Project Details

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Smart IoT Valve Tracker - Team 1 (valve database and GIS integration)

Company: WSSC Water

Major(s):
Primary: CMPSC
Secondary: CMPEN

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

The WSSC Water is a bi-county, public water/wastewater utility in Maryland that was established in 1918. For over 100 years, WSSC Water has served the communities of Prince George’s and Montgomery counties providing life-sustaining water and water resource recovery services to individuals, families and businesses. WSSC Water maintains and repairs approximately 12,000 miles of buried pipes and several dozen facilities to provide water services to its community. WSSC Water provides potable water to its customer through a massive network of underground pipes and valves. The total number of valves in our network is roughly 55,000! Proper pressure and flow balance of the network is depended on valves being operated correctly. To ensure all valve are operated correctly WSSC Water needs a quick turn-around solution that involves the development of a Valve Operation UI within four months. This smart UI is intended to reduce human error, provide alerts for mispositioned valves, and automatically integrate valve position data with GIS. The application will enhance accuracy, accountability, and safety by automating data entry, reducing manual error, and enabling alerts that can help minimize customer impacts. This tool will be deployed to the phone of every company employee who operates valves and to all relevant managers. The Smart IoT valve database and phone-based UI project involves developing a mobile application to improve valve tracking, reduce human error, and automatically integrate valve status data with GIS. The scope to be complete in one semester includes the smart database/UI development and field deployment. The smart UI will record valve positions by Asset ID, replace manual forms with a digital database, send reminders to return valves to proper positions, and issue alerts for critical customers such as hospitals and schools. The deployment portion will also include a site visit and staff training. Initial plans are for Team 1 to focus on valve data and GIS integration. Team 2 will focus on the app and UI development. The project will allow WSSC Water to continue to provide a highly reliable water source to approximately 2 million customers by allowing WSSC Water to reliably “Deliver the Essential”.