The Student Innovator of the Year (SIOY) competition each year is an excellent opportunity for students to show off their technical and professional projects. Students come together from a variety of majors to work in teams to develop their products and technologies. Many of this year’s finalists have our students from Electrical and Computer Engineering and Cybersecurity on their teams! Let’s see what they’ve been working on.
Logan Cropper from Varroa Tech has been working on a device that allows beekeepers to accurately monitor the presence of Varroa Mite infestations in their hives. Varroa Mites are the main threat to beehive collapse worldwide, so the team’s project has the potential to save countless hives. The device uses a unique chemical detection technique that will detect Varroa Mite infestations and help beekeepers seek treatment before the damage is irreversible. Logan Cropper is a senior in Electrical Engineering and has led the electromechanical development of the project including concept development, physical prototyping, PCB design, and the embedded systems programming. The team is excited to see the opportunities that their technology opens up in beekeeping and agriculture.
R3ALITY is another SIOY finalist with an electrical engineer, Andrew McDonald, who is a junior in the program. The team is creating a 3D printer that is designed to work in space and in any physical orientation. They are doing it in conjunction with the BYU Rocketry Club, and the printer will be tested later this year when they officially launch the rocket. The goal of this printer is to print replacement parts or tools in space, and one potential application is in the International Space Station. Currently, the ISS has other 3D printers, but they are made to print human tissue or assist in other biofabrication. Sending astronauts specific supplies is very expensive and takes a long time, so it would be useful to have a more traditional printer that could be used for other objects they might need. Andrew McDonald, as an electrical engineer, has been working on—you guessed it–the electronics. With his teammates, they are creating a small raspberry pi computer that comes with a touchscreen. It works jointly with a motor driver which controls the moving parts of the printer.
Another impactful project that has come out of SIOY is DryRise, a sensor to detect a full bladder before a bed-wetting incident occurs. Preston Thomas, a student of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has used his experience with coding to make this project come to life. The sensor uses bioimpedance, which measures electrical resistance in living tissues. It is the same technology that smart scales use. Smart scales will send undetectable signals through the body and measure how the body resists the signal. This is how it then returns the body fat percentage or other metric. The DryRise sensor will send an electrical signal through the bladder, one so faint it is unable to be noticed, to detect changes in the bladder using this technology. Paired with the sensor will be a mobile app, which Preston Thomas is coding for Android and iOS. The team is still developing ways to alert the user, but some potential options they have explored include a phone alarm or a sort of haptic feedback on the sensor itself, whether it is a vibration or muscle stimulus.
Among the SIOY finalists is also BRIZI, a team that has been developing ventilated car seat inserts with the purpose of helping infants keep cool and reduce excessive sweating. There is one Electrical Engineering student on the team, Josh Thornton.
Come support these incredible teams and projects at the SIOY Finals on Thursday from 3-5 in the EB Event Space! Attendants can vote for their favorite project to decide the Crowd Favorite award. More details can be found here.