Project Examples

More than 1,000 projects successfully completed!

Below are just a handful of recent projects.

 

Exhibits for the Orpheum Children's Science Museum (Champaign, Illinois)

During the 2018 spring semester, two teams of five MechSE undergradudates created two new interactive astronomy-themed exhibits for the Orpheum Children's Science Museum in Champaign, Illinois. “Asteroid Mine” and “Orphy’s Escape to Space” are first-of-their-kind projects for the Senior Capstone Design Program. The students were given full autonomy to conceive, design, and build the exhibits, and they collaborated with Orpheum staff and MechSE faculty advisors. The students created original, interactive, working exhibits over the course of a single semester.  We thank Phillips 66 for their support!

 

 

Hydraulic bike for the Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge

The goal of the 2018 spring semester team for the hydraulic bike project was to create a hydraulic system capable of powering and driving a bicycle for the National Fluid Power Association's vehicle challenge. Requirements include a power input, drive motor, a mechanism to store hydraulic power, and regenerative braking. The team produced a functioning treadle pump and hydraulic motor system with improved valving and consistent hydraulic flow. 

 

Compact and Efficient Fluid Power Competition: Additive manufactured excavator cab

 

Design of a Solar Powered Lemur Heating and Cooling System (for Johnson Controls and the Lemur Conservation Foundation)

 

Design of an ICU Bed Head Angle Measurement System (for Carle Foundation Hospital and Shell Oil Company)

 

Design for optimized heat flow across a bolted/gasketed interface (for Boeing)

 

Surgical pad control box design (for Innoventor)

 

Bike helmet design (for Caveat Emptor)

 

Industrial burner redesign for reduced weight (for Eclipse)

 

Bridge impactor design for fault detection (for Civil Engineering)

 

Cold aisle containment design to save cooling costs (for NSCA)

 

Design of an affordable human-powered water pump for Cambodia that utilizes local materials and manufacturing techniques (humanitarian project, sponsored by Shell)

 

 

Shell Eco-Marathon Americas Competition

 

NFPA Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge

 

Design of a waterside economizer predicted to save over $2M/year in cooling costs (for NCSA Blue Waters supercomputer)

 

SpaceX Hyperloop