Please note: the room number of the venue has changed from 8 to 68.

The IET Victoria is pleased to invite you to the Victorian final of the Present Around the World (PATW) competition. Top students from RMIT, La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne will deliver a 10-minute presentation on their final year project, which will be assessed by a panel of judges. The winner receives a cash prize and the opportunity to compete in the National final to be held in Queensland in 2013.

Date: Thursday, 22nd November 2012

Time: 6:00pm - 8:30pm

Venue: RMIT Building 8, Level 11, Room 68 (see venue map)

Cost: FREE

Contact Email: ietvic.volunteers@gmail.com

RSVP: 21st November 2012

Event Programme

This is a great opportunity to see top final year projects from Universities around Victoria, and possibly gain inspiration for your own project! Best of all, attendance is FREE.

Come along to support your university or to hear about some interesting projects from outstanding students!

Finalists

Nicholas Venables - The University of Melbourne

A bionic eye is a visual neuro prosthesis device which can be used to restore some vision to people suffering from retinal degenerative conditions. A bionic eye can operate by electrically stimulating the user’s retina to give them the perception of spots of light in their visual field. Bionic eye designers are unable to experience what a bionic eye user sees with the device without being implanted themselves. Implanting a fully sighted individual will cause more harm than good to their vision. A bionic vision simulation platform has been developed in order to give designers an insight into how effective their image processing and stimulation strategies are at conveying meaningful visual information to the bionic eye recipient.

To meet this end, a novel gaze estimation system has been developed in order to determine where the simulation user is looking at on a screen. Commercial gaze estimation systems require the user to keep their head still during a gaze estimation session. Head pose estimation and eye tracking have been combined in our novel system, to give the user a more natural and less invasive visual experience.

Peter Thurgood - RMIT

This presentation will discuss the design of self-assembling, flat polymer structures using traditional photolithographic processes on the micron scale. This project investigated forces that become dominant at small scales, such as surface tension. These forces were used assemble this flat films into three-dimensional structures.

This project utilized Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to create three-dimensional shapes on the millimetre scale from a flat film using water droplets. These designs were then miniaturised to the micron scale using SU-8, an epoxy polymer negative photoresist to print multiple layer, flat, foldable structures with functional hinges. Specifically, cubes using photolithographic processes in RMIT’s Microelectronics and Materials Technology Centre.

These structures were designed as a platform for possible metamaterials applications.

Glen Kuhne - The University of Melbourne

This project improves standard 2D  input/output computer interface systems, such as touch screens and LCD displays, to give the user a fully 3D interface experience.

3D input is achieved by getting depth images from the Kinect sensor and processing the image to determine the 3D coordinates of the user’s fingertips. This allows the user to perform various gestures to control the computer, or simply use the finger position as an input similar to a standard mouse or touch screen, but in 3D.

The system uses a standard 2-dimensional LCD screen for output, but takes into account the user’s head position in relation to the position and orientation of the screen to create the illusion of depth. This ‘Motion Parallax' effect (perspective change based on the viewer’s position) gives the user the impression that they are interacting with a 3D model in real space, rather than a flat screen.

These features are implemented over several different applications, written in C# and C++, using the Microsoft Kinect and Microsoft Kinect SDK, it uses image processing techniques, vector transformations and Kalman filtering to render the system in real time at a rate of 60 Hz.

Richard Carr - La Trobe University

This presentation focuses on the design and development of a home automation system. Features include an Internet Clock, which updates time from the internet automatically, and automatic lighting using motion tracking which turns lights on and off when an individual enters and exits a room. The lights can also be controlled via the internet.

In addition, motion tracking and temperature sensing allows for room occupancy and temperature to be viewed from the internet, and an intercom allows two people to communicate between rooms.

Judges

Genevieve Beart

Genevieve is the reigning Victorian and Australian Present Around the World champion having won both the Victorian and National competitions last year with her project BiliDoc, a device to assist with home treatment of jaundice in infants. This gave her the opportunity to travel to Singapore to compete in the Asia-Pacific regional final, where she came runner-up. Genevieve currently works as a Management Consultant at Booz & Company.

Robert Jones

Robert Howard Jones, born South Melbourne, qualified in both mechanical and electrical engineering from Caulfield Institute of Technology, (now a campus of Monash University). After graduation in 1962 he worked for AWA, Australasia, as a computer engineer and later for ICL, UK, as a computer engineer and a systems consultant. He was awarded the MSc. degree in December 1985, and the PhD. degree in July 1991, both in the Faculty of Technology, Brunel University, UK. 
 
As a consulting engineer, he has worked on two principal food plant projects for Kraft Foods, 1992, and as a software quality assurance auditor for the CSL Plasma Products Facility at Broadmeadows, Victoria in 1993. Also he has consulted to The National Trust and Profile Distributors, Geelong, and to the Perran Newman TR50 team in Solar Challenge, Darwin to Adelaide electric vehicle race. From 1994 until 2002, he was employed by the Department of Defence in the Logistics Group at Bandiana, Victoria. Currently, he consults privately and is a committee member of the IET Victoria Branch.
 

Mark Stewart

Mark is the ICT Field Operations Manager for SP AusNet and is currently involved in the rollout of the WiMAX Communications Infrastructure  for The SP AusNet AMI Smart Meter Program. Mark has 30 Years of experience in the Telecommunications, Broadcast and Utilities industries in both Operations and Deployment.