Engineering Commons^™

Application Of Quantum Dots Onto Glass Wafers As A Feasibility Test For The Spectral Down Conversion Of Uv Light For Solar Cells, Anthony Fong

Materials Engineering

Quantum dots have the ability to convert high energy photons into multiple lower energy photons. Down conversion of such high energy photons from sources such as UV light can be beneficial for applications on solar cells which waste much of the energy in the form of thermalization. To test this theory, a solar cell was hooked up to an Amprobe Solar Analyzer and tests were run to compare power output with and without the presence of quantum dots. Additionally, quantum dots were spin coated onto a glass wafer to determine its adhesion ability. Spectrometer readings were taken of the wafer …

Fire Protection Analysis Of The ‘Center For The Arts’ Building', Steven W. Carman

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Science in Fire Protection Engineering, a prescriptive and performance-based analysis was performed on a building housing the Center for the Arts. The building was constructed in 1947 in California as an automobile dealership and repair shop under the provisions of the then-controlling Uniform Building Code. It subsequently underwent several occupancy changes and has since served as a beauty school, gymnastics center, and currently as a performing and visual arts center. Prescriptive analyses were conducted based primarily upon the provisions of the 2010 California Building and Fire Codes, and …

Life Safety Report Xyz Office Building Denver Colorado, Keith Dix

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report is a Life Safety Analysis of the XYZ building in Colorado. It is a government contract facility and as such prefers that its real name and location not be utilized for this report. The building was assessed prescriptively using the 2009 International Building Code (IBC) and was found to be predominantly compliant with the code and the relevant referenced standards. The building was then assessed using a Performance Based Design in accordance with methodologies found and addressed in common fire protection literature. The Design Criteria chosen to determine tenability for the Required Safe Egress Time (RSET) were Carbon …

Adams 14 High School Life Safety Report, Todd L. Brand

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The purpose of this Life Safety Report (LSR) is to provide a prescriptive based analysis of the Adam County High School based on the existing codes that the building was constructed under. This will include exterior and interior building construction, fire protection systems, and egress requirements. Additionally, this report will evaluate selected performance based design scenarios for the High School. Findings and recommendations to the performance based design scenarios, along with any deficiencies, are noted at the conclusion of the report. The prescriptive analysis of this report will focus on the International Building Code requirements with emphasis on Chapters 4 …

Surfactant Formulations For Water-Based Processing Of A Polythiophene Derivative, Cameron Dean Danesh

Master's Theses

Conjugated polymers are semiconducting materials that are currently being researched for numerous applications from chemical and biological sensors to electronic devices, including photovoltaics and transistors. Much of the novel research on conjugated polymers is performed in academic settings, where scientists are working to prepare conjugated polymers for commercially viable applications. By offering numerous advantages, inherent in macromolecular materials, conjugated polymers may hold the key to cheap and environmentally friendly manufacturing of future electronic devices. Mechanical flexibility, and solvent-based coating processes are two commonly cited advantages. Transitions in the backbone conformation of polythiophenes (PT) in organic solvents have been widely observed …

Human Powered Helicopter: Spars, Jason Addy, Sterling Fuentes, Graham Garvin, Kenneth Girardin, Lipski Timonthy, Daniel Logue

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Abstract

Neal Saiki, a Cal Poly alumnus, donated a human powered helicopter to the Cal Poly Aircraft Design and Construction Club in Fall Quarter 2012. To achieve the requirements of the Igor Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition, this senior project was tasked with reducing the weight of the load-bearing spars without changing geometry.

The aluminum spars were replaced with carbon fiber. The spars were designed to maintain the bending and torsional stiffnesses. Twelve sections of carbon fiber tubes ranging from 8 to 12 ft in length and 2" to 3" in inner diameter were made using pre-preg carbon fiber wrapped …

S&G Metal Fab Battery Tray, Matthew Nartatez

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This report was written for the design of a battery tray and manufacturing process for S&G Metal Fab. The manufacturing steps of how to process the sheet metal to create the product are defined and documented in this report. This project began with constraints given by S&G and were all accomplished using coursework knowledge obtained as a manufacturing engineer student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. This report mainly covers parameters regarding the cutting, bending and, deforming of sheet metal to acquire the desired shapes and sizes. It also analyzes the costs that are associated with these processes and material. …

Animatronic Robot Development Using Pulse Width Modulation Microcontroller Programming, Laura Mcdonald

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of A Triphasic Pulse On Scs To Icd Crosstalk, Ryan James Wensley

Master's Theses

It is a known problem that a Spinal Cord Stimulator (SCS) can interact with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) when both devices are implanted in the same patient. Interactions between the SCS and ICD can cause inappropriate therapy which can be harmful to the patient. While ICD devices have a distinct narrowband sensing bandwidth, the pulse configurations that current SCS devices deliver were not designed with this frequency region in mind. In this thesis, I recommend a new pulse configuration for SCS devices that will minimize the interaction between the two devices. I produce a theoretical equation for each pulse …

A Stand-Alone Methodology For Data Exploration In Support Of Data Mining And Analytics, Michael Gage

Master's Theses

With the emergence of Big Data, data high in volume, variety, and velocity, new analysis techniques need to be developed to effectively use the data that is being collected. Knowledge discovery from databases is a larger methodology encompassing a process for gathering knowledge from that data. Analytics pair the knowledge with decision making to improve overall outcomes. Organizations have conclusive evidence that analytics provide competitive advantages and improve overall performance. This paper proposes a stand-alone methodology for data exploration. Data exploration is one part of the data mining process, used in knowledge discovery from databases and analytics. The goal of …

The Effect Of 2d And 3d Menus On Memory Retention In User Interface Design, Angela Michelle Muscat

Master's Theses

The increasing use of 3D user interface elements, particularly 3D menus, demonstrates the need to expand research in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as it pertains to 3D user interfaces. The results of this thesis contribute to the understanding of the cognitive impacts of using 3D menus. Multiple application areas for 3D menus have been identified where memory retention is a critical success factor, but little research has been done in the area of memory retention for 3D menus. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the use of 3D carousel menus increases retention of information …

Micrometeoroid Fluence Variation In Critical Orbits Due To Asteroid Disruption, Eliot Dan Aretskin-Hariton

Master's Theses

Micrometeoroids and orbital debris (MMOD) is a growing issue with international importance. Micrometeoroids are naturally occurring fragments of rock and dusk that exist throughout the solar system. Orbital debris is human made material like rocket bodies, paint flakes, and the effluent of spacecraft collisions. Even small MMOD particles on the order of 1 cm in diameter have the potential to destroy critical spacecraft systems. Because of this, MMOD is a threat to all spacecraft in orbit. Even governments that most sternly oppose US international policy have a stake when it comes to minimizing MMOD flux. Space-based assets are essential to …

Design And Development Of A Stair Ascension Assistive Device For Transfemoral Amputees, Casey Michael Barbarino

Master's Theses

Transfemoral amputees around the world experience increased difficulty in climbing stairs due to lack of muscle, balance, and other factors. The loss of a lower limb greatly diminishes the amount of natural force generation provided that is necessary to propel oneself up stairs. This study investigated possible solutions to the problem of stair ascension for transfemoral amputees by the means of designing and developing an externally attachable device to a prosthesis. The number of amputations from military service has greatly increased since 2008, which shows there is a clear need for assistive devices (Wenke, Krueger, & Ficke, 2012). With the …

Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of An Emr Based Orbital Debris Impact Testing Platform, Jeffrey J. Maniglia Jr.

Master's Theses

This paper describes the changes made from Cal Poly’s initial railgun system, the Mk. 1 railgun, to the Mk. 1.1 system, as well as the design, fabrication, and testing of a newer and larger Mk. 2 railgun system. The Mk. 1.1 system is developed as a more efficient alteration of the original Mk. 1 system, but is found to be defective due to hardware deficiencies and failure, as well as unforeseen efficiency losses. A Mk. 2 system is developed and built around donated hardware from the Naval Postgraduate School. The Mk. 2 system strove to implement an efficient, augmented, electromagnetic …

Algorithms For Library-Based Microbial Source Tracking, Aldrin Montana

Master's Theses

Pyroprinting is a novel, library-based microbial source tracking method developed by the Biology department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. This method consists of two parts: (1) a collection of bacterial fingerprints, called pyroprints, from known host species, and (2) a method for pyroprint comparison. Currently, Cal Poly Library of Pyroprints (CPLOP), a web-based database application, provides storage and analysis of over $10000$ pyroprints. This number is quickly growing as students and researchers continue to use pyroprinting for research. Biologists conducting research using pyroprinting rely on methods for partitioning collected bacterial isolates into bacterial strains. Clustering algorithms are commonly used …

Impact Of Photovoltaic System Penetration On The Operation Of Voltage Regulator Equipment, Abesh Sorab Mubaraki

Master's Theses

The growing popularity of photovoltaic (PV) generation systems leads to an increase in the number of residential and commercial grid-tied PV systems that interconnect to the distribution circuit. This affects the characteristics of the distribution circuit; for example, the assumption that the voltage profile of a radial line decreases down-stream becomes invalid because of the addition of the PV system on the line. This poses new challenges when setting the parameters of voltage regulating devices. Add to that the fact that PV systems are intermittent, especially on cloudy days, which make the line even more difficult to regulate, and the …

Microcapsule Containing Lactic Acid Bacteria For Treatment Of Peptic Ulcers, Brandon Jerome Hinkel

Master's Theses

Probiotics are marketed throughout the world to promote the health of the consumer by improving the microorganisms that normally occur in the intestinal tract (Tannock, 1997). It has also been suggested that probiotics can prevent pathogen infections by adhering to the intestinal mucosa (Lee, Lim, Teng, Ouwehand, Tuomola, & Salminen, 2000). While probiotics can be delivered to the infected areas in multiple fashions, microencapsulation is a newer form of delivering probiotics straight to the infected area. A whey protein microcapsule is thought to protect the probiotics from stomach acid and delivers the treatment to the affected area. To ensure this …

Point Based Approximate Color Bleeding With Cuda, Nicholas D. Feeney

Master's Theses

Simulating light is a very computationally expensive proposition. There are a wide variety of global illumination algorithms that are implemented and used by major motion picture companies to render interesting and believable scenes. Every algorithm strives to find a balance between speed and accuracy. The Point Based Approximate Color Bleeding algorithm is one of the most widely used algorithms in the field today. The Point Based Approximate Color Bleeding(PBACB) global illumination algorithm is based on the central idea that the geometry and direct illumination of the scene can be approximated by using a point cloud representation. This point cloud representation …

Matrix Remodeling Accompanies In Vitro Articular Cartilage Spherical Shaping, Nathan Thomas Balcom

Master's Theses

Introduction: Articular cartilage (AC) is a low friction load bearing material found in synovial joints. The natural repair of damaged tissue is difficult and often requires surgical intervention. With large defects it becomes necessary to match the original tissue geometry. We hypothesized that localized collagen (COL) and/or proteoglycan (PG) remodeling occurs during AC spherical reshaping. The objective of this study was to determine the presence, magnitude and depth dependence of COL and PG remodeling that accompanies AC reshaping. Methods: Full thickness AC blocks (7x7 mm² surface area) were harvested from the ridges of the patellofemoral groove of immature (1-3 …

Improvement Of Electromagnetic Railgun Barrel Performance And Lifetime By Method Of Interfaces And Augmented Projectiles, Aleksey D. Pavlov

Master's Theses

Several methods of increasing railgun barrel performance and lifetime are investigated. These include two different barrel-projectile interface coatings: a solid graphite coating and a liquid eutectic indium-gallium alloy coating. These coatings are characterized and their usability in a railgun application is evaluated. A new type of projectile, in which the electrical conductivity varies as a function of position in order to condition current flow, is proposed and simulated with FEA software. The graphite coating was found to measurably reduce the forces of friction inside the bore but was so thin that it did not improve contact. The added contact resistance …

Characterization And Modeling Of An O-Band 1310 Nm Sampled-Grating Distributed Bragg Reflector (Sg-Dbr) Laser For Optical Coherence Tomography (Oct) Applications, Desmond Charles Talkington

Master's Theses

In this project, the performance aspects of a new early generation 1310 nm Sampled-Grating Distributed Bragg Reflector (SG-DBR) semiconductor laser are investigated. SG-DBR lasers are ideal for Source Swept Optical Coherence Tomography (SS-OCT), a Fourier-Domain based approach for OCT, necessitating a tunable wavelength source. Three internal sections control the frequency output for tuning, along with two amplifiers for amplitude control. These O-band SG-DBR devices are now being produced in research quantities. SG-DBR lasers have been produced at 1550 and 1600 nm for some times. Fundamental questions regarding the performance of the 1310 nm devices must be quantified. Standard metrics including …

Affine Image Registration Using Artificial Neural Networks, Pramod Gadde

Master's Theses

This thesis deals with image registration of MRI images using neural networks. Image registration combines multiple images of the same subject that were taken at different points in time, from different sensors, or from different points of views into a single image and coordinate system. Image registration is widely used in medical imaging and remote sensing. In this thesis feed forward neural networks and wavelet neural networks are used to estimate the parameters of registration. Simulations show that the wavelet networks provide significantly more accurate results than feed forward networks and other proposed methods including genetic algorithms. Both methods are …

Paris: A Parallel Rsa-Prime Inspection Tool, Joseph R. White

Master's Theses

Modern-day computer security relies heavily on cryptography as a means to protect the data that we have become increasingly reliant on. As the Internet becomes more ubiquitous, methods of security must be better than ever. Validation tools can be leveraged to help increase our confidence and accountability for methods we employ to secure our systems.

Security validation, however, can be difficult and time-consuming. As our computational ability increases, calculations that were once considered “hard” due to length of computation, can now be done in minutes. We are constantly increasing the size of our keys and attempting to make computations harder …

Applying Sustainability From A Systems Perspective:, Timothy Brophy

Master's Theses

Becoming sustainable is no longer an option. Current industry methods will not be able to support the necessary changes our growing society demands. In order to keep up with ever increasing demands industry will be aimed toward making major system changes toward a fully sustainable model. As of right now only basic sustainability actions have been put in place. Industry needs to make a strategic change toward resilient systems with an end goal of evolving into fully biomimic systems. This thesis covers a brief history of production leading to the Industrial Revolution which created a need for increased sustainability efforts. …

The Bicycle-Powered Smartphone Charger, Chris Arntzen

Master's Theses

This thesis entails the design and fabrication of a smartphone charger that is powered by a bicycle dynamo hub. In addition to the design and validation of the charger prototype, this thesis involves the testing and characterization of the dynamo hub power source, the design and construction of specialized test equipment, and the design and prototyping of a handlebar-mounted case for the smartphone and charging electronics. With the intention of making the device a commercial product, price, aesthetics, and marketability are of importance to the design. An appropriate description of the charger circuit is a microcontroller-based energy management system, tailored …

Seismic Rehabilitation Of Steel Concentrically Braced Frames Vulnerable To Soft-Story Failure Through Implementation Of Rocking Cores, Francisco Sanchez-Zamora

Master's Theses

Recent research reports that steel Concentrically Braced Frames (CBFs) (even the code-compliant ones) may be susceptible to soft-story failures during strong earthquakes. Such a failure mode causes catastrophic outcomes and should be definitely avoided in practice. This thesis focuses on development and validation of a seismic retrofit strategy for low-rise and mid-rise steel CBFs vulnerable to soft-story failures. The considered retrofit strategy consists of a sufficiently stiff rocking core (RC) pinned to foundation and connected to the existing frame. For demonstration purpose, two representative benchmark steel CBF buildings, which are the three-and six-story CBFs designed forLos Angelesin the SAC Steel …

Bi-Directional Flyback Dc-Dc Converter For Battery System Of The Dc House Project, Austin J. Luan

Master's Theses

The DC House project strongly relies on renewable energy sources to provide power to the house for various loads. However, when these sources are unable to provide power at a certain time, a back-up energy source from a battery must be readily available to fulfill the house’s power needs. This thesis proposes a bi-directional flyback power converter to allow a single-stage power path to charge the battery from and to discharge the battery to the DC House 48 V system bus. The design, simulation, and hardware prototype of the proposed flyback bi-directional converter will be conducted to demonstrate its feasibility. …

Accurate Hardware Raid Simulator, Darrin Kalung Weng

Master's Theses

Computer data storage is growing at an astonishing rate. With cloud computing and the growth of the Internet enterprise storage has been predicted to grow at rates as high as 300\% per year. To fulfill this need technologies such as Redundant Array of Independent Disks or RAID are being used in industry today. Not only does RAID increase I/O performance but also provides redundancy measures to protect against hardware failure. Even though RAID has existed for some time now and is well understood, proprietary optimizations such as command scheduling and cache strategies that are employed by current RAID controllers are …

Comparing Class A Compressed Air Foam Systems (Cafs) Against Plain Water Suppression In Live Fire Gas Cooling Experiments For Interior Structural Firefighting, Sean Carter Mitchell

Master's Theses

Wildland fire services have successfully integrated compressed air foam systems (CAFS) into their fire suppression arsenal over the last few decades to effectively increase the firefighting ability of water. Many urban fire departments have done the same, but far more still rely on plain water to extinguish Class A fires. Many claims have been made about the advantages and disadvantages of firefighting foams, but only limited research has been conducted on the subject to date. Fire departments need more information, beyond that provided by foam suppliers and CAFS equipment manufacturers, to make an independent decision on whether or not to …

Eye "R" Glasses: Development Of An Infrared Sensor System For Detecting The Human Body, Rick Wong

Master's Theses

Throughout the years, sensors have been an integral part of automation, alert, and medical systems. Many of these systems measure physiological characteristics of the human body to alert themselves of their current conditions. Drowsy driver systems, for instance, measure the eyes and facial movements with a camera to determine if the driver is falling asleep at the wheel. Electroencephalography (EEG), electrooculography (EOG), and electromyography (EMG) employ electrodes on the human body to measure electrical activity of a patient’s REM sleep cycle patterns. Pulse oximeters use optical light through a process called photoplethysmography (PPG) to measure heart rate.

As diverse as …