An Engineering Research Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems - CenSSIS

Northeastern University, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

The Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems seeks to revolutionize our ability to detect and image objects or conditions that are underground, underwater, or embedded in the human body. Northeastern University has formed a partnership between with Boston University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and four affiliated hospitals and research institutions (Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute). The center will focus on difficult and intractable problems in sensing and imaging involving detecting and locating and identifying objects that are obscured beneath covering media. Mapping plumes underground, detecting a tumor under the skin, and identifying developmental defects in the interior of an embryo all share the problem of distinguishing the effect of a dispersive, diffusive, and absorptive medium from the desired details of the sursurface structure and functionality. The problem is similar whether the wave problem is electromagnetic or acoustic, whether the medium is soil or tissue, or whether the target is a land mine or a tumor. To address these research barriers the center will focus its interdisciplinary research thrusts on Subsurface Sensing and Modeling, Physics-based Signal Processing and Image Understanding, and Data and Image Information management. Systems testbeds will be used to enable a wide range of next-generation sensing and imaging systems. The Center will create a new team-based learning environment for students, with research internship experiences in industry. The ERC will develop new discovery-based, educational laboratories for each campus involved, putting modern imaging technology in the hands of undergraduates early in their education to solve real, open-ended problems. The ERC will develop undergraduate educational modules in sensing and imaging systems and interdisciplinary, team-taught graduate courses and seminars derived from the ERC's research. Middle and high school students will be impacted by the ERC through design competitions in sensing and imaging systems and summer pre-engineering programs. The goals of the industrial partnership program are to gain industrial insight into the research challenges, to speed technology transfer to industry, and to help the center graduate engineers and scientists who are familiar with technology and industrial practice, better prepare to be successful in industry and academe. This award provides $2.6 million for the first year of NSF support to the ERC through a five-year cooperative agreement, which is renewable in year three and in year six.