Two teams of Waterloo Engineering students received first prize in the prestigious Society for Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Digital Manufacturing Challenge. Shahed Saleh (BASc mechatronics engineering) and Joy He (BASc systems design engineering) were overall winners of the Undergraduate competition, while Xianchen Ouyang and Lubin Wang were first in the Graduate category.
Established in 1932, SME is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of manufacturing. Each year SME runs the Digital Manufacturing Challenge with the aim of inspiring the next generation of engineers. The competition challenges high school, undergraduate and graduate students to deploy digital engineering design and manufacturing solutions to address pressing social and humanitarian issues.
The project presented by Saleh and He reimagines the design of split hook protheses for children. Split hooks tend to be the most common prosthesis option for children as they are easy to use, have few parts and allow for the grip of variously sized objects. However, they are not visually appealing, and the terminal device is typically made of bulky metal parts. The Waterloo team’s case study reimagines this device, proposing an aesthetic split hook design that is suited for active and growing children. This solution utilizes 3D printing to create a less bulky and more effective prothesis option. Saleh and He were supported by academic advisors Dr. Mihaela Vlasea and Daniel Juhasz.
The Waterloo team's split hook design
Ouyang and Wang's UAV
Ouyang and Wang took first prize for their project focused on optimizing drones used in agriculture. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are used widely in the practice of “precision agriculture”. UAVs can be used to effectively monitor crop growth conditions, diseases and insect pests to ensure crop quality. Ouyang and Wang propose using additive manufacturing techniques to build highly integrated lightweight agricultural drones. This successful submission was also supported by Vlasea.
Both prize-winning teams received $1000 and were honoured at the RAPID+TCT event in Los Angeles, California.
Learn more about Waterloo Engineering’s Multi-Scale Additive Manufacturing Lab.