Student Teams
The ECE Major Design Experience (MDE) was created in 2014 as a way to bring real-world, hands-on experience to electrical and computer engineering students in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
In its inagural semester (Fall 2014), the MDE had 61 students and 16 projects. Nearly eight years later in Fall 2022, there are 228 students working on 43 new design teams. In 2017, the spring section of the course was added. MDE is now a required course for both electrical and computer engineering seniors.
For students searching for a more interdisciplinary option, there is a new College of Engineering senior design course that focuses on partnering with students from other departments.
Winning Projects
At the conclusion of both the Fall and Spring MDE Expos, awards are given to the highest scoring teams in the following categories:
- Best Overall
- Best by Popular Vote
- Best Project in Track
Best Overall & Best By Popular Vote
Geolocation Scanning Rig
Left to Right: Shiqian Li, Luke Smith, Minzhou Pan, Pratistha Yadav, Hunain Ali Shamsi,
Best Project in Track #1
Satellite Navigation Algorithm
Left to Right: Jeremy Bruce, Aaron Yang, Matthew McLaughlin,
Best Project in Track #2
Prognostic Health Monitor of Power Electronic Converters (PHM PEC)
Left to Right: Kourosh Khoie, Corwin Warner, Li You, Luis Yon, Jeffrey Chambliss
Best Project in Track #3
Medication Compliance
Left to Right: Alex Parrott, Daniel Shin, Hansu Kim, Ming Lu, Jiaye Liu
Best Overall
Heartbeat Collection & Classification System
Left to Right: Braeden Muir, Tom Anders, Andrew Caylor, Yasser Hassan, & Jeremy Kraisser
Best By Popular Vote
IEEE Robotics Machine Perception Team & IEEE SoutheastCon 2023 Hardware Competition Object Manipulation Team
Back Row Left to Right: Jay Schramm, Jimmy Ewin, Yussef Ait-Bella, John Fiorini, & Pradyuman Mehta
Middle Row Left to Right: Araceli Cabrera-Ortuno, Azam Shoaib, Lauren Chuderewicz, Lifan Ren, Tran Thanh, & Devangini Talwar
Front Row Left to Right: Ronuk Mohapatra, Jhonny Velasquez, & Juan Suquilanda
Best Project in Track #1
Personal Locator Beacon Team
Left to Right: Brenden Duffy, Michael Policarpio, Samantha Frietchen, Brandon Battista, Yuxiang (Jerry) Dong
Best Project in Track #2
OT Device Software Asset Extractor
Left to Right: Keaton Boodlal, Anthony Lee, Jack Benning, Samuel Stewart, Henry Trochlil, & Simple Gomez
Best Project in Track #3
Organic Electrodes for Flexible Electronic Devices
Left to Right: Calvin Hong, Anshu Madwesh, Sheena Deivasigamani, & Aaron DiFilippo
Best Project in Track #4
Lester Labs Automated Grading Service: Lincoln Head Cent
Left to Right: Seth Cooper, Anthony LaConte, Mason Zeo, David Peterson, & Nicholas Mason
Best Project in Track #5
Planar High-Power Density Transformers: Analysis and Fabrication
Left to Right: Tyler Cook, Fasil Gebreab, Anthony Buchman, & Sam Brown
Best Project in Track #6
Project Hermes — Wireless Mesh Network for Herd Tracking
Left to Right: John Phung, Robbie Platt, Jack Greer, Noah Sweilem, Spencer Beery, & Cole Roof
Best Project in Track #7
Sustainable Optimization for Agrivoltaic Power
Left to Right: Evin Varghese, Siraj Syed, Alejandro Garcia, Gavin Rosenberger, & Spencer Smith
Best Overall
Swing Stabilization for MEDEVAC Rescues
Left to Right: Ryan Gurney, Sachin Dhiman, Mario Termine, Hoan Pham, and Hayden King
Best by Popular Vote
L-Band Satellite Tracking and Characterization System
Left to Right: Luke Lester, Ethan Duval, Samuel Taliaferro, Charles Van Horn, Justin Daigle, Jared Jamison
Best Project in Track #1
Next Gen DC/DC Converter for CubeSats
Left to Right: Joseph Karstetter, Brian Kwiatowski, Jiaqiang Ling, Zhenting Xu
Best Project in Track #2
L-Band Satellite Tracking and Characterization System
Left to Right: Luke Lester, Ethan Duval, Samuel Taliaferro, Charles Van Horn, Justin Daigle, Jared Jamison
Best Project in Track #3
Measurement and Test Automation using Low Cost Instruments
Left to Right: Luke Lester, Nolan Donovan, Barkin Keskinturk, Jospeh Ha, Tahj Caines, Heesang Han
Best Overall
A Germanium Laser for Future Quantum Technologies: Design and Implementation
Left to Right: Ben Westcott, Rebecca Rainhart, Purv Bavishi, Luke Lester, Zibing He, Joshua Seplak
Best By Popular Vote
Image Recognition AUTOmation
Left to Right: Dan Nguyen, Arya Naren, Luke Lester, Ramya Aluri, Andy Lee, Alex Nguyen
Best in Track #1
AR Headset Object Identification
Left to Right: Tad DiDio, Samuel Park, Luke Lester, Andrew Salzmann, Varin Nakka, Liam Bushway
Best in Track #2
Bamboo Canes: Omnidirectional Imaging and 3D Reconstruction
Left to Right: Regan Meana, Luke Lester, Jack Timmins, Jonathan Hurley
Best in Track #3
B.U.R.S. : Balloon Ultraviolet Radiation Sensor
Left to Right: Aaron Johnson, Shabir Hossain, Luke Lester, Zachary Schmidt, Gabe Mills
Best in Track #4
Counteracting Doppler Using OTFS Zak Transform
Left to Right: Ethan Costello, Nathan Scoller, Luke Lester, Danielle Felder, Andrew Hermansen
Best in Track #5
Mobile Digital High Frequency Ionosonde
Left to Right: John Larus III, Nicolas Hoang, Luke Lester, Tommy Trinh, Ehite Anteneh, Smail El Oumari
Best in Track #6
Cyberchase Tabletop Board Game
Left to Right: Matthew Vandeveire, Alex Saura, Kojo Poku, Luke Lester, Jiawen Bao, Matt Zarnowsky
Best in Track #7
Early Failure Detection of Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Gas Sensing
Left to Right: Jenny Li, Siddhu Gogineni, Rachael Sherbo, Luke Lester, Sai Mukkollu, Triston Seaford
Best Overall
Sensor Fusion for Autonomous Navigation
From left: Harpreet Dhillon, Sugnan Suresh, Yohannes Zena, Daniel Connors, Yohannes Zena, Nick Fillo, and Joe Adams
Best by Popular Vote
Autonomous Water Monitoring System for Remote Creek Management
From left: Akshara Ravi, Brandan Allen, Daniel Connors, Noah Lockard, Harpreet Dhillon, Ayia Ismael, Cesar Bautista, and Joe Adams
Best in Track #1
Interactive Digital Twin for Dynamic Building Management
From left: Donovan Jones, Riya Parikh, Harpreet Dhillon, Thomas Campbell, Daniel Connors, Riker Wilson, Alexander Tolochkov, and Joe Adams
Best in Track #2
Infrared Friend-Or-Foe Identification Sensor Design and Vision System for Lightweight UAV
From left: Benjamin Bush, Harpreet Dhillon, Andres Peñafiel, Daniel Connors, Austin Jobin, Niloy Neogi, and Joe Adams
Best in Track #3
Wooden Pallet Life-Cycle Tracking
From left: Domenic Marcelli, Daniel Connors, Garret Detter, Harpreet Dhillon, Wenxaun Wang, Rashelle Amao, Kiran Gouttumukkala, and Joe Adams
Best in Track #4
Inverse Design of Passive RF Components
From left: Thomas Boris, Harpreet Dhillon, Eddie Pritchard, Felipe Quintero, Daniel Connors, Calvin Jeter, and Joe Adams
Best Overall
Prototype Development of a Satellite-Based Atmospheric Sensor
From left: Aditya Bangalore, Haley Strong, Raymond Wei, Chinmaya Salinamakki, and Mitchell Chapman
Best by Popular Vote
Interactive Phased Array Beam Steering Visualization
From left: Nate Guevara, Howard Yu, Raymond Drewry, Rob Weaver, Pei Fu
Best in Track #1
CMOS Detector Readout System for Small Satellite Applications
From left: Dawsyn Schraiber, Archit Chavan, Noah Weleteychik, Justin Winn, David Encarnacion
Best in Track #2
Autonomous Aquaculture
From left: Nathan Skirvin, Logan Matthews, Jayson De La Vega, Zachary Chu, Daniel Reeves, David Watson
Best in Track #3
Semi-Autonomous Navigation Vehicle
From left: Guixian Lyu, Kiara Klevar, Alex Trevino, Shahmeer Shaikh, Tyler Doyle, Jack Bacon
Best in Track #4
Development of a Novel Multifrequency Focused Ultrasound System for the Non-Invasive, Versatile Treatment of Tumors
From left: Thomas Lu, Marlyn Ngembus, Peter Costescu, Steven Roccia, Abigail Dillard, Maxwell Kawada
Best in Track #5
Saltwater Antenna for Maritime HF Applications
From left: Brendon Bennett, Jandre Erwee, Nate Carter, Preston Pitzer, Aaron Clarke
Best in Track #6
Design of a High Data Rate Deserializer with 65nm CMOS
From left: Jacob Kawada, Sean McShane, Jackson Andrew, Trent Fox, Lucas Hartmann