Creativity takes center stage at FIU’s College of Engineering and Computing Senior Design Showcase

By Visitor Contributor David Drucker / FIU Information

At the College or university of Engineering and Computing’s Senior Design Showcase, rising stars in engineering utilised their creativity and complex abilities to present remedies to society’s difficulties.  

The showcase, held Dec. 2, was the fruits of months of get the job done. Professors and corporations offered tips for initiatives, then students utilised their essential contemplating expertise under the steering of school members to deliver possible answers to lifestyle.  Most college students produced their jobs to a point wherever they could pitch them to a company. 

“I assume it’s great that FIU holds the showcase to give everyone an prospect to display their passions and difficult hard work. It’s a good way for the public to watch that as effectively,” reported David Trujillo, a senior environmental engineering major. 

Below are 4 assignments from the showcase indicative of the creative imagination that was on display. 

Does the skateboard require to be re-engineered? This is the challenge that mechanical engineering seniors Daniel Figueroa, Alessandro Gianforcaro, Yousef Alkandari, Carlos Hernandez Colucci and Herman Flores took on for the senior showcase. 

The undertaking commenced when a professor confirmed the pupils a movie of a skateboarder complaining about difficulties with their board. In specific, the skateboarder complained that the board generally veered facet to side mainly because of the have on and tear brought about to the board from the vehicles, exactly where the wheels meet up with the board.

The learners engineered an increase-on clip to the vans that would eliminate this problem of veering. They also manufactured a board out of fiberglass, which is much better than most typical boards and does not break in half when weakened, which is vital for safety. 

“If the vehicles do turn into free, the motion would only be up and down, not side-to-aspect like most boards. And considering that anyone would be on major of the board, they would not genuinely sense the movement,” Gianforcaro claimed. 

A essential component of several surgical strategies, anesthesia requirements to be administered in unique concentrations to maintain a patient’s sedation. Seniors Emily Flores, Noble Amadi, Danielle Levy, Thais Tivelli and Daniela Ugalde made a unit that meets the modern-day demand for an available, reduced-value sensor to assure individual and staff safety. Bio-MEMS and Microsystems sponsored the venture. 

For the exploration, the students repurposed a industrial gasoline mobile, a power unit applied in several automobiles, to be capable to detect isoflurane, a variety of anesthesia. The micro fuel mobile was integrated into a wearable product and would audibly warn when a affected individual is exterior the protected sedation limits. The challenge gained the top prize in biomedical engineering and to start with spot for finest presentation. Flores received the Typical of Management Award for currently being the top rated challenge leader at the showcase.  

“My team went by the the greater part of our four years online owing to Covid. This project was our very best chance to do hands-on engineering function, and I believe what we attained says a lot,” Flores claimed. 

Could a missile vacation more quickly if the tip of it was shaped in a different way? This was the focus for mechanical engineering seniors Esteban Guarnizo, Michael Harris, Riley Smith and Edgar Viamontes in their task. The students investigated if a missile with a star-formed idea, or nose cone, would carry out greater than today’s condition-of-the-art missiles. 

In the system, the workforce of FIU seniors delved into investigate jobs completed in the 60s and 70s in the Soviet Union about the aerodynamic effect of fins on missiles. The team dug by research tasks translated from Russian as they aimed to mix Soviet-period investigation with reducing-edge art styles.

They conducted simulation checks with hundreds of models and located achievements in some crucial parts, but are even now seeking to see what the testing of the missile would be like at increased speeds. They examined the missile at Mach 2, twice the pace of sound. They would like to test it at Mach 5, five periods the velocity of sound. 

“This task was more of a challenge than what I’ve performed in undergrad simply because it was a totally free-sort open task. There was no guidebook, there were no obvious techniques to go. It was tricky, but thrilling, to try to operate on some thing that was attempting to thrust the boundaries of standard aerodynamic design and style,” Guarnizo reported. 

Some chemical substances made use of in manufacturing, packaging and other industries that stop up in day-to-day merchandise, termed Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are quite resistant to degradation, earning them the nickname, ‘forever chemicals.’ Several drinking water therapy vegetation aren’t nonetheless in a position to eliminate these chemical substances.

Exploration has indicated that PFAS can bioaccumulate in people and wildlife and that there are possible one-way links that PFAS contributes to decreased fertility, testicular and kidney cancer and developmental effects to unborn children, explained Trujillo, a member of the undertaking. He and his group worked on a h2o therapy method structure that could clear away these substances from the drinking water.

Utilizing a procedure method termed ion trade, the workforce produced a style that would use a specialized resin to remove the chemical substances from the water. With the proposed design and style, the therapy course of action would be capable to reduce the concentrations of the chemical assumed at 83 sections for each trillion (ppt) of PFAS to a assortment of 10ppt to nondetectable levels for the certain h2o parameters that were being assumed. The team was composed of Trujillo, Ricardo Martinez, Yissell Marcos Navarro, Patricia Hernandez, Kenny Rivera, Melanie Dorta, Veronica Aleman and Rashed Alenezi.

The Environmental Security Agency is doing work on polices around these chemical substances.

“In the real globe, couple of places do this. So it was fairly daunting at to start with. But immediately after we acquired a large amount of assistance from professors, plant operators and distributors and browse industry literature, we have been ready to do it,” Trujillo claimed. 

This story was initial posted by FIU Information below and republished with permission.