Capping off the year: Ontario Tech students showcase solutions to real-world engineering problems

Retail occupancy tracking, AI-powered infant monitoring and a COVID-19 risk-alert system are among some amazing high-tech ideas students in Ontario Tech University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science (FEAS) showcased as part of their recent final-year capstone design projects in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering.

A major component of the learning experience at Ontario Tech Engineering, fourth-year capstone projects provide students will opportunities to apply the knowledge they have gained throughout the entirety of their program. Through the academic year, students work in teams to design, develop and test creative solutions to real-world, industry-driven engineering problems.

Every April, students show off their creative solutions and prototypes at the annual Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering Capstone Design Exhibition and Competition. This year, 10 teams of students entered the competition, participating in a virtual exhibition. A panel of judges comprising local industry leaders evaluated their projects and awarded prizes to the top three projects (all winning team members are students in the Software Engineering program) in the categories of:

Most Innovative Engineering Design

• Recognizes the team that designed the most creative solution to a problem along with effective implementation.

Winning project: OccuTracker: Occupancy Tracker Using IBM’s Open Liberty Framework: Software that enables retailers to track and enforce occupancy levels in their stores, and informs customers when stores are less crowded.

Team members:

• Gabriel Gelgor
• Emil Ilnicki
• Aryan Kukreja
• Pawan Patel

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Akramul Azim, Assistant Professor, FEAS

Most Technical Proof of Concept

• Recognizes the team with the most elegant technical solution that is fully implemented and functional.

Winning project: Design and Development of an AI-Powered and Notification-Driven Baby-Monitoring System: The Serenity system uses computer vision, artificial intelligence and many other features to alert parents when their baby needs attention.

Team members:

• Mohamed Ibrahim
• Hyon Lee
• Umar Qureshi
• Kajan Ravindran

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Khalid Hafeez, Assistant Teaching Professor, FEAS

Most Influential Project

• Recognizes the team that discovered ingenious ways to complete their project.

Winning project: COVID Risk Aversion/Alert System: This app calculates the user’s risk level of COVID-19 exposure based on interaction with other app users and the places the user has visited.

Team members:

• Brett Hausdorf
• Peter Levine
• Ibrahim Noor-Mohammed
• Daniel Silva

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Khalid Hafeez, Assistant Teaching Professor, FEAS

See the full list of projects.

Judges

• Uvaiz Ahmed, Manager - Technology Strategy, Telus
• Olivia Chung, Senior Design Engineer, Ontario Power Generation (OPG)
• Chris Effinger, Senior Consultant, OPG
• Issam Hammad, Senior Consultant, Alithya
• Elham Karimi, Power System Studies Specialist, Hatch
• Marcy Sanderson, Director, X-Energy Canada

Quote

“The Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering (ECSE) Capstone Virtual Expo showcases and celebrates the research and development achievements of our graduating students from Ontario Tech University’s Electrical Engineering and Software Engineering programs. This event provides is an opportunity for our community to gather virtually to discover the impressive achievements of our students. This year we had 154 students in 38 teams who went above and beyond to build impressive physical prototypes despite difficulty in sourcing components and challenges with teams working remotely. We are incredibly proud of every participant’s accomplishments.”
- Dr. Qusay H. Mahmoud, ECSE Capstone Co-ordinator, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Ontario Tech University

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