On April 25, 116 GW Engineering students from across all six academic departments came together to showcase their research at the 2025 Research & Design (R&D) and Senior Design Showcase. This annual event sprawls across the first and lower levels of the Science & Engineering Hall, offering a glimpse into the critical advancements being made within the school’s classrooms and research labs.
Now in its 18th year, the R&D Showcase was founded by alumnus Randolph “Randy” Graves in 2007 and expanded in 2022 to include senior design/capstone projects. It invites undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and research scientists from GW Engineering to participate, gaining valuable experience presenting their work to both technical and general audiences and making connections across disciplines.
On the first floor, participants of all levels shared results from years of research and testing. For instance, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. candidate Sara Youssoufi presented five years of NASA-supported research on nucleate pool boiling. Her work, which won a Best Poster Award at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, focused on optimizing heat transfer systems for space applications. By comparing computational models with microgravity experiments and studying the effect of cooling, she identified optimal temperatures for pool boiling to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
“After five years of dedicated efforts, completing this project felt like a major achievement. Despite moments when we doubt whether we have sufficient results, perseverance always pays off. Sharing the results with the broader community—including winning the Best Paper Award at ICFFTS 2023, the First Place Poster Award at NASA Glenn Research Center in 2024, having our peer-reviewed paper selected as an Editorial Pick by the International Journal of Physics of Fluids, and being selected for a 2025 showcase by the American Institute of Physics—was a truly rewarding way to celebrate our work,” said Youssoufi.
The B-1 level featured 26 senior design projects, including more award-winning work like a self-regulating warming system integrated into a local farmer’s prosthetic arm. Other standout projects included one that leverages machine learning to translate sign language gestures into text and another that uses real-time sensors in an innovative swim cap to assist visually impaired swimmers.
From advancing therapeutic ultrasound to protecting public health against harmful “forever chemicals” in groundwater, this year’s participants highlighted how GW Engineering students are applying technology to improve lives. Their work underscores the breadth of GW Engineering’s expertise and its ongoing commitment to addressing society’s grand challenges.