Engineering Commons^™

Sentry V3: Extending Context Switches On A Trusted Secure Coprocessor, Mark Kong

Master's Theses

Software correctness and integrity is only ensured through trust in the un- derlying hardware. However, modern computer systems are complex to design and secure. Thus, given the choice between performance and security, companies will often prioritize performance, resulting in vulnerable systems. This creates exploitable systems that must be patched retroactively because business value performance over security. One approach to this issue is to separate the root of security from the rest of the system to create a minimal trusted computing base. Trustguard is one instance of this. Trustguard implements a Containment Architecture with Ver- ified Output (CAVO) model which shows …

Data-Driven Product Recommendations: A Decision Support Framework Utilizing Customer Reviews, Tyler A. Lopez

Master's Theses

With the considerable presence of e-commerce in society, vast number of purchasable goods, and increasing brand variety, consumers are faced with the challenge of buying products that they perceive to be of greatest value to them. To assist consumers with making better informed decisions, e-commerce websites allow individuals to post their own experiences and score the products that they purchase. Despite this information, the variety of experiences and feedback that consumers share do not always lead to clarity on whether a product is best suited for the purchaser. To help guide customers through a simplified purchasing process from the perspective …

Design And Development Of A Laboratory Star Tracker System, Kevin D. Iverson

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the design, calibration, and validation of a low-cost star tracker system and hardware-in-the-loop testbed intended for small satellite applications. The system is composed entirely of commercial off-the-shelf components and integrates both a custom star tracker and a screen-based star field simulator for controlled, repeatable testing. An analytical modeling approach was used in the early design phase to predict system accuracy based on key optical and geometric parameters, informing the selection and configuration of components and guiding the development of calibration routines.

A simulation environment was developed to validate the star tracker software and assess the impact of …

Using Hydrologic And Hydraulic Simulations To Predict Near-Term Effects Of Beaver Habitat Restoration On Flood Flows, Luke S. Stewart

Master's Theses

There is a growing need to predict the complex hydrologic and hydraulic effects of beaver-maintained wetlands. This study uses relatively simple inputs and a replicable methodology to predict flood flow impacts of beaver habitat restoration at the site design scale using the engineering industry’s customary hydrology and hydraulic modeling approach. This study focuses on Toro Creek, the primary drainage for a 15.2 square mile watershed on the California Central Coast.

A hydrologic model of Toro Creek watershed was developed in HEC-HMS to approximate saturated soil conditions typical of late-spring flooding events observed in the region. The hydrologic model was calibrated …

Effect Of Manufacturing And Machining Process On Recycled Composite Connecting Rods Under Tension And Compression, Walter W. Oppelt

Master's Theses

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is an engineering material renowned for its high-strength and low-density material properties. Such properties make CFRPs especially useful for applications across many industries, including aerospace, automotive, marine, sporting goods, oil and gas, and more. However, with such favorable material properties comes the cost of high energy usage required to produce raw carbon fiber. Recycled carbon fiber (rCF) has emerged as a promising alternative, offering a significant reduction in energy usage. This research explores the viability of applying recycled CFRPs to internal combustion engines to both reduce energy costs during manufacturing and while in use. Mechanical …

Myceli-Yum: Elucidating Structure-Property Relationships For Polymer Degradation By Mycelial Digestion, Jordan Scott Ford

Master's Theses

Since the industrial entrance of polymer plastic materials, plastic has become ubiquitous in both everyday use and waste. Due to inefficiencies and knowledge gaps, current recycling methods are not able to account for the high scale of plastic waste, resulting in the bulk of this waste being landfilled, mishandled, and deposited in the environment. Mycelium, the microorganism responsible for fruiting mushroom bodies and mold growth, holds potential to reduce plastic waste and can potentially be utilized as a method of industrial recycling. Following a drug-design approach, the active site of mycelial enzymes responsible for natural biopolymer degradation have been assessed …

Ev Microgrid Inspired Open-Source Power Inverter, Bryan A. Carrillo Martinez

Master's Theses

The development of open-source power electronics platforms plays an instrumental role in accelerating microgrid deployment, electric vehicle (EV) integration, and educational access to embedded power electronic converters. This thesis presents the design, implementation, and validation of the Atinverter V2, an open-source DC to AC inverter intended for low power EV microgrid applications and educational settings. The Atinverter V2 integrates various hardware and software subsystems centered around the ATMEGA328P microcontroller, enabling PWM-based sinusoidal power inversion, DC/AC voltage and current sensing, and embedded control features. Software development leverages a C++ object-oriented library and multiple Arduino-based modules to facilitate modular and scalable operation. …

Design Principles For Robotic-Controlled 3d Printing Of Soft Tissue-Mimicking Materials, Karina Mealey

Master's Theses

Geometrically and physically accurate 3D models are emerging as essential tools for surgeons in pre-operative planning and training, but current methods of producing these models are not sufficient. Existing solutions have downsides such as high costs, long and tedious production times, high complexity resulting in a lack of scalability, or an inability to meet material requirements for accurately simulating human tissue.

The objective of this work is to develop principles for a low-cost, easy-to-use 3D printing system capable of prototyping with soft tissue-mimicking materials. To pursue this goal, a MyCobot280 robot arm was used as the mechanism to explore the …

Assessment Of The Imx7ulp Heterogeneous Soc For Use In A Next Generation Student Cubesat Obc, Lorenzo A. Pedroza

Master's Theses

CubeSats represent a rapidly evolving platform for space research, industry, and education, demanding increasingly sophisticated onboard computing solutions that balance performance, fault tolerance, size, weight, and power constraints. Although the design of the Cal Poly's CubeSat Lab's (PolySat) current On-Board Computer (OBC) keeps up with many of these factors, the demands of modern workloads like fine attitude determination will start to outpace available compute. While the selection of a more capable processor to address this would have traditionally resulted in increased energy usage, modern system-on-chip (SoC) architectures offer novel ways to trade available compute for power savings on-the-fly. With this …

A Fault-Tolerant, Multi-Heap Dynamic Memory Allocator For Freertos, Garrett E. O'Neill

Master's Theses

The use of dynamic memory allocation presents a significant challenge for embedded systems, particularly in applications that require high reliability. The software controlling these systems needs to perform critical operations within strict timing constraints, and memory management plays a critical role in a system’s ability to meet these constraints. Dynamic memory allocation is inherently non-deterministic: if a task requests memory, it is impossible to predict how long it will take for the memory to be allocated. If a critical task were to rely on dynamically allocated memory, its execution could become stalled leading to a missed deadline and system failure. …

Leveraging Machine-Learning Algorithms In Two Car Crash Detection Systems On A Custom Dataset, Addison Jacob Sandvik

Master's Theses

Traffic accidents pose a significant threat to public safety, causing millions of deaths and injuries worldwide each year. While efforts to reduce accidents have seen limited progress in recent years, improving emergency response times through automated detection systems is a promising avenue for saving lives. This thesis describes the development of machine learning-based traffic accident detection systems, exploring both video classification and image detection models. The models are trained on a new dataset deemed the Cal Poly Traffic Accident Dataset, an extension of the existing Car Accident Detection and Prediction (CADP) dataset with a precise collision annotations. Two systems were …

Evaluating Nanobubble-Enriched Water Treatments For Cleaning Stainless Steel Winery Tanks At The Gallo Winery Research Station In Livingston, California, Edgar Godoy-Garcia

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Evaluating nanobubble-enriched water treatments for cleaning stainless steel winery tanks at the Gallo winery research station in Livingston, California.

Edgar A. Godoy-Garcia

Sanitation of stainless steel wine storage tanks is a critical component of quality control in commercial winemaking operations. Ineffective cleaning can lead to microbial contamination, product spoilage, and safety concerns. Traditionally, wineries rely on manual scrubbing, chemical cleaning agents, and extensive water rinsing cycles to maintain sanitary tank conditions. However, these methods are resource-intensive and may pose risks to both workers and the environment due to chemical exposure and wastewater generation. In response to growing industry interest …

Thermal Modeling Techniques For Additively Manufactured Porous Metals, Lucas D. Rambo

Master's Theses

Advances in additive manufacturing have enabled the creation of metallic components with tailored porosity, offering design flexibility for thermal, structural, and fluid transport applications. This thesis investigates the effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of porous Inconel 625 (IN625) and Inconel-ceramic composites (IN625-RAM2) fabricated by Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) using Elementum 3D’s PermiAM technology. Experimental measurements of thermal conductivity using the laser flash method are compared to numerical models built from micro-computed tomography data. Simulations were performed using both finite element (FE) and finite volume (FV) methods to evaluate thermal transport in real microstructures. The study investigates the effects of micro- …

Nonlinear Integral Control Schemes For A Cadence-Heartrate Process: A Matlab Exploration, Alexander G. Elliott

Master's Theses

Keeping one’s heart-rate within a specific range during a cardiovascular workout can be difficult due to many factors including variations in the exercise environment and changes in energy level. One’s heart-rate can be controlled by tuning the intensity level of the activity over time. This study focuses on the relationship between a runner’s cadence and their heart-rate and explores ways to control the heart-rate by adjusting the cadence. Previous work in this area modeled the cadence-heartrate plant as a first-order linear system, but this has been shown to be insufficient. This work improves upon previous research in this area by …

Multimodal Self-Folding Of Shape Memory Polymer Using Laser Induced Graphene, Liam Harrison Drew

Master's Theses

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) can undergo programmed shape transformations when heated above their glass transition temperature (T_g), enabling actuation through stimuli such as infrared (IR) radiation and Joule heating. These materials are promising for deployable systems and soft robotics due to their lightweight structure and elimination of traditional mechanical components. While IR-based actuation is simple and low-cost, it lacks precision in uncontrolled environments. Joule heating offers improved control but is often limited by conductive ink properties such as thickness, stiffness, or poor adhesion. This work introduces a novel method for multimodal SMP actuation using laser-induced graphene (LIG) transferred …

Effect Of Household Oil Contamination And Agricultural Soil Contamination On Phyllosilicate Nanocatalyst Performance During Pyrolysis Of Polyolefins, Joey Velasquez

Master's Theses

The effect of household oil and agricultural soil contamination on catalyst performance during polyolefin pyrolysis was simulated on mixed virgin plastic pellets by evaluating contamination influence on mixed plastic degradation temperatures. Three phyllosilicate nanocatalysts including Fulcat435, Fulcat22F and Y-Zeolite were evaluated in this work based on a literature review of catalyzed plastic pyrolysis and these catalysts’ ability to lower plastic decomposition temperature by 50 °C – 100 °C. These findings were confirmed in this research through thermogravimetric analysis of a polyolefin mixture and further developed in furnace experiments containing household oil and agricultural contamination. Household oil contamination deactivated each of …

Remote Monitoring And Control Of Protection Relays Via Programmable Logic Controller, Rio Mcgown-Kauffman

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the ability of a programmable logic controller (PLC) to wirelessly monitor and control power protection relays. The technologies surrounding power protection and industrial automation are ever evolving and have developed significantly in recent history. Industrial power applications call for consistent condition monitoring and status updates for various high-importance components. The high-importance components have power protection schemes that are managed by digital relays to trip circuit breakers in fault or unsafe operating conditions. The smart relays have a wide range of capabilities, including communications. Cal Poly assembled a collection of relays from Schweitzer …

Modeling Battery Energy Storage Systems To Study The Effects Of Battery Chemistry And Operation On Power Quality, Lin E. Knudsen

Master's Theses

This thesis studies the impacts of battery chemistry (specifically lithium-iron phosphate, sodium-ion, and solid-state), AC voltage, battery size, charging mode, state of charge (SOC), active power draw, and power factor on the power quality of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). For harmonic evaluation, the metrics provided by the IEEE Standard 519 are used as a guideline to quantify voltage and current harmonics. A comprehensive MATLAB Simulink using Simscape Electrical is used to develop and simulate the models for the battery, DC-DC converter, AC-DC converter, and the grid. A total of 57 simulation cases varying the BESS factors are performed, …

Hands-Free Balance Protocol And Development Of An Iphone App For Self-Assessment, Jacob Matties

Master's Theses

For many clinical populations, the measurement of balance is a critical task. Previous studies have agreed that smartphone IMUs provide a valid measure of balance that can be significantly correlated with force plate measurements and is sensitive enough to distinguish between various balance poses, but many balance assessment protocols require uncommon equipment or the use of hands during assessment. These limit accessibility of balance assessment. To eliminate the need for hands or any additional equipment, this study assessed the use of a smartphone recording the root mean square of 3D acceleration magnitude. The goal of the study was to determine …

3d Printed Cnt/Tpu Triboelectric Nanogenerator For Load Monitoring Of Total Knee Replacement, Osama Abdalla, Mahmood Chahari, Milad Azami, Amir Ameli, Emre Salman, Milutin Stanacevic, Ryan Willing, Shahrzad Towfighian

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Scholarship

This study presents the development and characterization of a novel triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) designed as a self-powered sensor for load monitoring in total knee replacement (TKR) implants. The triboelectric layers comprise a 3D-printed thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) matrix with carbon nanotube (CNT) nanoparticles and kapton tape, sandwiched between two copper electrodes. To optimize sensor performance, the proposed CNT/TPU TENG sensor is fabricated with varying CNT concentrations and thicknesses, enabling a comprehensive analysis of how material composition and structural parameters influence energy harvesting efficiency. The 1% CNT/TPU composite demonstrates the highest power output among the tested samples. The solid CNT/TPU-based TENG generated …

Data Driven Analysis Of Samara Seed Kinematics And Dynamics, Shashwat Sparsh

Master's Theses

Samara Seeds are a class of fruit most famously belonging to the Acer species and are characterized by their single-bladed geometry and their auto-rotation response during descent. This steady-state auto-rotation response is the subject of aerodynamic analysis which aim to quantify the performance. The period prior to the beginning of steady-state auto-rotation is classified as the transition regime and has not been the subject of intense scrutiny.

This thesis employs a data-driven approach to analyzing the kinematic and dynamic response of these seeds during both the transition and auto-rotation stages of flight to quantify the performance with respect to the …

Implementation Of Area-Based Aggregation On Multivariate Continuous Uncertain Data, Rahul Nair

Master's Theses

Uncertain data is incredibly widespread - from sensor data to AI-based learned information, there exists a need to associate information with a certain probability of its veracity. Traditional relational databases lack a built-in functionality to support uncertain data, instead assigning them boilerplate values. Probabilistic databases tackle this problem by assigning non-deterministic data with an associated, often discrete, probability. Variants of probabilistic databases, namely continuous uncertain databases, are used to better model data represented through ranges and distributions. This is especially applicable with sensor-based geographic data as most commercial equipment contains some inherent margin of error.

While uncertain and probabilistic databases …

Mae Enewsbrief Jan-Mar 2025, Department Of Mechanical And Aerospace Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering eNewsBrief

No abstract provided.

Mae Enewsbrief Oct-Dec 2024, Department Of Mechanical And Aerospace Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering eNewsBrief

No abstract provided.

A Neutrosophic And Q-Rung Orthopair Fuzzy Sets Approach For Desertification Susceptibility Mapping: A Case Study In Matrouh, Egypt, Nabil M. Abdelaziz, Khalid A. Eldrandaly, Amira M. Fawzy, Gehan A. Fouad, Safa Al-Saeed

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

This study introduces an innovative approach to desertification susceptibility mapping by integrating q-rung orthopair fuzzy sets (Q-ROFS) with a neutrosophic environment. Conducted in Matrouh, Egypt, the research quantifies desertification risk through advanced modeling techniques that address uncertainty and non-linearity in environmental data. The Q-ROFS framework enhances risk prediction by capturing complex relationships among desertification indicators. Neutrosophic logic, meanwhile, effectively addresses imprecision and ambiguity. The resulting susceptibility map clearly distinguishes between vulnerable and non-vulnerable regions, offering valuable guidance for policymakers and planners. The analysis revealed that approximately 79.98% of the study area falls under moderate susceptibility, 14.27% under high susceptibility, and …

A Critical Evaluation Of The Criticisms Against Neutrosophic Statistical Methods, Muhammad Aslam, Abdulrahman Alaita, Florentin Smarandache

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Neutrosophic statistical analysis has gained attention for incorporating the degree of indeterminacy when analyzing imprecise and interval data under uncertainty–-an aspect often overlooked by classical statistics, fuzzy statistical analysis, and interval statistics. Recently, critical discussions have emerged regarding the use and applications of neutrosophic statistics, with some questioning its usefulness and validity. In this paper, we present a critical assessment of the existing literature, focusing on areas where misunderstandings and misinterpretations of neutrosophic statistical methods have occurred. We also examine flawed comparisons made between the results of neutrosophic statistics and interval statistics. Furthermore, substantial issues have been identified in the …

Ecen191/Robo150 Robotics Tools: Evaluating The Impact Of Project-Based Learning On Teaching Effectiveness, Nikhil Satyala

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The course selected for this study aims to introduce the skills and knowledge needed to utilize software and hardware tools used to design and operate robots. In this introductory course, undergraduate students in the Robotics Engineering major are provided with the opportunity to broaden their skill set with focus on specializing in one of three engineering disciplines (Software, Electrical and Mechanical). The primary goal of this course is to teach how develop the proficiency in basic concepts in robotics and enable the students to build and program a small-scale fully functional robotic arm. In this portfolio study, I investigated the …

Comparative Study Of Experimental And Fea Strain Data For Cnt-Coated Fiberglass Sensors, Extensometers, And Metal Foil Strain Gauges, Omar Dwidar

Master's Theses

Material testing is essential across industries such as aerospace, automotive, and construction, playing a critical role in verifying material selection, diagnosing failures, and understanding the development of flaws in structures. These insights are key to designing successful, reliable systems. Conventional metal foil strain gauges are low cost and reliable but provide limited sensitivity with a typical gauge factor around 2. Extensometers provide highly sensitive strain measurements with the disadvantage of a bulky form factor. With advanced materials such as carbon nanotubes, it is possible to manufacture a sensor with the sensitivity closer to that of an extensometer with the small …

Analyzing Player Difficulty Perception In Platformers Through Procedural Level Generation, Sasank Madineni

Master's Theses

Games utilizing Procedural Level Generation (PLG), such as Roguelikes, are becoming increasingly popular in today's gaming sphere. In games employing PLG, levels are generated randomly or pseudo-randomly, and aim to retain player attention through variance in levels between playthroughs. However, when generating levels with variance in structure and design, player enjoyment is often a mixed bag. With low enjoyment, player retention for these games can dwindle. This study explores the efficacy of real-time difficulty adjustment in procedurally generated platformers, as a method for maintaining stable player enjoyment without causing frustration. This thesis focuses on creating a short user experience, MIMEVA, …

Hybrid Computing For Real-Time Model Predictive Control Of A Buck Converter, Grace Paladichuk

Master's Theses

Advancements in power electronics require high switching frequencies which the digital control routines of the systems cannot keep up with. Analog computing is added to digital control systems to prevent bottlenecks and allow real-time implementation. This paper proposes a hybrid computing model predictive control system for a buck converter. The control system implements the gradient dynamics of the optimization function using digital computing, and the gradient dynamics for the penalty function and integrator using analog computing. For the full simulations of the entire system, the PLECS RT Box is used to simulate the controller in real time with a 1 …