University of St. Thomas engineering students prep for Senior Design Show

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Game cameras can be found all over Minnesota. Hunters popularized then, then outdoors lovers started using them to capture the magic of nature.

Now, they're going underwater.

"I actually broke the rules and wrote a little essay to try and convince the professors to put me in this group, so I was really excited when I got it," explained Eric Danner, a senior engineering student at the University of St. Thomas.

Danner and three of his classmates have spent the year developing an underwater game camera that can be dropped off a dock.

"Our camera housing here, which is submersible up to 40 feet of depth, it has clips on the side that clip into the weeds," said Charlie Eldredge, a senior engineering student at the University of St. Thomas. "The focal point is in the 1-to-2-foot range, and then anything beyond that you can see the fish but it's maybe not the clearest photo."

"One of the markets for this project is the DNR. So they can do a lot tracking with fish, a lot of studies on fish and populations and health of lakes," said Will Becker, a senior engineering student at the University of St. Thomas.

The "Seeweed" is one of 24 capstone projects engineering teams are given to work on by companies, nonprofits and start-ups.

"They bring the projects to us, and we send them the students, and the students kind of go to town for two semesters and deliver the final result to the sponsor," said Dr. Tiffany Ling, engineering capstone director at the University of St. Thomas.  

Another team is sponsored by Forever Ware. They've created a self-use smart return bin for takeout containers.

"You're gonna scan the bottom of your container on the sensor here, that unlocks this drawer. So, then you open up the drawer, place your container in there and if you have other containers, you can also scan them. Once you're done, you click the done button in there, close the door and your containers are in the storage bin," said Allie Paterson, a senior engineering student at the University of St. Thomas.

"Just to let it become more accessible for people around the Twin Cities area to actually use these containers and return them is a good idea," said Owen Kavie, senior engineering student at the University of St. Thomas.

But good ideas take time to come to life. Teams have collectively spent over 1,000 hours on their innovations.

"That helped me to practice the design cycle of an engineer which is design, build, test and then repeat," said Danner.

The students gain practical experience while networking within their future industry, sometimes receiving job offers or name inclusion on patents in the process.

"It's always really exciting to see how much enthusiasm the sponsors have to see those final products and the final results from the students. It's mind-blowing, really," said Dr. Ling.

The students will showcase their work at a senior design show at the Anderson Student Center at the University of St. Thomas on Friday.

It runs from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and is open to the public.