On Tuesday, the Awearables team met at the Gainesville FDOT Operations Center to present our Preliminary Design Report and demonstrate our progress. We presented four concepts, discussed our project plan for going forward, and considered further research we may need to do. Some considerations that resulted from the event included a repeater or mesh network approach for filling in gaps in connectivity across long construction sites, ensuring battery life can last a 14+ hour shift, and that the device is durable enough and may possibly require an upgrade to IP67.

After the main presentation, the sponsors showed us the standard PPE that FDOT workers use, and a popular overhead-light device called the Guardian Angel. They informed us that the workers actually use this device a lot, and that it would be wise to draw inspiration from it when selecting and crafting our final design. They also gave us a tour of the operations center and where we can test our design with Team 6 next semester.

Thank you to our liaisons Lee Woodcock, Bertho Augustin, and Camila Garcia-Ferreyra for the guidance on the project so far, and our coach Dr. Boyi Hu. We also want to extend our thank you to Jordan Green, Tracy Hisler-Pace, and all of the FDOT employees that attended our presentation on Tuesday and gave valuable feedback to us. Now onto prototyping!