Berkeley MEng Class of 2020 Capstone Award Winners
May 2020
Each year, the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership and the UC Berkeley Master of Engineering program awards capstone teams for their year-long achievements and research innovations.
This year, the awards include the Fung Institute Mission Award, Alumni Award, and Leadership Capstone Award. Below are the winners for the Berkeley MEng Class of 2020!
Fung Institute Mission Award
Awarded to the capstone team that best exemplifies the mission of the institute: “Shaping generations of technical leaders to innovate across boundaries.” Finalists are nominated by Fung instructors; winners are chosen by Fung Institute staff based on the project brief.
Winner: Adapting Humanoid Robots to Aid First Responders
Team: Jamie Chen [ME], Sonny Li [ME], David Tondreau [ME], Mengyue Wang [ME]
Advisor(s): Koushil Sreenath [ME]
Disaster relief demands both speed and adaptability to complex terrain; however, modern robots, which offer the potential to aid first responders, are currently specialized either for speed (wheeled robots) or for adaptability (legged robots). Our team is working to enable the transition of bipedal robots between legged locomotion and wheeled transportation. Our approach is to develop a full-stack autonomous system with perception to recognize the hovershoe, trajectory optimization for precise foot placement, and a series of inner controllers to realize the trajectory.
Honorable Mention: Breathing Facade: A Sustainable and Affordable Cooling and Dehumidification Solution for Public Schools in the Tropics
Team: Satomi Angelika Murayama (Fritsch) [ME], Hazelynn Khoo [ME], Meijun Liu [CEE]
Advisor(s): Hayden Taylor [ME]
Today, public schools in tropical countries such as Singapore do not have typical cooling and dehumidification systems, like AC, installed in classrooms. The Berkeley Breathing Facade team is tackling this issue with a new way to cool down the space with minimal energy cost. This semester, we are building a model that can be used to make implementation decisions using Matlab, as well as the team’s expertise in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and materials science to calculate the levelized cost of comfort.
Honorable Mention: Inflatable Modular Flating Solar Array to Meet the Global Energy Demand
Team: Gina Myers [BIOE], Arthur Labarre [CEE], Weiheng (Jarvis) Lu [IEOR], Priyaj Mehta [ME], Ronggen Chen [ME]
Advisor(s): Tarek Zohdi [ME]
Improved photovoltaic technology is essential to meet growing global energy demands. Floating solar offers numerous advantages over land-based, including increased efficiency via cooling, reduced evaporation and algal growth, and the financial and ecological benefits of facile installation and protecting undeveloped land. Our diverse team created a floating solar module for inland water bodies that is more energy and cost-efficient and easier to install than existing technologies. To accomplish this, our design incorporates an on-site inflatable floating structure, onto which the photovoltaic panels are mounted. This is a transformative innovation as it enables drastically lower transportation and installation costs.
Fung Institute Alumni Award
Awarded to the capstone team that most effectively demonstrates: the relevance of the problem they are trying to solve, the originality of their proposed solution, and the potential of their project’s impact. Finalists are nominated by Fung Instructors; winners are chosen by MEng Alumni Judging Panel based on the project brief.
Project Brief Winner: Precision Freezing 3D Bioprinter for Large Scale Tissue Engineering
Team: Alex Wolcott [BIOE], Martin Banet-Rivet [ME], Pablo Amo [ME], Ruobin Liu [ME]
Advisor(s): Boris Rubinsky [ME], Gideon Ukpai [ME]
Attempts at 3-D printing biological materials are encumbered by the slow rate of the process and the “soft” nature of the material. Previous successes have invariably yielded objects no larger than a dime, as both the tendency for these materials to collapse and the need to preserve any cells confound the 3-D printing process. We are designing a level-controlled cooling bath to precisely freeze biomaterials as they are printed, thereby addressing both challenges. This new approach allows for far larger printed structures than previously possible.
Honorable Mention: A Novel Implant for Regulating Excessive Eye Pressure in Glaucoma Patients
Team: Charit Mehta [ME], Aishwarya Pamula [BIOE], Sheila Sharifzad [BIOE]
Advisor(s): Ying Han [UCSF], Syed Hossainy [BIOE], Dorian Liepmann [ME]
Affecting over 65 million people worldwide, glaucoma is a disease that creates excessive fluid pressure in the eye and eventually leads to blindness. Severe cases require surgical intervention to redirect fluid to an implant placed on the back of the eye. However, commercially available implants cost up to $1,000 each and have a 50% failure rate within a few years. The I-OPeners Team is developing a low cost, patient-specific glaucoma implant that regulates pressure for a longer duration. Our solution utilizes biocompatible microfluidic technology and degradable polymers to accurately control fluid flow.
Honorable Mention: Using Wildfire Simulations as Predictors for Economical Risk Management
Team: Jeremiah Hamlin [ME], Mikio LaCapra [ME], Carlos Nunez [IEOR]
Advisor(s): Tarek I. Zohdi [ME]
Wildfires have become an annual destructive force with the 2018 California wildfires witnessing the tragic loss of life and $3.5 billion in damages, which unraveled communities and motivated new outlooks to safety and liability. Our solution harnesses the novel firefighting technique of real time low computation wildfire prediction simulations, through a particle based representation of ember lofting dynamics and thermodynamics over real terrains. Not only does this simulation predict fire trajectory patterns to prevent hazardous scenarios, it can be paired with historical data for economical risk management such as assisting insurance companies establish rates based on the burn risk of a property.
Video Pitch Winner: Developing an Affordable Alternative for Autonomous Vehicle Localization using High-Definition Radar Images
Team: David Scanlan [IEOR], Pierre-Louis Blossier [ME], Johan Gerfaux [IEOR], Bowen Wang [ME]
Advisor(s): Jimmy Wang [Zendar], Lou Ggraniou [Zendar], Gabriel Gomes [ME]
Localization of autonomous vehicles on the road currently relies on LIDAR (using lasers) and camera sensors which simultaneously map the environment around the car. Our algorithm uses high definition radar images to localize autonomous vehicles. In combination with Zendar’s hardware and software suite, this solution is cheaper, easier to install, and less susceptible to adverse weather conditions when compared to costly LIDARs.
Honorable Mention: Improving Senior Health Through Gamified Virtual Reality Exercises
Team: Dennis Zhang [BIOE], Nanxi Li [IEOR], Siyuan Ren [IEOR], Tanaya Mangle [IEOR], Arun Putcha [IEOR], Heqing Huang [IEOR], Xiaolin Zhong [ME], Daniel Daugherty [ME], Robert Gadams [ME]
Advisor(s): Coleman Fung [Blue Goji], Austin Peck [BIOE], Gabriel Gomes [ME]
As the world population ages at an alarming speed, older adults are at risk for significant physical and cognitive challenges. The Blue Goji Infinity project aims to improve the health and well-being of older adults through a collection of gamified Virtual Reality exercises on its patented treadmill. Our team designs these VR mini-games, which track our users’ health performance to build digital health profiles. With this novel framework, we will revolutionize the way older adults manage and improve their wellness.
Honorable Mention: Wearable Motion Tracking for Clinical Gait Analysis
Team: Ross Schneider [ME], Anisha Basu [BIOE], Hayley Boyd [BIOE]
Advisor(s): Juan Rodriguez [Evolution Devices], Andrew Ekelem [Evolution Devices], Gabriel Gomes [ME]
A third of people over the age of 60 suffer from impaired gait, which leads to loss of personal freedom, falls, and injuries. Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury and trauma-related hospital admission among older adults, and costs around $50 billion each year. We are developing an affordable, user-friendly system that provides physician-requested gait metrics for aiding in the diagnosis of unhealthy walking patterns. Our system consists of wearable units that are comfortably strapped to the user, which along with modern software filtering techniques and real-time embedded programming solutions allows a constant stream of motion tracking data.
Fung Institute Technical Leadership Capstone Award
The Fung Institute Technical Leadership Capstone Award is awarded to the capstone team that most effectively demonstrates MEng Leadership principles: (i) identify (or enable others to identify) a problem, opportunity, and/or vision; (ii) generate or elicit a solution to a problem; (iii) include and convince stakeholders of the proposed solution; (iv) manage and include all stakeholders in solving the problem, exploiting the opportunity, accomplishing the vision.
Winner: Smart Eye-Drop Bottle to Monitor Medication Habits of Glaucoma Patients
Team Members: Kian Talaei [IEOR], Ryan Zolyomi [ME], Fang-Jhen Su [BIOE], Tianyi Xing [IEOR]
Advisors: Scott Lee [UC Berkeley School of Public Health], Taiki Nishihara [Ocuelar], Tarek Zohdi [ME]
More than 75 million people worldwide suffer from glaucoma–the leading cause of irreversible blindness. The majority of these patients lack a proper and consistent medication routine, a concept referred to as poor medication adherence. The team is developing a smart device to track patients’ eye drop medication adherence. Our smart eye drop bottle incorporates multiple on-board sensors paired with an algorithm to actively monitor timing of medication administration. The data is collected via an integrated patient-physician smartphone application. Accurate tracking of medication adherence will improve physician treatment decisions and patient quality of life.
Honorable Mention: Biomimetic Hydrogels to Enhance Tissue Modeling of Brain Cancer
Team: Jonathan Evans [BIOE], Julia Lanoha [BIOE]
Advisor(s): Sanjay Kumar [BIOE], Emily Carvalho [BIOE], Kayla Wolf [BIOE]
The most common form of brain cancer, glioblastoma, has a median patient survival of 15 months. There is an urgent need to develop in vitro tumor models in order to better understand disease progression and to identify therapeutic targets. Our team is working with the Kumar laboratory to develop an advanced hydrogel material to improve the physiological relevance of tumor models by incorporating reversible network bonds through non-covalent crosslinking. Our solution more accurately resembles the matrix found in brain tissue, allowing for better analysis of cellular remodeling and invasion.
Honorable Mention: Replacing Card Boxes with Smart Reusable Packages
Team: Siyi Zhang [IEOR], Sharnam Shah [ME], Elise Perez y Landazuri [ME]
Advisor(s): Chantal Emmanuel [Limeloop], Ashley Etling [Limeloop], George Anwar [ME]
We are creating the very first intelligently reusable e-commerce packages by developing an IoT solution using sensors and a cloud platform. Specifically, the goal of our project is to prototype an IoT solution with open rate tracking, data transmission and cloud service.
Capstone Mentorship Awards
The Fung Institute award for MEng Capstone Mentorship is awarded to a capstone advisor who excels in fostering intellectual independence, providing project support, and furthering professional development. Finalists are nominated by current MEng students; winners are chosen by Fung Institute staff based on students’ nominations.
Faculty Advisor Awards
Winner: J. Christopher Anderson [BIOE]
Honorable Mention: Michael Bondin / assisting Prof. Vetter [NE]
Honorable Mention: Tarek Zohdi [ME]
Industry Advisor Awards
Winner: Alex Ackroyd [Lam Research]
Honorable Mention: Douglas Hutchings [Squishy Robotics]
Honorable Mention: Dominik Ziegler and Hilary Brunner [Scuba Probe Technologies]
View all the MEng Class of 2020 project descriptions on our website.
