Engineering Commons^™

Biofuel Gasification For Residential Heating, Bryan Duke, Courtney Mcintosh, Jeron Hogan

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Autonomous Golf Cart Firmware, Gerik Kubiak

Computer Engineering

The Autonomous Golf Cart Project is a project sponsored by the Cal Poly Robotics Club. The multidisciplinary team is adding sensors and electronics to a regular golf cart with the goal to drive the golf cart around campus without and human input. This task requires a plethora of hardware and firmware to control that hardware. The firmware provides an interface for higher level software to then control the hardware and therefore drive the golf cart. This report is focused on the hardware modifications and the firmware used in order to drive the golf cart from a computer.

Electronic Deer Warning System, David Zhuo, Anlang Lu

Computer Engineering

Deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs) are extremely dangerous, often injuring or even killing drivers. Unfortunately, this form of automotive accident is commonplace in the United States. According to the NHTSA, DVCs result in 200 human deaths a year.2

Despite these deadly incidents, there currently are no deployed federal or state systems for preventing DVCs. There are many consumer electronic deer deterrent products, but their long-term effectiveness is questionable.3 In fact, there does not appear to be much research into electronic deer deterrent systems. Aside from constant audio output and electric shock, no other means of electronic deterrent exist. Even if fixed deterrents …

Power Distribution:Protection Analysis, Avneet S. Samra

Electrical Engineering

The objective of this project is to build a radial distribution system that operates on a lower voltage. The system consists of a transmission line protected by a SEL-351 Relay, a three- phase transformer protected by a SEL-587 Relay, and a three-phase induction motor protected by a Cooper Form 6 Controller. The SEL-351, SEL-587, and the Cooper Form 6 Controller are microprocessor-based relays that are used to provide protection under faulted conditions. When a fault is detected in the system, the closest upstream relay sends a trip signal to its assigned local breaker. The SEL-351 provides overcurrent protection for the …

Active Contact Lens - Low Power Backscattering Sensor-To-Antenna Integration Circuitry, Caleb B. Porter

Electrical Engineering

The Active Contact Lens measures the cornea-scleral radius of the wearer’s eye, which correlates to intraocular pressure (IOP), Glaucoma’s primary indicator. IOP varies throughout the day, and is drastically different from person to person, so constantly measuring it over a period of a few days can provide individualized tracking of the disease’s development and will help doctors develop personalized treatment schedules to treat the disease more precisely.

The Active Contact Lens sensor measures strain, based on the cornea-scleral radius, and reports the results wirelessly, to allow monitoring of an individual’s IOP over time. The lens is powered similarly to a …

Designing A Power Distribution System For The Arce 257 Revit Structural Model, Reid Wilhelm

Electrical Engineering

The construction industry needs engineers. Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers, better known as MEPs, comprise a large number of employees who design and assist in the building of commercial structures. In particular, electrical engineers design power distribution systems for these buildings, including the power, lighting, low voltage, and fire protection subsystems.

Here at Cal Poly, architectural engineers enrolled in ARCE 257 create authentic structural plans for a fictitious two-story structure. This senior project transforms these structural plans into an architectural model and creates a power distribution system for the entire building. This is done through a building information modeling (BIM) …

3-Axis Automated Probe Traverse For Aerodynamic Testing, Tananant Boonya-Ananta, Ricky Wai, Zander Oostman, Teyvon Brooks

Mechanical Engineering

Our primary objective is to design, build, and test an automated traverse to hold measurement probes in Cal Poly’s low speed wind tunnel. The device should cause minimal flow disturbance. It’s movements must be able to cover eighty percent of the three-dimensional test section. The device should have a mounting point for interchangeable probes. The assembly is to be integrated with the current frame structure on the wind tunnel test section, and should allow very minimal deflection of the measurement probe. The user should be able to control the motion of the traverse via a computer interface which supports automatic …

Revolutionized Additive Manufacturing, Matthew Walker, Winthrop Townsend, Luca Fuller

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Functional 3-D Cellulose And Nitrocellulose Paper-Based, Microfluidic Device Utilizing Elisa Technology For The Detection/Distinction Between Hemorrhagic And Ischemic Strokes, Alicia Leanne Holler

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis project is to demonstrate and evaluate an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) on a paper microfluidic device platform. The integration of ELISA technology onto paper microfluidic chips allows for a quantitative detection of stroke biomarkers, such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Dye experiments were performed to confirm fluid connectivity throughout the 3D chips. Several chip and housing designs were fabricated to determine an optimal design for the microfluidic device. Once this design was finalized, development time testing was performed. The results confirmed that the paper microfluidic device could successfully route fluid throughout its channels at …

Fiber Glass Mat Splice Automation, Max Weinstein, Charles Scott Forbes, Max Kilpatrick

Mechanical Engineering

Currently, GAF has two operators manually splice together each roll of fiberglass mat. To save money and resources, GAF wants to automate this splicing process. Our team is responsible for stage 3 of 5 in this automation process. We are responsible for ensuring that the system is able to move autonomously to the necessary positions required for splicing together the rolls of fiberglass mat. We have determined the best solution for accomplishing this movement is to use linear slide actuators. This document will describe the process by which we arrived at our solution, the details of our solution, and a …

Compression Molded Composite Component, Greg Hermansen, Larsson Johnson, Joanne Medrano, Kyle Hammell

Mechanical Engineering

The following final design report outlines the design and fabrication of a carbon fiber compression molded sunglasses case. It intends to guide the development of a future lab activity for a composites undergraduate course at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo. The activity aims to support an educational investigation in "out-of-autoclave" composites manufacturing methods, such as compression molding, which offer some key benefits over autoclave molding. The methodology behind the creation of a conceptual design, an initial prototype, and a final product is laid out in detail below.

Cal Poly Microgrid - Solar Panel Mounts, Dylan Mayer, Christian Odegard, Gregory Pellegrino, Connor Mckay

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Photovoltaic Installation In Ecuador And The Amazon, David Mulder

Construction Management

The Photovoltaic Installation in Ecuador and The Amazon is part of a collaborative effort between two major construction clubs at Cal Poly: NECA and MCAA. Four students, two from each club, traveled with two faculty to install photovoltaics for two different communities. The first project was a solar installation to provide fresh water for the community of Santa Rosa. Project number two, was a sixteen-panel installation in Shell, Ecuador for the non-profit Reach Beyond. The main goals of each project were to provide fresh water, and achieve net zero electrical consumption.

Feasibility Study Of Using Recyclable Polyethylene (Pet) Materials As Coarse Aggregate For Concrete Mixtures, Philip M. Angelo

Construction Management

The feasibility of using recyclable household plastics, specifically those made of polyethylene, commonly used in water and soda bottles, as a replacement for concrete coarse aggregate, was assessed. A method was developed for cutting polyethylene materials into fibrous strips. These strips were then used as a replacement for the rock coarse aggregate in batches of concrete. Standard 6” x 12” test cylinders were made using the concrete mixture and subject to destructive compressive testing in order to yield the compressive strength of the concrete mix 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after pouring. Three mixtures were tested, one control with …

Carpenters Apprenticeship Internship: Student And Industry Perspectives, Chris Falco

Construction Management

The Carpenters Apprenticeship Internship program is designed to provide students the opportunity to work as a construction laborer and get hands-on work experience. The goal of this study is to address the perceived benefits of the Carpenters Apprenticeship Internship with respect to the students, the industry members, and the union. In looking at the benefits this opportunity presents, any value that is aligned among the parties involved will be highlighted to convey the mutual advantages. Lastly, the demand among students for experience such as this will be assessed to see what the perceived value of labor experience is among students …

Technology Adoption By California Central Coast Contractors, Nicholas A. English

Construction Management

Technology is trending in Construction, but it is unclear if smaller contractors have kept up with these trends like larger national companies have. This survey of San Luis Obispo County specialty and general contractors queried technology adoption, specific software use, estimator age, and opinions of various estimating attributes. It found that the majority of contractors use traditional estimating and quantity takeoff methods, the majority of contractors are 31 years old or older, and that local estimators value experience and knowledge as opposed to computer expertise. Local contractors recognize the value technology can provide, but have not adopted it in a …

Construction Of A Chicken Coop For Use By An Early Education Facility, Luke Cypress

Construction Management

There is a demand in the early education field for methods of exposing early learners to where our food comes from and how it’s produced. An excellent source of this exposure is commonly utilized in an onsite chicken-coop. These coops are in essence working farms, producing eggs and in some cases meat. While coops are not prohibitively expensive they often fall outside the scope of normal operating or educational budgets and can be difficult to fund. The purpose of this project was to identify a school that could use and benefit from a coop at no cost to the school. …

Kihefo Vocational Center: Kabale, Uganda, Jason Matthew Angerer

Construction Management

Journeyman International (JI) is a non-profit organization which acts as a platform for bringing together volunteer Architects, Designers, Engineers, and Construction Managers with humanitarian projects around the world. Kigezi Healthcare Foundation (KIHEFO) a non-profit NGO located in Kabale, Uganda is a client seeking to build a vocational center to educate the workforce of Uganda. The center will include multi-purpose class rooms, a dining hall, rabbit farm, carpentry shop, and living complex. The Architect on the project was Courtney Wedel from Cal Poly. As the Construction Manager on the project my responsibilities include; Design Assist, Feasibility Analysis, Scheduling, Estimating, and Managing …

A Case Study On Achieving 100% Customer Satisfactory Homes In Production Home Building, Garrett Whitlock

Construction Management

No abstract provided.

Solar Car Suspension System, Alex Power, Adam O'Camb

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Cal Poly Engineering Photobot: Final Design Review, Samantha Clements, Carlos Esquivel, Kassandra Rodriguez, Aubrey Russell

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project was to create a remotely controlled camera device; the PhotoBot captures images and videos of various plants and perhaps animals for biological analysis. The features for such a device allows a user to capture images and videos from various angles and heights with minimal outside assistance. Furthermore, the device is designed for users that do not wish to spend an extensive amount of time and effort taking pictures and videos in the rainforest. The key constraints of the device includes safety, versatility, ease of use, and durability. Ultimately, this project was completed for Dr. Cris …

The Impacts Of Arterial Occlusion, Sex, And Exercise On Arteriogenesis And Functional Vasodilation, Megan Tze-Mei Chu

Master's Theses

The most frequent clinical presentation of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) is intermittent claudication, which may be caused by impaired vasodilation. Patients demonstrate both local and systemic impairments in vasodilation, but as the collateral circulation is the primary site of resistance to the ischemic zone, impaired collateral vasodilation would have the greatest potential to induce claudication. Collateral function following arterial occlusion is not well defined, but immature collaterals may demonstrate impaired vasodilation in animal models, although this is potentially improved with exercise training. Furthermore, as females exhibit poorer physical function with ischemia and less improvement with therapeutic exercise, there appears …

Assessment Of Asymmetric Flight On Solar Uas, Eric Belfield

Master's Theses

An investigation was conducted into the feasibility of using an unconventional flight technique, asymmetric flight, to improve overall efficiency of solar aircraft. In this study, asymmetric flight is defined as steady level flight in a non-wings-level state in- tended to improve solar incidence angle. By manipulating aircraft orientation through roll angle, solar energy collection is improved but aerodynamic efficiency is worsened due to the introduction of additional trim drag. A point performance model was devel- oped to investigate the trade-off between improvement in solar energy collection and additional drag associated with asymmetric flight. A mission model with a focus on …

Design, Analysis, And Simulation Of A Jitter Reduction Circuit (Jrc) System At 1ghz, Run Bin Yu

Master's Theses

The clock signal is considered as the “heartbeat” of a digital system yet jitter which is a variation on the arrival time of the clock edge, could undermine the overall performance or even cause failures on the system. Deterministic jitter could be reduced during the designing process however random jitter during operation is somehow less-controllable and unavoidable. Being able to remove jitter on the clock would therefore play a vital role in system performance improvement.

This thesis implements a 1GHz fully feedforward jitter reduction circuit (JRC) which can be used as an on-chip IP core at clock tree terminals to …

Development Of Cal Poly's Shock Table, Christopher D. Risner

Master's Theses

Shock is one of the environmental tests that a spacecraft must pass before being cleared for launch. Shock testing poses a challenging data acquisition issue and careful selection of equipment is crucial to creating a successful shock test facility. Cal Poly’s CubeSat programs can currently perform all environmental testing other than shock themselves, so a quality shock table would be useful. Previous groups of students had developed a shock table, and this paper details the improvement and characterization of that shock table’s behavior. Several adjustable parameters were tested and documented to discover trends in the shock table’s response to an …

Quantifying Parkinson's Disease Symptoms Using Mobile Devices, Charles R. Aylward

Master's Theses

Current assessments for evaluating the progression of Parkinson’s Disease are largely qualitative and based on small sets of data obtained from occasional doctor-patient interactions. There is a clinical need to improve the techniques used for mitigating common Parkinson’s Disease symptoms. Available data sets for researching the disease are minimal, hindering advancement toward understanding the underlying causes and effectiveness of treatment and therapies. Mobile devices present an opportunity to continuously monitor Parkinson’s Disease patients and collect important information regarding the severity of symptoms. The evolution of digital technology has opened doors for clinical research to extend beyond the clinic by incorporating …

Nanoindentation Techniques For The Evaluation Of Silicon Nitride Thin Films, Weston T. Mangin

Master's Theses

Silicon nitride thin films are of interest in the biomedical engineering field due to their biocompatibility and favorable tribological properties. Evaluation and understanding of the properties of these films under diverse loading and failure conditions is a necessary prerequisite to their use in biomedical devices. Three wafers of silicon nitride-coated silicon were obtained from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and used to create 96 samples. Samples were subjected to nanoindentation testing to evaluate the mechanical properties of the film. Samples were subjected to nanoimpact testing to compare the damage resistance of the film to separate nanoimpact types. Samples were subjected to …

Evaluation Of Efficiency Of Various Materials To Shield From Radiation In Space Using The Monte Carlo Transport Code Called Fluka, Roman Savinov

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to improve spacecraft shielding from radiation in space. It focuses on the evaluation of shielding efficiency of different materials. The efficiency of a shield is evaluated by the dose profile within the shield and the amount of dose absorbed by a target using the Monte Carlo transport code called FLUKA. The output of this code is validated by recreating the experiments from published papers and comparing the results. Once the FLUKA’s output is validated, the efficiency of sixteen materials, subject to SPE and GCR sources, are evaluated. The efficiency comparison is made by fixing …

Field Emissions Of (Hydro)Chlorofluorocarbons And Methane From A California Landfill, Alexander H. Sohn

Master's Theses

A comprehensive field investigation was conducted at Potrero Hills Landfill (PHL) located in Suisun City, California to quantify emissions of twelve (hydro)chlorofluorocarbons (i.e. F-gases). The specific target constituents for this study included CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-113, CFC-114, HCFC-21, HCFC-22, HCFC-141b, HCFC-142b, HCFC-151a, HFC-134a, HFC-152a, and HFC-245fa. The majority of the F-gas emission studies have been conducted outside of the United States and very limited field landfill emission data are available in the United States. Because of historical usage of blowing agents in insulation foams including CFC-11, HCFC-142b, HFC-134a, and HFC-245fa, models reported in literature predicted high F-gas emissions from a landfill …

Teaching Consolidation: Case Study Of Preloading With Vertical Drains, Robb Moss, Judd King, Gregg Fiegel

Civil and Environmental Engineering

This paper describes a ground improvement case study where preloading and prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) were used to accelerate foundation settlements. The case study is used in a classroom setting with the learning objective of introducing engineering students to methods for estimating settlement of shallow foundations on compressible soils. The project site was developed for a corporate retail chain planning to open a new facility in San Luis Obispo, California. Up to 2.5 meters of fill were needed across much of the site to raise foundations and improvements above the flood elevation. Loads from the fill and the structure were …