University of Michigan - Dearborn: College of Engineering & Computer Science

Senior Design Competition

Projects

	Department of Computer and Information Science
	1. Project Title: Campus of Hope - Second Life Presenter Team Members: Aaron Curley and Brian Martin Faculty Adviser: Bruce Maxim Sponsored by Ford Motor Company ABSTRACT Second Life is a 3D virtual world where real people can interact using their in-game avatars. Traditional computer games typically define a number of rules for accomplishing certain predefined goals. The player must follow these rules in order to "win" the game. In Second Life, however, this is not the case. Winning and losing is not defined; instead, it is up to the user to decide how to best take advantage of the Second Life environment. One common use of Second Life is to take advantage of its virtual-meeting capabilities. It is often very convenient to host certain meetings in Second Life so that the participants do not need to be physically present at a single location. Unfortunately, Second Life's current presentation abilities are limited to still images (presentation slides). This severely limits its use as a teaching tool and for presentations that require live demonstrations of a particular topic. The goal of this project is to develop a workable system that allows live streaming of audio and video from a presenter computer to the computers of the people that are attending a meeting in Second Life. Second Life provides video streaming capabilities, but much supporting infrastructure and 3rd party software is required to accomplish it. A typical computer user (possibly an instructor) outside of the computer science discipline would not have the resources necessary to accomplish the streaming himself. We aim to create a system for the University of Michigan - Dearborn that simplifies and controls the live streaming process so that any authorized user can make live presentations. [Return to Agenda]
	2. Project title: Fetch My Music Team member names: Tom Kowalski, Kashia Xiong, Lauren Stier, and David Lawrenchuk Faculty Advisor: Bruce Maxim (CIS) Industry sponsored: Yes, Ruck Technologies ABSTRACT Fetch My Music is a multiple-interface project that will allow a person to listen to his or her music library from a remote location through the Internet. A desktop program will be installed on the home computer, which uses a web service to stream the music to the Fetch My Music website. Music can then be played through a simple Flash interface. Fetch My Music is expanded by offering a mobile interface, so that music can be played through Windows Mobile devices with Internet access. Fetch My Music also incorporates social networking, where the user's account can be linked to Facebook. The friends of the user can then stream his or her music as well. The overall project is very innovative. No other existing product offers everything that Fetch My Music offers. Ruck Technologies believes that linking a music player with social networking could be an extremely popular idea. [Return to Agenda]
	3. Project Title: Check Cashing Tracking Software Team Members: Alan Batsford, Mario Dusaj, Stephen Harris, Dan Korycinski, and Robb Kremer Faculty Advisor: Kiumi Akingbehin Sponsored By: Vinay Lakhnkia, Owner, A&W Party Store Ypsilanti, MI ABSTRACT Our team developed a program which allowed our customer to more effectively run his check cashing business. Prior to our project our customer was only able to cash checks for customers who frequented his establishment often enough to be recognized. In order to broaden the scope of his business he asked our team to develop a program which would allow him to track customers and the checks they cashed using a fingerprint scanner, webcam, and a flatbed scanner. The customers would have their fingerprint scanned in the process of developing an account. Then they would have their ID scanned, their picture taken with the webcam, and their information entered into the program's database. Finally whenever a check was to be cashed the check would be scanned and associated with the customer's account. The primary development environment was Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. Specifically the entire program was coded using C# in the Visual Studio 2005 environment. Crystal Reports was used to develop the end of day sales reports as well as enable the ability to printout a customer's information. The fingerprint scanner was integrated using the Digital Persona SDK. The TWAIN Library was used to enable the interaction between the software and the flatbed scanner. The WIA Library was used to enable interaction between the software and a webcam. Lastly, Windows API was used to manage various interactions with the user. [Return to Agenda]
	Department Of Electrical And Computer Engineering
	4. Project Title: Satellite Weather Imaging Project Team Names: Lindsay Yaros, Mohamad ElGhrawi, and Jacqueline Anderson Project Advisor: Professor Mark Steffka ABSTRACT The ‘Satellite Weather Prediction' project will receive cloud images, in real time, from the NOAA-18 satellite (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), receive automatic picture transmission (APT), and display those images. This project will provide a cost-effective means to view current weather conditions, and the movements of adverse weather events such as storms. By tracking weather conditions, users will be able to prepare for weather events appropriately. This project could be easily modified to provide people around the world with real-time weather data. The system consists of the following major sections: antenna, satellite tracking software, pre-amplifier, receiver, and computer. Radio frequency transmissions are received by the antenna and amplified by a preamplifier. The receiver demodulates the amplified narrow-band FM analog transmission that is then recorded as a wave file and decoded to generate the transmitted weather image. [Return to Agenda]
	5. Project Title: Wireless Multi-Touch Tablet Students: Peter Bankwitz, Christopher Glab, Gierad Laput, and Malek Musleh Project Advisor: Dr. Xiang ABSTRACT Technological advancement has led to the availability of digital projectors which allow computer presentations to be the medium of choice for presentations. Although computer presentations are very convenient and easy to use, current implementations are constricted in terms of proximity and usability. Our project aims to design an innovative wireless Human Interface Device (HID) useable on any computer that provides a new platform for controlling visual presentations by bridging the aforementioned limitations. Touch sensing is achieved using Frustrated Total Internal Reflection (FTIR) technology. When the panel is touched, infrared (IR) light is reflected into a sensor and the point of touch is encoded into coordinates, which are transmitted using digital modulation via radio frequency to a USB connected receiver. Hardware and software enable mouse and keyboard functions, allowing the device to operate as a writing tablet and virtual keyboard. [Return to Agenda]
	Department Of Industrial And Manufacturing Systems Engineering
	6. Project Title: Steel Slitting Facility Evaluation and Analysis with the Aid of Simulation Team Names: Ian Martin, Anthony Soave and Kyle Zielinski Project Advisors: Professor Elsayed Orady, Professor Edward Williams Sponsored by Mill Steel Company , Grand Rapid, MI ABSTRACT The Mill Steel facility in Melvindale, Michigan processes and cuts coils of steel to customer specification by the use of a slitting operation. The slitting operation and subsequent packaging operation, or packline, is responsible for a large percentage of the product's lead time. With the use of simulation, the impact of suggested improvements to these processes is realized. With most of these realized, the time a coil spends in the system drops by roughly 39%. This translates to 35 coils per day of extra throughput. In addition to improvements to the slitting and packline operations themselves, many improvements to worker safety are suggested and ethical considerations visited. Improvements such as implementing 5S and TPM are recommended. [Return to Agenda]
	7. Project Title: Severstal North America: An Industrial and Systems Engineering Application to the Production of Steel Slabs Team Names: Kelly Goodman, Robert Wasilevich Project Advisors: Professor Swatantra Kachhal and Professor Elsayed Orady Sponsored by Serverstal North America, Dearborn, MI ABSTRACT Industrial Engineering concepts were applied to Severstal North America (SNA) in order to improve the production of steel slabs. Due to the current unstable economy causing a struggle in the automotive industry, SNA is witnessing the repercussions first hand. Efficient production models, such as a Lean Manufacturing Environment, are needed in order to predict and supply future customer demand. An essential goal of lean is to create value for the end customer while reducing waste and unnecessary expenditures in the process. Several concepts and tools that assist in creating a lean workplace are: Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen, Visual Factory and Pull Systems. Kaizen is used in the design project to help address areas of opportunity by observing, implementing, and continuously improving them. The three selected areas for Kazien are: Caster and Hot Strip Mill Scheduling, Slab Handling Yard, and Scarfing Beds. Using a Kaizen approach and other lean concepts will help establish an ideal state for the lean production and handling of slabs. [Return to Agenda]
	Department of Mechanical Engineering
	8. Project Title: Design and Optimization of a Thermoacoustic Refrigerator Team Members: Mariam Farhat, Ajit Naik, Rijvana Patel Project Advisor: Dr. Oleg Zikanov ABSTRACT Vapor-compression refrigerators account for most of today's refrigeration market. While the bulk of these devices have stopped using ozone-depleting CFC as the working fluid over the past fifteen years, the haloalkane refrigerant alternatives currently utilized are facing growing criticism for their significant global warming potential, particularly considering the dramatic increase in the atmospheric concentration of these chemicals over the past decade. As such, our project goal is to design and construct a thermoacoustic refrigerator, a heat-pump device that has few moving parts and requires neither refrigerants nor compressors, instead relying on acoustic power by pump heat. The device operates by using a standing sound wave in a gas to induce cyclic fluid pressure variations and displacements that move heat along a solid structure in contact with the gas. We wish to demonstrate the engineering and commercial feasibility of these refrigerators while highlighting their reduced environmental impact, particularly when coupled with alternative energy sources. [Return to Agenda]
	9. Project Title : Passive Noise Cancellation by Using Helmholtz Reasonator Team Members: Julia Melaragni and Rob Considine Faculty Advisor: John G. Cherng ABSTRACT Helmholtz reasonator is widely used in automotive and other industries to cancel a particular frequency dominated noise from the source in its transmission path, such as in the exhaust and intake systems of a vehicle. This project will design and construct a flame tube that can produce standing wave resonances. Then, these noises will be eliminated or significantly reduced by using Helmholtz resonators. [Return to Agenda]