BME Students Showcase Ethics, Creativity at Engineering Design Day 2017

May 9, 2017

On May 1, at Engineering Design Day 2017, BME seniors played roles in a variety of projects ranging from an improved feeding tube sensor to an automated macadamia nut harvester.

Seniors Martin Galaz, Jason Keatseangsilp (team lead), Amanda Koiki and Thomas Valenzuela spent more than 500 hours developing, constructing and fine-tuning their unpowered exoskeleton for UA junior Jeffrey Bristol, an accounting major with cerebral palsy, whose family sponsored their design project.

The team even met with collaborators at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, which helped inform the design of the apparatus that will enable Jeffrey to maintain an upright position and exercise muscles needed to walk.

Their project impressed judges, who awarded them the inaugural Frank Broyles Engineering Ethics Award.

Congratulations to the following Design Day 2017 winners:

  • Thorlabs Photonics Is the Future Award: Team 16021, featuring biomedical engineering majors Oksana Carlson and Jordan Stupka
  • Frank Broyles Engineering Ethics Award, First Prize: Team 16055, featuring biomedical engineering majors Martin Galaz, Jason Keatseangsilp, Amanda Koiki and Thomas Valenzuela
  • Frank Broyles Engineering Ethics Award, Second Prize: Team 16031, featuring biomedical engineering major Lauren Rimsza
  • TRAX International Award for Best Implementation of Agile Methodology: Team 16003, featuring biomedical engineering major Justin Larimore
  • W.L. Gore & Associates Award for Most Creative Solution: Team 16006, featuring biomedical engineering major Brent Miller
  • Phoenix Analysis & Design Award for Best Use of Prototyping: Team 16010, featuring biomedical engineering majors Kevin Brinkman, Sandra Cruz and Fermin Prieto
  • RBC Sargent Aerospace & Defense Voltaire Design Award: Team 16073, featuring biomedical engineering major Kevin Barr

BME major Jessica Owens also received the Honeywell Award for Team Leadership, for her involvement with Team 16074. That team also featured biomedical engineers Lucrezia Capano, Maxwell Li and Saffie-Alrahman Ezz-Eldin Mohran.

Emily Evans of Team 16063 won the first-prize Kristy Pearson Fish Out of Water Award, for her part in the project Autonomous Macadamia Nut Harvester Enhancement.