Fall 2004 Senior Design - What Problem Are You Trying To Solve?

The items below are a set of problems the students have identified to investigate. There may be some obvious ways of trying to solve these problems, but at this point, I have not included the solutions to try and keep the thinking open ended. Shaded cells represent senior design groups that have formed

The items below are a set of projects students have proposed. The project is stated more in terms of a solution, rather than a problem to be solved. There may be specific problems that are to be addressed, but the suggested solution tends to narrow the focus from the range of possible solutions.

The names in bold include the students who have proposed the problem or solution. I had asked that each Senior Design student independently suggest a problem that they were interested in solving.

When a problem is stated in its most basic terms, the potential for connecting multiple problems to the same solution is greatest. For instance, tracking small items, tracking pets, tracking warehouse inventory, tracking merchandise, and tracking/authenticating individuals are different facets of the same problem. A single solution might address all of them.

Likewise, the problem of guidance and control may be the same for an autonomous aircraft, a personal aircraft, and a mortar. The same sensors with different (programmable) control algorithms might serve all the problems with the same hardware solution.

Then, again, we have students who have not committed to a problem and have not been included in anyone else's problem description. Here are 36 potential members for your groups:

This page was last updated on: Sunday, September 12, 2004