Project Proposal

Description

The proposal outlines your project's motivation, design, requirements, ethics, and safety. The project proposal is an expansion on the information provided in the RFA. Use the following format:

  1. Introduction

    • Problem: One to two paragraphs detailing the problem statement. Include any relevant references to justify the existence or importance of the problem.
    • Solution: One to two paragraphs describing the solution. Give a high-level idea of what your solution is, then delve into detail as to how it is implemented. You do not have to commit to a particular implementation at this point, but your description should be explicit and concrete.
    • Visual Aid: A pictorial representation of your project that puts your solution in context. Include other external systems relevant to your project (e.g. if your solution connects to a phone via Bluetooth, draw a dotted line between your device and the phone). Note that this is not a block diagram and should explain how the solution is used, not a breakdown of inner components.

      Sample visual aid for project which remaps GameCube buttons on the fly.

    • High-level requirements list: A list of three quantitative characteristics that this project must exhibit in order to solve the problem. Each high-level requirement must be stated in complete sentences and displayed as a bulleted list. Avoid mentioning "cost" as a high level requirement.
  2. Design
    • Block Diagram: Break your design down into blocks and assign these blocks into subsystems. Label voltages and data connections. Your microcontroller can live in multiple subsystems if you wish, as in the example below.

      Sample block diagram for electric longboard + remote

    • Subsystem Overview: A brief description of the function of each subsystem in the block diagram and explain how it connects with the other subsystems. Every subsystem in the block diagram should have its own paragraph.
    • Subsystem Requirements: For each subsystem in your block diagram, you should include a highly detailed block description. Each description must include a statement indicating how the block contributes to the overall design dictated by the high-level requirements. Any interfaces with other blocks must be defined clearly and quantitatively. Include a list of requirements where if any of these requirements were removed, the subsystem would fail to function. Good example: Power Subsystem must be able to supply at least 500mA to the rest of the system continuously at 5V +/- 0.1V.
    • Tolerance Analysis: Identify an aspect of your design that poses a risk to successful completion of the project. Demonstrate the feasibility of this component through mathematical analysis or simulation.
  3. Ethics and Safety
    Assess the ethical and safety issues relevant to your project. Consider both issues arising during the development of your project and those which could arise from the accidental or intentional misuse of your project. Specific ethical issues should be discussed in the context of the IEEE and/or ACM Code of Ethics. Cite, but do not copy the Codes. Explain how you will avoid ethical breaches. Cite and discuss relevant safety and regulatory standards as they apply to your project. Review state and federal regulations, industry standards, and campus policy. Identify potential safety concerns in your project.

Formatting Guidelines

The formatting and writing style should be the same as that of the final report. Please see the Final Report Guidelines for details, or check out the Lecture slides on the topic. We recommend using a LaTeX template. You can find that on the Final Report page or here.

Submission and Deadlines

The Project Proposal document should be uploaded to My Project on PACE in PDF format before the deadline listed on the Calendar.

There are two deadlines on the Calendar. If you submit before the Early Deadline, your team will get 3 additional points of credit to be applied to your Proposal. This means that if your proposal would normally score an 18/25, you will instead receive a 21/25. It is highly recommended to complete your proposal by the early deadline for maximum points!

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for Electromagnetics Education

Zhanyu Feng, Zhewen Fu, Han Hua, Daosen Sun

Featured Project

# PROBLEM

Many students found electromagnetics a difficult subject to master partly because electromagnetic waves are difficult to visualize directly using our own eyes. Thus, it becomes a mathematical abstract that heavily relies upon mathematical formulations.

# SOLUTION OVERVIEW

We focus on using AR/VR technology for large-scale, complex, and interactive visualization for the electromagnetic waves. To speed up the calculation, we are going to compute the field responses and render the fields out in real-time probably accelerated by GPU computing, cluster computation, and other more advanced numerical algorithms. Besides, we propose to perform public, immersive, and interactive education to users. We plan to use the existing VR equipment, VR square at laboratory building D220 to present users with a wide range of field of view, high-resolution, and high-quality 3D stereoscopic images, making the virtual environment perfectly comparable to the real world. Users can work together and interact with each other while maneuvering the virtual objects. This project also set up the basis for us to develop digital-twins technology for electromagnetics that effectively links the real world with digital space.

# COMPONENTS

1.Numerical computation component: The part that responsible for computing the field lines via Maxwell equations. We will try to load the work on the GPU to get better performance.

2.Graphic rendering component: The part will receive data from the numerical computation component and use renderers to visualize the data.

3.User interface component: This part can process users’ actions and allow the users to interact with objects in the virtual world.

4.Audio component: This part will generate audio based on the electromagnetic fields on charged objects.

5.Haptic component: This part will interact with the controller to send vibration feedback to users based on the field strength.

# CRITERIA OF SUCCESS

Set up four distinct experiments to illustrate the concept of four Maxwell equations. Students can work together and use controllers to set up different types of charged objects and operate the orientation/position of them. Students can see both static and real-time electromagnetic fields around charged objects via VR devices. Achieve high frame rates in the virtual world and fasten the process of computation and using advanced algorithms to get smooth electromagnetic fields.

# WHAT MAKES OUR PROJECT UNIQUE

We will build four distinct scenarios based on four Maxwell Equations rather than the one Gaussian’s Law made by UIUC team. In these scenarios, we will render both electric and magnetic field lines around charged objects, as well as the forces between them.

The experiments allow users to interact with objects simultaneously. In other words, users can cooperate with each other while conducting experiments. While the lab scene made by UIUC team only allows one user to do the experiment alone, we offer the chance to make the experiment public and allow multiple users to engage in the experiments.

We will use different hardware to do the computation. Rather than based on CPU, we will parallelize the calculation and using GPU to improve the performance and simulate large-scale visualization for the fields to meet the multi-users needs.

Compared to the project in the UIUC, we will not only try to visualize the fields, but also expand the dimension that we can perceive the phenomena i.e., adding haptic feedback in the game and also using audio feedback to give users 4D experience.