Digital Commons Network^™

All Active All The Time? What Are The Implications Of Teaching A Traditional Content-Rich Machine Components/Mechanical Systems Design Course Using Active Learning?, James M. Widdmann, Peter Schuster

Mechanical Engineering

This paper examines the use of research-proven Active Learning techniques to transform the teaching of a traditional Machine Components/Mechanical Systems Design class. We know from research in Active learning that use of these methods can often lead to greater conceptual understanding and greater engagement of the students with engineering course materials, yet a common concern among engineering faculty is that the adoption of Active learning techniques will not allow the full breadth and depth of traditional content coverage. In this work, the authors reimagined one of the most content-heavy courses in a traditional Mechanical Engineering curriculum by including many Active …

Inquiry-Based Learning To Explore The Design Of The Built Environment, Anahid A. Behrouzi, Daniel Kuchma

Architectural Engineering

Typically in introductory structural engineering courses with a lab component, the instructional approach is to present the underlying theory via pre-lab lecture/reading and subsequently have students conduct guided experiments that affirm that theory. The new Fall 2015 course offering described in this paper takes the reverse approach where students’ hands-on exploration of a concept occurs prior to formal instruction. As such, the course is based upon Da Vinci’s perspective that: “[i]n the examination of physical problems I begin by making a few experiments,…we must commence with experience, and strive by means of it to discover truth.”

In the course, student …

Enhancing An Upper Division Structural Dynamics Course Using K'Nex Toys, Allen Estes, Cole C. Mcdaniel, Alec Roberto Zavala

Architectural Engineering

K’nex toys consist of various plastic rods and connectors cleverly-sized to allow the creation of a variety of structures. While the K’nex Corporation focuses on the K-12 market, there are a myriad of engineering applications that have been demonstrated at the university level. Many of these occur at the lower division level in freshman experience courses or introductory statics courses. Other applications have included constructing structural models for structural design and capstone courses. This paper takes this use of classroom technology even further by demonstrating how K’nex pieces can be used effectively in an upper-division, highly technical structural dynamics / …

Physical Artifacts In Introductory-Level Reinforced Concrete Design Instruction, Anahid A. Behrouzi

Architectural Engineering

Incorporating physical models and demonstrations in the introductory-level reinforced concrete design course has shown to be beneficial for students in clarifying and engraining fundamental concepts. The research study conducted at the author’s university during Spring 2015 involved the design, fabrication, and implementation of models to supplement traditional lectures on topics that students have found challenging in prior offerings of the course. Specifically, these demonstration tools illustrate:

• Three-dimensional stress blocks for rectangular/flanged beams subjected to varying levels of flexural demand • Distinctions between the flexural behavior of one and two-way slabs • Placement of steel reinforcement for singly/doubly reinforced beams …

Accreditation Insights And The Next Body Of Knowledge, Allen Estes, Thomas A. Lenox, Kenneth J. Fridley, Richard O. Anderson P.E.

Architectural Engineering

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) published the second edition of the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge (BOK2) in 2008 expanding the knowledge, skills and attitudes required of future civil engineers. There were major changes to the BOK2 as the number of expected outcomes increased from 15 to 24 and the cognitive level of attainment was more precisely defined. A major implementation and enforcement mechanism for the BOK is the ABET accreditation criteria which includes both general criteria 3 and 5 and the discipline-specific program criteria. Of those, the program criteria are the easiest to change.

In 2013, ASCE …

The Owl, The Goldfish And The Bull - The Question Of The Animal And Romantic Poetry, Hui Zhang

Between the Species

This article argues that the representation of animals in Romantic poetry contributes to the contemporary philosophical and ethical discussion of the question of animals by providing a literary expression of the latter. Conversely, reading depictions of animals in Romantic poetry with their philosophical implications in mind throws light on the oppositions between different human groups, such as between Orientals and Occidentals, or between males and females, in Romantic poetry. These categories connect with each other in different ways in the works of three prominent Romantic poets: William Wordsworth, Lord Byron and Alexander Pushkin. Animals in their poetry reflect their views …

Hearst Lecture: Andrea Johnson - New York City (Steady) State, Andrea Johnson

Focus

No abstract provided.

Executive Committee - Meeting Minutes, 6/2/2016, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

Executive Committee - Agenda, 6/2/2016, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Nanosilver Surface Charge On Cytotoxic Efficacy Against Cancer Cells, Elliot Frey

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Silver and silver-based products are known to cause cytotoxic effects to both microbes and eukaryotic cells. Because of this property, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are being studied for their potential in targeted tumor treatments. Previous studies with microbes suggest that AgNPs with cationic capping agents possess enhanced cytotoxicity by virtue of Coulombic attraction between the nanoparticle and the negatively-charged cell wall. Since animal cells possess similar negatively-charged plasma membranes, this research hypothesized that human cells would be more susceptible to positively-charged AgNPs than to negatively-charged AgNPs. To investigate this hypothesis, cancerous cervical cells (HeLa) and healthy fibroblast cells (3T3) were subjected …

Operation Nutrition: Assessment Of California National Guard On Their Mission Toward Better Health, Nick Gusto

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Operation Nutrition was executed in June 2016. A group of 22 men and women from the 49th Military Police Brigade of the California National Guard participated in our nutrition intervention. There is currently no nutrition education program in place for the California National Guard; thus, the overall goal of this project was to a pilot nutrition education program toward improving nutritional status and reducing the risk of developing Metabolic Syndrome in a pre-select group of at-risk California National Guard Members. Criteria for a Metabolic Syndrome diagnosis include having a combination of any 3 of the following symptoms: elevated measures of …

Effects Of Oral Ingestion Of Bisphenol A On Type 2 Diabetes Risk Markers Ii. Project, Alyssa Bird, Dana Williams

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Eleven healthy adults (3 M, 8 F; 21.3 ± 0.8 yr; 24.0 ± 3.8 kg/m2) were block randomized to a single ingestion of placebo, low dose BPA (4 μg/kg-bw), or high dose BPA (50 μg/kg-bw) on separate days in a double-blinded, crossover fashion. Blood was drawn at baseline and repeatedly for 3 hours following each condition. Data collection has been completed for 11 subjects, and analyses of plasma BPA concentrations in these subjects have shown three distinct concentrations for high, low, and placebo conditions. Preliminary analyses of plasma insulin concentrations in 3 subjects appear to show differences in concentrations between …

The Effect Of Hormones And Hormonal Contraceptives On The Antibiotic Resistance Of Escherichia Coli, Chase Bowen, Rianna Flores

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Main Conclusions (Experiment 1-Hypothesis: Induction of efflux pumps by hormone) • The growth rates of wild-type and K12 E. coli strains are significantly inhibited by the presence of ciprofloxacin. The addition of 100ug/ml hormone slightly reduced the growth in the presence of antibiotic which suggests that hormone does not induce or activate efflux pumps. • The 0.0015ug/ml ciprofloxacin concentration used in this experiment was too low for CFT073, a uropathogenic strain, but 0.003ug/ml did cause some growth inhibition. Growth with and without hormone was essentially the same suggesting that the higher efflux activity of CFT073 could rid the cells of …

Malolactic Fermentation Sensor Development Project, Timothy Holst, Braden Bautista

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Malolactic fermentation (MLF) is commonly carried out in winemaking as a tool for deacidification, altering the sensory profile and increasing the microbial stability of a wine. MLF must be monitored and sometimes stopped so as to prevent unwanted microbial spoilage. Current methods for monitoring MLF are both expensive and labor intensive and a low cost automated sensor could be of practical relevance for the wine industry. Due to the different densities of malic acid and lactic acid, density measurements could be used to monitor MLF. This multifaceted project involved two key studies, a study of density during MLF in a …

Current Solutions, Elan Timmons, Maxwell Fong, Madison Weiss, Hannah Joslin

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Current is the first comprehensive safety solution that can, with the push of a button, dispatch police to a user’s GPS location, notify friends and family, alert the nearby community, and record audio and video. Current is a phone case and mobile app that integrates hardware and software, offering user safety, ease of access, and peace of mind. No other self-defense product integrates all four layers of safety and these products are rarely in a user's hands when needed. Current’s mobile device case is equipped with external buttons that can quickly and easily activate in-app functionality, which Current has worked …

Marine Virus Isolation For Use In Phage Templating Of Nanoparticles, Pranav Santan, Morgan Smith-Boeck, Siddharth Prabhu

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Over the course of the past year, we experimented with bacteriophage (phage) isolation from both fresh and marine water. We also tested two different chemical flocculation techniques, polyethylene glycol (PEG) and iron chloride. Furthermore, we tested different vesicles in which chemical flocculation occurs, such as separation funnels, centrifuge tubes, and Erlenmeyer flasks. We analyzed the effectiveness of flocculation via florescent microscopy. Each flocculated sample was visually compared to the original unconcentrated sample by staining the DNA with SYBR-Green. A successful concentrated viral sample yielded a >10 fold increase in overall fluorescence. We found that both iron chloride and PEG were …

Development Of An Automatous Ground Robot For Strawberry Yield Monitoring, Charlie Ross, Shane Thulin

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

The objective of this project was to design and build an autonomous agricultural robot platform that is ready to be adapted for strawberry yield predication. The robot was required to have an all-electric drivetrain as a requirement for the project. A key requirement for this robot is to have the flexibility to be used with different crops and with different applications. It is also designed to be able to change width for use in fields with varying row spacing. The end product of these design requirements is a robot platform that has the capability of supporting a payload in excess …

Quantifying Reproductive Output Of Marine Benthic Species Kelletia Kelletii Surrounding The 2016 El Nino Event, Justin Palmer

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Nearly all of the marine fish and shellfish living along coastlines release microscopic larvae into the open ocean. The larvae then disperse for weeks to months before settling back into coral reefs and kelp forests. The larvae are too small and they travel too far to be tracked directly. Yet, knowing where these larvae settle is important for conservation and management. By quantifying the origins of a reef’s population, one can determine the extent to which that reef is dependent on other fish and shellfish populations for the replenishment of the next generation. Understanding these patterns of “connectivity” and “dependency” …

Investigating The Mechanism By Which Southern Sea Otters (Enhydra Lutris Nereis) Facilitate The Invasion Of An Exotic Fouling Bryozoan, Maggie Jenkins

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

I made progress on satisfying the objectives I set out to accomplish for my thesis project. Since spring of 2016, I designed and built predatory exclusion cages, deployed cages at the North T-Pier, and trapped crabs and maintained them at the Cal Poly pier. Additionally, I led over 30 scientific dives and collected sea otter foraging data weekly. I still need to run the foraging data through the Sea Otter Foraging Analysis (SOFA) program develop by Dr. Tim Tinker. However, based on my observations, clams comprise a majority of the sea otter diet in Morro Bay, but crabs still seem …

Army/National Guard Sport Nutrition Project: Dietary Assessments And Nutrition Education, Sofia Sanchez Porush, Selena Sharpless

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

The Army/National Guard Sport Nutrition Project was designed to address poor health status amongst soldiers of the 49th Military Police Brigade of the California Army National Guard. National Guard soldiers are on reserve duty so their physical health and dietary choices are dependent solely upon personal effort. A nutrition knowledge deficit has been identified in this particular group of 22 soldiers as they lack the basic skills necessary to choose and create balanced meals to maintain optimal physical health. The focus of this intervention was designed to identify any areas of weakness related to nutrition. Analysis of 3-day food records …

Automated Avocado Yield Forecasting Using Multi-Modal Imaging, Michael Woodson, Charlie Ross

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Yield forecasting is a common technique utilized to predict the amount of fruit expected at harvest. Orchard managers forecast yield to predict future packaging requirements, labor requirements, and to make agricultural decisions to help improve future yields. In order to forecast yield, one must first count the number of fruit on a representative sample of trees. Next, one must use a model to predict the total yield expected given the number of fruit counted. However, as population and labor costs continue to increase, a need for automation grows. While research has explored automated yield forecasting for various fruits, there currently …

A “Big Data” Approach To Measurement For Real-World, Real-Time Automotive Aerodynamics, Daniel Stalters, Andrew Furmidge, Jacob Rickman

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

A “typical” sedan vehicle was instrumented with pressure, inertial (IMU), video, and GPS sensors to fully categorize the on-road conditions during an extended, multi-hour tests at the Allan Hancock EVOC track. The static pressure data sampled over the trunk lid of the test vehicle was processed along with all other pressure and IMU data gathered at the front and center of the test vehicle to build categorical and continuous models of the data using techniques borrowed from computer science and machine learning. These techniques highlighted both expected and unexpected trends in the aerodynamic data as well as indicating it is …

Prado Community Garden Project, Johanna Cogen

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

This project started as a dream last fall, but with a combination of multi-organizational work and funds from this grant, it was able to become a reality. The objective of this project was to create a community garden from scratch at Prado Homeless Shelter in San Luis Obispo. The goals were to both create a sustainable way to increase the available nutritious foods for homeless participants at the shelter and to create a safe space for participants to step outside of the noise of the shelter to relax and rejuvenate. Over the course of nine months we built 5 planter …

Table Of Contents

Focus

No abstract provided.

Editor's Overview, Vicente Del Rio

Focus

No abstract provided.

A Note From The Department Head, Michael R. Boswell

Focus

No abstract provided.

A Planner's Perspective: Liars And Slanderers, Chris Clark

Focus

No abstract provided.

Eulogy For David Dubbink

Focus

No abstract provided.

Global Changes, Local Impacts: California's Adaptation Tools Help Its Cities Address Climate Change, Michael R. Boswell, Christopher Read

Focus

The State of California has been changing state-level policies and legislation to prepare for and minimize the impacts of climate change. But how can local governments integrate climate adaptation planning into local policy and practice? Through three-case studies, Boswell and Read discuss how state agencies and the robust set of tools and guidance in the California Adaptation Planning Guide have been helping California communities in climate action planning.

Form-Based Codes: An Overview Of The Literature, Evan Evangelopoulos, Cornelius Nuworsoo

Focus

Urban form, sustainability, community vision, place specificity, code document clarity, and efficiency of the development process are identified as the essential themes behind form-based codes by Evan Evangelopoulos and Cornelius Nurworsoo. The authors note the need to develop measurable parameters to better study these themes and understand the impact of form-based codes in their effort to reform US cities and move them away from Euclidian zoning.