The goal of this project is to design a Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) system for a three-story 36,000 square foot medical office facility in Manchester, England. Major design goals include energy efficiency, occupant health and safety, and occupant comfort. Temperature and relative humidity requirements were provided by the owner for each room in the facility. Additionally, our design must meet all local codes and ASHRAE standards. One of the primary challenges is accommodating for variation in heat gains from people, lighting, and equipment throughout the facility. Our team focused on designing a cost-effective system that meets all owner requirements while promoting energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. Project success is dependent on both a successful system design and alignment with UN Sustainable Design goals. We aimed to minimize energy consumption in our design for the facility to approach a Net Zero Energy Building.

Team Advisor: Dr. Hamid Heravi

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Hamid Heravi

Team Members: Brett Steiger, Joey Rizzuto, Muhotasim Ahmed, Brian Spurrier

Rodents are used to develop treatments for a number of diseases and injuries. One way these treatments are assessed are through gait analysis. These systems are typically expensive and time consuming to use. To solve this problem, we developed an automatic camera tracking system with the capability of continuously recording a rat's gait and stride, dramatically increasing the yield of research data. The camera tracking system records using a high speed camera mounted to a timing belt gantry. A second tracking camera will keep the high speed camera positioned under the rat at all times. This system will be used by Spence Lab's  to gather data used in spinal cord injury research; as well, potentially used in other research labs

Team Advisor: Dr. Andrew Spence

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Hamid Heravi

Team Members: Chris Pullen, Ryan Loc, Darshan Patel, Fernanda Gutierrez

Develop an effective non-destructive testing (NDT) method to evaluate the material integrity of 1045 steel under varying strain conditions. This is critical in industries prioritizing safety and structural integrity. We annealed the steel samples to remove any residual stress from the manufacturing process, then sanded them to eliminate surface irregularities. The samples were subjected to Tensile Testing to establish baseline mechanical properties, such as yield strength and elongation at fracture. Magnetic Particle Testing was conducted to detect surface and near-surface defects. The annealing process improved the steel's mechanical properties, as shown in the quantitative results from Tensile Testing. MPT enabled us to detect residual defects, and the correlation between MPT and tensile data helped assess the reliability of MPT in predicting potential material failures. This approach offers industries a cost-effective and non-invasive method to ensure safety while maintaining the integrity of materials under strain, providing valuable insights about the material.

Team Advisor: Dr. Harsh Chopra

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Hamid Heravi

Team Members: Kurt Pepper, Nick Miller

In transitioning the Robotic Lawnmower from remote controlled operation to function as an autonomous vehicle, vibrations produced during standard operating conditions disrupted the flight controller. These vibrations must be minimized to prevent damage to the most sensitive portions of the controller. Vibrations on the system are being treated in two different ways. First, polymer washers are being installed to the threaded rods from which the mower deck is mounted to eliminate the metal-on-metal connection. A 3D printed controller bed with damping material lining the bed will be suspended by springs to each corner of the electrical enclosure to isolate the critical electrical component. All the materials needed for the prototype have either been ordered or received. The data acquisition of the vibration transfer to the electronics enclosure has begun, but some materials are still needed before the final set of data acquisition can be performed to fully analyze the design.

Team Advisor: Sherwood Polter

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Hamid Heravi

Team Members: Andrew Garbowski, Hanlon Doyle, Omari McClanahan, Vincent Cavallaro, 

This project focuses on developing a precise and reliable rolling mechanism for advancing copper foil in battery manufacturing. The primary goal is to feed a copper foil through a system at a constant, controlled rate without causing deformation or uneven tension. Ensuring uniform tension across the foil is crucial to prevent warping and tearing, which can negatively impact downstream coating processes and, ultimately, battery performance. The rolling mechanism incorporates a continuous feed and tension control system that maintains the foil’s integrity as it moves through the machine. Testing demonstrates that the mechanism achieves ±1% tension variation, meeting industry requirements for precision and repeatability. This design provides a stable, consistent feed for further processing stages, supporting higher quality and efficiency in battery manufacturing.

Team Advisor: Dr. Elham Sahraei

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Hamid Heravi

Team Members: Will Gehman, Valeria Reynoso, Mir Temory, Emrakh Faikov

Vestibular disorders affect 15-20% of adults annually, causing balance issues and dizziness that significantly impact daily life and increase fall risks, particularly in older adults. Current diagnostic tools like the Air Fx Irrigator are bulky, expensive ($9,345), and rely on complex air irrigation systems, limiting accessibility in smaller clinics. Our innovative caloric testing device revolutionizes vestibular assessment by using Peltier-based thermal conduction through the temporal bone instead of traditional air irrigation. This approach achieves an 87% size reduction (8W x 20D x 20H cm versus 35W x 32D x 22H cm)   while maintaining precise temperature control (30°C to 44°C ±0.5°C) necessary for accurate diagnosis. Operating at 40°C/min heating and 20°C/min cooling rates, it performs the standard 40-second diagnostic cycles during typical 45-minute sessions  . By eliminating complex air systems and reducing costs, our device makes this crucial diagnostic tool accessible to smaller clinics, enabling earlier detection and treatment of vestibular disorders.

Team Advisor: Dr. Ruth Ochia

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Yah-el Har-el

Team Members: Umair Abdul Basit, Alex Catalano, Alexander Sklar, 

Lower-limb amputees often face challenges in maintaining stability and safety during daily activities such as showering, where wet surfaces increase the risk of slipping. While specialized prosthetics for use in the shower exist, they are often expensive, lack customization options, and can be bulky and difficult to store or travel with. The overall objective of the Custom Prosthetic Socket design project is to create a prosthetic device that can be used in the shower for lower-limb amputees that is affordable, customizable to the user’s biometrics, and easily portable. The project will utilize LiDAR scanning, SOLIDWORKS modeling, and 3D-printing to create a customized mold that fits the residual limb of the user, offering increased comfortability. This socket will be mounted on a prosthetic structure that combines features of several different walking-assist devices. The completed device will be non-slip and waterproof to ensure safety and reliability for the user.

Team Advisor: Dr. Dimitry A. Dikin

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Yah-el Har-el

Team Members: Amber Houser, Jacob Bonadio, Wajih Defadaa

The Braille Embosser project aims to develop a brailling mechanism tailored to embossing braille text onto card sleeves. The goal of this design is to increase the accessibility of card-based games to the visually impaired community by converting printed text into braille. Specifically, this group will be focusing on the card game "Magic: The Gathering" and will aim to ensure gameplay compatibility for both visually impaired and fully sighted individuals. This device is designed to induce deflection in pre-made card sleeves by utilizing a female-shaped embossing head and a mechanically engineered card insert with male-shaped ends, all in compliance with ADA standards. This process in return not only preserves the condition of the card being played, but also maintains the integrity of the game components themselves, as there is no alteration being made to the "Magic: The Gathering" playing cards respectively.

Team Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Gerstenhaber

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Yah-el Har-el

Team Members: Biana Poliakov, Marko Stankovic, Sofia Mehmood, Teegan Kunkel

The team advisor would like to have a device that can induce Neonatal Brachial Plexus Palsy, an injury that occurs at birth, in fetal pig subjects. Within these guidelines, the team is working to design a sterile device that can simultaneously record the rate of distraction, and the amount of force used to add linear strain on the neck. 

Currently, the team is working to construct a neck restraining feature that mimics the capabilities of a 3rd generation cattle head holder with the intention of addressing a past iteration's shortcoming, which was that the head of the piglet would slide up and skew the data during the exertion of linear force. 

By the end of the semester, the team intends to have a device that will distract the neck at 1 mm/ minutes and measure how many kilograms of force the brachial plexus can handle before an injury occurs.

Team Advisor: Dr. Anita Singh

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Yah-el Har-el

Team Members: Barkaat Ahdil, Angela Kusi-Addai, Kenny Tran, Thoreau Witherspoon

The project aims to develop a PDMS-based substrate for wound healing research in Dr. Karen Wang’s lab. The substrate is designed to fit a biaxial strain device, though testing will focus on uniaxial strain using the Instron Mini 44, ensuring it withstands 15% strain without deformation. It includes a 500 μL central well for cell hydration, clear for microscopy-based assays. Initial mold designs, created in SolidWorks, were printed using Formlabs and Stratasys printers. Final molds used a mix of Elastico and VeroWhite resins for optimal flexibility and durability. The PDMS substrate underwent curing, vacuum treatment, washing, and sterilization. It successfully held liquid and provided clear imaging. The design enables cellular mechanotransduction study under strain, simulating tissue environments for wound healing, fibrosis research, and tissue engineering.

Team Advisor: Dr. Karin Wang

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Yah-el Har-el

Team Members: Cassandra Paul, Christy Koshy, Jannatul Naima

The goal of this project was to characterize the novel concrete construction materials of Cement Kiln Dust and Metakaolin clay. This was done by creating six novel concrete mix designs that had 20% of the mass of cement replaced by a combination of the two novel materials. Along with the creation of these six new mixes, a control mix was also created to help characterize the novel materials. At this time, we are still awaiting quantitative results from our testing. We will provide updates as they become available. The team hopes that this data will help us to better understand the effects that these novel materials have on various properties of concrete. These properties include but are not limited to; Compressive Strength, Flexural Strength, Absorption, Porosity, and Acid Resistivity.

Team Advisor: Dr. Felix Udoeyo

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Sanghun Kim

Team Members: Aidan Carr, Rawan Ebraheem, Brittany Lewis, Yasir Albaidhani

After 49 years, a replica model of the original engineering building, based on 1975 as-built plans, was created using RAM software. The model was analyzed under ASCE, IBC, AISC, and ACI standards to check for structural violations from that time, identifying deficiencies in the building. Subsequently, the 1975 codes were replaced with current regulations. Loads such as lateral, live, and dead loads, which vary by risk category and building location, were updated to reflect modern requirements. The analysis revealed the need for structural improvements, specifically installing shear walls in the elevator and stair shafts to enhance the building's integrity. If necessary, additional steel X-bracings on the shear walls and a mass dampener on the roof can further improve stability. The primary goal is to strengthen the building to better withstand lateral forces such as wind and seismic activity while distributing forces evenly and minimizing deformation.

Team Advisor: Dr. Sanghun Kim

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Sanghun Kim

Team Members: Nathan Lowry, Alex Townshend, Grant Gavaghan

An operational horse farm is making some additions that are requiring the installation of stormwater management.  The issue comes in for finding a method that controls the water but lets the horses still operate without interference.  The solution will be an infiltration basin that not only allows the horses to run free but also not take away space from the existing fenced areas to run.  Hydrology Studio is a software to model and calculate the flow rate of runoff water to meet the standards of West Pikeland Township and PA Department of Environmental Protection. Used to make sure water runoff is controlled and managed to prohibit damage to the surrounding properties and environment.

Team Advisor: Dr. Rob Ryan

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Sanghun Kim

Team Members: Remy Sell

Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer diagnosis of women worldwide. Its time-to-treatment is increasing and pathologists are in short supply. We aim to use machine learning to decrease time-to-treatment and lessen the burden on pathologists. Typical machine learning methods diagnose whole-slide images of breast-tissue biopsies, but lack the ability to pinpoint locations of malignancies within a slide image. Using a novel approach of breaking the image into smaller segments and diagnosing each segment allows our algorithm to determine the type and location of malignant tissue. Providing pathologists with this information has the potential to reduce time-to-treatment and save lives. Preliminary testing of the model yielded >90% frame accuracy. Furthermore, we implemented a user-friendly GUI to make our software accessible for users and medical professionals without strong computer backgrounds.

Team Advisor: Dr. Joseph Picone

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Maryam Alibeik

Team Members: Leo Berman, Albert Bulik, Yuan Nghiem

This project addresses the challenge of sustainable humidity control and irrigation in remote environments, where maintaining optimal moisture levels is essential for plant health. Using a fully solar-powered system, a dehumidifier uses renewable energy to extract moisture from the air, ensuring a constant water supply for plants and trees, even in isolated areas. The system has a DHT11 sensor for humidity monitoring and a TIP122 transistor to regulate power, automatically adjusting based on humidity levels. When operational, it utilizes outdoor humidity to generate water, providing irrigation for trees under 1.5 years or mid-season plants. Overcharge protection ensures the battery's charge remains above 20%, enhancing longevity and reliability based on OSHA regulations that our system needs to maintain. This system’s energy efficiency and weatherproofing (IP23) make it a viable, low-maintenance solution for sustainable plant care in challenging outdoor environments.

Team Advisor: Dr. Iyad Obeid

Sr Design Instructor: Dr. Maryam Alibeik

Team Members: Connor Ciliberti, Nathaniel Furlow, Benjamin Cherian, Kenny Nguyen