On Thursday, September 22, the XI Sustainable Electronics Engineering Conference took place, organized by the Electronics Engineering Department of UTN Avellaneda and held in the Videoconference Room of the Villa Domínico Campus with participation of faculty, students, graduates of the program, and the university community in general.
“Thank you for joining us at these conferences that bring new topics and cross-cutting perspectives, essential for professional development,” said Dean of the Faculty, Lic. Luis Garaventa in the opening remarks, following the welcome provided by the Department Director, Eng. Guillermo Ciampone.
Initially, Cristian Villalba, from Tecnous S.A., gave a talk about “The Importance of Measurement in Optical Fiber Networks”, emphasizing sustainability for resource care. “We work on the convergence of equipment to reuse and unify them in order to reduce the consumption of finite resources, as well as time and money,” he explained.
Among the aspects mentioned to assist sustainability, he mentioned concepts such as attenuation, reflection, and operational windows. Regarding optical fiber measurements, he stressed that work is done with versatile equipment and that “before any measurement, connector cleanliness is fundamental”. He also discussed characteristics of measurement types such as broadband power meters and selective power meters.
Later, three groups of students presented their Final Project work. Gustavo Arluna, Axel Gómez Caamaño, and Hernán Trinidad presented “Potentiostat with USB Communication over LPCXpresso and FreeRTOS”. “This is an interdisciplinary project; the potentiostat is an electronic device used in electrochemical experiments, capable of characterizing the impedance of a substance through current and voltage measurement,” they detailed, and explained the operation and technical specifications of the hardware (electrodes, current measurement circuit, signal conditioning, power supply) and software (embedded systems, development kit). Regarding FreeRTOS, they noted that it is “a small and simple real-time operating system”.
Next, “Wireless Console” was presented, a project led by Mauro Ciampa, Martín Fratichelli, Nazareno Tintes, and Facundo Piñero. “We sought a project that would encompass as much knowledge as possible acquired during the program, that would be feasible to manufacture with easily obtainable components, and that would be innovative,” they stated, adding that “this is a hybrid console, analog signal but remotely controlled through a command application”. Among the equipment’s functionalities, they discussed the characteristics of circuit boards, amplifiers, and equalizer, as well as the application command structure.
Finally, Nahuel Coco, Leonel Macri, and Ian Lesniaski demonstrated the “Electromyograph” project, a device that allows evaluating the behavior of nerves and muscles through the graphical recording of electrical activity of muscle fibers, at rest and during contraction. “The signal analyzed is the action potential, which can be generated by stimulating the nerve,” they described, and indicated the characteristics of the stimulus pulse (objective waveform, current control, pulse width control), how it propagates and the speed at which it manifests in the body. In closing, they highlighted the importance of signal isolation “to protect both the patient and the equipment against electrical discharge”.