Senior Project

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RedArmy

Platinum Member
Mar 1, 2005
2,648
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This coming fall I'll be a senior and one of the major classes we take at my university is senior design. It goes for both the fall and spring semester so we have quite a while to work with. I want to submit a design proposal for a project to do instead of being assigned one that the school thought of or just rehashed from a previous year (plus I'd get to choose who I want to work with).

I have some basic ideas already but I'm looking for any students or aficionados in the engineering/programming field that might have some thoughts about a project that might be fun to do. It can't be something easy and it must involve both an electronics (breadboard, FPGAs, microprocessors, etc) and mechanical (structural, moving parts, etc) aspect of some sort.

Those are the only basic requirements, but if it did something useful that would be a major plus. I'd love to hear some thoughts that people might have about maybe something they've thought of or an improved upon idea from the past. It can't be easy though, we'll be in groups of five and basically have over half a year to do it.

Oh yeah, it doesn't have to be that cheap either. The school gives a certain amount of money to each group based on what they do, along with the support from major companies like Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems.

Thanks for any input!
 
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cirthix

Diamond Member
Aug 28, 2004
3,616
1
76
My EE senior design project is an adpater ot drive an extremely high resolution display through two DVI inuts or one displayport input. FPGA and PCB design.
 
SSSnail

SSSnail

Lifer
Nov 29, 2006
17,458
83
86
Here you go, I was gonna round up some engineers to work my man powered riding lawn mower, but you can go ahead and use it for your project. For details IM me, I'd want 15% commissions.
 
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RESmonkey

Diamond Member
May 6, 2007
4,818
2
0
Originally posted by: cirthix
My EE senior design project is an adpater ot drive an extremely high resolution display through two DVI inuts or one displayport input. FPGA and PCB design.
Click to expand...

More info please?

Like, how high of a resolution, picture, etc. This sounds interesting.
 
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Tiamat

Lifer
Nov 25, 2003
14,068
5
71
A great source for ideas related to your field is actually, your grad school department. They are always looking for undergrad lab-rats to do research (for free), you might be able to take this opportunity and get your senior design project done at the same time as undergrad research and potentially set yourself up for some publications and even some public poster/paper presentations at conferences. Plus, it makes your resume look better.
 
P

Paperdoc

Platinum Member
Aug 17, 2006
2,523
388
126
Tiamat's got a great idea. If you check among your Engineering profs, you are bound to find situations where they have worked out a whole model of how something works and could be improved, but have no intention of actually making one. Take the approach that you will convert a concept or a prototype unit and re-design it suitable for large-scale production and sale. This phase of industrial design bridges the gaps between lab function and something that can be produced easily at low cost using existing production equipment, to yield a product that end users find easy to use and effective. You could learn a valuable set of skills not often taught in university courses, and also build a good rapport with one or more of your university's profs. You likely would also build a few links to existing commercial producers of products.
 
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tfinch2

Lifer
Feb 3, 2004
22,114
1
0
Originally posted by: Tiamat
A great source for ideas related to your field is actually, your grad school department. They are always looking for undergrad lab-rats to do research (for free), you might be able to take this opportunity and get your senior design project done at the same time as undergrad research and potentially set yourself up for some publications and even some public poster/paper presentations at conferences. Plus, it makes your resume look better.
Click to expand...

I didn't do anything for the grad school dept (because we did not have one for CS), but I did mine along with undergrad research, wrote a paper, presented it at a conference, got an internship from it, which turned into a full-time job. :)
 
Saint Nick

Saint Nick

Lifer
Jan 21, 2005
17,722
6
81
My final project is doing the analysis and design of a database application for a client here in Omaha. It has been about a year in the making and I am about to wrap it up in the next couple weeks :) ....

But, I don't graduate until December 2009.
 
JohnCU

JohnCU

Banned
Dec 9, 2000
16,528
4
0
my EE design project was guiding a ball through a maze with a webcam. it was awesome.
 
JTsyo

JTsyo

Lifer
Nov 18, 2007
12,068
1,159
126
Our theme for senior design was educational games. What out group (Think Tank Toys) came up with was a game in which you answered questions on a laptop and if you got the answer correct, it would move a toy car on a track. There were 2 players and 2 cars, so it was a race you won by answering the questions right. The tricky part was the laptop to track connection. It was kind of odd for a ME project since most of the work was computer and EE.
 
edro

edro

Lifer
Apr 5, 2002
24,326
68
91
Ours was a wireless controlled car, using a laptop and 802.11b.
We were not allowed to remotely drive it because of safety issues, but we controlled the electrical system with a laptop and custom software.
Our micro processor was some Xilinx kit.
 
MagnusTheBrewer

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,122
1,594
126
How about an automatic system for cleaning bathrooms? Not just toilets and sinks but, walls floors and mirrors. Some kind of modular system that learns and adapts to different bathrooms, schedules and surfaces.
 
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