Joel Holton

Joel Holton is a junior studying information science. In the summer of 2017, however, he was one of nearly 600 personnel fighting the Keystone Fire, a sprawling 2,500-acre blaze in Wyoming’s Medicine Bow National Forest. His experience using the U.S. Forest Service’s tools that summer set in motion the eventual creation of navigation aids designed specifically for wildland firefighters. One of the devices is a helmet attachment that illuminates a row of LED lights tucked under the brim. The LEDs act like an eye-level north star, constantly pointing firefighters to the safest path. The other devices are wristbands that use haptic taps to help a user stay on course. Together, these tools––developed in his Ubiquitous Computing class last spring––provide a visual, tactile and, most important,hands-free navigation system.