Designing the future

By Doug Ancey

On Thursday May 6, Santa Clara held its 40th annual Senior Design Conference. Seniors from all sectors of the School of Engineering converged on the Bannan Engineering Building to present their projects before faculty, alumni, industry leaders, parents and friends.

Professor Steven Chiesa said he was excited for all of this year's projects, but particularly "the ones where the students have had a lot of their own time invested in the projects, where the students have gone the extra mile to make sure that what they are doing does fit in with what the people need. These are all projects that are addressing someone's needs and the more (the students) know about the people, the more they can understand what needs to be done and design what is appropriate."

This year, bioengineers took medical devices to the next level. Keegan Walsh, Sean Winther and Apik Zorian designed a device to transfer transcutaneous radio frequency energy to implantable medical devices. The project focused on using radio frequency to power a medically implanted pacemaker.

One of the main attractions from the mechanical engineers was the Night Rider Adaptive Motorcycle Headlight System. Developed by Alex Granieri, Giovanni Magaña, Colby Moore, Nicole Papetti and Sergio Rodriguez, the system is designed to adaptively control the front headlight of a motorcycle to maximize the rider's overall visibility and performance. The design team claims that Night Rider will revolutionize the motorcycle lighting industry.

Computer engineers Sabrina Burney, Sonia Burney and Eric Silverman have designed the Dynamic Musical Instrument Digital Interface Controller, which is an entirely new way of composing music.

"The device consists of these two gloves," explains Silverman, "and the whole idea is that you can put them on and you can make your own instrument." Using various sensors, the MIDI interfaces with a computer or standalone synthesizer, manipulating sound to create music in a completely new and customizable way.

"We've made a new kind of MIDI controller that solves some problems with current MIDI devices that are on the market today," Silverman said.

One of the major draws of this year's design projects is the potential for many of them to be implemented later on.

Civil engineering team Steven Connolly, Logan Fox and Katherine Soult submitted the Stanislaus County Water Reclamation Project, which is a design of a tertiary treatment system for the secondary wastewater treatment plant of nearby Modesto, along with a distribution system to deliver the treated water to the Del Puerto Irrigation District, which hugs I-5 interstate south of Patterson.

The plant would take secondary treated water, currently being discharged into the San Joaquin River, and treat it further, then use it for irrigation.

"We would be treating the water for unrestricted irrigation use, which, short of drinking water and possible pool water, can be used for almost anything," Connolly said.

Connolly described the project as very rewarding since it provided the team with experience in the field, enabling interactions with professionals in the industry, including component manufacturers, many consulting firms, and the secondary treatment plant in Modesto.

Another civil engineer, Garrett Smith, has designed renovation plans for Bellomy field, which would include an NCAA sanctioned track and field facility with accompanying grading and drainage plans.

Smith explored various synthetic materials for the new field as well as many different types of track materials. In his presentation, Smith said that he worked closely with the school's athletic administration in order to accommodate all aspects of Santa Clara athletics.

The proposed track and field facility would fit into the existing area of Bellomy field without interfering with the softball field and would still allow enough space for club and intramural sports to take place.

Another project Professor Chiesa was very excited for was the Honduras project, a water filtration and distribution system designed for Pajarillos, a rural community in Honduras. The goal of redesigning this water system was to improve water quality and accessibility in Pajarillos.

"There are organizations outside of the school that do that kind of work," said Professor Chiesa. "(The project requires) relatively low technology, yet appropriate technology, and I think that's the key. These projects can be designed by engineering students at a level that is appropriate for what the community needs."

Contact Doug Ancey at dancey@scu.edu or (408) 554-4546.