Senior Design Expo 2024
The 2024 Senior Design season featured 50 student projects. 26 of these were sponsored by industry, nonprofits, or other agencies. The year-long capstone project program closed with an expo held at Lane Stadium on April 26, when winners were announced after evaluation from a panel of judges for presentations, design, and innovation.
This year's winners were:
- Best Overall - Team 34: Motorized Backyard Chair (QL+)
- Best Poster (tie) – Team 33: Charcoal Briquette Compactor and Team 49: Scaled Heating System for Microbial Compost Product
- Most Innovative Design (tie) – Team 9: Chiropter Flapping Bat Wing Drone and Team 36: VEX-U Robotics (Boeing)
One of this season's teams, Virginia Tech Grand Touring, received media coverage for their tenacity in bringing a car back from the dead. This video tells that story.
| Team # | Project Title | Industry Sponsor | Faculty Advisor |
| 1 | World Record Running Exoskeleton | --- | Asbeck |
| 2 | Characterization Tools for Soft Electronics and Soft Robots | --- | Bartlett |
| 3 | Ultra-Tall Synthetic Tree | --- | Boreyko |
| 4 | Modular Laser-Scanning System | --- | Ferris |
| 5 | Drone Deployed Microphone Arrays | NASA | Fuller |
| 6 | Non-Destructive Pipe Insulation Measurement Device | NNS | Fuller |
| 7 | In-Situ Molten Salt Corrosion by Optical Imaging | --- | Leong |
| 8 | Octobot – Plug-and-Play Modular Soft Robotic Arms | --- | Li |
| 9 | Chiropter – Flapping-flight Drone | --- | Mueller |
| 10 | Braiding Nanofibers | --- | Nain |
| 11 | Particle Ingestion Research on a Turboshaft Engine | --- | Ng |
| 12 | Ultrasound Imaging-Assisted Robotic Sorter | --- | Tian |
| 13 | Mind-Controlled Contactless Object Levitation and Translation | --- | Tian |
| 14 | Simulated Spent Fuel Uranium Thermoelectric Generator | --- | von Spakovsky |
| 15 | Development of a Portable MR-Compatible Tactile Stimulator | --- | Gurari |
| 16 | Engineering a Stereolithography (SLA) Bioprinter | --- | Behkam |
| 17 | Solar Powered Robot for Power Line Inspection and Monitoring | --- | Barry |
| 18 | Temperature Chamber for 1µm Resolution Additive Manufacturing | --- | Bohn |
| 20 | Liquid Propellant Nuclear Thermal Rocket | --- | Son |
| 21 | Deterrent of Animals that Damage Crops and Landscapes | --- | Kennedy |
| 22 | Energy Recovery From Waste Water | --- | Kennedy |
| 23 | Intelligent Steam-Vacuum Process | --- | Diller |
| 24 | Forest Fire UAV Platform | --- | West |
| 25 | VTGT | --- | Southward |
| 26 | Baja | --- | Bryson |
| 27 | Multi-Bevel Senior Design Scope | MAAG-Gala | Gonzales |
| 28 | High Power Microwave Universal OBM Target Test Mount | NSWC | Raeymaekers |
| 29 | CETFAC Controlled Instrument Table | NSWC | Meadows |
| 30 | Laser Integrated Diagnostic Suite | NSWC | Gonzales |
| 31 | Nuclear Reactor Drive Shaft Cleaning Tool | Framatome | Pitchumani |
| 32 | Magnetic Gearing for Centrifugal Pumps | Flowserve | Ellis |
| 33 | Charcoal Briquette Compactor | --- | West |
| 34 | Motorized Backyard Chair | QL+ | Nowinski |
| 35 | One-Handed Bobsled Navigation for National Parabobsled Team | QL+ | Untaroiu |
| 36 | VEX-U Competition | Boeing | Nowinski |
| 37 | Multi-axis hWAAM | Boeing | Williams |
| 38 | Capstan | NNS | Warfford |
| 39 | Optimized Cooling for High-Power Avionics | NGC | Sole |
| 40 | Very Small Tactical Radio Interface Kit | HII Mission Technologies | Sole |
| 41 | Military ATV | Mainstream Engineering | Warfford |
| 42 | Development of an AGV Autonomous Navigation Platform | Mack Trucks | Wicks |
| 43 | Human Analog End Effector | Fairbanks Morse Defense | Naughton |
| 44 | Functional Robot for Identification and Retrieval | Noblis | Hamed |
| 45 | Energy Efficiency Solutions for HVAC Systems | Alfa Laval | Acar |
| 46 | EnterSafe | Alan Tisdale | Sole |
| 47 | 3D Printing with Robot Arms | Azoth | Losey |
| 48 | Tunneling Robot | Diggeridoos | Kale |
| 49 | Scaled up Heating System for Microbial Compost Product | Kenkashi | Kasarda |
| 50 | Robotic Automation for Small Oyster Aquaculture Farms | Annapolis Aquaculture | Komendera |
| 51 | Formula IC | SAE | Clark |
Joshua Sole
Professor of Practice / Senior Design Director
VT Mechanical Engineering
(540) 231-9932
jsole@vt.edu