Senior designs revealed
By Jacquelyn Pearce
Unlike most other majors at Santa Clara, engineering students work all year on a project that they debut at the end of spring quarter of their senior year.
Despite the grueling course work and long hours in labs, mechanical engineer Megan Ingemanson praised the engineering school's senior design program. "It's a unique program," said Ingmanson, who was also excited to put to use all of the skills she had gained in the past four years.
On May 5, more than 250 people gathered at Santa Clara to celebrate the 41st Annual Engineering Senior Design Conference, an event that showcases the projects the senior engineering students have been working toward in their four years at Santa Clara.
Essentially, the senior design project is the equivalent to a capstone project or senior thesis. Engineering students are divided into several groups, each assigned a faculty advisor to help them along the way.
After months of planning and testing, students, faculty and leaders in the engineering field gathered around the Thomas J. Bannan Engineering Building. The conference consisted of a few hours of presentations which were judged by alumni who now work for some of the biggest names in the engineering field.
The conference is designed to help students make the jump from working on problems in the classroom to finding applicable, real—world solutions. Judges "hold the presenters to a high standard, so the experience mirrors the type of situation students will encounter in their careers," said the School of Engineering's Director of Communications Heidi Williams in an email.
While no tangible prizes are awarded, simply taking part in such an experience is rewarding enough for most students. Senior Robin Landis was pleased to have gained experience that she hopes to use in graduate school and beyond. Next year, she will be attending graduate school at University of California, Los Angeles.
Landis and partner Peter Fritz, both civil engineers, redesigned the school library for their project. As a challenge, they decided to add a glass dome to their design. Landis and Fritz faced some hurdles when it came to constructing the dome, which they were eventually able to overcome through multiple trial and error runs. "This was the first time we had gone through such demanding design. We had to encounter the problems ourselves and work through them," said Landis.
While Landis and Fritz decided upon a project that concentrated on the university, other groups focused on a broader population. Ingemanson and her group, which consisted of fellow seniors Jason Santiago and Ryan Hinds, designed a solar powered water purification system. The system was meant to turn brackish water into clean water through a process called distillation, allowing access to clean water without leaving a carbon footprint.
Alternatively, others chose projects that provided for significant implications. Bioengineer Simi Olabisi was born two months premature in Nigeria in a hospital without access to incubators. Olabisi's father had to transport her to one of the only children's hospitals in the area, running the last few miles due to lack of transportation. Inadequate amounts of necessary resources are common in these third world countries and innovation geared toward change is needed. Inspired by Olabisi's story, her group members decided to design an incubator that is solar—powered — a perfect solution for hospitals in regions of the world where electricity is scarce — and more affordable. The average incubator costs $30,000, but the group's goal was to drive the cost down to less than $2,000. With the possibility of cheaper incubators, hospitals all over the world can be better equipped and many lives can be saved.
While all seniors did an outstanding job on their projects, 17 teams were awarded based on their respective engineering discipline. It is safe to say that all participants walked away winners.
Contact Jacquelyn Pearce jpearce@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4849