Engineering Commons^™

Safe Kids Car, Nathan Keenan, Jackson Piper, Kyle Law, Anthony Meniru

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The main goal of this project is to retrofit toy vehicles, such as Powerwheels cars, with safety systems that can protect the driver and those around the driver. Such systems will include lights, including headlights and taillights, and an automatic braking system, which will activate in the face of an inevitable collision. The system will also work with the driver to prevent collisions, providing warnings of impending danger.

Keywords: toy vehicles, collision detection, collision avoidance, automatic braking system, DC motors, automatic headlights.

Botsitter, Maria Hatzis, Gregory Blondheim Jr., Marian Bonto, Brett Jacobsen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As society progresses into an era where both parents work, whether it is online or in person, children in the home may be put in dangerous situations if they are not given the attention they need. The BotSitter is an automated system that follows the child around and makes an audio alarm to alert both the child and the nearby guardian. Using RSSI trilateration, predetermined danger areas, and embedded controls, the BotSitter will be able to follow the child. The device can manage to keep track of the child for the guardian while being almost completely automated outside of setup.

Wireless Kick Pedal, Jacob Wise, Ryan Kinyo, Bradley Toth, Ian Zanath

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of the project is to build a wireless kick pedal that allows accessibility to drummers that have leg or foot disabilities and add versatility to multi-instrumentalists looking to add percussion while playing another instrument. The proposed pedal is designed in two main parts, a wearable band that tracks the player’s movement, and a hammer mechanism that receives actuation commands from the wearable band to move the hammer and deliver a drumbeat. The band is designed to be worn on several parts of the body, including the ankle, knee, thigh, or even the arm depending on the user’s situation. …

Whiteboard Drawing Device, Stefan Ilic, Andrew Adams, Vaughn Richards, James Medved

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Whiteboards have become a staple in many classrooms, especially in the context of STEM courses. However, when it comes to teaching complex topics, it can be difficult or impractical to provide accurate drawings and visualizations by hand, and in extreme cases may lead to misinterpretation of a particular topic. To fix this issue, the Whiteboard Drawing Device allows users to draw preset shapes to a whiteboard automatically, both quickly and accurately. Using either a smartphone application or a set of onboard controls, the device allows users to automatically draw straight lines, rectangles, triangles, sinusoidal waves, and circles on the whiteboard. …

Running Shoe Pedometer, Benjamin Kasper

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Running shoe pedometer aims to solve the issue of worn out running shoes. It can be difficult to know just how many miles you have run in your shoes and when a new pair is needed. Running in old shoes and worn out shoes is heavily linked to injury. My proposed project is a device that is powered by the compressive forces on the shoes soles that counts the number of steps the wearer takes using a microcontroller. Then, when the shoe reaches milestone that indicate it has been used 75% 90% and 100% of its expected life, it will …

Wireless Environmental Weather Monitor, Joel Christie-Millett, Nathan Schroeder, Sylvester Wilson, Matthew Szijarto

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this senior design/honors project is to create a device that monitors environmental conditions in order to detect a wildfire. This device should notify a user of the status of the environment. The device should also last for 6 months without any human interaction. My role on the team is to design the power supply system that maximizes efficiency and uses renewable energy.

Furniture Mover, Zachariah Burkhardt, Gary Mucciarone, Gino Mucciarone, Juan Soto, David Kotyk

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The movement of furniture is an often overlooked pain point for physically-challenged individuals, especially when rearranging furniture in a room. These individuals may try to minimize the risk of tip-over or strain-related injuries by seeking assistance from others. Still, some individuals are limited in finding volunteers forthcoming and capable of helping. This can lead to a dilemma of either being able to find individuals willing to assist in the process or risking one’s own personal safety when moving furniture. The proposed design project implements the use of multiple, independent platforms with mecanum wheels placed underneath each corner of a piece …

Nidec Automated Winder, Michael Pugh, Ben A. Swartz, Andrew Leonard, Garrett Dostal

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Nidec Drive Systems is a leading electric motor manufacturing company with several facilities in the US and around the world. However, as of recent, Nidec has started to see some signs of old and outdated production machines affecting their production numbers even though the demand for electric is ever increasing. In an attempt to repair some of these issues, Nidec reached out to the University of Akron to look for senior design groups to help design and standardize better production machines. We were tasked with redesigning a new winder, which is a machine that winds the copper coils to the …

Smart Power Outlet, Kyrolos Melek, Joseph M. Garro, Ethan G. Frese, Madison Britton

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

With an ever-increasing demand on the electrical grid and an increase in electrical consumer goods per household, effective power management and monitoring for home users is a must. The objective of this project is to create a consumer outlet and companion phone application. The power outlet will measure power draw on each socket and report these measurements via an embedded system, wirelessly, to the application. The application will then allow for setting custom power draws at which an individual socket will switch off if exceeded and will display how much a given outlet or individual socket is costing per unit …

Design Project: 3d Printer/Injection Molder Hybrid, Lee Paolucci, Luke Everhart, Brandon Leap, Karson Lorey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In the realm of rapid, small-scale prototyping, there are a few main factors that drive decisions to invest resources in technology to make that prototyping possible. Cost and ease of use are two of the most influential when looking at most SMEs (Small to Medium-sized Enterprises). The U.S. Small Business Administration defines an SME as smaller than 1,250 employees. According to An Assessment of Implementation of Entry-Level 3D Printers from the Perspective of Small Businesses, 59% of small manufacturers had implemented 3D printers as of 2014. However, no matter what technology is used in rapid prototyping, there are common …

Lapnitor: A Web Service That Protects Your Laptop From Theft., Michael Ameteku

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Laptop theft is an issue worldwide. According to an article from 2018, Security Boulevard stated that a laptop is stolen every 53 seconds. Using a laptop's camera, we can monitor the surroundings of the laptop and reduce a laptop's probability of being stolen. According to the University of Pittsburgh, a laptop has a 1-in- 10 chance of being stolen and nearly half of these thefts occur in offices or classrooms. These thefts mostly occur when a laptop owner leaves their device unattended for a certain period of time to maybe go visit the restroom or attend to a call when …

Magic: The Gathering Card Virtualizer, Vincent Garbonick, Jacen C. Conlan, Jaret A. Varn

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Any well-versed Magic: The Gathering (MTG) player or collector knows how difficult it can be to keep track of all cards in their collection. Some spend hours searching for that one specific card, and others are constantly scouring the internet for how much their collection costs. However, this issue does not only affect casual fans. Resale companies spend hours a day determining the costs of cards, and tournament judges painstakingly check players’ decks to ensure they are not cheating. To assist with these struggles, the design team proposed to create the MTG Card Virtualizer. This device scans MTG playing cards …

Pet Food Protector, Braeden Balch, Trey Dillan, Brandon George, David Owens

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

food consumption while keeping each pet separate from the others. The device will detect a certain pet, using a transmitter and receiver that would be on the collar of the pet and in the device itself, and enable them to access their specific food by way of an opening and closing lid. If the pet leaves the area, the food is no longer accessible. The device will also track the amount of food consumed and regulate how much food should be consumed in a given amount of time. This will allow owners to feed their pets without worrying about overeating …

Chemical Clean Automated Loader, Jordyn Bryner

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

TTM Technologies (TTM) is a global printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer. The work described in this report was completed in the TTM North Jackson, Ohio location. This plant focuses primarily on the manufacturing of rigid and rigid-flex PCBs for the aerospace and defense industry. TTM North Jackson has an ongoing labor dependency issue due to the shortage of workers the nation is facing. To solve this problem, TTM has focused the efforts of their new engineers and interns on automating processes that are labor dependent. The goal is to provide design guidance to be used later by TTM to automate …

Smart Uv-C Disinfectant Module, Nicole Baldy, Luke Rogers, Haitham Saleh

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Smart UV Disinfectant device shall sanitize objects which are 18”x14”x8” or smaller and less than 20 lbs. using UV-C light. This device should contain many safety measures to prevent human and animal exposure to the UV-C light and have no public touchpoints to operate the interface. In order to achieve the first objective, this device shall contain a "sanitizing chamber" which completely encloses the object to be sanitized to prevent outside exposure with detection of any lifeforms inside of the chamber; for the second objective, it will contain a wireless interface to an Android application which can be used …

Autonomous Wildfire Detection System, Matthew Pyle, Nick Garrett

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

According to the National Fire Protection Association Journal, federal wildfire suppression costs in the United States have risen from an annual average of about $425 million from 1985 to 1999 up to $1.6 billion from 2000 to 2019. On average, more than 200,000 acres in the United States are burned per year due to wildfires, with more than 700,000 acres burned in 2020 alone. With the risk of wildfire ever rising, there is a need for better early detection of remote wildfires, as existing methods often include long delays like satellites or rely on human lookout towers. The objective is …

Smart Kettlebell, Cole Russell, Patrick Davis, Ryan Deboer, Isaac Stecker

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of design team 08’s senior design project is to create and implement a workout device that will be able to calculate the caloric expenditure, repetitions, and length of a workout. Once the duration of a workout is completed, the user metrics will be communicated from the kettlebell system to a user application via Bluetooth. The caloric expenditure will be used using the data that is provided from the accelerometer. The duration of the workout will be controlled using a push button that is connected to the kettlebell system that will allow for the start and stop of a …

Autonomous Coffee Brewing System, Lillian Gonzalez, Landon Miller, Tyler Moff, Benjamin Vitu

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Coffee consumers want an affordable, high-quality cup of coffee that takes minimal time to brew and does not excessively contribute plastic to landfills. A fully autonomous system which utilizes whole coffee beans, water, and filters to brew coffee was designed to meet this need. This system accepts user requests which specify the brew’s portion size, water temperature, and brew strength, as well as the time which the system should begin the brewing process. Occasional maintenance to empty the system’s built-in waste receptacle or resupply the system with water, coffee beans, or filters is the only user intervention required. This report …

"Demeter" Soil Monitoring System, Ryan Matthews, Rachel Rummer, Temilolu Fayomi, Alex Fuller

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to develop a soil monitoring system that can remotely sense and relay soil conditions back to a user. The deMETER soil probe, Demeter is the Greek goddess of the harvest, is designed to aid hobbyist gardeners, small-scale farms, and nurseries to monitor their dynamic soil conditions and maximize their harvest. The probe is a self-powered system that can monitor the moisture and essential nutrients of the soil profile to determine which areas should receive water and fertilizer. This would significantly cut water and fertilizer waste. The solution will include an embedded system with sensors …

Zips Racing Electric Battery Management System, John R. Martaus, Elena Falcione, Derek Dunn, Elliott Boudreau

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Zips Racing Electric currently uses a bulky, off-the-shelf battery management system to monitor and manage the voltage, temperature, and state-of-charge of an electric formula-style racecar battery pack (accumulator). The objective of this project is to research current battery management methodologies and apply said research to design and create a lightweight, compact, custom battery management system that is integrated with existing vehicle systems. This will allow for cleaner accumulator packaging and improved communication between the battery management system and the rest of the vehicle.

Nject-3d, Kody Rinkevich, Logan Henderson, Nathaniel Anderson, James Patton, Cameron Wilson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

NJECT-3D is a student initiated design project where the utilities of a 3D printer and an injection molding machine are integrated into one cohesive unit. The goal of our project was to test the limits of rapid prototyping by utilizing printed molds. We developed an automated system where a mold can be printed on a 3D printer, translated from said 3D printer to an injection molder, then compressed and injected at said injection molder to output a finalized injection molded part.

Smart Bike Aftermarket System (Sbams), Noah Lamadanie, Jack Bullock, Dawson Beachy, John Albrecht

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Smart Bike Aftermarket System will be a set of connected modules, which, when installed on a standard bicycle, will allow it to mimic some of the safety and quality-of-life functionalities of an E-bike. The most notable of these safety features is an ability to detect vehicles approaching from behind and alert the user of potential collisions. The system will also implement lighting (Headlights, taillights, and turn signals), and a coupled application so a user can view more advanced information about their cycling. The primary advantage of this system over a standard E-bike is that it will have a lower …

Garden Bot: Autonomous Home Garden Weed Removal Robot, Brendon Lovejoy, Robert Connolly, Isaac Lucas, Stevan Veselinov

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

With frequent weeding being a tedious chore and an essential task for a successful garden, there is need for an automated method of handling this routine. Existing technologies utilize computer vision, GPS, multiple units and other tools to remove weeds from garden plots. However, these solutions are often complex and expensive, suited for large agricultural plots in contrast to small-scale home gardens. In addition, many of these technologies, along with manual tillers and cultivators suited for home use, are unable to perform weeding within rows of crops in a process known as intra-row weeding. The Garden Bot is an autonomous, …

Electronic Locking Mechanism, Nicholas Tamburrino

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The electronic locking mechanism project will include an Arduino microcontroller to control inputs and outputs such as a keypad, an RFID reader, a stepper motor, and an LCD screen. The keypad and RFID reader will be used to verify the authorization for anyone coming through the locked door, the stepper motor will be used to physically lock and unlock the door, and the LCD screen will display the state of the locking mechanism.

Smart Doggy Door, Jaret Helminski, Brandon Caldwell, Jason Marcum, Nathaniel Hall

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The smart doggy door is an engineering senior design project which will be completed in the spring of 2021. The goal of this project is to design and implement a dog door that can detect when a dog is near. After that it will determine if the dog is allowed to use the door and it will then open if the dog is allowed to go through the door. This device will also send a notification to the dogs owner via an app on their phone. This device will allow dog owners to keep unwanted animals out as well as …

Longboard With Automatic Braking, Benjamin Roter, Logan Mashchak

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The automatic longboard anti-lock braking system is a system designed to prevent a longboard from exceeding 12 mph while considering slipping and skidding, making it safer to ride a longboard. Speed limiting will be accomplished through wheel speed and incline angle measurements and brakes engaging or disengaging depending on internal decisions. Excess energy will be removed from the ABS as heat. Wheel speed and incline angle testing were done with a wheel speed sensor and an inertial measurement unit, respectively. Internal decisions were tested with programming a microcontroller, and braking was tested with motors. The wheel speed sensor yielded measurements …

Door Barricade, Alex Cerino

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My senior capstone project will be a door barricade. The main idea for the use of the door barricade is for schools in the case of an intruder. The barricade that I will be designing is a solution to the inefficient barricades that I saw at my high school. It could also be used at businesses and homes. My design would be easy to use and have a fail-safe option. The two areas of mechanical engineering technology that my capstone project will focus on are stress analysis and electronics. Every part for my door barricade is drawn in SolidWorks. All …

Investigation Of Surface Charge Using Faraday Bucket Measurements: Analysis On Electrospun Polyvinylidene Fluoride Fiber Mats, Ryan Kantenwein

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Piezoelectric polymer materials such as polyvinylidene fluoride exhibit beneficial properties for use in personal protective equipment (PPE) against viral contaminants and other foreign microparticles. The electrospinning process of this material allows for surface charge to develop over a controlled surface area. Kynar 761 at 10 wt% demonstrates increased surface charge after withstanding a flow of aerated NaCl particles from a TSI 8130 instrument. Utilizing voltage measurements from a Faraday bucket, 18 wt% Kynar 761 and MG-15 exhibit surface charge when undergoing an electrospinning process; however, Kynar MG-15 displays lower charge values than that of Kynar 761. Several critical factors such …

Analog & Digital Remote Synthesizer, Adam Brunner, Andrew Cihon-Scott, Scott Grisso, Linus Wright

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to develop and design an analog synthesizer musical instrument that integrates embedded digital hardware into the design to enable control from a remote source. The use of digital hardware enables the potential for a wide range of convenient features such as sound profile saving and loading, output recording functionality, and the ability to accept digital input from another musical instrument utilizing the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). In addition to the synthesizer itself, this project also includes the design of a companion application that can be hosted on a wide variety of consumer computing …

Light Loaded Automated Guided Vehicle, Marcus Radtka, Nazar Paramashchuk, Lawrence Shevock

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of the locomotion system was to design and implement the mechanical, electrical, and software related functions to ensure the LLAGV had the capability of maneuvering its surroundings. The LLAGV’s motors were represented in an open loop transfer function to utilize RPM feedback and a compensator when needed. The modeled compensator helped control the LLAGV’s speed and acceleration, enabling further control of the LLAGV. The internal circuitry has the means to properly distributed power to all components and allowed the user to control the LLAGV to their desire. The application software within the LLAGV locomotion system (LLAGV-LS) had consideration …