Portable Medic-chair: Design a lightweight chair/stool for people with back problems who cannot stand
too long and need to sit down or support themselves while waiting in line or waiting
in public. Chair/stool should be portable, extremely light weight and easily stowed
in pocket or handbag. - Group of 3
Personal Student Interest Projects – Choose a project that you are interested in.
Dr. Furman
Pad Printing Cell (2 groups of 2 or 3 each). Sponsor is Bojo, Inc. Pad printing is a technique for applying logos, symbols, words, and graphics to manufactured
parts. This project will involve the automation of an existing pad printer to automatically
feed and print a company logo on an injection molded part.
Injection Molding Insert and Removal Robot (1 group of 3 each). Sponsor is Bojo, Inc. This project will entail designing a robotic handling device that can remove an injected
molded part from the mold, or place an insert into a mold for overmolding.
Tilting Three Wheel Vehicle (1 group of up to 4 people). A continuation of this year's senior project effort. This would include the leaning
functionality of the vehicle as well as design of the body and testing the vehicle.
Also effort to make the vehicle a hybrid could be considered.
Sustainability Projects (various)
Construct a small biodiesel or organic waste fuel production facility.
Research electrical motors for generative qualities in conjunction with small-scale
hydro and wind applications.
Design a low-velocity windmill.
Develop low-power remote solar applications using the Atmel AVR microcontroller.
Build a solar-powered automated geodesic dome greenhouse.
Create a human powered means to power a PDA.
Design a solar ammonia absorption freezer/frig/air conditioner.
Hydro Power Competition
Seismic Monitoring Unit (1 group of two people) This project entails the development of a self-contained
seismic monitoring unit that can record the accelerations experienced by the engineering
building and upload them to the Internet in the event of an earthquake.
Autonomous Roof Gutter Cleaning Unit (1 group of 3 people) This project entails the design of an autonomous device that
would clean accumulated debris from roof gutters.
Running Shoe Characterization Station (1 group of 3 people) This project entails the design of a station that would be
able measure the important parameters for an individual to enable the proper selection
of a running shoe.
Bio-Diesel Conversion Facility (1 group of 3 people; with possible involvement of ChemE and Business students) This
project entails the design and development of a bio-diesel conversion facility that
would process waste oil from campus into usable bio-diesel fuel. The project will
also investigate the feasibility of scaling the facility into a viable business.
Bio-Diesel, Vegetable Oil, or Diesel-Electric Conversion for a Light Pickup Truck (1 group of 3 people) This project entails the research and development of the most
promising alternative power approach for a light pickup truck.
Dr. Hsu
"Design and fabricate a meso sized thermally actuated gripper for simulation of micro
grippers in microassembly operations" for next year's senior project Meso-size meaning
size in centimeters. The product generated from this project will be used as a teaching
tool for ME 189 and also for open-house demonstration.
"Demonstration kit for multi-mode vibration of elastic strings," for ME 130 class.
Dr. Yee
Design a demonstration kit to illustrate the different usage of spur, bevel, and worm
gear sets for common/unique engineering applications. – ME 157 teaching tool.
Re-design a smart lightweight human lifting device that can be used as a regular walker
and also for emergency setting. – New Product Development Project for Design Lab.
Design a non-traditional ASME Human Powered Vehicle incorporating sensors and inertial
system(s). – Exploratory Vehicle Development Project for personal interest