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Mobile pollution sensors to be
developed at Vanderbilt using Microsoft grant
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Vanderbilt engineers have won
an award from Microsoft Corp. to develop a real-time, online, detailed and
accurate picture of air quality in large metropolitan areas like Nashville. The
mobile air quality monitoring system will make it possible to monitor air
quality more accurately than the current system of fixed stations performing
low-resolution sampling by including car-mounted sensors that measure, process
and report emission levels.
Engineers in the Vanderbilt Institute for Software Integrated Systems will adapt
Microsoft SensorMap technology for this purpose. SensorMap is a software
platform designed to integrate and publish various types of sensor data in real
time on the Internet.
The Vanderbilt team is one of 21 winners chosen from more than 140 university
applicants worldwide in response to Microsoft Research's SensorMap and Virtual
Earth^(TM) request for proposals.
"The ability to search for and analyze information within the context of
location is a field with great potential," said Sailesh Chutani, director of
external research and programs, the arm of Microsoft Research that works closely
with academic institutions. "These researchers are using a powerful new approach
to solve fundamental problems, and our programs are designed to help them in a
number of ways -- funding to bring in additional resources, software and data to
use in experiments, access to top researchers at Microsoft and collaboration
with the broader, global research community."
According to principal investigator Akos Ledeczi, the system being built with
the $70,000 grant will include five prototype sensors that can be mounted on
vehicles. "We will develop the sensors as well as the necessary infrastructure
to measure the pollutants, gather, process and visualize the data and to deploy
the system in the Nashville metropolitan area to provide a continuous live data
feed on the SensorMap portal," he said.
Ledeczi, who is a research assistant professor of electrical engineering at
Vanderbilt, explained that when the sensor-carrying car is in motion, the sensor
will sample the pollutants every few seconds, noting time and location of each
sample. When the car comes into contact with a WiFi hotspot, it will upload the
data to the SensorMap portal, where a detailed picture of the air quality in the
area will be displayed.
"This will push the limits of the SensorMap project by proposing ways to handle
mobile sensors, developing more advanced data aggregation algorithms and new
visualization methods," Ledeczi said.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Xenofon Koutsoukos and Research
Scientist Engineer Peter Volgyesi will serve as co-principal investigators on
the project.
Vanderbilt University is a private research university of approximately 6,300
undergraduates and 4,600 graduate and professional students. Founded in 1873,
the University comprises 10 schools, a public policy institute, a distinguished
medical center and The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center. Vanderbilt, ranked
as one of the nation's top
universities, offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences,
engineering, music, education and human development, and a full range of
graduate and professional degrees.
Contact:
Vivian Cooper,
(615) 343-6314
vivi.cooper@vanderbilt.edu
or
David F. Salisbury,
(615) 343-6803
david.f.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu |
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