Engineering Commons^™

Utilizing Date Fruit Pomace As A Corrosion Green Inhibitor For Non Ferrous Alloys, Sardor Rustam Odilov

Theses

This thesis explores a novel green corrosion inhibitor derived from date fruit pomace extract (DFPE) for the protection of aluminum alloy 3003 in highly corrosive environments, specifically hydrochloric acid (HCl) and natural seawater. The central aim is to promote the sustainable reuse of agro-waste as an effective and eco-friendly alternative to conventional toxic inhibitors, aligning with environmental and industrial safety goals.

A comprehensive methodology was employed, including Soxhlet extraction (using both non-polar n-hexane and polar methanol-water solvents), rotary evaporation, and FTIR analysis to identify the active functional groups responsible for inhibition. Corrosion behavior was systematically evaluated using both mechanical (weight …

Investigation And Prediction Of Excessive Water Production In Bottom Water-Drive Naturally Fractured Reservoirs Using Machine And Deep Learning, Sami Abderraouf Belkhir

Theses

Naturally Fractured Reservoirs (NFRs) are characterized by dual-porosity and dual-permeability systems, posing significant challenges in managing water production due to highly conductive fracture networks that facilitate rapid water migration from bottom aquifers, often bypassing oil stored in the matrix, thus resulting in early water breakthrough and water channeling phenomena. The main objective of this thesis is to develop and validate deep learning and machine learning models to predict water production, water breakthrough time (tbt), and ultimate water cut (WCult) in NFRs, thereby enabling more effective reservoir management strategies. This work also aims to evaluate the sensitivity of water behavior to …

Experimental Evaluation Of Novel Nano Polymer Hybrid Enhanced Oil Recovery In Carbonate Reservoir, Altamish Ahmed Pakeer

Theses

Innovative enhanced oil recovery (EOR) strategies are needed to unlock additional reserves in heterogeneous, oil-wet carbonate reservoirs. This study evaluates hybrid nano-polymer flooding by integrating silica nanoparticles (SiO₂) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) with novel HPAM polymers (Sav10 and Sav10 VHM) to optimize wettability alteration, rheological parameters, and recovery mechanisms.

A comprehensive experimental approach was employed, where rheological tests assessed viscosity enhancement under varying shear conditions, and wettability alteration was quantified via contact angle measurements using HPAM-SiO₂, HPAM-CNT, Sav10 VHM-SiO₂, and Sav10 VHM-CNT systems. Core floods were performed in three consecutive phases; waterflooding (baseline), standalone nanoparticle flooding, and hybrid nano-polymer …

Emergency Bleeding Education Fixture, Nate Colley, Kennedy K. Austin

Biomedical Engineering: Graduate Reports and Projects

Despite the deadly nature and widespread occurrence of emergency bleeding events, there are currently no training devices or demonstrations which educate users on the urgency of these events and potential methods to address them. Additionally, current models often fail to replicate physiological conditions correctly. A fixture was created to demonstrate the urgency of hemorrhaging events and educate users on potential methods for treating hemorrhaging, namely tourniquets and pressure wraps. This fixture utilized gravity to replicate systolic blood pressure, a silicone model to replicate various adult leg sizes and correct tissue properties, and a tubing system with varying compliance to replicate …

Underground Lrt Station, Revital Mesika

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report presents a comprehensive fire safety and evacuation systems analysis for the underground light rail terminal station project. The station features two main levels— concourse and platform—and is strategically located adjacent to a sports stadium.

Station Overview: The underground light rail terminal station is a two-level facility strategically positioned adjacent to a major sports stadium. The station operates as a critical transportation hub with distinct functional zones designed for efficient passenger flow and emergency evacuation:

Concourse Level (3.5 meters below ground): Functions as the primary passenger processing and circulation hub. This level serves as the main entry control point …

Genesis Station Fire Protection And Life Safety Analysis, Mark Anthony Bautista

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This fire protection and life safety analysis evaluates GENESIS Station, a nine-story Type I-B mixed-tenant building located in Daly City, California. The facility includes business, research laboratory, and assembly occupancies. A combination of prescriptive code compliance and performance-based analysis was applied to assess the building’s overall fire safety strategy.

The building utilizes a layered fire protection strategy that combines passive fire resistive construction with active systems. Fire rated construction separate tenant suites, limiting the spread of fire and smoke, defining hazardous materials control areas, and ensuring compliant separation of egress paths.

Active fire protection systems include a fully automatic sprinkler …

Srs Training Facility, Brandon Romero

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report presents a comprehensive fire protection and life safety analysis of the Savannah River Site (SRS) Training Center. A detailed prescriptive code analysis confirmed the building's compliance with applicable standards regarding construction features, occupancy classification, and fire-rated assemblies. Fire resistance provisions are met, with key areas such as exits, stairwells, and the records storage room. The building’s layout, height, number of stories, and floor area also comply with the allowable limits established by the IBC. Fire protection systems include a proprietary fire alarm system with voice notification, extensive smoke and heat detection coverage, and a wet-pipe sprinkler system designed …

Cryogenic Fuel Delivery System, Carter Josef, Reilly Humphreys, Joseph O'Connor, Nick Spreen

Mechanical Engineering

This project presents the design and validation of a cryogenic fuel delivery system aimed at enabling sustainable aviation through hydrogen fuel vaporization. Developed by a team of senior mechanical engineering students at Cal Poly and sponsored by Boeing, the system utilizes atmospheric air to vaporize liquid nitrogen, used as a stand-in for hydrogen, via forced convection heat exchangers, eliminating the need for engine-supplied heat and reducing parasitic loads. A feedback loop and turbine component are integrated to regulate pressure and recover energy, respectively. A benchtop prototype was built and tested to evaluate system performance, with results closely aligning with analytical …

Conversational Social Robot, Julianna M. Christopoulos, Mackenzie Goldman, Cece E. Hujanen, Jared Hunter

Mechanical Engineering

Background: Social robots are used in various settings to reduce burden on human workers and expand opportunities for people in need of assistance.

Challenge: Design a humanoid robot head and torso capable of holding conversations and interacting with a user using a LLM and motion. Conversations are limited to discussing Cal Poly resources and opportunities with visitors to the Bently Research Center on campus.

Scitechatorium, Olivia Lafferty, Yvonne Brien Miller, Colton Swinth, Savannah Pinheiro, Gage Heinze

Mechanical Engineering

Bellevue Santa-Fe Charter School (Bellevue) is a K6th grade public charter elementary school in Avila Beach, California. The primary focus at Bellevue is fostering unique learning experiences, empowering students through project-based learning, and engaging students in creative endeavors. Following these themes, the school has allocated space and funding for an on-campus science and technology museum known as the SciTechatorium. The museum is currently open during students’ lunch period, providing interactive displays on concepts in human biology, nature and wildlife, physics, and electronics. Bellevue’s K-6th grade science teacher, Christian Strauli, and Bellevue parent volunteers are primarily responsible for the museum’s upkeep …

Evoque Delivery System Fixture Optimization, Jack Ellis, Florence Duff, Noah Dunsmore, Timothy Hunter, Rafael Castillo

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

3d Printed Fixed Wing Aircraft Competition, Sidney E. Long, Mitchell Heise, Jack Bride, Daniel Salinas

Mechanical Engineering

Cal State LA and Arlington University, Texas are hosting the same 3D printed, fixed wing aircraft competition for 2025. Cal Poly requires a competitive plane that can adhere to each rule and be piloted remotely to achieve the longest time in the air. The plane must utilize solely 3D printing technology for the wings, body, and all other structures. The only off-the-shelf components can be the motor and electronics, as well as mechanical devices such as hinges.

Combustion Liner Optimization, William Weeks, Daniel Reed, Isaac Trull

Mechanical Engineering

Solar Turbines provides gas power generation solutions, focusing on gas turbine engines and compressors. The Gas Turbine Products Engineering (GTPE) team at Solar Turbines needs a way to efficiently and cost-effectively maintain the combustion liner of the Taurus model gas turbine at or below the cold-side temperature target. The current system involves a manufacturing process with ergonomic concerns and uncertain cooling effectiveness.

To address this, our team proposed a new combustion liner system featuring impingement cooling. We provided Solar Turbines with heat transfer models of both the existing and proposed designs, demonstrating improved cooling performance. Additionally, a prototype of the …

License To Drill, Gabrielle Noemi Orlando, Alexcias Olga Meeks, Dayana Guadalupe Gonzalez, Mark Dahmen

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of this project is to provide the student machine shops with an updated License to Drill (LTD) certification training, formally known as the Red Tag. The current training has two key components: a preliminary Canvas course and an in-person training with a safety tour, safety quiz, and a hands-on project. Currently, the hands-on project is outdated and unengaging. Thus, the primary focus is to replace it with an inspiring and memorable project, which includes written and visual instructional content on how to make it. The Canvas will thus be updated, a new instructional video will be created, and …

Pendulum Wave Generator, Abigail Jocelyn Romero, Paul Staley, Wendy Dong, Kyle Schumacher

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Mechanical Vibrations Laboratory (Vibes Lab) serves to educate and excite students about mechanical vibrations through hands-on experiments. While the lab contains several relatively complicated technical experiments, it lacks simple demonstrations with immediate visual interest to appeal to audiences with less technical backgrounds. Because of this, faculty desired a fun and interactive demonstration project that could be operated with no prior training. The project chosen for this is a Pendulum Wave Generator which is a set of multiple pendulums with differing lengths that combine to create complex and observable patterns over time. This project was completed by a …

Adaptive Riding Mount Block, Lucas R. Reynolds, Lukas M. Moreau, Patrick J. Michael, Jandre D. Lafradez

Mechanical Engineering

Professor Sarah Stewart from the Animal Science Department at Cal Poly seeks to develop a solution to help people with disabilities mount horses. Users need a mounting block that can bring them closer to the horse’s back to ease mounting. The current system, consisting of two plastic two-step blocks, is inadequate—unstable, too small, and inaccessible for wheelchair users.

The required solution must meet several key specifications: it should accommodate at least three people standing side by side, be sturdy enough to support their combined weight, and remain stable on rugged terrain like gravel or sand without tilting or sinking. Additionally, …

Lidss Raft Battery Pack Integration, Jack Maxwell, Vincent Stevens, Matthew Hoodmaker, Colin Flanders

Mechanical Engineering

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a critical member of the United States Department of Defense. Their Independent Diagnostics Scoring System (LIDSS) uses rafts that operate in the ocean to collect missile test data. Several times a year, the United States will test their Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles by launching them into the ocean near the Marshall Islands. This is where the LIDSS rafts collect their test data. Our project was centered around re-designing the battery pack used by the rafts. The current battery pack design experiences water ingress problems and is difficult to access. Our re-designed battery pack is waterproof to …

Ray Collection: Forging A New Fashion Genre, Olivia R. Cooper

Graphic Communication

This senior project addresses a gap in the fashion industry by creating a new genre through a unique collection and comprehensive branding. The "RAY" collection draws inspiration from the designer's artistic roots and is a deeply personal homage to influential female artists like Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois, and Leonora Carrington, whose works have inspired the designer's creative journey. Each piece in the collection draws direct inspiration from these artists, reflecting the creator's vision and self-expression, a key element of the streetwear genre incorporated into the designs.

The project also heavily emphasizes fashion branding, encompassing a logo, brand identity, social and …

Data Driven Analysis Of Samara Seed Kinematics And Dynamics, Shashwat Sparsh

Master's Theses

Samara Seeds are a class of fruit most famously belonging to the Acer species and are characterized by their single-bladed geometry and their auto-rotation response during descent. This steady-state auto-rotation response is the subject of aerodynamic analysis which aim to quantify the performance. The period prior to the beginning of steady-state auto-rotation is classified as the transition regime and has not been the subject of intense scrutiny.

This thesis employs a data-driven approach to analyzing the kinematic and dynamic response of these seeds during both the transition and auto-rotation stages of flight to quantify the performance with respect to the …

Implementation Of Area-Based Aggregation On Multivariate Continuous Uncertain Data, Rahul Nair

Master's Theses

Uncertain data is incredibly widespread - from sensor data to AI-based learned information, there exists a need to associate information with a certain probability of its veracity. Traditional relational databases lack a built-in functionality to support uncertain data, instead assigning them boilerplate values. Probabilistic databases tackle this problem by assigning non-deterministic data with an associated, often discrete, probability. Variants of probabilistic databases, namely continuous uncertain databases, are used to better model data represented through ranges and distributions. This is especially applicable with sensor-based geographic data as most commercial equipment contains some inherent margin of error.

While uncertain and probabilistic databases …

Fault Tolerant Dynamic Task Allocation For Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems, Jack R. Cline

Master's Theses

This research presents a novel approach to dynamic task allocation in heterogeneous multi-robot systems with integrated fault detection capabilities. As multiple industries are becoming more reliant on multi-robot systems for tasks, maintaining operational efficiency despite robot failures becomes critical. We propose a framework that combines optimization-based task allocation with a Kalman filter that estimates task progress for anomaly detection to identify unreliable agents and dynamically redistribute tasks. Observing values such as the normalized innovation squared (NIS), covariance, and progress rate, the algorithm can designate a robot as faulty. Embedding information about which robots are faulty in the task algorithm allows …

Comparative Study Of Experimental And Fea Strain Data For Cnt-Coated Fiberglass Sensors, Extensometers, And Metal Foil Strain Gauges, Omar Dwidar

Master's Theses

Material testing is essential across industries such as aerospace, automotive, and construction, playing a critical role in verifying material selection, diagnosing failures, and understanding the development of flaws in structures. These insights are key to designing successful, reliable systems. Conventional metal foil strain gauges are low cost and reliable but provide limited sensitivity with a typical gauge factor around 2. Extensometers provide highly sensitive strain measurements with the disadvantage of a bulky form factor. With advanced materials such as carbon nanotubes, it is possible to manufacture a sensor with the sensitivity closer to that of an extensometer with the small …

Intraoperative Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Fluorescence Imaging For Navigating Open Orthopedic Surgeries, Yue Tang

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Infection following trauma is one of the most prevalent and challenging complications faced by orthopedic surgeons. Inadequate tissue perfusion plays a critical role in this complication, as poorly perfused bone can be a nidus for bacterial biofilm formation and promote resistance to antibiotic treatments. Consequently, the management of open fractures and fracture-related infections relies on aggressive and thorough debridement to remove all poorly perfused bone. This thesis focuses on developing an indocyanine green (ICG)-based dynamic contrast-enhanced fluorescence imaging (DCE-FI) to objectively measure bone perfusion during open orthopedic surgeries and guide surgical debridement of devitalized bone.

Novel methodologies were developed to …

Development Of A Versatile Switching Mode Inverter Laboratory Module, Zachariah Lee Mustar

Master's Theses

DC-AC converters, or inverters, are complex devices that play an essential role in photovoltaic, energy storage, and microgrid systems. Therefore, they constitute a class of power electronics that any power-focused electrical engineering student should be familiar with. This thesis presents the development and testing of a single device that power electronics students will use in a laboratory setting to experiment with each of the four different switching techniques employed in inverters: a simple square wave (SSWI), modified square wave (MSWI), bipolar PWM, and unipolar PWM. The module was built with a physically modifiable control stage and a power stage constituting …

Compact, Low-Power Underwater Acoustic Modem Characterization And Sensing Network Node Implementation, Lucas W. Lucia

Master's Theses

There is a growing market for compact, power-efficient underwater communication technology. Due to the limited propagation of electromagnetic waves through water, modulated acoustic waves have emerged as an effective means of wireless communication underwater. In decades past, many acoustic modems had been developed primarily for defense customers in larger systems functioning at high power. In recent years, smaller, relatively inexpensive acoustic modems have become available on the market—but data on their performance in a real-world environment is scarce. Companies such as OWL Integrations are interested in employing such acoustic modems as part of sensing networks across multiple mediums. For such …

Deeppanorf: Deep Prior For Neural 3d Reconstruction From Sparse Panoramas, Edward Du

Master's Theses

Advances in neural field representations have led to a significant improvement in view synthesis quality. However, many current novel view synthesis methods rely on a dense set of input views, which can be impractical and inefficient in real-world applications. We propose DeepPanoRF, a novel method for 360◦ scene reconstruction from a sparse set of input equirectangular panoramas. Built upon K-Planes, a radiance field representation that encodes explicit features on orthogonal feature planes, our method does not directly learn feature grids. Instead, we parameterize the feature grids to enable sparse view reconstruction without pretraining or additional regularization. We implement a custom …

Cislunar Orbital Debris Removal Feasibility Analysis Using Nrho To Dro Transfers At Varying Solar Angles, Peter C. Lie

Master's Theses

The resurgence of lunar exploration necessitates the expansion of space situational awareness into cislunar space. The current tracking technologies for cislunar objects are insufficient to determine vacant orbital regimes for human spaceflight. Orbital debris generated in the cislunar environment often evolves along complex and chaotic trajectories due to the influence of multi-body dynamics. Current research into methods of removing orbital debris from space is limited to debris in Earth orbits. For cislunar orbits, debris disposal options are slowly gaining research, mostly centered on hypothetical solutions for active missions. Lunar impact and escape to heliocentric space are low-cost options, but serve …

Analog Hardware Implementation Of A Linearly Constrained Quadratic Program Real-Time Solver, Claire E. Tylutki, Claire Tylutki

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the design, implementation, and analysis of a hardware system for solving Linearly Constrained Quadratic Programs (LCQPs) in real time. The architecture follows a generalized feedback structure composed of three key elements: gradient descent on the quadratic cost function, saturation-based nonlinearity to enforce inequality constraints, and an integral controller with an anti-windup mechanism to regulate dynamic behavior and determine steady-state error. This majority analog system converges with equilibria that satisfy the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality conditions. Using a representative LCQP, this work presents simulation of the circuit in PLECS and LT Spice to confirm the feasibility of the novel …

Adversarial Deep Reinforcement Learning For Tank Duel Simulation Using Lidar-Based Observations, Braedan Kennedy

Master's Theses

Previous research has demonstrated that reinforcement learning agents can learn to steer differential-drive robots around obstacles using 2D lidar scans as observations. However, these studies typically treat all range returns as undifferentiated obstacles—objects to avoid—without distinguishing between different object types. This thesis builds upon previous research by introducing an adversarial task in which an agent must interpret raw range readings to both avoid static obstacles and identify, pursue, and engage a hostile target.

To investigate this problem, this thesis introduces TankGame, a novel, lightweight 2D tank duel simulator. Each agent receives a 360° lidar scan, controls its motion via tread …

Distributed Formation Control Of Nonholonomic Mobile Robots: Safety-Critical Leader-Follower Approach With Obstacle Avoidance And Dynamic Reconfiguration, Kelvin C. Villago

Master's Theses

Networked control systems for multi-agent robotics have emerged as a critical paradigm for executing complex coordinated tasks in diverse environments. While formation control serves as the backbone of such systems, real-world deployment introduces significant challenges including communication constraints, environmental obstacles, and the need for adaptive reconfiguration. This research addresses these challenges by developing a novel unified framework that seamlessly integrates obstacle avoidance algorithms with dynamic formation reconfiguration capabilities, specifically designed for communication-limited networked control architectures. The proposed framework represents a significant advancement over existing approaches by simultaneously handling both static and dynamic obstacles while maintaining system cohesion under communication constraints. …