Lectures :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

Lectures

Spring 2026 Lecture Material:

 

Pre-Lecture #1:


(before the first lecture)

 

 

Brainstorming and Ideation

  • Brainstorming and Ideation slides (pptx)
  • Videos (watch before coming to class)

 

 

Lecture #1:


(Jan 20th )

 

Getting Started

  • Course Overview and Requests for Approval (slides)- Prof. Arne Fliflet
  • PCB (slides)- Jason Jung
  • Intellectual Property (slides)- Dr. Michelle Chitambar
  • How to write your Final Report (slides)- Aaron Greiger
  • Summer is coming ! (slides)- Prof. Arne Fliflet
  • Pitches
    • AdheraScent (slides)
    • Lab Escape [Quantum]  (slides) - Paul Kwait
    • Bat Sound detector   - Dr. Joy O' Keefe
    • Ant-weight, 3D Printed Battlebot Challenge (slides)- Prof. Viktor Gruev (vgruev@illinois.edu)
  • Brainstorming

 

Pre-Lecture #2:


(before the second lecture)

 

 

Beyond Ideation

 

 

Lecture #2:


(Jan 27)

 

 

Moving Forward

  • RFA tips - A. Fliflet (slides)
  • Conflict resolution workshop - Olga Mironenko
  • Machine shop - Greg
  • Lab Safety - Casey (slides)
  • Pitches
    • FADEX (slides) - Shrey Patel

 

Pre-Lecture #3:


(before the third lecture)

 

 

Design and Writing Tips

 

 

Lecture #3:

(Feb 3rd)

 

 

Last Stop Before Approval Deadline !

  • Ethics, Engineering standards and Societal obligations - A. Fliflet (slides)
  • Pitch : Hemispherical Imaging system for subterranean root detection - John Hart (slides)
  • Use of ChatGPT and LLMs in this course - Victor Gruev (slides)
  • PCB tips - Victor Gruev
  • Proposal and Design Document (slides)
  • Smart home (slides)

Spring 2023 Video Lectures:

Brainstorming

Finding a Problem (Video)
Generating Solutions (Video)
Diving Deeper (Video)
Voting (Video)
Reverse Brainstorming (Video)
Homework for Everyone (Video)

Important Information

Using the ECE 445 Website (Video)
Lab Notebook (Video , Slides)
Modular Design (Video, Slides)
Circuit Tips and Debugging (Video , Slides)
Eagle CAD Tutorial (Video)
Spring 2018 IEEE Eagle Workshop (Slides)
Spring 2018 IEEE Soldering Workshop (Slides)

Major Assignments and Milestones

Request for Approval (Video, Slides)
Project Proposal (Video, slides)
Design Document (Video, slides)
Design Review (Video, slides)
Writing Tips (Video, slides)

Cypress Robot Kit

Todd Nguyen, Byung Joo Park, Alvin Wu

Cypress Robot Kit

Featured Project

Cypress is looking to develop a robotic kit with the purpose of interesting the maker community in the PSOC and its potential. We will be developing a shield that will attach to a PSoC board that will interface to our motors and sensors. To make the shield, we will design our own PCB that will mount on the PSoC directly. The end product will be a remote controlled rover-like robot (through bluetooth) with sensors to achieve line following and obstacle avoidance.

The modules that we will implement:

- Motor Control: H-bridge and PWM control

- Bluetooth Control: Serial communication with PSoC BLE Module, and phone application

- Line Following System: IR sensors

- Obstacle Avoidance System: Ultrasonic sensor

Cypress wishes to use as many off-the-shelf products as possible in order to achieve a “kit-able” design for hobbyists. Building the robot will be a plug-and-play experience so that users can focus on exploring the capabilities of the PSoC.

Our robot will offer three modes which can be toggled through the app: a line following mode, an obstacle-avoiding mode, and a manual-control mode. In the manual-control mode, one will be able to control the motors with the app. In autonomous modes, the robot will be controlled based off of the input from the sensors.