Tiny Tech Leads to Big Results

Computer engineering program makes a large impact from small components

Five electrical and computer engineering faculty members are making huge technological advancements with very small components.

Drs. James Stine, Jingtong Hu, Weihua Sheng, Carl Latino and Yanmin Gong make up the powerhouse team behind the Computer Engineering Research Program at Oklahoma State University.

“Computer engineering is a relatively new major within the ECE department,” says James Stine, Ph.D. and ECE professor.

“However, it’s a very popular program; about a third of the students in our department choose computer engineering.”

The program started with 42 students in 2006 and now enrolls close to 150 each year.

The computer engineering program offers an undergraduate degree accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology Inc. A graduate program that includes master’s and doctorate options is planned for the future.

“My hope is that it becomes a top-tier engineering program within the United States and the world, and that we receive recognition in promoting a great degree program for the state of Oklahoma,” says Stine. “It all starts with our students, making sure that they understand engineering and computer engineering concepts and making sure that they become successful.”

Computer engineering is similar to electrical engineering, but it includes in-depth instruction in large-scale integration, embedded systems, software engineering and computer architecture.

BY BRITTANY BELLI

“Students can get a lot of experience in embedded systems and software engineering, and since there are a lot of security and privacy issues in such systems, my research fits in well with the program,” says Gong. “My research and courses will better prepare our students for the job market.”

Weihua Sheng, associate ECE professor, also combines his research with the computer engineering curriculum.

“I teach the embedded computer system course, and I am introducing topics such as mobile computing, cloud computing, mobile health and big data,” says Sheng.

Sheng also developed lab exercises using an “educational Roomba” vacuum.

“It doesn’t have the vacuum or suction part, but the design is very similar to the real Roomba robot,” says Sheng. “We use it as a mobile platform to teach students how to develop a smart robot and teach concepts such as interfacing, control and C programming.”

Sheng also received a $725,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for his research combining robots and smart homes.

“I’m trying to develop a robot in a smart home to take care of the elderly who live alone in their homes,” explains Sheng. “Since they live alone, the goal is to monitor their vital signs and their behavior using wearable and environmental sensors. Then, if something urgent happens, the robot can intervene, come to the rescue and contact the caregivers.”

Carl Latino, Ph.D. and associate ECE professor, is also familiar with the robotics aspect of computer engineering. He created the Mercury Robot Challenge in 2010, which has been gaining popularity ever since.

“There are numerous mechanical and computer engineering aspects involved in the robot challenge, making it an excellent interdisciplinary exercise,” says Latino. “These robot systems consist of motion platforms capable of performing missions, avoiding or overcoming obstacles while being driven from a great distance.”

OSU hosted the seventh annual Mercury Robot Competition in April. The competition has become an international sensation, with universities in Mexico, Brazil and Columbia hosting competitions as well.

“The Mercury Robot Challenge is important because it opens up areas of research,” says Latino. “The drivers of these robots must be located over 50 miles away, so data communication and video lag times make driving these robots a real challenge. These competitions have, and continue to encourage, the creation of new designs, strategies and algorithms, and open up exciting new areas of research.”

In addition to robotics, embedded systems and VLSI are also key components to the computer-engineering program.

Jingtong Hu, ECE assistant professor, received one grant from the NSF totaling $190,835 and one grant from OSU totaling $10,000 to research how embedded systems inside wearable devices, such as Fitbits, can be powered through energy harvesting from the environment.

Hu also received an NSF grant totaling $249,999 to research reconfigurable computing.

“Sometimes, when we’re doing one task, you want to adapt or change the functionality of the hardware according to the change of the environment,” he says.

Hu uses turning on the air conditioning in his house from a remote location, such as his office on campus, as an example.

“We need to keep tabs on information and the physical property of things,” says Hu. “We can connect everything to sensors and small computers, connect the smaller computers to a central computer through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and then we can control humidity, temperature, motion and many other things.”

The possibilities and opportunities in the computer engineering research program are endless.

“We always need more and want more information to make sense of the data we have, and we want to predict things,” says Hu.

“That’s what drives our research. As long as we have the desire to find out more, there will always be opportunities for research.”