At Bucknell, our mission is to provide real-world projects in and out of the classroom by engaging engineering students in practical, hands-on educational experiences, both within their majors and through interdisciplinary projects and courses. One such experience is the opportunity to collaborate with external partners, from nonprofits to start-ups to multinational corporations. Through this collaboration, our students seek to find solutions to authentic engineering problems while our industry partners enjoy the benefits of the fresh perspectives and remarkable technical competencies these bright young innovators bring to collaborative projects.
Learn more about the projects for which our students developed solutions in 2021-22:
Biomedical Engineering
ECMO Bidirectional Cannulation Kit: A System to Prevent Lower Limb Ischemia
The kit is intended for arterial perfusion in the VA-ECMO circuit to prevent lower limb ischemia. The system includes a bidirectional vascular access needle and cannula that is integrable with the existing ECMO circuit.
Bag Valve Mask Optimized for a Single Provider
Current bag valve masks require multiple providers for effective patient ventilation, which is not always possible in a prehospital setting. This device eliminates the need for an additional provider by ensuring an air tight seal for improved ventilation.
Integrated Knee Arthroscopy Simulator
A simulator with endoscope integration that provides a visually accurate and easily accessible knee arthroscopy experience.
Premature Neonatal Intubation Simulator with Enhanced Material Compliance, Replaceable Airways and Integrated Secretions
Premature neonatal intubation simulator with a focus on enhanced simulation accuracy. Includes realistic material compliance, replaceable airways and integrated secretions.
Grab-and-Slide: A Modified Ureteral Stent to Mitigate Inadvertent Dislodgement
The Grab-and-Slide is a modification of the current double-pigtail loop ureteral stent design. It serves to mitigate the risk of inadvertent dislodgement and make stent removal less painful by eliminating the need for an invasive removal procedure.
Chemical Engineering
Fair Milk Reclamation
This project focused on the design of a mobile processing unit to produce ice cream from raw milk at local fairs for fundraising purposes.
Suppression of secondary fermentation in beer cans via the addition of food-safe additives
Rusty Rail is looking to increase the amount of sugar incorporated into their new line of fruited and flavored malt beverages while mitigating the risk of a can rupturing due to secondary fermentation. This will be accomplished by implementing a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) additive prior to canning.
Purification of Carbon Black Feedstock
Conducting various experiments to identify and separate different forms of iron and copper containing contaminants from feedstock. Forms include insoluble particles, polar soluble particles, and organic soluble particles.
Redesign of the Water Flow and Pneumatic Tube Wall Exhibits at the Lewisburg Children’s Museum
The purpose of this project was to redesign both the water flow and pneumatic tube wall exhibits at the Lewisburg Children’s Museum. The redesign centered around improving the functionality, accessibility, durability, and educational value of both exhibits.
Mixing System for Calcium Carbonate Suspension
Designed and built a scale model of the process recycle tank used by WestRock to test a pump powered agitation system designed to keep calcium carbonate particles in suspension.
Computer Science & Engineering
Internet of Things (IoT) Oscilloscope
The IoT oscilloscope (similar to Analog Discovery) has a custom web interface. It uses a ESP32 development board along with web sockets technologies.
JLG Toolbox Analytics
Web application that enables users to view and interact with data and statistics related to tool and lift equipment usage.
I’M IN APP
The purpose of this project is to develop the next version of the event scheduling app, I’m In. The goal is to centralize and condense the scheduling information to improve user experience.
Buckwild++
Rebuilding the Buckwild registration form and adding administration functionalities using modern frameworks.
Double Secret Design
A custom online anonymous chatroom.
Real-time license plate recognition system
This project implemented a license plate recognition system that can detect license plates from vehicles, recognize tag numbers and classify state. The system can recognize license plates in real-time via a live camera. YOLOv4 custom functions, EasyOCR, and EfficientNetB3 from Keras applications were used to implement the models. The system achieved real-time recognition by implementing the multi-frame merging algorithm. The accuracy for the license plate locator is sufficient for deployment, whereas the character recognizer and state classifier are lacking robustness and generalizability. Future improvements to the model require a robust dataset to ensure better accuracy of the implemented model.
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Drum Synthesizer
Turning a real drum sample into a library of similarly sounding synthesized drum samples.
Army ACoRNS Liquid Sampling System
The ACoRNS liquid sampling system will help Army 92W (water treatment specialist) operators who want to collect water samples for quality analysis and suitability for potable water processing. Using this system will be more convenient than using manned watercraft for collecting water samples as it will be attached to a remotely operated quadcopter drone.
Brainscope EEG Testing Device
The device (“The Brick”) is a smaller, more compact signal generator, compared to Brainscope’s current testing device, which will help Brianscope’s R&D team test their handheld EEGs. By creating thorough documentation of The Brick, Brainscope is provided with the tools (manuals, software development plan, future iteration recommendations, etc.) to implement an improved version of our device in the future.
Mechanical Engineering
Automated Box Folding Machine
Design an automated box folding machine to be utilized for custom takeout boxes.
Crash Test Vehicle Self-Propulsion System
A portable, low-cost crash testing system for on-site accident recreation performed in a safe, reproducible, and efficient manner. The system is designed to accelerate a vehicle to a desired crash test speed.
DeNovo Sewer Inspection Drone
This drone is designed to be a relatively inexpensive, remote operated drone that will be used to inspect sewers for imperfections in need of repair. The design will carry an optical and thermal camera down sewer pipes ranging from 10” to 36” diameter pipes.
Adaptide
Different types of marine hydrokinetic power generation systems (MHK) exist, and a theoretical model suggests that a surface-piercing, partially submerged, vertical-axis fixed-pitch turbine may be capable of reaching a competitive levelized cost of energy (~12¢/kWh). Adaptide’s goal is to create a prototype MHK system capable of measuring power off these particular vertical axis turbines to enable experimental confirmation of the aforementioned theoretical model.
Bucknell Farm Wash-&-Pack
Designing and building a wash-&-pack system for the use of the Bucknell Farm, allowing for more efficient and sanitary post-harvest processing of produce.
Versabev
Design and build a prototype that produces a variety of alcoholic beverages from beer and wine to mixed drinks.
Interdisciplinary Design
JLG Automated tool box check
The team has integrated a variety of wireless systems with tools to track their realtime location and log their use history.
Fritolay-PepsiCo Corn Washing
This project reduces the water consumption within the corn washing process of the Tortilla Chip line.
Perma Pure Smart Monitoring System
The Perma Pure IDSD team has been tasked with helping to improve the reliability of emission testing equipment by monitoring humidity in a gas stream.
Corning IDSD
Manufacturing automation for Corning.
Senior Design Expo Photos
