2025 Senior Design Showcase

On Friday, April 25th, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) hosted its 2025 Senior Design Showcase. Held annually, the event provided an exciting platform for students to display months of hard work, creativity, and technical expertise. This year, five teams: GelGuard, JAAC, Steelifix, Aquapore, and DDP, presented research projects addressing critical societal challenges through innovative material solutions. The following teams and projects are provided below.

GelGuard: Advancing Wound Care with Smart Hydrogels Team GelGuard, composed of James Votruba-Drzal, Kylie Wall, Vidur Saigal, and Arya Venugopalan, tackled an important medical need. Their project focused on creating an injectable, diagnostic hydrogel designed to stabilize postoperative burn and laceration wounds. By providing a quantitative and equitable method to detect wound fouling, GelGuard aims to improve health outcomes for diverse patient populations. Their work was recognized for its technical excellence and real-world impact.

JAAC: Turning Tire Waste into Energy Solutions The team known as JAAC, Julia Dase, Chiara Bruzzi, Anna Hallac, and Amelia Pilot, addressed the environmental crisis of tire waste. Their project, Retread Power, proposed a sustainable method to transform end-of-life tire treads into hard carbon for energy storage applications. By using cryogenic milling, chemical detoxification, and heat treatments, they developed a material suitable for lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries. Electrochemical testing revealed promising results, hinting at a dual benefit for environmental cleanup and energy technology.

Steelifix: Enhancing Industrial Adhesives for Construction Team Steelifix, with members Caroline de Andrade, Nina Gao, Vivek Nair, and Isa Pan, presented their research on improving steel adhesion to paper surfaces using polyamide adhesives. Their innovations could significantly enhance the durability and performance of corner bead applications in the construction industry, offering a potential new standard for adhesive performance in heavy-duty environments.

Aquapore: Tackling PFAS Contamination with Reusable Materials Benjamin Sailors, Victoria Xu, Ansh Goyal, and Shivani Chawla, the team behind pMOF, set their sights on one of today’s most pressing environmental issues: PFAS contamination in drinking water. They designed a filtration system using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) capable of capturing and thermally degrading PFAS, enabling reuse of the MOF material. Their project offers a sustainable and potentially scalable solution for improving public health and water safety.

DDP: Pioneering Affordable, Long-Duration Energy Storage The DDP team: Derek He, Dionne Yeung, and Peter Bazianos, focused on energy storage innovation critical for renewable energy deployment. By engineering a novel battery chemistry, optimizing cell structure, and ensuring safe and scalable production methods, DDP made significant strides toward reducing the cost per kWh of long-duration energy storage. Their work could help revolutionize how renewable energy is integrated into the power grid.

Showcase Awards and Recognition Three teams earned special recognition at the event and will move forward to represent MSE at the upcoming SEAS Senior Design Competition on May 2, 2025. This competition assembles together the winning senior design project teams from each of Penn’s engineering majors.

Team Aquapore was honored for “the highest and best use of technology and innovation to leverage engineering principles,” under the mentorship of Professor Shu Yang.

Team JAAC, advised by Professor Russ Composto, received the award for “the greatest positive impact (societal, environmental, economic, etc.) while creatively solving an issue.” Their Retread Power project demonstrated not only technical rigor but also a profound commitment to environmental sustainability, positioning them as strong contenders in the upcoming university-wide competition.

Team GelGuard was awarded the prestigious Judge’s Choice award for their strong demonstration of applying scientific and technological principles to develop a highly impactful medical solution. Advised by Professor Chris Madl, their work impressed judges with its innovation, potential for real-world application, and thoughtful attention to health equity.