Digital Commons Network^™

Bolthouse Farms Case Study, Garret Powell, Brett Banducci, Anna Greene

Case Studies in Agribusiness

The history, growth and current operations of Bolthouse Farms is presented, with a discussion of carrot growing, processing and marketing.

Kiler Ridge Olive Oil Farm, David Ayala, Martin Andersen, Rudy Raimondi

Case Studies in Agribusiness

Gregg Bone, a Cal Tech trained engineer, is a serial entrepreneur who has started 13 successful businesses, mostly in the tech industry. After a bicycle trip through Tuscany, his wife Audrey wanted to plant 40 olive trees in their backyard, which Gregg thought would be an expensive hobby. Better to plant 835 trees on a 58 acre property near Paso Robles, CA, in 2010. Five years later Gregg modified and installed an Italian olive mill for his own olives and as a custom crush operation. As a craft olive oil business, they marketing similarly to how neighboring wineries market their …

Designing And Creating A Website: "Low-Stress Handling Beef Cattle", Lauren Rothstein

Agricultural Education and Communication

No abstract provided.

Landscape Barriers, Tess Gilkey

Agricultural Education and Communication

The purpose of this project is to create a landscape blueprint plan to present to the homeowners in Atascadero, California. The goal was to include landscape barriers that will distract any unwanted noises and views that may be caused by the new development of Eagle Ranch. After conducting research, the most appropriate plants will be selected for implementation by the homeowners. Involving a suitable irrigation system that is efficient and easy to manage.

Swerve, Kaitlin A. Castillo, Cichasky A. Catherine

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Carpooling yields great benefits environmentally, socially, and economically for carpooling, however there is no easy to use, safe, and enjoyable application for people to connect with others who are both close in proximity and have schedules that match currently. By creating a database and visual mock ups, our senior project creates the basis for an application called Swerve that matches users by location and schedules and has social and economic incentives. Our research allowed us to further understand the social, environmental and economic benefits and incentives of carpooling. We also looked into current carpooling websites and applications and could not …

Spectator Attendance Strategies: A Best Practices Examination Of Mls Expansion Franchises, Bryce Schomburg

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

The expansion of Major League Soccer (MLS) has dramatically raised league awareness throughout the nation. This impact was influenced by the additional consideration organizations have paid to the role of spectator attendance within professional sports. The purpose of this study was to examine the best practices for spectator attendance strategies employed by recent MLS expansion franchises. The following organizations were evaluated for the comparative analysis: Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, and New York City FC. These organizations were analyzed through a best practices comparison guide developed by the researcher. Data were collected from the selected teams’ websites, third party organization analysis, …

Gopher Intrusion In Cropping Systems, Kenneth Romero, Paul Cardinalli

Agricultural Education and Communication

The purpose of this project was to determine if no till vs. till on gopher populations was more beneficial. Which is more efficient at controlling gophers and explain the damage they can cause and the diseases they can potentially vector. What are the different options of pest managements that have to be used when dealing with a gopher infestation in a tilled field vs. a no-tilled field.

Startup Social Responsibility: A Concentrated Social Audit Of Halt Medical Inc., Matthew Frank Rosa

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Halt Medical Inc. is a biomedical device startup whose managers are interested in assessing their levels of employee satisfaction and organizational well-being. They want to know if their employees are cooperating, if departments are cohesive, and if everyone is happy. To evaluate Halt Medical’s social capital and environment, a social responsibility audit will be conducted concentrated specifically on the organization’s social and ethical initiatives to its employees. This analysis requires interviews of managers, observations of cultural diffusion, and employee opinions on a variety of business areas. The five areas of focus for this audit are the company’s accommodation of each …

Power Protection Analysis For A Ten Bus System, Sean Hanna

Electrical Engineering

Each power system built in the industry requires a protection plan. Undetected faults in a power system can contribute to hazardous conditions, overheating of power devices, low or high system voltages, unbalanced conditions, and blackouts. This senior project is the design of a protection plan for a power system using the software Electric Transient Analyzer Program (ETAP). With ten buses, five transformers, two generators, two motors, and six transmission lines, there are many possibilities for a fault to occur. The Load flow and fault analysis are studied before the system is protected. All components of the system are protected using …

Utilization Of High Efficient Single Phase Motor, Kevin Hua

Electrical Engineering

A Smith Motor is a three phase induction motor that has shunt capacitors parallel to its induction coils. The shunt capacitors provide balance and allow the motor to operate using a single phase power supply. Preliminary studies show that the Smith Motor is more efficient than a single phase induction motor powered by a single phase power supply, but less efficient than a three phase induction motor powered by a three phase power supply. The Smith Motor’s advantage is its ability to operate from a single phase power source instead of having a three phase power source installed. Its limitation …

Machine Components Test, Brandon Younger, Lauren Romero, Carlos Padilla

Mechanical Engineering

To enhance California Polytechnic State University’s Mechanical Engineering program, Dr. Schuster has sponsored Brandon Younger, Lauren Romero, and Carlos Padilla to design and develop a new lab for students in the Intermediate Design class to test real mechanical components. This report discusses the background and ideation process that lead to the development of the Educational Mechanical Breadboard for Transmission System Components (Machine Components Test). Additionally, detailed drawings, 3D modeling, testing plans, and analysis are included to show how the Machine Components Test design will work and be validated.

Squirting Balloon Toy, Rachael Schelley, Elizabeth Wilhelm

Mechanical Engineering

The main goal of the Squirting Balloon Toy project was to create a new toy that combined both a helium balloon and a squirting water component near the base of the balloon. The toy will be sold at theme parks, fairs, and to other retailers such as toy stores with the target audience of primarily children and their parents, or any individuals seeking a good laugh when they spray their unsuspecting target. As a result, the toy was designed to be both visually appealing and to have an element of surprise. After testing and analyzing four different conceptual designs, two …

Real-Time Digital Effects Processing Using Ios, Jonah W. Clinard

Computer Engineering

In today’s society, we are seeing incredible improvements in terms of creating smaller technological devices that behave more and more like the personal computers of yesterday. Mobile “Smart” devices, in particular, are becoming incredibly powerful not just in terms of processing power, but in the fact that they are able to provide assistance to users in their everyday lives. Application developers are now able utilize the power and size of these devices, to create and realize ideas that would have been previously viewed as impossible. This project applies the fields of digital signal processing, music, and mobile application development, to …

Una Legua Cuadrada: Exploring The History Of Swanton Pacific Ranch And Environs, Jeanine Marie Scaramozzino

Master's Theses

Swanton Pacific Ranch is an educational and research facility owned by the Cal Poly Corporation and managed by the Cal Poly State University (Cal Poly) College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. Located about 180 miles north of campus and just 14 miles north of Santa Cruz, California on Highway 1, the property was first leased to and then donated to Cal Poly by the late Albert E. Smith in 1993. The rancho’s original inhabitants included Native Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans, as well as various European immigrants and their descendants; currently, the staff, faculty, and students of Cal Poly occupy the …

Graduate Internship In Agriculture Education - Central Valley High School, Jessica Lynne Cardoso

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

An in depth evaluation of the agriculture program for Central Valley High School in Ceres, CA

Mindful Mustangs: A Mindful Meditation App For Cal Poly Slo, Neha Jagannath

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This report discusses the creation and research behind a new mindfulness meditation application called Mindful Mustangs, which is created for the students of Cal Poly SLO. The goal of this mobile website is to use the various techniques used in mindful meditation to reduce the stress and anxiety that college students regularly face. With the onset of iOS and Android applications, similar health and behavioral applications are on the rise. The increase of these applications calls for a certain type of design and a robust analysis must be done to ensure the psychological health of the user. Mindfulness applications such …

Final Project Report: Heliostat-Concentrator Solar Cooker, Ian Davison, Devin Mast

Mechanical Engineering

This document is the full report for the senior project of Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering students Ian Davison and Devin Mast. The report encompasses the full project process, including background research, identification of need, design requirements, design development, proposed design, design realization, changes to proposed design, and design verification. We were tasked with the design and manufacture of a “dual mirror” solar cooker to verify a concept for a new type of off-axis parabolic solar cooker conceived by Dr. Pete Schwartz, the sponsor of the senior project and a physics professor at Cal Poly. Previously, off-axis parabolic solar cookers have …

A Feed Forward Circuit For Jitter Attenuation On High-Speed Digital Signals, Eric Rule

Electrical Engineering

In the age of high-speed digital circuitry, there exists a need for clean, precise clock signals. In generating and distributing clock signals throughout a circuit, unwanted jitter can become a serious issue. A common technique for attenuating jitter uses phase-locked-loops to treat the signal, but as the clock frequency increases, so does the cost and complexity of the designs. Following the research completed by Dr. Tina Smilkstein [1], this project examines a purely feed-forward technique for attenuating jitter that is low-complexity and robust, and aims to design an integrated circuit that implements the technique.

Pthreads Profiler, Ryan Van Quinlan

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The goal of this senior project was to design and implement a program which would allow users to profile programs that utilize the Pthreads library. This profiler allows users to measure load balance and lock contention between threads as well as discover deadlocks. These tools can be essential to developers of multi-threaded applications, which are notoriously difficult to debug. Additionally, this tool can help find vital performance benefits by providing relative execution measurements. The profiler is written in C++ and utilizes the standard template library as well as glibc extensions.

Child Carrier: Senior Project, Cordell Hollingsworth, Jacob Puppo, Drew Sapp

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Neurostimulation On Ischemic Pain And Methods Of Assessing Pain, Kaylee Keck

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) impacts approximately eight million people in the United States [1]. Disease progression leads to chronic ischemic pain, hindering quality of life. Pharmaceuticals are a typical treatment for pain associated with PAD; but as few as 30% of patients have a significant reduction of pain (≥50%) [2].

Neurostimulation is commonly used as a treatment for various diseases and injuries, including Parkinson’s disease and sports-related back and knee injuries [2]. The objective of the study was to explore neurostimulation and its effect on pain and paresthesia for a model of acute peripheral ischemia in young college students.

Pain …

Supporting Sensory Development: The Efficacy Of Sensory Integrative Approaches To School-Based Occupational Therapy, Rebecca Heilbrun

Psychology and Child Development

No abstract provided.

Evaluation, Design, And Cost Analysis Of A 256 Acre Almond Orchard, John Michael Halseth

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This project discusses the evaluation, design, and cost analysis of a 256 acre almond orchard. This is a high flow low head system, and the application method is referred to as dual line drip. The system will be designed to be able to meet weekly water requirements within a tight time constraint, and it is important that it can do so efficiently while providing good uniformity.

A dual line drip system was designed for this almond orchard using the correct engineering standards and integrated field and farmer constraints. The system design was based on a peak evapotranspiration rate of 7.69 …

The Effects Of Transcutaneous Electrical Neurostimulation On Analgesia And Peripheral Perfusion, Leah I. Schafer

Master's Theses

Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) affects 8 to 12 million Americans over the age of 50. As the disease progresses, arterial occlusions arising from atherosclerotic lesions inhibit normal metabolic vasodilation in the peripheries, resulting in limb ischemia and claudication. Pharmacological and surgical treatments currently used to treat both the hemodynamic and pain symptoms associated with PAOD can involve adverse and potentially life-threatening side effects. Thus, there is a need for additional innovative therapies for PAOD.

Neurostimulation has a known analgesic effect on both acute and chronic pain. Although the exact mechanisms remain under investigation, local vascular tone may be modulated …

Force Transducer For Inventory Management, Trever Hoye, Austin Adee

Electrical Engineering

Inventory management for small parts such as electronic components remains time consuming and costly to implement, yet required for efficient business operations. Currently there exists no solution to this problem that is both automated and inexpensive. This project provides a solution by developing an accurate and wireless force transducer for automated inventory management systems. The device works by laying on the bottom of an inventory storage container and measuring the total weight of the items. The device then wirelessly transmits this weight to a receiver where it is stored in a database. Afterwards, the database compares the most recent weight …

Platform For Environmental Sensing Of Algae, Alex Wu

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Marketing Alaskan Seafood: Strategies With Brand Identification, Differentiation, And Promotions, Anna Jacobson

Journalism

Everyday the globe experiences changes with food. New methods in growing and harvesting are becoming approved, while others are frowned upon. People care more about where their food comes from than ever before. This research is to explore how Alaska seafood can successfully market their products in an ever-changing world. As challenges present themselves in the industry, opportunities are there as well.

This study sets out to explore marketing strategies for promoting a seafood brand. Through exploring current literature and interviewing experts to obtain data, conclusions will be drawn and analyzed. These findings will help to understand the best practices …

Social Justice Education: Using Communication Activism Pedagogy To Help University Cultural Centers Increase Campus Diversity & Inclusivity, Sophia T. Vu

Journalism

This study examined how student affairs professionals, especially those in cultural centers, could increase campus diversity and inclusivity. More specifically, it sought to find a theoretical basis for social justice education programs that could increase campus climate. It was performed as a single site case study at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Three Cal Poly student affairs professionals were interviewed for qualitative data which were then compared and analyzed with the literature surrounding campus diversity and inclusivity. The study concludes that student affairs professionals can increase campus diversity and inclusivity by developing social justice education programs that not …

What Are Mothers Doing While Bottle-Feeding Their Infants? Exploring The Prevalence Of Maternal Distraction During Bottle-Feeding Interactions, Rebecca Pollack Golen, Alison K. Ventura

Kinesiology and Public Health

The purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which mothers engage in distracting activities during infant feeding. Mothers reported engaging in other activities during 52% of feedings; television watching was the most prevalent activity reported. Further research on the impact of distraction on feeding outcomes is needed.

Master's Of Agriculture Education, Katrina Marie Chamberlin

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This internship/project report includes validation documents required in meeting the quality criteria for secondary- level programs of instruction in agriculture. The documents are concurrently used for the Agriculture Incentive Grant review process at Independence High School conducted by representatives of the California Department of Education. The internship included the development of a chapter website to provide information and publicity for the Independence FFA Chapter. It serves as a repository of chapter information and documents, a home for current information, and as a public face for the chapter. The project also includes the development of an Advisory Committee for Independence High …