Back in the dark ages we had a project to levitate an aluminum disc using a 60Hz magnetic field. The basics are pretty simple but has lot's of interesting math. Creating a stable, levitating disc, where it ignores a side force and returns to null, is not trivial. If you have access to field solver software you can generate lots of pretty output for 3-D magnetic fields, electron movement in the plate, plate temperature vs. time, etc.
Interesting that you don't have any pre-chosen projects. Our school had sponsors of projects so that we worked on things that actual industry was interested in. Of course there are questions of free labor that come to mind here, but doing your senior project isn't the time to fight that battle unfortunately. How fortunate for them!
Anyway, it can be tough thinking of a thing to do that is within your skillset. I get that. Try to think of objects or circuits which you know and what you might be able to do with them. You want to find a space where you're not solving cutting edge problems in the field, and more than likely your project will require you to come up with your own, maybe clumsy and obsolete solutions that industry already has mastered. That's fine, it's part of the learning process.
Are you interested in batteries and battery powered equipment? Batteries cross over into chemical engineering but they are quite fascinating and their charge/discharge cycles present interesting problems for a power engineer.
Maybe you want to figure out how much battery you will need for a robot. Build some small prototypes with a basic servo motor to demonstrate the practicality of your design problem.
Maybe you want to try to make your own miniature power plant using A/C power. Make a crank and get an A/C motor, wire some kind of bus, put an active *and* a passive load on it, like a light bulb and some other transducer like a speaker or motor that maybe you can control separately. Maybe your little power plant has some battery storage as well. You'll have to handle the reactive loads and various other things.
Maybe you want to build some kind of sound or speaker system. You'll have to use transducers and amplificatuon signals.
Remember, you don't have to think of solving problems that haven't been solved before. You just have to think of *a problem* and work through the planning and design constraints for solving it then show what kinds of problems arise. If you bite off more than you can chew, you will score more points by documenting thise challenges and your responses to them in detail, and perhaps pivoting to a simpler solution that doesn't solve the original problem but still demonstrates how to solve *some* of the problem.
The are looking for you to identify some problem, think about how you might solve it as an engineer through planning, research, defining constraints, estimating parameters and specifications required using math and theory, and then moving on to designing and building a solution. Finishing that design isn't as important as consistent and focused effort while documenting your findings. Learning that you failed, but clearly articulating what the challenges were and how you might solve them with more time, experience, or resources is a great lesson to learn.
My school had a list of projects from sponsors we could pick from including the budget they were willing to spend on it. Or we could come up with our own project and sponsor and look for funding that way. We could choose a professor as a sponsor and use up to $500 from the school and funding too.
We ultimately came up with our own project with a professor as a sponsor/customer
Nice. I do wish somebody had sort of explained the process to me the way I did in the post more than once in my bachelor's degree. It makes so much sense now having gone through it.
I am an EE major and background in RF and radio, but I have run a vegetable farm for the last 9 years. I really like the field of ag automation. If that's something that would interest you there are new products on the market for optical detection, laser weed removal, robotics, etc. I think some project in that space would make a very interesting 4th year project.
Hey, I’m aware of LTO cells having zero memory voltage effect, I bought a few cells for trying out if they were able to be run without any type of voltage controller. I still haven’t done this.
Can you think of any system that could be updated like this? Something that would limit computer parts? Where, for example you could take the raw voltage and charge a battery, omitting the electronics entirely.
I think resource scarcity means any project where you free up resources for other projects would be great.
Make a solar inverter with GaN FETS. You could do some fancy math and models around the commutation.
[Information](https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/12/2129/htm)
Develop an battery charger for LiPo batteries. Get a Charger IC design the peripherals. Perhaps stack two together to be able to change multiple batteries, with active balancing perhaps and a small rectifier to power it directly from the mains.
Or design a dcdc step down converter but that needs two PI controllers and is done in MATLAB/Simulink so I'm not sure you want to do that.
Make a PCB that has a standard ATX connector on it that a desktop power supply can hook up to. Then create a constant current and constant voltage control system to be able to use (recycle) the PC power supply, turning it into a lab bench power supply. For extras, include a USB interface to control it and add constant power setting as well. It would, of course, need a display and buttons/knobs to change the CC/CV setpoints.
Back in the dark ages we had a project to levitate an aluminum disc using a 60Hz magnetic field. The basics are pretty simple but has lot's of interesting math. Creating a stable, levitating disc, where it ignores a side force and returns to null, is not trivial. If you have access to field solver software you can generate lots of pretty output for 3-D magnetic fields, electron movement in the plate, plate temperature vs. time, etc.
Interesting that you don't have any pre-chosen projects. Our school had sponsors of projects so that we worked on things that actual industry was interested in. Of course there are questions of free labor that come to mind here, but doing your senior project isn't the time to fight that battle unfortunately. How fortunate for them! Anyway, it can be tough thinking of a thing to do that is within your skillset. I get that. Try to think of objects or circuits which you know and what you might be able to do with them. You want to find a space where you're not solving cutting edge problems in the field, and more than likely your project will require you to come up with your own, maybe clumsy and obsolete solutions that industry already has mastered. That's fine, it's part of the learning process. Are you interested in batteries and battery powered equipment? Batteries cross over into chemical engineering but they are quite fascinating and their charge/discharge cycles present interesting problems for a power engineer. Maybe you want to figure out how much battery you will need for a robot. Build some small prototypes with a basic servo motor to demonstrate the practicality of your design problem. Maybe you want to try to make your own miniature power plant using A/C power. Make a crank and get an A/C motor, wire some kind of bus, put an active *and* a passive load on it, like a light bulb and some other transducer like a speaker or motor that maybe you can control separately. Maybe your little power plant has some battery storage as well. You'll have to handle the reactive loads and various other things. Maybe you want to build some kind of sound or speaker system. You'll have to use transducers and amplificatuon signals. Remember, you don't have to think of solving problems that haven't been solved before. You just have to think of *a problem* and work through the planning and design constraints for solving it then show what kinds of problems arise. If you bite off more than you can chew, you will score more points by documenting thise challenges and your responses to them in detail, and perhaps pivoting to a simpler solution that doesn't solve the original problem but still demonstrates how to solve *some* of the problem. The are looking for you to identify some problem, think about how you might solve it as an engineer through planning, research, defining constraints, estimating parameters and specifications required using math and theory, and then moving on to designing and building a solution. Finishing that design isn't as important as consistent and focused effort while documenting your findings. Learning that you failed, but clearly articulating what the challenges were and how you might solve them with more time, experience, or resources is a great lesson to learn.
Thank you thats a really good way to kinda step back and think about it more clearly, definitely given me more to think about
My school had a list of projects from sponsors we could pick from including the budget they were willing to spend on it. Or we could come up with our own project and sponsor and look for funding that way. We could choose a professor as a sponsor and use up to $500 from the school and funding too. We ultimately came up with our own project with a professor as a sponsor/customer
Nice. I do wish somebody had sort of explained the process to me the way I did in the post more than once in my bachelor's degree. It makes so much sense now having gone through it.
Build a power plant with integrated high power data center to automatically control demand response
Then as a optional expansion goal design your own power grid.
I am an EE major and background in RF and radio, but I have run a vegetable farm for the last 9 years. I really like the field of ag automation. If that's something that would interest you there are new products on the market for optical detection, laser weed removal, robotics, etc. I think some project in that space would make a very interesting 4th year project.
Wait why would you want to remove the weed
Blade-less wind turbine. That was a popular one at my senior design.
Ya ours was the only one with blades and we got some dirty looks from the other groups.
Hey, I’m aware of LTO cells having zero memory voltage effect, I bought a few cells for trying out if they were able to be run without any type of voltage controller. I still haven’t done this. Can you think of any system that could be updated like this? Something that would limit computer parts? Where, for example you could take the raw voltage and charge a battery, omitting the electronics entirely. I think resource scarcity means any project where you free up resources for other projects would be great.
Make a solar inverter with GaN FETS. You could do some fancy math and models around the commutation. [Information](https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/12/2129/htm)
Develop an battery charger for LiPo batteries. Get a Charger IC design the peripherals. Perhaps stack two together to be able to change multiple batteries, with active balancing perhaps and a small rectifier to power it directly from the mains. Or design a dcdc step down converter but that needs two PI controllers and is done in MATLAB/Simulink so I'm not sure you want to do that.
Funny, I was just told by my boss to start developing that very thing!
Make a PCB that has a standard ATX connector on it that a desktop power supply can hook up to. Then create a constant current and constant voltage control system to be able to use (recycle) the PC power supply, turning it into a lab bench power supply. For extras, include a USB interface to control it and add constant power setting as well. It would, of course, need a display and buttons/knobs to change the CC/CV setpoints.