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Articles 1 - 30 of 53
Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Snowboard, Ski, And Skateboard Sensor System Application, Adrien Doiron, Michael Fernandez, Victor Ojeda, Robert Ross
Snowboard, Ski, And Skateboard Sensor System Application, Adrien Doiron, Michael Fernandez, Victor Ojeda, Robert Ross
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
The goal of this project was develop a sensor for the commercial market for skiers, snowboarders, and skateboarders that can give them the data such as speed, elevation, pressure, temperature, flex, acceleration, position, and other performance data such as trick characterization. This was done by using a variety of sensors, including a GPS, flex sensors, accelerometer, and others to provide data such as speed, position, position, and temperature. The sensors were placed in an external polycarbonate casing attached to the ski or board by using an adhesive pad on the bottom of the casing. These sensors then transmit the data …
Supercapacitor Power Management Module, Michael Brooks, Anderson Fu, Brett Kehoe
Supercapacitor Power Management Module, Michael Brooks, Anderson Fu, Brett Kehoe
Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses
The purpose of this senior design project is to create a charge management and output converting power module incorporating an array of supercapacitors as the energy storage medium. Conventional energy storage components, such as lithium-ion batteries, use electrochemical reactions to store and release electrons into a system. These batteries are slow to charge, highly toxic to the environment and delicate compared too many of the systems they are used in. Supercapacitors are noticeably more rugged and last hundreds to thousands of times longer than the average chemical reaction-based batteries we are used to using while capable of charging in less …
Cubesat Electronic Power System, Benjamin Lynch, Callie Wallace
Cubesat Electronic Power System, Benjamin Lynch, Callie Wallace
Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses
Cube Satellites are small satellites used by NASA and other non-governmental space companies as a cost-effective means to get a payload into space to perform research and develop new technologies. The Robotic Systems Lab at Santa Clara University has designed and launched several Cube Satellites over the last ten years. We will be continuing the design of a 3U CubeSat began by a senior design team last year. The goal of this project is to design and build an electronic power system (EPS) for the CubeSat. The EPS must be able to power all system components, including the communication board, …
Straw Bale Seismic Design Capacities 2, Beth Avon, Brittnie Swartchick
Straw Bale Seismic Design Capacities 2, Beth Avon, Brittnie Swartchick
Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses
Straw bale is a sustainable building material that repurposes agricultural waste for use in the structural system of buildings. This material will be used as a component in the lateral force resisting systems of walls, especially helpful in the California seismic environment and under heavy wind loads. The four main components of a post-and-beam method straw bale wall are timber framing, straw bales, wire mesh, and plaster. This report will focus on the design of the exterior plaster and the design of “workhorse” and “strong” walls for simple construction and areas of higher seismic activity, respectively. Our test results will …
Induction Phone Charger Case, Dante Eley, Nicholas Mason, Laurence Pringle
Induction Phone Charger Case, Dante Eley, Nicholas Mason, Laurence Pringle
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
This report discusses the project of creating a manual charging phone case for smartphones by means of electromagnetic induction. In today's world, smartphones are being used on the go more often, creating an increased demand for battery life. The capacity of current batteries cannot keep up with the constant usage of data in such activities as emailing, social media, apps, and more. We developed an efficient, ergonomic, and aesthetically pleasing phone case that can manually charge a smartphone without an electrical outlet, but by means of electromagnetic induction. This product would target two main demographics: business people who are constantly …
Digikey, Maziar Arjomand, Michael Hirabayashi, Tejender Singh
Digikey, Maziar Arjomand, Michael Hirabayashi, Tejender Singh
Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses
With the vast majority of university students carrying smartphones, more pieces of technology should take advantage of its availability. Currently, most lock and key systems are outdated and primitive. Our team is proposing a solution to this problem that makes use of the technology that we all carry in our pockets daily. Our solution, DigiKey, will improve security and ease of use along with adding on additional features to the current system with the use of smartphones as digital keys. DigiKey will utilize a database of digital keys that can be used from a smartphone to unlock a DigiKey lock …
Location Based Recommendation Application, Nicholas Dario, Steven Goetter, Christopher Polson
Location Based Recommendation Application, Nicholas Dario, Steven Goetter, Christopher Polson
Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses
For our senior design project we decided to make an iOS application that could generate a list of nearby locations for the user to visit. We wanted the recommendation list to be unique for each user instead of a list of the most popular locations in the area. To accomplish this we developed our own recommendation algorithm from scratch. The algorithm uses a tagging system in which users and system administrators are able to add and modify the tags associated with locations. By using the tags associated with each location and with each user, our algorithm is able to generate …
Cold Climate Solar Thermal Greenhouse Design, Samuel Health, Ashley Husbands, Cora Lemar, Moriko Tollan
Cold Climate Solar Thermal Greenhouse Design, Samuel Health, Ashley Husbands, Cora Lemar, Moriko Tollan
Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses
The design of a cold climate solar thermal greenhouse was inspired by a trip the design team took to the Denali Education Center (DEC) in Alaska. The DEC expressed the need for a greenhouse because the soil in Alaska is too cold to grow fresh vegetables and fruits during the late Spring and Summer months. A solar array located on the campus, currently used to heat Water, produces an excess amount of heat that needs to be directed elsewhere. By heating the inside of the greenhouse through the solar array, the DEC will be able to extend its growing season …
Talens: Genome Surgery, Carson Harms, Serena Lerkantitham
Talens: Genome Surgery, Carson Harms, Serena Lerkantitham
Bioengineering Senior Theses
Genetic engineering has always held great opportunity for the field of gene therapy. If the cause of a genetic disease can be determined, correction of this gene would allow for an efficient and permanent cure. However, current technologies utilizing engineered retroviruses have serious drawbacks that significantly limit their practical applications for gene therapy. In this project we investigate a novel genetic editing technology called TALENs. By utilizing a modular protein isolated from a plant pathogen that can be quickly and efficiently redesigned to recognize and bind to any desired sequence of DNA combined with a nuclease, we can target a …
Aeroponic Test Bed For Hypergravity Research, Shane Brunner, Theron Hawley, Mike Nichols, David Patzelt, Kurt Sprouse
Aeroponic Test Bed For Hypergravity Research, Shane Brunner, Theron Hawley, Mike Nichols, David Patzelt, Kurt Sprouse
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
Taking one pound of food to space costs over $10,000. A plant growth chamber in space would help reduce the cost of transporting food by creating a healthy, long-term source of food that can be used for extended space missions. Currently, there is a lack of knowledge in gravity response mechanisms of plants to facilitate employing such a system. The overarching goal of this project is to add to the current body of knowledge related to growing plants in space by conducting research regarding the effect of hypergravity on cherry belle radish growth. To successfully accomplish this goal, an aeroponic …
Swing Wing Aerial Drone (Swad), Chris Barton, Robert Gomez, Matt Kochalko, Kyle Nakagaki
Swing Wing Aerial Drone (Swad), Chris Barton, Robert Gomez, Matt Kochalko, Kyle Nakagaki
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles that have a variety of different applications in the field. Drones are very helpful for first responders such as firefighters, police, and even ranchers and large landowners. Most drones have a fixed wing. This report will show the design, construction, and fluid dynamic testing of a drone that has multiple wing positions. These modes are the straight wing position and swept back position. This design will change the flight profile of the plane, allowing for the user to launch at a faster speed and the glider to get to the desired location faster. Once the …
Vex Robotics, Ho Joon Cha, Joshua Del Real, Jamie Kalb, Thomas Nance, Jenny Yang
Vex Robotics, Ho Joon Cha, Joshua Del Real, Jamie Kalb, Thomas Nance, Jenny Yang
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
The objective of our project was to design and construct a control system for communication between two autonomous robots, of different size and capabilities, in an environment with numerous obstacles and challenges. These challenges, completed autonomously, involved moving over and under barriers along with the obtainment and transportation of spherical objects. Our project was tied to the VEX Robotics competition environment as we tested our robots by competing at the World Championships. Unfortunately, due to time and budget considerations, we had to scale back our sensor subsystem. This led to a simpler control system than originally intended; however, we were …
Solar Absorption Chiller, Craig Carlson, Mark Coulter, Claire Kunkle, Patrick Watson
Solar Absorption Chiller, Craig Carlson, Mark Coulter, Claire Kunkle, Patrick Watson
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
In developing nations access to electricity is inconsistent at best, and food spoilage is a prevalent issue. The solar powered absorption chiller is a refrigeration system designed to provide refrigeration to these developing areas. This year, our team has worked to develop a system where the sun's rays are collected as heat to power an absorption refrigerator. The goal of this project was to take an existing solar tracker system and use its collected heat to power a refrigerator. Our team designed and built heat exchangers to extract heat from the concentrated solar system; assembled components for a fluid circulation …
The Poverty Crusher, Rob Golterman, Brian Hammond, Thien-Ryan Le, Arvin Lie
The Poverty Crusher, Rob Golterman, Brian Hammond, Thien-Ryan Le, Arvin Lie
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
The Poverty Crusher team built a human-powered rock breaking device for the women in Nepal who make $1.50 - $3 per day crushing rocks. A prototype jaw-type rock crusher was designed and built over a period of several months. However, the device was unable to break rocks due to excessive bending in the connection points of the frame and in the crushing faces. Improvements were suggested for the next prototype, which include increasing the second moment of inertia of the crushing faces, using a welded frame, and generally decreasing the cost and weight of the device.
Design And Evaluation Of A Home- Scale Arsenic Removal System, Megan Alferness, Alexandria Casares
Design And Evaluation Of A Home- Scale Arsenic Removal System, Megan Alferness, Alexandria Casares
Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses
The problem of arsenic contamination affects millions of people worldwide. A home-scale arsenic removal system could provide families in Nepal access to clean drinking water. It would also reduce the risk of adverse health issues that are associated with ingesting arsenic contaminated water. Our experiments show that using electrocoagulation is an effective method of removing arsenic from water. We were able to get the level of arsenic below 10 ppb in 60 minutes of treatment using various system configurations. We identified several parameters that affect the treatment process, the most important being the charge loading, or the amount of charge …
Engineering An In Vitro Metastasis Platform, Justus Carlisle, Mark-Phillip Pebworth
Engineering An In Vitro Metastasis Platform, Justus Carlisle, Mark-Phillip Pebworth
Bioengineering Senior Theses
Although metastasis is the primary cause of cancer deaths and results in 90% of all cancer fatalities currently, all attempts to discover anti-metastatic drugs have failed. Many of the traditional methods of studying cell migration, using two-dimensional (2D) platforms, only study two-dimensional migration, which is fundamentally different and more multifaceted than the three-dimensional migration that occurs in vivo. To more accurately capture this in vivo variation, we developed a two-and-a-half-dimensional (2.5D) cell culture platform to better study three-dimensional (3D) migration. This platform consists of a layer of alginate on top of a monolayer of cells grown on tissue culture polystyrene …
Mobile Audiometry Application, Kevin Nguyen, Shweta Panditrao
Mobile Audiometry Application, Kevin Nguyen, Shweta Panditrao
Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses
The Mobile Audiometry Application hopes to utilize the ubiquity of the mobile device by providing a means of healthcare focused on audiometry. This application enables a mobile device to perform audiometric testing to detect a user's hearing range, and notify the user whether he or she is suffering from hearing loss. This project seeks to fulfill a social need for increased access to hearing testing by providing a portable, affordable, and reliable screening tool that is accurate. The result was sleek application that provided a calibration method, executed an audiometry test using accurate and calibrated files, displayed the results graphically, …
Bannan Engineering Laboratories Redesign, Pia Johanna Candelaria, John-Carlo Guevara, Andy Chi Truong
Bannan Engineering Laboratories Redesign, Pia Johanna Candelaria, John-Carlo Guevara, Andy Chi Truong
Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses
Due to the growing student body within Santa Clara University's School of Engineering, an increase in classrooms, laboratories, offices, and study spaces is needed to for student engineering resources. The objective of the Bannan Engineering Laboratories Redesign is to provide a preliminary structural design and corresponding construction management schedule and budget as an alternative to the existing single-story Bannan Engineering Laboratories building. The proposed design consists of three floors of versatile spaces: one basement and two stories above ground. The 160-ft by 68-ft building features eleven hybrid classroom/laboratories in the basement, seven standard classrooms on the first floor, fourteen faculty …
California Highway 1 Improvement Project Northern Monterey County, Ca, Marie Adams, Nick George, Shaun Shapiro
California Highway 1 Improvement Project Northern Monterey County, Ca, Marie Adams, Nick George, Shaun Shapiro
Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses
This project focuses on improving traffic flow and safety on a 4-mile segment of California Highway 1 between Moss Landing and Castroville in Monterey County. Improvements include partial widening, signalization, and intersection upgrades.
Reverse Protein Engineering Of Firefly Luciferase, Kahler Bugtong, Skyler Herczeg, Abraham Munoz, Alexandra Obata
Reverse Protein Engineering Of Firefly Luciferase, Kahler Bugtong, Skyler Herczeg, Abraham Munoz, Alexandra Obata
Bioengineering Senior Theses
Firefly luciferase is a bioluminescent protein commonly used as a bioluminescent tag in biological studies and applications. However, because the protein is fairly large in size, it is sometimes larger than the molecules it is intended to measure and is therefore not a sufficient tag in smaller applications. The active site of firely luciferase is also not well understood, making it difficult to engineer the protein without affecting its bioluminescent activity. In this paper, we discuss the experimental methods of Reverse Protein Engineering: a bioengineering technology that reduces the size of a protein while retaining its original function. This involves …
Wireless Impact Sensing Headband - W.I.S.H., Ryan Daly, Doug Furstinger, Tim Sashegyi, Nicklaus Schmidt, Mihir Shah
Wireless Impact Sensing Headband - W.I.S.H., Ryan Daly, Doug Furstinger, Tim Sashegyi, Nicklaus Schmidt, Mihir Shah
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
The prevalence of undiagnosed head injuries in the athletic world, and their associated health risks, is too great to ignore. This is especially true in non-helmeted sports where the availability of impact monitoring technologies is few and far between. In this paper, we discuss our wireless impact sensing headband technology that aids in the awareness and detection of potential concussions, from inception through design completion. Through the use of a custom-built validation system capable of simulating impact collisions, along with a series of experiments and revisions, our team was able to build a device that can sense and transmit data …
Benchtop Centrifuge For Materials Science, Jose Lizheno, Nathaniel Tseng, Ryan Tsuzaki
Benchtop Centrifuge For Materials Science, Jose Lizheno, Nathaniel Tseng, Ryan Tsuzaki
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
The Benchtop centrifuge for materials science was designed to be a versatile, cost-effective, user-friendly and safe centrifuge for the university setting. While a prototype was not completed due to running out of time for assembly, various forms of analysis were conducted including Natural Frequency Analysis and Finite Element Analysis. The team hopes that the work completed will provide a useful starting point for other teams that may wish to continue the project in the future.
Akabot: 3d Printing Filament Extruder, Emily Albi, Kevin Kozel, Daniel Ventoza, Rachel Wilmoth
Akabot: 3d Printing Filament Extruder, Emily Albi, Kevin Kozel, Daniel Ventoza, Rachel Wilmoth
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
3D printing could usher in a new age of localized manufacturing in places like Uganda, where three of our senior design team members spent the summer of 2013. Motivated by a concept for our senior design project, one of our team members interned with Village Energy, a small electronics business in Kampala, Uganda, as it piloted the use of a 3D printer to manufacture enclosures for its solar lights. The need for our project arose when we realized that although the 3D printer proved a viable method of manufacturing enclosures, Village Energy could not afford to continue 3D printing with …
Automated Precision Passing System, Bryan Herrera, David Savitz, Mikiah Raffaeli
Automated Precision Passing System, Bryan Herrera, David Savitz, Mikiah Raffaeli
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
Athletes are always seeking ways to improve their performance. Down time and a lack of capable throwers prevent athletic receivers from practicing their skills. We hope to aid athletes in receiving drills within their respective sports and increase practice efficiency. In order to achieve this, the machine has one major axis of rotation driven by a motor. This enables it to adjust where the ball is being thrown. Using an Arduino Uno coupled with a Roboteq AX1500 motor driver, the Automated Precision Passing System is able to throw a ball to a specified point in space by adjusting both the …
Santa Clara University Human Powered Vehicle 2013-2014, Peter Chester, Luis Flores, Ian Jones, Ryan Nakamura, Dylan Porter, Peter Stephens
Santa Clara University Human Powered Vehicle 2013-2014, Peter Chester, Luis Flores, Ian Jones, Ryan Nakamura, Dylan Porter, Peter Stephens
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
This document discusses the conceptual design for the 2013-2014 Santa Clara University Human Powered Vehicle. The objective of the Santa Clara University Human Powered Vehicle team is to design and manufacture a human powered vehicle that is practical, sustainable, and efficient. Key design features include a partial body fairing, tilt and ackermann steering, and cargo space. Ultimately we had to block out the tilt steering because its operation conflicted with the Ackermann steering. This vehicle's design satisfies the primary needs of a commuter and ultimately serves as a practical alternative to an automobile. Finally, this design complies with the requirements …
Rsl Rover: Robotic Systems Laboratory Rugged Offroad Vehicle For Experimental Research, Garrett Bonner, Owen Hale, Julian Pitt, Andrew Torrellas
Rsl Rover: Robotic Systems Laboratory Rugged Offroad Vehicle For Experimental Research, Garrett Bonner, Owen Hale, Julian Pitt, Andrew Torrellas
Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses
The goal of this project was to build an autonomous vehicle testbed for the Robotics Systems Laboratory. This testbed will be used by undergraduate, graduate, and faculty researchers to test different control methods, sensor combinations, vehicle control laws, and eventually autonomous navigation. This paper documents our accomplishments to achieve this goal; we built a hierarchical control system, robust actuator mounts, and an effective safety system. The result is a capable 6-wheeled offroad vehicle that can be electronically controlled by remote or directly by wire. A feed-forward control law was incorporated for speed control, yielding predictable performance given a desired speed. …
Mission San Jose Well Initiative, Mary Foran, Nonda Kozas, Daniel Lafranchi
Mission San Jose Well Initiative, Mary Foran, Nonda Kozas, Daniel Lafranchi
Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses
The objective of this community base project is to develop an irrigation system for a community garden that is sustainable and watered by one of the three wells on the Dominican Sisters' Convent property located in Fremont, California. The overall goal of this project is to have a submersible solar powered pump, which will pump water to a tank that will store water and function on a timer. This tank will then deliver water to the community garden as well as other areas on the property. This project focuses on both an environmental and water resources aspects of design work. …
Life Water, Colin Boyle, Scott Hanson
Life Water, Colin Boyle, Scott Hanson
Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses
A rainwater harvesting and treatment system was designed and constructed for the Hope for Life Ministry's home for street boys, located outside of Kigali, Rwanda. This system included two different components: a showering system and a potable system. The design and construction of the shower system utilized the roof space of the property's main building to capture water in two separate 10,000-liter tanks on either side of the building. Manual hand pumps were then installed in shower rooms located on either side of the building and were connected to the tanks with piping. 55-gallon barrels were placed in the shower …
Namebuzzer, Diane Keng, Haiwen Chen
Namebuzzer, Diane Keng, Haiwen Chen
Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses
The NameExpert is an iOS mobile application that will help users remember the names of new acquaintances. Many people often experience situations where they would run into someone they have been introduced to before, but could not remember the name to. Situations like this tend to instigate feelings of frustration and awkwardness between both parties. Names are important as part of identity and so the NameExpert would allow individuals to connect names to things like location of the meet, appearances, and other systematic ways. The NameExpert would utilize an algorithm that is derived from a proven psychological research regarding the …
Genome Editing Of Human Ipscs Using The Cas9 System, Cade Ellis Ito, Nick Wolfe
Genome Editing Of Human Ipscs Using The Cas9 System, Cade Ellis Ito, Nick Wolfe
Bioengineering Senior Theses
Recent research advancements in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have broadened their capacity for research in specific disease models3 need for effective and robust techniques to detect cell differentiation. Two techniques currently exist to determine cell type; morphology and immunostaining. Although they have been used by researchers for many years, these methods can be unreliable, time-consuming, and very uneconomical. We seek to create a technology that will be more accurate and efficient in detecting differentiation of iPSCs. This will allow researchers greater speed in screening for specific differentiation products, further increasing the utility of iPSCs in medical research. We will …