"We call it 'the Embedding of the Internet'," says Deborah Estrin, who is a computer scientist of the University of California, Los Angeles, and director of the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, a multi-university research partnership that was launched in August 2002 with funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF). "And it's going to transform our ability to understand and manage the physical world around us."
Indeed, that prospect has led the NSF to fund sensor research for the past decade and more, culminating in a foundation-wide Sensors and Sensor Networks Program that was begun in 2003 with a first-year funding of $47 million. Among the likely applications:
Sensors and their applications will also be very much in evidence at the Seattle meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Among the most prominent events will be two topical lectures:
Deborah Estrin: Instrumenting the World with Wireless Sensor Networks Friday, February 13, 2004, 1:30 to 2:15 p.m.
Larry R. Dalton: Electro-Optics for the Next Generation Information Technology, Sensing, And Defense Applications Friday, February 13, 2004, 1:30 to 2:15 p.m. Dalton is director of the NSF-funded Center on Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research at the University of Washington.
But other sessions will be dealing with sensors, as well:
Cyberinfrastructure: Revolutionizing Environmental Science in the 21st Century Friday, February 13, 2004, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon & 2:30 p.m. -5:30 p.m. Estrin will be giving a technical talk in the afternoon session. "Cyberinfrastructure" is a term that 's come to describe NSF's most expansive, long-term vision of computing-a vision that most definitely includes extensive sensor networks.
Miniaturization of Chemical, Energy and Biological Systems for Security Applications Friday, February 13, 2004, 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
2004 Nanotechnology Seminar: Chemical and Biological Nanosensors Friday, February 13, 2004, 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
21st Century Photonics Sunday, February 15, 2004, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon & 2:30 p.m. -5:30 p.m. Larry Dalton will be speaking in the morning session.
Media contact: M. Mitchell Waldrop, (703) 292-7752, mwaldrop@nsf.gov
Program contact: Filbert J. Bartoli, (703) 292-8339, fbartoli@nsf.gov
Principal Investigator: Deborah Estrin, (310) 206-3923, destrin@cs.ucla.edu
Principal Investigator: Larry R. Dalton, (206) 543-1686, dalton@chem.washington.edu
Details of the NSF sensors program, along with highlights from recent research projects, can be found at http://www.eng.nsf.gov/general/sensors/index.htm.
Proposals are now being sought for a second round of projects, with a deadline of late February; the official solicitation can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04522/nsf04522.htm.
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