Mechanical engineering internships

Supervisor: Dr Shuying Wu

Eligibility: Interest in materials, mechanical, and manufacturing engineering and hands-on experimental work. WAM >= 75

Project Description:

This project explores multifunctional shape memory polymer composites for sensor and actuator applications. Shape memory polymer composites can undergo large, reversible deformations and recover their programmed shape upon external stimuli such as heat, light, or electricity, making them ideal candidates for soft actuation. By incorporating functional fillers like carbon nanotubes, graphene, or metallic nanoparticles, the composites achieve enhanced thermal conductivity, electrical responsiveness, and mechanical strength, enabling fast and efficient actuation.

The research focuses on optimizing the microstructure-property relationship to balance high shape fixity, recovery speed, and durability over repeated cycles. Potential applications include soft robotics, biomedical devices, and aerospace systems, where lightweight, adaptive, and programmable actuators are critical. Additionally, multifunctionality such as self-sensing, self-healing, and energy harvesting will be integrated to expand device performance. This work will advance next-generation smart materials for sustainable and high-performance sensor and actuator technologies.

Requirement to be on campus: Yes *dependent on government’s health advice.

Supervisors: Dr Li Chang and A/Prof. Luping Zhou

Eligibility: WAM>75 and Undergraduate candidates must have already completed at least 96 credit points towards their undergraduate degree at the time of application.

Project Description:

Artificial joints employing polymers such as ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) are widely used to treat joint diseases and trauma. However, wear-induced failure remains a major limiting factor affecting the long-term performance of the joint replacements. This project aims to develop a new image-based wear prediction model in order to predict wear performance, understand wear mechanism and evaluate design factors. Joint structures will be created using 3d printing technology. Then, wear tests based on a simple bearing configuration will be carried out.

During wear process, the evolution of surface topology will be examined and recorded using 3D laser profilometer. With computer-assist automatic image processing and analysis, wear process will be further investigated and a predictive model will be developed. The work will provide new insights into the design of high wear-resistant artificial joints.  

Requirement to be on campus: Yes *dependent on government’s health advice.

Supervisors: Dr Li Chang and Prof. KC Wong

Eligibility: WAM>75 and Undergraduate candidates must have already completed at least 96 credit points towards their undergraduate degree at the time of application.

Project Description: 

Vibration is a critical issue for the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight system which can significantly impact flight stability, sensor accuracy and structural integrity. This project proposed to use mechanical meta-structures to reduce the vibration of the UAV arm by isolating the vibration between the power source and core components. In particular, re-entrant structures with negative Poisson’s ratio characteristics will be designed and fabricated using 3D printing technology. The optimized structures will be printed with carbon reinforced polymer composites to provide efficient and broad-band vibration reduction effects for the UAV’s arm while maintaining a strong and lightweight design. The work will provide a new design route for UAV vibration control to improve the stability and safety of the airframe during flight.

Requirement to be on campus: Yes *dependent on government’s health advice.

Supervisor: A/Prof. Nicholas Williamson

Eligibility: Have some background in numerical methods at an undergraduate level.

Project Description:

Three project options are available. All are associated with ongoing research projects and involve some programming, running of simulations on high performance computers, data processing and analysis. The program will involve implementing new models within our existing Navier-Stokes solvers or implementing new post-processing code to extract relevant data.

• Develop and implement turbulence models for under resolved Large Eddy Simulations of environmental flows including rivers and in urban atmospheric flows.
• Use Basilisk, a high fidelity two phase flow solver, to simulate convective boundary layers in cryogenic flows including liquid hydrogen in reservoirs.
• Use OpenFOAM to simulate transport of fish eggs in a river with real river bathymetry.

Requirement to be on campus: Yes *dependent on government’s health advice.

Supervisor: Dr Xianghai An

Eligibility: High achievement in a relevant undergraduate engineering degree (a WAM of 75 or above). This project has the option to be combined with an honours project.

Project Description:

The development of multifunctional metallic materials is at the frontier of materials science, enabling unprecedented combinations of strength, ductility, toughness, and functional properties. Emerging systems such as high-entropy alloys (HEAs), nanotwinned metals, hierarchically structured metals, and metal–graphene composites represent transformative pathways for engineering advanced performance beyond the limitations of conventional alloys. Their exceptional behaviours originate from engineered structural and chemical heterogeneities across multiple length scales, which unlock novel deformation mechanisms, damage tolerance, and functional responses.

In this project, we will employ advanced manufacturing techniques to construct complex hierarchical architectures in these materials. The focus will be on designing and tailoring nanoscale twins, gradient structures, layered architectures, and metal–graphene interfaces to achieve synergistic property combinations. By precisely controlling processing parameters, we aim to regulate defect structures, interface chemistry, and hierarchical organization to realize metals that are not only ultrastrong and damage-resistant but also exhibit functional capabilities such as enhanced thermal stability, corrosion resistance, or electrical/thermal conductivity.

This project will open new avenues for creating multifunctional metallic systems that combine superior mechanical resilience with application-driven functionalities. Outcomes will contribute to the design principles of next-generation structural and functional alloys, positioning them as enablers for advanced engineering, aerospace, and sustainable technologies.

Requirement to be on campus: Yes *dependent on government’s health advice.

Supervisor: Dr Xianghai An

Eligibility: High achievement in a relevant undergraduate engineering degree (a WAM of 75 or above). This project has the option to be combined with an honours project.

Project Description:

Materials come with characteristic combinations of mechanical properties. For example, ceramics have high stiffness but break easily; metals have high strength and ductility but limited ability to deform elastically. A vital requirement for all structural materials is that they possess an exceptional combination of stiffness, strength, ductility and damage tolerance. However, these characteristics cannot currently be obtained simultaneously. Although materials with different combinations of attributes can be designed by forming composites of different materials, it is still scientifically and technologically challenging to harvest desirable combination of properties.

To address these issues, in this project, we will propose a multi-design strategy, which encompasses the deliberate modulation of the phase constitution and architecture of metal-ceramic interpenetrating-phase composites that can be enabled by the combination of advanced manufacturing techniques. The newly designed materials will push the boundaries of materials properties beyond current benchmark ranges.

Requirement to be on campus: Yes *dependent on government’s health advice.

Supervisor: Dr Xianghai An

Eligibility: High achievement in a relevant undergraduate engineering degree (a WAM of 75 or above). This project has the option to be combined with an honours project.

Project Description:

High-performance alloys are the backbone of decarbonising innovations in manufacturing, infrastructure, energy, and transportation. Stronger alloys will substantially improve mechanical and energy efficiencies, which can benefit our economy and environment directly. However, high-strength materials typically have low ductility and are more vulnerable to fracture. Furthermore, they are also susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement (HE) in many service environments for renewable energy applications such as hydrogen transportation and the bearings of wind turbines. Hydrogen-induced embrittlement can lead to unpredictable and catastrophic failures at relatively low applied stresses. These critical shortcomings cause serious safety concerns but cannot be readily addressed by traditional materials development approaches that generally render materials property trade-offs between strength and ductility/HE resistance.

Gradient structures are an emerging material-design paradigm inspired by nature that has great potential to overcome these alloy design trade-offs. This project aims to develop an innovative design strategy of gradient segregation engineering (GSE) to produce high-performance alloys by synergistically introducing a chemical gradient via grain boundary (GB) segregation and a physical gradient by nanostructure control. The novel GSE will entail a synergy of multiscale strengthening mechanisms that offer an exceptional strength-ductility combination and simultaneously enable the hierarchical HE-resisting mechanisms to notably enhance the hydrogen tolerance.

Requirement to be on campus: Yes *dependent on government’s health advice.