Psyche Power Solutions team wins Palais Senior Design Prize at ECEE Demo Day

Over 55 student teams comprised of seniors from the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, or ECEE, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, showcased capstone projects at the ECEE Senior Design Demo Day event on Friday, May 1.

Each semester, student team members develop project management and organization skills, advance their technical breadth and depth, apply newly acquired knowledge and refine their presentation abilities with culminating projects that address real-world challenges.

Among the electrical engineering capstone participants in the Demo Day showcase each semester, one team is recognized with the Joseph and Sandra Palais Senior Design Prize. The award, established by Professor Emeritus Joseph Palais and his wife, Sandra, honors a high-achieving electrical engineering project as determined by a panel of secret judges. The winners receive a celebratory lunch and a monetary prize.

The spring 2026 winning team project, entitled “Psyche Energy Management System for an Autonomous Rover“, was presented by electrical engineering seniors Turki Alatawi, Danielle Feinstein, Jorgiann Krause, Brad Leinen and Sabrina Martinez. The hybrid student team was mentored by Cassie Bowman, associate research professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU.

The team’s capstone project focused on building a rover power management system for a simulated mission on asteroid 16 Psyche in alignment with Mission To Psyche. Psyche is both the name of an asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter — and the name of a NASA space mission to visit that asteroid, led by ASU. The Psyche mission also develops projects for capstone courses across a range of disciplines and each academic year, student teams from universities across the U.S. use their culminating project to support Psyche-focused efforts.