Abstract

The Macroscope is a conceptual instrument for perceiving complex
interactions, such as what occurs is ecosystems, social systems, and
large-scale industrial settings.  Sensor networks are a significant
step toward such an instrument, because of the fidelity they offer in
monitoring large regions of space and large collections of things.
This talk describes our experiences in developing and deploying a
large sensor network for microclimate monitoring of coastal redwood
forests as a basis for studies in redwood ecophysiology.  It
summarizes the architecture, its implementation, and the many lessons
and surprises encountered along the way.  The effort produced
unprecedented recordings of the microclimate dynamics indicating how
these huge organisms interact with their environment.

Biobibliography

David E. Culler is a Professor of Computer Science at the University
of California, Berkeley, where he has been on the faculty since
1989. He was the founding Director of Intel Research, Berkeley.  David
received his B.A. from Berkeley in 1980, and MS and PhD from MIT in
1985 and 1989.  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering,
an ACM Fellow, and was selected in Scientific American Top 50
Researchers and Technology Review 10 Technologies that Will Change the
World. He was awarded the NSF Presidential Young Investigator and the
Presidential Faculty Fellowship.  His research addresses networks of
small, embedded wireless devices, planetary-scale internet services,
parallel computer architecture, parallel programming languages, and
high performance communication.  This includes TinyOS, Berkeley Motes,
PlanetLab, Networks of Workstations (NOW), Internet services, Active
Messages, Split-C, and the Threaded Abstract Machine (TAM).