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2008-2009 Outstanding Professor

At the banquet the IEEE chapter awarded a plaque to the outstanding Computer and Electronics Engineering faculty member. Votes from all students were collected from each class. Seniors' votes had a weight of four, juniors' three, etc.

This years winner was Roger Sash, who is also the chapter adviser. This years runner-up was Dr. Lim Nguyen.

Past winners:
2007- Dr. Hamid Sharif
2006- Roger Sash

2009-2010 Officer

Starting in May the following officers were installed:

President (Chair)- Nicholas Spintig
Vice-President (Vice-Chair) Zachary Booth
Secretary- Scott Kenealy
Treasury- Ronnie Tyson
Parts Manager- Aaron Mills

Good luck to the officer team, may they keep the chapter involved and interesting.

Student Paper Contest

A chance to win prize money for your design reports.

Send any submissions to pki.ieee@gmail.com by May 8.

Guidelines:

http://sites.google.com/site/pkii3e/Home/files/Student_Paper_Contest_Info-2009.pdf?attredirects=0

http://sites.google.com/site/pkii3e/Home/files/Student_Paper_Contest_Guidelines-2009.pdf?attredirects=0

PKI-IEEE End of year Banquet

Agenda:

Food

New Officers

Outstanding Professor Award

PKI-CEEN Senior Thesis Open House Winners

Design Competition Participants

When: Friday, May 1st 6:30PM

Where: PKI Atrium

RSVP by April 24th to save $5

IEEE members: Free w/ RSVP $5 at the event

Everyone else: $5  w/ RSVP $10 at the event

Dinner: Qdoba Burrito and Taco Bar, soft drinks

Send RSVP to pki.ieee@gmail.com

Invite

Using the Anemometer

We are using the Vortex wind sensor from inspeed. This device has two wires and closes the connection once per rotation.

The best way I can think of to use this sensor is to power one wire and read the other wire for pulses. Use any digital pin to read the sensor other then 0 and 1 (rx and tx) because that will keep you from using the usb port.

For counting the pulses I would suggest a hardware interrupt. Anytime the port is triggered it will execute some code you choose. You can keep a counter running and use the time in between pulses to calculate the speed.

This arduino gas meter project uses a similar method.

1. void setup() {
2. Serial.begin(9600);
3. attachInterrupt(0, check, CHANGE); // attach an interrupt (interrupt 0 = digital pin 2)
4. }
5. 
   
6. void loop() {
7. }
8. 
   
9. void check() {
10. /*
11. stop timer
12. start timer
13. calculate and output speed
    
14. */
    
15. }
    

ill try and get the timer code implemented and tested later

IEEE Officer Duties

From the website:

http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/students/branchresources/adminbranchofficerduties.html

E-Week and Lincoln Chapter Banquet

E-Week Senior Design poster competition at UNL.

Come down and support the seniors as they demonstrate their projects.

The senior design segment of the Open House will be Friday, April 24, from 12 to 3 p.m., in the Othmer Hall lobby. Alumni and industry judges will evaluate each project and prizes will be awarded for top displays from each department based on outlined criteria. The general public is encouraged to vote for "Best of Show" by completing a ballot.

http://www.eweek.unl.edu/seniordesigns.shtml

http://www.eweek.unl.edu/

Parking http://www.eweek.unl.edu/parkingmap.shtml

The Lincoln Chapter Banquet is online and ready for reservations. 

This is held on Friday at the end of the E-Week after Senior Design projects are showcased. The RSVP date is April 17th.

IEEE_Banquet09studentuno.pdf

Using the Humidity and Temperature Sensor

The sensor is part number HUMTEMPSENS from www.futurlec.com. The datasheet lists the part number as hht02d and provides a good pinout diagram. At first glance the interface is not very simple and I could not find any arduino code for it.

Lukily it uses the same interface as the popular SHTXX sensors. This example provides code that works well and spits out the humidity and temperture to the serial port after you send it 'h' or 't'. Quick hint: the arduino IDE provides a serial monitor so you don't have to mess around with Hyperterminal. It is the far right button next to the 'upload to I/O board' button.

The sensor doesnt appear to be the most accurate, it claims pki 340 was 79 degrees.

Using the PIR module

The pir module is part number PIR_MODULE from www.futurlec.com.

• datasheet

This module is really simple to use. Power, Gnd, and TTL output pin you can connect up to one of the arduino digital input pins.

Here is some really simple code that dumps 0 (no activity) or 1 (activity) to the serial port.

int inputPin = 2; // choose the input pin (for the PIR)
void setup(){
pinMode(inputPin, INPUT); // declare pir as input
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop(){
Serial.println(digitalRead(inputPin));
delay(100);
}

Once the sensor is tripped it keeps the output high for ~5 seconds and wont trip right away again. This behavior can be adjusted with the small pot on the side of the sensor.

Using the RFID reader

We are using the ID-12 rfid reader from sparkfun. When a card is read it just spits out the ID serially on a pin. The atmega168 only has one USART and it is already hooked up to the USB port. You will need to use a software uart to read the ID-12.

Here are some useful links.

• ID-12 datasheet
• example tutorial that we had working last night(includes simple schematic, code, and needed library)

Arduino quick start guide

This guide is pretty simple. Here is some more info.

1. We are using a Seeduino, it is a Diecimila clone.
   
2. flip the switch labeled ext_pwr_usb to the usb powered setting
3. let windows find the drivers on the net, you'll have to click through two sets of prompts
4. download and extract the arduino IDE.
   
5. follow the guide for uploading an example program

I'm still experimenting with programing it in C. hopefully i'll get some of those directions up as well.

April Meeting

Start Time:	Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 8:00pm
End Time:	Friday, April 3, 2009 at 8:30pm
Location:	PKI 252

Besides the end of the year banquet this will be the last General Meeting of the year.

Since most people are busy with projects, we will have an informal meeting to discuss projects (including the UP Design Contest) eat some Pizza or other delicious food, and socialize. Also the new officers can introduce themselves and we can transition the authority to them.

2009-10 Officers

I present the election results. It was a close runoff in all the contested positions.

2009-10 Officer Team

President (Chair)-Nick Spintig
Vice-President- Zach Booth
Secretary-Scott Kenealy
Treasurer-Ronnie Tyson
Parts Manager-Aaron Mills

Congratulations.

February Meeting

Thursday Feb. 26 will be an informal meeting in PKI340 at 7:30. There may be something to eat or drink.

1. Election updates
2. Union Pacific Design Competition Workshop
-We will help you with getting a design out of your proposal
3. SPIRIT Robot Track Design Meeting
-We have supplies and are ready to design and build

Come hang out, talk, and work on something fun.

UNL Spring Career Fair

Career Fair Feb. 18th in Lincoln

Talk with your classmates and try to car pool.

http://www.unl.edu/careers/springfair/index.shtml

Arduino Design Contest

This event is a heavily modified version of last years grab bag. The competition is sponsored by Union Pacific. Here is a quick rundown of how it is going to happen.

1. We give you a list of problems to solve
   
2. You get excited and write a short proposal
   
3. We give you a parts kit
4. You make a solution and come show it off sometime towards the end of April
5. You walk away with sweet prizes and a smile
   

Who can participate?

The competition is open to ALL UNO students but is targeted at IEEE members and computer/electronic engineering skills will be useful. That being said there are only 20 kits available. IEEE members will receive preference. After that it is on a first come first serve basis, assuming your proposal is up to par.

Proposals

The proposal should be a half to a full page in length. Get yours in asap. Email them to pki.ieee@gmail.com as a PDF. The proposals show us that you are interested and have committed some time to this before we just hand you an impressive bag of parts. They also ask you to think about the larger picture, how a product would fit into a business, not just the technical design.

The proposal should include a description of the technical solution along with a business case for the product. This should include who is building the solution now, the production costs, what the market is you are going after, and how your product addresses their needs.

Problems

The problems are railroad specific. This gives students insight into the engineering problems Union Pacific faces. Solve one or more in whole or in part using the parts supplied.

• When systems exposed to the elements fail, it can be difficult to quickly determine if the device or a cable has failed. Moisture in a cable can cause it to fail. Determine if the cable has failed or if there is moisture in the cable.
• Equipment is enclosed in remote huts. Monitor a small room for the presence of a person to prevent theft and provide information in the event a technician becomes incapacitated.
• Horns on locomotives must meet certain regulations. From a specific distance within specific humidity, wind, and temperature parameters a horn must be loud enough. Verify the sound level as well as the humidity, wind, and temperature.
• A variety of equipment configurations used requires custom cables. The pin-out of the cables must be verified. Automatically determine the layout of a cable.
• Many different radios are used with different cable and antenna configurations. Verify radio equipment is transmitting the appropriate signal strength over the air and provide a measurement of signal strength.
• Crews working around the track must be alerted when a train is coming. Detect a train and alert the crew.
• Inventorying a large amount of equipment in a short amount of time is necessary when a locomotive enters a shop. Wirelessly track and verify an inventory of equipment.
  

Parts

We will give you an Arduino board (most likely Seeeduino) along with some sensors and interface components. The kits will be different based on your proposed solution. We will provide ~$60 in sensors from the incomplete list below. If you have more suggestions please email me with them.

• Sharp IR sensors (sparkfun: GP2Y0A21YK $9.95 10-80cm, GP2Y0A02YK0F $15.95 15-150cm, GP2D120XJ00F $13.95 3-40cm)
• 3 axis accelerometer on break out board $19.95 sparkfun (MMA7260Q, LIS302DL)
• Ultrasonic range finder $27.95 from sparkfun (Maxbotix LV-EZ0 0-255 inches in 1 inch increments)
• Thermistors $1-$2 Jameco
• Humidity and Temperature Sensor $41.95 from sparkfun (SHT15 Sensirion)
• RFID reader Innovations ID-12 $29.95 from sparkfun. RFID tags $1.95 each from sparkfun
• Xbee module 1mw with wire antenna $21.95 from sparkfun
• 315Mhz transmitter from sparkfun $3.95
• 315Mhz receiver from sparkfun $4.95
• microphone and op-amp ~$5
• KC7783R PIR Detector Module $9.45 from electronics123.com
• Photo Interrupter CNZ1120 $1.95 from sparkfun.com
  

Prizes

All participants will get tee-shirt (design contest specific, more to come on this). The top two will win a significant prize, current proposals are an Ipod touch or a development tool like this usb oscope/function generator. (http://www.poscope.com/product.php?pid=13). Once we get the 25 participants locked in we will be looking for feedback on which you would prefer.

PKI Brains & Brawn Competition

In Honor of National Engineers Week.

A student and faculty competition involving

Wed. February 18
3 pm Treasure Hunt... PKI Atrium

Fri. February 20

10-12pm Game Show Trivia Competition... PKI Atrium
12-1pm Lunch
1-3pm Physical Competition
3-3:30pm Awards

Register by Friday Feb 13 or ASAP.
http://www.engineering.unl.edu/Events/PKI-Info-Science-Tech-Week/bbregistration.shtml
Optimal teams have 6 or greater members and a faculty member[not required].

This is a great chance to take a Friday for some fun and school camaraderie.
Find a team today.

Rules:
http://www.engineering.unl.edu/Events/PKI-Info-Science-Tech-Week/B-BRules.pdf

More info:
http://www.engineering.unl.edu/Events/PKI-Info-Science-Tech-Week/B-BFlier2008-2-13.pdf

Volunteer Opportunities

1. Spirit Competition March 28
--UNL Computer and Engineering Department is hosting a robotics competitions for students.
we need help with setting up a robotics road course and selling concessions.
http://ceen.unl.edu/TekBots/SPIRIT_Showcase_2009_Flyer.pdf

Please email pki.ieee /at/ gmail.com if interested.

2. Heartland Walk for Warmth Feb. 20
--A benefit for those who need support in paying their energy needs in cold weather
http://www.heartlandwalkforwarmth.org/

3. Senior Shadow Day Feb. 16-19
--High School Seniors receive a chance to shadow an upperclassman through their classes,
dorm room, and cafeteria while highlighting the benefits of college. Need volunteers to contact aretke2@unl.edu or by phone at 402-554-2531 with their name, program, and days they would like to be a mentor.

January Meeting

Date:	Thursday, January 29, 2009
Time:	7:15pm - 8:25pm
Location:	PKI 252 (big room near NW corner of Atrium)
City/Town:	Omaha, NE

Description

Come and enjoy some free snacks and discussion, also purchase($10) and pick-up the new T-Shirt.

Agenda:
-Union Pacific Sponsored Design Competition
-Robot Competition Volunteering
-Officer Elections
-Committee Opportunities

Speaker: David Gotrik, Senior Student
RISE: Research in Germany Opportunities