APRIL 28, 2017 - engineering.tamu.edu · hard work and creativity of more than 1,000 engineering...

APRIL 28, 2017HALL OF CHAMPIONS, KYLE FIELD

COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS

ENGINEERINGPROJECT SHOWCASE

TRANSFORMING ENGINEERING EDUCATION

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ENGINEERING PROJECT SHOWCASE 2017

TRANSFORMING ENGINEERING EDUCATION engineering.tamu.edu

THIS IS YOUR ZACHRY ENGINEERING EDUCATION COMPLEX

SUMMER 2018

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TEXAS A&M ENGINEERING | engineering.tamu.edu

TRANSFORMING ENGINEERING EDUCATION engineering.tamu.edu

THIS IS YOUR ZACHRY ENGINEERING EDUCATION COMPLEX

SUMMER 2018

Sponsorship Opportunities 5

Industry Judges 8

Faculty Coordinators 9

Industry Representative Schedule 10

Student Participant Data 11

Project Descriptions 12

Award Categories 13

Judging Criteria 14

Teams & Project Descriptions 15

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Howdy!

On behalf of the College of Engineering, I am pleased to welcome you to the 2017 Engineering Project Showcase at Texas A&M University. This annual event is designed to celebrate many of the technical accomplishments of our undergraduates.

More than 180 engineering projects are on display today, representing the hard work and creativity of more than 1,000 engineering students from every engineering discipline within the college.

I am confident that you will be impressed with the innovation and problem solving skills demonstrated by these students. The projects showcased today demonstrate the work going on in research labs, classrooms, and extracurricular environments. I encourage you to engage with the students and discuss their projects. Details about the teams, their projects and how to become involved with our academic programs can be found in your information packet.

Thank you for joining us this year. We look forward to your continued involvement with our program.

M. Katherine Banks, Ph.D., P.E.Vice Chancellor & Dean of EngineeringDirector, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment StationHarold J. Haynes Dean’s Chair Professor

LETTER FROM THE VICE CHANCELLOR & DEAN

Texas A&M Engineering Communications 2017

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THANK YOU TO OUR SHOWCASE SPONSORS

THANK YOU TO OURADDITIONAL SPONSOR:

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2018 SHOWCASE SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIESGOLD: $10,000+

• Two student awards named for sponsor ($1,000 each award)• Corporate logo prominently displayed at the Showcase event• Sponsor recognized in the Showcase program• Sponsor recognized in article posted on Texas A&M Engineering website• Recognition in the Engineering Student Enrichment Affiliates program• Priority judging for Showcase• Priority in the Engagement Session at the Showcase• 10 tickets to luncheon

SILVER: $5,000+• One student award named for sponsor ($1,000 award)• Corporate logo prominently displayed at the Showcase event• Sponsor recognized in the Showcase program• Priority judging for Showcase• Priority in the Engagement Session at the Showcase• Five tickets to luncheon

BRONZE: $2,500+• Corporate logo prominently displayed at the Showcase event• Sponsor recognized in the Showcase program• Priority judging for Showcase• Priority in the Engagement Session at the Showcase• Two tickets to luncheon

CONTACT MAGDA LAGOUDAS ([email protected]) FOR QUESTIONS OR MORE INFORMATION.

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SPONSORS OF STUDENT PROJECT We would like to thank all the student project sponsors at the 2017 Showcase:

ASHRAE

Academic Success Center

Alamo Industrial

Alcon

Baylor Scott and White Health Temple

Bechtel

Bray

Cameron

Cameron Manufacturing

Centex Materials

Central Texas Food Bank

Cheap Caribbean

Coca Cola

Connderosa Farms

Cornell University: Gore Lab

Cotton Inc.

Deep Down Inc., Oceaneering Intl

Dell

Dialvan

EDPR

Electric Power Research Institute

ETAPA

Exothermix

ExxonMobil

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Fluor

FLUOR Corporation

Halliburton

Hospira

HPe

Ideallion, Inc.

Intag Technologies

International Cooling tower

Lockheed Martin

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Mazak

Medtronic

Micro Systems Engineering, Inc

Molecular Diagnostics Lab

NASA

National Oilwell Varco

NOV Grant Prideco

Quest Medical

RackSolutions

San Antonio Medical Military Center

San Antonio River Authority (SARA)

Sandia National Labs

Schlumberger

Shell

Society of Automotive Engineers

St. Jude Medical

Stress Engineering Services

Tenaris

Texas A&M Transportation Institute

Texas A&M University Nuclear Power Institute

Texas Children’s Hospital

Texas Green Energy

Texas Heart Institute

Texas Instruments

Texas Target Communities

Trane

TTI

UAV

United States Department of Agriculture

UPS

UBRICA

Weston Yap

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2017-2018 STUDENT PROJECT SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Dear Industry Guests, Throughout the Project Showcase you will see some great student projects from all engineering

disciplines. We would like to invite you to consider sponsoring a student project for the 2017-18 academic year.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDUSTRY SPONSORED PROJECTS Student team projects provide engineering undergraduate students with opportunities to practice

their engineering skills on real world problems, practice design methodology, pursue creativity for innovative solutions, and develop skills for effective team collaborations and communications. While there are many opportunities for industry to sponsor a student team project through engineering courses across all engineering majors, below is a select list of project-based courses and programs that span all engineering disciplines:

• Capstone Senior Design Projects: Required course (one or two semesters) by all engineering undergraduates. Opportunities exist for major-specific or multidisciplinary projects.

• AggiE_Challenge: Elective course open to all engineering students from freshman to senior. Students enroll for one or more semesters in a section focused on a specific multidisciplinary team project associated with research in complex engineering challenges.

• AggiE_Design: Elective course designed to provide sophomores and juniors with opportunities to practice engineering design on real world projects for multiple semesters.

• AggiE_Intern: Elective course targeting first generation sophomores. The course is designed to engage students in team projects and prepare them for successful transition to industry internships.

BENEFITS TO INDUSTRY• Explore new innovative solutions• Pursue projects of interest to you• Recruit potential employees• Raise visibility of your company • Help us develop your future technical leaders

There are several contractual options for accommodating industry sponsored projects for academic purposes, including those that allow negotiation of agreements (intellectual property, non-disclosure agreements).

For more information on student sponsored project opportunities, please contact Magda Lagoudas, Executive Director, Industry and Nonprofit Partnerships at [email protected] / (979)-862-8321.

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INDUSTRY JUDGESWe would like to thank all our industry representatives who are serving as judges at the 2017

Engineering Project Showcase.

We are excited to have more than 100 judges from the following companies:

3D Farming Inc.

Alliance LLC

American Airlines

Autodesk

Baker Hughes

Baylor Scott & White Health

Black & Veatch

BlueChasm

Boeing

Bray International

Bryan Research & Engineering Inc.

Cameron - A Schlumberger Company

Capital One

Central Texas Veterans Health Care System

City of College Station

CivilTech Engineering Inc.

Consultant

Dell Inc.

Delta Structural Technology

DRS Technologies

Emerson

ExxonMobil

Farmers Electric

Cooperative

Fluor Enterprises Inc.

FrogSlayer

Goodman Manufacturing

Halliburton

Hollinden

HTC/HARC

IBM

Ideallion Inc.

Improving Enterprises

Ingersoll Rand

Integrity Integration Resources

International Cooling Tower

Invocon Inc.

JNM Technologies Inc.

Keysight Technologies

KIPP Sunnyside

L3 Technologies

Maxim (Integrated) Ventures

MSC Software

National Oilwell Varco

NOBKLE ASSOCIATES INC

OneSubsea

Peak Nanosystems

Pentair

Precision Drilling

Quest Medical Inc

Sandia Laboratories

Schlumberger

Shell

Siemens ITS

South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company

ST Genetics

Stress Engineering Services

T STAR LLC Texas Space Technology Applications and Research

TATA Consultancy Services

TechnipFMC

Tenaris

Texas Instruments Inc.

U. S. Steel

Universal Pressure Pumping Inc.

USAA

Velentium LLC

Weatherford

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FACULTY CAPSTONE DESIGN COORDINATORSBelow is the contact information for faculty in charge of capstone design courses within each

engineering major:

MAJOR NAME EMAIL

AEROMr. Wayne Lutz [email protected]. Greg Chamitoff chamitoff.eduMr. Harry Elmendorf [email protected]

BAENDr. Rabi Mohtar [email protected]. Gregory Stark [email protected]. Zivko Nikolov [email protected]

BMENDr. Saurabh Biswas [email protected]. Alan Brewer [email protected]

CHEN Dr. James Harris [email protected]

CVENDr. Dominique Lord [email protected]. Gary Fry [email protected]

CSENDr. Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna [email protected]. Tracy Hammond [email protected]

CECN Dr. Rabi Mahapatra [email protected] Dr. Stavros Kalafatis [email protected]

ENTCDr. Michael Johnson [email protected]. Mike Willey [email protected]

IDISDr. Bimal Nepal [email protected]. Dan Jennings [email protected]

ISEN Dr. Jose Vazquez [email protected] Dr. Joanna N Tsenn [email protected]

NUENDr. Karen Vierow Kirkland [email protected]. John Poston [email protected]

OCEN Dr. Robert Randall [email protected]

PETE

Dr. Walter Ayers [email protected]. Peter Bastion [email protected]. Fred Dupriest [email protected]. Priscilla McLeroy [email protected]. David Schechter [email protected]

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2017 INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVE SCHEDULE

TIME ACTIVITY LOCATION9:30-10:30 a.m. Check-In Hall of Champions Lobby

10:30-11:30 a.m. Engagement Session South End Lounge, 3rd Floor with Students Open to Judges and Sponsor Companies

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Judge Luncheon Presidential Lounge, 2nd Floor

1:00-3:00 p.m. Project Judging Hall of Champions

3:30 p.m. Awards Hall of Champions

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STUDENT PARTICIPANT DATA

189PROJECTS

1054UNDERGRADUATESTUDENTS

ALLENGINEERINGMAJORS INCLUDED

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CAPSTONE SENIOR DESIGNDesign projects completed by teams of senior engineering students as part of the required

course curriculum in their major. Capstone Senior Design projects range from one to two semesters in length depending on the engineering major. These projects provide students an opportunity to work with real world, open ended challenges, apply their engineering skills and are typically sponsored by industry.

AGGIE_CHALLENGEMultidisciplinary team research projects completed by teams of ten or more engineering

undergraduates representing three or more majors and freshman to seniors. Student teams are mentored by dedicated graduate students and receive course credit for their participation. Since 2012, more than 1,000 engineering students have participated in the program.

DESIGN COMPETITIONSProjects completed by multidisciplinary teams competing at regional or national design

competitions.

ENGR 112ENGR 112 is the second semester freshman engineering course required by all engineering

students. About 500 freshman engineering teams have participated in a class project and the top teams were selected by their faculty to present at this year’s Showcase.

OTHER COURSE PROJECTSProjects completed by individual students or teams of engineering students as part of other

courses or research with faculty.

PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS

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Through the generosity of our sponsors we are able to provide cash awards to the top teams at this year’s Engineering Project Showcase. Awards will be presented in the following categories:

Capstone Awards: $500Awarded to the best teams in each major with ten or more teams:

• Biological and Agricultural Engineering

• Biomedical Engineering

• Computer Science and Engineering

• Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Engineering Technologies and Industrial Distribution

• Industrial and Systems Engineering

• Mechanical Engineering

• Other Majors — Includes teams from multiple departments with less than 10 teams at the Showcase

AWARD CATEGORIES

AggiE_Challenge: $500

Design Competition Teams: $500

ENGR 112: $500

Other Projects: $500

OVERALL SHOWCASE AWARDS: EMERSON AWARD: $1,000

BAKER HUGHES: $1,000

SHELL AWARD: $1,000

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JUDGING CRITERIACustomer need, design requirements, and impact are defined and presented a project synopsis that informs the audience

Demonstrates understanding of the existing solution’s limitations or lack of solutions

Demonstrated a well defined approach in developing an acceptable design solution

The proposed design solution contains sufficient technical depth

The proposed design solution demonstrates creativity

The developed prototype (hardware/software) or analytical model are of high quality

Performance of proposed design is supported by engineering analysis and/or testing

Proposed design considers additional factors such as cost, manufacturability, sustainability, risk analysis and intellectual property

Questions were addressed with sufficient knowledge, confidence & clarity

Team collaboration was evident by team participation in the presentation and Q&A

Poster presents the material in a well organized way - from framing the problem to presenting the proposed solution

Effective use of visual aids (figures, tables, charts, layout, etc.) improves poster’s effectiveness

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TEAMS & PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS

BIOLOGICAL & AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING — CAPSTONE DESIGN1 E20: Cacao Pod CrackerSponsor: Weston YapFaculty Mentor: Dr. Rabi MohtarTeam Members:

1. Cecily Molina2. Hilda Villarreal3. Sreevidya Ghantasala

Project Summary The beans of the cacao pod are a sought after

agricultural commodity. They are the key ingredient in making products like chocolate or cacao powder. Extracting the beans from the pod is not exactly a safe and efficient process. The main method of separating beans from pod is to use a machete or club. These techniques lead to occupational injuries such as severe lacerations or tendinitis. There are a few industrial machines that can reduce the risks associated with this process, but they diminish the quality of the desired beans. Also, these machines require electricity, which is not ideal because most global cacao farmers do not have access to this power source. Our goal was to design a simple machine that is manually powered to be used the cacao farmers of Hawaii.

2 E21: Cotton Field ContaminationSponsor: United States Department of AgricultureFaculty Mentor: Dr. Doug KingmanTeam Members:

1. Jarred Rivera2. Emma White3. Jacqueline Hong

Project Summary Field contaminants, like tumbleweeds and

plastic bags, pose a significant problem to cotton farmers. They decrease the quality of cotton, reduce harvest efficiency, and increase

occupational danger. This Biological and Agricultural Engineering capstone project aims to reverse these trends with a two-part system. The first part consists of aerial image analysis of cotton fields in order to locate foreign objects. The second part uses this data to collect and discard the contaminants. A scale model of the trash removal system is to be designed and constructed. The large-scale design needs to be mounted directly on the cotton harvester. Since nothing like this has ever been designed before our presentation will include an array of attempted designs and one working apparatus.

3 E22: Guardrail MowerSponsor: Alamo Industrial, Mr. Mark HamannFaculty Mentor: Dr. Sergio CaparedaTeam Members:

1. Jared Eller2. Joshua Brooks3. Mitchell Tighe

Project Summary Alamo Industrial, a project industry sponsor,

requires the research and design of a mower attachment to be used for controlling vegetation growth underneath guardrails. The current method of controlling this vegetation is through the utilization of workers using handheld string trimmers while on foot. This poses a safety risk to these workers due to the guardrails being so close to roadway traffic. The solution will be a tractor-mounted string-trimmer that will be controlled using a hydraulic system. An adjustable mounting system with two separate arms and cutting decks will be implemented within the design that will allow for operation from either side of the tractor. Upon operation, the cutting decks will rotate around each post of the guardrail cutting the grass on either side.

4 E23: Low Impact Storm Water ManagementSponsor: Texas Target CommunitiesFaculty Mentor: Dr. Rabi MohtarTeam Members:

1. Kai Krogman2. Paige Smith

3. Dylan Meurer4. Conley Chilek

Project Summary W.A.S.P. Engineering (Water and Sewage

Planning) was tasked with finding a low impact solution to the ongoing issue of flooding and ponding of rainwater in the neighborhood of Sunnyside in the South-East part of Houston. Group members Dylan Meurer, Conley Chilek, Paige Smith, and Kai Krogman will have coordinated with various members of the Sunnyside community to help identify some of the causes to the communities’ drainage issues. Solutions may include rain gardens, rooftop rainwater harvesting, and improved roadside ditch design. The team will design, and present the various solutions to the community. Working alongside the team are various other students and researchers with ongoing projects in the Houston area.

5 E24: Meat Processing AfricaSponsor: Mr. Kunle Adeyemi & Mr. Macharia WaruingiFaculty Mentor: Dr. Zivko NikolovTeam Members:

1. Citlalli Gomez2. Alejandra Cobos3. Nicole Goff

Project Summary The goal of this project is to contribute to the

improvement of global health by designing a sustainable method for meat production. The focus is to develop a meat processing facility that can be implemented in villages across Kenya and Nigeria. Due to inadequate infrastructure, limited access to finance and lack of improved farming inputs agriculture is set back in these countries. The proposed system designed will be able to provide a safe and efficient way for processing meat in order to improve food security and therefore the quality of life in the target areas. Our sponsors are The Ustawi Biomedical Research Innovation & Industrial Centers of Africa (UBRICA) and FLUOR Corporation, an engineering and construction firm.

Customer need, design requirements, and impact are defined and presented a project synopsis that informs the audience

Demonstrates understanding of the existing solution’s limitations or lack of solutions

Demonstrated a well defined approach in developing an acceptable design solution

The proposed design solution contains sufficient technical depth

The proposed design solution demonstrates creativity

The developed prototype (hardware/software) or analytical model are of high quality

Performance of proposed design is supported by engineering analysis and/or testing

Proposed design considers additional factors such as cost, manufacturability, sustainability, risk analysis and intellectual property

Questions were addressed with sufficient knowledge, confidence & clarity

Team collaboration was evident by team participation in the presentation and Q&A

Poster presents the material in a well organized way - from framing the problem to presenting the proposed solution

Effective use of visual aids (figures, tables, charts, layout, etc.) improves poster’s effectiveness

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6 E25: Mechanical Cottonseed DelinterSponsor: Dr. Greg HoltFaculty Mentor: Dr. Zivko NikolovTeam Members:

1. Adrian Shimek2. Alison Counts3. DJ Forrest

Project Summary During the development of new and more

effective commercial cotton processing equipment, it is necessary to deliver a system that is easily maintained, efficient, and cost effective. This was the goal of ADA Consultants when presented with a prototype for a cottonseed de-linter developed by Cotton Inc. and the USDA-ARS. In order to transform the prototype to meet the desired deliverables, our team modified and tested the system and several process parameters in order to optimize the de-linting process. Our final deliverable includes a walkthrough of enhancements made to the prototype along with the reasoning behind them, process parameters that increase efficiency and productivity, and design drawings.

7 D21: Mobile Air Quality Testing- ManchesterSponsor: Mr. Jaimie MastersonFaculty Mentor: Dr. Ronald LaceyTeam Members:

1. Jace Hyden2. Brandon Berger3. Zixiu Fu

Project Summary Our goal is to empower the citizens of a

community in Houston to keep the major polluters accountable by designing a mobile device that can test air quality. Based on community concerns, T.E.J.A.S. has asked for the development of a cost-effective, mobile air quality kit prototype. They would like to bring the power of air quality testing to the hands of residents to keep heavy polluters in the neighborhood accountable to EPA standards. The prototype device detects the presence of harmful pollutants and is designed for use by residents and average citizens rather than researchers or experts; it also includes an instruction manual as well as a trouble-shooting guide.

8 D22: Pelletizing Chicken ManureSponsor: Dr. Larry ConnFaculty Mentor: Mr. Zivko NikolovTeam Members:

1. Elizabeth Wishert2. Karsten Falke3. Carter Parks

Project Summary The LitterBawks engineering team, designs

pelletizing systems that can affordably turn animal waste into a marketable fertilizer product to be sold at local garden stores in the area and be used in home gardens or on a larger industrial scale. In November of 2016 Mr. Larry Conn, owner of Connderosa Farms approached the Litterbawlks team through the Biological and Agricultural Engineering department’s Senior Design Capstone class with a request to design and build a chicken litter pelletizing system at his poultry farm in Franklin, Texas. Our objective for this project is to design a cost efficient and profitable system of pelletizing chicken litter waste that can be bagged, transported, and

easily applied to the land as fertilizer.

9 D23: Rainwater and Irrigation WWF MexicoSponsor: Mr. Ignacio Gonzalez, Mr. Judy TakatsFaculty Mentor: Dr. Rabi MohtarTeam Members:

1. Alicia Carmona2. Ashley Hairston3. Blake Sokora4. Dylan Jammer

Project Summary This project group is working with the World

Wildlife Fund in order to provide a rainwater catchment and irrigation system to a small agrarian school in Tehuantepec, Mexico. High levels of drought and poor irrigation methods in the past have made watering crops difficult without pumping in or utilizing more sources of water in the region, lowering the water table. This project will attempt to address and meet these issues by: providing water to the school to irrigate crops and livestock via a rainwater catchment system, teaching the schools’ students about more efficient irrigation methods, and helping to restore the region’s water table and reduce the effects of drought.

10 D24: Rainwater Collection for Park DevelopmentSponsor: San Antonio River Authority (SARA)Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rabi MohtarTeam Members:

1. Anna Weinheimer2. Jackson Bush3. Ferne Maulsby4. Sarah Davis

Project Summary Sponsored by the San Antonio River Authority (SARA), the Rainwater Collection for Park Development project is a land development project designed to enrich park patrons’ experiences at Branch River Park near Goliad, TX. The project, which supports wildlife conservation, incorporates the design of a water basin for attracting wildlife, especially birds, a wildlife viewing station, and a rainwater collection system to enhance the basin and surrounding area. SARA plans to apply for the $10,000 Great Texas Birding Classic Conservation Grant in order to implement the design. From research, calculations, and 2-D site and structural drawings to a 3-D site rendering, this project applies knowledge the design team has gained over the past four years while preparing for future careers as engineers.

11 D25: Small Scale Farm EquipmentSponsor: Mr. Ben GodfreyFaculty Mentor: Dr. Doug KingmanTeam Members:

1. Stephanie Tsyss2. Kevin Kubecka3. Ian Byorth

Project Summary With the increasing number of small farms

in the United States, there has been a growing demand for affordable and high quality farming equipment, specialized for the needs of small-scale production. An economical and specialized root crop harvester has been designed for Sustainable Farm Supply to be built and sold for small-scale farms that produce root crops, mainly potatoes

and carrots. In addition to the SolidWorks drawing of the design, there is also an operator’s manual and cost analysis for the design. Small-scale farms all over the United States will be able to benefit from the simplicity and efficiency of this design.

12 D26: Sustainable Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery in Cuenca, EcuadorSponsor: ETAPAFaculty Mentor: Dr. Rabi MohtarTeam Members:

1. Omar Chavez2. Chestley Coleman3. Hyoungmook Pak

Project Summary In rural areas surrounding the city of Cuenca,

Ecuador, there is a lack of infrastructure for the treatment of wastewater from domestic sewerage systems. To solve this problem, a high rate algae reactor was designed to treat wastewater as well as to provide a source of energy in the form of biofuels. To grow effectively, algae cells need the right nutrients as well optimal climatic conditions, such as constant warm temperatures and high levels of solar irradiance, which are available in Ecuador. While effluent from ETAPA’s Ucubamba wastewater treatment plant is being treated in the reactor, it provides nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and ammonia to the algae cells. At the end of the treatment period, the newly grown algae can be harvested and used in the production of biofuel.

13 D27: Sustainable Wastewater Treatment of San Juan, Costa RicaSponsor: Dr. Eugenio GonzalezFaculty Mentor: Dr. Rabi MohtarTeam Members:

1. Crystal Bradley2. Brianna Rose3. Jacob Berger4. Jeremy Supak

Project Summary San Juan of Penas Blancas is a rural community

located in San Ramon County, Costa Rica. Current water quality in the region is poor, and the local school system (consisting of an elementary and high school) currently discharges black water from its sanitation system into a naturally occurring drainage ditch. Regional officials have been made aware of the situation and are now concerned about pollution of the downstream water supply. The goal of the design team is to evaluate current water quality and quantity, design an effective and cost-conscious treatment system, and provide a cost breakdown and educational material to maintain the system in our absence.

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING — CAPSTONE DESIGN1 R17: 3D-Printed Angiographic Models for Preoperative PlanningSponsor: Baylor Scott and White Health Temple, Dr. Andrew AltmanFaculty Mentor: Mr. Maurice BrewerTeam Members:

1. Anne-Marie Ginn2. Sarah Gibson

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3. Adam Navara4. Bobby Gerich

Project SummaryIn conjunction with Baylor Scott and

White affiliates, this senior design team was challenged with creating a method to produce 3D printed, patient-specific surgical models to improve the microvascular surgery preparation process. Although imaging techniques such as 3D visualization exist, 3D printed models would provide surgeons with unlimited spatial orientation. Consequently, studying these models will increase surgeon accuracy when dissecting complicated, intramuscular perforators. With the creation of 3D physical models, we hope to decrease surgical time and prevent unnecessary muscular damage during these intricate vessel extraction procedures.

2 D14: Arterial Flow Safety Valve for a Cardiopulmonary Bypass MachineSponsor: Quest MedicalFaculty Mentor: Mr. Alan BrewerTeam Members:

1. Sahar Mohiuddin2. Ashley Bennett3. Rishika Raja4. Khang-Christopher Truong

Project SummaryThe RetroGuard S is a line extension of an

arterial flow safety valve that helps prevent retrograde flow of blood as it is passing through a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. The valve directs blood from the machine back into a patient’s body while they are undergoing surgery. This valve has been designed to ensure that an appropriate flow rate and pressure differential are maintained while the blood is being recirculated into the body. Additionally, this valve is specifically designed for use with patients who have smaller blood volumes, which may not be addressed by current devices on the market.

3 D15: Astrosense EVAssistantIndustry Sponsor: NASAFaculty Mentor: Mr. Maurice BrewerTeam Members:

1. Kimberly Lennox2. Kunal Shah3. Zachary Trujillo4. Blanche Ter Hofstede

Project SummaryAs astronauts venture farther into space there

is growing concern about maintaining their health and safety over such long trips. The Astrosense EVAssistant is designed to provide continuous monitoring of astronauts while they are conducting extra-vehicular activities (EVAs). This device measures cardiac rhythm with ECG and pulse oxygenation with optical sensors. This information is relayed to an easy-to-use graphical user interface which outputs both the original signal and basic diagnostic parameters. With this information, both astronauts and mission control back on Earth will have an accurate picture of the astronaut’s health.

4 D16: BlastMaskSponsor: Mr.Justin DicksteinFaculty Mentor: Mr. Alan BrewerTeam Members:

1. Patrick Griffin2. Adam Mlynarczyk3. Kevin Tran4. Davis Denny

Project SummaryThis project deals with adding electronics to a

training device for firefighters to use to become more fit. Firefighters have an extremely high risk of sudden cardiac death syndrome. A huge piece of this risk is a lack of fitness, a stressful situation, and difficulty breathing in a mask. The current device acts to mimic the air resistance from a regulator that firefighters wear. Our task is to add to the device so it keeps track of a “virtual” air tank for the firefighter and provides feedback similar to that of a real firefighter mask. This type of feedback is from LED’s and vibration that can be found in the mask firefighters normally wear. This device helps save firefighter lives by making them “Fit for the Fire.”

5 D17: Check My FiltersSponsor: Dr. Jerry NamFaculty Mentor: Dr. Alan BrewerTeam Members:

1. Amanda Wallin2. Jane Frederick3. Cassidy Gobbell4. Sarah Hynes

Project SummaryThere is a clinical need for a more accurate way

to calculate glomerular filtration rate (GFR) when diagnosing kidney health of a patient. GFR can be more accurately calculated with the inclusion of a patient’s total muscle mass. TMC’s software inputs a full body CT or MRI scan of a patient, and outputs their total muscle mass and calculated GFR. The program works by calculating the area occupied by muscle in each slice (Dicom file) taken by the MRI or CT machine. Pixel intensity and location of pixels are used in order to segment muscle from bone and fat tissue, and the operator has the option of modifying the program’s automatic segmentation before moving forward. It is anticipated that the software will greatly improve accuracy of GFR calculation for medical use and renal diagnoses.

6 D18: CustomEyesSponsor: Alcon, Mr. Austin RhodeheaverFaculty Mentor: Mr. Alan BrewerTeam Members:

1. Mark Knackstedt2. Camille Zuliani3. Mitchell Robinson4. Elisabeth Wall

Project SummaryCustomEyes has created a unique 3-D printer

capable of printing at different angles for a better geometric configuration. The printer moves along four axes, which gives it additional mobility for our purpose. The purpose of this project is to allow for geometric conformance on an extremely small scale in order to create specialized implants. The printer utilizes a special print head to dispense a special polymer mixture into a specialized spatial conformation and then uses UV light to cure the polymer. The programming and ultimate purpose for the printer cannot be disclosed as per our agreement with our sponsor.

7 D19: Intuitive Cardiac Defibrillation TechnologiesSponsor: Dr. Javier LasaFaculty Mentor: Mr. Maurice BrewerTeam Members:

1. Gabriela Perez2. Benjamin Boyett3. Marko Draganic4. Hazel Lopez5. Bradley Due

Project SummaryThe current defibrillator pads for pediatric

patients are large and disproportionate for the bodies of the patients. Hospitalized infants and smaller children have different medical instruments and/or recent wounds that inhibit the available space for the placement of the current defibrillator pads. The team plans to redesign a pad that is small enough to fit a patient’s chest without causing major harm to the patient, while also delivering safe and effective energy to defibrillate the heart. The pads are to be placed in a line starting below the nipple and going around under the armpit to the back of the patient. Our testing plan tests the device’s ability to defibrillate correctly and confirms that the size will accommodate the patients of all sizes in the Intensive Care Unit.

8 D20: Mechanical Heart SimulatorSponsor: Micro Systems Engineering, IncFaculty Mentor: Mr. Maurice BrewerTeam Members:

1. Breanna Brocklesby2. Duru Han3. Zachary Lawson4. Dimitri Dobroskok

Project SummaryCurrently, class III cardiovascular devices require

extensive animal tests before clinical trials, after which they are finally considered for market approval. This results in substantial monetary, temporal, and subject costs. The average time from concept to market runs anywhere from three to seven years for these devices. This project’s goal is to shorten this time frame by creating a testing platform that mimics relevant right ventricle mechanical movement, including torsion and axial shortening. Without relying on complicated in vivo studies, this platform can be used to test the response of a device implanted in the right ventricle to mechanical stresses caused by cardiac movement over the device’s life cycle.

9 C16: Heat Dissipative and Corrosion Resistant Material Redesign for Medical DeviceSponsor: Mr.Zahedul HuqFaculty Mentor: Mr. Alan BrewerTeam Members:

1. Grant Watts2. Rickard Bagott3. Alexandra Easley4. Samuel Noble

Project SummaryDevelopment/identification of material for high

heat dissipation and high PH cleaning for a medical device. This poster outlines the experimental testing and results of these materials.

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10 C17: Neural Tissue Complex Bioimpedance Simulator for Design Verification of Implantable Pulse GeneratorsSponsor: St. Jude Medical (now Abbott)Faculty Mentor: Mr. Maurice BrewerTeam Members:

1. Vanessa Page2. Carlos Tovar3. Danika Slokovic4. Kyle Meissner

Project SummarySt. Jude Medical has manufactured an integrated

pulse generator (IPG) device that alleviates chronic pain by targeting a variety of structures, including the spinal cord, dorsal root ganglia, or deep brain. This is for the purpose of providing therapy to people by submitting their neurons to sequence of electrical pulses. Since this device will be embedded in the nervous system, it is especially important to monitor the effects of the lead voltages and how those outputs influence the body systems. In this specific project, St. Jude medical has hired us to successfully test these IPG leads in order to verify their safety during development and mimic how those leads will characteristically effect the body.

11 R16: NIRsightedSponsor: Dr. Teresa Wilcox & Dr. Melissa GrunlandFaculty Mentor: Mr. Alan BrewerTeam Members:

1. Jessica Hanson2. Kendel Lipe3. Thomas Dunn4. Garrett Harmon

Project SummaryFunctional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is

currently used by the Texas A&M University (TAMU) Infant Cognition Lab to assess human infant brain activation during object processing. During testing headgear is used to hold fNIRS optodes to the infant’s scalp. Current TAMU headgear is uncomfortable and distracting to the infant, and does not reduce motion artifact sources. Current fNIRS labs utilize expensive, customized, or 3rd party fNIRS headgear to improve data quality. Dr. Teresa Wilcox (TAMU) and Dr. Melissa Grunland (TAMU) have tasked NIRsighted with creating an inexpensive, easily reproducible fNIRS infant headgear that is comfortable and non-distracting for the infant, reduces motion artifact sources, and attenuates ambient light.

12 B11: PlacePro: Redesigning the Pediatric Endotracheal TubeSponsor: Texas Children’s HospitalFaculty Mentor: Mr. Alan BrewerTeam Members:

1. Mikayla Barry2. Alex Hayden3. Areli Barrios4. Laura Maxey5. Courtney Davis

Project SummaryIntubations are a common procedure in

many situations including emergency medicine, critical care, and surgery. There are exaggerated difficulties for pediatric intubations due to the patient’s reduced trachea size, particularly in verifying the placement of the endotracheal tube during and after intubation, identifying airway blockages, and suctioning mucus buildup

without significantly compromising airflow. Present methods require the repeated use of x-ray imaging, which increases risks due to the radiation and lacks a timely response, and scheduled suctioning. The proposed design adds to the standard endotracheal tube a collapsible secondary lumen, into which suction catheters and nasopharyngoscopes may be inserted for mucus removal or real-time visualization of the airway.

13 B12: Rapid-Heat Distributed Diagnostics for Malaria Testing in Remote AreasSponsor: ExothermixFaculty Mentor: Mr. Maurice BrewerTeam Members:

1. Rebecca Ullrich2. Shannon Voyles3. Sean O’Connell4. Kyle Campbell

Project SummaryIn developing countries, diagnostic devices are

not widely used. They are generally bulky and expensive, and they frequently require electricity and trained operators. Specifically concerning malaria, many people are prescribed medicine without diagnosis and eventually develop treatment immunity. Additionally, this results in a depletion of limited resources in at-risk areas. Thus, there is a need for an accurate, simple malaria diagnostic device. To meet this need, a non-invasive handheld device has been created utilizing Exothermix air-activated, rapid heat technology to amplify DNA. Culminating in a simple qualitative output, this device provides an inexpensive, portable, electricity-free solution for a quick diagnosis of malaria in remote areas.

14 R15: Sequential Compression StockingsSponsor: Texas Heart InstituteFaculty Mentor: Mr. Alan BrewerTeam Members:

1. Colton Asheim2. Charles Murrell3. Josh Burress4. Efren Silva

Project SummaryIn order to alleviate patients suffering from

chronic lower limb edema (commonly stemming from lymphedema, hypertension, and venous insufficiency), we have designed a compact, proximally directed sequential compression device that is controlled by user ambulation and can be worn during daily activities.The need for this device is justified because many current devices on the market are extremely bulky due to external power components and cannot be worn during normal daily activities. The intent of this device is to reduce chronic lower limb edema while promoting patient compliance by providing a more comfortable alternative to static compression devices. Our device is a multi-piece system that can be adapted to many different lower extremity shapes and sizes.15 A11: Texas Children’s Hospital - Pediatric GynecologySponsor: Dr. Jennifer Dietrich, Dr. Julie HakimFaculty Mentor: Mr. Maurice BrewerTeam Members:

1. Hannah Pearce2. Omar Wyman3. Sydney Roach4. Hannah Humbert

Project SummaryThere are a variety of gynecological conditions

which require postoperative use of vaginal stents and dilators. After corrective surgery, a vaginal stent is commonly used for several weeks and is followed by a series of dilators for several months. The current devices on the market available to women and young girls are one size fits all devices, and particularly in pediatric and adolescent cases, result in discomfort and scar tissue formation due to the devices’ inappropriate sizes. Our team’s aim is to create an imaging device that will produce three-dimensional images of the vaginal cavity of pediatric patients so that patient specific devices can be developed. This will reduce scar tissue formation and ensure proper gynecological development of patients.

16 A12: VariSoleSponsor: Mr.Stacie HyattFaculty Mentor: Mr. Alan BrewerTeam Members:

1. Lauren Twardowski2. Savanah Frohling3. Natalie Uhl4. Ryan Butcher

Project SummaryWhen wearing an orthotic boot on one leg

and a normal shoe on the other, the differences in the height of the soles results in a leg length discrepancy. To compensate for this, the pelvis tilts and rotates slightly, trying to even the leg lengths. This can lead to many mechanical imbalances including, but not limited to, uneven stresses on the knee and hip joints, and abnormal alignment of the spine. Even if these serious long-term conditions do not arise, wearing an orthotic boot almost always causes aches and pains in the ankles, knees, hips and back. The goal of the project is to design a safe, reusable, durable, easy approach to adjust the depth and/or shape of the orthopedic boot sole in order to minimize the complications associated with the height discrepancy.

COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING — CAPSTONE DESIGN 1 E5: 3D Modeling of Ships from PicturesSponsor: Department of Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Izayah Allen2. Yuxiong Lu3. Alejandro Benavides

Project SummaryThis team’s project is to assist Dr. Filipe Castro in sketching shipwrecks in order to be able to recreate the ships for learning purposes. Archaeologists typically map out the archaeological site that they are researching. This entails an iterative process of mapping of the area, where archaeologists constantly update sketches and maps of the site as they continue to research and

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observe the area. Archaeology plays a significant role in our understanding of history and culture. It is vital to the future that this team is able to better understand the past. According to Dr. Filipe Castro, ships are the most important artifacts created by societies throughout history, carrying both historical and cultural significance. Being able to study these shipwrecks more in depth will give us a better understanding.

2 D12: Bean Classification: Genotype from PhenotypeSponsor: Bruce Gooch, Cornell University: Gore LabFaculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Alan Cespedes2. Donovan Haacke3. Vincent Tran4. Bruce Zheng

Project SummaryThe standard to identify pinto beans’ genotypes

are to do expensive and lengthy DNA labs. In an ever-increasing population crop yield is an important subject in deciding what crop to plant in a suitable climate. Our project aims to find pinto bean genotypes based on features extracted from their phenotypes, physical traits. Using image analysis techniques this enables our clients, farmers and food security scientists, to quickly and cheaply determine identify a bean and the best strain to grow in their environment. To make our system accessible we have created an Android application to be deployed in the field and used by taking an image of a bean.

3 E6: Cease the Grease GameSponsor: Department of Computer Science and EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Taylor Harris2. Victor Martinez3. Chance Eckert

Project SummaryThe Galveston Bay Foundation coordinates The

Cease the Grease Campaign focused on educating the public on how to properly dispose of fats, oils, and greases in order to prevent polluting Galveston Bay. Our team worked on a web-based game for their campaign website. This game aims to modify the user’s behavior while also driving attention to the site to spread awareness. The game features a water droplet as the main character that stays alive by jumping over fats, oils, and grease obstacles as it makes it way through a water pipe. The hope is to engage users to participate in playing this game and make them aware of the negative environmental impacts that are a result of everyday actions such as dumping waste down a drain. For more information visit ceasethegrease.net.

4 E4: Field Book Infobars on Recon JetSponsor: Department of Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Santos Solorzano2. Stephen Brownlee3. Eric Chung4. Jason Gould5. Gerardo Vazquez

Project SummaryThe main component the project is focused on

is feedback in the form of an information display. This proposed information display, combined with barcode and speech recognition features, would enhance the current Field Book application developed for the One Handheld Per Breeder initiative. Overall, we believe the proposed AR system has the potential to make data collection and analysis more efficient, which will ultimately lead to larger agricultural gains. When using the Field Book Android application, InfoBars’ at the top of the screen display additional imported data, allowing the user to have much more information available in the field compared to paper field books. Our aim is to transmit the information provided by InfoBars’ to the Intel Recon Jet screen in order generate quality data.

5 D10: Ghost Ship VRSponsor: Department of Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Thomas Sell2. Cody Leuschner3. Josh Hooton4. Jacob Stafford

Project SummaryUnderwater archaeologist, Professor Filipe

Castro, has requested a shipwreck come to life in an educational virtual reality experience. First, you can interact with the remains of the shipwreck on the ocean floor. Next, the ship comes to life underwater as a “ghost ship” and the user can swim around and explore the ancient vessel. Finally, the user can experience the ship on the open water as if it were still sailing today.

6 D8: Greenhouse AR/Android appSponsor: Department of Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Shawn Jafari2. Chris Folleras3. Justin Gonzalez4. Saifil Ali5. David Sweet

Project SummaryOur project seeks to help farmers speed up

tracking and logging their plants with QR codes and an Android App. If everything goes well and the technology that is behind the Recon Jet can support the design, the app will be ported onto the screen displays and all the information of that plant to will be available to the user. The QR Android app will contain an online database so the farmers can log in and go. Their information of their plants will never be lost as long as they download this app and remember their credentials. The app will be distributed in the Google Play Store in the hopes that we will have an app that can support many farms.

7 D11: Ignis: Fire Fighting SimulatorSponsor: Department of Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Eric Gonzalez2. Forrest Hicks

3. David Bodey4. Cesar Arriaga

Project SummaryIgnis is an instructional firefighter simulator

to improve the effectiveness of training through engaging analysis of fire propagation. Ignis provides comprehensive training modules and scenarios for the professional training of fire crews. Developed using the Unreal 4 engine, our project is designed to be as realistic a training experience as possible through a digital platform. Real-time decision making, material based off of official departmental training documentation, and an emphasis on responding to scenarios promptly while gathering as much information as possible makes Ignis an invaluable software for any fire department’s training regimen.

8 D13: Internet of Things for TelemedicineSponsor: HPEFaculty Mentor: Dr. Rabi MahapatraTeam Members:

1. Zachary Turner2. Landon Prewitt3. Zachary Armbruster4. Darren Cola-Sinner5. Daniel Medina Velazquez

Project SummaryAs technology advances and moves into the

digital, wireless age, modern technology becomes increasingly separated from common, daily practices like doctor’s visits that are restrained by the need to interact with the doctor in person. It is because of this that there is a need for telemedicine to fill in this gap between the edge of technology and medical consultations. The objectives of our project are to develop a system incorporating HPE’s EL10 Intelligent Gateway and commercial medical sensors to connect patients with doctors and bring a typical health care experience out of the doctor’s office. The medical sensors will measure pulse rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation as well as other vital signs. The information will be communicated to the doctor through a web application.

9 D9: Microfilm Scanner - Optical Character Recognition teamSponsor: Mr. Lynn BurlbawFaculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Josiah Egner2. Juan Zambrano3. Macie Hampton

Project SummaryThis team was tasked with high resolution

pictures of historic government documents by the other microfilm teams and feeding them through an optical character recognition software, which helps the computer recognize typewritten and handwritten text from the pictures. All the information extracted from the picture is used to digitally reconstruct the document and place the form information into a searchable database. In the database, a user can search through all the names, projects, counties, and other information provided on the forms to learn what government employee started a project in a certain county.

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10 D7: Microfilm Scanner HardwareSponsor: Dr. Lynn BurlbawFaculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Oron Hazi2. Justin Katz3. Jonathan Kocmoud4. Jaiden Gerig

Project SummaryThis team is building the hardware component of a microfilm scanner and will be scanning 16mm into digital pictures to be passed off to another partner team. Microfilm scanners have been extremely expensive up to this point and we are working to make it easier for people to preserve records found only in microfilm. Along with this, the digital pictures will be stored in a database to be easily navigated. In turn, this will speed up historical research and make it easier for everyone to store their documents in a digital space, rather than in boxes stacked up in a closet somewhere. This team, specifically, will be building the actual scanner, and the partner teams will be working on optical character recognition and the database we will use to store these documents.

11 D6: Scanner - ConfocalSponsor: Department of Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Nicholas Maxwell2. Austin Fisher3. Tommy Vongphakdy4. Phuc Nguyen

Project SummaryOne of the three Microfilm Scanner groups, the Confocal group, deals with the cleaning of images coming from the Hardware team, readying them for the OCR team. This involves removing noise, making the background a uniform color, and making sure the text is readable for the OCR program. The overall Microfilm Scanner project is concerned with automating the digitization process of old microfilm in order to add it to a searchable database - so that research of old archives could be drastically sped up. Confocal group is the first part of the process which would not require specialized hardware for the end user - ideally, just a download of software which would work with their Hardware and

OCR Software.

ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING — CAPSTONE DESIGN1 E9: Aquatic Waste ExtractorSponsor: Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Chloe Dixon2. Philip Bowie3. Charles Wallace4. Craig Wolf

Project SummaryIn 2015, National Geographic reported that there

were approximately 5.25 trillion pieces of trash in Earth’s oceans. They went on to say that of that trash, 269,000 tons are floating on the surface. Our project is a semi-autonomous remote-controlled watercraft. It is a scaled-down proof of concept prototype of a larger model. The boat will be fitted with a camera that will stream live video data over Wi-Fi from a Raspberry Pi to a remote user on shore. The user will control the camera with a graphical user interface. This GUI will also control the servomotors that lift the trash loader and deposits trash into a waste receptacle on the boat.

2 E11: Controls Concept VehicleSponsor: Dell Inc.Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Jarim Cardenas2. Jong Hyun Park3. Sambong Jang4. Yuki Oji

Project SummaryThe Controls Concept Vehicle is an industry

project sponsored by Dell Inc. and Texas A&M University Electrical Engineering Department. It consists of a prototype sensor board for testing and characterizing cooling controls systems for server applications. Given the effort that is required to test cooling control systems for servers, Dell requested a prototype board to ease the testing and characterization of these control systems. The purpose of our project is to create a sensor board to emulate a server environment, and to implement core subsystems on a simulated Baseboard Management Controller.

3 E10: E-PharmSponsor: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Gissel Gardea2. Helen Kruse3. Mubina Toa4. Fletcher Watts

Project SummaryE-Pharm utilizes three steps in the medication

organization process: automation, action, and communication. The use of sensors monitors the input and output of medication and aid in detecting when the medication runs out or when an incorrect dosage is dispensed. When values from the weight sensor violate the dosage amount of medications, the system will restart the dispensing process after placing the incorrect dosage in the empty slot. The Android application will communicate with the physical unit through a wireless network. In addition, the system will continuously gather data from the user’s medication, and will be stored with the adaptation of the database.

4 E7: Ericsson Cell FinderSponsor: Mr. Michael AndersonFaculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Michael Snowden2. Wenkui Ren3. Abdel Chouai4. Rodney Siders

Project SummaryThe Ericsson Cell Finder System is a compact,

portable, and affordable device that allows users to locate a signal from a cell tower that would otherwise not be detectable with a conventional cell phone antenna. The system utilizes a high-gain Yagi antenna to conduct a 360-degree sweep of the surrounding area in the horizontal cut plane. An Android application initiates the signal scan and collects data on the strength and quality of incoming signals at discrete points. The application processes the information and determines the direction of the best signal. The application then directs an on-board microcontroller to rotate the antenna in the direction of the signal. The Ericsson Cell Finder System is intended for commercial applications where the user(s) desire to locate cell tower signal.

5 E8: Irrigation StationSponsor: Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Nathan Viator2. Joseph Mock3. Bailey Barksdale4. Timothy Duus5. Margaret Blackwell

Project SummaryOne of the most tedious and labor-intensive

responsibilities of homeowners is lawn maintenance. In a world oriented around immediate gratification, the ability to leave a yard or garden unattended while still reaping the benefits of an eye-catching lawn is extremely attractive. The Irrigation Station is an efficient and environmentally friendly solution for people who lack knowledge of gardening, are unable to give proper time to their garden, or those who want to see efficient resource management in their yards. The system is able to provide regulated watering to a homeowner’s garden based on factors such as weather conditions, soil moisture and user input. Utilizing a web application, the user can adjust watering levels and override the current control state.

6 E16: Luggage BuddySponsor: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Samuel Shore2. Michael Whitmore3. Elyssa Guo4. Peter Zhang

Project SummaryThe goal of this project is to create an

autonomous piece of luggage that will follow a user as they walk. It will ease the burden of carrying bags around, and could be especially useful to a user who is disabled, already carrying bags or other items, or to users who simply do not wish to carry their bag. The Luggage Buddy may be useful when traveling or during daily commutes. The user will have a wearable device that contains beacons and sensors that communicate with the bag, allowing it to track the user’s location. The luggage system is also equipped with an alarm system to alert the user if a considerable distance has separated the bag.

7 E12: Mesh Network Power AnalyzerSponsor: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

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Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Alexander Garcia2. Derek Janak3. Ryker Elkins4. Austin Cline

Project SummaryThe Mesh Network Power Analyzer is a wireless

network of sensor nodes in home circuitry for power analytics, fault detection, and user control. The system is out of sight, with sensor nodes that are designed to fit behind a power outlet wall socket. The sensor nodes implement a low-power TI MSP430 MCU mounted on a compact PCB. Software is run on user’s PC that tracks power usage over the past month, and displays the data in a GUI. The wireless communication between the sensor nodes and the user’s PC is facilitated with XBee Wireless Modules. Overall, the range of the system will be sufficient to cover a user’s home or small business.

8 E15: PEEL - Portable Electronics LabSponsor: Jeff ByingtonFaculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Rene Hernandez2. Samantha Garcia3. Siddhartha Regmi4. Shayanne Delin5. Ramon Tamez

Project SummaryAll electronics students, professions and

hobbyists need an electronics lab. Someone with the need can use the lab at school or at work. But the school’s lab is full, or worse yet, closed. A home lab can’t always be where most convenient, or if someone is traveling but still has exciting work to do. These are problems that every maker knows. There is a solution to this problem; The Portable Electronics Lab (PEEL), a complete, standalone, battery-operated laboratory. This team has integrated a power supply, function generator, data acquisition system into a compact and intuitive package.

9 E14: Ranch Hand: Livestock Monitoring in an Open FieldSponsor: Texas InstrumentsFaculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Randy Ardywibowo2. Charles Anderson3. Connor Furqueron

Project SummaryThe agriculture industry currently lacks cost

effective means to monitor the physiological condition of their livestock across great distances and large grazing areas. This results in low yields and increased effort on the rancher. Current methods of livestock tracking utilize tags placed on cattle, estimating their location through GPS trilateration. This method can be costly and is limited to tracking tagged animals within a specified perimeter. We propose to solve this problem with The Ranch Hand. The Ranch Hand tracks the location of cattle by using a sensor tagging system to detect the location of cattle in the field. The location data is then transmitted through a mesh network to a base station, allowing the system to operate without adding costly base stations in the field.

10 E17: RF Battle SystemSponsor: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Andres Diaz2. Haosi Liu3. Eugene Karngba4. Brandon Haskovec5. Benson Wells

Project SummaryThe RF Battle system is a radio frequency rifle

designed to be similar in size and weight to the military’s M16 rifle. The purpose of this radio frequency rifle is to be used during military training to replace the current laser tag and rubber bullet methods of training. This allows tactical training to be done more efficiently without the constant cost of rubber bullets or blanks and reduce the limitations of solid objects blocking the laser. The RF Battle system will be able to transmit/receive signals within 165 ft (50m) and will be able to operate for at least 4 hours (roughly the duration of a training exercise). The RF Battle system also collects GPS data throughout the training exercise to allow for accurate after actions reports.

11 E18: Smart InhalerSponsor: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Simmi Mani2. Michael Aquino3. Jason Cadahia4. Trevor Malota

Project SummaryA smart inhaler is a multi-use inhaler (one canister

of medicine) that can be easily located via a chip embedded into the inhaler and an accompanying phone app that will allow for the tracking of the smart inhaler. This inhaler will be battery powered with a small battery that can be recharged with an inhaler docking station. Also, the station can clean and unclog the inhaler. The inhaler has a resettable digital œpuff counter that tracks how many uses of the medicine canister are left and the app will send a reminder to the user when it needs to be refilled. The app will also have an “Incase of Emergency” button that will notify emergency responders that the user is suffering from an asthma attack. Also, the app will track the environment condition of each use to generate reports.

12 E19: Smart WheelchairSponsor: Mr. Mark SterleFaculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Zachary Turner2. John Koinis

Project SummaryIn 2014 and 2015, ECEN senior design teams

designed and improved systems on a custom-designed automated wheelchair. The device was imagined and sponsored by the user and sponsor, Mark Sterle, a quadriplegic person with degrees in computer science from Texas A&M. His idea is simple: actuate the wheelchair’s functions by sipping and puffing through a straw. In doing so, he can maneuver across varied terrain, recline, and park his wheelchair. Unfortunately, some systems were not

functioning properly at the end of the second year of senior design work. This year, those problems were diagnosed and repaired. Additionally, home automation capabilities will be added to the system, increasing the user’s quality of life while maintaining the simple “sip ‘n’ puff” straw interface. The continuation of the wheelchair project this year also aims to give this luxury to the user. The next goal was to create an Environmental Control Unit (ECU) to automate the home of our sponsor, Mark Sterle. The ECU will allow Mark to operate light switches and certain home devices wirelessly with the use of his “sip ‘n’ puff” straw. We hope this project will allow Mark to have a better way of life and hope that others can see that anything is possible.

13 E13: Wireless Power Transfer for Electric Vehicle ChargingSponsor: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stavros KalafatisTeam Members:

1. Omar Ashour2. Jason Kelley3. Justin Vogl

Project SummaryA 2.4 kW @ 8 A wireless power transfer system

operating at 20 kHz. Power is drawn from a 240 V wall outlet then rectified and boosted to 500 V, 8 A DC, which is then converted by an inverter to 20 kHz, 300 V, 8 A RMS AC. A power-factor correction algorithm implemented on an arduino controls the rectifier, and the inverter is controlled by an FPGA. The system is based on a 10cm air gap transformer we designed ourselves. Monitoring is provided by a raspberry pi that provides information such as charging rate, temperature of the system and current draw. The information is accessible

through a web interface or an android application.

ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY & INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION – CAPSTONE DESIGN1 D29: Autonomous Garden SystemSponsor: Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial DistributionFaculty Mentor: Dr. Ana Goulart Team Members:

1. Benedict Dike2. John Stockton3. Anothony Mendiola4. Samuel Herrera5. Philip Kelly6. Hector Rafael

Project SummaryThis project is an autonomous garden monitoring

system which uses the basic principles of IoT: wireless low power sensors, an edge device in charge of network communications, and a dynamic Cloud database with an attached GUI. The system will monitor the ambient temperature, relative humidity, UV light, and soil moisture of a garden. This information will be aggregated and relayed to the Cloud for analysis. The system will also control an irrigation valve when the analysis calls for watering, or when a client requests it manually through the GUI. The water requirements can be set based on what is being grown in the garden.

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2 C29: Dell Microjet CoolerSponsor: Dell, Mr. Rob CurtisFaculty Mentor: Dr. Jorge Alvarado Team Members:

1. Andres Pascal2. Abel Solis3. David Heggland4. Won Park5. Josh Ellenburg6. William Kellogg

Project SummaryThere is a need in today’s technological field for

enhanced and efficient cooling methods within electronic systems. To date, there have been multiple studies that illustrate the efficiency of using a 3D micro jet cooling system in order to increase the rate of heat transfer on heat sink fin geometries. Current cooling systems utilizing air as the main heat transfer fluid are able to safely cool CPU up to certain thermal limit. By integrating micro jets into the system studies show that large amounts of heat may be dissipated more efficiently, reducing unfavorable temperature ranges. The project sponsor, Dell, is interested in implementing past research of micro jet cooling systems into their server envelopes in order to increase performance.

3 R8: Integration of Induction Heating in Diode Laser Overlay ProcessSponsor: Mr. Matthew CarlFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Johnson Team Members:

1. Rafael Urraca2. Xavier Benitez3. Samantha Montoya4. Tyler Heger5. Will Lewis6. Manuel Gutierrez7. Rafael Urraca

Project SummaryA team of six is designing and manufacturing

an induction heating system. This system will be integrated into the laser overlay process conducted by Knust-Godwin. This process overlays tungsten carbide powder onto a cylindrical work piece with the use of a diode laser. The overlay process is insufficiently preheated which results in higher porosity and cracking in the weld. The induction coils will preheat an area of the work piece that is about to be overlaid by the laser. The induction system will improve the overlay process’s weld quality and increase the laser’s scanning speed once integrated. The goal is to increase the laser’s scanning speed by a factor of two. The project is currently in the manufacturing phase and will begin testing within the next 6-8 weeks.

4 R3: Lab-Scale Directional DrillSponsor: Dr. Xingyong SongFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Johnson Team Members:

1. Ryan Smith2. Christopher Hurtado3. Jonathan Maxwell4. Eric Sayers5. Pedro Arguindegui6. Salvador Echeveste

Project SummaryA fully functional lab-scale directional drilling

machine designed to loosely mimic the operation

its oilfield counterparts. It consists of a circulating fluid system to simulate drilling mud, and is driven via a top-drive motor/pulley system similar to those on real drilling rigs. The rig was designed to operate using a PDC style bit, and is able to drill a 90-degree turn within a cement-sample. In the future, more teams of students will work to refine and polish this design, as it is the first of many iterations. All design and most of the fabrication was done entirely by the team. The drill bit was donated by JJ Galloway of JJ’s rentals in Spring, TX.

5 C30: Manufacturing Technology EvaluationSponsor: Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial DistributionFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Johnson Team Members:

1. Maximiliano Ortiz2. Katie Beckwith3. Michael Carrillo4. Daniel Edwards5. DongGi Ha6. Bradford Houston7. Richard Juarez

Project SummaryAdditive manufacturing (AM) is a relatively new

technology with the potential of revolutionizing the part production industry. In order to better implement AM in industrial settings, precise evaluation of the advantages over traditional manufacturing (CNC and/or manual machining) methods is required. However, there is limited information available to the public regarding the benefits of metal 3D printing versus traditional manufacturing techniques. The data and conclusions of this project will provide valuable information for further implementing AM in broader fields. For comparative analysis of parts manufactured via AM and traditional techniques, designs of varying and increasing complexities have been selected.

6 R7: Modification of the Mazak PT20 Orbital LatheSponsor: Mr. Jon-Luke LambrightFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Johnson Team Members:

1. Safire Rodriguez2. Maxwell Venglar3. Zachary Baker4. Victor Mendiola5. Randall Chaffee

Project SummaryThe Mazak PT20 has incredible machining

capabilities, but its usefulness is limited by the required effort to load and install work pieces into the machine. The PT20 has a spindle on a spinning head that can find the center of the part automatically unlike a traditional lathe. Many products that are machined at the Tenaris McCarty facility are much shorter than five feet in length, which prevents the use of the PT20. With this being the case, McCarty personnel are driven to use other, on-site, non-orbital CNC lathes to fulfill product orders. The main purpose of our project is to provide viable technical options to modify the handling system of the Mazak PT20 orbital lathe to increase its usefulness.

7 R5: NOV Inventory ControlSponsor: Mr. Norman CooperFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Johnson Team Members:

1. Ryan Henrichsen2. Calvin Luu3. Joseph Martin4. Melissa Cazares5. Zachary Pottorf6. Donald Murdaugh

Project SummaryNational Oilwell Varco (NOV) is an American

multinational corporation based in Houston, Texas. The project focuses on once of NOV’s facilities in Navasota, Texas. NOV is a leading worldwide provider of equipment and components used in oil and gas drilling and production operations, oilfield services, and supply chain integration services to the upstream oil and gas industry. The problem that NOV faces is that with the decline in the oil and gas industry, production has decreased, which means optimization is necessary. The inventory control project focuses on different processes such as the storage of range 2/3 drill pipe, tool joint storage, and spaghetti diagrams of the 100 acre facility to help optimize NOV Grant Prideco in the flow and storage of pipe and tool joints.

8 R1: NOV Run RatesSponsor: NOV Grant PridecoFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Johnson Team Members:

1. Vicente Hernandez2. James Stanford3. Harman Chawla4. Kimbre Watkins5. Chancellor Keith6. Justin Crumrine

Project SummaryNOV Grant Prideco is the world’s largest supplier

of premium drill pipe and drill stem accessories. The NOV branch in Navasota, Texas tasked our team to perform and study selected manufacturing processes in order to create process maps and time studies. NOV Grant Prideco will use the results of this team’s project to update their data system Oracle, which is used to give customers time estimates on their desired product. The team achieved their goal by multiple visits to the facility and speaking face to face with various levels of employees, ranging from department head to warehouse workers, on a weekly basis.

9 D30: Precision Tracking’s UAV Tracking StationSponsor: UAV, Mr.MartinFaculty Mentor: Dr. Ana GoulartTeam Members:

1. Daniel Medcraft2. Justin West3. John Gutkowski

Project SummaryPrecision Tracking is a three member Capstone

team based out of Texas A&M, who has been tasked by Martin UAV to create an autonomous tracking station for their VBAT Unmanned Aerial System. Precision Tracking’s VBAT Tracking Station will orientate an existing antenna in the direction of the VBAT maintaining a strong and reliable connection

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throughout its flight. The team was responsible for designing, developing, and delivering various hardware and software components. The hardware components included a printed circuit board with intelligence capabilities, various modules , and a stepper motor and it’s rotary mechanics. The software components consisted of STANAG UDP Communications, a Tracking Algorithm, I^2C and UART Communications, as well as Stepper Motor Control.

10 C28: Rapid Shutdown PV SystemSponsor: Texas Green EnergyFaculty Mentor: Dr. Joseph MorganTeam Members:

1. Adam Lambert2. Erin Flores3. Robert Davis4. Spencer Stricklin5. Ashton Harry6. Steveng Chamu

Project SummaryThis project is a Rapid shutdown device

for a Photovoltaic System. This is achieved by communicating over the existing power line from the solar panel array to the AC power grid. A transceiver is used to inject a UART signal onto the noisy DC line, which can then be picked up and decoded on the other end of the line. The signal being sent across the line is used to control the status of the DC voltage on the line itself. When there is no AC grid voltage present, the system turns off the DC line voltage. This is so older versions of existing solar panel arrays can be retrofitted to comply with the current National Electric Code standards, which require that in the event of an emergency all DC power on the line be no more than 10 feet from the solar array.

11 R6: Seismic rated server rack designSponsor: Rack SolutionsFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Johnson Team Members:

1. Jorge Aguilar2. Alex Mrak3. Wesley Kuehn4. Jacob Vierus5. Joel Spreier6. Juan Gonzalez7. Lexi Hodges

Project SummaryRack Solutions does not currently manufacture a

server rack that meets the NEBS GR-63-CORE Zone 4 Earthquake Testing requirements for seismic zoning. Servers located in areas that are subject to earthquakes need to be stored in seismic racks. To gain market share, Rack Solutions needs a cost effective solution that will pass the NEBS GR-63-CORE Zone 4 Earthquake Testing requirements. As a solution to this problem, a cost effective, seismic server rack was developed. The rack was designed and FEA simulated using SolidWorks. The results will be reviewed by Rack solutions. Once approved, Rack Solutions will manufacture the prototype. The design will be based on Rack Solution’s current 151DC server rack, with structural modifications made to meet Zone 4 requirements.

12 R4: Tenaris Quick Loading MechanismSponsor: Oswald, Mr. Hoyos

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Johnson Team Members:

1. Victor Lobaton2. Johnny Barnes3. Michael Hermes4. Michael Mccall5. Ben Stultz6. Bernabe Miranda7. Cole Buckner

Project SummaryTeam 9 initially came up with various possible

design solutions to this problem and presented these possibilities to Mr. Hoyos at Tenaris. One idea offered was to modify the jib crane and create an extendable attachment to the crane that could clamp the pipe from the inside and extend into the lathe. This process would be more structurally sound than the existing jib crane and would also reduce load time. Another concept proposed includes moving a stand into the lathe and then attaching a pipe to the stand. This pipe would extend from the front chuck to the back chuck. The purpose of the pipe is to support the weight of the pipe as it the pipe is being inserted into the lathe. The final concept proposed to Mr. Hoyos is detailed in the proposed design section.

13 R2: Tenaris Soft JawsSponsor: Mr. Amanda SmithFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Johnson Team Members:

1. Brian Cantwell2. Gregory Stryker3. Josh Dowdican4. Eduardo Martinez5. David Radney6. Juan Silva7. William Zdunkawicz

Project SummarySome large accessories are high value

components that cannot have jaw marks on the outside of the component. To eliminate this problem, brass shims are placed between the jabs and the component. This takes additional time and adds to the centering process. The project is to develop a set of non-marking jaws and a new quick set up procedure for centering using the manual chuck. Deliverables: Multiple innovative concepts for the jaws and centering methods’. A detailed design package and manufactured components’. A quantitative study showing the benefits of the new centering procedure.This team has developed several innovative concepts that will ensure Tenaris never has to reject a part due to damage from the pipe threading process. These will reduce the operating costs and increase the production.

14 R9: The OxiScopeSponsor: Mr. Rainer FinkFaculty Mentor: Dr. Byul Hur Team Members:

1. Adam McGaffin2. Nathaniel Wiatrek3. Gustavo Ordonez4. Matt Kellogg5. David Delemater

Project SummaryTexas Prenatal Systems, sponsored by Advanced

Maternity Innovations, will be researching and

developing a prototype that is capable of quickly and non-invasively measuring the oxygen saturation and pulse rate of an unborn infant through the use of reflectance-based pulse oximetry. Current technologies to determine the oxygen saturation and pulse rate of an infant are unreliable, and cause false readings for the need of an emergency C section. Our prototype, called the OxiScope, will make the birthing process safer, and the determination for a an emergency C section more reliable.

15 D28: The WITS Platform: Wireless Internet of Things for SensorTag PlatformSponsor: Dr. Joseph A. MorganFaculty Mentor: Dr. Byul HurTeam Members:

1. Matthew Greco2. Matthew Johnson3. Erin Prucha4. Ryan Sharpe5. Xuan Gao6. Jonathan Presley

Project SummaryDue to widespread interest in the â€œInternet

of Things’ (IoT), NASA is investigating the potential uses of internet controlled systems. In response to NASA’s interest, a capstone team is proposing an IoT system called the Wireless Internet of Things for SensorTag Platform (WITS Platform) for use in lunar exploration. The team is designing and creating this integrated IoT system capable of sending and receiving data via the internet for controlling the Dynamic Systems Technology Robot (DSTR). Sensors will be used on the robot for data collection. The data will be provided to a user interface that is also capable of sending commands to the DSTR for movement control in near real-time. The sensor data passed through the system will be stored online and be accessible through the user interface.

INDUSTRIAL AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING — CAPSTONE DESIGN 1 B17: Academic Success Center ProjectSponsor: Academic Success Center, Dr. Joel McGeeFaculty Mentor: Mr. Ciriaco Valdez-FloresTeam Members:

1. Steven Sanders2. Harrison Brewer3. Jacob Pratt4. Spencer Foger

Project SummaryThis project focuses on developing a tool for

collecting and automating data consolidation for the Texas A&M Academic Success Center (ASC). A part of this project includes improving how attendance is taken at supplemental instruction sessions and tutoring sessions. Currently the entire process is done manually which is cumbersome and subject to human error--especially when some sessions have as many as 300 students attending. This project aims to remove manual data input and streamline how data is processed through the ASC.

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2 C25: Bus Optimization Schedule for A&M Transportation ServicesSponsor: Texas A&M University Transportation Services, Mr. Robert Brydia Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sergiy ButenkoTeam Members:

1. Paul Hedman2. Victoria Scott3. Christina Tudela4. Mauricio Sarmiento

Project SummaryThe Texas A&M Transportation Services (TS)

oversees the 7th largest transportation system in the state of Texas with an annual ridership of over 7.4 million spanning over 1.8 million miles. With enrollment for the Fall 2017 semester projected at over 60,000 (10,000 of which are incoming Freshmen), Transportation Services needs a plan to optimize the current bus schedule in order to ensure it can meet demand for the new school year while operating within budgetary constraints. Advanced data analytics and operations research methodologies will be used to create an algorithm for optimizing off-campus to on-campus resources allocation. Time utilization, cost efficiency, and ridership satisfaction are pertinent performance metrics being considered in the team’s analysis.

3 B18: Centex Materials New Facility LocationSponsor: Centex Materials, Mr. Jack SeayFaculty Mentor: Dr. Erick Moreno-CentenoTeam Members:

1. Bryan Bonnette2. Diogo Da Cruz3. Jose Maria De La Puente4. Laken Grimes

Project SummaryCentex Materials would like to explore

expanding the current concrete batch plant network north into the Georgetown area to better serve their existing customers. Centex materials currently operates eight ready-mixed concrete plants out of six locations in the greater Austin area. The location of a new plant should be based on growth around and into the plant site as well as taking land costs, and concrete delivery costs into consideration. Consideration for growth in all market segments (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) will need to be examined through market data, customer feedback, and in-house sales experience.

4 R12: Cheap Caribbean Marketing Analysis AutomationSponsor: Cheap Caribbean, Mr. Steve DumaineFaculty Mentor: TBD Team Members:

1. Jameson Cochran2. Marcus Chelf3. Korey Coburn4. Cameron Haltom

Project SummaryThe purpose of this project is to design an

efficient and effective process for collecting competitive promotions and merchandising information that acquires a comprehensive set of data, synthesizes the data, and presents key signals to the merchandising team in order to craft competitively priced responses. The process will leverage automation in order to collect and store

data at scale.

5 C24: Coca Cola - 5S ProjectSponsor: Coca-Cola, Mr. Fabian VazquezFaculty Mentor: Dr. Mike GraulTeam Members:

1. Faysal Altaher2. Pedro Rosales3. Nicole Sobolik4. Jane Yeong

Project SummaryThis project is an opportunity to implement and

sustain a standardized 5S program. 5S is a visual management system designed to ensure all waste is visually noticeable and identified. It employs a five-step process of Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize, Sustain, and ensuring Safety at the workplace. 5S is the foundation for any operational excellence improvement. Without it, improvement efforts will not be sustained. In this project, students will observe specific production lines at Coca-Cola bottling facilities. The goal for both locations is to improve efficiency by eliminating the waste of motion when employees are looking for tools, materials, or information. Other benefits include improved safety and morale due to enhancements in the work environment.

6 A16: Coca Cola RefreshmentsSponsor: Coca-Cola, Ms. Bridgett ForgeFaculty Mentor: Dr. Natarajan Gautam Team Members:

1. Andres Tajonar2. Jorge Cabrera3. Brittany Haaland4. Regan Jenkins

Project SummaryThe Coca Cola refreshments facility in Mesquite,

Texas, is one of the biggest equipment distributors in the company. This facility sends equipment to all customers and retrieves the used equipment when a customer wants to terminate services. Once the used or broken material arrives to the facility, it goes through an inspection stage to determine needed repairs. If a technician is able to fix the machine, it will be repaired then packed and await shipment. Currently 60 percent of equipment that cannot be fixed in-house is sent to a re-manufacturing facility. This project’s goal is to reduce the amount of repairs sent to re-manufacturing and implement an in-house re-manufacturing operation. There is an additional opportunity to optimize the facility layout and processes in order to reduce lead-time.

7 B15: Optimal Production Strategy for Coca-Cola Sponsor: Coca Cola, Mr. John GarzaFaculty Mentor: Dr. Alaa ElwanyTeam Members:

1. Elizabeth Pruet2. Alejandra de la Torre3. Marco Heras4. Christopher Castaneda

Project SummaryThe objective of this project is to develop

optimal SKU-level production run strategies for CocaCola production locations in the Southwest. End-to-end considerations include inventory working capital, production efficiencies, customer

service, sourcing, product segmentation, package cycling, production run rates and capacities, change-over costs/time, holding costs, warehouse space, and product shelf life. This work includes collaborating with Supply Planning and Manufacturing on business goals, current strategies, associated costs and constraints, and systems. The end goal is an overall strategy and model that recommends a run strategy that appropriately supplies demand at lowest possible cost and provides excellent customer service.

8 A20: Connecting the Journey by the SeasideSponsor: Cheap Caribbean, Mr. Blake ClarkFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michelle AlvaradoTeam Members:

1. Angel Gonzalez2. Taylor Anderson3. Maritza Pancorbo4. Jimmy O’Donnell

Project SummaryCheapCaribbean.com, operates in three

locations around the United States and is an online-based travel agency with a concentration on Caribbean beach getaways. Due the complexity of booking options and various travel touchpoints, the customer experience and the relationship between the customer and CheapCaribbean.com vary. This project is focused on developing a process map which details how CheapCaribbean.com interacts with customers throughout the customer life cycle. Key deliverables include high-level and detailed process maps, process statistics, identity of primary path experiences, and a set of recommendations on how to optimize the current customer journey to improve the overall customer experience with CheapCaribbean.com. 9 B16: Consumers Prediction Model for Cheapcarribean.com EcommerceSponsor: CheapCarribean.com, Mr. Steve DumaineFaculty Mentor: Dr. Alan DabneyTeam Members:

1. Bao Le2. Garrett Wilson3. Jack Sagehorn4. Norberto Botello

Project SummaryThis project’s goal is to identify indicators that

predict a customers’ propensity to book a vacation using a variety of statistical learning methods. This will enable Cheap Caribbean to tailor their approach to each customers so that the experience can be optimized for the phase of the shopping and they are in. The team will determine which tracked signals are significant and build a prediction model. Examples of tracked signals include site shopping behavior (for instance, number of sites visits, time between site visits, site searches, number of properties researched, number of hits, number of successful transaction, etc.).

20 C22: Delivery Confidence Analsyis for F-35 Final AssemblySponsor: Lockheed Martin, Mr. Scott SwannFaculty Mentor: Dr. Sergiy ButenkoTeam Members:

1. Taylor Gondeck2. Sarah Smith3. Gregory Naylor4. Joseph Slanker

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Project SummaryWorking with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Final

Assembly Team, the goal for this project is to build a Delivery Confidence Analysis model by integrating a series of independent variables into a working regression model to determine interdependence with build span and number of annual deliveries. The Delivery Confidence Analysis will be conducted with the Palisade Decision Tool Suite, mainly focusing on the @Risk and NeuralTools add-ins for Microsoft Excel. The analysis takes into consideration supplier, quality and performance data to align actual hours and span to forecast the effect of multiple variables on estimated aircraft span and the number of deliveries.

10 C19: DialvanSponsor: Dialvan, Mr. Jaime DiazFaculty Mentor: Dr. Ciriaco ValdezTeam Members:

1. Alejandro Martinez2. Adriana Torres3. Kristabel Orellana4. Daniel Ampuero

Project SummaryDialvan Inc. is a trucking company that was

started by Jaime Diaz and Adrian Diaz. Jaime Diaz has over 25 years of trucking experience running two companies: P.T.L and T.R.U.E. This project involves creating a preventative maintenance and inventory system for a fleet of 60 trucks and 100 trailers. This system will combine preventative maintenance, trailer inventory/transfer, and material handling. Dialvan currently works with over 10 industries from both Mexico and the U.S. For this project the task is to automate the truck maintenance records so the information can be shared between all company departments, establish equal situational awareness, and reduce operational costs.

11 R13: EDPR Meadow Lake Wind FarmSponsor: EDP Renewables, Mr. Scott MathieuFaculty Mentor: Dr. Mike GraulTeam Members:

1. Matthew Duke2. Carlos Fortin3. Jonathan Barragan4. Graham Kersh

Project SummaryEDPR maintains 135 wind turbines at its

Meadow Lake location and keeps parts on hand to fix turbines when they fail or have scheduled maintenance. The purpose of the Kaizen event is to create a lean culture at Meadow Lake and to continuously improve their operations. This project focuses on the warehouse and applying the 5S system to increase efficiency in its day-to-day operation. More specifically the goal is to improve the tool room, inventory storage and management, and decrease man hours spent preparing to conduct maintenance.

12 C26: FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) US LLCIndustry Sponsor: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Mr. Mason LoosFaculty Mentor: Dr. Shiren WangTeam Members:

1. Romelia Garza2. Jenna Lehto3. Andres Roesch

4. Steven Weiss

Project SummaryFiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the seventh-

largest automaker in the world, designs, engineers, manufactures and sells passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, components and production systems worldwide. FCA has reached out to the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department to help optimize their spare parts inventory control system. Our team is working with FCA’s engineers to develop a catalog of their current inventory. The primary goal is to minimize the breakdown time of their plant’s assembly lines by at least 25%, which would save the company more than $10 million per year. The system will help FCA’s efficiency by reducing the time it takes to locate parts and allows them to detect and update changes in their parts inventory levels in real-time.

13 R14: Improving Lead Time for Seal Product Line and Minimizing Mill-Turn Downtime Sponsor: General Electric, Ms. Lauren FrithFaculty Mentor: Dr. Mike GraulTeam Members:

1. Adrian Diaz2. Erin Peterson3. Catalina Ramos4. Michael Harrison

Project SummaryGeneral Electric Oil & Gas seeks improvements

in two areas: decrease lead time for their seal product line and decrease mill-turn downtime in the machine shop to increase productivity. For the mill, the task is to reduce the lead time (LT) from approximately 26 weeks to less than 10 weeks. The team will work with various functions across the business to learn the process, collect data and conduct time studies, then work with plant leadership to implement improvements. For the mill-turn station, the task is to determine the best method for collecting data, analyzing the data, and decreasing machine downtime. Additionally, the team will work with stakeholders to identify the best data to collect for analyzing future downtime.

14 B19: Optimization of Shaped Charge ManufacturingSponsor: Halliburton, Mr. Ethan GoinsFaculty Mentor: Dr. Guy CurryTeam Members:

1. Reid Kent2. Joshua Hudson3. Michael Pitts4. Hector Rodriguez-Gonzalez

Project SummaryHalliburton’s Wireline and Perforating Group’s

goal is to achieve an 80 percent reduction in marking cost for shape charges by eliminating/reducing waste. The project includes gathering data to understand production levels, developing a future state for the laser marking process, and determining final solutions to include an implementation plan, value stream map, work method, job safety analysis, PPE requirements, and any new TPM or PM for new equipment.

15 A19: Halliburton Casing Manufacturing Warehouse OptimizationSponsor: Halliburton, Ms. Haley FournierFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michelle Alvarado

Team Members: 1. Nicole Moss2. Hermilo Gonzalez3. Madison Holt4. Natalia Jarzabek

Project SummaryThe Halliburton Casing Equipment product

line offers tailored casing solutions to meet customer value needs including cost and lead time. Halliburton’s manufacturing facility in Houston, Texas, assembles and tests float equipment and cement tools. The current warehouse process adds an average of 1.5 to two days of lead time to the overall internal lead time of four days for equipment. The focus of this project is to develop a warehouse stocking strategy for parts to reduce the average pick-time. The primary goal is to optimize the casing manufacturing warehouse stocking strategies by focusing on objectives that include optimizing layout space, reducing pick-time, and analyzing safety stock levels for parts.

16 A17: Halliburton DBS Breakout ProcessSponsor: Halliburton, Mr. Peter MuirheadFaculty Mentor: Dr. Satish BukkapatnamTeam Members:

1. Trang Le2. Cristell Loza3. Garrett Slay4. Garth Payton

Project SummaryHalliburton makes drill bits for the oil industry.

This project focuses on automating the breakout process for extracting the newly cast drill bits from the forming medium. The team’s work includes gathering data to understand the current state of the breakout process, and documenting the final solution that includes but is not limited to an implementation plan or sourcing. Work could include value stream maps, work method, job safety analysis, and required personal protective equipment (PPE). The future state for the breakout process should be capable of meeting takt time with a 50 percent reduction in the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) score.

17 R11: Improving Product Manufacturing Changeover TimesSponsor: Hospira, Mr. Iliya KuleshovFaculty Mentor: TBDTeam Members:

1. Cody Harlow2. Marc Maalouf3. Robert Saxon4. Matt Locascio

Project SummaryHospira, an ICU Medical company, is a leading

provider of infusion technologies. The company’s focused infusion systems portfolio features I.V. solutions, proven, innovative smart pumps, and pain management and safety software technology designed to help meet clinical, safety and workflow goals. Their Austin manufacturing site is a high-volume I.V. solution manufacturing facility. Due to a recent shift in structure on the manufacturing floor, product manufacturing changeover times have increased. The goal is to find what is causing the increase. Work includes time and motion studies, learning the operations of a clean-room manufacturing environment, and relying on lean

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manufacturing methods to reduce changeover times.

18 A13: I-35 Work Zone Queue & Delay AnalysisIndustry Sponsor: Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), Mr. Jerry UllmanFaculty Mentor: Dr. Farzan SansangoharTeam Members:

1. Nathan Horner2. Rebecca Church3. Meghan Flores4. Ryan Nguyen

Project SummaryThis project focuses on analyzing delays and

queues on a stretch of I-35 between Hillsboro and Salado, Texas, for the past four years. The data comes from a system that TTI developed for TxDOT that forecasts potential delays associated with planned lane closures and collects Bluetooth-match data that measures the actual delays and queues resulting from these closures. By investigating relationships between the predictive model and what motorists actually experience, a more accurate assessment of the system’s effectiveness can be made and used to increase accuracy within the algorithm. In turn, a more precise model may influence how and when lane closures are deployed, thus reducing delays for travelers.

19 C23: Knowledge Management SoftwareSponsor: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Faculty Mentor: Mr. Robert KingTeam Members:

1. Michael Perlberg2. Collin Stacy3. Andrew Hoefer4. Richard Lowe

Project SummaryThe Industrial and Systems Engineering

Department seeks a knowledge management (KM) system capable of tracking and storing project information. The task is to look for a system to capture student’s experiences as they work through their projects. This includes, but is not limited to, organized data management capabilities for project deliverables and artifacts. Many organizations have recognized the benefits associated with adopting a KM system ranging from storing business critical information to eliminating harmful silos. A KM system will provide a modern solution to a classic problem experienced across many industries.

21 B13: Loss IntelligenceSponsor: Coca-Cola, Favian VazquezFaculty Mentor: Dr. Martin WortmanTeam Members:

1. David De Hoyos2. Hector E. Gonzalez-Stahl3. Haaris Hemani4. Justin McCullough

Project SummaryThis team’s goal is to implement a process to

capture losses for all nine manufacturing locations of Coca Cola in the state of Texas. The three main losses that must be captured and prioritized for focused continuous improvement are waste, variation, and inflexibility. These losses are located in the areas of manufacturing, warehouse, distribution center, and fleet. Capturing these

losses will enable each location to create a complete and accurate model of their factory. Track performance and value stream mapping will be used to capture and eliminate these losses.

22 C21: MD Anderson’s Molecular Diagnostics Lab: Determining Optimal Batch SizeSponsor: MD Anderson, Mr. Dalia FarhatFaculty Mentor: Dr. Guy CurryTeam Members:

1. Katherine Klassen2. David Corro3. Magdalene Kramer4. Carter Harvey5. Benjamin Babcock

Project SummaryMolecular Diagnostics Lab (MDL) contains

multiple platforms with major a focus on sample processing, DNA/RNA extraction, genetics testing and analysis, next-generation sequencing, clinical trial, and new assay development. In order to improve workflow efficiency and optimize resource utilization, samples are processed in batches. However, how to identify an optimal batch size for each test with respect to the complex workflow structure, high variability on demand, and limited resources--without affecting the report turnaround time--is considered one of the major challenges facing by MDL currently. Thus, the objective of this project is to develop a tool able to determine optimal batch sizes.

24 A18: Optimization of the Receiving Process at the San Antonio Military Medical CenterIndustry Sponsor: San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC), CPT Crystal MorrisFaculty Mentor: Dr. Michelle AlvaradoTeam Members:

1. Ian Schipull2. Miguel Martinez3. Gerardo Guajardo4. Ryan Vargas

Project SummarySan Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC)

Logistics and Operations Division is experiencing inventory discrepancies. Currently, a team of 10 employees is tasked with processing incoming items by scanning every incoming item into the tracking system. This project’s goal is to reduce the frequency of items getting lost and streamline the receiving process.

26 C20: Medical Supplies Warehouse and Picking OptimizationSponsor: San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC), Mr. Crystal MorrisFaculty Mentor: Dr. Farzan SansangoharTeam Members:

1. Zachary McIlvoy2. Anthony Gonzalez3. Kaylen Swafford4. Anna Busier

Project SummaryThe Department of Supply Chain Management

at the San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC) seeks an optimized system that improves the effectiveness and efficiency of pulling items from stock in the Supply Chain Management warehouse. The goal is to ensure every item pulled from the warehouse stock is properly

pulled and order fulfillment is done in a timely manner. Given the high turnover rate of employees doing this work, an additional goal is to plan an efficient and effective training program to make new employees aware and capable of executing proper procedures. Done correctly, this project will increase the rate for accurately filling orders.

25 R10: San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC) Research CatalogSponsor: San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC), Mr. Ricardo VillarrealFaculty Mentor: Dr. Richard FeldmanTeam Members:

1. Luke Hicks2. Olufemi Bada3. Stanley Chan4. Travis Korry

Project SummaryThe San Antonio Military Medical Center

(SAMMC) needs to organize, create and innovate a system to track research projects throughout the facility. Part of the motivation is that some researchers have done work on a problem that was already addressed by another researcher, thus wasting time and money. In addition to duplicating research, tracking projects through the hospital is an ordeal, so the task for this project is to develop a system that allows administrators to know which projects are currently being worked on and the progress of each project.

27 C18: Team 2 Cameron CMS Tracking and Maturity ToolSponsor: Cameron, Ms. Zané GruzninaFaculty Mentor: Dr. Ciriaco FloresTeam Members:

1. Zachary Martin2. Thomas Lowrey3. Matthew Jungers4. Sean Gordon5. Joshua Fan

Project SummaryCameron wants to improve and tweak a solution

created by a previous A&M Capstone Team. That project involved creating a tool for pulling information from numerous sources into a single document. Cameron is implementing lean at several of its facilities, and the information being consolidated allows management to monitor each facility’s progress. The project includes developing an additional tracking mechanism for assessment tracking and a data analysis tool that is user friendly. The current reporting mechanism doesn’t allow Cameron to effectively perform risk assessments of this global project, thus limiting the ability to deploy countermeasures.

28 A14: TollrIndustry Sponsor: Intag Technologies, Mr. Robert BrydiaFaculty Mentor: Dr. Na Zou.Team Members:

1. Christian Dager2. Jesus Gonzalez3. Darren Gumulya4. Jared Pavlicek

Project SummaryTollr is the world’s first cashless, interoperable

toll payment system on a mobile phone. This

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mobile app is the flagship product from Intag Technologies, a Menon Consortium company. Intag Technologies has developed a unique product, that helps individuals make toll payments through a mobile-based platform and affords agencies a way to migrate cash paying customers to all electronic tolling (AET) tool through an interoperable gateway for toll collection across geographical regions. Tollr is currently available for both iOS and android platforms. It is currently undergoing rigorous testing in India for further implementation. The project involves testing and evaluating this system and its performance in the Bryan/College Station area.

29 C27: TTI - Dutch JunctionSponsor: Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Mr. Peter LangeFaculty Mentor: Dr. Thomas FerrisTeam Members:

1. Robert Brust2. Anthony McKee3. Majeed Peffley4. Michael Maduzia

Project SummaryThe on-campus intersection at Bizzell and

Ross was recently redesigned as the nation’s first unsignalized Dutch Junction. A main purpose of a Dutch Junction is to delineate and protect the pedestrian and bicyclist paths through the intersection, while increasing their visibility to the motorists. Additionally, the intersection features the first application of a solar luminescent bicycle pavement marking material that stores solar energy during the day and emits a soft glow during nighttime hours to continue delineating the bicycle paths. Now that the intersection is built and operating, transportation planners need to evaluate the overall operation of the intersection, and address efficiency, delay, satisfaction, and pedestrian and bicyclist adherence to the design.

30 C27: TTI - Tubular Rail AnalysisSponsor: Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Mr. Peter LangeFaculty Mentor: Dr. Satish BukkapatnamTeam Members:

1. Imran Khan2. Blake Jones3. Aidan Casey4. Hogan Sullins

Project SummaryTubular Rail, or the “trackless train,” is a novel

mass transportation idea that provides a rail system that is cheaper, safer, and less disruptive than the traditional light rail system. Tubular Rail is a conceptual system, where the train is redesigned to be supported by rings rather than tracks. Our goal is to evaluate the design and development of a two-mile pilot route for the trains that connects the main campus to a satellite parking garage. Our evaluation is split into four distinct parts: route design, preliminary project plan, evaluating operating and financial performance metrics, and a comparison to current transit options (the bus system).

23 B14: UPS: New Building Location for San Antonio/AustinSponsor: UPS, Mr. Matthew ReddingtonFaculty Mentor: Dr. Guy CurryTeam Members:

1. Tomas Molina Branca

2. Dakota Upshaw3. Yonas Michael4. Julian Munoz

Project SummaryThe greater San Antonio and Austin areas are

going through substantial volume growth, because of this, the UPS buildings that make up these areas are running at capacity or near. This UPS project identifies potential locations for an additional building that UPS can utilize in order to better service customers by reducing the amount of on-road time spent by drivers. Moreover, the project quantifies the financial impact of moving volume from surrounding buildings to the new building, and considers the wages of full-time employees and the hourly employees who handle packages.

31 B20: UPS SurePostIndustry Sponsor: UPS, Mr. Andre ValladolidFaculty Mentor: Dr. Alaa ElwanyTeam Members:

1. Nevin Pinter2. Hossein Alizadeh3. Brendan Kelley4. David Moore

Project SummaryUPS is the world’s leading package distributor.

They have a service called SurePost that works hand-in-hand with the United States Postal Service (USPS). UPS uses their feeder network to start the process and then delivers to USPS locations based on the final destination’s zip code. Once a package goes to the USPS location, USPS is responsible for the final delivery to the customer’s residence. The challenge for UPS is being at specific USPS location by a specific time to complete the handoff inside USPS’ work day. The challenge is to create a schedule that incorporates USPS’ hours of operations. If successful, UPS will apply the solution to locations in South Texas, West Texas, and Oklahoma.

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING — CAPSTONE DESIGN 1 B9: ASHRAE 2017 Student Design Project CompetitionSponsor: ASHRAE, Mr. Kevin GardnerFaculty Mentor: Mr. James ThomasTeam Members:

1. Elias Rosedahl2. Matthew Pledger3. Daniel Harris4. Ty Williams

Project SummaryASHRAE sponsors these competitions to

encourage students to become involved in a profession that is crucial to insuring a sustainable future for our Earth “ the design of energy-efficient HVAC systems”. ASHRAE will recognize the outstanding student design projects at the 2018 ASHRAE Winter Meeting to be held in Chicago, IL, January 20-24, 2018. The student design competition’s guidelines provide enough background information to enable the teams to design or select the HVAC system for the given building, or to design a sustainable building implementing an integrated building design

process (the architectural and building design for sustainability, and its supporting mechanical and electrical systems) for the given program.

2 C9: ASPI: Autonomous Subsea Pipeline InspectorIndustry Sponsor: Shell, Mr. Brian WilksFaculty Mentor: Dr. Joanna TsennTeam Members:

1. Craig Lovell2. Steven Penshorn3. Ana Santos Gaona4. Ryan Rickerson5. Jacob Vick6. Ryan Jones7. Troy Carreon

Project SummaryThere is over 2.5 million miles of oil and gas

pipeline in the United States. Much of this pipeline lies at the sea floor to pump crude oil from the wells to refining stations. Due to the harsh and corrosive conditions of the sea, these pipelines must be inspected perennially to ensure the corrosive damage to the pipe does not compromise the integrity and become a environmental and health hazard. Currently, the industry employs a team of Remotely Operated Vehicles and drivers to inspect these pipelines. Our vehicle is designed to autonomously inspect these pipelines to decrease costs and time required for inspections.

3 C6: Automated Pipe-End Marking SystemIndustry Sponsor: Tenaris, Ms. Amanda SmithFaculty Mentor: Dr. Noushin AminiTeam Members:

1. William Nelson2. Nathan Dunkelberger3. Matthew Runyon4. David Ramos

Project SummaryThis team has been been assigned to create a

pipe marking system for use in high temperature applications. The marking system will occur immediately after the heat treatment process and will distinguish between success and two types of failures: over-heating or under-heating. The system takes the success/failure as an input and will either leave the pipe unmarked in the case of success, or paint a ring along the inside face of the pipe in one of two colors depending on the type of failure. A simple controls system will be used to convert the electrical input signal into the mechanical action to paint the pipe.

4 C10: Bray Smart Valve Monitoring SystemSponsor: Bray, Mr. Jim SchmidtFaculty Mentor: Dr. Noushin AminiTeam Members:

1. Jody Vu2. Daniel Cox3. Corbin Witte4. Patrick Odenborg5. Steven Thompson

Project SummaryBray International, a leader in valve and

actuator manufacturing, has sponsored a team of Texas A&M mechanical engineering students to research and improve on a design for Smart Valve Monitoring System (SVMS) which was developed last year. The SVMS is to use torque and vibration

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metrics to monitor the wear of a valve and predict when it is about to fail. This will save companies large sums of money as they will be able to replace worn valves during planned downtime, rather than wait until the valve fails suddenly and have to endure unplanned downtime. Developing a patentable SVMS would give Bray a considerable advantage in a market in which this technology is still relatively new.

5 C7: Counterflow Cooling Tower Design for ConstructabilitySponsor: International Cooling Tower, Mr. Brad Vickers, Mr. Kevin Leon-TangFaculty Mentor: Dr. Joanna TsennTeam Members:

1. Seth Drosche2. John Vierus3. Eric Bluhm4. Joshua Blattman5. Felix Sierra

Project SummaryInternational Cooling Tower (ICT) is a cooling

tower original equipment manufacturer who specializes in counterflow and crossflow tower designs, and they have partnered with the Texas A&M University Mechanical Engineering capstone design class to develop new designs for their counterflow towers. The challenge presented is to design a counterflow cooling tower that reduces cost for construction, materials, and transportation by five percent and reduces the build time by 10 percent compared to ICT’s current counterflow towers. The goal is to have a cheaper and safer construction process. The design has to meet several specifications including the ASCE 7-10 design code. Also the design had to be planned to accommodate a cell of up to four cooling tower units with 48’ x 48’ x 33-35’ dimensions. Furthermore, some important aspects to consider are the quality of water used in and outputted by the tower and the amount of heavy machinery required for construction.

6 A1: Development of Advanced Tritium Target Cladding Materials for PNNLSponsor: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Dr. Jesse Johns, Mr. Robert GatesFaculty Mentor: Mr. James DonnellTeam Members:

1. Erika Coke2. Kristian Hernandez3. Thuong Bui4. Kevin Addamo5. Ryan Gautier

Project SummaryPacific Northwest National Laboratory is

looking to develop a new cladding design that will decrease tritium permeation in the Watts Bar Nuclear Reactor. The current cladding design is made of 20 percent Cold Rolled 316 Stainless Steel. The cladding should be able to withstand harsh reactor conditions, such as high temperature and pressure, neutron radiation damage of materials, and corrosion. We have developed a new cladding design made primarily of Zircaloy-4 with a thin layer of nanoporous tungsten on the inner diameter for added strength and a thin layer of silicon nitride on both the inner and outer diameters to prevent corrosion and help decrease tritium permeation. We researched the effects of the

reactor environment on both our cladding material and on stainless steel and will compare the material property data obtained through testing.

7 C14: High Heat Flux Two Phase CPU CoolingSponsor: Dell, Mr. Kevin Mundt, Mr. Robert CurtisFaculty Mentor: Dr. Noushin AminiTeam Members:

1. Nicholas Cangelose2. Omar Dauleh3. Justin Feldt4. Kevin Wu5. Qijun Liu

Project SummaryAs computer processing power continues to

climb, higher heat loads are emitted from CPU chips. While the current heat loads can be handled with air cooling, five to seven years from today, air cooling will not be a viable option for high performance processors. Two phase cooling is the most promising technology to handle extremely high heat loads in small foot prints. The present system is a pumped two phase system where conventional R134a is used to cool a designed Cold Plate evaporator at record high efficiency. The designed Cold Plates can replace traditional heat sinks for server application to cool the most power CPU processors. In fact, the highest thermal dissipation power on a CPU today hovers around 150 Watts - the present system can handle above 300 Watts!

8 A8: Inducing an Internal Crack through Bi-Axial Low-Cycle Fatigue LoadingSponsor: Electric Power Research Institute, Dr. Craig Harrington, Mr. Brian BurgosFaculty Mentor: Mr. James DonnellTeam Members:

1. Anas Abu-Odeh2. Tomas Hirsch3. David Tighe4. Jacob Vandergrifft5. Haylee Young

Project SummaryThe goal of this project is to create an internal

crack, which would be a step towards creating a sample that exhibits primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) behavior. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) would like such a sample to benchmark a model that correlates leak rate to crack length. The creation of an internal crack is attempted through the manipulation of sample geometry and stress concentrations in a sample of aluminum 6061. This sample is placed in a low-cycle fatigue (LCF) machine, and cyclic tensile loads will be applied bi-axially, which would introduce two different stress planes in the sample. The theory is that the internal crack will form at the intersection of these stress planes.

9 A4: Insulation EngineeringIndustry Sponsor: Igloo, Mr. Doug HardestyFaculty Mentor: Mr. Jim DonnellTeam Members:

1. Raymond Sherman2. Aaron Catlin3. Robert Miller4. Elizabeth Langenstein5. Courtney Toler

Project SummaryThis team has created an Excel VBA program

that is capable of predicting the thermal performance of coolers and personal hydration products.The Excel program asks the user to input the product’s dimensions of height, width, length, number of layers, materials, and more. The program then outputs the ice retention time, a measure of how long the ice will last in the product. This program easily allows the user to modify aspects of the product, therefore making the program highly useful during the initial design phase. Additionally, material research has been conducted in order to provide possible insulation alternatives to polyurethane foam.

10 B8: Integration of a TEMA Class R Heat Exchanger to Preheat Natural Gas Feed to FurnaceSponsor: Fluor, Mr. Adam CallarmanFaculty Mentor: Dr. Noushin AminiTeam Members:

1. Elizabeth Brooks2. Augustus Ellis3. Joe Garcia4. Tony Hresko5. Ben Jackson

Project SummaryThe success of oil refining depends on the

margin between the cost to buy and refine the oil and the price at which the finished product is sold. Therefore, reducing operations costs is key. The aim of this project is to reduce the cost associated with the natural gas used to fuel the furnaces in the Vacuum Distillation Unit of a Gulf Coast refinery. The proposed shell and tube heat exchanger would use heat from the vacuum diesel product to preheat the natural gas entering the furnace, therefore reducing the amount of natural gas required. The project involved designing the dimensions and configuration of the exchanger for the specific given conditions while minimizing the overall cost.

11 A7: Laser-Assisted DrillSponsor: Dr. Bruce TaiFaculty Mentor: Mr. James ThomasTeam Members:

1. Lauren Saucier2. Will Nemeth3. Jon Markcity4. Eric Dehnert

Project SummaryA surgical drill does not currently exist in

the orthopaedic industry that can safely drill through certain metal implants. The need for this senior design project is to redesign the internal components of a handheld drill currently on the market in order to incorporate a hollow passageway for a laser and integrate the design into a functioning prototype. This laser is used to heat and soften the metal implant so that it can be drilled through with less force. In order to reduce the temperature gradient induced by the laser, the laser is centrally located inside an internal passageway of a hollow drill bit.

12 A2: Mercy Project - Aquaculture SystemSponsor: Mr. Chris FieldsFaculty Mentor: Mr. James ThomasTeam Members:

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1. Connor Barnett2. Tyler Marr3. Austin Helmreich4. Chad Schutz

Project SummaryToday, the fishing industry comprises one of

the largest economic sectors in Ghana, Africa. The primary means of revenue comes from cage fishing in Lake Volta, a large reservoir that extends into most of Ghana. In order to meet the current needs of the industry, nearly seven thousand children have been forced into labor. In 2009, Mercy Project, a non-profit organization, was established to exchange new technology and business techniques for the release of the children. However, there are concerns with the current operations since Lake Volta is subject to lower water levels due to government actions. Thus, the objective for this project is to create a sustainable fishing operation separate from the lake. This will increase security and protection for the fishing industry.

13 C12: Micro Vapor Compression System for Electronics CoolingSponsor: Dr. Bryan RasmussenFaculty Mentor: Dr. Noushin AminiTeam Members:

1. Nathan Pyle2. Jacob Wade Walter3. Jonathan Wienecke4. Mario Villarreal5. Adam Ramirez

Project SummaryThe team was tasked with designing a micro-

vapor compression system that incorporated a silicon expansion valve as the throttling device, with a controller designed to operate the valve. The team needs to test the valve and see if it can operate the system so that it dissipates 200 Watts. Each component of the micro-vapor compression system was analyzed and concepts were developed to satisfy the given design requirements. The instrumentation that will be used to both collect data and control different functions of the system are controlled and output to either LabView or proprietary software designed by the valve manufacturer.

14 A3: Numerical and Experimental Study of the Flow Field of a Radially Lobed Jet NozzleSponsor: Dr. Noushin AminiFaculty Mentor: Mr. James ThomasTeam Members:

1. Reed Morgan2. Will McKinney3. Brooks McKinney4. Stephen Farris5. Mitch Carson6. Jacob Clark

Project SummaryThe objective of this project is to determine and

analyze the effect of nozzle geometry on mixing of a jet using both experimental and numerical methods. This experimental proof of concept centers around a lobed-exit nozzle configuration which is theorized to induce better jet-exit mixing with ambient, stagnant air than a traditional straight-pipe design.The 3-D nozzle was analyzed in ANSYS Fluent, by using RANS and LES turbulence models. The results of all ANSYS simulations were validated for comparison with future experimental results obtained using particle

image velocimetry (PIV) and or magnetic resonance velocimetry (MRV) techniques.

15 C11: Residential Heating and Air Closed Loop DamperSponsor: Trane, Mr. George LandFaculty Mentor: Mr. Jim DonnellTeam Members:

1. Dominic Jarecki2. Clayton Coleman3. Benjamin Lohn4. David Straley5. Seungjun Lee

Project SummaryTraditional HVAC systems control air flow

balance between rooms with a fixed ratio of duct or with motorized dampers that can dynamically adjust the airflow balance between rooms by varying the static pressure drop in a given duct. The dampers are set to a designated position at the beginning of a cycle, but the actual air flow to the zone may be affected by dynamic factors during operation. The goal of this project was to design a damper with closed loop control of delivered air flow updating with changes in the environment produced at a cost acceptable for widespread residential application.

16 A5: Sandia National Labs Structural Safety DesignSponsor: Sandia National Labs, Dr. Jeffrey DohnerFaculty Mentor: Mr. James DonnellTeam Members:

1. Morgan Hatfield2. Christopher Obermier3. Michael Moellering4. Phillip Wagner5. Katrina Freund

Project SummaryThis team is exploring structural designs to

enhance safety in complex systems. The objective of this project is to create a four inch diameter spherical shell with crushable foam one inch thick lining the inside of the shell to act as a mitigating shell for a sensor package of two inch diameter, composed of a circuit with three orthogonal switches. This protective mitigating structure serves to extend the height that the sensor package can be dropped from without exceeding a 400 g-level limit of the sensor package. The g-switches in the sensor package will prove whether or not the acceleration felt by the critical components contained in the shell was kept below 400 g’s.

17 A10: Schlumberger Shock Testing and Analysis of Down-hole Tools Sponsor: Schlumberger, Mr. Chris Del CampoFaculty Mentor: Dr. Noushin AminiTeam Members:

1. Nathan Bomba2. Joseph Kemper3. Geoffery Garner4. Victor Leon

Project SummarySchlumberger supplies services for reservoir

characterization, drilling, production, and processing in the oil and gas industry. Downhole conditions are mechanically challenging, and reservoir evaluation tools conveyed into wells on wireline cables can become stuck during these

operations. An in-line jarring tool is often used to “yank” the tools free from a stuck position. This jarring event puts a large upward force on the wireline tools, causing them to experience large amounts of acceleration, which in extreme cases can damage the onboard electronics and sensors. Schlumberger would like to better characterize the magnitude and form of these jarring shock events, and for this reason they have expressed a need for a shock characterization tool that will measure and record the accelerations experienced downhole.

18 C8: Smart-Glove Stroke Hand Rehabilitation DeviceSponsor: Dr. Arun SrinivasaFaculty Mentor: Mr. James ThomasTeam Members:

1. Trey Torno2. Aaron Graeve3. Casey Fattig4. Sean Sculley5. Eric Redondo

Project SummarySmart-Glove is a stroke rehabilitation device

which helps patients regain fine motor control in their hands. A conductive thread mesh is woven into the spandex material of the glove to track bending movement of the patient’s fingers, providing active feedback to the patient via their smartphone. This feedback helps motivate the patient to keep working and informs caregivers about rehabilitation progress. In addition. a support system comprised of elastic bands, running along the back of each finger, assists the patient in opening their hand. The use of the spandex material, along with velcro straps and variable tighteners, ensures the glove will conform to a variety of hand sizes. The total cost of materials for each Smart-Glove, when mass-manufactured, will cost less than $10.19 A9: Subsea Pipeline Autonomous Hydrate Remediation CrawlerSponsor: ExxonMobil, Mr. Steven Wheeler, Dr. Thomas BlissFaculty Mentor: Dr. Joanna TsennTeam Members:

1. Marshall Grey2. Nicholas Albert3. Serdar Ozguc4. John Williams5. Nicholas Conner6. Jared Boggan

Project SummaryHydrocarbon hydrate blockages form in subsea

pipelines under low temperatures and extreme pressures. Hydrates are similar to ice, where water forms a cage-like structure around hydrocarbons, like methane, and solidify. These blockages are detrimental to production flow. Blockages can occur within natural gas or oil pipelines, and can completely block production flow. Our solution is to send an autonomous pipe crawler down the pipe to melt the blockage and safely return to the host facility. To melt the hydrate, the crawler will heat the blockage with a conduction heater. After the crawler melts the blockage and flow is restored, the Flow Passage Control System engages and uses the restored flow to return the crawler to the host facility.

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20 C13: Temperature and Pressure Measurement for LNG VaporizerSponsor: Cameron, Mr. Gary PottenFaculty Mentor: Dr. Noushin AminiTeam Members:

1. Kenton Cozart2. Price Hernandez3. Zachary Gregory4. Matthew Dang5. Casey Gjolberg

Project SummaryCameron, a Schlumberger company, has tasked

our team with the design and implementation of a temperature and pressure sensor monitoring system at the inlet of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) vaporizer. The ultimate purpose of this vaporizer is to receive liquid natural gas and then output natural gas to a sampling system, which checks for chemical composition. However, the inlet tube to the vaporizer experiences some degree of vaporization before entering the vaporizer block, which is also known as pre-fractionization. A system has been designed to measure both temperature and pressure at cryogenic temperatures (-161C) with minimal increase and volume, while also minimizing heat losses and conforming with ATEX certifications for dangerous environments.

21 A6: Test Fixture Design for Coefficient of Friction DeterminationSponsor: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Dr. Lloyd Brown, Jr.Faculty Mentor: Mr. James DonnellTeam Members:

1. Trace Dressen2. Allison McBeth3. Matthew McClure4. Trevor Dutt5. Jonathan Brummert

Project SummaryDetermining the friction between two parts

has long been a difficult task, and many engineers simply resort to using a textbook to get coefficient of friction values for their equations and models. However, those values may yield results that are, at best, rough estimations of the true forces, and there may not be data on some of the more obscure materials used in the industry. This team has designed and built a fixture that will work in conjunction with an Instron tensile-testing machine, a pressure sensor, a heating element, and thermocouples to give a coefficient of friction value for any two solid materials tested.

22 FLOOR: Texas A&M Racing FSAESponsor: Department of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Mentor: Mr. Yuval DoronTeam Members:

1. Rebecca Novak2. Elliott Molnar3. Chase Jones4. Calvin George5. Brian Brubaker6. Emma Partridge7. Hannah Mosk8. Alberto Reyes-Marquez9. Thomas Revak10. Andrew Ruddy11. Ryan Monheim12. Coleton Teplicek

13. Tim Paulsen14. Mattias Turner15. Tyler Fink16. Hunter Poole17. Tanner Frisby18. Daniel Maldonado19. Jonathan Weaver-Rosen20. Blake Leiker21. Connor Zalesak

Project SummaryFormula SAE is an international design

competition in which 500 student teams design, fabricate, test and compete with formula style racecars. Texas A&M uses this program as a senior design project that will extend until the end of June with students being responsible for obtaining their own funding and sponsorship. The project is driven under the concept of a fictional engineering company (Texas A&M Racing) that develops a racecar for a specific consumer base. The vehicle must adhere to prescribed rules and regulations while also being innovative to maintain a competitive advantage. Students gain experience in communications, management, engineering design, and manufacturing; all while delivering a safe, reliable and high performing vehicle.

23 B10: Variable Geometry Turbocharger Vane Controller for Diesel Engine ApplicationSponsor: Dr. Timothy JacobsFaculty Mentor: Mr. James ThomasTeam Members:

1. Elizabeth Ellis2. Kelly Sigmund3. Brian Hausman4. Lauren Koll5. Austin Schexnaider6. Thomas Porter7. Andrew Skrobarczyk

Project SummaryThe Advanced Engine Research Laboratory

requested the need for an autonomous system that would adjust the vane position on a Variable Geometry Turbocharger (VGT) for a large, industrial, diesel engine used for experimentation in the lab. The purpose of this project was to design and implement an automated controller that actuates the vane geometry on the VGT to maintain a specified boost pressure under varying diesel engine conditions. The implemented system encompasses a mounted actuator and motor, control module, PID controller, and LabView user interface. LabView software is used to control all aspects of the engine within a user interface. The computer input actuates the vanes to maintain a specified boost pressure, and increases the efficiency between experiments.

OTHER CAPSTONE TEAMS1 C5: Bechtel FLOATING LNG VESSEL FOR US GAS EXPORT / Ocean Engineering Capstone Design Sponsor: Bechtel, Mr. Harvey McBeeFaculty Mentor: Dr. Robert GordonTeam Members:

1. Kirk Jiacheng Sheng2. Narda Mendez-Rodriguez3. Da Yeon Kang

4. Kevin Ariyanonthaka

Project SummaryThe U.S. Energy Information Administration

projects the need for and usage of natural gas to increase dramatically for the next few years. It is currently a major commercial interest to develop and export sufficient natural liquefied gas (LNG) to surrounding countries. Floating LNG production system is certainly the most economical and effective method. However, the challenges of designing an FLNG include large capacity requirement and harsh operation environment. The difficulty involves the correct placement of facilities and minimizing ship motion. The liquefaction plants can only produce natural gas while the ship is experiencing minimal motion. The FLNG will have a production rate of 3.2 MTPA (Metric tons per annum), which is just a smaller than the current largest FLNG Shell Prelude, and a LNG storage capacity of 177,000 m3 with 100 people accommodation and 20 years operation life. Currently, there is only one FLNG producing gas in offshore Sarawak, Malaysia. For this reason, this FLNG sponsored by Bechtel will be able to serve the entire GOM and North America area.

2 B4: Chemical Engineering Capstone Design Team 1

3 B5: Chemical Engineering Capstone Design Team 2

4 B3: Design of Deep-Water Floating Production System / Ocean Engineering Capstone Design Sponsor: Stress Engineering Services, Mr. David RenziFaculty Mentor: Dr. Robert GordonTeam Members:

1. Carson Pepper2. Jacob Newton3. Sejin Kim4. David Lieb

Project SummaryFor this capstone project, sponsored by Stress

Engineering Services, the team is tasked with designing the basic dimensions and analyzing global performance of a semi-submersible production system in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to hand calculations, the team’s design will include using modeling software to determine the structure and the hull form, as well as its hydrodynamic properties. In designing the platform, the team will need to dimension the hull and find initial stability figures. They will construct a detailed structural model of the platform to test for damage and extreme event stability, as well as configure the proper mooring and riser systems. Finally, the team will provide a cost analysis of the platform, from construction to installation.

5 C4: Material Offloading Facility (MOF) For LNG Plant Construction/ Ocean Engineering Capstone Design Sponsor: Bechtel, Mr. Aaron GreggFaculty Mentor: Dr. Robert GordonTeam Members:

1. Hanmo Zhang2. Elijah Crosby3. Alexander Freddo4. Wayne Hubley

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Project SummaryA Material Offloading Facility (MOF) is necessary

for the construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in remote areas. This MOF is located off the coast of Western Australia (20 miles South of Coral Bay), and must incorporate safe passage of vessels into the port at any time under maximum design operations, provide shelter from extreme weather conditions, have capability to moor vessels using mooring dolphins and fandering, and provide onsite machinery (Cranes, Ramps, Ro-Ro™s, Lo-Lo™s) in order to safely and efficiently load and offload materials, all within a specified design life of 15 years.

6 B1: Modeling, Experimental Design and Optimization of Detectors Used in Determining Radioactive Contamination in Piping Systems / Nuclear Engineering Capstone DesignSponsor: Department of Nuclear Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. John FordTeam Members:

1. Joseph Boring2. Justin Peters3. John Owens4. Nathan Brown

Project SummaryThe senior design project for this team

contributes directly to the decommissioning of Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio. Portsmouth was an enrichment plant that is in need of safe decommissioning. The measurements recorded by our detector apparatus will allow for the decommissioning teams to get an accurate assessment of the radioactive contamination and other hazards in the piping. The amount of radioactive material affects both handling and disposal procedures in the decommissioning process. The objectives for our project are to measure deposits of uranium of any enrichment in piping, with diameters from six to 54 inches; additionally, these measurements will be done with greater efficiency and accuracy than in previously constructed systems.

7 B2: StratoForge Industries Chupacabra RC Aircraft / Aerospace Engineering Capstone Design Sponsor: Department of Aerospace EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Mr. Harry ElmendorfTeam Members:

1. Nathan Brunner2. Frank Zhong3. Maura Weis4. Farid Saemi5. Patrick Chapates6. Jacob Mahlmann7. Daniel Ghan8. Emon Steadman9. James Felderhoff

Project SummaryThis aircraft is the product of a two-semester

senior design project. In fall 2016, StratoForge designed a full-scale conceptual model of Chupacabra’ a lightweight, low cost, multi-mission aircraft. The team carried out an extensive aerodynamic analysis detailing performance, structures, stability, weight and balance, and systems integration. This conceptual design was then re-scaled and constructed as a radio

controlled aircraft. For this model RC aircraft, fabrication of the airframe, propulsion system, avionics, weight and balance, and landing gear was successfully achieved. This plane has undergone a series of wind tunnel and flight tests to validate the aircraft design as airworthy.

AGGIE_CHALLENGE1 D3: Advanced Vapor Compression Desalination (AVCD) – Business & Administration TeamSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Mark HoltzappleTeam Members:

1. Yndalecia Ojeda2. Esteban Saba3. Audrey Munson4. Gena Markantonis5. Regan Hess6. Will Lipscomb7. Daisy Enriquez8. Sarah Mustafa9. Myada Abdelrahman10. Carolynn Van Zandt11. Talon Page

Project Summary:The goal of the Business & Administration

(B&A) Team was to compile the necessary documents needed to initiate contact, gauge interest, and discuss marketing procedures with city governments that might benefit from the implementation of our novel AVCD technology. The team validated and optimized the cost of the technology, compared the results of its specifications to existing methods of desalination, and constructed presentations to showcase the technology. As of now, this research is scheduled to be presented at three research events, including the Global Grand Challenges Summit in Washington DC to the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

2 D4: Advanced Vapor Compression Desalination (AVCD) – Research & Marketing TeamSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Mark HoltzappleTeam Members:

1. Momore Adesanmi2. Caleb Neufeld3. Katherine Gomez4. Samra Tariq5. Mohammad Abbs6. Rini Maiti7. Vennela Pothugunta8. Ash Ajukumar9. Alex Cruz10. Thomas Butterfield11. Jonathan Carpency

Project Summary: The goal of the Research and Marketing (R&M)

Team was to identify markets in Texas where the novel AVCD technology could fulfill a tangible need culminating in the garnering of sufficient financial support from the government to fund a pilot plant. The team determined markets meeting this description based on data from the Texas State Water Plan (TSWP). This plan is an extensive

document compiled every five years by the Texas Water Development Board based on reports from 16 water planning regions (A-P), covering the entire state. Each region was evaluated using four criteria: openness to desalination, population, proximity to the coast and severity of water needs. Regions E, H, L, M and N were determined to be the most favorable markets.

3 D5: Advanced Vapor Compression Desalination (AVCD) – Technology & Development TeamSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Mark HoltzappleTeam Members:

1. Alon Farkas2. Mitchell Howard3. Stephen Ramirez4. Ekenedilichukwu Uwadiunor5. JaeJun Lee (Steve)6. Joseph Kofman7. Antonio Carrillo8. Laura Orellana

Project Summary:The goal of the Technology & Development

(T&D) Team was to develop and model all the physical components and assemblies for the novel AVCD technology. The advantages of this technology lay not only in its efficiency, but in its adaptability for transport and organization. Each part necessary for the process fits into a standard shipping container. The team worked on digitally modeling and assembling graphics for the components. Through this process, the technology was brought to “life” allowing for better understanding and presentation as well as creating potential for seamless implementation into identified markets.

4 D2: Autonomous Assessments of BuildingsSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Bryan RasmussenTeam Members:

1. Austin Rogers2. Tara Marie Bride3. Ross James Curran4. Amir A Darwesh5. Oliver Martin Delgado6. Liangzheng Huang7. Layne Kent Jackson8. Quang Pham Tuan Le9. Jasada Limtrakul10. Rodolfo Martinez11. Jair Omar Medina12. Abhisek Pandey13. Anthony Carag Paulino14. Veronica Ann Knisley

Project SummaryThe Autonomous Assessments of Buildings

project aims to develop the next generation of building energy assessment tools. These tools are developed at various levels of autonomy. A fully autonomous exploration vehicle may simultaneous located itself within a building and map the floor plan, HVAC, lighting system. A handheld device may be carried by energy auditors to perform similar automated mapping services. These tools may also identify energy efficiency measures and estimate energy and cost savings. This semester a multidisciplinary team of students have (one) implemented an autonomous exploration

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algorithm on a ground robot using ROS, and (two) mapped lighting systems using a stereo camera with OpenCV and ROS.

5 E1: Bioprinted Cancer ModelsSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Akhilesh GaharwarTeam Members:

1. Charles Peak2. Mu’ath F Adlouni3. Inimfon Idongesit Akpabio4. Christian Fredrick Bergh5. Jeffrey Chen6. Seok Young Hong7. Rachel Lynn Krause8. Rahul Mahato Kumar9. James Landry Lilly10. Waqar Makhani11. Quinn Minh Nguyen12. Jose David Rosa13. Samantha Christine Sliva

Project SummaryIn the team’s Bioprinted Cancer Models project

we have developed new inks for 3D printing soft structures such as tissues. Our ink composed of poly (ethylene glycol) and nanosilicates exhibits smooth and precise printing while maintaining structural integrity. We print this along side other previously developed inks to mimic health and cancerous tissue. In order to precise know where we have printed different inks, we have modified a 3D printer to be a mechanical tester. This low-cost modification allows the integration of compression testing into pre-existing 3D printer rather than using a separate system. The combination of these discoveries permits a low cost cancer model to be constructed that can be used for testing drug diffusion and effectiveness in 3D cell culture models.

6 L2: Biosensors for Pathogen DetectionSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Jun KameokaTeam Members:

1. Brian DeSalme2. Julio Chong3. Binila Baby4. Steven Bautista5. Charles Beehner6. Brian DeSalme7. Cynthia Co8. Gustavo Garcia9. Amanda Gibbens10. Edith Valle11. John Vaught

Project SummaryThe goal of this project is to design a low-cost

and easy to use biosensor for pathogen detection that can be used with smartphone. A team of undergraduate students works on fabrication, optics, software app development and simulation aspects of the project to develop a prototype. Fabrication team works on designing and manufacturing the sensor using 3D printing and polymer micro-fabrication. Optics team explores the use of optical lenses to improve detection. Software app development team develops the smartphone application for Android platform to perform detection. Finally, the simulation team uses models to understand the process of detection and to validate experimental results.

7 L1: Design & Control of a Vibration-Added Haptic Devide for minimally invasive surgical SimulationSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce Tai Mathew KuttolamadomTeam Members:

1. Cassidy Shaver2. Hanzhi Guo3. Cesar Fuentes4. Matthew McMahan5. Steven Thompson6. Rafael Urraca7. Harman Chawla8. Bach Le9. Cyrus Funkhouser10. Jerry Perez-Roach

Project SummaryVirtual-reality (VR) simulation has been

increasingly used in surgical training particularly for complex and high-risk procedures. A high-fidelity simulator requires detailed 3D environment and realistic haptic feedback.This team’s grand challenge is to enhance the haptic device with a force-vibration coupled feedback for minimally invasive operations involving power tools, such as drilling and burring. The goals are to design a new component with vibration actuator to retrofit the current system and to develop/program an algorithm in the system software. This team will also perform psychophysical studies to determine the limits of human perception to the vibration.

8 C1: Developing a Setup to Mass Produce Nano-fibers with Applications of Water PurificationSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Mohammad NaraghiTeam Members:

1. Michelle Gilbert2. Nicole Brown3. Reagan Healy4. Hayden Costa5. Michael Habib6. Taimoor Ashraf7. Marcella Cabral8. Abby Brown9. Ian Tallerine10. Kalonne Hight11. Jay Evans

Project SummaryAccording to National Academy of Engineering,

about one out of every six people living today do not have adequate access to water. This team’s goal is to make a water filtration system that uses physical particle rejection with little to no chemical sanitation. By implementing electrospun nanofibrous membrane, we can create a system with high surface area to volume ratio which will have the ability to reject undesired materials and have a high degree of porosity to pass water. This team will be fabricating nano-fibers with various fiber diameters and the fiber loading as well as evaluating the efficiency of the filter. The end goal of this semester is to rate the filter in a recursive fashion and enhance the quality of filtration by modifying the fibers as needed.

9 L11: Exoskeleton modeling and control Sponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Reza Langari

Team Members: 1. Bharat Agarwal2. Malik Aldabbagh3. Darby Ballard4. Maura Cadigan5. Nathan Dunkelberger6. Michael McClure7. Haaris Padela8. Xin Shen9. Joshua Willard

Project Summary Exoskeleton is a robotic manipulator that has

physical interaction with human body. Employing exoskeletons for rehabilitation purposes requires precise modeling and control of device to ensure the safety of the interaction and effectiveness of the provided therapy. To this end, modeling of exoskeleton is a vital step for development of control strategies for the device. Similarly, any control algorithm requires real-time sensory feedback from the device and a designated processor for analysis of the input data, calculating the control signals and actuating the actuators/motors in the robot. Modeling of exoskeleton is done in two phases: firstly the kinematics of the device is modeled through the Denavit-Hartenberg convention and Jacobian of the system is derived. Based on the first step, the dynamic equations of motion are found through the Euler-Lagrange method. Position control strategies are simulated to gain insight into the control of nonlinear robotic systems. As mentioned, implementation of any control strategy requires a real-time processing unit. By studying the specifications of the exoskeletons motors and sensors, a control structure is designed in LabView environment to be used by the compact Rio system. To this end, specific sensing and actuation blocks are designed in the LabView Realtime module.

10 L9: Eye-Tracking and Computer-Human Interaction, PyshiotherAPPy, and AquaHaptic: a Mobile Navigation System to help with Water ActivitiesSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Tracy HammondTeam Members:

1. Jessica Jin2. Jiayao Li3. Maria Tyas4. Mohammad Khan5. Carlos Castillo6. Tyler Carlson7. Jung En Chien8. Andres Crucetta Nieto9. Nnaedoziem Aririele

Project SummaryHands-free interactions are crucial to many tasks

such as driving a car and industrial operations and can be unavoidable for users with physical impairments or disabilities. In this work a team will present improvements to an eye tracking wearable systems and its accompanying foot-mounted wearable designed to enable hands-free computer interaction. The team will also address the issue of physical therapy noncompliance, which is caused by users losing motivation to keep up with the physical therapy program at home. To do this PhysiotherAPPy, an automated physical therapy system that uses motion tracking, developed haptics and visual feedback to help patients

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perform their exercise and stay motivated. We also developed and present AquaHaptic, a navigational aid for swimmers that analyzes the swimming style of the user through machine learning.

11 L4: Generating, measuring, and modeling biological assemblies in 2D and 3DSponsor : Texas A&M College of Engineering Faculty Mentor: Dr. Wonmuk HwangTeam Members:

1. Luis Bastidas Reinoso2. Savanah Frohling3. Andrew Bonham4. Blake Broussard5. Ryan Butcher6. Steven Fields7. Grant Paulsen8. Connor Ust

Project SummaryExperimentally, this team will use collagen,

the major building block of the human body, to develop methods to guide its self-assembly into ordered structures. Our work focuses on studying collagen growth on the surface of a magnesium alloy, AZ31, using atomic force microscopy. This 96 percent Mg, three percent Al, and one percent Zn alloy is unique in that it is biocompatible with our physiology and can safely biodegrade in a timely matter. Computationally, each student has been trained to use the Visual Molecular Dynamics simulation program, various compilers, and other related software to model complex proteins. In order to diversify our knowledge of molecular proteins, this team started off by working on a simple alpha helix from the transducin peptide. Recently, the team worked on the human t-cell receptor and topoisomerase.

12 L7: Health Wearables: Recognizing Seatbelt-Fastening Activity, Pacing, and Walking using Wearable Sensor TechnologySponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: «F12» «faculty_advisors__First_Name» Dr. Tracy HammondTeam Members:

1. Jake Leland2. Ellen Stanfill3. Akash Kundu4. Daniel Esparza5. Ryan Rebenschied6. Jose Elizondo

Project SummaryThe goal of this research is to design algorithms

for use with an existing wearable device, which is capable of detecting the actions of putting on a seatbelt in real time, pacing, and walking while holding a phone. We collected test data using Pebble smartwatches and Android smartphones, and we began the analysis process by graphing this data and searching for patterns. When notable features were identified, we were able to process the data and utilize machine-learning software to generate a data detection algorithm. The final algorithms can be integrated with other data and applications such as GPS location or specifically with putting on a seatbelt, the detection of hand position on a steering wheel to determine whether a user is following safe driving practices. This information can then be relayed back to the user in order to modify any unsafe behavior.

13 D1: Maskless Photolithography Using a Digital Micromirror DeviceSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Daniel AlgeTeam Members:

1. Adam Navara2. Austin Pursley3. Jericho Kuaiwa4. Deanna Wightman5. Joshua Duncan

Project SummaryIn the human body, cells are heavily influenced

by their environment through bioactive cues and local geometry. Tissue engineers take advantage of this by constructing biomaterial scaffolds of certain shapes with specific regions functionalized with bioactive factors. There are several different methods through which this can be done, one of which is through light-initiated chemical reactions. Traditionally, engineers have used a photomask to direct which portions of the scaffolds are exposed to light, however this can limit the size and shape of the patterns being made. By using a digital micromirror device (DMD) to reflect the initiating light, we can digitally control its shape and size, allowing researchers more control and faster fabrication of their material.

14 L5: Patient-centered surgical site infection monitoringSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Xiaoning QianTeam Members:

1. Randy Ardywibowo2. Alan Cespedes3. Chenjie Luo4. Modupe Adesemoye5. Xuan Ding6. Veena Ghorakavi7. Misan Coker

Project SummarySurgical Site Infection (SSI) is overall the costliest

healthcare-associated infection. There is currently no existing method that actively monitors SSI outside of clinical settings. We develop a system that can automatically monitor SSI risk using a patientâ€™s smartphone. The application uses a smartphone camera to capture surgical site images. Then, an image analysis model extracts relevant features that reflect SSI-risk progression, while an SSI-risk estimation model estimates the future trajectory of any detected SSI. Finally, a risk-based module will provide personalized action plans to intervene if patient health deteriorates. The system will be an easily maintainable and scalable solution for monitoring SSIs outside of clinical settings.

15 L3: Perfusion Bioreactor For Long-Term Culture of CellsSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Roland KaunasTeam Members:

1. Ria Rao2. Al-Kahtani Arwah Abdulgahfour3. Brooks Nicholas Scott4. Dendumrongsup Nutchapol 5. Fietsam Chase Arnold6. Garcia Diego 7. Guo Daniel Yihao8. Hussain Murtaza Ali

9. Machado Andres Enrique10. Maladecki Megan Rose11. Marshall Nathanael Waite12. Mortazavi Darius Owen13. Pieniazek Adam Christopher14. Schulz Cody Daniel15. Smith Allison Renee

Project SummaryThis team’s project is a perfusion bioreactor

developed for tissue engineering of small tubular tissues. The purpose of this perfusion bioreactor is to perfuse cell media into a seeded, porous, tubular scaffold at depths that would not occur by media diffusion, allowing cell growth to occur evenly throughout the scaffold. This is accomplished by applying a pressure gradient through the wall of the scaffold. The team made the bioreactor out of polysulfone because of its bioinert properties and the scaffold out of gelMA (methacrylate gelatin) with silicone nanoparticles with kappa carrageenan because of its biocompatibility, porosity, and strength. We chose to seed the scaffolds with 3T3 fibroblast cells using centrifugal seeding because of its fast, evenly spread, and penetrating effects. We also chose to use the Live or Dead assay to measure cell survival and the MTT assay to measure cell viability after incubation.

16 C2: Point-of-Care Health Informatics for Proactive Epilepsy Seizure AlertSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Satish BukkapatnamTeam Members:

1. Kyle Reagan2. Alan Ngo3. Bryan Arnold4. Stefan Manoharan5. Sagar Patel6. Sandesh Reddy7. Srujan Kancharia8. Ishan Vasandani

Project SummaryA team is designing and developing a wearable

point of care (POC) device by embedding wearable wireless sensors and advanced “big data” analytic algorithms for the real-time monitoring as well a prediction of epileptic seizures and other neurological disorders that are increasingly affecting the world’s aging and other vulnerable populations. The project also consists of a smartphone application which will allow monitoring and alert for upcoming seizures. The hardware developed by the team will be done using 3-D printing in combination with wearable electronics Epilepsy impacts more than 50 million people in the world and greatly deteriorates patients’ ability to lead normal lives without being in fear of when the next seizure might occur. The ultimate aim is to provide users with an economical and effective POC seizure monitoring system to enhance their lives.

17 L8: Predicting Trends in Social Media Usage, PerSketchtivity, and GeocachingSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Tracy HammondTeam Members:

1. Justin Lovelace2. Yang Yang3. Hong-Wen Tan4. Luke Holloman

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5. Christian Ortega6. Ma Francine Ruiz Lapid7. Wilmer Baron

Project SummaryIn this work, this team presents KidGab, a social

network for pre-adolescent children, Persketchtivity, a web-based application that allows students to practice the basics of design sketching, and geocaching, an outdoor game where people walk around in search of treasure. KidGab currently has a user base of over 400 girl scouts who have been actively using the website over the past five years, and from that user data we are using machine learning to predict social media usage based on personality and the users’ number of friends as well as how users’ interactions change over time. With Persketchtivity, we are focusing on improving the user interface and the design of the line lesson. To improve the geocaching experience, we are incorporating AR and hapcaching using a vibrational vest to immerse people more in their environment and to better guide users to the treasure.

18 E3: Scalable Manufacturing of Electrosprayed Microgels for Biological Research and DiscoverySponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Daniel AlgeTeam Members:

1. Jeremy Banks2. Alex Cai3. Reyes Toledo4. Margo Hood5. Jeremy Banks6. Benjamin Omonira

Project SummaryThe goal of our AggiE Challenge was to

design an automated and self-contained electrospraying device for the fabrication of hydrogel microparticles to be used for biological applications. The team redesigned and modified an existing concept device to be more compact and user-controlled. The device is made of an aluminum frame, an adjustable jack to control the distance between the collecting beaker and the injection needle, interchangeable 3D-printed pieces that allow for variable syringe and beaker sizes, a stepper motor to control injection flow rate, and a LED light to polymerize the pre-polymer droplets. The device allows the user to adjust pre-polymer solution flow rate, voltage supply to LEDs, and other parameters to synthesize hydrogel microparticles of a desired size.

19 E2: Self-Powered Health Monitoring SystemSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Choongho YuTeam Members:

1. Woongchul Choi2. William Criss3. Brendan Cooper4. Matthew Gaskamp5. Edwin Torres6. Jeffrey Zhao7. Daniel Ortuno8. Alan Ye

Project Summary“This project is for students to develop the

self-powered health monitoring system, which does not require external charging of electrical

energy from a power outlet. As our lifespan extends, a continous health monitoring of elders becomes a big part of “silver industry,” which is growing enormously thesedays. In addition, health monitoring is of great interest for most of adults, as can be seen from a sensational commercial product called “Fitbit”. The term “Self-Powered” is the keyword of our proposed work since it can provide much more convenience, making the system free from charging a battery by plugging a cord to a power outlet. In the present work, we develop a wearable, thermoelectric energy harvester device that uses body heat to supply electrical energy to a heart monitoring sensor for real time continuous health monitoring.

20 C3: Superhydrophilic Filter Paper for Effective Oil Recovery from Oil Contaminated WastewaterSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Zhengdong ChengTeam Members:

1. Chang-Hyun Choi2. Carlos Ybanez3. Ian Echols4. Eric Bordovsky5. Ehab Abo Deeb6. Evan Situ7. Patricia Meras

Project SummaryThe purpose of our project was to design a

modified filter or membrane that could remove oil from oil-contaminated wastewater. Currently, industries rely on emulsion breakers but these chemicals can be detrimental to the health of oceanic environments over time. This team wanted to avoid that risk by synthesizing an affordable and robust membrane with high separation efficiency. The team utilized both surface-active polymers and nanoparticles to improve our separation of oil and water, along with the rate of filtration. During our experiments, the team simulated real world conditions to assess the feasibility for practical use. The findings suggest that our modified membranes are environmentally friendly and effective options with potential for widespread application.

21 L6: The Water WidgetSponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Gregory HuffTeam Members:

1. Joshua Ruff2. Amulya Agarwal3. Jaime Avila4. Emily Bloom5. Daniel Carey6. David Carpency7. Akshay Jagadeesh8. Delnavaz Jijina9. Matias Kalaswad10. Abigail Lozano11. Cody Mask12. Kelly Orgeron13. Joshua Ruff14. Jennifer Sims15. Joshua Zschiesche

Project SummaryThe Grand Challenge: Develop a small

multi-spectral sensing system for water quality assessment and usage monitoring, and create visualization tools that link the ubiquitous

sensing capabilities enabled by the internet of everything (IOE) to increase social awareness on the importance of providing access to clean water and aid in personal water resource management, monitoring, and conservation.

Project Goals:Engineer a system-of-systems that 1) monitors water usage at all access points, 2) senses impurities and water quality, 3) Pushes the data to the cloud, processes the data and provides visualization tools for mobile devices. 4) links this information to social media.

22 L10: Training development in virtual/augmented reality environments Sponsor: Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Reza LangariTeam Members:

1. Rana Soltani-Zarrin2. Mark Wager3. David Ratliff4. Hannah Kowpak5. Michael Sanguino6. Linda Bustaman7. Brad King8. Mario De La Cabada9. Ryan Garmeson10. Uyen Pham

Project SummaryEffectiveness of rehabilitation for stroke patients,

highly depends on the intensity of the training, and duration of the therapy. Current rehabilitation techniques, so called manual therapy, cannot keep patients motivated for the entire session time, and cause mental exhaustion after a period. To overcome this problem, we have developed training scenarios in the Virtual Reality(VR) and Augmented Reality(AR) environments. Required trainings are delivered through various games in VR and AR environments, where patients can receive multi-sensory feedback about their performance. Due to the advantages and limitations of both technologies, developed trainings are offered using both AR and VR environments. AR technologies can provide the benefit of seeing the actual arm while it is interacting with virtual objects in the game environment, which is confirmed to be beneficial to patients. However, using this technology, reaching motions toward the body are not feasible due to inability of the device to track hand in very close proximity of body. VR games are developed instead to address this shortcoming of AR technology. Using combination of both technologies, we are able to provide interesting and engaging trainings covering both inward and outward motions for stroke patients.

STUDENT DESIGN COMPETITIONS1 B7: Aggie Ocean DiscoverySponsor: DEEP DOWN INC., Oceaneering Intl Inc., ANSYS, Mr. Dylan BlakesleeFaculty Mentor: Dr. Robert RandallTeam Members:

1. Dylan Blakeslee2. Jessica Heath3. Hansung Kim4. Chung-Kuk Jin5. Jaewon Kim6. Sejin Kim

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7. Gabe Tatman8. Garrett Malatek9. Hunter Adams10. Brian Hubbard11. Ziad Wardeh12. Pankaj Goel13. Prahant Gundale14. SamSejin bong Jang15. Pranjay Gupta16. Nabil Moosajee17. Jacob Kennedy18. Aishwarya Mahadevan19. Susmitha Kotu20. Nirup Kumar21. Chinenye Nwagbara22. Vinit Shah23. Nathaniel Franklin24. Marlon Batistella25. Luis Cardoso26. Levi Roady27. Zachary Ratliff28. Jacob Ratliff29. Kamel Wetie

Project SummaryThe Aggie Ocean Discovery team is a group

of passionate students participating in the $7 million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, an international competition aimed at autonomous research and chemical sensing of the oceans. The team has partnered with industry leaders and successful alumni to develop an artificially intelligent and autonomous underwater vehicle, advanced chemical sensors and subsea navigation techniques that have been considered impossible until today. The Aggie OD team is competing against industry teams from around the world and has already beat out many to become semi-finalist of the XPRIZE.

2 L17: BAJA SAESponsor: Society of Automotive EngineersFaculty Mentor: Dr. Srikanth SaripalliTeam Members:

1. Will Swain2. Michael Bailey3. Patrick Cygan4. Hunter Hakala5. Alexander Huck6. Luke Szrama7. Jeremiah Chow8. Justin Taylor9. Mason Law10. Mattthew Fisseler11. Mason Orr12. Matthew Urdahl13. David Dolt14. Daniel Calabrese15. Chris Flemming16. Cameron Blackmon17. Cade Capps18. Austin Volling19. Austin Caruso20. Amir Darwesh

Project SummaryBaja SAE is a new initiative at Texas A&M to get

undergraduates more experience with hands on technical skills, and the engineering design process. The objective of this team is to build and design an off-road vehicle from scratch and compete in the BAJA SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) competition in the spring of 2018. The team has

currently designed the vehicle during the spring 2017 semester and will be assembling the vehicle during the summer and fall of 2017.The team is split up into three components chassis, powertrain, and suspension. Each of the teams will be displaying their work on their respective part of the vehicle. The team is very excited about this project and is hoping for a great showing at the competition!

3 L13: Design of Compact and Efficient Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Deep Ocean ExplorationSponsor: Women in Engineering Program, Texas A&M College of Engineering, Shawna FletcherFaculty Mentor: Ms. Shawna FletcherTeam Members:

1. Judy Amanor-Boadu2. Pranati Chinthapenta3. Kathryn Bickley4. Zarah Navarro5. Kaitlin Frierson 6. Yvonne Chukwu7. Maricarmen del Toro8. Adaora Atuegbu9. Millie Kriel10. Shawn Hinkle11. Lindsay Kontchou 12. Anjali Patel 13. Sarah Beardsley14. Nicole Khoury15. Laura Austin16. Doan Le17. Leah Murff18. Kathy Pai19. Savannah Cooper20. Grace Westerman21. Kelsey Banasik22. Jessica Jaksik23. Alyssa Schaeffer24. Kelly Mullin25. Brenda Lopez26. Abigail Meza

Project SummaryAn Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) is being designed and fabricated to compete in the annual AUVSI. Foundation International Rob sub Competition. This research project is divided into three subdivisions: Electrical, Mechanical, and Programming. The electrical subdivision entails the power efficient design of the overall electrical system of the AUV while the programming subdivision requires the smart interfacing of sensors with the electrical system. The mechanical components include the small form factor design of the frame and hull, smart waterproofing of various sensors and cables, and ensuring the entire structure is watertight.

4 Z19: Hailfire BotSponsor: NoneFaculty Mentor: Mr. Pilwon HurTeam Members:

1. Jacob Sacco2. Alonzo Ortiz3. Ahmad Jawad4. Connor Landrum

Project SummaryThe Hailfire Bot project’s purpose is to build a

drone capable of autonomously mapping out and navigating in its environment. With those abilities it has a variety of potential uses, from simply acting

as a flying base for other projects, to exploring areas too hazardous or difficult to navigate for humans. It works using ultrasonic modules to detect obstacles, and an inertial measurement unit to keep track of its relative position within its environment. It has a machined aluminum frame, and weighs a little under four pounds in its current form. The Hailfire project was first started in fall 2016, but didn’t really get off the ground until fall of this year, and remains a work in progress.

5 Z16: HexamaniaSponsor: Aggies InventFaculty Mentor: Mr. Rodney BoehmTeam Members:

1. Ryan Alderink2. Pulkit Jain3. Jack Clark

Project SummaryHexamania began as a game simply to help

elementary-age students better enjoy practicing math. What it has become is a game that is fun and challenging for all ages and learning levels. Whether for a family game night at home or for arithmetic practice in school, Hexamania can bring enjoyment. Players randomly select hexagon-shaped tiles from which they create arithmetic sequences in the playing area. The only real rule is that, wherever a tile is played, any three consecutive tiles in a straight line must form an arithmetic relationship. There are no symbols, only numbers, so that players must visualize the equation in their head. As the game board grows larger, tiles become harder to place safely. The first play to get rid of their tiles wins!

6 L12: Materials for an Intelligent FutureSponsor: Aggies InventFaculty Mentor: Dr. Tanil OzkanTeam Members:

1. Wesley Kuehn2. Coleman Fincher3. Philip Bowie4. Jana Soares

Project SummaryHotel Van Zandt will serve as host venue for

the ‘Texas A&M House, a one-stop destination featuring Texas A&M’s groundbreaking research, innovation and global discovery. Texas A&M is a tier-one research institution that, together with the Texas A&M System, secures almost $1 billion in research and development funding each year. The university’s programming will kick off Friday, March 10 with a panel on ‘The Rise of Academic Incubators. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ray Roth rock and newly named Siemens USA CEO Judy Marks will join Texas A&M President Michael K. Young and Harvard Innovation Labs Managing Director

7 Z17: Quick EaterSponsor: Aggies InventFaculty Mentor: Mr. Rodney BoehmTeam Members:

1. Nirmal Patel2. Saurabh Bhalla

Project SummaryCurrent weed-eating technology entails the

tedious routine of restringing the line if it finishes, or breaks. This can result in lost time and as per

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the old saying money as well. Apart from this, the labor required in restringing weed-eater line might be difficult for the physically impaired, elderly, or those new to lawn care. Our team, QuikEATER, proposed a unique solution to making this task more efficient by introducing a universal exterior band with attachable trimmer line clips. A universal exterior band not only makes our product versatile, but also easy to install while the clips use a simple click-on mechanism and can be removed and replaced in two steps. QuikEATER- eating grass, saving money.

8 Z18: Solar Wi-Fi HotspotSponsor: NoneFaculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Austin Akerley2. Daniel Gerthe3. Jared Pekar

Project SummaryThe project is the design of a self-installable

“Solar Wi-Fi Hotspot”. The design will bring Internet access to places where Internet access was thought to be impossible. The product can be easily moved from location to location without the need of large machinery. The Solar Wi-Fi system is powered by 3 solar panels and stored in a 100Ah battery for 24/7 365 days a year connectivity to the global web. The design is a one solution fits all circumstances while still offering micro-customizations based on customer needs.

9 L15: Sounding Rocketry TeamSponsor: NoneFaculty Mentor: Dr. Adonios KarpetisTeam Members:

1. Alexander Pages2. Aaron Schiff3. Alan Aguilar Jaramillo4. Andrew Smith5. Andrew Riha6. Angel Castrellon7. Armando Gonzalez-Feuchter8. Augustus Ellis9. Bradford Stricklin10. Chris Jones11. Connor Farmer12. Dallas James13. Daniel Guo14. Jacob Pasket15. Jacob Doll16. Julian Robles17. Logan Frenchak18. Luis Martinez19. Marc Collier20. Marshall Noble21. Roshan Doddanavar22. Ross Alexander23. Sarah Michaels24. Silverio Canchola25. Tripp Illingworth26. Victoria Wright

Project SummaryThe Texas A&M University Sounding Rocketry

Team is an interdisciplinary, student-run organization dedicated to developing engineering talent through design, construction, testing, and showcasing of complex rocket systems powered by hybrid rocket engines. These rockets are 6.5 in to 8.5 in in diameter, 10 ft. to 12 ft. long and

capable of lofting around 10 lbs. of payload to altitudes in excess of 25,000 ft. Nearly every component on the rocket is student designed and the entirety of the system is manufactured on the Texas A&M campus. Members facilitate launches through careful operational planning and practice, as well as development of launch and testing infrastructure. Additionally, members present their work to faculty and industry mentors to ensure the safety of these systems.

10 L16: TAMU Hyperloop TeamSponsor: Engineering Advisory CouncilFaculty Mentor: Dr. Adonios KarpetisTeam Members:

1. Jordan Daly 2. Nathan Brunner3. Kasper Egholm4. Armando Gonzalez-Feuchter5. Frank Malambri6. Jakob Parnell7. Bradley Petras8. Gabriel Pirmez9. McKenna Roberts10. Austin Schneider

Project SummaryThe Texas A&M Hyperloop Team is an

interdisciplinary group representing many engineering disciplines. The team has been in existence in various forms since the summer of 2015, and has been designing, building, testing, and operating a prototype Hyperloop pod. The student design won ‘Best Levitation Award’ in the Texas A&M/SpaceX design competition in January 2016, and the prototype pod participated in the first SpaceX Hyperloop competition in Hawthorne, CA, in January 2017. The current team will participate in the second SpaceX competition in the summer of 2017 with a lightweight prototype that incorporates novel air bearings, a hydraulic breaking system, high-pressure air tanks, and a full suite of sensors and microcontroller-controlled actuators/solenoids. The team is supported by numerous sources, but primarily by members of the Engineering Advisory Council.

11 L14: TAMU SAE Aero DesignSponsor: Department of Aerospace EngineeringFaculty Mentor: Dr. Thomas PollockTeam Members:

1. Matthew Wescott2. Collin Haun3. Bryce Prescott4. Caleb Fisher5. Brennan Harrison

Project SummaryThe TAMU SAE Aero Design team is a

multidisciplinary competition team formed of undergraduate Aerospace, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering students. We compete annually in the international design series sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Scores are based on a written technical design report, oral presentation, and flight scores. Previously the team won first place overall in 2014. This year’s team has expanded to include a heavy lift category and micro class glider. The design objective of the heavy lift category being to lift the largest volume of cargo in with constrained power-plant and take off distance requirements. The micro class glider aims to maximize the payload

fraction lifted by a modular design capable of rapid disassembly.

12 B6: WE VEX-U StarstruckSponsor: Women in Engineering, Texas A&M College of Engineering, Shawna FletcherFaculty Mentor: Ms. Danisha Stern

Team Members: 1. Abigail Brannan2. Alyssa Lehmann3. Amy Kreiter4. Andrea Wu5. Eileen Madrigal6. Gisselle Ramos7. Jordan Rodriguez8. Kathy Tran9. Kimberly Ramos10. Ky Duyen Cao11. Lauren King12. Lea Huntington13. Maura Cadigan14. Mehwish Khan15. Phuong Uyen Pham16. Sakshi Choudhary17. Sanika Kelkar18. Sophia Eli Nacional Esteban19. Yara Mohamed

Project SummaryThe Women in Engineering VEX U Robotics

Team was formed at Texas A&M University-College Station. It is the first all-women robotics team at Texas A&M University, and has been competing in the VEX-U Robotics competition for two years. VEX U Robotics is a competition organized by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation that allows students to design and build robots to play against other college teams, nationally and worldwide, in a competition game based on engineering challenges.

OTHER COURSE PROJECTS1 Z2: Arm Tracking in a Virtual EnvironmentSponsor: MEEN 210Faculty Mentor: Dr. Waqar MohiuddinTeam Members:

1. Ian Cash2. Alex Hansen

Project SummaryVirtual reality (VR) environment puts its users

into a handcrafted, alternate world. At present, only movements of wrist or hand-held devices are tracked in VR environment. However, view of floating hands or hand-held gaming unit prevents the users from completely immersing themselves (i.e., immersion breaking) into the VR world. Moreover, inability to track user’s arms in 3D VR space often misleads users to physically move themselves in real world and cause hazard. This project seeks to provide an arm tracking solution. Through the use of an exoskeleton, low power micro-controller, and potentiometers, the user will experience the sensation of visualizing their own arms inside VR environments.

2 Z28: Design of a Food Waste HandlerSponsor: ENGR 289- Engineering Creativity & Central Texas Food Bank Faculty Mentor: Ms. Magdalini Lagoudas

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Team Members: 1. Alex Gonzalez2. Alexandra Dake3. Elise Hackney4. Raphael Banoub

Project SummaryCurrently, the Central Texas Food Bank (CTFB) is

required by USDA guidelines to dispose cans that are dented around seams, since these dents could potentially jeopardize the integrity of the pressure in the cans. The CTFB are looking for a system to dispose these cans, and preserve their contents, so they may be dispersed to farmers. Currently, there are machines in the market that are capable of puncturing, extracting, and smashing the cans and their contents. However, these systems are incredibly expensive and very cumbersome, making them impractical for the Central Texas Food Bank. To resolve this issue, we are creating a compact and autonomous system that will open cans, separate the food content, and crush the food cans to facilitate recycling.

3 Z5: Dynamic AirfoilSponsor: MEEN 210Faculty Mentor: Dr. Waqar MohiuddinTeam Members:

1. Christopher Bogaev

Project SummaryOften in fluid dynamic applications, airfoils

serve as single rigid bodies creating either lift or down force depending on the scenario. This is combated with either flaps or hydraulic systems to change the coefficient of drag or lift produced. For more versatile fluid dynamic applications, a dynamic surface with the ability to be manipulated at will might be ideal. This may lead to the ability to continuously vary the drag and lift produced as to optimize performance. This concept is explored by using a system of overlapping flaps. Although the project is not optimized for applications, it serves primarily to demonstrate a proof of concept.

6 Z23: Fairy House ProjectSponsor: Dr. Bruce GoochFaculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Harrison Froeschke2. Andres Gonzalez3. Robert Michael Fowler

Project SummaryThe objective of this research is to create an

educational experience for users that shows the potential for creativity within the field of Computer Science. We created an interactive experience for a user via a Bluetooth connection to an Arduino powered Fairy House to unravel a story that involves solving riddles via interpreting Morse Code. Through in-house testing and trial runs, we determined that this method of interactive immersive learning is optimal for teaching new and challenging concepts while also being entertaining. This project was accepted for publication in the HCI International Conference this year in Vancouver.

7 Z4: HTC Vive Controller HolsterSponsor: Dr. VinayakFaculty Mentor: Mr. VinayakTeam Members:

1. Jack Sandel

Project SummaryVirtual reality (VR) is becoming an increasingly

more popular hobby for people across the globe. This brings rise to a need for more and more equipment to help support this rapidly growing community who wishes to improve their VR experience. For first person shooter VR games, players often find it difficult to manipulate the controllers in a precise and repeatable manner. In order to remedy this problem, I am working to prototype and construct a HTC Vive controller frame that can holster the controllers to allow for more accuracy and precision in VR shooting games. This frame will be adjustable, lightweight, able to be disassembled, allow for easy detachment of one controller, and provide haptic and tactile feedback to more accurately simulate a real experience.

8 Z25: Neutronics and Thermal Hydraulics Analysis for Accident Tolerant FuelsSponsor: NUEN 485Faculty Mentor: Dr. Karen KirklandTeam Members:

1. Jake Meyer2. Saad Khan

Project SummaryAs a result of accidents such as Fukushima and

Chernobyl, the importance of developing accident tolerant fuels is paramount. This project seeks to test the reliability and safety of accident tolerant fuels for nuclear power applications currently being developed by the nuclear industry. This team has used complex neutronics and thermal hydraulics software to complete an analysis that provides meaningful data that can be useful in implementation by the nuclear industry. This project will use research data from the nuclear industry that can be implemented into a real reactor simulation. This data will also be useful to those currently studying accident tolerant fuels, as this analysis has not yet been completed.

9 Z24: Office HoursSponsor: NoneFaculty Mentor: Mr. Rodney HillTeam Members:

1. Luke Oaks2. Cameron Kelley

Project Summary:Office Hours is an online platform for better

connecting students to academic resources and mentorship. Our initiative is to increase student success/retention through improved access to mentorship. We are excited to provide those of all ages with the opportunity to see how their life fits into a larger social narrative.

10 Z3: Optimizing Drumstick Placement Aside a Concert Snare DrumSponsor: MEEN 210Faculty Mentor: Dr. Waqar MohiuddinTeam Members:

1. Blake Wallace

Project SummaryIn percussion performances, a performer

often plays multiple instruments throughout a single piece of music and requires different sticks, mallets, and relevant accessories right after the other. Usually a towel-on-stand setup is used to keep these accessories, which acts as both a

cushion and a somewhat stable resting place. However, accessories on this stand are susceptible to rolling off the edges or falling/tipping off the sides of the stand since there are no walls or other barriers to contain them. I, therefore, designed a novel stick/mallet holder, which can be attached to the drum without impeding sound quality. Furthermore, the holder provides more convenient, reliable and efficient way to store sticks, mallets, and relevant accessories.

11 Z27: Portable Solar Irrigation SystemSponsor: Give Water Give LifeFaculty Mentor: Dr. Seydou TraoreTeam Members:

1. Jerald Barbe2. Katie McNeal3. Ryan George4. Paul Hirschbuehler

Project SummaryFor this semester, we planned to complete

the conceptual design of the system. We wanted to know exactly what materials and parts will be needed in order to build the actual system. This includes doing a power analysis, pipe flow analysis, along with picking out a pump and size and material of pipes. Analysis of climate and water requirements will be necessary as well.

The first component of this project is a solar powered battery system housed on a portable cart. The solar system will powered a submersible pump, which will transport water from underground wells to elevated storage tanks. Once in the tanks, the water will be distributed through a gravity powered drip irrigation system to irrigate the crops.

12 Z26: Recycling Bin Slot MachineSponsor: Dr. Bruce GoochFaculty Mentor: Dr. Bruce GoochTeam Members:

1. Andres Gonzalez

Project SummaryThe recycling bin slot machine project is

designed to incentivize people to recycle more in exchange for a small interactive game. The bin will recognize whenever someone tosses in an item to be recycled and will use that as a token to start the slot machine. Depending on what the outcome is you may get extra music or a message show up on the screen if you. The effect of being congratulated or rewarded, even if there is no physical payout, should cause people to feel good about using that recycling bin or at the very least they will want to try again for a higher score. Ideally this will have people thinking twice about throwing away items that can be recycled and instead take those items to this bin so that they can keep playing, and thus increase the amount of trash that is now recycled.

13 Z1: Relieving Pain in the Wrist for ExerciseSponsor: MEEN 210Faculty Mentor: Dr. Waqar MohiuddinTeam Members:

1. Carlos Reyes

Project SummaryWrist pain from exercises revolves focuses on

a particular exercise: push-ups. Push-ups exert pressure onto the wrists, which often leads to a painful experience. To address this need for

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an exercise device for push-ups, we designed a pair of lightweight, portable device – Pushers. The 3D-printed custom mold allows putting hands comfortably on the units during the exercise. Pushers relieve stress from the wrists by translating the pressure to the forearm. The device possesses anti-slide features to remain firm with the ground. Overall, Pusher has strong potential to promote pain-free experience during and after push-ups. In future, Pushers may be modified to accommodate pull-up related exercises as well.

14 Z20: Solar Applications to Phase Change MaterialsSponsor: Texas A&M University Nuclear Power InstituteFaculty Mentor: Dr. Cable KurwitzTeam Members:

1. Cameron Smith

Project Summary:The applications of phase change materials have

been studied for years now. In this particular project, energy is stored in paraffin through the use of solar heat. The idea is that with this technology, clean water can be produced in a remote village in Africa. By capturing the sun’s heat, a working fluid is heated up and moves in a pipe through a Phase Change Material (PCM) container. As it is moving through the container during the day, the heat from the working fluid is transferred to the PCM, and in result, melting it. The pipe filled with the working fluid then moves through water. This water is boiled by the heat from the pipe, sent through a condenser, and then comes out purified. Once nightfall comes, the heat stored in the PCM is then transferred back into the working fluid. This allows the working fluid to stay hot enough to continue to purify water well into the night. In the morning, the PCM should be completely back to its solid state, and the cycle starts over.

15 Z29: Turtle RescueSponsor: EPICS 289Faculty Mentor: Ms. Magda LagoudasTeam Members:

1. Dustin Ladd2. Logan Skipper3. Michayal Mathew4. Matthew Laux

Project Summary:For decades, over 90% of many species of turtle

nests have been poached for their eggs. We aim to create an innovative solution to detect turtles as they come ashore to nest, and alert conservationists who will deploy to the location and move the eggs to hatcheries before poachers can take them. Our solution combines a fixed wing aircraft and a high gain long range transmitter accompanied by a thermal camera that will fly along fixed routes of coastline and provide thermal video stream to a command center in real or near real time. This combination will allow conservationist to vastly reduce the man power needed to patrol beaches by providing data on positive turtle sightings. This enables teams to only deploy as needed to active nesting locations.

16 Z30: UV/Sediment Water Filtration SystemSponsor: Give Water Give LifeFaculty Mentor: Ms. Magda LagoudasTeam Members:

1. Miqdaad Bhuriwala2. Clay Ozuna3. Ben Omonira4. Sam boswell

Project Summary:Thousands of people in the village of Djoma,

Burkina Faso are currently drinking water from contaminated wells. We are working on a design that can be able to electrically pump over two thousand liters of water through a series of filters and into a storage tank that can be easily accessible for humans. The water from the well is contaminated with bacteria and debris. To filter out the debris we are using two sediment filters, but to disinfect the water from bacteria, we are using UV light to vaporize the DNA of the bacteria, rendering the water safe for use. The challenges we are facing is how to most efficiently design a product of this capability while operating on a small budget of five thousand dollars. With our design, we hope to work with our sponsor to be able to give these people access to clean water.

ENGR 112 PROJECTS1 Z15: ENGR 112 – Team 12 Z14: ENGR 112 – Team 23 Z13: ENGR 112 – Team 34 Z12: ENGR 112 – Team 45 Z11: ENGR 112 – Team 56 Z10: ENGR 112 – Team 67 Z9: ENGR 112 – Team 78 Z8: ENGR 112 – Team 89 Z7: ENGR 112 – Team 910 Z6: ENGR 112 – Team 1011 Z21: ENGR 112 – Team 1112 Z22: ENGR 112 – Team 12

As a requirement for ENGR112, all students participated in a semester long design project and 12 teams out oof 500 teams are selected by the faculty to participate in Engineering Project Showcase. This year the task was focused on the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering to Provide Access to Clean Water. The project scenario was to develop a prototype of an antiviral agent dispenser for water wells, using colored marbles of different sizes and types to model the antiviral agents. The students received a mixture of 75 different antiviral agents (marbles) which they needed to sort by color, size, and material. Based on a bar code provided to the students, the bar code is read, interpreted, and then the designated agents dispensed into the well. The project is designed to use and further enhance techniques taught in ENGR111 which include team work, an engineering design process, project management, computer programming, communication, and problem solving skills. Restrictions for the project prototype construction include use of the Lego Mindstorm EV3 kit, Labview or MATLAB software, and a supply of tongue depressors for use as construction materials. Other construction materials can be used, provided the overall cost of those materials does not exceed a nominal cost limit. Their faculty selected the 12 teams participating in the Showcase.

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NOTES

@TAMUEngineeringfacebook.com/tamuengineering

S AV E T H E D AT EA P R I L 2 7, 2 0 1 8

HALL OF CHAMPIONSTEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS

2 0 1 8E N G I N E E R I N GPROJECT SHOWCASE

ENGINEERING PROJECT SHOWCASEThe Showcase will feature more than 150 team projects representing the work of 1,000+ engineering students from across all engineering majors. These projects include departmental capstone design

projects, vertically integrated team projects, design competitions, and select freshman projects.

engineering.tamu.edu/project-showcase


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