The sponsor has issues tracking and measuring the temperature of the rotor on a wound field salient pole generator without an existing device to do the job. The team designed a system that can take the temperature readings from a resistance temperature detector sensor attached to a field coil and transmit these readings to a data acquisition system for analysis.The system’s microcontroller uses the change in resistance to calculate the temperature in degrees Celsius using programming libraries, then transmits the temperature readings at a rate of one reading per second to a data acquisition system via a Bluetooth app. This app displays the readings and stores them on the tablet’s solid-state hard drive, allowing them to be referenced anytime. The design’s capabilities allow the operator to monitor the temperature of a field coil on a spinning rotor, enabling the sponsor to verify its thermal models with test results and create more efficient machines.

Dairy cattle require a temperature-humidity index range of 72-74 to maximize milk production. The Rovey Dairy in Glendale, Arizona, achieves the required range through a series of cooling mechanisms: a misting system, fans and shaded areas. During the hottest months, utility costs spike as a result of their binary system, in which components are either all on or all off. The system designed uses a series of cameras and sensors in conjunction with a misting line to divide the dairy into sections where it detects cow presence and sections with ambient temperature. Software analyzes the footage to determine cow presence while sensors measure the environmental conditions in specific areas. If the temperature or humidity is too high, the fans and misters are activated. Water and energy resources are used optimally to cool only the occupied areas. To monitor potential harmful pollutant levels, the system also detects methane, carbon monoxide, isobutane, ethanol and hydrogen. All data is recorded and can be accessed via an online database. Updates are posted to allow the operator continual access and retrieval.

The coverslipper module on the Ventana HE 600 instrument dispenses an agent that activates precoated adhesive on glass coverslips to encapsulate the stained tissue samples. The manufacturing process for precoated coverslips poses challenges to process and quality control. The team modified an existing HE 600 coverslipper’s software and mounting medium to apply the correct amount of adhesive onto slides, eliminating the need for precoated coverslips. The modification also includes a new system that will prevent curing of the mounting medium, and accompanying buildup and blockage in the nozzle, when the machine is not in use. These modifications will allow for better quality control over the coverslipped slides and lead to long-term cost reduction.

The sponsor develops automated staining systems that process tissue samples affixed to glass slides. These systems use defined protocols to create and control an environment that yields accurate and reproducible staining results. While the samples in a given protocol can be processed identically, the samples provided may not be consistent with one another. Varying thickness in the tissue cuts placed on each slide can influence the final staining results. To help correct this factor, the team developed and implemented a tool and process that can determine these slide-to-slide differences in thickness before processing.The system uses reflectance confocal microscopy techniques. To obtain measurements, the stage with the tissue slide is moved along the optical axis until the top and bottom surfaces of the sample have passed through the focus of the first microscope objective. The voltage measurement of the photodiode, which converts light into electrical currents, records peaks at the top and bottom surfaces of the sample. The thickness is determined by calculating the distance traveled by the stage between the peaks in the photodiode signal.

The aviation industry continues to make avionics platforms smaller, lighter and more integrable for aircraft manufacturers and their airline customers. The team was tasked with developing a method to cool one of the sponsor’s avionics units being moved out of the avionics bay and into the aircraft fuselage itself, where active cooling options are not available. The designed heat management system conforms to industry standards and passively cools the avionics unit while keeping size, weight, power usage and cost low. The team modeled four thermal management alternatives using computational fluid dynamics simulations and thermal testing before selecting the most appropriate solution. This resulted in the design, validation and implementation of an entirely conductive pathway-based heat management system. The heat from the components is conducted into the electromagnetic interference shielding on the board via thermal standoffs, then conducted into the enclosure using thermal bridges. The heat in the enclosure is dissipated via conduction into the mounting rails of the aircraft, and by convection from the enclosure surface into the fuselage crown air gap.

The Texas Instruments OPA2836-Q1 is a is high-speed, ultralow-power operational amplifier. It was integrated into an electric scooter and fault testing was conducted to show the capabilities of the device. A customized circuit board and circuit board housing were created to run the scooter using InstaSpin software and to feature the operational amplifier. A customized graphical user interface was created to display the current in real time. Testing was conducted on the scooter system for two faults that can be caused by the user: an over-current electrical fault in which the current exceeds the motor’s limit, and a mechanical fault in which a brake is applied to the wheel with the motor still running, which also causes an over-current on the motor. The high-speed operational amplifier detected and shut down the current within 1 microsecond of the overcurrent occurring, demonstrating the operational amplifier’s ability.

iButtons are flat metal disks with identifying information burned onto them. They are placed on sealed manufactured products for traceability and anticounterfeit purposes. iButtons are first placed onto sticky pads, which are then peeled and placed on products. This process is currently manual and requires roughly 2,000 hours of labor per year. A device was designed that automatically adheres iButtons to sticky pads for eventual placement onto a sealed product. This was accomplished with mostly 3D custom-printed parts in combination with motors and a Raspberry Pi. The device has a capacity of 3,000 iButtons and one roll of 3,000 sticky pads. It produces strips of iButtons adhered to sticky pads cut into a user-defined length. The number of moving parts was minimized to eliminate as many failure points, and thus device shutdowns, as possible. The machine designed uses a camera module with OpenCV to detect the outline of a sticky pad. Once the outline is detected, the coordinates of its center are used to determine how far the sticky pad needs to travel before it is at the correct location for iButton placement. A signal light attached to the top of the device indicates if the machine needs refilling or if there is an error in the system. A graphical user interface on an LCD screen displays refill alerts and allows users to start and stop the machine and define output length. The system was verified and tested under conditions similar to the operating environment and a user’s manual was provided for reference.

Ankle arthrodesis, commonly known as ankle fusion surgery, involves removing cartilage and bone of the tibiotalar joint so that bone can grow onto itself, fusing the ankle and relieving pain. This procedure can fail due to inadequate bone mating. Most surgeons hand chisel the cartilage and bone to create a mating surface, which is a lengthy, inaccurate method that risks fusion failure. A surgical tool kit was designed that includes a reamer, curved guide, and flex mesh device. The tools allow surgeons to work with a patient’s unique anatomy and the sterile operating room. The tools attach to existing surgical power tools for surgeons’ ease of use and to reduce costs. Each tool is contoured, shaped and sized for use within the narrow surgical site without damaging soft tissue around the joint. Tooling was modeled using computer-aided design and prototyped via custom 3D prints.This biocompatible tool set greatly improves upon the current preparation system by having the power and precision to quickly and accurately remove both cartilage and bone, which reduces surgery time and risk to patients, and increases the chances of a successful fusion.

The system is designed to help prevent collisions between cyclists and vehicles. It is optimized to work on a midsummer day in Tucson, Arizona. The deep neural network runs on energy-efficient hardware and can perform inference on images captured in real time. The network learned by training on a data set of pre-labeled example images. Using what it learned, the network is able to draw bounding boxes around objects it believes are cars and can report a confidence level for each prediction made. The physical system is composed of a weatherproof enclosure housing the inference hardware the neural network runs on, a battery, and a cooling fan. The camera is mounted on top of the enclosure under a clear dome, positioned to detect vehicles to the rear-left of the cyclist. The enclosure is placed on a bike rack on the back of a bicycle. Images are processed at a rate of at least eight frames per second and the entire system can operate for at least six hours.

Large mining trucks require a skilled operator who can use various systems simultaneously to operate the truck in a safe and efficient manner. Side mirrors are important for operator vision, particularly while driving in reverse to dump a load or to maneuver beneath loading equipment. Slow or inaccurate maneuvering of the truck results in lost time and money. The team implemented a mirror system that improves the operator’s field of view, tested mirror coatings to reduce cleaning frequency, and designed an adjustable system that reduces the time needed to optimize mirror position. Structural and field-of-view analyses were performed to evaluate the stability and functionality of the system.The new mirror design optimizes time operating the truck and increases driver awareness of the truck’s surroundings.