2023 Senior Design Project Competition Winners Announced

Each year, Penn Engineering’s seniors present their Senior Design projects, a year-long effort that challenges them to test and develop solutions to real-world problems, to their individual departments. The top three projects from each department go on to compete in the annual Senior Design Competition, sponsored by the Engineering Alumni Society, which involves pitching projects to a panel of judges who evaluate their potential in the market.

This year’s panel included over forty judges, and each winning team received a $2,000 prize, generously sponsored by Penn Engineering alumnus Kerry Wisnosky.

Congratulations to all of the 2023 participants and winners!

Technology & Innovation Award

This award recognized the team whose project represents the highest and best use of technology and innovation to leverage engineering principles.

Winner: Team BAMBI
Department: Bioengineering
Team Members: Ria Dawar, Pallavi Jonnalagadda, Jessica Ling, Grace Qian
Mentor: Erin Anderson
Instructors: Erin Berlew, Sevile Mannickarottu, and David Meaney
Abstract: BAMBI (Biointelligent Apnea Monitor for Bradycardia-Prone Infants) is a tripartite system that leverages machine learning and automated mechanical stimulation to detect and treat apnea of prematurity in the NICU.

Judges’ Choice Award

This award recognizes the group whose all-around presentation captures the best of the senior design program’s different facets:  ideation, scope of project, team problem-solving, execution and presentation.

Winner: Team StablEyes
Department: Bioengineering
Team Members: Ella Atsavapranee, Jake Becker, Ruoming Fan, Savan Patel
Mentor: Erin Anderson, Dr. Drew Scoles and Dr. Tomas Aleman (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Penn Medicine)
Instructors: Erin Berlew, Sevile Mannickarottu, and David Meaney
Abstract: StablEyes consists of a stabilization mount that provides fine, motorized control of the handheld OCT to improve ease of use for physicians and machine learning-based software to aid in diagnosis from retinal images.

Social Impact Award

This award recognizes the team whose project represents the greatest potential benefit for society by creatively solving an issue in a socially relevant field, such as health, sustainability or energy.

Winner: Team Eco2ncrete
Department: Materials Science and Engineering
Team Members: Emma Glasser, Kimerly Jackson, Leslie Lytle, Sahana Sundar, Yein Yoon
Mentor: Shu Yang
Advisor: Shu Yang
Abstract: While concrete is the most widely used human-made material on the planet, it accounts for ~8% of global CO2 emissions each year primarily due to cement production. ECO2NCRETE uses waste materials (eggshells, silica fume, and steel slag) as cement to make climate-conscious concrete with less emissions that can be either poured or 3D-printed.

Leadership Award

This award recognizes the team which most professionally and persuasively presents their group project to incorporate a full analysis of their project’s scope, advantages and challenges, as well as addresses the research’s future potential and prospects for commercialization.

Winner: Team PopEye
Department: Various
Team Members: Nicholas Anderson, Mario Ferre, Benjamin Abt (Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics), Orestis Skoutellas (Computer and Information Science), Jacob Bendell (Electrical and Systems Engineering)
Mentor: Siddharth Deliwala
Instructors: Nicholas McGill-Gardner, Jan Van der Spiegel
Abstract: PopEye is the world’s first autonomous anchor-monitoring solution for commercial vessels. At the intersection of mechanical design, electronics, and computer vision, the “camera-in-a-box” both solves the problem of anchor loss, malfunction, and danger, and takes the first step toward fully autonomous, more sustainable anchoring for large commercial vessels.