UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — After a semester of hard work, senior engineering students presented their capstone design projects at the fall 2019 College of Engineering Capstone Design Project Showcase on Dec. 12 at the Bryce Jordan Center.

During this year’s showcase, a total of 84 capstone design projects were presented and judged by a panel of industry experts, comprised of current and past sponsors, as well as members of the Learning Factory Industry Advisory Board.  

Two projects came in first place for the Lockheed Martin Design Excellence Award for Best Project:

• “Happy Valley Soup Company Manufacturing Process Value Stream Mapping” for Cooke Tavern Ltd. by Hannah Lugent, Jared Lawler, Jessica Oney, Lauren Hauptschein, Maryam Abed, and Mohamed Tiemogo, advised by Charlie Purdum, professor of practice and director of industry relations in the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering 

• “3D-Printed Aircraft Competition” for Penn State CIMP-3D 2 by Demick Palmer, Grayson Davis, Joshua Nale, Matthew Milanek, and Shavaughn Morris, advised by Lennart Bilén, instructor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Second place for Best Project went to: 

• “Bench-Scale Apparatus for Uniform Application of Binder on Cellulosic Fibers” for Armstrong World Industries Inc. by Eric Carlidge, Kristen Cziraky, Roy Yakobovich, Sara Pourhashemi, and Yuzhe Guo, advised by Chao-Yang Wang, William E. Diefenderfer Chair of Mechanical Engineering, professor of chemical engineering and professor of materials science and engineering

• “Sensor Device to Measure Unprompted Walking Speed in Rehabilitation Clinic – Team 2” for Penn State College of Medicine by Isabel Fontan, Jonathan Hamilton, Michael Slinkosky, and Ryan Wissler, advised by Mary Frecker, professor of mechanical engineering

Third place for Best Project went to: 

• “Measurement of HR and HRV of Collegiate Wrestlers with Wearable Technology” for Penn State Athletics – Wrestling by Abdulrahman Alnuaimi, Alyssa Peretin, Ernesto Rivera, Mark Vlah, and Nicole Ioannou, advised by Mary Frecker, professor of mechanical engineering

• “Automation of Tree Leaf Measurements” for Atoptix Inc. dba Croptix by Cristopher Weselovs, Joshua Balog, Sarah Kelchner, and Shane Hepner, advised by Lennart Bilén, instructor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Three teams received awards for Best Poster:

• First place: “Nuclear Materials Testing Support Structure Concept at Penn State” for Exelon Corporation by Gavin Hennessey, John Garing, Jonpaul Kraisinger, Kayla Iazzetta, and Kenneth Steenland, advised by Allen Kimel, associate teaching professor of materials science and engineering

• Second place: “Wiring Harness Redesign” for Ford Motor Company by Andrea Merida, Jiaming Liu, Jorge Fernandez, Nolan Smith, and Ryan Stebbins, advised by Chris McComb, assistant professor of engineering design and mechanical engineering

• Third place: “E-Bump” for CWR Capital Management by Garrett Brown, Karlie Caruk, Shawn Malone, and Utsav Rastogi, advised by Ashok Belegundu, professor of mechanical engineering

The BP People’s Choice Award

"Measurement of HR and HRV of Collegiate Wrestlers with Wearable Technology” for Penn State Athletics – Wrestling by Abdulrahman Alnuaimi, Alyssa Peretin, Ernesto Rivera, Mark Vlah, and Nicole Ioannou, advised by Mary Frecker, professor of mechanical engineering.

The Best Sponsor Award went to two sponsors this year: 

• Greg Williams from Cooke Tavern Ltd., dba Happy Valley Soup Company 

• Sean Kelly from High Concrete Group

The Learning Factory is accepting submissions for spring 2020 capstone design projects. For more information, visit  http://bit.ly/LFprojects. The final deadline to submit a project is Jan. 6, 2020. Contact Jesse Torba (jjt5008@psu.edu) with questions or to discuss project ideas.