Distance Education Server Development

Dr. Budge has a project that has been going for several years. It involves a distance education server that allows students to participate in a class at USU from their computer at home or at work.

The technology has been issued two patents. It allows several students at a time to be connected to a live classroom, ask questions in real-time, and see the teacher, the whiteboard presentation, and any classroom applications (powerpoint, etc.) used in the class. All of this occurs with a minimum amount of delay (latency) over the Internet.

I need a student or two that would like to help implement new algorithms into the software and bring the C++ code up to date. You would be able to do this work as a Senior Project, and learn about methods to connect multiple people to a common server and transmit data over the Internet efficiently.

If you are interested, I would be happy to talk to you about the details. Come see me in my office at EL 113. My office hours are: Wed. 9:00 - 11:00 am and Thurs. 1:00 - 3:00 pm. You can also e-mail for an appointment at:

scott.budge@ece.usu.edu

Measuring water flow using Maxwell's equations

Despite millennia of measuring water flow, this continues to be a difficult challenge, but one which is always important.

The idea is based upon some fundamental principles from electromagnetic.
Recall that a flow of electrical current through a coil of wire induces a current in the wire. Thus, a fluid carrying charged particles passing through a coil of wire would induce a current in the wire, and the faster the fluid flows, the more current is induced.

Water is generically neutral, so that water flowing through a coil would not generate a current. But the water _is_ disassociated to some extent into its H^+ and O^2- constitutents. (This is why the pH of water is 7 - a part in 10^7 is disassociated. ) But since the positive and negative charges are intermingled, there is no net charge.

Recall also that a charged particle moving through a magnetic field is bent by the magnetic field as qv x B. So, water flowing through a magnetic field should have its positive and negative charges separated.

So, the idea is to build a fixture equipped with magnets to pull the charged particles apart, with a downstream arrangement of coils of water for the charged streams to flow through.

Now take this to the next level. If the water contains ions from dissolved materials (such as salts), these ions will also be separated, but possible differentially, due to the difference in mass. So, is it possible to built a sort of water mass spectrometer by careful construction and calibration?

Materials: A pipe to hold the magnets has already been prepared. A set of nice strong magnets has already been purchased. A couple of wire loops are on hand, and it is easy to get more.
Equpment: We have permission from the Civil Engineering dept. to use their flume (water trough) for experimental purposes.
Expenses: Negligible.
Risk: Moderate/high. It may not be possible to get sufficient separation of the particles to measure.

Faculty champion: Dr. Todd Moon

Measuring a room using acoustic information

Problem: Using an array of microphones and a speaker, develop a means of accurately mapping out a room (make a floor plan).


Background: This project was started over the summer with some undergraduate students, and some of the theory has been worked out. This would be a great project for a student to pick up that is interested in signal processing. We have a microphone array and some pointers on how to get started.


Skills: Math, programming, signal processing.


Cost: negligible.
Risk: moderate/high (this is a hard problem)


Faculty champion: Dr. Todd Moon

Antenna systems for cube satellites

For this project, you are asked to decide various antenna types for a small satellite. The antennas are for GPS, and it is for the USU’s satellite talking to GPS satellite. Dr. Baktur will provide mentorship and some support. Please contact her for more details if you are interested.

Inkjet printed antennas

This project explores the cheapest and fasted method to fabricate an antenna. Unlike traditional antennas made from metal, here we are printing antennas with an inkjet printer using conductive ink. The antennas are printed on papers, on transparencies, stickers, or even T-shirt! You may further go on to integrate the printed antennas with window glasses, solar cells, telescope for many important reasons and applications. Please contact Dr. Baktur for more details.

audio-controlled noise-microphone-tracker

An excellent senior project last spring was an audio-controlled noise-microphone-tracker which would be a great one for follow-on. The project was by Blaine Wood.

Embedding video in e-sheets

You may have looked through a magazine like National Geographic and seen still images of turtles or whales, and wondered when we will get magazines like the ones in harry potter films, with embedded video.
You may also be familiar with the e-sheet or e-ink technology used in the amazon kindle.
It will be exciting to write software on an e-sheet kit, to embed video clips with text.
I will support purchase of the e-sheet development kit.