Current Projects

Spring 2023 Projects

Check majors below to filter projects by those majors only:

 

Legend: 1 = Primary Discipline | 2 = Secondary Discipline | 3 = Optional Discipline(s)

Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
AB Cox Enterprises Inc. Seed Injector for Hydroponic Hemp Microgreen System Smith, Tahira 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Our nutrient film technique hydroponic hemp microgreen system grows
highly nutritional hemp microgreens that are harvestable in 12 - 14 days.
These shoots can be used on salads, as garnishes, in smoothies and more and
they have higher nutritional value than kale. They even taste better than
kale. And.... NO - they won't get you high! They have nearly undetectable
levels of THC.

The problem is re-setting the system with new seeds after harvest is too
labor intensive for the product to be profitable. Therefore, we need a
seed injector unit to speed up the reload of the system after each harvest.

The seeds are elliptical and easily jam if the opening is not large enough.
The hydro system uses small plastic filter cups to hold the seeds as they germinate.
There are over 2300 little cups that each need 4 seeds dropped in.

The unit needs a hopper to hold the seed - using a 1-pint milk jug is
recommended for the hopper. The hopper should screw into the top of the
injector unit allowing the seeds to drop into a seed aligning funnel. There should be a door that allows seeds to pass through to fill a cavity (transfer compartment)
that only holds four seeds.

A spring loaded trigger should then be depressed to drop the seeds out of
the base into the seed cup. When the trigger is released - four more seeds
drop into the transfer compartment. This way each cup can be quickly
reloaded reducing the labor cost of the final hemp microgreen product.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
AB Volvo Penta 1 Hard Top Air Foil - GLOBAL WITH CHALMERS UNIVERSITY Vlajic, Nick 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

• Study the challenges in air foil design, and hydro foiling – literature, papers, IP etc.
• Design multiple large enough air foil wing ideas built into a Hard top for a 30-foot powerboat
• The wings must be foldable so that the hard top can function normally, however a new design is ok
• Design a flexible propulsion system that includes a wing for steering, control and stability
• Probably there’s a need for fins and stabilizers in the water which also should be included
• Design a flight control hardware system that controls the wings to compensate for wind etc.
• Safety is key, and the study should also include an FMEA
• Perform simulations on the final choice of design to be compared with the standard boat
• Provide design sketches / simplified CAD-models and simulation results of the final candidate
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
AB Volvo Penta 2 Pentaverse - GLOBAL WITH CHALMERS UNIVERSITY Vlajic, Nick 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

• Detailed investigation of Metaverse technologies and development – literature, papers, IP etc.
• Investigate existing Metaverse solution within OEM’s and the gaming industry
• Select a location, possibly a harbor, and design a simplified Petaverse copy of that
• Pentaverse should contain boats, vehicles, restaurants, workshops, etc.
• Develop ideas on how to test new products and functions, preform services and socialize
• Come up with novel ideas for services and other ideas possible in a Pentaverse
• Surprise us with how you think modern product development could be done 2030 in Pentaverse
• The end result should be a simplified working version of a small Pentaverse
• Include a business scenario and explain how PV should be managed and designed
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
AEDG 1 (Alternative Energy Development Group) Mapping Sustainable Ground Mount Solar Planting - Team 1 Toraman, Hilal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

As the number of ground mount solar installations grows, solar owners and operators seek to set themselves apart from the competition. By developing a nationwide map of native, low growth species which can be planted in order to reduce landscaping costs and potentially improve the ROI of solar installations, this team will garner real world experience while working with a solar developer who is committed to better understanding all aspects of the renewable energy industry.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
AEDG 2 (Alternative Energy Development Group) Mapping Sustainable Ground Mount Solar Planting - Team 2 Toraman, Hilal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

As the number of ground mount solar installations grows, solar owners and operators seek to set themselves apart from the competition. By developing a nationwide map of native, low growth species which can be planted in order to reduce landscaping costs and potentially improve the ROI of solar installations, this team will garner real world experience while working with a solar developer who is committed to better understanding all aspects of the renewable energy industry.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Andritz, Inc. Safety & Ergonomic Improvement of the Gate Removal Operation Voigt, Bob 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Andritz produces refiner plate castings that are transported on a hook and unloaded by a robot to work cells where an employee manually removes the gate contact. Castings are inspected and then transferred to the robotic grinding area for additional processing.

Over the past several years, there has been a significant increase in both production levels and new employees. Employee demographics have changed considerably and continue to be more diverse. We recognize these factors and the need to improve the existing workstations to prevent injuries.

This project would involve evaluating the current process and making recommendations for potential improvements. This may consist of ergonomic upgrades, engineering changes, altering work schedule models, automation, etc.

Deliverables -
• Review workstations based on ergonomic standards
• Provide recommendation for workstation improvements to safely accommodate a more diverse work force
• Analysis of potential changes vs current process
• Final technical report
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
AstaZero AB 1 Autonomous surveillance of restricted area using drones - GLOBAL WITH CHALMERS UNIVERSITY Vlajic, Nick 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

AstaZero is a proving ground located deep in the forests outside Gothenburg, Sweden built for testing of advanced automated driving, driver-assistance and active safety systems in road vehicles. AstaZero is a non-profit organization owned indirectly by the Swedish government and performs independent testing, verification and certification for its customers. An example of an active safety system could be the autonomous emergency brake system commonly found in modern vehicles.
Part of track security is to ensure that the tests can be carried out in a safe manner. Unauthorized people and animals must not be in the area. The area is quite large, and an 8-10 km long fence is needed to enclose it. Occasionally the fence is patrolled by security but due to the size of the area this is not done very often.
Goal
In order to reduce risks, AstaZero would like to be able to use an automated drone to monitor the condition of the fences around the area. This involves full automation of the entire solution i.e. mission planning, flight, video transfer, video analysis and possibly charging. At the project’s end a design showcase will be made on the AstaZero proving ground. It will demonstrate a situation where the drone patrols a section of the perimeter, and the fence has been artificially broken.
The task
In this global project students from Pennsylvania State University will collaborate with students from
Chalmers University of Technology in achieving the goal. Your task will be to automate video handling and analysis for fence integrity checking. The work will include the following steps:
1. Perform a cost-benefit analysis on automated fence integrity monitoring.
2. Make a technical plan for how the different pieces of the system should interact.
3. Automate video transfer from the drone.
4. Find a suitable image analysis tool.
5. Implement the solution detecting fence breaks in the video data.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
AstaZero AB 2 Orchestrated control of drones for EuroNCAP vehicle scenarios - GLOBAL WITH CHALMERS UNIVERSITY Vlajic, Nick 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

AstaZero is a proving ground located deep in the forests outside Gothenburg, Sweden built for testing of advanced automated driving, driver-assistance and active safety systems in road vehicles. AstaZero is a non-profit organization owned indirectly by the Swedish government and performs independent testing, verification and certification for its customers. An example of an active safety system could be the autonomous emergency brake system commonly found in modern vehicles. To show their customers the reliability of the safety functions, automotive companies regularly benchmark their systems in relation to the competitors’ systems - a task normally done by an independent party such as AstaZero, for example in the framework of Euro NCAP.
The execution of such benchmarking tests can currently be performed with the open-source control software “Autonomous vehicle Testing Operating System” (ATOS). This system controls test participants such as the vehicle under test, crash targets, and surrounding infrastructure. However, one of the requirements of Euro NCAP tests video documentation. Today the documentation is performed manually with a static camera on a stand and, if the test area is very large, by piloted drone video documentation.
Goal
The aim of this project is therefore to automate the video documentation of a Euro NCAP test by use of drones. At project’s end a design showcase will be made on the AstaZero proving ground. It will demonstrate a situation where three automated drones follow the vehicle under test from different angles as the test is performed. The three drones’ camera views can be accessed via tablets by a test driver in the vehicle under test. To increase robustness to e.g. wind influence or difference in vehicle speeds, the drones’ cameras will be controlled by an object detection algorithm ensuring that the cameras are constantly pointing directly at the vehicle under test.
The task
In this global project students from Pennsylvania State University will collaborate with students from Chalmers University of Technology in achieving the goal. Your task will be to automate the drone movements.
1. Perform a cost-benefit analysis on automated video documentation of automated driving tests.
2. Make a technical plan for how to integrate the different parts of the system.
3. Based on the planned ground vehicle path, generate drone missions and commands such that the test execution is captured on video.
Supporting information about the vehicle movement and planned path is available through ATOS.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
B. Braun Medical Inc. Create a method to output digital data for ISO 8536-8 Leakage Testing Dong, Cheng 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

B Braun develops IV Sets under the ISO-8536-8 standard. A lot of the tests in the ISO standards are physics based. Concurrently regulatory bodies and industry want test equipment and methods that generate digital data. The goal is to develop test methods/equipment that meet the A.3 Tests for Leakage of the ISO-8536-8 standard but also output digital data. The team needs to complete a Proof of Concept for the design(s) and/or a working prototype.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Big Jet, LLC Integrated-predictive command logistics platform Shaffer, Steven 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

We are seeking to build the world’s most comprehensive on-demand logistics platform powered by artificial intelligence, which focuses on specifically serving the disaster response and recovery industry.

This platform centers around critical government emergency logistics data and incorporates both government-level encryption standards (to meet the government’s security concerns), existing critical government command structures. We intend to incorporate certain communication hardware at later stages of the implementation, to achieve a more secured ecosystem (of encrypted software and hardware) to meet the government’s security requirements.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Boeing UAV Object Detection and Avoidance using Machine Learning Cubanski, Dave 0 0 2 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The aerospace environment is continuing to evolve with the introduction of unmanned aerial vehicles for package delivery and electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing air taxis to provide fast, efficient, and clean transportation within a local area. Boeing is also researching areas to implement autonomous solutions that further enhance the safety, predictability, and reliability of our products. This project will focus on a technology demonstration for a UAV that uses a camera-based object detection system to detect and avoid air-born obstacles.


Deliverables:

1) Research report on existing industry and regulatory guidance for use of AI/ML in aerospace applications.
2) Report on existing ML object detection algorithms and the selection criteria for the final solution.
3) Report on HW requirements, controller and camera, developed to support the selected algorithm.
4) Size, weight, and power assessment of possible off-the-shelf components (controller, camera, drones) and final selection criteria
5) Working prototype, including CAD models for any custom hardware to integrate the controller and sensor(s).
6) Video of flight demonstration
7) Final report
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
BP Wind Farm Wake Optimization Toraman, Hilal 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

PyWake and OpenFAST based Simulated wind farm – Generated Power and Wake Optimization
1. Continue development of a simulated wind farm using PyWake and start development using OpenFAST to achieve:
a. Prediction of power generated per wind turbine and by the wind farm
b. Prediction of wake from each turbine to all others
c. Addition of turbine performance multipliers
d. Confirm batch mode operation
e. Addition of real time mode simulation
f. Ability to add layout of a wind farm, turbine manufacturer, model and performance multipliers
g. Ability to save this simulation with a wind farm name for easy retrieval
2. Continue work in Streamlit on a graphical user interface front end of PyWake and OpenFAST to change inputs to the wind farm such as:
a. Wind speed
b. Wind direction
c. Wind density
d. Wind rose diagram
e. Number of wind turbine generators
f. Location of wind turbine generators
g. Importing of wind farm layout (X/Y coordinates)
h. Trends of all input and output parameters
3. Ability to:
a. Adjust yaw on each wind turbine
b. Adjust pitch on each wind turbine
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Bridges Health Partners, LLC 1 Clinical and Financial Impact of Care Managers in a Clinically Integrated Healthcare Network - Team 1 Purdum, Charlie 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Bridges Health Partners, LLC is a clinically integrated health care network and accountable care organization with a mission to improve healthcare quality, manage skyrocketing healthcare costs and improve the patient experience. One of the key functions is to utilize data to direct our care management program and meet our mission.

Bridges Health Partners currently does not have an efficient process to measure the clinical and financial impact of our care management program. Our decision to grow the program will hinge on the ability to show the value of adding additional care managers and care coordinators to our team.

The Learning Factory team would would utilize available data to develop and deliver an efficient, reliable, repeatable method to accurately assess Bridges’ Care Management Program impact on healthcare quality, utilization, and cost. This report would highlight successes and improvement opportunities as well as direct future hiring and maintenance of the program.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Bridges Health Partners, LLC 2 Clinical and Financial Impact of Care Managers in a Clinically Integrated Healthcare Network - Team 2 Purdum, Charlie 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Bridges Health Partners, LLC is a clinically integrated health care network and accountable care organization with a mission to improve healthcare quality, manage skyrocketing healthcare costs and improve the patient experience. One of the key functions is to utilize data to direct our care management program and meet our mission.

Bridges Health Partners currently does not have an efficient process to measure the clinical and financial impact of our care management program. Our decision to grow the program will hinge on the ability to show the value of adding additional care managers and care coordinators to our team.

The Learning Factory team would would utilize available data to develop and deliver an efficient, reliable, repeatable method to accurately assess Bridges’ Care Management Program impact on healthcare quality, utilization, and cost. This report would highlight successes and improvement opportunities as well as direct future hiring and maintenance of the program.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
CeCe J's LLC DBA CeCe J's Snacks 1 Product coding and tracking Purdum, Charlie 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

We need to improve the current manual process of labelling, date coding and recording of date codes of products that exceed FDA labelling and traceability requirements for food products. Improvements will need to be cost-effective while improving product appearance and product traceability.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
CeCe J's LLC DBA CeCe J's Snacks 2 Product drying Purdum, Charlie 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

We need to improve the current desiccant material to ensure product remains dry and fresh after production and packaging. This will include researching other types of FDA approved food-grade desiccants that are cost-effective to purchase and place in the product bags. Desiccants will need to be tested to ensure improvement over time vs. the current desiccant. Desiccant options will also need to consider desiccant placement in the bags either semi-automatically or automatically to achieve lower costs.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Cleveland Clinic Respiratory Institute (CCRI) 1 Improving Patient Scheduling for Respiratory Care - Team 1 Li, Jingjing 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Cleveland Clinic's Respiratory Institute provides world-class patient care by combining strengths in clinical care, research, and education. With over 170 pulmonologists, allergists/immunologists, infectious disease experts, and critical care specialists, the Respiratory Institute staff diagnose and treat over 200,000 patients annually with a wide spectrum of disorders in its outpatient offices, inpatient hospital floors, and intensive care units. Cleveland Clinic is ranked as one of the nation's top hospitals by U.S. News & World Report (2022-2023).

The Cleveland Clinic Respiratory Institute seeks to improve its patient scheduling for better resource utilization and patient satisfaction. In addition, they would like to use machine learning/AI methods to better personalize the scheduling process and match patients and clinicians. Finally, they desire a simulation platform with which to estimate the impact of scheduling policies on a variety of patient outcomes.

The Learning Factory team would utilize available data (much of it synthetically derived to ensure the protection of sensitive patient information) to develop and deliver an efficient, reliable, and generalizable strategy to effectively schedule patients and estimate the resulting impact compared to current practice. Successful development with the Respiratory Institute would establish a framework to improve the scheduling process across the entire Cleveland Clinic made up of over 15,000 medical professionals. The group will work with infectious disease specialist Shravan Kethireddy, MD, and IME faculty member Paul Griffin. It is desired that the group has some expertise in discrete event simulation (i.e., Simio), process modeling, and data science.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Cleveland Clinic Respiratory Institute (CCRI) 2 Improving Patient Scheduling for Respiratory Care - Team 2 Li, Jingjing 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Cleveland Clinic's Respiratory Institute provides world-class patient care by combining strengths in clinical care, research, and education. With over 170 pulmonologists, allergists/immunologists, infectious disease experts, and critical care specialists, the Respiratory Institute staff diagnose and treat over 200,000 patients annually with a wide spectrum of disorders in its outpatient offices, inpatient hospital floors, and intensive care units. Cleveland Clinic is ranked as one of the nation's top hospitals by U.S. News & World Report (2022-2023).

The Cleveland Clinic Respiratory Institute seeks to improve its patient scheduling for better resource utilization and patient satisfaction. In addition, they would like to use machine learning/AI methods to better personalize the scheduling process and match patients and clinicians. Finally, they desire a simulation platform with which to estimate the impact of scheduling policies on a variety of patient outcomes.

The Learning Factory team would utilize available data (much of it synthetically derived to ensure the protection of sensitive patient information) to develop and deliver an efficient, reliable, and generalizable strategy to effectively schedule patients and estimate the resulting impact compared to current practice. Successful development with the Respiratory Institute would establish a framework to improve the scheduling process across the entire Cleveland Clinic made up of over 15,000 medical professionals. The group will work with infectious disease specialist Shravan Kethireddy, MD, and IME faculty member Paul Griffin. It is desired that the group has some expertise in discrete event simulation (i.e., Simio), process modeling, and data science.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
CNH Industrial America LLC 1 Spring Return for Corn Header Height Control Sensor Basak, Amrita 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

This project will create a reliable sensor subsystem to detect the relative position of the corn header above the ground. The sensor to be used and mounting location on the vehicle are predefined. The design of the rest of the subsystem and components are in scope of the project. Success of the project is dependent on demonstrating better ground following capabilities over today's existing system within equal operating parameters.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
CNH Industrial America LLC 2 Disc Mower Contractor App Gall, Oren 0 0 1 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Determine sensory inputs for a trailed disc mower conditioner that could be used by a farmer or contractor to support business operations. The sensory inputs would be collected on the base unit and provide wireless connectivity to an operator's phone to integrate speed, area, gps location, etc and provide communication to the home office or 3rd party.
Project would...
Identify the inputs for collection that would add value to a customer
Determine how the inputs / sensors could be adapted to a vehicle, survive environmental application and transmit data to a remote device in the operator's cab
Determine cost effective method to collect, process / analyze and share data with the user or 3rd party.
Determine usage of the information for business functions - such as invoicing for work performed to a 3rd party or work accomplished by an employee.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
CNH Industrial America LLC 3 Analysis and construction of an electrically powered agricultural implement. Basak, Amrita 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

CNH has unveiled its first electric tractor, the T4 Electric Power. Already there an AEF standard(ISO Pre-DIS_23316) for electrically powered agricultural equipment, but few pieces of equipment exist. In order to develop experience with electrical equipment and identify opportunities for future products, we desire to gather baseline data and generate a proof of concept design for an electrically driven implement.

A primary objective for this project is to analyze and explain the standards available for electric connection of auxiliary equipment. A secondary objective is to design the experimental apparatus and DOE to collect consistent and repetitive baseline data. This ideally includes a sensitivity study - different speeds, different tillage conditions, etc - in order to compare impact on energy usage. A tertiary objective is to complete the mechanical design of an electronic drive of the given implement including analysis for performance, efficiency, and customer perception.

Deliverables for the project:
The ultimate outcome is to get data to support or refute the business case behind electrifying implements. To this end, the project is concerned with the analysis and construction of an electrically powered implement.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Constellation Energy Generation, LLC Cross-Tie Gate Insulation for Thermal Efficiency Improvement Mittan, Paul 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Problem Statement: Excessive thermal efficiency is lost because of conductivity through a submerged metal gate is too high. The impact is intake water to cool the Main Condenser of the Steam Cycle for both reactor units is not operating at design efficiency and revenue is lower than expected.

Project Description: A "Cross-Tie Gate" normally divides the Intake water from the Discharge water. This gate is metal and thermally-conductive. Insulation of some type is desired to reduce thermal losses.

Deliverables: A report outlining literature searches, analytical thermal models and other experimental work to demonstrate proper qualities is required. Students are expected to develop various options and work through proving an optimized solution for insulation. Experimentation and model building is encouraged.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Creative Persistence LLC d/b/a Seneca Woodworking 1 CNC Control Interface and Automation for Slab Leveling Jig Cubanski, Dave 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Seneca Woodworking is a startup that designs and manufactures precision woodworking tools and markets them worldwide through our ecommerce store and an international retailer network. This project will help us create a unique new product offering that we will bring to market.

In recent years wood furniture made from “slabs,” or large rough-cut slices of a log, have become increasingly popular as finished furniture one can buy from a furniture store but also as custom commissioned installs, and as projects for woodworking hobbyists. Making these types of pieces involves cutting a wood log with a bandsaw into large slabs, then taking those rough-cut slabs and flattening or leveling both sides to increase smoothness, uniformity, and parallelism between the two largest flat sides. Large production furniture shops will do this flattening on equipment that costs five or six figures like a large planer or a CNC router. Hobbyists and smaller shops will do this using a “slab flattening sled” which is a manually operated jig that usually consists of an X-Y gantry rail system like that of a CNC router except without any of the CNC motion control electronics. In this type of a system the jig holds a standard woodworking handheld router perpendicular to the workpiece while the user manually moves it in both the X and Y axes to surface the slab with a large fly cutter or surfacing tool. This kind of jig is a much lower cost way to accomplish flattening of a slab without buying a CNC router, but it requires a significant amount of manual work.

Many of these types of jigs available commercially are low cost and have serious shortcomings in functionality. In trying to resolve this, a manually operated jig was prototyped for us that improves on some of these shortcomings. The scope of this project is to create an automation component that could be sold as an optional accessory and added on to this jig when the customer’s budget or production needs make adding automation to their workflow a strategic choice.

While the task of slab flattening can be done with a CNC router, some users are intimidated by the CAM programming aspect of owning a CNC router, and would prefer a simpler, purpose-built tool for the job. We propose that it’s possible to design a controller that can be installed on the flattening jig and used to drive X and Y axis movement automatically with a minimal amount of input parameters on a user-friendly interface. For example, by entering the cutter diameter and total travel distance in the X and Y directions. More advanced parameters like federate adjustments and cutter flute count could be available in an advanced menu, but keeping this interface simple would hopefully lower cost and make the technology more accessible to people that don’t need more advanced CNC capabilities

The main deliverable for this project would be a microcontroller with user interface that is capable of driving servos or steppers to control two axis movement of the slab flattening jig. The stretch goal would be to make mechanical modifications to the current prototype and attach the system allowing it to function.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Creative Persistence LLC d/b/a Seneca Woodworking 2 Flat Pack Van and EV Camper Conversion Fixtures Lehtihet, Amin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Seneca Woodworking is a startup that designs and manufactures precision woodworking tools and markets them worldwide through our ecommerce store and an international retailer network. We're always interested in solving unique problems, and this project will allow us to use our current manufacturing capabilities to launch a new product line, possibly under a new brand name.

The Recreational Vehicle industry has been trending upward significantly over the last decade, and this trend was amplified during the Covid pandemic as more people were able to travel long term as their jobs transitioned to remote positions. As part of this trend, building homemade RV’s has also become more popular than ever. While “Travel Trailer” style towable RV’s can be purchased for less than $30,000, similarly equipped “Class B” style camper vans often are priced over $150,000. Because of this large difference in price, many people choose to buy cargo vans and retrofit them into camper vans. Part of the challenge in doing so is cutting and fitting fixtures such as cabinetry, seating, and a bed platform to the complex interior curves of a vehicle. We have identified a market opportunity to create interior kits to make this process easier. Plywood fixtures could be designed to fit the interior of a vehicle, then CNC cut and ‘flat-pack’ shipped to the customer for assembly inside their project vehicle. This would greatly speed up and simplify the process of building a camper van, while still saving the customer a significant amount of money compared to buying one of the commercially built camper vans on the market. There are a relatively limited number of variations in commercial van platforms from major manufacturers that are commonly used for these conversions. Flat-pack camper fixtures could be made for other common conversions too such as school busses or even “overland” vehicles where people commonly sleep in the back such as pickup trucks and SUV’s. We believe there is a significant market for making this kind of fixturing for the Tesla Model Y and the bed of common 5/6ft bed pickup trucks.

Many of the customers we currently serve own cargo vans or pickup trucks that they use for work purposes. Another potential opportunity might be creating fixtures that aren’t just modular, but also easily removable, allowing someone to give their work vehicle a secondary purpose as a RV on the weekend.

The main deliverable for this project would be a CAD design for a flat pack interior of one of these vehicles, and then to CNC cut and test one of these interiors in the vehicle it was designed for.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Danger Fit LLC Lateral Sliding Grips on a Barbell Hu, Xiaogang 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

OVERVIEW
This product combines multiple exercise movements into one which will
help the user generate muscle development, unlike any other exercise. The objective of
this project is to create two grips that can attach and detach from a barbell. These grips
must be able to slide smoothly and simultaneously to the left and right on the barbell.
These grips must be able to be locked onto the bar and still slide on the bar. There will
also need to be 4 safeties in between each grip. The safeties need to be able to attach
and detach to a barbell, they will NOT slide on the barbell. With these sliding grips, the
user will be able to widen and retract the grip on the barbell. These grips will be able to slide left and right in an easy smooth motion such as a smith machine. For example, when bench pressing, the movement of the grips will make it act as if the user is doing a press, pec fly, and close grip press. These grips can be used for other exercises such as rows, shoulders press, lateral raises, etc.

FINAL DELIVERABLES
Create 2 grips that securely attach and detach onto a barbell. These grips will need a locking mechanism and can slide left and right on the barbell. The grip will need to be 6 - 9 inches in length, 30 millimeters in diameter, and have a smooth surface so the user can grip them comfortably. They will have to work simultaneously, meaning they will need to extend out and retract back in at the same time and distance.

Create 4 safeties that attach and detach onto a barbell. These safeties will not need to move and they will need to be 1 - 2 inches in length, and 30 millimeters in diameter. These will be placed on the outside of each grip to help ensure safety.

I am also looking to test and improve the product throughout the semester as well.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Drucker Diagnostics, LLC Optimization for Laboratory Centrifuge Rotor Design Basak, Amrita 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Project will help optimize the rotor design for a small laboratory centrifuge to spin microtainer collection tubes widely available in the US healthcare market using water as test fluid instead of blood. Current designs do not include considerations to optimize total drag, pressure and viscous, on the rotor. By optimizing the total drag on the rotor, the total power requirements for the centrifuge can be reduced, which then would allow use of less costly motors, bearings, power supplies, and other elements of the centrifuge design. The project would include evaluating the current rotor design with hardware and equipment provided by the sponsor as needed to record the baseline power vs RPM curve. Then new rotor design concepts would be developed using CAD and tested using 3D printed, or otherwise manufactured, rotors to produce additional power vs RPM curves to help optimize the rotor design. Additional considerations may include selection of material as aspect of design to further optimize power requirements vs cost to manufacture rotor.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Exacta Global Smart Solutions Cellular based IoT using oneM2M Gall, Oren 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

An IOT device that operates far from power and communications infrastructure requires power efficient implementations, reduced complexity and sustainability. This can be achieved by using components that are already known and verified to work so that a developer can quickly bring a new product to market. Cellular devices are an example where the radio module components are formally certified to operate according to specific cellular radio standards. oneM2M is a global standard that serves to make developing IoT applications that can be formally certified as well.

This project will build and test oneM2M compliant devices (software) using the Thingy 91. The project team will implement oneM2M device management resources (TS-0023) that manage device information and software update procedures.

The team will learn oneM2M application development and embedded device programing using the Nordic Thingy:91 and Zephyr RTOS. The main deliverables will be:
A demonstration of updating the software on the Thingy:91 using the oneM2M device management protocols and procedures.


Additional requirements:
Applications shall be compliant to the applicable oneM2M profiles.
Modification of a oneM2M Upper Tester interface using AT commands to test the device management procedures
Target platforms: Thingy:91
Pass oneM2M conformance tests
Submission of project to international oneM2M Hackathon
Optional: develop contributions to oneM2M standards
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Fabtex, Inc. Child Safe Roller Shade Lift Chain Mechanism Smith, Tahira 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Child Safe Blind Pulls Retrofit:
Fabtex is a manufacturer of roller shades for the hospitality, healthcare, and cruise ship industries. The main portion of our business comes from custom orders submitted by various hotel brands. New regulations have been released aimed at child safety regarding the pull chains on shades and blinds and their role as a potential choking hazard. Both manufacturers and hotel brands are scrambling to find a fix for the future of the product as well as a retrofit to their current treatment in order to become compliant with the new regulations. Simple cordless designs that work in many residential applications simply will not withstand commercial use. The first commercial solutions have been presented as chain guards by many of the component manufacturers. Initial reaction is that this is a simple fix that still may lend to functionality issues as well as being clunky and not aesthetically pleasing. There is an opportunity to create a retrofit solution that will reach across all markets including residential and commercial markets.
Fabtex would like a solution that:
• Is functional, economical, reliable, and aesthetically pleasing, and;
• Includes a safety feature that would break should a child become entangled and indicates if the integrity of the chain has been compromised.
This project will involve design of a solution culminating in a workable prototype.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Flowserve Corporation Explore New Methods and Tools of Verifying the Dimensions of Cast Parts Lehtihet, Amin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Project Overview:
Traditionally, measuring and verifying the dimensions of cast parts with complex geometries have been a tedious and time-consuming task for the Quality department at our manufacturing facilities and supporting foundries. There are some proven tools used to perform accurate 3D measurement and inspection of parts like coordinate measuring machines (CMM) such as a FaroArm but these tools are still relatively time consuming to use and have a large upfront cost. We would like to explore other means of verifying the dimensions of cast items with complex geometries (i.e. impellers and diffusers) outside of industry standard methods. Finding an alternative method will help us reduce the amount of time it takes to verify the quality of cast parts and ultimately help us with On-Time-Delivery (OTD).

Project Objectives:
Understand current industry methods and tools used to accurately measure critical hydraulic dimensions of cast items with complex geometries.
Research and understand the drawbacks associated with methods and tools used today
Explore new methods to confidently verify the critical dimensions of cast impellers and diffusers
Create a CAD model and prototype of a tool used to efficiently verify quality of parts (using several Flowserve impellers and diffusers)
Present final deliverables to Flowserve

Project Deliverables:
Research report on current industry methods & tools and their drawbacks.
Final design of new tool/device/process used to efficiently measure parts including all drawings (item and assembly level; and/or detailed process description), design review documentation, and all other supporting documents.
If possible, the new tool will be capable of inspecting multiple specific speeds of impellers (i.e. a universal Go/No-Go device).
Create a standardized method paired with the tool to confidently ensure repeatability of manual inspections.
Summary report of testing and final design.
Final report and presentation.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Fresh Roasted Coffee LLC ERP System development Purdum, Charlie 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

use programming within ODOO to allow software platforms such as UPS, Fedex, USPS, Quick Books and shipstation to send exchange data.

also create a database for the aitems to ship from (9)
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas LLC REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL WATER LEVEL MEASUREMENT Ray, Asok 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

GEH AND BWRX-300 BACKGROUND

GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GEH’s) BWRX-300 is a 300 MWe water-cooled, natural circulation Small Modular Reactor (SMR) with passive safety systems that leverages the design and licensing basis of GEH's U.S. NRC-certified ESBWR. Through dramatic and innovative design simplification, the utilization of a licensed and proven fuel design and the incorporation of proven components and supply chain expertise, GEH believes the BWRX-300 can become the lowest-risk, most cost-competitive and quickest to market SMR. As the tenth evolution of the Boiling Water Reactor (BWR), the BWRX-300 represents the simplest, yet most innovative BWR design since GE began developing nuclear reactors in 1955.

Advanced nuclear technologies like the BWRX-300 are a key pillar of GE’s energy transition leadership. The BWRX-300 produces no carbon during operation and has been designed to achieve construction and operating costs that are substantially lower than traditional nuclear power generation technologies.

The BWRX-300 plant is composed of some major systems as shown in the attached Figure 1, including the primary circuit, or Nuclear Boiler System (NBS). The primary functions of the NBS are to: 1) deliver steam from the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) to the turbine main steam system, 2) deliver feedwater from the condensate and feedwater system to the RPV, 3) provide overpressure protection of the Reactor Coolant Pressure Boundary (RCPB), 4) provide the instrumentation necessary for monitoring RPV pressure, steam flow, core flow, water level, and metal temperature.
One key component is RPV, as shown in the attached Figure 2, which has an inside diameter of ~ 4 m, wall thickness of ~136 mm, and height of ~26 m. The bottom of the active fuel location is ~ 5.2 m from the bottom of the vessel and the active core is 3.8 m high. The relatively tall vessel, due to the chimney, permits natural circulation driving forces to produce abundant core coolant flow.

WATER LEVEL MONITORING AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Water level monitoring (WLM) in the RPV is critical during normal operation to maintain the optimum water inventory for core cooling and steam generation. In addition, it is imperative to maintain WLM capability during off-normal events and accident conditions in support of automatic or operator actions to restore normal conditions, or to maintain the plant in a safe condition. The primary WLM method in the industry is differential pressure (dP), which will also be the primary method for the BWRX-300. There are known issues with dP accuracy, especially during accident conditions. This project intends to characterize the conditions that cause inaccuracies and possibly develop correction algorithms to achieve high accuracy in all conditions.
Another objective is to support measurement diversity with other methods. Time-domain reflectometry (TDR) and heated-junction thermocouples (HJT) are the likely candidates to supplement dP. Test data will be obtained from these additional methods. This project can include analysis of the data to determine applicability and where improvements can be made. This may involve the addition of filtering, digital signal processing, and enhanced calibration algorithms.

The RPV dP level measurement schematic in attached Figure 3 illustrates the region where dP will be used to measure water level. Notice that the dP transducer pairs do not cover lower elevations such as over the core during low level transients. Therefore, other supplemental methods are necessary to extend WLM coverage. TDR and/or HJTs are the likely methods that will supplement dP.

A major challenge, and the primary objective for this project, is to understand how well each of the methods perform under abnormal conditions. One example is when a rapid depressurization event occurs and the water inventory flashes resulting in voiding and mixed phase layers or gradients.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
General Motors / Ultium Cells Battery Cell Manufacturing Monitoring and Analytics Ray, Asok 0 0 2 3 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Description:
-Design a System to monitor/alert operating personal of levels in sediment collection bins located throughout the Cell Manufacturing Factory.
Key Parameters/Background:
Battery Cell Manufacturing plant is located in Lordstown, Ohio
This plant is a joint venture between LG-Energy Solutions and General Motors
The plant is currently in a validation phase with start of production targeted Q4 2022
The approximate size of the facility is 2.8 million square feet (2 floors)
Sediment collection bins are located through the facility:
40 to 50 bins
currently there is no automated means to monitor levels; manual inspection required

The objective of this project is as follows:
Identify/design a mechanism to determine sediment level in bins
Design mechanism to alert operations team to bin levels outside of accepted limits
Provide alerts and levels on output device; focus on mobile device use
Eliminate need for manual inspection Solution identified for Lordstown plant will be applied to future Battery Cell Plants.

Benefit:
Drives efficiency and provides time savings in comparison to existing process of manual inspections
Provides a safe means of understanding fill levels of sediment collector bins without the need of human presence in close proximinty of manufacturing equipment
Eliminates the need to shut down production equipment to perform the manual inspection
Reduction in exposure of sediment to surrounding environment
Provides “Status at a Glance” for the user community consisting of Facilities and Production Engineers.

Deliverables:
Design a physical system to determine fill level of bins (bucket style and drawer style at Ultium). The focus of the previous semester was the “bucket style”. The focus of this project will be the “Drawer Style”
A prototype setup is acceptable (i.e setting up a mock drawer in the lab)
Provide an “electronic” means of alerting the end user (WiFi, SMS/Text message, Bluetooth, email, flat file, etc..)
Provide a user interface with provisions to set tolerances, alerting criteria, real-time monitoring and capability to add/remove equipment (expand beyond current quantities of equipment). Optimize interface for use on mobile devices.
Weekly status reporting with progression to schedule, list of tasks and any issues with mitigation plans
Final report summarizing learnings, instructions on use and expansion of system
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
GutenMarkt, Inc. DBA Bicycle Motor Works Developing a universal Bicycle Motor Works E-Bike Battery Pack Frame-Mounting System Basak, Amrita 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Bicycle Motor Works is need of a Frame-Mounting System that can be universally used with their entire E-Bike Battery product line. The requirements are as follows.
1. Durable, Strong, made of material that can withstand weather and vibration.
2. Frame mounted, universally adjustable for a wide variety of bike frames.
3. Dependably accessible and can be preordered or drop-shipped by seller within a few business days.
4. Does not increase production time, preferably decreases production time.
5. Cost-effective, at best; the solution is a reasonable short-term expense.
6. The solution does not jeopardize the integrity of the battery pack product line.


Overview of generalized tasks are as follows.
Possible solutions to fulfill the need of a Frame-Mounting System could be securing an existing frame-mounting vendor able to work with Bicycle Motor Works, improving the structure of current battery pack shell to adapt to a vendor providing mounting systems, or develop a cost-effective stand-alone structure that meets the highest standards.

Tasks include the following.
1. Analysis of Bicycle Motor Works product line, design and production process.
2. Research on current frame-mounting vendors, material suppliers and manufacturing companies.
3. Report the top solutions that meet all requirements, which include alternative solutions developed by the team and not mentioned.
4. Verify the most structurally-sound, cost effective and timely product solution.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Impulse Technology LLC “Made in State College": Developing Manufacturing Processes for Lower Limb Prostheses Hu, Xiaogang 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Overview: The objective of this project is to develop manufacturing processes for Impulse Technology’s product, a prosthetic ankle-foot. The company has developed a novel bio-mimetic ankle mechanism that is currently being prototyped by commercial service providers. In-house prototyping and small-volume manufacturing are of strategic importance. The problem description is thus two-fold:
a. Develop a manufacturing process for the current design using Impulse Technology’s benchtop CNC with aluminum alloys as the material. The feasibility of the machining process is the desired objective, not necessarily the speed or product volume. The deliverables will be fixturing and tooling for the designs provided and a demonstration of the manufacturing process with a prototype. Minor changes in the product geometry may be allowed to facilitate the objective.
b.Develop a thermo-forming process to induce foot-shaped curvature in rigid plates of carbon fiber composites. Conventional machining degrades the fatigue behavior of these composites. Therefore, the proposed path is a combination of heat and mechanical force after choosing the appropriate polymer matrix in the composite. The deliverable will be a foot-shaped carbon fiber composite plate and recommendations on the optimal values of plate thickness, mechanical force, and temperature.

Approach: It is expected that the team will comprise of students with prior experience or high motivation in CNC manufacturing. Impulse Technology will provide all engineering designs so that the team can stay focused on machining. The team may use the machine tools located at the Learning Factory to develop the tooling or machining process, but the ultimate goal is to have the components manufactured with Impulse Technology’s benchtop CNC.

The ME 440 team will collaborate very closely with Professor Aman Haque, who is the CTO and a Co-Founder of Impulse Technology. This project will provide useful experience for future engineers on how to strategize manufacturing for small companies without outsourcing. It will also illustrate how the choices in materials and manufacturing techniques govern the design to product transformation.

Requirement: The team skillset should be strongly focused on manufacturing (machine shop techniques). Exposure to designing for manufacturability is a plus. Prior knowledge of machine design or biomechanics of gait may be helpful but not required.

Impulse Technology is a startup company located at the Penn State Innovation Center. It performs research and development of prosthetic components.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
John Deere Compact Utility Tractor Headlight Alignment Test Apparatus Ray, Asok 0 0 3 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The John Deere Commercial Products, Product Validation & Verification Lab does not have a convenient way of confirming headlights comply with all applicable standards due to light pollution and required space. The goal of this project is to design and prototype a test apparatus that can be used to validate headlight alignment for John Deere compact utility tractors. The apparatus should be compact and utilize sensors, instrumentation, and software to predict the light pattern and intensity at the required distances.

Deliverables:
Demonstrate a working physical prototype, that can be setup in < 1 hour by one person, capable of testing LED and halogen lights.
Automated test report created from the apparatus.
System calculations, schematics, designs, and drawings.
Bill of materials with part numbers and cost estimates.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory 1 Rapidly Sinking Submersible Takaghaj, Sanaz 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Design the electronics of a small submersible designed to rapidly fall through the ocean to the sea floor (1,000+ m). This includes the electronic control computer (maybe a raspberry pi), some sensors and possibly actuators. The team will need to contend with limited space and limited power requiring the team to examine different options and make trade-off between functionality and low size, weight, and power (SWaP). Additional stretch tasks could be: 3d print a model to show a final layout and test in a shallow body of water, explore the addition of a spinning flywheel to help with stability, devise and incorporate a retrieval system.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory 2 Subscale Supersonic Wind Tunnel Facility Smith, Tahira 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Concept: Ground testing is essential to evaluate the design and performance of hypersonic vehicles. These vehicles are subjected to harsh environmental conditions in flight (extreme temperatures, pressures, etc.), which must be replicated in material- and component-level tests. Tests are typically performed in shock tunnel and arcjet facilities that are expensive to operate. However, a large test section and high-enthalpy flow are not required for material-level coupon testing.

Component Description: The test bed may be used by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to inform on-site wind tunnel design for material-level thermal testing. The prototype wind tunnel shall consist of a reservoir, converging-diverging nozzle, test section, and diffuser. It shall be capable of operating at supersonic speeds.

Technical Need: Design and prototype a wind tunnel capable of providing supersonic flow over a small (one square inch) material sample. The exit diameter of the nozzle should be between 3 and 6 inches. The wind tunnel should run using compressed air and/or a vacuum pump. The team may consider 3D printed manufacturing methods for their design.

Challenges: The design of a supersonic wind tunnel requires careful analysis to overcome key issues such as proper tunnel startup, sufficient test time, steady flow conditions, and uniform coreflow.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Keith E Gunuskey, dba Gunuskey Investments Safety badge creation Takaghaj, Sanaz 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

In the history of education, there has never been such a focus on school safety- and with good reason. School violence, particularly, circumstances involving weapons have been consistently increasing over the years, both in the K-12 and postsecondary institutions. Fortunately, most states have designated annual funding streams to help support schools and keep schools safe!

Many upgrades of building security measures are being proposed, funded, and implemented. Physical building safety is important; however, I believe the one area of safety that is being overlooked is PERSONAL SAFETY! Thought and creativity must be attributed to devising personal devices or equipment that individuals can always have on their person, which can save their life!

As a 32-year nationally certified firefighter and 25-year educator (currently Superintendent), I have felt the need to apply my two worlds of knowledge (firefighting and education), in an effort to make schools safer. In the firefighting spectrum, only having two hands is very limiting, which is why the fire service has brought to market many tools that perform numerous functions. It is this “swiss army knife” mentality that led me to the invention of a safety product that I believe reaches far beyond the education world.

All students and staff typically have/wear an identification badge. Instead of having a badge that only completes one function, my vision is to create a badge that has many safety options built within. An LED flashlight, audible alarm, window punch, seatbelt cutter, medical card, key chain, pen, id badge holder and mirror backing comprise the badge. The application of this safety device is further reaching than schools, as it would be applicable in government buildings, for college students, or anyone who would like a small, lightweight, compact, and multi-use safety device that can truly safe a life!

At this time, I have a general idea of the design of the badge, with colorful pictures and a 3-d printed model; however, I have not been able to add all of the aforementioned components. There may be a need to redesign/reconfigure the badge that I envision to accommodate all of the components.

I look forward to working collaboratively with a team of students to create a working prototype that can be manufactured and utilized throughout our schools and in the general public.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Listrak Inc. An evaluation of onsite campaign language related to ecommerce engagement. Shaffer, Steven 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Project Summary
Does language in onsite content matter in driving customer engagement?

Project Context
Listrak is a leading digital marketing platform trusted by 1,000+ top retailers and brands for email, text message marketing, identity resolution, behavioral triggers and cross-channel orchestration. Listrak is focused on delivering maximum digital marketing ROI to customers by leveraging its AI-driven data platform to optimize customer marketing strategies. Listrak seeks to explore and quantify the impact of various onsite campaign language on engagement.

Project Purpose
Website visitors are exposed to numerous onsite campaigns, such as popups and promotional banners, when shopping on ecommerce websites. These onsite campaigns are intended to help identify new marketable contacts by requesting opt-ins to email and/or SMS marketing.

Listrak clients execute onsite marketing campaigns with only limited A/B testing of their individual campaigns. By leveraging historical onsite campaign language to identify common characteristics that result in higher website visitor engagement, customers would gain greater insight into the potential strength of a campaigns language prior to launching. This would assist customers in creating engaging onsite campaigns resulting in increased subscription rates and customer satisfaction.

Project Pitch
Listrak is successful only when their customers are successful and remains laser focused on delivering solutions and strategies that deliver meaningful results year-over-year.

Students will work with the analysts and engineers from Listrak to understand the workings of eCommerce shopping patterns by using modern, applied machine learning techniques to help make an impact on the success of Listrak and its 1,000+ customers.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Lockheed Martin Control System Design and System Testing for Hybrid Electric UAV Power Systems Mittan, Paul 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Current electric VTOL drones typically are limited to an endurance of 1 hour or less due to the weight of state-of-the-art batteries. Hydrogen fuel cell powered UAV’s are starting to increase vehicle endurance, but are slow to gain entrance into the market due to the challenges of supplying hydrogen. A hybrid propulsion pack would enable current UAV’s to have extended mission endurance, while minimizing impact to the supply chain and user experience (some hybrid drones are coming to market with 4-5 hour endurance). The team will utilize and improve upon an existing hybrid power system designed for a specific UAV (Multicopter). The primary project scope is to design a closed loop control system capable of responding to variable load demands, performance characterization through testing, and small mechanical/electrical improvements to the hybrid system. The system design is constrained by existing space and weight requirements. The final system architecture should be a modular design, capable of interfacing with multiple UAVs of similar power ratings. The team will be expected to design a control system capable of starting the system and controlling its power split during operation. Through rigorous testing they will quantify the performance of the system (specific fuel consumption across a range of output powers) which they will be able to use to show the performance change of the UAV when switching from battery to hybrid power. After quantifying the performance of the system the team will power a representative UAV thruster with the hybrid system to show the closed loop control system is capable of providing stable and sustained power at varying loads. This project will be a multidisciplinary project requiring team with software, electrical, testing, and mechanical skills to be successful.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Manitowoc Cranes Welding Preheat Study – Determine Welding Preheats Required for Multiple High-Strength Steel Grades and Thicknesses. Voigt, Bob 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Manitowoc Cranes performs large amounts of welding to manufacture a crane. Preheat is required to have quality welds for critical structures of the crane. The cost and time for preheat can be very high. To be competitive in the crane market, Manitowoc needs quality welds without adding unnecessary extra cost and time required for preheat.

This study will determine if preheat is required, and if so, how much. The first step will be to calculate preheat by theoretical calculations. The second step will determine calculation accuracy by welding and mechanical testing. Finally, preheat needs will be determined using the calculations and testing data.

Students will be tasked with literature searches to determine the best welding preheat calculations. Students will also be tasked with designing test procedures to evaluate welds with various preheat requirements. Manitowoc will provide all materials for testing.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Matthew Fitzsimons Accessible Dog Care Tools Takaghaj, Sanaz 3 0 2 3 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

A 25 year old man with spastic quadriplegia among other physical and medical diagnosis has been in rehabilitation for many years and is going to be getting a new eye gaze controlled computer very soon to enhance his ability to functionally communicate and will give him access to control other devices that are blue tooth enabled or radio controlled within his environment such as a Television, remote car, phone, etc. (Computer specifications below) This young man has also recently received his first service dog to help him with activities of daily living. It’s been very exciting! The overall goal for Matthew is to give him as much independence as possible and for his new service dog, Ike, to bond with him and not care providers.

The project will involve developing a suite of tools that enable Matthew to control Ike’s feedings, give Ike treats, and toss a ball via his eye gaze computer or other trigger device that accommodates Matthew's physical capabilities.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Niagara Cutter LLC Rollomatic CNC Tool Grinding Set-up Time Reduction Lehtihet, Amin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Rollomatic CNC Tool Grinding Set-up Reduction Time / With Focus on First Piece Correct and Standard Fine-Tuning Procedure
-Assist in creating new or updating current tools for first set-up piece to be correct quality and in specification limit requirements.
-Create standard for fine tuning adjustment on Set up
-End result will decrease operator set-up time and reduce scrap/rework rate.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Penn State Health 1 Anesthesia Staff Tracking Board Shaffer, Steven 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The assignments of anesthesia staff to specific operating rooms are variable over the course of the day and reflects the cases being performed, how late an operating room is expected to run and who is expected to stay late that day. Currently most institutions rely on whiteboards or magnet boards to assist with staff assignments if not pencil and paper. The objective of the project is to transform the whiteboard into a digital platform which has the potential to be visualized throughout the hospital. This is a continuation of a Capstone project started in Fall 2022.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Penn State Health 2 Wearable Gait Sensors Hylbert, Lyndsey 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The use of wearable devices has been increasingly explored in the healthcare setting to promote ambulation as well as assess gait and mobility in certain populations, including orthopedic surgery patients undergoing rehabilitation, stroke patients and those with Parkinson’s disease. One major challenge we currently face is the balance between allowing patients to freely ambulate while minimizing risk of falls in the hospital. Initiatives to prevent falls have the unintended consequence of reducing patient mobility. One innovative way to overcome this barrier is to have wearable gait sensors that assess a patient’s stability while ambulating and can detect and alarm at the first signs of instability. This will allow care providers to intervene before a fall occurs.

This project would involve ongoing development of the work that was completed by the previous capstone project team. They have successfully developed an application that that uses the built-in sensors within an android phone to assess a person's gait while ambulating and assigns a "walking score." Any gait instability detected results in a lower score. The next steps would involve applying this to live patients and determine appropriate thresholds for alerting patients and nursing when early instability is detected.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PennEngineering and Manufacturing Corporation 1 Design a Vibration Test Machine for Micro-sized Fasteners Ray, Asok 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Background: PennEngineering sells a wide variety of micro-sized fasteners that are used in many industries. The fasteners are required to last years and sometimes even decades without failure. To simulate the life of a fastener, vibration analysis is needed to ensure that a fastener will not loosen or fail over time. This analysis is used to provide a reasonable assumption of a product’s longevity.

Project: The team will design and build a machine that will perform vibration testing on a selection of PennEngineering’s micro-sized fasteners. The machine must allow for a range of vibration frequencies and amplitudes to be applied to a fastener. The goal of the machine is to determine the life cycle of a fastener in a given environment before it loosens or fails.

Goals:
- Design a device to deliver a vibrational load to a fastener.
- Create a prototype of the machine.
- Test device functionality.
- Create a test plan of frequency and amplitude for specific fasteners.
- Test fasteners for loosening under prescribed conditions.

Stretch goals:
- Evaluate different fasteners and rank resistance to vibration loosening.
- Create a readout display showing the test conditions.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PennEngineering and Manufacturing Corporation 2 High Speed Signaled Production Routing - GLOBAL PROJECT WITH SJTU Rattner, Alex 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 3 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The Center of Excellence at PennEngineering in Danboro, PA has an opportunity for engineering students seeking an exciting Capstone project. The project entails the design of a scalable mechanical device that controls the path of parts manufactured on cold heading machines, and the rate of production reach 400 pieces per minute. The parts are fasteners fabricated from steel, stainless steel, and aluminum with thread sizes ranging from 4-40 to 1/4-20 (unified thread) and lengths ranging from 0.250 to 2.5 inch. Upon receiving an external control signal, the device must divert the part to one of three commanded path selections: good, no-good, and inspect. The default state of the machine must reject all parts in case of failure to prevent a mixture of no-good parts into good parts. Finally, the cold heading machines have different castings, and as such, the device must be modular enough to fit in multiple working environments and geometric constraints.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Pennex Aluminum Carrier and Safety Stops Redesign Smith, Tahira 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Basket Redesign
Scope: Design and test new material basket design that will reduce basket storage space in the plant, mitigate risk of injury through ergonomic design and meet DOT requirements for OTR transportation to other facilities.
Requirements:
Stackable
Light Weight
DOT Rated
Forklift, CombiLift and hand cart compatible
Able to be sized according to product length
Ergonomic
Minimize material
Heat Resistant (age Oven)
Weather Resistant
Engineering Skills Used
3D Modeling
FEA Analsis
Material Compatibility
Material Fatigue and loading analysis under heat
Ergonomic (designed for ease of use, over 5,000 cycles)
CAD and Drawing Ability
Knowledge of strength of materials and common manufacturing processes
Cast House Log Stops
Scope: Design and test weather resistant log stops as a key safety device for our log yard.
Requirements:
Stackable
Light Weight
Forklift and crane compatible
Able to be sized according to product length
Minimize material
Weather Resistant
Engineering Skills Used
3D Modeling
FEA Analsis
Material Compatibility
Material Fatigue and loading analysis under heat
CAD and Drawing Ability
Knowledge of strength of materials and common manufacturing processes
Chip Collection/Remelt Prep
Scope: Design a weather Resistant System to compact or otherwise prepare aluminum saw chips for remelt.
Requirements:
3D Modeling
FEA analysis
Electrical/Hydraulic System Design
Detailed Flow Analysis
Material fatigue
Knowledge of strength of materials
Knowledge of thermal properties
Engineering Skills Used
3D Modeling
FEA Analsis
Material Compatibility
Material Fatigue and loading analysis under heat
CAD and Drawing Ability
Knowledge of strength of materials and common manufacturing processes
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PFNonwovens LLC Elimination / Reduction of Waste Soap Solution Kimel, Allen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

PFN applies a soap solution for specific product requirements. During steady state production, little to no waste soap solution is generated. This waste is created during the clean-up of the equipment and while changing from one soap solution to another. The waste soap solution does have varying levels of soap concentration; however, it is mostly water. PFN currently collects and stores all waste soap solution as it is not allowable to pass to Can Do’s wastewater treatment facility.

The inventory of stored waste soap solution is disposed by an outside vendor who arrives on site one or twice per month to pump the waste from PFN’s storage to the disposal truck. This is a significant cost to PFN and it is a large waste stream leaving the facility which requires transportation and disposal. The goal for this project is to eliminate or significantly reduce the total quantity of the waste stream which requires disposal by the outside vendor resulting in improved costs to PFN.

Deliverables include design analyses with feasibility studies for potential options in solving this problem statement. A summary report and final presentation to discuss findings and recommendations are expected upon conclusion of the project.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Plantra, Inc. Biodegradable Stake Base Kimel, Allen 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

In practice, SunFlex Grow Tubes are placed over small seedlings to provide a greenhouse microclimate necessary to protect and grow small trees until they can survive on their own.

The grow tube is intended to remain in place and upright for 7-10 years or until the seedling stem diameter fills the diameter of the grow tube, whichever occurs first. It is recommended that the grow tube and support stake be removed from the field after the seedling tree is large enough to survive on its own. However, the current stake design, while excellent to promote healthy, balanced tree growth, is difficult to remove due to root system encapsulation and soil attraction and binding to the stake surface. Difficulty removing the support stake often results in some stakes remaining in the field or breaking during removal.

This project focuses on creating a two-piece grow tube support system comprised of a biodegradable stake base below and and re-usable fiberglass support stake above. The biodegradable stake base would allow for easy removal and reuse of the fiberglass stake and remain in the field to become fully degradable over time.

Important: Definitions of “biodegradability” and “composability” vary and where possible, established standards for these definitions should be included in project analysis.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) Develop a modular, water-tight version of the MUBot biomimetic fi Hu, Xiaogang 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

This project aims to create and demonstrate an updated version of the modular, magnetic, undulatory robots (MUBot) that has watertight, modular connections and a hydrodynamic skin. The students will be working with Dr. Matt Lear at PSU/ARL and Dr. Bo Cheng and students from BioRob-InFL lab at Penn State, who have MUBot. The current vehicle can be designed with different body segments/actuators, stiffness and shape as well as with different tail shape and stiffness; however, it requires a water tight skin and doesn’t have a single modular connector. The students in this team are expected to transform the existing design to make each section water tight and to have the electrical connectivity between sections through a single modular connector. The exterior skin which is now currently designed to provide the water protection will also be redesigned to perform a purely hydrodynamic benefit. Students should review the link for more information on MUBot.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Biomedical Engineering (BME) 1 Experimental Flow Loop Dong, Cheng 1 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The goal of this project is to create an experimental flow loop that mimics a Fontan circulation that includes a compliant anatomical structure. The system will include structures that can be adjusted so that a variety of physiological pressure and flow conditions can be attained. These parameters will be recorded and include a feedback system. The deliverables will be a flow loop that is fully-functional where feedback can be obtained and elements can be adjusted automatically.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Biomedical Engineering (BME) 2 Light activation wand for photodynamic nucleic acid therapeutic delivery Medina, Scott 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The objective of the project is to develop an integrated light delivery and sensor system that is capable of controlled light delivery to photo activate nanoparticle based delivery systems for nucleic acid therapies for the treatment of squamous skin cancer. The system should have a light source, imaging, light sensor and control component for automated light delivery in vivo.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU CIMP-3D 1 Topology optimization of a helicopter component using metal additive manufacturing - Team 1 Voigt, Bob 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

In 2016, the U.S. Navy flew the first flight critical component made with metal additive manufacturing (AM) on its MV-22B Osprey helicopter thanks to help from Penn State’s Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D): https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a22185/osprey-tiltrotor-files-with-3d-printed-parts/

The metal AM part that was flown was an exact replica of the existing component that is made using conventional manufacturing techniques. The objective in this project is lightweight the part to demonstrate the advantages of combining topology optimization software tools with metal AM processes.

The team will review the project report, develop a set of loading and boundary conditions, utilize suitable software package(s) to minimize the weight of the part, and compare the results for four different material options: Ti-6Al-4V, AlSi10Mg, SS 316L, and IN718. Finite element analysis and AM process simulation software will then be used to refine the top two design options based on reviews with the project sponsor.

Polymer prototypes should be printed out at each stage of the design optimization process to help document project results. The final deliverable should include CAD models of the top two designs and recommended build orientation, layout, support structures (as needed), and machining allowances to fabricate each topology optimized part using one of the laser powder bed fusion systems in CIMP-3D. Cost, build time, and print-to-part estimates should also be reported to document how the design matures throughout the design optimization process. Supporting results from finite element analyses, topology optimization, generative design, etc. should also be included in the project report to show how the design has evolved.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU CIMP-3D 2 Topology optimization of a helicopter component using metal additive manufacturing - Team 2 Lehtihet, Amin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

In 2016, the U.S. Navy flew the first flight critical component made with metal additive manufacturing (AM) on its MV-22B Osprey helicopter thanks to help from Penn State’s Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D): https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a22185/osprey-tiltrotor-files-with-3d-printed-parts/

The metal AM part that was flown was an exact replica of the existing component that is made using conventional manufacturing techniques. The objective in this project is lightweight the part to demonstrate the advantages of combining topology optimization software tools with metal AM processes.

The team will review the project report, develop a set of loading and boundary conditions, utilize suitable software package(s) to minimize the weight of the part, and compare the results for four different material options: Ti-6Al-4V, AlSi10Mg, SS 316L, and IN718. Finite element analysis and AM process simulation software will then be used to refine the top two design options based on reviews with the project sponsor.

Polymer prototypes should be printed out at each stage of the design optimization process to help document project results. The final deliverable should include CAD models of the top two designs and recommended build orientation, layout, support structures (as needed), and machining allowances to fabricate each topology optimized part using one of the laser powder bed fusion systems in CIMP-3D. Cost, build time, and print-to-part estimates should also be reported to document how the design matures throughout the design optimization process. Supporting results from finite element analyses, topology optimization, generative design, etc. should also be included in the project report to show how the design has evolved.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU College of Arts and Architecture Together, Tacit Mittan, Paul 3 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 1 3 3 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Together, Tacit:

Tacit knowing is knowledge that each of us possesses based on emotion, experiences, intuition, and observations. It is often described as a skill set that is learned through the act of doing.

In May 2018, I participated in a tour at the Palmer Museum with the Sight Loss Support Group of Central PA, stood beside low vision and blind individuals, and watched as their hands moved over two sculptures I exhibited in the Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials exhibition. Both works were figurative in nature. As I listened to a blind person translate my work through a sense of touch, it was clear that she was assembling forms, but I lacked the tools to access her visualization. Through my participation with these museum visitors, I became very interested in developing a project where the visually impaired and sighted could work together to build sculptures inspired by how both groups “see.”

“Together, Tacit” proposes an inclusive experience between low vision, blind, and sighted individuals to exchange one another’s tacit knowledge, through the act of creative collaboration. One workflow employs the use of a haptic, virtual reality glove, which has a vibrational feedback system that simulates a sense of sculpting in virtual space. Movements by visually impaired participants get translated as three-dimensional marks. These virtual shapes get 3D printed and become tangible models which, in turn, are used by sighted and visually impaired team members as springboards to collaboratively fabricate new forms. Collaborators begin to negotiate, communicate, and experience through the art making process to create a form that neither group, the sighted or visually impaired, could have built without the other. In this way, “Together, Tacit” aims to create a shared language that knits a meeting place between what we see, and how we know, through acts of experiencing, together.

SP22 DEVICE DEVELOPMENT
In Spring 22, Learning Factory Capstone team members designed a haptic, virtual reality glove that uses tactile feedback, rather than visual sensory input, in advisement with three volunteers from the Sight Loss Support Group of Central PA. Unity, a cross- platform gaming engine, was used to create the VR program with an Oculus Quest. Currently, the program provides the choice of a sphere or a cube for the user to begin with. From there, the user can access different sculpting functions (on/off, the sensation of carving reductively and adding material). Haptic feedback guides the *VIP in terms of proximity to the VR sculpture, tools being used, and the shape of their mark. As one “air sculpts”, a sighted person wears an oculus to observe, guide the VIP, and discuss the vision for the art piece. As this back and forth occurs, both groups are creating meaningful conversation where people connect without visual control. The SP22 team created a menu that allows one to switch between the Oculus controllers and haptic glove, a reset button, calibration options, and a way to save and export to a mesh for 3D printing.

SP23 OBJECTIVES:
The objective for Sp23 is to further develop the tactile feedback and usability of a haptic, virtual reality device designed for low vision/ blind individuals.

Expectations:

• Participate in a hands-on clay modeling demo led by Professor Collura, to become familiar with how additive and reductive sculpting in clay feels.

• With virtual reality, many different sculpting tools can be added, making the sculpting experience truly limitless. The Spring 23 team would be expected to develop five- six varied haptic sensations/tools that simulate varied, reductive/ additive sculpting sensations for the VIP (such as how scooping, pulling, pushing, pinching in clay feels). The team would be expected to correlate these actions with visuals that the sighted person sees in the VR program.

• Meet with volunteers from the Sight Loss Support Group of Central PA two times during the semester to receive guidance on usability.

• Streamline product design and develop thoughtful packaging so the glove, and related hardware, can easily install in a public setting (think public schools, community centers, libraries, long term care facilities).

• Launch newest prototype in April 2023 at “Hue + Light”, a symposium on art, technology, and equity that will be held at 3Dots in State College, PA.



*VIP stands for visually impaired person, the preferred acronym used by the Sight Loss Support Group of Central PA

Bonnie Collura
Professor of Art, Sculpture
Penn State School of Visual Arts
College of Arts & Architecture
https://www.bonniecollura.com/together-tacit
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Decision Neuroscience Laboratory Development of a Mobile Software Application to Assess Cognitive Impairment from Alcohol Intoxication Medina, Scott 1 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Alcohol intoxication is a serious public health concern that has significant societal impact. There is a need for the development of an “easy and reliable” technology to track and diagnose cognitive impairments associated with alcohol intoxication. This technology would allow non-invasive collection of data from human users to determine their level of cognitive impairment in order to aid in their decision making (e.g., deciding whether or not to drive home while under the influence of alcohol). The sponsor has developed experimental tasks to assess individual measures of risk preferences and cognitive control, which have been used to explain and identify suboptimal decision making behavior. Importantly, these experimental tasks have been used to identify potential neurophysiological correlates associated with individual differences in risk preference and cognitive control. The sponsor is looking for a creative student team to translate experimental tasks to a software application that will simultaneously collect information from a human user’s phone such as GPS and accelerometer data. Additionally, the sponsor would like the application to be able to integrate and collect data from other biosensors that may be attached to the user’s cellular phone (e.g., breath alcohol concentration, heart rate variability). This mobile software application would support the lab’s data collection efforts aimed at measuring engagement in risky behavior in the real world. The second objective will be to develop a machine learning model that will be able to use data collected from the application to determine the level of cognitive impairment and potentially differential individual states such as “intoxicated” or “sober”.

The team will need to: 1) Conduct background research on existing software applications, acute alcohol administration, and breath alcohol detection devices that have an open API; 2) Design a user-friendly software application to be used on a cellular device that integrates the sponsor’s cognitive tasks while keeping in mind data collection, storage, and access constraints and is able to access/store any additional data from other proprietary biosensors (i.e., heart rate, breath alcohol concentration); 3) Develop a method for acquiring, time-stamping, storing, and accessing data for researchers; 4) Develop a machine learning model that uses data collected to determine the human user’s a) level of cognitive impairment and b) physiologically-informed state of “intoxicated” or “sober”.

As stretch goals, the team could develop an IRB protocol to collect data from human subjects to validate the software application and demonstrate proof of concept; and 6) Collect data in laboratory and real-world environments.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Engineering Leadership Development (ELD) PSU Engineering Leadership Graduate Awards Smith, Tahira 0 0 3 3 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The Engineering Leadership Development program consists of an undergraduate minor and a number of graduate offerings. The primary goal of this project is to create a custom award recognizing undergraduates that complete the minor in Engineering Leadership Development (ELD).

Currently, graduates of the program receive a plaque with an engraved plate and a 3-dimensional Nittany Lion glued to the front (example to be provided). The goal of this project would be to create a new graduate award that utilizes equipment available in the current Learning Factory and the new Engineering Design and Innovation building.

The design team should interview current ELD students to understand what was most impactful to them throughout the program and how these experiences may be incorporated into an award.

The final award should be easily "manufactured" in the Learning Factory facilities, not exceed the cost of current awards, and if possible be customized to include the student name and graduation year. The time to manufacture the awards should be reasonably accomplished in one or two days.

The design team should provide a detailed bill of materials for a set number of awards, detailed manufacturing instructions, and detailed assembly instructions.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM) Building a Pressure-Temperature Vessel for Cement Samples Eser, Semih 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The idea is to build a pressure vessel to mimic high-pressure high-temperature conditions for cement samples in deep subsurface. Students are required to design and build just a pressure vessel with safety features during Spring semester. They can use machining facilities in learning factory to build this item.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Environmental and Biological Fluid Mechanics Lab Under a Rock: Insect Identification Mobile App for Outreach and Education Shaffer, Steven 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Students will develop a mobile application to help users identify and learn about freshwater macroinvertebrates (insects and other organisms) that inhabit local central PA ponds and streams. Users should be able to upload a photo of an observed organism, answer a few questions, and receive some information about what the organism is (ideally at genus level) along with information about its habitat, behavior, and ecological niche. The target audience is community members interested in the outdoors (all ages) and other special topics (e.g. those interested in fly fishing). End users may include visitors to Millbrook Marsh and Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. Students are welcome to explore new machine learning approaches or use existing open-source code (e.g. from the popular app iNaturalist).
Students will collaborate with Dr. Margaret Byron, an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering, in putting together descriptions of insect behavior and biomechanics. NOTE: Dr. Byron will provide advising on the content to be hosted on the app, but cannot provide advising on the coding of the app itself. Students involved in the project should have prior experience in this area or should be interested in learning.
Deliverables include: 1) A mockup of the app and organization/flowchart of its operation (early in the project) and 2) a prototype of the app that can be used by community members and updated easily by staff at Millbrook Marsh and Shaver’s Creek (final deliverable). Intermediate deliverables will be worked out between the team and Dr. Byron.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Hancock Lab Protein Purification for the People Medina, Scott 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 3 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Recombinant proteins are routinely expressed in bacteria and purified by column chromatography. There are expensive automated systems to do this, but many labs would benefit from having a low-cost alternative. There are published design plans for such a system that uses 3D printing, and there are a number of potential sensors and automation that could be incorporated into such a system. This project will build on a first generation prototype from Spring, 2021 and develop functionality and reliability of a low-cost protein purification system.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge Neal, Gary 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The goal of this project is to design and build a vehicle for entry into the ASME human-powered vehicle competition. For the first time last year, the competition rules were significantly altered to allow electric pedal-assist vehicles. The capstone team is responsible for either significantly altering the previous year's vehicle platform or designing and building their own vehicle from the ground up.
Deliverables include an operable vehicle, a description of the innovation over previous team's designs, and video demonstrations of several safety tests. Safety tests include roll over, turning, and breaking distance.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Kothapalli Lab 1 Focused ultrasound therapeutic transducer - Team 1 Medina, Scott 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Focused ultrasound is used in a wide range of biomedical applications, such as neuromodulation and cancer tissue ablation. This project team will help design and fabricate a focused ultrasound transducer and demonstrate its therapeutic potential.

Deliverables:
1. Develop a focused ultrasound transducer.
2. Characterize the performance of the fabricated transducer.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Kothapalli Lab 2 Focused ultrasound therapeutic transducer - Team 2 Medina, Scott 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Focused ultrasound is used in a wide range of biomedical applications, such as neuromodulation and cancer tissue ablation. This project team will help design and fabricate a focused ultrasound transducer and demonstrate its therapeutic potential.

Deliverables:
1. Develop a focused ultrasound transducer.
2. Characterize the performance of the fabricated transducer.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Kraft Lab Instrumented Mouthguard for use with 3D Avatars Hylbert, Lyndsey 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Traumatic brain injury is a significant health concern for many athletes and soldiers. Novel technology that can diagnose, track and aid in the treatment of brain injury is critically needed. The sponsor has been working to create a sensor-enabled, cloud-based computing platform that predicts brain injuries based on sensors implanted in mouthguards. The computing platform is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and uses finite element modeling to predict intracranial brain strain – a leading indicator of mild traumatic brain injury. Once a player experiences an impact, the sensor company calls the brain simulation Application Programming Interface (API) and sends the impact data (accelerations) for the player. Once the impact data arrives at the cloud, a finite element mesh is needed to compute the solution. Interestingly, the computing platform uses technology from the gaming industry to create individual-specific avatars which are then used to make the finite element mesh. The anatomical head shape and dimensions play an important role in the biomechanical response of the brain.
The purpose of this capstone design project is to extend the study of the accuracy of the Avatar3D technology in representing the true shape of the human head. To make individual-specific finite element models, individuals are asked to take a profile or ‘selfie’ upon account creation. When the selfie is uploaded, it is sent to the Avatar3D Application Programming Interface (API) which transforms the two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional surface. Then, radial basis functions are used to scale a template finite element mesh of the skull and brain to a ‘target’ three-dimensional surface created from the avatar algorithm, which relies on machine learning and machine vision.
The basic concept is to generate avatars using the machine learning/machine vision approach and compare that to ‘fully resolved’ approach where laser scanning is used to generate point clouds of the true head shape. This capstone design project will extend and apply the developed algorithms to develop a statistically based characterization of the methods. The team will need to:
1. Conduct background research on existing techniques to compare geometrical shapes and study the current algorithm implemented. The team will be required to make changes as needed. The methods should be reproducible and posted on Github for open access.
2. Review and update Penn State Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to collect human data. Members of the team will need to become members on the IRB study team and may need to update the current IRB.
3. Collect Data. Obtain at least 30-point cloud scans using a Structure sensor mounted on an iPad. The team is encouraged to collect data from a diverse set of individuals (e.g., sex, ethnicity, hair styles, etc). Work with the sponsor to identify demographic distributions.
4. Provide statistical results on the comparison between laser scans and AI-derived head shapes. Important: comparison on shape AND absolute size are required.
5. (Optional) Development of a web-based tool, written in React.js for uploading Structure Sensor scan and selfie for comparison. For this your script that generates the similarity index should be hosted on a backend web server like, AWS and have frontend user interface. (The sponsor has the cloud-based accounts and web domains that can be used.)
At the conclusion of the project, you should be able to provide a statistically based statement about the accuracy of the avatar3d method in representing the true shape of the human head.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Law, Policy, and Engineering (LPE) Designing a Community Engagement Booth to capture public engagement and create awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals Toraman, Hilal 0 0 3 2 0 0 3 1 0 3 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Overview

The team is tasked with designing a community engagement booth with AI capabilities to empower, encourage participation, give visibility, and help advance the Sustainable Development Goals. The booth should be an inexpensive pop-up booth that can be placed in different community environments to record various community feedback through set prompts. It should have the capability to record testimonies/images/videos that can be posted on social media accompanied with hashtags to create awareness and bring visibility to causes/projects surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals and capture peoples issues and concerns. Participants responses should include datapoints that can be retrieved an analyzed.

Deliverables

- Design of Portable Pop-Up Community Engagement Booth
- Functioning prototype of Community Engagement Booth that is tested with participants
- AI program with prompts and data points to be collected from Booth and analyzed
- Social media campaign that gives visibility to Sustainable Development Goals and why these matter, to encourage participation of stakeholders
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Learning Factory 1 Learning Factory team tweaking dashboard and tool Shaffer, Steven 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Each semester we place approximately 500-700 students on Learning Factory project teams. The original assignments are made using an optimization algorithm. Then they are manually tweaked to improve project balance.

Once those assignments are made, the faculty meet to move students around and further balance the teams. To do this, we create a giant (e.g., 750 page) PDF with all of the projects and students in it. Each project/team and student is represented by a single page in the PDF. The pages contain important information like the availability and interests of the student, etc. The PDF is currently created by an outdated Python script.

For this project you will create a Dashboard that allows us to visualize the overall status of the team composition, size, etc. It will also help faculty visualize the composition of their teams, quickly identify those that need modification and allow us to easily move members across teams by trading with other faculty.

We have two versions of a beta version of this tool created by teams last semester--but neither works! You can strip those projects for parts and create something that really works this semester.

This is a real world problem that has the opportunity to improve the capstone experience for a large number of students (and the Director of the Learning Factory)!
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Learning Factory 2 Take the Learning Factory Vending Machine to Prime Time Gall, Oren 0 0 1 2 0 0 3 0 0 3 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Last year a group of students created a vending machine for the Learning Factory:

https://youtu.be/aiXvwos3hwY

The idea is that Instead of taking cash, it uses Learning Factory Points, which students can earn through participation in LF activities. They can exchange these points in the vending machine for candy bars, LF swag, and cool materials and supplies like LED light strips and Arduinos. The machine they created looked great, but had some fundamental problems (like working reliably). That machine is now in salvage.

Last semester a group of students created a second vending machine. It currently lives in the Learning Factory and mostly works. We need a team to improve several aspects of the current version. We would like a larger screen that is protected (the current screen and cables are outside of the machine). We want the screen to show pictures of the thing being purchased as well. Finally, the whole experience needs to be improved, so there are lots of opportunities for innovation here.

This machine plays an important part in our plans for the new Design and Innovation Building, so your work will impact students for many years to come.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Magneto-Active Commposites and Structures (MACS) Lab Cooling, Housing, and Powering of a Tabletop Electromagnet Hu, Xiaogang 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Overview:

The Magneto-Active Composites and Structure (MACS) Laboratory at Penn State develops flexible devices and soft robots that are actuated using magnetic fields. These devices find applications in swimming, terrestrial locomotion, grasping, push-pull and other applications for a range of fields including biomedical devices and origami engineering.

To test these devices the MACS Lab uses an array of electromagnetic field generators, including a tabletop E-Core magnet. The magnet was fabricated years ago by another PSU Capstone team. When in use, the magnet heats up, decreasing its maximum possible magnetic field, therefore it requires cooling for sustained use. The existing cooling system needs to be replaced.

Additional needs include better wire management and an electrical shut-off for safety concerns. Also, the magnet currently rests awkwardly, sitting on its wound coils, on a given surface. A better supporting or mounting structure is required.

Deliverables:

The sponsor envisions that this project will have three deliverables.

1) A Cooling system: A standard cooling method for these magnets is to flow suitable coolant directly over the coils to extract heat, then extract heat from the coolant before recirculating it back through the coils. This will require selection of a suitable coolant material (one method uses deionized water). The system should display the current magnet and coolant temperatures at a minimum. It would beneficial if status lights (red-yellow-green) based on preset temperatures were also displayed. Quick disconnects and valving should be included such that coolant lines can be easily disconnects and reconnected from the magnet for transport. Specifications for a suitable laboratory chiller to remove heat from the coolant should be determined and then the device should be procured and integrated with the magnet.

2) The electrical system: The magnet is powered by the 30A supply to which it is hardwired. Instead, the sponsor seeks to have the magnet wired to an enclosed terminal block that can also be dis/connected separately to a power supply. There should be a manual shutoff in this terminal.

3) The housing: Herein the sponsor seeks housing that a) reversibly fixes the magnet level on a transportable, non-conducting platform, b) has space for mounting the terminal block from (2), c) allows orderly arrangements of all electrical wiring and coolant lines, and d) provides a riser in between the magnet poles that is level with the pole faces. A bonus would be if the riser is 1/4-20 tapped on 1” spacings.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Mechanical Engineering 1 Wearable shearwave elastography device for evaluation of muscle function Dong, Cheng 1 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Shear wave elatography (SWE) is an ultrasonic method in which shear wave speed is used to evaluate the shear modulus (stiffness) of a tissue. Shear waves travel faster in tissues with a higher shear modulus. Shear wave can be generated using high-intensity focused ultrasound pulses. The speed of the waves can also be measured using ultrasound pulses and signal processing. SWE is emerging as a promising technique to measure forces from individual muscles. It has been shown that active and passive forces are linearly proportional to the change in shear modulus during muscle contraction. This proportionality can enable evaluation of the function of individual muscles without the need of models and assumptions, which is difficult to do with traditional biomechanics methods. Unfortunately, SWE in muscles has only been using clinical ultrasound scanners and static body tasks. Clinical ultrasound transducers are difficult to attach to the body and the cord connecting the transducer to the scanner limits the ability of the subject of performing dynamic tasks. A wearable ultrasound SWE device can potentially solve the limitations of the current elastography method. Such device can be instrumental in studying several musculoskeletal pathologies characterized by the dysfunction or deterioration of one muscle within a group of agonist muscles.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Mechanical Engineering 2 Immersive Virtual Reality Experiences for ME 360 Mechanical Design Hu, Xiaogang 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Machine design is a required course in all mechanical engineering undergraduate programs. Machine design is an iterative decision-making process that requires students to select and assemble machine elements to create a device that performs a desired task. A machine designer must possess knowledge of basic sciences like physics and chemistry and have a familiarity with machine components such as shafts, gears, and pulleys. Machine design is not only applied science and engineering, but also an art in which aesthetic sense plays a very important role. Considerable imagination is required for designing a suitable mechanism for any given purpose. However, most students lack familiarity with machine components and may have never seen such elements work in real-world applications. Due to the size, cost, and logistical challenges (large class sizes and limited time for students to interact with a device), it is commonplace to teach machine design without the use of physical devices or machines. Instead, instructors often rely on images, videos, and CAD models to demonstrate the functionality of machine components. But this approach still lacks the hands-on feel expected for this course. Additionally, to use devices known by the students, instructors may utilize cars as examples for class. This can contribute to equity issues since some students may not be as motivated by this type of machine which can contribute to some feeling like mechanical engineering isn’t for them

Innovative technologies such as virtual reality (VR) offer potential solutions to the persistent challenge of learning about machine design without physically interacting with the machine and its individual parts. The objective of the project is to create two immersive virtual reality experiences to familiarize students with the machine elements covered in ME 360 Machine Design. The machines or devices used in the immersive experience should have as many elements covered in the ME 360 course as possible. Additionally, the experience should include traditional and non-traditional (i.e., not car-related) machines/devices.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Mechanical Engineering 3 Develop a mobile app controller for MUBot biomimetic fish Shaffer, Steven 0 0 3 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

This project will continue a previous effort in spring 2022 to design a STEM education platform to enable K-12 students to create and program their own robotic fishes for play, competition and learning. The students will be working primarily with Dr. Bo Cheng’s team in BioRob-InFL lab at Penn State, but will also interact with Dr. Matthew Lear’s team at Applied Research Lab, and Dr. Guha Manogharan’s team at Penn State. Dr. Lear is leading the effort to develop a modular, water-tight version of the MUBot biomimetic fish, and Dr. Manogharan is learning the effort to enable 3D printing and electronic packaging for fabrication of the MUBot biomimetic fish.
Dr. Cheng’s team has developed prototypes of modular, magnetic, undulatory robots (MUBot), which is capable of swimming faster than 1.5 body length per second. MUBot can also be designed with different body segments/actuators, stiffness and shape as well as with different tail shape and stiffness. The students in this team are expected to transform the existing designs into a K-12 education platform. Specifically, this platform will allow K-12 students to 1) easily design and assembly their own robotic fish based on the modular design of MUBot, 2) program the swimming gaits of the robot using a custom computer or mobile phone software, 3) play and compete with each other in a mini swimming pool with multiple lanes, and 4) learn basics of robotics, fluid dynamics, control and fish biology in the above activities. The students in this team are also expected to consult and communicate with Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania in the development.
This capstone team will focus on the software aspect of this project, and to develop an app in smartphone for controlling MUBot biomimetic fish.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Mechatronics Research Lab 1 Design and testing of a micropump for batteries with internal electrolyte flow Rahn Chris 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Motivation
Flowing electrolyte has been demonstrated to be effective for dendrite suppression during metal electrodeposition in battery applications. Conventional flow batteries adapt external pumps connected to electrolyte reservoirs for electrolyte circulation. Novel pumping devices/methods embedded in batteries are needed for compact batteries.

Description
The goal of this project is to design a pumping device that can be integrated into a cylindrical Ni/Zn battery (54 mm dia. and 222 mm length) containing potassium hydroxide (KOH) electrolyte. The pump is expected to achieve electrolyte circulation with micrometer-per-second flow rates within the battery and require as little space, weight, and cost as possible. The pump needs be submerged in the KOH solution, so it needs to be chemically resistant. The final deliverable for this project is a 3D printed “battery” consisting of a 54mmX222mm hollow tube with a pump integrated into the top and/or side walls of the tube. The pump should circulate water through the tube at rates from -3 mL/s to +3 mL/s. The size and weight of the pump and fluid track should be minimized and less than 50 cm3 and 100 g, respectively. The pump should be able to provide 1 psi of pressure at maximum flow rate. The pump should cost less than $2.50. The pump should be operable by an external AAA alkaline battery for one hour.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Mechatronics Research Lab 2 Design, development, and testing of an electromechanical flapping wing oscillator Rahn Chris 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Description: An oscillator is a vibrating mass that produces linear or angular vibrations. There are numerous useful applications of an oscillator, which include flapping wing system for flapping wing robots, machining instruments that use vibrations, vibration testing equipment, and speakers. One of the methods used to produce vibrations in an oscillator is by using a DC motor. The precise amplitude and frequency of oscillations can be controlled via the input voltage to the DC motor, which in turn applies the required force to the oscillator mass. The applied force overcomes the inertia of the oscillator as well as the internal and external damping experienced by the oscillator. The inertial component of this force can be reduced or eliminated by attaching a spring to the mass, parallel to the motor, such that the system functions at the resonant frequency of the oscillator (that includes spring). Therefore, the power required to produce vibrations is reduced.

In this project, the primary goal is to design, develop, and test a flapping wing oscillator which does not include a spring. Instead, an inductor (and/or capacitor) is used to eliminate the inertial force requirements (see the figure below for an illustration of the system). Specifically, you need to develop an oscillator that functions at a damping ratio of less than 0.3. You are free to choose any motor, flapping wing, and inductor, however, the oscillator flapping frequency should be in the range 5 – 40 Hz, the weight and size of the motor and electronics should be as low as possible, and the gear ratio N_g should be 1 (i.e. not gearbox). Your first step towards achieving this goal will be to develop a theoretical background required to design such a system, using the literature provided to you. This should be followed by designing the oscillator by selecting appropriate motor, wing, and other electrical components. Finally, the oscillator should be developed, and its behavior should be characterized by oscillating it at different frequencies and estimating the inertial energy savings at each of these frequencies, as well as developing measuring the frequency response between a voltage input and flapping wing amplitude output. The resonant frequency and the corresponding damping ratio should be characterized. The observed behavior of the system should be compared with the theoretical behavior and the reasons for discrepancies should be identified and discussed in the final report.

Deliverables: A flapping wing oscillator device without a mechanical spring that demonstrates a damping ratio of < 0.3 and flapping frequency in the range 5 - 40 Hz.
Final project report and presentation that explains the design procedure, your choice of components, the system’s behavior, and detailed explanation of reasons for discrepancies between theoretical and observed behavior.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Mechatronics Research Lab 3 Handheld 3D Printed Water Pump Rahn Chris 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Background: Additive manufacturing has the potential to revolutionize the design of mechanical components for aerospace applications. The incorporation of fluids inside metal parts can add damping to the stiffness and strength. The concept shown in the figure above includes additively manufactured fluid chambers and inertia tracks that can be tuned to provide the desired static and dynamic performance in the challenging rotorcraft application. Designing and building these complex fluidlastic systems require a strong understanding of how to build chambers, pumping units, and inertia tracks inside structures. This project builds a handheld demonstrator that includes these elements to show how internal compliant structures in a solid part can move fluid as the part vibrates.

Design: The deliverable for this capstone project is a polymer 3D-printed water pump. The pump has a beam-shaped monolithic design with internal functional fluidic components. The pump contains an upper and a lower chamber connected with a fluid track. The fluid track incorporates a one-way valve that facilitates unidirectional fluid flow and a flow control needle valve that controls flow volume. The pump incorporates external filling ports that enable the filling of the device with a fluid. The device needs to be filled such that no air bubbles are formed inside the chambers or the fluid track. Additionally, two handholds are incorporated at the ends of the beam that enable gripping the device for actuation.

Working Principle: To pump the fluid, the device is bent, which causes elastic deformation in the upper and lower chamber walls, changing the chambers' volumes. This deformation results in a volumetric gradient between the upper and the lower chamber that drives the fluid through the fluid track. By bending the device back and forth, the one-way valves make the fluid go in a loop from the top chamber to the bottom and then back up to the top. This device also stiffens when the fluid track flow is restricted. When the device is bent, the pressure generated due to volume changes self-corrects the device’s deformation. This self-correction caused by restricted fluid flow makes the device much stiffer compared to when the fluid is allowed to flow through the fluid track.

Analytical Modeling: Analytical modeling of the chamber walls has been undertaken to estimate the fluid flow. The volumetric gradient driving the fluid flow depends on the compliance of the chamber walls. The compliance of the chambers depends on three design parameters, wall geometry, wall thickness, and the constitutive material. Several possible chamber wall geometries that can be used to vary compliance. Euler-Bernoulli beam theory will be used to develop an analytical model that predicts the deflection of the chamber walls based on the design parameters being used. The deflection of the chamber walls will be used to estimate the volumetric gradient being produced between the chambers. By changing different design parameters, desired fluid flow can be achieved based on application requirements. The team will be provided with optimal chamber geometries for fabrication.

Manufacturing: The water pump will be 3D printed using Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) using a transparent polymer as the base material. The transparent material will allow for an easy demonstration of the pumping mechanism. Design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) principles need to be considered during the design of the device. For instance, geometric features with overhangs less than 45 degrees will require support structures that will be impossible to remove from the internal cavities thereby affecting their functionality. The device must be manufactured with no internal supports inside the top and bottom chamber and the fluid track. Fixtures for filling ports and needle valves should be additively manufactured into the device. This would enable easy installation and proper functions of the one-way needle valve and NPT fixtures required for filling the chambers. Finally, one-way valves will be incorporated in the two fluid tracks.

Experimental testing: The device should be filled with water dyed with blue ink. A repeatable filling setup should be used to fill the device to make sure no air pockets are formed in the chambers or the fluid track. A bending force will be applied on the device using the handholds and the fluid actuation will be observed. The needle valve will then be closed to observe an increase in stiffness when the device is actuated.

Project Challenges:
• Designing the geometry of the chambers, fluid tracks, one-way valves, filling ports, and exterior structure with handholds.
• Applying DfAM principles to design a component that can be manufactured without supports.
• Creating a zero-bubble filling setup that can repeatably fill the component.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Mechatronics Research Lab 4 Indenter for pouch cell battery safety testing Rahn Chris 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Electric vehicle accidents could lead to mechanical deformation on batteries and catastrophic events such as fires. Thus, testing Li-ion batteries with physical damage is critical in order to characterize safety limits.

This capstone design project is to develop a battery indenter to study the effect of physical abuse on Li-ion pouch cells. The primary objective is to build an indenter that can create indentations of desired depth ranging from 100 µm to a few mm. The indenter should have an accuracy of the order of 10 µm at a specified location.

However, the design should ensure that the indenter makes an indentation only on one side and that the other side remains flat for accurate pressure and temperature measurements. A Strong enough handwheel needs to be included to make sure that we can turn it by hand.

A deep throat (>8 cm) indenter design will ensure indentations long enough to reach the middle of large pouch cells. Interchangeable 3D-printed indenter tips for different indentation sizes and shapes should be included.

The purpose of the indenter is to create dents of desired depths at the desired location in Li-ion pouch cells. These cells can be further tested by cycling and shelf tests. The voltage, current, temperature, and pressure responses can be used to characterize the battery health and performance metrics. The effect of indentation location and depth could be studied using this approach. As indentation could cause a short circuit, the effect of different severity of short circuits could be studied using the indenter setup. For safety reasons, the capstone design students will be provided with discharged pouch cells for testing purposes. The variation of thermal and pressure gradient with fault severity can be studied and characterized to detect defective battery cells, typically at end-of-line testing.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Mechatronics Research Lab 5 Wireless health monitoring of lithium-ion batteries using RFID Rahn Chris 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Motivation: Battery monitoring is critical for safe operation and durability of battery systems. A conventional electric vehicle’s battery pack consists of multiple modules in which battery cell states such as voltage, SOC and current are continuously monitored. Distributed temperature and pressure sensing for individual battery cells is a critical safety need for future Lithium ion batteries. The two major challenges in monitoring individual cell temperature and pressure includes power source and extensive wiring. Passive RFID sensors may be a possible solution to this problem. Passive RFID sensors do not need a power source, since they are powered by the reader. The antenna of a passive RFID tag receives the radio waves from the reader and directs them to the microchip, where the energy is harvested and utilized to send back radio signals to the reader.

Project Objective: The objective of this project is to test the application of RF communication between RFID sensors and readers in a battery pack for cell state monitoring. The project deliverables include the creation of multiple small-scale battery packs either using cylindrical cells or pouch cells. The cylindrical cell pack should include equally spaced 9 cells in a square configuration 3x3 with RFID tag attached to the middle cell. The pouch cell battery pack should include 2 cells with RFID sandwiched between the two cells with different spacings. For both the cylindrical and pouch cell packs, a 3D printed cell holder should be made that allows for different gaps and filler materials between the cells. The students should then test the ability of the reader to read the RFID tags for the two packs with at least two different gaps and at least one case where the gap is filled by intercellular material typical of battery packs. The readability should be documented as a function of the distance of the reader from the pack and at different positions around the pack.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Mechatronics Research Lab 6 Yawing Flexible Drone Experiment Rahn Chris 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Motivation: Rotorcraft including helicopters, tiltrotor, and rotary-wing aircraft use hovering and forward flight for search-and-rescue, surveillance, observation, and transportation. However, eVTOL aircraft have lightweight and flexible rotor blades and wings that are prone to vibration from rotor excitation, separated flow behind the rotor hub, vehicle maneuvers, and wind gusts.

Description: This project involves the design and fabrication of a bench scale test stand for the study of rigid body rotation and vibration in eVTOL aircraft with flexible beams/booms/wings. The test stand will be used to study the feedback control of gyro sensors to the rotor brushless DC motors to control rigid body rotation (yaw) and beam vibration.

Objective: The capstone deliverable includes the design and fabrication of all the mechanical fixtures, hub, safety stops, wing structure, and mounts for the yawing flexible drone simulator. The two proprotors rotate in opposite directions with flipped rotor blades both providing vertical thrust. Differential spinning of the two rotors causes the beam to rotate (yaw). In quadrotors, for example, thrust is commonly used for roll and pitch attitude control while the differential torque is used for yaw control.

Mechanical fixtures should be designed to fix the beam onto the ground (vibration table), allowing the beam to rotate freely within the two safety stops. The hub and safety stops are mounted to a steel pegboard vibration isolation table which has threaded holes. For safety reasons, two safety stops are installed so that yaw motion is not able to spin uncontrollably. A capability to stop/lock the hub allows flexibility and safety in experiments.

For the wing structure, students should minimize boom weight and optimize cross section of beam while providing sufficient support for the vertical thrust without twisting or bending instabilities.

The delivered device should provide mounting points for the three sensors used to control vibrations and yawing motion:
1. Two gyro sensors are installed at each end that measure angular rate at each beam tip.
2. Encoder at hub (in the middle of beam) measures yaw angle.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU Medina-Kothapalli Labs Production of Surface Functionalized Transparent Ultrasound Transducers Hylbert, Lyndsey 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 2 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The primary goal of the team will be to develop methods to create functional chemical groups on the surface of transparent ultrasound transducers. Various functionalities and surface characteristics will be sought while maintaining the integrity of the transducer device. A secondary goal will be to specifically create a surface amenable to human cell adhesion and proliferation.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU RERC on AAC 1 Image recognition of faces for application in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technology Shaffer, Steven 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The team will continue a multiple semester project using .NET MAUI, C# programming language and Visual Studio IDE to perform object recognition on images. We prefer they use the Face API service within the Microsoft Cognitive Services tool which is part of the Azure .Net API. The team will also add support for object recognition through Vertex AI. The team will continue the project started by a Fall 22 team, and will update a user interface to show information returned from the FaceAPI and set up all communication with the Face API service. The goal of the project is to allow a user to take or select an image using their tablet, then request that the faces and objects be labeled within the display on the app. The app should be shown to work on at least one operating system that can be created from the .NET MAUI framework.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU RERC on AAC 2 Supports for augmented reality in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies Shaffer, Steven 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The team will continue a multiple semester project using .NET MAUI, C# programming language and Visual Studio IDE to perform object recognition on images, ideally images from a video stream. The team will continue a project started by a Fall 22 Learning Factory team, and update a user interface to work in an Augmented Reality paradigm. The goal of the project is to update the user interface of the previous project to support Augmented Reality on a tablet computer. We are also interested in having the application work with smart glasses. We have not seen many tools for .NET MAUI yet, but any SDKs made to work with Xamarin would be expected to be updated to work with .NET MAUI in the near future.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU SEDTAPP Global Building Network (GBN) 1 Solar Powered Air Purification Solution - Team 1 - GLOBAL PROJECT WITH SJTU Rattner, Alex 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0 2 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 4.2 million people die each year due to exposure to air pollution. It is estimated that nine out of 10 people on the planet inhaling polluted air, introducing a risk of negative health effects. The risks are significantly higher for vulnerable populations in poorly performing buildings that do not have air conditioning. This humanitarian project is directed at developing, prototyping and validating a concept for an affordable solar-powered indoor air purification solution. The validation will be based on a low-cost sensor system assessing the effectiveness of proposed air purification solution. The project context will be a location in Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) or a similar international location (polluted industrial town).
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
PSU SEDTAPP Global Building Network (GBN) 2 Solar Powered Air Purification Solution - Team 2 - GLOBAL PROJECT WITH SJTU Rattner, Alex 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0 2 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 4.2 million people die each year due to exposure to air pollution. It is estimated that nine out of 10 people on the planet inhaling polluted air, introducing a risk of negative health effects. The risks are significantly higher for vulnerable populations in poorly performing buildings that do not have air conditioning. This humanitarian project is directed at developing, prototyping and validating a concept for an affordable solar-powered indoor air purification solution. The validation will be based on a low-cost sensor system assessing the effectiveness of proposed air purification solution. The project context will be a location in Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) or a similar international location (polluted industrial town).
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Quaker Houghton Effect Porosity on Machinability and Characterization of P/M Steel FC0208 and P/M FN-0205. Li, Jingjing 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Project Description:
Ferrous powder metallurgy is considered a net shape manufacturing process which continues to gain increasing use in production of automotive components. However, the relatively poor machinability of powder metal (P/M) steels presents significant challenges to parts producers. This lower machinability, relative to cast parts is largely due to the high level of porosity present in P/M steels as well as the presence of hard metal carbides that often are incorporated in the P/M steels to increase wear resistance of the part. In addition, P/M FC-0208 and P/M FN-0205 blocks with different densities will have different amounts of pores in the block which can affect machinability of the block.

This project will involve two machining operations – the first is an end-milling machining operation of P/M steel FC-0208 and P/M FN-0205 blocks at three different densities which will be completed using a machining method developed previously. The second machining operation will involve drilling of P/M FC-0208 and P/M FN-0205 blocks with established conditions. These two machining operations will be used to provide insight into the effects of density and porosity. Metallographic characterization of P/M FC-0208 and P/M FN- 0205 blocks will be completed by the capstone team as part of the project and will provide useful insight into the microstructure of the materials via inclusions, porosity, and non-metallic inclusions in the powder metal.

Specifically, the project will involve the following deliverables:
a. Complete testing of three (3) different density P/M FC-0208 blocks with triplicate runs for both machining operations.
b. Complete testing of three (3) different density P/M FN-0205 blocks with triplicate runs for both machining operations.
c. Metallographic characterization of three (3) different density P/M FC-0208 blocks.
d. Metallographic characterization of three (3) different density P/M FN-0205 blocks.
e. Final report discussing all elements of testing conducted.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Remark Glass Ltd Circular Economy: sorting and tracking glass recirculation Shaffer, Steven 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Remark Glass and our non-profit partner Bottle Underground process waste glass bottles and jars for various recirculation processes including glass blowing.

Last spring a group of students created a system that makes it possible to scan bottles into a database that holds information that is relevant to our operation. This year, the team will be tasked with continuing to build on the database design to automate (with both existing information in the database and information from the sensors) where possible. The core database functions as an inventory, and now we need to add a parallel transaction record.
In addition, we need to upgrade the physical and virtual design so it can be used by a team to process up to 10,000 bottles/month.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
RPM Industries LLC RPM Industries Motor/Pump Test Station Li, Jingjing 0 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Each motor/ pump unit built in-house is performance tested after assembly and prior to shipment. Technicians must repeatedly handle the units transporting them from the assembly station to the test station and back. During the test, techs gather and record the electrical and hydraulic data with respect to each individual unit. With increasing demand, the current test station is a production bottleneck as the current design poses ergonomic, maintenance and space limitation issues. Students will work with RPM team to design a second production quality and user-friendly test station addressing RPM’s increase demand. The design must be capable of being phased-in over several weeks to reduce changeover cost and impact on production. Students must complete and document the design to the ISO9001: 2015 Standard. Lastly, the following areas will be the concentration of the project:
• Ergonomics
• Power Supply
• Fluid Circuit
• Fluid Interface
• Data Acquisition
• Automatic Procedure
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Shell 1 - Body Shell Ecomarathon - Shell Body Neal, Gary 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Shell Eco-marathon is a global academic program focused on energy optimization and one of the world’s leading student engineering competitions. Over the past 35 years, the program has consistently brought to life Shell’s mission of powering progress by providing more and cleaner energy solutions. The global academic program brings together Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) students from across the globe to design, build and operate some of the world’s most energy-efficient vehicles. All in the name of collaboration and innovation, as students’ bright ideas help to shape a lower carbon future for all. The spring teams will be tasked with finishing the design and build of the car, testing, and competing in the 2023 Shell Ecomarathon in Indianapolis on April 12-16, 2023.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Shell 2 - Chassis Shell Ecomarathon - Shell Chassis Neal, Gary 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Shell Eco-marathon is a global academic program focused on energy optimization and one of the world’s leading student engineering competitions. Over the past 35 years, the program has consistently brought to life Shell’s mission of powering progress by providing more and cleaner energy solutions. The global academic program brings together Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) students from across the globe to design, build and operate some of the world’s most energy-efficient vehicles. All in the name of collaboration and innovation, as students’ bright ideas help to shape a lower carbon future for all. The spring teams will be tasked with finishing the design and build of the car, testing, and competing in the 2023 Shell Ecomarathon in Indianapolis on April 12-16, 2023.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
SilcoTek Corporation 1 Automated Flange Sealing Device Basak, Amrita 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Overview:
We currently manually tighten individual flange bolts in a star pattern. We are looking for less variability, improved reliability, reduced labor, lower cost, increase throughput, adherence to safety requirements.

Deliverables:
We would ultimately like to have an automated piece of equipment that would tighten bolts in the star pattern, or preferably tighten multiple bolts simultaneously. This could be in the form of a prototype or finished design that we can have made elsewhere.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
SilcoTek Corporation 2 Waste Heat Recovery Project Eser, Semih 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

SilcoTek specializes in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) coatings for a variety of components. SilcoTek services a wide range of industrial markets including automotive, aerospace, medical, oil and gas, and semiconductor manufacturing.
SilcoTek uses ovens in their production process which generate excess waste heat. While the heat produced during the winter months serves to reduce heating costs, it is causing a significant increase in electricity consumption during the warmer months as the air conditioning units work to adequately cool the space. SilcoTek would like to recapture that heat to help heat the adjacent area in the winter and expel it outdoors in the summer.
SilcoTek would like to have a system designed for the oven room that would:
• Recapture heat from the area and use it to heat the adjacent area in the winter;
• Expel the hot air to outdoors in the summer; and
• Be energy-efficient and comply with indoor and outdoor air quality standards.
The project should also result in a set of design plans that can be utilized by a contractor to build the system.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Soarallday LLC A semi-automated method for elaborating consanguineous and affinal relationships across multiple generations and visualizing them in a spatially optimized form. Shaffer, Steven 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The project will develop methods (application) for combining user input with publicly accessible information in a manner that enables familial relationships spanning multiple consanguineous generations and connecting them with associated affinal relationships to produce a spatially optimized visualization of the resulting family tree. The method and subsequent visualization allow for an unlimited number of family trees to be connected and superimposed based on affinal relationships. The method enables affinal relationships to be easily added to a consanguineous family tree providing an efficient method for illustrating extended and even distant familial relationships.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
SPHERES CONSULTING, LLC Motion controlled, adjustable putting platform. Mittan, Paul 0 0 2 3 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

The purpose of this project is to develop a platform that can be used to practice different types of putts. The platform will utilize a series of computer-controlled linear actuators to lift and lower different sections of the platform top.

The team will adapt and improve an existing design for a moving platform that currently has a rigid top. The team will be responsible for researching different materials that provide the flexibility required to create different golf hole "profiles" while being strong enough for the golfer to walk on the platform.

The team will develop the control system to store and send commands to the actuators to produce different configurations (ie up hill, down hill, breaking to the right, and so on).

Included below is a link to an existing, high end version of this project. This team will be developing a generally similar, but simpler platform.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
United Automotive Electronic Systems Co., Ltd. 1 Research the logic strategy of power doors - GLOBAL PROJECT WITH SJTU Neal, Gary 0 0 3 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Applications of power doors, like eagle wing doors, scissors doors, double doors, etc., are increasing vehicle user's experience. To realize those gorgeous functions, it's necessary to consider not only the motor control logic and driving mode of the door itself but also the user interaction under different scenarios, such as a door's self-protection strategy during slope hovering or violent door closing. Therefore, specific sensing systems such as hall sensors and radar shall be involved. The use of cameras for pedestrian detection would also be a big plus. If there are pedestrians passing by, main controller will receive those warning message from camera system, and afterwards, interrupt the door opening procedure. Those scenarios would be benefited by power door control such that the user would have an intelligent and seamless ingress and egress experience.

Expected results:
1. Research the application trend of motor-driven doors of existing mainstream vehicles in automobile industry
2. Standard test and summarize the functional strategies of motor-driven doors of different vehicles
3. Summarize functional planning strategy requirement documents for motor-driven doors
4. Develop the application software according to the requirement document of motor-driven doors
5. Verify the software and constantly optimize the logic strategy
6. Calibrate different motor-driven doors, such as eagle wing doors and gull wing doors
7. Research special scenes, such as the door protection principle when the car hovers on a slope or the door is closed violently. Hall sensor, radar or even camera will be introduced to judge whether there are pedestrians at the door.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
United Automotive Electronic Systems Co., Ltd. 2 Investigation and Analysis on Flow Resistance Characteristics of New Energy Vehicle Power Battery - GLOBAL PROJECT WITH SJTU Rattner, Alex 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Battery thermal management is an important part of new electric vehicle thermal management system. Battery heat management commonly involves the use of coolant for heat exchange. The configuration of the whole loop system, including the selection of the water pump, is closely related to the battery module flow resistance characteristics. Battery technology is also constantly developing, including 800V and fast charging, so the structure of the battery liquid cooling plate and the flow rate demand of battery coolant are also changing. It is necessary to investigate and analyze the current and future flow rate demand and corresponding flow resistance characteristics of mainstream power batteries in the market, so as to provide a basis for system configuration and platform design and planning of components such as water pumps.

Expected results:
Investigate and analyze the current and future flow demand and corresponding flow resistance characteristics of mainstream power batteries on the market.
Include:
1. Research on the cooling demand and coolant flow demand of the battery under the current mainstream market and the requirements of high voltage and fast charging in the future;
2. Investigation on the corresponding battery liquid cooling plate structure and the flow resistance characteristics under the corresponding flow demand;
3. Investigation on the main factors affecting flow resistance characteristics and possible new technologies and concepts
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
UPS State College - Air Door usage consolidation Voigt, Bob 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

State College - A2 van for air uses too many unload doors, a way to improve this, something students can build using solid works?
Have to have 2 dock doors open to get the van in
Use 3 doors to unload
Can only use one other unload door while unloading air
Avg: 800 pieces in A2
ADA’d A2/A5 for unloading? Put ADA’d one on door, put actual A2 to the right of first unload door?
Utilize door 3 on different area of building?
Build the belt on the other side, or rearrange setup?

Additional Project using similar analysis
State College - Irreg process improvement - Devise a plan or simulation to evolve current Irreg process and optimize Irreg carting plan to be safer and more efficient.
Irregs are pushed off of a slide, fall to ground, manually have to pick them up, put them on rollers, carts, etc.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Veriprime Reducing Chemical Analyte Detection Limits in Electrochemical Sensors Kimel, Allen 0 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Project Overview:
(This project is a continuation of the Fall Semester 2022 Project)
The goal of the project is to determine how electrochemical sensor preparation parameters effect ethyl carbamate (EC) limit of detection (LOD). Fabricating the electrochemical sensor is a multistep process that uses a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) layer on an electrode to selectively distinguish and quantify EC from chemical mixtures. Students are expected to prepare, test, and refine MIP-based electrochemical sensors to establish critical parameters for detecting EC at nanomolar concentrations.

Project Description
High doses of EC have shown to be carcinogenetic in animal tests, and is prevalent in fermented foods and beverages. EC is classified as a Group 2A carcinogen in humans and is prevalent in distillers grains co-products from the ethanol industry. Over 40 million metric tons of these co-products are routinely fed to food animals and EC has been found in bovine blood, liver, lung, and muscle. A major hurdle in establishing the wide-spread health effects in humans and animals is to consistently and accurately measure EC concentration in fermented products, and animal blood samples or animal tissues postmortem. Current detection methods using chromatography and mass spectrometry are time consuming and expensive. Therefore, there is a need to find alternative detection and quantification methods to determine EC content in different sources and settings (e.g., laboratory and in the field).

Electrochemical sensors exhibit chemical selectivity, energy efficiency, rapid detection, reduced fabrication costs, and scalability. Electrochemical sensors are sensitive to chemical concentrations, which are detected by changes in the electrical current. The Capstone Team is expected to fabricate an electrochemical sensor, building from previous work, consisting of a MIP layer on a commercial electrode. MIPs are selective to chemical analytes, and when combined with electrochemical detection, are a powerful method for detecting and quantifying specific chemicals such as EC.

Deliverables
Prepare electrochemical sensors using different commercially available electrodes. Determine EC LOD using the prepared electrochemical sensors. Establish the relationship between MIP film thickness and EC detection. Calibrate the optimal electrochemical sensor to test field samples with the goal of reaching at least a 37 nM LOD. The team will submit a final report and present the results to the corporate sponsor.

Overview of Fabrication Protocol
Electrochemical deposition and electrical measurements will be conducted on Penn States campus in the Steidle Building.
1. Prepare monomer solutions for synthesizing MIP films on commercial electrodes.
2. Synthesize MIP films on the electrodes using electrochemical methods.
3. Characterize the electrochemical properties of the sensor.
4. Construct a calibration curve for detecting EC.
5. Test field samples to measure EC content.

Expected Timeline
Weeks 1 – 3: Lab training and begin preparing MIP films on electrodes.
Weeks 4 – 6: Measure EC concentration using prepared electrochemical sensors.
Weeks 7 – 9: Optimize electrochemical sensor preparation methods to reduce EC LOD.
Weeks 10 – 12: Prepare and test field samples to measure EC concentration.
Weeks 13 – 15: Complete final report and present results at the Capstone showcase.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
VertaWorks LLC Flag Display Assembly Iteration Takaghaj, Sanaz 0 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Iterate on a first generation Flag Display System prototype and design a production-ready, reliable, and cost effective device which incorporates the following required features: deployment of a 3’ x 5‘ flag starting from a sealed enclosure, ending with the flag hanging from pole at a 45 degree angle. Retracting the flag takes the flag back into the enclosure. Spring 2023 work includes mechanical redesign and electrical/control system redesign. The team will work with company mechanical and electrical engineering advisors to receive guidance and review the project's progress.

Objectives of the project are:
1: Redesign system mechanics, electronics, and programming to improve reliability in adverse outdoor conditions.
2: Deliver a fully-functional system for the Design Showcase.
3: Minimize device footprint while maintaining functionality.
4: Reduce production costs.
5: Incorporate additional features to provide additional value to potential customers; these features will be defined at the start of the project.


Deliverables:
1: Weekly progress updates
2: Bi-Weekly in-person meetings (counts as the week's progress update)
3: SolidWorks CAD model and programming SW
4: Bill of Materials and vendor list
5: Production Process Recommendation and Cost Estimation
4: Stress test simulation and analysis
5: Finalized device (part fabrication will be a joint company/team effort)
6: Real-World stress testing and analysis.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Volvo Construction Equipment 1 Energy harvesting from vibration of a compaction machine Cubanski, Dave 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Background: roller compactors machines loses energy emitting vibrations in unwanted directions.

Devise an energy harvesting system that captures and stores energy in electric form.

The vibration are at 40 to 70 Hz can be either:

amplitudes ~ <1mm at 1 g’s (fixed device) or
amplitudes ~1-2 mm at 5-9 g’s (rotating device)
Produce a litterature reveiw and a plan of work (<1 week)
Create 3d drawings, (<1 week)
Create simulation to demosntrate fesibility (~1 week)
Produce and manufacture a working prototype (~2 weeks)
Test and validate prototype (1 week)
Documentation and technology transfer (1week)
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Volvo Construction Equipment 2 Novel Braking Solution(s) for Electric Compactors (part II) Cubanski, Dave 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Our current compaction fleet is diesel powered with hydrostatic braking. As the market shifts toward electric vehicles, and we move more to electric motors, hydrostatic braking will no longer be possible. The goal of this project is to research eddy current or resistor bank electric brakes and work toward a proposed solution for a theoretical future electrical compactor.

Inputs for the project will include completed work and research from fall 2022 PSU team, existing machine braking solution (hydraulic schematic), current patent research, and other machine and application information for background. Output of the project can be scaled based on the final team size and their project planning work. Minimum output should be the details of the theoretical exploration with a summary of the proposed solution. If possible, a physical mock up or technical demonstrator of the solution would be preferred.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Volvo Group Trucks 1 Idea generation to develop a creative vibration absorber to prevent vibro-fatigue failure in electric trucks Ray, Asok 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

This project will be carried out in the 4 phases:
- Phase 1: Gathering information on “Vibro-fatigue in a vehicle”
- Phase 2: Learn tools for CAD/CAE such as ANSA and NASTRAN
- Phase 3: Generate ideas to develop a vibration absorber through DMAIC process

Step - Activity
Define- Define the problem: vibro-fatigue problem of electric batteries in a vehicle;
Measure- Quantify the problem using a process diagram;
Analysis- Identify the cause for the problem;
Improve- Generate ideas through 3 iterations: 1) gathering information, 2) Evaluate the ideas using CAE
Control- Maintain the gains using quality parameters of the selected idea

- Phase 4: Make a report for presentation
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Volvo Group Trucks 2 Fuel Cell model integrated with vehicle cooling system and battery - GLOBAL PROJECT WITH CHALMERS UNIVERSITY Vlajic, Nick 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Develop a model for a fuel cell integrated with a vehicle cooling system and battery storage system for studying fuel cell electric vehicle performance and durability under various operating conditions and duty cycles. The tasks are further detailed below.



Develop a 1D fuel cell system model with the capability to: estimate the efficiency and performance of subcomponents such as turbocharger, humidification system, inlet/exhaust system, DC/DC, high temperature / low temp circuits

Estimate degradation because of shutdown/startup cycles, running fuel cell at higher coolant temperature, catalyst poisoning, and other such failure mechanisms. Assume H2 grade D and above.

Tune and verify the model using an example dataset for the fuel system. Volvo to provide the dataset if needed.

Extend the model to simulate fuel cell electric vehicle performance by integrating vehicle cooling system models (map-based or detailed) and battery storage models (energy and power battery).

Use the extended model to calculate the power output from the battery and fuel cell for a given duty cycle

Estimate fuel cell degradation sensitivity on a duty cycle to start/stop events, increased temperature in fuel cell cooling circuit (high-temperature cooling loop), catalyst poisoning, and any other mechanism identified in step 1.b.



Deliverables:



M0: Project schedule and scope: Layout a schedule for model development and define the scope of the model

M1: Model development: Fuel cell system model with degradation mechanism

M2: Model verification and tuning: predict the beginning-of-life and end-of-life fuel cell system performance (efficiency, currents, heat rejections, ….)

M3: Translate a duty cycle to failure mechanism events and determine the sensitivity of performance for a failure mechanism

M4: Develop a simplified integrated model with battery and vehicle cooling system to predict fuel cell power output*





*Objective for M4 is to predict power output from a fuel cell system for a given duty cycle. It will allow for estimating the fuel cell system power in relation to the cooling system capacity. We can then translate the information here into the operation at max power, excursions in cooling temperatures, and statistics on the ambient conditions. The model eliminates the need for user input of translating a duty cycle into failure mechanism-relevant events such as time spent at max power, start/stop, and high ambient temperature operation.
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Volvo Group Trucks 3 AI based trailer detection and number of trailers prediction using PLC for HD Trucks Shaffer, Steven 0 0 3 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: YES

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: YES

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

In North America, the communication between tractors and trailers for any heavy duty trucks is via powerline communication (PLC). It is a 12V power line from the tractor to provide power to the trailers. The PLC is used for communicating the Braking system information from the trailer to the tractor (Anti lock braking system signals). Example – If ABS is active or not or has a fault in the trailer braking system, it will be communicated via PLC to the tractor to inform the driver and take necessary steps. At present, a well-known electronic chip Intellon P485, converts the data in the powerline and communicates with the tractor.
In this project, the scope would be to use analog input (PLC data) to develop an AI model that should:
1. Detect if there is a trailer or not. (Classification)
2. Estimate the number of trailers (with an accuracy of 85%)
Further, in the above process, multiple models should have been developed and compared for performance. It includes,
1. Decision trees
2. KNN
3. Support Vector machines
4. Ensemble learning
5. Deep Neural Networks
6. Recurrent Neural Networks
7. Computer vision-based AI
Another aspect of the project is to perform sensitivity analysis and determine the right feature to be used, for example –
1. Time domain signal – Directly from the PLC
2. FFT or Pwelch signal from the PLC – Power of the signal in specific freq
3. Shape based time domian/freq domain

The above step would include investigating signal processing techniques.

Test data will be provided from Volvo for the following configurations,
1. Tractor 1 with no Trailer
2. Tractor 1 with 1 Trailer
3. Tractor 1 with 2 Trailers
4. Tractor 1 with 3 Trailers
5. Tractor 1 with 4 Trailers (Extended scope)
6. Tractor 1 with 5 trailers (Extended Scope)
7. Tractor 2 same as above (Extended scope)
Company Name Project Title Faculty Contact BME CHE CMPEN CMPSC DS ED EE EGEE ESC IE MATSE ME NUCE
Well Master Corporation Lubricator pressure testing Apparatus GLOBAL PROJECT WITH SJTU Rattner, Alex 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Physical Prototype or On-Campus Equipment: NO

Images and Additional Links (if provided)

Well Master must test and validate the robustness of one of our products called a Lubricator. These pressure tests are conducted one at a time and are very time consuming to bolt up flanges and plug outlets so the unit is pressure tight. There is also a need to capture and retain the pressure data so that it can be graphed and presented to the buying customer for validation.

The test must follow a recipe that pressurizes the lubricator up to 7,500 PSI and holds it for 5 minutes. After the hold, the pressure is returned to 0 psi and then pressurize at 5,000 psi and 1000 psi for one minute each.

Well Master would like ideas and concepts on how to do this process more efficiently and retain the pressure data in a format that can be stored on a server and easily accessed to print out for a customer as requested.
 
 

About

Our mission is to help bring the real-world into the classroom by providing engineering students with practical hands-on experience through industry-sponsored and client-based capstone design projects. Since its inception, the Learning Factory has completed more than 1,800 projects for more than 500 different sponsors, and nearly 9,000 engineering students at Penn State University Park participated in such a project.

The Learning Factory

The Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA 16802