Project Goal: Measure the thermal conductivity of irregularly shaped geologic samples without contaminating or altering them.

Conventional thermal conductivity measurements require a sample that is cut and polished to a specific shape. The samples retrieved from the asteroid Bennu by OSIRIS-REx, once they arrive for analysis on Earth, connote altered or contaminated in any way, making it difficult to take conventional measurements. The team performed thermal conductivity experiments in a high vacuum environment to minimize sample contamination. Accordingly, they used radiation as the primary method of heat transfer to the sample.

The students designed a spherical aluminum apparatus to hold a geological sample at its center. The top hemisphere of the apparatus was exposed to heat flux, while the bottom hemisphere was cooled to a known temperature. This caused the heat to flow through the sample to the bottom. The team then measured the temperature of the top hemisphere. Because the sample’s thermal conductivity determines the amount of heat transferred, this measurement, along with finite element software, established the sample’s thermal conductivity.

Project Goal: Design a mannequin simulating human electrical properties that monitors current, temperature and voltage passing through the heart area.

Zoltar has developed lightning protection garments that reduce the risk of lightning-related deaths across the globe. For testing to verify performance, they require a mannequin that accurately measures the amount of current entering the heart area. The Team designed a mannequin that replicates the properties of a human and measures electricity entering the heart.

The plastic mannequin is wrapped in semi-conductive tape to simulate the electrical resistance of human skin. Inside the chest cavity, a ceramic rod imitates the electrical resistance of the heart. The rod sits in a current transformer with temperature and current sensors. The sensors are connected to a high-speed, high-bandwidth data acquisition system, or DAQ, that acquires data every 50 nanoseconds.

The DAQ transfers and stores the data on a Raspberry Pi. Users can save the sampled data to a USB drive, as well as display the data on a graph on the user interface. This data is used to verify the effectiveness of the protection garments.

Project Goal: Design, build and verify a motorized ultramicrotome stage to replace the manual stage adjustments with higher precision movements through automation.

An ultramicrotome uses a diamond knife to slice samples of various materials to nanoscale dimensions. The knife is located in a trough placed on the top of the upper stage. The existing design uses manual translation to align the knife with the sample at a specified distance.

The purpose of this project was to motorize the lower stage, allowing users to move the diamond knife with at least as much, if not more, precision than the existing design. The changes are expected to make the ultramicrotome even more appealing to consumers.

This new design uses stepper motors to accurately position and align the knife along both the x-axis and the y-axis. The steppers are controlled by command buttons. In addition, the controller digitally stores the specific position of the knife, making it easier for users to automatically adjust the stage to their preferred settings.

Project Goal: Redesign a Glass Knife Maker to be more user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing, while maintaining the quality of the glass knives produced by the existing design.

Glass knives are widely used in universities and laboratories around the world as a viable and cost-effective alternative to diamond or tungsten knives. The Glass Knife Maker, or GKM ,is an RMC Boeckeler product that breaks strips of glass at precise angles to produce ultra-sharp glass knives. The knives are used for ultramicrotomy and cryo-ultramicrotomy methods for cutting specimens into extremely thin slices. Boeckeler's existing Glass Knife Maker is considered one of the best instruments in the world for producing ultra-sharp glass knives. However, design modifications will help maintain the GKM’s competitive pricing and performance.

The team used SolidWorks to develop a new design then integrated commercial off-the-shelf parts and fabricated components to create a ready-for-testing prototype.

This project resulted in a simple, durable and mechanically sound design. Areas of improvement include aesthetics, user-friendliness, safety, compactness, production consistency and efficiency of the glass knifemaking process. Most importantly, the new instrument maintains the quality of the glass knives produced.