Lectures :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

Lectures

Fall 2025 Lecture Material:

 

Pre-Lecture #1:


(before the first lecture)

 

 

Brainstorming and Ideation

  • Brainstorming and Ideation slides (pptx)
  • Videos (watch before coming to class)

 

 

Lecture #1:


(August 26th )

 

Getting Started

  • Course Overview and Requests for Approval (slides)- Prof. Arne Fliflet
  • Conflict Management Workshop (slides)- Prof. Olga Mironenko (olgamiro@illinois.edu)
  • Pitches
    • Sound Asleep (slides) - Maggie Li
    • Double Sequential External defibrillation (slides) - Varun Gopal
    • Neuroguard (slides) - Meenakshi Singhal
    • Fadex (slides) - Shrey Patel
    • Lab Escape - spinning LED globe (website) - Paul Kwait
    • Smart Home for MS (slides) - Dr. Manuel Hernandez
    • Ant-weight, 3D Printed Battlebot Challenge (slides)- Prof. Viktor Gruev (vgruev@illinois.edu)
  • Brainstorming

 

Pre-Lecture #2:


(before the second lecture)

 

 

Beyond Ideation

 

 

Lecture #2:


(September 2nd)

 

 

Moving Forward

  • Introduction - A. Fliflet (slides)
  • IP - Dr. Michelle Chitambar (slides)
  • Pitches
    • Skin integrated pace maker (slides) - Shiyuan Duan
    • Wearable neuro-modulation (slides) - Shiyuan Duan
    • Adherascent (slides) - Brian Mehdian
    • Suction Sense (slides) - Sharon Chao
    • Underground root imaging (slides) - John Hart
  • Proposal and design doc - Jason Jung (slides)
  • Modular design - Weiman Yan (slides)
  • Lab notebook - Wesley Pang (slides)
  • Requirements & Verification Table - Jason Zhang (slides)
  • PCB Tips - Jason Jung (slides)
  • Comments on Web Board - Prof. Rakesh Kumar (notes)

 

Pre-Lecture #3:


(before the third lecture)

 

 

Design and Writing Tips

 

 

Lecture #3:

(September 9th)

 

 

Last Stop Before RFA

  • Introduction - A. Fliflet (slides)
  • Communications - Dr. Laura Stegrim (slides)
  • Lab Safety - Casey Smith (slides)
  • Machine shop - Gregg Bennet (slides)
  • Writing - Aaron Greiger (slides)
  • Ethics - A. Fliflet (slides)

Spring 2023 Video Lectures:

Brainstorming

Finding a Problem (Video)
Generating Solutions (Video)
Diving Deeper (Video)
Voting (Video)
Reverse Brainstorming (Video)
Homework for Everyone (Video)

Important Information

Using the ECE 445 Website (Video)
Lab Notebook (Video , Slides)
Modular Design (Video, Slides)
Circuit Tips and Debugging (Video , Slides)
Eagle CAD Tutorial (Video)
Spring 2018 IEEE Eagle Workshop (Slides)
Spring 2018 IEEE Soldering Workshop (Slides)

Major Assignments and Milestones

Request for Approval (Video, Slides)
Project Proposal (Video, slides)
Design Document (Video, slides)
Design Review (Video, slides)
Writing Tips (Video, slides)

Wireless IntraNetwork

Daniel Gardner, Jeeth Suresh

Wireless IntraNetwork

Featured Project

There is a drastic lack of networking infrastructure in unstable or remote areas, where businesses don’t think they can reliably recoup the large initial cost of construction. Our goal is to bring the internet to these areas. We will use a network of extremely affordable (<$20, made possible by IoT technology) solar-powered nodes that communicate via Wi-Fi with one another and personal devices, donated through organizations such as OLPC, creating an intranet. Each node covers an area approximately 600-800ft in every direction with 4MB/s access and 16GB of cached data, saving valuable bandwidth. Internal communication applications will be provided, minimizing expensive and slow global internet connections. Several solutions exist, but all have failed due to costs of over $200/node or the lack of networking capability.

To connect to the internet at large, a more powerful “server” may be added. This server hooks into the network like other nodes, but contains a cellular connection to connect to the global internet. Any device on the network will be able to access the web via the server’s connection, effectively spreading the cost of a single cellular data plan (which is too expensive for individuals in rural areas). The server also contains a continually-updated several-terabyte cache of educational data and programs, such as Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg. This data gives students and educators high-speed access to resources. Working in harmony, these two components foster economic growth and education, while significantly reducing the costs of adding future infrastructure.