Jon DeMarco, executive director of Presque Isle Partnership, a nonprofit partner to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources at Presque Isle State Park, worked with Behrend School of Engineering students on three senior design capstone projects, including a smartphone application.
Presque Isle State Park in Erie is one of Pennsylvania’s most popular state parks, attracting 4 million visitors a year. The 3,200-acre peninsula stretches into Lake Erie and offers seven miles of sandy beaches, boating, fishing, hiking, bicycling, birding, and more.
While it might seem hard to improve on, Presque Isle Partnership, an official nonprofit partner to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) at Presque Isle, is committed to doing just that. The partnership hosts fundraising events and generates private support to fund projects that enhance the park, including mobility mats and beach wheelchairs, lifeguard stations, playgrounds, and more.
The partnership receives a lot of support from the community, businesses, donors, and its large network of volunteers. This year, it added a new working partner to its list: Penn State Behrend’s School of Engineering.
The organization sponsored three senior design capstone projects, challenging Behrend students to design a mobile application for the park, as well as a lighting display and alternative power solution for the annual Presque Isle Lights winter event.
Jon DeMarco, executive director of Presque Isle Partnership, wasn’t sure what to expect but said he was impressed from the first meeting.
“The students in each group were very thorough from the start, making sure that they understood the deliverables and the parameters they had to work within,” he said. “From a client perspective, they were on top of it. They were focused, and they knew what their goals were.”
When working with real clients, like DeMarco, students get not only engineering experience but an opportunity to refine other important skills, like teamwork, communication, time management, and more.
“They were proactive in communicating, which was really important to me,” he said. “There was never a time when I had to seek an update. They kept me up to speed.”
Project No. 1 – Mobile Application
Team members: Quincy Nguyen, Max Smith, Eric Petika, Collin Myers
The challenge: Develop a smartphone application for Presque Isle Partnership to enhance the visitor experience, provide navigation, and provide a way to send out important alerts.
The result: Students came up with an engaging cross-platform application called “MyPI.” The application includes an interactive map with filters to customize the experience, an events calendar, a food truck locator, FAQs, and the ability to get directions to a location at the park from their current location.
The sponsor’s response: “They did a really great job,” DeMarco said. “It looked great, worked well, and included everything I asked for, and then some. There is a little refining that needs to take place before we launch the app, though. I really wanted to get it out in front of people this year, but summer came quickly. We decided not to rush it out, but to take our time and tweak it after our busy season.”
Project No. 2 – Lighting Display
Behrend engineering students developed a large lighting display for the Presque Isle Partnership's annual holiday lights drive-through event. The work was part of the students' senior design project.
Team members: Joseph Cyrilla, Cole Roberto, Connor Rossey, Mark Sedlak
The challenge: Create a large lighting display for the partnership’s annual holiday lights drive-through event at the park. The display had to be programmable/versatile; easily put together and taken apart; able to withstand Erie’s worst winter weather; and sturdy yet lightweight and compact for storage reasons.
The result: In the researching phase of the project, students came across a commercially available product—a programmable LED matrix that looks like a curtain of hanging lights—that fulfilled many of the project’s requirements. The team then developed a tent-frame structure and bracing system to hold the 10-foot-by-10-foot matrix that required no external tools and weighed just 3 pounds.
The sponsor’s response: “The matrix was a great idea because we can connect to it using Bluetooth and project full-color images, messages, and more,” DeMarco said. “The curtain of lights will work well because it will allow winter winds to flow through the display, and it won’t blow over.”
Project No. 3 – Alternative Power Solution
Jon DeMarco, executive director of Presque Isle Partnership, a nonprofit partner to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources at Presque Isle State Park, worked with Behrend School of Engineering students on three senior design capstone projects, including a portable power station
Team members: Dominic Yeso, Anthony Roberto, Owen Flisnik
The challenge: Come up with an environmentally friendly, portable power source that does not rely on gas or electric and can be communicated with remotely for the Presque Isle Lights winter event. It needed to be self-contained, air-tight and weather-proof, and light enough for two people to handle.
“If I placed this power station at Perry Monument, I wanted a way to check the power level and turn it off remotely without having to drive there at 8 p.m. in the middle of a snowstorm,” DeMarco said.
The result: Students started with an insulated plastic picnic cooler with a handle and wheels, which they filled with components to achieve the client’s needs, including a 12-volt rechargeable battery and solar charger, a temperature/humidity regulation system, and a remote communication system via cell phone. They were careful to construct it in such a way that components could be easily replaced, if needed. It weighed in at just 90 pounds.
The sponsor’s response: “What they created has enough power to be on for a week, which is pretty huge for us as what we use now is a small battery pack that will only power a couple of light displays for a few days,” DeMarco said. “It is clean and quiet and sustainably built. I could see us using a dozen of these on the park.”
Final reflections
“Working with Behrend students on these projects was a really great experience,” DeMarco said. “I think they were excited to do something for Presque Isle, a peaceful place to exercise mind, body, and spirit, a place that means so much to so many people.”