Business Cases

What is a business case?

To make the trip more affordable, some participants can do business cases, which are 140–150-hour projects for research groups within the department. These projects will take place during Quartiles 3 and 4 of the 2024–2025 academic year. Upon completing a business case, students receive a €1,000 discount for the trip, which is paid out after the project is finalized.

We offer 16 business cases for 23 participants. Students who are selected for the trip will submit a list of their top three preferred business cases along with their motivations. The Reisco team will then match students to the available projects. However, please note that not all participants receive a business case, also important to note is that when you are assigned one you have to complete it.

Fun & Games

Integrated Circuits Group

To improve circuit and chip design education, the integrated circuits research group has been awarded a research grant to develop a computer game. The game will focus on the chip design workflow (design a circuit, design the corresponding layout, tweak & tune), but in a gamified way. Think about levels where you are given a list of demands (e.g. design an amplifier with a certain bandwidth and performance), but where you can achieve these goals in multiple ways. The game development has started recently. But to make the game a success, we need the help of the future users: you. We need to know which functions need to be implemented to make the game better, what visuals are attractive, how supporting information needs to be provided, et cetera. For that, we are looking for students who are willing to be trained in chip and layout design, and are willing to play computer games as to give better advice about the development of the IC game.

Required competences

Measurements in RF anechoic chamber for climate chamber

Electromagnetics Group

In the EM group we often use antenna measurement chamber such as the RF anechoic chamber and the reverberation chamber to characterize our antennas. However, these antenna measurements are only done in ambient conditions. For instance, the temperature, relative humidity, and pressure cannot be altered during these measurements, even though this might impact antenna performance. A use case for this would be car radar, as this has to perform within standards across several different climatic conditions, e.g., a temperature range of -40 °C to 85 °C. Because of this, we are investigating if we can implement a self-designed climate chamber into the already existing measurement chamber in order to be able to perform antenna measurements in extreme climate conditions. This research project is still in the early stages of development, and we would like some help with performing measurements using the RF anechoic chamber and in developing the first prototype. The student will as well be involved in brainstorming sessions.

Required competences

Design and development of a robot test and diagnostic system

Electronic Systems Group

The balancing robots are being used in education within the electrical engineering department, in particular in the CBL course Engineering challenge for Venus (5EID0). These robots are equipped with stepper motors, an IMU, a Pynq board, a connectivity board, and a power bank as its source of power. Moreover, a number of I/O pins are available so that external sensors and/or actuators can be added to the robot. The robots are used by student teams for their projects. However, it is frequently reported that the robot does not work. It may have a variety of reasons and even sometimes it is because of a wrong configuration or interfacing by the students. Moreover, when a robot is given to the students, we need to make sure that the robot is fully functional. In this project, we would like a system to be designed and implemented for test and diagnosis of these robots. It may include a set of software and hardware modules that can automatically test all the features of a robot and report if it is fully functional. If not, then some detailed report needs to be generated about possible malfunctioning parts of the robot.

Required competences

Measurements Using Different Resonators

Electromagnetics Group

This project involves two main parts. Part 1 (100 hours) focuses on measuring printed resonators. Fraunhofer IZM has manufactured approximately 40 distinct resonator and antenna structures on a 20cm epoxy wafer, which require measurement and post-processing using specialized equipment. The student will inspect each structure, select suitable samples for comparison, conduct measurements, and process the data for reporting. Part 2 (40 hours) involves measurements on a Fabry-Perot open cavity resonator, used to assess the permittivity and losses of thin dielectric materials across three frequency bands: 25-40GHz, 60-90GHz, and 90-140GHz. Together with the student, a series of experiments will be designed to test the tool’s limits and accuracy under various conditions.

Required competences

Designing PCB and software for spiking photonic neuron

Photonic Integration Group

In a 2020 NWO Veni project, the PhI researchers Lukas Puts, Daan Lenstra and Weiming Yao have developed an integrated spiking optical neuron that mimicks biological neuron behaviour but can process signals at much faster (up to million times) speed. Such devices are currently investigated as building blocks for future all-optical spiking neural networks on chip that have the potential to provide energy-efficient ultra-fast computing with photonic circuits. In an EU research project that just started this year, PhI is collaborating with 4 other European partners to further develop such spiking optical computing systems. The existing optical neuron devices are on photonic chips and measurements were performed on-die with probing so far. In order to better interface with algorithms and systems, we look for students that can create a neuron development kit. The ambition is to connect the photonic die to an electro-optic assembly that can be accessed via a software interface. In this way, it helps connecting the novel research hardware to system level setups and commonly used software frameworks for machine learning in order to use it to its full potential.

Required competences

Carbon Footprint of Wireless Research

Center for Wireless Technology Eindhoven

The "Carbon footprint of wireless research" project aims at developing and applying a methodology to estimate the environmental impact of the research activities (i.e., scientific publications) carried out by the Center for Wireless Technology (CWTe). The project fits a bachelor student with desire to learn more how research activities related to wireless technologies are carried out, what is their environmental impact, and possibly propose improvements to reduce the environmental impact. The project will consists of the following phases:

Literature review - To learn the techniques and results achieved in similar fields
Identification of target activities - To define the feasible target of the study (e.g. number of publications, authors, and time-frame under analysis)
Methodology development - To produce a method to quantify the emissions of a research activity, including interviewing authors to gather data not inferable from the publication (e.g. travels, equipment used)

Required competences

Strong curiosity and self-motivation are essential requirements for this project.
Familiarity with online research tools (e.g. Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore), data analysis tools (e.g. Microsoft Excel) and presentation software (e.g. Microsoft Power Point)
Passion, interest, and knowledge of wireless technologies as well as environmental impact are beneficial but not strictly required.

The Sound of Lightning

Electrical Energy Systems Group

The EES group has a large Tesla coil (see photograph). This Tesla coil is used for demonstrations in the EES High-Voltage Laboratory and regularly for performances at festivals or events. It is estimated that the Tesla coil generates a high voltage of approximately 500 kV, with a frequency of approximately 20 kHz. With this high voltage, long electrical sparks (streamers) can be generated. By modulating the generated voltage, the energy supply to the streamers can be regulated. This offers the possibility to play "musical tones", allowing the streamers to generate music; "the sound of lightning". The first objective of this project is to actually measure and calibrate the generated high voltage of the Tesla coil (using a D/I measuring method). The high voltage waveforms can be measured for the whole tone scale that can be played by the Tesla coil. The second objective is to actually measure the current through the generated streamers, using a hf current probe with an optical link for HV isolation. With both the voltage and current measurements, the electrical energy that is absorbed by the streamers can be determined. This energy can then be linked to the musical pitch of the Tesla coil.

Required competences

Interest and skillful in experimental work in a high-voltage laboratory - with high-voltage, plasma, measurement techniques, and electromagnetic compatibility.
Experimental skills in measuring techniques and (high-voltage) circuits.
Committed to working according to the safety regulations of the EES high-voltage lab.
Dedication; you need to collaborate with experts in the lab.

Visibility of Electrical Engineering

Integrated Circuit Group

To interest more students for electrical engineering and to inform the general public about our researches, the IC group has a science communication project ongoing. The so-called Visibility project consists of a number of smaller undertakings that would increase the visibility of our department and electrical engineering in general. For this project, a number of small circuit-related challenges were given to high-school students. By monitoring the problem-solving strategies (read: lack thereof) of these high schoolers, the course material was updated several times. We are now at a point that we think we figured out how to teach electrical engineering to the interested layman. We now want to advance the material that we have (bread boards, components, programmable IC's) and put together a series of challenges in the form of a booklet or videos that will be distributed to schools and libraries. That way, we hope to interest high school students and other laymen for electrical engineering.

Required competences

Measurements on Prototype Silicon

Integrated Circuit Group

This project considers using a digital-oriented open-source PDK (models and rules you need to design an integrated chip) and extend it to analog use. Two test chips will arrive in February and April, and measurements have to be conducted to characterize the transistors, coils and other devices.