INCOSE Awards Thirteen Students at the 2024 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)

By Regina M Griego, Ph.D., INCOSE Fellow; contributions by Eileen Arnold, Mike Dickerson, Leone Young, Rich Johns, and Phyllis Marbach. Thanks also to Mike Sievers, Chris McCauley, Kailash Golecha, Kat Gulstad, and Chandru Mirchandani for participating in judging the projects.

INCOSE has participated in the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) as a Special Award Organization since 2009 to provide awareness of Systems Engineering for exceptionally talented high school students from all over the globe. This year, students were awarded a total of over $8 million in special awards from over 40 organizations, and INCOSE provided three cash awards and ten Honorable Mentions that totaled $11,000 in cash and non-cash awards. Our awards include first and second place for the INCOSE Best Use of Systems Engineering, an award donated by the INCOSE Foundation INCOSE Bill Ewald Socio-technical Systems Engineering, and ten Honorable Mentions. The first-place winner is invited to the INCOSE Symposium and offered a booth at which to exhibit their project. All other awards, including the honorable mention awards, are provided a one-year free student membership to INCOSE and free virtual admission to the 2024 or another future International Symposium. INCOSE ISEF Special Awards were in-person this year, as were the student interviews, but judging of projects was done virtually, and finalists were selected in person.

The INCOSE Fellows lead the effort with ISEF, and this year, there were twelve INCOSE members who served as judges, six virtually and six attending the ISEF 2024 event in person. The ISEF was held in Los Angeles, CA, May 11-17, 2024, with the Special Awards announced on the evening of May 16th. INCOSE ISEF judges started by targeting ISEF Categories of projects that were likely to have systems engineering content, reviewing 324 projects; from there, we narrowed to 68 projects that we were able to visit virtual booths and, using qualitative criteria, narrowed to 28 projects for which we were able to conduct interviews with students live on May 15th in Los Angeles. Every project is impressive, and the hardest part of our participation is choosing the winners. We applaud our winners and wish them success.

The INCOSE Best Use of Systems Engineering awards are awarded to the best interdisciplinary projects that can produce technologically appropriate solutions that meet societal needs.

INCOSE Best Use of Systems Engineering Award of $1,500 and free registration and Exhibitor Booth at a future INCOSE Symposium

Micro RNA223-Biomarker Based Exponential Rolling Circle Amplification CRISPR -Cas12a System for Disease Detection and COPD Diagnostics – Robin Dao from Exeter, NH, USA developed a low-cost way to detect chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The device uses Clustered Regularly Interspace Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) associated protein 12a (Cas12a). Cas12a is a new RNA guided endonuclease that acts as a molecular scissor. It is used to perform Rolling Circle Amplification (RCA), a DNA amplification technique to produce multiple circular DNA strands thus amplifying the patient’s DNA. Then, to detect signs of COPD from the DNA, the vial with the polymerase and the patient sample is placed into a device developed by Robin consisting of a Blue Light LED, an Excitement Light, an Optical Filter, a Fluorescent Light and a Capture Camera. This technique is known as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Robin identified the goals of the project, the design of each subsystem, and the experiments to prove results. The device is low cost, simple to use, and would be useful for rural areas where many cases of COPD go undiagnosed. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/166139

Second Place INCOSE Best Use of System Engineering Award of $800, a 1-year free student membership to INCOSE, and free virtual admission to the 2023 International Symposium of the INCOSE

UpLift Mobility: Robotic Lift to Elevate Frequently Falling Individuals – Jeslyn Tan from Sydney, Australia, developed a lift that can be used by frequently falling individuals as they age, providing them with more independence. Her design goals were to allow the user to use it without a caregiver and to make it aesthetically pleasing. Jeslyn designed and optimized the chair using 3D modeling. She iteratively constructed and tested subsystems (i.e. locking mechanism, programable drive-base). Here final product can lift up to 200 Kgm, is operated using a game controller, and appears to be a regular piece of furniture. This chair can be used at home or in aging care facilities to elevate people from the ground when they fall. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/167368

INCOSE Bill Ewald Socio-Technical Systems Engineering Award of $1000, a 1-year free student membership to INCOSE, and free virtual admission to the 2023 International Symposium of the INCOSE

Securing Global Food: Biopolymers, Cryptography, and Visual Transformers for Affordable Anti-Counterfeit Seed Protection – Diana Martynova from Los Gatos, CA, USA, was inspired after learning 50% of the seeds sold in Africa are counterfeit, lowering germination rates leading to global food shortages, starvation, and political unrest. With biopolymer tags, verification requires a costly Raman spectrometer and an Internet connection, posing obvious obstacles for smaller farms. She developed an affordable anti-counterfeit seed protection system combining biopolymer tags, cryptography, and visual transformers. The system consists of three components: identification of a unique, unclonable biopolymer tag by a novel algorithm (Visual Transformer), verification with a cryptographic signature, and a public blockchain to trace ownership of the seed bags as seed transactions occur. All steps can be done on a smartphone or other inexpensive computing device. She pre-trained the algorithm reaching 100% accuracy in identifying biopolymer tags. Her approach identifies counterfeits with only a 5-seed sample per bag. In today’s counterfeit-infused environment, this is one innovation that will help to eliminate seed fraud. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/168550

Ten Certificates of Honorable Mention, each with a 1-year free student membership to the INCOSE and free virtual admission to the 2023 International Symposium of the INCOSE

Generative AI System for the Visually Impaired

Ryan Xu from Plano, TX, USA, developed an accurate, descriptive, real-time, and affordable vision system to alleviate visual impairment utilizing regenerative artificial intelligence to replicate detailed visual vocabulary. The headset provides descriptions of the surrounding environment and provides both textual and verbal feedback in a language of the user’s choice (a multilingual large language model was used), answering questions the user might have, such as, “How big is the tree to my right?” after hearing a description of the surroundings. The stakeholders communicated that the voice-activated commands and text-to-speech feedback were intuitive and user-friendly. Additionally, the 3D-printed frame was comfortable and lightweight. GIVS is an immersive, innovative, intuitive, and detailed product integrated into a single headset that runs on batteries. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/162597

Mitigation of Pressure Injuries Utilizing an Inertial Wearable, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning

Maya Trutschl from Shreveport, LA, USA, developed and tested two system units that would show the position where pressure sores could develop for patients in long term hospital care confined to a bed. She used both camera and pressure sensors to identify the patient's position and time in that position. Her system then notified the nurse with a 30-minute window to help the patient change their position to relieve pressure points. She is waiting for authorization from the Shreveport Hospital to test the system in hospital conditions. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/167603

Tableware Jitter Elimination Technology for Parkinson's Disease (PD)

Susie Yuan from Beijing, China, developed a low-cost jitter elimination device for PD patients suffering from random and sudden tremors during eating. Her design uses artificial intelligence to adapt tableware (spoons) to reduce unwanted movements, record the severity of the patient's movements, and provide a diagnosis. The prototype uses a development board as the main control, a gyroscope for motion attitude detection, and data is stored on a server (MacBook). The server can store the data locally or in the cloud. She uses the PID algorithm and MLP algorithm for motion control. A 54% decrease in spilled food using the device was shown. Additionally, it costs 5-7% that of other comparable spoons. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/162412

NeuroHAT: Democratizing Brain-Wellness Monitoring Developing A Wearable System with fNIRs & EEG Multimodality Classification Engine & Miniaturized Device

Jingjing Liang from Cupertino, CA, USA, developed a safe, affordable, and accessible brain monitoring with high temporal and spatial resolution. She selected the brain signal modality, including EEG (electroencephalograph) and fNIRs (Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy), built a multi-modality detection engine, designed a wearable prototype, and conducted a system performance evaluation. She optimized electrodes and optodes to provide complementary high temporal and spatial resolution with cross-informed for artifact removal. She used two different classification models, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) and Convolution Neural Nets (CNN), to capture more brain alerting signals and cast a wider net on common brain dysfunctions. Her goal is to make regular noninvasive brain monitoring more accessible. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/165472

Orthotic Hand Brace to Improve Range of Motion in Patients With Cerebral Palsy

Sophia Caramanica from Shrewsbury, MA, USA, developed an orthotic hand brace to improve range of motion in patients with cerebral palsy. The design was a glove with motors that pull back the fingers on command and a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) unit to relax the nerves leading to the hand. Tests were conducted that measured the finger joint angles before putting on the device and after using the device. These tests were repeated both with and without the TENS unit. Participants filled out a questionnaire for qualitative data and feedback. The tests also determined the type of glove that was easiest to put on for the participants. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/167114

Development of Oil Collecting Submarine Using AI and Hydro-Filter Solution

Ayhem Bouker from Sousse, Tunisia, developed a drone-style submarine with a top-mounted camera that navigates underwater and detects and cleans oil spills. The camera uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) trained to detect the oil. The system also has an oil filter made from super hydrophobic and super oleophilic material to separate the oil from the water. More than one version of the submarine was designed, and the prototype was printed using a 3D printer. Components of the system include thrusters with a total of 6 motors, an electronic compartment with a control board and electrical components, and a filter. The drone submarine was operated and showed successful oil separation and collection. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/168115

SkyLinker: UAV Autonomous Perpetual Solar Flight for Facilitation of Mobile Communication and Long-Distance Surveillance

Michael Xu from Morristown, NJ, USA, developed a low-cost, extremely lightweight, solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with on-board power storage, making multi-day and perpetual flight possible. He iterated his design in Fusion 360 and focused on deriving an efficient low-speed and high-camber airfoil. The resulting airfoil was optimized in a 2D simulator and 3D printed. Plausible applications of his design include surveillance applications, monitoring solar and wind infrastructure, assessing crop health, and surveying disaster zones, enabling a more effective response. This novel aircraft constructed for just $580 demonstrates the feasibility of constructing cost-effective solar-powered UAVs capable of long loiter times. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/166748

The Virtual Cardiologist: Three Deep Learning Pipelines in an Inexpensive Portable Device and Web/Mobile Application for Rapid Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Clinical Decision-Making

Shiv Mehrotra-Varma from Fresno, CA, USA started with an off-the-shelf digital stethoscope, limited 2D echo images, heart source and added a Raspberry Pi with a custom Digital stethoscope, his mobile app and a web-based streamlet. He then tested 15 deep-learning models for Aortic Stenosis, 6 algorithms for Cardiac Ejection Fraction, and 5 algorithms for Heart Murmurs, and then validation tested these on two data sets. He tested the system on 300 patients at a local clinic. The intent of this work is to make this available for low cost to rural areas. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/164260

Zenith Soar X-4: Autonomous Drone for Disaster Relief and Detection

Daniel Williams from Newnan, GA, USA, developed a cost-effective autonomous drone system tailored for disaster relief and emergency response. Equipped with an array of cameras, sensors, and advanced algorithms, it provides real-time crisis data collection and mapping capabilities. Daniel designed it for rapid deployment and ease of use. The 3D-printable drone body can be assembled in under 10 hours and features modular construction with components mounted on a removable tray for quick transfers in case of damage to the drone body. Testing results demonstrated its ability to accurately map locations and autonomously detect individuals from a distance of 150 feet. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/168143

Software for Customized Development of Low-Cost Partial Hand Prostheses in the 3D-Printed Prosthetics Community

Katherine Robertson from Newport Coast, CA, USA, developed an innovative, user-friendly software designed to improve the creation of 3D-printed prostheses for individuals with partial hand loss, the most common form of upper limb amputation. The software enables semi-automatic generation of tailored prosthetic hands by allowing the user to manipulate a joint pseudo skeleton and to "paint" a residual limb scan to define the socket in preparation for 3D-printing. It incorporates a pattern of holes to ensure flexibility and breathability in the sockets. She demonstrated the socket's ability to maintain a snug fit under substantial loads and conducted qualitative assessments affirming robustness, ease of manufacturing, and kinematics. https://projectboard.world/isef/project/166532