Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Motor Subsystem For A Tensegrity-Based Robotic Exoskeleton, Presley Sacavitch, Israel Villegas

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Tensegrity structures are composed of stiff rods and elastic cables suspended in a flexible tension network. In particular, the biotensegrity model proposes that all biological systems exhibit tensegrity-like characteristics across multiple scales, ranging from the cellular level to the musculoskeletal system of tendons, ligaments, and fascia, to the human body as a whole. Compared to the traditional biomechanical models used in exoskeleton design, it can be a more accurate representation of how motion emerges from natural forms, but further work is needed to fully understand the heterarchical nature of human anatomy. This project will focus on developing a powered electrical …

Impulse, Fall 2025, Jill Fier, Sierra Brown, Jerome J. Lohr College Of Engineering

Impulse (Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering Publication)

2 | Faculty News
3 | SDSU Vet Hua to Head Civil Engineering
6 | Ad Lunam — To the Moon
10 | Building A Safety Culture
11 | Department News
12 | Surface Mount Technology Kickoff
14 | Construction Management Student, Volleyball Player Building Success Piece by Piece
16 | Student Awards, Honors
18 | Student Competition Results
20 | NASA Win Opens Doors for New Product Development Order
22 | SDSU Engineering Student Tabbed as Noblereach Fellow
26 | Knabach Award Recipient from Apprentice Lineman to Company President
28 | Metzger Create Faculty Endowment for SDSU Engineering
30 …

Advances In Encapsulated Phase Change Materials For Integration In Thermal Management Applications, Muhammad Ghufran, David Huitink

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Encapsulated phase change materials (ePCMs) have the potential to emerge as a key solution for efficient thermal management in various applications. This review paper explores the recent advancements in ePCMs for thermal energy storage and thermal management. We start with a basic overview of the PCMs and then performance enhancements of PCMs through the encapsulation, critical parameters for encapsulation, various encapsulation methods, and their evaluation are discussed. This review also discusses key properties and proposed figure of merit for ePCMs, impact of encapsulation on thermophysical properties, performance evaluation of ePCMs, thermal management needs, and the role of PCMs. The paper …

Design Of Ballistic Armor Using Multi-Composite Sandwich Structures With Nanomaterial Additives, Carmen Alaichamy

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This study explores the bulletproof capabilities of Kevlar composites fabricated using advanced additive manufacturing techniques. Continuous fiber reinforced 3D printing (CFRP) is employed to produce Kevlar-reinforced polymer matrix composites (PMCs) with optimized structural configurations for ballistic protection. The primary objective is to evaluate the impact resistance of these composites against 9mm projectiles through systematic experimental testing. A series of ballistics tests are conducted using a high-velocity gas-gun system to fire 9mm projectiles at varying speeds angles. The tests will be conducted at the San Luis Obispo Range, with projectiles fired at various angles. The effects of fiber volume fraction, reinforcement …

Integration Of Sco2 Brayton Cycles With Carbon Capture Systems, Nathan C. Stearns, Rajarshi Roy, Brian Schooff, Andrew Chiodo, Andrew R. Fry, Brian D. Iverson

Faculty Publications

Increasing global energy consumption and greater market penetration of intermittent energy sources require a baseline power source to enable renewable energies. Here, a case is made for pairing supercritical CO₂ Brayton cycles with carbon capture to create low-emission, high-efficiency, combustion-based power generation systems. Pairing carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems with supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) Brayton cycles enables the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in combustion systems, but with an associated energy cost. Three different representative models of CCS systems (oxyfuel combustion, amine scrubbing, and cryogenic carbon capture) are considered for pairing with an sCO2 Brayton cycle, …

Cold Spray On Fiber Reinforced Polymer Substrates For Composite Repair And Tooling Applications, Patrick Allen Bailey

Theses and Dissertations

Cold Spray technology was first developed in the 1980’s and is an additive manufacturing and repair technique. It works by heating a pressurized carrier gas upwards of 600 °C and inserting metal particles downstream such that when they impact a substrate, the energy transformation causes plastic deformation of the particles. This thesis presents a use case for metal and polymer CS powder on fiber reinforced and fused filament fabrication polymer substrates. The state of the art for CS discusses the most up-to-date research within the field, and where new investigations are required. This research investigates the required process parameters to …

Analyzing Wearable Sensor Data From Individuals Undergoing Motor And Neurological Rehabilitation, Nolan William Turk

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

An ongoing study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is focused on developing computational models of rehabilitation for people post-stroke. Stroke affects around 800,000 people per year in the US, and often leaves people with limited motor (movement) and neurological (brain-based) capability. Wearable sensors may allow clinicians to better understand how these individuals recover, and to better design therapies and interventions. We are seeking students who can use existing software, and perhaps adapt the software to extract, analyze, and visualize detail from study participants. This project will involve with the Cal Poly PI, and collaborators from physical therapy. This …

A Biomimetic Fe Model Of The Human Foot For Kinematic And Footwear Analysis, Brady K. Nakamura

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

The idea of the present proposal is to develop a biomimetic foot model and validate the model accuracy in predicting plantar stresses on the foot, using insole pressure sensors. The incidences of foot pain can often be coupled with uncomfortable footwear and prolonged usage of a shoe may be associated with long-term musculoskeletal disorders in the lower limb. While multiple studies have tracked the progression of knee osteoarthritis (OA) or midfoot OA and have studied the effect of orthotic treatment on the foot pain across individuals [1], there are few biomimetic models of the foot that can study and associate …

Light-Activated Self-Folding Of Polystyrene-Based Shape Memory Polymers: A Comparison Of Laser Induced Graphene And Marker Patterns, Amelia Lodwick

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are a class of stimuli-responsive materials capable of undergoing programmable shape transformations upon thermal activation. Among various heating methods, light-induced activation provides a contact-free, spatially selective, and controllable approach for triggering self-folding behavior, making it particularly valuable for applications in soft robotics, aerospace structures, and biomedical devices. Despite the growing interest in SMPs, a systematic investigation into the influence of photothermal patterning materials, light intensity, and heat distribution on self-folding behavior remains limited. This research aims to explore the self-folding response of a commercially available SMP by employing photothermal materials such as carbon black and laser-induced …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Ultrasound-Hot Plate And Flacktek Mixing In Nanocomposite Panel Fabrication, Jacky Liang, Wyatt Barnes

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Nanomaterials have found widespread applications, particularly carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in structural applications, which have gained significant traction over the past few decades [1] [2]. Numerous experimental [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] and analytical studies [11] have demonstrated that incorporating CNTs into an epoxy matrix can significantly enhance the mechanical properties of the composite. This study evaluates and compares the effectiveness of nanocomposite panels fabricated using two different fabrication techniques: ultra-sonication combined with a hot plate process, and the FlackTek mixer. The primary objective of the research is to investigate the impact of these processing methods on the …

Leveraging Smartphones For Balance Assessment, Kelly Graham

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Assessment of human balance provides valuable metrics to track the health, development, and fall risk of individuals. The prominent method for objective balance assessments has used force plates to track the center of pressure (COP) position as a participant attempts to balance during varying tasks. However, the use of force plates is limited by the cost of equipment and expertise required, leading to recent interest in using embedded inertial measurement units (IMUs) in mobile devices instead. Many researchers have explored placing mobile devices close to the subject’s center of mass (COM) to approximate the subject’s COM acceleration and using the …

Certifiably Robust Input-Dependent Randomized Smoothing Via Lipschitz Standard Deviation Networks, Faith Bergstrom, Ben Sager

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Modern artificial intelligence (AI) systems exhibit highly sensitive and unsafe behavior when subjected to undetectable cyberattacks. For instance, human-imperceptible manipulations of the pixels in image data can cause traffic sign classifiers to mispredict stop signs as yield signs. In this project, we will design and analyze new methods to robustify machine learning (ML) models against these adversarial threats. Specifically, we will explore randomization techniques that "smooth out" the ML model's decision making process by intentionally corrupting input data with small amounts of noise. Optimizing this noise to enhance resilience against attacks while maintaining the system's accuracy poses a major open …

Augmented Biomechanics Integration For Real-Time Movement Optimization, Jack Bergfeld, Liyen Ho, Dylan Featherson

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This project aims to integrate OpenCap, a markerless motion capture system, with augmented reality (AR) to optimize real-time human movement. By leveraging biomechanics principles, AR visualization, and machine learning (ML), the system will provide instant feedback to users, improving movement efficiency while minimizing joint and muscle stress. Previous research in 2024-2025 has successfully demonstrated 2D motion tracking and AR-based mapping onto another person for interactive comparison. This project will build upon that foundation by enhancing real-time 3D motion tracking and developing an advanced AR interface to guide users in sports training, rehabilitation, and workplace ergonomics. The integration of ML will …

Exploration Of Physics-Informed Grid Generation Technique For Wall-Modeled Les Using Eagle3d, Dominic Schneider

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Wall-Modeled Large Eddy Simulation (WMLES) is an area of interest due to its ability to lower computational costs of LES. Even with the application of wall models, LES still proves to have practicality issues when it comes to use in industry, due to the expertise, time, and computational resources required. A novel technique for generating a lean, physics based WMLES grid is described.

The technique utilizes a RANS solution to extract turbulence information, user-specified values related to resolution of turbulent energy levels, acoustics waves, and shock waves, to generate a point cloud for producing a lean WMLES grid with in-house …

Active Measurement Of A Micron-Order Gap Under High-Speed And High-Temperature Conditions, Andrew Becker

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The hypersonic regime poses numerous challenges that researchers face in the development of hypersonic flight vehicles. Due to their excellent thermomechanical properties, ultra-high-temperature ceramics (UHTCs) have risen as a promising solution to act as a protective barrier between the harsh environment and surface materials of these flight bodies. The mechanical operation of a portable hypersonic simulation device was developed in-house and tested at Argonne National Laboratories (ANL) to gather in-situ material response of prospective UHTC samples when exposed to a hypersonic regime. An edge detection-based algorithm was developed and used in LabVIEW to monitor the health and operation of the …

Compost Grinder For The University Of South Carolina Office Of Sustainability, Rori E. Pumphrey, Grace Yaegel, Aaron R. Sawyer, Bradley White

Senior Theses

This project originates from a collaboration with the USC Office of Sustainability, which seeks to improve the handling and processing of food waste generated on campus. The primary challenge is the difficulty in composting certain types of food waste, such as avocado pits, pumpkin rinds, and other dense or fibrous organic materials that are not easily broken down using conventional methods. Existing commercial solutions are often too large and expensive, or electrically powered, and are thus not well suited for the volume or nature of USC's food waste. To address these limitations, our team designed a manually operated food waste …

Mems 4110: Improving Restaurant Efficiency: Automatic Egg Peeler, Shanice Isimbi Mutabazi, Kyle Bryant Okui, Max Ari Siefert, Lani Fancesca Espinel

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Neon Greens is a salad restaurant in St. Louis, MO that focuses on serving fresh, locally sourced ingredients. One of their signature menu items includes soft and hard-boiled eggs, which are used in large quantities every day. Currently, these eggs are peeled by hand, which can be slow, inconsistent, and difficult to keep up with during busy hours. Because of this, Neon Greens needs a faster and more reliable way to peel eggs without increasing labor. Our project aims to design a device that can peel eggs automatically, reduce prep time, and stay safe and easy to clean in a …

The Effect Of Fascicular Elastin On The Mechanical And Functional Properties Of Healthy, Damaged, And Healing Tendon, Shawn Pavey

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Mechanical properties of tendon are highly influenced by structural protein composition and microscopic sub-structures. Within the largest subunit of tendon, the fascicle, the role of the elastin protein remains understudied despite impressive extensibility and fatigue resistance of its resulting elastic fibers. While previous work catalogued contributions of fascicular elastin across tendon type and species, the anticipated effects of elastin in fatigue and healing have not yet been explored. While previous knockout mouse models showed that disruption of elastic fibers led to altered mechanical properties (e.g., increased linear modulus), these models depended on heterozygous elastin deficiency or indirect knockout of proteins …

Mems 4110: Asme Challenge, Jon Cossman, Jonathan Young, Nate Nowel

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The goal of this project was to design and assemble a remote controlled device for a competition that can maneuver through a course, collect trash units from 3D-printed trash bins, and bring them to a receptacle at the end of the course. Important factors to consider in the design involved ensuring it followed traffic laws through the course, making sure it could operate multiple times, and fit within price and space constraints. Prototypes were tested against the ability to deliver 75 percent of trash units within 5 minutes, 50 percent of trash units within 5 minutes without any traffic violations, …

Mems 4110: Egg Peeler Group L1, Brian Hau, Alex Kenn Lee, Aisha Bah, Shanaelle Nabatmama

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Neon Greens is a quick-serve salad concept located in St. Louis, MO. Part hydroponic farm and
part restaurant, they focus on growing a majority of their greens in-house, and emphasize
transparency in food systems.
In recent months, they added a ‘Protein Caesar’ salad to the menu. That salad features two
‘jammy’ boiled eggs which are cut in half. Staff at Neon Greens steam eggs precisely in their
Combi oven and shock them to stop the cooking process. They then peel those eggs by hand.
On some days, they must process >100 eggs, which can take up to 1.5 hours of …

Mems 4110: Interactive Racecar Dynamics Exhibit, Leonardo Gomes, Hunter Rocker, Joseph Norris, Jack Coode

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Visitors at science museums often struggle to understand how launch speed, lane choice, and banked-curve dynamics influence a car’s trajectory. Existing educational exhibits rarely provide repeatable measurements or clear physics demonstrations. This project addresses that gap by creating an interactive racecar dynamics exhibit with a controlled launcher, 3D-printed banked track geometry, and optical timing gates. The goal is to give users measurable feedback on velocity, lane behavior, and motion through a 31° banked turn while maintaining safety, durability, and fast reset time for continuous hands-on learning.

Mems 4110: Rapid Drink Chiller, Aidan F. Moriarty, John Babineau, Levi Gingerich, Quinn Close

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The purpose of this document is to outline the purpose and function of the rapid drink chiller device. This device is designed to replace traditional portable drink cooling methods, such as traditional styrofoam coolers, fridges, etc. Traditional methods require the transport and inclusion of ice, and require overly long cooling times, with the exception traditional fridges which are non-portable. The rapid drink chiller is designed to be light and compact in order to maximize transportability, accomplished via an all foam insulation construction around a waterproof box. The box is filled with a water-ethanol solution which is cooled to extremely low …

Mems 4110: Dbf Banner, Pachie Ackerman-Bennett, Joshua Paul Laue, Nazifa Younus

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The DBFBanner is a project made for the WashU Design / Build / Fly club. After interviewing DBF club president Sarah Donner, we interpreted the club’s needs as: (1) a banner that could achieve vertical stability in flight; (2) the banner could deploy and release remotely; (3) the banner and associated components were as light as possible. We went through several design iterations, including mathematical and CAD models, mockups, prototypes, and testing apparatus. Many designs were considered, including designs based on linear motion and collapsible trusses. We arrived at a design that used a servo motor to rotate a 3D-printed …

Mems 4110: Precise Water Distribution System, Morelia R. Reyes-Perez, Jp Torack, Jakob Ayala

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

This project focuses on designing and prototyping an automatic precise watering system to support plant research conducted in the Washington University greenhouse. The customer, graduate student Christina Youngpeter, needs a reliable method for delivering accurately measured water volumes to individual plants as part of a study on hydration effects. Manual watering can be time consuming, our system will provide a programmable, repeatable, and low maintenance solution.

Mems 4110: Asme Waste Collection Challenge, Leslie Alfaro, Cathy Zhao, Bari Diamond, Obike Anwisye

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

For this project, our goal was to design and build a remote-controlled wastecollection robot that could pick up trash bins and deliver their contents to a dumpsite while staying within the strict rules of the ASME challenge. The robot had to fit inside a 50 cm cube, drive through six-inch lanes, follow traffic rules, and be fully controlled by a six-channel RC controller. These constraints shaped almost every decision we made throughout the design process.

Mems 4110: N1 Precise Water Distribution System, Lillian Salter, Ye Huang, Elaine Wang, Joy Luo

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The aim of the project is to construct a precise water distribution system for anthropology graduate student Christina Youngpeter, who is studying the impact of hydration levels on the growth of quinoa plants. As her experiment grows in scale, she increasingly needs a system that can measure and distribute water for her, saving hours otherwise spent meticulously measuring water for 36 plants and counting. The system must measure water accurately and distribute it to the plants cleanly and efficiently. It should also be scalable and autonomous, requiring minimal human intervention.

Mems 4110: The Egg Peeler, Susanna Yeh, Jessica Arnold, Peter Nesin, Finn Mcnamee

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The purpose of this project is to assist the customer Neon Greens in accelerating their food preparation time by designing an egg peeler device. To have a better understanding of the customer needs and expectations, the design team participated in an interview with Neon Greens to address their vision and desires for this device. For the semester-long project, the team underwent various prototype stages, including the proof of concept, the initial prototype, and the final prototype. Our final design consists of a hopper that holds a batch of eggs on top and drops two eggs at a time, one on …

Mems 4110: Dbf Deployable Banner, Julia Peppe, Danny Bruns, Sarah Donner, Michael Safier

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Create a device that stores a banner in an RC aircraft that can be remotely deployed to be towed and released upon command.

Mems 4110: Air Cannon Launcher Demo, Jackson Strauss, Avery Cohen, Wilson Gao, Jack Galloway

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

For our senior design class (MEMS 4110) at Washington University in St. Louis, we were tasked with creating a demonstration for the St. Louis Science Center that demonstrated an engineering principle or concept. The Science Center functions as a science-oriented museum and saw more than 600,000 visitors in 2024. For our demonstration, we wanted to showcase the principles of kinematic motion. Kinematic motion is study of the motion of objects without considering applied forces. Additionally, when the acceleration of an object is either zero or held constant, the trajectory path that the object follows can be described by a few …

Mems 4110: Trash-E (Terrain-Adaptive Remote Autonomous Sanitation Hauling Engineer), Jackson R. Weisbard, Raza Rabbani, Dhruv Goel, Kj Kernan

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The TRASH-E (Terrain-Adaptive Remote Autonomous Sanitation Hauling Engineer) project was created to compete in the 2025 ASME Student Design Challenge. For 2025, the ASME SDC asked for the development of a remotecontrolled robot that could collect and deposit trash from receptacles placed around a miniature city. The robot had to adhere to specific size and weight constraints, as well as obey traffic laws in the same manner as a real driver operating a motor vehicle.