Engaging Industry Personnel in the CASA Enterprise

项目摘要大气协作自适应传感(CASA)中心是目前由美国国家科学基金会资助的15个工程研究中心之一。CASA成立于2003年，旨在彻底改变我们观察、理解、预测和应对天气灾害的能力。我们建议通过创建分布式协作自适应感知(DCAS)网络来实现这一愿景，该网络在终端用户需求最大的地点和时间对大气进行采样。自2003年以来，CASA在基础研究、技术创新和系统集成方面做出了重大贡献，并开始展示拟议概念的力量。CASA的主要成就之一是在俄克拉何马州设计、建造、部署和运营IP1试验台。这个原型的4节点雷达网使我们能够检验我们的假设并验证我们的结果。各方面的研究都在取得进展，这一原型网络的进一步发展和扩展也是如此。我们希望，我们的工作将为行业和政府采用这一概念铺平道路，并在全国各地安装大量相互连接的小型雷达网络，提供前所未有的观察、预报、警告和应对危险天气事件的能力。我们的研发计划在2009年年度报告中进行了详细描述。工业界已经在建立和发展CASA的过程中发挥了重要作用，工业界伙伴和工业咨询委员会以各种方式支持我们的活动。这一特殊的融资机会将使我们能够在CASA企业中以更直接、更有效和更具创新性的方式与业界接触。特别是，它将使我们有机会将工业人员带到校园，与学术研究人员和学生在研究项目和我们的试验台上密切合作。它还将使我们能够将工业过程和实践带入课堂。我们建议聘请一名全职研究工程师和几名兼职的实践与创新教授，如下所述：研究工程师：聘请一名研究工程师作为CASA团队的一员，以加强我们IP1测试台的未来开发和扩展。这将使现代工业实践和知识直接转化为CASA的设计和操作。实践和创新教授：聘请几名行业专家，他们能够：1)教育学术研究人员和学生如何成功地将技术转移到市场；2)提供支持CASA系统工程研究和教育活动的最先进工业原理和实践的指导；3)帮助建立系统工程学术课程。智力优势：研究和工程师以及实践和创新教授的增加将在CASA的研究和教育活动中发挥重要作用。经验丰富的行业人员与教职员工和学生的密切互动将改善我们试验台的发展，促进我们学术课程的发展，并帮助翻译我们的原型试验台，供政府和行业使用。更广泛的影响：CASA准备在观察、预报、警报和应对恶劣天气事件方面做出根本贡献。这项工作通过保护生命、最大限度地减少伤害和提高生活质量，可能会对社会产生非常重大的积极影响。

Project SummaryThe Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) Center is one of the 15 currently funded NSF Engineering Research Centers. CASA was established in 2003 with a vision to revolutionize our ability to observe, understand, predict and respond to weather hazards. We proposed to realize this vision by creating Distributed Collaborative Adaptive Sensing (DCAS) networks that sample the atmosphere where and when end-user needs are greatest. Since 2003 CASA has made significant contributions to basic research, technology innovation and system integration and has begun to demonstrate the power of the proposed concept. One of the major accomplishments of CASA is the design, construction, deployment and operation of the IP1 test bed in Oklahoma. This prototype 4-node radar network is allowing us to test our hypotheses and validate our results. Research is progressing on all fronts and so is the further development and expansion of this prototype network. Our hope is that our work will pave the way for industry and the government to adopt the concept and install a large number of interconnected networks of small radars across the nation, coast-to-coast, providing unprecedented ability to observe, forecast, warn, and respond to hazardous weather events.Our research and development plan going forward is described in detail in the 2009 Annual Report. Industry has already played a fundamental role in the establishment and evolution of CASA with industrial partners and the Industry Advisory Board supporting our activities in a variety of ways. This special funding opportunity will allow us to engage industry in more direct, effective and innovative ways in the CASA enterprise. In particular, it will give us the opportunity to bring industrial personnel on the campuses to work closely with academic researchers and students on research projects and our test beds. It will also allow us to bring industrial processes and practices into the classroom. We propose to hire a full-time Research Engineer and several part-time Professors of Practice and Innovation as described below:Research Engineer: Hire a Research Engineer who will work as part of the CASA team to enhance the future development and expansion of our IP1 test bed. This will enable the direct transfer of modern industrial practices and knowhow into CASA designs and operations.Professors of Practice and Innovation: Hire several industry experts who can: 1) educate academic researchers and students on how to successfully transfer technology to the marketplace; 2) provide instruction in state-of-the-art industrial principles and practices that support CASA research and educational activities in systems engineering; and 3) help establish systems engineering academic offerings.Intellectual Merit: The addition of the Research and Engineer and the Professors of Practice and Innovation will play a vital role in both CASA's research and educational activities. The close interaction of experienced industry personnel with faculty and students will improve the development of our test beds, enhance the development of our academic offerings and assist with the translation of our prototype test beds for government and industry use.Broader Impacts: CASA is poised to make fundamental contributions to the observation, forecasting, warning and response to hazardous weather events. This work can potentially have a very significant positive impact on society by protecting lives, minimizing injuries and improving the quality of life.