palomar 60 inch telescope, and the 2 m Faulkes telescopes North and South. The V-band light curves measure the continuum variability of our sample of Seyferts on an almost daily cadence for 2–3 months. We use image-subtraction software to isolate …

Memory In A Contact Line, Charity Lizardo, Esmeralda Orozco, Audrey Profeta, Nathan C. Keim

STAR Program Research Presentations

We study the behavior of the liquid-solid-vapor contact line of water held in a narrow gap between two plates. A syringe pump injects and withdraws a constant, small volume of the water, driving the contact line back and forth repeatedly and changing its shape. We take photos of the contact line after each cycle. Comparing subsequent images to each other, we find that after several cycles the contact line reaches one of two steady states: a reversible steady state, where the shape is not changing, or a fluctuating steady state, where the shape continues to change slightly. Experiments on acrylic …

Validation Of The Nonhydrostatic General Curvilinear Coastal Ocean Mode (Gccom) For Stratified Flows, Mariangel Garcia, Paul Choboter, Ryan K. Walter, Jose E. Castillo

Physics

While global-and basin-scale processes can be captured quite well with computationally-inexpensive hydrostatic models, smaller-scale features such as shoaling nonlinear internal waves and bores, coastal fronts, and other convective processes require the use of a nonhydrostatic model to accurately capture dynamics. Here the nonhydrostatic capabilities of the General Curvilinear Coastal Ocean Model (GCCOM) in a stratified environment are introduced. GCCOM is a three-dimensional, nonhydrostatic Large Eddy Simulation (LES), rigid lid model that has the ability to run in a fully three-dimensional general curvilinear coordinate system. This model was previously validated for unstratified flows with curvilinear coordinates. Here, recent advances of the …

Polyxpress+: Using Social Networking To Enhance The User Experience Of An Interactive Location-Based Storytelling Application, Desiree Creel

Master's Theses

There’s no denying the ever increasing presence of social networking in our daily lives. Every day, people share what they are thinking, doing, and experiencing. But even more so, they check their favorite networks to see what the people in their lives are sharing. Social networking has become so prevalent that most applications incorporate it since it keeps users engaged and beckons them back to the application again and again.

PolyXpress is an interactive, location-based storytelling mobile application that functions as a platform for creating and experiencing stories. Written as a research project at California Polytechnic State University, it allows …