March 10th, 2023
As part of our FYDP/Capstone 2023 spotlights, we’re excited to introduce project “Controlla” from the Electrical and Computer Engineering team: Karan Dahiya, Colin Jones, Brian Newton, Aditi Lohtia and Steven Vallejo!
Explain your project in one sentence
The objective of the Controlla project is to design a home temperature control system to help reduce household electricity consumption and help consumers save on their electricity bills.
What has been the best part of your project so far?
The best part of this project has been combining our different technical skills to create an exceptional embedded project of circuitry and software. Our group members come from both electrical and computer engineering disciplines, and it has been exciting to incorporate everyone’s perspectives and ideas, as well as contribute knowledge from a wide range of ECE courses towards Controlla.
What are the biggest challenges you've faced during the project?
The biggest challenge we have faced has been designing a system which is physically big enough to have an interactive demonstration, while also small enough to fit the space provided on Capstone Day. However, our team has created the perfect model to allow guests to interact with Controlla.
How does your project improve human lives and/ or our planet's health?
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, self and government-imposed restrictions have forced people to stay in their homes, leading to less social interaction, little travel, and more remote working and schooling. As a result, energy consumption in households has greatly increased, with the average utility bill increasing by 9.71% post-COVID. Controlla learns more about your lifestyle and recommends settings for you in the app so you can make informed decisions about your power-consumption, leading to reduced energy footprint and electricity bills.
What's next for your team members (ie: working full-time, looking for a job, starting a business, etc).
Following graduation, we have one team member pursuing a master’s degree, one starting full-time employment as an electrical engineer, and the remaining three pursuing full-time employment in software engineering.