Abstract:
It can be difficult presenting the wide array of topics students learn about while studying
electrical and computer engineering because of the extensive background knowledge needed to
discuss most of these topics. Often when presenting to prospective students, there is only a
short time to try to convey to them what kind of experience they can expect if they study
electrical and computer engineering at Cornell, so a detailed technical discussion is often
impossible. Ideally the work of the ECE department could be conveyed through physical demos
that are attractive, interactive, and conceptually simple enough to understand at a high-level in a
short time while still having enough technical depth to invite further discussion with interested
students.
To address this need, our team has created an interactive promotional display project
that can be easily used by the ECE department at a variety of events to spark interest in the
field. The display is a fully realized, robust, and interactive project incorporating multiple aspects
of electrical and computer engineering, similar to the type of projects many students complete in
their classes but manufactured to a higher standard. We have created an autonomous mixing
robot for creating sand-art as specified by the user. It has a custom manufactured wooden body
as well as custom electronics that incorporate the popular Raspberry Pi single-board computer,
which will be familiar to many prospective students that are already interested in hobbyist
electronics. Due to our relative inexperience with mechanical synthesis we experienced
difficulties designing and manufacturing the body and mechanical components of the robot, but
we addressed this by creating a simpler scale model of the robot first to refine our mechanical
designs. We have also created custom printed circuit boards that can interact with the
Raspberry Pi and a variety of sensors to control the robot.
Users will be able to enter their desired colors and order of sand through a touch-screen
interface, and will then be able to watch as the mixer autonomously rotates to various
containers of sand and dispenses them as necessary. Users can take the sand-art container
with them as a small, low-cost souvenir. Importantly, the mixer must be extremely robust so that
it will still be able to function reliably after transport and handling, and also quick and easy to set
up. This project will ultimately help engage prospective students and others with the work of the
ECE department at a variety of public events, improving understanding of the field and hopefully
generating greater interest in electrical and computing engineering in future engineering
students.
Report (pdf)
Poster (pdf)