ODU Engineering Students Win Awards for Papers
November 16, 2012
Old Dominion University engineering students took first and second place in an annual student paper competition hosted by the Hampton Roads chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
"Development of Organic Solar Cells," by Matthew Samson and Yik To Chan, took first place in the competition. The runner-up team was also from ODU, Jeneen Adamo and Jeff Flora, with their presentation, "Autonomous Robotic Car for Making Electrical Measurements."
Six teams from three different universities took part in the competition at Norfolk State University. The students' presentations about their projects were judged on technical content and presentation style. Judging was done by members of the Hampton Roads IEEE. Hampton University was the third participating institution.
Samson and Chan's project involved research and development into the chemical and material processes needed for the creation of organic solar cells. Additionally, cells were implemented in the laboratory. The goal for organic solar cells is to deliver a cell with higher efficiency at a lower cost.
Adamo and Flora's project discussed the mechanical and electrical system design of an autonomous robotic car capable of performing electrical measurements. The car the ODU students designed had the ability to measure voltages, capacitances and temperatures, and was able to identify waveforms. The car uses the results of these measurements in order to make decisions concerning its direction of travel.
All of the ODU students are in the electrical and computer engineering master's program. Samson's academic research is focused on the development of novel materials for applications in solar energy. Adamo is currently focusing on communication systems for satellites. Flora is studying computer vision algorithms applied to intelligent traffic systems.
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