UMD’s Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering Showcases Demo Day at USG (sponsored)

The University of Maryland’s Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering (CPSE) program at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) held its second annual Demo Day on Friday, August 16, 2024. The student demo portion of the event took place in the lobby of the Biomedical Sciences and Engineering Building, while the formal program was held in the Basement Theater below. Dr. Bill Phillips, the 1997 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, served as the event’s guest of honor and keynote speaker. Dr. Phillips’ riveting presentation was about the revolutionary quantum reform of the modern metric system.

The event began with prototype demonstrations from eight student groups, made up of 28 high school and community college students who participated in CPSE’s 2024 “Jumpstart Your Engineering Career” summer program. Throughout the program, the students received hands-on training and experience in electronics, sensors, microcontrollers, networks and protocols, software development, and 3D additive manufacturing. Additionally, students navigated teamwork by persevering through obstacles, solving problems, and delegating tasks; all of which are pillars of effective project management. They also had to hold themselves and one another accountable for deliverables in a creative and timely manner.

The eight student groups and their projects were as follows:

• AquaSmart – A self-sustaining smart aquarium that automates maintenance through remote monitoring and control, providing real-time data to users.
  • Ryan Collingham – App Fullstack Developer
  • Gautam Tangirala – Embedded Systems Engineer & Database Developer
  • Zachary Hon – Embedded Systems Engineer & Frontend Developer
  • James Hui – Hardware & Model Engineer

 

• BallBuddy – An autonomous tennis ball-collecting robot.
  • Marko Peric – Project Leader & Software
  • Jesse Iobst – CAD & Hardware

 

• Magic Gambit – A computer vision system enabling humans to play against a computer on a physical chessboard.
  • Michael Habib – Project Leader, Software & Electronics
  • Alexander Angeloff – Software & Hardware
  • Nima Sichani – Software, CAD & Hardware
  • Mason Boucher – Software, Computer Vision & GUI

 

• PillPal – An automated pill dispenser that simplifies medication management.
  • Lauren Chin – Project Leader
  • Saron Yohannes – Software
  • Anisha Rajapakse – CAD & Hardware
  • Smrithi Karthik – CAD & Hardware

 

• SafeCycle – An intelligent turn signal device designed to enhance biker safety.
  • Daniel Skendaj – Project Leader & Software
  • Miles Riley – Electrical & Hardware
  • Nishanth Sasikumar – Design

 

• SignScribe – A robotic hand that translates speech into sign language in real time.
  • Allison Andreyev – Project Leader & Software
  • Sakib Niaz – Software & GUI
  • Yenni Do – Hardware & CAD Prototype
  • Elliott Owens – Computer Engineer

 

• Sky Swift Deliveries – An autonomous drone delivery system ensuring safe and reliable package transport.
  • Kristoffer Velas – Project Leader & Software
  • Raunak Maheshwari – Software
  • Gustavo Castro Orozco – Hardware & PR
  • Toyin Okunseinde – Hardware & Electronics
  • Ved Shewani – CAD & Hardware

 

• SurroundSense – A wearable device providing real-time spatial awareness and obstacle detection for the blind and visually impaired.
  • Charlie Holden – Project Leader
  • Mark Philip – Software

CPSE Demo Day is an excellent example of the pathway building by industry sector that connects high school and community college students to programs at USG for transfer. The collaboration with industry and academia provides relationship building, competitive learning, and excitement and information surrounding programs and their career pathways. USG hubs plan to expand summer programming to build more of these pathway opportunities.

Brian Schoem, CPSE Program Coordinator, kicked off Demo Day’s formal program with introductions, followed by welcoming remarks from Dr. Anne Khademian, Executive Director of USG, and Dr. Romel Gomez, CPSE Program Director.

Dr. Gomez articulated the goal of the summer program and the CPSE program as a whole. He detailed the forward-looking nature of Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering and modern developments throughout the Internet of Things (IoT) and embedded systems. Dr. Gomez highlighted that the systems facilitating the tech sector and our society right now—artificial intelligence, data, machine learning—all fall under the umbrella of cyber-physical systems. Thus, the CPSE program, “prepares students with the competency skills to thrive in current and future workplace demands,” he remarked.

The formal program also included a keynote address from Dr. Bill Phillips on “Quantum Reforms of the Modern Metric System,” followed by a Q&A session, during which Dr. Phillips awarded prizes to participating audience members. Dr. Phillips, a Nobel Prize recipient, is a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he is part of a Laser Cooling and Trapping Group.

Dr. Phillips began by giving a brief history of the metric system and time. He discussed how we transitioned from measuring time by using the Earth’s rotation to defining a second using the frequency of a cesium atom. Dr. Phillips also described the mechanics of an atomic clock and explained how his and others work in laser cooling helped improve the performance of cesium clocks, making them more precise and accurate. In terms of measuring space (metric system), after the invention of lasers in 1960, the speed of light became the standard for defining a meter. Ultimately, the new definition was able to account for future improvements in lasers and frequency measurements.

After the keynote, Dr. Nestor Tiglao, CPSE Professor and Summer Program Chief Innovation Architect, introduced the student teams. Each group took the stage to explain their concepts and demonstrate their prototypes.

The teams were evaluated by three judges—Tom Clifford, Program Director, Business Partnerships at USG; Michelle Marcellino, Director of UMD Programs at USG; and Michael Keeney, USG Chief Financial Officer—on the following criteria:

• Clarity in articulating the problem
• Product design
• Market validation
• Quality of project demo and poster
• Final pitch presentation

At the end of the pitch presentations, the SignScribe team—Allison Andreyev (project leader & software engineer), Sakib Niaz (hardware & GUI engineer), Yenni Do (software & CAD prototyping engineer), and Elliott Owens (computer engineer)—was awarded the 2024 “Best Team Award” for their innovative robotic hand, which can process live speech and output the equivalent spelling in American Sign Language (ASL).

The team, SignScribe, explained that the yearly decline in ASL interpreters has led to hundreds of thousands of Americans being excluded from participating in the public sphere. So, they created a portable sign language interpreter with a simple setup that takes under two minutes. It allows the hearing impaired to participate in discussion spaces and conferences, attend speeches, and share their voices. It can also be used as a teaching tool for ASL. Because of their eloquence in communicating the problem, their success in executing their design, and the overall quality of their demo and final pitch, SignScribe’s performance was recognized as the best in meeting the judging criteria.

Any students, academic partners, or industry organizations interested in getting involved or learning more about the Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering (CPSE) program offered by the University of Maryland, College Park, A. James Clark School of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) Rockville campus, please email them at [email protected] or visit their website: https://shadygrove.ece.umd.edu/

 Photos from the event can be found on: CPSE’s Flickr page and USG’s Flickr page.

Check out the Summer Program’s promo video for CPSE’s 2024 Demo Day below:

https://youtu.be/ZgFJxupFYzQ?si=j15XaAto-hs_6Flq

You can also follow the Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering (CPSE) program at USG on Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter/X, YouTube, Flickr, or Facebook.