Nearly 1,200 engineering seniors presented their capstone design projects all over the Zachry Engineering Education Complex at the 2022 Engineering Project Showcase on April 29, after two years of being held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 240 projects dedicated to solving engineering industry challenges were on display for the public to see and for industry judges to present with top awards. Some projects had industry sponsorships who directly gave the teams problems to solve that their companies face. In the end, 25 teams were awarded prize money totaling $15,000.
Showcase judge Craig Brown, founder and CEO of Bray International Inc., said it was amazing to see students trying to solve real-world problems, proving that they learn more than just academics at Texas A&M University.
“I love coming back to Texas A&M’s Engineering Project Showcase; I get invigorated by the energy and the passion of all the young Aggie students and the innovations that they come up with,” said Brown. “It gives a lot of promise for what our engineers from Texas A&M are going to do in the future.”
The showcase not only celebrated students for their hard work and accomplishments during their time at Texas A&M, but it also allowed students to network with industry. Students who were not yet employed were able to indicate their interest in employment opportunities, allowing judges to also recruit for their companies.
“It is almost like a reversed career fair,” said Magda Lagoudas, executive director of the Industry and Nonprofit Partnerships program in the college. “Instead of the students going around company booths, the companies come to the students.”
Lagoudas emphasized the importance of the showcase, as capstone design projects prepare students before they enter the workforce and give them the ability to apply the skills they have learned during their undergraduate years for the public and industry to see.
The Overall Showcase Capstone Design Award for $1,500 sponsored by Emerson was given to Reliable Instrument Counter, a team tasked with finding an efficient and accurate way to count surgical instruments. Their solution was a table with built-in technology that quickly and accurately counts the number of instruments before and after surgery to avoid any of them being left inside bodies.
The top three teams from each department are listed below.
Engineering Project Showcase 2022 Winners:
Biological and Agricultural Engineering Award
First Place ($500)Team: Anheuser-Busch Vibration Monitoring for Predictive Maintenance - M.A.M.U. Vibration Solutions
Members: Matthew Atkins, Michael Unterman
Second Place ($350)
Team: NicarAQUA: La Fortuna Water Conveyance and Distribution System
Members: Alexandria Werner, Bailey Graham, John Keener, Mason Fiedler, Mitchell McDonald
Third Place ($250)
Team: Camera Imaging for Plastic Detection in Cotton Gins
Members: John Womack, Samuel Pyka
Biomedical Engineering Awards
First Place ($750)Team: EndoTrack
Members: Amanda Trevino, Kassidy Porche, Nathan Bliss, Rachel Greve, Srichakrika Nunna, Xiao Ling
Second Place ($500)
Team: Electronic Quadroscope
Members: Allison Stephens, Carla Bassil, Carley Stafford, Haley Edwards, Madison Turpin, Skylar Gallegos
Third Place ($250)
Team: Hystero-hero
Members: Coby McNichols, Hannah Chamberlain, Maddie Jordan, Megan Rodgers, Nadean Zahra, Rachel Rice
Computer Science and Engineering Awards
First Place tie ($1,000) sponsored by CaterpillarTeam: Walmart Anonymization Pipeline
Members: Andrew Han, Hoa Nguyen, Mary Faith Mitchell, Rosendo Narvaez, Taylor Wilson
Team: TIAS — TIAS Is A Scheduler
Members: Benjamin Beauchamp, Dante Barbieri, Evelyn Crowe, Jeremy Spotts, Shane McGookey
Second Place ($500)
Team: Altidor
Members: Julie Herrick, Mason Medrano, Reid Neason, Saul Diosdado, Zachary Handshoe
Electrical and Computer Engineering Awards
First Place ($1,000) sponsored by Baker HughesTeam: App-Controlled Plant Watering
Members: Barrett Gaertner, Oren Shed, Sean Cooley
Second Place ($750)
Team: Hydrogen Line Telescope
Members: Johanna Hein, Warren Herrington
Third Place ($500)
Team: Private Information Retrieval with Side Information and Message Popularity
Members: Alejandro Gomez-Leos
Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution Awards
First Place ($1,000) sponsored by KiewitTeam: Sub Orbital Astromaterial Research (SOAR)
Members: Kevin Leonard, Michael Townsend, Ryan Labarbera, Sean Kersch-Hama
Second Place ($750)
Team: Mobile Asset Transportation System (MATS)
Members: Ethan McCall, Nicolas Stockton, Pedro Guillen, Robert Cullen, Shilow Bower
Third Place ($500)
Team: WHOOP AI VEX Robotics
Members: Aaron Quigg, Britton Corbett, David Saunders, Gabriel Rodriguez, Jonathan Ghering, Lucas Seran, Montana Barker, Ryan Vaughan
Industrial and Systems Engineering Awards
First Place ($1,000) sponsored by H4 Architects + EngineersTeam: Baylor Scott & White (Rock Prairie)
Members: Dylan Choate, Lacey Hawthorne, Michael Whittaker, Rafael Ramos
Second Place ($750)
Team: Part Degreasing Solutions
Members: Bryana Moya, Joaquin Cieri, Lukas Featherston, Morgan Roberts
Third Place ($500)
Team: Aggieland Coffee: Financial and Process Analysis of Roasting Operations
Members: Dhakshin Subbaiah, James Chung, Lissete Sillas, Melanie Beattie
Material Science and Engineering Awards
First Place ($500)Team: Modular Mannequin Leak Test Development
Members: Gualberto De La Garza, Nhu Vu, Will Bryan
Second Place ($350)
Team: Mitigating Corrosion and Degradation of Metallic Fixtures Used in the Galvanizing Process
Members: Bethel Oluwole, Charles Shoalmire, Peyton Usoff, Ritai Su
Third Place ($250)
Team: Instrumented Tool Holder for Quick Indication of Machining Performance
Members: Aaron George, Claire Swank, David Skillern, Joseph Duran
Mechanical Engineering Awards
First Place ($1,000) sponsored by Andersen Windows & DoorsTeam: Multiplanetary Agricultural Sustainment
Members: Connor Castans, Holden Campbell, Ian Suarez, Jacob Schababerle, Katherine Plaza, Peter Simmons
Second Place ($750)
Team: Lunar Container
Members: Jason Bondi, Matthew Plummer, Nathaniel Bass, Tara Brown, Tyler Haygood
Third Place ($500)
Team: Sunny the Visor
Members: Alex Araujo, Jacob Chaparro, Kasey Dearing, Lorraine Fernando, Tanner Thornton, Tessa Carreno