Firefighting Drone Challenge

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The purpose of this challenge was to develop and integrate technologies for a drone to assist with firefighting operations. Project scope: design a remotely operated drone that a firefighter can use to safely explore a burning building, detecting structural weak points and locating individuals for rescue.

FFDC s2015 Team Website

This was one of the coolest things I have ever had the pleasure of working on! The class size dropped by about 80% after the introduction session.
I was ecstatic for the challenge ahead.
For detailed information on the entire project, please visit this website showcasing our team's documentation and resources.

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My Contributions

What a ride! I have struggled more with few things,
yet this project was adrenaline-inducing.

As one of two EEs on the four-person team, I was ultimately responsible for the functionality of wifi, video (both thermal and digital), and the integration of an IMU as a bonus, time permitting. Of course, I helped out where I could anywhere else. Once we accomplished flight capability, I became the designated pilot.

how I mastered soldering

Fortunately we had accomodating professors and fellow classmates, despite the competition. Our team placed first in the end, but we couldn't have done it without all the help. This was an awesome experience.

Documentation Quick Links

• .pdf: Final Report
• .pdf: Final Report_Video
• .pdf: Final Report_WifiConfig
• .mp4: Amateur Pilot Flight Test Nano QX
• .pdf: Team NoName - Member Roles Simplified
• .pptx: Introduction Session

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The pHyper [A]³

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The pHyper [A]³ was created for senior design. We met with a local water treatment facility and learned that they had to perform water sample titrations by hand to obtain the alkalinity, which is labor intensive. As a result, they used conductivity as a surrogate in order to determine system operation parameters. With automation, however, they would be able to run more efficient cycles, and save a significant amount of time and money.
The pHyper [A]³ is my senior design team's solution to that problem. Here is a brief demonstration of our Automatic Alkalinity Analyzer:

We achieved alkalinity calculations to be within +/- 25% of the expected value from a hand titration with over 95% repeatability in about 2.5 minutes/cycle. Our device possessed a gravity-fed sample collection design, automated wash & drain functionality, wifi accessibility, a desktop GUI, and a sleek enclosure.

from left to right: Nathan, Alex, Rick, & Scott

Additional Content

• .pdf: Poster
• .pdf: Business Plan
• .pdf: Final Presentation
• .pdf: Lulu eGames Presentation
• .docx: Lulu eGames Executive Summary
• .mp4: Kickstarter Video

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Robotics

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The affectionately named In-Home Autonomous Companion pictured above was created in order to learn and understand the inner-workings of an embedded system. On a team of four, each of us started with a PCB, an MSP430, and a series of tasks completed throughout the semester, as documented in this report.


Our team tackled GPS coordinate localization, instead of line-following, for the sake of the challenge. Fortunately, we were not disappointed. After several all-nighters and at least $50 worth of AAs, we finally achieved results worthy of posting to YouTube! This project was nothing but fun from the beginning.

• Source Code: Google Drive Zip Folder

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Mechatronics and Legos. This Mindstorms EV3 bot was built by a team of three as an investigation of PID tuning and control.

Although the PID algorithm was the only new concept in this bot, we went through many hurdles to achieve neat path tracking, platooning, and collision avoidance with the EV3. We implemented several PID controllers as we discovered their usefulness.

The Lego Mindstorms EV3 IDE was a tad difficult to work with, however, it was well worth it. This report documents our design, process, and results.

• Resource: Learn to program - Mindstorms LEGO.com

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Neural Interfaces

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Microfluidics and Neurotransmission Explained

I've always found the brain fascinating. I was immediately drawn to Neural Interface Engineering when I saw it on the course list.

We made cockroach legs dance, robot grippers that clasped by flexing a forearm, and other investigative projects illuminating developing tech. We even manipulated the size and position of virtual objects with EEG!

The concepts were so incredibly engaging that I forgot to take pictures.

I wanted to have fun with my final project, so I made the video above. Enjoy!

• .docx: Microfluidics and Neurotransmission Research

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Wearable Biotech

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My team designed a wearable biosensor that detected abnormal muscle movement with EMG, and transmitted the data through bluetooth to the caretaker, so that a seizure would not go undetected.
For the purposes of this project, we did not take the design to implementation.

Documentation

• .pdf: Full-size Poster
• .docx: Executive Summary

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Exploratory Works

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This is the first computer I built for my high school capstone project. Vega happily resides with an old roommate of mine, though the GPU's time has finally come. I published a no-experience-required guide on issuu at the end of the build in an effort to show others that anyone can do it, and it's a blast!

current resident: Rigel

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FL Studio 12: current DAW

In 2012, I discovered Ableton. I've been producing music on and off since then, including enrolling in a songwriting class for fun. Music is a passion of mine.

Freedom


Electric Medley


A Hopeful Nightmare *


Level One *


Disco Boss *


You can find the rest of my independent productions here.
I'm currently learning FL Studio 12 for future works.
*Co-produced with Chase McLamb.

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I created the image above as an expression of how I see myself, with GIMP, using the Horsehead Nebula, several other pictures, and many edits.
Original 1080p JPEG

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Chase McLamb and I started a virtual reality gaming channel on YouTube after I got an HTC Vive . This channel hasn't seen much action lately, but we hope to revive it once again!

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Hot-Catz

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GitHub
Hot-Catz Web Application

This was, by far, the most significant challenge I subjected myself to after graduation. I was not prepared for the blast I had!

Hot-Catz is a web app challenge developed as a learning experience, to teach myself the basics of web development.
I pursued Javascript, the Ember framework, and a light back-end with Firebase. After grappling with an endless array of tutorials, I eventually found EmberSchool, which helped me immensely.

All of the details for my work on this project, including the resources I used to learn everything, can be found on my GitHub!

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