Engineering Capstone Exhibition Showcases Islander Innovation and Grit

Graduating seniors from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) presented their Senior Capstone projects on campus, demonstrating hands-on engineering expertise as they prepare for professional careers.

Among the presenters was Natalie Sepulveda ’26, whose team developed an internet-connected structural health monitoring system for a modular steel bridge.

 “Our project is IoT-driven structural health monitoring for a modular steel bridge,” Sepulveda explained. “It is basically two main components: we have the steel bridge side, and then our IoT sensor side.”

Her teammate, Cameron Kling ’26, noted the team’s material selection played a key role in the project’s accuracy.

 “Using steel gives us a very good relationship between when we calculate the stress and strain, which is important for our sensors,” Kling said.

The exhibition highlighted a wide variety of real-world industrial and automated solutions. Mechanical engineering student Colten Hankins ’26 and his team developed a specialized bin vent for environmental dust control on industrial silos.

Hankins noted the project gave him the opportunity to expand beyond his primary field of study.

 “My sole purpose on this project was the electrical side of things, so I got to learn a lot about how to create a PCB and soldering,” Hankins said.

Another Islander, Zadoc "Zay" Villarreal ’26, took on a critical leadership role by showcasing Phase 4 of the Autonomous Debris Detection and Removal Aquatic Robot (ADDRAR) project.

Villarreal said the project challenged the team and pushed them out of their comfort zone. 

“We're all mechanical engineers, so we had to learn basically electrical engineering and computer science from this entire project,” Villarreal said. “It is really broadening our brain capacity on different fields of engineering.”

For electrical engineering student Omar Escudero ’26, achieving his degree was the culmination of a five-year journey that began in the university's Pathway Program as a non-English speaker, allowing him to honor a profound family legacy.

“Coming to TAMU-CC electrical engineering allowed me to pursue a dream of becoming an electrical engineer,” Escudero shared. “My grandpa used to be an electromechanical engineer, and now being able to follow his steps about 50 years after his death is something that brings my family a lot of happiness.”

By the end of the capstone exhibition, these graduating Islanders returned home with refined engineering designs, cross-disciplinary skills, pride, and a stronger sense of belonging in their field.