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Ad space is limited . and is taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. Contact the Business Manager at business@ technewsiit.com for more information, LOCAL 8 NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. TechNews | Tuesday, March 4, 2014 If UTSAV amour |EEE@|IT project team participates in E-Week events at Rice Campus Vijai Baskar COPY EDITOR The project group “Ardupilot,” within IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) were present at E-Week, which occurred at Rice Campus on February 22. E-Week was a fun, free, family interactive event providing children and adults the opportunity to experience and explore many fields of science and engineering, through interactive displays and presentations. The 30th Annual Engineers Week Expo was geared towards children from kindergarten to eighth grade; however, all ages enjoyed the event. ' The Ardupilot team built a small game with two Arduinos. Each Arduino was connected to a LED (light emitting diode) Seven—segment display. One Arduino was connected to a button, while a second Arduino was connected to an RFID (radio frequency identification) scanner module. In order for the kids to win a prize, they were supposed to hold the plastic RFID tag against the scanner, which changes the number on the LED display; then hold down the button connected to the other Arduino, changing the other LED display’s number to match the numbers. Both numbers were randomly calculated, which added a level of difficulty. Another level of difficulty came with the different timings of the random numbers for the RFID side. A new number was generated every 100ms (milliseconds) whilst holding down the button generated a new number every 1000ms (1 second.) For the adults, they tried to match the numbers without having to let go of either the button or the RFID tag which tested their reaction time. The winners were given a lollipop, but could also choose an IIT button. Some additional games were developed at the event using a small LCD (liquid—crystal display) screen, but those were not completely successful with the number of parts available. The current project members of Ardupilot are: Changqing “Shark” Wang, Boyang “Bobo” Dong, Eric Tendian, Ning “Allen” Xin, Weiwei Wu and Shengfeng Tang. They have accumulated experience with using embedded systems such as Arduinos, and so will be using their knowledge to build a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.) They currently have the frame parts that are ready to be assembled, and are investigating control systems. They may end up working with AIAA on their UAV project, or will be joining forces with the quad-copter team to program the quad-copter (as it is using an Arduino as the base) and make it autonomous. Any further info can be found on the website httpzl / n1ypages.iit. edu/~ieee/project/ardupilot/.