Senior Design is the culmination of the students' journey at the College of Engineering. This year's presentations will be held during the week of April 18, with the celebration on Saturday, April 23.

During their last year students are charged with identifying a problem and devising a solution and/or innovation to solve it. In many cases these hardworking students build the actual device, tool or system to test its real-world application for their Senior Design project. Through the process, the teams address many real-world challenges they will likely encounter in the jobs they are starting in just a few short months.

finding a better solution for rehabilitation of paralysis is the goal of one a group of bioengineering majors. They are creating an exoskeleton actuator for the hind-leg cats to help with its locomotion by providing support and framework to get around, but taking it a bit further. Without power from the cat, the Rear Assistive Driving System (RADS) will move the rear legs mimicking normal walking gait, helping with rehabilitation by physically manipulating the legs. These students feel that their focus is an advantage, "Our major in bio gave us exposure to research being done on paralysis and we thought we could lower costs while also shortening rehabilitation time."

Shaun George shared, "Senior Design helps us take our different personal experiences and apply them towards figuring out a solution to a real engineering problem. And that is awesome."

Another team of civil and mechanical engineering students is focusing on issues being addressed currently by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Current methods of snow and ice removal using anti-icing and de-icing are time consuming harmful to the environment. The FAA holds an annual competition for design innovations in airport needs and this team hopes to use their project to enter. Their snow melting system will implement geothermal energy and an electric heat pump for airport runways to melt snow and ice. "I'm obsessed with airports and travel and our project lets me apply my interests and my education towards creating something that could be used to improve real airport problems, like reducing delays due to cold weather," says civil engineering major Demo Juvena.

A robust system for autonomous nautical navigation and task integration is a long name for a self-piloting unmanned boat. The vehicle is designed to perform tasks like speed control, docking or navigating a series of obstacles. Building on a 2015 Senior Design project, using a hull manufactured by Temple Alumni at Viking Yacht, this year's group of three electrical engineers and a mechanical engineer set out to completely reengineer the electronic configuration, navigation control algorithm and programming that the boat needs in order to know what to do on its own. The propulsion system was redesigned and produced on a 3D printer.

The Temple team is entering the highly competitive Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International RoboBoat Competition for the second year. Daniel Graney, says that, "Last year's team did not do well in the competition, and so our aim was to assess what went well and what didn't and rethink how the vehicle works."

When thinking about the experience of Senior Design all the students agree with Emilie Doyle, an electrical engineering major, "This is an experience we talked about in our interviews for our jobs we already have lined up after graduation. They were impressed by our team-building, leadership skills and ability to troubleshoot."

All teams will share their projects at Senior Design Presentation Day, being held on April 23, 2016 from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm in the Science Education and Research Center. Students and alumni are welcome to join the celebration. Top teams will make presentations and awards will be given out for the most innovative and best depicted projects. A reception will follow at 4:00 pm.