Fourteen Engineering Teams Win Design Project Awards at Showcase

May 04, 2012

Third-place Lockheed Martin Design Award-winning team displays their adaptive recreation equipment for bilateral amputees. View more photos.

UPDATE: View the winners of the Chair Awards for Best Capstone Design Project in NucE

Fourteen Penn State student engineer teams won awards at the 2012 Student Design Project Showcase on April 26. The showcase is the culmination of a semester-long effort that tasks students with solving industry-sponsored projects, exposing them to the technical demands, pitfalls and professional expectations they would experience as practicing engineers in industry.

The event featured 161 projects from first-year students through graduate students, including 92 senior capstone projects involving 450 seniors.

Also in attendance were Pennsylvania state representatives Bryan Barbin, Mike Fleck and Jerry Stern; Richard Hudic, executive deputy secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED); Denise Remillard, assistant to the executive deputy secretary at the DCED; Rick Sollman, a staff member for Congressman Glenn Thompson; and U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration Philadelphia regional representative Chivas Grannum.

Three teams won first place for best project in the Lockheed Martin Design Awards. The projects were: "Heat Exchange Design and Fabrication using Additive Manufacturing Technologies" sponsored by Flowserve with students Derek Hall, Dalton Tallia, Marin Tola, Francis Wolff and Christopher Zerphey taught by Dr. Robert Santoro, Guillet Professor of Mechanical Engineering; "Ambulatory Real-Time Electrodermal Analysis and Feedback System" sponsored by Penn State StudioLab with students David J. Bernick, Evan M. Fox, Jiayi Liang, Rachel K. Lower and Matthew J. Niesslein and taught by Dr. Margaret Slattery, assistant professor of bioengineering; and "Motorized Rolling Walker" sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania Spinal Cord Injury Support Group with students Camilo Arenas, Nicholas Grassetti, Griffin Lynch, Kayvon Mirdamaoz and Jonathan Yoder taught by Dr. Jason Moore, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Three teams were awarded second place: "Power Assist Brace for Knee Flexors" sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania Spinal Cord Injury Support Group with students Darren Deltando, James A. Gault, Alec E. Tanida, Michael Testa and Christina Webber taught by Dr. Margaret Slattery, assistant professor of bioengineering; "Improving the Transmission on a 12-Foot Dance Vehicle" sponsored by Penn State Creative Campus with students Steven Bates, Brett Cowan, Jason Kuruc, Jonathan Tackie and Stephen Thor taught by Leland Engel, instructor in mechanical engineering; and "LED Strobe System" sponsored by Boeing with students Peter Gosch, Benjamin Hass, Patrick Lee and Christina Miceli taught by Dr. Tim Wheeler, assistant professor of electrical engineering.

Three teams were awarded third place: "Dry Product Packaging and Finishing Optimization" sponsored by Life Technologies with students Joseph Gigliotti, Sirui Li, Muhamad Izzat Suliman, Shawn Wang and Kristen Wyman taught by Dr. Dave Cannon, associate professor of industrial engineering; "Reconfigurable GPS Mounting Device" sponsored by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Caredock Division with students Daniel Aglione, Jared Haley, Timothy Rash and Michael Ruhl taught by Leland Engel, instructor in mechanical engineering; and "Adaptive Recreation Equipment for Bilateral Amputees" sponsored by the Department of Bioengineering and the National Science Foundation with students Jesse Addis, Aaron Cheung, Dylan Sirgiovanni, Erin Viscito and Sharon Waxmonsky taught by Dr. Jason Moore, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

First place for best poster in the Lockeed Martin Design Awards went to the project " Designing packaging platforms to reduce medication errors" sponsored by the Penn State Bridging Research in Innovation, Technology and Engineering Laboratory with students Angela Buck, Scott Cicero, Anthony Dapontes, Megan Hinterberger and Nora Nies taught by Michael Immel, senior technical specialist in industrial engineering. Second place went to "Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine Friction Reduction Testing and Analysis" sponsored by Volvo with students Matthew Dodds, Michael Edwards Jr., Kamal Hasanov, Thomas Ort and Nicholas Whalen taught by Dr. Robert Santoro, Guillet Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Third place went to "Development of a rotational connection for severe operating conditions" sponsored by Akron Brass with students Matthew Heath, Alexander Ralston, Justin Simon, James Twomey and Richard Welch taught by Leland Engel, instructor in mechanical engineering.

The Boeing Systems Engineering Award went to "Emergency Aerial Communications System" sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory and the Penn State Student Space Programs Laboratory with students Gregory Brulo, Siwei Feng, Ivan Stalev and David Zhang taught by Dr. Tim Wheeler, assistant professor of electrical engineering.

The Penn State Shell Ecomarathon team won both the Capstone Video Competition Award and the BP People's Choice Award. The team included Rishabh Bahel, Jonathan Brunk, Erik Denlinger, Matthew Geist, Nicholas Paros, Peter Pavek, Timothy Robertson, Kyle Rothermel, Matthew Steindorf and Michale Topolski advised by Leland Engel, instructor in mechanical engineering.

The Student Design Project Showcase is organized by the Learning Factory, a university-industry partnership to educate the next generation of engineers by providing hands-on experience with real-world capstone design projects. The Learning Factory has facilitated more than 2,500 student design projects for more than 350 companies since its establishment in 1995.