UROP Openings

Also be sure to check the UROP Project Openings listing, which may have others ... this list might not be completely up to date.

For programmers:

MIT House_n Research Group
Supervisor: Stephen Intille
Paid or credit
 
Estimating Physical Activity Using Sensors and Mobile Phones

We are looking for a UROP student to help us develop new software for mobile phones that can automatically detect physical activity type, intensity, and duration using small MIT-designed wireless, wearable accelerometers. The student will help us to collect example data of people performing physical activities, test and improve the sensor technology and activity detection algorithms, and, for those with more experience, write software for PCs and mobile phones that to automatically determine what people are doing and estimate their energy expenditure using pattern recognition and machine learning algorithms. The student may also help us run experiments using similar data collected by collaborators at Vanderbilt, Stanford University, University of Rhode Island, and elsewhere.

Prerequisites:

1. Strong Java and/or C# programming skills
2. Helpful: courses in pattern recognition, machine learning, signal processing, and AI
3. Helpful: experience programming mobile phones
4. Full-time IAP availability is desirable, but not required.
5. Minimum commitment of 8 hours per week.

Contact: Send a resume and a paragraph describing why you are interested in this position to: intille@mit.edu.

MIT House_n Research Group
Supervisor: Stephen Intille
Paid or credit
 
Tracking Health Status on Mobile Phones

We are looking for a UROP student to help us develop and test new open source software that lets people use their mobile phones for personal health tracking. The UROP student will help us write C# code for Windows Mobile phones that permits phone users to monitor stress levels, exposure to substances, physical activity, and other health-related behaviors. The student will also help create an open-source community of developers to extend and critique the software. The code developed will be tested in a real-world deployment by both prominent health researchers and a panel of typical mobile phone users.

Prerequisites:

1. Strong C# programming skills
2. Experience with mobile programming helpful
3. Minimum commitment of 8 hours per week.

Contact: Send a resume and a paragraph describing why you are interested in this position to: intille@mit.edu.

For electrical engineers:

MIT House_n Research Group
Supervisor: Stephen Intille
Paid or credit
 
Open-Source Sensor Development Project for Mobile Phones

We are looking for a UROP student to help us start an open source hardware development effort. Our goal is to improve small MIT-designed wireless, wearable accelerometers so that they can be used by health researchers for NIH-sponsored studies that may have hundreds of thousands of subjects. The sensors detect human motion (acceleration) and can be used with pattern recognition software to detect when and how people are getting physical activity (and also used for new games, communication applications, and more). We are looking for a UROP to help us start and grow an open-source community of electronics hackers to improve the sensors.

Prerequisites:

1. Experience with designing, prototyping, testing and debugging electronic circuits (e.g. embedded systems combining analog circuitry, digital circuitry and wireless Tx/Rx).
2. Experience with microcontroller programming
3. Experience writing and sending electronic designs specifications to external manufacturing companies is a plus.
4. Experience with wireless sensors or protocols helpful (e.g. Bluetooth, ZigBee)
5. Good communication skills
6. Experience working on open-source projects helpful

Contact: Send a resume and a paragraph describing why you are interested in this position to: intille@mit.edu.

For people who like to make physical objects:

MIT House_n Research Group
Supervisor: Stephen Intille
Pay (direct funding) or credit
 
Building a Portable In-Home Sensor Kiosk 
                   
We are looking for a UROP student to help us design and build the physical housings for  field data collection tools.  Student will help design, prototype, and develop a portable “sensor kiosk” that will look like an ordinary lamp or household item, but contain integrated sensing devices. These kiosks will be used by ethnographers, health researchers, technologists, and designers to study behavior patterns, space usage, and other everyday activities with volunteer participants in real homes.

Prerequisites:

1. Experience building physical structures.
2. Experience with rapid prototyping equipment and 3D modeling (e.g. 3D printers, laser cutters and 3D modeling software such as Rhino, AutoCAD).
3. Programming skills helpful but not required.
4. Full-time IAP availability is desirable, but not required.
5. Minimum commitment of 6 hours per week.

Contact: Send a resume and a paragraph describing why you are interested in this position to: intille@mit.edu.

Stephen Intille's home page

Last updated: 5/13/08