May 8, 2025

Purdue ECE students shine in SPARK Challenge

Purdue ECE students shine in SPARK Challenge

Students in Purdue University's Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering showcased their innovation and engineering prowess during the biannual SPARK Challenge, a design competition that bridges classroom learning with real-world application.
A group of people engaged in discussion while sitting at tables in a modern office environment.
The SPARK Challenge is a biannual design competition for Purdue ECE undergraduate students

Students in Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering showcased their innovation and engineering prowess during the biannual SPARK Challenge, a design competition that bridges classroom learning with real-world application.

Hosted by the Elmore Family School and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Society (ECESS), the SPARK Challenge brings together students from across the school to develop creative solutions, build functional prototypes and collaborate in teams. The event emphasizes technical innovation, communication and problem-solving.

For the first time, SPARK was not only held in West Lafayette, but also at Purdue in Indianapolis. Winners in each category were recognized for creativity, technical execution, and presentation. The projects were judged by representatives from companies that are a part of the ECE Corporate Partners Program.

Of the ten projects at SPARK in Indianapolis, the winners were:

  • 1st place: Team Harness (Senior Design)
    Michael Nixon, Morgan Zeisler, Lara Albatarseh, Rami Omar, Tyler Pannell
    Team Harness’ project is an electromagnetic safety harness designed to protect operators in heavy machinery accidents, currently focused on forklifts. It locks when a tilt of over 20 degrees is detected, securing the operator in their seat to protect from serious injury.
  • 2nd Place: TTS Glasses
    Ayden Hession, Israel Reyes, Abdoulaye Doumbouya, Santiago Vasquez
    TTS Glasses are Text-To-Speech Glasses for the visually impaired who presses a button to capture an image, text in the image and gets translated to words spoken out a mounted speaker.
  • 3rd Place: Home Improvement
    Hannan Ahmad-Nizam, Jake Stout
    Home Improvement is an IoT home monitoring system that tracks the status of doors, temperature, and video. There are 4 nodes, with each node being 1.75" x 6". There is a central hub that is controlled by a Raspberry Pi 5 that keeps track of the status of everything.
Five individuals proudly display certificates while standing behind a chair.
Team Harness won first place at the SPARK Challenge in Indianapolis

The competition in West Lafayette featured 58 projects that were judged in three categories - Senior Design, Course Projects, and Student Organization and Personal Projects. The winners were:

Senior Design

  • 1st Place: E-Ink Flashcards (ECE 47700)
    Mark O'Donnell, Hannah Roddy, Zoe Drechsler, Cole Roberts
    E-Ink Flashcards is a portable, distraction-free study device with long battery life. Users create and upload flashcard sets via USB using a custom app, with optional AI-generated cards. The device features an e-ink display, physical buttons and SD card storage.
  • 2nd Place: Cassiopeiae 8800 (ECE 47700)
    Seth Deegan, Brian Lu, Caleb Shinkle, Nathan Huang
    Cassiopeiae 8800 is a modern, miniaturized replica of the Altair 8800, the first commercially successful microcomputer.
Five individuals proudly display their certificates in a modern office setting
E-Ink Flashcards won first place in the Senior Design category at the SPARK Challenge in West Lafayette

Course Projects

  • 1st Place: Byte Battalion (ECE 36200)
    Brayden Walters, Aidan Jacobsen, Andrew Robertson, Chase Grimm
    Byte Battalion consists of remote-controlled tanks designed to play laser tag with one another, combining mobility, targeting and interactive gameplay.
  • 2nd Place: ZesTM32 (ECE 36200)
    John Burns, Micah Samuel, Parker Hitchcock, Richard Ye
    ZesTM32 is an 8x8x8 voxel LED display built to showcase animations and simple games, demonstrating advanced embedded systems skills.
Five men proudly display certificates in a modern office setting, smiling and standing together.
Byte Battalion won first place in the Course Project category at the SPARK Challenge in West Lafayette

Student Organization and Personal Projects

  • 1st Place: Armatron (Personal Project)
    Jack Rivera
    Armatron is a fully 3D-printable, seven-degree-of-freedom industrial robotic arm that can function in both humanoid and desktop configurations. Designed for affordability, it delivers performance comparable to high-end commercial models.
  • 2nd Place: Gest (Student Organization Project)
    Jain Iftesam, Jackson Dees, Neal Singh, Tristen Hood, Emi Vizcarra
    Gest is a gesture-controlled system using a glove to wirelessly operate motors on a robotic arm. The system detects hand motions via onboard sensors and is powered through a nearby outlet.
Two men proudly display a certificate in an office setting, smiling at the camera.
Armatron won first place in the Personal Projects category at the SPARK Challenge in West Lafayette

More photos from SPARK can be found here.