Engineering Commons^™

Clubgrove, Travis Le, Lyman Shen

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

The current Santa Clara University Club system does not provide the necessary information in a relevant and concise fashion. As a solution, we built a system that caters towards students who are looking for clubs. In addition, the system also caters towards club leaders who want to increase their clubs’ visibility. Our system allows students to look up clubs, search club events, and look at interested clubs as well as previously joined clubs. The goal of this project is to provide an easy way for students to be involved in more clubs and allow clubs to gain members without spending …

Comparison Of Pre-Intervention Idi Results From Stem And Non-Stem Undergraduate Students, Anne M. Lucietto, Lisa Russell

School of Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The emphasis on intercultural competence is more prevalent in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors as the world shifts towards a more globalized economy. When entering higher education, students have differing levels of cultural interaction due to varying peer interaction, family experiences, international travel, and social media experiences. The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) has been used to develop an understanding of how students view others and the level of skills they have to interact and adapt to other cultures. Using published data focused on pre-intervention assessment, researchers compared it to data obtained from STEM students preparing for an international …

Flooding, Landslides, Wildfires, Air Pollution, And Income: Risk In California, Brittany Bondi, Alyssa J. Kaewwilai

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

California is infamously known for its likelihood of environmental hazards such as flooding, landslides, air pollution, and forest fires which can be attributed to the natural climate of the area as well as anthropologically influenced climate change. Air pollution also poses potential threats and dangers to the civilians of California as increasing populations and uses of fossil fuels continue to contribute to the growing issue of climate change. The goal of this study was to examine and analyze the geospatial trends environmental hazards in California such as landslides, air pollution, flooding, and forest fires. A weighted test, zone and slope …

A Low-Cost And Energy-Effcient Wearable Device For Posture Monitoring, George Shappell, Ying Huang, Ali Nazemi

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Millions of Americans suffer every year from back problems, now imagine if there was a way to help track and prevent back problems. Our solution to this problem is PostureBot a device that will help its users to correct their back posture and maintain good back posture.In doing so this device can help elevate and prevent people from developing minor and serious back problems in their future.

Flomosys: A Flood Monitoring System, Tai Groot

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

The expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to numerous innovations in the industry, including improvements to existing systems. Disaster prevention and monitoring systems are a prime example of such systems. Every year, there are significant and preventable financial losses, not to mention the safety hazards caused by floods. To warn people ahead of time, it is possible to deploy low-power wireless sensor nodes to send readings across any terrain to a cloud platform, which can perform pattern analysis, prediction, and alert forwarding to anyone's cellular device. In this paper, I propose Flomosys, a low-cost, low-power, secure, scalable, …

Advocasea, Emily Dang

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Plastics and pollution in the ocean pose a tremendous threat to the world’s biodiversity and human life on the planet. However, this issue is characterized by a lack of visibility and urgency. People do not understand the importance of this pollution because they do not sense an immediate or tangible impact on their lives. AdvocaSea is a virtual reality experience that teaches people about plastics in the ocean in a more immersive and engaging way, and by doing so, gives them more motivation and agency to make change in the world. This experience was delivered at Santa Clara’s Senior Design …

Acas: Always Connected, Always Secure, Blaise Aranador, Antonio Gigliotti, Shining Liu

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

There is no place where safety is more important than in the home. Research has shown that home security systems are effective in deterring burglars; additionally, these security systems allow residents to monitor their property at all times, even while they are away. More and more of these home security devices rely on a stable Internet connection and cannot provide functionality without it. ACAS is a system that helps keep smart devices connected to the Internet, even in the event of a home internet outage.

ACAS includes a programmable router that can connect to multiple Internet sources, which sets it …

Securely Updating Iot Using Blockchain, Rachael Brooks

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Because of the extensive growth of loT devices in the last few years, researchers have been looking for ways to reduce the amount of power they use. One cause for concern is the energy used to communicate with manufacturers when an update has to occur. Our solution to this problem is to move those communications off the device and onto a blockchain, with the owner of the device as an intermediary. The update is handled through the blockchain and is mediated by a smart contract. Overall, the owner pays for the update, the manufacturer passes the encrypted keys for the …

Truck Routing Application, Adam Miller

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

This application aims to provide dispatchers with an accessible tool to assist them in routing a fleet of trucks in the most ecient way. The vehicle routing problem is a notoriously complex and inecient problem to solve, yet dispatchers are tasked with solving it every single day by hand. Rather than radically transform a dispatcher’s time-sensitive workflow, my application seeks to provide them with a simple, powerful tool that can supplement their daily duties. This application will ultimately help dispatchers perform their jobs more eciently and contribute to the reduction of fuel consumption, carbon emissions, and vehicle maintenance costs.

A Convolutional Neural Network For Fast Fluence Estimation In Complex Tissues, Nicholas Blasey, Geoffrey P. Luke

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a non-invasive diagnostic imaging technique that gives images of photoabsorbers based on their absorption of optical energy. These optical absorption properties can then be linked to important tissue properties. For the method to be quantitative, however, it is necessary to have an accurate estimation of the light fluence in the tissue. The current gold standard in addressing the fluence estimation problem, a Monte Carlo Simulation, is costly in time and computation. In this work, we developed a deep neural network to quickly and accurately estimate light fluence in arbitrary tissue types and geometries. The network was …

Engineering An Er-Targeted Dynein-Anchoring Fusion Protein To Mediate Spindle And Nuclear Positioning In Budding Yeast, Dayle Wang

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

Current evidence suggests that, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the Num1 protein binds and anchors cytoplasmic dynein to the cell cortex, where dynein generates a pulling force that aligns the mitotic spindle during mitosis; however, the exact location where Num1 anchors dynein remains unclear. In this study, I genetically engineered fusions of the dynein-anchoring CC domain of Num1 to a resident ER protein, Tcb3. Through functional microscopy-based assays, I found that the fusion protein Tcb3-CC rescues the mitotic spindle alignment defect in num1Δ yeast, indicating that the cortical ER can serve as an anchoring platform for dynein.

Bio Circuits For Evolutionary Biotech, Camilo Toruno

ENGS 86 Independent Projects (AB Students)

The field of bioengineering has much promise for renewable chemical production, bioremediation, and of course medical applications. Developing new useful microorganisms is extremely time and capital intensive, typically taking 50 million USD and eight years. This is due in large part to the low throughput techniques that are characteristic of the field of metabolic engineering. Here we describe the modification of an existing synthetic biosensor to measure the pharmaceutical dopamine, and the use of a circuit simulator Cadence to predict improvements to the biosensor. This biosensor paired with directed evolution techniques could reach throughputs of 5 million cells per day …

Social Distancing Sensor: Devices That Use Ultrasound And Radio Frequency Communication To Facilitate Social Distancing, Namya Malik

ENGS 86 Independent Projects (AB Students)

The rapid transmission of COVID-19 has caused a global health crisis. One of the primary ways to reduce the spread of the virus is to practice social distancing. Specifically, it is important to stay at least six feet away from others. However, it is difficult to implement this, and people can often forget to maintain this distance when they are in a public place.

My solution is a Social Distancing Sensor. This system consists of multiple devices that communicate with each other through both ultrasonic (US) signals and radio frequency (RF) signals. The devices are programmed with the use of …

Neptune: Marine Rov Retrofit And Shape Memory Alloy Water Sampler, Ben O'Brien, Sophia Cero, Artie Henderson, Garrett Nelson, Eleni Spirakis

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The Robotics Systems Lab at Santa Clara University worked closely with Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to design and modernize a safe, low-voltage remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and fabricate a shape memory alloy (SMA) triggered water sampler. The scope of this project was split into two parts. The first was to modernize an existing ROV frame and flotation device with low-cost, low-voltage components for depths up to 300ft. The second scope was to design and manufacture a 100ml water sampling system that was mostly mechanical. Due to the onset of COVID-19, the functionality and performance of the ROV was verified …

Investigations Of Mycelium As A Low-Carbon Building Material, Kevin Yang

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

With the building industry being responsible for 39% of global carbon emissions, there is an imperative need for low-carbon solutions that can decarbonize the built environment. This thesis aimed to address whether mycelium, the hyphal body of fungi, can be used as a building material. The first part of research involved developing a protocol for creating and testing mycelium samples. Mycelium composites were created by inoculating strains of mycelium onto agricultural substrates such as walnut shells, rice hulls, and a commercially available mix from Ecovative Design LLC. Mechanical compression and tensile tests, as well as thermal conductivity and fire resistance …

Toward Precision Medicine With Nanopore Technology, Trang Andrea Vu

Theses and Dissertations

Currently, when patients are diagnosed with cancer, they often receive a treatment based on the type and stage of the tumor. However, different patients may respond to the same treatment differently, due to the variation in their genomic alteration profile. Thus, it is essential to understand the effect of genomic alterations on cancer drug efficiency and engineer devices to monitor these changes for therapeutic response prediction. Nanopore-based detection technology features devices containing a nanometer-scale pore embedded in a thin membrane that can be utilized for DNA sequencing, biosensing, and detection of biological or chemical modifications on single molecules. Overall, this …

Adaptive Navigation Utilizing A Drone Cluster, Zach Cameron, Brendan Engh, Thomas Kambe, Aditya Krishnan

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The current infrastructure for drone piloting involves drones flying in a predetermined path to find an object, source, or target with a known location. Drones should be able to determine an optimal flight path mid-flight in order to find an undefined source or target given existing parameters that can be analyzed from incoming sensor data. However, a framework for such a feat is almost non-existent. Our project aims to build such a framework that allows for the control of and communication among multiple drones, called a cluster, and allows for in-flight analysis and processing of sensor information to determine how …

Sunny-Side Solutions: A Solar Powered Water Heating And Shower System, Adrienne Lee, Malonda Mcelwee, Jada Paddock, Jesus Reyes

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Sunny-Side Solutions is a solar water heating and shower system designed for Naretu Academy in Narok, Kenya, to provide the academy's teachers a simple, reliable, and frugal method of receiving hot water for daily showers. After thorough research and testing, the final system's main components are ½ diameter, 54.9 m long irrigation piping solar collector, a 100 L insulated hot water tank, and a 67 W circulation pump. These components ensure that all water that enters the system will be able to achieve a final temperature of 38 °C and maintain this temperature until the teachers shower and drain the …

Graftthis: Modernizing Organic Farming, Brendan Gescher, Molly Jansky, Jack Margolis, Kaleb Pattawi

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Traditional plant characteristic improvement techniques are accompanied by certain disadvantages. Most notably, it takes several seasons in order to breed for favorable characteristics such as crop yield and disease resistance via deliberate selection. In order to expedite this improvement process, grafting - a method in which two separate plants with individual, desirable qualities are physically combined, may be used.

This report explores the development of a regulated environment as a solution to many of the problems associated with the grafting of plants during their recovery stage. The grafting chamber model necessitates: (1) an ability to maintain the specific temperature, humidity …

Designing Developable Mechanisms On Conical And Cylindrical Developable Surfaces, Lance Parker Hyatt

Theses and Dissertations

The research results presented in this thesis provide tools and methods to aid in the design of developable mechanisms. This work will help engineers design compact mechanisms onto developable surfaces, making it possible for them to be used in future applications. The thesis introduces terminology and definitions to describe conical developable mechanisms. Models are developed to describe mechanism motion with respect to the apex of the conical surface, and connections are made to cylindrical developable mechanisms using projected angles. The Loop Sum Method is presented as an approach to determine the geometry of the cone to which a given spherical …

Computational Investigation Of The Effects Of Rotor-On-Rotor Interactions On Thrust And Noise, Austin R. Schenk

Theses and Dissertations

Recent advancements in electric propulsion systems have made electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft a reality, and one that is seen as a partial solution to the growing issue of urban traffic congestion. Designing an aircraft with multiple smaller motors and rotors spread across the wings–referred to as distributed electric propulsion (DEP)–has shown great potential in help- ing improve electric aircraft performance by offering increased propulsive efficiency, augmented lift, and structural load distribution. For these reasons, DEP is one configuration that is currently being implemented into multiple prototype designs (e.g. NASA’s Maxwell X-57, Airbus Vahana, Opener BlackFly, and Joby S2). …

Installing Piezoelectric Tiles In Children Outdoor Playing Areas To Create Clean & Healthy Environment; Case Study Of El-Shams Sporting Club, Cairo_Egypt, Rania Rushdy Moussa

Architectural Engineering

The pollution rate has increased during the last decades, the increasing percentage of CO2 and methane causes environmental problems such as changing in climate and rising of new diseases that jeopardize the public health. Creating a clean and healthy environment is an essential goal to protect the planet and human race. The environmental changes became a great issue all over the world especially in the developing countries such as Egypt, lately the electricity generation process and the heavy usage of fossil fuel increased the numbers of children infected by asthma and lung problems due to the air pollution. In order …

Cancer Biomarker Detection In Human Plasma By Integrating Surface Acoustic Wave And Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence, Yuqi Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis includes data and discussion about the technique of metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) to lower the detection limit of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). The detection limit goes down to 100pg/mL level when using MEF substrate made by rapid thermally annealed silver film covered by silica, which has great promise in diagnosing certain types of cancer that uses CEA as detection biomarker, such as pancreatic cancer and colon cancer. To further address the issue of background noises from non-specifically bound proteins (NSB) in complex media, such as plasma, serum, urine and blood, MEF is integrated with surface acoustic wave (SAW) streaming in …

Leapi: Wireless Diagnostic Assistant, Jeff Collins, Austin Iverson, Collin Seaman, Joseph Sindelar

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Nearly every person who usesWiFi on a daily basis has had trouble with a bad connection. Wireless connectivity issues are often difficult to diagnose and fix. Current solutions such as wired extenders, and MeshWiFi commercial packages are expensive and do not provide the user with a system that suggests placement of mesh units to maximize coverage. Our solution is an inexpensive and open-source diagnostic tool that maps out Wifi quality and informs the user of interference. With a simple, meaningful display, users will find trouble spots in their house, diagnose why IoT devices are not working, effectively place WiFi extenders …

Feasibility Of Electric Field Assisted Clogging Reduction In Cold Gas Spraying Nozzle, Hendric Tronsson

ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

The relatively novel cold spraying process expands its range of applications constantly. In order to continue this trend, this process still has various hurdles that need to be overcome such as clogging. Clogging within the cold gas spraying process causes porous coatings with less material properties and lower durability; a solution is needed in order to reduce the clogging and so expand the cold gas spraying applications. This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using an electric field to reduce clogging. To do so a simplified channel was used to simulate charged particle trajectory shifts under the influence of …

Mitigating Fake Digital Media And Quality Assurance, Hetesh Sehgal, Xinyu Chen, Kyle Jiang

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

With the introduction of social media, the internet is filled with an excess of data and content. Users feeds are cluttered with fake, malicious, and unnecessary information, polluting their page and wasting their time. As observed in the 2016 US election, spam accounts posting fake news were successfully able to sway political opinion and misinform the general population. Additionally, with social media becoming one of the biggest advertising markets, there is a rise in the number of fake accounts with a large number of followers that mainly consist of bots. It should be a priority to protect the public from …

Usu Mars Rover Team Places In University Rover Challenge Finals, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

June 9, 2020 — Space exploration technology is constantly in need of creative and innovative design updates to help expand our exploration of the cosmos.

Optimized 3d Reconstruction For Infrastructure Inspection With Automated Structure From Motion And Machine Learning Methods, Samuel Arce Munoz

Theses and Dissertations

Infrastructure monitoring is being transformed by the advancements on remote sensing, unmanned vehicles and information technology. The wide interaction among these fields and the availability of reliable commercial technology are helping pioneer intelligent inspection methods based on digital 3D models. Commercially available Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been used to create 3D photogrammetric models of industrial equipment. However, the level of automation of these missions remains low. Limited flight time, wireless transfer of large files and the lack of algorithms to guide a UAV through unknown environments are some of the factors that constraint fully automated UAV inspections. This work …

Designing Gates And Architectures For Superconducting Quantum Systems, Sahar Daraeizadeh

Dissertations and Theses

Large-scale quantum computers can solve certain problems that are not tractable by currently available classical computational resources. The building blocks of quantum computers are qubits. Among many different physical realizations for qubits, superconducting qubits are one of the promising candidates to realize gate model quantum computers. In this dissertation, we present new multi-qubit gates for nearest-neighbor superconducting quantum systems. In the absence of a physical hardware, we simulate the dynamics of the quantum system and use the simulated environment as a framework for test, design, and optimization of quantum gates and architectures. We explore three different simulation-based gate design methodologies: …

Metabolic Network Analysis Of Filamentous Cyanobacteria, Daniel Alexis Norena-Caro

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cyanobacteria were the first organisms to use oxygenic photosynthesis, converting CO₂ into useful organic chemicals. However, the chemical industry has historically relied on fossil raw materials to produce organic precursors, which has contributed to global warming. Thus, cyanobacteria have emerged as sustainable stakeholders for biotechnological production. The filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. UTEX 2576 can metabolize multiple sources of Nitrogen and was studied as a platform for biotechnological production of high-value chemicals (i.e., pigments, antioxidants, vitamins and secondary metabolites). From a Chemical engineering perspective, the biomass generation in this organism was thoroughly studied by interpreting the cell as a microbial …