Engineering Commons^™

Small Scale Wide Band Radio Frequency Spectrum Analyzer, Ali Aldajaei, Ryan Littleton, Matthew Thomas

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The project being proposed has to deal the processing and identification of radio frequencies. As more and more frequencies are being used on the radio spectrum, noise and interference have become a problem. Currently spectrum analyzers can be used to identify this noise and interference but they require manpower and specialized equipment. Our project will focus on automating the process of analyzing multiple frequencies and identifying signals from interference. This will be done by first taking an input from a radio antenna to acquire radio signals at various frequencies and storing the values. These values will then be analyzed to …

Human-Machine Interfacing Via Epidermal Electronic Systems, Michael Flynn, Matthew Nelson, Stefan Sharpley, Drew Simmons

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Surface electromyography (EMG) is rapidly becoming a viable control source for interfacing with machines. By measuring the electric potential generated by the contractions of skeletal muscles, systems can be controlled with a mere flick of the wrist, allowing intuitive and versatile control to the wielder. As sensors and classification algorithms become more sophisticated, EMG control has increasing potential to revolutionize the way we interact with and utilize technology. Prosthetics in particular have benefited the most from these recent advances, with one research team successfully returning ambulation to a leg amputee last year. However, this technology is not yet suitable for …

Wind Energy Harvesters For Urban Small Scale Power Generation, James Mcnamee, Zachary Gartrell, Andrew Krupacs

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The energy demands of society are increasing, and the ability to produce this energy from renewable sources such as wind must also increase to meet these demands. Large wind turbines are a great way to harvest renewable wind power, but they are often too large to use in an urban environment.

This project focuses on designing wind energy harvesters, based on existing iterations that produce output power per area comparable to that of an efficient wind turbine, approximately 3 watts per harvester that is 1 meter long. In order to reach this target power level, two innovative designs are under …

Automated Magnetic Field Scanning System, George Bakirtzis, Tim Owen, Tara Powell

Capstone Design Expo Posters

One of Jefferson Laboratory’s research areas is in Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) science and technology. SRF cavities are tested in the Vertical Testing Area (VTA) at Jefferson Laboratory, within a series of large cylindrical dewars. The measured quality factor (Q factor) of the SRF cavity is directly influenced by any existing magnetic field. Because the VTA previously housed a cyclotron, all the rebars within the building have residual magnetic fields emanating from them. This magnetic field effect of the building renders the measurements of Q factor on the devices inaccurate and the testing data unreliable. A magnetic field scanning system …

Automotive Object Detection Training System, Lucas Cerully, Salima Fenaoui, Derek Mccubbin

Capstone Design Expo Posters

With a constant rise in the automobile industry, there is a demand for more advanced integratable technology along with it. With the consumer’s safety always in mind, automobile companies are adding more to their systems to help detect and prevent collisions. Among these technologies is the object detection system. In summary, this component warns or reacts to oncoming objects that could put the driver in danger. As with any piece of technology, there are problems and bugs that the object detection system can come across that would cause it to act irregularly. In turn, this requires the availability of technicians …

Main Body Aerodynamics, Michael Al-Badini, Christopher Buettner, Wesley Russell, Steven Summerville, Marcus Wardlow

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Our senior design project entails designing, analyzing the front upper aerodynamic nose for the Formula SAE at VCU’s race team. Currently there are no provisions on the chassis to provide relief for parasitic loss of speed & efficiency due to drag. Since Formula SAE is focused on building a engineered, safe, and efficient vehicle our aerodynamic design will help with handling, downforce, and fuel economy all while reducing drag. Our Aerodynamic design will play a key role not only in how the Formula car is perceived aesthetically, but our calculations will be a large determining factor in the cars overall …

Fsae Rear Diffuser Team, Zarwan Waqar, Sohail Hossini, Saman Usodan

Capstone Design Expo Posters

To generate additional force that is applied to the rear of the FSAE race car The importance of the rear diffuser is to add a rear force to the vehicle. The rear force is generated from the airflow coming from underneath the vehicle. The way the airflow creates a force is through generating a pressure differential in which the air exiting the rear of the race car is now causing a downward force from the diffuser. The use of a diffuser is known to be of use at high speeds and if designed correctly creating the aerodynamics needed to keep …

Fsae Pedal Box: Controlling Stop And Go, Christopher Hathcock, Tyler Munden

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The VCU FSAE team has a need for foot controls for the brakes and throttle on their newest race car. The assembly must meet the rules set forth by the FSAE organization to compete, and must be as light and low as possible to conserve the acceleration and handling characteristics of the car. Furthermore, the project must be completed on a budget of $500 allotted to Senior Design teams. The FSAE team has been working on the current car since 2005 and has yet to produce a drivable race car. The Senior Design teams this year cover the major systems …

Fsae Rear Differential Carrier, Nicholas Rivero, Peter Quach, Zack Jillani

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The Formula SAE design project enables engineering students to develop, analyze, build, and benchmark a Formula-style racecar. A differential was designed for VCU’s car to ensure that power is evenly distributed to the drive wheels under all possible handling conditions. A mounting system is required to secure the differential to the frame. Failure of this carrier could be catastrophic, therefore precise consideration of all possible forces and loading situations is required for design. A team was developed to examine how dynamic forces and fatigue contribute to component failure. Based on the results of this analysis a differential carrier can be …

Vertical Tank Inspection Device, Tyriek Bayne, Sarah Morgan, Donald Reid, Charles Stacy

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) has requested a design for a telescoping arm able to carry out vertical tank inspection aboard ships. This device will play a key role in saving time and money, as well as potentially decreasing health and safety risks. The current system is both time consuming and limited to incremental positioning. A new system will permit inspectors to spend less time and effort at this portion of the tank and possibly complete their task much sooner. Based on design criteria given by Newport News Shipbuilding, a telescoping mechanism will be designed to lower a camera 18 ft. …

Robotic Inspection Of Geometrically Complex Tank Systems, James Dinsmore, Jay Kim, Randolph Snook, Thanh Tran, Trenton Wilhelmi

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The primary focus of this project is to create an autonomous rail based robot to inspect and traverse tanks with the idea of future improvements that would carry out all duties of the refurbishing process. By using a more cost-efficient method of semi-autonomous robotic inspection and refurbishment, Newport News Shipbuilding will be able to reduce the risk of harm and level of manual labor required for the refurbishment process. Additionally, the amount of personal protective equipment that needs disposal should be decreased, thus having a positive impact on the environment.

An initial prototype was developed as a 2013-2014 senior project. …

Formula-Sae: Shift System And Controls, Ashton Bressler, Cody Bryant, Christian Fergusson, Jason Shephard

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem statement: Formula SAE has been at VCU for the last three years and the team is now getting to the point of having the formula car ready to run and drive. One of the things that needs to be finished for this to happen is the installation of a shifting system.

Rationale: Once completed, the FSAE team will be one step closer to having a competition ready formula car. While a major part of the team is the members’ love of all things fast, we also believe that the car will provide exposure to the VCU School of Engineering …

Tapered Roller Bearing Test Rig: Axially Loaded Application To Accelerate Bearing Failure, Andrew Compton, Donnie Miller, Thomas Miller, Milton Chandler

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement: Fatigue life testing of large tapered roller bearing components for rail applications is often very costly and time consuming. The purpose of this project is to assist Amsted Rail Company, Inc. develop a large railroad tapered roller bearing test rig that does not require scaled down prototypes bearings. As these are tapered rollers, loads can be applied from either the lateral or radial direction. L10 bearing life test predictions for the test rig bearings should be carried out using the American Bearing Manufacturers Association standards. The test rig can be designed to test as many as 4 bearings …

Tapered Roller Bearing Accelerated Fatigue Life Test Rig Design, Hilton Bennett, Elizabeth Englert, Beck Grimm, Nathan Morris, Matthew Ofsonka, David Trinh

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Fatigue life testing of large tapered roller bearings for railroad applications is both expensive and time consuming. Accepted methods for testing bearings include full–size and scaled down testing. Currently, bearing test methods at Brenco take up to six months to complete, and scaled down testing requires additional resources for manufacturing prototypes and testing capabilities that are not economically ideal. The purpose of this project is the development of a tapered roller bearing test rig to test bearings to their fatigue life as quickly as possible. The rig design can accommodate bearing sizes in the range of one half (½) to …

Nuclear Reactor Simulator, Adriana Camargo, Jonathan Dip, Gordan Ek, Vance Petrella, Soeuth Soeun, Nicole Waugh

Capstone Design Expo Posters

VCU’s nuclear reactor simulator provides a real time simulation of the operation of a nuclear power plant. Student developed LabVIEW programs display the controls and instrumentation of a reactor control room on twenty eight computer monitors, thirteen of which are touchscreens. Changing reactor conditions are calculated with the best-estimate nuclear system analysis code RETRAN-3D. Simulator design provides for the interaction between student reactor operators and an instructor through instructor driven reactor transients. The simulator is used as a teaching tool for VCU engineering students and for public education and community outreach. The VCU nuclear simulator is an ongoing senior design …

Lower Body Exoskeleton Powered By Epidermal Electronics Systems, Francis Azari, Forrest Baber, Saswat Mishra, Karan Patel, Juan Soto

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The purpose of our design revolves around the concept of enhancing the human body through the use of a lower body exoskeleton. The most applicable demographics for our design consists of paraplegics and non-paraplegics. The various uses we hope to include would allow the user to: walk again, lift heavier loads with the ability to move forward, back and be seated. Although lower body exoskeletons already exist on the market, they still have shortcomings that prevent widespread use among the general public. Our hope is to improve upon the design of existing exoskeletons with the integration of epidermal electronic systems …

The Superhydrophobic Boat, Cole Anton, Edin Avdic, Aneesh Sandhir, Tyler Zheng

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The purpose of this project is to successfully design and construct a boat hull while minimizing the amount of solid material in contact with the water. If successful, this experiment could serve as a first step in designing more efficient vessels through the reduction of the water drag force on the object. The approach to this project involved determining the optimal wire mesh and coating combination for the boat hull using both computational methods and experiment.

Flow-Cytometry Machine For The Developing World, Paul Howell, Jewel Nkwocha, Jaynie Laverty

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Flow cytometry provides critical diagnostic, measurement, and research applications across many healthcare and biological disciplines. Its use in the detection of blood-cancers, HIV/AIDS, cell differentiation, and viral detection is unique and unparalleled. Despite flow cytometry’s vast array of applications, its use is limited by expense. Rather than individual labs being able to afford a dedicated machine, core facilities are developed and the research is exported. In addition, flow cytometry’s high costs create a barrier to its implementation in developing nations.

There were 35 million people living with HIV in 2013, nearly 1% of the world’s population. There are more than …

Decellularization Of Porcine Lung Tissue, Kirsten Hulbert, Linh Ta, Lumumba Reid, Mahir Dagra, Baltej Dhillon

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Our project aims to standardize the decellularization of a porcine lung by creating a bioreactor to house the lung, automating the decellularization process and developing a protocol that will increase the precision and the repeatability of the process. Our deliverables include a working prototype, an automated system that will inform the user when the decellularization process is complete, a pressure sensor to control perfusion, and automated pressurized pulses that will increase the rate of decellularization.

Our accomplishments thus far include: a design for a working prototype that will decellularize a porcine lung, determining the proper rate to perfuse the lung, …

Carbon Adsorber Fouling: Removal Of Ammonium Bisulfate, Ahmed Ahmed Elmak, R. Luke Bolten, Christopher Holland

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Infilco Degremont’s efficient sludge treatment process using a High Temperature Fluidized Bed (HTFB) incinerator is used by several waste processing plants in the United States and Canada. In a few instances, a buildup of ammonium bisulfate within the activated carbon bed absorbers has become an issue. The carbon bed absorbers are used for the removal of mercury from the incinerator flue gas. Buildup of this compound on the carbon surface results in increases in the pressure drop across the adsorber, as well as decreases in the efficiency of the unit. This eventually leads to the need to shutdown the afflicted …

Device To Deliver Endodontic Material For Temporary Dental Fillings, Garrett N. Cyprus, Hisham Kamoun, Gireesh B. Reddy, Ali Salman

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Root canal therapy requires patients be treated over several visits to clean and shape the pulp chamber. In endodontic treatments, cotton wool is placed beneath the temporary filling to preserve the space of the pulp chamber and to prevent any blockage of the root canals with temporary filling between clinic visits. Despite its simple application and affordability, cotton wool can lead to fibrous remnants in the pulp chamber or become incorporated into the temporary filling, which can lead to micro-leakage or bacterial colonization on the cotton fibers and subsequent infection.

Gelatin capsules or silica gels are proposed endodontic materials which …

Independent Exercise Assistive Device For Individuals With Visual Impairments, Ashley Duke, Megan Goldberg, Lindsay Schnur

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Physical exercise is challenging for individuals who are blind because they lack the spatial awareness necessary to imitate described motions for exercises, and additionally require physical guidance. The current solutions involve tactile equipment to assist in body placement, but a person with low vision cannot compare their own position to the correct position and adjust properly. The proposed solution is an instructional yoga program that will give feedback to the user based on her exercise performance, allowing people who are blind to be able to perform these exercises independently at home. The design will incorporate the Skeletal Tracking program of …

Print Estimation: Columbia Printing And Graphics, Alex Jacobi, Chris Wooten, Sahil Zubair

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement: Can we create a web application to help facilitate the estimation of printing services as requested by clients and allow for the full interaction between a client, sales representative, and an administrator all through a single web application.

Rationale: The importance of this project is to create an easy to use online service that a user can access from either their smartphone or desktop computer. If successful, this project will allow users to have quick access to quotes regarding their printing needs anywhere they are without the need of contacting an actual printing company. This project will also …

Developing An Epics Ioc In Labview, Kenneth Butler, David Shires, Michael Talbott

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement In working with labView and experimental physics at Jefferson Lab the current configuration is a linux based control system. Christiana has posed the task of implementing a windows based network configuration where input and output from the data readings is distributed across the network. With the help of LabView demos and CALabs softIOC we were asked to prove the concept of this windows based configuration to be possible. Specifically the task is to prove (or disprove) that we can serve data using the caLabs soft IOC.

Rationale The current configuration of Jefferson Labs data systems is served on …

Vcu Cctr Mobile App: Android & Ios, Vattana Vichith, Stephen Wu, Bowen Zhang

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In today’s day and age, data should be accessible at all times. The biggest break-through for data accessibility is mobile technologies such as phones and tablets. The CCTR provides a continuum of informatics research and services to support translational and clinical research. Clinical Trials represent one of the central themes for the Center for Clinical and Translational Research, but they do not have a mobile app for the VCU community to access CCTR’s informatics resources.

This project aims to promote the expanded informatics research and services available to VCU students, faculty and staff as well as patients interested in discovering …

Mobile Crm Integration Using Amc Technology Apis, Matthew Bates, Allen Calderwood, Matthew Jenkins

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The problem our project solves is the feasibility of use of Salesforce, MSCRM and many other CRM technologies outside of the desk environment. When a user is away from their desk, they are unable to easily use these CRM technologies and our project solves that problem through the use of a Mobile Application that communicates with a desired CRM technology and deliver the desired information to an Android Smart-Watch. Regardless of what a company may do, efficiency is important. Through the use of our Mobile Application, companies that use CRM technologies such as Salesforce are able to further enhance their …

Visualization Of Nlp Extractions, K. Barbour, D. Vieth, D. Warraich

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The goal of this project is to design a visualization system for information extracted from large amounts of unstructured text. The importance of the project is for the system to display information in a more informative way than simple highlighting of the raw text. The data is obtained from a program that scans multiple files for entities and extracts the information in said files pertaining to those entities. The entities that the program scans for includes people, organizations, locations, dates, incidents and any relative key words. The information is extracted and stored in JSON files, specifically in a format that …

Federated Account System For Accelerated Development Of Internal Systems, Javan Cohen, Nandu Radhakrishnan, Brian Seal

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Massey Cancer Center is currently bound by an internal Active Directory and role based account system and organizations outside of VCU need to write specific code to be able to access the information provided. Massey wanted to move their system to a federated account system with claims based authentication. This project is important because having information readily available to other trusted cancer research groups will help promote understanding and treatment of cancerous cells. Our approach was to take what we learned in CMSC 355 to create a design document that was approved by Dr. Fenstermacher. We used this to create …

Temperature Measurement Of Server Room, Eric Cobbinah, Faida Matabaro, Michael Tu, James Mcadams

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In this project we will be developing a system to help monitor temperature in data centers. This system will include software and a circuit to route resistive temperature devices (RTDs) (Figure 1) to a microchip which will output their readings as data. The system should be able to connect with 64 RTDs, read the temperatures from them, and make the data accessible over a network. This system could also be used in other situations besides data centers. The user would decide where to place the devices and how to use the temperature data. This system will allow more RTDs to …

Non-Causal Autonomous Parking System For Driverless Vehicles, Ngoc Hue Vo, Swarna Chowdhuri, Ivo Yotov

Capstone Design Expo Posters

According to an Audi Urban Future Initiative study, the average person spends 106 days over their life-time searching for parking spaces. Whether it is on the side of a busy city street or a shopping center car park, the issue of parking private vehicles poses a substantial logistical challenge that scales in complexity along with population density. As modern populations trend towards urbanization it becomes imperative to develop more efficient parking structures. With the inevitable shift towards driverless vehicles, there exists a need to establish a control system to mitigate these complications. One embodiment of such a solution is a …