Final Demo

Description

The Final Demonstration (Final Demo) is the single, most important assignment in the course. It is the strongest measure of the success of your project. The evaluation focuses on the criteria of project completion, reliability, and professionalism. You will demo your full project to a group consisting of your Professor, your TA, and a few peer reviewers. Other guests (e.g. alumni, other course staff, visiting scholars, donors) may sometimes also be present.

Requirements and Grading

Students must be able to demonstrate the full functionality of their project to the instructors. If full functionality is not available, then students must be able to show the parts of the project that do function via the procedure listed in their Requirements and Verification Table. Credit will not be given for features which cannot be demonstrated, even if those features worked before and suddenly fail at the time of the final demo. Still, for any portion of the project which does not function as specified, students should have hypotheses and supporting evidence for what the problem may be.

The project team should be ready to justify design decisions and technical aspects of any part of the project (not just your own parts). Quantitative results are expected wherever applicable.

Grading is covered by the Demo Rubric, and is out of 150 points. Some of the key points are as follows:

  1. Completion: The project has been entirely completed.
  2. Thoroughness: Care and attention to detail are evident in construction and layout.
  3. Performance: Performance is completely verified, and operation is reliable.
  4. Understanding: Everyone on the project team must be able to demonstrate understanding of his/her technical work and show that all members have contributed significantly.

Submission and Deadlines

Sign-up for a demo time is handled through the PACE system. Again, remember to sign up for a peer review session as well.

RFI Detector

Featured Project

Problem Statement:

Radio frequency interference from cell phones disrupts measurements at the radio observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Many visitors do not comply when asked to turn their phones off or put them in airplane mode.

Description:

We are planning to design a handheld device that will be able to detect radio frequency interference from cell phones from approximately one meter away. This will allow someone to determine if a phone has been turned off or is in airplane mode.

The device will feature an RF front end consisting of antennas, filters, and matching networks. Multiple receiver chains may be used for different bands if necessary. They will feed into a detection circuit that will determine if the power within a given band is above a certain threshold. This information will be sent to a microcontroller that will provide visual/audible user feedback.