The winners of the spring Engineering Design Showcase were announced on Monday, May 4, at the Bryce Jordan Center by College of Engineering, Penn State University (PSU). It is worth mentioning that the global capstone project "Universal Z-Wave Switch Actuator" for ADT by Qitong Liu, Tengxiang Wang, students from School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Andrew August from Penn State College has won the first Place Lockheed Martin Design Excellence Awards.

 

 

The Spring Engineering Design Showcase held by Penn State College offered students opportunities to present their capstone design projects to solve real-world problems in engineering. Students who stand out will be awarded by their excellent designs. A total of 127 capstone design projects were on display at the showcase. Altogether ten teams received Lockheed Martin Design Excellence Awards and three of them won the first place ones.

 

 

Sponsored by the American company ADT, the project "Universal Z-Wave Switch Actuator" co-advised by Gary Neal, instructor in mechanical engineering at Penn State College, and Fucai Li of Shanghai Jiao Tong University has achieved a successful completion  and satisfied sponsors’ requirements through team work between students from SJTU and PSU. Professor Martin W. Trethewey, head of the Capstone Project at PSU, expressed that considering the fierce competition and geographical distance result from global cooperation, it was not easy for student to transfer what they have learnt in classes into real-world problems in engineering and finally win the award.

 

 

As a further step to continue global cooperation of engineering design project between PSU and SJTU, Professor Martin W. Trethewey and his team will attend to the global design showcase held by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in June 3. The two sides will discuss the further cooperation in future during his stay at SJTU.
Website Link: College of Engineering announces winners of spring design showcase awards

 

 

An Introduction of the the first place design excellence award winner
   
Name of Chinese Students: Qitong Liu and Tengxiang Wang
  
Team Advisor: Mr. Fucai Li
 
Project Name: Universal Z-Wave Switch Actuator
  
Project Profile: to meet the requirements of the American corporate sponsor, the project designs a wireless control to switch on or off a light. The device can communicate by Z-Wave signal already used by ADT while keeping the function of switching on and off by handedness, which both economically and aesthetically meets the demand of customers.The team members collected standard data by searching for the related patent information and background materials, and talked to businesses and customers for the needed knowledge about the product. Based on the analysis results, altogether three concept plans are offered to meet the requirements of the project. Students shared the work together: mechanical team was responsible for designing physical hardwires such as the shell, the actuator, the intercommunication and power components, and processing materials; control team focused on programming and designing code to operate the product and communicate with ADT Pulse system. After testing its operability and reliability again and again, the product finally finished the whole operation process without any mistake for quite a number of times. The product is a complete success with its nice appearance, high reliability and affordable cost.
 

An Introduction of Global Capstone Project
  
The Global Capstone Project established by both Penn State University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University aims to enhance students’ abilities of practicing what they learn in engineering under global environment. Student-centered, the project gets the support from both businesses and schools for engineering innovation and talents training by solving the real-world problems provided by the corporate sponsors. Students are supposed to cooperate with each other to complete their projects following the ways how teams in businesses will perform in a global situation. Students will also get some technical and resource support offered by instructors from corporate sponsors for their projects.

 

Global Capstone Project has been successfully held for 5 times and completed altogether 47 projects which have involved a total of over 120 international students and 110 Chinese students. It not only benefits the businesses by the project achievements, but also is of great help in terms of employment both for businesses and students. Now more and more globally well-known companies are attracted by this project.

 

Global Capstone Project highly matches the goal of practicing knowledge in engineering emphasized by School of Mechanical Engineering. It will not only improve students’ abilities of practicing, cooperating with international partners, innovating, and intercultural communication, but also reinforce the cooperation and communication between businesses and schools, as well as between businesses and students. Therefore it is widely acknowledged by participant students and businesses.