2009

Senior Design AY 2008-2009

Senior Design Instructor:
Dr. Howard Michel

ECE 457/458 Design Project I/II is the capstone design experience where students expand their abilities and develop important real world engineering problem solving skills. The students were divided into ten groups. The details are given below.

Congratulations to our senior design teams Group 8 and Group 10 that represented UMass Dartmouth at the 9th Annual RIT IEEE Student Design Contest at R.I.T , Rochester, NY on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009.

Group 1

Student Members:
Osama A. Al Jaroudi*
Jonathan A. Finn
Joe T. Ly
Jason C. Motta

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. David Rancour

Project Title:
Miniature Low Cost User Programmable Web Server

Project Description:
Design, develop and package an economical low cost user programmable web server module using existing technology and readily available software and hardware components. This module will enable system integrators the ability to easily web enable any RS-232, SPI, one-wire, and/or digital I/O controllable device for a price under $30 in single quantities. This web server will be used in our testing labs as a tool enabling further test automation development.

Customer:
Mr. Stephen Hall, DBA SAHTECH

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Group 2

Student Members:
Stephen A. Briganti*
Charles J. Bienia
David M. Bombardier
Christopher D. Laliberte
Jeffrey D. Richard

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Steven C. Nardone

Project Title:
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Control: Extended Iver 2

Project Description:
The extended body Iver 2 AUV has unique physical components that alter the baseline vehicle dynamics. The dynamics are not well characterized, resulting in operational risks in environments constrained by depth, shorelines, or other obstacles. The objectives of this project are to evaluate the dynamics of the extended body Iver 2 and provide a solution for superior vehicle control during mission execution. Specific dynamic parameters to be addressed are roll, pitch, and speed. The evaluation should be a quantified description of vehicle characteristics in both an unperturbed state and in a response state.

Customer:
Mr. Michael Incze, Naval Underwater Warfare Center (NUWC)

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Group 3

Student Members:
John Chabior*
Michael C. Caradimos
Eche V. Ogah
Jeremy O. Saksik

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. David Brown

Project Title:
Underwater Stereo Boom Box

Project Description:
This project is the design of a stereo amplifier system using modern Class D switching amplifiers, speakers, and using a digital music storage device. This system is intended for underwater use such as in a high end swimming pool or for use in playing back both low frequency whale songs and high frequency dolphin calls. For the underwater use, the speaker will present a very different load to the amplifier as it is likely to be piezoelectric.

Customer:
Dr. David Brown, Btech

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Group 4

Student Members:
Matthew J. Ferreira*
Sean L. Buchanan
Elias Hayek
Fane Lowry

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. David Brown

Project Title:
Acoustic Tag Finder

Project Description:
Acoustic tagging is a common technique where a small transponder that emits an acoustic tone either continuously or when activated in order to track, locate, or recover and object. Fish, lobsters, marine mammals, unmanned underwater vehicles, and flight data recorders are examples of objects that are often tagged. Group will design a towable or fixable hydrophone array with directional capabilities with electrically or mechanically steered beams and a suitable display to direct a user. It will operate on a known transmission frequency. The team will build a working system with a demonstration in a tank or lake environment.

Customer:
Dr. David Brown, Btech

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Group 5

Student Members:
Harrison R. Kitchen*
Kent R. Arambula
Charles M. Baltayan
Flavio G. Fernandesn
James M. Moore

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Paul Fortier

Project Title:
Remote Access Solar Data Acquisition and Reporting System

Project Description:
UMass is currently involved in a campus-wide sustainability assessment. The project goal is to identify and analyze conservation projects considered "low-hanging fruit" in regard to energy conservation. The deliverable is a list of suggested actions for the campus to take in energy conservation, together with potential savings in electricity.

Customer:
Ms. Susan Jennings, Mr. Manuel Del Lima, UMass Dartmouth

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Group 6

Student Members:
Zachary M. Mello*
Jason D. Aiello
Emmanuel L. Lyte
Joseph M. Pandolfo
Eric T. Wingate

Faculty Advisor:
Professor Robert Helgeland

Project Title:
Automated Compass Calibration Station

Project Description:
The purpose of this project is to analyze an existing manual test process and produce a greatly improved and automated test process. The goal is to create a robotic process that does the sensor calibration by moving the units under test with a computer controller servo system. The work involves designing an electro-mechanical test bed with six degrees of freedom that can fully test the sensors by moving them in the earth's magnetic field in a methodical fashion to align the sensors gain offset and temperature calibration, and thus removing the human from the test process.

Customer:
Mr. John Crowell, Ocean Server

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Group 7

Student Members:
Justin T. Meninno*
Steven D. Frietas
Derek L. Pacheco
Matthew A. Pimentel
Justin D. Xavier

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Paul Fortier

Project Title:
Overhead Door Operator Controller

Project Description:
Design, develop and construct the control logic that will run a standard overhead door operator. The module is designed using readily available hardware components and assembled using a printed circuit board. This control logic module is capable of monitoring all of the typical inputs associated with overhead/garage doors such as electric eyes and operation remote controls. It also includes the capability to transmit status and/or maintenance requests using SMS text messaging and/or EMAIL. The door logic board is designed to meet all safety standards required for door operators.

Customer:
Mr. Stephen Hall, DBA SAHTECH

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Group 8

Student Members:
Stephen E. Moniz*
Jared C. Montrowl
Andrew A. Patten
Jeffrey D. Paulson

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Yifei Li

Project Title:
Control System for the BLADESTAR

Project Description:
Remotely controlled birds are used for unmanned sensing and communication. The RC bird is used in this project to develop an automatic navigation system, in which the coordinates are entered into a PC, and a series of radio signals are transmitted to the bird, in order to guide the bird to a predefined target.

Customer:
Mr. Stephen Frechette, Riverside Research Institute

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Group 9

Student Members:
Brendon J. Puntin*
Clayton S. Jenkins
Timothy W. LeBlanc
Azzam Tannous
Justin Yao

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Michael Geiger

Project Title:
Energy Meter for Wind and PV Power Generation

Project Description:
Design a meter for measurement, storage and calculation of electrical power production and consumption values including power quality information. The meter measures instantaneous power consumption and power production (including KVAR, power factor, etc) and stores long term values of KWH used and produced. All data is time stamped. Data is stored and analyzed using a Microprocessor.

Customer:
Mr. Paul Gay, Aerostar

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Group 10

Student Members:
Michael D. Rijo*
Michael E. Daly
Keith J. Tremblay
Paul E. Zeller

Faculty Advisor:
Professor Philip Viall

Project Title:
Seems Advanced Mooring Indicator System

Project Description:
Marine researchers often launch sensors in the bay to measure the ocean environment. Many of these instruments are mounted on a mooring and are expected to stay stationary for the duration of the test. Fishermen also launch traps for shellfish, lobsters, crabs, etc, that also plan to be stationary so they can be retrieved in a few days. The goal of this project is to develop a device that can be mounted on these instruments or trap lines so they can be located quickly.

Customer:
Mr. Eugene Morin, Seems LLC

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