2018-2019

Design Build Fly is an annual international competition hosted by AIAA and Cessna/Raytheon. The goal is to design and build a plane that abides by the year's rules while also performing the best at the competition. The competition will take place in Tucson, Arizona in mid-April. This year the theme of the competition is to build a carrier based aircraft. Some specific requirements are that the wing of the aircraft must be able to fold and unfold remotely, carry a radome, and carry a minimum of 4 stores and be able to drop them remotely. 

The Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) has identified two aging pump stations (PS), Westside (WS) and Seal Beach (SB),  within the Los Alamitos and Seal Beach area. With the increasing sewage flow and odor complaints, the frequency for maintenance of the Westside PS has also increased. In collaboration with Conveyance Bros Inc, OCSD will be replacing the two PS with a new station that is to be built adjacent to the existing Seal Beach PS.

Project Description: 

The FAB 4 and RK Engineering will collaborate to study trip generation rates, queuing and vacuum/parking area counts at various express car washes locations in Orange County. With the gathered data, The FAB 4 will design and prepare a conceptual site plan for new express car wash in Santa Ana. Factors in consideration included project size, zoning, queuing/parking demand. Finally a Traffic Impact Study (TIS) will be prepared to evaluate the impacts of the project.  

Structural Vision in conjunction with Michael Baker International and the University of California, Irvine present the preliminary design of the East Peltason Pedestrian Bridge. Using steel trusses and lightweight concrete decking supported by concrete decking, the 88-foot pedestrian bridge will connect the existing UC Irvine campus to a new hypothetical development across the Math and Science Technology Building (MSTB) in addition to a new parking structure next to MSTB.

Pure Vision is working along with engineers at HDR, to design a lift station in the city of Hesperia in order to divert flow to the regional wastewater treatment plant. This project will benefit the residents of Hesperia. The lift station will be located in the middle of a residential area and will be surrounded by tall walls with an odor control system favorable to the residents in the community. This system will receive 1 MGD of wastewater from the new local neighborhood that will be diverted to the regional wastewater facility. The manhole where this diversion will occur will be 1000 ft from the location of the lift station. The goal is to design a gravity pipe, a lift station, a force main, and odor control system that meets these design constraints. The lift station will be designed with one pump and one additional pump for redundancy and a designed...

Pure Vision is working along with engineers at HDR, to design a lift station in the city of Hesperia in order to divert flow to the regional wastewater treatment plant. This project will benefit the residents of Hesperia. The lift station will be located in the middle of a residential area and will be surrounded by tall walls with an odor control system favorable to the residents in the community. This system will receive 1 MGD of wastewater from the new local neighborhood that will be diverted to the regional wastewater facility. The manhole where this diversion will occur will be 1000 ft from the location of the lift station. The goal is to design a gravity pipe, a lift station, a force main, and odor control system that meets these design constraints. The lift station will be designed with one pump and one additional pump for redundancy and a designed...

The Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) has identified two aging pump stations (PS), Westside (WS) and Seal Beach (SB),  within the Los Alamitos and Seal Beach area. With the increasing sewage flow and odor complaints, the frequency for maintenance of the Westside PS has also increased. In collaboration with Conveyance Bros Inc, OCSD will be replacing the two PS with a new station that is to be built adjacent to the existing Seal Beach PS.

The Modesto Area 2 Stormwater to Sanitary Sewer Cross Connection Removal Project is will remove three sanitary sewer to storm drain cross connections, which are illegal connections of storm drain inlets to the sanitary sewer system installed to relieve flooding. The project will infiltrate stormwater and recharge groundwater and reduce the surcharging of sewer lines, reduce the number of Sanitary Sewer Overflows, improve water quality for Dry Creek, and the Lower Tuolumne River. The project will also rehabilitate Garrison Park, it’s soccer and baseball fields, and add a basketball court in a disadvantaged part of Modesto. The project will include a hydrologic analysis of the project area, hydraulic analysis of the storm drainage system, evaluation of the proposed retention basin, and prepare construction documents for the project.

Brandow & Johnston, a structural engineering firm, has tasked our group with designing a five-story mid-rise office building. Our goal for this project is to design the most cost-effective building while also maintaining the architects’ original vision for this space. Our first task was to determine the loading that the building will endure. Next, we developed a floor plan that abided by the constraints of the architectural plans. Finally, we created a RAM model to visualize our design.

A three story custom home is designed per architectural plans. The floor plan includes a basement level (below grade), a main level (grade), and an upper level. The gravity and lateral systems are designed to carry dead and live loads, as well as withstand wind and seismic activity. The retaining walls of the basement were design for lateral/pressure forces and surcharge forces.

The purpose of the project is to develop and implement the synchronization timing along Von Karman Avenue / Tustin Ranch Road with our main client as the City of Irvine and our consultant as Iteris, Inc. The corridor spans from Walnut Ave down to Intersect and includes 10 actuated intersections. Before and after studies will be conducted during the PM peak to compare the travel times. After modeling the network on Synchro 10, the team experimented with different cycle lengths and offsets to produce multiple alternatives. Green time priority is given to the major arterial to increase the traffic flow, particularly for northbound vehicles where there is the highest directional volume. All timing parameters and designs adhere to standards of the City of Irvine and the 2014 California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (CA MUTCD). 

Example of Before/After (implementing traffic signal synchronization design) Study Comparison:  http://www.iterisprojects.com/timing/videos/bristol_pm_nb.html

Project Description

SSS Builders is working with LPA Inc. to design a 3-story, V-shaped, steel-frame Pharmaceutical Research Lab. The 320,000 gross square foot structure will be integrated as part of the planned UCI School of Pharmacy and will be located off of California Avenue. Planned facilities include research labs, research offices, a clinical trial area, administration rooms, faculty offices, lecture halls, conference and seminar rooms, a warehouse for storage, and an exterior patio for leisure purposes. The central portion will contain an atrium, where bridges will be constructed to span from wing to wing. This will allow for a more accessible structure, where students can enter on either side of the building and can easily traverse from the upper floor wings containing research labs to the upper floor wing containing the supporting offices. Care must be taken in structural design to ensure that the building can resist gravity and lateral loads. The...

Our team will be collaborating with:

           James Bucknam, PJHM Architects

           Brett Kaufman, VCA Structural

           Professor MJ, UCI Faculty Mentor

The goal is to design a building structure that incorporates an optimum environment for energy generation. Our design incorporates the solar updraft concept, which uses air movements to rotate turbines and generate energy. By optimizing the surface area of the structure, the sun is then used to heat the air causing it to move upward at an increasing velocity, therefore turning the turbines and generating energy. The structure will act as a multifunction facility, consisting of wind turbines for energy generation and occupiable space  (i.e. research facility, storage).

The purpose of the project is to design a building structure that incorporates an optimum environment for energy generation. Our design incorporates the solar updraft concept, which uses air movements to rotate turbines and generate energy. By optimizing the surface area of the structure, the sun is then used to heat the air causing it to move upward at an increasing velocity, therefore turning the turbines and generating energy. The structure will act as a multifunction facility, consisting of wind turbines for energy generation and occupiable space  (i.e. research facility, storage).

The Californian economy is heavily dependent upon
agriculture, which provides about $82 billion per year,
as well as 760,000 total jobs. Much of this industry is
dependent on the humble honeybee. Currently,
farmers must maintain hundreds of hives, making
maintenance an incredibly difficult task. BeeAware
aims to help farmers by offering an automated health
monitoring system. An autonomous vehicle will fly
from hive to hive using computer vision, taking
measurements of the sound emanating from each hive,
and using DSP analysis to quickly find a rough measure
of the health of each hive.

The Californian economy is heavily dependent upon
agriculture, which provides about $82 billion per year,
as well as 760,000 total jobs. Much of this industry is
dependent on the humble honeybee. Currently,
farmers must maintain hundreds of hives, making
maintenance an incredibly difficult task. BeeAware
aims to help farmers by offering an automated health
monitoring system. An autonomous vehicle will fly
from hive to hive using computer vision, taking
measurements of the sound emanating from each hive,
and using DSP analysis to quickly find a rough measure
of the health of each hive.

We are Team Just Say Yes.

Members:

Alberto Barbosa, Stanley Chen, Harry Duong, Phillip Lai

Our device reads a character through a camera. By convolutional neural networks it predicts a character with some confidence level then once that confidence reaches a threshold the device outputs the character onto a Braille display.

<p>We are team Just Say Yes.</p>

<p>This image to Braille converter takes in an input character from a video stream via camera. Through a convolutional neural network it predicts the character with a confidence level. It then sends that character onto the Braille display if the confidence level is high enough.</p>

Team members: Alberto Barbosa, Stanley Chen, Harry Duong, Phillip Lai

Project Description: AlphaTech Engineering is working with LIN Consulting, Inc. to improve accessibility to Mustang Fields in Yorba Linda, CA. AlphaTech Engineering will conceptualize and design a left turn access and pedestrian crossing route to Mustang Fields for northbound traveling traffic. The feasibility of traffic signals and other alternatives will  be ranked, and the best alternative will be chosen. The project will consist of environmental documentation, alternative analysis, traffic modeling, roadway design, and preperation of plan sheets.

Our project is used to measure the radiation pattern of millimeter wave. It consists of a structure that supports an antenna, and another one that supports a motor and a rotating aluminum arm where a receiving open-ended waveguide is mounted. A Raspberry pi is used to communicate to a motor and at the same time control a network analyzer to take measurements while the analyzer scan an open-ended waveguide over a semicircle above the antenna at a specific distance. Millimeter wave is important for wireless applications, anti-collision systems, imaging systems, and future 5G communications

To meet the demands of wastewater treatment for a semi-arid city, the construction of a new water reuse plant is needed.  As the population of the city increase, the water usage per capita increases. For this project, it is estimated that the water reuse plant will need to process 20 million gallons of wastewater per day coming from industrial, commercial, recreational, and domestic sources. The treated effluent leaving must be in accordance to the California Code of Regulations, Title 22, to be used as recycled water. Additionally, the effluent must meet The Clean Water Act and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) standards.

For more information, please visit Neptune Co.'s Website.

The goal of this infrastructure project is to store “hydroelectric energy” during periods of abundant renewable energy production by pumping from the Colorado River to Lake Mead. During periods of high energy demands, power will be generated from this water storage.  The pumping cycle would require the construction of new facilities including a Colorado River Intake, Pump Station, Conveyance System (either pipeline or tunnel), and a Reservoir Outlet Structure. Capital costs are estimated to be in the range of $5B to $10B. The team is tasked with developing alternatives for the conveyance system to find the cheapest, most efficient option. After the best option is found and a cohesive environmental study is conducted, the aforementioned new facilities can be designed. Further efforts include performing a sensitivity cost analysis and pipe stress analysis for the optimal design of the conveyance system. 

The alternative analysis begins by calculating the flow requirements for...

The scope of this project is to develop a vacant lot into a residential community with the first time home buyer in mind. The site plan is located off the intersection of Lake Forest and Ridge Forest Dr. in between a residential community and shopping center. The site is a vacant 6 acre lot with a pad size of 3 acres with no no existing infrastructure except for a single storm drain. Stantec will utilize the space for first time home buyers. Due to the limited space, Stantec have employed RCCN Consultants to develop a preliminary site plan for a residential community of duplexes comprised of converted shipping containers. Lot sizes will consist of two 16’ x 40’ containers, and provide residents with a two story home. RCCN Consultants will be partnering with Stantec to tranform this property into a new residential community.

The National Steel Bridge competition is a collegiate competition held annually by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). The Steel Bridge team at the University of California, Irvine is among the 18 universities that compete in Pacific Southwest regional conference. The top three teams will proceed to the national competition, which will take place at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale this year.

This project serves a supplement to the Civil Engineering curriculum by providing students with an student-led project where students will be able to conceptualize and design a bridge to client specification while optimizing performance, efficiency, and economy. The design will be structurally analyzed, fabricated, and erected to compete in different scoring categories. The bridge will be ranked based on stiffness, lightness, construction speed, aesthetics, efficiency and economy. With this project students will deal with different building constraints and will need to problem solve to find find alternatives and...

Project Description:

The FAB 4 and RK Engineering will collaborate to study trip generation rates, queuing and vacuum/parking area counts at various express car washes locations in Orange County. With the gathered data, The FAB 4 will design and prepare a conceptual site plan for a new express car wash in Santa Ana. Factors in consideration included project size, zoning, queuing/parking demand. Finally, a Traffic Impact Study (TIS) will be prepared to evaluate the impacts of the project.  

Since the boom of the smart device era, worldwide demand for smartphones and laptops has increased significantly, from less than a billion in 2010 to over 2.5 billion in 2018. Along with the soar of smart device usage comes the demand for semiconductors and microchips, an essential component for smartphones, computers, and laptops. Every day, microchip manufacturers test about ten thousand chips to select only the functional ones to install into the smart device. Better methods for testing chips are needed.

This is an MAE188 Project

 Concrete Canoe is a student-led interdisciplinary project, in which students design, construct, and race a canoe made out of a special lightweight concrete. UC  Irvine’s Team displays, presents, and races in the canoe against 19 other schools at the annual Pacific Southwest conference. The team’s performance is judged on factors such as the design paper, presentation, final aesthetics product, mix design, and race time.

The purpose of the project is to design a storm drain system for a community in the Planning Area One (PA1) site in Irvine, California. The system will be designed to withstand a 25-year storm event and will discharge into existing drainage networks around the PA1 site area. The team is tasked with conducting a hydrologic study of the area to determine the existing conditions of the site. Through these studies and the current hydrologic conditions, the peak flow and volume runoff will be determined in order to alleviate runoff from future development. Using the Orange County Hydrology Manual (OCHM) along with other supplemental design standards, a storm drain system will be designed for the proposed development site.

Project Description:
With 12.7 million people affected worldwide, corneal blindness ranks third in the causes of blindness. Although surgical treatment such as corneal transplantation exists, the lack of matching quality donor tissue for replacement limits its impact on public health worldwide.

A synthetic artificial cornea has been proposed to fulfill the unmet need at lower cost and wider availability. With the addition of a nanopatterned surface, the synthetic device will be antibacterial and promote post-op tissue healing, further advancing its therapeutic benefit.

We intend to investigate new materials with higher flexibility and biocompatibility and its related larger scale production method, to improve the 1st generation implantable device for optimal clinical practice and further lower its fabrication cost. 2nd generation cornea device will be characterized according to FDA guidelines, and the team will aim for a pilot animal trial.

Project Mentor:
Engineering Mentor: Albert Yee, PhD, Department of Chemical...

Project Description:
Bacterial infections and contamination is a serious problem worldwide. Methods to detect bacteria are currently expensive time exhaustive due to the fact that the current methods require culturing samples for 24 hours and costly PCR approaches needed to detect bacterial populations.

The goal of this project is to design a small portable and cost effective particle counting device that can measure ultra-low concentration bacteria (~atto molar) within minutes. Fluorescent Hit Counter will feature a faster process (~1 min/run/mL sample). The detectors are based on photon counts which will increase sensitivity. each sample will be safely sealed in each cuvette The current method is to grow bacterial cultures which required long-time incubation (~24 hours or more) and bacterial culture are counted by eyes which can lead to possible human errors. Another pitfall is that contamination may happen between the plates. Students will also think about how this design...