Have you ever been on vacation and wished that you could share an experience or sight with someone at home? Students at West Virginia University’s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources working to make that possible.

An augmented reality system, or a system that allows tourists to share—in real time—sights and sounds of a vacation destination, is one of 14 projects that will be featured at the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering 2011 Spring Senior Design Expo on April 25. The expo will be held throughout the ground floor corridor of the Engineering Sciences Building from noon-2 p.m.

Fifty-three students formed 14 groups and began working last spring on various capstone projects. During the first semester they conducted research and wrote design proposals; in the second semester, the teams got hands-on experience building their projects and will now introduce them to the public.

“This is an opportunity for our students to not only build projects that reflect their learning, but also to hone their communication skills,” said Dr. Ramana Reddy, a professor in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. “The public will ask our students questions, and they will have to effectively articulate the intricacies of their projects.”

Projects at this semester’s expo cover a broad range of interests. In addition to the augmented reality system, design prototypes that will be featured include:

• Biometrics-based pet doors that will admit only “authorized” pets into a habitat,
• a solar assisted car that is assembled from bicycle parts,
• snake-like robots that can crawl into a disaster area to send real-time video to rescue workers,
• projects that will enable the West Virginia State Police to use the Internet to streamline case management and effectively deal with cyber criminals,
• a smart-house that can monitor its power usage and adjust appliances accordingly.

Students from LCSEE will be available to answer questions about their design projects. This event is free and open to the public.

—WVU—

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CONTACT:
Mary Dillon, CEMR
(304) 293-4086
mary.dillon@mail.wvu.edu