Helping and family were prominent themes at the College of Engineering’s 2023 Craig M. Berge Design Day. 

This year, 99 teams of seniors completed projects requested by industry and university sponsors. At Design Day they competed for $47,000 in prizes. The $7,500 top prize, the Craig M. Berge Dean’s Award for Most Outstanding Project, went to Team 23078 for Snorpheus. The wearable device records sleeper data to guide treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA.

Team lead Logan Deane, a biomedical engineering major, also won one of two project leadership awards.

“I could not have gotten a better team. They’ve basically become my family throughout this,” she said.

The college’s four-year design program as well as Design Day, an annual opportunity for engineering seniors to present their yearlong capstone projects to the public and hundreds of judges, are named for Craig M. Berge. An engineering alumnus and longtime supporter, Berge died in 2017. His widow, Nancy Berge, and daughter, Barbara Berge Campbell, were honored guests at this year’s event and helped present the first-place award.

“Craig and Nancy are proud alums of this university. Craig was an amazing engineer, and I know he would be fascinated to see what’s been accomplished thanks to his family’s generosity,” said David W. Hahn, the Craig M. Berge Dean of the college.

Nancy Berge said it was wonderful to attend in person and hear from students about their projects.

“It’s thrilling to see the students so excited,” she said. “Everyone is just filled with gratitude. That makes it even nicer.”

Improving Health

The winning project, Snorpheus, provides valuable information about the snoring and sleeping positions of those who suffer from OSA, helping clinicians recommend the best therapy. Based on the information, clinicians might work with patients to sleep in different positions or use oral implants that reshape the mouth. Both treatments prevent snoring, which leads to OSA, and are permanent solutions that address the root cause of illness, unlike CPAP therapy, which only addresses symptoms, said team member Nisha Rajakrishna, a biomedical engineering major.

OSA is a disease in itself, and it can be implicated in medical conditions such as stroke and hypertension, she said.

“By getting ahead of the issue through our diagnostic tool, we prevent snoring, prevent OSA, prevent serious medical conditions from continuing,” said Rajakrishna, who is headed to medical school at University of Michigan after she completes a year-long research project.

A few health-related projects impressed Tyler Brown, a mechanical engineering alum and judge who works for W.L. Gore and Associates.

“They were able to directly affect patients’ lives in a positive way, and they’re so close to being able to be used in real life because of the prototyping and testing the teams had already done,” he said.

One was Team 23030’s Novel Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training Device, which won both Gore's $1,250 Award for Lifelong Innovation and the Rincon Research Award for Best Presentation at $1,500. The team developed a respiratory training system, a handheld device that provides live user feedback, to reduce blood pressure.

This project and others, said Gore colleague and fellow judge and engineering alum Vina Nguyen, demonstrate continual improvement in Craig M. Berge Design Day projects.

“I’m seeing more projects now that are more complete, further along the design cycle and closer to commercialization,” Nguyen said.

‘Today Is the Day’

“Today is the day where all of your designs came together,” Hahn told the students as he opened the awards ceremony. “Today we have a chance to recognize all your wonderful accomplishments.”

Awards went to a wide variety of projects, including Team 23037 for its BattleBot, a 250-pound combat robot that earned the $2,500 L3Harris Commercial Aviation Solutions Award for Most Robust Systems Engineering. The team has plans to audition for the BattleBots television show.

Garnering the $1,000 IEEE Tucson Section Award for Best Use and Implementation of Engineering Standards was Team 23077’s AQUABOT Aquatic Drone Coordination, Communication and Control system. The AQUABOT serves as proof of concept for a drone system to monitor ocean health and remove plastics.

View the Design Day booklet and project videos.

Craig M. Berge Design Day 2023 Winners

Craig M. Berge Dean’s Award for Most Outstanding Project – $7,500
Team 23078: Snorpheus
Noah Butler, Christine M Carlson, Logan Deane, Evan Bradley Rains, Nisha Anjali Rajakrishna
Project Sponsor: Alpa Merchant DDS PC

Raytheon Technologies Award for Best Overall Design – $5,000
Team 23017: Automated Universal Part Singulator (AUPS)
Abdullah Albar, Kevin Dennis Gilman, Nafisul Huq Khondaker, Daniel Mack, Anthony Phillips, Esmeralda Pimentel Enriquez
Project Sponsor: Rexroth – a Bosch Company

Bly Family Award for Innovation in Energy Production, Supply or Use (First Prize) – $2,000
Team 23014: Feeding the Future: Student-led Design at the Nexus of Food, Energy & Water
Brooke Elizabeth Bykowski, Lynn Carroll, Logan Eaton, Stephanie Beatrice Orchard, Alejandro Quijada, Hailey R Schleining
Project Sponsor: Biosphere 2

Bly Family Award for Innovation in Energy Production, Supply or Use (Second Prize) – $1,000
Team 23050: Rotating Detonation Engine Heat Management System
Nicolas Gross, Nathan Grossman, Sean Brian Harkins, Briannah Herman, Joseph Reid, Richie Ruicheng Ye
Project Sponsor: Nobel

Ball Aerospace Award for Best System Software Design – $2,500
Team 23083: Mixed Reality (MR) Diagnostic and Treatment System
David Adkins, Shaylan R Bera, Hayden Kim, David Chibuikem Mazi, Jason Zhang
Project Sponsor: Jackson Medical

L3Harris Commercial Aviation Solutions Award for Most Robust Systems Engineering – $2,500
Team 23037: BattleBots
Yousuf Choudhary, Al Hurworth, Karson Knudson, Mathias Micah Ramirez, Nick Scott Sivertson, Alex Tynan Wait
Project Sponsor: Wildcat Robotics, supported by the Craig M. Berge Dean’s Fund

RBC Sargent Aerospace & Defense Voltaire Design Award – $2,500
Team 23042: Live Silage Analyzer and Mini-Fermenter
Fahad Mohammad Alrashed, Martin Calderon, Canyon Charles Cooke, Erick F Dzeketey, Alex J Hillman
Project Sponsor: UA Department of Biosystems Engineering

Coherent Award for Best Optical Systems Design – $1,500
Team 23019: Optical Scatterometer
Nate Thomas Bushong, Daulton R Fox, Ethan Lance Potthoff, Will Reynolds, Chase A Toncheff, Rachel R Turner
Project Sponsor: Ball Aerospace

Rincon Research Award for Best Presentation – $1,500
Team 23030: Novel Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST) Device
Tommy M Carder, Dylan McGuire, Collin Alexander Preszler, Nicholas Sherwood Quatraro, Saul Silva
Project Sponsor: UA Department of Biomedical Engineering

Cliff Andressen Award for Design Above and Beyond – $1,500
Team 23083: Mixed Reality (MR) Diagnostic and Treatment System
David Adkins, Shaylan R Bera, Hayden Kim, David Chibuikem Mazi, Jason Zhang
Project Sponsor: Jackson Medical

Roche Tissue Diagnostics Award for Most Innovative Engineering Design – $1,500
Team 23018: Throw Phone for UAPD/FBI Crisis Negotiation Team
Tanner Birecki, Reid Clark, John Paul LaRue, Thaddeus Propper, Marcus Tal Wieser
Project Sponsor: UA Police Department/FBI, supported by the Craig M. Berge Dean’s Fund

W.L. Gore and Associates Award for Lifelong Innovation – $1,250
Team 23030: Novel Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST) Device
Tommy M Carder, Dylan McGuire, Collin Alexander Preszler, Nicholas Sherwood Quatraro, Saul Silva
Project Sponsor: UA Department of Biomedical Engineering

Steve Larimore Award for Perseverance & Recovery – $1,250
Team 23105: Support Aerial Incendiary Locator (SAIL)
Max Chen, Katelyn E Hackworth, Maanyaa Kapur, Yash Vardhan Singh, Alton Matthew Zhang
Project Sponsor: NASA/Universal Avionics

Mark Brazier Award for Best Biomedical System Design – $1,000
Team 23061: Pressure Sensing Self-Regaining Retractor
McKenzie Leigh Bieg, Mark Andrew Bosset, Dania Laura Perez, Timor Shahin, Evan Smith
Project Sponsor: UA Department of Biomedical Engineering

Henry & Suzanne Morgen Award for Best Consideration of The End User – $1,000
Team 23024: Cytology Slide Prep and Vial Storage System
Paige Bayze, Collin Garard, Filiberto Quintero, Andrew K Tapia, Jackson Alexander Webb, Ibrahim Saad Zaky
Project Sponsor: Roche

Technical Documentation Consultants of Arizona Award for Best Design Documentation – $1,000
Team 23057: Design of Remote-Controlled Automation of the Transformer Bioreactor (T-Bioreactor)
Greg R Burke, Alex Cantor, Angelo Mauro, Xingye Peng, Yoni Wulf
Project Sponsor: UA Department of Biosystems Engineering

Ana Needham Award for Best External Collaboration by a Single Discipline Team – $1,000
Team 23118: In-House Foam Part Production
Chandler Arden Canant, Dallan D Graybill, Sophia Mischke, Jamie Nicole Scott
Project Sponsor: Hydronalix

TRAX International Award for Best Implementation of Agile Methodology – $1,000
Team 23023: Large Tractor Ladder Latch Design
Harsh Bansal, Dom Jelenkovic, Blake Andrew Rosen, Albert Isaiah Rubalcava, Kasey Spradling, Matthew Villanueva
Project Sponsor: Caterpillar

IEEE Tucson Section Award for Best Use and Implementation of Engineering Standards – $1,000
Team 23077: AQUABOT C3 – Aquatic Drone Coordination, Communication & Control
Cristian Daniel De Gante Hernandez, LD Dukes, Garrett Austin Fenderson, Austin Greif, Sidhant Gulati, Siwen Wang
Project Sponsor: UA Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation

The Mensch Foundation Award for Best Use of Embedded Intelligence – $1,000
Team 23088: Supplement Recommending Mobile App with Handheld Measuring Device for Saliva pH and Calcium Levels
Anett Marian Garcia, Keegan Daniel Godfrey, Nathan Herling, Raphael Lepercq, Elliot Zuercher
Project Sponsor: Gesund Me

Larry Head Award for Best Video Capturing the Project Story – $1,000
Team 23104: Spatial Exploration with Robotic Operators (SpERO)
Roman Joseph Anthis, Anna Elizabeth Dinkel, Andrew Gabriel Frisch, Elijah West Greenfield, Nicholas Scott Mammana, Kylar Joshua Nietzel
Project Sponsor: NASA

Honeywell Award for Excellence in Aerospace Electronic System Design – $1,000
Team 23092: STAR - Short Term Aerial Recognizance
Cesar Armando Bours, Caleb William Eubanks, Josh Ray Forrest, Tyler Stephen Monlux, Gabby Parks
Project Sponsor: Raytheon Technologies

Honeywell Award for Excellence in Aerospace Mechanical System Design – $1,000
Team 23025: Airfoil Cascade Hub Injection II
Becky Burns, Alhasan Haliru, Jake David Petersen, Abishek Sreenivasan, Avery Stockdale-Stephens
Project Sponsor: Honeywell

Phoenix Analysis & Design Technologies Award for Best Use of Prototyping – $750
Team 23018: Throw Phone for UAPD/FBI Crisis Negotiation Team
Tanner Birecki, Reid Clark, John Paul LaRue, Thaddeus Propper, Marcus Tal Wieser
Project Sponsor: UA Police Department/FBI

Coherent Fish Out of Water Award – $750
Kylar Joshua Nietzel (Team 23104: SpERO - Spatial Exploration with Robotic Operators)

Dataforth Corporation Award for Best Design Using a Data Acquisition and Control System – $500
Team 23031: Autonomous Mechanical Spider (AMS) Platform for Crop/Turf Management
Ali Alaqeel, Eli J Bitzko, Tam Friedman, Kaleb Gabriel Lucero, Shambhavi Singh, Ismail Abdul-Aziz Zaki
Project Sponsor: UA Department of Biosystems Engineering

L3Harris Unmanned Systems Award for Best Physical Implementation of Analytically Driven Design – $500
Team 23058: Mirror Distortion Measurement
Reem Alruwaih, Karen Jicel Bermudez Valdez, Caroline Ann Humphreys, Cameron James Sexton, Clayton T Smith
Project Sponsor: Caterpillar

Simpson Family Award for Best Simulation and Modeling – $500
Team 23044: Comprehensive Modeling of Beam Propagation in Multimode Fiber & Experimental Validation (Year 2)
Francisco Javier Flowers, Oscar Hsueh, Atkin David Hyatt, Lauren McCaffrey, Oliver Wu
Project Sponsor: ASML

Frank L. Boyles Award for Best UAS Design – $500
Team 23091: PODBot Print on Demand Robots
Buddy Bacheller, Robert Jeffrey Dyer, Joe Manas, Nick Alexander Miller, Brian John Sanderson
Project Sponsor: Raytheon Technologies

Ergo Dave Award for Best Use of Human Factors Engineering – $500
Team 23021: Medical Grade Leak-Proof Spigot for Diagnostic Reagents and Waste
Mohammed Almousa, Hector Flores, Rebecca Ger, Alec Jordan Blaauw Mills, Daniel Ramos Flores, Jason Zhang
Project Sponsor: Roche

AZ Technica Award for Manufacturing Readiness – $500
Team 23021: Medical Grade Leak-Proof Spigot for Diagnostic Reagents and Waste
Mohammed Almousa, Hector Flores, Rebecca Ger, Alec Jordan Blaauw Mills, Daniel Ramos Flores, Jason Zhang
Project Sponsor: Roche

AZ Technica Award for Sustainable Manufacturing Innovation – $500
Team 23014: Feeding the Future: Student-led Design at the Nexus of Food, Energy & Water
Brooke Elizabeth Bykowski, Lynn Carroll, Logan Eaton, Stephanie Beatrice Orchard, Alejandro Quijada, Hailey R Schleining
Project Sponsor: Biosphere 2

Honeywell Award for Team Leadership – $250 per awardee
Logan Deane (Team 23078: Snorpheus)

Wesley Chiu (Team 23062: An IoT-Based System for At-Home Behavioral and Physiological Health Interventions)