DCU Expo 2023 Final Year Projects

49 69. Robotic End Effector for Thermal Clamping The purpose of this project is to design, build and implement an automatedmechanism that is capable of clamping and heating a disc to temperatures exceeding 90 degrees, as well as localised heating. The mechanismwould be implemented as part of the wider lab-on-a-disc technology. The project is focused on disc heating, which is a requirement of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. A test is required to check if the COVID-19 virus was present in an individual. Class Mechatronic Engineering Project Area Arduino, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Design andManufacture, Sensor Technology Project Technology C/C++, Solidworks, KiCad Student Name(s) CiaránMurphy Email ciaran.murphy376@mail.dcu.ie Supervisor Dr Nigel Kent 70. Investigating the Effects of Aspiration Force on Tube Deformation The purpose of the project is to understand the fundamental mechanismof the deformation of a tube under the experience of an aspiration force, also known as suction force. This basic principle applies to catheters with an aspiration flow that serves to pull out a clot. The study analyses the relationship between the suction force of the tube and the area of contact with the tube diameter and wall thickness. The main tasks consider a literature review of the experimental and numerical studies on the deformation of elastic tubes and characterize the tube deformation using ANSYSMechanical to further understand the change in the shape of a tube. Class Biomedical Engineering (Year 5) Project Area Biomedical Engineering, Finite Element Analysis Project Technology ANSYSWorkbench Student Name(s) GeslynMary Lantin Email geslyn.lantin3@mail.dcu.ie Supervisor Dr Yan Delauré 71. Optimizing Energy Usage and CostWithin a Smart Home This project has investigated how to optimize energy usage and cost within a Smart Home, by taking a user’s energy import and export data and performing operations that display the user’s energy profile graphically and numerically on a website. It explores various price plans using different rates, such as flat rates, time of use rates, and feed-in rates, in order to optimize the cost. Recommendations are also provided based on the users’ energy import and export data, which would help the user optimize their energy usage. Class Electronic and Computer Engineering Project Area Data Analytics, Databases, Web Application Project Technology CSS, Eclipse, HTML5, Java, JavaScript, Python, SQLite Student Name(s) Michael Costin Bunea Email michael.bunea2@mail.dcu.ie Supervisor Dr DerekMolloy