A New Model for Meter Reading The days of manually reading meters will eventually be a dis- tant memory as the Southern California Gas Company (SCG) converts its manual meter network to that of automated ad- vanced meter units. The effort is expected to save $1.4 billion over the next five years. However, until all of the old meters are replaced, there is still a need for meter readers, and making the most efficient use of their time could save SCG even more money. The Mathematics Clinic team devised a route creation and evaluation tool that takes a list of meters and generates cost- minimizing meter-reading routes. The students implanted their model in ArcGIS software for a convenient visual and spatial data display. The tools developed by the HMC team not only allow for automatic route generation, but also provide a way to evaluate the efficacy of hypothetical scenarios in which different clusters of meters are targeted next for automation.
Safety Drill Shell Oil tasked the Engineering Clinic team with developing a safety system to eliminate personnel injuries due to violations of the safety zone around large, moving vehicles on drilling sites. Students started with an existing Radio Frequency Identifica- tion System (RFID) that was designed to be mounted on a vehicle. The RFID uses an antenna to pick up signals from tags embedded in workers’ vests. If a worker gets within a certain sector near the vehicle, a display unit beeps in the cab. Taking Shell’s specific needs into account, the team tested the system, characterized the antenna range and developed a multiple- antenna prototype that increases the range of radio coverage to 360 degrees. The new configurations detect not only the presence of a worker within radio range, but also the distance between the person and the vehicle, valuable information for increasing safety system effectiveness. The team tested their prototype on a drilling site near Houston.
Try Before You Buy When buying furniture, it’s hard to tell if a couch or armchair will look good and fit in your living room. The Qualcomm Computer Science Clinic team developed
a smartphone app that allows users to try out furniture before buying it. With the augmented reality interior decorator app, users scan a page from a furniture catalogue, choose the items of furniture to try out and then point the camera at a target in the home. A life-size model pops up in the camera view that can be rotated and moved about within the room with on- screen controls. The app includes social media features so that users can post
augmented reality photos on Facebook and see whether friends approve of their choice. The team also wrote an authoring tool, so that furniture companies could extend the app and create their own augmented reality catalogue pages.
2003
HMC celebrates 1,000th Clinic project
2005
Global Clinic begins; Tony Bright, professor of engi- neering, is first director
2009
Bequest from Robert and Joan Vickery provides $1 million to endow the Global Clinic Program
First Global Clinic collaboration: University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez
2012–2013
Clive Dym, Mack Gilkeson and Rich Phillips receive NAE’s Gordon Prize, which lauds the Clinic Program
50th anniversary; more than 1,400 Clinic projects completed
SUMMER 2013
Har vey Mudd College
21
>>
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40