Team OR Lights wins Rice’s 2023 Engineering Design Showcase | Rice News | News and Media Relations

Workforce OR Lights captured the top rated prize at this year’s Huff OEDK Engineering Layout Showcase, offered per year by Rice University’s George R. Brown College of Engineering and Oshman Engineering Style Kitchen (OEDK).

students and mentors — Staff OR Lights members (from left) Renly Liu, Hemish Thakkar, Ellice Gao, Bryn Gerwin, Justin Guilak and Rosemary Lach pose with mentors David Trevas and Gary Woods. (Picture by Si Vo)

OR Lights won the Woods-Leazar Innovation Award for Excellence in Engineering — which will come with a $5,000 income prize — for its ground breaking automatic, tunable working area lighting process that enables surgeons to greater illuminate their doing work spot without having acquiring to manage gear or have on headlamps.

“It’s an incredible experience,” stated team member Bryn Gerwin, a mechanical engineering important, throughout the April 13 ceremony that concluded the competitors. “We’ve been operating on it for a complete 12 months. … We’ve experienced this kind of incredible feedback from anyone we talked to right now, and I assume absolutely everyone actually relished the interactive aspect of our project.”

Gerwin reported that “all the several hours expended performing with these unbelievable individuals to establish these a great project” will be a long lasting memory. Her fellow workforce associates were Ellice Gao, Justin Guilak, Rosemary Lach, Renly Liu and Hemish Thakkar.

“The most memorable factor was the minute when we first turned on the lights,” explained Guilak, an electrical engineering important. “We had this vision of it functioning all semester and then when the lights in fact turned on and lined up wherever we instructed them to, it just about did not really feel actual.”

The showcase — previously recognised as the George R. Brown Engineering Structure Showcase but renamed this calendar year in honor of longtime supporters Harrell Huff and his late wife, alumna Carolyn Huff — is a extended-standing tradition for Rice engineering students. It celebrates the hard work and several hours put in designing and assembling their initiatives at the OEDK.

The showcase was held for the first time at the Ion innovation hub in Houston’s Midtown community. There ended up 69 teams competing in the celebration this calendar year. Judges had been sector and health-related specialists, lots of of them Rice engineering alums. Successful teams took dwelling a put together total of about $19,000 in income prizes.

Director Maria Oden mentioned that the OEDK supported the get the job done of about 900 learners this academic calendar year, with at minimum 25 classes representing all 9 departments in the Brown College of Engineering as effectively as departments through the total university.

“In lots of approaches, just being listed here tonight and demonstrating off the wonderful perform that you’ve done is a massive award and prize,” Oden mentioned to the showcase rivals.

Major-stage awards:

Excellence in Freshman Engineering Award ($1,000): ReadyLegsGo

Excellence in Underclassman, Multi-yr or Club Engineering Award ($1,000): Club Suas

Excellence in Graduate Engineering Style and design Award ($500): Below Tension

Excellence in Capstone Engineering Award ($1,000): Alive

Excellence in Capstone Engineering Award ($1,000): StimuSock (For a Rice Information story featuring this venture, adhere to this link.)

Group awards:

Most effective Aerospace or Transportation Engineering Award ($500): G.N.C. (Garbage Neutralization Crew)

Finest Conceptual or Computational Engineering Layout Award ($500): VAQWM

Very best Power-Associated Engineering Style Award ($500): Jet gas created EASZly

Best Ecosystem and Sustainability Engineering Structure Award ($500): Drain Brain

Finest Gaming, Artistic or Modern Technological know-how Award ($500) A Small-Power AR Unit

Greatest Professional medical Device Technology Award ($500): Humidifeye

Most effective Professional medical System Technology Award ($500): Preslicely

Most effective Technologies for Minimal-Source Options Award ($500): Colosto-ME

Best Interdisciplinary Engineering Style Award ($750): Take a look at TSH

People’s Preference Award ($500): YoungWoods

Willy Revolution Awards for Outstanding Innovation:

1st spot ($3,500): YoungWoods

2nd place ($1,500): Automotive Electronics Retrofit Team

Browse about all of the taking part teams at https://oedk.rice.edu/showcase. For additional stories on other collaborating assignments, click on below and listed here.

Impression obtain:

https://news-community.rice.edu/news/documents/2023/04/ORLights_SiVo_2023Showcase_1.jpg

CAPTION: Group OR Lights members (from still left) Renly Liu, Hemish Thakkar, Ellice Gao, Bryn Gerwin, Justin Guilak and Rosemary Lach pose with mentors David Trevas and Gary Woods. (Photograph by Si Vo)