The Senior Design teams from the Departments of Engineering Technology (ET) and Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) won every award in the 2016 Celebration of Engineering Design competition.
The Engineering Technology project, entitled “Microfluidic HIV Viral Load Monitoring Chip: Plasma Extraction,” was presented by students Iuliia Kovner, Carlos Ruiz, Michael Swanek and Christopher Wallace and was about point-of-care testing that would make certain diagnoses more efficient in resource-limited areas of the world that lack convenient medical facilities. They developed a handheld, single-use plastic device that extracts plasma from whole blood samples and analyzes the plasma for molecular signatures of pathogens such as viruses and bacteria.
Drexel’s Dr. Michael Mauk and Dr. Richard Chiou as well as Dr. Cheng Chun Liu from the University of Pennsylvania were the ET team’s advisors.
The Electrical and Computer Engineering team consisted of Sena Agezo, Somesh Chopra, Ziyu Ye and Yuxiang Zhang, were also recipients of multiple awards for their presentation entitled, “Battery-free RFID Heart Rate Monitoring System.” The team’s primary focus centered around incorporating an existing Drexel technology of a battery-free passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag used in conjunction with an RFID reader into a wearable infant heart rate monitor with an accompanying mobile app for user interface.
Dr. Timothy Kurzweg was the team’s advisor.
The 2016 Awards and winners are as follows:
Best Overall Engineering Design Award
Engineering Technology [ET – 01]
Technical Merit Awards (2)
- Engineering Technology [ET – 01]
- Electrical and Computer Engineering [ECE – 32]
Innovation Awards (2)
- Engineering Technology [ET – 01]
- Electrical and Computer Engineering [ECE – 32]
Entrepreneurial Potential Award (tie between two teams)
Engineering Technology [ET – 01] and Electrical and Computer Engineering [ECE – 32]
Professional Presentation Award
Engineering Technology [ET – 01]
Popular Vote Award
Electrical and Computer Engineering [ECE – 32]
A total of ten teams from College of Engineering departments presented at the June 2 event. Valerie Marcolongo, president of Encada, LLC, and a CoE alumna, was one of twelve judges. “What a great event today,” commented Marcolongo. “It was so nice to experience the enthusiasm, hard work and great ideas from these students. The level of professionalism was certainly impressive.”
Senior Design at the College of Engineering is intended to simulate a professional work environment, to provide experience working in a group on an open-ended problem, and to develop information gathering and communication skills. Substantial interaction between students, faculty and industrial and governmental institutions is an integral part of this experience. The Senior Design Final Presentations are our way of providing a forum in which the project engineers (the students) can communicate their results to the community.