Senior Project
One of the most prominent features of the Academy is Senior project. After three years of engineering education, the fourth year is devoted to a free-form project in which students must learn to manage from start to finish a full-scale engineering project. Students must either invent a new product, or add value to an existing product. Before the project starts, students complete a full patent search, and must pick a project which is different from any existing products. Students are required to give regular progress reports and must give between five and ten presentations per quarter, including seminar presentations on topics related to their projects. Accurate gantt chart-type progress plans must be meticulously maintained alongside a full patent-ready documentation folder including an engineering notebook which must be dated, signed, and witnessed.
- Electronic projects
Projects in the electronic engineering track must contain both a hardware and a software portion of the project. Typically, this is satisfied using a PIC microcontroller or other similar device programmed in assembly code.
Projects in the Electronic track have included a hydrogen fuel cell powered R/C car, an automatic door lock, a self-regulating awning, a chair with built-in rumble/surround sound, automatic coupon calculator, a USB Morse Code keyboard, an automatically adjusting light dimmer, a robotic spider, a room-mapping device, a season pass system for amusement parks similar to E-ZPass, and a wireless parking meter system.
- Civil/Mechanical projects
Projects in the Civil/Mechanical track must be approved by the instructor and generally contain no complex electronics. As such, projects are limited to things which can be built in the classroom using the available tooling.
Projects in the C/M track have included a hand operated trash compactor, a new type of whiteboard eraser, a self-cleaning rake, and a system for removing excess carbon monoxide from car exhaust using hemoglobin.
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