In partnership with MakeHaven and the New Haven government, Code4Good created a cloud platform to remotely display text and imagery on electronic road signs.
Road Sign Manager is a civic hacking project to create a cloud platform that enables New Haven government officials to convert and send data to be displayed on electronic road signs in New Haven. Built on Express, Pug, and PostgreSQL, we utilized the Smarking parking data API to send the latest parking information to road signs. We wrote and designed their own algorithms to transform text, images, and data into binary strings that corresponded to individual bulbs on the LED road signs. This project helped students hone backend and front skills alike--since Road Sign Manager was meant to be used by non-technical users and city officials, we engaged in exploratory user interface/user experience research and implemented tools to account for the wide variance in technical expertise. User-friendly tooling included review panels, confirmation modals, and a one-stop settings page. The combination of Internet of Things, big data, and government technology made this a cutting-edge and exciting project.
JavaScript
PostgreSQL
Express
Pug
Smarking
Cloud
Data encoding
UI/UX
Authentication schemes
RESTful APIs
Eugene Lim '18 (Team Lead)
Nadia Irwanto '20
Yi Chern Tan '20
Isabella Teng '20
Annie Zhou '21