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Home / Academics / Academic Majors / Electrical Engineering / Electrical Engineering Senior Projects

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:

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.

Sponsor Family Application

Thank you for submitting your application to be part of the Sponsor Family Program. Your application will be processed in the upcoming week. Coast Guard Academy’s policy on background screening now requires all adults (everyone 18 and older living in the home) who volunteer to mentor, teach, coach or sponsor cadets, whether on or off Coast Guard Academy grounds, to be screened every 5 years. They are required to provide personal information (name, birth date and social security number) for the purpose of conducting a criminal background check.

The Security Officer at the Coast Guard Academy, CWO2 Gina Polkowski, is overseeing this process. Her email is: Gina.M.Polkowski@uscg.mil.

Sponsor Family designations fall into several different categories. Below are the guidelines to help you determine how best to meet the background screening requirement:

  1. If you are Coast Guard active duty you do not need to apply for an additional Background Check. You will be vetted through the Coast Guard system by CWO2 Polkowski.
  2. If you are a Civilian working for the Coast Guard you do not need to apply for an additional Background Check. You will be vetted through the Coast Guard system by CWO2 Polkowski.
  3. If you are non-Coast Guard Active Duty, you are required to provide proof of your current security clearance or National Agency Check that is to be emailed by your Command Security Officer (CSO)/ Security Office to CWO2 Polkowski at  Gina.M.Polkowski@uscg.mil.
  4. If you are non-Coast Guard civilian who has a current security clearance or National Agency check, you are required to provide proof of your current security clearance or National Agency Check that is to be emailed by your Command Security Officer (CSO)/ Security Office to CWO2 Polkowski at  Gina.M.Polkowski@uscg.mil.
  5. All civilians in the families who are 18 years or older and do not have a security clearance or a National Agency Check are required to be vetted through Mind Your Business, the third party vendor hired by the Coast Guard Academy for the vetting process.

After you complete your application, please e-mail the Sponsor Family Program Coordinator at CadetFamilySponsorProgram@uscga.edu. In your e-mail, you must include the e-mail address and phone number of every adult living in the home. The Sponsor Family Coordinator will then initiate the background check process and you will receive an email with further instructions.

Important things to note:

There is a Sponsor Family Training that is a one-hour training which we ask sponsors to attend once every four years. This training is designed to give you an overview of the program, what is expected of you as a sponsor, and what you can expect from your cadets. This training will also help familiarize you with the cadet regulations onboard CGA. You will be notified via e-mail once the training is scheduled.

The matching process of swabs to families will occur during July and August. Please bear with us and remain flexible through this process. There will be a meet and greet scheduled on Campus, typically in late August. This will give families an opportunity to formally meet their cadet if they have not already done so. Details on this will also be via email.

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