On Monday, April 29, more than 600 students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff and industry partners filled the ballroom of the Donna E. Shalala Student Center for the Third Annual College of Engineering Senior Design Expo. The Senior Design/Capstone course is a culminating design project required of all undergraduate engineering students. Working in interdisciplinary teams and under the guidance of faculty and industry professionals, students designed and built solutions to address real-world challenges – including prototypes, new designs or new processes.
Teams showcased innovative projects from across all five of the College’s engineering departments: biomedical; civil, architectural and environmental; industrial; electrical and computer; and mechanical and aerospace.
Joining the guests was a group of senior technology and business leaders who were judges for the Industry Impact award, given to a project with the greatest potential to change the world. UM Board of Trustees Edward Dauer and Ana VeigaMilton also attended the event, and VeigaMilton presented the Industry Impact award to a group of biomedical engineers for their project to design a comprehensive organ-on-chip platform that incorporates all necessary components for conduction of organ-on-chip experiments and subsequent analysis.
“It is inspiring to see how our students bring together ideas not only from their own majors but across different fields. Our students did a fantastic job of highlighting how engineering is not narrowly focused and how they’re thinking outside the box,” said Jean-Pierre Bardet, dean of the College of Engineering. “You have shown us that you are ready to be an innovator in the next step of your career.”
The theme of this year’s Expo was appropriately named “Canestarter,” which symbolized the College’s growing partnerships with industry to transform innovative ideas into real products to improve our overall quality of life. Attendees were able to cast votes for the top project through the Whova app voting system. The top three teams with the most votes were awarded a Senior Design Project People’s Choice award.
All teams displayed posters and gave presentations during the expo. Some also had working prototypes, computer simulations and videos. Cash prizes were given to winners in the People’s Choice category. The categories and winner teams:
Best Senior Design Project in Biomedical Engineering – “Heat-Gas Cooling Hearing Device Dehumidifier” – Orya Vesvoranan (BSBE ’19), Yadira Santes-Cruz (BSBE ’19), Anne Feliciano (BSBE ’19), Dongyang Zhu (BSBE ’19) and Jianyuan Li (BSBE ’19)
Best Senior Design Project in Civil Engineering – “Momentous” – Douglas Grand Development – Nancy Lewis (BSAE ’19), Isa Perez-Rios Bravo (BSENE ’19), Daniel Pattany (BSAE ’19), Michael Croly (BSCE ’19), Omar Al-Bahlani (BSAE ’19), Jeremy Borenstein (BSCE ’19) and Rachel Deradoorian (BSAE ’19)
Best Senior Design Project in Electrical and Computer Engineering – “Guardian” – Mostafa Abdel-Mottaleb (BSCPE ’19), Rashed Kashem (BSCPE ’19), Kevin Robbins (BSCPE ’19) and Mohammed Zain Usman (BSCPE ’19)
Best Senior Design Project in Industrial Engineering – “Operation Floodgate – AAR” – Charles Wardlow (BSIE ’19), Brian Gort (BSIE ’19) and Arjum Padmanabhan (BSIE ’19)
Best Senior Design Project in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – “Electrothermal Ice Coring Drill Improvement: Automatic Temperature Control System” – Kawan Amellung (BSME ’19), Alexander Berne (BSME ’19), Chaoyun Guo (BSME ’19) and Robert Haiselmaier (BSME ’19)
Best Expo Display – “Automatic Wet Pet Food Dispenser” – Christian Marquina (BSME ’19), Aaren Sirak (BSME ’19), Jonathan Bown (BSME ’19) and Peter Stansky (BSME ’19)
People’s Choice Award: Popular Vote 3rd Place Tie – “CMX – Optimization of Movie Theater Payroll” – Eric Dolman (BSIE ’19), Natalino De Simone (BSIE ’19), Maria Gabriela Espejo (BSIE ’19) and Ana Cristina Finol (BSIE ’19); – “Improving the Performance of Tank-less Water Heaters” – Mohammad Alshuaib (BSME ’19), Mohammad Alshati (BSME ’19) and Khaled Alkaabi (BSME ’19)
People’s Choice Award: Popular Vote 2nd Place – “Clinic Resource Optimization” – Hannah Bernstein (BSIE ’19), Alex Davis (BSIE ’19), Natalia Campo (BSIE ’19) and Adriana Gorrin (BSIE ’19)
People’s Choice Award: Popular Vote 1st Place – “Ryder Fleet Management Solution A” – Ahmed Alanazi (BSIE ’19), Sebastian Echeverri (BSIE ’19), Ahmad Ali (BSIE ’19) and Adem Sahil (BSIE ’19)
Industry Impact Award – “Comprehensive Organ-on-chip Platform for Long Term Culture and Analysis” – Daniel Carbonero (BSBE ’19), Adiel Hernandez (BSBE ’19), Jordan Hill (BSBE ’19) and Michael Dvornik (BSBE ’19)
Overall Best Senior Design Project for the College of Engineering – “ARTEMIS: A Refundable Tug Envoy Mission Arm” – Hiba Benkye (BSME ’19), Dylan Bialek (BSME ’19), Gregory Cooke (BSME ’19) and Luis Felipe Lopes (BSASE ’19)
Several industry sponsors, including Johnson & Johnson, Florida Power & Light, Fortinet and Ryder, funded the senior projects.
Congratulations to all the winners!
To view photos of the event, please click here.
