Mechanical engineering students showcase their senior design projects
On April 5, the Memorial University CSME Student Chapter held its second annual MUN CSME Design Competition.
Five teams comprised of senior mechanical engineering students presented their design projects to a panel of judges.
The winner was DuXion for its AC induction motor with a rotor integrated ducted fan. The Duxion team consists of students Trevor Forward, Adam Keating, Adam Parsons and Justin Wheeler. The students are designing and building electric motors that will help create a more sustainable and efficient future for transportation.
The commercial aircraft industry currently uses turbofan or turbo propeller engines, which release very harmful emissions into the environment contributing to global warming. DuXion’s solution is an electric motor that has a fan integrated directly inside the motor rather than being shaft driven like existing designs. This has never been done before and will create a motor that is more compact and lower weight than existing designs, while also being environmentally friendly, quiet, and have lower maintenance and operating costs.
The electric aircraft industry will be an emerging market seeking new innovative solutions and with DuXion’s motor technology, the goal is to be at the forefront of this movement. Given the architecture of the motor, an easy application transition to other emerging markets, such as the Hyperloop, is also possible.
Dr. Oscar DeSilva, assistant professor, mechanical engineering, was the team’s supervisor for the project.
Honourable mention went to EMGrip for its affordable 3D printed myoelectric prosthetic. While many different types of prosthetics are available worldwide, the EMGrip team, which consists of students Claire Dobbin, Bryan Mandeville, Sarah Smith and Tyler Spurrell, identified a gap in the market. Common prosthetics either have many capabilities using highly functional body sensors, but are extremely expensive; or are affordable but body-powered, which compromises natural and basic functionality. To solve this problem, the team designed a mechanical prosthetic that can grasp everyday objects by using electromyogram sensors, which allows for direct control of the device through muscular contraction to simulate natural human movement and reduce fatigue on the user.
EMGrip constructed the prosthetic using MUN Med’s 3D printing to keep cost at a minimum and to allow the product to be easily reproduced. The prosthetic also includes a customizable housing sleeve to integrate the controls and mechanical components that acts as an interface with the residual limb. EMGrip hopes their product will give those unable to access expensive prosthetics a better quality of life.
Dr. George Mann, professor, mechanical engineering, was the team’s supervisor for the project.
Dr. Yuri Muzychka, head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, was extremely pleased with the caliber of design projects from the students.
“The students in this year’s class all contributed outstanding design projects for their senior Capstone Course,” said Dr. Muzychka. “Choosing one best project overall project was very difficult. The two notable projects chosen were among the best I have seen in my 17 years at Memorial.”
Judges for the event included Professor Andy Fisher and Dr. Yuri Muzychka from the Department of Mechanical Engineering; Sonya Rideout, technical communications co-ordinator, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science; and Mike Caines from DVTest, a graduate of the mechanical engineering, class of 1999.