Entrepreneurial Resources

Ingenuity Article on ECE

"If you have a dream, it's better to try and start a company and fail than to not try at all," said Whoola's founder Iyer, who is currently working with venture capitalists to hire a seasoned management team to help oversee his company's growth. Iyer appreciates the university's efforts to incubate start-up companies. "Some of the greatest companies got started in a garage," Iyer said. "This university is providing a five-star garage," he added, referring to the TCL, "so anybody who does not think the U of I is doing enough should maybe not be an entrepreneur."

MRM's Peck believes the timing is right for more entrepreneurs to enter the arena. "Students interested in pursuing this kind of a route are going to see tremendous resources begin to come into place over the next few years both on and off campus," predicted Peck.

Design Competitions

Available Grants

1) Leung Fund

Eligibility: ECE Students, individually or in teams of up to 4 students, at least one being in ECE, may apply for funds up to a maximum of $2,000 for use in accomplishing projects beyond normal classroom activities. These projects may be done as part of a normal class, but should in some way be extraordinary for that class. Projects may also be part of an individual study supervised by a faculty member or may be done within the context of a student organization.

Use of funds: Funds may be used for material costs, services (e.g. machine shop time), and, in special circumstances, travel.

Application materials: Students should submit: 

1. An abstract describing the project in 200-400 words.

2. An itemized budget and accompanying budget justification.

3. A list of deliverables. A final report should always be included in this list.

4. A timeline.

5. An outlook for plans beyond the project and long term impact.

Application process: Materials should be emailed to leungfund@illinois.edu with the subject line "Leung Student Venture Fund." Applications should be received by the end of the fourth week of the semester for full consideration, but will be reviewed on an ad hoc basis after that and funded contingent on remaining budget.

Dispersal of funds: Students should obtain supplies through the ECE Store whenever possible. Otherwise, reimbursements will be handled in the ECE Business Office. Orders and receipts should be consistent with the approved budget and will be reviewed. Major changes in budget should be approved by the review committee. Small adjustments in price or specific component choice do not require additional approval.

 

2) NCIIA

Advanced E-Team Grants
Grants range from $1,000 to $20,000 and may be used for further development and plans for commercialization of their ideas. Funding can be used for project expenses, legal fees, or student internships. These grants will be renewable for up to three years in declining amounts.

3) OSBI

As the consulting arm of the Illinois MBA program, OSBI finds solutions for companies as big Procter & Gamble or as small as technology startups here at the University of Illinois. OSBI conducts 30-40 projects at one time. Clients include General Electric, Dow AgroSciences, Lucent Technologies, Mayo Medical Ventures, and many technology start-ups and commercialization efforts.

If you have an interest in developing your projects further, please use their Contact page to request further information.

Intellectual Property

In the Intellectual Property world, there are four distinct types of safeguards for your ideas: Patents, Copyrights, Trade Secrets, and Trademarks.

  1. PATENTS: A patent is a license by the government that permits its owner to exclude members of the public from making, using, or selling the claimed invention.

    Important things to remember about patents:
    • To receive a patent, the invention must be useful, novel, and unobvious.
    • Disclosure: When an invention is publicly disclosed, inventors have one year to file a patent. Public disclosure means that the invention was seen in a public setting or similarly accessible to the public.
    • Cost: A patent application process will cost anywhere from $2000 - $10,000, and protection lasts from 14 to 20 years.
    • Laboratory notebooks are VERY important.
    • A provisional patent application (PPA) is a low-cost way of delaying the filing of a full patent application for one year. The filing fee is $75 - $150.
    • Priority goes to the first to invent, not the first to file.
    A presentation by Joe Barich on Patent Engineering and intellectual property is available for your perusal.
    Disclaimer: This presentation does not constitute legal advice. This presentation does not create an attorney-client relationship. This presentation was accurate as of the date it was originally given, but may become inaccurate due to changes in the underlying legal framework.
     
  2. COPYRIGHTS: A copyright covers only the expression of a work and does not do anything to stop people from approaching clever ideas that happened to be embodied in that work. A Copyright extends to software, meaning no one can copy it. No registration is mandatory, though registration could make for stronger claims later in case of infringement. Competitors could still look at software and come close to it without actually copying it. However, with a patent on the full invention, including the software, competitors are forbidden to design something like it.
     
  3. TRADE SECRETS: A trade secret is a duty to keep an invention secret, thus protecting it until a patent is issued or an invention is publicly disclosed. It is possible that this protection can be lost if secrets are not protected.
     
  4. TRADEMARKS: A trademark is either a word, phrase, symbol, or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods or services of one party from those of others.

Here is the official Illinois Policy Concerning Ownership of Intellectual Property Created by Students as Class Work.

Here is a list of Web Resources maintained by the OTM for the University's Patent Office. For more specific instructions, see the following section.

Invention or Software Copyright Disclosures

Here are instructions for dealing with invention disclosures or software copyright disclosures, should the need arise:

  1. Go to the OTM (Office of Technology Management) Web site: http://www.otm.illinois.edu/
     
  2. Under the "For Campus" tab, there is the (1) Invention Disclosure Form, (2) Software Disclosure Form, and (3) Mobile App Disclosure Form. Complete and submit -- through the ECE Department -- the applicable Disclosure Form.
     
  3. The Invention Disclosure Form, under Section 14, contains the following statement:

    I (We) hereby agree to assign all right, title and interest to this invention to the UI and agree to execute all documents as requested, assigning to UI our rights in any patent application filed on this invention and to cooperate with the RTMO in the protection of this invention. UI will share any royalty income derived from the invention with the inventor(s) according to the General Rules, Article III, Section 8.

    Cross out/strike that paragraph -- and write in something like SEE ATTACHED LETTER -- and then add a letter that explains what you want from the University and why, giving as much detail as necessary for the OTM to check out the situation fully (i.e., that is not already covered by answering the questions in the Disclosure Form).
     
  4. After completing the Form, send it to the ECE Assistant to the Department Head in the Business Office (2120 ECEB). The form will be forwarded to OTM with a cover letter. OTM will then assign the Disclosure to a Tech Manager who will follow up as needed and coordinate a response to the students involved.

Transferring Intellectual Property Rights

Some projects proposed by mentors external or internal to the University, may require that you transfer the rights to intellectual property developed as part of the project they propose. Whether you agree to transfer the rights or decide to undertake a different project is completely up to you, the student.

If you do decide to undertake the proposed project, you will need to sign over your rights using this pre-approved form.

Oxygen Delivery Robot

Aidan Dunican, Nazar Kalyniouk, Rutvik Sayankar

Oxygen Delivery Robot

Featured Project

# Oxygen Delivery Robot

Team Members:

- Rutvik Sayankar (rutviks2)

- Aidan Dunican (dunican2)

- Nazar Kalyniouk (nazark2)

# Problem

Children's interstitial and diffuse lung disease (ChILD) is a collection of diseases or disorders. These diseases cause a thickening of the interstitium (the tissue that extends throughout the lungs) due to scarring, inflammation, or fluid buildup. This eventually affects a patient’s ability to breathe and distribute enough oxygen to the blood.

Numerous children experience the impact of this situation, requiring supplemental oxygen for their daily activities. It hampers the mobility and freedom of young infants, diminishing their growth and confidence. Moreover, parents face an increased burden, not only caring for their child but also having to be directly involved in managing the oxygen tank as their child moves around.

# Solution

Given the absence of relevant solutions in the current market, our project aims to ease the challenges faced by parents and provide the freedom for young children to explore their surroundings. As a proof of concept for an affordable solution, we propose a three-wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot capable of supporting filled oxygen tanks in the size range of M-2 to M-9, weighing 1 - 6kg (2.2 - 13.2 lbs) respectively (when full). Due to time constraints in the class and the objective to demonstrate the feasibility of a low-cost device, we plan to construct a robot at a ~50% scale of the proposed solution. Consequently, our robot will handle simulated weights/tanks with weights ranging from 0.5 - 3 kg (1.1 - 6.6 lbs).

The robot will have a three-wheeled omni-wheel drive train, incorporating two localization subsystems to ensure redundancy and enhance child safety. The first subsystem focuses on the drivetrain and chassis of the robot, while the second subsystem utilizes ultra-wideband (UWB) transceivers for triangulating the child's location relative to the robot in indoor environments. As for the final subsystem, we intend to use a camera connected to a Raspberry Pi and leverage OpenCV to improve directional accuracy in tracking the child.

As part of the design, we intend to create a PCB in the form of a Raspberry Pi hat, facilitating convenient access to information generated by our computer vision system. The PCB will incorporate essential components for motor control, with an STM microcontroller serving as the project's central processing unit. This microcontroller will manage the drivetrain, analyze UWB localization data, and execute corresponding actions based on the information obtained.

# Solution Components

## Subsystem 1: Drivetrain and Chassis

This subsystem encompasses the drive train for the 3 omni-wheel robot, featuring the use of 3 H-Bridges (L298N - each IC has two H-bridges therefore we plan to incorporate all the hardware such that we may switch to a 4 omni-wheel based drive train if need be) and 3 AndyMark 245 RPM 12V Gearmotors equipped with 2 Channel Encoders. The microcontroller will control the H-bridges. The 3 omni-wheel drive system facilitates zero-degree turning, simplifying the robot's design and reducing costs by minimizing the number of wheels. An omni-wheel is characterized by outer rollers that spin freely about axes in the plane of the wheel, enabling sideways sliding while the wheel propels forward or backward without slip. Alongside the drivetrain, the chassis will incorporate 3 HC-SR04 Ultrasonic sensors (or three bumper-style limit switches - like a Roomba), providing a redundant system to detect potential obstacles in the robot's path.

## Subsystem 2: UWB Localization

This subsystem suggests implementing a module based on the DW1000 Ultra-Wideband (UWB) transceiver IC, similar to the technology found in Apple AirTags. We opt for UWB over Bluetooth due to its significantly superior accuracy, attributed to UWB's precise distance-based approach using time-of-flight (ToF) rather than meer signal strength as in Bluetooth.

This project will require three transceiver ICs, with two acting as "anchors" fixed on the robot. The distance to the third transceiver (referred to as the "tag") will always be calculated relative to the anchors. With the transceivers we are currently considering, at full transmit power, they have to be at least 18" apart to report the range. At minimum power, they work when they are at least 10 inches. For the "tag," we plan to create a compact PCB containing the transceiver, a small coin battery, and other essential components to ensure proper transceiver operation. This device can be attached to a child's shirt using Velcro.

## Subsystem 3: Computer Vision

This subsystem involves using the OpenCV library on a Raspberry Pi equipped with a camera. By employing pre-trained models, we aim to enhance the reliability and directional accuracy of tracking a young child. The plan is to perform all camera-related processing on the Raspberry Pi and subsequently translate the information into a directional command for the robot if necessary. Given that most common STM chips feature I2C buses, we plan to communicate between the Raspberry Pi and our microcontroller through this bus.

## Division of Work:

Given that we already have a 3 omni wheel robot, it is a little bit smaller than our 50% scale but it allows us to immediately begin work on UWB localization and computer vision until a new iteration can be made. Simultaneously, we'll reconfigure the drive train to ensure compatibility with the additional systems we plan to implement, and the ability to move the desired weight. To streamline the process, we'll allocate specific tasks to individual group members – one focusing on UWB, another on Computer Vision, and the third on the drivetrain. This division of work will allow parallel progress on the different aspects of the project.

# Criterion For Success

Omni-wheel drivetrain that can drive in a specified direction.

Close-range object detection system working (can detect objects inside the path of travel).

UWB Localization down to an accuracy of < 1m.

## Current considerations

We are currently in discussion with Greg at the machine shop about switching to a four-wheeled omni-wheel drivetrain due to the increased weight capacity and integrity of the chassis. To address the safety concerns of this particular project, we are planning to implement the following safety measures:

- Limit robot max speed to <5 MPH

- Using Empty Tanks/ simulated weights. At NO point ever will we be working with compressed oxygen. Our goal is just to prove that we can build a robot that can follow a small human.

- We are planning to work extensively to design the base of the robot to be bottom-heavy & wide to prevent the tipping hazard.