I had the unique opportunity to work with two different engineering professors this summer. Until Professor vanPutten became ill I worked with EMG signal analysis. I then became a guinea pig for the fresh designs, ideas, and methods of Tim Benson, David Woessner, and Dale Corlew, who were developing lab projects for John Krupczak's Science and Technology of Everyday Life class. I built a crystal radio (added an amp design that I had sitting around), a speaker (to which I powered the aforementioned radio using a power-amp design from electronics class), and gave feedback and suggestions based on my experience.

I then needed a real project on which to work. The subject chosen was digital to analog conversion. Today, it seems as if more consumer electronics are based on digital signals. Products like CD's, DVD, laserdisc, cellular phones all use digital signals instead of analog. Soon, television will convert to a digital standard of broadcasting. Seeing the need for the lay person to understand the nature of digital signals is evident. The purpose of my project was to develop and assemble an analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog demonstration suitable for these non-science majors.