One of the most
important dimension of a 4 year degree course is the Project. In the final year
of degree, students are required to work on Projects for which they are going
to be evaluated too. Most of the students don’t take this seriously and many
who does, don’t find an idea to work on. So, in this post, I will explain ‘How to get an Idea?’
& ‘How to work on that Idea?’
How to get an idea?
This is the most
important step of a project: ‘the beginning!’ If you get a good idea to start
with, it will boost your confidence and your interest in the project will be
sky-high. But, the inverse here is also true. If you work on an idea you are
not interested in, then you won’t be able to apply your mind and soul into the
work at all.
The question is
unanswered still: How to get idea? Remember, you are going to become a
mechanical engineer and the industrial training you have done at the end of
second & third year are most critical for you to discover your interest. In
my case, I did my first training from a Thermal Power Plant and the second one
in a Manufacturing Plant. Both the fields fascinated me and thereby, I ended up
doing two projects in my final year: One a Six Sigma improvement in a Thermal
Power Plant, and other, a system design in manufacturing plant. Students thing
that they should make the innovative project. Yes, of course this is the best
you can do. But, innovation is not the only option you have. Innovations are
not planned, remember! Most of the innovations are accidental rather than a
planned recipe. Modification, Improvement and Design are three things which are
of importance too. Making changes in the already existing systems and making a
working model is a very good option actually.
Some Project Ideas
There are a few project ideas which you can
think about and work on:
- Improvements using Six-Sigma (It is your choice what system for improvement you take)
- System Design Project (In the company where you completed summer training)
- Capacity Utilization of thermal power plants
- Hydraulic Ram (Using water as the working fluid)
- Fabrication of mini Steam Turbine (Using a Pressure Cooker as boiler)
- Fabrication of Solar Air Cooler
- Fabrication of Four-wheel Steering system
- Fabrication of Automotive Thermo-Electric Generator (ATEG)
In all of the above projects, I had
involvement. First five I did myself. All the project ideas above are going to
be a learning to you in one way or the other.
I will highly recommend you to choose a
project related to your Industrial Training. Because you seen by yourself how
the stuff was working there. You saw the apparatus in that industry and if you
do a project on that Industry, it is going to help you a great deal and the
company people can help you out in any difficulty. So, think about it!
