Each year the University of Florida’s Benton Engineering Council (BEC) organizes an Engineering Fair (E-Fair) to promote engineering education amongst K-12 students. This two-day event takes place during BEC’s Engineering Week and allows UF engineering student groups to interact with visiting K-12 students using hands-on activities that the student groups create. This year’s E-Fair took place on February 22-23, 2016.

The UF ITE Student Chapter hosted a Signal Controller activity for this event. This activity provided students with the opportunity to see how a signal controller operates and determines what indication (e.g., red, yellow, green, walk, don’t walk) the traffic signals should display. For this activity a real traffic signal controller, two traffic signals, and one pedestrian signal were set up at the event. Students were able to watch as the signals’ indications changed according to the controller’s progression through the signal phasing and timing plan.

UF ITE members were able to use the signal equipment to engage students and teach them basic information about signal controllers, signal timing, vehicle and pedestrian detection, and signal coordination. Students were provided with an opportunity to manually change the indications of the signals using a hand-held device called a pickle that is commonly used by law enforcement officers.

“We’ve never been to anything like this before but it’s been a great experience,” one parent said. “I didn’t even know police officers could change the signals.”

Interested in learning more?

Check out University of Florida Transportation Institute’s Traffic Signal Control Laboratory, where they conduct full intersection signal control demonstrations and tests.  The laboratory is equipped with video data collection and processing facilities, including numerous video cameras and recording devices.