The Ideal Project
  • Physical: The course emphasizes a hands-on approach, including use by the students of our newly expanded machine shop. Paper studies are acceptable, however projects leading to physical construction are preferred.
  • Innovative: The course emphasizes creativity. Projects should ideally allow for the generation of multiple solution ideas. Project Sponsors should avoid imposing a solution on the students (but should provide all available information, including previous solutions, patent data, etc.)
  • Unique: Students do well on new products or mature products where new technologies may make possible a breakthrough. However, they do not have the specialized knowledge to do well on a project where they are in effect competing with large, highly expert teams of engineers.
  • Decomposable: The best projects can be divided into pieces; therefore, a design consisting of a single complex part may not be a good idea. However, a one-piece product can be excellent if the team also designs the manufacturing process.
  • Based on minimal proprietary information: Students must make presentations in class, and U-M cannot contract to maintain security. Project Sponsors may negotiate separate intellectual property rights agreements directly with students.
  • Attainable: Project solutions should be attainable within the single semester time frame (approximately 4 months). However, project continuation may be possible beyond the single semester to aid in design implementation.

Past Community Service-Oriented ME450 Projects

Mobile Transfer Device to Aid the Wheelchair-Bound
(First Place - Fall 1999 Design Expo)
Client: Steve Laux
Working closely with a quadriplegic client, a stident design team developed an innovative design to help transfer him from his wheelchair to a bed. Mounted on casters for mobility, the boom swivels a sling for transferring patient to and from a wheelchair to a bed.

Heat-Raised Ink Braille Printer
Sponsor: Lisa Weiss, University Unions Graphic Design Office
The University Unions Graphic Design Office produces Braille text and graphic materials for visually impaired students. Typically, graphic materials are produced by silk screening a thick ink which rises under heat, a process that is time-consuming and wasteful. The goal of this project was to design a faster, less-wasteful, computer-driven Braille printer.

Reconfigurable Wheelchair for Growing Children
(Second Place - Winter 1999 Design Expo)
Sponsor: The Flounders
Unfortunately, most wheelchairs are expensive, unreliable, and difficult to fix in a timely manner. This project emphasized the design of a modular, low cost, robust wheelchair that can be easily modified. In particular, focus was on designing a wheelchair to accommodate a child as he or she grows and needs further use of the wheelchair.

Arboretum Selective Entry
Sponsor: UM-Nichols Arboretum
A selective gating system was designed to provide unrestricted wheelchair access to the UM Nichols Arboretum while preventing bicycle entry.

Portable Wheelchair Ramp
Sponsor: Neighborhood Senior Services
Neighborhood Senior Services provides carpenters who build ramps over existing stairs to make a person's home wheelchair accessible. However, these ramps are permanent and only go two steps high. The final design project was a portable, adjustable ramp system that could be erected quickly without skilled labor.

Variable Height Garden
Sponsor: Jewish Community Center
Older adults and preschoolers cannot maneuver well to work in ordinary gardens. After an analysis to determine the appropriate sunlight, height, and width conditions for the diverse user groups, an ME450 project team created a garden whose height could be varied by each user for comfortable planting and maintenance.

Interactive Greeting Robot
Sponsor: Ann Arbor Hands-On-Museum
This project involved the design of an interactive robot for greeting children at the Ann Arbor Hands-On-Museum. The purpose of the robot was to spark children's curiosity within the field of science. An out-of-sight person could remotely control the robot and converse with guests.