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Pedagogical Failures: Reshaping Policies and Practices for Positive Student Well-Being
Get PDFMental health issues in college students are on the rise. In this critical commentary, I analyze traditional pedagogical practices that fail to acknowledge and meet the evolving mental health needs of our students, and I offer suggestions for reshaping policies and instruction to align with feminist pedagogy. By weaving feminist pedagogy principles and practices into our teaching, we can guide and influence the positive outcomes of our learning environments, creating safe places for student well-being
Teaching Critical Language Awareness to Combat Failure of Black Language in Education
Get PDFCurrently most educational systems teach students there is a singular, “correct” way to write. Moralizing language regarding an arbitrary system of standardized English writing, a White Mainstream English (WME) connotes a failure for other languages to conform to a white standard. I teach at a small, open-enrollment, Historically Black University in the Midwest where most of my students explain that their biggest fear is academic failure. The majority of my students self-identify as Black and are Pell Grant eligible. When I surveyed my students, they reported that their biggest fear is failure, both in the class and in the university as a whole; 65% of non-Black students expressed a fear of failure and over 99% of Black students report this same concern. Through incorporating Critical Language Awareness (CLA) and teaching Black Language (BL), which has been labeled Ebonics or African-American vernacular English, as a social justice strategy, students critically consider the oppressive systems of US society, challenge the dominant linguistic social structures, and empower other linguistic norms and languages
Creating Content for Prison Design Course: Nordic Countries vs. United States
Get PDFSince 2010, prisons in Nordic countries have begun to take a very progressive approach to rehabilitating prisoners, addressing prisoners more humanely than is traditionally done in the United States. This project aims to develop course content that looks at the design elements of prisons in the United States and performs a comparative analysis with more progressive Nordic prison designs. Cal Poly’s construction management department will incorporate the developed content into one module of a co-taught course with sociology. The course will examine the ways social changes impact the construction of prisons and the social impacts of design and construction on end users. The developed module focuses on analyzing architectural design and building elements in Nordic prisons and comparing those to the design elements of prisons in the United States. The course content was generated through research using existing written and video materials about Nordic prisons, online resources about design, and published government materials. The developed unit contains written reading material, supporting information for the students to study, and activities designed to engage the students in the material and assess their learning. The activities include an assignment on analyzing prisoner needs, a discussion post on design elements, and a short quiz
Feasibility And Characterization Of Leak-Tight Single-Track Thin Walls Produced By Laser Powder Bed Fusion In 316L Stainless Steel
Get PDFThis thesis explores the optimization of process parameters for producing single-track thin walls using Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing. Using two different coupon designs, the study assesses the feasibility of creating the thinnest possible leak-tight structures within LPBF and evaluating their mechanical properties, including burst pressure and modulus of elasticity under pressure loads. A series of experimental iterations were conducted, varying laser power and laser speed to identify optimal conditions. The findings indicate that a narrow range of process parameters can produce consistently leak-tight thin walls. The results contribute to understanding how to achieve high quality, reliable thin wall structures in the LPBF process, with implications for industrial applications requiring thin, precise, leak tight, and durable walls
The Impact Of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) On The English Premier League
Get PDFThe aim of this study is to examine how the introduction of the Video Assisted Referee (VAR) system influenced the English Premier League (EPL). Since its implementation in the English Premier League in 2019, VAR has been a constant source of debate and controversy. Many studies have been done on the immediate impact of VAR on other elite professional soccer leagues, but the scope of results is very limited and due to be updated. The data for the ensuing analysis consists of 3800 matches played in the English Premier League during the five seasons before (14/15, 15/16, 16/17, 17/18, and 18/19) and five seasons after (19/20, 20/21, 21/22, 22/23, 23/24) the implementation of VAR. The following variables were recorded for each match: goals, fouls committed, penalty kicks awarded, penalty kicks scored, shots, offsides, red cards, yellow cards, tackles, and interceptions. Match statistics were web scraped from the website FBref (www.FBref.com) using software packages in R. Welch’s T-tests, Mann-Whitney U-tests, and generalized linear models were used at an unadjusted 0.05 significance level to compare average total match statistics in the English Premier League for seasons before and after the implementation of the VAR, across three different time periods used for comparison: (i) 1 year before and after VAR, (ii) 3 years before and after VAR, and (iii) 5 years before and after VAR. In the 1 year comparison, we found a statistically significant increase in the number of average total match fouls, and statistically significant decreases in the number of average total match offsides, tackles, and interceptions. In the 3 year comparison, we found a statistically significant increase in the number of average total match tackles, and statistically significant decreases in the number of average total match offsides and interceptions. In the 5 year comparison, we found statistically significant increases in the number of average total match goals, penalty kicks awarded, penalty kicks scored, yellow cards, and tackles, and statistically significant decreases in the number of average total match offsides and interceptions. However, we discuss several other notable rule changes since the implementation of VAR in the English Premier League that could have also affected these results. Although we did observe multiple statistically significant differences in certain match statistics, it would be statistically inappropriate to conclude that VAR has caused these changes. Further, due to the large sample size, these results are likely statistically significant, but not as practically significant in the real world. In conclusion, VAR does not seem to drastically affect gameplay overall in the English Premier League
Smart Manufacturing for Cal Poly\u27s IME Curriculum
Get PDFCalifornia Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) takes pride of supporting one of the nation’s strongest undergraduate Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering programs. However, as industry evolves to accommodate advancing computing power, improved manufacturing algorithms, and improved robotics, it is imperative that Cal Poly’s curriculum evolves in parallel. Smart manufacturing is the future of the manufacturing industry, and Cal Poly is searching for the ideal method to teach and integrate Smart Manufacturing into its classes. With its upcoming switch to the semester system, coupled with its “Learn by Doing” motto, the department is at an ideal period for the integration of advanced technology to revamp their lecture and lab programs.
While smart manufacturing is a broad subject, it can be boiled down to a simple definition, “a technology driven approach that utilizes internet-connected machinery to monitor the production process. The goal of smart manufacturing is to identify opportunities to automate operations and use data analytics to improve manufacturing performance” (Burns, 2019). Smart manufacturing can vary from plant to plant but is centralized around the integration of IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) with computers, sensors, hardware, or software. In today’s post-pandemic environment, the importance and relevancy of smart manufacturing continues to grow. With smart manufacturing, organizations are unlocking new methods of furthering both economic and environmental sustainability.
While smart manufacturing has only grown in importance and relevancy over the past decade, it has not yet been integrated in Cal Poly’s Industrial and Manufacturing (IME) curriculum. Furthermore, there are large quantities of data collected during IME laboratory activities, yet IME lab activity data collection and learning processes do not mirror current industry practices. Currently, there is no infrastructure for professors to conduct groundbreaking, relevant research on smart manufacturing within the IME department. All these needs propose a challenge that needs to be addressed: how to incorporate smart manufacturing principles and hands-on experience into an evolving curriculum effectively and sustainably?
Group 16 plans on laying the framework for smart manufacturing technology within Cal Poly’s IME department. This report will outline their research and approach to tacking the lack of smart manufacturing within the IME department and will illustrate their final deliverables: a physical and digital infrastructure that emphasizes smart manufacturing technology (that is accessible to both students and professors alike), a user guide of software to operate this system, and a lab activity that has been tailored for the instruction of smart manufacturing in specific classes. This foundation will foster the growth and learning of smart manufacturing within the Cal Poly IME department for years to come
Touch By Angels Café Rebrand
No full textTouch By Angels, a local Korean-dessert café in San Luis Obispo, CA, specializing in bingsoo, taiyaki, and specialty teas, has struggled since its December 2023 opening to establish a cohesive visual identity across its B2C interaction spaces, including its website, social media pages, and on-site signage. This rebranding project aims to develop a comprehensive visual identity for Touch By Angels by enhancing its logo design, color palette, typography, and photography, revamping its social media, and on-site signage to create a unified and appealing brand image. The expected outcome is improved customer engagement, enhanced brand recognition, and business growth, positioning Touch By Angels as a premier destination for Korean desserts in San Luis Obispo
Autonomous Apple Harvester Robot
Get PDFAs agricultural demands rise and manual labor costs increase, there has become a dire need to automate apple harvesting. However, the precision and speed necessary for cost-efficient apple harvesting pose a significant challenge for robotic automation. To maintain cost-effective production, a harvester must be able to operate fast enough and long enough to compete with human labor. It must also be able to navigate and traverse apple orchards autonomously and pick apples without damaging the fruit or tree. This project presents an apple harvesting robot that uses a Mask R-CNN vision system with an RGB-D camera to detect the location of apples in a small-scale environment. These coordinates are then published to a ROS network from which a mobile robot with an LDS-02 laser scanner navigates through the environment and localizes itself through a combination of SLAM and AMCL algorithms. It then uses a four degree of freedom articulated arm and a custom soft gripping end effector to pluck the apple for the tree. This entire process is fully autonomous and is able to run for approximately 95 minutes before requiring a new battery. The camera used for vision is mounted in a stationary location outside of the environment. This project serves as an integration and application of several burgeoning fields of research in robotics including dead-reckoning mobile robotics, sensor fusion, soft-gripping actuators, control of articulated arms, and neural network vision processing. In sum, the robot is an effective demonstration of the application of robotics within the complex space of apple harvesting tasks
Interactive Storytelling and Game Design
Get PDFA deep dive into the methods used in interactive fiction to tell compelling stories through the medium of game design and programming
Project Buildings
Get PDFThis report analyzes the prescriptive based design of a government-use high-rise building whose primary use is a business office building in California utilizing the California Building Code 2022 Edition. For security purposes, the name of the project will be the “Project Building.” The project site consists of a common podium underground parking garage with two high-rise buildings and an auditorium built on the parking garage. The project buildings that were analyzed consisted of the underground parking garage, the auditorium, and one of the high-rise buildings.
The parking garage is approximately 135,000 square feet consisting of mixed occupancies throughout. The mixed occupancy spaces consist of various areas that act as service spaces for the building such as utilities, storage, in addition to some office spaces for building engineering and break rooms. The parking garage does not have any openings and is accessible via interior exit stairs and elevators through each of the buildings. The project building high-rise is also a mixed-occupancy building. Level 1 and Level 2 were analyzed independently and Level 3 was analyzed as a typical floor plan for Level 3-Level 11. The areas that were reviewed consist of the entry lobby, open office floor plans, conference rooms, offices, and the auditorium. The auditorium, which will be referred to as a Council Chamber, was reviewed during the performance based design. The Council Chamber is a Group A-3 occupancy used for gathering purposes and its connected to the high-rise project building on Level 1.
The building was designed based on the 2013 California Building Code. The goal is to determine if the building will pass today’s building code requirements and identify any deviations from current code. The results conclude that the building passes all of the prescriptive based code analyses and does not have any major variations other than occupant load factors used for business occupancies.
A performance based design analysis was performed on a separate building that is also located on the same project site. The building was selected for its 335 occupant load with a primary occupancy of Group A-3 which is referred to as the Council Chamber. The goal was to determine if the Available Safe Egress Time (ASET) was greater than the Required Safe Egress Time (RSET). The RSET analysis concluded to be 4.4 minutes. The ASET was determined by two analyses: a visibility analysis and a toxic exposure analysis. The ASET required a design fire and a few assumptions. The selected design fire consists of a stack of chairs composed of polyurethane plastics stacked against a wall towards the back of the Council Chamber and is adjacent to the primary entrances. This design fire was chosen because the Council Chamber has many fixed seats and it can be assumed that additional chairs would be made available for additional occupants if all seats were occupied. The selected heat release rate curve for the design fire was based on a stack of 8 chairs of polyurethane. Due to the high-profile government entities that can be present in the space, the fire is assumed to start due to arson attack at the primary entrance to the Chamber.
The results conclude that the visibility analysis failed. The available visibility in the Council Chamber dropped to nearly 3m of available visibility while the required visibility for a light- emitting exit sign was 16 meters. However, it should be noted that the means of egress design resulted in significant exit queuing at a single door which indicates to the occupants that an exit is present and that the occupants did not have to go searching for an exit. It is expected that occupants would follow the crowd until arrival at the exit door. The visibility dropped below 3m in approximately 2 minutes so the ASET for visibility was determined to be 2 minutes. The ASET of 2 minutes is less than the RSET of 4.4 minutes so the visibility analysis failed.
The second analysis, toxic exposure, passed because no occupants were exposed to toxic products of combustion for a duration of time that leads to incapacitation. The occupants were exposed to toxic smoke and gases for about 2.4 minutes. For the toxic exposure analysis to fail, the occupants would have been required to be exposed to toxic gases for a minimum of 5 minutes. Since the occupants do not get exposed to smoke until after 2 minutes, the total ASET for the toxic exposure analysis was about 7 minutes which was greater than the RSET of 4.4 minutes so the toxic exposure analysis passed.
While the performance based design analysis confirms the Council Chamber is designed to code requirements and does not lead to incapacitation of occupants, there are a few recommendations that can be made for future high-occupant load spaces.
A few recommendations can be made for future developments similar to the project building. It is recommended that the Council Chamber exit separation be increased between the primary entrances. Two closely spaced exits can be affected during a fire event and can eliminate exit access through both of the two exits. While a 3rd exit was provided to the north west, the size of the exit is code compliant, however, it is recommended to utilize double doors to reduce exiting and queuing time. If a double door is not feasible, then it is recommended to provide a 4th exit opposite side of the existing 3rd exit. This would also reduce the exiting time in half while also reducing the queuing. Due to the high volume of people expected in this type of space, the space can benefit from a mechanical smoke exhaust system