Integrated Learning
Student Assistant University at Buffalo, NY (March 2021 – May 2022)
Mentored students in Electronics laboratory experiments and examined student reports on lab experiments. Conducted labs for two courses of about 60+ students each. Taught students about lab equipment such as power supply, function generator, and an oscilloscope, and helped students debug any problems encountered while experimenting.
Assessed undergraduate student assignments and journals. Graded assignments for a class of 90+ students for a signal and systems course. Also, I graded the assignments and journals for classes of 80+ students in two subjects. The subjects were in the field of communication engineering and signals & systems.
The interaction with the undergraduate students was very refreshing as I have gone through the same kind of experience as a student. I understood what they needed and helped them to achieve them. It also helped me to brush up on my understanding of basic electronics.
Health monitoring systems
During this pandemic time, we had less time and less opportunity to visit the doctor’s office. But health is an important aspect of our lives. In everyday life, doctor’s visits becomes less often, and we need to take care of our health. So, supplying a simple health monitoring system was the main objective behind this project. We designed and developed a system that can provide heart rate, blood oxygen level, and electrocardiogram (ECG) graphs and a mobile application for viewing all the data collected by sensors. In the market there are a few products, such as Fitbit, which are available with heart rate and steps count, but we wanted to add a few new features such as blood oxygen level and ECG graphs.
My health monitoring system consisted of a microcontroller, heart rate sensor with blood oxygen level detector, ECG module, and Bluetooth module for communication. The sensors measured data that was processed on the microcontroller board then it was sent through a Bluetooth module to the mobile application for displaying. The future enhancement can be a Wi-Fi module instead of a Bluetooth module to access the patient’s data from anywhere to doctors.
It was a new experience, designing and developing the complete system to its user interface. There was plenty of trial-and-error. I had to use multiple correction steps for the communication between the mobile application and the controller board. Even though the system layout looks straightforward, connection and coding for processing the data was not an easy task. However, overall I enjoyed the whole journey.
I have pets. A cat and a dog of my own. I care about them so much. I want to keep them healthy and happy. Feeding them at regular intervals is easy if I am home all the time, but that is not possible. Sometimes, I might get stuck at work, and no one is there to feed the pets. I wanted a system or machine that would help me in these situations. This topic was one of the projects I worked on and developed.
Pet care unit (PetCU) - An Automated Feeding System
Pets are vital parts of our life. So, if you are out of your house for any reason and no one is there to feed them, that is not a good situation. So, the goal of this project was to design and develop a pet care system in which the food and water will be stored and given to the pet instantly and at pre-defined time intervals. The entire system was controllable by a mobile application. Also, it had a camera to monitor the whole system. This is a reoccurring problem for people, and it needed an innovative solution so that we could take care of our loved ones. It gave me the mindset to work on a project as if it is a product that people would want to purchase.
The pet care unit can execute feeding intervals set by the pet owner via the ‘PetCU’ mobile application. The pets feeding hours will be able to programmed, so their eating habits will not be affected. With the help of a camera module installed in the pet care unit, pet owners can keep track of their pets. Using a camera module focused on the pet feeding bowl, they can see if their pet is eating or not. Playing a tune before dispensing food or water causes a sense of recognition for the feeding ground towards the pet care unit in the pets mind. So, when the tune is played, the pet will know it is feeding time and come to the pet care unit. Our pets depend on us to provide and take care of them. Sometimes, we might miss it due to our day-to-day busy life. The last thing we want to be is to hurt the feeding habits of our pets.
Microscope Building
An opportunity came to work with Dr. Peter Liu in Electrical Department at UB. It was my first experience in a research lab. One lab mate and I worked together on a few of the ongoing projects. During my work in a research group called Mid-infrared and Terahertz Photonics and Opto-Electronics Technologies (Mt. POET) Lab, we had a few spare parts of an old microscope and decided to build one for the lab. Then with the available components and the purchase of a few more items for the complete microscope setup, we started building the microscope. It was my first time assembling pieces to make a microscope. The feeling was new and made me excited about completing the task to see the outcome, or I can say see through the microscope.
My curiosity to see how electronics work gave me experience in the electronic field but building one was a different wonderland for me. We started working on it. We started assembling the base first, then the base movement mechanism. There were some issues we faced during the assembly of the microscope, but we were able to rectify them. We then assembled the microscope, camera system, light source, etc., connected it to the base, and tuned it. The professor did the final tuning for the proper operation. Now, there is an operating microscope in the lab. It feels good that I helped in the research lab and contributed something to the lab that will be beneficial for a long time. Such opportunities led to further development of one’s mind and career possibilities.