Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 12/8/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Mike Anderson Thomas Kopriva gives a demonstration of his team's senior project for undergraduate computer engineering, HAZBOT, to his mother Brigitte during the Computer Engineering Expo in the Barrett Ballroom on Saturday. Their prototype unmanned autonomous vehicle includes a GPS, camera and spring-loaded cannon.

Students showcased their final computer and software engineering projects in the Barrett Ballroom Saturday.

Among the 200 projects presented were a Smart Home and a remote-controlled Army tank with full shooting and driving capabilities.

"This is called a capstone project where at the end of the degree you bring it all together in one project," said Sigurd Meldal, the chair of the computer engineering department. "It's a fairly big, substantial piece where they start with a set of requirements that they have to figure out what people actually want from it and then take it all the way through to delivering a final product."

About 300 graduate and senior students worked in teams to create their final projects, which they had two semesters to complete.

"You have a semester to plan it, but actually to work on it, to actually get the hardware done, the programming, it takes one semester," said Andrew Tomlinson, a senior computer engineering major and one of three teammates who built the remote controlled army tank.

The group chose the name "ATAK" because it incorporated the first letters of their last names, and described the tanks main purpose: to attack without the aid of a person.

"What we had intended was to create a military vehicle that didn't require any soldiers to be on site, so they could operate the machinery from a remote location," said Charlie Abboud, a senior computer engineering major.

Tomlinson said they started their project over the summer, but ran out of time.

"We purchased the tank, but built everything in the inside. (We) built the printed circuit board on the inside," Abboud said. "(We) built the printed circuit board on the inside, which has wireless (radio frequency) capabilities up to one mile in open space."

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