CETA Day

Many of our senior and Master’s projects are solutions to real-world problems brought to us and sponsored by local industry; others are projects that students propose themselves; all require a demonstration of results. These projects are a valuable integrative experience for CETA students, who must demonstrate what they have learned over the course of their time here through the work they present. Any program accredited by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), as our programs are, requires its seniors to produce capstone projects.

We were joined on CETA Day by students from the University High School of Science and Engineering, one of two magnet schools on the University of Hartford campus. Before they watched the robot demonstrations, the students received a welcome and introduction to the projects by Dr. Hisham Alnajjar, CETA’s associate dean.

Dean Alnajjar talks to our visitors from University High School.

The presentations and presenters are listed below.

First-Year Engineering Students
All Majors
ES 143, Engineering by Design (Boe-Bots)

Ben Accardo, Bandar Almosa, Eric Camacho (Team Soccor)
Pelé-Bot

April Amaral, James Centrella, Berk Dirican (Team Larry)
Secretary-Bot

George Ezeoke, Yumayra Leal, Ryan Maurer, Cameron Villers (Team Ninja)
Ninja-Bot

Dean Alexander, Jasmine Dumas, Steve Sheak (Team 4)
Resident-Hall-Security–Bot

Courtney Barnes, Antonio Bueti, Joe Flanagan, Shedrick Johnson-Jones
AF1

Shania Brown, Sydney Colon, Mohammad Jarrar,
Roxana “Desi” Sagastume, Roshel Vas
Team X

James Downing, Patrick Landusky, Francisco Nunez, Craig Polchinski
Team Rockémon

C.J. Brunner, Rock Emond, Jason Hegenauer, Karl Watson
Fubar

Nick Ceme, Carl Pappalardo, Tim Wase
Spida-Bot

Jessica Caraval, Dan Powers, Jon Savarese, Tiffany Stahura
Walking Through a Neighborhood

Colin Hartung, Tom Ouellette, Bobby Tomasulo, Emily Willhoft
Old Faithful

Jack Briskie, Rick Mantell, Gabe Moses
Pick-It-Up–Bot

Max Accardo, Muhammad Albuti, Troy Hollihan, Sam Nadeau
Parallel Parking Bot

The bot prepares to parallel park.

Amber Sorensen Van Cleave, John Hushaw, Sarah Matloff, Jesse Weinstock
Bat Bot

Vlad Auster, Clint Cyr Gary, Lucas Hope, Rutger Strauss
Lean Mean Singing Machine

John Paneto, Adam Sobiewski
The AutoTank

Alyssa Carra, Joel Daniel, Anthony Marando, John Stevenson
Maze Solver

Abdulrahman Alharbi, Nick Broadhurst, Alfredo Elias, Alex Gladstone
Wirelessly Controlled Boe-bot

Christine Barry, Matt Kelly, John McKinney, Chris Roser
Treadmaster Elite

Matt Dececco, James Hall, Chris John
Watch-Bot

Ferdinand Aliaj, Jerred Jordan, Alton Taylor
Heat and Seak Boe-Bot

J.P. Alexandre, Jeff LaZazzera, Mike Vopelak
Simulated Driving Boe-Bot

Jackie Farley, Scott Klasner, Jasmine Tyson, Danny Yeung
Escape Bot

Mike Bedson, Brendan Bretscher, Jon Kraus, Dave Stewart
Mission Impossibot

Civil, Environmental, and Biomedical
Engineering Department
Biomedical Engineering

Joseph Arascunaga, Erik Carlson, Stephen Charry, Billdickson Dely,
Barry Hansen
Aquatic Treadmill Lift Design for the Hospital for Special Care

Civil, Environmental, and Biomedical
Engineering Department
Civil Engineering Poster Session
CE 420, Water Quality Engineering I, course projects

Eric Benoit, George Bongart, Ray Culver, Dan Melnik
Low-Cost Desalination System

Ryan Bresnahan, Nicholas Carrozza, Andrew Mukon, Elia Noujaim
Laboratory-Scale Water Treatment System

Justin Howe, Luca Mineo, Sarah Shahin, Neftali Torres
Algae Biofuel Project

CE 452, Transportation Engineering I, course projects

Justin Howe, Luca Mineo, Sarah Shahin, Neftali Torres
Traffic Impact Assessment of a New Development in Downtown Hartford

Eric Benoit, George Bongart, Nicholas Carrozza,Raymond Culver,
Daniel Melnik
Traffic Impact Study of the Pathways to Technology Magnet School

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Electronic Engineering Technology Program

David Fairbanks
The Progress of Lighting Dimmer and Controls

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Electronic Engineering Technology Program

Papa Asante, Luis Guzman, Taylor McCall
Pick-a-Spot
(electronic pre-selection of parking places in large parking garage or lot)

Gavin McDonald
Head Phone Pre-Amp
(providing enhanced tone controls)

Rafael Rivera
Punching Bag Analyser
(programmable training routines)

Electrical and Computer Engineering
Master’s Presentations

Pinar Ozturk

Breakthrough Prediction for laser-Drilled Holes Using Ablative Surface Acoustic Signature
Thesis Supervisor: Dr. A.A. Ilumoka

Abstract: Today’s high cost of petroleum imposes much stricter requirements on aircraft engines for fuel efficiency. Engines must operate within appropriate temperature ranges achieved via cooling of engine parts through millions of laser-drilled holes in turbine engine blades and vanes. In order to maximize the benefits available from expensive laser drilling equipment, it is necessary to have the capability to predict the number of laser pulses required for puncturing material, i.e., breakthrough. The work reported here discusses a non-invasive method—based on monitoring of airborne acoustic emissions at the ablative surface—for breakthrough prediction.

Ashis Patel

Designing and Implementing the CORDOC Algorithm
Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Jonathan Hill

Abstract: Many different types of hardware are available to calculate scientific functions. However, one of the drawbacks is that many of these types of hardware use either series expansion or a look up table to calculate circular functions. In addition, these types of hardware require many multipliers and a large ROM for the look up tables. The main focus of this research was to try to avoid using a large number of hardware through the application of Picoblaze Soft Core Processor, Very high-speed integrated circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL), and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to design and implement Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) algorithm.

Edinson Murillo

Embedded Temperature and Battery Voltage Level Monitoring System
Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Tom Eppes

Abstract: Videoscopes are often used for inspection and/or observation of confined spaces where the human eye cannot reach. In addition, they feature either a CMOS or CCD image sensor located directly in the tip of the insertion tube along with a light source to illuminate the inspection area for a wide range of applications. These applications can involve harsh environments such as high temperatures, exposing the image sensors to un-repairable damage. Therefore, it is important to determine a safe operating temperature range, and warn the user if the temperature gets too high in order to prevent damages. This project demonstrates a hardware and software design (e.g microcontroller, temperature IC’s) featuring an embedded battery voltage level and temperature monitoring system.