Senior Design Showcase Highlights Innovative Future Engineers

Engineering seniors showcased innovative projects and solutions in the second annual Engineering Senior Design Showcase. Photos by John Griffin.

Technology-minded attendees gathered in the Student Activities Center Ballroom on April 28 as engineering seniors showcased 72 innovative projects and solutions in the second annual Engineering Senior Design Showcase.

The event was a cross-collaboration between five departments in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Biomedical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering - and Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URECA).

"Last year was a huge success, and this year I'm talking to undergraduate students who are doing miniaturized solid state quantum sensors," said Andrew Singer, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS). "I don't think that anyone in the room last year would have thought anything like that was possible. Today is all about collaboration and community and societal impact, and these are really the core values of our college and our university."

Senior design teams from across Stony Brook's engineering programs comprised three to five students, each mentored by a faculty member and an industry or clinical mentor to solve a challenging problem.

"This event was made possible by the generosity and collaborative spirit of a variety of companies and clinicians who generously agreed to work with our college," said Singer. "As engineers and applied scientists they are committed to the service of our community, and when we put our collective talents together to solve a hard problem, that's when we're really at our best."

Stony Brook Provost Carl Lejuez recognized the impact and influence of Singer on the engineering program, noting that one of his first tasks as Provost was the search for the new CEAS dean. "I remember immediately meeting Andy Singer and thinking that this was someone who has content expertise, someone who was strategic, and someone who was also a decent human being," Lejuez said. "When we think about what makes Engineering and Applied Sciences so special, it's that you're solving problems that make the world a better place. That is the essence of being a decent contributor to society."

Lejuez cited the importance of incorporating the human element into the science of tomorrow for future success, with the new Department of Technology, AI and Society launching next year at the forefront of that. "You walk around this room and you can feel the energy, the intelligence and the willingness to take on problems," he said. "That's what makes a great university and it's very exciting to be part of that."

Electrical engineering major Langyuan Jia and computer engineering major Yehia Abu-Nafisa displayed a cost-effective thermal spray plume monitor. The project was mentored by David Westerfeld, professor of practice in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Thermal sprays are critical for applying coatings in aerospace, automotive and other industries, but the quality of the coatings is directly tied to the state of the flying particles, particularly temperature. Though this technology has existed for decades, the effectiveness of thermal spray is related to how accurately the application is done. This is affected by the speed of the melted powder going to the surface, usually supersonic speed. Measuring using an infrared (IR) sensor is difficult because of the high temperatures involved and is also extremely expensive.

"We use a color comparison instead, when the temperature is so high that it emits IR light that the human eye can't see, but these sensors can," Jia said, explaining that the monitor shows immediately if the flame is too hot or too cold, or if the speed is too fast. "We made this so cheaply that it will be very compatible in the market. In the next 10 years, we could be looking at one factory with 100-200 thermal spray machines and only one worker monitoring every single thing."

Chemical and molecular engineering major Nashita Nawarah project focused on the design and evaluation of a hybrid production system combining Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) and Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolysis technologies to simultaneously minimize carbon footprint and maximize economic viability. Decarbonizing hydrogen production is critical to net-zero targets across industry, transportation and energy storage.

SMR is the dominant industrial process for producing hydrogen, responsible for more than 95 percent of the hydrogen supply in the U.S. Hydrogen production is primarily used for industrial refining, chemical manufacturing, and as a clean energy carrier for fuel cells in transportation and power generation.

"The reason we chose the hybrid between electrolysis and SMR is because SMR produces a lot of carbon dioxide," said Nawarah. "We tried to create a bridge between SMR and the electrolyzer so that there would be a little bit of reduction of carbon dioxide. It's eco-friendly and it would also find a way to generate water."

Nawareh's team included Duvina Seurattan, Michael Cantwell and Andrew Talushllari and was mentored by Devinder Mahajan, professor and graduate program director in Materials Science and Chemical Engineering.

Adam Zeng (electrical and computer engineering), Matthew Leung (mechanical engineering) and Zijun Xu (computer engineering) presented the "Self-Driving F1TENTH Autonomous Vehicle System." Shan Lin, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was the project's mentor.

F1TENTH is a cost-effective open-source platform using off-the-shelf parts and is the industry standard for researching autonomous driving. The objective of the project is to bridge theoretical autonomous driving principles with practical systems engineering.

"We had two semesters to explore different methods of autonomous driving," said Zeng. "So it's a combination of reactive algorithms and mapping algorithms. The reactive algorithms let it react to the environment, detecting objects and then avoiding them."

Lejuez offered encouragement to the students as they prepare to take their Stony Brook education into the workforce.

"When you go on that job interview and you can talk about what you've done in ways others can't, and when you can already be thinking about what you can offer that company, you're going to be two steps ahead," said Lejuez.

- Robert Emproto

Faculty Senior Design Mentors

• Harbans Dhadwal, associate professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Marija Krstic, assistant professor of practice, Department of Civil Engineering

• Jon Longtin, professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

• Devinder Mahajan, professor, Chemical and Molecular Engineering Program, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering

• Jay Mendelson, lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering

• Steve Nitodas, assistant professor of practice, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering

• Sanjay Sampath, distinguished professor, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering

• Helmut Strey, associate professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Event Sponsors

• Bellimo

• Bohler Engineering

• Forte Construction Corp.

• H2 Technology Group LLC

• H2M architects & engineers

• Liro-Hill

• Johnson Matthey

• Key Civil Engineering

• National Grid

• New York City School Construction Authority

• Northwell Health

• Plug Power

• PW Grosser Consulting

• Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook

• Thornton Tomasetti

• TTM Technologies

• Zortag, Inc.