Final Presentation

Description

Presentations of the projects are given a few days after the Final Demo to an audience of fellow student reviewers, the lab instructors, and occasionally faculty or even students from outside the class who are following up a project of personal interest to them. The style is formal and professional, and students should dress accordingly.

Requirements and Grading

Each project team has 25 minutes for a Powerpoint presentation and questions. Every group member must present their own work contributing to the project and be ready to answer questions. Individual grades are given, and everyone in the audience participates in evaluating the presentation. Talks are judged on the basis of presentation technique and of technical organization and content.

Points of technique include dress, use of display materials and their design for readability, clarity of speech, absence of annoying mannerisms, proper eye contact with audience and smooth transitions between speakers. Content is judged on use of a proper introduction, orderly and connected development of ideas, absence of unnecessary details, proper pacing to stay within the allotted time, and an adequate summary at the close of the talk. Quantitative results are expected whenever applicable. Here is a general outline to follow:

  1. Introduction
  2. Objective
  3. Review of original design, requirements, and verifications
  4. Description of project build and functional tests
  5. Discussion of successes and challenges, as well as explanations of any failed verifications demonstrating and understanding of the engineering reason behind the failure
  6. Details of other tests including tests not explicitly required for verification procedures
  7. Recommendations for further work

Any significant relevant ethical issues should be briefly addressed, preferably in a single slide.

Presentations will be graded using the presentation grading rubric. Two sample Presentation documents - with notes at the top - are available at: Sample PRES 1, Sample PRES 2

Here are some recent presentations you can refer to: FA20_Team13, FA20_Team3

Submission and Deadlines

Slides for your final presentation must be uploaded to your project page on PACE prior to your presentation time. Deadlines for signing up may be found on the Calendar. Sign-up for the final presentation is done through PACE. Remember to sign up for a peer review of another group.

Low Cost Myoelectric Prosthetic Hand

Featured Project

According to the WHO, 80% of amputees are in developing nations, and less than 3% of that 80% have access to rehabilitative care. In a study by Heidi Witteveen, “the lack of sensory feedback was indicated as one of the major factors of prosthesis abandonment.” A low cost myoelectric prosthetic hand interfaced with a sensory substitution system returns functionality, increases the availability to amputees, and provides users with sensory feedback.

We will work with Aadeel Akhtar to develop a new iteration of his open source, low cost, myoelectric prosthetic hand. The current revision uses eight EMG channels, with sensors placed on the residual limb. A microcontroller communicates with an ADC, runs a classifier to determine the user’s type of grip, and controls motors in the hand achieving desired grips at predetermined velocities.

As requested by Aadeel, the socket and hand will operate independently using separate microcontrollers and interface with each other, providing modularity and customizability. The microcontroller in the socket will interface with the ADC and run the grip classifier, which will be expanded so finger velocities correspond to the amplitude of the user’s muscle activity. The hand microcontroller controls the motors and receives grip and velocity commands. Contact reflexes will be added via pressure sensors in fingertips, adjusting grip strength and velocity. The hand microcontroller will interface with existing sensory substitution systems using the pressure sensors. A PCB with a custom motor controller will fit inside the palm of the hand, and interface with the hand microcontroller.