CREATIV: Towards Ubiquitous Adoption of Wireless Sensor Networks in Experimental Biology Research.

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM

Investigators

Abstract

This CREATIV award is partially funded by the Networking Technologies and Systems (NeTS) program in the Division of Computer Networks and Systems in the Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, the Animal Behavior program through the the Divisions of Integrative Organismal Systems and Emerging Frontiers in the Directorate of Biological Sciences, the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), the Office of the Division Director in CISE/CNS and the Office of the Assistant Director in CISE. This project aims to address the major barriers to adoption of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in multiple cross-disciplinary domains, particularly high cost, low customizability, lack of rugged designs and complex programming models. The project team aims to surmount these barriers to provide a potentially transformative wireless sensor network design framework that can be used by anyone with minimal technical skills, and yet achieve the benefits of pervasive monitoring and sensing through large-scale ubiquitous wireless sensor networks. The PIs will leverage their multi-disciplinary and cross-domain expertise to address these challenges using experimental biology research as their platform. The goals of this project are to provide and/or enable: 1) a hardware framework for low-cost, rugged, and customizable sensor nodes, in a wide range of form factors, 2) autonomous manipulation and monitoring of electro-physiological parameters of electro-motor circuits in vivo and in vitro using WSNs, 3) novel network protocols and algorithms for monitoring aquatic animals in the field, and 4) a software framework that makes programming WSNs easy and intuitive for users with minimal programming experience. By removing the barriers to adoption through plug-and-play, and easy customization and programming, this proposed research hopes to make WSNs ubiquitous in our daily life in general and in biology research in particular. In the short term, this project will enable experimental researchers in labs and in the field to stimulate and monitor animals/specimen in real-time and without human intervention, which will significantly improve understanding of animal responses to diverse stimuli. In the long term, the outcomes of this research will help WSNs become ubiquitous in our daily life and as easy to use as computers today. The project will provide undergraduate and graduate students including women and minorities in the classes and labs of the PIs the benefit of an unique interdisciplinary learning and research environment. It will leverage NSF GK-12 DISSECT, BPC, and YWiC initiatives in the computer science department of New Mexico State University to expose middle and high school students in the city of Las Cruces to STEM research and teach them computational thinking.