Digital Commons Network^™

Low Cost Timing System For High Precision Particle Detection, Eric Madrigal, Sasha Dolgashev, Vi Tran

STAR Program Research Presentations

The project goal was to find a way to make a low-cost high precision timing system. High precision timing systems are already on the market, however, at a high cost. Various particle research projects need a large number of timers, so a substantial budget is required. In order to bypass the need for a large enough budget, commercially available parts were used and tested. The timing system consisted of multiple parts with different low-cost microchips and counters. In order for the project to meet its goal, the timers need to work under 50 picoseconds. Although some tests showed the timers …

Ultra-Fast X-Ray Diffraction Of Metastable Structures During Hydrogen Crystallization, Andrew Pham

STAR Program Research Presentations

Big discoveries can come from small element, and hydrogen is the simplest element in the universe, but its property has been intensely studied in recent years. Hydrogen has a notably complex phase diagram, and its application is important to many scientific fields, such as fundamental physics, inertial confinement fusion, planetary sciences, etc. While sophisticated static observations have probed its structure at extremely high pressures, the higher-temperature studies applying dynamic compression is confined to optical measurement methods. In this project over the summer, I will present spectrally resolved x-ray scattering assessment from plasmons in dynamic compressed deuterium. Collaborating Compton scattering and …

Computing Homology Of Hypergraphs, Jackson Earl

STAR Program Research Presentations

In the modern age of data science, the necessity for efficient and insightful analytical tools that enable us to interpret large data structures inherently presents itself. With the increasing utility of metrics offered by the mathematics of hypergraph theory and algebraic topology, we are able to explore multi-way relational datasets and actively develop such tools. Throughout this research endeavor, one of the primary goals has been to contribute to the development of computational algorithms pertaining to the homology of hypergraphs. More specifically, coding in python to compute the homology groups of a given hypergraph, as well as their Betti numbers …

Unbreakable Black Holes Show The Solidity Of Spacetime, Laura Fleischman

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

As a physics undergraduate, I have been fortunate enough to be awarded two Bill Frost summer research grants to conduct hands on research in the field of physics. My chosen topic of research is interdisciplinary in nature, spanning the topics of general relativity and fluid dynamics with possible future applications to black hole astrophysics. I study a system called a black string, which is essentially a stack (or string) of black holes that extend beyond our observed universe. This topic is not only elegant and exciting, but also extremely important, being related to cosmic censorship, which is one of the …

Engineering Injectable, Self-Assembling 3d Vasculature, Kendyl Cohn

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Our laboratory (The Heylman Lab) is developing strategies for engineering tissue outside of the body. All tissues in the body receive nutrients and remove waste via an intricate network of blood vessels called the circulatory system. Like native tissues, all engineered tissues require this blood vessel transport system to properly mimic the in vivo tissue environment. Therefore, the aim of this project is to grow three-dimensional networks of blood vessels in vitro. These vessel networks will provide the foundation for tissue-on-a-chip systems when embedded in microfluidic chips being developed by other members of the lab. The scope of this project …

Elucidating The Structure-Function Relationship Of Human Protein Kinase Mek1, Rebecca Lee, Leandre Ravatt

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

MEK1 is an ideal drug target for the therapeutic treatment of cancerous mutations that occur in the MAPK phosphorylation cascade, one of the most common cell proliferation signaling pathways. The study of the specific phosphorylation event between MEK1 and its only known substrate ERK2 has previously been limited due to the difficulty in obtaining the active phosphorylated form phospho-MEK1. Our study aims to overcome this barrier by utilizing the novel technology of the expanded genetic code to produce site-specifically phosphorylated proteins. In order to elucidate the structure-function relationships of MEK1, we are pursuing a hypothesisdriven, structure-guided approach based on conserved …

Group Effectiveness And Questioning Processes In An Ibl Math Classroom, Joelle Saute

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

This study aims to build on an existing line of inquiry in the Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education community, by extending our understanding of experts’ self-questioning strategies in two ways. First, we aim to study students’ self-questioning strategies while solving difficult STEM problems, to understand how their own inquiry guides their problem solving in similar and different ways, compared to experts. Second, we aim to study how students’ self-and peer-questioning strategies differ – that is, how students’ self-inquiry when problem solving is or is not related to their team problem solving strategies. There are a number of different aspects of …

Electric Field Performance Evaluation Of The Nexo Detector, Tri Duong, Richard Saldanha

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Nuclear physics, Particle physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Initiative (NPAC) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory engages in cross-disciplinary scientific collaboration projects to address fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of the Universe. The next Enriched Xenon Observatory (nEXO) is a proposed experiment to search for the rare “neutrino-less double beta decay” (0vBB) process. The observation of 0vBB decay would demonstrate lepton number violation and confirm that the neutrino is a Majorana fermion, where neutrino is identical to its antiparticle. This would have important implications for our understanding of neutrino mass and the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the …

Memory In A Contact Line, Charity Lizardo, Esmeralda Orozco, Audrey Profeta, Nathan C. Keim

STAR Program Research Presentations

We study the behavior of the liquid-solid-vapor contact line of water held in a narrow gap between two plates. A syringe pump injects and withdraws a constant, small volume of the water, driving the contact line back and forth repeatedly and changing its shape. We take photos of the contact line after each cycle. Comparing subsequent images to each other, we find that after several cycles the contact line reaches one of two steady states: a reversible steady state, where the shape is not changing, or a fluctuating steady state, where the shape continues to change slightly. Experiments on acrylic …

2018/2019 Robert E. Kennedy Library Annual Report, Robert E. Kennedy Library

Library Publications and Administrative Reports

We have named our annual report Inside 35, and we are introducing a new format that aims to illustrate the impact of our programs on the Cal Poly community and how a library experience can transform lives and define future careers. The library, through all it has to offer, inspires and celebrates every student’s experience of learning, discovery and personal growth.

The Lick Agn Monitoring Project 2011: Photometric Light Curves, Anna Pancoast, Andreas Skielboe, Liuyi Pei, Vardha Nicola Bennert, Jong-Hak Woo

Physics

In Spring 2011, the Lick AGN Monitoring Project observed a sample of 15 bright, nearby Seyfert 1 galaxies in the V band as part of a reverberation mapping campaign. The observations were taken at six ground-based telescopes, including the West Mountain Observatory 0.91 m telescope, the 0.76 m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, 0.6 m Super-LOTIS at Kitt Peak, the Palomar 60 inch telescope, and the 2 m Faulkes telescopes North and South. The V-band light curves measure the continuum variability of our sample of Seyferts on an almost daily cadence for 2–3 months. We use image-subtraction software to isolate …

Polyxpress+: Using Social Networking To Enhance The User Experience Of An Interactive Location-Based Storytelling Application, Desiree Creel

Master's Theses

There’s no denying the ever increasing presence of social networking in our daily lives. Every day, people share what they are thinking, doing, and experiencing. But even more so, they check their favorite networks to see what the people in their lives are sharing. Social networking has become so prevalent that most applications incorporate it since it keeps users engaged and beckons them back to the application again and again.

PolyXpress is an interactive, location-based storytelling mobile application that functions as a platform for creating and experiencing stories. Written as a research project at California Polytechnic State University, it allows …

Enhancing Group Social Perceptiveness Through A Swarm-Based Decision-Making Platform, David A. Askay, Lynn E. Metcalf, Louis Rosenberg, Gregg Willcox

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Swarm Intelligence is natural phenomenon that enables social animals to make group decisions in real-time systems. This process has been deeply studied in fish schools, bird flocks, and bee swarms, where collective intelligence has been observed to emerge. The present paper describes swarm.ai—a collaborative technology that enables swarms of humans to collectively converge upon a decision as a real-time system. Then we present the results of a study investigating if groups working as “human swarms” can amplify their social perceptiveness, a key predictor of collective intelligence. Results showed that groups reduced their social perceptiveness errors by more than half when …

Validation Of The Nonhydrostatic General Curvilinear Coastal Ocean Mode (Gccom) For Stratified Flows, Mariangel Garcia, Paul Choboter, Ryan K. Walter, Jose E. Castillo

Physics

While global-and basin-scale processes can be captured quite well with computationally-inexpensive hydrostatic models, smaller-scale features such as shoaling nonlinear internal waves and bores, coastal fronts, and other convective processes require the use of a nonhydrostatic model to accurately capture dynamics. Here the nonhydrostatic capabilities of the General Curvilinear Coastal Ocean Model (GCCOM) in a stratified environment are introduced. GCCOM is a three-dimensional, nonhydrostatic Large Eddy Simulation (LES), rigid lid model that has the ability to run in a fully three-dimensional general curvilinear coordinate system. This model was previously validated for unstratified flows with curvilinear coordinates. Here, recent advances of the …

Detrital Zircon Geochronology And Evolution Of The Nacimiento Block Late Mesozoic Forearc Basin, Central California Coast, Scott Johnston, Andrew R.C. Kylander-Clark, Alan D. Chapman

Physics

Forearc basins are first-order products of convergent-margin tectonics, and their sedimentary deposits offer unique perspectives on coeval evolution of adjacent arcs and subduction complexes. New detrital zircon U-Pb geochronologic data from 23 sandstones and 11 individual conglomerate clasts sampled from forearc basin strata of the Nacimiento block, an enigmatic stretch of the Cordilleran forearc exposed along the central California coast, place constraints on models for forearc deformation during evolution of the archetypical Cordilleran Mesozoic margin. Deposition and provenance of the Nacimiento forearc developed in three stages: (1) Late Jurassic– Valanginian deposition of lower Nacimiento forearc strata with zircon derived from …

Geologic Map And Structural Development Of The Noerthernmost Sur-Nacimiento Fault Zone, Central California Coast, Scott M. Johnston, John S. Singleton, Alan D. Chapman, Gabriella Murray

Physics

The Sur-Nacimiento fault exposed along the central California coast (United States) juxtaposes the Salinian block arc against the Nacimiento block accretionary complex, cuts out the majority of the forearc basin and western arc, and requires a minimum of 150 km of orogen-normal crustal excision within the Mesozoic California convergent margin. Despite this significant strain, the kinematic evolution of the Sur-Nacimiento fault remains poorly understood, with diverse hypotheses suggesting sinistral, dextral, thrust, or normal displacement along the fault. This Late Cretaceous–Paleogene strain history is complicated by the location of the fault within a belt of subparallel faults that have accommodated significant …

Invariant Subspaces Of Compact Operators And Related Topics, Weston Mckay Grewe

Mathematics

The invariant subspace problem asks if every bounded linear operator on a Banach space has a nontrivial closed invariant subspace. Per Enflo has shown this is false in general, however it is known that every compact operator has an invariant subspace. The purpose of this project is to explore introductory results in functional analysis. Specifically we are interested in understanding compact operators and the proof that all compact operators on a Hilbert space have an invariant subspace. In the process of doing this we build up many examples and theorems relating to operators on a Hilbert or Banach space. Continuing …

Sensor Fusion Algorithm For Airborne Autonomous Vehicle Collision Avoidance Applications, Julien Albert Doe

Master's Theses

A critical ability of any aircraft is to be able to detect potential collisions with other airborne objects, and maneuver to avoid these collisions. This can be done by utilizing sensors on the aircraft to monitor the sky for collision threats. However, several problems face a system which aims to use multiple sensors for target tracking. The data collected from sensors needs to be clustered, fused, and otherwise processed such that the flight control system can make accurate decisions based on it. Raw sensor data, while filled with useful information, is tainted with inaccuracies due to limitations and imperfections of …

On Nonnegatively Curved Hypersurfaces In Hyperbolic Space, Vincent Bonini, Shiguang Ma, Jie Qing

Mathematics

In this paper we prove a conjecture of Alexander and Currier that states, except for covering maps of equidistant surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space, a complete, nonnegatively curved immersed hypersurface in hyperbolic space is necessarily properly embedded.

Eye Pressure Monitior, Andrea Nella Levy

Computer Engineering

The document describes a mobile application that takes information from an attached device which tests eye pressure. The device consists of an IOIO board connected to a custom device that measures the frequency of a given waveform. The device was designed by another student for their senior project, which I am taking over. This device is connected to an IOIO board which is a board designed by a Google employee which works with an android phone in order to create applications that work with embedded systems. The board comes with an API and connects to the phone via a micro-USB. …

Cleaver: Classification Of Everyday Activities Via Ensemble Recognizers, Samantha Hsu

Master's Theses

Physical activity can have immediate and long-term benefits on health and reduce the risk for chronic diseases. Valid measures of physical activity are needed in order to improve our understanding of the exact relationship between physical activity and health. Activity monitors have become a standard for measuring physical activity; accelerometers in particular are widely used in research and consumer products because they are objective, inexpensive, and practical. Previous studies have experimented with different monitor placements and classification methods. However, the majority of these methods were developed using data collected in controlled, laboratory-based settings, which is not reliably representative of real …

Fingerprinting The Smart Home: Detection Of Smart Assistants Based On Network Activity, Arshan Hashemi

Master's Theses

As the concept of the Smart Home is being embraced globally, IoT devices such as the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Nest Thermostat are becoming a part of more and more households. In the data-driven world we live in today, internet service providers (ISPs) and companies are collecting large amounts of data and using it to learn about their customers. As a result, it is becoming increasingly important to understand what information ISPs are capable of collecting. IoT devices in particular exhibit distinct behavior patterns and specific functionality which make them especially likely to reveal sensitive information. Collection of this …

Comparative Analysis Of Electrodynamic Toroidal Radiation Shielding Configurations, Max Rosenberg

Master's Theses

Beyond the protective confines of Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere, spacecraft are subject to constant bombardment by high-energy charged particles originating from our Sun in the form of Solar Particle Events (SPEs), and from outside the solar system in the form of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs). The harm these particles do can be reduced or mitigated outright through radiation shielding. Because protons and other charged particles comprise most of these radiation particles, strong magnetic fields could be generated around spacecraft to deflect incoming charged radiation particles. This thesis investigates the performance of specific configurations of toroidal superconducting solenoids to generate magnetic …

Logging, Visualization, And Analysis Of Network And Power Data Of Iot Devices, Neal Huynh Nguyen

Master's Theses

There are approximately 23.14 billion IoT(Internet of Things) devices currently in use worldwide. This number is projected to grow to over 75 billion by 2025. Despite their ubiquity little is known about the security and privacy implications of IoT devices. Several large-scale attacks against IoT devices have already been recorded.

To help address this knowledge gap, we have collected a year’s worth of network traffic and power data from 16 common IoT devices. From this data, we show that we can identify different smart speakers, like the Echo Dot, from analyzing one minute of power data on a shared power …

Population Curation In Swarms: Predicting Top Performers, Ryan W. Heller

Master's Theses

In recent years, new Artificial Intelligence technologies have mimicked examples of collective intelligence occurring in the natural world including flocks of birds, schools of fish, and swarms of bees. One company in particular, Unanimous AI, built a platform (UNU Swarm) that enables a group of humans to make decisions as a single mind by forming a real-time closed-loop feedback system for individuals. This platform has proven the ability to amplify the predictive ability of groups of humans in realms including sports, medicine, politics, finance, and entertainment. Previous research has demonstrated it is possible to further enhance knowledge accumulation within a …

Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis Of Developmental Stages In Isolated Mammary Epithelial Cells, Nicole K. Einfalt

Master's Theses

The mammary gland is an organ common to all mammals; it is of value for neonatal nourishment, human nutrition through dairy consumption, and is a source of pathology in humans through the development of breast cancer. While transcriptomic analyses have been applied to cultured mammary epithelial cells (MEC) and to whole gland samples, few have studied purified MEC isolated directly from the gland in vivo. To identify the differentially expressed genes influencing MEC development during pregnancy and the differences between the nulliparous and primiparous quiescent states, primary MEC were isolated from virgin, pregnant, and primiparous quiescent sibling mice. Computational …

A Novel All Wheel Drive Torque Vectoring Control System Applied To Four Wheel Independent Drive Electric Motor Vehicles Utilizing Super Twisting And Linear Quadratic Regulator Methods, Kenneth Daniel Schmutz

Master's Theses

This thesis contains the design and simulation test results for the implementation of a new all-wheel drive (AWD) torque vectoring (TV) control system. A separate algorithm using standard control methods is included in this study for a comparison. The proposed controller was designed to be applied to an AWD independent drive electric vehicle, however the main concepts can be re-purposed for other vehicle drive train configurations. The purpose of the control system is to assist the driver in achieving a desired vehicle trajectory whilst also maintaining stability and control of the vehicle. This is accomplished by measuring various real time …

Bi-Stability In The Wakes Of Platooning Ahmed Bodies, Daniel M. Stalters

Master's Theses

Autonomous heavy vehicles will enable the promise of decreased energy consumption through the ability to platoon in closer formation than is currently safe or legal. It is therefore increasingly important to understand the complex and dynamic wake interactions between vehicles operating in close proximity for aerodynamic gains. In recent years, a growing body of research has documented a bi-stable, shifting wake generated behind the Ahmed reference bluff body. At the same time, studies of platooning Ahmed bodies have focused on changes to the body forces and moments at different following distances or lateral offsets, typically based around time-averaged measurements or …

Influence Of High Aspect Ratio Nanoparticle Filler Addition On Piezoelectric Nanocomposites, Jeremy A. Armas

Master's Theses

Piezoelectric nanogenerators (PNGs) are a new class of energy harvesting materials that show potential as a direct energy source for low powered electronics. Recently, piezoelectric polymers have been utilized for PNG technology due to low toxicity, high flexibility, and facile solution processing which provide manufacturing opportunities such as screen printing. Throughout the last decade, countless projects have focused on how to enhance the energy harvesting capabilities of these PNGs through the incorporation of nanoparticle fillers, which have been reported to enhance the piezoelectric properties of the film either directly through their intrinsic piezoelectric properties or through acting as surfaces for …

Generating Exploration Mission-3 Trajectories To A 9:2 Nrho Using Machine Learning, Esteban Guzman

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to design a machine learning algorithm platform that provides expanded knowledge of mission availability through a launch season by improving trajectory resolution and introducing launch mission forecasting. The specific scenario addressed in this paper is one in which data is provided for four deterministic translational maneuvers through a mission to a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) with a 9:2 synodic frequency. Current launch availability knowledge under NASA’s Orion Orbit Performance Team is established by altering optimization variables associated to given reference launch epochs. This current method can be an abstract task and relies on …