Accolade is a personalized health and benefits solution providing personalized advocacy. The student team developed a system to enhance user experience and interaction with physicians by sharing users’ health data from Apple Health Kit with the Accolade platform.

Hospitality venues around the world are switching form staffed cashiers to Self Service Kiosks. Students worked to develop a software plugin that utilizes network voice recognition services to provide voice-to-text and text analysis for guest contact with hotel employees.

Axon develops technology for law enforcement, self-defense, and the military, with the goal of making communities stronger, safer, and more connected. The student team developed two neural network systems for text-independent speaker identification of law enforcement officers and other authorized speakers.

Recent advances in thermoplastics technology offer attractive aerospace design solutions over thermosets. Key advantages include elimination of material refrigeration storage/out time limitations, enhanced toughness/damage tolerance, superior solvent and chemical resistance, improved flammability properties, and recyclability. However, to offer competitive alternatives to thermoset applications, processes must be optimized. The student team performed characterization of thermoplastic composite materials for different process parameters, driving recommendations for process parameters that optimize performance/quality.

Chemical baths are used to clean titanium parts coming from the etching process. Chemical process tanks have a finite cleaning capacity which necessitates periodic draining & recharging with new chemical to achieve processing requirements. Current forecasting tools are based on historical usage rates and are not dynamically responsive to production increases, considering defined chemical parameters. Current QA chemistry monitoring is not predictive of bath life resulting in unplanned tank refill, increased cost, as well as schedule impact (both operations & maintenance). The student team was tasked with developing a system to track the number of parts processed through each specific tank on a weekly basis to provide a more robust forecasting of chemical solution bath life correlated to, or directly determined by, production rates.

Trade and e-commerce have increased the demand for the rapid transportation of packages and goods. There are a number of military turboprop freighters with large payload capacities. Generally these aircraft are designed and produced to accommodate military missions and are not well tailored to the commercial air freight market. The student team was tasked with the design and analysis of a dedicated turboprop freighter using existing or in-development turboprop engines, paying close attention to payload capacity and what size class engine should be chosen.

Polymer additive manufacturing offers opportunities to manufacturing materials that can mimic natural materials to provide insights into basic structure property relationships. The student team performed characterization of neat polymer additive manufactured materials to identify whether the path of structure-process relationship offers high payoff for generation of new knowledge, or if the opportunity to jump to filled polymer materials offers more significant knowledge generation. Their characterization results will drive recommendations for process parameters that optimize performance and quality.

Powder bed fusion (PBF) technology has the capability to create complex shapes and features that are hard or impossible to machine with existing technology. PBF technology is currently expensive, and requires post processing to achieve acceptable surface finishes; it is therefore desirable to create a method to add features to existing parts or seed shapes using PBF without the need to create the entire part using PBF. The student team worked to create a process and plan for adding features to a seed part using the ARCAM Laser powder bed fusion machine.

An airplane wheel is responsible for transmitting all vehicle forces to the ground and is a safety-critical stressed airplane component. Because the wheel is a fast-spinning component subject to frequent and rapid changes in rotational speed minimizing mass is a high priority. The student team worked to design a monolithic, composite vehicle wheel accounting for weight, stiffness, safety and reliability that can be used on their Formula SAE car.

In the aerospace industry there is a desire to expand the utilization of thermoplastic composites into the wing structure for control surfaces due to their perceived advantages in damage resistance and potential for rapid fabrication and assembly processes. The student team worked to build and test a small wing structure as a potential control surface design, utilizing thermoplastic materials and associated processes.

Tools are built and inspected prior to first time use and never inspected again. Boeing currently uses pullout punches in order to create holes of the right diameter to join ducts together. These pullout punches are placed within a duct and then pulled through a pilot hole in the duct which will then expand the hole to the same diameter as the punch. This in turn, causes contact wear on the punch and over time starts to affect the critical dimension of the punch. When the wear gets too significant, the pullouts created by the punch will no longer be within tolerance, which causes a significant amount of rework downstream in order to get the ducts mated properly. Currently no system is in place to keep track of the wear on these tools. The student team worked to develop a system for the area operators to check tools for wear outside the usable engineering tolerances, monitor tool use environmental and performance conditions, and predict the remaining life of tools.

Tubes used in airplane manufacturing must be inspected. Currently, 55% of process time is spent on the setup for inspection. The team worked to design fixturing for multi-piece processing of tubes for x-ray inspection imaging. Challenges included a work field limited by equipment, keeping parts stationary while the x-ray inspection image is captured, and capturing images without obstruction.

Hearing loss is the third most common physical condition affecting people of all ages. Booz Allen Hamilton is creating Bluetooth devices as hearing aids. The team worked to design, build, and test a system using a single host serving multiple Bluetooth audio devices which stream the same audio.

Collins Aerospace is looking for a solution to detect level in an aircraft water/waste tank in real time that can inform flight attendants. The student team designed, built, and tested a non-intrusive continuous level sensor and communication system for aircraft waste systems.

The aerospace industry is increasingly looking into electric power options. The student team developed a digitally-controlled synchronous battery charger for avionic applications. The converter acts as both a battery charger and bus-sustainer upon loss of power.

Conventional Visual SLAM based Teach & Repeat Self-Navigation relies on expensive LiDAR for operation in large scale environments. Cyberworks has developed “core” code for two novel methodologies of Teach & Repeat that use only a cheap webcam, allowing cost sensitive products like autonomous wheelchairs to become accessible to the masses and marking a shift in self-driving technology. The student team developed and integrated a robust visual odometry package with sensors, an onboard processor, and a user interface to assist autonomous wheelchair motion.

Eagleview is a technology provider of aerial imagery, data analytics, and geographic information system solutions. The student team developed a system that uses deep neural networks and optical character recognition techniques to detect and read oblique signage in aerial imagery.

Eastside Baby Corner (EBC) provides families with newborns a strong start in life by providing the necessities that each family needs in order to care for their children. EBC collects everything from diapers and car seats to clothes and toys. The student team worked in the warehouse to analyze the receiving and sorting process to develop procedures and best practices to reduce time and handling and used lean practices and methodologies to streamline current processes. They also developed a standard work and visual communication board to help with incoming and outgoing material.

EKOS catheters use PZT ultrasound transducers to enhance the delivery of thrombolytic drug to blood clots in the vasculature. It is desirable to track the progression of therapy by determining the state of the local environment around the treatment area, particularly blood flow rate and percent of the cross section of the vessel at each transducer that is clot vs. static or flowing blood. The student team explored what information related to these two parameters could be extracted from pulse-echo data when various environments exist around the transducer.

Fluke is a manufacturer of industrial test, measurement, and diagnostic equipment. The student team developed and tested a system for accurate identification and monitoring of different electrical loads.

Genie currently uses an Access database to track parts and part materials throughout the facility. The database fulfilled many of Genie’s initial needs in providing a central location where data could be monitored and stored. Since 1997, many problems have arisen in the database that have led to slower production and a decrease in quality of information available. As Genie continued to improve by producing more parts and collecting more data, the database struggled to keep up the speed it once had. As problems arose, the database was tweaked and added onto in order to fix the short-term issue, however, it failed to address the long-term issues the current form presents, such as slow speed resulting in duplicate entry logs. The student team was tasked with improving the usability and speed of the Access database, as well as providing a wireframe which can eventually be linked with SQL programming, in order to provide an enhanced user Interface.

Genie is constantly working towards building quality in its production processes. One desired areas of improvement is decals selection (material delivery) and decal application accuracy on Genie units. The student team was tasked with analyzing the current state of the decal delivery and application process and subsequently identifying areas of improvement, including material flow, process design, work station layout/design, and equipment changes. The goal of the team’s solution is to mistake-proof the process of decal delivery to the point of use and also eliminate the possibility of error in the decal application process.

Aerospace manufacturers are currently evaluating replacement midsize airliner products for viability, and are in the early stages of research and development. These aircraft will incorporate a number of emerging technologies, advancing in the area of propulsion, which will require a rethink of existing design standards. The student team created a conceptual lipskin design for the next generation airliner market.

Glympse delivers last-mile solutions for delivery, curbside/click-and-collect, BOPIS, and roadside assistance creating a smooth customer experience when people, products, and services are in motion. The student team developed a system using GPS location data to detect and categorize dangerous driving maneuvers and assignment of a driver safety score, with the goal of improving delivery driver safety.

Truck manufacturer, Kenworth, constantly seeks to improve truck safety. The student team worked to design, build, and test a system to cancel turn signals automatically for semi-trucks based on CAN (Controller Area Network) bus signals and image processing.

In order to achieve good weight distribution and maneuverability within a fixed vehicle length two steering axles can be used instead of a single steer axle. Doing so adds complexity to the design since many components need to be connected with linkages in order to coordinate steering angles of the tires as well as proper load transfer between the first and second axle. The student team worked to create a simulation model of the front suspension and steering system that predicts the motion of the system through the expected range of travel and is capable of estimating loads while undergoing durability events.

Kernel Labs’ expertise is in machine learning, computer vision, and security. The student team was tasked to design, build, and test a cost-efficient general purpose rover for farm use. The rover is remotely operated and built with a machine learning framework for implementing future applications.

Latecoere is a major supplier of sections of aircraft fuselage and doors. The student team was tasked with using the capacity of an electroactive polymer in a flight lock system. The electroactive polymer will change its shape when subjected to an electrical current to generate the lock action. As soon as the electrical current is removed, the lock goes back to its initial shape and unlock the door. They created and tested a functional prototype.

Lightning Network has created the next generation decentralized global payment platform. The student team developed a payment app utilizing the Lighting Network to increase the rate of completion of cryptocurrencies to meet consumer needs.

Magic AI is building a platform through machine learning and computer vision that will bring ubiquitous computing to industries and implementations previously excluded, specifically focused on nonverbal forms of data and communication related to animals and humans. The student team developed a data pre-processing pipeline and classification neural net to individually identify horses.

Airplanes powered by fuel are costly both financially and to the environment. magniX wants to convert their agricultural plane, the Air Tractor AT-502B to all-electric using the magni500 propulsion system. The student team was tasked with delivering a complete conversion plan to all-electric including installation plans for propulsion system and batteries, designs, mounts, brackets, parts lists, and full sets of CADs, drawings, virtual models and simulations.

McKinstry has a desire to better utilize data in the built environment to effect behavior. The student team was tasked with capturing, assessing, and analyzing large amounts of building data to identify trends and deliver recommendations on what occupants and operators should be doing differently to positively impact resource consumption in the built environment.

Microsoft knows that tomorrow’s workforce will require both domain-specific knowledge and coding skills, but there is currently a lack of learning opportunities and hands-on experience necessary to inspire young learners, particularly those in underrepresented groups. The student team worked to develop a hands-on data science curriculum which aims to make K-12 learners data literate and introduce them to data science topics such as data visualization, statistics, and machine learning.

Eye trackers are slowly becoming mainstream devices and finding uses in accessibility scenarios, education, entertainment and productivity. But it is hard to automate testing of applications that are written to work with eye trackers because the eye trackers require a human to be present. It is also hard to replicate a test or an experiment because human eyes don't follow the exact same paths every time. The student team worked to build a test-rig and software to control the rig that can automate testing. The test rig consists of a pair of prosthetic eyes capable of rotating horizontally and vertically that are realistic enough to fool an eye tracker that it is human. The software can accept a set of screen coordinates as input and then move the eyes in such a way that the eye tracker returns that point as the gaze coordinate.

Mindshare Medical creates evidence-based clinical decision support technology providing personalized diagnostics and guidance on the effectiveness of follow-up procedures and treatments with the goal of improving quality of patient care and reducing financial liability for healthcare organizations. The student team designed and built a neural network system for localizing and characterizing breast cancer lesions in 3D tomosynthesis scans with significantly reduced false positives.

An interdisciplinary team of six students from Civil & Environmental Engineering, Human Centered Design & Engineering, Computer Science, and Communications developed a mobile-based incident notification and navigation system to increase awareness of major traffic incidents that affect the region’s transportation network and provide real-time data to strategically suggest alternate routes and modes of transport.

Based on NanoString's optical barcoding technology, the DSP (digital spatial profiling) platform has been developed to analyze local protein and RNA expression levels within heterogeneous tissue samples. The DSP technology samples all analytes on a single slide with a high multiplexing capacity and a wide detection range down to single cell resolution. Currently, the DSP platform captures the spatial context from one subdivision area of tissue slide in sequential way. The student team was tasked with creating a setup for parallel sample collection from whole tissue slide area with spatial resolution that will provide unbiased spatial information on much larger tissue area. Their design was compact and simple to help quantitative analysis of bio-samples for various medical and scientific applications.

NASA PUFFER (Pop-Up Flat-Folding Explorer Robots) are small, low cost, expendable rovers that can transport key sensors and instruments to locations considered too risky for the primary lander, rover, or astronaut. Because of the high communication latencies of deep space missions these rovers must minimize their dependence on ground control and be able to operate primarily autonomously. The student team worked on a multi-robot navigation and search for the PUFFER, including computer vision, LIDAR distance sensing, and SLAM, to cooperatively find a goal object.

The Puget Sound is seeing a declining population trend in Puget Sound species of zooplantkton. NOAA seeks to analyze the population by using an underwater camera at night that attracts zooplankton into funnels with light. The student team worked to develop a smart light trap to capture video of zooplankton and their surrounding environment, and developed a software package to analyze the video, giving scientists a view of the composition of species and a count of specimens in a given trap.

The chemistry group at the Novo Nordisk Research Center, Seattle, Inc. (NNRCSI) is involved in numerous discovery efforts in support of early stage drug research, with significant interest in high throughput peptide library synthesis. Peptides are an important and rapidly expanding therapeutic modality which can combine the high potency and selectivity of large protein drugs with the increased bioavailability and synthetic tractability of small molecules. When peptides are synthesized in a high-throughput array format, modest purities are typically achieved, and can vary dramatically especially when the structural diversity of the target library is high. Impurities often confound downstream biological analysis, therefore purification is often necessary. The student team was tasked with developing an improved method for automated, high-throughput purification of peptide libraries.

The PACCAR Technical Center Advanced Analytics team groups warranty claims into potential product quality projects. The product quality projects are used to improve product design, resolve defects, and increase customer satisfaction. The claims are also used to help prioritize projects using metrics such as Cost per Truck, Total Cost, Failure per 100, Truck Population Impacted, etc. The student team was tasked with creating a machine learning tool to help speed up the identification of highest impact issues and help with the prioritization of projects.

Radar is one of the most powerful sensor technologies available for automotive perception systems. As part of an automated driving system, radar is partially strong in all-weather operation, low cost, proven reliability and the ability of provide fast velocity measurements. A challenge in using radar is noisy data due to multipath returns, as a result a lot of effort is needed in digital signal processing to improve the reliability of the detections. Both false positives and false negatives are a concern for automotive applications. The student team worked to apply commercial radar technology to a heavy duty commercial vehicle for forward based object detection and tracking, and to create maps of the environment surrounding the vehicle, including moving and stationary objects.

PACCAR is interested in monitoring and improving driver alertness. An effective system must detect and warn the driver when an incidence of driver distraction or driver loss of attention occurs while driving. The student team worked to identify a camera that will allow eye tracking to detect for driver distraction, identified the ideal location for camera installation and determined the best method of alert to notify the driver when they are distracted.

PACCAR has a desire to Develop and optimize haptic feedback for cab interior controls using subjective and objective methods. The company currently relies on different suppliers to tune haptics of various controls and there is a need to develop appropriate guidelines for various types of manual controls. The student team worked to optimize haptics using user feedback and mechanical apparatuses to measure feedback force characteristics. They developed preliminary apparatuses to measure force feedback for different types of controls and generated force displacement curves.

A key component of autonomous vehicle operation is the ability for the vehicle control system to locate its current position on a high definition map. This localization is required in order to insulate path planning from the instantaneous information presented by the vehicle perception system. This is necessary to provide redundancy in case of a temporary or unexpected loss of perception as well as to decouple the performance of the vehicle controls from the latency of the perception system. The student team was tasked with evaluating techniques that would be suitable for use on a commercial vehicle operating on roads under sparse availability of easily identified landmarks.

PACCAR seeks to be pro-active in warranty cost reduction, and wants to track parts sales and determine if a cause for out of control variation will lead to warranty claims for a part. The student team worked to build control charts to indicate if there an unusual increase or decrease in a part’s orders over time. Their R Shiny platform allows PACAR to quickly identify, over time, out of control variation in engine and aftertreatment parts sales.

Emission regulations for diesel truck engines are becoming increasingly stringent. This is particularly true for nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are controlled by an aftertreatment catalyst system. Catalyst performance depends on keeping the catalyst temperature at the optimal point, which requires quick initial heatup and careful control of temperature excursions during the drive cycle. PACCAR has proposed a unique tube-in-shell heat exchanger design to address these challenges. The student team worked on two proposed design features: (1) use of thermal barrier coatings to improve heat retention and (2) use of guided fins to enhance the internal heat transfer between the engine gas and catalyst body. The thermal barrier coating (TBC) sub-team investigated the TBC effectiveness by analyzing the microstructural and mechanical integrity of the coatings. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) sub-team used ANSYS Fluent to explore and optimize how various fin geometries worked to improve heat transfer and reduce pressure drop inside the system. Both these approaches appear to have sufficiently good benefits and low costs such that they are candidates for further development.

Mosquitos carry deadly viruses including malaria, Zika, dengue, and West Nile virus. Agricultural pest ruin crops, both outdoors and in greenhouses. Current prevention techniques for both problems are costly and marginally effective. Photonic Sentry has created a laser based insect monitoring and eradication system called Photonic Fence. The student team developed a system to detect irregularities in object detection and target tracking of bugs in the Photonic Fence.

Pollen Systems harvests data for agricultural growth, helping farmers manage their crop growth and vitality, identify irrigation and moisture issues, and note pests and disease problems using drones, data analytics, and proactive alerts. The student team developed a semi-autonomous ground vehicle which surveys vineyards and other high-value crop fields, with a focus on collecting pictures to evaluate expected yield and plant health. This ground vehicle will augment Pollen Systems’ current services.

Seattle Art Museum is seeking an art base that can support sculptures and prevent damage during earthquakes and other environmental vibrations. The student team developed a system to actively stabilize a sculpture subject to seismic forces, using sensors and motors.

Seattle Children’s Hospital is working to develop IT talent recruiting and career pathway infrastructure to support thier "TechBar" which will service SCH employees and potential community members of the downtown area. This programmatic effort will draw diverse talent from under-served communities to provide candidates with employment and career opportunities potentially leading to positions beyond the Children's TechBar. To support these efforts the student team was tasked with creating IT/business process designs that provide for an "eConcierge" service for the TechBar customers. Students developed standard procedures and performance criteria for a successful staffing model for a unified customer experience for IT support and coffee services, with the intent to keep cost low and quality high. The model considered various customer arrival rates and helped determine when staffing IT specialist support is necessary.

The City of Seattle has goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As part of this initiative, Seattle City Light is investigating the potential for all-electric renewable energy powered food trucks for use on Seattle streets that have all-electric appliances and no need for propane or gas. In addition to reducing greenhouse gases, improving the viability and operation of food trucks from an environmental perspective addresses issues related to equity. The student team was tasked with demonstrating how to layout, design and build a food truck kitchen using all-electric appliances and renewable energy that satisfies the typical needs of the majority of food trucks used in the Seattle area. They also worked on mapping out the steps to retrofit an existing food truck to all electric appliances, taking into account cost considerations of the retrofit. Finally, the team worked to layout an electric food truck plaza.

Sound Transit seeks accurate traffic counts, duration of stay, and other metrics in Link Light Rail stations. The student team developed a machine learning system which combines image object detection and tracking to produce aggregated mobility data and traffic counts in Link Light Rail stations using station security camera footage.

Modern smart phones are highly sophisticated devices with multi-core CPU and GPU, multiple sensors and transceivers that can be used in the field to provide situational awareness using signals of opportunity. The student team developed a machine learning Android application that finds the best driving path between two locations based on optimal weather conditions and other user requirements.

Steth IO has built a smartphone stethoscope to improve patient experience and outcomes and make exams more objective. The student team designed and implemented a single lead electrocardiogram (ECG) system for integration with Steth IO’s digital stethoscope, and machine learning classification of ECG data.

Sweet Tea Cancer Connections works to forge connections and build relationships among families affected by pediatric cancer using smart technology, national partnerships, and focused research. The student team designed and built an app to connect parents who have a child with pediatric cancer with their child’s caregivers.

Billions of dollars in damage is caused every year in the US from fires originating in the electric grid, many of these caused by growing vegetation causing a short. The student team developed an NB-IoT-enabled device to detect obstructions near power lines and report them to a remote web server, assisting in efforts to prevent wildfires and save lives.

Globally, there are limited commercially available power chair platforms that can exhibit socially responsive automated behavior, such as autonomy in negotiating through crowds or facilitating appropriate navigation behavior when a having a conversation with a friend. The student team developed a smart sensor suite to be used in an autonomous wheelchair, enabling context awareness and path reconstruction.

The TE Connectivity Automation Manufacturing Technology Group in Harrisburg, PA, wants to improve their resource forecasting and scheduling system for its engineering, shop and contract manufacturing resources. The student team was tasked with building a user-friendly resource planning and scheduling system that demonstrates the ability to schedule organizational resources, assess plan status and costs, and provides high level and detailed reporting.

Telenav is a wireless location-based services corporation with a goal to build the largest network of connected cars on the road. The student team designed a machine learning model to predict a user’s destination continuously during a trip, with the flexibility to adopt time/distance transitions and spatio-temporal data.

The City of Bellevue aims to help city transportation staff improve efficiencies related to clearing roads during snow and ice events, and is planning to deploy a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) telematics system for the winter weather response fleet (plows, sand and salt spreaders, and de-icing trucks). The COTS telematics system is envisioned to provide data on vehicle location, plow position, material spread rate, and time.

Currently, the City of Bellevue does not have a sophisticated system for covering deicing and snow plowing routes. Their current system was created a few decades ago and there is no proof that the system still works today. The current system needs to be optimized to help City of Bellevue efficiency rates in regards to their deicing and snow plowing procedures. The student team worked to develop a dynamic optimization model or platform that will help the City of Bellevue Transportation Department reduce costs and resources for snow and ice response efforts.

Tupl develops software with state-of-the-art big data technologies. The student team worked to improve prediction and visualization of customer and network issues with deep learning using call detail records, key performance indicators, and Twitter datasets.

The University of Washington Medical Cyclotron Facility is a one-of-a-kind cancer treatment and research facility. The student team worked to design, build, and test a motion control system that tunes the Cyclotron radio-frequency system. Tuning to different frequencies allows the Cyclotron to be used for cancer treatment, isotope creation, and advanced materials testing.

Verathon’s current BladderScan devices are used by healthcare providers at the point of care to perform automated measurments of bladder volume. Clinicians use bladder volume measurements to determine whether to catheterize a patient. The student team developed a wearable device to periodically monitor bladder volume and send phone alerts when detecting high volume readings.

PET is the most abundantly recycled polymer. Many companies collect recycled PET bottles of various shapes and colors, and crush them into PET flake. Currently this flake is simply burned to recover some energy from it. Vesicus charged their student team with exploring the potential to foam the flake using the company’s microcellular technology, and then develop a useful product from it. The ideal product is a lightweight brick made of foamed flake or foamed flake mixed with concrete for potential use in the construction industry.

WatchGuard products are designed to protect computer networks from outside threats such as malware and ransomware. The student team designed and built a module for storage and computation of network data to be integrated with existing technology to provide user with more information on network traffic.

Witekio specializes in embedded software with a system level approach, and engineers and integrates intelligent systems software for any device from hardware to the cloud. The student team worked to design and build a secure over-the-air firmware update system for ARM Cortex-M4 microcontrollers that enables device maintenance and management.

Zetron is a critical communications technology company that provides integrated command and control solutions and information services for public safety, transportation, utilities, natural resources, healthcare, and academic institutions. The student team was tasked with development of an Internet of Things environmental sensing and communication system for fire rescue operations.