ECE Students Work with 'Smart Rocks' for Capstone Project

Two ECE students are part of the first Interdisciplinary Capstone team to present on-site for Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a longtime Design Day sponsor and College of Engineering corporate partner. Capstone Team 22069 designed and built a sensor network disguised as rocks, making up half of a first-ever collaboration with fellow engineering seniors from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

The UA team, which includes ECE graduates Jesus Alberto Lopez and Christopher K Vuong, was paired with UMass Lowell because the two universities provide the highest number of engineering hires for Raytheon. It was up to the students to decide how to divide the work in creating a self-powered, autonomous system suitable for wildlife, military and security applications requiring discreet area monitoring.

The UA team ended up focusing on power delivery and materials and mechanics  –  building the housing units, figuring out how to the components would fit inside and testing for durability. Their UMass Lowell colleagues delivered on creating the mesh network and its software. Dividing responsibilities was tough in the beginning, and there were occasional miscommunications, Lopez said.

“But by the end, it was actually pretty fun to join up with a team across the country. The judges for our presentation explained to us that a lot of the time, in companies, we will work with people that aren’t nearby,” he said.