2022-2023 Senior Design Projects

Sponsor

Sail to Shelter

Team

Max Ring, Navami Prabhu, Rachel Strawn, Savannah Strickland

Project Description

Meet the J/70! The world’s most popular sports boat! This 24’ speedster is light and easy to sail. The boat only requires a mainsail, a jib and a spinnaker, but a typical J70 kit has at least 6 different sails to account for different sailing conditions. To be competitive, most owners start each season with a brand new set of sails. Until now, most retired sails end up in landfill.

J70 sails are made from dacron polyester because of its desirable properties including excellent resiliency, high abrasion resistance, high UV resistance, high flex strength and low cost. Low absorbency allows the fiber to dry quickly.

Sail to Shelter is a not for profit organization established to address sailing’s dirty little secret and that’s what we are asking you to help us figure out! Currently we use giant sails made from kevlar and laminate to provide industrial sized storage and shade solutions for humanitarian aid organizations like World Central Kitchen, Save our Allies and World Extreme Medicine. We are looking to you to design everything else.

Sponsor

OYA Femtech Apparel

Team

Brigid Hudson, Kendal Idol, Olivia Vaughn, Robyn Shimoda

Project Description

OYA seeks to improve the crotch gusset / insert system (or “sis-tem”) currently used in its patent pending leggings. The student team will be tasked with refining/improving the sis-tem so that it can withstand more movement from the user, look and feel less noticeable, and be easier for manufacturers to make. The current sis-tem is comprised of A) three antimicrobial mesh panels to promote breathability and reduce bacteria, B) a pocket on the inside of the legging at the crotch gusset, and C) a removable insert that goes inside the crotch gusset pocket to absorb sweat, urinary leaks, and menstrual leaks. This project comprises 2 parts: mesh design and insert design.

Mesh design: Improve the strength and opacity of the mesh panels in each legging. The current mesh is a polyester/spandex blend, but can run similar to a stocking if the wearer has too much inner thigh abrasion or if the tension is too high while sewing the fabric. The team is challenged with redesigning the mesh to improve its strength while maintaining its breathability and textured look.

Insert design: Improve the breathable, absorbent insert placed in each crotch gusset. The current insert is a composite of multiple fabrics layered atop one another. The team is tasked with redesigning the insert to improve its absorption and breathability while maintaining or decreasing production costs.

Sponsor

Stryker

Team

Haley Walker, Powell Braddock, Jordan Nash

Project Description

The team is challenged to tackle the concept of a fabric/textile “patient elevator.” A recurring problem in the patient handling world is determining the method of getting a patient, laying on a floor or surface, and picking them up enough to get another device underneath them. There are several different kinds of devices on the market, but none of them work particularly well. The type of device envisioned is some sort of flexible textile harness or sling that could be threaded under someone as unobtrusively as
possible and then inflated or pulled so as to support and enable lifting to another device such as a bed, stretcher, or cot.

Sponsor

Phifer

Team

Bruce Anderson, Parker Baker

Project Description

Using either Phifer fabric or Phifer yarn, create a woven product that captures solar energy and creates an electrical current. The fabric will act as a solar cell to generate electricity. The goal is to use the electricity generated by the fabric to power a 12V 0.8A motor. An acceptable intermediate step would be to have the fabric power an LED light bulb.

Sponsor

Hanesbrands

Team

Connie Wong, Denisse Sada-Romero, Sierrra Figuerado, Talib Patrick

Project Description

As School Violence becomes part of our new normal, Physical Protection has become a near necessity. Feeling safe and secure in various situations can ease the state of mind for anyone to help them go about their day. Create an Anti Bully, Anti Violence, even Bulletproof fabrication and garment that can provide maximum protection and shield for the wearer. Another option is to create an Integrated Wearable, easily incorporated into everyday outfits, that can be activated to alert parents, partners, or friends that the wearer is ok and safe from danger.

Sponsor

Hanesbrands

Team

Aidan Lim, Anh Bui, Jan Ray Jison, Steven Key

Project Description

Professional ESport teams and streamers continue to carve out a unique space as true athletes that require high performing products to enhance their capabilities. These individuals often deal with aches and pains, related to posture and wrist support or arthritis. Create a Performance Level Gaming garment that helps to improve posture and provides wrist support to reduce the risk of injury. Utilize Hanesbrands’ Gamer Hoodie as a starting point and look to enhance this product with new features and benefits.

Sponsor

Hanesbrands

Team

Daniel Hanes, Jonathan Carpenter, Trey Gordon

Project Description

Adequate rest is key to mental and physical wellbeing. Many people struggle with falling and staying asleep throughout the night. Create a garment or set of garments that promotes a restful night sleep. Consider fabrics and finishes that make the wearer feel relaxed and at ease as they prepare for their night time routine.

Sponsor

Hanesbrands

Team

Keith Amboya, Nenfot Goyol, Noelle Arpea, Shannon Sefton

Project Description

Most sweat shirts and sweat pants do not need to be washed after every wear, but how long could these garments go between washes and still feel fresh? Start with the Base Product of our Best Selling Hanesbrands Powerblend Hoodie, What could we do to extend the wear cycle without compromising on comfort. What enhanced properties would allow a consumer to wash their garments less frequently.

Sponsor

US Army DEVCOM

Team

Lara Prosser, Susie Richart, Jocelyn Zhu

Project Description

Domestic production of extruded nylon for use in textiles is extremely limited, with manufacturing often largely aligned with materials used in DOD clothing and textile items. In addition, the use of nylon in textile goods has significant environmental impacts over its lifecycle. This starts with a toxic production process, and ends with a material that is slow to degrade with a legacy of micro-polymer pollutants when it does. This project consists of a global assessment and characterization of materials currently in or entering the marketplace that are either a) manufactured in an environmentally
friendly way, or b) are biodegradable analogous to natural fibers. The student group would gather information on materials, acquire fiber/fabric samples, and characterize them using standard test methods to compare performance against legacy nylon fibers.

Sponsor

US Army DEVCOM

Team

Olivia Hensley, Carson Jenkins, Erica Lally, Elizabeth Redvanly

Project Description

No one likes sweat to stay near their body, and dry times for even high performance textiles are often longer than desired. When textile systems are combined in layers, such as in cold weather clothing, this process takes even longer. The goal of this effort would be to develop a fabric system that optimizes the movement of moisture away from the body. The system could include, but is not limited to, a combination of yarn materials, fabric construction, inclusion of 3D textile structures, combinations of membranes and other materials, new yarn cross-sections, etc. The student group
would deliver a) a model of an optimized moisture moving fabric structure, and b) a swatch (if able) of said material with performance data based on standard test methods.

Sponsor

Gildan & Twine

Team

Julia More, Morgan Mase, Natalie Young, Rachel Drum

Project Description

Designing smarter, faster, kinder. Digital technology continues to disrupt product development and manufacturing. Twine Solutions, an Israeli based technology and innovation company is leading the digital transformation of the yarn and thread dyeing industry. Students selected for this project will be introduced to a new state-of-the-art digital dyeing system, the TS-1800. TS-1800 is a fully waterless, digital thread and yarn dyeing system that suits a wide range of applications. Students will learn how to operate this proprietary system, run color development trials on selected yarn platforms,
and help lead the way in disrupting the current product development process to build a cleaner, more efficient and more sustainable future.

Students will be challenged to create a business case assessment aimed at
demonstrating how this new technology can be used to improve the traditional product design, development, and sampling process. The business case assessment should have a strong focus on sustainability by evaluating the TS-1800’s ability to reduce the amount of energy, water, and raw material waste as compared to traditional dyeing processes. Not only will it be important to understand the environmental impact of this system, but we also want to explore how this digital technology can create development efficiencies by improving speed to market, reducing sample lead times, and allowing product teams to make quicker decisions.

Students will work alongside product design and development teams from Gildan to experience the development flow from concept to scale up manufacturing and will also have the guidance and support of technical experts from Twine Solutions.

Sponsor

Under Armour

Team

Eden Millan, Fatima Garcia Corona, Isabelle Salzmann, Shannon Gill

Project Description

This team is challenged to study air flow across the foot while someone is walking and running. They will study convection heat transfer to design shoe uppers for cooling or insulation. Essentially, UA wants to design and build shoe uppers to achieve specific properties based on a thermal map of the foot.

Sponsor

US Army Pine Bluff Arsenal

Team

CJ Merkel, Jaela Harris, Lauren Boyd

Project Description

Our project will be process optimization of production of the Army Physical Fitness Uniform – Maternity (APFU-M). The Army Physical Fitness Uniform- Maternity (APFU-M) is an ensemble consisting of a short sleeved shirt, long sleeved shirt, workout jacket, workout pants, and trunks in sizes Extra Small to Extra Extra Large sizes. There are twelve possible configurations from these available sizes. The team is challenged to optimize process flow to optimize production/minimize costs.

Sponsor

American Merchant

Team

Ariyonne Felder, Lukas Jerez, Malek Sbei, Razak (Raz) Dhesi

Project Description

The cost of manufacturing in America has historically been a challenge when compared to overseas production. However, American Merchant Inc. recognized all of the burdens of importing goods throughout their parent company’s decades of manufacturing in China and chose to take the leap and open a towel manufacturing facility in Bristol, VA. With just over 2 years of production complete, we find that even with more automated machinery, the high prices of materials and labor in the US market are still too high to off-set the negative parts of importing. With your help we would like to deep dive into our 3 key processes of Weaving, Dyeing, and Cut/Sew/Packing to find ways to optimize our processes and reduce cost. This could include changes to workflow, machinery updates, ways to motivate and incentivize workers, and even ways to reduce material costs. These findings will be used as real-time changes to improve our position in the industry and keep production stateside in America.