3. Programs Archive

Proposed by SPX Flow, the goal of this project is to characterize the oxygen transfer rate (OTR) within inert fluids of various viscosities. Paul Eisold, Kamal Raji, Rony Waheibi, Collins Yawe

This Xerox-sponsored project aims to completely separate high viscosity PDMS and heptane via a solvent evaporation process followed by supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. Alissa DeRubertis, Colin Ikei, Bryan Schellberg, Mark Volkin

This project, sponsored by Waste Management, is interested in comparing two methods for the removal of PFAS from landfill leachate, foam separation and activated carbon adsorption. Justin King, Ashley Sibanda, Claire Wilson

The URMC Kidney Model Optimization Project aims to create a polymer material that can simulate the human kidney for practice by surgical residents. Bimpe Isafiade, Harshita Mahaseth, Natalie Ramesh, Baris Eser Ugur

This project aims to characterize a wastewater stream in addition to addressing biochemical oxygen demand in cooperation with LiDestri. Katerina Connor, Junseok Jeon, Connor Pope, Brian Yegela

This project was to design an accelerated testing system for Harbec, Inc to evaluate gaskets in the India Mark II hand pump for installation by the Ugandan Water Project. Dan Allara, Oion Akif, Paul Irving, Tessa Ludwick

In this project, a lab-scale chromatography process was developed to purify crude LUV dye. Upon scale up at Eastman Kodak Company, the chromatography process would be able to purify 2 kg/day. Quinton Dang, Waad Magram, Zhiwei Wang

This project aims to design and build a multi-channel reverse water gas shift reactor system that allows for exploration of heterogeneous catalysis. Ahmad El Gazzar, Thien Hung Nguyen, Clive Onyango, Emilio Vega-Ramos

Tow Tank devices are used in testing boat and aerodynamic models for things like aerodynamic drag and lift. These devices typically cost around $20,000 which is the reason not every school has access to such a device. Here in the University of Rochester, we don't have our own tow tank device, but we do have a swimming pool, and a passion for solving problems. In this post, we are showcasing our prototype for a tow tank that can be assembled and used in the gym swimming pool. The cost of the prototype and the completed final device is less than $1000!

The main goal of this project is to build, assemble, and successfully test an accelerated testing machine for the India Mark II. In the India Mark II pump, the water gaskets wore off frequently during the pumping of water and needed frequent replacement which proved costly. To counter the problem, the project below proposes an accelerated testing machine composed of a slider-crank mechanism. The mechanism incorporated a flywheel driven by a motor that ensures continuous harmonic motion that replicates pumping mechanisms in the field. The mechanism was designed, simulated and a finite element analysis carried out in CAD software. These are covered in the report along with testing results and recommendations provided for improvement of future designs.​

Modern mechanical engineers utilize computers but do not fully understand how the computer performs its computations. Understanding the fundamentals will give them a better understanding to the limitation of traditional computing. To address this gap between functionality and understanding, we built a 4ft by 6ft physical 3-bit adder to blow up the tiny processes that go on inside of a computer. Using a system of logic gates, where marbles act as inputs and outputs, our machine is able to add numbers 7 and below to each other and produce an output in binary.

Robotic control is becoming increasingly integral across many disciplines and industries. Understanding the fundamentals of robotic control evolves people's way of life into a more convenient and efficient epoch. Here in University of Rochester, robotics courses enable students to have basic hand-on learning experience over robotic control systems. This robotic steering system team is aiming at designing an inexpensive but reliable, and easy to replicate solution which fits the needs to teach the robotics courses at University of Rochester.