Engineering Commons^™

Robot Path Planning System, Filippo Cheein, Tim Berry, Bruce Rogstad, Bob Entezar, Jamari Ducre

Electrical Engineering

The future is autonomous. It is estimated that by 2025 there will be 8 million autonomous cars in the market. Millions more will be autonomous devices employed in homes, malls, offices, and warehouses. There are many aspects of these future devices that are necessary for proper autonomous functionality, with none potentially more critical than the devices’ path planning ability. This project aims to create an effective, reliable, and safe path planning algorithm for the autonomous devices of the future. Indoor autonomous devices, such as warehouse or office robots, benefit from being able to always use the same floor plan rather …

Probability Based Logic Locking On Integrated Circuits, Michael Yue

Electrical and Computer Engineering Master's Theses

The demand of integrated circuits (IC)s are increasing and the industry has outsourced the fabrication process to untrusted environments. An adversary at these untrusted facilities can reverse engineer parts of the IC to reveal the original design. IC piracy and overproduction are serious issues that threaten the security and integrity of a system. These ICs can be copied illegally and altered to contain malicious hardware. The pirated ICs can be placed in consumer products which may harm the system or leak sensitive information. Hardware obfuscation is a technique used to protect the original design before it gets fabricated, tested, assembled, …

Void And Density Analysis Of Cyanate Ester Composites, Cameron B. Atwood

Materials Engineering

In large scale composite manufacturing, voids and their frequency within prepreg materials play an important role in predicting the mechanical properties of a final composite laminate. The industry standard process for determining voids in composite materials is through resin digestion and resin ignition via ASTM D3171. One limitation to this standard is its ability to frequently produce negative void volume values in quality control testing, due to the calculation sensitivity of input resin and fiber densities. For this reason, Toray Advanced Composites wanted to investigate the process steps of ASTM D3171 to determine if discrepancies in resin density data may …

Blacow Road Improvement Plan, Nishita Kandikuppa

City and Regional Planning

Providing safe and accessible entrances to schools, especially elementary, middle, and high schools where children are below the age of 18, should be of utmost priority to cities. Providing wide sidewalks, painted bicycle lanes and continental crosswalks (with the lateral lines) are just basic infrastructure improvements that can be made within the vicinity of a school. However, due to lack of funding or attention from the city departments, many school entryways are being neglected and the direct impact of this is increased collisions among students, drivers, and bicyclists. My senior project studied one such school in Fremont, California where the …

A Simulation-Assisted Teaching Practice: Teaching Ac Variable Speed Systems Using Simulation Models Library, Jinzhu Gao, Qian Yang

All Faculty Articles - School of Engineering and Computer Science

Different modulation modes of PWM technology and inverters can be selected for different types of the motors, a variety of AC variable frequency variable speed system structures can also be derived based on the same control principle. So it brings a great challenge to teaching AC variable speed systems. We have identified four factors that hinder students’ learning in this topic: 1) the abstraction of the mathematical logic behind the control theory; 2) the complexity of system structures; 3) the diversity of implementation methods; 4) lack of motivation to explore more engineering applications due to boring textbook contents. To facilitate …

A Case Study On The Ucsf Transplant Center Renovation: Mitigating Covid-19 Risks And Tracking Cost Impact, Alec Steven Woodyatt

Construction Management

At the beginning of 2020, the world was turned upside down at the hands of the global coronavirus pandemic. Today, economies and business are counting the costs and wondering what recovery will look like – how to navigate and adapt to a new style of life after returning from government-mandated lockdowns. The question on everyone’s minds is, “how do we continue to work while keeping people safe?” This question is extremely relevant in the construction industry where, for most people, working from home is not an option. This case study will delve into how Dome Construction, along with their client, …

Observation Of The Evolution Of Hide And Seek Ai, Anthony J. Catelani

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The purpose of this project is to observe the evolution of two artificial agents, a ‘Seeker’ and a ‘Hider’, as they play a simplified version of the game Hide and Seek. These agents will improve through machine learning, and will only be given an understanding of the rules of the game and the ability to navigate through the grid-like space where the game shall be played; they will not be taught or given any strategies, and will be made to learn from a clean slate. Of particular interest is observing the particular playstyle of hider and seeker intelligences as new …

Tensile Strength Evaluation Of Glulam Connection With Screw Fasteners, Bradley Sharpshair

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Multiple knife plate and external steel plate deep-beam glulam connections were investigated in a series of destructive tests within the Infrastructure Testing and Applied Research laboratory at Portland State University. The goal of these tests was to better understand the failure mode and ultimate load capacity of the large-scale glulam moment connections. Two different types of tests were performed on each connection; one with axial loading, and another loaded in flexure. The first, smaller, axial tests were conducted to inform the later, much larger, bending tests. The results of these tests helped to develop future designs as well as provide …

Lamin A/C Is Dispensable To Mechanical Repression Of Adipogenesis, Matthew Goelzer, Gunes Uzer

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) maintain the musculoskeletal system by differentiating into multiple lineages, including osteoblasts and adipocytes. Mechanical signals, including strain and low-intensity vibration (LIV), are important regulators of MSC differentiation via control exerted through the cell structure. Lamin A/C is a protein vital to the nuclear architecture that supports chromatin organization and differentiation and contributes to the mechanical integrity of the nucleus. We investigated whether lamin A/C and mechanoresponsiveness are functionally coupled during adipogenesis in MSCs. siRNA depletion of lamin A/C increased the nuclear area, height, and volume and decreased the circularity and stiffness. Lamin A/C depletion significantly decreased …

Engineering Students' Perceptions Of Their Development Of Professional Skills, Caitriona Depaor, Una Beagon, Aimee Byrne, Darren Carthy, Patrick Crean, Louise Lynch, Dervilla Niall

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Laminar Flow Face Shield, Julia Carlson, Peter Hunt, Jomil Aquipel, Becky Lu

Mechanical Engineering

The scope of this project was to design a personal protective equipment (PPE) that protects the wearer from SARS-CoV-2 without inhibiting communication and was comfortable to wear for long periods of time. SARS-CoV-2, commonly known as COVID-19, is a contagious respiratory virus that spreads through droplets produced when someone who is infected by the virus coughs, sneezes, or talks. These droplets may land on the mouths or noses of nearby people or may be inhaled in the lungs, infecting those who come in contact with the virus. The current guidelines to help slow the spread of COVID-19 are to wear …

Cnc Feed Drive Control, Ryan J. Funchess, Caleb P. O'Gorman, Nick J. Desimone, Juan M. Majano, Samuel K. Wong

Mechanical Engineering

This document serves as the Final Design Report (FDR) for a senior project developed by our team: four senior Mechanical Engineering students and one computer engineering student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). While the project was completed for, and sponsored by, Professor Simon Xing of Cal Poly, the remainder of the university’s controls professors will be indirectly benefited from this project. Our goal was to design and implement a functional CNC Feed Drive to be used for educational demonstrations and data collection. This document discusses our early product research and benchmark goals, which established constraints …

Sustainable Tiny Home, Abigail Jessica Jones, Vince John Bugni, Sean Robert Paddy, Cameron Michael Gross

Mechanical Engineering

As housing prices and environmental concerns continue to increase, many people are looking for cheaper and more sustainable ways to live. A solution to both problems is building homes with smaller footprints which incorporate renewable energy and water-reclamation systems. In addition, adding a roof pond system to the dwelling also reduces the need for heating and cooling. The roof pond system uses a water bladder on the roof which acts as a heat-sink and moveable insulation panels. This document contains the process for our final design along with results from testing the verification prototype.

Nasa Micro-G Next Challenge: Sample Container Dispensing Device, Kristin G. Kraybill-Voth, Kelsey L. Mickelson, Oscar D. Popravka

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review (FDR) report outlines a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo senior design project developing a sample container dispensing device for NASA Johnson Space Center’s Micro-g NExT design challenge, a competition for university students. NASA aims to bring the first woman and next man to the moon through the Artemis missions beginning in 2024. The Micro-g NExT 2021 challenges focus on developing equipment which will support the Artemis mission, where Astronauts will conduct extensive geological sampling to further the scientific understanding of the moon. Our team designed, built, and tested a device that holds sample bags as they …

Bull Outdoor Products - Electric Grill, Sofie M. Groberman, Makai J. Baker, James T. Andrews

Mechanical Engineering

Our senior design project team designed, assembled, and tested an outdoor electric grill. The sponsor for our project is Bull Outdoor Products, a high-end outdoor kitchen set, pizza oven, and grill company. We met with our sponsor to discuss project expectations and important product characteristics. We also researched the barbecue market and its customers to determine what grill characteristics are the most important. We learned which engineering specifications needed to be tested and outlined what our goals and overall objectives for this project are. With our background research and overall objectives in mind, we came up with different solutions through …

Adapted Tricycle 2021, Carolyn Graven, Daniel Coleman, Sebin Cho, Farhan Khan

Mechanical Engineering

This document describes and outlines the details of the senior project completed by a team of four mechanical engineering students in their final year at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The team worked with Linda Wolff at California Children’s Services to reach their main goal: to create an exercise tricycle that can be used by Savannah. Savannah is a young adult, and she needs to be able to steer, brake, and power the tricycle using almost entirely her core muscles. Over the course of the project, the team worked to design and build a safe and functional tricycle …

F34 Beekeeper Assist, Kyle Ladtkow, Javier Guerra, Jose Velazquez, Ryan Heryford

Mechanical Engineering

Alejandro Jauregui is a veteran who now works as a commercial beekeeper. He lost both of his legs during his service. While his current prostheses allow him to fully complete his work, he has found that inspection of the bee boxes causes him severe hip and back pain. Bee box inspection is a critical task for beekeeping, especially since he maintains about 200 hives every day. Our senior project team was tasked with designing and building a device that would help him move the top bee box out of the way to allow for inspection. We performed preliminary research into …

Med-Drop Pill Dispenser, Cole Pike, Taylor Morris, Christopher Bruni, Jose Gomez

Mechanical Engineering

Veterans’ Affairs home care nurses currently spend anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours filling out monthly prescriptions one pill at a time to veterans who are unable to leave their homes. The goal of this project was to create an easy-to-use device that could be left at a patient’s home that nurses could use to quickly and accurately dispense medication into the patient’s monthly pill box.

Web Application For Surf Journaling, Zachary James Hislop

Computer Engineering

Before deciding whether to surf, many surfers consult surf forecast services. Current surf forecasting offerings provide general information such as predicted surf height and a condition rating, but these predictions are often misleading, as widely varying swell conditions can receive the same forecast. Additionally, these existing services do not incorporate user feedback into their predictions, which requires users to keep a mental mapping of trends between forecast information and real-life conditions.

This report describes the design and implementation of a web application where users can record the surf conditions and assign ratings to recorded surf sessions. With historical surf conditions …

Integration Of Utility Engineering, Coordination, And Highway Design, Tim Taylor, Roy Sturgill, Kenny Franklin, Jeff Jasper, Shani A. Montes Victorio

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

State transportation agencies (STAs) strive to deliver highway projects on time and on budget. Utility relocations are frequently cited as a primary reason for delays. This report describes a new approach for enhancing the alignment of utility coordination and design. Researchers crafted this new approach based on the findings of a literature review, an evaluation of how utility coordination milestones and project development milestones are currently aligned at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), and the experiences of other STAs. KYTC should use this guidance to facilitate implementation of the new approach and an associated Utility Coordination Training and Certification Program. …

Removal Of Sb Impurities In Copper Electrolyte And Evaluation Of As And Fe Species In An Electrorefining Plant, Ana I. González De Las Torres, Michael S. Moats, Guillermo Ríos, Ana Rodríguez Almansa, Daniel Sánchez-Rodas

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Antimony and arsenic concentrations and their oxidation states (Sb(III), Sb(V), As(III) and As(V)) in copper electrorefining electrolyte can affect copper cathode quality through the formation of floating slimes. A laboratory-scale pilot plant was operated to remove Sb from commercial electrolyte. The pilot plant consisted of a pre-treatment process with copper shavings followed by ion exchange. The results indicated that Sb(III) was removed from copper electrolyte completely, while Sb(V) was partially eliminated. The concentrations of As(III) and As(V) were not affected, and the poisoning of the ion exchange resin by Fe(III) was avoided by pre-reduction to Fe(II) by copper shavings. The …

A Gallium-Doped Cement For The Treatment Of Bone Cancers. The Effect Of Zno ↔ Ga2o3substitution Of An Ionomeric Glass Series On The Rheological, Mechanical, Ph And Ion-Eluting Properties Of Their Corresponding Glass Polyalkenoate Cements, Sunjeev Phull, Alireza Rahimnejad Yazdi, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The primary treatment for patients suffering from bone cancers is resection of the tumor followed by reconstruction of the damaged bone. Despite the administration of post-operative chemotherapy, tumor recurrence continues to present itself as a severe complication leading to re-operation. Attempts to incorporate chemotherapeutic drugs into bone cements elicits local toxic effects on healthy bone, which could compromise implant fixation. Alternatively, the local administration of gallium (Ga) may prove to be more effective. This report considers the development of a Ga ionomeric glass series (0.48SiO₂-0.355ZnO-0.06CaO-0.08SrO-0.02P₂O₅-0.005Ta₂O₅, with 0.01-0.05 mol% substitution for …

Quantum Transport Of The 2d Surface State In A Nonsymmorphic Semimetal, Xue Liu, Jin Hu, Jiang Wei, Chunlei Yue, Sergey V. Erohin, Yanglin Zhu, Abin Joshy, Jinyu Liu, Ana M. Sanchez, David Graf, Pavel B. Sorokin, Zinqiang Mao

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

In a topological semimetal with Dirac or Weyl points, the bulk-boundary correspondence principle predicts a gapless edge mode if the essential symmetry is still preserved at the surface. The detection of such topological surface state has been considered as the fingerprint prove for crystals with nontrivial topological bulk band. On the contrary, it has been proposed that even with symmetry broken at the surface, a new surface band can emerge in nonsymmorphic topological semimetals. The symmetry reduction at the surface lifts the bulk band degeneracies and produces an unusual “floating” surface band with trivial topology. Here, we first report quantum …

Zero Voltage Switching Hybrid Voltage Divider Converter, Timothy Jeong

Master's Theses

This project proposes a new hybrid voltage divider DC-DC converter that utilizes switching capacitors and inductors to produce zero voltage switching (ZVS) at the turn on state of its switches. By achieving ZVS, the switching losses are significantly reduced; thus, increasing the overall efficiency of the converter at various loads. The goal for this thesis is to perform analysis of the operation of the converter, derive equations for sizing the main components, and demonstrate its functionality through computer simulation and hardware prototype. Results of the simulation and hardware testing show that the proposed converter produces the desired output voltage while …

A Flat Plate Skin Friction Correlation Including Transition, Jaret M. Wedow

Master's Theses

Many existing boundary layer models treat transition as a rapid switch from laminar to turbulent flow, with correlations defining properties in each respective region. Natural transition, however, is not always a very spanwise uniform process, with the onset of transition varying somewhat between different streamwise paths of fluid flow. Thus, a spanwise average of natural transition can result in a more gradual, extended transition region than many existing models predict. Modern applications, such as aircraft wings and fuselages, are extremely streamlined and smooth, allowing for natural transition to occur rather than flow tripping to turbulent near the leading edge. Under …

Modeling And Control Of A Vertical Hopping Robot, Bradley Y. Kwan

Master's Theses

Single degree-of-freedom hopping robots are typically modeled as spring loaded inverted pendulums (SLIPs). This simplified model, however, does not consider the overall leg geometry, consequently making it difficult to investigate the optimized inertial distribution of the leg for agile locomotion. To address this issue, the first part of this thesis establishes an accurate mathematical model of a DC-motor-driven, two-link hopping robot where the motors are modeled as torque sources. The equations of motion for the two distinct phases of locomotion (stance and flight) are derived using the Lagrangian approach for holonomic systems. A Simulink/Stateflow model is developed to numerically simulate …

Design And Implementation Of A Modular Human-Robot Interaction Framework, Michael J. Juri

Master's Theses

With the increasing longevity that accompanies advances in medical technology comes a host of other age-related disabilities. Among these are neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and stroke, which significantly reduce the motor and cognitive ability of affected individuals. As these diseases become more prevalent, there is a need for further research and innovation in the field of motor rehabilitation therapy to accommodate these individuals in a cost-effective manner. In recent years, the implementation of social agents has been proposed to alleviate the burden on in-home human caregivers. Socially assistive robotics (SAR) is a new subfield of research …

Analysis And Optimization Of A Colorimetric Nanosensor For Rapid Detection Of Escherichia Coli In Water, Sarah M. Stabler

Master's Theses

Safe drinking water is essential for life, yet at least two billion people around the world consume water contaminated with pathogens among other pollutants. Standard methods like polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and membrane filtration have been developed to detect enteric pathogens in water. However, these methods are limited in their accessibility due to long wait times to obtain results, and the requirements of skilled expertise, electricity, and laboratory equipment. This research has focused on addressing some of these limitations by analyzing the mechanisms of work and optimizing an indirect colorimetric nanosensor developed in previous research. The colorimetric nanosensor investigated herein …

Monte Carlo Stack-Up Tolerance Analysis Of The Hybrid Rf/Optical Antenna Edge Sensors, Kara Hewson

Master's Theses

The Deep Space Network (DSN), located at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is developing an RF/Optical Hybrid Antenna. This antenna concept will support the reception of high-bandwidth optical deep-space communications with simultaneous support of conventional RF uplink and downlink. The optical system on the antenna consists of sixty-four hexagonal mirrors positioned to form a spherical aperture. To align the mirrors, a Position Opto-Electronic Metrology Sensor (POEMS) system is used to measure the position of each mirror relative to one another. The POEMS system consists of a sender called a collimator, which sends collimated light to the receiving component, called a …

Development Of A Cubesat Conceptual Design Tool And Implementation Of The Eps Design Module, Sean K. Nogrady

Master's Theses

This thesis is the product of an effort to develop a CubeSat Conceptual Design Tool for the California Polytechnic State University CubeSat Laboratory. Such a tool is necessary due to inefficiencies with the current conceptual design process. It is being developed to increase accessibility, reduce design time, and promote good systems engineering within CubeSat development.

The development of the architecture of a conceptual design tool, the core user-interface element, and the completion of a module for the electrical power subsystem is the focus of this thesis. The architecture is built around different modules to design different subsystems that work in …