SDSU

The Virtual Engineering Capstone and Senior Design Project Showcase

May 17th, 2021

This year SDSU Georgia held its third Capstone and Senior Design Project Showcase. Event was held through an online platform, using Zoom Meeting, where our partner companies were able to meet our outstanding Graduate year, Electrical, Computer, Civil and Construction Engineering students and get introduced to totally 11 Senior Projects, they were working on during the last two semesters.

This year such companies as: GITA, Domson Engineering, CIC Group, Arali Construction, INSI Construction, Basalt Fiber with the support of ILF Consulting Engineers, ICCA and EMG sponsored SDSU G Capstone Projects.

The purpose of this event is to introduce Companies and Organizations to new University-Business cooperation opportunities.

Project: Basalt Solutions

Project Members: Ana Jervalidze, Ana Shonvadze, Anano Papinashvili

Luka Vacharadze, Temuri Malakmadze, Yawen Ye

Description of Project:

The main objective of the project is to compare the effectiveness of basalt fibers to the one of traditional steel reinforcement. “Basalt Solutions” consists of thorough comparison and analysis, including theoretical research, historical background, geotechnical analysis, environmental impact, structural analysis, consisting of design and comparison of durability and strength of basalt. Also, the important parts of the project are lab analysis to further prove the advantage of basalt on the practical level, and thorough financial analysis, economic comparison of prices, and life cycle. With this project, our team aspires to demonstrate knowledge in civil and construction engineering, and use the skills gained throughout the years to benefit the future of engineering solutions.

Project: Vocational College Design (Horizon) in Lanchkuti
Project Members: Alexander Jikia, Ioane Gogolashvili, Avtandil Tavkhelidze

Valerian Marsagishvili, Davit Kakachishvili

Description of Project:

CIC Group has been tasked with the design-build of a Vocational College (Horizon) in Lanchkhuti. Our Team “Gofache” from San Diego State University took the responsibility of researching several disciplines from the design part of this college. Our team is composed of five Senior students. Based on interest of three collaborated side, covered disciplines were agreed. Project management, quality control, MEP and Structural analysis and Cost accountment are issues on which we made significant contributions to this project. We tested concrete and steel samples for quality control, analyzed water-wastewater and firefighting systems for MEP analysis. In addition to this, load bearing wall system of ytong material was proposed as alternative way of designing this college. For this alternative method structural study and cost estimation was conducted. Finally, college building process was planned via Primavera software.

Project: New School Design for Kvemo Machkhaani

Project Members: Tinatin Vacheishvili, Mariam Chikhradze, Shalva Esakia

Davit Enukidze, Mikheil Nozadze, Omari Mamalashvili

Description of Project:

The project which DOMSTM is working on is a design-build project by INSI Construction. The assignment of the project is to design a two-story/three-story public elementary school building in Kvemo Machkhaani, Sighnaghi region, which should be suitable for 90 pupils. The main objectives of the capstone project were to create a design schedule of the semester; analyze and design a Traffic Scheme; design, analyze and draft the structural part of the one terrace of the school; create the Bill of Quantities (BOQ) of structural part – all while considering sustainability and environmental protection. The main goal of DOMSTM was to work closely to codes and standards existing in Georgia and prepare ourselves for the Georgian working industry.

One of the aims for our group was to achieve a sustainable structure with a minimized risk to the environment in the long run. Therefore, we have carefully planned and analyzed each step before moving to the action. The very first thing from which we have started was to preserve the perennial trees, located across the project’s territory. This resulted in decreasing the building flooring area and adding one more floor to the building. Doing so, we avoided risks of dealing with damage to nature and moved one step ahead towards achieving sustainability. Another fact was the selection of materials. The natural materials, rocks, sand, gravel will be supplied from the River Alazani basin, which is also close to the site and fuel emission will below. In addition, Our team has designed and organized the traffic scheme so that the pedestrians will be given with priorities, as for the traffic movement, speed limitations will be installed, which not only will prevent traffic accidents from happening but will decrease the emission of CO2 gasses in the atmosphere as well. Our team believes that completing all these tasks will definitely result in a successful and sustainable project.

On the other hand, the purpose of the structural design was to produce a structure capable of resisting all applied loads without failure during its intended life. The design team’s objectives were to get familiarized with SNIPs and Georgian local standards; through them analyze the strength and rigidity of building and design it in the software application LIRA-SAPR; provide industry partners with suggestions as they only provided us with architectural drawings, and draft the model in Autodesk Revit and AutoCAD software applications to present final outcomes and specifications of materials used. The importance of the structural part of the project was the comparison driven between Autodesk Revit and AutoCAD. We believe that the future of the construction industry lies in Building Information Modeling (BIM). As Revit is part of the BIM system, we wanted to introduce it in structural engineering and compare the effort and time efficiency of it and AutoCAD, which is broadly used in industry.

After finalizing structural drafts, the management team created project BOQ and produced the final results of the project. The main challenge throughout the semester was working with Georgian codes and standards while producing Structural design and drafts, and BOQ as we have learned American Codes at university. However, we believe understanding local codes is as much as important. Concerning sustainability, the materials were chosen in accordance with the Terms of Reference industry partner provided, which demanded sustainable and eco-friendly materials.

Project: Design of kindergarden for 180 children in Akhaltsikhe
Project Members: Tinatin Vacheishvili, Giorgi Khvadadze, Erekle Dateshidze

Bakhva Jakeli, Givi Gordeziani, Luka Nikolaishvili

Description of Project:

The Project of “Arali”, which we have been working on offers to build a kindergarten in the city of Akhaltsikhe, designed for roughly 180 children. The designated territory of 38934 m2 will be used to build something new and exciting for the children of Akhaltsikhe. This two-story building will be modern and colorful for children to enjoy. The complex provides playgrounds, attractions, and recreational zones, as well. The new kindergarten will also have a bedroom and playroom, dressing room, buffet, pantry, hall, product storage room, doctor, administration, dishwasher, kitchen, elevator, evacuation stairs and a boiler room. The project is aiming to give a relaxing and effective opportunities for children to start preparing for their school lives, as well as to give the parents a place they can entrust their children to.

Our project will involve working in different fields, the biggest part being the overlooking of the architectural and structural designs. This involves looking at and studying the plans of both interior and exterior parts of the building while also reviewing the materials used for construction. MEP design will also be looked at, this involves both 2D and 3D drawings of all systems. And we will also look at the environmental impact the building and its construction process will have such as sustainability and heat efficiency. The tender was announced by the Municipal Development Fund of Georgia. The objective of the project is to build a two-story kindergarten building in Akhaltsikhe. The area of the project is 1508 cubic meters and the building itself will be 896.4 cubic meters. The team consists of young engineers, who already have experience in the field of structural design and construction works. We hope to bring new and modern ideas for the project, that will be favorable not only for the construction team but also will be built by modern construction techniques that will be proposed by our team.

Project: McDonald’s Bakery Upsizing (Domson’s Engineering & Construction)

Project Members: Anna Pavliashvili, Mariami Khukhunashvili,

Irakli Ambokadze, Guram Bzekalava, Guram Menteshashvili

Description of Project:

Equipped with the highest technologies, the fourth in the continent McDonald’s bakery is built in Tbilisi with high export potential that manufactures McDonald's buns to neighboring countries. The initial design was developed in a way that foreseen the future expansion opportunities, that is the focus of our team’s capstone project.

The main objective of the work performed by Nexus Engineering & Construction was to develop optimal design for the expansion of the existing factory building according to nationally recognized Georgian and American standards. The finished project includes complete structural and water demand analysis, along with new road design, with limited focus on environmental, and construction disciplines. The diversity of the group members provided the variety of skills and experience required for the successful completion of the project and contributed to the professional development and success of the team.

Project: HikeApp

Group Members:

Anastasia Akhvlediani, Beqa Mikadze, Vakhtang Kontridze,

Levan Chitanava, Tsotne Tsirekidze

Project Description

Project HikeApp represents an innovative device together with the smartphone application that aims to help hikers to better coordinate, cooperate, and communicate with each other on every hike. The size of the device is comparable with that of the phone, so it is easily portable. The main feature of it is a radio communication between people possessing our device. In the beginning, one must register in the application in order to possess his/her own user account. Once a person logs in and connects to a device via Bluetooth, it can be used as a messenger as long as other users are connected to their devices. After that, users can send each other text messages and access them using the smartphone application. For the project presentation, we limit ourselves to sending the maximum amount of 32 bytes (that is, 32 characters). This is due to the fact that the maximum size of the sent packet for the nRF24L01+ radio module that we use for our design is 32 bytes.

Probably the most severe issue that hikers experience while they are at remote destination (without internet connection and mobile network available) is the inability to communicate with each other. Some subgroups often fall behind, or scouts move forward for surveillance to examine possible routes. It would be extremely helpful for them if they could somehow establish communication via their mobile phones. HikeApp provides them with this opportunity. It is basically a messenger that works without mobile network. The only requirement is that a smartphone supports Bluetooth technology. At this point the only Android users are able to utilize HikeApp mobile application. Since there is a tremendous amount of Android users all over the world, creating an Android application for HikeApp project was more than sufficient to meet the requirements of the senior capstone design. However, in future we are going to extend the application operation so that it operates on IOS devices as well as on the Android platform.

To sum up everything that has been stated above, HikeApp represents a Senior Design Project that aims to make communication easier for hikers. An innovative device along with the HikeApp mobile application enables users to communicate over distance. No internet connection or cell phone reception is needed for communication.

Project: Intelligent Automatization System

Group Members:

Guga Esitashvili ,Tiko Gamrekelashvili, Uta Buziashvili,

Ana Dzamelashvili, Nino Nonikashvili

The main goal of the project was to create, integrative and easy to use, smart house system based on the Internet of Things (IoT). Our automated system gives user ability to manage all the home devices from one place and remotely control home functions using our application. With this application user can control light and door lock systems from anywhere. IoT gives our application flexibility to add new devices and appliances. Our project is not only focused on the comfort but also safety of the costumer. We are maximizing home security by using alerts for the break of the window and by detecting life and house damaging factors such a fire, CO, etc. Furthermore, our intelligent automatization system can also increase energy efficiency by controlling heating and cooling of the house. This smart house system creates the friendly environment for people with various disabilities by making different house tasks more manageable.

Project: Private Emergency Help System
Group Members: David Barbakadze, Ketevan Gogia, Nika Kurdadze,

Vano Mazashvili, Salome Pirosmanishvili

Project Description:
Private Emergency Help System (PEHS) is a project which aims to unite society into doing helpful actions. The students of San Diego State University Georgia Davit Barbakadze, Ketevan Gogia, Nika Kurdadze, Vano Mazashvili and Salome Pirosmanishvili have come up with a solution that will help Georgian neighborhoods to become safer and evoke trust between building block residents. As we are living during the troubled times and COVID 19 has drastically changed our lives, all of these major events gave us a push to start up this project. During lockdowns we all saw that life was not easy, especially for elderly and disabled community. As their family members were not able to visit them like before, many complications have come to the light. That is why we decided to come up with the device that would easy up their frustration and would become their lifesaver.

Private Emergency Help System is a modern solution. The system consists of the sender device (a remote controller) and the master device, which receives the sent data signal. This system unites the flat building blocks, or suburban neighborhoods. Imagine you have an elderly or disabled family member and they run out of some food, or have some problems with household facilities that they cannot solve alone. And as you are not around, who is going to help them out? That’s where the Private Emergency Help System comes in to save the day. Our family member will possess the sender device that will send the emergency signal to the recipient. The device is very easy to use, it has 4 different buttons, for different kinds of situations, by just pressing the desired button the signal will be sent to the neighbor who is “in charge” of that person. They will rush immediately and help them out. As you might have already deduced this device is not for the life-threatening situations, however, if someone is not dying does not mean that they are not in the need of help with different tasks. We have had several cases when elderly/disabled community has reached out to the emergency services, but they could not go on the field as their request was not a life-threatening and it was out of their jurisdiction.

We think that not only this system will help out the elderly/disabled community but unite the neighborhood and give them the sense of the well-functioning and caring society. Not only our technology is practical, but it is also modern and well-suited for our communities’ present issues.

Project: Productivity Gadget

Group members: Nikoloz Sanakoevi, Tornike Paitchadze,

Giorgi Tchkoidze, Ramaz Tskhadadze

Project Description:

We designed a gadget, that allows the user to track the time spent on different projects. The device is rectangular shaped box with 4 plates. Each plate represents different projects that user can be working on. There is also a cube that when placed on the plates sends the information to the computer about time it was placed on a plate. This time represents intervals that a user was working on a particular project. We designed desktop, web and mobile apps. The desktop app takes the information to the gadget and sends it to the database. The information stored in the database is used by the mobile, desktop and web applications to display statistics related to the projects. The apps also allow the user to add and edit project information, including time intervals when the user planned to start the work on the projects. Additionally, the device has 4 leds which light up when the cube is placed on the plates and start blinking when the user needs to start the work on a particular project.

Project: Smart and Secure Home

Group members: Giorgi Solomnishvili, Lasha Butkhuzi, Reziko Tsirgvava,

Mikheil Makharadze, Aleksi Aleksandria

Project Description:

In the 21st century, Safety and Security have become one of the most critical and precise commodities, which are very hard and expensive to come by. Our team at SDSU_Georgia decided to dedicate our time and funding to researching sophisticated and relatively inexpensive solutions to the Residential Area's Safety and Security.

There are three main goals our project aims to accomplish.

We implemented a module that can identify humans intelligently. The module determines if a person approaching the residential area is a tenant, a friend of tenants, or a stranger.

We implemented a unit that manages secure access to a residential area. If a person wants to gain access to the residential area, his/her face should be recognized as the face of an authorized person.

We implemented hardware to control the safety of the residential area. The hardware is able to detect several kinds of hazards and generate the appropriate response.

Solution

We made it possible for the owner to monitor his/her home's safety and security from any place in the world. We utilized an IoT server that connects the mobile application to devices in the residential area. At home, we installed several sensors that can detect an intruder, fire, and gas leak. Furthermore, we installed hardware that tries to extinguish hazards and notifies the owner about their existence. Figure 1 represents the block diagram for our project.

Project: PhotonMining – Sun-Tracking Solar Panel

Group members: Tsotne Karchava , Guga Kupradze, Timur Ozdemir

Dachi Janelidze, Luka Pantsulaia

Project Description:

Nowadays, it is a well-known fact that the tendency towards solar panel and renewable energy itself is growing day by day. As the Solar panel converts the energy from the sun, into the electrical energy and stores the energy into a battery. Traditionally, mentioned energy can be utilized when required or can be used as a direct alternative to the grid supply.

The position of the Sun with the respect to the solar panel is not fixed due to the rotation of the Earth. For an efficient usage of the solar energy, the solar panels should absorb energy to a maximum extent. This can be done only if the panels are continuously placed towards the direction of the Sun. So, solar panel should continuously rotate in the direction of Sun. According to the numerous researches utilizing solar panel in a given way, increases power efficiency by about %26.

Our Sun Tracking Solar Panel is mostly based on four LDRs, solar panel itself, stepper motor and ESP micro controller. According to our algorithm, with the change of the intensity of the light our tracker moves accordingly in the direction of the sun. In the noon time, sun is ahead and intensity of light on both the panels is same. In such cases, panel is constant and there is no rotation.

In conclusion, thanks to different technologies, including 3D printer, MQTT based MAX-IOT server, 2 stepper motors, etc. our team was able to successfully implement the project, create the prototype of the well-functioning so we were able to understand its concept, principle of working and think about future plans related to turning this idea into the bigger one, with the bigger capabilities and the benefit for the whole society. Considering 21st century situation, one cannot deny that renewable energy stands as one of the most important key element which can bring to our country its energy-security and energy-independence.