GSA Technology Council

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Clemson University School of Computing professor Jason Hallstrom a $400,000 grant to research embedded network systems, a technology Hallstrom says is “changing the way we safeguard natural resources and protect local communities.”

The CAREER Award is the NSF’s most prestigious grant to junior faculty members. Recipients are selected on the basis of innovative research, education and outreach programs.
 
An embedded network system is a collection of small computing devices located within a larger structure or environment. When coupled with sensors, the small devices act as data gatherers, collecting information about the environment and communicating with other nodes to produce information about the environment as a whole.

Hallstrom gave the example of nodes placed along a bridge that measure stress levels and indicate when repairs are needed. Other applications include intra-vehicular networks that measure factors such as tire pressure and temperature and transmit that information to the car’s main control system, as well as devices within a forest that detect fire conditions and may possibly divert firefighters from dangerous areas.

Embedded network devices today range from the size of a cell phone battery to the size of a matchbox. Future visions include devices as small as a pen tip.

Hallstrom and his team of researchers will conduct a key component of their work in the context of the Clemson Public Service Activities’ Intelligent River project, a large multidisciplinary effort focused on monitoring and protecting water sources across the state. The team is deploying nodes in the Clemson Experimental Forest and will begin a larger deployment in the near future. An important goal is to develop design practices and software tools that may later serve as models for other embedded network systems, said Hallstrom.

“Increasingly these systems have an impact on the health and welfare of the planet,” Hallstrom said. “Ensuring that they operate as expected is important to our future and is the main focus of our work.”

Hallstrom’s team includes Ph.D. students, master’s students and an undergraduate student. Beyond their involvement in the research, these students will play an important role in an outreach program with nearby Pendleton High School.

“The goal is to encourage students to go into science and engineering fields from an early age,” Hallstrom said. “We want to show them that computing is more than programming — a lot more.”

via Clemson