Villanova Engineering Students Win 2024 IEEE Philadelphia Section Student Project Award
Villanova University College of Engineering students Reade Hauge ’24 CpE, Jacob Bruck ’24 CpE, Mark Cooper Lemley ’24 CpE, and Abaigeal Donoghue ’24 CpE have been honored with the 2024 Merrill Buckley Jr. Student Project Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Philadelphia Section.
Presented Saturday, April 13, at the section’s annual banquet, this recognition celebrates their senior Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Capstone project, which was created under the guidance of department Professor and Chair Bijan G. Mobasseri, PhD. The students developed a mobile application named “Driver-assist Safety Tool Under Color Vision Deficiency” that focuses on enhancing road safety. The app notifies drivers with color vision deficiency about upcoming traffic signals and their status through visual and auditory alerts.
“When we started the project, we didn’t know what the process would be like,” Hauge said. “We discussed wearables, like glasses or a pedestrian walking in the road. There were a variety of different directions before we decided on an app for your phone that would be mounted to a car dashboard.”
After finalizing their idea, the group moved on to discussing the logistics, such as, “how can we access software licenses and the app onto our phones to test it ourselves?” Donoghue said. “We had to ensure we were getting live data and that everything was accurate, sent and processed to be helpful for the driver.”
Through multiple testing phases, culminating in a live demonstration on real roads, the product now boasts a 70% detection accuracy rate, the team said. Efforts to improve the device's functionalities are ongoing, and additional testing is planned. The team also noted that this is a legacy project, and a group of juniors will be taking over and expanding the app next year.
Hauge said the award showcases the students’ technical expertise and innovation, emphasizing their dedication to creating a positive impact through cutting-edge engineering solutions. “I learned a lot during the process,” she said. “We all grew as engineers and used skillsets we acquired through the last few years.”
This is the third-straight year that a Villanova Engineering team has received the Merrill Buckley Jr. Student Project Award, which recognizes projects demonstrating technical innovation, a significant improvement to a system, or patents of clear practical values. The IEEE Philadelphia Section Awards Ceremony celebrates those who have been honored by the section for their contributions to the industry.