Penn State engineering students presented their semester-long capstone and cornerstone design projects Thursday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center, highlighting real-world solutions developed through the Learning Factory’s end-of-semester design showcase.
The event capped 15 weeks of work by multidisciplinary student teams partnered with industry sponsors. The showcase featured hands-on prototypes, posters and video demonstrations from across the College of Engineering.
Projects addressed challenges posed by national firms, local companies and government offices. Attendees included faculty, industry partners, families and peers who voted on the People’s Choice Award.
The People’s Choice Award went to a team sponsored by Fleet Equipment Corporation and Columbia Industries for their redesign of a tire positioner pivot arm. Under the guidance of mentor Stacy Shadel, students Adam Marawan, Trevor Richardson, Karson Thatcher, Travis White and Michael Zsido engineered improvements aimed at enhancing equipment usability and durability. The project reflects a practical solution developed through collaboration between students and industry. The project was completed for course ME 440W.002.
Among judged project awards, the third-place winners included teams sponsored by Seco Tools and Northrop Grumman. Seco Tools’ group, mentored by Jimmy Lattimer, unveiled an Automated Tool Imaging Station – Phase II Development. The Northrop Grumman team presented a Measuring Radar Waveguides system, guided by mentor Samuel Jones. These projects demonstrated advanced automation and precision measurement solutions. They were completed for courses ME 440W.005 and ME 440W.003.
Second-place honors went to several standout projects, including the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division’s End of Arm Tool for Automated Projectile Handling, supported by mentor Matt Lehr and a team including Jackley Gayle, Lauren Hayden, Keller Mardis, Victoria Walker and Yixi Wang.
Another runner-up project focused on developing assistive technology for mobility-challenged individuals in healthcare facilities, led by mentor Fan Lin with student contributors Isaac Goldman, Youssef Hanna, Jaina Lagunas, Hang Pan and Richard Ray. These were completed under courses Rattner, Alex E E 440W.002 and CMPEN 482W.001.
First-place winners included the Aluminum Association Inc. project, Aluminum Extrusion Tolerance Calculator – Phase III, mentored by Sam Muhamed and completed by students Victor An, Cole Johnson, Bhavik Katarmal, Caden Matthews, Manas Munjal and Corey Ortiz.
Another top project, developed with PSU and Luminous Global Tech and guided by Dipanjan Pan, focused on at-home self-testing of breast abnormalities using Luminous Global Tech components. Students Wynes Chen, Andrew Diez, Aidan Edmondson, Alexander Frost, Grace Holmes and Madeline Olivo contributed to the work. These projects were completed for courses CMPSC 483W.001 and BME 450W.001.
Penn State faculty and industry mentors spoke and presented each award, including Dave Mazyck for engineering design, Paul Mittan for engineering leadership, Brad Groznik for engineering entrepreneurship and Jesse Torba.
The Fall Project Showcase, hosted by the Penn State Learning Factory is free and open to the public every semester and gives first-year cornerstone and senior capstone engineering students the chance to present solutions to complex design challenges developed in partnership with sponsors.
A virtual component remains open through Friday, Dec. 19. The Learning Factory’s capstone program is one of the largest multidisciplinary, client-sponsored design initiatives in the world, giving students practical experience in engineering design, prototyping and problem solving before they graduate.
