Engineering Commons^™

Creation And Analysis Of An Electric And Magnetic Model Of A Micro Ion Thruster, Maxwell Bodnar

Aerospace Engineering

This report explores the magnetic and electric fields within the Cal Poly Miniature Xenon Ion (MiXI) Thruster V3 in order to create a comprehensive electric and magnetic model of the plasma chamber to analyze and test the current thruster configurations and changes to the existing thruster. This model is used to analyze the operation and efficiency of the ion thruster and the plasma environment within the plasma chamber. This model explores the ionization and electron collision rates during operation of the thruster to measure the efficiency of the current thruster configuration, also determining the theoretical Isp and thrust of the …

Study Of Natural Composite Materials Square Beam Under Three Point Bending Test, Casey Wu

Aerospace Engineering

The purpose of this report is to summarize the findings on three point bending tests to try to find the optimum geometrical shape and layup configuration of a square beam composed of natural composites. The final project was entered into the SAMPE 2013 bridge building competition to compete internationally against other universities in the natural square beam category. The main focus of the bridge project is to compose it entirely of natural occurring fibers and other natural materials to create a “green” beam. The beams in the competition are tested under 3 point bending tests and will be scored based …

Smartpark, David Cosgrove

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Construction And Testing Of A Quadcopter, David Roberts

Aerospace Engineering

No abstract provided.

Application Of Systems Engineering And Project Management For Algae Photo Bioreactors, Andrew S. Balberchak

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Today there is much talk about different sources for biofuel to replace the decreasing supply of fossil fuels. Algae seem very promising with its abundance across the globe and relatively simple growing conditions. Lipids can be extracted from this organism which is then converted to biofuel. Although biofuel production from algae is not economically viable at this stage, researchers are suggesting using the by-products of algae for supplemental and healthcare use. If true, this could justify the economics of obtaining fuel from algae by creating more markets from various algae products.

Cal Poly State University’s Food Science and …

Convertible High Heel Design, Mathew Caspari, Tyler Shelton

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Many women feel pain and discomfort when wearing high heels to certain events. This is a problem because it can lead to a variety of health issues. It would be beneficial and convenient if a woman could remove the heelpiece from her shoe while still wearing the same product. However, there is currently no popular high heels that can convert to a flat shoe on the market today. Our goal was to perform an in depth human factors analysis with regards to high heel use and formulate a solution to these problems. After reviewing literature, conducting a survey, and analyzing …

Thermal Characterization Of A System On Chip (Soc), James Gilstrap

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Electronics are getting more and more advanced. Companies are designing their product to be more powerful, but at the same time they are designing them to be smaller and more user friendly. Heat becomes a major factor with the limited amount of surface area. The objective of this project is to measure the junction temperature of three system on chips (SoC) under various loading conditions and their time constant. The junction temperature was measured based on the diode’s I-V linear relationship. Both calibration and measurement of the junction temperature were conducted for three different SoC packages. The measurement results can …

Reason-To-Reuse: A Sustainable To-Go Food Storage Container System For Restaurants, Ryan Christopher Labuda

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

A food storage container (FSC), also known as a to-go box, is a very popular way for Americans to pick up food when in a rush and take it with them or store leftovers after dining. Some of the more popular materials that make up FSCs include Styrofoam, paper and plastic. These FSCs are meant for one time use and subsequently the majority end up as waste in their local regions. Reason-To-Reuse is a sustainable business that provides an alternative to the current model of disposable FSCs at restaurants by cutting down on waste. The objective of the Reason-To-Reuse project …

Design And Analysis Of A Materials Management System For Boeing Commercial Airplanes' (The Boeing Company) Metallic Raw Material Supply Chain With A Focus On Lead Time Manipulation And Corresponding Effects On Inventory And Cost, Henry Lu

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this project is to identify the costs associated with an aggregation strategy run by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. In order to identify these costs, a rudimentary replenishment system must be designed for the supply chain due to the fact that there is currently no such system in place. This replenishment system will be used to create a model (created in Excel) to calculate the total annual costs of the system. The model must allow changes to some of the important inputs such as mill performance measures and lead times and report the resulting changes in the total annual …

Companion Pass Program, Andrew Toney

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

At the end of each quarter the students of Cal Poly prepare to sign up for their classes for next quarter. This process is more difficult for seniors who must meet very specific requirements in order to graduate on time. Students can spend hours trying to find the “perfect schedule”, that one schedule that fits their personal schedule and their graduation requirements, while not over taxing themselves during that quarter by having too much class work. This Cal Poly explores the creation and implementation of an extra scheduling tool to address the weaknesses of the current scheduling system, PASS, and …

Bicycle Mounted Iphone 5 Case With Charging System, Patrick Goebel

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This purpose of this project is to design and manufacture a bicycle handlebar mounted case that will house Apple’s iPhone 5 and a charging system that utilizes a charge from a generator hub in the front wheel of a bicycle. The charging system and software for this project will be developed by an Electrical Engineering Graduate student. The case and charging system must be a self-contained unit that is weather-proof and aesthetically pleasing. It must allow the user to use all of the features of the iPhone 5 under a wide range of speeds. It must be adjustable between portrait …

Analyzing The Costs Of Different Energy Storage Systems For California Polytechnic State University, Christian Royer

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The goal of this project was to analyze the different ways to release energy from an energy storage device into the grid to save money. This project was worked in conjunction with a Master’s of Science student. An entire year of Cal Poly’s energy usage was examined and multiple trends were observed about when the maximum amount of energy was used. These trends looked at the time of day, the day of the week, and season to see what would be the best way to release energy into the grid to save money. There were two different batteries sizes examined …

The Decision Process Of Transitioning From A 3-Axis To A 4-Axis Or 5-Axis Mill Machine, Andrew Van Cleve, David Sherman

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Companies are always looking for new ways to increase productivity and help the company save money. The way this is done is by researching new and more efficient ways to produce whatever it is the company is selling. Since there are always new technologies coming forward it can be difficult to distinguish which ones are viable and which ones are not. This paper looks at the decision of moving a company from a traditional 3-axis milling set-up to a 4-axis or 5-axis milling set-up. Through research and analysis this report will guide a company through the decision making process and …

Reducing Customer Wait Time And Improving Processes At Abc’S Atv Rentals, Thomas Allen Merrill Jr.

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project serves to explore the system bottlenecks of a small, family owned ATV rental company. The main objective is to reduce the average time a customer spends in the system, focusing on customer wait time as well as other areas that can be improved. This was done by collecting time studies and inputting the values into simulation software, which was run to represent the current system as well as various other possible scenarios encountered by rental companies. While creating the simulation, adaptive techniques were incorporated into the simulation. These techniques aim to increase the durability and reusability of the …

Evaluation And Redesign Of Potting Shed For The Non-Profit Organization, Growing Grounds Farms, Adya Sinha, Julianna Levy

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Growing Grounds, a local nonprofit organization, operates as a fully functioning nursery in San Luis Obispo. Their planting facility is outdated and the process is inefficient. They have new funding available and need to determine if they should automate certain processes or improve existing methods. This report details the current process and presents two possible ergonomic solutions and the accompanying layouts and improvements. An analysis is conducted to determine which new layout is recommended for Growing Grounds based on their current production and revenue, and future recommendations are given.

Fire Protection Analysis Of Campus Building, Mackenzie Hill

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

A prescriptive and performance based analysis has been conducted on a College Campus Building in Southern California. This building is still in the approvals process and has been designed to meet the design standards in the 2010 California Building Code (CBC) and relevant NFPA codes. The building is proposed to be the center of operations as well as having administration facilities for the College. It will house an administrative office, production and support facilities. The project is three stories and includes a balcony that does not qualify as a story. The top floor is greater than 30 feet from grade …

Fire And Life Safety Analysis- Center For Science And Mathematics Building #52, Laura Radle

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The purpose of this fire and life safety analysis is to determine whether Cal Poly’s Center for Science and Mathematics (CSM) meets fire safety goals. The primary fire safety goal is to provide building occupants with an environment that is reasonably safe from fire. This goal can be achieved by protecting the occupants not intimate with the initial fire development and improving survivability of those occupants intimate with the initial fire development, (NFPA 101, 2006). A prescriptive-based design approach and a performance-based design approach are used to evaluate building safety. The prescriptive-based approach is used to evaluate the building’s structural …

In Vitro And In Vivo Study Of Sustained Nitric Oxide Release Coating Using Diazeniumdiolate-Doped Poly(Vinyl Chloride) Matrix With Poly(Lactide-Co-Glycolide) Additive, Hitesh Handa, Elizabeth J. Brisbois, Terry E. Robinson, Lahdan Refahiyat, Kagya Amoako, Robert H. Bartlett, Mark E. Meyerhoff

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Nitric oxide (NO) is an endogenous vasodilator as well as natural inhibitor of platelet adhesion and activation that can be released from a NO donor species, such as diazeniumdiolated dibutylhexanediamine (DBHD/N2O2) within a polymer coating. In this study, various Food and Drug Administration approved poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) species were evaluated as additives to promote a prolonged NO release from DBHD/N2O2 within a plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) matrix. When using an ester-capped PLGA additive with a slow hydrolysis time, the resulting coatings continuously release between 7 and 18 × 10−10 mol cm−2 min−1 NO for 14 days at 37 °C in …

Design And Development Of An Integrated Mobile Robot System For Use In Simple Formations, Christopher D. Brune

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, formation control of autonomous unmanned vehicles has become an active area of research with its many broad applications in areas such as transportation and surveillance. The work presented in this thesis involves the design and implementation of small unmanned ground vehicles to be used in leader-follower formations. This mechatronics project involves breadth in areas of mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering design. A vehicle with a unicycle-type drive mechanism is designed in 3D CAD software and manufactured using 3D printing capabilities. The vehicle is then modeled using the unicycle kinematic equations of motion and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink. Simple …

Bruno The Robotic Bear, Aaron Brauner, Ian Panzer

Computer Engineering

Creating homemade robots are becoming a popular hobby among engineers. With the dramatic reduction in costs over the past few decades, it is finally possible to build a personal automated mailbox. Microcontrollers needed to function as the brains of the robot are also becoming powerful enough that relatively complicated instructions could be programmed into the robot to handle a plethora of sensors and peripherals. In order to demonstrate how the Computer Engineering department models the synthesis of computer science and electrical engineering, the topic chosen was robotics, specifically, a stuffed bear robot.

The microcontroller chosen was the Arduino Mega 2560 …

The Effect Of Truck Permitting Policy On Us Bridge Loading, Eugene J. Obrien, Bernard Enright, Cathal Leahy

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Mixed‐Use Commercial And Residential Podium Building, Gene Voloshenko

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report provides a summary of the principal fire protection and life safety features for a mixed use commercial and residential Podium Building for compliance with the 2000 International Building Code (IBC) and the 2003 NFPA 101 “Life Safety Code”. IBC permits compliance with the prescriptive Code requirements using Alternative Solutions that will achieve at least the minimum level of performance required by the IBC as defined by the objectives and functional statements and as described in the NFPA 101 Chapter 5. Alternative solutions for this project were modeled using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). One of the primary recommendations …

Fire Protection Analysis Of The Bonderson Engineering Projects Center, John Cote

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

A Fire and Life Safety Analysis of the Bonderson Engineering Projects Center (BEPC) located on the Cal Poly campus is performed. Prescriptive and Performance Based approaches are used to evaluate the BEPC for compliance with the current fire and building code requirements. The fire protection systems and features of the BEPC analyzed include the following: Egress Systems, Fire Detection, Alarm, and Communications Systems, Fire Suppression Systems, and Structural Fire Protection Systems. Prescriptive analyses are performed to determine if the as-built design meets the requirements of the code. Performance-Based analyses are performed to provide insight to the prescriptive design utilized in …

Telecommunications Network Switching Facility, Eric Kumar

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report is on a mission critical telecommunications network switching facility located in Southern Mississippi. The life safety and property preservation measures are summarized in this report. The prescriptive design approaches for various fire and life safety systems in telecommunications facilities were evaluated against the performance based approaches studied in the Cal Poly Fire Protection Engineering curriculum. Majority of the prescriptive approaches are in accordance with the performance based solutions, however the smoke management system’s performance and prescriptive design yields a significant discrepancy. For the smoke management system, a difference in the flow rates is observed between the exhaust and …

Fire And Life Safety Evaluation Of The Providence Pavilion, Oscar J. Zuniga

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The fire and life safety systems of the Providence Pavilion, a four-story addition to the Providence Medford Medical Center in Medford, Oregon, are examined for compliance with applicable design and construction codes and standards and are found to comply with codes and conform to standards. The prescriptive requirements for occupancy classification, construction type, structural fire protection, egress systems, fire alarms, and fire protection are reviewed. Three different fire scenarios are developed and are then employed to study the fire and life safety systems’ performance using fire and egress modeling tools and simulations. Using this performance-based approach, the fire and life …

Culminating Project- U.S. Federal Courthouse, Joshua W. Elvove

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The purpose of this report is to select and evaluate a building for compliance with prescriptive and performance based requirements, that apply the concepts learned from previous courses taken as part of the master’s fire protection engineering degree curriculum at Cal Poly, San Luis Obisbo. The report discusses applicable code requirements for building construction, egress, fire alarm initiation and notification, and fire suppression and evaluates the building’s performance, including occupant movement, when subjected to two assumed fires. Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was used to generate data used during the performance analysis. The performance analysis reveals that meeting prescriptive requirements doesn’t …

Fire Protection Analysis Of A Fresno Elementary School, Garen Lencioni

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report details the fire and life safety analysis of a Fresno Elementary School. Both prescriptive and performance based analysis were used to determine compliance with the building codes and fire codes which the building was constructed under. The prescriptive analyses included evaluation of the egress system, structural fire protection requirements, fire detection and alarm system and fire suppression systems. The prescriptive analyses were done to show the code requirements and how the building complies with them. The performance analyses were done to analyze the performance of the building in the event of a fire scenario. Three fire scenarios were …

An M-Learning Maturity Model For The Educational Sector, Muasaad Alrasheedi, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Educational institutions are increasingly becoming interested in adopting alternative technologies as a mode for imparting education. Mobile technologies are considered to be the next frontier as they have the capability to provide high-quality learning experiences, and satisfy the increasing demand for mobility and flexibility. In view of the ubiquitous presence of mobile technology and the immense opportunities, there are favorable indications that the technology would be introduced as the next generation of learning platforms. The adoption of M-learning also has its challenges. A lack of a comprehensive assessment and evaluation methodology is seen as one of the major roadblocks in …

Reliability Models Applied To Mobile Applications, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Sonia Meskini, Ali Bou Nassif Dr.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Smartphones have become the most used electronic devices. They carried out most of the functionalities of desktops, allowing various useful applications that suit the users’ needs. Therefore, instead of the operator, the user has become the number one controller of the device and its applications and thus its reliability becomes an emergent need. We aim to investigate and evaluate the efficacy of Software Reliability Growth Models (SRGMs) when applied to Smartphone application failure data and check whether they achieve the same success as in the desktop/laptop area. We selected three of the most used SRGMs and applied them to three …

Media Usage Survey: How Engineering Instructors And Students Use Media, Gerd Gidion, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Ken Meadows, Michael Gr

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Web 2.0 has ubiquitously penetrated academia. The dissemination of online information services in higher education has led to substantial changes in faculty teaching methods as well as the learning and study behavior of students. For example, the use of online services, such as Google and Wikipedia, has become mandatory not only during teaching and learning activities but also during leisure time for students and faculty. At the same time, traditional information media such as textbooks and printed handouts still form the basic pillars of teaching and learning. This article explains the preliminary results of a survey about media usage in …