Engineering Commons^™

A Novel Evolutionary Algorithm For Designing Robust Analog Filters, Shaobo Li, Wang Zou, Jianjun Hu

Faculty Publications

Designing robust circuits that withstand environmental perturbation and device degradation is critical for many applications. Traditional robust circuit design is mainly done by tuning parameters to improve system robustness. However, the topological structure of a system may set a limit on the robustness achievable through parameter tuning. This paper proposes a new evolutionary algorithm for robust design that exploits the open-ended topological search capability of genetic programming (GP) coupled with bond graph modeling. We applied our GP-based robust design (GPRD) algorithm to evolve robust lowpass and highpass analog filters. Compared with a traditional robust design approach based on a state-of-the-art …

Occurrence Of Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds (Vocs) In A Sanitary Sewer System: Implications For Assessing Vapor Intrusion Alternative Pathways, Mohammadyousef Roghani, Olivia P. Jacobs, Anthony Miller, Evan James Willett, James A. Jacobs, C. Ricardo Viteri, Elham Shirazi, Kelly G. Pennell

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Sewer systems have been recently recognized as potentially important exposure pathways to consider during vapor intrusion assessments; however, this pathway has not been well-characterized and there is need for additional information about the occurrence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in sewer systems. This paper reports the results of sewer gas sampling conducted in a sanitary sewer over the years of 2014–2017. Sewer gas samples were collected and analyzed using several different techniques, including TO-15 (grab), TO-17 (passive), Radiello® (passive) and a novel continuous monitoring technique, the Autonomous Rugged Optical Multigas Analyzer (AROMA). The applicability of each of the different approaches …

Bs News March/April

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Student Shop Access And Inventory Control In The College Of Architecture And Environmental Design Shops, Ryan Raj Mattel, Chris Steven Chen, Kevin Michael Gallagher

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The Cal Poly College of Architecture and Environmental Design shops, directed by David Kempken, give the opportunity for thousands of students to use the “Learn By Doing” philosophy and operate various machinery, tooling, and devices to complete projects inside and outside of the classroom. These students are able to check out tools and machinery to complete these projects on a weekly basis. This report will discuss the complexities and shortcomings of the current database system, FileMaker Pro, that is used for these transactions. The report will furthermore discuss the design and methodology of replacing this system with an improved integrated …

Reducing Same Day Missed Appointments, Lucas Madison, Tyler Moore, Jolani Chun-Moy

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Radiology Associates (RA) is a diagnostic imaging center that offers high-quality, digital medical imaging and interventional radiology services for patients, physicians and healthcare organizations across the Central Coast. They are an ongoing problem that involves a considerable portion of their patients not showing up for their appointments Our project aims to reduce same day missed appointments at Radiology Associates. Radiology Associates currently has a no-show rate of 13.48%. They lose approximately $240 for every same day missed appointment. Our goal was to find new ways to reduce their no-show rate to 8%. Based on our calculations, Radiology Associates could save …

Cru Android App, Dylan Sun

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The Cru app is focused on connecting students and faculty to one of the many Cru ministries here in San Luis Obispo. The app is capable of connecting individuals to a specific community group and ministry teams, gathering information about upcoming Cru events and gatherings, and direct rideshare capabilities. The Cru Android App utilizes Java and other industry standard technologies to fully deliver a well-rounded user experience and to be connected with Cru. In this project, I increased Cru app’s access control abilities and updated the app overall to be ready for an alpha release.

Electroosmotic Flow Of Viscoelastic Fluid In A Nanoslit, Lanju Mei, Hongna Zhang, Hongxia Meng, Shizhi Qian

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The electroosmotic flow (EOF) of viscoelastic fluid in a long nanoslit is numerically studied to investigate the rheological property effect of Linear Phan-Thien-Tanner (LPTT) fluid on the fully developed EOF. The non-linear Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations governing the electric potential and the ionic concentration distribution within the channel are adopted to take into account the effect of the electrical double layer (EDL), including the EDL overlap. When the EDL is not overlapped, the velocity profiles for both Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids are plug-like and increase sharply near the charged wall. The velocity profile resembles that of pressure-driven flow when the EDL is …

Manipulation And Automation Of Fbj Short-Axis Fasteners, Shane Forrest Wood

Theses and Dissertations

Legislative and market pressures are pushing automakers to achieve new fuel economy requirements in the coming years. To help achieve these goals automakers are reducing the overall weight of the vehicle by increasing the use of high-strength aluminum and advanced high-strength steels, and with this increased use comes the desire to quickly, and securely, join these materials within the vehicle. Friction bit joining is a process that lends itself well to joining these materials. This process uses consumable fasteners that need to be used in an automated production line. The geometry of these fasteners causes two main problems: the bits …

Nonlinear Control Framework For Gimbal And Multirotor In Target Tracking, Jae Hun Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents some existing gimbal and UAV control algorithms as well as novel algorithms developed as the extensions of the existing ones. The existing image-based visual servoing algorithms for both gimbal and UAV require the depth information to the object of interest. The depth information is not measurable when only a monocular camera is used for tracking. This thesis is the result of contemplation to the question: how can the necessity for a depth measurement be removed? A novel gimbal algorithm using adaptive control is developed and presented with simulation and hardware results. Although the estimated depth using the …

Mechanical Properties Of Inconel 718 Processed Using Electron Beam Free Form Fabrication (Ebf3), Brent R. Waters

Theses and Dissertations

Electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF³) is a rapid metal deposition process that works efficiently with the wieldable alloy Inconel 718 (IN 718). EBF³ is a developing additive manufacturing (AM) process that can manufacture IN 718 parts directly from computer aided design (CAD) data. EBF³ can produce parts significantly faster and more energy efficient than competing IN 718 AM technologies. The EBF³ process utilizes metal wire feedstock which is induced into a molten pool using a focused electron beam in a vacuum environment. This allows parts to be built layer by layer, creating intricate shapes that …

A Flexible Fpga-Assisted Framework For Remote Attestation Of Internet Connected Embedded Devices, Jared Russell Patten

Theses and Dissertations

Embedded devices permeate our every day lives. They exist in our vehicles, traffic lights, medical equipment, and infrastructure controls. In many cases, improper functionality of these devices can present a physical danger to their users, data or financial loss, etc. Improper functionality can be a result of software or hardware bugs, but now more than ever, is often the result of malicious compromise and tampering, or as it is known colloquially "hacking". We are beginning to witness a proliferation of cyber-crime, and as more devices are built with internet connectivity (in the so called "Internet of Things"), security should be …

The Effect Of Weak Confinement On The Orientation Of Nanorods Under Shear Flows, Saman Monjezi, James D. Jones, Alyssa K. Nelson, Joontaek Park

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We performed a numerical analysis to study the orientation distribution of a dilute suspension of thin, rigid, rod-like nanoparticles under shearing flow near a solid boundary of weak confinement. Brownian dynamics simulation of a rod was performed under various ratios of shear rate and rod diffusivity (Peclet number), as well as the center-of-mass position (wall confinement). We discuss the effects of Peclet number and wall confinement on the angle distributions, Jeffery orbit distribution and average orientation moments. The average orientation moments, obtained as a function of Peclet number and wall confinement, can be used to improve a previous shear-induced migration …

System, Devices And Methods For Molecular Separation, Sankar Nair, Christopher W. Jones, Fereshteh Rashidi, Ali A. Rownaghi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Systems, devices and methods for molecular separation including a molecular separation device comprising at least a polycrystalline metal-organic framework (MOF) and a nanocrystalline, zeolite MFI, wherein the MOF forms a polycrystalline membrane with zeolite MFI nanoparticles dispersed therein, and the MOF membrane matrix contacting and surrounding the zeolite MFI nanoparticles form a permselective nanoporous structure.

Rupture Of A Cryogenic Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel Following A High-Speed Particle Impact, William P. Schonberg

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A primary spacecraft design consideration is the anticipation and mitigation of the possible damage that might occur in the event of an on-orbit micro-meteoroid or orbital debris (MMOD) particle impact. While considerable effort has been expended in the study of non-pressurized spacecraft components under room temperature conditions to MMOD impacts, technical and safety challenges have limited the number of tests that have been conducted on pressurized elements of such spacecraft, especially under cryogenic conditions. This paper presents the development of a data-driven equation for composite material pressure vessels under cryogenic operating conditions that differentiate between impact conditions that, given a …

Applications Of Virtual Reality In Construction, Erick Baeza

Construction Management

Virtual reality, a technology that has just been recently introduced to the construction industry, has gained popularity for its many practicalities which include but not limited to; cost savings, time savings and detections of design errors. This case study summarizes the applications and benefits that virtual reality brings to the industry, in particular to Lendlease’s Oceanwide Plaza project located in Downtown Los Angeles alongside drywall subcontractor, Martin Bros. The information for this case study was gathered through means of a phone call interview with Martin Bros’ foreman, Gilbert Benavidez and face-to-face interviews with Lendlease’s field superintendent Wade Nevitt and assistant …

Industry Perspectives On The 40-Hour Work Week As It Relates To Overtime In The Pacific Northwest, John S. Korsmo Iii

Construction Management

The construction industry has a stigma for construction projects often being behind schedule, delayed, or delivered late. Many projects that find themselves in this predicament will utilize overtime to make up for the loss in schedule. However, a number of published studies shows evidence that extended overtime produces a decrease in labor productivity. Does the structure of the 40-hour work week have an affect on this loss of production with overtime? This paper will examine the structure of the 40-hour work week with an emphasis on a 4-day, 10-hour day schedule as well as overtime productivity. This study explores the …

Student-Assistants In Cal Poly, Facilities Planning And Capital Projects, Nicholas Adam Long

Construction Management

The Cal Poly, Facilities Planning and Capital Projects Department has been an under utilized resource for students who desire the opportunity to work in the field while attending school. This internship-like opportunity would give the student an opportunity to step into the shoes as an owner’s representative. With over sixty separate construction projects consistently occurring around campus, students should be given the opportunity to work under supervision of a Cal Poly Project Manager as a student-assistant. Through multiple interviews with the Cal Poly, Facilities Planning and Capital Project Department Project Managers, it was agreed that there was a need to …

A Case Study On The Use Of Bluebeam On Commercial Construction Projects, Victor Michael Beglitsoff

Construction Management

No matter the size, every construction project has their own unique characteristics and logistics that come with it. But one thing is certain, every project has a specific set of construction documents that include; contracts, drawings, specifications and other important information. To guarantee the overall success of the project, companies must find ways to be the most effective and efficient to reach their specific goals. Using a technological software such as Bluebeam allows companies to excel in what they do best. Using Bluebeam as their primary PDF viewer on construction projects allows them to approach their project with a positive …

Effect Of Sensory Attenuation On Cortical Movement-Related Oscillations, Joseph J. Lee, Brian D. Schmit

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This study examined the impact of induced sensory deficits on cortical, movement-related oscillations measured using electroencephalography (EEG). We hypothesized that EEG patterns in healthy subjects with induced sensory reduction would be comparable to EEG found after chronic loss of sensory feedback. EEG signals from 64 scalp locations were measured from 10 healthy subjects. Participants dorsiflexed their ankle after prolonged vibration of the tibialis anterior (TA). Beta band time frequency decompositions were calculated using wavelets and compared across conditions. Changes in patterns of movement-related brain activity were observed following attenuation of sensory feedback. A significant decrease in beta power of event-related …

Deep Learning Nuclei Detection In Digitized Histology Images By Superpixels, Sudhir Sornapudi, R. Joe Stanley, William V. Stoecker, Haidar Almubarak, Rodney Long, Sameer Antani, George Thoma, Rosemary Zuna, Shelliane R. Frazier

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Background: Advances in image analysis and computational techniques have facilitated automatic detection of critical features in histopathology images. Detection of nuclei is critical for squamous epithelium cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) classification into normal, CIN1, CIN2, and CIN3 grades.

Methods: In this study, a deep learning (DL)-based nuclei segmentation approach is investigated based on gathering localized information through the generation of superpixels using a simple linear iterative clustering algorithm and training with a convolutional neural network.

Results: The proposed approach was evaluated on a dataset of 133 digitized histology images and achieved an overall nuclei detection (object-based) accuracy of 95.97%, with …

Quadratic Two-Stage Stochastic Optimization With Coherent Measures Of Risk, Jie Sun, Li-Zhi Liao, Brian Rodrigues

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A new scheme to cope with two-stage stochastic optimization problems uses a risk measure as the objective function of the recourse action, where the risk measure is defined as the worst-case expected values over a set of constrained distributions. This paper develops an approach to deal with the case where both the first and second stage objective functions are convex linear-quadratic. It is shown that under a standard set of regularity assumptions, this two-stage quadratic stochastic optimization problem with measures of risk is equivalent to a conic optimization problem that can be solved in polynomial time.

Modeling Of Aggregation And Gelation Of Nanoparticles Using Quadrature Method Of Moments, Elsayed Abdelfatah, Maysam Pournik

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Applications of Nanotechnology are growing significantly in the petroleum industry such as oil recovery, and well stimulation. In aqueous media, silica nanoparticles aggregate if there is sufficient attractive energy between nanoparticles. Aggregate size distribution evolves as aggregation continues, and once it spans the space, it forms a gel. The objective of this study is to study the aggregation and gelation kinetics in the batch. Population Balance equation (PBE) is used to model the kinetics of aggregation. Quadrature method of moments (QMOM) is used to convert the PBE with continuous distribution of nanoparticle size into a set of moment equations for …

Standalone Wireless Humming Music Synthesizer (Humsynth), Anna Shabrova, Chad Carlson

Electrical Engineering

The HumSynth is a voice controlled music synthesizer. Unlike the commonly found voice modulators on the market, this product uses a vocal input in place of the traditional keyboard interface. This allows the instrument to serve as an intuitive learning tool for those not proficient in music theory. By using their voice, the consumer is able to get a feel for different scales and keys additionally bypassing the physical learning curve of learning a traditional instrument. By the date of submission this project performs basic functions in recreating the pitch input but does not meet the full specs. The enclosure …

People Like Me: Providing Relatable And Realistic Role Models For Underrepresented Minorities In Stem To Increase Their Motivation And Likelihood Of Success, Nir Aish, Philip Asare, Elif Eda Miskioglu

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

Despite efforts to increase participation of racial and ethnic minorities (excluding Asians) in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the United States, this group remains underrepresented in these fields. Many efforts to increase minority participation focus on support structures to help this group “get through” the pipeline. However, less attention has been paid to increasing their intrinsic motivation to pursue careers in STEM. Our work is focused on increasing this intrinsic motivation, looking at role models as external influences. Underrepresented minorities are faced with a limited role model pool and in many cases with role models (who we call …

Total Hemispherical Apparent Radiative Properties Of The Infinite V-Groove With Specular Reflection, Rydge B. Mulford, Nathan S. Collins, Michael S. Farnsworth, Matthew R. Jones, Brian D. Iverson

Faculty Publications

Multiple reflections in a cavity geometry augment the emission and absorption of the cavity opening relative to a flat surface in a phenomenon known as the cavity effect. The extent of the cavity effect is quantified using apparent absorptivity and apparent emissivity. Analysis of complicated thermal systems is simplified through application of apparent radiative properities to cavity geometries. The apparent radiative properties of a specularly-reflecting, gray, isothermal V-groove have been derived analytically, but these results have not been validated experimentally or numerically. Additionally, the model for apparent absorptivity of an infinite V-groove subjected to partial illumination in the presence of …

Performance Control Of A Spray Passive Down-Draft Evaporative Cooling System, Daeho Kang, Richard K. Strand

Publications and Research

A spray passive down-draft evaporative cooling system has been regarded as a low-energy cooling system that leads significant energy savings in the cooling of buildings. While the energy saving capability of the system has been proven, the ability to control a comfortable indoor environment is still inadequate due to strong climatic dependency. This study seeks viable solutions to advance the control competence of the system by mitigating critical problems of the system to be a reliable cooling application in the cooling of buildings. It proposes potential control strategies for the system and alternative operations. It develops a control algorithm for …

Influencing Effective Electrical Distribution Modernization Through Advanced Metering, Jared R. Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, the Department of Defense (DoD) required its services to implement advanced metering for the purpose of reducing energy usage (Department of Defense, 2013). Additionally, the DoD has aimed to improve its ability to assure a continuous energy supply to all of its installations. This study investigated processes for applying advanced meters on Air Force bases to increase energy assurance. This study also identified strategies for using advanced meters to influence infrastructure funding. This was accomplished through the use of extensive advanced meter data. The data was analyzed for outages and a procedure was created to locate outages in …

Occupational Noise Dose Reduction Via Behavior Modification Using In-Ear Dosimetry Among Usaf Personnel Exposed To Continuous Impulse Noise, Jesse A. Trawick

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of in-ear noise dosimetry and worker feedback to reduce noise exposures among combat arms instructors and heavy equipment operators in the Air Force. Specifically, this thesis sought to determine how effectively hearing protection devices (HPDs) are being utilized currently, and whether providing at-ear noise exposure data to workers results in reduced noise exposures or changes in worker attitude. These questions were addressed by performing a six-month field study using dosimeters to record worker noise exposures under HPDs. Subjects served as their own control, receiving feedback in only the latter half …

Techniques For Low-Latency In Software-Defined Radio-Based Networks, Daniel D. Hart

Theses and Dissertations

Decreased budgets have pushed the United States Air Force towards using existing systems in new ways. The use of unmanned aerial vehicle swarms is one example of reuse of existing systems. One problem with the increased utilization of these swarms is the congestion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Software-defined or cognitive radios have been proposed as a basis for a potential robust communications solution. The present research aims to develop and test a genetic algorithm-based cognitive engine to begin looking at real-time engines that could be used in future swarms. Here, latency is the optimization objective of primary importance. In testing …

Evolutionary Learning Of Boosted Features For Visual Inspection Automation, Meng Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Feature extraction is one of the major challenges in object recognition. Features that are extracted from one type of objects cannot always be used directly for a different type of objects, therefore limiting the performance of feature extraction. Having an automatic feature learning algorithm could be a big advantage for an object recognition algorithm. This research first introduces several improvements on a fully automatic feature construction method called Evolution COnstructed Feature (ECO-Feature). These improvements are developed to construct more robust features and make the training process more efficient than the original version. The main weakness of the original ECO-Feature algorithm …