An Industry Sponsored Capstone Project: A Story Of Success

This paper presents a capstone project that has been sponsored by American Electric Power (AEP). AEP, like other companies, relies on shippers to move equipment long distances. Sometimes during these trips, the shipped object is damaged, causing financial losses. AEP requested a device which monitors when and where damages occur. A device was designed which gives AEP this capability. Since the duration of a shipment may be up to two months, the device must contain an adequate power supply. The device records multiple impacts as well the location, date, and time of each impact. It contains a timer which can be used to record each impact in the event that Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites are not available. Collected data is written to a memory card so it can be retrieved using a PDA or laptop. The monitoring device consists of a Programmable Interface Controller (PIC), an accelerometer, a GPS receiver, a memory card slot, and other electrical components. When an impact occurs, the PIC logs the value of the acceleration and activates the GPS device to determine the time and the device’s present location. If the GPS device is unable to receive a signal, the PIC will record the time of the impact. The PIC sends this information to the memory card. A software package developed to work with this device enables the end user to view a map indicating where each impact occurred. The impact data is retrieved by inserting the memory card into a PC or PDA. Information about the strength and time of each impact is displayed on a map. The design project has won first place as the best design project at Ohio Northern University (ONU) and second place in the IEEE-Student Activities Conference 2009. The paper presents the technical content of the design, the assessment of the design with respect to ABET criterion a-k, and the advantages of and recommendations for industry-sponsored projects.