WSU Vancouver gets NASA grant to research smart sensors

Thursday, July 06, 2006

HOLLEY GILBERT
The Oregonian

VANCOUVER -- Techniques to create a new system of self-directing and self-healing sensors for Earth- and space-based research are on the drawing board at Washington State University Vancouver, thanks to a $1.63 million three-year grant from NASA.

The project is in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey's David A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver and the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , Calif. The survey is contributing an in-kind donation that brings the project cost to more than $2 million, said Rick LaHusen , an instrumentation engineer with the agency.

WSU Vancouver will be responsible for development of advanced algorithms and software for the project, while the observatory will develop the electronic hardware needed, LaHusen said. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory will handle space-based elements, he said.

The goal is an array of "smart sensors" that would be able to, say, notice a shift in an earthquake pattern and adjust itself to focus on the change, analyze data into usable forms and send them to scientists, LaHusen said.

The technology would be able to find new paths through the network if a portion is damaged. It could have applications in everything from monitoring volcanoes and landslides to scanning for suspected radiation or chemical sources in terrorist attacks to monitoring activity in deep space, he said.

Such a network could provide information for scientific research, national policymaking, economic growth, natural hazard mitigation and exploration of the solar system, Michael Griffin, NASA's administrator, told Congress in 2005.

Researchers want to be able to deploy the technology rapidly, LaHusen said. The hardware will need to be small and lightweight, limited only by the size of its batteries.

The Vancouver project will be headed by WenZhan Song , a nationally known wireless sensor network specialist and WSU Vancouver assistant professor. Song was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

The research is among 28 projects nationwide aimed at developing information technology that were awarded grants by NASA. The grants total $31 million.

©2006 The Oregonian