Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering

Project 

Te Waipounamu, the South Island of New Zealand, contains many braided rivers where the riverbed often consists of coarse gravel and pebbles. The riverbed is therefore a porous medium, which enables the water to penetrate through the spaces between individual solid grains. Furthermore, the mean speed and dynamics of the turbulent river flowing above is affected by the porous media. Understanding the influence of riverbed porosity and permeability is therefore critical for predicting discharge rates, biogeochemical processes and ultimately river health.

Role

This project will utilise commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) packages (e.g. ANSYS CFX) to simulate a turbulent fluid flow passing over porous media representing a gravel riverbed. Different porosities and permeabilities will be studied, with comparisons made to experimental and high-fidelity CFD data available in the literature. The changes to the turbulent water flow (e.g. bed friction and mean flow rates) can be analysed. The CFD data can also enable the sediment-water interface to be studied to better understand the hyporheic zone, which plays an important role for stream ecosystems.

Requirements

The student should have some background in fluid dynamics (e.g. MECHENG 211, or similar) and ideally some experience in CFD (e.g. MECHENG 325, or similar).

Project 

We aim to develop an AI co-pilot to help patients recover from knee surgery. This will involve developing and testing AI systems and utilizing wearables and patient data to provide motivation and drive compliance in rehab to improve recovery and catch high-risk patients early.

Project 

In the astrodynamics group we have deloped different methods to guide a spacecrfat. Some of these however are computationally expensive or require large memory and thus are not suitable to be run onboard spacecraft.

Role

In this project we want the explore supervised learning techniques to establish a neural network guidance law. We will test these new guidance law for Eart-Mars transfers and asteroid landing.

Requirements:

- Excellent mathematical skills
- Excellent programming skills (MATLAB/Python or C++)
- Excellent scientific computing skills
- Good knowledge of classical mechanics
- Enthusiasm for spce
- Autonomy

Project 

In this project we will study the feasibility of a solar sailing mission to explore the cislunar space.

Role

The student will work on simulating the attitude dynamics and control of a solar sail navigating through different periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon System with the objective to characterise the meteoroid environment.

Feasibility to leave the Earth-Moon System to explore Near Earth Astroids will be investigated as well. This mission will be proposed within the Artemis Accords and the NZ-NASA collaboration.

Requirements

- Excellent mathematical skills
- Excellent programming skills (MATLAB/Python or C++)
- Excellent scientific computing skills
- Good knowledge of classical mechanics
- Enthusiasm for space
- Autonomy

Project 

Paper sensors are sensors made from paper and materials like conductive ink and copper tape, used to detect touch, pressure, or environmental changes. Digital crafts are a growing community with roots in both academic research (often found in ACM academic conferences like Designing Interactive Systems, Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions, and Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) and DIY maker spaces. It can be defined loosely as the combination of electronics and computing with materials often seen in hand-crafts like textiles and paper. This can also involve sonic interactive design, such as musical instrument development.

Role

In this project, you will be exploring ways to make use of paper sensors and concepts from digital craft to developing teaching materials for learning electronics and sensors. The project is a combination of two traditionally separate fields: engineering and arts/craft/music, and is ideal for someone who likes crafting but is unsure about how to combine their hobbies in a technical way.

Ideal student

Students suitable for this project should be interested in arts or craft or music. You need reasonable familiarity with electronics and sensors and Arduino programming.

Project 

While virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be beneficial in language learning applications, this has been limited to visual VR. However we should instead be making use of audio VR (virtual acoustics) for learning second languages, as audio VR enables listeners to experience different acoustic environments.

Role

This project will utilise audio VR to create an application for language learning. The student will be working alongside members of the Communication Acoustics Lab and the Speech Research group to develop the system and conduct perceptual tests in a second language (e.g. English, Te Reo Māori, Japanese.) The project will involve taking acoustic measurements, developing a software system for language learning and testing language skills, and conducting experiments using the platform developed.

Ideal student

Students suitable for this project should be interested in linguistics, second language acquisition, acoustics, and VR audio technologies. Reasonable familiarity with MATLAB or Python programming is recommended.

Project 

Cancer is a pressing issue in modern medicine. Lab-on-chip (LOC) as a diagnostic tool for the early detection of cancer is an emerging field in the design and development of medical devices. Combining LOC with artificial intelligence and optical detection of cancer protein is a novel approach for personalised cancer medicine applications.

Role

In this project, the summer scholar will begin to undertake a systematic literature review first on this topic and the suitable development of an algorithm required for image analysis and the design of a diagnostic device to monitor cancer cell behaviours in real time for the early detection of cancerous cells from the biopsy samples.

The research methods for this review will include the searching of Library catalogues, Search engines for key databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed and Medline. Online databases or abstracting and indexing services provide access to journal articles, conference proceedings, reports, dissertations and other grey literature.

The summer student will support our research team with various tasks, including literature reviews, research ethics, instrument development (survey and semi-structured interviews), and (potentially) data analysis for a mixed methods project.

Ideal student

Familiarity with both quantitative and qualitative methods and software is preferred but not essential. The student should be self-directed and intellectually curious.

Project 

The new product development of wearable medical devices has a wide range of potential clinical applications ranging from arrhythmia screening of high-risk individuals to remote management of chronic conditions such as heart failure or peripheral artery disease.

Role

In this project, the summer scholar will undertake a systematic literature review of intelligent wearable devices for heart diseases and their impact on early detection when a suitable algorithm is integrated with the sensor network.

The research methods for this review will include the searching of Library catalogues, Search engines for key databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed and Medline. Online databases or abstracting and indexing services provide access to journal articles, conference proceedings, reports, dissertations and other grey literature.

The summer student will support our research team with various tasks, including literature reviews, research ethics, new product development process including survey and semi-structured interviews and (potentially) data analysis for a mixed methods project.

Ideal student

Familiarity with both quantitative and qualitative methods and software is preferred but not essential. You should be self-directed and intellectually curious.

Project 

Many factors determine the visibility of a cyclist on the road. One factor is the perception of biological motion, that is, the recognition by a motorist of a cyclist's characteristic movements.

Role

This project will combine the motion capture lab at Mechanical Engineering, visual testing, and machine-learning to better understand the visibility of cyclists on the road. The outcomes of this project might contibute to cyclist safety.

Requirement

This project requires programming skills in Matlab or similar.

Project 

Marine farming or aquaculture is one of the fastest growing industries in New Zealand and requires a resilient supply of clean and cheap electrical energy. Tidal energy conversion has great potential for supplying New Zealand’s current and future energy needs, including the marine farming industry, and provides an opportunity to grow New Zealand’s economy.

Previously, there have been attempts to use solar energy for aquafarming needs, however, the cost-effectiveness has been inconsistent and solar panels required frequent maintaining and replacing. Tidal energy is a more continual source of energy and has much higher energy density compared to solar.

Shellfish aquafarms in New Zealand are typically located at marine sites with high tidal energy potential (average tidal flow more than 1 m/s) which makes tidal energy harvesting an ideal option for shellfish aquafarms.

Role

The project involves three shellfish aquafarms as industrial partners. The companies agreed to provide access to their consented marine sites and aquafarming infrastructure for ocean testing of the developed tidal energy device.

Aim

The aim of the project is to perform experimental and theoretical testing of a concept design of a tidal energy converter compatible with conventional floating structures used in marine farming. The converter includes an underwater turbine and a generator. CFD analysis can be performed in the theoretical study, followed by extensive laboratory and ocean testing of the developed device.

Project 

This project will concern applying high-frequency vibrations to control stiffness and damping properties of structural elements.

Role

In particular, the "Indian magic rope" phenomenon will be studied, in which a flexible string turns into a stiff beam due to high-frequency vibrations applied to one of its ends. Both theoretical and experimental studies will be conducted.

Project 

Role

The student will perform assembly of a pre-exiting spacecraft avionics subsystem PCB and perform testing of the completed module. The performance of the system will then be reviewed against requirements for future missions and design updates proposed to meet the new specifications.

Ideal student

The selected student should have experience in electronics design (preferably Kicad), surface mount soldering techniques and programming in Python. Work will be conducted in the Space Institute Fabrication and Assembly Facility (405.443), liasing with APSS and TPA-SI staff.