Technological Solution Development During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Case Study in an IoT Lab Rafael L. Patr˜ ao ∗ , Carolina Sartori da Silva ∗ , Gustavo P. C. P. da Luz ∗ , Francisco L. de Caldas Filho ∗ , F´ abio L. L. de Mendonc ¸a ‡ , Rafael T. de Sousa Jr. † (IEEE Senior Member) Cybersecurity INCT, Electrical Engineering Dept., University of Bras´ ılia, Bras´ ılia - DF, Brazil Email: ∗ {rafael.patrao, carolina.silva, gustavo.luz, francisco.lopes} @uiot.org, ‡ fabio.mendonca@redes.unb.br, † desousa@unb.br Abstract—Major crisis in human history impose new chal- lenges to all people affected by it. These great challenges usually represent a great opportunity for technological development, since technological solutions are a significant part of the effort to overcome crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception to this historical trend. We present in this work the development of a technological solution for one challenge imposed by the corona virus outbreak: disinfection of enclosed spaces. Hence, the objectives of this work were: 1 - To present some of the technical choices made to develop the sanitization solution using UVC light; 2 - To present a methodological framework to adapt R&D work to the needs of social/physical distance; 3 - To assess the productivity of the members of the UIoT laboratory during this remote work period. The solution development was carried out by a multidisciplinary team and, in order to evaluate the proposed methodology, a questionnaire was used to assess the team member’s perception of productivity. Its results show an overall quality increase, and an individual quantity increase regarding the project’s outputs. We concluded that the projects’ results were better than what was expected at the beginning of the year. I. I NTRODUCTION Major crisis in human history, caused by wars, extreme weather or plagues, impose new challenges to all people affected by it. This challenges may be new in its scales (e.g. a local drought that cause mass famine) or completely new (e.g. the first encounter between the Aztecs and the Spanish). Regardless of its novelty, these great challenges usually repre- sent a great opportunity for technological development, since technological solutions are a significant part of the solutions created during a period of crisis [1]. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception to this historical trend. The outbreak caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) has impacted all aspects of human life in a way not seen since World War Two [2]. There are many particular challenges presented by the this pandemic that may benefit from technological solutions, such as low-cost mechanical ventilators and contact tracing Apps [3], [4]. Each one of those technologies tackle a specific sub-problem, patient treatment and virus-spread prevention, respectively. However, an unique challenge imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic is the need to social/physical distance, in order to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. This new daily- life requirement directly impacts the technology development process, specially hardware depended technologies. Therefore, using the previous example, in order to develop a low-cost mechanical ventilator, a Research and Development (R&D) team need to adapt its work practices and its technology de- velopment processes to comply with social/physical distancing rules [4]. This double-challenge, developing technological solutions while social/physical distancing, was faced by our team at the Universal Internet of Things (UIoT) laboratory, of the Uni- versity of Bras´ ılia (UnB), in Brazil. In the middle of March, all in-person activities were suspended, what effectively halted all hardware related projects. At the start of June, some pure- software solutions were being developed, but no hardware related group work was being carried out. Thus, we decided to start a hardware-related IoT project to tackle a issue brought into the spot-light by the pandemic: disinfection of enclosed spaces. The problem of sterilizing and cleaning enclosed spaces is not a new one. However, it was elevated to a new scale with the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, like other similar challenges. Therefore, the biggest challenge is to adapt the sterilization and cleaning technology to new uses and make it affordable to the wider public. A relative low-cost and scalable technology, ultraviolet type C light (UVC) has been used for more than 100 years [5] in different working conditions. Its well-know behavior and previous uses in hospitals and laboratories [6], [7] makes it a natural choice as a solution principle from which a more affordable and accessible solution can be developed. Therefore, this work aims to present the development of an IoT disinfection solution for enclosed spaces and the changes in work practices and development processes adopted by the UIoT team in charge of this R&D project. The objectives that follow this main aim are: 1 - To present some of the technical choices made to develop the IoT sanitization solution using UVC light; 2 - To present a methodological framework to adapt R&D work to the needs of social/physical distance; 3 - To assess the productivity of the members of the UIoT during this remote work period. The remaining of this work is organized as follows: section II presents some relevant works found in the related litera- ture. Section III shows the solution’s development process, describing what was done and how the work was adapted. A performance assessment of the UIoT team is presented in section IV, on which a questionnaire was used to obtain the  ,((( *OREDO &RQIHUHQFH RQ $UWLILFLDO ,QWHOOLJHQFH DQG ,QWHUQHW RI 7KLQJV *&$,R7 © IEEE 2021. This article is free to access and download, along with rights for full text and data mining, re-use and analysis. 2020 IEEE Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (GCAIoT) | 978-1-7281-8420-3/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/GCAIOT51063.2020.9345864