For the fifth year running, Dr Elena Gaura from the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre organised the two day Symposium on Sensors and Systems in the Modelling and Simulation of Microsystems as part of the (MSM) strand of the NSTI Nanotechnology conference (Nanotech 2008).
The conference, the largest of its kind worldwide attracted this year in excess of 6000 participants and took place in Boston,Massachusetts, USA, from June 1st-5th. The symposium had 6 invited and keynote speakers, including Dr. Lewis Girod (MIT), Dr. Alberto Sanna (San Rafaelle Institute, Milan) and Dr. Jerry Hallmark (Motorola – Mobile devices division). The symposium attracted over 300 participants and had a program of 80 oral and 30 poster presentations.
Dr. Gaura chaired the symposium and a number of presentations were made by Cogent members in the area of system design and applications of Wireless Sensor Networks.
Dr Gaura said: "Nanotech 2008 continued its tradition of high standards as a global showcase for research. My continued involvement as organiser of one the major symposiums at the event illustrates that the work we are doing at Cogent Computing remains at the cutting edge of wireless sensor technology. Events like Nanotech 2008 enables the Centre to share its work with colleagues over the world and hopefully make new contacts with a view to collaborating on projects in the future."
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) offer immense potential for performing detailed spatio-temporal, multi-parameter measurements in a variety of applications. When coupled with actuation, this technology could become even more powerful.
Dr. Elena Gaura, Reader in Pervasive Computing and Director of Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre at Coventry University, successfully organised and delivered a one-day tutorial on emerging network sensing and actuation technologies with a focus on the state of the art in WSN systems being designed and deployed. The tutorial run as part of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) World Congress which took place in Seoul, Korea from July 6 - 11, 2008.
The target group for the tutorial included control system designers, sensor technologists/designers/developers and application developers among others. The tutorial presentation is available here: IFAC tutorial 2008
More details on this event are available on the tutorial webpage.
The GFFT is a network consisting of well-known researchers and top level managers at technology-oriented companies. It aims to improve cooperation and collaboration between academic research institutes and commercial entities and provides a number of research transfer services. For more information go to their website.
On March 12, 2008 the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre marked National Science and Engineering Week by hosting an innovative and exciting event at the Bablake Junior School in Coventry.
The event's aim was two-fold: first, to introduce the youngsters to new wireless sensor network technology and second, to demonstrate howthis technology can be used to gain a better appreciation of core science concepts in the National Curriculum.
Using some of the latest WSN technology, the seven member team from Cogent was able to engage and excite the students using a number of interactive games and demos aimed at explaining concepts like friction, sound, temperature and light.
Director of the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre, Dr. Elena Gaura said:
"Pervasive sensing technology is the technology of the future. We hope to stimulate these young minds while showing how our technology can be used to foster a better understanding of science in a fun way."
View the full story and see photos of Cogent at Bablake Junior School
Dr. Elena Gaura, director of the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre was invited to give a talk at the EPSRC "Bridging the Gap" Seminar hosted by the Department of Computer Science at Bath University. The seminar presented the state of the art in the field, discussing the latest research and the challenges being faced by researchers in the field.
Dr. Gaura's presentation, entitled 'Theory and Practice in WSNs - Bridging the Gap', highlighted the disparity that exists between real-world deployments and practical research on the one hand, and the theoretical research currently being conducted in the WSN community. For an interesting perspective on research in the area get the presentation.
On September 19, 2007, NASA researcher Cy Wilson visited the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre as part of a wider visit to the Systems Engineering department of Coventry University. During his visit, he met with members of the research centre and was given a brief overview of the themes of research currently being pursued. Mr Wilson was able offer his insight and proposed a number of ideas on what the way forward, in terms of applied research, could be.
William (Cy) Wilson received two A.A.S. degrees one in Electronics Technology, and one in Instrumentation Technology. He is a graduate of the NASA Apprentice School, and has a B.S. degree in Applied Physics as well as a M.S. in Applied Physics and Computer Science. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University.
He has been employed at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton VA for 20 years, where he has designed electronic circuits, digital electronics, FPGAs, and ASICs for wind tunnel applications, ground test instrumentation, and satellite instruments. He is currently working as a researcher in the Non-Destructive Evaluation Sciences Branch. His current research interests include the application of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) devices, and Wireless sensor network technology to non-destructive evaluation of aerospace vehicles.
On September 20, 2007, Mr. Wilson gave a presentation to the department, entitled, 'Wireless Sensing Opportunities for Aerospace Applications'. His presentation is available for download.
Cogent has published a number of internal reports exploring various research themes (see below).
A new report on posture monitoring will be released in March 2009.
Due to the large number of degrees of freedom of the human body, posture monitoring
of human during activity regimes presents many research challenges. Several
research groups world wide have engaged with the development of low-power
wireless body sensor networks that are capable of providing real-time posture
tracking for a variety of applications, such as dance and sports. The work reported
here is concerned with the development of a wireless body sensor network that, as
opposed to posture tracking, can: a) provide the identification and classification of
eight human postures (standing, kneeling, sitting, crawling, walking, laying down
on front and back, and laying on one side) in real-time and b) is able to relate this
information wirelessly to a remote monitoring point. Posture information is an essential
part of monitoring operatives in safety critical missions. The work sits within
a larger project aiming to increase general safety of operatives in bomb disposal
missions.
The goal of the posture body sensor network developed here is to identify the
eight named postures using data from nine accelerometers placed at various sites
on the human body. A prototype implementation which fulfills the goal has been
produced and evaluated and is reported.
Read the full report. Cogent Internal Report 006
A critical aspect of modern condition-based maintenance (CBM) systems is the
provision of detailed, accurate and reliable sensing for the part, or subsystem
under observation. Existing thermocouple based flow sensing systems for gas
turbine engines deal effectively with the multipoint measurement of the high
temperatures involved, however, due to the need for low added weight, they
only provide averaged temperature data over a single heavy duty cable. The
conflicting measurement system requirements of low weight and detailed, high
rate, robust, multipoint measurement can be mitigated through the use of wireless
instrumentation. This technical report describes a prototype system that
explores the use of multiple wirelessly networked sensors to deliver detailed
spatial-temporal flow temperature information to enable CBM and enhance informational
output from engine testing.
Read the full report. Cogent Internal Report 005
Regardless of the application domain and deployment scope, the ability to retrieve information
is critical to the successful functioning of any wireless sensor network (WSN)
system. In general, information extraction procedures can be categorized into three
main approaches: agent-based, query-based and macroprogramming.Of the three,
query-based systems are the most popular mainly because they provide a usable,
high level interface to the sensor network while abstracting away some of the low
level details like the network topology and radio communication. In contrast, macroprogramming
provides a more general-purpose approach to distributed computation
compared to traditional query-based approaches and focus on programming the network
as a whole rather than programming the individual devices that form the network.
The agent-based approach tailors the information extraction mechanism to the type of
information needed and the configuration of the network it needs to be extracted from.
This report surveys extensively the literature in the area of WSN information extraction,
highlights the benefits of in-network processing and proposes a novel hybrid approach
that incorporates query and macroprogramming techniques for information extraction
in large-scale, informational systems. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated
through simulation.
Read the full report. Cogent Internal Report 002
The goal of the project presented in the report is to develop a wearable wireless sensing
system suitable for deployment in manned bomb disposal missions. The
system will be capable of making in-network autonomous decisions related to
the actuation of the cooling system within the suit, to increase the comfort of
the wearer. In addition, it will allow an external observer to remotely monitor the
health and comfort of the operative.
Results are presented from a series of experimental runs performed using a
prototype sensing system. The need for timely application of in-suit cooling is
shown, as well as the importance of monitoring the overall health of the wearer
of the suit.
Read the full report. Cogent Internal Report 001
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