MAY 2, 2023 — Senior UTSA engineering majors showcased their solutions to many of humanity’s grand challenges at the Spring 2023 Tech Symposium held on Friday, April 28, at the Convocation Center on the Main Campus. The event, sponsored by the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design (Klesse College), was bustling with students, sponsors, local industry organization representatives and proud faculty members.
Senior Design I students presented their concepts through posters. Senior Design II students produced and presented prototypes based on their Senior Design I concepts. All engineering entries were judged by professionals in each major category. This year, 92 projects (comprised of more than 460 students) were on display and $12,000 in cash prizes was awarded.
“This event provides such incredible experiences for our students because not only do they get to learn about how to make a project happen from an engineering perspective, but they also work on the financial aspect and get to understand how much it costs to turn an idea into a reality,” said JoAnn Browning, dean of the Klesse College. “To walk around this room and see their faces filled with pride and joy as they talk about their projects is inspiring and satisfying, because this is another way our programs have prepared them for their careers.”
SPRING 2023 TECH SYMPOSIUM WINNERS
Design II Winners
1st place, $4,000 prize: Print & Click (Josiah Lozano, Charles Otte, Ben Torres, John Dejillo, Keahra Etuk & Esteban Mejia)
Over 160,000 skin grafts are performed in U.S. hospitals annually, with one in three burn hospitalizations requiring a skin graft. The team’s proposed bioprinting system included a novel mixing system to improve cell uniformity and is housed in an enclosure capable of maintaining the optimal conditions for the printed cells.
2nd place, $3,000 prize: MOI Measurements (Veronika Granado, Stanley Ngo, J Barbosa & Mason Longmore)
This device measures the Moment of Inertia (MOI) of small test objects used in the UTSA Hypersonics Lab. The importance of measuring MOI is to predict the object’s behavior during free flight and produce results in fluid dynamic simulations that can closely simulate experimental results.
3rd place, $2,000 prize: The Rowdy Resuscitator (Gabriel Isaiah Benavidez, Emilio Martinez, Frank Peyton, Tosin Oyebode & Sebastian Velez)
A cardiac arrest is extremely taxing on Fire Departments and EMS services. With this device in use, highly trained first responders will be able to focus their efforts on other aspects of patient care and advanced life support, needing less manpower while providing higher quality CPR.
Excellence Awards
Recognizes exceptional Design II projects that were not selected for a cash prize
JRCS Orthopedics (Colin Osborne, James Wallace, Ricardo Recio & Sarah Davis)
This device is a surgical guide to assist surgeons with posterior entry into the Sacroiliac joint and a surgical implant which will effectively immobilize and fuse the joint.
Second Life Biofuels (Christopher Zara, Jonathan Castro, Ayomide Adesoye & Swan Castillo)
Second Life Biofuels seeks to advance biodiesel production from used waste cooking oil (WCO).
UTSA Legacy Museum (Stephen Pack, Alison Jennings, Steven Summerford, Aaron Franklin & Alex Magdeleno)
The Legacy Museum is showcase for academic and athletic activities that occur at UTSA.
GEMT (Nani McDaniel, JC Cruz, Nicolas Tran, John Lawless & Nicholas Reyna)
The General Electronic Module Tester (GEMT) provides an all-in-one solution to the task of electronic hardware functionality testing.
Heritage CNC (Aaron Cantu, Adam Knippa, Carolina Guerrero & Gabriel Longoria)
This senior design project completes the design and assembly of a 3-Axis CNC Router that will be implemented into the UTSA Makerspace in the Summer of 2023.
Design I Winners
Each winner received a $1,000 prize
Ode to Code (Caleb Harris, Ethan Gunnels, Bradd Waki & Christopher Rocha)
The Ode to Code’s Workspace Refrigerant Leak Detector finds a solution for false refrigerant leak alarms within H-E-B stores.
Hydro Logic (Ben Ford, Dilpreet Kaur, Shane Lettine & Dillon White)
The Smart Well is a modernized residential water well control system.
Assistance Robotics (Sara Mustafa, Josie Torres, Elijah Guzman, Caleb Champion, Rafael Robles & Damario Harris)
OMAR is a self-feeding robotic arm that allows physically impaired individuals the ability to feed themselves without the assistance of caregivers.
IEEE UTSA Technology Symposium 2023 Special Recognition Award
Arturo Montoya (UTSA), Garrett Hall (SwRI), Colton Underwood, Alex Smith, Elizabeth White, Ethan Nguy, Steven Luis and Walt Downing (SwRI).
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This event will acknowledge graduating seniors from the McNair Scholars program at UTSA before inducting the new cohort of scholars into the program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140), Main CampusAt this memorable celebration, UTSA graduates will be introduced one-by-one to cross the stage and accept their doctoral degrees.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusRoadrunner Walk is an event for graduating students to have a memorable walk on campus to celebrate an important milestone and their achievements. Graduates will walk along the Paseo while being celebrated by the UTSA community, friends, and family members.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.Celebrate the accomplishments of Alvarez College of Business, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
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