Breather valves are used on a variety of containers to protect equipment or instrumentation from the elements while maintaining equalized pressure between the inside and outside of the container. The problem with current valve design is that the valve does not distinguish between whether the pressure differential is related to air or water. Team 18087 has designed an apparatus that uses properties of fluid dynamics and material choices to modify the breather valve to prevent water infiltration. During submersion, the water pressure outside of the apparatus causes a pressure actuator to deflect, which pushes a plunger into a magnetic field, which draws the apparatus shut, sealing the breather valve from the water.

The project team designed white-light LED installations for a photographic light box, a floodlight, a microscope light ring and a soft box light bulb. The designs match or exceed the luminosity and light quality of existing products while remaining economically viable for manufacturing. The emittance requirements for each product were determined through radiometry data from existing products and their intended use. LED arrays were created based on the lumen requirements. The LED arrays are powered through a newly designed dimming-capable LED driver. The controller and driver board provide constant voltage and an input-controlled current to the LEDs, allowing dimming control in each luminaire. An AC-DC power supply converts AC input into constant DC that goes to the controller boards. Housings for each product were 3D modeled and 3D printed before the designs were sent to fabrication facilities for mock-up production.

The Regenesis system has shown high potential in harvesting man-made wind by reducing power consumption for HVAC systems, and by helping the motor propel air outward. The design uses a three-phase eco-saver motor driven by a variable frequency drive and a more efficient, retrofitted propulsion blade. The mounted recapture blade spins in the opposite direction of, but in unison with, the HVAC unit’s original blade. The two blades face each other and create a propeller vortex, giving a 2:1 ratio between both fans and a consistent airflow, delivering a consistent energy output. Overall, the Regenesis system managed to recapture close to 15 percent of the energy.

Microsoft owns and operates over 50 data centers around the world. The size of these facilities makes it difficult for operators to monitor and maintain them securely while still being able to give tours to prospective customers. This project integrates a camera system that can take 360-degree stitched images and send back live footage through an interactive graphical user interface via a robot designed and built by a previous senior design team. With this camera system, a user can step through data centers virtually, giving a similar experience to Google Street View. The camera system operates in two modes. In the first, the processor takes raw images from the eight Go Pro cameras mounted on the robot, and then uses OpenCV programming libraries to stitch them together. These stitched images are stored with Azure, allowing them to be referenced at a later date. In the second, a live video feed comes from one of the eight cameras, and allows the user to move the robot to the desired viewpoint. These two system capabilities allow the operators to easily give a prospective customer an immersive experience of the data center, and ensure its safety and security.

The sponsor operates a system that controls two autonomous guided vehicles individually to move materials in a warehouse. The system cannot function without constant operator input and does not allow tracking of deliveries over time. An operator must look at multiple screens and interact with different software to perform a single delivery.The software interface design streamlines how operators control and receive data from the autonomous guided vehicles. It is a centralized system that interacts with the sponsor’s existing databases and software. The system localizes all the information an operator needs for production line deliveries into a user-friendly interface application that allows data tracking over time and simultaneous control over multiple autonomous guided vehicles.

The sponsor assembles radios for use in commercial cars. Engineers use printed production schedules to stay organized, requiring them to manually track each radio component by hand during the assembly process, including any update to the schedules.The team developed software to improve the web application tool the sponsor currently uses to control the production floor schedule. The new software can instantaneously track unit movements by creating requests to, for example, transfer, stop or hold units. This approval flow automatically sends notifications to proper personnel regarding any requests to change the schedule, uses a ratification process that quickly processes scheduling requests to any department, and creates department-level schedule reports for engineers. This software substantially improves the factory floor management and allows full access to data from web-based platforms, not just from internal computer monitors.

The sponsor uses a manual process for document control on its production line. The production floor depends on the industrial engineering staff to supply cycle type, standard work and equipment usage documentation. Each document supports the day-to-day operational questions that affect the line’s ability to work. Since industrial engineers do not have visibility into all aspects of the production floor, there are frequent delays on the floor that directly contribute to process waste and inefficiencies. The purpose of the project is to create a document-sharing platform for the industrial engineers to share production documents with the production teams. The system consists of a database on the back end, a website on the front end and controllers to connect the back end with the front end. The platform will simultaneously allow industrial engineers to upload and update files and the production team to view, download and offer feedback. Customers can integrate the website onto their employee webpages and operate it via the local network.

A study conducted by Microsoft indicates that many people no longer carry cash, which makes it harder to donate money or give tips. The application designed allows the user to generate and print a QR code from either a smartphone or a computer that can be used to pay other people. Speed, convenience and security of transactions are priorities for this project.The design has three major components: the front-end user interface consisting of the mobile application and website, an Azure database to store information for all users, and a server back-end to communicate with Stripe for handling transactions. As with all financial apps, security is very important. The application will only store encrypted information for the user’s account on this service –not any financial information. The database will store the minimal amount of financial details necessary to process transactions via Stripe.

Heat is one of the most crucial issues in many engineering design products.High surrounding and operating temperatures can severely damage a product. One way to mitigate or avoid these issues is to transfer the heat away from the system using cooling applications. Space and defense equipment operate in even more extreme environments.The design developed and produced is an additively manufactured heat exchanger, allowing greater design flexibility from super-alloys that can operate in extreme environments and meet rigorous sponsor parameters. The system is designed to remove heat, through a cross-flow, between hot fluid and coolant. The team tested the system performance at low (90 degrees Celsius) and high (400 degrees Celsius) temperatures and compared performance to that of a traditionally manufactured heat exchanger. The sponsor will use this product, which has characteristics not found in a traditional heat exchanger, as a prototype for further research and development.

In 2016, 70 percent of all child fatalities in the United States caused by physical abuse occurred in children younger than age 3. This unfortunate truth is reinforced by the fact that children under 3 may not be able to communicate verbally, or to easily and reliably report the details of their situations to authorities, physicians or social workers without prompting. For these reasons, there is a need for a device that can measure the reflectance of bruised skin over time. This reflectance data can be coupled with bruise physiology research to develop mathematical models that estimate the age of a bruise. The designed bruise age measurement sensor is a portable device that collects skin reflectance data using a miniature spectrometer and stores it on a micro SD card for further analysis. It uses lights at specific wavelengths to detect and isolate the reflectance of bruise metabolites, such as hemoglobin and bilirubin. Physicians or social workers can take measurements easily by lightly applying the device on the affected skin. The gentle application is achieved via feedback from the device’s two force sensors. The portability of the device allows physicians and social workers to visit multiple patients and victims, and aids in the process of early intervention in cases of physical abuse.