Workspace Occupancy System

Project Highlights

In 2019, our student team recognized a need on campus - students were finding it increasingly more challenging to anticipate busy periods around campus and were losing a significant amount of time searching for open study spaces. So our team took off to solve the problem. We drafted system requirements and began protyping a system that would help students plan their study spaces effectively.

Then the pandemic happened! The response to the pandemic prevented our team from implementing our system for our original use case. However, it presented an unprecedented opportunity to redesign our system to assist with the COVID response by improving compliance to workspace occupancy limits. Check out our project briefing below to learn more about our system!

Project Briefing

My main contribution to this project was designing robust algorithms based on finite state machines and implementing them in C and C++. I also played a role in developing and maintaining relationships with the McMaster Office of Community Engagement and pursuing opportunities to implement our system. I am proud of what we accomplished and fortunate to have worked with such a hard working development team and supportive executive team. Check out a demo of our system below!

Demo

The above video is a demonstration of our system. Our sensor node is mounted on the threshold of the door. The terminal shell on the right side of the screen reports the proximity measurements recorded from each zone, and the net people count. Zone "0" represents the front zone, and zone "1" represents the back zone. As my teammate Sue walks through her door from the front to the back zone, the count on the far right side of the shell is incremented by 1.

Skills

Procurement Communication
Algorithm Design Debugging Target Hardware
Technical Documentation Writing

Tools

VL53L1X Time of Flight Sensor
Arduino Uno MCU ESP32 MCU MSP432E401Y MCU
I2C Communication Eclipse IDE

Experience

Designed and developed robust algorithms based on Finite State Machines to process ranging data.
Created and maintained detailed technical documentation on developed firmware.
Implemented software libraries in embedded C and C++.
Developed working relations with McMaster Office of Community Engagement and pursued opportunities to implement the system.

Work Samples

Have more questions? Check out my work samples for details.