Digital Commons Network^™

Cooking Made Clear: Accessible Cookbook Design For Older Audiences, Brennan Tyra Cole

Graphic Communication

This project explores accessibility-focused print and digital design features for older audiences within the cookbook and graphic communication industries. While cookbooks are widely produced, they rarely consider the physical, visual, and ergonomic experiences of aging users. Inspired by my grandmother’s 1980s church cookbook, I researched accessible design practices and communicated my findings through an infographic and a poster, highlighting features such as minimum 12–14 point body text, warm color palettes, high-contrast layouts, clear hierarchy, increased line spacing, simplified ingredient lists, columns, and lay-flat binding. I applied these learned features to several redesigned spreads from the original cookbook. This project demonstrates …

Greekmate: Communicating Startup Value Through Design And Marketing, Cameron Do-Khanh

Graphic Communication

This project examines how design and marketing can improve communication for early-stage software by applying these principles to GreekMate, a candidate management tool built for student organizations. The software functioned well but lacked a strong brand identity and clear value communication. Using Diffusion of Innovation Theory and research on UX strategy, the project focused on redesigning the brand system and marketing website to make the product easier to understand and more appealing to its audience. The redesign included a new visual direction, updated hierarchy, clearer feature explanations, and a more energetic style that aligned with student expectations. Informal user feedback …

Marsanywhere: Dataset And Cross-View Diffusion Model For Satellite-To-Ground View Synthesis With Mars Data, Benjamin T. Hinchliff

Master's Theses

Satellite-to-ground view synthesis aims to create a realistic ground view image from a corresponding satellite view image. This is a well-studied problem for street level imagery, with good results being achieved by using modern image synthesis techniques such as diffusion models. However, despite the public availability of satellite and ground level imagery on Mars, these techniques have yet to be applied to the domain due to difficulties in collating and processing the data into a usable form. We address this deficiency by creating a dataset consisting of ground view panorama imagery from the Perseverance rover, along with associated satellite view …

Signature-Based Attribution Of Images Generated By Stable Diffusion, Bella White

Master's Theses

Generative AI is powerful yet controversial technology capable of spreading misinformation, non-consensual imagery, and offensive materials when not properly safeguarded against such abuse. Synthetic image alteration and generation have always been abused, from photo editing software to Generative Adversarial Nets, and now Diffusion Models. The Internet Watch Foundation and the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children have reported a consistent increase in reported AI generated child sexual assault materials (CSAM) and sextortion scams since the introduction of DMs. New digital forensics tools must evolve to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of AIG CSAM abuse. This work provides a comprehensive …

Aged 539 Graduate Internship Report- Liberty High School, Brittany N. Johnson

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This document documents the AGED 539 Internship in Agricultural Education and examines the Liberty High School–Brentwood FFA and Agriculture Department’s alignment with the three-component model of agricultural education: classroom instruction, FFA leadership development, and Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE). Grounded in experiential learning theory, the report reflects on program strengths, challenges, and growth across all twelve California Career Technical Education (CTE) Quality Criteria, supported by narrative reflection and evidence. The internship project focused on developing a formal FFA Program of Activities (POA) to improve chapter organization, goal-setting, and long-term sustainability. Overall, the project highlights intentional program planning and leadership development as …

Beyond The Csu Ai Initiative Rollout: Exploring The Continued Uses, Gratifications, And Literacy Of Generative Artificial Intelligence Integration At Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Marshall Piros, Kaylie Marrs

Communication Studies

This case study examines the use of ChatGPT on the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (hereafter referred to as Cal Poly or Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo) campus as part of the system-wide CSU AI Initiative. This is a follow-up study to previous work in which the researchers examined AI usage and gratifications during the early rollout of the CSU AI Initiative during Spring 2025. Using a qualitative approach, we used semi-structured interviews (N = 24) to gather in-depth perspectives on AI usage, gratifications, concerns, and definitions of AI literacy from students and faculty. Findings indicate that while …

Mozgus, Damian Cerda, Madison Lopez

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The indie game market is flooded with genre experiments, yet few successfully combine fast-paced action with meaningful strategic decision-making. Our project aims to fill this gap by creating a game that fuses top-down action combat with resource-management tycoon mechanics. We found that in many games, the management phases lack mechanical stakes. Our goal was to intertwine these systems so that choices made in one phase meaningfully impact the other.

Itadakimasu: Recipes From Japanese American Internment Camps, Alexander K. Nishida

Graphic Communication

This project presents a historical narrative told through the format of a cookbook, exploring the relationship between food, memory, and resilience during the Japanese American Internment of World War II. Using primary resources such as news publications from within the camps (Topaz Times,1943), historical interviews (Herzig, 1994), and secondary resources from an archival podcast (Campu, 2021) to highlight how food served as both a means of survival and an expression of identity under confinement.

The cookbook will combine recipes inspired by documented internment-era meals with stories and reflections gathered from interviews, archival materials, and community voices. Each section will contextualize …

Communicating Change: A Visual Analysis Of American Political And Activist Posters, Hana Sage Morshedi

Graphic Communication

Across U.S. history, posters have helped movements inform, persuade, and mobilize the public, going beyond information to signal identity and values. In this project, I analyze 40 historically significant American political and activist posters, from wartime propaganda to civil rights and queer liberation, to explore how visual choices shape public opinion and drive social change. I focus on elements such as community/heritage colors, typography, composition, and cultural or movement-specific motifs to see how they signal identity, guide action, and contribute to a “successful” poster.

Aged 539 Graduate Internship Report- Mount Whitney High School, Matthew C. Medeiros

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This project reviews the Mount Whitney High School Agricultural Education Program. Through evaluation of our program's needs, there was a lack of chapter promotion outside of social media. A chapter website was created to highlight Classroom, FFA, and SAE opportunities available to students in our program.

Predicting Newsworthiness Of California Bill Discussions, Venkata Kedarnath Chaturvedula

Master's Theses

Among various California bill hearings, it is crucial to identify which hearings are most likely to receive media coverage, as this highlights the importance of the bill and the hearing, while also underscoring its societal impact. Digital Democracy, established at Cal Poly’s Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy, provides users access to a distinctive dataset and information about state legislative committee hearings, hearing transcripts, assets, bill information, etc.

This thesis presents a machine learning framework for predicting whether California legislative bills are likely to receive media coverage. Drawing on a dataset of legislative ”tip sheets” provided by Digital Democracy …

Per- And Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances Fate Across California Wastewater Treatment Plants: A Meta-Analysis Of Formation, Distribution, And Persistence, Elizabeth Reineke

Master's Theses

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent contaminants that move through municipal and industrial wastewater systems with limited attenuation. As a result, they are increasingly detected in drinking water supplies. Despite growing regulatory concern, a systems-level understanding of PFAS behavior across multiple treatment facilities and watershed settings remains incomplete. This study compiled influent, effluent, and biosolids datasets from more than one hundred California wastewater treatment plants to evaluate PFAS occurrence, transformation, and partitioning across diverse treatment configurations. Analytical steps included calculating removal efficiencies, assessing precursor-to-product oxidation, evaluating co-contaminant correlations, and grouping facilities by process design to quantify configuration-specific fate patterns. …

Building Roads To Engagement: A Survey Of Post-Secondary Community Engagement Education In Transportation, Meghan E. Kolin

Master's Theses

Community engagement is a critical part of the urban planning process for both academics and practitioners, but transportation planning’s significant technical knowledge requirements and focus on special interest groups make such engagement difficult. As such, college- and graduate-level transportation planning programs must include significant education about public participation practices. However, little research exists regarding how community engagement is taught in these programs or how well this education prepares students for real-world practice. This research is aimed at filling this gap by answering two questions: first, how transportation-focused post-secondary programs in the United States conduct community engagement education; and second, whether …

Establishing Procedures For Primary Human Myoblast Cell Culture, Erica Duffy

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) affects an estimated 200 million people worldwide and is the leading cause of amputation in the United States. PAD is characterized by atherosclerotic narrowing of arteries, resulting in ischemia from reduced blood flow to distal tissues. Although surgical and percutaneous interventions can restore perfusion, fewer than 50% of patients experience sustained benefit, highlighting the need for alternative therapeutic strategies. One promising approach is promoting arteriogenesis, the growth and outward remodeling of pre-existing collateral vessels that improve blood flow around the occluded arteries. Arteriogenesis is regulated by regenerative, M2-polarized macrophages, making macrophage polarization a key therapeutic target. …

Executive Committee - Minutes, 11/04/2025, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

Executive Committee - Agenda, 11/04/2025, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Reviving Motion: Rebranding More Than Motion Dance Intensive, Ava Zamoff

Graphic Communication

For my senior project, I will lead a full rebranding initiative for More Than Motion Dance Intensive, an international dance convention that occurs annually across the US and other countries, connecting dancers and professional choreographers through a transformative weekend of dance. The main goal of this project is to turn the company’s outdated Wix website into an innovative site with a brand new visual identity. Additionally, the original site’s accessibility is lacking in terms of layout orientation and marketing strategy as it doesn’t convey the modern, dynamic feel the intensive is meant to embody. My goal is to complement the …

Choose: Helping Young Adults Make Confident Decisions, Caitlin J. Lee

Graphic Communication

This senior project is called Choose, a prototype decision-making app designed to help young adults make quicker, more confident choices by offering three evidence-based decision methods: random choice, friend delegation, and structured pros and cons lists. Informed by research on decision fatigue, cognitive load, and user-centered design, the app addresses everyday and high-stakes decisions by tailoring each method to its most effective context. The development process included literature review, competitive analysis, style exploration, iterative sketching, and Figma prototyping, as well as incorporating user feedback to refine usability and feature relevance. The resulting high-fidelity prototype demonstrates how multi-method decision support, …

Creating Feminist Icons, Engaging With Feminist Concepts Via Ai, Regina M. Luttrell Ph.D., Carrie T. Welch M.A.

Feminist Pedagogy

The authors describe an undergraduate media diversity course assignment that integrates artificial intelligence (AI) to explore gender representation in media. Students engage in an activity where they use AI text-to-image generators to create fictional feminist icon characters. This activity is designed to complement discussions on AI bias and gender norms in media, prompting students to critically examine how AI tools reinforce or challenge stereotypes. By linking their experiences with AI-generated images to feminist theory, students gain a deeper understanding of intersectionality, representation, and media bias. The assignment is part of a class that traces feminist movements through pop culture media …

Exposing Bias In Ai Art: A Hands-On Feminist Pedagogy Activity, Sheri-Lynn Kurisu, Emely Yanagida

Feminist Pedagogy

This Original Teaching Activity (OTA) introduces students to the biases embedded in AI-generated art, drawing from feminist critiques of the male gaze (Mulvey, 1975) and Emanuele Arielli’s artificial gaze (2024). AI technologies, often assumed to be neutral, frequently reproduce and amplify societal inequalities related to gender, race, and class. This activity engages students in a hands-on exploration of these biases by prompting AI art generators, analyzing the results, and reflecting on the implications of algorithmic bias. Through structured exercises, students compare their expectations with AI-generated images, identifying patterns of stereotyping and erasure. Classroom discussions focus on how AI’s aesthetic choices …

Teaching About Abortion Access With Charley The Chatbot, Laura E. Willis, Kim O'Neill, Nicole Cushman

Feminist Pedagogy

Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) decision which countermanded federal abortion protections, artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to identify, monitor, and track people seeking medical treatment. The teaching activity presented here asks students to consider data privacy concerns and the role of AI in seeking abortion care, before introducing them to Charley the Chatbot, an AI interface designed to protect and inform abortion seekers. Students interact with the chatbot based on a series of fictional vignettes about abortion seekers in various stages of pregnancy and geographic locations. Following a peer discussions, students examine both how restrictive …

Prompting For Refusal: Teaching Against And Without Ai, Kate Maddalena, Aline Zara, Dan Guadagnolo

Feminist Pedagogy

This Original Teaching Activity describes two modules that enact feminist pedagogy to teach AI refusal, a set of lectures and associated activities which we developed for first-year courses during the 2023-2024 academic year. These activities invite students to refuse AI while also understanding its function and deployment. They explore the consolidations of power which make generative AI technologies both possible and harmful. Instead of presuming the inevitability of AI to replace working and learning or change the world, these activities offer students a materialist framework to refuse the hype, grounding their understanding of generative AI in its techno-political origins and …

Viewing Ai From The Bottom: A Feminist Political Economic Critique Of A Technocentric Pedagogy, Micky Lee, Benita Dederichs

Feminist Pedagogy

A feminist political economic (FPE) perspective has a more profound concern than cheating: it argues that AI is not a neutral tool. AI constitutes social relations that prevent certain populations from fully participating in political, economic, and civic lives while obscuring unbalanced power relations produced and reproduced in a capitalistic society. This commentary first points out how AI may reinforce gender- and race-biased job stratification in the high-tech industry; and how AI disempowers women of color by locking them in a passive position. It offers some advice of what feminist educators could do to empower students.

Embracing Uncertainty And Resisting Suspicion In The Faculty-Student Relationship, Natalia Rybas

Feminist Pedagogy

This critical essay discusses the suspicion and distrust appearing when educators think that students can (mis)use generative AI tools. The essay argues that education is rife with relations of inequality, reminds us that technologies are never neutral, and explores using uncertainty as a method of resistance to suspicion about students. The suspicion grows from the relations embedded in higher education because power, privilege, and oppression shape the experience of teaching and learning. Technological innovations, such as AI, carry power relations embedded in their designs and assumed uses, making all participants of the learning process vulnerable and disrupting the process itself. …

Keep Searching For Stories: The Importance Of Student Historical Research In The Ai Era, Emily Westkaemper

Feminist Pedagogy

This critical commentary interprets the risk that increased reliance on AI will disrupt student researchers’ direct engagement with historical primary sources. Close analysis of primary source details supports feminist history and digital history approaches, helping researchers contextualize histories of marginalization and interrogate scholarly and popular narratives about the past. Search engines and databases can promote access to digitized documents. By contrast, large language models reflect contemporary biases and communication patterns, manufacturing general declarations about historical significance that do not prioritize digitized primary source materials. I experimented with AI queries about participants in the 1977 National Women’s Conference (NWC), a topic …

Towards An Ecofeminist Pedagogy: The Environmental Ethics Of Ai, Jessica K. Crowell

Feminist Pedagogy

Previous scholarship has outlined some of the ethical considerations regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom and beyond, such as the potentials for plagiarism, information bias, disinformation, or even violations of user privacy. Though research suggests that machine learning is a major and ever-increasing contributor to carbon emissions, there has been little discussion of how we teach about the ethics of AI from an environmental perspective. Therefore, this critical commentary first outlines how an ecofeminist pedagogy can help students consider the environmental and ecological effects of new technologies, including AI. At its core, an ecofeminist pedagogy argues …

Teaching Oppositional Resistance To The Weaponization Of Artificial Intelligence In Acts Of Gendered Violence, Lili R. Romann, Elizab​Eth A. Hintz

Feminist Pedagogy

Meeting the aims of this special issue to take a uniquely feminist approach to understanding AI in higher education, we offer a critical commentary to help other scholars apply a critical feminist lens when teaching about the promise of artificial intelligence in the classroom. Specifically, we center pornographic deepfakes as a primal, contemporary, and disastrous example of the gendered weaponization of artificial intelligence. This critical commentary has staying power – equipping future teachers with feminist tools to tackle AI (as well as the inevitable future of AI to come) in pedagogical practice.

Academic Senate - Minutes, 10/07/2025, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Colorectal Cancer Spheroid Model To Improve The Accuracy Of Preclinical Drug Testing, Jillian Trilevsky

Master's Theses

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths worldwide. It currently affects millions of people across the globe and is only expected to increase in impact over the coming years. The most common treatment for metastatic colon cancer is chemotherapy, however, the development of chemotherapeutic drugs is a long and expensive process. A large portion of this development process is spent in preclinical drug testing. However, the models used often lack enough physiological relevance to guarantee the drug’s success in a clinical trial. Due to this gap in testing, researchers seek to develop a more physiologically relevant …

Building An Inclusive Ai Chatbot For Diverse Student Communities At Cal Poly: Uplift Ai, Gideon Telahun

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This research project will investigate the ability of advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) to identify and assess misinformation across diverse forms of media, including text, images, and video. In an age where misleading content spreads rapidly across digital platforms, evaluating the reliability and integrity of AI systems tasked with fact-checking is critical. We will develop a comprehensive dataset composed of factual and misleading examples drawn from various well-known and reliable fact-checking organizations. Each item will be independently reviewed and transparently labeled to ensure reproducibility. We will then prompt a curated group of state-of-the-art LLMs—including GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and …