Student Ingenuity on Display in Projects at ‘The Rose Show’
More than 100 design and research projects completed this school year by students in a variety of academic areas were reviewed by professional engineers, professors, community residents and other guests during The Rose Show.
Technological solutions for a variety of complex and commonplace tasks were featured in this year’s Rose Show as students, from seniors to their first year, showcased ingenuity, creativity and problem-solving skills that will make them tomorrow’s leaders in science, engineering and mathematics.
The Rose Show, an annual campus event, highlighted such future technology as artificial intelligence, 3D technology, Internet of Things, cloud computing, robotics, electromagnetics and software programming. The projects were completed this school year, mostly for external clients. More than 100 projects were displayed at this year’s event.
A group of professional engineers awarded Red Ribbon/Best of Academic Area awards to the following projects:
Multidisciplinary Design – Seniors Allison Bromenschenkel, Logan Caldwell, Taylor Graham and Erin Minervini developed an automated early breast cancer detection system that reduces testing time and is more accurate, while also providing a more user-friendly experience.
Computer Science & Software Engineering – A human-robot collaboration system for the workplace environment. This research was featured among papers presented at the 2019 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence’s Spring Symposium on Autonomous Machines and Human Awareness at Stanford University. The project was completed by seniors Michael Crowell, Deven Dong, Walt Panfil and Adit Suvarna.
Electrical & Computer Engineering – A project that utilizes wireless techniques to improve the measurement process, through electromagnetics, to locate targets, like cancer cells or tumors, and provide reliable information in a time-efficient way. Members of the team were seniors Rohit Chandra, Matthew Howlett, Ian Sheffert and John Michael Van Treeck.
Biomedical Engineering – A “Third Wheel” device that will conveniently assist a person using a custom-built manual wheelchair to travel over diverse terrain for extended distances. The project was designed by seniors Maria Kline, Bailey MacInnis, Emily VanHavel and Taylor Vohland.
Mechanical Engineering – A lightweight and cost-effective unmanned aerial vehicle was created that integrates technology to respond to a variety of close-proximity situations. The design team included seniors Nolan Dexter-Brown, Thomas Roberts, Dan Vergara and Aaron Wilson.
Mathematics/Biomathematics – Senior Casey Garner derived a solution to the Dirac mathematical equation in both the massive and massless cases on the half-line and finite interval.
Mechanical Engineering – An agricultural application that creates a 90-degree system for Grain Systems Inc. that transfers grain to elevated storage. Designing the system were seniors Nicholas Jeronis, Ethan Kaese and Patrick Thomas.
Biology – Senior Ariel Bohner created predictive mathematical models that reveal the impact on a dog’s joint health while retrieving toys. She examined 18 dogs with a variety of size and age backgrounds.
Multidisciplinary Design – A customized and programmable electronic tablet device was created for Reach Services Inc. of Terre Haute that enables children with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 8 years old to communicate their needs to others. Developing the system were seniors Beata Barati, Anne Boxeth, Jan Mangawang and Nick Samra.
Computer Science & Software Engineering – A versatile and robust open-source virtual reality toolkit for the independent game development community. Creating the project were seniors Jake Gathof, Charlie Hershberger, Chris Nurrenberg, Logan Smith and Abhimanyu Yadav.
Electrical & Computer Engineering – A peer-to-peer network communication system was designed that allows people to verbally communicate with each other by using push-to-talk technology. The system also shares its user’s location and can send messages in case of an emergency. Seniors completing the project for Motorola Solutions was Russell Johnson, Trey Lewis, Parker Phillips and Betsy Richardson.
Mechanical Engineering – An aquaponics system has been created by seniors Burton Gerkin, Sean Gish and Ramsey Tomasi-Carr that will provide tilapia and lettuce for the campus food service operations throughout the year.
Multidisciplinary Design – A vertical activity center with 10 learning modules has been created by seniors Emma Morris, Megan Dado, Ally McLaughlin and Jen Saucedo for children with special needs and physical/mental challenges.
Engineering Design – A toilet paper tracker device that immediately informs people upon entering a bathroom stall about the status of toilet paper in a dispenser and if they should visit another stall. The system also keeps staff members informed when a stall’s toilet paper amount needs to be refilled. The design team included first-year students Rachael Enrici, Veronica Gawarecki and Elle Vuotto, and sophomore George Bulger.
Electrical & Computer Engineering – Development of a configurable platform for computational algorithms that produced a 40-percent decrease in processing time for a neuron simulation utilizing a computer hardware accelerator, when compared to not using any accelerators. Simulating neuron interactions is a problem that traditional processors are slow to solve. Coming up with this idea was the team of seniors Corie Ewoldt, John Heidecker, Michael Wilkins and Cooper Winans.
Engineering Design – An Arduino-based device that used Bluetooth technology to alert boat drivers whenever a water skier, tuber or other person falls off into the water, without the driver being distracted. Developing the project were first-year students Jacey Goin, Isabella Popoff, Drew Roberts and Braden Smith.
Optical Engineering/Engineering Physics – Seniors Audrey Brand and juniors Madison Jaeger and Allison Harpel designed a passive heat exchanger, commonly known as a heatsink, which transfers the heat generated by a 15-watt cartridge heater. The device will work in conductive and convective operations, allowing for better measure the heatsink’s performance.
Engineering Design – A distance-sensing device was designed that can alert a person if they forget an item throughout the day. First-year students completing the project were Carla Archuleta, Brett Tuttle and Jairyq Underwood, along with sophomore Killian Bailey.
The Rose Show’s People’s Choice Award was presented to a single-hole miniature golf course designed and built for Terre Haute’s Zorah Shrine Temple organization to use at fundraising events to support Reach Services. The project was created by seniors Corey Bochat, Stephen Jones, Ari Majumdar and Mackenzie Willis.
Other projects this year were completed for such clients as Google, IBM, Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane, Ind., Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, North American Stainless, Sazerac, Quarq Technology Inc., Wright Medical and Zimmer Biomet.
Gentex, a Michigan-based supplier of electro-optical products for the global automotive industry, was the main sponsor of this year’s Rose Show.