Altogether, 12 teams from the Daniel Guggnenheim School of Aerospace Engineering competed in the annual design expo
[VIDEO::https://youtu.be/2KXdjrZJEwo]

Engineers At Work. After they were awarded the Best Aerospace Engineering Project at the 2019 Capstone Design Expo, members of Team STORM (Alex Miner, Andy Person, and Gen Mark Tanno) joined with AE Regents Professor Lakshmi Sankar to talk about the challenges of building their fixed-wing, hand-launched UAV when two-thirds of their fellow engineers were located at two other universities. Way to go Team STORM!







Team STORM took  home the top prize for an Aerospace Engineering Project at the 2019 Capstone Design Expo, held Tuesday, April 23, at McCamish Pavilion.

All told, 236 teams from 11 of Georgia Tech's schools, competed in the Expo, which annually tasks students from a variety of disciplines to showcase their year-long efforts to solve real-world problems. The  2019 Prize for the Best Overall project award went to SmartSoil, a team of mechanical engineering students who developed an indoor, user-friendly composting device that uses worms to produce nutrient rich compost.

As always, the four-hour event attracted dozens of judges from industry, government, and Georgia Tech's own plentiful alumni base.

"The most interesting thing I saw here, tonight, was that the students on every team -- all of them less than two weeks away from graduating -- all of them were excited about going to the next level. There was none of that last-gasp trepidation," said AE alumnus and Capstone judge, Steven Justice, executive director of the Georgia Centers of Innovation.

"They all have jobs."

On hand to pick up the $1,000 Capstone prize for Team STORM were AE students Alex Miner, Andy Person, and Gen Mark Tanno who collaborated with engineering students from Tuskegee and Clemson universities to design, build, and test the winning project over the course of the last nine months. The result - an 18-pound drone named Surveillance Technology for Organized Relief Management (STORM) -- had to be capable of carrying emergency payloads to hazardous terrains during a natural disaster or combat scenario.

The students behind STORM had to be capable of using sound engineering judgment while communicating effectively across time zones and conflicting schedules to design a flight-worthy UAV for the 2019 Boeing AerosPACE competition. Team STORM took home the prize for the Best 3D Printing, Manufacturing, and Autonomy project in that competition, which was held April 11 and 12 in Charleston, SC.

"The biggest hurdle was coordinating the work of all three teams," said Person of the three-university collaboration. "We didn't know exactly how it was going to work until we all came to the competition."

Topics showcased at the 2019 Capstone ranged from medical devices to process optimization to construction projects. Biomedical engineering teams worked with medical device companies to come up with new ways to help patients and doctors alike. Electrical and computer engineers collaborated with sponsors to address challenges related to drones and robots — Maurauder Robotics tasked two teams with developing the programming for an autonomous underwater vehicle that will track and destroy sea urchins that are devouring fragile kelp forests. Known worldwide for their efficiency prowess, industrial and systems engineering students worked on projects for local Fortune 500 companies including The Home Depot, Delta, UPS, and The Coca-Cola Company, as well as MARTA, Emory University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Atlanta Hawks.

Best Overall Winner- SmartSoil

  • Jordan Bogdan, ME) Snellville, GA
  • Aditi Kumar, (ME) New Delhi, India
  • Anuja Anil Kandare, (ME) Bangalore, India
  • Yi Ting Sam, (ME) Malaysia
  • Kyle Varnedoe, (ME) Marietta, GA
  • Justin Cole, (ME) Marietta, GA

Aerospace- Team STORM

  • Gen Mark Tanno, Tokyo, Japan
  • Charles Andrew Person, Decatur, GA
  • Alexandra Miner, Sandy Springs, GA

Architecture- Coalescence

  • R Noah Sannes, Milton, Ga
  • Christopher Tromp,Sugar Hill, Ga

Best Biomedical Engineering team, Tube Tied

Biomedical Engineering- Tube Team

  • Arielle Margulies, Scotch Plains, NJ
  • Emily Dunford, Eden Prairie, MN
  • Sarah Nixon, Atlanta

Civil and Environmental Engineering- Vakaa Design

  • Chris Folsom, Marietta, GA
  • Justin Liu, Duluth
  • Hannah Davis, Dagsboro, DE
  • Kailee Unangst, Frederick, MD

Electrical and Computer Engineering- TRACER

  • Alex Nussey, Atlanta, GA
  • Mitchell Menard, Hickory, NC

Industrial and Systems Engineering- Cisgocean

  • Kayla Raab, Alpharetta
  • Pavlos Sepetas, Ioannina, Greece
  • Weichao Chen, China
  • Trishla Chokshi, Kennesaw, GA
  • Guergana Ilieva, Marietta, GA
  • Shaiv Gandhi, Mumbai, India
  • Shelby Carswell, Roswell, GA
  • Karan Agrawal, Bangalore, India

Best Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering Project, ReMoove
 

Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering- ReMOOve

  • Leah Slepian, (ID) Peachtree City, GA
  • George Samaras, (ME) Athens, GA
  • Andrea Herrera, (ID) Suwanee, GA
  • Mitchell Tuck, (ME) Atlanta
  • Jasmine Al-Aidy, (ME) Asheville, NC

Materials Science and Engineering- Exhausted Dynamics

  • Jacob Lloyd, Blairsville, GA
  • Eric Fitzgerald, Cumming, GA
  • Andreas Robertson, Silver Spring, MD
  • SeungMin Lee, Atlanta, GA
  • Charles Caliendo, Circle Pines
  • Heyinn Rho, San Jose, CA

Mechanical Engineering- Trail Glider

  • Himanshu Dedge, Shrewsbury, MA
  • Gabriel Arkanum, Cumming, GA
  • Saad Lalani, Kennesaw, GA
  • Jayce Delker, Monroe, GA
  • Tyler Boone, Canton, GA

Nuclear and Radiological Engineering - NTP: Fueling the Future

  • Aaron Sommer, Columbus, GA
  • Bofeng Chen, Alta Loma, CA
  • Reed Herner, Plainfield, IL
  • Karem Chaudhry, New York City, New York
  • Corey Smith, Canton, GA

Public Policy Winner, Houses

Public Policy- Houses

  • Charles Watwood, Atlanta, GA
  • Janelle Owusu, Buford, GA
  • Mary Elizabeth, Cumming, GA
  • Elizabeth Crymes, Newnan, GA

Interdisciplinary- Poultrygeist

  • Adarsh Sasi, Atlanta, GA
  • Melvin Juwono, Atlanta, GA
  • Samuel Hill, Homer, Ga
  • Shivam Sharma, Buford, GA
  • Jonathan Wen, Virginia Beach, VA
  • Rahul Patel, Austell
  • Austin Segars, Lula, Ga