Academic supervisor:

Mikel Gomez

CEIT Division:

Materials and Manufacturing. Advanced Manufacturing in Powder Metallurgy and Laser Group.

Description and objectives:

Laser process to include riblets in hydro turbines and industrial fans to improve their efficiency by reducing friction.

Surface functionalization is present in a wide range of industries, improving the performance of multiple components and systems in many applications, but the difficulty of reaching all surfaces of complex 3D parts is significant, especially those of considerable size and weight. In addition, the creation of functional surfaces has traditionally relied on processes such as chemical reactions and/or complete coating of native surfaces (e.g. airfoils). By their very nature, these processes generate unwanted by-products, thus leaving a significant environmental footprint, which goes against the "no significant harm" principle of the European Green Pact. To avoid these setbacks, a European consortium led by CEIT is going to develop a new process for functionalizing complex 3D parts in which the environmental footprint is reduced and new guidelines are generated to complement the manufacturing standards of the target sectors.

The role of this PFG will be to participate in the laser processes developed at CEIT (assist in the processes, perform measurements, analyze data). These processes will seek to reproduce "riblets" on the surface of the samples. These elements allow to reduce friction, and their efficiency has been amply demonstrated in different applications. A good example is racing boats, where their use has been banned in the recent La Concha flag. In order to perform their tasks, it will be ensured that the student acquires the necessary knowledge of the equipment with which they have to perform their work.

Academic supervisor:

Yago Olaizola

CEIT Division:

Materials and Manufacturing. Advanced Manufacturing in Powder Metallurgy and Laser Group.

Description and objectives:

Transparent materials are currently used in a multitude of applications in which their optical properties are particularly relevant: lenses, devices for optical communications, smart glasses or optical sensors, among others. In this context, the characterization of optical properties is a key point in the development of devices.

The objective of this project will be to design and implement an optical microscopy system, based on different optical and mechanical elements, for the analysis of certain properties of transparent materials. After the validation of the equipment, we will proceed to study the optical behavior of this type of substrates after different laser engraving processes. In parallel, it will be necessary to implement an intelligent processing system for the data obtained by the measurement devices.

Academic supervisor:

José Sebastián Gutiérrez Calderón

Department:

Control and Robotics Group of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Tecnun

Thematic area:

Automation and Electronic Systems Engineering

Description and objectives:

Industry 4.0 is currently revolutionizing the way companies manufacture, improve and distribute their products. These smart factories are now integrating a large number of sensors and actuators, and with the help of the Internet of Things (IoT), cyber-physical systems and cloud computing, are making it possible to collect and analyze data for decision making.

The objective of this PFG would be the automation of a monitored bench, simulating an industrial equipment through a PLC and obtaining data from sensors and actuators through the Internet of Things for further processing.

Academic supervisor:

Íñigo Adín

CEIT Division:

ICT

Thematic area:

NDT, RF, Transport

Description and objectives:

This project aims to design a system for detecting cracks in railway rails. In terms of the basic principle of detection, it is proposed here that this should be carried out by means of a radar technique using radiofrequency technologies with the capacity to illuminate the rail in movement. The reflections received must be processed to determine the presence of cracks smaller than those specified in the regulations before grinding the rail. The aim of this project is to make progress in specifying the basic principle of detection, and to investigate the needs for mounting on a moving element.

Academic supervisor:

Íñigo Adín

CEIT Division:

ICT

Thematic area:

IoT, Energy Harvesting, low energy consumption

Description and objectives:

This project proposes the acquisition and implementation of novel platforms for the transformation of motion, radio frequency, sound or wind into energy usable by autonomous IoT systems. There are currently more integrated and more efficient platforms that promise to provide power to electronic data collection and remote connectivity systems, and it is important to understand the real scope of their capabilities. This refers to testing and merging the possibilities of harnessing unusual physical elements/events for these applications to replace the usual solar panels.

Academic supervisor:

Daniel Valderas.

Department Tecnun:

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Thematic area:

Telecommunications.

Description and objectives:

The Internet of Things (IoT) is driving research into increasing the connectivity of tagged items that are read wirelessly. However, the price of tagging millions of objects often makes the final application unaffordable. One possible strategy is to remove the chip from the tags and study their reflected signal in radar mode (chipless tags). Chip-free tags would exhibit a competitive advantage over their chip-based counterparts by an ostensible price decrease. In addition, environmental constraints, such as high temperatures, cause electronics to fail in certain aggressive scenarios and, therefore, eliminating it by an alternative route in these cases would be a gain. In this context, the identification and reading of chipless wireless sensors based on radar technology (backscattered signals) will be studied by applying sensor design, antennas, signal processing, RF electronics and Machine Learning.

• Academic Supervisor:
  Adam Podhorski

The directionality of a traditional microphone is achieved by its mechanical-acoustic design. There is also the possibility of forming such a microphone by using several "normal" microphones and by means of signal processing techniques (beamforming) to obtain a joint directional characteristic. The project consists of documenting the state of the art and the current market for beamforming directional microphones, searching for suitable amplifiers and ADCs for further processing in a DSP, choosing an option and assembling it. For students of Industrial Electronics Engineering: no knowledge of signal processing is required.

• Title:
  Diver voice correction.

• Academic Supervisor:
  Adam Podhorski

• Recommended profile:
  Degree in Communications Electronics Engineering
  Degree in Telecommunication Systems Engineering

• Description and Objectives:
  Divers working at great depths breathe a mixture of helium and oxygen (heliox), because at high pressures nitrogen is harmful. However, this mixture causes a change in the voice, which takes on a Donald Duck-like characteristic and becomes practically unintelligible. One of the solutions to this problem is to construct a map in which the spectra of different sounds produced in heliox and in air by the same person are related. The voice produced in heliox is corrected by changing the spectrum of each sound by its corresponding spectrum of normal voice. The aim of this project is to investigate a number of changes and possible improvements in the quality of the corrected speech for an existing Matlab design of such a system.

• Area/Department Ceit/Tecnun:
  Department of Electronics and Communications - Ceit

• Subject area:
  Telecommunication Systems Engineering / Communications Electronics Engineering.

• Title:
  Internal communication system for large MPVs

• Academic Supervisor:
  Adam Podhorski

• Recommended profile:
  Degree in Telecommunication Systems Engineering
  Degree in Communications Electronics Engineering

• Description and Objectives:
  In large MPVs it is quite difficult to maintain a conversation between passengers in different rows due to a higher noise level than in conventional passenger cars. The aim of this project is to review the ideas for solving this problem proposed so far, to design a multi-channel internal communication system with echo cancellation, to simulate it in Matlab and to realise a prototype based on a C6713DSK DSP board equipped with a multi-channel audio interface and to test it in a car.

• Area/Department Ceit/Tecnun:
  Department of Electronics and Communications - Ceit

• Subject area:
  Telecommunication Systems Engineering / Communications Electronics Engineering.

Academic supervisor:

Andoni Irizar

Department Tecnun/CEIT Division:

CEIT. Materials and Manufacturing Division

Thematic area:

Electronic systems

Description and objectives:

In today's industrial processes it is increasingly necessary to monitor the manufacturing process and the quality of the components resulting from the process. There are a variety of methods that allow such monitoring in real time, that do not require parts to be separated from each other for analysis and that do not damage the parts in the process. The most commonly used inspection techniques are those using electromagnetic fields, ultrasonic signals and machine vision. This project deals with ultrasonic techniques. Ceit has its own ultrasonic signal test bench that allows ultrasonic signals to be generated and captured easily from a PC. The aim of the project is to make a proposal for the design of a miniaturised test bench (e.g. the size of a Raspberry). By comparison, the current design is the size of a desktop computer. It would involve making a block diagram of the system, making a selection of components including the processing platform to be used and the power supply components. Finally, it will be necessary to estimate the consumption and cost of the final equipment.

Academic supervisor:

Santiago Miguel Olaizola.

Department Tecnun/CEIT Division:

CEIT. Additive Manufacturing, Powder Metallurgy and Laser Additive Manufacturing Group

Thematic area:

Optics/Communications Optics

Description and objectives:

CEIT's additive manufacturing and laser group has a modern and precise laser system that generates 100-femtosecond pulses to engrave surface textures on different types of materials. The aim of this project is to evaluate the maximum definition of the equipment to define lines on thin gold films for application in the high-end consumer products industry. The achievable definition is expected to be less than one micrometre. The student will learn to use the laser tool for materials processing, acquire and use advanced optical concepts, and use nanometre resolution metrology systems (afm, profilometry, microscopy) to characterise the equipment.

Academic supervisor:

Íñigo Adín.

Department Tecnun/CEIT Division:

CEIT. ICT Division

Thematic area:

Positioning and communications

Description and objectives:

This project aims to propose novel techniques to achieve indoor and outdoor positioning by means of signals of opportunity, in combination with GNSS satellite signals (GPS, Galileo, etc.). The current trend is to fuse the GNSS signal with inertial sensors and vision and radar based sensors for precise guidance. However, there are less expensive techniques using signals already present in the spectrum and in the application environment that can be useful. Wifi and Bluetooth beacons can be used as anchors and fingerprinting techniques based on received power can achieve accuracies in the order of a few metres. However, the new 5G, with higher frequency spectra and smaller cells, can be useful for positioning by signal arrival time. There are also constellations of commercial satellites in low orbits that emit signals that can also be used for this purpose.

The aim is to establish the techniques used in each case and to arrive at an estimate of the achievable accuracies.
 

Academic supervisor:

Santiago Miguel Olaizola.

Department Tecnun/CEIT Division:

CEIT. Additive Manufacturing, Powder Metallurgy and Laser Additive Manufacturing Group

Thematic area:

Optics/Communications Optics

Description and objectives:

In this GFP, the programme Lumerical, which is an FDTD optical simulator, will be used to simulate different optical elements. Optical elements have dimensions typically between 0.1 and 10um, they can be used as diffraction gratings, optical filters, mirrors or anti-reflection layers. Therefore their optical properties must be estimated as accurately as possible. With the help of CEIT's technical staff, it will be possible to fabricate these devices and evaluate the accuracy of the simulations performed.