A drone, wind turbine, plastic cutter and more: URI engineering students show off senior projects

Senior engineering capstone projects were showcased at the University of Rhode Island campus on May 3, including RADSUB, a submersible designed to inspect the core of a nuclear reactor. Members of the team are shown from left to right: John Carlin, of Sayville, N.Y., Matthew Repetto, of Westchester, N.Y., Josh Cormier of LaPlace, La., Gabriel D’Antonio, of Cranston, Paul Martin, reactor supervisor for the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center on URI's Narragansett Bay Campus, and Douglas Cochran, an intern at the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND/MICHAEL SALERNO
Senior engineering capstone projects were showcased at the University of Rhode Island campus on May 3, including RADSUB, a submersible designed to inspect the core of a nuclear reactor. Members of the team are shown from left to right: John Carlin, of Sayville, N.Y., Matthew Repetto, of Westchester, N.Y., Josh Cormier of LaPlace, La., Gabriel D’Antonio, of Cranston, Paul Martin, reactor supervisor for the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center on URI's Narragansett Bay Campus, and Douglas Cochran, an intern at the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND/MICHAEL SALERNO

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Engineering students at the University of Rhode Island showed off their senior projects on May 3 to parents, professors and their peers.
The event, at the Kirk Center for Advanced Technology, featured projects that the engineering students had been working on all year for their senior design capstone class. Visitors could even take fliers about the projects home.
Senior Alex Desilets, of South Kingstown, demonstrated UPLOAD, a drone that takes off and lands on water. The drone has a hidden drawer that can carry items weighing up to 8 pounds. Desilets said he intends to spend his summer refining his plane.
“I’ve had a blast doing this,” Desilets said. “I’ve been working on this project 40 to 60 hours a week since September, and I don’t regret a second.”
Bahram Nassersharif, the URI engineering professor who teaches the students, talked to guests about the creations. His class required students to solve real-world problems with viable products.
“You can see the level of energy, excitement and enthusiasm here,” Nassersharif said. “These are all great projects. Employers are very interested in what our students are creating. It’s a great way to distinguish URI engineering students.”
Joshua De La Hoz, of Warwick, and his team came up with MAGSEAL, a way to demagnetize magnetic seals so they can be used repeatedly and won’t deteriorate quickly.

“I learned so much,” De La Hoz said. “It’s great to work on something from start to finish. For a mechanical engineer that’s important. I went through every iteration – from start to finish. That’s what engineers love to do.’’

Christian Paquette, also of Warwick, helped build a machine designed to do a better job cutting sheets of plastic while reducing damage to equipment at the same time. He and his team partnered with Toray Plastics (America) Inc. of North Kingstown. He said the project gave him “creative experience.”

Other projects focused on improving the performance of the “mini baja’’ off-road car and creating a residential wind turbine called WINDFINITY, which can supply power to refrigerators and other household appliances. A heat exchanger for potable hot water, a device to prevent ice dams in winter and a better respooling system for Cumberland’s Hope Global, a textile company, also were featured, as well as RADSUB, a submersible designed to inspect the core of a nuclear reactor.
The Wingman 360, a device that can prevent wingtips on planes from colliding while aircrafts are being towed on the ground, also was featured. Wingman 360 is based on a device created two years ago by another URI mechanical engineering student design team.
The 5-pound, plastic device temporarily attaches to a plane’s wingtip with suction cups. Ultrasonic sensors in the device detect when the aircraft is getting too close to another plane on the ground or the wall of a hangar as it’s being towed. The URI team is collaborating with Delta Airlines.
Delta even sent a representative, Tim Files, an aircraft systems analyst, to the event.
“I’m very impressed,’’ Files said. “Starting from scratch with an idea and bringing it to a tangible device that works – that amazes me.”
A prototype of Wingman 360 was tested at an airport in Quonset last month.
“We did really well,” said Laura Corvese of Portsmouth, a member of the Wingman 360 team who is heading to graduate school at Boston University in the fall to study mechanical engineering and robotics. “It’s been a great experience.’’
Corvese and three other mechanical engineering majors, Mitchell Contente of Bristol, Cody McMillian, of Portsmouth, and Gilbert Resto, of Providence, worked on the project.

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