Project Showcase shines spotlight on seniors

Design of a Sustainable Green Space – Team 2

The breadth, creativity and expertise of the college’s seniors were on full display April 29 at the second annual CECS Senior Design Projects Showcase. The half-day event, which featured oral presentations as well as an exhibition, was an opportunity for engineering and computer science seniors to demonstrate their mastery of their disciplines through the capstone projects that most had been working on for the entire year.

Projects ran the gamut from plans for transforming a drab parking lot into a sustainable park (Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics) to a folding pickup truck bed extender (Manufacturing and Systems Engineering and Management); from an intelligent ground vehicle and human-powered vehicle (Mechanical Engineering) to a remote sensor network using software-defined radio on board an unmanned aerial vehicle (Electrical and Computer Engineering). Computer science teams weighed in with Web-based flash cards for students with cognitive and learning disabilities; an Android phone application to track courses and assignments; and a 3D update of a shareware video game. Construction management students prepared bid documents for a four-story, 28-unit apartment building.

Industry Judges

Evaluating the projects were industry professionals, charged with determining which teams would be awarded the $3200 in prizes, some of which were generously contributed by Anheuser Busch and Digital Energy, Inc. Faculty members served as moderators.

“The projects are getting more sophisticated,” observes CECS dean S. K. Ramesh, “and people who happened to come to the Student Union that day were amazed.”

Next year, plans call for expanding industry sponsorship, recognizing the top teams in each discipline and growing attendance.

“The showcase is a way to demonstrate the outstanding programs we have in the college,” says Ramesh, “and to show that we educate problem solvers.”

First Place Project Displays

First Place Oral Presentations Second Place Project Displays

Third Place Oral Presentations

Third Place Oral Presentations

Autonomous Aircraft for Aerial Observation

Mattew Keyawa’s Oral Presentation: Protection and Control Circuitry in High Frequency Power Amplifier

The Regents Lofts team with judges.

Autonomous Helicopter Team

Scorched Earth Team

Accessible FlashCards Team

The Regent Team

Wireless, Remote Micro-Powered Sensor Network using Software Defined Radio, Oral Presentation

Intelligent Ground Vehicle Team

Classmate Team Droid