Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Annual Report 2019 Annual Report | Page 25

Senior Design A highlight of the undergraduate mechanical engineering program is the two- semester senior design capstone senior design project. The projects translate to an average of 300 out-of-classroom hours per student over the course of the academic year. In Spring 2019, 46 teams with more than 400 undergraduate mechanical en- gineering majors designed, created prototypes, refined their work, and built custom devices incorporating the required parameters for the work. Seventeen teams were sponsored by corporate partners including Meyer Sound, Harris, BWXT, Boeing, Quality of Life Plus, Philip Morris and others. As part of the capstone, students present their work as individual groups and at the Senior Design Expo that is open to the public and the media. Left: 3-D printed flexible actuators help mimic ear movements on a robotic bat. Below left: An individual hemodialysis treatment machine Below: A hip exoskeleton designed to help ampu- tees with gait issues Revised and Corrected, Nov. 2019 25