Sternheimer Awards Announced

Richmond, VA (November 29, 2016) – The VCU School of Engineering Foundation has announced the winning teams for the Mark A. Sternheimer Senior Capstone Design Award. The award, established in 2012 by Sternheimer, a Foundation Board member and benefactor, promotes innovative and entrepreneurial projects. “This year, we had three Electrical & Computer Engineering teams, three Biomedical Engineering teams and one multidepartmental team” win, said Ben Ward, Ph.D., capstone design coordinator, director of project outreach and professor in the School of Engineering. Fourteen finalists out of 23 applicants made presentations on Nov. 18. The winners are:

  • Differentiation Between Early Stage Parkinson’s Disease and Essential Tremor: a low-cost device that analyzes data to distinguish between early stage Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. BME students Raghav Atluri, Khade Grant, Kelsey Hideshima, Matthew Schneck; faculty adviser Paul Wetzel, Ph.D.

  • Remote Aerial Mapping Spectrometer: a system that can map flora at higher resolutions through low-cost volumetric environmental spectroscopy. ECE students Chris Lillard, Quan Ma, Kenny Parker, Jose Ramirez; faculty adviser A. Vennie Filippas, Ph.D.

  • Low Cost Cell Sorter: a product capable of sorting cells of different phenotypes on a benchtop for less than $2,000. BME students Devin Mair, Frank Kamgo Gninzeko, Emily Burtch, Sarah Saunders; faculty adviser Chris Lemmon, Ph.D.

  • Portable Pure-Tone Audiometer: a portable and inexpensive audiometer for hearing tests, especially useful in developing nations. ECE students Zachary Clute, Zachary Conner, Min Su Ju, James Le; faculty adviser Michael Cabral, Ph.D.

  • 3D-Printed Embedded Pressure Sensor: a shoe insole with embedded force-sensing arrays that allow the wearer to monitor plantar pressures. MNE students Andrew Perkins, Chad Majeski; faculty adviser Hong Zhao, Ph.D., and ECE students Derek Faltz, Fawei Zhang; faculty adviser Weijun Xiao, Ph.D.

  • Low Cost and Durable Perovskite Solar Cells: more durable solar cells fabricated using perovskite materials. ECE students John Carli, Feras Kakish, Kapil Marahatta, Jason McAlesse; faculty adviser Ümit Ӧzgϋr, Ph.D.

  • Electrospray Device for Inhaled Nanoparticles: a device that uses electrospray to deliver nanoparticles to treat emphysema and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients. BME students Sanam Solanki, Ying Ngo, Shengyi Lai, Savraj Saggu; faculty adviser Rebecca Heise, Ph.D.