PDAs and Engineers

Engineers need PDAs more than most. Especially those engineers walking the job site collecting data on paper forms and clipboards for their clients. Common tasks are:

  • Phase 1 Site Assessments
  • Nuclear Density Tests
  • Soil samples
  • Ground Water
  • Concrete testing
  • Many more

In addition to these field tests, often samples need to be documented and sent to a lab for analysis. This involves a "chain of custody". A chain of custody is when a sample is collected by a field technician, labeled and sent to a lab. The lab needs to document their receipt of the sample, analyze it, and report the results back to the engineering firm which passes this information back to their client. This process involves a chain of participants that all need to document their relationship to the test sample and test results from beginning to end.

This brief explanation of a simple process, identifies the necessity for documentation. Since the process starts in the field, it is appropriate to begin thinking about how data collection in the field could be automated. This is where handheld PDAs come in.

PDAs with customized engineering software can do the following:

  • Capture GPS readings of the job site and the test site
  • Digital signature of the person collecting the test data and samples
  • Date, Time of test
  • Identification of the client and project this test is billed to
  • Weather conditions at the time of the test
  • Physical description of the job and test site
  • Documentation of the test performed

This information can all be documented on the PDA and wirelessly synchronized to the office database from the field. This saves both the engineer and the administration staff the work of re-typing the data again in the office.

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