Classroom Collaborator

1. Classroom Collaborator Brandon Reagen, Matthew Ng, Runfeng Chen, Robert Connelly Faculty Advisor: Prof. Tessier Project Description By creating an Android application, we intend to provide a two-way communication medium, not only for instructors and students, but also for students to fellow students. Our application aims to periodically collect information about the students in the class. Our device will validate a student’s identity and establish their presence in the classroom. To validate a student’s identity, a RFID reader will be used to pull unique information from the Radio Frequency tag in a student’s UCARD. Presence in the classroom will be verified via a password received as a broadcast Bluetooth message of limited range. System Block Diagram Group Picture Motivation Hardware Design The hardware verifies the identity and location of the student. An RFID reader checks the students ID while a Bluetooth module receives a localized password. • Log in • Authenticate presence and identity • Chat Room • Communicate ideas and points of confusion • Popular Sites • Share useful online resources • Download Class Slides • Personal copy of class materials • Class Notes • Take notes on each slide User Interface The interface provides an easy navigation of the application’s features including class chat room, class slides, notes, and popular sites. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE 415/ECE 416 – SENIOR DESIGN PROJECT 2012 College of Engineering - University of Massachusetts Amherst SDP 12

2. System Analysis Android Application Power Consumption The class slides and popular website feature of the application are pictured above. The android application provides the interface between the server and security hardware. By providing an easy to use interface we hope to provide user with an enjoyable and enhanced learning experience. Student attend multiple class classes every day by developing a power efficient device we can ensure users will not worry about dead batteries. The following is a table characterizes the power consumption analysis for each component of our security system. This device will have a life time span of 15 hours. Server Design Bluetooth Connection Range Analysis To gain access to the server students must continuously receive a password via Bluetooth. To ensure within the classroom receive this password we analyzed the range of our connection. The graph below display the average connection time between two devices as we vary the range. • Access Control • Popular Sites • Hosts Class Slides • Chat Room The server provides all the back end functionality for the system. It tracks all users, periodically checking and banning users for missed passwords. It collects popular sites suggested by students, and shares them with others in the class. A chat room is also hosted here for students to collaborate on points of confusion. Finally, it makes the slides available for download on each students device. Password Strength Analysis Project Cost Every 30 seconds an eight byte, randomly generated password is broadcast to students. The password is re-generated for each transmission. This password is supplied to the server to gain access. Below is the formula to determine password strength. Our eight byte randomly generated password has a strength of 47.63 bits.