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NASA helps fund St. Helens volcano research
06:10 PM PST on Monday, January 29, 2007
By Vince Patton, special to kgw.com
Space exploration and volcano research may share technology in coming years if Pacific Northwest scientists develop reliable remote sensors which can communicate with each other and with satellites without human input.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has given a $1.6 million grant to the Cascades Volcano Observatory and Washington State University to develop what amounts to low-powered WiFi for seismic and GPS sensors far from the nearest internet connection.
Ground zero for the research will be an area often compared to a "moonscape."
Scientists plan to deploy two more instrument packs this week in the crater of Mount St. Helens. A helicopter will drop "spiders" full of GPS sensors and power packs directly onto the new dome growing in the crater. Batteries in the boxes can last up to a year, even in the freezing winter cold of the mountain or the 1000 degree heat of the volcano's new dome.
The goal is to devise a way for those instruments to connect with each other and even trigger satellite surveillance.
Rick LaHusen, a U.S.G.S. hydrologist said, "the satellite and the network on the ground can both communicate interactively by themselves without any human intervention."
With official plans to put a base on the moon and to land humans on Mars, NASA is interested LaHusen said, because the same technology "can be used on an interplanetary exploration or on lunar explorations."
The dome has changed dramatically since last fall. No longer does it sport a jagged sharp fin of rock. Instead, the dome has spread out in a massive formation that dwarfs the old dome which grew in the 1980's.
"It's more like a mushroom, growing up and expanding and spreading. So we have a nice platform or plateau on top" on which to set their instruments, LaHusen said.
Without sensors on the dome itself, scientists have trouble detecting how much it is growing.
Infrared readings show that a waistband of hot rock that used to ring the base of the growing dome is no longer hot. That may mean extrusion of new rock from underground has slowed or stopped. Or, it could mean the motion is now more active inside the dome, not at its edge.
"Is it growing internally or is it actually slowing down now?" LaHusen muses. "We need to get those measurements on top more precisely to tell."
At least three cameras sit, unusable, on the crater's rim encased in thick ice. They won't function again until the weather warms.
But the new instruments going in this week will go in directly on the dome itself, where it's too warm for ice to gather.
See video about the interview and Mt. St. Helens? Click Here
PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Friday, June 30, 2006
Source: NASA HQ
NASA Awards Washington Science Grants
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Earth Science Division, Washington, selected Washington State University, Vancouver, and the University of Washington, Seattle, for grants to support the agency's Advanced Information Systems Technology Program. The maximum grant value for State is $1,628,979; and for UW, $1,289,196.
The main purpose of the program is to invest in research and development of new and innovative information technologies. The program focuses on creating mature technologies leading to smaller, less resource-intensive and less expensive flight systems that can be built quickly and efficiently, and on more-efficient ground-based processing and modeling systems that improve the use of Earth science data.
The research also supports the Vision for Space Exploration, NASA's long- term plan to return astronauts to the moon and extend exploration to Mars and beyond.
For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/home
NASA awards WSU, UW $2.9M in grants
Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) - June 30, 2006
NASA has awarded Washington State University-Vancouver and the University of Washington grants worth $2.9 million.
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Earth Science Division awarded grants to support the space agency's Advanced Information Systems Technology Program. WSU-Vancouver received a grant worth a maximum of $1.6 million, while UW's was $1.3 million.
In a statement, NASA said: "The main purpose of the program is to invest in research and development of new and innovative information technologies. The program focuses on creating mature technologies leading to smaller, less resource-intensive and less expensive flight systems that can be built quickly and efficiently, and on more-efficient ground-based processing and modeling systems that improve the use of Earth science data. The research also supports the Vision for Space Exploration, NASA's long- term plan to return astronauts to the moon and extend exploration to Mars and beyond."
WSU Vancouver gets NASA grant to research smart sensors
Thursday, July 06, 2006
HOLLEY GILBERT
The Oregonian
VANCOUVER -- Techniques to create a new system of self-directing and self-healing sensors for Earth- and space-based research are on the drawing board at Washington State University Vancouver, thanks to a $1.63 million three-year grant from NASA.
The project is in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey's David A. Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver and the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena Calif. The survey is contributing an in-kind donation that brings the project cost to more than $2 million, said Rick LaHusen, an instrumentation engineer with the agency.
WSU Vancouver will be responsible for development of advanced algorithms and software for the project, while the observatory will develop the electronic hardware needed, LaHusen said. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory will handle space-based elements, he said.
The goal is an array of "smart sensors" that would be able to, say, notice a shift in an earthquake pattern and adjust itself to focus on the change, analyze data into usable forms and send them to scientists, LaHusen said.
The technology would be able to find new paths through the network if a portion is damaged. It could have applications in everything from monitoring volcanoes and landslides to scanning for suspected radiation or chemical sources in terrorist attacks to monitoring activity in deep space, he said.
Such a network could provide information for scientific research, national policymaking, economic growth, natural hazard mitigation and exploration of the solar system, Michael Griffin, NASA's administrator, told Congress in 2005.
Researchers want to be able to deploy the technology rapidly, LaHusen said. The hardware will need to be small and lightweight, limited only by the size of its batteries.
The Vancouver project will be headed by WenZhan Song, a nationally known wireless sensor network specialist and WSU Vancouver assistant professor. Song was unavailable for comment Wednesday.
The research is among 28 projects nationwide aimed at developing information technology that were awarded grants by NASA. The grants total $31 million.
2006 The Oregonian
[July 04, 2006]
WSUV receives $1.6 million grant from NASA
(Columbian, The (Vancouver, WA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
Jul. 4--Whether an instrument is sitting in the crater of
Tapping a $1.6
million grant from NASA, a group of local researchers will design an array
of "smart" sensors capable of transmitting information efficiently to the
scientists who crave it. Washington State University Vancouver received
the grant, according to an announcement dated Friday on space agency
letterhead and confirmed Monday by the office of U.S. Rep. Brian Baird,
D-Vancouver.
WSU is one of several research institutions across the country
involved in the project to develop smart information technology.
At
Rick LaHusen, an instrumentation engineer
with the U.S. Geological Survey in
Researchers hope to devise an array of sensors
configured to beam data efficiently here on Earth, whether by satellite or
radio receiver. By providing seed money for researchers such as Song, NASA
officials are hoping the basics of this "sensor web" can be applied in
space exploration.
Scientists hope to test the new array within the
erupting crater of
"We've got an ideal hostile environment," LaHusen
said.
Besides beaming data efficiently during periodic ash
explosions at the volcano, he said the new system should enable scientists
to gather more information by bouncing transmissions across a variety of
receivers. LaHusen, who specializes in real-time monitoring systems for
volcanoes, said the current system can only send so much information at
once.
"We don't get all the information we want. We get what we get
by on," he said. "This will allow us to get more data through in a more
efficient manner."
|
Sunday,
September 03, 2006
Today it's
fantasy, but someday it could be a reality pegged to another distant
dream: The network of
sensors is professor WenZhan Song's dream.
Song teaches computer science at Washington State University Vancouver,
and in July won a $1.6 million research grant from NASA to put sensors on
While Song
recruits undergrads and graduate students to join his research, university
administrators are engaged in high-tech efforts of their own. So are
business owners, economic development boosters, school board members and
high school students. The goal is to
forge better relationships between the university and surrounding
high-tech companies. "In most areas
of innovation in this country, there's a tie to a major world-class
research university," said Doug Anderson, a manager at Underwriters
Laboratories' Camas office. "Look at Those
universities have educated the young people who've started many of the Bay
Area's top companies, and the schools also have partnered with business
and development, "We're in a
global market," If It's not fair
to just look at the area's needs without looking at the progress that's
being made, said Bart Phillips, president of the Columbia River Economic
Development Council. "WSU definitely
understands the needs of the technology community," Phillips said.
"They've been very nimble within the constraints of the university system.
Real progress is being made." More engineers
"Our
engineering programs are growing quite fast," said Hakan Gurocak, director
of WSUV's "We recently
added master's programs in both of these areas, and graduated the first
class of master's students," Gurocak said. Enrollment in
bachelor's programs has been growing steadily, and with the arrival of 175
freshmen, the first in the school's history, Gurocak expects the majors to
continue to grow. There are 11
faculty in the department today, but Gurocak is looking to hire three more
to handle the increase in students and to diversify the curriculum.
WSUV also has
received a $240,500 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust to
develop undergraduate emphasis areas within the engineering and computer
science department -- including nanotechnology, portable device
programming and robotics, Gurocak said. Electrical
engineering So far, WSUV's
moves don't fill one critical need: that for more electrical engineers.
Portland State
University's Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, which
moved into new headquarters earlier this year, offers that in-demand
major, but WSUV probably won't be able to enroll electrical engineers
until 2011 at the earliest. "It's a very
laboratory-intensive program," one that would require construction of a
new building, Gurocak said. "It takes time because of our dependence on
state funding and the approval process, and the details that go in to
starting a new program." Still, adding
electrical engineering is a top priority for the school, which will ask
for design and construction money when it makes its next budget request of
the state Legislature, Gurocak said. Nano lab
Also several
years away: a clean room filled with sophisticated, and expensive,
semiconductor and nanotechnology equipment, which would serve as an
incubator for new businesses and a research center for academics.
A first move --
in the form of a $100,000 federal appropriation -- was made in June.
The lab would
be developed on the WSUV campus, with help from the "This lab could
be developed in parallel with the electrical engineering program," Gurocak
said. But Business in the
schools Not content to
wait for government and universities to catch up, Scott Keeney, president
of the Clark County High Tech Council and chief executive officer of
nLight Photonics, started his own outreach program last year.
Keeney worked
with Through MAP,
volunteers from high-tech companies around the county go into classrooms
to pair up with students and teach them about business-world applications
of their lessons. The Southwest
Washington Workforce Development Council plans to expand the program into
other schools and to draw in more companies this school year.
"We've got
high-tech companies in Camas talking with the schools about developing
internships," said Casey O'Dell, chairman of the Camas School Board and
facilities manager at Sharp Microelectronics. High-tech high
school With the goal
of introducing more students to the sciences, the "If it pans
out, if all the pieces fall into place, if we find the right staff and
there's enough interest, it could be in place as soon as three years,"
O'Dell said. "It depends on how aggressive the school board is."
The school
district is already developing a curriculum for the magnet school, he
said. "We're also
talking about adding Advanced Placement classes in science and
technology," he said. "We've done more than dipped our toe in the water."
Workplace
partnerships Professor
Song's sensor array points to another effort by WSUV: to engage students
and professors in the needs of local employers. Though the $1.6
million funding comes from NASA, Song and his student researchers will
work with the Cascades Volcano Observatory in U.S. Geological
Survey scientists will provide their expertise on the volcano, while WSUV
provides the computer networking and programming skills needed to collect
and process the data. By working in
partnership with a local employer, Song is trying to build computer
systems with global significance, he said. "We hope this
project could be a first step to enable this area to become a test bed for
new technologies," Song said. Frustration,
optimism That WSUV
hasn't yet become a nationally known hub for high-tech innovation is a
source of some frustration among high-tech business leaders, but the
progress that the young university has made this year also provides
optimism. "They're doing
all the right things," O'Dell said. "It's just a long timeline."
"They're
responsive to the community," echoes Phillips. "Already many steps have
been taken." Each step
toward educating more engineers is a step in the right direction,
"Get a dozen or
so little things" -- like Keeney's mentor program, expanded engineering
offerings, business partnerships in the schools, research funding at WSUV
-- "and they start making a big difference." Courtney
Sherwood covers the high-tech industry. Reach her at 390-759-8041 or
courtney.sherwood@columbian.com. Update
* Previously:
High-tech business leaders said they want Washington State University
Vancouver to train electrical engineers and to partner with the business
community. * What's new:
Business-university partnerships are on the rise, and with freshmen at
WSUV, more students are taking engineering and computer science. High
schools are also expanding programs to get students interested in
high-tech study. * What's next:
WSUV hopes to get state funding to develop an electrical engineering
program, and may work with the | ||||
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