Digital Commons Network^™

Autonomous Vision-Based Litter Collection Rover, Dante Michael Benedetti, Benjamin Scott Tavares, Nathan Heil

Electrical Engineering

This report documents the design, implementation, and testing of an autonomous litter-collection rover developed as a Senior Project Design Lab (EE 460/463/464) at California Polytechnic State University. The rover integrates autonomy, computer vision, embedded real-time control, mecanum-wheel omnidirectional mobility, and a two-degree-of-freedom robotic arm to detect, approach, and collect small ground-level litter such as bottles, wrappers, and paper fragments.

The system uses a two-layer compute architecture: an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano running ROS 2 for perception, SLAM, and path planning, paired with an STM32L4A6ZG microcontroller for real-time motor control and odometry. The robot is built on a multi-level aluminum frame …

Pcb Design For Place Cells Vlsi Chip, Gavin Reaksecker, Alex Krier, Joshua Lin

Electrical Engineering

This project presents the design and implementation of a 2 layer test-bench printed circuit board (PCB) for evaluating the functionality of a custom 40-pin VLSI integrated circuit. The objective is to create a reliable and portable platform capable of supplying configurable bias voltages, generating variable input signals, and monitoring both analog and digital outputs. The board integrates adjustable bias networks using potentiometers, digital and analog buffering stages, and optional battery supply operation. The VLSI device under test is mounted in dual-in-line (DIP) sockets to enable rapid replacement and repeated characterization. Dedicated test points are incorporated throughout the PCB to facilitate …

Solving Linearly Constrained Quadratic Programs Using Field Programmable Analog Arrays, Tyler Wynn, Alonzo Arroyo

Electrical Engineering

This paper presents a field-programmable analog array (FPAA) implementation for solving linearly constrained quadratic programs (LCQPs) directly in the analog domain. The solver is based on a continuous-time primal-dual control architecture with integral action, anti-windup compensation, and a piecewise-linear nonlinearity for enforcing affine inequality constraints. A switched-capacitor implementation using three AN231E04 FPAAs is developed, and coefficient scaling methods are introduced to keep internal and output signals within the voltage limits of the hardware. A global scaling factor is used to reduce internal signal excursions, while solution-space scaling is shown to modify the implemented optimization coefficients and alter the local closed-loop …

Autonomous Rover Solar And Battery Management System: Team B, Karla Jazmin Lira Gonzalez, Paige Ambriz, Kunj Shah, Elhom Delasa Sheykhi

Electrical Engineering

This project focused on the software and printed circuit board (PCB) integration for Poly1Rover’s battery management system (BMS). Poly1Rover is a student organization dedicated to building a low-cost autonomous rover designed to operate on Mars. Since solar availability, temperature, and other conditions on Mars vary, the rover requires a reliable battery management system that accurately monitors battery health and status. This team’s work included the communication and control side of the BMS. The subsystem was designed around the Renesas ISL94202 battery monitor and the MSP430 controller. Battery information was read from the ISL94202 registers through I2C communication, converted from raw …

Stella: A Narrative Exploration Of Artificial Intelligence, Grief, And Human Consciousness, Alyssa Grace Gerardo

Computer Science and Software Engineering

STELLA is a narrative-driven 2D puzzle adventure game developed in Unity that explores themes of grief, memory, human connection, and artificial intelligence. Players assume the role of Luna, a young woman searching for a missing friend who becomes trapped within a mysterious garden overseen by a mysterious entity known as STELLA. Through exploration, environmental storytelling, dialogue, and a series of puzzles, players uncover a deeper narrative centered on loss, obsession, and the pursuit of artificial immortality.

Hospital Bed Tray Table, Ava Mikeska, Sara Chamness, Samantha Kenney, Kaitlyn Ould

Mechanical Engineering

This project documents the design and development of a collapsible hospital bed tray table created through the Mechanical Engineering Senior Project program at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. The goal of the project was to reduce the floor space occupied by existing overbed tray tables while preserving the functionality, stability, and durability expected by patients, visitors, and healthcare staff.

The final design modifies a commercially available overbed tray table by incorporating a folding tabletop hinge mechanism and a telescoping base. The hinge allows the tabletop to lock in both the upright and stowed positions, while the telescoping base retracts to …

Thermosiphon Lab Experiment, Ella C. Perry, Zach Barry, Madison K. Felton, Lane A. Hunter

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Department aims to develop a new lab centered on a thermosiphon solar system. This lab will introduce the operating principles of thermosiphons while integrating concepts from heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and thermodynamics. A thermosiphon functions by heating water using thermal energy. The lab will examine the efficiency of this energy transfer. The final lab will be tailored to enhance student learning while ensuring ease of use for the Mechanical Engineering Department.

Semi-Automated Wine Barrel Filler, Elliot Jason Dejong, Carlo Caesare Deianni, Brady Emerson J. Leib

Mechanical Engineering

The proposed project is a semi-automated wine barrel filler. Currently, there is no streamlined and affordable method for smaller wineries to fill wine barrels without dedicating complete focus to the task. The primary use is controlled filling for white wine fermentation, during which an air gap must be left in the barrel to allow for expansion of the wine during fermentation. Tom Greenough, Saucelito Canyon’s head winemaker, and associate winemaker Bodie Ringhofer are the primary stakeholders in our project and want to consistently fill barrels at their winery to a fluid volume of approximately 50 gallons each. This project serves …

Smart Sleeve, Evan Abalos, Bright Jung, Owen Bowling, Wyatt Eberhart

Mechanical Engineering

Quantifying human arm muscle activity is essential for understanding human movements and helping individuals who suffer from motor or neurological impairments such as stroke or traumatic brain injuries. Today, these individuals, as well as clinicians, researchers, and athletes, face many challenges when using the traditional surface electromyography (sEMG) systems to monitor muscle activities, including complex setup, restricted mobility, discomfort, inconsistent placement of electrodes, and lack of accuracy. Therefore, a comfortable EMG sleeve device that accurately measures arm movement without interfering with daily tasks is needed, which the team will be designing, manufacturing, and testing as their senior project. In addition, …

Me Department Bespoke Coffee Cabinet, Mickie Clyne, Stephen Tamacheepjaroen, Samuel Johnson, Willem Gray

Mechanical Engineering

This senior project involved the design, fabrication, and testing of a custom coffee cabinet for the California Polytechnic State University Mechanical Engineering Department. The project addressed challenges associated with appliance organization, storage efficiency, accessibility, and maintenance within the department’s shared breakroom space. A human-centered design process was used to identify stakeholder needs and develop engineering specifications for the final product.

The completed cabinet integrates custom woodworking, steel pipe frame construction, dedicated K-Cup storage, organized appliance placement, and a rack-and-pinion sliding platform that improves access to the Keurig coffee maker for refilling and maintenance. Design decisions were informed through stakeholder feedback, …

Process Improvement For Thermal Barrier Coating Masking Applications, Katherine Meezan, Aiden Senn, Saksham Giri, Katelyn Perez

Mechanical Engineering

Solar Turbines, a gas turbine manufacturer, needs a more efficient method to prevent the application of a thermal barrier coating (TBC) to select areas of their combustion liners during manufacturing. Currently, the process is labor, material, and time intensive: reusable masking tools should increase the efficiency of the TBC process.

This project is sponsored in full by Solar Turbines, and is under the guidance and administration of three Solar Turbines engineers: Chris Noone, Rick Rogers, and Carson Roff. The project is mentored by Cal Poly senior design Coach, Rick Lasko. This project will be completed by a team of four …

Me3328 Combined Loading Beam Bending Lab, Alejandro Islas, Viswesh Vancheeswaran, Owen Spencer, Henry Andrews

Mechanical Engineering

Serving as a new laboratory experiment for ME 3328 (Design for Strength & Stiffness), strain gauges were adhered, wired, and calibrated on a cantilever beam lab apparatus capable of undergoing pure bending, pure torsion, and combined bending.

Design And Evaluation Of An Open-Source Ac/Dc Power Converter For Microgrid Applications, Ryan J. Rayos

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of an open-source bidirectional power conversion platform intended for microgrid applications. As distributed energy resources, battery storage systems, and hybrid AC/DC architectures continue to increase in adoption, there is a growing demand for flexible, low-cost, and programmable power electronic platforms capable of interfacing between DC and AC subsystems. Existing commercial solutions are often proprietary and expensive, limiting their accessibility for educational, research, and rapid prototyping applications. This work expands upon the existing open-source Atinverter platform by increasing its operating voltage capability, integrating bidirectional power flow, and implementing telemetry systems suitable for microgrid …

Integration Of Robotic Arm And Conveyor With Programmable Logic Controller, Drake A. Small

Master's Theses

To meet new curriculum demands brought on by Cal Poly's upcoming switch to semesters, a new, cross-disciplinary lab module was developed for EE 435 (Industrial Power Control and Automation). The module emphasizes career-applicable skills, preparing students for the field of controls engineering within the manufacturing industry. These skills include robotic control, computer networking and configuration, and embedded systems. The work focused on integrating a collaborative robot arm to pick-and-place boxes on a conveyor. A myCobot 320 Pi and an Ultimation Powered Roller MDR Conveyor were integrated with the existing PLC system using Modbus RTU and EtherNet/IP communication protocols, respectively. A …

Equitable Decompositions: A Gateway To Spectral Theory Through Graph Automorphisms, Daniel Ford

Master's Theses

Graphs with symmetry appear throughout mathematics and its applications, from the structure of molecules and network design to combinatorial game theory. A central question in spectral graph theory is how to compute or characterise the eigenvalues of the matrices associated with such graphs. Classical decomposition methods, such as diagonalisation or Jordan normal form, accomplish this but only once some spectral information is already known. A different approach, introduced by Barrett et al. (2015), uses the automorphisms of a graph to block-diagonalise its adjacency matrix without any prior spectral information. Because one of the resulting summands is always the quotient matrix …

Effects Of Atmospheric Drag On Angles-Only Initial Relative Orbit Determination Accuracy In Low Earth Orbit, Sydney Walsh

Master's Theses

Growing congestion in low Earth orbit is increasing the demand for effective space situational awareness, straining ground station capabilities. Space-based relative orbit determination offers an alternative, using line-of-sight angle measurements from a chaser spacecraft to estimate a target spacecraft's orbit. This research focuses on angles-only initial relative orbit determination (IROD), where no prior target state knowledge is assumed. It investigates how IROD solution accuracy is affected by differential atmospheric drag between the chaser and target spacecraft. A nonlinear batch least squares filter is designed to estimate the target's initial state, which is compared against a truth solution. It was found …

Determining K Clusters In K-Means Clustering With The Crab Algorithm, Jasmine Kristine S. Cabrera

Master's Theses

Unsupervised clustering often faces the challenge of determining the correct number of clusters in the absence of a true target variable. Traditional methods such as the Elbow Method and the Silhouette Score can produce ambiguous results and rely on assumptions about cluster shape or separation. To address this, we created the Clustering Rivals and Buddies (CRAB) algorithm which evaluates clusters based on stability across multiple subsamples. CRAB uses pairwise classifications to identify points that consistently group together called “Buddies” and points that remain separated called “Rivals.” Applied with K-means, CRAB accurately recovers underlying cluster structures in both spherical and non-spherical …

Teaching Multi-Core Architecture: Design And Implementation Of A Cache-Coherent Cpu For Undergraduate Education, Isaac R. Lake

Master's Theses

Modern computing has relied on multicore processors for high performance for nearly two decades, yet undergraduate computer engineering curricula often provide limited exposure to parallel hardware architectures and their design challenges. This thesis presents the design of CPE 433, a course that extends the pipelined and cached OTTER CPU developed in CPE 233 and CPE 333 into a multicore processor capable of running parallel workloads. The thesis documents the architectural changes required to adapt the verified single-core design into a multicore system, including MMIO-based interrupt support, a shared cache hierarchy with cache-coherence mechanisms, and clock-gated modules. It further presents a …

Implementation Of A Line-Scan Camera Triangulation Sensor For A Ball Balancer, Jackson R. Mclaughlin

Master's Theses

Ball Balancer or Ball on Plate systems are used for education and research in control theory. These consist of a plate which can be actively tilted, with a ball rolling on the surface. Students are challenged to model the dynamics of the system and implement a control loop which is capable of stabilizing the ball by actuating the plate.  The mechatronics group at Cal Poly is developing hardware for one of these ball-balancer systems, for future use in the Mechanical Engineering curriculum.

The position of the ball relative to the plate must be measured in order to control and stabilize …

Practice-Oriented Seismic Design And Retrofit For Mid-Story Isolated Buildings, Luke Reilly

Master's Theses

This study reviews the state of the art of MSI and evaluates a practical framework for preliminary design using coupling coefficients. A database of 155 research documents is compiled and classified into analytical, mixed numerical, computational, experimental, and miscellaneous studies. The review identifies major research trends, common modeling approaches, important design parameters, and remaining limitations. In addition, 16 representative MSI building projects are reviewed. These applications show that MSI is most often used for retrofit, vertical expansion, mixed-use buildings, over-track construction, and buildings with major functional or structural discontinuities. The study then examines the Coupling Coefficients (CCs) Method as a …

Boundary Influence In Truncated Groundwater Models: Reconstructing A Local-Scale Modflow Model From A Consultant-Developed Regional Model In The Monterey Subbasin, Bruce K. Liscomb

Master's Theses

Regional groundwater models built by consultants contain valuable calibrated frameworks but are often too large and complex for repeated local-scale analysis. Rather than rebuilding an entirely new smaller model, this study truncates the existing consultant-built regional model of the Monterey Subbasin, preserving the original grid structure and parameter framework while reducing the active domain to a manageable size for planning-level use. A key finding is that boundary-condition representation exerted a dominant influence on simulated groundwater behavior within the truncated domain, highlighting that truncation is a structural decision that meaningfully affects how the model responds. Model performance was evaluated two ways. …

Ra Hub: Streamlining Resident Advisor Workflows Through A Mobile App, Samantha Danahe Gonzalez

Graphic Communication

This project explores the need to improve the workflow experience for Residential Advisors (RAs), specifically focusing on polychat logging and event planning workflows that currently rely on multiple disconnected software platforms. This fragmented system creates confusion and makes it difficult to complete responsibilities efficiently and accurately. Survey findings revealed frustrations with tracking tasks, managing workflows, and navigating between systems. In response, this project proposes a centralized workflow system designed to create a more organized, accessible, and userfriendly experience for RAs.

The Effects Of Carbon-Fiber Plates And Peba-Based Midsole Foam In Running Shoes On Lower-Limb Joint Kinetics And Kinematics In Recreational Female Runners, Jordan M. Allen

Master's Theses

The recent increase in long-distance running participation and the rapid advancement in footwear technology have created a need for research on injury prevention in this growing population of recreational runners. When “super shoes” were first introduced to the running scene, they caught the attention of runners worldwide with the rapid improvement in marathon performance [1]. Today, every major running brand offers its own version of a super shoe, each incorporating a carbon-fiber plate and PEBA-based midsole foam. While previous studies have shown the performance benefits of these shoes, a gap remains in the literature regarding how they impact knee, hip, …

The Implementation Of Scintillation Detectors With The Cuore/Cupid Collaboration In The Search For Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay, Reese Sandra Cormier

Physics

CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) is an experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Assergi, Italy, currently searching for an answer to the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem; the question: why do we exist? One proposed explanation is neutrinoless double beta decay, a theorized exotic decay that would prove that neutrinos are their own antiparticle, violating the current Standard Model for particle physics. However, current detection methods do not distinguish different types of particle interactions, resulting in alpha decays contributing to the background. Therefore, the experimental sensitivity is too limited to make confident determinations about the data. For this …

Simulation Of Powder Spreading For Metal Additive Manufacturing, Florence Duff

Master's Theses

The powder recoating process for Laser Powder Bed Fusion requires iterative experimentation to develop the correct process parameters that will result in high quality parts. There currently lacks good spread quality metrics and models for optimizing spread quality. A machine that simulates the powder spreading process was built to streamline the process of selecting process parameters for specific types of powders without having to operate the full laser system. The parameters investigated were the layer thickness and spreading speed. The response variables were metrics developed to assess spread quality: the percentage of the build plate covered by powder and the …

Greenhouse Scan-To-Bim, Mattheus Hsu-Ning Johnson

Architectural Engineering

This senior project focuses on the implementation of Scan-to-BIM software for capturing and modeling an existing building within Experimental Construction laboratory. The design of the project was to model the building using a 3D scan with the support of world measurements to document and create a digital model of the building. By doing this the project can evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and accuracy of integrating 3D scanning technologies into BIM modeling.

The project included taking data from a recent scan of the Experimental Construction Laboratory. We then took these scans and imported them to Autodesk Revit to develop a detailed …

Reinforced Concrete Design Fundamentals, Belen Stephanie Martinez Espinoza, Estevan Jacob Perez

Architectural Engineering

Hispanic workers make up a large and growing portion of the construction workforce in the United States; particularly in California, the percentage of construction workers who are Hispanic is estimated to be about 55% as of 2021 (Elkins). Many of these workers are Spanish-speaking, yet there is still a gap between technical engineering design and what is understood and applied in the field. One major reason for this gap is the lack of clear bilingual resources. To bridge the gap, a 48-page bilingual booklet titled Reinforced Concrete Design Fundamentals (Fundamentos del Diseño de Concreto Reforzado in Spanish) was created. This …

Xenaforms: Reinforcing Kinematic Stability Through Rigid Connections, Katherine G. Thies

Architectural Engineering

XenaForms combine rigid planes and straight lines with the fluidity of structural origami to create beautiful, organic folded plate structures. Unlike many conventional structures, folded plate systems derive their stability from the interaction between connected panels, creating the appearance of a single continuous sheet of material. The XenaForm uses structural origami and triangulation to create stable points at the apex of two non-colinear triangles. While it is mathematically true that no moment needs to be transferred across the seam between panels in order to have a stable structure, allowing some moment capacity greatly helps during construction. Specifically, these stiff connections …

Tanzania Mbesese Initiative 2026, June Ezzell, Sam Liebman, Noah Beyer, Kate Hamilton, Luke Vollert, Kylee Borgen, Cody Balazs, Meg Mclaughlin

Architectural Engineering

The Tanzania Mbesese Initiative 2026 Senior Project supports a multi-year design-build effort to establish the Same Polytechnic College in Same, Tanzania. This community faces high poverty levels and limited access to higher education, necessitating sustainable infrastructure to support tertiary education. To prepare for the upcoming July phase of construction, an eight-student Architectural Engineering team designed three practical and resilient structures: a Shade Structure, a Water Collection Structure, and a Reusable Scaffolding system. The final design applied structural analysis, modeling, and hand-tool fabrication practice to balance material efficiency with long-term structural durability. The deliverables provide comprehensive construction documentation, complete material takeoffs, …

Design And Implementation Of A Honeycomb Damping System For The 2026 Eeri Seismic Design Competition, Vera Nguyen, Lauryn Wojcik

Architectural Engineering

The authors of this report were a part of the 2026 Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) chapter at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. In July 2026, they will travel to Portland, Oregon with 12 students to compete in the Undergraduate Seismic Design Competition hosted by EERI. The competition required teams to develop a comprehensive structural design proposal that included computer-based modeling and analysis, construction of three physical models, and the preparation of both a technical poster and oral presentation for a proposed high-rise building located in Portland, Oregon. Cal Poly’s “Illahee Tower” was designed with an emphasis on …