Thrasyvoulos Pappas Northwestern Univ
The use of distributed sensor networks for data gathering and analysis is one of the key emerging technologies at the beginning of the 21st century. Such networks consist of a possibly large number of devices (nodes) equipped with multiple sensors (acoustic, imaging, video, seismic, magnetic, infrared, micro-radar, etc.), storage and processing capability, and wireless communication links to neighboring nodes and/or a central location.
Distributed sensor networks offer a lot of exciting possibilities for a number of applications, ranging from environmental monitoring, to industrial process control, to military and security applications, to health monitoring. They also pose a lot of challenging problems for research that derive from the distributed nature of the network, the multimodal nature of the information collected by the sensors, the reliability of the individual nodes, the bandwidth and impairments of the communication links, the power consumption constraints, and the dynamic nature of the overall system.
Recent advances in several domains, including sensor technologies, computational speed, storage capacity, networking, and miniaturization, make the project possible and set the stage for significant breakthroughs. A substantial research effort on various aspects of the problem is already under way.
A recent issue of the IEEE Signal Processing magazine summarizes some of the ongoing research in the area of signal processing. A substantial effort is coordinated by the DARPA Sensor Information Technology (SensIT) Program, whose mission is the development of all necessary software for networked micro-sensors. SensIT was founded on the concept of a networked system of cheap, pervasive platforms that combine multiple sensor types, embedded processors, positioning ability and wireless communication.
The workshop will take place at the Allen Center on Northwestern University's Evanston campus and its duration will be two days. The goal of the proposed workshop will be to identify fundamental research directions in the signal processing and communications areas, the advancement of which will lead to major breakthroughs in the specific focus areas as well as important scientific progress, in general.
Based on the discussions of the workshop, a report will be generated that will provide advice to NSF on promising directions for near and long term research in the area of distributed communications and signal processing for sensor networks. The report will also be used to clarify the soon to be announced call for proposals under the title "Sensors and Sensor Networks for Information, Decision and Action."
