parents
ray

Projects Day & Spring Presentations


On the first Tuesday in May, the entire HMC community gathers for "Projects Day," a special public event where the Clinic teams unveil their project findings to professors, friends, families, future sponsors, company liaisons and senior sponsor representatives. Click on the links below to learn about the projects presented over the last several years.


Projects Day

Projects Day 2011

Projects Day program (pdf)


Projects Day 2010

Projects Day program (pdf)


Projects Day 2009

Projects Day program (pdf)


Projects Day 2008

Projects Day program (pdf)


Projects Day 2007

Projects Day program (pdf)


Projects Day 2006


Computer Science Clinic   |   Engineering Clinic   |   KGI/Engineering Clinic   |   Mathematics Clinic
Mathematics/Engineering Clinic   |   Physics Clinic



Computer Science Clinic


The Aerospace Corporation
A Grid Enabled Biometric Identification Framework For Video Surveillance Applications
Liaisons: Joseph Betser, Douglas Buettner, Robert Davis ‘91, William Goo,
Matthew Presley ‘89
Advisor: Ran Libeskind-Hadas
Students: Michael Coupland (PM - F), Steph Grush (SCR), Mac Mason,
Paul Wais (PM - S),  Matt Mock (F)

This Clinic project addresses face recognition and grid computing with a framework for distributed biometric identification. ANUBIS, the Aerospace networked upgradeable biometric identification system, is a grid-enabled surveillance application that applies face recognition to video streams. ANUBIS utilizes Aerospace's Switchblade library, a Java framework for the distributed processing of streaming data, and the Identix FaceIt toolkit, and is extensible to accommodate alternative biometric data schemes.


AREVA T&D Inc.
Video Game Interfaces for Power Grid Management
Liaisons: Alain Jeannot, Jay Giri
Advisor: Elizabeth Sweedyk
Students: Jason Arold (PM), Michael Beyer, Jeremy Lennert, Robin Schriebman, Matthew Walsh

The AREVA T&D Clinic project is to design and prototype a new user interface for AREVA T&D power grid management software using ideas from computer game interfaces. In particular we use techniques from real-time strategy games to improve navigation, draw attention to important events, and adaptively display relevant information.


The Boeing Company
GPS IIF Control Segment Computer Simulation of the GPS Ground Network
Liaisons: Darryl Nakata ‘86, Ryan Ripken
Advisor: Michael Erlinger
Students: Christopher Dahlberg, Christopher Erickson, Andrew Kim, Marshall Pierce (PM)

To maintain accuracy, GPS satellites require regular corrections to their broadcast orbital parameters. An extensive network of ground antennas and control stations throughout the world periodically updates the satellites' orbital parameters, and transmits the updated information to each satellite. Currently, this process occurs at least once a day. Raising the update frequency would increase the accuracy of GPS, but would increase network traffic within the ground network with unknown consequences. To test the impact of such changes on network load, the Clinic team has developed a simulation framework using inexpensive PCs to represent the various nodes in the ground network.


Fair Isaac Corporation
Techniques for Visualizing Large Sets of Business Rules
Liaisons: Stuart Crawford, Sergei Tolmanov, Megan Thorsen ‘02
Advisors: Christine Alvarado, Belinda Thom (F)
Students: Kristen Kurimoto (SCR) (PM - S), John McCullough,
Matt Reynolds (PM - F), Will Shipley

This project investigated various visual structures for sets of business rules. The team developed software for transforming arbitrarily constructed decision trees into Oblivious read-Once Decision Graphs (OODGs) and Exception Directed Acyclic Graphs (EDAGs). The team then analyzed the visual complexity of the different structures to determine whether the OODGs and EDAGs are more human-readable than the original trees. This work will form the foundation for a potential EDAG visualization component for Fair Isaac's Blaze Advisor system.


Laserfiche
Computer-Assisted Document Filing
Liaisons: Greg Levin ‘92, Karl Chan ‘89, Kurt Rapelje
Advisors: Melissa O'Neill (F), Christopher Stone (S)
Students: Rebecca Carson (PM - S), Russ Osborn, Erik Shimshock (PM - F), Brian Young

Filing is a tedious chore for organizations storing electronic documents in a large hierarchy of folders. To make this task easier, we built an easily extended framework that determines a set of likely locations for documents needing to be filed. We generate these recommendations by determining the similarity between a new document and the documents already present in the directory, using a combination of text, image, and metadata classifiers.


NC4
Faster Disaster News Aggregation and Analysis
Liaisons: Karl Kotalik, Juan Matute, Rajesh Goswami
Advisor: Christopher Stone
Students: Ryan Ausanka-Crues (PIT), Forrest Briggs (PM - F), Andrew Campbell,
Bill Hewitt (PM - S)

NC4 provides their customers with breaking news alerts as incidents occur by monitoring and analyzing over 2,000 news sources. The goal of this project is to further automate NC4's online information filtering process, allowing analysts to maintain a sharper focus on news events and their potential impact on clients. The NC4 Clinic team has worked to develop new systems for collecting, analyzing, and distributing information to NC4’s analysts.


Sandia National Laboratories
Design and Implementation of an Object- Based Filesystem Simulator
Liaison: Ron Oldfield
Advisor: Geoff Kuenning
Students: David Coyne, Selene Tan, Esteban Molina-Estolano, Mark Kegel (PM)

As the need for greater computing power becomes more apparent in the simulation of complex systems, the computers themselves have reached the limits of their fundamental designs. Sandia National Laboratories has initiated an ambitious project with the goal of simulating supercomputers to find and eliminate the bottlenecks inherent in current architectures. The goal of this Clinic project is to create an I/O node simulator that will be eventually integrated with Sandia's larger project.


Top of page



Engineering Clinic


The Aerospace Corporation
Chaotic Radar System
Liaisons: Samuel S. Osofsky ‘85, Albert M. Young
Advisor: John Molinder
Students: Joshua Slater (TL), Kawika Maunupau, Peter Paras, Andrew Chin, Karl Janich,
Amir Adibi (F), Matt Totino (F)

The Aerospace Corporation has developed an oscillator which generates a wideband chaotic signal. This year's Clinic Team has been asked to design, build, and demonstrate a radar system using the chaotic signal as the basis for the transmitted waveform. Because of the noise-like nature of the chaotic waveform, this proof-ofconcept system would make the radar signal harder to detect than that of traditional radar systems.


Biomedical Research Services, Inc.
Therapeutic Contact Lens
Liaison: Kenton Gregory
Advisor: Elizabeth Orwin ‘95
Students: Teresa Pineda (TL), Ekaterina Kniazeva, Walter Liau (S), Felicia Nan (S),
Max Pflueger (F), Michaela Reagan, Neel Shah (F)

Biomedical Research Services (BRS), a biomedical science research company, desires a therapeutic contact lens. Due to chitosan's known antimicrobial and healing properties, BRS has requested the use of chitosan as the surface treatment.  BRS requires the lens to inhibit a broad spectrum of common bacterial pathogens while allowing uninterrupted vision. In addition to being optically transparent, the chitosan layer must not cause degradation of the lens and must not hurt the patient in any way.


The Boeing Company
Hydrodynamic Propulsion System
Liaisons: Robert Atmur, Carl Carrera ‘75/76, Bryan Sydnor
Advisor: Mary Cardenas
Students: Rob Sweney (TL), Rosalind Beckwith (S), Hugues Bouvier, Peter Hillegas (F),
Robert Panish, Jay Wright

Ocean Systems, a division of The Boeing Company, seeks to produce a new propulsion system for its Unmanned Undersurface Vehicles (UUVs). The system will pitch the blades of a shrouded propeller, using them as control surfaces to provide maneuverability and thus eliminating the need for rudders and guide fins. The Clinic team will produce a prototype of its design, submit an algorithm to control the system, and conduct a performance evaluation to test system viability.


Cardinal Health
Designing a Better IV Set Flow Meter
Liaison: Paul Dewey
Advisor: Qimin Yang
Students: Sarah Thomson (TL), Eddy Chavarria(S), James O'Grady, Jennifer Shockro, Philip Tam, Christina Tang (F)

Cardinal Health has asked the team to design an inexpensive, partially disposable flow sensor with a small footprint for a next-generation medical IV set. Current solutions rely on pressure sensors, which may not have a fast response time. The team has implemented and tested a thermal timeof-flight sensor capable of measuring a large range of flow velocities, and has designed a chip sensor suitable for medical applications.


Center for Intergration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT)
Design & Production of a Self- Optimizing, Closed-Loop Ventilator System
Liaisons: William Wiesmann, L. Alex Pranger ‘92/93
Advisor: Elizabeth Orwin ‘95
Students: Stephanie Bohnert (TL), Jessica Riley (TL), Julien Bost (F), Nicholas Evans (S),
Jamie Shoffeitt (S), Brandon Smith (S), Badier Velji

The Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT) is funding the development of a self-optimizing, closed-loop medical ventilator system. The Clinic team has designed, manufactured, and tested a digitally controlled system for this purpose. This system will be applied to variety of military and civilian purposes including use with pre-hospital trauma, contaminated environments, contagious patients, and mass casualty disaster relief.


Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Non-Contact Cardiac Monitoring Using Electromagnetic Interrogation
Liaisons: Geoffrey Ling, L. Alex Pranger ‘92/93, Ronald Riechers, William Wiesmann
Advisor: Donald Remer
Students: Ajay M. Shah (TL), Philip Cheung (S), Cassie Chou (F), Nicolas Flacco, Ronn Gruer (F), George Korir, Jeff Manassero (S)

On the battlefield and in hospitals around the world, healthcare personnel struggle to assess patients' cardiac status. While blood pressure and heart rate measurements are routine, there exists a clear need for a non-invasive cardiac monitor that can inform physicians about the effective performance of a patient's heart. The DARPA Clinic team has developed a conceptual framework for a non-contact device that uses steppedfrequency electromagnetic interrogation to assess cardiac health. Through both analytical modeling and experimental work, the team has explored the feasibility of this novel approach.


Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation (DMFCC)
Creating a Safe and Secure Methanol Fuel Cell Cartridge
Liaisons: Dr. Huyen Dinh, Manel Arranz
Advisors: Clive Dym, Joe King
Students: Kenny Maples (TL), Michael Bigelow, Laurel Fullerton, Michael Saldana (S), Yosuke Sato (F), Wayne Tanaka

Our project task was to design, build and prototype a safe and easy to manufacture fuel cell that supplies fuel in any orientation. The cartridge must be compatible with many types of fuel cells. The team also developed a child safety device for a cartridge developed by DMFCC and created a proof of concept for an authentication system that prevents the use of dangerous pirated cartridges.


DIRECTV, Inc.
Residential Construction Impact on Consumer Satellite Antenna Pointing
Liaisons: David Kuether, John Norin ‘91, Kesse Ho
Advisor: Lori Bassman
Students: Dustin Brekke (TL), Jed Harmsen, Paul Chandler (S), Jennifer Hodges (F), Rebecca Kelcher (F), Heather Martelle (S), Karen Shi

This Clinic project is performing a mechanical analysis of the static deflection at the base of a consumer satellite antenna. They are therefore concerned with the construction materials and structure and how they affect the magnitude of the deflection under weather loading, such as wind, temperature changes, etc. Additionally they are developing a monitoring system for measuring the deflection and will lastly provide DIRECTV with their recommendations for optimal dish installation.


Edwards Air Force Base
Design and Construction of an Optical Telemetry System
Liaisons: Nathan Cook, Ronald Streich
Advisor: Erik Spjut
Students: Raymond Ryckman (TL), Brian Kirkpatrick (S), Lindsay Muth (F), Chris Prounh, Clarence Rowland (S), Victor Wang (F), Elizabeth Winton

The Edwards Air Force Base Clinic team designed, built, and tested a prototype for an optical communication link from a dynamic platform to a ground receiving system. The system transmits data to a moving ground vehicle at least one mile away using an IR laser. The data will be sent at 100 kilobits per second with less than one corrupted bit per 100,000 bits. The project will be carried on next year for use with aircraft.


Fluidmaster, Inc.
Electronic Control of a Fill and Flush System
Liaison: Kathy DeKeyser
Advisor: Donald Remer
Students: Sarah Taliaferro (TL), Mary Chen, Tracy Fox (S), Tom Heyer (F), Rajdeep Roy, Mackenzie Miller

Fluidmaster Inc., a worldwide supplier of plumbing products, desires a new and efficient hands free toilet flushing system. As a result of emerging sensor and electronic technologies becoming more cost efficient, Fluidmaster has requested several designs for innovative, electronic flushing systems to keep at the forefront of competitive flush technology. If possible, the team should incorporate several "up-sell" opportunities, including consistent flush volume, leak detection and prevention, dual flush capabilities, and a remote control.


Honeywell International Inc.
Vibration Response of a Large Heat Exchanger
Liaison: Tom Lee
Advisor: Ziyad Durón ‘81
Students: Sheldon Logan (TL), Nate Yoder, Jeffrey Lin (F), Keith Solberg (S), Joshua Sinanan (S), Michael Yang (S), Lesley McGurk (F)

Honeywell develops heat exchangers that are used in various devices such as aeroplanes. During the vibration testing of a heat exchanger prototype some of the components of the device failed due to large dynamic amplifications. Honeywell has asked the team to determine the cause of the large dynamic amplifications observed in the vibration testing.


Idealab
Solar Chimney for Power Generation
Liaisons: Bill Gross, Andrew Friendly, Dylan Owens, Denes Zsolnay
Advisor: Philip Cha
Students: Sara Al-Beaini (TL), Justin Kauwale, Vicky Luyapan, Erika Palmer, Jens Gardner (S), William Schulze (F)

Solar chimneys for power generation are conceptually simple structures that warm air in massive quantities and direct it upwards through a chimney. A turbine generator inside the chimney then generates electricity due to the air flow. Chimney designs are currently very large civil engineering projects, requiring large amounts of land and huge construction costs. Increasing the efficiency of the system and generating more power can offset these large expenses. The main goal of this project is to determine optimal chimney designs that are low in cost but high in efficiency.


Idealab
Solar Cooling: Solar Powered Refrigerator
Liaisons: Bill Gross, Andrew Friendly, Dylan Owens, Denes Zsolnay
Advisor: Nancy Lape
Students: Steve Santana (TL), Mark Emanuel (F), Sarah-Mei Estrada (S), Elijah Kwitman (F), Sheri Markwardt (S), Ruka Sakurai, Benson Tsai

In third-world countries across the globe, electrical power is not readily available, making reliable cooling a rarity. In addition to affecting the general quality of life for the inhabitants of these countries, the lack of cooling also limits food storage capabilities and the availability of temperature-sensitive medications. The project goal is to create a system that utilizes solar energy to power a refrigerator.


Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
Astronomical Stabilization System

Liaison: Mark Swain
Advisors: Patrick Little, Anthony Bright
Students: Emily Vinding Nyden (TL), Catherine Meyers, Valerie Olson, Sebastien Ronsse, Gregory Nielsen, Tamao Muramatsu (S)

To build an interferometer at Dome C in Antarctica, a stable 30m tower would be necessary to elevate the telescopes above the 27m boundary layer. The team has studied geometries designed to stabilize the top of the tower while minimizing wind resistance, and designed a global control system which controls pointing of a telescope to minimize the error in the image recorded by the telescope.


Medtronic Diabetes
Cartridge Identification Description for Insulin Infusion Pump
Liaison: Rick Bente '04
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Michael Le (TL), Rob Chambers, Jacques Favreau (F), Allison Hutchings (S), Garry Newland, Heather Schalliol (S), Allyson Violante (F)

In the United States, about 150,000 people use insulin pumps. Pumps enhance the lives of diabetics by providing flexibility and consistency in insulin treatment. Current pump technology must rely on user input to ascertain the presence and proper seating of an insulin vial. The HMC Clinic team designed and tested a device to automate vial detection and characterization. It is hoped that this technology will be used in the next generation of pumps, enhancing pump versatility and performance.


Rain Bird Corporation
Microclimate-Specific Sprinkling System
Liaison: Jason Alderman
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Tyler Jank (TL), Renee Campbell (S), Alice Clifton (F), Donya Frank, Eugene Hsueh, Bart Oegema (S), Nate Schlossberg (F)

The goal of this project is to build a smart watering system to reduce water wastage during landscape irrigation. Traditional sprinkler systems are designed to water for the driest area, which means all other areas are over-watered. Rain Bird has requested that the team develop a system to solve this problem by adjusting for the microclimates within an irrigation zone. Our system would adjust for each microclimate by keeping on or turning off each sprinkler based on the moisture level in the area that each sprinkler covers. In order to develop this system the team has designed a wireless moisture sensor that transmits a moisture level to a central controller. That controller is attached to each valve and will cut off power to the sprinkler valve if the microclimate has been sufficiently watered.


Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems
Strobe Light Design for Full Aperture Calibration
Liaison: John F Silny
Advisor: Ruye Wang
Students: Laura Moyer (TL), Richard Garfinkel (S), Ephraim Lanford, Dane Lindlbad (F), John Parker (S), James Steele (F), Nancy Yu (F)

The project is focused around modeling, designing and testing a strobe light for use with a calibration system on a satellite. The team is validating the idea that a xenon strobe light will be a lower powered and spectrally more accurate and reliable system than those currently in use. There is also a phase adjustment aspect to the project to be able to precisely control when the strobe is fired.


Sierra Wireless America, Inc.
Voice-Over-IP Home Gateway for Commercial Wireless Wide Area Networks
Liaison: Jean Philippe Kielsznia ‘90
Advisor: Sarah Harris
Students: Mark Festini (TL), Julien Bost,Glen Hudson, Amy Jarvis (F), Max Smoot (S)

Sierra Wireless is interested in harnessing the power of emerging Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology in conjunction with their existing Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) modems. The goal of this Clinic project is to develop a VoIP over WWAN Gateway prototype that will interface with a normal analog phone receiver and a PC. The gateway will provide VoIP service and Internet access wirelessly via the Sierra Wireless WWAN modem.


Soff-Cut International, Inc.
Random Crack Control in Concrete Slabs
Liaisons: Chuck Markley, Roger Lagow, Wade Anderson
Advisor: Lori Bassman
Students: Arran McNabb (TL), Ben Howard, Keane Kaneakua, Kyle Jacobs (S), Caitlin Vierra (S), Ian Goicochea- Preston (F), Scott Mahr (F)

Soff-Cut is the industry leader in secondary operations aimed at preventing random cracking in concrete slabs. The team has been given the task of designing the next generation of random crack control, which will allow Soff-Cut to stay ahead of its competitors. The team has developed several conceptual designs to present to Soff-Cut, and has constructed a prototype for early-entry crack control to stay at the forefront of an ever growing industry.


Southern California Edison
Parasitic Power Transformer
Liaison: Percy Haralson
Advisor: Carl Baumgaertner
Students: Jack Zheng (TL), Jim Castelaz, Justin Gries (S), Ted Jiang (F), Dan Pivonka (F), Mike Pugh (F), Gen Satoh (S), Matthew Williams (S)

The Southern California Edison Clinic team has designed, built, and validated a prototype power conversion system that can safely extract energy from 12 kV or 16 kV distribution lines to provide stable power for small automation equipment. Presently, this equipment is powered by bulky ½ kVA transformers, which are excessive and costly for the application. The team delivers a compact, inexpensive, modular solution that includes a solid state transformer, an electro-optic voltage regulator, and clamp-on toroidal cores.


Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)
Designing a Low Power and Lightweight Digital Camera Array
Liaison: Kevin Alley ‘05
Advisor: Erik Spjut
Students: Mark Brenneman (TL), Amanda Rainer, Chris Acon (F), Tyler Brown (F), Daniel La Valle (S), Josiah Larson (S), Christopher Woodruff (F), Stephen Yu (S)

Traditional gimbaled cameras mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are undesirably heavy and require a significant amount of electric power. The team designed and simulated a digital camera array with multiple imaging modes and built a demonstration prototype. The array of cameras imitated the functions found on a gimbaled pan-tilt-zoom camera in a low-power, lightweight package.


Space Systems/Loral
Vibration Damping for Satellite Momentum Wheel Assemblies
Liaisons: K.C. Jiang, John Kesapradist
Advisor: Ziyad Durón ‘91
Students: Rami Y. Hindiyeh (TL), Ruben Betancourt, Ryan Ellis (F), Joshua Hwung, Jakob Spjut (F), Todd Taniguchi (S)

Momentum wheels are an efficient means to re-orient a satellite in orbit without using thrusters, which consume fuel from the satellite's limited supply. In order to have a significant influence on a satellite's orientation, however, a momentum wheel must be spun at very high RPM, often creating vibrations that have an adverse effect upon a satellite's pointing accuracy. With this in mind, the SS/Loral Clinic team has employed numerical and empirical methods to characterize the composite assembly used to mount momentum wheels to SS/Loral satellites and explore damping techniques for this assembly.


Top of page



KGI/Engineering Clinic


Amgen, Inc.
Evaluation of Novel Drug Delivery Containers
Liaisons: Robert Platz, Bruce Ming-da Eu
Advisors: Anthony Bright, Deb Chakravarti (KGI), Robert Doebler (KGI)
Students: Stanley Lee - (KGI-TL), Adam Gross - (KGI-S), Fiela Gutierrez (S), Oliver Hou, Justin Kim (S), Gina Ricci (KGI), Michael Wrenholt (KGI), Paul Yen (F)

Amgen, Inc. is interested in evaluating the use of novel technologies in plastic containers for commercial and late-stage products. The 2005/06 Clinic team will identify strategies to improve drug stability in these containers and provide recommendations based on acceptable characteristics. The team will also perform market research on the production process and prepare a cost analysis for business justification.


Gilead Sciences
Design, Implementation, and Validation of a Chemical Dispensing System
Liaisons: Allan Hansen, Bruce Kisner
Advisors: Jim Sterling, Patrick Little
Students: Karen Hsin (HMC-TL), Susan Lin (KGI-TL), Pengfei Luan (KGI), Faye Massen (HMC), Prachi Shah (KGI)

Gilead Sciences wishes to automate its currently completely manual chemical dispensing system. The joint Keck Graduate Institute and Harvey Mudd College team designed and implemented an automated dispensing system at Gilead's San Dimas, CA facility. The automated process utilized data collection software to interface the dispensing and networking hardware wirelessly to Gilead Sciences' Enterprise Resource Planning system. The entire system will be validated according to highly regulated FDA requirements and is set for going Live onsite on June 28th, 2006.


Top of page



Mathematics Clinic


Cardinal Health
Control Algorithm for an IV System
Liaisons: Richard Batch, Bob Butterfield, Paul Dewey, Consultant - Dmitriy Kogan ‘03
Advisor: Andrew Bernoff
Students: Sarah Mann (PM), Reid Howard, Susanna Ricco, Hope Runyeon

Many of the most critical medications are injected directly into veins, arteries, or muscles using an IV system. The flow through traditional IV systems is driven by direct displacement mechanisms such as pistons or peristaltic actuators with flow disruption detected by measuring pressure. Cardinal Health's next generation of systems will combine active and passive components with a sensor (a current HMC Engineering Clinic project) that determines the instantaneous flow rate. The mathematics team designed a control algorithm that incorporates feedback from this sensor to more accurately regulate flow.


Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
Implementation and Testing of Two New Methods for Generating ICC Profiles
Liaisons: Gary Dispoto, John Meyer
Advisor: Weiqing Gu
Students: Benj Azose (PM), Garret Heckel, Eric Johnson, Jed Levin, Ian Win

Color printers use ICC profiles, which are standards that show how a device's range of colors correspond with a device-independent color space. It is relatively easy to construct a forward profile for transmitting information from one device to another, but it is difficult to compute the inverse profile with accuracy. Our project is concerned with developing two innovative methods for generating inverse profiles.


Los Alamos National Laboratory
Mathematical and Computational Modeling of Tumor Development
Liaison: Yi Jiang
Advisor: Lisette dePillis
Students: Cris Cecka, Alan Davidson, Tiffany Head (PM - F), Dana Mohamed (PM - S), Liam Robinson

Computerized mathematical models of tumor growth can help increase understanding of cancer biology and potentially improve cancer treatment. Furthermore, such models can be used as predictive tools for studying the effects of chemotherapies upon tumor growth and creating more effective and precisely calibrated treatments. Our team explored vascular tumor growth by adding a blood vessel structure to a pre-existing avascular tumor model and then studying the effects of various in silico chemotherapy doses upon tumor growth.


Top of page



Mathematics/Engineering Clinic


National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Center for Environmental Studies at Harvey Mudd College

Advanced Modeling of Renewable Energy Market Dynamics
Liaison: Douglas J. Arent ‘82
Advisors: Patrick Little, Michael Raugh
Students: Robert Little (TL), Moana Evans, Kevin Lloyd, George Malikov, Gregor Passolt

This project focuses on the techniques for analysis of market growth, penetration, and forecasting applicable to renewable energy technologies. Mathematical models were adjusted to incorporate the effects of fiscal policies and were evaluated using available data. These modifications were made based on research and classification of current mathematical models used for predicting market penetration. Analyses were carried out to measure the accuracy and predictability of the modified models.


Top of page



Physics Clinic


Sandia National Laboratories
The Optical Characterization of Coated Soot Aerosols
Liaisons: Hope A. Michelsen, Andy McIlroy ‘85
Advisor: Peter Saeta
Students: Tristan Sharp (TL), Mark Dansson, Rachel Kirby, Mike Martin, Shannon Woods

Coated soot aerosols pose cardiovascular and pulmonary health risks and are among the least understood contributors to climate change. This project aims to measure the total extinction and polarization-resolved differential scattering cross section of soot particles, and to study how these optical properties are affected by transparent coatings similar to those found on atmospheric soot particles. We report cavity-ringdown and angle-resolved scattering measurements of soot particles created in an ethylene flame and coated with layers of oleic acid.


Top of page



Physics/Engineering Clinic


Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Retinal Imaging with Adaptive Optics Enhanced Optical Coherence Tomography
Liaisons: Scot Olivier, Steve Jones
Advisors: Richard Haskell, Qimin Yang
Students: Lily Tian (TL), Megan Arman, Sarah Adelman, Hansford Hendargo, Steven Von der Porten, Greg Sandstrom (S), Steven Ning (S)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and UC Davis Medical center are currently developing a next-generation Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) system that employs Adaptive Optics (AO) technology. The AO enhances the capability of OCT to study the retina of the human eye by compensating for aberrations in the cornea and lens, allowing visualization of individual photoreceptors. The Clinic team will design and evaluate a compact AO-OCT system viable for use in clinical ophthalmic research.



Projects Day 2005


Computer Science Clinic   |   Engineering Clinic   |   Mathematics Clinic   |   Physics Clinic



Computer Science Clinic


The Aerospace Corporation
Grid-Enabling the VISPERS Application
Liaisons: Joseph Betser, Robert Davis '91,
Matthew Presley '89, Jorge Seidel
Advisor: Robert Keller
Students: Brian Bentow (PM), Jon Dodge, Aaron Homer, Chris Moore

The Clinic team designed and implemented a version of waveform analysis tool, VAIL,
based on the “grid” highly-parallel computing paradigm, using the Globus toolkit. VAIL is part of a larger system that analyzes realtime sensor data to characterize the vibroacoustic shock environment of launch vehicles. We conducted a performance analysis of the grid-enabled tool, measured speedup, and analyzed communication bottlenecks. We also researched and surveyed the current state-of-the-art in grid computing tools and provided a study to facilitate future grid implementations by The AerospaceCorporation.


Applied Biosystems
Polymerase Chain Reaction Net Software Version 2
Liaison: Andrew Byshenk
Advisor: Belinda Thom
Students: Jacob Seene (PM), Timothy Chew (CMC), Krislin Lee, Paul Scott

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Net is a piece of software used to monitor and control GeneAmp PCR 9700 instruments. These instruments, in turn, are used to amplify DNA samples. Amplified DNA samples can be analyzed and then used in forensic analysis, gene sequencing, and genetic defect determination. Our team is enhancing PCRNet by improving the user interface, extending the error logging capabilities, and enabling core features of the application to be run across a local network.


The Boeing Company GPS IIF Control Segment
Modeling and Simulation of GPS
Liaisons: Darryl Nakata '86, Ryan Ripken
Advisor: Michael Erlinger
Students: Victoria Krafft (PM), Tarun Abhichandani (CGU), Brian Merdian, Trudi Miller (CGU), Sonya Zhang (CGU)

The current United States Air Force’s Global Positioning System (GPS) consists of earthorbiting satellites and a world-wide network of monitoring stations. The Clinic team has developed a simulation model representing the GPS network using the OPNET network modeling platform. The model has been verified via data provided by Boeing and other sources. The team has created a set of“what if” scenarios and applied them to the GPS model to evaluate possible modifications to the GPS infrastructure.


Fair Isaac Corporation
Constrained Optimization in Convex Programming
Liaison: Frank Elliott
Advisor: Ran Libeskind-Hadas
Students: Brian Tagiku (PM), Dave Buchfuhrer, Dan Halperin, Brad Tennis, Chris Weisiger

Fair Isaac Corporation provides companies with mathematically-based solutions for a variety of business problems. Many of these problems can be modeled using quadratic programs with large numbers of variables and linear constraints. The Clinic team has taken on the task of developing a prototypical software package that solves linear and quadratic programs. A number of algorithms have been incorporated into this package to accurately solve these types of problems.


Google
Differential Test Coverage Analysis in the Context of the Wine Project
Liaison: Dan Kegel
Advisor: Elizabeth Sweedyk
Students: Cal Pierog (PM), Aaron Arvey (CMC), Edward Kim, Evan Parry

This project will help ensure that Google’s Windows applications run properly under Wine, which is a program that allows Windows programs to run under Linux. The team improved coverage tools to identify areas of untested code used by an application. The team also used these new tools to identify bugs in Wine that affect Google applications, focusing on the Picasa application.


Laserfiche
Distributing Search in a Document Database
Liaisons: Kurt Rapelje, Karl Chan '89
Advisor: Zachary Dodds
Students: Adam Kangas (PM), Janna DeVries, Joseph Walker, Kamil Wnuk

As organizations make the shift from paper documents to electronic document imaging systems, the size of electronic document repositories is constantly growing. This team has researched distributed methods for reducing the amount of time required to perform full-text searching in large document databases.


Sandia National Laboratories
Mesh Optimization Algorithms for Parallel Computing with MESQUITE
Liaison: Patrick Knupp
Advisor: Melissa O'Neill
Students: Dominik Slusarczyk (PM), Elisa Celis, John Hicks, Yu-Min Kim

This Clinic project extended the MESQUITE mesh smoothing toolkit developed by Sandia National Laboratories to operate on a distributed processing cluster. Parallel smoothing requires efficient partitioning of meshes into subparts, correct smoothing of those subparts, and effective cross-cluster synchronization during and after computation. The project drew on existing research in the field of distributed mesh smoothing and on established tools, including MESQUITE itself, the Zoltan partitioning toolkit, and the MPI toolkit for distributed computing. Distributed computation would be pointless without speedup over ordinary single-CPU computation, so the team has also developed and deployed performance analysis methods which have inspired further optimizations to the code.

Top of page



Engineering Clinic


The Aerospace Corporation
An Extended Range A/D Assmebly
Liaison: Samuel Osofsky '85
Advisor: David Money Harris
Students: Henry Chen (TL), Keane Kaneakua (S), Shane Ouchi, Chris Prounh (F), Amanda Rainer (S), Alexander Utter

Certain traditional systems that enhance the dynamic range of an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter require a tradeoff between precision, dynamic range, and system complexity. Using a novel approach that simplifies and optimizes these systems, the team has designed, built, and tested a highspeed A/D converter assembly that enhanced the dynamic range of an 8-bit A/D converter while minimizing these drawbacks.


Applied Biosystems
Bubble Formation in Microfluidic Chambers
Liaison: Umberto Ulmanella
Advisors: Mary Cardenas, Jon Jacobsen
Students: Jacob Pinheiro (TL), Angela Cho, Don Lee, James O'Grady (S), Michaela Reagan (F), Mele Sato

The study of microfluidics is a growing discipline in fluid engineering, with many applications in medical and pharmaceutical industries. In these applications, the formation of bubbles in microfluidic reaction chambers is a major problem. A parametric study of the factors influencing bubble formation was completed through extensive experimentation and analysis. Computer simulations were compared with experimental results, with a mathematical model of bubble formation as the objective.


Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT)
Design of a Prototype Cooling System to Prolong and Preserve Limb Viability
Liaison: Alex Pranger '92/93
Advisor: Donald Remer
Students: Nicolas von Gersdorff (TL), Jay Chow, Mike Le (S), Robert Panish (S), Ajay Shah (F)

While combat armor advancements have increased soldiers’ survival rates, modern weaponry ravages warfighters’ extremities, causing massive trauma and tissue loss; 2/3 of the 10,000 combat injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan afflicted patients’ limbs. Inducing local hypothermia upon injury would prolong limb viability, lengthening the window for soldiers to obtain restorative and regenerative care and thereby avoid amputations.  The team has developed a lightweight, easily deployable, evaporative cooling wrap to induce therapeutic hypothermia on the battlefield.


Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Proprioceptive Feedback System For Lower Limb Amputees
Liaisons: William Wiessman M.D., Geoffrey Ling M.D., Adrian Urias '99/00
Advisor: Ziyad H. Duron '81
Students: Sophia Huynh, Lisa Jacobs (TL), Atsushi Kobayashi, GeorgeKorir (S), Karen Shi (F), Chris Wottawa

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding the development of a rehabilitation device which utilizes mechanical feedback to provide lower limb amputees proprioceptive information from their prosthesis and its interaction with the outside environment. The Clinic team has designed and developed a prototype unit which mimics proprioceptor functions and provides the patient sensory feedback regarding location of the prosthetic in time and space.


Federal Aviation Administration (LED)
Enhanced LED Airport Approach Lighting System
Liaison: Calvin Miles '87
Advisor: Carl Baumgaertner
Students: Nicholas Carbone (TL), Ruben Betancourt (S), Mark Festini (F), OliverHou(S), Karen Hsin (S), Ko Ihara, Robert Sweney (F)

The FAA-LED team continues the development of a highly efficient LED airport approach lighting system to replace presently-used incandescent lamps. The improved system uses photodiodes and temperature sensors in a closed-loop system to compensate light levels for snow, rain, dirt and LED aging. Visual acquisition of the airport is improved with an innovative LED configuration and computer-controlled strobe sequences. Fuel cells are evaluated for use as backup power and a detailed economic analysis of the LED system is also performed.


Federal Aviation Administration VOR
An Integral Monitoring System for the Very-High-Frequency Omni-
Directional Range (VOR) Aircraft Navigation System

Liaison: Nelson Spohnheimer
Advisors: John Molinder, Qimin Yang (F)
Students: Min Shim (TL), Brad Greer, Robert Little (F), Kawika Maunupau (F), Jessica Riley (S), Wayne Tanaka (S)

Design, build, and test a system for monitoring the voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) on VOR antenna feed lines to augment the prototype integral monitoring system developed by the 2003-04 project teams and currently installed at the
Drummond, Montana VOR site. Perform a parametric analysis to determine the effect of various VOR system failures on VSWR and demonstrate the monitor’s capability to detect some or all of these failures via computer simulation, use of the 535B VOR rack on loan to HMC from the FAA, and installation at the Drummond VOR site. Remotely collect and analyze data to verify the performance of the currently installed prototype. Suggest approaches for development of a production-ready design.


Fluidmaster, Inc.
Innovative Designs for Flushing Systems
Liaison: Chris Coppock
Advisor: Lori Bassman
Students: Joe Laubach (TL), Shawna Biddick, Rami Hindiyeh (S), Joey Kim, John Onuminya, Sarah Taliaferro (F)

Fluidmaster Inc. is a worldwide supplier of plumbing products. The company is determined to aid in the conservation of scarce fresh water resources as well as to enable people worldwide to enjoy the health benefits of safe and reliable sanitation. This requires a cost effective flushing system that uses a consistent low volume of water regardless of variations in supply water pressure and toilet resistance. The Harvey Mudd College Fluidmaster Clinic team has designed and prototyped two concepts that accomplish this task.


Honeywell
Determination of Duct Flow Characteristics Across Heat Exchanger Cores
Liaison: Steve White
Advisor: Anthony Bright
Students: Daniel Pederson (TL), Michael Bigelow (F), Daniel Lee, Emily Ross, Benson Tsai (S), Emily Vinding Nyden (S)

Honeywell has asked the team to explore the effects of various ducting configurations on the flow through a heat exchanger core to aid in the efficient design of future heat exchangers. The team designed, built, and tested a new experimental test setup to measure the flow distribution through the core of a compact fin heat exchangersupplied by Honeywell. Upon completion of the project, Honeywell will receive a full documentation and analysis of experimental results.


Irvine Ranch Water District
Alternative SCADA Backup Methods for Reservoir Monitoring
Liaisons: Carl Spangenberg, Dave Mazzarella
Advisor: Anthony Bright
Students: Sean Cramer (TL), Donya Frank (F), Abram Kim, Jed Harmsen (S), Vicky Luyapan (S), Elizabeth Winton (F)

The Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) clinic team researched, tested, and implemented telemetry solutions for a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) backup system used to monitor potable and reclaimed water reservoir levels. The team tested the reliability of two potential solutions, recommended the best design, and prepared documentation and cost estimates for a full-scale backup system.


Jet Propulsion Laboratory/NASA
Antarctic Plateau Interferometer Concept Study
Liaisons: Mark Swain, Gautam Vasisht
Advisor: Pat Little
Students: Daniel Roche (TL), Kristina Knepper, Michel Guillon, Eph Lanford, Val Olsen (S)

The NASA JPL Polar Clinic team developed a design to “package” the Antarctic Plateau Interferometer in containers for transport to Dome C, Antarctica and support it during operation. To aid in this design, the team built and deployed an instrument package on the journey from Tasmania to Dome C this year which took measurements of acceleration loads. An isolation design for the optics truss and optical table system is proposed based on this data.


Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Hydrogen Embrittlement of Wires in a Neutron Time Projection Chamber
Liaisons: Adam Bernstein, Leslie J. Rosenberg
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Tim Smith (TL), Zach Burstein, Jim Castelaz, Jamie Kunkle, Sarah Thomson (S)

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has asked the team to evaluate the effects of a hydrogen environment on the strength and surface characteristics of wires used in a neutron Time Projection Chamber. The team designed a system to simulate the environment of an nTPC and characterized the effects of hydrogen embrittlement on very small diameter stainless steel, tungsten, and platinum wires.


Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center
Creating a Computer-Controlled Active Tracking Heliostat
Liaisons: Kenneth Lorell '65, Mons Morrison '85/87
Advisor: Erik Spjut
Students: Gabriel Takacs (TL), Lindsay Allen, Sheldon Logan (S), Peter Paras (F), Ruka Sakurai (S), Steven Santana (F), Josh Slater (S)

The Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Lab develops space-borne instruments that must be tested prior to use. The testing is performed in the lab using a stationary image of the sun. The team has designed, built, and tested a computer-controlled, active-tracking heliostat that can stabilize an image of the sun to within one arc-second and allow controlled slewing and offset. Additionally, the team has designed an enclosure to protect the heliostat once it is installed.


Los Alamos National Laboratory
Variable Pulsed Laser Delay Line for Flash Photography of Mesoscopic Spatial Dynamics
Liaisons: Aaron Koskelo, Sam Clegg
Advisor: Lori Bassman
Students: Elliott Temkin (TL), Sara Al-Beaini (F), Dustin Brekke (F), Eric Flynn, Tyler Jank (S), Nate Yoder (S)

Los Alamos National Laboratory would like to use flash photography to study material fracture at a microscopic spatial and temporal scale. This project has developed part of the system that will be used to conduct this research. The team designed, built, and tested a variable optical delay line capable of splitting a laser pulse in two, delaying one portion of the beam a user-specified amount of time, and then exiting this delayed pulse collinearly with the undelayed pulse.


Medtronic MiniMed
Occlusion Detection AlgorithmDevelopment in Insulin Pumps
Liaisons: Rick Bente '04, Ian Hanson
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Kevin Alley (TL), Robert Chambers (F), Galen Chui, Daniel Gruver, Faye Massen (S), Garry Newland (F)

Medtronic MiniMed produces insulin pumps for diabetics. This Clinic team is developing an algorithm to reduce the time it takes for the pump to detect a blockage in the delivery system. The Clinic team is also developing an analytical model of the pump system to aid Medtronic in developing future improvements to the pump.


Northrop Grumman Navigation Systems
External Fiber Optic Modulator
Liaison: David Hall
Advisor: Erik Spjut
Students: Nathan Mitchell (TL), Glenn Hudson, Kyle Kelley, Colin Marsh

Fiber optic acoustic systems at Northrop Grumman Navigation Systems utitilize a phase generated carrier architecture. The source laser needs to be modulated externally with a carrier frequency of 25 kHz. Northrop Grumman has fabricated a device consisting of a fiberwrapped piezoelectric cylinder. The team has produced a similar system and characterized its performance at 25 kHz.


Northrop Grumman Space Technology
Passive Millimeter Wave Lens Testing Automation
Liaisons: Larry Yujiri, Erin Englert
Advisor: Ruye Wang
Students: Jack F. Shepherd III (TL), Benjamin Howard (S), Eddie Huang, Steve Lin (F), Joshua Webb

The main goal of the project is to analyze millimeter wave imaging lenses delivered by Northrop Grumman Space Technologies (NGST). This analysis will focus on capturing the point spread function (PSF) of the lenses using radiation around 89GHz. Furthermore, the team is tasked with designing and implementing the automation for this lens characterization process.


Oregon Medical Laser Center
Optical Tumor Location Device
Liaison: Kenton Gregory M.D.
Advisor: Elizabeth Orwin '95
Students: Mark Locascio (TL), Sara Adelman (F), Jeff Gabster, Teresa Pineda (F), Madineh Sedigh-Sarvestani, Philip Tam (S), Lily Tian (S)

The goal of this project is to design a minimally invasive illumination device and power system capable of emitting a detectable signal. The device would be used as a surgical aid to locate cancerous tissue in the breast. The device would be inserted into the tumor before surgery, and then used during the procedure to guide the surgeon to the cancer site.


QUALCOMM
ZigBee Digital Modem Suitable for Cellular Phone Platform
Liaison: Kenneth Easton
Advisor: Sarah Harris
Students: Karen Lee (TL), Nicole Kang, Gabriel Kwofie, Tommy Leung, Kenneth Maples (S), Jack Zheng (F)

ZigBee is an emerging wireless standard focused on lightweight, low cost, and low power networking of electronics. Integrating ZigBee into the cellular phone platform allows the phone to act as a Personal Environment Device, letting the owner control close range electronic items such as light switches, vacuum cleaners, and thermostats. The team designed and tested a Zigbee compliant baseband digital modem suitable for integration into QUALCOMM’s mobile cell phone ASIC designs.


Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems
Hyperspectral Image Data Processing Algorithms: Developing a Characterization Process

Liaison: Thomas G. Chrien
Advisor: Ruye Wang
Students: John Silny (TL), Mary Chen (F), Kevin Chu, Eugene Hsueh (F), Raymond Ryckman (S), Daniel Woo

Hyperspectral image data processing uses a wide-range of wavelength spectra to identify targets within an image. The goal of this project is to explore the characteristics of processing algorithms. The key components of the project are the development of a set of metrics to determine the success and failure rates of an algorithm, the creation of tools to optimize performance and the presentation of the results of applying the metrics and tools to a test process.


Sandia National Laboratories
Augmented HVAC Sensors for Near- Real-Time Modeling of Dispersed
Airborne Materials in Buildings
Liaisons: Marvin Larsen, Richard Griffith
Advisor: Mary Cardenas
Students: Robert Krohn (TL), Alex Cohan, Justin Kauwale (F), Catherine Meyers (F), Jennifer Shockro (S), Jay Wright (S)

The threat of a contamination event in a building dispersing air through the heating and ventilation system has recently become a major concern to national security. The fate and transport of contaminants through a local building were modeled using CONTAM software. In order to accurately simulate contaminant flow, the standard HVAC system was augmented with additional flow sensors. The model was then validated through a series of on-site tracer gas releases.


Sierra Wireless America, Inc.
Ethernet - to - USB Bridge
Liaison: Jean Philippe Kielsznia
Advisor: David Money Harris
Students: Daniel Chan (TL), Kevin Lloyd, Daniel Rinzler, Rajdeep Roy (S), Max Yi

Sierra Wireless provides laptop cards for high speed Internet access over Verizon’s cellular network. These wireless cards require special driver software to be installed. The team has designed, built and demonstrated a small form factor bridge that connects any PC with Ethernet to the Verizon wireless network without special drivers.


Space Systems/Loral
Design and Vibration Characterization of a Passively Damped Satellite Bracket
Liaison: James Bockholt
Advisor: Ziyad Duron '81
Students: David Lipke (TL), Mark Brenneman (S), Chad Foerster, Jeffrey Lin, Arran McNabb (F), Gwen Yoshinaga

An antenna bracket currently in use on Space Systems/Loral’s (SS/L) satellites is manufactured out of lightweight, but expensive carbon fiber composites. SS/L has charged the team with the redesign of the bracket in order to reduce the overall manufacturing and launch costs. The bracket must not exceed two pounds, and cannot exhibit a response greater than 25g’s at any frequency below 100Hz. Bracket and passive damping designs were numerically modeled and vibration tested to meet specifications.


UVP, Inc.
Uniform Illumination for Fluorescent InVivo Imaging
Liaisons: Sean Gallagher, Darius Kelly, Colin Jemmott '04
Advisors: Qimin Yang, Deb Chakravarti (KGI)
Students: Alyssa Caridis (TL), Stephanie Bohnert (S), Ekaterina Kniazeva, Erika Palmer (S), Laura Moyer (F), Jeremy Bolton (KGI), Linda Chen (KGI)

In order to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of live animal in vivo fluorescent imaging, UVP tasked a team of Harvey Mudd College and Keck Graduate Institute students to design, simulate, and test innovative imaging systems to achieve unparalleled illumination uniformity over five degrees of freedom. Uniform lighting is needed for quantitative analysis of in vivo images, which are used for cancer and disease research. Additionally, the team developed novel methodologies for measuring lighting uniformity.

Top of page



Mathematics Clinic


Applied Biosystems
Automated Analysis of Gene Expression Data
Liaisons: Kenneth Livak '74, Mark Wechser
Advisor: Henry Krieger
Students: Kevin Krogh (PM), Jefferey Brenion, Theresa Poindexter, Ryan Riegel

Analysis of gene expression data can help identify genes that reliably classify patients into groups corresponding to disease variants. This analysis can be difficult for researchers not formally trained in statistics. We describe our work toward the development of an algorithm that automates this analysis. The team explored methods such as principal component analysis, discriminant analysis, and the use of ratios of gene expression levels.


HP Labs
Analyzing and Correcting Printer Drift
Liaisons: John Meyer, Gary Dispoto
Advisor: Weiqing Gu
Students: Jeffrey Hellrung (PM), Brianne Boatman, Durban Frazer, Katie Lewis

In color printing, a lookup table (LUT) is a mapping from a computer's color space to the ink combinations required to print these colors. An LUT will drift over time due to a variety of factors including mechanical and environmental changes, resulting in an undesirable change in the printed results. Currently, constructing a new LUT is a time consuming process. This project focused on developing a quicker method to recalibrate a printer when drift occurs.

Top of page



Physics Clinic


Sandia National Laboratories
Optical Characterization of Coated Soot Aerosols or Flames and Lasers
Liaisons: Hope Michelsen, Andrew McIlroy '85
Advisor: Peter Saeta
Students: Patrick Hopper (PM), Brendan Haberle, Matt Johnson, Julie Wortman, Mark Dansson, Tavi Semonin

The optical properties of coated soot aerosols produce the greatest uncertainty in climate change models. This project aims to measure the scattering and absorption of light by sub-micron sized soot particles similar to those produced in diesel exhaust. Total absorption and scattering cross sections of 635-nm laser light are measured using cavityring down and angle-resolved scattering techniques. Soot particles are created in situ by partially combusting ethylene and coated with a volatile organic compound.

Top of page



Projects Day 2004


Computer Science Clinic   |   CS/Engineering Joint Clinic   |   CS/Mathematics Joint Clinic
Engineering Clinic   |   Engineering/Physics Joint Clinic   |   Mathematics Clinic   |   Physics Clinic



Computer Science Clinic


The Aerospace Corporation
Launch Range Countdown Clocks

Liaisons: Joseph Betser, Michael Gorlick, Jorge Seidel
Advisor: Ran Libeskind-Hadas
Students: Joshua Smallman (PM, spring), Jonah Cohen (PM, fall), Amanda Parmelee, Alan Strohm

Countdown clocks, a common tool of launch ranges, are used to synchronize and control the numerous and complex series of actions leading to the launch of a space vehicle or guided missile. However, countdown clocks rely on a standard for time distribution and synchronization that, in comparison to modern digital protocols, is anachronistic and needlessly restrictive. The Clinic team will present an entirely new standard for the management of range countdown clocks founded on modern and effective protocols, such as the Network Time Protocol (NTP) and the Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP), which will improve both the accuracy and flexibility of countdown time services.


Cryptek, Inc.
Network Security Controller Scalability Testing

Liaisons: Vipul Lugade '02, Rick Fujiyama '03, Mike Kono '72/73
Advisor: Geoffrey Kuenning
Students: Keith Stevens (PM), Matthew Beaumont-Gay, Victoria Krafft, Alex Popkin

Cryptek, Inc. provides secure communications products for the government and private sectors. Our project is to stress-test a central component of the Cryptek system, the Network Security Controller (NSC), by creating software that mimics the encrypted network traffic from thousands of hardware nodes known as DiamondLinks. We are developing software that will go through an authentication protocol simultaneously for a large number of simulated DiamondLinks, and record the NSC's performance.


Medtronic MiniMed
Diabetes Data Management Software API Design and Implementation

Liaison: Pam Roller
Advisor: Belinda Thom
Students: Jessica Fisher (PM), Mark Fredrickson (CMC), Aja Hammerly, Jon Huang (CMC)

With approximately 17 million people in the US with diabetes, Medtronic MiniMed has produced several distinct lines of diabetes devices to aid in the treatment of the disease. These devices, however, do not utilize a standard communication format. The Clinic team is designing and implementing an extensible interface that will unify communication with Medtronic MiniMed's current and future insulin pumps, glucose sensors, and related diabetes technology.


CPI Corp.
Developing a Personal Digital Transcriber

Liaison: Richard Leeds
Advisor: Elizabeth Sweedyk
Students: Mathew Livianu (PM), Melissa Federowicz, Matthew Ferlo, Colleen Hamilton (SCR)

Computer Product Introductions (CPI) is interested in the development of a portable real-time speaker independent speech-tophoneme system which transcribes, compresses, stores, and plays back sound files. Charged with a subset of these goals, the CPI Clinic team has been asked to research speech-to-text software and phoneme readability, and to modify a batch speech-to-phoneme software in order to produce readable annotated phoneme output.


LaserFiche
Scanning Documents With Off-the-Shelf Digital Cameras

Liaisons: Kurt Rapelje, Robert Strickland, Karl Chan, Carl Sykes
Advisor: Zachary Dodds
Students: Ed Heaney (PM), Zak Andree, Zachariah Clegg, James Darpinian

The goal of our Clinic project is to develop a software module that converts a digital photo of a document into an image that looks scanned. It finds, straightens, and orients the document while providing confidence values to ensure reliability. Also featured are methods to help reduce the effects of distortion and lighting irregularities introduced by the camera.


NeonGecko.com Inc.
Automated Management of Community Websites

Liaison: David Graves
Advisor: Melissa O'Neill
Students: Andrew d'Avis (PM), Brian Merdian, Mark Nelson, Jenny Xu

This project developed tools to analyze posts made to NeonGecko's on-line discussion forums, classify posts into known topic areas, and identify new topics. The team applied supervised learning techniques (trained with precategorized posts) to determine topics of new posts. The team used clustering techniques to identify groups of posts that are markedly different from existing topics and thus might be new topics. Project work stressed extensive technique testing and delivery of a functional system.


Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Space Systems Division
Anomaly Detection in Health and Status Telemetry Data

Liaison: Craig Snow
Advisor: Robert Keller
Students: Erika Rice (PM), Daniel Marley, Gabriel Neer, Jesse Ruderman

Detection of anomalies in satellite health and status data requires real-time processing capabilities in order to reduce the ill effects of equipment malfunctions and other undesirable events. The team designed and implemented an extensible software architecture that enables anomalies to be detected and displayed in visual form. In addition to preset monitoring capabilities, our system provides learning capabilities based upon techniques from adaptive signal processing and adaptive resonance theory.


Raytheon Company and The BioSTAR Group
Intrusion Detection Using Biological Immune System Techniques

Liaisons: Ben De Vera (Raytheon), Brian Hull (Raytheon), Alex Pranger '92/93 (BioSTAR Group)
Advisor: Mike Erlinger
Students: Robert Bailey (PM), Ian Ferrel, Kevin Pang, Jeff Scherpelz

The goals of this Clinic project are to research, design, and develop a host-based Artificial Immune System (AIS) for intrusion detection based on the biological immune system. The main areas of focus for the project are to investigate and improve the idea of "self" in an AIS for more accurate anomaly detection, and to allow for a dynamic concept of "self" without compromising security.


Top of page



Computer Science/Engineering Joint Clinic


Optivus Technology, Inc.
Patient Alignment Through X-Ray Imaging

Liaison: James Jones
Advisors: Patrick Little, Elizabeth Sweedyk
Students: Michael Tuck-Lee (PM), Mjumbe Poe, Anand Vemuri, Knut Strom-Jensen

The goal of this Clinic project is to upgrade the alignment system on Optivus Technology's Proton Beam Therapy System (PBTS) Eye-Beam Line by replacing the obsolete components with digital imaging devices and an accompanying software package. This involves both mechanical and electrical engineering to implement the hardware requirements, and software development to create the supporting software.


Raytheon Company Summer 2003
Investigating Artificial Immune Systems

Liaison: Brian Hull
Advisor: Michael Erlinger
Students: George Kuan (PM), Andrew Yip (PM), Brandt Erickson, Michael Terkowitz

Conventional methods of computer security have many shortcomings. The team focused on the application of biological immune system paradigms to computer security. After assessing the various aspects of the biological immune system, as well as the current state of artificial immune system research, the team designed and implemented an extension to an existing artificial immune system.


SnapTrack/QUALCOMM Inc.
Cellphone Location-Based Services

Liaison: Kelly Johnson
Advisor: Christopher Stone
Students: Corey O'Connor (PM), Alice Liu, Tatsuya Oiye, Stuart Mershon (Fall)

The SnapTrack Clinic team developed two cell-phone applications, Direction Finder and Friendar, which demonstrate SnapTrack's Assisted-GPS technology. Direction Finder demonstrates the utility of a cell phone user being able to quickly acquire driving directions from their current location. Friendar demonstrates the fast update speed and high accuracy of A-GPS by allowing users quickly to pinpoint their friends' locations.


Top of page



Computer Science/Mathematics Joint Clinic


Fair Isaac Corporation
Develop a Prototype Excel Tool for Expert Decision Modeling

Liaison: Julie Zhu
Advisor: Michael Raugh
Students: Katherine Todd-Brown (PM), Aaron Becker, Daniel Cicio, Para Thomas (fall), Lisa Wice

Fair Isaac specializes in software for making high volume business decisions and is currently looking to expand their mid-level decision modeling program. To support this objective the Clinic team has developed an Excel based tool to facilitate implementing and visualizing a variety of expert decision models of mid-level complexity.


Top of page



Engineering Clinic


The Aerospace Corporation
An Imaging and Positioning Platform for the Picosat Satellites

Liaisons: Samuel Osofsky '85, Nelson Ho
Advisor: John Molinder
Students: Andrew Cole (PM), Nathan Mitchell, Brian Putnam, Gabriel Takacs, Philip Vegdahl

The Picosat platform was developed by The Aerospace Corporation as an experimental small-form-factor (4 inches on a side) satellite for use in space. The Clinic team has developed low-power add-on digital camera and GPS receiver circuit boards. These will allow the Picosat to take pictures of its surroundings or the launch vehicle, and to find and report its position in space.


Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology
Design and Production of a Prototype System Capable of Assessing the Remote Diagnosis of Stroke

Liaisons: Adrian Urias '00, William Wiesmann
Advisor: Patrick Little
Students: Janet Lui (PM), Angie Cho, Calvin Curtis, Joseluis Espinosa, Chris Wottawa

Stroke treatment requires immediate attention. The Video Stroke Assessment (VSA) System enables a neurological specialist to remotely perform the stroke exam via the Internet by controlling a video camera and its movements along a mobility track in front of the patient. VSA also performs a partially-autonomous examination based on the NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) that provides unbiased quantitative results along with the video and audio playback to assist in accurate diagnosis. The whole exam and its results are then archived.


Federal Aviation Administration/Tower
Versatile Frangible Tower Design

Liaison: Rachel Preston
Advisor: Lori Bassman
Students: Deborah Meduna (PM), Alyssa Caridis, Su Hyun Jeun, Joe Laubach, Stephanie Svetlik (POM)

Because the wind data at airports is currently collected by sensors at a safe but significant distance from runways, it is desirable to move sensor towers closer to runways to increase data accuracy. The team has designed a frangible structure, meaning the tower fails upon impact with a plane without causing catastrophic damage, which meets the new international design specifications and allows one person to easily access sensors for maintenance.


Bourns, Inc.
Development of Lead and Cadmium Free Thick-Film Resistors

Liaisons: Wayne Bosze, Farhad Adib
Advisor: Erik Spjut
Students: Greg Pomrehn (PM), Warren Katzenstein, John Onuminya, Michelle Sakai, Min Shim

In order to make more environmentally friendly electronic components, Bourns is developing lead and cadmium free resistors for high resistance potentiometers. The team is investigating new cermet materials (a composite of both ceramic and metallic ingredients) to replace current lead-based materials used in potentiometers. The new materials need to be stable at high resistance values (greater than 100 kOhms).

Federal Aviation Administration/LED
Fuel Cell Powered LED Approach Lighting Systems

Liaison: Calvin Miles '87
Advisor: Carl Baumgaertner
Students: Brian Humphrey (PM), Allison Auld, Pilun Chen, Karen Lee

Recent developments in high-power LED technology have made LED airport approach lighting systems feasible. Implementation would dramatically reduce costs associated with energy consumption and maintenance. Through the use of pulse width modulation, the team has created different light intensity levels and conducted flight tests at Brackett Airfield to evaluate the performance of the prototype light bar versus an incandescene standard. The prototype's closed loop controller eliminates variations in LED light output due to age and temperature.


Federal Aviation Administration/VOR
VOR Integral Monitoring System

Liaison: Nelson Spohnheimer
Advisor: John Molinder
Students: Jordan Taggart (PM), Alex Cohan, Gabriel Kwofie, Evan Porter

VHF OmniRange (VOR) facilities use transmitters and antenna systems to radiate signals for aircraft navigation. Sixteen external dipoles currently monitor the signal parameters, and shut the station down if they exceed certain tolerances. In this setup, environmental effects such as snow or ice are known to cause errors in the monitoring dipoles without effecting the signal that the plane receives. Our task was to design and test an integral monitoring system that would catch all failure modes without being prone to these environmental effects.


Grobecker Associates & The Center for Environmental Studies
Design of an Organic Waste Bioreactor

Liaisons: Doug Grobecker
Advisor: Erik Spjut, Tad Beckman
Students: Jason Komadina (PM), Rose Hakim, Stephanie Wong, Daphne Park, John Silny

The goal of this project is to design an innovative experimental bioreactor system. The reactor will take in organic wastes (for example, lawn clippings, food waste, manure) and utilize bacterial digestion processes to produce biogas and fertilizer that can be sold or used on-site.


Intel Corporation, Strategic CAD Labs
Microprocessor On-Chip Power Distribution Network Modeling

Liaison: Eli Chiprout
Advisor: David Harris
Students: Shamit Grover (PM), Kyle Kelley, Quan Quach, Kim Shultz

On-chip inductance is becoming increasingly significant as microprocessors get faster. To test whether self and mutual inductance need to be included in a power distribution network (PDN) model, the Clinic team has developed a full RLCM model of a chip's PDN and has used this model to determine the effects of removing circuit elements on the accuracy of predicted voltages and on the frequency response of the model.


Los Alamos National Laboratory
Laser Speckle Interferometry for Measuring Mesoscopic Spatial Dynamics

Liaisons: Aaron Koskelo, Scott Greenfield
Advisor: Lori Bassman
Students: Zamir Lalji (PM), Sean Cramer, Tommy Leung, Timothy Smith

Until now computational models were the primary means of characterizing energy flow through polycrystalline materials on the spatial and temporal scales of interest. Using electronic speckle pattern interferometric (ESPI) techniques, the team designed a device with the ability to characterize mesoscopic spatial dynamics of polycrystalline materials in response to excitation with micron resolution and nanometer sensitivity. The resulting optical system enables simultaneous independent measurements of in-plane and out-of-plane deformations, adaptable to the nanosecond temporal regime.


Honeywell, Honeywell Engines, Systems and Devices
Water Removal and Droplet Characterization From Air Downstream of a Heat Exchanger

Liaison: Bon Calayag
Advisor: Anthony Bright
Students: Elizabeth Lee-Su (PM), Leonardo DelCampo, Lai Lao, Elliott Temkin

The Clinic team has been asked to further the understanding of the physics of entrained water separation devices. To do so, the team designed a device to remove entrained water from the exit air stream of a heat exchanger. In order to better understand its impact on separator design, the characterization of the entrained liquid flow was also carried out via optical drop-sizing.


Irvine Ranch Water District
Real-Time Monitoring of Ammonia/Nitrates at IRWD Potable Water Reservoirs

Liaison: Arseny Kalinsky
Advisor: Donald Remer
Students: Stephen MacVicar (PM), Alison Burce, Nick Carbone, Abram Kim

The team obtained and tested an online nitrite and ammonia analyzer at a potable water reservoir and interfaced the analyzers with the existing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system used by IRWD. These analyzers are being considered for use by IRWD for early detection of nitrification of chloraminated water in the reservoirs, which can lead to rapid bacterial growth and potential coliform outbreaks. Online nitrite and ammonia analysis is a new approach to enhance water quality monitoring and improve reservoir management practices to prevent and reverse nitrification.


Los Alamos National Laboratory Engineering Sciences and Applications Division
Vibration Characterization of a Constrained Layer Viscoelastic Ring Assembly

Liaisons: Jennifer Wait '99, Mandy Rutherford
Advisor: Ziyad Duron
Students: Gene Lee (PM), Jeremiah McCoy, Daniel Sutoyo, Gwen Yoshinaga

The Los Alamos National Laboratory Engineering Sciences and Applications Division is interested in the vibration characterization of two concentric aluminum rings with a constrained layer of rubber sandwiched in between. The project is divided into three stages: 1) material properties testing of the rubber, 2) finite element modeling of the assembly, and 3) validation and verification of the models through dynamic testing.


Medtronic MiniMed
Development of "Smart" Insulin Infusion Set

Liaisons: Mark Holt, Fred Houghton
Advisor: Clive Dym
Students: Heather Lane (PM), Ming-Jay Chow, Don Lee, Esther Lee, Franck Luu (Exch.)

Insulin pump therapy, a growing market in diabetes treatment, utilizes a pager size pump to continuously deliver small amounts of insulin. One particular concern in this system is an inadvertent under-delivery of insulin to the user. The Clinic team researched and prototyped a system to detect the cessation of insulin delivery by identifying occlusions in the infusion set connecting the pump to the user.


NASA Ames Research Center Exobiology
Rock Grinding on Mars With the USDC

Liaison: David Blake
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Diana Warden (PM), Nick Reddy, Lisa Jacobs, Emily Ross, Koji Tatsuta (exch.)

The Clinic team has been asked to develop a device that may be included on the Mars 2009 rover. The device receives a sample of rocks with a maximum diameter of 2 mm, and must reduce the size of the rock particles to 0.05 mm in diameter or smaller while controlling contamination. At the request of NASA Ames Research Center, particle size reduction has been accomplished using the Ultrasonic/Sonic Driller/Corer.


Oregon Medical Laser Center
Endoscopic Application of a Chitosan Bandage

Liaison: Kenton Gregory
Adivisor: Elizabeth Orwin
Students: Rick Bente (PM), Heather Bryan, Jeffrey Lin, Aileen Nuguid

Esophageal varices are dilated veins of the portal systemic system, which pass through the lower area of the esophagus. Patients presenting ruptured esophageal varices have a 40-70% fatality rate, and recurrent bleeding is typical. The Oregon Medical Laser Center has created a chitosan dressing for the Department of Defense to be used on massive hemor-rhages. To extend the application of chitosan bandages for hemorrhage control and tissue repair of esophageal varices, the Clinic team has designed a non-invasive endoscopic delivery system of a chitosan bandage for use under video guidance.


Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Benchmarking Desalination Costs for Multiple Water Sources

Liaisons: Sun Liang, Christopher Gabelich, Tae Yun
Advisor: Donald Remer
Students: One Kim (PM), Zack Burstein, Keith Miyake, Malia Miyashiro, Aileen Ng

This project (1) provided benchmark cost data for brackish-water desalination technologies,(2) prioritized future research needs based on a cost analysis, and (3) identified areas for cost reduction at various plant sizes. The Clinic team created a database of capital investment and annual operation and maintenance costs through various cost-estimation models and literature data.


Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Navigation Systems Division
Fiber Optic Hydrophone Design Model Improvement

Liaison: Michael Tweedy
|Advisor: Philip Cha
Students: Ken Dye (PM), Ryan Carpenter, Joseph Kim, Shane Ouchi

Prototypes for future fiber optic hydrophone models are designed based on an analytical model of a thick-walled cylinder. Northrop Grumman's current model, however, produces design characteristics inappropriate to the constraints on new designs, necessitating several prototype iterations. Several model adaptations have been implemented by the Clinic team and updated analytical results have been verified by empirical and numerical analyses.


Pacific Scientific
Design and Development of a Joule-Thompson Cryostat

Liaisons: Floyd Fredrickson, Rajiv Rajpurkar, Gilbert Cisneros
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Eric Swope (PM), Chad Foerster, Dan Lee, Lydia Son, Joshua Webb

The Clinic team has been tasked with the development of a Joule-Thomson Cryostat that will operate in accordance with various specifications. This cryostat will be used to mechanically cool a device from ambient to a temperature of 120K or below within 15 seconds. The team will conduct research on current cryostat methodology, develop an appropriate design, construct, and test a prototype. The team will also provide recommendations regarding appropriate manufacturing methods.


Rain Bird Corporation
System for Measurement of Sprinkler Spray Patterns and Distribution Uniformity

Liaison: Burnett Jones
Advisor: Clive Dym
Students: Alexis Utvich (PM), Jacob Pinheiro, Mike Reynolds, Brent Rojo, Madineh Sedigh-Sarvestani

The Clinic team was asked to develop a system for real-time measurement of the spray pattern distribution of a sprinkler nozzle for quality assurance during their usage. This system will be implemented at the Rain Bird manufacturing facility in Azusa, CA. Information provided by a functional system can be used for design, detecting unacceptable nozzles, tracking trends in nozzle performance, or providing information to marketing groups and customers.


Sandia National Laboratories
Use of HVAC Control System to Model and Limit Spread of Airborne Hazardous Materials in Buildings

Liaisons: Richard Griffith, Marvin Larsen
Advisor: Mary Cardenas
Students: Ethan Bodnaruk(PM), Brian Brenhaug, Shane Hawke, Laura Kanofsky

A proof of concept is needed to determine whether or not real-time HVAC system information can be used to model the airflow within a building. The project involves modeling an appropriate building, validation of the model, and the creation of an automated interface between the model and HVAC system to transfer and utilize available data.


UVP, Inc.
Design, Construction, Testing and Market Analysis of an Automated Polyacrylamide Gel Spot-Picking Device

Liaison: Sean Gallagher
Advisors: Qimin Yang, Deb Chakravarti (KGI), Brian Aufderheide (KGI)
Students: Colin Jemmott (PM), Salvador Carlucci (KGI), Galen Chui, Kyle Kondo, Thomas Lester (KGI)

Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electro-phoresis is an efficient way of analyzing complex mixtures of proteins. Hundreds of separated protein spots are mechanically excised from a single gel and characterized by mass spectrometry. Available instruments that automate the spot-picking process are extremely expensive. The team has been entrusted by UVP, Inc. to research and develop such an instrument that will be more affordable. The team will research current contenders in the field, desired features, areas for possible innovation, and develop a prototype system.


Sandia National Laboratories California
A Hardware Implementation of Fourier Transform Ion Mobility Spectrometry

Liaison: Ed Tarver
Advisor: David Harris
Students: Charles Matlack (PM), Du Nguyen, Waley Tam, Henry Chen, Alex Utter

New research at Sandia National Labs has led to the development of a novel approach to ion mobility spectroscopy that could dramatically increase the sensitivity of such. Similar sensors are currently used to detect and identify explosives or other hazardous materials. Our task is to develop a compact control system to implement this new sensing scheme, controlling and monitoring the sensor to ensure fast and accurate results.


Sun Microsystems
Measuring On-Chip Capacitance

Liaison: Robert Hopkins '01/02
Advisor: Qimin Yang
Students: Damian Small (PM), Brett Bissinger, Dan Chan, Renee Logan

The Clinic team designed, fabricated, and tested amplification circuits used in conjunction with a measurement circuit to accurately measure very small on-chip capacitances. The on-chip capacitors were simple metal structures with between 1 and 100 femto farads of capacitance, which is too small to be measured off chip with commonly available commercial test equipment.


Top of page



Engineering/Physics Joint Clinic


University of California Irvine Department of Otolaryngology
Modification of a Laryngoscope for Optical Coherence Tomography

Liaison: Brian Wong
Adivisors: Elizabeth Orwin, Robert Wolf
Students: Nikhil Gheewala (PM), River Hutchison, Tonya Icenogle, Rachel Lovec

Currently laryngeal cancer can only be diagnosed with biopsies which are invasive, permanently damaging, and can miss cancerous tissue. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an imaging technique that non-invasively images several millimeters into tissue to seek structural abnormalities, which can indicate cancer. We will design and construct an OCT device for attachment to a laryngoscope that will image two-dimensional cross-sections in the larynx, for the purpose of diagnosing laryngeal cancer in its early stages.


Top of page



Mathematics Clinic


Los Alamos National Laboratory
Solitons in Shallow Water Waves

Liaison: Darryl Holm
Advisor: Alfonso Castro
Students: Lindsay Crowl (PM), Kevin Andrew, Christian Bruun, Jon Goldis

Los Alamos National Laboratory is currently researching various properties of nonlinear shallow water wave equations. With the help of the Clinic's liaison, Dr. Darryl Holm, the team is analyzing the distinct behavior of the Camassa-Holm equation. This research investigation will include both a theoretical and a numerical analysis of soliton-like shallow water waves called peakons. For the numerical investigation, the team has created a numerical integrator for the third order, nonlinear Camassa-Holm equation. The theoretical results will be compared to numerical simulations that visualize various aspects of wave behavior in both the one and two dimensional cases.


Top of page



Physics Clinic


Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Navigation Systems Division
Designing an Inexpensive Vibrating Beam Angular-Rate Sensor Using MEMS Technology

Liaisons: Robert Stewart, Ken Marino
Advisor: Peter Saeta
Students: Hubert Nguyen (PM), Brendan Haberle, Mary Peter

The detection of angular motion has immediate applications to guidance and stabilization, and is itself a critical step in controlling such motion. Northrop Grumman Corporation is interested in developing an angular rate sensor through MEMS technology, a method that will greatly reduce costs while allowing the devices to be used in applications previously subject to budget, size, or technology constraints. Our Clinic team, as a continuation of the 2002/03 Clinic project, has designed and characterized the performance of a vibrating beam angular rate sensor which takes advantage of piezoelectric materials as driving and sensing mechanisms.


Sandia National Laboratories
Study of a Geo-Location System

Liaison: Louis Romero
Advisor: Weiqing Gu
Students: Andrew Niedermaier (PM), Todd CadwalladerOlsker (CGU), Luke Finlay (fall),
ElizabethMillan, Josh Padgett

In updating the current search-and-rescue satellite system to a geosynchronous, multi-satellite system, we can now detect a distress beacon instantaneously anywhere on the earth. Our task was to implement an algorithm that takes the data received by multiple satellites and quickly determines the location from which the original message was sent.


Top of page



Projects Day 2003


Computer Science Clnic   |   Engineering Clinic
Engineering/Environmental Studies Joint Clinic   |   Mathematics Clinic   |   Physics Clinic



Computer Science Clinic



The Aerospace Corporation

Firewall “Tunnel” Implementation Over BEE
Liaisons: Ray Simms ’02 CMC, Joseph Betser
Advisor: Michael Erlinger
Students: Nicolas Hertl (PM), William Berriel, Chip Bradford, Richard Fujiyama

In the world of Intrusion Detection there is a need for a common message format and transport protocol so that different organizations can collaborate. This allows for the easy correlation, display, and long term storage of intrusion information. This year's project builds on the work of previous intrusion detection Clinics. It provides for messages to securely pass through firewalls using a newly specified BEEP (Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol) profile called Tunnel.

Auditude.Com
Music Similarity and Recommendation
Liaison: Nicholas Seet ’99
Advisor: Melissa O'Neill
Students: Paul Ruvolo (PM), Brad Poon, Elizabeth Schoof, Nicholas Taylor

The Auditude Clinic team has investigated content-based similarity relationships between musical performances. Similarity is a complex concept involving many judgments. Our team has focused our attention on a combination of rhythm, timbre, and apparent loudness. We have developed software that extracts these features from a recording and uses them to categorize new music, to make recommendations, and to generate playlists that arrange music in a sequence with smooth transitions between songs.

The Boeing Company/ATM
Design and Prototype of a Low-Cost Weather Information System for General Aviation
Liaisons: James Hanson ’64, Paul Mallasch
Advisor: Geoffrey Kuenning
Students: Paul Paradise (PM), Luke Hunter, Kyle Kuypers, Rafael Vasquez

Boeing ATM has tasked us with the design and implementation of a proof-of-concept design for delivering weather data to aircraft pilots in-flight. Using a Pocket PC PDA as a hardware architecture and a custom client and server, we are able to deliver METAR (Meteorological Reports) and NEXRAD (NEXt-generation RADar) to pilots. Our current implementation uses 802.11b wireless technology for the communication, but is ideally suited for satellite-based broadcast as a final product.

The Green Media Toolshed
Development of a Community-Supported Media-Contact Database
Liaisons: Carl Coryell-Martin '97, Mark Huberty '00
Advisor: Geoffrey Kuenning
Students: Chris Spritke (PM), Marissa Anderson, Ben Frantzdale, John Suarez

In order to effectively deal with a high reporter turnover rate, the Green Media Toolshed team’s goal was to develop a community-supported media-contact database that is economically viable for non-profit organizations by minimizing the need for a large research staff. The team implemented and assessed the effectiveness of user and data quality metrics, as well as automated checking tools, to coordinate the efforts of a network of volunteer data checkers.

Kofax Image Products, Inc.
Design of an Automated Email Response System
Liaison: Eric Huang '02
Advisor: Robert Keller
Students: John Sander, Pomona (PM), Ryan Crabb, Jeffrey Jirsa, Joe Malone

The goal of the Kofax Clinic Project is to design and construct a system that can learn by example to provide candidate responses to customer service questions. The system learns to respond to incoming E-mail by first observing human responses. Then as new questions are asked to the customer service staff the system will suggest possible answers by drawing on responses to similar questions that the system has previously seen.

LaserFiche
Automatic Form Recognition, Alignment, and Extraction
Liaison: Kurt Rapelje
Advisor: Zachary Dodds
Students: Brandt Erickson (PM), Josh Kline, Jessica Lee, Jonathan Shriver, Robert Strickland

The LaserFiche project involves creating a software tool that automatically matches the image of a filled-in paper form to a corresponding blank template from a database. This tool permits a document-processing system to handle a large set of mixed forms without requiring a human to identify each one. Once an input form is identified, an anchoring step aligns and extracts the user's input in order to improve the performance of additional form processing.

Magulandia Studio
Thirty-second Animated Public Service Announcement
Liaisons: Gilbert “Magu” Sanches, Mike Meyka
Advisor: Elizabeth Sweedyk
Students: Alisa Decker, CMC (PM), Mira Stoilova, Rosie Wacha, Joanna Wu

The purpose of the Magulandia Studio Clinic project is to create a 30-second public service announcement addressing road rage. The team will use Maya, a 3D computer graphics animation tool used in movies such as Shrek, to build the necessary models and animate a short sequence for the PSA. The animation style utilizes exaggerated characters and scenery. The sequence will use personifications of cars and animals to make a comic point about the need to control one's temper on the road.

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Space Systems Division
Software Hardening in Space-Based Systems
Liaisons: Craig Snow, Kevin Romero
Advisor: Christopher Stone
Students: Andrew Klose (PM), Eric Angell, James Simmons, Marty Weiner

Current space-based digital electronics lag their commercial counterparts by several generations. The physical hardening process required to protect these components from exoatmospheric radiation events is both costly and time-consuming. This project examines the feasibility of implementing a software-based alternative to this process. Specifically, we examine the question of whether the increased processing power and memory capacity of commercially available components provide sufficient resources for software-implemented detection of radiation effects.

Sandia National Laboratories
Implementation of and Experimenting With a Clustering Tool
Liaison: Kevin Boyack
Advisor: Belinda Thom
Students: Avani Gadani (PM), Daniel Lowd, Brian Roney, Eric Wu

The goal of the Sandia National Laboratories Computer Science Clinic project was to create a tool for simultaneously visualizing several different reductions of multi-dimensional data sets. We also analyzed these sets using geometric techniques and clustering. To assess clustering fitness, we implemented validity metrics that quantitatively compare solutions and algorithms in various ways. The tool was given to Sandia and was used to analyze data sets ranging from journal citations to popular music.

Teradyne, Inc.

Extensible Data Management for Semiconductor Design-for-Testability
Liaisons: Robert Varney, Gary Borsos
Advisor: Ran Libeskind-Hadas
Students: Kristal Pollack (PM), Michael Bailey, Annie Chang, Peter Tempest

Teradyne's DFT (Design for Testability) Software Group is developing a software system which enables semiconductor manufacturers to exploit DFTtechnologies in order to reduce test costs, accelerate time to market, and enhance yield. However, to make the best use of DFT, semiconductor manufacturers must also be able to easily manage and interpret the automatically generated test results along with existing semiconductor design information and new information produced by DFT diagnosis tools. This clinic project has created a Java and XML/XSLT based system to meet this need.

Teradyne, Inc.
Test Data Management System
Liaison: Robert Varney
Advisor: Robert Keller
Students: Micah Garside-White (PM), Conor Sen, Ryan Gibson, Adrian Mettler

The Clinic team designed and prototyped a system with web-based interfaces for managing data from high-performance automated semiconductor test equipment based on distributed persistent data storage. Our system enables users of a test service to query and process results from a wide range of geographic sites using interfaces that decouple test equipment specifics. The system is entirely based on the emergent Java Two Enterprise Edition (J2EE) framework and includes capabilities for fault tolerance and recovery. This project was completed during a ten week full-time effort during the summer of 2002.

Top of page



Engineering Clinic



The Aerospace Corporation
Digital Feedforward Linearizer for High Power Radio Frequency Amplifiers
Liaison: Samuel Osofsky ’85
Advisors: Ruye Wang, Jon Strauss
Students: Aaron Stratton (PM), Genevieve Breed, Michael Linderman, Galway O’Mahony, Colin Jemmott

Gain linearity is critical in communications amplifiers, but comes at the expense of efficiency. Traditional linearization systems rely heavily on analog components that significantly reduce system efficiency and can not be adjusted to compensate for component or environmental variation. The Clinic team has developed a digital implementation of a feedforward control system that improves amplifier linearity without these limitations. The team's prototype is the first working high speed digital implementation of this concept.

Aseptico International, Inc.

Reengineering HandiDam's© Manufacturing Process
Liaison: Doug Kazen
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Colin Choi (PM), Florence Shaffer, Joseluis Espinosa, Michael Reynolds

HandiDam© is the most significant innovation in rubber dam technology to come along in years. The Clinic team is faced with the task of reengineering its manufacturing process so that Aseptico can produce them with greater cost and time efficiency. The team will also design and integrate a quality control device that filters out the units that do not meet Aseptico’s standards.

Beckman Coulter, Inc.
Increasing the Number of Simultaneous Analytical Reactions by Distinguishing Magnetically Labeled Reaction Carriers
Liaison: Michael Bell
Advisor: Elizabeth Orwin
Students: Ryan Jackson (PM), Gigi Au, Lydia Son, Tonya Icenogle

The Beckman Coulter Clinic team was asked to provide a means for distinguishing superparamagnetically labeled micrometer-sized spheres as they travel through a flow cytometer. By adding a new parameter, such as magnetism, the company would increase the number of analytical reactions that can be carried out simultaneously and detected in bead-based multiplexing. The team has investigated several methods of detection, simulated the best method and conducted proof-of-concept experimentation.

The Boeing Company/ATM
Development and Validation of a Time of Arrival Model of the Loran-C Radionavigation System
Liaison: Robert Snow
Advisor: John Molinder
Students: Daniel Vaughan (PM), Gautam Thatte, Jordan Taggart, Kenneth Dye

Boeing Air Traffic Management has identified the Loran-C radionavigation system as a potential backup for GPS in commercial aviation applications, provided that the accuracy of Loran-C can be increased. This project involves developing and testing a Time-of-Arrival based Loran-C model to determine the feasibility of creating a more accurate system. The model will include a least-squares positioning algorithm and improved error corrections.

The Boeing Company/Phantom Works
Wireless Power Transmission
Liaison: Mark Henley
Advisor: Erik Spjut
Students: Brian Yoxall (PM), Trevor Gile, Andrew Mattheisen, Jason Komadina

The development of wireless power transmission technology is important for both space-based exploration and energy applications on Earth. To further this technology, a small-scale wireless power transmission system, consisting of a laser and photocell, was developed to set an end-to-end system efficiency world record. Key efficiency gains were made by acquiring highly efficient components, matching laser wavelength with the photocell bandgap energy, and precisely controlling component temperatures between 298 K and 78 K.

Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology
Portable Water Purification System for WFI Production
Liaisons: Alex Pranger ’92/93, Bill Wiesmann
Advisor: Jennifer Rossmann
Students: Judy Hsu (PM), Adam Mills, Esther Lee, Yanos Saravanos

The CIMIT team researched, designed, produced, and tested a portable water purification system that purifies potable (drinking) water to USP grade water for injection (WFI) for the production of emergency-use IV fluids. The device is a self-powered, compact filter capable of producing at least 300 ± 100 mL/hr of sterile, USP WFI grade water. The team has delivered a working prototype unit and offered detailed suggestions for further refinements.

DirecTV, Inc.
Lip-sync Error Measurement System
Liaisons: Leon Stanger, Michael Munsell
Advisor: Carl Baumgaertner
Students: Matthew Erler (PM), Carl Larsen, Mark Phair, Elodie Bounmy

The DIRECTV® Clinic team will design a system for lip-sync error measurement. This system will measure an error of up to ± 200ms to within ± 1ms. Furthermore, the system will not require alteration of either the original video or audio signals. The system will use patterns within human speech to identify timing locations within the audio signal and will encode timing marks in the closed caption portion of the video signal.

Federal Aviation Administration/LED
Update and Integration of LED Airport Approach Lighting System
Liaisons: Calvin Miles, Seth Couslar
Advisor: Qimin Yang
Students: Micah Hanada (PM), Heather O’Brien, Gabriel Reyes, Pauline Boudon, Quan Quach

The Clinic team must continue development of an LED lighting system to replace the incandescent bulbs currently used for the Medium Intensity Approach Lighting System (MALSR) and the Approach Lighting System with Sequenced Flashing Lights (ALSF2). The team must integrate these LED systems into the available airport power source, collect data on LED characteristics, and provide prototypes for the MALSR and ALSF2 systems.

Federal Aviation Administration/Structure
The Analysis and Design of a Frangible Approach Lighting Structure
Liaison: Giles Strickler
Advisor: Clive Dym
Students: Ryan Ellis (PM), Bret Rosen, Clifford Wassman, Michelle Sakai

Airport runway lights require structural supports of varying heights, depending on the surrounding terrain. The Federal Aviation Administration currently uses structures that are frangible (break upon impact) for heights up to forty feet, and non-frangible structures for heights over forty feet. The FAA has asked the Clinic team to analyze the stability of the frangible structures in flood conditions, and also to design a more frangible structure to replace the existing non-frangible structures.

Federal Aviation Administration/Tower

Retrofit to Tilt Down Tower Design
Liaison: Gary Rixmann
Advisor: Patrick Little
Students: Benjamin Utela (PM), Matthew Keller, Jorge Escobar, Eric Swope

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has asked the Clinic team to retrofit the current tower for their Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS). The current AWOS design has a tilt-down pole, which allows access to the sensors, but is not adaptable to changes in sensor weight. The team will design, prototype, and test a retrofit modification to provide these towers with adjustable counterweighting.

Honeywell
ECS Modeling Process Improvement
Liaison: David Loeffelholz
Advisor: Anthony Bright
Students: Raymond Fong (PM), Nils Napp, One Kim, Philip Vegdahl

Honeywell develops models to predict performance of thermal management systems for commercial and military aircraft. These models are systems of many stiff and non-linear algebraic equations. Current numerical solvers have limited convergence properties and require expert choice between multiple solutions.

InLight Solutions
Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring
Liaisons: Ben Ver Steeg ’98, Zach Benz
Advisor: Elizabeth Orwin
Students: Ivan Samuels (PM), Karen Studarus, Alfredo Villanueva, Keith Miyake

The Clinic team has developed procedures for improving the solution algorithm and reducing the need for human intervention in the convergence process. The team will design and verify the functionality of a device to let users accurately locate their forearm tissue with respect to InLight’s existing optical measurement interface. The device must be able to consistently present the same area of tissue, within an accuracy of ±0.3 mm, to the optical measurement interface.

Irvine Ranch Water District
Deep Aquifer Treatment System (DATS) Concentrate Treatment and Recovery
Liaison: Arseny Kalinsky
Advisor: Jennifer Rossmann
Students: Markus Ong (PM), Todd Greeley, Aileen Ng, Kyle Kondo, Rose Hakim

IRWD’s DATS (Deep Aquifer Treatment System) facility uses a nanofiltration process to remove color caused by dissolved organics from deep aquifer wells. The concentrate stream from this process is currently disposed of in the sewer at a cost of about $200,000 per year. The Clinic project consists of three preliminary bench-scale screenings of potential treatment options for the recovery of the concentrate. These technologies include magnetic ion exchange, nanofiltration, and ozonation.

Medtronic MiniMed
Drive System for an Insulin Infusion Pump
Liaison: Cary Talbot
Advisor: Clive Dym
Students: Hans Meyer (PM), Jonathan Grant, Shannon Kelley, Stephanie Wong

Medtronic MiniMed desired an innovative, low-cost drive system for a portable, reusable, external insulin infusion pump. The Clinic team generated fresh design alternatives and constructed a prototype of a low-cost drive system that can be used in the next generation of external insulin infusion pumps. The team designed, developed and tested a prototype drive system.

NASA Ames Research Center
Design of a SLMS for CheMin
Liaisons: David Blake, Philippe Sarrazin
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Jason Norman (PM), Adam Lutchansky, Kristen Van Horn, Andy DelCampo, Du Nguyen, Kohei Asano

The NASA Ames clinic team, at the request of the research center's Exobiology Branch, has designed and built a sample loading and manipulation system, or SLMS, for the CHEMIN instrument, a compact combined X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence device bound for Mars. The project's objectives include the design and manufacture of the SLMS, an X-ray-tight housing, and an X-ray beam-defining aperture system.

Northrop Grumman Navigation Systems
Material Life Characteristics for Acoustic Arrays
Liaison: Joe Krystkowiak
Advisor: Lori Bassman
Students: Tom Galvani (PM), Elizabeth Eaton, Ethan Bodnaruk, Nikhil Reddy

Fiber optic acoustic systems are placed underwater to detect sounds from sources such as ships, submarines, and seismic activity. Currently, Northrop Grumman is developing more durable and longer lasting acoustic systems that will better withstand the harsh environment of the ocean. In order to provide their customers with effective acoustic systems with a longer service life, material selection is important in their design. The Clinic team will research, test, and report on the environmental compatibility and mechanical properties of materials used for acoustic arrays. The team will also provide clear procedures for future material testing.

Northrop Grumman Space Technology
Determining the Feasibility of Non Line-of-Sight Laser Communication
Liaison: John Brock
Adivisor: Sam Tanenbaum
Students: Christina Stratton (PM), Justin Schauer, Zamir Lalji, Gene Lee, Evan Porter

The feasibility of non-line-of-sight laser communication is investigated using a link budget that enables one to predict the performance and the sensitivity of laser communications links under a variety of operating conditions. The atmospheric models and computer programs used to predict light transmission and scattering efficiencies in the link budget are described, and the accuracy of the link budget is evaluated by comparing its predictions with preliminary experimental results obtained by the team.

Roscoe Moss Company
Bell-Swaged Pipe Extraction Device for a Hydrostatic Testing Machine
Liaisons: Regis Coyle, Oscar Jaime
Advisor: Philip Cha
Students: Thomas Both (PM), Peter Chung, Lut Au-Yeung, Anand Vemuri

Roscoe Moss utilizes a hydrostatic testing machine to check their pipes for structural integrity. The tester bells one end of the pipe by swaging it over a belling die. Because Roscoe Moss does not extract the pipe from the belling die as efficiently as desired, the Clinic team has been asked to design, fabricate, and test an extraction device that will remove the bell swaged end of the pipe from the belling die. The goal for the design is to extract the pipe more efficiently, safely, and economically than the current method used by Roscoe Moss.

Sandia National Laboratories
Hardware FT-IMS
Liaisons: Ed Tarver, James Wang
Advisor: David Harris
Students: Elizabeth Reynolds (PM), Keith Buerger, Dmitriy Kogan, Damian Small

Fourier Transform Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FT-IMS) is a technique for identifying chemical vapors such as explosives, narcotics, and chemical weaponry. Sandia is currently implementing FT-IMS on a PC running Windows and Labview software. However, the system is too slow and bulky for some applications. The Clinic team has developed a faster, portable system to perform the required signal processing and storage using hardware such as a DSP (Digital Signal Processing chip) and Compact Flash card.

SnapTrack
Design of a GPS Data Recording System
Liaison: Scott Stickeler
Advisor: David Harris
Students: David Diaz (PM), Morgan Cross, M. Jean-Philippe Henry, Waley Tam

Obtaining a GPS position fix in certain areas can be very difficult because of weak or distorted signals. SnapTrack needs a means of gathering GPS data in the field for analysis in the laboratory. The ability to analyze the data in a laboratory will allow SnapTrack engineers to account for such difficult areas in their position location devices.

Space Systems/Loral
Modeling and Testing a Mid-Field Pyroshock Simulation Apparatus
Liaisons: Brian W. Childs, James Bockholt
Advisor: Ziyad Duron
Students: Anna Olsen (PM), Jeremy Watson, Greg Pomrehn, Su Hyun Jeun, Brian Brenhaug

When satellites are launched into orbit, they experience explosive shocks. Satellite components must be shown to withstand these pyroshocks before space launch. The Clinic team has been asked to develop a method to simulate pyroshock events defined by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L). The team experimented with different test structures while developing two analytical models of these structures. The team collected experimental data to validate and modify the analytical models.

Top of page



Engineering/Environmental Studies Joint Clinic


Center for Conservation Biology, University of California, Riverside
Development of a Remote Sensing System to Track Acorn Woodpeckers
Liaisons: Michael Allen, John Rotenberry, Mike Hamilton, Wendy Hodges
Advisors: Lori Bassman, Stephen Adolph
Students: Patricia Brock (PM), Warren Katzenstein, Heather Lane, Stephen MacVicar, Brent Rojo

The Center for Conservation Biology at UC Riverside creates remote sensor systems that monitor environmental conditions, organisms, and habitats. These remote systems allow scientists to collect significant amounts of data while minimizing disturbances to the environ-ment. The team designed and built a system of sensors that can record sounds in a given habitat. The data collected by the system is processed to identify Acorn woodpecker calls and the origin of those calls in three-dimensional space.

Top of page



Mathematics Clinic


Fair, Isaac and Company, Inc.
Identification of Suspicious Investors
Liaisons: Matthais Blume, Walter Lee
Advisor: Henry Krieger
Students: Jonathan Nadel (PM), Brie Finger, Shea Lawrence, Michael Vrable

The USA PATRIOT Act, drafted in response to the September 11 terror attacks, mandates that banks more closely scrutinize their transactions to prevent terrorist money laundering. Fair, Isaac and Company, Inc., a pioneer in analy-tical banking software, is therefore interested in developing technology to detect if customers have any potentially questionable affiliations. More specifically, it is the task of this Clinic to create software to scan electronic text sources and discern where relationships exist between individuals.

Overture Services, Inc.
Improved Relevance Ordering for Web Search
Liaison: Dan Fain
Adivisor: Leslie Ward
Students: Erin Bodine (PM), David Gleich, Cathy Kurata, Jordon Kwan

We implement and compare the performance of three algorithms for reranking the top 50 webpages returned by a search engine for 40 individual queries. We then compare these re-rankings to human rankings. Two algorithms break webpages into topically distinct areas (Micro Information Units). The third computes a proximity score for each webpage, measuring how close the words in the query appear. Query terms appearing closer together may indicate the webpage is more relevant to that query.

Top of page



Physics Clinic

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems
Vibrating Beam Angular Rate Sensors
Liaisons: Robert Stewart, Ken Marino
Advisors: Peter Saeta, Robert Wolf
Students: Trevor Oliver (PM), Jon Faul, Noah Beck, Michael Price, Michael Shimogawa

Northrup Grumman is the second largest defense contractor in America, designing and producing a wide variety of technologies ranging from aircraft to sensors. Our team is performing a proof-of-concept study on using microelectrical mechanical systems (MEMS) technology to produce a vibrating beam angular rate sensor based on the Coriolis force. We will report on both the experimental and analytical results of the study.

Top of page



Projects Day 2002


Computer Science Clnic   |   Computer Science/Engineering Clinic
Engineering Clinic   |   Mathematics Clinic   |   Physics Clinic



Computer Science Clinic

THE AEROSPACE CORPORATION
Implementing an IDMEF Message Management Tool
Liaisons: Joseph Betser, Ph.D., Andrew Walther ’00
Advisor: Michael Erlinger
Students: Eric Heitzman (TL), Richard McKnight, Eider Moore, Rayford Sims (CMC)

The Aerospace Corporation has sponsored a series of projects focusing on issues in intrusion detection in computer networks. The Intrusion Detection Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (a standards body) is developing a common XML message format for communicating intrusion detection events, called the Intrusion Detection Message Exchange Format (IDMEF). We have designed and implemented a web-accessible database-driven application to display, manage, and facilitate the manual correlation of IDMEF messages.

AUDITUDE.COM

Performance Independent Melody Recognition
Liaison: Nicholas Seet ’99
Advisor: Robert Keller
Students: Jason Yelinek (TL), Matt Brubeck, Joshdan Griffin, Eric Huang

The team has developed software that identifies songs based on monophonic audio performances of the song, and has reported on research toward the more difficult problem of recognizing songs from polyphonic performances. This software is intended to complement Auditude’s existing technology that recognizes commercially recorded performances in real time.

THE BOEING COMPANY/ATM

Design and Prototype of Low-Cost Weather Information System for General Aviation
Liaison: James Hanson ’64
Advisor: Geoffrey Kuenning
Students: Cora Hussey (TL), Christopher Lee, Jonathan Morley, Morgan Wagner, Neilsen Yu

Foul weather contributes to aviation accidents and delays. To enhance aviation safety, The Boeing Company wishes to develop a low cost method to display real-time weather data in the cockpit of general aviation aircraft. The Clinic team has designed and developed a system that gathers weather data, obtains GPS coordinates, and graphically displays that data on the screen of a Compaq iPaq PDA, in a form that is familiar to and usable by pilots.

ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC.
Algorithms and Data Structures for Time-Dependent Networks
Liaison: Dale Honeycutt
Advisor: Ran Libeskind-Hadas
Students: Kylie Evans ’03(TL), Nathaniel Dirksen, Melissa Chase ’03, Jacob Creed

ESRI provides tools for capturing, storing and analyzing networks of virtually any type, from highways to electrical wiring. This project augments ESRI's system with the ability to represent networks where the cost of traversing an edge changes with time, and to solve shortest-path queries on these new time-dependent networks. This will allow ESRI's customers to model bus schedules, rush-hour traffic, and similar phenomena, allowing greater accuracy in determining shortest paths.

I/O SOFTWARE, INC.

Biometrically Enabling Web
Applications
Liaison: Edward Evers
Advisor: Joshua Hodas
Students: Jocelyn Chew (TL), Michael Cramblett, Donald Lawton, Daniel Phiffer

I/O Software is a leading developer of security software using biometrics to restrict access to data and applications on computers. They have asked the team to extend their software's capabilities to securing access to web pages. This product, in the form of server-side and client-side plug-ins, performs a biometrically-enabled user verification sequence between the local user's browser and a remote database to control access to online assets.

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
Multilevel Parallelization of the Smith-Waterman Algorithm
Liaison: Michael Cummings
Advisor: Elizabeth Sweedyk
Students: Ben Zeckel (TL Spring), Kurt Dresner (TL Fall), Drew Levin, Andrew Magis, Eric Ong

A common task in molecular biology is the search for similarity between a given strand of DNA or protein and the sequences in a database such as GenBank. The most accurate search programs aimed at this problem are based on the Smith-Waterman algorithm. Typical open-source implementations are slow while fast commercial implementations are quite expensive. We have implemented a parallelized version intended to be freely distributed while being performance competitive with commercial packages.

OPTIVUS TECHNOLOGY, INC.

Proton Beam Treatment System Vacuum Monitoring and Control System
Liaisons: Sasha Beloussov, Rich Jackson
Advisor: Geoffrey Kuenning
Students: Patrick Vinograd (TL), Saba Ahmad (CMC), Geoffrey Romer ’03, Aaron Clark

The team has developed a distributed software system that allows centralized monitoring and automated control of a large number of vacuum devices. It will be used in proton beam-based cancer treatment facilities where an extensive vacuum system is needed to treat patients. Optivus, providing technical oversight and support for Loma Linda University Medical Center's Proton Beam Therapy Center, will use the system with the goal of preventing vacuum loss and thus improving patient treatment.

QUALCOMM INCORPORATED

Software Development Tools for ARM-Based Wireless Devices
Liaison: Eric Lekven ’79
Advisor: Christopher Stone
Students: Roy Shea (TL), Samuel Ahn, Andrew Schoonmaker, Erin Sperry

QUALCOMM, Inc. has developed BREW, a software API for ARM-based handheld devices. BREW enables developers to write applications that can be run on a variety of such devices, including wireless phones. The team has been asked to reduce the cost of developing BREW applications by finding a way to use GNU GCC within the Windows NT/2000 environment to compile BREW applications for the ARM target, eliminating the need for the expensive ARM compiler suite.

TERADYNE, INC.

Automatic Generation of Distributed Service Adapters
Liaison: Robert Varney
Advisor: Zachary Dodds
Students: Michael Allen (TL), Aaron Boyer (Pitzer), Edward Miller ’03, Jason Wither

Teradyne asked the team to develop a software tool which, given a Java interface, generates adapters that would allow programmers to use Java components in a distributed computing environment in a transparent fashion. The adapters are themselves software components that perform translation between two software interfaces. Additionally, the clinic is to investigate the challenges inherent in maintaining the usual semantics of a non-distributed programming system while providing distributed capabilities.

TERADYNE, INC.
VisiFault
Liaison: Robert Varney
Advisor: Robert Keller
Students: Hang Tang ’03 (TL), Michael Szal, Don Wang, Stephen Friedman ’03

Teradyne makes automatic test equipment (ATE) for semiconductor devices. As devices grow more complex, test vectors becomes much larger, and the time required to analyze the failures grows too long. The team developed a system, VisiFault, which graphically displays scan failure results from the ATE and physical fault results from a diagnosis program so one can quickly pinpoint causes of failures. VisiFault also provides functions such as aggregation and comparison to help in analyzing the data.

This project was completed during a ten week full-time effort during the summer of 2001.

UNITED DEVICES

Reimplementation of Scientific Applications in a Massively Distributed Framework
Liaison: Jeffrey Lawson ’99
Advisor: Melissa O’Neill
Students: Steve DiVerdi (TL), Elmer Kim ’03, Aaron Namba, Megan Thorsen

United Devices (UD) provides distributed computing solutions to clients with a wide range of projects, with a focus on aiding bioinformatics research. UD has created the UD MetaProcessor platform, a robust, scalable, and extensible client and server solution for massively distributed computing. The Clinic team has been tasked with porting two existing single-machine bioinformatics applications to the MetaProcessor Platform.

Top of page



Computer Science/Engineering Clinic

CENTER FOR INTEGRATION OF MEDICINE AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY
A Distributed Medical Monitoring System for Real-Time Patient Diagnosis
Liaisons: Bill Wiesmann, Alex Pranger ’92/93, Nathaniel Sims
Advisor: Ruye Wang
Students: Grant Baxter (TL), Adam Fischer, Daniel Lee, Steven Yan

Current patient monitoring procedures in hospital intensive care units generate large volumes of raw patient data. Doctors lack resources to properly process this data and a significant portion goes unused. Tools capable of detecting long-term trends and correlations within this data will allow doctors to more accurately diagnose patients. The Clinic team has designed and implemented a distributed hardware/software architecture for developing condition-specific software models which provide high-level analysis of raw patient data.

Top of page



Engineering Clinic

THE AEROSPACE CORPORATION
Design and Implementation of a High Speed Bit Error Rate Tester
Liaison: Samuel Osofsky ’85
Advisor: David Harris
Students: Shamik Maitra (TL), William Durley, Jason Imada, Michael Linderman, Aaron Stratton

The Aerospace Corporation seeks to perform Bit Error Rate Testing (BERT) at 10 Gigabits/second over a fiber optic channel. Conventional BERT systems can cost up to $250,000. The current BERT setup at Aerospace has architectural limitations which render the system difficult to use. The Aeropsace Clinic team has redesigned this architecture and developed prototype hardware which eliminates these limitations and allows the current setup to function as a more viable, low-cost BERT solution.

AXT LED TECHNOLOGIES

LED Test Automation
Liaisons: Bill Yuan, William So
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Charles Boehm (TL), Antonio Medrano, Jason Norman, Marion Lebec, Mika Sudo

The team has designed, built and tested an automated LED test station. The system automatically tests 40 OEDs for critical electrical and optical performance and stores the results for future evaluation. A demonstration of the test system will be provided.

THE BOEING COMPANY/ATM

Development and Validation of a Loran-C Model
Liaison: Robert Snow
Advisor: John Molinder
Students: Colin Boyd (TL), Karen Ahle, Gautam Thatte, Yung-Hsiang Hsu

As part of a larger project to develop a GPS - Loran-C integrated navigation system, Boeing ATM is studying the viability and characteristics of Loran-C radio navigation as an air traffic navigation and positioning system. The purpose of this project is to develop and test a model of Loran-C, including error modeling, to determine its positioning accuracy capability. The team makes recommendations regarding potential improvements and enhancements to determine whether Loran-C is viable for air traffic management.

THE BOEING COMPANY/PHANTOM WORKS

Laser-Photovoltaic Wireless Power Transmission
Liaisons: Seth Potter, Mark Henley, Robert Rice
Advisor: James Rosenberg
Students: Tadashi Nagao (TL), Kevin Ota, Eric Verner, Galway O’Mahony, Morgan Cross

NASA is currently working on an exploration of craters at the moon’s poles. In order for rovers to explore these craters, a means of wireless power transmission to the rovers is needed. The Clinic team will design, implement, and test an optical module that will transmit the needed power efficiently. This module will be a part of the larger system to be designed by Boeing.

EASTON SPORTS, INC.

Modeling a Bat-Ball Collision
Liaison: Jonathan Hebreo ’01
Advisor: Philip Cha
Students: Vipul Lugade (TL), Jason De Camp, Christopher Holcomb, Ben Utela

In this project our team uses finite element modeling and other analytical techniques to model and predict the coefficient of restitution for a bat and ball collision. From this model we are able to determine the forcing function that describes the impact, and verify all of our results through experimentation.

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

High Power LED Application to Airport Approach Lighting System
Liaison: Calvin Miles ’87
Advisor: Joseph King
Students: Ralph McNall (TL), Jennifer Sherman, Lili Akin, Tom Galvani

Current airport approach runway lighting systems use standard incandescent lightbulbs. Maintenance of these systems is both expensive and time consuming. This project investigates the feasibility of replacing the current system with one based on white LED technology. With recent advances in LED technology this will significantly reduce the operation and maintenance costs and extend the lifetime of the system. Using today's technology, a prototype light source has been designed, built and tested. A demonstration of the prototype light source will be provided.

GENERAL ELECTRIC/NUCLEAR ENERGY

Iron Oxalate Injection System for a Boiling Water Reactor
Liaison: Terry McIntyre
Advisor: Anthony Bright
Students: Lilian Wu (TL), Stephanie Chan, Naomi Tomimatsu, Karen Studarus

An optimal concentration of iron in the feedstream of a Boiling Water Reactor is important to GE Nuclear Energy in order to reduce radiation exposure to GE's employees. Iron is currently being pumped in the form of an iron oxalate solution, but GE desires an alternative to the pump system. The Clinic team has been asked to design this alternate solution that provides manual control of the injection rate to maintain the iron concentration between 0.5 and 1.5 ppb mass and also provides process indicators.

GENERAL MOTORS

Manual Transmission Friction Damper
Liaison: Jeff Rayce
Advisor: Ziyad Duron
Students: Ricky Lim (TL), Brian Yoxall, Daniel Chin, Hans Meyer, Shannon Kelley

The Clinic team has analyzed a phenomenon dubbed "driveline clunk" which exists in the transmission of some of GM's full sized trucks. While this noise issue does not affect the transmission's life or operation, it is quite detrimental to the consumer's perception of vehicle quality. The team has performed work that characterized this phenomenon and has constructed a prototype to eliminate it.

IRVINE RANCH WATER DISTRICT

Evaluation of Artificial Mixing Systems in IRWD’s Reservoirs
Liaisons: Arseny Kalinsky, Carl Spangenberg
Advisor: Donald Remer
Students: Micaela Ellison (TL), Deborah Chun, Angela Hsueh, David Levitt, Markus Ong

Due to low water demand, IRWD's Coastal Zone reservoirs have long residence times that cause disinfectant degradation, leading to low chlorine residuals and increased microbial growth. IRWD installed submersible mixers to improve circulation and promote thorough mixing in the tanks; however, uneven mixing continued to be detected. The Clinic team evaluated mixing in the reservoirs using two approaches: a tracer study using fluoride, and modeling using Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics Software.

GARY JENSEN, INC.
Venous Valve Development
Liaison: Dr. Gary L. Jensen
Advisor: Jennifer Stroud-Rossmann
Students: Jon Gunther (TL), Megan Thomas, Liz Eaton, Jeremy Watson

Human venous valvular insufficiency has serious medical consequences including pain, disfiguration, and potentially deadly clotting. This Clinic project is concerned with designing a catheter-deployable solution (to be presented in prototype form with recommendations for manufacture) to the problem of venous valvular insufficiency. Aspects of this project include research of relevant physiology, materials, and valve designs, experimental determination of biomechanical properties, design revision, prototype creation, and synthesis of an appropriate prototype testing environment.

LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
Image Based Target Localization System for Proton Radiosurgery
Liaison: Reinhard W. Schulte
Advisor: Ruye Wang
Students: James Riehl (TL), Amanda Malone, Bardia Tamadon (Pitzer),Genevieve Breed, Raymond Fong

LLUMC is currently developing a new proton radiosurgical procedure that will be used to treat certain pathological symptoms such as tremors in Parkinson's patients . The procedure involves using MRI studies to identify a small target in the patient's brain. The role of the Clinic team is to design a complete image-based target localization system that accounts for spatial distortion in MRI and outputs corrected 3D coordinates for accurate application of the proton beam.

MEDTRONIC MINIMED

Design of a Removable, Programmable and Disposable Key for Use in the Medipad Infusion Pump
Liaison: John Livingston
Advisor: James Rosenberg
Students: Mika Waller (TL), Joshua Chu, Cheng-Chung Lee, Justin Schauer, Peter Chung

Type II diabetes is a serious metabolic disorder that afflicts over 16 million Americans. Medtronic MiniMed’s Affinity disposable insulin infusion pump offers Type II diabetics an economical and therapeutically superior alternative to conventional treatments. To increase the versatility of the Affinity, the Clinic team has developed a programmable key that costs about five dollars and enables the Affinity to supply insulin at one of six predetermined rates using a single FDA-approved insulin concentration.

METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Experimental Study to Reduce Coagulant Residuals in Drinking Water
Liaison: Sun Liang
Advisor: Donald Remer
Students: Marcy LaViollette (TL), Carman Ng, Alicia Albo (Scripps), Jorge Escobar, Kristen Van Horn

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWDSC) provides drinking water to a majority of Southern California residents. MWDSC is currently considering the addition of a reverse osmosis system (RO) to their conventional filtration treatment facilities. Previous research has indicated that residuals from the coagulant they currently use cause degradation in the RO membranes. We have performed work to experimentally determine the optimal conditions to prevent degradation while still properly cleaning the drinking water.

NASA AMES

Video Monitoring System for Observation of C. Elegans Worms in a Centrifuge
Liaison: Catharine Conley
Advisor: Lori Bassman
Students: Jeffrey Miller (TL), Sergio Rodrigues, Charles Hastings, Heather O’Brien

Dr. Catharine Conley, a biologist at NASA's Ames Research Center, researches the effects of high gravity on C. elegans worms. She is studying how acceleration in a centrifuge affects the worms' activity levels. The Clinic team has designed and built a video observation system that rides on the centrifuge with the worms and wirelessly transmits live video of the worms inside.

OPTO 22
Redesign B1 and B2 Brainboards
Liaisons: Matthew Chang ’95, Jim Frederick
Advisor: John Molinder
Students: Renee Montgomery (TL), Raymond Yu Chris Newkirk, Neal Okumura, Gigi Au

The Clinic team had redesigned the existing Opto 22 B1 and B2 brainboards. These are used as a communication controller between the user at a standard computer and a device, such as lighting in an office. The original brainboards communicate to the user via a serial port (RS422/485). The redesign incorporates an Ethernet connection (twisted pair), which is faster and a standard in the industry.

OREGON MEDICAL LASER CENTER
Tissue Engineering Command and Control Module
Liaison: Kenton Gregory
Advisor: Elizabeth Orwin
Students: Ryan Jackson (TL), Christine Paulson, Cyndia Sweet, Ivan Samuels, Thomas Both

Researchers at Oregon Medical Laser Center are currently developing techniques to create tissue engineered arteries using autologous cells. The Clinic team has designed, constructed and tested a command and control system to aid in optimizing a tissue engineering environment. The system controls parameters of an artificial blood vessel environment, monitors the physical conditions experienced by the growing tissue and communicates information about the viability of the tissue to researchers. The use of this system is intended to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the tissue engineering process.

PVP ADVANCED EO SYSTEMS, INC.
Video and Situational Data Integration and Transmission
Liaison: Geoffrey Miller
Advisor: Carl Baumgaertner
Students: Sean Kao (TL), Matthew Burden, Mark Unemori, Forrest Tuttle, Elizabeth Reynolds

Recent events in Afghanistan have cast a spotlight on US Special Operations forces. The US Special Operations Command is developing the next generation “Soldier System” to improve battlefield intelligence. PVP Advanced Electro Optical Systems has tasked our Clinic team to design a system which overlays data from an onboard GPS unit, laser range finder and digital compass onto a video signal from a shared aperture electro-optic, infrared camera. The system outputs real-time video to a helmet-mounted display and incorporate wireless image transmission between soldiers. The prototype design meets critical size and power constraints.

RAIN BIRD
Correlation of Sprinkler Nozzle Performance to Computational Fluid Dynamics
Liaison: Greg Kang
Advisor: Mary Cardenas
Students: Casey May (TL), Amy Bentow, Robin Chambers, Erin Koos, Lut Au-Yeung

Although Rain Bird has the best sprinkler nozzles in the industry, the spray pattern is not perfect. As part of an effort for continuous product improvement, Rain Bird has asked the Clinic team to create a Computational Fluid Dynamic model of the water flow produced by one of their current nozzles. The model is used as a tool to predict watering patterns and improve nozzle designs, making the design process more efficient.

ROCKWELL COLLINS/PASSENGER SYSTEMS

Low-Cost Multi-Channel MPEG Encoder
Liaison: Bob Troxel
Adivisor: Carl Baumgaertner
Students: Roy Park (TL), Adam Bush, Alfred Chuang, Knut Strom-Jensen, Trever Gile

Rockwell Collins is interested in a system that will enhance the capability of current in-flight entertainment systems. These systems provide digital video-on-demand, internet access, and video games. Our team will design a state-of-the-art digital encoding system that will convert multiple analog NTSC signals into a digitized, multiplexed transport stream. The team will demonstrate the feasibility of this system using a PC-based architecture.

SPACE SYSTEMS/LORAL
Mass Reduction and Vibration Damping of Satellite Brackets
Liaisons: Brian Childs, Michael Freestone,Eric Roulo
Advisor: Clive Dym, Joseph King
Students: Annie Tran (TL), Eric Clement, Amy Gishifu, Ryan Ellis

Space Systems/Loral currently uses a graphite bracket design to support electronic instruments on their satellites. In order to increase cost effectiveness of launch, it is necessary to reduce the mass of the brackets. This will result in lowering of the natural frequency into the excitation range, and so additionally, SS/Loral asked us to incorporate a damping technique into the system. The team has used a four-phase project approach: research, FEA modeling and simulation, physical testing of a prototype, and comparative analysis to develop a new bracket design.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS

Development of a GPS Terminal
Liaisons: Edwin Park, Mark Wang ’00
Advisor: David Harris
Students: David Hopkins (TL), Alicia Lloro, Thomas Francon, Keith Buerger, Dmitriy Kogan

TI is currently investigating the addition of GPS functionality to its next generation cellular technology. To provide TI with a competitive advantage, the team is exploiting the similarities between GPS and cellular technologies, allowing GPS functionality to be implemented with a minimum of additional hardware. The team is developing a complete GPS receiver, designed around a critical component that was created by a Clinic team last year.

Top of page



Mathematics Clinic


FAIR, ISAAC AND COMPANY, INC.
Optimizing Dynamic Online Surveys
Liaisons: Stacy Sanders ’99, Gary Sullivan
Advisors: Lesley Ward (Fall) Jerzy Filar (Spring), Hank Krieger
Students: Jennifer M. Lindsay (TL), Emily Kajita, Shane Markstrum, Justin Okano

Fair, Isaac and Co. is interested in developing a method for constructing dynamic online surveys. Our team's goal is to construct an algorithm which will choose the next survey question based on previous responses, in order to maximize the amount of information about the respondent in the fewest number of questions. When predictions are made based on the respondent's information, the algorithm will adjust its parameters for both correct and incorrect predictions to be more accurate for future survey-takers.

NORTHROP GRUMMAN
Multiple Sensor Analysis for Predicting Infrared Detector Noise from Spacecraft Temperature
Liaison: Charlie McCarthy
Adivisor: Henry Krieger
Students: Nordia Thomas (TL), Eric Distad (Fall), Jean Kuo, Katie Ray, Jessica Xian

The performance of infrared detectors onboard geosynchronous satellites changes as a function of temperature. As ambient temperatures increase, system noise increases. This noise-temperature relationship was statistically modeled utilizing existing data from on-orbit systems. Documented software was prepared to implement the statistical model dynamically.

SPACE SYSTEMS/LORAL

Fuel-Optimal Low-Thrust Orbit Raising
Liaison: Glenn Santiago
Advisor: Anette Hosoi
Students: Tina Meftah (TL), Robert Adams , Bradley Boban, Lance Curry , Andrew Yamashita

Space Systems/Loral is a leading manufacturer of communications and weather satellites, and as such is interested in the raising of satellites to their intended orbits in the most efficient and cost effective manner. This year the SS/L Clinic team will investigate a mathematical model for low-thrust orbit raising using nonlinear programming and direct collocation. The ultimate goal will be to develop a prototype code that will give SS/L a firing sequence for their thrusters that minimizes fuel consumption while raising the satellite to its required orbit within a specified amount of time.

VIASAT, INC.

Using Elliptic Curve Cryptography for Secure Communication
Liaison: Hunter Marshall
Advisor: Weiqing Gu
Students: Simon Tse (TL), Colin Little, Cameron McLeman, Braden Pellett

The ViaSat clinic team will present methods for performing secure cryptography over an insecure network by 1) Introducing the use of algebraic objects known as elliptic curves to accomplish this task 2) Presenting Diffe-Hellman key exchange protocol using elliptic curve cryptogtaphy (ECC) 3) Discussing potential attacks on this cryptosystem and 4) Demonstrating their implementation of this algorithm allowing two>network users to agree upon a secret key over an insecure connection.

Top of page



Physics Clinic


JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
The Challenge of Pointing Stability and Accuracy in the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM)
Liaisons: Daniel McDonald, Bijan Nemati
Advisor: Richard Haskell
Students: Kyle Lampe (TL), Eric Deyo, Robert Seat, Karl Hedstrom (PO), Daniel Gionatti, Kristi Hultman

The HMC Physics Clinic team is working on the Space Inteferometry Mission. SIM is an orbiting inteferometer telescope capable of relative star measurements 100 times more accurate than ever before. Specifically, the team is devising a technique for measuring the spacing between telescopes, measuring changes in distance to an accuracy of 100 picometers, or 1 angstrom, roughly the size of a hydrogen atom.

Top of page



Projects Day 2001


Computer Science Clinic    |   Engineering Clinic    |   Environmental Studies Clinic
Mathematics Clinic   |   Physics Clinic   |   Physics/Biology Joint Clinic



Computer Science Clinic


THE AEROSPACE CORPORATION
Implementing the IETF IDWG Intrusion Alert Protocol
Liaisons: Joseph Betser, Andrew Walther '00
Advisor: Michael Erlinger
Students: Roy Pollock (TL), Tim Buchheim, Benjamin Feinstein, Greg Matthews

The Aerospace Corporation has sponsored a series of projects focusing on issues in intrusion detection. The Intrusion Detection Working Group (IDWG) of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF, a standards body) has been developing a common method of communicating intrusion detection events. This consists of two parts, a transport protocol and a message format. In this project, the Clinic team has been assisting in the development, implementation, and evaluation of two proposed transport protocols.

DIRECTV, INC.
Anywhere Interactive DIRECTV Guide
Liaisons: Philip Hilmes ’00, David Kuether, Heang Lim
Advisor: Joshua Hodas
Students: David Jones (TL), Shantanu Bhattacharyya, Shimona Carvalho (Pomona), Masashi Ito ’02, Robert Patt

DIRECTV has asked the CS Clinic team to upgrade the current implementation of their web-based TV guide system. The system should allow extensive customization based on user preferences, and be accessible both at a computer and via wireless hand-held devices. In addition, the system should include the functionality of the newest generation of DIRECTV's program guide, which is included with the most recent line of set-top units.

JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

Prototyping the Spacecraft Onboard Interface
Liaisons: Roger Klemm ’87, Peter Shames, Savio Chau, Joseph Smith, Ashton Vaughs
Advisor: Geoffrey H. Kuenning
Students: Daniel Smith (TL), Kimberly Wallmark, Daniel Stone (Fall)

JPL would like to move away from the traditional practice of designing custom communications protocols for each device and mission, and towards using a layered approach called the Spacecraft Onboard InterFace (SOIF). To that end, the team was to implement TCP/IP on SpaceWire, a wiring bus being designed for spacecraft. Due to difficulties procuring the necessary hardware, however, the team has instead focused on tools to test Firewire, another bus being considered for space use. These tools should be easily extensible for use with SpaceWire.

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY, WOODS HOLE
Extension and Implementation of Tree-Based Statistical Algorithms
Liaison: Michael Cummings
Advisor: Elizabeth 'Z' Sweedyk
Students: Greg Mulert ’01 (TL), Chris Lundberg ’02, Titus Winters ’02

Michael Cummings is a biologist at MBL working on the analysis of antibiotic resistance in tuberculosis bacteria. By building on the work of one of last year's Clinic teams, the team has developed tools to predict the level of antibiotic resistance in a bacterium given its genome. These tools are flexible enough to be of use in a multitude of other classification problems.

MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Prototype Applications of New Browser Technologies
Liaison: Joseph Beda ’97
Advisor: Ran Libeskind-Hadas
Students: Alvin Kou (TL), Michael Chan, Symon Harada ’02, Kevin Wong, Dixon Koesdjodjo (Spring, Pitzer)

Microsoft has recently introduced its ".NET" proposal for new web-browser technologies. The team was asked to produce prototype applications of the technologies to act as motivating examples to developers to get them interested in the system and act as design examples for how to use it.

N2H2, INC.

Exploring Techniques for Dynamic Categorization of Web Content
Liaison: Kevin Fink ’92
Advisor: Robert Keller
Students: Gillian Allen (TL), Matthew Azuma, Timothy Morgan, Carl Yu

N2H2 provides web-content filtering services to schools and companies around the world. Their current tools rely on a static list of web-sites identified by category, which must be updated frequently. The Clinic team has researched, designed, and prototyped a system for determining on-the-fly whether a page is of a specified category or not.

NUERA COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Extending a Bulk Call Testing Tool
Liaisons: Steve Foley ’97, Scott McNeill
Advisor: Ran Libeskind-Hadas
Students: Greg Prier (TL), Zeke Burgess, Steve Matthews, Julien Sebrien (ESIEE)

Nuera provides high-end communications switches that carry voice telephone traffic over Internet connections. These are increasingly being used by mid-level phone service providers to bypass traditional communication paths. Testing these systems has previously required custom testing hardware costing millions of dollars. The Clinic team has developed software that instead allows Nuera to use one of its own switches as a hardware test suite, eliminating this cost.

POMONA VALLEY CENTER FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Community Information and Communications Kiosks
Liaison: Tomas Ursua
Advisor: Jon Strauss
Students: Charles Schied (TL), Ross Luengen, Andrew McDonnell ’02

The Clinic team has developed a prototype of information kiosks to be placed in local public access points (e.g., supermarkets) to provide information about services provided by the PVCCD. Communications will be two-way, allowing, for example, users to file applications for services from these kiosks. The goal has been to design a web-based system with a rugged yet easy to use interface.

QB, INC.

A Hand-Held Client for Media Asset Management
Liaison: Robert Davis
Advisors: Christopher Stone, Robert Keller
Students: Katherine 'Star' Roth ’02 (TL), Ethan Drucker ’02, David Herman, Erik Nelson

QB, Inc. provides software to corporations, such as movie studios, which need to manage large databases of media content, including photographs, audio, and video clips. The goal of this project was to produce software for a hand-held device to serve as a remote client for the QB MediaStar(TM) system. This required addressing the extreme limitations of hand-held devices, such as screen size, processor speed, storage, and communications bandwidth. The system is designed to accommodate forthcoming wireless technology as well.

TERADYNE, INC.

A Distributed Semiconductor Test System Interface
Liaisons: Robert Varney, Richard Fanning ’00
Advisor: Zachary Dodds
Students: Peter Kasting (TL), Dale Lovell, Bryce Nichols, Nigel Wright (Physics)

Teradyne is a leading producer of large-scale testing systems (ATEs) for semiconductor chip manufacturers. This project sought to develop a distributed, web-based interface to information about Teradyne equipment worldwide. The system will allow Teradyne to monitor the performance of all of their customers' ATEs. It will promote closer collaboration between Teradyne and its clients through automatic licensing upgrades, bug tracking, and software update downloading, as well as support for real-time diagnosis and resolution of ATE problems.

YAHOO!, INC.
Redesigning Yahoo! Calendar
Liaison: Jeffrey Williams
Advisor: Joshua Hodas
Students: Jonathan Hsu (TL, fall), William Goo (TL, spring), Sandra Cheng (Scripps), Brian Shin, Matthew Wong

Yahoo! Calendar has over two million active users. In systems of this scale, very small design decisions can have enormous practical impact on the performance of the system. In this project the students have undertaken a ground-up evaluation and redesign of the file and computational structures used in Yahoo! Calendar, in hopes of improving performance, usability, flexibility, and interaction with other Yahoo! services.

Top of page



Engineering Clinic


AEROJET
Design of an Initiation/Safety Device for the SADARM Smart Munition
Liaisons: Daniel Pillasch, Duncan Ewart
Advisor: Clive Dym
Students: Michelle McGraw (TL), Michael Ferrante, Tadashi Nagao, Mika Waller

The Clinic team is designing a new initation system for the SADARM Smart Munitions that will work in both spinning and non-spinning carrier shells. The current system uses centripetal force from the spin to ignite an impact-based pyrotechnical primer. The initiator must actuate two timing delay fuses upon ejection of the submunitions stacks from the carrier shell after launch. The system must also contain a safety mechanism to allow for safe download.

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES
Asynchronous Triggering Method for an Equivalent-Time Sampling Oscilloscope
Liaisons: Willard McDonald, Robert Kulitza
Advisor: Ruye Wang
Students: Michael Lane (TL), Peter Grossman, Jason Fong, Renee Montgomery

Current equivalent-time sampling oscilloscopes require a user supplied data synchronized trigger to reconstruct a sampled waveform. Agilent has envisioned the possibility of their equivalent-time sampling ocilloscope being asynchronously triggered. The Agilent team has developed techniques for reassembling sample points taken on an equivalent time sampling system using an asynchronous trigger.

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES, LOVELAND, CO.

Improvements to the HP TestJet Probe Amplifier
Liaisons: David Dorn, Ron Peiffer, Phil King
Advisors: Jim Rosenberg (Fall), Sam Tanenbaum (Spring)
Students: Jerod Meacham (TL), Michael Sakasegawa, Tina Wang, Charles Boehm

The TestJet System detects solder faults in circuit boards at the manufacturing stage by measuring the capacitance between a probe plate and the IC lead frame of the device under test. An amplifier on the probe plate amplifies the signal measured by the probe so that it can be sent over wires to the rest of the system. The Clinic team has investigated new circuit topologies for an amplifier that would increase the gain of the system while lowering the noise, thus improving the performance of the TestJet System.

THE CAPITAL GROUP COMPANIES, INC.
Urban Computer Lab Service Clinic for the Adventures Ahead After School Program (Bridging the Digital Divide)
Liaison: Eric Amos ’98
Advisor: Donald Remer
Students: Brooke Bassage-Glock (TL), Christopher Moreno, Myya Perez, Eric Verner

The team designed and implemented an educational computer lab for the Adventures Ahead After School Program in South Central Los Angeles. This unique project was proposed by students and made possible by The Capital Group Foundation. The lab will help K-6 children improve their academic skills in reading, math, and computer usage to prepare them for junior high, high school, college or the work place. The research done and resources developed for this prototype will be made available through the web to other organizations desiring to establish computer labs in their communities.

CENTER FOR INNOVATIVE MINIMALLY INVASIVE THERAPY
A Pre-Hospital Diagnostic System for Trauma Victims in a Battlefield Environment
Liaison: William Wiesmann
Advisor: Patrick Little
Students: Emily Williams (TL), Vorapat Chowanadisai, Ronalee Lo, Daniel Chin

The goal of the CIMIT Clinic project is to develop a wearable diagnostic ensemble for use by battlefield medics. The diagnostic ensemble will take physiological measurements from a patient and present gathered data to the medic. This data along with a preliminary analysis of the soldier’s condition will aid the medic in diagnosing common combat-related trauma. Ultimately, the system will allow the medic to perform triage more quickly.

DANBURY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

A Durable, Quick Drying Bone Stablization Device
Liaison: Arny Bloom
Advisor: Rich Phillips
Students: Eddie Espanol (TL), Vipal Lugade, Carman Ng, Dara Finkelstein (CMC)

The Danbury Clinic team is designing a device that will function as a traditional cast used for bone fractures and allow Danbury Elementary School students with the rare bone disease Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) to bathe, shower and swim. Danbury Elementary school serves students with physical disabilities and health impairments in the East San Gabriel Valley. There are seven students that attend Danbury that possess OI, which can easily be characterized as "brittle bones" disease.

DIRECTV INC.
Spot Beam Signal Strength Analyzer
Liaison: Benjamin Mui
Advisor: Carl Baumgaertner
Students: Katherine Wade (TL), Adi Drost, Richard Trinh, Shamik Maitra

To conserve frequency bandwidth when offering local broadcasting, DIRECTV will implement a system of 40 individual satellite spot beams. Each spot beam will transmit local channels to a specific geographic area. The team's assignment is to design and build a prototype system to measure the relative signal strength of satellite spot beams and to transfer this information to DIRECTV headquarters for analysis. DIRECTV will use this data to adjust the power levels of individual spot beams and decrease interference of co-frequency spot beams.

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

Global Positioning System (GPS) Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) Category I to Category III Architecture Transition Options
Liaison: Calvin Miles '87
Advisor: Patrick Little
Students: Marc Gimbel (TL), Michael Beebe, Michael Messina, James Riehl

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has hired the Clinic team to analyze possible improvements to the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) Ground Station architecture. The current LAAS system does not take advantage of several advances that are available in the areas of multipath-reducing antennas, antenna voting schemes, and multi-sensor airborne continuity augmentation. The Clinic team will investigate the improvements, quantify the potential system performance gains, and choose the optimum set of improvements.

HARBOR BRANCH OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE
"Eye in the Sea" Unobtrusive Biological Observatory
Liaisons: Dave Smith, Edith Widder
Advisor: Lori Bassman
Students: John Staroba (TL), Jane Mi, Nicholas Depail, David Levitt, Christine Paulson

Approximately 90% of all ocean life is bioluminescent, yet currently we know very little about when and why organisms use this ability to produce "cold light." To facilitate the observation of deep-sea bioluminescence, the HBOI Clinic team has developed and built the "Eye in the Sea" observatory, an autonomous video acquisition system that includes a data logging and compression system and subject illumination source.

IRVINE RANCH WATER DISTRICT

Design of a Water Quality Multi-Analyzer for Use at Remote Locations
Liaisons: Arseny Kalinsky, Carl Spangenberg
Advisor: Anthony Bright
Students: Michael Hyland (TL), Chao Wang, Matthew Burden, Mark Unemori

Irvine Ranch Water District asked the Clinic team to design a water quality multi-analyzer that can be used at various locations in their distribution system. The system must have an independent power source and also take water quality measurements, process those measurements, and communicate the results to the IRWD headquarters, a maximum distance of 10 miles.

ISIS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.
A Disposable Sub-Microliter Pumping Mechanism
Liaisons: John McNeil ’89, Dave Podue
Advisor: Mary Cardenas
Students: Michael Helfen (TL), Russell Calkins, Malinee Krailas, Casey May

As a leader in the drug development industry, Isis Pharmaceuticals is able to design safer, more effective drugs with its expertise in antisense technology. Isis requires a more efficient method of liquid transfer than the current implementation of handheld pipettes and automated pipetting arrays. For this project, a disposable sub-microliter pumping mechanism was designed, prototyped and tested to demonstrate reproducibility of drop volume. Isis will further develop the final design for integration with their new automation system for the biotechnology industry.

JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

Controlling Contamination of Europa Due to the Europa Orbiter Mission
Liaison: John Klein
Advisor: Rich Phillips
Students: Matthew Clark (TL), Richard Woh, Cheng-Chung Lee, Ricky Lim

The goal of this project is to determine and verify a mathematical model for the behavior of a radioactive heat source on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. JPL is concerned that the radioactive source could melt through the ice to liquid water on Europa, possibly causing life from Earth to contaminate Europa. The team has implemented a model of the projected radioactive source behavior and conducted tests to verify the model's validity in an environment similar to Europa.

JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

Distributed Access Multiple Recorder Production System
Liaison: Allan Runkle
Advisor: Mary Cardenas
Students: Steve Wilson (TL), Hyun Choi, Charles Hastings, Antonio Medrano

The Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) provides editing, processing, and printing of high quality images for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena and currently uses a VAX/VMS telnet system for queueing. The Clinic team has designed and created a web-accessible, configurable printer queue using Sybase as the backend database, Perl scripts for the web interface, and an Apache web server for hosting the system.

LLUMU LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

Sequential Alignment and Positioning Verification System for Functional Proton Radiosurgery
Liaisons: Dr. Reinhard Schulte, Michael Moyers
Advisor: Erik Spjut
Students: Paul Murata (TL), Joseph Scott, Jeffrey Wong, Amanda Malone, Ryan Jackson

Traditional neurosurgery procedures require invasive techniques to gain access to the area of interest. Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) proposes an alternative non-invasive technique that uses narrow high-energy protons to destroy a target in the patient’s brain. The LLUMC Clinic team is to provide a sequential alignment and position verification system that will ensure and maintain the proper position and orientation of the proton beam with respect to the target area in the patient’s brain.

METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
High-Recovery Membrane Processes for Surface Water Desalination
Liaisons: Sun Liang, Dr. Chris Gabelich
Advisor: Donald Remer
Students: Clare Schoene (TL), Long Tien Thang, Brian Yoxall, Neal Okumura

Our team investigated increasing the water recovery of a membrane desalinating unit by combining the high salt rejection properties of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes with the high flux (production) properties of nanofiltration (NF) membranes. Using both membranes, the overall water recovery can go above 90% by tailoring the salt passage within the system. We developed models simulating hydraulic and physicochemical conditions within the RO/NF system, which are currently not available in commercial modeling software.

MINIMED, INC.

A New Design for the Medipad Insulin Infusion Pump
Liaison: John Livingston
Advisor: Jim Rosenberg (Fall), Clive Dym (Spring)
Students: Anthony Hawkins (TL), David Hopkins, Joshua Switkes, Roy Park

MiniMed has developed a disposable insulin pump for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Because this pump is a medical device, it must be sterilized with radiation. This radiation damages the electronics inside the pump. The team has been asked to redesign the pump apparatus so that the electronics can be easily inserted by the patient after the sterilization process.

OPTO 22

Implementation of Digital IO
Monitoring and Control in VHDL
Liaisons: Matthew Chang ’95, Jim Frederick
Advisor: David Harris
Students: James Speros (TL), Ryan Stuck, Taufiqul Kazi, Kevin Ota

Opto22 needs to replace two legacy integrated circuits due to cost, availibility, and performance constraints. One implements a subset of the ARCNET network communication protocol. The other performs a variety of monitoring and control functions for 32 optically isolated digital lines. The functionality of these chips has been written in synthesizable VHDL for FPGA implementation

OREGON MEDICAL LASER CENTER

Automation of Clinical Laser Tissue Welding
Liaison: Kenton Gregory
Advisor: Sanjay Joshi
Students: Elizabeth Johansen (TL), Benjamin Martin, Brooke Basinger, Karen Ahle

Laser tissue welding is a method of joining tissues together with no stitches, staples or sutures. It is still in the developmental phase, and current tissue welding techniques are highly dependent on the individual skill and technique of the operating surgeon. For any further advances to occur, the scientific community needs a more reproducible way to study tissue welding. Oregon Medical Laser Center has proposed that we design and build an automated laser guidance system that will attempt to eliminate human variation and error from the tissue welding process, thus yielding a safer surgical procedure.

RAIN BIRD
Mechanically Timed Pilot Valve for Control of Golf Course Irrigation Sprinklers
Liaison: Mark Ensworth
Advisor: Philip Cha
Students: Jon Hebreo (TL), Leandro Lopez, Laura Nelson, Amy Gishifu

The Rain Bird team has designed, developed, and tested a mechanical timer and pilot valve for manual control of an Eagle rotor sprinkler for golf courses. The system is entirely mechanical, independent of an electric power source. The timer has been developed by modifying a household egg timer, and the valve was designed to allow or stop the flow of the water by redirecting the water through the use of o-rings.

ROCKWELL COLLINS

High-Speed Digital Content Loading System
Liaison: Jay Cardon
Adivisor: Carl Baumgaertner
Students: Michael Aung (TL), John Benediktsson, Clement Mounier, William Durley

Next generation in-flight entertainment systems will provide commercial airline passengers with access to music, movies, and games on-demand for upwards of 400 independent users. Rockwell Collins requires a portable high-speed loading system to update the digital content at speeds up to 400 mbps, allowing complete program reloading in a half-hour aircraft gate time. To deter piracy, the loading system incorporates content encryption and decryption methods that meet MPAA and RIAA industry standards. SUN MICROSYSTEMS LABORATORIES Asynchronous FIFO Buffer Demonstrator Board Liaisons: Ian Jones, John Gainsley, Jon Lexau Advisor: Ruye Wang Students: Nicholas Bodnaruk (TL), Zehao Chang, Andrew Ingram, Sean Kao In modern digital systems, synchronous (clocked) circuitry is the standard method of design. There are many situations, however, where a digital system may benefit from an asynchronous (clock-free) component. Sun Microsystems Laboratories has tasked our Clinic team to design and implement an asynchronous FIFO buffer demonstrator board that will serve as an educational tool to teach and explain the benefits of asynchronous circuit designs for high-speed data communication. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS Implementation of a GPS Searcher for 3G Cellular Technology Liaisons: Edwin Park, Karim Abdulla Advisors: David Harris Students: Fernando Mattos (TL), E-Hwa Chung, Drakos McGuire, Jeffrey Miller The Clinic team developed a VHDL searcher that correlates GPS signals and reports the available satellites to a CPU. The team modified Texas Instruments’ (TI) searcher for CDMA base stations in order to reuse the already existing hardware as much as possible. The first step of the project was to focus on developing mathematical models for GPS signals and the searcher, and to set up the interface equipment necessary for the hardware implementation. Finally, the team modified TI's VHDL code to support GPS satellite searching. After initial software simulation, the team integrated the VHDL code into FPGAs for hardware demonstration and for testing with a larger amount of test vectors. TREX ENTERPRISES Internet-Based Advanced Camera Positioning and Tracking System Liaisons: Dr. Peter Martin, and Michael Rodby Advisor: Anthony Bright Students: Michael Tapper (TL), Arastoo Moradi, Doonin Park, Jason Imada The Clinic team has designed and implemented an internet-based advanced camera positioning and tracking system for Trex Enterprises' high-resolution digital camera. While the camera's video streams to the web in real time, the web user can control the camera's pan and tilt position and its XY translational position. The tracking function allows the camera to recognize a laser point target and follow the target's movement within the camera's workspace.

Top of page

Environmental Studies Clinic

THREE VALLEYS MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT Analysis of Current and Regionally Appropriate Landscapes Liaisons: Tim Worley, Mike Barber (HMC) Advisors: Tad Beckman, Nancy Hamlett Students: Greg Alexander (TL), Ryan Kirkby, Megan Ritchie, Jill Sohm, Erika Wolff. Fall: Chris Hanusa, Marcy LaViollette, Tracy van Cort The Clinic team has analyzed the Harvey Mudd College landscape, from environmental, social, and economic viewpoints. A quantitative cost-benefit analysis of the current campus and other, more regionally appropriate, landscapes was made. Subsequently alternative landscape designs and practices for HMC's campus were proposed. As an example of possible alternative landscapes a resource-conserving garden was constructed on the HMC campus.

Top of page

Mathematics Clinic

APPLIED BIOSYSTEMS Automatic Threshold Setting for Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Liaison: Kenneth Livak ’74 Advisors: Lesley Ward Consultant: Mary Williams Students: Cameron McLeman '02 (TL), Tae Jensen ’02, Justin Lyon, Bryan Tysinger Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a process used to amplify a small unknown amount of DNA and determine how much of the given DNA species was initially present. This calculation depends on the selection of an appropriate threshold fluorescence value in the middle of the exponential region of the reaction’s amplification plot. Our task is to automate the selection of this threshold. We use linear regressions and Gaussian probability distributions. ETEC SYSTEMS, INC., AN APPLIED MATERIALS COMPANY Methods to Improve Estimates of Effective Maximum Error for Laser Lithography Etching Liaison: H. Christopher Hamaker ’75 Advisors: Henry Krieger, Gregory Levin, Michael Moody Students: Jennifer Patrick (TL), Neville Khambatta, Marco Latini, Ian Schempp Etec Systems produces laser lithography equipment used to create photomasks needed for the manufacture of semiconductor chips. Since the etching process is not exact, there is some probability that any single geometry on a chip will be defective, which renders the entire wafer useless. This project investigated methods to improve estimates of the expected percentage of photomasks that will meet quality control criteria. These methods include investigation of certain parametric distributions to better fit machine calibration data, and the use of bootstrap techniques to improve the estimates of key parameters. FAIR, ISAAC AND COMPANY, INC. Assessing Consumer Preferences to Aid Online Purchase Decisions Liaisons: Lisa Buonpane, Ralph Keeney, Robert Oliver Advisor: Darryl. Yong Students: Natan Bershtel (TL), John Chou, Claire Launay, John Lu Most web sites that help consumers decide between product offerings don’t explicitly incorporate preferences and tradeoffs between multiple, often conflicting, goals. In an effort to make e-commerce more personalized, our team, together with Fair, Isaac and Co., Inc., has developed two sites that help users make car-buying decisions. The first is a direct implementation of Utility Theory, while the second is based on the method of Even Swaps. SPACE SYSTEMS/LORAL Optimization for Low-Thrust Orbit Raising Liaison: Glenn Santiago Advisor: Andrew Bernoff Students: Tyson Macdonald (TL), Kylie Bryant (Fall), Matt Gedigian, Jay Trautman, Alex Wilkins Space Systems/Loral is researching the use of ion propulsion to more efficiently raise newly launched satellites to their final orbits. However, as ion propulsion yields thrusts on the order of 1/1000 that of traditional chemical engines, the time of orbit transfer is significantly extended. Our goal is to develop a software package that will optimize (for time and fuel consumption) the use of low-thrust engines for satellite orbit raising.

Top of page

Physics Clinic

ETEC SYSTEMS, INC., AN APPLIED MATERIALS COMPANY A Method for Beating the Diffraction Limit in Photolithography Liaison: Mike Bohan Advisor: Peter Saeta Students: Jamie Hadden (TL), Andrew Batley, Wilson Mui, Libby Schoene, John Walseth Etec Systems, Inc. is a worldwide leader in the designing, manufacturing, and marketing of mask-making solutions for the semiconductor industry. Our Clinic team is providing Etec with a feasibility study on a potential technology for tightening the focus point of a laser on the photoresist layer of a mask beyond the normal diffraction limit, enabling the writing of smaller mask features. We report both analytical and experimental results.

Top of page

Physics/Biology Joint Clinic

JET PROPULSION LABORATORY LA-ARB-1: A Magnetotactic Bacterium Liaisons: Dr. Radu Popa, Dr. Ken Nealson Advisors: Nancy Hamlett, Alex Rudolph Students: Alyssa DiGiacomo (TL), Peter Nyblade, Jonathan Daehnke, and Jonathan Erickson (fall) The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Clinic team investigated various behavioral aspects of a novel magnetotactic bacterium, LA-ARB-1. Aerotaxis, phototaxis, motility, and viability studies were the focus of the teams investigations. Results from their work contribute to a better understanding of how LA-ARB-1 uses its internal structure to take advantage of its unique environment.

Top of page

Projects Day 2000


Spring Presentations

The following dates have been reserved for 2012 Spring Presentations:


  • January 17, 24, 31

  • February 7, 14, 21, 28

  • March 6, 20, 27

  • April 3, 10, 17, 24

Click here for a detailed schedule. (pdf)


Projects Day 2012

Tuesday, May 1, 2012