Baptist Memorial Hospital supported Herff students at the Senior Design Expo

(Pictured: Team HMAACK and a design of their project) 

The Herff College of Engineering is extremely grateful to all of the industry partners who sponsored students' 2026 Senior Design projects. The nine-month assignments serve as the capstone projects for Herff's engineering students and allow students to work hand-in-hand with industries. 

Baptist Memorial Hospital sponsored three teams at Herff's 2026 Senior Design Expo, including team HMAACK, which won the overall competition. Team HMAACK's project included the consultation and design of a ground-up, 3,000 square foot temperature-controlled storage building within the employee parking lot at Baptist Memorial Hospital East. The design scope of this project involved demolition planning, utility rerouting, structural and foundation design, site planning, grading and drainage improvements, erosion control planning and phasing, traffic control and parking adjustments, paving design, and interior layout. In addition to efficient storage, design also included 2 bathrooms, a utility sink, an office, a corridor, and a forklift charging facility within the building. 

“I think it’s a really good experience for all senior groups in all disciplines to get that kind of real-world experience of doing a whole project for an entire year,” said Team HMAACK member Averie Irons. “It makes me feel a little more confident going into the workforce after graduating, knowing that I have the ability to create 25-page plan sheets and to reach out to people and get the information that I need to complete a project.”

Baptist Memorial Hospital also sponsored Team Tiger, Inc., whose design followed the same prompt as Team HMAACK, and Team Baptist Hospital Improvement Project, whose design aimed to reduce expired medical supplies on the 2 West unit at Baptist Memorial Hospital. The team created a two-bin replenishment system for maintaining supply levels and improving product rotation. The redesigned process includes an empty-bin scanning procedure that automatically triggers a replenishment request when the first bin becomes empty. Central Supply Room staff then restock the supply and deliver it directly to the unit, creating a continuous pull-based inventory cycle. Key deliverables include a future-state layout, a standardized replenishment workflow, measurable performance metrics, and a sustainability framework to maintain the system.

(Pictured: Team Baptist Hospital Improvement Project and a graph showing their two-bin replenishment system.) 

"The real-world experience these students gain during this process is indispensable," said Professor Rajesh Balasubramanian, the faculty advisor for Team Baptist Hospital Improvement Project. "Not only do they gain training with industry partners, they develop professional connections they can rely on after graduation." 

Thank you, Baptist Memorial Hospital - Memphis, for supporting Herff students!