CAREER: Foundations for Flow-based Cyber-Physical Systems
Lead PI:
Radu Stoleru
Abstract
Intellectual Merit: Recent developments in nanostructures manufacturing, sensing and wireless networking, will soon enable us to deploy Flow-based Cyber-Physical Systems equipped with sensing and actuation capabilities for a broad range of applications. Some of these applications will be safety critical, including water distribution monitoring (i.e., critical national infrastructure systems particularly vulnerable to a variety of attacks, including contamination with deadly agents) and interventional medicine (i.e., a medical branch that makes use of tiny devices introduced in a living body through small incisions, to detect and treat diseases). The goal of this project is to advance our fundamental understanding, through a robust mathematical framework, of emerging field of Flow-based Cyber-Physical System. The project develops new architectures, models, metrics, algorithms and protocols for optimal sensing, communication and actuation in Flow-based Cyber-Physical System deployed on-demand (i.e., reactively, when sensing and actuation is needed) or proactively. Flow-based Cyber Physical Systems consist of mobile sensor nodes and static nodes, aware of their location. For stringent requirements (e.g., form factor, cost, energy budget) nodes may or may not possess node-to-node communication capabilities. Due to the lack of localization infrastructure, mobile sensor nodes infer their location only by proximity to static nodes. Sensor nodes are moved by the flow in the network, detect events of interest and proximity to static nodes, communicate and actuate. This research will enable, for example, water distribution monitoring systems to accurately and timely detect events of interest in the infrastructure and to react to these events. It may enable doctors to detect diseases and deliver medication with microscopic precision. Broader Impacts: Ultimately, the outcomes of this research will have impact on CPS that operate in critical modes and environments and control critical infrastructures and medical applications. The results from this research may also foster new research directions in CPS applications. The PI will integrate the research results in newly approved courses on CPS at Texas A&M and disseminate course materials online through the project website and Rice University Connections Consortium. This project will also offer research opportunities to undergraduate students, underrepresented groups, and high school students participating in the Texas Science Olympiad and National Science Olympiad.
Radu Stoleru

Dr. Radu Stoleru is currently an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, and the head of Laboratory for Embedded & Networked Sensor Systems (LENSS).

Dr. Stoleru's research interests are in deeply embedded wireless sensor systems, distributed systems, embedded computing, and computer networking. He is the recepient of the NSF CAREER Award in 2013. Dr. Stoleru received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Virginia in 2007, under Professor John A. Stankovic. While at the University of Virginia, Dr. Stoleru received from the Department of Computer Science the Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award for 2007. He has authored or co-authored over 60 conference and journal papers with over 2,200 citations (Google Scholar). He is currently serving as an editorial board member for 3 international journals and has served as technical program committee member on numerous international conferences.

Performance Period: 04/01/2013 - 03/31/2019
Institution: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Award Number: 1253968