Note: gallery images on this page are from previous years, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The E-Days Virtual Senior Design Showcase is free and open to the public.
0
Projects
0
Faculty & staff advisors
0
Participating Students
0
Sponsors & industry supporters
The engineering students at Colorado State University hold an annual Engineering Days celebration, “E-Days,” to showcase undergraduate senior design projects. E-Days draws visitors from the community and industry, as well prospective students interested in exploring engineering.
Interact virtually with our students and view a variety of engineering projects. Students will be on hand through Zoom to discuss their projects and answer questions.
Downloadable flyer and teacher's guide
Incorporate E-Days into your classes! Download our flyer to post around your schools and classrooms.
Included is a short guide for students, teachers, and counselors about what to expect, and tips for integrating the event into your classes.
Sponsors
Engineering Days is sponsored by the Engineering College Council and ASCSU.
For information about how you or your company can support Senior Design, or sponsor Engineering Days, contact Mary Jarchow.
Live virtual sessions on April 23
Senior design team students and representatives will be available throughout the day to explain their projects and explore engineering research.
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
9:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Welcome Address and Industry Panel
Note: Registration is only required for the Welcome panel, not for individual team projects.
- Paige Frankl
Engineer, Aktiv Pharma Group (’19) - Gary Johnson
President, Applied Medical Surgical Group (’92) - Noel Marshall
Senior account executive, Schaeffler Group (’12) - Camille Milo
Biomedical/Chemical and Biological student
- Kojo Otoo
Electrical and Computer Engineering student - Scott Raedeke
Teacher, Fort Lupton High School - Trent Sieg
Football player, NFL Las Vegas Raiders (’18)
General session times by department
Zoom links for individual team projects will be listed below when available.
Registration for project sessions
is NOT required.
| Time | Track 1 | Track 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering |
| 12:00 – 1 p.m. | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Senior Research Practicum) | |
| 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. | School of Biomedical Engineering | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| 2:00 – 3 p.m. | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering |
| 3:00 – 4 p.m. | School of Biomedical Engineering | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering |
Find the projects you're interested in
Our senior design projects cover a wealth of fascinating engineering and science research. Each project features information about the research.
Projects by department or program
Visit project lists below on individual department and program websites.
Search the complete project list here
Search with keywords, names, or topics through our college-wide list of projects.
| Title | Students | Department | Advisors | Sponsors | Summary | Poster PDF link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5G NR | Will Brandt, Marshall Bruner, John Crowell, Foley Stokes | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | V. Chandrasekar | Steve Narcisso, Chuck Duey | As the global sharing of data continues in an ever-growing trend, the need for technology capable of keeping up and providing faster rates of communication becomes an increasingly pressing matter. 5G is a new generation of mobile network technology capable of providing significantly faster data speeds. As almost all have experienced the often slow data speeds of the current 4g LTE communication system, it is obvious why we need greater data speeds for the countless applications involving mobile data. What separates 5G from the current 4g LTE technology is significant gains in both speed and bandwidth. While there are many technologies encompassed in implementing a 5G system, the most notable of which is the higher frequency of the signal. 5G will implement a millimeter wave which is a much higher frequency wave that presents its own unique challenges. These challenges include a more involved process for mixing baseband signals into and back out of the 1800 MHz n3 band. | Not available |
| Advanced Extruder Head Development | Josefina Belay, Jason Sayre | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Don Radford | Composite Materials, Manufacture and Structures (CMMS) Lab | The Advanced Extruder Head project advances the development of 3D printing composite materials. There is a need in the composites industry to improve continuous fiber placement for continuous fiber thermoplastic matrix composites. Composite materials typically require a manual lay-up and/or mixture of solid material (fiber) and the liquid/resin material (matrix), followed by a curing process to solidify the composite. This traditional manufacturing process is time and labor consuming and poses limitations to part geometry. 3D printing improves the composite manufacturing process through higher levels of customization, diminished labor and process costs, and scalability. The expected cost of this project is $1000. The Colorado State University Composite Materials, Manufacture and Structures (CMMS) Lab has allocated funding towards this project. Progress from this project will support the group’s larger efforts to develop a successful composite material 3D printing robot. This team focused its efforts on a feedback system for the advanced extruder which monitors important factors of the printing process; temperature, pressure, and tow width. The team also developed mechanisms to control interlayer fusion as well as consolidation. The final product will be an advanced extruder head capable of thermal, pressure, and tow width monitoring to further supplement print quality. | PDF link |
| Affordable Insulin Production | Erik,Borovilos, Rhys Kelly, Heather Kent, Camila Podominick, John Jaime | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | Insulin is one of the oldest biologics—with the first commercial production dating back to 1921. And yet diabetic patients in the United States face prices for the drug that is ten times higher than in other developed countries. This criminal pricing has many root causes, not the least of which are: 1) the existence of a near monopoly on its production by three companies, and 2) a vulnerable population willing (or having no choice but) to pay high prices. Among the solutions proposed by a doctor at the Mayo clinic is the establishment of a nonprofit entity to manufacture insulin. Our team is designing a commercial process for production of out-of-patent insulin analogs that could be used by such a nonprofit company. The process will use genetically engineered organisms to express human insulin analogs. It will also include subsequent steps for recovery and purification of the product. Based on our design, we will evaluate the capital and operating costs of the system in order to arrive at a base cost for providing insulin. | Not available | |
| ASCE Concrete Canoe | Michelle Vang, Jack Hays, Jonah Heintzleman, Jennilinn Watson, Kyle Swiggum, Jason Black | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Rebecca Atadero | Arcosa Lightweight, Forta, JUB Engineering, PCI Mountain States, and the Northern Colorado Branch of ASCE | To understand the different uses of concrete, our team will design and construct a canoe made out of concrete. Design aspects completed by the team include the structural design, mix design, form design and aesthetic design. The canoe must span between 18 - 22 feet. It must also be able to float and carry a maximum load of four paddlers for the racing portion of our competition. | Not available |
| Back to the Future: Breweries as a Source of Industrial Chemicals | Ian Lea, Robert Morgan, Paula Mendoza Moreno, Jack Miera | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan, Courtney Jahn, Ken Reardon | The Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation process is one of the earliest industrial chemical processes developed and implemented on a large scale. During World Wars I and II, the ABE fermentation supported the production of synthetic rubber, which was vital to the war efforts. It was originally pioneered to produce butanol from biological sources and it was later discovered that acetone could also be produced by the same fermentation process. Another important discovery surrounding ABE fermentation was the isolation of Clostridium acetobutylicum, the strain of bacteria used still today for ABE fermentation. After World War II, the ABE fermentation process was displaced by petroleum-based production systems which were far less expensive to operate. In a world now concerned about both climate change and energy security, we may soon find ourselves going back to the future—producing these three industrial chemicals via fermentation of renewable biomass sugars. In this project, we take a second look at the ABE process in the light of these new concerns. We consider technical, economic and environmental aspects all of which may influence the price and future demand for biologically derived chemicals. | Not available | |
| Berthoud Water Treatment Taste and Odor Mitigation | Casey Corbin, Natalie Oliveira, Cathelyne Powers, Gabriel Rodriguez, Zakri Siegel, Ben Sinnett, Sean Sullivan | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Chris Thornton, Christopher Michalos | Jonathan Reed, CDM Smith | During warm weather months, many reservoirs including Berthoud Reservoir experience a large increase in the growth of algae and bacteria. This increase in both algae and bacteria can lead to the formation of unwanted taste and odor causing compounds. Although these compounds are not harmful to human health, if the water is left untreated it will have an unpleasant taste and smell, so the Town of Berthoud has requested a solution to control and eliminate taste and odor issues. | Not available |
| Biomedical Sciences Diseased Animal Activity Monitoring | Jacqueline Clark, Kayla Hackett, Hannah Hindie, Sean Mulvihill | Biomedical Sciences | Angela Bosco-Lauth, Richard Bowen, Bonnie Roberts | Biomedical Sciences | COVID-19 research is critical during the current pandemic. Looking to better understand the disease and to create vaccines and therapeutics, the need for viral research in rodents has increased. Hamsters are a good model for COVID-19 research because the disease affects them in a way similar to humans. However, hamsters are difficult to observe due to their nocturnal nature, stoic tendencies, and change in behavior with human interaction. This causes current low-cost methods to provide unreliable and subjective data. While there are accurate methods of studying rodent activity, they are not cost-effective and can range from $4,000 to $5,000 for one device making them unrealistic options as hundreds of cages need to be simultaneously monitored. Therefore, this Hamster Team, a team of mechanical engineers, is creating a low-cost device that automatically measures the overall activity levels of rodents in a cage and returns that data to the researchers in a useful manner. Our device will make the research more financially feasible while providing objective, reliable data. Come visit us these E-days to learn more about our infrared break-beam data acquisition system, our sealed custom casing, and the behind-the-scenes work done to bring this device to life! | PDF link |
| Booster Station/WMF Design | Dixie Poteet, Jack Marvel, Ryan Hunt, Dylan Lektorich, Harrison McKittrick, Troy Montague | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton, Christopher Michalos | Elie Chavez CDPHE Permit Engineer, Rachel Frisz CPHE Permit Engineer | ColoState Gas Processing, Inc. has been approved by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) to drill four new wells in the Piceance Basin, located in the Western Slope of Colorado. In preparation for this new project, Colorado Greens Engineering was tasked with preparing an air permit application and designing a water management facility and booster and gas station on behalf of ColoState Gas Processing, Inc. An air permit application must be prepared in accordance with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) guidelines prior to construction beginning. The booster station will compress natural gas produced by the wells for transportation while the water management facility will upgrade the produced water for reuse in hydraulic fracturing operations. Additional project efforts include researching water treatment technologies for use in the water management facility, developing a process simulation model for the booster station, sizing conveyance lines, and calculating the cost estimate over a thirty-year design life. Colorado Greens Engineering is committed to delivering safe and economically feasible designs for this oil and gas project. | Not available |
| Brumadinho What if Design | Janelle Erickson, Layne Perry, Ben Van Wagoner, Justin Carlson, Pierce Montilla, Sabrina Leggiero, Riley McCullough | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Joe Scalia IV, Chris Bareither | The Brumadinho Tailings Dam What-If design project involves analyzing the failed Feijão Dam I, and proposing engineered alternatives to prevent such failure if given one year notice prior to failure. The “What-If” design allows for lessons to be learned from the already failed system and be applied to future dams facing similar or even identical structural, geotechnical, and stability problems. Three alternatives, including concrete piles, stabilization berms, and a drainage system were proposed to the sponsors. A long term remedy was also proposed to add to any of the alternatives, which was a cover system. The project was proposed in a two-tier fashion regarding depth and technical concepts in information to target both the project sponsors and certified engineers, as well as the general public in a more broad sense to help gain public acceptance for the work to be complete. | Not available | |
| Canine Exoskeleton | Kevin Alamo-Perez, Dominic Castillo, Joanna Dunne, Brooke Landoch, Bradley Rauch, Andrew Reese | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Anura Jayasumana | Many large canine breeds suffer from degenerative myelopathy (DM). DM is a progressive disease that causes degeneration of the spinal cord and can lead to partial or total paralysis of the hind legs. To date there is no cure for the disease and no surgical intervention methods that can alleviate symptoms. However, the use of a brace is one method that can help. To overcome the rehabilitation limitations for these canines, an electro-mechanical orthopedic brace system has been developed to assist with the recovery of injured or partially paralyzed dogs. The canine exoskeleton team, in collaboration with the CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital, has implemented solutions to current rehabilitation methods. | Not available | |
| Caterpillar Super Knock RCM Study | Michael Lauch, Mason Reinick, Zack Swartwout, Shozab Zaidi | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Anthony Marchese | CAT, Dave Montgomery | This project involves studying a phenomenon in natural gas engines called super knock. Super knock is caused by oil droplets escaping the crankcase and entering into the combustion chamber. This creates a rich area in the chamber which causes the fuel to auto-ignite. Auto-ignition spikes internal chamber pressures and can cause severe engine damage. The goal of this project is to simulate this phenomenon and study it using a Rapid Compression Machine (RCM). A combustion chamber has been designed with windows in it so we have the ability to observe the combustion. A droplet generator injects engine oil into the chamber and a laser ignites it. The current senior design team is working on a new combustion chamber, focusing on improving the viewing area of the windows. We are also working on Matlab code that has the ability to track the oil droplet through the chamber and measure its size and velocity. We are also working on an ANSYS model which will allow us to simulate the temperatures experienced on the chamber and surrounding components. | PDF link |
| CDOT Bridge Replacement | Not available | |||||
| Centrifugal Compressor and Expander for SOFC/IC System | Rustin Jensen | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Todd Bandhauer | Fuel cell technology has seen large improvements in feasibility. In some fuel cell applications, pressurizing the fuel cell allows for higher power and lower temperatures within the fuel cell. This pressurization requires a compressor. The efficiency of the system depends on the efficiency of the compressor system. One such application of a pressurized fuel cell that has been under development is using a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) in conjunction with an internal combustion (IC) engine as an electric generator. This project focused on developing a high efficiency centrifugal compressor and expander system that would sufficiently meet the efficiency and pressure requirements for a SOFC/IC system. Various compressor and expander configurations were modeled, the most suitable configuration was selected, and a test bench was designed to study the performance of the selected configuration. The test bench was assembled, with testing currently underway. | Not available | |
| Claymore Dam Hazard Classification and Design | Reed Featherstone, Cassidy McCarthy, Brenna Allison, Mateo Rivera, Matt Bullock, Matthew Blumenshein | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton | Kallie Bauer, Colorado Dam Safety | RamDamSolutions has been working on Claymore Dam to assess the integrity of the lake as a whole. There has been a significant passage of time since Claymore Dam was last analyzed, and new hazard classification guidelines were produced by Colorado Dam Safety in 2019. The project scope includes dam remediation and a hazard classification. The hazard classification was completed and assisted the development of alternative design elements used in the dam remediation. The dam elements studied for alternative design included the spillway, inlet structure, and dam embankment. | Not available |
| Clearing the Air: Direct Capture of CO2 from the Atmosphere | Khalid Alanazi, Salem Badahdah, Bethany King, Roman Plano, Emily Ratdke, Tyler Sweet | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | In 2019, approximately 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere, and that value has been increasing exponentially since the 1950s. High levels of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere have led to an increase in Earth’s surface temperature, which has many catastrophic effects on the global climate. Many companies are implementing policies to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, but not enough. Nor is emission reduction alone enough. The increasingly imminent threat of catastrophic climate changes may require human society to remove greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. The goal of this project is to design a process for quickly and efficiently pulling carbon dioxide directly out of the air—not an easy trick, considering the “low” concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, from the point of view of chemical process engineers. Our design incorporates recent research on technologies that absorb and concentrate atmospheric CO2, which can then be stored (a process called sequestration) or recycled to produce new products. Our challenge is to design a process that is affordable and sustainable. | Not available | |
| CO2 Capture - Chemical Absorption | Names: Bassam Alabbad, Abdulrahman Alabede, Abdulkarim Aldhafeeri, Aziz Alzneidi, Ali Bukhedher | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | The City of Fort Collins has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. And yet Fort Collins and much of the surrounding area of northern Colorado will rely on coal to produce almost 40% of its electricity this year at the Rawhide Unit 1 generating station operated by the Poudre River Power Authority. Each year, the Rawhide unit dumps around 2 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Advocates for clean coal have promoted technology known as Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) as a way to reduce the contribution of CO2 to the atmosphere from coal-fired power stations like Rawhide. We are one of two teams evaluating the effectiveness of technologies that can capture the CO2 from Rawhide’s smokestack. We are focused on the use of well-established technology which uses chemical absorption to remove the CO2. In our design, the CO2 is further concentrated, so that it can be sequestered (stored) underground. Using chemical engineering principles, we will evaluate the cost and efficiency of this technology. | Not available | |
| CO2 Capture- Membrane | Carlie Rosenkrance, Nick Velasquez, Julian Wagner, Gavin Thomson, Cameron Kurtz | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | The City of Fort Collins has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. And yet Fort Collins and much of the surrounding area of northern Colorado will rely on coal to produce almost 40% of its electricity this year at the Rawhide Unit 1 generating station operated by the Poudre River Power Authority. Each year, the Rawhide unit dumps around 2 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Advocates for clean coal have promoted technology known as Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) as a way to reduce the contribution of CO2 to the atmosphere from coal-fired power stations like Rawhide. We are one of two teams evaluating the effectiveness of technologies that can capture the CO2 from Rawhide’s smokestack. We are focused on the use of “membrane separation” technology to remove the CO2. In our design, the CO2 is further concentrated, so that it can be sequestered (stored) underground. Using chemical engineering principles, we will evaluate the cost and efficiency of this technology. | Not available | |
| Composite Tubes and Pressure Vessel development | Ethan Anspach, Aidan Hughes | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Mostafa Yourdkani | Multifunctional Polymers and Composites Laboratory | This project aims to greatly reduce the manufacturing time of composites produced in the filament winding process. Traditionally, composites produced in the filament winding process are manufactured by passing filament through a resin or epoxy then wrapping it around a rotating profile called a mandrel until desired thickness is reached, followed by a secondary curing process for several hours inside an autoclave. The autoclave curing process is a large part of why composites are only used in high end applications because the large amount of time and energy needed to create a single composite part make these materials unfeasible for any very large scale manufacturing. This project will remove the lengthy secondary cure process by utilizing a self propagating curing reaction called frontal polymerization to cure the part without needing to even remove the part from the mandrel. This reaction will be induced by several energy sources, including resistively heating the mandrel and ceramic infrared heat lamps. The process demonstrated by this project has potential to make composites more feasible for a variety of applications. | PDF link |
| Computational Modeling of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Humans | Patrick Charlton, Hannah Mabry, Stuart McKnight, Trevor Woodruff | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | Ashok Prasad | A computational model of the processes involved in the infection of human lung epithelial cells by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The model uses a large system of ordinary differential equations, based on chemical kinetics of infection steps, to determine the concentration of important proteins throughout the course of the infection. Important proteins involved with viral entry, viral replication, host immune response, host immune suppression, and viral release, can all be tracked throughout the course of the infection. Users will have the ability to manipulate individual steps in the infection process to simulate how different drugs and disease states may affect the progression of the infection. | Not available | |
| Control of a Petawatt Laser | Conner Carter, Arsalan Shah, Ryan Wessel | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Jorge Rocca | The science of high-power lasers has been a field of interest and has recently seen much growth over the past few years. Plasma generation, X-ray imaging and many other uses take advantage of the growth over the years and as the industry keeps growing, advances in many different fields will continue to blossom. Data acquisition is key and that is the focus of this project. | Not available | |
| Corporate Headquarters Structural Design | Noah Koury, Katie Pepper, Jared Ramsay, Brendan Mauer, Colton Hochevar, Carlos Arellano | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christropher Thornton, Chris Michalos | Raker Rhodes Engineering, Mickey Halverson | The proposed design for Raker Rhodes' corporate headquarters is a two-story office space with multiple glass openings, a patio, and complex roof architectural elements. Additional amenities requested for the final construction include a gym, training room for new staff, open-office space, conference rooms of differing sizes, a wellness room, and active storage space. A full building construction plan for lateral and gravitational resistance has been completed to optimize the building's life span allowing for the referenced amenities. A full 3D render of the completed structural design is available in video format for an immersive visual experience. | Not available |
| Course Rover | Connor Cloherty, Tomas Martinez, Greg Spaulding, Trent Weldon | Department of Mechanical Engineering | John Petro | WSCOE | The Course Rover is the contemporary Sunday bag for novice to intermediate golfers who are looking to play casual golf and invest minimal time and money in their game. Instead of hoisting an entire club set over their shoulder and paying hundreds of dollars to do it, the Course Rover gives players a lightweight, rolling golf bag that carries all of the tools and accessories they would need on a shorter, easier course. The Rover started as two mailing tubes duct taped together, one to hold a few golf clubs and one to hold a water bottle or a couple canned drinks. It now uses 3D printed components to house a set of wheels, a drink elevator system and other features. The Course Rover is a customizable and modular product that can be almost completely manufactured with a 3D printer. | PDF link |
| Critical Optical Components for Lasers | Malek Aleshekh, Cole Glaser, Hayden Miltersen, Kevin Novak, Bryan Sullivan | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Carmen Menoni | The aim of this project is to design and manufacture a compact, semi-portable, optical testbed to assess laser performance of optical thin film coatings, also known as the laser induced damage threshold (LIDT). The testbed will be integrated with motors to precisely control linear motion of critical optical components that allows automation of the sample testing via graphical user interface (GUI) on a computer. This interface will also record the fluence of the laser, the beam profile, and a magnified image of the test site. | Not available | |
| CSU ATR | Colin Hice, Jason Kiehlbauch | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Branislav Notaros | The CSU Antenna Test Range or 'ATR' is a project that began in 2008 as a multi-disciplinary project which has since been worked on by multiple senior design teams. The ATR is nearing completion, and in its final form will be an automated antenna characterization system that will have both modeling and measurement capabilities for near and far fields from 7-18 GHz. The main instrument utilizes an anechoic chamber inside the Colorado State University Electromagnetics Lab. This system integrates disciplines from electromagnetic waves and radiation, computer science, control systems, power systems, and circuit theory. | Not available | |
| CSU Brewery | Ian Danas, Teddy Klovstad | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Tony Maciejewski | Jeff Callaway, Olivera Notaros | This project will focus mainly on the automation of the brewing systems inside of the RamSkeller brewery. There will be a focus on the improvement and continuation of previous years' work as well as work on new systems. The goal of the project for this semester is to automate the Mash Mixer process as well as help fix any physical systems that might be malfunctioning within the brewery. The team will be practicing creating the functional documents necessary to streamline and record how the automation needs to be done so we can then turn these documents into the sequence manager software that the brewery operates on. | Not available |
| CSU Foothills Campus Stormwater Master Plan | Tom Anderson, Stephen Driscoll, Michael Perez, Cameron Salz, Taylor Schulze, Palen Stream | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton | CSU Facilities Management, Susanne Cordery, Fred Haberecht | The CSU Foothills Campus Stormwater Master Plan was last updated in 2002. As of 2021, campus development has led to increased stormwater runoff from the site and raised the need to update the current master plan. The purpose of the update is to address present and future stormwater conditions by designing improvements for detention, drainage, water quality, and erosion control infrastructure on the CSU Foothills Campus. Accordingly, the objective of the update is to develop design solutions grounded in stormwater management best practices that can be effectively incorporated into the existing stormwater management plan. Updating the plan will benefit stakeholders within the CSU community and throughout the City of Fort Collins by helping to manage stormwater runoff, mitigate flood risk, improve erosion control, protect campus infrastructure, preserve habitat value, and minimize impacts to water quality. | Not available |
| CSU Levee Test Facility Building Design | Aidan Arroyo, Trenton Cooper, Sam Zummach, Matt Westfield, Austin Branscum, kolt ferguson | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hydraulics Lab | Christopher Thornton | CSU wants to upgrade its flume height to allow for a more dynamic range of tests. After upgrading its northern walls, the ERC needs a structure to shield its facility from the elements. Colorado winters can be very cold, making outdoor testing a miserable undertaking. Enclosing this testing facility inside will allow for longer testing periods and protect fragile models. | Not available | |
| CSU Mountain Campus Fire Protection System | Stephen Agenbroad, Paige Genaula, Trey Seyers, Lukas Garcia, Timothy Osborn, Allison Maddocks | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton | Susanne Cordery, Environmental Engineer | The Colorado State University mountain campus is a remote satellite facility of the main Fort Collins campus. The campus is host to students, researchers and tourists. Recently, the campus was a host to a string of wildland firefighters. The Cameron peak fire started August 13th, 2020 in the northern region of Colorado. It spread over 208,913 acres over the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. The CSU mountain campus was located in the fire path. Thankfully the firefighters were able to protect the campus, and prevent it from being burnt down. The goal of our project is to develop a Fire Support System for the campus. This fire support system will provide temporary sprinkler systems, and will also allow the firefighters to integrate with the system. A plan of action will also be drafted, so that firefighters can understand and integrate with the system. The plan will also detail how the campus will prepare for the fire such as fuel reduction, temporary sprinkler set up, and many other safety measures. | Not available |
| CSU Mountain Campus Microturbine | Jeff Ellis, Abigail Haneke, Mason kiefer, Brianna Lopez,Trevor Smith, Troy Garner, Victor Sainz | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton | Susanne Cordery | Colorado State University (CSU) has expressed interest in using renewable energy to power their Mountain Campus. CSU Mountain Campus is embedded in the Pingree Valley 50 miles west of Fort Collins, Colorado, at an elevation of roughly 9,000 ft. The campus is a site for student learning, workshops, retreats, conferences, and meetings. Colorado State University prides itself on being sustainable and not harming the environment. Providing Colorado State University’s Mountain Campus with a source of renewable energy through hydropower is the objective of this project. Hydropower is a clean source of energy that can provide CSU with renewable energy for years to come. | Not available |
| Customized 3D Printed COVID Masks | Abdulaziz Abuhaimed, Ferass Aljaber, Ahmad Esmat, Alyssa Shepherd | Department of Mechanical Engineering | David Prawel | WSCOE | The demand for masks have drastically increased in the last year due to the rapid growth and spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States. An important question we must ask ourselves is, how effective and efficient are the masks that are commonly used today? A cloth/surgical mask is only about 40 percent efficient due to leaks around the nose and under the chin. The goal of our project is to design and manufacture (through 3D printing) a respirator mask that is comparable to the N95 in terms of efficiency, as well as increase the “effectiveness” by providing a sealed fit around the face. This is done by customizing the masks to the customers' facial dimensions through image analysis. Measurements from the customer’s face are used to scale the “base” SolidWorks file which results in a sealed fit from the nose to the chin, thereby increasing the effectiveness. The team then 3D prints all components of the mask, assembles and delivers the mask to the customer(s). The masks are tested at CSU’s Center for Energy Development and Health (CEDH) Lab to ensure that they are both effective and safe to use | PDF link |
| Cybersecurity for Vehicles: Network Anomaly Detection | David Rohrbaugh, Andy Worcester | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Sudeep Pasricha | Unlike many Senior Design projects, the main result of the project is not physical. Rather, it is a machine learning model. Within the depths of Machine Learning, we implemented a Neural Network/Deep Learning algorithm that can accurately detect unusual behavior in the normal flow of information. The normal flow of information is communication between embedded system sensors in vehicles through the CAN bus. When the flow of information is disrupted, there could be unusual information being detected, a failure in the system, or a direct cyber-attack on the system from the outside. We implemented an algorithm that achieves the performance necessary to be able to reliably detect attacks by finding this unusual behavior. We used Keras with TensorFlow in the Python programming language to implement this. After researching available options for our algorithm, designing an algorithm, and then training and testing against data, we were then able to see if it worked according to a set of standards as a part of the design process. We also researched related aspects of our project, for example, how it would be implemented practically. | Not available | |
| Data Center Power Conservation Through Return Jet Impingment Server Cooling | Roman Yoder | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Todd Bandhauer | In recent years improvements in power usage effectiveness (PUE) for data centers have stalled as conventional cooling methods are limited. PUE quantifies the amount of additional power (cooling power, lights etc.) a data center requires over computational output. Return jet impingement cooling demonstrates a potential solution to improve the PUE metric by providing high heat flux cooling at ambient conditions and low flow rates. Comparing collected data for a baseline server to that of an equivalent system using a return jet impingement device allows a direct performance comparison and demonstrates the degree of improved PUE. Traditionally PUE is calculated by considering each server as a purely computational load; onboard server measurements facilitate a new high-resolution category 5 PUE metric accounting for individual server’s onboard fan power. The ideal pumping power of return jet impingement alone is 10% of the consumed onboard fan power for traditional server operation; this coupled with reduction in air conditioning load creates a competitive PUE metric. This results in identical computational output for a significant reduction in data center power consumption. | Not available | |
| Deep Reinforcement Learning in FEA Driven Virtual Environments for Control of Flexible Robotics | Sebastian Mettes | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Steve Simske | High precision robotics traditionally require stiff arm links which can be controlled with simple kinematics. Robots with flexible arm links are difficult to control precisely due to the dynamic nature of link deflection under load. By training a deep reinforcement network to compensate for these deflections, precise control of flexible robotic arms is possible in real time with low-cost controllers. Precise, flexible robotic arms have the potential to decrease the cost of underwater and space robotics by enabling low cost and low density link materials, such as plastic, to replace traditional steel, aluminum, and carbon fiber. | Not available | |
| Development of a Chemical Kinetic Model for LPG Combustion Under Engine-like Conditions | Colin Slunecka | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Anthony Marchese | Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has many properties that make it an attractive alternative fuel such as lower cost than conventional fuels and an established distribution infrastructure. The development of high efficiency, spark ignited LPG engines is currently limited by engine knock and misfire. A rapid compression machine (RCM) was used to characterize the effects of variation in LPG fuel reactivity, equivalence ratio, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on autoignition of LPG/oxidizer/inert/EGR blends. Experiments were conducted with 100% propane (C3H8) and a mixture of propane, propene, ethane, isobutane, and n-butane. EGR was simulated with mixtures of Ar, CO2, CO, and NO at substitution percentages from 0 to 30 mass percent. Equivalence ratio was varied from 0.75 to 1.5. Ignition delay period under homogeneous autoignition conditions was measured at compressed pressures and temperatures of 23 to 25 bar and 701 to 921 K. Zero-dimensional simulations of the RCM experiments were performed using CHEMKIN with several detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms to determine their suitability at predicting ignition delay periods. Multiple reduced chemical kinetic mechanisms were created from the NUIGMech1.1 mechanism to determine the optimal balance between accuracy and computational efficiency for future three-dimensional, time-dependent spark-ignited engine computations. | Not available | |
| Development of Advanced Combustion Strategies for Direct Injection Heavy Duty LPG Engines to Achieve Near-Diesel Engine Efficiency | Manav Sharma | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Bret Windom | Internal combustion engine research focuses on the improvement of fuel economy and the reduction of the tailpipe emissions of CO2 and other regulated pollutants. Direct-injection and alternative fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas are promising solutions. LPG represents a practical and economical solution for fueling the United States’ heavy-duty transportation sector. However, before widespread adoption can occur, energy conversion efficiencies for LPG engines must achieve values comparable to those seen in diesel engine platforms. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to address fundamental limitations to achieving near-diesel efficiencies in heavy duty on-road LPG engines. The proposed project will focus on developing an experimental setup to verify and finely tune DI LPG engine simulation of the injection and mixing process by utilizing a constant volume high pressure spray chamber to study direct LPG fuel injection penetration, vaporization and mixing. To date, limited information is available regarding the spray dynamics of LPG at engine relevant conditions. On the global market LPG composition can vary dramatically, leading to even more insufficient data. The successful completion of the project will allow future research to use the finely tuned LPG spray model to develop a heavy-duty LPG engine with diesel like efficiency. | Not available | |
| Development of Highly Efficient Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) Tail Gas Engine | Thomas Muetterties | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Bret Windom | Initiatives for increasing micro-grid power generation throughout the US have created a need for highly efficient, cost-competitive electricity generation fueled by natural gas (NG). A promising solution is a hybrid pressurized SOFC + internal combustion engine (ICE) system that has the potential to achieve 70+% efficiency at a competitive price of less than $1000/kW. To achieve these targets, an ICE needs to deliver up to 15 kW at a thermal efficiency of 35% fueled off a dilute fuel, containing a fraction of the energy found in NG. To achieve this goal, CSU and Kohler are converting a stock 2-liter diesel to operate on the anode tail gas of the SOFC. A test facility has been set up and baseline diesel data has been collected and used to verify the stock diesel engine in GT-Power modeling software. Using the validated GT-Power model, it was converted to operate on the SOFC tail gas making optimizations to increase engine efficiency. Future work will require gasifying the diesel engine and testing to prove the engine's performance. | Not available | |
| Dixon Canal Trail | Connor Freeman, Ellie Jensen, Tara Shadowen, Ed Weschler, Connor Williams, Jake Wilson | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton, Chris Michalos | Aaron Fodge, Alternative Transportation Manager, Parking and Transportation Services | The Dixon Canal trail is being redesigned to develop a safe and enjoyable multipurpose trail along the poorly maintained section between Spruce St. and the ERC. The trail will be able to accommodate a wide variety of trail users, with an advanced single track option for mountain bikes and a wheelchair accessible main trail. This will set a strong foundation for a more connected engineering campus and expand the growing versatility of trails in the Fort Collins area. | Not available |
| ECE Outreach | Brandon Crisp | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Olivera Notaros | The ECE Outreach team strives to introduce students to electrical and computer engineering through educational demonstrations, workshops, and seminars. Of all of the engineering majors, ECE has sometimes been underrepresented, both in terms of incoming freshmen choosing the major, as well as high school students being aware of the major in general. This project strives to change this by introducing students to the exciting world of electrical and computer engineering. Outreach is split up into three sub teams, the Analog, the Digital/Programming, and the Math team. With each sub team focusing on developing exciting demonstrations and lesson plans related to each team. We then use these demonstrations and lesson plans in events and workshops to get students interested in ECE, as well as helping students within the ECE department. | Not available | |
| ECE Student Projects Lab | Jimmy Craveiro, David Farnsworth, Cole Worth | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Edwin Chong | Olivera Notaros, John Seim | The ECE B111 Projects lab is a place where students can go to work on their projects or independent studies. The Lab has a variety of resources such as 3D printers, CNC machine, Soldering stations, Hand tools and even a Laser cutter. The ECE senior design lab team is responsible for equipment maintenance and installation, student certification for equipment use, Lab resource management and overall lab improvement. The B111 lab team is dedicated to student safety and available to help or answer questions about the lab. | Not available |
| Electric Go-kart / Outreach | Sulimn Alturaif, Ashley Andringa, Patrick Donovan, Ian Johnson, Jake Kolb, Deagan Malloy | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Olivera Notaros | The Go Kart team is building a fully electrically driven kart from scratch. There are two sub-teams; ME and ECE. The ME side is crafting the chassis and assisting the ECE subteam in mounting all of the electronics necessary. The ECE side is creating the custom software and wiring all of the electrical components. The final product will used as a teaching tool for several different ECE concepts. | Not available | |
| Energy Suitcase | Hunter Becvar, Kyle Cunningham, Joshua Ehr, Sean Williams | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Jim Barnes | Sebastian Africano, James Calabaza, Valerie Small | We live in a world that relies on electricity. Yet there are still so many impoverished and rural areas that don't have a reliable source of power. Even in the United States, there are places that people struggle for this necessity including the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Without access to electricity, extreme weather and emergencies can quickly become life-threatening. Trees, Water, & People, our local non-profit collaborator, is working to provide access to affordable, renewable power sources to this community. They have purchased an educational We Share Solar Suitcase from We Care Solar, which includes two small solar panels and DC charging ports. This is a very valuable device, however, it doesn't produce enough power to run small appliances. The goal of this project is to create a portable suitcase that provides 150 Amp-hours to charge a laptop (~0.05 kWhr) , two phone chargers (~0.006 kWhr a phone), an LED light (~0.005 kWhr), and an insulin refrigerator (~0.005 kWhr) for 24 hours. This suitcase will be powered by four solar panels. This suitcase has the ability to save lives, and make daily tasks a little easier for those without easy access to electricity. | Not available |
| Exercise Bike | Assad Al Alawi, Jae Young Kim | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Ryan Kim | Kimberly Cox-York | Our project team has a strong desire to contribute to making a greener future by improving method of reusing of energy. In this project we plan to generate electricity by pedaling a bike and use electrical energy by attaching a generator to the bike. Finally, we reuse this electrical energy in various ways -- for example, powering a grow box, charging smart phones, and displaying information on the screen. | Not available |
| Extraction of Magnetic Material Properties | Dominic Molinari, Garrett Ross | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Jim Cale | The goal of this senior design project is to build a testbed with graphical user interface (GUI) to automate the measurement of effects in sample ferrimagnetic materials in deep saturation over a wide range of frequencies, and to characterize their magnetic characteristics using artificial intelligence algorithms. The impetus of this project is to improve on the IEEE standard, so more so than having application to many industries, it also serves as a possible educational tool. For deep saturation measurements we will apply utility voltage (120 VCA) through an autotransformer. To test and account for coercivity (conceptually, a materials resistance to magnetization/demagnetization), we will use a grid simulator to set an arbitrary input signal and sweep over a range of frequencies (< 1Hz -50 kHz). We will verify the fitted magnetic characterization functions against high frequency measurements that we will collect using the testbed. Control of the testbed, display of raw and processed measurements, and fitted characteristics will be displayed through our GUI. | Not available | |
| Feeding Our Crops with Wind Energy: Wind Energy-derived Ammonia Fertilizer | Blayne Banghart, Sajad Al Hamoud, Joe Tallan | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | One of the biggest issues facing wind power is curtailment—the problem of unused wind power at night (or any time) when available power from wind exceeds demand on the electricity grid that supplies our homes and businesses. One of the biggest problems facing agriculture is the unsustainable use of fossil-based fertilizers—in this case, ammonia. In this project, our team evaluates a scheme for dealing with both problems. Today, ammonia is produced in huge, large scale factories that use natural gas as a feedstock. Our work involves the design of a novel scaled down ammonia fertilizer production process in which ammonia is produced from hydrogen and nitrogen, and the hydrogen is produced via electrolysis of water powered by electricity from wind that would otherwise not be used on the grid. We make use of available data and preliminary design information published by researchers at the University of Minnesota to determine the cost and sustainability of such a process. | Not available | |
| FSAE Racecar | Hussain Abusaab, Uzair Athar, Jordan Basile, Jacob Brown, Justin Falk, Ryan Joyner, Zachery Kahn, Brandon Moore, Christopher Tomaschow, Tanner Wilson | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Chris Weinberger | Department of Mechanical Engineering | The goal of this project is to envision, build, and test a formula style race car to compete against schools across the country. The design is handled by students at every step, from the chassis design, to suspension choices, engine tuning, and electronics. Design is a major portion of this project where both engineering and creative skills will be put to the test to create a competitive final car in only one year. After the design stage there is a major focus on manufacturing in every form from welding, to metal bending, CNC, and composite manufacturing. | PDF link |
| GATOR | Sam Escobar, Raul Ramirez | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Sudeep Pasricha | Neha Lodha | The GATOR Senior Design Project is involved with creating technology that can assist with physical rehabilitation. This year, the team is working on several devices that can fit onto a steering wheel and driver pedals. These devices will send physical information, such as pressure on the steering wheel, to a computer in real time. The hope is to be able to have early detection of Alzheimer's or dementia by detecting patterns from the information gathered by these devices. | Not available |
| H2O and GO | Steven Baird, Michael Bowers, Brandon Cook, Halley Havlicek, Tara Mensch | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Bonnie Roberts, John Petro | WSCOE | The H2O & GO is a floating wheelchair that is designed to give paraplegics independence in the pool, where users will be able to enter a pool with a ramp independently. Once in the water, gear-driven propellers allow for maneuvering in water, whether the user wants to get some exercise or just to float around in the common areas. The adjustable backrest also allows the user to find a comfortable position in the water and out of the water based on what they are doing. This wheelchair aims to enable users to enter the water and enjoy themselves. Users are comfortably immersed in the water up to their mid-chest region and with quick releasing straps, the user does not slide around on the seat. When a user is ready, they can exit the water and join their friends or family for a snack without relying on others to get them where they want to go. Additionally, an independent swimming float is worn around the waist for quick access adding extra security. | PDF link |
| Heavy Lift Multi-Copter Drone | Ryan Ashburn, Brandon Avers, Joe Felder, Bryan Foster, Jearold Henry, Colton Kindvall, | Department of Mechanical Engineering | John Mizia | Applied Energy Lab | This project aims to design and build a proof-of-concept unmanned aerial vehicle capable of stable flight while maximizing lift. The design utilizes brushless motor, electronic speed controllers, and a flight controller for both manual and automated control. Custom carbon fiber, aluminum, and 3D printer parts were created to ensure a strong and light craft. The goal of this project is to design a custom drone from the ground up in an attempt to break the drone heavy lift world record. | PDF link |
| High Average Power Ultrafast Laser | Ryan Brunson, Iliya Risch, Ryan Sullivan | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Mario Maconi | Jorge Rocca | The project goal is to build a high power, ultrafast laser amplifier. This is achieved by focusing a 940 nm wavelength laser emitted from four 7.2 kW laser diode stack assemblies onto a crystal surface with a spot size of 15-25 mm. In order to achieve this goal many different items need to be designed, fabricated, and tested. The laser diode stacks operate at 160V with a max current of 200 Amps. | Not available |
| Household Fire Detection, Tracking, and Suppression System Using Machine Vision and Sensor Fusion | Doncey Albin | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Steve Simske | The wall-mounted robotic system presented in this research will find, track, and suppress a household fire. It also will alert all occupants in the household of the fire via email with a photo of the fire and sound a fire alarm. The goal of this research is to introduce a groundbreaking autonomous technology that can remedy household fires, possibly serving as an alternative to traditional fire sprinkler systems. | Not available | |
| Indoor Navigation Using Smartphones | Colin Jiang, Jack Lueck, Sam Wolyn | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Sudeep Pasricha | Indoor localization is a complicated problem with many possible solutions. Our project attempts to combine two approaches to achieve better accuracy. Dead reckoning is an approach that uses a gyroscope and accelerometer to predict a change in movement. While very useful on a short time scale dead reckoning loses its accuracy as error builds up. Wi-Fi fingerprinting is an approach that uses the existing wireless networks already set up in buildings. It attempts to predict where the user is based on different Wi-Fi signatures in different locations. Wi-Fi fingerprinting is less practical at short time scales due to its high power consumption. We aim to combine these two approaches to minimize their weaknesses and obtain higher indoor localization accuracy. | Not available | |
| Integration of Mobile Wind Sensor for Methane Sensing from Oil and Gas Infrastructure | Bilal Khan | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Azer Yalin | Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that causes climate change. It has a 20-year global warming potential (GWP20) which is 84 times more than that of CO2. The oil and gas industry is responsible for the majority of methane emissions in the United States. A range of technologies are under development to detect and mitigate these emissions to minimize the adverse effects on human health and the climate. The current research proposes to deliver an economically viable novel mobile methane-sensing system with an on-board ultrasonic anemometer that is capable of quantifying methane emissions from data that is gathered through intensive experimental investigations of methane-producing sites. The methane sensor has been under development for several years; the anemometer is a new addition. The objective of the proposed work is to seamlessly integrate the anemometer to the current methane sensing system so that methane emissions can be quantified more accurately. This would make the system more scalable and practical for widespread use since it will not require the setup and maintenance of fixed sensors. The detection from the sensor will allow for preventive measures to be taken which would reduce overall methane emissions into the environment. | Not available | |
| Investing in the Future with Sustainable Plastics | Alex Benitez, Ryanne Buck, Cody Hacker | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | The majority of plastics currently in use are petroleum based and not sustainable from a global perspective. Research from the National Renewable Energy Lab point to the option of bio-based polymers as a more ecologically efficient basis for plastics. While commercial bioplastics like poly lactic acid typically use microbes that grow on sugar to produce the chemical precursors of the plastic. Our team is turning to an unusual class of single-cell microbes called Cyanobacteria. These organisms are neither plants nor bacteria. They are, essentially, bacteria that are capable of photosynthesis—meaning that they can turn sunlight and CO2 in organic biomass. Some strains are also capable of producing polymers known as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). These polymers can be used to make plastics. The Cyanobacteria are closely related to microalgae and can be grown using similar production schemes. Our team will design a commercial (large) scale production system to making PHAs from sunlight, waste CO2 and other nutrients. The heart of the production process is a photobioreactor capable of efficiently delivering sunlight and CO2. Subsequent steps are required to recover the PHA polymers for further use in plastics production. | Not available | |
| John Deere Low Temperature Thermal Cooling Loop | Shahzeb Chaudhary, Alec DeStefano, Hadley Patterson | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Dan Olsen, Don Grove | John Deere, Dave Robinson | The John Deere Low Temperature Thermal Cooling Loop (LTCL) senior design project is a one year, top to bottom design process. The primary objective of this project is to design a system to moderate the temperature of various machine components while they undergo testing at John Deere’s headquarters. This objective must be accomplished by a system taking up no more than one cubic meter and capable of coping with environments ranging from -40 to 115 °C. The system is almost entirely automated, requiring only initial interfacing with the test components and a brief system check. From there on the cooling loop can monitor its own pressures and temperatures, adjusting as needed to maintain a constant temperature in the test component. | PDF link |
| Larimer County Floodplain | Katie Ascough, Theresa Centola, Keian Freshwater, Billy Joel, Justin Rychlick, Kayla Schultz, Brett Van Alstine | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton, Chris Michalos | Larimer County, CO | The Northern Colorado region is well-familiarized with past severe flooding events; as such, Larimer County makes an active effort to consider flood planning and infrastructure. The county follows U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) guidelines to accurately map and assess the risk of flooding for homeowner insurance purposes. However, in many rural parts of Larimer County, existing floodplain maps are not reliable. Using up-to-date hydrological, streamflow, and mapping software, our team will model two county streams: Dry Creek, and a segment of Boxelder Creek. In order to ensure FEMA compliance, areas for improvement will also be identified within each floodplain. Overall, the aim of this project is to create reference documents to be used in future county-related flood planning involving these rural streams. | Not available |
| L'Avenir Residential Building | Michael Beddingfield, Chase Bellon, Brian McCaffrey, Ted Dhanes, Michael Payne, Muamar Al Bahari | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton, Chris Michalos | Patrick McManus | As Fort Collins becomes more populated the need for new residential buildings has grown proportionally. Around the Horn Structures has been tasked with creating a primary building frame design for the new L'Avenir residential building in downtown Fort Collins. This exciting new building, spearheaded by the architects, was planned and designed following the "Living-Building-Challenge" guidelines to be a sustainable net zero building. If these types of buildings become the norm Fort Collins buildings, the city will be ahead of the curve in the coming decades. | Not available |
| Lockheed Martin Electric Propulsion | Joseph Clemmer, Matt Collard, Kolbin Dahley, Tyler Kelly, Sam Reagan | Department of Mechanical Engineering | John Williams | Lockheed-Martin, Bao Nguyen | Demand for satellites and long distance exploration probes has never been higher. Due to this demand, aerospace companies around the globe are scrambling to engineer improved ion propulsion devices capable of propelling their satellites. This design team is working with the CEPPE Lab and Lockheed Martin on development of a Hall-Effect thruster. Hall-Effect thrusters are devices that electro-statically accelerate ionized gas (normally xenon or krypton) at incredibly high velocities to produce thrust. The thrust produced by electric propulsion devices is incredibly small, in the mN range, but these thrusters can operate for extremely long periods of time and reach incredibly high velocities in the vacuum of space | PDF link |
| Low-Cost COVID-19 Tester | Katie Davis, Cerine Khoo, Megan Maier, Sean O' Connell, Faith Otieno | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Bert Vermeulen | Neuvatek, Undergraduate Venture Fund for Entrepreneurial Senior Capstone Design Projects | The need for a fast and inexpensive COVID-19 testing device is critical to reducing the high infection rates and mortality rates of COVID-19. The team is developing a proof of concept for a novel device using electronic sensing of volatile organic compounds in breath to rapidly diagnose COVID-19 at a low cost with high accuracy. | Not available |
| Low-Cost DNI Solar Sensor | Javier Acosta, Hashim Akbar, Brian Chan, Zachary Hollingsworth, Tanner Jones | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Peter Young | Ken Christensen, Mike Hawes, Jerry Duggan | This project is a third-year continuation of the DNI (Direct Normal Irradiance) Solar Integration project. The project aims to deploy the four solar panels and test their efficiency utilizing the Keysight PA2203 4-channel Series Power Analyzer to measure various aspects of two, industrial grade 3-phase inverters located at the Powerhouse campus. However, due to COVID-19, we have shifted our project from the Powerhouse to METEC CSU, an energy institute. Various aspects of the solar array at METEC will be tested under different conditions. Varying degrees of being blocked/covered, different tilt angles and cardinal orientations are some experiments the team plans to conduct. Additionally, a Raspberry Pi will be utilized to collect data (voltage, current) periodically from the solar panels using Python. | Not available |
| Machine Learning for Prediction | Iris He, Rui Tang | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Edwin Chong | This is a project that combines electrical engineering and economics. We will use electrical engineering methods to get economic data. We will use machine learning to identify data and use them to automatically make predictions. A large part of the project is to discuss different mathematical methods to build different models and use models to predict future economic data from past economic data. The team needs to implement models by computers programs such as MATLAB for data fitting. The team also needs to compare the accuracy of different models and apply their results to reality and discuss efficiency and feasibility. | Not available | |
| Manufacturing of Cell-free Rapid COVID-19 Test | Rachel Chayer, Zeus Alcon, Michael Kwolkoski | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | Christie Peebles | With the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid testing for the virus has become increasingly important as case numbers change and outbreaks need to be managed. Synthetic biology allows for the rapid testing of individuals using cell-free systems on a paper-based platform without needing complicated laboratory techniques. Within this testing assay are cell machinery components that are freeze-dried onto a disk of paper and cause a color change when certain conditions, such as having viral RNA in a patient’s sample, are met. The ability to manufacture such a testing system requires cell culturing in an industrial scale to obtain necessary cellular components and produce enough tests for it to be a viable option in places without access to laboratories or skilled technicians. Many cells containing the necessary proteins and cellular machinery must be grown in a bioreactor where they have time to produce those materials. From there, the components must be extracted without being destroyed, dried onto a piece of paper, and packaged. | Not available | |
| Meridian and Pitkin Roundabout | Dillan Feuerstein, Garrett Anderson, George Kiraly, Ivan Barrios, Kelley McKinney, Ahmed Al-Harthi | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton | Aaron Fodge, Parking and Transportation Services; Fred Haberecht, Facilities Management; Tim Kemp, Assistant Director of Engineering for CSU; David Hansen, Facilities Management | CSU has been increasing in size rapidly, and with this expansion traffic around campus has also increased. The intersection located at Pitkin and Meridian, to the northeast of Canvas Stadium has become very busy and congested at peak times. Bikes, pedestrians, and vehicles all navigate through the intersection every day, increasing the possibility for an accident. BTE has been tasked with redesigning the intersection to manage traffic flow and increase overall safety. A roundabout has been decided to replace the intersection, and BTE has spent numerous hours planning, designing, and communicating to ensure the final roundabout is worthy of being used at CSU. | Not available |
| Mobile Wheelchair Control Application | Katrina Lems, Chad Kennedy, Christina Croal, Ethan Lash | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Sam Bechara, Noel Marshall | Undergraduate Venture Fund for Entrepreneurial Senior Capstone Design Projects | The WIT chair is a unique phone app to assist power chair users. The app displays the fluid level of the user's urine bag alongside a pressure map of their seat regardless of the orientation of the wheelchair. These two systems are used to alert the user to empty the urine bag and to shift off of pressure points to prevent pressure sores by reclining their chair. The phone app can be used by caretakers or wheelchair users for maximum convenience. | Not available |
| Mosquito Microcrystal Self-Marking Device | Jorge Arriaga, Jordan Fox, Dezmond Jeans, Lexia Wyse | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering | Christopher Snow, Rebekah Kading | A device designed to self-mark mosquitoes used in unison with a previously developed DNA-rich microcrystal solution for mark-release-recapture in the analysis of epidemiologically significant data. | Not available | |
| MRI and Orthopedic Healing Diagnostics | Nathan Eads, Ross Mccaskey, Yipin Sun | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Branislav Notaros | Current MRI machines have a maximum field strength of 3 T. New MRI scanners are being designed for higher field strengths, resulting in better image resolution and operating speed. The current design of the internal RF coil will no longer be compatible with a higher field strength. Therefore, the RF coil needs to be redesigned to operate in ultra-high field MRI scanners. The first semester of this project was aimed at rebuilding and optimizing a novel RF coil design. We have replicated a new coil model using the simulation software HFSS, and have performed parametric analyses to optimize the design parameters. The new microstrip model has shown promising improvements in field strength, field uniformity, and inter-element coupling compared to the microstrip model. In the Spring semester, we switched our interest to an 8 element array instead of 16. The next step will be to finalize an 8 element RF coil design in HFSS with Teflon support parts added onto the conductor strips. Based on the finalized HFSS design, we will physically build a prototype. Eventually the plan is to have a prototype constructed and tested to provide preliminary results of its performance characteristics. | Not available | |
| Multimedia Field Solutions | Ali Almajid, Adam Almarhoon, Christian Atkins | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Bonnie Roberts, Steve Johnson | Department of Mechanical Engineering | The goal of this project is to design and build a collapsible media cart for the CSU Media Department. This cart is termed “media cart” since it will provide all the necessary functions for media use, including photography, videography, and more. No other cart on the market can boast the features of this cart, or leave you with a wallet. This cart features a never-seen-before friction hinge linkage assembly that controls the collapsing and raising mechanism of the upper shelf. The cart has achieved an overall weight under 45lbs which is less than half of the industry-leading 100lbs! Have a small car and need to fit in a media cart for your next edit on the trails? Look no further as this media cart collapses down to 13” in height and has enough length and width on either side to fit in your back seat! Rugged adventures, you say? This cart is made from strong and lightweight 6105-T5 aluminum and boasts heavy-duty pneumatic locking rubber wheels. This media cart has the capability of hauling up to 300 lbs of equipment and provides common threaded holes for various media connections. | PDF link |
| NASA Robot Mining | Kyle Ciccarelli, James Henander, Jonathan Jacobson, Jarryd Meyers, Lex Pollicita, Colby Richardson, Alden Truesdale, Connor Worrell, Bin Akmal Yeshel | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Jianguo Zhao | Allied Electronics | The NASA Robot Mining team competes in a NASA sponsored university event to design, build and test a lunar mining robot. The goal of the competition is to autonomously cross over an obstacle zone, dig into moon dust and extract some gravel, and deposit this gravel into a bin. This is the 4th year CSU is competing in this competition. This year the team took the previous year's design and is working to improve the designs. The robot we designed consists of a metal belt with buckets connected to it that rotate and dig into the ground. These buckets place the moon dust and gravel into a storage tank. The storage tank is made of a mesh to allow the moon dust to fall through and is actuated like a dump truck to deposit the gravel into a bin. The electronics use various sensors to detect obstacles and map a course through the obstacle zone which allows the robot to operate autonomously. | PDF link |
| Natural Flightpaths: Turning Vegetable Oil into Jet Fuel | James Brown, Jack Burns, Abdulrahman Masoud, Levi Robinson | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | While electric cars may represent the future of personal transportation, and there is a lot of talk about electrifying freight trucks, there is one segment of the transportation market that will always need an energy-dense liquid fuel—aviation. So, finding a substitute for petroleum derived jet fuel is critical to the future sustainability of the aviation sector. Aviation fuels are hydrocarbons consisting of relatively long chains of carbon and hydrogen. The closest equivalent to these molecules in the biological world are the natural or vegetable oils—also known as lipids or triglycerides. In their natural form, they are not quite right for use as a fuel. But the chemistry of converting them into molecules that look exactly like aviation fuel is well understood. Such fuels have already been tested—mostly as 50% blends with their petroleum counterparts—in commercial passenger jets. Bio-based fuels have many advantages compared to petroleum based fuels including their reduced emissions of fossil CO2 and their reliance on renewable raw materials. In this project, we design a commercial (large) scale production process for converting natural oils into jet fuel. Our goal is to assess the cost and technical feasibility of such a commercial operation. The big challenge we face is coming up with a design that is both environmentally friendly and economically competitive. | Not available | |
| On-Device ML for Smartphones | Collin Peirce, Cole Riechert | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Ryan Kim | Machine learning (ML) has grown in parallel with the "Big Data Age" as a ubiquitous tool in applications ranging from health to finance to scientific research and beyond. Here, we explore the applications of ML in education, motivated by the idea of a homework auto-grader. Handwriting recognition, sometimes called optical character recognition (OCR), has been a longstanding puzzle in ML. While significant advances have been made in numeric recognition, there are still a number of challenges when decoding handwritten alphabet characters, punctuation, and math symbols. As well as choosing an appropriate network model, ML computations also require considerable processing power. Currently, ML has advanced to the stage where such computations are feasible on desktops and even laptops. However, both industry and academia are introducing ML to smaller devices such as embedded systems and smartphones which are limited by their computational power and available energy consumption. In this project, we intend to explore the challenges of ML applied to an example in education. | Not available | |
| Opterus Spiral Wrapped Antenna (SWATH) Deployable Reflector | Theo Beck, Carter Fortuin, Shea Mielke | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Thomas Murphy | Opterus | SWATH is a composite dish antenna designed to be spiral wrapped for storage and transportation into space. The general antenna design was understood by Opterus as a simulation. This project focuses on the fabrication of the first useful antenna of this type. The design challenges revolve around manufacturing, including mold design and material selection, machining and treatment of the molding, drapability of the composites over complex curvatures, thermal expansion and validation of the design. Put simply, the problem was "How do we make one in real life?" The composite antenna is a 53 inch diameter parabolic dish with a composite spring to store potential energy used in deployment. This is manufactured on a 1000 lbs. carbon mold with 3D printed complex edge geometry. | PDF link |
| Overuse Tendinopathy Device | Greta Gohring, Sarah Burke, Alfredo Macha, Alfredo McAuliffe | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Katie Sikes | The Overuse Tendinopathy Device is a unique tool that will be used to induce tendon-specific injuries in mice. As the first of its kind, this device will utilize cyclic loading to mimic Achilles tendon overuse in a realistic and time-effective manner. Once integrated into research practices, this device will provide scientists with a reliable method to create injury models for experimentation of different therapeutic techniques. Current methods to treat tendon disorders are preventative and with more testing of these therapeutic methods, there is the potential to help revert the damage in patients. | Not available | |
| Pediatric Spine Clamp | Meghan Morrill, Logan Farrand, Kim Fernandez, Elise Ng | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering | Jeff Schwamb | Medtronic | The StealthStation surgical navigation system allows surgeons to see where their instruments are in real time relative to a patient's anatomy, increasing the surgeon's accuracy and precision while performing the surgery. The titanium reference frame clamp, which is critical to the system's function, needs to be redesigned to better suit pediatric patients in order to provide the best patient care and outcomes. The titanium clamp must remain stable on the human spine and provide accurate instrumentation locations. | Not available |
| Portable Micro Wind Turbine | Yahya Al Kindi, Mohammad Alajmi, Eric Ellis, Meghan McNulty | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Rockey Luo | The Portable Wind Turbine project is a proof-of-concept for an affordable, convenient, and vehicle-mounted wind turbine for those who wish to reduce their carbon footprint and have a renewable source of power that 's always obtainable. Most RVs use propane to run generators and off-grid appliances, which is harmful to the environment. The current market for renewable energy sources for RVs or small camping vehicles is mainly based in solar panels. This project is working to change that by creating a portable wind turbine mounted on the customer 's vehicle and ready to deploy when they are parked. | Not available | |
| Programmable Origami Folding with Variable Stiffness | Elisha Lerner | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum), Adaptive Robotics Lab | Jianguo Zhao | A robot made out of PLA acting as a shape memory polymer. The actuation properties are dictated by the stiffness patterns. Stiffness patterns are created by regulating glass transition temperature with rapid response heating elements. | Not available | |
| Quatro Socket | Emma MacLaughlin, Logan Munson, Avi Nataf, Jack Fleischmann | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering | Kirk McGilvray | Quorum Prosthetics | Volume change in the residual limb is a common obstacle amputees face during their use of prosthetics. Quorum Prosthetics has patented a prosthetic socket that aims to provide a more comfortable fit for users by accounting for daily volume changes in the amputee’s residual limb. The Quatro Socket allows users to alter the volume and compression of the device through compression panels controlled by Revofit dials. This allows individuals to adjust the compression on the residual limb for a more comfortable and secure fit. The main challenge the senior design team will face while working on the Quatro Socket is quantifying comfort to back up the anecdotal evidence that this socket design is more comfortable than other designs currently on the market. The senior design team seeks to provide quantitative data that will support the comfort claims made by Quorum Prosthetics. This will be done by creating a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) model of the Quatro Socket and validating this model through benchtop experiments. This analysis will provide quantitative data that will aid in the design of future Quatro Sockets in order to minimize the wear of the socket, respective components, deterioration of collateral tissues and maximize efficiency. | Not available |
| Radar Calibration Using Drones | Mateo Lovato, Corby Thompson, John (Jack) Wilson | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | V. Chandrasekar | Radar calibration is important for reading measurements such as the direction, intensity and type (rain, snow, hail, etc.) of precipitation accurately. Current methods for calibrating radars include mounting a fixed reflector on a building. Although simple, calibrating in this manner only allows the radar to be calibrated at a fixed elevation and azimuth. In order to provide more extensive calibration, this project is going to use a drone carrying a reflector to calibrate the radar, which will allow the radar to be calibrated in various elevations and azimuths. Having multiple data points for both elevation and azimuth will decrease uncertainty between the measured and actual data, resulting in an improved efficiency. The Radar Calibration Using Drones project will focus on improving the efficiency and cost of calibrating a ground radar. | Not available | |
| Rapid Paper-Based COVID-19 Test | Al Watson, Jackie Poirot, Alyssa Caldwell-McGee, Mallory Knudsen, Katie Gaughan, Erin Estrada, Sarah Easton | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering | Christie Peebles, Claudia Gentry-Weeks | This COVID-19 diagnostic test was designed to detect viral RNA rapidly, at a low cost without need for laboratory equipment. The paper-based, cell free assay uses saliva, collected with non-invasive procedures, in combination with a protein cascade to produce a colorimetric, visible signal when COVID-19 RNA is present in the sample. The paper-based design allows for use of this tool in areas without access to chemical reagents and for self administration. Without additional components, the cost of the test is minimized, allowing for mass production and swift distribution. | Not available | |
| RBCs interaction with nanostructured surfaces | Harvinder Singh Virk | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum), School of Biomedical Engineering | Ketul Popat | There are many implants that come in contact with blood such as stents, artificial heart valves, and vascular grafts. A lot of these medical devices are made of titanium and titanium alloys. Due to undesirable interaction of blood with the implant surface results in inflammation, and thrombosis. Thrombosis is one of the main reasons for implant failure, where a blood clot forms on the implant surface, thus obstructing the further flow of the blood. Initially, proteins (fibrinogen and albumin) get adsorbed on the surface which triggers the thrombus formation. | Not available | |
| Real-Time Augmented Reality Ultrasound Display System | Diana Boll, Benjamin Farkas, Steven Hsu, Janaye Matthews | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Tod Clapp, Chad Eitel, Jordan Nelson, Brendan Garbe, Stu Tobet | Undergraduate Venture Fund for Entrepreneurial Senior Capstone Design Projects | Developing a Real-Time Augmented Reality (AR) ultrasound display system allows for the overlay of supplemental data directly with the sensory input of the practitioner, bringing them real-time information to aid in their understanding and to treat their patients effectively This would greatly enhance the operator's ability to effectively interpret ultrasound imaging in educational, training, and clinical settings. | Not available |
| Remote Livestock Monitoring and Management | Hunter McClung, Zach Rafert, Lexy Seeley | Agricultural Sciences | Wade Troxell | Agricultural Sciences, Mark Enns, Jasmine Dillon | Ranching is a critical job to the world’s food supply system and in Colorado specifically, it is still a job involving vast swaths of land. With these large amounts of land comes the dilemma that a rancher faces on a constant basis, spend time checking cattle by horse/motor vehicle or completing chores around the ranch. Thus, a cattle monitoring system utilizing radio transmitter technology is being developed. A fixed-wing drone will house a receiver node that monitors powered tags on the livestock. The receiver node communicates with a small radio and antenna connected to a computer. This system will allow the rancher to monitor a large area of land much quicker. Once the land has been scanned by the drone, data will be compiled to form a GPS map of the livestock’s location and identity. This project will provide useful information to ranchers that will save them much needed time and energy. | PDF link |
| Replication of the mechanical loading of rotator cuff tendons for the development of implantable scaffolds | Becca Schaldach | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Kirk McGilvray | The lack of an effective method for rotator cuff tear makes the development of new technology essential. The use of scaffolding for this application is novel and requires analysis of many scaffold candidates. For efficient analysis, a mechanism that replicates the in vivo environment of the rotator cuff was created. | Not available | |
| Riff Raff Brewery Solar Hydronic Heating | Brianna Bartlett, Tyler Haman, Annalisa Hund, Shannon Langfield, Arturo Quintero Castillo, Sam Stringfield | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Bonnie Roberts | Riff Raff Brewery, Jason Cox | Riff Raff Solar Hydronic Heating is a project that teamed up with a small brewery in southern Colorado to make their “Earth Powered Beer” slogan a possibility. The team used the foundation made by last year’s senior design students to finish a proof-of-concept prototype and then create a full-scale design with a functional control system. The full-scale design will use the domestic cold water provided by the city and then heat it up through solar panels on the roof. The prototype shows that the solar panels will be able to raise the temperature of the water by at least 40F, which will be used to feed the hot water applications in the brewery. The preheated water will, in turn, reduce the brewery’s dependence on natural gas and lessen their environmental impact. | PDF link |
| RNMP Intersection Improvement | Sarah Dieker, Nathan Stock, Austin Lobsinger, Ben Alexander, Steven Laudan, Zach Brown, Madison Younker | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton, Chris Michalos | Erin Jessee, P.E., Federal Highway Association, Federal Lands Division | The intersection of Highway 34 and Highway 36 in Rocky Mountain National Park is heavily used and dangerous for cars and pedestrians. A full redesign of the intersection has been completed to optimize traffic flow and improve pedestrian safety. A parking lot was added to increase available parking for the popular trailheads near this intersection. | Not available |
| Satisfying Our Energy Sweet Tooth: Ethanol Fuel from Sugarcane | Nick Eyerman, Pramit Maskey, Casey Natsch, Jeremy Belin | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | Fermenting sugars to produce beverage alcohol dates back to the ancient Egyptians. But using that same process to make liquid fuel first gained momentum as an idea in Brazil in the '20s. Henry Ford also considered ethanol a good fuel for his Model T. In the early '70s, oil prices shot up causing Brazil to invest in sugarcane biofuel manufacturing technology. By the late '70s, Brazil was producing ethanol for fuel at a massive scale and its success is clear today. The US followed a different path to producing fuel grade ethanol, relying on its extensive corn grain supply. In this study, we consider a large-scale process for producing ethanol from sugarcane in the US. We assess the latest technology advances for both the fermentation process and downstream recovery of the fuel and potential byproducts, like heat and power. We address questions such as: 1) what is the cost of sugarcane ethanol in the US vs corn ethanol in the US?, 2) How sustainable (environmentally) is US sugarcane ethanol? | Not available | |
| Scaling Up COVID-19 Vaccine Production | Mehdi Rubaii, Lindsey Gilcreest, Sawyer Remillard, Aaron Hosack | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | The breakout of COVID-19 and the subsequent pandemic have caused many to look to engineers and scientists to solve the problem. A race to a vaccine has begun and seemingly, two companies have won. However, these vaccines were passed along under emergency circumstances so they may not be the most economically or environmentally efficient. Producing an environmentally and economically viable vaccine is urgent due to the huge and immediate market demand. Adenovirus and mRNA based vaccines along with different processes to produce them will be investigated to find the vaccine that is most beneficial to everyone. In this project, we design a large scale commercial vaccine production facility that meets the global and societal demands for cost-effectiveness, efficacy and sustainability. | Not available | |
| Shambhala Rural Housing | Nicholas Raley, Quinn Liebbe, Delaney Galvan, Kevin Salgado, Julia Kemper, Larry Walter | Department of Civil and Enviromental Engineering | Christopher Thornton, Chris Michalos | Mac McGoldrick | SMC is a peaceful, restful place for all those that come to visit with cozy cabins to stay in and a mess hall for dining. However, the permanent staff that works and lives at Shambhala Mountain Center have less than adequate residential accommodations. As a result, the Shambhala Mountain Center requires a comprehensive multi-phase plan for twenty new small homes in an employee village community that includes development of infrastructure, road map, and maintains integrity of style in regard to environment, affordability, and culture. The purpose is to create homes for long term staff, and it is important to build safe, efficient, and economical homes in a village that will be a welcome respite for employees. Shambhala Mountain Center is at its heart dedicated to the well-being of its residents and guests; the village for long term employees will cement these core principles of care and wellbeing, building continuity in the most essential element of success, the Shambhala Staff. | Not available |
| Skytask UAV Smart Parachute System | Trevor Andrews, Garrett Garcia, Ava Raymond | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Wade Troxell | Skytask, David Belt | The senior design team is working with Skytask Inc. to integrate their advanced boundary system for UAV remote inspection and monitoring with a smart parachute system. The parachute system is necessary to receive additional waivers from the FAA to allow for commercial drone flight over people, at night, and beyond the visual line of sight. In the past few years, the FAA has granted more waivers than ever before due to the introduction of the smart parachute system. Our system will deploy a parachute whenever the UAV exceeds the boundary limit, begins to free fall from failure, or if it exceeds its maximum tilt angle. The controls are programmed using a raspberry pi and will be connected to the drone power source. The actuation system is triggered by a stepper motor. The system itself is spring based with projectiles to spread the parachute upon deployment. The enclosure is 3D printed and mounts onto a Tarot 650 V2.1 UAV. | PDF link |
| Smart Glasses | Ruben Acosta, Zack Sharn | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Sudeep Pasricha | David Robinson, Chris Atib, Denny Moyer | The Smart Glasses Project is about finding a suitable method to improve the quality of life of patients who suffer from macular degeneration. Through sensors and cameras that are equipped on wearable spatial computers, more commonly known as mixed reality goggles, we aim to reframe and allow a patient to see and do more activities without strain. Through glasses such as the Hololens and Magic Leap One, we intend to capture and move video being captured in real-time and move them around a user's field of view, as well as zoom and movement of that image. Accessibility is also important so in order to create a system that can communicate with most mixed reality goggles we aim to design an app to control all features via smartphones or tablets using Bluetooth. | Not available |
| Snowflake Camera System | Lindsay Carver, Giuliana Seretti, Will Vikse | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Branislav Notaros | This design project is targeted at improving upon the 3D Snowflake Multi-Angle Sensing System (SMAS), making it the sixth continuation year. If able and taking proper precautions, the system will be implemented at the CSU MASCRAD Snow Field Site and will be used to capture high resolution images of snowflakes, and possibly rain drops during storms. The System will then generate 3D models of the precipitate, calculate fall speed, and categorize the precipitate into six different subspecies to improve computational electromagnetic scattering analysis, all in real time. | Not available | |
| Spaceport America Cup Rocket Team | Adam Boyd, Joe Canterbury, Christina Chang, Logan Dahlgren, Darren Dugan, Ryan Earl, Zach Fuelberth, Garrett Johnson, Sean Jones, Tyler Kaley, Jon Leininger, Kevin Schroeder,Cole Taylor, Cannen Welch | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Anthony Marchese | Department of Mechanical Engineering | The Spaceport America Cup Rocket Team is its seventh year of iteration with the Aries program through the Colorado State University Mechanical Engineering department. The purpose of the team is to design, build, and fly a rocket with a student researched and developed bi-propellant liquid propulsion system. Last year’s iteration of the rocket, Aries VI, was largely designed by 2020 CSU graduates. However, the manufacturing was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the designs and calculations from the previous team have been inherited by this year’s team, so we have named the rocket Aries coVId to keep the spirit of the Aries VI alive. Aries coVId is planned to launch at Spaceport America Cup during June 2021 carrying an 8.8 lb experimental payload to an apogee of 30,000-ft while achieving a successful recovery of the system. The fourteen-student team consists of eleven mechanical engineers and three electrical engineers. | PDF link |
| Special Needs Playground | Colin Diehl, Sarah Martinez, Sydney McDonald, Alex McPheeters, Seth Roethemeyer | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Bonnie Roberts, Steve Johnson, James Tillotson | Department of Mechanical Engineering | This team of five is working together on a community service project to build an all-inclusive and ADA-compliant backyard for the Cronin family who has two daughters Hanora and Sophie. Hanora is six years old and was born with a rare genetic condition, 8p inverted duplication/deletion syndrome, that is known to show ranges of developmental complications and in this case, results in Hanora's main form of transport being a wheelchair. Three main components are being built in this backyard, they are a heated pathway for ease of access through the backyard, a playhouse with sensory equipment put inside, and a three-person swing with ADA compliant swings. These three components will greatly help the social and physical development of the two daughters. | PDF link |
| Stem Cell Spinal Cord Repair | Taylor Ausec, Katrina Brewer, Courtney Mack, Cailin Sullivan | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | Stem cell therapy is a quickly growing field in the pharmaceutical industry. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have the capability of transforming into different cell types. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) can be harvested from normal human adipose tissue, bone marrow, and the umbilical cord matrix of individual donors. Approximately 250,000 people in the United States suffer from life-changing acute spinal cord injuries each year, leading to neurological compromise through an inflammatory response and cell death within the spinal cord. With the use of hMSCs treatments, cell death can be limited in the spinal cord, stimulating growth of new cells, and replacing the injured cells. The aim of this project is to design a biomanufacturing process for hMSCs, from isolation of a a patient's individual cell line through the growth and replication process, separation of the hMSCs from the growth chamber, and packaging of the cells for shipping to the clinical site for use as a therapeutic. | Not available | |
| TCA Actuation of a Spherical Tensegrity Robot | Brandon Tighe | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Jianguo Zhao | Leveraging the advantages of Twisted and Coiled Actuator (TCA) synthetic muscles for actuation of a spherical tensegrity robot addresses many current challenges in current tensegrity robot design. The robot we designed addresses traditional TR problems with scalability, weight, noise, and energy efficiency. | Not available | |
| Telemedicine | Evan Arcand, Tanner Magee, Anfeng Peng | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Branislav Notaros | The telemedicine project relates to the approach for monitoring orthopedic fracture healing via direct electromagnetic coupling (DEC). We are developing a telemetric system in which the patient can perform data collection by a DEC system at their home and transmit the data to the health clinic for analyses in order to predict fracture healing outcomes. The device has been created to be portable while still providing the accuracy that is provided by health clinics. This telemedicine approach will allow for daily data collection and analysis in a practical, cost-effective, and patient-friendly manner. | Not available | |
| Terumo BCT Quantum Cell Expansion System Scale-Up | Josh Cook, Kiersten Allen, Michelle Bailey, Nate Haswell, Clark Yarbrough | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Jeremy Kolenbrander | Terumo BCT | Terumo BCT manufactures a hollow-fiber bioreactor device called the Quantum Cell Expansion System which excels in culturing adherent type cells. It has wide uses in academic research, as well as in medical applications where it is used fabricate immunotherapies for the treatment of hematological cancers using the Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Treatment. Our team aims to scale up the current Quantum System by 5 to 10 times in order to facilitate a more efficient generation of immunotherapies. We are also adding 5 new biosensors to improve usability and promote automated control throughout the cell expansion process. We hope these addtions will increase the marketability of the Quantum System, and reduce the burden of blood-based cancer on patients in the future. | Not available |
| The New Oil: Using Single-cell Plants to Feed Our Refineries with CO2 and Sunlight | Tate Adams, Isabella Brandes, Erica Frank, Jacob Meyerholtz, Shelby Nook, Juan Venegas | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | Many plants—such as soybeans and oil palm—can turn sunlight and CO2 into energy-rich natural oils called lipids or triglycerides. But they pale in comparison to microalgae. These prehistoric, single-cell plants can be manipulated to grow on sunlight and CO2 and convert a large portion of their body weight to oil. And they can tolerate conditions that would be far too severe for conventional agricultural crops. In this project, we design a commercial-scale process based on microalgae’s superior ability to produce oil. It includes a “photobioreactor” designed to efficiently deliver waste CO2 and sunlight, along with other nutrients, to these microscopic plants under conditions that enhance their ability to produce oils. This is followed by a series of steps designed to recover and purify the oil from the reactor's mixture of water and plant cells. We envision replacing fossil petroleum with these natural oils as a feedstock to existing petroleum refineries. While such algal production systems already exist for producing high value oils and nutraceuticals, our challenge is to see if such a process can be built that is kind to the environment and yet economic—in other words, sustainable. | Not available | |
| Training Device for Upper Right Lobectomy via Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery | Jacob Stewart, Sandra Witta, Grace VanOrman, Kalley Harriss | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering | Michael Stanton, Greg Hofstetter | Applied Medical | Our team is designing a training device for surgeons to learn and practice the key steps of an upper right lobectomy via video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). We are designing and 3D printing molds for the various components that will be used in conjunction with silicones and foams to mimic real tissue properties. | Not available |
| Turning Waste CO2 and Sunlight into Ethylene: A Path to Green Chemicals | AJ Booker, Tierney Johnson, Wit Stokes | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | Primarily produced from fossil fuel derivatives, ethylene is the single most produced organic molecule on the planet. Ethylene is used agriculturally as a plant hormone and industrially to produce plastics. Ethylene’s simple structure, the simplest possible alkene, makes it a perfect precursor for countless reactions. In order to wean society off of fossil fuels, a valid alternative production method for ethylene is essential. Cyanobacteria are a group of bacteria that have the unusual ability to grow on CO2 and sunlight using photosynthesis. They are strange creatures that do not wholly fit in the bacterial world or the plant world. In addition to growing on CO2 and sunlight, some cyanobacteria can be engineered to produce other chemicals, including ethylene. The use of cyanobacteria to produce ethylene has provided promising results and may eventually serve as this alternative method. In this project, we design a commercial scale facility based on photosynthetic production of ethylene from sunlight and CO2 using a genetically engineered strain of cyanobacteria. Our process starts with a photobioreactor that can efficiently deliver sunlight and CO2 (and other nutrients) followed by a series of steps for recovering and purifying ethylene. We evaluate both the economic and environmental aspects of the process, focusing specifically on the benefits of utilizing waste CO2 from other industrial sources. | Not available | |
| Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation Device | Sainandan Gowdar, Emily Hoffmann, Gabriel Perez, Dillon Roach, Tracey Wick | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Julie Dunn, David Prawel, Thomas Warne | Three Bean Industrial | The Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) device uses ultraviolet germicidal irradiation to disinfect N95 masks so that hospitals can re-use them, meeting a critical need during periods of PPE shortage. This device represents an improvement from similar devices on the market with its programmable disinfection cycles, continuous irradiation monitoring, and ability to track how many disinfection cycles a mask has undergone. It has the capacity to disinfect additional objects such as tablets, and may also be implemented in other healthcare and commercial settings. | Not available |
| Urban Air Quality Impacts Inferred from Ground-Based Monitoring Networks Due to Geographic Variability and COVID 19 Pandemic | Abigail Maben | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Shantanu Jathar | This project analyzed the spatiotemporal variability of air pollution and quantified the change in human exposure due to geographic location and large social disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In this work, three particle optical spectrometers were deployed in Fort Collins to determine the spatiotemporal variability of particulate number concentrations and size distributions to express the validity of a single monitor accurately describing the air quality of the whole region. In addition, the seventeen largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States were analyzed to determine the effect of the pandemic on the urban air pollutant burden with PM2.5, NO2, and CO mass concentrations being the pollutants of interest. | Not available | |
| USDA ORV Delivery Team | Matt Illa, Nathan Jacques, Kurrin Severns, Ryan Smith | Department of Mechanical Engineering | Wade Troxell | USDA APHIS, Amy Gilbert | The USDA National Rabies Management Program (NRMP) has reached out to seniors at the college of mechanical engineering in an effort to help improve the effectiveness vaccinating animals for rabies disease. One of the ways in which the program currently vaccinates animals includes dropping Oral Rabies Vaccine (ORV) out of a helicopter on a targeted population along the East Coast. This effort is made to help resolve wildlife damage to a wide variety of resources and reduces threats to human health and safety. Seniors on this project have been tasked with developing an (ORV) bait distribution device that fits in the lap of a crew member in the cockpit/flight deck of a helicopter. The baiting machine needs to be lightweight, have the ability to count baits and geocode locations where baits are distributed, as well as comply with Agency (USDA APHIS Wildlife Services) and FAA safety standards and regulations | PDF link |
| Ventricle Viscoelasticity Biaxial Tester | Kellan Roth | Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH 498 Research Practicum) | Zhijie Wang | The Ventricle Viscoelasticity Biaxial Tester can measure the viscoelasticity of myocardium tissues through tensile dynamic mechanical testing at a range of various heart rates. There is currently limited data on the passive viscoelastic behavior of myocardium tissue, and it remains unclear if and how myocardium viscoelastic behavior changes during heart failure progression. This novel device will enable investigation into how passive myocardium viscoelasticity behaves at physiologically relevant deformations across large and small animal species in both diseased and healthy states. | Not available | |
| Waste Not Want Not: Turning Fort Collins' Food Waste into Fuel | Garrett Ruf, Finley Martinez, Alexa Jackson, Thamir Sindi, Jacob Tamani, Sydney Villers | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | John Sheehan | The City of Fort Collins has established goals for reducing its discharge of solid waste and reducing its carbon footprint. In this project, we consider the design of a process that addresses both those goals simultaneously. We evaluate a process in which food waste collected by the city would be converted to a liquid fuel using technology called hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). During HTL, the carbon and hydrogen of the biomass feed is thermo-chemically converted into a “bio-oil” using high temperature and pressure conditions. The bio-oil produced can then be utilized as an alternative, eco-friendly fuel source. One of the advantages of HTL is that, unlike many other biofuels processes, it can efficiently deal with the presence of large amounts of water. Food waste is a perfect target for this technology. Biofuels produced from food waste may have a much smaller carbon footprint. At the same time, food waste processed with HTL avoids disposal of the waste in our local landfill. Our challenge is to design a process that is both cost effective and more sustainable relative to how the City of Fort Collins currently manages its food waste. | Not available | |
| Water Reclamation Facility Upgrade | Tayne Andrade, Jeffery Welsh, Yuwei Zhao, Youngcheng Cao, Lin Jiao, Zijun Meng | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton | Parker Water and Sanitation District, WEF Student Conference | The Parker Water & Sanitation District is expanding their North Water Reclamation Facility to meet growing demands due to population growth in Parker, CO. The South Water Reclamation Facility was due to be shut down during this expansion, however its discharge permits are linked to the North facilities, so upgrades and expansions to the South Facility must be considered. The primary goal is to justify keeping the South facility open by either improving its treatment efficiency and/or capacity. | Not available |
| Well Plate | Ryan Barnes, Katie Brown, Najy Faour, Youming Liu, Kailee Mitsuyasu, Aaron Murphy, Ryan Way, Kaitie Wood | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Tom Chen | The Smart Well Plate project aims to create a well plate that can detect and quantify cell response to pharmaceuticals in real-time. A typical well plate is a rectangular matrix of wells, which are small chambers in which live cells can be placed for testing. New pharmaceuticals are tested in different concentrations within the separate wells, and, after an incubation period, the cell 's response to the drugs is observed. This project focuses on the design and testing of a device that would measure cell response and cellular metabolism in real-time during the incubation period. This is a multifaceted project which involves a team of graduate and undergraduate students of several engineering disciplines. Facets of this project include design and testing of an instrumentation board with power supply and controls, microfluidic electrode design and testing, development of software for a user interface, signal processing of microscopic images, design and testing of mechanical apparatus, and collaboration with several Colorado laboratories involved in cancer research and medical technology. This multidisciplinary approach to the design problem allows for significant collaboration between students studying biomedical, computer, and electrical engineering disciplines. | Not available | |
| Wheat Stem Fly Sensor | Carl Cherne, Meg Hansen | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Ali Pezeshki | Darren Cockrell | The Wheat Stem Sawfly Detection team is working in collaboration with the Agricultural Biology Department at Colorado State University to design a device that will detect wheat stem sawfly larvae in wheat stems. Wheat stem sawflies are insect pests that lay their eggs inside of wheat stems in Colorado. The eggs hatch and become larvae that feed inside the stems. In doing so, they destroy wheat crops across the plains of North America. The larvae feed inside wheat stems before emerging as adults and spreading to adjacent fields. There is no known method of detecting sawfly larvae at this time, so our goal this year is to research and test many different hypothetical methods of detecting this pest. We have been testing three main hypotheses this semester, including testing how light passes through wheat stems, the complex impedances of wheat stems, and attempting to detect vibrations within wheat stems that come from larvae feeding in real time to detect the location of sawfly larvae in stems. | Not available |
| Wireless Playground Assistant | Alvaro Molina | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Olivera Notaros | In today 's era, technology plays a vital component in how we go about our daily lives. However, some people don't have access to such benefits. In this project, we aim to help disabled children navigate through playgrounds safely. This task shall be completed by using wireless devices that will let the user know where the different playground attractions are located through the use of auditory cues. This way the individual is able to navigate any playground while avoiding any obstacle he might find in the way. | Not available | |
| Wireless Signal Characterization | Nick Daly, Huanjia Liu | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Branislav Notaros | The Wireless Signal Characterization project seeks to develop a piece of software capable of modeling the signal propagation of electromagnetic radiation through different environments. This software will be capable of calculating the electric field, power, and phase quantities of a signal. These parameters are useful for the design of digital communication systems especially when complex structures in the environment are considered. An example of this would be the use of this software to find the optimum placement of antennas for maximum power transfer in a communication system. This simulation is accomplished by a technique known as the Shooting and Bouncing Rays technique (SBR). Previous teams were able to implement reflected rays and diffracted rays into the code. This year's focus will primarily be on implementing bistatic radar cross section measurement capabilities to the code base. | Not available | |
| Wireless Smart Junctional Tourniquet | Logan Blakeslee, Rachel Keating, Camille Milo, Sydney Sherrick | School of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering | Matt Baretich, Damien Berg | National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R25EB025791 | The Wireless Smart Junctional Tourniquet (WSJT) is an addition to the SAM junctional tourniquet targeted for use in the combat field. These additions include a count-up timer capable of timing for up to 6 hours and blood pressure data. Once the device is started, patient blood pressure is collected and can be transmitted wirelessly via Bluetooth to clinicians upon arrival at a hospital or clinic. The aim behind this project is to create a tourniquet that answers critical questions for clinicians upon the arrival of a hemorrhagic patient so that clinical decisions can be made quickly and be backed by real-time data. | Not available |
| Woodward Composite Flowbody | Philip Allmendinger, Emerson Birch, Ben Dyer, Ryan Fahrenkrug, Jason Richard | Department of Mechanical Engineering | John Petro | Woodward, Shawn Pollock, Mike Morgan | This project is designed to develop a platform for Woodward Inc., a prominent aerospace company, to design future air-valves featured in jet turbine engines that are stronger, more lightweight, and cheaper. The current design of the flowbody (air-valve) is made of aluminum and features a thin heat shield to withstand emergency conditions within the turbine engine. The aluminum is heavy and the heat shield is fragile, so Woodward wished to improve upon this design. This project features research into high-temperature composite material suppliers to determine how Woodward might manufacture and create these parts, and which suppliers would have the most cost-effective and high-performing materials. Following research into these materials, bench testing samples on various properties to determine which might suit the needs of Woodward was the next step. These tests include a 15-minute 2000 degree flame test, an impact test, and a 100 hour bake test in a kiln. In parallel with testing, a new design of the flowbody was created out of composite materials and run through simulations to prove it would not leak air or burst from the necessary internal pressures as well as maintaining structural integrity at high-temperatures. | PDF link |
| Woodward Concentrated Winding DC Motor | James Bryce, Will McBryde, Tye Sandoval, Nick Trammell-Jamison | Department of Mechanical Engineering | John Petro | Woodward, Josh Been | Woodward currently uses an out-sourced DC motor to operate its GS Series Gas Control Valves (HP Aero) and Large Electric Linear Actuators (LELA). The current motor is a distributed winding DC motor, in which the copper windings are arranged in several full-pitch or fractional pitch coils. The goal of this project was to design, analyze, build, and test a concentrated winding DC motor to replace the current distributed winding motor. In contrast to its distributed counterpart, all of the winding turns in a concentrated winding motor are together in series to form one multi-turn coil. Woodward was seeking to replace its current motor with a concentrated alternative to increase performance while simultaneously reducing overall costs associated with the motor. It was also important to maintain the motors inner and outer dimensions for seamless integration. Early research and analysis revealed that a 12 slot/10 pole single-layer configuration would yield the greatest performance for the desired application. As such, the final motor assembly consists of a rotor, laminated stator, 6 wrapped bobbins, and 10 arc magnets, among other components. The concentrated winding prototype was then tested for comparison to the existing distributed winding motor. | PDF link |
| Woodward Reaction Link Flight Control Actuator | Jake Irwin, Andrew Kollar, Eric Robak, Kyle Van Aken | Department of Mechanical Engineering | John Petro | Woodward, Brian Hahn | To maneuver through the air, aircraft actuate "flaps" known as control surfaces. If you’ve ever gotten a window seat on an airplane, you may have seen these flaps along the trailing edge of the wing. These control surfaces are typically actuated by a hydraulic actuator, which utilizes pressurized fluid to extend and retract the piston, therefore rotating the control surface about its hinge. For use in traditional aircraft wings made of aluminum, the hydraulic actuator can be connected to the wing structure at one end and to the control surface at the other. This works because aluminum can handle the large shear forces that the actuator exerts on the wing structure during flight. However, this method of attachment does not work for lightweight composite wing structures, which have been of interest due to their ability to increase the fuel efficiency of aircraft, because composites cannot handle shear forces as well as metals. This issue necessitates a new configuration known as a reaction link actuator, which is designed to direct forces away from the wing structure. We have been working with Woodward Inc. to design, build, and test a prototype reaction link actuator to inform future development of a production model. | PDF link |
| WSS Cameron Peak Fire | Not available | |||||
| WSS Jackson Ditch Rehabilitation | Katy Rodriguez, Sami Fischer, Dillon Gauser, Hannah Gridley, Hunter Ward, Jack Chambers | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Christopher Thornton, Chris Michalos | Donald Frick, Levi Stockton | Originally constructed in 1861, the Jackson Ditch is one of the oldest irrigation ditches in Colorado. It pulls its water from the Poudre River to supply water to 1,700 acres of irrigated farmland. The Jackson can currently hold about 25 cfs while the legal decree is 52 cfs. Many of the issues along the ditch are caused from overgrown trees and elevation changes at the bottom of the ditch. Flowgistics will design a bridge to put over the Little Cache to access a weir, research and perform the appropriate dye test to determine large points of seepage and explore how to minimize that seepage, survey the locations of headgates and elevation change throughout the ditch to create typical cross section plans, grades, excavation and shaping of the ditch to carry 52 cfs, develop a GIS database of existing structures along the ditch, and utilize a LIDAR survey of the ditch to complete a hydraulic model of existing conditions using HEC-RAS. | Not available |