School of Computing & Engineering Projects Day

Our senior design project focuses on the structural design of Hamden’s first-ever animal shelter at 466 Putnam Ave, addressing the town’s need for a dedicated facility to alleviate overoccupancy at the North Haven Animal Shelter. Our team has developed a detailed floor plan that optimizes space for animal care, staff operations and public access while ensuring compliance with safety and accessibility standards. Structurally, the design team has designed key components, including the column layout, load-bearing elements and material selections to ensure stability, longevity and cost-effectiveness. The project incorporates industry best practices, adheres to local building codes and considers environmental sustainability where applicable. By providing a much-needed resource for the community, this project offers us a hands-on opportunity to apply structural engineering principles in a real-world setting. 

Student Team Members: Jenna Castro, Aidan Ceravolo, Natalie Lyon, Abigail Palmgren, Lauren Roeger

Advisers: Ari Pérez Mejía and Priscilla Fonseca

Client: The Town of Hamden, Stephen White, PE and José Infante, PE

The section of Middletown Avenue near Dump Road in New Haven, CT, between the I-91 ramps and the Amtrak overpass, is prone to frequent flooding due to its low elevation. This flooding is caused by high water levels in the tidally-influenced Quinnipiac River. Our project includes flood prevention measures to withstand a 2-year, 24-hour storm. Our design includes a levee system composed of different soils, concrete supports and geotextiles as well as a detention pond to retain excess stormwater. To limit the flow of water to the roadway, Opti-controlled floodgates will be installed on a culvert under I-91 and at other surrounding locations. 

Student Team Members: Alexander Asfalg, Ryan Connolly, Kenneth Stolgitis, Steven Tortora

Advisers: Ari Pérez Mejía and Priscilla Fonseca

Clients: City of New Haven, Kimberly DiGiovanni, PhD, P.E.

Commercial surfactants, chemically similar to concentrated soap, are used in earth pressure balance tunnel boring machines (EPB TBMs) to create foam, which provides temporary support in low cohesion soils during tunneling. These foams are measured using both the foam expansion ratio (FER, the ratio of liquid to air) as well as the foam injection ratio (FIR, the ratio of foam to soil). When injected into the soil, these foams decrease the interparticle friction and prevent collapse by using the excavated soil as a support medium and balancing ground pressures on both sides of the TBM. This is crucial to settlement control. Because the changes in shear strength behavior brought on by foam addition are still not fully understood, direct shear testing on soil-foam mixtures was performed using the foam procedures presented by others to evaluate the impact of foam stabilization on soil strength parameters (cohesion and friction angle). 

Student Lead: Steven Gomes

Adviser: Ari Pérez Mejía 

Located in New York City, Outfall Drop Shaft 1 will be constructed as a part of a new outfall storage tunnel system serving one of the largest water pollution control facilities in the United States. The CSO network will consist of 3 drop shafts and a 3.2-mile long, 22-foot diameter TBM-mined tunnel. Drop Shaft 1 is designed to have an inner diameter of 50 feet and a depth of 130 feet and will convey excess wet weather flow from the existing combined sewer system into the new storage tunnel. Our team was tasked with designing the support of the excavation system, final lining, bottom slab and roof system. Due to the design parameters, our team has chosen to use a vertical shaft sinking machine system from Herrenkenecht as the support of the excavation system. Soil parameters were used to calculate the lateral earth pressures and pore water uplift pressure in the design of the final lining and the bottom slab, while the roof system was designed to handle vehicular loads.

Student Team Members: Cesare Fiorilli, Christopher Kosakowski, Nicholas Planeta, Jeremy Silver, Connor Talbot

Advisers: Ari Pérez Mejía and Priscilla Fonseca

Client: Delve Underground

This project explores the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in fostering collaboration, creativity and innovation within organizational settings. By integrating AI tools into team workflows, the initiative aims to enhance productivity, improve decision-making, and support idea generation through human-AI collaboration. The research will investigate how AI capabilities, such as generative models and intelligent automation, can complement human expertise to optimize brainstorming sessions, streamline communication and drive organizational creativity. 

Student Lead: Philip Nora 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

Prompt engineering has sparked a wave of creativity, giving rise to thousands of new artists who use artificial intelligence as their primary medium. However, the legitimacy of these creators is often debated, with some questioning whether they qualify as, “true artists.” This work explores how evolving definitions of art shape public perception and examines growing concerns about AI’s impact on freelance artists and creative professionals. 

Student Lead: Julia Bock 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

This study explores how general-purpose AI Chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude can be used to create data visualizations through natural language prompts. By comparing multiple chatbots and datasets, the study evaluates the quality, reliability and accessibility of AI-generated visualizations. The goal is to determine whether these tools can lower the learning curve and outperform traditional methods for users with little to no experience in data visualization. 

Student Lead: Aaron Toomer 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

Microtransactions, which are real-money purchases in video games, have taken the industry by storm in the past decade. Their inclusion in games has led to billions of dollars in revenue; however, much of this success has been built on unethical practices and disregard for the consumer. Utilizing standards such as the Codes of Ethics for Engineers, this project aims to highlight many factors regarding microtransactions, such as health concerns, borderline illegal practice and what should be done to regulate them. 

Student Lead: Marcus Ferreira 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

Computational developments, especially in the realm of artificial intelligence, have made our world more interconnected and advanced than ever before. With such powerful technological tools at our disposal, it is important to ensure they are being utilized ethically and correctly. Policy surrounding this evolving space is crucial, and computer scientists are needed for effective and holistic tech-based policy creation. Their unique understanding of scope, ethics and technical background can lead to better social outcomes and lasting changes in this growing field.

Student Lead: Caleb Muriuki-Mureithi 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

This project investigates the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on the field of game development, emphasizing its contributions to procedural generation, narrative design, gameplay mechanics and character development. Although AI has transformed the industry by increasing efficiency and facilitating the creation of expansive, dynamic environments, it continues to face challenges in areas that demand profound human understanding, such as emotional depth and artistic consistency. By analyzing various case studies, this research highlights both the advantages and drawbacks of AI within creative processes while also considering ethical implications and the need to balance automation with human creativity. Ultimately, the goal is to explore how AI can complement and enhance human creativity in the realm of game design rather than supplant it. 

Student Lead: Cameron Anthony 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

Since AI was created, it has been utilized for a variety of purposes, including storytelling and writing. When it comes to storytelling, there is not only an issue with a lack of creativity through AI but a lack of understanding of the world. AI does not write with the same motivations as humans — in fact, it can exacerbate issues going on unintentionally. However, there are instances where AI and LLMs can help inform people; they can help educate children through interactive storytelling or help groups of people become engaged with lesser-known topics through personalized gaming experiences. This project will go through various instances of AI used in writing and storytelling to analyze how best it would be utilized. 

Student Lead: Juliet Lombardi 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

Principles of psychology, like cognition, perception and attention, play a vital role in understanding user interfaces and the interaction between humans and computers. Many interdisciplinary frameworks of HCI relate to psychology, such as "software psychology" and "design psychology." Understanding UI and the user experience is necessary for a "design space analysis" and for determining how interfaces can be improved in the future.

Student Lead: Cole Davignon 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

I've highlighted some resources catered to younger children that introduce them to computer science and computational thinking. I want to see if such resources exist for numerical thinking or data science that can be used to introduce these topics to grades K-12. If resources don't exist, then how can we create and structure these resources so that some main topics are taught without all the big terminology but with the information conveyed still holding true to the subject? 

Student Lead: Sean Emede 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

Discussion of the rapidly growing digital-based history created with the prevalence of the internet and associated technology and how the increasing commercialization of this space threatens the preservation of this history, information and access. 

Student Lead: Shannon Gill 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake

This project explains the growing importance of cybersecurity in the financial sector. It explores how digital transformation, third-party dependencies and emerging technologies like AI, blockchain and quantum computing are reshaping the threat landscape. The thesis aims to identify the most critical vulnerabilities and propose solutions for enhancing cybersecurity resilience across the global financial ecosystem. 

Student Lead: Henry Cort 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

My project examines how blockchain technology can improve global governance and financial systems by making them more transparent, secure and efficient. I focus on how blockchain is used in areas like decentralized finance, digital identity and smart contracts, while also exploring challenges like scalability, privacy and different international regulations. By analyzing real-world examples and new tech developments, I aim to show ways blockchain could be better used in global systems.

Student Lead: Aaryan Kapoor 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake

This thesis explores how Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and flatscreen technologies are being used in education, healthcare and workplace training. It focuses on how each technology performs regarding user engagement, effectiveness and adaptability depending on the context. By comparing experiences in areas like pilot training, architectural design, retail and healthcare simulations, the study aims to identify key factors that contribute to or hinder success. The ultimate goal is to highlight best practices and limitations to help improve design and implementation strategies. 

Student Lead: Riley Damasco 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

This thesis explores the potential of artificial intelligence in police interrogations, specifically focusing on AI-driven lie detection techniques. AI models, trained on datasets analyzing micro-expressions, voice patterns and physiological cues, offer a promising alternative to traditional polygraphs. However, concerns over bias, transparency and the legal admissibility of AI-driven decisions pose significant challenges. The paper examines the ethical implications of using AI in law enforcement, the limitations of black-box algorithms and potential solutions such as Explainable AI (XAI) to enhance accountability and reliability. Ultimately, it argues that while AI could revolutionize interrogation methods, its implementation must address bias, legal frameworks and public trust before it can be widely adopted. 

Student Lead: Evan Quinn 

Adviser: Jonathan Blake 

AirBoard is an innovative virtual whiteboard that uses hand-tracking technology to enable users to write, draw and interact with digital content using only a standard webcam. By eliminating the need for specialized hardware, AirBoard enhances accessibility for educators, professionals and remote teams. The system features gesture recognition, AI-powered assistance, PDF handling and session storage, facilitating interactive and engaging remote collaboration. 

Student Team Members: Harsh Gandhi, Andrew Kulowski, Brian Wanamaker

Adviser: Chetan Jaiswal 

Clients: Brian O’Neill, Sara Rzeszutek, Kruti Shah

Insurance Education is crucial for making informed financial decisions, yet is often inaccessible to the average person due to paywalls or ineffective methods of teaching. To address this issue, we have developed ClaimCraft, an open-world exploration game aimed at making insurance education a fun and engaging experience for anyone who plays. Players take the role of an insurance claim adjuster, navigating real-world scenarios involving pricing policies and evaluating claims. Our goal is to provide a free, engaging platform for young adults and teenagers alike to learn more about topics previously thought to be too complex or uninteresting. This project was developed in Unity, using a Mongo Atlas cluster for policy data and save states, with graphics sourced from public sprite sheets and custom Piskel pixel art. 

Student Team Members: Garrett Goldberg, Andrew Labbe, Mia Troiano 

Adviser: Chetan Jaiswal 

Clients: Christopher Blake, Jesse Kalinowski, Alexander Thimineur 

Distracted driving is a major issue in today's technology-driven world, yet most solutions are costly or require complex setups. To address this, we developed DriveAware, an Android app that uses a smartphone’s camera to track eye movements and detect distractions —eliminating the need for specialized hardware. When distraction or drowsiness is detected, the app issues auditory and visual alerts. Using MediaPipe and machine learning, DriveAware operates seamlessly in the background with an intuitive interface. This poster details our development process, technical approach and why DriveAware outperforms existing solutions. 

Student Team Members: Caden Effrece, Klaus Schroeder, Ryan Sliger 

Adviser: Professor Chetan Jaiswal 

Clients: John Bau, Ruby ElKharboutly 

While Linux offers unmatched customization and flexibility, many users struggle with its steep learning curve and reliance on command-line interfaces. Those unfamiliar with system-level modifications find it daunting, limiting their ability to fully utilize their OS. Additionally, users with physical limitations face barriers in executing commands, as there is no alternative method for system control beyond traditional input devices. 

Student Team Members: Lukas Martino, Hunter Yocum, Peter Zegarek

Adviser: Chetan Jaiswal

Clients: Jonathan Blake, Jesse Kalinowski 

Soccer players often face challenges like bad weather, poor facilities and conflicting schedules that hinder optimal training. Next Gen Soccer addresses these barriers by providing a virtual reality (VR) platform using the Pico 4 headset, enabling athletes to train anytime, anywhere. The platform creates an immersive training environment, offering drills for goalkeepers and field players that focus on agility, decision-making and technical skills. This scalable solution breaks traditional training limitations, making consistent, data-driven practice accessible for players of all levels. 

Student Team Members: Tess Bossdorf, Aamnah Malik, Milena Silva 

Advisers: Chetan Jaiswal 

Clients: Jonah Warren, Enzo Pereira 

One of the largest grey areas in the laws of the United States remains the regulation of the use of deepfakes including both voice and images. SoundScape offers an innovative approach to deepfake audio detection, specifically focusing on the music industry. Our system uses vocal isolation to enhance detection accuracy, separating vocals from backing tracks. This improves input quality for our model, which utilizes various deepfake detection programs, resulting in a more precise analysis. We offer a user-friendly web interface for non-technical users to upload files, track their analysis and receive detailed results. Emphasizing transparency, our model provides a percentage likelihood of a deepfake and the reasoning behind it, reducing false positive outputs. By continuously expanding our dataset and retraining our AI model, we ensure effectiveness against the best and latest deepfake methods. 

Student Team Members: Jason Jackson, Christian Kilduff, Tim McGinley

Advisers: Chetan Jaiswal

Clients: Kearston Wesner, Adam Nemeroff 

Tenant Sync is an innovative property management platform designed to streamline interactions between landlords. With features like predictive maintenance scheduling, messaging, financial notifications and a secure bulletin board, Tenant Sync makes renting effortless and efficient. Whether you're a landlord or tenant, stay connected, organized and stress-free with Tenant Sync. 

Student Team Members: Jon Cela, Kastrijot Syla 

Adviser: Chetan Jaiswal 

Client: Ruby Elkharboutly 

Partnering with Mirion Technologies to optimize facility layout, this project focuses on reducing the Instruments Department's footprint from 28,000 to under 9,000 square feet, a total of 68% of space will be reduced. Our objective is to implement inventory and bench optimization strategies, ensuring compliance with OSHA, ADA and Connecticut Fire and Safety regulations. Through layout redesign, visual management integration and ergonomic improvements, we aim to enhance operational efficiency, streamline production workflows and support the introduction of a new Mirion product line — all while maintaining employee productivity and satisfaction and minimizing disruptions. 

Student Team Members: Joseph Decker, Serena Havunen, Daniella Naham, Phoebe Phalen 

Adviser: Justin Kile 

Client: Mirion Group

Aptyx is a company specializing in advanced injection molding and medical device manufacturing. Our capstone team was tasked with automating a portion of their IV drip production process to improve efficiency and reduce manual labor. Currently, operators manually apply adhesive from a roll using a handheld, pin-aligned tool to press it onto a small spring-loaded button. These buttons are then paired and placed into a tray in multiple sets for the next step. 

To streamline this process, our team is implementing automation using a vibratory tumbler to properly orient the buttons. A robotic arm will then pick up each button, align itself to place it under the adhesive with precise positioning below an adhesive peeling machine and finally move to deposit the completed button into a small bin. This automation aims to reduce operator workload, increase production consistency and improve overall efficiency in Aptyx’s manufacturing line.

Student Team Members: Cameron Gonzales, Fabio Larios, Bryan Leon, Nicholas Lockwood, John Tully

Adviser: Justin Kile 

Client: Aptyx 

Partnering with Quinnipiac University’s Industrial Engineering program, this project focuses on streamlining the ABET reaccreditation documentation process. By developing standardized Excel templates and leveraging Power Query, the team aims to simplify data entry, automate consolidation and ensure seamless integration across multiple sources. These improvements reduce manual effort, enhance data accuracy and create a more efficient workflow for faculty and staff involved in accreditation and curriculum assessment. 

Student Team Members: Valantine Achancho, Jaclyn Grisdale, Vineeta Maran, Riva Van Der Valk 

Adviser: Justin Kile 

Client: School of Computing & Engineering 

Striving to integrate Industry 4.0 principles into Quinnipiac University’s Industrial Engineering curriculum, the team is focused on enhancing hands-on learning through advanced automation and digital tools. By incorporating Simulation, Task Scheduling, Data Collection/Management, Visual Management, Digital Twin Technology and Robot Programming, the project aims to create a robust framework for future industrial engineering courses.

The initiative centers around the Yumi IRB 14000, MiR 100 and an additional robot arm for the UR10e robot, which will automate assembly, transport, disassembly, sorting and storage processes within a simulated manufacturing environment to model U.S. Army “Meal-Ready-to-Eat” (MRE) assembly processes. Bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, the project also addresses key challenges such as system compatibility, programming complexities and operational efficiency. This initiative will enhance the university’s ability to demonstrate Industry 4.0 technologies to current and prospective students. 

Student Team Members: Thomas Hopkins, Kyle Yusi, Derrick Zevola 

Adviser: Justin Kile 

Client: School of Computing & Engineering 

Design an advanced e-bike safety system aimed at enhancing rider and cargo security in urban environments with a focus on the European and Arab markets. The system should prioritize stability to ensure rider safety, particularly at low speeds or during stops, while adhering to European and Arab electric bicycle regulations. Key customer requirements include ensuring user stability, control intuitiveness, system reliability, structural durability and modularity. 

Student Team Members: Nazim Ahmed, Matthew Castano, Jason Vassilakis

Adviser: Jose Riofrio

Client: Devil’s Gear Bike Shop

Design an advanced e-bike safety system that enhances the security and protection of both riders and cargo in urban environments, particularly for the European and Arab markets. The design should improve the e-bike's responsiveness, sensitivity, external noticeability, user noticeability and clarity. It must comply with European and Arab electric bicycle regulations and ensure that the motor stops when the rider ceases pedaling.

Student Team Members: Jonathan Gold, Evan Jones, Ian Vanriper

Adviser: John Reap

Client: Devil’s Gear Bike Shop

The team aims to design a product that reduces crop damage by birds, especially Quelea Birds. It must be low-tech and affordable. The customers are the farmers in Ghana and other African nations who need this assistance with deterring the birds. The customer needs a way to keep the birds away from rice fields that is low-cost, low-tech and able to be used year-round, as their crops flower twice a year. The biggest restrictions on this project are the cost, the time of completion, user-friendliness and effectiveness.

Student Team Members: William Brakeman, Michael Rich, Andrew Villa

Adviser: John Reap

Clients: Henry Adobor, School of Business

The goal of the project is to develop an Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) application for students in the School of Nursing to practice simulation labs. This application offers responsive updates in real-time where instructors and administrators can provide provider orders and lab results during a simulation. Nursing students and instructors can input patient information based on their simulation. Instructors and administrators will be able to build and update the patient information. From patient information given in real-time, such as patient history, medication and daily living records, the application is designed to help students practice documenting patient care, work on their clinical skills and prepare for real-world scenarios. 

Student Team Members: Charlize Aponte, Dylan Bellinger, Gabriella Pierce, Kevin Rodriguez

Adviser: Ruby ElKharboutly 

Clients: School of Nursing, Liana Kappus, Bridget Rich, Darlene Rogers 

Bobcat Tracks is a software application and website that provides insightful analysis of students and peer mentoring data to the Learning Commons. It allows directors to upload information from their Peer Tutoring sessions and view this data in several different customizable graphs to be able to quickly identify patterns and support the needs of the student body. 

Student Team Members: SeSe Allerheiligen, Eric Carlson, Steven Griffin, Camryn Keller

Adviser: Ruby Elkharboutly

Clients: John Geopfrich, Bernard Grindel