Football half-time performances are getting another lightshow upgrade thanks to our engineering student capstone teams!

An interdisciplinary team of mechanical engineering and computer science students are continuing a collaborative effort to bring an electrically-driven, remote-controlled stage to University of Idaho Vandal Marching Band halftime shows.

This year’s capstone team includes Cole Brusven, Annika Esau, Ben Randall, Zachary Laymon, Kaitlin Tabaracci and Jacob Thorngate.

The team is working to expand and improve previous designs to build a platform capable of moving forward, backward and diagonally, as well as spinning in circles. The platforms would allow band performers, as well as large instruments like their piano and drum kit, to easily move about the field.

Since 2011, our college has collaborated with the Vandal Marching Band to bring performances to life with light-up glasses and triangle instruments, and more. In 2012, student teams developed the Band-Beesten, a robotic drum set balanced on a ballbot, a common basketball fitted with three motors, enabling the robot to move in any direction.

Over the years, the design was updated with a triangular platform and directional wheels. In 2016, the platform was modified to support both the drum kit and piano.

Civil engineering seniors Josh Ellingson, Erik Eyre, Christopher Holder and Emily MacCoy are designing an environmentally friendly and more efficient wastewater pipeline that could one day run across a bridge spanning 770 feet over the Kootenai River in Idaho.

The city of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, recently updated the forcemain there, but student work is being used to discover a more efficient design that could possibly be used in the future.

With weight an issue, the team is considering three options but is leaning toward PVC, a lightweight plastic capable of withstanding extreme cold, hot temperatures and corrosion.

Check out their project and more at the Engineering Design EXPO!

In Darwin’s Demons VR, players put on a virtual reality headset and shoot evolving populations of aliens in space. Computer science and electrical and computer engineering students Clara Cannon, Samantha Heck and Jorge Olivas created the game by adapting Polymorphic Game Studio's first release.

The studio will use the game at outreach events such as conferences and STEM fairs to introduce engineering and STEM concepts to K-12 students.

Check out their project and more at the Engineering Design EXPO!

Using agriculture-based feedstocks to produce biofuels and bio-based products often requires debaling agricultural materials.

Mechanical engineering seniors Yaser Alghreeb, Loren Jenkins and Sean Leonard, along with biological engineering senior Steven Mortensen, have designed and built a small-scale model to turn compressed agricultural materials into a loose, consistent density flow while reducing damage and loss via dust.

Their prototype and design are sponsored by Forest Concepts LLC, a bioenergy feedstocks and environmental restoration research and development company in Auburn, Washington.

Learn more about this project and all the ways U of I students are pushing the boundaries of science and technology at the VIRTUAL Engineering Design EXPO!

Chemical engineering seniors Clay Allred, Addyson Barnes, Sahara Waymire and Nicole Yu are working to help BP America choose the best alternative fuel source to boost biodiesel production at the oil industry company’s Cherry Point Refinery in western Washington.

In BP’s quest to be carbon net zero by 2050, the refinery already churns out a biodiesel blend using 10 percent beef tallow, but has capacity for more production. Using the tallow blend as a baseline, our student team is assessing eight different feedstock options, including canola oil and tall oil from pine trees, chosen for their availability as a resource as well as reactions within the diesel unit.

Last fall, the team traveled to the refinery to get a closer look at the biodiesel production process.

Learn more about this project and all the ways U of I students are pushing the boundaries of science and technology at the VIRTUAL Engineering Design EXPO!

Lasers are being used more and more frequently in scientific instrumentation and optical research. They can be used as optical “tweezers” to grab a single atom or for noninvasive bioimaging.

This type of precision and accuracy requires expensive dedicated hardware. A team of electrical engineering seniors, John Ashby and Jared Reichle, and computer engineering senior Alexis Wilson, are working to produce a cheap, modular and extendable control system for laser instruments.

Sponsored by optical equipment company @thorlabs, the project is intended to allow researchers to produce high quality optical research less expensively.

Learn more about this project and all the ways U of I students are pushing the boundaries of science and technology at the VIRTUAL Engineering Design EXPO!

While elderly care can require a level of monitoring to ensure individual safety, maintaining a person’s sense of privacy is also important.

Using small, remotely accessible devices that do not use cameras, microphones or other intrusive methods, electrical and computer engineering seniors Fanghao Han, Xiao Liu, Jeremy Perhac and Yizhou Ye are building a prototype of small sensors to monitor appliances and actions within a household.

These devices could sense the opening and closing of doors and track the placement of objects, things like whether or not a vehicle is in a garage or not.

The studio will use the game at outreach events such as conferences and STEM fairs to introduce engineering and STEM concepts to K-12 students.

Check out their project and more at the Engineering Design EXPO!

Having trouble finding a parking spot? @uicda students can help. Computer science seniors Amanda Ward and Alex Parenti are prototyping a parking spot location app in Coeur d'Alene!

Read more at KREM 2 News Article.

Check out their project and more at the Engineering Design EXPO!

The Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise is looking to incorporate interactive exhibits that expose K-12 students to modern robotics technology. Mechanical and computer science seniors Chaeun Kim, Evangelos Stratigakes, Austyn Sullivan-Watson and Zhihui Wang are developing code for a robotic arm that can mimic the hand motions of a user to perform a number of sorting activities.

Check out their project and more at the Engineering Design EXPO!

As solar panel roofs and wind turbines become more prevalent, companies like Avista Utilities are looking into how energy generated by these forward-thinking consumers can be bought and sold to minimize energy loss and better serve communities.

Electrical engineering seniors Christine Page and Nikki Tran are working with computer science seniors Karstin Neil and James Todd to conduct a feasibility study on ways a power utility could manage transactions between prosumers, energy consumers who are also generating more power than they actually need, to others on a power grid with minimal utility interaction.

The team aims to create a robust simulation of a small-scale power system integrated with automated pricing software. “In class, everything is pretty theoretical, like a toy or an example,” said Neil, “It’s amazing to think about how this study could impact real people. This is way more than just a school project.”

Learn more about this project and all the ways U of I students are pushing the boundaries of science and technology at the VIRTUAL Engineering Design EXPO!

The University of Idaho and Idaho State University are partnering to study the effects of exercise on early muscle development using rats. The treadmill currently used to perform research is tedious to operate and breaks often.

Mechanical and biological engineering seniors Colin Burkhalter, Stuart Sater, Stephen Schoonen and Mitchell Williams have designed a new treadmill that is robust and simple to control, allowing for less downtime and headache.

Check out their project and more at the Engineering Design EXPO!

GPS-based animal monitoring systems for cattle and other livestock can be an economical and more humane alternative to fencing methods like barbed wire.

Using a long-range, low-power radio receiver, electrical and computer engineering seniors YiXun Qian, Wenhao Chen, ZiQi Zhang and Dan Zhang are building a system that could work remotely in areas with no internet connection to keep animals in or out of a pre-determined area.

Check out their project and more at the Engineering Design EXPO!

All virtual fencing for rangeland cattle on the market are GPS-based, making them difficult to use in remote locations where a signal isn’t available.

Electrical engineering seniors Samantha Baran, Xuyue Gu, Lauren Smith and Ziqing Zhu, and mechanical engineering senior Austin Grieve, are coding their own virtual system using signals between local beacons to keep cattle within a specific boundary without fencing.

Cows within the system will wear a device allowing them to be located, identified, and if necessary, a small shock can be administered to encourage the animal back within boundaries.

Students in the U of I College of Agricultural & Life Sciences and College of Natural Resources are also working on companion projects within this interdisciplinary research.

Learn more about this project and all the ways U of I students are pushing the boundaries of science and technology at the VIRTUAL Engineering Design EXPO!