IEEE Region 5 Student Circuit Design Competition To Be Held At UNT.
April, 2010, Denton, TX
Angela Nelson
On Saturday, April 17, the University of North Texas’ College of Engineering will be the site of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Region 5 Student Circuit Design Competition.
The competition is being as part of the IEEE Region 5 Annual Business Meeting, which is at the Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center in Grapevine. Transportation is being provided for those staying at the Gaylord Texan.
The request to hold the competition at UNT came from IEEE Region 5 because the College "has excellent equipment -- equipment that is hard to transfer" to the conference site, said Dr. Oscar Garcia, electrical engineering professor and competition chair (he is in the far right of the photo, along with -- from left -- Dr. Shengli Fu and students Amir Brgulja and Cameron McCord who are helping to organize the event).
This is the first time that the campus has played host to the competition. "UNT feels proud to host the competition... and is glad to showcase its excellent facilities," Garcia said.
Undergraduates who are IEEE Region 5 members and are registered for the annual meeting are eligible to enter the contest, with two members per team. Only one team per IEEE student branch is allowed. The contest will take place at a laboratory or laboratories of the College of Engineering’s Electrical Engineering Department. UNT is being represented by seniors Jeremy Llewellyn and Todd Crocker.
At the start of the competition, the students will be given the specifications of a prototype circuit that they will have to design and construct, along with a set of parts that they are likely to use. However, there are other components that they may request and will be given whenever available (if not available, the students will have to redesign the circuits).
Each team may bring one textbook of their choice and a scientific calculator that may be used during the competition. The students cannot use a computer for Internet access, and they are not allowed other electronic communication devices such as cell phones, Garcia said.
The design and prototype should be functional, cost effective, power efficient, and as simple as possible. Scoring will be based on how well each team’s design and prototype achieve each of the general goals, as well as on their demonstration and documentation. A team of judges from industry and academia will evaluate each design and demonstration during the afternoon of the competition.
The teams will be responsible for documenting their design in a clearly readable form and a schematic circuit as well as providing a list of materials used in the final version of the prototype, and supporting engineering notes for the design decisions in a report.
There are three prizes for the student branches: 1st place receives $500, 2nd place gets $250, and 3rd place receives $100. The branch may distribute the money to the winning team or use the money for branch activities. Winners will be honored at a banquet on Saturday evening.
IEEE Region 5 comprises Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois (southern), Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska (western), New Mexico (southern), Oklahoma, South Dakota (western), Texas, and Wyoming (eastern). For more information on the 2010 IEEE Region 5 Annual Business Meeting and Student Contests, visit http://www.r5conferences.org.