REU Supplement for CPS: Medium: Batteryless Sensors Enabling Smart Green Infrastructure

The proposed effort will develop new methods, algorithms, hardware platforms, and basic science to increase the resilience of coastlines. The work will push forward computer science research in ultra low power and energy efficient computing, and basic environmental engineering research in novel terrestrial microbial fuel cell design. Specifically, the merits are: (1) develop a Terrestrial MFC Prototype and corresponding energy model for efficient and dynamic energy harvesting in Green Infrastructure, (2) develop a tiny, resilient computing platform that harvests energy and supports sophisticated computing applications and sensing, (3) using this platform, create a framework for conducting on-device machine learning to recognize subtle environmental changes from lossy and incomplete environmental sensing, (4) conduct a series of end-to-end deployments of the technology in partnership with Chicago area institutions to test the efficacy and usefulness of the smart green infrastructure, developing a catalog of experiences and best practices for future endeavours by scientists and researchers in Chicago and elsewhere.