Reducing the number of bicycle accidents. Making food safer. With the help of mentors from TI, engineering students at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin worked together to tackle these real world issues.
As part of their required course work, seniors in the UT Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering must complete a design project – with the added perk of awards going to the top six projects. This spring, TI-sponsored designs won first, second, fourth and sixth place. But a TI sponsorship goes well beyond a financial contribution – the students learn from TI engineers with years of industry experience.
“It was a good opportunity for us to impact a bunch of really bright students,” said Nikhil Gupta, a power modeling engineer with the WEBENCH® Design Center at TI.
Gupta’s team came in second place after designing a bicycle collision avoidance system. The system the team and Gupta created is powered by the bicycle, uses TI parts, a camera and an ultrasonic sensor to detect pedestrians up to a distance of 25-feet in front of the bike.
"As soon as the system detects a pedestrian in front, it’ll automatically sound an alarm to warn the pedestrian to move out of the way,” Gupta said.
Gupta considers the mentoring program to be a win-win partnership for the students and for TI.
“It’s a good way to get them excited about TI parts and hopefully once they start using them, then they will be excited to come work for us,” he said.
The first place team tackled the problem of food safety as products are transported across the country. TI WEBENCH® Design Center design engineer Gerold Dhanabalan mentored five UT engineering seniors throughout the development of the winning project.
Dhanabalan says the team received input from a grocery company based in Austin, Texas about its cumbersome process to monitor and ensure food safety during transportation.
The team used TI parts including the MSP430 microcontroller, which they specifically chose because the project required a microcontroller with ultra-low power consumption, the BQ24072T USB-Friendly Li-Ion Battery Charger and an LM317A linear regulator. The final device contained an accelerometer and additional sensors for monitoring temperature, CO2 levels and humidity, all key indicators of spoiled food.
The collected data was stored on the monitoring device, which could be read later on by a computer using a USB connection. Creating the project took hard work, technical insight and a system level understanding of the problem, but the team was rewarded as the best senior design project in the department.
“I felt very proud to be with such a team, and it really keeps the spirits up and it also motivates me,” Dhanabalan said.
Dhanabalan says TIers are inspiring the next generation of students to change the world through new and innovative products, and they’re doing it while using TI parts.
“The students could actually see the wide variety of products TI offers in any particular solution, right from the analog and the embedded space,” he said. “Students can become advocates for TI as they become customers in the future.”