This CAREER proposal will be awarded using funds made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), and meets the requirements established in Section 2 of the White House Memorandum entitled, Ensuring Responsible Spending of Recovery Act Funds, dated March 20, 2009. I also affirm, as the cognizant Program Officer, that the proposal does not support projects described in Section 1604 of Division A of the Recovery Act.
The objective of this project is to investigate a novel wireless signal network that can function as a versatile sensor to characterize properties of subsurface geo-media and to monitor indiscriminate geo-events. The proposed network is based upon algorithmic evaluation of real-time link quality signals among distributed wireless transceivers. The concept of functional signal advocates that the variation of the link quality between wireless transceivers can be used as an effective sensing mechanism which reflects characteristics of geo-media subjected to various geo-events. This novel method aims to integrate wireless signal networks providing a global geo-media measurement system and to optimize the usage of link quality data from embedded wireless sensors in distributed configuration. This not only enables to evaluate and visualize entire geo-system but also helps develop knowledge of functional-signal map to benchmark such continuums through spatiotemporal calibrations of wireless link quality. The work plan includes small-scale 1D calibrations, model design, simulator development, and large-scale laboratory tests at Lehigh University and Lafayette College. A modulated course will be developed for geo-engineering and wireless signal network studies. The research team will partner with various institutional outreach programs to target underrepresented groups and participate to a yearly workshop for high school students.
