Florida Tech Students Set To Showcase Science and Engineer Projects in New Statewide Design Invitational

By  //  April 17, 2018

Event Set for Thursday at UCF in Orlando

Seniors from Florida Institute of Technology and nine other Florida universities will showcase their science and engineering projects Thursday at the inaugural 2018 Florida-Wide Student Engineering Design Invitational.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Seniors from Florida Institute of Technology and nine other Florida universities will showcase their science and engineering projects Thursday at the inaugural 2018 Florida-Wide Student Engineering Design Invitational.

The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the University of Central Florida’s College of Engineering and Computer Science in Orlando. The host university designation will rotate among partners in the years to follow.

The Design Invitational was developed by the engineering deans from the 10 universities to showcase the collective strength of engineering and computer science programs in Florida and the impact these institutions have in providing thousands of skilled engineering and technology graduates who enter the workforce prepared to meet the demands of the state’s rapidly-growing innovation economy.

In addition to Florida Tech and UCF, other partners are Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida A&M – Florida State University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, University of Florida, University of Miami, University of North Florida and University of South Florida.

Florida is ranked the nation’s best state for higher education by U.S. News & World Report, and its universities are the nation’s No. 1 workforce supplier to the aerospace and defense industry, according to Aviation Week. With 65,000 open STEM jobs in Florida, highly skilled graduates are in demand.

The Aerospace Wire-Repair Intelligent Systems Experiment, or ARISE, from students at Florida Tech flew 107 miles into the air on a sounding rocket launched March 25 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. ( FIT Image)

Florida Tech, which earlier this month completed its annual Northrop Grumman Engineering & Science Student Design Showcase, is presenting three projects at the Design Invitational:

  • CARACAL (3D Biomedical Reconstruction): This project, from students Pamela Forero, Daniela Friere, Cameron Hume, Prabhuti Kharel and Rahmatul Mahmoud, aims to facilitate the process of 3D bioprinting by controlling the internal environmental parameters of the printer, such as sterility.
  • Aerospace Wire-Repair Intelligent Systems Experiment (ARISE): Students Logan Giacco, Nicholas Cushing, Brace White, Archana Tikayat Ray and Ford Mattice designed an experimental payload that flew aboard a sounding rocket to test a wire repair method developed by NASA and Vencore in microgravity.
  • Scuff Protection Interface (S.P.I.) Project: Students Chris Ballentine, Christopher Dixon, Kyle Koren, Adam Madison, Reid Neal and Quintcey Parrish were tasked with designing a scuff protection interface that would act as a buffer between U.S. Navy equipment and stainless steel and polished concrete floor contacting surfaces.

Additional projects will include advanced vehicles and aircraft, robotics, smart sensing technology, renewable energy and sustainability and space science and exploration.
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