One man, alone, working to light up the school he loves. With determination, a junior electrical engineering major did just that.

Ryan Riddel, junior electrical engineering major, created a sound-responsive lighting system from the ground up and installed it in the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house.

The system is different than similar lighting units in that it responds to sound instead of reading a music file. Riddel, who is not a member of the fraternity, approached Phi Kappa Psi with the idea in December. He worked on the system until early February, when he saw his project come to fruition.

Riddel is excited he was able to create a relatively inexpensive alternative to similar lighting systems.

“Light systems like this exist… but this one is a lot cheaper than a comparable light system,” Riddel said. “The lights themselves would be about $500, and that just doesn’t exist on the market, so we created a less expensive alternative that’s still really cool.”

The lighting in the Phi Kappa Psi house runs throughout a room housing a bar and a dance floor. LED lights run along the edges of the dancing platform, in the corners of the room and around the edges of the bar. Riddel used wood, melamine and Plexiglas in addition to lights and electrical materials.

“Plexiglas is actually bulletproof if it’s thick enough,” Riddel said. “My thought was that if it’s good enough for bullets, it’s good enough for a fraternity, but that remains to be seen.”

The programming software running the light system was made by Riddel, too. The software allows users to control what kind of sound the lights respond to, the sensitivity of the lights, what patterns the lights run on default and the colors being displayed. Riddel said all the lights are RGB LED’s, which means they can generate any color a user selects on the color wheel displayed in the software.

While Riddel created the software and did all of the electrical work himself, he had some help from his boss, local businessman David Larson, with the actual construction.

“It was enormously difficult,” Riddel said. “My boss helped me make the wood parts, and he helped me do all of it for free…. He helped immeasurably.”

The entire lighting system cost $1,025, and it was given to the fraternity as a pledge gift.

The fraternity enjoys using the system at parties and appreciates the collaboration with Ridell and all he’s done for them. Dan Fontana, senior marketing major and house manager for Phi Kappa Psi, said many of people have complimented the lighting and think it adds to the overall experience of a party.

“It definitely gets attention, helps draw people in,” Fontana said. “It’s sturdy, too, which is important.”

Riddel likes that he had the opportunity to work with a group he’s not usually involved with. Sean Dwyer, sophomore industrial engineering major and academics chair for Phi Kappa Psi, said he liked seeing diverse groups working together on campus and that it’s nice to hear about positive things happening at NIU.

“You don’t hear a lot of good going on, especially with fraternities…,” Dwyer said. “Everybody looks at the houses as negative, and if you’re not in a fraternity, it’s hard to understand. It’s nice to see that we’re connected through campus, and everyone helps each other out.”

Riddel will look to market the lighting system to different businesses in the future, but he said the Phi Kappa Psi house will probably be the only system he builds for a while.