Our project aimed to enhance robotics education using Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVTs). Imagine a person walking up and down hills—they naturally adjust how hard they push with their legs to move efficiently across changing terrain. Similarly, a robot can use a CVT to adjust its mechanical power output as it moves dynamically.
This project improves the safety of a computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine used by students and staff in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering’s senior design lab. The CNC milling machine helps cut metal and plastic but poses safety risks including moving parts, flying debris, sharp edges and airborne dust, which can cause injuries or breathing problems. The goal is to create a safer workspace for students by protecting them from these risks.
Our project involves an innovative collaboration with Mayo Clinic solving a clinical problem in electrophysiology. We aim to prevent patients from receiving unintentional therapies from cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) during electrosurgery and indicate to the operating room if the CIED is in the desired mode.
An innovative collaboration with Mayo Clinic that addresses a common postoperative challenge, improves recovery rate outcomes, reduces re-injury rates, and enhances patient satisfaction.
JTEKT, a bearing manufacturing company, commissioned our capstone team to enhance the safety of their 1967 Besly Dual Disk grinder. We addressed users unintentionally placing their fingers in pinch points on the machine’s loading area. Our goal was implementing a new safety standard to protect employees and minimize injuries while maintaining efficiency.
The payload team promoted the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering with our successful launch at the 2025 NASA Student Launch Competition. This yearly event challenges colleges nationwide to design, build and launch a rocket with a payload. NASA changes requirements annually. This year, the payload needed to collect flight data (rocket speed, air temperature and height), transmit data via radio, and keep model astronauts safe. We developed over 100 ideas and used specific strategies to narrow them to a final design.
Our sponsor, Ghost Controls, produces gate automation products for customers’ pre-existing swing gates. This project aimed to increase customer satisfaction with Ghost Control’s ZombieLock. The lock uses an electronic switch to close over a solid receiver pin for property security. Customers reported latching problems due to misalignments between latch and receiver, often caused by soft soil from harsh weather and gate sag.
We aimed to design, build and fly a high-powered rocket for NASA’s annual Student Launch Challenge. Our goals were creating a new design emphasizing recovery reliability that could be disarmed for inspection, and developing better methods to evaluate subsystems on the ground.
Southeast Con is a student conference hosted yearly by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that includes a hardware competition where college teams design, build and program an autonomous robot. For the 2025 competition, the game field measured 4' x 8' with an asteroid theme. Scattered around were magnetic and non-magnetic materials. The field had an outdoor section and an indoor cave area with a camera emitting infrared waves that interfered with sensors.
The National Fluid Power Association holds a yearly competition for college students, challenging us to rethink how bikes work by using fluid power. Imagine pedaling a bike where your energy powers a hydraulic pump, which moves fluid through a motor to turn the wheels. It’s like water flowing through a mill, but the energy flows through tubes to make the bike move.
