The Dean’s Design Award for Undergraduate Engineering Design is a prestigious recognition given to exceptional undergraduate students who have demonstrated outstanding engineering design skills. This award is given to students who have completed an engineering design project as part of their coursework during the academic year.
The award criteria include a demonstration of the ability to identify and solve complex engineering problems, creativity in the design process, effective communication skills, and a thorough understanding of the underlying engineering principles.
The WSE Dean’s Design Award encourages excellence in engineering design among undergraduate students and recognizes the outstanding achievements of those who have made significant contributions to their field.
Dean’s Design Award for Undergraduate Engineering Design
2025 Recipients
Some New Insights from Highly Optimized Polyhedral Passages
Department: Applied Mathematics and Statistics
Faculty Mentor: Benjamin Grimmer
Team Member: Raj Gosain
CircuFlow: An Extracorporeal Device to Reduce Afterload During VA-ECMO
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Clinical Mentor: Chetan Pasrija, MD
Faculty Mentor: Michelle Zwernemann
Team Members: Nina Nair, Claire Chung, Gloria Kalnitskaya, Iris Kwon, Ramya Palani, Ayan Vaishnav, Shreeram Sabareesan, Samantha Ho.
FloSync
Department: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Faculty Mentors: Lilian Josephson, Lawrence Aronhime
Team Members: Eliana Gaitan, Nishtaa Modi, Ai Omae, Alisha Parikh, Himanshi Sharma
SCRAPS: System for Compost Reporting – Automatic Plate Waste Statistics
Department: Center for Leadership Education
Industry Sponsor: The JHU Sustainability Office & Graham Browning with JHU Dining
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nusaybah Abu-Mulaweh
Team Members: Sunny Li, Megan Lim, Hermione Cordeiro Larkin
The Baltimore Streetcar Museum: Restoration and Renovation at the Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad Roundhouse
Department: Civil Engineering
Faculty Mentor: John Matteo
Team Members: Ishmam Chowdhury, Zachary Martin, Tyler Sugrim
The Baltimore Streetcar Museum: Optimizing land use and transit accessibility in the surrounding area
Department: Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Tak Igusa
Team Members: Natalia Dougan, Maya Mann
The Delineo Community-Level Disease Simulation Platform
Department: Computer Science
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anton Dahbura
Team Members: Nimeesha Chan, Atticus Colwell, Navya Mehrotra, Iason Mihalopoulos, Neil Patel, Om Sadul, Mahmoud Said, Zeyu Shen, Emmett Springer, Ryad Taleb, Lixing Wu, Allen Gong, Zeyu Shen
Chirp Charm: Wearable Safety Device
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Lucas Buccafusca
Team Member: Nidhi Batra, Emma Dionne, Eric Ji, Thaissa Peixoto, Lauren Philips
Nature-Based Coastal Resiliency for Baltimore’s Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant; Environmental Engineering Design
Department: Environmental Health & Engineering
Industry Sponsor: City of Baltimore Department of Public Works
Faculty Mentors: Hedy Alavi
Team Members: Lalitha Aiyar, Ciaran Cole, Emily Klaus, Rick Montiel, Joey Stanley
Design and Optimization of the Separated Interface Nerve Electrode (SINE) for a Freeform Stimulator in Vestibular Restoration
Department: Materials Science and Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Gene Fridman
Team Member: Alexander Tinana, Katarina Schuller, Clarence Ramirez, Rishi Sheth, Mareham Yacoub, Matthew Stryszak, Brianna Wu, Beckham Yang, Mary Zhang, Mark Qu
Therapeutic Agent Injector
Department: Mechanical Engineering
Project Sponsor: Dr. Florin Selaru; Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Faculty Mentor: Rich Bauernschub, Dr. Stephen Belkoff
Team Members: Jordyn Rodriguez, Valeria Vasquez-Barros, Kaity Shaughnessy, Milla Ivanova
Previous Recipients of the Dean’s Design Award for Undergraduate Engineering Design
2023 Recipients
Proofreader Evaluation and Analysis toolKit (PEAK) for Nanoscale Connectomics
Department: Applied Mathematics and Statistics
Mentors: Justin Joyce, Victoria Rose, and Will Gray Roncal
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Fadil Santosa
Team Members: Krutal Patel, Vivia Lung, and Rupasri Chalavadi
Fetal Therapy Technologies: Designing a Novel Port System to Mitigate Membrane Rupture in Fetal Therapy Procedures
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Clinical Mentor: Dr. Ahmet Baschat
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Logsdon
Team Members: Selena Shirkin, Jonathan Wu, Mariah Snelson, Eric McAlexander, Daniel Lewis, Ayeeshi Poosarla, Alice Yu, and Gloria Kalnitskaya
SNaP Relief
Department: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Team Members: Benjamin Biggs, Anica Jones, Kristen Liu, and Andrew Tran
Charm City Canes
Department: Center for Leadership Education
Faculty Mentor: Jenna Frye
Team Members: Leela Gowland, Rumani Kafle, Renee Nerenberg, and Carolyn Tung
Levering Hall and the Glass Pavilion – Center for Art and Community
Department: Civil and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: John Matteo
Team Members: Cecilia Doyle and Hanting Wong
Quest2Learn
Department: Computer Science
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anton Dahbura
Team Members: Chinat Yu, Jalen Geason, Jeffery Zhou, Kevin Zhang, Maverick Espinosa, Michelle Wang, Shaina Gabala, Siddharth Ananth, and Sidharth Pavuluri
Wireless Coordinated Interactive Audio System for Toys and Amusement Devices
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Anton Dahbura and Sathappan Ramesh
Team Members: Preston Gonzales and Jack Werrell
Design Plan for Louisiana Delta Offshore Wind Farm with Consideration for Environmental and Community Impacts
Department: Environmental Health and Engineering
Team Members: Marisa Thomas, Julia Choe, and Adriana Peña
Materials screening method for superconducting quantum bits using simplified fabrication and design of partial quantum bits
Department: Materials Science and Engineering
Team Member: Izze Hedrick
Manufacturing White Canes for Blind Services and Industries of Maryland
Department: Mechanical Engineering
Project Sponsor: Blind Industries & Services of Maryland (BISM)
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stephen Belkoff, Herson Morales, and Yensabro Kanashiro
Team Members: Daniel Deng, Delphine Tan, Justin Carder, and Katie Bomhoff
2024 Recipients
Further Improvements to the Upper Bound for the Site Percolation Threshold of the Square Lattice
Department: Applied Mathematics and Statistics
Faculty Mentor: Dr. John Wierman
Team Member: Sam Oberly
Velocigraft: Economical Skin Meshing for Burn Surgery in Sub-Saharan Africa
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Clinical Mentor: Dr. Mark Fisher
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Durr
Team Members: Ojas Chahal, Ashley Cluff, Dalhart Dobbs, Aarushi Pant, Thoya Raman, Paree Sharma, Aditya Shrinivasan, Christine Wang, Joanne Wang, Arushi Biswas, Pallavi Ekbote
BioFide
Department: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Faculty Mentors: Lilian Josephson, Lawrence Aronhime
Team Members: Rohan Bongu, Ali Aydin, Brian Tran, Helene Girard, Jaila Acevedo
Aquariscope: Seeing Below the Surface of the Inner Harbor Wetlands Exhibit
Department: Center for Leadership Education
Industry Sponsor: National Aquarium
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nusaybah Abu-Mulaweh
Team Members: Vedant Gabhawala, Aiden Jurcenko, Jaechan Lee, Greg Wulffen
Reimagining the Baltimore Museum of Art Antioch Court: Capacity, Crowd Flow, and Community Connectivity
Department: Civil and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Tak Igusa, Melissa Tilashalski
Team Members: Daniel Ardila, Kristen Corlay Sanmiguel, Andrew Solanto
AWS Collaboration to Simulate Infectious Disease Spread in an Airport Terminal
Department: Computer Science
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anton Dahbura
Team Members: Michelle Wang, Alisa Yang
Wirtz Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Generator
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Susanna Thon
Team Member: Christian Kanzki
Shellfish for Nutrient Mitigation near Baltimore’s Wastewater Treatment Plants
Department: Environmental Health & Engineering
Faculty Mentors: Hedy Alavi, Ciaran Harman
Team Members: Mikayla Bechtel, Ciara Darden, Anayeli Garcia Villa, Melina Krawchick, Maria Vabson
Designing a Recrystallization Kinetics Model for Dilute Niobium Alloys
Department: Materials Science and Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Orla Wilson
Team Member: Charlie Teeter
Leaf Blower Noise Cancellation
Department: Mechanical Engineering
Project Sponsor: Stanley, Black and Decker
Faculty Mentor: Rich Bauernschub, Dr. Stephen Belkoff
Team Members: Leen Alfaoury, Michael Chacón, Madison Morrison, Andrew Palacio
Engineering Design Center Cross-Disciplinary Awards for Design Day
2025 Recipients
People’s Choice Award
Attendees voted for their favorite overall project present at the poster session that showcased excellence in presentation, innovation, and overall impact.
iCrutch: Addressing the Therapeutic Challenges of Nystagmus
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Clinical Mentor: Dr. Kemar Green, Dr. Michael Repka, Dr. Edward Kuwera
Faculty Mentor: Michelle Zwernemann
Team Members: Archis Shankaran, Dennis Ngo, Simren Shah, Immanuel Etoh, Kenzi Griffith, Evan Batten, Esha Venkat, Travis Tran
Tangible Ingenuity Award
Attendees voted for the project that best excels in hands-on creativity, recognizing the most innovative and effective use of physical prototypes.
Smart Driver for Orthopedic Screw Extraction
Department: Mechanical Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Rich Bauernschub, Dr. Stephen Belkoff
Team Members: Zuriel Erikson Joven, Jennifer Taylor, Aabhas Jain, Dylan Zhu
Digital Vanguard Award
Attendees voted for the project that best demonstrates outstanding creativity in digital design.
Optimizing Baseball Batting Orders: A Data-Driven Approach to Lineup Efficiency
Department: Computer Science
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Anton Dahbura
Team Members: Ben Buman, Kiran Shay, Jake Rasmussen
Previous Recipients of the Engineering Design Center Cross-Disciplinary Awards for Design Day
2024 Recipients
People’s Choice Award
Attendees voted for their favorite overall project present at the poster session that showcased excellence in presentation, innovation, and overall impact.
DeltaT: Addressing Patient Harm from Peripheral Stimulation in Neurologic Exams
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Clinical Mentor: Dr. Adam Schiavi, Dr. Geoffrey Miller
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Constanza Miranda
Team Members: Iralde Sicilia, Natasha Porwal, Kyle Cooper, Vaishnavi Pinni, Dennis Ngo, Grace Qin, Jeewoo Yoon, Tanish Madan
Tangible Ingenuity Award
Attendees voted for the project that best excels in hands-on creativity, recognizing the most innovative and effective use of physical prototypes.
Cuptrics: Management Solution for Obstetric Fistulas
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Clinical Mentor: Dr. Grace Chen
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Logsdon
Team Members: Emma Turner, Emil Guan, Peter Uba, Chantelle Mendoza, Pranavi Gollamudi, Andy Wang, Tessa Hart, Tarini Basireddy
Digital Vanguard Award
Attendees voted for the project that best demonstrates outstanding creativity in digital design.
Refugee Employment and Career Hub (REACH)
Department: Computer Science
Faculty Mentors: Lawrence Aronhime, Dr. Anton Dahbura
Team Members: Yush Kapoor, Elmi Moallin, Marco Azar
