Sponsor: Partially funded by Mathematics Department
Date of the competition: 12/07/2007 9:00AM (a cold winter morning)
Background of the competition – This team competition is parted of the course “Introduction to Engineering” (engr1110a).
Project Title: A homemade (Wi-Fi) 2.4 Ghz wireless antenna
Objective: Design and make a 2.4 Ghz (homemade) antenna that works with typical 802.11x Wi-Fi network. A typical (short range) wireless network (not bluetooth) includes a wireless gateway (wireless router), wireless clients (PCMCIA card, USB wireless adapter, built-in wireless transceiver on laptops, etc.) Your projects should increase the performance (distance of connectivity) between the client (you) and the server.
Requirements: You should use only scrap materials (except possibly the connectors and cables), i.e. junk, if possible. No commercial external antenna is allowed. Cost on doing your project should be kept minimum. The performance of the Wi-Fi network should be increased with the aide of your antenna. No electronic signal amplifier of any kind is allowed.
Ranking:
(names are in alphabetical order)
First place - Team 3
(codename: “IBGA”)
Charlene Brungess, Kelley Cochran, Jon McLaughlin, Jessica Morris, Mason Nixon
Illustration
1: (Our champion team – Mason is missing! Can anyone paste him
on the picture?)Their antenna (Pringles can antenna) proves that
simplicity could be the key .... We all should pay attention and
learn from them. Charlene claims that eating Pringles can help
losing weight! That kills two birds with only one stone. How nice!!
Second place – Team 4 (codename: “Sanswire5”)
Kyle Emfinger, Greben James, Telisa Grant, Paul Temple
Illustrationj 2: The theory and construction of their antenna are both very
serious. They lose by a small amount only. Cheer up folks and enjoy
your product.
Third place - Team 2 (codename: “Team Go2”)
Raphael Bendy, La'Shannon Grant, Jens Johnson, David Salum, Christopher Smith, William Wallace
Illustration
3: They get the third place, but they win the most intimidating
contest – you just have to look at the mug shots of the
members and the antenna structure. Luck is not with them, because
they have a hard time in calibrating their antenna. Sorry! But bad
things happen. So cry no more.
Fourth
place - Team 1 (codename: “Big Bertha”)
Asa
Kirkus, Ross Meeks, Jamal Richardson, Amit Singh
Illustration 4: This
is the only team uses an omni-directional antenna. They are very
brave and have done their best to compete with other uni-directional
antennas. Their antenna is the most portable and flexible. You can
adjust the length of the antenna. Their result is also very good.
Why is Asa always on the phone??!! No wonder they cannot win.
Make sure you return the wireless cards. Otherwise, your grades will be changed!