Students Showcase Innovation in the Fall 2024 Senior Design Expo

On Thursday, December 5, the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering was proud to host its 20^th Design Expo. Held at the University Club, the event reflected months of hard work and creative, innovative thinking from students across seven disciplines. Sixty-five teams participated, with projects ranging from improved orthopedic boots and forearm crutches to a benevolent robot service dog.

“This event is always so inspiring,” said Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor in Industrial Engineering. “The energy as students share their projects and engage with judges, their peers, and other attendees is amazing. Their projects reflect the power of creative, collaborative thinking to solve real-world problems.”

Pitt alumni, faculty, and industry volunteers judged the event, and teams were sponsored by faculty and other Pitt schools as well as by UMPC hospitals, government agencies, nonprofits, and industry.

Winners below. View the program for the full list of participants. Visit Flickr for the Expo Photo Album.

DEPARTMENT AWARDS  

Bioengineering 

1^st Place Improving Bag Value Masks in Emergency Medicine 
Kelly Isola, Connor LaMarca, Ben McCutcheon, Rebecca Miller, Brock Pemberton, Madison Smith, and Erica Taylor 
  
2^nd Place Improved Speculum 
Aadhira Arun, Aashka Garg, Isabella Gaydosh, Malini Harinath, Sofia Milone, and Nalima Munyofu 
  
3^rd Place (3-way tie) 
The Re-Boot: Orthopedic Boot Redesign 
Kate Bonifacic, Gabby Brubach, Ruanny Cadima, Zander Coleman, Amna Imran, Danielle Scott, and Ritesh Shrivastav 

Adjustable Pediatric AFO with Locking Flexion Hinge for Diplegic Cerebral Palsy 
Grace Agnagnost, Olivia Curtis, Aritra Ghatak, Semira Kizhakkey, Kshitija Koli, Andrea Moore, and Danielle Yakubisin

IV Management System
Karina Atiegha, Jiaxuan Kong, Nikhil Madaka, Divya Narayan, Louis Sauter, Juniper Smyth, Sachin Srikar, and Nicholas Vasas

Civil and Environmental Engineering 

1^st Place (tie)
Allegheny County Intersections
Benjamin Carr, James Celebrezze, Cameron Dominick, and Jacod Gorham

Acid Mine Drainage Active Treatment Plant, Carmichaels, PA
Keith Coless, Claire Gendron, Daniel Larkin, and Claire Olmsted

2^nd Place Turtle Creek Connect Trail
Jonah Ansell, Zachary Dittman, Emma Easly, and Matthew Williams

Electrical and Computer Engineering

1^st Place Benevolent Robot Service Dog (BRSD)
Myles Fernau, Timothy Horrell, Roldan Kramer, and Krishna Patel

2^nd Place FPGA-Based Hybrid Audio Synthesizer
Ralph Baker, Victor Chiang, Vincent Jackson, and Matthew Prock

3^rd Place Automated Multi-String Guitar Tuner
Joshua Rioux, Jonathan Rodriguez, Charles (Baxter) Sewall, and Christina Sivaprakasam

Industrial Engineering

1^st Place The Heart of Healthcare: Improving the Cardiac Monitoring Process for Lifesaving Outcomes 
Brooke Busche, Robert Edney, Andrew Fox, and Zhuoya Tang

2^nd Place Enhancing Sustainable Mobility Through Efficient Warehousing Logistics 
Flynn Dymkowski, Asia Jones, Junyi Tao, and Katrina Vongrej

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

1^st Place In-Situ Monitoring for Defect Detection in Binder Jet Printing 
Dana He, Jiaming Huang, Aimee Lin, and Sai Namasivayam

2^nd Place Cooling System for a High-Performance Electric Motor 
Lucas Betancur, Andre Cortes, Benjamin Green, and Tyler Kenney

3^rd Place Design of Lightweight Broad-Band Microwave Absorbers 
Joseph Antonucci, Tegan Carr, and Abegale Jones 

Medical Product Prototyping

1^st Place Surgical Suite Select 
Owen Boccabella, Nicole Bohatch, Adriana Cocco, and Alec Maraska

2^nd Place Edema Detection Smart Sleeve 
Anil Siva Kumar Mekala, Varun Shilesh, Nikhila Simhadri, and Chengcheng Zhao

Product Realization 

1^st Place Pet Temperature Monitoring 
Nick Cessna, Veo Liu, Sofya Plokhova, and Michael Wang

2^nd Place Canales Blockage Elimination 
Lauren Coffman, Olivia Dodge, and Brett Wilson

3^rd Place DDM 24 Food Security Challenge 
Hermione Byworth, Aashka Gang, and Zack Layton