This project involves the creation of a Solar Powered Flower Sculpture that is lightweight and portable. The flower’s 12 petals can be illuminated by multicolored LEDs based on the input received by an Android platform mobile app. The phone app allows the Solar Powered Flower Sculpture’s LED display to set and be used as a two-hand clock (where one or two petals are illuminated at once corresponding to the time), as a lamp (where all twelve petals are illuminated, and LED color/brightness can be adjusted), or to show a light cycled pattern for festive events (where the user can select different patterns). As a part of its clock function, the sculpture can also operate as a timer that waits for a period of time desired by the user, and flashing a light pattern when the time has been reached. The flower head is connected to a base which holds the photovoltaic cells on its outside, and houses a programmable Arduino microcontroller with a battery power supply. Bluetooth technology is used to connect the instructions of the Android app to the Solar Powered Flower Sculpture’s microcontroller and LEDs. The whole of the system is designed to be energy efficient and environmentally friendly, reflecting its flower presentation.

Mahaley Vann is currently a senior at the University of Central Florida. She will be graduating with her Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering in the Spring Semester of 2017. After graduation, she will pursue job opportunities focused in renewable energy or control systems engineering. Being the solo electrical engineer in this project, her responsibilities included the hardware design for the printed circuit board, the power supply system, and the hardware wiring for the LEDs.

Kibwe Williamson is a student at the University of Central Florida studying Computer Engineering. He has been working for the last two terms as a research assistant as a rapid prototyper in the field of human factors. His interest includes synthetic biology and intends to pursue an advanced degree in biological engineering with a focus on synthetic biology. His focus on the project was mainly the interfacing the other components with the microcontroller and developing the software for the microcontroller.

Kelechi Ukachi-Lois is currently a senior computer engineering student at the University of Central Florida. Kelechi focused his technical elective studies on the computer programming side of computer engineering. With an expected graduation date of May 2017, Kelechi plans to exercise the discipline developed in computer engineering and apply it to other endeavors.

Nickolas Devito is currently a senior at the University of Central Florida engaged in studying Computer Engineering, with a minor in Digital Media. His interests include interactive software design and development of embedded systems. His main focus on the project was programming the microcontroller, including LED implementation, and mobile application design.