Sponsor - PNM 

Through the process of natural gas power generation waste water is generated through different cooling and cleaning methods in support of a steam and gas turbine. The bulk of the water is processed through a waste water system and recycled. By-products of the waste water process are pumped into an evaporation pond and stored until a point that the pond has to be cleaned out. The current cleaning process of an evaporation pond is pretty crude, most commonly a backhoe loader resulting in damaging the rubber liner. These liners are very expensive to replace due to the size, being double lined and leak proof to prevent environmental incidents. The goal is to utilize a solids separator to prevent future solids from ever accumulating in the pond again.

Sponsor - NMSU

Battle-Bots is an international phenomenon where remote controlled robots compete to destroy each other.  The robots are engineered with weapons and robust drive trains to make them as competitive as possible.  New Mexico Tech hosts an annual Battle-Bots competition and NMSU was invited to join this year.  The team will be tasked with designing, building, testing, and competing in NMT's battle-bot event.

Sponsor - NMSU

Battle-Bots is an international phenomenon where remote controlled robots compete to destroy each other.  The robots are engineered with weapons and robust drive trains to make them as competitive as possible.  New Mexico Tech hosts an annual Battle-Bots competition and NMSU was invited to join this year.  The team will be tasked with designing, building, testing, and competing in NMT's battle-bot event.

Sponsor - Los Alamos National Laboratory

The goal of this project is to investigate meshing algorithms and volume calculation on various geometries using pointclouds generated  from a tactile Coordinate Measuring Machine. 

Sponsor - Los Alamos National Laboratory

In the DOE weapons complex, electrostatic discharge (ESD) poses a hazardous situation when coupled to sensitive high explosive materials. The proposed research and project aims to develop a greater understanding of the effects of capacitive scaling on ESD hazards. Students will be encouraged to use their knowledge, research, and creative abilities throughout the project to develop a methodology to explore the effects of capacitive scaling on ESD hazards, this will include a test prototype test apparatus and associated testing to generate and characterize these effects.

Sponsor - Dak Stick

This is an apparatus that facilitates the process of walking your pet

Sponsor - Honeywell FM&T

The project team shall continue development of a data acquisition system for use in an off road vehicle.  They shall improve upon an existing system through ruggedization, packaging, and focus on end-user experience, effectively progressing from a functional prototype to a production design.

Sponsor - NMSU

In this project we pursue to develop a 3-way (A-B-C) cow drafting gate system capable of physically sorting cattle into management groups for purposes of feeding, breeding or routinary inspections. The intended SmartGate system is expected to be deployed at remote ranching locations with limited or no access to power or Ethernet and to be controlled by individualized data on animal condition being remotely acquired by body scanners located near water troughs and movement sensors mounted on cows.

Sponsor - NMSU

Organized dog sports is a rapidly growing industry. Dock jumping, also known as dock diving, is a sporting competition in which dogs compete in several events where the dog jumps from a raised platform, usually known as a dock, into the water. Several events require a dog to retrieve a bumper (type of toy) suspended above the water. The mechanism to hold the bumper involves straps held by lightweight clips. The clips present issues related to safety and consistency.

Sponsor - EcoArt

EcoArt is a small scale, renewable energy project which seeks to harness the power of triboelectricity to create energy. We have one working prototype: A punching bag in the shape of a cactus. The working mechanism inside uses springs to rub together large strips of polymide tape and aluminum tape. The energy is then captured via copper wires.

Sponsor - The Aerospace Corporation

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the impact on the electrical performance of a small satellite modular electrical power system upon exposure to random vibration and mechanical shock conditions.

Sponsor - The Aerospace Corporation

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the impact of vibrations generated by on-board momentum exchange devices on the microphonic sensitivity of a small satellite modular electrical power system.

Sponsor -NMSU

Building a modular, hydroponic growing container system for home use that is easy to assemble & use, but also aesthetically pleasing & efficient could revolutionize container gardening & make it more accessible to a wider variety of consumers.

Sponsor - NMSU

Design and build a method to extract electric power from a 22.5 lbs thrust model turbojet engine. Generate detailed CAD drawings of engine.

Sponsor - WHA International

Develop a design for a system which integrates with one of the WHA promoted combustion of metals test systems to produce ignition of metal samples in pressurized oxygen.

Sponsor - Acoustics Capstone Team

A team of engineers will develop an entirely new approach to speaker design and reinvent the definition of high fidelity. The technical rigor necessary for this project are: magnetic fields, circuit theory, mechanical tension, material vibrations, and acoustics. Magnetostatic loudspeakers will require out of the box thinking to bring the purest sounds to a wide audience.

Sponsor - Los Alamos National Laboratory

Team members will each design their own radiation shield given some set of design constrains and performance objectives. The design space will be limited to metal powder-epoxy resin composites. Team members will then fabricate their shields and a shield designed by a computer algorithm to measure and compare their performances.  Advanced knowledge of radiation transport is not required.

Sponsor - The Aerospace Corporation 

This is a modeling project to explore optimal allocation of space defense assets to protect high-value satellites in geosynchronous orbit.  There are not enough defense systems to protect all high-value geo satellites.  How best to allocated the limited defense capabilities to maximize the number of protected satellites.

Sponsor - Survivability, Vulnerability and Assessment Directorate 

At the WSMR Linear Accelerator (LINAC), students will be able to characterize and gain a better understanding of photo currents and this damage mechanism by testing a diode or simple transistor.

Sponsor - NMSU 

Your job is to design an efficient 3D-printed object cradle to withstand the environment (temperature changes, vibration, shock from a drop tower) to protect an object utilizing the minimum amount of material. Details are still being finalized but we do expect the need of a data collection system, similar to a flight recorder, capable of withstanding the environmental conditions.

Sponsor - NMSU 

Combining machine learning and robotics to create an interesting demo of 10+ degrees of freedom robotics.

Sponsor - Honeywell FM&T

Our DoE customers require solutions that are not available off the shelf and have to be made keeping the specific end user's needs in mind. They operate a fleet of mission-critical vehicles and Honeywell is interested in increasing their capabilities from a data acquisition standpoint. This capstone project encapsulates a high-performance design challenge we often face at Honeywell - progressing from a customer request to conception to delivery within a short time frame.

Sponsor - WERC Environment Design Contest

Your team will help preserve the nation's freshwater supply by proposing and demonstrating a technology for reducing evaporation at Freeport-McMoRan's Mine Tailings Facilities in the arid U.S. southwest. Your solution should be innovative and not change the chemistry of the water in the tailings facility.

Sponsor - WERC Environment Design Contest

Your team is challenged to design a portable process or device to detect and quantify microplastics in real time or near-real time (as quickly as possible, with target of 30 minutes). It is expected that the device will be used on lakes and reservoirs, and thus must fit in a small watercraft and, if needed, the power supply must be portable.

Sponsor - JAAM Co.

The end goal of this project is to prototype the ultimate mountain bike multi-tool. Included in this will be refining the idea and 3D designing the product. The multitool is required to have the following features: mountain bike stand, multiple allen keys, chain breaker, spoke wrench, and CO2 cartridge inflator. The challenge of this is to achieve all of this in a small enough form factor that it could be put in a pack or pocket.

Sponsor - Los Alamos National Laboratory

Students will interrogate AM Parts made with Polymer Blends of Nylon and measure various properties of the material.

Sponsor - Three Crosses Innovations

Renewable energy is on the rise. We have solar power, geothermal power, hydroelectric power and wind power. However, there are not many options for how that power is harnessed. In this project we will focus on wind energy and designing a product that allows us to optimize our energy production.

Sponsor - NMSU

Tortillas made with the traditional method are labor intensive, the Minerva Robotics seeks to use robotic systems and artificial intelligence to outsource these intensive and repetitive tasks to collaborative machines for addressing this issue and enhancing the handmade tortilla process. The goal of this capstone project is to use a robotic arm (ViperX 300 Robot Arm 6DoF, Trossen Robotics) with a customized gripper, vision-based manipulation, and on-line/off-line motion planning for automating a part of tortilla making process including detecting doughballs with different layouts and pick-and-place doughballs on the presser for making a tortilla.

Sponsor - Kansas City National Security Campus 

Develop, design, fabricate, assemble and test pressure vessels using polymer AM.  Teams should consider single vs. multi piece designs, assembly methods, installation of hardware (threaded inserts, gauges, pressure fittings, etc.) and pressure test setup as a part of this project.