2023 COES Design and Research Conference

Schedule

4:20 – 4:30 Opening Remarks
4:30 – 5:15 Official judging of assigned teams (13 minutes per team, 2 minutes transition time)
5:15 – 6:10 Open judging (all judges circulate to observe all projects)
7:00 – 7:15 Presentation of awards

Magic Internet Money Project

Team Members: Bella Breaux, Bailie Bourque, Samuel Johnston

Decentralized distributed basic money system. Data stored in a key: value pair, with accounts. Servers find each other via a bootstrap server, clients find servers through a bootstrap server, and servers will settle state within 15 seconds ideally.

marble maze

Team Members: Xavier Lewis, Jeremiah Hall, Vanessa Coogler

This maze uses touch sensors and servos to safely navigate a marble through the entire maze. There will also be a GUI implemented to allow the user to control the servos.

Tic-Tac-Toe

Team Members: Chase McGough, Taylor Braud, Memphis Dalme

It uses LEDs to present a game of TIC-TAC-TOE in the physical environment and takes input from the user in a GUI.

Casino Ordering System

Team Members: Hayden Brimage, Sean Bell

This project involves interaction between two Raspberry Pis, one of which will be the “client,” and the other the “server.” The client pi will select food items through a series of menus, which the server pi will relay. The order will be printed out on a receipt The server pi is capable of alerting the client pi when the food is ready.

Green Thumb

Team Members: Zoe Baker, Kaylee Matic, Kelsie Culdert

A moisture sensor detects a plant’s water levels. When it needs water, a speaker will notify the plant owner in a unique voice and personality. The plant’s water level statistics will be available for viewing in the GUI, along with settings for customizable features such as voices and GUI themes.

Moe Tic Tac Toe

Team Members: Clay Cook, Matthew Ellis, Lane Krickel

Two players play a game of Tic Tac Toe, with each of them having a physical game board. When a button on one board is pressed, it sends the user data to the other player via a P2P connection. The move is displayed on the opponent’s board, and the GUI lets the users know whose turn it is. The GUI also displays the current score between the two players.

Rhythm Game

Team Members: Kevin Olvera, Michael Kenny, Austin Hague

Rhythm Game is a single-player game that utilizes a 2×2 button grid GPIO to create an arcade-style rhythm game experience. Each map could be up to multiple minutes long and is planned to have 3 different difficulty settings. Additionally, the player’s records on each map are recorded and accessible in a separate statistics menu, so that they can monitor their skills.

Sheet Music Reader

Team Members: Christian Hall, Nathan Gremillion, Ryan Boudreaux

Sheet Music Reader is a program that will take in a piece of sheet music and create an audio file to play it. To do this an AI will be used in order to translate the visual data into a MIDI audio file to play. The GUI will have multiple functions to control the media and select a piece of music to play.

Automatic Guitar Tuner

Team Members: Kat Rotolo, Daniel Roy

Automatic Guitar Tuner takes guitar input and turns a motor to tune whatever string is playing for the user.

FacePaint

Team Members: Jordan Myles, Hunter Harris, Brian Landeros

Facepaint uses openCV and Tkinter for face detection and painting on canvas.

LED Rubik’s Cube

Team Members: Landon Baker, Chase Dowdy, and Edgar Sanchez

Our project is an implementation of a Rubik’s Cube. The cube itself will not be physically manipulated, rather, by pressing buttons the rows and columns can be changed. The cube is accompanied by a GUI that shows all sides of the cube, what column or row is selected to be changed and various other information.

Mini Multicade

Team Members: Ernesto Auerbach, Alex Bazzelle, Ryen LeBlanc

Mini Multicade is a collection of a few classic games (and etch-a-sketch). All of the games are demos, so they are only intended to be played for 5-10 minutes each. They may not have a long playtime, but the features that they do have are fully developed.

Piano Tiles

Team Members: Ah’Brittana Favor, Brianna Richardson

Piano Tiles is a miniature arcade-style game with 4 tactile buttons and a GUI that runs piano tiles.

Turner for Uke

Team Members: Preston Huesmann, Collin Ashley, Henri Tran

Turner for Uke is a guitar tuner with a GUI that tells you when the guitar/Uke is sharp or flat. Also, it will have LEDs showing the sharpness or flatness of the note.

Witness Demo

Team Members: Tyler Johnson, Bergen Dove, and Donovan Dempster

Witness Demo is a fun little maze puzzle game where you draw a line using buttons, to make it to the end. Each level gets harder to complete.

BlackjackPT

Team Members: Brent Bollingham, Michael Tannehill, Isaiah Thigpen

Blackjack PT uses the basic strategy of Blackjack to predict the game and use image recognition to understand the cards and lights to suggest the best course of action to the player.

Crosswalk Assistant

Team Members: Skylar Droddy, James Beene, Ethan Loup

Our project will use a camera that will detect any obstructions in the path of those walking, emitting an audio cue if any are present, and will also caution if vehicles are approaching. Visible indicators will also show oncoming traffic when someone is on the crosswalk.

Guitar Hero

Team Members: April Gauthreaux, Whitney Wallace, Gabe Thompson

We are recreating the video game, Guitar Hero, for our final Pi Project. The game consists of pressing the correct buttons that are shown on the screen. We are using LED lights on the breadboard to determine if the correct buttons were pressed. We also made a guitar that holds the buttons, making it easier for the user to play.

Mini Home Weather Station

Team Members: Prasiddha Neupane, Lucas Jenkins, Logan Stelter

We are building a mini weather recording station that is meant to be displayed in your home to keep track of time and weather. This will be paired with an API that we built to display it on a webpage as well. We also integrated OpenWeatherMapsAPI to get local weather data not recordable by the station itself. The website will allow you to check the temperature of your home on the go.

Plant Pilot

Team Members: Joel Porter, Hassaan Bukhari, Prashant Neupane

The plant project uses temperature and moisture sensors to monitor the health of plants. The sensors will provide real-time data on the temperature and moisture allowing the user to check whether their plant is healthy or not. This information can be used to help optimize the growth of the plants. Additionally, there will be multiple types of plants mentioned on the home page from which users can add plants to their gardens. Each plant type will have a specific value for temperature and moisture.

Raspberry Pi Smart Terrarium

Team Members: Drew Ferrington, James Hardaway, Elijah Palmer

The Raspberry Pi Smart Terrarium is an automated plant-care system contained in a glass terrarium that uses the Raspberry Pi GPIO, led lights, a 2-in-1 temperature and humidity sensor, soil moisture sensors, and a water pump to provide care for plants and relay live information on plant conditions to the user, helping them to interact with the system and their plants in manners that encourage education and growth.

Security Door

Team Members: Dominic Arriola, Alex Rodriguez, Grant Rome

Our project makes it where unlocking and locking a door is done more efficient and easier for everyone. Where people with disabilities or different age ranges can access their homes safely and easier.

Showdown on the Schoolyard

Team Members: Jacob Pace

Showdown on the Schoolyard is a small Pokémon style RPG battle simulator. There is PVE and a final boss battle.

Smart Fridge

Team Members: Udell Worley, Alonzo Mason, Caleb Reed

Our project involves making a fridge that shows a screen with information on the weight of certain items and sets a reminder for when the item is going to expire.

Cyclops

Team Members: Jake Touchet, Matthew Grant, Emilio El-Zahr, Robert Moore

Cyclops is a robot, controlled by a computer interface, that detects specific objects in its surroundings and can navigate towards or away from them.

Interactive Expo Map

Team Members: Matthew Christiensen, Raymond Favaza, Keahi Temple, Cooper Wooten

The Interactive Expo Map is a prototype map for an expo that can provide guests with description and location information on projects in the given expo.

3-D Minesweeper

Team Members: Zachary Blackwell, Quint Palmer, Remy Rains

3-D Minesweeper is a classic game with a 3-D twist. Instead of only having to clear one field, there will be multiple layers of fields all connected to each other. There will be buttons connected to the GPIO that will 1.) allow the user to see one layer at a time 2.) Turn on the “minesweeper”. This will light up LEDs according to how close the user is to the nearest mine.

LED Board

Team Members: Andrew Rupp, Logan Coker, Bryce Mounts

A 10 by 10 board of LEDs that are controlled by an interface with touchscreen compatibility. Whatever is drawn on the interface will be transferred to the LED board and light up the corresponding LEDs.

Pi Keyboard

Team Members: Holden Wells, Timothy Farley, and J Bean

A piano keyboard on the GUI can be used by clicking on the keys on the GUI or pressing keys on your computer keyboard. The breadboard has LEDs that light up to correspond with whatever note is being played, and the audio of the corresponding musical note also plays. A button is also on the breadboard that, when pressed, changes the sound or instrument of the keyboard from a piano to something else, like a guitar. The user can record what they play on the keyboard and play it back. There are also premade recordings the user can listen to. There will also be a game portion where one can learn how to play instruments/learn some music theory.

PiPill

Team Members: Hayden Pott, Landen Nguyen, Sadie Sanders

PiPill is a pill dispenser that can be remotely controlled and scheduled via a web interface that caretakers would be able to use to set up the scheduling and/or manual dispensing of pills.

Room Reserver

Team Members: Gavin Dominique, Max Turner, Grant Cooper, Matthew Blume

A Room Reservation System that will allow students to view all of the study rooms within the IESB. It will let them see which ones are vacant and which ones are currently in use. They will be able to queue up a group (Min size 2) for a study room and they will be notified as soon as a room is available for them to claim it.

SecuroPi Project

Team Members: Elora Browning, Austin Newsom, Brie Bays, Ryan Saffel

Our group is planning to construct a function PiCamera module that will pair with a Pi4 and will display on the RPi Monitor. We hope to implement various features such as data processing, night vision, voice and/or facial recognition software, live streaming, and circuitry components to mimic security features.

The Shattered State of Glass Recycling

Team Members: Jonah Hoffman, Russell Kelly, Kieran Gilpin

One of the main faults of glass recycling in the US is the inability to differentiate materials. Using nothing but a laser, a camera, and some water vapor, we are able to determine the kind of glass being examined by Snell’s law to measure the refractive index, and possibly offer a solution to America’s shattered glass recycling industry.

Joint Living with the Lab/Living with Cyber Projects

Auto-Feed

Team Members: Kailee Lavigne, Caleb Cameron, Jamal Farhat

The Auto-Feed is an automatic pet feeder that can replace manually feeding your pets in a more efficient manner. The Auto-Feed can be set to provide a specific portion of food based on your pets’ eating styles/habits. You can also set a specific time for your pets to eat so that they are on a schedule. When the container of food becomes low, it will automatically add another pet food bag to your shopping cart for the store you use. This ensures that you can balance your work/personal life with your pet’s schedule. This product gives you ways to operate around work, and last-minute plans, and can be used if you could not find a pet sitter to make sure your pet is still fed and doesn’t develop any health issues due to the lack of feedings. Many sensors and devices are used to ensure the efficiency and flexibility of this product. These sensors include a weight sensor, an IR sensor, a motor, and a screen. The weight sensor measures the weight of food in the bowl so that you can set your pet’s specific portion. The IR sensor is used to track when the container of food is low and will add a bag of food to your shopping cart. The motor is used to allow food into the bowl at a certain feeding time schedule. The screen is used to set both the time and the weight of your pet.

Smart Skee

Team Members: Craig Sturiale, Jake Smith, Max Compeaux

Our project, the “Smart Skee”, is an implementation of the already existing Skee Ball machine. Introducing a variety of new features in a compact size, we hope to modernize the idea of Skee Ball in order to help bring the arcade industry back to the market. In our design, we incorporated a variety of game modes and features to help alleviate boredom from extended play. The users can now play the normal game, along with a spinoff of the basketball party game “Pig”. Our new game mode, called “Skee”, starts with the first and second players having four letters with respect to “Skee.” The first player will then shoot the ball, and if it is made the appropriate LED will indicate the specific hole that the second player must make in order to not lose a letter. The game will then continue until one player runs out of letters, in which the other player will win the game. There is a graphical user interface displayed towards the top of the machine which displays a start menu, the main game, and a game over screen. In order for a user to operate the interface, there are two buttons located towards the front of the system. The button to the left will allow the user to select a widget, and the second button will rotate the selected widget to another option. Lastly, to help train new players, there is a velocity tracker located on the display to train users to either throw softer or harder.

Laundro Buddy

Team Members: Erin Campbell, Lucas Dean, William Becker, David Moody

The Laundro Buddy addresses the common problem of using too much or too little detergent for a specific amount of laundry. When buying laundry detergent, one is often instructed or given a specific measurement for a large, medium, and small load. The qualifications for these loads are vague thus causing the user to pour an improper amount of detergent per load. The Laundro Buddy uses weight sensors to obtain an accurate reading on the amount of laundry being used, the weight is then input into a formula that formulates an ideal amount of detergent that would be indicated as the user pours the detergent into the cup. In order to account for diversity, the device comes with a touch screen allowing the user to decide on different brands of liquid detergents to be used along with a history of what has been used and a customizable setting for the screen’s appearance. Economically, the Laundro Buddy is targeted for individual use such as apartments, dorms, suites, households, etc. However, the growth of the product will ultimately lead to uses in larger companies such as laundromats and hotels. Environmentally the device would cut down on the overall use of detergent causing fewer containers to be made, thus preventing detergent containers from being wasted and discarded. All in all, The Laundro Buddy is used to formulate a specific amount of detergent that would be used based on the dimensions of the given load.

Study Room Status

Team Members: Aidan Schaubhut, McKinley Humble, Micah Heflin

The Study Room Status system provides a simple yet effective solution for tracking the occupancy status of a room. It utilizes a PIR sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi, which is then mounted in a room to detect motion. This information is then sent to a database on another device, allowing anyone to check the availability of a room via a website. To determine the availability of a room, the PIR sensor will start a timer once motion is detected. If no motion is detected in 5 minutes, the room will be marked as available. The data is sent through an API and stored in a JSON file on the Raspberry Pi. This file is then read and displayed on the website, providing users with up-to-date information on the occupancy status of the room. This system is a great example of how technology can be used to simplify everyday tasks. Providing real-time information on the availability of a room saves time and eliminates the need for manual checking. This can be especially useful in busy environments such as libraries, schools, or offices where there are limited study spaces. Overall, the Study Room Status system is an efficient and practical solution that demonstrates the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi and PIR sensor technology.

Fetch-Bot

Team Members: Chris Ardoin, Hailey Allmann, Kellee Puisegger

This robot is designed to eliminate the need for unnecessary stops during play of tennis. It is a remote-controlled robot that drives on four wheels that will, once it reaches a tennis ball, automatically close the arms and pick it up. The user can then drive it back to themselves to pick it up. We used the linear actuator built in Engineering 121 along with spring-loaded arms to create the desired opening and closing mechanism.

Super Mega Package Protector 5000

Team Members: Cade Barfield, Brady Burns, Christine Meister

Our project is a wooden drop-box that can be placed on a person’s front porch. The box features an automatic lock that will be engaged when a package is placed inside it. The owner can then input a password on the screen that unlocks the box so that the owner can take the package out. The monitor will also allow the owner to engage a temperature regulator to keep the inside of the box cooler for perishable items such as grocery deliveries and medicines. Additionally, the drop-box will be sealed and insulated to allow for weather resistance, including keeping packages dry from the rain. In order to deter thieves from simply taking the entire package protector box, we set up a loud alarm that goes off when it detects the box is being moved. The only way to turn off this alarm is by inputting the correct password. This package protector is important because of how many people suffer from package theft every year. While this is still an initial version, it will showcase what we believe is a viable product and solution to a very real problem. In the future, we would love to see integration with companies such as the ring doorbell where when a package is delivered it alerts the user.

Automatic Lizard Enclosure

Team Members: Rylie Malbrough, Bailey Travis, Robert Newman

The Automatic Lizard Enclosure incorporates and automates some of the necessary components to provide livable environments for various lizards. The project contains two time-specific lights attached to the top of the enclosure and an automatic humidifier that uses a fan to circulate moisture into the tank. The lights are regulated based on the time of day using Arduino-powered outlets and a real-time clock module. There is a DHT11 sensor inside the tank to measure the humidity and temperature. An upper and lower control limit is set for the humidity and regulates the humidifier and fan based on those values. A user interface displays the enclosure details (temperature & humidity) and other specific settings for lizard breeds.

CodeBuilders: A Tactile Programming Experience

Team Members: Hazem AlSabagh, Cole Sylvester, Ethan Bondad

As of today, there are no computer science standards for K-12 students in Louisiana. There are roughly 70000 unfilled jobs in STEM in Louisiana in 2020 and only 29% of Louisiana public high schools offer a computer science course. On top of that, it is difficult for blind students to be engaged in computer science classrooms since there is barely any accommodation for them. Through universal design, our product helps engage blind and sighted students in collaboratively learning to program in a classroom setting. We aim to make a customary product for the classrooms of Louisiana, introducing computer science standards to K-5 students. By introducing blocks that function as code, with braille on them, students can program a micro: bit robot’s movement using constructs such as loops and functions. The blocks will be placed on a rack that generates the code and creates a Graphic User Interface that simulates the robot’s movement on a monitor. The ability to include arguments in the programming adds an element of freedom and adventure to learning. An audible response of each line or block of code is possible once a block is locked onto the rack. A ping sensor attached to the bot allows for programming with distance from an object while a piezo speaker gives an auditory representation for that distance. Utilizing the reach of our product, we hope to expand nationally and globally.

Porch Package Protector

Team Members: Caiden Ledet, Julia Wilson, Kailie Carrigee

In a world where online shopping has become much more popular, especially after the Covid 19 Pandemic, there is always a risk that is involved with your package being damaged or stolen from the conditions it endures on your porch. The issue of package theft is common with over 260 million packages being stolen in America alone in the past year. Our Porch Package Protector protects the packages that you pay for with your hard-earned money. It is a smart device that provides users with an additional security aspect to their home for only a little cost. Our main frame includes a watertight seal that allows no outside factors to get in. Also, our device is a temperature-controlled space where one could house groceries or even expensive technologies that would benefit from the regulation of temperature. The smart safe requires specific user input. The Porch Package Protector also utilizes camera footage to ensure that a package is delivered properly and safely. Our location sensing aspect ensures that the device is always in a known location on the owner’s porch. The Porch Package Protector will ensure that all consumers receive their products worry-free in the midst of their busy lives.

Braille Printer

Team Members: Dominic Rosario, Connor Heard, Lee Saucier

Our project is a personal braille printer with the aim to be one of the cheaper options on the market. The reason that we chose this as our project is because current braille printers cost, on average, over $1,000. By making a more affordable version, we can make braille more accessible for the blind, which is a step towards giving this community a better quality of life. The way that our project works is by using an embosser that moves along a lead screw. This embosser has a set of multiple braille states that are essentially specific bumps that can be switched on, and a flexible roller is then rolled over the desired state, with the paper in between, in order to emboss the braille onto the paper. The program running on the machine is able to take in a text or pdf file and scan the words in the file. It takes these words and converts them into braille characters, which are then split into their multiple braille states, as each character is made up of two different states. These braille states are then sent to the printer, where, line by line, the braille characters are embossed into the piece of paper. This all comes together to make a device that can receive text input and subsequently print out braille characters, making braille printing accessible at a lower cost than is currently on the market.