Wireless Sensors and Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (WiSe MANet) Lab
Making a Difference via Sound Research
At WiSe MANet lab, we strive to make a difference
in people’s lives via sound research. In our opinion, a research work
makes an impact if it gets frequently cited (for theoretical work)
and/or if it gets used widely in real life (for systems work).
We are engaged in both theoretical and systems work. In theoretical research, we are recognized for our work on
coverage and connectivity. We introduced two new models of coverage, Barrier Coverage (for intrusion detection) and Trap Coverage
(for scalable tracking with provable guarantees). With our
Mathematician colleagues, we introduced an analytical technique for
deriving reliable estimates
for probabilistic events, obviating the need to insist on large network
size to make probabilistic guarantess (as is traditionally done in
making "with high probability" claims). We applied this technique to
derive reliable estimates of density to achieve barrier coverage, full coverage, connectivity, and trap coverage, demonstrating its wide applicability.
In systems
research, we are building two novel systems, AutoWitness and AutoSense. AutoWitness is
a burglar tracking system that will help law enforcement agencies in
recovering stolen assets. The aim is to detect burglary without an
explicit report from the owner, instantly notify law enforcement
agency, and most importantly, to provide real-time updates on the
current location of assets while en-route, maximizing the chances of
timely recovery. The system is expected to last several years on tiny
self-contained battery.
AutoSense aims
to revolutionize research in behavioral sciences by enabling continuous, reliable and
real time measurements of personal exposures to addictive substances
and psychosocial stress as experienced by human subjects in their natural environment. This project is part of the prestigious Genes Environment Initiative (GEI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Our new FieldStream project
will provide a theoretical foundation to field deployable wireless
sensor systems under development at NIH's GEI program and elsewhere
such as AutoSense
so that personalized models can be developed and used to automatically
validate data collected in the field, to enable timely detection of
behavioral events (such as stress, craving, panic attacks, etc.), and
to optimize sampling and wireless communication to maximize system
lifetime.
Our
research is currently supported by three grants from
NSF and two grants from NIH. We collaborate with twenty
faculty members from eight universities (CMU, Georgia Tech, UCLA, UMass Amherst, University of
Minnesota, Ohio State University, University of
Pittsburgh, and University of Memphis). Our collaborators span
nine different disciplines (Computer Science, Electrical Engineering,
Mathematics, Psychology, Behavioral Science, Physiology, Public Health,
Anthropology, and Biochemistry), making our projects highly
transdisciplinary.
Current Projects:
- FieldStream: The goal of this project is to provide a theoretical foundation to field deployable wireless
sensor systems under development at NIH's GEI program and elsewhere
such as AutoSense
so that personalized models can be developed and used to automatically
validate data collected in the field, to enable timely detection of
behavioral events (such as stress, craving, panic attacks, etc.), and
to optimize sampling and wireless communication to maximize system
lifetime.
- AutoSense: The goal of this project is to develop a body area wireless sensor
network that enables continuous collection of real-time data on
personal exposures to addiction and psychosocial stress. By making
available to researchers accurate real-life data from the field, this
project opens up opportunities for scientific breakthroughs in the
behavioral sciences discipline. This, in turn, will advance our
understanding of prevalent human diseases.
- AutoWitness: The goal of this project is build a scalable, yet affordable, wireless
sensor network system that can be used for large scale tracking of
assets such as lost or stolen objects. The project involves both
theoretical investigation of fundamental issues related to deployment,
operation, and maintenance, and real-life deployment of a working system.
- Trap Coverage: The
goal of this project is to develop theories and algorithms that can
be used for the deployment and maintenance of wireless sensor networks
that are deployed to provide scalable tracking, i.e., allow holes of
bounded diameter. The applications in case are sensor
network deployed for tracking burglars in a city, tracking intruders,
tracking the spread of forest fire, tracking the spread of crop
disease, among others.
- Barrier Coverage: The goal of this project is to develop theories and algorithms that can
be used for the deployment and maintenance of wireless sensor networks
that are deployed in thin strips. The applications in case are sensor
network deployed for border surveillance, perimeter security, forest
fire detection, etc.
Team Members:
- Post Doctoral Fellows:
- Dr. Andrew Raij (2009-) - To join University of South Florida in Jan 2011 as Tenure-track Assistant Professor in ECE
- Dr. Kurt Plarre (2008-) - On the job market
- Ph.D. Students
- Shantanu Guha (2007-) - sguha(dot)(at)memphis(dot)edu
- Somnath Mitra (2007-) - smitra3(at)memphis(dot)edu
- Amin Ahsan Ali (2008-) - aaali(dot)(at)memphis(dot)edu
- Mahbubur Rahman (2009-) - aaali(dot)(at)memphis(dot)edu
- Syed Monowar Hussain (2010-)
- Sudip Vhaduri (2010-)
- Md. Mishfaq Ahmed (2010-)
- M.S. Students
- Bhagavathy Krishna (2007) - bhagavathy(dot)krishna(at)memphis(dot)edu
- Undergraduate Students
- Daniel Lissner (2009) - dlissner(at)memphis(dot)edu
- Vineet Sathyan (2008)
- Alumni
- Animikh Ghosh (M.S., 2010) - GE Global Research, India
- Salahuddin Mohammad Masum (2010) - Ph.D. Student, EECE, University of Memphis
- Maheshbabu Satharla (M.S., 2010)
- Tim Henry (B.S., 2008) - Fedex, Memphis
Key Publications:
- Santanu
Guha, Kurt Plarre, Daniel Lissner, Somnath Mitra, Bhagavathy Krishna,
Prabal Dutta, and Santosh Kumar, "AutoWitness: Locating and Tracking
Stolen Property While Tolerating GPS and Radio Outages," to appear in
Proceedings of the 8th ACM SenSys, Zurich, Nov. 2010. (Acceptance
Rate < 17.3%).
- Santosh
Kumar, Ten H. Lai, Marc E. Posner, and Prasun Sinha "Maximizing the
Lifetime of a Barrier of Wireless Sensors," to appear in IEEE
Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), earlier version in IEEE BROADNETS 2007.
(.pdf, .pdf for the conference version) Times Cited: 16
- Zizhan Zheng, Zhixue Lu, Prasun Sinha, and Santosh Kumar, "Maximizing the Contact Opportunity for Vehicular Internet Access," In
Proceedings of the 29th IEEE INFOCOM, San Diego, 2010.
(.pdf) (CiteSee Impact Factor: 1.39, Acceptance
Rate < 17.5%).
- Paul
Balister, Zizhan Zheng, Santosh Kumar, and Prasun Sinha, "Trap Coverage: Allowing
Coverage Holes of Bounded Diameter in Wireless Sensor Networks," In
Proceedings of the 28th IEEE INFOCOM, Rio de Janeiro, 2009.
(.pdf, Tech Report) (CiteSee Impact Factor: 1.39, Acceptance
Rate < 19.7%).
- Paul
Balister and Santosh Kumar, "Random vs. Deterministic Deployment of
Sensors in the Presence of Failures and Placement Errors," In Proceedings of the 28th IEEE INFOCOM Miniconference, Rio de Janeiro, 2009.
(.pdf) (Acceptance
Rate < 26.7%).
- Zizhan
Zheng, Prasun Sinha, and Santosh Kumar "Alpha Coverage: Bounding the
Interconnection Gap for Vehicular Internet Access," In Proceedings of the 28th IEEE INFOCOM Miniconference, Rio de Janeiro, 2009.
(.pdf) (Acceptance
Rate < 26.7%).
- Paul Balister,
Bela Bollobas, Amites Sarkar, and Santosh Kumar "Reliable Density
Estimates for Achieving Coverage and Connectivity in Thin Strips of
Finite Length," In
Proceedings of the 13th Annual International Conference on Mobile
Computing and Networking (ACM MobiCom), Montreal, Canada, 2007.
(.pdf) (Acceptance
Rate < 11.2%). Times Cited: 39
- Ai
Chen, Santosh Kumar, and Ten H. Lai "Designing Localized Algorithms for
Barrier Coverage," In Proceedings of the 13th Annual International
Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (ACM MobiCom), Montreal, Canada, 2007.
(.pdf) (Acceptance
Rate < 11.2%). Also, to appear in IEEE TMC. Times Cited: 41
- Xiaole
Bai, Santosh Kumar, Ziqiu Yun, Dong Xuan, and Ten H. Lai, "Deploying
Wireless Sensors to Achieve Both Coverage and Connectivity," In
Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Mobile Ad
Hoc Networking and Computing (ACM MobiHoc), Florence, Italy, 2006.
(.pdf) (Acceptance
Rate < 9.75%). Times Cited: 132
- Santosh Kumar, Ten H.
Lai, and Anish Arora, "Barrier Coverage With
Wireless Sensors," In Proceedings of
the Eleventh Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and
Networking (ACM MobiCom), Cologne, Germany, 2005, pp. 284-298.
(.pdf) (Acceptance
Rate < 10.3%). Times Cited: 130
- Note: The proof of Theorem 4.2 is incomplete. See the Wireless Network journal version (.pdf) for details.
-
Santosh Kumar, Ten H. Lai, and Jozsef Balogh, "On k-Coverage in a
Mostly Sleeping Sensor Network," In Proceedings of the Tenth
Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (ACM
MobiCom), Philadelphia, PA, 2004, pp.144-158. (.pdf, slides) (Acceptance Rate < 8%). Times Cited: 307
Lab Location: 222 Dunn Hall, Department of Computer Science, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152