In a cooperative effort between the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak and the University of Texas at El Paso, junior and senior electrical engineering and computer engineering students spend the summer working on design projects at UTEP and at the Observatory. At present, Observatory personnel do not have the time or resources to retrofit or redesign existing equipment that, although marginal, functions at an acceptable level. This opens the door for many student design projects aimed at optimizing existing equipment. These projects include the design of a serial handbox interface for telescope control, the development of a noise insensitive fiber optic link for CCD camera data, and the design of calibrated timing source for synchronizing instruments used for solar observations.
