Engineering Commons^™

The Perfect Coffee Cup, Suzanne Bowers, Jessica Ingram, David Murphy, Gillian Stavlas

Capstone Design Expo Posters

To design a coffee cup that will maintain the coffee at the optimal drinking temperature for several hours using Phase Change Material, PCM. The importance of this project is designing a coffee cup that will retain its temperature for a prolonged period of time giving the consumer plenty of time to finish their coffee at the desired consumption temperature. We designed a double walled cup that would contain the PCM. Heat transfer calculations were done for different materials such as acrylic, glass, and stainless steel with various thicknesses for each material. These calculations were used to decide on the ideal …

Low-Cost Desalination Unit: Direct Contact Membrane Distillation, Meghan Herbert-Walters, Aubrey Martin, Lauren Scolese, Tina Trinh

Capstone Design Expo Posters

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 783 million people do not have access to a reliable clean water source. With this many people in the world without access to clean water, a solution to this problem is highly essential. The objective of this project is to create a low-cost compact desalination unit that can be used to turn contaminated water into pure drinking. For our design, a direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) approach was used. The DCMD system allows only for the evaporated feed water to pass through the membrane and therefore causes an increase …

Radio Controlled Aircraft, Michael Johnson, Dakota Macgill, Robert Peake, Ryan Wydler

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Building an R/C aircraft isn’t exactly a project intent on breaking ground in the field of aerospace engineering, rather it is an opportunity to apply fluid dynamics in a practical manner to gain experience in aeronautical engineering. An aerospace engineer is one who designs and builds aircraft and spacecraft and are often tasked with deeming an aircraft flight worthy or not. We will attempt to predict the feasibility of our custom plane designs using aircraft engineering techniques found through research and through texts provided by our advisor, Dr. Jayasimha. The goal of this design is to design and fabricate a …

Automotive Object Detection Simulator, Ishoc Salaam, Stephen Holder, Taylor Fines

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Can you imagine starting your car, pushing a button, and it drives you to work? This technology is not as far in the future as you may think. Cars such as Mercedes Benz’s S-class and Audi’s A7 prototype have a traffic jam assist feature which at speeds under 40 mph, a button can be pressed and the car will drive itself on the highway. The system uses an array of cameras, sensors, and radars to follow the car in front at a safe distance while staying within its lane. If another car cuts in front of it with the feature …

Industrial Brush Coiler Attachment, Amber Clark, Tim Paredes, Andy Richardson, Kayleigh Rogers, Branden Yam

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement: Company initially desired a new machine that would be able to produce external coiled brushes that would help in increasing revenue and project opportunities. The design has shifted to making an attachment to the existing equipment that would help in this effort instead of developing a completely new unit.

Rationale: Sealeze sees this as an opportunity of increasing revenue and also taking on the effort of making externally coiled brushes more efficiently. If successful, more clients can be taken in and it would make Sealeze a more versatile company.

Approach: The main approach revolved around weekly meetings with …

Coherent Spin Transport In Nanowire Spin Valves And Novel Spintronic Device Possibilities, Md Iftekhar I. Hossain, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Jayasimha Atulasimha, Saumil Bandyopadhyay

Graduate Research Posters

We have proposed a spintronic infrared photodetector backed by experimental evidence and matched with theoretical prediction obtained in our labs. Unlike conventional photodetectors, it can work at room temperature with ideally infinite light-to-dark contrast ratio, infinite detectivity and zero dark current. The proposed idea is based on smart implementation of spin polarized transport. Electrons while travelling through one-dimensional channel show long spin relaxation length if they can be confined to a single conduction subband because of the elimination of major spin relaxation mechanism, namely the D’yakonov-Perel’ mechanism. With infrared light, electrons can be excited to higher subbands, resulting in the …

Strain Controlled Ultra-Low-Energy Magnetic Tunneling Junction, Hasnain Ahmad, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Jayasimha Atulasimha

Graduate Research Posters

We are experimenting on designing a voltage-controlled ultra-low-energy Magnetic Tunneling Junction (MTJ) device using a soft single domain magnetostrictive layer (i.e. Galfenol: Fe_1-xGa_x , x = 20 At%) coupled to a piezoelectric layer (i.e. PMN-PT). Special metal pads have been designed using photolithography to generate stress in the PMN-PT layer by applying electric field. The patterns of different shape anisotropic nano-magnets are designed using e-beam lithography and we have successfully fabricate FeGa nanomagnets with only 12 to 13 nanometer thickness by sputter deposition. These nanomagnets have been characterized by magnetic force microscopy for observing their switching capabilities. …

Design And Creation Of A Device To Induce Vergence Eye Movements, Jacob B. Jaminet, Paul A. Wetzel

Undergraduate Research Posters

Automated eye-tracking systems can detect and analyze eye movements as a means to accurately diagnose more than 20 neurological diseases including mild traumatic brain injury. Mild traumatic brain injury is an occurrence of injury to the head resulting from blunt trauma or from acceleration or deceleration forces. Eye movement refers to the voluntary or involuntary movement of the eyes, helping in acquiring, fixating and tracking visual stimuli. There are three types of voluntary eye movement to track objects: smooth pursuit, vergence shifts and saccades. Vergence shifts are eye movements where the eyes move in opposite directions: moving to the midline …

Evaluation Of Tcp Header Fields For Data Overhead Efficiency, Justin K. Yirka

Undergraduate Research Posters

Bandwidth across the internet is constricted by monetary factors and hardware development, so researchers are left to improve the efficiency of data transmitted in order to improve internet speeds. The transmission control protocol (TCP) is the primary transport protocol on the modern internet, ensuring reliable delivery of the majority of data transmitted. I evaluated the TCP header fields for efficient use of data overhead so as to determine current waste and to suggest possible areas for revision. I examined original specifications for TCP mechanisms, comparing them to modern implementations as determined by updated standards and modern practices in the networking …

Proactive Conversation, 3d Printing, And An Old Nintendo, Tesha C. Ellis

Undergraduate Research Posters

Abstract

One hundred years from now, it would be a true historical treat to be able to showcase 20th and 21st century digital entertainment by presenting video game consoles in mint condition for interactive, educational, play. Arguably, it would be more enlightening and informative for future audiences to be able to physically engage with the electronic artifacts instead of simply observing them behind glass. With the use of 3D technology, components of video game systems can be preserved, and then printed as needed for repairs. It will help keep them functional for future researchers, educators, and enthusiasts.

Creation Of An Annotated Library On Fda Approved Nanomedicines, Marley R. Hodson, Tanin Izadi, Nastassja Lewinski Ph.D, Bridget T. Mcinnes Ph.D

Undergraduate Research Posters

Nanomedicine is a type of nanotechnology used in the medical field to limit the dosage amount and target drug delivery to specific cells. Nanomedicines that are approved and used tend to be extremely successful; however despite over a decade of research, only a limited number of nanomedicines have advanced for clinical use. A possible reason for the numerous nanomedicine failures is lack of easily accessible information and research on previous nanomedicines. In this project, we have compiled nanomedicine labeling information from the Drugs@FDA website. We have extracted phrases/sentences from labels relating to keywords on nanomaterial properties and drug profile characteristics. …

Fluorescent Biosensors To Measure Endothelial Cell Responses To Fluid Shear Stress, Natalie Noll

Undergraduate Research Posters

The response of endothelial cells, innermost layer of blood vessels, to blood flow is thought to be critical in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis in the human body is non-random and is highly correlated to vessel sites which experience oscillatory and reversing blood flow. Endothelial cells (ECs), the inner most cell layer of blood vessels are highly responsive to the drag force from blood flow, known as shear stress. To study endothelial cell responses to shear stress we used a parallel plate flow chamber in which we exposed endothelial cells to defined fluid shear stress. Using fluorescence resonance …

Hybrid Energy Harvesting, Nazanin R. Ghavamabadi

Graduate Research Posters

Between 20% to 50% of industrial energy input is lost as waste heat in the form of hot exhaust gases, cooling water and energy loss from generating equipment. Vibrations and variable heating are a common form of waste energy in motors, generators, power cables exposed to ambient temperatures, fuel exhausts from vehicles, and various types of heavy machinery. The recovery of even a fraction of this lost energy would have a transformational impact on the utility industry since the demand for energy is increasing and the impact of this demand on the environment is significant. Recent technical breakthroughs in new …

Electrospinning Applications Air Filtration And Superhydrophobic Materials, Negar Ghochaghi, Adetoun Taiwo

Graduate Research Posters

Electrospinning is a widely applicable technique that generates non-woven fibers in the micro and nano range. In this project two of its applications are highlighted namely filtration media and enhancement of wettability. The first project demonstrates that electrospinning can be used to produce new fiber filtration media with controlled microstructure. The bimodal and unimodal orthogonal and random filters were made and characterized against their filtration efficiency and pressure drop. Figure of Merit (FOM) was also calculated and discussed. It is shown that the FOM increases when the electrospun fibers are arranged into alternating layers of aligned course and fine fibers. …

Ab Initio : A New Concept In Engineering Education, A History Of The Design, Creation And Implementation Of A New School Of Engineering In Richmond, Virginia (1990-2000), Henry A. Mcgee Jr.

VCU University History Books

Dr. Henry A. McGee, Jr., Founding Dean Emeritus of the School of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University, chronicles the history of the School of Engineering through his term as Founding Dean, 1994–1999. McGee details the process of creating a program aimed to balance innovation and entrepreneurship.