Research Projects on offer to Students
Prof James Trevelyan
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2006/7 |
Research Projects on offer to Students |
Prof James Trevelyan |
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Note: This page presents my suggestions for undergraduate student projects in third and final year level. You can choose from any of these projects. Some are suitable for postgraduate study as well. If you are interested, come and discuss your interests with me because the final project can be quite different from the descriptions below. Some late projects may appear that are not on official lists. (Updated July 2007)
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S T U D Y I N G E
N G I N E E R I N G P
R A C T I C E
What do engineers really do? What does engineering work actually involve? How does it happen? Surprisingly this has not been carefully researched before. We have started to do this over the last 3 years with some surprising results. This work seems to be unique: you will have the opportunity to help shape a new research field and learn some challenging research techniques. This work started because we noticed that the cost of engineering and most engineered services in industrialised countries seems to be less than developing countries, contrary to what might be expected. This includes the basic elements of any society: water supply, electricity, transport, communications. In Pakistan, for example, water can cost 25 times as much as in Perth, and millions of poor people cannot afford water to wash their hands. This research will help you learn more about the vital roles that engineers and engineering play in any economy. You will be able to work on some challenging issues that go to the roots of our industrialised societies. Look here for more information. This is a team project and you will enjoy support from several highly experienced engineers. Students will also gain a unique insight into the work of engineers by taking part in research interviews. One of the first objectives of this project is to carry out systematic research to understand how today's engineers perform their day-to-day work, take decisions, find information, and develop their career skills. This seemingly obvious research seems to have been overlooked, and previous surveys have confirmed that both students and academics have little idea about what is important for engineers in industry.
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C L E A R I N G L A N D
M I N E S
Landmines affect vast areas of productive land in many countries and we are exploring technical ideas which may lead to economic solutions to this problem. The need is urgent, with thousands of people killed or horribly injured every year, particularly in Cambodia and Afghanistan.
Laos and several other countries are littered with unexploded bombs from conflicts in the last century. Laos alone has an estimated 20 million tonnes of unexploded ordnance ranging from 20 mm cannon shells to 10 tonne bombs. Current bomb disposal equipment is expensive and bulky and extremely difficult to take up the hill tracks where much of the ordnance remains. There is a possibility that simple chemical machining equipment could provide a useful tool that an affordable cost for countries like Laos. This project requires the student with practical engineering skills and will provide interesting mechanical and mechatronics experience. Pages specific to the demining project provide detailed information. Please look at these pages for details of different research projects we are working on. This project continues, but at a low funding level. Why? because we found that a lack of engineering skill was preventing many of our ideas from being implemented. Hence we shifted our focus to engineering work (above). |
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E M O T E -- A C C E S S --
L A B O R A T O R I E S
This project was set up by a major grant from the Faculty of Engineering Computing and Mathematics to provide remote access to laboratory experiments via the internet to make better use of resources and students' time while on campus. (See site dedicated to the project for further information). This project is a world leader: universities such as MIT are trying to catch up with much bigger budgets that ours. This project extends the telerobotics technology invented here, and combines this with web-based teaching techniques also invented here at UWA. There are three major types of project on offer: 1) Mechatronics/control/computing projects in which students build the control systems and software to support each lab experiment. This provides valuable practical experience in building internet-based distributed control systems which are now of great interest to industry. A strong mechatronics background is essential for this tye of project. Students would work on:
Project reference JPT-3A: Remote access laboratories: design and development. Suitable only for mechatronics or software engineering undergraduate students.
2) Practical mechanical design projects in which you will design reliable experiment hardware which has to provide challenging experiences for students. A strong interest in mechanical design and construction is essential. You should be competent with CAD and mechanical design principles.
Suitable for mechanical or mechatronics undergraduate students with flair for design and construction.
3) Evaluation projects in which you explore the human factors and ergonomics of the lab experiments to find out what students learn and how to improve the learning experience. Ananlysis of literature shows that this aspect of the project is not well understood anywhere in the world. We don't really understand how students benefit from conventional laboratory classes.
Suitable for mechanical or mechatronics undergraduate students, particularly with arts or commerce combined degree, or postgraduate students.
4) Our ABB1400 robot in the robotics lab is available anywhere in the world through the world wide web. Cameras near the robot provide a remote user with static images of the robot's gripper. The user instructs the robot to move to accomplish a task such as building with children's blocks. This technology has many exciting applications now that internet communication networks reach hundreds of millions of customers. We are currently researching how it can be used for entertainment. It also has enormous potential for remote maintenance and inspection of machinery. Three PhD students have given this project a firm intellectual foundation and we are beginning to understand why people find it such an attractive web site.
Suitable for software engineering or mechatronics undergraduate students.
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L O W -- C O S
T-- A I R C O N D I T I O N I
N G
Electricity is scarce and expensive in developing countries. This project is based on a simple idea that could make airconditioning much more affordable in developing countries and much more energy efficient everywhere. The details are confidential at this stage. You will be expected to become familiar with either low velocity air flow measurement methods and seek external assistance with either computational fluid dynamics (CFD) or experimental techniques. In 2007 we will construct and test several prototypes to demonstrate the concept to interested investors.
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