SANTA ROSA JUNIOR COLLEGE

Santa Rosa Junior College Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Program – STEM Cluster

SRJC MESA Center Bertolini, 3rd Floor Santa Rosa Campus

(707) 521-7909

Monday 8:30AM to 7:00PM Tuesday 8:30AM to 7:00PM

Wednesday 8:30AM to 7:00PM Thursday 8:30AM to 5:00PM Friday by Appointment Only.

SANTA ROSA JUNIOR COLLEGE

Welcome to the Annual

MESA Program and STEM Cluster Honors Reception

& MESA Poster Project Symposium

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Poster Project Symposium: 5:00 – 6:00 pm

Transfer Scholarship Honors Reception: 6:00 – 7:30 pm

ABOUT THE MESA PROGRAM

What is ?

Since 1999, the SRJC Mathematics, Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) at Santa Rosa Junior College has helped first-generation students of Santa Rosa Junior College to become engineers, scientists and other math-based professionals urgently needed by industry. MESA provides a unique combination of enrichment activities, transfer counseling, academic support, industry involvement, and a supportive community environment. Students are served at the pre-college, community college and university levels.

Poster Project Title:

Data Harvester

Micaela Bush

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Chris Halle, Sonoma State University Industry Advisor: Sean Headrick, AeroTestra, Inc.

SSU Team Members: Taylor Jones, Abe Palmerin & Josh Papanicolas Webpage: http://dataharvester.weebly.com/

My project is wireless mobile data logging device that can be mounted onto a drone allowing for the gathering of data from remotely located sensors. In many fields that make use of sensors to gather data, there is a need to place sensors in remote areas. In some cases these places are hard to get to, dangerous, or cause a hassle to the person who needs to get there by foot or vehicle due to the sensors location. A few examples include gathering data from (1) tree tops, (2) mountainous regions, and (3) deep forests. There is a need to access these secluded areas more than once without the hassle of having to continuously go back just to retrieve data. We are proposing a system that will allow the user to gather data from such sensors in a much more convenient and safer manner. This system will employ low power remote sensors and will be durable enough to withstand wilderness and weather conditions. These sensors will gather a data like temperature, precipitation, air quality, etc. The data will be logged and then extracted by the user wirelessly through a mobile platform. This platform could be applied to a multitude of different modes of transportation. In the case of this project, we will be mounting it onto a drone. After completing this project our system will be deployed at one of Sonoma State Universities’ nature preserves.

Poster Project Title:

Home Energy Consumption Monitor

Peter Hoge

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Saeid Rahimi, Sonoma State University Industry Advisor: David Kaiser, Enphase Energy SSU Team Members: Kevin Suiker & Nick Soleil

Webpage: http://suiker92.wixsite.com/energymonitor My project focuses on developing a home energy monitor that enables viewing a home’s energy consumption from either a hallway display, a smartphone app, or website. With the proliferation of internet connections at almost every home, ubiquitous Wi-Fi, and with smart sensors and devices, it is inevitable that our homes will be integrated with more and more sophisticated devices that will be interconnected to the web. This is commonly referred to as smart home technologies and is an important step toward creating the smart grid of the future. These technologies offer the potential of helping to reduce electrical consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and provide greater insight into home electrical usage. The ability to monitor home electrical consumption is a critical piece in realizing the smart home. There are a number of products that attempt to provide insight into home electrical consumption, and provide varying levels of insight into the building’s energy consumption. The current technologies generally operate through one of the following platforms: device level monitoring - these systems will generally be integrated into the appliance itself or will be located at the receptacle that powers the device; a circuit level monitoring – these systems consists of multiple current transformers (CTs) located on each circuit; building level monitoring – these systems uses a single set of CTs on the main service panel entrance conductors. Almost all whole home monitoring systems use this topology, but some additionally use load disaggregation software to attempt to discern individual loads by viewing the changes in current when the load turns on and off.

Poster Project Title:

Multimode-Optical Fiber Testbed

Omar Acosta

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Brendan Hamel­Bissell, Sonoma State University SSU Team Members: Miah Crockett, Joe Nolan & Nader Srouji

Webpage: https://sites.google.com/site/testthefye/ For my project we are working on a system that automates the testing process to accurately and rapidly determine the timing margin, receiver sensitivity, and bit error ratio of an optical fiber link. The plan is to design and implement an automated multimode optical fiber link testbed to characterize optical components including the receiver sensitivity and timing margin of an optical transceiver. After reviewing the recommended steps to test the functionality of our measurement equipment, we will repeat these steps using remote control via LabVIEW as proof of concept that we have a viable project. Once we have hammered out the details of the order in which we will carry out the tests, and the algorithm of our testing procedures, we will implement them into LabVIEW. The output from the measurement equipment will be sent back to the LabVIEW computer to be stored, analyzed, and displayed in an understandable and intuitive way. Optical fiber system testing is a common need in research, education, and industry. In industry, optical fiber communications are quickly becoming the preferred industry standard over the current twisted pair Ethernet cable. However, it is arguable whether laying the infrastructure for long haul fiber systems is going to be profitable any time in the near future. That is why we are focusing on short-range data center fiber systems. Seventy-seven percent of total internet traffic actually takes place within data centers, 9% from data center to datacenter, and only 14% from data center to end user. Current data center traffic is estimated to be 4.7 ZB (Zettabyte) annually in 2015, this is predicted to reach 15.3 ZB by 2020, increasing more than 3-fold. There is a growing need for faster data transfer technology in the future.

Poster Project Title:

Switch-Electric Autonomous Vehicle

Alberto Fajardo

Faculty Advisor: Farid Farahmand, Sonoma State University Industry Advisor: Peter Oliver, Switch Vehicles, Inc.

SSU Team Member: Jose A. Avila Webpage: http://autonomousproject.wixsite.com/mysite

The purpose of the Semi-Autonomous Research Project is to implement the first stages of autonomy in an existing electric vehicle. Accomplishing this project will create the necessary infrastructure to make the electric vehicle prepared to move on to our ultimate goal, full autonomy. Autonomous vehicles are expected to be on our roads by 2020. Before I create this full autonomous, I need to prepare the vehicle by tapping into the existing hardware and making it responsive to the commands I give it. The hardware that I would control is the steering column, accelerator, and brakes all done wirelessly. This project would establish the foundation to further the researching of self-driving cars at our university. I will use a 32-bit Microcontroller to receive commands, then processing that information, thus controlling the vehicle appropriately. The user will have a user friendly application on their computer displaying the vehicle’s GPS location which will be mounted on the car. The computer application will also have a joystick on it which the user will manipulate to move the vehicle. The vehicle will have stepper motors on the steering column and the brake pedal that will be controlled by the microcontroller. As for accelerating the car, it would simply need input voltages that range from 0V-5V, also controlled by the microcontroller, but the whole system ultimately be controlled by the user.

Poster Project Title:

Model Hydroelectric Dam

Ellen Cox, Jake Ethington, Lakpa Sherpa & Parker Promjak

SRJC MESA Program Major(s): General Engineering, Mechanical Engineering SRJC Department(s): Engineering and Applied Technology

For this project, we have focused on using the renewable energy that flowing water provides to construct a model of a hydroelectric dam. We have used some found materials (wood pallets, a motor from a printer), as well as common and inexpensive items (a plastic gas can, PVC pipe) to create our model in order to demonstrate that harnessing power doesn’t have to be high tech and expensive. The water flows from the top of the tower through the PVC and into a homemade rotor, then the motor turns on, which powers a light through the help of a step up transformer. Harnessing the energy from flowing water and turning into electricity is the basis for hydroelectric power. It has been used for the past 2000 years and remains the most common form of renewable energy. We will be constructing a model of a hydroelectric dam to demonstrate the employment of gravity and the flow of water to then convert it to electricity. Essentially, we will have a tank of water connected to a pipe where the water will flow freely. As the water continues to accelerate through the tube, it will go through a small motor in order to speed the water up even more. Then, the water will pour into a hydroelectric turbine that will use magnets and a transformer to convert the power from the water into electricity. Then, the electricity will flow to a car battery and then power a light or similar object.

Poster Project Title:

The Chemistry of Color

Siying Dai & Andrew Wein

Faculty Advisor: William Cusworth III, Santa Rosa Junior College SRJC MESA Program Major(s): Chemistry, Chemical Engineering

SRJC Department(s): Chemistry, Engineering and Applied Technology Our project focuses on the photochemistry of Anthocyanins and Metal Porphyrins focusing on the energies of electron jumps in the structure of these molecules. The colors of objects we see around the world are the brain’s perception of a small band of the electromagnetic spectrum known as visible light. Wavelengths between around 700 and 400 nm provide this vast array of color. Electrons inside a molecule will absorb certain wavelengths of light based on the energy of electron jumps from one orbital to a higher energy orbital. The energies are affected by a variety of factors that alter the electronic structure of molecules including bond conjugation, the pH of surrounding environments, concentration, or, particularly in the case of porphyrins, the presence and effect of metal ions. Metal Porphyrins are a broad category molecules consisting of a tetrapyrrole ring with a center metal ion. The large conjugated system with the metal ion can take on a variety of colors including red in Heme and green in Chlorophylls based on the nature of the interaction of the metal ion and the surrounding ring. Anthocyanins are natural pigments responsible for red, purple and blue colors in many fruits and vegetables. These pigments vary in color when subjected to variations in temperature, light intensity, proportion, concentration, metallic ions, chemical structures and the pH of surrounding environment."

Poster Project Title:

Self-Balancing Robot

Alberto Fajardo, Jackson St. Amant & Alejandra Mixco

SRJC MESA Program Major(s): Mechanical Engineering, Bio-Medical Engineering & Chemical Engineering

SRJC Department(s): Engineering and Applied Technology Building a self-balancing robot gives us practice integrating robotics and engineering. Powered through an Arduino platform, our self-balancing autonomous robot idea was inspired by a MAKE magazine called “How to build a self-balancing autonomous Arduino robot.” Our self-balancing, inverted pendulum robot will be capable of autonomous navigation both indoors or out. We chose this project because of its real world applications. Additionally this project will include a 3D printer. We will use the 3-D printer to construct the body of the robot. Once all the parts are constructed we will piece all the parts together to make sure everything was printed with the proper dimensions. Next we will mount the motors and connect the electronics. This step is where the Arduino program will work with coding. Two members of our group owns an Arduino program and our third member owns a raspberry pi program which will help us immensely with the coding process. Once the robot is fully built and assembled, the last part is the coding.

Poster Project Title:

Super Kart REL 17

Luis Melecio, Eduardo Olvera & Rodolfo Torres

SRJC MESA Program Major(s): Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering SRJC Department(s): Engineering and Applied Technology

For our project, we decided to design and build a Super Kart REL 17. There are many different types of Go-karts, some electric and some gasoline powered. Each team member will have their own responsibility and contribution to the team. Responsibilities will consist of planning, designing, budgeting, physical construction, and presentation. We decided to use a relatively simple frame, making the overall built simpler and less expensive. We are using our combined knowledge of Math, Physics, and Engineering in order to apply them to our project. Applications of our knowledge include, power to weight ratio, gear ratios, top speed calculations, and overall design of the kart. Some challenges we encountered were dimensions of the frame, keeping cost low, and making sure all the parts fit with each other. Extensive time will be used on designing to insure parts will fit. Dimensioning will be done on Autodesk inventor to change variables until we agree on desired dimensions. We will attempt to keep cost down by budgeting inexpensive parts without sacrificing too much quality. Our final make project will result in a gas powered go kart that can successfully support and transport one driver. For the frame we decided to use 1 ¼” by 1 ¼” by ⅛” square tubing. The engine used was a Predator 6.5 HP 212cc OHV Horizontal Shaft Gas Engine with a theoretical top speed of 37.5 mph.

Poster Project Title:

Bike Light

Dara Sobati & Sam Flood

Faculty Advisor: Vince Bertsch, Santa Rosa Junior College & Yas Neuberger, Santa Rosa Junior College

SRJC MESA Program Major(s): Mechanical Engineering, Materials Engineering SRJC Department(s): Engineering and Applied Technology

Our project focuses is on the understanding of the process involved in the creation of a marketable product. This is one of the most useful tools in an engineer’s toolbox. Though important, the procedures involved in taking an idea from inception to construction are not typically taught in a standard engineering education. As prospective engineers interested in product development, we decided to combine our interest in mountain biking with our interest in LED’s and controllers to design a better bike light. Flashlights combine electrical circuitry and mechanical design to provide light. As bikers who have tried many different types of lights, we decided to utilize our experiences using different types of bike lights to create a bike light that better meets our needs as bikers. Our design includes incredible brightness, an interchangeable power source, and a completely customizable output based on the user’s specific desires. Through this project, we will gain experience in programming, electrical and mechanical design, but most importantly we will gain an understanding of the steps involved in creating a finished product. As the project progresses, and we learn more about our topic, our goals and designs will change to accommodate our limited knowledge and rapidly-approaching deadlines. In the end, we are hoping to successfully complete a product that demonstrates what we learned about designing a better product.

Poster Project Title:

Probiotic Bacterium

Itzel Macadonio, Liliana Loza & Maria Ayala

SRJC MESA Program Major(s): Public Health, Biology, Chemical Engineering SRJC Department(s): Engineering and Applied Technology, Health Sciences, Life Sciences

Our project focuses on Microbiota which play a critical role in providing a physical barrier in mammalian intestines. Intestines are mainly colonized by commensal microbes such as Bacteroides and Firmicutes. Mammalian intestines prevent pathogenic growth by sequestering iron by using various host proteins such as transferrin, ferriten, heme and lactoferrin. A strain of Escherichia coli (E.coli), was found to avert a variety of intestinal disorders. In another experiment researchers found that Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and E.coli compete to survive in the inflamed gut by utilizing various iron chelators also known as siderophores. In mammalian intestines which were co-infected with wild type E.coli Nissle and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium lower amounts of inflammation and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium were found than in hosts that were only fed Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. When mutant E.coli Nissle containing knockout siderophores were co-infected with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, inflammation in the mammalian intestines gut was increased. Results show that E. coli Nissle serves as a protective barrier against intestinal pathogens such as Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. During an infection a hose will try to sequester important nutrients and metals away from pathogens. Our research provides answers as to why iron is important in the gut and how it effects the mammalian intestines.

Poster Project Title:

Dye-Sensitized Nanowires for Solar Cells

Sally Burke, Tatiana Mamani, Carina Thompson & Bethany Vidamo

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jon Marhenke, Santa Rosa Junior College & Dr. Jan Kmetko, Santa Rosa Junior College SRJC MESA Program Major(s): Chemistry SRJC Department(s): Chemistry & Physics

Our project focuses on creating a dye-sensitized solar cell. In an effort to mitigate the problems of fossil fuels and meet the energy demand, we turn to our most abundant energy source: the sun. The push for more efficient renewable energy has led to many developments in the field of solar energy. Photovoltaic cells (solar cells) are used as a means to convert sunlight into usable energy. Traditionally, solar cells are made from doped n-type and p-type silicon in a planar arrangement. Although these solar cells are effective, many efforts have been made to improve their efficiency and reduce costs. One of the issues with planar solar cells is that they convert only a narrow range of wavelengths of light into energy. Developments in the field of nanowire technology have helped make solar cells more efficient in more ways than one. Nanowires provide an inexpensive alternative to conventional solar cells, as they can be synthesized from a number of inorganic and organic materials. The manipulation of the nanowire structuring and arrangement allows for increased efficiency compared to conventional polycrystalline networks. Dye-sensitization of nanowire arrays in solar cells greatly increases the range of wavelengths of light that the solar cells can absorb. The dye acts as an electron source such that its excited electrons are permitted to flow into the conducting parts of the solar cell.

Poster Project Title:

The Chemistry of Perfume

Tasi Sherpa, Paulina Hernandez & Edgar "Omar" Acosta

Faculty Advisor: Galen George SRJC MESA Program Major(s): Chemistry, Biology & General Engineering

SRJC Department(s): Chemistry & Physics, Life Sciences, Engineering and Applied Technology “Only 3 percent or so of the price in the shop is the smell” says Luca Turin, author of The Secret of Scent. Our goal is to augment our chemistry and biological research knowledge by analyzing men’s cologne. We will identify the main active ingredients used in cologne and thus be able to replicate it using materials in a college lab. Samples from three different men’s cologne will be used to determine if there are common ingredients. We will do this by using a gas chromatography mass spectrometry instrument (GC/MS). The GC/MS detects and identifies chemicals (or molecules) within a solution and imprints a quantified list of data of what it detects. Fragrance and perfume development companies use and recycle ingredients therefore performs usually have common ingredients. This results in less quantified material determining the unique scent of each cologne on the market. We used one of the three samples in attempt to replicate the original scent. It is important to note that there is material in the solution that is exclusive and unique to the brand and its company and it is, to an extent, illegal to replicate without the consent of the brand.

THANK YOU

This Event would not be possible without the help and support of all of our

Banquet Sponsors.

Keysight Technologies Pepperwood Preserve DeepTok

Sonoma State University Fresh and Natural Food Service Group

Sonoma County Junior College District

Santa Rosa Junior College Facilities, Planning & Operations

Administration, Custodial, Grounds & Recycling, Maintenance Staff

Santa Rosa Junior College Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) Cluster

Falculty & Staff

MESA Community College Program

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