MAE

Background 

Drones are rapidly becoming a part of modern day life. Their ease of use and relatively low price has made drones more accessible to the public than ever. Similarly, companies such as Amazon are researching and developing drone based delivery systems to be used within cities. However, noise nuisances are disrupting and even unhealthy with prolonged exposure. Therefore, it is necessary to find a way to reduce the noise level of the drone. Under this background, our group would like to design an attachment that would reduce the noise of a drone.

Goal and Objective

The goal of this project is to reduce the overall noise of a drone by 5-15 dB. The attachment needs to have reasonable price. It needs to be light weight and shouId not negatively influence the aerodynamics of the drone. The attachment is also required to be easily mountable and avoid unnecessary vibration. In...

The goal of this project is to turn microalgae into crude oil for commercial use. The students must design effective growing systems - from physical tanks, to electronics, to regulating the environment - to turn the algae into fuel that results in cheap, clean, compatible fuels. Recreate Energy has previously tested the optimal algal growing conditions to build the reactor around and has already signed with a company to deliver a commercial ready bio-reactor with web management platform.  Recreate Energy is currently developing modular bioreactors, compared to the previous exclusively on open-air systems or closed-controlled systems, to lower costs and include the best of both systems when it comes to algae cultivation for biofuels. The project is separated into 3 sub teams that deal with specific design considerations: Temperature Control, Electro-Flocculation, and Electronic Box. 

The RF Controlled Miniature Lathe project surrounds the conceptualization, design, and construction of a tabletop lathe that can be controlled and used to alter the inserted material without direct interaction with the machine. The miniature lathe's remote control capabilities will be supported by a radiofrequency controller, with joysticks that will allow for four directional movement: right, left, forward, and backward. In instituting a remote control option, users will be able to maintain a safe distance from the machine, even standing behind a glass shield, and still be able to chisel and sand the piece in question. As opposed to machining metal or solid wood cylindrical pieces, the mini lathe will process high-density closed cell foam. Fabrication of the lathe itself will combine 3D printed parts with manufactured wood components. 

Relativity Space has partnered with UCI to create a senior design project set to redesign the flange. With bolted flanges currently being the primary method of reversable attachment of two pipes it’s simple design and out of date manufacturing process has left much room for improvement. We have set forth to design, test and manufacture a prototype flange that is 3D printed, light weight, and maintains ASME flange standards.

For this project, our team was tasked to design a flexible IPA Sprayer made to navigate through the complex geometries of 3D printed components. The primary task is to fully coat the inside with IPA so that residual IPA can be analyzed for contamination.

UCI CubeSat is a student design team working on the design and construction of UCI's very first CubeSat satellite. Our mission is to deliver two research payloads to low earth orbit.

Background

The use of unmanned buoys for data collection is not a new concept as government offices such as NOAA utilize them for the collection of weather and oceanic data. The reliability of such systems has been a key focus for development. As of 2020, 10% of NOAA’s buoys have become inoperable. These reliability challenges necessitate the need for an external method of data collection as a portion of the buoys labeled inoperable may have simply experienced a malfunction in their communication systems. As this is the case for simple peacetime equipment, the need for a physical data transfer system is further necessitated by the complexity of wartime systems. An unmanned vessel that is capable of navigating to a buoy, establishing a physical connection, and downloading data would mediate these losses in buoy performance. Furthermore, such buoys could be designed without communication systems which would allow for lower profile designs...

Goal and Objectives

This year, the team is dedicated towards continuing too manufacture a car that will be powered by battery in order to compete our first vehicle version. Once the car is manufactured and tested, we will be able to enhance certain features which will allow us to compete in American Solar Challenge (ASC), a race in which teams are expected to create a solar-powered car that can travel along predetermined routes such as Route 66 and the cross-country passage from Texas to Canada. Through this process, Solar Car not only strives to produce an efficient machine for a succesful run at the ASC, but also hopes to expand the innovation and utilization of renewable energy sources. 

As the Fall quarter progresses, students have continuously worked in lab to design, test and manufacture mechaniccal and eelectrical components needed for the developmnt of our vehicle!

Contacts:

Project Manager: Hallie Park, parkhm2@uci.edu

Advisor

Penghui Cao, caoph@uci.edu

The autonomous robot project is a naval research project. The purpose of the project is to design, program, manufacture, and test an autonomous vehicle that can locate pre-determined GPS coordinates and present a target to the shooter.

Background

Established in 2015, HyperXite is a team of undergraduate students endeavoring to build a Hyperloop pod.

HyperXite has competed in the past four SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competitions. In the SpaceX Competition I, HyperXite was one of the semifinalists and placed fifth for their overall design worldwide. Additionally, the HyperXite pod was one of the only air-levitated pods to be tested within the Hyperloop itself during Competition II and placed in the Top 6. In the past two competitions, HyperXite was one of the top 22 finalists to attend the competition in Hawthorne, CA. 

This year, HyperXite will be attending the European Hyperloop Week, a Hyperloop competition established in 2020, and will build a small-scale pod to compete in the Netherlands during the summer of 2022.

Goal

HyperXite’s goal is to research, design, build and validate a scalable self-propelled pod to demonstrate the feasibility of Hyperloop design concepts at a high pace of innovation.

Objectives...

The mission of the Long Range Drone Senior Project is to create a lightweight drone that can fly for thirty minutes or longer using stored electrical power by the end of the winter quarter in 2022. The drone will carry a camera for navigational purposes. The drone will be designed to accommodate a hydrogen fuel cell by spring quarter of 2022.

This project is a small team of five people dedicated to learning the engineering design process and getting hands-on experience with mechanical and electrical components of drone design. There are currently no competitions in which the team participates.

Background:

Each year, Anteater Formula Racing designs, manufactures, tests, and competes with an open-wheel car modeled after Formula 1 racecars. Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) is an international organization that puts on competitions worldwide every year. There are dynamic components that involve racing the car itself, and static components that revolve around testing students knowledge of the engineering design process and business tactics. This year, the team will be working on the newest iteration of the car, named "Peter the Pavement Eater" or, PPE for short.

The team of 45 students participate in the design, manufacturing and testing phases to gain the engineering skills needed for industry in a highly-technical, fast-paced and competitive environment. The team collectively spends over 15,000 hours each year developing the car and its subsystems while balancing their engineering coursework.  

Engineering students earn jobs in several industries, including automotive, aerospace, electrical, software and more, because of the hands-on training and...

The objective of UCI Solar Airplane Project is to design and manufacture a UAV that can assist with planning rescue missions and evacuation operations during natural disasters. The UAV will have its flight duration extended, at least by 30 minutes beyond battery-only duration, by installing solar panels. The imagery the proposed UAV will be able to collect can be used for the missions during natural disasters. A low-cost drone is more accessible by organization while still performing small imaging collection tasks. The proposed UAV will be able to fly at low heights to achieve a very low ground sample distance. The drone can aid with disaster relief efforts where accessibility is difficult for humans or visibility is limited.

Summary

The UCI DBF team plans to compete in the annual, nationwide competitionThe American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Design, Build, Fly (DBF) .The UCI team is divided into different divisions/subteams to work on specific parts for the aircraft. This page is for the payload subteam. We are responsible for the design of the fuselage and the drop mechanism of the team's aircraft, mainly focusing on Missions 2 & 3 of the competition. Missions will include deployment of the aircraft, staging of vaccination syringes, and delivery of vaccine vial packages with integrated 25G shock sensors which should not be triggered.. This team consists of students of all year levels working alongside each other to accomplish a common task and goal.

This is the payload subteam of the AIAA Design Build Fly Team at UCI. Our subteam is in charge of designing the fuselage to hold vaccine syringes and the drop mechanism to release the syringes. Our goal is to release syringes carefully and quickly to deliver as many syringes as possible without compromising the integrity.

Our team’s goal is to design and build a bomber style aircraft that will instead be used to release vaccine syringes. The payload subteam will be in charge of designing the fuselage to hold syringes and a drop mechanism to individually release syringes. We will strive to release the vaccine syringes as quickly and as safely as possible.

Maintaining lines of communication is vital in emergency situations. One major concern for those living in rural areas is being cut off from the electrical grid during natural disasters. The small-scale wind turbine project aims to design a scaled down wind turbine sized for a single household's personal use, in case of an emergency. The wind turbine should be capable of powering household devices needed in emergency situations, such as radios, lightbulbs and cellphones.This project encompasses the designing,  optimization and a fully developed manufacturing plan for the assembly of the wind turbine, as well as each of its constituent components.

Background

Students that are a part of the UC Irvine Intelligent Ground Vehicle Team will design and test an autonomous ground vehicle that is able to navigate through an obstacle course. The technologies used in IGV encompass a wide range of applications in engineering including military mobility, intelligent transport systems, and manufacturing. 

Goals and Objectives 

The goal for students in IGV is to implement skills gained in classes while designing the vehicle and developing a method to allow it to navigate through the obstacle course. This includes usage of Finite State Machines, Ultrasonic and GPS Sensors, and microcontrollers. 

Currently, the project is in the optimization stage. The chassis has been built and the obstacle detection code, GPS, and navigation systems are nearly complete. The next steps are to reconstruct the chassis using a more flexible material as the plexiglass was very unwieldy. Furthermore, we plan to optimize the lane detection...

The CanSat competition is a design-build-fly competition that provides teams with an opportunity to experience the design life-cycle of an aerospace system. The CanSat competition is designed to reflect a typical aerospace program on a small scale and includes all aspects of an aerospace program from the preliminary design review to post mission review. The mission and its requirements are designed to reflect various aspects of real world missions including telemetry requirements, communications, and autonomous operations. Each team is scored throughout the competition on real-world deliverables such as schedules, design review presentations, and demonstration flights.

As indicated by the title “Design, Build, Fly”, this project involves the design of an aircraft for the purpose of completing three air missions and one ground mission, building components of the aircraft that are not commercially available, and testing and flying the aircraft. The design of the aircraft is optimized solely to complete the missions. The missions are as follows: For mission 1 (deployment flight), the aircraft must complete 3 laps within a 5 minute flight window without a payload and complete a successful landing; For mission 2 (Staging Flight), the aircraft must complete 3 laps within a 5 minute flight window with a payload of at least 10 syringes; For mission 3 (Vaccine Delivery Flight), the aircraft has 10 minutes to  complete as many ‘vaccine package’ deployments as possible; Finally, ground mission is a timed mission with the aircraft in the flight configuration in the “mission box” with Mission 2 and 3 payloads. The assembly crew must demonstrate the functionality of the aircraft by deploying all payloads. The design of the aircraft will focus on the requirements of the third mission where the aircraft must be able to complete a flight course within a time window while carrying a payload and making several takeoffs and landings. The wings, fuselage, empennage, will be drawn and built by the team. Components such as the battery, propellers, motors, wheels will be carefully selected to meet the aircraft performance requirements. The team is divided into sub teams that focus on aircraft performance, propulsion, CAD, payload and the like. 

Background:

The UCI Anteater Baja Racing SAE team competes yearly in the Baja SAE West Collegiate Design Competition hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Each year the team develops a brand-new single-seat off-road vehicle for the competition based on research into the dynamics of off-road vehicles and a critical analysis of the previous year’s car. The yearly competition hosts 100 collegiate teams from across the world and consists of a series of static and dynamic events culminating in the 4-hour, 100 car wheel-to-wheel endurance event. 

Goal and Objectives:

The objective of the 2021-2022 UCI Baja SAE team is to develop a reliable, competitive single-seat off road vehicle to place among the top 20 teams in the upcoming 2022 Baja SAE West competition. In order to accomplish this, the 2022 competition vehicle, named Vandal II, must be the lightest, fastest, best performing, and most reliable vehicle that the team has...

Background

Thermal management systems, involving the use of technology to control and maintain temperature within a certain range, have applications across many industries. With the continuing advancements in electronics and other high power density producing systems such as spacecraft, the power they generate is expected to increase. These systems are projected to exceed a power generation of 1400 W/cm^2. The absence of efficient cooling systems and power dissipation, however, will lead to the degradation of the system and short term use of components. The Air Force Research Laboratory is actively researching thermal management solutions and have partnered with universities for research and development. The High Heat Flux Project hopes to collaborate with AFRL in the future by relaying data.

Goal and Objectives

The overall goal of the project is to design and manufacture a test bed that will demonstrate a controlled production and dissipation of heat flux. This is...

This project hopes to explore renewable energy on a personal scale. The Power Blades team is working on developing a small scale wind turbine suitable for camping applications. The wind turbine will be compact enough to fit a hiking backpack and should be easily deployed and assembled. It will be able to reliably provide enough electricity overnight to charge common camping appliances(cell phones, flashlights, camera battery, ...). The project consists of 2 teams, mechanical and electrical, that will practice the design process in order to plan and design the manufacturing of the small scale wind turbine. The actual manufacturing of this product will not be conducted.

LiDAR Vision is a senior design project aimed to design and fabricate a 2D-localization LiDAR equipped device. In order for robots to perform independently and autonomously, they need to be aware of the environment around them. The sensors built into the robots can function as their “eyes” to detect surroundings and provide feedback to the unit to adjust their movements accordingly. LiDAR sensors, using light detection and ranging to locate, are very cost-effective in the markets and accurate while detecting and ranging obstacles. Our team is designing and fabricating a standalone 2D-localization LiDAR equipped device that can operate functionally indoors.

Background 

The Autonomous Underwater vehicle project is a student-led group of Mechanical Engineering students working with Professor Camilo Velez to study and manufacture a swarm of small scale robots. Our inspiration for this project stems from the idea that nano robots can work together to detect, isolate and remove a single cell in the human body. In an effort to work towards this idea, our team is set to construct a number of small-scale robots that can autonomously navigate in a swimming pool to detect and attach magnetically to a specified item. 

Goal and Objectives

• Team Organization and Project Definition (Week 2)
• Break down the functions of the robot into smaller individual tasks and find the optimal parts and sensors for our robot’s functions. (Week 3-4)
• Create a virtual prototype of the robot with every required component and optimize how those components will work together. (Week 5)
...

Background:

The goal of this project is to test the compressor of a ventilator, that is used in the medical field, and to experimentally gather data and determine the best possible design by comparing different criteria. There are two design iterations that will be finalized for 3D printed and experimental testing. Once completed students will begin to build a test bench for running tests to find the compressor maps for the compressors which will show the projected map contours. Compressor maps will show RPM-Pressure-flow rate, Efficiency-Pressure-flow rate, Power-Pressure-flow rate, and Noise-Pressure-flow rate. Interfacing with sensored brushless DC motor, flow sensor, and pressure sensors will be done on Labview. Different compressors will be compared and the most efficient design configuration will be selected.

In this project, we are working for Laguna Tools to redesign the upper and lower bandsaw blade guides on the 14-Twelve bandsaw. Bandsaw's blades are supported by the guides in three directions: the two sides and the back side. The current design features a rail system where the guides are able to slide and be locked in place with a screw. Currently the lower guide's adjustment knobs are obstructed by the bandsaw table and other components making it difficult to properly adjust the guide. The objective of this project is to design the guides such that they are user friendly, have precise and accurate adjustments, and be easy to manufacture.

Background

The UC Irvine Rocket Project (UCIRP) is an undergraduate led team of students looking to design and fabricate a liquid-fueled rocket. With faculty advisor Professor Mark Walter the team is competing in the Friends of Amateur Dollar Per Foot Challenge, a competition between universities to create a single stage liquid propellant rocket with a $1 per foot of altitude above the end of the launch rail reward for teams that can complete this challenge. So far the team has been able to reach a point where they can run static test fires for their Preliminary Test Engine (P.T.E.) using a test stand. The team is currently looking to redefine the rocket's subsystems to be able to better optimize the launch vehicle's mass. The main rocket team has found issues with the mass of the current bleed valves and are looking for this team to create a Bleed Valve Actuation...

UCI Bike Frame is a senior engineering project devoted to the design and manufacturing of bicycle frames. In the past, the project has functioned as a UROP grant-funded club and later a mechanical engineering senior project "UCI Bike Builders" (MAE 189).  The senior project is focused on developing an additively manufactured weldless bike that will utilize multiple materials. This bike is experimental in nature and allows for greater customization while also reducing assembly time. The bike will utilize off-the-shelf carbon tubes which will be connected using custom additively manufactured titanium lugs. The carbon tubes will be fixed to the lugs using a two-part epoxy and fishing wire will be wrapped around the ends of each tube to ensure concentricity at the mating surface. Tolerancing will be extremely important in determining the strength of the joint. The 3D-printed lugs will have to be post-processed in the machine shop to ensure accurate tolerancing.

Background:

The UAV Forge team has a competition and requires a means of measuring drone thrust in relation to battery drain under various load conditions and varying configurations, such as quad-, hexa-, and octocopers. Previous attempts by the Forge team to measure drone thrust had been proven inefficient and unreliable. The Forge team requested a dedicated team to design and manufacture a safe and reliable means of measuring and recording drone thrust. This stand is unique as it measures the thrust of the drone as a whole assembly whereas other methods measure the thrust using only a single propeller and motor.

Background:

UAV forge needs a new tailsitter drone design that is capable of completing a range of tasks required in Association for the Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition. The drone will need to take-off and land vertically (VTOL) and transition between hover and horizontal flight like a traditional fixed wing aircraft.

“VTOL tailsitters deliver usability and reliability that is hard to match. Simple and light construction reduces the potential for human error and mechanical failure, ensuring a faster, more reliable, and safer drone survey mission.” - Wingtra

Goals and Objectives:

In the 2 quarter time frame, we as a team aim to achieve to:

• Have a functional prototype capable of vertical take-off, hovering, and transitioning to horizontal flight like a fixwing aircraft.
• Have a maximum altitude of 10 feet and a flight time of approximately 10 minutes.
• Test flights on a specified path to fulfill competition requirements.
...