The team was charged with developing and building a system that identifies touch events on a touch screen by four individual users. The team’s solution is an amplitude-modulated bit-sequence injected through the user’s hand using a programmable signal generator.

The signal propagates into the screen as the user interacts with the touch device. Once detected, the propagated signal is decoded and associated with a unique ID that corresponds to one of the four users touching the screen. The final system comprises two function generators that send the designed signals, a touch screen provided by the sponsor, and a laptop to run the code written by the team.

This technology can be easily integrated, using software programs such as C++ and Matlab, into touch-screen applications such as those used in corporate collaboration and in the gaming industry.

The team’s goal is to develop a computer vision system that can be mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, to detect, localize and classify ground targets. The UAV will compete in the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Student Unmanned Aerial Systems competition and be required to search for objects and identify attributes such as shape, color and letter.

This is often done by an operator monitoring an image feed, which limits the versatility and scalability of the system. The designed system eliminates the human operator and automates the imaging while minimizing hardware requirements through use of a hybrid onboard-offboard processing architecture.

The onboard system uses a single-board computer to detect objects, which reduces the communication bandwidth required, and the offboard ground-based system uses machine-learning algorithms such as convolutional neural networks to classify received images.

The prototype Vidi VR headset creates a 3-D environment using original optics, hardware and software designed from scratch by the team. The integrated camera system and gesture-recognition software allow users to send commands to their existing wearable 3-D camera.

The design uses off-the-shelf optical components and 3-D-printed parts to reduce cost and simplify configuration. The hardware includes three Raspberry Pi Zero microcontrollers equipped with Wi-Fi adapters to streamline functional development and support external applications.

The software combines C++, OpenCV, BabylonJS and Python to process user gestures and display content. This prototype is the first iteration of a new augmented reality product for the sponsor’s company, and will serve as an adaptable base for future development.

The goal of this project is to create a booth display piece that is the graphic part of a graphic audio equalizer. The display device uses a mass-flow controller to adjust the extension of a spring-loaded air cylinder and demonstrate pressure differences in physical movement.

Air flows from the air compressor into the device, which regulates the air pressure going into the air cylinder. As the device regulates the air pressure, the arm of the air cylinder rises and falls, creating a seismograph-like drawing system that uses a dry erase marker to continuously write on a rotating spool of whiteboard paper, which shows pressure transients and stable pressure levels.

This paper is rotated continuously around two spools powered by a direct-current motor controlled by an H-Bridge and software to adjust speed. The drawn image represents mechanically the electronic data represented in the software and produces an eye-catching trade show display.

Mechanical shock experienced by the sponsor’s lenses during shipment can cause imaging problems, such as a change in beam pointing, that burden customers with costly and time-consuming recalibration of their imaging systems.
The sponsor developed ruggedized lenses that resist these misalignments and wants to develop a specification for lens beam displacement following a shock of 15g or more.
The team’s goal is to develop an optical test system for the ruggedized lenses that collects the data needed to create the specification. The test system designed is split into two separate test benches: one induces a 15g mechanical shock and the other measures preshock imaging and any postshock shift in image location.

The Unbreakable Fiber Optic, or UFO, is a custom fiber-optic cable assembly intended for use in the upcoming NASA Exploration Mission 1 to test Orion spacecraft reentry capabilities.

The UFO system will be attached to the Orion’s heat shield to propagate spectral data through a sapphire rod to a spectrometer so the data can be analyzed on the ground to provide information about the chemistry of the ionized gases and ablated heat shield material.

The design uses a bifurcated, space-rated and verified broadband transmission optical fiber that has two loose outer jackets supported by aluminum cable clamps lined with silicone foam. The cable and its method of attachment to the spacecraft were designed, analyzed and tested to ensure that it would survive launch, space and reentry conditions. The prototype provides a verified space-rated cable that will survive the mission past low-earth orbit and back.

The team was tasked with developing a system to detect the presence of tissue on a glass microscope slide and dispense a minimum volume of reagent to completely cover the tissue. The sponsor uses expensive reagents in its tests and wants to reduce costs and liquid waste by developing a system that can selectively dispense fluid reagents.

The designed system uses a camera to collect an image of the tissue on the glass slide, which is then converted into a binary image. Once the tissue’s location, shape and size are determined, linear stages move the dispense system above the tissue to apply an appropriate amount of reagent.

A graphical user interface is implemented using a touch screen and an Arduino microprocessor, which allows the user to collect information about tissue location, dispenser location, and dispense volume.

The project’s goal is to design a single-serve consumable adhesive package and adhesive dispense system. The ultimate aim is to reduce the sponsor’s reliance on a single distributor and to lower the cost per test.

The single-serve consumable was designed to dispense a required volume. Additionally, an adhesive dispense system was designed and built specifically to be compatible with the single-serve consumable adhesive package.

The system automates the dispense process after a slide and consumable are loaded, and presents a slide with adhesive applied that is ready for manual coverslipping.

Tissue staining for cancer diagnosis uses chemicals that must be controlled. Much of the staining waste stream is noncontrolled but no method exists to determine how much of the waste stream needs to be controlled as hazardous waste. Environmental impact and cost make this a significant problem.

The goal of this project is to design a system to automatically detect and sequester controlled substances above their specified control levels. Sequestration reduces generation of controlled waste and prevents it mixing with noncontrolled waste.

Prototype sensors use ultraviolet and visible light spectra to detect hazardous chemicals and provide control signals that direct the system to align the flow path to either controlled or noncontrolled waste paths, as applicable. This allows the waste to be monitored continuously with little operator action.

The objective of this project is to perform a customer-based analysis of camera-equipped prosumer drones, the median-priced unmanned aerial vehicles used by hobbyists and professionals alike for photography and videography.

The team conducted cost, customer and feature analyses and hardware testing for three drone models manufactured by Yuneec. Results were combined to develop a comparative model of the drones and to identify areas of possible optimization.

The final comparative model encompasses test and analytical results plus evaluations of “smart” features such as sonar collision avoidance, autonomous flight modes, and indoor/outdoor positioning systems. The team also used data gathered during test flights to assess the drones’ camera performance.