Computer Engineering Commons^™

Waypoint Profiler, Jeff Ke, Ricky Schober, Alexander Collins, Kevin Wang

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Ocean health monitoring is crucial for maintaining the health of the ocean ecosystem. Currently, divers are deployed to collect data manually, which is both time and resource-consuming. Additionally, this process poses significant dangers to the divers. Therefore, a more efficient method for collecting oceanic data is needed. This thesis describes the design of a novel autonomous marine vehicle, the waypoint profiler. Launched from shore with scientific sensors, it autonomously navigates to ocean locations of interest and dives to measure key ocean health markers. The system integrates subsystems for scientific sensing, health monitoring, structural integrity, communications, and navigation/control, tailored to meet …

Piloted Autonomous Crisis Reconnaissance Robot (Pacrr), Aidan O’Hare, Luca Chierotti, Tyler Costello, Nicholas Kenny

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

PACRR stands for Piloted/Autonomous Crisis Reconnaissance Robot. The aim of PACRR is to create a low-cost, autonomous-capable quadruped robot for first responder applications such as search and rescue, detecting gas leaks, mapping obstructed areas, and other situations that are dangerous or too confined for humans. The design process for PACRR involved the addition of perception sensors to use with a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm, alterations to the power delivery system, adjusting the control of the robot, as well as other hardware and software modifications to an open-source 3D-printed design originally developed at Monash University called DINGO.

Nautilus: Deep Sea Dexterity, Quinn Bates, Saunder Salazar, Morgan Watts, Davis Robertson, Sarah Abruzzo, Ian Staff, Nick Aguilar

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Global warming and climate change are prevalent issues in today's society. As a result, research in the ocean, earth's biggest ecosystem, is imperative in efforts to protect the environment. Santa Clara University's Robotic Systems Lab contributes to this field through work and development on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Nautilus was built to support geologists and other researchers, primarily in the Lake Tahoe and Monterey Bay area. Thus far the ROV s sole scientific instrument has been its onboard camera, though partner geologists desire the ability to collect physical samples using a robotic arm attachment at depths up to 100 meters. …

Deep Learning-Based Video Prediction, Mareeta Mathai

Engineering Ph.D. Theses

The task of video prediction is to generate unseen future video frames based on the past ones. It is an emerging, yet challenging task due to its inherent uncertainty and complex spatiotemporal dynamics. The ability to predict and anticipate future events from video prediction has applications in various prediction systems like self-driving cars, weather forecasting, traffic flow prediction, video compression etc. Due to the success of deep learning in the computer vision field, several deep learning Artificial Intelligence (AI) architectures such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), long short-term memory (LSTMs), convolutional LSTMS (ConvLSTMs) and transformers have been explored to improve …

The Journey To Desensitization: A Mobile App For Oral Immunotherapy Patients, Madeleine Waldie

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Millions of individuals in the United States confront the daily challenges of food allergies, with the threat of potentially life-threatening reactions ever-present. Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) emerges as a beacon of hope in this landscape, gradually desensitizing patients to their allergens. This groundbreaking treatment, contrasting avoidance strategies, promises a life with fewer restrictions. However, it is a journey fraught with complexities, requiring rigorous adherence to protocols, emotional fortitude, and frequent medical supervision for patients. This thesis centers on the creation of an iPhone application tailored to OIT patients, leveraging Apple’s privacy and security features. The app integrates seamlessly with the Apple …

Protectnic - Smartnic Ransomware Detection, Arnav Choudhury, Eason Liu, Anson Xu

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Ransomware, a form of malware that restricts access to data until a ransom is paid, accounts for 20% of all cyber crimes. Although companies and organizations often require their personnel to take training for awareness of such bad actors, social engineering is constantly evolving and ransomware slips through the cracks every year. In this paper, we suggest a system that would help detect ransomware using a Smart Network Interface Card (SmartNIC) which runs machine learning algorithms to detect ransomware before it enters the system. This relieves computers in the network of the burden of detecting malware, freeing CPU capacity to …

Meadowminds: An Ai Literacy Game, Michelle Yavorskiy, Lydia Kim

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in our everyday lives has created a need for educating young people of the fundamentals and capabilities of AI in an engaging and effective manner. "MeadowMinds: An AI Literacy Game" aims to address this need by creating a game that simplifies complex machine learning (ML) concepts into an accessible 3D world for middle school students. This project follows a structured, agile development approach, incorporating comprehensive user research and feedback. The objectives of this project included transforming ML concepts, such as clustering and embedding in Large Language Models (LLMs), into interactive gameplay. We utilized various …

Trend Tour, Aaron Ancheta, Khushboo Gupta, Xiomara Quinonez

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Choosing outfits as a college student can prove challenging – especially for new college students and students new to the area where their college is. Trend Tour, our web-based application, displays what the fashion trends are in the user's college and near their area. This helps the user with ideas on how to dress. Furthermore, the user can change the color, silhouette, and/or accessories of outfits they want to see at that college and near their area. This web application aims to help college students feel more confident and comfortable.

Automated Fabrication Workcell, Kira Hofelmann, Amy Kiyama, Alexander Torres, Cameron Mcginnis, Samuel Lim

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

There is a rise of automation in the workplace, everywhere from automated manufacturing to biomedical fields, and more. These technologies are becoming increasingly accessible for customers to use and explore. Going into this project, we were curious to see if automation could be brought into our University, and applied to the Maker space. Furthermore, as these technologies are becoming more readily available, they remain fairly costly. Thus, we have created a functioning, small-scale workcell that produces a variety of small products in large batches while remaining low cost, reliable, and accessible to those who want to learn more and create …

Autonomous Humanoid Soccer Robot With Ml Applications, Zichen Huang, Wesley Tu

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

As the sports industry increasingly incorporates technological advancements, robotics has found a unique application in the field of soccer, traditionally dominated by human players. This transition has sparked significant interest in examining the performance and dynamics of robots in athletic contexts. In this senior design project, we focus on the development of autonomous movement, ball control, and game strategy algorithms for the NAO humanoid to play soccer. Utilizing an array of sensors and actuators, the robot is designed to perform fundamental soccer skills such as dribbling and shooting. The robot is able to identify both the goal and the ball …

Gigacollector: A Real-Time, Temporally Coherent Framework Forwi-Fi Environment Control, Data Collection, And Ml Inference, An Vu

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

Wi-Fi is the primary wireless communication method for the majority of devices in both residential and commercial settings. The number of devices continues to increase, making latency, bandwidth, and security difficult to manage and balance to provide satisfactory performance for all users. Novel methods that rely on the collection of data from the networking stack have been developed in research settings to analyze and predict key parameters and network state to improve communication efficiency. However, crucial processes such as experimentation, data collection, and performance analysis have often been performed manually on offline data.

This thesis presents GigaCollector, a scalable end-to-end …

Chronic Kidney Disease Android Application, Paul Le

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Chronic kidney disease is increasingly recognized as a leading public health problem over the world that affects more than 10 percent of the population worldwide, where electrolytes and wastes can build up in your system. Kidney failure might not be noticeable until more advanced stages where it may then become fatal if not for artificial filtering or a transplant. As a result, it is important to detect kidney disease early on to prevent it from progressing to kidney failure. The current main test of the disease is a blood test that measures the levels of a waste product called creatine …

Early Detection Of Virality In Chinese-Language On Youtube Focus On Comments, Yulin Zeng

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

Predicting the popularity of the YouTube video-sharing site in its early stages is crucial for journalists and researchers, as it helps them uncover disinformation. In addition, research on the number of comments in news and comments has always been an academic topic that has attracted much attention. These Youtube political commentary and News channels that use Chinese as the primary language have a strong influence on the first generation of Chinese immigrants in the United States. However, under our monitoring, we found that it is difficult for these videos to appear in the viral video list defined by YouTube API. …

A Memory Contention Responsive Hash Join Algorithm Design And Implementation On Apache Asterixdb, Giulliano Silva Zanotti Siviero

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

Efficient data management is crucial in complex computer systems, and Database Management Systems (DBMS) are indispensable for handling and processing large datasets. In DBMSs that concurrently execute multiple queries, adapting to varying workloads is desirable. Yet, predicting the fluctuating quantity and size of queries in such environments proves challenging. Over-allocating resources to a single query can impede the execution of future queries while under-allocating resources to a query expecting increased workload can lead to significant processing delays. Moreover, join operations place substantial demands on memory. This resource’s availability fluctuates as queries enter and exit the DBMS. The development of join …

Sovia: Sonification Of Visual Interactive Art, Lauryn Gayhardt

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

Therapeutic Computational Creativity is an emerging domain that challenges us to explore applications of Computational Creativity systems to mental health and wellness. This work presents SOVIA, an interactive system that endows Claude Monet’s art with responsive auditory experiences. SOVIA uses computer vision trained on Monet’s artwork to take the user “into the painting.'' When the user interacts with a digital version of Monet's landscapes, their mouse positions are mapped to sounds that artistically represent the objects that the user is currently exploring in the art. These interactive musical journeys have the potential to make classical art more captivating for modern …

On Sparse Coding As An Alternate Transform In Video Coding, Michael G. Schimpf

Engineering Ph.D. Theses

In video compression, specifically in the prediction process, a residual signal is calculated by subtracting the predicted from the original signal, which represents the error of this process. This residual signal is usually transformed by a discrete cosine transform (DCT) from the pixel, into the frequency domain. It is then quantized, which filters more or less high frequencies (depending on a quality parameter). The quantized signal is then entropy encoded usually by a context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding engine (CABAC), and written into a bitstream. In the decoding phase the process is reversed. DCT and quantization in combination are efficient tools, …

Capturing The Social Experience Of Scu Campus Housing Options In Virtual Tours, Eva Stenberg, Kian Malakooti, Matthew Gates

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

For incoming students at Santa Clara University, it can be challenging and stressful to choose which campus housing to live in. Is it a social dorm or a quiet one? What types of students live here? Will we get along? Will I feel comfortable in the place I’ll call home for the next nine months? Santa Clara University offers very limited resources for choosing campus housing. With the overhead 2D room layouts and the “selfie stick” dorm tours that focus more on the resident director than the rooms, it is hard to discern the sociality of each space which is …

Dreamtemp: A Platform For Sleep Monitoring And Improvement, Michelle Lim, Kyle Pedersen, Will Cockrum

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

With 70 million Americans suffering from chronic sleep disorders and only 7500 board-certified sleep physicians, a clear logistical problem exists that technological solutions may be able to address. The proliferation of IoT devices in homes and on our person presents a unique opportunity to improve sleep quality by leveraging the data they produce, and the control they provide to us over our everyday lives. DreamTemp is a platform for sleep monitoring and improvement that aims to improve an individual’s quality of sleep by dynamically adjusting the room temperature based on the user’s sleep cycle using a smart wearable and thermostat. …

A Digital Twin Of The Scu Campus: Telling Immersive Stories About Student Life, Marianne Yamazaki Dorr, Hasmik Galstyan, Venus Li, Trisha Nguyen

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

This senior design project aims to explore the use of digital twins of physical spaces to capture the social feel of a space and in the process turning that space into a place, in order to truly convey ‘what it’s like’ to be somewhere. However, existing digital twins of physical spaces often fail to capture the social meaning and behaviors that turn a space into a place. This project aims to address this problem by using spatial capture technology to create a 3D model digital twin of the Santa Clara University campus and using it as a foundation for exploring …

Obujulizi Share - Enabling Voices For Rural Ugandan Communities, Aastha Khare, Sravani Polkampalli

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Rural communities in Uganda currently lack proper technical infrastructure to effectively communicate their issues and find support within their communities. For our project, we collaborated with Rose Academies, a nonprofit organization that aims to empower and aid impoverished communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. We intend to help them by creating a centralized, secure, and accessible system that allows members of the communities they serve to share their experiences. Our project consisted of three parts: an interview application, where Rose Academies’ creative team can take and record interviews, a content managing application to allow the creative team to select compelling interviews and …

Wyclef: A Rational Reconstruction Of Versu Social Engine, James Dameris, Rosaura Hemandez

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Video games often lack an accurate representation of the person playing the game, causing a disconnect between the player and the character’s story. With Versu, a proprietary social simulation engine, not only did choices become more connected to the player, but the player could choose to take the place of any of the characters present in the story. This allows the player to find themselves in the story, while also giving vast replayability to the game. Wyclef is an open source, rational reconstruction of Versu providing increased authoring speed of stories and availability of the social engine to more people. …

Developing An Open-Source Tool For Systematic App Reviews For Non-Technical Researchers, Lauren Xie, David Truong, Tino Theodoropoulos, Jason Vu

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Researchers in many fields, from psychology to privacy studies, want to understand the mobile app ecosystem. The process of reviewing mobile apps is called a ’systematic app review’ (SAR). In a systematic app review, researchers analyze app metadata (e.g., the description, user reviews of the app, the app’s permissions list) and/or the experience of the app itself (e.g., the user interface, the content it contains). Unfortunately, this process does not yet have clearly defined best practices and the process of scraping data from app stores is costly, challenging, and time-consuming for researchers, especially ones without a technical background. Researchers lack …

Safehome, Meryem Esa, Siddarth Raj

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The SafeHome app was developed to address the significant communication challenges in refugee camps, where outdated methods such as flyers and intercoms limit the efficiency and reliability of information dissemination. Through extensive research and user-centric design, we developed a dual-interface application on the Firebase platform, featuring a web-based portal for camp administrators and a mobile application for refugees. The results showed effective functionality and enhanced communication, with refugees now able to receive timely updates, access crucial resources, and store personal documents securely. The successful implementation of SafeHome underscores the potential of leveraging technology to solve real-world challenges and enhance the …

A Hardware Platform For Wireless Beehive Monitoring, Erik Wrysinski, Jonathan Stock, Collin Paiz, Daniel Blanc

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Traditional beehive monitoring systems suffer from many challenges. These monitoring devices are expensive to set up, difficult to implement, and lack cross compatibility with each other. Preexisting beehive monitoring solutions face all of these shortcomings. Our beehive monitoring platform aims to overcome these issues by using inexpensive, off-theshelf, open-source hardware paired with a computer vision machine learning model to accurately monitor the ingress and egress of bees into and out of the hive. This data is presented to the beekeeper in a simple GUI which allows them to track hive activity over time, and by extension, the overall health of …

A Study Of Processing Beehive Monitoring Data In Edge And Cloud, Yen-Jung Lu, Jason Fong, Cheng Zhang, Chan Nam Tieu

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Bees are vital pollinators for numerous crops and plants, playing an essential role in maintaining the world’s ecosystem and food security. Without bees, the global food supply would be threatened, potentially leading to food shortages and increased food prices. Current beehive monitoring solutions in the market are often prohibitively expensive, some commercial beehive monitoring solutions can cost upwards of thousands of dollars. This makes them inaccessible to many small-scale beekeepers. To help protect bee health and ensure the survival of thousands of plant species worldwide, this project aims to create an accessible solution for individuals to monitor the health and …

Automated Retail Checkout By Computer Vision: Arc-Ai, Griffin Ellis

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

There is some opportunity to apply AI and computer vision techniques to the problems in the retail industry. This paper presents a possible solution to the problem of accurate automated check-out in a retail store setting, a difficult problem due to the possibility of occlusion of hand-held products by the customer and the possible similarity of different products. This solution will identify objects being purchased frame-by-frame, propose tracks that follow individual objects across multiple frames, then determine when and where the object was brought over the region of interest, which will be determined at the start of the task. At …

Flowview: A Web Application For Hydrologic Predictions, Marcus Chavez, Sean Leininger, Joseph Pham Nguyen

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

The Santa Clara Valley Water District, or Valley Water, provides water management resources to the two million residents in Santa Clara County. A few of their services include supplying safe water, ownership of streams, and flood protection. However, given the evolving conditions of the climate throughout the state of California, Valley Water seeks to include machine learning analytics as part of its water management services. Additionally, the increased access to the Internet has expanded the use of web applications, which provide a flexible platform to integrate the

predictions of machine learning models. In this paper, we design and implement a …

Warn: Wi-Fi Attack Recognizer And Notifier, Sudhish Sewpaul, Roshan Sevalia, Jaden Ngo, Tate Musante

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

The Wi-Fi Attack Recognizer and Notifier (WARN) aims to establish a wireless network monitoring system for detection of attacks on Wi-Fi IoT devices. Millions of homes use smart home devices, and many of these are for security. However, these devices are vulnerable to attacks that can disable them or compromise their data confidentiality. WARN is capable of detecting two of these attacks: deauthentication and key reinstallation (KRACK). Deauthentication attacks hoax devices into disconnecting themselves from a network, and KRACK manipulates the authentication protocol of Wi-Fi devices to see unencrypted data. WARN uses Raspberry Pis equipped with long range Wi-Fi antennas …

Avalanche Predictions Based On Ml, William Olson, Matthew Davenport, Ben Airola

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Our Avalanche Prediction Model utilizes machine learning to analyze weather and climate data in order to provide users in the Northern California back-country with accurate probabilities of avalanche occurrences. Snow forecasts only provide information relating to how much snow will fall. Current avalanche danger ratings only provide the potential level for injury there is if an avalanche will occur. Our system, Avy Safe ML, let’s users survey geographic terrain and see direct probability indicators for precise geo-locations of mountain faces and ranges. These indicators are represented as variably-shaded geo-polygons that indicate avalanche risk classifications. Our data visualization allows access to …

Twigeenglish, Brian Burnett, Jillian Coveney, Kristin Tong, Nanki Sekhon

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

TwigeEnglish is an educational platform aimed to teach English in a fun and interactive way. It comprises a mobile application for students and a web application for pre-determined administrators. The mobile application offers three key features which include: a pictionary-like game, a dictionary flash card game, and a user-friendly interface for uploading photos to be used in both games. The web application will primarily focus on providing administrators with an interface to manage the student-photo database. With moderation powers, administrators can seamlessly review and make decisions to approve or deny the inclusion of photos in the active pictionary and dictionary …