Research & Projects
Students in the computer engineering program have many opportunities to participate in undergraduate research, student competitions, and hands on projects as part of their program. Learning to become an engineer requires understanding the theory, but also being able to put those theories into practice. Below is a small sample of current activities that involve our students and faculty.
High Performance Computer Networking Storage and Analysis
Team Venus, comprised of twelve female engineering, computer science, and physics students, worked with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to compete in the Student Cluster Competition at the International Conference for High Performance Computer Networking Storage and Analysis. The competition is a real-time, 48-hour challenge to design and assemble a state-of-the-art cluster computer on the exhibit floor and use it to run scientific applications, competing to achieve the greatest performance on a limited power budget. Dr. Jeff Shafer has led the team for the past two years.
Robots Compete in a Maze Competition
As part of the upper division elective course, ECPE 155: Autonomous Robotics, students build small mobile robots starting from the wheels up to the higher level processing. In doing so, they learn how to make a robot drive in a straight line, plan a path to a specific location while avoiding obstacles, and create maps of unknown locations. The lab complements the theory portion of the course, and gives students the opportunity to try different algorithms and approaches. For the final competition, students navigate a maze and locate target using any method they choose. The minions were created by a student which led to the impromtu video of Dancing Robots.
Aerial Robotic to Wirelessly Transfer Power to Maintain Sensor Network Systems
Dr. Elizabeth Basha in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for a project in collaboration with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The three year grant investigates using aerial robotic to wirelessly transfer power to maintain sensor network systems. The project builds the power transfer system, develops algorithms for selecting nodes to recharge on both the UAV and sensor network side, and extends power management solutions on the sensor networks. Undergraduate and graduate students have been involved in this ongoing project. Dr. Elizabeth Basha came to Pacific in the Fall of 2010 from MIT, and has creating new graduate and undergraduate course in robotics for the Computer Engineering Program.
