Winter Design Review Features 100 Projects

March 2015 - The Samueli School of Engineering’s 2015 Winter Design Review featured 100 senior design projects, including poster displays and demonstrations, created by more than 600 students.

“This event grows bigger and better every year,” Dean Gregory Washington told the students at this year’s event, held Friday, March 13, at the UCI Student Center. “These projects are all about experiential learning. We can’t teach you everything you need to learn here. Whole new fields will be developed during your careers, so the best preparation we can give you is the opportunity to design, build and test something. I want to congratulate you for all that you’ve accomplished today.”

The day kicked off with a breakfast hosted by the Dean for external reviewers (engineering alumni and industry representatives). About 50 reviewers listened to team presentations and roamed the exhibit area, asking questions and offering students feedback.

Seventeen projects were recommended by faculty for Dean’s Choice Awards (full list below). Design projects ranged from a wheelchair steered by brain power, a microfluidic device for isolating cancer stem cells, the structural design for Casa del Sol (UCI’s entry for the 2015 U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon), and a point-of-care device that destructs cells within two minutes.

Students from the freshman experiential learning course showed up to fly their remote-controlled quadcopters. The freshman course, now in its third year, gives first-year students a hands-on engineering experience –designing, building and testing a multidisciplinary project. Team Turnip Copter won the competition, autonomously dropping two payloads in the shortest amount of time using color and distance recognition. Students Syed Azeemuddin, Kenny Back, Talia Agazaryan, Brian Kim, Jeffrey Kawai and Kellen Rayos Del Sol made up the winning team.

Dean’s Choice Awards

Biomedical Engineering

Microfluidic Cell Lysis Device for Point-of-care Diagnostics

Circulating Tumor Cell (CTC) Detection with Close-packed Bead Immunoassay

Laparoscopic Tremor Suppression

Pulmonary Assist Device (PAD)

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Biofilter for Nitrate Reduction

One-Story Modular Solar Wood-Framed Structure: Casa del Sol

Traffic Impact Analysis & Traffic Signal Design TranSummit –Transportation Team 5

Water Resources of Casa Del Sol

Water Conveyance System

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Project Synapse

Search & Rescue Reconnaissance Device

Neural-Enhanced Universal Ride at Low-Cost (N.E.U.R.A.L.)

Automotive Night Vision

Vibro-Tone

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

CD Microfluidic Device for Capture and Isolation of Cancer Stem Cells

Concussive Forces and Brain Trauma in Competitive Sports

UAV Forge: Innovation for Personal Autonomous Systems