Previous ASME Award Winner
Recent Departmental Runner Up Awards
Capstone Design Projects
Precious Plastic
2020-2021 - Winter
Team: 17
The Precious Plastic team is working on improving the user experience of machinery to be used in an upcoming plastic makerspace. These machines will help the local community repurpose their plastic waste into new plastic products. The WI21 team was able to implement several components into a plastic injection machine for this makerspace and suggest future improvements to be worked on. With all the added components, the machine session time was reduced by an average of 43% so far.
Endoscopic Tissue Stapler
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 34
An specialized tissue stapler designed to close hard-to-reach wounds in the throat region following endoscopic procedures by deploying stainless steel staples similar to traditional skin staplers. Accompanying the stapler are a staple die for stamping the specialized staples, a staple cartridge for sanitary and efficient loading, and a staple removal tip allowing for easy staple extraction once the wound has healed.
Endoscope Torque Applicator
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 35
The objective is to design, build, test, and document a device that can reduce the stress on a doctor’s body when performing an endoscopy by applying mechanical advantage while exerting the necessary forces to perform a colonoscopy. The device must be a cheap, disposable tool or a durable, easy to clean tool that can replace the current hand and towel combination. Finally, the device must not alter the overall procedure as that will impose a training cost on the hospital.
Adjustable Head Mount for Augmented Reality Facial Motion Tracking System
2020-2021 - Winter
Team: 15
Augmented Reality is used for face-to-face conversations with another digitally projected person in a shared virtual space. A crucial element for this experience is the ability to digitize the users’ facial expressions and body motions authentically. The Augmented Reality Head Mount serves as a self-contained, wearable system for facial and body tracking. It consists of two cameras, IMUs, a battery and a StereoPi attached to a Microsoft HoloLens 2 main frame using 3D-printed component mounts.
Tongue Touch Mouse & Keyboard
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 8
The Tongue Touch Mouse and Keyboard device was designed with 5 tongue-responsive capacitive touch sensors to provide computer accessibility for our client, Stacy Bibb, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy Spastic Quadriplegia. The main objective of the project was creating a comfortable, reliable, and reusable headset for Stacy’s use.
UCSD MED - Autoinjector for Ultrasound Guided Nerve Blocks
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 31
This project focused on the development of a medical device to streamline and improve ultrasound guided nerve blocks. These procedures currently require two medical personnel, an anesthesiologist and an assistant. Ideally, this procedure would be performed by the anesthesiologist alone as the forces felt throughout the injection provide valuable sensory information about the state of the operation. Thus revealing the need for an Auto-Injector device enabling this desired one-person operation.
Temperature Control of Rugged 3D Printer
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 2
Temperature control system for a rugged 3D printer. The system is designed to heat printing chamber to 50°C and maintain that temperature regardless of external conditions. The system is resistant to shocks and vibrations and can operate between -15°C and 50°C ambient temperature.
DIII-D DiMES Port Rod Ablation System
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 17
Team Members
Michael Hanson
Jason Escalera
Hadith Taheri
Daniel Zubovic
Caitlin Villareal
We present the design of ATJ graphite rods developed for ablation experiments under high heat flux (up to 50 MW/m2) in the lower divertor of the DIII-D tokamak.
Bike Helmet Task Light
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 15
This bike helmet task light is meant to facilitate field repairs, adjustments, or other needs for close-range illumination while riding in nighttime, twilight, or other low-light conditions. This project is compact, lightweight, has a low-profile housing, and utilizes a universal mounting mechanism which allows the light housing to be removed to recharge its battery. It is durable for shock, vibration, and other rugged mountain biking conditions.
Hair Snag Project
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 28
Researchers studying animals in the wild often use “hair snags”, devices placed in a habitat to collect hair samples when animals interact with them, to collect and study animal DNA. More often than not, current hair snag designs capture hair from more than one individual animal, which makes it harder for researchers to inspect the DNA samples. To correct this issue, we have created a prototype for a single-sampling hair snag that successfully collects and isolates a sample from a single animal.
Automated Solubility Measurement
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 25
Team Members
Owen Cruise
Yaxin (Cindy) Guan
Kristin Hartsfield
Brandon Lansang
Cade Wohltman
This device automates the process of mixing a solute in a solvent to reach its saturation point. It includes solid dosing and liquid dosing capabilities; light scattering analyzes turbidity and settled solids, reducing the human burden of a common lab experiment.
Wearable Countermeasure Device
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 30
Team Members
Nicholas Ashforth
Nathan Burdick
Keva Chin
Nathan George
Mario Miguel
This project seeks to create a working prototype for a flexible and mobile Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) device for use in extended microgravity environments, the purpose of which is to partially simulate the effects of gravity to mitigate the deleterious effects of prolonged microgravity exposure on human physiology. Such systems have already been flown on orbit, but all have been stationary. A mobile and flexible system is necessary to maintain the astronauts' operational schedules.
Wearable Lower Body Negative Pressure Pump
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 23
Currently, the constant exposure of astronauts to microgravity in space has the potential to cause lasting negative effects on the human body, which include muscular atrophy and even some cardiovascular deconditioning. To combat this, a mobile wearable circulation pump was designed to simulate gravity by creating a negative pressure of 20 mmHg within the suit and reverting fluid shifts in the body.
Dermal Cooling Vest
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 33
Active outdoor workers exposed to hot and humid environments face the threat of developing heat related illnesses. The dermal cooling system uses thermoelectric cooling in the form of battery powered Peltier devices to cool circulating fluid throughout a network of tubes surrounding the user’s torso. The system is completely portable and can deliver more than 200W of heat removal from the user.
Tracheostomy Support System
2020-2021 - Winter
Team: 7
Nearly 85,000 Americans receive a tracheostomy annually. Amongst them, about 12.5% develop skin deteriorations and pain due to prolonged contact with ventilation tubing. Our project addresses this issue through the use of an inflatable silicone support that can automatically adjust based on force sensor readings. This device aims to tackle an unaddressed global problem in the hospital with a novel design idea centered around biocompatible materials, control automation, and air flow mechanics.
Brain Organoid Advanced Research Development in Space (BOARDS) Launch Acceleration Simulation Tool
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 14
The pursuit of space as the next frontier of human exploration raises the question of how space microgravity affects the human brain. To study these effects, brain samples will be sent to the International Space Station aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. However, the high G-forces of a rocket launch may damage the samples. As a result, an acceleration centrifuge simulator was designed to simulate a rocket launch profile to account for these high G-forces.
NIWC Drag on Inline String of Spheres
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 26
An empirical characterization of the drag coefficient of on a line of multiple spheres as number and spacing between spheres changed. This was primarily done for two in-line spherical floats at various separation distances between floats; tests were also preformed on a single float to set a baseline, and 2-5 floats with zero separation distance.
Spar Mooring for Ocean Turbulence Measurements
2020-2021 - Winter
Team: 10
Team Members
Eliran Q. Lenard
Ayesha Riaz
Horim Yu
Erik Zamarripa
Geno Pawlak and the EFD Lab are conducting a research study seeking to quantify the hydrodynamic mechanisms in kelp forests. The spar mooring for ocean turbulence measurements was a design solution for securely housing the acoustic doppler velocimeters that record flow data during deployments.
Sole Survivors
2020-2021 - Winter
Team: 12
This project focused on creating a solution to reduce the amount of stingray stings for a user, which could be achieved by either a footwear item that is puncture proof or a deterrent that scares away stingrays before they are able to be of harm. The team created a footwear item named “Sole Survivors” that is puncture resistant in key areas on the sole, top, and back of a user's foot to protect the user from the stingray’s venom.
Optimization of COVID-19 Testing Workflow
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 6
This project provided two solutions for automating the decapping of COVID-19 sample test tubes in UC San Diego's EXCITE Lab. The goal of the project was to increase overall testing throughput by decreasing decapping time and circumventing limitations on certain equipment.
Thermal Switch
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 24
The thermal switch project, sponsored by Professor Carlos F. Coimbra and Gregory Specht, studied the effectiveness of a gas-filled expansion switch design. Specifically, the focus of the project was to prove or disprove the possibility of a gas powered thermal switch to be used on rovers in Lunar and Martian missions.
Intraoperative Tissue Biomechanics Sensor
2020-2021 - Winter
Team: 14
Intraoperative, handheld devices designed to provide real time values of stress and strain within nerve tissue.
Ultrasound Transducer Guide for Dental Imaging
2020-2021 - Winter
Team: 16
The ultrasound transducer guidance system was designed to aid the process of scanning the oral cavity while collecting necessary position data for 3D image reconstruction. The manually operated device has a patient position their head on a chin rest while the operator manipulates the transducer. An axial encoder and a linear encoder gather the position data of the transducer tip during the ultrasound scanning process which will be used by our sponsor to reconstruct 3D images of the oral cavity.
ATA Smart Animatronic Figure Breakaway Joint
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 1
The primary goal of the project is to refine the functionality of an animatronic figure that ATA will use to enhance their analytical design, robotics, and controls capabilities. The project involves: (1) designing and implementing a breakaway mechanism at the upper arm segment of the animatronic figure, (2) creating a dynamic model that predicts arm breakaway under different motion profiles, and (3) developing a control strategy that safely operates the arm in the event of a breakaway.
FSAE Composite Anti-Intrusion Plate
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 11
Team Members
Norman Chen-Liaw
Dante Khandelwal
Amy Liang
Saketh Madamala
Efran Martinez
The design, manufacturing, and testing of a composite anti-intrusion plate for the front impact structure of a Formula SAE vehicle.
Dermal Cooling Vest
2020-2021 - Winter
Team: 13
Team Members
Joshua Choi
Tyler Compo
Edgar Favila
Vladimir Melnik
Jocelyne A. Perdomo Kú
Improper thermoregulation can be seen in field workers who perform physical activity in hot and/or humid environments. Medical patients can also experience it as a symptom or side effect of the treatment of certain diseases. In these cases, cooling vests can be used to remove excess heat from the skin which assists in thermoregulation. Our sponsor, Dr. José R. Suárez, proposes a novel cooling vest that utilizes thermoelectric cooling devices (Peltier devices).
Mice Vapor Control
2020-2021 - Winter
Team: 21
The Hnasko Lab aims to investigate the effects of opioid addiction using mice. This project sought to design an airtight and automated study chamber that allows mice to voluntarily intake drug vapor and enables the researchers to send behavioral cues using LEDs, speakers, and food pellets.
Bicycle Theft Detection
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 22
Our device, which can be attached nicely underneath a saddle like a saddlebag, is capable of sensing movement of a bike and sending an alert to the user via text messages. To achieve long operation period, the device is equipped with four solar panels which are capable of not only running the system but charging the battery whenever possible.
Cell Growth Bioreactor for Tissue Regeneration
2020-2021 - Spring
Team: 19
Peter Chen, PhD. a stem cell researcher from the Biosciences Institute has engaged student engineers to construct a prototype bioreactor chamber that has the ability to stimulate a target cell population with: magnetic stimulation, electrical stimulation, static compression, and exposure to laminar shear stress. The completed bioreactor test chamber provides researchers with the tools to evaluate the effects of electromechanical stimulation on stem cells in a reproducible manner.
Cohu Peripheral Pickup
2020-2021 - Winter
Team: 8
The purpose of this project is to design a peripheral seal solution for our sponsor, Cohu, to implement into their existing semiconductor testing machines. Cohu is an industry leader in equipment and services for back-end semiconductor manufacturing. It is necessary to research a variety of seal candidates in attempts to move the pickup mechanism for their pick and place handler to the periphery of the semiconductor chips their products handle in order to improve the efficiency of the handler.
