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Geek Out! CSTEM Students Demo Senior Projects

06/03/2016 by Nick Thomas Leave a Comment

Its like a Maker Fair gone wild. A giant wood wind turbine takes up the south wall. A Gesture-Controlled Vehicle zooms around the floor between peoples legs. David Covillo explains how his team’s wireless Smart Sprinkler Head (which team member Andrew Decker 3-D printed) wastes far less water than conventional sprinklers. As opposed to just spraying everywhere in a circle, overlapping other sprinklers, or pointlessly spraying the sides of buildings, its range and path can be fine-tuned via Google Earth. Using a laptop and their user-interface, simply draw over a Google Earth view of your lawn; that data is transmitted to the sprinkler head.

Walking into the atrium was like a Maker Fair gone wild. A giant wood wind turbine takes up the south wall. A Gesture-Controlled Vehicle zooms around the floor between peoples legs. David Covillo explains how their 3-D printed (3D modeling and printing by senior Mechanical Engineer Andrew Decker), wireless, battery powered Smart Sprinkler head wastes less water than conventional sprinklers. Its nozzle can be fine-tuned for range and ultra-precise Google-Earth-mapped spray path as opposed to just spraying everywhere in a circle, overlapping other sprinklers, or pointlessly spraying the sides of buildings. Using a laptop and a user-interface, you simply draw a path over a Google Earth view of your lawn, and that data is transmitted to the sprinkler head via Bluetooth. The other benefit is their sprinkler head is hot-swappable, meaning you can easily adapt an old system without digging the lines up. Just replace traditional head with their model, everything else is controlled remotely, (though a sustainable power system is still in the works). Outside on the lawn an autonomous, auto-charging quadcopter is humming and lifting off the ground, (though tethered today for safety purposes.) Puneet Janda and Rudolph Hulse designed the MC charging station, which allows the drone to sense when it is running low on power and automatically return, dock and recharge, and then take off again. Janda says her biggest challenge was coding, and she taught herself a lot on the internet, and from her classmates, too. Suzanne Rieseberg, senior Electrical Engineer, designed the GPS features. She explained the purpose of their camera equipped quadcopter is to examine replace helicopters and pilots used to inspect rural power lines. She formerly worked as a Navy aviation technician on H60 helicopters before coming to EWU to study engineering. She describes her experience at Eastern as overwhelmingly positive, and praised the professors. Rieseberg has already secured a job at Garmin. The Rocket team conducted a test burn of a small rocket, and wisely advised the spectators to cover their ears (see video). In two weeks they will be returning with the EWU Rocket Team to Utah to compete at IREC for their second time. They placed third last year, just behind MIT and Brazil. They are bringing down their biggest rocket ever, hoping to double their altitude over last year. This year the group has fabricated and test-fired half a dozen hand-mixed propellant motors, and have settled on five daisy-chained proprietary motors to hopefully reach 22,000 feet.
Self Charging Autonomous Quadcopter and the proud engineering team

A dozen other projects too large to fit inside are out on the lawn: an autonomous, auto-charging quadcopter is hovering (though tethered today for safety purposes.)

Quadcopter team-members Puneet Janda and Rudolph Hulse designed the MC charging station, which allows the drone to sense when its running low on power, automatically dock and recharge, then take off again.

Puneet Janda with the MC charge station she engineered.
Puneet Janda with the MC charge station she engineered.

Suzanne Rieseberg, senior Electrical Engineer, designed the GPS features. She explained the purpose of their HD camera equipped quadcopter is to replace expensive helicopters used to inspect rural power lines. Rieseberg formerly worked as a Navy aviation technician on H60 helicopters before coming to EWU to study engineering. She describes her experience at Eastern as overwhelmingly positive, and praised the professors. She has already secured a job at Garmin, and will start just two weeks after graduation.

Rocket Team's display their smaller rocket housings
Rocket Team’s display their small-scale rocket housings, with the propellant “motor” at far left.

The EWU Rocket Team conducted a test burn of a small rocket, and wisely advised the spectators to cover their ears (see video). In two weeks they will be returning with the EWU Rocket Team to Utah to compete at IREC for their second time. Last year they placed third out of over 30 teams, just behind MIT and Brazil. This year they are  and beat the most prestigious engineering school in the US. The team has fabricated and test-fired a number of custom propellant motors, and have settled on five proprietary motors to launch their rocket above 20,000 feet, this would effectively double their altitude from 2015.

Electric Motorcycle Team
Electric Motorcycle Team (with stunt doubles)

Other Senior Capstone team projects included 100% custom-built Li-Ion electric go-kart; an electric motorcycle; Smart Outlets; Automated Hydraulic Pressure Brake; Silica Dust Pressure Sensing System; a rocket launch tower; and a full scale support frame for a tear-drop style camper, among many others. It was an impressive display of the many talents of EWU’s Science and Engineering Majors.

A "Homestead Wind-Turbine" Capstone project
A “Homestead Wind-Turbine” Capstone project

Filed Under: EWU Tagged With: CSTEM, electric motorcycle, EWU CSTEM, ewu demo day, EWU engineering, EWU STEM, IREC, STEM

Brain (not) at Rest: Olin Anderson’s Circuitous Path to EWU Computer Science

05/27/2016 by Nick Thomas Leave a Comment

Ten years after starting college as a running start student, Olin Anderson, 28, is ready to graduate with his Masters in Computer Science. He recently took a break from his thesis to share his story, one filled with a passion for knowledge, for challenges, and picking up new skill sets.
Growing up in the wheat fields of Spangle, just 15 miles from EWU, led Anderson to enroll in running start classes at EWU his senior year of high school. He continued at EWU, earning a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in 2011. He decided to take a year off from books and work full time on the family farm where he did a lot of maintenance, stuff like painting and construction. After a year of manual labor he found himself back at EWU, this time studying Pre-Med.

Anderson taking a break from his thesis on the EWU campus (Nick Thomas photo)
Anderson taking a break from his thesis on EWU Cheney campus (Nick Thomas photo)

Anderson wanted to mix in some other classes, “for fun,” he says, and to balance out the tedium of Biology classes, so he started taking a programming class on top of the Biology series. He had dabbled in computer programming since high school, and taught himself PicBasic Pro, the industry standard BASIC programming language to control microchips.
“I took a quarter of Python, then two quarters of Java.” The next fall he enrolled in an advanced programming class with Prof. Stu Steiner. “One day he asked me why I was majoring in Pre-Med if I was taking his programming courses. He suggested that I consider switching to a Masters in Computer Science.” So he thought about it, and then he decided to make the leap. But he didn’t abandon biology entirely; instead he has combined his fascination with brain science and computer science.
Anderson’s Masters thesis project uses off-the-shelf EEG headset to determine relaxed brain state. “Determining relaxed brain activity is usually done through analyzing recorded data,” he says. “But the advantage of this headset is that we are getting real-time data with the Emotiv Epoc, a $400 dollar off-the-shelf EEG headset.”

If Anderson put on the EEG Headset it would surely detect a brain never at rest, always on the lookout for the next challenge.
“This was new to me,” he says, referring to EEG signal processing. His thesis challenged him to learn yet more skill sets. But Anderson is not complaining. “My EWU professors are very approachable,” he says. “I never had to feel bad about asking questions. They would stay and explain concepts to me until I really understood them.”
Friendly, knowledgeable professors, and reliable student partners are essential to any student’s success, but ultimately, personal drive is most important. It is clear that challenges are what Anderson lives for. In fact, his first full-time programming job will have him stationed on projects all over the world. He landed the position after applying for it at the Spokane regional Computer and Engineering job fair.
“The Computer Science department is really good about encouraging us to go to job fairs,” he says. “At the first one I was just checking it out. But at the next fair I handed out resumes,” he says, “and I got a call back.”
He will be working as a database programmer for Fast Enterprises, will potentially take him all over the world. “One of the job requirements was that you have to be able to periodically relocate.” In fact, Anderson says, “They won’t even tell me where I’m going until June.”
Most would scoff at such a job offer, but after staying close to home his whole life, after nearly a decade of hitting the books, and two science degrees from EWU, Anderson finds the lure of world travel impossible to resist.

Filed Under: EWU Tagged With: brain waves, computer science, CSTEM, EEG, Emotiv, EWU, EWU CSTEM, EWU MS CS, EWU pre-med, EWU STEM, signal processing, STEM

Pinball Hackers

04/12/2016 by Nick Thomas Leave a Comment

EWU Computer Science students hack vintage pinball machine, win bonus points.

Each Fall quarter, energetic Computer Science professor Paul Schimpf shares his love for old pinball games in a course entitled “Embedded Real-Time Control,” aka “Pinball Class.”

Using a colorful “early digital” pinball machine called Mata Hara ( from 1978!), STEM students learn the basics of programming software and build skills in hacking retro games, “real-time control,” skills they can extend to other projects and products.

Prof. Paul Schimpf reveals CPU of EWU retro pinball machine
Prof. Schimpf explains EWU students’ modified retro pinball machine (Nick Thomas photo)

Students plug in laptops to update the CPU with their custom code. When the ball rolls around, switches are thrown; they figure out how the machine works on their own. They use the coin and credit buttons to scroll the playfield lamps, then create digital maps of how the game responds.

“The ‘80’s pinball games actually present the biggest challenges,” he says. “They have limited capabilities. For instance, it puts out only 190 volts, which is only enough to light up one digit at a time. Students write code that makes the numbers light up so fast it tricks the eye into thinking its seeing a full display.”if you take a photo, you will only see one digit.”

They also control game logic like scoring and Bonus Points. They trigger updated sound and music via the SD card slot and ATTiny microcontroller. Schimpf also upgraded the CPU. “I took out the original CPU and put in an Arduino Mega 2560,” which he says is easier to modify.

Pinball Class presents challenges they aren’t used to with modern computer games. The many software tasks, from the solenoid-fired bumpers to controlling the lights, make Pinball Class a popular class at EWU Computer Science. Schimpf hopes to increase the number of machines they use.

The professor has a bigger idea he’s toying with: he hopes to collaborate with the VCD Students (Visual Communication Design) to create an EWU branded game. “EWU Football,” he says, his eyes growing wide with excitement. “We could have the red-turf field.” They could sell the game to alumni and fund more student-made games like the pinball machine.

Click here to explore STEM programs and careers.

 

Filed Under: EWU Tagged With: arduino, computer science, cool games, embedded real-time, EWU, ewu computer science, ewu cs, EWU STEM, paul schimpf, pinball hacking, programming, real-time, retro pinball, STEM, vintage pinball

Web Programmer by Day, Novelist by Night

02/22/2016 by Nick Thomas Leave a Comment

Burke Fitzpatrick on IT and Creativity

Burke Fitzpatrick has embraced the total dedication required to be a creative writer and work a full time day job as a web programmer. His nights are filled by furiously writing the next book in his series of “dark fantasy” novels called The Shedim Rebellion – building his world and the characters that inhabit it – and his weekends take up the business side of running Blade Books, the press he founded. He describes his books as a mix of “heroic fantasy and Dante’s Inferno.”

“It’s all creative,” says Fitzpatrick, “you are creating something out of nothing.”

Fantasy Author and EWU Programmer Burke Fitzpatrick
Fantasy Author and EWU Programmer Burke Fitzpatrick (photo Nick Thomas)

The trick to self-publishing is keeping the reader wanting more, and then actually delivering on that. Some writers are able to support themselves writing full time simply by churning out the content. “E-book publishing is mirroring the old pulp paperback business model,” he says. His fifth book in the series is in the works.

A lifelong reader, Fitzpatrick devours a wide range of subjects, from mythology to history. It helped that his mom was an English teacher and his dad an amateur historian. He grew up drawing and painting too, and earned his AA degree in graphic design in the mid 90s, surfing the wave of the dot com bubble.

Eventually he came to EWU and pursued a degree in Computer Science. He needed to be able to support his family, but desperately wanted to develop his creative writing, too. So he took as many literature courses as he could handle. Studying programming, calculus, along with ancient British Literature provided a stimulating, if challenging, counterpart to his STEM classes.

Throughout his undergrad experience he made the most of internship opportunities and work study at EWU, first as a graphic designer for Marketing and Communication, then as IT support, and then programming. Upon earning his degree, this experience led to a full time IT job at EWU, where he has been for 16 years.

Fitzpatrick loves learning, and that’s a good thing, with the tech industry changing rapidly with the move to the Cloud and mobile-based devices now making up half of all internet traffic. “In the IT world,” he says, “you are constantly learning new things.”

“A couple years ago I took JavaScript courses,” he says. He was impressed with the computer science department. “They are placing grads in good jobs right away.”

Wanting to further hone his literary chops, he then earned his Masters in Creative Writing over two and a half years of night classes at EWU’s highly regarded Creative Writing MFA Program.

When asked how coding and writing stories are related, he insists they are closely linked. “It’s all creative,” he says. “You are creating something out of nothing.”

 

 

Filed Under: Academics, College Fit, EWU Tagged With: burke fitzpatrick, creative writing, EWU, ewu computer programing, ewu computer science, ewu mfa, fantasay, IT, it career, shedim rebellion, STEM, writing

EWU Rocketry Club Aims for the Stars

01/12/2016 by Nick Thomas Leave a Comment

It's Friday morning and the mechanical engineering workshop is a hive of activity. The high, square workbenches are filled with students intently focused on their tasks.

There's good reason for their excitement: they're hand-building two high powered rockets which reach heights of 10,600 feet which will deploy custom-designed glider technology.

Rocketry Club lifts EagleOne launch pad into place (Photo courtesy Spencer Scott)

The Rocketry Club workshop is packed with tools: ovens for baking carbon fiber and fiberglass molds, and the magic KitchenAid where they mix rocket fuel. Next door is a fully stocked machine shop. A band saw winds up and for a second drowns out the other noises.

All this productivity is strangely comforting, kind of like Santa’s workshop, if Santa were delivering payloads to the International Space Station.

In a corner sits Eagle One, the group’s sleek red and white rocket. Their pride for it is obvious as Spencer Scott enthusiastically details the many challenges of hand-building the carbon fiber body, birch fins coated in fiber glass and tipped with carbon. The cone houses the communication electronics and is made from fiberglass. While carbon is much stronger – “as strong as steel” – it blocks radio signals.

All their ingenuity and hard work was put to the test last June when two dozen students from EWU and Riverpoint Academy (whose STEM students designed and built the deployable glider) traveled to Green River, Utah, to launch the rocket in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC). They competed against 50 teams from around the world. The on-the-ground challenges were many, including electronics overheating due to the 110 degree Utah heat.

When other groups had to drop out, they perspired and persevered.

 

IREC large group shot
Rocketry Club in the autoclave at corporate sponsor AGC AeroComposites in Hayden, ID (Photo courtesy of Spencer Scott)

Though 2015 was their very first time at IREC, they placed third overall, trailing teams from MIT and Brazil, proving both the talent and tenacity of the students EWU is proud to have.

Not to be outdone, for the 2016 IREC they are designing not one, but two rockets; one for the basic category and one for advanced. Never one to take the easy route of buying pre-made motors, the club is once again building everything from scratch, including the motor, which other clubs often buy ready-made, even the big schools like MIT. This level of control allows them to experiment with catalysts like cobalt and aluminum and use software like BurnSim to find the ideal mixture for their custom rocket.

photo 3
Isaiah Irish cuts Kevlar heat shields that protect parachutes (Photo:Nick Thomas)

Unsurprisingly, this kind of custom manufacturing on top of academic studies is a time consuming labor of love.

Mechanical engineering major Isaiah Irish is laboriously hand cutting squares of tough yellow Kevlar from a sheet that looks like a sail.

“This stuff is hard to cut,” he mutters as he leans into the fabric and squeezes his shears with an iron fist. The Kevlar is wrapped around the parachute and keeps it from melting during launch. He confesses he hadn’t planned on doing club this year, his senior year, and added that he spent many weekends in the workshop over the past four years. But here he is, back at it again.

Rocketry Club welcomes all students, no matter your major.

Learn more about EWU Rocketry Club and watch a sweet video here!

Filed Under: Community, EWU, Student Life Tagged With: CSTEM, EWU, ewu clubs, EWU CSTEM, EWU IREC, EWU mechanical engineering, EWU Rocketry Club, EWU STEM, IREC, Rocket club, STEM

Career Services’ Computing and Engineering Fair crushes it!

11/30/2015 by Nick Thomas Leave a Comment

STEM students showed up in droves at Career Services Computing and Engineering Fair in Hargreaves Hall Reading Room. The echo of collective networking bounced off the marble walls and created a literal buzz of excitement.

Some students simply passed through, getting a feel for employers and their internship process. Other students dressed for success in business suits and power dresses, and they carried their resumes and portfolios.

Clearly, this event is a big deal–and it's just one of many career fairs on campus each year!

IMG_1449

Dozens of regional companies such as Avista, Itron, and Chief Architect represented the all aspects of the tech industry. The event offered EWU students a chance to quickly explore a variety of career and internships opportunities. This time the Technology and Construction major was emphasized.

So who are the companies? One is Itron, a global company utility meter and analytics software company headquartered locally. They have over 500 employees in nearby Liberty Lake. Besides hiring interns, they regularly hire EWU grads full time. In fact both Itron recruiters are EWU alumni.

IMG_1451

Even Running start high school students showed up to learn about the many opportunities, too. Running Start student Kayla Lambert is a high school senior. As a future Computer Science major, she came to the Fair to get a look at her future job prospects. Kayla’s favorite company she talked to was Gravity Jack, a software company specializing in the new field of augmented reality marketing, especially for mobile apps. Kayla likes how the technology “incorporates real life.” Their apps let you view products as though it’s actually right in front of you.

ANR Group explained how their staffing company hires over 150 students and connects them to full time paid summer internships with the 300 + contractors at Hanford Nuclear Site. These jobs are valued for their highly technical experience. Sometimes students are offered extended contracts upon graduation. Another benefit of ANR is that interns have the opportunity to try different jobs each summer.

IMG_1450

Senior Andrew Decker was certainly impressed with the Fair. Kaiser Aluminum and Kaufman Engineering are two companies that stood out to him. The mechanical engineering major has already benefited from a year round internship at Altek in Liberty Lake where he makes parts for medical, fitness and aerospace.

Most all the companies at the fair hire interns throughout the year and accommodate student schedules, and all were interested in gathering resumes. Some were even scheduling interviews for entry level positions.

 

Filed Under: Academics, Community, EWU, Location Tagged With: career fair, computing, construction, engineering, STEM

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