Engineering Commons^™

Guitar Pickup Testing Fixture, Koen Graue, Ethan Rezentes, Max Schecter, Timothy Webb

Mechanical Engineering

Small guitar pickup manufacturers and hobbyists have an interest in developing guitar pickups with unique tonal characteristics and responses, but currently lack a reliable way to test these pickups and characterize their sound. I.M. Bohannon Mechanical Design approached the team to develop a solution to this problem. In response, the team researched current technologies, customer needs, and existing products on the market to define the scope and requirements for a guitar pickup testing fixture. This report documents the work completed during the project scope and definition phase of Cal Poly's senior project process. It discusses researched topics and existing solutions, …

Xylem: A Comparative Analysis Of Gpu Dispatch Pipelines For Large-Scale, Procedural Environments, Srinivas Sundararaman

Master's Theses

The real-time rendering of large-scale, procedural scenes presents a significant performance challenge for traditional CPU-bound rendering pipelines. The high volume of draw calls and the need for complex culling and level-of-detail management create bottlenecks that limit scene complexity and visual fidelity. This thesis investigates the evolution of GPU-driven rendering paradigms via the Xylem renderer within NVIDIA’s Donut rendering framework as a solution to these challenges.

A comprehensive benchmarking framework is developed to implement and quantitatively analyze three distinct rendering strategies for a procedurally generated, parameterizable, large-scale forest scene. The evaluated pipelines include: (1) traditional instanced rendering, (2) compute-driven indirect rendering …

Pet Mobility Project, John Shelby, Lily-Rose Jolie Bacon, Andrea Yasmine Reyes

Biomedical Engineering

The Pet Mobility Project, sponsored by Terri Smith and Jasper Jackson, is an initiative aimed at providing a custom mobility aid to a pet in the San Luis Obispo community. Amber Rappozo’s young German Shepherd, LeDoux, was selected as the project’s recipient. LeDoux suffers from hindleg weakness and, as a result, has limited mobility. This document provides a comprehensive overview of the Pet Mobility Project, detailing the motivation, background, and design approach behind the development of a LeDoux’s custom mobility aid.

Cardiac Twitch Force Measurement System, Tara Hoffman, Sebastian Carrascal Gómez, Julian Macdonald

Biomedical Engineering

The goal of this project is to develop a low-cost and accurate force measurement system and method of measurement to be used in the testing of grown cardiac tissue samples. The primary stakeholder in this project is Dr. Luke Perreault, a biomedical engineering professor at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo who is studying grown cardiac tissue rings, and any of his student lab personnel. Other stakeholders include other researchers in the tissue engineering field who require a similar form of testing to the methods developed in this project.

This document will introduce the identified problem and background as …

Elevate Grill, Brady Alexander

Electrical Engineering

The Elevate Grill Senior Project is a Santa Maria style grill with an electrical lifting/lowering mechanism and temperature sensor feedback. The grill allows for a dynamically controlled cooking surface, able to be automatically set or manually set by the user. The grill’s user interface informs the user about the temperature in different zones on the grill and alerts the user when the target temperature is hit. Additionally, the user can program preset temperature ranges and apply them to the grill’s control system. The system incorporates safe failure modes in the event of a power outage and also allows the user …

Pcb Design For Place Cells Vlsi Chip, Gavin Reaksecker, Alex Krier, Joshua Lin

Electrical Engineering

This project presents the design and implementation of a 2 layer test-bench printed circuit board (PCB) for evaluating the functionality of a custom 40-pin VLSI integrated circuit. The objective is to create a reliable and portable platform capable of supplying configurable bias voltages, generating variable input signals, and monitoring both analog and digital outputs. The board integrates adjustable bias networks using potentiometers, digital and analog buffering stages, and optional battery supply operation. The VLSI device under test is mounted in dual-in-line (DIP) sockets to enable rapid replacement and repeated characterization. Dedicated test points are incorporated throughout the PCB to facilitate …

Solving Linearly Constrained Quadratic Programs Using Field Programmable Analog Arrays, Tyler Wynn, Alonzo Arroyo

Electrical Engineering

This paper presents a field-programmable analog array (FPAA) implementation for solving linearly constrained quadratic programs (LCQPs) directly in the analog domain. The solver is based on a continuous-time primal-dual control architecture with integral action, anti-windup compensation, and a piecewise-linear nonlinearity for enforcing affine inequality constraints. A switched-capacitor implementation using three AN231E04 FPAAs is developed, and coefficient scaling methods are introduced to keep internal and output signals within the voltage limits of the hardware. A global scaling factor is used to reduce internal signal excursions, while solution-space scaling is shown to modify the implemented optimization coefficients and alter the local closed-loop …

Autonomous Rover Solar And Battery Management System: Team B, Karla Jazmin Lira Gonzalez, Paige Ambriz, Kunj Shah, Elhom Delasa Sheykhi

Electrical Engineering

This project focused on the software and printed circuit board (PCB) integration for Poly1Rover’s battery management system (BMS). Poly1Rover is a student organization dedicated to building a low-cost autonomous rover designed to operate on Mars. Since solar availability, temperature, and other conditions on Mars vary, the rover requires a reliable battery management system that accurately monitors battery health and status. This team’s work included the communication and control side of the BMS. The subsystem was designed around the Renesas ISL94202 battery monitor and the MSP430 controller. Battery information was read from the ISL94202 registers through I2C communication, converted from raw …

Pso-Style Social Influence In An Ant Colony Algorithm For Continuous-Domain Optimization, Ashraf M. Abdelbar, Donald C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

ACOR is a well-established Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm for continuous-domain optimization. In this paper, we propose an extension (which we call ACOR∗) in which several fundamental modifications are made to ACOR's solution construction process, including the incorporation of a social influence mechanism borrowed from Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). Our modifications to the ACOR algorithm are intended to promote search diversity and combat premature convergence. We experimentally evaluate our proposal in the context of training feedforward neural networks for classification using 65 widely used datasets from the University of California Irvine (UCI) repository, as well as the optimization of several …

Multiplexed Fabry-Pérot High-Temperature Sensing Based On Dispersive Microwave-Photonic Frequency-Time Domain Analysis, Ruimin Jie, Chen Zhu, Bohong Zhang, Koustav Dey, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a multiplexed high-temperature Fabry-Pérot (FP) fiber sensing system interrogated by dispersive microwave-photonic frequency-time domain analysis (DM-FTDA). In the proposed architecture, incoherent broadband probing light is modulated by radio-frequency (RF) signals and then reflected by a parallel network of hollow-core photonic crystal fiber FP (HCPCF-FP) sensors. A chirped fiber Bragg grating provides strong dispersion to map the composite FP spectral response into a well-defined microwave transfer function. Unlike conventional optical Fourier-domain multiplexing that requires deliberate cavity-length allocation, the proposed approach achieves multiplexing via delay-dominated discrimination. Distinct delay fibers are assigned to each sensor branch, and an …

A Carbon Fiber-Based Self-Sensing Approach For Monitoring Damage Evolution In Coal Pillars, Shan Ning, Weibing Zhu, Jie Gao, Wei Qin, Guang Xu, Jingmin Xu

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Under long-term high stress and dynamic disturbances, damage accumulation within underground coal masses can induce sudden instability, posing a considerable threat to coal mine safety. Real-time acquisition of coal damage information is essential for disaster prevention and control. This study proposes a coal damage and fracturing monitoring approach based on a carbon fiber composite mortar (CFCM) coating. By applying the CFCM coating to coal specimen surfaces and monitoring resistance changes, the dynamic evolution of damage can be tracked. The study combines experimental mechanical loading, continuous electrical resistance monitoring and acoustic emission recording with detailed numerical modelling to comprehensively evaluate sensing …

Evaluation Of The Effect Of Vibration On Signal Reflection In Coaxial Cable Connectors For Vibration Sensing In Aircraft Structures And Systems, Saidanvar Esanjonovich Valiev, Anthony C. Okafor, Jeremiah J. Rittenhouse, Daniel S. Stutts, Jie Huang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper investigates the effects of vibration on signal reflection (S11) in aerospace data transmission line (ADTL) and commercial data transmission line (DTL) connectors for their alternative use as vibration sensors. The impact of vibration on the S11 signal was investigated on five ADTL and four DTL connectors at six vibration frequencies (20 Hz, 40 Hz, 80 Hz, 160 Hz, 320 Hz, and 640 Hz) and four vibration accelerations (0.5G, 1 G, 2 G, and 4G). The experiment was conducted using a split-plot design with a cable type assigned as the main-plot factor, with vibration frequency and acceleration as subplot …

Table Tennis Training Instrument (Ping Pongers), Derick Alvarado, Peter Sandberg, Andrew Wong

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Table Tennis is an extremely popular sport worldwide, boasting an extensive market. However, it is a sport that generally requires other people to both play and practice with. The goal of this project was to create a machine that would serve table tennis balls for the purpose of individual practice. The machine was meant to fill the niche that other machines of the same type filled by allowing individuals to practice on their own without the assistance of another player or a coach. The main goal of the project was to offer a market competitive device, sharing the same basic …

Inductive Train Transport System, Nicholas Root, Devon Gibb, Ryan Cinarkaya, Davis Letsinger

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Light rail systems can move large numbers of people at relatively high speeds as part of the transit networks critical to dense urban centers, lowering greenhouse gas emissions. However, costs associated with traditional light rail systems are incredibly high and hinder the implementation and expansion of such systems. In this paper, we detail the potential implementation of an inductively-charged, battery-powered light rail system with the potential to lower implementation and expansion costs. This system is compared to existing public transit networks and details of the subsystems required for the successful operation of the planned light rail system are established. As …

Camless Valve Engine, Berkeley Burbank, James Thomas Daniel, Haydn Fischer, Nicos Katigbak, John Holden Kleiner, Martin Raabe

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

This project focuses on the design and validation of a camless engine valve system as an  alternative to traditional camshaft-based valvetrain architectures. Conventional engines rely on  fixed camshaft profiles that limit performance and efficiency across varying operating  conditions. The goal of this work is to replace both the camshaft and throttle body with a  pneumatically actuated system capable of independently controlling valve timing, lift, and  duration in real time. By removing the mechanical constraints of a camshaft, the system has the  potential to optimize engine operation across all RPM ranges, improving efficiency and overall  performance without requiring major changes to …

Computational Modeling To Evaluate Bipolar Flexible Electrode Designs For Use In Sciatic Nerve Stimulation, Krystyna S. Allman

Master's Theses

Peripheral nerve stimulation is clinically used to manage pain, rehabilitate motor function, and promote nerve regeneration. The sciatic nerve is often studied for stimulation due to its accessibility and clinical relevance. A conventional nerve cuff electrode is the least invasive method for nerve stimulation, but the mismatch of mechanical properties of the electrode with the nerve tissue can cause damage to the nerve and the electrode itself. This study investigated a novel bipolar, gold nanowire-based cuff electrode design and its ability to selectively activate fibers in the rat sciatic nerve at varying interelectrode spacings. In COMSOL, A finite element model …

Hospital Bed Tray Table, Ava Mikeska, Sara Chamness, Samantha Kenney, Kaitlyn Ould

Mechanical Engineering

This project documents the design and development of a collapsible hospital bed tray table created through the Mechanical Engineering Senior Project program at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. The goal of the project was to reduce the floor space occupied by existing overbed tray tables while preserving the functionality, stability, and durability expected by patients, visitors, and healthcare staff.

The final design modifies a commercially available overbed tray table by incorporating a folding tabletop hinge mechanism and a telescoping base. The hinge allows the tabletop to lock in both the upright and stowed positions, while the telescoping base retracts to …

Thermosiphon Lab Experiment, Ella C. Perry, Zach Barry, Madison K. Felton, Lane A. Hunter

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Department aims to develop a new lab centered on a thermosiphon solar system. This lab will introduce the operating principles of thermosiphons while integrating concepts from heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and thermodynamics. A thermosiphon functions by heating water using thermal energy. The lab will examine the efficiency of this energy transfer. The final lab will be tailored to enhance student learning while ensuring ease of use for the Mechanical Engineering Department.

Semi-Automated Wine Barrel Filler, Elliot Jason Dejong, Carlo Caesare Deianni, Brady Emerson J. Leib

Mechanical Engineering

The proposed project is a semi-automated wine barrel filler. Currently, there is no streamlined and affordable method for smaller wineries to fill wine barrels without dedicating complete focus to the task. The primary use is controlled filling for white wine fermentation, during which an air gap must be left in the barrel to allow for expansion of the wine during fermentation. Tom Greenough, Saucelito Canyon’s head winemaker, and associate winemaker Bodie Ringhofer are the primary stakeholders in our project and want to consistently fill barrels at their winery to a fluid volume of approximately 50 gallons each. This project serves …

Desktop Dynamometer, Ryan Boister, Zachary Chung, Molly Koretz, Tyler Lum

Mechanical Engineering

This senior project presents the design and development of a desktop dynamometer for measuring the performance of small electric motors. The system integrates torque and speed measurement with data acquisition hardware to calculate power output and evaluate motor performance. The compact and cost-effective design provides a practical platform for engineering education, testing, and performance characterization of small-scale power systems.

25-26 Mecc: Magnetic Thread Wave Energy Converter, Adolfo Torres Flores, Maya Malay, Grayson Houghton, Chase Eavis, Ramyasree Kaja, Tyler Chin, Malia Merager, Chad Haines, Noah Borkum, Raina Moore

Mechanical Engineering

Remote coastal Alaskan villages face significant challenges accessing reliable and affordable electricity due to their geographic isolation and limited connection to central energy grids. These communities often depend on expensive and environmentally unsustainable diesel generators which are difficult to supply and operate. They require a new renewable, affordable, minimal maintenance power solution to decrease their reliance on fossil fuels and promote sustainable development in the region. Although several wave energy converters exist, none adequately suit the needs of these coastal villages, therefore a new design is required to support them. This project will be undertaken by three interdisciplinary teams made …

Smart Sleeve, Evan Abalos, Bright Jung, Owen Bowling, Wyatt Eberhart

Mechanical Engineering

Quantifying human arm muscle activity is essential for understanding human movements and helping individuals who suffer from motor or neurological impairments such as stroke or traumatic brain injuries. Today, these individuals, as well as clinicians, researchers, and athletes, face many challenges when using the traditional surface electromyography (sEMG) systems to monitor muscle activities, including complex setup, restricted mobility, discomfort, inconsistent placement of electrodes, and lack of accuracy. Therefore, a comfortable EMG sleeve device that accurately measures arm movement without interfering with daily tasks is needed, which the team will be designing, manufacturing, and testing as their senior project. In addition, …

Mobile Transfer Assist (Mta) Device, Ashley Homuth, Garrett Schnack, Will Bruner, Jacob Flores

Mechanical Engineering

The Mobile Transfer Assist (MTA) device was developed to assist caregivers with seated-to-seated transfers while reducing physical strain. The device uses a manually operated hand winch and pulley system to raise a user into a semi-standing position, allowing safe transfer between locations. The final design emphasizes portability, affordability, ease of use, and user safety through a modular frame, transfer sling, knee supports, and locking caster wheels. A verification prototype was fabricated and tested, demonstrating successful operation and compliance with project requirements established by VTC Santa Maria.

Hydropower Collegiate Competition 2026, Andres R. Arreola, Sammy D. Taporco, Kathryn E. Tinney, Ahmer S. Dhillon

Mechanical Engineering

The Hydropower Collegiate Competition (HCC) is sponsored by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) and is meant to offer university students an opportunity to solve complex hydropower challenges, build industry connections, explore career connections, and obtain a greater knowledge of hydropower’s potential in the United States. For this year’s competition, our team investigated a potential in-conduit hydropower site in California. Our work included creating a design package for a crossflow turbine related to our selected site and completing the community connections challenge. We also completed a siting and design report, community connections report, design and siting …

Process Improvement For Thermal Barrier Coating Masking Applications, Katherine Meezan, Aiden Senn, Saksham Giri, Katelyn Perez

Mechanical Engineering

Solar Turbines, a gas turbine manufacturer, needs a more efficient method to prevent the application of a thermal barrier coating (TBC) to select areas of their combustion liners during manufacturing. Currently, the process is labor, material, and time intensive: reusable masking tools should increase the efficiency of the TBC process.

This project is sponsored in full by Solar Turbines, and is under the guidance and administration of three Solar Turbines engineers: Chris Noone, Rick Rogers, and Carson Roff. The project is mentored by Cal Poly senior design Coach, Rick Lasko. This project will be completed by a team of four …

Semi-Automated Wine Case Palletizer, Ashley A. Corona, Joshan Darji, Russell Williams, Brett Beaudoin

Mechanical Engineering

The Semi-Automated Wine Case Palletizer project was sponsored by Saucelito Canyon Winery to reduce the physical demands of manually palletizing wine cases during bottling operations.

Using customer requirements developed through sponsor meetings and observations, the team designed, manufactured, and tested a semi-automated palletizing system consisting of a rotating carousel platform, pneumatic scissor-lift assembly, airbag jack, and forklift-compatible base. The design allows operators to maintain an ergonomic working height while accessing all pallet locations from a single position.

Engineering analyses, including finite element, fatigue, and buckling analyses, verified the structural integrity of the design. Prototype testing confirmed successful operation of the …

Me3328 Combined Loading Beam Bending Lab, Alejandro Islas, Viswesh Vancheeswaran, Owen Spencer, Henry Andrews

Mechanical Engineering

Serving as a new laboratory experiment for ME 3328 (Design for Strength & Stiffness), strain gauges were adhered, wired, and calibrated on a cantilever beam lab apparatus capable of undergoing pure bending, pure torsion, and combined bending.

Design And Evaluation Of An Open-Source Ac/Dc Power Converter For Microgrid Applications, Ryan J. Rayos

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of an open-source bidirectional power conversion platform intended for microgrid applications. As distributed energy resources, battery storage systems, and hybrid AC/DC architectures continue to increase in adoption, there is a growing demand for flexible, low-cost, and programmable power electronic platforms capable of interfacing between DC and AC subsystems. Existing commercial solutions are often proprietary and expensive, limiting their accessibility for educational, research, and rapid prototyping applications. This work expands upon the existing open-source Atinverter platform by increasing its operating voltage capability, integrating bidirectional power flow, and implementing telemetry systems suitable for microgrid …

Integration Of Robotic Arm And Conveyor With Programmable Logic Controller, Drake A. Small

Master's Theses

To meet new curriculum demands brought on by Cal Poly's upcoming switch to semesters, a new, cross-disciplinary lab module was developed for EE 435 (Industrial Power Control and Automation). The module emphasizes career-applicable skills, preparing students for the field of controls engineering within the manufacturing industry. These skills include robotic control, computer networking and configuration, and embedded systems. The work focused on integrating a collaborative robot arm to pick-and-place boxes on a conveyor. A myCobot 320 Pi and an Ultimation Powered Roller MDR Conveyor were integrated with the existing PLC system using Modbus RTU and EtherNet/IP communication protocols, respectively. A …

Effects Of Atmospheric Drag On Angles-Only Initial Relative Orbit Determination Accuracy In Low Earth Orbit, Sydney Walsh

Master's Theses

Growing congestion in low Earth orbit is increasing the demand for effective space situational awareness, straining ground station capabilities. Space-based relative orbit determination offers an alternative, using line-of-sight angle measurements from a chaser spacecraft to estimate a target spacecraft's orbit. This research focuses on angles-only initial relative orbit determination (IROD), where no prior target state knowledge is assumed. It investigates how IROD solution accuracy is affected by differential atmospheric drag between the chaser and target spacecraft. A nonlinear batch least squares filter is designed to estimate the target's initial state, which is compared against a truth solution. It was found …