Sunday, August 2, 2015

Week 4 Photos

View the pictures from our final week at COSMOS.

Research Expo - Final Project Presentations

The Research Expo, on our final day of COSMOS, showcased the final projects of our cluster.  Every student applied what they learned throughout the four weeks.  Teams of two proposed their own final project idea.  They ranged from unique AppInventor apps, Scribbler Robot algorithms, and Arduino projects.  Some combined two or three of the technologies.  The faculty was extremely impressed with the effort, work and learning that was exhibited.  Below are the final presentations.

Robert and Jesse:
Data Collection of Local Gasoline Structures: Utilizing a Web Database to Acquire a Compilation of Petrol Station Expenditures Generated from Crowdsourcing Data


Sonali and Sammy:
An Automated Navigational Guide Implementing Infrared Technology for Natural Disaster Victims Entrapped in Infrastructural Damage


Sheldon and Veronica:
Engineering a Solution to Prevent Closet Space Entropy: An Integration and Communication Between Two Autonomous Systems


Christi and Leilani:
Development of a Mobile Application Interface to an RGB Image Processing Object Identifier


Izabella and Lizbeth:
Teleoperated Navigation and Autonomous Polygon Creation Vehicle for Early Childhood Development Through an Android Application-Arduino Interface


Shamailah and Starr:
Using Mobile Applications to Navigate Expansive Terrain through Robotic Image Processing


Ashwin and Cameron:
Transistor Powered Multi-Arduino Latice with Motion Based LED Tracking Integrating Machine Learning


Alice and Shreya:
Android-based Automated Apparatus for a Fixed One-Wheel Pulley System


Guillermo and Kevin:
Microcomputer Powered K'nex Vehicle Controlled Through a Mobile Android Application


Anup and Matthew:
Navigational Aid for the Visually Impaired: Utilization of Infrared Obstacle Detection Algorithms and Mobile Devices




Friday, July 24, 2015

The Walking Arduino



We spent a few days this week working to create a walking Arduino robot using popsicle sticks, glue and Kinex.  The robot had to "walk" and not use any wheels.  In fact, the servos we had only rotated 180 degrees.  Below are our videos.  Congratulations to Matthew and Starr, and Izabella and Robert for having the fastest times.

Christi and Anup

Cameron and Lizbeth

Alice and Sheldon

Shamailah and Jesse

Sammy and Shreya

Izabella and Robert

Matt and Starr

Kevin and Veronica

Guillermo and Leilani

Curt


Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The Music of Arduinos

Our first Arduino lab challenged us to make a musical instrument.  Some of the components available to use were: push buttons, IR LED, LED, speaker, and a proximity sensor.

We then presented our instrument to our cluster.  Below are our presentations and demos.  Congratulations to Sheldon and Lizbeth who won the Faculty's Choice and to Matthew and Veronica for the People's Choice awards.

Anup and Shreya presentation

Anup and Shreya demo

Ashwin and Shamailah presentation

Ashwin and Shamailah demo

Christi and Sammy presentation

Christi and Sammy demo

Guillermo and Alice presentation

Guillermo and Alice demo

Izabella and Cameron presentation

Izabella and Cameron demo

Kevin and Sonali presentation

Kevin and Sonali demo

Leilani and Jesse presentation

Leilani and Jesse demo

Matthew and Veronica presentation

Matthew and Veronica demo

Starr and Robert presentation

Starr and Robert demo

Sheldon and Lizbeth presentation

Sheldon and Lizbeth demo





Scribbler Maze Challenge

We programmed our Scribblers to autonomously traverse a maze.  We spent a few days testing it out on different maze set-ups as well as identifying the colors blue and red and horizontal and vertical lines.  You can view our work which applied our knowledge of image processing below.  Congratulations to: Sonali and Sammy for the best time going through the original maze; Anup and Starr for the best time going through the maze from exit to entrance; and Alice and Jesse for the best time overall for both mazes!

Ashwin and Leilani 1

Ashwin and Leilani 2

Anup and Starr 1

Anup and Starr 2

Alice and Jesse 1

Alice and Jesse 2

Sheldon and Cameron 1

Sheldon and Cameron 2

Sammy and Sonali 1

Sammy and Sonali 2

Robert and Veronica 1

Robert and Veronica 2

Kevin and Shamailah 1a

Kevin and Shamailah 1b

Kevin and Shamailah 2

Izabella and Matthew 1a

Izabella and Matthew 1b

Izabella and Matthew 2

Shreya and Guillermo 1

Shreya and Guillermo 2

Christi and Lizbeth



Friday, July 17, 2015

Scribbler: RoboArt

This week we had our RoboArt Competition.  We programmed our Scribblers to maneuver around to make our own original design.  Congratulations to Shreya and Shamailah for their winning "Snowflake" design.  Below are some pictures.  Other photos can be found in "Pictures: Week 2"















Field Trip to ViaSat

This past Wednesday afternoon, we visited ViaSat.  Everyone had a great time.  Cameron shares his experience below:

"Today we got to go see the entrepreneurial business ViaSat. Our tour of the facility was incredible; they had two volleyball courts with imported sand, a basketball court, and even free coffee machines that they let us use! On a more serious note, the technology that they are creating at this facility is unparalleled to any other organization. Their current satellite coverage covers most of the United States and is the biggest satellite array that orbits the Earth. Nikolai Devereaux, our tour guide, also told us that they are planning to launch an even bigger satellite array into space by using a SpaceX rocket in the coming year. This new satellite will cover all of the USA, some of the Atlantic, South America, and even some of Europe. Ironically, this satellite will steal the record for biggest satellite array in space from themselves. He also enlightened us on how WiFi is provided on planes and how Jet Blue utilizes ViaSat technology to provide high-speed internet for all its customers, contrary to airlines such as Southwest which provide a spotty wireless service. 

Later in the day Mr. Devereaux brought us to see one of their active testing facilities that houses 1000 routers and about 16 or so server racks that are used to simulate both weather, users, and the satellite itself. We were allowed to enter the room and found it to be extremely cold because of all the fans that are running to keep the servers at an optimal temperature to prevent them from overheating. To set up the first two rows of servers and one wall of routers took them around five months to finish! It's interesting to see a business that requires not just one type of engineer; ViaSat requires engineers from all different fields whether that be Electrical, Computer Science, or Mechanical; they need all these professions to create new and innovative satellites that revolutionize the market!"