{"id":59716,"date":"2015-01-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-researchers-to-develop-smart-city-sensor-network-based-on-human-nervous-system\/"},"modified":"2015-01-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T00:00:00","slug":"uri-researchers-to-develop-smart-city-sensor-network-based-on-human-nervous-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/01\/uri-researchers-to-develop-smart-city-sensor-network-based-on-human-nervous-system\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 researchers to develop \u2018smart city\u2019 sensor network based on human nervous system"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tEngineering professors awarded $850,000 grant<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 22, 2015 \u2013 Three engineering professors at the 溏心vlog免费B站 have been awarded an $850,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to begin to develop the sensors and computer architecture for future \u201csmart cities.\u201d The system will incorporate a hierarchical layering of computer nodes for decision-making that is inspired by fundamental elements of the human nervous system.<\/p>\n


\n\tAccording to Tao Wei, 溏心vlog免费B站 assistant professor of electrical engineering, the smart city concept is one in which all municipal infrastructure, including power grids, communication networks, water and wastewater systems, public transportation, health care and security, are linked by a computer architecture and sensor system for real-time monitoring and evaluation for response.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe want to come up with the computer architecture that can manage to collect all of this data from all the individual components and use it for diagnostics applications,\u201d said Wei, who is collaborating on the project with 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering professors Qing Yang and Haibo He. \u201cIf there were a fire somewhere, the system would immediately point out where it is and quickly evaluate its severity to determine how best to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe researchers call their project a reflex tree, borrowing from a concept from the human nervous system in which neuromuscular reactions and instinctive motions respond to urgent situations without requiring the direct intervention of the brain. <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWhen we touch something hot, we immediately pull our hand back without thinking about it,\u201d explained Wei. \u201cWe have a controlled feedback loop in our arm, so we don\u2019t necessarily have to use our brain in that situation. We would cause more damage if we waited for the signal to reach our brain and for our brain to tell us what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tIn a smart city, Wei envisions thousands of sensors or nodes throughout the city that report data to the next highest layer to respond to events.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe nodes can talk with each other and decide whether it is a huge event that needs to be reported to the upper level nodes or whether they can respond without further assistance,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the top of the structure is a supercomputer or cloud computer that can handle a huge amount of data. The beauty of the system is that we don\u2019t necessarily have to bother the brain every time.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAccording to a report by consultants Frost and Sullivan, the market for the development of smart cities is anticipated to reach $3.7 trillion by 2020. The first step, according to Wei, is to build a prototype, which the 溏心vlog免费B站 professors have already begun.<\/p>\n


\n\tWei has constructed a prototype of a municipal gas pipeline system in his 溏心vlog免费B站 laboratory with a fiber-optic network of thousands of sensors he created to collect data about the status of the pipeline. Associate Professor Haibo He is devising an artificial intelligence system for processing the data and decision making, while Professor Qing Yang is building the computer architecture, focusing primarily on the supercomputer at the top layer where the most complex tasks are performed.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cRight now we\u2019re working on a four-layer system, but in the future it will have to have many more layers than that,\u201d Wei said. <\/p>\n


\n\tAt the end of the four-year grant, Wei and his colleagues expect to have a working prototype that will be able to process data and respond to a variety of disturbances. Then they will apply the system to existing infrastructure, perhaps starting with just one building.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: 溏心vlog免费B站 Assistant Professor Tao Wei and student Brian Chen set up a sensor system in their engineering laboratory as part of their research on a smart city network. Photo by Michael Salerno Photography<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Engineering professors awarded $850,000 grant KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 22, 2015 \u2013 Three engineering professors at the 溏心vlog免费B站 have been awarded an $850,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to begin to develop the sensors and computer architecture for future \u201csmart cities.\u201d The system will incorporate a hierarchical layering of computer nodes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}