Innovation and creativity will be on full display as University of Wisconsin-Platteville engineering students showcase their capstone projects to students, faculty and industry representatives at the spring Senior Design Open House on Wednesday, May 19.
The Senior Design program pairs student groups with industry and community sponsors to solve real problems or create new products. The students are supervised by an industry and faculty advisor while they explore all aspects of the project – from creative development and project management to engineering ethics, product safety, copyrights and patents, robust engineering and more. Hosted virtually, through Zoom, this year’s open house will feature more than 50 projects from the areas of engineering physics, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, software engineering, and sustainability and renewable energy systems.
One group of industrial engineering students has been working on creating a vertical storage solution for weld fixtures for HNI Allsteel. The team created two designs that met the project requirements — one using a paddlewheel and one a carousel. The students were also tasked with creating a welding cell layout for the factory that accommodates the new welding fixture storage unit.
“The most beneficial takeaway from this project was building a relationship with HNI through communications,” said Ben Sigwarth. “Understanding the company’s requirements on the design allowed us to gain professional communication skills while working on a real-world project.”
Cole Nellis, and his group, have been working on a project with close ties to campus. The team of mechanical engineering students has been assisting Pioneer Sweets – a newly-organized, student-run ice cream shop – by exploring solutions for an automated machine to dispense ice cream into containers of specified sizes.
“I’ve really enjoyed working on this project, because I know the work we are doing will actually make a difference as Pioneer Sweets opens to the world,” said Nellis, a senior mechanical engineering major from New Franken, Wisconsin. “We have considered a lot of different factors when designing our dispenser, including sanitation and feasibility. Through our interaction with outside fabrication companies, we’ve come to the realization that our custom design we’ve been working towards may not be fully fabricated by our end deadline. With that, we have added another path to work towards which involves modifying a touchless condiment dispenser to fit our needs.”
This year’s Senior Design program partnered with a variety of sponsors. Projects range from consumer products to the improvement of manufacturing processes and solving ergonomic issues to investigating sustainability.
“Senior Design has always been a prime example of collaboration between the faculty, students, and the industry or community partners,” said Dr. Jessica Fick, associate professor of mechanical engineering and senior design coordinator. “We look forward to showing off all their hard work.”
To view all projects and register for the open house, visit www.uwplatt.edu/senior-design.