Engineering and Computer Science Graduates Present Yearlong Projects at 2026 Design Showcase

Student innovation, creativity, and scientific excellence were on full display at Loyola Marymount UniversityFrank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering 's 2026 Engineering and Computer Science Design Showcase on May 1.

The annual event is a celebratory setting for LMU undergraduate seniors and graduate students studying engineering and computer science to present their yearlong capstone, thesis, and research projects to the LMU community and industry partners before graduation.

This year, there were 82 projects - and poster presentations - displayed in University Hall across civil engineering, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, healthcare systems engineering, and computer science.

Projects ranged from testing theoretical research concepts to hands-on learning with real-world impact. For example, a team of computer science undergraduate students coded an AI app called Briefcase to help Loyola Law School's Project for the Innocence speed up wrongful conviction case review.

Computer engineering graduate student Thais Calixto, M.S.E. '26, researched how to recover data if a drone crashes before sending its data out. "I used the Markov Decision Process (MDP) model, leveraging a machine learning algorithm, to decide which actions to take if the drone crashes," Calixto said.

Christine Langmayr, M.S. '26, a graduate student in computer science, experimented with the idea of using sound and wind movement from drone swarms to help firefighters put out fires. "The idea is to mount subwoofers on drones, position the drone swarm downwind, zero in on flames, and blast from a height of two- to three-meters using soundwaves and air movement from the drone propellers (called rotor-wash) to help disperse embers," Langmayr said. She wrote 2,600 lines of code to create various simulations to test out wind conditions, number of drones, fire grid, positioning, firefighter involvement, and drone height to figure out what a successful scenario might be.

Mechanical engineering major Ayden Patel '26 worked on designing and building a tilt table for LMU's formula SAE car, which will be available for future LMU students who work on FSAE cars. FSAE is an international collegiate engineering competition where student teams design, test, and build formula-style racecars.

"The tilt table is built to aid in technical testing for competition," Patel said. "The test tilts the car 45 degrees - with a driver inside - to test the center of gravity," Patel said. "If there are no leaks or tilts and it passes, then we take it to 60 degrees and must hit the same requirements." The car must pass various tests like this to be eligible to race in the competition.

In the fall semester, Patel and his classmates worked on the design and 3-D modeling, collaborating with an employee at Ascent Aerospace, who sponsored the project and will be manufacturing the parts of the tilt table for LMU. In their spring semester, the students created professional drawings for manufacturing.

"The hardest part of the project was making the drawings to real industry standards, but it taught me how important it is to be meticulous," Patel said. Ascent Aerospace manufactured the steel parts for the tilt table, which the team will assemble and use to test their car before their summer competition.

Congratulations to all the Seaver College engineering and computer science students for their hard work over the year. You can view the full list of 2026 student projects here.