UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Engineering has announced the winners of the spring Learning Factory Capstone Design Project Showcase, which took place virtually for the second year in a row. The weeklong competition, held April 30 through May 7, was the culmination of graduating students’ semester-long capstone projects, which sought to solve real-world engineering design challenges posed by industry sponsors and other clients.   

More than 700 students participated in the competition, representing majors from the College of Engineering, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and the College of Information Sciences and Technology. 

The projects, in the form of videos and virtual posters, were judged by a panel of industry experts, comprised of current and past sponsors, members of the Learning Factory Industry Advisory Board and other professionals. Award-winning projects and all other capstone projects, sorted by disciplinary area, can be viewed online.

“As I watched the videos, checked out the posters and read through students’ other materials, I had one overwhelming impression: This might be the best collective body of work our capstone students have ever produced,” said Matthew Parkinson, director of the Learning Factory and professor of engineering design and mechanical engineering. “This was confirmed as I reviewed the sponsors’ evaluations of their work. More than half of them were ‘highly satisfied’ with the results. The benefits of our students’ efforts go beyond them and their sponsors; they also help to provide opportunities for the next group of seniors to come through the program.”

Three teams received the first place Lockheed Martin Design Excellence Award for best project: 

• “Acid Corrosion Depth Study on the Inner Diameter of 1018 Low Carbon Steel Coiled Tubing” for Schlumberger Limited by Lance Marx, Zhantao Zhang, Alexander How, Brock Hinton, Kelsey Jenkins and Clay Moyer 

• “Low-cost, Extrudable, Biocompatible Catheter Body for the Physical-Plasma Cardiovascular Catheter” for Sean Knecht, Penn State assistant teaching professor of engineering design, on behalf of the Penn State Center for Biodevices, by Sabrina Dobron, Joseph Gluzman, Ethan Goodstein, Dax Hoffman, Seth LaPorta and Abhijeet Maniktala 

• “Modelling the Role of the Bast’s Valve in Meniere’s Disease” for Johns Hopkins Medicine Division of Otology and Neurotology by Rhys Butler, Stephanie Tang, Ethan Neuwirth Guerra, Daniel Ford, Diana Lowther, Mark Latuska, Andrew Paulauskas and Tacie Telesky 

Three teams received second place for best project: 

• “Infinite Shield” for Nittany Solutions Group LLC by Aaron Rohlfing, Christopher Martin, John Baldwin, Timothy Lukens, Yao Li and Yixin Xiong  

• “Shipboard Launch and Recovery Simulator” for John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab by Abraham George, Muchen Li, Brandon Adde and Robert McHugh 

• “Solar Powered AC Unit for Low-Income Housing in Nottingham, England” for the Penn State School of Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Programs by Ridge Bachman, Amanda Hildenbrand, Hudson Wagner, Kevin Chin, Marah McCauley, Michael Khoury, Sun "Vic" Jiadong and Tianlun Zhang 

Three teams received third place for best project: 

• “Penn State Hershey Operating Room Optimization” for Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center by Kevin Gardner, Aaron Harte, Nathan Kurtz, Michelle Soeganto, Drew Bennison, Praharsh Verma and Olivia Kucenski  

• “Shell Eco-marathon: Autonomous Programming Challenge” for Shell by Zikun Zheng, Courtland Corrente, Alex Huang, Daniel McVaney, Hoang Pham and Kyle Delhagen 

• “Manufacture of Seedable Paper Mulch” for Shared Roots by Erin Liddy, Christopher Cole Ham, Michael Wells, Alejandro Pleitez, Phillip Telesz and Jason Giamarino 

Three teams received awards for best poster:  

• First place: “Manufacture of Seedable Paper Mulch” for Shared Roots by Erin Liddy, Christopher Cole Ham, Michael Wells, Alejandro Pleitez, Phillip Telesz and Jason Giamarino 

• Second place: “Modelling the Role of the Bast’s Valve in Meniere’s Disease” for Johns Hopkins Medicine Division of Otology and Neurotology by Rhys Butler, Stephanie Tang, Ethan Neuwirth Guerra, Daniel Ford, Diana Lowther, Mark Latuska, Andrew Paulauskas and Tacie Telesky  

• Third place: “Human Powered Vehicle Design” for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers by Danielle Crawford, Victoria Garito, Jordan Groff, Michael James, Sara Napierkowski and Elizabeth Trautman

Three teams received awards for best video:

• First place: “Unbiased Blood Oximeter” for Daniel Hayes, Penn State professor of biomedical engineering and graduate programs coordinator, by Samantha Elduff, Jonathan Maderic, Jacob Joyce, Sophie Rodriguez, Zuzana Pribulova, Shuyu Jin, Zhangtao Chen and Vaidesh Raman 

• Second place: “Opioid Policy and Data Dashboard” for Qiushi Chen, assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering, by Alexandra Weaver, John Koons, Andrew Briglia, Kelly Cooper, Leah Miller, Zixuan Feng and Benson Wainaina  

• Third place: “Open Source IoT Bread Proofing Box” for Matthew Parkinson, director of the Learning Factory and professor of engineering design and mechanical engineering, by Adam Alhammadi, Brittany Kotvas, Justin Frey, Marcello Abbate, Nour Hamed, Rachel Wheeler and Terrence Saylor

Two teams received best K-12 engagement awards: 

• Winner: “King Krunch Pretzel Production Improvement” for King Krunch Gourmet Brands by Kaitlyn Pigeon, Brianna Wilson, Conor Barber, Sydney Frazier, Abdullah Al Afaliq and Andrew Lamberjack  

• Runner up: “Interchangeable Rotation Device for Biologic Samples” for the Penn State Medina Lab by John Burns, Jasmine Ferrence, Brendan Knouse, Yihao Lin, Luke Vaughters and David Ziegler 

One team was honored with the people’s choice best project award: 

• “PSU SEDTAPP – Solar Powered Cooling Team 1” for the Penn State School of Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Programs (SEDTAPP) by Ross Fox, Riyad Althaqeb, Abdullelah Alarfaj and John Pavlakovic

Three corporate sponsors were honored with a best sponsor award, as voted by students:

• Nittany Solutions Group LLC 

• NAWCAD 

• Johns Hopkins Medicine Division of Otology and Neurotology  

To learn more about the Learning Factory or sponsor a project in the fall, please contact Jesse Torba, the Learning Factory’s industry relations coordinator, at jjt5008@psu.edu.