The research focus of the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) will be the fundamental science and engineering research needed to create scalable, robust, adaptive, sensor/actuator networks. The vision of densely distributed, networked sensing and actuation requires advances in many areas of information technology. Moreover, there is a critical interplay between the technology and the applications and physical context in which it is embedded. By conducting research in the context of specific and high-impact scientific applications, CENS will enable new scientific discovery through high resolution, in situ monitoring and actuation. At the same time, CENS will explore the fundamental principles and technologies needed to apply embedded networked sensing to a wide range of applications.
The Center will focus initially on fundamental technology and on four experimental application drivers: habitat monitoring for bio-complexity studies, spatially-dense seismic sensing and structure response, monitoring and modeling contaminant flows, and detection and identification of marine microorganisms. To support this scope, CENS will combine the expertise of faculty from diverse engineering disciplines with the expertise of biological, environmental and earth scientists. During the lifetime of the Center, additional opportunities for applying the technology to natural and engineered systems will be pursued.
The CENS educational focus will be twofold: new hands-on experimental capabilities for grades 7-12 science curriculum through access to real-world, real-time, sensor-network interrogation, along with materials for teacher-training, and undergraduate research opportunities in cutting-edge technologies (e.g., wireless systems, MEMS, embedded software) and scientific applications (e.g., bio-complexity, seismic and environmental monitoring), with emphasis on under-represented minority students.
CENS will benefit from and contribute to a large number of related activities on its participating campuses, and in the larger research and education community, including: UCLA's California Nanosystems Institute, Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, Nanoelectronics Research Facility; USC's Information Sciences Institute, Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies; UC Reserve systems; Cal State and GLOBE Teacher training programs; INEEL, JPL government laboratories; DARPA, and NSF-related research activities. Many of the constituent technologies will have near- and long-term commercial relevance.
During its tenure the Center for embedded networked sensing advanced the mission of (a) developing and demonstrating innovative technology to reveal important patterns and processes in nature and human systems, (b) working across the educational pipeline to inspire and train a diverse collection of students in science and technology, and (c) developing a network of partners that shared mutually in the discovery and education process. Earlier years saw fundamental contributions to environmental monitoring technologies and applications in which CENS was the thought leader in academic circles and the source of major contributors to national programs such as NEON. In its latter years, CENS added the emphasis on leveraging mobile technologies and spawned a new field of activity: Participatory Sensing and mobile health. During the course of the Center’s we saw rich linkage and integration between our technology research areas (systems, signal and information processing, robotics, sensors) and our targeted application domains (Terrestrial Ecology Observing Systems; Contaminant Transport and Management, Aquatic Microbial Observing Systems, Seismic Systems, and Personal and Community Health). CENS developed and deployed innovative education and outreach programs, the highlight of which was our summer high school program that provided hands-on experience with computing and data through the lens of CENS applications.
