Seven civil and environmental engineering teams participated in the Fall 2025 Capstone Design Expo, showcasing their semester-long design projects in transportation, dam restoration, environmental remediation, structural design and more.
The Capstone Design Expo, which took place Dec. 1 at McCamish Pavilion, featured 118 student teams across engineering, design and computing. Judges selected an overall best project, a best interdisciplinary project, and a best project from each discipline.
Judges selected MPLS Consulting as the top CEE team and awarded the students a $1,000 prize for their “Peachtree Corners Intersection Improvement” project.
Team members Samuel Cushman, Phoebe Ellis, Meghan McGurk and Lauren Sisk worked with the Peachtree Corners Department of Transportation to redesign an intersection for improved efficiency and pedestrian safety.
"Our team is honored to have been awarded best CEE project. We are proud of the work we produced, and we are grateful to have had such hardworking team members, amazing mentors, and a great sponsor," said Lauren Sisk.
The students’ capstone project focused on the three-leg intersection of West Jones Bridge Road and Peachtree Corners Circle in Peachtree Corners, Ga. Located adjacent to a school, the intersection receives a large volume of pedestrian traffic from students. The team’s proposed redesign seeks to improve traffic efficiency along Peachtree Corners Circle while focusing on pedestrian safety.
The students proposed an intersection design known as a “displaced left turn” to alleviate traffic congestion.
According to the Georgia Department of Transportation, the uncommon intersection design moves left-turning traffic to the other side of the road into a parallel left turn lane separated from opposing lanes. This allows left turning and through traffic to move simultaneously, increasing efficiency and safety.
See more photos
View all seven teams from CEE that participated in the Capstone Design Expo.
The team concluded that a displaced left turn would improve the level of service at the intersection and enhance safety for both pedestrians and vehicles.
“We chose to design a displaced left turn at this intersection because it directly addresses the approach that currently has the highest delay times, the mainline left," Sisk said. "Additionally, a displaced left turn can be designed in a way that maximizes pedestrian refuge spaces, decreases crosswalk lengths, and reduces pedestrian confusion that alternatives like a roundabout might cause."
Other Teams
HydroLogical Solutions
Team members: Abigail Carlsen, Riley Lofgren, Jackson Martin, and Mya Moffitt
Sponsor: Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources
Advisor: Professor of the Practice Joe Manous
This team did a conceptual design on structural repairs for the masonry dam of Pounds Lake in Gwinnett County. The granite stone and grout dam was built in the 1930s. The team did hydrologic and hydraulic modeling and suggested maintenance improvements including masonry repairs and vegetation removal.
GAIA Design Solutions
Team Members: Bahar Banihashemi, Dani Sarantis, Lanie Cantrell, Mili Kher
Sponsor: City of Alpharetta and Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
Advisor: Professor of the Practice Sharon Just
GAIA Design Solutions evaluated impervious surfaces in Alpharetta, Ga., and identified a school parking lot suitable for a Depave project. Depave is a program that transforms underutilized paved surfaces into lively, pervious areas that improve the environment and quality of life. The team redesigned the area to include a rain garden and outdoor classroom.
CEE Capstone Group #7
Team Members: John McMahon, Logan Robbins, Bryce Tate
Sponsor: Uzun + Case
Advisor: Professor of the Practice Fred Meyer
This group created a structural design for a football training facility at the new North Clayton High School being constructed just south of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Their design includes a steel framing system, lateral support system, shallow foundations, retaining walls, and a cost estimate.
Soil Mates
Team Members: Grant Marshall, Kevin Hu, Matias Collantes, Sean Kirby
Sponsor: Georgia Department of Transportation
Advisor: Professor of the Practice Joe Manous
Students on this team worked with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) on a project to replace an existing culvert in a tidally influenced area near Savannah, Ga. They conducted hydrologic and hydraulic analyses, researched project parameters such as culvert size, cost, and regulations, and applied optimization techniques to evaluate alternative culvert configurations.
Green City Strategies
Team Members: Aaron Qiu, Adrien Tirouvanziam, Ewan Pritchard
Advisor: Professor of the Practice Sharon Just
Sponsor: Hazen and Sawyer
Green City Strategies designed stormwater infrastructure for Pittman Park in South Atlanta. Their project addressed the need to alleviate flooding impacts, improve runoff water quality, mitigate erosion damage due to storms, and increase community resilience through grey and green solutions.
Sustained Solutions
Team Members: Alex Campbell, Bishop Uhlrich, Maxwell Jiang, Noelle Watkins
Advisor: Professor of the Practice Sharon Just
Sponsor: Ramboll, EPA
The Sustained Solutions team worked on a Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE) system compound design for the Hardeman County Velsicol superfund site. The project involved the design of a site layout, site grading, planning of access road and utilities, and stormwater and erosion considerations.