Senior capstone projects test Watson students’ skills

Before earning diplomas, many Watson College undergraduates need to complete senior capstone projects offering real-world challenges. Here are interesting projects from each Watson department this academic year (except for computer science, which does not have a capstone requirement).

SYSTEMS SCIENCE AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING (SSIE)

• Faculty advisor: Assistant Professor Yong Wang
• Students: Solomon Barer, Lucy Benack, Jordan Congdon, Alex Rizopoulos, Irene Yuan (all SSIE)

It’s not uncommon for senior capstone projects to be recycled over the years. However, one group of seniors chose to work from scratch to solve parking issues on campus.

The SSIE project team is working to help automate transportation and parking services through the use of drones. Team members have been modifying coding software to maneuver the drones down lines of parked cars and to utilize the drone’s cameras to scan and read license plates. After that, the scanned plates can be checked against the list of registered vehicles.

“Unfortunately, the original open-source program we used had a lot of errors and wouldn’t run,” Yuan says. “We had to modify and fix it up while tailoring it to our tastes. I used SQLite [a relational database management system] to create our database and link to the one already in use by Parking Services. We can use that to see if we have a hit or a miss with the parking.”

The drone will be controlled in real time using a joystick for navigation and a camera app to provide live feed for the user. Following the success of this project, multiple drones could be enlisted to assist with parking, combating any issues resulting from battery lifespans. The automated drones would then be able to travel across the Binghamton University campus to cover its multiple parking lots.

“Maybe five years into the future, if we’re ever back on campus, we’ll see these drones flying around for parking.” Congdon says. “It would be so cool to think: ‘That’s our project!’”

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING (ME)

• Faculty advisor: Professor Guangwen Zhou
• Co-advisor: Michael Stanek ’20
• Students: Timothy Hafke, Matthew Heitner, Michael Higgins, Gabriel Osei (all ME)

Time is an invaluable and fleeting resource in the back of an ambulance, and every second counts. Emergency medical technicians who may be working long shifts with multiple calls experience fatigue, which could reduce their performance in a crisis.

One senior group of ME students wants to help first responders by creating a CPR-assist device that would help with chest compressions.

The project originated with Michael Stanek ’20, who spent time working as an EMT while he was a student: “I had a really rough night on the ambulance when I got two back-to-back CPR calls. After a long period of performing CPR by yourself, it gets very fatiguing and that can reduce its effectiveness. I didn’t want to ever have to question whether or not the compressions were good enough.”

Stanek, now a graduate student, is co-advisor on the project. After speaking with several EMTs, the seniors working on the project realized that the CPR-assist devices that exist on the market are often heavy and expensive — not the best suited for ambulance work, where there’s limited space and medical instruments get bounced around.

“We did a lot of research and interviewing,” Osei says. “It was already a challenge because we’re all mechanical engineers, but COVID-19 made it harder to get that face-to-face interaction. We spoke to a lot of different EMTs to make sure this would work.”

The group created a design model for a plastic device that will be 3D-printed, making it lightweight and cost-effective for smaller ambulance companies.

“What we’re doing could help people make an instant impact on others,” Heitner says. “It could literally save lives.”

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING (BME)

• Faculty advisors: Assistant Professor Ahyeon Koh and Associate Professor Guy German
• Students: Megan DiBella, Randy Kipnis, Harry Olszewski, Andrea Russo, David Yefroyev (all BME), Tavish Srivastava (computer science)

The BME project is working to solve an issue faced by scuba divers, one that puts their health and safety at risk.

Divers staying far below the surface can experience nitrogen narcosis, caused by increased concentrations of inhaled gases due to the high pressure levels under water. The effect on the diver is similar to intoxication and is reversible, but it has the potential to cause serious health problems.

Upon beginning its research, the BME team realized that there was no standard way to directly measure the amount of nitrogen in an individual’s body, much less if someone’s personal level had risen above the threshold for narcosis. This meant that any previous attempts to solve this issue had to be discarded, including the group’s original idea to measure the nitrogen makeup of a diver’s exhaled breath, as well as attempts to incorporate previous senior teams’ research.

“It was difficult, because our advisors and professors were expecting us to build off a project from last year,” DiBella says. “So for us to turn around and say, ‘No, we’re not even going to follow that work’ was hard.”

The team developed a watch that gives a cognitive test to the wearer. Scuba instructors have employed similar tests, such as math problems or memory questions, but there is no standardized method.

“The narcotic effects from the increased concentration of nitrogen and oxygen in the body are really varied from person to person, even day to day,” Kipnis says. “One day, someone could dive to a certain depth and experience these effects, and the next day that person could go to the same depth and be fine.”

The watch emits a blinking LED light while communicating with sound waves between the diver and instructor, or between divers. If the wearers are unable to discern whether the light is blinking, they will be recognized as suffering from nitrogen narcosis. This method is also used in military diving practices.

The team members hope their project will aid future generations of divers and provide crucial tools for cataloging nitrogen levels as they relate to narcosis.

“Since there’s so little information out there on nitrogen narcosis and the depth at which it occurs, we want to take that data — say, when divers fail their tests — and try to create a data pool to help future researchers,” Russo says.

ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING (ECE)

• Faculty advisor: Associate Professor Seokheun Choi
• PhD student mentor: Lin Liu
• Students: Marwa Chowdhury, Mya Landers, Amit Madan (all EE)

The ECE project is focusing on the growing field of renewable energy. These three seniors are building on the previous work of their advisor, Professor Seokheun Choi, to create a paper-based solar cell. The project is also sponsored by the AVANGRID Foundation, the parent company of NYSEG.

One paper design measures 50 millimeters in diameter and contains eight solar cells. The origami sunburst design of the paper allows for movement and flexibility within the piece — opening the burst creates a series of switch connections, while closing it creates parallel connections. These tiny cells eventually will put out anywhere from 1 to 5 microwatts.

“This low amount of energy can power glucose-measuring devices for diabetics or for pregnancy tests,” Chowdhury says.

Two sunbursts also can be stacked on top of one another to connect the anodes and cathodes of the cells.

“When you open up the sunbursts, all the individual cells are disconnected,” Landers says. “For a series connection, you need to put an adjacent anode in contact with the cathode of the next cell over. We decided to stack one open sunburst on top of one another. This should produce a higher output voltage and a lower output current.”

The anode, cathode and conductive materials are baked onto the papers, and the sunburst designs are folded. The sunbursts can then stay in storage for as long as necessary and remain viable until they’re needed. Once they are ready to be implemented, frozen bacteria and moisture are added to the sunbursts, and the bacteria — through their natural respiration and photosynthetic processes — help produce electricity. Using multiple cells could produce a safe energy source.

“We know it’ll be nontoxic after assembly because the chemicals will absorb into the paper and essentially dry out,” Madan says. “It’s also safe for disposal, and because we’re using a wax membrane, it’s biodegradable.”