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Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)

In the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, we allow students to select their own teams and their own projects. Potential customers come before the class in the Fall semester and present their requests, and the teams brainstorm ideas for projects that might incorporate devices or techniques they want to learn to use. Then the teams choose their projects and write a proposal document which is reviewed by the instructor. After review and possible revision, they order parts to start their project, if necessary. In the Spring semester, teams assemble prototypes and write code, conduct tests, refine designs, and then assemble a final model so they can be presented to customers, if they have one, to each other, and to the world, at Design Day.

Contact Information

Jack G. Mottley – Associate Professor
jack.mottley@rochester.edu
585-275-4308

ECE Design Projects

Archive

ECE Archive
March 3, 2023 | 05:38 pm

Mid-Wave IR Read-Out Integrated Circuit

Team Mentor Professor Mottley and Professor Phinney Abstract Wildfires burn 7 million acres of land in the US every year. We present a read-out integrated circuit (ROIC) designed to be…

ECE Archive
March 7, 2022 | 09:56 am

Sonic Jam

A one or two sentence description of your project.

ECE Archive
March 7, 2022 | 09:36 am

AGR

A Driver Board for AGR’s Spectre

3. Programs Archive
March 18, 2021 | 01:20 pm

VIRTua Bot

Why not take a virtual trip through the eyes of a robot that uses a camera and displays it to the user’s VR headset. VIRTua Bot allows you to do just that with your android smartphone.

Community Engagement Archive
March 18, 2021 | 01:17 pm

Water Sterilizer Control System

This system is a cheaper alternative option to chemical water treatment meant to sterilize drinking water with UV-C light by controlling water flow in order to achieve proper irradiation time.

Accessibility Archive
March 18, 2021 | 01:16 pm

Interactive Detection Robot

Using the interactive detection robot, the user will be able to wirelessly control the device and visually see its surroundings using the camera module. The RPLidar enables a 360° view of the robot’s environment.

Accessibility Archive
March 18, 2021 | 01:09 pm

Haptic Feedback Gloves

Designing a system to allow a visually impaired person to better navigate their environment.

Community Engagement Archive
April 27, 2020 | 11:21 am

Sun-Tracking Solar Panel System

Our project was to implement a system of light reflectors that autonomously track the sun’s position and focus the light on a solar panel to maximize the incident light intensity and hence more power capture. The system was to be significantly cheap compared to buying multiple solar panels and capture more than double the solar power than using an ordinary solar panel.

ECE Archive
April 27, 2020 | 10:49 am

AI Chess Board

Our senior design project is implementing an AI chess board. It uses Python and the popular chess engine Stockfish on a Raspberry Pi to show the user with LEDs where the computer would like to make its move. Our project was a success and could be used as a beginning step to make a more complex and intuitive chess board that plays chess against a user.

ECE Archive
April 27, 2020 | 10:40 am

Retriever Robot

The original intention was to make a robot that would retrieve tennis balls. The focus has now been switched to make a realistic robot simulator that can navigate to waypoints, which would be provided by tennis ball locations. OpenCV is used for tennis ball recognition to provide locations for the simulated robot to navigate to.

ECE Archive
April 22, 2020 | 10:32 pm

Sonic Jam Detection

Industrial scanners are often prone to jams, which are costly both financially and time wise. Our projects uses audio recognition algorithms to automatically detect and stop jams in real time. For our project, we are using an scanner provided by IMBL.

ECE Archive
April 22, 2020 | 10:32 pm

Thermal Energy Harvesting

Our project is concerned with utilizing the electromagnetic spectrum from the sun to generate and store electricity. Baseline application is capturing the temperature differential created by the sun between a roof and the inside of an attic. Further applications include using black body emissivity and radiative cooling to provide solar energy harvesting in places where traditional voltaic cells are not feasible.

ECE Archive
April 22, 2020 | 10:32 pm

Smart Home Automation System

MOTLEY (Main Organizing Terminal for Low Energy Usage) focuses on the creation of a Smart Home using a Raspberry Pi as the central device. Similar to the google home, we are able to control our in-house made and thoughtfully designed custom peripherals through the use of this Pi, granting our user the ability to remotely control various devices in their homes from their current location.

ECE Archive
April 22, 2020 | 10:32 pm

ProcBlocks

ProcBlocks is an educational tool designed to introduce students to the basics of computer organization. Each component of the processor can function separately, allowing for different configurations of the “blocks” to be used. The final product would include some kind of instructional text, covering the basics of transistors, construction of digital logic, intermediate hardware constructs, and the use of computational components in a complete processor.

ECE Archive
April 22, 2020 | 10:32 pm

AI Sorting System

The AI Sorting System takes a photo of a recyclable object, weighs it, and scans it with a metal detector. It inputs this data into a program that classifies the item as plastic, metal, or glass. The system includes 3 bins, one for each material. LEDs will light up on one of the bins and its lid will flip open, indicating that the recyclable should be placed in that bin.

Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality Archive
April 22, 2020 | 10:32 pm

Virtual Reality Data Glove

Our project is a “Data Glove” worn by a user and composed of several types of sensors for mapping human hand motion. A virtual environment is used to show the glove’s capabilities in capturing natural motion, with its primary purpose being for virtual reality applications. We use the Unity game engine to create our simulation and feed data from our glove to a simulated robotic hand. Ideally, this is completed in real time and can capture movements live.

Accessibility Archive
April 22, 2020 | 10:32 pm

Realtime Audio Visualization

Using a rope of LEDs, connected to a Raspberry Pi with our software, we will read the audio signal from an HDMI cable and display colors on the LED strip that match the tone of the music. . The goal of our project is to be able to create a visualization to convey a similar feeling to people that are unable to hear the music.

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