Senior Projects

Electrical Engineering

During their senior year, Electrical Engineering (EE) cadets take a two-semester design course called Capstone Projects in Electrical Engineering I and II. The focus of these courses is to teach the skills and concepts needed to succeed as project officers. Teams of two to three cadets collaborate on a real-world Coast Guard electrical engineering project. Working with faculty and Coast Guard units, cadets develop a solution that meets the Coast Guard’s needs.

Classroom discussions primarily cover current industry and Coast Guard standards of project management and systems engineering while emphasizing students’ public speaking skills. Cadets take field trips to Coast Guard Electrical Engineering units to experience jobs they may be assigned to as junior officers.

At the end of each semester, cadets merge their learning from the classroom and lab to deliver a paper and presentation outlining their results. Approximately 10 to 20 percent of cadets will go on to present their final papers for these projects at national conferences.

Recent Capstone Projects

Electrical Engineering students have confronted a wide range of real-world engineering problems, with capstone design projects such as:

Satellite Based Rescue 21

This project is a continuation of the previous three years’ work to augment the Rescue 21System in D17. The objective is to deploy a low-earth-orbiting satellite outfitted with a software defined radio (SDR) that can receive a signal from a mariner in distress and identify his or her location. This past year, the Capstone group developed a prototype that satisfies this objective and fits within a 1U (10cm x 10cm x 10cm) form factor. This next year’s group will focus on problems such as reducing the power consumption of the 1U payload, sending information via downlink, and calculating the number of satellites needed for full coverage of Alaska.

AI-Driven Hybrid Compact Propulsion Vessel

Design, build, and test a compact AI-driven hybrid propulsion system that effectively integrates proton exchange membrane fuel cells, photovoltaic cells, and lithium-ion batteries to propel a 3 to 6-foot small boat. Use a motor with a power rating between 0.01 and 1 HP (0.007 to 0.75 kW) to achieve speeds of 0.1 to 4 mph. For example, a 0.25 HP motor (0.18 kW) is sufficient for cruising at speeds of about 1.5 mph for a 6-foot small boat.

Roboboat

Autonomy is here. The need for humans to make decisions to accomplish a mission is drastically decreasing. This capstone looks at Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASVs) and uses the RoboBoat competition as a framework to guide our learning and understanding. This project explores different aspects of autonomous navigation for the eight different tasks associated with the competition. These tasks can be broken down into two different categories: navigation and object management. The group will focus on completing the different navigation tasks in the competition (e.g. navigating a channel, following a path, and docking) and complete the object management tasks if time permits. This capstone will culminate in a trip to Florida to compete in the 2026 competition.

Emergency Communications via HF

The Coast Guard has a requirement for a contingency communications system that would allow for long-distance data transmission between operational commanders and field units. Under the current cyber threat environment, the Coast Guard lacks a reliable strategy for contingency communications of operational tasking and asset reporting in the event internet and commercial phone services are interrupted. Build and test/demonstrate a contingency communications system using HF data transmission and a user-friendly operational interface.

CG Sensor Network

The Coast Guard manages nation-wide maritime domain awareness sensors under several siloed programs (Rescue 21/NAIS/PAWSS/VTS). Several of the RF reception capabilities of these disparate systems could be accomplished by a single software defined radio. Build and demonstrate the RF reception component of the future Coast Guard Sensor network using a software defined radio. Include the ability to collect across the spectrum of standard VHF marine frequencies, analyze the data, and present to operational users on a user-friendly display.

Autonomous Navigation of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems

The Coast Guard is investigating the use of small unmanned aerial systems to augment air and sea assets with long range communications and reconnaissance capabilities. These systems could provide a cost effective way to increase the operational presence of the CG. Cadets created their own navigation, guidance and control system for a two control surface delta wing aircraft and demonstrated their results both in software simulations and actual flights.

Industrial Control System Cyber Physical Mock-up and Security Analysis

The fundamental purpose of this Industrial Control System Cyber Physical Mock-Up and Cyber Analysis capstone project was to increase awareness of the threat to our nation’s critical infrastructure these systems pose, demonstrate the potential cyber-attacks that can be carried out on modern industrial control systems, and document measures that should be taken to mitigate the risks they pose. Cadets built a model design of a modern day industrial control system (ICS) related to the maritime domain and to demonstrate how its operations can be protected in the cyber world.

Lithium Ion Battery Management System

The emerging technology that enables electric and hybrid cars is also found in the marine industry. Cadets are currently working to design and construct a Battery Management System (BMS) that will monitor and control a lithium battery pack. The system will monitor voltage, current, and temperature and take corrective action to keep batteries in the safe operating zone and prolong cell life. The effects of sensor failure will be explored.

Direction Finding on Spread Spectrum Signals

Search and rescue, one of the eleven statutory missions of the Coast Guard, serves as a fundamental interest to the U.S. government and people therein. With millions of recreational, commercial, and government operated vessels on the water, the Coast Guard needs an efficient and effective way to ensure patrons can be found quickly if lost, or in distress, at sea. Cadets developed a real-time, user friendly system to locate the spread spectrum signal emitted from Emergency Position Indication Radio Beacons. This included designing and building a receiving antenna array and processing the signals to find the direction of approach of the signals.