Engineering Commons^™

Home Automation Via Smart Technology, Christian Griggs, Audrey Morrisette, James Pepper

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Problem Statement The idea of an ‘Internet of Everything’ has been floating around for a while, but beyond mere buzzword this concept carries with it immense, and unfortunately as of yet untapped potential. The idea of complete interconnectivity most typically conjures images of home automation; smart appliances capable of self-regulation, self-setting thermostats, etc., but with this connectivity comes with it not only the capacity to remotely monitor an existing system but to control it as well (be it with a smart phone, online application, what have you). There exists ‘smart technologies’ which incorporate user’s smart phones in the operation and …

Head-Tracking Wireless Streaming Device, Christopher Foster, Kyle Arpe, Zachary Somers

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In various businesses and services, there is a need for tight integration between visual media, human response to that media, and coordination of that response. For example, emergency responders may need information from a separate perspective using robotically controlled cameras in order to improve coordination efforts. The aim of this project is to design a low cost, high performance video streaming device. The essential feature of our design is to wirelessly send a video stream from a webcam to a micro-display and remotely control the orientation of the webcam using head movements. There are many future applications for this project …

Small Scale Wide Band Radio Frequency Spectrum Analyzer, Ali Aldajaei, Ryan Littleton, Matthew Thomas

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The project being proposed has to deal the processing and identification of radio frequencies. As more and more frequencies are being used on the radio spectrum, noise and interference have become a problem. Currently spectrum analyzers can be used to identify this noise and interference but they require manpower and specialized equipment. Our project will focus on automating the process of analyzing multiple frequencies and identifying signals from interference. This will be done by first taking an input from a radio antenna to acquire radio signals at various frequencies and storing the values. These values will then be analyzed to …

Human-Machine Interfacing Via Epidermal Electronic Systems, Michael Flynn, Matthew Nelson, Stefan Sharpley, Drew Simmons

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Surface electromyography (EMG) is rapidly becoming a viable control source for interfacing with machines. By measuring the electric potential generated by the contractions of skeletal muscles, systems can be controlled with a mere flick of the wrist, allowing intuitive and versatile control to the wielder. As sensors and classification algorithms become more sophisticated, EMG control has increasing potential to revolutionize the way we interact with and utilize technology. Prosthetics in particular have benefited the most from these recent advances, with one research team successfully returning ambulation to a leg amputee last year. However, this technology is not yet suitable for …

Wind Energy Harvesters For Urban Small Scale Power Generation, James Mcnamee, Zachary Gartrell, Andrew Krupacs

Capstone Design Expo Posters

The energy demands of society are increasing, and the ability to produce this energy from renewable sources such as wind must also increase to meet these demands. Large wind turbines are a great way to harvest renewable wind power, but they are often too large to use in an urban environment.

This project focuses on designing wind energy harvesters, based on existing iterations that produce output power per area comparable to that of an efficient wind turbine, approximately 3 watts per harvester that is 1 meter long. In order to reach this target power level, two innovative designs are under …

Automated Magnetic Field Scanning System, George Bakirtzis, Tim Owen, Tara Powell

Capstone Design Expo Posters

One of Jefferson Laboratory’s research areas is in Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) science and technology. SRF cavities are tested in the Vertical Testing Area (VTA) at Jefferson Laboratory, within a series of large cylindrical dewars. The measured quality factor (Q factor) of the SRF cavity is directly influenced by any existing magnetic field. Because the VTA previously housed a cyclotron, all the rebars within the building have residual magnetic fields emanating from them. This magnetic field effect of the building renders the measurements of Q factor on the devices inaccurate and the testing data unreliable. A magnetic field scanning system …

Automotive Object Detection Training System, Lucas Cerully, Salima Fenaoui, Derek Mccubbin

Capstone Design Expo Posters

With a constant rise in the automobile industry, there is a demand for more advanced integratable technology along with it. With the consumer’s safety always in mind, automobile companies are adding more to their systems to help detect and prevent collisions. Among these technologies is the object detection system. In summary, this component warns or reacts to oncoming objects that could put the driver in danger. As with any piece of technology, there are problems and bugs that the object detection system can come across that would cause it to act irregularly. In turn, this requires the availability of technicians …

Temperature Measurement Of Server Room, Eric Cobbinah, Faida Matabaro, Michael Tu, James Mcadams

Capstone Design Expo Posters

In this project we will be developing a system to help monitor temperature in data centers. This system will include software and a circuit to route resistive temperature devices (RTDs) (Figure 1) to a microchip which will output their readings as data. The system should be able to connect with 64 RTDs, read the temperatures from them, and make the data accessible over a network. This system could also be used in other situations besides data centers. The user would decide where to place the devices and how to use the temperature data. This system will allow more RTDs to …

Non-Causal Autonomous Parking System For Driverless Vehicles, Ngoc Hue Vo, Swarna Chowdhuri, Ivo Yotov

Capstone Design Expo Posters

According to an Audi Urban Future Initiative study, the average person spends 106 days over their life-time searching for parking spaces. Whether it is on the side of a busy city street or a shopping center car park, the issue of parking private vehicles poses a substantial logistical challenge that scales in complexity along with population density. As modern populations trend towards urbanization it becomes imperative to develop more efficient parking structures. With the inevitable shift towards driverless vehicles, there exists a need to establish a control system to mitigate these complications. One embodiment of such a solution is a …

Automated Disc Kiosks, Kal Stankov, Allen Woods, Yaw Amoatin

Capstone Design Expo Posters

Our improved automated disc kiosks are designed with two purposes in mind: to improve the inventory management and agility of current automated media rental services and to simplify and consolidate the storage and distribution of installation media in an IT environment. The kiosks combine the ability to store and dispense optical discs (CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray Discs, etc.) with the ability to burn newer content pushed out via a network connection from a company’s servers. Designed and built with commonly available components to minimize costs, the prototype consists of a Digilent Zybo FPGA board powered by a Xilinx processor. A tablet …