Lung Surgery Patients, Lost Hikers Could Benefit from Top Capstone Expo Projects

The fall 2024 showcase of senior design projects across engineering, design, and computing included more than 100 teams presenting their ideas.

By: Joshua Stewart (jstewart@gatech.edu)

Photos: Candler Hobbs and Veronica Soroka

Monday, 02 December 2024

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The five biomedical engineers who won top honors at the fall 2024 Capstone Design Expo created a device intended to avoid a tough-to-treat surgical complication for humans. But their idea started with talking to a veterinarian.

That’s how they learned about tiny lung perforations common to some dog breeds and how difficult the tears are to find. When they talked to surgeons, the students found out similar lung tears are also a problem for humans, especially after minimally invasive surgical procedures. Treatment can involve inserting a chest tube for drainage or, sometimes, a significant chest-opening procedure to find and fix the perforations.

Instead of those hugely invasive approaches, Team Air Detective came up with a device to use alongside a surgical scope and other instruments that uses an infrared detector to find air leaks in the thoracic cavity.

“Patients might have to undergo many surgeries or chest tube drainage, which is very uncomfortable. It prolongs their stay at the hospital for weeks instead of a few days. And it’s also very expensive,” said team member Alondra Torres Aviles. “We were trying to find something that could be used to quickly and easily resolve the issue within a minimally invasive surgery, without having to open the patient.”

The team — which also included Emily Cantrelle, Kanz Elkhiyari, Paola Troconis Infante, and Isabella Turner — was one of 107 groups who presented Dec. 2 at the fall expo, a showcase of design projects from nearly 600 students studying engineering, industrial design, and computer science.

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A look at more projects and teams from the fall Expo.

107

Teams

schools from three colleges

$10,500

in prize money

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a probe sits on table in front of plastic lungs containing inflated balloons

Air Detective's device detects gas leaks due to damage to or accidental perforation of the air-containing organs such the stomach, lungs and more. The project won the overall prize.

devices on a table atop green material that looks like tree leaves

TreeTap is a mesh network of self-powered, tree-hanging devices that improves phone service in national parks.

In addition to the best overall project, judges recognized the top team from each engineering school and the best interdisciplinary project.

The interdisciplinary award went to TreeTap, a low-powered communications system for national parks to allow visitors with mobile phones to reach help — and each other — even with no cellular signal. The network is solar-powered, unobtrusive, and able to send text messages and locations.

The team originally intended to build an emergency network to help find lost hikers in sprawling national parks. But they quickly realized they could do more.

“Talking to park rangers and looking at the numbers, search and rescue is a huge problem. But the problem everyday visitors face is communicating with other people in their party. There's often no service,” said team member and electrical engineering major Aryan Gupta. “So, if we're already making a service that lets you contact SOS or emergency medical services, it's not a huge leap for us to also include a way to communicate with other people in the park.”

Gupta and fellow team members Songji Eun, Jongseob Lee, Juan Macias Romero, and Daksh Sehgal were one of several groups participating in capstone design through the CREATE-X entrepreneurship program. They hope to continue developing their network and test it in Atlanta-area parks.

Other projects jamming the concourse of McCamish Pavilion included:

a smart oil dipstick that tracks oil condition, level, and temperature to alert drivers when it’s time for an oil change.
a device to help astronauts administer intramuscular medications in orbit and one to assist patients rehabilitate ACL injuries without overdoing it.
work to identify user pain points with Hyundai’s Highway Driver Assistance system to encourage more drivers to rely on the semiautonomous driving features.
a net-zero energy residence for the U.S. ambassador in Nepal.
a practice putting green with variable terrain to help golfers practice their green-reading and putting skills.
a wave-energy generator to provide cleaner power for coastal communities with limited infrastructure and heavy reliance on fossil fuels.

three female students in purple scrubs talk to a male judge

Pulse Protect created a wearable cardioverter-defibrillator for patients who face sudden cardiac arrest. Their device easily assimilates into the patient's livelihood.

four students look at a walking-device machine that helps open doors

Doortle Bot is a cane-shaped robot equipped with a variety of sensors, designed to assist people with disabilities in opening heavy doors effortlessly.

female student in dark blue holds a clamp device across a bed

Team Crank That developed an in-bed rehab device designed to preserve strength, encourage movement, and promote dignity in recovery.

For the first time, the fall expo also included a redux of sorts for past projects. Five teams from a new pilot interdisciplinary course, Product Design and Realization, were charged with building on concepts created by past capstone design teams and moving them closer to marketable products.

The course, aimed mainly at third-year students in business, engineering, and design, is part of a new initiative called TechMade that aims to give Georgia Tech students hands-on exposure to the full sweep of product realization, from design to manufacturing, no matter their major.

As for the best overall champ, Team Air Detective is exploring that same pipeline. They’re in conversation with a surgeon who wants to mentor them in developing their product. They also have an invitation to Georgia Tech’s 2025 InVenture Prize competition.

They’ve already learned the power of having an open mind — and working to solve real problems for real people.

“We spoke to all sorts of surgeons. We never pigeonholed ourselves. We just waited for that conversation to organically happen, that light bulb,” Elkhiyari said. “If the surgeon wanted to go in a direction, we just heard them out. It was when we finally heard somebody identify a problem in the moment — based on our strengths, based on what we think we could bring as Georgia Tech engineers — that we settled on a project.”

See all the winners from Capstone Expo below and visit expo.gatech.edu for more projects.

two students holding American flags show other people their device

The Control Freaks team created an automated machine for Flag Co. for the assembly of farming-sized flags.

a student shows two people a circular device on a table

Chest Champions developed a monitor to measure forces exerted by a orthosis that corrects pectus carinatum, a deformity of the chest wall caused when the breastbone and ribs push outward.

a model of small solar panels with small human silhouette

Agrivoltaic Vineyards designed a system to generate power and increase future economic development with a long-term, climate resilient crop-shading system in family-owned farms in the West Bank.

three male students talk to an attendee while standing behind computers and machines on a table

Smart Dipstick relays oil condition, temperature, and level to the vehicle owners so they can get oil changes when they're needed and not at arbitrary mileages.

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