Embedded Systems Intern - Digital Dynamometer

Apr 2011 - Jun 2011

Overview

During a 3-month internship at UDESC-CEFID (Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina — Centro de Ciências da Saúde e do Esporte) in the Florianópolis area of Brazil, I joined a 4-person team to design and build a digital dynamometer for measuring gripping strength. The device was intended to support research on athletes and on people recovering from a stroke.

Embedded Firmware

The embedded side of the project involved programming the dynamometer hardware directly. The firmware handled reading force measurements from the device and transmitting the data to a host computer for analysis.

Qt Visualization GUI

On the host side, I developed a desktop application using the Qt framework to receive and display the force data in real time. The GUI allowed researchers to monitor gripping strength exerted on the device and review recorded sessions.