UTDesign® Captures Big Wins at ASME and National Student Capstone Competitions
UTDesign®, a signature senior design capstone program at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas, has rapidly become one of the Jonsson school’s biggest success stories. In addition to gaining support from national and local companies that have sponsored hundreds of capstone teams and expanding into a dedicated makerspace, the program’s teams have won first prize for six consecutive years from 2014 to 2020 at the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference and four consecutive times at the biannual Capstone Design Conference which was most recently hosted at UT Dallas.
ASME MSEC features a national student manufacturing design competition each year. The conference is considered the top forum for professionals in advanced manufacturing. Students participating in the competition are encouraged to present fresh, innovative ideas.
The biannual National Capstone Design Conference provides a forum for educators and staff to discuss best practices, trends and steps to starting capstone design programs at universities. Exemplary student teams are recognized at the associated senior capstone competition.
Each award-winning UTDesign® team developed a unique solution.
National 1st Place Teams
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.