Wireless Sensor Networks Projects in a Computer Engineering Program
Afsaneh Minaie, Reza Sanati-Mehrizy, Paymon Sanati-Mehrizy, Ali Sanati-Mehrizy · 2020
Abstract Wireless Sensor Networks Projects in Computer Engineering ProgramAbstractRecent developments in wireless networks, Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, anddigital electronics have led to the emergence of Wireless Sensor networks (WSNs). A wireless sensornetwork consists of spatially distributed autonomous sensors that cooperatively monitor physical orenvironmental conditions, such as temperature, light, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants.These networks consist of small battery–powered motes with limited computation and radiocommunication capabilities. Each sensor in a sensor network consists of three subsystems: the sensorwhich senses the environment, the processing subsystem which performs local computations on thesensed data, and the communication subsystem which is responsible for message exchanges withneighboring sensors.Wireless Sensor Network is an active area of research with numerous applications. Some of theapplications of WSNs includes homeland security, health care system, monitoring of space assets forpotential human-made threats in space, ground-based monitoring of both land and water, intelligencegathering for defense, environmental monitoring, urban warfare, weather and climate analysis andprediction, battlefield monitoring and surveillance, exploration of the Solar System and beyond,monitoring of seismic acceleration, temperature, wind speed and GPS data.A quality education requires exposing students to the current edge of research and technology. Toensure that student projects are complementary to industrial development, educators must continuallyintroduce emerging techniques, technology, practices, and applications into their curriculum. The fieldof wireless sensor networks is growing rapidly and has captured the interest of various sectors. Theincreasing popularity of WSN has motivated universities to provide students with a foundation in thearea. It is crucial that the emerging field of wireless sensor networks be integrated into the computerengineering curriculum.This paper will present the details of two wireless sensor networks projects that our computerengineering students have done in their capstone course.