CAREER: Improving the Productivity of the Sensor Network Programmer

无线传感器网络（sensornets）有可能使我们对周围世界的可见性和控制力达到前所未有的水平。然而，实现这一潜力的主要障碍是：用于构建传感器软件的方法和工具太脆弱，需要专门的培训才能有效地使用。这个CAREER项目正在研究克服这些障碍的方法。特别地，这个项目涉及到创建编程和中间件构件、规范和推理技术，以及“非程序员”专家——计算领域之外的研究人员——可以轻松使用的工具集。该项目有四大重点：(i)一个编程系统，使非程序员专家能够以一种自然的形式表达应用程序，使他们能够自己开发传感器应用程序；（ii）一种用于指定提供各种服务的软件组件的功能行为、性能和服务质量（QoS）配置文件的符号；（iii）一套支持应用程序开发的工具，集成编程和规范系统；（iv）将研究成果纳入研究生和本科课程，并推广到K-12预备课程。该项目的成功将通过与交通工程、自动化系统和环境科学研究人员的合作来验证。该项目的成果将通过会议和期刊上的论文传播，所有创建的软件将在开源许可下分发给研究社区。

Wireless sensor networks (sensornets) have the potential to enable an unprecedented amount of visibility and control over the world around us. There are major obstacles to realizing this potential, however: the methods and tools available for constructing sensornet software are too brittle, and require specialized training to use effectively. This CAREER project is investigating ways to overcome these obstacles. In particular, this project involves creating programming and middleware artifacts, specification and reasoning techniques, and toolsets that can be easily used by "non-programmer" specialists -- researchers outside of the field of computing.The project has four major thrusts: (i) a system of programming that will enable non-programmer specialists to express applications in a form that is natural for them to develop sensornet applications on their own, (ii) a notation for specifying the functional behavior as well as performance and quality-of-service (QoS) profiles of software components that provide various services, (iii) a set of tools that will support application development, integrating the programming and specification systems, and (iv) integration of research findings into the graduate and undergraduate curricula, and outreach into the K-12 preparatory curricula.The success of this project will be validated through collaborative efforts along with researchers in transportation engineering, automation systems, and environmental science. The results from this project will be disseminated via papers in conferences and journals, and all the software created will be distributed to the research community under open-source licenses.