Engineering Exposition

The 19th Design Expo hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering was not your typical, stoic science fair. Rather, this spring's event on Thursday, April 18 at the University Club was a hotbed of energy, excitement, and noise fed by 89 teams across seven disciplines. Months of work outside the traditional classroom culminated that event with students making their pitches to judges in the hopes of winning top prizes in several categories. 

“For ten years now we have watch our students - many of whom are seniors - not simply complete an assignment but invest themselves in solutions that could benefit humanity. What's more, some of our former students are now experienced judges,” noted Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor of Industrial Engineering. “The thrill in the room is palpable as teams try to impress upon the judges and attendees why their innovation is a game-changer.”

Some teams sponsored by faculty from other University of Pittsburgh schools as well as UPMC hospitals, government agencies, nonprofits, and industry. Several projects were presented by seniors in the School’s Capstone Design or Product Realization courses, and all were judged by Pitt alumni, faculty, and industry volunteers. 

Winners below; view the program for a full list of participants. Visit Flickr for the Expo Photo Album.

Best Overall Project 
RocketWatch: GEO Satellite Threat  Assessment System
Industrial Mentor: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 
Nathan Carney, Lauren Hoge, Jessica Kneller, Alison Linares Mendoza

People’s Choice Award 
Regional Adjustable Pressure Prosthetic Socket 
Kristin Bindas, Katherine LeClaire, Camilo Rodriguez Rozas, Azariah Torain, Madeline Viteri, 
Savannah Waymer 

DEPARTMENT AWARDS 

Bioengineering 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Mark Gartner 

1st Place Regional Adjustable Pressure Prosthetic Socket 
Kristin Bindas, Katherine LeClaire, Azariah Torain, Camilo Rodriguez Rozas, Madeline Viteri, Savannah Waymer 

2nd Place Trans-Tibial Self-Adjustable Prosthetic Socket
Rachel da Cruz, Abigail Geary, Samantha Mnich, Maggie Walker, Alyssa Zito 

3rd Place Nasogastric Tube Securement
Keegan Blain, Rachel Eskander, Madison Keczmer, Samuel Lord, Tarryn O’Rourke, Shannon Roman 

Civil and Environmental Engineering 
Faculty Advisor: Professor John Sebastian 

1st Place Railroad Track to Pedestrian Trail
Faculty Mentors: John Yadlosky, HDR; Bill Crawford – TW Engineering; Dr. Kent Harries 
Industry Mentors: Jason Zang, Keith Cornelius, Leigh Anne Crouse, Keith Dougall – PennDOT
John Demarco, Mason Kent, Alexandra Lopez, Bryce Rhodes, Jonna Rinehart, Melissa Sedlock 

2nd Place (Tie)

West End Neighborhood Connector 
Faculty Mentors: Dr. John Oyler, Dr. Mark Magalotti, Dr. Kent Harries, Prof John Sebastian, Dr. Ogul Doygun, Dr. Sebastian Lobo-Guerrero, Dr. Alex Stevanovic 
Industry Mentor: Gavin White & Maria Riley – Riverlife, Benjamin Williams – Seneca Resources 
Jared Broscious, Alexa Hartman, Madde Huebner, Garrett Koch, Cain Pfoutz, Allyson Trexler 

Wharton Township Antidegradation Study 
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Leonard Casson, Dr. Carla Ng, Dr. David Malehorn 
Industry Mentor: Terry McMillen – McMillen Engineering 
Tess Harper, Julie Huck, George Kay Amanda Lee, Ryan Musto, George Strish

3rd Place (Tie)

Landslide Mitigation 
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Sebastian Lobo-Guerrero, Dr. Ogul Doygun 
Industry Mentor: Matt Geary, Duquesne Light 
Spencer Matan, Ryan McColgan, Matthew Niznik, Darius O’Neal, Kevin Vricella-Stokes, Linxia Wang

Food Waste Diversion 
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Vikas Khanna, Dr. Sarah Haig 
Industry Mentors: Emily Potoczny and Aurora Sharrard – Pitt Office of Sustainability 
Sophie Catanzaro, Jessica Chamberlain, Kyle Durrwachter, Samuel Mahsoob, Caymus Ruffner

Electrical and Computer Engineering 
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Mohamed Bayoumy, Dr. Guangyong Li, Dr. Mai Abdelhakim

1st Place Pressure Pulse: Monitoring System for Portable EMS Oxygen Tanks 
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Samuel Dickerson
Industry Mentor: Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania 
Adam Brower, Mark Hofmeister, JJ Oswald, Bronco York 

2nd Place Passive Cell Balancing Battery Management System 
Industry Mentors: Mr. Sean Dowhy and Mr. Ray Kovacs – Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc. (BPMI) 
Veronica Bella, Nicholas Genco, Edward Loveday, Caiti Minahan, Lucas Troy 

3rd Place Automated Connect 4 - Group B 
Andrew Davidson, John Klamut, Owen Knight, Aidan Myer

Industrial Engineering 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Scott Streiner 

1st Place RocketWatch: GEO Satellite Threat Assessment System 
Industry Mentor: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 
Nathan Carney, Lauren Hoge, Jessica Kneller, Alison Linares Mendoza

2nd Place Electrical/Mechanical Subassembly Improvement 
Industry Mentor: Alstom 
Austin Ferraioli, Yunhao Liang, Anthony Robol, Pedro Schmitt, Haoran Zhang

3rd Place Model of Care for Centralized Discharge Process 
Industry Mentor: UPMC 
Kyle Halstater, Nikki Konley, Allena Riggio, Kayla Trahey, Ruhan Wei

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Schmidt 

1st Place Development of an Internal Tracking Device for Bicycles 
Industry Mentor: Mr. Jumoke Davis – Cyclebox 
Zhe Feng, Hassan Jafarah, Victoria Pereira Araujo, Jacob Randall, Francis Talty, Zixin Ye 

2nd Place SimuClip: A Mechanical Solution to Endoscopic Vein Autografting Surgery
Academic Mentor: Dr. Chung 
John Buttles, Tyler Hutsko, Eric Schwanke, Ziyu Xia

3rd Place Mechanical Testing of Eye-Inspired Fiber Constructs 
Academic Mentor: Dr. Ian Sigal (Laboratory of Ocular Biomechanics) 
Chris Beatty, Evan Garbaccio, Ann Marie Howald, Yiding Li, Addison Mueller, Hannah O’Connell, Lucas Zwastetzky, Wei Zhang 

Art of Making: Hands-On System Design and Engineering 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Joe Samosky 

1st Place HandSwell: Expanding the Grabbing and Releasing Abilities of Children with Limited Motor Skills 
Community Partner: Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children 
Josie Belkin, Mia Falbo, Sarah Ginck, Andrue Herold, Reilly Koitzsch

2nd Place Grabbing Attention: Improving Engagement at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children as Students Learn to Grab 
Community Partner: Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children 
Jake Chinchar, David Hand, Reuel John, Varun Patel, Nicholas Town

3rd Place Water Walker: A Modular Floatation Device to Enhance Disabled Children’s Relationships with Swimming 
Community Partners: Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children and Shaler Adaptive Aquatics for Health 
Lorenzo Basa, Luke Byun, Soumik Chakraborty, Tyler Fritz, Timmy Green, Brandon Haines

Product Realization 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Eric Winter  

1st Place MyDose Demo Unit 
Bryce Aniszewski, Alina Dziamko-Chuhaj, Angelina Pampena, Dylan Tobey, Niccolo Valerio

2nd Place Macy at the Door (Final) 
Roshen Abdullah, Maya Green, Andrea Moore, Chirag Rajesh, Ethan Unik

3rd Place Protecting Product Inventory 
Madison Keczmer, Logan McHugh, Luke McLinden, Myles Naylor, Felicity Thatcher