Engineering Commons^™

Bird Trail Stairway Access Replacement, Mackenzie Wright, William Spellman, Nicholas Buccino, Jack Long

Mechanical Engineering

Dana Adobe & Cultural Center, a non-profit organization in Nipomo, California, seeks to restore access to the Bird Trail located on their site. This project aims to design and manufacture a replacement stairway for safe creek bed crossing on the trail. Within this document, we have detailed our system design, function, and justification for our design. The procurement, manufacturing, and assembly plan have been outlined along with tests we completed.

One of the most important functions of our design is for the structure to be retractable so that it can be removed from the creek bed when needed. To address …

Scitechatorium Exhibit, Adam Khan, Cole Busch, Logan Femling, Alan Onuma

Mechanical Engineering

This document outlines the final stages of development and analysis of our interactive children’s exhibit for the Bellevue-Santa Fe Charter School’s SciTechatorium. We will showcase the final form of our ball and track display, giving a detailed look at each component and subsystem.

To describe how our final prototype will be built we have included a detailed manufacturing summary for our design. Our models have been designed with manufacturability in mind, and we have outlined which processes were used to produce all our parts.

There are also detailed descriptions of testing that were conducted to verify the performance of the …

Skip The Grid: Navajo Nation Solar Power Project, Nathan Kealy Haub

Construction Management

Skip the Grid, an initiative aimed at empowering communities in need was brought to life through the collaborative efforts of California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) students, industry partners like SOLV Energy, and the educational non-profit organization Heart of America (HOA). This project was a true testament to the power of teamwork and innovation. Our mission was to assist families of school-aged children in the Navajo Nation by providing them with solar energy systems, including batteries and lighting. We aimed to create a lasting impact by equipping these families with essential resources. In addition, we integrated educational …

Can Leadership Classes Help Women In Construction Embrace Vulnerability Early In Their Careers?, Crystal Giselle Martinez

Construction Management

This study investigates how a vulnerability lesson, integrated into a construction management university course, impacts women’s comfort levels in showing vulnerability in their early careers. It also examines the perceptions of individuals on the subject of vulnerability prior to taking the class expressing societal norms in relation to vulnerability and leadership in relation to vulnerability. Pre- and post-surveys, utilizing the Likert scale and free responses, were used to gather data from students enrolled in a leadership-focused class at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Findings reveal that while vulnerability is seen as vital for leadership, gender challenges persist, shaped …

Skip The Grid: Solar Panel And Battery Installations In Navajo Nation, Samir S. Ramanathan

Construction Management

Skip the Grid is a collaborative effort to bring off-grid power to communities that are isolated and experience inequalities, such as the Navajo Nation, in order to enhance their quality of life. This effort involved an interdisciplinary team of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) students, SOLV Energy, and Heart of America (HOA). Due to the vast nature of the reservation, lack of government focus in the region, and Covid’s severe damage to the community, a large number of homes of school age children do not have power. This project installed solar panels, battery systems, and lights …

San Luis Obispo High School Ffa Swine Barn Demolition And Enclosure Reconfiguration, John F. Spurlock

Construction Management

The San Luis Obispo High School (SLOHS) FFA program required an upgrade to its deteriorating swine barn. This project came in three unique scopes of work: demolition of the existing barn, proper disposal of materials, and reconfiguration of the enclosure and water lines. This paper will cover specifically the reconfiguration of the enclosures and the redesign of the watering system. This phase of the project required skills in framing and plumbing, which our team had absorbed during specific construction management courses at Cal Poly. The reconfiguration included framing and securing a long span of fencing along the northern side of …

Exploring Mass Timber And Mitek Posi-Strut System In Modern Construction, Matthew N. Maloney

Construction Management

This study evaluates the performance, cost-effectiveness, and constructability of two different truss systems by constructing identically sized mockup models. The comparison focuses on the top chord POSI-Strut Metal Web System and the bottom chord truss system, both utilizing Boise Cascade LVL engineered lumber. Our findings reveal that the top chord POSI structure truss system is more cost-effective and time-efficient compared to the bottom chord truss system. The top chord system's design reduces material costs and speeds up construction time, making it an attractive option for projects with tight budgets and schedules. However, the top chord POSI-Strut Metal Web System has …

The Future Of Fiberglass Rebar In Concrete Structures, Dillon Michael Elliott

Construction Management

In the working elements of the construction industry, the strive for materials that aim for strength, durability, and sustainability are never-ending. For traditional steel reinforcement this material faces inevitable challenges over time such as corrosion, weight of material, and environmental concerns. However with the emergence of fiberglass rebar, the negative impacts we see from traditional steel rebar may be resolved within the industry of construction. This paper aims to explore and propose a different alternative to reinforcement in concrete structures with the use and integration of fiberglass. The effectiveness which fiberglass as a reinforcement material offers will be investigated throughout …

Evaluating Value Engineering Techniques Of California Contractors, Mason Alec Montoya

Construction Management

Value engineering plays a critical role in delivering the best possible project to an ownership team. Preconstruction teams across firms of all sizes perform value engineering studies to determine how project scopes can be changed to advance the construction schedule, reduce costs, and ensure the end user is satisfied with their building. To determine how California general contractors employ value engineering, I used a series of interview questions in a structured format to interview four professionals from different California general construction firms. The analysis and findings of my study provide insight into how familiar construction teams are with value engineering …

Heavy Civil Estimating Utilizing Hcss Heavybid, Quintan Matthew Davis

Construction Management

The estimate process is an essential aspect of the construction industry. Understanding how bids are formed and being able to create one for yourself is critical in being able to really understand cost breakdown of a construction process. This paper will focus around the process in creating a presentation for Cal Poly students, breaking down HCSS HeavyBid and its functions. This project was created to address this idea of attempting to teach HeavyBid to Cal Poly future young engineers. This was particularly important because young students learn how to be a great young engineer in the construction field, however not …

Case Study - A Comparative Analysis Of Two Different Wastewater Treatment Plants, James Duckett

Construction Management

This case study compares two different wastewater treatment plants and analyzes the different characteristics, including strengths and weaknesses of both. The first plant being addressed is the Stockton Regional Wastewater Controls Facility (RWCF), and the second plant studied is the Morro Bay Water Reclamation Facility. These facilities are both quite new at the time of this paper, though they are both very different in size and geographical location, as one is on top of a hill, and one is in the middle of a valley. The Stockton RWCF is currently under construction, nearing completion at the time of this paper, …

Construction Panel Discussion At Arroyo Grande High School, Grace I. Devaney

Construction Management

Grace Devaney conducted a panel presentation and discussion on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at Arroyo Grande High School for 2 architecture and engineering class periods with 5 guest speakers. The guest speakers were asked various questions about their respective careers and organizations, during which students could ask questions if something mentioned sparked curiosity. Each class was provided with flyers, made by Grace Devaney, which included the guest speaker’s names and professions, a QR code to the ACE mentorship program website, and an email followed with a survey to gauge student feedback. The purpose of this project was to expose high …

What Construction Management Students Are Looking For In A Job Offer, Michael D. Aceves

Construction Management

Many construction companies and construction management firms invest large amounts of time and resources into the acquisition of new talent directly out of college from universities such as California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). Because of this, the knowledge of what incentives would be most enticing to a construction management student preparing to graduate would prove beneficial to the aforementioned construction management companies. In order to find a base level understanding of that knowledge this paper looks to report on a survey of construction management students at Cal Poly about how important a myriad of common job …

Use Of Tempered Glass As A Potential Substitute For Coarse Aggregate In Concrete, Will Nethercutt

Construction Management

Tempered glass poses issues for traditional glass recyclers, as the melting temperature is different from standard glass due to the tempering process that the glass is subjected to. This makes tempered glass more difficult to recycle and opens this material up as a potential for other methods of environmentally beneficial disposal. Tempered glass breaks into relatively consistent pieces that are more rectangular and granular than standard glass. Granular size is dependent on the thickness of the glass used and forms a relatively cubic shape. This size is similar to some of the material found in standard coarse aggregate for concrete …

Construction Of Concrete Shear Wall & Modular Foundations - Procurement And Quality Control, Justin J. Coffin

Construction Management

This project details the planning, construction, quality control, and logistics processes throughout the construction of a concrete shear wall and modular footings. The project focused on constructing the wall and footings as they were designed to ensure they meet strength parameters to be used in the High Bay Lab at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo for seismic testing. The complex designs, encompassing dense rebar gages and post tensioned bars, required extensive hours of labor and quality control. This paper will cover the main phases of the construction process and how they were acquired. Furthermore, the considerations taken …

Resources To Support Adu Construction, Eleanor Rheingans

Construction Management

This survey examines whether cities with a higher number of online resources will result in a higher proportion of ADU permits and a lower wait time for approval. Some cities have offered online resources directly related to the ADU permitting and construction process. The seven online resources were selected based on interviews with developers. Data used is from 2018 to 2023. Other factors seem to affect the number of permits issued more than resources the cities post for public access. While developers do want the resources cities are currently offering, there are some gaps, particularly records of past permit costs …

Planning And Executing The 2024 Annual Hackathon, Isabella Naomi Peterson

Construction Management

The Hackathon is an event that is put on every year by Cal Poly construction management students which highlights a prevalent safety issue in the construction industry. This is a one day event which focuses on re-designing, innovating, and improving an aspect on job sites that needs modification. The theme this year for the third annual Hackathon was redesigning the safety hard hat and helmet. This paper will explain how the Hackathon project came about this year, why the safety issue of hard hats was selected, the research conducted for this year’s Hackathon, steps of event planning, the execution of …

Exploring The Impact Of Personal Protective Equipment (Ppe) Quality On Construction Individuals, Daniel Seo

Construction Management

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is essential in protecting workers on construction sites. Construction sites are known to have various hazards that can lead to death or injury. While PPEs are designed to protect workers from these injuries, its usage and quality affects its capability. As PPE is distributed by construction companies, it is imperative to identify the determinants of quality PPE. These factors include psychological factors like perceived risk, comfort, and safety attitudes. Two surveys were conducted on seventeen (17) construction management industry individuals and twenty-one (21) construction management students to determine the preferences of PPE and their views regarding …

Cost Modeling Of Provision C.3 Green Stormwater Infrastructure Requirements For Residential Development In Concord, California, James Henry Mizutani

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To assist the city of Concord in achieving its housing goals as presented in its general plan, while still meeting the stormwater discharge requirements laid out in the city’s municipal discharge permit, I worked with local developers and consultants to create a spreadsheet modeling tool that allows housing developers to estimate the total cost of green stormwater infrastructure needed to comply with local regulations.

This report contains a summary of the conditions leading to the necessity of this tool, the steps the tool takes that go beyond existing models, a description of how the model operates, instructions on how to …

3d Printing Of Fiber-Reinforced Calcined Clay-Limestone-Based Cementitious Materials: From Mixture Design To Printability Evaluation, Haodao Li, Jingjie Wei, Kamal H. Khayat

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Sustainability and limitations in embedded reinforcement are the main obstacles in digital fabrication with concrete. This study proposed a 3D printable fiber-reinforced calcined clay-limestone-based cementitious material (FR-LC3). The binder systems incorporating calcined clay (CC) and limestone filler (LF) were optimized by determining the flow characteristics and water retention ability of the paste. The effect of fiber volume on the key fresh and mechanical properties of the fiber-reinforced mortars made with the optimized binder was evaluated. A combination of offline assessments and inline printing were employed to investigate the printability of the FR-LC3 with various binder systems and viscosity-modifying admixture (VMA) …

Forecasting Future Research Trends In The Construction Engineering And Management Domain Using Machine Learning And Social Network Analysis, Gasser G. Ali, Islam H. El-Adaway, Muaz O. Ahmed, Radwa Eissa, Mohamad Abdul Nabi, Tamima Elbashbishy, Ramy Khalef

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Construction Engineering and Management (CEM) is a broad domain with publications covering interrelated subdisciplines and considered a key source of knowledge sharing. Previous studies used scientometric methods to assess the current impact of CEM publications; however, there is a need to predict future citations of CEM publications to identify the expected high-impact trends in the future and guide new research efforts. To tackle this gap in the literature, the authors conducted a study using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms and Social Network Analysis (SNA) to predict CEM-related citation metrics. Using a dataset of 93,868 publications, the authors trained and tested two …

Predicting Flexural-Creep Stiffness In Bending Beam Rheometer (Bbr) Experiments Using Advanced Super Learner Machine Learning Techniques, Alireza Roshan, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

BBR test is commonly used to assess the low-temperature performance grade (PG) of asphalt binders, with the flexural-creep stiffness being a critical parameter calculated through this test. However, it has notable limitations that demand attention. The significant amount of asphalt binder needed for test specimens increases costs and resource consumption. Additionally, the complex and time-consuming specimen preparation process hinders testing efficiency and introduces result variability, affecting the accuracy and reliability of PG determinations. In recent years, machine learning (ML) has emerged as a promising substitute for predicting various engineering values. In this study, the primary focus was on harnessing super …

An Editorial For The Special Issue “Processing And Application Of Weather Radar Data”, Youcun Qi, Zhe Zhang, Zhanfeng Zhao, Bong Chul Seo, Huiqi Li

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Application Of Multidisciplinary Community Resilience Modeling To Reduce Disaster Risk: Building Back Better, Wanting "Lisa" Wang, John W. Van De Lindt, Blythe Johnston, P. Shane Crawford, Guirong Grace Yan, Thang Dao, Trung Do, Katie Skakel, Mojtaba Harati, Tu Nguyen, Robinson Umeike, Silvana Croope, Andre R. Barbosa

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

From december 10 to december 11, 2021, a deadly tornado outbreak struck across several states in the us, including arkansas, illinois, kentucky, and tennessee. This tornado outbreak resulted in at least $3.9 Billion in damage, more than 90 fatalities, and hundreds of injuries. Mayfield, kentucky, a small city in the eastern united states, was hit by a long-track tornado rated as an enhanced fujita 4 (ef4) scale and was one of the communities most heavily damaged during the tornado outbreak. Following the 2021 tornado event, an analysis was performed in the interdependent networked community resilience modeling environment (in-core) for the …

Prescribed-Time Nash Equilibrium Seeking For Pursuit-Evasion Game, Lei Xue, Jianfeng Ye, Yongbao Wu, Jian Liu, D. C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Dear Editor, this letter is concerned with prescribed-time Nash equilibrium (PTNE) seeking problem in a pursuit-evasion game (PEG) involving agents with second-order dynamics. In order to achieve the prior given and user-defined convergence time for the PEG, a PTNE seeking algorithm has been developed to facilitate collaboration among multiple pursuers for capturing the evader without the need for any global information. Then, it is theoretically proved that the prescribed-time convergence of the designed algorithm for achieving Nash equilibrium of PEG. Eventually, the effectiveness of the PTNE method was validated by numerical simulation results.

Best Practices For Maintenance Of Traffic On Interstate Pavement Rehabilitation Projects, Catherine Keathley, Ryan Griffith, Rachel Catchings

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Across the United States, aging roadway infrastructure has led state departments of transportation (DOTs) to increase their focus on pavement rehabilitation projects. These projects upgrade existing infrastructure to meet the needs of current levels of vehicle use. On interstate rehabilitation projects, maintenance of traffic (MOT) is an especially important consideration. Having a good MOT plan for completing construction work is critical for maintaining facility capacity while ensuring the safety of the traveling public and roadway construction staff. This study explores on behalf of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) best practices for MOT on interstate pavement rehabilitation projects. Based on a …

Using Knowledge Of Human Factors To Strengthen Highway Design, Chris Van Dyke, Jeff Jasper, Jill Asher, Steve Waddle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Transportation practitioners recognize that leveraging knowledge of human factors in road design is critical for delivering safe mobility to the full spectrum of multimodal road users (motorists, pedestrians, micromobility users, transit users). Understanding how psychology, cognition, and behavioral tendencies shape the ways in which different road users interact with one another and the road environment itself is critical for creating design solutions that promote safe and efficient movement. NCHRP Report 600 (Human Factors Guidelines for Road Systems) provides guidance on integrating knowledge of human factors into design practice. While the report is a valuable resource, it appears to …

A Data-Driven Agent-Based Model Of Occupants’ Thermal Comfort Behaviors For The Planning Of District-Scale Flexible Work Arrangements, Martín Mosteiro-Romero, Matias Quintana, Rudi Stouffs, Clayton Miller

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In a global context of increasing flexibility in the way workplaces and the districts in which they are located are used, there is a need for occupant-driven approaches to plan urban energy systems. Several authors have suggested the use of agent-based models (ABM) of building occupants in urban building energy simulations due to their ability to reproduce emergent behaviors from individual agents’ actions. However, few works in the literature take full advantage of the ABM paradigm, accounting for both occupant presence and energy-relevant behaviors at the district scale. In this work, we propose a methodology to develop a data-driven, agent-based …

Creating Synthetic Energy Meter Data Using Conditional Diffusion And Building Metadata, Chun Fu, Hussain Kazmi, Matias Quintana, Clayton Miller

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Advances in machine learning and increased computational power have driven progress in energy-related research. However, limited access to private energy data from buildings hinders traditional regression models relying on historical data. While generative models offer a solution, previous studies have primarily focused on short-term generation periods (e.g., daily profiles) and a limited number of meters. Thus, the study proposes a conditional diffusion model for generating high-quality synthetic energy data using relevant metadata. Using a dataset comprising 1,828 power meters from various buildings and countries, this model is compared with traditional methods like Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (CGAN) and Conditional Variational …

Network-Based Representations And Dynamic Discrete Choice Models For Multiple Discrete Choice Analysis, Huy Hung Tran, Tien Mai

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In many choice modeling applications, consumer demand is frequently characterized as multiple discrete, which means that consumer choose multiple items simultaneously. The analysis and prediction of consumer behavior in multiple discrete choice situations pose several challenges. In this paper, to address this, we propose a random utility maximization (RUM) based model that considers each subset of choice alternatives as a composite alternative, where individuals choose a subset according to the RUM framework. While this approach offers a natural and intuitive modeling approach for multiple-choice analysis, the large number of subsets of choices in the formulation makes its estimation and application …