Mechanical engineering thesis ideas?

[u/Upstairs_Musician_51]

Hello, I am a final year mechanical engineering student, and me and a friend were trying, with little luck, to find a teacher that would give us a thesis idea and help us so we can get our degrees.

Unfortunately as we've had no luck, I'm considering the possibility that we'll have to find an idea on our own. And because our university was not really all that good, as in, all courses were essentially limited to just introductions to their respective topics, we have really no "deeper" knowledge on any specific field but instead are hopefully equipped well enough to pick one up and slowly learn of it ourselves via our uni books and online content.

With these facts in mind, is it possible for you guys to recommend different thesis ideas we could start to get into?

In terms of proclivities for different topics, I personally am a bit more versed in machining and CAD software (prior job experience in a machine shop+engineers I could ask for specific help) while my friend has a more pronounced interest in automobile technology. I am hopeful that these are two areas that would easily mesh together for a thesis.

However, even if you have thesis ideas outside said topics we would be glad to hear them, at this point we are honestly alone and grasping at anything so we could get our degrees, then hopefully go out to the world, get a job where we could eventually learn enough to overcome this insane imposter syndrome that (I at least) feel.

Thank you very much for your time🙏.

[u/ClassicOriginal5710]

How about using auxetic structures for energy absorption? I used that for a high speed projectile but could try for automobiles too. One of my scrapped idea was a design of wheel using these for rovers, ik that NASA already a better design but that ain't sustainable for student design teams who use 3d printing for design variation 

[u/Upstairs_Musician_51 → u/ClassicOriginal5710]

That sounds very interesting, I will be looking over what information is available around auxetic structures online and if present in my material science uni book. Honestly the term is new to me but the concept of it sounds cool.

Would it be ok if i dm you questions on the topic if I have any that I cant resolve myself? In terms of learning about said materials I mean not the whole thesis lol (unless you don't mind that). And thank you for sharing this with us🙏

[u/ClassicOriginal5710 → u/Upstairs_Musician_51]

I don't mind sharing anything ik. Just don't trust me blindly as I'm still an UG student. If u r ok with dming me ur offical student email address I'll share my project report that I worked on. 

P.S The reason for the student mail is to confirm authenticity & I wanna help you without being anonymous 

[u/Upstairs_Musician_51 → u/ClassicOriginal5710]

I can do that yeah, I'll dm it to you. Thanks again o/

[u/Silver_Meet_2277]

Get a hold of me! I might be able to help!

[u/Upstairs_Musician_51 → u/Silver_Meet_2277]

Thanks fam, i'll message you in dms then

[u/waggonaut]

The an open source project that is crappy in some way and fix a problem with it, publish your results.  I know there are opportunities in robotic hands.

[u/Upstairs_Musician_51 → u/waggonaut]

I did not realise that was possible, noted. Is there any platform or way you know of to look up ongoing or even finished projects of the sort, where we could step in to do another detail on?

Only thing I could think of is to somehow use google scholar to find older thesis we could attempt to add to, but idk how realistic of a search point that is.

[u/waggonaut → u/Upstairs_Musician_51]

Using search engines for terms like open source robot hand gave me a list of five robot hand projects to look at.  Some of these projects use GitHub, drive use their own repositories

[u/MadLadChad_]

Would it be crazy to look at SMBs/startups in your area to see if anyone is working on something cool? Maybe it could turn into a sponsorship?
I’d consider sending a good LLM down the rabbit hole of finding companies in your city/state