Final year projects

Our final year students complete an individual research and development or technical project, which for many is the highlight of their degree.

The projects allow the students to work in our vibrant research environment alongside academic members of staff and their research groups. They are given access to state-of-the-art equipment and resources that are highly sought after by industry, such as: wind tunnels, high performance computing and our microfabrication cleanroom, amongst others. Each student will meet with their academic supervisor on, at least, a weekly basis to discuss progress and results. Students choose their project from a list based on the research interests of the academics within the Department and our industrial partners.

Example projects:

Nanomaterial Based Multifunctional Device Test-Rig (Benedict Jones) As semiconductor devices continue to shrink, technology begins to reach its physical limits. More than Moore (MtM) is a trend of growing importance which prioritises the increase in device functionality over conventional Moore’s Law scaling. However, added functionality often leads to an increase in complexity, with more design parameters to be quantified. To enable fast development cycles, it is important to be able to efficiently test and characterise such devices. This project was focused on enabling the efficient and automated characterisation of nano-devices via a bespoke testing platform that was designed, produced and then demonstrated. This ‘test-rig’ enabled current, voltage and capacitance measurements.

SEM image of CBD grown ZnO NFs.

Mechanical testing of biomedical gels for cancer research (William Stephens) By 2020, it is estimated that there will be 3 million people in the UK living with cancer. The development of colon cancer is affected by multiple factors, including the tumour microenvironment. External forces play an important a role in cancer development. Human cells are continuously exposed to external compressive, tensile and shear forces, which they sense and respond to by manipulating their microenvironment. It has been shown that the application of a fluid shear stress can inhibit cell division and cancer growth. This shows that there is an important link between the mechanical properties of the tissues, external stresses applied, and the tissue rate of growth. Therefore, obtaining a full understanding of the tissue mechanical properties is necessary for further research into cancer cures or preventative treatments. This project developed a lateral deformation measurement system that can be used with a modified compression machine to measure the deformation of these soft tissues.

Papers

A number of our students publish papers in international research journals straight out of their final year project work - this is an amazing achievement for any undergraduate student!

50% The MEng Research and Development project is worth 50% of the final year - the same as the whole of second year!

“My favourite part of the course has been my final year project. Having the opportunity to research in an area of engineering that you find interesting at your own pace is incredibly rewarding, especially when you produce a paper at the end summarising the hard work over the previous six months.”

George Crow, Engineering Undergraduate

Vortices for Aerodynamic Sealing (James Marriott) For most modern racing formulae with specification tyres, including Formula 1, downforce is the single greatest performance enhancer. On the majority of race circuits, higher cornering speed holds the key to improved lap time, allowing a vehicle to brake later, negotiate the turn itself faster, and carry higher speed into the next straight. Although skirts and profiled undersides have been banned due to safety, the generation of downforce through the floor and diffuser has persisted, and is still the most significant, and most efficient downforce-producing device on the modern Formula 1 car; in 2009 responsible for over half the total downforce while accounting for less than a fifth of the total drag. It is clear then that maximising the efficiency of the underbody is critical to success. Unable to use mechanical means of sealing the floor to enhance suction, in the last decade designers turned to using vorticial structures to achieve the same benefit. This project is focused on experimentally confirming the effectiveness of using such trailing vortices.

Comparison of the vorticity fields between 2008 (left) and 2009 (right) car models at the same downstream transverse sections.