Engineering Commons^™

Development And Characterization Of Sustainable Novel Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites, John Victor Christy

Dissertations

Low crude oil prices have impacted the economy of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries especially the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Hence it is vital to accelerate the diversification of the economy. Among the many potential diversification avenues, manufacturing is a promising area that could add to the GDP. This work brings out a sustainable and cost-effective method for manufacturing AMCs and expanding their applications.

This work deals with the processing and characterization of recycled AMCs manufactured using a novel approach. With the emphasis on sustainable manufacturing, this work aims to use Scrap Aluminum Alloy Wheels (SAAW) of cars …

Coordinating Multi-Party Vehicle Routing With Location Congestion Via Iterative Best Response, Waldy Joe, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This work is motivated by a real-world problem of coordinating B2B pickup-delivery operations to shopping malls involving multiple non-collaborative Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) in a congested city where space is scarce. This problem can be categorized as a Vehicle Routing Problem with Pickup and Delivery, Time Windows and Location Congestion with multiple LSPs (or ML-VRPLC in short), and we propose a scalable, decentralized, coordinated planning approach via iterative best response. We formulate the problem as a strategic game where each LSP is a self-interested agent but is willing to participate in a coordinated planning as long as there are sufficient …

Solving The Winner Determination Problem For Online B2b Transportation Matching Platforms, Hoong Chuin Lau, Baoxiang Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We consider the problem of matching multiple shippers and transporters participating in an online B2B last-mile logistics platform in an emerging market. Each shipper places a bid that is made up of multiple jobs, where each job comprises key information like the weight, volume, pickup and delivery locations, and time windows. Each transporter specifies its vehicle capacity, available time periods, and a cost structure. We formulate the mathematical model and provide a Branch-and-Cut approach to solve small-scale problem instances exactly and larger scale instances heuristically using an Adaptive Large Neighbourhood Search approach. To increase the win percentage of both shippers …

Set Team Orienteering Problem With Time Windows, Aldy Gunawan, Vincent F. Yu, Andros Nicas Sutanto, Panca Jodiawan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This research introduces an extension of the Orienteering Problem (OP), known as Set Team Orienteering Problem with Time Windows (STOPTW), in which customers are first grouped into clusters. Each cluster is associated with a profit that will be collected if at least one customer within the cluster is visited. The objective is to find the best route that maximizes the total collected profit without violating time windows and time budget constraints. We propose an adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm to solve newly introduced benchmark instances. The preliminary results show the capability of the proposed algorithm to obtain good solutions within …

Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning: A Comprehensive Survey, Shubham Pateria, Budhitama Subagdja, Ah-Hwee Tan, Chai Quek

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning (HRL) enables autonomous decomposition of challenging long-horizon decision-making tasks into simpler subtasks. During the past years, the landscape of HRL research has grown profoundly, resulting in copious approaches. A comprehensive overview of this vast landscape is necessary to study HRL in an organized manner. We provide a survey of the diverse HRL approaches concerning the challenges of learning hierarchical policies, subtask discovery, transfer learning, and multi-agent learning using HRL. The survey is presented according to a novel taxonomy of the approaches. Based on the survey, a set of important open problems is proposed to motivate the future …

First Train Timetabling And Bus Service Bridging In Intermodal Bus-And-Train Transit Networks, Liujiang Kang, Hao Li, Huijun Sun, Jianjun Wu, Zhiguang Cao, Nsabimana Buhigiro

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Subway system is the main mode of transportation for city dwellers and is a quite signif-icant backbone to a city's operations. One of the challenges of subway network operation is the scheduling of the first trains each morning and its impact on transfers. To deal with this challenge, some cities (e.g. Beijing) use bus 'bridging' services, temporarily substitut -ing segments of the subway network. The present paper optimally identifies when to start each train and bus bridging service in an intermodal transit network. Starting from a mixed integer nonlinear programming model for the first train timetabling problem, we linearize and …

Ultrapin: Inferring Pin Entries Via Ultrasound, Liu, Ximing, Robert H. Deng, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

While PIN-based user authentication systems such as ATM have long been considered to be secure enough, they are facing new attacks, named UltraPIN, which can be launched from commodity smartphones. As a target user enters a PIN on a PIN-based user authentication system, an attacker may use UltraPIN to infer the PIN from a short distance (50 cm to 100 cm). In this process, UltraPIN leverages smartphone speakers to issue human-inaudible ultrasound signals and uses smartphone microphones to keep recording acoustic signals. It applies a series of signal processing techniques to extract high-quality feature vectors from low-energy and high-noise signals …

When Program Analysis Meets Bytecode Search: Targeted And Efficient Inter-Procedural Analysis Of Modern Android Apps In Backdroid, Daoyuan Wu, Debin Gao, Robert H. Deng, Rocky Chang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Widely-used Android static program analysis tools,e.g., Amandroid and FlowDroid, perform the whole-app interprocedural analysis that is comprehensive but fundamentallydifficult to handle modern (large) apps. The average app size hasincreased three to four times over five years. In this paper, weexplore a new paradigm of targeted inter-procedural analysis thatcan skip irrelevant code and focus only on the flows of securitysensitive sink APIs. To this end, we propose a technique calledon-the-fly bytecode search, which searches the disassembled appbytecode text just in time when a caller needs to be located. In thisway, it guides targeted (and backward) inter-procedural analysisstep by step until reaching …

Comprehensive Characterization Of The Aerosol And Cloud Condensation Nuclei In The Uae, Farah Hassan Abdi

Theses

Cloud seeding has emerged as a significant alternative freshwater source in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is employed to manipulate weather conditions and increase precipitation in specific target regions. These efforts aim to densify clouds and enhance the likelihood of rainfall by inducing nucleation. This technique involves an operational crew aboard an aircraft that disperses substantial quantities of seeding particles, such as salts or silver iodide, into suitable clouds. These particles can serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and indirectly affect the rate of rainfall. In 2018, cloud seeding operations were responsible for approximately 10-15% of the UAE's total …

Assimilating Requirements Specification For Space Manned Missions: A Novel Approach, Khalfan Mohamed Al Remeithi

Theses

Aligned with the UAE Space Strategy 2117, which aims to establish the first inhabitable human on the Martian Surface by 2117, and with the current enthuse toward space tourism, the thesis proposes a novel framework to assimilate the process of requirement specification for a Manned Mission to Mars surface. Deep Space manned missions are unique and characterized by a set of specific requirements that should be elicited from different sources and stakeholders to ensure the missions’ success. In addition, these missions are highly dependent on the software components in the Command and Data Handling System (CDHS), which is used to …

Metallurgical And Thermal Processing Investigation Of Additively Manufactured Superalloys Jbk-75 And Nasa-Hr-1, Allyse Birken, Derek Noel

Materials Engineering

Aerojet Rocketdyne is investigating the use of directed energy deposition (DED), an additive manufacturing process, to reduce cost and lead time for manufacturing complex rocket engine components for their RS-25 engines. JBK-75 and NASA-HR-1, two Fe-Ni-base, age-hardenable (γ′) superalloys, are used for nozzle structural jackets and hot gas manifolds. Currently, these parts are produced using traditional forging or casting methods followed by intensive machining operations. Additionally, these alloys were designed for use in the wrought condition and require a different set of post-processing heat treatments when produced using DED due to their dendritic, segregated microstructure in the as-built condition. Homogenization …

Warren J. Baker Center For Science And Mathematics California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Campus, Matthew Hudson

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The purpose of this report is to analyze the Warren J Baker Center for Science and Math on the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo campus. Baker Science is primarily used for classroom and laboratory instruction of college students, with study spaces, faculty offices, and assembly spaces. There are mechanical, electrical, and storage spaces ancillary to the main building functions. The building comprises six floors that are between 23,000 and 44,000 ft2. The first floor contains classrooms, faculty offices, mechanical/electrical spaces, and an auditorium with fixed seating. An atrium connects floors two through five. There are walkways running down …

Pod Stabilization, Lane Matthew Pledger, Becca Stefanich, Ian Mccandless, Patrick Salter, Kirk Kuran

General Engineering

We were tasked by Holmes Solutions to find a way to stabilize their patented SWITCHBACK passenger gondola system. This system is a self-propelled pod that transitions smoothly between cables and rails. The main goal for this project is to dampen side-to-side swing of gondola pods using a modular stabilization system. This device must be within these constraints: it must fit within a work envelope, must be safe for user and operator, must perform a dampening effect, and must be compliant with the current system. We formulated many ideas to achieve the goal, including making the pod more aerodynamic, adding sliding …

Sole On The Ocean Hotel, Dale Mcdowell

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The following is an analysis of the fire protection systems and services at the Sole On The Ocean, Hotel (pronounced So-lay), Restaurant and Parking Building, located in Sunny Isles (Miami), Florida. Sole is used for temporary sleeping accommodations, business conference and restaurant purposes. The building is considered a high-rise building and is 24 Stories tall. The building occupancy classification is mixed used for Hotel (Residential), Restaurant (Assembly) and Parking (Storage). The prescriptive analysis was based on the Florida Building Code (FBC) which is identical to the International Building Code (IBC) with a few addendums. This report will adhere to the …

California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo Building 180: Baker, Kelly Kessloff

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This project was performed as part of the requirements for completion of the Fire Protection Engineering Master’s Program at Cal Poly. This project covers a full prescriptive and performance based analysis on the Warren J. Baker Center for Science and Mathematics. This building was constructed on Cal Poly’s campus in 2013 and serves occupancies such as classrooms, laboratories, and office space for students and professors.

The prescriptive based analysis of this report will analyze the applicable building codes and determine if this building is compliant. Relevant codes include the 2016 California Building and the 2016 California Fire Code. In addition …

Consumer-Ready Insulated Solar Electric Cooker, Simon Ford, Sachin Gokhale, Brendan Lynn, Richard Nguyen

Mechanical Engineering

An insulated solar electric cooker, or ISEC, converts solar energy into electricity to cook food, boil water, provide heat or even help charge batteries. In this project, the focus is an ISEC with a phase change material (PCM) that helps store heat when the solar energy input is minimal, such as after the sun has set. Although a successful ISEC already exists that utilizes PCM, this product can be improved in many ways. The specific revisions investigated in this report are the improvement of the thermal efficiency with the implementation of a vacuum-sealed outer pot, the reduction of the overall …

Interactive Physics Display: Air Cannon, Marina Smeltzer, Sydney Hosokawa, Jordan Nguyen, Jessica Ouyang

Mechanical Engineering

The San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden (SLOBG) is a non-profit organization that provides a place for visitors to connect with and explore nature. The sponsors from SLOBG sought an interactive physics display to be implemented in their children’s garden that will educate children and adult visitors about physics concepts in a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere. The research done showed that customers are looking for a “wow” factor with the display to surprise and engage them. Patents showed the design and build of interactive playground equipment. Government reports described the curriculum for the target audience and also outlined the safety precautions …

Sustainable Energy Storage, Jacob S. Grillo, Alyse C. Coonce, Jack R. Linchey, Nick P. Schnorr

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review document covers the work we, students at California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo, have performed in collaboration with Mr. Harish Bhutani and Dr. Mohammad Noori. The project’s intent is to create an energy storage system for off-grid and developing region applications using alternative technologies to lithium-ion battery storage. We plan to manufacture and assemble a scale model of the energy storage system to prove effectiveness and practicality. This system will store enough energy to power basic appliances and essential devices for a house or community. The chosen design direction will be a flywheel, as …

Configurable Seat Track Latching Mechanism, Emily Sun, Kai Quizon, Rick Hall, Daniel Turn, Nicholas Holman, Alexander Kuznik, Jacob Winkler, Audrey Trejo, Phoebe Zeiss, Steven Kam

Mechanical Engineering

The reconfigurable seating system is a flexible seating solution for transit vehicles that allows operators to change the configuration of the floor plan in a timely manner in order to accommodate change in needs. This project consists of three senior project teams each working on a component of the design: system, track & latch, and articulation. Descriptions of the responsibilities of each team will be discussed below.

Prosthetic Foot Shell, Christopher Menke, Colton Arbuckle, Jacob Rodriguez

Mechanical Engineering

Prosthetic foot shells are designed to fit around lower limb prosthetics to be able to fit shoes and several types of footwear. They are currently designed in a way that they wear through very quickly if used in an active lifestyle. The current designs on the market are designed for geriatric use. The sponsor for this project Mr. Dana Cummings, would like for the team to produce a product that extends current foot shell’s life. This document explains includes the team’s research process, the design process, and the main functions of what the team designed for. It will also show …

Composite Pegboard, Asa J. Cusick, Luis Corrales, Joelle Hylton, Wyatt Pauley

Mechanical Engineering

Many of those with mobility limitations who are told they will need a wheelchair for the rest of their lives can actually begin to stand and walk again given the proper tools and support. The current design for a wheelchair seeking to support this process is overly complex, heavy, and exhibits some features that could potentially pose a serious health hazard to those using it. The scope of this project is to aid in the design of an adaptable composite wheelchair frame that can be both lightweight and strong, while still allowing for physical diversity of potential users. Through research …

Transportable, Jung Sub Kim, Ellie Kitabjian, David Yang, Christopher Macias

Mechanical Engineering

This document is a Final Design Review (FDR) report for team TransporTable, a quartet of mechanical engineers at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). It chronicles our design and validation process through final design phase. Our project: to design and test concepts for a stackable table that streamlines group work. After conducting user/sponsor interviews and background research, we found that many products already exist, but none meet the specific blend of requirements set out by our sponsor. They include fast deploying/stowing times, durability, stiffness, and manufacturability. We ideated on the table’s functions, distilling many ideas into three …

Space Suit Attachment Quick Release System, Elyse C. Gillis-Smith, Andres I. Elzaurdia, Cole H. Stanton, Michael T. Roth

Mechanical Engineering

NASA plans to make it back to the Moon by 2024 with their Artemis Program, and stay there for a longer period of time to conduct research which will support the future of space exploration. While on the lunar surface, astronauts need to maximize their efficiency by carrying tools on their Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), and to accommodate this need, the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Tools Team is pursuing a utility belt concept. The objective of this project is to develop a system capable of interfacing between the utility belt and any given tool, while also accommodating numerous restrictions and …

Uav For Medical Equipment Distribution, Richard Barakat, Logan Christensen, Brandon Halebsky, Justin Slavick

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review report documents the senior project participating in the Vertical Flight Society’s 38th Annual Student Design Competition sponsored by The Boeing Company. The goal of this project and competition is to develop an unmanned vertical lift for medical equipment distribution capable of safely delivering a 50 kg payload over distances up to 200 km. This system must be autonomous and have a backup plan to land if any part of the system malfunctions. We discuss the research and justification that drove the selection of the aircraft configuration, a winged quadcopter with a rear propeller. Furthermore, we document …

Hands-On 3d Printed Dynamics Activities, Dakota Baker, Jacob Lindberg, Andrew Meyenberg, Junnior Rodriguez

Mechanical Engineering

The advancement of 3D printing has allowed everyday individuals to rapid prototype and manufacture in a more efficient, cost-effective, and timely manner. This has paved the way for a more adaptable educational model, by allowing instructors to easily access alternative instruments for teaching. By providing students with tangible tools, they will better be able to grasp complex principles. Dynamics professors need a way in which they can easily access these academic tools, transport them to and from class, and teach multiple dynamics principles through variations of a single 3D printed kit. Interviews with professors and students were conducted to gain …

One Dimensional Study Of Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters For A Potential New Class Of Heavy Ion Drivers For Plasma Jet Driven Magnetoinertial Fusion, Patrick M. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Plasma Jet Driven Magnetoinertial Fusion (PJMIF) requires high velocity heavy ion drivers in order to compress a magnetized target to fusion conditions. Previous work with heavy ion drivers has revealed sub-par accelerations due to plasma instabilities; thus, it is necessary to investigate new methods of heavy ion plasma acceleration. One such method is Magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters. Past studies of these thrusters have been conducted at an initial temperature at or below the energy of full ionization. Here MPD thrusters are investigated using a Godunov type MHD solver with a Harten-Lax van Leer-D (HLLD) flux solving scheme assuming the plasma is …

An Analysis Of The Air Force Installation Development Plan And Its Energy Benchmarking Effectiveness, Jacob P. Hyman

Theses and Dissertations

Installation Development Plan (IDP) is a comprehensive long-term base planning document, which includes an inventory of sustainable development goals including energy use and climate indicators. This study analyzed 32 different IDPs among the various installations in the continental United States, identifying regional trends and behaviors across their 16 Sustainability Development Indicators (SDI). To study the IDPs more in depth, specific focus was placed on SDI 1, which concerns energy consumption and generation. This study investigated the different variations in energy benchmarking across local climate conditions, SDI ratings, and units used. Major inconsistencies were found across these three domains. Subsequently, the …

Adaptive Robotic Chassis (Arc): Robocrop A Smart Agricultural Robot Toolset, Steven Bucher, Krissy Ikeda, Brooke Broszus, Alejandro Gutierrez, Ariana Low

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

RoboCrop is a payload system that attaches to an existing modular drivetrain to support the agriculture industry with their primary challenge of labor shortages. ARC: RoboCrop features three degrees of freedom as an XYZ Cartesian robot and is intended specifically for pruning strawberry flowers. The image bay camera attached to RoboCrop’s frame identifies the strawberry flowers, communicates their XYZ coordinates, and then the Cartesian robot moves to the desired locations. The snipping toolhead is interfaced at the bottom of the Z-stroke and performs the snipping process. RoboCrop has a proven success rate of at least 70% of flowers pruned in …

A Mems Pressure Sensor Using Electrostatic Levitation, Mohammad Mousavi, Mohammad Alzgool, Shahrzad Towfighian

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Scholarship

Applying electrostatic levitation force to the initially-closed gap-closing electrodes of our micro-electro- mechanical system (MEMS) creates multi actuation mechanisms, and opens a new world to the MEMS applications.

Electrostatic levitation allows us to measure physical quantities, such as air pressure, by exploiting pull-in instability and releasing. The beam starts from a pulled-in position by applying a voltage difference between two gap-closing electrodes. When enough voltage is applied to the side electrodes, the cantilever beam is released. At the release instant, electrostatic forces, restoring force, and surface force are applied to the cantilever. According to the experimental results of this work, …

Hierarchical Scheduling For Real-Time Periodic Tasks In Symmetric Multiprocessing, Tom Springer, Peiyi Zhao

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we present a new hierarchical scheduling framework for periodic tasks in symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) platforms. Partitioned and global scheduling are the two main approaches used by SMP based systems where global scheduling is recommended for overall performance and partitioned scheduling is recommended for hard real-time performance. Our approach combines both the global and partitioned approaches of traditional SMP-based schedulers to provide hard real-time performance guarantees for critical tasks and improved response times for soft real-time tasks. Implemented as part of VxWorks, the results are confirmed using a real-time benchmark application, where response times were improved for soft …