Technological Solution Development During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Case Study in an IoT Lab

Abstract

Major crisis in human history impose new challenges to all people affected by it. These great challenges usually represent a great opportunity for technological development, since technological solutions are a significant part of the effort to overcome crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception to this historical trend. We present in this work the development of a technological solution for one challenge imposed by the corona virus outbreak: disinfection of enclosed spaces. Hence, the objectives of this work were: 1 - To present some of the technical choices made to develop the sanitization solution using uvc light; 2 - To present a methodological framework to adapt R&D work to the needs of social/physical distance; 3 - To assess the productivity of the members of the UIoT laboratory during this remote work period. The solution development was carried out by a multidisciplinary team and, in order to evaluate the proposed methodology, a questionnaire was used to assess the team member's perception of productivity. Its results show an overall quality increase, and an individual quantity increase regarding the project's outputs. We concluded that the projects' results were better than what was expected at the beginning of the year.