Engineering Students Showcase Their Best Ideas
The California State University, Northridge College of Engineering and Computer Science hosted the eighth annual Senior Design Project Showcase on April 14. The showcase, which filled the Grand Salon and Northridge Center of the University Student Union, featured an automatic wheelchair, a concrete canoe and an electric bicycle, among many other student projects.
Gilberto Rosales, a mechanical engineering major, is the project manager for engineering design of the CSUN wheelchair that will assist and give independence to people who have a disability or are recovering.
Rosales said that CSUN’s Department of Mechanical Engineering faculty and staff have been a huge help with the group’s project.
“Through the mechanical engineering department, CSUN has provided us with the resources we need to complete this project,” Rosales said. “We are paired up with a great faculty advisor, [Vidya] Nandikolla. The department has also given us the funds and resources to actually manufacture the wheelchair.”
Motaz Ajeeb, a senior majoring in manufacturing systems engineering, was one of six students who worked on a pedal-less, electric, foldable bicycle for his senior design project. According to Ajeeb, the project took about a year to complete.
“The first semester, we focused on planning and drawing the three-dimensional model for it,” Ajeeb said. “This semester, we built it.”
“The Senior Design Project Showcase is truly a signature event,” S.K. Ramesh, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, told the audience before awarding honors to showcase participants. “And it is you folks — students, faculty and staff — who make that so.”