Dr. Can Vuran, as well as with researchers in the UNL College of Business Administration and the Ohio State Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, are currently working on a new NSF-funded project entitled “Cog-TV: Business and Technical Analysis of Cognitive Radio TV Sets for Enhanced Spectrum Access” through the Cyber-Physical Networking Lab at UNL. The notion is to design a new wireless approach to breach the digital divide. The program is part of President Obama’s Wireless Innovation and Infrastructure Initiative that will increase access and the cost-efficiency of wireless Internet. The ultimate aim is to show a viable model that can decrease the cost of accessing the Internet for the average American household. “I am excited about this collaboration as it includes a business aspect and is a Big 10 collaboration… The goal is to look at how we can exploit the current TV broadcasting structure.” There is a governmental initiative that allows the opportunistic use of a part of the TV spectrum if it is not being used by a broadcasting company at a certain location. Cog-TVs are the answer to scouting out white space and increasing the use of this policy. According to the NSF site “Cog-TVs are assigned optimal spectrum sensing schedules to provide service differentiation capabilities through a novel neighborhood watch concept.” They would be able to detect when a band is not being used. This is especially true of less densely populated areas such as Nebraska. In fact, most spectrum bands are unused in Nebraska. There are two problems: the broadcast companies see this as competition and there are technological challenges, even though the infrastructure is in place.
Dr. Vuran is the director of the Cyber-Physical Networking (CPN) Lab and teaches a course related to its research. The Sensor Networks course was initially developed as a 900-level course but there was quite a bit of interest from undergraduates, so it was developed to have a 400-level component. The course provides two aspects: one theoretical and the other a course project. This semester-long project is completed in groups with the students going through an initial training period to prepare them to use the programming languages and technology that is needed. They are also provided with access to the CPN lab to test on platforms and create applications. Many great projects come out of this class, including the crane-monitoring project that was incubated in 2008 by a student who was an avid bird-watcher. The course allows students to put their theoretical knowledge to use apply it to real-world applications. Can Vuran states, “I show these existing projects to students and let them build on top of them… this leads to more comprehensive and detailed projects and is better than starting from scratch.” Not only do students get to learn about cutting-edge research in sensor networks, the department also benefits from getting new ideas and contributions from the students.
The course does not stop at one semester for some students. Two current PhD students are currently working on new developments in the crane-project from projects that they worked on during the course. Other practical developments from the lab can be seen widely, especially through the development of the Innovation Lab on campus. The Lab is responsible for making business connections in the community and coming up with projects that students in the course work on. One example of something that the lab is now doing is a project continuation of the crane-monitoring project. They are developing a device for monitoring pheasants that calls for the weight requirement to be dropped from 100 grams to 30 grams. The prototype has been designed and a collaboration has been formed with T.J. Fontaine in the School of Natural Resources on East Campus. When the device has been developed, they will go out to the prairie and test on pheasants.
In relation to his projects above, Dr. Vuran has also co-authored a textbook with Ian F. Akyildiz on Sensor Networks. According to Dr. Vuran, “The book is a collection of research in textbook format… it was written for a general audience, so it should be easy to understand.” This is the same textbook that students use in the Sensor Networks course. The book discusses theoretical research into Wireless Sensor Networks, programming problems, and discusses means of evaluation.
For more information, please visit the following websites: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1247941 and http://cpn.unl.edu/.