May 2025 Expo Projects

Project 101: COSMIC Capstone Challenge

Client: Aerospace Corporation
Industry Liaison:
Faculty Advisor:

Students:

The challenge is to design a payload, to be hosted about the BCT X-Sat Venus Class bus, that will demonstrate a chain of three or more operations that provide an on-orbit, autonomous ISAM capability. The goal is to engage in the early design work necessary for a complex ISAM mission that could be ready for launch by the decade's end. It is explicitly a Conceptual Design challenge, distinguishing it from competitions that focus on building a product for demonstration or creating detailed design work sufficient to begin manufacturing. These concepts are the starting point for ambitious satellite missions. Some of these concepts may be continued post-competition, either by the entrants themselves or other entities (academic, industrial, or government) to fund further development. Mentors, judges, speakers, and other COSMIC members will provide guidance on how to extend their work further.

Background:   The 2024-25 challenge was developed in response to the national ISAM strategy calling for developing orbital manufacturing capabilities across the country and promoting workforce development. Engineers have worked to identify and advance technologies important for orbital manufacturing. Many technologies have been demonstrated terrestrially and on-orbit, with more in the works. These technology advances pave the way for larger, more complex payloads, which are in the early stages of development as follow-on work. Conceptually designing those payloads is the 2024-25 C3 topic. This project does not stand alone. The hope is that some of these projects develop into funded missions, and the successful missions help pave the way for the future of manufacturing in space.

Aerospace has developed a 10-year roadmap to deploy an autonomous, persistent orbital satellite factory. There are many milestones along the way, including complex demonstration missions we have targeted for 2028 & 2029. The ISAM Design Challenge is aimed squarely at those demonstrations; we want the students to design small sats that can perform a series of manufacturing operations in orbit. Within that challenge, there is certainly room for students to conceptually design the mission, perform detailed design & analysis work in 1-2 select areas, and create some prototypes. Aerospace Corporation wants to sponsor/ mentor senior design projects because it helps us move towards our larger objective. We really enjoy the student engagement, and by mentoring senior design students, we can learn what works well and what does not.

Special Requirements: Students must be USA Citizens. 

Project 102: Free Flyer Grapple System Development

Client: Aerospace Corporation
Industry Advisor:
Faculty Advisor: Patrick Hartunian

Students: 

Objective: Develop a conceptual design for a free-flyer grapple capture system. In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) operations in the near future will require grappling systems to allow servicing spacecraft to capture client spacecraft. Capture is the initial contact between free-flying (separated) servicing spacecraft and client spacecraft, which brings the two vehicles together into a combined stack. One means of free-flyer capture is grappling. Grappling involves using a robot arm with a specialized end effector on the servicing spacecraft to mate with a corresponding fixture attached to the client spacecraft. Since the vehicles are initially free-flying, residual position, velocity, and angular rate errors will exist, which the grapple system must adapt to and attenuate. The team will conduct a literature search on existing grapple systems, brainstorm new grapple system concepts, select the best concept based on design criteria, and create a proof-of-concept prototype.

Keywords:  ISAM, grapple fixture, free-flyer capture, mechanisms, design

Student Capabilities and Interests: Aerospace, on-orbit servicing, mechanisms, mechanical design, prototyping, brainstorming, dynamics

Team Composition: mix of EEs and MEs

Special Requirements: Students must be USA Citizens. 

Project 103: RoboSub Competition

Client: Cal State LA RoboSub Group
Competition: Robotics - Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)
Faculty Advisor: Salvador Rojas, Ph.D.

Students: 

Students involved will design and build extended and robust systems for an AUV for a competitive edge at the Robonation Robosub Competition held annually in the summer.

Background: The Robosub Group at Cal State LA looks to build a highly competitive AUV this upcoming year after placing 14th out of 41 international universities and the best out of California universities. In the competition, the AUV will be required to complete a series of tasks that may include detecting and passing through a gate, touching buoys, dropping markers, manipulating, deploying objects, and surfacing at desired locations. 

The project is highly interdisciplinary and involves many technologies, including the design, analysis, integration, and testing of the robot's mechanical and electrical systems and its many software functions. The senior design team works with experienced students from the club and the Nature-inspired and Autonomous Robotics Lab with designated lab space and equipment.

Skills/Learning: The AUVs include structures, propulsion, communications, power, telemetry, command and control, computer vision, navigation, and many task-specific payloads. Interest and skills in robotics systems are important for developing competition-ready systems. You will learn new skills and technologies and build a professional network.

Team Composition: The senior design teams are drawn from the EE, ME, and CS programs. To be successful and to develop strong skill sets, involved students must participate in club meetings and senior design meetings.  Communication with the advisor and club is extremely important. The competition is typically in the summer and will be in Irvine in 2025 (again)!

Project 104: CSU Uncrewed Aerial Systems Competition

Competition: Intercollegiate CSU Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition at Mojave Air & Space Port (C-UASC)
Faculty Advisor: Bob Dempster

Students:

To build a drone to compete in the California Uncrewed Aerial Systems Competition at Mojave Air & Space Port at Rutan Field. The tasks include aerodynamic structure design, telemetry, command and control system design, autonomous flight control, computer vision, design of a package carry and dispense system, power and thermal systems.   

The first competition was held in 2024, organized by Cal State LA and the Mojave Air & Space Port at Rutan Field (MASP). Drones use is growing dramatically, and MASP is the home to many companies at the forefront of experimental aviation. The competition will require that the drone navigate waypoints, deliver a package to a target, and identify, classify, and localize objects while in flight.  

Skills/Learning: Team members interested in the electromechanical design of drones, control systems and design, autonomous control design, navigation, object detection, classification and localization, and computer vision will be sought. Skills in CAD modeling and simulation will be developed.

Team Composition: A mix of students with different backgrounds is sought. The project needs EEs, MEs, and CS students.   

Special Considerations: Students will join the Cal State LA chapter of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, and someone from each team will need to invest time in learning how to fly model aircraft.  The competition is scheduled to be held in Mojave on June 7, 2025. Members of this team should plan to participate.

Visit https://www.calstatela.edu/ecst/uav-competitions.

Project 105: 3D-Printed Fixed-Wing Aircraft Competition (C-3DPAC)

Competition: CSU 3D-Printed Fixed-Wing Aircraft Competition
Faculty Advisors: Everardo Hernandez, Sangbum Choi, Ankit Gupta

Students: 

In this project, students will design and fabricate airplanes using 3D printing technology. The planes need to be lightweight; the designs need to maximize performance given manufacturing and material constraints. Student teams will leverage modern digital manufacturing technologies.

Background: Cal State LA has hosted the CSU 3D-Printed Fixed-Wing Aircraft Competition in 2023 and 2024. We will host a similar event in 2025. This senior design project will be to design entries suitable for this event.

The airplanes can be any size but need to satisfy strict manufacturing conditions. All airframe components, including all aerodynamic surfaces and control surfaces, must be printed using a purely (not hybrid) 3D printing technology. (Propellers will be commercial off-the-shelf technology.)

For the competition, two categories will be evaluated: Longest Duration and Most Innovative Design.

While schools and clubs may enter the competition in some or all categories, the Senior Design teams must enter all three categories.

Skills/Learning: Solid modeling and 3D printing skills are extremely important, as are aeronautical design, Control Systems, Simulation, and Radio communications and control.

Special Considerations: Students will join the Cal State LA chapter of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, and someone on each team will need to invest the time in learning how to fly model aircraft.  The competition is scheduled to be held on the Cal State LA campus on May 31, 2025. Members of this team should plan to participate.

Visit https://www.calstatela.edu/ecst/uav-competitions.

Project 106: AcroBot – Robotic Trapeze Artist
Exploring the Physics of Acrobatics with a “Stickman” Robot

Faculty Advisor:  Kurt Sawitskas

Students:

AcroBots are autonomous robots designed to perform specific acrobatic feats.  Student teams will define, design, and produce a working AcroBot to perform a trapeze act. Students will master an understanding of the physics involved and develop a robotic control system with sensors and actuators to perform an acrobatic trapeze stunt.

Requirements

1. AcroBot must perform autonomously.
2. Each team will define the structure, sensor, actuators, grip, power supply, and control system for their own AcroBot.
3. Each team will participate in cooperatively defining, designing, and building the common trapeze, catch nets, and other collateral equipment.
4. AcroBots are expected to grip the trapeze bar, swing on the trapeze, release the grip at a defined position, and flip and/or tumble in free flight to land in the catch net.
5. Each team will define its “flight profile” and produce an artistic show. 

Students will use integrated design and simulation tools (Onshape, Solidworks, Matlab, Simulink Multi-body) to explore, optimize, and define their robot’s performance before actual construction and testing.

Will your AcroBot perform a backflip? Maybe a Double Back-Flip?  Or, Jackknife? What about a combination of a flip and a twist? There are many performances to attempt, and many more ways to design your AcroBot to accomplish the task!

Students should have an interest in robotics, sensors, physics, and simulation. The team should have a mix of skills, including mechanisms, mechanical power calculations, solid modeling, battery power design, and fundamental programming.

AcroBots will participate in a performance at the end of the second semester. Teams are encouraged to add features to their AcroBot to facilitate an entertaining show with programmed lights and sound.

Reference: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-research-explores-physics-of-acrobatics-with-stickman-robot/

Project 107: Electric Car Battery Development
Model and test battery package for electric vehicles

Faculty Advisor: Masood Shahverdi, Ph.D.

Students:

Student Capabilities and Interests: Electric vehicles, electrical design, lithium-Ion battery test, and modeling.

Industrial Sector/Technologies: Automotive, lithium-ion battery

Background: The project is a student competition at Cal State LA aimed to design, build, test, and integrate an advanced EV battery pack into a production vehicle. Kicking off in Fall 2023, the three-year competition will provide an immersive hands-on learning experience for students to gain valuable engineering, manufacturing, and battery testing skills that transcend the classroom environment.

Teams will follow real-world industry milestones focused on battery design, simulation, controls development, testing, and vehicle integration and demonstration. Participants will also learn valuable project management, communications, teamwork, and problem-solving skills that will provide them with an unparalleled educational experience and prepare them for future careers throughout the battery industry.

Team Composition/Special Notes: Members of the IEEE association, students who passed the EE 5320 class, and students with a background in battery and Simulink will be given preference to join the EE Senior Design Team.  

Project 108: Glider Launcher

Faculty Advisor: Mike Thorburn, Ph.D.

Students: 

Background: Since the 2022-2023 school year, Cal State LA has partnered with several other campuses of the CSU to hold an annual 3D-printed Fixed-Wing Aircraft Competition.   The events have been very successful and continue to grow in terms of participants.   Beginning in 2025-2026, Cal State LA envisions holding a glider competition as well.  The objective of this glider launcher project is to provide a consistent launch for the gliders in such a competition.

Description/Scope: Student members will design, build, and test a glider launcher. It needs to be transportable and provide a reliable and uniform launch to a glide with a specified interface. The development of the interface between the glider and the launcher is required for both this project and the glider projects starting in January 2025.

Skills/Learning: Mechanical design and prototyping.

Special Requirements: This team will work closely with other students from the glider teams.

Project 109: Infrastructure Masons for a Digital Future

Client: Infrastructure Masons (iMasons)
Industry Liaisons: J. Albright, B. Kleyman, C. Popp 
iMason advisors are advising two teams: 109A and 109B

Students:

Description/Scope:  Students will work directly with iMasons to develop a detailed proposal and budget to build the digital infrastructure needed to meet the expected market demand in the U.S. for a new digital application. The team will determine whether the client can justify building its own infrastructure. You will determine how many data centers to build, where, and when, and then design and cost one. Your proposal will need to consider latency and app response time to maintain the user experience, cost and scale (for example, number of cores) of the hardware, availability of fiber connection, availability and cost of power, availability and cost of renewable energy, land cost and availability, different approaches to heat rejection/management, facilities efficiency, flexibility in the event the market forecast is inaccurate, and resilience in the face of interruptions of power, fiber connection, natural disasters, pandemic, etc.

Your team will present your final proposal to decision-makers. If the decision is made to build, your team would expand to lead the design, build, and operation, moving you from being individual contributors to managing a large, diverse team working on a complex, high-budget, mission-critical project. Pretty exciting! So, you are motivated to make “building your own” a cost-effective option. At the same time, if management accepts your proposal, failure to execute within the budget would be career-limiting. Your proposal must be both cost-effective and realistic.

Background: Infrastructure Masons (iMasons) is a global, nonprofit, professional association of individuals connected and empowered to build a greater digital future for all. They are engaging with Cal State LA through their Capstone Initiative. Throughout the year-long project, students work in groups with dedicated iMasons member mentors to design a nationwide digital infrastructure architecture plan to support the latency and bandwidth requirements and the projected growth of a mobile phone app. Once sites have been selected, students will design a data center on one of their selected sites.

Skills: Computer/Electrical Engineering to model latency, develop telecom architecture, build power budgets, and provide electrical distribution concepts. Mechanical engineers create HVAC plans and evaluate building and energy/sustainability designs.

Team Composition: This project needs 4-6 EEs and 4-6 MEs for two teams.

Special/Unique Opportunity: All Capstone students on the team are awarded a $2,500 iMasons Scholarship and access to a number of professional credentials offered exclusively by DCD Academy.

Project 110: ASHRAE Setty Family Foundation Net Zero Energy Design

Client: Manchester England – Medical Office Building
Faculty Advisors: Chet Dik, Mohammad Shaiksaheb, Chris Tanakaya, Yanting Xu

Students:

Description/Scope: This student competition requires multidisciplinary teams to design an energy-efficient sustainable project approaching a "Zero Energy" building with minimized energy demands for HVAC and all other technical systems that could be satisfied with locally available or building-installed renewable energy sources (RES). Students will be asked to satisfy a national or local sustainability standard (LEED or the equivalent in their country), and then implement RES to approach "Zero Energy" limit.

The fundamental goal of this design competition category is to encourage students to obtain experience in the Net Zero Energy Design process. Architects and engineers should work together from the very beginning to determine building orientation, layout, materials, mechanical systems, and electrical systems that meet the client's needs and work with the surrounding environment to minimize energy consumption.

It will be to design a multi-use medical office building for a full start-to-finish in the heart of the city. The medical office building will consist of a three-story structure. The goal of the project is to provide local access to doctors and outpatient treatment locations.

Background:  ASHRAE Sponsors these competitions to encourage students to become involved in a profession that is crucial to ensuring a sustainable future for our Earth – the design of energy-efficient buildings. ASHRAE will recognize the outstanding student design projects at the 2026 ASHRAE Winter Conference, scheduled for February in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Skills (Required/Learned):  ASHRAE helps apply the skills learned throughout the year to understand load calculations, energy calculations, heat and thermal exchange, understanding of building envelope, and other requirements for building design. The advisor will help explain the different available types of systems, how systems utilize cooling, heating, energy creation, and other requirements needed for a building design in Revit/AutoCAD, and how to utilize Trace/IES to calculate building load requirements.

Team Composition: It is recommended that each ASHRAE Senior Design Competition team have five mechanical engineers and two electrical engineers in order to achieve net-zero energy through full building construction selection for mechanical and electrical design.

Special Notes: Cal State LA is competing against international universities from all over the world to create the best possible design for a building and create a note. The 2023 Design Team, with 5 Mechanical and 3 Electrical engineers, captured 2nd in the ASHRAE Senior Design Competition for last year’s building design in Cairo, Egypt. We look forward to helping capture another win for Cal State LA! 

Project 111: Garden Solar Power – Off-Grid Solar System

Client: Valmonte Community Garden
Faculty Advisor: Ted Nye

Students:

Description/Scope: In 2017, Cal State LA Senior Design students designed and built a small, off-grid solar power system for the Valmonte Community Garden. However, this system is now too small since the garden has grown, and more electrical equipment is being used. The project will replace the older system by designing, building, and installing a larger, standalone system that powers the garden equipment and appliances.

Background: Over the past several years, Cal State LA has designed, built, and installed solar power systems for elementary schools in southern Mexico and the National Park Service on the Channel Islands. This year’s project will be more beneficial to the local community. The Valmonte Community Garden is used for special needs students, 18-22 years old, who receive gardening job training skills. Local restaurants buy the garden’s fruits and vegetables, which helps the garden cover operating expenses.

Skills/Learning: You will learn about electromechanical design and fabrication, small facility electrical infrastructure, reliability analysis, and solar power engineering.

Team Composition: Ideally, the team will have 2 EEs and 8 ME (or Engr Tech) student members.

Special Requirements: Students must be able to support the power system installation in the Summer of 2024.

Project 112.  SAE Baja Competition
Off-road vehicle design and manufacturing

Competition: Baja Competition Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
Faculty Advisor: Chris Bachman, Ph.D.

Students:

Description/Scope: The Baja SAE Senior Design Team will optimize the 4WD drivetrain system. This includes integrating a 4WD to 2WD switching system and integrating an open differential into the front driveline. The Baja 4WD car currently exists but is unable to traverse the competition maneuverability track or travel at the top speeds necessary to be competitive. The senior design team will deliver a working system within the fall semester. The senior design team will optimize the system through vehicle testing with instrumentation on the drivetrain system.

Student Capabilities and Interests: Vehicle dynamics, mechanical design, kinematics, finite-element analysis, manufacturing.

Industrial Sector/Technologies: Automotive, machine design, manufacturing

Background: The Baja Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Senior Design team, in collaboration with the current Baja SAE club, is tasked with the design and development of a four-wheel drive off-road vehicle that will compete against many teams from universities around the world. The Baja SAE competition is an event with various course challenges where teams from different schools put their engineering skills to the test and build off-road vehicles to compete with.

Team Composition/Special Notes: Members of the SAE Baja Club will be given preference to join the Baja Senior Design Team.

Project 113: Boeing Spot Tag Generator

Client: Boeing
Industry Liaisons: Teo El Masri and Jonathon Fish
Faculty Advisor: Kurt Sawitskas

Description/Scope: Develop a tool that can generate spot tags and photo cards for all instrumentation defined in the Boeing satellite master instrumentation list. This requires the team to develop a computer program/script that takes information from our instrumentation list, and creates the labels for each spot tag and photo card for all channels, and create some sort of mechanism to apply Kapton tape to both sides of each spot tag (like the current spot tag design shown in the slides).

Background: Spot tags and photo cards are used to identify accelerometer locations that are placed on satellite hardware. As such, they require specific orientation information and need to satisfy some spacecraft environment requirements, such as outgassing, so that they can remain in place through different test phases. Such a device has the potential for substantial efficiency improvements, as presently, the process is done by hand.

Working Prototype Expectations: The working prototype is intended as proof of concept and not a final product for use in flight hardware.

Skills/Learning: This project requires skills across multiple disciplines (ME, EE, CS). There will be some programming of the spot tag generator, so an ME or EE interested in improving their coding skills can replace the need for CS students. You will learn about instrumentation and testing in a satellite manufacturing environment.

Team Composition: 1-2 EE / 2-3 MEs, with flexibility depending on student interests.

Special Requirements: USA Citizenship is required.

Project 114: Sidewalk Inspection System
Product Design for Public Works – Sensor Deployment Structure for Automated Sidewalk Inspection System

Client: LA City Bureau of Engineering
Faculty Advisor: Cao Tran

Description/Scope: Design a sensor system and platform appropriate to an automated sidewalk inspection system.

Background: The CS Department at Cal State LA has been developing an autonomous sidewalk inspection system for the LA City Bureau of Engineering for a few years. They have focused on high-level algorithms and data processing. At this point, they need a well-designed sensor and data collection system built on a mobile structure. The system needs to be reproducible, cost-effective, reliable, and maintainable. It must also be suitable for transportation and storage.

Skills/Learning: Solid modeling and prototype construction. Development and testing of appropriate sensors and electromechanical systems.

Team Composition: The team is foreseen to be composed of EEs.

Project 115: SoCalGas Carbon Capture Project
Compressor/turbine/generator station

Client: SoCalGas
Industry Liaison: Amir Razmi
Faculty Advisor: John Williams, Ph.D.

Students: 

Description/Scope: In this project, students will evaluate Carbon capture options for SoCalGas compressor stations or a turbine/generator at the Campus.

The team will investigate the application of carbon capture technologies to reduce the CO2 emissions from a target system (including: Compressor Stations, Industrial Systems, Power Generation, etc.) and develop a high-level techno-economic analysis (TEA).

In this process, students will need to find available technologies such as amine scrubbing, water washing, cryogenic separation, etc., that would capture at least 90% of the CO¬2 emitted in the tailpipe/stacks. During the project's development, students will use process simulation software, or something similar, to size the capture system and design how it could be implemented.  A resulting TEA could include an assessment of the carbon market and potential carbon tax credits available through recently approved federal legislation. As a plus, students may investigate potential uses for the captured CO2 (identify potential CO2 off-takers) and/or other storage costs/options.