Each year UI Engineering Senior Capstone student EXPO teams are judged on their technical and booth presentations at EXPO. Judges use ABET-based criteria to score team projects and presentations. Awards are given for excellence in booth and technical presentations. In addition a People’s Choice Award is given and voted upon by EXPO visitors.

People's Choice Award

Hoofbath Copper Recovery

Five to ten percent copper sulfate solutions are implemented to prevent their cattle from infectious hoof diseases. After every 150-200 cattle, the solution becomes inactivate due to biosolids, urine, and soil particles. Currently waste solutions are sent to the wastewater lagoons, reducing soil fertility. Recovering copper from used copper-sulfate hoof baths can be recycled to restore the capital loss on copper. This process is not only economically sound, but environmentally friendly. Our team has been tasked to create an economical process of separating copper from the inactivated copper sulfate solution while doing a biological treatment process of the biosolids.

Sponsor Organization: NMSU Institute for Energy and the Environment

Team Members:

Zachary Beaman — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Jacob Bonwell — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Emily Tesnohlidek — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Elli Tindall — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Sam Wolfe — Chemical & Materials Engineering

Faculty Advisers: James Moberly, David Drown, Matthew Bernards

Mentor: David MacPherson, Charles Cornwall

Booth Award Winners

3D Metal Printer

We are creating a prototype 3D metal printer using MIG welding technology in order to bring the cost of 3D printing metal down and deliver access to academia and the home user.

Sponsor: Mike Maughan

Sponsor Organization: Department of Mechanical Engineering

Team Members:

Matthew Buchanan — Mechanical Engineering
Maxwell Emerson — Mechanical Engineering
Peter Haley — Mechanical Engineering
Kyle Krieg — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Jay Van Gerpen — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Nathan Wagner — Mechanical Engineering

Faculty Adviser: Mike Maughan

Clean Snowmobile Muffler Team

Working as a sub-team on this year’s competition sled, we designed, manufactured, and validated a muffler that is quieter than stock without imposing power losses.

Sponsor: Clean Snowmobile Challenge Team

Sponsor Organization: Society of Automotive Engineers

Team Members:

Marcelino Arteaga — Mechanical Engineering
Aaron Eliason — Mechanical Engineering
Adam Sedgewick — Mechanical Engineering
Mark Woodland — Mechanical Engineering

Faculty Adviser: Dan Cordon

Mentor: Dillon Savage

Lunar Flywheel Controls

Develop code and hardware configuration for the safe acceleration and stabilization of the Low Speed Lunar Flywheel Energy Storage System.

Sponsor Organization: NASA

Team Members:

Brian Cartwright — Computer Science
Andrew Jones — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Ian Tanimoto — Computer Science

Faculty Advisers: Herb Hess, Christine Berven

Mentor: David Arnett

Micro Capacitive Sensor

The goal of this project is to develop a printed circuit board (PCB) that utilizes capacitive sensors and an off-the-shelf capacitance-to-digital-converter (CDC) to detect and monitor micro entities. The monitoring process is an autonomous process that displays a plot of real-time capacitance values.

Sponsor: Suat Ay

Sponsor Organization: UI VLSI Sensor Research Group

Team Members:

Jennifer Hunt — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Nathan Totorica — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Jordan Vilcapoma — Electrical & Computer Engineering

Faculty Adviser: Feng Li

Mentors: Bingxing Wu, Ezekiel Adekanmbi

Neurotouch

The NeuroTouch is a hand-held device that measures the elastic modulus of biological tissues with the slightest touch to the tissue surface. It is designed to be used as a diagnostic tool for surgeons; giving real time feedback to aid in determining the severity of different health ailments.

Sponsor: Bryn Martin & Mike Maughan

Sponsor Organization: University of Idaho

Team Members:

Mazen Aljawi — Biological Engineering
Brooke Deans — Mechanical Engineering
Christina Gibbs — Biological Engineering
Mathew Harlow — Mechanical Engineering
Brendan Souvenir — Electrical & Computer Engineering

Faculty Adviser: Dev Shrestha

Mentor: Richard Leathers

RF Energy Harvesting

Only a small amount of RF energy is captured by the intended receiver. The objective of this research is to make a device that captures the remaining ambient energy and converts it back into electricity for low power applications such as powering a sensor module.

Sponsor Organization: UI Sustainability Center

Team Members:

Alexa Aguilar — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Andrew Davies — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Tyler Larson — Electrical & Computer Engineering

Faculty Advisers: Herb Hess, Ata Zadehgol, Feng Li

Sight Impaired Mobility Assistance

This product is designed to enable sight-impaired people to navigate by sound. A headset carrying video cameras produces a software model of the surroundings, and translates this description to sounds, allowing the user orient him/herself and perform tasks like navigating around a room and pick up objects. This phase of the project focuses on constructing a videogame-like “virtual world”, and mapping a 3D scene into sound, serving as a testbed of techniques.

Sponsor: Daniel Schneider

Sponsor Organization: Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.

Team Members:

Matt Daniel — Computer Science
Mason Fabel — Computer Science
Eric Marsh — Computer Science
Colin Pate — Electrical & Computer Engineering
John Snevily — Computer Science

Faculty Adviser: Greg Donohoe

The Internet of Things: Watering the Future

In the US 355 billion gallons of water is used every day, water conservation is essential for reducing such use. This design utilizes a user friendly application to instruct sensors to gather atmospheric and soil readings. This data is used to control irrigation in real-time to minimize overwatering, thereby conserving water.

Sponsor Organization: NMSU Institute for Energy and the Environment

Team Members:

Taylor Davis — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Kyle Hubbell — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Brett McKinnon — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Tyler Songstad — Computer Science

Faculty Advisers: David Drown, Matthew Bernards

Titanium Fitting Sorting

We have created a material handling system to properly orient titanium fittings for a subsequent cleaning operation in accordance with needs of Boeing’s Tube Duct and Reservoir Center.

Sponsor Organization: The Boeing Company

Team Members:

Evan Bonar — Mechanical Engineering
John Hansen — Mechanical Engineering
Joshua Howard — Mechanical Engineering
Cody Smisek — Mechanical Engineering
Juvy Jane Tongco — Mechanical Engineering

Faculty Adviser: Steven Beyerlein

Mentor: Alex Olson

Vandal Atmospheric Science Team

The Vandal Atmospheric Science Team (VAST) aims to design, build, test, fly and recover aerospace technology and science instrumentation via High-Altitude Balloon launches, develop critical-thinking creators and leaders, and foster partnerships between the University of Idaho and the aerospace industry.

Sponsor: Joe Law

Sponsor Organization: NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium

Team Members:

Cooper Atkinson — Mechanical Engineering
Byron Bowles — Mechanical Engineering
Bill Duncan — Mechanical Engineering
Zach Hacker — Mechanical Engineering
David Handy — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Jonathan Hanson — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Kyle Petersen — Mechanical Engineering
Caleb Smith — Mechanical Engineering
Nathan Wagner — Mechanical Engineering

Faculty Adviser: Ata Zadehgol

Wearable Mobile Arm Support

To design a mobile, wearable, arm movement assistance device from the existing design that is effective at providing support to the shoulder and elbow and comfortable to the user.

Sponsor: Joel Perry

Sponsor Organization: Department of Mechanical Engineering

Team Members:

Anthony Branz — Mechanical Engineering
Jace Courtright — Mechanical Engineering
Carter Drake — Mechanical Engineering
Parker Hill — Mechanical Engineering
Kylo Murray-Gann — Mechanical Engineering

Faculty Adviser: Joel Perry

Mentor: James Founds

Technical Presentation Award Winners

Clean Snowmobile Challenge Team

The University of Idaho Clean Snowmobile Team is comprised of both undergraduate and graduate students. We design, build, and test a snowmobile then compete with it at the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge. The object of the challenge is to reduce emissions and quiet the snowmobile while maintaining reliability and performance.

Sponsor Organization: Department of Mechanical Engineering & NIATT

Team Members:

Zac Avelar — Mechanical Engineering
Ben DeRuwe — Mechanical Engineering
Phoenix Duncan — Mechanical Engineering
Aaron Eliason — Mechanical Engineering
Brian Gift — Computer Engineering
Hayden Hulse — Mechanical Engineering
Alex Kiss — Mechanical Engineering
Zach Lipple — Mechanical Engineering
Jason Maas — Mechanical Engineering
Leland Maris — Agricultural Systems Management
Patrick Paulus — Mechanical Engineering
Adam Sedgwick — Mechanical Engineering
Cade Smith — Mechanical Engineering
Ian Sullivan — Mechanical Engineering
Joseph Tucker — Mechanical Engineering
Adam Thurgood — Mechanical Engineering
Mark Woodland — Mechanical Engineering

Faculty Adviser: Dan Cordon

Mentor: Dillon Savage

Clean Snowmobile Muffler Team

Working as a sub-team on this year’s competition sled, we designed, manufactured, and validated a muffler that is quieter than stock without imposing power losses.

Sponsor: Clean Snowmobile Challenge Team

Sponsor Organization: Society of Automotive Engineers

Team Members:

Marcelino Arteaga — Mechanical Engineering
Aaron Eliason — Mechanical Engineering
Adam Sedgewick — Mechanical Engineering
Mark Woodland — Mechanical Engineering

Faculty Adviser: Dan Cordon

Mentor: Dillon Savage

High Speed Stator Design for Flywheel Energy Storage System

UI-FESS research team is designing and modelling flywheel energy storage systems to evaluate their associated science and technologies. FESSs enable the storage of energy from renewable, intermittent sources such as wind, solar, and nuclear. The high speed model is being developed to be able to store 30,000 RPMs.

Sponsor Organization: NASA

Team Members:

Cooper Atkinson — Mechanical Engineering
Nicholas Bachus — Mechanical Engineering
Shea Morrison — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Kyle Peterson — Mechanical Engineering
Matt Phillips — Electrical & Computer Engineering

Faculty Advisers: Herbert Hess, Christine Berven

Mentors: David Arnett, Justin Pettingill

Page Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade

The Page wastewater treatment plant is located in Smelterville, ID. It currently is unable to meet its NPDES effluent requirements for ammonia. Additionally, it is likely that the EPA will impose stricter effluent ammonia requirements in the future along with nitrate and phosphorus. The purpose of the project is to design a biological treatment and solids separation system to maximize the use of existing infrastructure.

Sponsor: Sharon Strom

Sponsor Organization: J-U-B Engineers

Team Members:

Casey Bryant — Civil Engineering
Kade Dustin — Civil Engineering
Erin Poor — Civil Engineering
Austin Quinn — Civil Engineering

Faculty Advisers: Fritz Fiedler, Erik Coats

Passive Solar Distillation of Acid Rock Drainage Water

Acid rock drainage (ARD) waters impact local waterways due to their heavy metal content and acidity. Many affected sites are remote and effective treatment requires low-maintenance and self-sustaining processes. Our team has developed a passive solar distillation system to treat ARD waters, operating solely on gravity and solar power.

Sponsor Organization: NMSU Institute for Energy and the Environment

Team Members:

Alyssa Ertel — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Talal Hamadah — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Jesse Hinshaw — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Erin Johnson — Chemical & Materials Engineering
Nathan Myers — Chemical & Materials Engineering

Faculty Advisers: David Drown, Matthew Bernards

Mentors: Charles Cornwall, John Failla

Seed Storage Tube

Our prototype is intended for usage in third world countries to help increase agricultural yield. Oour solution is an airtight and watertight container inside which seeds collected during harvest can be stored for up to two years. The container is vacuum sealed to kill insects present in the seed.

Sponsor: Don Tolmie

Sponsor Organization: Idaho Bean Commission

Team Members:

Joshua Begay — Biological Engineering
Peter Handel — Mechanical Engineering
David Smith — Mechanical Engineering
Joel Wilson — Biological Engineering

Faculty Advisers: Dev Shrestha, Steven Beyerlein

Mentor: Alex Olson

Snare Drum Notator

This project will take real-time measurements of a soloist playing on the snare drum, and convert them into music notation, which can be displayed using publicly available applications, or printed. The system will gather signals from accelerometers and gyroscopic sensors mounted to a wristband. The goal is to capture nuances of the performance not available in commercial notation software, such as type of stroke, and location, attack, and intensity of a hit.

Sponsor: Spencer Martin

Sponsor Organization: UI School of Music

Team Members:

Scott Dennis — Computer Science
Nathan Groggett — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Phil Kearns — Electrical & Computer Engineering
Hue Purkett — Computer Science
Domn Werner — Computer Science

Faculty Adviser: Greg Donohoe

The Internet of Things: Watering the Future

In the U.S., 355 billion gallons of water is used EVERY DAY, water conservation is essential for reducing such use. This design utilizes a user friendly application to instruct sensors to gather atmospheric and soil readings. This data is used to control irrigation in real-time to minimize overwatering, thereby conserving water.

Sponsor Organization: NMSU Institute for Energy and the Environment

Team Members: