ECE-492/3 Topics for Fall’12
1. Leaping water controller and demonstration
FS: Dr. Hintz
Develop and demonstrate a laptop based, USB interfaced, leaping water controller similar to http://www.sundancewaterdesign.com and the leaping water at Epcot Center. The system will be self-contained with its own water pump and control at least 4 solenoids valves. It will be configured to vary separately for each solenoid valve both the duration of the pulse of water as well as the time between pulses. It will have a GUI and can be written in Matlab.
2. Sea Turtle Light Pollution Measurement device
FS: Dr. Hintz
Develop an app for an iPhone which integrates readings from its internal compass, GPS, level, and camera to measure average light intensity and automatically upload the formatted data to a web site. The purpose of the device is to measure light levels in multiple directions at multiple locations along beaches which are sea turtle nesting sites. All sea turtles are endangered species and providing this iPhone app will allow volunteers to take data which can be used to produce light pollution maps. Light pollution is a major cause of emerging sea turtles not making it to the sea when they hatch.
3. Self-regulating “organisms”.
FS: Dr. K. Hintz and Dr. Steve Wanna (Doctor of Musical Arts @ AIW)
To create several electronic, interacting, self-regulating “organisms”. Each will have a small speaker, a small, omnidirectional microphone and a circuit that links the two inversely (higher input = lower output). The speaker will emit sound at a predetermined maximum amplitude level. The microphone will receive input from the speaker and environment. The circuit will connect the two such that the input received from the mic inversely controls the output of the speaker so that the louder the amplitude level into the mic, the lower the speaker’s output and vice versa. If levels get too loud, the organisms will temporarily shut down, i.e. completely stop emitting sound, and resume after some period of time. All behavior should be mediated strictly through sound.
4. Marine water alkalinity measurement device
FS: Dr. Hintz
Partially implement on a laptop a controller for performing alkalinity measurements of marine water samples utilizing the method of reverse Gran titration. The project can be done with USB connected A/D converters to read the pH of a fluid and USB connected binary valued switches to control several micropumps and valves. The pumps, valves, and usb control devices will be supplied. The measurement method is documented in a Mason owned patent application. The partial implementation refers to a writing a Matlab driven GUI to control the valves and pumps. The GUI will be implemented utilizing Matlab GUIDE. The control of the pumps and valves will be through the Matlab Instrument Control Toolbox. Calculation of the alkalinity from the measured data is a plus, but not required.
5. Beacon-Based Navigation System for a Neutrally Buoyant RC Blimp
FS: Prof. Carl G. Schaefer, Jr.
Develop a navigational beacon system to allow a small RC blimp to autonomously navigate a closed course inside a large building. The beacons may be based on RF, polarized light, IR, or another technology that can be integrated and tested in the timeframe allocated to this project. The beacon must be integrated into at least two, but preferably three, circular hoops on adjustable stands that allow the hoops to be set at different heights above the ground. The start/finish line for the course will be defined by a separate, fixed-height beacon (no hoop). The team must also develop a flight control system for a neutrally-buoyant RC blimp that will allow the blimp to autonomously navigate a 3D course defined by the location and height of the beacon hoops. The blimp must navigate to, and fly through, each hoop in succession as the blimp navigates the course. It is recommended that two teams of three approach this project, one focused on the engineering of the beacon navigation system, the other on the development of the blimp autopilot.
6. Dynamic-Positioning System for Scale-Model Ocean Exploration Rig
FS: Prof. Carl G. Schaefer, Jr.
Design, build, and demonstrate a dynamic positioning (DP) control system to stabilize an electrically-powered model ocean exploration rig. The 6-DOF (degree of freedom; pitch, roll, yaw, surge, sway, and heave) DP control system you develop must hold and maintain the exploration rig to a specified fixed position and fixed heading despite disturbances from current, winds, or waves. The team must design and build the model exploration rig to demonstrate the DP control system. The team has the option of developing a system that works indoors (e.g., at the pool at the GMU Aquatics Center) or, alternatively, one that works outdoors (e.g., at the GMU duck pond, Lake Braddock,or Potomac River); the former will likely useeither a GPS/DGPS or beacon-based position reference system while the latter will likely be based solely on fixed beacons for the position reference system. The team must design a demonstration to show that the system can hold position and heading in the presence of environmental disturbances (for instance, to waves generated in the pool by a person jumping into the water). DP systems are used in the America’s Cup LiveLine system (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0LH5cCuc_4), mobile offshore drilling units (MODU’s), as well as many other ship and industrial applications.
7. Cognitive radio network
FS: Dr. Mark
Cognitive radios have the ability to sense the radio frequency (RF) environment and detect unused spectrum bands, also called spectrum holes. By dynamically switching to spectrum holes when they appear and switching out when they disappear, a cognitive radio can exploit pockets of spectum left idle by the licensed owner of the spectrum, also known as the primary system. A cognitive radio network consists of a group of cognitive radios communicating with each other via dynamic spectrum access within a licensed spectrum band, while minimizing potentially harmful interference to the primary systems. In this project, you will design, implement, and demonstrate the operation of a cognitive radio network based on the GNU radio platform (see http://gnuradio.org). The project will involve software-defined radio hardware, signal processing, RF communications, and networking protocols.
8. FPGA enhanced Wireless Sensor Nodes based on MSP 430
FS: Dr. Kaps
A wireless sensor network is a system of individual sensor nodes, each equipped with a processor, wireless transceiver and sensor. Each node collects information about its environment through sensors and passes it on to the base station. The goal of this project is to develop an FPGA enhanced wireless sensor node similar to the one developed by a group from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain but based on the MSP 430 microcontroller. MSP 430 based open source motes are the Telos Mote and the newer EPIC Mote. The group has to study the schematics of the open source motes, prototype one and develop an FPGA interface (e.g. SPI, I2C or better). After successful prototyping a PCB has to be made for the new sensor node.
Prerequisite: At least one team-member must have successfully completed ECE 447 and one ECE 448.
9. Water elevator instrumentation
FS: Sándor Nyerges, , 571-451-4031(Physics Dept.) and Dr. Pachowicz
Purpose: To investigate and simulate the ways and effects of increasing rainfall at given geographical sites. A collaborative effort between Physics and Engineering at GMU, to study the possible effects of a long term, large scale human intervention in local weather patterns and perhaps global climate over the next century. EE students are expected in the first semester to design and build a practical scale model of proposed installation, with a number of different sensor networks to measure empirical data, and to turn the data into useful information that will be used as a basis to design a long term climate simulation study in the second semester. Students will learn about atmospheric science, climate modeling, sensors, wireless sensor networks and data fusion.
10. Accurate pendulum instrument
FS: Dr. Pachowicz
This is Phase#1 in a series of projects leading to the development of an extremely accurate large-scale mechanical clock (to be mounted on the 3rd floor) and controlled and powered by electronic systems. A 1-second mechanical pendulum (1m long) requires periodic transfer of energy to maintain its motion. This is achieved by a simple solenoid transforming electrical energy impulse into a pulse of mechanical force. Timing of this impulse and its duration can speed up, slow down, and/or maintain pendulum frequency and amplitude. This project will develop such an electronic regulator integrating selected components including low-power sensors, microcontroller, timer, power unit, and solenoid. Development of a simple model is required in order to achieve accuracy, precision, and resilience to external influences. All mechanical hardware and electro-mechanical components will be build by FS. At least one team-member must have knowledge of microcontrollers.
11. Remote monitor of sport fields
FS: Dr. Pachowicz
Let’s assume you want to play tennis at a local court. You pack and get there to see all courts booked. Would it be better if you could check remotely the court availability? So, the goal of this project is to develop a low-cost wireless monitoring sensor which will periodically broadcast a low-resolution image to people who subscribe to the service. There are several possible solutions to this. For example, an imaging sensor positioned at a tennis court, powered by solar energy. utilizes low-frequency wireless connection/network to send images to registered receivers or to upload to a web based server. This project will brainstorm different solutions, develop chosen approach, build and test a simple prototype system.
12. Wireless Mesh Network for Wild Animals
FS: Prof. Michael F. Young
This project is about design, building, testing and optimizing a wireless mesh network on the 902 – 928 MHz license-free band for use on animals in the wild. (Live tracking of wireless animals via a mesh radio network has never been done before.) National Geographic has a grant from the NSF to equip caribou and their predators (wolves, bears, lynx) in Newfoundland, Canada with their “CritterCam” system. These devices will have GPS receivers and wireless mesh radios for the purpose of tracking and inter-animal communications. (For example when a predator is near a caribou, the devices need to talk to each other in order to turn on the CritterCams and start recoding video.) The project involves many disciplines including programming PIC processors and the mesh radios, as well as RF analysis and lots of field testing. Since NatGeo will be providing most of the items needed for this project, interested teams will need to be interviewed. The group that has the appropriate skill set to successfully complete the project and shows the willingness to put the necessary effort in will be awarded the project. For more info go here: http://mason.gmu.edu/~myoung22/
13. All-Weather Battery/Solar Powered Relay Stations
FS: Prof. Michael F. Young
The project involves designing, building and testing an all-weather battery/solar powered solar relay stations to support the Wireless Mesh Network (above). These fixed stations will be placed at high-sites in Newfoundland to support long range communications from the animals back to a base station and to other animals. It will require researching the worst case solar radiation at that latitude and then engineering the proper solar and battery, charging and power control solution to ensure continuous reliable operation. Extensive testing will be needed. The station will need two enclosures: a small one at the top of the mast or tower that hold the radio and processor and a bigger one that will be at the bottom to hold the battery and control electronics. Detailed Production Documentation will be required so that NatGeo can then use these documents to build these stations. At least one team member must have good mechanical and drawing skills. For more info go here: http://mason.gmu.edu/~myoung22/
14. Pitch estimation
FS: Dr. Ephraim
Pitch is a fundamental feature of human voice. Its frequency ranges around 100 Hz for male speaker and is higher for female and children speakers. The pitch period is not constant for a given speaker and it varies with time. Estimation of the pitch period is fundamental to many speech processing algorithms such as coding, synthesis, and identification. In this project, students will learn about various ways to estimate the pitch period from a given speech waveform. In particular, students will be required to implement a pitch estimator from the linear prediction residual signal. This is a Matlab project where the students will be required to implement the algorithm and develop a graphic user interface to demonstrate the tracking of the pitch period with time.
15. Adaptive noise cancellation
FS: Dr. Ephraim
This project deals with adaptive noise cancellation where a noisy signal is given plus a correlated reference to the noise. Using the auxiliary noise source we would like to somehow "cancel" the noise in the primary input. This situation is encountered in practice for example in an office with a noisy fan which interferes with ongoing conversations. Students are expected to implement Widrow's least mean square (LMS) algorithm and measure the efficiency of this approach in suppressing the noise and in the inevitable consequence of distorting the main speech signal. This project is suitable to student who have taken ECE 460. G.W. Elko, "Adaptive noise cancellation with directional microphones," 1997 IEEE ASSP Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics, 1997.
16. Automatic Signature Verification System
FS: Dr. Nelson, Dr. Ikonomidou
Identity fraud remains a serious concern in the financial industry. With signature being one of the primary
identification features in use, automatic verification of the signee can have a significant impact on the safety of financial transactions. This senior design project will enhance a first design of an automated
signature verification system by combining image and biometric data. The project includes to main efforts: (1) constructing an improved version of a basic hardware system proposed and developed by a
previous team, and (2) developing and implementing signal processing algorithms for performing signature verification using the hardware system. The system will need to be thoroughly tested on a broad
subject pool.
17. Low-cost Telemedicine Station
FS: Dr. Ikonomidou, Dr. Nelson
Existing telecommunications infrastructure can be an inexpensive means for providing medical care to rural, low-income areas. The goal of this project is to design a proof-of-concept telemedicine station that measures a patient's vital signs and transmits the information to a centralized data center via the cellular network. The project may be built upon basic prototype hardware developed by a previous group. A new group would be expected to build and integrate more sophisticated medical test devices, as well as enhance the functionality of the data center.