Final project

SitWise

Winner of the ECE 145 Instructor Award, Spring 2026.

SitWise is a custom smart cushion that helps people sit in a healthier way. It senses whether and how someone is seated, tracks how long they have been sitting, and responds with immediate audible and haptic feedback, plus gentle heating for comfort. The whole system runs on a single custom PCB designed from the ground up.

Developed as the final project for ECE 145 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

Overview

Sitting for long, uninterrupted stretches is hard on the body. SitWise turns an ordinary cushion into an active sitting-health monitor built around one custom board. It brings occupancy and posture sensing, a sitting timer, audible and haptic feedback, and heating together into a single integrated design.

Design highlights

• Five subsystems on one board. Occupancy and posture sensing, sitting-time tracking, buzzer and vibration feedback, heating, and user calibration are all integrated onto a single two-layer PCB.
• Modular, bottom-up design. Each subsystem was designed and validated as a standalone module (see modules/) before being merged into the final board.
• From schematic to fabrication. The project was carried through the full hardware flow: schematic capture, PCB layout, and a complete, manufacturing-ready Gerber and drill package.

Features

• Occupancy & Posture: detects whether someone is seated and estimates their sitting posture.
• Sitting Timer: tracks continuous sitting time and flags overly long sessions.
• User Feedback: alerts the user with a buzzer and a vibration motor.
• Heating: drives a heating element for warmth and comfort.
• Data Initialization: sets up and calibrates each user's baseline data.

Repository structure

sitwise/
├── main-board/     Final integrated board: KiCad schematic + PCB layout
├── modules/        Standalone schematic for each subsystem
│   ├── occupancy-posture/
│   ├── sitting-timer/
│   ├── user-feedback/
│   ├── heating/
│   └── data-initialization/
├── fabrication/    Gerber + drill files (manufacturing package)
└── docs/
    └── images/     Board photos & schematic screenshots

Gallery

Photos coming soon.

Demo

Demo videos coming soon.

Team

UIUC ECE 145, Spring 2026.

Tools

KiCad