On July 30, 2026, the IEEE Victoria Section recognized outstanding student projects from the University of Victoria’s ECE 499 Capstone Design Project at the Engineering Lab Wing (ELW) Lobby, University of Victoria. The awards were presented by Hong-Chuan Yang, Chair of the IEEE Victoria Section. This year, 21 teams participated in the capstone project competition, showcasing an impressive range of ideas, technical skills, and engineering creativity.

The 2026 IEEE Kelly Manning Award was presented to the first-place team for their project, “Environmental Sensor Network for Wildfire Detection.” Team members Kohen Butler, Khephren Gould, and Levi Sykut-McCulloch, under the supervision of Dr. Homayoun Najjaran, developed an environmental sensor network for early wildfire detection. Their project integrated environmental sensing, embedded systems, wireless communication, power management, and data visualization into a complete working prototype.

Congratulations to Kohen, Khephren, and Levi on this outstanding achievement! Their first-place finish among 21 teams is a wonderful recognition of the hard work, collaboration, and technical innovation that went into their capstone project.

We also warmly congratulate the second place team, Sophie Gander, Karnika Sitolay, Benjamin Blake, Finn Berg, and Nicholas Guildford, supervised by Dr. Peter Driessen, for their project “Beat Downer: Adaptive Noise Cancellation.”

Congratulations as well to the third-place team, Austin Yang, Phillip Liu, Zhitao Zhao, and Lengfeng Yu, supervised by Dr. Lin Cai, for their project “Portable Obstacle Detection with 3D Spatial Audio for Blind People.”

The IEEE Victoria Section extends its congratulations to all of the winning teams and to all participating teams for their dedication and accomplishments. We are pleased to celebrate the students’ work and grateful to the faculty supervisors who supported them throughout their capstone projects.

Congratulations once again to all the students, and best wishes for what comes next!

 

Photo credit: Maryam Ahang