The Virtual Engineering Capstone and Senior Design Project Showcase 

June 2nd, 2022

This year SDSU Georgia held its fourth Capstone and Senior Design Project Showcase on June 2nd, 2022.

Totally 16 teams of Engineering and Science seniors presented their technological solutions to the real-world problems, given to them by the industry. For the first time this year, SDSU Georgia students worked on Capstone projects from the SDSU’s new campus construction in San Diego, California. Students were working with SDSU’s Construction and Engineering team. One of the projects this year is also supported by GITA.

 

DESIGN OF BRIDGE OVER RIVER RIONI

 

Nino Kacharava - a project manager and hydraulic and structural engineer. 

Nia Iskandarova - a site hydrology specialist and geotechnical engineer. 

Natali Maisuradze - geotechnical and structural engineer. 

Milena Vardanyan - scheduling specialist and cost estimator.

Giorgi Nebieridze - a construction engineer and a structural designer. 

 

The new bridge proposed by AceDesigns will be the part of the new road of domestic importance, which is fastest shortcut connecting Eastern Georgia to Racha-Lechkhumi. This new bridge will contribute into economic and tourist development of Racha, and country as a whole.

In order to ensure maximum efficiency of bridge functioning, site visit was performed and the existing site conditions were assessed and evaluated. In terms of safety and convenience we noticed that the geometry of the already existing bridge creates a very sharp turn at the right band of riv.Rioni, thus making it dangerous for high speed an heavy traffic. Our designed bridge creates perfectly smooth transition from one segment of the road to the other, thus providing a convenient and safe experience.

For the hydrology/hydraulics part we observed that the bridge will be constructed immediately downstream the confluence of riv.Rioni and Kheora. Kheori tends to annually overflow and block the area of the existing bridge with debris. Our bridge starts and ends at the higher elevation, which means the superstructure will be higher from the water level, comparing to the existing bridges, thus bringing blocking risk to minimum.

The analog method is used in the study cross section to determine the maximum water discharge of river Rioni. Data from the Oni hydropower plant (HPP) on river Rioni is taken as the analogy. Maximum discharge of 100 year occurrence by gum distribution was calculated to be 458 m 3 /s. and max. depth of local bed scouring was obtained to be 6.93 meters.

Based on the results from geotechnical investigation campaign, laboratory analysis, and literature review site geomorphological and soil engineering properties were obtained.

Structural design performed according to AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications. Hand calculations and a computer-generated analysis report in Midas Civil software were made to analyze the tensile stress performance.

One of the documents used in the process of organizing financial management is the project cost estimate. The document is structured directly by individual СНиП standards, which are listed in a chronology, considering the logical sequence of activities, which allows to visually see the contents of the project, and take into account its characteristic features.

 

KVEMO KARTLI SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

 

Nazar Atadzhanov – Project Manager, Geotchnical Engineer, Structural Engineer

Giorgi Badridze- Water Management, Construction Engineer

Zaur Gabaidze – Structural Engineer, Construction Engineer

Zaal Meskhi – Transportation Engineer, Geotechnical Engineer


Kvemo Kartli Solid Waste Management project is proposed by the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia. The project will be done with the financial help of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The landfill will be developed for five municipalities of Kvemo Kartli: Tsalka, Tetritskaro, Dmanisi, Bolnisi and Marneuli.

During the implementation of the Initial Project and after the review of the environmental impact assessment study by all competent authorities, new requirements emerged. A state decision was taken to upgrade a military airfield located near the proposed landfill site to a civil airport. In compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organization (“ICAO”) standards and requirements, a 13 km buffer zone around the airfield must be kept. The initial location of the landfill fell within the minimum safety distance from the airfield, which would have been a breach of the ICAO guidelines. As a result, a decision was made by the Government of Georgia to shift the location of the new landfill for the Kvemo Kartli district. This change of location requires carrying out a new site study. All different areas of evaluation (based on the principles of Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA)) were reviewed to identify the site near Tsintskaro hamlet as the most suited site for the Landfill.

The site Area is 21.5 acres and the terrain is the property of the municipality. Auxiliary infrastructure includes Access Road, Perimeter fence, Entrance area, Weighbridge, Control office -Guardhouse, Hangar for storage of recyclable materials, Administration building, Garage and workshop, Wheel wash facility. Our company worked on two aspects of the project: Access Road and Administration building.

Our company provided a detailed design for the Foundation of administration building, Shear walls, and Road pavement. The design was divided into two parts, containing: First Draft and Final Draft. All the standards needed for this project were taken in account and considered as the most important part of our project.

 

SAMTREDIA-GRIGOLETI HIGHWAY DESIGN

 

Mariam Kantaria - Project Manager

Nana Gomareli - Quantity Surveyor

Ani Kantaria - CAD Specialist

Davit Gurgenidze -CAD specialist

Nino Chkartishvili - Traffic Analyst

 

For the promotion of trade with the neighbouring countries and the development of tourism infrastructures the Georgian Government has given the highest priority to the East-West highway between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. According to RD’s ToR Samtredia - Grigoleti road is divided into four main Lots, the present Lot 1 (km 0+000 - km 11+500) includes of the highway works for the dual carriageway with two lanes in each direction and a length of 60 km include one viaduct of 900 m length over the Rioni river valley, eight interchanges, 19 bridges, two overpasses and 189 underpasses.

 This project includes design for E-60 Highway Samtredia – Grigoleti road Section. Focus of the project is the interchange at Ch. 6+500, which includes overpass bridge that must be connected to the main motorway with access ramps. Moreover, scope to include construction analysis to plan sequencing, staging, significant project elements include:

  • Traffic studies, Analysing and predicting traffic movements, traffic demand modelling,
  • Geometrical design of the road
  • Structural design of the pavement (including drainage)

Moreover, the scope included developing schedule for construction, Bill of quantities and suggesting work execution approaches.

Team conducted site visit to have the better understanding about the design requirements and approaches. As the result, we have successfully delivered the preliminary and full design packages. To ensure that the end result would be suitable to implement, we created the traffic analysis and prepared the report. 

In addition to the information mentioned above, in our final project report we have also provided engineering solutions for several construction activities. 

In order to maintain focus on status of deliverables we held weekly meetings and discussed work in progress as well as upcoming tasks. We had our key stakeholders involved in process to make sure we delivered required value on time. 

 

SDSU NORTH LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING

 

Nino Odishelidze- Project Manager/Structural Engineer

Zurab Meparidze - Structural Engineer/Geotechnical Engineer/Site Civil Engineer

Rati Jalalishvili - Water Management Engineer

Luka Erkomaishvili - Construction and safety Engineer

SDSU North Life Sciences buildings’ construction site is located near the northeast corner of the San Diego State University campus in San Diego, California. It is bounded by Aztec Cir Drive from the west and by Canyon Crest Drive from the east. The construction venue is surrounded by other campuses of SDSU such as SDSU Engineering Building and Geology, Mathematics, and Computer Science Buildings. 

The Geotechnical Analysis of the project is based on the Field Exploration Report that we obtained from the owner. After a detailed analysis of the geological report GeoGen Engineering and Construction team has few recommendations regarding the proposed retaining wall and foundation of the building. Given the circumstances it is best for the retaining wall to be design a soil nail wall. Soil nailing is environment friendly, creating less noise, fewer traffic obstructions, and less impact on surrounding areas. Furthermore, the soil nailing process is fast, and less material is required compared to other earth consolidating systems. As for the building foundation, it is recommended to use any type of shallow foundation, since the ground is highly dense on the basement level.

SDSU North Life Sciences buildings’ construction site is located near the northeast corner of the San Diego State University campus in San Diego, California. It is bounded by Aztec Cir Drive from the west and by Canyon Crest Drive from the east. Across the streets, the construction venue is surrounded by other campuses of SDSU. On its west, there is SDSU Engineering Building; On its south – Geology, Mathematics, and Computer Science Buildings; On the east, there is SDSU Rocket Project and a Parking Lot 16. On the upper, northernmost side of the site, there is a little area that’s not yet occupied by any facility.

Since the highest elevation point is located on the west side of the area (409.5 ft from sea level), the drainage system should go in both directions downhill as given in the map (marked in yellow). The design of the drainage system was decided in a way to collect all the excess water and direct them in the drainage system which is already built across the roadway along the Canyon Crest Dr. Drainage water will be directed into two different positions.

Structural design of the SDSU North Life Sciences Building Project has been elaborated in regards with the structural calculations, using Finite Element Method in LIRA SAPR software. Drafting and annotation for the structural design was made in accordance with the results of the Structural Analysis Model (SAM), and the calculations itself were made in accordance with international building standards and norms in force (IBC2016 and ASCE7-16).

Construction scheduling was created by calculating the scale of each activity and approximate manpower needed to complete each task. Similar projects construction phasis were also used to finalize construction scheduling. The building detailed drawings provided by our structural and geotechnical engineers were used to estimate approximate cost of the project. OSHA recommendations will be followed to manage safety during construction phase of the project.

 

WEST CAMPUS SURVELLIANCE AND WATER USE RESEARCH FACILITY (SURF)

 

Nino Giorgadze – Project Manager, Water Environmental/Energy Efficiency

Mariam Vashakidze – Architectural/Geotechnical/Structural/Energy Efficiency

Medea Tsetsadze – Site Civil/Construction/Environmental

Amiran Janashvili – Geotechnical /Structural /Architectural / Water

Shota Abuladze – Construction/Management/ Site Civil 

 

West Campus Surveillance and Water Use Research Facility (SURF) is the water laboratory located in the research and innovation space of the SDSU Mission Valley. Constructing the SURF allows students to perform water quality and treatment research, study water shortages caused by climate change, and conduct various experiments. The building is a one-story laboratory intended for 20-25 people. 

The aim of the EUNOIA International team is to design a SURF building, which satisfies the needs of SDSU Mission Valley. The team will be responsible for the following disciplines: architectural, structural, geotechnical, construction, water resources, environmental & social governance, energy efficiency, and site civil.

 

AUTO AWARENESS

Shota Sisvelashvili

Tornike Gigauri

Vakhtang Kurdadze

Luka Odishvili

The project "Auto Awareness" aims to assist the driver through the driving process and minimize the danger caused by various kinds of external or internal distractions that the driver might face. Through the AI elements along with machine learning capacities we aim to accomplish the finest possible mechanism for eye tracking which will give us full behavioral analysis of the eye movement of the driver. By making our device aware of the driver's eye movement along with the characteristics of the road in front, we make sure to warn the driver of the possible alarming situation and give friendly advice regarding the driving process using audiovisual signals. Auto awareness makes sure that the driver is awake, aware and responsible through the driving process.

The first and the most important part includes researching object tracking (in our case car tracking) and eye movement tracking mechanisms and algorithms along with the tools to accomplish them. Main goal to accomplish by eye movement detection mechanisms was to track eye blob movement through which we accomplished to determine driver sight concentration on the road at the given moment. Car object tracking mechanism was another goal to accomplish which will help drivers to perceive the complexity of the current road situation, whether the traffic is ahead or the road is empty.

The second part was to determine the software and technologies that we would use along with the appropriate SDKs, tools and libraries that would be proper to accomplish our predetermined objectives. Choosing the programming language for AI and deep learning purposes wasn’t too hard since python is one of the most popular programming languages which is widely supported and preferred by millions of developers in this particular field of study.

The next part of our development process was to thoroughly choose the hardware. We chose the IMX477 Motorized focus camera module for several reasons. The focus can be adjusted by code or by hands.  It works with all versions of Raspberry PI, is compatible with industrial camera enclosure

 

ENERGY MONITORING SYSTEM

 

Zura Rogava

Ana Maghradze

Khatia Nikuradze

Giorgi Zirakashvili

 

Energy Monitoring System is a solution developed by Computer and Electrical Engineering students to reduce damage to electrical equipment. It is a combination of hardware and software tools that enables continuous and easy monitoring of the electricity in the system. Sensors measure current, voltage, power, energy, frequency, and power factor. Using the Internet of Things (IoT), in particular, MAXIOT, this data is then sent to the server and stored into the Influx databases. Eventually, everything is visualized through the Grafana dashboards. Based on the measured and visualized data, Energy Monitoring System makes it easy to determine the areas of inefficiency, take actions in a timely manner to avoid system damage, and, therefore, reduce costs.

 

LEAGUE OF DISABLED LEGENDS

 

Giorgi Tsartsidze

Giorgi Gugeshashvili

Beka Rukhaia

 

The supreme team of gamers & engineers decided to create an innovation in gaming industry. As for that, our brilliant team members agreed to develop a mouse-keyboard simulation device for disabled people, who can only use their feet. After considering many and many cases how to build it, at last, we considered to make a user friendly, cost-affordable, and easy to use device, which will show disabled people the whole different view of beauty of gaming. 



MOTION CAPTURE

Saba Mushtashvili

Sopio Shankulashvili

Mariam Tsirekidze

Dimitri Tabagari

Ana Tskhomelidze

 

Motion Capture technology captures real-time action, records live motion, renders data, analyzes, tracks and visualizes movement of objects. The objective of our project is to implement this technology, refine and broaden its use cases and make realistic / authentic data visualization accessible.

The scope of our implementation includes programming microcontrollers in such a way to receive data from inertial sensors, transfer coordinates via Wifi and User Datagram Protocol to render and visualize movement in a 3D engine on a computer screen depicted as a virtual 'skeleton'. 

To talk about hardware setup, we assembled 17 identical packages of hardware components to be attached to different parts of the body.

The packages include 3.7v li-ion battery, charging module (also acts as protector), microcontroller ESP32, inertial measurement sensor GY-91 which contains MPU9250 (includes accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer) and a switch.

Each part will send information wirelessly to the pc connected to the same network and display movement results in Unreal Engine.

Unreal Engine is used for data visualization, we created blueprints and by using wrappers and plugins it was possible to display motion on the screen.



PARASITE

 

Giorgi Mzhvanadze

Mariam Vadachkoria

Giorgi Boxochadze

Vasili Nikolaevi

 

Project PARASITE is a modular movement control system consisting of custom software and two separate parts: a head module and customizable movement modules. The head module is equipped with control and Bluetooth capabilities provided by Linkit 7697 and video feed capabilities provided by Arducam coupled with Arduino. For the movement modules, we provide 2 base movement modules the Hexapod and the Car. If the user decides to build their own movement modules,  The printed circuit boards for their personal movement modules can easily be built around our head module. As for the software side of the coin, we provide an application that has instructions in the code for easy modification.

 

SOLAR PANEL MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

Bakhva Davlasheridze

Kristine Tabidze

Giorgi Karegishvili

Levan Gogaladze

The development of solar energy goes back more than 100 years. In the early days, sun-based energy was utilized principally for the creation of steam which could then be utilized to drive machinery. Yet, it was only after the disclosure of the "photovoltaic effect" that would permit the change of daylight to sun powered electric energy. Becquerel's disclosure then prompted the development in 1893 by Charles Fritts of the primary veritable sun powered cell which was shaped by covering sheets of selenium with a slender layer of gold. Furthermore, from this modest start would emerge the gadget we know today as the solar panel. Nowadays solar Panels are very popular among people who lives in private houses. Also, it is very popular thing for companies who produces like, Solaria, Jinko solar our project help companies to measure smaller solar panels and test it for days before they move to bigger one. Even though nowadays so many companies working on this task and already have such device, it is improvable and there is much left to discover.

The main goal of our project was to create measurement system which measures current, voltage and power of devices. We narrow down our project and take device small solar panel as an example of measuring. Our measuring system gives user ability to observe solar panel data (current, voltage, power) for days or month, before choosing to move on bigger one, this will be the example of a test version of solar panel. Our project is not only focused on, for companies which tests solar panels it also refers safety because before someone begin usage of solar panels it must be tested briefly. Failure to do so may result in system damage as well as endangering the user.

As you can see above on the system block diagram, Sensor and server nodes should be connected to Digital Ocean using MQTT protocol.   This convention works at the TCP/IP layer of the web, supporting bi-directional correspondence between gadgets. The devices associated with the MQTT convention can distribute and buy into data. MQTT convention recognizes two sorts of network elements: a broker and a client. MQTT intermediary is a server or cloud that gets messages from distributer devices and routes them to the endorser clients. Clients can be any devices that are associated with a MQTT merchant with MQTT convention. The data traded by devices is named with themes. Devices can distribute information to a specific point, making an impression on the intermediary a control message (Topic). The representative appropriates that data to devices that have bought into that point. The broker distributes that information to devices that have subscribed to that topic. After which, they can buy into specific subjects and distribute them. depicts the client-representative correspondence process. Client A subscribes into the point temperature/rooftop and distributes to that equivalent theme. The same can be said about Client B. Information goes to mysqlDb from the server and creates a database. To get more visualized the server we create web page which can be controlled by users. 

 

GROWSMART

 

Nick Chanturia

Ioseb Gejadze

Tengiz Abramishvili

Ekaterine Chemia

 

The problem our team chose to tackle was that of easy and proper care for indoor plants. We equipped a thermally insulated tent with sensors and modules that connects to a web application using a EsP 32 microcontroller through an lol server. This allows the owner to set the ideal growing conditions for the plant remotely and the artificial biome will match these conditions, or the owner can choose to control the modules manually. The biome accounts for 4 KeV aspects; air humidity, soil moisture, light and CO2 content, with appropriate measurement and control mechanisms implemented for each.

Going further than the everyday use of the project. The use of artificial controllable biomes will be a key part of our civilizations effort to colonize other planets. So it is important to start thinking about such issues now, until we arrive on mars with no way to grow food reliably.



SMART PARKING

 

Ana Toria

Eka Kakalashvili

Liana Jelia

Luka Kvitashvili  

Tornike Gambashidze

 

 The high degree of urbanization and rapid increase in population rate intensified the need for a hassle-free and secure life. The number of shopping centers is increasing in the city of Tbilisi. The parking spaces are often overloaded with private vehicles visiting the secluded areas. This situation inevitably launches the challenge of finding free parking spots with convenient payment methods. Our team decided to take on this problem and find suitable solutions for private parking spaces. Smart Parking is a project, which will help citizens find the nearest free parking slots and help the city manage traffic.

 The subject of our interest was to develop and integrate an easy-to-use smart parking approach based on the Internet of Things (IoT). Our automated system gives the user ability to search, find and book their preferred parking spots and manage them remotely within our website. Using this website, users can identify the total number of available parking spots and reserve them in advance for the desired time. We are securing the customer's booked spot by deactivating the chosen slot. Our project focuses on the comfort of the customer and, at the same time, finds a solution for the city parking management.



SMART RADIATION MONITORING SYSTEM

 

Mariam Gigauri

Tengiz Pataraia

 

The problem our team chose to work with is the monitoring of radiation exposure. Everyone is exposed to radiation from benign sources such as cosmic rays, radon, microwaves and cell phones. However, higher-energy short-wave radiation in many occupational sources can penetrate and disrupt living cells and increase cancer risk, so exposure must be monitored.

Our main aim was to monitor the radiation exposure and warn people about potentially harmful excess radiation. Our primary purpose was to make those two commodities affordable and readily available to everyone, living in a world where radiation has become part of our life. We have built a hardware circuit relying on the Geiger-Muller counter, developed our own Counts-Per-Minute algorithm to ensure the fastest recognition of hazard and utilized an IoT server that connects the devices to the website. We have created different versions of devices: handheld, half-automated and fully automated options, and tested them all out in different conditions. As a result, we made it possible for the owner to monitor radiation exposure on the desired location from any place in the world. Moreover, statistics of radiation level in different locations can be accessible for everyone on the map on our website, on which the data incoming from the devices is visualized.



TERRA

 

Nika Dzigvashvili

Mariam Gugushvili

Irakli Kukchishvili

 

TERRA is a smart plant monitoring and care system. It is based on Raspberry PI model 4. It consists of a main module with the camera that monitors plant health by observing its color. Main module can be connected up to 4 different modules. This modularity enables to obtain the TERRA with the whole package or with just some modules depending on the customer’s needs and expenses. Other than plant color and visual condition, TERRA can monitor air temperature, air humidity, ambient light and soil moisture. Based on the inputs from the sensors two smart outlets are controlled: heating and lighting as needed. All the data collected is visualized on Grafana Dashboards.

 

PREDICTOR

 

Tamuna Simonishvili

Ina Utmelidze

Nikoloz Kurashvili

 

In today’s era, Safety in terms of global disasters is one of the most critical terms. The massive earthquakes of the 21st century is among the world’s deadliest earthquakes. They can have drastic direct and indirect impacts, which may damage the infrastructure, affect people’s lives, and cause other events such as tsunamis, fires, etc. We have been hearing stories about unexpected earthquake hits not only in Georgia but worldwide. In the 21st century, around 600,000 people have been killed by earthquakes, and more of them are injured and left homeless. 

This motivated PREDICTORS to calculate and predict the earthquake based on pre-collected data, AI, and dynamic live data. Based on these, the probable date of the earthquake occurring in a specific area can be estimated. Our team at SDSU Georgia is willing to dedicate time and effort to researching to find solutions for avoiding the drastic consequences of earthquakes. 

Overall, the solution to avoid drastic consequences of the earthquake by making it possible for the owner to monitor possible earthquakes in his/her region and provide safety by giving alerts in