People: Li Chen, Steve Cool, He Ba and Wendi Heinzelman (University of Rochester)
Kaushik Chowdhury and Stefano Basagni (Northeastern University)
Swades De (IIT-Delhi)
Soumya Jana (IIT-Hyderabad)


Sponsor:


Project overview: Air quality is important for maintaining the health and well-being of the population, with gasses such as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide gas, and the more commonly found carbon dioxide gas being some of the major causes of air pollution, collectively responsible for an estimated 527,700 yearly deaths in India and about 41,200 annually in the US. Deploying air quality monitoring wireless sensor networks is a step towards detecting the presence of such pollutants. However, the limited lifetime of the battery-powered monitoring network is a major concern.

This project called GENIUS (Green sEnsor Networks for aIr qUality Support) proposes a new architecture comprised of sensor hardware, protocols, analytical models, and optimized implementation geared towards new self-sustaining sensor nodes. These sensors operate by harvesting energy from the environment, and optimize energy usage through an on-demand wake-up radio technology, potentially leading to a perennial pollution-monitoring network. GENIUS is envisaged to play a key role in emergency warnings, undertake periodic data logging, and contribute to the societal well being in densely populated and congested regions in both the US and India.