Senior Design Projects

Dynamic Stability Tray

Senior mechanical engineering students Jay Price, Darwin Millard, Jonathan Bean and Blake Olson teamed up to design and build an accessory tray for a rolling walker that makes frustrating spills a rare occurrence. Having grown up with a father who suffered from multiple sclerosis, Price was inspired to make life easier for the more than 12 million other Americans currently using mobility aids.

The Dynamic Stability Tray incorporates a stabilizing device consisting of four polypropylene rails along with some ball bearings and additional components. The device allows the tray to remain level while the user goes up and down ramps or tilts from side to side, and it sustains low-speed impacts.

The students already have a provisional patent on their device and are involved in licensing discussions with a major medical equipment manufacturer. Their project also won first place and a $2,000 prize in the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship's Undergraduate Business Plan Competition on April 30, 2008

BallBot

Remotely controlled by an Xbox game paddle, the BallBot is a spherical robot designed to carry a small payload such as a high resolution digital camera into a locations where it would be difficult or dangerous to send humans. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. sponsored senior design students Nolan Amy, Bradley Brisnehan, Bradford Peagler, Myles Raymond, Cristal Salcido, and David Tovani for the creation of this project, which has potential for both military