Digital Commons Network^™

Innovating Digital Library User Experience: A Student-Led "Learn By Doing" Collaboration, Heather L. Cribbs, Camille L. Paradis, Danielle T. Daugherty

Library Scholarship

This case study presents a year-long user experience (UX) research project that redesigned Cal Poly’s Kennedy Library website for the first time in over a decade. Grounded in the university’s “Learn by Doing” pedagogy, students led all phases: identifying top user tasks, validating usability methods, and testing a WordPress prototype. The project emphasized real-world skill-building, with students serving as UX researchers, designers, and developers. Findings from a campus-wide top tasks survey shaped the development of usability tests, revealing critical pain points and guiding iterative improvements. Students conducted and analyzed usability testing with Loop11, uncovering user needs related to search functionality, …

Measurements Of Spinal Posture During Common Strawberry Picking Positions Using Inertial Measurement Units, Madeline E. Everson

Master's Theses

Physically demanding professions, such as agriculture, put people at an increased

risk for experiencing back pain. This is due to the awkward and harmful postures sustained

throughout their workday. While studies have been done demonstrating that back pain is

prevalent amongst this community, most do not collect motion capture (MoCap) data,

leaving the specifics of the kinematics, such as the amount of time spent in harmful

postures, unknown. Unfortunately, MoCap data is typically limited to that of a lab or

facility where the cameras are housed. Therefore, this study aimed to mitigate the

inaccessibility of traditional MoCap by validating that …

Integration And Testing Of A Quadruped Robot With Ros2, Jeremy S. West

Master's Theses

The Cal Poly Legged Robotics Group has been developing research and teaching platforms for agile legged robotics since 2020. These platforms are expected to provide students with opportunities to develop complete legged-robot systems from low-level control to advanced robotics tasks such as motion planning and decision making. However, the current prototyped quadruped robot lacked the software and sensing capabilities for high-level quadrupedal gaits and advanced robotic research.

To address these challenges, this project developed Switch, a robotic platform that builds upon the previous BRUCE platform with significant hardware and software upgrades. Switch features a modular design that allows individual software …

Development Of A Control System For An 8-Dof Quadrupedal Robotic Research Platform, Jack Butler

Master's Theses

Quadrupedal robots offer a versatile locomotion option that can extend the operating space of a robot into uneven terrains. However, controlling these systems presents significant challenges due to nonlinearities introduced by various factors.

In this thesis, model-predictive control (MPC) is applied to an 8-DOF legged robot developed by Cal Poly’s Legged Robotics group. The MPC framework employs a lumped rigid-body model that treats the robot as a single rigid body with forces applied directly at the foot contact points. The controller is developed within the ROS2 environment, with integration of state estimation and gait-pattern generation, to provide maximum modularity and …

Owl Solar-Powered Link: Duck Radio Mesh For Autonomous Monitoring, Jaden Tran, Shane Williams

Electrical Engineering

The Solar Duck Sensor Node transforms a standard DuckLink into a fully self-sustaining environmental monitor. A compact solar panel / power bank module plugs into the power ports of both the DuckLink and the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, keeping them charged through day-night cycles. The Pi Zero 2 W will perform local processing of sensor data. Sensor output will come from the Raspberry Pi AI Camera and its object detection capabilities. This output will be distilled into metadata and advertised over BLE. The DuckLink captures these packets, encapsulates them into LoRa payloads, and forwards them across the ClusterDuck mesh …

The Cost Of Rebuilding El Salvador: Bukele's Backsliding Democracy, Olivia X. Hamilton

World Languages and Cultures

This paper will detail the last several years of El Salvador's history to the present day, through the lens of gang violence, courtesy of MS-13 and the worrying trends of authoritarianism displayed by its current president, Nayib Bukele. Gang violence, especially that perpetuated by MS-13 and Barrio 18, have plagued the US, and via deportation, El Salvador. Previous attempt to control the violence through mano dura policy has proven ineffective, either by lack of implementation, or endemic government corruption. President Nayib Bukele declared a state of emergency, initially in March of 2022, and now constantly renewed every 30 days, which …

Coyote (Canis Latrans) And Non-Target Wildlife Responses To Livestock Guardian Dogs At Sheep Grazing Sites On The California Central Coast, Tricia T. Nguyen

Master's Theses

Livestock depredation is one of the oldest and most widespread forms of human-wildlife conflict. The coyote (Canis latrans), a midsized canid, represents a significant proportion of domestic sheep depredations in the United States, costing livestock producers an estimated 24.6 million dollars annually. Management strategies for coyote-sheep depredation vary widely in their effectiveness and in their level of public support. Identifying appropriate strategies for farms, ranches, and other sheep grazing sites remains a pressing need due to the potentially negative consequences for surrounding ecosystems and socioeconomic outcomes for sheep producers. The livestock guardian dog (LGD) is a nonlethal control …

Executive Committee - Minutes, 08/01/2025, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

Building A Sustainable Home On The Central Coast: An Owner’S Perspective, Austin Chase Anderson

Construction Management

As awareness and technology increase, sustainability as a focus in home construction is also increasing. This case study based research project seeks to understand the process of building a home on California’s Central Coast with sustainability in mind. An interview was conducted with an owner who built their home in Templeton in 2019. The interview was in a semi-structured format which included specific qualitative questions but mostly focused on an open-ended discussion which allowed the owner to share their own experience. The key challenges learned from this interview were that the owner believed price to be the main factor that …

Owl Integrations Soil Monitor, Derek Chau, Armaan Kahlon

Electrical Engineering

This paper examines the design process and results concerning the OWL Integrations soil monitor. Disaster relief relies heavily on digital communications, especially in environments where conventional methods (e.g. Wi-Fi, cellular, fiber optics) are unusable. To help emergency services assess disaster-stricken areas, a soil monitoring system was developed using LilyGo T-Beams (ESP32), programmed with specialized firmware known as the ClusterDuck Protocol to collect data pertaining to moisture and temperature. The project is sponsored by OWL Integrations, with help from the Cal Poly Electrical Engineering (EE) Department. Results show positive prospects, with the product able to make 4 km transmissions, operate for …

Executive Committee - Agenda, 08/01/2025, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Drug Delivery, Disulfide Crosslinked Hydrogel Coating For Polydimethylsiloxane (Pdms) Implant Materials, Paul A. Contos, Paul Anthony Contos

Master's Theses

Though polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is often used in medical devices due to its desirable mechanical properties and biocompatibility, its surface is often prone to bacterial adhesion. This is especially a problem for catheters, where bacteria can adhere and form biofilms that can in turn result in Urinary Tract Infections (UTI). In order to deter the presence of UTI causing bacteria on PDMS catheters, methods were developed to formulate a disulfide crosslinked hydrogel coating and create a methodology to allow adhesion to a PDMS substrate. The hydrogel coating discussed in this paper will be synthesized by chemically crosslinking stimuli-responsive vesicles, that carry …

Using Livestreaming Technology To Answer Novel Questions About The Behavior And Physiological Ecology Of The Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus Viridis), Max C. Roberts

Master's Theses

Recent advances in remote monitoring technology are opening up new opportunities for developing innovative natural history and biological research methodologies. In particular, the emergence of livestreaming camera technology has made recording remote video of wild and secretive animals much easier and made it possible to collect data at extremely fine temporal resolutions. In 2024, Project RattleCam launched a livestreaming camera at a Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) den in Colorado. The goal of this work was to study Prairie Rattlesnake behavior 24-7 throughout the species’ active season with minimal human disturbance. Additionally, I used this system to study the …

Investigating Rattlesnake Social Networks And Improving Their Public Image Through Unobtrusive Technologies And Community Science, Owen M. Bachhuber

Master's Theses

While technology is often blamed for humans’ increasing disconnect with nature, it can also serve as a tool to facilitate empathy and conservation action for wildlife. Snakes are among the most feared animals on the planet, though their understudied social interactions provide opportunities to make scientific discoveries and change public perceptions. Project RattleCam was founded as a camera trap project in 2021 and launched the first off-grid livestream on a den of wild Prairie Rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) in 2024. Both camera types captured hundreds of Prairie Rattlesnakes gathering in the summer as they prepared to give birth to pups before …

A User Experience Approach To Technical Editing Of Academic Library Digital Resources, Krista Sarraf, Danielle Daugherty, Morgan White, Madelyn Cruz

Library Scholarship

This paper reports on a teaching practice that integrates user experience and technical editing instruction to improve academic library digital content and support students' learning of technical editing as an exercise in user experience. Students, faculty, and academic librarians at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) worked to improve the accessibility and usability of their library's digital interfaces. The paper shares preliminary findings from a study of the teaching practice, exploring how a pedagogical framework for library and technical and professional communication partnerships can be designed, implemented, and evaluated to enhance student learning in technical editing and …

A Wearable-Based Approach To Spinal Posture Tracking And Assessment, Sydney Marie Sherman, Noah Jeffery

Biomedical Engineering: Graduate Reports and Projects

This paper describes the design, manufacturing, and testing of a novel spinal posture tracking wearable device with embedded sensors. Currently on the market, most of the spinal posture tracking devices only focus on one segment of the spine and therefore do not track the entirety of human posture. The objective for this project was to create a wearable device in the form of a “smart shirt” that offers insights into posture trends throughout the day by tracking the entire spine. To begin the project, multiple designs were developed for the sensor array and wearable materials. These concepts were compared against …

Design, Modeling, And Testing Of A Novel Inductor For Electric Vehicles: Iron Nitride Soft Magnetic Composites, Macen Wahoske, Jesse Alan Winkel

Materials Engineering

This multi-year project focuses on the design, modeling, and testing of novel inductors for electric vehicles (EVs) using iron nitride (IN) soft magnetic composites (SMCs). This work is a continuation of previous research, with the overarching goal of enhancing EV efficiency by developing inductor cores with improved magnetic properties, leveraging IN's competitive magnetic characteristics.

This year, the project concentrated on refining fabrication processes to optimize relative permeability (μ_r) and effective IN concentration. Investigations included various mixing vessels, the application of vibration during powder settling, and different pressing methods and pressures across initial IN concentrations of 75, 80, and …

The Buzzard In The Abolitionist Sea; An Examination Of Maritime Suppression, Imperial Policy, And The Slave Trade Through The Royal Navy’S Hms Buzzard, 1830s-1840s, Sean Joaquim Coudray-Pereira

Master's Theses

Analysis of the Royal Navy through the microhistory of the HMS Buzzard following the abolition of the slave trade between 1807 and the 1840s by Great Britain offers insight into the moral ambiguities and complexities of the humanitarian mission. The historiography of the slave trade has primarily focused on the moral and economic ideology behind its abolition, pitting one against the other. Applying a micro-historic approach highlights the nuances of both arguments, and through the HMS Buzzard’s crew, captives, disease, voyages, and legal battles accentuates the blend of both argument approaches. The case study of its longevity through all six …

Seconds From Impact: Anticipatory Vehicular Crash Prediction Using Video Vision Transormers, Ryan P. Geisen

Master's Theses

Vehicular collisions represent a significant public health concern, necessitating re search into advanced emergency notification systems. While deep learning has shown promise in accident detection, a research gap persists in applying state-of-the-art transformer architectures to the task of anticipatory, real-time crash prediction from video. This thesis addresses this gap by developing and evaluating a Video Vision Transformer (ViViT) for the binary classification of imminent vehicular collisions. Utilizing a curated dataset of 1,493 unique collision sequences, this study systemati cally investigates the impact of temporal context by comparing the ViViT against a single-frame Vision Transformer (ViT) baseline and conducting comprehensive exper …

Incorporating Ai Into A Structural Engineering Computer Lab, Allen Estes, Peter T. Laursen

Architectural Engineering

Given rapidly increasing sophistication and wide public access to Artificial Intelligence (AI) software, the academic community is struggling with how to best incorporate this new technology into the classroom. The challenge is to use and leverage the capabilities of this new tool to enhance the academic experience without compromising student learning, engineering rigor or academic integrity. This paper describes and assesses the incorporation of AI into an existing computer laboratory course in an undergraduate structural engineering program.

ARCE 352 (Structural Computing I) is a one-unit computer laboratory that is a companion course to ARCE 302 (Structural Analysis) at xx university. …

Design-Build Capstone Projects: Continuing The Poly Canyon Legacy Of Learn-By-Doing, Anahid A. Behrouzi, Brayden A. Martinez, William R. Adam

Architectural Engineering

In the 1960s around ten acres of land behind the main campus of California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo were set aside for students from the College of Architecture and Environmental Design to experiment with structural forms, materials, and construction methods. The publicly accessible Poly Canyon site has amassed a collection of structures: bridges crossing a seasonal creek, caretaker housing, a greenhouse, multiple sculptures and observation structures, among others. There were ebbs and flows of construction activity in Poly Canyon, often seeing a decade of activity with as much time dormant in between.

This paper focuses on the …

A Drop In The Ocean: A Critical Look At Belonging And Community In Carceral Setting, Jelena Petrovic, Jacob Bickel, Jonathan Cantero, Romano Estrada, Malcolm J. Thrower, Gregory White

Feminist Pedagogy

In this commentary, we explore the opportunities and challenges of community building within our own higher education in prison program. Since 2015, the program fostered a community grounded in feminist pedagogy, emphasizing interconnectedness and decentralization of power. However, our 2024 evaluation revealed that new students often feel excluded and marginalized, highlighting the aspirational nature of the community. With this in mind, we examine how incarcerated individuals become members of a learning community and the unique struggles they face. We also discuss the importance of creating classroom communities that support students' sense of belonging, particularly in carceral settings, while also reflecting …

Beyond Deep Listening With The ‘Feminist Ear’: Introducing The Full-Circle Model Of Listening And Expressing, Alana M. Nicastro, Shelly Valdez

Feminist Pedagogy

Feminist pedagogy calls for more than presence and voice—it asks us to listen deeply and express courageously. This article introduces the Full-Circle Model of Listening and Expressing, a framework that extends the concept of deep listening by pairing it with intentional expression. Building on previous work on deep listening (Nicastro & Valdez, 2022), we articulate six essential components of feminist communication: openness, attunement, integration (for listening), and self-reflection, courage, and intentional dialogue (for expressing). These interconnected practices foster genuine connection, challenge hierarchies, and make visible the often-unseen emotional labor of communication. Using the metaphor of a circle, we explore how …

Teaching #Metoo And #Blacklivesmatter Amid The Anti-Woke Moral Panic, Stephanie Medden

Feminist Pedagogy

The introduction of over 100 anti-DEI bills across 30 states and President Trump’s signing of executive orders that target DEI programs demonstrate the backlash against the social, cultural, and political gains made by movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. “Anti-woke" sentiment presents challenges for educators preparing students to engage critically with certain histories, movements, and theories. This article explains current debates around what it means to be “woke”; provides strategies to teach about inequality across race, gender, class, and sexuality in this polarized environment; and imagines futures that uphold the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Balancing Care And Challenge: Integrating Trauma-Informed Learning And Desirable Difficulty, Cerise L. Glenn, Katie Lind, Jessica D. Mccall

Feminist Pedagogy

Amid changing landscapes of campus culture (e.g., new technologies, increasing accommodations requests, program reviews), we utilize pedagogical strategies to expand feminist frontiers in ways that re-energize and promote an inclusive culture of feminist pedagogy. By implementing “desirable difficulty,” we seek collaborative learning environments that address the changing needs of students and teachers while fostering learning effectiveness. Combining aspects of trauma-informed learning with desirable difficulty helps balance these demands with a culture of care, created through approaches designed to promote learning opportunities and meet student needs without overwhelming faculty.

Feminist Participatory Action Research And Service-Learning In The New Feminist Frontier, Megan A. Fletcher

Feminist Pedagogy

This critical commentary explores the tensions of embodying feminist pedagogy as both researcher and teacher. Drawing on the success of Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) in redesigning women's shelter intake procedures, I argue for integrating service-learning into the classroom. However, the effectiveness of both PAR and service-learning hinges on a strong foundation in feminist methodologies that prioritize equity, justice, and community care (Bowdon, Pigg, & Mansfield, 2014; Johnson & Flynn, 2021; Vergés Bosch, Freude, & Camps Calvet, 2021). Acknowledging past critiques of these approaches when lacking a feminist lens (Langhout & Gordon, 2021), I call for researchers and teachers to …

The Phoenix Takes Flight: The Importance Of Trauma-Informed Positive Education, Kathleen Turner Ledgerwood

Feminist Pedagogy

Since the pandemic, trauma has touched almost everyone. Pervasive illness, death, and isolation affected us in ways we have not paused to process. Many students were young and particularly affected by the pandemic. The rise in mental health concerns has made it more imperative to address mental health within our pedagogy. This article will outline strategies for helping to manage mental health within our pedagogy in order to better help everyone using an approach that aligns with trauma-informed and positive psychology pedagogical practices. Our future is one of compassionate, caring, trauma-informed work that bolsters the well-being of our students.

Kamp Krystal Killjoy: Doing Feminism/Making Media, Kristin Comeforo

Feminist Pedagogy

In the current (2025) political climate, just as the United States and the world needs feminism, fewer and fewer people identify as feminists. This article suggests "feminist making," as a means for revitalizing feminism for the 21st century. It presents the narrative fiction podcast Kamp Krystal Killjoy as a social justice strategy to meet the challenges of today.

The Slow Leadership Framework: A Humanizing, Social Justice Approach To Leadership, Christine E. Crouse-Dick, Sheryl R. Wilson, Rachel Epp Buller

Feminist Pedagogy

This essay introduces the Slow Leadership Framework as a humanizing, social justice-oriented alternative to conventional leadership models. Challenging Eurocentric, hierarchical approaches that prioritize efficiency over human connection, Slow Leadership integrates three complementary practices: Circle Process, Self-Compassion, and Deep Listening. Circle Process creates equitable spaces for dialogue that value marginalized perspectives; Self-Compassion disrupts internalized patterns of self-criticism and perfectionism; and Deep Listening transforms communication by prioritizing multisensory perception and awareness. Particularly resonant in higher education contexts, this framework offers practical implementation strategies for educators, administrators, and community partners seeking to dismantle systemic barriers, foster inclusive environments, and redistribute power. Through qualitative …

Exploring Dimensions Of Crystallized Identities, Candice L. Ruh

Feminist Pedagogy

For college students, learning about the components of identity can generate deeper knowledge about how personal and social identities differ, and how identities influence the way individuals experience socio-cultural systems and structures. The Exploring Dimensions of Crystallized Identities activity uses principles of self-reflexivity and dialogue to explore theoretical frameworks for practical application. This experiential activity is a facilitated dialogue driven by student involvement and is best suited for students in mid- to upper-level undergraduate courses. It encourages students to reflect on their and others’ identities, and to consider the social impacts of diversity in their lives.