The Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK), Rice University’s premier undergraduate engineering makerspace, announced the winners of its annual Harrell and Carolyn Huff Engineering Design Showcase and competition, which took place April 11 at the Ion during an award ceremony following the event.
Maria Oden, teaching professor of bioengineering, OEDK director and co-director of the Rice 360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, spoke to attendees, highlighting the event as the finish line of a year-long journey.
“I had the pleasure of watching many of these projects start from just ideas … all the way to seeing what we saw here today ⎯ finished products, prototypes that show great promise,” Oden said. “This year at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, we’ve supported over 900 students and at least 20 courses. All nine departments in the school of engineering had students working in the design kitchen, and we’ve had many students from schools all across Rice University working to solve real-world challenges.”
In its second year at the Ion, the showcase featured 68 teams, 300 students and 93 judges in addition to family and guests.
The winner of this year’s Woods-Leazar Innovation Award for Excellence in Engineering was Heartbeat HERoes, an all-women team of seven whose project developed a prototype for a novel catheter designed to simplify alcohol ablation, a surgical procedure that removes anomalous heart tissue causing premature ventricular contractions.
“We were so surprised, we definitely did not expect that but we’re super excited,” said bioengineering senior Shannon McGill. “We worked really hard. We’re super grateful to see our work honored at the showcase this year.”
The excitement was palpable as the team gathered near their poster and presentation table for pictures.
“My parents are here tonight, and it’s just really wonderful to win and be able to bring this home for them,” said Veronica Aguillar, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. “We’ve been through a lot together. We’re immigrants — my dad was an engineer as well before me … it’s been really rewarding to go through this degree in the first place and bond with him over that. … If I could bottle this feeling up and sell it!”
Top level awards:
Excellence in Freshman Engineering Award ($1,000): Déjà vu (For a story featuring this project, follow this link.)
Excellence in Underclassman, Multi-year or Club Engineering Award ($1,000): BioGals
Excellence in Graduate Engineering Design Award ($500): FetalFocus
Excellence in Capstone Engineering Award ($1,000): Thermobile (For a story featuring this project, follow this link.)
Excellence in Capstone Engineering Award ($1,000): AeroForge
Category Awards:
OEDK Staff Favorite Award ($500): Sea++
Best Aerospace or Transportation Technology Award ($500): Club – Rice Flight
Best Conceptual or Computational Engineering Design Award ($500): Kirubel G.
Best Energy-Related Engineering Design Award ($500): Club – Rice Wind Energy
Best Environment and Sustainability Engineering Design Award ($500): PRISM
Best Gaming, Creative or Innovative Technology Award ($500): Lock-Smiths
Best Medical Device Technology Award ($500): UroFlo
Best Technology for Low-Resource Settings Award ($500): CoreNeedle
Best Interdisciplinary Engineering Design Award ($750): Space Owls
Willy Revolution Awards for Outstanding Innovation:
1st place ($3,500) Willy Revolution Award for Outstanding Innovation: AeroForge
2nd place ($1,500) Willy Revolution Award for Outstanding Innovation: Bay-Max
Read about all the participating teams on the OEDK 2023-2024 Projects page. For an additional story on a participating project, click here.
