ECE student develops flotation tank for burn patients
Team 25052's flotation tank incorporates sensors that continuously monitor the fluid surrounding a patient.
Thousands of attendees gathered on May 5 for the College of Engineering's 2025 Craig M. Berge Design Day – an annual opportunity for engineering seniors to present the results of their yearlong capstone class in the Student Union Memorial Center ballroom and on the University of Arizona mall. Students from majors across the college made up 79 multidisciplinary teams that completed projects requested by industry and university sponsors.
One team harnessed diverse engineering disciplines to improve medical care.
Team 25052 prototyped a suspension bath for severely burned or injured patients. Sponsor Roy Medina tasked the team with creating a more comfortable solution for long-term hospital patients. Burn patients typically heal in firm beds, which are uncomfortable, said Joshua Capel, project procurement lead and ECE senior.
Capel programmed the microprocessor, which enabled the tub’s sensors to read data and display the results on a digital monitor. He also integrated an alert system that activated if the fluid’s pH or temperature went out of range.
“A biomedical project wasn’t something I had done before, so I wanted to step outside my comfort zone. Helping people heal was really meaningful to me,” he said, adding that many of the skills he used in this Design Day project will directly translate to the workforce.
Capel landed a job as a systems engineer at Textron Systems in Maryland.