Dynamic Stability Tray

Senior mechanical engineering students Jay Price, Darwin Millard, Jonathan Bean and Blake Olson teamed up to design and build an accessory tray for a rolling walker that makes frustrating spills a rare occurrence. Having grown up with a father who suffered from multiple sclerosis, Price was inspired to make life easier for the more than 12 million other Americans currently using mobility aids.

The Dynamic Stability Tray incorporates a stabilizing device consisting of four polypropylene rails along with some ball bearings and additional components. The device allows the tray to remain level while the user goes up and down ramps or tilts from side to side, and it sustains low-speed impacts.

The students already have a provisional patent on their device and are involved in licensing discussions with a major medical equipment manufacturer. Their project also won first place and a $2,000 prize in the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship's Undergraduate Business Plan Competition on April 30, 2008.

BallBot

Remotely controlled by an Xbox game paddle, the BallBot is a spherical robot designed to carry a small payload such as a high resolution digital camera into a locations where it would be difficult or dangerous to send humans. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. sponsored senior design students Nolan Amy, Bradley Brisnehan, Bradford Peagler, Myles Raymond, Cristal Salcido, and David Tovani for the creation of this project, which has potential for both military and space use.

TouchUp

TouchUp is a multi-user, touch-based image editor designed to run on the MERL DiamondTouch table. This exciting new way to work with other artists to create and design new images claimed the People’s Choice Award at the Spring 2007 ITL Design Expo, which featured 88 different projects. The Center for LifeLong Learning and Design asked students Jonathan Smith, Nathan Campbell, Tyler Brown and Brian Braeckel, pictured at right, to create software that could be used on the center's touch screen table.

Peregrine Return Vehicle

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s the Peregrine Return Vehicle! This high-tech flying machine is designed to retrieve student-built science “payloads” when they land in hard-to-reach places. Designed for use by the Colorado Space Grant Consortium, this vehicle uses advanced navigation to return payloads launched on high-altitude balloons to a desired landing point.

Vehicle for Icy Terrain Locomotion

Think winter driving gets tricky in Colorado? Try going off-road on Europa, one of four moons that circles Jupiter! This vehicle is designed to retain traction on icy terrain and climb over obstacles without dumping its precious cargo. It can traverse 1 km of icy terrain in seven days in a harsh environment like that of Europa.

Surgical Device

Mechanical engineering students (left to right) Heather Bartlett, Evan Falivene, Jamie Clark, Tyler Bagrosky, and Audrey Earnshaw got a close-up look at the medical device industry as their senior design team undertook the challenge of developing a new device to be used in minimally invasive surgery. The team designed a 5-mm hand piece for ConMed Electrosurgery, which is intended to both cut and cauterize tissue with one tool.

"Senior Design combined all of my previous courses and gave me confidence for my future success."
          — Kristin Constancio, 2007 chemical engineering graduate

Senior design/projects courses by major:

• Aerospace Engineering Sciences

• Architectural Engineering

• Chemical Engineering

• Civil Engineering

• Computer Science

• Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Environmental Engineering

• Mechanical Engineering