UW CSE Capstone Course Videos
The theme of the digital systems design capstone is technology for low-income environments. In this capstone, students investigate how technology can be used to address problems in education and agriculture in the developing world by prototyping substantional projects by mixing hardware, software, and communication components.
The OS capstone offers an indepth exploration of the Windows operating system. An operating system is the interface between hardware and user, and every computer must have one in order to run other programs. Students work in substantial teams to design, implement, and release a software project involving multiple areas. Emphasis is placed on the development process itself, rather than on the product.
This capstone course, entitled "Multi-Robot Systems: Theory and Implementation," covers key topics in multi-robot systems: distributed algorithms, ad-hoc networking, and coordinated motion. The topics are introduced through a series of labs using 12-robot mini-swarms. The main emphasis of the course focuses on distributed algorithm design, and the goal is to understand how to write software for a large number of robots.
"The Raven Deconstructed" is based on the concept of cellular automata and on the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems. An example of this is the famous BOIDS, which is a visual simulation of a flying flock of birds, where each bird follows simple rules independently. The variant of using separate physical agents derives from the field of swarm robotics. The class appropriated the term "poetry slam," or "slam," to refer to our collective behavior in this project. A Slam is a cloud of sound events of related phrases of a poem, in this case "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe, as read by James Earl Jones. The choices and the phrases derive from the execution of a set of common rules, without the intervention of any central control. Therefore, the resultant effect is classed as of Emergent Behavior.
The theme for the course was "Technology for Low-Income Regions." In the fall quarter seminar students used a set of readings to familiarize themselves with several interesting problem domains. By the end of the quarter, they had determined some possible project ideas. Then during spring quarter, they developed and refined those ideas into detailed implementation plans for the spring quarter (the CSE477 CompE capstone design course).
Software issues in the design of embedded systems. Microcontroller architectures and peripherals, embedded operating systems and device drivers, compilers and debuggers, timer and interrupt systems, interfacing of devices, communications and networking. Emphasis on practical application of development platforms.
This capstone featured a set of team projects based on UrbanSim (www.urbansim.org), a system for simulating the development of urban areas over periods of 20-30 years. UrbanSim's purpose is to help inform public decision-making about major transportation and land use decisions, such as expanding a light rail system or a freeway, or rezoning to encourage the redevelopment of part of the city. Many of the projects were done by teams consisting of both CSE undergraduates, and graduate students in a companion class in urban modeling.
Software issues in the design of embedded systems. Microcontroller architectures and peripherals, embedded operating systems and device drivers, compilers and debuggers, timer and interrupt systems, interfacing of devices, communications and networking. Emphasis on practical application of development platforms.
Hardware Design Capstone. Students focus on the design and implementation of a large project, which they work on in teams of three or four. They use a combination of hardware and software components including embedded processors, FPGAs, sensors and communication devices to implement their project. Students experience the entire design process from concept to running prototype in the space of a single quarter, including a project proposal, design reviews, and final product documentation / demonstration. (Low bandwidth version here. High bandwidth version here.)
Tablet PC Capstone. Students work in teams to design, implement, and release software projects -- utilizing the Tablet PC as the platform -- to distribute ink between multiple Tablets, editing handwriting, and recognize handwritten diagrams. Projects include "Shared Notes", "Scribbles", and "Diagram Recognition". (Low bandwidth version here. High bandwidth version here.)

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