Digital Commons Network^™

Blaming The Victim Is A Crime, Stephanie Botto

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

The Ultimate Experience, John Lazo

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Abandoned: An Educator’S Immersive Approach, Mackenzie Croxdale

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

Sojourn Grace Collective: A Church, And Yet, Abigail Wilkins

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Language Practices, Zuoyuan Huang

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

Welcome To My Journey, Valeria Salazar

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

How To Handshake, Michelle Waal

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

Studying Images From Black Lives Matter Marches And Rallies In San Luis Obispo, Jenny Ashley, Brenda Helmbrecht

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

Isolating Human Monocytes And Characterizing Human Macrophage Polarization Through Flow Cytometry And Morphological Analysis, Arthur Peter Klujian

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral Artery Occlusive Disease (PAOD) is a cardiovascular disease that affects more than 200 million people. It is characterized by atherosclerosis, a biologic process where peripheral arteries are restricted due to a buildup in cholesterol and fats. This eventually leads to ischemia, developing complications such as chronic inflammation and possible limb amputation. The current standard of care for patients includes surgical revascularization and exercise therapy. These treatment strategies have had limited success with alleviating symptoms and restoring perfusion, however, many patients still experience ischemia and do not fully restore blood flow. Further exploration in pursuit of treating these shortcomings led …

Adaptation Of A Seismic Outreach Program: Collaboration Between University Students And Seaoc Mos, Paul Quinter, Ryan Lovejoy, Kristin Potterton, Anahid A. Behrouzi, Lelli Van Den Einde

Architectural Engineering

For nearly two decades, students in University of California, San Diego’s Society of Civil and Structural Engineers (UCSD SCSE) chapter have conducted a Seismic Outreach program that reaches around a thousand 4th and 6th grade students annually. This success motivated an effort to share and deploy the curriculum through other universities. To achieve this, the Structural Engineers Association of San Diego (SEAOSD) sought and received a 2024 National Council of Structural Engineers Associations (NCSEA) grant that supported collaboration between UCSD SCSE, the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California (SEAOSC), and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). This …

Navigating The Pathway To Become A Structural Engineering Practitioner-Educator, Kristin Potterton, Anahid A. Behrouzi

Architectural Engineering

Many structural engineers attribute their exposure as students to industry mentors as critical to their recruitment into the profession and the initial development of problem-solving skills they now use in the workplace. The desire to provide similar opportunities to the next generation often motivates practitioners to engage in K-12 outreach or take on university positions to teach courses and advise projects. However, as a young engineer the route to becoming a practitioner-educator is not always clear without an advisor who has sought a similar path that can guide them. To address this, the paper will summarize survey results from practicing …

Development And Testing Of A Computer Vision Pose Estimation System For Planar Mobile Robots, Andrew Jones

Master's Theses

This thesis details the development and testing of a computer vision-based real-time pose estimation system for differential drive robots. A single camera with a fisheye lens is used to locate ArUco markers placed at fixed locations and attached to robots. Using the OpenCV library, the Perspective-n-Point (PnP) problem is solved to facilitate the transformation of 2-D robot positions in an image to world-frame coordinates. An analytical solution is presented to estimate robot poses based on a single PnP solution, rather than solving the PnP problem for each pose estimate. Pose information is relayed to individual robots using a multi-microcontroller architecture …

Baseline Nutrition Knowledge And Feasibility Of A Whatsapp-Delivered Nutrition Education Intervention Among California Wildland-Urban Interface Firefighters, Lauren E. Anderson

Master's Theses

Wildland firefighters perform physically demanding work under challenging environmental conditions that place substantial demands on nutritional health and occupational performance. Despite the importance of nutrition in supporting physical performance, recovery, and long-term health, limited research has examined nutrition knowledge and dietary behaviors among California wildland firefighters or evaluated the feasibility of remotely delivered nutrition education interventions within this occupational population. Therefore, the purpose of this pilot study was to assess baseline nutrition knowledge, nutrition self-efficacy, and dietary behaviors while evaluating the feasibility of a 12-week WhatsApp-delivered nutrition education intervention among California wildland firefighters.

Twenty-four firefighters completed the baseline assessment and …

Hyperchaotic Noise Generation For Adversarial Encryption In Privacy-Preserving Image Classification, Neeraja Beesetti

Master's Theses

Artificial intelligence systems make useful predictions by taking in data and returning a classification, recommendation, or decision. Obtaining that prediction, however, requires sharing the data first. This creates a fundamental privacy challenge in machine learning: users must expose their data to receive a valuable prediction. Machine learning systems increasingly rely on cloud-based image classification for this reason, transmitting images from edge devices to remote servers rather than running large models locally. This creates a conflict between the accuracy a classifier requires and the privacy a data owner wants. Traditional encryption destroys the image structure on which a classifier depends, while …

Evaluation Of General Voronoi Diagram Decomposition For Harmonic Fields In Navigation Of Dynamic Environments, Franco Abullarade

Master's Theses

Harmonic potential fields provide provably minimum-free navigation, but any change to the workspace geometry invalidates the field and forces a costly global recomputation, typically restricting them to static environments. This thesis extends the harmonic map framework of Vlantis et al., which maps the free workspace onto a unit disk and uses an atlas of per-region transformations, to dynamic indoor settings. First, we replace their manually annotated room partition with an automatic decomposition based on the Generalized Voronoi Diagram, allowing the atlas to be built from an arbitrary occupancy grid in an automated way. Second, we introduce a localized repair procedure …

Hardware-In-The-Loop Evaluation Of Sensor-Source Selection For Prosthetic Locomotion Intent Recognition, Victoria Asencio-Clemens

Master's Theses

Active lower-limb prostheses use intent-recognition systems to identify a user’s locomotion mode and select an appropriate control strategy, but sensor configurations that perform well offline may be unsuitable for resource-constrained embedded hardware. Existing sensor-selection methods generally prioritize classification accuracy without directly accounting for processing latency, memory usage, or other hardware-dependent requirements. To address this limitation, this thesis develops a hardware-in-the-loop source-selection framework for embedded classification of level walking, ramp ascent, ramp descent, stair ascent, and stair descent using multimodal biomechanical data from transtibial amputee participants. Subject-specific linear support vector machine classifiers were evaluated using trial-held-out validation, and candidate configurations from …

A Maintainable Extensible And Performant Compiler Toolchain For The Trustguard Architecture, Ethan N. Emery

Master's Theses

TrustGuard is a hardware architecture implementing a CAVO (Containment Architecture with Verified Output) model, which provides security guarantees by bootstrapping trust of a system to a hardware component known as the Sentry. Rather than verifying an entire system, TrustGuard re-executes trusted computation on the Sentry and validates the host system's execution before allowing values to pass to the outside world, thereby containing the effects of erroneous computation. Implementing this architecture in practice without hardware modifications to a host CPU requires a compiler toolchain capable of automatically generating instrumented binaries for both the untrusted host and the trusted Sentry from C …

Constructing Executive Presence Within The Double Bind: Women’S Experiences Of Leadership Communication, Sydney Anne Shumaker

Communication Studies

Women in executive leadership often face a gendered double bind, expected to be warm and approachable, while also appearing competent and confident. This qualitative study examines how women executives develop executive presence and navigate these workplace expectations. Drawing on Warmth-Competence Theory and Impression Management Theory, the study explores how women leaders adapt their communication, manage self-presentation, and balance perceptions of warmth and competence in professional settings. This study involved conducting semi-structured interviews with four women in corporate executive-level roles. Thematic analysis of participant responses revealed five key themes: adaptive communication, varied experiences with gendered workplace expectations, the importance of credibility …

Documentary Review: My Sextortion Diary, Amanda M. Stojanov

Feminist Pedagogy

Patricia Franquesa’s (2024) documentary, My Sextortion Diary, employs low-fidelity digital aesthetics and intimate self-representation to expose the gendered violence of sextortion while offering critical pedagogical value for discussions of digital vulnerability, surveillance, and online exploitation. Through its unconventional narrative structure, we learn that Patricia has her laptop stolen while in a café with a friend. Shortly after realizing this, she reports it to the police. Months later, she begins receiving encrypted emails demanding payment, threatening that if she refuses, her photos will be sent to her contact list. The film, composed largely of text messages, screen recordings, and fragmented audiovisual …

Using Fiction To Teach About Reproductive Control, Julie Shayne

Feminist Pedagogy

This essay is a short discussion of two new novels about reproductive rights denied: Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel and Where the Girls Were by Kate Schatz. In it, I offer very abbreviated summaries of the books and a discussion of why novels are useful in social science classrooms.

Social Justice Strategies For Teaching During The ‘Anxiety Crisis’, Maggie Mang, Kerry Smith-Saxman

Feminist Pedagogy

These authors describe their teaching strategies for accounting for anxiety in pedagogy. The instructors describe creating space for students' affective experiences when writing and countering ableism in course instruction.

Leader Election System For An Unmanned Ground Vehicle Swarm, Milan Chhetri, Brendan Beas, Paul Levin

Electrical Engineering

This senior project presents the design and implementation of a leader-election system for a leader-follower unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) swarm using embedded control and wireless communication. The objective of the project is to improve the robustness and mission longevity of a multi-agent robotic system by allowing the swarm to dynamically select the most suitable leader during operation. Each UGV is equipped with an ESP32 microcontroller, DWM1000 Ultra-Wideband (UWB) ranging modules, an MPU-6050 inertial measurement unit (IMU), motor drivers, and supporting power electronics to enable communication, sensing, and autonomous control. A battery monitoring subsystem was developed using the ESP32's built-in Analog-to-Digital …

Maximum Power Point Tracker And Dc/Dc Converter, Isabel Aguas, Madeline Steiner, Haley Blouin, Tristan Asquith, Ellijah Garcia

Electrical Engineering

The product is a solar Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) with an integrated DC-DC converter for efficient power extraction from a solar module. The MPPT optimizes solar energy, sourcing power to a 12V battery which is the source of a DC-DC converter operating as a variable voltage output for various applications, capable of providing voltage greater or less than the voltage supplied by the solar module. The DC-DC converter outputs a manually adjustable DC voltage within the range of 5-50V. Both MPPT and the DC-DC converter are functional for standard solar modules with power ratings ranging from 50-400W, open circuit …

Archimedean Spiral Antenna Array With Klopfenstein And Exponential Tapered Balun Feeds, Leo Joseph Alvelais Iv, Paul Obrecht, Naguib Abdulla, Preston Mavady, Collin Fan

Electrical Engineering

This project presents the design, fabrication, and experimental evaluation of a broadband 3x3 Archimedean spiral antenna array tile for 2.8-3.8 GHz. Each element combines a two-arm spiral on Rogers RO4350B, a printed 50 to 150 Ω tapered balun, and a conductive backplane. Klopfenstein and Exponential feed implementations were modeled in Ansys HFSS, generated and tuned with automated scripting, fabricated, and evaluated with calibrated network and anechoic-chamber measurements. The Klopfenstein-fed hardware met the -10 dB input-reflection criterion across the project band. The exponential array provided a broad matched response but reached approximately -8 dB near 2.95 GHz. Measured center-element patterns retained …

Vision-Based Autonomous Tracking Rover, Alejandro Ahumada, Erick Ayala, Jonathan Chavez

Electrical Engineering

AAC Vision designed and constructed a vision-based autonomous tracking rover capable of exploring an indoor environment, avoiding obstacles, generating a two-dimensional LiDAR map, detecting a standard orange basketball, and approaching the target without manual steering. The rover uses a Raspberry Pi 4, an Intel RealSense D435 RGB-D camera, an RPLIDAR C1, four JGB37-520 Hall-encoder motors, dual H-bridge motor drivers, a 12 V battery, and a custom aluminum chassis measuring approximately 8 in by 12 in and weighing 6.7 lb. The final mission emphasized reliable target discovery rather than travel between predetermined points. The software integrates Python, OpenCV, Ultralytics YOLO, RealSense …

Dc/Dc Converter For A Solar Module, Francine Therese A. Canal, Jesus Cruz, Juan Jose Gonzalez

Electrical Engineering

This project presents the design and implementation of a DC/DC power converter intended for photovoltaic (PV) modules with varying electrical output characteristics. Solar panels experience significant changes in output voltage and power due to variations in sunlight, temperature, and load conditions. To ensure reliable operation across a range of conditions, the proposed converter is capable of both step-up and step-down operation to accommodate solar modules with power ratings from 50 W to 450 W and open-circuit voltages between 10 V and 80 V. The system operates at load currents up to 10 A and provide a user-adjustable output voltage within …

The Regulatory Costs Of Wine Production In Napa County, Lynn Hamilton, Michael Mccullough

Agribusiness

Unlike other food products, commercial alcoholic beverage production has been subject to federal regulation and taxation since the founding of the United States, with specific wine taxes being levied during the wartime Emergency Revenue Act of 1914 (Cilluffo and Gravelle, 2024). Since then, taxation and regulations have expanded, with many new laws originating at the state level. Additional regulatory costs, combined with the current decline in consumer demand raise questions regarding the long-term viability of California wine production. Napa County Farm Bureau contacted Cal Poly to assess baseline conditions in the industry by conducting a case study of regulations accruing …

Dc/Dc Converter For A Solar Module, Stella Uribe, Richie Zaragoza, Olivia Grace Tran, Phillip Tyler Rich

Electrical Engineering

This project focuses on the design and validation of a general-purpose DC/DC power converter intended for use with photovoltaic (PV) solar modules operating under variable environmental and loading conditions. Solar panels exhibit significant variation in output voltage, current, and available power due to changes in irradiance, temperature, and operating point, making direct connection to downstream loads impractical. The proposed system addresses this challenge by providing a single, user-adjustable regulated DC output capable of both stepping up and stepping down the solar module voltage. The converter is designed to interface with solar modules rated between 50 W and 400 W, with …

Remote Controlled Pushcart, William B. Rakoz, Logan M. Beard, Jesus B. Galindo, Jacob Anderson

Electrical Engineering

This senior project developed a low-cost remote controlled golf push cart by retrofitting a conventional cart with independently driven hoverboard wheels, an ESP32 controller, BLE communication, a 36 V battery, an MPU-6050 IMU, an LD-19 LiDAR, and custom PETG components. The final scope emphasized reliable remote operation, differential steering, controlled acceleration, heading stabilization, emergency stopping, and obstacle-aware speed limiting. A separate neural-network controller was trained in simulation as a future autonomy pathway; autonomous target following was not integrated into the final cart. Verification recorded a maximum speed of 4.3 mph, operation on a 15-degree incline, a 0.75 s emergency-stop response, …

Stationary Bike Power/Efficiency Monitor, Paula J. Diaz, Pilar M. Cook, Danielle Rhind

Electrical Engineering

This project developed a real-time power and efficiency monitoring system for a SportsArt ECO-POWR stationary exercise bicycle. The goal was to measure rider mechanical power and electrical power delivered to the utility grid simultaneously, allowing the overall bike-to-grid efficiency to be calculated and displayed in real time. Rider power was measured using Garmin Rally ANT+ power pedals, while grid power was measured using a Yokogawa WT310E power analyzer. A Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ synchronized both data sources, calculated efficiency, displayed live performance metrics through a graphical user interface, and logged measurement data to CSV files for later analysis. The …