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California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

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Full-Text Articles in Education

Dei: Exploring Academic Reflections Using Natural Language Processing To Create A Roadmap Of Student Success And Foster Inclusive Engineering Education, Rajvir H. Vyas, Nidhi Raviprasad Oct 2023

Dei: Exploring Academic Reflections Using Natural Language Processing To Create A Roadmap Of Student Success And Foster Inclusive Engineering Education, Rajvir H. Vyas, Nidhi Raviprasad

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Every year, the College of Engineering (CENG) students and faculty reach out to admitted students through “Text-a-Thon” programs to answer their questions about being a student at Cal Poly. In order to improve CENG outreach efforts, we analyzed these text conversations to predict the likelihood of an admitted student accepting an offer of admission from Cal Poly. Through our research, we discovered key factors that play a role in a student committing to Cal Poly through data-based insights. Additionally, we successfully used a human-on-the-loop system to help create Machine Learning (ML) models that predict satisfaction of response by way of …


Additive Manufacturing For Medical Education, Michael Noon Oct 2023

Additive Manufacturing For Medical Education, Michael Noon

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

A growing body of evidence is suggesting that anatomical knowledge, the keystone of many medical specialties, is suffering among new graduates. While a host of reasons are provided, one common thread that many point to is the decline of cadaver dissections in the classroom. Many virtual audio-visual tools are used to address this gap, yet evidence has shown their ineffectiveness. Given this gap, the high degree of flexibility found in additive manufacturing (AM), and the many uses AM has already found in the medical field, we propose its use to fill this gap, allowing for students to learn with touch …


Sociotechnical Thinking In Statics And Dynamics, Raul Espinoza Oct 2023

Sociotechnical Thinking In Statics And Dynamics, Raul Espinoza

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This project introduced Canvas modules to instill a sociotechnical mindset in engineering students. By emphasizing the synergy between social and technical systems, the modules aim to produce engineers capable of crafting solutions that are technically adept and socially responsible.


Distance And Its Effect On Betta Aggression, Sydnie Hanson Aug 2019

Distance And Its Effect On Betta Aggression, Sydnie Hanson

STAR Program Research Presentations

Betta Splendens are typically known to act very aggressive towards one another, especially between two males. These acts of aggression are shown through flaring of ones fins, chasing and striking opposing Bettas, biting, etc. This experiment shows how distance affects how aggressive male Bettas are with one another


Teaching Top-Down Approaches To The Engineering Design Process, Joshua E. Katz, Joshua E. Katz Jul 2019

Teaching Top-Down Approaches To The Engineering Design Process, Joshua E. Katz, Joshua E. Katz

STAR Program Research Presentations

One of the main focuses of metacognition is to have students think about their learning. By bringing the engineering design process with educational psychology together, it can lead to a society that thinks more in-depth on various topics. The goal of the internship was to utilize and teach top-down educational and instructional objectives. Throughout the project, we followed a modified progression of the System Architecture Methodology to help other interns think in a top-down fashion. The purpose of this procedure is to create and induce new innovative and creative ideas for different projects. As teaching this methodology was tasked, research …


Adapting Cell-Free Protein Synthesis As A Platform Technology For Education, Grace W. Chu, Max Z. Levine, Nicole E. Gregorio, Javin P. Oza Oct 2018

Adapting Cell-Free Protein Synthesis As A Platform Technology For Education, Grace W. Chu, Max Z. Levine, Nicole E. Gregorio, Javin P. Oza

STAR Program Research Presentations

Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) has emerged as an enabling biotechnology for research and biomanufacturing as it allows for the production of protein without the need for a living cell. Applications of CFPS include the construction of libraries for functional genomics and structural biology, the production of personalized medicine, and the expression of virus-like particles. The absence of a cell wall provides an open platform for direct manipulation of the reaction conditions and biological machinery. This project focuses on adapting the CFPS biotechnology to the classroom, making a hands-on bioengineering approach to learning protein synthesis accessible to students grades K-16 through …


Visualization Of Geospatial Data As An Analytical And Educational Tool, Richard A. Vu Aug 2018

Visualization Of Geospatial Data As An Analytical And Educational Tool, Richard A. Vu

STAR Program Research Presentations

World Wind is an open-source API developed for Java, Android, and browsers that is designed to visualize and interact with geospatial data. The Web World Wind client is composed of four major components: the HTML template, the globe, geospatial features, and application features. The template was implemented using Bootstrap and hosts the globe provided by World Wind. This globe draws its data from multiple imagery sources, including the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service and Web Map Tile Service. This enables the application to perform and visualize complex calculations with multiple types of data such as weather and terrain. …


Astrobee: Air Sampling Device And Zero Robotics Game, Bryce Van Ross Jan 2018

Astrobee: Air Sampling Device And Zero Robotics Game, Bryce Van Ross

STAR Program Research Presentations

Astrobee is a free-flying, 1'x1'x1' cuboid robot that is planned to be onboard the International Space Station (ISS) by February 2019. Astrobee will be the successor of the current ISS free-flyer, SPHERES. Free-flying robots possess a range of potential. They can facilitate work for astronauts aboard the ISS by performing rudimentary tasks and housekeeping (e.g., record-keeping, sensor analysis, etc.) efficiently. Free-flyers also act as innovative testbeds for guest scientists to perform zero-gravity control theory research. In recent years, SPHERES has hosted annual Zero Robotics (ZR) programming competitions in collaboration with MIT, challenging middle and high school students to write code …


Using The Nasa Worldwind Agrosphere Web App As A Climate Change Modeling Tool In The Classroom, Nicholas Rubel, Patrick Hogan, Stacey Chen, Endia Irazarry, Atreya Iyer, John Nguyen, Mingda Tang Sep 2017

Using The Nasa Worldwind Agrosphere Web App As A Climate Change Modeling Tool In The Classroom, Nicholas Rubel, Patrick Hogan, Stacey Chen, Endia Irazarry, Atreya Iyer, John Nguyen, Mingda Tang

STAR Program Research Presentations

Climate change is a clear and imminent threat to the world today. While there are Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for teaching climate change in the classroom, students may have a difficult time understanding the seriousness of the issue. One of the standards in the NGSS is for students to develop their own explanation of climate change and its impact. That’s where AgroSphere comes in. AgroSphere is a web-based app that utilizes NASA open-source software WorldWind. WorldWind allows developers to create their own Java, Android, or web-based apps that can display data on the globe. AgroSphere displays historical weather (climate) …


Designing An Authentic Behavioral Research Experience In The Classroom Using Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta Splendens, Gianne Souza, Ronald M. Coleman Aug 2017

Designing An Authentic Behavioral Research Experience In The Classroom Using Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta Splendens, Gianne Souza, Ronald M. Coleman

STAR Program Research Presentations

Recently there have been major shifts in biology education towards emphasizing the teaching of the scientific process to more closely reflect actual scientific practices. Authentic research experiences require the development of many higher order cognitive skills. Creating an authentic research experience that appropriately scaffolds the development of these complex skills while engaging individual student motivation remains challenging in classroom settings. Some common challenges include limited time available for working with large numbers of students, cramped working areas, and limited funding and materials resources. Using the Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta splendens, we have created an economically viable authentic animal behavioral …


Weights And Balances: Integrating Models For Prevention And Response To Southern California Offshore Oil Spills, Carmen Watts Clayton, Amoret Bunn Oct 2016

Weights And Balances: Integrating Models For Prevention And Response To Southern California Offshore Oil Spills, Carmen Watts Clayton, Amoret Bunn

STAR Program Research Presentations

Licensing offshore oil and gas reserves in the United States waters are overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Enforcement (BSEE). The licensing application includes planning for any worst-case oil spill scenario between BSEE and the applicant based on lessons learned from historic offshore spills such as the Deepwater Horizon (2010), Exxon Valdez (1989), and the Union Oil Platform Blowout (1969). The process for planning to respond to oil spills involves coordination with multiple agencies, trustees, and stakeholders to ensure that oil spill responses consider multiple factors, including ecologically sensitive species, commercial transportation and fisheries, …


Effects Of Soil Erosion Barriers On Percent Cover And Sediment Size, Michael Perez Aug 2016

Effects Of Soil Erosion Barriers On Percent Cover And Sediment Size, Michael Perez

STAR Program Research Presentations

Ranching began on Santa Rosa Island in the 1840’s, introducing nonnative megafauna that put selective grazing pressures on endemic species. Dense groves of island oak (Q. tomentella) are aid in sediment deposition and retention. A current restoration effort, involved installing soil erosion barriers, known as wattles, to prevent sediment from being lost upslope and recruit plant growth whose root systems could further stabilize the slope. This experiment was designed to compare percent cover of vegetation growth in areas with and without soil erosion barriers. This was done using the line intercept method (n=42) on three meter transects, measuring …


Cyber Security Training Tools For The Nuclear Energy Sector, Vu A. Pham Aug 2016

Cyber Security Training Tools For The Nuclear Energy Sector, Vu A. Pham

STAR Program Research Presentations

Nowadays, cyber security should be a priority for everyone when they connect their laptop to the internet; however, not many internet users have sufficient knowledge about cyber security. A cyberattack on an individual’s computer could result in the loss of personal information, financial information, or other resources. The damage from a cyberattack on a nuclear facility or other critical infrastructure could have much greater consequences. The attackers could impact the confidentiality of data, the availability of key systems, or the integrity of those safety or operating systems. Therefore, the National Nuclear Security Administration has tasked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with …


Chemical Oxygen Demand Reduction Using The Algae Dunaliella Primolecta And Chlorella Vulgaris, Angeles L. Mora, Alejandro Hernandez, Alejandro Calderón-Urrea Aug 2015

Chemical Oxygen Demand Reduction Using The Algae Dunaliella Primolecta And Chlorella Vulgaris, Angeles L. Mora, Alejandro Hernandez, Alejandro Calderón-Urrea

STAR Program Research Presentations

Farm industry wastewater is characterized by high organic materials and by high chemical oxygen demand (COD). Farms with large livestock and poultry operations can be a major source of wastewater thus a major concern for effective environmental and industrial management. Effective environmental and industrial management are high in cost therefor biofuels produced from plants have a potential of replacing a portion of fossil fuel consumption with a renewable efficient alternative. Due to California’s water crisis in the recent years, it is questioned if a biological treatment system that uses algal growth to create renewable energy in the form of biodiesel …


Towards Bioregenerative Life Support For Extended Human Exploration: Experiment Development For Testing The Fitness Of Algae In Space, Audrey Fry, R. Craig Everroad, Jessica E. Koehne, Thomas E. Murphy, Brad M. Bebout Jul 2015

Towards Bioregenerative Life Support For Extended Human Exploration: Experiment Development For Testing The Fitness Of Algae In Space, Audrey Fry, R. Craig Everroad, Jessica E. Koehne, Thomas E. Murphy, Brad M. Bebout

STAR Program Research Presentations

Microbes such as algae and bacteria are promising candidates for supporting extended human space travel, as they are robust sources of food, fuel, waste cycling, and oxygen production. Growing microbes on membranes reduces the mass and water demands of a bioreactor system, both of which are important considerations in space travel. The European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) on the International Space Station (ISS) provides an ideal opportunity to test the effects of microgravity and other aspects of the space environment on algal growth on membranes. This project aims to find optimal growing conditions and measurement technologies that conform to the …


Enhanced Presentation Of Tomographic Data, Carmen Watts Clayton, Bernice Mills, George Beffleben, Thien Vu-Nguyen Jul 2015

Enhanced Presentation Of Tomographic Data, Carmen Watts Clayton, Bernice Mills, George Beffleben, Thien Vu-Nguyen

STAR Program Research Presentations

X-ray tomography yields a very large amount of data in three dimensions. Effectively displaying this data to a broad audience is a challenge. Techniques are discussed to improve presentation of movies of both 2D and 3D tomographic data using commercially available softwares.


Designing And Implementing A Planetary Geology Course For Engineers At The Jet Propulsion Lab, Jessica Joyce Dimizio Jun 2015

Designing And Implementing A Planetary Geology Course For Engineers At The Jet Propulsion Lab, Jessica Joyce Dimizio

STAR Program Research Presentations

This project took place at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and involved creating an instructional tool that would increase the quality of communication between mechanical engineers and geologists who are collaboratively designing ways to collect and cache martian rock samples for the Mars 2020 rover mission. Geology and engineering do not cross paths in traditional education settings and communication is difficult due to the specialized language and processes of geology. Previous attempts to bridge communications between these two groups did not serve a large enough audience nor were they specific to the complexities of the Mars 2020 mission. Interviews with …


Father Convict Cichlids Bite Intruders More Often In Hot Temperatures, Jesse L. Heckendorf Jan 2015

Father Convict Cichlids Bite Intruders More Often In Hot Temperatures, Jesse L. Heckendorf

STAR Program Research Presentations

Convict cichlids (Archocentrus nigrofasciatus) have evolved to be extremely good parents by protecting their brood. Parental care leads to aggressive biting, chasing, and gill flaring to intimidate predators. In this experiment, we show that environmental factors, such as the changing of temperature in this case, affect a male convict cichlid’s aggression toward caring for his offspring when an intruder is introduced. Male convict cichlids attack more in warmer water.


Energy Surety For Us Army Buildings In Afghanistan, Eric D. Reisweber Aug 2014

Energy Surety For Us Army Buildings In Afghanistan, Eric D. Reisweber

STAR Program Research Presentations

Energy access and reliability are high priorities at the U.S. Army bases in Afghanistan. Using photovoltaic (PV) arrays can help diversify the systems that supply energy to a given area increasing energy safety, security, reliability and sustainability—and thus improving energy surety. PV systems, which convert incoming solar radiation into usable electric power, may be a wise choice for bases in the Middle East because the solar resource is relatively constant and abundant. Solar resource refers to the amount of solar radiation a given location on earth’s surface receives. The solar resource for two locations were investigated in this study using …


Using Remote Sensing Data To Predict The Spread Of Mosquito Borne Disease, Mary Ellen O'Donnell, Erika Podest Aug 2014

Using Remote Sensing Data To Predict The Spread Of Mosquito Borne Disease, Mary Ellen O'Donnell, Erika Podest

STAR Program Research Presentations

There is interest in how environmental variables derived from satellite data such as temperature, vegetation cover, and precipitation correlate to vector borne disease occurrence such as malaria and dengue fever. This study will be carried out using a decision tree based open source software called Random Forests to find correlations between the remote sensing variables and mosquito abundance. Software will be written in C# to take large amounts of data from the NASA satellite database and automatically format it for the Random Forest Software input. Correlations found, using Random Forests, between disease incidence and the variables can be used as …


San Joaquin River's Sediment Textural Features, Erika Arreguin-Cazarez Aug 2014

San Joaquin River's Sediment Textural Features, Erika Arreguin-Cazarez

STAR Program Research Presentations

The research will be focusing on sediments from Turlock Lake and Riverbank. My focus is to analyze the sediments to know if there are any correlations between the textural features of the sediments between Turlock Lake and Riverbank based on their size. It is expected the environment of the lakes and the rivers has an effect in the changes and if the energy of the water flow also affects the different textural features. The textural features will focus on; roundness, shiny vs. dull, rough vs. smooth, and their shape. The shape is calculated by the three dimensions of the sediment; …


Wind Speed And Seismic Motion Data Analysis, Margarita Vidrio Aug 2014

Wind Speed And Seismic Motion Data Analysis, Margarita Vidrio

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) was developed to exploit Einstein's prediction of gravitational waves to develop a new way to study the universe. Gravitational waves are detected by observing changes less than 1/10000 of the diameter of a proton in the distances between hanging mirrors that are four kilometers apart within two perpendicular evacuated tubes. These changes in distances between mirrors are produced by gravitational waves from large masses in space, such as colliding black holes. Many factors affect the sensitivity of the interferometer. LIGO’s Physical Environment Monitoring subsystem (PEM) is one method of both eliminating noise and …


Growing Conditions For Algae, Angeles Mora, Tamar Melkonian, Alejandro Calderon-Urrea Aug 2014

Growing Conditions For Algae, Angeles Mora, Tamar Melkonian, Alejandro Calderon-Urrea

STAR Program Research Presentations

With the growing demands of water in California and the increasing cost of fossil fuels to operate water-cleaning equipment, Algae was cultivated in different concentrations of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium (NPK) during different trails to identify the best growing conditions for the removal water contaminates. Before testing algae in waste water, the Algae: Dunaliella Primolecta, Chlorella Vulgaris, and Scenedesmus Dimorphus were cultivated in four different media containing distilled water and plant vitamins. The different mediums used include: Orchid Grow More (20-20-20), Miracle Grow (30-10-10), Murashige & Skoog, and Orchid Bloom Boster (11-35-15). As a result of the investigation, the algae, …


Mother Convict Cichlids Inflict More Bites Upon An Intruder In Hot Temperatures, Jesse L. Heckendorf Aug 2014

Mother Convict Cichlids Inflict More Bites Upon An Intruder In Hot Temperatures, Jesse L. Heckendorf

STAR Program Research Presentations

Convict cichlids (Archocentrus nigrofasciatus) have developed to be extremely good parents by protecting their brood. Parental care leads to aggressive biting, chasing, and gill flaring to intimidate known predators. In this experiment, we show that environmental factors, such as the changing of temperature in this case, affect a female convict cichlid’s aggression toward caring for her offspring when an intruder is introduced. Females attack more in warmer water.


Injector Configuration And Development Of A Methodology To Scale Between Cold-Flow And Hot-Fire Evaluations, Ilian Angel Rojas, Nils Sedano Aug 2014

Injector Configuration And Development Of A Methodology To Scale Between Cold-Flow And Hot-Fire Evaluations, Ilian Angel Rojas, Nils Sedano

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is undertaking a program to improve the development of a gas-centered swirl coaxial liquid injector. The injector in a liquid rocket engine atomizes and mixes the fuel with the oxidizer to produce efficient and stable combustion that will improve stability performance and provide the required thrust for the rocket engine without endangering hardware durability. The rocket injector has been experimentally investigated by using a combination of methodologies called cold-flow and hot-fire testing which have been scaled by other laboratory facilities. The AFRL identified few condition parameters for hot-firing testing that could be simulated through …


Improving A Family’S Overall Quality Of Life Through Parent Training In Pivotal Response Treatment, Trevor W. Buckley, Angela P. Ente, Michael B. Ruef Jan 2014

Improving A Family’S Overall Quality Of Life Through Parent Training In Pivotal Response Treatment, Trevor W. Buckley, Angela P. Ente, Michael B. Ruef

Graduate Studies in Education

As the diagnoses of autism in young children continually increase, the need for families to have access to research-based treatment models that are effective and efficient has become clear. Current research demonstrates the demand for parent-delivered behavioral interventions. The aim of this single-case study, conducted as part of an integrated Masters in Education/Special Education Credential Program, was to examine the relationship between one parent trained in pivotal response treatment (PRT), her implementation of PRT techniques, and the correlated gains of behavioral compliance in her 6-year-old boy with high-functioning autism (HFA). Visual analysis of collected data as well as calculation of …


Mechanical Design Of Pird (Principal Investigator Rack Drawer) For Sofia, Hari Prasad Shetty Mr., Murali Krishna Kandlagunta Mrs., John Miles Mr., Zaheer Ali Mr. Aug 2013

Mechanical Design Of Pird (Principal Investigator Rack Drawer) For Sofia, Hari Prasad Shetty Mr., Murali Krishna Kandlagunta Mrs., John Miles Mr., Zaheer Ali Mr.

STAR Program Research Presentations

SOFIA, the world’s largest airborne observatory with 2.5-meter diameter infrared telescope is equipped with 7 instruments: EXES, FIFI-LS, FLITECAM, FORCAST, GREAT, HAWC, and HIPO. Flying at altitudes between 39,000 and 45,000 feet, SOFIA avoids 99% of the atmospheric water vapor, records and analyzes the infrared radiation from the cosmos. SOFIA is able to observe the occultation of stars by solar system objects. By determining the size, compositions, and atmospheric structures of these objects, SOFIA can help answer the questions on creation and evolution of the universe, formation of the stars and planets, and nature of black hole at the center …


If It Isn’T Tested, It Doesn’T Work: Automated Verification Of Sofia Data Handling Software, Garrett Holthaus, Brett Stroozas, Zaheer Ali Aug 2013

If It Isn’T Tested, It Doesn’T Work: Automated Verification Of Sofia Data Handling Software, Garrett Holthaus, Brett Stroozas, Zaheer Ali

STAR Program Research Presentations

This project involves writing code to automate the verification testing of the Data Handling Working Group (DHWG) software tools for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The DHWG tools extract engineering data from SOFIA missions. Engineering data includes a variety of information on the operations and status of SOFIA systems during a flight, including computer network traffic, user commands, and images acquired from cameras mounted on the telescope assembly. It is important to review engineering data because this data can lead to the discovery of any problems or inefficiencies in SOFIA hardware and software. Analysis of engineering data can …


From The Laboratory To The Classroom: Characterization Of Microorganisms Residing On Mars-Based Spacecraft, Ryan Hendrickson Aug 2013

From The Laboratory To The Classroom: Characterization Of Microorganisms Residing On Mars-Based Spacecraft, Ryan Hendrickson

STAR Program Research Presentations

Planetary Protection is a discipline that aims to prevent forward biological contamination of other celestial bodies from Earth sources that might interfere with the search and detection of extraterrestrial life on interplanetary missions, such as Mars lander missions. Before any Mars mission with planetary protection bioburden requirements can be launched, the Planetary Protection team at JPL collects samples from the spacecraft and performs the NASA Standard Assay to detect any aerobic, mesophilic microorganisms. My primary objective for the summer was to take 60 isolates from the MER rovers and create long-term glycerol stocks, one working stock, and perform DNA extraction …


Jellyfish Identification And Quantification In The San Francisco Estuary, Amalia Borson, Lindsay L. Sullivan, Wim Kimmerer Aug 2013

Jellyfish Identification And Quantification In The San Francisco Estuary, Amalia Borson, Lindsay L. Sullivan, Wim Kimmerer

STAR Program Research Presentations

As potential predators and competitors of plankton-eating fish, jellyfish have the potential to negatively impact fish populations. Jellyfish were collected weekly with plankton tows from the RombergTiburonCenterpier in Tiburon, CA. Since some jellyfish were too small to identify, one tow was collected and preserved to record abundances, and a second tow was collected to rear jellyfish until distinguishing characteristics were visible enough for identification. Jellyfish in the preserved tows were then identified, measured, and counted, and their abundance (number m-3) was calculated. Jellyfish from the second tows were reared in plastic buckets that were lightly bubbled using aquarium …