Non-Capstone Projects

In ME 412 Heat Transfer Laboratory each team will design, model, build, and test a water heating device with hot air as the heat source. Hot air supplied through a heat gun, simulating the hot exhaust gas, is to heat or vaporize a given amount of water. The objective of the design is to maximize the thermal energy delivered to the water, while cost and weight are also considered as factors in evaluation. For the second part, each team will choose an exhaust heat recovery unit, or a specific type of water heater/boiler of their interest, conduct a review of its design, performance, and thermal analysis as well. Each team will have 15 minutes to set up, demonstrate/test, and disconnect their device. Cold water supply, small water pump, and temperature measurements are available. Each team will also prepare a PowerPoint slideshow or video clip to explain the design decisions, fabrication, and thermal analysis of their heating device.

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In ME 470 Mechanical Design & Manufacturing II each team will design a machine that can pick up and place a variety of sports balls (basketballs, table tennis balls, etc.) from atop a tube stand to a collection area of their device in a rapid and accurate manner. The constraints imposed upon this assignment were that each mechanism must incorporate at least one linkage, one gear set and one cam-follower combination. Each team manufactured or utilized 3D printing to create the majority of their components. Performance will be measured by the speed in which each device can collect a ball and safely store it without the ball touching the ground.

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In ME 478 Product Development the objective is to develop an automated mixing and depositing system of an olive oil-sand mixture that can be adopted by a 3D printing machine based on a resin-powder (metal, ceramic) mixture.

The requirements of the system are: 1) the system should be capable of combining and homogeneously mixing a solution of 1:4 weight ratio of olive oil and sand (i.e., 5 grams of oil and 20 grams of sand, and 2) the olive oil mixed with sand should be deposited on a 10 x 10 cm platform in a weight controlled manner.

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The ME 497/MKT 420 Biomechanical Design and New-Product Development course provides students with a unique opportunity to develop and market a real, new product that incorporates biomechanical function. Students work in inter-disciplinary teams of engineers and marketers and experience the entire process of new product development, from need identification, concept generation and testing, to product development, design analysis and launch. This course further strengthens students’ knowledge and real world exposure by working with Spartan Innovations. This year General Motors sponsored an in-class competition providing awards to the top three product ideas, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) provided funds for prototyping.

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