Every year, engineering seniors spend the spring and fall semester at UConn designing senior projects, often working with industry partners. That year long process culminates in the Senior Design Demonstration Day. This year, over 180 teams filled Gampel Pavilion to demonstrate the work they\u2019d dedicated a school year to producing, with projects ranging from automated firefighting bots to a 3D Printer for chocolate.<\/p>\n
These capstone projects bring together all aspects of their undergraduate education into a cohesive experience, allowing students the opportunity to work on real-world industry problems. This grounds their learning in a project that requires not just the technical know-how they\u2019ve spent years gaining, but also requires collaboration with teammates, making a schedule, and presenting information in a coherent manner. Below is an example of one Senior Design Project, as well as award winners from each department.<\/p>\n
Mobile Power Units for the Hartford Marathon Foundation (Electrical Engineering) This project was tasked with converting the electrical equipment that the Hartford Marathon Foundation (HMF) uses during races to entirely green technology. Previously, the HMF used gas generators to power items such as a laptop, an arch inflator and a sound system.<\/p>\n Matt Anderson, the Hartford Marathon Foundation Director of Operations, said that sustainability has been an important focus of the Eversource Hartford Marathon for many years.<\/p>\n \u201cSustainability has been an important part of our flagship event, the Eversource Hartford Marathon. We\u2019re looking to spread that environmentally friendly focus to our 30 other events throughout the year,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n The team, made up of Electrical Engineering majors Bryan Davis, Justin Hubbard, Rayhaan Kasliwala and Edwin Matute, designed and installed a solar panel array for the roof of a trailer, while inside the trailer they placed batteries, a charge controller and other necessary electrical equipment. When they created this design, the team took a number of variables into account, from weather to electrical and vehicle codes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe variability of the weather is something we had to account for. We designed our system to basically operate under every possible worst case scenario. \u2026 If there\u2019s very little sun out, we\u2019re relying solely on our batteries, which will have to be charged up during the week prior to the event. There\u2019s a lot of variabilities, so we had to make our system very strong,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n One of the variables they addressed was incorporating DOT regulations that involve a trailer.<\/p>\n \u201cOur main issue with the DOT didn\u2019t have to do with the electrical, it just had to do with fitting solar panels on top of a moving trailer. Their main concern was keeping the trailer under a certain height, because when you go under a bridge it could be scrapped off,\u201d said Hubbard.<\/p>\n Hubbard also said that keeping the space in the trailer available for storage was something they balanced with the needs of their system.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to take up too much space and we want everything accessible, but we also didn\u2019t want the inverter all the way back. If the inverter were to overheat in that location, the fans would just blow against the nearby wood; it would continue to overheat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s system has effectively been used during marathons. Their battery backup is designed to last for six hours using all of the Marathon\u2019s system- with a little bit extra for charging the spare cell phone. Anderson said he was pleased with how the project turned out.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a great collaboration. They\u2019ve been responsive and understanding. They\u2019ve really done their homework into what we do and how this can benefit us,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
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