2025 Mechanical Engineering Capstone Designs

Introducing Frisbuddy, the ultimate frisbee pass partner. Designed to maximize your training efficiency, Frisbuddy allows you to practice throwing and catching solo. This portable, automated system helps you get more reps in less time, accelerating your skill development and boosting performance. Whether you're perfecting your technique or prepping for the next game, Frisbuddy ensures you’re training smarter, not harder.

3D printing is on the rise! As technological advancements make 3D printers more efficient and affordable, the use of 3D printing filaments will continue to grow. Sadly, this also means that plastic waste generated by failed prototypes will also increase. Our capstone project is an extrusion device that accepts shredded PLA scraps and re-purposes them into a recycled filament so that you can reduce your waste and save a few bucks too. Experience the (PLA)yback for yourself!

LiftAssist aims to aid patients who are confined to a regular bed in sitting upright. The device is built to be retrofitted onto beds for people seeking affordable at-home care. It can be adjusted to fit various beds and is easily installed.

An automated fish tank environment for fish owners who want to take a hands-off approach to caring for their fish. The smart environment will automatically allow for clean supplies and cycles of fresh water, a constant food supply, appropriate pH levels, and ideal water temperatures. The smart aquarium aims to address the complex requirements of taking care of various fish species.

The Astroscope is a product designed to lower the barrier of entry to astronomy while also catering to a wide range of users, from new enthusiasts to seasoned veterans. The mount can automatically calibrate its location using a photo of the surrounding stars and allows users to control the telescope from their phone to point at a desired star. It is compatible with a wide range of telescopes and supports the attachment of personal cameras.

Due to climate change, wildfires are growing more frequently, leading to widespread destruction and significant health and economic impacts on wildland urban interface communities. Improved wildfire resilience is a goal in Canada, but there are limited test methods to support it.

The Emberforge is a wildland fire testing apparatus that combines radiant heat and firebrand exposure in a laboratory device. Designed for researchers, the Emberforge simulates real-world wildfire conditions, aiding researchers with wildfire resilience testing and providing valuable insights into wildland fire interactions.

Weeds are a common plant that are visually unappealing and remove nutrients from other plants in a lawn. The current existing solutions include using a manual weed removal device that requires the user to remove each weed one by one.

Our project, PHANTOM (Precision-Honed Autonomous Navigating Targeted Obliterator Machine), aims to eliminate this manual labor by autonomously navigating the intended area, visually identifying the weeds in the yard and selectively neutralizing them.

The EasyTurn device attaches to existing hospital beds and automates patient rotation. Currently, nurses rotate patients at risk of developing bedsores onto their sides every two hours. Completing this task manually is tiring and time-consuming. The EasyTurn device fabric goes on top of the mattress and attaches to the side frames to create the tilted angles and maneuver the patient. The device is designed to quickly detach from the bed while allowing full access to the patient.

For many cat owners, dealing with their pet’s litter box presents the largest source of irritation and is generally regarded as the most unpleasant part of owning a cat. While existing products have attempted to solve this problem through various automated solutions, many users report concerns regarding these machines' long-term reliability, cost, and general safety. CatForce attempts to solve this by implementing a novel waste extraction method to eliminate these issues and improve the overall litter box experience.

Veloslide is an innovative bike seat designed to adapt to riding conditions for maximum comfort and performance automatically. This smart bike seat utilizes sensors and adjustable mechanisms to monitor and adjust the seat's position in real-time continuously, ensuring the perfect ride without requiring manual adjustments and preventing cycling-related injuries. Whether the rider is stationary, cruising at high speeds, or riding uphill and downhill, the seat can be adjusted on the go through a smartphone app to reach the most optimal position.

A device to test the feasibility of vibration controlled locomotion through the human digestive tract to enable future development into medical robotics.

F.A.S.T - Force and Speed Tracking - is a wearable wrist and hand device used to gather, organize, and display metrics for combat sports. Our device has a wrist component housing the major electronics and sensors, and a knuckle component used to obtain force feedback from punches unlike anything on the market today. F.A.S.T's goal is to provide critical sports science information to boxers and combat sports athletes, propelling them into the data-driven and science-backed age of athletics.

With rising produce costs and volatile weather due to climate change, indoor consumer gardening solutions cannot keep up. Meet the LETUS Garden, an automated and modular indoor farming solution. It uses an automatic aeroponic watering and light dimming systems to save on bills and maintain your free time. Modularity allows for as many or as few farming plots depending on your space or budget constraints. The LETUS Garden is an all-in-one solution to your indoor farming needs.

To address the complexity and high cost of current deep drilling procedures, this initiative is focused on designing an electromechanical drilling device to make these procedures more accessible for residential purposes such as ground source heat pumps. This sustainable solution enhances accessibility to efficient heating alternatives.

Snowfall on solar panel arrays installed at low angles can render them inoperable during and after snowfall events in the winter season, which in Ontario lasts for the better part of four months. This heavily under-researched area causes VCT Group’s (Solar Energy Company) clients to experience financial losses due to the drop-off in solar energy production. SolarFlake is a mock-roof test stand that facilitates the analysis of snow clearing forces on solar panels, to help find cost-effective solutions to this problem.

Paddle Buddy is a portable electric propulsion device for canoes. It aims to assist paddlers in carrying momentum by providing a subtle thrust force. The device seamlessly attaches to the rear of varying canoe geometries and is remote controlled by the user. By reducing the physical demand, Paddle Buddy expands the accessibility of canoe trips. We believe that the outdoors is for everyone, and this product makes that vision a reality.

The University of Waterloo Formula Electric (UWFE) Student Design Team has historically struggled to support the heat dissipation needs of the vehicle's 80kW powertrain. With no commercially available water pumps able to support the hydraulic losses of the powertrain’s cooling system, our group decided to bring up a custom solution. The centrifugal pump utilizes low-volume manufacturing techniques to attain hydraulic efficiency levels not typically accessible to larger manufacturers and is integrated into the vehicle’s low-voltage power and communication systems.

A.P.A.R is an AI-powered personal assistant robot designed to enhance daily living, particularly for individuals with physical disabilities or those seeking greater convenience. This robot's primary function is to autonomously identify, pick, and place objects. Utilizing a pre-mapped home layout, it will navigate seamlessly between rooms to complete designated tasks, such as grabbing an apple from a shelf. By integrating advanced robotics and artificial intelligence, A.P.A.R seeks to improve independent living and household assistance. 

Homeowners often struggle with common weeds like dandelions in their lawns. Manual removal is labor-intensive, while herbicides pose environmental risks. WeedWarden is an autonomous robot that identifies and eliminates dandelions from residential lawns without using manual labour or chemicals. It uses deep-learning computer vision to detect weeds and a precise drilling mechanism to remove them effectively.

We have developed a thermomechanical subassembly for Hydrogen Powered Transportation Refrigeration Units (H2TRUs). It is a compact, efficient, and zero-emission supplemental heating solution for transporting temperature-sensitive goods in extreme cold conditions. Our device utilizes the waste heat generated by hydrogen fuel cells and provides the required heat to the cargo space of a reefer trailer. Through our partnership with HydroCool, our device will enable the viability of the world’s first H2TRU.

PivotPrint is a 5-axis retrofit kit designed for popular hobby-grade FDM 3D printers like the Ender 3 and Prusa MK4. Its additional axes enable advanced slicing techniques that improve surface quality, ensure uniform strength, and eliminate the need for supports. The hardware, firmware, and software are being developed with a focus on affordability and will be open-source, making 5-axis printing accessible to the broader 3D printing community.

OpenBOS is one of the first accessible, customizable, and completely open-source packages to facilitate the study and visualization of complex fluid phenomena via background-oriented schlieren imaging (BOS). BOS is an imaging technique that uses the bending of light to infer the density and temperature field within a transparent medium. This combined hardware and software system utilizes novel algorithms and is uniquely designed with ease-of-use at the forefront to conduct a wide range of experiments that allow for accurate and robust flow analysis.

Students and faculty at the University of Waterloo need an affordable device that quickly, accurately, and efficiently cuts a variety of metals. Existing solutions are large and expensive, making them unsuitable. The team developed a custom CNC plasma cutting system that is highly adaptable, producing fast, precise cuts in various metals. This durable device incorporates numerous features and has substantial cutting capacity for tasks of different sizes. Housed in the Undergraduate Welding Lab, this system will serve users' needs for years to come.

Highlining is an extreme sport that involves balancing and walking on thin webbing between cliffs. NoSlack is a highlining safety system that automatically detects a loss of tension in a highlining mainline and spools in the backup line to reduce slack and prevent ground-fall injuries.

Faculty Advisor: Prof. Peter Teertstra

Our project attempts to assist those living with tonic-clonic seizures. During a seizure, a patient should be placed onto their side to prevent choking. However, when alone, the seizure patient is at risk of injury or death, as they cannot move themselves. Therefore, we are developing a wearable apparatus that uses inflatable cushions to prop the user from their back to their side while undergoing a seizure, automatically activating by using sensors to detect movement and muscle activity indicative of a tonic-clonic seizure.

This project aims to develop a cost-effective, reusable, and eco-friendly tubeless insulin pump to improve diabetes management. It focuses on refining the size of components to be competitive with other devices on the market. This features a compact design and allows for reusability by isolating the insulin delivery system. The goal is to address the limitations of existing pumps, such as high costs, medical waste, and user discomfort, by creating a lightweight, sustainable, and user-friendly solution.

In aquatic studies, understanding water bodies requires sampling at various depths, but dissolved gases often complicate sample analysis. The Deep Diver provides a simple, effective solution to collect, contain, and depressurize water samples with high gas concentrations. Affordable and scalable, it ensures reliable sample collection for researchers worldwide, enhancing the accuracy of aquatic studies.

Fatigue is an important topic for undergraduate students to understand in solid mechanics, given that it represents a critical failure mode in mechanical design. However, currently available lab equipment for fatigue testing and research is cost prohibitive to offer an interactive hands-on lab experience for large classes. EduLab RFT aims to solve this problem with a low-cost rotary fatigue testing machine that is feasible for use in undergraduate labs with many students.

MomentumScan 3D is a remotely operated device that addresses inefficiencies in the 3D LiDAR scanning process. Traditionally, technicians manually reposition tripods and leave the room to avoid interference during scans—a repetitive and time-consuming process. MomentumScan 3D eliminates these steps, significantly reducing labor and scan times. Featuring a live video feed and long-range remote control, it allows technicians to scan environments from a distance with precision and ease. Designed for industries like real estate and industrial modeling, it enhances efficiency while remaining portable and user-friendly.

InkFinity is a dry-erase marker system with a refill station and a compatible marker. The dry-erase markers can be filled and reused once they go through the automated refill station. This solution reduces waste from dry erase marker usage, in places such as schools, universities, and offices. The unique marker also provides an improved writing experience in terms of line visibility and line thickness, compared to the current markers in the market.

The Orthopaedic Drill End-Effector project by OrthoBore is a design and prototyping initiative to develop a tool-changing robotic end-effector compatible with the KUKA LBR Med robotic arm. Targeted at ACL reconstruction surgeries, the system includes a quick, secure tool-changing mechanism and a drill capable of precise speed and torque control for bone drilling. The design prioritizes safety, sterilizability, and sustainability, featuring advanced gear systems, custom housing, and a feedback-controlled motor. This project aims to enhance surgical efficiency, minimize waste, and expand the versatility of robotic surgical platforms.

Several gaps in modern recycling technologies lead to only a small fraction of plastic waste being processed, damaging the environment, wildlife, and humans. The P2F Heat Exchanger is part of a novel solution based on a patented idea for the processing of oil sands (NUWORP). This solid-to-solid heat exchanger uses sand as a carrier to heat the plastic into a mixture that can be processed into clean fuels. This process eliminates the need for washing, sorting, and transporting plastic waste.

Bottles to Bots transforms discarded plastic bottles into toy robots, providing a tangible reminder of the importance of recycling. This initiative aims to educate youth on proper recycling practices and raise awareness of plastic pollution.

This project aims to create a safe, non-contact device that delivers precise air pulses to the eye for research. Designed for the Murphy Lab of Experimental Optometry, it helps study how the nerves on the eye's surface respond to different stimuli. The device is easy to use, hygienic, and highly accurate, allowing researchers to understand the eye's nerve function better and detect corneal diseases. This innovative system will improve medical testing tools and advance knowledge of eye health.

The Sort-a-Clean is a semi-autonomous, hardware cleaning solution for any industry. Hardware is manually loaded into cups and secured in place. A gantry moves them through the process, from IPA filling, ultrasonic cleaning, IPA removal, hardware removal and drying, and finally loading them into storage vessels. This runs automatically until no cups remain, and then the cycle must be restarted. This allows operators to be freed to perform other functions while materials are sanitized and prepped for the next task.

Spinal fusion surgery helps strengthen weakened or broken spinal columns by fusing three or more vertebrae. This is accomplished using a screw and rod assembly which holds the vertebrae in position during the healing process; however, due to the high cyclic loading exerted on the spine during everyday activities, this assembly can fail before healing is complete. Our design aims to support this assembly and prevent mechanical failure while being easily incorporated into the current surgical procedure.

Common products on the market pose environmental challenges and carry risks of serious health concerns. There is a growing demand for accurate and non-invasive menstrual flow tracking, and current solutions lack reliable, real-time data collection that is crucial for diagnosing common conditions and identifying issues with menstruation. The FemFlow SmartCup is a reusable menstrual cup that detects fluid capacity and notifies users via application.