Spring 2017
SquatXC
The objective of the Squat XC is to focus on perfecting a person’s weighted squat technique. Improving their technique will maximize muscle gains and decrease the amount of potential injuries due to bad form. The Squat XC will also monitor muscle fatigue with an EMG sensor.
There is a misconception that squatting heavy weight is detrimental to the health of your joints, but studies, such as the one performed at Keel University, have shown otherwise. The study demonstrates that resistance training will strengthen and increase flexibility, while reducing the amount of pain people feel in joints because of osteoarthritis, a type of arthritis that occurs when flexible tissue at the ends of bones wears down. Per the NCSA, “Injuries attributed to squats may result not from the exercise itself, but from improper technique, pre-existing structural abnormalities, other physical activities, fatigue or excessive training.” For these reasons it is crucial to have proper technique. The Squat XC helps reduce these problems.
Hydro-Genie
The idea of the project is to provide an easier way to grow crops and plants by only using water and plant nutrients. Soil can be messy and expensive depending on what you plan to grow. With our idea, the user can avoid that. As a bonus, the project will include a dehumidifier, a phone application, and a website to control the system. The dehumidifier would be useful for filling the planter with water and to get a clean source of drinking water. The water would go to a separate reservoir to be filtered and safe to consume. The user of Hydro-genie can use the application to see the statistics of the plants. The application may be similar to the website but it would not have as much functionality as the website. The website would be used to store the statistics from the planter and possibly control it from a different source.
Sway Away
The purpose of Sway Away is to create a safe and reliable system which would measure weight and weight distribution of a trailer being towed by a car or truck. The purpose is to create a safe towing environment for the average person. Sway Away aims to lower the amount of towing related accidents on roadways. This system will feature a matrix of sensors connected to a microcontroller, which will then access an app on a user’s phone in order to be easily interfaced. Our team will strive to create a durable, yet reliable system while keeping costs down.
S.P.O.T.
Our senior project team is the Park Squad and we are creating S.P.O.T. This system will insure students can park with more convenience around campus and encourage proper parking. We have decided to create an application that students can download on their phones and use to find a parking spot in real time.
Power Grip
We are designing The Power Grip. This project is an electric glove that works as an exoskeleton hand, which can be utilized by those who lack hand grasp strength. The purpose of this project is to help provide people with weak hand grasp with the ability to grip and handle objects for everyday use. The functionality of this project is to help guide the user’s arm and hands the ability to grasp objects within their sight.
Blood Clot Detection Using Pulse Transit Time
The team’s project idea is to create a device that will detect blood clots in patients after undergoing a surgical procedure. This is because after surgery, patients runs the risk of complications due to surgical manipulation. The group’s motivation is to make a portable device that anyone can use at the comfort of their home. Making the device portable will not only be convenient but it will also decrease the cost of other blood clot methods currently in the market.
The team is keeping in mind that many patients are claustrophobic and they turn away from MRI’s which can lead them to their death. Keeping this in mind we are providing our clients, patients, with a device that will be portable, reliable, non-invasive and cost efficient. Therefore Patients will be able to monitor their vascular health with a convenient and cost efficient device that could be used several times. The device uses Pulse Transit Time to track how long it takes for blood to pass through an artery, thus detecting if a blood clot is present. Pulse transit time is the time it takes a pulse generated at the heart to propagate through arterial tree to a periphery, for example at the finger tip of toe, during a cardiac cycle. This method is based on measuring the delay between the R-peak of the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal and the peaks of the finger photoplethysmograph (PPG) signal to obtain rate of blood flow. By placing sensors in specific segments of the arm the approximate location can found. With detection and approximate location of blood clots the device will be able to save lives.
Cloud Based Threat-Management
According to our research and conversation exchanged with experts, data exchanged are currently very limited leading to many security loop holes. One of the reasons is because small businesses failed to understand the importance to security, and information sharing, and are not willing to invest on infrastructure to secure their environment. Moreover, users like healthcare professionals, like physicists or doctors would rather pay the penalty to have healthcare records stolen rather than invest in the infrastructure. Additionally, security reports typically take 24-72 hours to get to client resulting in user not being to react on time. Security and time is a very sensitive correlation. The problem we are addressing is cost and time. We proposed to do a unified threat management on getting antivirus systems to talk to each other using the method of sharing data, the concept in which currently have not been implemented.
Antivirus systems nowadays are communicated with only the user of the computer, like a one way communication. Therefore, besides there security holes existed in current system, it does not stop things like buffer overflow. We are introducing a system that allowing the antivirus to talk to each other, also creating an algorithm that can filter suspicious functions call existed in buffer overflow that failed to detect by antivirus. The main goal of this project is to save client time and money. It was not to solve everyone’s security problem, because it would be impossible to make promises that cannot be delivered.
SS Cosmic Coogs
The purpose of the SS Cosmic Coogs project is to develop the most efficient solar boat in the Solar Splash competition in Ohio by July 2017. In our efforts, we hope this project would be a catalyst for energy efficiency and pollution reduction in boats and ships. Making subtle improvements in the efficient use of solar energy is a significant step towards an incentive of moving away from fossil fuel, and enriching the quality of our environment. As the effects of global warming are beginning to become more and more ubiquitous, we feel as though this project is aimed towards a worthy cause, and an investment for future generations. With our original baseline goal still set, the team hopes that within this reporting period, we will come up with a quasi-final design for our boat by meeting up with the MECT half of the team, which would then allow us, the ELET part of the team, to start thinking of possible designs for our solar charging and electric drivetrain systems. The team expects this part to be the trickiest as none of the members of our group have tackled a problem of this scale or type, but we hope that the experience garnered in this part of the design process will put us in good standing for the rest of the project towards completion.
Fusion Shot
As a team, we came across the rapidly increase trend of attempts of shots. Currently in the NBA the attempts of shots behind the three-point line has increased over the years. More teams are turning to players that can shoot the ball better since that is the direction the league is heading towards. Unfortunately for most players, they are not all blessed with the ability to have to perfect shot. Players that are tall but not able to shoot the ball well are not being pursued as much as they used to be. Players can always practice their shot but without the proper technique or form, they will not be able to improve their chances of converting on a shot attempt. There is not a suitable device that can give them the proper feedback on how accurate their shooting form will be. They can be practicing for hours in the gym but if they continue to practice an inappropriate shooting form, their percent of successful shots will not increase. As a team our goal is to create a device that will allow the user to obtain a way to properly receive feedback while practicing their shot. The device will help them improve their accuracy one shot at a time. Our idea is to build a wearable device that can accurately read the motion of the shooting arm and simultaneously collect data from the shot. Our team wants to also implement a small vibration so when the sensors recognizes that the shooting form is incorrect the player can make small adjustments. Our idea is not just to build a wearable device but to also include a compatible application where the user can review the data collected from the microcontroller. Players will be able to receive the proper technology and feedback to know when a mistake is being made in the shooting form. This device will give the player a better way to practice then to just shooting around the court and hoping that the ball will go in. Our goal with this device is to help any player no matter how experienced they are, increase their accuracy with shooting the ball.