Lectures :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

Lectures

Spring 2023 Lecture Material:

 

Pre-Lecture #1:


(before the first lecture)

 

 

Brainstorming and Ideation

  • Brainstorming and Ideation slides (pptx)
  • Videos (watch before coming to class)

 

 

Lecture #1:


(January 17th)

 

 

Getting Started

  • Welcome and Course Overview (pptx)
  • Pitches
    • Photo-irradiation of Glioblastoma (ads10@illinois.edu) (link)
  • Request for Approval (link)

 

 

Pre-Lecture #2:


(before the second lecture)

 

 

Beyond Ideation

 

 

Lecture #2:


( January 24th)

 

 

Moving Forward

  • Introduction (link)
  • Team Contract (link)
  • Writing Center (link)
  • Ethics (link)
  • Intellectual property (link)
  • Pitches
    • STRE&M: Automated Urinalysis (rom2@illinois.edu) (link)
    • Control System for the Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) Pilot Reactor (yzhang1@illinois.edu) (link)
    • Isolated Voltage Sensor (jop2@illinois.edu) (link)
  • PCB Tips (link)
  • Professor and TA Introductions
  • Additional Pitches:
    • Soil Moisture Controller (awitmer@illinois.edu) (link)
    • CfA Flying Area Accuracy Determination (jmhart3@illinois.edu) (link)

 

Pre-Lecture #3:


(before the third lecture)

 

 

Design and Writing Tips

 

 

Lecture #3:

( January 31st)

 

 

Last Stop Before RFA

  • Introduction (link)
  • Communication Tips (link)
  • Senior Design and Lab Safety (link)
  • Machine Shop – Gregg Bennett (gbenntt@illinois.edu)
  • Lab Noteboopk (link)
  • Modular Design (link)
  • R&V Table (link)
  • Proposal (link)
  • Design Review (link)

Spring 2023 Video Lectures:

Brainstorming

Finding a Problem (Video)
Generating Solutions (Video)
Diving Deeper (Video)
Voting (Video)
Reverse Brainstorming (Video)
Homework for Everyone (Video)

Important Information

Using the ECE 445 Website (Video)
Lab Notebook (Video , Slides)
Modular Design (Video, Slides)
Circuit Tips and Debugging (Video , Slides)
Eagle CAD Tutorial (Video)
Spring 2018 IEEE Eagle Workshop (Slides)
Spring 2018 IEEE Soldering Workshop (Slides)

Major Assignments and Milestones

Request for Approval (Video, Slides)
Project Proposal (Video, slides)
Design Document (Video, slides)
Design Review (Video, slides)
Writing Tips (Video, slides)

Smart Frisbee

Ryan Moser, Blake Yerkes, James Younce

Smart Frisbee

Featured Project

The idea of this project would be to improve upon the 395 project ‘Smart Frisbee’ done by a group that included James Younce. The improvements would be to create a wristband with low power / short range RF capabilities that would be able to transmit a user ID to the frisbee, allowing the frisbee to know what player is holding it. Furthermore, the PCB from the 395 course would be used as a point of reference, but significantly redesigned in order to introduce the transceiver, a high accuracy GPS module, and any other parts that could be modified to decrease power consumption. The frisbee’s current sensors are a GPS module, and an MPU 6050, which houses an accelerometer and gyroscope.

The software of the system on the frisbee would be redesigned and optimized to record various statistics as well as improve gameplay tracking features for teams and individual players. These statistics could be player specific events such as the number of throws, number of catches, longest throw, fastest throw, most goals, etc.

The new hardware would improve the frisbee’s ability to properly moderate gameplay and improve “housekeeping”, such as ensuring that an interception by the other team in the end zone would not be counted as a score. Further improvements would be seen on the software side, as the frisbee in it’s current iteration will score as long as the frisbee was thrown over the endzone, and the only way to eliminate false goals is to press a button within a 10 second window after the goal.