1. April 7, 2015 | Marit Mitchell
Exoskeletal leg, instant DIY games, micro-
grids and more at ECE Design Fair
This month, over 260 of the brightest up-and-coming minds in electrical and computer
engineering gathered for the annual ECE Design Fair.
After eight months of intense team collaboration, 84 groups showcased their innovative
solutions to real-world challenges—with the 18 strongest projects advancing to a finale
Showcase.
The students’ ideas and demonstrations attracted hundreds of faculty,
students and media. Even a class of Grades 2 and 3 students from the nearby Lord
Lansdowne Public School attended to learn more about fun applications of science,
technology and engineering.
This powered exoskeletal leg helps a man with cerebral palsy extend his lower leg when walking (Photo:
Roberta Baker).
U of T Engineering News
(http://news.engineering.utoronto.ca)
2. Here’s a snapshot of three projects that were included in the final Showcase:
1. A powered exoskeletal leg
Students Lakmini Perera, Kayatri Rangarajan, Shakthi Seerala and Elizabeth
Sumitro (all ElecE 1T4+PEY) designed an exoskeletal leg that helps those with cerebral
palsy extend their lower leg when walking. They collaborated closely with their client, Tom
Garside, for months before demonstrating their powered leg brace at the Fair, and then
the final Showcase.
“The brace uses electrical outputs from Tom’s body, so we had to meet a few times a
week towards the end for final testing and calibration,” said Perera.
“This is not a theoretical application—this is right here,” said Garside. “This is something
I’m actually going to take possession of after the Fair.”
2. Instant do-it-yourself game creation
Visitors of all ages were riveted by a new app that lets you build your own side-scrolling
gaming world instantly on a mobile device, complete with enemies, challenges and
architecture, and then play in it.
“I had a blast doing the game design,” said student Rick Buczynski, who created the app
with partner Deepkanwal Plaha (both CompE 1T4+PEY).
“We’re hoping to launch it this summer and would like to see it in the App Store ASAP,”
said Plaha. “We think getting it in the hands of users will really help the design process.”
3. A smart micro-grid electricity system
A functioning micro-grid with smart control illustrates how power infrastructure of the
future could respond to crises such as ice storms, floods or downed lines.
Yoley Li, Mia Ma, Tony Liu and Allen Gou (all ElecE 1T4+PEY) designed smart algorithms
to find and react to faults in the system, shutting down power to low-piority areas such as
neighbourhoods first, and keeping high-priority facilities such as hospitals and police
stations online.
