The objective of this senior design project is to develop a fully functional prototype of an industrial-grade coolant management system. The system will autonomously monitor and control coolant level, concentration, and temperature using PLC-driven components. Integration with Kahr’s SCADA platform (Ignition) will enable real-time visualization via an HMI dashboard, alarm notifications for out-of-range conditions, and comprehensive data logging to support predictive maintenance and operational insights.

Key features will include a leak detection mechanism that compares coolant consumption with machine runtime, as well as advanced fault detection through sensor redundancy and plausibility checks. Upon detecting a fault, the system will automatically transition to manual mode, trigger alarms, log the event, and display detailed diagnostic messages.

As a secondary deliverable focused on long-term reliability, the system will also include bacterial culture monitoring and a self-cleaning mechanism for critical sensors. These features aim to minimize maintenance requirements and ensure sustained performance over time.

Overall, final deliverables will include a fully functional prototype, comprehensive system documentation, validation and testing results, and user-oriented materials such as operation manuals and HMI interface guides.

A mobile robot that can navigate crop rows in a greenhouse by pre-programmed path, remote control, or both. The robot will agitate the plants as it rolls by and faciliate pollination. While it rolls and agitate, smart cameras mounted around the robot will scan pest survey stickers (i.e. orange fly paper) and identify with high confidence the species of pest (flies, etc.) and send some sort of red flag to a UI or database if a predefined pest species is detected. The pathing or remote control of the robot should be app-based and compatible on a mobile device like a smart phone. If posiible, smart cameras that can do the same pest inspection but in realtime on the plants would be desirable.

The system must passively harvest waste heat from LED fixtures in a vertical farming environment and convert it into electrical power using thermoelectric generators. This power will be used to operate 12V circulation fans that maintain a minimum average airflow of 0.5 m/s across all growing beds to prevent tip burn. The design should support ~36 fans, one for each bed segment, and operate reliably during standard 12-hour lighting cycles.

Introduction:

Cartilage within the knee joint that is damaged in younger patients due to sports injuries and other traumatic events does not heal spontaneously. Cartilage damage leads to pain, decrease mobility and can eventually progress to diffuse cartilage degeneration and osteoarthritis of a joint. There are no current medical or surgical treatments that restore osteoarthritic joints to their native condition and patients will commonly require joint replacement. Due to the limited longevity of arthroplasty and problems inherent in revision procedures this option is not generally offered to younger patients, who often need to limit their activities and live with pain as a result of a cartilage injury. In order to develop new treatments to regenerate damaged cartilage, stem cells have been used to produce cartilage like tissues. To date these engineered tissues have not had the same histological or mechanical properties as native tissues. One approach to improving the quality of tissue engineered cartilage is to apply a load to the engineered tissues while they are developing. The goal of this project is to design and develop a dynamic bioreactor that can be used to produce tissue engineered cartilage exposed to multiple type of controlled mechanical forces. This will allow further testing of methods to improve the quality of engineered tissues via the application of mechanical loading. A previous team has designed a way to apply an axial and shear load to cultures, however, the design did not allow for application of long-term loading in a sterile environment. The system requirements of the current project will include a method to keep tissue cultures sterile, control the environment that tissue are exposed to during loading (i.e. atmospheric gas composition, temperature and humidity), and control loads applied to tissues.

Develop a robot that can accurately toss a cornhole bean bag into the hole following standard cornhole rules and regulations. A stretch goal is to make adjustments to knock your teams bag into the hole or to knock the competitors bag away from the hole.

Project Scope
The goal of this project is to develop an AI-driven tool that simulates oral board-style examinations for surgical residents and space medicine fellows. The tool will allow users to engage in interactive, case-based scenarios where they can demonstrate their clinical reasoning, decision-making, and communication skills—key competencies required for success in surgical training, practice, and deep space cognitive skill maintenance.
This project includes the following requirements:
1. Understand Current Assessment Methods: Work with medical educators and surgical faculty to understand the structure and grading criteria of current oral board exams. Gather insights into how these exams are conducted, what types of questions are asked, and how performance is evaluated.
2. Evaluate Existing AI Tools: Research and evaluate existing large language models (LLMs) and AI tools that can simulate conversational or examination-style interactions. Assess their ability to handle complex surgical case scenarios, provide meaningful feedback, and adapt to different levels of expertise.
3. Design the AI System: Develop a system architecture for an AI tool capable of:
o Presenting realistic, accurate surgical cases (e.g., patient histories, physical exams, imaging, lab results).
o Engaging in dynamic, conversational interactions with users, posing follow-up questions based on their responses.
o Avoiding hallucinations that would train the learner with incorrect information.
o Providing constructive feedback on clinical reasoning and communication skills.
o Update based on user feedback.
o Tracking user progress over time.

***This project is conducting remote interviews. Please visit https://bit.ly/4oOOXcN to schedule a time to speak to the sponsor***

In this project, you will work to establish and meet a set of design requirements for a CVI pump which can be implanted in the deep venous system and assist with blood circulation. Requirements will be based upon technical details such as vessel geometry, pressure head, shear-induced hemolysis, etc. Some design flexibility will also exist, such as whether to include a wireless power supply vs. onboard power. The team will ultimately be responsible for delivering a working prototype which meets or exceeds design requirements to demonstrate proof of concept.

Develop a remote accelerometer sensor unit for installation in an Erickson Aero Tanker MD-87 air tanker. The unit shall electrically interface with the installed OLM System and use 28 VDC power supplied by the aircraft. The mounting plate shall match existing aircraft mounting structure. The project team will be expected to deliver a completed & tested unit, engineering design documentation, unit build documentation, & unit testing results documentation.

Camouflage and the cover of night can obscure threats effectively when human eyes are the only security tools. Imaging in multiple wavelength regions (UV, Visible, NIR, SWIR, MWIR and LWIR for example) can defeat these methods and provide a wealth of complementary information about a scene, enabling threats to be discerned from the background regardless of the lighting conditions. When these imagers are co-aligned effectively, the same physical location is seen in all bands, enabling the most effective decision making by the computer vision system on identifying threats.

The team shall design a multiband imager that will provide situational awareness regardless of illumination conditions. The imaging station must examine a field of regard. Careful system trades will balance scan rates, imaging resolution, and system complexity to decide on a static vs a scanned solution. A computer will control the system, readout the data from all the cameras, and report data to the user via a GUI. The system will identify and track objects it believes are outliers from the background. Stretch goals on specific object recognition sorting can be pursued by ambitious teams. The experienced BAE Systems sponsor team with significant optical and software design experience will be readily available to work with the team in pursuing a successful project.