Contents page
Project Proposal and Management
Identification of a Genuine Need
First Ideas-
During my time in Highschool, I have had countless opportunities to design, research and develop
projects such as my work with ANSTO (A scale for Cherenkov Radiation and how to measure reactor
safety at OPAL), my work with USYD (The effect of car spoilers on Drag and Lift Coefficients) and so
on.
I had started thinking from Term 3 Year 11 what my project might be and here are some of them. With
nearly all my projects I wanted them to be related to Physics in some way to keep me both motivated
and interested in finishing and doing the Major Design Project to the best of my ability!
Sugar Water Light-
This idea was stirred up when I was watching Steve Mound’s video on “Why Sugar Always Twists Light to The
Right - Optical Rotation” this video discussed how Sugar crystal are Chiral (Asymmetrical) opposed to the polar-
izing light thus bending it into a beautiful 360 ° spectacle. This kindled me to think if light can be bent by using
a common and simple material, it could also be more aesthetic designed compared to the lights we have today.
This light would also (must) contain sugar water, which would increase the weight of the light immensely is one
of the reasons why I didn’t pursue this idea. The other considerations such as the safety issue of water being
near electronics and the general design concerns deterred me from going ahead with this project.
Wave Generator-
The following idea after this idea comes from the central idea of energy startups which inspired me to investigate
to innovate existing technologies. Nuclear energy is several interests for me but not at all viable project for my
Design Technology. but when it comes to ideas it opened on energy generation as my topic or my general focus
for design technology. A Swedish company inspired a very similar idea, in which a Buoy would be connected to
magnet which would bob up and down through a coil making a current which would be bolted to the ground. The
reason why didn’t go with this design was because the interest in making this project was short lived, and it was
quite an in-depth project which would require lots of research in which I didn’t have the passion or time to do as
my major project.
Fusion Reactor Simulation
for UNSW’s Fusion project-
This project and how I got to this as one of my main ideas was interesting. On the Sydney Morning
Herald I read that UNSW was planning to build a Tokamak Fusion device not to power or to be used for
energy generation purposes but to be able to test plasma containing structures such as using A.I but
also what interested me even more is that this would be a fully student led project which I wanted to
help. So, I reached out to Harvey Ling who was in the following article photo, who helped me to under-
stand more about the project and ways I can contribute to it. The ways I could help, were.
How to supply electricity to fusion reactor sustainably
How to make a vacuum to sustain fusion
How to stop the immense force of electromagnetism from affecting results or moving the machine in
general.
This is one of the ideas I wanted to go ahead with, but with the same restrictions with the other proj-
ects kept me from doing it such as the time constraints, the project had a span of around 3 to 4 years
which was way over by Design Technology due date but also the very theoretical information that
needed to be understood while doing this project but finally the very complex engineering and materi-
als that would hurt my pockets immensely.
Piezoelectric Tiles-
This idea was the one I stuck with. This idea came when I was tired so searching websites, I decided to
watch videos on energy in general. Then a video from a company called Pavegen popped up. The compa-
ny product was tiles in which people could step on and make electricity. The design utilizes magnetic con-
duction magnets when people step the magnets spin and continue to spin and then when it gets stepped
on again, they spin faster thus creating more electricity. I wanted to make something based on the con-
cept of energy generation from walking thus my idea of piezoelectric tiles came. The idea of piezoelectrici-
ty came from a website that popped up when I searched up energy generation, the effect happened when
a quartz is deformed a small current is made on the two faces. So, I decided to implement this and make
them more sustainable, cost effective and efficient. The reason why I decided to go ahead with project is
because I saw potential with the project, it profound effect on helping society and the genuine interest in
doing this because like with my other projects was related to physics which thus motivated me to do this
project and to do this.