The Honours Design projects listed below are available only to McGill Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate students in the Honours program and registering in the MECH 494 course.
If you are interested in one of the design projects, please send an expression of interest to the contact email provided. Although we do our best to keep this list up to date, some projects may no longer be available.
If you are a professor who would like to add or remove a design project, please complete the honours project posting form.
Projects for 2022-2023 school year:
Design Project 2022-3
Title: 3D printing of spiral bevel gears
Supervisor: Prof. Paul Zsombor-Murray
The term(s) to begin: Winter 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023
Brief project description: Gear transmissions continue to be the most efficient means of transmitting mechanical
power through a step change in shaft speed. Efficiency is achieved by tooth profile designs that optimize rolling
between engaged tooth surfaces. Contact force is more widely distributed among teeth if they are spiraled about
the rotating axes. To this day bevel gearing, i.e., with intersecting rather than parallel axes, are not manufactured
according to design based on optimal form which engenders involute curves on a continuum of pitch-spheres in
the case of spiral bevel gearing (SBG). This project is to produce a 3D printed model of an optimally designed gear
pair; a proof of concept before attempting to evaluate potentially achievable efficiency improvement compared
to a similar commercially available gear set. A non-optimal pair of printed SBG and a design sketch summarizing
the principle of optimal SBG design are appended.
Contact email: paul [at] cim.mcgill.ca
Posted December 19, 2018
Design Project 2022-4
Title: Design of a polar planimeter
Supervisor: Prof. Paul Zsombor-Murray
The term(s) to begin: Winter 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023
Brief project description: A polar planimeter
was a device used to measure the area of any closed figure, e.g.,
on a map. It involves a wheel, on a 2R articulated linkage, that rolls
and slips on the surface as a point on the distal link traces the area
outline. Improve the design of this device so as to restore its
relevancy.
Contact email: paul [at] cim.mcgill.ca
Posted November 29, 2021