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Juan Esparza, Breanna Buck, Nicole Kunz, Justin Benz
May 13, 2024

Inaugural ECE Capstone Design event highlights student innovation

Written By: Allyson Crowley

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The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison hosted its first ECE Capstone Design Open House on May 3, 2024. Twenty-two student teams from three senior design courses created projects of their own invention throughout the semester and presented them at the event in Engineering Hall. In addition to having the opportunity to explain their work to event participants, teams were eligible to win best poster and project awards.

The Capstone Design classes participating were:
ECE453 – Embedded Microprocessor System Design – Instructed by Teaching Faculty Joe Krachey
ECE454 – Mobile Computing Laboratory – Instructed by Associate Professor Kassem Fawaz
ECE554 – Digital Engineering Laboratory – Instructed by Teaching Faculty Eric Hoffman

Krachey spoke to the value of the event, “The ECE Capstone Open House is a showcase of all the hard work our students have invested in themselves over the last four years.  Our students get to display their incredible technical skills, ingenuity, and creativity for their peers, parents, and the next group of students that will follow them through our program.  It’s a fun and rewarding experience that helps to illustrate the truly outstanding students that we get the privilege to work with at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.”

Lanny Smith and Ryan Dingle
Alumni Judge Lanny Smith – Public Service Commission (PSCW) – Power System Engineer, Retired with Goldfish Gobblers team member Colin Budish

Joining the event as guest judges, were nine ECE alumni whose experience ranged from software engineer to patent attorney to CEOs of mobile gaming and electric utilities companies. Students presented their projects to the judges, explaining the inspiration for their ideas as well as the process and technology used to create a finished product.

Alumni Judge Forrest Woolworth, Chief Operating Officer with PerBlue Entertainment, Inc. commented, “There is so much work that goes into capstone projects – many hours and late nights spent in the lab with your teammates. An event like this was a great way for students to be able to show off all of their hard work. It was energizing to see all the very creative projects and talk to the teams. It really highlighted all of the bright and passionate students in ECE at UW.”

The event was followed by a reception for student teams, alumni judges, and faculty where the winners of each category were announced. The department plans to continue this event at the end of each fall and spring semester.

Jacob Leong and Matthew Demeter and Susan Hagness
Jacob Leong and Matthew Demeter of team JABM received the Best Project Award – Embedded Microprocessor System Design from ECE Department Chair Susan Hagness for their remote tower crane controller.
Brian Castellano, not shown
Two students in front of project poster
Voice Canvas was one of two teams that tied for Best Project Award – Mobile Computing for their app that transforms speech into stories and images.
Drew Tovar and Rago Senthilkumar, shown
Pranav Jayabalan and Thomas Ochalek, not shown
Students with certificates stand with Susan Hagness
SO’Saved was also one of two teams that tied for Best Project Award – Mobile Computing for their app that analyzes photos of injuries and symptoms.
Duncan Boynton, Gianna Freking, Vanya Srivastava, Ilan Karchmer and Susan Hagness
Noah Kurszewski, Noah DeGroot, Jonathan Yang, Brian Huang and Susan Hagness
Noah Kurszewski, Noah DeGroot, Jonathan Yang, and Brian Huang from Team Not Sure received the Best Project Award – Digital Engineering from Susan Hagness for their Pong game.
Ryuki Koda, not shown
Kassem Fawaz presenting slide
Associate Professor Kassem Fawaz explained the criteria that was used by an artificial intelligence algorithm to generate the winners of the Best Poster Award – AI Choice.
Students with certificates gathered with Susan Hagness
Two teams took the Best Poster Award – AI Choice: Run Right (App used to improve runners’ form and provide coaching) and Goldfish Gobblers (Remote disaster drone).
Team Goldfish Gobblers also won the Best Project-Embedded Microprocessor System Design Award.

From left to right: Team Run Right’s Alan Zheng, Lordphone Wen, and Bryce Chen; and Goldfish Gobblers’ Dylan Pauel, Colin Budish, Aditya Kamasani with Susan Hagness
Students with certificates stand with Susan Hagness
Juan Esparza, Brenna Buck, Nicole Kunz, and Justin Benz from Team StickyKeys (Sign language recognition device) received the Best Poster Award – Embedded Microprocessor System Design from Susan Hagness
Four students with certificates standing with Susan Hagness
Garry Chen, Alvin Cheng, Avula Ashwin, and Yuchen Chang from Team Alvin & the Chip-Monks received the Best Poster – Digital Engineering Award from Susan Hagness
Students holding sports equipment
Kaushal Chandrasek, Coltan Dahl, Travis Wallander, and Sam Fjellman from Team FlexField created an app that merges social media and event scheduling to help people connect for athletic pick up games.
Marwan Estiban, Brian Castellano, Matthew Demeter, Jacob Leong
Alumni judge Marwan Estiban, Kohler Company, Director: Engineering, Electronics and Smart Tech, K&B Group, and JABM team members Jacob Leong, Brian Castellano, and Matthew Demeter discussed their remote tower crane controller.
Reem Al Mazroa, Sissi Liu, Yuvakshi Kalra
Sissi Liu, Yuvakshi Kalra and Reem Al Mazroa of Team Mu-tion demonstrated their novel gaming controllers.
Four students with gaming swords
Patrick Nowakowski, Sam Katerov, Wilson Guo and Aidan Mulvaney from Team Pineapple Samuri presented their technological take on a popular fruit slicing game.

Photo at top of page: Juan Esparza, Brenna Buck, Nicole Kunz, and Justin Benz from Team StickyKeys