Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Project Lists

Sitting throughout the work day can have serious health impacts that even maintaining an active lifestyle outside of work cannot remedy. Research from the University of Waterloo has shown that the healthiest option is to alternate between sitting and standing throughout the course of each day. Our team has designed and built a workstation that converts between ergonomic sitting and standing positions with ease at an accessible price point.

Group members: Eric Campbell, Jillian Adams, Valerie MacDougall, Bjorn Dawson 

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are a serious issue for athletes. Knee braces today focus primarily on rehabilitation, but the quality of life for many athletes could be improved with a brace designed to prevent ACL injuries. Knee braces with strain-rate dependent mechanisms can resist fast relative motion at the knee joint, and thus protect the ACL. Our project explores the design of a hydraulic cylinder filled with a non-Newtonian fluid to provide resistance at high shear rates. If successful, this innovative concept can be applied to knee protection, shock absorbers, and more.

Group members: Ian Phillips, Vipul Dogra, Arsalan Alim, Vishal Krishna

Moving bulky furniture is a hassle, and if you have to move every four months it becomes even worse. From these frustrations the idea of creating a portable bedroom was born. The goal of this project is to design and build a complete bedroom furniture set that transforms easily from quality furniture to portable packages. These packages are designed to fit in the back of a medium sized vehicle, and require no tools or time consuming assembly. 

Group members: Ben Chow, Prusodman Sathananthan, Leila Meema-Coleman, Greg Wesolowski

Commercial quadrotor drones have short mission times due to the limitations of battery technology. We have created an autonomous battery resupply station which can swap batteries of drones without human intervention, in order to increase mission times. This will be accomplished by providing the drone with a landing pad where it will safely land and be held in place. It will have its depleted battery removed and placed in a charging station. Finally, a fresh battery will be taken from the charging station and installed onto the drone before it takes off from the landing pad to continue its mission.

Group members: Hasan Lanewala, Saad Mirza, Muhammad Bilal Ahmed, Syed Asad Raza

Current ski hill gondolas use a simple box carrier to transport ski and snowboard equipment up and down the ski hill; however these designs limit the size, shape and amount of equipment accepted by the carrier, and do not have an ability to carry mountain bikes. Our team is designing a new carrier system that will accept all sizes and shapes of ski equipment, improve user experience and accept mountain bikes for use in the off season.    

Group members: Erik Marble, Erin Stuart, Peter Legault    

Gas strut fails after 3 – 5 years and upon failure, gas struts become very dangerous to operate, and expensive to replace. Ansik Inc created the original Shocklock (www.shocklock.ca) as an affordable solution to gas strut replacement. Now, our team partnered up with Ansik Inc, and designed a permanently attached iteration of their product as a cost-effective and more user friendly variation for the consumer market. 

Group members: Lan Phan, Jack Liu 

The Bottle Service project arose from the desire to automatically dispense drinks, and dispose of the bottles. The objective of the project is to create a personalized drink dispensing machine. This machine should take bottles, uncap them, pour their contents into a cup, and dispose of the empty bottles, all in a refrigerated environment. 

Group members: Geoffrey Iwasa, Mark Chapeskie, Michael Ginson, Jennifer Li, Anna Polak

Our vision is to increase the accessibility of healthy beverage choices. The goal is to successfully automate the juicing process of fresh produce in a compact automated machine service. Our prototype will be able to accept solid produce, and convert it to a liquid beverage by using a centrifugal juicing mechanism. Our design intends to increase the convenience of obtaining organic juices. With Auto Juice we will be able to offer freshly juiced produce that retains a large amount of micronutrients your body needs. Creating a healthier world through Auto Juice aids people to make the right drink choices anywhere.

Group members: Rushanth Raveendran, Patrick DiGioacchino, Riku Pekkola

An exciting new technology is on the horizon which will change the way we use renewable resources. By harnessing the power of the sun to directly produce hydrogen, Blue Future Energy Systems has developed a new way of producing, storing, and recovering energy for household use. This system will build a foundation for greater adoption of renewable energy and facilitate the development of the next generation of energy technologies.

Group members: Derrick Horney, Calvin Kwok, Aayush Tandon, Mitchell Flynn, Mathew Joseph

According to the International Energy Agency, 1.3 billion people still live without access to electricity and even more live without a reliable supply of electricity. The majority of this population are in developing countries. While there are current solutions in the market today, none provide sufficient task lighting. Fire Light is designed to be an inexpensive, reliable and safe lantern that produces sufficient task light with the power of a candle flame. By using thermo-electric technology, we can harness the waste heat from a candle flame to power LEDs that are much brighter than the flame itself. 

Group members: Erik Baker, Bevin Chau, Veronika Dani, Aaron Ignatius, Jason Park 
 

Many people store items in their garage for extended periods.  In a typical garage, the floor space is often fully used while overhead space remains almost empty.  The objective of our project was to create a usable platform in this space which allows homeowners to safely and easily store many different items and access them when necessary.  The design includes a shelf mounted on rails with a lifting mechanism to assist the user with storing heavy objects.

Group members: Bingyu Wang, Chuck Chan, Taoxin Jiang, Yiqing Wang, Kendra Fredette, David Booth 

Energy innovation is the next frontier of automotive transportation, with energy storage being the key to mass electrification of cars. This transition from oilage technology will require substantial advancement of today’s vehicle systems. We are working on a next generation thermal management system to enable newer and more powerful batteries in electric vehicles. Our solution is lighter, smaller, and more robust compared to existing battery thermal systems. We achieve this through an elegant setup of refrigeration and glycol coolant cycles. The two finely tuned thermal cycles work handinhand, delivering higher efficiency from Arizona summers to Canadian winters.

Group members: Ramin Shaikhi, Shahrzad Kheradmand, Rickey Wang, Fahad Harzella, Ben Tan 

Shell Eco marathon is a global competition where universities compete to achieve the highest fuel efficiency in 3 or 4 wheeled vehicle. UWSEM has participated in the competition since 2014 and has designed two electric cars in the process. In 2016 Shell Eco-Marathon Americas, the team was looking to qualify into other competing categories such as gasoline or diesel fueled engines. To accomplish team’s expansion strategy, H.A.K. engines undertook the challenge of designing a fuel efficient propulsion system using an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). H.A.K Engines will accomplish this challenge by integrating an electric starter mechanism and electronic fuel injection kit on the engine along with building a custom dynamometer for further engine testing.

Group members: Harman Chaudhary, Abdul Hannan Latif, Kaushik Jamadagni 

This project develops a cooling system for the electric powertrain components of a 2016 hybrid Chevrolet Camaro that is being modified by the University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) for competition in the EcoCAR3 challenge. Previous attempts to develop such a cooling system have proved challenging. Using industry simulation software, the team is focusing on the successful design, simulation, fabrication and optimization of the motor-inverter cooling system.

Group members: Algar D'souza, Dhruv Patel, Kunj Desai, Adel Malekkhouyan

The goal of the project is to develop a product that provides sun protection to wheelchair users. Currently, it is very difficult for wheelchair users to be outdoors during high UV periods due to sunburn and heat exhaustion. This device will provide more independence and freedom. The device is mounted to the back of wheelchairs and can be easily activated with the push of a button. When activated, the apparatus will open automatically to provide shade cover for the user. 

Group members: Andrew Buffone, Scott Hoefig, Michael Giannini, Davis Broda

Landmines still present a major issue for many countries. The United Nations estimates mine related deaths to be at 15,000 to 20,000 each year. Along with loss of life, landmines have other negative effects. Heavily mined areas render farm land unusable, stunting economic growth of many developing and third world countries. Despite such widespread detrimental effects, there are still no reliable methods to disable landmines in a safe and efficient manner. Global Landmine Initiative aims to tackle a small section of this extremely large issue by investigating methods of disabling landmines by converting manual methods observed in Cambodia to automated processes safer for deminers to use.

Group members: Baruch Chau. Jonathan Deng, Ming Hu, Christian Lee, Richard Yim

Medication non-adherence results in over 125,000 deaths in the USA alone and costs the healthcare system an extra $300 billion a year. Eve’s vision is to become a household name in medication management. Our team is looking to empower the consumer by tackling the problem of non-adherence at the user, system and process level and by facilitating the right conversations with caregivers and healthcare professionals. Eve is intended to manage and dispense medication or supplements of different sizes and provide users with analytics regarding their side effects; adherence; and medication interactions. 

Group members: Abdullah Mostafa, Andrei Popa, Salah Nasleem

The Baja is an off-road vehicle designed to travel through rough terrain. SAE runs intercollegiate design competitions for Baja student teams including static and dynamic events. Our project is part of the UW SAE Baja team, and our group is responsible for designing, building, and testing the braking system and the rear suspension’s trailing arms. The main objective is to minimize the weight of the components while maintaining the integrity of all vehicular systems.

Group members: Jorwin Lepasana, Ajmeet Dhillon, Omar Gomaa, Ashish Abraham 

Golf technology is constantly evolving to meet the demands of recreational and professional golfers alike. As today’s market for golf products is becoming increasingly competitive, manufacturers look for any advantage. The putter is the most used club in golf, but the comparative performance of different putters is not easily quantified. To assess the performance of golf putters and golf balls, the Mechanical Putter can repeatedly perform a putting stroke for a wide range of putters. 

Group members: Daniel Wilson, Jason Boettger, Sean Hubberstey

The design product aims to aid those who have chronic, severe hot and burning pain in their feet which may be caused by medical conditions such as erythromelalgia, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. The design uses a Peltier plate and air-cooling fan combination to effectively and efficiently dissipating the heat at the bottom of the feet. 

Group members: David Zeng, Ahsan Kamal, Braveein Sounthararajan, Tariku Kebede, Mo Yassin, Mike Buxton 

UWAFT is involved in the EcoCar3 Competition at the GM desert proving grounds. The goal is to convert a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro into a hybrid electric vehicle. Our team tackles the most integral portion of UWAFT’s specially designed hybrid drivetrain, which is the area between the combustion engine and the transmission. An electric motor must be mounted and coupled in between the two, with the ability to disconnect from the engine. These key components enable switching between hybrid and pure electric mode. This ensures the flexibility of maximum performance in demanding drive modes, and maximum efficiency in normal drive modes. 

Group members: Brian Liu, Erin Merkley 

Long rehabilitation time and possible debilitating tendon adhesion is a growing concern in patients who have undergone hand surgery in the fast-paced modern world. To combat these issues, the deXassist device is proposed, which will manipulate the proximal interphalangeal and metacarpophalangeal joints of the patient’s fingers to ensure tendons are regularly in movement. Once the device is set-up for the patient, these exercises will require significantly less time and attention from the supervising physiotherapist. The device is actuated through the use of a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) system, which change their shape and apply force when subjected to temperature changes.

Group members: Mandeep Gill, Blake Cross, Eric Brace, Dan Shaw, Mathew Mendelsohn, Pablo Vásquez, Jin-Beom Choi

The University of Waterloo Mars Rover Team designs and builds a Mars rover to compete in the annual University Rover Challenge. The UW Mars Rover Instrument Deployment Device, also known as a robotic arm allows the rover to manipulate objects to accomplish tasks required of a Mars Rover. For this iteration of the Mars Rover a new robotic arm was needed for the new rover chassis, in addition the previous arm design was improved. The UW Mars Rover Instrument Deployment Device team was formed to meet these needs. 

Group members: Max Kowalik, Greg Varty, Tian Yu Fu, Antony Lam

The Cuttlefish Camera Platform project is creating a robot based on nature to: provide the ability to survey areas of high vegetation or debris in underwater environments that are beyond the reach of other vehicles. This biomimetic robot is based on the cuttlefish, a fish that utilizes a pair of undulated fins for propulsion.  An undulated fin is a fin that runs parallel to the direction of motion, and uses ripples in the fin to generate thrust.  Developing the robot around this mechanism allows for precise and quiet movement underwater. 

Group members: Nick Kunzle, Justin Elisen

Hyperloop is a high speed alternative form of transportation presented by Elon Musk involving the acceleration of a capsule to near sonic speeds (~1220 km/hr) in a tube maintained at a near vacuum. SpaceX is holding a competition geared towards university students to design and build a scaled down version of the pod. UW (Waterloop) is taking part in this competition and our project deals with the pod body design for the team. This includes designing Waterloop’s pod that is structurally stable and aerodynamically efficient as part of the competition.

Group members: Alexandra Sugarman; Ashwin Patro; Chris Szilagyi, Kuan Liu

With nearly one billion people worldwide lacking access to sufficient supplies of water, a solution to the water crisis is desperately needed. Existing solutions require constant maintenance or complex and expensive technologies which become damaged and are never repaired. The team’s goal was to design a water sanitization system which utilizes ground-breaking UV-C LED technology. Low power requirements and high efficiency allow the UV Water Sanitization System to take contaminated water from wells or creeks and deliver clean, drinkable water for the user. 

Group members: John-Luke Ard, Kim Livingston, Darren Wan, Derek Chow, Marc Leblanc 

The aim of this project is to design and construct a device/mechanism that is portable, safe, and easy to use to assist a person to load/unload a motorcycle for transport using a light duty truck. This mechanism should provide a rigid platform from which to secure the bike during transport. This project is intended to provide motorcycle enthusiasts who lack the physical strength or confidence a safe way to load/unload and secure their motorcycle in a mobile and easy to use package.

Group members: Laura Pilmoor, David Bowman, He Qi, Cameron Piper, and Mitchell Van Noy

There are various exercises to target the chest and shoulders which can be done with either dumbbells or a barbell.  Unfortunately, there is no widely used equipment for dumbbell presses. For dumbbell presses, users are often limited by their ability to get the weights into the correct initial position rather than the actual exercise itself. The purpose of this project is to develop a universal exercise machine for basic chest and shoulder exercises. More specifically, an exercise machine that facilitates the setup into and out of common press exercises, which can be used for both barbells and dumbbells.  

Group members: Katherine Lee, Aaron Peng, Jeffrey Robinson, Jim Stephenson 

Working with the Maglev Laboratory, our team is building a magnetically levitating micro robot. High precision 3D remote positioning tracks the permanent magnets that are mounted on the robot using laser gates. The robot also houses a gripper that allows it to pick-and-place objects weighting around 2g.  The levitating feature makes weight it’s most important and constricting limitation. Our team is also working on improving modularity of the robot so that it can be used in variety of applications. We are also ensuring that the quality of the gripping action still maintained while maintaining the weight limitation. 

Group members: Nabila Salah, Luca Asad

Water is regularly wasted in households from users draining the stagnant cold water in the hot water pipes until it reaches the desired temperature. The scenario where this has the greatest effect are daily showers. Based on this, Last Drop aims to create a sustainable solution to shower water waste. Through concepts of fluid mechanics, hydraulics, and electronic logic controls, team Last Drop is focused on obtaining a user-friendly and an efficient solution.

Group members: Kavan Patel, Muhammad Rafay, Haw Chen, Derek Leung

FiberTech Optica (FTO) currently has fiber optic cable polishers that require human involvement to perform cable polishing. The current procedure is a time consuming, operator dependent process. The cable is held within a metal puck and polished by an operator holding it to a polishing surface. This project aims to reduce human involvement. The design will include key design requirements to meet the current standards as well as a few additional functions desired by the client (FTO).

Group members: Bryson Thomas, Mustafa Al-Ali, Melanie Charles, Tharindu Kodippili 

The University of Waterloo Formula Motorsports Team designs and builds an open-wheel race car annually to compete in Formula SAE competition. The focus of this project is to improve performance and reliability of the 2016 powertrain package while minimizing weight and maintaining safe operation. The scope of this project includes the throttle body, air intake, oil system, exhaust, and muffler that will be installed on a four cylinder motorcycle engine. A unique variable length intake will be developed to take advantage of the resonance pulse tuning effect. Validation will be performed on a dynamometer as well as through on-track testing. 

Group members: Nolan Vanderheyden, Cale Peister, Tyler Marshall, Quinlin Hamill, Alexander Craig, Ian Travell 

Turbochargers are an effective way to significantly increase the power output of an engine by reusing wasted energy from the exhaust to compress fresh air being induced into the engine. The scope of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of downsizing the FSAE car to a smaller and lighter engine while retaining similar power output levels as the current engine. The switch to a smaller engine has many benefits in terms of the weight of the drive train, weight of the chassis and packaging, all of which can add up to significant gains in overall vehicle performance. 

Group members: Julia Taylor, Daniel Prodan, Kenneth Cheong

The team is focused on building a drone case for smartphones. The drone case uses the phone’s native sensors and computational power, so that the case itself is lightweight and has low manufacturing cost. One of the goals of the Phrone is to make drone technology more user friendly and accessible to smartphone users, therefore the needs statement is “a robust phone case enabling stable smartphone flight”. The focus of the project primarily revolves around the mechanical design of the case, with control system implementation and stabilization software being primarily obtained from an open source.  

Group members: Amit Bains, Omar Khan, Mathew Kaca, Ashwin Alinkil, Sami Khan 

The ability to stand up from a seated position is crucial to maintaining functional independence.  Sit-to-stand (STS) motion imposes up to six times the knee joint load experienced during normal walking, and the mechanical difficulty of performing the task increases as muscles weaken.  Over 2 million elderly Americans, aged 65 or older, reported difficulty performing the STS motion in 2005.  In response to this problem, ABLE’s goal is to design an assistive biomechanical device that detects the user’s intention to stand using electromyography (EMG), and adaptively controls the mechanical system to provide assistance with standing to the user.  

Group members: Ami Woo, Kyung Jae Woo, Yong IL Kim, Mark Pahulje, Jordan Armitage, Sanjif Rajaratnam

Environmental awareness has become an important factor in the public eye. Creative solutions must be found for reducing energy consumption as more and more people search for ways to decrease their carbon footprint. Heating water is a large contributor to household energy usage. The high thermal capacity of water, the amount of water wasted and the consistent flow of a shower provide the perfect opportunity for potential savings. The team’s goal is to create a simple, elegant product to provide heat recovery from shower drain water and therefore reduce the lost energy that escapes down the drain every day. 

Group members: Seth Johnston, Simon Thorpe, Taylor Kotwa, Brandon Selley

The vast network of natural gas pipes across Canada is aging with currently little to no inspection carried out. The inspection that is carried out is very costly. Leakage in a natural gas pipe can have disastrous environment consequences and jeopardizes the safety of the public. Our robot is a modular design that improves on current solutions in terms of mobility and cost. The robot can navigate tight bends and track its own position through sensors and an on-board computer.

Group members: Pooya Saberi, Hong Yang, Alexander Chung, Kevin Ai Xin Jue Luo

Frostbite can occur is a common worry in cold-climate environment, such as Canada. A need exists for a device placed near the foot that can provide momentary heat control against the cold. There exists solution for devices at are either disposables or need to be recharged by the user. Therefore, a need exists for a product that can be self-charging. In marrying these two needs, the ultimate goal of this report is to outline the project and design strategy needed in order to develop a self-heating device for the foot during winter climates. Three main competitors exist in this domain, but they are not self-heating. The user must remember to charge the device or buy more disposable devices. For users with busy schedules and lives, a device that self charges can be a valuable functionality. A fourth product exists, that can harvest the energy from walking to charge an external battery. A need exists for a combination of the two needs. Essentially, this device will be three-fold. The first aspect will be the energy harvesting unit, the second will be the heating unit, and lastly, ergonomic integration of the harvesting and heating unit. 

Group members: Eric Garner and Ashley Adrias

The Pack-Attack is a garbage stand-alone compactor that will be used in residential neighbourhoods. The team is planning on making a cheaper, yet effective garbage compactor compared to the competition. Pack-Attack is designed to be easily maintained and safe by taking into account as many possible issues that can arise from the use of our product. 

Group members: Akingbenga Akinyemi, Francis Dibia, Rae-Anthony Mohammed, Tomisin Olopade, Adebayo Dosunmu

The aim of the project is to design a levitation system for a sub-scale Hyperloop pod as part of the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. The system enables the pod to levitate for several minutes. Engineering analysis, simulation, and testing are used to develop and validate the design. Many of the components are off-the-shelf but are applied and integrated into the vehicle in novel ways. The system consists of air casters, air reservoir, plumbing and control elements, and wheels to keep the vehicle within the designated path. The team works closely with the rest of Waterloo Hyperloop Team on system integration.

Group members: Mohit Verma, Brendan McGaffey, Victor Qian, Usman Akbar, Henry Ma

The factory stocked V6 4 –stroke cylinder engine of the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro is being replaced with a more compact engine; Weber MPE-850 4-stroke 2 –cylinder engine to incorporate UWAFT’s powertrain architecture.  The goal of this project is to design an exhaust system for this enthanol fueled engine ensuring the vehicle succeeds in the EcoCAR 3 competition.

Group members: Siddharth Kakodkar, Yasir Qureshi, Sunny Tajani 

Our company is working to create a biodegradable orthopedic implant for children. Typically, when a child severely breaks a bone, a titanium rod is inserted into the bone marrow cavity to set the fracture. Anywhere from three to six months later, this implant needs to be surgically removed. By replacing the normal titanium with a biodegradable polymer, our implant will eliminate the need for the second surgery by simply degrading away throughout the patient’s recovery time. 

Group members: Michael Canam (Chemical), Pulkit Gulati (Chemical), Alaqian Zafar (Chemical), Munish Raghuwanshi (Chemical) 

U-WALK is an ambulatory assistive device which is targeted to people with weak leg muscles, knee joint injuries and arthritis who experience knee buckling. Buckling of the knee (sometimes described as a “giving way” of the knee) can be dangerous to both the patient and to those around them. U-WALK is a knee brace device which will provide stumble control for these patients to prevent knee buckling. The team’s main focus is the stumble control mechanism of the knee brace.

Group members: Dae Young (Andrew) Kim (Mechanical), Siwoo (David) Kim (Mechanical), Tae Hoon (Mark) Park (Mechanical)

There exists a global need for safe energy storage systems to enable sustainable energy production while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There also exists a need for secondary usage of electric vehicle batteries due to the growth in the number of electric vehicles. Combining these two needs, this project is to create an Energy Storage System (ESS) that uses re-purposed NiMH electric vehicle batteries from a 2013 Toyota Prius for residential energy storage.

Group members: Julia Kavuma (Systems Design), Marwan Saadeldin (Mechanical), Andrew Andrade (Mechatronics), Alen Daniel (Mechatronics), Wajeeh Syed (Mechatronics)