Oct 24, 2006 8:00 AM

'Smart' campus building reports back to researchers working there

The newest building on campus is not the typical brick-and-mortar structure. True to the scientific mission of its researchers, the 6,000-square-foot glass-enclosed facility built for UCLA Engineering’s Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) is itself an ongoing research experiment.

Tucked into a courtyard adjacent to Boelter Hall filled with trees and lush plantings, the building, which opens this week, will have dozens of sensors embedded in its structure to quietly collect data. The space also will boast dozens of low-resolution wireless cameras to provide information about activity in common areas to the building’s residents. A new technology called a laser mapper will record two-dimensional images of the main entryway to document traffic flows.

All of the information gathered will be used by the students and faculty in the lab as they participate in their own experiments.

Planned interactive displays in the entry and lobby will welcome visitors to the building and allow them to track ongoing experiments around the world.

CENS researchers envision that someday soon, large-scale, distributed systems composed of smart sensors and actuators embedded in the physical world will infuse the globe — much like the Internet — but at a physical level rather than virtual.

“Embedded networked sensing systems may ultimately prove to be as important a technology as the Internet, expanding people’s ability to interact with the physical world in revolutionary ways,” said Deborah Estrin, CENS director and a computer science professor at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

In such a system, large numbers of sensor nodes could be deployed to detect and reveal information about the environment, such as the presence of an intruder in a secure area, movement of people on public transit and changes in ecosystem function.

Currently, CENS’ research is contributing to society’s knowledge about monitoring and managing such diverse conditions as toxic algae along coastlines, endangered species’ response to land use and climate change, soil and water contamination associated with urban and agricultural runoff, medical patient compliance with dietary and exercise-related prescriptions, and the structural integrity of tall buildings to seismic and extreme wind events.

An interdisciplinary venture, CENS involves nearly 100 faculty, engineers, graduate student researchers and undergraduates from UCLA and its partners — USC, UC Riverside, UC Merced and Caltech.

The modern glass-and-steel structure is designed to accommodate CENS’ expansive interdisciplinary approach.

CENS will host an invitation-only grand opening of the building on Oct. 26. On Oct. 27, the center will hold its Fourth Annual Public Research Review at the Tom Bradley International Hall. For details, go to www.engineer.ucla.edu.

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