Software Engineering Capstone Projects 2007/08
Software Engineering and Game Design
Software Engineering and Game Design Team A
Software Engineering and Game Design Team B
Team B video
Students in the Software Engineering programs were challenged to rigorously specify, design and implement the
embedded software for a pacemaker on a PIC microcontroller hardware reference platform as well as a Device Monitor
and Controller (DCM) program to run on a PC that would be used by physicians and technicians to monitor a patient's
pacemaker and control its settings. The project was based upon an informal requirements document provided by
Boston Scientific, a leading designer and manufacturer of pacemakers.
The hardware reference platform,developed by students at the University of Minnesota, was based upon an 8-bit
PIC18F4520 microcontroller. It include analog filtering for the input signals from the atrial and ventricle as
well as programmable resistors to set the sense thresholds and pace amplitude, external 16 bit A/D converters to
allow real-time ECG data to be transmitted from the board, a magnetic reed switch (for magnet mode) , a MAX232 for
RS-232 serial communication with a PC acting as a Device Controller-Monitor (DCM) and an accelerometer for rate
adaptive modes. More information on the pacemaker challenge is available
here.