ESGP Professional Track
Gannon runs a two-year work-study program with local industry in Erie. The objective of the track is to present an academic program combined with application training on actual industrial problems to give students a targeted education complemented by hands-on, real-world development exposure. Students are selected for this track based on academic background, leadership skills and communication skills. The student is assigned a Gannon professor as a mentor while working at the industrial site.
The mentor advises the student on his academic work and guides the student on industrial engineering projects. The projects are carefully chosen to reinforce classroom work and to develop the students into outstanding engineers. In addition to the mentorship in technical areas, the professor also mentors the student in leadership skills, work and personal ethics, and communication skills that are needed in the industrial workplace. This track requires that the student work on these projects half-time during the school year and full-time during the summer. The students receive full tuition and a yearly stipend for their work. Students need to apply and be accepted separately for this program. The number of students in this track is dependent on availability of industrial sponsorship.
The students earn either an Electrical Engineering degree or an Embedded Software Engineering degree. There are two tracks for the program:
The Embedded Software track leads to an Embedded Software degree and the Systems and Modeling track leads to an Electrical Engineering degree. All students in the professional track must have equivalent background (academic or professional) in Automatic Control. Furthermore, all students in the Embedded Software track must have equivalent background in C++ and Data Structures. The recommended curriculum is as follows:
Embedded Software
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Systems and Modeling
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Summer
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Intro to Embedded Systems Orientation and Curricular Curricular Practical Training (CPT)
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Intro to Embedded Systems Orientation and Curricular Curricular Practical Training (CPT) |
Fall (First Semester)
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Engineering Analysis I Requirentments Engineering Advanced Programming C/C++ CPT |
Engineering Analysis I Requirentments Engineering Advanced Programming C/C++ CPT |
Spring (Second Semester)
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Engineering Analysis II Embedded Kernel* Embedded Systems Design* CPT
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Engineering Analysis II Adv Programming in C/C++ Electric Machine Modeling* CPT |
Summer
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CPT |
CPT |
Fall (Third Semester)
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RTOS Applications+ Hw/Sw Co-Design Personal Software Process* CPT
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Control of Electric Drives Power Electronics Elective CPT |
Spring (Fourth Semester)
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Project/thesis Elective Elective CPT |
Project/thesis Digital Control Elective CPT |
Student's Cool Projects
Angelica Duarte Moya
-Simulation Module Team
AC CCA Locomotive Real-Time Virtual Simulator Project
This project consisted of the development of a Virtual Simulator for a locomotive system that does not require a complete Hardware in The Loop integration. The goal was to increase the control software testing capacity while reducing costs. The Simulator includes two major changes from existing real-time simulators: first, the Consolidated Input/Output panel was eliminated and its functionality is added to the “CCA Virtual panel” currently used to handle subscriptions and publications (Arcnet method) of the already-modeled virtual controllers. Second, Redhawk Real-Time Linux OS is used instead of Power Hawk UNIX RTOS, which provides the performance needed in time-critical and hard real-time environments.
Dan Gagich
- Simulation Module Team
Simulation Environment Synchronization
To analyze, organize and compare the existing simulation teams file structures being shared between both GE in Erie and EDDC (Bangalore, India). The ultimate goal is to have identical file structures and a system which can automatically detect additions and changes made to it, i.e. creation and/or modification of a file or directory.
Virtual CCA Simulator
The goal of this project is to create a new type of CCA-type locomotive simulator mostly made-up of software, or virtual, which in turn decreases dependencies on actual hardware required. The purpose is to increase software testing capabilities and to ease the current CCA simulator demand. Also, using less hardware in a simulator reduces cost and physical size of the overall system.
Lin Tun Wai
- Function and Control Team
Clock Sync Agent
Today, GE locomotives are equipped with many sophisticated systems (e.g. event recorder, diagnostic system, trip optimizer and Loco cam) These systems require real and accurate time information to timestamp incidents triggered by some changes in operation conditions, to timestamp monitor parameters of various subsystems, to generate an optimized trip plan and to timestamp a footage of video and audio record data for analysis and evidence.
Event Recorder Task Agent Software Testing
Event Recorder is a device that serves as a black box to store a set of locomotive operational related parameters. To develop Event Recorder task agent software Validation Test Procedure based on Event Recorder System Design Specification and perform functional validation and verification on simulator and locomotive.
Pranesh Ramachandran
- NPI
Microprocessor upgrade of African locomotive controls
System level Designing of a Microprocessor-based control system and defining the complete integration with existing systems of African locomotives. This involved significant interaction/ experiments along with other sub-sections/ groups and customer until the product is successfully commissioned.
North American Railroad Event Recorder upgrade
Event Recorder is a Black-box for a locomotive. This project involved design, development and integration of an event recorder for a North American Railroad and validation of its complete performance, guiding the necessary sub-sections/ other groups appropriately.