Name: Pete Brown Address: Director of
Communications Phone: 520.621.3754 Email:pnb@email.arizona.edu
Unmanned Ground Vehicle Wins Best Overall Design Award at Engineering Design Day 2010
By Pete Brown - May 11, 2010, 9:22 am
An autonomous ground vehicle that could some day be used in hazardous rescue operations and a soil-coring rig for shoring up bridge columns were just two of the 60 student engineering projects on display at Engineering Design Day.
An autonomous ground vehicle that could some day be used in hazardous rescue operations and a soil-coring rig for shoring up bridge columns were just two of the 60 student engineering projects on display at Engineering Design Day.
The award for best overall design went to UGV 2010 at this year's Engineering Design Day.
The design team consisted of mechanical engineer Elliot Hart, computer engineers David Irving and Ivan Lizarraga, and electrical engineers Touseef Ahmad, Khalid Al Hmili, Ben Baskett and Jose Rodriguez.
The unmanned ground vehicle designed by the UGV 2010 team can navigate autonomously while avoiding obstacles. The team and its sponsor hope to turn it into a search and rescue vehicle for use in hazardous environments.
See video below.
The project sponsor, Tucson Embedded Systems, tasked the team with creating an autonomous robot capable of point-to-point navigation using GPS while avoiding simple obstacles. The team was also asked to develop a command and control graphical user interface for the unmanned ground vehicle.
An 74-page booklet describing the program and all the projects can be downloaded in PDF format here (3.2 MB; separate window opens): EDD10book.pdf
UA News Video
Tucson Embedded Systems wants to develop an unmanned ground vehicle for search and rescue. Unmanned vehicles are increasingly being used for dangerous tasks, and some emergency service providers currently use UGVs for life-saving missions in dangerous environments. The mission of this project was to build a UGV that could be further developed into a life-saving UGV.
UGV 2010 was just one project among 60 designed by UA engineering students and shown at Engineering Design Day, the UA College of Engineering's premier showcase of student design.
Mechanical engineering senior Jeremy Tysinger demonstrates his team's soil-coring apparatus for shoring up crumbling bridge columns. Tysinger and his team were awarded $750 for giving the best project presentation.
Design Day is organized by the College's Interdisciplinary Design Program, Engineering 498, and co-sponsored by Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems as well as the College.
"Engineering 498 is our dry run for students," said Jeff Goldberg, the College's dean. "We give students the real-life experience of doing a project for an external client. The course is really a simulation of that first project."
Goldberg also noted that Design Day is a great way to give middle and high school students a better picture of what engineering is. "It is by far our best advertisement for what engineers do once they get out of college," Goldberg said.
Goldberg said that Design Day judges have seen similar events at dozens of other universities, and the feedback from them is that UA's event is by far the strongest.
"What makes our Design Day stronger than so many others are our great industry clients, our instructors, and a lot of really good students who enjoy building a prototype and solving the design problems," Goldberg said.
Slideshow from Design Day 2010
Seniors in the UA College of Engineering competed for more than $10,000 in prize money during the competition, which this year was held in the Student Recreation Center.
Full List of Prize Winners
Best Overall Design • $1500 UGV 2010 Design team: Touseef Ahmad, Khalid Al Hmili, Benjamin Baskett, David Irving, Elliot Hart, Ivan Lizarraga, Jose Rodriguez Project sponsor: Tucson Embedded Systems Prize sponsors: Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems
Best Overall Design, Runner Up • $1000 Beam, diffuse and global irradiance sensor for solar panels Design team: Neriyah Carter-Samuel, Ethan Held, Alexander Hickey, Zachary Hillman, David Romero, Shira Wolf Project sponsor: Biosphere 2 Prize sponsors: Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems
Best Analog Design, First Place • $1500 Team iPulse – remote pulse oximeter Design team: Brian Bailey, Brian Ebel, Chris Stemple, Erica Morey, Jack Grantham, Joey Sankman, Scott Galvin, Scott Little, Jessica Falk Project sponsor: Texas Instruments Prize sponsor: Texas Instruments
Best Analog Design, Second Place • $500 Situational wireless awareness network Design team: Austin Scheidemantel, Ibrahim Alnasser, Benjamin Carpenter, Paul Frost, Shivhan Nettles, Chelsie Morales Project sponsor: Mike Marcellin, Hao Xin Prize sponsor: Texas Instruments
Best Innovation in Engineering • $1000 Novel detector arrays for ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging Design team: Eduardo Castaneda, Andrew Dotson, Jennifer Freeman, Leon Garcia, Sergio Pesqueira Project sponsor: UA Department of Radiology Prize sponsor: Ventana Medical Systems
Best Engineering Analysis • $750 Apparatus for efficient strengthening of pipes with FRP laminates Design team: Abdulsalam Alidriss, Hamed Almazrouei, Michael Barry, Thomas Brown, Steven Forbes, Joshua Straton Project sponsor: QuakeWrap Inc. Prize sponsor: Raytheon Missile Systems
Best Presentation • $750 Soil coring apparatus Design team: Saber Al-Alshaikh, Ayayi Ayih, Matt Hamilton, Ygor Machado, Kevin Phu, Jeremy Tysinger Project sponsor: QuakeWrap Inc. Prize sponsor: Rincon Research
Best Design Documentation • $750 Upgrade to the Shack cube interferometer Design team: Asher Sussman, Jeffery Morris, John Mongelli, Chris Shanor, William Casson Project sponsor: Ruda-Cardinal Inc. Prize sponsor: Technical Documentation Consultants of Arizona
Best Use of Off-the-Shelf Components • $750 Geolocating target scope Design team: Mellissa Cordova, Kyle Stelzer, John Bloom, Allison Cicchini, Javier Yanez, Eric Stratton, Nate Cook, Matt Giardina Project sponsor: Raytheon Missile Systems Prize sponsor: Edmund Optics
Best Use of Prototyping • $750 Flow-sensing valve with standalone flow shutoff capability Design team: Mustafa Albahrani, Ed Baker, Zach Dean, Chris Holt, Oscar Pulgarin, Scott Zimmerman Project sponsor: Rain Bird Corporation Prize sponsor: Phoenix Analysis and Design Technologies
Fish Out of Water, First Place • $250 Novel detector arrays for ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging Design team: Leon Garcia (winner), Eduardo Castaneda, Andrew Dotson, Jennifer Freeman, Sergio Pesqueira Project sponsor: UA Department of Radiology Prize sponsor: Kristy Pearson
Fish Out of Water, Second Place • $150 BAE lens alignment system Design team: Josh Gill (winner), Amanda Smith, Tim Budinger, Sterling Jarvis, Ryan Jones, Melissa Stout Project sponsor: BAE Systems Prize sponsor: Kristy Pearson
Team Leadership 1 • $250 Infrared-guided infant blood vessel locator and injection device Design team: Will Fielder (winner), Amanda Eskinazi, Mitchell Gallaher, Kyle Haston, Benjamin Lewis, Linda Myers, Deepa Patel Project sponsor: Raytheon Missile Systems Prize sponsor: Honeywell
Team Leadership 2 • $250 Apparatus for efficient strengthening of pipes with FRP laminates Design team: Thomas Brown (winner), Abdulsalam Alidriss, Hamed Almazrouei, Michael Barry, Steven Forbes, Joshua Straton Project sponsor: QuakeWrap Inc. Prize sponsor: Honeywell
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