May 1, 2003

Rose-Hulman Students Develop Several High-Tech Products That Could Revolutionize Markets

Designing a device that alerts students and apartment residents when a laundry cycle is complete were (from left) David Atkinson, Michael Nickelson, Chad Ellis and David Odle.

College students may no longer be able to complain about not having time to do their laundry, thanks to a high-tech Laundry Alerter System developed by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology electrical and computer engineering students as part of a senior-year design project.

Five of this year's products have received financial support to be possibly developed into products and marketed in the future.

A four-person team has developed a prototype for a low-cost system that attaches to washers and dryers. A college student or apartment resident enters a seven-digit telephone number when starting the laundry cycle. A voice command through the telephone network provides notification that the laundry cycle has been completed -- allowing the student to study while the clothes are being washed.

The prototype was installed this spring in two washers of Rose-Hulman's Baur-Sames-Bogart residence hall, with positive student feedback.

"A frustration for many students is not being able to use a washer because clothes that have been left in washing machines, since students hadn't come down to empty them yet, or finding your clothes in a pile on the floor, because you had forgotten when the cycle was over," states product development team member David Odle, a senior computer engineering major from Winchester, Ky.

The project has received funding from Rose-Hulman's student-operated Engenius Solutions program in hopes of developing the project into a commercial product. (IBM and USA Technologies have web-enabled washing machines and dryers through a similar 'E-Suds' system. However, the Laundry Alerter System is cheaper, has less hardware and computer software, and is easier to install, requiring less than 15 minutes.)

Joining Odle on the Laundry Alerter System development team were electrical engineering majors David Atkinson of Fair Oaks, Ind.; Chad Ellis of Chrisman, Ill.; and Michael Nickelson of North Kingstown, R.I.

The Laundry Alerter System was among 22 projects presented at this year's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department's Senior Symposium. Four other innovative projects are set to be marketed in the future. They are:
 

	* DigiSticky: The posted notes on reports and other documents goes high tech with this product that allows for messages to be scribbled on a small LCD screen that can be placed anywhere on a report or product. DigiSticky can handle up to 10 messages of 2,860 characters each and has a real-time clock to trigger a reminder alarm for very important messages. This project received development funding from the Lemelson Foundation. Members of the project team were electrical engineering majors Bryan Hunt of Escondido, Calif., and Elizabeth Shook of Madison, Ala., and computer engineering majors Sarah Walton of Flat Rock, Ind., and Sarah White of Sarasota, Fla.
Elizabeth Shook (left) and Sarah White showcase the DigiSticky prototype that was completed during their senior year, with help from Bryan Hunt and Sarah Walton. The DigiSticky is a small affixable digital message system.
	* Automatic Sports Time Stopping Whistle: Time keeping in sports comes under scrutiny from fans, coaches and players. Seconds can be "lost" from the game's time clock due to slow reaction times of human scorekeepers. The team has developed a novel prototype of a device that stops the clock at the sound of a referee's whistle. Product testing at several Rose-Hulman basketball games reveals that as much as 10 seconds can be saved in the course of a game, when compared to current human timekeeping systems. The Lemelson Foundation has funded development of the prototype. Team members were electrical engineering majors David Duffy of Allegan, Mich., Ben Huckaba of Mattoon, Ill., LaMarr Taylor of Gary, Ind., and Matthew Weyer of Ferdinand, Ind.
An Automatic Sports Time Stopping Whistle project, developed by (from left) Ben Huckaba, LaMarr Taylor and Matthew Weyer, saved valuable seconds over the course of a basketball game. David Duffy, a winter quarter graduate, also was a member of the project development team.
	* Novel Electrostatic Speaker: Hoping to revolutionize the audiophile market, electrostatic speakers were developed that implement a novel diaphragm material and eliminated an external power supply. The project utilizes an internal battery power supply, which eliminates the need for the speaker to be plugged into a wall outlet.  The speaker also employs Duralar, a material never used in this application. The properties of Duralar enable the speaker to have very efficient sound reproduction, at a low cost. Testing places the students' project on par or superior to the major players in the market, at a comparable cost. Members of the team were electrical engineering majors Jacob Bernet of West Lafayette, Ind.; Ryan Brown of Georgetown, Ind.; Johnny Hung of Bloomington, Ind.; Lucas Johnson of Muncie, Ind.; and Adam Tieman of Boonville, Ind.
A Novel Electrostatic Speaker could revolutionize the audiophile market. Working on the project were (front row, from left) Ryan Brown, Lucas Johnson and Johnny Hung. In the back row are Adam Tieman (left) and Jacob Bernet.

* Four-Bay Smart Battery Charger: The project created a smart battery charger for up to four nickel metal hydride battery packs. The control module uses Texas Instrument's MSP430F149 microcontroller to regulate charging based upon the measured battery temperature and voltage. The microcontroller also controls four tri-state LEDs that indicate each battery's charging condition. The project, sponsored by Trilithic Inc. of Indianapolis, charged four batteries in less than four hours -- a requirement of the system. Team members were electrical engineering majors Mitchell Hendrickson of Terre Haute, Ind., and Michael Till of Huntington, Ind.; and computer engineering major Garrett Black of Georgetown, Ill.

Another interesting project was the HeartSet Heart Monitor, a device that provides useful information for walkers and runners wanting to monitor the effectiveness of their cardiovascular exercise. A key element of any workout is keeping the heart rate in a target zone for a period of no less than 15 minutes. The monitor uses a traditional headset to acquire the pulse information from a user's ear. It will announce to the user through voice cues -- over the music being played on a portable radio or CD player -- when the heart rate meets or falls below the desired heart rate. This device has received development funding from Engenius Solutions. Electrical engineering majors on the project team were Alison Bailey of Schaumburg, Ill., Daniel Jones of Iuka, Ill., Christopher Lelak of Mooresville, Ind., Rachel Lukens of Terre Haute and Brian Woodbury of Woodburn, Ind.

Projects were completed for a wide range of industry-sponsored clients. Product testing was developed for the Guide Corporation; the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Crane, Ind.; and Cummins Inc. A nickel-plated stamper thickness checker was developed for Digital Audio Disc Corporation of Terre Haute.

Other project clients included Raytheon, Applied Extrusion Technologies, ITT Industries, Myrio Corporation, the Indiana School for the Blind, Viewpoint Electronics and Rose-Hulman Ventures.

Bette LaPlante, president of Doughmakers LTC of Terre Haute, was the keynote speaker at this year's symposium.

Rose-Hulman Professors Frederick Brockhurst, William Eccles and David Voltmer were faculty mentors for this year's senior design projects.