All engineering seniors participate in a year-long small-team project that combines a real project with a diverse group of experienced professionals. No two projects are alike! Below are sample projects that students have worked on.
Sponsor: Cynthia Freeman, Verint Systems
Challenge: Develop a chatbot that recognizes/responds to at least 250 possible user goals.
Design: Integrate RASA framework to a mockup of GU's website, leveraging machine learning models from Hugging Face and clustering techniques on SciKit-Learn.
Sponsor: GARCO Construction
Challenge: Design a shoring system taking the lake's changes in water surface elevation.
Design: Includes an excavation support system, construction sequence, and plan drawings of soldier pile walls, wood lagging and tiebacks.
The team completed a geotechnical and hydrological analysis to determine site constraints, then drafted in AutoCAD.
Sponsor: Orebaugh Eng. Ltd.
Challenge: Combine a speedometer and inclinometer to trigger an LED.
Design: A circuit board implements a sensor suite controlled by a microcontroller in an ultra-low cost and portable design.
A 9 degree-of-freedom inertial measurement unit sets the orientation; a GPS module communicates with a microcontroller to control the LED.
Sponsor: Gonzaga SARL
Challenge: Improve helical antenna array, creating a better communications system.
Design: Use Ansys HFSS on a double-layer PCB that connects to the helical antenna array.
Tested in-house using the LPKF U4 Protolaser and the SARL full-anechoic chamber.
Sponsor: Boeing
Dhallenge: Develop a more environmentally/financially sustainable solution for deicing airplane wings
Design: embed a thermal emitter into the composite material.
Using models from ANSYS, the team manufactured a working prototype to accurately test the thermal effects of the chosen emitter material.
Sponsor: Spokane Waste to Energy
Challenge: Design and prototype a safer way to fight lithium-ion fires
Design: insludes three-inch diameter piping and electronic motors to actuate the monitor.
Sponsor: Lung Technologies LLC
Challenge: Integrate new features into a tool to strengthen lung capacity of patients before and after surgery.
Product: 3-D printed prototype with electronic components to deliver reminders to patients, display targets, and give positive reinforcements.
