COLLEGE STATION, Texas — More than 1,000 students representing approximately 245 engineering capstone design teams presented their projects at the nation's largest engineering student expo.
"It is the largest Design Expo in the country, and it's a way for us to show what they can do, but also educate young people," Executive Director for industry partnerships at Texas A&M, Magda Lagoudas said. "Young people who are looking to find out what a mechanical engineer does versus an electrical, this is a great chance for them to see the application."
Lagoudas has helped run the expo for all 9 years of its existence. She says its success is a direct result of the hard-working students and educators at Texas A&M.
"The quality of the talent, the quality of the students who are getting," Lagoudas said. "When you look at the prototypes, the challenging problems that they are solving, and the innovative ways they approach the problems. It tells us about the education they have gotten here."
After hours of presenting, judges had to narrow down the hundreds of design teams to just 3 per category, with awards ranging from $250 to $1,000, but only one team could claim the top spot overall and take home the $1,500 dollar grand prize.
"Absolute disbelief, I mean, we know how much hard work we put into this project. But I mean, you know, at that point, we don't control anything," senior biomedical engineering major, Daniel Aguilar said. "It's all up to the judges whether they like it or not, but apparently, they did and we couldn't be happier."
Their project is a reliable surgical instrument counter which is an alternative to manual counting. This will help with efficiency in the operating room and keep patients at ease.
"Every year 1000s of patients get instruments left inside of them," senior biomedical engineering major, Shelby McCoy said. "Our system is a smart surgical table that would account for these instruments automatically and quickly too."
McCoy and Aguilar said they had been working on this project for 2 whole semesters, and that some of their group members go way back to freshmen year.