28 March 2005

Engineering innovations

Photo opportunity: 2.15pm, Wednesday 30 March, First floor lab, Ewing Building, Small's Wynd University of Dundee

Stephen Doyle, a fourth year student at the University of Dundee has been developing a method of detecting human heartbeats without any necessary contact with the body. His innovation will be on display at the University's annual exhibition of honours and research projects for students of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Physics and Mechanical Engineering on Wednesday 30th March.

Stephen's development removes the need for an armband to detect blood pressure or electrodes stuck to the skin to detect the heart's electrical pulses. The method works by shining infra-red light through the lobe of the ear. The increase in pressure when the heart beats causes a slight increase in the amount of blood in the small arteries, and this reduces the infra-red light which can pass through the lobe. The amount of light passing through the lobe is measured using a small detector and the results are passed to a computer programme for measurement and interpretation.

Other electronic and physics projects on show - Forth year students, Andrew Inglis and Paul Doig have each been using the Electronic Engineering and Physics Division's state-of-the-art microelectronics facilities to design and make silicon chips. Few universities in the UK are able to give undergraduates the opportunity to undertake this, which requires very expensive equipment operating with extreme precision.

The chips themselves process digital information and provide some of the functions to be found in commercial products such as PCs and pocket calculators. The circuit designs were first reproduced as photomasks by courtesy of Compugraphics in Glenrothes, a company which specialises in this service to the semiconductor industry throughout the world.

A group of students, Michael Shaw, Kris Kydd, Sean Chuah and Kin Lim, all in the final year of the prestigious MEng honours degree have been undertaking a group project. The objective has been to investigate the next-generation of electronic circuits to be used for generating radar signals using a device called a travelling wave tube. Radar produced in this way is used to measure vehicle speed, improving road safety and to gather advanced information on changing weather patterns. The students have been assisted in this by studying professional systems currently employed by the Dundee-based company Albacom Ltd.

Mechanical engineering projects are on show on the ground floor of the Ewing Building.

For further information on the exhibition please contact Pat Cunningham on 01382 344912

For further details on the projects in press release please contact Mr Brian Lawrenson on 01382 344402.

By Angela Durcan, Press Officer 01382 344768, out of hours: 07968298585, a.durcan@dundee.ac.uk