2022 Engineering Capstone Design Expo: A Spotlight On EE Seniors

A warm and sunny spring Thursday at Bud Walton Arena saw hundreds of engineering college seniors present their capstone projects – the culmination of many hours of research and preparation – to faculty, visitors, and industry judges. On April 28, 2022, seniors from the varied departments within the University of Arkansas College of Engineering competed with, and alongside, one another. The team members earning first- and second-place honors for their part in the joint-department projects were Ethan Burns, Jose Moreno, and Shaun Linkogel (first), and Alex Almeida, Benjamin Beason, Brandon Riesberg, Jack Meharg, and Gavin Tomlinson (second). We had a chance to chat with two of the Department of Electrical Engineering winners and one of the industry judges about this year’s Spring Expo.

Jack Orlicek

Brandon Riesberg, one of our ’22 graduates, placed second with his team. They designed a coil-based linear motor applicable to maglev trains, or short-runway aircraft systems, among other uses. “The senior design project was really eye opening to the design process, learning how to start with an idea and then transform that idea into reality. Senior design was the culmination of four years of school combined into one class, and to see it all come together was incredible. Studying electrical engineering at the University of Arkansas will be one of the toughest but most rewarding decisions you ever make,” Riesberg told us. “The department of electrical engineering helped prepare me for a career in radio frequency engineering, having professors who pushed me beyond what I thought I was capable of achieving. In electromagnetics and antenna design, Dr. El-Shenawee pushed me extremely hard to fully understand the material. With her guidance I was able to design an antenna using HFSS and measure radiation patterns in an anechoic chamber. There isn’t a better place to study electrical engineering.”

The industry judges enjoyed the Expo a great deal as well, meeting and interacting with the inheritors of their trade. Jack Orlicek spent nearly 30 years in refineries and nuclear and clean-coal power plant engineering for ALCOA and Entergy, prior to 15 years as a nuclear power QA/QC consultant. When asked about his reaction to the Spring Expo, Orlicek said, “The attitudes and communication skills of the students were impressive. They were very responsive, offering any degree of detail I wanted. The project teams had excellent displays and data to convey a great deal of information in a short amount of time. The teams were quick to help one another and allow room for one another to answer my questions, working together to relate their project goals to me. The students exuded confidence in their work. I was amazed at their acumen from a technical standpoint and at their personal confidence.”

The engineering veteran, who earned his BSME in 1970 at the University of Arkansas, also noted, “Far more than in my day, the opportunity to choose your own projects – across a wide array of combined technologies among a student’s particular interests – was truly impressive to me. It is obvious that the students at the U of A Engineering College are learning not only foundational processes, but how to acclimate to new technical processes. This is key to being attractive to real-world employers.”

Shaun Linkogel was a member of the first-place team. He is a 2022 electrical engineering grad who now works for Stereotaxis, a “pioneer and global leader in innovative surgical robotics.” Linkogel’s team presented a multi-departmental designed system to alleviate pressure ulcers in non-verbal, wheelchair bound medical patients caused by improper weight distribution. “The Care-Mate was designed to output a visual pressure array onto an app on [a patient’s] phone so that [caregivers] can easily and properly reposition the patient. Our group worked with a patient at UAMS Northwest Regional Campus and his father to create a device that could help millions who struggle with this painful problem and their caregivers in and outside the medical industry.”

When asked about the Expo in particular, Linkogel beamed, “The Expo was my favorite part of my senior year. When we were assigned this project, I was so excited to take on this challenge along with my fellow engineers. I knew that the idea of the Care-Mate system was truly special and it could potentially change lives. Being able to work with other students in biomedical and computer science gave me a good idea of what it was like to work on a project in the work force. Being able to dedicate so much time to something that I grew to be so attached to helped me not only learn, but to grow as a student and a leader in my community.”

Concerning the department of electrical engineering, Linkogel said, “The first thing that I will tell you about the electrical engineering program at the U of A is that it will challenge you. There is no sugar coating the amount of work that you will put in, but all the teachers

truly want you to succeed and will spend the extra time and effort to help you get to where you want to go. I grew to love the process of learning something new and applying it to my designs. Working with the medical device industry helped me get into the field that I work in today. The course work that you are given will prepare you for what you need to know in the work force as an engineer that will help change the world.”

The 2022 Spring Expo marked the fifth year since the event’s original iteration, but the first since COVID-19 struck the campus and the nation. The department of electrical engineering is proud to lead the Spring and Fall Expo each year, and we look forward to seeing your project soon!