Design exposition to showcase work by senior engineering students

With a car that jacks itself up for repairs, a scale built into a toilet seat and a three-dimensional inventory tracking system, the Senior Design Exposition from the UT College of Engineering is like a look into the future.

On Friday, Dec. 12, in Nitschke Hall on Main Campus from noon to 3 p.m., the expo will showcase more than 40 projects created by seniors in the College of Engineering as part of the required senior design course. The students work with the businesses, industries and federal agencies that sponsor the projects. Their task is to help solve the client’s technical or business challenges.

Projects on display will include:

• A smart lawn mower from students Fahad Almane, Abdulla Almekhyal, Mohamad Jaber, Mark Kopitke, Lolu Noibi and Tun Tun that attempts to make mowing the yard easier and more interesting by combining a mower, a wheelchair controller and a remote control;

• A piano adaptation for a youngster from students Jeremy Clawson, Mark Iott, Alan Manz and Clay Rutti that allows a partially paralyzed young boy to use the foot pedals on a piano with weight-activated switches on both sides of his wheelchair;

• A space-efficient home shredding and recycling system from students Nathan Burns, Bryan Darling, Megan Davidson, Richard Faber and Jason Moore brings trash compactors to recycling by fitting a standard recycling container inside a kitchen cupboard. A compacting unit crushes or shreds the refuse before dropping it into the containers;

• A toilet seat scale from students Greg Tilton, Kyle Turco and Nick Weisenberger gives those unable to stand an easier and more accommodating option;

• A trauma backboard with a pressure dispersion liner from students Jon Harvey, Matthew Henschen and Adam Koesters reduces the likelihood that patients secured to a backboard during trauma treatment will develop bedsores by decreasing pressure on the heels, tailbone, shoulders and head of the victim;

A 3-D tracking interface for commercial outlets from students Robert Campbell, Daniel DeRoma, Kevin Flory and Charles Gatian uses Radio Frequency Identification to relay information about the location of high-valued inventory items, employees and shopping carts to help with theft prevention and trend monitoring; and

• An I-Jack from students Fahad Al-Hajri, Ali Alkhaldi and Abdullah Al-Shehri that integrates a lifting system into a vehicle’s pre-existing frame to aid in repairs and maintenance without the usual need for special external jacks and physical exertion.

Students from the departments of Bioengineering, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Engineering Technology, and Mechanical Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering will have projects on display.

For more information on the free, public event, call the College of Engineering at 419.530.8000.

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