People & Office Hours

Office Hours Schedule

Office hours are held weekly in the senior design lab. This sheet will be updated if any schedule changes. Make sure to double check the sheet before assuming there will be a TA present when you go!

Spring 2023 Instructors

Name Area
Prof. Mark Butala (Instructor)

butala@illinois.edu
Prof. Arne Fliflet (Instructor)
3056
afliflet@illinois.edu
microwave generation and applications
Prof. Timothy Lee (Instructor)

lee527@illinois.edu
Prof. Chenhui Shao (Instructor)

chshao@illinois.edu
Prof. Yi Wang (Instructor)

yi40@illinois.edu
Adeel Ahmed (TA)

adeela@illinois.edu
Xuyang Bai (TA)

xuyangb@illinois.edu
Caitlin Butala (TA)

cbutala@illinois.edu
Tielong Cai (TA)

tielong2@illinois.edu
Amritesh Dasari (TA)

mdasari2@illinois.edu
Alma Furayi (TA)

afurayi@illinois.edu
Caitlin Jones (TA)

caitlinj@illinois.edu
Xiaoyue Li (TA)

xiaoyuel@illinois.edu
Image Processing, Deep Learning
Chunzeng Luo (TA)

cluo@illinois.edu
Muhammad Malik (TA)

mmalik@illinois.edu
Ian Meliala (TA)

imeliala@illinois.edu
Yiqun Niu (TA)

yiqunn2@illinois.edu
Qi Wang (TA)
ZJUI C318
qiw7@illinois.edu
Xinyi Xu (TA)

xinyixu@illinois.edu
Ronghui Zheng (TA)

ronghuiz@illinois.edu
Yuchuan Zhu (TA)

yuchuan5@illinois.edu
Yutao Zhuang (TA)

yutaoz@illinois.edu

Other Important People

Name Office Phone Email Area
Dean Biskup UIUC ECE Building   dbiskup2@illinois.edu UIUC TA

Interactive Proximity Donor Wall Illumination

Featured Project

Team Members:

Anita Jung (anitaj2)

Sungmin Jang (sjang27)

Zheng Liu (zliu93)

Link to the idea: https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece445/pace/view-topic.asp?id=27710

Problem:

The Donor Wall on the southwest side of first floor in ECEB is to celebrate and appreciate everyone who helped and donated for ECEB.

However, because of poor lighting and color contrast between the copper and the wall behind, donor names are not noticed as much as they should, especially after sunset.

Solution Overview:

Here is the image of the Donor Wall:

http://buildingcampaign.ece.illinois.edu/files/2014/10/touched-up-Donor-wall-by-kurt-bielema.jpg

We are going to design and implement a dynamic and interactive illuminating system for the Donor Wall by installing LEDs on the background. LEDs can be placed behind the names to softly illuminate each name. LEDs can also fill in the transparent gaps in the “circuit board” to allow for interaction and dynamic animation.

And our project’s system would contain 2 basic modes:

Default mode: When there is nobody near the Donor Wall, the names are softly illuminated from the back of each name block.

Moving mode: When sensors detect any stimulation such as a person walking nearby, the LEDs are controlled to animate “current” or “pulses” flowing through the “circuit board” into name boards.

Depending on the progress of our project, we have some additional modes:

Pressing mode: When someone is physically pressing on a name block, detected by pressure sensors, the LEDs are controlled to

animate scattering of outgoing light, just as if a wave or light is emitted from that name block.

Solution Components:

Sensor Subsystem:

IR sensors (PIR modules or IR LEDs with phototransistor) or ultrasonic sensors to detect presence and proximity of people in front of the Donor Wall.

Pressure sensors to detect if someone is pressing on a block.

Lighting Subsystem:

A lot of LEDs is needed to be installed on the PCBs to be our lighting subsystem. These are hidden as much as possible so that people focus on the names instead of the LEDs.

Controlling Subsystem:

The main part of the system is the controlling unit. We plan to use a microprocessor to process the signal from those sensors and send signal to LEDs. And because the system has different modes, switching between them correctly is also important for the project.

Power Subsystem:

AC (Wall outlet; 120V, 60Hz) to DC (acceptable DC voltage and current applicable for our circuit design) power adapter or possible AC-DC converter circuit

Criterion for success:

Whole system should work correctly in each mode and switch between different modes correctly. The names should be highlighted in a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing way. Our project is acceptable for senior design because it contains both hardware and software parts dealing with signal processing, power, control, and circuit design with sensors.