Senior Design Projects 2005-2006
Project Title:
Crises Alternative
Energy Source for GE ECM 2.3/2.5 Motor
Team Members:
Mr. Steve Hooser
Mr. David McLinden
Mr. Jeremy Reinhard
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Guoping Wang
Area: Electrical Engineering
Sponsored by: GE Motors/Regal-Beloit
GE Motors/Regal-Beloit, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, desires to implement an alternative energy source for their GE ECM 2.3/2.5 motor in residential applications. The scope of this project involves the implementation of an agreed upon alternative energy source, thus enabling the motor to function in light of a local power grid failure for an indefinite period of time. The consequent alternative energy source developed within this project will be specially tailored for the GE ECM 2.3/2.5 motor, in accordance with the specifications provided by GE Motors/Regal-Beloit. While the GE ECM 2.3/2.5 motor is to be powered by the power grid under normal operation, it should be capable of switching to the alternative energy source on demand, without complications.
Project Title:
Software Defined Radio System
Team Members:
Mr. Andy Geiger
Mr. Steve Whitman
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Thompson
Area: Electrical Engineering
Sponsored by: Raytheon
A Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a radio communication system that uses software for the modulation and demodulation of radio signals. The main advantage of a SDR is its flexibility. Simply modifying or replacing software programs can completely change the functionality of the system. The basic components of a SDR typically consist of an antenna to receive the signal, an analog to digital converter to digitize the signal, a computer to perform digital signal processing with software, and an analog to digital converter to convert the signal back to an analog form. This project proposes to build and demonstrate such a system that is capable of receiving and demodulating the A.M. frequency band (540 – 1600 kHz). The result of this system will be an audible output similar to that of any commercial radio.
Project Title:
Child Localization Theme Park
Team Members:
Ms.
Chinwe Aneke
Ms. Christina
Hong
Mr. Justin Ebaugh
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Chao Chen and Dr. Carlos Pomalaza-Ráez
Area: Electrical Engineering
Sponsored by: The IPFW Mastodon Park Project
The university has proposed to build a children’s theme park with an underlying wireless localization system. The main purpose of the child-localization system is to be able to track and locate a child within a given range at certain times. The localization system will make use of a wireless sensor network and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems. In its simplest form, an RFID system consists of a tag and a reader. There will be about 14 mastodons (the official mascot of IPFW) located around the park. Before children go to the park, they will be given RFID tags which will contain data such as a unique tag identification number. Each mastodon will have an RFID reader interfaced with a sensor node. The reader will be able to read the information on the tag and send it to a control computer through the sensor node. Therefore, the control computer will be able to tell which child has visited what mastodon and the time of visit.
Project Title:
The BabyBot – Robotic Child Monitoring System
Team Members:
Ms.
Christole Griffith
Ms. Parul Reddy
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Yanfei Liu and Dr. Pomalaza-Ráez
Area: Electrical Engineering
This project proposes to develop a robotic system that can assist parents in child monitoring. In this system, the robot would be capable of finding and following a 7-10 month old baby (crawling age) in a confined space. In addition, this system also features some artificial intelligence design in order to determine the danger level that the child might be in and take actions accordingly. To accomplish these tasks, investigation and implementation of some target finding, object tracking, path planning and obstacle avoidance algorithms will be required. Finally, a prototype of this system will be generated and some experiments will be conducted. The prototype will include a Khepera robot, a scaled down model of a room with a total area of 32 square feet and a small model of a baby. The purpose of this is to help detect any areas that need further consideration or additional design.
Project Title:
2005 SAE Mini Baja® Frame and Suspension Design
Team
Members:
Mr. Greg Beck
Mr. Justin Bir
Mr. Frank
McDougall
Mr. Hiroaki Murase
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Nashwan Younis
Area: Mechanical Engineering
Sponsored by: IPFW Society of Automotive Engineers
The objective of the SAE Mini Baja® Team Leftovers design team is to design, fabricate, test, and compete with a new frame and suspension subsystem for the 2006 Midwest Mini Baja competition. The design of these subsystems is in response to the updated rules and regulations for the 2006 competition year. By designing in accordance to these rules, the team expects to improve upon the suspension behavior, the ability to traverse over objects, and to reduce the vehicle weight. Upon completion of this project, the team hopes to gain real-world cooperative experience and the ability to troubleshoot unforeseen problems.
Project
Title:
Bench-Top
Air-to-Water Heat Pump for Laboratory Use
Team Members:
Mr. Adam Brososky (EE)
Mr. Ian Leonhardt (ME)
Mr. Steve Myers (EE)
Mr. Ben Slater (ME)
Mr. Bryan Wilcox (ME)
Faculty Advisors:
Dr. Hosni Abu-Mulaweh (ME)
Dr. Hossein Oloomi (EE)
Dr. Donald Mueller (ME)
Area: Multi-disciplinary
Sponsored by: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
Through a grant awarded by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the IPFW Engineering Department has commissioned the design and construction of a bench-top air-to-water heat pump. This heat pump is to be designed around the vapor compression refrigeration cycle and is to be of transportable size so that the heat pump may be utilized in multiple locations for demonstration and laboratory purposes. In order for the bench-top air-to-water heat pump to function as a useful piece of lab equipment, it must have an intuitive user interface, be reliable, safe for student use, and portable. The interface must be capable of allowing data acquisition by an existing laboratory computer, or alternatively by manual collection.