University
of Virginia computer scientist John Stankovic has seen the
future of computing-and it fits in the palm of his hand. Stankovic
is leading the effort to develop networks built around tiny
wireless sensors, each with its own power supply and memory.
These sensors could be spread across a battlefield, where
they could provide information about enemy movements. Or they
could be placed in a hospital bed or attached unobtrusively
to an individual to provide real-time medical monitoring.
The Pentagon thinks enough of a 200-node prototype military
surveillance system that Stankovic and his colleagues built
for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that it
has asked defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. to develop
a more advanced prototype. Such a system could ultimately
involve tens of thousands of sensors, which would self-assemble
into a network capable of generating detailed battlefield
situation reports.
"The challenge," says Stankovic, "is finding
ways to squeeze extensive functionality into fairly simple
devices." Sensors with more powerful chips require
more power-and the extra costs can add up quickly, especially
in large networks. Based on wireless sensors with just 4K
of data RAM, Stankovic's surveillance system can perform
more than 30 functions needed to gather, validate, and communicate
real-time battlefield intelligence. Along with colleague
Tarek Abdelzaher and a team of graduate students, he has
developed power management techniques to extend the life
of the system from seven days to six months.
Wireless sensor networks can also be adapted to medical
settings such as clinics or nursing homes. Stankovic is
also working with scientists at U.Va. to adapt the surveillance
network for environmental research. "Such a system
would enable scientists to take fine-grained measurements
from a remote location," he says.
Stankovic has founded the Center for Wireless Sensor Networks
at U.Va. and assembled one of the nation's largest research
groups dedicated to further the development of these networks.
Stankovic received his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1979
and joined U.Va. as BP America Professor and chair of the
Department of Computer Science in January 1997, a position
he held until 2004. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow
of the ACM, and serves on the Computing Research Association
Board of Directors as treasurer. He received an IEEE Award
for Outstanding Technical Contributions and Leadership in
Real-Time Systems and an Outstanding Scholar Award from
the University of Massachusetts. He is editor-in-chief of
Real-Time Systems and was editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions
[JL: plural Transactions] on Parallel and Distributed Systems
for four years.
