Renee Wrysinski

Projects

These are some of the projects I’ve worked on, both inside and outside of my classes at Rice!

Academic

banner Autonomous Path-Following Toy Car — In the spring of 2025, for a Mobile and Embedded Systems class, I worked in a group to implement computer vision on a Raspberry Pi to control a modified RC car to stop at checkpoints and stay within a defined track. Additionally, we implemented a speed controller using an optical encoder to ensure the car drove at an adequate speed so it completed the track safely and in a reasonable time. You can read more about our project here.
banner Interactive LED Fish Tank — In the spring of 2025, for an Implementation of Digital Systems class, I implemented a desktop fish tank on a 16x16 LED array with an MSPM0-based closed-loop embedded system. I designed a finite state machine to control fish behavior, allowing for feeding, rest, and gameplay. Additionally, I created a library of custom functions to control the LED grid via SPI and simplify our main function. You can read more about the project here.
banner Wireless Egg Data Logger — Throughout the 2023-2024 academic year, I worked to create a wireless egg data logger for conservation of endangered birds for the Houston Zoo. For this project, I created a circuit utilizing a 9-DOF IMU, temperature & humidity sensor, and ESP32 MCU to transmit data to a Raspberry Pi dashboard, and also designed a custom PCB for this circuit. You can view our poster here!
banner Snake ASIC — In the spring of 2025, for a VLSI Systems Design class, I worked to create an ASIC to implement the classic snake game. My group designed a two-phase FSM and datapath in Verilog, verified modules with QuestaSim, integrated units, synthesized 0.5 μm logic with Design Compiler, and acheived timing closure. Finally, we placed and routed the design in Cadence Innovus, then exported for physical layout integration and final simulation in Magic and IRSIM.
banner Single Cycle 16-Bit Processor — In the fall of 2023, for a Digital Logic Design class, I developed a single-cycle 16-bit processor in Verilog supporting arithmetic and logic instructions. Additionally, I integrated I/O via switches and buttons to execute custom assembly instruction sequences. After writing the code, I simulated and verified its functionality using Vivado, then programmed it onto a Real Digital Boolean Board.
banner ENGI 210 Class Projects — In Spring 2023, I took ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication. In this course, we learned to use many of the machines in the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, such as the 3D printers, laser cutter, water jet cutter, and CNC mill through a series of multi-week projects. You can view some of my completed projects here.
banner Water Leak Sensing Device — In the fall of 2022, I worked on a project team to create a water leak sensing device for the Rice Office of Sustainability. Our final product utilized non-invasive analog sensors, an Arduino, and an ESP8266 to detect abnormal levels of water flow and send email notifications to alert staff to these conditions.

Personal

banner Circuit Showdown — During the summer of 2024, I participated in Mouser Electronics' electrical engineering competition, Circuit Showdown. This series is currently being released on Mouser's YouTube channel, and you can check it out here!
banner Resistor Quiz — To help myself get better at recognizing resistors based on their color codes, I created a website that allows you to practice and quiz yourself on resistor identification. You can view the site here!
banner Rice Bikes Repair & Inventory App — Throughout the summer of 2024, I worked with two other students to further develop and document the Rice Bikes repair and inventory management app. In working on this project, I used Angular, Express, MongoDB, and Node.js and significantly improved my web development skills.
banner Speaker Repair — When Rice Bikes' shop bluetooth speaker stopped working, I decided to troubleshoot the issue and attempt to fix it. After diagnosing the issue, a corroded power switch, I was able to solder in a replacement part and bring our beloved speaker back to life :)
banner Rice Course Utilities — After the student developer/maintainer of a helpful Rice utilities tool graduated and stopped updating it, I decided to update and maintain the tool myself, making the necessary changes to the code to keep it functional despite changes to the course catalog. You can explore these tools here!
banner Rice Bikes Appsheet — To help facilitate Rice Bikes' repairs of residential college bike fleets for Rice's annual campus-wide bike race, I created a repair and inventory management app using Google Appsheet. This app allowed mechanics to create safety inspections, document associated repairs/parts, and record notes. It also automatically calculated college repair totals and created invoices for final payment.