Seniors and sponsors ready to begin projects that address sustainability and launch careers
Hundreds of engineering students arrive at the Student Union Memorial Center on Aug. 29, 2024, ready to learn about Interdisciplinary Capstone projects and make connections with project sponsors.
With $50,000 worth of prizes and graduation on the line, College of Engineering seniors were eager to start asking questions at the 2024-2025 Craig M. Berge Design Day Open House.
Aerospace and mechanical engineering major Rachael Pabst showed up ready to learn about several Interdisciplinary Capstone projects, but she had a favorite in mind.
“My top project is the lunar automated one where you are turning moon dust into water,” Pabst said.
A few days later, Pabst was indeed assigned to the procurement lead role on Team 25029, Lunar Automated Regolith Processing, sponsored by the School of Mining and Mineral Resources. She and her teammates will design and build an automated rover that can produce 1 liter of water in 24 hours from material that approximates moon soil.
The open house brings together students and industry sponsors to build rapport ahead of project match day. The capstone course is a requirement for all engineering seniors to jumpstart their transition from college to the workforce.
Restoring water and energy with design
David W. Hahn, the Craig M. Berge Dean of the college, began this year’s open house by addressing the project sponsors.
“The capstone design concept is integral to engineering education. What I value in our program is that we are industry-supported, partnered with you,” he told the sponsors.
Steve Larimore, lead instructor for the Interdisciplinary Capstone program, then updated the sponsors on the college’s latest program requirement: sustainable design.
“There is a need to pay attention to sustainability; we can’t just consume,” Larimore said. “It’s important that we teach our engineers to always be thinking about sustainability as they design.”
All teams will consider sustainability – the impact the design will have on natural resources – in their project designs. Some projects will present more opportunities than others, Larimore said.
A new project that falls into the sustainability theme is 25035. Professor Scott Bonar from the School of Natural Resources and the Environment is asking engineers to help tackle species overcrowding in Southwestern waters.
“Back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, the government had a program where they would load fish on railcars from the Eastern U.S. and bring them out west to stock every river, lake and stream because those were the fish the people moving west liked to eat,” Bonar explained. “These fish are very tough predators, so all of our native fish are crowded out.”
Bonar wants the team to design an electrofishing unit to remove invasive fish species from water without causing injury. Electricity has been used previously to create underwater barriers, so Bonar sees potential in using this method for large scale control of non-native fishes.
“We have some of the rarest fish species in the Southwest. They are very valuable for our economy and the entire Western United States,” Bonar said.
Another project with a sustainability angle is sponsored by PeakView Solutions. Team 25051 will focus on refining a small-scale pyrolysis plant that turns plastic waste into fuel.
This is PeakView’s second year sponsoring the project, and they want this year’s team to improve the fuel output.
“It was a very successful first year,” said Manuel “Manny” Miera, founder and CEO of PeakView Solutions. He graduated from the UA in 1992 with a degree in computer engineering.
Team 24011 walked away from Design Day 2024 with first prize for the Bly Family Award for Innovation in Energy Production, Supply or Use.
Manny Miera stands next to last year's pyrolysis prototype and fuel sample output.
On top of creating oil from plastic, the pyrolysis plant produces excellent fertilizer from organic materials. PeakView wants this product made available to island communities during natural disasters, enabling self-sufficient energy production.
Miera said they came back to sponsor a second year because, “There are multiple benefits. You get energized by the students, and it’s mutually beneficial because they are generating something that is going to be used and it's excellent for recruiting.”
Alyx Andria (pictured far left), a 2022 bachelor’s and 2023 master’s electrical and computer engineering alum, returns to her alma mater to advise Capstone Team 25024. She brings some advice with her: “Work as a team and be sure to go beyond research to try your best and have fun.”