What

Students from the UNLV Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering will put their undergraduate education to the test when they showcase year-long, commercially viable projects designed to solve everyday challenges at the Spring 2012 Senior Design Competition.

When

Thursday May 3, from 7:45 a.m. to 6 p.m.

All projects will be on display for the duration of the event, with a scheduled break from noon to 1 p.m.

Where

Concourse of the Cox Pavilion, UNLV

Details

This semester students from 43 teams accomplished a variety of technologically innovative projects such as a plug-in electric motor for cars to save on gas mileage, a banana box with seven controlled pressure chambers so that one perfectly ripened banana can be consumed each day of the week and a device that sterilizes medical equipment in remote areas using solar power.

The Senior Design Competition is the culminating project for undergraduate engineering students at UNLV. The event is judged by local industry representatives and has thousands of dollars in prize money on the line. The competition introduces students to the spirit of entrepreneurship and the benefits of commercial application.

This year a special emphasis was placed on creating apps for smart phones. Seventeen new apps were created, ranging from a discount app for customers seeking local deals, a yoga tutorial app, or an app that helps collectors log their special collections. This year is also the first year that students from UNLV's new entertainment engineering program will display their projects.

Note: A partial list of projects is outlined below. A complete list of all projects will soon be available at engineering.unlv.edu.

Selected Projects on Display

Retrofit Hybrid Solution

This team created a plug-in electric motor that can be installed under any car. The motor will last for about an hour, helping drivers save on gas mileage during their typical commute. The average driver would save about $3,000 in gas costs during the first year and roughly $17,000 over the seven-year life cycle of a battery.

Instant incentives app

This e-commerce app will cater to the businesses that desire to boost sales in low-traffic times. Registered businesses could log into a website and offer discounts to customers. Once a customer accesses this app, they will receive instant incentive offers from companies that are searchable by zip code and then listed in order by the time remaining on the deal.

Solar Autoclave

In many developing countries, hospitals and clinics are located miles away from the power grid. The autoclave uses solar energy to generate superheated steam that will sterilize important medical tools in remote locations. This could also be used during disaster relief and military applications.

Boom Ease

When it comes to making movies, one of the most important aspects is recording high quality audio. Gathering the sound is the job of the boom operator, who usually uses a telescoping pole to position a microphone above the actors and out of camera frame. The boom holder and harness allows the operator to wear the microphone and be completely hands-free.

Pavement with Return

This group is using piezoelectric energy, or energy pulled from hot, busy Las Vegas streets to power bus shelters in the Las Vegas Valley. Piezoelectric energy is created when extreme amounts of pressure are applied to the pavement because of heavy traffic flow, which causes electrical charges to appear. The group used a small device that can be inserted into roads to channel power created during heavy traffic. Harnessing this type of power could eventually lead to powering roadside businesses, homes, streetlights, billboards and more.

Banana Box

The Banana Box is designed to ripen bananas sequentially so that the consumer has seven bananas ready to eat, one for each day of the week. The box controls the temperature inside seven separate chambers that each will hold one banana. The system monitors humidity and the box will inform the consumer which banana is ready to eat.

SolaCon Concentrating Photovoltaic System

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are one of the largest sources of renewable energy. However, these systems are expensive because of production costs, which limit their widespread use. This project reduces the amount of costly PV cells required to produce a given amount of energy. Creators have used an extensive mirror system to reflect and retain nearly four times as much solar power as existing systems.