IEEE Pumpkin Carving Contest / Part 1

Out on Warren Mall, engineering students are carving away. I just overheard one student lament that he "can't write integrals in pumpkin". Perhaps, but he seems to have the exponent thing down no problem. More photos on the Jacobs School Flickr site.  (There are lots of students out there with cameras, so hopefully we'll get some more pictures from IEEE student org soon.)

2010 LED Pumkin Carving contest photos.

The event is put on by the UC San Diego student branch of the IEEE. (Read more about UC San Diego IEEE.)

ERA 51: What R U Doing? (Video Contest for Founder's Day) / $200 Prize!

This year the campus is hosting a video contest – “What R U Doing?” –  to highlight the remarkable innovations of UC San Diego students, staff, faculty and alumni. The winning video will earn a premiere party at The Loft, with a $200 gift certificate to Zanzibar. Click the graphic above for details.

What are you doing that’s sustainable? How are you giving back to the community? What are you doing to advance technology or to express your creativity? From conducting cutting-edge research to producing original works of art, we know that our campus community is leading the way in innovation and making a positive impact at the university, and in the greater community. In honor of our newest tradition, Founders’ Celebration, the campus is hosting a video contest to showcase what students, staff, faculty and alumni are doing at UC San Diego. Create a video telling us your story and you could win a $200 gift certificate to Zanzibar at The Loft. The contest begins today, Oct. 25, and the winner will be announced Nov. 15—just in time for Founders’ Celebration.

Here’s how it works: create a short video that shows us what you are doing at UC San Diego. Show us through song, dance, performance or any creative method you choose—it can be just you, or recruit your colleagues and friends to be part of the fun! Upload your video to YouTube and post the link to UC San Diego’s new official Facebook page, Facebook.com/UCSanDiegoLife. All video submissions should begin with the sentence “What am I doing in (technology/community service/sustainability/other)…?” and should end by stating your name and relationship to UC San Diego (student/staff/faculty/alumni). The winning video will be chosen by the Founders’ Celebration committee and announced in the Nov. 15 issue of ThisWeek@UCSanDiego, as well as featured on learnlive.ucsd.edu. View the complete contest rules.

 

Automated Trumpet Tuner

In case you missed the UC San Diego automated trumpet-tuning story on Facebook last week, the comment string is below, or check it out on the Jacobs School of Engineering Facebook Fan Page (July 14 entries). Related video is on YouTube.

UC San Diego bioengineering undergraduate Jason Caffrey created an amazing LABVIEW-interfaced device to semi-automatically tune a trumpet. Jason entered it for the annual contest by National Instruments, the vendor of LABVIEW. More detail is below. The punch line is that he needs your vote, now, if you think his design is worthy. (Bioengineering professor Gert Cauwenberghs served as the faculty advisor on the project.)

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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering We can stay within this comment string. So...does your tool REALLY tune a trumpet?
    

    July 14 at 3:02pm · 
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    Jason Caffrey Yes, a fixture that mounts a computer controlled motor to the tuning slide allows for real-time tuning!
    

    July 14 at 3:03pm · 
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Anyone wanting to get up to speed? check out the blog post: http://cse-ece-ucsd.blogsp​ot.com/2011/07/trumpet-tun​er-is-mostly-automatic.htm​l
    

    July 14 at 3:03pm · 
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Do you play the trumpet? If so, has it helped your playing?
    

    July 14 at 3:04pm · 
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    Jason Caffrey I do play the trumpet, and took lessons throughout grade school. If I had this device back when I started playing, I would have loved using its ability to correct for out of tune notes and for learning ear training.
    

    July 14 at 3:05pm · 
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Do you hope to get the technology to the point that kids learning the trumpet will benefit?
    

    July 14 at 3:06pm · 
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    Jason Caffrey The aim has always been geared towards new trumpet players (mostly kids). While this is a prototype designed around the competition details, further work could yield a sleeker and more user friendly tool.
    

    July 14 at 3:09pm · 
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering So what is next in terms of the competition. there is the popular vote that closes tomorrow (hint, hint...vote people!)...but then there is also the technical competition...tell us about that
    

    July 14 at 3:10pm · 
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    Jason Caffrey Yes, our team was selected as a finalist (top 4 worldwide) by technical standards by two NI engineers.In the first week of August, I will fly out to Austin, TX to attend NI Week 2011 and present a poster about the project. During one of the sessions, they will announce the technical competition winner, who wins a $2000 prize.
    

    July 14 at 3:12pm · 
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering congrats. please keep us posted on that. In the meantime...if you're talking to someone who knows nothing about the trumpet tuning project, but they want to know what it's all about, what do you say?
    

    July 14 at 3:14pm · 
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    Jason Caffrey Our team has created a computer-controlled device that automatically trumpet tunes a trumpet while you play it!
    

    July 14 at 3:16pm · 
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering So while you are playing it, the sounds you make start sounding better as the device tunes your playing?
    

    July 14 at 3:18pm · 
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    Jason Caffrey They sure do. As you play a certain note, the device analyzes your pitch and quickly adjusts it to the correct pitch. This way, particular notes that are naturally out of tune on the trumpet are accounted for as well.
    

    July 14 at 3:20pm · 
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Great. thanks for all the info, and good luck in the first week of August in Austin. We'll be sure to check back and see how it goes. Anything else you'd like to add before you sign off?
    

    July 14 at 3:22pm · 
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    Jason Caffrey Just make sure to vote! Thanks so much for this opportunity.
    

    July 14 at 3:24pm · 
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering good luck in Austin!
    

    July 14 at 3:27pm · 

Stingray Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

There is an interesting, techy video on the UC San Diego "Stingray" autonomous vehicle on www.engineeringtv.com The video was shot at the Embedded Systems Conference 2011. Good job Chris Barngrover.

Also, the students themselves have a number of videos of their autonomous underwater vehicle on YouTube and on their IBOTICS site. Also, check out the related Stingray Underwater Craft video from Calit2.

"Wireless Sensors Win" in the News

Yu "Mike" Chi and his winning wireless sensor startup, Cognionics, made their way into Xconomy last week, complete with the photo of Mike trying to hold three oversized checks.

The San Diego Union Tribune ran the Xconomy story as well.

Computer Science Undergrad Kayvon Ghaffari Helps Create Winning Software for Detecting Vascular Diseases Early Among Children in Developing Regions

Kayvon Ghaffari is a computer science undergraduate who is headed to Warsaw, Poland this summer. Why? It’s not (just) for the Perogi. Ghaffari is part of a UCSD team that won the 2010 Imagine Cup in software design. The team’s winning software design helps field doctors use mobile technology to detect vascular diseases early among children in developing regions. The team, called Mobilife, won the eighth annual competition sponsored by Microsoft Corp. They beat out 22,000 other U.S. students, all trying to solve the world’s toughest problems using technology.

The team will compete in July against hundreds of other student teams from other countries and regions in the worldwide finals in Warsaw, Poland.
Read the full story on the news site of the UCSD Rady School of Management.

Kayvon...if you read this, tell us a little more about the software...either in the comments section or via an email to me at: dbkane AT ucsd DOT edu.