Capstone Design

Participation in Capstone Design Projects synthesizes theory learned in class, lab work, and real-world experience from co-op programs.

Students are able to create design projects in areas that interest them. Capstone Design projects often lead to the creation of a marketable product and entrepreneurial opportunities for the graduating students.

Students own the ideas and devices they create for the design competition and there are several pitch competitions that follow the Capstone Design Event, acting as a platform for students to compete for funding to commercialize their devices. Some projects are developed in collaboration with industry partners or community organizations. This allows students to address real-life challenges and potentially contribute to positive change in the world.

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Capstone design in the News

Four men standing on either side of a poster board

Nanotechnology Engineering (NE) Group 22 placed second for their Capstone Design Project titled Detecting Mutations in Genes: A Microfluidic Lab-on-a-Chip Solution.

The group designed a benchtop microfluidic device which detects DNA mutations. DNA mutation detection can be used to tailor cancer treatments, identify genetic disorders like cystic fibrosis, prenatal testing and more.

DNA mutation detection is a time-consuming process. It takes between four to six hours to get the results from the current process of testing. The device designed by group members Gabriel Ghrayeb, Declan Gunning, Cyrus Hatami, and Alek Kechichian takes a small DNA sample and can process and produce results quickly and with minimal manual intervention.

“Our device works with and can be tuned for any DNA segment of interest, whether you're working in genetic engineering and you want to check if you have successfully caused or edited a gene mutation, or in genetic screening where we want to check if a person's genetic code has a mutation that might make them at higher risk for breast cancer or some other condition down the line,” says Kechichian.

two women and a man holding glass trophies

A nanotechnology engineering team won first place at the Ontario Engineering Competition (OEC) in Ottawa for their Capstone Project called IISense. The team designed a prototype to monitor chronic kidney disease (CKD).

The competition was fierce at the OEC which was held in Ottawa this year. Teammates Flora Wu, San Basnet, and Divhleen Ruprai entered the innovative design category at the event.

“The best part of OEC was that for the innovative design competition, we had to do a public opening. We displayed our poster and prototype, and people approached us and asked questions about our project. It was really cool to hear people’s perspectives on our product.” says Ruprai. “They provided feedback on things that we had not considered, which could improve our project to make it easier to use and accessible to different groups of people that we weren't aware of before.”

CKD is a silent disease that can have no obvious symptoms until a late stage and lead to the need for dialysis or, in some cases a kidney transplant. It can be more prevalent in people who have pre-existing health issues like diabetes or hypertension.

Nanotechnology Engineering (NE) Group 7 took first place for their Capstone Design Project VitEx, that reimagines hospital emergency room triage through a new approach in wearable nanotechnology.

The group created a wristband for use in hospital emergency rooms embedded with sensors to enable continuous monitoring of the patients’ vitals.

The wrist band uses a sweat-based enzymatic sensor to continuously measure patients’ glucose levels and heart rate. When a voltage is applied to the glucose sensor, glucose is oxidized and then that produces a measurable current that can be measured using an electrode.

The heart rate sensor is a pressure-based sensor that uses piezoelectric PVDF as the sensing layer with the addition of zinc oxide nanorods underneath to increase the overall sensitivity.