2014 Capstone Design Awards
The Niehaus Computer Science Design Award
The Niehaus Award recognizes outstanding workmanship and innovation by CS students in their Senior Design (EECS 582) course. Students in 582 choose the winner.
The award is given in memory of EECS Associate Professor Douglas Niehaus. It celebrates his love of teaching and commitment to students. Dr. Niehaus joined the EECS faculty in 1993 and mentored scores of undergraduate students over the years. He passed away in 2012.
The 2014 winners are Ryan Copeland, Jon Harmon, Tim Lamb, Craig Lane, and Devin Turner. Their project was to develop a PC video game utilized all the mechanical features of the Oculus Rift, a virtual Reality deadset with head position tracking.
The Rummer Electrical Engineering Capstone Design Award
The EE Rummer Award recognizes outstanding workmanship and innovation by a student team in their Senior Design (EECS 502) course. Students select the winning team.
The late Professor Emeritus Dale Rummer’s dedication to engineering design was the impetus for the EE and CoE awards. They honor his memory and commitment to students.
The winners of the 2014 EE Rummer design award are Michael McGuire, Derek Scalzi, and Chandler Schmidt. Their project, named the eStrip, is a wirelessly‐accessible power strip with the ability to turn on and off each socket from a computer, tablet or smartphone. They designed, built, programmed, and tested their system is primarily composed of a Raspberry Pi controller, 2.4-GHz transceivers, a Arduino microcontroller, and digitally controlled relays. Also included are circuit breakers, surge protection, 5-V voltage regulation, USB outputs, LED switches, and a custom enclosure. Their project met or exceeded all design objectives. Their team suffered a severe setback mid-semester when team lead Michael McGuire was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident on I-435 requiring extensive treatment and on-going physical therapy. His teammates persevered and successfully completed the project in his absence.
The Rummer Computer Engineering Capstone Design Award
The CoE Rummer Award recognizes outstanding workmanship and innovation by a student team in their Senior Design (EECS 542) course. The students select the winning team.
The late Professor Emeritus Dale Rummer’s dedication to engineering design was the impetus for the CoE and EE awards. They honor his memory and commitment to students.
The winners of the 2014 CoE Rummer design award are Rachel Gilman, Logan Downes, and Chris Seasholtz. Their project, NomNom.com, is a tool for groups of people to use to help them agree on a restaurant. Often, a group cannot decide on a place to eat due to each person wanting something different but not being able to agree on where to find those foods. NomNom.com uses database search and location data to identify restaurants in the area that match those parameters. The application is available via the web or on Android smartphones and includes many features to help users find a suitable restaurant.