EPS projects fall 2022

“Smart home” describes systems made up of a collection of digital technologies that have been designed to provide safety, convenience, energy savings and more, to familiar domestic appliances and services. 

Examples of such devices include "smart" fridges, baby monitors, energy meters, and many, many more devices.

Companies that advertise these technologies claim that once installed in the home, these technologies will make life easier. However, our research highlights a reality that is messy and more mundane than these marketing messages suggest.

An ongoing research project titled, RELINK (uni.oslomet.no), based at Consumption Research Norway, Oslo Metropolitan University, is currently studying several scenarios for living situations. 

Some of these are traditional, with a single household in a single house, semi-detached or flat. Some of these scenarios are less traditional. 

For all scenarios, the project invites students to explore how a “smart home” might be in the context of such alternative settings, and how smart devices can improve living situations in a secure and sustainable manner.

We challenge students to create a template/ proof-of-concept for a test that can later be used by the researchers. The test scenario should include both sample technology and suggestions for how the occupants can understand the privacy issues and make informed choices.

The expected final delivery, in addition to the report, may be in the form of drawings, blueprints, or even a physical mock-up to represent the test space for the chosen scenario.

Supervisor: Henry Mainsah, Researcher I

Cities and urban areas have several challenges that are amplified by climate change. In particular, they are absorbing heat, and must handle increased and more sudden rainfall than before. 

"Green roofs" are rooftops simply planted with anything from grass and flowers to actively managed rooftop gardens. They are known to absorb heat during the day, insulate the roof from the cold, and absorb and delay rainfall, making it more manageable.

Your challenge is to propose a proof-of-concept green roof or green wall adapted to Norwegian conditions. 

It should be possible to mount on an existing campus building for testing and experiments. In case of such a test-installation, it ought to be possible to create a patch/ installation of limited size and weight.

We assume, but do not know, that this will allow researchers to later test the efficiency of the concept. We expect the students to provide data or an argument for or against the value of such a test-rig, as well as decide how to instrument and which data to monitor.

This project will be run in collaboration with another EPS-group. One group will be based at Avans (NL) and one at OsloMet (NOR).

Supervisor: Berthe Dongmo-Engeland, Associate Professor

The end goal is to create an autonomous lightweight surveyor robot that visually profiles a given building for structural and thermal anomalies.

The surveyor will autonomously identify and visually document structural and thermal anomalies on externally facing building walls or internally facing building rooms. Anomalies can be defined as heat leaks from windows, fans, doors, cracks, major discolorations or discontinuities on the walls.

The surveyor will store visual and thermal images related to anomalies, which can then be supplied to the operator. There should be features to wirelessly communicate any mission-based problems (e.g., robot stuck somewhere) and other statistical information about identified anomalies to the operator’s device, such as a phone or a computer. 

The first part of the project will involve determination of a comprehensive specification (functional, electrical, mechanical) for the system prototype through market research, communication with supervisor(s), and collaborating laboratories. 

Supervisors: Ali Muhtaroglu, Associate Professor, and Peyman Mirtaheri, Professor

One of the main applications of interest for robots is in assistive technologies for people with disabilities. 

Such assistance can involve a large set of activities. In this project, an in-house robotic hand will be utilized to design and build a three-way interpreter for people with hearing impairment. The interpretation will be done between simple vocalized words and signed words in both directions. 

The robotic hand will also have capability to be trained through electroencephalography (EEG) to add interpretation between brain’s real time activity to either simple words or simple words in sign language.

The robotic hand will be able to recognize and convert simple vocalized words to words in sign language with some acceptable tolerance to signal noise and variations. 

Words such as "hello", "goodbye", "hungry", "sleepy", "tired", "pencil", "paper", "need", "food" can be part of the interpreted library. 

Similarly, the robotic hand will be able to recognize words in sign language and convert them to voice. 

It is acceptable for the robotic hand to go through a training period. The extended training will include electroencephalography (EEG) measurements during communication of the words in both vocalized form or form in sign language, with experimentation at the end of the project on how much of the communication can be enabled to be initiated using brain activity. 

As part of this project self-sustained operation schemes should be investigated in terms of system energy consumption, which will involve generation of an energy expenditure model for various communication methods in the system, identifying energy management and energy harvesting features.

The first part of the project will involve determination of a comprehensive specification (functional, electrical, mechanical) for the system prototype through market research, communication with supervisor(s), and collaborating laboratories. 

A prototype system design will be completed next, and design confidence will be quantified through analysis and CAD based verification. Finally, a prototype system will be built and demonstrated.

Supervisors: Ali Muhtaroglu, Associate Professor, and Peyman Mirtaheri, Professor

The widespread of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the society and people’s everyday life. AI trustworthiness is an important factor directly related to the acceptance of AI.

Technical challenges for trustworthy AI cover robustness, explainability, transparency, reproducibility and generalization.

Ethical challenges include fairness, privacy, and accountability. We argue that a human-centred approach is important to understand AI trustworthiness, which involves not only AI developers, but also end-users of AI systems.

Goal and activities of this project: 

To create and validate a survey on the conditions for end-users to consider an AI system trustworthy and prepare a report based on the survey results.

1. Gather the dimensions of AI trustworthiness based on literature.
2. Carry out interviews with experts (AI and HCI experts) on how to measure the dimensions from an end-user’s perspective.
3. Validate the measurement with a survey.
4. Prepare a report.

 Supervisor: Weiqin Chen, Professor

Liquid nitrogen is a reasonably cheap by-product of the steel industry. "Proof of concept" engines exist which use rapid expansion of the nitrogen to drive pistons. 

It was proposed as a greener fuel alternative for cars than petrol and diesel. However, the growth of electric cars in the past decade appears to have captured that particular market in the future.

The challenge then is to investigate other potential areas where a liquid-nitrogen powered engine might have a competitive edge over fossil fuels or even electric and then design a suitable system. 

The project should include more than just an engine design, with other additions for example an appropriate storage system for fuel; a control system to maintain efficiency/safety and/or powertrain design.

To finish, the students should be able to produce a working model, scaled if necessary.

Supervisor: Sam Woods, Assistant Professor

Maintaining a consistent and appropriate cadence on a bicycle improves a cyclist's efficiency and also prevents wear on a bike’s components. 

The average cyclist needs to be changing gears fairly frequently to have a consistent cadence. However, this requires consistent diligence and input from the cyclist, especially in built up or hilly areas.

Design a system (mechanical, electrical or a combination) that can automatically change gears on a bicycle. 

The bicycle’s cadence should be able to go automatically up and down without any input from the cyclist and should not interfere with normal cycling (stopping, braking, turning, reversing). 

The ability for the user to adjust the cadence to their preference is an extra option.

To differ itself from current products, the design should be both modular and retrofitting: meaning that it could be installed by a relative amateur onto their existing bike.

Consideration should also be given to maintenance, life cycle and not least the cost of the product. The end goal is a ‘proof of concept’ prototype.

Supervisor: Sam Woods, Assistant Professor

Smart textiles are expanding widely as materials used in sportswear, safety wear and health care, as well as in costumes, scenography and even in personal expression.  

With the increase of makerspaces and Fab Labs, Smart textiles share common ground with science and technology. Smart textiles enable the combination of creative problem solving with craft, design and technology. 

A previous EPS-group created a proof-of-concept for a divers' glove with built-in battery and remote control for head-mounted camera. You may follow up on this or choose a new direction. Regardless, this project will focus on employing innovation, interdisciplinary learning and entrepreneurship methods as part of the learning/ exploration process.

Supervisor: Nuno Marques, Assistant Professor