CARBONDALE - Students took a bucket, PVC piping and plastic wrapping and made a device to harness wind power to exhibit at the Southern Illinois University Innovate Systems Conference in October.

The makeshift wind turbine is one of several devices SIUC students are readying for the conference. Other innovations include a virtual desktop and a persistence of vision device.

"The idea behind the conference is to showcase the innovation ability for students to apply knowledge in the classroom to a real world project," said Anil Mehta, director of the SIUIS Conference.

The conference will take place from Oct. 29 to Oct. 31.

Mehta said the wind turbine could especially come in handy should Southern Illinois be hit by another derecho and left powerless. The device stands on a bucket with the piping making a double helix design with plastic wrapping between the pipes.

Mehta said because Southern Illinois does not have strong enough winds to really harness wind energy, the device is designed for weaker winds. By turning the device slowly, students are able to power a radio, a small light or a cell-phone battery.

The virtual laptop uses an infrared camera, a laptop and a glove retrofitted with electrodes to project an image of the laptop screen which the user can navigate using his or her hand. The program can also support several gloves at once. Mehta said they are trying to put sensors on all the fingers. This would lead to the user utilizing natural hand gestures on the computer.

Another project had a single row of LED lights attached to a spoke on a bicycle wheel. By setting up a series of blinks and spinning the wheel, the single row of lights spells out SIUIS. Mehta said it is more environmentally sound than other LED signs and possibilities also include images.

Amod Waikar, a graduate student in electrical engineering from Mumbai, India, said workshops set up before the conference allow them to share the projects with undergraduate students, helping students get more involved in activities outside of the classroom.

T.J. Momoh, a graduate student in electrical engineering from Warri, Nigeria, worked on the LED display with Waikar. He said the program is positive because it is a good learning experience and it shows that SIUC is capable of producing innovation.

"We don't want all the big inventions to come from MIT," Momoh said. "We want some to come from SIU as well."

codell.rodriguez@thesouthern.com / 618-351-5804