Student teams integrate sustainability in capstone projects

The Interdisciplinary Capstone faculty introduced updated program requirements at the 2024-2025 Craig M. Berge Design Day Open House. Teams are now required to approach their designs with an environmentally conscious mindset and have freedom to decide where that requirement is met.

“It’s important that we teach our engineers to always be thinking about sustainability as they design,” Steve Larimore, lead program instructor, told the sponsors.

Team 25025 is developing an automated microscope slide transfer module for Roche Tissue Diagnostics to automate a tedious part of the diagnostic process. Histology technicians prepare human tissue samples for pathologists to identify possible diseases, so the organization and categorization of each sample slide is incredibly important. But this preparation process is also extremely repetitive. 

Student team leader Kerwin Dewberry Jr said his team plans to fully automate this process with their module by cataloging up to 20 microscope slides at a time. The module will move the slides to take a picture, check for contamination, and read the slide’s barcode to match the collected information with the unique sample before sending it off for further analysis.

“This frees up more time for technicians and pathologists so they can focus on diagnosing patients rather than doing these menial tasks,” said Dewberry, an AME major.