Senior electrical engineering major Matthew Lape, from Francestown, New Hampshire, spent most of 2008 developing the Kingsbury Location Awareness System with his research partner, Mark Taipan. Although their summer grant from the University of New Hampshire ended, the research did not; and Matthew and Mark are continuing their efforts to improve KLAS as part of their senior project. Matthew found great satisfaction in being able not only to find a problem to solve and hypothesize a solution, but also to carry out the research to test the solution as well. “This gave us a glimpse of real–life, hands-on engineering. . .that is not always present in the standard engineering curriculum,” Matthew said.
Matthew also works part time on Project54, a graduate–level research project here at UNH. With Project54, Matthew and his colleagues work to integrate all aspects of emergency response vehicles into a computer that can be controlled by either voice or touch screen. The project’s goal is to help reduce distractions and allow the emergency responders to do their jobs more safely.
After graduating in May 2009 with a bachelor's of science in electrical engineering, Matthew hopes to develop his skills as a technical project/program manager in both the worlds of technology and business. He plans to work toward a master's of business administration to better prepare himself for the future.
Mark Taipan is a senior computer engineering major from Waltham, Massachusetts. Mark and his research partner, Matthew Lape, have continued working on their Kingsbury Location Awareness System (KLAS) as part of their senior project. Mark credits his work on KLAS with giving him a better perspective on how engineering actually impacts real people. “You sometimes lose the sense of how what you learn and what you do with it impacts society,” Mark said. He enjoyed the numerous hours spent developing KLAS and described the project as his favorite part of his academic career.
After graduating in May 2009 with a Bachelor’s of Science in computer engineering, Mark plans to pursue a Master’s of Science degree in electrical engineering right here at the University of New Hampshire. He will also continue doing research for UNH’s Consolidated Advanced Technologies Laboratory. He has no specific plans yet for a career after graduate school, but looks forward to learning more about digital signal processing and network communication while exploring future options.
Dr. Andrew Kun is an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of New Hampshire. A specialist in user interfaces for in–car devices and handheld devices like cell phones, Dr. Kun is the principal investigator of Project54 at UNH’s CATLab. It was there that he met undergraduate researchers Matthew Lape and Mark Taipan. Although he had never been a mentor before, Dr. Kun agreed to be their mentor for the project and grant application they were developing. Dr. Kun considers proposal writing a big part of his job as a professor, and was very satisfied to watch Matthew and Mark write their own grant proposal and get their project funded. When Matthew and Mark presented their research at a conference in November 2008, Dr. Kun couldn’t help but feel proud of their work. “They gave the presentation as a team,” he said. “Not only was the content interesting, it was presented flawlessly, with clear slides and a very informative video.”
Dr. Kun graduated from UNH in 1992 with a bachelor's of science in electrical engineering. After completing his master’s degree in the same field in 1994, he continued on to a Ph.D. in engineering with an electrical engineering option in 1997. After spending two years working as a development engineer at Falmouth Scientific, Inc., an oceanographic instrumentation manufacturer in Cataumet, Massachusetts, Dr. Kun decided to return to his alma mater. He has been on the faculty of UNH since July 1999.
Read Matthew Lape and Mark Taipan’s commentary Finding Your Way with KLAS: The Development of an Indoor Location Awareness System >>
