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2024 Engineering Design Night
April 26 @ 4:30 pm - 7:00 pm
The SEED and Capstone Program would like to invite you to Engineering Design Night. This is an exciting event where you get to see the SEED and Capstone projects from senior electrical, mechanical, civil, and environmental engineering students. Many teams will have working prototypes to demonstrate, various stages of hardware to show the iterative nature of design, and/or a poster highlighting important concepts from their design. The format is conference-style, so it allows you to wander around and see all the projects that you find interesting.
We hope you will join us.
UVM Design Night
Grand Maple Ballroom, Davis Center
Friday, April 26th
430-5 pm – CEMS Engineering Awards
5-7 pm – Engineering Design Night Event
Please let me know if you have any questions about this event.
Thanks, Dustin Rand and John Lens
| Project Name | Company Sponsor | Project Summary |
| 01 – Probe Crash Test Equipment | Liquid Measurement Systems | LMS creates fuel probes to measure aircraft fuel tank levels. The project is to improve the existing testing rig to simulate aircraft crash loads experienced by fuel tank probes. Redesign the test rig to simulate a range of forces and measure several critical parameters during impact. |
| 02 – Missile Fin drag life optimization | Collins Aerospace | Collins builds various missiles and systems for the US Government. Their missile fins are mounted on bearings to facilitate rotation. The project is to develop a replacement for the ball bearings with an optimized concept within the actuator to reduce cost and weight. They are also tasked with designing a testing device to compare solutions to the current design for evaluation. |
| 03 – Auto Lift for AT Binding | Individual | Backcountry skiers rely on lift risers to raise their heel when going uphill. This is a manual process and it can be challenging to reach and manipulate the risers in the cold weather. Design a device that will automatically lift the risers on AT Backcountry Ski Bindings to allow for more ergonomic climbing. |
| 04 – Salt Spreading Machine | UVM – Custodial Services | The UVM campus Salt Mitigation Task Force (SMTF) seeks a salt spreader approach that reduces the amount of deicing chemicals used. Design a device that spreads at controlled rates and in the desired locations in a manner that is sensitive to ergonomics for the custodial staff. |
| 06 – Lift Assist | Healthy Design Ltd. | Healthy Designs builds devices to improve the recovery of ICU patients. Design a device for ICU patients that will help them move their upper extremities to promote rehabilitation while wearing the Healthy Design Refraint device. |
| 07 – Rooftop Cooling System | Individual | Maintaining cool home temperatures is challenging and costly in hot, summer months. Design a low-cost and easy-to-install system that will minimize heat gain and actively cool the rooves of homes. |
| 08 – AeroTrak Wheel Bearing Upgrade | GlobalFoundries | GF manufactures semiconductor devices. GF uses small, automated AeroTrak carts to move wafers around the Fab facility that often get stuck on corners when their batteries are getting low. Redesign the side idler wheel on the AeroTrak cart to incorporate a bearing to reduce friction and prevent the carts from stalling. |
| 09 – Automated Probe Cleaning | GlobalFoundries | GF manufactures semiconductor devices. GF uses sensitive components to test our wafers, and we currently clean these components with a toothbrush. Develop an automated probe card cleaning machine that improves the cleaning and safety of the process. |
| 10 – Bearing End of Life Fixture | GlobalFoundries | GF manufactures semiconductor devices. GF has a process where wafers are spun on a platter to evenly coat their surface. As the bearings in the platter wear, they introduce vibrations which cause defects. Design a fixture that can test a bearing and determine if the bearing is about to fail. |
| 11 – Dry Strip Quartz Grids | GlobalFoundries | GF manufactures semiconductor devices. GF uses plasma strip chambers with aluminum grids in the manufacturing process. The aluminum grids degrade over time and contaminate the wafers. Design a new quartz-based grid for our plasma strip chambers that will improve the longevity and reliability of the equipment. |
| 12 – Precision Microcleaver for Cross Sectional SEM Sample Preparation | GlobalFoundries | GF manufactures semiconductor devices. GF often needs to cleave wafers for the device inspection process. Design a precision semiconductor cleaving tool that can cross-section devices as small as 5um wide. This will be used as part of a process to analyze nanodevices in scanning electron microscopes. |
| 13 – PV Panel Temperature and Tilt sensor | NRG Systems | NRG Systems manufactures metrological measurement equipment for renewable energy installations. NRG currently buys sensors to measure both the temperature and tilt angle of a solar panel in a solar farm. Design a custom sensor package that will do both and interface with their existing data collection system. |
| 14 – CS6 Battery Packs | AERO | The UVM AERO Club team designs battery-powered race cars for competition. Design and build a new battery pack for the UVM AERO team to use in future formula hybrid competitions. The design will integrate a formal battery-management system and adhere to all formula hybrid rules. |
| 16 -Apple Storage Atmosphere Controller | Vermont Refrigerated Storage, LLC | VRS is in the business of storing large quantities of apples. Keeping apples crunchy and fresh over the long term is achieved by tightly managing air quality. Develop an embedded, automated control system for managing oxygen, carbon dioxide, and temperature in our facility located in Shoreham, Vermont. |
| 17 – Bear Resistant Garbage Can | Vermont Agency of Natural Resources: Dept. of Fish and Wildlife | Bears in Vermont have learned that garbage cans are a source of easy food. The Vermont public needs access to bear-resistant garbage cans to prevent conflicts with black bears. Design a garbage can to be strong enough to keep bears out, easy for people to use, affordable, and aligned with waste management company standards and operating equipment. |
| 18 – Ingredient Tote Handler | Ben & Jerry’s | Ben and Jerry’s manufactures ice cream and uses large totes to hold the mixings used in the process. The current system doesn’t allow them to use all of the mixings in the totes, generating wasted food and money. Design a method for lifting and tilting the totes to reduce waste in the system. |
| 19 – Laser Burn-In Station Upgrade | 89 North | 89 North designs Laser Diode Illuminators (LDIs) for imaging systems. They test each of their LDI’s for 100 hours to catch any early failures. Design a system to test multiple lasers on the same fixture and improve the thermal capabilities, space efficiency, and usability. |
| 20 – Ceramic Coating Wear Tester | Hazelett | Hazelett builds strip-casting machines for various types of metal. Each machine has a steel belt the material is cast upon. These steel belts are coated with ceramic that wears over time. Develop a test fixture to evaluate the wear characteristics of various ceramic coatings that have been applied to a steel belt substrate. |
| 21 – Pincher Packaging Solution | FoodScience Corporation | FoodScience manufactures a dog treat product that hides pills for easy administration. These products require a 3+ hour “rest” time to prevent clumping when treats are put into the package. Develop a solution that will reduce the manual labor and time required for the “rest” to allow for rapid packaging of the dog treats. |
| 22 – Gearbox Evaluation Test Stand | BrandSafway | BrandSafway designs geared hoist systems for the construction industry. The only way to test the gearbox is to test the entire hoist system. Design, build, and validate a test stand that allows for testing just the gearbox. |
| 23 – Ammunition Container Moving Device | GD-OTS | GD develops many different types of weapons for the US Government. They often have to manually move 50 – 200 lb. ammunition boxes from storage to their firing range. Design a device to move ammunition containers ergonomically between locations while being controlled by a single operator. |
| 24 – Automated preform tube cleaning | Harbour Industries LLC | Harbour Industry makes many types of electrical wire. Part of the process requires loading tubes of PTFE into their coating machine. When the tubes are empty, there is PTFE residue that needs to be cleaned out. Design a system to automatically clean acrylic tubes of all PTFE residue. |
| 25 – Responsive and Interactive Urban Track for Autonomous Cars | UVM – CEMS | Dr. Duffaut Espinosa does research related to autonomous vehicles and needs a configurable track to verify car autonomy. Design and build a responsive and interactive urban track for 1/10-scale autonomous vehicles together with its virtual twin platform. |
| CEE Project 1: Town Path Slope Repair Design | Town of Barre DPW | Design repairs to a slope and adjacent bike path damaged by July 2023 flooding. |
| CEE Project 2: Bike/Walk Connectivity Design | Bike/Walk Advisory Comm, Essex Junction, VT | Design an integrated community B/W system to improve accessibility. |
| CEE Project 3: Old Jericho Road Trail Bridge Design | Richmond Trails Committee, Richmond, VT | Design a more robust trail bridge replacement for the one damaged in the July 2023 flooding. |
| CEE Project 4: Site Stormwater and Access Design | Stowe Electric Department | Design a state-of-the-art comprehensive site stormwater mitigation, ADA access, and parking layout. |
| CEE Project 5: Culvert Replacement Design | Town of Stowe DPW | Design a roadway culvert replacement constrained by site and access limitations. |
| CEE Project 6: Butternut Road Drainage Design | Town of Williston DPW | Design improvements to the roadway drainage for storm resilience. |
| CEE Project 7: River Cover Road Drainage Design | Town of Willison DPW | Design roadway stormwater runoff damage and roadway trafficability improvements. |
| EE Project 8: Drinking Water Disinfection Design | Randolph Fire District #1 -Randolph Center Water System | Design drinking water disinfection system improvements. |
