UTDesign® Teams Secure Top Awards at National Conferences
University of Texas at Dallas UTDesign Capstone teams continue to earn national honors after winning first- and second-place awards at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) annual Student Manufacturing Design Competition and placing second at the biennial Capstone Design Conference.
UTDesign teams have won 11 first-place awards at national competitions since 2014.
“I was very excited to see these teams receive this well-deserved recognition for their outstanding projects. The teams excelled in meeting the challenges they faced in solving these real-world engineering problems,” said Dr. Robert Hart, professor of practice in mechanical engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. “Equally important, the team members learned a lot about engineering practice from this experience. It was great to see the teams carry on the tradition of UTDesign Capstone teams receiving awards in highly competitive national competitions.”
At the ASME competition in June in Knoxville, Tennessee, a senior design team won the top award for creating an automated assembly device for Allen, Texas-based sponsor Amphenol Fiber Systems International.
Members of the first-place team were Cameron Cash BS’24, Dane Chronister BS’24, Hayden Ellis BS’24, Genesis Di Mattia BS’24, Tristan Linn BS’24 and Jason Thomas BS’24. Cash and Ellis are pursuing master’s degrees at UT Dallas in mechanical engineering.
“Working with the clients and other stakeholders, and doing the work required to take a project from inception to completion beyond just the design phase was invaluable,” Thomas said. “Winning at the national level really validated not only what we did, but what our professors and mentors taught us during the project and throughout the degree program at UTD.”
Another UTD team placed second for creating a semiautomated machine for feeding wires through a long conduit. The project was for Plano, Texas-based sponsor Cobalt Product Solutions.
Members of the second-place team were Alex Vega Arcay BS’24, Logan Bolling BS’24, Erasmo Garcia BS’24, MBA student Mitchell Mello BS’24, systems engineering and management graduate student Benjamin Sanguinetti BS’24 and Ryan Shenefelt BS’24.
“Working with such motivated individuals made my team’s task a simple and enjoyable experience,” said Garcia, now an engineer at Cobalt Product Solutions. “Overall, the competition was great, and to see the other projects we competed against was truly inspiring. I am just glad we were able to pull together a great presentation for the win.”
At the Capstone Design Conference in June at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, another group of students designed an automatic rescue breathing unit — a nonelectronic resuscitation device for sponsor AMY Resuscitation — that placed second.
“The experience was invaluable, and I never would have believed that I’d get the opportunity to work on a project like this,” said Lana Vu BS’24, who is now an MBA student at UTD. “The completion of this medical device was extremely fulfilling and meaningful, as I know my contribution will serve as the foundation for something greater.”
Other team members included Saad Akhtar BS’24, Jorge Castillo BS’24, mechanical engineering senior Jimmy Crisp, Michael Jost BS’24 and Nand Mehta BS’24.
National 1st-Place Teams
In 2024, the first-place team created an automated assembly device for Allen, Texas-based sponsor Amphenol Fiber
Systems International.
The winning team of biomedical and mechanical engineering students developed a pressure-sensing system for Precision Medical Products, a company that makes post-surgical devices to prevent deep vein thrombosis. The team’s device is shaped like a human calf and features rows of intersecting copper tape that create more than 225 sensing points with more than 400,000 unique data points per minute.
UTDesign® Capstone students won a ninth national championship at the 2020 ASME Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference. Their sponsor, Motorola Solutions, needed a better way to assemble cameras for law enforcement agencies. Our seniors used their knowledge of optics, software and mechanical design to construct a semi-automated tool that helps employees align and focus the cameras, reducing human error and improving device quality.
In 2019, the first place UTDesign® team solved a sticky problem for Corning Inc., a company that makes fiber-optic cables. They designed a fast, accurate system to dispense glue and assemble components during the manufacturing process for a new line of cables.
This year the capstone team won first place for the Internal Hip Distraction/Offloading Device, sponsored by Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. A rare childhood condition called Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease affects the hip. The team created an internal device that separates the top of the femur from the socket at the hip, allowing for improved healing.
The winning team found a way to improve the production of the small pieces of wire used in ultra-high performance fiber-reinforced concrete. Their project, the Field Deployable Wire Chopper for Ultra High Performance Reinforced Concrete Fiber, was sponsored by Bailey Tool & Manufacturing in Lancaster, Texas.
This group designed and constructed a robot to replace a manual component-placement process used in the assembly of radar devices produced by Raytheon Co. Their system cuts average cycle time for the replacement process in half and is expected to save an estimated $100,000 per year in labor and component costs once fully implemented.
A UTDesign® team won first place for their device that aids in the treatment of incontinence. Realizing the prototype’s potential impact on healthcare, CerSci Therapeutics has spun out a separate business and invited the UTDesign team leader to help co-found the company.
The winning design focused on the development of a machine that measures how well a coating, such as an anti-reflective coating, adheres to the optical lens. Their prototype, created for Essilor of North America, performs an adhesion test that can provide more consistent results and relieve operator fatigue.
This project, sponsored by Raytheon Co., focused on the development of an automated machine that places lids on small electronic packages. The new machine was expected to save $50,000 in labor costs per year, reduce test time of each package, and increase the number of packages.
This first-place capstone project was sponsored by Frito-Lay. Students built a prototype toll that automated the adjustment process of blade gaps on Frito-Lay’s potato slicers. Frito-Lay extended three internships to team members to fully develop the tool.