Engineering Commons^™

Hydro-Aeroponic Design, Megan J. Doll, Nathan J. Boring, Meredith B. Taylor, Chancelor L. Sunkle

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

“Aeroponics” is a plant cultivation technique where roots hang suspended in the air while the nutrient solution is delivered in the form of a fine mist. NASA has done experiments in space and found out that plants grow very well with aeroponic technology. However, “Hydroponics” is the most preferred method, where plants are grown in a non-soil medium, and mostly in nutrient liquid that flows through rectangular channels. There are advantages and disadvantages to each system. With the intention of combining the efficiency of aeroponics and the compactness of hydroponics, a hydro-aeroponic system was created to grow spinach and lettuce. …

Autonomous Combat Robot, Andrew J. Szabo Ii, Chris Heldman, Tristin Weber, Tanya Tebcherani, Holden Leblanc, Fabian Ardeljan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This honors project will also serve as an engineering senior design project.

The objective is to design and build the software and electrical systems for a 60 lb weight class combat robot that will function autonomously and outperform manually driven robots during competition.

While running autonomously, the robot will use LiDAR sensors to detect and attack opponent robots. This robot will also be able to be remote controlled in manual mode. This will mitigate the risk in case the autonomy or sensors fail. LED lights on the robot will indicate whether it is in autonomous or manual mode. The system …

Rocket Telemetry System, Monica Lacek, Clark Bryant Iii, David Dalvin, Nicholas Wolgamott

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this research project is to design a system for the Akronauts Rocket Design Team which will transmit flight data in real-time to a ground station. The data will be collected from various sensors (altitude, acceleration, GPS, etc). This data will be transmitted wirelessly and in real-time to a receiving station. Calculations and visualizations will be taken from the data, which will help the team improve their rocket designs. Additionally, GPS data will be useful to locate the rocket post-flight. Challenges will include the need for the system to transmit over the range of the rocket’s flight and …

Requalification Of Coated Fabrics Using Chemlok 2332 In Place Of Chemlok 233, Daniel Madler

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Rubber coated fabrics are an essential component in the deicing systems of the aerospace industry. Adhesives cements are applied to a fabric prior to being pressed into a rubber compound that will adhere to the fabric. The resulting fabric maintains the strength of the fabric with the added benefits of elasticity and compatibility from the rubber compound. UTC Aerospace Systems relies on these coated fabrics to create safe deicers for the aerospace industry. Chemlok 233, a now obsolete primer cement, was used extensively in the coated fabrics used by UTC. Materials testing and performance evaluation allowed for a replacement cement, …

Smart Garage Opener, Jacob Wasson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this research project was to design an anti-theft device that interfaces with a standard garage door opener to allow packages to easily be delivered into a garage in a safe and secure manner. Primary functionality of the device is to use a package’s tracking number and corresponding barcode to open and close a garage door to a preset height so that a package can be delivered inside the garage before it closes. My contribution to the project revolved around the programming and board design of the microcontroller circuit that controls the input and output signals of the …

Pick-And-Place Robot For The 2019 Asme Student Design Competition, Riniah A. Foor, Megan Schmit, Aaron Urban, Jeanetta Davidsaver, Daniel Mugongo

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project was undertaken as an opportunity to participate in a holistic experience of designing, building, and competing as an engineering design team. In the ASME Student Design Competition, undergraduate students are able to experientially learn the process of design inception, manufacture, and product performance in addition to the development of critical project management skills. This is done through a creative design challenge to build a device capable of accomplishing a “pick-and-place” task in a fast and efficient manner.

Motorcycle Eyes, Patrick Nie, Alexander Ray

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As technology continues to advance the safety factor has increased for vehicles on the roads. However, not much has been done to help improve the safety of motorcyclist. To help to solve this problem a wireless blind spot indicator for a motorcycle helmet will be designed. It will be powered off the motorcycle and have indication zones for the left, right, and rear blind spots. The system will alert the rider if a vehicle is within 7 meters of the back of the motorcycle in any of the mentioned blind spots. The radar sensors will detect the vehicle and send …

The Production And Characterization Of Chitosan Based Microgels Using A Novel Microfluidic Device To Promote Cell Survival, Kaileen Shevchuk

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to synthesize and characterize perfluorocarbon modified methacrylamide chitosan (MACF) microgels produced with the use of a capillary-based microfluidic device. Since cell survival and development is highly related to particles physical properties, analysis of microgels set out to determine the particle’s physical properties. I hypothesize that the viscosity of the MACF polymer as well as the amount of photo initiator influence the physical properties of synthesized particles and as a result can generate particles with various features for cell culture in terms of shape, size, charge and swelling abilities. This hypothesis was validated through the …

Safe Pass, Alycia Riese, Julia Hariharan, Greg Synek, Jonathan Hall

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to design a sensor to be mounted on Class IV and higher vehicles to detect on-coming traffic. If traffic has been detected, the system is to warn drivers behind the stopped vehicle that passing is unsafe. The vehicle detection is to be implemented using a LiDAR detection method along with signal processing. A wireless transceiver is to transmit from the front radar module to the rear warning indicator module when the conditions are unsafe for passing. The project goals are to increase road safety and maintain traffic flow. The report details the challenges due …

Laser Ablation Of Aluminum, Erika Nosal, Zachary Rahe, Arthur Pamboukis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The laser ablation of metal carries relevance in a variety of engineering industries. This includes, but is not limited to, processes such as micromachining, or implementation on aircraft weaponry. The latter application is the reasoning for why aluminum is the specific metal in consideration, as it is commonly used for the construction of aircraft components.

The scope of this project was to optimize the energy dispersed through laser ablation on aluminum by mathematical modeling. The transient conduction process in the aluminum was modeled using a 2-dimensional cylindrical coordinate system in both MATLAB and ANSYS/Fluent. These models were adopted to simulate …

Generator Design: A Study Of Optimized Airflow, Rachel Wattleworth

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The core goal of this project was to prototype, test, and evaluate a new type of fan for the Safran Electrical & Power air-cooled generators. The idea of a new fan being made for these two generators arose when they were not adhering to design requirements. A base mixed-flow fan was created to test on multiple generators. Upon creating a prototype, it will be tested to prove if it can increase the air flow, decrease temperatures, and increase power and life of the machines. They all proved to be successful and achieve the main objectives for this project. Data such …

Swat Operations Unmanned Vehicle, John K. Zelina, Tyler Meadows, Ryan Cook, Mathew Fellows

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

During SWAT operations, it is common to have a barricaded suspect who may be armed and a serious threat to SWAT team personnel. In these cases, sending a robot into harm's way to assess the situation as opposed to an operator has become the standard. The purpose of this of this research was to design and develop an unmanned system for the City of Akron's SWAT Team that can be injected into these scenarios to improve outcomes and mitigate risk to SWAT operators.

Artificial Intelligence In Wastewater Treatment Facilities: Implementing Practical New Technologies For The End User, Jordan Spano

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Design phase operator input can prove useful; however, it is not essential in every application, as Akron’s treatment plant implemented AI to increase treatment capacity without design-phase operator input. They implemented a system flight simulator, a few hours training, and have communicated with the designer to make system tweaks as needed. In larger applications, the owner may benefit greatly by incorporating design input from operational staff. Those representing a municipality as a project owner for a treatment plant upgrade should always maintain an active role in the design of smart water infrastructure. They must keep the operators in mind when …

Ergoscopetm – Ergonomic Endoscope, Drew Drum, John D'Egidio, Bethany Scarpitti, Ceara Stack, Sara Kerestman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Medical endoscopy is a growing industry, with a trend of chronic hand pain for gastroenterologists and flexible endoscope users. In order to address the lack of ergonomics in traditional gastrointestinal (GI) flexible endoscopes, the design team collaborated with a GI professional to design a more ergonomic endoscope interface, focusing on the more problematic controls. Two prototypes, as well as a mock-up were fabricated, which underwent verification and a user evaluation to assess the design’s benefits. As the number of endoscopies each year increase, the Ergoscope, offers an alternative to the traditional angulation controls and muchneeded relief for the issues that …

Power Wheelchair Canopy, Mohamed F. Battah, Joshua D. Brown, Dujuan J. Mcclendon, Gavin M. Francisco

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Some power wheelchair users can not drive and independently hold an umbrella at the time because they do not have much upper body strength. Therefore, users are unprotected from the rain and are getting soaking wet. One of the members of this group is in a wheelchair and faces this problem. He has previously searched for something to protect him from rain, but could not found something he could independently use. What users need is a powered umbrella that attaches to their power wheelchair. There is no such umbrella available in the market. In this project, the solution to this …

Wheelchair Modification, Taylor Verba, Stephen Conklin, Nolyn Martz, Kenneth Hutson, William Rasper

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This document outlines the design process for a wheelchair modification. This wheelchair modification is the Senior Capstone Project for five undergraduate students studying Biomedical Engineering at The University of Akron, Team 14. The team was directed to compose a team name, which was chosen to be EnGenious Design Solutions (EDS). The project was provided by Dr. James Keszenheimer who is a professor at The University of Akron. This document focuses on the project results as well as business conclusions.

The Effect Of Behavioral Traits And Background On Engineering Students’ Decision-Making Process Compared To Business Students, Joe Scott

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper looks to narrow down the reasons that students undertake new credentials, specifically in sales fields. With a focus on character traits and upbringing, the goal is to ensure that there is a better understanding of the reasons that people undertake these credentials. The different benefits of credentials will be analyzed to determine the most influential reason that people would be willing to move forward. The combination of these factors will be used to provide recommendations of the best way to reach and influence the decision of the engineering students.

Form Stable Phase-Change Materials, Russell Dent, Marjan Kashfipour, Nitin Mehra, Jiahua Zhu

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This work investigates the use of two different polyols, xylitol (Xyl) and erythritol (Ery), in conjunction with boron nitride (BN) aerogels, for the purpose of creating thermally conductive composites. While the BN filler in Xyl composites achieved a high anisotropic thermal conductivity of up to 4.53 W/m-K at 18.2 weight percent filler loading, they do not exhibit good phase-change material qualities due to a low solidification enthalpy even at low cooling rates. Alternatively, the BN-Ery composites have shown promising results with a solidification enthalpy of 225.14 J/g and a melting enthalpy of 385.84 J/g at a heat rate of 5 …

Synthesis Of Drug Encapsulated Chitosan-Heparin Based Nanoparticles And Release Study, Trent Richwine

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The main objective of this honor’s project is to encapsulate drugs with different molecular weights inside of chitosan-heparin based nanoparticles (Cs-Hep NPs). Three different drugs with low (NNC), medium (IFN-γ), and large (BSA) molecular weights were chosen in order to compare all types of drugs and how they react with the nanoparticles. Analysis of particle size, zeta potential, and a release study was performed. The release took place over a 168-hour time period and liquid samples were taken throughout. The hypothesis was that the molecular weight of the drug will correlate to the physical properties of the nanoparticles. The results …

The Smartbobber, Zachary Pyle, Nick Spoutz, Zachary Hutson, Ryan Pascal

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In short, the fishing bobber connects to a smartphone app (also designed by members on the team) to notify the user of fish bite data via Bluetooth connection. Additionally, the smartBobber is able to set the hook on fish autonomously and alert the user when it does so. This is possible by the use of a linear solenoid that is spring loaded. Circuitry on the bobber detects the pull distance on the plunger of the solenoid and transmits this data to the user in real time. Once the solenoid has passed a certain pull threshold, the solenoid completes a 12V …

Stabilization Of Dredged Materials In Ohio: An Investigation Of Mechanical, Chemical And Biological Dewatering Techniques, Erika Howard

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Each year, materials are excavated from oceans and lakes in order to keep the waterways open so that ships can safely pass through. These excavated, or dredged, materials are then discarded, usually being returned to the body of water from which they were removed. Beginning in 2020, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) will no longer allow this to occur. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to investigate beneficial uses for dredged materials in Lake Erie, and to address the best management practices for dewatering these materials, as set forth in the Lake Erie Protection and Restoration Plan created …