University Projects


This is just storage for some of the University assignments I've had to do so far as part of my degree. It's mainly just a reference for me though you might find some of it interesting.

Articles

The History And Development Of The V8 Engine - Year 2, Semester 2
This assignment was to exercise of technical authoring skills on a technical topic of our choosing. A 10 minute presentation was also given.
Grade: 65%

Programs

Minimal Loss Pad Calculator - Year 1, Semester 1, Individual
I'll be honest, I have no idea what this program actually does. It was just a basic excercise to become familiar with programming and using basic mathematical operators. Both the compiled executable and the source code is provided.
This was coded in C with Quincy 2002.

Alarm Control System - Year 1, Semester 1, Individual
This assignment was to familiarise us with accessing system devices. Only the source code is provided, not the compiled exe, since it won't do anything without the correct circuitry connected to the serial port.
This was coded in C with Quincy 2002.

Book Database System - Year 1, Semester 2, Individual
This assignment was to familiarise us with using system I/O and searching algorithms. Both the compiled executable and the source code is provided, along with an example database.
This was coded in C++ with Quincy 2002.

Subnet Mask Calculator - Year 2, Semester 1, Individual
This (almost complete) utility can come in handy when working with subnetted or supernetted networks. There are, however, many more functional subnet mask calculators out there.
This was coded in Microsoft VisualBasic 6 and was my first application with a GUI.

Text Encryption Utility - Year 2, Semester 1, Individual
This assignment was to familiarise us with using system I/O and understand the basics of the language. It does not actually encrypt text, although code is present to do this, I couldn't work out how to pass the text through it. Both the assembled executable and the source code is provided. Not sure what you could do with it though.
This was coded in Assembly Language for the x86 architecture.

HTTP Text Grabber - Year 2, Semester 1, Individual
This assignment was to familiarise us with using sockets, processing HTTP request codes, and retrieving text content from a remote source.
This was coded in Microsoft VisualBasic 6, using the SocketWrench toolkit to add the necessary functionality.

Robot Control Logic - Year 2, Semester 2, Group Work
This assignment was to design, create and program a robot (using technic lego) to navigate three simplistic obstacle courses. The robot had two impact sensors for detecting left, right and straight ahead collisions, a vertically mounted light sensor for reading the start and finish lines on the ground, and a rotation sensor to measure the angle of the steering system. We rather unconventially decided to create a more car like robot that had one motor to power and another to steer (rather than using one motor for the left wheels and another for the right wheels), which added additional complexity and challenge to the assignment. This also facilitated the need to write auto-calibration code so that we would know what position meant straight ahead. The logic code read the four sensor and controlled the two motors appropriately. The robot was (rather unsurprisingly) named "The Widget".
This was coded in Microsoft VisualBasic 6, using the MindStorms toolkit to add the necessary functionality.

Images: Drawing 1, Drawing 2, Drawing 3, Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3, Photo 4, Photo 5.
Video: Short clip showing systems working - Sadly I was unable to obtain footage of the robot running on my code.

PC Testing Utility - Year 2, Semester 2, Individual
This assignment was to create a small utility that tests keyboard input by reading to and from a buffor, decides if the attched keyboard is US or UK English, tests the screen by drawing different solid colour backgrounds to the display, and finally the serial port by transmitting text to the port, reading it back and outputting it to the screen.
This was coded in Assembly Language for the x86 architecture.

SYN Flood Remote Attack Tool - Year 3, Semester 2, Individual
This assignment used our knowledge of networking to craft forged packets to perform a DoS attack on a remote host. The packets have their source IP randomised to prevent triggering attack detection in intelligent firewalls from blocking a single IP. Neither the executable or source are provided given the nature of the program.
This was coded in C using Microsoft Visual Studio 6.

Simple File Transfer Server and Client - Year 3, Semester 2, Group Work
This assignment was based in the Linux environment and was to expand on our knowledge of dealing with network packets and C in general. We essentially had free reign to design our own protocol, both TCP and UDP packets were used and simple error handling was added. The server program also worked concurrently (through use of fork()) to handle simultaneous requests.
This was coded in C using a text editor and GCC.

Vehicle Handling and Peformance Analyser - Year 3, Semesters 1 and 2, Individual
Titled "Vehicle Technical Analyser" for University, this was my individual final year project. It was supposed to take 400 hours of my time, including the report, but I am convinced I spent more than that figure on the coding alone. Full details about the program can be found on the programs own website. The final project report can be downloaded here (PDF, 8.6MB).
This was coded in Microsoft VisualBasic 6.

Web Sites
These sites are some of my earliest web design work and do not reflect the quality of my more recent websites.

"And... They Call It Guppy Love" - Year 1, Semester 1
My first assignment (for my Internet Technologies module), not quite finished but left as it was when I handed it in. This is an online tropical fish dating agency, the aim was to show we could use frames, tables, forms, Perl and general HTML skills.
Note: it has been tested with IE and Firefox, and only works under IE. Splendid.
Grade: 89/100

"The News (Part 1)" - Year 1, Semester 2
My second assignment (for my Internet Workshop module), Part 1 was to create a news site using CSS, JavaScript and Cookies. You are able to set your own personal preferences for the site's colour scheme.
Grade: 39/40

"The News (Part 2)" - Year 1, Semester 2
Part 2 is an extension of the news website, focusing on using PHP to access a database. News is retrieved from an online database relevant to the options selected in the personal preferences. Also a password protected admin page exists to amend the news articles in the database.
Please note that I am not running the Oracle database the site tries to access, so the news page doesn't work as intended. Also only works properly under IE.
Grade: 23/40