Engineering Commons^™

Design Of High Efficiency Doherty Power Amplifier, Kobi G. Kelly, Severin Pindell

Electrical Engineering

The project includes design and fabrication of a high efficiency power amplifier for a student design competition held at International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2023. Efficient power amplifiers are critical for base station communication requiring efficient use of available power. The final design optimizes power added efficiency (PAE) and linearity. The amplifier will operate at 2.45 GHz. Competitive PAE above 50%, and C/I above 30 dB is achieved by leveraging a Doherty class amplifier using accurate discrete CGH4006P transistor models to simulate an efficient and linear design. Unique design features include optimal transistor bias point selection and power split ratios between …

Plc Course Development, Leonard Hernandez, Jacqueline Grace Radding

Electrical Engineering

The goal of this project is to design and construct the first lab experiment for the newly developed EE435 laboratory course. The experiment entails PLC programming to automate LED lighting in a simulated building. Starting with why PLCs are used, how to use the interface of EcoStruxure Control Expert V15.0 and practice using logic to control the dimming of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) to sustain a certain number of lumens consistent in a zone. Through the lab manual developed in this project, students will gain experience of creating logic designs using Function Block Diagram (FBD) and learn the layout …

Improvements Of Hybrid Ac/Dc House Prototype, Arden Abude

Electrical Engineering

This is an iteration from previous designs of the Hybrid AC/DC House with a systematic addition of a portable AC power supply unit. This iteration for the Hybrid AC/DC House is an innovation of independence for sustainable housing solutions. It will serve as an alternative for rural communities needing power to rely on self-sustainable microgrids rather than large-scale AC electric grids. The addition of a portable AC power supply would allow the microgrid to remove its reliance on AC power from the larger grid and would elevate the system to complete energy independence. The microgrid has DC power generated from …

A Sindy Hardware Accelerator For Efficient System Identification On Edge Devices, Michael Sean Gallagher

Master's Theses

The SINDy (Sparse Identification of Non-linear Dynamics) algorithm is a method of turning a set of data representing non-linear dynamics into a much smaller set of equations comprised of non-linear functions summed together. This provides a human readable system model the represents the dynamic system analyzed. The SINDy algorithm is important for a variety of applications, including high precision industrial and robotic applications. A Hardware Accelerator was designed to decrease the time spent doing calculations. This thesis proposes an efficient hardware accelerator approach for a broad range of applications that use SINDy and similar system identification algorithms. The accelerator is …

Hybrid Wall Outlet For Ac Or Dc Power Delivery, Garrett Knoller, Kerr Allan, Greg Perini

Electrical Engineering

The goal of this project is to develop hybrid DC and AC wall outlets for an efficient, flexible power interface. A DC plug standard is also proposed to allow DC devices to be safely powered by the outlet with the correct DC voltage for each device. The primary objective is to create a power outlet compatible with the proposed DC plug as well as NEMA 5-15 AC plugs, enabling the same outlet to power both types of load as needed. The outlet is intended for buildings and systems transitioning to an isolated DC grid to encourage DC development and adoption. …

Dc To Ac Inverter For A Microgrid-Inspired Power Distribution Architecture For Electric Vehicles, Bryan A. Carrillo Martinez, Eli Blacklock, Paul A. Samson, William S. Holt-Hillis

Electrical Engineering

This project builds upon the prototyping of a microgrid-inspired power distribution architecture for electric vehicles (EVs). The efficacy of this prototype aims to inform a full-scale power distribution system that charges an EV battery, supports the electric grid with important ancillary services, performs peer-to-peer EV charging, and works in conjunction with other AC and DC sources and loads. The scope of this report focuses specifically on the design, construction, and testing of the DC/AC inverter. Future development of this distribution architecture will incorporate synchronous generators, a battery management system, and an Arduino/Raspberry Pi-based communication system to fully simulate an electric …

An Analysis On Wildfire Mitigations Employed By Utilities In California, Evan Luu

Master's Theses

As climate change continues to worsen, environmental effects are felt by many people around the world. In California, some of its most damaging wildfires have been found to be started by utilities. As the state continues to suffer from worsening wildfire conditions, the utilities need to implement a variety of wildfire mitigations to help reduce the risk of wildfires that can affect the state and its residents. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of four mitigations employed across three California utilities and suggests potential ways for the mitigations to be used together. The technologies evaluated are covered conductor, rapid earth fault …

Hardware-In-The-Loop Reaction Wheel Testbed With Camera Vision, Abigail Romero, Harvey Perkins, Stephen Kwok-Choon

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Reaction wheels are widely used in aerospace systems as a method of attitude control. This research was focused on the design, development, and testing of a hardware-in-the-loop reaction wheel testbed that can be used for research and teaching applications related to satellite navigation and control. This project successfully utilized commercial off-the-shelf components to develop a reaction wheel capable of controlling the orientation of a freely rotating platform, as well as tracking objects using computer vision.

Practical Podcasting: A Technical Guide To Producing Studio-Quality Podcasts, Jacob Sarmiento

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

Podcasting exists at the intersection of the technical aspects of audio engineering and disciplines such as journalism and story-telling. Podcasts at KCPR, the student radio station, cover a wide range of topics including the soundscape of the DIY music scene in San Luis Obispo (SLO) on SLO-Fi, the intricacies of navigating SLO on Cal Poly 101, the best of Cal Poly Athletics on The Gallop, and the voices of underrepresented populations on campus on Different Matters. KCPR utilizes podcasts to entertain and inform its audience of the various experiences possible as a Cal Poly student. As a student-run entity, KCPR …

Development Of Cal Poly’S Hybrid Ac/Dc House, Eduardo Andres Muñoz, Giovanni Ramirez Angel

Electrical Engineering

The Hybrid House provides an example for what sustainable housing solutions could look like. It also functions as a potential solution to the current rural electrification issues many developing countries face. The use of a DC-DC MISO converter allows for combining multiple power sources into a single DC bus. The Hybrid House integrates the DC bus by employing the use of DC-DC converters for home use. This system may potentially improve the overall system efficiency by avoiding the losses associated with AC-DC converters. The use of the DC bus further leverages the Solar Panel renewable energy solution to become a …

Sky Survey Radio Telescope, Jack E. Mcguigan

Electrical Engineering

This document outlines the design of a radio telescope designed to perform hydrogen line sky surveys. The telescope produces radio images mapping the intensity and relative velocities of hydrogen concentrations to their sky coordinates. Over the course of a day, the telescope images the regions of space visible to it, allowing sky survey imagery to be updated daily. Sky survey images are comprised of an array of pixels corresponding to specific sky coordinates. Each 8-bit RGB pixel contains information on the concentrations of hydrogen in the brightness and relative velocity in the color. Radio images mapping the concentrations and velocities …

Design, Modeling, And Testing Of A Novel Inductor For Electric Vehicles: Iron Nitride Soft Magnetic Composites, Sydney F. Fultz-Waters, Jacob Krynock

Materials Engineering

New technology for electric vehicles (EVs) must meet the requirements of higher energy usage, lower costs, and more sustainable source materials. One promising material for EV power system components is iron nitride (IN) soft magnetic composites (SMCs) because of their competitive magnetic properties and high abundance of the source materials. As part of an ongoing program at Sandia National Laboratories, this project focused on using computer modeling to optimize the prototyping process for an iron nitride SMC toroidal inductor to reach a target inductance of 600 μH. Four inductors with different combinations of wiring (26 AWG and 20 AWG) and …

Automotive Collision Warning System Retrofit, Ethan Clark Najmy

Electrical Engineering

In the early 2000s, few automakers began implementing forward collision warning systems in their cars. As technology advanced this system became available on more and more luxury cars. In recent years, this technology has spread to more affordable vehicles driven every day. However, as this technology has only recently advanced to less expensive, more economical cars, older vehicles of the same model may not have this advanced and important safety feature. This project investigates and creates a preliminary design for an affordable, easy-to-install, forward collision warning system that can be retrofitted to vehicles without the system currently installed. Using a …

Efficiency Study Of A Hybrid Ac/Dc House, Eunice Dominique Solomon Santiago

Master's Theses

With the proliferation of residential-scale renewable energy sources and DC loads, it has become attractive to use residential DC electrical system that could offer benefits over the legacy residential AC electrical system. The Hybrid AC/DC house provides a sustainable alternative to preexisting residential electrical system by having both AC and DC buses. The DC bus facilitates the connection from DC sources to DC loads, whereas the AC bus interfaces AC sources to AC loads. The study develops the equations to calculate losses based on a model consisting of four main components: Multiple-Input Single-Output (MISO) converter, AC-DC converter, inverter, and DC-DC …

Low-Cost Portable Laser Communication Device, Tom Elkayam, Basile Louis Scoffie

Electrical Engineering

The portable laser communication device (PLCD), is a low cost system used to set up networks in data isolated regions via an optical line-of-sight communications protocol. In this manner the PLCD transmits at 9600 baud using UART protocol over the visible light band at 635nm. The device is intended to operate in indoor conditions and be semi-permanent until redeployed. The PLCD is built as a transmitter, receiver pair and when installed, utilizes tracking to find each other and automatically set up communication within a window of 30° laterally and 10° vertically. Each side of the system is less than 15 …

Programmable And Modular Dc-Dc Converter, Joshua C. Hutchinson, Elijah M. Gordon

Electrical Engineering

This project considers the design, implementation, and testing of an open-source dc-dc converter for microgrid prototyping. Unlike conventional dc-dc converters that are proprietary and require specialist knowledge, and are usually designed for a single function, the proposed dc-dc converter will comprise of a programmable MCU and a Raspberry Pi (RPi) interface to allow less-skilled consumers to monitor and modify a power converting system. We will develop an open-source library that contains voltage control, current control, maximum power point tracking, and battery charge control profiles. Each library will be easy to implement through a GUI on the Raspberry Pi and will …

Hvac Fan Cooling System Using Modicon M580, Ogbonnaya Okoronkwo Okorie, Nicolas Jens Fache

Electrical Engineering

A common problem that many devices have when operating is overheating. Whether it is operating at full capacity or idle, those devices that we use exert heat to some type of extent. The physical and electronic components of the device can only withstand so much heat before the component becomes damaged. This product provides a method of preventing overheating by being a cooling system for your device. A solution for preventing overheating of the components in these electronic devices is by having some sort of cooling system. Our product’s cooling system will be based on energy efficiency, which means that …

Detecting Alzheimer's Disease Using Artificial Neural Networks, Sally Lee, Mia Keegan

Electrical Engineering

This project aims to use artificial neural networks (ANN) in order to detect Alzheimer’s disease. More specifically, convolutional neural networks (CNN) will be utilized as this is the most common ANN and has been used in many different image processing applications. The purpose of using artificial neural networks as a detect method is so that an intelligent way for image and signal analysis can be used. A software that implements CNN will be developed so that users in medical settings can utilize this software to detect Alzheimer’s in patients. The input for this software will be the patient’s MRI scans. …

Industrial Automation And Controls Lab: Smart Led Dimmer Control, Trevor J. Beck

Electrical Engineering

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are rugged industrial computers used extensively in many industries for automation and control. EE 435 is a course being developed to introduce students to PLCs. This project will focus on one section of the course, with the primary objective being to control the brightness of an LED based on input received from an ambient light sensor. The control logic will use a PLC with analog input and output modules to interface with the sensor and actuator hardware. The light sensor will output 4-20mA proportional to the intensity of visible light, measured in lumens. The analog input …

Variable Frequency Motor Drive Application, Jason G. Milne, Nick Mark

Electrical Engineering

This project entails the development of an electrical engineering undergraduate lab module focusing on utilizing a variable frequency drive (VFD) controlled with a programmable logic controller (PLC) — the Modicon M580. The variable frequency drive is a device that is able to automatically change the frequency of an object through automation without having to physically change the device that is being controlled (ex: fans, pumps, motors, etc.). This project will guide students to understand the software for programming and controlling the PLC within a 3 hour laboratory experiment. Throughout the lab, the students will learn how to implement the PLC …

Development Of Multiple Input Single Output Dc-Dc Converter, Ryan Bailey, Miguel Carmona, Jose Velez-Lopez

Electrical Engineering

This senior project report details the testing and validation of the designed DC-DC Multiple Input Single Output converter. The MISO uses four-switch buck-boost topology to output a single 48V from multiple nominal 24V inputs. The previous iteration of the MISO was plagued with an overheating mosfet that would drastically reduce the lifespan of the boards and reduce efficiency. This newest iteration includes more ground panes to combat the issues. In addition, the 200W MISO board was redesigned to utilize an edge connector for secure installment, removal, and replacement in the actual DC House system panel. The slots also have a …

Emulating The Doppler-Shift For Lora Based Low Earth Orbit Satellite Communication, Ariel Freiman, John Stephen Gharib

Electrical Engineering

This project investigates the adverse effects of the Doppler Shift on a LoRa waveform transmitted from a Low Earth Orbit Satellite or LEOSAT. This work is on behalf of Project OWL, who will use these results to justify further investment into developing a LEOSAT for their communication network. Part of the project is to design a test setup to replicate the Doppler Shift in the lab. The Doppler shift replication setup distorts the transmitted waveform, similar to how the signal gets distorted if sent from a LEOSAT. The test setup will comprise both software and hardware control, wherein software, the …

Spice Modeling Of Biosensing Field-Effect Transistor, Alex Castro

Electrical Engineering

This project created a user manual on how to generate an easily configurable and implementable Spice model for Field Effect Transistor (FET) devices created in the Cal Poly clean room. The document contained step by step procedures depicting the proper execution techniques and example results for different experiments required to gather the proper information for these models. This testing methodology was shown for finding the numerous different device parameters of a FET, including the I-V curves, threshold voltage, and subthreshold current values. The manual then described how to transfer this data into a new Spice model to allow for simulation …

Reaction Wheel Based Rocket Active Spin Stabilization, Tanuj Vemuri

Electrical Engineering

Cal Poly Space Systems is the high-powered and experimental rocketry club at Cal Poly SLO. They aim to design, test, and launch fully integrated launch vehicles. In order to create efficient and reliable vehicles, stabilization systems must be implemented. One parameter that can be actively stabilized is the vehicle’s roll. The roll of the vehicle can have noticeably effects on vehicle performance, as uncontrolled roll leads to decreased system stability in flight. Un-controlled roll can also have negative impacts on the quality of onboard video, which is used for post-flight analysis and marketing.

Reaction wheels are a popular method for …

Programmable Vibration Table Retrofit With Eagle Medical, Jonathan Ilagan, Madhav Asok, Max Lewter

Biomedical Engineering

This project aimed to repair and upgrade a vibration table used for package testing for the sponsor, Eagle Medical - a medical packaging and sterilization company based in Paso Robles, California. The current vibration table is not programmable and lacks circuit diagrams, making it difficult to repair. In addition, it is not functional due to internal circuitry issues and power requirements. To address these issues, the team will implement several upgrades to improve the product and allow for better random cyclic vibration testing. A full assessment of the existing vibration table will be conducted to ensure the viability of these …

The Design And Construction Of A Radio Telescope, Avery Elizabeth Bunting, Kira Hope Tolman

Architectural Engineering

Two architectural engineering students and an electrical engineering student worked together to design and build a radio telescope that is capable of using hydrogen line astronomy to map the galaxy. The telescope is made entirely out of aluminum, which, combined with small deflection limits, made for an iterative design process that focused primarily on constructability and supporting the desired outcomes of the electrical side.

Tank Level Controller Plc Lab, Siddhi Upadhyaya, Teghvir Grewal

Electrical Engineering

The California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo’s Electrical Engineering Department is currently developing lab experiments for the new EE435 (Industrial Power Control and Automation) class. In order to support these efforts, fourth year Cal Poly students are expected to develop laboratory experiments that will be conducted during this new class for the semester system. The lab experiment focused on in this project is called the Tank Level Controller. This experiment will introduce EE 435 students to Schneider Electric Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) hardware and software, which is prominent in the automation industry.
This experiment will require students to develop …

Analog Circuits For Computing, Nicole Christine Pickett, Lauren Cathy Sueko Chun, Dillon Ryan Nguyen

Electrical Engineering

This project entails designing, simulating, and verifying analog circuits that can perform essential computing functions for power systems applications. The project aims to remedy critical challenges associated with handling calculations digitally, namely, time and power. This project's scope includes creating a library of circuits in SPICE that can be used to model and simulate complex mathematical equations. From these SPICE models, the circuit can be constructed physically, where the solution can be generated in less time using less power than doing the computation digitally. The performance and efficiency of analog computing will be measured and compared to conventional digital methods.

Vr Force Feedback Gloves, Mark Wu, Claire Chen

Electrical Engineering

The goal of this project is to produce a manufacturing plan for a consumer VR glove. The total addressable market of VR is over 170 million global users as of 2022 (Kolmar , 2022) with a serviceable available market of 300,000 users on Meta’s own social platform (Heath, 2022). The targeted Quest 2 platform utilizes handheld controllers, which causes a lack of immersivity in social settings and gaming scenarios. One common use of the platform involves social platforms such as “Horizons” where users meet in a virtual world to interact; handheld controllers don’t allow users to shake hands, make finger …

Paired Storage Distributed Energy System Design For A Local Community Farm, Neil Albert Collison, Lily Goldman

Electrical Engineering

This project considers the design of a renewable energy microgrid for a 19-acre community farm in San Luis Obispo, CA as the farm seeks to increase the magnitude of its electrical loads, and gain back-up electrical capability. The microgrid design will enable lower carbon emissions, reduce demand on the utility grid while saving on energy costs, and provide improved reliability and resiliency to the operator of the community farm. The eventual implementation of the design by a professional engineering entity will allow the community farm to expand its education program to include renewable energy as well as gain notoriety in …