By Dina Weinstein

From quiet apps to noisy rocket engines, the ingenuity of Virginia Commonwealth University College of Engineering students was on vibrant display April 25 at the 2025 Capstone Design Expo.

Held at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, the annual event showcased more than 90 student projects and presentations, the result of more than eight months of work among students, project partners and faculty advisers. The prototypes and inventions focused on solutions that could have a lasting impact on society and humankind.

In addition to Capstone Design coursework, the expo featured products from Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) teams. The VIP program provides undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in multiyear, multidisciplinary, team-based projects under the guidance of faculty and graduate students in their areas of expertise.

Among award recipients from this year’s expo:

People’s Choice Award

Summary: Support for a golfer with an amputated finger. (Students Kyia Hill, Elna Manoj, Valentina Santos Agreda and Rachel Scardina, with instructor Henry Donahue, Ph.D.)

In this biomedical engineering project, the team worked with QL Plus, a nonprofit veterans organization, to create a prosthetic finger and special glove with foam padding for the golfer. The veteran has an amputated index finger and a minimally functional middle finger on her left hand, and she struggles with grip stability and experiences painful vibrations while golfing.

The glove prototypes feature synthetic leather material with an opening to allow for direct contact of the prosthetic with the residual limb. Padding was used to reduce painful vibrations. The team also modified the golf club, and it used oscillation testing and an accelerometer to measure shaft frequencies and vibration.

“I’m looking to go into assistive technology,” Scardina said. “Sometimes, as an engineer, you may get caught up in the problem itself and not thinking about who the problem is affecting. Being able to consider that throughout the whole project was extremely valuable.”

Director’s Choice Award

Summary: Naval defense technology to disable electronics. (Students AJ Critz, Craig Lyle, Joseph Lee and Chris Treblic, with instructor Da-ren Chen, Ph.D.)

The Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Dahlgren Division sponsored this mechanical and nuclear engineering project.. A top facility for weapon research and development, the Dahlgren lab develops technology such as high-power microwave devices that disable electronics nonlethally. To test such instruments, surrogate outboard motors require accurate artificial loads. But the limitations of current dynamometers — devices that measure a motor’s torque and rotational speed to calculate instantaneous power — in capacity, durability and usability  cause delays.

This team designed a dynamometer capable of handling more horsepower while operating in high radio-frequency environments and allowing fast swaps of outboard motors. In creating a better artificial load, the project can streamline testing with simulations that needn’t be conducted at sea.

“For our literature study, we dug back to Sir William Froude from 1877. He was the first [engineer] that ever thought of water brake dynamometers,” Lee said, noting that the rotor technology of the team’s project is similar to “absorbing energy by repeatedly punching water.”

Excellence in Design (first place)

Summary: Device to improve speed and safety of producing potato chips. (Students Josiah Dieffenbach, Ian Gildea, Jaden Casey and Cedric Wilson, with instructor Gennady Miloshevsky, Ph.D.)

Eldon’s Famous Snacks is attempting to boost production of its artisanal potato chips, but it faces a bottleneck in the process. At the sizing phase, oversize potatoes risk clogging the conveyors and slicers – and the potatoes might produce uneven or oversized chips, which could break during packaging and transport. The mechanical and nuclear engineering project team designed a pneumatic potato-halving device that automatically cuts oversized potatoes into manageable halves, improving the speed and safety of the current process.

Departmental Excellence Awards

Biomedical Engineering: Developing an electrochemical sensor to provide accurate glucose detection in sweat, for improved personalized health management. (Students Fatima Shaikh, Arya Nalavade, Rudav Kathiravan and Thrishaa Jayaprakash, with instructor Satinder Gill, Ph.D.)

Computer Science: Building an artificial intelligence watermarking system that embeds invisible yet detectable signals in AI-generated content, to address issues like academic dishonesty and data misuse. (Students Waleed Elbanna, Joe Hughes, Neil Inge and Ronit Sharma, with instructor Hong-Sheng Zhou, Ph.D.)

Chemical and Life Science Engineering: Designing a device that uses image analysis and machine learning to  generate quantitative data, enabling real-time, field-based adjustments to industrial water treatment processes.

(Students Ethan Huchler, Elijah Kaplowitz and Nicholas Stephan, with instructor Charles McGill, Ph.D.)

Electrical and Computer Engineering: Developing a permanent-magnet-based alternative for examining the Hall Effect, which supports material characterization of metals and semiconductors and is an integral component of magnetic field sensors in transportation, consumer and other industry sectors. (Students John Belcher V, Drake Gwyn, Brian Hurley and Antonio Peralta, with instructor Vitaliy Avrutin, Ph.D.)

Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering: Designing a pneumatic potato-halving device machine that automatically cuts oversized potatoes into manageable halves, improving the speed and safety of the current process for producing potato chips. (See Excellence in Design winner above.)

Multidisciplinary: Improving stroke treatment with 3D-printing, by enhancing aspiration thrombectomy – a life-saving procedure where a catheter suctions out blood clots, restoring brain blood flow – through a redesigned catheter tip. (Students Alyssa Cadua, Sergio Perryman, Keshav Desai, Yash Rangwala and Jupjowt Singh, with instructors Bradley Nichols, Ph.D., and Michael McClure, Ph.D.)