Career Episode – Narrative 1
a) Introduction
CE1.1 The narration of the first career episode is on the project ‘An intelligent Lighting System for Exhibition Applications’. I worked on this project for xxxx months from bc 2007 to cncb 2010. The successful execution of the project was imperative for the completion of my Bachelor in Technology in Electronics and Communication from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The location of the project was the campus of the college along with appropriate project labs. I worked on the project in a team of two.
b) Background
CE1.2 Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) has an ‘A’ grade accreditation by NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council). The university provides excellence in engineering education in several branches. It is a teaching cum research oriented university consisting of the constituent and affiliated colleges. Among 25 major engineering branches offered by the college include Aeronautical Engineering, Information Technology, Automobile,Electronics, Biotechnology, Instrumentation &Control, Electrical, Mechanical, Metallurgy, Civil, Bio-medical, and many more.
CE1.3 The project aimed to design a smart lighting system. The proposed lighting system would be energy efficient and would perform autonomous operation. From some previous details, I found that it was tough to control energy wastage when a large group of lighting was used in a building. I reviewed the current smart lighting technologies available in the market along with their product features and advantages. I also researched for implementing the components in the smart lighting system design projects.
CE1.4 I studied Modular Intelligent Control System (MICS), different sensors and lighting control technology to understand and then execute the project successfully. I observed that embedded system was among the fast growing technology in modern times. It was used in home appliances, industrial automation, aeronautics, and automobiles. It uses a controller or PC for the execution of a specified task and embedded C or assembly language programming was used for programming.
CE1.5 The project execution was complicated and I performed several different responsibilities for this:
– Searching different sources of information to collect the required details for the project.
– Planning of the project in accordance to the project requirements.
– Designing of the block diagram of the proposed system.
– Preparing essential project reports and other associated documents of the project.
– Analyzing the outcomes of the project outcomes by considering all the earlier research works.
c) Personal Engineering Activity
CE1.6 I started my work by collecting the details from the analysis of the concerned literature. I found that smart system was an autonomous operation and detected the environment changes with the help of sensors. In order to reach the optimal result, the system performed in a continuous manner. I visited university’s library and read newspapers for latest articles and journals. I also scrolled internet to get more details on the topic.
CE1.7 I found an example in the exhibition hall and found that there were some zones in the hall. I found that Zone 1 was the groups of lighting for the exhibition area while the other zones (zone 2 to zone 4) were the groups of lighting for the student area. I started finding the possible problems that could occur in the exhibition.I made three different cases for the resolution of the problem.
CE1.8 In case 1, I observed that whenever the exhibition hall was unoccupied, the lightings in the exhibition hall were still turned ON. In the case 2 of the example, when a small group number of student occupied the class, all the lights in zone 1 to zone 4 were still turned ON. Lastly, in case 3, exhibition was having hard time whenever they switched their teaching mode. This was because dissimilar teaching mode needs different lighting environment.
CE1.9 For the resolution of the issues, I built an energy saving smart lighting system with integrated sensors and controllers. Additionally, I designed a smart lighting system with modular approach design, which made the system scalability and expandability. Also, I designed a smart lighting system with compatibility and scalability with other commercial product and automation system, which might include more than lighting systems. I built the MICS in different modules and categorized the modules into two types- input module and light module.
CE1.10 I used microcontroller, crystal oscillator, power supply, transformer, regulator, light dependent resistor in the project. I prepared a smart lamp monitoring system to monitor the health of street lamps and forward monitored result to the control station. I prepared the simplified block diagram of the complete smart lamp monitoring system. I used a light dependent resistor module, transmission module, and microcontroller module inside the lamp module. The lamp module would communicate with the control center through wireless using Xbee.
CE1.11 I installed one of the LDR on top of the street lamp for the checking the day/night status condition. I placed another LDR under the street lamp to monitor and checking the lamp health status. I sent the results of the LDRs to microcontroller to process the data and to send the data to the transmission module. I used wireless Xbeeto transmit the data through wireless to the control center in the transmission module. In the control center, it would monitor each of the street lamp status, as well as controlling the operation of the street lamps.
CE1.12 I designed solution prototype for the lecture hall where it was able to control both lighting and HVAC system. In addition, both systems were well integrated.On the surface of the illustrated lecture class room, there were four 15W incandescent lights where each light represented one zone of area in the lecture hall. On the zone one of the lecture hall area, there were three LED lights and one RFID reader. The three LED lights represented the signal light of computer, projector and OHP. Turn ON any lights of this would represent the signal of the current usage of the respective equipment.
CE1.13 The multi sensor installed on another enclosure, where the enclosure contained another incandescent bulb. This incandescent bulb controlled the ambient lights inside the enclosure by turning ON/OFF. The top of the enclosure was open for the purpose for the outer lights source for lighting up inside the enclosure. It also served the purpose to detect the present of the human’s hand.I always followed academic honesty and integrity in publishing my own original work.
CE1.14 I actively participated in the documentation of the project. I produced a mid-project progress report with emphasis on my literature review, preliminary findings from experiment and schedule of work planned in Gantt chart. I submitted the report to the school faculty and attained positive feedback for it. As a concluding step, I prepared a Power Point presentation in English to present all my work in a thesis seminar to other academic staffs and students. My thesis was also assessed by two academic staffs and received distinction grading.
CE1.15 I always ensured that there must be team coordination and avoidance of any sort of conflicts within the team. I always followed professional code of ethics and also ascertained that no environmental harm could be done by my work acts and project material. I always practiced code of academic and university ethics in my thesis project.
d) Summary
CE1.16 The project was very significant for my engineering course and it required comprehensive demonstration of managerial, technical, and professional skills in planning, executing and reporting on an approved engineering project within a stipulated time. I enhanced my project management expertise and sharpened my research skills. I learnt methods of data collection and synthesis of vital technical details from all resources to produce novel designs in the project. I also got an opportunity to be acquainted with the professional-standard technical documents. I improved my communication and coordination skills. It was a great opportunity and I would use these skills in my future projects.
Note : Your all career episodes will be in same format shown above for first episodes.
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