Electrical and computer engineering students at Lafayette engage in a wide range of hands-on design projects.

Starting in their first semester, students do basic design projects as part of ES 101 (Introduction to Engineering). In the ECE courses that follow, students engage in design projects of increasing scope and complexity, culminating in a Senior Capstone Design Project during their final year. Many senior ECE electives also include projects, including student-defined Embedded Systems projects in ECE 414 and VLSI Integrated Circuit Designs in ECE 425.

Visit our Project Videos page to see some of our projects in action.

Senior Capstone Project

Lafayette Formula Electric Vehicle

Senior ECE students are collaborating with senior ME students to design, build, and test the Lafayette Formula Electric Vehicle (LFEV) - an electric racecar for the SAE Formula Electric Vehicle Competition. ECE students are designing and building the battery packs, battery management circuitry, and control electronics; ME students are designing and building the vehicle chassis, steering mechanism and drive train and work with the ECE students integrate the electronics and create a working vehicle. In 2018 he team took the LFEV to the SAE Formula Hybrid Competition where they placed 4th in the Electric Vehicle Category and were awarded the Fiat Chrysler Award for Gracious Professionalism. A new LFEV car is currently in progress.

Lafayette Motorsports Website

Past Individual Design Projects

  • Swarming Robots
  • Tube-Based Guitar Amplifier
  • Floating-Point Arithmetic on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays
  • Brain-Computer Interface Control of a Wheelchair
  • Radar Signal Processing for Landmine detection
  • Brain-Computer Interface Control of a QuadCopter
  • Low-Voltage Fully Differential CMOST Amplifier with NMOS Only Signal Path
  • FPGA Digital Controller — Motor Position
  • Microwave Photonic Phase Modulator
  • Tumor Detection Using Digital Mammography
  • Spark Control for an Internal Combustion Engine
  • Residential Door Locking System (RDLS)
  • Computerized Control of Medical and Microwave Systems
  • Industrial Power Distribution Project
  • Automated Antenna Pattern Measurement System
  • Interstory Drift Monitor: Chord Drift Analysis
  • Gaussian Beam Optical Encoding

Sample Junior Design Projects

  • Motion Tracking using a Video Signal
  • Bridged Audio Power Amplifier
  • Charge Pump for an IC PLL in CMOS Process Technology
  • Integrated Circuit PLL System Design and Implementation
  • Crossover Network with Notched Responses
  • Low Voltage CMOS Bootstrapped Switch for Sample-and-Hold Circuit
  • Operational Amplifier with Balanced Output Stage in CMOS Process Technology
  • Operational Amplifier with Cascode Output Stage for High Gain in CMOS Process Technology
  • Operational Amplifier with Class AB Output Stage in CMOS Process Technology
  • Operational Amplifier with Constant gm Biasing in CMOS Process Technology
  • High Speed CMOS Phase Detector for an IC PLL
  • Voltage Controlled Oscillator Design for an IC PLL in CMOS Process Technology