Academics

College of Engineering announces winners of spring design showcase awards

Students describe how they designed and built their project, a roof mounted aero device. Sponsored by Volvo, the project was one of almost 130 on display at the College of Engineering Design Showcase May 4 at the Bryce Jordan Center. Credit: Stefanie Tomlinson / Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The winners of Penn State's spring Engineering Design Showcase were announced on Monday, May 4, at the Bryce Jordan Center.

A total of 127 senior capstone design projects were on display at the showcase, a culmination of a semester-long effort by students to solve real-world problems posed by industry sponsors.

Participants included first-year students through seniors across multiple engineering disciplines.

Ten teams received Lockheed Martin Design Excellence Awards.

The first place design excellence award winners are:--"Universal Z-Wave Switch Actuator" for ADT by Andrew Augusty, Neil Kruse, Tyler Kurkiewicz, Qitong Liu, Christopher Siedt, Tengxiang Wang and Derek Williams, advised by Gary Neal, instructor in mechanical engineering, and Fucai Li of Shanghai Jiao Tong University;--"Boeing UAS Cargo Mission" for Boeing by James Dryden, Rudy Haluza, Lerdlarp Jaturapol, William Saake, Adam Shrager and Marcus C. Thaw, advised by Wallace Catanach, instructor in engineering design; and--"Development of a medical device that allows atraumatic access to the colon" for TPC Design by Sarah Cosgrove, Adam Gordon, Kaylyn Hannon, Zhongyun He, Sa Liu and Junyan Shi, advised by Maggie Slattery, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and director of the biomedical engineering undergraduate program.

The following teams took second place:--"Railcar Flow Model" for ArcelorMittal by Kaitlyn Drawl, Michael Dunne, Raghav Handa and Ryan Veverka, advised by Ling Rothrock, associate professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering;--"Fork & spoon holder for a person with disability lacking finger strength" for the Central Pennsylvania SCI Support Group by Jenny Kohler, Brian Leap, JD Maguire, Grace Warkulwiz and Evan Witmer, advised by Sarah Ritter, instructor in engineering design.--"Automotive Massage Seat" for Ford Motor Co. by Ryan Barbaccia, Patrick Buckley, Andrew Farley, Kienan Ross-Robertson and Collin Smith, advised by Qian Wang, professor of mechanical engineering;--"Check Valve Outlet Design" for Marathon Petroleum Company by Ty Evans, Nicholas Joseph, Kain Place and Marc Rogato, advised by Qian Wang, professor of mechanical engineering; and--"Borehole Scratcher" for Penn State's Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering by Evan Ek, Ahmed Eleshaky, Emmanuel Oppong, Michael Rissmiller and Guanghong Tie, advised by Mike Erdman, Walter L. Robb Director of Engineering Leadership Development and instructor in engineering science and mechanics.

Third place teams were:--"Additive Manufacturing for Liquid Cooled Frames" for Lockheed Martin by James Herring, Michael Kloecker, Andrew Murray, Matthew Reading and Ryan Thatcher, advised by Paris vonLockette, associate professor of mechanical engineering; and--"Roof Mounted Aero Device With Actuator Positioning" for Volvo by William Archer, Yirn Ding, Max Engvall, Robert Ford, Joshua Franierwski and Axel Svensson, advised by Jason Moore, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Mikael Enelund of Chalmers University of Technology.

Three teams received best poster awards.

First place went to "Zero Package Stop Elimination" for FedEx by Jackson Burlew, Scott Cheloha, John Guda, Nicholas Krzenski and Peng-Wen Su, advised by Al Verbanec, instructor in computer science and engineering.

The second place team is "Impeller Manufacturing Conversion" for Dresser-Rand by George Monninger, Kyle O'Neill, Lindsay Skal and Kristine Stauffer, advised by Dan Finke, research associate at Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory.

Third place was awarded to "Coaxial Cable Pull Test Station" for Philips Ultrasound by Pratik Desai, Johnson Dong, Charles Helbling, Johnathan Rearick and Brandi Ritenour, advised by Gary Neal, instructor in mechanical engineering.

Capstone Video Competition Awards went to "Fork & spoon holder for a person with disability lacking finger strength" and "Borehole Scratcher."

The BP People's Choice Award went to "EcoMarathon Car" for Shell by Benjamin Echterling, Peter Pappe Pelgron, Daniel Peterson, Hannah Seeger and Benjamin Visnesky. The winning team is determined by votes from the audience and participants of the showcase.

FedEx received the Best Sponsor Award.

A gallery with more photos of the event is available at the College of Engineering's Flickr page.

Last Updated May 6, 2015

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