Use the table below to take a look at some of the past design projects completed by students in the Tickle College of Engineering.
| Project Title | Project Sponsor | Team Name | Project Description | Academic Department | Faculty Advisors | Students | Academic Semester |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neuromorphic drone project | AirBrane | Our objective is to control a crazyflie drone using a spiking neural network designed using the evolutionary algorithm developed by TENNLab EONS | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Catherine Schuman | Tyler Nitzsche, Jihun Kim, Seoyoung An, and Jonathan Skeen | Spring 2024 | |
| Iodine-129 extraction from spent zircaloy-clad pressurized water reactor fuel. | Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | Torchbearers | Develop a process to produce reasonably pure I-129 from spent zircaloy-clad pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel. Evaluate the capital and manufacturing costs to determine the economic feasibility of the designed process. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Beccah Blevins, Harrison Berry, and Andrew Prim | Spring 2020 |
| Energy Dissipating Headwall | Aaron Crenshaw (Ardurra) | Headwall | Design an energy dissipating headwall that reduces the energy of water exiting storm water drainage systems. Reducing this water velocity will in turn reduce soil erosion. | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Daniel Yoder | William Carey, Aaron Eimers, and Julian Yee | Spring 2024 |
| Using Energy Storage and Solar Panel to Power the Electric Grid | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Using Energy Storage and Solar Panel to Power the Electric Grid | Use a solar panel and battery packs to power the electric grid and build a power electronics converter to connect solar and battery/ultracap packs with the grid. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Charles Cao | Austin Allison, Matthew Allison, Colin Wikle, Jazmin Wallace, Justin Cash, and Kelli Determan | Spring 2023 |
| System with Computer Aided Vision for Explosive Neutralization and Ground Reconnaissance | Department of Nuclear Engineering | EECS Team 20: SCAVENGr | Develop a deployable sensor hub that can be outfitted onto a drone and will be able to take and send pictures, along with altitude and GPS data to a ground station application, where the data will be processed to determine if there are any disturbed earth signatures | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Howard Hall and Matt Cook | Kelsey Kelley, Adam Foshie, Josh Storie, Kerwin Chu, and Isaac Stone | Spring 2019 |
| Tritium Extraction from Water Irradiated in a Nuclear Power Plant | Brooks Mattison (TVA) | TEW | Develop and test experimental designs to remove tritium for the safe release of coolant water into the environment and safely separate tritium from waste coolant water at the Watts Bar power plant. The separated tritium can be concentrated for later sale, causing the process to be environmentally and economically friendly for TVA. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Martin Grossbeck | Kate Haugh, Ryan Shanks, Chris Shaff, and Matt McMillan | Spring 2024 |
| Metal Additive Manufacturing Equipment Selection & Cell Design | Oak Ridge Tool-Engineering | ProCo | Develop a decision-making framework for sponsor UCOR to select among large-scale metal additive manufacturing technologies for use in their business. Support selection choices with mechanical test data. | Integrated Engineering Design | Matthew Young | Linden Hardee, Eli Darby, Will Buttrey, Trey Phillips, and Jake Isaacs | Spring 2020 |
| The Predictor | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Weilin Ouyang | Spring 2024 | ||||
| Thorium Production | Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) | Team 11 | Developing a monazite separation process to extract a reasonably pure thorium oxide and other rare earth element minerals, e.g., lanthanum, cerium, neodymium in an economically feasible and environmentally friendly manner. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Chachthida Sukitjavanich, Monique Barksdale, Mubuso Nkosi, Sydnee Ruff, and Zach Papiez | Spring 2020 |
| Climate-Smart Agrivoltaics | Joe Zhuang (Env & Soil Sciences) | Solar Crops | Design a weather-smart agrivoltaics system to implement in existing agricultural settings. The system should combine solar energy gathering and farming practices to create a mutually beneficial relationship. The design should function in various conditions by changing variables such as sunlight and moisture levels and thus, autonomously controlling the plant environment. Automated irrigation is made more efficient through the use of rainwater harvesting when possible. | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Hao Gan | Emily Whitley, Evan McFarland, and Austin Cunningham | Spring 2024 |
| Eastman Core Transfer | Eastman Chemical Corporation | Eastman Core Transfer | Design a core transfer system to improve workflow. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Benjamin Bolinsky, Bianca Candelaria, Yuki Takayanagi, and A J Waddell | Spring 2023 |
| EcoCAR Mobility Challenge | Argonne National Laboratory | EcoCAR Mobility Challenge | Develop a Hybrid electric vehicle for car sharing and rental purposes from a General Motors 2019 Blazer. This vehicle will also be equipped with hands off steering wheel autonomous features by integrating several radars, sensors and cameras. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | David Irick | Dennis Owens | Spring 2019 |
| Design, Fabricate, and Test a Silicon Radiation Detector | Department of Nuclear Engineering | DFT | Develop a procedure for in-house fabrication of a silicon radiation detector that costs less than $1,000 and is straightforward for future senior design groups to follow and iterate on. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Eric Lukosi | Collin Webb, Owen Johnson, and Megan Whittle | Spring 2024 |
| The Extraction of Thorium from Monazite Ore | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Group One: CBE 488 | Design a process using acid extraction that will yield thorium oxide while minimizing by-products and recycling unused components. This project will also investigating the feasibility of extracting various rare Earth metals other than just Thorium. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Makenna Smith, Emily Watson, Jacob Reynolds, and Victoria Molotoka | Spring 2020 |
| Environmentally Sustainable Data Centers | Goblin Barrel | Creating a functional data center prototype rack that could theoretically go into a data center. We also aim to create a business plan that encompasses the idea of creating a series of data centers that use renewable and sustainable energy source. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Will Cuny and Eli Deel | Spring 2024 | |
| Bamboo Bicycle | ResourceFiber | Bamboo Bicycle Team | Partner with the Fiber and Composites Manufacturing Facility to generate ideas and design, develop, and construct a bicycle primarily using bamboo fibers. The product will have tangible applications in developing countries, industrial complexes, on-campus use, and recreational use. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Uday Vaidya | Brenten Arnold, Erin Brown, Keona Madison, David Mejia Fernandez, Tim Raab, Seth Rogers, and Lorenzo Ceppari | Spring 2020 |
| Pot-in-Pot Extracting Robot II | Amy Fulcher (Plant Sciences) | PIPER II | Design a second iteration of a remotely-driven robotic system to autonomously harvest trees in a pot-in-pot tree nursery. | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Hao Gan | Zachary Cutler, James Ammons, and Martha Shen | Spring 2024 |
| Self Driving Cars | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Self Driving Cars | Design and implement an improved adaptive cruise control algorithm in the UTK Ecocar (Chevrolet Blazer). The primary goal is to improve the comfort, efficiency, and foremost the safety of the system: through the utilization of modern concepts such as reinforcement learning and controls principles. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Bryan Hairston, Jared Funderburk, Kevin Craddock, Matthew Bowman, Thomas Fillers, and Connor | Spring 2023 |
| Refrigeration breadboard trainer for K-12 | East TN Chapter of ASHRAE | ASHRAE | UTK Capstone team will build a portable refrigeration breadboard trainer (RBT). Refrigeration, heat pumps and air-conditioners differ simply in the manner of their use. The RBT would provide the students the opportunity to physically see and operate a heat pump in both heating and cooling mode. The RBT would serve as an excellent educational benefit to MABE students as well as junior-high and senior high-school students engaged in chemistry and/or physics classes. The ASHRAE East TN chapter therefore proposes a synergistic initiative to support UTK and work with and through the MABE students to spur interest among junior-high and senior-high students. ASHRAE could offer introductory classes in the chemistry and physics classes which the MABE students would on occasion make presentation to explain HVAC basics to junior-high and senior high-schools across the East TN region. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Daniel Howard, Henry Gilbert, Zachary Latham, Kyle McKellar, and David Ruzicka | Spring 2019 |
| A Journey to Sedna | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Journey to Sedna | Design mission to the Kupier Belt object Sedna, and considering the possibility of an orbital capture or a landing. Sedna has an extremely elliptical trajectory with an orbital period of over 11,000 years. It will reach its closest approach to the sun in 2076, making this an ideal time to explore this very exotic object. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Lorenzo Franceschetti, William Sarappo, Sam Brickley, and Iliane Domenech | Spring 2023 |
| Automated Nozzle and Tip Changing System for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing | Manufacturing Demonstration Facility - Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | MDF 1 (nozzle/tip change) | Develop a system to automate the nozzle and contact tip replacement procedure associated with the wire arc additive manufacturing process. The system must store used nozzles, discard used contact tips, and replace both components without any operator intervention. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Hamel | Alex Arbogast, Vinit Chaudhary, Ethan Vals, and Gennick Yoshioka | Spring 2020 |
| Creating A Digital Twin For Predictive Maintenance | UTK RMC | Reliability Rangers | Creating a digital twin and virtual interface for a water loop system | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Belle Upadhyaya | Ella Vormwald, Dane Whitney, Luke Salyer, and Raymond Luberto | Spring 2024 |
| Eye Pathology Simulation Model | University of Tennessee Center for Advanced Medical Simulation | BiomediVol | BiomediVol designed a three-dimensional ultrasound phantom of the human eye and surrounding tissue to recreate images seen in an ultrasound. The model accurately mimics common eye injuries and pathologies seen in emergency room settings. UT Medical Center will implement the model into the Medical Simulation Center to train emergency department physicians and students on proper eye ultrasound and diagnosing techniques. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeffrey Reinbolt | Gavin Warrington, Lexus Morris, Natalie Ledezma, and Christopher Forsyth | Spring 2020 |
| Powder Blending | Colortech | Polymer Pros | This project aims to optimize Colortech's powder blending process in order to minimize processing issues and product loss due to non-uniform material transfer at the beginning of the production process. The goal is to provide Colortech with recommendations for process changes to improve the material transfer issue by describing the flow properties of powder blends through flowability and floodability characteristics. Effectiveness of the solutions will be quantified by measuring the productivity and product yield gains achieved during a full-scale production trial at the company. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Kodie Roberts, Isabelle Lam, Tabitha Burch, and Hannah Rauhuff | Spring 2024 |
| Battle Bots | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team Ambassabor | Design a strong, adaptable, and attackable BattleBot by following the instructions and rules of the BattleBot competition and MABE department. The robot should have dimensions limited to no more than 2ft x 2ft, a weight limit of 50 pounds, a total budget limit of $1,500, and a minimum running speed at 4 mph without any prohibited weapon or materials. The robot should be controlled by a remotely control system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Doug Aaron | Ronald Wade, James Hartwig, Srikar Rairao, and Vincent Zhu | Spring 2023 |
| Clayton Windows Senior Design | Clayton WIndows | UTK Clayton WIndows | The project objective given by the Clayton Windows Crossville facility was to increase the facility's production of windows from 1,800 a day to 2,000 without increasing the current workforce population. This objective was approached by conducting time studies one of the two lines in the facility, calculating an acceptable takt time, and redesigning process distribution among the operation team to create line balance and minimized batch sizes. From this, a standard line format was created as an example for both shifts in operation. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Floyd Ostrowski and Laura O'Shaughnessy | Ryan Glintenkamp, Mark Randolph, Isaiah Minter, and Hassan Alhumood | Spring 2019 |
| NeuralNat | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | NeuralNat | Apply neuromorphic computing to a real-time drone flight control task. This will be handled in a simulation as well as through real-world experiences. This will be done through a small drone relaying real-world data to a machine-learning algorithm using sensors in real-time. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Luke McCombs, Lexi Velas, and Sam Thompson | Spring 2023 |
| Small Scale Lithium Production from Geothermal Brine | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | CBE 490 Group 6 | Develop a level 4 techno-economic analysis for a small-scale battery grade lithium purification process. The design will require 0.44% w/w geothermal brine to be purified to produce 25,000 MT/yr of >99.5% w/w battery grade Lithium Carbonate. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan and Zhanhu Guo | Maria Bruce, Warren Ottenfeld, Lam Vo, and Zach Word | Spring 2020 |
| Portable HV-Battery Cell Module Tester and Status Monitor | Volkswagen | Volkswagen Cell Measurement Team | Cell measurement and monitoring device purpose made for Volkswagen to use on their high-voltage EV batteries, capable of measuring 12 cell voltages, analog thermistor readings, and displaying captured measurements on an OLED screen. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Hua Bai | Ryan Lei, Derun Li, and Nathan Pan | Spring 2024 |
| Myoelectric Hand/Wrist | Choice Orthotics & Prosthetics | Perpetual Prosthetics | Develop a 3D-printed prosthetic device for below-the-elbow amputees with movable finger and wrist components. Create a business case and manufacturing plan to produce the prosthetic. | Integrated Engineering Design | Chad Duty | Taylor Berger, Michael Clay, Ashton DeRousse, Lauren Jennings, Cora Tucker, Matthew Rowe, and Erica Waters | Spring 2020 |
| Hydrogen Recovery form Waste Gas by PSA Process | Eastman | PSA Prodigies | This project aims to optimize Eastman Chemical's waste hydrogen recovery system by developing an ASPEN Adsorption process simulation. The goal is to control Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) beds effectively, minimizing impurities and maximizing hydrogen recovery. Through comprehensive simulations and recommendations, the project seeks to explore design alternatives efficiently, providing valuable insights to Eastman. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Autumn Cox, Chloe Sams, Valentina Milano-Benitez, and Jason Cornelio | Spring 2024 |
| Neuromorphic Autonomous Racing | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Neuromorphic Autonomous Racing | Build a one-tenth scale race car and track based on other autonomous race cars and explore software to facilitate and optimize driving to meet this feasibility. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | William Johnson, Thomas Neuefeind, Kellen Leland, Bryson Gullett, Robert Schaffer, and Mahim Mathur | Spring 2023 |
| Gatlinburg Glades Greenway | Gatlinburg Greenway Project | Gatlinburg Glades Greenway | Our goal is to design a safe, environmentally friendly route through the Glades that would provide a pathway for residents and visitors to safely walk, jog, or bike, and link the crafts community and Glades area neighborhoods with downtown Gatlinburg. The greenway is the first of three phases that will be a quarter mile in length. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Retherford | Kyle McMullen, Nicholas Malone, Corey Baldwin, Rebekah Kish, and Rebecca Bennet | Spring 2019 |
| Interplanetary Transits to Eris | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Interplanetary Transits to Eris | Identify rapid interplanetary transits to the distant Kuiper Belt object Eris, employing planetary flyby gravity assist maneuvers to reduce both propulsive requirements and transit time. The project is being done using the software Mission Analysis Environment (MAnE) and the work is in support of a collaboration with the NASA Ames Research Center. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Emily Tran, Mya Pinson, Fred Robertson, and Matthew Lamanilao | Spring 2023 |
| Water Quality Sensor Hub | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Water Quality Sensor Hub | Develop water quality sensor hub to monitor water conditions in Connor Creek. Provide a low cost alternative to expensive current-day modules. Implement using solar power and enable remote monitoring. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Alec Yen, Yaw Mensah, Roy Tan, and Brian Lundell | Spring 2020 |
| Hydrogen Fuel Cell Catalyst Renewal Technology Roadmap and Bench Scale System Design | FC Renew | Project Long Haul | Develop a business case and technology roadmap for hydrogen fuel cell renewal from bench to pilot scale. Design, build and test a bench-scale flow loop to renew hydrogen fuel cell electrocatalyst on the surface of the electrode. The system should be controlled via a computer interface and include pumping, flow metering and monitoring, and sensors for critical process indicators such as temperature, pressure and pH. The prototype must be compact and easy to dismantle, transport and set up. | Integrated Engineering Design | Doug Aaron | Emily Buckner, Casey Chronister, Sam Cohen, Charlie Craft, Will Maddox, and Caleb Smith | Spring 2024 |
| Spaceport America Cup Team | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Spaceport America Cup | The Spaceport America Cup is the world's largest collegiate rocket engineering competition, with teams participating from countries all around the world. Our team is tasked with designing, building, and flying a reusable sounding rocket propelled by an experimental hybrid rocket motor. The rocket must carry an 8.8 pound scientific payload of the team's choosing to an altitude of 30,000 feet and will be flown at Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, at the end of June. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Evans Lyne | Robert Nickel, Daniel Allen, Spencer Mapes, Ryan Tosh, Nicholas Crowder, and Peter Tarle | Spring 2020 |
| Battle Bots | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Valkyrie | design a strong, adaptable, and attackable BattleBot by following the instructions and rules of the BattleBot competition and MABE department. The robot should have dimensions limited to no more than 2ft x 2ft, a weight limit of 50 pounds, a total budget limit of $1,500, and a minimum running speed at 4 mph without any prohibited weapon or materials. The robot should be controlled by a remotely control system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Doug Aaron | Ali Alani, Jonathan Blackwell, Mena Habib, Luke MacDougall, and Nik Xia | Spring 2023 |
| TDOT Denso | TDOT | All Access Engineering | Design a state industrial access road with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) that serves Denso Manufacturing in Maryville, TN. Design the horizontal and vertical curves for the roadway, the lane and shoulder widths, and a speed limit. Design any drainage and runoff management to accommodate the rivers, streams, and the floodplain on the site. Assure the soil on site is the quality needed for the project. If not, determine what needs to be done to improve the soil quality. Estimate a cost for the project using the design and unit costs of the materials needed. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jennifer Retherford | Joseph Howell, Courtnie Strader, Megan Lamon, John Carson, and Charlie Mubarak | Spring 2019 |
| Electromagnetic Item Grabber Aid | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Electromagnetic Item Grabber Aid | Create a tool which has the potential to provide more independence by allowing users to pick up and place back down various objects they may wish to use. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Forrest Phillips | Spring 2023 |
| DENSO TFT | DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee Inc. | DENSO TFT | Design of an assembly jig and end of arm tooling to fully automate the TFT sub-assembly process at DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee. Using a collaborative robot, emulate the current manual assembly process with an automated process. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Hamel | Aniket Ghare, Daniel Salyer, Ben Rockers, Dylan Beverly, Hany Abdo, and William Bridges | Spring 2020 |
| Autonomous Robotic Tracer Gas Sniffing Leak Detection System | Vacuum Technology Inc. | LeakSeek | Reduce leak detection and repair costs in HVAC manufacturing operations while increasing effectiveness and productivity. Develop an autonomous robotic sniffing system for detecting leaks in refrigeration system brazed joints. Designate leak locations using a digital heat map and joint identification methodology to facilitate repair. Verify the size of the market and validate the benefits of industrial autonomous robotic sniffing applications with manufacturers. Create appropriate product/service cost-benefit analysis and develop a marketing/sales pitch. | Integrated Engineering Design | Bradley Jared | Evan Gitto, Jon Graham, Tunmise Owotomo, Cade Seagle, and Jovi Yoshioka | Spring 2024 |
| Production of Thorium Oxide from Monazite Ore | Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) | CBE488 Group 2 | Develop a safe and cost-effective process that will produce and extract thorium oxide from Monazite ore utilizing a rotary kiln, multiple reactors, and downstream separations. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Ronald Masterson, Shivang Patel, Nico Mascia, and Lilly McCampbell | Spring 2020 |
| Industrial Scale Production of Silica Nanoparticles | Gabriel Veith/ORNL/Safire | SparkStoppers | Silica nanoparticles show promise in bolstering lithium-ion battery safety, especially in shear thickening colloidal electrolytes. With rising vehicle sales and battery applications, demand for these nanoparticles grows. The project aims to produce and purify colloidal silica nanoparticles to meet a projected 100 metric tons yearly requirement. Initial steps included material balance, purification, and drying processes, followed by waste management considerations. Safety, including challenges like pressure drops and dusting impacts, remained paramount throughout the design for efficiency and market demand optimization. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Rae Mikula, Katie Davis, Tyler Quinn, and Maebh O'Neill | Spring 2024 |
| Low Cost Portable Integrated Electrochemical Sensor Platform | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Low Cost Portable Integrated Electrochemical Sensor Platform | Provide users with a seamless experience of purchasing a device to perform EIS experiments with ease. The Portable Integrated Electrochemical Sensor (PIES) platform will be a cheap, all-in-one, easy to use device that allows for the measurement of small samples using off-the-shelf integrated circuits and microcontrollers. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Charles Cao | Seth Cunningham, Spencer Mahoney, Caleb Weaver, Ayrton Valdes, Michael Jones, and Dean Vookles | Spring 2023 |
| AIAA Design/Build/Fly Competition | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | UTK Design/Build/Fly Team | Design and build a remote controlled aircraft capable of simulating aircraft carrier operations. The aircraft must have reconnaissance and attack capabilities realized through a rotating radome and deployable stores. Moreover, it must automatically unfold from a stowed to a flight configuration and must be capable of a short takeoff. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Robert Bond | Daniel Epperson, Deion Rivers, Willie Parker, Michael Moore, Austin Richardson, Christopher Violet, and Tyler Thompson | Spring 2019 |
| 50,000 Foot Hybrid Rocket | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | 50K Hybrid | Design, fabricate and test a high-power, hybrid rocket capable of reaching approximately 40,000 feet. The engine will be tested on the vertical test stand at the UT farm, and, if the test is successful, the rocket be launched at the 2023 Spaceport America Cup competition in June, where we hope to repeat last year's win. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Thomas Scott, James Cooper, Jakob Cielo, Luke Crum, Quinn Eberhardt, Andrew Fuson, Kathryn Slavny, Carson Plyler, Rudra Patel, and Thomas Fitzhugh | Spring 2023 |
| Incentive Spirometry Counter | University of Tennessee Medical Center at Knoxville | SCaR MD | Develop an accurate incentive spirometer that can register the inspiratory volume of the patient. The system should provide accurate data, display information on a screen, relay improvement of data, alarm the patient for when to use the device, and record data for medical team evaluation. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeff Reinbolt | Carmelo Venero Jr., Michael Jones , Dan Stedham , Shannone Paik, and Rachel Wier | Spring 2020 |
| Thermal Analysis and Cooling Design of an Aperture Subject to Strong Thermal Gradients in High-Speed Flows | Lockheed Martin | Hypersonic Solutions | Analyze, design, and test a passive cooling solution for optically transmissive mediums to mitigate high-speed induced thermal effects. Guide design efforts with make/buy analyses, and evaluate producibility and manufacturing costs at scale. | Integrated Engineering Design | Damiano Baccarella and Seungha Shin | Eli Bosco, Grant Johnson, Ben Klenck, Joseph Motto, and Ben Sparkman | Spring 2024 |
| Eye-Tracking Browser | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 08 | Develop a browser extension to assist people who are unable to use an internet web browser. The extension must be able to implement eye-tracking and other รhands-freeร methods to imitate mouse and keyboard input. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Jared Colburn, Alexis Engelvin-Grezes, Jordan Neely, Austin Oaks, and Jacob Samar | Spring 2020 |
| MDF Welding Station Brush | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | MDF Welding Station Brush | Design and test a technique for wire-arc additive manufacturing to remove spatter from weld nozzles. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Bradley Jared | Nathan Black, Andrew Ledden, John Rojas, and Samantha Shoffner | Spring 2023 |
| Loudon Riverwalk | City of Loudon | Loudon | Design a riverwalk alongside the Tennessee River in downtown Loudon, TN. The riverwalk will bring the community closer to the river it has been disconnected from for many years. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jennifer Retherford | Caleb Pemberton, Christian Moloney, Carter Groves, and Bronson Maddox | Spring 2019 |
| Patient Discharge Process Improvement | Ft. Sanders Regional Medical Center | Patient Discharge Process Improvement | Enhance patient discharge process that will lead to fewer costs/delays in discharge center while still maintaining excellent patient care. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Ahmd Aklouk, Eduardo Diaz, Jackson Elzinga, and Taylor Harricharan | Spring 2023 |
| Automated Tool Center Point Calibration for Laser Hotwire Additive Manufacturing | Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Manufacturing Demonstration Facility | Laser Calibration | Develop a combination of sensors and algorithms that can automatically calibrate the tool center point of an Laser Hotwire Additive Manufacturing system to the center of the focal plane of the deposition beam. The arrangement must be compatible with a 6 degree of freedom robotic arm and function within the scope of a laser welding atmosphere. Provide a full accuracy and uncertainty breakdown of the resulting process. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Hamel | Cody Crusenberry, Jacob Fowler, Matthew Lamsey, and Jackson Wilt | Spring 2020 |
| VPC Forecasting Visibility and Accuracy | Nissan Group of North America | Innovision | Study and learn the global supply chain flow of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) vehicles, mapping the flow of vehicles and the information tied to the vehicles. Investigate information sources to utilize and develop a standard in communication to both Third Party Logistics and OEM contacts that increases forecasting capability, visibility, and accuracy of vehicle flow to Vehicle Processing Centers at ports in North America. | Integrated Engineering Design | Gary Null | Hudson Classon, Lilly Mccloud, Veda Seay, Shervin Shirani, Alaina Washington, and Kuba Zeligowski | Spring 2024 |
| State of Art Process for Production of ThO2 from Monazite | Department of Nuclear Engineering | PTM | Designing an industrial scale and economically feasible process to extract thorium and other rare earths from Monazite sands. Accomplished through simulation in OLIFlowsheet and research into similar processes. A collaborative effort between the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Departments | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Steve Skutnik | Jakob Thaler, Jonathan Wing, Makayla Hyde, and Nikolai Regenold | Spring 2020 |
| Sugarlands Distillation Process Optimization | Greg Eidam/Sugarlands Whiskey Distillery | The Sippin' Squad | This project aims to deliver consistent quality whiskey and maximize yield and productivity through batch distillation. Currently, the company recycles the head and tail cuts of the whiskey which enhances the yield for ethanol, but the recycling reduces productivity and consumes more energy. Our goal is to design a simulation that mirrors the current operations and propose a new process while maintaining quality, yield, and productivity for the company. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Terence Osorio and Emma Short | Spring 2024 |
| Bio Pesticide Game | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Bio Pesticide Game | Create a Bio Pesticide Game to help educate farmers in rural areas about modern soybean farming techniques. This is done by simulating a farm for the end user to manage and use these modern techniques. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Will Hopkirk, Nick Mize, Caleb Hagens, Dakota Williams, and Robert Nutt | Spring 2023 |
| Glass Cleaning Robotics Tool Head | DENSO | DENSO FMRG | Design a robotic tool head to remove foreign material from the front glass of an automotive dashboard. Program sweeping paths for a collaborative robot. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Hamel | Mallory Bowers, William Moxley, James Hillencamp, Jesse McMillan, and Cory Glover | Spring 2019 |
| Liquid Bipropellant Rocket | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Liquid Bipropellant Rocket Team | Design, fabricate and test a liquid rocket engine using nitrous oxide and ethanol as propellants. The motor is to be tested on the vertical test stand at the UT farm, and if the test is successful, the rocket will be launched to an altitude of approximately 6000 feet at a site in eastern Kentucky over the summer. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Jack Haag, Anne Gosnell, Alex Haug, Sreya Kumpatia, Chad Bolding, Nathaniel Graham, Connor Alexander, James Strickland, and Corbin Estes | Spring 2023 |
| Smart Bench | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 11 | The smart bench will be a bench press machine that will be capable of tracking a users working. The idea is to come up with a modular attachment for a bench press machine that will track the users weight, sets, and reps while they work out. Alongside the bench press, there will also be an application developed for the user to be able to see the statistics of their workout. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Tanner Fry, Ryan Pauly, Hunter Mann, Michael Whitmer, and Trey Winters | Spring 2020 |
| FRED: Friendly Robot to Ease Dementia | One UT and UTK Global Catalyst Grant | NOVI | Advance the FRED robot prototype towards commercial readiness, improving its design, functionality, and market viability, ensuring it remains a user-friendly therapeutic companion for those with dementia. Deliver a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposal to secure commercialization funding from an appropriate government agency. | Integrated Engineering Design | Xiaopeng Zhao | Nylan Alexander, Conor Brown, Cara Garner, Josie Rich, and Sierra Spalding | Spring 2024 |
| 50 metric ton per day Modular Ammonia Production | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | The Adiabats | Develop an alternative ammonia production process that implements less hazardous operating conditions, such as temperature and pressure. In addition, minimizing the greenhouse gas emission and other environmental pollution produced by the process. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Osama Fallatah, Suhail Khalil, Marlee McClean, and Michael Simpson | Spring 2020 |
| Modular Distributed Gas to Liquids Synthesis | Modular Distributed Gas to Liquids | Develop a modular system that could be positioned near stranded oil and gas resources that is capable of converting natural gas to liquid, designing the system as a positive contributor to reducing greenhouse gases, and optimizing the deployment of the equipment in the field. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Brandon Stevens | Abdulrahman Alqhtani, Rory Clarke, and Jacob Prusha | Spring 2024 | |
| Pratt & Whitney | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Pratt & Whitney | Perform Pratt proprietary design and testing. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Bradley Jared | Michael Davis, Calvin Wetzel, Ryan Jandreski, Griffin Kegley, and Jason Ozment | Spring 2023 |
| TDOT I-640 | TDOT | Ideal Solutions | The I-640 off-ramp experiences backups resulting in traffic overflow onto the interstate creating safety concerns. Our transportation team has been tasked with analyzing the roadways in the nearby vicinity and develop a long-term solution. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Tim Kelly, Kinzee Clark, Riley Greiff, and Tyler Atkins | Spring 2019 |
| Value Stream Map & Simulation | Keurig Dr. Pepper | Plant VSM & Simulation Project | Locate bottlenecks of the production facility; Connecting the three departments into one whole simulation; Improve resource allocation and help improve overall understanding and future decision making. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Spencer Bramlette, Landon Clowers, Charles Jewell, and Christian Stilwill | Spring 2023 |
| Premature Infant Car Seat | University of Tennessee Medical Center- Center for Women and Infant Health | Biomimetic Solutions | Develop a transportation system capable of addressing the physiological needs of prematurely born and smaller sized infants. Consider both the needs of consumers (parents/guardians/caregivers) and infants within the implementation of the product. Construct a plan for marketing and distributing of the device. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeffrey Reinbolt | Bradley Moore, Christian Waksmunski, Brooks Hoddinott, and Samantha Bratcher | Spring 2020 |
| Extending the Functionality of a Quoting and Procurement Application to the Field through a Responsive Mobile Design | Trimble | Team Ozzy | Based on market research and subject-matter-expert recommendations, develop a working version of the Supplier Xchange software for a phone and tablet that includes quoting and procurement functionality. Determine whether a standalone app or mobile browser-based approach is best. Recommend a price point for the new feature. | Integrated Engineering Design | Scott Ruoti | John Arndt, John Blackaby, Riley Crockett, Tully Fitzpatrick, Austin Greer, and Micah Owens | Spring 2024 |
| Distributed Chemical Awareness Network | Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | EECS Team 19 | Design a network of sensors that can detect an increase in chemical air content and communicate between sensors to confirm chemical anomalies. The network will then be able to notify an administrator and perform image processing via a camera. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | n/a n/a | Roscoe Beitel, Michael Dennison, Grady McGinnity, and Nicholas West | Spring 2020 |
| Sustainable Power to Gas System Design: Integrating Renewable Energy Storage and Environmental Responsibility | Mole Rats | Power-to-Gas (PtG) is a method of storing energy from renewable sources, such as wind and solar farms, in a gaseous form to help power grid stability. With the rise of energy consumption around the world, the project aims to prioritize and assess the safety, reliability, and cost effectiveness of a custom Power-to-Gas plant utilizing hydrogen obtained from renewable energy with a process design focusing on CO2 separation and optimization of a subsequent methanation reaction unit. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Brianna Jones, Ellis Kim, Mikayla Hall, and Emily Leopin | Spring 2024 | |
| Neuromorphic Optimization | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Neuromorphic Optimization | Perform a hyperparameter study of TENNLab's neuromorphic optimization algorithm, known as EONS (Evolutionary Optimization of Neuromorphic Systems). | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Charles Cao | Charlie Condon, Ian Prawiranata, Anderson Walsh, Bryce Parker, Jason Hills, and Alex Selyutin | Spring 2023 |
| Economic Viability of Rare Earth Element Extraction from Monazite Ore | Electric Power Research Institute | Economic Viability of Rare Earth Element Extraction from Monazite Ore | Development of a process design flow sheet, followed by economic analysis. Determine if the proposed process is economically viable and environmentally responsible. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Damon Vance, Azaam Almasudi, and Logan Brown | Spring 2019 |
| Scramjet Inlet for Flight | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Mach 7 | Study and investigate Scramjet inlet design for unstart and operability. Perform an inlet design study to ensure scramjet operability and prevent unstart. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Ragini Acharya | Neil Patel, Noah Jagielski, Joseph Rutherford, Will Smith, Cameron Alexander, Noah Smith, and Nicholas Webber | Spring 2023 |
| Thermal Buffering of Windows | UTK Greenfee | Thermal Buffering of Windows | The objective being to demonstrate the concept of thermal buffering to minimize heat loss through fenestration during the winter months by utilizing waste heat from the HVACรs condenser and cooling tower. Designing a window that insulates better than a traditional double or triple pane glazing would help reduce overall costs for comfort conditioning a building. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Chase Kuykendall, Elliott Thurman, Blake Campbell, Zach Nolan, and Alex Sample | Spring 2020 |
| Y-12 National Security Complex Mercury Capture and Reuse | UCOR | Rocky Top Remediation | Research and benchmark available technologies for the separation and nuclear decontamination of mercury from soil and construction debris. Identify gaps in the available technologies and develop innovative solutions to bridge the gaps. Develop a cost model to compare the cost of transporting contaminated debris to out-of-state permanent storage versus building a treatment facility using local landfill disposal. Build a business model for commercial sale of the recovered mercury. | Integrated Engineering Design | Sankar Raghavan | Julia Craven, Thomas Ensley, Joseph Gallivan, Caitlyn Mccall, Kyle Siegel, and Chloe Stone | Spring 2024 |
| Fast Neutron Source Design for Criticality | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Fast Neutron Source Design for Criticality | Creation of operation procedures and a criticality safety evaluation of the loading and storage of fuel material and spectrum-moderating material in the new Fast Neutron Source for the new Nuclear Engineering building. As part of this effort, the group will also design the working table and storage container for the materials along with establishing a criticality safety program for the department. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Ronald Pevey | Bridget Wood, Felipe Novais, Matthew Hipkins, and Parker Forehand | Spring 2020 |
| Alternative Sourcing Process for Styrene | Styrene Soldiers | A recently discovered catalyst has been found to produce styrene in a single step process rather than the current two-step process. Using methanol and toluene, single step catalytic reaction producing styrene is possible in addition to ethylbenzene as a by-product. Company ABC has given us the task in formulating a low-cost, alternative production involving this reaction and to perform a technoanalysis of our finished design to judge if this catalyst process is economically viable. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Emma Short, Andrew Reed, Nikhil Patel, and Brice Florey | Spring 2024 | |
| UTRF 2 ECLS Trainer | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | UTRF 2 ECLS Trainer | Create a trainer for extracorporeal surgical procedures. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Bradley Jared | Isaac Green, Ariel Lane, Mallory Marchal, and Katherine Vasiloff | Spring 2023 |
| Combined Cooling and Power (CCP) | Electric Power Research Institute | Combined Cooling and Power | The conventional refrigeration cycle has an evaporator, condenser and compressor. Heat absorbed by refrigerant in the evaporator (refrigerant effect) and work done on the refrigerant by the compressor is exhausted to the outdoor environment by a condenser, typically a dry or wet heat exchange process. Work will design a magneto alternator (generator used in wind turbine). The rotating shaft is internal and eliminates the need for a feed-through using a mag coupling thereby improving the leak tightness while also minimizing frictional resistance because mechanical rotary seals are eliminated from the design. The magneto alternator has rotating neodymium rare-earth magnets with a three-phase stator, then a bridge rectifier to produce DC. The power is then either directly used, stored in batteries, or drives a mains inverter that can supply the grid for profit. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Carlton Harwood, William Bright, Michael Keesee, Rabin Gandharva, and Xiaoqi Lu | Spring 2019 |
| OPEM Flagged Filter | Keurig Dr. Pepper | Retire the Flag | Aid Keurig Dr Pepper in reducing waste within the k-cup packaging lines. This will generate productivity savings by lowering waste rates on high volume packaging lines. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Jordan Huff, Joel Mateo, Bennett Pearson, and Benjamin Williams | Spring 2023 |
| Automated Tray Spacer Removal | Monterey Mushrooms | Monterey Mushrooms 1 | Develop an automated spacer removal system to separate trays in the stack vertically and remove all spacers between trays. Design a prototype to demonstrate the concept and functionality of the automated spacer removal system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Jarrett Bristol, Colby Jones, Kelsey Klett, Thomas Palmer, and Nick Taylor | Spring 2020 |
| Project Rollout | Climashield | Project Rollout | Improve the rollout area to make it more ergonomically friendly and efficient while both increasing productivity and decreasing employee physical exertion | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Dean Ellorando, Regine Gomez, Audra Steadman, and Harriet Williamson | Spring 2024 |
| New Roadway Design at Faith Promise Lane: From Cherahala Boulevard to TN-162, MP1.9 | Gresham Smith | 2020 Vision Engineering | Design is necessary for a new collector road and on-ramp connecting the proposed Cherahala Boulevard extension to Pellissippi Parkway to improve safety and connectivity in the vicinity of Faith Promise Church in west Knoxville. Efforts include significant grade modifications, geotechnical services, utilities and drainage design, mindful of the geometric needs of the roadway to serve the drivers accessing the neighborhood. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Wes Darling, Zachary Jerome, Collis Lowe, Nicholas Naifeh, Brady Nutt, Benjamin Ferguson, and Daniel Fox | Spring 2020 |
| Sustainable Power to Gas System Design | Sustainable Power to Gas System Design | The incorporation of renewable power into the global energy framework faces challenges due to the erratic nature of renewable energy sources. The task is two-fold: 1) Select a suitable COx source to deliver reliable feedstock considering maximum economic and environmental performance and 2) design the reactor and separation system to produce the syngas methane. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Brandon Stevens | Jacob Leuciuc, Sam Peay, Rob Sutherland, and Isaac Vargas | Spring 2024 | |
| GrAPPA Rebuild | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | GrAPPA Rebuild | Update the Langston Lab's GrAPPA service's codebase to the latest version in terms of dependencies, rewriting failing components, while also adding documentation and facilitating automatic updates in the future. In addition, new tools and functionality were added to GrAPPA to reflect recent developments made by the Langston Lab in the field of theoretical graph analysis algorithms. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Charles Cao | Logan Wrinkle, Richard Ramirez, Lucas Yarnes, Alishan Bhayani, and Taha Khan | Spring 2023 |
| Gridsmart Kanban System | Gridsmart | Gridsmart Team | Create and implement a inventory replenishment system (Kanban) to lower inventory cost and reduce the risk of stockouts due to an increase in production. This system will be put in place so that the supply chain manager will no when to reorder a product based on the amount of inventory left. When inventory hits a certain ideal point then an order will be put in placed to minimize on hand inventory cost as well as lowering risk of a stockout that will hold back production. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Laura O'Shaughnessey | Drew Jost, Austin Wimberly, and Austin Knauer | Spring 2019 |
| Hemp Production for the Paper Industry | Shiloh Farms | Shiloh Farms | Determine the effectiveness of using industrial hemp for producing pulp as an alternative to trees in the paper industry. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Destinee Carter, William Colligan, Charlie Folsom, Jade Triebel, and Adam Tsegahun | Spring 2023 |
| Mission Design for Saturn Orbital Insertion With Titan Aerogravity Assist | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Ring Around The Saturn | Design a mission from Earth to Saturn to study Saturnรs moon, Enceladus. This mission will utilize the atmosphere of Titan, another of Saturnรs moons, to decrease the spacecraftรs velocity. After this aerogravity assist, the spacecraft will enter into an orbit around Saturn that allows for observation of Enceladus. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Evans Lyne | Nishant Lokanathan, Nathan Stover, Jonathan Spitznas, Drew Wright, Hannah Hajdik, Jason Patel, and Samantha Ramsey | Spring 2020 |
| Eaton Assembly | Eaton | Eaton Assembly | The project seeks to ease training for Eaton employees and to create a combined knowledge base for the Company. The desired standard work and training documents, with a realistic time to train, will be used to train new hires. The current documentation will be consolidated then revised for the 7241 Assembly Line. With this effective training material, Eaton also hopes to reduce attrition and increase the pass rate for trainees based on their in-house quality standards. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Ben Borgerding, Olivia LaHair, Stuart Spaugh, Breton Stanley, and Alexis Vinson | Spring 2024 |
| Sterchi Lodge Deck Restoration | S&ME, Inc. | SGA Engineering | Engineering services are required to ensure adequate structural capacity of an existing wooden deck considerate of occupancy and use changes occurring at the existing structure. Design effort entails full structural evaluation of the deck, evaluation of the connected roof, and foundation evaluation. Additionally, signs of slope slip is evident and warrant evaluation of the existing site for potential instability. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Pierce Anderson , Alexander Brockob, Colby Gilbert, Michael Hadley , Scott Malone, Andrew Patchen, and Andrew Shahan | Spring 2020 |
| Avermectin Waste Toxicity Reduction | Rizzards Of Ozmosis | The project aims to develop an environmentally safe and cost-effective waste treatment process for avermectin production, comparing incineration and caustic treatment methods. It focuses on regulatory compliance, operational costs, and sustainability over a 15-year lifecycle, using technoeconomic analysis to recommend the best option while addressing avermectin's severe aquatic toxicity. The study integrates data analysis, simulations, and design concepts to propose a viable solution for industrial waste management. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Jessica Nelson, Abdallah Albobsairy, Hamzah Alhazami, Christian Herbert, and Jesus Lara Cuevas | Spring 2024 | |
| Life Without Limits Assistive Devices | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Life Without Limits - Team Smokey | Design and create assistive devices (life hacks) for people with disabilities. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Chad Duty | Emerson Manley, Conan Curry, Javen Calhoun, and Brandon Laster | Spring 2023 |
| Patch Array Software Defined Radio Telescope | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | PASDRT | We are developing a small antenna that allows for the live observation of radio waves, in this case, specifically WiFi. It has uses in search & rescue and anti jamming. | Aly Fathy | Chase Cumbelich, Peter Alley, Nick Bianchi, and Abdel Moadi | Spring 2019 | |
| Inventory Management Process Improvement | Axis Fabrication & Machine | Axis Fabrication Team | Improve inventory management process by expanding the use of Epicor. Make the minimum stockout rate decrease from once a month to once every 6 months. Utilize SOPs, basic coding skills, inventory management and inventory tracking. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Kevin Aquadro, Ryan MacNicol, Jeanbosco Rudasingwa, Shashi Tangallapally, and Kurt Wittler | Spring 2023 |
| Thermal Buffering of Windows | Office of Sustainability | Window Thermal Buffering | The Transportation Office Building in Park Plaza, Boston features a perimeter thermal buffering concept that uses stored waste condenser heat in a 750,000-gal capacity water tank. Simulations for curtain walls showed that thermal buffering could minimize heat losses in cold weather periods. A window attachment is therefore proposed that uses indoor conditioned air to block the loss of heat from a window during cold weather periods. Indoor conditioned air is preheated using waste heat from the condenser of the Hodges centrifugal chillers. Estimates of energy savings for the Hodges Library indicates a $37k per year savings reflecting a 3% drop in total power draw (operating plus demand charge). To enhance daylighting, it is proposed to include a reflective controllable blind as an exterior attachment that reflects short-wave irradiance up to the interior ceilings. The blind rotates automatically based on the time-of-day, solar orientation, latitude and longitude. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Connor Britton, Joseph Wing, Jack Rogers, Peyton Whitehead, and Brandon Glover | Spring 2019 |
| Eaton Fabrication | Eaton | Eaton Fabrication | The project seeks to ease training for Eaton employees and to create a combined knowledge base for the Company. The desired standard work and training documents, with a realistic time to train, will be used to train new hires. The current documentation will be consolidated then revised for Fabrication Press 7025. With this effective training material, Eaton also hopes to reduce attrition and increase the pass rate for trainees based on their in-house quality standards. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Bryce Baines, Drew Elliott, Jeff Metro, and Chris Ramsey | Spring 2024 |
| A Mobile Web Application Alarm System for Tracheostomy Patients | UT Department of Surgery | High Quality Engineers | Design a web application to display pulse rate and oxygen saturation levels collected by a pulse oximeter, as well as airflow measurements collected by and airflow monitor in patients with tracheostomy. Poor readings of each biometric will send an alert to the cell phone of the nurse or caretaker of the patient for evaluation of condition. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeffery Reinbolt | Andrew Richard, Carli Stewart, JC McDearman, Mitchell Langley, and Hawra Halahmed | Spring 2020 |
| Sustainable Power to Gas System Design: Integrating Renewable Energy Storage and Environmental Responsibility | Pink Himalayan Salt | As renewable energies become more prevalent, there comes the problem of dealing with the inherent erratic nature of renewables such as solar and wind that are heavily reliant on weather conditions. One way to address this problem is through converting the renewable energy into chemical energy in the form of methane, which can be stored and injected directly into the natural gas grid. This project presents a PtG power plant design with a focus on CO2 sourcing and methanation reactor design. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Jessie Li, Gin Wilson, and Asma Itmaizah | Spring 2024 | |
| Design and Development of a CubeSat/TubeSat for a High-Altitude Balloon Flight | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Design and Development of a CubeSat/TubeSat for a High-Altitude Balloon Flight | Develop new CubeSat that meets the requirements of being capable of taking satellite pictures in the harsh environment of the upper atmosphere, meet the requirements of NASA CSLI for functioning properly after being launched to a high altitude, work in conjunction with the COSMO operating system, and cost roughly no more than $10,000. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Micah Beck | Calvin Brown, Benjamin Royster, Alawy Alshakhouri, Marcus McCoy, and Max He | Spring 2023 |
| EECS Graduate Student Forms Central | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 23 | Develop an interactive web interface for graduate students to better keep track of degree requirements. The web interface will automatically validate and populate degree programs forms and provide students information on how to complete outstanding degree requirements. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Jens Gregor | Casey Bates, Henry Quach, Ben Siravantha, Howard Choi, and Surya Manikonda | Spring 2019 |
| Inventory Management System Design & Implementation | Carbon Rivers | Carbon Rivers Team | Create more inventory visibility and traceability. Raise inventory accountability from 40% to 85%. Develop methodology for serialized inventory. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Trent Deel, Stephen Laird, Christian Moolman, and Christopher Warlick | Spring 2023 |
| Extraction of Thorium Dioxide from Monazite | Electric Power Research Institute | CBE 488 Abdelnour, Alshibli, Said, & Yolitz | Develop and economically analyze the extraction of thorium dioxide from monazite using sulfuric acid. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Karoleen Said, Katherine Yolitz, Marina Abdelnour, and Ahmad Alshibli | Spring 2019 |
| Lithium-Ion Electric Vehicle Battery Recycling | EPRI and Volkswagen | Lithium-Ion Electric Vehicle Battery Recycling | Design an energy storage system (ESS) to allow Volkswagen to reuse Electric Vehicle Lithium Ion Batteries to supply grid electricity during peak demands. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Alex Galligan, Bryce Neely, Charles Nussbaum, and Gia Vergara | Spring 2024 |
| Lab Scale Recycling Process | Eastman Chemical Company | The Recyclists | Develop a lab scale recycling process to increase efficiency of in-house plastic recycling. This includes the capability to reduce the particle size to 14 mesh and to process additional types of plastic. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Samuel Wilkinson, William Doktycz, Steven Jennings, and Jehova Arzola | Spring 2020 |
| Alternative Sourcing Process for Styrene | Styrene Squad | Styrene monomer is currently produced in a two-step process, but a catalyst has been discovered that will generate styrene from toluene and methanol in one step. The reaction produces ethyl benzene as a byproduct from parallel reactions. We are interested in developing an alternative low-cost route to styrene using the catalyst. We will perform a technoeconomic analysis of the process based on the laboratory procedure provided to us. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Joseph Kalla, Brody Carmack, Laura Turner, Landry Mitchell,and Jessica Nelson | Spring 2024 | |
| Life Without Limits Assistive Devices | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Life Without Limits - Team Vols | Design and create assistive devices (life hacks) for people with disabilities. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Chad Duty | Alison Gerstner, Keenan Ter Hark, Kyle Fagin, and Annmarie Harter | Spring 2023 |
| Physical Model and Simulation of Flow in a High Temperature, Low Pressure Furnace | BAM Knoxville | The Flow Bros | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | J Mark Barker | Mary Daffron, Landen McDonald, Joseph Goble, and Charles Stansberry | Spring 2019 | |
| Hennessy Industries Internal Drive Process Improvement | Hennessy Industries | Hennessy Industries Team | Improve direct drive motor shaft assembly at Hennessy that requires skilled, time-intensive labor which is no longer adequate to meet market demand or sustainable for the future. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Kaden Duncan, Evan Gamble, Conor Koesterman, Ethan Pennell, and Luke Pollack | Spring 2023 |
| Wireless Seismic Module | Wireless Seismic Module | The Wireless Seismic Module (WSM) is a relatively small device that aims to provide a new and adaptable mechanism that will allow the seismic data obtained from the in-device geophones to be transferred and accessed wirelessly. Wireless transmission of this data will not only make the device more accessible and easier to use, but also broaden the scope of projects in which seismic activity could be incorporated. Collected data will be sent via 4G cellular connection to a server for storage, manipulation, alerts and visualization. This will allow any user to view all collected data in near real time. | Min H. Kao Department of Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Dylan Salmons, Isacc Ige, Frankie Betancourt, Aaron Garringer, Liam Wingerd, and Zack Strickland | Spring 2019 | |
| Receiving Audit Improvement | John Deere | Receiving Audit Improvement | Develop a scalable and standardized receiving audit for purchased parts then deliver data analytics and technology solutions for the audit process. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Jaylon Montgomery, Kasthuri Pillapalayam, Adam Rangel, and Kevin Yang | Spring 2024 |
| Purification of I-129 from Spent PWR Nuclear Fuel | Oak Ridge National Laboratory-Isotope and Fuel Cycle Technology Division | The Illustrious Iodinas | Develop a process for the extraction and purification of the radioisotope iodine-129 from spent zircaloy-clad nuclear fuel rods. Evaluate the capital and manufacturing costs and consider potential environmental, safety, and health impacts of the process. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Samantha Cahill, Kaitlyn Pierson, Kaylie Richard, and Sydney Whitaker | Spring 2020 |
| Toppings Refinery Retrofit | Toppings Refinery Retrofit | Produce a study estimate for processing naphtha from crude feeds to gasoline using a fixed bed continuous catalytic reformer, while also providing sellable benzene, toluene, and xylenes. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Brandon Stevens | Joshua Darlington, Cullen Golias, Donovan Lewis, and Travis Vaske | Spring 2024 | |
| Foreign Material Cobot Machine | DENSO | Denso 1 Foreign Material Cobot Machine | Design a fixture for the meter to fit on the machine. Perform analysis studies to prove out concepts. Perform tests on FM removal (change robot path, blowing air pressure, ionizer, etc.). Perform analysis of vacuum to minimize FM settling in the machine. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jindong Tan | Nicole Brandt, Chiwem Ihekweazu, Nicholas Napier, and Cameron Bobo | Spring 2023 |
| EECS Lab Tour Robot | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 6 | Develop a robot that is capable of autonomous navigation. The robot is required to navigate the third and fourth floors of the Min Kao building. The robot shall also visit and talk about labs on the way. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Mark Dean and Amir Sadovnik | Tyler Small, Samuel Leonard, Sai Manikonda, Hunter Kelley, William Prickett, and Alexander Booher | Spring 2019 |
| John Deere ER Optimizer Project | John Deere Power Products | Oh, Deere Optimizer! | Improve efficiency in assigning shifts to hourly employees by moving from manual data entry to an automatic tool that will assignment employees to shifts and departments. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks and Andrew Yu | Hesham Ahmad, Kaleigh Basillo, Ayla Brown, Kaitlyn Daniels, and Gemma Del Buono | Spring 2023 |
| Extraction of Thorium Dioxide from Monazite Ore | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | CBE Design Team 1 | This project attempts to provide an industrial-level design for the extraction of thorium dioxide from rare earth elements found in monazite ore. Included in this project are economic feasibility analyses to assess the potential economic impact of the proposed design. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Grant Rigney, Grant Bauman, Tyler Pitney, and Trent Walker | Spring 2019 |
| Service Parts Improvement | John Deere | Service Parts Improvement | This project will increase throughput in the Service Parts department by developing a new layout for the department, developing new standardized operating procedures and introducing new inventory management techniques. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Ian Dressman, Luke Lyons, Ian Osborn, and Brooks Plumlee | Spring 2024 |
| Dynamic Insulations | Clayton Homes | Dynamic Insulation | Develop a wall insulation system that allows the thermal resistance to be varied depending on the outdoor conditions. The insulation is able to achieve different thermal resistance values by using a small electric current to change the emissivity of thin films contained within the wall. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Vincent Gambuzza, Ben Bartmess, Daniel Melton, Aynsley Whitus, and N/A N/A | Spring 2020 |
| Biobutanol Fermentation | ABE Fermentation | Design a plant to produce butanol through fermentation for use as a biofuel. As the product is ultimately energy, the design must be energy and water conscious as well. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Brandon Stevens | Khalid Alghamdi, Charles Patten, Josh Presley, and Andrew Samples | Spring 2024 | |
| SimClimate | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | SimClimate | Design a game to show the effects of human activity on our planet's climate starting from the industrial revolution. The game intends to both teach and entertain by utilizing its systems and goals. It is targeted towards a younger audience that wishes to explore these topics in a fun and informative fashion. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Joel Rodeghiero, Zackery Hayes, Daniel Pledger, Cory Headrick, and Samara Buchanan | Spring 2023 |
| Vaccine Delivery | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Vaccine Delivery | Design a portable refrigeration system to deliver vaccines to remote locations. The system must be self sufficient and be operable by anyone. A hand crank compressor is used in a vapor refrigeration system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Doug Aaron | Noah Johnson, Justin Garner, Courtney Cartwright, Trenton Yount, Georgiana Blue, and Ryan Litchfield | Spring 2019 |
| John Deere Hood Decal Project | John Deere Power Products | John Deere Hood Decal Team | Improve the process of applying the John Deere logo and model number decals to the hood of lawn tractors. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Wade Goetz, Nick Hassler, Clayton Hiatt, Cerys Miller, and Charlie Sweet | Spring 2023 |
| "Dry Cask Storage Monitoring Automation" | Southern Company | Cask Monitoring System Team | Develop a plan for the automation of dry cask storage monitoring by exploring alternative methods to human inspection with the use of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). Currently, dry cask storage monitoring is done manually by humans, which results in exposures to radiation. A plan for automated inspection is desired in order to save maintenance personnel time and dose. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Laurence Miller and Steven Skutnik | Ethan Asano, Justin Kramer, Abena Otchere-Boateng, Jared Abrams, and Lucas Gilbert | Spring 2019 |
| Weld Capacity Planning and Inventory Optimization | John Deere | Weld Capacity Planning and Inventory Optimization | This project will create a schedule optimization tool to meet customer requirements. The project will also reduce overproduction by establishing buffer stocking levels for mower decks. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Nick Mitchell, Sofia Perdomo, and Stephen Walker | Spring 2024 |
| Bridge Replacement and Roadway Expansion on State Route 107 in Unicoi County, TN | TDOT | Smokey Civil Engineering | Degradation of a nearly 100-year old bridge in downtown Unicoi County warrants replacement as a recent TDOT bridge inspection indicates the bridge is insufficient. Design for replacement of the bridge require structural and geotechnical services; drainage upgrades, transportation design, and utility relocation are also needed as widening is necessary to bring the roadway in compliance with current TDOT standards. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Andrew Funnell, George Hana, James Hegedus, Madison McLaughlin, Daniel Ramirez, Jack Rymer, and William Sudbrink | Spring 2020 |
| Automated Speaker Assembly Process | DENSO | Denso 2 Automated Speaker Assembly Process | Design a process using a collaborative robot to pick a speaker from an incoming tray of speakers and install it to the instrument cluster assembly. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jindong Tan | Benjamin Chesser, Kamryn Eversole, Dylan Smith, and Alexis Stafford | Spring 2023 |
| Commercial Vehicle Group | Commercial Vehicle Group | CVG Team | Develop a new container system for parts received from suppliers. The new system is intended to reduce down time as a result of looking for parts, minimizing transportation costs by maximizing truck space, and improve the current Kanban system. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Laura O'Shaughnessy | Francois Moolman, Darian Clegg, and Blake Begley | Spring 2019 |
| John Deere MFG Analytics | John Deere Power Products | John Deere MFG Analytics Team | Track individual operator performance to determine ways to improve overall efficiency and productivity of a new production line to create their Z500 Series ZTrak Mowers at the Greeneville facility. They want to have a system that will track individual operator performance to determine ways to improve overall efficiency and productivity. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks and Xueping Li | Kalpaj Kotta, Paul Mercer, Benjamin Northern, Jenifer Rodriguez, and Erin Stone | Spring 2023 |
| Thermal Chemical Energy Storage (TCES) | Office of Sustainability | Thermal Chemical Energy Storage | The compressor of a refrigeration system discharges a high temperature and high pressure superheated refrigerant having an exergy quality, second only to the electricity input to the compressor. The heat is wasted by dumping it to the outdoor environment. A chemical-based thermal energy storage (TCES) is proposed that generates and stores chemical energy in the summer for later use during the winter months; there is virtually no heat loss while in the storage state. The TES would offset heating demands during early morning peak winter usage or shape loads during other periods to help reduce utility costs, environmental impact and infrastructure. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Tennessee Bryant, Seth Douglas, Junsung Park, Frances Pfeifer, and Pierce Atkins | Spring 2019 |
| JTEKT Non-Conforming Material Area | JTEKT | JTEKT Non-Conforming Material Area | The project seeks to ensure the non-conforming material holding areas are well organized by arranging the items in a systematic manner. Further, the project will ensure that all materials stored in the holding area are properly documented with clear records of their arrival and storage dates. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Jason Chen, Jacob Magill, Demir Menguc, Mary Grace Studtmann, and Jessie Wilson | Spring 2024 |
| Optics of Two-Dimensional Materials used as Substrates for Nanoparticle-Based Devices | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Nanoparticles are Cool | Produce crystals for application of two-dimensional layers to substrates for optical characterization. After optical characterization of two-dimensional crystals is complete, apply gold nano-particles to the crystals to characterize changes in two-dimensional crystals from gold nano-particles. | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | David Mandrus and Gerd Duscher | Anne Coleman, Tyler Douglas, Reagan Newman, Mallory Stevenson, and Connor Stephens | Spring 2020 |
| Avermectin Waste Toxicity Reduction | Water of Life | The goal of this project is to design a system to process a waste stream from a chemical plant that produces avermectin before it is discharged to a river. The goal is to design the process such that certain toxins, mainly avermectin, in the waste stream are reduced below specific standards. Simulations, material and energy balances, cost analyses, and other methods are implemented to decide the most cost effective way to treat the waste system while meeting standards. Incineration and caustic treatment are the two different options being compared. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Logan Crawford, Alex Becker, Justin Le, and Samuel Andrews | Spring 2024 | |
| Distribution of Official Transcripts via Blockchain | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Distribution of Official Transcripts via Blockchain | Create a system in which students' transcripts are encrypted with a secret key to make accessing them easier. This encrypted transcript would be signed using the university's private key before being appended to the blockchain. The university's public-key would then verify that the transcript is in fact from that institution. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Micah Beck | Preston Beaty, Chris Lee, Kyung Han, Joonyoung Im, Remy Wang, and Noah Morris | Spring 2023 |
| Hovercraft 1 | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Hovercraft 1 | Design, build, and test a hovercraft capable of carrying a 400lb payload. This hovercraft must be capable of operating on both land and marine environments, with its final test being able to carry two people across the Tennessee River and back. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Mench | Drew Cordray, Stefan Dopatka, Cole Weber, Bradley Hills, and Nathaniel Brandt | Spring 2019 |
| MHF Services Lean Manufacturing Project | MHF Services | MHF Services Lean Manufacturing Team | Reduce material handling and improve the current process flow in order to increase safety and decrease product lead time. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Miranda Bedics, Dannon Dallman, Austin Edmonds, Justin Perkins, and Luke Roberts | Spring 2023 |
| Avermectin Fermentation (Medium-scale) | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Group-5 | The objective of the project is to develop a preliminary process design package for the production of avermectin extract in toluene, and safe disposal of all avermectin-contaminated waste from the process . The production target for avermectin pure is 100,000 kg/year. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Sultan Alsalman, Kevin Beyke, Keirsten Brown, and Josh Pedicini | Spring 2019 |
| Calibration and Metrology Improvement | JTEKT Automotive | Calibration and Metrology Improvement | This project will improve the usage of the Gagetrak software that houses gage and gage calibration records by developing improved Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), developing and conducting training to these new SOP's and designing an auditing program to ensure conformance to these new standards. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Brynn Bertovic, Kaitlyn Fletcher, Eli Macon, and Landon Williams | Spring 2024 |
| Subtitle Glasses | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 29 - Subtitle Glasses | Subtitle Glasses are meant to help the deaf and hard at hearing. Our glasses use a microphone to listen to conversations and a speech to text algorithm to display the words onto a deaf or hard at hearing person's glasses. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Michael Gifford, Jacob Sides, Oumar Diallo, Tristan Carter, and Adam Holland | Spring 2020 |
| Closing Critical Gaps to Enable a Circular Economy of Plastics - Pyoil Purification | Circular Economy of Plastics | Design a unit to purify a stream of pyrolysis oil derived from plastic waste, and generate innovative ideas to improve the plastic sorting facility that serves as a feed source for the process, addressing the quantity, quality, and affordability gaps. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Brandon Stevens | Maren Gwaltney, Haley Snyder, Evan Wayman, and Abbie White | Spring 2024 | |
| Battle Bots | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Battlebot - Team 3 | Design a strong, adaptable, and attackable BattleBot by following the instructions and rules of the BattleBot competition and MABE department. The robot should have dimensions limited to no more than 2ft x 2ft, a weight limit of 50 pounds, a total budget limit of $1,500, and a minimum running speed at 4 mph without any prohibited weapon or materials. The robot should be controlled by a remotely control system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Subhadeep Chakraborty | Patrick Fichtner, Samuel Knight, Calvin Spaugh, and Steven Wilmoth | Spring 2023 |
| Pick and Place | Accu-Router | Pick and Place | Develop a simple and reliable pick and place unit. Must utilize existing technologies and be easy to maintain. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Jordan Cummings, Jacob Maine, Collin Culp, William Piwonka, and Philip Bailey | Spring 2019 |
| Reliability & Maintainability Center | Reliability & Maintainability Center | Reliability & Maintainability Center Team | Create a functioning factory that enables teaching key reliability & maintainability techniques by setting up a mini facility to simulate different industry 4.0 practices with all related business decisions. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks, Klaus Blache, and Belle Upadhyaya | Mike Cho, Ryan McDermand, Jared Morgan, John Reed, and Rylee Wood | Spring 2023 |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory CASL | NE - Reactor Design | In the modern era, energy markets require nuclear plants to be more flexible. Small modular reactors step up to this challenge by offering a reactor design that is quicker to build, more cost efficient, and scalable. This team aims to design and optimize a core loading pattern for one such reactor designed by NuScale. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Ivan Maldonado | Kalie Knecht, Andrew Naylor, Michael Hines, Logan Clowers, Maddie Burrell, and Molly Underwood | Spring 2019 | |
| Power BI Dashboard | The IT Company | Power BI Dashboard | This project will allow The IT Company to better serve their customers by showing essential data about the service that IT Co.. provides to their customers. This data will be easily digestible and have real-world applications as well as be quick to compile. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Trent Dickerson, Stephanie Krause, Matthew Peevy, and Jacob Seals | Spring 2024 |
| Early Bronco Electric Vehicle Subsystem Design | Kincer Chassis - Krawlers Edge | EcoTrek | Design electric vehicle systems for the body of a classic Ford Bronco. Develop a business plan that will allow sponsor Krawlers Edge to efficiently produce more of these electric vehicle systems. | Integrated Engineering Design | William Miller and Doug Aaron | Kali Holt, Michael Butler, Dakota Cauthen, Isaac Houser, Kizer Harris, Greg Corson, and Holly Robbins | Spring 2020 |
| Road Widening Along Old Niles Ferry Road | City of Maryville, Arcadis | Tri-Star Engineering | Develop a plan for widening Old Niles Ferry Road in Maryville to reduce road congestion and improve safety and user experiences. Evaluate the widening to minimize impact on the local taxpayers. The city has an extensive greenway network, and a shared-use path along the route is sought even in the limited right-of-way, requiring creative design. Lastly, upgrade the intersection design at W. Broadway and Montgomery Lane in agreement with the proposed widening. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Grant Busler, Ian Henry, Kristen Theilmann, and Carly Wines | Spring 2024 | |
| Battle Bots | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Battlebot - Team 4 | Design a strong, adaptable, and attackable BattleBot by following the instructions and rules of the BattleBot competition and MABE department. The robot should have dimensions limited to no more than 2ft x 2ft, a weight limit of 50 pounds, a total budget limit of $1,500, and a minimum running speed at 4 mph without any prohibited weapon or materials. The robot should be controlled by a remotely control system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Subhadeep Chakraborty | Joshua Carpenter, Hayden Murdock, French Norfleet, and Colton Taylor | Spring 2023 |
| Appalachian Utility Board Zinc Substation Foundation Project | C2RL | Smoky Mountain Foundation Inc. | Design a foundation for a substation that is located over an abandoned zinc mine. The scope of the project encompasses geotechnical site investigations, analyses of soil stability, structural design of the foundation, creation of a construction-ready drawing set, and an estimation of costs. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Leah Stephens, James Throckmorton, Grayson Layne, and Ben Morris | Spring 2019 |
| Visualization of Attribute-based Access Controls on Blockchain | CGI Federal | Vizer | Develop a visualization tool to display Attribute Based Access Controls in the Blockchain. Leverage the Web 3.0 architecture with additional goals to create something without causing performance or security issues. | Integrated Engineering Design | Scott Ruoti | David Huang, Hanson Lam, Ian MacDougall, Caroline Rinks, and Ashna Tipirneni | Spring 2023 |
| MSR-ORNL | Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | MSR-ORNL | Design a natural circulation molten salt research reactor. The design includes thermal hydraulics, neutronics, shielding, instrumentation and control, and materials. The reactor will be used to help further research and development on molten salt reactors, since data on them is scarce. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Laurence Miller | Thomas Quirin, Patrick Huston, Hayden Sutton, Jacob Mckesson, Josh Nash, and Parth Patel | Spring 2019 |
| Enhancing Serve Knox's Reach through Systems Optimization | Transformation Church (Generous House Knoxville) | Beyond Boundaries | Serve Knox Saturday faces challenges in overcapacity and mid-week logistics, impacting the efficiency of its volunteer-based operations. The goal is to optimize the warehouse layout, implement efficient shelving systems, and design streamlined processes to enhance capacity management. This holistic solution aims to improve overall effectiveness, ensuring the seamless delivery of essential resources to families in need. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Anna Chen, Zach Kabir, Lucienne Reinhard, Vanessa Sanchez, and Kevin Townsend | Spring 2024 |
| Rapid Autonomous Pneumatic Transport System | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Rapid Autonomous Pneumatic Transport System | Design and construct a pneumatic transfer system to transport small material samples between a material loader, a nuclear irradiation facility located on a different floor of a building, a radiation counting system, and a disposal canister. The system should operate autonomously, provide radiation transparency, and strongly consider safety and reliability. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Wes Hines | Cameron Salyer, Kaleb Peete, Bradley Bloedorn, Seth Walker, and Marcos Escudero | Spring 2020 |
| Battle Bots | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Battlebot - Team 5 | Design a strong, adaptable, and attackable BattleBot by following the instructions and rules of the BattleBot competition and MABE department. The robot should have dimensions limited to no more than 2ft x 2ft, a weight limit of 50 pounds, a total budget limit of $1,500, and a minimum running speed at 4 mph without any prohibited weapon or materials. The robot should be controlled by a remotely control system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Subhadeep Chakraborty | Christopher Blake, Noyes Andrew, Gene Arnold Agbunag, Tyler Raye Woodar, and Jacob Anderson | Spring 2023 |
| Material Characterization of Flexible Packaging Thin Film Polymer Composites | Sonoco Products Company | Sonoco Team | Develop a tool through material characterization to aid machine operators in the determination of adequate tension and heat settings for the printing of thin film polymer composite flexible packaging. | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Kurt Sickafus | Maryam Alsukairi, Mohammed Alhejaili, Samantha Solis, Samuel Cormany, and Breanna Ellis | Spring 2019 |
| HVAC System to Drop Peak Energy Demand and Curb CO2 Emissions | Edgewell Personal Care | Carbon Cutters | Optimize the design of a 350-ton HVAC system to minimize energy costs. Explore ways to utilize waste heat from various production processes to improve the overall cooling of the facility. Develop a capital plan and prioritization of system improvements. | Integrated Engineering Design | William Miller | Sam Banks, Mun Choong, Zach Laser, and Job White | Spring 2023 |
| Solar Thermochemical Energy Storage | Office of Sustainability | TCES | Design and build a solar collector. The solar collector will be integrated into a thermal chemical energy storage system to aid existing energy supply to commercial buildings. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Seth Douglas, Olivia Pfeifer, Junsung Park, Pierce Atkins, and Tennessee Bryant | Spring 2019 |
| 4Star Machining Process Improvement | Unitrac Railroad Products | 4Star Machining Process Improvement | This project will improve the 4Star machining process by increasing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), increasing First Pass Yield (FPY) and improving the overall machine performance. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Christian Bailey, Rachel Cheek, Maeve Hanley, and Koehl Lindsay | Spring 2024 |
| Broken Mushroom Tray Emptying Device | Monterey Mushrooms, Inc. | Monterey Mushrooms 2 | Design a device for decreasing the time and manpower required to empty broken trays used in mushroom production. Mechanism should be portable and operable via a forklift without the use of external power. Build a scaled prototype to serve as a proof of concept. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Wilton Chapman, Amy Carpenetti, Jason Ring, Cory Richardson, and Bradley McClure | Spring 2020 |
| Bridge Replacement at I-65 and Horseshoe Road in Nashville, TN | Benesch | Horseshoe Design Solutions, LLC | Improvements to the reliability, capacity, and operation of the I-65 corridor near SR25 and SR 109 is sought to address traffic demands north of Nashville. A roadway widening has been recommended to satisfy increased traffic and minimize delays for travelers along the interstate. The widening requires replacement of a number of bridge overpasses. This project requests focus on the replacement of an I-65 bridge over Horseshoe Road. Structural and geotechnical engineering services will be paired with drainage and construction management related responsibilities to develop a viable bridge design concept. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Johnathon Brannon, Avery Burnham, Stephen Jenkins, Christian Loor, Preston Ruud, and Ellen Vo | Spring 2024 | |
| My Degree Plan | Tickle College of Engineering | My Degree Plan | Create a web-based application that will help students build schedules for their courses. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Taegun Harshbarger, Jacob Malloy, Gabriel Stowe, AND Marco DeLeon | Spring 2023 |
| Vanadium Flow Battery | Office of Sustainability | Vanadium Flow Battery | Develop a concept for an energy storage device that could be used in Hodges Library to eliminate peak-demand charges. Energy costs during peak-demand times are substantially higher than average costs. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Mark Terrones II, Gabriel Abbu, Conrad Pelletier, and Kenneth Washington | Spring 2019 |
| Material Handling Automation & IIOT Data Integration | Real Alloy Recycling, Inc. | All in for Alloy | Design a system to automate handling, marking, storage and data records entry for aluminum Recycled Secondary Ingots (RSI) after the molding process. The system is expected to eliminate safety hazards, ergonomic issues, labor availability issues, and human errors. Verify system performance via simulation. Identify suppliers and create a capital plan for budgeting and implementation. | Integrated Engineering Design | Enrique Macias de Anda | Sejal Jinturkar, Jack Krimmel, Sarah Norris, and John Turner | Spring 2023 |
| Design of a Solar-Powered, Non-Thermal Plasma Device for Microbial Disinfection | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Non-Thermal Plasma Team | Develop a water disinfection device for off-grid use in remote areas. Portability, effectiveness, and cost are key factors of design. The design utilizes plasma generation of ozone to kill microbes. | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Philip Ye and David Smith | Luke Martin, Calvin Conn, Jordan Brewer, and Cabot Anderson | Spring 2019 |
| Facility Redesign and EHS Analytics | Reliability & Maintainability Center (RMC) | Facility Redesign and EHS Analytics | This project will functionalize the Future Concepts Room/Laboratory and standardize Safety and Ergonomics testing methods. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Bill Hicks | Matthew Davis, Tyrone Hawkins, Hunter Holcomb, and Preston Ruth | Spring 2024 |
| Optimization of Beer to Whiskey Distillation Process | Post Modern Spirits | Smokeyรs Whiskey Makers | Develop parameters to optimize the production of whiskey from while maintaining the flavor profile of Post-Modern Distillery determined from analytical procedures. The parameters must be achievable with the equipment already used at the distillery. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan and Zhanhu Guo | Alexandra Galaska, Hunter Beckham, Devin Blumenfeld, and Caroline Jones | Spring 2020 |
| Roundabout Improvements at Northshore Drive & Concord Road in Knox County | Knox County, Cannon & Cannon | Mobility Masters | Design a plan to improve the performance of the roundabout at Northshore Drive and Concord Road in West Knox County to accommodate the current and future traffic demands. Engineering services needed include traffic analysis, roadway design, drainage, cost estimating, and potentially civil services to modify the nearby greenway to accommodate shifting, realignment, or widening of the roundabout footprint. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Josiah Devito, Bailey Dishmon, Derek Durham, Jarrett Hill, Clayton Hollifield, and Juwaan Jefferson | Spring 2024 | |
| Battle Bots | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Battlebot - Team 6 | Design a strong, adaptable, and attackable BattleBot by following the instructions and rules of the BattleBot competition and MABE department. The robot should have dimensions limited to no more than 2ft x 2ft, a weight limit of 50 pounds, a total budget limit of $1,500, and a minimum running speed at 4 mph without any prohibited weapon or materials. The robot should be controlled by a remotely control system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Subhadeep Chakraborty | Maxim Kravchenko, Joseph Heimel, Jonathan Paul Kear, and Samer Abdo | Spring 2023 |
| Craft Beer Production | Balter Beerworks | Craft Beer Production | Observe the beer making process and develop a mass balance for dissolved oxygen and yeast in different sections of the system. Improve the shelf life of the beer by optimizing the dissolved oxygen. Optimize the cost and time for the process by modifying the equipment and energy needs. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Jake Jolley, Jess Ossyra, Seth Anderson, Adam Soper, and Justin Holladay | Spring 2019 |
| Cloud-based Bot to Match Up Natural Language Questions to Relevant Content | RegScale Corporation | Crawlr | Crawl the RegScale website documentation with a Bot that takes natural language questions to look up relevant help files, examples, and controls. Crawl past data entry for similar requirements/controls in the RegScale platform. Provide previous examples client can pick from to ease data entry burdens. Develop and implement an online ROI tool. | Integrated Engineering Design | Amir Sadovnik | Matthew McIntyre, Swasti Mishra, Soofi Punjani, Jiawei Wu, and Franklin Xie | Spring 2023 |
| Inventory Management System at T&T Scientific | T&T Scientific | T&T Scientific | Engineer a new inventory management system for T&T Scientific, a Knoxville-based startup company in the biomedical technology industry. Coordinate the implementation of a new inventory replenishment system, storage methods, and standardized work practices. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Floyd Ostrowski and Lee Martin | Wesley Smith, Megan Reding, and Emily Lynch | Spring 2019 |
| Tailstand Undergoing Re-design & Balanced Operation | 134th Air Refueling Wing | TURBO | TURBO is a project aimed at redesigning the current tailstand for the KC-135R refueling aircraft. The current tailstand used by the Air Force is heavy, cumbersome and, well-aged. Our design is aimed to improve overall ergonomics and operation so that ground crew can become more efficient at launching and recovering aircraft. Reduced fatigue on the operator also correlates to higher safety margins in other aspects of aircraft preparation such as checklists and ground-ops. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Robert Bond | Daneil McPartland, Adam Cash, Charles Hayes, Amber Hiscock, Ryan Jacobik, and Jordan Morris | Spring 2024 |
| Early Warning Solar Storm Prediction | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Early Warning Solar Storm Prediction | Develop a prediction algorithm for solar storms using machine learning. Design a magnetic loop antenna for observation of solar radiation, used in conjunction with historic data to train the algorithm. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Marvin Joshi, Matthew Smalley, Aiden Rutter, Ben Klein, and Ian Lumsden | Spring 2020 |
| Clayton-Bradley Academy Tennis Complex and Bridge Addition | Clayton Bradley Academy, C2RL | Tennessee Valley Visions | Perform engineering services to design a site and construction plan for the tennis complex inclusive of an elevated walkway, multi-use facility, and retaining wall to accommodate grading plans developed by the team. Render construction engineering services to generate erosion control plans, select equipment, complete cost estimation, and schedule duration for the project. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Matthew Forrest, Matthew Hobeika, Kaden Klein, Emma Poindexter, Kareem Rodriguez, and Marissa Trobl | Spring 2024 | |
| Hyper-localized Predictive Analytics for a PV-Energy Storage-Load System | Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | Hyper-localized Predictive Analytics for a PV-Energy Storage-Load System | Develop a cost-effective predictive analytics module that may be used for a renewable storage system to gather data and develop predictions based on photovoltaic generation and consumer load demand. This involved the design of the renewable power system, the incorporation of measurement sensors, and the development of a robust algorithm that can operate reliably under any circumstance. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Charles Cao | Murphy Smith, Michael Garcia, Mary Denise, John McElroy, Dai'zjon Carney, and Lillian Sharpe | Spring 2023 |
| Temporary Work zone Vehicular Intrusion Prevention Project | Rogers Group | JESC Engineering | The purpose of the design is to develop a system to prevent and further reduce vehicular intrusions into temporary work zones on highway construction projects. The team has developed a system that integrates high speed rumble strips and LIDAR sensors to reduce the speeds of incoming traffic and alert construction workers of non authorized vehicles entering a work zone at dangerous speeds. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jennifer Retherford | Ethan Riddle, Jonathan Trzil, Scott Wilson, and Connor Witzeman | Spring 2019 |
| Flow and Sediment Suspension Sampler | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Sciences | FloSSS | Design, build, and test a system to accurately and autonomously measure the sediment mass in effluent from construction site sediment basins. | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Angela Smith | Seth Chaney, Matt Gehosky, Leah Johnston, and Savannah Roth | Spring 2023 |
| Extraction of Thorium Oxide and Rare Earth Elements from Monazite Ore | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | CBE 488 Group 1 | Develop a process for the acid leaching of monazite ore in order to extract and separate thorium oxide, as well as profitable rare earth elements. Estimate the cost of such a process and perform a profitability analysis. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Makalee Ruch, Molly Landon, Chloe Frame, Ralph Laurel, and Annabelle Li | Spring 2019 |
| Design, Optimization, and Validation of a Hypersonic Scramjet Inlet | JHTO/CUBRC/UTSI | VOLScram | Design a hypersonic scramjet inlet subject to propulsive performance, size, and aircraft trajectory requirements. Perform concept studies on existing scramjet engines to qualify feasibility of the project and to inform downselection of inlet architecture. Perform conceptual system-level design to determine the feasibility of integrating the inlet with a hypersonic propulsive system on a conceptual boost-to-glide vehicle, evaluating inlet performance by quantifying contributions to total vehicle lift and drag. Design, manufacture, and test subscale demonstrators to validate inlet performance in variable Mach number 48 inch CUBRC wind tunnel with flight-relevant conditions. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Ragini Acharya | Hayden Ahrens, Jake Brown, Michael Fox, Even Hals, Bryson Kelley, Matthew Megazzini, Terry Nguyen, and Cullum Spurlock | Spring 2024 |
| Optimization of Whiskey Cuts for Yield and Flavor | PostModern Spirits | Volunteer Distillers | Develop a method to optimize yield and flavor of PostModern Spiritรs distillation process. This is to be accomplished by using analytical methods in the laboratory and Aspen Plus simulations. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan and Zhanhu Guo | Malcolm Miller, Abdullah Algamdi, Zhenglang Hao, and Carter Sheppard | Spring 2020 |
| Oshkosh Weld Hood Cleaner | Oshkosh Defense | Cleaning Crew | Design a safe and enclosed cleaning solution to remove metal debris from welding hoods. The system must be easy to operate and have a quick turnaround time. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Noah Bell, Mason Derrick, Peter Reso, and Caroline Bowers | Spring 2023 |
| Share Ride | Syna3C | Team 007 | Share Ride, is a website that helps with rapid response and aid of volunteers in disaster zones. Specifically the disaster relief website will allow volunteers to coordinate ride-sharing and housing. Furthermore the site will create a way for users to easily connect with organization by looking at the website's map to see where the closest and most available relief is. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Keith Stanfill | Ethan Hicks, Aaron Kintzler, Brandon Yen, and John Povlin | Spring 2019 |
| Mandible Reconstruction Plate Design Optimization with FEA | tmCMF | JaRoo | Develop a process to improve the design and Additive Manufacturing of custom plates used in mandible reconstruction surgery. The process improvement should reduce the time for acquisition, reduce costs, and create better outcomes for patients. The project will involve quantifying patient outcomes, designing testing fixtures to simulate mandible loads and structures, and optimization of the plate geometry for performance using Finite Element methods. | Integrated Engineering Design | Kwai Wong | Payton Butler, Carter Hatch, Seth Kenny, Heidi Seuss, and Travis Thornton | Spring 2023 |
| Thorcon Power Plant Transients Analysis | Department of Nuclear Engineering | MSR UT | The main focus of the project is to design a model of a Thorcon power plant in order to test the transient behavior of the plant during design basis accidents. The model is created by combining four smaller models of the core neutronics, core kinetics, freeze plug behavior, and thermal cycle. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Ondrej Chvala | Yanheng Chen, Son Quang, and John Hirtz | Spring 2019 |
| Design Build Fly Takeoff Performance Test Plane | AIAA DBF | Design, Build and Fly a test vehicle. The goal is to acquire takeoff performance for an electrically powered airplane to support future DBF teams. Tests will include takeoff distance as a function of weight, power and wing area. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Robert Bond | Brycen Eisenhut, Braden Elbers, Thomas Fischer, Burke Hardin, Patrick Jones, Ty Kilpatrick, and Piper Sauerbrunn | Spring 2024 | |
| Surgical Lip/Cheek Protector | University of Tennessee Research Foundation | SLP of UTK | Design a hands-free reusable device for use in oral surgeries that offers protection of the mouth and lips from heated tools as well as retraction of the lips and cheeks. The material used should be able to be sterilized and heat resistant. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Kevin Mathew | Nicholas Barton, Robert Garibay, Huntington Potter, and Austin Schmidle | Spring 2020 |
| Roadway Stabilization Efforts in the Walnut Bend Community | HOA of Walnut Bend Community, GeoServices | Roadway Rehabilitation Services | Provide services to mitigate current concerns about the stability of the only access road into the Walnut Bend gated lakefront community. Propose future fixes anticipated as the community continues to experience heavy construction traffic, and life-cycle analysis to provide some guidance towards long-term support by the homeowners' association. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Griffin Barley, Ethan Barnhill, John Diaz, Laken Jones, Roy Smith, and Angel Soler | Spring 2024 | |
| GaPS Pulsar Radio Telescope | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | GaPS Pulsar Radio Telescope | Build a radio telescope specifically designed to detect millisecond pulsars for use as a reliable timing source as a replacement for the GPS System. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Micah Beck | Aaron Winebarger, Jacob Hammonds, Hunter Kelley, Jonathan Shields, Stephanie Tomasik, and Audrey Rodriguez | Spring 2023 |
| Vanadium Flow Battery DEMO at Hodges | Office of Sustainability | Vanadium Flow Battery | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Mark Terrones II, Gabriel Abbu, Conrad Pelletier, and Kenneth Washington | Spring 2019 | |
| Water Quality Subsampler | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Sciences | SuperSampler | Design, build, and test a system to extract a representative 50 ml subsample from 18 L of water / sediment mixture, accurate in both mass and particle size distribution. | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Daniel Yoder | DJ Livengood and Kayla Nettesheim | Spring 2023 |
| Monterey Mushrooms | Monterey Mushrooms | Develop a machine capable of autonomously detecting, measuring, locating, then picking a mushroom growing on a bed of dirt and placing it in an assorted bin based on size. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Rory Butler, Devon McKnight, Will Rooks, Ryan Carter, and Kevin Carini | Spring 2019 | |
| Magnus Effect Airplane | Magnus Effect Team | Utilize the Magnus Effect to create lift on an RC plane using rotating cylinders as opposed to traditional airfoils. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Robert Bond | Mackenzie Sutton, Connor Traynor, Harrison James, Madison Packard, Colton Puett, Ronnie Rainer, and Garret Wiggen | Spring 2024 | |
| Acoustic Asian Carp Repellent Device | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 13 | Design and implement a waterproof speaker that emits high frequency sonar that will target and deter Asian Carp from fishing boats. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Cody Lawson, Sydney Shelby, Trey Mingee, Christine Garcia, and Alex Bolinsky | Spring 2020 |
| Foothills Mall Drive Extension [Phase 2] in the City of Maryville | City of Maryville, Gresham Smith | K.L.A.M.P. Engineering | The City of Maryville proposes a new alignment to alleviate traffic on Hwy 129 and improve connectivity within this local region. Design prioritizing safety and improving roadway navigation for local travelers is sought. New roadway alignments and associated traffic analysis is required to predict anticipated vehicular use and accommodate the use safely. Drainage and environmental permitting efforts are also necessary to ensure a safe roadway can be constructed along the new alignment. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Mashiyat Akand, Karah Godfrey, Campbell Jones, Peyton Myers, and Angelica Rose | Spring 2024 |
| Automated Body Measurement System | UT Research Foundation | UTRF Automated Body Measurements | Design an automated system that measures a medical patient's height, weight, and body mass index. The system must be operator friendly and be patient inclusive to all weights and heights. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Ian Daffron, Joseph Hoots, Daisha Johnson, and Andrew Pugh | Spring 2023 |
| CubeSat | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 15 | Develop a working prototype of a CubeSat and a FlatSat to simulate and demonstrate working technology related to relaying and transmitting data. We will be implementing different ideas, as well as attempting to revolutionize technology already used. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Ben Hawkins, Michael Kang, Viktor Zenkov, Noah Branch, Mason Piper, and Joohyuk Leem | Spring 2019 |
| Modular, Multi-Use Water Treatment Skid for Radiological & Chemical Cleanup Applications | United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) | Scruffy City Skids | Research water treatment technologies that can be deployed to treat and discharge water generated during UCOR D&D activities. Design of treatment media, process parameters, treatment equipment, and modularity/interchangeability of components must be optimized as part of this effort. The team should identify overall cost savings for implementing a modular water treatment skid concept over designing and procuring custom treatment skids for each project. | Integrated Engineering Design | Sankar Raghavan | Morgan Louis, Jenna Stevens, Kate Schildmeyer, and Hannah Selph | Spring 2023 |
| Determining the Effect of a Humid Environment on Cable Aging | Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (AMS) | Cable Aging | Cable aging is a costly problem occuring in industry and there is still much unknown about how it occurs. Environments with high amounts of humidity, such as those of light water nuclear reactors, are of particular interest due to complications added by the presence of water. These cables are exposed to harsh environmental conditions and elevated temperatures for decades, and cable embrittlement or failure can lead to dangerous and costly consequences. To provide a better understanding for the mechanisms behind cable aging, embrittlement, and other environmental failures, cable insulation made from cross-linked polyethylene (XLP) and ethylene propylene rubber (EPR) were examined. These insulative polymers will be exposed to high and low humidities at elevated temperatures to simulate light water nuclear reactor environments. Samples of new cable insulation were artificially aged in a tube furnace with water vapor to simulate humid environments. Virgin, service simulated, and service exposed samples were analyzed by DSC, TGA, Dielectric testing, FTIR, and Raman spectroscopy. The data gathered from these tests will be compared and contrasted in order to provide a better understanding of how aging occurs and give a ballpark estimate for cable life. | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Kurt Sickafus | Max Neveau, Cameron Hale, Ethan Blount, Darby Ker, Jeremiah Petty, and Noah Schaftlein | Spring 2019 |
| Huya-Quaoar Joint Mission | HQJM | In this project, we seek to extend a previously described opportunity for a two-target interplanetary mission to Huya and Quaoar to the next synodic period. Potential mission architectures include both unpowered and powered Jupiter flybys, delta V Earth gravity assists, and both single probe and two probe missions. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Ashlyn Riikola, Geneva Ballard, Sophia Hatchet, Ariana Hutchins, and Gaige Talley | Spring 2024 | |
| Car Seat for the Transportation and Discharge of Underweight Premature Infants | MABE Department of Tickle College of Engineering | The Brainy Bunch | Design a car seat adequate enough for infants weighing under four pounds to be safely transported from the hospital to home. Implement an adjustable air bag system within the attachment for easy transportation throughout infant growth. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeffrey Reinbolt | Anna Clare Herline, Alexandra Anthony, Jack Deinhart, Tessa Brooks, and Benjamin Savitz | Spring 2020 |
| Site Development at Pistole Park | City of McMinnville, James C. Hailey & Company | AJS Design | Two permeable multi-purpose fields with common amenities are sought for Pistole Park in McMinnville, TN. The community seeks fields with supporting elements such as bleachers, a scoreboard, seating for players, and fencing to protect players from nearby roadway traffic. Stormwater infrastructure, inclusive of underground water storage and underdrains to support field conditions is sought for the site which has a pond and some limited drainage capacity. In addition to the field, a bathroom, 2-story clubhouse, and pavilion are also sought to develop the site into a quality attraction for the city residents. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Blake Atwood, Auston Jackson, Cody Smith, and Megan Swindle | Spring 2024 | |
| Privacy Protecting Contact Tracing Device | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Privacy Protecting Contact Tracing Device | Make a contact tracing device that can be mass producible and cheap. This CTD will be privacy focused and intended on creating a way for more impoverished nations to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. The CTD will use BLE to exchange private identifiers with other devices. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Micah Beck | Neh Patel, Logan Scott, Nima Tayefeh, Matt Porter, and Varun Bhupatiraju | Spring 2023 |
| Athen's Public Works Building | City of Athens | HONLY Engineering | Develop a Civil/Site plan for the City of Athens' new Public Works Building. This project contains elements of structural design, geotechnical analysis, and construction viability. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jennifer Retherford | Josh Oakes, Josh Yoakum, Jona Ligon, Conner Naffziger, and Ben Huskey | Spring 2019 |
| Pot-in-Pot Extracting Robot | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Sciences, Department of Plant Sciences | PIPER | Design, build, and test a system to autonomously lift and remove the inner 15-gallon pot (containing a nursery tree) from the outer in-ground pot without damage. | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Hao Gan and Amy Fulcher | Robert Cowan, Cam McReynolds, Bailey Millsaps, and Darlene Player | Spring 2023 |
| Process Design for the Extraction of Thorium Dioxide and other REE Oxides from Monazite Ore | Electric Power Research Institute | The EngiNERDs | Complete a study level process design and analysis of a process to produce reasonable pure thorium dioxide as a product and rare earth oxides as bi-products from monazite ore. The plant design must be economically and environmentally feasible. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Brad Bennett, Chelsea Connolly-Horton, Kelsey Hay, and Julia Johnson | Spring 2019 |
| New Trans-Neptunian Targets | NewTNOs | The objective of this project is the identification of optimized interplanetary trajectory architectures to trans-Neptunian objects not previously considered by mission planners. Strategies include both powered and unpowered Jupiter gravity assists and delta V Earth gravity assists. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Niko Warren, Michael Wingate, Connor Colvard, Katherine Freeman, Josh Gilder, and Blake Lovell | Spring 2024 | |
| Swinging Bucket Centrifuge Coffee Maker | University of Tennessee Research Foundation | Coffee Team 1 | Design and build a centrifugal coffee making system that spins and dispenses coffee. Create a prototype to implement and demonstrate the concept. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Doug Aaron | Nicholas Collins, Henry Iduoze, Holly Nielsen, and James Smitherman | Spring 2020 |
| Neyland Drive Multimodal Project | City of Knoxville | Knoxville Multimodal Design | Design civil site work, transportation design, and construction services. Develop a stormwater collection system, implement greenway drainage requirements, and relocate existing utilities conflicting with the proposed greenway geometry. Modify the existing roadway to fit the proposed greenway, calculate the greenway vertical and horizontal geometry , determine the proposed traffic signalization, develop multimodal intersection geometry, and determine the proposed pavement markings and signage. Formulate traffic control methods following TDOT transportation design standards, compile material quantities, develop an erosion control plan using the Tennessee Erosion and Sediment Control Handbook, and design a construction schedule following the critical path method. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Evan Pindrock, Jackson Powers, Carson Reisinger, and Lance Tudor | Spring 2024 | |
| Design and Fabrication of an all-terrain vehicle system | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Baja SAE | Design, test, and fabricate a robust, all-terrain vehicle. The system must be a cost-effective, all-wheel drive solution capable of traversing diverse, austere environments. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Brandon Burchell, Angelena Cassar, Carter Chapman, Garrett Fields, Carson Foy, Bailey Gadams, Wyatt Greenewalt, Jacob Hickerson, Azeem Husain, Robert Jones, Stephanie Newton, Noah Trent, and Joseph Walker | Spring 2023 |
| Matrix-Based Hybrid Rocket Engine Development | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | The Rocketeers | Experiment with various 3-D printed, powder-filled fuel matrix designs and materials to overcome the general slow burn rate typical of hybrid rocket engines and thus increase regression rate thereby increasing specific impulse and characteristic velocity. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Evans Lyne | Teague Aarant, Timothy Grizzel, Angus Shaw, Seth Holladay, William Putthoff, Jared Bass, and Matthew Mcvey | Spring 2019 |
| Robotic Arm for Ultrasonic Transducer Panel Assembly Automation | Ultrasonic Technology Solutions | Good Vibes | Design, develop and test the best automated mounting process for piezoelectric transducers. Develop a plan for full scale production. | Integrated Engineering Design | Helen Cui | Ryan Davis, Joseph Eaton, Noah Varner, and Jeremy Meanwell | Spring 2023 |
| Axial Flux Mapping of a Subcritical Reactor Assembly | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Flux Mapping | Design and construct a robotic arm that drops a BF3 detector into a subcritical nuclear reactor. The robotic arm will move with 3 degrees of freedom in the x, y, and z directions. The purpose of this project is to use the detector to measure the neutron flux in various locations of the reactor. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Laurence Miller and Larry Sharpe | Garrett Robert Henson Montgomery, and John Charles Terosky IV | Spring 2019 |
| Refinement of Missions to Sedna, Makemake and Orcus | Sedna, Etc. | This project investigates interplanetary trajectories the dwarf planets Sedna, Makemake, and Orcus. This project builds upon previous work of unpowered Jupiter flybys by implementing a powered swingby to trajectories in order to lower transit time. Additionally, trajectories utilizing a delta VEGA maneuver are considered due to their ability to increase mass on target. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Noah Nash | Spring 2024 | |
| EcoCar Mobility Challenge | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 22 | Develop tools for EcoCar Mobility Challenge including data visualization tools, diagnostics check, and sensor status. Design the program that analyzing the data collected by various types of sensors mounted on the vehicle. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Spencer Harper, Austin Park, Zhekai Dong, and Haowei Cao | Spring 2020 |
| Sansom Sports Complex: Parking Lot & Stormwater Addition | City of Knoxville | Tri-Star Design Group | Optimize a parking lot layout, design an infiltration pit for stormwater runoff of the parking lot, and design an informational kiosk. Services included an infiltration pit design based on a hydrological analysis for an inch of runoff during a 25-year storm event, the redesign of a parking lot layout to meet the demand of site users, the design of educational kiosk through wind load determination, structural analysis, and foundation design. Construction sequencing and quantity take-offs were performed to provide a completion timeline and an estimated cost. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jacob Cook, Taylor Cruz, Victoria Hall, Heather Lueckenhoff, and Austin Reeves | Spring 2024 | |
| Steerable Parachute For a Rocket "SPAR" | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Steerable Parachute For a Rocket "SPAR" | Create a steerable parachute for a rocket SPAR. The SPAR opens a parachute at apogee (the highest point in the launch) to minimize stress put on the airframe during descent. An unguided parachute will allow the rocket to drift thousands of meters from the launch point. This makes recovery difficult and tedious, as well as the rocket possibly leaving its designated airspace rendering liability for damage caused. The SPAR guides the rocket to a safe, convenient location. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Micah Beck | Jacob Page, Matthew Walters, Kevin Nguyen, and Sal Palozzo | Spring 2023 |
| Variable Thermal Resistance Insulation for Energy Conservation in Homes / Dynamic Insulation Wall Assembly | Clayton Homes | Clayton Homes Variable Insulation | Develop a variable insulation wall system for residential homes. This system utilizes thin metallic sheets placed in parallel inside the wall with a small current being used to manipulate the walls R value. By doing this energy is conserved through efficiently heating and cooling the indoors by taking advantage of the outdoor climate. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Taylor Jordan, Carson Buchanan, Connor Morton, Tyler Newsom, and Dalton West | Spring 2019 |
| Generalized River-powered Irrigation System for Low Pressure | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Sciences | GRISL | Develop a design tool for irrigation systems for use in developing countries with nearby rivers providing water and power. | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Brian Leib and Alan Foster | Sebastian Altman, Dawson Searcy, and Jonathan Shea | Spring 2023 |
| Extraction of Thorium Oxide from Monazite Ore | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | CBE 488 Group 9 | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert (Pete) Counce | Brian Grim, Kevin Harricharran, Sidharth Mahajan, and Maggie Mann | Spring 2019 | |
| Hybrid Rocket | Hybrid Vols | This team is integrating a previously developed hybrid rocket engine into a new airframe and plans to launch the rocket at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry event in Southern California in early June. The rocket is expected to reach a peak altitude of approximately 35,000 feet. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Ricardo Crescencio, Ashley Kulikowski, Meg Buckner, Meghan Smitherman, Jonathan Vredeveld, Sean Caufield, Rudra Patel, and Jeremy Kern | Spring 2024 | |
| Large Scale Production of Lithium Carbonate | Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | Large Scale Lithium Carbonate Production: Team B | Develop a large scale process for the production of battery grade lithium carbonate through a combination of separation and purification techniques. The separation of lithium from the geothermal brine of the Salton Sea will be achieved through three main steps: flash evaporation of water, removal of excess metals through a chromatography column, and purification of lithium carbonate in a multi-step precipitation process. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Catherine Campbell, Madeline Daffron, Max Rodgers, and Natalie Reavill | Spring 2020 |
| Grill and Smoker Redesign | MECO | MECO 1 | Redesign and build the MECO electric grill with modernization in mind and design a smoker that has a usable selling point to separate it from other smokers. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Amanda Garrison, Evan Hill, Sam Hooker, and Kirk Lockmiller | Spring 2023 |
| CubeSat | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 8 | Assemble the hardware components and develop the software requirements for a CubeSat satellite. The CubeSat satellite is a 10x10x10 box used in Earth's orbit to proved many research statistics to development teams on land. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Zack Hawks, Alexa Tipton, James Hammer, Austyn Simons, and Isaac Way | Spring 2019 |
| Forming a Circular Economy for Glass through 3D Printing | Vitriform 3D | Glass3D Solutions | Develop a business model for glass collection and recycling at Blount County facility. Explore commercial uses for the glass material including 3D-Printing of the materials. Build out and demonstrate a proof-of-concept 3D printer that can produce recycled glass composite parts. | Integrated Engineering Design | Dustin Gilmer | Ben Clark, Georgia Stricklen, Paulina Urbanowicz, and Matthew Walker | Spring 2023 |
| 3D Systems UV LED Curing Unit | 3D Systems | 3D Systems UV LED Curing Unit | Design a device for an existing curing unit that uses UV LED technology in place of traditional fluorescent bulbs | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Toby Boulet | Devan DeMatteo | Spring 2019 |
| Liquid Rocket | Liquid Vols | The project objective is the successful testing of an ethanol/nitrous oxide liquid rocket engine and its integration into a flight vehicle, followed by a successful launch of the rocket. Full liquid engines use liquid propellants for both the fuel and the oxidizer and are more complex than solid propellant or hybrid rockets. Few university teams have launched this the of rocket in the past. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Sam Dixon, Will Medley, and Nathan Pitcher | Spring 2024 | |
| Recovery of Thorium from Monazite Ore | Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) | Thorium on the Rocks | Develop and document the results of a study-level design and economic analysis of thorium recovery. Investigate and propose a viable process for the extraction of thorium oxide and rare earth oxides from monazite ore. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Haley Prater, Samantha Karklins, Thomas Welker, and Aaron Kuhn | Spring 2020 |
| DataSocial | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | DataSocial | Enable transparency in data insight construction and to empower users to create and share their own insights without needing to host massive datasets locally. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Charles Cao | Jacob Armiger, John Allbritten, Jacob Duell, Dominic Kennedy, and Josh Anantharaj | Spring 2023 |
| ICS Machine Safety Switch | Innovation and Collaboration Studio | Team Hat (Team 9) | The New Engineering Complex is planned to have a large makerspace with several dangerous machines that could endanger students who do not know how to use them. To prevent this, the ICS director has commissioned a device that will authenticate a user using Volcards and permit access if the person is recorded in a database as having been trained. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Michael Foust, Matthew Hoffman, Michaela Shoffner, Jonathan Redington, Jonathan Bueckman, and Feng Li | Spring 2019 |
| Modular Distributed Gas to Liquids Synthesis | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Modular Distributed Gas to Liquids Synthesis | Develop a modular system that could be positioned near stranded oil and gas resources that is capable of converting natural gas to liquid, designing the system as a positive contributor to reducing greenhouse gases, and optimizing the deployment of the equipment in the field. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Brandon Stevens | Liv Lazar, Sami Isaac, Benjamin Burnette, and William Brackett | Spring 2023 |
| Develop Standard Operating Procedures for Full Electronic Records Integration | InterFaith Health Clinic | InterFaith Senior Design Team | Achieve full electronic record integration at InterFaith Health clinic by creating Standard Operating Procedures for volunteer doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses. These Standard Operating Procedures must be easily understood and implemented to ensure quality care and records for all patients. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Floyd Ostrowski | Emily Diehl, Clark Legac, Payton Garland, Joshua Presnell, Emily Glenn, and Corrine Terhune | Spring 2019 |
| Oral Hygiene | University of Tennessee Research Foundation | Oral Hygiene | Design and implement a universal brush attachment for Yankauer Suction Tubes. This attachable device must cost less than $1.90 and have a 360 degree brush head. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Preetam Sharma | Benjamin Schwartz, Celeste Pelletier, Cyrus Jones, and Hatim Kamal | Spring 2020 |
| _Oak Ridge Civic Center Parking and _Stormwater Improvements | Oak Ridge | _DESIGNbyVOLS | Redesign of the Oak Ridge Civic Center Plaza and parking lot, which includes both functional and aesthetic improvements for the recently added conference center. The design includes an accessible entrance, a circular plaza hub, additional seating, and a large grassy area, with all design changes being made in accordance with accessibility codes and standards. A detailed cost estimate, project schedule, and life-cycle analysis were also created. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Joseph Bilodeau, John Ogle, Garrett Overholt, Paul Patrick, and Agnes Subramanian | Spring 2024 | |
| Line Cart Simulator Upgrade | Oshkosh Defense | Oshkosh 2 | Improve the reliability and ergonomics of Oshkosh's existing Line Cart Simulator by replacing the impact-wrench powered screw driven spreading mechanism with a hydraulic system without compromising fixture usability and accuracy. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Clay Moody, Benjamin Jones, Nathan Paul, and Noah Morrison | Spring 2023 |
| PiTrader | Department of Finance | PiTrader | Design an automated algorithmic trading platform that can execute predefined or user-defined strategies. Provide a form of passive alpha for casual investors interested in technology and trading. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Andy Puckett | David Clevenger, Parker Holt, Dylan Farmer, Justin Martinez, and Guru Ball-Khalsa | Spring 2019 |
| Module-based Portable Power Bank (120V + USB-C) | Volkswagen EPC | Lightning Plugs | Develop a business model for and prototype of a portable power bank to provide 120 VAC and 5 VDC power to provide off-grid power for camping and other applications. The system should use depleted EV battery modules and provide standard electrical duplex outlets and USB connectors. The system should be small enough to fit in the trunk of a car. | Integrated Engineering Design | Leon Tolbert | Andy Chin, Marcos Garcia, Harrison Phillips, Elizabeth Sutton, and Maggie Vaughn | Spring 2023 |
| Process of Thorium Oxide from Monazite Ore: An Economic Analysis | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Team 488 | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Brooke Ballard, Kishen Patel, Mitchel Porter, and Natalie Ray | Spring 2019 | |
| Harm-Reduction Kiosk | Live Free - Claiborne | eVOLve innovators | The Harm- Reduction Kiosk gives participants constant access to safe syringe disposal and clean syringes. It includes a Raspberry Pi interface that allows users to provide information for syringes in return. Our kiosk provides syringe disposal with an external biohazard container, and additional storage for harm-reduction inventory with an internal compartment. This kiosk provides accessible resources for the community to prevent the spread of bloodborne pathogens and to educate the community about harm-reduction resources. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Joseph Hoffman | Olivia Carver, Katarina Decamp, Mindy Le, and Andrew Mixon | Spring 2024 |
| Linear Accelerator Facility Design | The Department of Homeland Security | Linear Accelerator Facility | Design a linear accelerator service center for production of 6/9 MV x-rays and high flux neutrons. Develop it to be operational, sustainable, and maximally functional, making the best use of a donation of equipment and shielding materials and other project-based equipment funds from the Department of Homeland Security and the University of Tennessee. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Jason Hayward and Michael Liesenfelt | Bradley Balltrip, Erica Irwin, Heath Davis, and Valerie Gray | Spring 2020 |
| Site Development Plan For OMG Farm | OMG Farms, Langan | OMG Farmers Senior Design | Confirmed structural integrity for onsite structures, created earthwork plans, developed transportation infrastructure, ensured environmental compliance, and designed water resources utilities. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Ava Delaney, Camille Landstreet, Blythe Lundberg, Emma OHagan, and Houston Williams | Spring 2024 | |
| Chatting with a Robot: AI Speech Comprehension Mobile App | DENSO | Chatting with a Robot: AI Speech Comprehension Mobile App | Develop a mobile app that interprets voice commands via AI and interfaces internally with a server at DENSO to let engineers remotely request information on robots at the facility. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Micah Beck | Anthony Roman, Matt Wyatt, Michael Hughes, and Cole Elliot | Spring 2023 |
| Tertiary Safety System for Spent Fuel Pool Cooling | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Spent Fuel Pool Cooling Team | We will be using thermoelectric generators (TEGs) in the nuclear spent fuel pool to provide electricity to the water circulation pumps in the event that off-site power and backup diesel generators are lost (similar to the situation at Fukushima). TEGs use a temperature difference between two sides of the plates to induce a current flow and thus create electricity. The water circulation pumps in the spent fuel pool are vital to keeping the water surrounding the spent fuel cool in order to prevent boiling; boiling in the spent fuel pool would cause the fuel to be uncovered and would allow the release of radiation. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Martin Grossbeck and Laurence F. Miller | Amanda Bachmann, Drew Shayotovich, Taylor Adams, Jonathan Farmer, Jillian Newmyer, Trina Garrett, and Essa Altalalah | Spring 2019 |
| Design of a Subcritical Test Assembly | Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | ORSA | Design subcritical experiments for training purposes. Critical safety training is administered to nuclear criticality safety engineers, managers, and others working in fields adjacent to criticality safety. Three separate subcritical assembly experiments will be designed using fuel materials from decommissioned research reactors. The designs should incorporate less than 700g U-235 and be conducive to using the 1/M approach-to-critical method for subcritical experiments. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Alex Lang, Douglas Bowen (ORNL) | Chilson Whittum, Edward Fejedelem, Kathryn Worrell, and Carson Sain | Spring 2023 |
| Baker Creek Preserve Springhouse Restoration | Legacy Parks | Legacy Engineering Designs | Design a restoration and improvement of the ruins of a historic springhouse located within the Baker Creek Preserve. The restoration reduces sediment and pollutant loading in Baker Creek downstream of the site through the construction of a stormwater catchment system and the diversion of springwater. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jennifer Retherford and Jon Hathaway | Matthew Howard, Charlie Cianciolo, and Laura Ferrer | Spring 2019 |
| Ultrasoundable Peripheral IV Access Model | University of Tennessee Medical Center | (KM)^2 | Develop a novel, low-cost, realistic IV insertion model that can accurately simulate insertion of an IV/catheter in difficult IV access patients. The model must be capable of ultrasound imaging and include anatomical obstacles specific to difficult IV access. Investigate market opportunities and create a manufacturing plan required for commercialization in healthcare facilities. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeffrey Reinbolt | Nicole Kowalski, Matthew Kushnir, Alicia Matavosian, and Camron Midgette | Spring 2020 |
| Automated Intake Valve for Rural Community Water System Prototype Community: Wala, Panama | Solea, Barge Design Solutions | Tickle Tech | Engineering services provided by Tickle Tech included developing two versions of a water intake system to address the high turbidity issues and water elevation changes during the wet season of Panama. The water intake system was developed to include a valve protection scheme, a mechanically actuated intake system, and an electrically actuated intake system to include turbidity monitoring. Prototypes of the mechanical, electrical, and turbidity control measures were created and tested to ensure success of design. Construction costs were estimated, and instructional material was developed for installation, maintenance, and troubleshoot and repair of the design. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Ashlyn Celichowski, Isabelle Hamby, Elizabeth Morgan, and Jackson Reeves | Spring 2024 | |
| Kettle Grill Product Design | MECO | MECO 2 | Redesign the kettle grill and legs. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Caleb Cain, Ethan Faulk, Ashton Simpkins, and Renee Smith | Spring 2023 |
| Emergency iTrainer | UT Medical Center | EngineerinGirls | Design a training model that can be used to simulate select emergency ocular procedures. The students at the UT Med Center Simulation Lab do not currently have a way to practice procedures like foreign body removal, slit-lamp exam, fluorescein staining, and lateral canthotomy. The training model needs to be life-life, realistic, and provide easy repeatability for training sessions. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeffrey Reinbolt | Jillian Schwendeman, Hannah Olsen, Gracie Forbes, Emma Johnson, and Brett Evans | Spring 2019 |
| Non-egg Based Platform for Influenza Vaccine | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Non-Egg Based Vaccines | Design a large-scale manufacturing facility for production of trivalent flu vaccine using a non-egg-based expression system such as insect cells or Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. The manufacturing facility must be able to respond to an influenza pandemic. | Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Brandon Stevens | Cedrick Brooks, Hank Marshall, Gabe Larkins, and Rahul Nandwani | Spring 2023 |
| Spaceport America Cup | Imperia Aerospace | UTK Rocketry Team | Develop a hybrid rocket motor capable of launching an experimental payload 10,000 feet into the air to collect microbial samples from the upper atmosphere. The motor will utilize a matrix fuel grain designed at UT Knoxville and will employ a vortex injector and combustion and dissociation catalysts to improve fuel regression rate. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Evans Lyne | Benjamin Barnhill, Sean Darling, Robert Nickel, Austin Springer, Adam Todd, and Stewart Whaley | Spring 2019 |
| Choto Peninsula Low-Pressure Sewer Design | First Utility District | Tennessee Valley Wastewater Solutions | Choto Peninsula in Knoxville, Tennessee has potential for development which could provide a significant economic boost to the area. Design efforts entail developing a master plan and a wastewater network such that future development can be encouraged. Evaluation includes design for both system upgrades and new low-pressure systems to replace existing septic systems and currently unserved areas anticipated for development. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Jonathan West, Joseph Bresson, Tyler Galyon, Alexander Gothard, and Ryan Livesey | Spring 2020 |
| TDOT | The Tennessee Bridge Builders | The project combined elements of transportation, structural, and construction engineering to create a working set of plans for the proposed bridge over Muddy Creek in accordance with TDOT standards. Transportation engineering involvement was a roadway alignment shift requiring a new guardrail design, pavement restriping and pavement design for the new roadway/bridge. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Kylie Fair, Durrett Mckay, Chloe Mehelic, Mauro Perez, Jacob Rytina, and Mitchell Tracy | Spring 2024 | ||
| TCE App | Tickle College of Engineering Office of Student Success | TCE App | Develop an app for the Tickle College of Engineering that provides networking and event updates for students. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Brandon Atkhamjonov, Robert Schenck, Paul Attle, and McKenzie Ward | Spring 2023 |
| Medium bromine recovery | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Medium bromine recovery | Recovery of bromine on a medium scale from brine aqueous waste. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan and Zhanhu Guo | Tyer Burnett, Chase Falcon, Timothy Quayle, and Charles Workman | Spring 2019 |
| Decreasing the Solar Heat Gain on the Unit 2 Reactor Building -- Sequoya Nuclear Plant | Tennessee Valley Authority | SHG | Find a solution to decrease the amount of solar heat gained from sun exposure that occurs on a TVA reactor building to decrease the internal air temperature. The decrease in temperature is needed to avoid a shutdown due to high temperatures that might occur inside the containment unit building. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Andrew Burk, Heath Hixson, Joe Walker, Roxanne Johnson (TVA) | Gretchen Evans, Nathanial Wolff, and Tony Zhang | Spring 2023 |
| 3D Systems: SLA Ultrasonic Recoating | 3D Systems | 3D Systems Group 2 | Design a test setup to test the effects of ultrasonics upon resin in a SLA 3D printer. The system must test different positions of ultrasonic transducers, different transducer power levels, and different SLA part profiles to make the system scalable. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Toby Boulet | Preston Buchanan, Dax Anderson, Trever Ferguson, and Dustin Samples | Spring 2019 |
| Fresenius | Fresenius Medical Care | Fresenius | Develop a simple and reliable system to insert an injection port cap into dialysis bag tube without the use of lubrication and increase the productivity of completing the bags. Create a business case and associated manufacturing cost plan for producing the system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | John Zavracky, John Nesbit, Aaron Rummel, Francisco Sanchez, and Stone Susong | Spring 2020 |
| Beaver Creek Channel Modification and Pedestrian Bridge | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers | G-TEC Solutions | Performed engineering analysis and design for the enhancement of the Beaver Creek waterway, reduced erosion at Beaver Creek, and enhanced site access through design of a new pedestrian bridge. Watershed delineation and hydrological analysis were performed, pre- and post-development channel flow was analyzed, and a channel armoring plan was developed for the water resources services. A civil site development plan and grading plan were created for the project to accommodate the proposed pedestrian bridge. The geotechnical services consisted of planning subsurface investigations to support the foundation design, abutment design, and slope stability analysis. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Caleb Campbell, Grey Reeves, Tyler Watterson, and Enoch Zhang | Spring 2024 | |
| Golf Swing Balance Board | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Golf Design Team | Develop instructional tool for teaching balance during the golf swing. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Will Buziak, Job Dooley, Ysidro Espinoza, Robert Vandergriff, and Christian White | Spring 2023 |
| CubeSat | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | CubeSat | Our project is to create a low cost cube satellite simulator. By using low cost components and a modular design, our simulator will help other teams to prototype their designs and troubleshoot them before they go into space. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Bert Bashfor, Sam MacLean, and Mike Light | Spring 2019 |
| Closing Critical Gaps to Enable a Circular Economy of Plastics - Pyoil Purification | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Pyoil Purification | Design a unit to purify a stream of pyrolysis oil derived from plastic waste and generate innovative ideas to improve the plastic sorting facility that serves as a feed source for the process, addressing the quantity, quality, and affordability gaps. | Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Brandon Stevens | Aissata Diallo, Makayla McGranahan, Brock Patterson, Sophie Sapp, and Cailey Willingham | Spring 2023 |
| Dissolved Oxygen Sensing for Wastewater Management | Eastman Chemical Company | DOERS | Develop an automated data logging system to measure and record dissolved oxygen levels in waste water from Eastman Chemical Company. The system will traverse a water basin to collect the data. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Yuvraj Sriram, Cory Hensley, Darren Foster, Ian Cannon, and Aaron Mcculler | Spring 2019 |
| Muscle fixation for an artificial tendon | University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine | Artemis | __Our project combats the flaws in current fixation techniques of artificial tendon to muscle. Current techniques disrupt blood flow, muscle function, as well as scar muscle tissue. Our proposed solution is to create a polyurethane 3D printed sutures sleeve which would enable a surgeon to connect the artificial tendon to the muscle. We are confident that the sutured sleeve presents a lasting solution to enhance force distribution across muscle, improving biocompatibility, and mimicking natural muscle function. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | David Anderson and Rigoberto Advincula | Dalal Belharouak, Sarah Miller, Jordan Oxendine, and Sydney Walker | Spring 2024 |
| AI Traffic Data Harvester and Analyzer | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 14 | A platform for harvesting and analyzing useful data from traffic cameras using machine learning. End users can potentially plan their routes and schedules according to the analyzed data. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Paul Cยtย, Dave Kennard, Tanner Kirby, Blake Terry, and Hunter Leef | Spring 2020 |
| University of Tennessee Hotel & Conference Center at the University of Tennessee Research Park | University of Tennessee Research Park, Barge Design Solutions | Neyland Construction | Develop a site plan, parking lot, grading plan and utility plan for the development of a hotel and conference center at The University of Tennessee Research Park. Construction management was conducted to create an erosion control plan, project schedule, and cost estimation. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jason Camilleri, Jaden Chin, John Earley, Brandon Harrell, Ryan Jones, and Ethan Owen | Spring 2024 | |
| Chatting With a Robot | DENSO | Chatting With a Robot | Create a personalized application for Android focused on getting diagnostic data from their industrial robots. Focusing on speech activation, our application allows the user to speak to the robot directly and receive the information they want in seconds. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Micah Beck | Alex Esser, Jay Amin, Saahil Patel, Gregory Brown, and Ryan Seamons | Spring 2023 |
| Attic Radiation Control (ARC) | Louisiana Pacific/Reflective Insulation Manufacturers Association | Attic Radiation Control | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Robert Carlton, Robert Glass, Robert Goeke, Alex Hadley, and Thomas Pinion | Spring 2019 | |
| Nuclear Security and Safety of PuBe Source | Department of Nuclear Engineering | NSS | Design a shielding device for an available PuBe neutron source to limit radiation exposure to less than the safety standard. The device must be easily portable, secure, and easy to access for laboratory usage. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Lawrence Heilbronn | Hunter Salmon, Bernadette Brezinski, Alex Choi, Liam Walker, and Teja Vallabhaneni | Spring 2023 |
| KARM Senior Design 2019 | Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries | Team KARM | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Doug Aaron | Stephanie Kiriazes, Margaret Brewer, Zachary Rhodes, Collin Bible, and Liam Flaherty | Spring 2019 | |
| Solo Surgical Frame for Veterinary Intestinal Anastomosis | University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine | PrecisionMed | Our project is focused on the creation of an assistive device tailored for the performance of Intestinal Anastomosis procedures by a solitary veterinary surgeon. Through the stabilization of positioning sutures, our carefully designed frame introduces a heightened level of flexibility and independence, surpassing the limitations of current methodologies. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Karen Tobias | Isabel Boyd, Micah Fletcher, Chris Jones, and Lauren Pate | Spring 2024 |
| Lithium Production from Geothermal Brine | Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | Lithium CarBROnate | Extract lithium from geothermal brine using Flash drums, chromatography, and precipitation processes. The process yields high purity lithium to be used in batteries. In the future, this process could help meet the demands of a high energy society. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Henry Travis, Amanda Peebles, Nathaniel Abbott, and Jacob Waldschlager | Spring 2020 |
| Solaris Malware Research | Robert French (Cisco ASIG) | Malware Researchers | This project seeks to research a advanced malware sample for the legacy Solaris UNIX-based operating system, and develop a program capable of communicating with the sample. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Jian Huang | Clayton Gilmer | Spring 2024 |
| EECS IT Asset Tracking System | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | EECS IT Asset Tracking System | Create a check-in/check-out inventory system so that the staff will be able to swiftly lend items out while also allowing them to see what is out and tell who checked it out. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Charles Cao | Imani Pelton, Reed Semmel, Christopher Degawa, and Zi Win Lim | Spring 2023 |
| Medium Scale Sour Water Treatment Process | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | SWT Process | Develop a sour water treatment process that removes contaminants from sour water to reach a specific purity. Compare the conventional method using air stripping to an innovative process using steam stripping. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan and John Guo | Kristen McGhee, Erin Essington, Andrew Street, and Neel Patel | Spring 2019 |
| Toppings Refinery Retrofit | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Toppings Refinery Retrofit | Produce a study estimate for processing naphtha from crude feeds to gasoline using a fixed bed continuous catalytic reformer, while also providing sellable benzene, toluene, and xylenes. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Brandon Stevens | Collin Farrell, Garrett Holbert, Ben Johnson, Jake Johnson, and Rochelle Stiles | Spring 2023 |
| IoT ChessBoard | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | ChessMate | We will be designing a chessboard that connects to the internet that will allow people to view a "pictorial" representation of what is happening in the chess match. The goal is to remove stress from the people participating so they can focus more on the game, and not the people that have to be in the room to watch. | Min H. Kao Department of Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Xiaopeng Zhao | Adam Short | Spring 2019 |
| Upgrade of Robotic Arm Control from Open Loop to Closed Loop Control and Implementation of a Flux Mapping System | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Robotic Arm Flux Mapping | Redesign and upgrade a robotic arm such that it operates from an open-loop system to a closed-loop system. The new robot and code should allow the robot to autonomously measure neutron radiation at different locations in its surroundings to form a 3D flux map of the environment. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Laurence Miller and Larry Sharpe | Noah Marks, Reagan Stringfellow, and Ben Clayton | Spring 2020 |
| Transportation Coordination System | Friends Forever | Transport Brigadiers | Our group is working on creating the transportation coordination system for the existing application for a non-profit organization so that the attendees of the events can have smoothly coordinated transportation to and from the airport with other people flying in/out at the same time. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Radhika Garg, Erin Briggs, and Kijan Daniel | Spring 2024 |
| Design and Build an Air Blender for Effectively Mixing HVAC Supply Air with Air Ions that Disinfests the Supply Air of Pathogens | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Air Ionization | Develop guidelines for the smart placement of air ion generators in the supply ducts of air handler units (AHUs). The guidelines target maximizing air ion exposure to contaminants, which in turn provides the best opportunity to sterilize, purify and improve indoor air quality (IAQ). | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Nathan Brummette, Harrison Schrock, Austin Vinyard, and Colton Duckworth | Spring 2023 |
| VocaCoord | Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology | Team VocaCoord | VocaCoord is a tablet and web application that uses speech-to-text technology to aid hearing and learning disabled children in the classroom. It detects keywords spoken by teachers and displays them on students' tablets along with a picture and definition of the word. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Jillian McCarthy and Michael Berry | Charles Rizzo, Jerry Duncan, Austin Saporito, Preston Provins, Ryan Flint, and Jared Burris | Spring 2019 |
| Design Additional Shielding for a PHDS Germanium Gamma-ray Imager (GeGI) | United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR) | SGI | Design modular gamma shielding for a Germanium Gamma-ray Imager (GeGI) that is under development by UCOR for use in decontamination and decommissioning measurements. The shielding will improve the gamma and x-ray imaging capability available to operators in relevant environments. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Adam Caswell (UCOR) | Melody Monzo, Madison Allen, Terra Holly, and Sam Farmer | Spring 2023 |
| TixZr(1-x)N Thin Films for Advanced Plasmonic Materials | JIAM | MSE Project Group 3 | The goal of this project is to utilize combinatorial reactive thin film sputtering to create a TixZr(1-x)N thin film for the application of advanced plasmonic materials. This will be accomplished by characterizing the as-deposited composition, nanostructure, and optical properties of a TiN and ZrN binary and TixZr(1-x)N ternary ceramic films. | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Philip Rack and Jason Fowlkes | Susan Schickling, Codi Ferree, Andre Hillsman, Amy Godfrey, and Hannah Robinson | Spring 2019 |
| Sliding Platform for Seamless Patient Transport | University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine | Era^2 | The purpose of the Sliding Platform for Seamless Patient Transport project is to develop a device that will transfer veterinary patients from cages to gurneys more easily and with less reliance on muscle power than the current method. Our design consists of a sliding platform, a spacer, and a barrier that makes the transfer process easier and safer than transferring patients by physically lifting the animal. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Darryl Millis and Jessica Montoya | Robert Bradley, Augusto Fabricio, Emma Flood, and Alison Semenak | Spring 2024 |
| ORT-E: Adaptive Job Scheduling for High Mix, Low Volume Products | Oak Ridge Tool - Engineering | Job Shop ISEs | The team was tasked with designing a visual job scheduling system for Oak Ridge Tool - Engineering, which machines custom products to high specifications. The design focus was the POLCA system which uses paired loops with overlapping cells and cards to manage capacity throughout the job shop floor. POLCA is designed to adapt to large work orders and customer demands that make scheduling complicated. The overall purpose is to increase ownership, throughput, and revenue for ORT-E. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Laura O'Shaughnessy and Floyd Ostrowski | Trice McCullar, Adam Larkey, Nathan Allen, and Philip Throckmorton | Spring 2020 |
| All-in-one Volunteer and Event Management System | Bill Malkes | Compassion Coders | This project aims to assist the local non-profit Compassion Ministries run their large service events. The project will capture volunteer information, streamline event management, provide valuable insights into volunteer activity and information, and provide accountability for volunteers in sensitive positions. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Dylan Lewis, Zavier Miller, Dillon Frankenstein, Andrew Rutter, Ethan Maness, and Dong Jun Woun | Spring 2024 |
| Desalination of Brackish Water Using a Fresnel Solar Collector Coupled to a Solar Still | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Desalination Driven by Renewable Energy | Develop a technique that sanitizes and purifies salt and/or gray water using only renewable energy. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Jace Johannesen, Eric Johnston, Jensen Petteway, Elijah Whitaker, and Carl Woodard | Spring 2023 |
| CubeSat Simulator | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 1 | Build, test and thoroughly document a low cost CubeSat simulator that will transmit telemetry data and receive commands over amateur radio frequency bands. Continue development of the AMSAT CubeSat simulator project for future groups to build on. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Michael Light, Bert Bashford, Fahad Alamri, Ricky Simpkins, and Dylan Hedrick | Spring 2019 |
| Purification of a Labile Pharmacetical Compound | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Team A CBE 488/490 | Develop economical and technically feasible purification processes for pharmaceutical compounds. These compounds are typically large organic molecules that are easily degraded hence they should be processed at low heat stress and oxygen free conditions. This project evaluates the technoeconomic feasibility of a process to purify such a compound. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Daniel Haught, Ethan Robson, and Adam Wunschel | Spring 2023 |
| Barth Farm Bridge Replacement | Barth Farms | Bridge Wood Builders | Design a single lane vehicle bridge to replace an old bridge that poses safety hazards. The abutments of the current bridge are in poor condition and subject to sever scour which raises safety concerns from the owner. The superstructure of the current bridge is also not built to any current codes and is in need of redesign. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenneg Retherford | Charlie Boss, Alex Stanley, David Abston, and Kevin White | Spring 2019 |
| Economic Recycling of Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Mission Recyclable | Analysis of available battery recycling techniques and subsequent design of an industrial-scale process. Further stages were developed to refine products while reducing costs in order to increase economic feasibility. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Gene Cravens, Daniel Faradji, Edward Michaud, Matthew Rivera, and Caleb Young | Spring 2020 |
| Beach Volleyball Stats App | Buzz Patrick | Beach Volley Stats | We are producing the first app designed specifically for recording beach volleyball game statistics. Our product can be used by coaching staff and players to analyze games and develop better strategies. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Edward Moran and Ryland Seagraves | Spring 2024 |
| Graphene Based Touch Panel | General Graphene | Graphene Based Touch Panel | Create a graphene touch panel that uses changes in electrical resistivity to accurately measure and display where it was touched. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Brady McLaughlin, Evan Anderson, Yamin Ahmad, Ian Hunt, Grant Ballard, and Benjamin Schwartz | Spring 2023 |
| Powder Agitation System | 3D Systems | 3D Systems Senior Design Group 1 | Design a system that loosens the powder in a storage bin used for SLS printing. The system must guarantee a flow rate out of the 2 inch diameter opening of 1 liter every 10 seconds. The system must also remain contaminant free and maintain "first in, first out" behavior. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | J Boulet | Austin Davis, Austin Smith, Andrew Walters, Cameron Wagner, and Colin White | Spring 2019 |
| Boiling water reactor loss of coolant accident dose assessment | Southern Nuclear | BDA | Conduct a dose assessment on a boiling water reactor (BWR) in the event of a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) according to two different NRC regulation guides. To do this, two models were created in a software called RADTRAD that simulates the accident and evaluates the results. The results were then compared and contrasted to find which NRC regulation guide best fits BWRs in the nuclear industry. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Tom Kindred (Southern Nuclear) | Hayden Sobas, Glenn Parris, Helena Sanders, and Caroline Thomas | Spring 2023 |
| Neutron Multiplication | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Neutron Multiplication | Design and built a neutron multiplication monitoring system for use in both the thermal neutron assembly, and the planned fast neutron assembly. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Laurence Miller | Spencer Kropf, Jason Matheny, Robert Corrigan, Andrew Volkovitskiy, and Garrett Russell | Spring 2019 |
| Refrigeration Trainer for UT MABE ร ASHRAE East TN Chapter | ASHRAE | ASHRAE Refrigeration Trainer | Design and implement a data acquisition system for monitoring and collecting pressure, temperature and power measurement of refrigeration board trainer (RBT). Operate the RBT, collect and reduce data and benchmark refrigeration models using the ORNL Heat Pump Design Model (HPDM). | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Creighton Couch, Caleb Hurst, Maksym Markevych, Colin OรBrien, and Jacob Salyer | Spring 2020 |
| Blockchain Event Listener | Point72 | BlockChads | The Problem Definition & Background section delves into the volatility of cryptocurrency markets and the need for reliable, historical data in financial sectors. It highlights the challenges faced by key stakeholders, such as Point-72, in accessing and interpreting blockchain data. The proposed design focuses on storing smart contract information from blockchain networks in a regularly updated database and providing intuitive data visualizations. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Harrison Dehler, Logan Bowers, Connor Saxon, Ryan Carnes, Jiawei Chen, and Jackson Longmire | Spring 2024 |
| Sustainable Micro-housing Design and Build Serving the Homeless | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Tiny House Knoxville | Innovate design making the most within the confines of 400 sq ft. The tiny homes will be equipped with a small bathroom and a kitchenette. The building envelope (wall, floor, window, and roof details) is to be designed using CAD software. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Samantha Bell, Cayden Coffman, Nicholas Henry, Bryson Hines, James Myers, Jessica Pitz, and Joel Thomas | Spring 2023 |
| The Environmental Measurement Device | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Team 16 | Design and develop a compact waterproof measurement device that records the flow rate of water leaving "tiles". "Tiles" are small drainage pipes that run under farmland to route excess water from the soil to nearby streams. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Thanos Papanicolaou | Austin Dorris, Garland Harper, Nicolas Schwerzler, and Andrew Bryant | Spring 2019 |
| Case Study of a Sustainable Process for Platform-Organic Compounds Production | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Team B CBE 488/490 | Investigate the technoeconomic feasibility of a new process that produces an array of chemicals from renewable resources such as biomass, which is required as we progress from petroleum-based to a more sustainable economy. The process is based on a laboratory process to produce isoamyl acetate from cellulose using a genetically modified E-coli. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan and Carrie Sanford | Nolan Byrd, Jada Gentry, Lena Taylor, and Nicholas Brockman | Spring 2023 |
| Knox-Blount County Light Rail | Transit Alliance of East Tennessee | JADE Engineering | Develop a light rail system connecting Knox and Blount County. Evaluating existing rail line and identify station locations along the intended route. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford and Chris Cherry | Emily Egan, Austin Hunt, and Jonathan Morse | Spring 2019 |
| UTK College of Nursing Manikin Storage System | University of Tennessee Research Foundation | The Power Tower | Design and build a product to properly store and move approximately 75 lbs. medical manikins in nursing simulation labs. The product must accommodate for good nursing body mechanics including moving the manikins from different medical bed heights. The product needs to be low profile with an overall footprint the size of a standard stretcher ( 83ร x 35ร). | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Lee Sarten, Zane Chapman, Cameron Oakley, Beverly Wesh, and Tyler McCubbins | Spring 2020 |
| Modular Detector Interface Connection System | Siemens Healthineers Knoxville | Modular Detector Interface Connection System | My project is a modular system to readout PET Detector signals, allowing for engineers to replace components on a board at a cheaper price with faster turnaround for testing and prototyping purposes. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Jian Huang | Jacob Cheney | Spring 2024 |
| Rhythm Based Game | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Rhythm Based Game | Build a platform for the foot controller and we need to build two hand controllers as well as the game itself. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Alex Shirran, Dylan Sullenberger, David Lynn, Allen Hughes, Devin Munsey, and Susan Blankenship | Spring 2023 |
| Augmented Reality Sandbox | UTK Department of Geography and The Muse Knoxville | Augmented Reality Sandbox | Develop an updated design of the previously existed Sandbox furnished by the Department of Geography in order to accommodate the furnishing, calibration, and transportation. The newly designed sandbox will include a lighter frame adjustable height settings for easier presentations to individuals of all ages. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jindong Tan | Jonathan Bigelow, EDWARD DEIDERICH, Ryan Dunaway, Andrew Pitsenberger, and Josh Phatsadavong | Spring 2019 |
| Design a Subcritical Test Assembly | Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) | STA | Design a Subcritical Test Assembly (STA) that is an experimental nuclear assembly containing fissionable material. Provide a simulation-based mechanism to provide nuclear criticality safety education and demonstration. The design of the STA has operational flexibility for modifying parameters important to criticality safety. The STA is also intended to provide benchmark data for nuclear code validation which industry can implement in real-world applications. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Patrick Huston, James Kuropatwinski (LANL) | Daniel Racz, Sophie Hitson, Gabe Lentchner, Nicholas Branam, and Sinan Zhang | Spring 2023 |
| Profitability Analysis of Rare Earth Element and Thorium Oxide from Monazite Ore via Acid Processing | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Black, Fisher, Glynn, and Adams | The goals of this project are to refine the profitable rare earth elements, as well as thorium oxide, from monazite ore. This is being done by developing and utilizing an acid process. Cost analysis will be done on how efficiently and effectively this process extracts the desired compounds, with hopes of this research being useful to the phosphate mining industry. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Rephayah Black, Maggie Fisher, Kaitlin Glynn, and Matthew Adams | Spring 2019 |
| Coal Dumper Locking Mechanism | Eastman Chemical Company | Mechanical Safety Solutions | Develop a mechanical lockout mechanism for the coal car dumper located at Eastman Chemical. Design to be used without electricity to protect maintenance personnel during hydraulic or electrical system failures. Create a scale model to demonstrate the forces on the system and the functionality of the mechanism. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | James Pearce, Michael Bowman, Roy Mbugua, Jacob Culp, and Jacob Groothuis | Spring 2020 |
| Business Process Automation: UT ISD Application | Keith Stanfill | Application Automation | This project's purpose is to streamline and automate the workflow for verifying and approving (or rejecting) students who apply to the ISD program. This involves automatically sending emails to faculty and staff members, updating a Sharepoint list, and creating and updating a dashboard that will make it easy for those involved to review the student's information. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Calvin Brown | Leah Evans and Sean Kerzel | Spring 2024 |
| Attic Radiation Control Simulations and Prototype | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Attic Radiation Control Using Radiant Barriers | Exercise the ORNL computer tool AtticSim to compare the thermal performance of attics with and without radiant barrier systems. This energy assessment will highlight the value proposition for radiant barriers in Building America climate zones 1 through 5. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Joseph Broughton, Jonas Grayson, and Efrain Razura | Spring 2023 |
| Small Scale Avermectin Production | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | CBE Small Scale Avermectin Team | Avermectin drugs and pesticides are used to treat parasitic worms and insects in humans and in animals. The purpose of this project is to develop a process for producing 20,000 kg/year of Avermectin. The drug is produced from a bacteria, Streptomyces avermitilis, and must be extracted and purified. This project outlines the process design, equipment sizing, operation costs, and waste treatment necessary for producing Avermectin. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Scott Dixon, Wilson Pang, Sarah Wellborn, and Sydney Whitson | Spring 2019 |
| Case Study of a Sustainable Process for Platform-Organic Compounds Production | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Team C CBE 488/490 | Investigate the technoeconomic feasibility of a new process that produces an array of chemicals from renewable resources such as biomass, which is required as we progress from petroleum-based to a more sustainable economy. The process is based on a laboratory process to produce isoamyl acetate from cellulose using a genetically modified E-coli. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan and Carrie Sanford | Gillian Castro, Khanh Ha, Jacob Hartsfield, and Mario Ornelas | Spring 2023 |
| Tolly | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Tolly | Develop a 3D-printed, cost-effective, bionic prosthetic for below the elbow amputees. Tolly is currently designed specifically for a biomedical engineering student at the University of Tennessee. | Min H. Kao Department of Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Chad Duty | Makenzie Swicegood, Alex Weber, Gabriela Sabin, Justin Stephens, Emily Weeden, Brian Friend, Ben Chesney, and Zac Cole | Spring 2019 |
| Parkway | TTAP | Team 24 | Develop a mobile application which provides the status of current University of Tennessee parking garage occupancy levels to users. Implement an easy to use guided user interface with concise and complete data viewing for a facilitated parking experience. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Conner Brinkley, Kae Suarez, Emily Plank, Sam Hazlewood, Austin Knight, and Kody Bloodworth | Spring 2020 |
| From Pods to Profit: Tools | Cary Staples, Kimberly Gwinn | The Game Dev Toolshed | The goal of this project is to create backend tools for the educational agriculture game Pods to Profit. This is different from the original Pods to Profit team as all the individual tools created can be used for future development of the game. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Calvin Brown | Haoyu Li | Spring 2024 |
| System Security Audit of Adversarial Attacks Against Speech Recognition Models | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | System Security Audit of Adversarial Attacks Against Speech Recognition Models | Improve the stealth of perturbations designed to disturb the accuracy of existing speech AI models and even make them detect phrases that were not spoken. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Charles Cao | Lukas Jakstas, Andrew Welden, Zach Hamm, Andrew Mueller, Jay Ashworth, and Nathaniel Sheets | Spring 2023 |
| Wag-in-One | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | VolTank | Design and build a motorized, modular, flatbed trailer for construction, landscape, and utility companies to allow for seamless transitions between job sites. The trailer can be towed or self-propelled at low speeds and will have interchangeable attachments such as a platform lift, dump bucket, grill, and workstation. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Mench | Evalynn Borrego, Corbin King, William Connor Fair, Joseph Golden, and Henry Gertsen | Spring 2019 |
| Conceptual Design of a Liquid Metal Fueled Reactor | Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) | LMR | Engineer the conceptual design of a liquid metal fueled reactor. The design's uranium-iron fuel, operating in the fast spectrum, will have advantages such as high operating temperature, low system pressure, great fuel utilization, and online refueling. These inherent features could result in an economical and safe reactor. The reactor core, safety/control systems, heat exchanger, and fuel cycle have been computationally simulated using Serpent, SCALE, and Origen. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Martin Grossbeck | David Anderson, Michael Ashburn, Katie Karl, Olen Lavender, and Andrew Waites | Spring 2023 |
| Bioburden Precleaning Device | UT Medical Center | Technical Biomedical Designers | Design a device that can remove bioburden (blood, tissue, and bone fragments) from orthopedic tools before it dries. Device must be suitable for use in operating rooms and be easy for nurses to use during and after surgeries. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeff Reinbolt | Megan Pitz, Katherine Stiles, Kayla Franklin, Simran Dayal, and Austin Bullock | Spring 2019 |
| The Engimed EasyTract: A Solution to Limited View for Nipple-Sparing Mastectomies | UT Medical Center | Engimed | Nipple-sparing mastectomies provide little space and lighting for the surgeon to find and remove cancerous tumors. In addition, current retractors often slip and must be repositioned. Engimed is crafting a retractor that will allow for better light integration to improve visibility and a non-slip band to prevent repositioning. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Ashton Brooks | Johnny Le, Anna Mackay, Riley Mcdonald, and William Turner | Spring 2024 |
| Aircraft Window Innovation | Bell Textron Inc. | Lean Aviation | Develop an aircraft window manufacturing process for Bell Helicopter that reduces the required number of workers and maintains quality. Increase process efficiency and decrease cost. | Integrated Engineering Design | Madhu Madhukar | Colton Carnahan, Grayson Gregory, Ryan Kelly, Jonathan Luck, and Donald Partin | Spring 2020 |
| From Pods to Profit: The Soybean Game | Cary Staples, Kimberly Gwinn | The Game Dev Seedlings | The goal of this project is to create a fun, playable and educational agriculture game by having a player grow soybeans for profit. The player should learn about how environmental factors and farmer choices affect crop profit. The game will also be used by our clients as a proof of concept to apply for grants. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Calvin Brown | Katrina Marks and Hayden Parsons | Spring 2024 |
| AIAA Design Build Fly | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | DBF | Design, build, and fly a model aircraft that meets mission requirements set by AIAA. Aircraft must fit in a standard checked luggage bag, carry more than 30 percent of its gross weight, and fly with a drag inducing body on one wingtip. Aircraft must also takeoff in less than 60 feet on all missions. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Robert Bond | Samuel Bender, Dylan Bryant Logan Dingler, Ashlyn Kozlowski, Logan Ransom, Matthew Shaver, Seth Sheets, Matthew Sherrod, and Tyler Thompson | Spring 2023 |
| DENSO PCB Magazine | DENSO | DENSO PCB Magazine | Develop the transfer of an empty printed circuit board magazine from an unloading location to a collection area for later use. This system must ensure safety and ease of use through a single push button. This system is to minimize the current operator strain from moving unloaded magazine to the collection area. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Hamel | Stephen Botto, Chris Foehringer, Dustin Self, and Logan Kuchinic | Spring 2019 |
| Sustainable Process for Para-Xylene Production | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Team D CBE 488/490 | Investigate the feasibility of making paraxylene from cellulose, a renewal resource. Paraxylene is the building block for a major plastic, polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The market for PET is projected to grow substantially in the coming years. Paraxylene is currently sourced from refining petroleum. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Cameron Cohen, Brent Nanney, Taylor Ray, and Payten Wright | Spring 2023 |
| Dynamic Insulation Wall Assembly | Clayton Homes | Dynamic Wall Insulation | A major change in construction is proposed having the potential to save both energy and cost of construction; simple payback is estimated at about 7 years for new construction. The key objective complements the Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB) research sponsored by the DOE Building Technologies Office (BTO). Goal is to demonstrate smart insulation materials. The insulation is capable of being dynamically controlled through a change in thermal emittance. Students will model, build and demonstrate a dynamic wall assembly. The concept changes thermal resistance on demand to enhance passive solar heating and nighttime thermal cooling. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Carson Buchanan, Taylor Jordon, Connor Morton, Tyler Newsom, and Dalton West | Spring 2019 |
| Improved Retractor for Mastectomies | UT Medical Center Surgical Breast Oncologist | K-M.E.D. | An innovative surgical retractor, featuring an inverted J-shape design equipped with a flexible hinge at the corner for customizable angling. The device enhances surgical precision via its expanded surface area and silicone scores to enhance grip on slippery skin, ensuring secure positioning for extended durations. These enhancements streamline procedures for surgeons such as Ashton Brooks, reducing the need for frequent readjustments and minimizing complications, ultimately facilitating smoother surgeries. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Ashton Brooks | Danielle Fiscella, Kendall Flores, Emily Landis, and Mara Schutt | Spring 2024 |
| Low Cost Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage System Temperature Monitoring System | Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) | NFMS | This project, sponsored by EPRI, is a joint venture between the departments of Nuclear Engineering and Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science to develop a low-cost temperature sensor for monitoring used nuclear fuel in dry cask storage. Presently, once used nuclear fuel is removed from on-site cooling pools, is stored in large metal canisters surrounded by concrete, where the fuel continues to be cooled via natural convection. A key design requirement of these systems however is to ensure continuous air flow and monitor for blockages, a task that is currently performed via daily inspections. Our project seeks to replace these daily inspections with a low cost, low maintenance, and high accuracy device that monitors the outlet temperature of these vents and notifies plant workers of a temperature anomaly. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Steve Skutnik and David Icove | John Wagner, Martino Hooghkirk, Brian Chrisman, Christian Haynes, and Melissa Quirin | Spring 2020 |
| Generating Robotic Emergent Guises | TENNlab | Oceanic Recreation Youth | We are creating a simple and reproducible swarm of robots. On these chassis we are deploying Spiking Neural Networks onto the neuromorphic kit developed by TENNlab, in an effort to recreate and study emergent flocking behavior. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Drew Friend, Alan Wordlaw, and Louise Fry | Spring 2024 |
| Neuromorphic Autonomous Racing Application | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Neuromorphic Autonomous Racing Application | Understand how well neuromorphic computing can control physical applications. The TENNLab at the University of Tennessee has already done research with neuromorphic computing by developing software and hardware packages. The goal is to use these resources to power an autonomous race car. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Charles Wang, Nickolas Drake, Robert Griffith, and Tristan Ainley | Spring 2023 |
| In-Line Water Quality Monitoring | The University of Tennessee, Knoxville | Water Quality | Develop a water quality monitoring system that detects irregularities in drinking water. The monitoring system will show live data and send text message alerts if an issue is detected. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Michael O'Neil, Bradley White, Ray Chang, and Jinxiao Yu | Spring 2019 |
| Plastic Waste Reduction Through Recycling | American Institute of Chemical Engineers | Team E CBE 488/490 | Develop a technically and economically feasible separation process of the components in the oil produced by the pyrolysis of plastics. Plastic waste is a major environmental issue as the waste accumulates. Ideally, the waste should be recycled which requires economical processes for collecting, sorting, and processing the waste. The team will address one aspect of this multifaceted problem, namely, separation. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Jackson Chartier, Kaleigh Hall, Amanda Knopps, and Leah Paige | Spring 2023 |
| Torch-mounted Automated Wire Cutter for Large Scale Metal Additive Manufacturing | Oak Ridge National Laboratory Manufacturing Demonstration Facility | Torch-mounted Automated Wire Cutter for Large Scale Metal Additive Manufacturing | At the MDF, the welding torch for a 3D metal printer has to cut wire after every weld it makes. This severely increases print time since it has to go to a special station to cut the wire. Our task is to make cutting the wire faster by mounting it to the head of the torch. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Bill Hamel | Steven Patrick, Matt Montgomery, Erfan Zahraei, Garrett Foust, and Ben Rouse | Spring 2019 |
| American Society of Naval Engineers | TenneSeaworthy | Compete in the national Promoting Electric Propulsion competition to design, build, test, and race a boat solely on battery/electrical power. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Doug Aaron | Emily Di Bias, Christopher Matthews, David Zavracky, Thomas Scott, Chase McCullar, and Brock Blansett | Spring 2024 | |
| Rocket League Bot | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars | Develop a self-playing bot using machine-learning for the game Rocket League. Analyze the difference between a standard machine-learning bot and an assisted machine-learning bot. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Antonio Vega, Julian Ball, Adam Tutko, Zach McMichael, and Dylan Lee | Spring 2020 |
| Warflow | United States Air Force | Code Crusaders | An application to streamline strategic military exercise planning. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Stephen Marz | Zack Malkmus, Jacob King, Hayden Curl, and Dylan Lewis | Spring 2024 |
| Flying Wing Design to Transport Unsecured Payload | US Department of Defense | Flying Wing | Design, build, and fly a flying wing model airplane capable of carrying a payload of at least 30% of gross weight that is unsecured in the longitudinal direction. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Robert Bond | Lilanie Abdur-Rahman, Micah Boudreau, Matt Freake, Lee Kent, Tyler McCoy, Salvador Ramirez, Syncere Pruitt, and Edward Self | Spring 2023 |
| PPE Accountability System to Secure Patient Rooms | UT Medical Center | Team MediVol | Develop technology to detect PPE on medical personnel prior to entering patient, alert the medical personnel if they are not compliant to the PPE standards set for the room, and track compliance data for targeted re-training. The system must be efficient and intuitive for all medical staff. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeff Reinbolt | Andrew Miller, Kelsie Shea, Andrew Ten Eyck, and Peyton Holman | Spring 2019 |
| Nuclear Material Storage Array | Los Alamos National Laboratory | CSS | Design and optimize a nuclear material storage array such that it can safely store various physical forms of plutonium for an indeterminate amount of time. Criticality safety must be demonstrated for this storage array under both normal and credible abnormal conditions. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Matthew Hartnett | Elijah Brock, Dean Forrest, Marissa Knofczynski, Eli Nordhorn, and Reagan Mckamey | Spring 2023 |
| BoneCrusher | Department of Anthropology | BoneCrusher | Develop a device to impart blunt force trauma on human cadavers for use with research being done by the Department of Anthropology. The device must be capable of breaking the humerus, tibia, ribs, and skull. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Eric Wade | Carter Breeding, Daelyn Greene, Nicholas Poker, Ryan Smith, and Zachary Ziegler | Spring 2019 |
| Film Rewind and Peel Machine: Controls | Eastman Chemical Company | Reel and Peel | Design and implement a control scheme to advance a winding film through a machine with a constant torque while maintaining proper tension all portions of the web | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Abrian Abir, Stephen Qiu, Katie Murphy, and Cade Walker | Spring 2024 |
| UTK SmartPark App & Sensor System | Center for Transportation Research | Team 18 | Gather and analyze parking data from sensors into usable database, then translating that data into readable and user-friendly information displayed on a mobile parking app. Sensors must be installed in a select number of spots in one of the Knoxville garages. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Matthew Butera, Winston Boyd, David Rainbolt, James Best, Vishal Patel, Rachel Mcfall, and Dylan Devries | Spring 2020 |
| United Way 211 Platform | United Way of Greater Knoxville | 211 Baker Street | United Way of Greater Knoxville currently supports the 211 social service hotline, connecting callers with essential social services. However, they often struggle to engage local nonprofits, leading to outdated information and inefficiencies in directing callers. To address this, our platform seeks to enhance engagement, streamline operations, and automate manual tasks, ultimately improving service delivery for the Greater Knoxville community. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Caleb Fisher, Jacob Hawkins, and Alex Zhang | Spring 2024 |
| Low-Cost Long-Term Logging Light Level, Temperature, and Humidity Sensor | Electric Power Research Institute | Low-Cost Long-Term Logging Light Level, Temperature, and Humidity Sensor | Create a long-term logging sensor device that can accurately track light levels, temperature, and humidity over an extended period. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Charles Dye, Eli Wilson, William McKinney, An Phan, Seth Johnson, and Darius White | Spring 2023 |
| EPRI 1: Autonomous Lawn Mower | Electric Power Research Institute | Autonomous Lawnmower | Develop a lawnmower which can self drive and adjust its movement based on a desired path. The prototype must be designed such that the final cost is competitive with similar products on the market. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Michael McClanahan, Corey Crawford, Kea Francis, and Matthew Cummings | Spring 2019 |
| Plastic Waste Reduction Through Recycling | American Institute of Chemical Engineers | Team F CBE 488/490 | Develop a technically and economically feasible separation process of the components in the oil produced by the pyrolysis of plastics. Plastic waste is a major environmental issue as the waste accumulates. Ideally, the waste should be recycled which requires economical processes for collecting, sorting, and processing the waste. The team will address one aspect of this multifaceted problem, namely, separation. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Jessica Dukes, Alexis Hedrick, Sammy Kady, and Connor Rigsby | Spring 2023 |
| Fast Neutron Source Shutdown System | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Fast Neutron Source Shutdown System | Develop a shutdown system for the Fast Neutron Source (FNS) to be included in the new Nuclear Engineering Building. The system will perform the task of removing neutrons from the FNS through the insertion of neutron absorbing control plates when activated. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Richard Wood | Matthew Herald, Robert Vradenburgh, and Alex Solomon | Spring 2019 |
| BattleBot Cage System Updates | Eastman Chemical Company | Cage Crafters | Optimize structural, safety and ergonomic features of a cage for BattleBot competitions. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Carson Rossi, Peyton Davis, Jack Keffer, Grant Dieter, and Pete Bunch | Spring 2024 |
| Techno-economic analysis of Lithium Carbonate production from geothermal brine | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | Battery Production Team A | The objective of the project is to design a process to obtain 100,000 metric tons of Lithium Carbonate needed for lithium battery production. The project utilizes geothermal brine from national resources to develop a local plant for lithium carbonate production. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Mina Masoud, Haley Dyer, Marc Hinawi, and Stephanie Yopp | Spring 2020 |
| Event Based Camera to Play Atari Pong | Catherine Schuman | NeuroPong | This project aims to create a proof-of-concept embedded neuromorphic system utilizing event-based cameras and spiking neural networks for real-time decision-making in Atari games. By leveraging low-power event-based sensors and efficient spiking neural networks, the system showcases the natural pairing of event-based sensors with neuromorphic computing. This demonstration highlights potential applications in edge computing devices for power-constrained environments like defense, space, traffic management, and wearables. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Bryson Gullett and Charlie Rizzo | Alex Crumley, Julia Steed, Carter Earheart-Brown, Frank Standaert, Mason Hyman, and Maxwell Marcum | Spring 2024 |
| Improved Aerodynamic Wheel Fairing for Aerobatic Aircraft | US Department of Defense | Aerodynamic Wheel Fairing | Optimize the aerodynamic design of a wheel fairing for an aerobatic MX2 airplane, using digital and lab simulation to accomplish accurate comparison of scale models of the part, to allow for reduced drag, less maintenance, and easier accessibility of the wheel. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Robert Bond | Gabriel Bonneville, Zachary Dancu, Michael Mcginnity, and Nathan Slator | Spring 2023 |
| Min Kao Lab Tour Robot | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 17 | Design and create a fully autonomous robot that can give a tour of the EECS building Min Kao. This will involve multiple floors and avoiding obstacles. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Mark Dean | Scott Rybak, Tarin Goad, James Wyatt, Matthew Klomfas, and Stephen Garabics | Spring 2019 |
| Axillary Lymphedema Surgical Retractor | UT Medical Center and Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 1 (Won) | Design a retractor that provides adjustability and ease of use to reduce overall time during axillary lymphedema bypass surgery. The Axillary Lymphedema surgical retractor consists of two rings and stainless-steel rods. The upper ring lines the skin on the edge of the incision and expands to pull the skin away from the work environment, the lower base ring widens the interior if the surgical site, and stainless-steel rods connect the top and bottom flexible rings. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Stefanos Boukovalas and Jeff Reinbolt | Benjamin Collins, Leah Gutzwiller, Kyle Mcdowell, and Cayden Stafford | Spring 2023 |
| New Surgical Instrument for Veterinary Medicine | UT College of Veterinary Medicine | Veterinary Engineering Technology (V.E.T) | Develop and innovate a surgical tool that will allow a veterinary surgeon to use one instrument to clamp, cut, repair and stitch together tissue in an equine uterus. This tool must be useful but gentle on the uterine tissue without further damaging it. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeffrey Reinbolt | Lauren Smith, Natalie Gosnell, Sarah Brock, Jami Anderson, and Bibhor Panta | Spring 2019 |
| Film Rewind and Peel Machine: Mechanism | Eastman Chemical Company | RWD | Design and build a film rewind machine with a modular frame that will allow for multiple web paths, wrap angles, and peel angles. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Jacob McClaren, Champ Wagner, Sam Hauser, and Daniel Coley | Spring 2024 |
| American Sign Language to English Translation App | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Group 6 | Develop a mobile application to enable American Sign Language (ASL) speakers to easily communicate with English speakers by translating ASL gestures via machine learning using Amazon Web Services. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Todd Allen, Brandon Kidd, Luke Parker, and Aaron Johnson | Spring 2020 |
| Extended Reality for Explainable Artificial Intelligence | Catherine Schuman, Sai Swaminathan, Jian Huang | The PyQts | Creating a spiking neural network visualizer that can be used with a projector and webcam to create an extended reality explanative experience. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Calvin Brown | Jake Looney and Andrew Lay | Spring 2024 |
| A LoRaWAN Solution for Communication of DER Protocols Across Broad Distances | Electric Power Research Institute | A LoRaWAN Solution for Communication of DER Protocols Across Broad Distances | Utilize commercially available microcontrollers to implement LoRa technology to communicate request and response messages for a distributed energy resource (DER) protocol across transceivers. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Aly Fathy | Lauren Proctor, Samuel Dahms, Allie Bradford, Travis Graham, Ashton Adcox, and Russell Britton | Spring 2023 |
| Pratt & Whitney Centering Spring Redesign using Selective Laser Sintering | Pratt & Whitney | Pratt & Whitney Senior Design Team | Achieve a 10% weight and production cost reduction for 700 annual units when compared to the current traditionally manufactured part, utilizing Ti-6Al-4V powder in a selective laser sintering additive manufacturing system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Chad Duty and Larry Sharpe | Matt Cum, Allan Coste, Nathan Bingham, Marcus Brooks, and Grayson Hawkins | Spring 2019 |
| Alternate Process for Xanthan Gum - A Go/No Go Analysis Based on Laboratory Scale Data | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Team G CBE 488/490 | Perform a technoeconomic analysis of a membrane process to concentrate gum solution. Xanthan gum is produced by fermentation, and the isolation of the product is a highly energy intensive process. Significant savings in capital and energy costs can be derived if the broth can be concentrated, however the unique rheological properties of gum renders concentrating a gum solution difficult. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Jeffrey Greer, Lareesa Thomas, Anna Malone, and Lucy Moore | Spring 2023 |
| Stormwater Infiltration Enhancement | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Stormwater Infiltration Team | Develop a device that increases infiltration through compacted soils, such as those found in failed rain gardens or recent construction sites. The device uses compressed air to propel a mixture of water and biochar into the ground to induce fracturing of the soil. | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Sciences | John Tyner and Andrew Sherfy | Matthew Johnsen, Christian Patterson, James Lewis, and Ryan Watson | Spring 2019 |
| Low Cost Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Temperature Monitoring System | Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) | EECS Team 26 | Develop a low cost temperature monitoring system for spent nuclear fuel casks and create a smartphone app for accessing this temperature data. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Christian Haynes, Melissa Quirin, Brian Chrisman, Lydia San George, and Micheala Williams | Spring 2020 |
| Dance Pad Revolution: An Improved DDR Dance Pad | The Move Masters | We are engineering a rhythm game dance pad compatible with popular rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and Pump It Up. It will be durable enough for hundreds of play sessions, portable to be played anywhere, and affordable to beginner and medium-level casual players. Our mission is to bring back interest in movement rhythm games in America. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Sarah Huang, Ricky Lau, Anna Franz, and Harrison Hoytt | Spring 2024 | |
| Disaster Response Search and Identification Attritable Air Vehicle | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | DrSAAV | Design an air vehicle to find and identify victims in need of first responder help, potentially within a sea of other debris in less-than-ideal flight conditions. Once victims are identified, the objective transitions to delivering lifesaving drinking water and a communication radio to connect victims with those that can help. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Robert Bond | Samantha Cavanaugh, Cole Dempsey, Campbell Kellum, Drew Kovsky, Hannah Sebek | Spring 2023 |
| The Waterphone: A Study of Processing-Structure-Property-Performance Relationship | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Team 1 - Waterphone | Investigate the properties that affect the sound of the waterphone. The waterphone must be made affordably while being appealing to look at. | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | David Keffer | Nicholas Carter, Briar Faulkner, Sabrina Schwerzler, and Bradley Straka | Spring 2019 |
| Innovation of Equine Mouth Speculums | Swiss Vet and Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 10 (Tin) | Innovative a product that could help veterinarians operate on the oral cavity of horses in addition to a speculum. Design and develop a device that can open the equine mouth speculum with one hand, powered by the base unit provided by Rudolf Steiger and SwissVet. Develop specialized incisor plates to be used in conjunction with the opening device. These incisor plates fit most speculums in use today. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Rudolf Steiger and Jeff Reinbolt | Sebastian Gutierrez, John Klepzig, Ryan Thompson, and Brandon White | Spring 2023 |
| Accu-Router Door Flipper | Accu-Router | Accu-Router 2 | Design an mechanism to be integrated with a CNC router to safely flip a door after being milled. The router is sized to cut two doors in the same sequence, and the materials used tend to be either too fragile or too heavy for human interaction. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Tyler Laughter, Marc Blanshey, Adam Filson, and Mingsu Lin | Spring 2019 |
| Athletic Balance Board | Fairways & Greens | Fairway Huggers | Design and Build a Dynamic Balance Golf Swing Evaluation Tool | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Dalton Colvin, Mason Davis, Bradley Edwards, and Xavier Johnson | Spring 2024 |
| Ronald McDonald House Operation Management Design | The Ronald McDonald House Charities | Team Ronald McDonald | Develop an inventory storage system and implement a maintenance tracking application at the Knoxville Ronald McDonald House by utilizing all the different aspects and techniques in the Industrial Engineering curriculum to make positive and impactful changes. Create various standard works to ensure sustainment of the operations at RMHC. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Floyd Ostrowski and Laura O'Shaughnessy | Abbey Williams, Carter Costner, and Allison Trentham | Spring 2020 |
| Large Language Model Fortran Code Generator | Fortran Coders | Large language model (LLM) that can be used to generate "well-behaved" Fortran code from user prompt in natural language. The resulting Fortran code should run without errors, be understandable to the user, and abide by set parameters. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne and Ondrej Chvala | Anika Roskowski, Katie Nuchols, Meghan Brandt, and Justin Blanchard | Spring 2024 | |
| Cobotic Revolution: MoMa + Platform Team MOMA | DENSO | Cobotic Revolution: MoMa + Platform Team MOMA | Program the cobot to pick up industrial pins and place them in their corresponding slot while the cobot also moved its base. The cobot will have the ability to complete these processes repeatedly as efficiently as possible until the task is fully complete. Design the cobot in such a way that it can move, interact, see, think, and communicate with its users without hesitation. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Micah Beck | Kishan Patel, Riya Patel, Caitlin Iadonisi, Jake Notowich, and Ethan Ly | Spring 2023 |
| Extraction of Rare Earth Elements and Thorium Oxide from Monazite | Electric Power Research Institute | CBE 488 Senior Design: D. Chitwood, D. Crawford, C. Toth | Design and analyze a process to produce reasonable pure thorium oxide as a product and rare earth oxides as bi-products from monazite ore (sand). Conduct an economic analysis of the process products and optimize the reactor system. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Pete Counce | Chase Toth, Drake Crawford, and Dylan Chitwood | Spring 2019 |
| Alternate Process for Xanthan Gum - A Go/No Go Analysis Based on Laboratory Scale Data | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Team H CBE 488/490 | Perform a technoeconomic analysis of a membrane process to concentrate gum solution. Xanthan gum is produced by fermentation, and the isolation of the product is a highly energy intensive process. Significant savings in capital and energy costs can be derived if the broth can be concentrated, however the unique rheological properties of gum renders concentrating a gum solution difficult. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Noah Barnes, Christian Markham, and Kevin Shilling | Spring 2023 |
| Large Scale Additive Manufacturing Out of Plane Printing | Oak Ridge National Laboratory Manufacturing Demonstration Facility | BAAM | Develop and test a new roller or tamper design to allow for out of plane printing on the Big Area Additive Manufacturing System. The design must allow for all current printing capabilities to be maintained as well as allowing for various incline and raster angles. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Brett Compton | Tyler Smith, Greg Gorman, Liam Page, Dylan Settlemire, and Tom Flammang | Spring 2019 |
| Cast In Steel | Magotteaux | TheSteelT's | Casting a Steel Halligan Bar for the Cast In Steel Competition sponsored by the Steel Founders Society | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Dustin Gilmer | Brian Hicks, Jake Lockhart, Zoe Campbell, and Kolby Bull | Spring 2024 |
| UTK Transfer Student Confirmation Process Improvement | Undergraduate Admissions Transfer Center | UTK Transfer Center Process Improvement Team | Find and prioritize issues with the student transfer (confirmation) process to address issues identified by transfer students that directly affect the number of transfer students confirmed for enrollment each academic year. Outside of addressing transfer student priority issues, improvement opportunities within the process that will significantly reduce its lead time are also identified. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Laura O'Shaughnessy and Floyd Ostrowski | Zebulun Eggers , Van Nguyen, and David Hammett | Spring 2020 |
| 2D Platforming Game | Pixel Engineers | A Video Game where a player controls a character and the primary objective and function of the game is to introduce obstacles and terrain that is fun and entertaining to navigate around. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Bee Bussell, Gitasuk Jur, and Andrew Hillhouse | Spring 2024 | |
| Aerogravity Assist for Rapid Transit to Trans-Neptunian Objects | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Eris AGA | Working in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center to design a rapid transit mission to the distant Kuiper Belt object Eris using an aerogravity assist at an inner planet to decrease travel time. Aerogravity assist maneuvers are an as yet untried maneuver in which a probe's interplanetary trajectory is altered during a flyby maneuver, using not only the planet's gravity but also aerodynamic forces during a flight through the atmosphere. These aerodynamic forces enable significantly larger turn angles than can be accomplished by gravity alone. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Madeleine Smith, Kyle Evans, Jesse Pharris, Mitchell Herb | Spring 2023 |
| Miniature Cooling Tower | Eastman Chemical Company | E1 | Develop a scale model cooling tower for Eastman. The system should be portable and easy to operate as well as be useful as an educational tool. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Sean OConnor, Richard Estey, and Adam Brooks | Spring 2019 |
| Craft Distillery Process Optimization | Post Modern and Drop-Zone Distilleries | Team I CBE 488/490 | Improve processes for two local distilleries using chemical engineering principles without any loss of flavor and that is easy to implement and economically attractive. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Emilie Edwards, Baylee Goldston, Kaitlyn Skotty, and Owen Windley | Spring 2023 |
| Radiation Field Mapping | Southern Nuclear | RFM | To investigate the use of and make recommendations for a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)/radiation detection system for the purpose of plume tracking in the event of an actual or potential radiological release to the environment. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Matt Cook | Bryn Davies, Louise Langevin, Connor Myers, Jeff Walsh, Lorraine Ilia, and Billy Lynch | Spring 2019 |
| Re-design of charcoal and electric grills | MECO | MECO | Modifications and re-design of various components of various consumer products manufactured by MECO, including charcoal and electric grills. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Russell Riggan, Seth Pierce, Carter Blessing, William Goehl, Alex Martin, and Hunter Clark | Spring 2024 |
| Combined Cooling and Power (CCP) ร Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) | Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) | CCP Team | Design a turbine that will generate additional power from a combined cooling and power (CCP) air-conditioner (A/C) system. Implement a prototype turbine to demonstrate the concept. Analyze national data concerning energy usage and show potential for application. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | MaKenzie Baird, Nick Crabb, Jacob Flowers, Landon Karp, and Charles Key | Spring 2020 |
| NOVI | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Befikir Bogale | Spring 2024 | ||||
| Fanalyzer | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Fanalyzer | Develop a sports analytics site which seeks to prove how data visualization may be utilized within a social media framework. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Charles Cao | Blaine Liuag, Jake Woodard, Suhil Suresh, Nolan Askew, and Trevor Mangrum | Spring 2023 |
| Where Knowledge Comes From | UT Engineering Honors/Outreach | Team 10 | Develop a web application capable of simulating an interview process through a survey format. The application will be divided into two parts. There will be an admin area for researchers to create, share, and analyze survey forms. The second part will be for students to complete a survey by drawing their interpretation of where knowledge comes from. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Courtney Faber | Mariah Billings, Morgan Johnson, Christopher Brunton, Seth Kear, and Chris Muncey | Spring 2019 |
| Internal Fixation of Intramedullary Pins via Nitinol Rings | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 12 (ME) | Develop a intramedullary pin fixation system via nitinol rings that can serve to facilitate efficient osteopathic healing in patients better than current fixation systems. Nitinol rings are attached to the pin and open internally due to their shape memory properties, eliminating the need for fixation screws. This fixation device not only facilitates secure fixation but will also serve to reduce the chance of complications due to infection and reinjury. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Dustin Crouch and Jeff Reinbolt | Ethan Connor, Tony George, Prem Patel, and Jamie Pouncey | Spring 2023 |
| TRACE | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | TRACE | Design a semi-automated concentration, collection, and storage system for floating garbage in small waterways. The system will be equipped with sensors to alert a city worker when to remove the garbage from the storage receptacle and keep the worker up to date on the system's functionality. | Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science | Daniel Yoder | Josh Benavidez, Lindsay Brown, Macy King, and Bailey Langford | Spring 2019 |
| FFF Software Evaluation and Waterproof Testing for 3D Printing | NAVSEA | Slicing Under Water | Evaluate various slicing softwares designed for FFF printing using several metrics. Selected softwares are then used to determine the optimal print parameters to achieve as-printed waterproof walls. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Stephanie TerMaath | Braden Fuller, Troy Jackson, and Zachary Koller | Spring 2024 |
| Grit Removal System Upgrades at Newport Utilities Wastewater Treatment Plant | Newport Utilities | Rocky Top Waterworks Engineering | Design an upgrade to the existing grit removal system at Newport Wastewater Treatment Plant, prone to maintenance issues and ineffective treatment of wastewater prior to discharge into local waterways. Design entails classification of grit in the system, selection of new equipment, hydraulics analysis and design of new pipe network fixtures, and associated site civil efforts to install the new system. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Evan Hamilton, Matthew Miller, Mark Ludwig, and Anna Poppelreiter | Spring 2020 |
| Event Attendance Tracking with AI | EAT with AI | The goal of our project is to build application that allows for cost effective event attendance tracking. Our project involves tracking attendance counts with AI through video captured on mobile devices. This can then be seen and analyzed through an administrative web app. Our goal is to provide an app to event organizers, educators, religious leaders, etc. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Cody Blankenship, Saish Malluri, Ankit Mistry, and Shivam Mistry | Spring 2024 | |
| SMART Wraps | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 21 | Our project is set to embed our own sensor into boxing wraps for both athletes and trainers to measure one's performance. The sensor will be able to give feedback on our GUI to inform them about their combos, punches, hit/miss ratio, and other statistics that we can find using their training data. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Chase Brunette-pak, Ankush Patel, Julius Gross, Matthew Strother, and Mohammad Ansari | Spring 2020 |
| Deployment of Strain Gauges for In-situ and Permanent Monitoring of Pressure Experiments | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | MSE Project Team 4 | Pressure cells are a common tool in applying extreme conditions to a test sample though offer no real-time measurement of the pressure applied. Strain gauges allow a method of calculating stress on a material via electrical resistance as a product of strain. Provided the correct selection criteria, strain gauges can measure down to the micro scale and withstand cryogenic temperatures. The proposed project will select a set of gauges and a corresponding adhesive that will be used to compose an active feedback system. This system will be assembled into a bridge circuit and utilize the Control System Studios (CSS) computer interface as a means of communication. The finalized product aims to measure the forces of cryogenically exposed pressure cells as they are in the ORNL spallation neutron source. | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Claudia Rawn and Veerle M. Keppens | Alyssa Lindsey, Andrew Howell, Austin Henson, Cody Knight, Emma Berry, and Samantha Trimble | Spring 2019 |
| Preliminary Wastewater Treatment Plant Design for Luttrell Utility District | Tennessee Water Resources Research Center | Frontiersman Filtration Services | Design a new wastewater treatment plant for Luttrell Wastewater Utility District to address compliance criteria mandated by their NPDES permit. Develop an asset management plan to comply with TDEC and be eligible for American Reuse Funds sought to support the upgrade design proposed within this project. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Hayden Crittenden, Claire Kimbell, Arden Lady, and Jace Sebring | Spring 2023 |
| Fitness Breath Analyzer | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 19 | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jie Wu | William Lowe, Rojae Johnson, Deven Hills, Grayson Kirk, Matt Kramer, and Rhett Sexton | Spring 2019 | |
| Real-time decision-making using Structural Health Monitoring | NAVSEA | Eggsplorers of the Seas | Design a sensor-informed monitoring system that measures damage sustained by an egg in real time. In order to mimic a boat motion, the egg is secured in a 3D-printed carrier attached a remote controlled truck that navigates through a bumpy course. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Stephanie TerMaath | Hayley Kopish, Gavin Joyce, Nina Bhat, and Jacob Manning | Spring 2024 |
| Techno-economic Analysis on the Recovery of Lithium from Lithium Manganese Dioxide Cathode Waste Materials by Hydrometallurgical Methods | JSW Fund for Undergraduate and Graduate Research at the University of Tennessee | CBE 488 (Counce) Group 6 | Design a recycling system for large volumes of unprocessed lithium-ion batteries. Lithium and other high-value components in the batteries will be extracted in their elemental form so that they can be reused to make fresh batteries. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Noah Dunlap, John Hill, Preston Nicely, and Joseph Swann | Spring 2020 |
| Real Time Parking Tracker | Lots of Lot Counting LLC | We are trying to make a replacement for our parking tracking system at UT. We want a solution that can easily be applied to all the remaining lots, and a website that more clearly communicates parking availability. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Connor Castle, Andrew Hines, and Connor Bates | Spring 2024 | |
| Windows in Time | Clayton Homes | The Kitters | Design a Just In Time system for Clayton Home's windows being delivered to a home-building site in Rutledge from a warehouse in Morristown. Inventory at Rutledge will be eliminated. Elimination of the current window inventory will reduce costs that are currently held-up by inventory, defective windows, and space required. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Floyd Ostrowski and Laura O'Shaughnessy | Samantha Stripling, Wojih Akeel, and Somer Olmstead | Spring 2020 |
| Increase Throughput Using Inventory Management | Design an entire inventory management system for a budding company with no systems in place. These include: part numbering systems, part , inventory calculations, and an informational database for inventory management. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Sara Gamble, Jay Chase, Jake Beatty, and John Orr | Spring 2019 | |||
| Self Anchoring Orthopedic Implant | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 13 (Skeleton Krew) | Create a self-anchoring orthopedic implant that will sit in the intramedullary canal of a long bone. The OsLepus implant is a device that can anchor itself into the intramedullary canal of a rabbit tibia without the use of screws, pins, or bone cement. The OsLepus implant utilizes the expanding material, nitinol, to create a compression based anchoring solution. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | David Anderson, Dustin Crouch, and Jeff Reinbolt | Fisher Adkisson, Eddie Hogan, Logan Mcghee, and Dalton Winchester | Spring 2023 |
| Acid Extraction of Thorium Dioxide from Monazite Ore: An Economic Analysis | Electric Power Research Institute | We Made It! | The purpose of this report is to perform a study level analysis of monazite mineral processing in the United States. The main product will be reasonably pure ThO2 and rare earth oxides as bi-products. Design Objectives: -Produce highest yield of ThO2and oxide byproducts. -Ensure operating conditions for the process do not violate OSHA regulations on safe operating procedure. -Minimize negative impact on the environment. -Minimize fuel cost and raw material waste. -Determine economic potential using the latest ChE index value including operating costs, initial expense, and net income after expenses. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Michael Lin, Evan Wilmer, and Patrick Greene | Spring 2019 |
| Impact Testing of 3D-printed Carbon Fiber ABS | NAVSEA | Impact CF | Analyzing the effects of infill percentage and pattern on the impact strength/resistance of a 3D-printed part. Using carbon fiber filled ABS from 3DX Tech, test specimens were printed with various configurations of infill density from 25-75%, along with grid, triangular, and honeycomb infill patterns. Specimens were then subjected to a drop tower test following the ASTM D7136 standard. Resulting data used to generate a model characterizing the relationships between infill percentage, pattern, and impact strength/resistance. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Stephanie TerMaath | Justin Merriwether, Jacob Babcock, Benjamin Blume, and Aaron Blake | Spring 2024 |
| Anti-Jamming Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 7 | Design and test a full system anti-jamming GPS module involving a four-antenna array with phase shifters, GPS module, and raspberry pi that detects and cancels the narrowband noise to protect the GPS module from jamming signals. The Raspberry Pi is implementing a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to determine the best phase shifter angles to nullify the jamming signal. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Daniel Burns, Andrew Chance, Rocco Febbo, Raj Patel, and Zackery Wood | Spring 2020 |
| Senior Game Engine | The Engineers | The goal is to create a functional game/3d physics engine containing all the basic components needed to create a game. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Connor Cotturone, Chip Bevil, William Osborne, and Jacob Curlin | Spring 2024 | |
| Design and Build Instructional Tool for Teaching the Golf Swing - Golf Professional Byron Williams | Byron Williams, PGA Teaching Professional | Golf Trainer - Pro Byron Williams | The goal of this capstone is to design and build a golf trainer that helps demonstrate through the subjective experience of the ball striker the correct motions for a consistently sound golf swing. Students will develop a quantitative analysis of the golf swing to help guide design of the golf trainer with professional guidance from Pro Byron Williams. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Brooks Leftwich, Bo Compton, Sam Gates, Ryan Singley, Clark Hall, Nick Hassler, Ben Vickery, and Alec Rinehart | Spring 2020 |
| Extraction of Rare Earth Elements from Monazite Ore | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | UTK CBE GROUP 10 | Develop a process using OLI flowsheet for the extraction of rare earth elements of high purity to be sold for profit from monazite ore. The design will include all necessary unit operations, appropriate safety measures, and pollution control and prevention techniques. A study-level design will be presented, including a process flow diagram and economic analysis. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Paige Jones, Morgan Walker, and DeLys Valentine | Spring 2019 |
| Biosolids Evaluation and Design at Loudon Utility Board's Wastewater Treatment Plant | Loudon Utility District, Barge Solutions | JNBZ Engineering | Analyze and evaluate the sludge handling process at the Loudon Utility Board's Wastewater Treatment Plant. Evaluate the current sludge disposal process and analyze potential improvements to the handling and waste stream process. Propose a recommended option also considerate of increased handling capacity to address new industrial growth in the county. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Zaid Alhawari, Jacob Applegate, Brianna Lay, and Nick Lillis | Spring 2023 |
| Large Scale Avermectin Fermentation | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Avermectin Team 4 | Design an efficient, large scale fermentation process to produce a liquid extract containing toluene and avermectin. The process must produce a high concentration of the desired B1a and B1b avermectin analogs. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Michael Pauly, Austin Lackey, Destiny Poiroux, and Jesselyn Johnson | Spring 2019 |
| MDF Robotic Soil Collection | Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | MDF Robotic Soil Collection | Design and demonstrate an automated soil digging function for an autonomous robot. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Bradley Jared | Clayton Arwood, Meriah Senogles, Parker Henderson, and Ethan Rummel | Spring 2024 |
| Maryville Little League Bridge Evaluation & Redesign | Robert G. Campbell & Associates | Diamond Engineering, Inc. | Maryville Little League's property spans Brown Creek, but a dilapidated bridge no longer allows access between the spaces adjacent to the stream. Services require design of a new bridge to accommodate both pedestrian and vehicular access for users of the ballpark. Additionally, small children access the stream and a water quality study is warranted to ensure water contact is safe. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | John Newman, David Swinney, Lauren Meffe, Francis Nunez, Nicholas Manley, Joseph Armstrong, Korbin Hinson, and Joshua Clanton | Spring 2020 |
| Electromagnetic Suspension | EMS | So the main goal of our project is to use both 3-D software simulations as well as a multiple prototypes to demonstrate that our design accomplishes the goals we set last semester. These goals are Properly holding up the full weight of and object using only magnetism and dampening an oscillation caused by an outside disturbance to the system, this will be done through voltage oscillation wave sent to an electromagnet. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Mohammed Olama | Dakota Davis, Thomas Self, Matthew Bianchi, Tyler Ellison, Sashan Amarasinghe, Ethan Marsh, and Christopher Burnett | Spring 2024 | |
| Industrial Scale-up of Spent Lithium Ion Battery Recycling Process | JSW Fund for Undergraduate and Graduate Research at the University of Tennessee (UT) | Lithium Ladies | Design an efficient and safe industrial scaled process that recovers lithium and other valuable components from spent lithium-ion batteries. Investigate economic feasibility of production including capital cost and equipment costing. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Makayla Hyde, Zoe Antonas, Jaclyn Choate, Abby Newberry, and Madi Sherrod | Spring 2020 |
| Improved Retraction in Breast Surgery | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 14 (VOLineers) | Provide a surgeon a better grip on fatty breast tissue without the need for a lap pad or any external devices by using a polyisoprene glove with elevated ridges along the fingers that will increase tractability to The performance requirements of the system would be to increase traction between the surgical glove and breast tissue while preventing any injuries to the tissue such as tearing. The only other function the glove must possess would be to allow maximum flexibility: the new glove design must not limit the flexibility of normal polyisoprene gloves. Overall, the glove should maintain all performance properties of a basic polyisoprene surgical glove with the addition of an increase in traction. LSR will be overmolded and cured onto the glove fingertips. A pattern of polygonal extrusions is expressed to increase surface area and improve grip overall. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Ashton Brooks and Jeff Reinbolt | Alexis Butner, Vargas Fonseca, Paul Odom, and Madison Thomas | Spring 2023 |
| Trans-Neptunium Orbit Determinations | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | TNO VI; Delta VEGA Edition | Develop potential trajectories and mission opportunities for objects past Neptune's orbit. This process minimized the mass requirements of engine burns to achieve the desired trajectories and analyzed the radiation experienced by the spacecraft on the trajectory. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Zackery Crum, Daniel Johnson, Samuel Walters, Garrett Mitchell, and Adam Dalton | Spring 2019 |
| Pratt & Whitney Axial Oil Scoop | Pratt & Whitney | Pratt & Whitney Axial Oil Scoop | Design and test new axial oil scoop concepts for Pratt & Whitney. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Bradley Jared | Cade Smith, Charles Brush, Jordan Miner, Joshua Watkins, and William Werner | Spring 2024 |
| Safety Teach Alert System | University of Tennessee Medical Center | Trach Tech | Develop a system that will utilize electronics to detect blockages in the airway of a tracheostomy patient. The system will utilize an air pressure sensor in the pathway of air flow through the trach that will deliver information to an Arduino microprocessor and alert the patientรs caregiver to attend to the patient and check the trach for blockage. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeffrey Reinbolt | Zachary Dossett, Elizabeth Jelinek, Herak Patel, and Curtis Schunk | Spring 2020 |
| Guitar Auto-Tuner | EZ-Tune | A simple to use device to expedite the tuning process of individual guitar strings | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Graham Buchanan, Lane Barton, Henry Ott, Christian Tongate, and TJ Peterson | Spring 2024 | |
| Prescribed and simplified bone plate adjustment | University of Tennessee Research Foundation | PB&J (Plates, Bending, and Jaws) | Develop a procedure/product that customizes, through prescribed bending and cutting steps, and in a timely manner, the size, shape, and conformation of titanium bone plates that are used in maxillofacial surgery for mending jaw fractures and osteotomies. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Andy Sarles | Luke Lindsey, William Davis, Curtis Haley, Nicolas Murray, and Matthew Watters | Spring 2020 |
| Knox County Road Improvements: Hardin Valley Road | Knox County | Senior Civil Consulting | Develop a new roadway for Hardin Valley Road Corridor in Knox County, TN, to resolve current congestion and safety concerns. Include multi-modal considerations while improving road capacity and traffic efficiency. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Roman Edwards, John Rebus, Kyle Rogers, Mikaela Trujillo, and Natalie Ziomek | Spring 2023 |
| Fitted Heater Project | UT Medical Center | Fire Five | Design a fitted heater blanket to treat hypothermic patients in the emergency room. The design is to have multiple removable partitions in order to allow select access to the patient without removing the entire heating device. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeff Reinbolt | Becka Klein, Ashley Drake, Courtney Nakamura, Mitchell Stockinger, and Ahmad Alharithy | Spring 2019 |
| Pratt & Whitney Seal Plate | Pratt & Whitney | Pratt & Whitney Seal Plate | Design and test new seal plate concepts for Pratt & Whitney. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Bradley Jared | Caroline Altoonian, Bennett Fowler, Sam Keith, John Greene, and Jon Gustafson | Spring 2024 |
| Technology Incorporation for Window Line Productivity Improvement/ Cost Reduction | Clayton Homes | Agile Automation | Develop a solution to eliminate bottlenecks in Clayton Homesร window production process. Improve throughput and reduce employee strain. Save Clayton Homes money. | Integrated Engineering Design | Floyd Ostrowski | Frank Gao, Adam Dalton, Jordan Pruitt, Ifedayo Akinduro , Malay Shah, Drew Browning, and Aju Joseph | Spring 2020 |
| Crescendo | Cadence Collective | Mobile application that entices and engages the user with daily practice for various music and instrument-related skills using curated lesson plans, interactive tools, and rewarding game-like systems. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Grant Webb, Sean Laughlin, and Stephen Souther | Spring 2024 | |
| Automobile Temperature Regulator | University of Tennessee Research Foundation | Team 16 | Design a vehicle temperature control system that monitors the internal temperature of the automobile and adjust the AC appropriately according to user input. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Pengda Xie, Matthew Scarfo, Ronald Randolph, and Rhett Turner | Spring 2020 |
| Experimental Apparatus for Brain Shunt Testing | National Institute of Health and Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 15 (CLAD Engineering) | Design and build a test apparatus to evaluate shunts used in hydrocephalus treatment and demonstrated the final product to test a shunt device. Hydrocephalus causes the accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) within the ventricular system leading to health complications including death. There is no cure for hydrocephalus; however, treatment can be successful via CSF drainage through a shunt system. A test apparatus for characterizing shunt performance under physiologically realistically conditions is lacking. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Stephanie TerMaath and Jeff Reinbolt | Christian Blackwell, Ashley Handy, Lance Knipper, and Dylan Marler | Spring 2023 |
| Surgical Forceps for Cervical Repair in Horses | College of Veterinary Medicine | W.A.C.K. Engineering | Our project is to design surgical forceps to repair cervical lacerations in mares after giving birth. Our design will approve upon the instruments used by surgeons in the College of Veterinary Medicine. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeffery Reinbolt | Casey Gredzieleski, Justin Karl, Adam Throgmorton, and Will Kerr | Spring 2019 |
| Efficient Elevator Algorithm | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team Icovator | Design a simulation that emulates elevators in buildings of various sizes. Develop an algorithm that optimizes elevator functionality using modern reinforcement learning techniques. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Sean Toll, Owen Barbour, Carl Edwards, Daniel Nichols, and Austin Day | Spring 2020 |
| Data Collection Device with Renewable Energy | Elite Gardeners | Using a Raspberry Pi to monitor and display various values about the soil and air to the user for use in a home garden. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Jerod Dalton, Zackery Whitscell, Junli Yang, and Fernando Mayea Gonzalez | Spring 2024 | |
| Modular Ammonia Production | The American Institute of Chemical Engineers | MAP | Design a small-scale, modular ammonia plant capable of producing 10 tons/day of ammonia on a farm, utilizing clean energy sources. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Chase McGee, Shivam Ishanpara, James Ragland, and Mohamed Sabrah | Spring 2020 |
| Potter Park Stormwater Detention and Park Design | City of McMinnville, CEC | Recreational Water Solutions | Design a plan for stormwater detention and a recreational park at Potter Park in McMinnville, TN. Perform a proper hydrological analysis to demonstrate the effectiveness of the stormwater mitigation strategy inclusive of recreational features and amenities. Further design of the park to include recreational facilities to attract community members to the public space. Determine an estimate of probable cost for use by McMinnville to establish a project budget. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Ghazi Albakri, Sean Cornelissen, Neisha French, Joseph Noce, and Kathryn Stehle | Spring 2023 |
| Acid Extraction of Thorium Oxide: An Economic Analysis | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | "We Made it" | The purpose of this report is to perform a study level analysis of monazite mineral processing in the United States. The main product will be reasonably pure ThO2 and rare earth oxides as bi-products. Design Objectives -Produce highest yield of ThO2and oxide byproducts. -Ensure operating conditions for the process do not violate OSHA regulations on safe operating procedure. -Minimize negative impact on the environment. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Evan Wilmer, Michael Lin, and Patrick Greene | Spring 2019 |
| Valve Cleaning Device | Tenneco | Tenneco | Design, build, and test a device to clean and dry engine valves. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Anukkah Burleson, Jackson Diamond, Myles Dettmann, and Adison Grajqevci | Spring 2024 |
| Second Mountaineer Collegiate UAV Flyoff | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | 2020 UTK Design Build Fly Team | Design, fabricate and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an unmanned, electric powered, radio controlled aircraft that can best meet the specified mission profile. Maximum allowable wingspan is 5 feet and must take off within 20 feet when empty. Other flight missions simulate loading the aircraft with passengers and cargo, as well as releasing and deploying a banner during flight. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Robert Bond | Gabrel Waldrop, Grayson Foster, Arianna Worthy, Nathan Thomas, Andrew Duncan, Peyton Jenkins, and Matthew Carter | Spring 2020 |
| Wireless Portable Storage Device | SkyDrive | Design a convenient storage device that is portable and wireless and create an application that connects the storage drive to other devices in a way that is both seamless and configurable. Ensure proper power management of the storage device depending on usage, and make the storage device compatible with third party drives? | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Joseph Johnson, Thomas Smith, Hashim Alshakhoury, Josh Humphrys, and Madeleine Martin | Spring 2024 | |
| Soft, Bulky Medical Product Shipping Innovation | DeRoyal | OptiMed | Develop an efficient transportation system for bulky, lightweight medical products. Decrease shipping costs by increasing the amount of product shipped in each container. | Integrated Engineering Design | Floyd Ostrowski and Keith Stanfill | Lauren Desjardins, Kiana Hines, Frenando Blevins, and Cooper Atteberry | Spring 2020 |
| Surgical Glove Retraction Attachments for Breast Mastectomy Cases | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 16 (BioSAAL) | Design novel surgical glove attachments with surface modifications to increase overall grip friction on fatty, breast tissue during mastectomy cases. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Ashton J. Brooks and Jeff Reinbolt | Laura Bell, Sam Hays, Ainsley Holliday, and Andrew Ray | Spring 2023 |
| Large Scale Bromine Recovery | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Group 2 | Design an economically efficient method to extract bromine from aqueous waste. The system must extract a minimum of 90% bromine in the final stream. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Jacob Hunter, Logan Armstrong, Shadow Marks, and Tao Wang | Spring 2019 |
| Railroad Frog Manufacturing Improvements | Unitrac | Unitrac | Design, build, and test a new method to hold frog castings manufactured by Unitrac. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Brock Garland, Chloe Caruso, Riya Vinod ,and Skylar Sims | Spring 2024 |
| Hybrid Rocket Fuel Grain Advancement | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Hybrid Rocket Engine | This project builds on prior senior design research of polymer-based hybrid rocket engines with low fuel regression rates and limited thrust. The focuses for this project are to reduce overall cost, to minimize production time for each fuel grain, and to optimize the performance of the hybrid fuel grain. There is an ongoing experimentation effort to complement this research. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Evans Lyne | Samantha Golter, Ethan Long, Will Martindale, Cade Puckett, Daniel Rudolph, Coleman Davis, and Thomas Koch | Spring 2020 |
| Peerless Social Media | Team P | We aim to create a social media platform unlike any others currently available. We will implement new ways to display user content that make social media interesting again. Our platform aims to provide a safer way to share media online in a social way. We do this by providing fine grained privacy options and more control over what is known on social media platforms as the "algorithm" which delivers content across the network. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Joshoua Rodriguez, Henry Brand, Noah Van Fleet, and Christian Graham | Spring 2024 | |
| Active Energy System - Ice Storage | Active Energy Systems | AES Ice Storage | Design, develop, and demonstrate a prototype of a newly designed air conditioning unit that uses ice as the cooling substance. Specifically, a storage unit that will contain the ice requires particular attention of the design process. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Mitul Mistry, Truman Melton, Remoun Abdo, Ian Collins, and J Forrest Davenport | Spring 2020 |
| Knoxville's Urban Wilderness: Hillwood Avenue Improvements | Gresham Smith | Smiley Engineering Co. | Design roadway improvements for Hillwood Avenue as part of the Knoxville Urban Wilderness project. Perform design efforts to develop multi-modal access to the Wilderness along this roadway which provides an essential connection to nearby communities such as Island Homes and the Ijams Nature Park. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Natalie Hester, Isaac Macon, Steven Tremayne, and Elizabeth Vanderloo | Spring 2023 |
| Rapid Autonomous Pneumatic Transport System | Electric Power Research Institute | Sample Transport Pneumatics | Design a air-driven sample transport system that can deliver material samples into the fast neutron source core, transfer them to a detector for analysis, and then dispose of them, autonomously. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Wes Hines and Larry Sharpe | Emily Hutchins, John Taylor, Xena McDonald, Jacob Melton, Elijah Davis, and Robert Bohn | Spring 2019 |
| Zeanah Engineering Complex HVAC Controls | UTK Facility | Zeanah Building Performance | Monitor energy consumption and HVAC functionality with the purpose of maximizing building efficiency at minimum operating cost. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Abby Eggerman, Samuel Reed, Olivia Trippeer, Henry Gates, Jonathan Hambly, Benjamin Kiser, and Michael Skotty | Spring 2024 |
| Pilot Car Active Clearance Alert System | Clayton Homes | Watch Your Head | Develop a system to prevent manufactured home collisions with overhead obstacles during highway transport. Design pilot car detection systems and communication with home trailer to warn drivers with enough time to avoid a collision. | Integrated Engineering Design | Hairong Qi | Thomas Keyes, Rยmi Koch, Charles Weber, Matthew DeMorat, Spencer McDonald, and Jacob Wille | Spring 2020 |
| Orchestra Organizer | 3 and a Half Developers | Our product is managerial software for an orchestra. The goal of our project is to provide a space for directors to easily access the information needed to maintain an orchestra and allow musicians to view necessary information. We have geared our product for an educational orchestra. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Juliana Broussard, Alexander Yu, Samuel Thomas, and Ryan Franqui | Spring 2024 | |
| Design and Construction of Modular Thermal Evaporator | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Science Toaster | Design a thermal evaporator to perform physical vapor deposition in a research laboratory setting. Modularity will be a main purpose in design such that the thermal evaporator may be developed in parallel with control system integration and high-cost parts acquisition to enable a more intelligent system. | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Mahshid Ahmadi | Melanie Buziak, Caitlin Harpell, Trent Charnock, Morgan Yount, and Cullen Pearson | Spring 2020 |
| Mechatronic System for Tele-operated Colonoscope | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 17 (Best for Last) | Design a mechatronic device for specified position control of colonoscopes. The advantage of this system is that it does not require the use of any novel technologies yet still provides enhanced precision for visualization during colonoscopy procedures. Annually, 60,000 patients undergo colectomies: invasive colon tumor removal operations. These colectomies are majorly the result of the lack of control and precision when attempting to perform biopsies and small removals alongside colonoscopy-aided visualization. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Caleb Rucker and Jeff Reinbolt | Melia Baker, Alexandria Carter, Nolan Daugherty, Amin Dkhiri, and Harrison Linsle | Spring 2023 |
| Trauma Tot | UT Medical Center | LOGO Designs | Design and manufacture a simulated trauma model for toddler aged children in order for surgeons to practice a variety of procedures. The model must be anatomically correct, have a simple assembly system, and use materials that are easy to replace and cost effective. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeff Reinbolt | Olivia Lowman, Anneka Granvold, Ryan Ogle, and Eddie Orzechowski | Spring 2019 |
| Baja SAE | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Baja SAE | Design, build, and test an off-road vehicle to participate in the annual Baja SAE competition | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Adam Schoolfield, McKade Patrick, Easton Eller, Iman Ibrahim, Christian Ramsey, and Charles Bailey | Spring 2024 |
| Assembly Jig and End of Arm Tooling for HUD Assembly with Collaborative Robot | DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee Inc. | DENSO HUD | Designed an automated process to complement the current manual assembly of a heads-up display unit by utilizing a collaborative robot with custom Assembly Jig and End of Arm Tooling. Identify and evaluate all safety concerns through a Risk Assessment according to ISO 10218-2. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Hamel | Grayson Northern, Alex Buechler, Justus Camp, Caleb Heffner, Joey Setelin, Matthew Voyles, and Jazmin Gurganus | Spring 2020 |
| Machine Learning Poker | The Bluff Buddies | Our objective is to demonstrate deep Q-learning's application in imperfect information games, like poker, to advance neuromorphic solutions. By creating a poker-playing bot capable of effectively responding to and executing bluffs, we aim for a win rate above 51% against amateur players. Additionally, we will offer an accessible website for users to easily challenge the bot, showcasing the potential of Q-learning in scenarios with limited information and human unpredictability. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Justin McKnight, Colin Canonaco, Jared Dixon, Jacob Shoffner, and Brandon Marth | Spring 2024 | |
| Intersection Re-Design & Lane Widening at State Route 33 & England Industrial Road in Claiborne County, TN | TDOT | Smokey Engineering Company | Current alignment and signalization of the intersection at State Route 33 and England Industrial Road in Claiborne County, TN are ineffective, causing traffic queuing and delays for drivers. Transportation, construction, and storm water engineering services are necessary to reduce traffic queuing and improve safe traffic flow at the intersection. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Jeremy Bronner, Rachel Carson, Jesse Head, Matthew Keisling, Ryan Keller, Gage Thomas, and William White | Spring 2020 |
| Slope Stabilization Design for Ridge Road in Sevierville | City of Sevierville, GEOServices | Sunsphere Design Solutions, LLC | Design a permanent slope remedy for Ridge Road in Sevierville, TN. Develop a cost-effective solution ready to be implemented considerate of roadway construction constraints and with limited impact to roadway traffic. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | William DuPree, Christopher Hill, Zane Jessee, Jeremy Kashif, and Tyler Resnick | Spring 2023 |
| Bromine Recovery (Small Scale) | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | #CBE 490 - Group 9 | Design a technical and economical process for recovering Bromine from industrial wastewater in considerations to safety as well as environmental impacts. The required target is 80% recovery from 500 ppm of Bromine contained in the wastewater feed. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan and Zhanhu Guo | Austin Kearney, Hannah Landau, Delaney Fields, and Thach Nguyen | Spring 2019 |
| Battlebot Competition | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Battlebots 2 | Design and build a remote controlled robot capable of competing in a battlebot contest | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Subhadeep Chakraborty | Anfinn Chilsen, Joshua Meany, Seth Jackson, and Zachary Poland | Spring 2024 |
| Effluent to Beer Tap: Design and Construction of a Portable Re-Use Water Treatment System | LDA Engineering | Sustainabrew Engineering | Water Scarcity is an increasingly prevalent issue many municipalities face or will face in the near future. Design and construction of a portable wastewater treatment unit suitable to accept wastewater treatment plant effluent serves as a prototype for wastewater re-use. Water quality testing ensures the treated water meets drinking water standards and allows for a beer brewing trial application. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Kadee Klimowicz, Emma Parks, Sean Lee, and Caroline Stephens | Spring 2020 |
| Recipe Box | The Lil'timas | We are creating a website and app that stores people's recipes. It allows them to organize, search, and view recipes. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Lilian Swann and Fatima Bowers | Spring 2024 | |
| Thermal Chemical Energy Storage | UT Greenfee | Thermal Chemical Energy Storage | Analyze energy storage potential for sodium hydroxide (NaOH) used in conjunction with a parabolic solar collector. Model solar collector temperatures as well as energy usage for various building types and weather patterns to determine feasibility of use for a full-scale system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Jonathan West, Samuel Swayne, John Davis, James McBroom, and Tennessee Bryant | Spring 2020 |
| Automated Injector for the Cost-Effective and Reproducible Assembly of Nanoparticle Therapeutics in Early-Stage Development | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 2 (NanoEngineers) | Create an automated injector for nanoparticle formulations in early-stage development, so it is intended for a bench-top, laboratory research setting. For reference, nanoparticles can be used to encapsulate drugs for targeted drug delivery. The flow rates and mixing involved in nanoparticle formulations control the encapsulation efficiency, size, and other characteristics of nanoparticles. Thus, the device allows for consistency in nanoparticle production through a syringe pump and microfluidic mixing system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Deidra Mountain and Jeff Reinbolt | Allison Cripps, Renata Dos Reis Marques , Haley Hopkins, and Tatum Perry | Spring 2023 |
| Flint water crisis | Department of Sociology | Team 14 | Our project goal is to help add on sorting algorithms to a program that creates a database for all of the emails released from the government about the water crisis in flint, Michigan. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Louise Seasmter | Carter Cooley | Spring 2019 |
| Flatwire Assembly Process | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Denso 2 | Design a process to assist operator with Flatwire assembly process. Create a tool/mechanism that can be used to create a consistent method for inserting flatwires into connectors. Insertion will be judged using Keyence GT2 sensors. Develop tool to be easily modified to fit different sizes of flatwires (different width on different products) and easily adaptable to different flatwire applications | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jindong Tan | Basak Hasturk, Cason Scarce, and Eric Zook | Spring 2024 |
| Materials Selection for High Temperature Neutron Scattering Sample Containers | ORNL Neutron Scattering Directorate | HT Neutron Scattering Sample Containment | Identify and evaluate materials to improve the reusability of sample cans used in high temperature neutron scattering experiments. The selected materials must be able to sustain temperatures up to 1600 ยกC while being unreactive with other can components and various classes of samples. The thermal expansion compatibility of the can components is also of importance. | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Claudia Rawn and Katharine Page | Ian Greeley, Joshua McCoy, Ahmad Alghadeer, Reece Emery, and Shiyi Chen | Spring 2020 |
| A mobile app that splits receipts | BitBusters | The proposed project aims to develop an innovative application leveraging receipt parsing technology to simplify and streamline the process of splitting expenses among multiple parties. This application seeks to address the challenges individuals face when managing shared expenses by providing a user-friendly platform for scanning, parsing, and effectively dividing receipts. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Logan Oneal, Eric Vaughan, Alex Nguyen, Akash Pramod Kumar, and Zachary Perry | Spring 2024 | |
| Autonomous Vehicle Intersection Management. David J Icove | N/A | AVIM | Develop a system that performs intersection management for autonomous vehicles in an environment where all vehicles are fully autonomous. The goal is to control the speeds of incoming vehicles and synchronize their arrival times such that they pass through the intersection without needing to stop, thus significantly increasing intersection throughput/efficiency and subsequently reducing congestion. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Arun Padakandla | Wei Yuen Teh, Yiming Sun, Andy Liu, and Yucheng Ma | Spring 2020 |
| Clayton-Bradley Academy Sports Field & Play Area Site Development Plan | Clayton-Bradley Academy, C2RL | MOEServices | Design a new multiuse sports field and play area for middle school students that will include foundation design for athletic field structures, retaining wall design, reinforced slope design, and small foundation and anchor design for play area structures. Design a concrete masonry fieldhouse structure for the sports field. Provide traffic flow designs to facilitate access to the new campus improvements. Provide site design, gradation, cost estimation, and planning for both the play area and sports facility sites. Design site drainage and stormwater design to properly drain stormwater from the site. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Benjamin Archibald, Griffin Bedell, Jack Bristol, William Pugh, and Jonathan Shell | Spring 2023 |
| Eastman PFT Data Logger | Eastman Chemical Company | P.F.T | Design and develop a self-powered data logging system that records and monitors pressure, temperature, and flow rate data in air and water pipelines at Eastman Chemical Company. Readings are taken by using a pitot tube with two pressure transducers and a temperature sensor which connect to a data logger. The collected data is displayed on the data logger in a live readout for 24 hour periods. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Ryan Wallace, Chad Arnold, Tucker Hall, and Joseph Gauspohl | Spring 2019 |
| Felt Assembly Process | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Denso 1 | Design a process to assist an operator with an assembly process. First, assist with cushion position and placement to the part. This cushion is required to be within certain dimensions and should be inspected with a vision system or sensor to ensure it is within specifications. Next, assist with the felt assembly. Felt assembly process requires bending and attaching felt in multiple stage. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jindong Tan | Benjamin Crawford, Chase Woodard, and Carson Maloney | Spring 2024 |
| Hybrid Thermal/PV Panel | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 10 | Develop a system that combines different solar and thermal technologies to increase the power output and efficiency of a solar cell. The system uses concentrated solar, a water cooling system where heat transferred to water is converted into additional electricity via a thermoelectric device, and an Arduino-controlled tracking system for redirection of concentrated solar mirrors. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Regan Moreno, Tanner Hardin, Sara Martin, and Sarah Jacob | Spring 2020 |
| Auto Dish Washer Status Indicator | The Dish Corps | My project is a magnetic dishwasher status indicator that automatically finds the state of the dishwasher's status, using a couple of low cost sensors, in order to lessen ambiguity of whether or not the dishes are clean. This unit will prevent the user's frustration from accidentally unloading dirty dishes out of the dishwasher. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Jian Huang | Luke Whatley | Spring 2024 | |
| Pressurized Water Reactor Refueling Without Removal of the Pressure Vessel Head or Shutting Down the Reactor | Department of Nuclear Engineering | PWRR | A pressurized water reactor has been redesigned to permit refueling while the plant is in operation, as is done is certain gas-cooled reactors. The new design consists of an annular core capable of rotation to position any fuel assembly beneath one of two or three hatches where it can be pulled into a pressure cylinder from which it can be transferred to the spent fuel pool. The pressure cylinder will have the capability to be valved off to maintain pressure in the reactor pressure vessel. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Martin Grossbeck | Hadeer Zayed, Ashley Goluoglu, Simon Montgomery, and Matthew Scott | Spring 2020 |
| Novel Endometrial Tissue Sampler | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 3 (Gals & Gabe) | Develop a novel endometrial tissue sampler to address the needs presented by our stakeholder, Allison Eaton. When performing endometrial biopsies, Allison Eaton encounters patients who have a retroflexed, retroverted, or anteflexed uterus and struggles to effectively sample tissue. Our team has developed a device that mimics the current available pipelle but replaces the plastic stylet with an austenitic steel version, giving it rigidity and malleability for the physician to manipulate. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Allison Eaton and Jeff Reinbolt | Gabriel Isaac, Abigail McCord, Skylar Simpson, and Gabrielle Weaver | Spring 2023 |
| Large Scale Iron Nano-particle Production | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Large Scale Iron Nano-particle Production | The objective of the project is to develop a preliminary process design package for the production 500 kg/year of magnetic iron nano-particles which are the key material for various applications including the drug delivery, imaging, etc. Iron nano-particles are active metal powders at a scale of less than one hundred nanometers. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan and John Zhanhu Guo | Bryson Nash, Zachary Larson, Joseph Arnold, Ethan Moore, and Nicolas Axon | Spring 2019 |
| Battlebot Competition | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Battlebots 3 | Design and build a remote controlled robot capable of competing in a battlebot contest | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Anirban Roy | Christopher Lee Lowe, Mason Paul Mccullough, John Edward Bradley, and John David Wright | Spring 2024 |
| Pipe Inspection Robot | Eastman Chemical Company | Pipe Bot | Develop and build a robotic system to traverse within a pipe system to inspect for defects, product buildup or other issues. Robotic system will be functional for up to 100 ft of pipe, capture images, transmit video and be controlled remotely. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Michael Buckley, Armand Mendez, John Batcheller, Daniel Brimer, and Justin Shropshire | Spring 2020 |
| BookTalk | The Baby Sharks | BookTalk, a specialized social media platform for book enthusiasts, cultivates connections among readers, authors, and influencers. Users can create personalized profiles to share their reading journeys publicly or privately. Noteworthy features include interactive book reviews with a rich text editor and social engagement options like liking and commenting. Going beyond typical social media, BookTalk incorporates event planning for book clubs, meetups, author readings, and personalized recommendations based on trends. With robust search functionality, BookTalk aims to be the premier platform, seamlessly connecting online interactions with real-world possibilities for passionate book lovers. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Manan Patel, Riya Patel, and Tulsi Tailor | Spring 2024 | |
| Motion Charging Smart Watch | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 01 | Develop hardware and software that can be implemented to an existing Smartwatch so the system could charge off of the userรs motion. The hardware would include an integrated circuit with USB connection. The software would analyze the performance of the charging module and report to the user | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Luke Annen, Jillian Ruff, and Nolan Brown | Spring 2020 |
| Faith N Friends Multi-Purpose Pavilion & Site Development Plan | Faith N Friends, EMC Structural Engineers P.C., S&ME, Inc. | Southeast Design Group | Create a site development plan for a multipurpose pavilion for Faith N Friends to be used for horse riding lessons and shows. The pavilion was designed to be efficiently taken down if necessary and to withstand various forces through structural engineering analysis. The cost of materials and proposed construction schedule was developed through construction cost and timeline analysis. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Jeffrey Chen, Hunter Davis, Joshua Lacey, Devina Langarica, Cody Sadoff, and Thomas Wheeler | Spring 2023 |
| Reclamation of Thorium Oxide and other Rare Earth Metals from Monazite Ore | Electric Power Research Institute | ICBM | Design an innovative and profitable process to extract economically significant products from a rather cheap material in a safe manner. Perform simulations and analyses to assess the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed process. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Bonnie Armstrong, Casey Holsten, and Ian Metcalfe | Spring 2019 |
| Battlebot Competition | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Battlebots 1 | Design and build a remote controlled robot capable of competing in a battlebot contest | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Subhadeep Chakraborty | Max Howell, Brandon Pinto, Zachary Morgan, and Allan Southichak | Spring 2024 |
| Tenn Pod | UTRF & UTHSC | 4 Peas in a Pod | Tenn Pods are self-contained, mobile hospital rooms. Our objective was to improve hospital workflow and the patientรs overall experience without altering the hospitalรs existing infrastructure. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Sara Hanrahan | Madeline Wood, Tanner Davis, Tanner Mullins, and Quint Gasque | Spring 2020 |
| Scrapped! - Wave survival first-person shooter game. | The Rigidbodies | We are designing a wave-survival first-person shooter game heavily inspired by Call of Duty: Zombies, with the unique twist being a heavy reliance on physics. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Mason Stott, Julian Halloy, Victor Hanset, Rehse Sparks, Dylan Ables, and Gabriel Cadieux | Spring 2024 | |
| Solar Energy Window | University of Tennessee | Team 15 | Develop a solar panel shutter with the functionality to operate as both a window decoration as well as provide an alternative energy source for the user. The system must be able to gain optimal sunlight for maximum power output. An app will be provided to both monitor and control the operational features of this shutter. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Jason Horner, Matt Bianchi, Charles Teffeteller, and William Morrell | Spring 2020 |
| Automated Injector for the Rapid and Scalable Assembly of Lipid Nanoparticle Therapeutics | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 5 (The Brainy Bunch) | Create an automated injector for nanoparticle formulations in early-stage development, so it is intended for a bench-top, laboratory research setting. For reference, nanoparticles can be used to encapsulate drugs for targeted drug delivery. The flow rates and mixing involved in nanoparticle formulations control the encapsulation efficiency, size, and other characteristics of nanoparticles. Thus, the device allows for consistency in nanoparticle production through a syringe pump and microfluidic mixing system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Deidra Mountain and Jeff Reinbolt | Allison Cripps, Renata Dos Reis Marques , Haley Hopkins, and Tatum Perry | Spring 2023 |
| Treatment of Sour Water from Petrochemical Processes | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Raghavan Incorporated | Develop a technologically advantageous and economically efficient process for the removal of toxic compounds commonly found in wastewater from petrochemical processes in order for its safe and responsible reintegration into local ecosystems. Water purity must meet or exceed relevant federal and locally mandated pollutant levels to maintain public health and safety. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan | Colin Davis, Dillon Price, Kaitlin Blanchard, and Jesse Dyer | Spring 2019 |
| Battlebot Competition | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Battlebots 4 | Design and build a remote controlled robot capable of competing in a battlebot contest | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Anirban Roy | Parker Thomas Hall, Benjamin Wade Hancock, Chris Sukbin Hong, and Jagrat Rakeshbhai Patel | Spring 2024 |
| Emergency Department Simulation and Modeling for Fort Sanders | Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center | Healthcare Emergency Department Refinement Team | This project is designed to have a reduction of patient length of stay (LOS) for the Emergency Department at FSRMC. The agent-based simulation model is a tool to assist the new Emergency Department in decision making on staffing, the number of beds to open, and other logistical opportunities for improvement by observing the current flow of the ED, creating a simulation model, and simulating optimal scenarios utilizing design of experiments. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Floyd Ostrowski and Laura O'Shaughnessy | Gabrielle Schuck, Ryan Fehr, Chris Logan, Lee Malesh, and Ashley Chen | Spring 2020 |
| NBA Stats analysis web application | HoopsVoyant | The goal of this project is to create a machine learning model that can predict the outcomes of games with a ~60% accuracy. This model will be apart of a website that allows users to interact with the model and different forums. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Matthew Webb, Duc Nguyen, and Matthew Duraney | Spring 2024 | |
| Design and Fabrication of Synthetic Rock-Forming Mineral Phases | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Synthetic Silicates | Design a process to create silicate minerals intended for nuclear reactor containment. These minerals need to withstand some irradiation, so a uniform phase and specific composition is necessary. | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Kurt Sickafus and Chris Wetteland | Natalie Wieber, Will Parker, Jared Floyd, and Justin Lee | Spring 2020 |
| Modifications to a Partial Task Trainer for Placement of Nasogastric Tube | UTC UTCAMS and Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 6 (SIMSquad4) | Improve an educational partial task trainer that will more accurately represent a nasogastric (NG) tube insertion. Three modifications will be made: addition of a backboard and angled stand, replacement of esophagus with more accurate representation, and addition of an actuated epiglottis to replicate swallowing. These modifications aim to improve medical simulation for NG tube placement and the success rate for actual NG tube placement with patients. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Melinda Klar and nursing staff at UT Center for Advanced Medical Simulation and Jeff Reinbolt | Jordis Blackburn, Matthew Charles, Andrew Coleman, and Rachel Robinette | Spring 2023 |
| Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center Emergency Department Process Improvement | Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center | Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center Team | Evaluate the Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center Emergency Department process flow to standardize and reduce the time for patient discharge as well as room turnover procedures, in order to decrease patient length of stay and improve patient experience. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Floyd Ostrowski and Laura O'Shaughnessy | Maddie Allison, Joey Reilman, Lucy Hayes, and Skylar East | Spring 2019 |
| Saving Building Energy and Improving IAQ | UTK Office Sustainability "GreenFee" | Germ Busters | Model the fluid dynamics of HVAC air circulation, and study airflow designs that will maximize the time air ions are present for sterilizing any pathogens in the air stream | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Rachel Constantin, Jack Dodson, Cameron Kunzer, and Anh Tran | Spring 2024 |
| Shielded Transfer Tanks Disposition | UCOR | Nuclear Waste Solutions | Develop a plan for remediating and transporting five tanks of radioactive waste from Oak Ridge to a disposal site. Identify risks created by the plan. Analyze the cost of the plan and necessary equipment. | Integrated Engineering Design | Sankar Raghavan | Melissa Hall, Sam Wehby, Brandon Hunt, Derek Holstein, Irfan Ibrahim, and Mackinzie Hutchison | Spring 2020 |
| Axial Flux Electric Motor | Aflux | Design, build, and test a new type of electric brushless motor that utilizes Axial Flux instead of radial magnetic flux. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Michael Dickey and Brandan Maupin | Spring 2024 | |
| Inventory Management for FDA Approval at T&T Scientific | T&T Scientific | My Chemical Inventory System | Ensure that T&T Scientific is FDA approved for production by implementing an inventory management software system for all solutions and reagents that is configured to comply with the Code of Federal Regulations. This inventory management system will additionally improve the productivity of daily operations and promote effective information management. | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Floyd Ostrowski and Laura O'Shaughnessy | Aran Arab, Madelaine Bayless, Daniel O'Leary, and Michael Zheng | Spring 2020 |
| Melton Lake Park Pedestrian Bridge & Trail Design | City of Oak Ridge, S&ME | Volunteer Design Group | Design two pedestrian bridge concepts to facilitate the expansion of the current greenway to cross the embayment near the Oak Ridge Rowing Association facility. Collect site elevation profiles for infrastructure placement, the design of an ADA compliant pathway connection between the bridge and existing greenway, and the implementation of necessary signage along the pathway and bridge. Develop a probable cost estimate, creating a construction schedule, organizing a list of equipment needed to complete the work, and determining an erosion and sediment control plan. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Patrick Biddle, Jeremy Bradt, Kirby Krivsky, Robert Lyszczarczyk, and Hank Powell | Spring 2023 |
| ORACLE: Mars Aerial Surveyor | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Coder's Rotors | Develop an aerial drone for the purpose of creating 3-dimensional topographic maps of the martian surface. The drone must be able to operate multiple flights to collect the needed data and be able to work in tandem with a rover to transmit the data back to Earth for processing. Software will be used to convert the video data into 3-dimensional topographic maps. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Coder and Robert Bond | Michelle Mcnamara, Tanner Justice, Jeff Zajkowski, John Thress, and David Kight | Spring 2019 |
| Battery Lifting Device | Volkswagen | Volkswagen | Design, build, and test a device to lift electric vehicles in a testing laboratory. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Larry Sharpe | Elijah Callender, Matthew Sausen, Nicolas Richard, Brandon Mckervey, and Matt Shannon | Spring 2024 |
| Attic Moisture Study | Reflective Insulation Manufacturers Association International | Dr. WAMรs Builders and Sealers | Develop a new attic design to encapsulate a residential HVAC system and the ductwork within an air-sealed yet moisture-ventilated attic. The new attic design should enhance radiation, convection, and conduction controls while also improving the moisture durability of the attic. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | William Miller | Isaiah Linkous, Zack Emery, Jacob O'Brien, Daniel Ramsey, and Ben Spradley | Spring 2020 |
| Interactive Smart Mirror | ISM | Fitness mirror that displays formatted health information, reminders, etc. to a specific user. Will hide personal data. Will also be useful for a generic user and display information like weather, time, etc. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Michael Gayoos, Matthew Bowlby, Seth Jeroutek, Kyle Mikelson, Chris McKinnon, Anna Weis, Elijah Randle, and Justin Gutierrez | Spring 2024 | |
| Process Design Analysis: Lithium Recovery from Lithium-ion Batteries by Way of Acid Leaching | J.S. Watson Fund at UT for Graduate and Undergraduate Research | The Liions | Design a safe, cost-efficient process to recover lithium from spent lithium-ion batteries. The process should minimize potential hazards associated with material reactivity and possess a low environmental impact via waste neutralization and recycling systems. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Lacey Roberts, Woodi Woodland, Nicholas Ross, and Jordan Leith | Spring 2020 |
| Improved Model for Nasogastric Tube Placement Training | UT Center for Advanced Medical Simulation and Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 7 (LADZ) | Nasogastric (NG) Tube placement is a relatively common procedure, but current training models do not accurately simulate the basic anatomical functions that occur in a patient. The objective of our project was to design a model to better assist instructors and students. The model includes a functioning epiglottis that the instructor will be able to activate, and also features soft and elastic materials to better represent the anatomical features of the nasopharynx and esophagus. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Melinda Klar and Jeff Reinbolt | Abigail Billings, Lesly Chavez, Ziven Noorani, and Danil Patel | Spring 2023 |
| Aerospace Hovercraft Team A | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Aerospace Hovercraft Team A | Design and build a amphibious hovercraft capable of carrying two students across the Tennessee River and back. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Robert Bond | Skylar Jordan, Trenton Bullman, Jorge Navia, and Savannah David | Spring 2019 |
| Near-net Forming of Ceramics for Nuclear Energy Technologies | BWXT | BWXT | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Claudia Rawn | Michael Broud, Jeremy Driver, Erin Mckay, and Kyle Pardue | Spring 2024 | |
| Shipping Solution for MECO Walk-A-Bout Grill | MECO | Corrigami | Design a packaging system that passes ISTA 6-Amazon-SIOC standards for drop shipping one grill. This system is required to have a cost of around $5 or less, be as eco-friendly and minimal plastics as possible, and be easily packed or unpacked. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Mark Barker | Rebecca Sphar, Zach Brown, Jessie Ringley, Hayden Galbreath, and Brandon Mooney | Spring 2020 |
| What Lurk's Below | Untitled Dungeon Game | Our project is a video game dungeon crawler with slight horror elements. It will have many mechanics revolving around dark areas, such as making it impossible to see enemies and losing "sanity" while in the dark. We are utilizing unreal engine with some assets to accomplish this. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Michael Gibson, Andy Zeng, Colin Lyttle, and Nagendra Upadhyay | Spring 2024 | |
| Avermectin Fermentation Project | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | CBE Group 5 | Estimate the manufacturing cost of avermectin in toluene for supply to the isolation process. Provide an analysis of the process for both extracting this avermectin and safely disposing of waste. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Sankar Raghavan and Zhanhu Guo | Evan Newell, Sarah Hrach, and Saad Binnamis | Spring 2020 |
| Creation and Design of 3D printed assistive devices to Help with Upper Limb Disabilities | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 8 (The LADS) | Create five 3D printed "life hack" devices to help people with disabilities in activities of daily living. The five devices are power chair soccer armrest attachment, a wheelchair attachment to hold an umbrella, a videogame controller joystick attachment, a soda can opener, and an assistive scissors device. The models of these devices along with tutorial videos on how to assemble and use them will be uploaded to the life without limits website. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Chad Duty and Jeff Reinbolt | Austin Davis, Stephen Ricketts, Lilly Roberts, and Drew Sloan | Spring 2023 |
| Tunneling Wound Exploration Device | UT Medical Center | T3 Engineering | Design a cost-efficient, sterile, and disposable exploration device for the purpose of examining and treating tunneling wounds with small-diameter openings. The device utilizes a novel articulation system that enables the operator to direct the camera's view while inside the wound. The device also contains a built-in irrigation system compatible with standard medical syringes to allow physicians to flush out the wound and clear any biological obstruction to the camera's view. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Mitchell Goldman | Brittani Lopez, Carson Smith, Sarah Enani, Christopher O'Brien, and Nathaniel Hauser | Spring 2019 |
| Polymeric Adhesive Composite Formulation, Mechanical Testing & Product Analysis | Shiloh | Shiloh | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Mariya Zhuravleva | Bethany Claes, Emmaline Howard, Sydney Johnson, Jacob Vicars, and Alicia Zehnan | Spring 2024 | |
| Vision System Innovation for Construction Site Safety | Trimble | Optical Worksite Locator | Develop a camera system to detect and locate invalid personal protective equipment (PPE). Alert construction site administrators through a mobile app. Analyze the market and create a business case for the product. | Integrated Engineering Design | Amir Sadovnik | Hannah Loftis, Bryce Mullins, Manan Desai, and Raman Lal | Spring 2020 |
| 3D QR Code: Stacking QR Codes | The Dahle Partons | The 3D QR code will be a group of 2D QR codes stacked on each other, represented through a mixture of colors. Also, it will include an option to encrypt sensitive data. The user will scan the code using an application to access the data stored in the code. The goal of this project is to create a QR code that can store a lot more data while only occupying the same amount of space as a typical QR code. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Stanimire Tomov | Noah Dahle | Spring 2024 | |
| 3D Printed Aircraft | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Additive Aeronauts | The team is taking part in a competition to design and 3D print an aircraft which will maximize unpowered endurance, the time an aircraft is in the air. To do this, the team is taking advantage of highly specialized materials and printing techniques available at UT. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Brett Compton and Robert Bond | Chapel Rice, Iris Melara, Eric Vercellone, and Bo Wagner | Spring 2020 |
| Lymphovenous Bypass Microsurgery: Optimizing Incision Site Space Using Surgical Retractors | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Team 9 (Retractor Renovators) | Design a surgical retractor that will improve visualization of deep structures, reduce mechanical obstruction, and decrease surgery time to improve the efficiency and reduce the technical difficulty of lymphovenous bypass surgery. Retractor Renovators is Our retractor design will reduce the overall surgery time, which will reduce the cost of the surgery, reduce risk for the patient, and allot more time for Stefanos Boukovalas to help other patients. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Stefanos Boukovalas and Jeff Reinbolt | David Mashburn, Leah Montgomery, Thomas Paterson, Jr., and Kaylin Shipley | Spring 2023 |
| CepFlex (VolTank Team 2) | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | CepFlex | Designed an upper arm rehabilitation device to allow patients of shoulder and elbow injuries to continue to have healthy muscle tissue. This device eliminates the need for free weights and resistance bands. Ideally by utilizing this device in the prehabilitation stages, there is a higher success rate after surgery. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Mench | Marty Dernberger, Geoff Germino, James Grandin, Zach Slessman, and Will Wheeler | Spring 2019 |
| Design of a micro/small, fluoride salt cooled, high-temperature reactor | Kairos Power | FHR | Design a small/micro fluoride salt cooled high temperature reactor similar to the test reactor, Hermes, that is being built by Kairos Power as a proof of concept of their full scale, KP-FHR. Hermes has its own entire manufacturing facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so repurposing that facility will reduce overhead costs of production. The team uses a neutronic code, SERPENT, to create a model of a Hermes sized FHR and conducted a sensitivity analysis to determine if a micro-reactor power density level is feasible. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Sandra Bogetic | Mitchell Crockett, Cade Abbott, Landry Wells, and Edan Estes-Lumpkin | Spring 2024 |
| ili Smart Mirror | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 09 | Develop a smart mirror by incorporating Amazon Alexa in the design and manufacturing of a smart mirror that will assist the user prepare for their day by displaying time, date, weather, and calendar events. It can also assist the user by displaying correct form during a workout or a proper outfit for certain weather conditions. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Colin Rains, Sean Indelicato, Kellen Parks, Caleb Whited, and Tim Welles | Spring 2020 |
| Inventory Management / PoS for Small Business | Streamline | To provide small businesses an intuitive, cheap alternative to current inventory management solutions such as Square. The main feature is tracking inventory stock. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Noah Shoap, Joseph Wehby, Vincent Broda, and Jennifer Hulen | Spring 2024 | |
| Multi-Port Catheter for Vascular Intervention | University of Tennessee Medical Center | SyrumSync | Design a working catheter that uses multiple ports to allow for both insertion and removal of substances, along with occlusion of the site in order to heal vascular damage. Analyze the benefit and efficiency of the vascular wall repair drug delivery system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeffrey Reinbolt | Emily Schulman, Emily Gable, Sara Aboeleneen, Patrick Kennedy, and Kiara Myers | Spring 2020 |
| Mobile Water Testing Kit for Rural Panama | Solea Water, First Utilities District | Uncharted Waters | Perform product development and analysis services to assemble the kit to satisfy all conditions and create an accompanying standard operating procedure. Sampling practices for the most common collection points were created. Testing materials applicable to rural Panama were identified and compiled to be included in the kits. A standard operating procedure was composed, including specific instructions and information for each water type and test being performed. A detailed analysis was performed to estimate the final cost of each kit and any future costs. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Violet Boss, Katie Davis, and Cydney Kirby | Spring 2023 |
| Fourth Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Disinfection Upgrades | Knoxville Utilities Board | Baker Engineering | Evaluate performance of a pilot UV disinfection system at a local wastewater plant and use results to determine feasibility for full plant transition from current disinfection system. After determination of pilot performance, design new disinfection system and prepare documents for the construction process. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jennifer Retherford | Kaleb Huling, Emily Ervin, Ryan Watkins, Adam Dunn, and Browden Anderson | Spring 2019 |
| Radiological Assay of Burrowing Animals | Jason Davis (ORNL) | ABA | Enable ORNL to measure the activity per mass of small animals by designing a device to simultaneously restrain the animals while measuring their gross radiation counts and mass; this information will allow ORNL to identify animals that are safe for relocation to uncontaminated areas of the Oak Ridge Reservation. This design will also be modeled in MCNP to calculate its detection efficiency to ensure high fidelity. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Lawrence Heilbronn | James Pierce, Evan Godbehere, Kip Wheeler, and Jolyne Worthy | Spring 2024 |
| Portable Sensor Safety Suite for Vehicles | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 4 | A portable set of vehicle safety sensors with a tablet display. The suite includes two blind spot sensors and two cameras. The tablet will display the camera and alert information. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Jacob Engelman, Yibo Wu, Omeed Noorbakhsh, and Zachary Dieter | Spring 2020 |
| Queso's Quest | The Rat-tastic Rodent | Queso's Quest is a life-sim style video game demo meant to show the basic systems and gameplay loop for a larger game I want to make in the future. The goal is to have a small collection of characters, tasks, and minigames that can give the user a feel for what direction the game is going in. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Paige King | Spring 2024 | |
| Sorting Optimization for Tray Preparation | DeRoyal | DeSeniors | Improve the amount of time it takes to sort through the picked goods to increase the throughput of trays. This project is designed by decreasing the number of steps that the sorters need to take for each item, in order to increase sorters production. | IDepartment of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Floyd Ostrowski and Laura O'Shaughnessy | Dalton Bickel, Andrew McLaurine, and Corey Williams | Spring 2020 |
| Beehive Novel Power Extraction | Beehive Industries | Beehive Powder Extraction | Design a novel depowdering system for SLM systems. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Logan Galloway, Kailyn Hoaglund, Benjamin Isbell, Casey Vaughn, and Evan Walker | Spring 2023 |
| System Architecture Design and Development of a Reusable Lunar Lander, aVOLlo | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | aVOLlo | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | James Evans Lyne | Gillian McGlothin, Camille Bergin, Aaron Crigger, Chad Batten, and Darryl Harris | Spring 2019 | |
| Uranium Science and Technology Center Instrumentation and Control | Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | USTC | Develop control system narratives and human machine interfaces for operators to remotely control processes within the lab to help ensure that operators minimize exposure to radiation, track important parameters that affect product, and conduct nonproliferation related experiments on a laboratory scale. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Brian Crone | Alexander Roberts, Bradley Moore, and Autumn Mitchell | Spring 2024 |
| The EcoCAR Mobility Challenge | Denso & Mahle | Team Tennessee: EcoCAR Mobility Challenge | Design and implement both a vehicle control algorithm as well and appropriate CAD designs to support university efforts for the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge. The EcoCAR Mobility Challenge (EcoCAR) is the latest U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) series. The four-year competition will challenge 12 university teams to apply advanced propulsion systems, as well as connected and automated vehicle technology to improve the energy efficiency, safety and consumer appeal of the 2019 Chevrolet Blazer ร Specifically for the carsharing market. Headline sponsored by DOE, General Motors (GM) and MathWorks, and managed by Argonne National Laboratory, EcoCAR is the heart of automotive ingenuity working towards future mobility solutions. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | David Irick | William Axon, Mohima Mohsin, Huy Tran, Parker Trulove, Tucker Ozburn, Eric Evans, and Theresa Palandro | Spring 2020 |
| Integrable Event Calendar | WebThunder | This app aims to provide a site where event hosts can design their custom calendar. They can then add this calendar directly to their website. This calendar should have a number of features such as registration for attendees and customizable style. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | John Duggan | Pierluigi Cambie-Fabris, Josh Butler, and Jackson Muncy | Spring 2024 | |
| Investigation of Mechanical and Magnetic Properties of an AlCoCrFe0.8Ni-type High Entropy Alloy and the Effects of Heat Treating | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | MSE Senior Design Team 2 | Design a high entropy alloy exhibiting soft magnetic behavior. Identify a heat treatment to improve hardness and plasticity. Evaluate and compare the mechanical and magnetic behavior of an as-cast alloy and the alloys after heat treatment. | Department of Materials Science and Engineering | Peter Liaw | Collin Pekol, Michael Thompson, Serena Beauchamp, Sara Wonner, and Jacob Ragland | Spring 2020 |
| Intersection Upgrade Design at State Route 32 & State Route 345 in Claiborne County, TN | TDOT | Checkerboard Engineering | Perform civil engineering services to design the upgraded St+I137+J137. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Brett Burns, Brandon Pittman, Michael Puryear, Hayden Rogers, Brian Wacker, and Grace Whitehouse | Spring 2023 |
| Affordable Microbots | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 12: Boat Shanties | Design small robots capable of communication and movement for the purpose of studying swarm dynamics. Refine the design to make these microbots accessible in large quantities to small programs and high schools. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Bruce MacLennan and David Icove | Bennett Waddell, Jacob Rutherford, Will Lifferth, Micah Perry, Hayden Coffey, Thomas Beard, and Ellis Critchlow | Spring 2019 |
| Design of a Critical Experiment for Advanced Reactor Implementation | Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) | CAR | Design a critical experiment for advanced reactor implementation using tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel with a graphite moderator. The experiment will utilize a horizontal split table (HST) critical assembly machine used to support fissile material. This project will use a KENO Monte Carlo software developed by Oak Ridge National Lab, SCALE, to simulate the experiment. Reliable data will be produced to validate nuclear data in the industry for advanced reactor concepts. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Alex Lang and Mathieu Dupont | Claire Gibson, Jeremiah Millacci, and Alexander Tucker | Spring 2024 |
| Encrypted Garage Door Opener | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Team 20 | Design a home garage door opener that is more secure than current systems. Create a physical device that attaches to current openers. Develop an accompanying phone application for end-users to use instead of an old-style radio opener. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Tom Krobatsch, Josh Norvell, Brent Ford, Jackie Ni, and Matt Broussard | Spring 2020 |
| AI-Powered Drone | SkyGuide | Leveraging drone technology in concert with artificial intelligence to provide a product that is able to provide hands-free assistance in autonomous vision capture. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Jack Hutchins | Sam Sui, Mikolaj Jakowski, Gunner Miller, Finli Hill, and Justin Bowers | Spring 2024 | |
| Thorium Oxide Extraction From Monazite Ore | Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) | Gold Team | Develop a process to extract Thorium Oxide from Monazite Ore. Use various acid and base reactions, including separation processes, to carry out this operation. Analyze the cost of the system, including equipment expenditures. | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | Robert Counce | Nikolai Regenold, Karsten Parker, Benjamin Miller, and Caleb Moon | Spring 2020 |
| Beehive EOS Design | Beehive Industries | Beehive Powder Rangers | Design a powder removal system for an EOS M400 system. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Eric Hash, Clayton Hickey, Alexander Ingram, Kevin Maxwell, and Eli Nahom | Spring 2023 |
| EcoCAR Mobility Challenge | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | EcoCAR Mobility Challenge CAVs Team | Our team is in EcoCAR Mobility Challenge as the CAVs team (Connective and Automated Vehicles). Our team specifically is tasked with making the EcoCAR have level 2 autonomous capabilities. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Hairong Qi and David Irick | Stephanie Kreutz, Matt Anderson, fareed rafipour, MacKenzie Goff, Casey Lemon, and zach randall | Spring 2019 |
| Boiling Water Reactor Uranium Utilization Strategy | Southern Nuclear | BuuS | Use CASMO/SIMULATE to model the effect on energy produced when replacing naturally enriched uranium with depleted uranium. Then, calculate the cost of the new fuel and calculate the $/MWhe of the cycle to determine if the change is economically feasible. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Randall Dunavant | William Bond, Eli Crouse, and James Jackson | Spring 2024 |
| Simple Flexible Molten Salt Reactor (SF-MSR) | Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) | Simple Flexible Molten Salt Reactor (SF-MSR) | Ascertain feasibility and sustainability of fueling a Thorcon MSR concept with various actinides, model its transients to study operational safety, and develop a method of economic assessment and analyze its economic performance. In support of these efforts, develop models of neutronics, fuel cycle, powerplant dynamics, nuclear material safeguards, system costs in time, and a simple electricity market. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Ondrej Chvala | Alexander Boettinger, Jackson Breakell, Luke Seifert, and Patrick Wooden | Spring 2020 |
| Balloon Blitz | Gravel | The goal of this project is to offer an engaging and unconventional approach to first-person shooter gaming, attracting attention through its distinctive style and entertainment value. Our central objective is to launch the initial version of a hot-air balloon FPS (first-person shooter). Balloon Blitz aspires to introduce a different view on FPS gaming by presenting a hot-air balloon deathmatch. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Sonaz Jazny, Eli Kell, Conor O'Malley, and Jake Seaton | Spring 2024 | |
| Multimodal Diamond Senor for Advanced Reactors | Department of Nuclear Engineering | MDS | Develop a multimodal diamond sensor platform to enhance the control of advanced nuclear reactors with non-traditional coolants such as molten salts and metals. This sensing system will have the ability to measure temperature, thermal neutron flux, and fast neutron flux simultaneously and in real time. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Eric Lukosi | Jessica Charest, Tyler Beck, Micah Jeroutek, and Austin Ford | Spring 2020 |
| Bridge Replacement Design for State Route 347 Over Big Creek in Hawkins County, TN | TDOT | Tennessee Bridge Associates | Design complete and constructable replacement for the existing SR-347 bridge. Transportation services included design of a new horizontal alignment, new vertical profile, design of superelevations, pavement mix design, and design of signage and pavement markings. Structural services included determination and analysis of loads, beam design, deck design, bridge railing design, and end wall design. Geotechnical services included collection of soils information, pavement subgrade classification, bearing resistance calculations, and foundation design. Hydrology services included analysis of drainage, culvert design, ditch design, and erosion prevention and sediment control (EPSC) design. Construction services included estimation of material quantities, budget estimation, and traffic control design for construction phasing. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Tyler Brooks, Nabil Jiwani, Tanner Marshall, Levi Matthews, Zachary Nieves, Thomas Peplow, and Margaret Poland | Spring 2023 |
| Redesign of the Nasal Cannula for Neonatal Patients | UT Medical Center | Gold MEDAL Engineering | Innovate the design of the nasal cannulas used in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at University of Tennessee Medical for premature patients. The design must provide a better seal and increased air flow for the patient receiving non invasive ventilation. The goal of the project is to decrease the incidence of nasal necrosis seen in neonatal patients. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Jeff Reinbolt | Leegan Boudreau, Adam Daniel, Elijah Smith, Dasia Williams, and Miroslava Migovich | Spring 2019 |
| Radiation damage process simulation and material characterization by Rutherford Backscattering | Tennessee Ion Beam Material Lab (TIBML) | RBS | Test the composition of different tungsten (W) alloys to either prove or disprove their stated composure using RBS. Once completed the spectra will be calibrated and fitted showing the elements in the material. With a RBS being written for the TIBML. | Department of Nuclear Engineering | Miguel Crespillo | Jackson Cagle, Adam Hedrick, and Weifeng Zhang | Spring 2024 |
| In-Home Automated Gardening System | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Autofarm | Develop a system that monitors the health of plants under its care, automatically accomplishes such things as watering, and notifies the user when it is time to harvest. Implement the system using sensors and computation to analyze data and inform the actions of the system. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Alex Seagle, Jacob Duffy, Ryan Forsten, and Seokyu Kang | Spring 2020 |
| Sound Localization | Echo Locators | A computer program and wearable device that allows a hearing impaired individual to locate the direction of certain sounds (i.e.. a ringing phone) in real-time, via an on-screen display and exaggerated auditory cues output through the wearable headset. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | James Osborne | Steph Hill and Jarrett Johnson | Spring 2024 | |
| South Waterfront Improvements for the City of Knoxville | City of Knoxville | Summit Design | The intersection of Council Place, Sevier Avenue, Gay Street, and Blount Avenue in Knoxville is complex and inefficient. The Knoxville South Waterfront Vision Plan establishes a need to improve the intersection to allow a more useful entry to the currently underutilized waterfront area. Design efforts require evaluation of intersection and traditional civil services to ensure safety and minimize travel delay. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jenny Retherford | Ibrahim Aklouk, Dylan Dempsey, Carson Gribble, Kanghao He, William McCartt, Justin McDade, and Harrison Ooi | Spring 2020 |
| Eastman Battlebot Cage | Eastman Chemical Corporation | Eastman Battlebot Cage | Design a cage to be used during BattleBot competition. | Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering | Matthew Young | Evan Bruxvoort, Isaac Counts, Dan Ervin, Landon Hubbs, Justin Lee, and Sam Swanner | Spring 2023 |
| ORNL Non-Magnetic Foundation | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | FASA Engineering | Design a Non-Magnetic Foundation for a new research facility intended to further study the measurement of the neutron's dipole moment. The experiment aims to uncover the reason why matter exists in the universe. The foundation will use different non-magnetic reinforcing materials to minimize any magnetic interference on the experimental equipment. | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering | Jennifer Retherford and Mark Denavit | Salvador Morales, Annie Diegel, Forrest Wright, and Austin Williams | Spring 2019 |
| Engineering Mentor Program Application Expansion | Engineering Mentor Program (UTK Student Organization) | Team 25 | Develop the remaining functionality of the Engineering Mentor Program mobile app for Android and iOS. The app will be used to improve the pairing and communication of mentors and mentees. | Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | David Icove | Shivam Patel, Abby Prosise, Cristian Romo, Cara Scott, and Daniel Sylwestrowicz | Spring 2020 |