DIY engineering put to the test at spring Senior Design EXPO
The Division of Engineering Programs showcased its students’ years of hard work and creativity in electrical, computer and mechanical engineering at the Engineering Senior Design EXPO on May 5.
More than 20 student teams presented original design projects, working prototypes and forward-looking inventions, to a panel of judges drawn from a diverse array of engineering professions (including a number of SUNY New Paltz alumni).
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Their designs represent the culmination of a full four-year engineering experience at New Paltz, where the curriculum emphasizes creativity from day one. Design elements are embedded in engineering courses beginning with the first-year “pre-engineering” requirements, are reinforced by design exercises in advanced core and elective classes, and culminate with the Senior Design project course, a full-year capstone experience for graduates-to-be in electrical, mechanical and computer engineering.
“One of the key learning outcomes of senior design is to have the experience of teaching yourself something new, based on the core principles you have learned in your courses, in order to make the project successful,” said Dan Freedman, dean of the School of Science & Engineering. “We cover a lot of material in our engineering curriculum, and the Senior Design EXPO reminds us that the potential applications are infinite.”
Judges evaluated designs with applications in areas including electricity generation and storage, sports medicine, transportation and the Internet of things.
“Everything I got from my classes over the years, I put into this project,” said Adam Wilczewski ’17 (Electrical Engineering). “It took a lot of perseverance: the classes give you the tools, but it’s up to us to take those and apply them to real-world engineering.
“In this program, whatever you can think of, you can make.”
The high participation rate among New Paltz students, faculty, alumni and local engineers at the EXPO underscores the recent growth of engineering programs at New Paltz and the central role the College is playing in feeding talented new engineers into the Hudson Valley industries that need them. Judges and other guests came out from local, national and international employers, including IBM, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Keysight Technologies, Central Hudson and Sono-Tek.
To learn more about the Division of Engineering Programs at SUNY New Paltz, please visit us online.
Senior Design EXPO Winners:
- First Place: “RF Energy Harvesting System,” John Kuhling ’17 (Electrical Engineering) and Michael Feenaghty ’17 (Electrical Engineering). Faculty Advisor: Assistant Professor Reena Dahle.
- Second Place: “Snow Sense: Management and Automation of Snow Plowing Service Requests,” Felipe Telles ’17 (Electrical Engineering) and Kayla Marchant ’17 (Mechanical Engineering). Faculty Advisor: Associate Professor Baback Izadi.
- Third Place: “Internet of Things and the Future,” Joseph Abel ’17 (Computer Engineering). Faculty Advisor: Lecturer Michael Otis.