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Student-led team “SENSOL Systems” places 3rd in Science & Technology Showcase

February 12, 2020

SENSOL Module

One of SENSOL’s Crosswalk Modules being illuminated.

It’s a dark and rainy night. You step into a crosswalk. A car comes screeching towards you, barely missing you. Luckily, you are not one of the 6,000+ pedestrians killed last year nationally in traffic collisions. SENSOL Systems believes these deaths are preventable! SENSOL is developing an ADA-compliant modular crosswalk addition that overlays onto the road, lighting up pedestrians as they move across it. SENSOL’s product will improve safety and visibility without permanently changing roadways. The crosswalk will be triggered when feet, wheelchairs or bicycles pass over them, illuminating their exact location, visible at both a distance and up close by cars, bicycles, buses and other pedestrians.

SENSOL’s cross-disciplinary startup team consists of graduate and undergraduate students in various majors, including two Electrical & Computer Engineering students, Richard Burberry and Yuhang Li. In addition, Scott Cavanagh, a Mechanical Engineering student, works alongside Burberry and Li to design the electrical components of SENSOL’s Crosswalks.

The full team includes:

Business – Janie Bube, Lorenzo Guio, Garrett King, Iman Haji.

Engineering – Rajat Singh, Jimmy Liu, Richard Burberry, Scott Cavanagh, Yuhang Li.

Communication – Chandler Simon, Alex Wong, Trey Michaels, Jonah Wu.

Read more about the team here.

“We are committed to assisting Seattle in their ‘Vision Zero’ initiative to limit traffic fatalities/severe injuries to zero by 2030.” – Janie Bube

Map of traffic incidents in Seattle between 2004-2020. The colored bar on the right represents the # of incidents per intersection.

SENSOL is working diligently to ensure their product will be adopted globally to improve pedestrian safety. In fact, SENSOL has been gaining recognition for its mission and product, most recently winning third place on January 28, 2020, in the Science & Technology Showcase (STS) hosted by UW’s Science & Engineering Business Association (SEBA) and the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship. This year’s STS event featured 18 finalist teams from a record pool of applicants. The annual showcase shines a spotlight on science and technology-based innovations coming out of the University while providing students with the opportunity to pitch their commercial potential. Seattle-area entrepreneurs and investors served as judges and provided in-person feedback and mentorship. Prior to SENSOL’s win in the STS competition, they have also been awarded the Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF) Grant, Amazon Catalyst Fellowship and the NSF I-CORPS Grant through CoMotion.

SENSOL STS

SENSOL Sytems after winning 3rd place at the Science & Technology Showcase.

SENSOL is the only crosswalk reducing collisions by directly lighting up pedestrians’ location and movement as they walk across the street. Seattle spends tens of millions of dollars a year alone on pedestrian improvements. SENSOL’s crosswalk is not only safer but also less expensive than existing solutions.

The Seattle Department of Transportation, the City of Maple Valley and the University of Washington have shown interest in both demoing and testing SENSOL’s product at various locations during Summer 2020. So the next time you cross the street, your every step will be illuminated.

 

SENSOL Logo