Current Projects Viable for ECE Senior Design

WOLF Team – Digital Interactive Educational Exhibits

Wolf Park is a facility in Battleground, Indiana dedicated to studying and educating the public about wolves and other wild canids. The Education Center at Wolf Park has a mission to provide educational opportunities for local youth on the role of wolves in the ecosystem and a variety of topics related to conservation in the Greater Lafayette area. Most of the exhibits in the Education Center are posters or other static content, and Wolf Park would like to update the center to include more museum-style interactive exhibits. ECE senior design students are needed to design and build interactive exhibits across a variety of topics.

MOBI Team – Mobile Apps for Students with Disabilities

  1. Improvements to the ATG and the RouteCreator – the Automated Tour Guide (ATG) is a mobile application used to help new students and employees that are fully or partially blind to create a mental map of predetermined routes on campus.  The routes are recorded using the RouteCreator, a web application based on Google map used to select and store locations and record audible descriptions of those locations.  ATG is available in Android and iOS.  ATG and RouteCreator are functional, but the Purdue Disability Resource Center (DRC) would like to improve it based on their test and expectations.

  2. Development of an Interactive Campus Map – Purdue students, employees, and visitors can find an online campus map with identification of the campus building and parking spaces.  The map does not offer information about accessible tools available in those buildings (e.g., ramps, elevators, door openers, Braille directories).  Purdue Disability Resource Center (DRC) would like EPICS to develop an interactive map that would provide such information in a platform that would also be inclusive and accessible to different users.

DCES Team – Robotics for K12 Education

Working on an interactive robotic system to support education and promote interest in the 5th grade of the Delphi Community Elementary School.  The target students are familiar with educational competitions.  The intent is to demonstrate common activities and uses for robots today.  Some activities might include (but are not limited to) pick and place arm, pick and dispatch system, autonomous driving, etc.  The system must be interactive via manual controls, programming, or both.

ISD Team –Software Development for the Deaf

The ISD team works on a variety of software applications for Indiana School for the Deaf. The team is currently seeking ECE students to work on:

  1. App that streamlines how teachers communicate what students complete during the week with parents using React Native
  2. Web application to help teachers track IEP goals for students
  3. Real-time ASL translator by using Google’s framework (Mediapipe) and creating CNN (for image classification) and RNN (video classification) to translate both static and dynamic gestures and sentences.

BME Team – Medical Technology and Exhibits

  1. AutoCPR  Project – The purpose of this project is to continue the work on a low-cost, portable, automated CPR device to combat lack of access, rescuer fatigue, and to keep patients alive in rural areas long enough for transportation to a medical facility. This project was created in response to hundreds of deaths after the 2016 earthquake due to first responders’ inability to deliver CPR. Thus, this automated CPR machine will benefit any victims of natural disasters and the first responders in those events. The project partner Dr. Uquillas hopes to implement this device in Quito, Ecuador, especially those in rural areas that are within 45 minutes to emergency services. This project will involve heavy ECE design for the motor control unit, implementing a PCB design for the final iteration.

  2. FlappyBoiler Project – The goal of the Flappy Boiler team is to create a museum exhibit that uses EMG signals that will be used to educate and introduce small children to the field of biomedical engineering. This project needs to be able to educate a relatively complex topic to little kids and attract little kid's attention, so the Flappy Boiler team decided to create a side scroller game using EMG signals as the controls. The EMG signal is gathered by electrodes on an athletic sleeve. This signal is then amplified and filtered in order to have a clean, usable signal the game can use effectively. This project will involve coding, signal acquisition, filtering, and thresholding design for EMG signal acquisition and processing.

SCAN Team – RFID Sensors and Cellular

The SCAN team is working with PU Alternate Transportation to pilot a program to track bike traffic on campus. They are developing solar power remote RFID scanner to be placed on campus to read RFID tags attached to bikes. The units use cellular technology to transmit the data to a central server

DISC Team – Apps and Games for Students with Disabilities

The DISC team works on a variety of software applications. The team is currently seeking ECE students to work on a new project with the Disability Resource Center (DRC). The project will be an app that provides (1) online references to help students with dyslexia cope, learn, and adapt, and (2) games (needs to be developed) that would help students with dyslexia learn.
 

EVEI Team – Electric Vehicles and Technology

1. The University EV Grand Prix now includes a division for autonomous electric go kart racing. These karts require multiple cameras, sensors, and computers for their operation. The EVEI team has been developing a power supply specifically for these karts that will provide the proper voltage and current flow for each of the devices in a compact and durable package.
2. The High School EV Grand Prix program promotes electric vehicle technology and vehicle dynamics in the high school setting. To further the understanding and improve the performance of these karts, The EVEI team has been developing kart performance and power consumption data acquisition capabilities on the kart and wirelessly transmits the data to a trackside computer for analysis. Addition design is required to improve this capability and make it available to the HS teams. A desired addition would be to add an IR based timing system to the kart.
3. As a step towards understanding the technology of autonomous vehicles, the HS GP program is adding a competition for remote controlled go-karts. The RC features will need to control speed, steering, braking, and include safety systems to safely brake the kart if some of the systems fail. Future projects may also include demonstrations of autonomous vehicle technology. 

IS Team –Embedded, Robotics, and Software for Museums

The IS team works on museum-like exhibits to help inspire and educate children in the areas of science, technology, and engineering. They are currently seeking ECE students for (1) a software focused senior design with the weather exhibit game, (2) an embedded/robotics focused project with the mars rover, and (3) an embedded RF focused project for the RFID sensor for the mars rover.

IMS Team
App development using React Native to develop iOS and Android apps for the Stormwater Utility organization. The apps would help streamline the process of how they conduct their inspections in streams of water to check for water pollution.
NDP Team – Alternative Energy
We don’t have an active ECE project, but if someone is interested in applications for solar power energy, we could generate a project within NDP (Natural Disaster Preparedness) to house it.  There are a few ideas with applications in communications, water pumping, and/or refrigeration.