Digital Commons Network^™

Autonomous Tennis Ball Collector, Frances Erin Belcher, Michael Wai-Chun Yiu, Matthew David Hoffman, Alex Boyko Petrov, Robert E. Luttrell

Mechanical Engineering

Practicing tennis often involves hitting many tennis balls from one side of the court to the other without an opponent to hit the balls back. In training sessions like these, the task of collecting the balls is laborious when performed manually. The objective of this project is to develop a robotic tennis ball collector that can automatically collect the balls from one side of the court so that the player can rest rather than collect the balls manually. This document outlines the process of designing such a robot. Included in this report is background research, prototype, and concept modeling, along …

Unmanned Research Raft, Jacob Davis, Andrew Fleming, Luke Vickerman, Kahye Yu

Mechanical Engineering

This document serves as the Final Design Review report for the design team conducting the research raft design project for Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL). Our team has taken on a project to design a new research raft for LLNL.

The current rafts are suitable, but engineers have modified and altered the rafts to add more features as needed. This has led to a raft that accomplishes mission goals, but still has room for streamlining. The battery technology has also improved. Our goals were to redesign the raft from the ground up, reducing the size and weight. We also wanted …

A Study Of Implementation Methodologies For Distributed Real Time Collaboration, Lauren A. Craft

Master's Theses

Collaboration drives our world and is almost unavoidable in the programming industry. From higher education to the top technological companies, people are working together to drive discovery and innovation. Software engineers must work with their peers to accomplish goals daily in their workplace. When working with others there are a variety of tools to choose from such as Google Docs, Google Colab and Overleaf. Each of the aforementioned collaborative tools utilizes the Operational Transform (OT) technique in order to implement their real time collaboration functionality. Operational transform is the technique seen amongst most if not all major collaborative tools in …

An Inclusive Design Approach To Integrating An External Human Machine Interface With Autonomous Vehicles, Sandra Roksic

Master's Theses

As autonomous vehicles become more prevalent in urban traffic settings, the safety of vulnerable road users, predominantly pedestrians, must be placed in high regard relative to the design of the autonomous vehicle's (AV's) external human machine interface (HMI). Traditionally, there exist communication methods between drivers and pedestrians, such as hand gestures, eye contact, and verbal cues that convey the driver's awareness of the pedestrian's presence. However, with autonomous vehicles, there is a shift in communicative responsibility from the driver to the vehicle itself. It is the vehicle's responsibility to intuitively and clearly indicate its actions to the pedestrian.

This research …

An Equity-Minded Assessment Of Belonging Among Computing Students At Cal Poly, Kylan Nicole Stewart

Master's Theses

Creating a Computer Science and Software Engineering Department that supports students with diverse identities and backgrounds is essential to creating a computing workforce that reflects the world at large. Inspired by the work of Metcalf et al.'s survey conducted at the University of Illinois, we use the same methods to examine the state of our computing department with respect to issues of inclusive climate and student sense of belonging, which have been shown to be important for retention in STEM fields. We use the four areas that contribute to belonging based on the work of Rainey et al. along with …

Academic Senate - Minutes, 06/01/2021, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

Aged 539 Graduate Internship Report - Delano High School, Ernesto H. Marcial

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This internship and project report includes validation documents required in meeting the quality criteria for secondary-level programs of instruction in agriculture. The supporting material includes information to receive state and local funding, outline the goals and objectives of the program, along with an overview of Delano High School, the agriculture program, and the community.

Aged 539 Graduate Internship Report - Tulare High School, Debrah Silva

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This internship and project report includes validation documents required in meeting the quality criteria for secondary-level programs of instruction in agriculture. The supporting material includes information to receive state and local funding, outline the goals and objectives of the program, along with an overview of Tulare High School, the agriculture program and the community.

Accessory Dwelling Unit, Nicholas Scalzo

Architectural Engineering

This project goes through the architectural and structural design of a post and beam accessory dwelling unit. In it are basic calculations for the gravity and lateral system as well as unique designs such as cantilevered diaphragms, angled shear walls, and post and beam framing. In it are also structural and architectural Revit drawings and details to go alongside the calculations. This project had all the design done together and had the structure and architecture informing each other and changing throughout the entirety of the project.

Haiti Hac Innovation Center, Claire Marie Leader

Architectural Engineering

This one-story community center (and educational facility) will serve children and young adults in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti by providing them with entrepreneur and technology programs. This project is in partnership with Journeyman International, Third Lens Ministries, and the Haiti American Caucus (HAC). The gravity system is metal R-panel atop HSS trusses, reinforced concrete beams, and reinforced concrete columns. The lateral system is comprised of reinforced concrete masonry unit shear walls and concrete beam collectors. Limited material strengths and availability provided unique challenges for the designers of this project.

Earthquake Engineering Research Institute 2021 Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition, Tomlinn Cox

Architectural Engineering

Since 2004, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) has hosted the undergraduate Seismic Design Competition to promote the study of earthquake engineering. This year, a team of students from the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo competed against 36 other colleges and universities from across the world in the 19^th annual competition, virtual for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report summarizes and expands on the material prepared by the 2021 team to guide the exploration of the implementation of an addition to an existing hospital that needs retrofitting. This includes the potential design sequence …

Design And Construction Of Modular Concrete Footings And Testing Assembly For Use In Cal Poly's High Bay Laboratory, Thomas Little, Anders Johnson

Architectural Engineering

The purpose of this project was to improve the testing capabilities of the ARCE High Bay lab by designing and fabricating a pair of modular concrete footings along with a reusable testing frame capable of testing full-scale steel moment connections.

Journeyman International: Dwell Being Jonestown, Mississippi, Autumn Wagner

Architectural Engineering

Journeyman International is a non-profit organization that works with countries all over the world to support humanitarian projects by pairing clients with design professionals and volunteers to oversee the design and construction of projects. This specific project partners with Third Lens Ministries and But God Ministries, two organizations that are hoping to empower the community in Jonestown, Mississippi. Dwell Being promotes sustainability and affordable housing in a new housing community in Jonestown that is designed for healthy living and community interaction. Jonestown is a very small 0.4 square acre town that has roots in systemic racism and oppression. A once …

Structural Calculations For Salvation Academy School For Disadvantaged Children, Emma Constance Lambert

Architectural Engineering

Journeyman International is a non-profit organization who partners with students and professionals to provide architectural design, architectural engineering, and construction management work for developing countries in order to combat poverty and ecological destruction on a global scale. The Salvation Academy for Disadvantaged Children is sponsored by Journeyman International and a private client to provide a school campus with a safe and productive environment for children and staff with disabilities. The campus is equipped with classrooms, outdoor gymnasiums, residences for both students and faculty, as well as computer labs and conference areas. The site is located in the Western Area of …

Engineers In Action Bridge Program - Creation Of The Cal Poly Chapter, James Foad

Construction Management

The purpose of this project was to establish a chapter of Engineers in Action at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Engineers in Action is a non-profit organization which is dedicated to constructing footbridges in underserved countries. Bridges are linked to many benefits for those without reliable access year-round. Chapters of this organization work to design, fund, and build the footbridges in remote locations consisting of West Virginia, eSwatini, and Bolivia. The plan for the chapter was to establish a founding team which can work together to both recruit new members, and complete the tasks needed to successfully …

Williamson County Building Safety Plan, Jack Combs

City and Regional Planning

My senior year at Cal Poly offered me a vast array of opportunities for enriching my knowledge of the field of city and regional planning. The most impactful of my experiences was the time I spent working for the facilities department of Williamson County, Texas. This department is responsible for constructing and maintaining all of the buildings owned and occupied by Williamson County; this includes more than 60 buildings and more than 2,000,000 square feet. Additionally, as the fastest growing county north of Austin with roughly 600,000 residents, this department had many pertinent development projects to attend to.

As an …

Hand Strength And Dexterity Enhancer, Julia Ann Denison, Autumn B. Rexford, Melissa A. Kurani, Christina K. Fong

Biomedical Engineering

Good Grips created the hand strength and dexterity enhancer project to meet the challenge presented by Bill Phelps. He has Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM), an inflammatory muscle disease characterized by progressive muscle weakness and atrophy. Bill has limited strength in both hands and lost the ability to bend his fingers, making it difficult to grip anything. He needed a device that would help with everyday tasks such as writing, lifting, and holding various objects.

Our team consists of four engineering students attending Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. We researched, designed, manufactured, and tested a device that would fulfill the problem …

Automatic Tourniquet For Military Emergencies, Arshia Nazerani Houshmand, Marina Felt, Blake Juett

Biomedical Engineering

This document contains the progress and development of an automated tourniquet that would be intended for use within the United States military. The project was student-led and sponsored. Coordination and confirmation of our device was provided by Dr. John F. Kragh, who is part of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research. The document will outline the research conducted on tourniquets, specification development of the tourniquet, morphology process, and final design production of the automatic tourniquet.

Conspiratorial Thinking And Personality, Fiona R. Papile

Social Sciences

Why do some people believe in conspiracies more than others? Previous research suggests that variables such as education level, gender, race, or political preference are not useful in a predictive capacity, so what individual traits or characteristics make someone more likely to believe in conspiracy theories?

Locus of control is a psychological personality trait that indicates how an individual attributes the causes and outcomes of life events. Locus of control ranges from a more internally located locus, to more externally located. Internally located individuals believe that their own actions primarily impact the outcomes of events, whereas externally located individuals believe …

Emotional Intelligence Development Program For Designers, Chloe Heinz

Graphic Communication

What sets great designers apart from the rest is their ability to empathize with the user they’re designing for. Formal education doesn’t teach the soft skills that help a designer effectively communicate with the client and connect with the user. To bridge this educational gap, I designed a piece of interactive instructional media in the form of a customizable emotional intelligence development program to enhance designers’ self- awareness, emotional regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. This program is based upon the intentional change theory by Richard Boyatzis, so the program duration is left up to the program user to meet …

The Vibe Tr Series: Fit-Widget Bracelet, Angela Michelle Colabella, Molly Rodda, Emma Paige Neal, Joey Chen

General Engineering

As our society begins to understand the impact of mental health on human behavior, David Postula saw the need for a product that could help children increase their productivity in the classroom. David imagined the VIBE Bracelet, designed as an anti-anxiety tool that helps young children reduce stress in the classroom and intermittently reminds the user of goals or ideas throughout the day. David offered sponsorship for the development of the VIBE Bracelet design project by Cal Poly SLO students. The students designed the VIBE Bracelet to fit David’s requirements for a thoughtful reminder bracelet: a fidget element on the …

Care: Covid-19 Abatement Return To Education, Matteo Marsella, Emma Oneto, Janis Iourovitski

General Engineering

The COVID-19 pandemic poses new challenges in many aspects of life and society. Being that the prime ethical responsibility of engineers is to keep people safe, our sponsor, John Nielsen, asked us to develop a solution that addresses a current or anticipated need related to the ongoing COVID- 19 pandemic. We entered a needs-finding phase to search for problems caused by COVID-19 that people want or need to be solved. We identified K-12 education as an area that has undergone drastic changes due to the pandemic. After conducting interviews with educators, we found that K-12 teachers need a way to …

Health Infrastructure Accessibility In San Joaquin, Ca, Vinson Lok Kwan, Trisha Phuong Tran

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this study is to assess the health infrastructure and accessibility in San Joaquin, California through the existing conditions of the city, reviewing various cities facing similar conditions, and creating potential solutions or recommendations to be implemented into the city to accommodate growth and overall well-being in the community.

Health infrastructure and accessibility is important to every community since it has the ability to influence the quality-of-care individuals are able to receive. When it comes to infrastructure, it is important to determine the underlying health conditions the local population faces and whether the services provided are adequate in …

How To Save A Planet: Communicating Climate Change Efficacy Through Narrative, Amanda Kaye Smith

Communication Studies

The podcast How to Save a Planet represents an emerging form of climate change communication that can be further explored through rhetorical analysis. For people who are interested in climate change but want less doom-and-gloom messaging and more applicable ways to address it, How to Save a Planet presents the unique opportunity to listen in on the discussions of science communicators and climate experts as they detangle the complexity that is climate change. By utilizing the podcast form, hosts Alex Blumberg and Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson can reach a large audience of listeners to bridge the gap between the scientists …

Life Cycle Assessment Of An Ifixit Pro Tech Toolkit, Camden N. Webb, Dylan A. Ell

Materials Engineering

A life cycle assessment of an iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit was performed to determine the environmental impacts of iFixit’s best-selling toolkit. SimaPro software was used to measure three impact categories: energy usage, water consumption, and global warming potential. This project provides quantitative data on the resources required for repairing devices through use of the toolkit to ultimately reduce the global e-waste stream by re-using electronics. Using the cut-off method, global warming potential of the kit was 4.1 kg of CO₂ equivalents, water consumption was 1.5 m³, and energy usage was 73.9 MJ. Major contributors to these impact …

Development Of A Marine Biodegradable Target Balloon, Blake Samuel Robinson, Arash Sam Akhavi, David Leonardo Albarran-Martinez

Materials Engineering

The US Navy utilizes PVC target balloons, known as Killer Tomatoes, that are inflated onboard a naval vessel then deployed into the ocean to calibrate a variety of weaponry. The Navy has requested the investigation of biodegradable polymers to replace the PVC in attempts to reduce ocean waste that is generated from the leftover PVC material. After communicating with American Pacific Plastic Fabricators (APPF), the current manufacturer of the Killer Tomatoes, we gained an understanding of the manufacturing process and the material requirements that would allow a new material to be integrated into their current process. Two proprietary, trial polymers …

Designing A Replication Study In Kinesiology: Lessons From The Field, Ruben A. Montoya Vega, Regina F. Hockert, Emma L. Cutner, Jafra D. Thomas

Kinesiology and Public Health

The submitted presentation material summarizes a project presented at the 2021 Cal Poly Virtual BEACoN Symposium. The title of the project which the presentation is based is, “Towards Equitable Communication: Explorations to Guide Knowledge Translation in Kinesiology.” The uploaded file document presents the presentation abstract, student testimony, as well as suggested citations for individual aspects of the presentation material. Please follow the social media profiles of the faculty mentor to the project, Dr. Thomas, for timely project updates. You may find related work from this lab group published to Cal Poly Digital Commons under the Kinesiology and Public Health section …

Inventory Locating With Quuppa: The Design And Development Of A Real-Time Process Monitoring Web Application Solution, Dylan C. Moreland, Trevor J. Howell, John W. Takiff, Patrick S. Dillon, Theo E. Fritz, William K. Mcintyre

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Viasat, Inc. requires precise inventory tracking at their production facility in San Diego, CA. Viasat has installed the Quuppa indoor real-time locating system (RTLS), which it uses to track the real-time position of high-value work-in-process items. In its current state, the system only displays in-the-moment location information, with no available functionality for storing historical data for review, analysis, or visualization. In addition, the data displayed is noisy and prone to significant random error. This paper provides an overview of RTLS methods and technologies, assesses alternative solutions to Viasat’s issue, demonstrates our RTLS integrated web app solution, analyzes its impact, and …

Training Novices To Evaluate The Quality Of Physical Activity Promotion Material: Results Of A Pilot Study, Ethan N. Tse, Savannah A. Longoria, Cameron N. Christopher, Jafra D. Thomas

Kinesiology and Public Health

The credibility and usability of lay physical activity promotion material are a persistent problem (Thomas & Cardinal, 2020, TJACM). These quality issues deter the material in promoting health literacy, a major predictor of prevention-oriented health behaviors (e.g., regular exercise, U.S. National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy). Few studies, however, have evaluated the quality of lay material over time (Thomas et al., 2018, Quest). PURPOSE: In order to conduct a repeated-measures study of the quality of physical activity promotion web articles for lay adults, one experienced researcher (JDT) trained undergraduates on how to use the Suitability …

Center Pivot Project Specifications, Charles M. Burt

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This note provides an example of items that are included in a specification for center pivots. It is a supplement to design drawings that have numerous additional details. This example combines items from various ITRC jobs, and therefore the units are not consistent (there is a mix of metric and English units). The intention, however, is not to provide a precise specification that can be replicated, but rather to show the key items that are typically included.

In such projects, there are two primary sets of specifications:

• The details of the center pivots themselves and warranties for the pivots
• The …