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Executive Committee - Agenda, 04/21/2026, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Executive Committee - Agenda, 04/07/2026, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

How Media Framing Impacts Juror Bias In A Fictional Criminal Case, Teah Sharon Swartzon

Journalism

This study examines how media framing influences juror bias among college-aged students when evaluating a defendant's guilt in a fictional criminal case. Utilizing framing theory, the research explores whether biased news coverage can shape perceptions of a defendant's guilt before trial.

Participants, consisting of students at California Polytechnic State University, aged 18-22, were asked to read two news articles about a fictional criminal case. One framed the fictional defendant as guilty, while the other framed him as innocent. Both articles were generated using the Artificial Intelligence Platform, Claude.

Data was collected in a survey where participants indicated whether they believed …

The Host Galaxies Of Active Galactic Nuclei With Direct Black Hole Mass Measurements, Vardha N. Bennert, Nico Winkel, Tommaso Treu, Xuheng Ding, Vivian U, Raymond P. Remigio, Aaron J. Barth, Matthew A. Malkan, Lizvette Villafaña, Samantha Allen

Physics

Reverberation mapping (RM) determines the mass of black holes (BHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) by resolving the BH gravitational sphere of influence in the time domain. Recent RM campaigns have yielded direct BH masses through dynamical modeling for a sample of 32 objects, spanning a wide range of AGN luminosities and BH masses. In addition, accurate BH masses have been determined by spatially resolving the broad-line region with GRAVITY for a handful of AGNs. Here, we present a detailed analysis of Hubble Space Telescope images using surface-brightness profile fitting with state-of-the-art programs. We derive AGN luminosity and host-galaxy properties, …

The Impact Of Human Myoblasts On Macrophage Polarization In A Coculture Model, Elisabeth Ann Stodola

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) is characterized by the buildup of atherosclerotic plaque in the lower extremities that occludes blood flow, and affects over 200 million people worldwide. Without effective treatment, PAD can lead to claudication, ischemia, ulcers, and gangrene. PAD causes more amputations in the United States than any other condition, and for severe cases that require revascularization, procedures benefit fewer than 50% of patients. This demonstrates a clear need for alternative therapies. Potential therapies for PAD target expansion of collateral blood vessels around the area of occlusion – a process called arteriogenesis to compensate for loss of blood flow …

Using Ensemble Disagreement To Stabilize Conformal Prediction Under Distribution Shift, Patrick D. Murphy

Master's Theses

Semantic segmentation of eelgrass from drone imagery is crucial for coastal habitat monitoring, restoration, and management, as these habitats continue to see rapid changes due to climate change and human influence. However, the reliability of generalizing a deployed classification model relies on both high-accuracy segmentation as well as robust uncertainty quantification that holds up when conditions change over years or locations. Conformal prediction (CP) is a method that converts a classifier's output into prediction sets with a guaranteed average coverage level for in-distribution data. However, the “vanilla” conformal score can often under-cover in hard or out-of-distribution (OOD) regions under drift. …

Neurosymbolic Counterpoint Generation, Paul D. Jarski

Master's Theses

Recent advancements in generative artificial intelligence have revolutionized music generation, yet research has predominantly focused on raw audio synthesis over music in symbolic form, i.e. a score. This thesis presents the first neurosymbolic model designed to generate imitative Renaissance counterpoint in symbolic (MIDI) format. By leveraging an autoregressive Transformer architecture, this research explores the capacity of deep learning models to manage independent voices and strict stylistic constraints.

We compare multiple data representation strategies with distinct tokenization methods. The proposed model incorporates a symbolic component that enforces fundamental contrapuntal rules. Additionally, this thesis contributes a preprocessed dataset of Renaissance polyphony, in …

Evaluating Carbon Risk And Benefit Under Improved Forest Management Prescriptions In A California Mixed Conifer Stand, Jonathan A. Garcia

Master's Theses

Improved forest management (IFM) prioritizes carbon accumulation through practices such as extended rotations and retention harvesting. These management strategies, increase fuel loads and elevate the potential fire intensity, may offset the benefits of carbon sequestration. Additionally, IFMs use spatially complex silvicultural treatments that may introduce prediction errors into the simulation processes used for long-term projections, and carbon accounting.

We evaluated the extent to which calibration in the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) reduces error in aboveground carbon stock predictions and tested whether modeling approaches and calibration influence the magnitude and direction of basal area increment (BAI) prediction error using generalized mixed-effects …

Creation Of The 2-Way Cross Laminated Timber Subroutine For Computing Dynamic Analysis Parameters, Joseph Freitas

Architectural Engineering

This document will describe the inputs, methodology, and outputs for the CLT 2-way subroutine for cases with and without openings recently added to a proprietary structural analysis software. For the sake of simplicity, most of the discussion will be focused on cases without openings from here on out, as the verification process for a novel method for cases with openings is still in progress. The CLT 2-way module calculates multi-point resistance functions for panels without openings by automating the procedure outlined in an industry-standard structural design manual. The subroutine also finds the appropriate dynamic response factors, kinetic load multipliers, mass, …

Nature-Based And Outdoor Learning In The K-12 Setting, Samantha Bertotti, Cecilia Dunbar, Julia Fazio

Psychology and Child Development

This literature review examines the impact of nature-based and outdoor learning on K–12 students’ academic achievement, socio-emotional development, and mental health. Drawing on a wide range of empirical studies and systematic reviews, the paper highlights how learning in natural environments enhances academic outcomes by improving self-efficacy, cognitive functioning, and student engagement. Evidence consistently shows that outdoor learning fosters critical thinking, collaboration, and deeper conceptual understanding compared to traditional classroom instruction.

In addition to academic benefits, nature-based learning supports socio-emotional development by strengthening peer relationships, promoting confidence, and encouraging prosocial behaviors such as cooperation and empathy. These environments provide opportunities for …

Cvj Torque Loss Dynamometer, Malaika Sriram, Coleman Brown, Zachary Norris, Logan Mast, Chris Mattis

Mechanical Engineering

This report details the design and results of a dynamometer testing rig built to measure torque losses in constant velocity joints (CVJs) for Cal Poly Racing's Baja SAE team. The rig spins a flywheel connected to articulable CVJs up to 800 RPM using a motor, then decouples it and measures the spin-down rate from 800 to 100 RPM to calculate angular acceleration and torque loss. The data collected from this dyno will be used to inform freewheel packaging for future Baja car development.

Time-Dependent Amplification Of Growth Rates In A Plankton-Oxygen Model, Rapha Coutin

Master's Theses

Near-bottom hypoxia occurs when dissolved oxygen levels drop to a level that is harmful to marine biology, creating biological dead zones along the ocean floor. Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the percentage of coastal, near-bottom, hypoxic water, with the average in 2021 nearly double that of the average from 2009 to 2018 and about twenty-eight times the average from 1950 to 1980. Recent literature has linked this increase in oceanic hypoxia to the increase in upwelling-favorable winds caused by climate change. Upwelling brings low-oxygen, nutrient-rich water up to the surface, leading to plankton blooms and mass consumption …

Video Generation Techniques For Novel View Synthesis With Flow-Matching Transformers, Xiuyuan Qiu

Master's Theses

Novel view synthesis (NVS) aims to generate images of a scene from unseen camera viewpoints. Recent work, such as Stable Virtual Camera, shows that large-scale image diffusion models like Stable Diffusion can be adapted for pose-conditioned view synthesis by incorporating video-generation techniques with camera conditioning. In this thesis, we introduce MVFlow, a new NVS model that extends this approach to a different image generation architecture: a flow-matching diffusion transformer, specifically FLUX.1, which has demonstrated strong performance in image synthesis. We evaluate MVFlow under varying input view counts and pose distance settings. Our results show that this architectural transfer is feasible; …

Branded Skateboard Series, Max David Munday

Graphic Communication

This project demonstrates how graphic communication principles can be applied to product branding within the skateboarding industry. By combining research on branding systems, visual communication theory, and production methods with practical design experimentation, this project highlights the importance of balancing creative design decisions with real-world production considerations

A Scalable Iteration Of The Horizon Simulation Framework Using Multithreading Techniques, Jason E. Beals

Master's Theses

The Horizon Simulation Framework (HSF) occupies a unique space in the modern aerospace modeling landscape, enabling flexible, modular modeling of mission-level agent behavior through an object-oriented, hierarchical design. HSF's hallmark breadth-first search scheduling algorithm explores a "multiverse" of possible mission execution pathways, enabling exhaustive evaluation of schedule combinations against user-defined heuristics.

As aerospace systems become increasingly complex, HSF faces critical challenges in establishing verifiable, deterministic behavior. The framework's core scheduling algorithm had not undergone systematic validation, leaving questions about temporal consistency, state management correctness, and reproducibility across different program executions. Furthermore, the exponential growth of schedule combinations creates computational bottlenecks …

The Application, Construction, And Validation Of Hidden Markov Model Profiles For Carbonic Anhydrase Enzymes, Samuel F. Kaplan

Master's Theses

Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) catalyze the reversible hydration of CO2 and have evolved independently at least eight times, resulting in structurally distinct enzyme families (α, β, γ, δ, ζ, η, θ, ι). Traditional sequence alignment methods struggle to classify these convergently evolved proteins because their sequential similarity does not reliably indicate functional or evolutionary relationships. Many CA sequences in public databases are annotated generically without family assignments, and prior computational approaches have focused predominantly on the three well characterized families (α, β, γ), leaving the five recently discovered classes without robust classification tools. Family level assignment is often a prerequisite for …

Demystifying Hardware Formal Verification For Undergraduate Education: A Risc-V Processor Case Study With Coursework Implementation, Riley A. Peters

Master's Theses

Hardware verification engineers apply formal methods to prove that a digital device always behaves according to its specification. This differs from traditional functional verification, in which engineers establish correctness by repeatedly sending test inputs to the device and comparing the outputs against a reference model. With the growing complexity of integrated circuits, the demand for digital verification engineers with formal methods experience has continued to increase. However, California Polytechnic State University: San Luis Obispo's current curriculum lacks dedicated material to prepare students for these roles.

This thesis seeks to address the lack of formal methods material through two efforts. First, …

Covering Spaces, Mapping Class Groups And Heegaard Splittings, Tri Tran

Master's Theses

One studies the symmetries of an algebraic object by looking at its automorphism group. For example, the automorphism group of a regular n-gon is generated by rotations and reflections, and the automorphism group of {1,...,n} is generated by transpositions. We study the group of symmetries of a closed, oriented 2- and 3-dimensional manifold M, called the mapping class group of M. In the 2-dimensional case, it is known explicitly what the generators of the mapping class group are. We present a proof of this fact following Farb and Margalit's exposition. The question about the mapping …

Designing For Trust In Chat-Based Question Answering Systems: An Exchange-Based Retrieval Approach, Nathan Mccutchen

Master's Theses

Community chat platforms such as Discord and Slack support spontaneous, collaborative communication but make it difficult to retrieve previously discussed information. As conversations accumulate, valuable exchanges become buried, leading to repeated questions and sustained burden on experienced community members.

This work contributes a set of design requirements for question-answering systems operating over unstructured chat data, a Discord bot prototype implementing those requirements named Echo, and an empirical evaluation of how such a system affects user trust. Rather than encoding discrete question-answer pairs or generating synthetic responses with a language model, Echo indexes conversation topics for semantic retrieval and presents results …

Environmental Impact Of Preventative Fire-Retardant Applications On Soil Water Chemistry, Patrick C. Michelsen

Master's Theses

Between 1992 and 2012, 84% of all documented wildfires were started by humans. These fires often start around high-risk locations such as power lines and roadsides where fuel loads are near these potential human-caused ignition sources. Point source ignition sites that are surrounded by shrubs or grasslands are especially important because fires that occur within these biomes are responsible for far more destruction of property than forest fires. One strategy that is effective at mitigating the spread of fires from ignition sites that are within grassland or shrub biomes are preventative fire-retardant products (PFRPs). These PFRPs differ from traditional fire-retardant …

Empirical Comparisons Of Partial Dimension Reduction Algorithms In High-Dimensional Regression, Nathan Greenfield

Master's Theses

In high-dimensional regression problems, dimension reduction methods are often used to address the challenges of multicollinearity and estimation instability. Partial dimension reduction extends these ideas by applying dimension reduction to a subset of the predictors, while the remaining predictors are modeled without compression. This approach is particularly useful when it is important to retain variability and interpretability in certain predictors.

This thesis investigates the empirical performance of partial dimension reduction algorithms and introduces a novel algorithm, Iterative Partial Residual (IPR). Two algorithms are considered: a baseline algorithm, Marginal Residual (MR), and the proposed IPR method. Their predictive performance is evaluated …

Tourniquet Tester, Tyler Offerman, Thuy Nguyen, Ryan Ly, Cody Hoeptner

Biomedical Engineering

The Tourniquet Tester is a device intended to be used as a standardized testing device for tourniquets. Due to the lack of a standard testing device for testing tourniquets that can produce accurate and reproducible results, it is difficult to test the efficacy of tourniquets currently being sold on the market. A standard testing device that can produce consistent and reproducible results would allow tourniquet manufacturing companies to properly test the efficacy of their product and develop proper guidelines and directions for users of the product. Medical professionals and military personnel who may use tourniquets in their line of work …

Cpap Belly Prevent, Alek Corpuz, Emma Hoffman, Danielle Tran

Biomedical Engineering

Neonates with low gestation periods often face complications such as respiratory distress syndrome, or RDS, which increases risk for complications such as necrotizing enterocolitis. Use of bCPAP helps facilitate regular breathing, but can also force air into the stomach and consequently cause abdominal distention. Clinicians currently use an already inserted feeding tube to vent the accumulated air, however this interrupts the feeding process.

The PreVent device was developed to allow for simultaneous feeding and venting. The dual function minimizes interruptions to NICU nurse workflow and improves capability to relieve abdominal distention before the onset of adverse complications.

Newborn Spinal Needle, Allison Inouye, Kyle Morton, Evan Russell

Biomedical Engineering

Spinal punctures, or lumbar punctures, are important diagnostic procedures used to collect cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to diagnose issues in the central nervous system (CNS) such as meningitis. While these procedures are routinely performed on adult and neonatal patients, the current tools are not optimized for use on newborns. Existing spinal needles are often modified versions of adult devices, leading to challenges in fluid collection efficiency, user ergonomics, and patient safety when used in neonatal care.

The Newborn Spinal Needle Project aims to design and develop a spinal needle specifically optimized for neonatal anatomy and clinical workflow. The goal is to …

Academic Senate - Agenda, 02/24/2026, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Too Smart For School, Jackie Budidharma

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

Death With Dignity: A Human Right, Crystal Loza

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

Never A Dull Moment, Crystal Loza

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

Executive Committee - Agenda, 02/17/2026, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Women In Stem Fields, Jenna Riegel

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.