Senior Design – Class of 2020 Projects

We will be working with the Buena Vista Police Department and Care Trak Systems on both projects. Care Trak is a system that is designed to help Law Enforcement locate an individual that has been enrolled in their program. Individuals are enrolled in this program when they have a cognitive disability or have been diagnosed and fall on the Autism Spectrum.

This program will place a monitor on the individual so that if they wander off and are unable to find their way home. They can be found via a receiver that operates on radiofrequency. However, there can be downfalls to this system. The wearable device can be cumbersome and create a distraction to the patients that wear them, because of this they will try and remove them which then makes the system ineffective. The technology used on these systems is also around 80 years old. So the goal of these two teams will be updating the technology to better serve the community.

Virginia Tech – Mechanical Engineering & Electrical Engineering

The Team at Virginia Tech will be working on the receiver end of the system. Their hope is to allow law enforcement to find someone who is lost faster, by updating the way the signal is received and with greater accuracy of the individual’s true location.

George Washington – Biomedical Engineering

The Team at George Washington will be working on the wearable device. Their goal is to redesign the device to be more comfortable as to not create issues with the individuals that are wearing it.

By working together the goal of these two teams is to ultimately update a system designed to save the lives of those that have become lost. We are excited to see what these students come up with. Please follow us on social media to see how things are going throughout the year.

​Links to our Partners

Virginia Tech- Department of Mechanical Engineering
George Washington – Department of Biomedical Engineering
Buena Vista Police Department
Care Trak