CAREER: Energy Synchronized Computing in Sustainable Sensor Networks

With the increasing demand of ubiquitous sensing and cyber-physical interaction, wireless sensor networks have emerged as one of the key technologies for many long-term applications such as such as habitat monitoring, microclimate study, structural integrity analysis, precise agriculture, traffic engineering and assisted living. Compared with competing high-end technologies, sensor networks are acclaimed as low-cost, low-profile, and easy to deploy. These attractive advantages, however, imply that resources available to individual nodes are severely limited. Among them, energy constraint is by far the most critical hurdle hindering the practical deployment of this emerging technology. A central challenge addressed by this project is to sustain the operation of wireless sensor networks for years in energy-dynamic environments. The driven idea of this project is energy-synchronized computing ?a holistic approach to synchronize sensor network activities with dynamic energy supply from the environments. The expected deliveries of this project are (i) the design and implementation of sustainable sensor nodes, (ii) the architecture principles, theoretical insights, design methodologies, and protocols for sustainable networking technology, (iii) the running prototype systems for long-term sustainable applications, and (iv) the educational test-beds, outreach activities for K-12 students and minority groups, and curriculum designs for undergraduate and graduate courses.