2006-2007
Salvatore Mascia
Our team was like a small company, working together to achieve a common goal
Flexible rigid structures
Contacts: Dr Matthew Santer,Cambridge University Engineering Department Mentor: Marc Bax More information: http://www-civ.eng.cam.ac.uk/dsl Dr Santer, working with colleagues at both Cambridge University and MIT, has developed a design for flexible plate structures that are rigid in different configurations. This allows the construction of objects which are flexible, since they change shape, but also rigid, since they hold…
Recycling car batteries in an energy-efficient way (CLEAN Lead)
Contacts: Dr Vasant Kumar, Department of Materials Science Car batteries represent a recycling success story, in that 90% are already recycled and over 50% of new batteries are produced using recycled lead. However, the processes used to break the batteries down into their component parts (lead and other chemicals) are in themselves environmentally unfriendly. Techniques either…
Cheaper, more power-efficient displays
Contacts: Dr Steve Morris, CAPE, Cambridge University Engineering Department Mentor: Caren Weinberg Today, LCD displays are everywhere, in mobile phones, iPods, laptops, and as computer screens and domestic TVs. Current screens use white backlights with red, green and blue filters, and require three liquid crystal cells for each visible pixel (one per colour). They are also…
Virtual reality system
Contacts: Dr. Adar Pelah, Cambridge University Engineering Department Mentor: Caren Weinberg More information: http://www-sigproc.eng.cam.ac.uk/~jl/index.html Dr Pelah and Dr Lasenby have developed a virtual reality imaging system which is designed to measure precisely the movements of a person within the field of view, and map these in real time onto a virtual reality landscape as they walk. The…
New methods of manufacturing metal items
Contacts: Kathryn Jackson, Institute for Manufacturing Mentor: Marc Bax More information: http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/sustainability/projects/incremental.html Working with Dr. Julian Allwood, Kathryn has been researching new methods of metal forming, using a technique called incremental sheet forming. This allows a wide range of three-dimensional shapes to be created without the need for specialized tooling. In traditional metal manufacturing techniques, a unique…
Online multimedia collaboration techniques
Contacts: Yiannis Baltopoulos, Computer Lab Mentor: Shefaly Yogendra More information: http://www.yiannis-online.com/projects/jMule/docs/roadmap/index.html JMule is a suite of software for remote collaboration activities, such as distance learning. It was originally developed by a team at the University of Kent (details below), and at the time received significant commercial interest from a potential licensee. Unlike the current webconferencing products, such…