Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering professors Christos Cassandras and Tom Little spoke about energy innovations coming from their labs. Cassandras works on sensor networks, control systems and algorithms that could become powerful tools in developing smart ways to save energy.
Tough Questions on Electric Energy Management
June 2009
Professor Christos Cassandras is the principle investigator on a four-year, $2 million National Science Foundation grant to advance the reconfiguration of autonomous networks. The main test bed for this research will be OpenAir Boston, a private, non-profit organization that will oversee the impending wireless network over the city of Boston.
Research Focuses on Getting Wireless Networks to Fix Themselves
September 2007
Led by Christos Cassandras (Boston University), along with Azer Bestavros (Boston University), Robert X. Gao (University of Massachusetts-Amherst), Weibo Gong (University of Massachusetts-Amherst), and Ioannis Paschalidis (Boston University) and titled, “Event-Driven Sensing for Enterprise Reconfigurability and Optimization” (grant #0735974).
This project seeks a fundamental understanding of how an enterprise, which itself encompasses a number of processes, can be made not only flexible but also responsive to unexpected events. An enterprise here is defined as any organization created to fill a demand for services—an increasingly common type of enterprise in today’s knowledge-based, service economies. A city is an example of such an enterprise. The team will use as a testbed OpenAir Boston, a project to create a public wireless network ensuring wireless access throughout the city.
NSF grants $2M for EFRI project on Autonomously Reconfigurable Systems
September 2007
Science fiction may soon meet science fact because of research being conducted by Christos Cassandras, a professor of manufacturing engineering and electrical and computer engineering at Boston University College of Engineering and a member of the College’s Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE). Cassandras and a team of co-investigators from Boston University and researchers from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst aim to build an understanding of how to control and optimize sensor networks operating in harsh, unpredictable environments.
The team has been awarded a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate ways to improve how large networks of sensors can both better manage the data they gather and optimize their efficiency. The NSF grant is from its Division of Design, Manufacturing, and Industrial Innovation.
Christos Cassandras to lead team in researching “control and optimization” of sensors
November 2003
Cassandras, an ENG professor of manufacturing engineering, says that appliances will be only one of many applications for so-called sensor networks, which feature a constellation of miniature devices that monitor a wide range of things, from vibrations to temperature to toxic chemicals and biological weapons. Cheap, lightweight, and built with tiny radios, the sensors will talk to one another, coordinating their reconnaissance and relaying their findings to a distant computer. An aging washing machine, for example, might notify the manufacturer of an imminent problem over a wireless Internet connection. The owner might then receive an e-mail from the dealer to schedule a service visit for a part that may not break for several weeks.
ENG faculty developing sensors that stay in touch
October 2003
