Swanson School Students Bring Ideas to Life at 18th Design Expo
From a pedestrian lift bridge and hybrid energy systems to surgery tools and fast fashion, the winning projects at the Swanson School of Engineering’s 18th biannual Design Expo revealed how undergraduate students were applying their nascent knowledge to solve real world problems.
Hosted by the School’s Office of Academic Affairs on Thursday, December 7, 2023, the Design Expo featured 70 student teams from across five departments, with some sponsored by faculty from other University of Pittsburgh schools as well as UPMC hospitals, government agencies, 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.
“Classroom lectures and lab sessions are the basic parts of engineering education; what makes an engineering student successful is being able to apply what they learned in hands-on research, development, and execution,” explained Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Nickolas A. DeCecco Professor of Industrial Engineering. “Since we launched the Design Expo in 2014, it’s become an end-of-semester competition that showcases not only our students’ ingenuity, but also their passion for engineering and problem solving.”
Winners below; view the program for a full list of participants. Visit Flickr for the Expo Photo Album.
Best Overall Project
Nasal Surgery Tool
Mentor: Michael McDowell – Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
Sebastian Gutensohn, Claudia Kiely, Briana Malik, Natasha Mody, Raymond Murray, Alisa Zhang
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 Colorimetric Urinometer Apparatus
Mentor: Jim Ibinson, MD, PhD – VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System
Zainab Almuallim, Christopher Garland, Stephanie Hachem, Katelyn Lipa, Edwin Rock, Nickolas Sierra, Ariella Tucci
2nd Place Nasal Surgery Tool
Mentor: Michael McDowell – Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
Sebastian Gutensohn, Claudia Kiely, Briana Malik, Natasha Mody, Raymond Murray, Alisa Zhang
3rd Place Regional Adjustable Pressure Prosthetic Socket
Kristin Bindas, Katherine LeClaire, Azariah Torain, Camilo Rodriguez Rozas, Madeline Viteri, Savannah Waymer
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Faculty Advisor: Professor John Sebastian
1st Place Bridgeville Pedestrian Lift Bridge
Faculty Mentors: Dr. John Oyler, Dr. Kent Harries, Professor John Sebastian
Industry Mentor: Justine Cimarolli – Bridgeville Borough
Justin Barlow, Wesley Conklin, Nicholas D’Andrea, Jenna Wilson
2nd Place Robb Hollow Intersection Improvements
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Mark Magalotti, Dr. Alex Stevanovic, Dr. John Oyler
Zachary Busch, Matthew Lewis, Griffin Mikovitz, Connor Mondock
3rd Place Chartiers Creek Dam Removal
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Werner Loehlein
Industry Mentor: Lisa Hollingsworth-Segedy – American Rivers
Victoria Herron, Cesar Rodriguez, Adele Sedlar, Jenna Sutton
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Mohamed Ashraf S. Bayoumy and Dr. Nathan Youngblood
1st Place Music Notation to Audio A
Mason Dill, Nathan Evans, Maggie Killmeyer
2nd Place Music Notation to Audio B
Jack Carnovale, Chloe Hale, Cameron Henning
3rd Place Hydropanic Chamber
Industry Mentors: Sean Dowhy, Ray Kovacs Jr. – Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc.
Ashton Bloom, Jake Higgins, Tamer Muddi, Killian Rush
Industrial Engineering
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Scott Streiner
1st Place Stop the Spread: UPMC Infection Prevention
Kathryn Burkert, Matthew McCormick, Michael Reynolds, Elizabeth Sidelnikov
2nd Place Efficient Heart Stalking: Streamlining Cardiac Telemetry Monitoring and Distribution at UPMC Shadyside
Ken Ching, Sierra LeRoy, Ahsen Malik, Anna McDonald
3rd Place (TIE) ID(ea)L Collator Configuration Analysis
Industry Mentor: IDL Print
Alex Amentler, Maria Luciana, Stephen Vandrak
3rd Place (TIE) Matching Moms to Mentors with Machine Learning
Industry Mentor: Nurture PA
Tom Chimes, Gloria Givler, Nicole Lipa, Andrew Polar
Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Schmidt
1st Place Acoustically Enhanced Uniaxial Extension Tester: A Novel Approach to Detect Tissue Damage
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Timothy Chung
Yuqi Chen, Peter Jacobs, Elias Mignogna
2nd Place Indirect Adaptive Control of a Cyber-Physical Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell Hybrid Energy System (Engineering Science | Faculty Advisor: Dr. Paul Ohodnicki)
Mychal Amoafo
3rd Place Design for Manufacture of a Loading Platform for Standing CT Scanning
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mark Miller
Ryan Bagett, Derick Basile, Daniel Schultz, Justin Starcich
Art of Making: Hands-On System Design and Engineering
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Joe Samosky
1st Place Custom Cane: A Walker-Cane Fusion to Make Bathrooms More Accessible to Individuals with Limited Lower-Body Mobility
Eden Brunner, Rachel Da Cruz, Aragya Goyal, Amna Imran, Joshua Summers
2nd Place The Fashion Library: Extending the Life Cycle of Fast Fashion Clothes
Lauren Gilfillan, Lauren Harrington, Caeden Wargo, Jason Worrell, David Zhang
Product Realization
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Eric Winter
Project Mentors: Marc Weber Tobias – Security Laboratories and Ilana Hull, MD, – UPMC
1st Place MyDose
Shreyo Das, Amilia Niksic, Jacob Rendall, Elizabeth Sidelnikov, Megan Toner
2nd Place Enclosed Space Control
Rachel Eskander, Paul Kyros, Rahul Reddy, Maggie Walker