Computer Science faculty collaborate on next-generation atmospheric sensing research center

As part of a team with the UMass Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Computer Science faculty led by Jim Kurose have been awarded funding for a National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center (ERC). The newly funded NSF ERC Center, Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA), is one of only four new centers created in a year in which more than 100 teams competed for the prestigious designation.

In the CASA Engineering Research Center, computer science faculty will be collaborating on research and development of next-generation atmospheric sensing capabilities. Revolutionary sensing technology that will enable earlier and more accurate forecasts of weather emergencies will be at the heart of the new $40 million center. Funded in part by the NSF, CASA is expected to increase the warning time for tornadoes, flash floods, and other severe weather disturbances with far greater accuracy than existing systems.

“This new Engineering Research Center is another example of how UMass Amherst’s academic and scientific expertise has a profound, positive impact on our society,” said John V. Lombardi, UMass Amherst chancellor. “As a result, this center has the ability to save millions of dollars and protect many lives by identifying severe weather systems much sooner than any system currently in use.”

UMass Amherst will lead a multidisciplinary team of engineers and computer scientists from UMass as well as engineers, meteorologists, atmospheric scientists, and sociologists from partner institutions, including the University of Oklahoma, Colorado State University, and the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. CASA’s industry partners include Raytheon, IBM, MA/COM, Vaisala, Vieux and Associates, Telephonics, and The Weather Channel. Government partners include NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Labs. The UMass Principal Investigators are CASA Director David McLaughlin (Armstrong Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering), and Computer Science Professor Jim Kurose. Computer Science professors Victor Lesser, Prashant Shenoy, and Don Towsley are leading research efforts in computational and networking aspects of CASA.

“From the radar endpoints to in-network processing, to control points, to storage -- computing is everywhere in this system. This is a terrific example of a new, emerging class sensor-driven application in computer science,” says Kurose. “We’re all thrilled to be teaming with our colleagues in ECE, at other academic institutions, and in industry.” Echoing that sentiment, McLaughlin noted, “This is an essential partnership. We’re tackling a problem that just can’t be solved without this essential mix of multidisciplinary collaborators.”

Today’s forecasting systems employ high-power, long-range radars that are blocked from observing the lower part of the atmosphere by the earth’s curvature. This means, for example, that today’s sensors cannot be used to observe tornadoes that begin close to the ground. CASA can overcome the blockage effects of the earth’s curvature by arranging low-cost, dense networks of radars operating at short range. A new generation of meteorological software will use this radar data to support organizations that need weather data for decision making: government, emergency managers, and private industry. These new sensor systems will be used for more than severe weather detection – for example, they could track low-level winds that transport pollutants throughout the atmosphere.

UMass and its partners will operate CASA and will be aided by $40 million in funding over a five year period. This funding includes a $17 million grant from the NSF ERC program, $5 million from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, contributions from academic partners, plus nearly $6 million from corporations and in-kind donations.

The first field test of CASA will be conducted in mid-2005 in Oklahoma and will cover roughly 20 percent of the state - a region that experiences approximately 22 tornadoes per year. The second test will be in Houston, where CASA will deploy a system to predict floods more accurately. A third test, in Puerto Rico, will improve monitoring of hurricanes as they approach land.

The NSF currently funds 24 engineering research centers nationwide. The centers are designed to partner university researchers with industry and government practitioners, in order to tackle issues too complex and expensive for one sector alone. All engineering research centers must also have a large educational component. CASA has plans to introduce schoolchildren to engineering using the appeal of weather. University students will work in teams alongside industrial practitioners and academic researchers, to design and test sensors in the field, and will work with end-users to interpret sensor data.