2025 Showcase Ignites Innovation and Real-World Impact

On a spectacular Friday afternoon in the heart of the University of San Diego (USD), the Belanich Engineering Center was alight with the sights and sounds of student innovation as the 2025 Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Showcase kicked off.

The May 16th event drew an eager crowd, all awaiting the arrival of the school’s benefactress, Darlene Marcos Shiley. Two giddy engineering Toreros dashed down the hallway, caught up in the excitement: “She is coming! Darlene Shiley is coming to the Showcase!”

Upon her arrival, Mrs. Shiley was escorted to Donald’s Garage, an innovation prototyping lab named after her beloved late husband, Donald P. Shiley — a renowned engineer and inventor of the tilting-disc heart valve. It is in this prototyping hub that Mrs. Shiley began her engagement with nearly 40 project teams. Through their capstone design experience, senior design students collaborate in interdisciplinary teams, applying their academic knowledge to real-world scenarios.

Benefactress Darlene Marcos Shiley's arrival at the 2025 Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Showcase

Presenting in Donald’s Garage were the Clarity Design and the Glaukos industry-sponsored teams. Glaukos earned the Outstanding Project Award for their work automating the administration of medicated eye drops, a process crucial for managing glaucoma. Advika Pillai ‘25 (IntE) found the collaborative effort to be invaluable. "It was extremely fulfilling seeing our preliminary designs come to life at our end stages, considering the work we put into designing and testing…this experience made me excited to be an engineer!”

Glaukos' industry-sponsored team shares their senior design project with Darlene Marcos Shiley

The Clarity Design team comprised two computer science (CS) team members, one electrical engineer (EE), one integrated engineer (IntE) and one mechanical engineer (ME) to design a wrist monitoring device for persons monitoring ailing or restricted wrist movements.

“We prefer interdisciplinary teams because that's what's needed to develop a product of any complexity,” explains Board of Trustee member Tom Lupfer, who also serves as a professor of practice and industry partner at USD. “Our team analyzed the problem to be solved, then divided the work into the design of a custom printed circuit assembly (EE), the development of the firmware that runs on the PCA (CS), the development of the neural network model to convert the data from four sensors into the position of the hand relative to the wrist (CS), the design of the wrist-worn enclosure and the prototype fixtures (ME) and the development of a kinematic model of the forearm and wrist (IntE).”

Lupfer continues, “The team proved the feasibility of applying these technologies to monitor the position of the hand relative to the wrist and our project next year will apply their results to develop a commercial implementation of the product. Our engineers met with the team each week to discuss progress and to make suggestions for any issues they ran into.”

Board of Trustees member and President of Clarity Design, Tom Lupfer, demonstrates his team's wrist monitoring device

The Ideation Space showcased 14 computer science teams. One notable project, MathArt Playground, tackled the challenge of merging art and mathematics into accessible and engaging tools for young learners.

Zachary Letcher ‘25 (CS) described the app, designed for young students attending a summer program hosted by USD’s Engineering Exchange for Social Justice (ExSJ): “MathArt Playground is directed for STEAM academy students ages 6 to 12. As they play with art and see more color, they slowly are learning math on the backend.” He proudly added, “The MathArt app is now publicly available on the AppStore for free.”

The MathArt Playground team's app is now available for free on the AppStore

In the west halls of the Belanich Engineering Center, the industrial and systems engineering General Atomics team excitedly presented their Analysis of MQ-9B SkyGuradian Final Integration Test Cell. The team capitalized on each other's strengths to develop a flexible computer simulation model where changes to production parameters are made by simply updating an Excel input file — eliminating the inefficient need for direct model modification.

Chase Lyons ‘25 (ISyE) summarized the benefit of the team’s work: “The results of our simulation model provides [General Atomics] with the exact amount of workers, the exact amount of equipment and the price tag that comes with it so they can plug and play with the numbers to get to their [desired] solutions.”

Chase Lyons explains the General Atomics project team's simulation model

Moving into the Fabrication Lab, the Ascender Systems team received the Professional Gold Medal Award for their two-person deployable robotic climber used for emergency services. Team member Cam Colucci ‘25 (ME, Physics), pictured below, fourth from the left, emphasized the importance of communication and collaboration: “The foundation of any successful project is a driven team who are willing to come in every day and give it their all. This wouldn’t have been possible without a strong team that believed in the goals that this project worked to achieve... Without a strong vision and passion from the sponsor for what we’re working to accomplish, it would have been difficult to motivate the team.”

Beyond his success at the Showcase, Colucci is now a design engineer for Ascender Systems. "They offered me a part-time remote position midway through this semester to work on an extension of the project," he noted.

Additionally, Colucci has worked at Clarity Design since January as an intern and will continue working there full-time this summer and part-time in the fall once classes start. 

The capstone design experience at USD has fostered countless successful industry partnerships. Lupfer noted: “Clarity Design has hired approximately 20 USD graduates over the past 10 years, many of whom have worked on the capstone projects we've sponsored. Cam Colucci is currently working at Clarity Design as a mechanical engineering intern and we hope he will join us full-time upon his graduation in December.”

Ascender Systems' project team wins the Professional Gold Medal Award

Associate Dean, Rick Olson, concluded the event by presenting the 2025 Engineering and Computing Showcase awards: 

David Malicky Award: Baja SAE
Outstanding Project Award - Computer Science: Obstacle Avoidance
Outstanding Project Award - Industrial and Systems Engineering: Callaway Golf
Outstanding Project Award - Engineering: Glaukos
Professional Gold Medal Award: Ascender Systems

The 2025 Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Showcase truly underscored the transformative power of hands-on learning and collaboration. The innovative projects presented not only showcased the exceptional talent and dedication of USD’s graduating engineers and computer scientists, but also highlighted their readiness to tackle complex challenges and contribute meaningfully to their chosen fields. These experiences equip students to become impactful leaders and innovators in the fast paced world of technology — and carry forward a legacy created through the generosity of Donald and Darlene Shiley — making us all Shiley proud!.

— Story by Michelle Sztupkay, photos by Lauren Radack and Michelle Sztupkay