MAE undergraduates showcase projects at Senior Design Demo Day

The event is the culmination of the senior design course sequence, a required part of the curriculum for every undergraduate student in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (MAE) at the University at Buffalo (UB). Comprising MAE 451 Design Process and Methods and MAE 494 Design Project, the sequence challenges seniors to work in teams to develop a solution to an engineering design problem.

Reza Rashidi, MAE lead coordinator for senior design sequence and associate professor of practice, says that the students learn how to develop innovative solutions under real constraints, including budget, safety, and environmental impact.

“Students gain a great deal from the senior design course sequence, both technically and professionally. They get to experience the full product development cycle from concept to testing,” Rashidi said. “This prepares them to enter the workforce with confidence and a solid foundation in applied engineering.”

At the start of the fall semester, teams are formed based on students’ interest areas, often aligning with the fields they hope to pursue after graduation. Each team receives a design problem based on a real-world need. The teams then meet weekly throughout the academic year, sometimes in consultation with faculty and industry advisors, to complete an original engineering design.

At the end of the spring semester, faculty members, project clients and industry representatives are invited to attend Senior Design Demo Day to get an up-close look at the final designs and demonstrations of hardware. Projects are evaluated by a panel of judges and the top three are selected. Each senior can also cast a vote for the Student Choice Award.

Rashidi said the students put a lot of time into their projects, which addressed many modern, technically complex problems that required careful consideration of societal, environmental, and economic factors.

“This year, the students did an outstanding job developing solutions to their assigned challenges,” said Rashidi. “Their final designs demonstrated a strong balance of innovation and feasibility. In the second semester, the teams successfully prototyped and tested their designs, resulting in several unique and high-quality solutions that reflect both creativity and technical rigor.”

Some of this year’s participants also took their designs to competitions at the university and national levels, including UB’s Panasci Technology Entrepreneurship Competition, NASA’s Lunabotics Challenge, and the National Promoting Electric Propulsion Competition. 

First Place
Mobile and Interactive Display Stand for the X-22 Ducted Fan Engine
Ethan Hansen, Max Hranitz, Ayush Patel, Achintya Upadhyay, Piyush Shivananda Salian, Tim Verboys

Second Place
Promoting Electric Propulsion - Remote Controlled Boat
Jacob DiFrancesco, Aidan Nabinger, Eric Sandle, Penny Spier, Van Valencia, Drew Vickery

Third Place
Automatic Card Shufflers
Nathan Dillenbeck, Patrick Loos, Mason Nusbickel

Student Choice Award
Laser Weeders for Small Scale Farms
Stephanie Brumbaugh, Maxwell Bukovsky, Alex Ensminger, Shawn Petrishin, Chloe Saldanha, Jake Velesko