Integrated Design Showcase
2010-2011 Design Projects
Conceptual Design of a Sustainable City of the Future (in progress)
Will Bonnycastle, Tom Kruk and Michael Zawalsky
2nd-year project
This project is investigating the requirements for a sustainable city of the future. The focus is on the development and integration of sustainable building technology, sustainable agriculture (e.g. vertical farming), and sustainable energy supply and demand.
Design of suspension system for Sunstang electric vehicle (in progress)
Ian Fan
3rd-year project
This project is focusing on the detailed design of a suspension system for the Sunstang electric car.
Design of a sustainable personal transportation system (in progress)
Jack Hansen and Riley Horn (Mechanical engineering)
Cooper Robinson and Shane Parkhill (Integrated Engineering)
4th-year project
The objectives of this project are to clearly define the real requirements for a sustainable personal transportation system, and to propose a feasible solution. The project proposes a vehicle sharing system based on a range of vehicles that are chosen based on the trip requirements. The majority of trips can be satisfied by an ultralightweight, short range battery electric vehicle. Preliminary analysis demonstrates that environmental impact can be reduced by an order of magnitude, while improving personal mobility and reducing cost compared to conventional cars.
Design and implementation of a software tool to simulate and manage solar energy for Solar Powered Applications (in progress)
Cimone-Marie Pegus and Alex Spiro
4th-year project
The objective of this project is to develop a software tool to simulate, predict and manage solar energy in solar-powered applications. The tool considers parameters including insolation as a function of time of day, calendar date, location on the earth, and characteristics of the solar panels.
Design of an Electro-Active Polymer Gel Robot (in progress)
Zain Hami and Monica Shade
The objective of this project is to design and test a robot based on electro-active polymer gel.
2009-2010 Design Projects
Alternative Power Trains for Personal Vehicles
Ian Fan and Nikhil Raheja (2nd-year project)
This project investigated the requirements for future sustainable personal transportation systems, and evaluated alternative vehicle drivetrains to best meet the requirements. The report concludes that battery electric vehicles are the most sustainable alternative, and should be the basis for future developments of the Sunstang personal vehicle project.
Passive Urban Rooftop Greenhouse
Shane Parkhill and Cooper Robinson (3rd-year project)
This project investigated the feasibility of rooftop passive greenhouses to use city rooftops to grow crops while reducing environmental impact compared to conventional agriculture.
Design of an Improved Pedestrian Crossing Signal
Zain Hami, Cimone-Marie Pegus, Monica Shade (3rd-year project)
This project proposed an improved pedestrian crossing signal that would combine the signal for two different crossing directions into a single integrated unit compared to the two separate units required currently.
Fryer Water Recovery Project (sponsored by Cargill Canada)
Nick Oppedisano, Andrew Sellner, Alex Herold, Rob Cooper, Simon Lutz (4th-year project)
This team designed an elegant two-stage solution to reduce the amount of water, chemicals and energy required to clean the chicken fryers. Their report claims:
...the group suggests a two phased solution which maximizes both financial return and environmental benefits. This approach will see the initial implementation of a direct sharing system which presents immediate savings with very low risk, and provides the company with proof of concept before moving forward to an expensive chemical storage tank system in phase two. Phase one is expected to cost $2,000 with a yearly savings of $50,000 and over 600,000 liters of water. Phase two is expected to cost an additional $50,000 but will increase savings to yearly savings to nearly $80,000 and one million liters. This complete project is easily expected to pay for itself entirely within the first year of operation. Cargill has recently informed the group that they will, in fact, be moving forward with phase one implementation in the coming weeks.
2008-2009 Design Projects
Smart Stairs: Harvesting Energy through Human Traffic
Tomer Goldenberg, Ziv Gruber (Integrated Engineering)
Lindsay Bellamy, Jerome James (Mechanical Engineering)
(4th-year project)
- “Smart Stairs” harvests energy expelled through normal human motion and converts it into usable electricity.
- Design was developed through initial research, analysis, engineering validation, CAD modeling and proof-of-concept prototyping.
- An output of approximately 7.5 Watts was achieved for target test location during high traffic hour.
- Results indicate that “Smart Stairs” could be used in high-traffic pedestrian areas to provide renewable energy.
Design of a Device for Static Loading of a Shoulder Joint
Simon Deluce (Integrated Engineering)
Brent Biro, Joshua Giles (Mechanical Engineering)
(4th-year project)
- The purpose of the project was to design an addition to a shoulder simulator at the Hand & Upper Limb Centre to allow the static loading of cadaveric specimens.
- In vitro shoulder testing apparatuses have only simulated active motion while recording joint kinematics and relevant (soft tissue and articular reaction) forces.
- Testing of static positions in vitro would provide data for many physiological situations where the joint is loaded beyond the forces required for motion.
- Shoulder static testing involves constraining abduction and flexion motions while allowing axial rotations, and translations of the humeral head.
GoCity: Personal Transportation of the 21st Century
Vivian Chung
Timothy Loh
Krzysztof Osowski
(4th-year project)
The transportation sector is the largest single contributor to energy demand in Canada. In 2007 it accounted for 21% of total energy use in the country and increased 5.1% over its value in 2006. There exists a need to address the travel demands of a growing population through an environmentally sustainable mode of transportation in order to ensure that our need for mobility, in order to sustain an acceptable standard of living, remains financially feasible in addition to addressing the global call for environmental responsibility.
The proposed design is for a new form of public transportation network, called GoCity. A mode of public transportation was chosen, instead of personal, because of the ability to address the travel demands of the population with a reduced number of vehicles.
GoCity aims to combine the convenience of conventional taxi services with the economies of scale of mass transit in order to provide a service that can be considered a suitable alternative to personal vehicle ownership to a portion of the population. GoCity is heavily reliant on an automated dispatch system. Dispatch can pair customers together, given their current location and their travel destination, in order to share a vehicle through a service called Ride-Share. This would promote car-pooling and make inner city travel less expensive as increased vehicle occupancy would reduce travel fares. Analysis of the proposed Ride-Share system has shown a reduction in total distance traveled by a GoCity vehicle by approximately 25%. The occupancy of these vehicles would also be increased by approximately 11% over comparable taxi services.
In addition to Ride-Share, the GoCity network uses signal pre-emption to reduce the frequency of a vehicle idling at a stoplight, thereby reducing total travel times. Analysis has shown that the use of signal pre-emption could be used to reduce the average travel duration by 10% over regular unaided travel through a city.
The combination of both Ride-Share and signal pre-emption would provide the tangible benefits needed to promote the use of the service amongst the urban population. Ideally, this would result in a reduction of vehicles on city streets by people who own vehicles but operate them relatively infrequently would find GoCity as a suitable alternative to satisfy their travel needs.
Combining the efficiency of travel of GoCity vehicles with the presumed reduction in vehicles on city streets, the goal of minimizing the environmental footprint of the transportation sector could begin to be addressed.
Sustainable Transportation for a City of the Future
David Basu Roy
Jeff Fox
Zain Hami
Cimone Pegus
Monica Shade
(2nd-year project)
This project proposes a sustainable transportation system for a ‘City of the Future’. The goal of the project was to design a transportation network that eliminates not only the need, but also the desire, for private vehicles. In order to do so, a mass public transportation system and urban zoning structure were designed that match the car in terms of travel time, convenience, comfort and reliability while exceeding the car in terms of cost and sustainability. Specifically, a network of interconnected ring roads and arterials roads surrounding a gridded urban core was designed as an undergrounded subway system. The infrastructure zoning had every location in the city within a five-minute walk (less than 500 metres) from the nearest subway system. The majority of transit trips within the city are within an acceptable 30 minutes, with the average commute lasting only 25 minutes, including walks.
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Contact Info
Western Engineering
Spencer Engineering Building,
Room number
Telephone: 519 661-2128
Fax: 519 661-3808
contactWE@eng.uwo.ca
