See beautiful soccer-themed solar sculptures proposed for placement at Orlando City Stadium made by UCF art and engineering students; an augmented-reality restaurant menu that shows a food selection in 3D before ordering; a six-legged robot that intelligently walks or rolls depending on the terrain and more will be on display as hundreds of UCF engineering and computer science students showcase their inventions.

More than 120 showcased projects are part of Senior Design, a capstone course for engineering and computer science disciplines at UCF. Students take Senior Design I to brainstorm and design a project before bringing it to life in Senior Design II the following semester. Many projects are sponsored by corporate clients. Graduating students present their projects to a panel of faculty, staff and engineering professionals at the end of the semester to prove their knowledge and that they are job-ready.

The showcase also gives employers a chance to check out the talent pool. UCF is the nation’s No. 1 workforce supplier to the aerospace and defense industry and is among the nation’s top producers of engineers and computer scientists.

The event takes place on Thursday, April 19 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. in the Harris Engineering Center and Engineering II Building on UCF’s main campus.

From 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., the showcase will feature the Duke Energy Symposium on Renewable and Sustainable Technology, with keynote speaker Doug Guidish, ’07, Founder and CEO, Guard Dog Valves. The symposium will also feature one project designed and presented by six graduation mechanical engineering students. The project is a composite glass-polymer metamaterial that has the potential to drastically reduce the energy usage and cost of cooling a home through the concept of “passive radiative cooling.”

See the event program with all projects descriptions.

New this year, UCF will host the Inaugural Florida-Wide Student Design Invitational. Nine engineering colleges from around the state will come to UCF campus and showcase an additional 25 projects. The first-of-its-kind partnership is intended to show the strength and scope of the engineering and computer science talent pipeline in Florida, and how the universities are fueling Florida’s innovation economy. See here for event flyer and project descriptions.

The showcase will end with an awards reception in the Engineering II Atrium from 3:30 – 5 p.m. The ceremony, hosted by the college’s alumni chapter, recognizes the top projects in each discipline, the top visiting project, and Best-In-Show as voted on by our volunteer panel of industry professionals.

Here are just a few of the projects that will be on display:

Solar Sculptures Proposed for Orlando City Stadium, Sponsored by Orlando Utilities Commission
Three teams have been challenged by the Orlando Utilities Commission to propose a solar-powered art sculpture to be placed at Orlando City Stadium downtown, home of the Orlando City Soccer Club. A fourth team of electrical engineering students is participating as consultants to all three sculpture teams. The three featured sculptures include “Giration” Soccer Ball with Filigree Shadows Solar Sculpture, “¡Golazo!” Soccer Player Kicking Upwards Into Net Solar Sculpture, and the “Project Impact” Bursting Soccer Ball and Three Risers Solar Sculpture.

“Noni” Augmented Reality Restaurant Menu
Most menus are made up of plain text and photos, often with unclear descriptions. Noni allows restaurant goers to view 3D models of a menu item in augmented reality to provide an authentic view of the food selection. The 3D models can be created quickly and effectively. The demo will allow users to choose a supported restaurant, point it at the table and experience the food as if it were actually there.

“SigSent” – Six-Legged Robot that Walks or Rolls (Pictured above)
A real-life transformer, this surveillance assistant demonstrates the robotic intelligence to differentiate terrain (rough or smooth) and adapt accordingly. Six legs enable the robot to walk over rough terrain like an insect. When it encounters a smooth surface, the robot’s mobility mechanism switches to wheels for smooth-rolling.

—CECS—