Research

Sensorweb is also called Internet of Things or Cyber-physical Systems. If Internet is viewed as the circulatory system connecting the world, then Sensorweb can be said as the nervous system sensing the world. Our research is fundamentally motivated by this vision and focuses on the networked sensing, communication, computing and security.

Active Research Projects:

  • Decentralized Zero-Trust Data Fabric. This research initiative aims to create a decentralized zero-trust data fabric based on web 3.0 and blockchain principles. In this system, each data owner has the full control of his/her own data, and can grant/revoke the read/write access to anyone at anytime. All the data revision versions will be kept for record like GitHub. Below we describe our motivation and design using the Internet of Things (IoT) as the study case, but the design principles apply to many applications and systems (such as healthcare and security).
  • Cyber-Physical Informatics and Security.  To date, much attention has been paid to data and information in cyber networks, but little attention has been paid to the information embedded in raw electrical waveforms and signals in energy networks. The meter and PMU data used by power engineering are basically a summary of raw waveform data in a time period. There are much more to be explored from raw electrical waveforms and signals of energy networks.
  • Smart Connected Systems for Health Assessment and Assistance This research theme creates new smart connected IoT systems for health assessment and assistance. The purpose of this research is to connect Data, People and Systems in a variety of areas of value to health, such as networking, pervasive computing, advanced analytics, sensor integration, privacy and security, modeling of socio-behavioral and cognitive processes and system and process modeling.
  • Smart Cyber-Physical Systems for Controlled-Environment Agriculture Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) is a technology-based approach toward food production. The aim of CEA is to provide protection and maintain optimal growing conditions throughout the development of the crop. Production takes place within an enclosed growing structure such as a greenhouse or building.
  • Real-time Ambient Noise Seismic Imaging for Subsurface Sustainability  This project creates a real-time Ambient Noise Seismic Imaging system, to study and monitor the subsurface sustainability and potential hazards of geological structures. The techniques developed find further utility in monitoring and understanding the dynamics of subsurface oil, mine and geothermal resources, alongside concomitant hazards in oil exploration, mining, hydrothermal eruption, and volcanic eruption).

Completed Research Projects:

  • Integrated Learning Environment for Cyber Security of Smart Grid Cyber-security of smart grid has raised significant interest amongst both general public and researchers. However, the corresponding education programs fall behind in many aspects. Very limited curriculum or hands-on learning resources are available for security education in smart grid, especially for the mutual impacts between cyber and physical systems.
  • VolcanoSRI: 4D Volcano Tomography in a Large-Scale Sensor Network We will create a new paradigm, VolcanoSRI (Volcano Seismic Realtime Imaging), for imaging 4D (four-dimensional) tomography of an active volcano in real-time. VolcanoSRI is a large-scale sensor network of low-cost geophysical stations that analyzes seismic signals and computes real-time, full-scale, three-dimensional fluid dynamics of the volcano conduit system within the active network.
  • Information and Computation Hierarchy for Smart Grids This research investigates key aspects of a computation and information foundation for future cyber-physical energy systems – the smart grids. The overall project objective is to support high penetrations of renewable energy sources, community based micro-grids, and the widespread use of electric cars and smart appliances.
  • Activity-Aware Sensor Network for Smart Environments Smart environment with pervasive sensors has a goal of automating control of home appliances in order to achieve comfort, security, energy efficiency, and recently for health monitoring of older adults or people with cognitive and physical impairments.
  • Collaborative Communication and Storage for Sensor Networks in Challenging Environments In a challenged sensor network, a predictable and stable path may never exist, the network connectivity is intermittent, and a node could suddenly appear or disappear. The rare upload opportunity and unpredictable node disruptions often result in data loss. The unpredictable network disruptions make the traditional communication protocols inefficient and require a new design paradigm.
  • Batteryless Sensor Network Design The promise of wireless sensor networks can only be fully realized when the wiring for both data communications and power supply is eliminated. Fortunately, energy harvesting from environment becomes more and more practical.
  • A versatile WSN platform for structural health monitoring Structures like buildings, bridges, dams, roads, nuclear power furnace, etc. are critical components of the economic and industrial infrastructure. However, these structures are aging with years and are also subjected to harsh loading scenarios and severe environmental conditions.
  • Optimized Autonomous Space In-Situ Sensorweb Earth scientists seek to understand the complex, time-varying dynamics of volcanic activity, both for deeper scientific understanding of the physical processes, as well as to enable rapid detection of volcanic hazards to human safety.