This year we had over 220 Senior Design projects working with over 120 sponsors, which represented extremely innovative solutions to some of engineering’s most challenging problems. While narrowing down our favorites was very hard, below are the departmental winners from our 2026 in-person Senior Design Demonstration Day. Congrats to all of our winners, and all of our seniors for completing their projects!
Biomedical Engineering
1st place - Team 06

Project Title: Design and Characterization of a Light-Based Smart CSF Flow Monitoring Shunt
Team Members: Suriyanarayanan Singaravelu, Mohnish Peddi, Benjamin Wilkinson, Koshik Dhotre, Maria Tuxbury
Advisor: Kazunori Hoshino
Sponsor: BME department
2nd place - Team 7

Project Title: Rapid Airway Access: An Automated User-Friendly Device for Emergency Blockages
Team Members: Adeline Smith, Sarah Bradley, Riley Bernas, Alison Powell, Coleman Ross
Advisor: Patrick Kumavor
Sponsor: UConn CoE
3rd place - Team 16

Project Title: Design and Characterization of a Light-Based Smart CSF Flow Monitoring Shunt
Team Members: Suriyanarayanan Singaravelu, Mohnish Peddi, Benjamin Wilkinson, Koshik Dhotre, Maria Tuxbury
Advisor: Kazunori Hoshino
Sponsor: BME department
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
1 - Team 9

Project Title: Acceleration of Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell Conditioning Process
Team Members: William Watson, Megan Begley, Julia Steiner, Ryan Downey
Advisor: Xiao-Dong Zhou
Sponsor: FuelCell Energy
2 - Team 5

Project Title: Synthesizing Catalyst Nanofibers for Hydrogen Electrolyzers
Team Members: Kinee Christian, Martina Jagielski, Mehr Chhatre
Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey McCutcheon
Sponsor: Nel Hydrogen
3 - Team 11

Project Title: Using Computational Modeling to Study Paclitaxel Diffusion from Hydrogel Disks into Lung Tissue
Team Members: Shantel Porter, Praise Udom, Alexis West
Advisor: Mu-Ping Nieh
Sponsor: Medtronic
Civil Engineering
1st place Team 2

Project Title: East Main Street Corridor Improvements
Team Members: Christo Jamo, Bianca Canales, Ava Grace, Daniel Camacho
Advisor: Dr. John Ivan
Sponsor: Jacobs
2nd place Team 15

Project Title: Court Street Pedestrian Bridge
Team Members: Jack Rilli, Jameson Fauth, Abhay Kohli, Matthew Harris
Advisor: Dr. Alexandra Hain
Sponsor: WSP
3rd place Team 4

Project Title: Rowayton Village Placemaking
Team Members: Eamon Manely, Samuel Cannizzo, Francis Kocsis, Yuhe Zou
Advisor: John Ivan
Sponsor: Town of Norwalk, CT
Computing, School of
1st place: Team 35

Project Title: Improving Healthiness in a Multi-Objective Personalized Health-Aware Food Recommendation System using Advantage Actor-Critic Reinforcement Learning Networks
Team Members: Vishal Saminathan, Joshua Zolla, Daniel Bogues, Harshit Yadav, Aarya Vasantlal
Advisor: Chuxu Zhang
Sponsor: Chuxu Zhang
2nd place: Team 24

Project Title: SmaRt heaRt
Team Members: Imra Asif, Tony He, Isabella Morfin, Eric Wang
Advisor: Dong-Guk Shin
Sponsor: Dr. Sharad Jaitly
3rd place: Team 56

Project Title: MenuMatch
Team Members: Alex Manos, Yaohui Liu, Josef Karpinski, Himanshu Thakur
Advisor: Wei Wei
Sponsor: UConn Computer Science & Engineering Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
1st place - Team 22

Project Title: Scalable Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Variable Ballast System
Team Members: Nickolas Amter, Alessandro Ripari, Zackary Santiana
Advisor: Dr. Gupta
Sponsor: NUWC
2nd place - Team 7

Project Title: Avionics Chassis Design for Harsh Environment Survivability
Team Members: Rachel Saba, Morodoc Tan
Advisor: Liang Zhang
Sponsor: Draper Laboratory
3rd place - Team 1

Project Title: Wireless Telemetry for Formula SAE Race Cars
Team Members: Michael Kosiorek, Phoenix Cardwell, Mia Larkin
Advisor: Shengli Zhou
Sponsor: OWL Integrations
Environmental Engineering
1st place: Team 2

Project Title: Design and Hydraulic Analysis of Culverts in Beaver Brook
Team Members: Grace Mastalli-Lowther, Caroline Peak, Lisel Nee, Ben Piegat
Advisor: Marina Astitha
Sponsor: Town of Wethersfield, CT
2nd place: Team 6

Project Title: Improved Sludge Processing
Team Members: Malcolm Brown Morales, Alex Adamo, Joe Zeppieri, Zinnia Kling
Advisor: Baikun Li
Sponsor: Windham Water Works
3rd place: Team 2

Project Title: Stormwater Management Design for Affordable Housing Development
Team Members: Paul Beisler, Melanie Ramos, Jacob McCormick, Gabriel Scott
Advisor: Marina Astitha
Sponsor: CHA Consulting, Inc.
Management and Engineering for Manufacturing
1st place: Team 9

Project Title: Development of a Dynamic Strand Tension System to Decrease Required Training Level of Operators and Increase Labor Effectiveness by 5 to 50 Percent
Team Members: Liam Kelly, Grant Weaver
Advisor: Craig Calvert, Rajiv Naik
Sponsor: Loos & Co. INC.
2nd place: Team 7

Project Title: Industrial Design of Fuel Cell Power Plants to Boost Aesthetic Appeal for Urban Development Markets to Grow Sales by a Specified Amount
Team Members: Anthony Prior, Mary Barker, Nicholas Bailey, Kaitlyn Nigborowicz
Advisor: Craig Calvert, Rajiv Naik
Sponsor: FuelCell Energy
3rd place: Team 8

Project Title: Design and Development of an Insulin Pen with 50% Size Reduction to Enhance Portability and Support Insulin Therapy for Teens and Young Adults
Team Members: Alex Ji, Juana Garcia, Aston Yip, Aaron Weston
Advisor: Professor Calvert, Professor Naik
Sponsor: Anna Radziwillowicz
Materials Science and Engineering
Judges & Department Winner: Team 8

Project Title: High-Temperature Materials for IVD Evaporation Boats
Team Members: Atharva Shrivastava, Thatcher Slocum, Reid Morrow
Advisor: Dr. Alexander Dupuy
Sponsor: Cametoid Technologies
Audience Choice: Team 7

Project Title: Assessing the Influence of Process Gas and Heat Treatment on Cold Sprayed Metals
Team Members: Samuel Crowley, Jackson Boulter, Wyeth Haddock
Advisor: Mark Aindow
Sponsor: VRC Metal Systems
Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering, School of
Professors Award - Team 6

Project Title: Electric Powered Competition Boat
Team: Elizabeth Adams, Michael Barbera, Andrew Marsigliano, Thomas Cardinali,
Advisor: Chang Liu
Sponsor: ASNE
1st Place: Team 70

Project Title: Tunable Metamaterials for Controlling Waves Using Bubbles
Team Members: Junaid Shah
Advisor: Dr. Osama Bilal
Sponsor: Dr. Osama Bilal
2nd Place: Team 57

Team: Dylan Treacy, Henry Bissonnette, Brandon Campbell
Process to Create Improved Durability Beehive Frame
Advisor: Thomas Mealy
Sponsor: Union Bee Company
3rd Place: Team 2

Project Title: Rapid Airway Access: An automated user-friendly device for emergency blockages
Team Members: Alison Powell, Riley Bernas
Advisor: Dr. Martin Huber
Sponsor: Dr. Laura Staff
Multidisciplinary Engineering
1st place : Team 2

Project Title: Rapid Airway Access
Team Members: Coleman Ross
Advisor: Dr. Jorge Paricio Garcia
Sponsor: Dr. Laura Staff
2nd place: Team 6

Project Title: Redesign and Modernization of the RoscoVIEW
Team Members: Vin Gluck
Advisor: Jorge Paricio
Sponsor: Rosco Laboratories Inc.
3rd place: Team 6

Project Title: Motorized Roll Drop Design and Prototype
Team Members: Benjamin Schwink, Victoria Acuna, Lauren Pope
Advisor: Edward Weingart
Sponsor: Scottish Rite Valley of Hartford - Theater