Research Statement

Recent advances in wireless communications and digital electronics have motivated research and development of innovative wireless systems. Particularly, following integration of sensing and communication technologies, the interest in wireless sensor networks has grown tremendously. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) refer to a wireless network that consist of a large number of small and inexpensive sensor devices that are equipped with limited storage and processing capabilities as well as constrained wireless communication facilities. Availability of energy-efficient and low-cost sensor nodes has made it possible to apply WSN in many interesting applications in health and medical application, environmental monitoring, agriculture, transportation, military, and homeland security areas.In health applications, sensor networks can be used to track patients as well as physicians. Agricultural and environmental applications of sensor networks include irrigation, soil erosion, livestock and crop monitoring, detection of pesticides in water, forest fire and floods. Military applications span a spectrum of surveillance, reconnaissance, targeting, and damage assessment tasks in the theater of operations, in addition to detection of biological, nuclear, and chemical attacks. Terrorist surveillance, hazardous materials, drug traffic, and border infiltration are examples of homeland security applications of sensor networks.

It is important to note that many algorithms and protocols developed for wireless networks may not be suitable for sensor networks. The design and development of sensor networks are driven by many intrinsic factors. For example, energy consumption is a critical aspect of sensor networks and therefore development of low-energy algorithms and protocols is essential for sensor networks. Vulnerability and security of sensor networks impose a major design challenge for secure data transmission. Therefore, we investigate solutions for a number of research problems in wireless sensor networks, which have inhibited complete utilization of high-speed wireless data network technology in critical applications in health, environmental conservation, agriculture, transportation, and other applications.