Endeavouring for a bright future

The future of engineering and information technology was on display at the May 2024 Endeavour Exhibition, which brought together industry, government and the next generation of engineers and tech innovators.

Final year Masters students from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT) had the opportunity to present their Semester 1 projects, which ranged from autonomous navigation to quantum computing and hand mobility devices.

FEIT Dean Professor Thas Nirmalathas said the Endeavour Exhibition allows students to demonstrate their ability to communicate their creativity and innovation skills.

"It's been amazing to see such a vast array of projects. The students have displayed the ability to master their knowledge and integrate that with their problem-solving skills to put their solutions into real-world problems," Professor Nirmalathas said.

Mechatronics Engineering student Motunrayo Bashir explaining her research project.

"For students who are about to graduate from here, I think they’re facing great opportunities out there, and I’d like to encourage them to keep an open mind. Many sectors are looking for engineering and information technology talent. I wish them all the best as they pursue their career pathways."

Meet some of the participants and their projects:

'Implementation and Evaluation of Learning-based Control Algorithms with a Quadruped Robot'
By Andre Wong, Joshua van Bockel, Wim Louis Sadik and Yun Chu
Department: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

"Our project is about implementing an advanced autonomous solution on a quadruped robot dog.”

The team worked on what they call "autonomous navigation," a way of guiding people with the help of robots.

"We could see this robot dog working in search and rescue, being able to navigate an unknown or dangerous building, being able to find people who are in danger and alert others to this, so that people can make a more informed decision about where to go and how to proceed in that situation."

'Development of a Hand Mobility Device (HMD) to Enhance the Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients in a Clinical Setting'
By Amelia Noffs, Misky Noor and Manthila Ranatunga
Department: Mechatronics Engineering

"We are solving the long rehabilitation process for stroke patients who have lost mobility in their hand.

"Our device will help stroke patients perform rehabilitative exercises like opening and closing their hand, so they can pick up an object and move it around.

"Our device has strings to help open the hand and then compression springs to help close the hand. We also have straps so it’s easier to set up for the patient, instead of a traditional glove. This means that the palm is free, so the patients can interact with the objects, rather than having a cloth or material in between. It makes life easier for the physiotherapist in a medical setting by helping the patients perform lots of repetitions.

"Our supervisor has an upper limb rehabilitation device that then helps to move the patient’s elbows and guide them to the object, so we envision our device then being used in conjunction with that, which will move the patient to the object, then our device helps them grasp the object and open and close their hands.

"We’re hoping our device can be integrated in a clinical setting, where physiotherapists can set the device up on their patients’ hands, who can then complete this exercise."

This team also won the Tech Breakthrough and Community Impact Award and Mechatronics Engineering Merit award at this semester's exhibition.

'Next Generation Composite Floor System Testing'
By Teodora Vuruna, Spencer Harvey and Quynh Nhu Thai
Department: Infrastructure Engineering

"We’re testing the connections between steel and timber, using different types of adhesive and pulling them apart to see how they could work in real-life floor systems, supporting much heavier loads than timber would on its own.

"In terms of the long-term application of our project, there’s definitely lots of room in applying composite flooring systems such as high-rise timber structures and buildings."

Meet our award winners here.

And that’s a wrap for the first Endeavour Exhibition of 2024, we’ll see you again in Semester Two!