Using an integrated timer chip and a lot of imagination, UWindsor engineering students have designed and created various electronic circuits including a line-following robot, water heater, piano-metronome combination and motion-detector siren.

First- and second-year electrical engineering students will present these projects and more in the UWindsor Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) first Electrical Circuit Design Competition between 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 7, in the lobby of the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation.

The students were tasked with designing an electrical circuit using at least one 555 timer—an integrated circuit, or chip, that can be used in a variety of timer, pulse generation and oscillator applications. Professor Mitra Mirhassani, the course supervisor, said the project teaches students how to integrate sensors and electronic components to create systems that perform a variety of functions.

UWindsor’s IEEE and IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) organized the event and will judge each project based on student presentations. Approximately 80 students will compete for IEEE’s electronic design title and IEEE WIE’s top female contestant.

Founded in November 2014, IEEE Windsor has grown to include nearly 160 members and was recently lauded for its recruitment efforts, receiving IEEE’s 2016 Outstanding Section Membership Recruitment Performance award.

The IEEE is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing innovation and technological excellence and is designed to serve professionals involved in all aspects of the electrical, electronic and computing fields and related areas of science and technology.