2025 Systems Design Engineering Capstone Designs

With an average of 75,000 reported bike thefts annually, 80% occur on university campuses and in commercial business parks.

Anchor is a smart bike locking rack that aims to provide a locking solution at a fraction of the cost of state-of-the-art locking solutions and prevent the most common thefts for bikes locked by chain and cable locks. Using industry grade steel, modern NFC technology, and sensor data, Anchor provides a convenient and reliable bike locking experience for both users and is easy for property owners to adopt.

The rise of Generative AI has made it difficult to distinguish authentic images from fake ones. This led to a drop in media trust by almost 40% in recent years. Journalists were challenged to share real stories. TrueSight is a camera system that uses depth sensing and digital signatures to prove the captured images are real. Adopting this system will help rebuild trust in media, prevent fake images from spreading, and support journalists in sharing genuine events with confidence.

Simflection aims to reduce online shopping size discrepancies and inform better purchase decisions for customers, ultimately reducing return rates. This is achieved through accurate sizing recommendations and virtual try-ons across brands, using 3D avatar generation, clothing digitization, and simulation. 3D avatars are generated using photogrammetry methods from a smartphone video, and clothing catalogs are converted into 3D assets using deep learning techniques on existing website images. This creates an inferred sizing profile and animated try-ons that simulate fabric stretch.

Six in ten people living with dementia will wander at least once. CareZone is a wearable device designed for persons with dementia (PWDs) that utilizes GPS tracking and an adaptable notification system to enable real-time location tracking and dynamic geofencing alerts. Caregivers receive instant alerts if their loved one leaves a designated safe area, allowing for timely intervention and promoting autonomy without compromising safety. 

Speech Buds is a tool designed to make at-home speech therapy practice more engaging for children with speech disorders using a tablet. Using audio processing and computer vision, the system provides unique, actionable feedback to improve pronunciation, all without requiring constant parental supervision. It also connects speech language pathologists with their patients, allowing them to track progress and assign personalized exercises. By gamifying the experience, Speech Buds ensures consistent, high-quality practice while keeping therapists involved in the child’s speech journey.

As record-breaking heat is rising globally, our project aims to prevent heat-related illnesses and heat strokes. KeepCool is a wearable device for outdoor workers in hot and humid conditions. It continuously monitors body temperature, environmental temperature, and the duration of heat exposure using thermistor technology. The device offers real-time haptic and visual alerts when a user's body temperature increases. It also activates an emergency thermoelectric cooling system when needed, helping to prevent heat-related illnesses and ensuring worker safety.

SpikeSafe is a wearable system designed to help volleyball athletes identify and reduce risky movement patterns contributing to ACL injuries. By analyzing data collected from IMUs worn on a compression leg sleeve, SpikeSafe provides post-session feedback through an iOS app, allowing athletes to recognize unsafe motions and make informed adjustments. With a focus on injury prevention and accessibility, SpikeSafe empowers athletes to build safer habits and train confidently while minimizing their risk of long-term setbacks.

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a life-threatening emergency, with survival rates falling to 10% due to delayed treatment. In rural Waterloo, emergency response times often exceed 17 minutes—far beyond the 6-minute standard. Medrone bridges this gap by autonomously delivering Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to rural communities via drone, reducing delays and improving survival chances. Our system ensures secure AED delivery, protection mechanisms, and scene intelligence for optimized landings. A communication system enables human intervention, providing a reliable response. Medrone – delivering life-saving care when every second counts.

SWISH is a wearable tool designed to help users, ranging from recreational players to varsity athletes, perfect their free throw shooting. We aim to help users understand their shooting form and provide actionable feedback to improve consistency, accuracy, and coordination. By combining computer vision with motion sensors, SWISH analyzes each shot and offers post-session feedback to refine the gather, set, and release, helping players develop a smoother and more reliable shooting motion.

Music teachers experience damaging levels of audio daily and don’t have hearing protection options that allow them to communicate with students. Our goal is to design an IEM (In-Ear-Monitor) that prevents hearing loss for music teachers while also allowing them to communicate with students by audio passthrough. The IEM will gather audio data through on-ear microphones, mix it, and feed it back into the IEM while processing decibel level and audio dosage for users.

Medical Device Reprocessing (MDR) is a hospital department that sterilizes medical tools for procedures such as surgery. Technicians in this department face difficulties assembling surgical trays due to thousands of different configurations. Our system leverages RFID technology to verify tools during the tray assembly process, including checking for lost or misplaced tools. This reduces cognitive load and errors for the technician learning and reduces delays in the operating room.

Multi-lane roundabouts are becoming increasingly popular in North America, especially in the Waterloo Region. While they improve traffic flow and driver safety, they pose significant challenges for pedestrian safety. Our project designs and tests a novel pedestrian alert system using a high-fidelity driving simulator to study driver reactions in multi-lane roundabouts. Using this data, we created the Round-a-Doubt alert beacon prototype with automatic pedestrian detection to enhance driver awareness, and provide valuable insights for municipalities to improve roundabout safety.

Cycling in Toronto should be safe, comfortable, and stress-free - but unpredictable road conditions create challenges. Travelo is a real-time navigation app tailored to cyclists’ needs, helping them to avoid hazards such as rough pavement, heavy traffic and poor weather. By leveraging smartphone accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS, and real-time user feedback, Travelo optimizes routes for safety and comfort - not just speed. Unlike traditional maps, our solution prioritizes a smoother, safer ride for cyclists of all experience levels, making urban biking more accessible and enjoyable.

Squirrel invasions significantly threaten gardens by damaging plants, particularly young ones, through chewing and digging. Squirrel Busters uses a safe and humane method to deter the Eastern Gray Squirrel, a common nuisance in Ontario. A water spray device was built to keep squirrels away from specific garden areas. This device uses machine learning and image recognition to identify and target squirrels while avoiding plants and people.

VocoPal is a wearable device that assists patients with neurodegenerative speech disorders by analyzing key speech metrics like volume, pitch, and speed. It uses an Arduino microcontroller to capture audio, which is processed by a Flask-based Python microservice that extracts speech insights and transmits them to a React web app. The web app surfaces an interactive UI where patients and therapists can track progress, review data, and receive personalized feedback, bridging clinical sessions with real-world communication to enhance therapy outcomes and patient independence.

Thermalion is a heating system for Class 2 EVs in Canada that maintains lithium-ion battery temperatures above 5°C to prevent efficiency loss, damage, and thermal runaway in extreme cold (-40°C). The system attaches to the battery pack and consists of an alumina inner layer for heat conduction, a graphite-octadecene PCM central layer for thermal energy storage, and an outer PE-LLD layer for insulation. Thermalion heats batteries from -40°C to +5°C in 20 minutes, enhancing performance and promoting EV adoption in cold climates.

Physiotherapy patients often struggle with adhering to prescribed exercises and maintaining proper form due to a lack of real-time feedback outside of infrequent in-clinic visits. RePose is an at-home physiotherapy companion designed to address this issue, focusing on patients recovering from knee injuries or replacement surgeries. By leveraging a patient’s smartphone for markerless pose analysis using computer vision and an automatic tracking camera system, RePose delivers real-time feedback while continuously monitoring rehabilitation progress, all within a user-friendly application.

Children with visual impairments face challenges accessing interactive educational tools at home. Existing tactile devices are either too costly, too simplistic, or designed for specialized settings. ReBraille aims to develop an affordable, user-friendly tactile board that dynamically translates shapes and diagrams drawn on a tablet into tactile representations. This device fosters hands-on learning, enhances spatial awareness, and strengthens parent-child engagement. By integrating a cost-effective electromagnet and cam system, intuitive software, and accessible materials, ReBraille bridges the gap in at-home educational resources for visually impaired children.

Neuromove is a gamified at-home physiotherapy tool for early-stage Parkinson’s patients, integrating cognitive and physical exercises to enhance motor function and engagement. By combining interactive challenges with real-time feedback, Neuromove encourages users to complete therapy exercises in an engaging and motivating way. The system adapts to individual progress, ensuring personalized difficulty levels that promote neuroplasticity and sustained participation. With an intuitive interface and data tracking, Neuromove empowers patients to take control of their physiotherapy journey from the comfort of their homes.

Tether is a smart security system that protects students' belongings in shared study spaces using a monitoring device and mobile app. The system consists of a security device equipped with a computer, proximity sensors, and a 360-degree camera. When theft is detected, the device captures real-time videos and transmits them to the user’s phone via Wi-Fi. The accompanying app allows users to configure security settings and receive real-time alerts. Tether offers a reliable, real-time theft prevention solution by seamlessly integrating hardware and software.

Trailblazer is a system that improves the search and rescue process of casual hikers in remote areas with no cell connection. Contrary to other solutions, Trailblazer uses a LoRaWAN relay network to allow search and rescue teams to passively monitor hiker locations at a lower cost. It offers an end-to-end system to ensure hikers are on track with a wearable device, trail checkpoint devices, and a web application to visualize data. Our solution also leverages solar power for ease of installation and operation.