WiFi-Beacon Concept Wins Top Prize In UA Engineering's Design Day

TUCSON — In emergencies, the solar-powered beacons would be launched from a drone so rescuers can be connected in remote areas.

The concept, created by a team of six University of Arizona engineers, won Best Overall Design in this year's Design Day competition. UA Engineering Design Day is an annual event that showcases the year-long capstone design work of engineering seniors.

The Grasshopper Harvester took home the 1st prize. The team created a method to collect the pests from agricultural fields without pesticides. Other winning prototypes included a sensor that could measure how old bruises are and a smart watering system that detects how thirsty plants are.

More than 500 students from the College of Engineering, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Optical Sciences gathered to show off their projects.

On display, 100 real-life working prototypes sponsored by local and national companies, including Raytheon, Caterpillar, Lockeed Martin, Microsoft and Texas Instruments. $35,000 in cash prizes were given out to the winning teams.