Computing Awards for Excellence: Student Project of the Year shortlist

Aston University ACNRG Electronic Engineering Department

The ACNRG Electronic Engineering Department at Aston University developed the In-Motes Eye system in response to the debate over speed cameras. A survey by the AA identified 173 miles of the UK’s most dangerous roads, where only four of the country’s 5,000 speed cameras are located. And there are concerns over the use of conventional speed cameras because they are believed to create a distraction.

By building a wireless sensor network (WSN) comprising five radio controlled cars and 10 Mica2 motes, ACNRG used the application to measure the speed and acceleration of the cars at random intervals. Each car was attached to a Mica2 sensor mote, which told the operator which car was speeding. In-Motes Eye generated real-time graphs displaying the behaviour of individual cars over a specific period.

In-Motes Eye is based on WSNs injected with mobile software agents that can migrate or clone according to particular rules and can perform tasks specific to the application. Large car manufacturers have already started to develop cars with sensor capabilities and ACNRG predicts that, in the near future, speed sensors will be embedded in cars, creating a larger-scale WSN infrastructure that can monitor speed across various locations.

The sensors are undetectable to the naked eye and easy to deploy, so only a few thousand aggregation points, for collecting data, would be necessary.

Rugby School

Mark Alexander’s A-level IT project at Rugby School has boosted IBM’s presence in the Second Life virtual world and enhanced the supplier’s campaigns at the Roland Garros and Wimbledon tennis tournaments.

During his gap year, Alexander worked with Dr Andy Stanford-Clark at IBM to develop remote home-automation systems through exciting, user-friendly means.
He needed to devise a method of communication between several devices, all “talking” in different ways. The development of a service-oriented architecture has revolutionised communication between the devices, creating a virtual roundtable, with a “speaker”, a “chairman” and an “interpreter”. The incorporation of SMS and mobile Java technology further enhanced the system, allowing users to control devices with text messages.

Alexander wrote a web interface allowing users to view the status of their devices, control them remotely from anywhere in the world and watch the results on a webcam. He spent five months working in Second Life, making the objects respond to messages from the real world. The virtual world was integrated with the home-automation system, linking real objects with virtual ones.

Alexander went on to build virtual tennis courts, allowing the public to watch real-time matches from any perspective for the first time.