Rising high school student's COVID-19 research shows how to keep hallway traffic safe

Charles Tang, a rising high school sophomore from Algonquin Regional High School, will present a poster on “Why one-way hallways are better than two-way hallways” at the WPI Summer Research Showcase. He worked with Archanaa S. Krishnan, Ph.D. student, and Patrick Schaumont, professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The research simulates pedestrian movements in a closed space to reveal close contacts between pedestrians, which may promote COVID-19 infections. The simulation results help to identify various factors such as population, size, and speed, that need to be considered in deciding an indoor pedestrian traffic model. The hallway simulation is applicable to the public-indoor setting such as the office, university, school, or the mall. The project was supported in part by an NSF RAPID grant.

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