"Dawn breaks over the Pacific" as seen from
the Computer Engineering Instructional Lab - photo courtesy of the Fridgenius
project, 2013/2014 CE Capstone Class
Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
ECE 189A/B – Senior Computer
Systems Project
Fall 2016
/ Spring 2017
Instructor:
Dr. John M. Johnson
Computer
Aided Design Tools and libraries generously provided by 
Microcontrollers
and Industrial Reference Design platforms generously provided by 
LPCXpresso®
Experiment Kits generously provided by 
Fabrication
of Printed Circuit Boards sponsored in part by 
Printed
Circuit Board assembly and rework provided by 
Printed
Circuit Board procurement, fabrication, assembly and rework generously provided
by 
2016/2017
Projects
FLIR Helios (oveview
poster, technical
poster)
All security cameras that dominate
the market have wires. Due to the need for cable routing, installation costs
make security systems too expensive for most consumers. However, current cableless options, such
as the EyeTrax Ranger system, cost upwards of $2,000, not including monthly
cellular data connection fees. The FLIR Helios is a cableless low-cost
alternative to these security cameras. The Helios system integrates solar power
and WiFi capabilities to remove nearly all cabling.
This is a UCSB College of
Engineering multidisciplinary project encompassing the Computer Engineering,
Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering capstone classes and is
sponsored by FLIR.
Ben May, Carlos Beltran, Salim
Benhaddou, Garrison Carter, Aaron Chang
FLIR
Helios Final Presentation (6/8/2017)
FLIR Security Camera Critical Design
Review (12/6/2016)
FLIR
Security Camera Initial Design Review (10/24/2016)
Gestur (poster)
With
the releases of the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Microsoft Hololens, and
Google Daydream, virtual reality is rapidly evolving from an awkward, emerging
concept into an industry in and of itself.
Unfortunately, existing hardware peripherals for VR lack key features
needed to fully leverage what these environments have to offer. Namely, they still rely on physical
designs derived from traditional-style video game controllers. Rather than this, we believe the future
for interacting with virtual environments lies in e-wearables; clothing with
integrated electronics. Our
project, Gestur, aims to meet this vision by providing a glove-based
controller for VR platforms as an alternative to more
“standard” controllers.
Ryan Kaveh, Kyle Carson, Jon Young
Gestur
Final Presentation (6/8/2017)
Gestur
Initial Design Review (10/24/2016)
Gestur Critical Design Review
(12/6/2016)
Hyperloop 2 (poster)
UCSB Hyperloop
is an interdisciplinary team of 32 students and professors competing in
SpaceX's Hyperloop Pod Competition.
Their Pod is a vehicle designed to travel through a
vacuum tunnel at high speeds, and is to be tested on a track
constructed at SpaceX's
As
members of the Sensors and Controls sub-team, Computer Engineers have been
responsible for choosing and interfacing to the sensors which monitor the
Pod’s critical subsystems, as well as developing and implementing control
schemes for those subsystems, and reporting telemetry data back to a companion
web application. Each subsystem
requires various control signals and needs to be monitored to ensure that safe
and ideal behavior is achieved.
This is a UCSB College of
Engineering multidisciplinary project encompassing the Computer Engineering,
Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering capstone classes.
Yang Ren, Tristan Seroff, Asitha
Kaduwela, Jesus Diera
Hyperloop
2 Final Presentation (6/8/2017)
Hyperloop
2 Initial Design Review (10/24/2016)
Hyperloop 2 Critical Design Review
(12/6/2016)
IR Hub (poster)
IR Hub was created to solve a
problem each member of the IR Hub team faced in their own home. The
problem: too many infrared remotes cluttering the living
room. The solution: a device that turns your smartphone into a universal
remote by combining three systems.
·
An IR Receiver that can learn codes from any remote
you have
·
An array of IR LEDs that can transmit those codes
with 360° room coverage
·
An Android Application that controls the Hub over a
Bluetooth connection
Simply leave IR Hub in a central
location of a room, and take control of devices in that room
with your phone
Nathan Bradley, Jesus Castro,
Jeremiah Prousalis
IR Hub
Final Presentation (6/8/2017)
IR Hub Initial Design Review (10/26/2016)
IR Hub Critical Design Review
(12/6/2016)
OstraCam 2 (poster)
OstraCam's intended purpose is to
assist Dr. Todd Oakley and his team in researching ostracod, a bioluminescent
crustacean. It will do so by
tracking the bioluminescent displays in 3D at 30 FPS using a submergible stereo
camera system. As the second year
of the OstraCam project, we will primarily improve upon the computer vision
aspects of this project, primarily centered around improving the quality of
data from the camera system and analyzing it. Hardware upgrades such as a new
microcontroller and new instrumentation were planned, but will be delayed to
next year.
This is a
collaboration between the Computer Engineering capstone class and
Professor Todd Oakley, UCSB Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology
(the project sponsor).
Paul
Killam, Christina Lim, Oliver Thio
OstraCam 2 Final Presentation
(6/8/2017)
OstraCam 2 Initial Design Review
(10/26/2016)
OstraCam
2 Critical Design Review (12/6/2016)
SONOS COM. (poster)
This
is an intercom device that lets you broadcast your voice to any Sonos wireless
sound system in your home. This multidisciplinary project consists of students
from three disciplines.
·
The
mechanical engineering team focuses on designing and building the physical
enclosure to be sleek, compact, and provide acceptable device thermal operating
conditions.
·
The
electrical engineering team crafts the human-device interaction experience by
working on capacitive touch and dual-microphone input, as well as all digital
signal processing of audio.
·
The
computer engineering team designs the hardware (assembled by Laritech) and
software to provide the desired functionality, working closely with the
electrical engineers to capture audio and with the mechanical engineers so that
the enclosure and PCB come together in harmony.
This is a UCSB College of
Engineering multidisciplinary project encompassing the Computer Engineering,
Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering capstone classes and is
sponsored by SONOS.
Brian Sandler, Brenden Fujishige,
Marcellis Carr-Barfield, Seyed Mohammad Ghazitabrizi, Richard Wei, Subhodeep
Choudhury
SONOS COM. Final Presentation
(6/8/2017)
SONOS
Intercom Initial Design Review (10/26/2016)
SONOS Intercom Critical Design
Review (12/6/2016)
Previous
Senior Capstone Projects
Course Spotlight
ECE 189A & B is a year-long
senior capstone project in which students, working in small groups of three to
five, design and implement an embedded computer system incorporating both
significant hardware and software components and, in many cases, mechanical
components as well.
During the first half of this
course sequence, student groups choose a project, define and refine a
description of its external behavior, then launch into the hardware design
phase. By the end of fall quarter, using industry standard Computer Aided Design
tools, they have produced detailed hardware schematics, fabrication-ready
printed circuit board artwork, and complete component kits and associated
documentation necessary for prototype assembly. An organized project notebook describing
all aspects of the project as well as formal design reviews/presentations and
the use of professional project management software complete the initial
portion of the capstone design experience.
During winter quarter, the ECE
department has the printed circuit boards fabricated and assembled and, when
students return for the second half of the capstone project course, the focus
turns toward overall project integration.
On the first day of spring quarter, circuit boards are ready for initial
power up, design debug and verification. In parallel, creation of the project
software begins and any mechanical components are acquired and/or manufactured
and assembled. Once the hardware
design is validated and the software and mechanical development efforts are
completed, the final project prototype is integrated, tested and verified. A succession of milestones, reviews and
presentations ensures that project completion and introduction occur in a
timely and successful manner.
At the end of spring quarter,
each project team participates in the Computer Engineering portion of the
Senior Capstone Project Presentation Day.
During the day long event, the groups display posters highlighting their
projects’ features and operation in the department’s courtyard and
conduct a public presentation and demonstration of the completed projects.
ECE 189A Project Milestones (Fall
quarter)
- Project Idea and Team Formation — one week (due Monday,
October 3)
List of team members, conceptual drawing and brief overview
"datasheet" of the project with preliminary block diagram.
- Refined Project— one week (due Monday, October 10)
Annotated block diagram, external behavioral specification
and identification of the role to be played by each team member.
- System-level Design— two weeks (due Monday, October 24)
Subsystem requirements & specifications, and interface
specs.
- Detailed Design— approximately four weeks (due Monday, November
21)
Schematic drawings, and (if programmable logic is being
used) Verilog or VHDL sources with both functional and timing simulations.
- Implementation of the Hardware Design— approximately three
weeks (due Friday, December 9)
Artwork for fabricating the printed circuit board (PCB),
including Gerber plots, final schematics, engineering drawing, assembly
drawing.
Winter Quarter
- PCB Fabrication & Assembly— Final review of printed
circuit board artwork; generation and submittal of Gerber files to
Sunstone Circuits. Final
procurement of components for PCB's, creation of complete assembly kits
and submittal to Rapid Prototypes.
All dates are approximations with Friday, March 25 the
"drop dead" date for delivery of assembled PCB's to begin ECE 189B in
spring quarter.
·
Final
review and submittal of Printed Circuit Board artwork - three weeks (due
Friday, January 27)
·
Printed
Circuit Board fabrication - two weeks (bare PCB received Friday, February 10)
·
Final
Assembly Kit: bagged parts, assembly drawing and Bill of Materials (due Monday,
February 13)
·
PCB
assembly - four weeks (assembled PCB received Friday, March 17)
·
PCB
worst case completion date to begin Spring quarter - Friday, March 31
ECE 189B Project Milestones (Spring
quarter)
- Initial Power-Up – one week (due Friday, April 7)
Apply power to board with no shorts, correct regulated
voltages, currents within spec, etc.
- Processor / Memory / Boot-up- one week (due Friday, April
14)
Demonstrate execution of user code via the “Hello
World” program, flashing LED’s, etc.
- BIOS-Level Monitor – one week (due Friday, April 21)
main() with infinite loop; polling / interrupt structure of
peripheral control demonstrated
- Individual
Subsystem Tests
– two weeks (due Friday, May 5)
Independent
software control of all sensors, motors, wireless, displays, etc.
-
Integration of Subsystems – two weeks (due Friday, May 19)
All systems
exercised and communicating through common main()
- Full
Application
– two weeks (due Friday, June 2)
Final
integration of “Controls Indicators & Interconnect” and full
system operation
- Manual, Poster
& Presentation –
Capstone
Project Presentation Day (tentatively scheduled for Thursday, June 8, 2016)