2025 Management Engineering Capstone Designs

EcoScan aims to address the critical challenge of ensuring transparency and accountability within the fossil fuel industry by creating an AI-powered platform to assess and compare the sustainability efforts of European fossil fuel companies. This platform will automate the extraction, standardization, and analysis of sustainability data from unstructured corporate reports, empowering stakeholders to make more informed decisions about the authenticity of these companies’ environmental claims. EcoScan’s ultimate goal is to drive greater accountability in corporate sustainability reporting, promoting a faster transition to renewable energy.

You don't realize how much an HVAC system matters until you lose air conditioning in the summer or heating in the winter. Currently, HVAC maintenance relies on customer complaints with no proactive measures. AWAIR is an HVAC anomaly detection and predictive maintenance tool utilizing advanced data analytics, machine learning, and thermodynamics analysis that leverages real-time sensors. Our solution enhances operational efficiency, reduces maintenance costs and environmental impact, and optimizes technician deployment, improving the ownership experience. AWAIR aims to revolutionize HVAC maintenance while supporting Canada's sustainability goals.

Advertisers invest millions into capturing new customers and elevating brand presence. Strategic ad placements on high-traffic platforms like Uber and Uber Eats can unlock growth for businesses and propel emerging businesses. Our team is partnering with Uber to build an innovative advertising management tool, designed for transparency and smarter predictive planning, to enhance their decision making process. Our ultimate goal is to revolutionize Uber’s advertiser management process, making it more seamless and efficient.

Wait times for elective patient surgeries have increased by nearly 200% since 1993, affecting patient quality of life and placing a strain on hospitals. Many hospitals perform patient scheduling non-analytically, relying on expertise rather than a data-driven approach. ORchestrate uses Mixed-Integer-Programming, heuristics, and simulation to optimize hospitals' block scheduling frameworks. Using Cambridge Memorial Hospital data and processes, we consider patient priorities and surgical types to minimize wait times. ORchestrate generates and evaluates master surgical schedules to better inform patient scheduling decisions. 

Many engineering students at the University of Waterloo struggle to complete options with their degree due to scattered and highly generalized information. As a result, Faculty option coordinators can face high demand from students seeking help with planning and understanding options requirements. Opt’on is a centralized web tool designed to help Waterloo Engineering students explore, compare, and track their academic options efficiently. It provides personalized course recommendations, insights on option trends, and real-time progress tracking.

Imagine a world where your car is instantly recognized the moment you pull into a drive-thru, gas station, or parking lot - no apps, no scanning, no waiting, no credit cards. Meet Nova, the first global identity platform built for vehicles. Powered by ALPR and biometrics, Nova identifies your vehicle and tailors the entire experience around you. The menu adapts to your order history, rewards are automatically earned, and payments are processed hands-free. With intelligent automation, Nova transforms every journey into a seamless, personalized experience.

Robots excel at completing repetitive tasks in pre-trained environments but struggle to interpret natural language instructions and handle ambiguous scenarios. OpenXRIF provides an open-source platform to seamlessly integrate language models and robots through an intermediary format known as XRIF (eXtensible Robot Instruction Format). XRIF operates agnostic to the choice of LLM and robot platform used, which allows it to be flexible in connecting small models and simple robots or complex models and large robotic systems.

Despite widespread AI adoption, many people underutilize LLMs due to inefficient prompt optimization. Dewy AI enhances prompt design with advanced algorithms and real-time feedback, helping users generate higher-quality AI responses. Our platform refines and optimizes prompts while delivering bite-sized educational insights that boost expertise. Dewy AI empowers everyone to craft more effective prompts and drive continuous innovation in large language model performance.

New tools are required to design policies that lead to the swift reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Compass streamlines the levelized cost of carbon abatement (LCCA) model, a techno-economic and lifecycle analysis to compare chemical processes based on dollars per ton of emissions reduced. It delivers an intuitive platform with updated sources and thorough explanations to grasp underlying logic, enabling users to explore key LCCA metrics through customizable visuals. By making this tool publicly accessible, Compass amplifies informed decision-making across public policy, research, and academia.

Marathon runners often struggle to maintain optimal nutrition during races, impacting performance and health. Generic fueling advice fails to account for individual differences in health metrics. NRG leverages Apple Watch data to deliver personalized nutrition strategies throughout a marathon, providing real-time, tailored recommendations. Users can see post-run insights on the accompanying iPhone app for deeper analysis into their race statistics. NRG ultimately improves a runner's nutrition, increasing the user's performance during a run.

Small businesses struggle to adopt digital loyalty programs due to financial constraints, limited technical skills, and operational complexity. 1Point bridges this gap with a coalition-based loyalty program that offers an accessible, cost-effective solution to bring digital loyalty to the small business community. Our platform unifies independent businesses into a single network, enabling customers to earn and redeem points seamlessly across participating establishments. This approach enhances market presence, fosters customer retention, and delivers broader marketing capabilities and exclusive promotion opportunities to drive sustainable business growth.

This Capstone project focuses on creating a software application that offers affordable dining options for students by reviving the meal packaging program at participating restaurants. Students can purchase discounted food bundles through the app, while restaurant owners benefit from increased, guaranteed sales. The plan aims to foster restaurant partnerships and give students access to their favorite meals at lower prices. With student dining frequency on the rise, this solution bridges affordability and convenience for the university community.

Clinical Clarity is an AI-powered platform designed to enhance communication skills for healthcare professionals, particularly medical students. The project leverages machine learning and natural language processing to provide real-time feedback on clinical conversations. Using a hybrid approach combining rule-based systems and adaptive learning, Clinical Clarity helps users improve their verbal communication, decision-making, and patient interaction skills. The tool offers an innovative solution to traditional clinical training, aiming to enhance the effectiveness of healthcare professionals through continuous, data-driven improvements in communication.

Home prices can seem a mystery, leaving buyers and investors uncertain about what drives value. HouseXplainer is an AI-driven tool that predicts home sale prices and explains the why behind the numbers. Using historical data, our tool uncovers the factors that shape home prices—market shifts, property features, and buyer demand—enabling users to make smarter investment decisions. With HouseXplainer’s engaging visuals and in-depth insights, buyers and sellers can better understand current property worth and potential growth in value.

We aim to integrate an intelligent decision support tool into GM Oshawa Assembly’s system to optimize their Plan for Change (PFC) process. With over 3,000 PFCs since April 2022, prioritization has become inefficient. Our tool will analyze requests, apply GM’s guidelines, and identify high-impact changes. Reducing redundancy and improving efficiency will streamline decision-making and enhance continuous improvement in manufacturing, ensuring only the most critical PFCs are actioned for maximum impact.

Food preservation has been a concern of human societies since antiquity. Yet developments in food preservation have stagnated in the face of a rising demand for them. Altregen is an edible food coating that consists of self-healing alternating layers on top of a nano-enhanced conventional polymer substrate. The synergy of these components results in the final coating being able to heal after experiencing physical damage, without compromising on water or oxygen permeability.

CogniCare is an open-source, AI-driven platform designed to address the low adoption of traditional, clinical-feeling dementia assessments. Natural, voice-based conversations make cognitive screenings feel like a personal, human check-in rather than a test. Researchers and clinicians can easily upload compatible voice-based tests, while the system scales effortlessly across diverse populations. The AI assistant adapts to each user, creating a personalized experience that boosts participation, enhances data collection, and makes dementia monitoring more intuitive, accessible, and engaging.