Consider a parallel universe in which the word, ‘unusual’ is a noun. If something were unusual someone might say, “That’s an unusual.”, which is an unusual way to say it.
PCB ADC-Interface Board Project
The purpose of this project was to design an interactive ADC-interfacing circuit board from scratch and then to create a VHDL program for the CPLD. The board was to have several different modes of operation including frequency measurement, voltage measurement (positive and negative), and diagnostic mode. This was an individual project.
Re-Engineering Project
The purpose of this project was to take a marketed product and redesign it to improve one of its qualities. Our team arbitrarily picked the target quality. My role was testing/data collection and implementation of the chosen design improvements.
ASME H2Go Project
The purpose of this project was to create a machine which would harness the potential energy of a liter of water at a height of 1 meter. My role was co-designer and vehicle design and manufacture.
Dots and Boxes
The purpose of this project was to use integrated chips and a CPLD to make a hardware-run version of the game “Dots and Boxes.” The design used tough sensors and a system of CPLDs that were designed to transmit and process data. My role was lead programmer.
Lego Remote
The goal of this project was to use an NXT and a Lego kit to create a remote of some sort. This was a freshman level course at LeTourneau University.
FPGA Implementation of BSS Alogrithms
This was my master’s thesis research topic. I built my own DAQ (Data AQuisition) circuitry and interfaced it with a Nexys 4 Artix-7 FPGA development board.
An FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) is one of the fastest ways that digital electronics can be realized, coming only second to ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), and some DSP (Digital Signal Processor) based systems.
BSS (Blind Source Separation), also known as Blind Beamforming, is a technique by which a set of source signals can be extracted from a sampled set of observations of mixtures of those signals. For example, isolating a person’s voice from an audio recording taken at an airport. This is something that our brains carry out subconsciously and at a much more sophisticated level than a BSS algorithm can hope to accomplish.
The end goal of doing this research is to be a starting point for the research into a reliable digital computing system that might someday rival the sophistication of a brain. Ultimately, the applications are endless as this could be used on any type of signal as long as the sources are statistically significant.
This is the presentation material that accompanied my thesis defense.
Click on “Present” to load it. It is a very large presentation so it may take a while to load. Once loaded, you can use your arrow keys or the media controls to navigate my presentation.
Dorm 4 Website
Dorm 4 is the group of guys with whom I lived my first two years at LeTourneau University. We are a very tight knit group and like to keep in touch. I’ve become the person in charge of creating and maintaining the Dorm 4 website. Click on the image below to check it out!
Wireless Power Transfer
Derive a way to calculate power transfer between coils given input current to a transmitting coil.
Partnered with one other graduate student to create a lab for undergraduate students enrolled in Electromagnetic Fields and Waves at LeTourneau University. For this lab, we had the students come up with a theoretical derivation for the voltage transmitted to a receiving coil given the alternating current flowing through a transmitting coil. System variables such as coil shape and turn count were arbitrary. Requirements included creation of a testing system, and then comparison of experimental results to theoretical results derived from a custom for the voltage induced in the receiving coil. This project was completed successfully.
Yagi-Uda Antenna Project
Develop a lab to investigate Yagi-Uda Antennas.
Partnered with one other graduate student to create a lab for undergraduate students enrolled in Electromagnetic Fields and Waves at LeTourneau University. We specifically had the undergraduate students create and analyze a Yagi-Uda Antenna. Requirements included creation, testing to experimentally determine a radiation pattern, measuring the Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) of their antenna using a network analyzer, and demonstrate the directivity of their new transmitter. This project was completed successfully.