Photomosaics

The ES453 Introduction to Computer Vision class created their own photomosaics by replacing small segments of an image with a smaller image whose color most closely matched the original patch of the image. Large photo databases were created in MATLAB with Google Image searches. These pictures were used to create the small points of color.

Don't spill that drink!

ES405 is a course about sensors and motors. In a lot of ways, the course helps prepare you for your capstone project. This year's course project was to build a self leveling platform. They used a cheap accelerometer as a tilt sensor. The output of the sensor is fed to a small computer which turns a motor in order to keep the platform straight.



Shmooooove!

What about the 2/c Courses?

One of the things I always hear from plebes at recruiting events:

Question: You show us all these great 1/C projects, but what goes on in the 2C year?
Answer: We give you all the tools you will need to do those great 1C projects.

In Control Systems Laboratory (ES308), we teach you how to use little computers to control your projects. These micro-computers don't have a keyboard or a mouse, and they are small enough to fit on most projects. They can be used to talk with motors and sensors. For example, check out the cart in this video. Students had to program the cart to always move at the same velocity -- like your car's cruise control.



(Work by 2/C Selby and Haley)

The computer had to read the velocity sensors on each wheel and decide what voltage to send to the motor to keep it going straight at the right speed. Seems pretty easy on flat ground, but it was required to maintain a constant speed, no matter what the terrain (carpet, smooth floor, uphill, down hill, towing a trailer, etc) . That is where the skills of the 2/C Systems Engineer are put to the test.

(Work by 2/C Lovett)



Since we didn't have a radar gun, one of the ways we measured velocity was to time how long it took to travel between two tape marks on the ground. You can see these guys were pretty pround that they got their vehicle to stop on a dime. Needless to say, they got an A.