Computer-Aided Engineering and Design Commons^™

Controlled Radiation Capsule For Precision And Rapid Cancer Treatment, Hoseon Lee, Zsolt Kollar, Bailey R. White, Junia Nguyen, David Roque, Sowjanya Palagani

Symposium of Student Scholars

This research aims to transform cancer treatment through the optimization of brachytherapy, with a focus on reducing treatment duration, setup complexities, and financial burdens, all while emphasizing patient safety. Patients living at a distance from radiation clinics, particularly those undergoing extended Low Dose Radiation brachytherapy, often struggle with the formidable financial challenges associated with securing nearby accommodations. In response to these issues, the research introduces a radiation capsule designed to condense the conventional six-month treatment period to approximately just one week, thereby significantly reducing the duration of required accommodations. This capsule is especially relevant considering the construction cost of $40 …

Kwad - Ksu All Weather Autonomous Drone, Nick Farinacci, Sebastian Gomez, Stewart Baker, Ed Sheridan

Symposium of Student Scholars

"KWAD" or "KSU all-Weather Autonomous Drone" project was sponsored by Ultool, LLC to the KSU Research and Service Foundation to create a lightweight drone capable of capturing HD video during all-weather operations. The conditions of all-weather operation include rainfall of one inch per hour and wind speeds of up to twenty miles per hour. In addition, a global minimum structural safety factor of two is required to ensure the system's integrity in extreme weather conditions. Potential mission profiles include autonomous aerial delivery, topological mapping in high moisture areas, security surveillance, search and rescue operations, emergency transportation of medical supplies, and …

Ai-Based Bridge And Road Inspection Framework Using Drones, Hovannes Kulhandjian

Mineta Transportation Institute

There are over 590,000 bridges dispersed across the roadway network that stretches across the United States alone. Each bridge with a length of 20 feet or greater must be inspected at least once every 24 months, according to the Federal Highway Act (FHWA) of 1968. This research developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based framework for bridge and road inspection using drones with multiple sensors collecting capabilities. It is not sufficient to conduct inspections of bridges and roads using cameras alone, so the research team utilized an infrared (IR) camera along with a high-resolution optical camera. In many instances, the IR camera …

The Development Of A One-Shot Learning Machine Learning For Industrial Use With Predictive Maintenance, Conor O Brien

Theses

With the advent of Industry 4.0, Manufacturing operations have become more connected and automated. Modern industrial monitoring technology can monitor the performance of both the sensor utilised and the material under monitoring. This has led to a trend where legacy machines without this technology are being removed from production and/or not included in new reconfigurations of production lines, well before their productive lifespan had ended. A key driver for this is the difficulty in retrofitting Predictive Maintenance (PdM) systems to legacy machines, in part due to the machine-to-machine variation present in older machines. Accounting for this variation in PdM systems …

Additive Manufacturing And Characterization Of Auxetic Structures, Jayesh P. Moore, Stephanie R. Ruzicka

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

An auxetic structure is an arrangement of unit cells that under a uniaxial load experiences expansion in both the longitudinal and transverse directions, resulting in a negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR). Research in auxetics has led to new insights into how non-linear mechanical reactions can be applied to various engineering fields. This project utilized stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing to manufacture auxetic test specimens to analyze of geometry-driven NPRs. With the distinctive mechanical properties of auxetic structures and vast applications, the future of product development of these geometries seems promising.

Robotic Origami Worm, Carter Josef, Michael Freeman, Mohammad Hasan

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Soft robotics can solve many unique engineering problems. The ancient art of origami has inspired design for a new breed of robots. In this research, a novel fold design was created which has high linear stiffness, high bending stiffness, and the ability to deform omnidirectionally in order to turn. The robot is operated using a DC motor to expand and contract and electromagnets to control friction. The robot moves very quickly compared with many other origami robots in the literature. Other interesting ways to control friction were explored including expansion mechanisms. An origami design was created and tested that expands …

Additive Manufacturing For Medical Education, Michael Noon

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

A growing body of evidence is suggesting that anatomical knowledge, the keystone of many medical specialties, is suffering among new graduates. While a host of reasons are provided, one common thread that many point to is the decline of cadaver dissections in the classroom. Many virtual audio-visual tools are used to address this gap, yet evidence has shown their ineffectiveness. Given this gap, the high degree of flexibility found in additive manufacturing (AM), and the many uses AM has already found in the medical field, we propose its use to fill this gap, allowing for students to learn with touch …

Review Study On Promoting Diversity And Inclusion In Engineering Education Through Digital Twins, Devon Bountry

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This study investigates the effect of digital twins in engineering education. This research was based on published research papers, conference papers, and case studies. Throughout a large range of studies, it was shown that digital twins can increase learning motivation and retainment through uses such as game-centered learning, personalized learning, and virtual prototyping. Particularly in engineering laboratory classes, digital twins can increase the variety of laboratory options while not increasing the cost due to equipment. This results in less barriers for students as there are more learning tools available at no additional cost or other requirements.

Enhancing Human Key Point Identification: A Comparative Study Of High-Resolution Vicon Dataset And Coco Dataset Using Bpnet, Bibash Lama

Masters Theses

Accurately identifying human key points is crucial for various applications, including activity recognition, pose estimation, and gait analysis. This study presents a high-resolution dataset created using the VICON motion capture system and three differently oriented 2D cameras, that can be used to train different neural networks for estimating the 2D key joint positions of the person from the 2D images or videos. The participants in the study included 25 healthy adults (17 males and 8 females) performing normal gait movements for about 2 to 3 seconds. The VICON system captured 3D ground truth data, while the three 2D cameras collected …

Influence Of Swirl And Turbulence In The Particle Removal Using Fog In A Pipe Flow, Nisarg T. Patel

All Theses

Fog-and-tube scrubbers are employed to remove harmful ultrafine aerosols, such as Diesel particulate matter (DPM), from an airflow. The underlying principle of this removal process involves enlarging the aerosol particles by coagulating them with fog drops, which are subsequently eliminated through inertial impaction onto the tube wall. Previous research conducted by Tabor et al. (2021) demonstrated an increase in scavenging of ultrafine DPM particles, ranging from 11.5 nm to 154 nm, by as large as 45% over the no fog case. This finding is crucial in addressing the challenges associated with conventional filtration methods for capturing ultrafine particles.

The present …

Theoretical And Experimental Study Of Active Magnetic Bearing Control Integrated On Bently's Rotor Kit, Arturo Mario Flores

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the comprehensive study of controlling a customized Active Magnetic Bearing (AMB) installed on Bently Nevada’s RK4 rotor kit in Cal Poly’s Vibrations and Rotordynamics Lab. The AMB was uniquely designed and manufactured by a Cal Poly senior project team to fit Bently’s rotor kit and the results of this research are distinctive to the custom system. To achieve practical functionality of the AMB system, we designed a controller a Virtual Instrument (VI) using the National Instrument software, LabVIEW. From the experimental study, we calibrated the programming to find unknown parameters of the AMB system and validated …

Modeling, Control, And Hardware Development Of A Thrust-Vector Coaxial Uav, Andrew North

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This thesis introduces a unique thrust vector coaxial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) configuration and presents a comprehensive investigation encompassing dynamics modeling, hardware design, and controller development. Using the Newton-Euler method, a dynamic model for the UAV is derived to gain in-depth insights into its fundamental flight characteristics. A simple thrust model is formulated and modified by comparing it with data obtained from vehicle testing. The feasibility of manufacturing such a vehicle is assessed through the development of a hardware prototype. Finally, a linear state feedback controller is designed and evaluated using the non-linear dynamics model. The results demonstrate successful validation …

Gradient-Based Trade-Off Design For Engineering Applications, Lena A. Royster, Gene Hou

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The goal of the trade-off design method presented in this study is to achieve newly targeted performance requirements by modifying the current values of the design variables. The trade-off design problem is formulated in the framework of Sequential Quadratic Programming. The method is computationally efficient as it is gradient-based, which, however, requires the performance functions to be differentiable. A new equation to calculate the scale factor to control the size of the design variables is introduced in this study, which can ensure the new design achieves the targeted performance objective. Three formal approaches are developed in this study for trade-off …

Programmable Vibration Table Retrofit With Eagle Medical, Jonathan Ilagan, Madhav Asok, Max Lewter

Biomedical Engineering

This project aimed to repair and upgrade a vibration table used for package testing for the sponsor, Eagle Medical - a medical packaging and sterilization company based in Paso Robles, California. The current vibration table is not programmable and lacks circuit diagrams, making it difficult to repair. In addition, it is not functional due to internal circuitry issues and power requirements. To address these issues, the team will implement several upgrades to improve the product and allow for better random cyclic vibration testing. A full assessment of the existing vibration table will be conducted to ensure the viability of these …

Headlamp/Bike Light Damping System, Ethan Reece Clark, Alec Stonehouse, Omeed Ostry, Mitchel Anderson

Mechanical Engineering

The task for this project is to design a headlamp and/or bike light that absorbs the impact shocks from the user’s actions. The user that the system is being designed for may be riding a bike or running on a trail in the evening or early in the morning where the light needs to be stabilized and their path must be illuminated. This report presents the final design chosen after months of prototyping and design iteration. It encompasses the system design, design verification through testing, implementation, future recommendations, and lessons learned throughout the process. The chosen design utilizes a fully …

Baja Sae Semi-Active Suspension, Cameron Paul Jones, Ethan Jacobi Mikel, Joshua Macguire Wright, Aditya Garg

Mechanical Engineering

This document outlines the design and justification for the final design of the Baja SAE Semi-Active Suspension Senior Project. The goal of the project was to build a base valve that can adjust suspension damping rates on the fly. This document details the ideation, design, manufacturing, design verification results, and detailed drawing package for the project. Additionally, this document includes information regarding the pressure drop calculator, O-ring calculations, and CAD. The manufacturing processes used to create the valve and the testing and evaluation of the valve are included as well. Finally, the methods that were used to manage this project …

The Center For Centering Dome, Olek Piechaczek, Ryan M. Scharf

Architectural Engineering

The Center for Centering seeks to create a large-scale healing center, conducive to individual centering of the mind and body. This mobile installation provides a relaxing, enclosed space while still maintaining a connection to the outdoors. The clients liked the idea of having a pop-up installation that could be easily set up as a touring display. With a deadline for installation looming in June 2022, a team of students had five months to design and manufacture the structure.

In winter 2022, the students developed custom geometry to minimize the number of individual parts and built a ¼ scale model of …

Optimal Domain-Partitioning Algorithm For Real-Life Transportation Networks And Finite Element Meshes, Jimesh Bhagatji, Sharanabasaweshwara Asundi, Eric Thompson, Duc T. Nguyen

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

For large-scale engineering problems, it has been generally accepted that domain-partitioning algorithms are highly desirable for general-purpose finite element analysis (FEA). This paper presents a heuristic numerical algorithm that can efficiently partition any transportation network (or any finite element mesh) into a specified number of subdomains (usually depending on the number of parallel processors available on a computer), which will result in “minimising the total number of system BOUNDARY nodes” (as a primary criterion) and achieve “balancing work loads” amongst the subdomains (as a secondary criterion). The proposed seven-step heuristic algorithm (with enhancement features) is based on engineering common sense …

Implementation Of Topology Optimization Into The Mechanical Design Process, Nolan Clapp

Master's Theses

Topology Optimization is a lightweighting method based on finite element analysis that produces a part with optimum material distribution in the design space. Results from topology optimization often have organic shapes and curves that are difficult if not impossible to machine with traditional subtractive manufacturing methods. This paper analyzes the implementation of the Solidworks® Topology Optimization add-in into the mechanical design process and discusses required postprocessing to ensure manufacturability of the optimized part though a case study on two example parts. Results of traditional optimization, topology optimization and “selective” optimization (optimization using the results from topology optimization to selectively remove …

Sky Survey Radio Telescope, Jack E. Mcguigan

Electrical Engineering

This document outlines the design of a radio telescope designed to perform hydrogen line sky surveys. The telescope produces radio images mapping the intensity and relative velocities of hydrogen concentrations to their sky coordinates. Over the course of a day, the telescope images the regions of space visible to it, allowing sky survey imagery to be updated daily. Sky survey images are comprised of an array of pixels corresponding to specific sky coordinates. Each 8-bit RGB pixel contains information on the concentrations of hydrogen in the brightness and relative velocity in the color. Radio images mapping the concentrations and velocities …