Capstone Design

Deployable antenna could provide more powerful communications on smaller space satellites

Anonymous — Mon, 02 May 2022 14:48:42 +0000

Deployable antenna could provide more powerful communications on smaller space satellites Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/02/2022 - 08:48

Rachel Leuthauser

Deployable Helical Antenna Team Members

Jackson Bilello – Electromechanical Engineer
GillianGrace Brachocki – Project Manager
Hector Calar – Systems Engineer
Benjamin Capek – Manufacturing Engineer
Ahmed Ferjani – Logistics Manager
Ayden Flynn – Financial Manager
Nicolas Garzione – Electromechanical Engineer
Caleb Morford – Test Engineer
Isaac Nagel-Brice – CAD Engineer
Manuel Preston de Miranda – Electromechanical Engineer

As the space industry evolves its focus from large satellites to smaller ones with the same functionality, there is a growing need for the hardware on board to shrink as well.

A group of mechanical engineering seniors at the University of Colorado Boulder have helped meet that need by designing a compactable antenna that would allow for more powerful radio communications on smaller satellites.

Lockheed Martin Space is sponsoring the project. The team of students from the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering designed and built the prototype for their Senior Design project.

“Our whole team has a passion for the space industry, and we wanted to be a part of the change and innovation that is occurring,” said GillianGrace Brachoki, the team’s project manager. “We found the push for deployable items in smaller units really interesting.”

The team’s prototype is a deployable helical antenna that starts in a compressed state. Current satellite antenna hardware is fully deployed upon launch. Those systems can be large and not aligned with the industry’s goal for smaller hardware.

“Small satellites and micro-satellites lead to a nimbler industry,” said CAD Engineer Isaac Nagel-Brice. “If you’re developing a satellite over two years instead of a decade, you’re able to get smaller buses up into orbit quicker and at a cheaper cost. That can push innovation and progression on a much faster scale.”

The helical antenna in its fully deployed state.

The students assemble the antenna by attaching the spring component to the base.

The students test the spring's strength in the Senior Design Lab.

The students designed their antenna to deploy once it is in space – activated by an on-board computer. This would trigger the device’s antenna component to extend four times its compressed height from 3.5 in. to nearly 20 in. for full functionality.

The team accomplished this by designing the antenna with the properties of a mechanical spring, which is an idea the industry has rarely attempted to build before. The students explained that optimizing the prototype to be both a spring and an antenna was difficult to do.

They had to take geometry, material and frequency band all into consideration. The students used spring calculators and high frequency structure simulator software to build an antenna that could stow and deploy with the properties of a mechanical spring.

“The antenna geometry resulted in a powerful spring,” said Nicolas Garzione, one of the electromechanical engineers on the team. “Part of our requirements is that it has to survive the equivalent of an Atlas V launch, which is pretty violent. We spent a lot of time on that restraint mechanism, which is a key part of our project for viability and safety.”

Lockheed Martin Space also required that the prototype needed to be scalable. Therefore, the students designed every part of the deployable antenna to be scaled plus or minus 50%.

The size of the device would also dictate the radiofrequency bands transmitted through the antenna. A larger spring circumference would require higher frequencies.

“I think this prototype could lead to a shift in the industry,” said Nagel-Brice. “Our antenna has some interesting design geometry, but it’s very intentional so that it can be built larger or smaller.”

The students have completed antenna functionality, deployment, mechanical shock and vibration tests on their prototype. The radiofrequency testing was done at First RF, a company specializing in antennas and radiofrequency systems, while the vibration testing happened at Lockheed Martin.

The team said that working with Lockheed Martin Space on this project has been both inspiring and informative. It has allowed the students to combine their mechanical engineering background with new skills they have learned on the job.

“It’s a lot of cutting-edge technology that hasn’t been implemented in this manner until now, thanks to some creative problem solving,” said Systems Engineer Hector Calar. “Shrinking the hardware down means the industry can add more advanced instrumentation, since you have more free space. Freeing up that space on rockets and satellites allows us to do more with the science of engineering.”

The team can now say that they are a part of that push for cutting-edge, compact technology. With their own innovative design assembled into a potentially revolutionary prototype, the students are well on their way to equipping the space industry for greater scientific impacts.

The Senior Design team presented their deployable helical antenna at the College of Engineering and Applied Science Engineering Projects Expo 2022 on April 22.

A group of mechanical engineering students at the College of Engineering and Applied Science designed and built the prototype with Lockheed Martin for their Senior Design project.

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Mechanical engineering students aim to make silicon wafer inspections more efficient

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 14:52:05 +0000

Mechanical engineering students aim to make silicon wafer inspections more efficient Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/19/2022 - 08:52

Rachel Leuthauser

Silicon Wafer Center-finding Improvement Team Members

Jack Carver – Project Manager
Dario Garcia – Logistics Manager
Prem Griddalur – Systems Engineer
Hank Kussin-Bordo – CAD Engineer
Marty LaRocque – Electro-mechanical Engineer
Ethan Plott – Financial Manager
Noah Sgambellone – Test Engineer
Gavin Zimmerman – Software Engineer

The shortage of semiconductors – the computer chips that products such as smartphones, laptops, cars and even washing machines rely on – continues to impact industries around the world.

The current supply chain issues are motivating engineers to make the inspection of the silicon wafers that semiconductors are fabricated from more efficient. It is a goal that the industry would focus on even without the global shortage. To help accomplish that, University of Colorado mechanical engineering students have developed a device that improves the inspection process.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering seniors have built a silicon wafer center-finding improvement device for KLA, a semiconductor manufacturing company. The Senior Design team’s prototype uses two cameras to capture the circular wafer’s edge, plus computer software to calculate the radius and find the wafer’s center.

“The reason this is important is that KLA has to inspect these wafers for defects, and when they find one, they need to know where on the wafer it is with a high-level of precision,” said Marty LaRocque, the team’s electro-mechanical engineer. “They have to establish a coordinate system on the wafer and the hardest part of that is finding the center.”

Marty LaRocque looks over the team's silicon wafer center-finding improvement device.

The device uses two cameras to capture the wafer's edge.

Currently, KLA is detecting the wafer’s center with ten different images around the edge. The team of students designed their device to find the center just as efficiently with only two images.

“On one of KLA’s inspection tools, it currently takes them eight seconds to align one wafer, and we’re trying to get that down to two seconds,” said Project Manager Jack Carver. “A 75% reduction is going to get so much more throughput. With the global silicon wafer supply shortage, any improvements in that would be greatly beneficial for them.”

The real-world impact that the students’ device could have on the industry is part of the reason this project enticed them.

“It’s interesting because KLA explained to us the real significance of our prototype,” said Prem Griddalur, the systems engineer on the team. “91��Ƭ�� every two years, the size of the semiconductor becomes smaller, and at the same time, the scale they’re manufacturing these at gets larger because of increased demand. KLA did a great job explaining why their equipment is important and how our project plays a role in the larger scheme of the industry.”

The team captured their first position of the wafer’s center in early March. They are now running statistical tests and taking measurements to check the device’s accuracy. They need the coordinates to be within 10 microns of the true center, which is the width of a human red blood cell.

Since the team’s device is a prototype, KLA’s system may not end up looking exactly like the students’ design. However, their prototype and tests will still provide the company with critical information to help guide decisions about future designs.

The students said that aspect is relatable to real-world scenarios. Typically, engineers are tasked with making current systems better, rather than creating new designs from scratch.

The global shortage of semiconductors – the computer chips that products such as smartphones, laptops, cars and even washing machines rely on – are motivating engineers to improve the inspection of the silicon wafers that semiconductors are fabricated from. To help accomplish that, Department of Mechanical Engineering students have built a silicon wafer center-finding improvement device

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Mechanical engineering students develop a soft robot to improve lung examinations

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 14:39:48 +0000

Mechanical engineering students develop a soft robot to improve lung examinations Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/15/2022 - 08:39

Rachel Leuthauser

Soft Robot for Surgical Interventions Team

Maxwell Anderson – Logistics Manager
Sean Dunkelman – Systems Engineer
Christopher Gonzalez – Software Engineer
Brady King – Electro-mechanical Engineer
Isaac Martinez – CAD Engineer
Brad Nam – Manufacturing Engineer
Caitlyn Robinson – Test Engineer
Renée Schnettler – Project Manager
William Wang – Electro-mechanical Engineer
William Watkins – Financial Manager

Seniors in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder are designing a new soft robot to improve physicians’ ability to examine the deepest part of a patient’s lung.

Currently, there is only one system that can get down to the bottom of the lungs – a rigid catheter that could potentially cause inflammation. The team of mechanical engineering students are working with medical device company Medtronic on making the tip of that catheter more flexible.

“Our client is hoping to reduce the strain on the body by replacing the end of the device with something that is very compliant and soft, especially in comparison to the materials that are used today,” said Maxwell Anderson, the team’s logistics manager. “We’re trying to create a soft robot for the tip that will allow the physician to have more control of the end and have it be less abrasive toward the patient.”

The students are tackling this project as part of the department’s Senior Design course. They have spent the academic year researching, designing, molding and testing various iterations of their soft robot prototype.

An iterative design process

Renée Schnettler and Maxwell Anderson show how the soft robot bends with air pressure.

Sean Dunkelsman, William Wang and Brady King test the team's control system.

The team’s baseline design is a hollow, silicone tube with bubbles on the outside. The bubbles expand as the soft robot is inflated with air pressure, which causes the tube to bend. The students explained that the bending motion is the key aspect of their design, as that configuration is what allows the soft robot to move through the deeper parts of the lung.

“The catheter still does most of the work during the procedure, and then physicians control the soft robot at the very end to just move the tip,” said Renée Schnettler, the team’s project manager. “It can hook into different areas and allow doctors to send a needle through it to take a sample of any lung tissue they are studying.”

The team said they are constantly making new prototypes for testing purposes. The R&D process has resulted in 55 prototypes since fall 2021.

“A lot of what we’ve been doing is building off of our baseline design,” said Isaac Martinez, the CAD engineer on the team. “We watch how that prototype behaved and try changing certain dimensions. That would be one iteration. Then we change another aspect, like the number of bubbles, and that becomes a second iteration. We’ve been trying to put together this full picture from a lot of different prototypes.”

Each change in the prototype’s design has been targeted and intentional. That includes adjustments to the soft robot’s control system.

“Our control team has spent a lot of time just trying to figure out how we can tell where the tip of the robot is,” said electro-mechanical engineer William Wang. “We have been trying to improve our control systems to hit the desired positions, but each iteration of our prototype behaves slightly different depending on the material properties. We’ve been trying to find more robust techniques to control all of them.”

The seniors are working with Medtronic to design a soft robot that would give physicians more control as they examine the deepest part of a patient's lung and make the procedure less abrasive for the patient.

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Mechanical engineering students build machine to automate scrap metal disposal

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Mechanical engineering students build machine to automate scrap metal disposal Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/12/2022 - 00:00

Rachel Leuthauser

Machining Chip Disposal System Team Members

Matthew An – Logistics manager
Casey Cole – Test engineer
Blake Fardulis – Project manager
Kate Nichols – Manufacturing engineer
Wesley Schumacher – Systems engineer
Andrew Stiller – CAD engineer
Aleksey Volkov – Finance manager

A team of seniors in the Department of Mechanical Engineering have designed and built a device that automates the disposal of scrap metal, making it safer and more efficient.

The students created the device as their Senior Design project sponsored by Accu-Precision, a Littleton-based manufacturer of custom parts for customers in aerospace and industrial sectors. The Machining Chip Disposal System can lift and dump 600 lbs. of scrap material with the push of a button, cutting down the time it takes to dispose of the material from 30 minutes to five. That decreases the time spent per year on this cumbersome task from more than 1,000 hours to about 170 hours.

“Accu-Precision has 30 machines at their machine shop in Littleton, and they have a bin underneath each of them that gets filled up with scrap,” said the team’s project manager Blake Fardulis. “They have to dump those bins once a day, so the high-paid machinists have to stop what they are doing and haul the bins out to the dumpster. They either have to lift the bins themselves or use a forklift.”

The Machining Chip Disposal System automates this procedure. The device, made up of more than 110 different machine parts, can be remotely activated to save time and physical strain.

The team of seniors conduct official testing of the Machining Chip Disposal System.

The Senior Design team said they are proud that their device will be used in industry. The disposal system is a functional piece of machinery, rather than a prototype or design idea.

“There is a lot of purpose to what we’re doing,” said Systems Engineer Wesley Schumacher. “It’s not just something we will send to the client that will be on the backburner for years. Accu-Precision will use it every day.”

The students said they were drawn to this project because of the purely mechanical work they would be tasked with. The students brainstormed and completed various CAD designs even before their application for Accu-Precision to be their sponsor was accepted.

“This is one of the most mechanical Senior Design projects, and the requirements that have been developed around that have flowed into the whole process,” said Andrew Stiller, the CAD engineer on the team. “It pushed us to question our ability to design devices and analyze them as well. It’s been a good process.”

Most of the team’s time creating the disposal system was spent in the Idea Forge Machine Shop for about 150 – 200 hours to fabricate 110 custom parts. The students said they were in the shop on day one of the spring 2022 semester to get started.

“The machining logistics could have been quite a nightmare, but we got it done on time,” said Manufacturing Engineer Kate Nichols. “We also had a welder through Accu-Precision, so that worked out very nicely. We sent what we needed over to them, and they helped us with that.”

The Machining Chip Disposal System lifts and dumps scrap metal.

The team said another rewarding aspect was the R&D process. The experience gave them a first-hand look at what a career in design and engineering consulting would be like.

“There are a lot of companies whose sole purpose is doing exactly what we did,” said Aleksey Volkov, the team’s finance manager. “The client comes to them with an idea and it’s the consultant’s job to solve that problem. One day it could be in aerospace; another day it could be in a different industry. Short-term ideation is really valuable.”

The students are now testing the Machining Chip Disposal System and finalizing the device’s appearance by routing wires properly, as well as making a smaller control box to for a sleeker look.

The team will be presenting the disposal system at the College of Engineering and Applied Science Engineering Projects Expo 2022 on April 22.

Explore all 2021-22 Senior Design Projects

The students' device makes the disposal of scrap metal safer and more efficient. They completed the design as part of their Senior Design project sponsored by Accu-Precision, a Littleton-based manufacturer of custom parts for customers in aerospace and industrial sectors.

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Mechanical engineering seniors aim to sink purple sea urchin population with underwater vacuum

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 15:16:10 +0000

Mechanical engineering seniors aim to sink purple sea urchin population with underwater vacuum Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/06/2022 - 09:16

Rachel Leuthauser

Urchin Merchants Team Members

Josh Ayers – Systems and testing engineer
Dorothea French – Project manager
Heather Hunt – Logistics manager
Justin Kirchner – Financial manager
Jacob Lawrence – Manufacturing engineer
Zach Sorscher – CAD engineer

April 28 update: The team spent the last few weeks of the spring 2022 semester testing their prototype in the University of Colorado Boulder Rec Center pool. New video shows the underwater vacuum in action, from inside the prototype.

The 200 miles of ocean along California’s coastline was once filled with seaweed called bull kelp. The seaweed created rich, underwater forests until the population began to die out in 2014. In the seven years since then, 95% of bull kelp beds off the coast of California have died.

Urchin Merchants, a team of seniors in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, is tackling that problem by designing and building a large, underwater vacuum that can help reduce one of the bull kelp’s greatest threats – purple sea urchins.

“Our project is really aimed at collecting large amounts of those urchins and improving the collection rates of divers, which is not possible with the current methodology,” said Josh Ayers, the group’s systems and testing engineer.

The number of purple sea urchins living on the ocean floor has exploded in recent years. The population has grown by 10,000%, destroying miles of bull kelp since the urchins eat and live off the seaweed.

Researchers currently estimate that it will take 15 to 20 years to clear the urchin barrens. Urchin Merchants’ specialized suction device could increase collection rates by six times the current rate, decreasing that 20-year timeframe to under five years in a single location.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3hol-lOvCM]

“We knew we wanted to save the kelp forests and we figured the best way to do that would be removing purple sea urchins rather than planting kelp,” Project Manager Dorothea French said. “We thought we might try to build an autonomous, underwater robot, but that would take 10 to 15 years and we need a solution now.”

The prototype is 11 feet tall, with a large tube at the top that serves as a sorting system. The tube shuffles larger urchins to one side and smaller urchins to another. Any non-urchin material such as small animals or sand go straight out the top. On the other end of the vacuum is a flexible hose that divers can use to collect urchins on the ocean floor.

The team received insight from conservation organizations and professional divers to design this efficient vacuum. The divers wanted a system that was easy to use and inexpensive.

Urchin Merchants tested the prototype in the CU Boulder Rec Center pool.

The seniors used marbles instead of urchins when running their first tests.

“The vacuum uses a highly efficient air lift pump that is able to collect large quantities of small objects from the ocean floor,” said Zach Sorscher, the team’s CAD engineer. “Think of it as a super tool that we would give to a diver to accompany them on their dives to improve collection rates.”

The team spent the spring 2022 semester building the prototype as part of their capstone project in the department’s Senior Design course. They are currently testing the vacuum, with the goal of getting the product in user’s hands.

“We just want to see an impact,” Josh said. “We want more urchins to leave the ocean because of us, whether that means someone pays for the prototype or we give it to a conservation organization as goodwill. It feels like we are doing the right thing either way.”

While Urchin Merchants has focused on the kelp beds in California, they acknowledged that the population boom is a growing issue around the world. There are thousands of acres of urchin barrens on coastlines from North America to Europe and Australia.

The team hopes their prototype will have a meaningful impact and inspire others to advocate for the environment.

“We just want to design and build a project that could help the world,” Logistics Manager Heather Hunt said. “We are using our engineering expertise to make a difference.”

Urchin Merchants recently won fourth place in the New Venture Challenge’s (NVC) Climate Change sub competition for their underwater vacuum. They will be competing in the full NVC competition and presenting their prototype at the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Engineering Projects Expo on April 22.

Explore all 2021-22 Senior Design Projects

The vacuum, designed and built by the student team Urchin Merchants, could help save California’s underwater kelp forests by making it easier for divers to collect the purple sea urchins that are destroying the bull kelp population.

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Mechanical engineering team presents innovative solution to fight climate change, win funding

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:45:12 +0000

Mechanical engineering team presents innovative solution to fight climate change, win funding Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/09/2022 - 11:45

Senior design team Urchin Merchants, who placed fourth, hope to market a specialized suction device to divers and conservation groups that could help save kelp forests off the coast of California and ecosystems around the world from exploding purple sea urchin populations.

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Mechanical engineering students competing in national wind energy competition

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 22:58:11 +0000

Mechanical engineering students competing in national wind energy competition Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/17/2022 - 15:58

Rachel Leuthauser

A group of mechanical engineering seniors will be the first University of Colorado Boulder team to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC) – an event in which future engineers are challenged to find a unique solution to a wind energy project.

Wind Team Members

Aaron Schwan - Systems Engineer
Alec Kostovny - Logistics Manager
Anika Levy - Manufacturing Engineer
Erik Feiereisen - Electro-mechanical Engineer
Claire Isenhart - Project Manager
Charles Candon - Test Engineer
Graham Blanco - CAD Engineer
Kiro Gerges - Electro-mechanical Engineer
Luke Walker - Electro-mechanical Engineer
Simon Grzebien - Financial Engineer

Header image: The 2021 team's prototype, which the 2022 team is drawing inspiration from.

CU Boulder’s Wind Team, founded in Senior Design, won its spot in the competition because of the students’ successful preliminary design and plans. The group first entered the event as a learn-along team, which meant they could participate but not be in the running for the actual competition.

For the 2022 competition, organizers decided to open one spot for a learn-along team. They recognized the CU Boulder Senior Design Wind Team’s hard work and promoted the group to the full competition, which will happen May 16-19 in San Antonio, Texas.

“When we were being graded as a learn-along team last semester, we really didn’t know if we were going to make it or not,” said Claire Isenhart, the team’s project manager. “Then we found out in January that we actually won the first phase against other learn-along teams. It will be a great opportunity for us.”

Each team is tasked with multiple projects as part of the CWC, since the multidisciplinary competition aims to prepare students for all parts of the wind industry. These projects include building an offshore wind turbine prototype, developing a site plan for a hypothetical wind farm and partnering with industry professionals and K-12 educational programs to raise awareness of wind energy in their community.

Teams competing in the CWC will be judged and receive points for each of these three individual projects. Teams with the top three highest combined scores will win first, second and third place, respectively.

Claire Isenhart getting a progress report from her team members.

Members of the team taking measurements for their design.

Students working on a a piece of their design.

The Senior Design Wind Team is already making progress. They have completed preliminary design reports for the wind farm and plan to visit a middle school in March to get young people excited about wind energy. The team’s financial engineer, Simon Grzebien, said they are making advances with their turbine prototype as well.

“We just started making our parts for the prototype in the machine shop,” Grzebien said. “We haven’t had any issues so far, but I’m sure there will be challenges that pop up. Our team feels prepared.”

Each of the students on the Senior Design Wind Team earned their place in the group. Students had to apply and interview with team director Roark Lanning to be accepted. A key piece of being offered a position was an interest in wind energy, since a core component of the competition is assessing real-world research questions surrounding the industry.

“I do want to pursue a career in the field,” Isenhart said. “I knew I wanted to work in clean energy, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do that until my sophomore year when I was part of the Discovery Learning Apprenticeship. I researched ways to cool wind turbine generators and methods to produce wind turbine parts. I thought that was such a cool project and I discovered I was interested in the materials.”

Her team members have similar career goals to help the world run off a cleaner source of energy. Luke Walker, one of the team’s electro-mechanical engineers, said he intends to devote his career to climate-change mitigation by using carbon-free energy technologies.

“This project provides the opportunity to study how wind energy, one of the most prolific clean-energy solutions, is accomplished from an engineering and logistical standpoint,” Walker said. “Working with wind energy is without a doubt the best way to learn about the challenges that face large-scale deployment of many forms of renewable energy.”

Erik Feiereisen, another electro-mechanical engineer on the team, added that he is interested in learning about how kinetic energy from the wind is transferred into usable electrical energy.

“It can power most everything in our lives,” Feiereisen said. “I found this project to be an interesting engineering challenge and look forward to seeing what all we can accomplish by the end of the year.”

The Senior Design Wind Team has also recruited students from outside the mechanical engineering undergraduate program to bring more perspectives to these complex projects. The team has brought on civil engineering and graduate-level mechanical engineering students to assist with their designs.

Isenhart said collaborating with these students has helped the team come up with more interdisciplinary solutions to wind energy challenges, which is what each team member will also need to do in their future careers.

In 2020-21, the first CU Boulder Senior Design Wind Team participated in the CWC as a learn-along team but did not compete in the full competition. Learn more about that team’s design and plans.

Explore all 2021-22 Senior Design Projects

The group of mechanical engineering seniors is the first University of Colorado Boulder team to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC) – an event in which future engineers are challenged to find a unique solution to a wind energy project.

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Alumni Spotlight: Kevin Martin - unspun named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2021

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 20:20:13 +0000

Alumni Spotlight: Kevin Martin - unspun named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2021 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/08/2021 - 13:20

Rachel Leuthauser

Kevin Martin (MechEngr'16)
Header image: unspun jeans

Technology first prototyped in the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Senior Design course has been named one of the Best Inventions of 2021 by TIME Magazine.

Alumnus Kevin Martin’s (MechEngr’16) robotics and apparel company unspun has built a machine that 3D-weaves yarn into a seamless pair of jeans tailored to fit individual buyers. The machine uses topographical weaving to produce the pants in just ten minutes.

Martin hopes the technology will help reduce global carbon emissions by making the design, manufacturing and consumption of apparel intentional.

“The big north star that we kept coming back to is our climate,” Martin said. “Climate change is probably going to be the most pressing issue of our lifetime. Apparel is one of the dirtiest industries in the world because clothing that is never sold ends up in landfills or gets burned. We felt like there was a big opportunity to drive change.”

His company’s mission is to implement sustainable practices to ensure each piece of fabric that goes into making a pair of jeans is not wasted – which means each pair is made-to-order.

Ordering a pair of jeans from unspun starts with a 3D body scan. Customers can use their iPhone to scan themselves. The scan captures 30,000 data points for the robotic weaving machine to create the perfect fit.

The 3-D weaving machine is the technology that was originally developed in Senior Design. Martin, who graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2016, and his unspun co-founders sponsored a 2017 capstone project to build their first prototype.

“I don’t know that unspun would have actually existed without the Senior Design team,” Martin said. “We needed a prototype and they crushed it for us.”

After that capstone project, Martin advanced the prototype with help from a National Science Foundation grant and venture capital investment. Unspun is now on version three of the machine, which is what earned the TIME Best Invention 2021 accolade.

unspun's app that body scans customers for the perfect fit.

“The greatest feeling this year was to unveil the machine for the first time after not being able to talk about the hardware for four or five years,” Martin said. “To say to the world that we have developed this new method of apparel manufacturing called 3D weaving and it works.”

This is the second time unspun has made TIME’s Best Inventions list. The company was also given the honor in 2019 for the software that designs their custom denim jeans.

Martin, who grew up in Colorado Springs, said his interest in robotics started in high school. He built remote control airplanes and created his own version of a drone by attaching cameras to them. He then started a company building upon that drone technology.

At CU Boulder, Martin pivoted the startup company to cable cameras, allowing the system to move around on wires and be safer for indoor filming.

“We came up with this whole plan to sneak into the Idea Forge to test it on the rafters in the evening so hopefully nobody would see us,” Martin said. “I remember sitting on the rafters when Professor Daria Kotys-Schwartz walked by and all I could think about was how much trouble I was going to be in. Instead, she said our robot looked really cool and asked how she could help. She was so supportive.”

Martin’s advice to current mechanical engineering students is to take advantage of that encouraging atmosphere. There are many resources for aspiring entrepreneurs and engineers to plug into.

“Go find those instructors and professors at the university that are doing incredible things,” Martin said. “Share your excitement with them and get their perspective. You do not need to have all ten next steps of your life figured out, but they can help you figure out the next one or two.”

Customers can order a pair of jeans on the unspun website or using the iPhone app. You will need the iPhone app for the body scan. Unspun jeans cost around $200, but Martin said CU affiliates can get 20% off with the code SKOBUFFS.

Kevin Martin's (MechEngr'16) startup earned the accolade for its 3D-weaving machine used to produce a seamless pair of jeans. The technology was first prototyped in the Department of Mechanical Engineering's Senior Design course.

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Alumni Spotlight: Morgan Kauss - Exo-Seat, a device to aid wheelchair users

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 15:09:04 +0000

Alumni Spotlight: Morgan Kauss - Exo-Seat, a device to aid wheelchair users Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/15/2021 - 09:09

The idea for the Exo-Seat came to Morgan Kauss when she was working as a caregiver for a local woman, Cindy, who has Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.

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Students invent device for delivering COVID-19 vaccines to rural areas

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 22:57:56 +0000

Students invent device for delivering COVID-19 vaccines to rural areas Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/30/2021 - 16:57

Sarah Kuta

Evan Kirk and Claire Meyer demonstrate how thermal testing for the PortaVax device is set up. Photo submitted.

Drugmakers worked around the clock during the coronavirus pandemic to develop and test new vaccines to help mitigate the effects of COVID-19. And, in less than a year, companies like Pfizer and Moderna created safe and effective vaccines to distribute around the world.

But one big challenge remains for immunizing huge swaths of the world’s population: Transporting vaccine doses to rural communities. The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines need to be kept cold (in the case of the Pfizer vaccine, super cold — around -70 degrees Celsius if kept longer than two weeks), which is a challenge for communities that lack reliable electricity or cannot afford ultra-low temperature coolers.

CU Engineering students have invented a novel solution to this global problem, which has the potential to affect millions of people living in rural areas around the world. Meet PortaVax, a portable vaccine carrier that can keep up to 250 vaccine doses cold for several days using insulation and dry ice. Students are still testing the device and tweaking its design, but they say early results are promising.

“Vaccines are distributed unequally around the world and, with the COVID-19 pandemic, it became apparent that mRNA vaccines were also going to be distributed unequally,” said Evan Kirk, a senior mechanical engineering student who is working on the project.

PortaVax is just one of the many innovative ideas to come out of mechanical engineering’s “Engineering for Social Innovation” senior design capstone class, which encourages entrepreneurial-minded students to use their engineering skills for good. Other groups have developed businesses around intubation trainers for health care professionals, eco-friendly kegs, pop-up tent bike trailers and low-emission stoves for indoor cooking.

PortaVax, created by Kirk and fellow students Erik Skooglund, Brayden Shelley, Claire Meyer and Gary Yu, recently won second place in the New Venture Challenge social impact event; the group also hopes to succeed in the challenge’s broader competition at the end of March.

See the team pitching their concept to judges during the New Venture Challenge impact prize night.

The students, who are coordinating most of their project over Zoom and email, were united at the start of the fall semester by their shared desire to address health care inequality.

Around the same time, they began learning about the development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which use a novel approach for protecting against infectious diseases. Instead of using a weakened or inactivated version of a germ, as has traditionally been the case with vaccines, mRNA vaccines teach the body’s cells to make a piece of a protein that triggers an immune response.

Gary Yu demonstrates the size and portability of the device. Photo submitted.

These mRNA vaccines, which are likely to become even more prevalent in the future, must be kept very cold to remain effective. Maintaining these ultra-low temperatures is easier in well-resourced, well-connected urban and suburban areas but very challenging in rural communities, particularly during the “last mile” of the vaccines’ journey.

PortaVax, a three-gallon, hexagonal, bottle-shaped structure, extends the time vaccines are kept cold during the last mile of transport, without using electricity. In early tests, the device can maintain a temperature of -70 Celsius for four days.

The students are developing PortaVax with feedback and insights from experts at the Jodhpur School of Public Health in India, a connection facilitated by their industry mentor Param Singh (AeroEngr‘68; MS‘70; PhD‘74).

Singh, principal investigator on the first completely implantable total artificial heart and one of the founders of heart pump company ABIOMED, serves as a member of the Mechanical Engineering Strategic Advisory Board and regularly supports Buffs in their academic and entrepreneurial endeavors. This is Singh’s third year mentoring mechanical engineering students in the “Engineering for Social Innovation” class.

“These students are getting a far broader education than just engineering,” said Singh. “They get to interact with the real world. They have to come up with, ‘What’s the need? What’s the market? Who’s going to pay for this? How are you going to sell it?’”

After the class ends and the students graduate this spring, they must decide whether to continue pursuing their business idea. So far, the PortaVax team hasn’t made any official commitments just yet, but the students plan to continue working on the device after graduation, and they’re in the early stages of applying for a patent.

Either way, they’ll have created a valuable, potentially life-saving device — and learned a lot along the way.

“I’m constantly surprised by the students,” said Dan Riffell, a mechanical engineering scholar-in-residence who teaches the course. “Early in the semester, the teams gel around an idea having never talked about it before or worked with the other students before. And they end up in a position where they’ve created a product and a company. They’re very motivated.”

Senior design team solving problems to aid public health

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