18-July-2017: Girls In Engineering (GiE)
Middle school girls who participated in the Girls In Engineering program were given a tour of Hybrid System Lab(HSL). The attendees were introduced to what type of researches are conducted in our lab. In addition to that, a general concept of what engineering and hybrid systems were discussed. During their tour of HSL, they got a chance to watch a live demo which consist of operating a remote-controlled quadcopter while a graduate student explained control systems and their importance. Moreover, students had the opportunity to interact with autonomous obstacle avoidance quadcopter. At end of the demo they were posed a question on what area of study they enjoy most and if they would dedicate themselves to mastering it.
23 & 30-June-2016: Girls in Engineering (GiE)
In coordination with the Girls in Engineering program that is hosted at UC Santa Cruz, the Hybrid Systems Lab gave a series of presentations and demonstrations in an effort to encourage the girls enrolled in the GiE program to pursue careers in engineering. They were given an interactive demonstration where they could control the quadrotor, one at a time, using a specific wand that the motion capture system can track. In addition to this, they were shown an obstacle avoidance demonstration with an RC ground vehicle to highlight a possible real world example. They learned about other applications for a motion capture system (rehabilitation, video game rendering, sensor validation) and the visit was concluded with a presentation introducing them to control systems, how they work, and how they help us.
4-April-2016: Alumni Weekend
Graduate and undergraduate students in the Hybrid System Lab gave several presentations to UCSC alumni regarding the kind of research that goes on in our lab. The alumni were given a demonstration of the motion capture technology that we use in our lab to control vehicles such as RC cars, quadrotors, and helicopters. The alumni were also given an overview about how our motion capture system operates and how it is used to control our vehicles.
5-March-2016: MESA Day
As part of the annual Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement Day held and UC Santa Cruz, the Hybrid systems Lab gave a presentation to a group of middle school and high school kids who have shown an interest in engineering and science related careers. They were introduced to the basic theory behind control systems, how they work, and how they serve to automate tasks in our everyday lives. The presentation was ended with a demonstration using our motion capture system to control a quadrotor.
Summer 2014: High School Internship
Tommy Pryor of Catalina Foothills continued his association with the HDCLab during summer 2014 and worked onresearching the change in behavior of autonomous controllers during the occurrence of a sensor malfunction. To test this hypothesis, he worked with an 'Arduino' microprocessor specifically designed for controlling autonomous vehicles.
Summer 2013: High School Internships
Tommy Pryor of Catalina Foothills High School who was a intern at HDCLab during Summer 2012 continued his work on unmanned vehicle systems. He worked on an autopilot control assist module. This module will be helpful in testing the uncertain behavior of new autopilot systems and in aiding pilots to navigate to their destination. The autonomous aid can also be beneficial to pilots that are learning to maneuver a new aircraft or learn a new navigation route. This project includes parsing the sensor and actuator data acquired by the Arduino (autopilot) board and provide voice commands to navigate the aircraft based on the designed control laws.
Paulina Jurado Solis interned at the HDCLab as a part of Latin America Summer Research Program 2013. Her project was to work with Matlab Simulink in communication with Vicon High Speed motion camera system to control and stabilize small-scale helicopter models. This project focused on optimizing the existing Simulink model to control the flight of two helicopters at the same time. She successfully presented her work during the poster and presentation session of the summer research program.June 2013: Summer Engineering Academy (SEA)
Fall-2012: High School Visits
The HDC lab gave tours to encourage high school students towards a career in engineering. As a part of this program, students visited the HDC lab to get a feel for ongoing research projects.
- A group of 30 high schoolers from Metro Tech High School in Phoenix visited on October 19th.
- 5 students from Southgate School of Tucson visited on October 26th.
- The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) conducted an event on Friday November 10th, where high school students involved in MentorSHPE (a mentoring program) came on campus to get an exposure to university education with a focus towards engineering.
The HDC lab gave them an overview of various engineering projects and associated research.
Fall-2012: Freshmen Visits
Lab tours for Fall 2012 semester started with visits from Freshmen students in September. These visits were meant for helping the students in understanding campus resources and determining their engineering major.
- As a part of ENGR 197 class, Freshmen living in the Engineering Zone of Gila Hall visited the lab on September 12th and 13th.
- On September 26th, students associated with AIAA joined us at the lab to understand the research activities and projects associated with the HDC lab.
- This was followed by a visit from Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) of Gila Hall on September 28th.
Fall-2012: Yuma Visit
Yuma Proving Grounds YPG/DoD have visited the University of Arizona campus on November 5th followed by a visit on November 27th as a part of UAS Yuma Consortium. The HDC lab provided a lab tour to encourage activities associated with UAVs/UGVs research. These visits were intended to encourage a collaboration between UofA and YPG.
Summer-2012: Summer Internships at the HDC lab
Students from local high schools joined the Hybrid Dynamics and Controls (HDC) lab to work alongside undergraduate and graduate students on various projects for the Summer of 2012 at the University of Arizona. During the firstweek, they got familiarized with the usages of the softwares frequently applied in the lab such as, C++, MATLAB, SolidWorks, and the software for High speed motion capture system (Vicon). They also got acquainted with different vehicle platforms used for experimentation in the lab. From the second week and for the rest of the duration of the internship, the students were assigned a mentor to work on different projects and vehicle platforms. Henry Lei of University High School worked on tuning the closed-loop control algorithm’s used on a small radio-controlled vehicle using the High speed motion capture system (Vicon). Tommy Pryor of Catalina Foothills worked on the waypoint navigation of an unmanned ground vehicle using autopilot system and navigational sensors. Along with the high school interns, Nicholas Valverde who is currently a sophomore in Mechanical Engineering program at the University of Arizona was actively working on the design of a Pipe robot.
Summer-2012: Summer Engineering Academy Camp Visits
High school students taking part in the Summer Engineering Academy (SEA) held at the University of Arizona took tours of different lab’s on campus for four weeks of the summer. The HDC lab being one of labs on the tour, the participants of the camp were introduced to the control problems and various projects at the lab by the graduate and undergraduate students. This included a detail description of the techniques used in the lab followed by a ‘question and answer’ session encouraging students to make careers choices towards problem solving and engineering. There were a total of five lab tours consisting of two sessions per visit conducted during the summer of 2012.
27-Aug-2011: Training Lecture on Control Engineering
Prof. Sanfelice offered an introductory lecture for teachers from local middle and high schools affiliated with the MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) program. The lecture was on control engineering and its main objectives were to provide the teachers with appropriate material to introduce basic control principles in their classrooms and to involve their students in the activities at the lab. In addition to basic mathematical control concepts, the lecture featured a laboratory demonstration with state-of-the-art technology for indoor motion control. As part as their yearly training by the Office of Early Academic Outreach at UA, more than 25 teachers from Tucson area attended the event on August 27, 2011, at the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.
Summer 2011: Summer internship
Five students from Palo Verde High Magnet School joined the HDC lab for a two week internship. During the first week, the students integrated their ground vehicle into the lab testbed and designed a simple open-loop steering control algorithm. In the second week they learned how to control a small-scale helicopter and modified a control algorithm to land it on their ground vehicle. They worked in groups and collaborated with undergraduate and graduate students at the lab.
Summer 2010: Summer internship
Three students from Palo Verde High Magnet School joined the HDC lab for a two week internship. Chaunteal Rasmussen, Irina Orlova, and Nicholas Valverde learned how to build, configure, and program a ground autonomous vehicle to visit a number of waypoints via feedback control. They worked in groups and collaborated with undergraduate and graduate students at the lab.
23-Jan-2010: Training Workshop on Control Engineering
Prof. Sanfelice offered an introductory workshop for teachers from local middle and high schools on topics of control engineering. The main objectives of the workshop were to provide teachers with appropriate material to introduce basic control principles in their classrooms and to involve their students in the activities at the lab. In addition to basic mathematical control concepts, the workshop featured a laboratory demonstration with state-of-the-art technology for indoor motion control. Eight teachers from Tucson area attended the event on January 23, 2010, at the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.
4-Dec-2009: Visit to Palo Verde High Magnet School
Prof. Sanfelice and three of his students visited Palo Verde High Magnet School. Teachers and students welcomed us with a demonstration of their hardware and software systems used to develop ground robots of all sorts. We learned about their project organization and documentation methods. The technical level and way of operation of the working teams resembles that of top companies in the country. We discussed join activities to carry out at the UofA during Summer 2010. We are eager to start these activities, which will be scheduled during Spring 2010.
2-Oct-2009: Students from Palo Verde High Magnet School visit our Lab
A group of students from Palo Verde High Magnet School (PVHMS), a high school in Tucson AZ, visited our lab. The students learned about the control problems being studied at the lab, the technology and methods being used, and asked general questions about engineering careers. This is the kick-off activity for an exciting relationship between Palo Verde and our group, which will consist of joint engineering projects, Summer internships at our lab, and mentoring for high-school students planning to continue in engineering careers. This group of students have been trained in system design since early stages of their education through Mr. Cohen's program at PVHMS, an intense design, build, and test program spanning across mechanical and electrical engineering.
30-Jun-2009: Algebra Academy
The Algebra Academy is a five-week summer program for rising 9th graders that allows students to construct their understanding of algebraic concepts through project-based, small group learning. In partnership with the Sunnyside Unified School District and the Tucson Unified School District, the Algebra Academy has been offered to students entering Catalina Magnet High School, Cholla High Magnet School, Desert View High School, Pueblo Magnet High School, Sunnyside High School, and Tucson High Magnet School. With funding from the Lumina Foundation for Education, the Algebra Academy has served 383 students in the three years of its existance and provided a unique professional development opportunity for 21 local middle/high school teachers. While the initial funding has been expended, the Office of Early Academic Outreach is actively seeking financial support to continue the program. Prof. Sanfelice gave one 1 hour introduction to control systems.
More info at http://eao.arizona.edu/algebra Press release athttp://uanews.org/node/26238
24-Jun-2009: Summer Engineering Academy (SEA)
Summer Engineering Academy is a week long residential camp held on the The University of Arizona campus. Session I is open to students who will enter grades nine and ten in the upcoming fall. Sessions II and III are open to students in grades eleven and twelve. Students who attend the Summer Engineering Academy will investigate the careers available in engineering! Students will have the opportunity to learn how engineers impact the world everyday. They will spend time in the classroom with University professors learning about topics ranging from the Fundamentals of Aerodynamics to Materials used in Engineering. Students and their teammates will design aerodynamic cars and devices. They will then make models from their designs and test them in a specially-built wind tunnel. Students will be trained to use SolidWorksTm, a 3-D design software. Prof. Sanfelice gave two 1 hour introduction to control systems.
More info at http://engr.arizona.edu/students/future/sea/index.html
2 & 9-Jun-2009: Summer Engineering Robotics Camp (SERC)
The College of Engineering at the University of Arizona (UA) will present the Burr Brown Texas Instruments Summer Engineering Robotics Camp to attract qualified 6, 7, and 8 grade students to consider engineering as a career option. The fundamental idea behind the Summer Engineering Robotics Camp is to show prospective engineers exactly how an idea becomes reality. Students will build robots from Lego Mindstorm kits and compete in design team challenges testing their models for speed, endurance, and other technological abilities. Also, the students will be exposed to computer programming. Not only with the Lego program for robots, students will be trained to use Solidworks and Power Injection Technology for Computer aided Design (CAD) and rapid prototyping (RP), respectively, to invent their own robots. Classroom lectures will cover topics ranging from Fundamentals of Mathematics and Physics to engineering design and project management. Prof. Sanfelice gave two 1 hour introduction to control systems.
More info at http://engr.arizona.edu/students/future/serc/index.html