Year 4 Project Proposals
B.Eng. Honours Electronic Engineering Draft Project Proposals 2019 Version 4
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Browser
Linux Server
ZigBee Device
Ethernet
Serial
Typical Hardware Setup
Wireless
Serial
Interface Bus
Sensor ActuatorDisplay
ZigBee Device
Microcontroller Board
Wireless SensorsActuators Web Server Software Mike Gill Max 4 Students
The students will implement a web server on a Single Board Linux computer such as a Texas Instruments Beaglebone or a Raspberry PI. This system will interface with sensors andor other embedded hardware attached to a microcontroller based development board. This Linux board and the microcontroller will communicate wirelessly.
The system will have client software that will run in a browser; this will use HTML and JavaScript to implement its functionality. Server software that will run in the Linux board will serve up the webpages to the client machines. This server software can be implemented in JavaScript using a Node.js framework.
The communications between the Linux machine and the clients browser can be implemented in HTTP and use the socket.io JavaScript library.
The communications between the microcontroller boards and the Linux machine may use ZigBee or Bluetooth.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Typical project suggestions are:
Combined Heating and Ventilation Control System: This system can read temperature, humidity and mass airflow, for example, from remote sensors and control remote heaters, vents and fans.
Transport Damage Detection: This system consists of microcontroller based embedded systems attached to boxes that carry goods. If a box is dropped or roughly handled in a warehouse, a three axis accelerometer detects this and sets off an alarm and a visual indicator on the box. This alarm state is also indicated to a remote operator. The alarm and visual indicator can be reset after the goods are examined.
House Key Lockbox Control: Estate agents or rental companies could use this system to control access to keys for houses and premises. A key could be placed in a lock box outside a premises. An authorised person would logon to the website hosted by the Linux system. A code would be issued that would allow the lockbox to be opened via a keypad. The server would control the duration of the code remotely.
Car Park Management System: This system would control the parking spaces within a car park. Each parking bay would be monitored. The free and occupied parking bays would be displayed in a graphical format for the person controlling the car park. The entrance gates of the car park would only be opened when a bay is free. The system would also detect if a car bay was occupied for an excessive amount of time so as to detect abandoned cars.
The project will require students to learn the web technologies, step by step, with the help of the lecturer. The projects are software based so the students would need to have been good at previously completed software modules. Nobody has been taught these web technologies in the course so far, so all students will be starting at the same level.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
RadioWireless Projects. Brian Keogh, Guoqing Lu No. of Students: 4
Area: Wireless, RF
RF Project 1
Title: Design and Investigation of a Remote Control Overtheair Test System for 5G radio
Introduction: 5G, or next generation radio, is likely to use specialized beamforming techniques to allow for higher bit rates. This will require new overtheair OTA test methods. The project involves the design of an OTA system suitable for investigation or wireless performance.
The project is suitable for a student with an interest in practical skills including surface mount soldering, mechanical design of precision RF sensors, interfacing of test and measurement equipment and a good knowledge of Matlab scripting. The student is expected to work on their own initiative. You are not taught how to use equipment or write in Matlab and expected to study and practice this during the project time which is typically 2 days per week.
In the first semester you will design and develop TCP IP Scriptsin Matlab to control a remote device remotely over the internet. You will need to extract test results from your test platform and produce a poster paper based on your results and investigations.
Resources: Networked LaptopPC Client with optical serial link to turntable. Access to RF Anechoic Chamber and openair test site. Spectrum Analyser.
Initial Objectives these can be discussed and modified during the project
1. Produce a project plan that shows completion of an experimental platform before January
2020.
2. Write a weekly one page progress report for discussion with supervisor at weekly progress meetings.
3. Development of mathematical model to allow for simulation test cases.
4. Fully documented Matlab scripts, libraries and functions.
5. Simplified user interface, suitable for use by future researchers.
6. Investigation of TCPIP secure operation for remote control of equipment between two university campuses or between a laboratory and an openair test site.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Key Dates subject to change:
16th Sept: Start
28th October: Interim Progress Report and Poster Paper 1 for Open Day
16th December: Semester Report, including design documentation and test results. 27th January: Presentation 1
16th March: Poster paper 2
3rd April: Final Report, Overleaf LaTex.
Presentation 2 TBA
RF Project 2
Title: Design and Investigation of a 5G RF Circuit with Interfaces to Matlab based PC Controller.
Introduction: The RF frontend circuitry of a 5G radio is essentially analogue. However, to achieve optimum performance, the circuit parameters need to be controlled digitally using algorithms.
In this project, the proposed RF hardware comprises RF attenuator ICs with an SPI bus interface. The objective is to control an array of ICs from a Matlab based algorithm. The microcontroller unit can be an Arduino Mega or similar low cost development board.
The project is suitable for a student with an interest in practical skills including surface mount soldering, SPI interfacing, interfacing of test and measurement equipment and a good knowledge of Matlab scripting. You are expected to work on your own initiative. You are not taught how to use equipment or write in Matlab. You are expected to study and practice this during the project time which is typically 2 days per week.
Resources: You will require a Laptop to SPI hardware interface based on Matlab and Arduino Mega Libraries, multichannel pico scope, mini VNA. Access to Anechoic Chamber.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Initial Objectives these can be discussed and modified during the project
1. Produce a project plan that shows completion of an RF circuit before January 2020.
2. Write a weekly one page progress report for discussion with supervisor at weekly progress meetings.
3. Full analysis of SPI operation
4. Development of mathematical model and CAD schematiclayout to allow for simulation test cases.
5. Fully documented Matlab scripts, libraries and functions.
6. Simplified user interface, suitable for use by future researchers.
Key Dates subject to change:
16th Sept: Start
28th October: Interim Progress Report and Poster Paper 1 for Open Day
16th December: Semester Report, including design documentation and test results. 27th January: Presentation 1
16th March: Poster paper 2
3rd April: Final Report, Overleaf LaTex.
Presentation 2 TBA
RF Project 3
Title: Design and Investigation of a 5G Sensor Array with Digitally Controlled Spatial Positioning
Introduction: Next generation mobile radio will require selfintelligent systems to improve spectral efficiency. In this case an adaptive antenna feedback device based on stepper motors is proposed.
This project is challenging and requires practical knowledge including surface mount soldering skills, stepper motor drive techniques, interfacing of test and measurement equipment and a good knowledge of Matlab scripting. You are expected to work on your own initiative. This means that you will not be taught how to use equipment or write in Matlab. You are expected to study this during the project time.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Resources Required: Stepper motors for position control, Arduino Mega board or similar. Matlab libraries for microcontroller, spectrum analyser, mini VNA. Access to RF anechoic chamber.
Initial Objectives these can be discussed and modified during the project
1. Produce a project plan that shows completion of an RF circuit before January 2020.
2. Write a weekly one page progress report for discussion with supervisor at weekly progress meetings.
3. Develop a mathematical model to simulate frequency domain response.
4. Design a motor drive system that can be controlled from Matlab
5. Development of mechanical fixtures for precision positioning of a RF field probe.
6. Fully documented Matlab scripts, libraries and functions.
7. Simplified user interface, suitable for use by future researchers.
8. Investigation of simple algorithm for spatial optimization
Key Dates subject to change:
16th Sept: Start
28th October: Interim Progress Report and Poster Paper 1 for Open Day
16th December: Semester Report, including design documentation and test results. 27th January: Presentation 1
16th March: Poster paper 2
3rd April: Final Report, Overleaf LaTex.
Presentation 2 TBA
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Year 4 Project Proposals
RF Project 4
Title: Design and Evaluation of Digitally Controlled RF Filter for 5G and IoT applications
Introduction: Previous generations of radios used band pass filters to supress interference from local transmitters. If a known transmitter is operating on the same frequency channel then alternative methods of suppression are needed. This project uses an arbitrary response filter to replicate the channel response. If a copy of the interfering transmit signal is available and if the channel response is known, then it should be possible to supress the interference.
This project is challenging and requires practical knowledge including surface mount soldering skills, CAD, interfacing of test and measurement equipment and a good knowledge of Matlab scripting. You are expected to work on your own initiative. This means that you will not be taught how to use equipment or write in Matlab. You are expected to study this during the project time.
Resources Required: Relevant ICs from Analog Devices or MACOM, Coaxial cable assemblies. PCB prototyping equipment, pico scope, mini VNA.
Initial Objectives these can be discussed and modified during the project
1. Produce a project plan that shows completion of an RF circuit before January 2020.
2. Write a weekly one page progress report for discussion with supervisor at weekly progress meetings.
3. Design a programmable RF Filter to replicate RF 5G channel conditions. The student will design a detailed model of an nth order passband FIR arbitrary response filter in Matlab.
4. Design a passband OFDM signal that can be used to evaluate the FIR filter in the frequency domain.
5. Fabricate a prototype on PCB FR4
Key Dates subject to change:
16th Sept: Start
28th October: Interim Progress Report and Poster Paper 1 for Open Day
16th December: Semester Report, including design documentation and test results. 27th January: Presentation 1
16th March: Poster paper 2
3rd April: Final Report, Overleaf LaTex.
Presentation 2 TBA
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Microprocessor Design Richard Gahan Max 2 Students
Resources NeededXILINX Development Board, LCD, LEDS, Switches Language: Verilog
The aim of this project is to design a microprocessor and implement it on a XILINX development board. The capability to add special instructions and breakpoints without the use of an emulator would be an extra milestone.
This project involves
1. Designing the microprocessor
2. Coding and synthesizing this design on a XILINX development board
3. Adding features to allow breakpoints to be built into the processor to be triggered under special
circumstances.
4. Adding LEDs for display purposes
5. Running assembly code on the processor to demonstrate its capabilities
The processor we design can be either:
an 8051 or
ARM7 or
RISCV.
8051 is one of the original and simple microprocessors. ARM processors run in most smartphones and are a recent and modern design. RISCV is a new open source instruction set that FPGA companies are starting to make available as it is royalty free for users.
The first task would be to take a closer look at all 3 architectures and then choose one of them to implement.
This project is for any student that wants to excel as a designerit has the scope to allow the student to really impress. Students that have impressed in this project have found their skills in good demand in finding employment after graduation.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
ARM7 or RISCV Assembler Software Richard Gahan Max 2 Students
Resources NeededSoftware Development Environment.
Language: C or Java or Python or other language of choice,
The aim of this project is to implement a microprocessor model in appropriate language. This project involves
1. Understanding of the Chosen microprocessor architecturethe software programmers model.
2. Understanding the chosen microprocessor assembly language instructions.
3. Writing an Assembler Program in a high level language i.e. read in a file with assembly instructions and execute the code to produce the resulting values in
the register set memory model.
4. Running assembly code on the model to demonstrate its capabilities
The processor we shall model can be either:
ARM7 or RISCV .
ARM processors run in most smartphones and are a recent and modern design.
RISCV is a new open source instruction set that FPGA companies are starting to make available as it is royalty free for users.
This project is for any student that wants to gain expertise in software design and coding. It also allows the student to gain a deep understanding of Modern Microprocessor Architecture.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Analysis of Telecommunication Systems Donal OToole Max 4 Students
The aim of this project is to use Simulink in Matlab to investigate the behaviour of a range of Telecommunication Systems. Students are encouraged to work together in the first semester to learn how to use and apply various Simulink blocks to construct and examine different Telecommunication Systems. In the second semester, students are expected to construct and analyse various Telecommunication Systems with individually assigned specifications. There is no hardware element in this project. A sample outline of activities is provided below.
1. 2.
3. 4. 5.
6.
7. a
b
8. 9. 10. 11.
Measure and calculate signal and noise power spectral densities.
Generate, transmit and detect binary signals using a variety of receivers, including an optimal receiver.
Use the following channels: 1 Noisy Channel only 2 Noisy and Dispersive Channel
Use BER detectors to determine errors.
Include analysis where possible. Use Simulink blocks to determine noise power and signal power. Use theoretical equations to determine error probabilities. Present simulated and theoretical results in a suitable table, and compare to the BER from the simulations.
Use MQAM as an example of Passband modulation for M4 and M16. Provide constellation plots.
Prepare Comparison Studies:
Using noisy channels only: Compare performances of various systems, including raised cosine pulses.
Using noisy and dispersive channels: Compare performance of various systems, including raised cosine pulses.
Use eye diagrams to illustrate the effect of timing jitter, noise and channel dispersion. Implement and analyse channel codes.
Implement Synchronisation using a PLL system of assigned Baseband system. Implement a PCM system.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
ANALOG HARDWARE BJTs Declan Ennis
No. of Students: 4
Project Type: Audio amplifiers. Discrete BJTs
There are more Audio Amplifiers in the world than Smartphones, Laptops and Cars combined;think about it .
These projects will involve detailed design and analysis of amplifier circuits. Analysis will include:
small signal modelEbersMoll;Early . Analysis of negative feedback.
Output stages,
High frequency stability, etc. etc.
It will require CAD simulations and Web search; lab experiments and PCB design. A custom PCB should be designed using CAD included as assembly and test of final hardware.
Typical examples of amplifier designs might be:
Car Power amplifier, discrete component design with input set for LINE 500mV, 50k. It should be
designed to run off 12VDCCar batteryinto 4 speaker .
Balanced MIC Preamplifier2024VDC to take a microphone signal Balanced 2mV up to a LINE
250mV at the output.
Smart Headphone amplifier3.7 VDC battery; 32load . Low power consumptionClass AB operation .
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Year 4 Project Proposals
VerilogVHDL model of a microprocessor
Max 1 Student
Resources required Lab No. : 221,215 Computer Resources:
Specialised Hardware:
Xilinx prototyping board Project Description:
Common:
Design a microprocessor core, such as the Intel 8051 or PIC.
Pat OFriel
Use the VHDL or Verilog hardware description language to capture the design, each student will write their own code.
Analyse and optimize for speedarea on Xilinx FPGA, investigate how the resources on the FPGA can be best utilised.
Possible individual additions:
1. Design and interface to a VGA terminal so that the internal registers and data can be
displayed during single step execution. Use an external RAM for video RAM.
2. Investigate methods of increasing the speed of operation of the core, e.g. pipelining, instruction prefetch and implement the design.
3. Design a UART to download executable program to the microprocessor program memory and display data on PC screen.
4. Design an interface to LCD display and Keyboard to enable interaction with the microprocessor core. Use this interface to load small programs and display program information.
5. Implement more complex instructions of the uProcessor, Interrupts, Timers etc.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Software and Networks Aideen Darker and Andrew Donnellan Max 4 Students. 9 Sample Projects
All the projects will involve Simulating a part of a network with components such as switches, ports, routers and PCs. The Simulation will be in Java and each student will be implementing a slightly different network. This list below is a sample of what students may be asked to simulate.
The project will require students to learn Java on their own, with direction on what to do next given by the supervisors, so they would need to have been good at programming modules done previously. Nobody has done Java, so all students will be learning at the same time.
They will design and implement their subnetwork in Java. Individual projects will be allocated by lecturers.
Sample Project 1 : Create a simple GUI in Java to simulate a simple network of PCs and a switch with port security.
The main elements will be PCs and a 20 port switch. There will only be one type of connectionan Ethernet connection. This will be an association between two ports on two devices.
A PC will have a MAC address, an IP address, subnet mask and a default gateway. It should be possible to select the PC element and manually enter these parameters. It should be possible to send a ping from the PC to another PC connected to another port on the same switch. The PCs should be able to implement the ARP protocol and they should keep ARP tables that can be looked at.
The Switch should learn the MAC address of the PC connected only when the PC tries to send a frame I a ping for example.
We should have the capability of manually activating or deactivating any of the ports on the switch.
The switch will have port security. It should be possible to use sticky on a port so that the first device that connects to that port can be connected to any of the other ports but no other device can select that original port.
The switch will also have static MAC address assignment whereby if a port on the switch is manually assigned to a particular MAC address, then the PC with that MAC address can only connect to that port and none of the others.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Sample Project 2 : Network with switches and a router with VLAN trunking and Inter VLAN routing
Create a simple GUI in Java to simulate trunking and inter VLAN routing.
The main elements will be PCs, a router and switches. There will only be one type of connectionan Ethernet connection.
A PC will have a MAC address, an IP address, subnet mask and a default gateway. It should be possible to select the PC element and manually enter these parameters. It should be possible to send a ping from the PC to another PC connected to another port on the same switch. The PCs should be able to implement the ARP protocol and they should keep ARP tables that can be looked at.
The Switches should learn the MAC address of the PCs connected only when the PC tries to send a frame a ping for example
We should have the capability of manually activating or deactivating any of the ports on the switch.
It should be possible to place each port on a different VLAN. PCs connected to ports on the same VLAN will be able to communicate with each other but not with PCs on different VLANs. Switches should interconnect using trunks and the router should provide inter VLAN routing.
Sample Project 3 : Two switches with VLAN trunking
Create a simple GUI in Java to simulate certain properties of a network involving a Switch and a PC.
The main elements will be a PC and two switches. There will only be one type of connectionan Ethernet connection.
A PC will have a MAC address, an IP address, subnet mask and a default gateway. It should be possible to select the PC element and manually enter these parameters. It should be possible to send a ping from the PC to another PC connected to another port on the same switch. The PCs should be able to implement the ARP protocol and they should keep ARP tables that can be looked at.
The Switch should learn the MAC address of the PC connected only when the PC tries to send a frame I a ping for example.
We should have the capability of manually activating or deactivating any of the ports on the switch.
It should be possible to connect two switches in the simulator with an Ethernet connection called a trunk. Ports on each switch can be assigned to a VLAN except the trunk which does not belong to a particular VLAN. PCs on the same VLAN should be able to ping to a PC on the other switch but only if it is in the same VLAN. The switches should pass the VLAN ID of the sending PC so the receiving switch can forward it to a device on the same VLAN.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Sample Project 4 : Multiple switches connected using the Spanning Tree Protocol.
Create a simple GUI in Java to simulate certain properties of a network involving a Switch and a PC.
The main elements will be a PC and a 20 port switch. There will only be one type of connectionan Ethernet connection.
A PC will have a MAC address, an IP address, subnet mask and a default gateway. It should be possible to select the PC element and manually enter these parameters. It should be possible to send a ping from the PC to another PC connected to another port on the same switch. The PCs should be able to implement the ARP protocol and they should keep ARP tables that can be looked at.
The Switch should learn the MAC address of the PC connected only when the PC tries to send a frame I a ping for example.
We should have the capability of manually activating or deactivating any of the ports on the switch.
Each switch should have the capability of being connected to each other but the switches need to implement the Spanning Tree Protocol to eliminate the possibility of loops. For simplicity there is only one VLAN.
Sample Project 5 : A simple network of Routers and PCs using RIP.
Create a simple GUI in Java to simulate certain properties of a network involving Routers and PCs.
The main elements will be PC sand a maximum of 3 routers. There will be one type of connectionan Ethernet connection.
We should have the capability of manually activating or deactivating any of the ports on the router.
Routers will keep routing tables which contain information on how to route packets over the network.
A PC will have a MAC address, an IP address, subnet mask and a default gateway. It should be possible to select the PC element and manually enter these parameters. It should be possible to send a ping from the PC to another PC connected to the network. The PCs should be able to implement the ARP protocol and they should keep ARP tables that can be looked at.
The routers should be capable of using the ARP protocol and should have an ARP table also. Each port on the router will have a MAC address, an IP address and a subnet address. You should be able to select the port in the GUI and enter in the port parameters manually.
The routers should be capable of telling each other about the networks directly connected to them. In this case, the RIP protocol will be used, where basically the routers swap information about what networks are directly connected to them. PCs should be able to ping each other across the network.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Sample Project 6 : A simple network of Routers and PCs using OSPF.
Create a simple GUI in Java to simulate certain properties of a network involving Routers and PCs.
The main elements will be a PC and a 6 port router. There will be one type of connectionan Ethernet connection.
We should have the capability of manually activating or deactivating any of the ports on the router.
Routers will keep routing tables which contain information on how to route packets over the network.
A PC will have a MAC address, an IP address, subnet mask and a default gateway. It should be possible to select the PC element and manually enter these parameters. It should be possible to send a ping from the PC to another PC connected to another PC connected to the network. The PCs should be able to implement the ARP protocol and they should keep ARP tables that can be looked at.
The routers should be capable of using the ARP protocol and should have an ARP table also. Each port on the router will have a MAC address, an IP address and a subnet address. You should be able to select the port in the GUI and enter in the port parameters manually.
The routers should be capable of telling each other about the networks directly connected to them. In this case, the OSPF protocol will be used, where basically the routers swap information about what networks are directly connected to them. PCs should be able to ping each other across the network.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Sample Project 7 : A simple network of a Router and PCs using DHCP and NAT.
Create a simple GUI in Java to simulate certain properties of a network involving a Router and PCs.
The main elements will be a PC and a router with a minimum of two ports. There will be one type of connectionan Ethernet connection.
We should have the capability of manually activating or deactivating any of the ports on the router.
Routers will keep routing tables which contain information on how to route packets over the network.
A PC will get its MAC address, IP address, subnet mask and default gateway from the connected router, using DHCP. You should be able to manually assign the range of IP addresses the router can assign to connecting devices.
The Router should be capable of implementing NAT so that if the PCs use Private IP addresses, the router will translate them to public addresses to communicate with the outside world.
It should be possible to send a ping from the PC to another PC connected in the network. The PCs should be able to implement the ARP protocol and they should keep ARP tables that can be looked at.
The routers should be capable of using the ARP protocol and should have an ARP table also. Each port on the router will have a MAC address, an IP address and a subnet address. You should be able to select the port in the GUI and enter in the port parameters manually.
Sample Project 8 : A simple network of multiple switches and a single router
Create a simple GUI in Java to simulate certain properties of a network involving switches, routers and PCs.
The main elements will be a PC, a 20 port switch and a 6 port router. There will be one type of connectionan Ethernet connection.
We should have the capability of manually activating or deactivating any of the ports on the router.
Routers will keep routing tables which contain information on how to route packets over the network.
If a PC wants to ping another PC on the same switch, which is in the same network, then it does not need to use the router. If the PC wants to ping a PC on another switch connected to a different port on the router then the router must be involved in the routing process.
We will not need VLANS or routing protocols as we will only ever connect one router.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Sample Project 9 : Project Title : A simple network of Routers and PCs using EIGRP
Create a simple GUI in Java to simulate certain properties of a network involving Routers and PCs.
The main elements will be a PC and a maximum of 3 routers. There will be one type of connectionan Ethernet connection.
For each connection, you should be able to choose a cable through click and drag and choose what port on the router you want to connect to.
We should have the capability of manually activating or deactivating any of the ports on the router.
Routers will keep routing tables which contain information on how to route packets over the network.
A PC will have a MAC address, an IP address, subnet mask and a default gateway. It should be possible to select the PC element and manually enter these parameters. It should be possible to send a ping from the PC to another PC connected to another PC connected to the network. The PCs should be able to implement the ARP protocol and they should keep ARP tables that can be looked at.
The routers should be capable of using the ARP protocol and should have an ARP table also. Each port on the router will have a MAC address, an IP address and a subnet address. You should be able to select the port in the GUI and enter in the port parameters manually.
The routers should be capable of telling each other about the networks directly connected to them. In this case, the EIGRP protocol will be used, where basically the routers swap information about what networks are directly connected to them. PCs should be able to ping each other across the network.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Virtual Reality Andrew Donnellan Max 4 Students. 3 Sample Projects
The Department of Electronic Engineering has a number of Virtual Reality VR Headsets, gloves with sensors and suitable high specification computers in order to develop VR applications.
All the projects will involve developing VR environments to give the users an interactive and immersive learning experience. Each project, will have its own desired learning outcomes for the user, and the specifics will be developed over the initial weeks of the projects, as the projects below are examples done previouslywhich can be developed further, or new environments can be developed.
The project will require students to learn some software design concepts before they are covered within modules. As with all projects there is leaning in addition to what done in modules. They will need to learn the Unreal Engine development environment, some aspects of C, blueprints, etc on their own, with direction on what to do next given by the supervisors, so they would need to have been good at programming modules done previously. Nobody has done C, so all students will be learning at the same time.
They will design and implement their VR environment using the VR IDE. Individual projects will be allocated by the lecturer. The below projects are just examples and the lecturer and students will jointly decide what their VR environment will aim to deliver for the user. Once the VR environments are designed and implemented they can be tested and the users experiencelearning evaluated, so that further improvements can be made to the VR interactive experience.
Sample Project 1 : Clean Room Environment
There is a clean room on the ground floor of the main building in Tallaght, used to teach students about semiconductor technology. The purpose of this project is to develop a virtual laboratory Environment, realizing some features of the real semiconductor lab in the university. The developed C and blueprint should enable users to do experiments such as an oxidation experiment, learn knowledge of semiconductor technology and as well as safety rules within a clean room. In a real clean room there are a lot of dangerous chemicals and high temperatures, which students need to understand before working in the room. This VR application could be used to help in this process.
For example, the virtual laboratory would contain the ovens and wafers required for the experiment, as well as other developed classes and objects.
Sample Project 2: Chemistry Laboratory
Another project would be the development of a virtual chemistry laboratory.
This chemistry laboratory is developed to allow students to simulate the use of the laboratory equipment, the molecular topology model overview to show the user the complex structure of molecular with a 360degree view and lastly, the reaction simulation to illustrate to users the result of their operation so they can learn from the experiment simulation. Users can experience the operation successfully once they follow the virtual guidance in the chemistry lab.
Sample Project 3: Learning Software Concepts in a VR environment
This project would develop a VR environment where students learn about software constructs. Previous projects have focused on teaching how the if and while constructs work. This was done by developed third person maze game scenes. There were levels within the game.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
IC layout and Design Projects Mike Byrne Max 4 Students
All projects require the use of Electric Software Synopsys IC layout Tools and Ltspice software which is free at the following locations: http:www.staticfreesoft.comproductsFree.html http:www.linear.comdesigntoolssoftware
The projects will involve the use of the fabrication libraries C5 on semiconductor andor the 90nm Synopsys generic libraries. https:www.mosis.comvendorsviewonsemiconductorc5
Project List summaries:
1. Project: Design, analysis and layout of efficient full adder ADDER designs using the CMOS process. The project will review transistor logic, pass gate design, domino logic and custom designs such as mirror adders. The completed designs must be analysed to for delays, power consumption and layout areas.
2. Project: Design of a two stage OP AMP with compensation . This will involve using NMOS and PMOS blocks to construct the building blocks such as the MIRROR loads, current source, diff amp input stage and buffer output stage. Analysis and layout of the completed design to Bond pads is required.
3. Project: Analysis and Design of current sources using PMOS and NMOS transistors reviewing the stability of the output over power supply variations, such as BMR designs. The layout and simulation of each design topologies must be completed.
4. Project: Design and layout of an ALU which will complete basic tasks such as ADDSubtractincrementdecrement and logic functions. The design will be completed using a range of CMOS design topologies, such as transistor logic and pass gates. The completed design will be analysed with reference to delays, power consumption and layout areas.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Project Jing Jin
Max 1 Student
Project: Occluded Object Detection and Restoration
Abstract: Because of the development of Deep Learning, traditional object detection algorithms have been mature. However, the detection accuracy of occluded object is not good enough. In this project, a detection method for occluded object is need to be proposed. Moreover, it is necessary to restore the missing part of the object. The students can take human face or vehicle for example to realize the algorithm.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Semiconductor Projects P. Tierney
Project 1 1 Student
Title: Investigation into the effects of gate oxidation conditions for MOSFET transistor fabrication.
Background: MOSFET devices using silicon dioxide SiO2 as a gate dielectric material can experience a shift in the device threshold voltage due to defectsimpurities existing in the SiO2 layer or the SiSiO2 interface. This is an observable characteristic of the MOSFET devices produced in the institute semiconductor fabrication laboratory.
Project Aims and Objectives: The project student will be required to become familiar with the MOSFET fabrication process and carry out background research in relation to defect formation and threshold voltage shifting. They will consider work in the area of thermally grown SiO2 undertaken during a previous project and implement it in the transistor fabrication process. Magnetron sputtering of hafnium dioxide as an alternative gate dielectric material will be compared against the thermally grown silicon dioxide. The student will become familiar with the semiconductor fabrication techniques involved in transistor production such as thermal oxidation, diffusion, photolithography, etching and metallisation along with the thin film measurement technique of Ellipsometry.
Project 2 1 Student
Title: Development of a micron scale integrated thin film hydrogen sensor, microheater and temperature sensor.
Background: Tin Dioxide SnO2 is a semiconducting metal oxide which when produced in nanoscale crystals has electrical properties which are not observed in the bulk material. One of these properties is a variable electrical conductivity in the presence of reducing or oxidising gases. This property which allows for the detection of gases such as hydrogen only occurs at a useful rate when the films are at an operating temperature in the range of 200 C. Thin films of nickel can be used both as resistive heating elements when electrical current is passed through them or as resistive temperature sensors due to a change in material resistivity as a result of film temperature variation.
Project Aims and Objectives: This project is the continuation of work that has been ongoing for a number of years in the laboratory which has resulted in the minimisation of the active area of the device to less than 0.04 mm2. In the previous academic year, the new small scale device went through the initial fabrication and process recipe development. Initial testing showed promising results for the hydrogen and temperature sensing elements. The microheater however struggled to bring the device to the required operating temperature due to heat loss effects at this scale. The objective for this years student is to explore possibilities around fabricating the device on alternative substrates and modification of the design to increase heat retention within the device. The student will become familiar with microfabrication techniques such as bilayer liftoff processing, thin film deposition, thin film measurement and multimask photolithography patterning.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Project 3 1 Student
Title: Development of an SnO2 nanoparticle based light detector.
Background: Tin Dioxide SnO2 belongs to a group of materials referred to as transparent conductive oxides which have attracted significant research interest due to some unusual electrical properties when produced as a material consisting of nanoscale crystals. One of these is a prolonged increase in conductivity when exposed to light of sufficient energy. The response of this photoconductivity in terms of magnitude and rate appears to be dependent on the energy wavelength of the detected light.
Project Aims and Objectives: The project student will produce the sensor films in the microfabrication cleanroom laboratory using the process techniques of photolithography, magnetron sputtering and liftoff patterning. The films can be characterised using Ellipsometry.
The aim of the project is to produce an overall sensor device that can determine between three different incident wavelengths of light. To do this the student must analyse and understand the film response to each wavelength and build control electronics to correctly identify which light source is active.
Project 4 1 Student P. TierneyS. Murphy Title: Fabrication of plamonic nanostructures using nanosphere lithography
Background: Arrays of metal nanostructures with dimensions in the 10100 nm size range can be exploited to provide singlemolecule detection with applications in medical diagnostics, pharmaceutical manufacturing, forensic science and environmental monitoring by means of direct plasmonic sensing or via surfaceenhanced Raman spectroscopy. These methods exploit the localised surface plasmon resonances LSPR, i.e. collective oscillations of electrons on the metal surface, that may be tuned to a particular resonant frequency by controlling the size, shape, spacing and composition of the metal nanostructures.
Project Aims and Objectives: Ordered arrays of metal nanostructures will be prepared in the cleanroom facility using nanosphere lithography NSL. The sequence of steps for preparing the nanostructures is as follows: i a selfassembled monolayers of polystyrene nanospheres will be deposited onto 1 cm2 Si substrates using either drop casting, spin coating or LangmuirBlodgett trough. ii Thin films of metals such as Cu will be sputterdeposited over the nanosphere masks using the Lesker PVD75 sputter tool. Three possible configurations will be obtained; a filmon nanosphere FON structures, b the FON structure is stripped from the Si substrate to produce an hexagonal array of triangular nanoprisms formed by deposition onto the substrate through the gaps between the nanospheres, c another substrate can be glued on top of the FON structure, which can be stripped off to produce an array of concave nanobowls. The project will focus primarily on the second configuration. Nanostructure size, shape and spacing will be controlled via the deposited film thickness and nanosphere diameter. The morphology of the resulting structures will be characterised using a combination of scanning electron microscopy SEM and atomic force microscopy AFM. The possibility of investigating the plasmonic behaviour of the nanostructures using ellipsometry, and by modelling using finitedifference timedomain method will also be explored.
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Year 4 Project Proposals
Small wind turbine projects T. OBrien
Max 2 students.
Project 1: Software MATLAB or C model of a small wind turbine incorporating wind speed and direction variations 1 student
Project 2: Software model of various load strategies for small turbine in variable wind conditions 1 student
Small wind turbines often operate at sites subject to rapid changes of wind speed and direction.
The resulting rapid changes in available power output leads to poor energy yield when if electrical loads are connected.
We want to develop software tools to model the turbines physical response to the varying wind conditions, and model the energy yield for the turbine generator combination when different load types are being supplied. Typical load types are simple heating resistive load, battery charging rectification and down conversion, grid connect various inverter strategies
Develop a suite of MATLAB functions and scripts to model the production of energy by small wind turbines in conditions which include wind gusts and changes of wind direction.
The effect of dynamic load control to maintain optimal production will be studied.
First tasks are to model the steady state operation with a fixed simple electrical load and steady wind speed. This requires:
1 A MATLAB function or functions to generate a simplified model of the turbine blades geometry Real blades have twist, variable chord length, and other details
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Year 4 Project Proposals
2 Next is a function that calculates lift and drag forces at points along the blades. These depend on the wind speed and the blade rotational speed
Optimum design of a small wind turbine blade for maximum power production L Tenghiri1 , Y Khalil1 , F Abdi and A Bentamy. International Conference on Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency REEE2017 IOP Publishing
3 The lift and drag forces at each point on the blade are combined to calculate the instantaneous total Rotational Torque and drag force at the hub of the wind turbine.
Wind Turbine Blade Design Peter J. Schubeland Richard J. Crossley. Energies 2012, 5, 34253449; doi:10.3390en5093425
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Year 4 Project Proposals
4 This function gives a figure for the instantaneous braking Torque that the generator provides to the turbine. It also gives Voltage and current values
The turbine is connected to a generator which provides a braking Torque dependent on its electrical properties and the load it is supplying. A simple permanent magnet generator and resistive load are the first to model.
5 Dynamic Equilibrium function
This function implements a numerical model of the acceleration of the turbine under the action of the wind generated torque and the generator induced braking force. It takes account of the mass and inertia, and rotational momentum of the turbine. The result is a value for the new rotational speed after an increment delta T Seconds.
6 A main function which uses the other functions to calculate how the response speed, volts, amps develops over time. We should see the rotation speed and the power rise over a period of a few 10s of seconds and stabilise.
7 Validate trends as parameters are varied. Calibrate against known systems. This requires comparison of the model predictions with published data and manufacturers specifications.
8 Add wind gusts to the simulation data, modify the dynamic elements of turbine model as required. Guided by actual wind data from the sit at Tallaght.
9 Add in wind direction changes. This requires turbine model modifications. 10 Model inverter and battery charger type loads
11 simulate model the performance of the turbinegenerator with each of the load types considered in the various weather situations.
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