Description: Proposal: To engineer a motorcycle helmet that does the following: -Detects wind speed and verbally warns the cyclist if their speed is over a safe limit -LED to indicate low battery -Transmitter/receiver combo. The transmitter will be connected to a pressure sensor. In case of a severely injurying impact, the transmitter will send a "911" page to the nearest police station (station will be provided with receiver). -Tracking Device: the transmitter will also serve to send a signal to tell police the location of cyclist. This project will be beneficial to the safety of motorcyclists. Not only is the cyclist alerted when they are driving beyond an acceptable speed limit, the helmet will also immediately "call for help" upon dangerous impact. Time is often the determining factor in life or death situations/accidents.

Team members: Chanda D. Allen [Web], Seung Han, Daniel Moges [Web]

Description: This project is designed to be a simple hardware exercise to fill the design requirement for a software-based research project. The special circuit is to be an amplifier with gain of 10.2, and with a high-pass frequency response (cutoff frequency at 4.6kHz).

Team members: Tom Detwiler Tel: 332-0991 [Web]

Description:

Design Objectives:

• Provide a packet based network to facilitate communication between different subsystems on the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV).
• Implement network interface/control software to run on the Eco Car's PC104 mini computer.
• Choose an appropriate operating system for the PC104.
• Research existing standards for mobile and stationary networks (i.e. CAN) and evaluate them for the purposes of our project, and if necessary design our own hardware standard and topology.

Our project would improve on the current data collection system by organizing communication into a more manageable setup. It would also make it easier to incorporate additional nodes as development continues.

We will be working closely with Prof. Klein and the rest of the HEV team while developing this project.

Team members: Anirban Chatterjee, Rachel Flood

Description:

	This project consists of the design and integration of a cruise 
control system that will not only be used to set a desired vehicle 
speed, but is also used to monitor vehicle dynamics. This sophisticated 
cruise control incorporates 5 seperate modes of operation which include 
constant road speed, motor current, battery current, traction power and 
electric motor torque.

	We plan to use the following equipment:

--	Datron optical speed sensor to measure road speed of the vehicle
--	Honeywell hall effect sensor to monitor battery current
--	Unique Mobility brass shunt for electric motot current
--	HEV's torque command to monitor the electric motor torque output
--	Wheatstone Microsystems 68HC11 Single Board Controller
--	8-bit Digital to Analog converter
--	16 button keypad
--	LCD display
--	other miscellaneous items

	The driver selects the mode of operation using the keypad.  The 
driver then enters the setpoint which corresponds with the mode 
selected.  The microcontroller accepts input from the keypad and the 
appropriate sensor.  The microcontroller regulates the drive command 
sent to the Unique Mobility hardware which controls the electric motor.  
When the cruise control is enabled, the car ignores commands from the 
accelerator pedal.  Pressing on the brake or the cancel option suspends 
the cruise control while retaining the setpoint in memory.  When 
resuming to a setpoint in memory or changing "on the fly," the cruise 
control will ramp slowly to the new setpoint.  The cruise control will 
only engage when the vehicle is in "drive."  

	A control strategy for each mode of operation will be designed 
and programmed into the microcontroller.  The microcontroller takes the 
input from the selected sensor and smoothly regulates the vehicle's 
acceleration and braking commands to the desired setpoint.

Team members: Edward Polzin Tel: 217-337-6352, Mark Triplett Tel: 217-384-2911

Description: The Semiconductor Laser Laboratory research group are now testing each individual diode at a time. We would like to create a more efficient process by fabricating an entire array (row) of diodes on a single bar of sample with isolation barrier in between. This requires designing new masks, a different set of processing steps and different testing procedures/setup. In addition, we would like to have testing probes that can maneuvered more easily by the user.

Team members: Christine Woo Tel: 278-2218, Salizah Abdul-Aziz Tel: 359-5682

Description: Our project will consist of implementing and integrating an information and instrument display in the dashboard of the EcoCar2000 Hybrid Electric Vehicle. We will use a LCD display to convey the information to the driver. The purpose of our project is to redesign the existing dashboard which currently only consists of an analog speedometer into a user friendly, low maintenance, digital information display. The updated information display is required because the current EcoCar2000 dashboard is unsuitable for displaying the type and amount of information which the driver of the car must have available at all times.

Team members: Edward A. Wells Tel: 278-1397, Darren Shea Tel: 332-1844

Description: Design and build a 2x2 Microstrip Antenna Array. Project will include mathematical modeling, simulation, fabrication, and operation. It will operate at a frequency of 5.8 GHz with a BW of approx. 2.1%. It will be used as a transmitting antenna for a wireless Local Area Network. Possible options include scanning of main beam by mechanical steering the array with a small motor or by electronic means via phase shifters. Other applications include use in voice, data or video transmission systems.

Team members: Joey R. Guerra, Juan M. Herrera, George Valdovinos

Description: The purpose of this device is to provide the average golfer with a means of judging the speed of his putts. As golf continues to grow in popularity, many of us are finding out how difficult it is to determine how hard to strike our golf ball while putting under certain conditions. The Good Speed Putter Pad will aid beginner to average golfers by implementing an array of sensors connected to a microcontroller which will calculate how far a golf ball will travel. The user will essentially take a practice putt over the sensor array. The microcontroller responsible for computing the acceleration of the putter head will send an output to an LCD panel. The LCD panel will show the distance the ball will travel as calculated by corresponding physics equations. We hope to add functionality to the Putter Pad by including additional parameters to record the incline of the green and the surface condition or friction. The physics equations in the microcontroller will then be adjusted to account for the different scenarios one can create.

Team members: Darrell Micheli Tel: (217) 344-9154, Aaron Vogel Tel: (217) 383-1657

Description: The goal of this project is to design and build a cellular communications two-way repeater. The scope or intended applicaton of this product is for those situations in which a phone user enters an area such as a traffic tunnel where signal quality to and from the user is poor and communication fails. Drops in phone calls result in loss of revenue for carriers as well as poor service and dissatisfaction for customers. Two of our repeaters, one mounted at each entrance to the tunnel, would remedy this problem by amplifying signals enough to allow uninterrupted communication despite the effects of the tunnel on the signals. The repeater will essentially consist of receiving and transmitting antennae, two amplifiers, and coupling circuitry.

Team members: Mark Nowak Tel: (217) 344-5667, Kevin Swanson Tel: (217) 363-1962

Description: The purpose of this project is to create an intelligent group management website named e-Group. This website will provide services and intelligent agents to improve group communication, management, and information retrieval from the Internet. These services and intelligent agents will be dynamic and adaptable to the unique characteristics of different types of groups. We want to provide a unique marketable solution for group management compared to the individually based websites available today. This project provides us an opportunity to create a web-based solution to the problem of group management. We will attain new technical skills in the areas of web programming, web servers, web security, and artificial intelligent agents. Each user of the website will belong to an interest group, for example a family, club, or project group. When a new group is created, a new group homepage is dynamically created based on user-inputted characteristics of that group. The website will provide the user services in the areas of group communication, group management, information retrieval, and basic support.

Team members: Grace Yan, Jeff Farris Tel: 384-1580, Takwah Tsang

Description: Project: Design a home security system that can be accessed through any touch tone phone or on-site keypad. Some features will include: electronic door locks; sensors to monitor window status and a way to tell if someone is close to the window on the outside; turning on and off lights, stereo, and/or TV; several stages of reaction by the alarm system depending on severity of situation; and the system will inform the homeowner of any problems via a text or numeric pager. More features may be added as time allows.

Team members: Eric McKibben Tel: 356-1759, Paul Graessle Tel: 344-6177

Description: Project: We propose to design and implement a 12V Distributed Power System for the Hybrid Vehicle. We plan to use this power system to minimize the amount of wiring relative to the central power system. Our design will consist of a three wire system that consists of: a 12V, a ground, and a network wire. We will create subsystems for the lights, doors, and diagnositics, etc. These subsystems will be tied the 12V power and a central "brain" of combinational logic (encoders, mux, etc) that will control their operation. We will also design the electrical fusing system in this project. Also, if time permits we will design a LED display and implement our system on the vehicle.

Team members: Eric Prybil Tel: 356-4730, Carl Palmer Tel: 398-9951

Description: Our project is creating a mock radio station. Listeners will be able to request songs on a website/software and place them into a music line-up. A computer will play these songs "live" and broadcast them via an FM transmitter. Commercials, and other station breaks, will be part of the broadcast as well.

Team members: Thomas Hicks, Nitin Wadhwa

Description: Proposal: To develop a student registration system. This system will be similar to U of I Direct, but it will also be web-based and graphical, thereby making it more user-friendly and accessible to students.

Design Objectives:

- Offer a graphical interface for students to add, drop, and exchange classes
- Display a table-based view showing the student's weekly schedule given their current classes
- Contain a map of campus with marks showing the buildings where the student has classes


A web-based registration system would be a great improvement over the current text-based U of I Direct, and would offer more user-friendly features to students.

Team members: Otto Lee Tel: 384-8902, Gary Chen Tel: 332-4143

Description: Our project will involve designing an electronic door lock which can be controlled electronically through a number code. This number code will allow the user(s) to activate or deactivate a door lock which will be constructed using a solenoid. This sort of device can potentially eliminate the need for conventional keys as well as key cards. Our electronic door lock will also allow the user to easily change the activate/deactivate code in the case where there is suspicion that an unauthorized user may know the code. The electronic door lock can therefore also eliminate the hassles associated with changing locks and duplicating keys.

Team members: Robert Sanford, Joseph Petrovic

Description: We will design and build a uninteruptible power supply. Current UPS's take in AC power and convert it to DC for battery charging. The DC is then converted back to AC to be fed to the computer power supply. Inside the power supply, the AC is rectified and converted to the various DC voltages that are needed by the computer. Our supply will eliminate some of these conversions. It will consist of a charging circuit and a DC-DC converter in order to match the voltage in the computer power supply's DC bus. The new backup supply will tap directly into the DC bus. We will separate the DC bus and our backup with a diode. The diode will switch faster than the mechanical switch that is used now.

Team members: Jason Fontaine, Jon Rasmussen

Description: Proposal: To design and construct a hand held barcode scanner that will interface with a PC to comprise a complete integrated system. It will include hardware that converts the input from an IR sensor (or array of sensors) into a digital signal that will be transmitted over a parallel, serial, or USB cable to the PC. Once the data reaches the PC it will be streamed into a Windows application that will calibrate itself, and then interpret the barcode into a numerical format that can be easily used. If time permits, a database or label maker application will be created that will provide the user with a complete end to end solution.

Our system can be used in a variety of applications including, but not limited to, the following:

* Business: Asset Tracking (What piece of Equipment, Which Room, Which Employee, etc), Product Shipping, Inventory Control.

* Home Use: Storage Box Labeling, Possible Security Entry System with slight modifications.

* Law Enforcement: Personal Identifier, Seized Property Tracking.

We believe that with a lot of hard work, this system can be realized within the time allotted for the project. Its immense versatility and variety of uses make this system a very marketable product for both commercial and consumer use, and is therefore deserving of an entrepreneurial award.

Team members: Barry Huntley, Joseph Rumpler

Description: For some time now, Prof. Lippold Haken has been working on his Continuum Keyboard. This keyboard consists of a flat surface with 256 keys, each with 2 pressure sensitive sensors. Currently it has 16 parallel bus lines running from the keyboard to a $500 custom computer card. Due to the high cost of this card, and the popularity of USB, it only makes sense that the next step in the evolution of the continuum keyboard would be to upgrade the interface to USB. This project will involve selecting a processor to handle the data from the keyboard (not MIDI format) and equipping it with the hardware and software necessary to sequentially send the 512 sensor values at a rate at least 10 times faster than MIDI. This interface will then be used by Prof. Haken as he and other students continue to improve the keyboard.

Team members: Mike Blank Tel: 356-3124 [Web], Matt Davis Tel: 332-1551 [Web]

Description: Our project is based upon the idea of coding the speech signal for transmission in a communication network. We will use "Pulse Code Modulation" to code the, real time, speech signals using a DSP processor. The decoder will be designed to detect the incoming coded information and regenerate the original transmitted voice signal.

Team members: Naveed M. Alam Tel: 355-9517, Hamidah Hassan Tel: 359-5682

Description: We intend to design a sctive crossover for a loudspeaker system with a variable crossover frequency. Since most people do not know how to set the optimum crossover frequency, the system will notify the user when that frequency is dialed in. This will make the system more user friendly and make setup easier. An active digital crossover has the advantage of lower noise added to the signal than a passive analog one, and sharper filters can be used.

Team members: Jim Quinn Tel: 332-2502, Sheilah Sotelo Tel: 384-7842

Description: ECE 272: Numerical Simulations of proton behavior in the TWDEC of an ARTEMIS fusion reactor were carried out in the MATLAB programming language. Studies show that proton velocity decreases in the modulator. Protons attain a maximum number density approximately 105 m from the modulator exit. Velocity decreases in the decelerator as protons lose kinetic energy. A.C. power generation is similar to a simple amplifier and is possible, in principle. Special circuit ECE 345: Design, assemble, and test a small-signal low-frequency amplifier circuit with two of the following five specifications: (1) Low-pass frequency response, (2) Rolloff: Single pole response, (3) 5.3 Gain in passband within +- 5%, (4) 10.5 kHz corner frequency within +- 3%, (5) 500 Ohm input impedence at 1 kHz within +- 5%

Team members: Kevin Jarboe

Description: We will design a device that will deter a flock of birds from nesting in trees. This idea was promoted through a real-life situation. Our device will sense a flock of birds who are about to roost in trees. The device wil then emit a loud sound which will scare the birds away. The noise will be emitted for some period of time, then will turn off. The device will have an internal clock such that the user can set a specific time in which to operate the device.

Team members: Jang H. Lim, Grachelle Garcia

Description: Introduction I propose to design a simple humidity controller for use in the Air Conditioning Research Center (ACRC) environmental test chambers. The current humidification systems consist of a sensor for temperature or humidity, a commercial PID controller, a solid state relay, and a heating element. To better understand the problems to be addressed in my design, a short description of the operation of the current system is needed. The operation of the system is as follows: The signal generated by the sensor is fed into the PID controller. The sensor's signal either represents the actual relative humidity, or the dew point temperature in the chamber. The PID controller sends a signal to the solid state relay. In most cases this is an ON/OFF signal. Some of the controllers have the ability to generate a 4-20mA signal to send to the relay. The solid state relay "closes" or "opens" in response to the PID controller's signal. The action of the relay causes current to flow to a heating element. This heating element is immersed in a container of water. The water will boil and produce steam that is then piped into the environmental chamber. Adding or removing power from the heating element allows indirect control of the humidity in the environmental chamber. The power into the heating element is measured using a watts-transducer and recorded by a data acquisition system. This power is then used in energy balance calculations used by the experimenters. As you would expect, a reasonable amount of precision is required. These commercial controllers, although they allow operation of the facilities for experiments, do not perform the task of humidification as well as the experimenters would like them to. There are three main issues to be considered in improving upon the existing systems that I will address in my design. First, the ability of the commercial controllers to associate a specific power rating to the heating element with a specific relative humidity is limited. This is because these controllers are designed to control temperature-not humidity. Because the humidity is controlled indirectly through a temperature measurement, the commercial controller has a difficult time finding the correct time constant needed for precision operation. Second, in certain systems, the ability of the data acquisition system to acquire data exceeds the ability of the controller to effect a change. For example, one system uses a solid state relay that "skips" cycles of the 60 Hertz power signal in order to effect power control of the heating element. When the set point and the actual humidity are nearly equal, the number of cycles "skipped" grows. In some cases the relay may be on only 1% of the time, meaning 99 out of 100 cycles would be skipped on the 60 Hz line. If the data acquisition system polls the watts-transducer for the humidifier during one of the skipped cycles, it will register either zero watts or some nonsensical number (i.e. a negative number). Thus the data is in error and the experimental results become unusable. Third, the cost of the current systems is excessive for the performance they provide. The system mentioned in the previous paragraph cost over five hundred dollars for controller and solid state relay. Implementation costs drove this system to well over a thousand dollars. Clearly a cheaper alternative needs to be found. Design Considerations Referring to the block diagram on the last page, you can see that the design is made up of several parts. Input will be selectable by the user. The choices will be 4-20mA or 0-5 VDC. The scale of the input will be 0-95% RH or -40 to 60 F. This accurately reflects the signal capabilities of the sensors currently in use by the ACRC. Signal conditioning will be used (if necessary) to make the signal input from the sensor useable by the control segment. For example, if the sensor produces a current output, that signal will be converted to a voltage to be fed into the control section. Control-this section will send the control signal to the control element for the heater. The design will use operational amplifiers in a summing configuration to attain proportional and integral control. There will be no derivative control. Reference-this section will consist of a power supply for the operational amplifier sand a potentiometer to set the desired set point. Element control-this section will basically consist of a TRIAC (probably the Motorola MOC3011) to limit power flow to the heating element. Specifications The specifications used to evaluate this design will be fairly subjective. There is no data detailing how well the current humidity systems work. Without a standard of comparison, detailed specifications are of no use. It is intended to prove compliance by using a current laboratory setup at the ACRC to compare the performance of the old system and the new system. 1. The controller will maintain the humidity within 5% RH. The experimenters feel that this is adequate. 2. The controller will achieve steady state control of the humidification system in thirty minutes or less. Steady state is defined as having the percent relative humidity within specification one when all other parts of the system in the chamber reach steady state. For example, many chambers have refrigeration equipment and heaters in them. The temperature of these components must stabilize before the time begins for the humidity controller to reach steady state. 3. The data acquisition system must experience no problems with the required power measurements while the humidity controller is operating. I will try to use the data acquisition equipment in the laboratories to record and plot this information during the testing of the controller. Schedule September 14,15 Initial Proposal September 16-27 Design all components of system on paper; begin to obtain necessary parts September 29 Design review October 4 Completed re-designs; start building on breadboard October 11 Test completed circuit; first progress check October 18 Report and correct any errors in design; second progress check October 25 Build permanent circuits for testing; third progress check November 1 Complete testing of permanent circuit; perform unofficial demo November 8 Organize documentation of specification compliance; prepare final report and presentation November 29 Finish final paper; make official demo; make presentation Cost and Parts Labor Dream Salary: $30/hour Hours to complete: 250 Multiplier (x2.5) Total Labor Cost: $18,750.00 Parts Power Supply $50.00 Op-Amps $10.00 Resistors $10.00 Capacitors $10.00 Triacs $10.00 Miscellaneous(i.e. wiring, solder, $50.00 boards, etc) Total Parts $140.00 Total Project Cost: $18,890.00

Team members: Gary Stoedter Tel: 356-4691

Description: Our project idea is to design a portable MP3 decoder which will read directly from a CD-ROM drive. We plan to use an embedded processor, possibly 486, to access the CD-ROM and decode the MP3. We will use an FPGA to emulate the glue-logic necessary to interface the CD-ROM and (hopefully) a PC-104 compatible sound card.

Team members: Kevin Duda, Brian Huang

Description: The idea is to build a robotic vacuum cleaner which would automatically clean a room. We would map out a course around a room dynamically. The vacuum cleaner would clean the room in concentric circles until it has completely covered the floor at which point it would turn itself off.

Team members: Shih Chien Chow Tel: 328-8115, Brandon Tipp Tel: 344-1361

Description: To design an IR/RF communicator to allow a user to remotely operate electronic equipment without "line of sight." Applications include IR networks and home appliances (stereos, TVs, etc.). Our product helps consumers centralize their homes, much in the spirit of today's centralized/networked homes. Furthermore, our device will allow easy accessability to appliances which are difficult to control with the current IR remote comtrols, whether that is due to the device being located in a different room or sheer laziness on the part of the user. Currently, we are not aware of any consumer product which satisfies such a retail consumer's need. Hence, our product possesses great market potential due to the absence of competition and predicted low cost of manufacturing.

Team members: Eric Han, Carol Jackson

Description: We will build a networked word processor that allows multiple users to access and edit the same files simultaneously. The work will be divided into three parts: GUI, registry and database server, and a system of revision control algorithms. Our goal is to create a featureful, user friendly environment which does not require the amount of resources needed by larger word processing programs. Though we are still in the design phase, we plan to use the XML/XSL markup standard for the revision control and Java API's for the client/server aspects of the project. We will also complete the special circuit required for software engineering projects.

Team members: Robert Waldrop Tel: 328-1584 [Web], Aron Fay Tel: 328-1581 [Web]

Description:

A clock that automatically knows the correct time for the region you are in. This includes automatically setting the time for regions with and without daylight savings time.

Team members: Antwan Williams

Description: Create a MATLAB graphical usef interface to control 'in real time' various audio effect parameters. Implement on a digital signal processor various filters used to process audio signals. The GUI controls values used by the DSP.

Team members: Leroy Cruse Tel: 355-8890 [Web]

Description:

Team members: paunovic@illinois.edu