Click HERE To Register For The RIT IEEE Student Design Contest

Event Information:

The RIT IEEE Student Design Contest is open to all students in an accredited undergraduate engineering program interested in presenting a design project created with the knowledge gained through their respective engineering program and with the experience they have gained from co-ops and internships.

The competition takes place on Saturday, May 4^th, at RIT (located in Rochester, NY).  This date coincides with Imagine RIT, an event that brings tens of thousands of visitors to the campus annually.  Competitors will have a chance to interact with these visitors and share the work they have done.

Competitors are required to display their projects in the atrium and give a short presentation in a lecture setting inside the adjacent auditorium.  Winners will be judged based on the criteria found under the Judging Section and awarded cash prizes based on their performance.

Format of the Day’s Activities

Depending on the number of attendees the competition will begin between 9:30 and 10:00am.

The event will start with a few words from our guest speaker Jennifer Indovina.  Indovina is CEO of Tenrehte Technologies, a company she started in Rochester New York.  She is a graduate of RIT and a TED Fellow.  Her company’s first product, the PICOwatt, has received many awards including 2010 Best of CES in the Green Product category.

After the keynote speaker the presentations will begin each fallowed by a Q and A session.  There is a break for lunch and the opportunity for competitors to spend some time at their displays.  After the break the presentations will resume and the day will end with an awards dinner where the winners will be announced.

Registration

Teams of up to 5 participants must register and pay the $100 fee by Monday, April 15^th.  This fee includes a continental breakfast, lunch, and catered dinner as well as a t-shirt for each member of the competing team.  The first 16 teams to register will be guaranteed a spot in the competition.  At least one member of the team must be an active IEEE member, up-to-date on their membership dues.

Click HERE To Register

Judging

A minimum of four judges (not affiliated with RIT) will rate each project based on the quality of the presentation, demonstration, technical content, creativity and innovation, and the teamwork of the competitors.

Prizes

Prizes will be distributed based on the average score given by the judges.  The team with the highest average will win the grand prize of $4,000, the team with the second highest average will win second place with a prize of $2,000, and the team with the third highest average will win third place with a prize of $1,000.

If you have any questions, contact us at ieee@rit.edu.

Notes
Meeting/Presentaion begins at 1:02pm
• Jennifer Indovina
• Founder of the company Tenrehte
• Graduated from RIT in 2007
• Went onto get a job in China, worked on making chips in mp3 player
• Laid off later that year due to the company downsizing
• Went to Kenya afterwards
• Became interested in power management/electonics in Kenya, when seeing solar panels at a hotel
• In 10 years the earth will be 4x brighter at night, great opportunity there
• Saw the opportunity/application in power electronics in Kenya
• Came back and built prototypes internet outlet adapter – picowatt smart plug
• Competition iStage – presented her product in 2009
• Won best of CES for the most green product of the year in 2010
• Began work on next generation prototype to work on entire house or smart grid installation
• Make electricity cheaper and more efficient with picowatt
• Make it able for green energy be able for use at home ex: windmills, solar panels etc…
Presentation ends at 1:18

In May 2012 RIT was approached by a local entrepreneur who was interested in donating a conversion van he had converted into a 100 percent electric vehicle.  The van had sustained damage and was not operational however the owner believed it was well within RIT’s means to restore.

Due to a lack of storage and work space, the college of engineering was unable to accept this gift, but IEEE found out and saw great potential not only for what is was, but also an invaluable learning tool for its members and the institute.

IEEE came to an agreement with RIT’s Facility Management Services (FMS) who expressed interest in the zero emission transportation system.   FMS had the resources and IEEE had the knowledge and willingness to take on this project.

The van conversion was executed in the UK by a company specializing in the area but when the van was delivered to RIT it was without documentation.  The project has begun with exploration into the components and layout of these components in the van due to the lack of documentation.

While IEEE initialized the partnership with FMS we believe every student interested should have the ability to participate in working on this project and get the full benefit of this rare learning tool.  In an effort to keep these students and those who want to know more about the van informed, all the information that is found throughout the course of this project will be posted on this website.

If you are interested in getting involved send us an email, our contact information can be found to the left.  As mentioned before, this project is not limited to IEEE members and we encourage students from all disciplines who are interested to contact us.

The IEEE RIT Student Branch invites students in accredited engineering schools to showcase their senior level, undergraduate, design projects at our annual student design contest. Each year we mail contest advertisement posters to schools in the northeast US and Canada (IEEE regions 1, 2, and 7).

Projects are evaluated by judges experienced in the field of engineering and six awards are given based on specific criteria. Held during the annual ImagineRIT Festival, the student design contest is a great way to obtain feedback from industry professionals as well as gain promotion of your design project and connectivity to other engineers.

When:
May 5th 2012
7:00 am – 8:00pm

Where:
Rochester Institute of Technology
Xerox Auditorium, Bldg 9

Application Deadline:
Team applications will be accepted until April 13th.

How to Apply:
Visit This Page to enter your team in the 2012 Student Design Competition.

Also Email Us the following information (Once per team):

• First and Last name of each team member
• A current IEEE membership number for at least one of the team members
• A contact E-mail address, phone number, and street address for the team members
• The full name of the team’s university and department
• The project’s advisor name and E-mail
• Project title and a brief description (~100-200 words)
• Links to project website if available
• Entry documentation, papers, or reports can be emailed after registering

Invitation/ Event Description:
The Rochester Institute of Technology Student Branch of the IEEE invites you to participate in our 12th annual Student Design Contest. This event has become an excellent way to showcase innovative projects related to electrical engineering built by teams consisting of undergraduate students. Time and time again participating teams have proven that through their perseverance and intellect some truly awe inspiring advancements in technology are achievable and we look forward to carrying on this tradition. As reward for these students diligence, a panel of judges will determine the first, second and third place teams to win this year’s cash prizes.
RIT IEEE holds the right to accept or deny any applicants.

Click here to view a map with hotels near RIT.

Jeff Kramer is the Product Marketing Manager at MKS ENI Products in Rochester, NY. Jeff competed his Engineering undergraduate work at Penn State University and RIT, and is also a graduate of the University of Rochester Executive MBA program. He served as a member of the High Intensity Laser Research Faculty at the University of Rochester and has over 30 years of experience in electronic design, project management, product marketing and manufacturing in the Semiconductor, Solar, Process Control and Industrial Manufacturing marketplaces.

Aaron Radomski is the Chief Scientist at MKS ENI Products in Rochester, NY. He received a BS in Computer Engineering at RIT in 1989 and an MS in Electrical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University in 1995. He has over 25 years of industry experience in areas such as Power Systems Engineering, Semiconductor IC Processing, Reliability Physics, and Failure Analysis.

Ms. Myra A. Torres is a Senior Lead Engineer and Program manager at Impact Technologies, focusing on prognostics for electronic systems, and new R&D. At Impact Myra interests have been on fiber optic diagnostic innovations, and her team has developed real time video implementations for fiber optic end face diagnostics, wireless human performance monitoring and condition based maintenance for avionics. Myra has over 15 years of experience in electronics. Prior to Impact, she was Assistant Research Director for PHM development at the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) at the University of Maryland. Prior to CALCE, she was at Sun Microsystems, where she was a manager and individual contributor in Advanced Component Engineering and Signal Integrity. Myra’s focus at Sun was in device, packaging, and interconnect design; as well as reliability for new microprocessor modules. She also initiated the collaborative research program at Sun, which transitioned several key research programs from the University of Maryland and Georgia Tech to Sun Microsystems. Myra also architected IP development that transitioned to Cadence Systems and was incorporated into their Signal Integrity tool sets. She has degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly University and Technology Management from Pepperdine University, and is currently active at MIT Sloan’s management program. Myra is also an active member of IEEE where she serves as the Rochester Student Activities Chair and on the R&D and S&T policy forums for IEEE USA.

Speaker: Dr. Robert Pearson

Dr. Pearson is a graduate of the Rush Henrietta school district right here in Henrietta. He is the son of an RIT Imaging Science graduate and retired RIT faculty/staff member. He received his BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from RIT. He played soccer for RIT and did his coops with Fairchild Semiconductor in Portland Maine and Palo Alto California. As an undergraduate student under the supervision of Dr. Lynn Fuller he fabricated the first diodes, solar cells and transistors ever made at RIT. After graduation he worked in the semiconductor industry before returning to teach at RIT as the first faculty member hired by the Microelectronic Engineering program. He obtained his PhD from SUNY Buffalo in Electrical Engineering. After helping to establish the RIT Microelectronic Engineering program he left RIT to be a founding faculty member of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering and supervise the start-up of their new clean-room and microelectronics program. He returned to RIT in 2003 and in 2008 he became the Microelectronic Engineering program director. His research interests include semiconductor device and micro-electro-mechanical systems design, simulation, fabrication and testing.

The quad-rotor helicopter (quadcopter) is a fully functional, remote controlled aerial unit. These days, quadcopters are used in various ways as everything from surveillance drones to children’s toys. It is made of up of a frame with landing legs, four motors which connect to propellers and support the weight of the unit. A control system (the “stabilizer”) takes in input from the environment to determine if speed compensation is necessary from one rotor or another to keep the unit level. Beyond the level compensation, input is read from a 2.4 GHz transmitter by a receiver bringing the quadcopter to life.

Presentation – 15%

Project Demo – 20%

Teamwork – 15%

Quality of Technical Content – 30%

Creativity/Innovation – 20%

Total – 100%

*Add up the total points of all four judges for each team.

Honorable Mentions:

1x Most Marketable

1x Most Innovation