KINGSTON, R.I., May 4, 2016鈥擜lex Desilets built his first remote-controlled plane when he was 6 years old. He鈥檚 a senior at the 溏心vlog免费B站 and still building planes. His latest is the UPLOAD, a drone that takes off and lands on water.
Desilets was one of dozens of 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering students who packed into the Kirk Center for Advanced Technology on May 3 to show family, friends, sponsors, faculty and classmates the projects they鈥檝e created over the last year for their senior design capstone class.
鈥淚鈥檝e had a blast doing this,鈥� said Desilets, of South Kingstown. 鈥淚鈥檝e been working on this project 40 to 60 hours a week since September, and I don’t regret a second.鈥�
Students said working on a yearlong project is a welcome alternative to cracking the books鈥攁nd crucial experience for the job search. Employers, they say, are more likely to hire someone with hands-on experience.
Bahram Nassersharif, the 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering professor who teaches the class, spent the afternoon traveling from exhibit to exhibit, snapping photos and talking to guests about the 鈥渋ncredible鈥� offerings. The class requires students to solve real-world problems with viable products.
鈥淵ou can see the level of energy, excitement and enthusiasm here,鈥� said Nassersharif. 鈥淭hese are all great projects. Employers are very interested in what our students are creating. It鈥檚 a great way to distinguish 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering students.鈥�
Students displayed their projects鈥攁nd posters鈥攐n tables set up in Kirk鈥檚 auditorium and hallways. The exhibits also included posters and, for the truly interested, flyers to take home.
Joshua De La Hoz of Warwick and his team came up with MAGSEAL, a more efficient way of demagnetizing magnetic seals so they can be used repeatedly and won鈥檛 deteriorate quickly..
鈥淚 learned so much,鈥� says De La Hoz. 鈥淚t’s great to work on something from start to finish. For a mechanical engineer that鈥檚 important. I went through every iteration鈥攆rom start to finish. That鈥檚 what engineers love to do.鈥�
Christian Paquette, also of Warwick, helped build a machine that does a better job cutting sheets of plastic and also reduces damage to equipment. He and his team partnered with Toray Plastics of North Kingstown.
鈥淲orking on a project like this is different from theoretical book work,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his gives us a creative experience.鈥�
One team improved the performance of the 鈥渕ini baja鈥� off-road car and another created a residential wind turbine called WINDFINITY, which can supply power to refrigerators and other household appliances. Other designs included an improved heat exchanger for potable hot water, a device to prevent ice dams in the winter, and a better respooling system for Hope Global, a textile company in Cumberland. (The team鈥檚 name was appropriately called 鈥淭eam All Wound Up.鈥�)
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 great women are getting into the science fields,鈥� said Jennifer McGunigal of Warwick, one of the engineers on the respooling team. 鈥淓ngineering has always been my first choice.鈥�
One of the more unusual projects was the RADSUB, a submersible that can inspect the core of nuclear reactors. 鈥淔or an engineer, it鈥檚 important to work with your hands and know how to make a design a reality,鈥� said Matthew Repetto, of Westchester, N.Y. 鈥淓ngineers sit at computers and design, but it鈥檚 also important for us to use our hands.鈥�
Another hit was the Wingman 360, a device that can prevent wingtips on planes from colliding while aircrafts are being towed on the ground.
The 5-pound, plastic device temporarily attaches to a plane鈥檚 wingtip with suction cups. Ultrasonic sensors in the device detect when the aircraft is getting too close to another plane on the ground or the wall of a hangar as it鈥檚 being towed. The team is collaborating with Delta Airlines.
Delta is so enthusiastic about the project it sent a representative, Tim Files, an aircraft systems analyst, to the event yesterday. Files was excited about the students鈥� work, which is based on a device created two years ago by another 溏心vlog免费B站 mechanical engineering student design team.
鈥淚鈥檓 very impressed,鈥� said Files. 鈥淪tarting from scratch with an idea and bringing it to a tangible device that works鈥攖hat amazes me. These students are so enthusiastic, so driven, so smart.鈥�
A prototype of Wingman 360 was tested at an airport in Quonset last month. 鈥淲e did really well,鈥� said Laura Corvese of Portsmouth, who is heading to graduate school at Boston University in the fall to study mechanical engineering and robotics. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a great experience.鈥�
The drone was a crowd-pleaser. A full-size version was displayed on Kirk鈥檚 floor, and Desilets charged up a smaller model at one point. The drone has a hidden drawer that can carry items weighing up to 8 pounds. With that capacity, it can deliver at sea anything from a sandwich to medicine. Desilets intends to spend his summer refining his plane. As far as his career goes, he says, the sky鈥檚 the limit.