RALEIGH, North Carolina — Comprised of current students and recent graduates, the University of Mount Union engineering team took home first place in the Student Hardware Design Competition at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) Electromagnetic Compatibility Society Symposium in late August.

Tasked with locating hidden radio transmitters in a contest designed to simulate real-world interference problems, Mount Union’s Emily Borroni ’25, Jack Davis ’26, Thomas Elliot ’25, Glauco Filho Fontgalland ’25, Dan Foltz ’26 and Logan Gunderman ’25 designed and built a “4-element quasi-Yagi, designed specifically to balance portability and accuracy.” Their design found all three transmitters in the fastest time, leading to a win in the competition.

“The antenna acted like a ‘flashlight for radio waves,’ allowing us to point and narrow down the direction of each hidden signal,” said Davis. “The antenna was connected to an ADALM-Pluto Software Defined Radio (SDR), which linked to a laptop running analysis software. This setup allowed us to ‘see’ the signals in real time, separate them when they overlapped and decode the Morse-coded IDs each transmitter was sending.”

“I am so proud of this team and I am so thankful for the opportunity and all of the connections made along the way,” said Borroni.

“The methods we used (directional antennas, SDR-based detection, and burst analysis) are directly applicable to real-world engineering problems,” said Foltz. “For example, in radiated emissions testing, engineers must locate unintended interference sources inside complex systems. Our solution mirrors the tools and techniques they use, but in a compact, affordable way. The competition was a rewarding experience that strengthened our technical skills, our teamwork, and our confidence in tackling real EMC challenges.” 

The group was advised by Dr. Glauco Fontgalland, associate professor of computer and electrical engineering. Learn more about Mount Union’s dynamic Brenton School of Engineering, including its new minor in robotics and automation engineering.