Interdisciplinary collaboration: academia, research, industry and policy relations in the development of Wireless Sensing Networks in the US
November 2005
Draft chapter for report on DTI Global Watch Mission on Wireless Sensing Networks
Teresa Dillon, Futurelab
The full version of this paper is available to download in pdf format - see box below. On this page you'll find the paper's introduction and section on stakeholders.
Download pdf version of this paper help
You'll need Adobe Reader to open this file - you can download it for free from www.adobe.com
Introduction
Within US organisations and institutions emphasis is continually placed on multidisciplinary team collaboration, where the merging of interdisciplinary skills and expertise are considered driving forces of innovation and development. In many cases interdisciplinary work is considered as fundamental to the US successes in WSN and funding is actively sought to support such working scenarios. For example, in institutions such as Calit2 and Sun Microsystems, teams of engineers, artists, computer scientists and programmers are considered as key to envisaging new areas of development.
This chapter provides an overview of the key stakeholders operating within collaborative programmes and the underlying influences which contribute to creating and sustaining such working environments.
Stakeholders
The key players within the multidisciplinary landscape include:
Government agencies and research labs
One of the key governing bodies operating in this field is the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)1, which for the last ten years has supported a range of WSN programs that have enabled more applications for sensors networks, particularly in relation to security and homeland defence. One of the key research labs working in this area is Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a research and development institution whose focus is on developing new solutions for US national security.
Multinational research labs
Several multinational research labs such as Intel, PARC and Sun Microsystems are actively developing and researching new appliances and solutions in the field. Much of this research is core funded by the companies and therefore feeds back into their cycle of development and innovation.
Universities
Working in collaboration with the above industries and agencies, many universities2 have been working on developing new programming languages, operating systems, network solutions and materials for sensors and sensor chips. Large umbrella bodies, such as the Centre for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at Berkeley, have been instrumental in providing a bridge between policy, industry and academia.
Small to medium enterprises (SMEs)
Manufacturers and solution providers
Manufacturers and solution providers of sensors and sensor networks have very close links with academia and government funding agencies. For example Dust and Crossbow, both leaders in the field of chip and sensor development, are spin-off enterprises from existing university-based research labs. With the exception of Cardionet, the only company focusing on health monitoring which was set up via venture capital and private investment, much of the funding and development in all other companies is driven by government funding, with the defence industries being their main clients (eg Dust, Crossbow, Figure 8, SYS, Scalable Networks). Of companies in this cluster, Scalable Networks is beginning to work in Europe and has already made some headway into the automotive industry. Zigbee is focused on creating the systems for cross-WSN applications, while SYS, similar to Scalable Networks, is a solution provider with expertise in real-time sensor captures and data visualisation.