Recent cens_Posters items

An Overview of CENS Contaminant Transport Observation and Management Research

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The contaminant assessment and management (or “Contam”) research area focuses on developing and implementing embedded networked sensing (ENS) technology to support this new observational strategy in the context of mass and energy distributions and fluxes across a range of temporal and synoptic scales. The specific areas of interest for Contam include soils, groundwater, and riparian systems. The Contam application domain is unique relative to the other three CENS applications in that it is often concerned with enabling adaptive management of environmental problems through engineered responses triggered by ENS observations. Example applications include improving our understanding of river metabolism in relation to adjacent and upstream land management practices, creating closed-loop feedback-control systems for conserving irrigation water and avoiding excessive nitrogen application in agricultural systems, delineating nutrient fluxes between groundwater and surface water, and...

Education Overview

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Education Overview

Deriving State Machines from TinyOS programs using Symbolic Execution

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The most common programming languages and platforms for sensor networks foster a low-level programming style. This design provides fine-grained control over the underlying sensor devices, which is critical given their severe resource constraints. However, this design also makes programs difficult to understand, maintain, and debug. In this work, we describe an approach to automatically recover the high-level system logic from such low-level programs, along with an instantiation of the approach for nesC programs running on top of the TinyOS operating system. We adapt the technique of symbolic execution from the program analysis community to handle the event-driven nature of TinyOS, providing a generic component for approximating the behavior of a sensor network application or system component. We then employ a form of predicate abstraction on the resulting information to automatically produce a finite state machine representation of the component. We have used our tool, called...

Tools for Dynamic Deployment and Data Management

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

CENS researchers are developing flexible wireless sensing technologies that can be used in a variety of scientific and social applications. These technologies produce data that often have value to both the immediate research questions and to longer-term studies of longitudinal phenomena. CENS sensing systems are being deployed in many different real-world settings. Managing sensor deployments and the resulting data can be difficult. This poster outlines our work in developing tools to help CENS researchers conduct deployments and manage the resulting data, specifically the CENS Deployment Center, Sensorbase, and the deployment webpages created for the Seismic Deployment in Peru. The CENS Deployment Center (CENSDC) is a web-based repository for CENS deployment information. The CENSDC provides a central location for researchers to document deployment activities through the creation of pre-deployment plans and post-deployment feedback/notes. By allowing users to describe their...

Using Imagers for Scaling Ecological Observations

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Stationary and mobile ground-based cameras can be used to scale ecological observations, relating pixel information in images to in situ measurements. Currently there are four CENS projects that involve using cameras for scaling ecological observations: 1. Scaling from one individual to the landscape. Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras can be zoomed in on a tight focus on individual plants and parts of individuals and then zoomed out to get a landscape view, composed of the same and similar species. 2. Estimating photosynthesis over large areas with HDR. High Dynamic Range imaging is a technique to capture an absolute amount of reflected light in an image. For a meadow composed of similarly reflecting species, we can estimate light received by leaves and thus photosynthesis over a wide area. 3. Scaling soil surface temperature measurements. Soil surface temperatures and soil energy balance are related to solar radiation and air temperature. Sunflecks captured with a camera taking...

Toward Resource Efficient Homes: From Measurements to Sustainable Choices

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The average person is currently unaware of the real-time energy consumption for the different household appliances that he uses. At best, he can observe the monthly or bi-monthly bill indicating the total power consumption of all the appliances combined. This makes it difficult to improve the consumption efficiency, since there is no visibility in the data that he can access. We believe that real-time appliance level monitoring is necessary to allow residents to manage their energy consumption efficiently. However, monitoring end-point level power consumption is difficult to impossible with current technologies because expensive sensors, or professionally installation is necessary. In addition, device aesthetic and the inherent intrusiveness of direct in-line sensors to measure the energy usage at every end-point complicate such a system installation. Since appliances emit measurable signals when they are consuming resources, we argue that less-invasive sensors can be used...

Micro- and Mini-nitrate Sensors for Monitoring of Soils, Groundwater and Aquatic Systems

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Inorganic nitrogen (nitrate, NO3-) is a major source of pollution in groundwater, surface water and the air. Application of nitrate-containing fertilizers can create distributed or non-point source pollution problems. Scalable nitrate sensors (sensors which are small and inexpensive) would enable us to better assess non-point source pollution processes in agronomic soils, groundwater and rivers. Sensor research groups in the CENS have been working toward high-performance scalable nitrate sensors using (1) potentiometric, (2) amperometric method, and the recent addition is (3) spectrochemical sensor. 1. Potentiometric Nitrate Sensor. This work describes the fabrication and testing of inexpensive PVC-membrane-based ion selective electrodes (ISEs) for monitoring nitrate levels in soil water environments. Over the past year, we emphasized testing of the in situ behavior of fabricated sensors in soils subject to irrigation with dairy manure water. Observed temporal responses...

Developments on the CENS Structural Health Monitoring Front

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

CENS research related to developing and implementing structural health monitoring (SHM) systems is advancing on two distinct but related fronts: ShakeNet, a portable wireless sensor network for rapid, post-event deployments and SHMnet, a novel SHM system for permanent monitoring of tall buildings and special structures in Los Angeles. The primary objective of the SHMnet research is the development of a robust SHM system along with the associated hardware and software, using tall and special structures (e.g., bridges, port structures, dams) in Los Angeles as a testbed. More specifically, the development of a wireless Data Acquisition (DAQ) toolbox suitable for rapid urban deployments, a suite of state-of-the-art sensors for monitoring key structural responses including innovative methods for directly measuring interstory displacements, and probabilistic post-event assessment algorithms based on experimental motion-damage relationships. Progress on these fronts is highlighted....

Urban Sensing or Personal and Participatory Sensing

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

overview poster so no abstract.

Personal Data Vault: A Privacy Architecture for Mobile Personal Sensing

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Participatory sensing tasks deployed mobile devices to form interactive, participatory sensor networks that enable public and professional users to gather, analyze and share local knowledge. Mobile Personal Sensing (MPS) is a platform for participatory sensing with which users use mobile phones to record and transmit sound, images, location, motion data, and web services to aggregate and interpret the assembled information. The data gathered through MPS is personal, as well as being potentially valuable in many aspects; it quantifies habits, routines, associations, and is easy to mine. However, for these reasons, protecting individual privacy, documenting ownership, and providing visibility of processing are important. We propose Personal Data Vault (PDV), the architecture to support these new design criteria by “auditing” all activities on the data (TraceAudit) and dynamically “re-sampling” data feeds to service providers (Adaptive Filter). The TraceAudit allows the user...

Subduction Zone Seismic Experiment in Peru: Results From a Wireless Seismic Network

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This work describes preliminary results from a 50 station broadband seismic network recently installed from the coast to the high Andes in Peru. UCLA's Center for Embedded Network Sensing (CENS) and Caltech's Tectonic Observatory are collaborating with the IRD (French L'Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement) and the Institute of Geophysics, in Lima Peru in a broadband seismic experiment that will study the transition from steep to shallow slab subduction. The currently installed line has stations located above the steep subduction zone at a spacing of about 6 km. In 2009 we plan to install a line of 50 stations north from this line along the crest of the Andes, crossing the transition from steep to shallow subduction. A further line from the end of that line back to the coast, completing a U shaped array, is in the planning phase. The network is wirelessly linked using multi-hop network software designed by computer scientists in CENS in which data is transmitted from...

Imagers as Biological Sensors

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

There exist many biological sensing applications where direct measurement is either impossible, extremely invasive, or extremely time consuming. For example, measuring the presence/absence of birds at a feeder station currently requires a human to watch a camera pointed at the feeder, identifying when birds arrive and leave. Similarly, measuring CO2 flux from a plant requires placing the plant inside a growth chamber, destructively modifying the environment. We propose using imagers as biological sensors by constructing a procedure that uses images to obtain approximate measurements of these phenomena. This procedure, composed of state-of-the-art computer vision, image processing, and statistical learning algorithms, will be evaluated in the context of a specific application and shown to be general through multiple instantiations. Through application, it has been found that many of these algorithms make unacceptable assumptions about their input. Providing accurate data...

Ecological Sensing in a Southern California Forest: Integrating Environmental Abiotic and Biotic Measurements to Understand Ecosystem Function.

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Understanding the interactions between belowground and aboveground process and how they respond to annual climatic variability remains a challenging task. In this study, we combined molecular techniques with high frequency images from automated minirhizotrons to determine the identity and temporal variability of fine roots and mycorrhizal fungi in a mixed-conifer forest in Southern California. We also examined how changes in fine roots and mycorrhizal fungi are related to leaf phenology and water dynamics over the course of the growing season. Throughout the study, there was considerable variation in ectomycorrhizal roots, with greater ectomycorrhizal roots during the dry summer months compared to early spring. Although the total number of ectomycorrhizal fungi did not change, there was a significant change in the ectomycorrhizal fungal community over the course of the growing season. Arbuscular mycorrhizal roots, on the other hand, showed little variation during the growing...

Improving Personal and Environmental Health Decision Making with Mobile Personal Sensing

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

CENS is focusing on three types of health applications. Personalized medicine (AndWellness, AndAmbulation), epidemiological data collection (Project Surya), and personal decision making and awareness (PEIR). Each of these applications uses a similar systems architecture: time, location (GPS), and motion (accelerometer) trace collection on the mobile phone with a user interface, scientific model-based analytics used to draw inferences from the data, and graphical map or calendar based feedback to users. The specifics of each component depend on the type of data collected, the target populations, and the goals of the project. The UI for AndWellness includes an ecological momentary assessment, which is a set of questions a user completes regarding their feelings at that moment; and control over the time, location, and frequency of reminders, which are included to remind users to complete the assessments. The AndWellness UI aims to make the assessment easy to understand and quick...

Overview of Terrestrial Ecology Observation Systems

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A review of TEOS projects by CENS faculty and staff.

Field Operational Sensor and Lab-on-a-Chip System for Marine Environmental Monitoring and Analysis

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This is a project that aims to expedite research in marine biology using chip-based and state-of-the-art detection technology. The project is a joint effort that will incorporate the expertise of three different groups, Dr. Chih-Ming Ho at UCLA, Dr. David Caron at USC and Dr. Yu-Chong Tai at Caltech. One main focus of the project is to develop Lab-on-a-chip devices that reduce total sample volume and detection time. Also, the chips can be fabricated in large quantities with minimal cost so many experiments can be run in parallel. Here at Caltech, a chip will be developed to culture a small number of algae and screen for factors inducing toxin production. Algal bloom and toxins produced by different algae have always caused problems to the environment and marine ecology. Pseudo-nitzschia is one type of algae that produces a neural toxin called Domoic Acid, which when transferred through the food chain causes sickness and mortality in marine mammals and seabirds. However,...

Two Major Themes in the Design of Sensor Networks: Data Integrity and Sampling.

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In this poster, we consider two major themes in the design of sensor networks: data integrity, and sampling strategies. For the data integrity problem, we propose a signature-based fault detection system for identifying both intermittent faults and persistent faults. Data-dependent features using temporal, spatial, and spatio-temporal information that are useful for detecting faults are identified. These features are combined into signatures that characterize each of the different fault types. We also discuss the problem of simultaneous parameter estimation and fault detection. In this case, parameters must be estimated from a distribution that is truncated in various ways as a result of the fault detection algorithm, which can lead to biased estimates. We propose several methods to account for the bias in parameter estimates. For the sampling problem, we describe two on-going projects. The first one deals with situations where sampling as you move (using sampling paths)...

Seismic Deployments and Experiments: PeruNet, GeoNet, and SeismoPhone.

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In conjunction with Caltech and the Geophysical Institute of Peru, we installed our network of 49 seismic sites across steep and shallow subduction regions in Peru. Flat slab subduction is thought to have formed much of the major geology of the western United States some 100 million years ago. By examining such processes presently active in Central and South America we can piece together the history. The data from the Peruvian sites is delivered to UCLA every night and we have collected almost 1 year so far. In the GeoNet experiment, the science objective is to use a rapidly installable wirelessly linked seismic network to make near-real time unaliased observations in aftershock or volcanic zones. The immediate technical objective is to collaborate with Reftek to construct a new generation digital acquisition system (DAS) based on the CENS-developed LEAP (low-power energy aware processing) system and a newly developed low-power A/D converter from Texas Instruments. We also...

Closing the Loop on Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions, River Hydrodynamics, and Metabolism on the San Joaquin River Basin

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This poster summarizes the body of CENS work in the San Joaquin River (SJR) basin that is aimed at creating a prototypical observation-modeling-management (feedback-control) system. The objective of the proposed system is to clarify the linkages between land use and chemical transport and fate along the soil zone-groundwater-surface water flow path. Work to date is presented on the following sub-projects: (1) The application of high resolution river multi-scale observations to define a 2-D hydrodynamic model at the SJR-Merced River confluence, (2) The use of embedded sensor systems known as temperature javelins to estimate local groundwater fluxes into the Merced River upstream of the confluence, and (3) The installation of long-term sensor systems aimed at continuously observing the flow path between agricultural systems and the Merced River.

Overview of CENS Statistics and Data Practices Research

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Data, statistical models and inferential procedures permeate CENS deployments, from the four founding scientific application areas to the more recent urban sensing campaigns. This cross-center research breaks down into three classes of research: 1) General statistical models for embedded sensing, with specific applications to data quality and continuous sampling, 2) Significant CENS-designed and supported databases and repositories, and 3) Studies into the data lifecycle for embedded sensing systems.

Visualizing microbial pollution in Santa Monica Bay with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and through field-testing a rapid, robust, field-portable water detection sensing system

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a powerful mapping tool that can be used to reveal spatial and temporal relationships of a criteria of interest. We have used GIS to visualize the seasonal and spatial distribution of microbial pollution obtained from the Heal the Bay beach water quality report (2007). These maps can be used to inform sampling decisions; more specifically, we can use it to identify areas of chronic pollution and can be used as a testbed for a rapid sensing system for bacteria. This rapid detection system can be used to provide higher resolution and understanding of water pollution as well as assist in understanding/characterizing environmental water quality in specific areas. We propose the subsequent use of an covalently-linked immumomagnetic separation/ATP quantification assay that is rapid, robust, and field-portable as an instrument to conduct monitoring of E. coli and Enterococcus in marine and freshwater systems.

Networked Aquatic Microbial Observing Systems: An Overview

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The overarching theme of the Center’s Aquatic application area continues to be the creation and application of a new genre of wireless sensing systems that will provide real-time monitoring capabilities of chemical, physical and biological parameters in freshwater and coastal marine ecosystems. High-resolution temporal and spatial measurements are essential for understanding the highly dynamic nature of aquatic ecosystems and the rapid response of microbial communities to environmental driving forces. Our unique approach to aquatic sensing and sampling, Networked Aquatic Microbial Observing Systems (NAMOS), employs coordinated measurements between stationary sensing nodes (buoys and pier-based sensors) and robotic vehicles (surface robotic boats and autonomous underwater vehicles) to provide in-situ, real-time presence for observing plankton dynamics (e.g. phytoplankton abundance, dissolved oxygen), and linking them to pertinent environmental variables (e.g. temperature,...

Pan-American Sensors for Environmental Observations (PASEO): An Interdisciplinary Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI)

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

PASEO was an NSF-funded PASI, which is a two-week training program for U.S. and Latin American early-career scientists and engineers. It took place in February 2009 in Bahia Blanca and Buenos Aires, Argentina. The host institutions were Instituto Argentino de Oceanografia (CONICET-funded), and Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Industrial (INTI). Collaborating U.S. groups included GLEON, WATERS Network, and Codar Inc. The topic of PASEO was developing and deploying current sensor technologies to obtain a fuller understanding of environmental and ecological systems. PASEO was intended to be a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary active learning experience. Applicants participated in active learning sessions related to the fabrication, deployment, and analysis of data streaming from environmental sensors. Scientific topics included lake metabolism, eco-hydrology in a saltwater marsh, soil moisture and energy balances, and plant phenology. Opportunities for hands-on training...

Trajectory Design and Implementation for Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Based on Ocean Model Predictions

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Trajectory design for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) is of great importance to the oceanographic research community. Intelligent planning is required to maneuver one or many vehicles to high-valued locations to collect data with scientific merit. We consider the use of ocean model predictions to determine the locations to be visited by a team of AUVs, which then provides near-real time, in situ measurements back to the model to increase model skill and the accuracy of future predictions. Iterative application of this procedure determines relevant points of interest that allow the AUV fleet to monitor and track a chosen oceanographic feature. For this study, we select the ocean feature to be a freshwater plume, as their colder, nutrient-rich water promotes productivity, and may result in the formation of a Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB). Monitoring and predicting the formation and evolution of HABs is an area of active research for southern California coastal communities...

Networked Robotic Sensor Platform Deployments for use in Coastal Environmental Assessment in Southern California

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Mobile sensor platforms such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and robotic surface vessels, combined with static moored sensors compose a diverse sensor network that is able to provide macroscopic environmental analysis tool for ocean researchers. Working as a cohesive networked unit, the static buoys are always online, and provide insight as to the time and locations where a federated, mobile robot team should be deployed to effectively perform large scale spatio-temporal sampling on demand. Such a system can provide pertinent in situ measurements to marine biologists whom can then advise policy makers on critical environmental issues. This poster presents recent field deployment activity of AUVs demonstrating the effectiveness of our embedded communication network infrastructure throughout southern California coastal waters. We also report on progress towards real-time, web-streaming data from the multiple sampling locations and mobile sensor platforms. Static monitoring...

New Wireless Miniature Sensor Technologies for CENS

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Although many sensors (e.g., temperature, light level, acceleration, etc.) that are compatible with sensor networks (i.e., sensitive, small, low power, etc.) are now commercially available, two important classes of sensors are not as technologically mature and remain an area of active research: chemical sensors and biological sensors. The sensor-technology-development efforts in the CENS center are focused on these very challenging classes of sensors. Successful development of chemical and biological sensors will enable wireless-sensor-network technology to span the full range of possible classes of measurements. In addition to better performance, the technological emphases are miniaturization and automation of the developed sensors. Specific sensor-technology-development efforts include: (1) amperometric and potentiometric electrochemical sensors for monitoring nitrate-ion detection in ground water; (2) lab-on-a-chip aquatic microorganism analysis system; and (3) ultra sensitive...

Summer@CENS: a research internship program

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The Summer@CENS Research Scholars Program continues to be one of the key Education initiatives at CENS. The program is the core of our educational pipeline and is an excellent example of aligned Center research and education activities. The Summer@CENS Research Scholars Program serves as an umbrella for our undergraduate and high school summer research opportunities. It brings together talented undergraduates from around the country and local high school students to engage in Center research for 8-10 weeks over the summer. This poster highlights the structure of the program from planning to implementation as well as some of the outcomes resulting from the program. Also highlighted is the CENS Intel Scholars Program which allows us to extend the summer experience through the academic year for undergraduates at UCLA. This year, the CENS High School Scholars program has also been extended through the academic year to support continuation high school students in Central High...

Recruitment Services for Participatory Sensing Applications

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In traditional sensor systems, one of the fundamental problems concerns the placement of sensors. The analogous problem in participatory sensing is choosing users to perform a particular data collection task. This work details a recruitment framework that is designed to help with this process. Specifically, the framework considers the capabilities in terms of sensors available by a particular user, the availability of the user to participate in terms of spatial and temporal contexts, the reputation of the user as a data collector, and the incentive cost associated with the user participating as elements involved in the process of choosing data collectors. The utility of the recruitment service is shown through a series of campaigns related to ecological and sustainability monitoring.

Physical, chemical, and biological factors shaping phytoplankton community structure in King Harbor, Redondo Beach, California

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Through the NAMOS project, our team of biologists and engineers are assisting municipalities in understanding the underlying causes and effects of harmful microalgal blooms. Since early 2007, we have been studying system-level dynamics of the chemical, physical, and biological processes in King Harbor, a shallow, semi-enclosed urban harbor in Redondo Beach, California. For the last two years a network of dock-based water quality sensors in the harbor has continuously provided data on the environmental parameters relevant to bloom formation. Additionally, intensive human-mediated studies of the phytoplankton community distribution and structure are testing several hypotheses on the biological and physical factors affecting algal growth in this system. Recent field experiments have sought to explain the roles of tidal forcing and phytoplankton behavior and physiology in the structuring and distribution of bloom-forming algal communities.

CENSDC: Adding Context to Content

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Scientists and engineers working with embedded networked sensing systems in the environmental sciences are acquiring data at unprecedented rates. Scientific data do not emerge from a vacuum. There is considerable contextual information that surrounds the process of data acquisition that is critical to interpret and analyze data. Current techniques for data sharing involve considerable manual effort to prepare, describe, and transfer this contextual information along with the data itself. This paper reports on a study of the UCLA-based Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), an interdisciplinary NSF research center that supports collaborations to develop and implement innovative wireless sensor networks. We report here on the development of the CENS Deployment Center, a database for CENS deployment information. The goals of the CENSDC are to facilitate better deployment organization, and to provide a central location for key information that describes the context of data...

Metropolitan Wi-Fi Research Network