Third year students of college are made to go through the process of selecting a topic for their annual project, which just doesn’t pique the interest of students but also makes them think out of the box and develop their own research. Every year, new ideas from different streams come to the fore which teaches the students
as well as professors more about the subject.
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St. Xavier’s College, Mapusa has many firsts to its credit. The college introduced BCA (Commerce) in 2005, with an intake capacity of 40 students. With four full time faculty members, the students are eager to learn as their professors are very approachable. This encourages them to push their boundary and learn more about the subject. Students have a wide range of prospects around the world with jobs such as programmers, software developers, software engineers, web designers, hardware analysts, hardware designers, software quality assurance managers, software designers, graphic designers, etc.
The Third Year Bachelor’s in Computer Application (TYBCA) for 2021-22 batch worked on an interesting project, ‘Smart Home’, under the guidance of their project guide, Worrel D’Souza, assistant professor, Department of BCA. The team comprises Austin Lobo, Andrea Menezes, Aryesh Asolkar, Carrisha Rodrigues, Glen Dias, Haran De Souza, Marvin D’Souza and Penwyn Tavares.
“‘Smart Home’ is an app for home automation. It allows users to control home appliances wirelessly over WiFi. A unique application that is designed to work with specific built-in WiFi enabled hardware boards, Raspbery Pi. It has an easy to use interface which is designed to work on most android phones. It has a set of predefined rooms for categorising switch buttons which are assigned to light/fans/sockets specifically,” says Austin Lobo from Aldona, who was heading the projector.
He further says, “Towards the end of Second Year, we eight friends got together. All we had was an idea in mind, and we didn’t know what hardware would be required for the project. We knew we were working towards something that will help us learn and grow. It was an amazing experience working as a team and fun working with both hardware as well as software.”
The features of the project includes home lighting system, automated garage door, security system and intruder detection. “The app allows the user to control various appliances at home such as lights, fans and other appliances, thereby making it easy for the user to do everything at his fingertips. An automated garage which opens and closes at the press of a button on the app, making it more convenient for drivers. A Wifi enabled camera which can be used for surveillance, and can be accessed remotely via the app. This ensures safety of your home. An alarm system with motion sensor which alerts the user in case of burglary, theft and other potential home intruders,” adds Lobo.
Though the students were taught about software in class, they had no experience on making the hardware work. They borrowed hardware from their senior class and ordered for some parts online. “We had to do our own research for the project and though we were taught the basics in class, this was completely different. YouTube tutorials were mainly a trial and error method as some parts even had a burn out in the process. We wanted to learn and grow more in the field,” he explains.
The advantage of this project is that it has an easy to use interface, easily understandable, energy efficient and has a camera which can be accessed remotely from the app. It also has Android app controls functioning. Hence, no unnecessary movement is required. “The app is designed for today’s fast paced work environment, where everything is at your fingertips. It will make life smoother easier and convenient on daily basis. It is also helpful for people with disability or aged, and face difficulty in controlling electronic devices,” says Lobo.
Like any other project, they had to do a lot of research, for hardware or the app or any other technical aspects of their project, which would get boring at times. “We also had to work really hard on the coding for the android app as well as the hardware. It was frustrating when we worked for hours together, sometimes at home, sometimes in college, and did not get the desired output. But all we did was believed in ourselves and kept trying. Our project guide, teachers and family supported and encouraged us during this time. We are extremely indebted to them for standing by us. With all the hard work, dedication, consistency, right technical expertise and guidance from our project guide and teachers we worked on this project for one year, and successfully managed to complete it,” adds Lobo.
“I am happy that the students managed to get a working project, ‘Smart Home’ in spite of the difficulties of pandemic,” says Worrel D’Souza, Assistant Professor, department of BCA.
‘Smart Home’ application is in its first stage and has a lot of scope for development. Future enhancements would include a much improved user interface, voice commands, fire suppression network, weather detection system, gesture control, etc.
