Project Ideas 2007-08

Projects Proposed by Professors

• Dr. Carla Purdy's Projects
• Dr. Philip Wilsey's Projects


• Dr. Chong Ahn
  • with M.D./Ph.D. student Andrew Browne: Control and Actuation System for BioMEMS Lab-on-a-Chip for Clinical Diagnostics
  • with Ph.D. student Mike Rust: Development of Nano-scale Devices and Systems for Interfacing with Biology


• Dr. David Klotzkin: Intelligent Power-out Flashlight
Build a flashlight that is plugged into an outlet and continuously maintains its batteries charged. If the power fails and it is dark, the light goes on, and the flashlight can be removed and used. The project involves power managements (AC-DC conversion - powering the flashlight from the batteries- charging the batteries from the AC outlet) and light detection.

• Dr. Andrew Steckl
  1. Crystallographic Analysis of Gallium Nitride Thin Film by X-Ray diffraction Measurement

  Gallium Nitride (GaN) thin films are in situ grown by Riber 32 Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) system in our lab. The crystallinity of such GaN thin films is measured by Rigaku Miniflex X-Ray diffraction machine. This senior project's goal is to realize the data acquisition and optimization of the X-ray diffraction machine by Control software and Labview software. The students will learn the basic principle of X-ray diffraction measurement and the Labview control software.

  2. DNA Molecular Weight Characterization by Gel Electrophoresis

     Be a part of our expanding nano-biotech research by learning the gel electrophoresis process "from the ground up" as we add this capability to our lab. This will be an opportunity to characterize the molecular weight of DNA for use in nano-biotech applications. Current applications include opto-electronic devices, such as biOLEDs, electrowetting, and electrospinning.

  3. Electric Field Analysis in Electrolyte by CFD software
     
     Voltage induced charge distribution in water is important for a droplet motion on a hydrophobic surface, like Teflon. This project will be a good opportunity to learn about and analyze the electric field distribution inside an electrolyte, which is a conducting medium of electrowetting-based Liquid FET developed by NanoLab. This experience will be directly applied to various nano-bio research areas.

• Dr. Ken Roenker: Simulation Study Comparing the Performance of Silicon Nanowire MOSFETs with Carbon Nanotube FETs


• Dr. Dharma Agrawal: Motion Classification Using Sensors for Automatic Music Generation
  


• Dr. Dieter Schmidt:
  • List of project ideas
  • UC Mobile Student Contest
  • Emergency Patient Care Application: We do have an opportunity in Cincinnati Fire Department to have someone work with me (Don Locasto) and our IT department to work on (update/enhance) our patient report care form system. The system is a portable notebook system where paramedics record patient care information in real time (at the patient's side). The information is then used to produce a patient care report for the emergency department. Thereafter, the information is wirelessly upload to the CFD server into our main database.
    
  
  
• Dr. Fred Beyette: Optical Sensor for Bilirubin Measurement in Infants (with BME) ... description tbd


• Dr. Albert Bosse (Aerospace Engineering): Spacecraft Servicing Testbed or Prototype Surgical Robot
  

Projects Proposed by Community Organizations

• AFS: American Foreign Service, Dr. Karen Davis: Social Networking Website for Cincinnati Area Foreign Exchange Program


• Computing Outreach, Dr. Karen Davis: Mentoring, Developing Lessons, Extending Online Repository


• Art Machine, Inc., Jennifer Baldwin: Art Machine
  
  Create an "Art Machine" - a robotic system that would have moveable parts, colored steam, visible insides, sounds, laughter and perhaps deliver a piece of art.....activated by a quarter. The funds would support programming for our organization and collaborating high schools. The inspiration comes from the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Oselznick. It is a story about a young boy and his need to find out what an automaton could tell him about his dead father. I have already spoken to the author through the help of Scholastic, Inc., the publisher. He thinks it is a wonderful idea and is interested in helping out any way he can. This would be a collaborative project utilizing iteracy, art, product design and engineering and computer science. The final piece would be a public accessible automaton or Art Machine. An educational website about artists and engineers who are building art machines

Projects Proposed by Industry

• Somatic Digital, Joe Barkeloo: Platforms and Applications for Print-Digital Technology
  
  1. Hardware: Wireless (IR and/or BT) of the TouchBook platform with digital appliances (computers, mobiles, and TV/DVD/DVR).
  2. Hardware: Form-factor designs. Applying our Touch User Interface (TUI) technology to other form-factors, notably clipboards and trading cards.
  3. Software/DB: Back-office. Collecting the TouchThrough information from the hardware and print and enabling pdCommerce (print/digital commerce).


• Turner Facilities Management Solutions, Joe Martinelli: Facility Forecasting and Planning Study (this is a software system project primarily)


• National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Ron DuPlain: (one possible project; others are available as well)
  Deliver a custom web application which ensures quality data entry by multiple users and enables meaningful queries of a database of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) sources. This database will help astronomers and the RFI protection group at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) Green Bank facility coordinate transmitter shut-downs with astronomical observations. It also will serve as a repository of information about known sources of RFI at Green Bank.


• W S Electronics, Michael Wolf:
  As phone calls come in to a 911 dispatch center, the dispatcher enters all of the information, as to the callers location, if it is a fire or squad call, into their CAD (Computer Aided Dispath System). This CAD system will select the fire station, which they need to send alert tones to. With there current system it does this by sending a serial data message to a Zetron Tone Encoder which does the rest. What they would like is for this serial data message to be translated or adapted to work with the their new M/ACOM Computer based consoles. This will require some software work and may also require some kind of computer in between the CAD system and the computer-based radio system.


• Duke Energy, Paul Kling:
  The project involves the assembly of a small bench-top electrical generator utilizing a new technology. A device has already been built as a demonstration unit at a small scale and patented by it's inventor. There would be two objectives to this project. The first would be to build a similar demonstration device and test and document its characteristics and performance. All plans, components and documentation are available in detail. The second objective would be to develop a design for a commercial-scale version of the unit capable of outputs of 4000 or 12,000 volts. This design would specify components on single-line diagrams and estimate the cost and performance characteristics of the unit. Duke would provide all funding for the bench top device.