CSUN Innovation on Display at Senior Design Project Showcase

Members of the “AUTOBVM” team gather around a poster that explains their product, which is an automated bag-valve-mask used to ventilate patients in critical care situations. This was the Senior Design Showcase grand prize winner. (Bryan Rodgers / CSUN)

The team behind this year’s “Smart Morphing Wing” submission posed by their poster and prototype. The students designed a bird-like, non-flapping unmanned aerial vehicle at the Senior Design Showcase, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Bryan Rodgers / CSUN)

Industry judges gather around to hear the students present their projects. From left, Chris Erickson, consultant, Blue Origin and College Industry Advisory Board member, Terry Jester ‘79, energy consultant, Andrew Anagnost ’87, president and CEO of Autodesk and Ali Dianaty ’98, MS ‘03, vice president, Product Innovation, Medtronic Diabetes and College Industry Advisory Board member. (Bryan Rodgers / CSUN)

This year’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) drone submission is a “lifeguard” drone. Team members designed it with AI image processing capabilities to detect individuals in danger of drowning and alert lifeguards nearby. (Bryan Rodgers / CSUN)

A variety of apps, a video game, an inter-satellite optical communication system, a “lifeguard” drone designed to detect swimmers in distress… These were just some of the student creations on display at the 15th annual Senior Design Project Showcase — the culmination of a year’s work on “capstone” projects, done by seniors in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. The event, which took place this year at the Extended University Commons on May 3, is a chance for students to emerge from the labs and classrooms and show their projects to the public and have them judged by industry professionals. The students come from a variety of disciplines, including civil engineering and construction management, computer science and electrical engineering, to name a few.

This year’s grand prize winner was the team behind AUTOBVM — the students created an automated bag-valve-mask to provide ventilation to unconscious patients. The current device that is often used in emergency and critical care situations requires the operator to use both hands on the device that helps patients breathe. The goal of the AUTOBVM is to provide precise and constant ventilation and free the hands of the operator so they can tend to the patient’s other needs.

In addition to the Grand Prize Winner, each college department has one oral presentation winner and one project display winner.

More information about the projects and winners for 2024 can be found on the College of Engineering and Computer Science’s webpage.