a) What is the overall purpose of your project?
To establish three dedicated Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and spatial sensing diagnostic workstations in the Automotive Service Technology program. Adult learners will use 360-degree laser LiDAR scanners, local diagnostic edge controllers, and high-speed data drives to calibrate collision-avoidance zones, audit optical sensor blind spots, and diagnose vehicle safety system failures caused by real-world environmental interference.
b) What need(s) does it address?
Modern passenger vehicles and commercial fleet trucks are equipped with complex driver-assist safety suites: adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, forward collision alerts, and automatic emergency braking. Dealerships and independent repair facilities face a severe shortage of technicians who know how to diagnose and calibrate these optical and laser sensor networks. Traditional automotive training emphasizes mechanical components—brakes, engines, and suspensions—leaving students with limited exposure to the digital perception networks that govern modern vehicle safety. Furthermore, technicians must understand why these systems fail in real Florida driving conditions: sun glare, torrential downpours, road spray, and bumper damage. This grant gives adult automotive learners the dedicated spatial hardware needed to see how vehicle safety sensors read surrounding space and troubleshoot the blind spots that cause false-positive warnings or critical detection failures.
c) What learning goal, academic standard, or outcome does your project address?
This project aligns directly with the Florida Department of Education’s Automotive Service Technology curriculum framework (Program I470608 / Transportation, Distribution & Logistics cluster), ASE/NATEF standards, and Florida Statute 1004.925 governing automotive instruction. It directly reinforces Electrical/Electronic Systems competencies (Course AER0691) and Automotive Preventative Maintenance (Course AER0014).
Students will:
- Set up, connect, and calibrate 360-degree laser range sensors to map safety perimeters and identify blind-spot zones around simulated vehicles.
- Perform diagnostic stress tests to evaluate how physical occlusions, surface reflections, dust, and glare degrade collision-avoidance sensors.
- Interpret live point-cloud sensor feeds and configure automated warning thresholds to verify vehicle safety-override and braking alerts.
d) How does this project connect to a school or district priority?
Directly advances Collier County Public Schools’ strategic focus on workforce acceleration, technical safety culture, and high-wage career placement. The automotive repair sector in Southwest Florida is evolving rapidly toward hybrid, electric, and computer-assisted platforms. Equipping our adult students with practical ADAS sensor troubleshooting skills ensures iTECH graduates secure high-demand technician roles that pay top starting wages.
Aligns with iTECH’s Vision of empowering students through innovating hands-on training and our shared beliefs that instruction must represent current technology and practices and that instruction is meaningful when it is relevant to the students and incorporates current issues.
a) How will students actively participate?
Students will work in diagnostic teams across three dedicated benchtop workcells. Learners will wire and mount 360-degree laser scanners to vehicle test bays and rolling carts. Students will simulate common road hazards—positioning obstacles at varying distances, creating optical blind spots, and introducing simulated glare or debris—to observe how the vehicle's computer registers the surrounding environment. Teams will analyze real-time spatial readings on their diagnostic screens, adjust sensor alignment angles, and test warning triggers when a target enters a vehicle's emergency stopping perimeter.
b) How will this project meet the needs of your students, classroom, and/or school?
This project bridges traditional mechanical wrenching with modern vehicle network diagnostics. Instead of treating driver-assist sensors as an untouchable "black box," students interact directly with the hardware feeds. It demystifies automotive electronics, showing learners how modern vehicles combine laser, radar, and optical data to protect motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists.
c) What teaching strategies or instructional activities will be used?
- ADAS Perimeter Calibration Labs: Students measure and mark physical safety zones around vehicles, calibrating laser detection thresholds to match manufacturer specifications.
- Environmental Failure Simulations: Teams intentionally introduce rain mist, road grime, and angle offsets to track how sensor accuracy degrades and record false-negative readings.
- Cross-Program Safety Audits: Automotive students demonstrate blind-spot detection cones and perimeter warnings to peers in Heavy Equipment and Construction, showing how automated safety zones protect personnel around operating machinery.
d) How will student participation connect to classroom instruction?Connects directly to curriculum units covering automotive wiring schematics, digital sensor inputs, collision mitigation systems, scan-tool diagnostics, and shop safety procedures. Automotive classes will divide into small rotating groups, ensuring every student spends hands-on time setting up sensor hardware, running diagnostic sweeps, and verifying safety cut-offs
a) What specific improvements do you expect for your students?
Transforming Mechanics into Advanced Systems Technicians: Many adult learners in our Automotive program are working to transition into master-certified, high-wage technician careers. Mastering sensor network diagnostics and ADAS calibration elevates our graduates above basic oil-and-tire service technicians, positioning them for high-demand diagnostic roles at regional dealerships and collision centers.
A Campus-Wide Cross-Disciplinary Bridge:
- Automotive Service Technology: Students gain direct diagnostic experience with the laser and optical sensors that govern modern vehicle safety suites.
- Heavy Equipment Mechanics: Students apply these same perimeter sensing principles to heavy equipment blind spots, boom swing clearances, and reverse-travel alerts.
- Information Technology: IT cohorts manage the network data streams and assist with operating system scripts, modeling the close partnership between mechanical and tech teams in modern fleet facilities.
- Digital Media: Media students utilize the 3D laser scan data to practice digital spatial modeling and virtual simulation environments.
b) How will you know the project was successful?
Success will be achieved when 100% of participating student teams successfully calibrate a 360-degree sensor workstation, map a vehicle's perimeter blind spots, and verify that the system detects a simulated obstruction and triggers a warning alert within 100 milliseconds.
c) What evidence, observations, student work, or assessments will demonstrate impact?
- Sensor Calibration Checksheets: Completed diagnostic inspection sheets detailing sensor alignment angles, perimeter distances, and blind-spot mitigation steps.
- Obstacle Detection Performance Logs: Printed or digital scan charts showing detection accuracy across clear versus obstructed test conditions.
- ASE-Style Practical Assessments: Hands-on evaluations measuring student proficiency in electrical troubleshooting, sensor diagnosis, and electronic safety verification.
Purpose of Funding
The requested funds establish three identical, self-contained Automotive Sensor & ADAS Diagnostic Workstations. Each station is equipped with an industry-standard 360-degree laser scanner, a dedicated on-site edge controller, and high-endurance solid-state storage. By operating entirely on-site without recurring cloud fees or expensive recurring software licenses, this setup provides a durable, permanent diagnostic laboratory that will serve successive classes of adult automotive technicians for years to come.
Budget Narrative
Direct Student Learning Alignment:
- 3× Slamtec RPLIDAR A1M8 360° Laser Range Scanner Kits ($357.00 total): Provides three physical spatial scanning units for students to mount, wire, and calibrate when testing automotive safety perimeters and blind spots.
- 3× NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Edge Compute Units (8GB) ($1,497.00 total): Dedicated on-site diagnostic controllers that process high-speed laser sensor feeds locally, allowing three separate student teams to troubleshoot systems simultaneously.
- 3× Industrial 512GB M.2 NVMe Solid-State Drives ($144.00 total): Rugged, high-endurance local storage drives engineered to withstand constant read/write cycles while logging diagnostic sensor records and telemetry files.
NOTE: The Jetson units requested here are dedicated exclusively to this utilizing the equipment in this grant, and is separate from the Jetson units requested in our companion Silicon Glades proposals.
Number of Students Benefiting:
- 40 to 60 adult automotive students annually will train hands-on with these workstations during electrical and diagnostic lab rotations.
- 150+ cross-campus students across heavy equipment, construction, and IT will take part in collaborative safety-perimeter and sensor-auditing demonstrations.
- 100% Non-Consumable: Heavy-duty, industrial-grade hardware built for repeated use in vocational shop environments.
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3x Slamtec RPLIDAR A1M8 360° Laser Range Scanner Kits
