Welcome to Showcase Week! We invite you to spend some time getting to know this year's engineering capstone design projects and teams.
Showcase Week celebrates the hard work and many achievements of over 200 students as they close out their undergraduate and graduate careers. Since August 2020, these students have been working through the design process from start to finish and have engineered solutions to real-world problems.
Students completing industry-sponsored projects were presented with challenges of relevance to their clients from a variety of specialties. Those in the Engineering for Social Innovation section of Senior Design developed entrepreneurial products based on user needs.
Please explore projects below to learn more about this year's teams, their designs and the positive impact these engineers are making. We encourage you to leave comments to help them celebrate their achievements and grow professionally. Thank you for your support of our program and students.
We're incredibly grateful for the support of our project sponsors who make this experience possible. If you would like to learn more about the program or sponsoring a project, please visit Design Center Colorado.
Capstone Design Projects
All
Team 01: Robotic Automation of Cleaning Production Equipment
In the production of aluminum beverage cans, the Ball Corporation sprays an epoxy coating inside the cans before they are filled. A coat of epoxy builds up over time on a ventilation manifold and the nozzle tip used to spray the cans. Our team has created an automated two-part cleaning system using compressed air and a linear scraper to remove epoxy from these components. Our system drops the cleaning time and machine downtime from twenty minutes to five minutes per machine per day.
Sponsored by Ball Corporation
Team 02: Robotic Automation of Cleaning Production Equipment
During the production of aluminum beverage cans, the interior surface is sprayed with a liquid coating that forms a barrier between the metal and the drink. Over time, this coating accumulates on the spray nozzle tip, compromising coating quality and increasing production costs due to manual removal. We have created an automated solution to efficiently and effectively clean coating buildup.
Sponsored by Ball Corporation
Team 03: Reconfigurable CubeSat Swarm
The Reconfigurable CubeSat Swarm project aims to reduce the complexity and cost of sending large structures into space. The team designed, developed, and tested independent CubeSat units with reconfiguration capabilities. The reconfiguration of these units enables the creation of a modular assembly whose shape is tailorable to execute various functions.
Sponsored by Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Team 04: Project WASP
Project WASP explores non-contact methods of measuring silicon wafers for the semiconductor industry. The team developed an automated wafer transfer system enclosed in a test bench and a measurement system to determine surface profiles while the wafer is moving. This measurement must be taken in parallel with existing operations in order to minimize any effects of throughput to the system.
Sponsored by KLA Corporation
Team 05: Unique Signal Interlock
Team 5 partnered with Los Alamos National Laboratory to create a novel security device that combines mechanical and electrical encryption to defend against unauthorized system access. The device houses both a unique rotary switch assembly and a mechanical failsafe within a 3-inch cube envelope. Backed by rigorous testing, the product delivers a new approach to network security.
Sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory
Team 06: Portable Knee Force Sensor
Professional athletes commonly experience patellar tendinitis, a knee injury causing significant pain. To prevent injury, daily tracking of strength metrics is crucial. Current solutions used by the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks are not portable thus creating gaps in data. To solve this, the team developed the “JOEY”, a Bluetooth-capable, portable solution for continuous strength monitoring.
Sponsored by the Milwaukee Bucks
Team 07: Active Person Arm Brace
Quality of Life Plus partners with engineering students to create life transforming assistive technologies for wounded heroes. Our client sustained injuries that resulted in serious limitations on the use of their left shoulder. We’ve designed a wearable brace controlled by muscle sensors with linear actuators that provide force to a cable system, returning strength, mobility and function to our client’s arm.
Sponsored by Quality of Life Plus
Team 08: Launch Prevention Device and Payload Protection Device
This project focuses on the development of two devices for the Sandia National Laboratories’ Senior Design Bonanza: a Launch Prevention Device (LPD) and a Payload Protection Device (PPD). The LPD functions to mechanically initiate the launch of a model rocket following the input of a five character signal. The PPD functions to record inflight system dynamics and ensure the survival of that data.
Sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories
Team 09: Virtually Operated Robot for Wind Turbine Diagnostics and Service
Offshore wind turbine maintenance is logistically challenging and requires skilled technicians. To reduce service costs and improve turbine reliability, our team partnered with Siemens Gamesa to develop a robot for turbine services and diagnostics. This robot will maximize turbine availability by living inside the turbine, capturing visual data, and performing remote electrical testing and verification.
Sponsored by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
Team 10: Next Generation Cabin Windows Study
The Next Generation Cabin Windows Study examines the implementation of virtual windows in business jets through human factors engineering and psychology. After designing and constructing a full-scale mockup based on the Cessna Citation CJ4 Business Jet cabin interior, our psychological study gathered and analyzed data to provide insight on these virtual windows.
Sponsored by Textron Aviation
Team 11: Autonomous System for Ground-Based Warfighter Protection
Team 11 worked with the ARO to design a remote-controlled vehicle platform that will advance the development of an autonomous protective system for ground-based Warfighters. This project’s focus is the holonomic drivetrain developed to investigate the feasibility of using omnidirectional wheels to increase vehicle maneuverability in sandy, rocky environments where the terrain is soft.
Sponsored by the US Army Research Office
Team 12: Diameter-Adjustable Vaginal Stent
Vaginal stenosis is a condition where the vaginal canal narrows after surgical management of vaginal anomalies. To prevent this, a stent can be placed in the vagina after surgery to separate the vaginal walls and promote proper healing. Dr. Alaniz at CU Anschutz sponsored team 12 to create a diameter-adjustable stent to prevent vaginal stenosis in her patients.
Sponsored by the University of Colorado Anschutz
Team 13: Driveline Securement Device
Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs) are used for the treatment of heart failure. However, all current devices require an external power source with energy supplied by a percutaneous driveline. Excessive mobility of the driveline delays healing and incorporation of the driveline in the subcutaneous tunnel. For this project, Team 13 developed an improved method to secure an LVAD driveline.
Sponsored by Children's Hospital Colorado
Team 14: Baja SAE
The 2021 CU Boulder Baja SAE Team tested, optimized, and redesigned critical subsystems on a fully student-made off-road vehicle for competition in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Collegiate Design Series. The 2021 Baja SAE competition season followed a hybrid model consisting of virtual knowledge events and a physical validation event in Tucson, AZ featuring a 4-hr endurance race.
Sponsored by Stolle Machinery
Team 15: SMA Actuated Pinch Valve
Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) are metals that deform when heated and return to their original shape when cooled. Team 15 was sponsored by Festo, an industrial automation leader, to develop an SMA-actuated pinch valve. Our design contracts wrapped SMA wires by running current via a printed circuit board. SMA pinch valves have vast potential in size-restricted applications like small medical devices.
Sponsored by Festo
Team 16: CNC Workholding with Smart Fluids
One challenge facing the manufacturing industry is the time and cost of creating plugs and fixtures to secure a thin-walled part. We optimized the design of a previous team to create an adaptive workholding fixture that uses a series of magnetic Halbach arrays and an engagement mechanism which lifts the array. The ferrofluid activates and is able to hold the part without any additional components.
Sponsored by Accu-Precision
Team 17: Space Domain Awareness Weather Station
The reliability of satellite systems depends on accurate position tracking via weather and cloud cover monitoring. To assist L3Harris in satellite tracking, our team has created a weather station with the ability to provide cloud mapping with an IR camera and a custom image stitching algorithm. The system also collects data on ambient temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and windspeed.
Sponsored by L3Harris Technologies
Team 18: Desktop High-Striker
The Desktop High-Striker measures an impact utilizing a piezoelectric transducer, a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), and an optical measurement system (OMS). The input to the fixture mimics any impact similar to a shock and is measured by the piezoelectric transducer and conveyed through the VCSEL and OMS with an intermediary data acquisition system.
Sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory
Team 19: Silica Particle Capture and Mitigation System
The proposed active mitigation solution works to reduce potential personnel exposure to generated silica dust on a hydraulic fracturing location. Instrumentation technologies quantified the effectiveness and helped tune the system.
Sponsored by Liberty Oilfield Services
Team 20: Lunar Dust Protection System
Lunar dust was the greatest operational challenge to the astronauts of Apollo. As we return to the moon with Artemis and venture to Mars, new technologies are needed to overcome the hazardous, electrostatically charged material. Using compliant mechanisms, the Lunar Dust Protection System (LDPS) maintains a seal around the sensitive components of Lockheed Martin’s utility transfer system through all stages of operation aboard the Human Landing System (HLS).
Sponsored by Lockheed Martin
Team 21: LigaSure Custom Linear Motion Assessment to Improve Performance
This project sponsored by Medtronic uses accelerometer feedback to interpret custom vibrational signals in order to determine the position of an internal component of a laparoscopic sealing device. The team prototyped a test fixture that replicates the movement of the device and developed components to assess the linear motion.
Sponsored by Medtronic
Team 22: Voice Coil Assembly
Emerson is the premier manufacturer of Coriolis mass flow meters. Our team was tasked with improving the meters' robustness to shock loading, which can occur in some applications. The failure prone voice coil driver and sensor assemblies were redesigned to provide inherent robustness without sacrificing the electromagnetic efficiencies needed for meter function and accuracy.
Sponsored by MicroMotion
Team 23: Microwave Calorimeters for Traceable Power Measurements
We assisted NIST in improving their understanding of how to make precise microwave power measurements using microcalorimeters. By creating a thermal simulation, we quantified the error and correction factor of their current system. Then, we used our simulation analysis to design and manufacture a modular microcalorimeter with more precise and repeatable connections at a fraction of the cost.
Sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology
Team 24: Doppler Lidar Motion Compensation Platform for NOAA P-3 Hurricane Monitoring
You wouldn’t dream of flying through a hurricane, would you? Yet NOAA has decided to do exactly that! Our team developed a platform to stabilize NOAA’s Doppler Lidar scanner through turbulent storm conditions. Our platform utilizes real-time feedback to actively correct for airplane motion during flight. The platform allows researchers to obtain high-quality data from inside the hurricane.
Sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Team 25: Miniature Cavity Enhanced Spectrometer (mACES) for Detecting NO2 Levels on a UAV
mACES is a miniaturized solution to air quality monitoring that has the potential to revolutionize the measurement of atmospheric pollutants. Team 25 collaborated with NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory to convert a plane based system to a drone based miniature cavity enhanced spectrometer. mACES accurately detects NO2 levels in the air we breathe and will aid in reducing harmful pollution in the future.
Sponsored by the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory
Team 26: Roboto Glove
This project aims to create a Roboto Glove that allows for fine motor movement and grip strength in the hand. This device is specifically engineered for Sgt. Moore who lost all mobility in his right hand after serving in the Army. The overall goal is to design and manufacture a glove that replicates normal hand functionality and allows for adjustability while being comfortable and durable.
Sponsored by Quality of Life Plus
Team 27: Condition Monitoring System for Wind Turbine Lightning Protection
Wind turbines are potential targets for lightning strikes. The turbine’s lightning protection system (LPS) is cumbersome and costly to check but needed to prevent blade damage. We have designed an autonomous vehicle that lays a temporary cable on the existing LPS inside a blade. A time-domain reflectometer is then used to measure the continuity and locate potential damages along the blade LPS.
Sponsored by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
Team 28: Protective LiDAR Enclosure
With the future of agriculture and construction relying on autonomous solutions, it is crucial to ensure that perception sensors such as LiDAR will survive under the intense conditions experienced during daily use. Our team designed an enclosure that pushes the capability of LiDAR sensors to perform under intense thermal, shock, vibration and chemical conditions, expanding the field of autonomy.
Sponsored by Trimble
Team 29: Wind Team
The University of Colorado’s Wind Team is the first CU learn-along team to be part of the Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC). The CWC aims to prepare students for all parts of the wind industry by immersing them in hands-on, multidisciplinary projects teaching students technical, financial, research, and networking skills through the Turbine, Project Development, and Connection Creation competitions.
Sponsored by the Collegiate Wind Competition
Team 40: WheelHouse
Team WheelHouse is dedicated to making bicycle camping fun while alleviating homelessness. We will do this by creating a bike trailer that can both carry a person's belongings and fold out into a single person tent. Working with charities, our company's business plan will use proceeds from the more feature-rich versions to defray the cost of these trailers for those who need them.
Engineering for Social Innovation Project
Team 41: Wayfinder IoT-Connected Keg Chime
Kegs are lost and stolen every year causing financial losses to breweries of upwards of $32.6 million. The purpose of Wayfinder™ is to reduce loss and provide a system that allows brewers to improve logistics, save money and reduce environmental impact. By tracking the kegs, we help brewers and distributors see their assets in real-time. In addition, we provide data on the fill level of their keg, allowing for improved logistics for pickups and deliveries.
Engineering for Social Innovation Project
Team 42: The VersaCook Stove
Team PurBurn has created a first of its kind improved cookstove, the VersaCook Stove, designed exclusively for Latin America. The stove is more efficient and produces less indoor air pollution than traditional cooking methods while also providing customers with premium features including thermo-electric power generation, a removable griddle cooktop, gasification, continuous fuel feed, and more.
Engineering for Social Innovation Project
Team 43: ToobTek
Fiberoptic intubation is a life-saving assistive breathing procedure commonly used for airway management. ToobTek has designed a comprehensive training device to help medical professionals gain consistent practice executing difficult intubations. The product is a realistic human respiratory model developed to improve user confidence through multi-material 3D printing.
Engineering for Social Innovation Project
Team 44: PortaVax
HUG Solutions is focused on developing a reusable device that extends the effective storage time for ultra-low temperature vaccines during last-mile transportation. Our product, PortaVax, will improve vaccine access in smaller low-income communities in hard-to-reach rural areas by improving the vaccine cold chain.
Engineering for Social Innovation Project
Graduate Student Projects
All
Grad Design
Congratulations also to our Graduate Design Teams, many of whom are unable to share their projects publicly for intellectual property reasons:
Team 1: Medical Device
- Roger Carter, Hannah Walsh, Abinaya Ramadugu
- Director: Matt Francisco
Team 2: Siemens Gamesa
- Ryan Weatherbee, Jamie Frankel
- Director: Shirley Chessman, Karl Johannes
Team 3: Medtronic
- Amando Vigil, Stephan Evans, Ayush Bansal, William Tse
- Director: Morgan Hill
Team 4: Vita Inclinata
- Gary Marshall, Sean Wilcox, Turner Williams, Justin Engbrecht
- Director: Miles Keeney-Ritchie
Grad Design Team 02: Tunable Oscillating and Rotational Kinematic Damper
Wind is rapidly becoming a more prevalent source of energy around the world. Simultaneously, wind turbines are being designed to be larger and more efficient in order to increase their output. As the blades on the turbines get longer, unwanted vibrations can cause extremely high stresses within their structures. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) has collaborated with a team of students from the University of Colorado Boulder to create a device that aims to reduce these vibrations.
Sponsored by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy