After four years of hard study and intense research, Engineering seniors are now ready to seize the world -- but not before showing Penn what they've got.
On Tuesday, the newly inaugurated Levine Hall hosted the Senior Design Project Presentation Competition for the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Organized by the Engineering Alumni Society and sponsored by Microsoft Research, the competition aimed at rewarding the best senior projects within the Engineering School.
The designs had already been selected by the various departments in an internal competition, thus making this event a contest among the best of the best.
The judges, all members of the Engineering Alumni Society, examined the 19 projects -- described in 15-minute presentations -- and cast their votes.
"The judging is based on the abstract the students give out, communication skills, creativity of the approach and the conclusions and support for their projects," Annual Giving for SEAS Director Jennifer Sabatini said.
But beyond these requirements, the judges also rewarded clarity.
"I make sure that they bring it down to the level of the rest of us," judge Jackie Gray said, noting that the highest award would be given to the students who could guarantee the "real-life application of their projects."
The presentations lasted well into the afternoon, followed by a brief remark by Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt, who praised both the participants and the facility in which the competition was taking place for the first time.
"It is wonderful to be at a place like this, trying to educate them, or at least not to ruin them," he said.
Both the announcement of the winners and the assignment of the prizes -- $500 for first place, $300 for the runner-up, $200 for the three honorable mentions and certificates for all the participants -- were conducted by competition organizer Walt Korn.
"All of us found it very interesting and a great view of what we don't know," he said.
The first prize was awarded to Electrical Engineering seniors Daniel Araujo and Jorge Trujillo for their project entitled "Real Time Facial Tracking System" -- a Web camera capable of automatically tracking the faces and facial features of its subjects.
The second prize went to Bioengineering seniors Norman Cabanilla, Marisa Kastner, Han Joon Kim, Nina Teng, Devjani Saha and Marcus Frohm, for their "Tilt Sensor Technology Platform for Pediatric Rehabilitation" -- toys with therapeutic, educational and entertaining features for children with physical impairments.
Finally, the first honorable mention were assigned to Electrical Engineering seniors Kunal Ghosh and King Wah Yeung, Chemical Engineering seniors Frank De Paoli, Russell Dickhart and Robyn Nathanson and Bioengineering senior David Frerichs.
