Engineering Commons^™

Addition Of An Internship Prep Course To The Cm Curriculum, Zachary C. Boyle

Construction Management

The Cal Poly Construction Management program does an amazing job giving students opportunities to receive summer internships. Just about every student in the CM program will have some form of summer internship during their time at Cal Poly. All CM classes are designed to prepare students for internships. That being said, there is no specific class within the CM curriculum that is 100% Internship focused. Allowing students an opportunity to take a course that would focus on preparing them for their summer internships, students will be more confident and better equipped to take on the tasks of an intern at …

Risks Involved With Helicopter Operations On A Remote Jobsite, Noah Hohenester

Construction Management

Running a jobsite in a remote location adds unpredictable challenges and such experience is difficult to find. In mountainous terrain where road access is limited, the most efficient way to transport materials from the laydown yard to the jobsite is with a helicopter and a longline. Having an active helicopter on site comes with many detailed plans and preparations for safety risks, emergency evacuations, and lifting procedures. Many variables must be accounted for when getting a helicopter usage plan approved, and everyone in the field must be trained appropriately for any potential hazards. Projects like these are unique and many …

Hiinga Hospital Project - Uganda, Africa, Arley W. Landis

Construction Management

This paper outlines the role of a construction management student in the interdisciplinary development of an urgent care clinic and hospital in Kampala, Uganda. This interdisciplinary team was composed of five students all belonging to the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. The team was tasked by Hiinga Inc., a capital investment company, to provide a preliminary design and construction resources to aid with development of these facilities. Two construction management students worked on this project at different stages. The first student was tasked with constructability research and a preliminary estimate …

Comparison Between Shipping Container Homes And Regular Stick-Built Homes In California, Levi Robert Krull

Construction Management

The Research that was conducted was to examine the differences and similarities between shipping container construction and stick-built construction within residential homes in California. Shipping Container construction has grown in popularity and has continued to make its way into many different construction industries. I wanted to find the reasoning behind why this has continued to grow and if it could be a future way to construct Californian homes. This information could change how future homebuilders construct homes in California. This information could also provide a home that has a different cost, schedule, and features that could benefit the owner. After …

Rainwater Catchment System Designed For California Polytechnic State University Building 34, Jonah S. Aere

Construction Management

California Polytechnic State University currently receives its water supply from either Whale Rock Reservoir, for distilled water, or pumped from six ground wells, for agricultural use. Although the university’s Agricultural College requires a certain amount of water to grow crops, these demands are often not met due to the lack of water within these underground wells. A rainwater capture system could be constructed to ease the water supply burden which is already depleting, reduce wasted drainage, and maintain a sustainable agricultural water source without being dependent on other locations. This would benefit the institution by reducing imported water thereby saving …

Case Study On The Reduction Of Electrical Packaging To Help With Overall Construction Waste, Hailey Rodriguez

Construction Management

The construction industry has a significant amount of waste accumulated on every job site. This study utilizes research on the types of materials that make up waste and the waste management strategies behind it. Waste materials range from building materials, such as lumber and steel, to packaging materials, like plastic and cardboard. This paper concentrates on material packaging and discovering ways to eliminate some of the construction waste before materials even arrive on the job site. A case study was performed on electrical lighting fixture packaging to observe and analyze the different amounts of waste accumulated. This examination focused on …

Determining The Interest For A Drone Certification Course, Joel Alberto Ventura

Construction Management

The purpose of this study is to explore the interest of the Construction Management students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with drone usage and acquiring a drone license. This research paper analyzes students' prior skill sets that were gained from a past internship or class and if that exposure to drones is sufficient enough to apply those skills to the construction industry. Implementing a drone certification course will benefit both the students and companies in the construction industry. Within the construction industry there is a rise in popularity with using technology devices to track and collect data, …

Techniques Against Language Barriers: A Company Case Study, Bryan W. Cruz

Construction Management

The United States construction industry employed approximately 10.8 million people in 2020. Of these 10.8 million, an estimated 3.3 million, or 30%, were Hispanic workers. On construction job sites, workers are exposed to numerous safety risks, including falls, struck-by incidents, and electrocution. Unfortunately, some Hispanics or workers with limited English language skills encounter language barriers which cause additional safety concerns. Language barriers impact their communication and comprehension abilities and, consequently, their safety. For example, workers who do not speak English do not benefit from safety training conducted purely in English; they also cannot read operation manuals for machinery and equipment …

Use Of Gps And Smartgrade Technology In Heavy Civil Construction, Cristian Zarate-Ramirez

Construction Management

Heavy Civil is a sector in the construction industry involving a variety of different heavy machinery and construction practices. Technology has evolved as an important aspect in this sector striving to improve efficiency, productivity, and traditional construction methods. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is one of the many technological advancements that benefit any size of contractor in the heavy civil industry. With the help of a 3D model, base station, and rover, contractors implement advanced building methods that provide excellent owner satisfaction. Similar to GPS, SmartGrade is a tool integrated into heavy machinery that enhances performance without the need of …

Researching The Demand Of A New App That Reinvents The Way General Contractors And Subcontractors Communicate, Biko Kavalam

Construction Management

This is a research study on the need for a new service that increases efficiency and profit for commercial construction companies. Contractors need an efficient way to hire subcontractors; through detailed and thorough research, we have found a way to make that possible. The research methodology used for the duration of the project is presented. This included contacting general contractors, subcontractors, and owners and discussing in detail the demand for a service like the one proposed. From these discussions, themes like credibility, understanding the market, and finding the right audience were recorded. The results that were obtained reassured us that …

Smartphone Detector, Ryan Coldiron

Electrical Engineering

There is a wide variety of times when it is unacceptable to be using a smartphone, and this device could help to minimize when people are using their devices. People have become more and more reliant on their various pieces of technology such as their smartphones, and are often using them when they should be paying attention in class, attending an important meeting, watching a movie, or should just be present to their other surroundings. A device that could detect the use of smartphones at these inopportune times would be something that would benefit a wide variety of people.

The …

Battery Energy Storage System, Carlos Gonzalez, Philip Tafoya, Mariely Caraballo, William Hoang

Electrical Engineering

The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project consists of bringing an existing photovoltaic battery energy storage system into service within Cal Poly’s Energy Conversion Lab. Information regarding the BESS is limited to the existing manuals as the original equipment manufacturer has ceased supporting the product in the United States. Results from previous projects on the BESS speculated that a DC input may be required to enable the system’s to be fully operational. The goal of the project is to provide a DC input into BESS and test the system’s functionality. Initially, a Photovoltaic Thevenin Equivalent was expected to be utilized …

Diy Cell Incubator, Hayden James Jeanor

Electrical Engineering

The purpose of creating a cell Incubator is for the development of cell and tissue production in laboratory settings. Large scale research projects and the medical community grow cells for various reasons, including experiments and creating tissue for patients. However, they cannot simply depend on growing cells in a petri dish that sit on a rack at room temperature. To grow heathy cells in the fastest way possible, they use cell incubators. Cell incubators create an atmosphere within the incubation bay that is designed to promote cell growth. The three main components that need to be constantly regulated, using a …

Guitar Note Analyzer - Picking Patterns & Scales, Tamara Lynn Houalla

Electrical Engineering

The Guitar Note Analyzer helps beginner-to-intermediate guitar players advance their playing skills. The project detects the successive picks of guitar strings in real time at a rate of two notes per second. The device detects the frequency of notes played within the range of 50Hz – 1.5KHz. The hardware – microphone sensor, amplification circuitry, and microcontroller - is secured inside the sound hole of the user’s guitar. The hardware extends out of the guitar and connects to the user’s laptop via a USB cable. This allows relevant information to be displayed live to the user on their monitor, and to …

Investigation Of Temperature, Solution Strength, And Applied Stress Effects On Cation Exchange Processes In Geosynthetic Clay Liners, Kurt Katzenberger

Master's Theses

A laboratory test program was conducted to investigate the effects of temperature, solution strength, and applied stress over increasing conditioning durations on cation exchange processes in sodium bentonite (Na-B) geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs). The test program was intended to determine if the variables of temperature, solution strength, and applied stress had beneficial or detrimental effects on the engineering behavior of Na-B GCLs in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills and laboratory testing applications. Needlepunched-reinforced, double non-woven Na-B GCL specimens were conditioned in fluids of increasing ionic strength (DI water, 2 mM CaCl2, 50 mM CaCl2, and 200 mM CaCl2 representing control, …

Panodepth – Panoramic Monocular Depth Perception Model And Framework, Adley K. Wong

Master's Theses

Depth perception has become a heavily researched area as companies and researchers are striving towards the development of self-driving cars. Self-driving cars rely on perceiving the surrounding area, which heavily depends on technology capable of providing the system with depth perception capabilities. In this paper, we explore developing a single camera (monocular) depth prediction model that is trained on panoramic depth images. Our model makes novel use of transfer learning efficient encoder models, pre-training on a larger dataset of flat depth images, and optimizing the model for use with a Jetson Nano. Additionally, we present a training and optimization framework …

Hypoxic Incubation Chamber, Simone Lisette Helfrich, Makenzie Nicole Jones

Biomedical Engineering: Graduate Reports and Projects

This paper describes the design, manufacturing, and testing of a novel controllable hypoxic incubator with fully functional oxygen gas control and temperature control in a humid environment. On the current market, a majority of the few hypoxic incubators use pre-mixed gas that does not offer precise control over gas concentration. The objective for this project was to create a chamber that allows the user to set the O2 concentration to varying set points of % O2 while maintaining the chamber at a constant body temperature, CO2 level, humidity, and sterility. To start the project, multiple concepts were developed for the …

Hypoxic Incubation Chamber, Simone Lisette Helfrich, Makenzie Nicole Jones

Master's Theses

This paper describes the design, manufacturing, and testing of a novel controllable hypoxic incubator with fully functional oxygen gas control and temperature control in a humid environment. On the current market, a majority of the few hypoxic incubators use pre-mixed gas that does not offer precise control over gas concentration. The objective for this project was to create a chamber that allows the user to set the O2 concentration to varying set points of % O2 while maintaining the chamber at a constant body temperature, CO2 level, humidity, and sterility. To start the project, multiple concepts were developed for the …

Iris Detection Authenticator, Nathan D. Tang, Bryan K. Chau

Electrical Engineering

The development of iris biometric identification recognition is presented. Iris recognition differs from other methods because data acquisition is non-physical and is more accessible. It has been proven that the iris does not change as an individual ages and is well protected from external damages due to the eyelid and cornea, acting as a shield to the iris. In addition, the iris is almost impossible to forge due to its complex patterns and the current limitations in technology. Using Canny Edge Detection, Hough Transform, rubber-sheet normalization, Histogram of Gradient feature extraction, and the MultiMedia University iris database as our subjects, …

Evaluating Smartrock Temperature Sensor Performance In Measuring Concrete Strength, Jack Dasch

Construction Management

Concrete testing is one of the most important parts of the concrete placement process. Traditionally, this is done through the use of 6x12 cylinders cured in a lab that are broken at various stages of the curing process. These cylinders are not necessarily representative of the in-situ concrete because of their differing curing conditions- indoors versus exposed to the elements. Wireless temperature sensors, like Giatec’s SmartRock, have the potential to determine concrete strength based off the temperature of the placed concrete over time, thus eliminating the need for cylinder breaks. Once calibrated to the specific mix design, these wireless sensors …

Testing And Verification For The Open Source Release Of The Horizon Simulation Framewortesting And Verification For The Open Source Release Of The Horizon Simulation Framework, William J. Balfour

Master's Theses

Modeling and simulation tools are exceptionally useful for designing aerospace systems because they allow engineers to test and iterate designs before committing the massive resources required for system realization. The Horizon Simulation Framework (HSF) is a time-driven modeling and simulation tool which attempts to optimize how a modeled system could perform a mission profile. After 15 years of development, the HSF team aims to achieve a wider user and developer base by releasing the software open source. To ensure a successful release, the software required extensive testing, and the main scheduling algorithm required protections against new code breaking old functionality. …

Fabrication Of Thin-Film Composite, Reverse-Osmosis Membranes With Polyethylenimine Modifications For Enhancing Membrane Fouling Resistance, Stephanie N. Hamilton

Master's Theses

Increasing water reuse opportunities for communities has become increasingly important as access to clean water is becoming more scarce. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is an advanced treatment technology used in water recycling wastewater for potable reuse applications. RO is a promising technology; however, the membranes have limitations including their high energy demand and their susceptibility to membrane fouling. The main objective of this study was to develop a reproducible method for the fabrication of RO membranes with enhanced flux and reduced susceptibility to fouling. Literature contains numerous publications on fabrication of thin film composite (TFC) RO membranes with high performance. However, …

Functionality Of The Gracilis Collateral Is Impaired Following Arteriogenesis And Cell Transplantation, Ada A. Tadeo

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral Arterial Disease involves narrowed arteries, reducing blood flow to limbs. Increasing blood flow to those extremities is possible by redirecting the blood to flow through natural bypasses (i.e. collateral arteries), which can enlarge via arteriogenesis to maintain blood supply once the prominent arteries have become occluded. This study aims to investigate how arteriogenesis affects collateral function, if myoblast transplantation can stimulate collateral growth, and how that in turn may affect collateral function. Femoral artery ligation was performed to mimic the blockage that occurs in patients with ischemic diseases on lean mice and mice with diet induced obesity (DIO). A …

Comparison Study Of Laboratory Testing Programs Exploring The Influence Of Initial Static Shear Stress On Liquefaction Triggering, Micaela Saqui

Master's Theses

Current state of practice for calculating liquefaction triggering and deformations is outlined in multiple published articles (Seed 1971, Youd et al. 2001, Idriss and Boulanger 2008, National Academies of Sciences 2016, etc.). These methods use a factor of safety analysis with the cyclic stress ratio (the cyclic stress caused by the earthquake normalized by the effective vertical stress in the soil) and the cyclic resistance ratio (the resistance of the soil normalized by the effective vertical stress in the soil). These cyclic ratios are calculated first for free-field sites (no external forces on the soil), then correction factors are used …

Abbott Cardiac Electrophysiology Wet Lab Project, Melissa Kurani, Fiona Lynn

Biomedical Engineering: Graduate Reports and Projects

Cardiac mapping systems provide electrophysiologists with pertinent information about ablation treatment plans for patients who suffer from cardiac arrhythmias. This thesis describes the process of designing a functional wet lab that integrates with Abbott’s EnSite Precision 3D Mapping System, with the purpose of providing Cal Poly students and faculty with an opportunity to have a hands-on learning experience with cardiac mapping. This project encompassed a thorough literature review of cardiology, electrophysiology, and in vitro lab systems, followed by the design, manufacturing, and evaluation of a functional and anatomically representative wet lab. This is a continuation of previous master’s projects that …

Developing Positive Thermal Coefficient (Ptc) Heaters For Solar Electric Cooking, Katarina Ivana Brekalo, Andrew Shepherd

Physics

Positive Thermal Coefficients, PTCs, are materials that abruptly change in resistance in response to changes in temperature. The purpose of this experiment is to explore the viability of using the switching type ceramic PTC thermistor as a replacement for current resistive heaters. These types of PTCs have a nonlinear change in resistance with increases in temperature. This device will be used as a temperature-controlling heating element intended to power an Insulated Solar Electric Cooker (ISEC). The ISEC is designed to cook meals throughout the day for impacted communities as an alternative cooking method that doesn’t require biofuel as an energy …

Removing Soluble Phosphorus From Tertiary Municipal Wastewater Using Phosphorus- Deprived, Filamentous Microalgae, Aloysia Ahern

Master's Theses

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can be detrimental to ecosystems, human health, and economies. The low levels of phosphorus remaining in the effluent of municipal wastewater treatment plants can contribute to HAB formation. To achieve more complete phosphorus removal, an effluent treatment method has been proposed that uses phosphorus-deprived, filamentous microalgae to quickly assimilate soluble phosphorus to low concentrations. This study investigated two parameters that influence the feasibility of such a system: (1) the biomass growth productivity of algal cultures during the phosphorus deprivation period and (2) the correlation between the duration of this period and the phosphorus uptake rate by …

Differing Moisture Content In Concrete And Mitigation Methods: Research Of Sacramento, Taylor S. Tonda

Construction Management

The city of Sacramento and its concrete foundations face one of the most challenging conditions in the flooring industry, high RH Moisture. RH Moisture or Relative Humidity Moisture is one of the main causes for flooring systems to fail. The source of High RH Moisture consists of surrounding geographic features like rivers, flood plains, and elevation, as well as improper or nonexistent use of a vapor barrier beneath the concrete foundation. Mapping and other data is used to support these claims. If a flooring system is not properly prepared for high RH Moisture levels, issues such as bubbling, delamination, and …

Construction Of Modular Concrete Footings For Use In Cal Poly’S High Bay Laboratory, Tyler W. Giddens

Construction Management

This project-based senior project had the end goal of creating two concrete modular foundations that can be used in the High Bay Laboratory for testing procedures. The concrete modular blocks are 6’ long by 3’ wide, and 1.5’ tall. The foundations each held 100 embeds. Each embed serves as an anchor point for various attachments for testing purposes. This was an interdisciplinary project amongst two CM students and one ARCE student. The ARCE student was responsible for the design of the blocks, encompassing the formwork and the rebar. The CM students were responsible for estimating, scheduling, and the construction of …

Potassium And Sodium Sensing Isfet Device And Array, Liam Stephen Hayes

Electrical Engineering

The use of Ion-Sensitive Field Effect Transistors (ISFETs) as a means of testing a person’s potassium concentration in real-time has broad applications in the consumer space. An avid runner could use such a device to keep track of their hydration and salt levels. A hospital could use it for patients who require around-the-clock remote monitoring, and a variation of ISFETs are currently being used as continuous glucose monitors for diabetes patients. While ISFETs are not a new development in the field of microelectronics, their use as wearable devices has recently become relevant. The goal of this project is primarily to …