UNLV course turns students into inventors

Molly Ball

Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004 | 11:24 a.m.

There you sit in the office building of the future, looking out at the view as the window-cleaner robot glides by, clinging to the window with suction-powered feet and dragging a squeegee.

Perhaps you are daydreaming about your last round of golf. On the second green, you hit the ball so far you couldn't tell where it went, so you consulted your Palm Pilot, which led you right to the spot.

But your distraction is interrupted by the whirr of a mechanized wheelchair as a co-worker rolls in, her seat remaining perfectly level even as the chair descends a ramp.

These inventions are the brainchildren of UNLV engineering students, who presented them to judges on Wednesday as part of a twice yearly design competition that offers a chance at $2,500.

The projects are a graduation requirement for the seniors in electrical, mechanical and civil engineering, said Bill O'Donnell, who teaches the class in which the students team up to create their inventions.

The judges, who come from local industry, "are looking mainly for innovation, commercial potential and technical merit," O'Donnell said.

With posterboard displays and earnest students, the contest had the feel of an elementary school science fair, albeit with projects that were far more sophisticated.

Mark Chatterton took a break from wheeling himself around on the Auto-Leveling Wheelchair to explain the inspiration for the device he designed with classmates Nathan Quigley and Aleem Wali.

"We talked to people who use wheelchairs, and they said that whenever they go up or down a ramp, they get a feeling of fear that they're going to slip off the chair," Chatterton said.

Using sensors and hydraulic lifts, the students' invention keeps the surface of the wheelchair seat flat even as the wheels traverse a slope.

But like any prototype, the students' creation has some kinks to work out. For one thing, the seat is about four feet off the ground.

That's because, with their budget, they couldn't afford shorter lifts, the students said. The invention also weighs about 300 pounds.

Likewise, the GPS Golf Ball is, at this writing, actually a modified tennis ball. That's because its creators, Andy Luong and Justin Veilleux, couldn't afford a Global Positioning System chip small enough to fit into a golf ball.

But they did create a computer program that lets the chip-implanted ball tell your handheld organizer where it is -- and they created a snazzy commercial, with background music by the White Stripes, that depicts a golfer impressing his caddy with the device.

Veilleux said golfers, who spare no expense in pursuit of their hobby, are a ready market for gratuitous gadgetry.

"A lot of golfers are rich," Veilleux said. "We figure business guys will be willing to pay for a $100 golf ball, which is how much this would cost. And it's going to last forever, or at least until you hit it into the water."

The ball would keep sending signals from the bottom of a pond, he noted -- it would just be difficult to retrieve.

There are many kinks to work out, such as making the ball's weight and stroke response the same as a regular golf ball and ensuring that the electronics inside could withstand being clubbed. But Luong and Veilleux say they think their idea has a good chance of being snapped up by a sporting goods company.

The students who designed the Surface Climbing Automated Robot, or SCAR, say they see its potential all around them -- in the glossy facades of Strip resorts like Mandalay Bay and the Luxor, which spend fortunes on window cleaning.

"It's safer for the companies that own skyscrapers," that would also save on worker insurance, said Michael Boykin, who created the climber along with Willy Hsieh, Robert O'Brien and Zachary Van Cleve.

Boykin noted that cleaners at the Luxor even have to wear specially designed suits to protect them from the sun's reflection off the glass. A robot, of course, would require no such precautions.

The robot consists of circuits and vacuum tubes attached via a molded plastic board to a pair of "feet" -- ring-shaped pads that suction to vertical surfaces. Working independently on metal tracks, the vacuum feet can guide the robot in any direction via a joystick.

In addition to cleaning windows, the robot could carry a camera to get a bird's eye view of sporting events, weddings or standoffs with snipers, for example.

The grand prize winner of the 12 entries in the competition will win $2,500. The best project in each department -- civil, electrical and mechanical -- will get $1,000, as will the best interdisciplinary project. Second place is worth $500.

The winners will be announced at a departmental dinner Friday night.