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KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Experience-driven learning was on display at the 75th Senior Engineering Design Conference when graduating seniors showcased the innovative projects that put their knowledge and skills into practice in real-world settings. Students completed projects in collaboration with industry sponsors, the regional community and our own campus. WMU's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences hosts the event, which is open to the public, in December and April.

View all projects and the schedule by department.

A sampling of projects and the �鶹��ýs leading the way

Machine Learning Powered Stretchable Smart Textile Gloves

Anika Tabassum, Georgia Hill and Farzana Mahbub, all from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, designed a pair of gloves that are able to translate sign language communicated by the wearer to text and speech in real-time. This design will bridge a communication gap between those who use sign language and those who don't.

“We learned how significant of a change e-textile can make in the community. As we researched, our curiosity grew. Trying various ways to investigate the best one for our project was the most exciting thing in this journey,” says Tabassum. “We definitely are excited to expand our project to cover not only American Sign Language but also other sign languages so that it becomes an accessible technology for everyone.”

“This project has a greater impact globally and socially as this will open a new opportunity to easily communicate with the hard-of-hearing community. This is a budget friendly project so economically this project can be efficient to gain advancement in the field of healthcare and other educational purposes,” says Tabassum. 

Utility Building and Site Design

Graduating civil and construction engineering �鶹��ýs Matthew Bergstrom, James Peter and Jessica Schneider worked with Matt Johnson from Fleis & VandenBrink to redesign a 210-square-foot storage shed that no longer met their needs. Working with Fleis & VandenBrink, housed in WMU’s Business and Technology Research Park, on this project helped these �鶹��ýs gain real world experience in not only building professional structures but also building professional relationships. 

“Working with an industry professional allowed us to experience a client/professional relationship. Our sponsor worked to represent the client’s desires and perspective while also advising us on matters that weren’t touched upon in our academic coursework. These meetings allowed us to also ask practical, real-world questions that helped us navigate through solutions that could not be found through research alone. It was especially beneficial to receive advice on everyday engineering issues that don’t have direct analytical and single-solution answers,” says Schneider.

Wind Turbine Noise Reduction

Graduating seniors Angelica Zoch, Steven Davenport and Macayla Wright from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering created a solution for reducing the noise produced by wind turbines. By modifying airfoils, they were able to decrease the turbulence and thus the excess noise.

“We acquired a strong theoretical foundation in various aspects of engineering. While we gained some hands-on experience through laboratory sessions, these were typically highly structured by our professors. This project provided an opportunity to independently apply our knowledge from our coursework in fluid mechanics and aerodynamics. We designed and developed a testing environment, which involved both improving the existing setup and creating entirely new components,” says Zoch.

To simulate the effectiveness of each airfoil design, Zoch, Davenport and Wright used a fluid simulation software, ANSYS, which proved to be the most challenging part of their project.

“While ANSYS is introduced in courses at Western, such as Design of Thermal Systems, its application in those contexts was not as extensive as what this project required,” says Zoch. “To achieve the desired results with the available technology, we had to explore and implement multiple approaches, pushing our understanding of the software beyond its traditional classroom usage."

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