Digital Commons Network^™

Transit Infrastructure And Neighborhood Change: The Impact Of The Q Train Expansion On Commercial Space Use In New York City's Upper East Side, Lily E. Levick

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

This paper examines the impact of the 2017 Second Avenue Subway expansion on commercial land uses on New York City’s Upper East Side. The research leverages quantitative models alongside qualitative personal experiences and literature to understand the relationship between infrastructure, space, and neighborhood change from a nuanced perspective. The results show that the studied area experienced a broad trend of de-commercialization between 2003 and 2025, and a simultaneous shift toward commercial zoning in areas closest to new subway stations. These findings encourage us to consider how mobility access is an important driver for change within neighborhoods and urban space, and …

Work-Life Dynamics And Career Success Of Physician-Scientists In Academic Medical Centers, Christine Eriks

ETDs from 2020-2029

Physician-scientists sustain careers within one of the most structurally demanding environments in academic medicine, balancing expectations across research, clinical care, teaching, and service during life stages often characterized by intensified personal responsibilities. Although concerns about the stability of the physician-scientist workforce have persisted for decades, less empirical attention has focused on how work-life role conflict shapes career outcomes within this population. This study examines the relationship between work-life role conflict and career success among physician-scientists in academic medical centers. Guided by role theory and boundary theory, this cross-sectional, national study surveyed physician-scientists who served as principal investigators on National Institutes …

Design And Evaluation Of An Open-Source Ac/Dc Power Converter For Microgrid Applications, Ryan J. Rayos

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of an open-source bidirectional power conversion platform intended for microgrid applications. As distributed energy resources, battery storage systems, and hybrid AC/DC architectures continue to increase in adoption, there is a growing demand for flexible, low-cost, and programmable power electronic platforms capable of interfacing between DC and AC subsystems. Existing commercial solutions are often proprietary and expensive, limiting their accessibility for educational, research, and rapid prototyping applications. This work expands upon the existing open-source Atinverter platform by increasing its operating voltage capability, integrating bidirectional power flow, and implementing telemetry systems suitable for microgrid …

Integration Of Robotic Arm And Conveyor With Programmable Logic Controller, Drake A. Small

Master's Theses

To meet new curriculum demands brought on by Cal Poly's upcoming switch to semesters, a new, cross-disciplinary lab module was developed for EE 435 (Industrial Power Control and Automation). The module emphasizes career-applicable skills, preparing students for the field of controls engineering within the manufacturing industry. These skills include robotic control, computer networking and configuration, and embedded systems. The work focused on integrating a collaborative robot arm to pick-and-place boxes on a conveyor. A myCobot 320 Pi and an Ultimation Powered Roller MDR Conveyor were integrated with the existing PLC system using Modbus RTU and EtherNet/IP communication protocols, respectively. A …

Ai Interview Helper: A Tool For Assisting Search And Rescue Long-Profile Interviews, Dylan P. Starink

Master's Theses

In Search and Rescue (SAR) operations, time pressure and limited interviewer experience can lead to missed opportunities when interviewing a missing person’s friends and family. This thesis presents a real-time, end-to-end system that provides context-aware follow-up question suggestions as interviews unfold. Leveraging large language models (LLMs) and agentic design patterns, the system is intended to support interviewers by helping them identify relevant follow-up questions and pursue potentially overlooked lines of inquiry.

The system was evaluated through three mock interviews with two SAR interviewer participants across two events. Given the limited sample size, the results provide early insights into the feasibility …

Equitable Decompositions: A Gateway To Spectral Theory Through Graph Automorphisms, Daniel Ford

Master's Theses

Graphs with symmetry appear throughout mathematics and its applications, from the structure of molecules and network design to combinatorial game theory. A central question in spectral graph theory is how to compute or characterise the eigenvalues of the matrices associated with such graphs. Classical decomposition methods, such as diagonalisation or Jordan normal form, accomplish this but only once some spectral information is already known. A different approach, introduced by Barrett et al. (2015), uses the automorphisms of a graph to block-diagonalise its adjacency matrix without any prior spectral information. Because one of the resulting summands is always the quotient matrix …

Effects Of Atmospheric Drag On Angles-Only Initial Relative Orbit Determination Accuracy In Low Earth Orbit, Sydney Walsh

Master's Theses

Growing congestion in low Earth orbit is increasing the demand for effective space situational awareness, straining ground station capabilities. Space-based relative orbit determination offers an alternative, using line-of-sight angle measurements from a chaser spacecraft to estimate a target spacecraft's orbit. This research focuses on angles-only initial relative orbit determination (IROD), where no prior target state knowledge is assumed. It investigates how IROD solution accuracy is affected by differential atmospheric drag between the chaser and target spacecraft. A nonlinear batch least squares filter is designed to estimate the target's initial state, which is compared against a truth solution. It was found …

Determining K Clusters In K-Means Clustering With The Crab Algorithm, Jasmine Kristine S. Cabrera

Master's Theses

Unsupervised clustering often faces the challenge of determining the correct number of clusters in the absence of a true target variable. Traditional methods such as the Elbow Method and the Silhouette Score can produce ambiguous results and rely on assumptions about cluster shape or separation. To address this, we created the Clustering Rivals and Buddies (CRAB) algorithm which evaluates clusters based on stability across multiple subsamples. CRAB uses pairwise classifications to identify points that consistently group together called “Buddies” and points that remain separated called “Rivals.” Applied with K-means, CRAB accurately recovers underlying cluster structures in both spherical and non-spherical …

Teaching Multi-Core Architecture: Design And Implementation Of A Cache-Coherent Cpu For Undergraduate Education, Isaac R. Lake

Master's Theses

Modern computing has relied on multicore processors for high performance for nearly two decades, yet undergraduate computer engineering curricula often provide limited exposure to parallel hardware architectures and their design challenges. This thesis presents the design of CPE 433, a course that extends the pipelined and cached OTTER CPU developed in CPE 233 and CPE 333 into a multicore processor capable of running parallel workloads. The thesis documents the architectural changes required to adapt the verified single-core design into a multicore system, including MMIO-based interrupt support, a shared cache hierarchy with cache-coherence mechanisms, and clock-gated modules. It further presents a …

Thermally Induced Color Changes In Iron Oxide Containing Coatings, Tabatha Whitfield

Master's Theses

Wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires and residential conflagrations present significant challenges for post-fire damage and fire propagation analysis. CAL FIRE observed reddening in architectural coatings during the 2025 Pacific Palisades fire with no determination of the cause. While heat-induced color change of infrastructure coatings has been studied, its potential use as a thermal exposure indicator in residential fire events remains largely unexplored. The objective of this study was to characterize the heat-induced color change of yellow iron oxide containing coatings subjected to thermal exposures, replicating residential fire conditions. The coatings were applied to commonly used building materials and exposed to direct …

Implementation Of A Line-Scan Camera Triangulation Sensor For A Ball Balancer, Jackson R. Mclaughlin

Master's Theses

Ball Balancer or Ball on Plate systems are used for education and research in control theory. These consist of a plate which can be actively tilted, with a ball rolling on the surface. Students are challenged to model the dynamics of the system and implement a control loop which is capable of stabilizing the ball by actuating the plate.  The mechatronics group at Cal Poly is developing hardware for one of these ball-balancer systems, for future use in the Mechanical Engineering curriculum.

The position of the ball relative to the plate must be measured in order to control and stabilize …

Practice-Oriented Seismic Design And Retrofit For Mid-Story Isolated Buildings, Luke Reilly

Master's Theses

This study reviews the state of the art of MSI and evaluates a practical framework for preliminary design using coupling coefficients. A database of 155 research documents is compiled and classified into analytical, mixed numerical, computational, experimental, and miscellaneous studies. The review identifies major research trends, common modeling approaches, important design parameters, and remaining limitations. In addition, 16 representative MSI building projects are reviewed. These applications show that MSI is most often used for retrofit, vertical expansion, mixed-use buildings, over-track construction, and buildings with major functional or structural discontinuities. The study then examines the Coupling Coefficients (CCs) Method as a …

A History Of The Underground Comix Scene: The Seriousness Of An Unserious Genre, Harris Darcie Shugart

Master's Theses

The Underground Comix Scene of the 1960s and 1970s was born out of an age of censorship. The Comics Code Authority, a regulatory body created by the Comics Magazine Association of America in 1954, established guidelines requiring publishing houses to self-regulate following a recommendation from the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1953. Comix with an X, for their X-rated nature, represent an emerging counter-culture in the latter half of the 1960s and the 1970s, with an epicenter of San Francisco. These comix and their artists were not interested in obtaining the looming ‘Seal of Approval’ from the …

Boundary Influence In Truncated Groundwater Models: Reconstructing A Local-Scale Modflow Model From A Consultant-Developed Regional Model In The Monterey Subbasin, Bruce K. Liscomb

Master's Theses

Regional groundwater models built by consultants contain valuable calibrated frameworks but are often too large and complex for repeated local-scale analysis. Rather than rebuilding an entirely new smaller model, this study truncates the existing consultant-built regional model of the Monterey Subbasin, preserving the original grid structure and parameter framework while reducing the active domain to a manageable size for planning-level use. A key finding is that boundary-condition representation exerted a dominant influence on simulated groundwater behavior within the truncated domain, highlighting that truncation is a structural decision that meaningfully affects how the model responds. Model performance was evaluated two ways. …

There Be A Dragon, Audreanna Elliott

ETDs from 2020-2029

There Be a Dragon is set in a roughly medieval era world named Aleovion. Evren is the protagonist of the story, a young woman freshly seventeen on the cusp of what should be amazing things. She’s in her last year of schooling and will be on her way to escaping the misery her school has brought her, and on top of that, this is the year she should finally ‘manifest’. Evren’s a part of a sect of beings in this world called ‘Embodied’, people whose ancestry is touched by a mystical creature. This allows them to act as conduits for …

Exploring Occupational Exposures And Health Risks Among Long-Haul Truck Drivers: Tobacco Smoke, Cara Harris

ETDs from 2020-2029

Long-haul truck drivers (LHTDs) are exposed to a range of occupational hazards and stressors that threaten their health and well-being. These include, but are not limited to, irregular sleep patterns, fatigue, and chronic exposure to diesel engine exhaust (DEE) and tobacco smoke in the confined spaces of truck cabins. Smoking tobacco cigarettes is often used as a coping mechanism for occupational stressors and nicotine dependence, contributing to a high smoking rate among LHTDs (51%) compared to the general population (19%). Collectively, exposure to DEE and tobacco smoke may have a synergistic effect, increasing LHTD’s risk for lung cancer and other …

Ra Hub: Streamlining Resident Advisor Workflows Through A Mobile App, Samantha Danahe Gonzalez

Graphic Communication

This project explores the need to improve the workflow experience for Residential Advisors (RAs), specifically focusing on polychat logging and event planning workflows that currently rely on multiple disconnected software platforms. This fragmented system creates confusion and makes it difficult to complete responsibilities efficiently and accurately. Survey findings revealed frustrations with tracking tasks, managing workflows, and navigating between systems. In response, this project proposes a centralized workflow system designed to create a more organized, accessible, and userfriendly experience for RAs.

Robotic Assessment Of Human Motor Control: Contextual Learning, Aging, And The Balancing Of Unstable Systems, Laura Alvarez Hidalgo

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

This thesis investigates human sensorimotor control using three complementary sets of experiments. These examine contextual motor learning, aging-related motor performance, and human balance.First, a series of experiments examined how different sensory modalities influence motor memory formation during dynamic learning. Using a robotic manipulandum to implement an interference task, we assessed how the contextual effect of visual and passive lead-in movements decays over time, specifically as a function of dwell time between the movement cue and the required action onset. Results revealed a modality-dependent pattern of decay: while both cue types enabled dual adaptation to opposing force fields, passive cues preserved …

The Effects Of Carbon-Fiber Plates And Peba-Based Midsole Foam In Running Shoes On Lower-Limb Joint Kinetics And Kinematics In Recreational Female Runners, Jordan M. Allen

Master's Theses

The recent increase in long-distance running participation and the rapid advancement in footwear technology have created a need for research on injury prevention in this growing population of recreational runners. When “super shoes” were first introduced to the running scene, they caught the attention of runners worldwide with the rapid improvement in marathon performance [1]. Today, every major running brand offers its own version of a super shoe, each incorporating a carbon-fiber plate and PEBA-based midsole foam. While previous studies have shown the performance benefits of these shoes, a gap remains in the literature regarding how they impact knee, hip, …

Developing Sight-Reading Proficiency In Music Education: A Synthesis Of Instructional Strategies And Pedagogical Approaches, Charles Clements Ii

Theses

Sight-reading is a foundational skill in music education that enables students to perform unfamiliar musical material independently. Despite its importance, instruction is often inconsistent and driven by performance priorities rather than systematic skill development. This thesis synthesizes existing research on sight-reading pedagogy to identify effective instructional strategies and organize them into a cohesive framework for educators.

By connecting research to classroom application, this project provides a practical, research-informed model for sight-reading instruction. The findings suggest that effective instruction requires a structured and integrated approach that supports both cognitive processing and musical performance, ultimately promoting greater student independence and musical literacy.

The Implementation Of Scintillation Detectors With The Cuore/Cupid Collaboration In The Search For Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay, Reese Sandra Cormier

Physics

CUORE (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) is an experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Assergi, Italy, currently searching for an answer to the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem; the question: why do we exist? One proposed explanation is neutrinoless double beta decay, a theorized exotic decay that would prove that neutrinos are their own antiparticle, violating the current Standard Model for particle physics. However, current detection methods do not distinguish different types of particle interactions, resulting in alpha decays contributing to the background. Therefore, the experimental sensitivity is too limited to make confident determinations about the data. For this …

Navigating Precarity: Resourcefulness And Interdependence In The Upper Valley Dairy Industry, Benna Mcdermott

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Informal Humans? Rights To A Clean Environment In Bangkok’S Informal Settlements, Maisie Pike

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Can Chinatown Speak? Mapping Hauntings, Dispossessions, And Diasporic Lifeworlds In Boston’S Chinatown, Lin Lin

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

Boston's Chinatown has persisted despite highway construction, urban renewal, and institutional expansion that destroyed much of the neighborhood. This thesis asks how residents have shaped and inhabited that space and whose contributions have been forgotten in the process. Through entangling frameworks from Geography and Asian American Studies, the thesis approaches Boston's Chinatown through walking, archiving, and counter-mapping. The first chapter reads the streets as a layered record of historical ruptures, which leads to a dichotomy of presence and absence. The second chapter then examines the archives of the 1993 Parcel C struggle. It creates an original counter-archive, titled the "Collection …

Title Page And Abstract: Diet Quality And Sustainability Based On Nut Intake Among Free-Living Adults, Raquel Aurora Martínez

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Background: There is increasing interest in dietary patterns that support both human and planetary health. Plant-forward dietary patterns commonly promoted within sustainability frameworks frequently include nuts. Despite concerns regarding resource use, particularly water demands, nuts may contribute to improved diet quality and sustainable dietary behaviors.

Objectives: To examine whether diets characterized by higher nut intake are associated with dietary quality, adherence to sustainable dietary patterns, and food-related sustainability behaviors among free-living adults.

Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted using data from an online validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire integrated with sustainability-related survey items. Energy-adjusted nut intake was categorized …

Striveforpride: Online Program To Promote Sexual And Gender Minority Well-Being, Shayna R. Greenberg

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) young adults are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and stress relative to non-SGM peers. Digitally-administered mental health interventions show potential for reducing mental health distress in the general population. However, limited reporting of SGM demographics and adherence to online interventions constrain uptake and effectiveness. The present study explored the effect of an existing evidence-informed, self-guided, online-based mental health intervention, StriveWeekly, on internalizing symptoms among SGM university students. The sample consisted of 160 SGM university students, identifying as female, women, or feminine (63.1%), bisexual (36.10%), and Non-Hispanic (77.5%). Cluster randomization was employed on the basis …

Simulation Of Powder Spreading For Metal Additive Manufacturing, Florence Duff

Master's Theses

The powder recoating process for Laser Powder Bed Fusion requires iterative experimentation to develop the correct process parameters that will result in high quality parts. There currently lacks good spread quality metrics and models for optimizing spread quality. A machine that simulates the powder spreading process was built to streamline the process of selecting process parameters for specific types of powders without having to operate the full laser system. The parameters investigated were the layer thickness and spreading speed. The response variables were metrics developed to assess spread quality: the percentage of the build plate covered by powder and the …

Evaluating Design Choices For Gpu-Accelerated Finite-Difference Time-Domain Simulation On Resource-Constrained Devices, Joel Manesh

Master's Theses

The Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method is a numerical technique for solving partial differential equations. It was first developed to solve Maxwell’s equations for electromagnetic wave propagation and has since been extended to model other physical phenomena governed by wave propagation. Because the FDTD method is data-parallel, it is well-suited for GPU acceleration; modern FDTD-based simulations run offline on large GPU clusters. There is, however, very little research on running FDTD on resource-constrained embedded GPUs, which are increasingly popular for real-time applications.

This thesis explores a CUDA-based FDTD solver for the 3D wave equation on the Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano. This …

Gauss Composition And Orthogonal Modular Forms On Binary Lattices, Haochen Wu

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

We revisit Gauss composition over a general base scheme, with a focus on orthogonal groups. We show that the Clifford and norm functors provide a discriminant-preserving equivalence of categories between binary quadratic modules and pseudoregular modules over quadratic algebras. This perspective synthesizes the constructions of Kneser and Wood, reconciling algebraic and geometric approaches and clarifying the role of orientations and the natural emergence of narrow class groups.

As an application, we restrict to lattices and show that binary orthogonal eigenforms correspond to Hecke characters. Using theta series, we show the explicit connection between Hilbert modular forms and orthogonal modular forms …

Greenhouse Scan-To-Bim, Mattheus Hsu-Ning Johnson

Architectural Engineering

This senior project focuses on the implementation of Scan-to-BIM software for capturing and modeling an existing building within Experimental Construction laboratory. The design of the project was to model the building using a 3D scan with the support of world measurements to document and create a digital model of the building. By doing this the project can evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and accuracy of integrating 3D scanning technologies into BIM modeling.

The project included taking data from a recent scan of the Experimental Construction Laboratory. We then took these scans and imported them to Autodesk Revit to develop a detailed …