2024 Design and Research Conference

Substation Intrusion Detection System

Team Members: Justin Bramlett, Hebane Guehi, Ethan Roberts, and Reese Seals

Advisors: Dr. Matthew Hartmann, Dr. Sandra Zivanovic, and Dr. Miguel Gates

The Substation Intrusion Detection System is an advanced security system that aims to enhance the protection of electrical substations – critical facilities that control and monitor the electricity supplied to communities, homes, and businesses. Our system synthesizes the features of machine learning, network tunneling, protective firewalls, infrared cameras, triangulation, and data collection to create a product that can be implemented into pre-existing security systems. This innovative system strives to provide 24/7 comprehensive surveillance security and threat-detection capabilities using YOLO (You Only Look Once) for object detection, camera triangulation (Stereo Vision) for distance calculations, and virtual zones using PyTorch to establish a relationship between object boundary boxes and zones coordinates. Two OV5647 5MP camera modules are used to calculate the distance of an intruder as well as build redundancy by only displaying threats if both cameras detect a person that exceeds a confidence score of 0.5. The Substation Intrusion Detection System aims to collect and send this data securely through tunneling by establishing public and private keys via WireGuard. By utilizing these various technologies, our system’s goal is to ensure that electrical substations remain secure by minimizing the risk of damage and loss of power to communities.

High Line Values

Team Members: Allen Barnard, Aaron Bender, Garret Bussey, and Andrew Tamburo

Advisors: Dr. Matthew Hartmann, Dr. Sandra Zivanovic, and Dr. Prashanna Bhattarai

High Line Values provides a scalable, low-cost alternative to expensive permanent meters, helping utilities optimize grid performance and plan infrastructure upgrades efficiently. This project addresses the current limitations of power monitoring methods used by utilities, which are typically limited to single-instance readings and require direct contact with high-voltage lines. High Line Values is a lightweight, portable device designed to continuously monitor current and estimate power factor on distribution lines over several days. Our prototype integrates a magnetic split-core current transformer and a custom-built capacitive electric field sensor with an ESP32 microcontroller. This configuration enables long-term, non-intrusive monitoring without a direct voltage connection. Using phase angle differences between electric field and current waveforms, our system estimates power factor with less than 2% error at 300A (scaled testing). The data is sampled every 12 minutes and logged to a microSD card for post-processing in MATLAB. The device is weatherproof, hot-stick deployable, and modular, supporting safe installation and maintenance. The design supports future expansions, including wireless data retrieval and full-scale testing. This solution bridges the gap between affordability and functionality, enabling utilities to gain deeper, real-time insights into grid behavior without the cost or complexity of traditional monitoring systems.

Automatic Card Identification and Sorting Machine

Team Members: Daniel Taylor, Matthew Dickerson, Andrew Finch, and Elijah Tomlin

Sponsor: A&H Games

Advisors: Dr. Matthew Hartmann and Dr. Sandra Zivanovic

This project aims to enhance the efficiency of cashiers in trading card shops by developing a specialized card sorting and identification machine. Currently, cashiers manually enter each card into the POS system, a process that is time-consuming and tedious, especially when handling the quantities of cards typically associated with consumer sales (100-500). By distinguishing high-value cards for condition evaluation and seamlessly integrating with existing POS systems, the device will significantly reduce checkout times, allowing employees to focus on other shop activities. This innovation not only promises to lower operational costs and improve profit margins for card shops, but also aims to enhance employee job satisfaction by alleviating the monotony associated with current checkout processes. The project builds on market research and discussions with industry experts to fill a critical gap in cashier-side card sorting technology.

Solar Powered Charging Station

Team Members: Gabriel Monterrosa, Norma Olinde, Ethan Rachal, and North Smith

Advisors: Dr. Matthew Hartmann and Dr. Sandra Zivanovic

Electric bike and scooter usage has spiked over the last few years, and this sudden rise can be seen on campus. More bikes and scooters mean more people needing to charge them, but Louisiana Tech does not have any charging solutions. Students living on campus are prohibited from charging where they live, which leads to classrooms and hallways cluttered with charging scooters. The Solar Powered Charging Station offers a solution for the lack of on-campus charging here at Tech by using power generated from the sun in a constructed DC-DC electric system. The DC architecture of the solar charging station minimizes losses and system complexity while allowing modularity. Our station is able to handle any type of bike and scooter, charging batteries at both 36V and 48V with ~2A charging current. This DC system harnesses the sun’s power using photovoltaic panels to charge multiple electric bikes and scooters and provides a sustainable way for students to charge their devices.

Static VAR Compensator

Team Members: Grayson Cary, Daniel Eymard, and Manuel Sandoval

Advisors: Dr. Matthew Hartmann and Dr. Sandra Zivanovic

The Static VAR Compensator is a device designed and created with the objective of performing dynamic power factor correction onto a three-phase motor in the Louisiana Tech Power Lab. The completed final prototype is hoped to be used as a teaching device for future power systems laboratory classes, to show students how industry devices are able to automatically improve power factor. To perform power factor correction for leading and lagging loads, we will be using capacitors banks switched in by relays, along by triac switched reactor banks. These banks have been sized to correct power factor from 0.8 lagging or leading power factor to a target power factor of 0.95 or greater. The devices measured voltage magnitude and phase, current magnitude and phase, and uses these values to calculate current power factor, as well as how much reactive power must be injected to the system to reach the target power factor.

ThermaJump

Team Members: John Peshoff, Reid Firmin, and Nathaniel Dubois

Advisors: Dr. Matthew Hartmann and Dr. Sandra Zivanovic

The ThermaJump project is aimed to develop a self-sustaining vehicle jumpstart system by repurposing waste exhaust heat to generate electrical power. The motivation behind the project is to provide an alternative to traditional jumpstart methods, reducing reliance on external assistance, enhancing driver convenience and providing extra support in the event of a dead battery. The system uses a thermoelectric generator (TEG) array to convert waste heat into electrical energy, which is stored in a portable jump starter. A buck converter was integrated to step down the generated voltage, ensuring compatibility with the jump starter. A remote-activated solenoid was also added as a safety feature to prevent accidental discharge. In evaluating the prototype, it was found that the TEG array successfully generated more than the minimum charging limit of 2.66V and 66.2mA, providing sufficient power to charge the jump starter. Despite challenges such as cost overruns and TEG efficiency limitations, the project demonstrated the feasibility of utilizing waste heat for vehicle jumpstarting. Future improvements will focus on optimizing heat transfer and investigating potential for integration into vehicle manufacturing. The ThermaJump offers a sustainable and innovative solution for self-reliant vehicle operation, reducing energy waste and improving convenience. With the ThermaJump, users can rest easy, knowing that even in the event that a car won’t start due to a dead battery, they have something that can get them to where they need to go regardless.

Development of Novel Nanomaterials for Rare Earth Element Resource Recovery

Team Members:  Taylor Massey

Sponsor: U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Laboratory (ERDC-EL) and Dr. Jesse Roberts

Advisors: Dr. Sandra Zivanovic and Dr. Matthew Hartmann

Rare earth elements (REEs) are necessary components to Department of Defense (DoD) technology. However current REEs are sourced in majority from foreign countries. Researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Laboratory (ERDC-EL) were given funding for this project through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from July 2024 to June 2025. After highlighting the background surrounding metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and composites with new applications for REE recovery from domestic waste streams, this project will develop novel nanomaterials in the form of MOFs and MOF-Graphene composite materials that are engineered for REE selectivity. These materials will be synthesized, characterized, and tested experimentally to determine key results such as kinetics and adsorption capacities. By designing novel materials, this project will increase the efficiency of domestic sourcing of REEs, therefore reducing the dependency on foreign sources. Current technology is either heavily polluting, or not yet efficient enough at scalable levels, and this project will aim to improve that efficiency while remaining environmentally friendly. To date, this project has synthesized more than five grams each of seven unique nanomaterials. Each material has been characterized, and several adsorption studies have been conducted to determine the nanomaterials’ adsorption behaviors.

Lantharion – Using UV LEDs to Identify Fluorescent Compounds

Team Members:  Ben Allen, MyLe Hoang, Gavin Soniat, Jake Stelly

Sponsor: LaSPACE (Dr. Elisabeth Fatila)

Advisors: Dr. Sandra Zivanovic, Dr. Matthew Hartmann, and Dr. Elisabeth Fatila

Fluorimetry is an analytical technique used for chemical compound identification and analysis. However, conventional fluorimeters are often expensive, energy-intensive, produce high amounts of heat, and are difficult to transport because of their weight and size. We designed and developed a specialized fluorimeter that addresses these challenges and is optimized for a specific range of excitation and emission wavelengths. The excitation wavelength ranges cover most conjugated organic compounds. Our proof-of-concept fluorimeter is capable of exciting fluorescent compounds in the near UV range of 350-400 nm which generate emission spectra in the visible range. Our system facilitates rapid optical characterization of compound samples. The design is structured into three key subsystems: Excitation Assembly (EXA), Emission Capture Assembly (ECA), and Data Processing (DP). The EXA includes four UV LEDs, a microcontroller, and a bipolar-junction-transistor-based circuit. The ECA includes sample housing and a spectrometer for fluorescence detection. The DP features an algorithm designed to minimize noise and source reflections, ensuring accurate spectral analysis. This compact and energy-efficient system has a significant potential for use in resource-constrained environments such as spacecraft and remote field applications. Additionally, the low cost of specialized LED-based fluorimeters can make this technology more accessible, enabling broader adoption across various industries.

StairSafe Wheelchair

Team Members: Brody Barnhill, Jacob Carter, Ryder Naquin

Advisors: Dr. Sandra Zivanovic, Dr. Matthew Hartmann, and Dr. Lingxiao Wang

The StairSafe Wheelchair is a scaled-down prototype robot. This robot integrates mechanical and electrical engineering aspects by adding the ability to traverse stairs and balance upright on two wheels. The motivation for this project stems from Dr. Lingxiao Wang’s proposed idea to build a self-balancing two-wheel car. Current solutions on the market are complex and expensive, limiting who can access these technologies. Our solution solves this issue by decreasing the price of the wheelchair and simplifying the overall design. Our goal is to show a working prototype with the possibility of upscaling with design changes. The design is similar to the Scewo Bro wheelchair with a deployable tank tread to climb stairs. We have designed our tank tread deployment system by using motors connected to toothed pulleys to drive the tread and a linear actuator to deploy the system. This subsystem works in tandem with a control loop using a Proportional, Integral, Derivative (PID) controller to maintain the robot’s upright position autonomously.

Selective Hearing

Team Members: Lucas Burns, James Clack, William Blaise Olinde, Nathaniel Terrbonne

Advisors: Dr. Sandra Zivanovic, Dr. Matthew Hartmann, Dr. Hamidreza Mirzaei, and Dr. Miguel Gates

Selective Hearing is a project that combines active noise cancellation technology with a differential beamforming microphone array to selectively pass audio based on the user’s direction. In other words, this means that the user of this technology can hear what he is looking at without having to hear the other noises around him. We accomplish this by adapting the technology used in telecommunications called beamforming. We’ve adapted this technology, used in solid state radars and cellular towers and many other areas, for use with sound waves instead of electromagnetic waves. The goal of the project is to prove or disprove that this is a viable technology that can be incorporated into future wearables. Current headphone technologies typically only have two modes: noise canceling and transparency mode. Hearing aid users also have a poor experience since they only have the ability to adjust the volume of pass-through. These modes work most of the time, but there are many situations where these modes are not sufficient, particularly in noisy environments. This technology could allow for quality-of-life improvements to the hearing impaired people, students, and essentially anyone who lives in or visits overwhelmingly loud environments.

Impedance-Based Viscometer

Team Members: Bryton Breeding, Joseph Johnson, Mason Triplett, Taj’ Wills

Advisors: Dr. Sandra Zivanovic, Dr. Matthew Hartmann, and Dr. Arwa Fraiwan

Traditional viscometers rely on mechanical components that introduce inaccuracies due to friction and wear, require frequent calibration, and are less effective for non-Newtonian fluids like blood. Their complexity also contributes to high costs, limiting accessibility for widespread use.
Our project addresses these limitations by developing a non-mechanical, impedance-based viscometer that enables accurate, real-time viscosity measurements at a significantly lower cost. The system consists of a microcontroller connected to three pairs of electrodes, which detect a short-circuit condition correlating with the liquid’s impedance as it flows through a sensor channel. By analyzing flow rate variations, the system effectively determines viscosity. Data acquisition is automated through an embedded system that records impedance only when specific signal conditions are met.
The prototype enhances medical diagnostics by enabling faster and more precise blood viscosity measurements, aiding in the early detection and treatment of blood-related conditions. Researchers can leverage their data for hematology studies, leading to new medical insights. Additionally, healthcare regulatory bodies benefit from improved diagnostic accuracy, ensuring compliance with safety standards. The results demonstrate the feasibility of impedance-based viscosity measurement, offering a cost-effective alternative to traditional viscometers while maintaining accuracy and reliability.

EcoScan: A Sensor-Based Solution for the Probable Detection of Bacteria

Team Members: Nicholas Dismer, Alexandros Maldonado, and Brett Weindel

Advisors: Dr. Sandra Zivanovic and Dr. Matthew Hartmann

Bacterial outbreaks, particularly those caused by Pseudomonas strains, pose significant threats to fish populations. For instance, Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been proven to be the cause of septicemia in many fish species, leading to symptoms such as hemorrhages, skin ulcers, and high mortality rates. These infections not only impact fish health but also have serious economic repercussions for local fisheries and aquaculture farming operations. Modern methods of testing for waterborne pathogens can be costly, time-consuming, and require external equipment in a lab. Our team looks to establish a reliable method for rapidly assessing the presence of Pseudomonas strains in a water sample through three primary checks: environmental living conditions, increases in ammonia concentrations, and measurement of fluorescence. By utilizing sensor technology and optoelectronic systems, we can demonstrate the potential of a portable, accessible alternative to traditional laboratory-based pathogen testing.