Generating Energy Using Your Bike!

The purpose of this project is to use Faraday's principle of magnetic induction and generate power. This power can be stored. The idea is to generate enough power so the bike can operate on its own or produce enough energy to operate a web cam or a computer. One way to implement this is by modifying bike rims. There are many innovative possible ways to make the modifications. The challenge is to ensure that as a result of such modification, the bike performance is not degraded (e.g., there is no major change in balance, noise, weight or the bike).   

Moveable Mechanical Platform for Testing

A major challenge radiation therapy is to determine the amount of radiation that will be taken up by the liver, kidneys and tumor, etc. The name of such testing is called “dosimetry”.  Dosimetry becomes particularly challenging when different body organs move in different directions, e.g., lungs moving up and down. The purpose of this project is to design a configurable mechanical platform that can simulate the impact of moving organs during radiation therapy.

Status: December 2012
Sponsor:

Remote Water/Power Monitoring

Average person in the United States consumes about 600 liters of water per day!  An average American household consumes 11,209 kWh per year. In fact, a US house hold uses three times more electricity for lighting, and twice as much in refrigerators than in the EU. Consider these: 1 in 8 people, nearly 900 million worldwide, lack safe drinking water; we can save up to 8 gallons of water a day simply by turning off the tap while we brush our teeth in the morning and at night (watch the water crisis!) In this project our objective is to design a simple monitoring system that can monitor our electricity and power consumption in real time. Various technologies can be considered to monitor water flow including sound and laser doppler velocimetry (LDV). 

Status: Pending
Sponsor: Pending

Electroencephalography (EEG)

"Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp produced by the firing of neurons within the brain.” In medical applications EEG is used to detect conditions such as epilepsy by recording and observing electrical activity from the brain that travels along the scalp. EEG recordings have traditionally been carried out using a mas- sive recording device, connected to the patients by several leads and tying them down to the bed or seat. The focus of this project is  to design a compact wireless EEG/ECG monitoring device using commercially available electronic components. A number of solutions have been proposed: TI ADS2098; More information about ECG; An MCU-Based System for Processing EEG Data this project uses PIC processor. Learn more about patient monitoring systems. 

Status:
Sponsor:

WiFi Balloon

In many environmental wireless networks lack of having line-of-sight can be a major issue. We are investigating the usage of using adverting-balloons or weather balloons for providing WiFi connections.

Status: December 2012
Sponsor: CCE

Monitoring Copeland Creek Water Quality

The goal of this project is to develop a sensor platform that monitors the water flow through the Copeland creek as it passes through the Sonoma State University. Using installed sensors in the creek the quality and flow of the water is measured, recorded, and transmitted to the Sonoma Preserve Server. The real-time data will be available through Internet. The first prototype was completed in Sep. 2011.

Status: Expected to be completed by December 2011
Sponsor: CCE
 

Intelligent Mobile Environmental Geo-Sensor (iMEG)

Sonoma County offers a rich variety of interwoven soils, elevations, and micro-climates. The aim of this project is to design a mobile distributed sensor network to measure various climate changes across the country. The iMEG (Intelligent Mobile Environmental Geo-Sensor), also known as climate pod, can record the climate conditions of different locations we visit! iMEG can be installed on moving vehicles or simply put in a backpack. The logged data can be transmitted to the server located at the Sonoma State University, which will be available to remote users to study. For more information click here. Download this temperature KMZ file example or  humidity KMZ file example to view humidity and temperature changes using Google Earth.

 Status: To be completed by before 2012
Sponsored: Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML)
Participants: Peiwen Yu (Graduate Student)

Wireless Throwing Machine for Disabled Children

Engineering students at Sonoma State were given the challenge to design a throwing or kicking machine for Jaslene, a young girl with cerebral palsy, who cannot use her arms or legs to throw or kick a ball.  Students worked in small groups and came up with some exciting and innovative solutions to the challenge!  These machines make it possible for Jaslene to participate in playground games with peers in ways she has not been able to do previously.  Two of the machines were displayed at the bike camp, June 13-17 2011, at Sonoma State University.Watch the full clip here. The project was first implemented in 2009. Click here for 2010 Projects. 

Sponsored by: Saturday Sidekick at SSU

Students: ES110

Status: Completed in December 2010