Four students in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University received awards for their contribution toward positively impacting service-learning projects that affect small communities.
Pranav Ambadasugari from industrial distribution and his teammate Max Chen received the Envisioning the Neo-traditional Development by Embracing the Autonomous Vehicles Realm (ENDEAVR) Community Impact Award. Andrew Lin and Michelle Nguyen from electronic systems engineering technology received the ENDEAVR Best Project Award for making telemedicine accessible to people who live in small communities.
For the ENDEAVR Community Impact Award, community advisors nominate a team project demonstrating a commitment to addressing the community client's challenges and has proven to generate measurable effects in the community.
Ambadasugari's team created a prototype that would notify community members when a train would pass through their area and allow emergency responders to work around the train. The prototype is a step forward to creating a system that would be easy to maintain and inexpensive to replace.
"If a train is coming, it's good to know so you can adjust your timing or know when it's going to get loud," Ambadasugari said. "If this is successful and we see an improvement to the well-being of the community, imagine being able to scale that and bring that to more people."
Lin and Nguyen successfully established a foundational system for a remote blood pressure monitor with similar processes as industry-standard blood pressure monitor systems.
"We shouldn't be comfortable with the technologies we already have," Lin said. "There is a need for innovation in biotechnology and telemedicine.”
Theo Nyan, also from electronic systems engineering technology, contributed to the ENDEAVRide program. His team was honored with the ENDEAVR Leadership Award.
Current and future members of ENDEAVR aim to positively impact the thousands of small towns in the United States. ENDEAVR recognizes its members, contributors and collaborators who give their support by volunteering their time and efforts, toward ENDEAVR initiatives.
Dr. Wei Li, associate professor of urban planning at Texas A&M, is the founding director of ENDEAVR, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to future-proofing small communities by enabling them to become smart cities.
Li aspires to grow entrepreneurs from engineering and from the ENDEAVR program to provide high-value and sustainable solutions to small communities.
“I would love to see and support other students who are from industrial distribution to join ENDEAVR, and I would love to see companies spin off this project to sustain technology development in the long term," he said. "Industrial distribution students are incredible, they are more powerful and impactful than they think.”