PRISM VENTURE PARTNERS PRIZE WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Shown in the accompanying photos are the three teams winning the Prism Venture Partners Prizes for fall semester, 2003. This set of three prizes ($1,500, $1,000, and $500, respectively) is awarded to the three outstanding teams in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Capstone Design Course, as judged by a panel of engineers from industry. The teams’ final oral presentations can be viewed at

www.egr.msu.edu/classes/ece480/goodman/FinalPresentationsFall03/

The awarding of the Prism Venture Partners Prizes can be viewed at

www.egr.msu.edu/classes/ece480/goodman/PrismVenturePrizeFall03/

First place was won by Team 12, for their Miniature Environmental Monitor, sponsored by the Fraunhofer Center for Laser Coatings and Applications at MSU. They built an operating plasma-based spectroscopic analyzer the size of a small suitcase. Shown in the photo (left-to-right) are: Jason Palmer, Maxwell Walter, and David Oostdyk, with Prof. Erik Goodman, instructor of the course. Brandon Furtwangler, the fourth team member, is not shown. The team’s work was facilitated by Prof. Timothy Grotjohn. Their web page can be viewed at

www.egr.msu.edu/classes/ece480/goodman/fall/group12/index.htm

Second place was won by Team 1, for their Low-Frequency Resonant Vibration Detector, sponsored by Instrumented Sensor Technologies (Okemos, MI). They built an operating device, complete with prototype packaging, meeting all design specifications. Shown in the photo (left-to-right) are: Jim Reynolds, Dave Schultz, Chad Wood, Mark Ziegler, Tommy Kuhn, with Prof. Erik Goodman, instructor of the course. The team’s work was facilitated by Prof. Subir Biswas. Their web page can be viewed at

www.egr.msu.edu/classes/ece480/goodman/fall/group01/index.htm

Third place was won by Team 3, for their Next-Generation LIDAR Target Simulator, sponsored by MSU’s Prof. Emeritus P. David Fisher, who is involved in certification of radar and lidar speed measurement devices. They built a prototype system, including two natural graphical user interfaces, for testing the calibration of LIDAR devices by simulating the return of pulses from the target. Shown in the photo (left-to-right) are: Matt Dobrosky, Jason Biel, and Matt Skalny (the fourth team member, Andrew Bell, is not shown) with Prof. Erik Goodman, instructor of the course. The team’s work was facilitated by Prof. Fisher. Their web page can be viewed at

www.egr.msu.edu/classes/ece480/goodman/fall/group03/index.htm