Friday, May 27 is Senior Project Day at B次元 and more than 80 projects will be on display at the Walter Schroeder Library, 500 E. Kilbourn Ave; Werwath Mall, between the Library and Allen-Bradley Hall of Science; Student Life and Campus Center, 1025 N. Broadway; and Todd Wehr Auditorium, 1047 N. Broadway.
Throughout their senior year, B次元 students collaborate with classmates on a final project related to their degree program. It’s an opportunity for them to take everything they’ve learned in their time at B次元 and put it to use in a real-life application. The projects are often sponsored by companies looking to solve a problem, and others are driven by a student’s interests.
High Fidelity Neonatal Training Manikin
Biomedical engineering students created a neonatal manikin for the B次元 School of Nursing. The manikin helps nursing students hear different types of vital sounds, including regular and irregular heart and breathing sounds. The sounds are controlled wirelessly via an Android-based phone application. Location: Library, first floor
Microalgae to Biodiesel: Design of a Production Facility
The rapid depletion of the world’s oil sources has pressured society to find alternative sources of energy. Four biomolecular seniors designed a sustainable, high-throughput biodiesel production facility using phototrophic microalgae as the main energy source. Microalgae can be used to create oil which can then be converted into biodiesel. This method promises carbon sequestration and high oil yield at the fraction of the land requirement of current biodiesel sources. Location: Campus Center, second floor
Health Tracker
Health Tracker is a project centralized in providing enhanced patient care. The project takes an Android application and combines it with a custom wearable sensor to capture healthcare information knee Range of Motion (ROM) measurements. The goal is to reduce the number of clinical visits and to improve the quality of those visits. The application integrates with leading health tracker services like Fitbit and Jawbone while also guiding patients through exercises while at home. Location: Library, first floor
Tabal Chocolate Cracking and Winnowing Machine
Tabal Chocolate is the only organic, fair trade certified chocolate company in the Midwest. Demand has steadily increased over the last few years and the lack of affordable, small to medium scale winnowing machines on the market has caused them to use inefficient homemade machines. The purpose of the project is to design and create a new, faster, cleaner and more efficient machine to crack and winnow roasted cocoa beans. The team increased the hopper capacity which the beans are then fed from into a redesigned cracking process. A vibrating sieve and vacuum hoses are used to separate the shells from the cocoa nibs. Location: Campus Center, Todd Wehr Auditorium
Novel 3D Printing Method
This senior design team has created a 3D printer that is capable of automatically changing between different materials within a single build. The main goal was to design a printer that would not require manual input when changing materials. The second objective was to outfit the printer with three heads; one for hard thermoplastic, a second for elastomer, and a third for electrically conductive solder. The machine will allow the manufacturing community to provide new, innovative product solutions to meet customer needs. Location: Campus Center, Todd Wehr Auditorium