Seniors Display Award-Winning Inventions at Design Day 2019
On April 29, at the University of Arizona's 17th annual Engineering Design Day, nearly 100 SIE students showcased two semesters' worth of sweat, tears and time on their senior capstone projects while competing for more than $35,000 in prizes.
Systems engineering major Luis Gama was on the team that took the $5,000 grand prize. They created a mesh network of beacons that can transmit emergency signals from a smartphone app in a remote area to a central location, such as a ranger station. The beacons can survive a 5-foot freefall, 30 minutes under a foot of water and temperatures ranging from minus 40 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit.
The team, which also won the Prototron Circuits Award for Best Printed Circuit Design, designed the beacons, the app and a mechanism to drop the beacons from a drone.
Gama once got lost on a hike in California and ran out of water himself. It would be much more serious, he said, to face such a situation in the heat of Arizona, where about 600 search-and-rescue missions are conducted each year.
Congratulations to all SIE's hardworking seniors, including those on the following award-winning teams:
- Raytheon Award for Best Overall Design, First Prize ($5,000)
Prototron Circuits Award for Best Printed Circuit Design ($500)
Smart Distributed Environmental Beacon
Team 18059, including Luis Gama, systems engineering
Project sponsor: Raytheon - Teledyne Brown Engineering Award for Best Overall Design, Second Prize ($2,500)
Automated Scale Placement System
Team 18023, including Han Wang, industrial engineering
Project sponsor: Caterpillar - Microsoft Award for Best System Design ($2,500)
Payment Transaction System Using QR Codes
Team 18080, including Sanarya Salah, systems and industrial engineering
Project sponsor: Microsoft - Thorlabs Photonics Is the Future Award ($1,750)
II-VI Optical Systems Award for Best Use of Optical Design and Technology ($500)
Vehicle Biocular Digital Display Viewer
Team 18031, including Ofer Greenberg, engineering management, and Cody Jones, industrial engineering
Project sponsor: MTEQ - Andressen Award for Design Above and Beyond ($1,500)
Greenhouse Smart Watering System
Team 18004, including Joaquim Hernani Fernandes, systems engineering
Project sponsor: Bayer Crop Science - Frank Broyles Engineering Ethics Award, First Prize ($1,500)
Honeywell Award for Excellence in Aerospace Mechanical System Design ($1,000)
Size, Weight and Power Optimization for Aircraft Cabin Avionics Unit
Team 18042, including Ryan Dee, systems engineering
Project sponsor: ACSS, An L3 Communications & Thales Co. - Rincon Research Award for Best Presentation ($1,500)
Frangible Bearing Support High-Cycle Fatigue Test Rig
Team 18011, including Olivia Bernas, industrial engineering and engineering management
Project sponsor: Honeywell - Cyber Warrior Award for Best Cybersecurity Design ($1,000)
Cellular Secure Video Transmission From an Unmanned Aircraft
Team 18049, including Chelsea Gorius, industrial engineering
Project sponsor: General Dynamics Mission Systems - Mensch Foundation Award for Best Use of Embedded Intelligence ($1,000)
Unmanned Aircraft Control System for Automated Date Pollinator
Team 18055, including Kyle Norland, systems engineering
Project sponsors: McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship and College of Engineering - RBC Sargent Aerospace & Defense Voltaire Design Award ($1,000)
L3 Latitude Engineering Award for Best Physical Implementation of Analytically Driven Design ($500)
Large Aperture Alignment Telescope
Team 18008, including Julian Mackenzie, systems engineering
Project sponsor: Ruda-Cardinal Inc. - Technical Documentation Consultants of Arizona Award for Best Design Documentation ($1,000)
Flexible Event Data Recorder
Team 18009, including Joshua Williams, systems engineering
Project sponsor: Northrop Grumman