About Capstone Design Course:

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Northeastern University offers this senior level course, which is mandatory for all students. This two semester long course provides valuable experience for our undergraduate students. The ECE capstone design course is one of the most challenging, exciting, and successful programs on campus. A number of industrial partners, research institutions, business school in connection to the entrepreneurship program, as well as many other internal and external sources are involved with this course. The main objective of this course is to provide a multidisciplinary experience, integrating knowledge from the core, intermediate, and advanced courses in electrical engineering. The capstone design course is focused around a single major course objective with a working project as an output. The course intends to give students experience in finding a satisfactory solution of an open-ended problem, which has more than one solution, and where the solution involves actual hardware that needs to work. The design is carried out in engineering teams. A project involving each team gives valuable experience in planning, division of work, and maintaining individual accountability within a framework of group success. The students select projects according to the following three categories: (1) Industry-based capstone design projects, which are sponsored by industry; (2) Faculty-based advanced research projects, which are proposed by faculty through research centers such as CenSSIS, CDSP, etc; and (3) Student-based capstone design projects, which are proposed by the innovative ideas stemming from the students themselves.

Every year 20 teams are involved with fascinating projects trying to accomplish their design tasks. Each team consists of 4-6 members with expertise in hardware, software, signal processing, and system knowledge including communications and control systems. Constructed from solid devices, microprocessor, sensors, and other electronic components (all purchased within a specified budget), more than %80 of the projects are successfully completed. This is how our senior undergraduate students taking on challenging, hands-on engineering capstone design projects, building useful state of the art systems, guided by the faculty advisors. The students perform the design tasks in the capstone design laboratory, which is accessible 24 hours. A design competition is the final stage of this program in which a number of expert judges from the industry are invited to evaluate the best three projects.
A natural outcome of capstone experience is to introduce a strategy for reliable integration of research and curriculum development. It becomes possible to link multidisciplinary projects that integrate new; state-of-the-art research advances in emerging technology areas into upper-level undergraduate engineering curricula. A major objective is to involve faculty and researchers with the capstone program. In addition, this interaction is a motivating factor for our students to pursue graduate studies, to enhance their skills, and to facilitate employment opportunities. There are many ways that you can contribute to this program. For more information, please click on CAPSTONE Affiliate Program or contact me directly.

Bahram Shafai
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and
Director of the ECE Capstone Design Program
Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115

CAPSTONE Design Projects 2011

	Capston 2011 Students, Advisors and Judges Twenty teams of senior undergraduate students require to complete their capstone design projects and to compete for final design competition. Each team of four to six seniors has two semesters to design and build a working prototype. In April, the groups unveil their prototypes as part of a presentation before a panel of judges that includes engineering professionals from industry. Explore more...
	Intelligent Power Wheelchair with Universal Input Interface The winning team for 2011 design competition developed an innovative, voice-operated wheelchair that can navigate through a cluttered room or an environment, move alongside walls and detect obstacles including stairs in its path. Under the seat is a universal control unit that communicates with the sensor array, and processes and sends the commands to the motor controller to move the wheelchair. Explore more...
	WiFi Localization Using a Smart Antenna Array on an Autonomous Robot Autonomous robots are essential for many tasks where it is preferred to have humans out of harm's way like in military, or for search and rescue missions, as well as wireless sensor localization. The second place Capstone team designed a fully adjustable antenna array mounted on a robust autonomous robot to find mobile phones based on their WiFi signal. Explore more...
	Disability Assistant Robot With i(eye) Navigation (DARWiN) In most situations due to injury, age, or illness, many people have trouble to be mobile and there is a need to locate missing items and retrieve them. A disabled person has little choice but to ask for assistance. However, full-time assistance can be very expensive and might not always be available. The other second place team designed DARWiN to allow the person to accomplish these tasks themselves. Explore more...
	Intelligent Distribution Control System (iDCS) The third place project dealt with an Intelligent Power Distribution Control System for the purpose of monitoring electrical appliances. Intelligent Home Power Monitoring Systems can control excess home power usage reducing the consumers' energy bills and often leave utility companies scrambling to relieve pressure on the grid. Explore more...
	A Brain Controlled Flight Simulator The other third place Capstone team introduced a novel approach to Brain Computer Interface (BCI) by using pseudo-random binary sequences as stimuli for steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP) in electroencephalography (EEG). To demonstrate the wide variety, accuracy of controls, and leverage military interest, they apply this concept to control the open source flight simulator, FlightGear. Explore more...
	High Tech Tool Box (HTTB) The runner up Capstone team developed an RFID based systems to detect and identify tools in a toolbox with multiple drawers. The HTTB is a toolbox with an on-board computer running a Linux desktop environment which incorporates multiple features to simplify and expedite locating tools in a cluttered toolbox. Explore more...
	ChemBot The other runner up Capstone team developed a robotic system capable of detecting and identifying chemical spills in an environment. This project was supported by MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The purpose of this project was to investigate a potential liquid spill in an indoor environment using a robotic device that contains a spill sensor and pH sensor. Explore more...

Pictures Provided: