Students show off engineering prowess at annual expo

In April, students throughout the College of Engineering presented their final projects during the UIC 2025 Engineering Expo.

The event marks the completion of two semesters of hard work in the Senior Design course, which challenges teams of seniors to solve real-world engineering problems using research, creativity, and the skills they developed at UIC.

This year, 34 teams from mechanical and industrial engineering took on projects related to aerospace and automotive engineering, experimental devices, clinical medical devices, industrial engineering, machine learning, mechanical design, mechanical engineering, product improvement, and robotic engineering. Four of these teams were named Best In Show by Expo organizers.

Design of a Multi-Material and Multi-Size Ball Bearing Sorter

The team of Andy Aguilar, John Bradwell, Mira Marji, Riley Mckenzie, Ashley Roman Martinez, and Razan Suleiman captured the judges’ attention in the product improvement category with the design and implementation of a ball bearing sorter machine capable of classifying ball bearings based on size and material. The machine incorporates fundamental mechanical engineering principles by integrating mechanical sorting mechanisms, magnetic separation, and automated control systems.

“The integration of simple yet effective mechanical components make this machine a practical example of applied mechanical engineering, demonstrating concepts in dynamics, electromagnetism, manufacturing tolerances, and systems integration. This project offers a cost-effective and scalable solution for industrial pre-sorting,” the students reported.

American Metalcraft Inc. Automation Improvement

The team of Bilal Almajdoubah, Reina Martin, Daniel Ordaz, Yaksh Patel, Henry Pink, and Derin Taser wowed the judges in the Industrial Engineering category by redesigning a separation mechanism for a project sponsored by American Metalcraft Inc.

The company had issues with an automation system that manufactured pizza and pie pans from steel blank plates. A failure in the material separation of stacked blanks triggered a fault in the robotic loading process, halting production, and wasting machine time.

To remedy the issue, the team built a prototype of an electromechanical device as an attachment to the existing air-knife separator to decrease loading failures and enable the machine to run without operator intervention, ultimately achieving a full turnkey system. This reduced failure rate enabled near continuous production, maximizing machine uptime and efficiency. The improvement reduced the workload on a single operator, cleared bottlenecks in production, and decreased operational costs.

High Energy Impact Lander Reinforced with Composites (HEILRC)

The team of Abdalla Albazzor, Tyler Alirie, Sam Hooson, Faisal Hussain, Mustafa Siddiqui, and Caleb Smith brought their ingenuity to the expo with a project in the aerospace and automotive engineering category sponsored by NASA.

The goal of this project was to improve a NASA landing device, which will be intentionally crashed on Mars or other planets using a system designed to absorb the impact and keep the payload intact. The students proposed to use high-performance composite materials in the design. These materials have the potential to reduce the cost of making the device and make it lighter, while maintaining the strength needed for the harsh landing.

They noted that one of the major issues NASA had with their landing was a really high bounce when it hit the surface. The goal of the student device is to disperse the kinetic energy and absorb the impact of a crash landing on a surface, which would allow for more mass to be dedicated to a payload.

Innovative Drivetrain Transition: Dry Multi-disc Clutch for Shifting from RWD to 4WD on the Baja SAE

The team of David Alvarez, Mariaelena Mora, Juliana Moro, Itzel Saenz, Dadviel Salas, and Zaina Tayeh presented the judges with a project in the aerospace and automotive engineering category that details the design and development of a high-performance dry multi-disc clutch system, which enables four-wheel drive, for UIC’s SAE Baja vehicle.

The current drivetrain operates exclusively in rear-wheel drive, limiting off-road performance. To overcome this, the new system enables a seamless, manually actuated transition between rear-wheel and four-wheel drive, enhancing driver control, traction, and torque distribution on rugged terrain.

The system empowers drivers to engage four-wheel drive when conditions demand it and switch back to rear-wheel drive for efficiency, significantly improving the overall vehicle performance and competitiveness.