Digital Commons Network^™

Aerospace Fastener Installation Tool, Anthony I. Berghout, Matthew K. Eggers, Liam Dunsmore, Jose Pardo

Mechanical Engineering

Contamination, particularly in aerospace manufacturing environments, is a significant concern, especially with fastener designs that incorporate torque-rated breakaway pieces for easier installation. These breakaway pieces are also known as pintails. Howmet has tooling that can collect loose pintails during installation, but they have small capacities and are not ergonomic for aerospace technicians. Their current need is for a light and ergonomic tool capable of installing a wide variety of Ergo-Tech® fasteners while having a large capacity to collect pintails and improve aerospace manufacturing methods. For this Critical Design Stage, we have finalized a design that allows Pintails to pass through …

2-Axis Solar Panel Tracker, Danica Wong, Oliver Barnaal, Anton Orme

Mechanical Engineering

Solar panels generate energy from sunlight. To do this it’s important that they remain pointed at the sun throughout the day. The Cal Poly Micro Grid Lab runs a class that uses a student made solar panel and tracking mount as an instructional tool. This project is beginning to show signs of wear from outdoor use and is unable to run without constant input due to some significant design flaws. The lab needs a new version of the mount to be made that is significantly more reliable and easier to use.

Edwards Lifesciences: Esheath+ Scoring Automation, Tony Lee Avina, Kirth Hirth, Charith Sunku, Humberto Salazar-Banuelos

Mechanical Engineering

Due to a non-disclosure agreement with our sponsor, Edwards Lifesciences, the contents of the report have been omitted.

Custom Low-Profile Vacuum Valve, Aiden A. Theocheung, Nate R. Greco, Gavin T. Weber, Nate A. Ferrari

Mechanical Engineering

In Autometrix’s proprietary gantry style cutting table, a vacuum pulled through a channel array creates suction to hold soft materials firmly in place. To provide modularity for their customers a unique valve must be designed to segment the transverse channels in two or more sections. The solution must use minimal fasteners, maximize longevity, prove affordable, and be easily manufacturable.

Cal Poly Battle Bot, Miguel Martinez, Andrew Jones, Lawrence Lam, Jedidiah Tzou, Robert Giacomini

Mechanical Engineering

Problem Statement: Create a competition ready, 250 lb combat robot for the Battle Bots Proving Grounds competition. The robot needs to be capable of withstanding and dealing significant damage in addition to being able to operate while inverted. It will also need to be visually unique compared to existing designs.

Kinetic, Wind-Driven Metal Sculpture, Irene Songhee Han, Aiden Brown Largay, Madeline Vang Xiong

Mechanical Engineering

The Interdisciplinary Senior Design Team “Flying Flora” from Cal Poly’s College of Engineering has been tasked with designing and building a wind-driven dynamic metal sculpture for the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden. The botanical garden wants to fill a large, centrally located vacant space with a kinetic sculpture to attract and welcome visitors. The final design, as approved by the garden’s directors, features a large metal California poppy below a stained-glass and metal butterfly. The flower rotates smoothly in typical wind conditions, drawing the attention of visitors to the sculpture. The butterfly is stationary, positioned at an angle from the …

Aluminum Boat Rotation Fixture, Kevin W. Heiskell, Nathaniel M. Conway, James S. Knowles, Austin J. Kehl

Mechanical Engineering

Aluminum fishing boats are widely used for various water-based activities, including fishing, transportation, and recreation. Their lightweight construction makes them ideal for maneuverability, particularly in regions like Australia. However, the manufacturing process presents challenges, specifically the need to weld both the interior and exterior seams of the hull. As the boat’s weight increases during assembly, flipping it becomes difficult and potentially hazardous. Traditional methods such as cranes or forklifts are inefficient and pose safety risks. To address this, our team developed a rotating fixture that secures the boat at two connection points, one at the bow and one at the …

Blow Down Air Knife System, Gunnar Glickert, Jacob Hambel, Chris Jacques, Jackson Koempel

Mechanical Engineering

GAF is encountering a problem with their manufacturing line where fiberglass mats are produced as a base layer for roofing shingles. As the fiberglass mat comes out of the curing oven, there is a possibility that it will stick to the conveyor belt and follow along the return route if a loss of tension downstream occurs. When the fiberglass mat follows the return route, it wraps around the rollers causing substantial damage and downtime for the plant. The goal of this project is to eliminate that problem.

Binary Document Filtering For Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Sreyan Saha

Master’s Dissertations

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has become a popular technique to enhance Large Language Models (LLMs) with access to external information sources. However, the success of RAG systems critically depends on the relevance and quality of the retrieved documents. In particular, supplying irrelevant or noisy context can lead to degraded downstream generation quality. To address this, our project focuses on improving the document filtering stage in a RAG pipeline through binary relevance classification — deciding whether a retrieved document is suitable to include in the final context window based on its usefulness in directly answering the user query. We explore a wide …

How Long Can I Transmit? A Mobility Aware Mmwave-Based Uav Communication Framework, Shawon Mitra

Master’s Dissertations

One primary focus of next generation wireless communication networks is the millimeterwave (mmWave) spectrum, typically considered in the 30 GHz to 300 GHz frequency range. Despite their promise of high data rates, mmWaves su↵ers from severe attenuation while passing through obstacles. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been proposed to o↵set this limitation on account of their additional degrees of freedom, which can be leveraged to provide line of sight (LoS) transmission paths. While some prior works have proposed analytical frameworks to compute the LoS probability for static ground users and a UAV, the same is lacking for mobile users on …

Novel Flavonoid Derivatives Show Potent Efficacy In Human Lymphoma Models., Eugenio Gaudio, Paulina Biniecka, Alberto J Arribas, Eleonora Cannas, Guido J R Zaman, Derya Unutmaz, Francesco Bertoni, Dan F Stoicescu

Faculty Research 2025

BACKGROUND: Despite significant therapeutic progress, many lymphoma subtypes remain difficult to manage due to resistance, relapse, and dose-limiting toxicity.

METHODS: To elucidate the mechanism of action of the semi-synthetic flavonoid derivative (SND) compounds, we conducted a screening of cancer cell lines using proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis assays. We then performed computational modeling of the compounds' binding to tubulin, and finally evaluated in vivo activity using nanoNail technology alongside xenograft experiment.

RESULTS: Here, we describe a series of SNDs that exhibit low-nanomolar to picomolar cytotoxicity across multiple lymphoma models, including those resistant to BTK and PI3K inhibitors. Mechanistic studies show …

Development Of A Versatile Switching Mode Inverter Laboratory Module, Zachariah Lee Mustar

Master's Theses

DC-AC converters, or inverters, are complex devices that play an essential role in photovoltaic, energy storage, and microgrid systems. Therefore, they constitute a class of power electronics that any power-focused electrical engineering student should be familiar with. This thesis presents the development and testing of a single device that power electronics students will use in a laboratory setting to experiment with each of the four different switching techniques employed in inverters: a simple square wave (SSWI), modified square wave (MSWI), bipolar PWM, and unipolar PWM. The module was built with a physically modifiable control stage and a power stage constituting …

Minifying Deep Denoising Networks With Knowledge Distillation, Antonio L. Rozzi

Master's Theses

Hearing loss is a prevalent condition, affecting hundreds of millions globally, with a higher incidence among older adults. While hearing aids are the standard treatment, the majority of those who could benefit from hearing aids choose not to wear them, attributing this decision in large part to their inability to perform well in conversations in large groups and in noisy situations. To date, no denoising systems on commercial hearing aids are able to improve speech intelligibility. Recent advances in artificial intelligence research have shown that large deep-learning models can in fact improve speech intelligibility by removing background noise from audio. …

Distributed Formation Control Of Nonholonomic Mobile Robots: Safety-Critical Leader-Follower Approach With Obstacle Avoidance And Dynamic Reconfiguration, Kelvin C. Villago

Master's Theses

Networked control systems for multi-agent robotics have emerged as a critical paradigm for executing complex coordinated tasks in diverse environments. While formation control serves as the backbone of such systems, real-world deployment introduces significant challenges including communication constraints, environmental obstacles, and the need for adaptive reconfiguration. This research addresses these challenges by developing a novel unified framework that seamlessly integrates obstacle avoidance algorithms with dynamic formation reconfiguration capabilities, specifically designed for communication-limited networked control architectures. The proposed framework represents a significant advancement over existing approaches by simultaneously handling both static and dynamic obstacles while maintaining system cohesion under communication constraints. …

A Feasibility Study On Series Hybrid-Electric Propulsion For Narrow-Body Transport Aircraft, Carver J. Glomb

Master's Theses

As global climate change accelerates, the reduction of carbon emissions has become a critical objective across multiple industries. The aviation sector, however, has lagged behind other transportation domains in implementing sustainable alternatives, despite growing demand for air travel. Recent research and emerging technologies have proposed several decarbonization pathways, including hydrogen fuel, sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), and hybrid or fully electric propulsion systems. Among these, series hybrid-electric propulsion has received comparatively limited attention, particularly for application in transport-class aircraft. This study investigates the feasibility and emissions-reduction potential of a series hybrid-electric propulsion architecture applied to a representative narrow-body platform. A Python-based …

Optimizing Web Servers With Io_Uring, Mihika Nigam

Master's Theses

Modern web servers face unprecedented demands for high throughput and low latency [10] [11]. Yet, even the state-of-the-art optimizations often fail under heavy workloads on existing infrastructure. Despite advancements in hardware, communication between applications and the kernel remains a critical bottleneck.

Industry surveys reveal that over 50% of production servers still rely on traditional epoll-based architectures [5]. This research aims to investigate and characterize Linux’s new io_uring subsystem, which has the potential to overcome these challenges. Through controlled load testing of various existing architectures like event-driven, multi-process, and multi-threaded architectures (including other commercial servers), we demonstrate how io_uring can help …

Enhancement Of A Python Integral Boundary Layer Method, Jeffrey T. Azuma

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a series of additions to a Python based integral boundary layer software library known as PyBL. This library provides the user the means to calculate boundary layer properties using different models for boundary layer behavior. The additions feature the integration of a set of new laminar and turbulent integral boundary layer models originally developed for and currently found in the program XFOIL. These models were modified to fit the ODE solver method at the foundation of PyBL. A new method for PyBL that stitches a laminar and turbulent solution together has been developed to improve the ability …

Development And Testing Of A Lab-Scale Resonance Igniter For Rocket Propulsion Applications, Aidan Caplan

Master's Theses

The resonance igniter is a type of rocket engine ignition system that initiates spontaneous combustion without using an external ignition source. This is possible because the activation energy needed for the combustion reaction to take place is provided by the igniter as it receives propellant flow. This can simplify the igniter hardware and lends it high re-usability while enabling the use of high-efficiency propellant combinations. Its potential benefits could make it a desirable alternative to traditional approaches such as using spark igniters or hypergolic propellants. The present research strove to inaugurate the study of the resonance igniter at Cal Poly …

Efficient Gan-Based Adversarial Example Generation Against Ml-Based Network Intrusion Detection Systems, Darren D. Hartono

Master's Theses

In the realm of network security, Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) are essential for identifying and mitigating malicious activities targeting networked devices. Traditionally, these systems have relied on signature-based and anomaly-based detection techniques. However, the increasing complexity and adapt- ability of cyber threats have driven the adoption of Machine Learning (ML) ap- proaches in modern NIDS, significantly improving their ability to detect a wider range of attack vectors. Despite these advancements, ML-based NIDS remain vulnerable to adversarial examples—deliberately crafted inputs designed to mislead models and trigger incorrect classifications. Originally identified in the field of computer vision, adversarial examples now pose …

Hardware-In-The-Loop Testing For The Polysim Adcs Lab, Shealyn P. Miller

Master's Theses

Hardware-in-the-loop, HIL, testing is an important tool for the validation and verification of systems in the aerospace industry. A common subsystem to be tested using HIL testing is the attitude, dynamics, and controls subsystem, ADCS. This is due to HIL tests using realistic simulations of the space environment to control physical hardware. To create a HIL test, a simulation and HIL interface are needed to test and communicate with hardware. Using a Speedgoat Performance Real-Time Target Machine to communicate with a Raspberry Pi and a Simulink model, three tests were conducted to ensure communication was functioning properly. A simulation, in …

Development Of A Novel Bio-Mimetic Ornithopter With Variable Flapping Angle, Geourg Kivijian

Master's Theses

From the beginnings of flight, flapping-winged flight has been a goal of many engineers to mimic and replicate. With gains in aerodynamic efficiency of flight and certain other favorable characteristics such as reduced noise, higher maneuverability, and surveillance opportunities in urban environments, flapping-wing aerial vehicle(FWAV) designs are consistently pursued in many corners of academia and industry. This thesis goes into the development of a flapping wing aerial vehicle with a Bio-mimetic novel drive mechanism that is cable-driven and can produce variable amplitude and frequency flapping stroke. Employing a Field-Oriented Control (FOC) Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motor, paired with a bio-mimetic …

Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of A Dual-Rate Spring System For Mountain Bike Frames, Lucas P. Grizzle

Master's Theses

The design of full-suspension mountain bikes is a careful balance of suspension kinematics, structural dynamics, and manufacturing optimization for the expected use case. A bike designed to excel in one area will likely exhibit reduced performance in others. This optimization problem is addressed by designing, integrating, and testing a dual-rate spring system within a fully custom frame. The dual-rate spring is fully decoupled from the rest of the suspension kinematics, providing designers with an additional parameter to achieve ideal suspension behavior. This is accomplished by placing a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) bushing in series with the rear shock. The influence of …

Statistical Time-History Response Of Mid-Story Isolated Structures In Linearized Elastic Conditions, Min Thit Khant

Master's Theses

This study presents a statistical analysis of the seismic demand of mid-story isolated structures in linearized elastic conditions. The assumed earthquake database consists of 228 ground motions recorded in California from earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 6. A three-degree-of-freedom modeling approach is adopted, and the seismic demands of the substructure, superstructure, and isolation system are determined for varying isolated mass and stiffness ratios. The seismic demand of mid-story isolated structures at the isolation level is expressed in terms of the response of an idealized isolated superstructure supposed to be on the ground, while the demands on the substructure and superstructure …

Model-Based Design Of Compressed Lithium-Metal Pouch Cell Battery Modules For Evtol Applications, Scott J. Stirling

Master's Theses

Batteries with higher specific energy and power are essential for extending the range and performance of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs). Anode-free lithium-metal pouch cells offer strong potential at the cell-level but require high compressive pressures to enhance cycle life and discharge performance. These pressures necessitate heavier structural components, reducing packaging efficiency at the module level.

To evaluate this tradeoff, a full-factorial enumeration model was developed to explore viable module designs within a constrained packaging volume. The model scales subsystem masses, enforces design rules and material limits, and accounts for large (~20%) cell thickness changes during cycling.

Results …

The Impact Of Accessibility Features On Player Experience In Video Games, Christine M. Widden

Master's Theses

While video game accessibility is a growing research topic, few studies investigate how players perceive the presence versus the absence of accessibility features, or how non-disabled players react to the option of accessibility features. This study explores these research gaps, investigating how access to accessibility features affects the experience of both disabled and non-disabled players. For the purposes of this study, a small platformer game was developed with as many accessibility features as feasible for the scope of the project. An A vs.\ B study was conducted in the game, with anonymous participants randomly assigned to version A, with all …

Development Of A Reaction Wheel System For Cal Poly’S Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator, Caleb Nalley

Master's Theses

The Cal Poly Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator (SADS) is an ongoing project to develop a system capable of simulating the attitude dynamics and kinematics of a rigid body in space. Actuations on the SADS are performed by reaction wheels, however the current reaction wheels have various issues that decrease system performance and are not independent of the SADS. The reaction wheel developed as part of this thesis will be designed to improve performance and set out design specifications tailored to the SADS, serve as an independent assembly that can be transferred to other systems, and provide a general outline for …

Study On The Application Of Smart Electric Meters For Secondary Voltage Protection, Jayaditya Sisodia

Master's Theses

The purpose of our research is to utilize PG&E’s Smart Meters installed across California to protect the Secondary Voltage delivered to the meter. This means detecting electrical faults between the utility’s distribution transformer and the installed Smart Meter. Our goal is to propose and implement various solutions through additional devices and protocols to detect and prevent these faults, communicate them with the meter, and forward fault information to the utility. A device will be designed to be installed on the transformer, detect faults, shut off power transmission, and communicate to the meter via fiber optic cable. Research will then be …

Open Source Asic Design Curriculum, Francisco Wilken

Master's Theses

The ever-growing importance of Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) in a high-compute world necessitates that college graduates entering the workforce are well prepared to design them. This thesis details the design of novel ASIC curriculum, using open source tools to teach at the undergraduate level. By moving to a higher level of abstraction than classical transistor-focused coursework, chip design material can be made accessible earlier in an undergraduate degree. Additionally, open source tools provide a powerful, free, and portable platform for students to create their own designs, solving assignments focused on industry readiness. Finally, this thesis studies the results and challenges …

Modeling And Efficiency Analysis Of Hybrid Ac/Dc And Conventional Ac House Electrical Systems For Net-Zero Energy Homes, Tyler Bury

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the design, simulation, and comparative efficiency analysis of hybrid AC/DC residential homes versus conventional AC homes for Net Zero Energy Homes (NZEH). Motivated by the increasing prevalence of DC-native technologies such as solar photovoltaics, battery storage, and DC-powered electronics, this work evaluates whether hybrid AC/DC distribution can offer measurable efficiency benefits over traditional systems. Twelve detailed house models were developed—six employing a hybrid AC/DC architecture and six based on conventional AC systems, each supplying a combination of AC and DC residential loads. Simulations were conducted using MATLAB/Simulink to model steady-state efficiency under various loading conditions. Grid configurations …

Guidelines For Energy Technology Demonstrations, Ian M. Shapiro

SyracuseCoE

This document is intended to provide guidance to companies developing new products, researchers, organizations sponsoring product development, demonstration hosts, resident organizations, and policymakers. The guidelines were prepared to maximize the chances for success of energy technology field demonstrations. Guidance is provided for effective site recruitment, project scoping and design, installation, onsite research, and related work such as public communication and risk management, all in ways that fully engage demonstration hosts.