UT Dallas students win Capstone Design Conference

An engineering team from the University of Texas at Dallas recently won first place for their student project competition, which was part of the 2016 Capstone Design Conference.

Their project was a device that will help to treat patients who have fecal incontinence. The device uses silicon-like substance to help patients sustain the control of their bowels, eliminating any need for anesthesia or surgery. CerSci Therapeutics sponsored the project.

Overall, UT Dallas was an outstanding competitor this year. Three out of the four teams qualified as finalists at the competition; this is more than any other university in the contest.

This is the second consecutive time that UT Dallas has earned first place. This year’s winners were biomedical and mechanical engineering seniors: Tyler Markle, Ryan Doleh, Melanie Maurer, Yara Almubarak, Rashed Rihadi and Bilal Quadri.

The UT Dallas team won against 21 other schools; competitors include Carnegie Mellon University and Georgia Tech.

“Learning to work in a multidisciplinary team — mechanical and biomedical engineering in this case — is an important professional skill and represents one of the key ways that corporate-sponsored UTDesign projects help to prepare our graduates for the workplace,” Robert Hart, clinical associate professor of mechanical engineering and capstone course instructor in the Jonsson School, said.“This project also demonstrates how UTDesign can be a valuable resource for startups. The team’s design brought CerSci’s idea to life in the form a proven prototype that has the potential to have a significant impact on health care.”