Team Brittle Bones wins Engineering Design Showcase

Team Brittle Bones won the top Excellence in Engineering Design award in the Engineering Design Showcase and Poster Competition April 11 at Rice’s Tudor Fieldhouse.

The team members – Matthew Nojoomi, Nimish Mittal and Sergio Gonzalez – received a $5,000 grand prize for their robotic assistive reaching mechanism for a patient at Shriners Hospital. They began the project in the freshman engineering class taught by their adviser, Ann Saterbak, a professor in the practice of bioengineering, and continued working on it into their sophomore years.

Team Brittle Bones won the Excellence in Engineering Prize and $5,000 in the annual Engineering Design Showcase and Poster Competition on April 11. From left: team adviser Ann Saterbak, students Matthew Nojoomi, Nimish Mittal and Sergio Gonzalez, Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen Director Maria Oden and George R. Brown School of Engineering Dean Ned Thomas. Photo by An Le/Luxe Studio Productions

“It’s been a long project, and for a long time we haven’t been able to see the end of the project,” Gonzalez said. “It’s been great to finally give him the arm and see him use it, and that it actually works.”

Prizes of $500 went to teams in the following categories:

Best Interdisciplinary Design Project — Team BioLink.

Best Conceptual or Computational Design Project — Team AEMEAS Engineers.

Best Global Health Technologies Engineering Design Project — Team Smooth Saline.

Best Energy-Related Engineering Design Project — Team W.A.T.T.

Best Health-Related Engineering Design Project — Team PEDS.

Best Environment and Sustainability Award — Team DM-Es in a Pod.

Best Engineering Design Project for Research — Team Hermes.

Best Gaming, Creative or Innovative Technology Award — Team Illuminate.

Best Club-Organized Engineering Design Project  — Solar Car Club.

Best Engineering Design Project by Underclassmen — tie: IV Drip and BiliRobust.

Judges’ and Professors’ Choice Award — Team Brittle Bones.

Students’ Choice Award – Team Sphygmo.

The annual public event put on by the George R. Brown School of Engineering and the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen features senior capstone design and other projects by Rice undergraduates. Read about all the participating teams here.

Photos by Jeff Fitlow