Sponsored Projects
Join forces with the next generation of engineers as they bring fresh ideas and innovative solutions to the table. Our multidisciplinary engineering sponsored projects offer industry partners a unique opportunity to collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the field and drive positive change in the world. Whether you're looking to create and/or improve existing products and processes, develop new technology, or gain a competitive edge, our sponsored projects are the perfect platform to achieve your goals.
The Institute calls for working relationships between the University and industry partners from various sectors to collaborate on projects based on real industry design and development needs. These students gain valuable hands on experience that goes beyond the curriculum. They will be given specific training appropriate to their projects. Students are jointly supervised by U of T engineering faculty, graduate student mentors, and senior technical staff within the company.
Project Highlights
Flight Performance Tools
Bombardier Inc.
The Standard Computerized Aircraft Performance (SCAP) computer-based program allows airlines to calculate the performance of an aircraft during take-off and landing. Traditionally, performance calculations are processed by ground crew well ahead of the flight time. This project aims to transfer this program into a mobile application platform, thereby allowing pilots to perform re-calculations closer to the actual flight time.
- Allows pilots to compute the performance of an aircraft prior to take-off or landing, giving results more accurate to the actual environmental variables at that time.
- Potentially save fuel costs by calculating an optimized flap setting or take-off.
- Potential for reduction in maintenance costs as an optimal reduction in thrust during take-off can be calculated.
- Catch up to industry standards as many other aircraft series already have a similar application.
Thermal Performance of a Switch Module
Honeywell
Overheating of components during full product development would result in unacceptable schedule and cost overruns. Heat should be effectively removed from the system to avoid system failure. The objective of this project was to assess the viability of using lower-cost industrialgrade switching devices. Maintain thermal performance and achieve acceptable temperature ranges.
Created an Icepak model of the assembly that can be used to find the temperature margin of different components inside the chassis. Replacing the existing switching device with the lower-cost industrial-grade one can save Honeywell $1,000,000 per year. The cost reduction can drive to maintain a competitive position in the market for Honeywell and increase their sales.
Applying Sustainability to Aero Engines
Pratt & Whitney Canada
Develop and deliver strategies and tools that will enable Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) to progress towards its sustainability goals and vision to be the best aerospace company in the world. Perform engine and component environmental impact assessments, develop an ecodesign tool, and support the adoption of ecodesign methods into current engine programs
Developed and tested a tool that can produce a breakdown by weight of all the materials present in an engine. This tool enables P&WC to carry out a more detailed end-of-life analysis of its engines in order to better understand material flows at its maintenance, repair, and overhaul facilities. The project has also helped develop a sustainable return-on-investment (S-ROI) tool which enables P&WC to better evaluate the social, environmental, and financial impacts of its facilities investments.
Schedule Maintenance Data Processing and Analysis Automation
De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited
In conjunction with regulatory authorities, maintenance intervals have been defined for the Dash 8 series aircraft, and these intervals have evolved over time. This project involved developing a report and dashboard to calculate the theoretical scheduled maintenance timetable for all Dash 8 aircraft, taking into account the changing maintenance intervals and using historical flight-hour data stored in the database, as provided by operators. The report assumed 100% yield of flight hours.
Used Excel VBA and SQL to retrieve the relevant flight-hour data from the database and create the scheduled maintenance report. Also developed a dashboard using MicroStrategy to display the resulting data. This report allowed the Maintenance Engineering team to analyze operator trends and potentially optimize scheduled maintenance intervals.