In 2018, more than 100 industrial workers died on the job each week, according to the United States Department of Labor. ECE Assistant Professor, Armin Tajalli alongside the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Abbas Rashidi has been awarded $250,000 from the National Science Foundation to change that.
The funding from the Partnership for Innovation program will allow these researchers to develop advanced monitoring and tracking electronics systems to enhance the safety of mega-structures and industrial manufacturing workshops.
Tajalli and Rashidi will be implementing and empirically testing low-power sensing and communications systems based on the “Internet of Things” principle. The IoT principle refers to a system of internet-connected objects which are able to wirelessly gather and transfer data without the intervention of humans. Collected information will then be processed to evaluate the environmental conditions including position, noise level, and temperature to ensure the safety of the working environment.
Through this process, researchers will also be developing advanced sensing, recognition and tracking algorithms.
“The final aim of this project is to enhance the quality and safety of workers in industrial Environments,” Tajalli said. They are also hoping that this research will lead to an industrial product.