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The event emphasized teamwork, applied knowledge and public engagement, offering observers a preview of the next generation of professional problem-solvers.

A crowded Wu Conference Centre on the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Fredericton campus buzzed with energy and excitement on April 3 as UNB engineering students showcased the results of months of collaborative design at the 11th annual Engineering Design Symposium.

During their final year, engineering students work in groups to develop capstone projects with the help of academic advisors and industry mentors. At the end of the term, they present these projects to a panel of judges.

“The capstone project is the culmination of an engineering student’s university education. These real-world projects are at the level they will face after graduation,” said Dr. Joshua Leon, dean of the engineering faculty.

“Projects come from a wide variety of sources but have one thing in common: They draw on virtually everything students have learned over the previous years, placing that learning in the real world,” he said.

“Projects require a mix of skills: design, project management, math and science, writing and presentation, all thrown in with a healthy dose of creativity.”

The Symposium included students from all UNB’s engineering disciplines. This year, 188 students created 47 projects. Crowds moved from booth to booth, examining models, prototypes and displays designed by the soon-to-be graduates.

Kristen Culberson, Grace Sanford, Lukas Sharpe and Emma Snow designed a custom 3D-printed nighttime scoliosis brace for adolescents.

“There are a lot of compliance issues with existing solutions. They are very uncomfortable and accumulate sweat and moisture during the night. Kids ten to 13 years old don’t want to wear them,” explained Culberson next to the brace model, which she said could be custom fitted in clinics.

“Our brace is more adjustable, comfortable, cleanable and breathable. It is easier to put on and take off and can be adjusted as the patient grows.”

Stanley Brinkman-Mills, Mitchell Pero, Sam Porter and Evan Watson displayed a human-powered submarine at a nearby booth.

“It is for the International Submarine Races, which occur every two years. The one we designed is propeller-driven for a single person. We’re designing the drivetrain and fin systems around the propeller. It will be a continuing project for other teams for two more years,” said Pero, adding the hope is to race it in 2027.

Kaelen Derrah, Marina Kurilova, Megan MacDonald and Gregg O’Donnell developed an encrypted serial communication system to help students test electronic sensors by securely sending and receiving data.

The system provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface for determining whether the issue is with the code or the sensor itself.

“We have a third-year course called embedded systems, and in that course, we are required to program many sensors. There is often an issue where you’re trying to program the chip, you’re trying to program the sensor, and it doesn’t work,” explained Kurilova of the challenge the project aimed to solve.

“Maybe your code is right, but the sensor is broken. You want to determine that, and this product helps you do that,” Kurilova said.

Florence Berube, Colin Richardson and Anna Sullivan used digital twin modelling to study heat loss by monitoring the UNB Fredericton campus.

Digital twins generate 3D thermal maps of buildings, pinpointing heat loss areas. These maps help enhance insulation and cut energy costs. They aid urban planning, disaster response and environmental monitoring, revolutionizing city energy management.

“Digital twin technology is a rapidly growing field that can be applied in different areas,” said Sullivan.

“It is a virtual modelling strategy that synchronously uses real-time data to update a virtual model with a real-world counterpart. We used different techniques to create a thermal model of buildings on campus to detect areas of excessive heat loss,” she said.

“We now have a fundamental model and methodology for reproducing it,” said Richardson, adding that it also provides a basis for future research.

Sullivan admitted the presentation to the judges was “a bit terrifying,” but the team defended their project and was “very confident with the product we delivered.”

“This is what your whole degree builds up to,” she said.

Many projects had outside business or industry sponsors, giving students a real-life example of work after graduation.

Strescon Limited, a division of OSCO Construction Group, sponsored the Pipe Yard Optimization project. Abena Obi Acheamfour Boadu, Alec McLaughlin, Daniel Hidgon, Nicholas Hughes and Sarah Léger sought efficiencies for storing and accessing pipes and related construction material within the existing footprint of the Strescon property.

“We altered some things, improved and moved some storage areas, aiming to improve it by ten to 15 per cent. We saw an overall 11.1 per cent increase in storage area, which fell within that goal,” said Higdon.

The team also suggested drainage improvements and a QR-code tracking system.

“The project was a valuable opportunity for the students to work with a local manufacturing plant and to develop their understanding of construction management and engineering,” said their project supervisor, Tom Joyce, assistant teaching professor in the civil engineering department.

“The students visited and surveyed the pipe yard site twice and were able to collect data and explore the complexities of plant operations. The team’s final report had many suggestions for reorganizing the yard to improve storage capacity and reduce congestion. I hope to work with Strescon on capstone projects again,” he said.

Brendan Clancy, pipe division manager for Strescon, said interacting with the students was a key benefit.

“We’re all employers looking for employees. The project scope is the other side of that. These are real challenges that we are dealing with.

Our volume increased to a point where it was at its maximum capacity. Space is a premium, and organization is more important,” he said.

“The results align with what we’re looking at and give us tangible data to build a business case.”

Dr. Leon emphasized the importance of what students learn through their capstone projects.

“In my role as dean, I meet with graduates from the 1950s forward, and many conversations start with them describing their final year project with immense pride,” he said.

“Although students have passed hundreds of tests over their four years, the work they do in their capstone convinces them that they have the stuff to become successful engineers.”

Award winners

Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering

• 1st place: Training AI to See the Invisible: Data Augmentation for Hyperspectral Image Classification - Matthew Blackmore, Sophie LeGresley, Grant Milczarek
• 2nd place: 3D Digital Twin for Thermal Mapping: A Study of UNB Campus - Florence Berube, Colin Richardson, Anna Sullivan
• 3rd place: Marvel Indoor Sonar Tracker - Kelden Ghalay, Zachary Major, Norbu Samdrup
• ANBLS prize: Training AI to See the Invisible: Data Augmentation for Hyperspectral Image Classification - Matthew Blackmore, Sophie LeGresley, Grant Milczarek
• Best poster: Above Ground Biomass Prediction using Sentinel-2 and GEDI Data - Matthew Heffernan, Kevin Lee, Jian Wang

Civil and Geological Engineering

Best technical report and best presentation

• Green Light Solutions: Kate Cusack, Nesli Kot, Khyla McCarty, Samantha Moffatt, Pascale Tasse
• Streamline Solutions: Samyak Bhatta, Cooper Fraser, Brayden Lawless, Morgan Legere, Sophia Maillet
• EMSEM: Emma Benjamin, Sarah Carroll, Hunsugnan Élodie Elena Galbané, Michael Ratliffe, Mathew Webb

Best poster presentation

• FlowTek Infrastructure: Robert Arnett, Scott Dayton, Indya Michaud, Amanda Wiggins
• Pinnacle Engineering: Ethan Boyd, Andrew Buckley, Matthew Lint, Jackson Rivington, Jude Yuzda
• Green Light Solutions: Kate Cusack, Nesli Kot, Khyla McCarty, Samantha Moffatt, Pascale Tasse

Chemical Engineering

• 1st place: Industrial Heat Pump Integration At Saint John Irving Oil Refiner Jacob Whittaker, Justin Yoo, Kendra Levesque, Vincent Trudel
• 2nd place: Optimizing the Future Recausticizing Plant at Irving Pulp and Paper Sean Ikaia Alviso, David Cheng, Llewellyn Kernighan, Sebastian MacBurnie
• 3rd place: Hydrodesulfurization of Biofuels: Impact on Distillate Blending Camilla Drost, Lois Phillips, Hitoshi Taniguchi

Electrical Engineering and Software Engineering

• John F. Murphy Prize [Technical]: $1,000: Gesturely (SWE) - Brennan LeBlanc, Francis Radford, Brianna Orr, Madison Brown, Camila Alexandra Paez Marquez
• John F. Murphy Prize [Technical – Power and Renewable Energy]: $1,000: Embedded System Design Sys-MoDEL (EE) - Owen Fletcher, Eke Kalu, Albert Nguyen, Quynh Nguyen
• IEEE NB Section [Technical]: $600: Encrypted Serial Comm Dev System (EE) - Kaelen Derrah, Marina Kurilova, Megan MacDonald, Gregg O'Donnell
• Software Engineering Excellence Prize (Technical): $600: GridStream (SWE) – Matthew Collett, Eric Cuenat, Cooper Dickson, Samuel Keays

Technology Management and Entrepreneurship

• 1st place: $2,000 total – SafeTrack: An All-in-One Platform for SafeRide Management – Team 4 Pavitra Modi, Jacob Pembleton, Aradhan Jovial Furtado and Luvneet Bamrah
• 2nd place: $1,000 total – All-in-One Electronics Lab Modular Instrumentation for Platform for Learning – Team 3 Samuel Silberman, Robert Lewis, Elyas Meziane and William Englehart

Mechanical Engineering

Top projects

• Scoliosis Brace: Kristen Culberson, Lukas Sharpe, Grace Sanford, Emma Snow
• Wavemaker: Michael DeLong, Dekker Kiely, Ricardo Machado, Felix Roy
• Torsion Testing Machine: Ian Bidgood, Malcolm Dunphy, Tristan Pitt, Sudhish Poojary

Best presentation: Esam Hussein Award for best capstone presentation:

Evaporative cooling: Jordyn MacDonald, Kyle Maber, Griffin Thompson, Kenaniah Valentine

Photo: Daniel Higdon, Nicholas Hughes, Alec McLaughlin, Abena Obi Acheamfour Boadu and Sarah Léger were among the 188 engineering students who presented 47 projects during the Engineering Design Symposium on April 3.