Lectures :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

Lectures

Fall 2024 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:


(January 21st )

 

Getting Started

  • Welcome and Course Overview (link)- Professor Arne Fliflet
  • Request for Approval (link)
  • Conflict Management Workshop (link)- Professor Olga Mironenko (olgamiro@illinois.edu)
  • Pitches
    • Ant-weight, 3D Printed Battlebot Challenge (link)- Professor Viktor Gruev (vgruev@illinois.edu)
    • ECEB Autonomous Window Cleaning System- Professor Jennifer Bernhard (jbernhar@illinois.edu)
  • Brainstorming

 

Pre-Lecture #2:


(before the second lecture)

 

 

Beyond Ideation

 

 

Lecture #2:


(January 28th)

 

 

Moving Forward

  • Introduction
  • Ethics (link)
  • PCB Tips (link)
  • Pitch(es)
    • A Better, Safer EVD (External Ventricular Drain) (link) (link)- Saguna Pappu (spappu@illinois.edu)
    • Spurlock Muesum Artifact Mapping Dome (link)- Aaron Graham (agraham4@illinois.edu)
    • Establishing an Intelligent Square Stepping Exercise System for Cognitive-Motor Rehabilitation in Older Adults with Multiple Sclerosis (link) – Professor Manuel Hernandez (mhernand@illinois.edu)
  • Senior Design and Lab Safety (link) – Casey Smith (cjsmith0@illinois.edu)
  • Brainstorming

 

Pre-Lecture #3:


(before the third lecture)

 

 

Design and Writing Tips

 

 

Lecture #3:

(January 30th)

 

 

Last Stop Before RFA

  • A Better, Safer EVD (External Ventricular Drain) (link) (link)- Saguna Pappu (spappu@illinois.edu)
  • Proposal and Design Document Overview (link)- Arne Fliflet
  • Documentation Details (link)
  • Intellectual Property – Dr. Michelle Chitambar (mchitamb@illinois.edu) (link)
  • Machine Shop – Gregg Bennett (gbenntt@illinois.edu)
  • Writing Center – Dr. Aaron Geiger (ageiger2@illinois.edu) (link)
  • Lab Notebook (link)
  • Modular Design (link)
  • R&V Table (link)
  • Proposal (link)
  • Design Review (link)

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)

Iron Man Mouse

Jeff Chang, Yayati Pahuja, Zhiyuan Yang

Featured Project

# Problem:

Being an ECE student means that there is a high chance we are gonna sit in front of a computer for the majority of the day, especially during COVID times. This situation may lead to neck and lower back issues due to a long time of sedentary lifestyle. Therefore, it would be beneficial for us to get up and stretch for a while every now and then. However, exercising for a bit may distract us from working or studying and it might take some time to refocus. To control mice using our arm movements or hand gestures would be a way to enable us to get up and work at the same time. It is similar to the movie Iron Man when Tony Stark is working but without the hologram.

# Solution Overview:

The device would have a wrist band portion that acts as the tracker of the mouse pointer (implemented by accelerometer and perhaps optical sensors). A set of 3 finger cots with gyroscope or accelerometer are attached to the wrist band. These sensors as a whole would send data to a black box device (connected to the computer by USB) via bluetooth. The box would contain circuits to compute these translational/rotational data to imitate a mouse or trackpad movements with possible custom operation. Alternatively, we could have the wristband connected to a PC by bluetooth. In this case, a device driver on the OS is needed for the project to work.

# Solution Components:

Sensors (finger cots and wrist band):

1. 3-axis accelerometer attached to the wrist band portion of the device to collect translational movement (for mouse cursor tracking)

2. gyroscope attached to 3 finger cots portion to collect angular motion when user bend their fingers in different angles (for different clicking/zoom-in/etc operations)

3. (optional) optical sensors to help with accuracy if the accelerometer is not accurate enough. We could have infrared emitters set up around the screen and optical sensors on the wristband to help pinpoint cursor location.

4. (optional) flex sensors could also be used for finger cots to perform clicks in case the gyroscope proves to be inaccurate.

Power:

Lithium-ion battery with USB charging

Transmitter component:

1. A microcontroller to pre-process the data received from the 4 sensors. It can sort of integrate and synchronize the data before transmitting it.

2. A bluetooth chip that transmits the data to either the blackbox or the PC directly.

Receiver component:

1. Plan A: A box plugged into USB-A on PC. It has a bluetooth chip to receive data from the wristband, and a microcontroller to process the data into USB human interface device signals.

2. Plan B: the wristband is directly connected to the PC and we develop a device driver on the PC to process the data.

# Criterion for Success:

1. Basic Functionalities supported (left click, right click, scroll, cursor movement)

2. Advanced Functionalities supported(zoom in/out, custom operations eg. volume control)

3. Performance (accuracy & response time)

4. Physical qualities (easy to wear, durable, and battery life)