Engineering Commons^™

Robotic Arm Extrusion End Effector, Nicholas Viamin, David Blouin, Savannah Hunt, Nico Figueroa

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

This senior design project aims to enhance the capabilities of the Rotrics AIO Desktop Arm (Dexarm) by designing and implementing an extrusion device capable of smooth and consistent extrusion for 3D printing applications. The project focused on ensuring safety, affordability, and ease-of-use for users, while achieving precise control over the extrusion process. Various mechanical and electrical components were carefully selected to ensure compatibility with the Dexarm and to provide optimal performance. To maintain safety, extensive testing and risk assessments were conducted to minimize any potential hazards associated with the extrusion process. To achieve smooth and consistent extrusion, precise control mechanisms …

Neurogen: Eeg And Near-Infrared Light Stimulation Control System, Arnold Nieto, Jaylinn Solis, Matthew Tamanaha

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Light stimulation or transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) therapy has been shown to be effective when treating patients suffering neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. While there is currently no cure, light stimulation can help alleviate symptoms for those patient’s suffering from these diseases. With this in mind, the senior design team from last year began a prototype hybrid electroencephalography (EEG) and tPBM device. They implemented a specific wavelength of 810 nanometer (nm) near-infrared (NIR) light emitting diodes (LEDs), with a 16 channel EEG headset from OpenBCI. The device was intended to serve as a potential research tool, with a …

A Low-Cost, Long-Range, And Solar-Based Iot Soil Quality Monitor, Salvador Garcia, Trina Nguyen, Julian Wong

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The project objective is to create a low-cost, long-range, and solar-based IoT soil quality monitoring system. The system must transmit packages of data gathered from separate nodes, consisting of two dierent types of sensors, to a centralized gateway receiver to be displayed to the user in an elegant and readable manner. The end goal of the project is to supplement produce grown by large agricultural bodies around the United States without the misuse of water resources. This report presents the need for this system, details the components of the system, and the rationale behind design choices. It serves as a …

Neurogen: Eeg And Near-Infrared Light Stimulation Control System, Karina Sanchez, Sruthi Sakthivel, Michael Bose, Evan Jennings

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are widespread, affecting millions of people worldwide. These diseases occur when neurons in the brain or peripheral nervous system progressively lose function and deteriorate. Current pharmacological treatments manage some of the neurological symptoms, but there is no cure yet. Interventions that mitigate or restore loss of function can fill the void until that goal is met. Light stimulation, or transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) therapy, can help treat people with neurodegenerative diseases, as it has been shown to improve sleep, attention, memory, and cognitive function.

The objective of this project is to develop …

Crossroad - Avoid Crowd Intelligence, Xukun Zhang, Yuzheng Wu, Haochen Zhang

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Nowadays, waiting takes big chunks of daily-life activity. People may always find themselves facing long queues, waiting in a crowded facility, even when they have tried to avoid peak hours. Heading to a highly populated public area may have felt like heading to a battlefield. Without access to the real-time information of the facility, people start to discover that waiting starts to become an unpredictable event that can sometimes delay their schedule or even worse. This project serves as a solution to tackle this lack of transparency. Crossroad aims to combine facilities’ cameras with micro-controller to see the engagement of …

Jamming Attack Workaround Study, Soren Madsen, Jack Schoen

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a fast growing industry with strong footholds in the smart home market featuring devices such as the Amazon Echo, Ring security cameras, smart TVs, and much more. However, it doesn’t stop there; the industrial sector has begun using smart devices for measurement, automated tasks, and time sensitive communication. Many of these devices have become reliant on WiFi technology and are vulnerable to attacks on the security of the protocols involved.

In this paper, we discuss the details of the deauthentication attack on WPA and WPA2 systems and propose a solution for detection and recovery …

Mobile Nanogrid, Daniel Mendoza, Ben Mahony, Charles Ju, Michael Batshon

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The mobile nanogrid is a standalone mobile power solution which uses a combination of automatic and manual tracking mechanisms to maintain a solar panel's perpendicularity to the sun over the course of the day in order to maximize energy generation. The power can then be consumed by a user or stored. It is designed to be placed on the roof of a vehicle for the recreational camping market to meet the need for mobile power generation. A scaled-down functional prototype was designed in SolidWorks, modeled in MATLAB Simulink, fabricated in the machine shop using a combination of off-the-shelf and custom …

Adaptive Navigation Utilizing A Drone Cluster, Zach Cameron, Brendan Engh, Thomas Kambe, Aditya Krishnan

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The current infrastructure for drone piloting involves drones flying in a predetermined path to find an object, source, or target with a known location. Drones should be able to determine an optimal flight path mid-flight in order to find an undefined source or target given existing parameters that can be analyzed from incoming sensor data. However, a framework for such a feat is almost non-existent. Our project aims to build such a framework that allows for the control of and communication among multiple drones, called a cluster, and allows for in-flight analysis and processing of sensor information to determine how …

Developing A Skin Phantom For The Testing Of Biowearables, Tawni Henderson, Ju Young Lee, Matthew Placide, Kiran Sutaria

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

There is a demonstrated need in the biowearables industry for a benchtop model that can accurately emulate the perspiration mechanism and corresponding impedance vs. frequency spectra of skin. This model, or skin phantom, could increase the efficiency and accuracy of early-stage testing of biowearables, as well as minimize animal, human, and cadaver testing.

The objective of this project is to develop a skin phantom that can emulate the perspiration mechanism and impedance spectrum behavior of human skin for the testing of biowearables in the 2,000 - 20,000 Hz range. We also endeavored to create computer-simulated models to aid in the …

Epic: Examining Patch Impedance Characteristics, Shane Buck, Jyotsna Gopinath, Kyle Markfield

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

In the United States, approximately one in 4 adults have at least one chronic illness, making up approximately 84% of US Healthcare Spending. Unfortunately, 50% of patients with chronic diseases do not take their medication properly and as such spend more money trying to get better – approximately $100 billion in annual preventable costs. One solution to this issue is digital medicine as it allows for the monitoring of patient medicine consumption.

Our industry partner has developed a three-part digital medicine system with the aim of allowing patients with chronic health issues to better reach their health goals through monitoring …

Design Of An Urban Garden Aquaponics System, Riley Albright-Borden, James Wang, Sydney Thompson

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The project objective is to create a durable, off-the-grid, large-scale aquaponics system consisting of over 90 sq. ft of growing space, a 650-gallon fishpond, and four types of sensors to transmit water quality data to the internet for remote water quality monitoring. The end goal of the project is to supplement produce grown in the garden to further increase fresh, nutritional options available in meals cooked and distributed by Loaves and Fishes Family Kitchen to combat food insecurity in San Jose. This report presents the need for a system, details the various subsystems, and the rationale for the designs. It …

Lactic Acid Threshold Stimulator, Justin Brackett, Karen Carreon, Fernando Guerra, Malyna Sanchez

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

As a person works out, the threshold of lactic acid will build causing anywhere from discomfort to pain. Reducing the discomfort caused by lactic acid could greatly improve an individual’s performance while working out. Reducing this discomfort may be done through Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS), which is the procedure of contracting muscles through sending electrical signals. Our team’s goal is to create LATS, a wearable and mobile application that alleviates discomfort and aids muscle recovery during the intense parts of a workout. The system consists of a heart rate monitor to measure lactic acid levels, a garment that is worn …