MME 448 - 449

General Objectives of the Course

The objectives of this course are to utilize your knowledge, as a senior student, in science, mathematics, engineering, computing, social science, and the humanities to perform a major open-ended design project. The project is conducted in a professional manner that resembles a real business/industrial environment. Here, you are considered a design engineer working in a multidisciplinary team, and the faculty as the project director/manager and consultant.

The fundamental elements of the design process are integrated with the four goals of the Miami Plan (in bold, below) to help you achieve the capstone objectives. Specifically, you will be able to:

Understand context by defining and considering the boundary of the problem, by conducting research, and by considering realistic constraints that include technical and economical factors, social implications, environmental considerations, marketability safety considerations, reliability, aesthetics, and ethics.

Think critically by solving open-ended problems, by establishing objectives and criteria, by brainstorming ideas and alternatives, by synthesizing, creatively, the problem, by analyzing, testing, and evaluating ideas, and by developing proposals.

Engage with other learners by actively participating in and learning to function within a multidisciplinary team, by assuming, as necessary, different roles on the team, by communicating with one another and your customer and advisor, and by critically evaluating and reflecting on your performance as well as their team members.

Reflect and act on your proposed designs and results, and communicate these effectively with your customer and project manager, by addressing safety and other related issues, and learning to adjust to and evolve with the given stochastic environment of an open-ended business/industrial problem.

Open-ended research/design projects are selected from six areas: 1) Business, Industry, or Manufacturing related projects, 2) Internal projects, 3) Service to the community, 4) Interdisciplinary with other departments at Miami, 5) National competitions, and 6) International.

The first part of the project (MME 448) deals with feasibility studies of proposals. The second part (MME 449) is the actual implementation, testing, and production of the chosen design.

Proceedings of previous year's projects:

2005-2006
2006-2007
2007-2008
2008-2009 

Projects for 2009-2010 are listed below along with the advisor and student team members.

Design of Adaptive Tuned Vibration Absorbers using Magneto-Rheological Elastomers (MRE-TVA)

Team Members
Mike Albrethsen
Sarah Day
Heath Hajek
Nicholas Miller

Magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) are state-of-the-art elastomagnetic composites comprised of magnetic particles embedded in an elastomer matrix.  The study of MREs as a viable class of smart materials has gained increasing interest since they offer enormous flexibility given that elastomers themselves are easily cast, provide good durability, exhibit hyperelastic behavior, and can be tailored to provide desired stiffness, damping, environmental, and thermal characteristics. The primary of this project is to design an adaptive tuned vibration absorber (TVA) that employs MREs as controllable stiffness elements within the TVA.  The project involves with fabrication of MRE samples, characterization of dynamic properties of the samples, design and construction of an adaptive vibration absorber based on MREs, and evaluation of MRE-TVA’s dynamic performance. (Jeong-Hoi Koo, MME; koo(at)muohio.edu, EGB 56M)

Schneider Electric Sensor Competency Center, Dayton, OH

Team Members
David Hovis
Kevin Korus
Evan Thorkelson

Schneider Electric and its brands Telemecanique and Hyde Park are among the world leaders in automation and industrial control products. Inductive, RFID, photoelectric, ultrasonic sensors are manufactured at the center in Dayton for numerous customers and applications. In many instances, final assembly step involves filling the sensor assembly with epoxy. There are presently control problems with the filling and curing processes. A solution, which is quick and reliable, is required. It is anticipated that solutions will be a complete change from the current method. This project is well suited for students interested in machine and process design including automation and process control. (James Moller, MME, mollerjc@muohio.edu, EGB 56D)

MAG Americas, KY (www.mag-ias.com)
Team Members
Heinrich Bornhorst
Ben Bressler
Jonathan Hamilton
Matt Smith
Markcus Ware

Automated Real-time Guardian of Unattended Spindles (ARGUS) [a many eyed guardian in Greek mythology]. In high speed machining the weakest link is usually the spindle. In the event of a tool crash into the part or fixture the spindle is usually damaged and requires replacement. Thus, your task is to design a system to “watch” a part and fixture up to 2.5m x 12m in size as they enter the machine to determine if they exactly match what is expected. The system needs to detect that the correct part geometry is present as well as that all fixture components are located in the proper location and orientation. It would likely consist of a “scanning” system (vision, laser, ultrasound, etc.) that could create a 3-D representation of the part, which is then compared against the known good setup and/or the verified model.  (An engineer from MAG to be named later and based on the selected project (s), Osama Ettouney, MME, ettounom(at)muohio.edu, EGB 56G)

MME Fluids Laboratory Transonic Wind Tunnel
Team Members
David Birkmeier
James Cooling
Drew Fagan
Kevin Gniazdowski

Design a small-scale transonic wind tunnel for the MME laboratory.  This WT would be used for course demonstrations, senior design project research and testing and for student undergraduate research studies.  The test cross-section should be approximately 15 cm by 5 cm to accommodate small-scale models of high-speed objects such as bullets, missiles, airfoils and combinations of these for aerodynamic interference studies.  The Mach range should be about 0.3 to 1.3. A minimum of instrumentation to measure the flow and prove the concepts should be provided.   Acoustic suppression as well as other safety and environmental considerations should be considered as part of the project. (James Van Kuren, vamkurjt(at)muohio.edu)

River Turbine for auxiliary power generation
Team Members
David Huber
Michael Murray
Matt O'Brien
Alan Sotak

Design a water flow turbine system to generate electrical power to supplement residential and small business power requirements.  This system would be analogous to wind turbines and use the energy of flowing water in streams such as rivers and creeks to generate power.  The system should include the turbine, a mechanical transmission to increase/decrease the rotational speed, a generator and a stand or mounting hardware.  The output should be measured with a simple power meter and/or current, voltage and frequency. (James Van Kuren, vamkurjt(at)muohio.edu)

Design of a versatile Wheelchair
Team Members
Trevor Bufler
Alex Harrington
Andrew Koenig
Robert Lakes
Jeremy Williams

A local customer, Annie Davis, has been using wheelchairs almost all her life. She had four of them so far, each a different brand, and each of them not as functional as they should (or as she needs them) to be. She is asking us to design and build her a better, more functional wheelchair. She will not only be our customer but also a consultant. As it seems fitting that someone who actually has to use them and has some experience and opinions on their form and function should make them. Annie received a degree in Motion Picture History, Theory & Criticism so she does not have the slightest idea of how to go about designing and making a wheelchair. Thus, she was hoping we could help her. (Osama Ettouney, MME, ettounom(at)muohio.edu, EGB 56G)

Oxford Bicentennial Sculpture
Team Members

Bethany Cremeans

Brandon Durbin

Tony Pesarek

Kyrsten Shrewsberry

The city of Oxford has commissioned an artist to make a permanent sculpture installation at the Oxford community park in celebration of Oxford's 200th anniversary.  The artist (Jim McWilliams) has a rough design of a kinetic sculpture and has received funding from the city of Oxford.  The student group would work with Jim to design the details of the mechanical motions and structural design parameters, provide calculations to the City of Oxford necessary for public installations, fabricate and then install the sculpture at the Community Park.  This project is similar in scope to what an engineering consulting company would perform for an artist implementing a public installation. (Jim McWilliams, Tallawanda High School Art Teacher, EGB 56G, Karl Reiff, EGB 52D; reiffkr(at)muohio.edu)

Design of a Medical Data Collection Cart
Team Members
Casey Clark
Aaron Rohe
Holly Slonecker
Michael Williams

The design team will develop a mobile cart to manage patient information that meets users with different ergonomic requirements. The team will interact with students and faculty in human factors, nursing, and computer science.  The project may include consideration of marketing and product development. The project deliverable will include testing a prototype cart in the spring semester. (Michael Bailey-Van Kuren, MME, baileym(at)muohio.edu, EGB 56K, Len Mark, Professor of Psychology, 315 Psychology Building, markls(at)muohio.edu)

Interdisciplinary Design for Replex Plastics
Team Members
Bhatia Bhavik
Eric Michalak
Cody Moorefield
Kyle Say

The design team will work closely with students and faculty in Architecture to develop a new product line for Replex Plastics. Replex is a plastics manufacturing firm that markets its products for architectural applications. The team will investigate product development procedures and consider constraints related to manufacturing and architectural applications. (Architecture, Scott Johnston; Michael Bailey-Van Kuren, MME, baileym(at)muohio.edu, EGB 56K)

Abilities First Fulfillment
Team Members
Bryan Hennessey

This is an interdisciplinary outreach project to design and fabricate a technology-based device that will help improve the life of a disabled person.  Toward that end, the design team will meet these three objectives: 1) help someone who is struggling, 2) engage with local high school students, and 3) encourage young women to consider a career in computer science or engineering.  As an integral part of designing and fabricating the technology based device, the team will work with and mentor female high school students who will be from among the participants in this year’s INTERalliance IT Careers Summer Camp.  This includes (but is not limited to) hosting monthly events with these students.  The design team will also work with Abilities First (www.abilitiesfirst.org), a local organization that provides services to people of all ages with various disabilities. (Janet Burge, CSA; burgeje(at)muohio.edu, BEN 205V; Robert Setlock, MME; setlocrj(at)muohio.edu, EGB 56Q)

Capacitive Deionization Water Purifier
Team Members
Christopher Green
John Lyons

Design and fabricate a Capacitive Deionization (CDI) water purifier that utilizes carbon nanotube enhancements.  Once purified, the water may be used in many applications such as industrial or agricultural needs, drinking water, or medical applications.  An ideal CDI system can potentially remove more than 99% of the impurities in the water.  CDI with carbon nanotube enhancement is a relatively new technology being developed here at Miami.  This new approach shows promise of being more energy efficient than current systems making it a potential candidate for water purification in remote locations throughout the world. (Dmitriy Garmatyuk, ECE, garmatd(at)muohio.edu, EGB 260J; Robert Setlock, MME; setlocrj(at)muohio.edu, EGB 56Q)

SAE Mini Baja®       
Team Members

Chad Collins

Nina Canzoneri

Meagan Hall

Jake Mayer

Andrew Osborn

John “Caz” Waskowicz

Tim Wietilsbach

The objective of the competition is to provide SAE student members with a challenging project that involves the planning, design, and manufacturing tasks encountered when introducing a new product to the consumer industrial market. Teams compete against one another to have their design accepted for manufacture by a fictitious firm. Students must function as a team to not only design, build, test, promote, and race a vehicle within the limits of the rules, but also to generate financial support for their project and manage their educational priorities. All vehicles are powered by a ten-horsepower Intek Model 20 engine donated by Briggs & Stratton Corporation. This sponsorship by Briggs & Stratton has enabled SAE to provide each team with a dependable engine free of charge. Use of the same engine by all the teams has created a more challenging engineering design test. (Fazeel Khan, EGB 56R; khanfj(at)muohio.edu - Karl Reiff, EGB 52D; reiffkr(at)muohio.edu) WEBSITES: www.miamiredhawkracing.com  http://www.etsmtl.ca/zone2/clubs/minibaja2004/en/index.html