2011-12 Capstone Project Descriptions
2011-01 -- Flight Dynamics System Design ................................................................................. 1
2011-02 -- Reducing Risky Behaviors Associated With 21st Birthdays ........................................ 4
2011-03 -- Use of Microsoft Kinect for Analysis of Ergonomics and Productivity in
an Industrial Setting .................................................................................................... 5
2011-04 -- Improved Threat Assessment Using Cultural Factors ................................................. 6
2011-05 -- A Software Testbed for Expert Knowledge Capture ................................................... 7
2011-06 -- Experimental Evaluation of Auction Designs for Spectrum Allocation
Under Interference Constraints ................................................................................... 8
2011-07 -- An Immersive Virtual Training Capability, Integrating Sensors with a
Virtual Environment to Track Arm, Hand, and Finger Position for
Treating Phantom Limb Pain ....................................................................................... 9
2011-08 – FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) .................................. 12
2011-09 -- Systems Design for Managing Economic Development on
Infrastructure Corridors ............................................................................................. 14
2011-10 -- Rapid Adaptive Needs Assessment (RANA) for Humanitarian
Assistance and Disaster Response .......................................................................... 15
2011-11 -- Water and Health in Limpopo .................................................................................... 16
2011-12 – “apps” for Pre-Hospital Emergency Services ............................................................ 18
2011-13 -- Targeted Advertising in the Online Video (OLV) Space ............................................ 19
2011-14 -- Data Integration for the Albemarle/Charlottesville Criminal Justice
System ...................................................................................................................... 21
2011-15 -- Conformance Monitoring in Future Terminal Airspace .............................................. 22
2011-01 -- Flight Dynamics System Design
Faculty Advisor: Reid Bailey
Sponsor: Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin
Type of Sponsor: Industry/Private
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? No
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
I don't anticipate so, but am not totally
sure
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
I don't anticipate so, but am not totally
sure
Project Description:
Background / context: Lockheed Martin IS&GS provides premier satellite ground systems for
government and commercial customers. Capabilities include Mission Management, Command
and Control, Data Routing, and product Processing. Our customers demand low cost, reliable,
highly flexible solutions that can meet their current and future needs. They have high
performance demands to meet user needs and business objectives.
Ground systems may be acquired by a customer as end-to-end solutions, components, or
extensions to existing systems. Customers use Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to communicate
their needs and solicit bids. RFPs encompass the extent of the system the customer is
interested in purchasing. These RFPs may be very open ended and offer bidders some
flexibility in solutions, while others will be very specific and convey through requirements a very
specific need. This project is very similar to the experience of receiving a satellite ground
system RFP for a singular component, the Flight Dynamics System (FDS), and the generation
of a supporting design that would be costed.
Problem / opportunity statement: Flight Dynamics is an essential capability that must exist in
any satellite ground system. Without this capability satellites would not maintain their orbits and
ground users would lack essential information to execute mission and fail to maintain contact.
Data is passed between Mission Management (mission and satellite bus planning and
scheduling) and the FDS. For purposes of this project Mission Management generates an
integrated vehicle and mission schedule which contains everything the vehicle will need to do
including remote sensing (i.e. imaging), slewing, orbit adjusts, calibrations, and alignments, etc.
The schedule is translated into commands and uploaded to the vehicle by Command and
Control.
The following are High-level Requirements for Flight Dynamics System:
1. FDS shall provide spacecraft orbit determination to an accuracy of (TBS) meters
2. FDS shall provide the capability to create a predicted vehicle ephemeris that is accurate
to within (TBS) km (1-sigma) over 72 hours.
3. FDS shall provide the capability to send the predicted ephemeris file to Command and
Control
pg. 1
4. FDS shall provide the capability to send the predicted ephemeris file to Mission
Management
5. FDS shall provide the capability to retrieve the Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) file
from a source that uses International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service
(IERS) data.
6. FDS shall provide the EOP information to the satellite, Command and Control, and
Mission Management.
7. FDS shall provide the capability to generate two-line element sets (TLEs) for each
satellite location.
8. FDS shall provide generation of ground terminal site in-views.
9. FDS shall provide orbital event data (nodal crossings, eclipse data, etc.)
10. FDS shall provide planning of orbit maneuvers (when, how much, etc.)
11. FDS shall provide attitude determination and prediction
12. FDS shall provide geo-location support data for product exploitation
13. FDS shall generate response to collision avoidance alerts
Key questions to be addressed:
• What technologies have been selected (highlight integration flexibility and extendibility,
strengths, weaknesses, platform dependencies, ability to seamlessly replace technology
for comparable solution)?
• What candidate solutions where developed to fulfill gap analysis? Highlight interaction
with FDS components.
• If multiple technologies are integrated, how were interface complexities and performance
impacts mitigated? How “tightly coupled” is resulting FDS prototype?
• Extensibility – can prototype support a constellation of satellites?
• Analyze impacts to FDS prototype for varying mission types (e.g., GEO communication
Satellite, HEO SBIRS Satellite, LEO Cubesat)?
Additional Project considerations:
• Satellite considerations for this project:
o Two similar satellites (GeoEye-1 like)
o Low earth orbit (LEO)
o Electrical Optical Payload (EO)
o Launch provider will put vehicle into proper orbit
o Sun-synchronous
• COTS products are desirable, but they are not required. Use of COTS should consider
initial cost outlay and maintenance costs.
• Other system considerations often include automation, data storage and recovery,
failover, and technical standards and conventions (WGS, IERS, etc.)
If a project team encounters a requirement that has been overlooked in the generation of the
document it is highly recommended that the team make an assumption in order to move forward
and validate assumption at next Technical Exchange Meeting (TEM).
Tasks:
1. Requirements Analysis and Design (Phase I)
i. Further refine the following high level requirements into lower level requirements and
assign lower-level requirements to the end architecture and software solutions
(COTS product, developed function, etc.).
ii. Develop a logical end architecture and associated design decomposition showing
internal and external interfaces, and high-level flight dynamics system components
pg. 2
iii. Generate Use Cases that describes different uses of the system (normal operations,
anomaly resolution, hardware failure, collision avoidance, etc) to validate the design
and requirements
iv. Evaluate candidate technologies (e.g., Industry, COTS, Open Source); conduct trade
analysis when multiple solutions are identified.
v. Execute Make-Buy analysis when technology gaps are identified; for technology
shortfall, prototype candidate solution to satisfy requirement subset.
2. Develop FDS prototype to satisfy functional and performance FDS requirements (day-in-life
scenario of FDS Operator) – establishing well-defined interfaces to orchestrate selected
technologies and developed services (as required) (PHASE II – currently not funded)
3. Develop a final technical report describing COTS integration/interaction, value-added
innovations/contributions and recommendations regarding products, their interfaces,
extendibility, O&M projections, risks, technical and programmatic assumptions. Produce
hardware diagram for both a development and production environments. Generate list of
equipment, storage space, and software products (Bill of Materials) necessary for both
environments. (PHASE 1 and II)
This is an interdisciplinary project that will include a team of electrical, computer, and systems
engineering students.
pg. 3
2011-02 -- Reducing Risky Behaviors Associated With 21st Birthdays
Faculty Advisor: Ellen J. Bass
Sponsor: The U.Va. Center to Promote Effective Youth DevelopmentThe U.Va. Center
to Promote Effective Youth Development
Type of Sponsor: Other (please specify)
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Twice per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? Yes
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
I don't anticipate so, but am not totally
sure
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
I don't anticipate so, but am not totally
sure
Project Description:
This research project builds on the experience of Student HealthÕs Gordie Center for Substance
Abuse Prevention in developing and evaluating celebratory drinking interventions. The project goal is to
increase protective behaviors, and reduce alcohol consumption, estimated blood alcohol concentrations
(eBAC), and negative consequences associated with 21st birthday celebrations. Previous research
conducted by the Gordie Center indicates that misperceptions exist regarding number of drinks
consumed during 21st birthday celebrations and that electronic media may be an effective method of
providing personalized, normative feedback.
In this project, we will develop and evaluate an online, personalized 21st birthday celebration
intervention. The target population is at-risk U.Va. college students about to turn 21 years of age. Brief,
personalized interventions, including those delivered electronically, are a National Institute on Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism’s (NIAAA) “Tier 1” strategy to effectively reduce quantity and frequency of drinking
and negative consequences among college students. Although two published studies have examined the
impact of delivering normative messages by Web or email to address 21st birthday celebrations, the
studies invariably integrated personalized feedback, did not assess change in normative alcohol
consumption perceptions, are limited by participation bias, and found mixed results on post-intervention
alcohol consumption. There remains a need to develop novel, standardized approaches that may be
feasibly implemented and disseminated on a broad scale, such as an electronic approach. The
intervention will be delivered electronically via email and Web and will include information on normative
alcohol consumption patterns during 21st birthday celebrations, negative consequences, and protective
behaviors (e.g., eating beforehand, spacing drinks, using a buddy system). Pre-testing will take place in
fall 2011, with implementation and evaluation conducted in spring 2012. Students who turn 21 in February
and March 2012 will be randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition to test the intervention.
Mixed methods employed in this project will include quantitative and qualitative data collection and
analysis through online surveys and focus groups, the application of user centered design principles, and
social norms marketing.
pg. 4
2011-03 -- Use of Microsoft Kinect for Analysis of Ergonomics and
Productivity in an Industrial Setting
Faculty Advisor: Peter Beling
Sponsor: Commonwealth Center for Advanced ManufacturingCommonwealth Center
for Advanced Manufacturing
Type of Sponsor: Industry/Private
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? No
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
No
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
No
Project Description:
In 2010-2011, Microsoft set a world record for consumer electronic sales by shipping more than 10 million
Kinect devices. The Kinect system uses projection of a grid of infrared dots to determine the depth of
every object in its field of view. By mapping depth information to models of the human form, the system is
able to provide skeletal-level tracking at 30 frames/second for several individuals in the field of view. The
ability to remotely track body positions is what makes Kinect a unique device for controlling a game
console.
In this project, we aim to exploit the Kinect for analysis rather than control. Specifically, we would like to
use the device to help understand the physical demands being placed on factory workers, drivers, and
others whose jobs might involve heavy lifting or risks of repetitive motion injury. Some of the work will
focus on analyses of worker motions relative to ergonomic standards, but the Capstone group will have
considerable latitude to explore other applications and ideas, including productivity analyses. Microsoft
has released to the public a software development kit (SDK) that facilitates the development of software
that uses the Kinect. Additionally, there is a very large community that is developing open source SDKs
and applications. Students will build off these and other tools to create an appropriate software suite.
pg. 5
2011-04 -- Improved Threat Assessment Using Cultural Factors
Faculty Advisor: Donald E. Brown
Sponsor: U.S. Army Research LaboratoryU.S. Army Research Laboratory
Type of Sponsor: Grant (e.g., NSF, NIH)
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? No
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? Yes
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
No
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
No
Project Description:
The U.S. faces a variety of unconventional opponents who cannot challenge our military in conventional
combat operations. Instead these opponents have sought to fight us through irregular and guerilla
methods. These methods depend upon surprise and keeping the irregular forces invisible to their
opponents. To maintain this invisibility to U.S. and coalition forces requires active cooperation, if not
support, by the local population. One of the key elements of current counter-insurgency doctrine is to
break this connection with the local populace through operations that demonstrate improved
understanding of the social and cultural environment of the area.
To gain this improved cultural understanding we need to directly assess how the cultural factors
contribute to and reduce the threat to U.S. forces. Without this understanding of local social and cultural
factors that contribute to the insurgency, U.S. and coalition operations intended to improve the situation in
an area may actually make it worse. This capstone directly addresses the development of this improved
cultural understanding. Specifically, the results from this work will expose the cultural factors that
contribute to and influence the threat situation in an area of operations. The goal of the capstone is to
produce a decision support system that can test and validate the impact of U.S. operations in the
presence of cultural factors that may increase or decrease the threat of insurgent activity.
pg. 6
2011-05 -- A Software Testbed for Expert Knowledge Capture
Faculty Advisor: Randy Cogill
Sponsor: Rolls-RoyceRolls-Royce
Type of Sponsor: Industry/Private
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per semester
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? No
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
I don't anticipate so, but am not totally
sure
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
I don't anticipate so, but am not totally
sure
Project Description:
In many skilled labor jobs, workers develop extremely valuable specialized knowledge about the jobs they
perform. Large manufacturing companies, such as the Rolls-Royce Corporation, see great value in
developing software systems that can monitor skilled workers and quantify the characteristics associated
with productive performance. The quantification of the characteristics associated with the most highly
skilled workers could later be built into training or automation systems for skilled tasks.
The goal of this project is to develop a software testbed for expert knowledge capture. The team taking on
this project will be tasked with the design and development of a software program that will present users
with a simple skilled task, and monitor users as they complete this task. Following the development of the
testbed, the team will utilize the testbed to collect performance data from several subjects. Finally, in
collaboration with a SIE graduate student, the team will use this performance data to model the control
strategies followed by the most skilled users of the system.
The successful completion of this project will provide encouraging evidence that software systems can be
built that capture the expert knowledge of users of skilled in a particular task. This project is related to a
research project currently underway with the Rolls-Royce corporation. The team will meet regularly with
Prof. Cogill, and may also have the opportunity to present findings of the project to collaborators at RollsRoyce.
pg. 7
2011-06 -- Experimental Evaluation of Auction Designs for Spectrum
Allocation Under Interference Constraints
Faculty Advisor: Alfredo Garcia
Sponsor: WiCATWiCAT
Type of Sponsor: Grant (e.g., NSF, NIH)
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per week or more
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? No
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
No
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
No
Project Description:
Increasing demand for mobile broadband applications has put in evidence the need for new schemes
enabling a dynamic and efficient re-allocation of the available spectrum in the short-run. In recognition of
this fact, the FCC is currently working on laying the groundwork for voluntary “incentive auctions“ that
would provide the means for efficient spectrum re-allocation in the short-run (see
www.fcc.gov/topic/incentive-auctions). Auction-based mechanisms have been successfully used to
allocate licenses for long-term commercial exploitation of the spectrum (see [1]). In this context, auction
design had to take into account inherent complementarities or synergies that exist across licenses over
adjacent geographic areas. However, the challenges posed by efficient re-allocation in the short run are
significantly different. For example, when the spectrum is partitioned into channels (i.e. frequency
division) several users can be allocated the same channel when the potential for cross interference is
minimal. An approach to controlling interference in this context consists of imposing constraints on the
way channels are allocated so that total interference is kept within given acceptable levels. These
constraints take the form of “either or“ type constraints and make the task of designing auctions that are
guaranteed to induce efficient allocations an exceedingly complex one. The goal of this project is to
evaluate several auction designs for the allocation of spectrum when the spectrum allocation is subject to
interference constraints. To achieve this goal, the team shall conduct economic experiments (see [2] and
[3]) on a test-bed platform to be developed. Analysis and hypotheses testing of data will serve to evaluate
the allocative efficiency of different auction designs.
References
1.
P. Cramton. (2009) “Spectrum Auction DesignÓ, available at:
http://works.bepress.com/cramton/32/
2.
N. Bardsley, R. Cubitt, G. Loomes, P. Moffatt, C. Starmer and R.Sugden (2010) “Experimental
Economics: Rethinking the Rules“ Princeton University Press
3.
F. Guala (2005) “The Methodology of Experimental Economics“ Cambridge University Press
pg. 8
2011-07 -- An Immersive Virtual Training Capability, Integrating Sensors
with a Virtual Environment to Track Arm, Hand, and Finger Position for
Treating Phantom Limb Pain
Faculty Advisor: Greg Gerling
Sponsor: System Engineering Research CenterSystem Engineering Research Center
Type of Sponsor: Grant (e.g., NSF, NIH)
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? No
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
No
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
I don't anticipate so, but am not totally
sure
Project Description:
The capstone team will build virtual reality visualization, tracking, and actuation devices to aid the
rehabilitative treatment of phantom limb pain. For up to 90% of amputees, phantom limb pain is the
sensation that one’s amputated limb is still connected to the body, but contorted into an uncomfortable
state that may involve the false sensation of extreme hot or cold or electric shock. Up to 1.7 million
amputees in the U.S., wounded warriors among those, cope on daily basis with this chronic condition.
The last 15 years have seen the rise of alternative, non-invasive approaches using the visual illusion of
an intact phantom limb.
Using mirror boxes, VR, and immersive displays, researchers have
demonstrated how an embodying experience can reduce pain. For example, mirror box therapy utilizes a
vertically oriented mirror to reflect or superimpose the intact limb in the space of the amputated limb,
allowing symmetric movements controlled by the ipsilateral side of the brain. In contrast, virtual agency
systems drive the movement of a virtual phantom limb with the motion of the residual stump, allowing
non-symmetric movements controlled by the contralateral side of the brain. Both treatments show
promise in addressing PLP, but much work is yet required to design movements to be maximally effective
and technology such that the patient can immerse him- or herself fully in the illusion.
Overall, we propose to investigate and define a set of movement cases for 2-3 amputation types and to
use these cases to inform the subsequent design of a virtual reality device. First, the movement cases
will provide visual, proprioceptive, and haptic cues delivered in physical and virtual environments, and
include elements of symmetric/asymmetric limb movement, stationary/moveable object movement, and
rigid/deformable object interaction, among others. Second, the virtual reality devices will enable a much
more controllable range of immersive feedback than the mirror box of Figure 1 (left) and include the
concept of virtual agency. The envisioned system includes the elements in Figure 1 (center) and
technology has already been developed by Dr. Gerling’s Lab for tracking the position of the hand and
providing tactile feedback, Figure 1 (right) as well as for providing kinesthetic feedback to joints, bones
and muscles, via a 6 degree of freedom robot that interacts with a computer to deliver forces to and
monitor forces at its end effectors.
pg. 9
Figure 1. (left) Prototype mirror box with proprioceptive and haptic feedback via slider bar,
(center) Graphical mock-up of envisioned mixed reality environment for treating PLP, and (right)
Existing VR for hand tracking (absolute position of palm and relative position of fingers) and
tactile feedback delivery (light touch and vibration to index finger, in addition to constriction
about its circumference).
The team will work within a client relationship initiated with a DoD agency (Walter Reed Army Medical
Center, National Capital Area Medical Simulation Center, Telemedicine and Advanced Technology
Research Center) and with UVa’s Pain Management Center. Drs. Kohan and Johnson at the Pain
Center are a model client with particular domain knowledge, in terms of established and emerging
methods for treating phantom limb pain, and who also can help to provide access to amputees for
interviews and feedback on devices to be built.
In specific, the goal of the capstone project is to develop hardware and software interfaces to facilitate
virtual agency, which is the sense of intentional initiation of action by the user of his amputated limb. By
driving the movement of a virtual phantom limb with the motion of the residual stump, virtual agency
systems allow bimanual, non-symmetric movements in which the virtual phantom limb is controlled by the
correct side of the brain. Virtual agency has been shown to produce pain relief, although the source of
the pain and the mechanism for relief are not completely understood. To date, there have been no
studies investigating the relative effectiveness of various movements (e.g., reach, grasp, contact) or
activities (e.g., free exploration, guided movement sequences, games) with respect to virtual agency and
analgesia. Therefore, the development of movement cases is designed to enhance virtual agency, and
the development of a hardware and software environment for movement case implementation.
Aims: In specific, we propose the following:
1)
Develop a set of movement cases to enhance virtual agency,
2)
Design and implement virtual reality visualization, tracking and actuation devices to afford the
execution of those cases,
3)
Perform system verification via human-subjects experiments with able-bodied volunteer subjects,
and
4)
Perform system validation of virtual agency and pain reduction with 3-5 amputees.
In Aim 1 the team will define and create specific movement cases for virtual agency, drawing upon
Systems Engineering methods in task and work domain analysis, as well as on-going efforts to extend
existing mirror box therapy. Potential strategies for Aim 2 include the use of servo motors, force sensors,
pager motors; construction of prosthetic attachments to the amputated limb via 3D rapid prototyping;
position tracking in the form of programmable data gloves (custom built by the Gerling Lab to track
absolute and relative motion of the hand); computer programming of microprocessors and circuit design;
an existing graphical virtual reality environment (X3D software API) with a 3D monitor and a haptic
environment (H3D software API). We will likely leverage and extend Gerling Lab’s existing hybrid motion
tracking system, built as a part of the 2010-2011 SERC funded capstone effort, currently configured for
hand tracking and object collision detection.
The project will flow through five main stages: definition of the problem, drafting requirements, prototyping
an implementation of the solution, integrating disparate parts of the solution together, and validating its
authenticity in a human-subjects experiment.
pg. 10
In their role as client, Drs. Johnson and Kohan’s group (and the DoD) would meet with the group of
students on 2-3 site visits (two at the Pain Center) and one at UVa in Charlottesville. Their group would
provide domain knowledge given the complex interaction of central, peripheral, and psychological factors
that influence phantom limb pain. In specific, Drs. Johnson and Kohan’s group can provide grounding on
the needs, capabilities, and limitations placed on amputees, doctors, and other users of the system they
would be developing.
More broadly, this interdisciplinary capstone project will allow the Department of Systems and Information
Engineering to extend the capstone experience to other engineering majors. In particular, the students
will be able to learn through two components of the experience.
First, both the non-systems and systems engineering majors will learn through directly working on the
interdisciplinary team. Several studies have indicated the direct positive impact of an interdisciplinary
capstone experience compared to a single disciplinary capstone, where students on interdisciplinary
projects are also more confident in their ability “to design a system to meet a set of needs.” Second, nonsystems engineering students will complete a few short seminars which cover key systems engineering
concepts such as problem definition, alterative generation, alternative generation, and testing and
evaluation. This aim of this seminar is to transition the non-systems engineering students from “being
able to work with systems engineers” to “being able to incorporate a systems engineering approach within
the context of their primary engineering discipline.” That is, an objective of this seminar is to change
students’ understanding of their own major by incorporating a systems engineering approach. This
seminar, therefore, supports the model that one’s disciplinary grounding is shaped and changed by the
act of integration with another discipline on a project.
Students successfully completing the capstone shall be able to demonstrate that they can:
•
•
•
•
•
•
apply a systems methodology to a realistic, open-ended design problem,
work effectively on teams with engineers from multiple disciplines,
develop professional skills relating to working with project stakeholders,
use project management tools effectively,
communicate to a broad audience via both written and oral reports, and
apply approaches for developing innovative solutions.
Finally, at various points through the semester, external experts will be brought onsite to engage the
students in mentoring/apprentice activities, including faculty for all engineering disciplines and systems
engineering experts from industry and government, such as Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin,
Boeing, SAIC, and various DoD organizations.
pg. 11
2011-08 – FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen)
Faculty Advisor: Yacov Y. Haimes
Sponsor: FAAFAA
Type of Sponsor: Grant (e.g., NSF, NIH)
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per week or more
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? No
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? Yes
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
Yes
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
They can publish papers
Project Description:
Two Ph.D. Graduate students will be working with me on the capstone Students may be required to
travel to Washington, DC. Modeling the FAA’s Next Generation (NextGen) as a System of Systems
Yacov Y. Haimes (This capstone project for the FAA will be performed in a close collaboration with the
MITRE Corporation).
The current air traffic control system employed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has
undergone many improvements over the last few decades, but is still dependent on radars developed
during World War II, and on air traffic controllers who visually monitor radar screens and relay instructions
to pilots. The existing radars are unable to cover large mountainous areas or areas over oceans. In
addition, because the planes show up on the radar screen only every 11 seconds, they must be kept
three to five miles away from each other. All this requires planes to fly miles out of their way, causing
unnecessary travel delays and inefficient use of jet fuel.
The Obama administration has embarked on the single most ambitious and expensive national
transportation project since the completion of the interstate highway system: a program called the Next
Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), which would replace the radar-based system with a
satellite-based GPS network that would be more efficient and versatile. The GPS-based system would
allow planes to fly closer to each other, and enable a much more precise choreography of plane landings
and takeoffs, thus minimizing flight delays and the amount of extra jet fuel needed.
By modeling the NextGen as a complex system of systems, this Capstone project aims to explore the
issues associated with risk assessment and management of the NextGen development process. The
project will explore how to model the different stakeholders and their objectives in this large system, to
obtain a deeper understanding of the interdependencies between them. The premise of the project is that
by understanding the interdependencies between the different sub-systems of the large NextGen system
we can better understand how decisions made for one sub-system affect the other sub-systems. Hence,
the goal of this project will be to model the NextGen system so that sub-system interdependencies are
identified and utilized in the risk-based management process.
The fundamental idea that guides this process is that by understanding the intrinsic interdependencies
between the sub-systems of a large system, we can better model, and thus manage, the large system. To
obtain an understanding of the theoretical foundations behind this idea, the Capstone team will begin the
project by working on a non-related simple system of systems. The team will learn how to describe the
interdependencies among the components of a system of systems by only knowing the inputs and
outputs of the system. The system of systems under consideration will be composed of two connected
pg. 12
electrical circuits, and their basic components _ power supplies, resistors, capacitors, and inductors with
various parameters and connection topologies.
The team will design and build the system, assume that all physical equations describing the working of
the coupled circuits are unknown, and then through real measurements of current and voltage reproduce
the underlying equations through the process of system identification. By participating in this small-scale
experiment, the team will gain hands-on experience with the underlying theory and methodology of
modeling systems of systems, and will be able to apply the lessons learned through the experiment to
larger systems, namely the NextGen system.
pg. 13
2011-09 -- Systems Design for Managing Economic Development on
Infrastructure Corridors
Faculty Advisor: Jim Lambert
Sponsor: US Dept. of Transportation, National Cooperative Highway Research
Program, Va Dept. of TransportationUS Dept. of Transportation, National Cooperative
Highway Research Program, Va Dept. of Transportation
Type of Sponsor: Grant (e.g., NSF, NIH)
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Twice per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? Yes
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
No
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
No
Project Description:
Performance, cost-effectiveness, safety, and the environment of trillions of dollars of infrastructure
corridors are variously enhanced and threatened by future economic development. These corridors are
critical to energy and natural resources, communications, manufacturing, and the movement of people
and goods. Strategic management of the corridors must address the potential development. In 2010-2011
a capstone team at the University of Virginia developed a conceptual model to identify locations of
greatest need along the corridors. The 2011-2012 capstone team will perform a systems design for
deploying the model to selected corridors, benchmarking the corridors, and identifying and evaluating the
available alternatives. The capstone team will gain practical experience in public policy, enterprise
systems, civil infrastructure, economic analysis, reliability and risk analysis, and information engineering.
The team will integrate knowledge from diverse experts and databases. The results of the team's effort
will be significant to avoid regret and belated investments for preserving and improving a corridor network
of national importance.
pg. 14
2011-10 -- Rapid Adaptive Needs Assessment (RANA) for Humanitarian
Assistance and Disaster Response
Faculty Advisor: Garrick Louis
Sponsor: Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC)Systems Engineering
Research Center (SERC)
Type of Sponsor: Grant (e.g., NSF, NIH)
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? Yes
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
No
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
No
Project Description:
Essential services (water, sanitation, shelter, food, energy for heating/cooking/lighting,, clean indoor air,
and personal security) are key to survival after a disaster. One of the critical considerations in
humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HA/DR) is when to switch from expensive, imported
supplies to the use of local resources for essential services. Water and sanitation are among the most
importance of these services, because of their direct need for human survival, and the role they play in
disease propagation and control.
This project will develop a tool for HA/DR personnel to sense remotely the quality of water resources in
the region surrounding a disaster area, broadcast this information to a command center, and convert the
information into a decision about reliance on imported supplies for water and sanitation (such as bottled
water, and hygiene bags for human waste) or switch to local resources for these services.
The tool consists of a water sampling and mapping kit and a GIS web-based decision support algorithm
for the choice between imported or local services.
The kit is deployed in surface waters in the operating perimeter of the disaster site’s base camp. Each kit
is anchored and calibrated by the reconnaissance team, then uses its embedded sensors to sample the
water for key contaminants, currently; conductivity, nitrate, pH, temperature and turbidity. The system
periodically broadcasts its results wirelessly to a server at the base camp/control center. There, the
information is uploaded to a GIS map of the region and fed to an algorithm that helps the planner decide
whether to continue using imported supplies for water and sanitation, or switch to treated water from local
sources. The tool will also help HA/DR planners decide on suitable placement of sanitation and solid
waste facilities in order to minimize the risk of contamination of local water sources.
The project is funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) through the Systems Engineering Research
Center at Stevens Institute of Technology. The ideal team would be composed of fourth-year senior
design students as follows; systems engineers (4), civil/environmental engineers (2), electrical engineers
(1), computer scientists (1), other engineering (2).
This is a two-semester project (Fall/Spring). The 2010-2011 Capstone team completed the first prototype
kit in May 2011. It requires refinement to the anchoring and communication systems to fulfill all the
preliminary requirements. The enhanced RANA kit will also have the GIS mapping capability, and the
framework for the decision support system. It is due to the DoD client in April 2012.
pg. 15
2011-11 -- Water and Health in Limpopo
Faculty Advisor: Garrick Louis
Sponsor: May & Stanley Smith Charitable TrustMay & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust
Type of Sponsor: Industry/Private
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? Yes
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
No
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
No
Project Description:
There are 0.88 billion people worldwide that lack access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion that lack
access to basic sanitation. This situation contributes to elevated rates of mortality and morbidity among
the affected populations, including the deaths of 1.8 million people annually (WHO, 2004) most of whom
are children under 5 years of age. The situation is worst in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the
Caribbean. Asia has the largest number of people without access to water and sanitation services
(WASAN), and Africa has the highest percentage of population lacking access. The Center for Water,
Health, Environment, and Development (WHEAD) at the University of Virginia (UVA) and University of
Venda (UNIVEN) is building a model in Limpopo province, South Africa, to sustain access to adequate
levels of safe water and sanitation services, and improved human health outcomes in developing
communities. The goals of the water and health in Limpopo (WHIL) project are; (i) to characterize any
causal relationship that exists between access to wasan services and the level of community health, and
(ii) to use this information to craft appropriate interventions to sustain access to adequate wasan services
and associated improvements in community health in Limpopo. The WHIL project is being conducted in
the villages of Tshapasha and Tshibvumo. The 2010 WHIL Capstone evaluated, designed and built the
first of three parts of the water supply system in the village of Tshibvumo. The goals of the 2011 WHIL
Capstone are:
i.
To troubleshoot and finish implementation of the water supply system in Tshapasha.
ii.
To review the design and status of the stage 1/3 system in place in Tshibvumo.
iii.
To design, specify, and develop the implementation plan for Stages 2 and 3 of the
Tchibvumo water supply system.
iv.
To analyze the GIS data on the existing sanitation system to design a human and solid
waste management sanitation system for Tshapasha and Tshibvumo
v.
To work with their peers from the University of Venda to support the community in
building Stage 2/3 of the water supply system in Tchibvumo during May _ August 2012.
vi.
To use available project data and maps to test for causal links between access to wasan
services and the incidence of childhood diarrhea in Tshapasha and Tshibvumo (T&T).
These goals will be achieved by the following objectives:
1.
Review previous work (including the performance of the system in Tshapasha) to
determine the criteria and technical options for the water supply system in Tshibvumo
2.
To evaluate and select a short list of candidate systems for the Tshapasha and
Tshibvumo sanitation system that are consistent with relevant health regulations.
pg. 16
3.
To draft a build-out plan with budget for the water supply system for Tshibvumo (update
the plan and budget from 2011) and the sanitation system for Tshapasha and
Tshibvumo.
4.
To communicate at least once per week on project developments with the students at the
University of Venda working in parallel on the WHIL project
5.
To analyze the literature and all existing data for statistical evidence of a causal
relationship between access to safe water and sanitation and dchildhood diarrhea
incidence in T&T.
6.
Use the results of the analysis to recommend changes to the projectÕs information
management and mapping systems.
The Capstone group will meet once each week with the project advisor at the University of Virginia, and
submit a weekly project report to the project advisor. The UVA Capstone team will collaborate with an
Univen Capstone team conducting related data collection, analysis, and mapping work, as well as
research into relevant water policy. Students considering this project will be required to know GIS, basic
statistics and databases. They MUST also be willing to work in Limpopo for 6 to 8 weeks in Summer 2012
on the WHIL project.
pg. 17
2011-12 – “apps” for Pre-Hospital Emergency Services
Faculty Advisor: Stephen D. Patek
Sponsor: WICAT- LMCO and MITRE
Type of Sponsor: NSF I/U-CRC
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? No
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
No
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
We plan to develop open-source tools.
Project Description:
Communication between Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers and Emergency Department staff
is critical in providing prompt and highly effective care to patients. Patient conditions can change
substantially between stabilization of the patient before/during transport -any time prior to arriving at the
hospital.
In some instances, transmission of specific patient information between EMS providers and the
destination facility can be particularly critical in providing optimal patient care. ST-Segment Elevation
Myocardial Infarction (known as STEMI) is a type of heart attack diagnosed by characteristic changes on
an ECG. In STEMI, faster recognition of STEMI on ECG is critical for improving patient outcomes by
allowing STEMI care providers to make treatment decisions prior to patient arrival at the treatment facility.
Recognition of a STEMI via on ECG, however, often requires the skilled eye of a trained physician. Thus,
the ability to efficiently transmit ECG images from EMS providers to ED physician can improve patient
care substantially.
Currently, there are several commercial systems available for transmission of ECG images from EMS
providers to hospital facilities. However, they are quite expensive and transmission is limited by many
factors. Transmission systems that could be developed via free or lower cost technology that utilize
existing cellular phone infrastructure could have a tremendous impact on emergency heart attack care in
many areas.
This Systems Engineering Capstone Project - in conjunction with on-going research activities in the
Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology (WICAT) and the Department of Emergency Medicine
at UVA - seeks to build and evaluate prototype wireless systems for the timely transmission of multimedia
content, particularly pre-hospital ECG's. The project will initially focus on the continued development of
an iPhone-based system that can capture and transmit images of printed ECGÕs through a network
ÒcloudÓ and (ultimately) to care providers in the Emergency Department. As discussed, systems of this
type can provide new and effective capabilities to hospital systems that are operating under increasing
economic pressures, potentially replacing the need for expensive proprietary systems.
The members of this Capstone team will be expected to contribute to the design and evaluation of “apps”
for pre-hospital emergency services, especially the ECG system described above. The project will involve
technical and end-user evaluation of prototype systems in the field, in collaboration with research staff in
Systems Engineering, the UVA Department of Emergency Medicine, and emergency service providers
operating within the Charlottesville/Albemarle region.
Advisor: S. D. Patek UVA Department of Emergency Medicine Mentors: D. Burt and M. Sochor
pg. 18
2011-13 -- Targeted Advertising in the Online Video (OLV) Space
Faculty Advisor: William T Scherer
Sponsor: TidalTVTidalTV
Type of Sponsor: Industry/Private
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Twice per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? No
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
Yes
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
Yes
Project Description:
This capstone project provides an opportunity to work on a real project in an exploding area of
business/internet analytics. Involving the use of large datasets and actual business data in the cuttingedge internet advertising domain, the team will develop the business case for a strategy, and design, test,
and implement the strategy. Initially conceived in a capstone project with Scott Ferber (SIE, 91),
TidalTV is a video advertising, optimization, and yield management solutions provider. Our technology
leverages the power of data and mathematics to guarantee delivery of a brand’s message against a
highly targeted demographic, and enables content creators and publishers to completely monetize
audiences across varied demographic segments. Currently, TidalTV has deployed its technology for
online video and is working to expand its reach to all video delivery platforms, including television and
mobile devices. http://www.tidaltv.com/
1) Project Description
a. How can we use key audience features (e.g., age, gender, geographic location, website) to
drive successful targeted advertising in the Online Video (OLV) space? How do we use these
features for intelligently planning, selling, and executing advertising campaigns? How do we
use audience data to maximize performance measures (e.g., click-through rate, video
completion rate) that are important to advertisers? Are there any insights to be gained in
terms of how we structure audience-targeted deals that simultaneously increase revenue
opportunities and maximize advertiser satisfaction?
b. Work Statement: Determine real problem definition, brainstorm ideas, develop test plan and
criteria for evaluation, develop execution plan for top idea(s), analyze results, and make
recommendations.
c. Background: When a publisher in our network needs to serve an ad, they send us an ad
request which contains certain viewer characteristics. The goal is to determine how such
historical data can be used to predict important attributes of different audience segments, and
to determine trends, insights, and measures that impact our ability to plan, sell and
successfully deliver ad campaigns.
2) Milestones
a.
Semester One
i.
Learn the business:
1.
Ad campaigns: Planning, selling, and delivery
2.
Performance measures of interest
pg. 19
b.
3.
Audience data
ii.
Define test plan
iii.
Create execution plan
Semester Two
i.
Test strategies
ii.
Analyze results and extract key insights
iii.
Present recommendations
NOTES: 1. Similar to case work in SYS 3034, 2. Systems thinking, preparing the business case,
statistical performance modeling, and 3. IT/software skills to support such modeling.
pg. 20
2011-14 -- Data Integration for the Albemarle/Charlottesville Criminal
Justice System
Faculty Advisor: Michael Smith
Sponsor: Thomas Jefferson Community Criminal Justice BoardThomas Jefferson
Community Criminal Justice Board
Type of Sponsor: Industry/Private
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per week or more
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? Yes
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
Other (please specify)
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
Other (please specify)
Project Description:
Over the past five years, UVa Systems Engineering 4th year students have supported a series of studies
or the Thomas Jefferson Community Criminal Justice Board, helping them evaluate various programs
designed to reduce recidivism and to gain a better understanding of the factors that affect jail
overcrowding at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Their contributions have resulted in new
tools used to assess the effectiveness of the Crisis Intervention Team in preventing avoidable
incarceration and in improving relationships between the areas mental health resources and the criminal
justice system.
Last year, the capstone team developed the framework for an integrated data base that can support
analysis by providing an data base that pulls data from multiple independent data bases maintained by
various agencies within the criminal justice system (courts, law enforcement, regional jail, probation and
parole) so that data are available to support higher level analysis regarding delays in the criminal justice
system, consistency in sentencing, and the effectiveness of programs that help transitions individuals as
they leave the criminal justice system and re-enter the community.
The primary focus of this project is to develop the data dictionary, the architecture for the integrated data
base, the interfaces and modifications required for legacy systems, and some key analysis tools that will
reside on top of the integrated data base. The project requires close coordination with leadership in the
region's criminal justice system and will likely involve presentations to the Jail Board and other senior
elected and appointed officials in the region.
This is continuation of a long-term relationship that has proved to be helpful to the Thomas Jefferson
Community Criminal Justice Board in distinguishing itself as one of the more progressive and effective
Boards in the nations. TJCCJB has received grants to support their work and value the support and
contributions of the Systems Engineering students who provide excellent products.
This is an opportunity to have "up close and personal" experience with real clients who value your
analytical skills and insight into solving large scale complex systems problems involving technology,
policy, institutions, and economics - a perfecting setting for polishing, practicing, and perfecting your
systems engineering skills!
pg. 21
2011-15 -- Conformance Monitoring in Future Terminal Airspace
Faculty Advisor: Preston White
Sponsor: MitreMitre
Type of Sponsor: Industry/Private
Expected Frequency of Direct External Client Interaction: Once per month
Is this project a continuation of a prior capstone project? No
Do team members need to be U.S. citizens (e.g., Due to ITAR)? No
Intellectual Property:
•
Will students be expected to sign a non-disclosure
agreement with the sponsor?
I don't anticipate so, but am not totally
sure
•
Will students on this project be expected to transfer their
IP generated on this project to the sponsor (or otherwise
not own it themselves)?
I don't anticipate so, but am not totally
sure
Project Description:
Improvements to high-density terminal operations are needed to increase efficiency of operations. As
more area navigation and Required Navigational Performance (RNP) procedures are implemented and
traffic increases, conformance monitoring in the terminal area will become critical. Conformance
monitoring is a difficult task for humans, but a task that is well suited for automation. How might
conformance monitoring work with complex terminal operations such as optimized profile descents
(OPDs), dynamic reroutes or more ad hoc routing? Issues include: How does the automation know what
to monitor against? How does this change over time (mid- to far-term)? How does non-conformance of
one aircraft affect other aircraft? Would it be useful to have information about the status of surrounding
aircraft (e.g., autopilot status, navigational accuracy, conformance, etc.) sent from flight deck to flight deck
or flight deck to the ground to enhance monitoring of operations? What could be done with this
information? Would this be useful for self-separation? How can the autopilot incorporate other aircraftÕs
information? Should it?
pg. 22